Another Productive Week Has Come & Gone

Hi Everyone,

We had a good week. On Thursday night, we went to a fundraiser for The Boston Medical Center (BMC) Spinal Cord Injury Unit http://www.bmc.org/rehab/gala2007.htm. Check out the link for more details. The tickets were very expensive so we were not planning on going but my friend asked us to go as his guests b/c he bought three tables. We couldn't say no to such a great even.

The event was very moving and inspiring b/c we heard a lot of testimonials from some newly injured wheelers. When I was injured almost 16 years ago, I did my rehab at BMC, so we wanted to support the cause. I must say though that it breaks my heart to see people with new spinal cord injuries. I always wished that I could have been the last one in the world to experience it. I know that is impossible but it sucks to see other families go through what mine did. If I only had that magic wand! Oh well, life is full pain and joy. If we can just try to focus more on the joy than the pain then it makes it all a little easier.

We were lucky enough to get the centerpiece of beautiful flowers, which of course I had to post above. We've really enjoyed having the pretty flowers to look at for the past few days.

On Saturday, we spent the day putzing around for First Communion gifts for our niece and nephew. We wound up getting our niece Alyssa a very pretty cross with a diamond chip in it but we had a much harder time finding something for our nephew Liam. For some reason, everywhere we went there was slim pickings for boys. We went to the store Things Remembered and found this nice photo album that we will have a cross & his name engraved on. I think it will turn out nice. I have to pick it up tomorrow. I just hope my sister actually puts pictures in it from his special day.

We also spent a few hours w/ my brother & sister-in-law and their 5 kids. It turned out to be a pretty nice day so we sat in their backyard and watched the kids play down @ the river at the end of his yard. Rosie even went swimming. She won't be doing that again there b/c boy did she stink after. Needless to say, we gave her a bath as soon as we got home :)

Today was a pretty quiet day. We did our usual grocery shopping and also hit the drug store. It is amazing how much I can spend in the drug store. Ugh! Kyle ran to Home Depot but I stayed home. I'm not a huge fan of Home Depot. I prefer Lowe's if I have to go to those type of stores.

We are trying to plan some fun things to do when our friends Tami, Eric & Moriah visit at the end of May. So far, we know we definitely want to spend a day in Newport, RI to see the beautiful scenery and check out some of the mansions. http://www.newportmansions.org/ Only a few of the mansions are accessible so we won't be hitting them all. Plus, they cost. OK, I have to post the link for the Italian restaurant that we REALLY want to go to in Newport. We've only been once, but it was fabulous!! http://www.sardellas.com/ I love the fact that you can get a half portion. OK, Tami check it out and let me know what you think.

Tami also sent me this link about Ghost tours in Boston and they say on their site that they have done accessible tours before. http://www.newenglandghosttours.com/tours.html

We are also trying to get tickets to a Red Sox Game for Eric :)

Ok all, that is about it for now. Have a great week. May is almost here :) Be well & Happy!

Spring is Here, FINALLY!!

Hi All!

Well, it was in the 70's here today and we are just loving it. For the past several days, it was raining and really gross out, so needless to say we are loving the weather.

Today we had a really productive day. Kyle's Birthday is this coming week, April 25th. He's getting a bike, so today we went looking and found one for him. It is a mountain bike (Raleigh.) He's already used it and loves it. We just need to get him a helmet. We are renting a house on Cape Cod this summer for a week with my sister Megan and her family and they all have bikes. The town of Falmouth, where we will be has a 3 mile bike path that cuts through the town, so there is lots of cycling to do. Tonight we went out for a nice stroll and I walked the dog and Kyle rode next to us. It was fun!!

Today we also picked out new rugs for the condo, which I am beyond thrilled about! WHOOO! They should be installed by the time our friends Moriah & Eric visit. Thank God. By the way Tami, have you looked into flights?? Hint, Hint!

We attempted to watch two movies tonight but bailed on both of them. The first was Volver, which is a Spanish movie with Penelope Cruz but we could not get the subtitles to work for some odd reason. The second movie was Children of Men and we gave that about 10 minutes and then turned it off because of a lack of interest on both of our parts. Now Kyle is in the living room watching Dodge Ball. It is on TV, we didn't rent it. I watched it for the first half hour and must amidst that I chuckled several times! I decided to get off the couch and log on because I haven't been posting much and there is actually a lot to write about lately. Plus, I would not want to disappoint any of you who regularly check our blog like my Aunt Mo :)

We had a great weekend last weekend with two of our nieces, but I never posted about it like I had planned to. Sorry!!! In a nutshell, we went to the movies with them and saw Are we Done Yet?, went to Plaster Fun Time, which is a craft place for kids. Kyle pained a really cute frog that we have on one of our bookshelves. Then we had dinner at Friendly's. It was fun and the kids kept us very busy!

Tonight we went to Auto Zone and next store is a Michael's and since I have NO interest whatsoever in car stuff, I went into Michael's while Kyle bought new windshield wipers for our car. So, I browsed around Michael's and was determined to buy myself a craft project. After perusing the entire store, I narrowed it down to needlepoint and beads for jewelry making. Kyle was REALLY losing his patience with me because there was a LOT of beads to look at and I was taking forever so I decided to go with the needlepoint. I went with a starter project because I am not the best at following directions and it was only $5.00. I still want to go back and look at the beads because I'd love to buy stuff to make some necklaces and bracelets but I should save up because by the time you buy beads, string, etc... it adds up.
Anyway, while we were watching Dodge Ball I ripped open the needlepoint project and boy am I in over my head. It is way more complex than I realized. So much for an easy beginner project. Tami--all your craftiness is inspiring me.

Well, tomorrow is Sunday and we are planning to visit my mom and take Rosie to the dog park. I am also hoping to take a picture of Kyle on his bike for you all to see and maybe even his frog!!!! Have a great weekend everyone! Happy Spring.

"My Cake" & Hot Napoleon!

Hi All,

We haven't been posting enough, so I figured I'd post "my cake" recipe and a link to this hysterical website I found with audio clips from the movie "Napoleon Dynamite ." For those that don't know, I am a total movie snob but for some reason I get the biggest kick out of that movie even though it is super cheesy. It is really lame but sooooo "freakin" hilarious. If you put the cursor on some of the cheesy sayings from the movie you can actually hear Napolean talk. I love it!! I told Kyle that I want him to buy me this movie for my b-day and I am not the type to buy movies.

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/ndsound.php

OK, on to the cake! It is super delicious. The frosting has lemon rind in it which makes it so tasty. I also read that you can use raspberries instead of blueberries. OK, Joie or Tami... I think you two have a lot more baking experience than me, so I want to know if you really need to buy "cake flour" as opposed to regular "flour?"

Blueberry-Lemon Cake With Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

2 cups plus 6 tablespoons cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups fresh blueberries (about three 4.4-ounce packages)
1 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
Lemon peel strips (optional) ( I recommend b/c it makes it look so pretty)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter three 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Line bottom of pans with parchment paper; butter paper. Dust pans with flour. Sift cake flour, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Transfer 1 tablespoon flour mixture to large bowl. Add fresh blueberries and toss to coat. Set remaining flour mixture and blueberries aside.Stir whole milk, vanilla extract, and grated lemon peel in small bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in another large bowl until light and creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Beat in flour mixture alternately with milk mixture in 3 additions each, just until blended. Fold in blueberries. Divide batter equally among pans.Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on racks 10 minutes. Run knife around pan sides to loosen. Turn cakes out onto racks to cool completely. Peel off parchment paper.Transfer 1 cake layer to platter. Spread 3/4 cup frosting over cake layer. Top with another cake layer; spread with 3/4 cup frosting. Top with third cake layer. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. (Cake can be prepared up to 1 day ahead of time. Cover with cake dome and refrigerate. Let stand 30 minutes at room temperature before continuing.) Garnish cake with lemon peel strips, if desired, and serve. Makes 12 servings.Bon

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in powdered sugar. Beat in lemon peel and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate until just firm enough to spread, about 30 minutes. Makes about 4 1/2 cups.

Appétit August 2001

Have a great weekend!!! Kyle is getting a haircut and we are having a sleepover. Lots of cleaning to do around the condo too :) That is about it.

Easter Recap

We had a great weekend. On Saturday, Kyle played golf with his three brother-in-laws on my side and I hung out with my sister Megan. Megan's b-day was on the 5th, so I took her and her kids out to lunch @ Panara Bread. After that, I was planning to go home but decided to hang with my sister since the guys were off golfing. We hung out @ her house for awhile and got the string beans ready for Easter and had tea. Then we decided to take my nephew to see a movie because her other two kids had other plans. We went to see FireHouse Dog http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0476995/ which was really cute.

After that, Kyle and I headed to my brother's house for game night and that was a blast. We played Bingo and Cranium. Bingo was to include the kids. We even got prizes! Then the adults played Cranium in a guys vs. gals match. It was a lot of fun... The gals got the winner take all question so they won, but the guys were up by 2 prior to that...We were home around midnight, which is late for us :) Fun night had by all.

We had Easter @ my sister Deirdre's house. We had dinner around 2pm and then the kids had a Easter egg hunt after. We all watched the master's golf tournament after that. We got home around 7pm. It was a great day. Deirdre made the most delicious cake and I had to post a picture of it. She made it last year and I went crazy over it so she was so sweet to make it again. I kept calling it "my cake." Let me know if anyone wants the recipe :)

This coming weekend we are having our niece Alyssa sleep over. This will be her first time having a sleepover with us! It should be fun! I'll sign off with a picture that was taken of Kyle & I on Easter. Hope you are all having a great week.

When It Rains, It Pours

Sorry we haven’t been consistently writing. Things have been busy. We’ve had our share of bad news lately and it is just hard to take so much. A few weeks ago, I found out that my father has colon cancer again. He also has prostate cancer and he needs surgery on his heart again. I’m not 100% sure on all the details but I think his pacemaker isn’t working properly. He’s just had so many health issues lately and it really stinks.

Last Friday my sister Deirdre called me @ work to tell me that a dear family friend died at age 42. My mother’s best friend (Lee) is like an aunt to us and it was her son, Mark that died. To make matters worse, he was her only son. She also has a daughter but she was exceptionally close to Mark, much closer than most mothers and sons that I know of. Ugh!

As some of you may know, I grew up in MA but my mother is from NY and my father is from RI. Therefore growing up we didn’t have any extended family close by. Yes, RI isn’t far from MA but it is still a solid hour away by car. My mother’s friends became our extended family and we consider some of them aunts. So, losing Mark is like losing a cousin. To make matters worse, he lived in Maryland so my mom and siblings are all @ the funeral. I didn’t go. I feel bad about that. I hate traveling and it just wipes me out and I guess I didn’t want to travel with my family and feel like a burden. I know that is ridiculous but that is how I was feeling. So, it is kind of hard to put closure on all of this since I haven’t gone to the services.

So, I’m totally consumed by this and just feel so helpless. It is so hard to comprehend why do bad things happen? I know death is an evitable part of life but I’ve always struggled to understand it. I guess I can make more sense of someone’s death if they were given a fair shot @ life. If someone lives to say their 60’s or later it is still a hard loss but part of me feels they had the chance to live as opposed to someone who dies young and doesn’t get to see their children grow.

Several months ago I read the book which I highly recommend called My Sister’s Keeper. It is funny how certain things stick with you from books, movies, etc. One thing I will always remember from that book is something that was stated about losing a child and how we have a word in the English language for losing a spouse, which is widow but there is no word for losing a child. I think it is the worst pain a parent can experience. It goes against the laws of nature (for lack of a better phrase) when a child dies before their parent. Ugh!!! Anyway, that is what is going on!!!! I came across a really good website that I figured I’d post on losing a child

http://www.missfoundation.org/cherish/movingon.html

I posted a quote from the above link and it is my hope for Lee that with time she will be able to get to this point.

“One of the nicest cards I received from a friend said, "Grieve well. One day you will cease to remember him with tears and instead remember him with smiles." The ache and the empty space in your heart will always be there but the pain will somehow ease up through the years. “