goodbye 2008, hello 2009

so this year if God continues to bless me in this life,

i will travel somewhere new.

i will remain cancer free(God willing)

i will keep finding new ways to connect with my children

i will re do another room (and hopefully our deck)

i will live more in the moment

i will watch my neice get married

i will get more comfortable getting in and out of NYC

 i will keep control of my irish temper, but i will not beg for forgivenenss more than once

i will try to be a better friend.

i will excercise regularily

maybe i will loose some weight.

I hope to see Justin find success

I hope to see Guy Roberts heart to heal

I hope tyler finds his passion

I hope austin stays true to his heart.

i hope Morgan always find joys in small treasures.

I pray to find my spiritual heart again and to not despair.

silliness

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

blast from the past

so dug this up from the oldies but goodies. i was 13 cathy was 16 i thik, rob 18. this was on our closed in porch that i loved. i just remember being in the foulest mood that morning. the photpgrapher worked with my brother, gunner i think was his name. some of my favorite pictures of my sister were taken this day. and of course i love seeing my dad.

going nuclear

so here is the scanner that checked for all that nasty cancer, not fun but i put my mind in my happy place and with only one panic attack i made it through. those paddles are really close to your face.

the canister holds one capsule that is radioactive. you take it than you are radioactive for several days. my kids are shipped out to keep them safe.crazy. but whatever it takes to kill the cancer and get back to my life.

just want to mention that my life is amazing. i have friends who continulally blow me away with their support. my kids are cared for, meals brought to me, ministers ministering my soul, my workplace sending cards. i am blessed

my favorite girls at my favorite place

so here are my dear friends, my posse, the group that will say anything and accept any thing. i know they are here for me and me for them. this is us at the princeton grill in avalon. this is a pre radiation getaway. I would tell you about it but the rule of this group is what is said in the group stays in the group.

aren't the cute

aren't they cute?? this is tyler and his girlfriend on their way to a sweet 16.my boys never the traditional suits but it was semi formal i guess...

braces on

morgan got them on a day after austin ot them off.

we celebrated Big Guys birthday with some thing new, the girl friends. I t was funny to think about how big our family will be once the boys are married.For now i am enjoyin the estroen around the house. it evens the balance at our house.

braces offcute couple
Guy and sammy gussied up for a sweet sixteen. i had the pleasure of dress shopping for sammy with her mom.

still here

well hey, yes I am here. and yes it has been a bit of a weird journey thus far. On July 6 i had my surgery,and i would say the anticipation before was ssoo much worse than the surgery itself. the care was awesome , i remember kissing Guy goodbye and then waking up in recovery. they removed the whole thyroid. now here is the weird part. i had a biopsy before surgery that called the tumor cancer,then after the operation the surgeon told Guy the frozen section was inconclusive,but it looked very suspicious. well 5 days later the final biopsy came back benign. most people would be thrilled, but we had never been told there was any hope. something did not ring right to me, so i requested a biopsy done at Fox Chase(HMC sent the slides) and guess what?It was cancer. All I can say that someone was looking out for me that i did not just passively accept that one biopsy. i needed the tie breaker.so now they are on the road of readying me for a body scan and then radioactive treatment,which should be an adventure since i have to be isolated for 7 days...aahh hellooo..5 kids three animals??trying to figure out if i can get insurance to pay for a private beach house with a cabana boys with a radioactive proof thong LOL

anyway other events ths summer because as they say,life goes on...Tyler had surgery which i am sure he would be thrilled that i am postig about, suffice it to say it was something that needed to be done to improve his quality of life and he is so happy now.

We lost a dear friend from a heart attack this summer. Howard Mastropiero the husband of a college friend of mine and Morgans God father. so in july a week and a half out of surgery, we traveled to NH for a very emotional reunion with Cindy. Howard was a fireman making the ceremony that much more emotional. he will be missed and my thoughts and prayers remain with Cindy and the girls.

Losing Howard and my cancer definately hit a chord with Guy who is the king of someday we will....finally after years of talking about a big family vacation, we finally booked a cruise for next summer. we are excited as anything.

meanwhile little Guy went to woodward camp for skateboarding and tyler went to warwick for high school week.

austin got braces off and morgan got them on!

once i figure out this new mac laptop i will post pics!

fighting cancer

something i never thought i would be saying about myself,but as they say another turning point in the road. My routine physical found a lump on my thyroid that was biopsied and is positive for cancer. so my summer off is now a fight for my life if you will. odds are good according to the docs so i just ask for prayers. .my friends and family are my strength. i love the women in my life who believe with all their hearts i will be okay but still are brave enough to say out loud what i am thinking which if the worst happens we will be there for your family.surgery is next week followed by radiation treatment. i get to go nuclear. that will be interesting.

some new adventures

so a new friend invited me along on a new adventure of visiting Nj winerys and eventually working into other states and maybe before the adventure ends we can go to europe and try their wines! okay well lets see if we make it through NJ first.This was our first stop, and it was not intimidating at all. 5 dollars got 5 tastes and and a etched wine glass. For the girl who is all about the goodie bag, this worked for me. actually found i really like the white wines in particular one called reisling.I liked our first time and hoping for more.

the picture below is from my work buddy angela's retirement party. one of the first welcomes i got at chapin and who quickly became a fello scrap buddy and big sister- advisor is retiring. I will miss her terribly tho the silver lining is i still get to see her at scrap events but i will miss my daily debriefing and sharing of new scrap adventures we have had

Next, same new friend from the winery,took her daughter ,who happens to be my sons girlfriend, on a shopping trip to philly to urban outfitters. very fun to have my girl senses(think spidey senses for shopping) tingling again. the boys found some rad?? stuff to buy, and the girls well they gots skills for shopping.we stopped here for of course philly cheesestakes.

so what have i been doing?

well first I had thisday, national scrapbook day at my house. this was before everyone got there in my scraproom. we had a great day but hosting does not make for much scrapping. but we laughed alot.

and then this little Guy came home....yup him name is elvis and we are instant in love, but I forgot how having a new puppy is like having a new baby. early mornings, trying to get stuff done while the "baby" sleeps. I am exhausted.

and I am trying wrap up school so i can get some time to enjoy this

our new fur baby

we must be nuts, but look who is ours next week.....

i mean could you eat him up. still working on a name but some of us like noodles jr or petey.

he is a mix of a fox terrier,chiwawa(sp), and pug.

yea we are nuts...

confirmation and bamboozled

so, today my twins were confirmed. And my heart was full. in all the craziness of preparing for this day, i had not anticipated being overcome with emotion. when they both stood in front of the church and Rev Cherry, my memory suddenly remembered(yes think sunrise sunset from fiddler on the roof here) of how when I was hospitalized with complications carrying these twins, this little church prayed for me and them, my minister counceled me when i needed it most, and the church shared in my joy of their survival and homecoming.This minister babtized them and now confirmed them. Of course my tears gave good ammunition to my husband and boys to tease me, but who cares. My heart is full today.

of course, today was a polar opposite of yesterday which was spent at bamboozle. for you old folks that do not know what bamboozle is..it is giants stadium filled with a million bands and their fans...think giant stadium mash pit/rock band. The twins wanted to go for their birthday and so Guy and I drove them and stayed. OMG wild and crazy for sure. my ears are ringing. we were the oldest people there(funny they did not question us for the parents tents ) but we did see paramor(yea ask you kids who they are) and jimmy eat world(again ask your kids), so we can sound cool when we tell people 20 and under we go up

a notch as not so old old people...

wicked BABY

OMG OMG OMG OMG got to see this as a chaperone for a trip out of my school and i was blown away...loved the story the music everything. i am so getting tickets for my family. i am going to bite the bullet and do this. none of them have seen a broadway show...i just want them to experience it once..can anyone say rebate check:)

to quote my son 13

"And to let you people know u cant love a person for a day theres no point of loving someone for a day "
this was on his my space and I think it is my new motto...

last days

well the goverment finally emminent domained our business property. apparently the highway bridge needs our business property more than we do, more than we needed to make a living, more than we needed to have a place for our employees, more than we needed the memories of a businees we have had for 23 years createdwith my father in law who is gone from us now,more than we needed to sell it for retirement. Get out they said, no money yet and what will come will barely cover somewhere new to go. At 50 with kids going to college,we will be starting over.

We hadto move in 4 days. leave a memory behind. Frankly no matter what language you put it in. It sucks.I love this country but ths is F-upped...

another thing

and this..the magazine Justin is in. sold at a borders near you:)

spring

first signs i hope. I need the sun to shine in my soul as well as my enviroment. ready to let the sunshine in. think beatles song. Tyler took this picture with is point and shoot. He will be taking photography next year and I hope he loves it. I think he has some skills.

soccer man

spring soccer begins. soccer will consume our saturdays and sundays. Austin is the lone survior, the other kids have moved to other interests but austin still remains our soccer man. he is so fast playing with older kids. he has gained some height ths year so we will see...these are the new uniforms. austin was really stoked about the yellow away shirt too!1

mystery man

okay so it is my tyler, no mystery there. But he is my quiet one, the tall dark and silent one.while the rest of us stablers suffer from mouth babble and will tell you our lives the first minute, tyler keeps thing tucked in, at least amongst his family. This I know..he is creative and funny when he lets you in. while each of my children take turns making me worry, right now, at this moment, my thoughts are on Tyler. I still see the softness of his toddler hood in those eyes, and I know deep down he loves his mama, even if he does not say it much now. I think i can wait till the teenage junk is over. i think...

my justin is in nj monthly "best of "april issue for best up and coming guitar player. This was one of the photos taken by the very famous chris crimson. This is not the photo used, but one of my favs because besides being my cute son, he is on a train which holds a special memory of my dad who passed away 11 years ago ths month. He would have been so proud of his first grandson.

remember young love?This my son guy and his girlfriend of three months. they are incredibly sweet together, and while it brings with it a whole set of worries for us parents, it is sweet to watch the tenderness with how they care for eachother. we love her and her family.while odds are not in their favor i would not mind if this one lasted a long time.

it was fabulous

so Had a great time at the scrappers dream vacation in absecon. we were only a group of 7 this time, but i got to sit next to my original scrap buddy elizabeth who can make me laugh with her unique life observations. just loved my two classes and loved watching all the fellow scrap fanatics set up there spaces, and all the new gadgets. I am in love with glimmer sprays, and thickers. got nine two page layouts done plus my buddy pages and two class projects.
before the SDV i got to see my high school buddies who i have not seen in a few years. they still make me laugh like they did in high school. I have been so blessed in my life with warm, funny women.we went to wendy's sisters bed and breakfast .who who would have thought plainfield NJ. it was awesome especailly the delicious food nancys husband made for us. She is thinking of starting some bed and breakfast crops and i told her i would happily get a "test " group for her. so we shall see...

Check out my Slide Show!

I am off with a but....

I am supposed to leave for my very favorite scrappin getaway for my 6th year in absecon, the bestist sdv thurday at 3pm,but there is a small fly in the ointment. I am fighting a horrendous head cold right now and had to call in sick so i could go to the doctor. i am so afraid this will get worse while i am away..hoping the doctor can give me some good stuff to fight it but alas, i think it is viral. the good news is after the doctor i can get a little earlier jump on my ride out of town instead of leaving and driving in the dark alone, i can leave a little earlier and noel will be with me, then i can get to the hotel and rest before the festivites on friday.say a prayer that this gets no worse and please God no flu...

I also had a wonderful reunion with my high school friends..more on that when i get back. got pictures too and yes i am the fattest one. but i think i am learning to accept that..sortof...

recent layout

i did this layout with some papers i got in a scrappy giraffe kit. just love these colors, the rub ons, and the fold out pages.I even cut the protector right! Today i spent running kids all over the place. we are all off from school. yay! and I am trying to be extra supportive of their social lives as I am grabbing my getaway next weekend. Dad is not so into the running, so they will rely on the mercy of friends when i am away next weekend, so i am the road warrior this weekend.I do get one interesting break tommorow. seeing my high school buddies. three of my dearest friends from the high school days. I do tend to put of these reunions since i am self conscious of my weight, but I am trying to get healthy and not put off friends for such a vain reason. I am actually looking forward to it...

braces braces and more braces...aaarrgggg

so right now I have three of my five boys in treatment and one finished. I had one that did not need them. notice i use the word HAD..the orthdontist has been watching him and is seeing alot of wearing on his teeth. so it looks like at least partial treatment. do not ask me where i am going to get the money ,but somehow we always do..between these and glasses(two kids have and son number 5 lost his!)Good Lord help me. That is Dr Loew and austin(son number 4), I see him more than my husband!! and that is NOT a good thing.

Check out my Slide Show!

this greeted me yesterday morning. this is at the end of my driveway taken with my camera phone....I am so lucky to live in this part of new jersey..

so right now it is late and i am tired. working all day and coming home to put the final touches on a charity crop for pediatric cancer research right now. i am excited and nervous. i want it to be a great scrappy day for everyone...wish i could just scrap but alas i will be working it...the upside...i can still shop i am sure! and who can be sad when you are around scrappy stuff...

few more pics from the top ten day

morgan not so happily helping put grocieries away...and the book bootie...now for a snow day:)

on the top ten of my favorite kinds of day

okay my most favorite days involve family time when we are together and really connecting,laughing etc. my second favorite day would involve a beach sand in the toes, but today was in the top ten. off from work (till monday) and with a few fellow scrappers took a road trip to scrappers cove a great store, and bought some scrapbook bootie...

hambly overlays, heidi swapp, bling, daubers, tim hotlz chipboard, inks..fun fun fun..and tommorow a scrap day in the plans:) it has been since october since i scrapped for myself...i am suffering from withdrawel...then i went to lunch using a gift certificate from a generous parent of one of my students in princeton...even getting parking right in front of the restaurant! The Parking Gods were smiling!

Then I got to go to Barnes and noble and spent my 125 dolllors in gift certificates that were christmas gifts...talk about heaven.

the day ended with counting my blessings..groceries(ordered over the internet) and healthy boys helping me put them away...warm home on this cold night and a loving famiy . I thnk God for all these.