Talented Kids

We had a talent show in Brownies today. We're working on a long-term project called It's Your Story: Tell It, which is a leadership and self-esteem building exercise. I'm trying to get the girls to understand that everyone is really good at something (and conversely that most people are usually challenged in an area, too) and that we can a find success somewhere.
Hannah decided to dance in her new pointe shoes, doing a small rendition of the Chinese Dance that she's doing for Nutcracker. I'm still impressed that she can dance in these shoes since she's never had any lessons in them. The other Brownies were very interested in the toe pads! Oh, and the costume she's wearing is from her cousin Shelby's dancing days!

And Lizzie -- who could not figure out a way to get a piano to the meeting -- did her old stand-by, animal impersonations. She had the brownies all laughing at her silly cat and dog, but everyone really seemed to like this one the best ... it's not everyone who can accurately imitate a snake!

We had a great time with the show, with singers and dancers and musicians as well as a couple of martial artists and gymnasts. A couple of the girls did some flexibility shows and I even had one who could spin for five minutes without getting dizzy. (I got dizzy watching her and we stopped her after one minute!)
It was a fun exercise and Lizzie exclaimed that even SHE didn't know that all her fellow brownies were so talented!!

Way Back Wednesday

This is me and Ging Ging. I think I'm somewhere shy of my 2nd birthday in this photo, which looks like it was taken sometime in the summer. Other than that I don't have a clue about anything. Maybe Aunt Brenda knows who the guy is who is teasing me with the doll? Cousin Lee maybe? What's most interesting to me about this photo (other then my chubby legs -- which haven't changed much in the past 50 years...) is the pocketbook in the lower right of the photo. It must have been my  mother's because I have a very clear picture of it in my head. It was a sort of large bag covered in vinyl with little gold things embroidered under the plastic.

Anyway, this is the Ging Ging that I often speak of ... and this is pretty much how much she looked in my entire memory of her (she died when I was a senior in college) always with the curled bob (a wig in later years and maybe even here) with the Cat's Eye glasses.

My New Camera

I love my new camera! It's a Canon Rebel T2i and it's a HUGE upgrade from the digital Rebel I got when the girls were babies. And I love it. Did I mention that? Today was a beautiful day with bright sunshine and the temperature topping out around 60 degrees. The girls had the day off, Rob took the day off and we all went out to lunch in Lancaster and took a trip to the "buggy park" where I got to test drive the camera (I've taken other pictures for Halloween, but that was all done with the camera set on fully automatic.) So here are some of the shots:

First, of course, we have an action shot of Hannah and Lizzie playing on the tire swing:

This is the afternoon sun filtering through some of the last leaves of autumn. I can't believe any trees have leaves on them after the snow storm we had Halloween weekend. Lucky for me and my new camera, some of the trees hung on to their leaves:

This was carved into a tree near the park. I was able to get really close and then fixed it up in photoshop a bit:

Action shots! This is Hannah leaping from the swing at the park:

And not to be outdone, here is Lizzie doing the same thing:

And this is sort of a REVERSE action shot. Rob was driving his usual Mario Andretti-esque speed down the road and I spotted this guy working his fields the old fashioned way. He opened his window and I shot a few pictures ... and they actually came out pretty clearly:

More artsy photos ... this time it's Lizzie spinning around in the tire swing. I know you probably won't care, but I was able to microfocus on her knee and then have the rest of the picture show movement:

And of course we can't forget black and white shots. I love this one:

But of course my FAVORITE pictures to take are of these two:

And this one:

And that's why I love my new camera!

Way Back Wednesday

Introducing a NEW and EXCITING feature... well, it's new at any rate.
Shortly after my Mom passed away I was looking for some pictures to put in the slide show and collage of her life and I found a huge bin of old photos down in my basement. I don't really remember how I came to have them, but there were some really cool photos there.

So every Wednesday I'm going to post a picture and, if I remember anything about it, write something about it.

Without further ado...here's the first Way Back Wednesday photo...

I'm pretty sure this picture was taken on Easter in 1969 (or maybe 68 since there is no grass to speak of in the photo) at our house in Somers, N.Y. I especially love that my brother is wearing short pants and a cap. Ha ha ha ha ha. However if the picture was in color you'd all be laughing at the coat I'm wearing. It was a kind of fake lambswool and the top part was white, but the bottom part was LIME GREEN. Oh yeah, I was stylin' that year at Easter Mass! 

Pictured, left to right are T.A., cousin Ann Elizabeth, Terry, Tally, me and my lime green coat, cousin Mary Kay and Tina. I'm pretty sure the car belonged to my Aunt Mary and Uncle Al because I don't ever remember having a family car that wasn't a station wagon. Oh, and if you look at the house in the back there, that's pretty much what our house looked like, too.  Now the backyard is lined by trees and you can't really even see the next door neighbor's house. But I guess that can happen in (gulp!) 43 years.

Happy Halloween!

About two weeks ago signs started showing up on the walls of our house, warning us of potential destruction:

Of the upcoming holiday...

With instructions about how to eat the candy on the front hall table (which Hannah decided she MUST eat):

Signs warning of dangerous birds...

And even a sign about what to say during this most sweet season. The signs were Hannah's way of decorating our house. She usually leaves me notes all over the house, but this time she decided to celebrate Halloween. So, we've been celebrating for a few weeks now. However TODAY was the big day!

After a crazy, snowy weekend, the girls school (which doesn't have electricity, but does have a generator) had a two-hour delayed opening, which (praise the Lord) did NOT interfere with the Halloween party or parade. Here's Lizzie, a Vampire Bride at the parade. She's actually yelling at me because I put a huge spider in her lunchbox today, which scared her when she opened it. I guess she takes after her Aunt Beanie that way:

And here is Hannah in fully Cleopatra garb. I promise you she was very happy at the parade, but this was the best smile I got. Probably because there is a werewolf right behind her...

Dinner before trick-or-treating was Mummy Dogs, bone chips with goblin guts and bat juice (not pictured) Oh, and the spider made another appearance at dinner.

Then it was time for the MAIN EVENT. Here they all are getting ready to go out on the road. Doesn't Cash look handsome in his Halloween sweater? You can't see it here, but he's also wearing a collar with skulls and bells on it.

Walk like an Egyptian and sneer like a Vampire Bride:

Is anyone else worried for me when this child enters her 30s and is allowed to date?

Luckily I will have the Vampire Bride enforcer to take care of things...

And they're off for the evening. They got a lot of loot and WE actually got two trick or treaters this year. YAY. We moved into our house four years ago today and we've never had any trick or treaters so it was, well, a treat to see two little kids (Lizzie's piano teacher's children) stop by. We hope you had a nice Halloween, too.

53 Things

Here are 53 things that I'm happy about this month:

1) Ice cream bars in the freezer
2) The new season of House starting
3) Lizzie's sense of humor (Mommy, ALL Hannah did was complain about every little thing during dance today ... oh wait, that was ME...) Ha!
4) Cash keeping my feet warm at night now that it's turned from summer to winter in one day
5) People from college that I am still proud to call friend and who email on my birthday to remind me how awesome they are
6) Hannah's silly laugh that she just can't keep to herself
7) Rob's Saturday dinners, even if they are made by the Chinese restaurant
8) In-laws that are really family
9) Math homework that can be done in 20 minutes
10) John Denver's enduring music
11) That I get to interview Garrison Keillor in a month
12) Laughing so hard with my sister-in-law Ann that I can't breathe
13) New friends who feel like old friends
14) Old friends who feel like sisters
15) That when Lizzie is sick she always tells me my hugs make her feel better
16) Hannah's singing up in her room or in the basement when she thinks I can't hear her
17) Neighbors who don't vandalize my house
18) Mom's Irish sweater that's warming my shoulders as I write this
19) Dunkin' donuts ice decaf with French Vanilla creamer and splenda
20) The courage of my friend B
21) Rob's voice on the phone every day at 12:40 p.m.
22) Brownies who fight to hold my hand during our friendship circle
23) Scott Bakula
24) Sisters who are also friends
25) Book Club
26) My craft cabinets
27) Crafting
28) Rob and Lizzie in duet on the piano
29) Sunday drives with "A Prairie Home Companion"
30) Peace and Quiet
31) That I finally ordered my new digital SLR camera, a canon T2i
32) Three solid weeks of exercising at least 30 minutes six times a week
33) Burning leaves
34) CCD kids who run after me in the supermarket just to say Hi.
35) Brownies who do the same thing
36) Tandoori chicken marinating in the fridge
37) That Cyndi Lauper told security to (please) wait a second until she finished her phone call with me
38) Surprise phone calls made only to make me laugh
39) Hannah's love of her toe-shoes even though they give her big toe a blister
40) Lizzie's last three spelling tests where she got all the words right
41) Mother Teresa quotes
42) Our new wireless printer
43) That I'm old enough that I DON'T have to eat Brussels Sprouts if I don't want to.
44) Chocolate Almond Tea with Deb
45) Cows -- I don't know why, but it's aways been true
46) That I still love my job
47) That I still love being a Mom
48) That I still love being a wife
49) Steven Curtis Chapman's song "Cinderella" even though it's more poignant than happy
50) Warm apple cider outside on the deck
51) Lizzie's determination
52) Rob's kindness
53) That I'm still happy!

And one reason that you'll be happy ... here is some of my brownie troop (I have 18 girls in the troop) at a recent activity, acting as normal as they possibly can...

And here they are acting like they normally do:

Splitting to the Rock, Yo

(NOTE: I noticed as I was posting this that I never posted my 53 reasons why I'm happy post that I wrote the day after my birthday... I'll try to post that in a day or two!)

Don't ask me to explain the title of this post. All I can say is that I've interviewed a couple of rappers this past week (no one you've ever heard of) so I'm "spittin' in the flow" as they say.
Anyway, we took a quick overnight trip to this place....

For those of you who haven't been vacationing here for the past six summers, it's Split Rock Resort up in the Poconos. Rob and I decided to take a short trip up there this weekend, in search of fall foliage. The conversation went like this:

Rob: I've got five vacation days left.
Me: The girls have Monday off. Let's take a trip to look at leaves. Like we did in the old days. When the trees were big and gas prices were small.
Rob: The hotels will be booked.
Me: Maybe not.
Rob: The hotels will be expensive.
Me: Maybe not. (To me, a maybe means YES I WILL FIND A WAY TO DO THIS!!!)

So I found us a cheap hotel room (don't ask me how ... I've got connections through this thing called The Internet) at Split Rock, booked it, and we took off just after I finished selling art at Jake's Flea Market.
Speaking of Jakes, I'm happy to report that I made $185! Seriously. There are few things that I'd get up and on the road in the dark for, but making money on stuff that's been lying around my basement for at least 8 years is one of them.
But, I digress. We got on the road (Aunt Terry made sure Cash and the Hamsters didn't starve, although now that I think about it, I never told her about the hamsters...) Sunday afternoon and took a leisurely drive up to the Poconos. Here's some of the sights...

This is a road somewhere near Beltzwood State Park, where we stopped to walk around a bit. People were SWIMMING in the lake there -- that's how sunny and warm the afternoon was:

This is a tree near the lake condo that I want someone to buy for me (feel free to contact me for details if you're in the mood to purchase a gorgeous lakefront condo for a very nice writer and her family). Isn't it gorgeous? The read was sparkling in the sunlight:

And here is the fall view of Big Boulder lake from the condo. I still haven't gotten a new camera, and this photo is only okay. This morning when we went to tour the condo again, the trees were reflecting their colors off the water -- beautiful:

Finally we got to Split Rock. This is the view across Lake Harmony (we were standing by where they have the Turtle Races for those of you who know the place):

Here's a slightly different angle that includes the happy faces of my lovely daughters:



We did look at a lot of scenery, but also did a few other things in our day/night away.
I don't have a picture of it, but we had dinner at one of the Split Rock restaurants where we might still be if I hadn't snagged us a server. I have never waited 30 minutes just to have a server come to the table. It was disgraceful, but the server we were SUPPOSED to have told us that they weren't expecting so many people at that time, so they got overloaded. There were about 10 tables  and at least four servers, but whatever ... we just had a very long conversation period. ;)

The girls wanted to go swimming so we were waiting for the pool to open this morning. This is the kiddie pool, although they spent most of their time in the regular pool. That pool was too dark for photographs:

Hannah and Liz weren't allowed in the hot tub (too young) but alas, Rob was NOT too young, so he jumped in:

We walked around a lot. This is the view from the deck of the Lodge (where we stayed) nearby the pool that was under renovation. Check out the gorgeous trees in the back!

These are the stairs that I did NOT climb (Lizzie or Hannah took this picture) to get up to the top of Split Rock:

This picture made me smile. Hannah and Lizzie were following these two ducks, like two extra ducklings:

And of course we had to go to the arcade. We spent $20 and won ALL THESE PRIZES.

We also had a great view of the lake from our room. We got up early enough to see the sunrise over the mountain. It was stunning!

We all had a great time, but it was a whirlwind. Here's Hannah in the backseat coming home. Lizzie was sitting in the way back, in case you were wondering why she's not sitting beside Hannah! Shortly after this Hannah woke up, so we could end our little getaway at Yocco's.