We Remember

September 11, 2007

We remember.

All of us lost something that day; innocence, peace and safety. For those who lost that and so much more you are in my prayers today. For those who continue to battle illness born out of this tragedy you too are in my prayers. For those who fight for our freedom I thank you and pray for your safe return home.

Peace to us all today and everyday.

Remembering 9-11

Last night as I was trying to go to sleep I was channel surfing. I came upon a documentary remembering the horific events of 9-11. It is hard to believe those events took place six years ago. I remember sitting on my sofa as my children then 1 and 3 played. I was watching the Today show and like so many other Americans witnessed the horror unfold on live television. I remember feeling numb and terified. The program I watched last night shared the stories of two air trafic controlers and two individuals on the flights who called and spoke to their families before the crash.

Back to School Part 1

Well I have butterflies in my stomach. This is a sure sign that it is time to go back to school! I have only a minute to create this entry so here goes.

I have my teacher orientation this morning and luckily N and n can come and play while I'm in the meeting. It really is just a formality. The meeting is very brief and then we finish up getting the rooms ready for parent orientation tonight. GULP. This is the part that is quite nerve wracking as you never know what questions might pop up during the evening's meeting. The worst part for me: finding something to wear! I hate that part. I'm much more comfortable in my preschool teaching clothes, you know simple pants, tops and birkis. Oh well, It will all be fine.

Part 2 tomorrow-my N and n have their first day and my students come to visiting day.

Peace!

And now, a game of tag from the Scrapper over at www.nosocalledlife.blogspot.com Tag : "3 things about me".

Three things that scare me

1.

2.

3.

Three people who make me laugh

1

2

3

Three things I love

1

2

3

Three things I hate

1

2

3

Three things I don't understand

1

2

3

Three things on my desk

1.

2

3

Three things I am doing right now

1

2

3

Thee things I want to do before I die

1

2

3

Three things I can do

1.

2

3

Three things I can’t do

1.

2

3

Three things I think you should listen to

1.T

2

3

Three things you should never listen to

1.

2.

3.

Three shows I watched as a kid

1.

2

3

Three People I tag

1. You're

2. All

3. Tagged No blog? Leave answers in the comment section.

Bzzzz

About a month ago I joined a really cool consumer website that is harnessing word of mouth marketing. I was invited by my sister-in-law but you can also just sign up at the site . First step is to join a campaign and a product is sent out to your home. All you have to do is try it out and then talk about the product with your family and friends and then report back on the site. It is very cool.

The first product that I received was Listerine Whitening Teeth Strips. They sent me a large box with enough product to use myself and share samples with friends. The product is good. It is easy to use although I found it to be very sharp and spicy in flavor. It was interesting to try out a new product. The next campaign, I joined a few days ago is for the Fly Fusion pen by leapfrog. Now this is a product. For anyone who has 5th to 10th graders and beyond this is for you! It is literally a pen top computer. There are games and programs to use but my favorite part is that you can write on a special notebook and then upload all your notes to the computer and it opens in a MS Word format. It is amazing. I plan on using it when I work on conferences and anecdotal notes for school this year.

I just thought I would share this new hobby with all of you. If you want to check it out go to the web site. http://www.bzzagent.com/index.jsp

Overdue Birthday Update

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to update on n's birthday celebration. Honestly I just haven't felt like writing. Very lame, I know, but I am here now so here goes!

We invited family, close friends and some of n's friends from school to join us at a local pottery/ceramic studio http://www.fun2beedone.com/ . Unfortunately several of n's friends were unable to attend and a couple we didn't here from (had regrets only on the invite) didn't show up. I was sad for n, but she had fun and that is all that mattered. Took a couple of pictures of the cake and R took a couple group shots.




We have also been busy this summer learning to ride two wheelers without training wheels,

roller blading and ice skating. I even found out that I can still do all three! Yeah for me! I could hardly believe I still had it in me! Anyway I thought I would share a couple of photos I took at the kids local school as they practiced.

They are both so proud of themselves! N has had a huge boost of confidence. For the longest time he had no interest in even trying to learn to ride a bike. I think his legs just weren't strong enough and the balance thing made him very nervous. So needless to say I am a very proud Mom!

I have a few beach stories to share but they will have to wait until tomorrow as on the the children is calling from upstairs.

Peace!

The Force Was With Us!!!

N had the BEST party yesterday! It was a lot of preparation as parties always are but it was so worth everything. We had a few of N's buddies over as well as his cousins. We started off with and opening ceremony where all the kids were given an new light saber and told what was expected of the 'Jedi's in training' . We had lots of Jedi reflex training games including water balloon toss and dodge ball. The kids and adults all had a blast. I have a few pictures to post.

It turned out to be beautiful weather for the party. I was worried in the morning as it was cloudy and muggy but by early afternoon the clouds had lifted and the air had changed. The air was cooler and dryer. It was a perfect afternoon to play outside. After some group shots the boys enjoyed playing their own version of Star Wars tag and hide and seek. Here they are hamming it up for pictures.

After playing outside everyone made their own pizza's on homemade dough. Some of the kids had never done this before much to my surprise! They all seemed to enjoy the experience. Then they were off to play outside again. After eating pizza and opening gifts everyone enjoyed cake and ice cream. N was happy that we were able to find a Star Wars cake at our local grocery.

It was pretty cool.

Finally everyone settled down to watch Star Wars Episode 3 Attack of the Clones. It was interesting to watch them watch the movie. They were more interested in talking about and commenting on the movie than watching what was happening. They were funny. It was by far one of the best kids birthday party ever. I was so pleased at how all the kids were able to get along. We had no problems and N was a great host. He had a great time! Nine years ago he was just a small baby. Time just goes by so fast.

Well that's all for tonight.

Peace!

Birthday Celebrations All Around

For the past nine years the end of summer has meant the celebration of the births of my two beautiful children. We also celebrate R's birthday as well as my Dad's birthday during the month of August. At the end of August we remember the anniversary of R's mom Anita's (Ma)death. This year as n turns 7 and N turns 9 we will be remembering the 7th anniversary of 'Ma's' death. To say that this time is busy and emotional for us is an understatement.

Right now we are in the middle of planning N's Star Wars celebration. He is very excited. We will be re purposing some fun summer birthday games into 'Jedi' training exercises to improve the reflexes of all the 'Jedis" in training. There will be the water balloon toss, dodge ball and balloon volleyball using light sabers to keep the balloons in play. We will have an asteroid search and make homemade pizza and cake and ice cream. Finally we will watch N's favorite Star Wars movie and eat popcorn and candy. It should be a fun night.

Well that is all for tonight. I am tired and off to bed.

Peace!

Family Fun!

Well I've been so busy doing nothing that I haven't found time to write in my blog. I've started many times only to be interrupted by a child, husband or random thought! I'm here now and that's what matters, right?

So R has this week off from work. We're planning day trips although the weather may not cooperate. We spent the day yesterday travelling up to Georges Mills in New Hampshire. Grammy and J have been living at the assisted living there since the end of June and this was the first opportunity that we had to go visit. I have to say that I have missed our Chatham trips. Last summer the children and I went down to visit once a week. Now we will probably make the trip once every six weeks. With R's band schedule and the children's various social engagements not to mention keeping an eye on my Dad time is limited. Back to our visit. The assisted living facility was nice. It wasn't quite what I had expected, but they are happy and have a nice little apartment. They are hoping to move into a two bedroom in the fall and that will give them a little more living space and give each of them there own room. I think Grammy is much more active now than she was in Chatham so that is a good thing although she did look tired. I guess that is what happens when you are in your 90's! She was happy to have company and I was certainly happy to finally see the new place! I wonder how the trip will be in the winter with snow? Yesterday also happened to be n's actual birthday. She felt a little jipped spending the majority of the day in the car so today was the official celebration-all day. We went to the local mall and she picked out her build-a-bear. Then we continued on to Target and Toys-r-us for a couple other items. On our way home we stopped at our little local bakery and she picked out a special treat-a vanilla cake with pink frosting. We'll be enjoyed cake and ice cream tonight and then again in a couple of weeks when we have her actual party. Plans for the rest of the week look like the movies, the New England Aquarium and the Boston Children's Museum. I think that will be all we can fit in for this vacation. It should be loads of fun.

Hope you are all well out there in blog land. I wonder what you will do or have done with your families for vacation?

Peace!!

Dog Days of Summer

Things are busy as usual as these wonderful days of summer pass by. I have been spending most of my time with N and n. We've been spending time playing outside and visiting with friends that we loose touch with over the school year. It has been nice to reconnect with old friends. This has been the summer of 'play dates'. I think at least once a day one of the children have asked to have a friend over. Sometimes I can say yes, but not every day. We've enjoyed spending time on the beach down the street. It is a fantastic kids beach. Lots of rocks to climb and tidal pools to explore. It really is one of my most favorite places to spend time. I am very blessed to be within walking distance to the ocean. Things haven't been all fun in the sun however. Grammy and J have settled in to their new living arrangements in N.H at their assisted living apartment. I have had to spend time in Chatham cleaning and organizing. It is a very challenging job as they had lived in that home for 26 years and only took to NH a fraction of their homes content with them. I am now vowing to sort and eliminate items from my home. We'll see how successful I am with this endeavor. On another note tomorrow I will be bringing Dad to the hospital for surgery. It is day surgery and he should recover and be better for it, but the entire ordeal is stressful. I'll be happy when he is back home resting comfortably. So this is my update. Hopefully I'll get to the beach this weekend and take some pictures for everyone.

Peace!

7-7-07

Well it has been a busy few weeks and I have not been very conscientious about keeping up my journal. I have a lot to share. First of all I finally completed the class I had been working on like a mad woman throughout the months of May and June. It was a class on teaching reading that I found online through the Annenberg Media Site http://www.learner.org/index.html. A colleague and I collaborated on all aspects of the class. I don't know why I waited so long to get started but once I began working on the assignments and research it seemed to take over my life. We sent all of our work in at the end of June. The package that we had to ship to Cambridge weighed 28 pounds. We had to ship it in a copy paper box. I think the guys at the post office thought we were crazy as we had a mini celebration right there in the post office. We were both so relieved to be done and have our lives back.

My second big piece of news is that Grammy and J have moved to an assisted living in New Hampshire. They are now close to Grammy's only living son, D. They have been there for over a month. The first month being a 'vacation'. They love the lifestyle. Grammy is so relaxed and happy not to have to cook and clean and worry about her meds! Unfortunately they have only seen D once since they've been up there but I think she probably knew that would be the case. Unfortunately J's family isn't so supportive of this move as we will have to sell the house in Chatham. I have mixed feelings about selling the house myself however I know that this is not about me it is about Grammy and J's happiness. It will be more challenging to visit them as they are about 2.5 hours away from us now but we will make the effort and try to venture north at least once a month. We'll see how that works out.

We've been working around the house these last few days. Painting windows-trying to save them so that we don't have to sink money into new windows. We found one window on the east side of the house to be damaged by water. I guess the lack of paint and the fact that that side of the house faces the ocean led to the damage. We have three other window in similar condition. We are hoping to replace them with vinyl on the outside and wood on the inside windows. The windows we saw at Lowe's last week ranged in price from 350 to 500. I'm hoping we can find something a little less pricey with the same features. I'll keep you posted.

I'm hoping that over the next few weeks I'll be able to fit in some time to play with my art supplies. My room still isn't finished and honestly with the nice weather I don't want to be in the basement. Maybe I'll do some work outside.

Peace!

Movies, Movies, Movies

Over at Ann's blog http://onewildandpreciouslife.typepad.com/one_wild_and_precious_lif/ she found the list of the top 100 movies from AFE and highlighted all the movies that she has had the opportunity to see over the years. I thought it would be interesting to do the same. How many of these movies have you seen?

AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies -- 10th Anniversary Edition:
1 Citizen Kane (1941)
2 The Godfather (1972)
3 Casablanca (1942)
4 Raging Bull (1980)
5 Singin' in the Rain (1952)
6 Gone With the Wind (1939)
7 Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
8 Schindler's List (1993)
9 Vertigo (1958)
10 The Wizard of Oz (1939)
11 City Lights (1931)
12 The Searchers (1956)
13 Star Wars (1977)
14 Psycho (1960)
15 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
16 Sunset Blvd. (1950)
17 The Graduate (1967)
18 The General (1927)
19 On the Waterfront (1954)
20 It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
21 Chinatown (1974)
22 Some Like It Hot (1959)
23 The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
24 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
25 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
26 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
27 High Noon (1952)
28 All About Eve (1950)
29 Double Indemnity (1944)
30 Apocalypse Now (1979)
31 The Maltese Falcon (1941)
32 The Godfather Part II (1974)
33 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
34 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
35 Annie Hall (1977)
36 The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
37 The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
38 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
39 Dr. Strangelove (1964)
40 The Sound of Music (1965)
41 King Kong (1933)
42 Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
43 Midnight Cowboy (1969)
44 The Philadelphia Story (1940)
45 Shane (1953)
46 It Happened One Night (1934)
47 A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
48 Rear Window (1954)
49 Intolerance (1916)
50 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
51 West Side Story (1961)
52 Taxi Driver (1976)
53 The Deer Hunter (1978)
54 M*A*S*H (1970)
55 North by Northwest (1959)
56 Jaws (1975)
57 Rocky (1976)
58 The Gold Rush(1925)
59 Nashville (1975)
60 Duck Soup (1933)
61 Sullivan's Travels (1941)
62 American Graffiti (1973)
63 Cabaret (1972)
64 Network (1976)
65 The African Queen (1951)
66 The Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
67 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
68 Unforgiven (1992)
69 Tootsie (1982)
70 A Clockwork Orange (1971)
71 Saving Private Ryan (1998)
72 The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
73 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
74 The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
75 In the Heat of the Night (1967)
76 Forrest Gump (1994)
77 All the President's Men (1976)
78 Modern Times (1936)
79 The Wild Bunch (1969)
80 The Apartment (1960)
81 Spartacus (1970)
82 Sunrise (1927)
83 Titanic (1997)
84 Easy Rider (1969)
85 A Night at the Opera (1935)
86 Platoon (1986)
87 12 Angry Men (1957)
88 Bringing Up Baby (1938)
89 The Sixth Sense (1999) 9
0 Swing Time (1936)
91 Sophie's Choice (1982)
92 Goodfellas (1990)
93 The French Connection (1971)
94 Pulp Fiction (1994)
95 The Last Picture Show (1971)
96 Do the Right Thing (1989)
97 Blade Runner (1982)
98 Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
99 Toy Story (1995)
100 Ben-Hur (1959

32 out of 100 I guess I better add some movies to Netflix!

Peace!

Happy to be back!!

Well I've been absent from my blog for a few weeks. It hasn't been that I haven't wanted to add posts it's just that I've been very busy. I am back and will be posting daily again. Reporting on all that goes on during our summer. Should be interesting. I have lots to share and update, but my battery is about to die so I'll post this for now.

Peace!

(and thanks for checking in and reading)

My Power Bird!

Your Power Bird is a Cardinal

You believe that each day is precious, and you spend your times as best as you can. You see the wonder in small things, and you are often content with what you have. You life an interesting, colorful life - and you bring color to those around you. Confident and expressive, you believe you know how to live a good life. You're living it!

What's Your Power Bird?

This is so cool! The cardinal is my absolute favorite bird! In the warm weather when my windows are open I can pick out the cardinals call every time. I feel as if they are calling to me personally. It's kind of strange. The cardinal has a strong connection for me to my Mom who passed away 6 1/2 years ago when my daughter was a baby. Whenever I see a cardinal it reminds me of Mom.