We Have What We Prayed For: A Gratitude Prayer
7 years ago
Monday, November 13, 2006
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Back at it
Okay, I finally have a few minutes to get on and do some updating. It's been a very hectic 2 months. We still haven't unpacked the basement - but that's next on the agenda. Too many boxes to count...
Family is doing well other than the endless cold that Caroline and Blake have. Cycles up and down with Caroline taking a hard hit yesterday. Anyway - all is generally good.
Work is going well. Meetings are taking their toll on me as this upcoming week I have 34 scheduled. I guess that's what the 2nd shift is for - to actually get some work done.
Somebody please buy our house!!! On the Market since July with only one unofficial bid. I need a new vehicle as the jeep is having difficulty with the 80 miles a day round-trip.
As for pictures, here we go with a few taken over the past few months:
"Biker Chicks"
Grace's first day of kindergarten
Caroline enjoying the fall weather in the backyard
The house with a fall backdrop
Blake getting an early start on his career by reading the WSJ
Check me out!!!
Pippy at the pumpkin farm
Family outing. Notice who is dressed for the warm weather rather than the season...
Blake enjoying the ride
Jen and some guy at a recent wedding
More pictures to come including Caroline's birthday, Halloween, and other candid shots . More timely update to be done as well
Family is doing well other than the endless cold that Caroline and Blake have. Cycles up and down with Caroline taking a hard hit yesterday. Anyway - all is generally good.
Work is going well. Meetings are taking their toll on me as this upcoming week I have 34 scheduled. I guess that's what the 2nd shift is for - to actually get some work done.
Somebody please buy our house!!! On the Market since July with only one unofficial bid. I need a new vehicle as the jeep is having difficulty with the 80 miles a day round-trip.
As for pictures, here we go with a few taken over the past few months:
"Biker Chicks"
Grace's first day of kindergarten
Caroline enjoying the fall weather in the backyard
The house with a fall backdrop
Blake getting an early start on his career by reading the WSJ
Check me out!!!
Pippy at the pumpkin farm
Family outing. Notice who is dressed for the warm weather rather than the season...
Blake enjoying the ride
Jen and some guy at a recent wedding
More pictures to come including Caroline's birthday, Halloween, and other candid shots . More timely update to be done as well
Monday, August 14, 2006
Cape May Shots
Vacation Pictures - its about time!
Our group this year....
Jen and the kids...
Grace and Caroline....
Nicole (aka Poser) and Grace...
"Hot mom" and Blake.....
Sand castles.....
Blakester's idea of the beach....
Grace - not so sure about "catching a wave"
Caroline and Allie floating
at the boardwalk
Carriage ride with grandma and grandpa. Our Lady Star of the Sea church in the backround.
Happy to be "Down the Shore"
Blake's first birthday party at the beach house
We're already looking forward to next year. We're thinking two weeks back to back....
More of Blake's birthday shots to come....
Our group this year....
Jen and the kids...
Grace and Caroline....
Nicole (aka Poser) and Grace...
"Hot mom" and Blake.....
Sand castles.....
Blakester's idea of the beach....
Grace - not so sure about "catching a wave"
Caroline and Allie floating
at the boardwalk
Carriage ride with grandma and grandpa. Our Lady Star of the Sea church in the backround.
Happy to be "Down the Shore"
Blake's first birthday party at the beach house
We're already looking forward to next year. We're thinking two weeks back to back....
More of Blake's birthday shots to come....
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
New Place
We're working on securing our new home - cut the deal, now working on the financing
The house is in Saratoga Springs, NY which will mean at least a 45 - 60 minute commute. Take the good with the bad, right? We'll keep you posted on how things work out....
More pictures of recent events to come in the next few days
The house is in Saratoga Springs, NY which will mean at least a 45 - 60 minute commute. Take the good with the bad, right? We'll keep you posted on how things work out....
More pictures of recent events to come in the next few days
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Recent Pictures
Sorry for the delay! Getting the house ready for sale, looking for new houses, prepping for vacation and trying to find a little down time has taken up almost every free minute. Here are few updated pictures....
Grace's second best talent (next to talking of course)
Grace's first dance recital
Graduation Day!!!!
Grace loved this class and Mrs. Maren - she'll never forget her!
Father's Day
Hershey Park - Hey, Where's mom?
Sweet Caroline - after her ice-cream bar
And of course, Mr. Naked Troublemaker - Blakester!!
Grace's second best talent (next to talking of course)
Grace's first dance recital
Graduation Day!!!!
Grace loved this class and Mrs. Maren - she'll never forget her!
Father's Day
Hershey Park - Hey, Where's mom?
Sweet Caroline - after her ice-cream bar
And of course, Mr. Naked Troublemaker - Blakester!!
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Binghamton Noted Again
The article below discusses the plight of upstate- mass exedus of the brain trust of our youth. Better weather, more opportunity, lower taxes!!! We need help and we need it now!
June 13, 2006
Flight of Young Adults Is Causing Alarm Upstate
By SAM ROBERTS
Upstate New York is staggering from an accelerating exodus of young adults, new census results show. The migration is turning many communities grayer, threatening the long-term viability of ailing cities and raising concerns about the state's future tax base.
From 1990 to 2004, the number of 25-to-34-year-old residents in the 52 counties north of Rockland and Putnam declined by more than 25 percent. In 13 counties that include cities like Buffalo, Syracuse and Binghamton, the population of young adults fell by more than 30 percent. In Tioga County, part of Appalachia in New York's Southern Tier, 42 percent fewer young adults were counted in 2004 than in 1990.
"Make no mistake: this is not business as usual," Robert G. Wilmers, the chairman of M & T Bank in Buffalo, told his shareholders this spring. "The magnitude and duration of population loss among the young is unprecedented in our history. There has never been a previous 10-year period in the history of the upstate region when there has been any decline in this most vital portion of our population."
In New York City and the five suburban counties in New York State, the number of people ages 18 to 44 increased by 1.5 percent in the 1990's. Upstate, it declined by 10 percent.
Over all, the upstate population grew by 1.1 percent in the 1990's — slower than the rate for any state except West Virginia and North Dakota.
Population growth upstate might have lagged even more but for the influx of 21,000 prison inmates, who accounted for 30 percent of new residents. During the first half of the current decade, the pace of depopulation actually increased in many places.
David Shaffer, president of the Public Policy Institute, which is affiliated with the Business Council of New York State, described the hemorrhaging of young adults as "the worst kind of loss."
"You don't just magically make it up with new births," he said. "These are the people who are starting careers, starting families, buying homes."
In almost every place upstate, emigration rates were highest among college graduates, producing a brain drain, according to separate analyses of census results for The New York Times by two demographers, William Frey of the Brookings Institution and Andrew A. Beveridge of Queens College of the City University of New York. Among the nation's large metropolitan areas, Professor Frey said, Buffalo and Rochester had the highest rates of what he called "bright flight."
Irwin L. Davis, president of the Metropolitan Development Association in Syracuse, which promotes economic growth in central New York, said, "We're educating them and they're leaving."
And Gary D. Keith, vice president and regional economist for M & T Bank, said, "Sluggish job growth is the biggest driver of out-migration among young upstate adults."
The decline in the 1990's in the population ages 18 to 44 of the 52-county upstate region was "chilling," he said.
"When the jobs don't grow, the people go," Mr. Keith said.
Matthew O'Brien, a graduate of Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y., was 26 when he left his home in Troy, just northeast of Albany, a decade ago for a better job offer down South.
He first moved to South Carolina, and now lives with his wife, Melissa, a Rochester expatriate, and their two children in Tampa, Fla., where he handles manufacturing operations for the company that makes Bubble Wrap packaging.
"I guess if I look back and think of the people I went to high school with, they all kind of went away to college, and that might have been a steppingstone to building a career," Mr. O'Brien said. "Not a lot did come back."
Some of the decline in the number of young adults may also have reflected children who left in the 1970's or 1980's with their parents.
Mr. O'Brien's parents still live in Troy, which was known in the 19th century for the manufacture of detachable collars and also led the nation at one point in iron and steel production. All but two of his eight siblings moved away, though.
While the chronic economic woes upstate have been of growing concern for a decade or more, the accelerating departure of young people is considered particularly alarming.
It has already been injected into this year's campaign for governor, with both major candidates, Eliot Spitzer and John Faso, highlighting population stagnation there and the need to help spur business activity.
Last month, after graduating with a master's degree in engineering from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Andrew Allen, 23, returned to his parents' home in Greece, a Rochester suburb. He is weighing job possibilities and may pursue a doctoral degree.
But staying in Rochester, where his father works at Kodak, the city's second-largest employer, is probably not one of his options.
"Rochester is on the list, but do I think I'll work here? Probably not," he said. "When you think Rochester, you think Kodak. But you also think layoffs."
Of eight close friends of Mr. Allen's from high school, one is finishing graduate school in Rochester and one has decided to start a career there, he said. The others have left.
As more young people depart, the population is aging. In Broome County, which includes Binghamton in the Southern Tier, the median age rose to 38.2 in 2004 from 33.3 in 1990.
"The number of upstate residents 45 or older increased by 15.3 percent, even as the number of young people, on whom they rely to hold jobs and pay taxes, went down sharply," Mr. Wilmers of M & T Bank said.
The number of young adults was expected to decline naturally as baby boomers, some of whom were younger than 35 in 1990, grew older. Only two counties in the state — Manhattan and Queens — actually gained young adults from 1990 to 2000.
From 1990 to 2004, all but one of the state's 62 counties recorded a decline in 25-to-34-year-olds, ranging from 1 percent in Manhattan to 42 percent in Tioga.
The sole gainer was neighboring Tompkins County in the Finger Lakes, where Cornell University, Ithaca College and tourism have boosted the job market.
The numerical decline during that period in Erie County, around Buffalo, was second only to the decline in Nassau County, where high home prices have also driven away many young adults.
In Syracuse, total population losses may have been stanched since 2000 as children have returned to take care of aging parents, jobs have become available in more diverse fields and housing prices have become more affordable. "It's given us some hope that we're going to arrest the continuing decline of young people," said Mr. Davis, of the Metropolitan Development Association there.
In the Rochester area, Andrew Allen's older sister, Laura Jeanne Hammond, 26, returned to her hometown after graduating in 2001 from the University of Missouri with a journalism degree. She was hired as managing editor of Next Step Magazine, which is distributed in school guidance offices, and also founded a social group, Rochester-Area 20-Somethings. "My friends escaped to New York City for a life of poverty and I bought a house and started a family," she said.
Since people in a specific age group in 1990 are not the same people counted in 2004, it would be imprecise to say that the population declines in the 25-to-34 age group represented people who necessarily moved out.
In 1999, upstate residents were asked in a poll for M & T Bank if they intended to move to another state in the next five years. Fully 40 percent of 18-to-30-year-olds replied yes. Most people said they would head to the South or the West. But among young adults, a high percentage said they were uncertain where they would wind up.
Among all people who left Erie County, according to an analysis by M & T Bank of data from 2003 tax returns, about half moved elsewhere in the state. About as many moved to Los Angeles County as moved to either Manhattan or Brooklyn.
Rolf Pendall, a Cornell University professor who studied population losses for the Brookings Institution, said: "Upstate New York and the great bulk of the territory of Pennsylvania are unusual in the United States in that this is an urbanized region, with 15 million residents in a couple dozen census-defined metropolitan areas. The Upper Great Plains, Lower Mississippi Delta and Appalachia are also regions that have lost population — and have in fact bled people for decades — but they are rural. They share, of course, issues of serious and long-term economic transition and transformation."
Catherine Richter, 23, a public relations executive, was raised in the Hudson Valley, attended the State University of New York at Geneseo and went to work in Rochester, but after becoming a victim of several minor crimes, she asked for a transfer to Albany. There, she joined a group similar to the one Laura Hammond founded in Rochester.
"The other option for a lot of people my age is to move down South, but I don't think that's for me," Ms. Richter said. "One of the main missions of the group is to stop the brain drain. And we're trying to do that by increasing the arts scene and lots of networking."
June 13, 2006
Flight of Young Adults Is Causing Alarm Upstate
By SAM ROBERTS
Upstate New York is staggering from an accelerating exodus of young adults, new census results show. The migration is turning many communities grayer, threatening the long-term viability of ailing cities and raising concerns about the state's future tax base.
From 1990 to 2004, the number of 25-to-34-year-old residents in the 52 counties north of Rockland and Putnam declined by more than 25 percent. In 13 counties that include cities like Buffalo, Syracuse and Binghamton, the population of young adults fell by more than 30 percent. In Tioga County, part of Appalachia in New York's Southern Tier, 42 percent fewer young adults were counted in 2004 than in 1990.
"Make no mistake: this is not business as usual," Robert G. Wilmers, the chairman of M & T Bank in Buffalo, told his shareholders this spring. "The magnitude and duration of population loss among the young is unprecedented in our history. There has never been a previous 10-year period in the history of the upstate region when there has been any decline in this most vital portion of our population."
In New York City and the five suburban counties in New York State, the number of people ages 18 to 44 increased by 1.5 percent in the 1990's. Upstate, it declined by 10 percent.
Over all, the upstate population grew by 1.1 percent in the 1990's — slower than the rate for any state except West Virginia and North Dakota.
Population growth upstate might have lagged even more but for the influx of 21,000 prison inmates, who accounted for 30 percent of new residents. During the first half of the current decade, the pace of depopulation actually increased in many places.
David Shaffer, president of the Public Policy Institute, which is affiliated with the Business Council of New York State, described the hemorrhaging of young adults as "the worst kind of loss."
"You don't just magically make it up with new births," he said. "These are the people who are starting careers, starting families, buying homes."
In almost every place upstate, emigration rates were highest among college graduates, producing a brain drain, according to separate analyses of census results for The New York Times by two demographers, William Frey of the Brookings Institution and Andrew A. Beveridge of Queens College of the City University of New York. Among the nation's large metropolitan areas, Professor Frey said, Buffalo and Rochester had the highest rates of what he called "bright flight."
Irwin L. Davis, president of the Metropolitan Development Association in Syracuse, which promotes economic growth in central New York, said, "We're educating them and they're leaving."
And Gary D. Keith, vice president and regional economist for M & T Bank, said, "Sluggish job growth is the biggest driver of out-migration among young upstate adults."
The decline in the 1990's in the population ages 18 to 44 of the 52-county upstate region was "chilling," he said.
"When the jobs don't grow, the people go," Mr. Keith said.
Matthew O'Brien, a graduate of Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y., was 26 when he left his home in Troy, just northeast of Albany, a decade ago for a better job offer down South.
He first moved to South Carolina, and now lives with his wife, Melissa, a Rochester expatriate, and their two children in Tampa, Fla., where he handles manufacturing operations for the company that makes Bubble Wrap packaging.
"I guess if I look back and think of the people I went to high school with, they all kind of went away to college, and that might have been a steppingstone to building a career," Mr. O'Brien said. "Not a lot did come back."
Some of the decline in the number of young adults may also have reflected children who left in the 1970's or 1980's with their parents.
Mr. O'Brien's parents still live in Troy, which was known in the 19th century for the manufacture of detachable collars and also led the nation at one point in iron and steel production. All but two of his eight siblings moved away, though.
While the chronic economic woes upstate have been of growing concern for a decade or more, the accelerating departure of young people is considered particularly alarming.
It has already been injected into this year's campaign for governor, with both major candidates, Eliot Spitzer and John Faso, highlighting population stagnation there and the need to help spur business activity.
Last month, after graduating with a master's degree in engineering from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Andrew Allen, 23, returned to his parents' home in Greece, a Rochester suburb. He is weighing job possibilities and may pursue a doctoral degree.
But staying in Rochester, where his father works at Kodak, the city's second-largest employer, is probably not one of his options.
"Rochester is on the list, but do I think I'll work here? Probably not," he said. "When you think Rochester, you think Kodak. But you also think layoffs."
Of eight close friends of Mr. Allen's from high school, one is finishing graduate school in Rochester and one has decided to start a career there, he said. The others have left.
As more young people depart, the population is aging. In Broome County, which includes Binghamton in the Southern Tier, the median age rose to 38.2 in 2004 from 33.3 in 1990.
"The number of upstate residents 45 or older increased by 15.3 percent, even as the number of young people, on whom they rely to hold jobs and pay taxes, went down sharply," Mr. Wilmers of M & T Bank said.
The number of young adults was expected to decline naturally as baby boomers, some of whom were younger than 35 in 1990, grew older. Only two counties in the state — Manhattan and Queens — actually gained young adults from 1990 to 2000.
From 1990 to 2004, all but one of the state's 62 counties recorded a decline in 25-to-34-year-olds, ranging from 1 percent in Manhattan to 42 percent in Tioga.
The sole gainer was neighboring Tompkins County in the Finger Lakes, where Cornell University, Ithaca College and tourism have boosted the job market.
The numerical decline during that period in Erie County, around Buffalo, was second only to the decline in Nassau County, where high home prices have also driven away many young adults.
In Syracuse, total population losses may have been stanched since 2000 as children have returned to take care of aging parents, jobs have become available in more diverse fields and housing prices have become more affordable. "It's given us some hope that we're going to arrest the continuing decline of young people," said Mr. Davis, of the Metropolitan Development Association there.
In the Rochester area, Andrew Allen's older sister, Laura Jeanne Hammond, 26, returned to her hometown after graduating in 2001 from the University of Missouri with a journalism degree. She was hired as managing editor of Next Step Magazine, which is distributed in school guidance offices, and also founded a social group, Rochester-Area 20-Somethings. "My friends escaped to New York City for a life of poverty and I bought a house and started a family," she said.
Since people in a specific age group in 1990 are not the same people counted in 2004, it would be imprecise to say that the population declines in the 25-to-34 age group represented people who necessarily moved out.
In 1999, upstate residents were asked in a poll for M & T Bank if they intended to move to another state in the next five years. Fully 40 percent of 18-to-30-year-olds replied yes. Most people said they would head to the South or the West. But among young adults, a high percentage said they were uncertain where they would wind up.
Among all people who left Erie County, according to an analysis by M & T Bank of data from 2003 tax returns, about half moved elsewhere in the state. About as many moved to Los Angeles County as moved to either Manhattan or Brooklyn.
Rolf Pendall, a Cornell University professor who studied population losses for the Brookings Institution, said: "Upstate New York and the great bulk of the territory of Pennsylvania are unusual in the United States in that this is an urbanized region, with 15 million residents in a couple dozen census-defined metropolitan areas. The Upper Great Plains, Lower Mississippi Delta and Appalachia are also regions that have lost population — and have in fact bled people for decades — but they are rural. They share, of course, issues of serious and long-term economic transition and transformation."
Catherine Richter, 23, a public relations executive, was raised in the Hudson Valley, attended the State University of New York at Geneseo and went to work in Rochester, but after becoming a victim of several minor crimes, she asked for a transfer to Albany. There, she joined a group similar to the one Laura Hammond founded in Rochester.
"The other option for a lot of people my age is to move down South, but I don't think that's for me," Ms. Richter said. "One of the main missions of the group is to stop the brain drain. And we're trying to do that by increasing the arts scene and lots of networking."
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Mom's
Happy Mother's Day - this pretty much says it all.....
This is for the mothers who have sat up all night with sick toddlers in their arms, "It's okay, honey, Mommy's here"Who have sat in rocking chairs for hours on end soothing crying babies who can't be comforted?
For all the mothers who run carpools and make cookies and sew Halloween costumes....and all the mothers who DON'T.
This is for the mothers who gave birth to babies they'll never see. And the mothers who took those babies and gave them homes.
This is for the mothers whose priceless art collections are hanging on their refrigerator doors.And for all the mothers who froze their buns on metal bleachers at football, softball, hockey or soccer games instead of watching from the warmth of their cars, so that when their kids asked, "Did you see me, Mom?" They could say, "Of course, I wouldn't have missed it for the world". and mean it.
This is for all the mothers who yell at their kids in the grocery store and swat them in despair when they stomp their feet and scream for ice cream before dinner. And for all the mothers who count to ten instead, but realize how child abuse happens.
This is for all the mothers who sat down with their children and explained all about making babies. And for all the (grand) mothers who wanted to, but just couldn't find the words.
This is for all the mothers who go hungry, so their children can eat.For all the mothers who read the same book twice a night for a year. And then read it again. "Just one more time."
This is for all the mothers who taught their children to tie their shoelaces before they started school. And for all the mothers who opted for Velcro instead.This is for all the mothers who teach their sons to cook and their daughters to sink a jump shot.
This is for every mother whose head turns automatically when a little voice calls "Mom?" in a crowd, even though they know their own offspring are at home -- or even away at college.
This is for all the mothers who sent their kids to school with stomachaches, assuring them they'd be just FINE once they got there, only to get a call from the school nurse an hour later asking them to please pick them up, Right away. And the Mothers who said if you need me call me and they never did.This is for mothers whose children have gone astray, who can't find the words to reach them.
For all the mothers who bite their lips until they bleed when their 14 year olds dye their hair green.
For all the mothers of the victims of recent school shootings, and the mothers of those who did the shooting.For the mothers of the survivors, and the mothers who sat in front of their TVs in horror, hugging their child who just came home from school, safely.
This is for all the mothers who taught their children to be peaceful, and now pray they come home safely from a war.What makes a good Mother anyway?Is it patience? Compassion? Broad hips? The ability to nurse a baby, cook dinner, and sew a button on a shirt, all at the same time?Or is it in her heart? Is it the ache she feels when she watches her son or daughter disappear down the street, walking to school alone for the very first time?The jolt that takes you from sleep to dread, from bed to crib at 2 A.M. to put your hand on the back of a sleeping baby?The panic, years later, that comes again at 2 A.M. when you just want to hear their key in the door and know they are safe again in your home?Or the need to flee from wherever you are and hug your child when you hear news of a fire, a car accident, a child dying?The emotions of motherhood are universal and so our thoughts are for young mothers stumbling through diaper changes and sleep deprivation...And mature mothers learning to let go. As Nemo said, you gotta let me go.
For working mothers and stay-at-home mothers.Single mothers and married mothers..Mothers with money, mothers without.This is for you all. Hang in there. In the end we can only do the best we can.Tell them every day that we love them.... And pray.
Please pass along to all the Moms in your life.
Home is what catches you when you fall - and we all fall
This is for the mothers who have sat up all night with sick toddlers in their arms, "It's okay, honey, Mommy's here"Who have sat in rocking chairs for hours on end soothing crying babies who can't be comforted?
For all the mothers who run carpools and make cookies and sew Halloween costumes....and all the mothers who DON'T.
This is for the mothers who gave birth to babies they'll never see. And the mothers who took those babies and gave them homes.
This is for the mothers whose priceless art collections are hanging on their refrigerator doors.And for all the mothers who froze their buns on metal bleachers at football, softball, hockey or soccer games instead of watching from the warmth of their cars, so that when their kids asked, "Did you see me, Mom?" They could say, "Of course, I wouldn't have missed it for the world". and mean it.
This is for all the mothers who yell at their kids in the grocery store and swat them in despair when they stomp their feet and scream for ice cream before dinner. And for all the mothers who count to ten instead, but realize how child abuse happens.
This is for all the mothers who sat down with their children and explained all about making babies. And for all the (grand) mothers who wanted to, but just couldn't find the words.
This is for all the mothers who go hungry, so their children can eat.For all the mothers who read the same book twice a night for a year. And then read it again. "Just one more time."
This is for all the mothers who taught their children to tie their shoelaces before they started school. And for all the mothers who opted for Velcro instead.This is for all the mothers who teach their sons to cook and their daughters to sink a jump shot.
This is for every mother whose head turns automatically when a little voice calls "Mom?" in a crowd, even though they know their own offspring are at home -- or even away at college.
This is for all the mothers who sent their kids to school with stomachaches, assuring them they'd be just FINE once they got there, only to get a call from the school nurse an hour later asking them to please pick them up, Right away. And the Mothers who said if you need me call me and they never did.This is for mothers whose children have gone astray, who can't find the words to reach them.
For all the mothers who bite their lips until they bleed when their 14 year olds dye their hair green.
For all the mothers of the victims of recent school shootings, and the mothers of those who did the shooting.For the mothers of the survivors, and the mothers who sat in front of their TVs in horror, hugging their child who just came home from school, safely.
This is for all the mothers who taught their children to be peaceful, and now pray they come home safely from a war.What makes a good Mother anyway?Is it patience? Compassion? Broad hips? The ability to nurse a baby, cook dinner, and sew a button on a shirt, all at the same time?Or is it in her heart? Is it the ache she feels when she watches her son or daughter disappear down the street, walking to school alone for the very first time?The jolt that takes you from sleep to dread, from bed to crib at 2 A.M. to put your hand on the back of a sleeping baby?The panic, years later, that comes again at 2 A.M. when you just want to hear their key in the door and know they are safe again in your home?Or the need to flee from wherever you are and hug your child when you hear news of a fire, a car accident, a child dying?The emotions of motherhood are universal and so our thoughts are for young mothers stumbling through diaper changes and sleep deprivation...And mature mothers learning to let go. As Nemo said, you gotta let me go.
For working mothers and stay-at-home mothers.Single mothers and married mothers..Mothers with money, mothers without.This is for you all. Hang in there. In the end we can only do the best we can.Tell them every day that we love them.... And pray.
Please pass along to all the Moms in your life.
Home is what catches you when you fall - and we all fall
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
A KFC Bucket, Stuffing and Gravy, Last in Line and "He hit a what?"
A few things:
KFC Bucket
Please ask Jen about the comments she made re: a bucket of KFC - I haven't laughed so hard in a long, long time
Stuffing and Gravy
Another conversation over the weekend with some close friends discussed how good the stuffing and gravy is from Phil's Chicken House. This one, my friends, will not be forgotten!! Different night, same friends. I'm sure the margaritta's helped!! By the way Cuervo Gold now makes a bottled Margaritta with Grand Marnier. Really, really good....... two large bottles were consumed over the weekend. Each drink was floated with additional tequilia. Yes - real good!!
A joke...
A bus carrying only ugly people crashes into an oncoming truck, and everyone inside dies. As they stand at the Pearly Gates waiting to enter Paradise and meet their maker, God decides to grant each person one wish because of the grief they have experienced. They're all lined up, and God asks the first one what the wish is."I want to be gorgeous," and so God snaps His fingers, and it is done.The second one in line hears this and says, "I want to be gorgeous too."Another snap of His fingers and the wish is granted. This goes on for a while with each one asking to be gorgeous, but when God is halfway down the line, the last guy in the line starts laughing. When there are only ten people left, this guy is rolling on the floor, laughing his head off. Finally, God reaches this last guy and asks him what his wish will be.The guy eventually calms down and says: "Make 'em all ugly again". NEXT TIME YOU'RE LAST IN LINE. . .BE HAPPY!!!!!!
He hit a what???
A Turkey. 2006 CR-V vs some wild poultry. Must be a lot more of those in Saratoga than in Endicott. All I can think of is a cartoon character image of a shocked turkey flat up against the windshield. Can't help that your kids keep reminding you of it ALL DAY LONG!!!!! Much more to be said on this one.
KFC Bucket
Please ask Jen about the comments she made re: a bucket of KFC - I haven't laughed so hard in a long, long time
Stuffing and Gravy
Another conversation over the weekend with some close friends discussed how good the stuffing and gravy is from Phil's Chicken House. This one, my friends, will not be forgotten!! Different night, same friends. I'm sure the margaritta's helped!! By the way Cuervo Gold now makes a bottled Margaritta with Grand Marnier. Really, really good....... two large bottles were consumed over the weekend. Each drink was floated with additional tequilia. Yes - real good!!
A joke...
A bus carrying only ugly people crashes into an oncoming truck, and everyone inside dies. As they stand at the Pearly Gates waiting to enter Paradise and meet their maker, God decides to grant each person one wish because of the grief they have experienced. They're all lined up, and God asks the first one what the wish is."I want to be gorgeous," and so God snaps His fingers, and it is done.The second one in line hears this and says, "I want to be gorgeous too."Another snap of His fingers and the wish is granted. This goes on for a while with each one asking to be gorgeous, but when God is halfway down the line, the last guy in the line starts laughing. When there are only ten people left, this guy is rolling on the floor, laughing his head off. Finally, God reaches this last guy and asks him what his wish will be.The guy eventually calms down and says: "Make 'em all ugly again". NEXT TIME YOU'RE LAST IN LINE. . .BE HAPPY!!!!!!
He hit a what???
A Turkey. 2006 CR-V vs some wild poultry. Must be a lot more of those in Saratoga than in Endicott. All I can think of is a cartoon character image of a shocked turkey flat up against the windshield. Can't help that your kids keep reminding you of it ALL DAY LONG!!!!! Much more to be said on this one.
Monday, May 01, 2006
Grace's First Father/Daughter Ball
Grace's first big night!!
Daddy, I'm ready!!!
My first wrist corsage
Check us out!!! Ready to hit the town....
Grace and McKenna....
Imagine - 200 5-12 year old girls doing the Electric Slide. Yes, Sheri - we know you want to be in on it too...
No - I didn't bring my own flask as was suggested. This was taken on the move. Really!!
Many of the little ladies spent a good amount of time on the floor after getting too dizzy
This was a really nice event at Seton Catholic High School. Looking forward to all of those with Grace and Caroline in the future. Funny - more important than the dancing was the food. Themed as "A Night in Venice", the girls were all over the chocolate fountain, cookies, ice cream, punch, candy, cakes, canoli, etc... I guess it starts early - it really is all about the food!!
Daddy, I'm ready!!!
My first wrist corsage
Check us out!!! Ready to hit the town....
Grace and McKenna....
Imagine - 200 5-12 year old girls doing the Electric Slide. Yes, Sheri - we know you want to be in on it too...
No - I didn't bring my own flask as was suggested. This was taken on the move. Really!!
Many of the little ladies spent a good amount of time on the floor after getting too dizzy
This was a really nice event at Seton Catholic High School. Looking forward to all of those with Grace and Caroline in the future. Funny - more important than the dancing was the food. Themed as "A Night in Venice", the girls were all over the chocolate fountain, cookies, ice cream, punch, candy, cakes, canoli, etc... I guess it starts early - it really is all about the food!!
For those of us with kids under 5....
FluMist nasal spray more effective than flu shot in children under age five
05/01/2006
A study being released today at a child-health meeting finds that MedImmune’s nasal spray flu vaccine provides infants and preschoolers with “significantly more protection” from the flu than traditional flu shots, the Associated Press reports. For the study—which was funded by MedImmune and led by a vaccine specialist at St. Louis University—researchers enrolled 8,000 children ages six months to five years during the 2004 flu season to receive both a FluMist nasal spray and a shot, only one of which contained a real flu vaccine. The researchers found that FluMist was 55% more effective than the flu shot, with only 3.9% of children who received FluMist developing the flu, compared with 8.6% of children who received flu shots. However, the researchers did find that some children ages six months to two years developed a temporary “asthma-like wheezing in the weeks after the first FluMist dose.” According to the researchers, the risk of wheezing was “slight,” with only 1% more children developing the condition after receiving FluMist than children receiving flu shots; the researchers say they will continue to analyze whether the risk would “offset the increased flu protection.” In addition, the FDA likely will question whether FluMist should be approved for children under age two; FluMist currently is approved for use in people ages five years and older, and MedImmune is planning to seek approval to market the vaccine for younger children. The study’s lead author concludes that despite the risk of wheezing, any product that “makes it easier and more effective to vaccinate children is going to contribute a lot to the protection against influenza” because children are thought to be the “prime spreaders of flu virus” (Neergaard, AP/Washington Post, 5/1).
05/01/2006
A study being released today at a child-health meeting finds that MedImmune’s nasal spray flu vaccine provides infants and preschoolers with “significantly more protection” from the flu than traditional flu shots, the Associated Press reports. For the study—which was funded by MedImmune and led by a vaccine specialist at St. Louis University—researchers enrolled 8,000 children ages six months to five years during the 2004 flu season to receive both a FluMist nasal spray and a shot, only one of which contained a real flu vaccine. The researchers found that FluMist was 55% more effective than the flu shot, with only 3.9% of children who received FluMist developing the flu, compared with 8.6% of children who received flu shots. However, the researchers did find that some children ages six months to two years developed a temporary “asthma-like wheezing in the weeks after the first FluMist dose.” According to the researchers, the risk of wheezing was “slight,” with only 1% more children developing the condition after receiving FluMist than children receiving flu shots; the researchers say they will continue to analyze whether the risk would “offset the increased flu protection.” In addition, the FDA likely will question whether FluMist should be approved for children under age two; FluMist currently is approved for use in people ages five years and older, and MedImmune is planning to seek approval to market the vaccine for younger children. The study’s lead author concludes that despite the risk of wheezing, any product that “makes it easier and more effective to vaccinate children is going to contribute a lot to the protection against influenza” because children are thought to be the “prime spreaders of flu virus” (Neergaard, AP/Washington Post, 5/1).
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Happy, Trouble, Peace......
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