Going Scrapbooky

First Snow!

2009-12-06T09:49:00.004-05:00

OK, so technically, we had our first snow before Halloween this year, but that wasn't enough to go sledding in.

This snow made our lives very difficult yesterday. I had to attend burial services for my Uncle John in Staten Island. Down there, it was just freezing rain and nasty cold. Coming home, it took me 5 harrowing hours to pick up Alexandra from my in-laws and navigate the country roads to our town.

But today, the sun is shining and Alexandra started asking to go play in the snow at 6:30 AM.

She started by making a perfect snow angel:

Then the sledding commenced:

I'm so glad she's now old enough to drag her own sled up the hill over and over.

Now she is busy trying to build the perfect snowman. To be continued...

South Dakota: July 2009

2009-08-27T08:16:00.020-04:00

Day 1: Sioux Falls 7/25/2009
We arrived in Sioux Falls around midday and met up with cousins Christine, Michael & Isaac in Sertoma Park. The kids played on the jungle gyms, we toured the butterfly house and took a walk on a trail that wound through fields of tall prairie grasses.
Next we headed over to Falls Park and checked out the falls that the city is named for. Ted was not impressed by the river, but I thought it was pretty cool to have something like that running right through a city.
We wandered around the downtown area, had dinner at Sioux Fall’s ‘fanciest’ restaurant and then called it a night.

Day 2: DeSmet 7/26/2009
After some pool time, we packed up the caravan and headed for DeSmet, the ‘Little Town on the Prairie.’ This is the town that the Ingalls founded and where they really settled (contrary to the TV show that placed them in Walnut Grove, Minnesota.)
We got to our B&B (The Prairie House Manor) and found that the owners were recent transplants from NJ…they’d come out for the pageant and liked it so much that they bought the B&B and moved out there.
We went to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Society building and took the tour through the restored buildings that were the settings in many of the books.
That evening we attended the pageant…a play on the grounds of the original homestead based on ‘The Long Winter.’ Unfortunately, we had to leave early, fleeing a mega-swarm of mosquitoes that descended on us as darkness fell

Day 3: From the Prairie to the Badlands 7/27/2009
On Monday, we waved goodbye to our hosts at the Prairie House Manor and headed West across the state to the Badlands. It was a long flat drive across the interstate until we crossed the Missouri River into Mountain Time. Then the landscape abruptly became hilly and more dramatic.
We stopped to explore the 1880’s town…a restored collection of buildings, complete with actors in Western characters, a saloon and gunfights in the streets. We rented costumes for the kids who had a blast pretending to be back in the 1880’s frontier days.
In the evening, after battling swarms of grasshoppers intent on committing suicide against our windshield, we reached our destination in the badlands---The Circle View Ranch in Scenic, SD. This is a working burro ranch with a B&B, set on top of a butte. The views are breathtaking.
Scenic, SD is not exactly a populous town. Our dining options were limited…we wound up having dinner at a fairly rustic place called the Wagon Wheel Restaurant and Bar. Our bartender and pizza-maker extraordinaire was the former mayor of Scenic…the woman who’d brought potable water to the town in the Badlands. Our kids shot pool with other tourists while we drank a little too much and enjoyed the home-made pizza.

Day 4: The Badlands & Mount Rushmore 7/28/2009
After an awesome breakfast at the Circle View Ranch, the kids were enlisted to help round up and feed the chickens and collect the eggs.
We then headed off the Badlands National Park. We hiked some trails; climbed some mountains and the kids participated in a Junior Ranger program (digging for fossils) that earned them a badge and a patch.
While hiking on one of the trails, we met a woman (who graciously offered to shoot a group photo if we’d take one of her) who was trekking across the US via the park system. She was an 80 year old grandma, tent camping all by herself, had started in Florida and was headed for the Pacific Northwest!
After the Badlands, we had lunch in the tourist trap town of Wall, SD, before heading for Mount Rushmore. Our tour around the park was guided by a Lakota Sioux Park Ranger who gave us some background on Sioux history as well as the monument.

Day 5: Custer State Park & Crazy Horse 7/29/2009
Wednesday was a cold day in the Black Hills. The difference in climate between the Badlands, where we’d just been, and Custer was startling. We drove the park loop around Custer State Park and saw bison, antelope and wild burros. The burros were tame enough for us to get out of the car and feed. They liked the goldfish crackers the best.
We had lunch in the park at an historic lodge, which had been a Camp-David-type retreat to one of the earlier presidents.
Then we headed over to the Crazy Horse monument. We had all been impressed by Mount Rushmore, but Crazy Horse, even its unfinished state is an even more impressive achievement. Crazy Horse has been a work in progress for 70 years. While Rushmore had the benefit of government funding and a team of workers, Crazy Horse was started by one sculptor with a hand drill, some dynamite and a vision. He worked on the monument his entire life, training his 10 kids in the work as he went. 7 out of his 10 kids now continue his work, taking funding only from the visitors to the site and Native American casino money. Some of the grandchildren are completing their engineering education so they can take up the mantle as well. When finished, the sculpture will be enormous (Rushmore can fit in the forehead of this sculpture) and surrounded by a university, hospital and community center for Native Americans.

Day 6: Wind Cave National Park & Hot Springs 7/30/2009
Wind Cave National Park is just South of Custer State Park and so boasts the same wildlife as Custer. The kids worked on the junior ranger booklet for this park and we took a ranger-guided tour of the cave. This cave did not have the spectacular formations you see in the eastern caves, but the ranger was really knowledgeable and gave a great tour.
After the kids had earned their badge and patch, we headed farther South to Hot Springs.
Hot Springs is home to, well…hot springs…and The Mammoth Site, which is what we were there to see. The Mammoth Site is an active dig…apparently it was a prehistoric sinkhole and dozens of mammoths and other creatures got stuck in there, leaving their fossilized remains behind for archaeologists to find.

Day 7: The Corn Palace 7/31/2009
On Friday, we began the long trip back East across South Dakota. As we drove we passed scores of motorcycles headed West for the big motorcycle rally in Sturgis. We wondered how the ones driving without helmets or shields were coping with the grasshoppers.
In Mitchell, we stopped to see the Corn Palace. This is literally a palace, covered with murals made entirely out of corn and grains.
Back in Sioux Falls, we had dinner at a great Indian restaurant before saying goodbye to our cousins and getting ready for our 5AM flight home.

Catching Up

2009-06-15T21:51:00.004-04:00

Between school, work & Scouts things have been so busy, I haven't had much time to post. Here are a few pictures from the back log:

This year, on Mother's Day, I finally remembered to take a picture of myself with Alexandra. Unfortunately, after I started sampling the huge vat of sangria I made for the party, I forgot to take a picture of anything else. Except dessert (Happy Birthday, Ted):

Even though NJ seems to have morphed into Seattle when we weren't looking, we did find time to get up to High Point twice (in between thunderstorms) so far this summer.

Aunt Ruth, here's that Cam Jansen book you were asking about. She does take her reading seriously.

Make way for ducklings!

Cousin Justin graduated from high school this month.

Mmmm, canoli cake.

Justin and Aunt Raechel (with Uncle Vinny hiding behind them)

He's going to Temple University in the fall.

Alexandra & Aunt Ruth

Jake and Gerard doing their hilarious Top 10 list

Good times.

Engaged!

2009-04-25T19:32:00.003-04:00

Laura and Chris got engaged last Saturday. Hooray! Details of the wedding plans soon to follow, but as promised, here is a picture of the ring and of the happy couple. We toasted their happiness at Greek Easter dinner on Sunday.

Snow (again)

2009-02-11T18:00:00.000-05:00

It's been a tough year here in the Northeast for snow and ice storms. We already have at least a week of school to make up at the end of the year.

Alexandra doesn't care if it's snowing, sleeting or sub-zero temperatures. She still wants to play in the snow until frostbite is about to set in.

A few of the storms have encased everything in ice. Yes it's pretty, but it's hard to appreciate it when the driveway and walks are coated the same way and your husband refuses to use salt because it will hurt the asphalt.

Ted and Alexandra built this snowman yesterday, when it was sunny and a (relatively) balmy 40 degrees. See the picture above, they even gave it hair.

The Vasilopita Chronicles

2009-02-10T18:00:00.000-05:00

Friends and family joined us at our house for the annual New Year's Day party. We had the usual pork roast, pasta and stuffed cabbage leaves...a family tradition started by my grandmother way back when. As usual, I under calculated the time needed to cook the roast, so cocktail hour was really more like two hours. Here is my friend Patty and her daughter. (Irene, everyone was admiring the afghan you knitted for Alexandra!) The deer provided entertainment while we waited for dinner.

Vivienne & Alexandra

The kid's table

The non-kid's table

My father cutting the vasilopita (not in age order, much to Patty's chagrin.)

Nanette got the coin...good luck in 09 to her!

Happy 2009!

Girl Scout Redication

2009-02-09T19:00:00.000-05:00

We had the Daisy Troop's rededication ceremony on December 27th. Here is Alexandra receiving her blue star from troop leader Nanette.

Below is a short video of the girls reciting the Girl Scout promise. How cute are they?

Meowy Christmas

2009-02-08T09:12:00.005-05:00

Catching up. Here are some photos from Christmas Day. Doesn't Sophie look thrilled with the hat Santa brought her?

Alexandra loved the meerkat slippers that Santa brought her.

Sophie like the string from one of the gift bags better than anything else.

Yia-Yia, Papou, Nona & Chris came over for breakfast and more presents!

Then we went over to Grandma & Grandpa Bergen's house for Christmas dinner and MORE presents.

Alexandra with Uncle Bobby

The kids' silly face picture.

More Nights of Lights

2009-01-02T17:42:00.005-05:00

In Jen Lowe's 3rd Nights of Light video, she uses colored hot glue to make embellishments. A couple of months ago, I brought all my colored glue sticks and push molds to a crop and gave them to my friend Ellen because I was sure she would put them to better use than me. While at the crop, she made me a bunch of the flourishes using the molds.

So I dug those out and used them for these ATCs. In the Father's Day one, I used a flourish that had been made of gold glue. I alcohol inked it with cranberry and gold metallic. The background is glossy cardstock, inked with alcohol inks and glimmer mist and then stamped, heat embossed and corner punched.

Here it is on a layout:

Here's the second page of that layout:

For the Birthday ATC, I used a flourish that was made of pearl glue. I rubbed it with perfect medium and then blue and pink Perfect Pearls.

Here it is on a layout. These pictures are from a neighborhood birthday party we went to in the summer. The kids went a little nuts with the water balloons. There was a constant line at the spigot to fill up new balloons.

Christmas Eve

2008-12-29T16:30:00.002-05:00

My parents hosted Christmas Eve again, as they have for many years, preparing the 7 fish dishes that are traditional for the Italian side of our family.

There were 19 of us all together and the feast Mom and Dad prepared was truly amazing.

Here's Alexandra showing off her pretty Christmas Dress

Here are cousins Evan, Kristen, Justin, Gerard, Jake, Alexandra & Tiffany

Why, you may ask, is everyone looking at the floor?

Evan lost a contact lens.

Uncle Vinny found it...does he get good luck for 2009?

Getting tickled by Grandpa Jerry. Grandma Jo's back was hurting her.

When you're the only little kid at a large family gathering, you get tickled a lot.

Caroling for dessert

Kristen takes her caroling seriously.

Lining up for Venetian Hour

As promised, here is a video clip of us singing in a rather silly manner. Unfortunately, no one fell off their chair singing the high notes in Silent Night or 'Five GO-OLD rings' this year (although Uncle Vinny did a lovely pirouette to the Nutcracker music, I did not capture that), so the best I could do was jingle bells.

Night Light # 1

2008-12-28T10:44:00.004-05:00

Scrappy friend Jen Lowe is doing '8 nights of lights'...a technique challenge similar to Tim Holtz' 12 tags of Christmas. I just watched her first video tutorial and tried the the first ATC.

I didn't have a melt pot, pewter sheets or the opals she used.

For the blue winter card, I melted clear Utee and some sparkly blue embossing powder on a square of aluminum foil, backed with chipboard.

I used a heat tool to melt it, starting from underneath (if you start on top like normal heat-embossing, the Utee granules blow away.) Then I had to hold the heat tool above it with one hand while I placed the beads with the other. Tricky.

For the gold Noel card, I melted Utee and pearlescent violet ep on a square of glossy white cardstock. The background is a glossy black ATC stamped with gold & brown alcohol ink.

Gingerbread and Birthdays

2008-12-27T16:42:00.006-05:00

The Burkes had their annual gingerbread making party last weekend. They baked and assembled over 30 gingerbread houses and then hordes of 'Apprentice Gingerbread Engineers' gathered at their house to decorate them. This is Alexandra's finished house.

Here we all are, making merry and watching the kids work. Bill, the head engineer, is the one in the apron standing behind Alexandra.

And here is Ted enjoying some beer in an Elf hat.

The next day, the holiday partying continued as we drove down to Branchburg in a snowstorm to help Jake and Justin celebrate their 21st and 18th birthday.

Here is Aunt Raechel with Jake and Justin.

Here is my Mom with VJ and Grandma Massa. Aunt VJ flew in from SC for the party.

Here is Aunt Ruth and Evan is next to her.

Isn't that a festive table?

Opening the Christmas crackers.

There were crowns and fun trinkets inside the crackers.

Alexandra and cousin Tiffany savoring the cracker loot.

Last Tags

2008-12-23T20:40:00.004-05:00

I finished the Tim Holtz tags 11 & 12. Whew! For Tag 12, I was kind of sick of the Christmas/winter thing (not to mention the 18" or so of snow we got over the weekend...Mr Plow moved to Florida and my driveway is not a pretty sight to behold at the moment!)

Anyway, for tag#12 I used spring colors and stamps instead.

Now, scrappy friend Jen Lowe is doing a similar 'journey' on her blog. She started posting tutorials on the 21st for her 8 nights of lights...she's doing hers in ATC format and I am psyched to try some of what she has posted so far. Check it out.

But first I need to to do some last-minute wrapping!

Tag 10

2008-12-16T17:00:00.001-05:00

OK, I'm back from Arkansas and trying to catch up with Tim Holtz's last 3 tags. This is tag # 10. I didn't feel like making my own Glimmer Mist out of reinker and perfect pearls, so I used, uh, Glimmer Mist.

I didn't have the patina colored perfect pearls for my tree that Tim used on his reindeer and was considering ditching the whole thing when my first-grader reminded me that yellow and blue make green. Duh. So I mixed the two colors together before adding the water and it did come out the color I wanted.

That metal snowflake thingy at the top was silver which didn't go with the rest of the tag, so I used alcohol inks to turn it gold.

Tree

2008-12-15T17:00:00.000-05:00

Our Girl Scout field trip was cancelled on Saturday due to Thursday's ice storm (which resulted in me getting home at 2 AM Friday.)

That made it a good day to stay in PJs and decorate the tree and the house for Christmas. Ted went out early and brought the tree home and after we decorated it, we had a Christmas movie marathon.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

2008-12-14T21:26:00.004-05:00

Today was my mother's birthday. Laura prepared a wonderful birthday dinner at her place. Here are some pictures.

Ted & Alexandra

Laura & Chris

Ted & The Grinch

Mom & Dad

Yummy Cannoli Cake

Blowing out the candles

Tags 8 & 9

2008-12-11T17:00:00.000-05:00

Here are my takes on Tim Holtz. tags 8 & 9. I didn't have crackle paint, so I used dimensional paint and heated it until it bubbled. Then alcohol inked it, then glossy accents.

Tag 9 was fairly straightforward...I actually had most of the stuff he used.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-10T17:01:00.000-05:00

Here are some photos from Thanksgiving 2008 at our house.

Alexandra made place cards for everyone.

Dad carved the 19 pound turkey.

We all said a prayer of thanks and then ate a huge meal.

Laura made a beautiful apple pie.

Turkey Bowl

2008-12-09T17:00:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving morning, while Alexandra and I watched the parade and cooked, Ted got together with some of the neighbors for a friendly game of football. It was touch football, but Ted somehow managed to bruise his ribs trying to emulate Eli Manning. He is on the bottom row, first on the right.

7 Years Old

2008-12-08T17:00:00.001-05:00

I'm a little late posting November pictures. Alexandra celebrated her 7th birthday in November with a kiddie party at Camp Iliff (an indoor playground, complete with a climbing wall and roller rink) and a small cake at home for immediate family.

Rejoice & Be Merry

2008-12-07T19:04:00.007-05:00

On Sunday, Dec 7th, my parents sang in a delightful Christmas Concert with the Community Choral Society in Vernon. They performed selections from Handel's Messiah as well as traditional Christmas carols. Here are a few video clip highlights. My mother is pretty much in the center of the clips. My Dad can be briefly glimpsed...he's on the far right, under the Exit sign in the bass section, behind a tall tenor.

At the end of the concert, there was a sing along. All the kids were asked to go up and sit around the conductor.

Towards the end of the sing along, Santa surprised everyone by dropping by to give all the kids a candy cane.

He then took a place in the chorus and helped them sing the last song

Tags 6 & 7

2008-12-07T11:21:00.004-05:00

OK, I'm continuing to play along with Tim and now I see a scrappy friend, Jen Lowe, is doing the same. Check out her blog to see her great version of Tag#6.

So I did a few different versions of Tag 6. I didn't follow all the steps...there were so many. These were fun.

For Tag#7, I didn't have a lot of the supplies. I didn't have a grungeboard snowman, so I die cut a Sizzix snowman on white coated chipboard . I didn't have crackle paint, so I put the snowman through the cuttlebug and then sanded for texture. I didn't like the idea of mixing glossy accents with UTEE, so I used liquid pearls for the snow and then sprinkled it with glass microbeads. Alexandra is downstairs making a bookmark out of the extra snowman I cut for her...everyone is having fun with Tim's tutorials today!

Back to work & school tomorrow, so tags 8-12 will have to wait until next weekend.

More Tags

2008-12-06T00:31:00.003-05:00

I did Tim Holtz tags 4 & 5 when I got home from work today. Tag number 4 on Tim's blog used a vintage Santa photo printed on canvas. I had one sheet of printer canvas laying around. I didn't have any of the other supplies he used on that tag, so I improvised. Rather than make a Christmas tag out of a photo, I made tags that can go on pages in my scrapbook. There's one for the SNOW stadium book that we made with Ellen last Sunday and another for the many pictures I still have to scrap from my cousin Tiffany's wedding in May. The letters aren't really that yellow

Tag number 5 didn't photograph so well...it looks better in person. Again, I didn't have the supplies Tim was using, so I used different paints, die cut chip board instead of grungeboard.

Steelie!

2008-12-06T00:22:00.003-05:00

Ted went in search of the ever-elusive Steelhead in Oswego, Ny with some fishing buddies. Imagine my surprise when my phone beeped at work today and I received this picture! He finally caught one. He said it was about 12 pounds and took 10 minutes to reel in.

And yes, that is snow and ice in the background, and yes, they are crazy and no, they don't keep the fish. They release them after sufficient photos have been taken.

Tags of Christmas

2008-12-03T19:49:00.003-05:00

I had a few days off and Tim Holtz from Ranger put up the first few of his 12 Tags of Christmas tutorial. So I decided to experiment with his techniques (and Ellen H. had just done the alcohol inks on the craft mat with us on Sunday.)

I didn't have all the colors, stamps or masks that Tim used, so I improvised. When he posted the 3rd tag today, I wasn't as thrilled about it, but I actually like the way that one came out the best...It's the one with the pine cones. I just used an acrylic tile from Sparkle N Sprinkle that I had laying around...I didn't have the Ranger ovals.

Trick Or Treat

2008-11-06T17:00:00.001-05:00

Halloween was full of treats this year. After the parade in the schoolyard, Alexandra's class had a Halloween party. At lunch time, all the kids got pumpkin sherbet. After school, there was a small party at after-care.

Then we picked Alexandra up and took her to my sister's apartment complex where we all went trick-or-treating together. The decorations were not as elaborate as in years past (one resident told us they'd had trouble with vandalism,) but there were still plenty of costumed kids walking the pavement in search of candy.

The most popular costume this year seemed to be Batman (and we saw a few Batgirls.)

A Fun Place To Work

2008-11-05T17:00:00.003-05:00

In all the offices I've worked in, there always seems to be a problem regulating the temperature. Inevitably, it gets too cold, and the employees put on samples of whatever our product is over their clothes.

One year, when I worked at Foot Locker, people were walking around the office with Team jackets on (regardless of what the team was.) At Claiborne, the women put the men's sweater samples on to keep warm.

When I started working at Delta last year, I knew this was a fun place when I saw people sitting in their offices, wearing fuzzy pink bathrobes to keep warm.

Our Halloween luncheon was the 30th and everyone took off the bathrobes and got dressed in costume. Someone made this collage of the various pictures (yes that's me in the top row, wearing a tiara.)

Halloween Parade

2008-11-04T17:00:00.004-05:00

On Halloween morning, Ted an I ran over to the elementary school to see the Halloween parade. We had to send an old princess dress in because the Ruby Princess hoop dress did not fit in Alexandra's backpack.

All the little kids were so cute it made up for how cold all the parents were standing around in the schoolyard.

Tire Swing

2008-11-02T14:00:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post of this digital scrapbook page. One of Alexandra's classmates had a costume party last weekend. The hit of the party was this tire swing in the front yard. The kids alternated pushing the swing and riding on the swing. It was so much fun it was hard to get them to come in, even for cake!

Goblin Gala

2008-10-31T12:52:00.003-04:00

We started the Halloween festivities last weekend with the Goblin Gala, run by the Girls Scouts of Northern New Jersey at Lake Rickabear in Kinnelon. All the exhibits and attractions are run by older Girl Scouts. We went through the Haunted House, an obstacle course, Dracula's discoteque, had our fortunes told, faces painted, made sppoky crafts, etc...

In spite of her insistence that she WANTED to go in the haunted house, Alexandra was pretty freaked out by it and we had to spend some time convincing her that the 'ghouls' were just girl scouts in scary costumes.

Otherwise it was a pretty fun outing in fairly nice weather.

Happy Birthday To Us

2008-10-18T09:01:00.005-04:00

Mom and Dad took us out to 20 Front Street for our birthdays. This restaurant is in a beautiful old building. It used to be a bank. The vault now houses wine instead of currency.

Afterwards, we went to their house for this delicious cake!

You know you're a scrapaholic when...

2008-10-16T18:31:00.001-04:00

...you dress your daughter up in a princess gown and do a photo shoot because you have a specific layout that needs filling in.

But she seemed to have fun anyway.

This was a Memory Station kit ( I added the castle...I die cut it, alcohol inked, modge podged and glittered it)

Swing!

2008-10-14T20:21:00.003-04:00

What happened to summer and green leaves? Two weekends ago, I looked up and realized the leaves had already turned while I was coming and going in the pre-dawn and dusk hours.

Anyhow, Ted is preparing to cover the waterfall with nets for the season. If too many leaves fall into the pond they decay at the bottom and make the fish sick.

Here, Alexandra was borrowing his sunglasses so she could see the baby fish swimming around.

Some Digital Attempts

2008-10-12T12:38:00.003-04:00

So I decided to try doing a few pages digitally. I have been spending the last couple of months clearing out and reorganizing my office/scrap-room and the sheer volume of pages I have waiting in kits now is overwhelming.

I don't know that this saves much time, although there was nothing to clean up afterwards, no scraps to throw away. The baby pages were actually pretty quick because I used ready-made pages from Raspberry Road designs.

Anyway, here are my first few. I've sent them out and will see how they come back printed before continuing on...

Apple Picking Fun

2008-10-09T06:52:00.005-04:00

This past weekend we had lots of fun picking apples and doing other fall activities. On Saturday, we took our girl scout troop to the Pochuck orchards in Glenwood. It was really cold but the girls kept warm running up the hills to the apple trees and filling their bags with apples. Afterwards they snacked on fresh cider donuts and apple cider. They received a fun patch to put on their uniforms.

On Sunday, we met up with some of my scrapbooking friends for more apple picking and the Ford Dairy Farm Extravaganza. One of the ladies lives on a dairy farm and her husband takes us on a tour every year. First, we gathered at Slate Hill Orchards for a picnic lunch and some apple picking. There were more than 50 people by my count.

Next we drove to the Ford's pumpkin patch which Steve planted just so the kids could pick pumpkins (and gourds!) This one was a little green, but it's a nice orange color sitting on our porch now. Thanks Vikki, for taking my camera and making me pose for a picture.

Next, we drove to another part of the farm, where we boarded the hay wagon for a ride around the farm.

The ride went through the main milking barn. Steve has over 500 cows!

Then we got out at the barn where the calves are kept. The kids got to feed them grain and milk from a bottle.

It was much warmer and clearer that day than it had been on Saturday.

Happy Birthday, Dad Bergen!

2008-10-02T20:49:00.006-04:00

We went over to Mom and Dad's this past weekend to celebrate Dad's birthday. Here he is blowing out the candles

Hmmm...only 5 candles?

Here he is with Alexandra.

I also attended my Daisy Basic Training on Saturday in Paramus and am now co-leader of Alexandra's troop. Phew, we have a lot planned for the girls this year as they prepare to bridge to Brownies! The fall product sale starts this weekend...some friends and family will be receiving fliers from us and we hope you will support our troop.

Also on Saturday, we got Sophie back from the vet. She was away for a few days for a spay and hernia operation. See her poor shaved belly? She was so lethargic for the first day or two, but now she seems to be getting back to her old self.

She loves all the babying she has been getting. Look...she even jumped into the doll highchair to prove it!

Let's Play Tag

2008-09-26T19:23:00.002-04:00

I haven't taken any pictures or had time to post anything lately. No scrapbooking. We've been so busy with school starting again.
Thanks to Maria from Stampin inspirations, I can play blog tag. This is a cute way to surf the blog world and see what's out there. I'm tagging some of the blogs I have in my Feedblitz subscriptions. It was hard to pick just 7, but I tried to stick with 'everyman' blogs as I don't think Martha Stewart or Anthony Bourdain have the time or inclination to play blog tag with me. Here are the rules:

1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Here are the 7 facts about me (mine are kind of boring compared to Maria's, but what can I say:))
1. My cell phone ring is Darth Vader's Imperial Death March. It goes off at inappropriate times in inappropriate places. Like Back To School night last week. Ooops.
2. I used to call people whose phones went off at inappropriate times "Phone Chooches." Now I have become a phone chooch because I can't remember to silence my phone.
3. I work for a company that makes underwear.
4. The page on this blog that consistently gets the most hits is Tiffany's 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' themed bridal shower from April of this year.
5. I spend 3 hours a day commuting. That equates to 30 days out of every year, spent in the car, going to and from work.
6. On my morning commute, if I don't time things right, I need to wait for the neighborhood farm's cows to cross the road into the milking barn before I can get to the main road.
7. I have been 'renovating' my scrap room/office for the past month using a modular cube system. Stay tuned for before and after photos, hopefully coming soon...

OK, here are 7 blogs on my list. Most of these are sb related. Tag, you're it (sorry if you've already been tagged):
Carbone's Corner
Scrapbook Update
Welcome to the Journey
LilyBean's Paperie
My Life In 12X12
Jen Lowe Designs
Sandy McCauley

Update on Michael & 1st Day of School!!

2008-09-07T09:56:00.007-04:00

I drove down to Philadelphia yesterday to visit Christine and Michael in the hospital. I drove down 209 along the Delaware and then out through Allentown and the PA turnpike and got to Philly just before Hanna hit.

Michael seemed tired but in pretty good spirits. He is bored and wants to go home, but has to stay until at least Wednesday or Thursday. On Tuesday, he will undergo another 'cath' procedure (rather than opening the chest, the doctors insert a catheter and scope up through an artery and do the work that way.) One of the stents (a metal mesh sort of ring inserted into the artery to hold it open...and it's medicated to dissolve the deposits that are clogging the artery) they put in during the first procedure collapsed and they weren't able to open up the third blocked artery at that time. So they will take care of all that on Tuesday and hopefully Mike and Christine will get to go home shortly afterwards. They appreciate all the cards and flowers and support everyone has been sending their way. Cousin Jake and some friends also visited them on Friday. VJ arrives on Monday.

I left at about 5. Not wanting to deal with 209 and the rising Delaware, I headed over to the NJ Turnpike to drive up through Jersey. Big mistake, because that's where Hanna was at the time. One little car actually got blown off the highway into a ditch a few car lengths ahead of me. A few truckers insanely thought they could still go the speed limit and created mayhem by weaving in and out of the slow-moving passenger vehicles. Visibility was next to nothing and when I was getting onto Route 287, I nearly got stuck in a huge lake of standing water that had formed on the on ramp. Still, I made it home in one piece and I'm glad I was able to get down there for the day.

On Thursday, Alexandra started 1st Grade. Ted and I took her to the bus stop for her first day of school along with all the other parents armed with video & still cameras. This is the first year of all-day school for Alexandra (kindergarten was only half a day in our district) so it was a little tiring for her. Still she was excited to eat in the cafeteria, make new friends and reconnect with old friends. The 'mean boy' who hurt the feelings of her 'new friend' on the first day was better on the second day. There are assigned seats on the bus this year and Alexandra is sitting with Shelby, a friend from Family First. It's shaping up to be a good school year.

Prayers For Michael

2008-09-03T15:26:00.002-04:00

My cousin Christine’s husband, Michael, had a heart attack yesterday while travelling for business.

He had to be rushed from the airport to a hospital in Philadelphia for surgery. He is only 38.
Here is an update from Christine as of 10 AM this morning:
“Thanks so much for all of your support, Isaac and animal help, prayers, etc!
Update /Wednesday morning: Michael is doing okay. Here’s what the doctors told us: He had an acute heart attack due to a blocked coronary artery yesterday. The procedure (cath and balloon stint angioplasty) took almost 4 hours yesterday (was supposed to take 45 minutes-1 hour.) They want to go back in with another cath either tomorrow or Friday. He had 3 stints put in and the PDA (post distal artery??) one collapsed so they want to poss. Re-do it and also to take a look at his left coronary which they don’t anticipate being too bad. So he is resting now and doing okay. I may shut my eyes for a few minutes. Have been up since 4.
Please keep praying for him. We r at the Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philly in ICU right now and should be moving out of ICU later today.” xoxoc

Update Wednesday evening: They will probably do the second procedure on Tuesday

Update Friday (9/5): Michael has been moved out of ICU to a regular hospital room. He will undergo another surgery on Tuesday.

Please keep Michael, Christine and their little boy, Isaac in your thoughts and prayers.

Some Fun Scrappy Stuff

2008-08-22T07:00:00.004-04:00

Thought I'd actually post some scrap-related stuff on Going Scrapbooky....
I attended the Memory Station Crop at the Comfort Inn in Goshen this past weekend. It was a three day scrap-fest, full of laughs and good times with friends, with the occasional break for historic Olympic moments.
This little card is what I made for the Summer embellishment swap. The plastic piece is an acrylic square that I stamped, colored and then heat embossed on the back with glitter embossing powders from Sparkle N Sprinkle.

This Giraffe was cut out of cheap white cardstock on the Silhouette. I sprayed it with espresso glimmer mist, embossed it using a Fiskars texture plate, sanded it a little and stuck crystal eyes on it with the bejeweler.

The Sun & Sand title on this page is the same concept as the swap embellishment, except instead of StazOn ink and markers, here I used alcohol inks to color the acrylic square, then I stamped the nautilus with archival ink, wiped the ink away to leave the image transparent and then used opaque sparkle and sprinkle to emboss the back.

Welcome, Cody

2008-08-20T10:35:00.004-04:00

Last weekend, we all gathered at Aunt Reggie's house to welcome our new cousin, Cody, to the family. Cody's Dad is Ted's first cousin Marc.

Here is Cody with his proud Papa.

At 5 weeks old, he certainly is a cutie!

Sussex County Farm & Horse Show

2008-08-09T09:06:00.004-04:00

Last Saturday, we spent a fun day with the Burkes, the camera-shy Rose family and Laura & Chris at the Sussex County Farm and Horse Show, also known as the NJ State Fair. We meandered through the livestock pavillions and the kids rode the elephant (Beaulah, who is celebrating her 40th birthday this year.) Two of the kids were picked to cheer for a pig at the pig races...unfortunately Alexandra's little pig was too afraid to jump in the water, so didn't even reach the finish line. There were carnival rides, lime fizzes, funnel cakes, homebrew sampling, talking robots, honeybee exhibits and then we were pretty much exhausted. We all came back to the house for a BBQ...Ted actually wound up grilling the hot dogs in the middle of a hail storm!!

In the photo above, Ryan and Alexandra say 'Look Ma, no hands!' on the swings.

This pig dove into the water section of the racetrack with gusto and won the oreo.

Patty's creative solution for holding on to the kids' hats while they went on the rides.

The petting zoo. Watch out for the camel...he spits!

'Little' Bo Peep and his sheep at the Fun Barn

Ohio Road Trip

2008-07-28T20:38:00.014-04:00

Day 1: Let's Get Out of Dodge

Wednesday, July 23rd

I left work early and raced back up to Sussex County. Rented a Chevy Cobalt from the local dealer then picked up Alexandra from camp in what she had envisioned would be a limousine. Needless to say, she was a little disappointed, but she got over it quickly as we picked up our luggage at home, kissed the kitten goodbye and headed west towards our first stop in Lewisburg, PA. Hit one torrential downpour out on Route 84, where we learned that tractor trailers have magic windshields that allow their drivers to careen down the highway at 65mph even in zero visibility. Fortunately it was over as quickly as it had started and we made it to the hotel without further incident. We managed a quick dip in the indoor pool before turning in for the night.

Day 2: Penn's Cave/ Haught Cousins

Thursday, July 24th

In the morning, we drove from Lewisburg to Penn's Cave in Centre Hall, PA, through scenic Bald Eagle State Forest and some Amish villages. Alexandra was fascinated by the horse-drawn buggies we passed here and there.

Penn's Cave was interesting. A river flows through it, so you have to see it by boat. The formations were perhaps not as elaborate, the narrative not as informed as the cave in VA that we visited last year, but the boat ride made up for it and we were adequately entertained. There is also a bus ride through an animal preserve, but we skipped that as we didn't really have time and had heard it wasn't that great.

We did buy a bag of dirt for $5 so Alexandra could pan for gemstones in the area they had set up for that. She was instantly hooked and was sorting her 'gems' all the way to Ohio.

We had a picnic lunch on the grounds and then got back in the car and headed towards Ohio on a seemingly endless stretch of Route 80. We rolled into the posh Akron suburb around 6:00...Alexandra and Isaac were thrilled to see eachother again. Michael was out of town, so we had a simple dinner on the patio with Christine and Isaac.

Christine and Michael's home, just like all of the previous homes we've visited them in, is absolutely stunning. Christine is an accomplished interior designer...you can see her work here.

Day 3: Akron Zoo

Friday, July 25th

We took the kids to the Akron Zoo, after a few scary wrong turns. The kids looked at the animals, panned for gemstones (again), played in miniature log cabins, rode a train---the best thing was the jellyfish exhibit. Lots of cool jellies on display and fun interactive things for the kids to do like the touch pool (obviously no jellyfish in there), the shell climbing wall, etc...

On the way home, we jumped out of the car at various intersections to put up signs for Christine's impending garage sale. Then it was neighbor preview night and we drove around looking at the other houses' garage sale items. The kids stayed home with Michael (who had just returned) and frolicked in the sprinkler. Christine picked up this Darth Vader mask for Isaac which Michael immediately tried on.

Then, Michael made us some delicious pizzas from scratch!

The kids read their bedtime story together. Click play on the video below. Aren't they cute together?

Day 4: Marblehead, Ohio

Saturday, July 26th

Cars sat at the curb, full of garage-salers, waiting like vultures for the door to open. Someone rang the doorbell at 8:30, asking if they could look at the stuff early. OY!

As we kissed our cousins goodbye, a strange man, intent on buying a bag of peat-moss, was lecturing Michael on the virtues of making bread the old fashioned way, rather than with a breadmaker. A steady stream of bargain-hunters trouped up the driveway, eager to inspect the goods (Christine, we definitely priced things too low in the midst of the pseudo-mojito haze on Thursday.) Isaac was sporting a 'NFS' (not for sale) sticker, while Michael wore an 'MBO.'

Sorry we couldn't stick around for the zany fun, but we were headed to Marblehead, Ohio to visit my friend Jacque at her parent's Lakeside home.

We spent a lovely day at the lake with the Laipplys. Jacque's Dad took us out on the speedboat where we saw Cedar Point Amusement park and the Marblehead Lighthouse from the water.

Alexandra immediately attached herself to Jacque's Mom and they made sandcastles while Jacque's Dad drove us around the island and showed us the sights.

After dinner, Jac built a bonfire and we made smores, much to Alexandra's delight! After Alexandra went to bed, Jac and I sat out by the fire and caught up on old times.

Day 5: Erie, PA (Waldameer)

Sunday, July 27th

Sunday morning, Alexandra and I bid a reluctant goodbye to the Laipplys and set off back East, towards Erie, PA.

Our destination: Waldameer Amusement Park. This is an old-time type amusement park, like Knoebles. We rode most of the rides without waiting on line.

Then back to the hotel pool for a quick dip

Day 6: Erie, PA (Presque Isle Park)

Monday, July 28th

We spent most of the day at the beach, which was pretty quiet in the morning, but got busy later in the day. We stopped at the monument to Commodore Perry and the historic Presque Isle Lighthouse and then explored the Tom Ridge Environmental center.

Day 7: Corning and the long road home

Tuesday, July 29th

On Tuesday we packed up the car again and headed home. We stopped at the Corning Museum of Glass along the way...we love this museum!

From Farm To Table

2008-07-19T18:04:00.007-04:00

While Ted and his Dad were fishing today, Alexandra and I had quite the agricultural adventure today. It started while I was cleaning out the refrigerator and realized I had nearly a half-gallon of milk that was expiring tomorrow. Rather than throwing it down the drain (since it is now even more precious than gasoline)---

I made my own ricotta!

It was easy! It tasted better than store-bought!!

Here's what I did: I put the milk in a saucepan and set the flame very low. I grated a little fresh nutmeg into the milk (I know this sounds weird, but hang with me!) and put in a dash of kosher salt. When the milk was heated to the point that it was frothy, but not boiling, I removed it from the heat, took a spoon and swirled it to get sort of a whirlpool going and then poured in the juice of one lemon as the milk was swirling around. Let that sit for a while. Then I set a strainer lined with a paper towel (who actually HAS cheesecloth in their house anymore?) on top of a bowl. I poured the mixture into the strainer and let the liquid separate out of the solids...and voila! I had homemade ricotta!

Then off we went, with a cooler in our car, to Och's Orchard in Warwick where they currently have blueberries and raspberries available for U-pick. They use minimal pesticides, which made us feel better about eating the fruit, but we were surrounded by Japanese beetles and bees and it was close to 100 degrees with 90% humidity and Alexandra started to have a meltdown, so we quit picking with only a pound or so of raspberries.

It was time for a break at one of our favorite tea rooms...Charlotte's Tea Room, also in Warwick. Alexandra had adorable heart-shaped p,b&j sandwiches with lemonade and I had a salad with a fresh scone and peach iced tea. Yum! They carry Harney and Son's Teas, one of my faves.

Back on the road, we stopped at Bobolink Dairy in Vernon. I'd heard the owner speaking about his artisanal cheesemaking business on the Martha Stewart channel on Sirius. I lived there for 10 years and never knew that place existed. So we tasted a few of their cheeses...one was REALLY too strong for us, but Alexandra liked the cheddar and I liked the 'Amram', so we bought some small pieces of the cheeses, one of their loaves of stone-ground-wheat/cranberry/walnut bread and we were off to do the rest of our errands.

By the time we got home, we were tired and not all that hungry. So for supper, we made a light plate out of the fruits of our labor (well, OK, the prosciutto came from Costco.)

POW-WOW!

2008-07-13T20:33:00.006-04:00

Today, Alexandra and I went to the Native American Festival at the Sussex County Fairgrounds. This event is here every summer, but we've never gone to it before. Well it was fun!

There was lots of dancing and drumming and chanting going on all day in the main arena.

Alexandra got up and danced when audience participation was called for on several ocassions. Here is a very brief clip of the last time...it's not very good because the dance was almost over when I finally thought to take a video.

We also saw a falconry demonstration, sat in the big teepee and listened to a Native American Storyteller, ate frybread and corn soup and Alexandra gotto ride a pony.

Happy Birthday America!

2008-07-05T18:49:00.006-04:00

Hope everyone is enjoying their Independence Day Weekend. We have been busy busy busy. Here are some pictures:

We kicked off the weekend with a barbecue at Mom and Dad Bergen's house. We enjoyed an all-American feast of steamers, dogs and burgers. Here is Alexandra with both of her grandmothers.

And what's more American than riding a blow-up Shamu in an inflatable Walmart pool in Grandma's back yard?

Today, while Ted was fishing, Alexandra and I set off on an 'America's Birthday Field Trip'

First we went to the New Windsor Cantonment State Historic Site. Cantonment is a fancy word for winter camp...it's where George Washington's army spent the last winter of the Revolutionary War. They built hundreds of log cabins to get the 7000 troops plus 500 women and children out of the cold for the winter. Only a few of these are left, but the parks system has restored some of the buildings and the staff member dress in costumes of the period and demonstrate some of the tasks of the era. This young fellow, dressed as a Continental Army soldier from Massachusetts, demonstrated loading and firing a musket for us. I was pleasantly surprised to see how many young people worked here and knew their stuff. I wouldn't think a modern-era guy would have any interest in all this history stuff and donning woolen stockings and a funny hat in the summer. But then he does get to repeatedly fire the loud, pointy gun, so I guess the job has its redeeming aspects.

There is a visitor's site with some interesting hands on displays in the Cantonment section and dozens of cannons in the basement. Alexandra found the cannons fascinating.

The visitors center is also home to the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor. At the front desk, they gave us a scavenger hunt list and Alexandra happily looked at all the exhibits to find the answers. The park workers all seem to be really well-versed and were eager to point out items of interest to both me and Alexandra.

Now my friend Sue mentioned that Knox's Headquarters were nearby, so Alexandra and I headed over there and took the 45 minute tour.

Again, the workers were in period dress and provided us with a glimpse of what life was like in the 1700s.

Next we headed over to Goshen's Great American Weekend...an annual craft fair held in the village of Goshen, NY. Goshen is really a lovely town, with a restored historic Main Street

We wandered around awhile, visited Sue and Taylor, rode a few kiddies rides and browsed in the Harness racing museum on Main Street.

How did you celebrate the 4th? Please post a comment.

Happy Birthday, Dad

2008-06-30T20:34:00.003-04:00

Here's a quick post to wish a very Happy Birthday to my Dad. My sister hosted the celebratory dinner at her place yesterday.

Birthday wishes also go out to Uncle Jim and to my friend Kathy Wilkins who is 50 years young.

Happy anniversary to Christine & Mike...hard to imagine that 8 years have passed since we all gathered in Chicago for your wedding.

Aunt Ruth and Uncle Chris are also celebrating their anniversary today...was it 27 years ago that Christine, Laura and I tried (and failed) to be lady-like junior bridesmaids in our pink hoop-skirt ball gowns?

What a happy day June 30th is, full of wonderful memories!

OFIOW

2008-06-25T16:30:00.002-04:00

The title of this post is a tribute to the late, great George Carlin who proposed, instead of TGIF (Thank God it's Friday) we use OFIOW (Oh Fudge It's Only Wednesday.) Except he didn't exactly say Fudge as I recall.

Oh well, thought I'd post this video for a giggle to relieve the mid-week doldrums.

Just Around The River Bend...

2008-06-21T21:46:00.009-04:00

Ted took Alexandra up to the East branch of the Delaware on Saturday. They rented a canoe ('just like Pocahontas')and fished and had a picnic on the riverbank.

Alexandra helped 'steer' with her paddle. Ted got quite a workout paddling and occasionally getting out to push the boat in places where the water was low.

On Saturday we went Jennifer's graduation party at her Aunt Jeannie's house. Jeannie has an awsome pool that Alexandra spent the whole day in with her cousin Lily.

I thought this bathing suit with the monkeys on the butt was just precious and Alexandra really wanted it. Apparently she was not the only one...Lily arrived wearing the same bathing suit.

Dads and Grads

2008-06-20T21:06:00.007-04:00

Yesterday, my niece Jennifer graduated from High School. Here she is in her cap and gown and also with her mother (my sister-in-law, Penny.) For those of you who don't recognize this lovely young woman, here is a picture of her from my wedding in 1994. She was our flower girl. Where does the time go?

On Father's day, we ran over to the Sussex Berry Farm and picked a few quarts of strawberries. Father's day is usually their peak weekend, but the season is later this year for some reason, so they are expecting the peak crop to be in this weekend and to continue picking through July.

Then we went over to my in-law's for a Father's Day BBQ. Here is Alexandra with Grandpa Bergen.

And Joe(Ted's brother) sent me this huge fish picture to post. OMG!

Hey Theresa, can you post up a pic of my very first Musky caught from Echo Lake, on 6/16/08 with Dad..thanks ;)

Little Red Hen

2008-06-12T16:56:00.005-04:00

Ted and I attended the play 'The Little Red Hen' today at Alexandra's school. Her kindergarten class was so cute in all their costumes and Mrs. Puskas and the co-teachers and aides obviously worked very hard with the children on this play over the past few months.

Here are two brief video clips from the performance. Enjoy!

This one is 'Summertime'

This one is 'Around, Around'

Fun in the Sun

2008-06-08T16:42:00.010-04:00

It was in the high 90s here in Northern NJ this weekend, so we did our best to keep cool. On Saturday, while Ted went fishing with his Dad, I took Alexandra to High Point. After much protest, the governor put this park back in the budget and the lake was open for swimming and staffed with 2 or 3 lifeguards.

Alexandra happily played in the water and sand, made friends with some other little girls and tried to pet the ducks that seemed so happy to be around people.

Here she is enjoying our new beach mats (thanks, Costco!) and contemplating Lake Marcia. The water is still COLD. And here is our friend, Mr. Mallard.

The one thing that is not yet open at High Point is the concession stand. There is a sign up that says it is closed until further notice. I guess the State budget does not include cheese fries. So when we got hungry, we drove down the hill into Port Jervis and had a snack at our favorite old-fashioned ice cream parlor, The Creamery. The Creamery is right on the Delaware River, a perfect location for these photos.

Today, we talked Ted into setting up the kiddie pool and enjoyed some time out on the patio before the thunderstorms came.

The lupines I planted last year seem to have taken hold in my wildflower field.

Here is Alexandra enjoying a homemade Popsicle we made and jumping into the spray as Ted made it 'rain' on his waterfall.

They Grow Up So Quickly...

2008-06-05T21:18:00.005-04:00

Here is Alexandra holding Sophie who is now 12 weeks old, getting bigger by the minute and full of mischief.

She had her first trip to the vet a couple of weeks ago...the vet thinks she's going to be a big cat since she was already 4 pounds at that time. We go back next week for more shots and we'll see what she weighs then.

She is still all kitten....she plays constantly and has to be in the middle of everything. The minute the sky starts to lighten (which is 4:45 AM these days) she is purring in my ear and tapping my face with her paw. She is my furry little alarm clock.

Here she found Alexandra's Easter basket and decided to curl up with my mother's day card (a retro musical little number featuring Captain Kirk and Yeoman Rand).

She is FASCINATED by water. She wants to curl up in the sink, sneak into the shower, lick water off anyone who doesn't dry off quickly enough and she's fallen into Alexandra's bath twice. These are not exactly desirable behaviors, but it's hard to yell at her while laughing hysterically and reaching for the camera at the same time.

Be-DAZZLED!

2008-06-01T16:52:00.003-04:00

At Jen Lowe's recommendation I just got the Bejeweler. Think the Bedazzler from those silly commercials but for use with smaller crystals...and it works on paper for scrapbooking and whatnot! Well, OK there are some questionable photos in the packaging of people applying these to garments, but to each his own. I got mine from Creative Crystal Company along with some swarovski crystals with adhesive backing. What fun! I've been sticking crystals on everything for the last hour.

I made this title for one of my scrapbook pages (if I ever catch up enough to actually scrap the pictures from Eleuthera Island.) Now you could do this with plain crystals and glue, but it's messier.

Tiffany & Evan's Wedding

2008-05-26T14:45:00.005-04:00

Well, the big day for Tiffany and Evan finally arrived and we had a fantastic time yesterday helping them celebrate their marriage in New York City. They were wed in front of family and friends at the W hotel in Union Square. The cocktail hour & reception followed immediately with much merrymaking.
Ted, Alexandra & I sat at the table with my sister Laura & Chris and my cousin Christine, Mike & Isaac. Alexandra was so excited to see her cousin she was ready to burst when we first arrived. The two of them played very nicely together and were, thankfully, well-behaved during the ceremony.

Here are my Mom & Dad waiting for our pre-ceremony cocktail in the Gathering Place

Here are Alexandra and I waiting for the bride to make her entrance at the ceremony

Introducing Mr. & Mrs. Christensen

Mother of the bride, Ruth Madison

The Verteranos at the cocktail hour
The happy couple (love the red flowers!)

The Great Room looked like a beautiful Fairy land with its ornate ceilings and tall vases full of orchid sprigs on every table.

Alexandra & Isaac looked so cute dancing together.

Christine and Aunt Raechel joined Kristen and the boys for some very lively dancing!

When Isaac was too tired to dance anymore, Alexandra found a willing partner in her Yia-yia.

Meet Sophie

2008-05-09T21:35:00.005-04:00

On Saturday, May 3rd, we welcomed a new family member: she's cute, soft & furry and we named her Sophie. A scrappy friend, Jen Starr, had adopted a cat recently that managed to slip out of the house and got...er...knocked-up...before Jen could have her spayed. The kittens were born in early March, right around when we lost Alex. We are so grateful to Jen and her family for giving us a kitten...the house was so sad and empty after Alex died. We really needed Sophie.

Sophie is very energetic and playful. She can be exhausting at times, but we know she will gradually grow out of this 'crazy' kitten stage.

Oddly enough, she likes watermelon! When she saw Ted eating some, she meowed pitfully until he relented and let her lick the rind.

At 8 weeks, she is still very tiny...not much bigger than Alexandra's beannie babies

Greek Easter

2008-05-07T09:27:00.006-04:00

Greek (Eastern Orthodox) Easter was April 27th this year, about a month later than American (Western) Easter. We celebrated the holiday at my parents' house and had a lovely time. The chocolate bunnies and gifts that the Easter Bunny brought for Alexandra took the edge off of coming back from warm and sunny Eleuthera to chilly NJ.

My mother outdid herself in the kitchen as usual...Laura's boyfriend Chris had his first Nitratha (traditional lamb and romaine stew) experience.

At dessert, we played the traditional egg-cracking game. Click twice on the blurred picture below (or click the play button)to see the video of the game. Ted was the winner this year with his unbroken yellow egg.

Eleuthera Island

2008-05-02T21:22:00.011-04:00

We returned from Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas on Saturday to Greek Easter, parent-teacher conferences and lots to catch up on at work, so I am just now getting to post this trip report.

Day 1: Newark to Fort Lauderdale to Eleuthera

The car picked us up at 4:30 AM on April 19th for our early flight out of Newark. We checked in with no problems and then had to wait while the airline desperately tried to find volunteers to leave the flight since they were so overbooked. Once the bidding got up to $1000 plus hotel plus meals plus 1st class accommodations on the next flight, someone got off the plane and we were on our way. We were drinking margaritas (and Shirley Temples for Alexandra) in the Fort Lauderdale airport bar by 11 AM.

We walked out onto the tarmac and boarded the tiny propeller plane to Eleuthera Island. Having knocked back a few 'ritas, I was feeling no fear and rather enjoyed the short roller coaster ride to the island.

Eleuthera is a sparsely populated out-island in the Bahamas. The name is derived from the Greek word Eleutheria (freedom.) The colonial settlers were seeking religious freedom. We, on the other hand, were seeking freedom from the commercialism of our everyday existence and we found it. On Eleuthera, there are no casinos, no chain restaurants, no Walmart...nothing but beautiful turquoise water, pastel houses and one (barely) paved road that stretches the 110 mile length of the island.

We met a man named Royal Williams at the airport. He cheerfully drove us to his house where he rented us one of his cars and then we drove south to our resort in Governor's Harbor. We stayed at Pineapple Fields, a timeshare type accommodation. The units are fairly new, nicely decorated and very comfortable with all the amenities of home. The picture above is the view from our deck. You can see Tippy's restaurant where we enjoyed many a fine meal during our week-long stay.

Day 2: Ten Bay Beach/ Sunset Inn/ Pool/ Tippy's

On Sunday morning, after we stocked up on some provisions at the General Store, we headed over to Ten Bay Beach, one of the most popular beaches on the island. Imagine our surprise when only two other families shared the beach with us the whole time we were there.

The water was calm, clear and perfect that day...shallow and warm for a long way out. Conch shells lay everywhere. Ted didn't have much luck fishing, though.

When we started to get hungry, we headed back towards Governor's Harbor and stopped for lunch at the Sunset Inn. There we had our first Bahamian style meal (lots of conch) on a deck overlooking the Caribbean and Governor's Harbor. Back at Pineapple Fields, we had the pool all to ourselves. Later, we wandered over to Tippys where Elliot, the bartender, introduced us to some fine Guatemalan rum and we watched the sun set.

Day 3: Rock Sound & North Side Beach

On Monday, we ventured further South, in search of Ocean Hole...an inland 'bottomless' pool connected to the ocean by a tube where you can feed friendly fish. While we were feeding the fish we met some people from South Carolina who were familiar with the island. We asked them about good beaches for swimming and fishing in the area and they had us follow them to the Northside Inn & Restaurant which sits on a cliff overlooking the Atlantic. We took the stairs down to the beach and found that we were, once again, alone. While Ted fished and Alexandra played in the waves and looked for shells, I met Rose, the proprietor of the Inn, who was out collecting sea fans and driftwood. We chatted for a while and then she went back up to the restaurant to start cooking lunch for us.

Meanwhile Ted spotted a large shark and some barracudas swimming in the surf, not far from shore and then he caught his first bonefish.

This coupled with the lovely time we spent in the restaurant, talking with Rose and enjoying her fantastic Bahamian food, made this one of the best days of our trip.

On the drive back, Ted stopped at a liquor store to get some rum for cocktails. Remembering the deliciously smooth rum from the night before, he asked the guy in the liquor store which rum was good. He replied with a smile,

'All rum is good, mon'

So true.

Ted knocked a coconut off one of the trees back at the resort and we had some delicious rum punch on our deck. Everywhere we went afterwards, Alexandra requested 'rum punch without the booze.'

Oh my.

Day 4: Bannerman Town, Wemyss Bight, Half Sound

On Tuesday, we drove all the way to the southern tip of the island in search of the Bannerman town lighthouse. We didn't find it, but instead found another beautiful deserted beach with lots of shells. Ted caught a barracuda there.

On the drive back North, we stopped in Wemyss Bight where we had another excellent Bahamian lunch at the Ship to Shore restaurant, prepared for us by a woman named Chantal.

We then tried the beach there for a while and then headed back North to find Half Sound Beach, which Rose had recommended. This beach was really a long way off the beaten path...maybe 2 miles down a rough unpaved road.

Day 5: 10 Bay and Tippy's Beach again

Wednesday was a windy day and not a good day for fishing or swimming. We went to Ten Bay beach in the morning, but this time the water was choppy and we were cold in spite of the bright sunshine.

So we drank some rum, ate some conch, tried the pool, walked the beach at Tippy's and just relaxed.

Day 6: Ted's fishing excursion

On Thursday, Ted went out with guide Paul Petty in search of bonefish while Alexandra and I relaxed by the pool, had lunch, went shopping and relaxed by the pool some more. We had dinner at the Cigatoo restaurant that night which is actually in the Quality Inn down the road from Pineapple Fields. There were both tourists and locals eating at this restaurant...it serves Chinese and Bahamian cuisine and is more reasonably priced than Tippy's.

Day 7: Savannah Sound

On Friday, Ted took us to Savannah Sound, a large flats area that Paul Petty had shown him the day before.

For lunch we drove to the town of Tarpum Bay where the locals buy and sell freshly caught fish in the afternoon and ate at a little shack called Barbies. Ted had some dumpling soup that was to die for.

Then we went back to Ten Bay Beach where the water was again calm and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon swimming.

Day 8: Home

By Saturday, although Ted still maintained that we should have taken 2 weeks to enjoy this island, Alexandra and I had grown a little weary of being away from home. We drove back to Royal's house to return his car. He and his friend Donna drove us back to the tiny North Eleuthera airport. Donna gave Alexandra a fruit called a sapadilly to eat in the airport and then we went through the process of checking in and having our baggage searched. The security agent confiscated Ted's expensive cigar lighter because apparently you can't bring anything combustible on board an aircraft these days. Go figure.

In no time, we were headed towards Fort Lauderdale and the dreaded 4 hour layover. Customs, Immigrations and more margaritas made that time pass a little faster, but we were exhausted by the time we got home at around 9PM.

Fresh as a DAISY

2008-04-16T19:59:00.005-04:00

While I was wrapping my sister in toilet paper at the bridal shower on Saturday, Alexandra was being officially inducted into the Girl Scouts in the troop's investiture ceremony. Ted took a few pictures.

Here is Alexandra being pinned by one of the troop leaders. She earned a badge for memorizing the Girl Scout promise.

Here is the troop after the 'swearing in.' I love how they are all on one side of a long table...looks kind of like The Last Supper, which just happens to be hanging above them. Too funny!

Breakfast At Tiffany's

2008-04-13T10:23:00.006-04:00

On Saturday, I attended my cousin Tiffany's bridal shower at The Historic Old Bermuda Inn in Staten Island. What a lovely setting for the party! I grew up on Staten Island, but never knew this place existed.

My Aunt Ruth, pictured here, outdid herself planning this event...every detail tied back to the 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' theme and we all such a fun time playing Bride Bingo and competing in the toilet paper bridal gown contest. Our table won for this lovely number modeled by my sister, Laura.

Here are the bride-and-groom-to-be walking in to the shower. It was not a surprise since Aunt Ruth had to work around their busy residency schedules.

The men passed the time in another room in the restaurant. When they walked through the hordes of giggling ladies to get their lunch, Uncle Vinny yelled out,

'Don't worry, we're not the male strippers!'

Before the men beat a hasty retreat, I snapped this picture of my grandfather with his sister Caroline and my mother.

Cousin Christine flew in from Ohio for the shower and Aunt VJ flew in from South Carolina just to be at the shower. Evan's parents also flew in from Utah. It was so nice catching up with family I hadn't seen in ages and getting to know Evan's Mom. Tiffany is marrying in to a lovely family.

Here I am with Laura, Christine and Aunt Raechel.

Here are the four sisters: Raechel, VJ, Lucille, Ruth and my grandmother.

Tiffany had a giant pile of gifts...it took some time for her to open them all! Here she is brandishing the rolling pin my sister gave her. (Evan, you'd better behave)

We are looking forward to the wedding in May!

Let the River Run

2008-03-30T09:22:00.006-04:00

Well, it's officially Spring since Ted 'opened' the waterfall yesterday. There were some casualties, over the winter, when the pond de-icer malfunctioned and electrocuted some of the fish. Enchantress (the big one), two smaller fish, some frogs and a mouse (?!!) were among the fatalities. Ted spent the day yesterday removing the pall of death and getting the water flowing again. Soon it will be warm enough to add some aquatic plants.

In other news, Alexandra joined the Girls Scouts yesterday. She will be a Daisy through 1st grade and then move on to the Brownies. At her first meeting, she decorated her folder and made a poster of the Daisy rules.
During circle time, the girl holding the 'daisy staff' has the floor. When Alexandra's turn to speak came, she got a little bit of stage fright.
Here she is having her hand traced for her copy of the Girl Scout promise. She will have to memorize this in order to earn the Daisy center for her uniform:
On my honor, I will try:
To serve God and my country,
To help people at all times,
And to live by the Girl Scout Law.

At this last part, Alexandra commented that the 'Girl Scout Law' must mean 'No boys allowed.'

Things that make you go 'Ahhh'...

2008-03-15T16:32:00.017-04:00

I was reading my friend Gina's blog this morning. She wrote about the things that make her happy and it's funny because I was just thinking about the same topic last night while I watched Moonstruck, a movie that always makes me smile. Years ago, I had taken a course on stress management and one of the techniques they taught was 'going to a happy place' for a few moments each day to relieve stress. As I watched this movie (which I must have seen dozens of times) I realized that it was one of my 'happy things.' It reminds me of Staten Island, where I grew up. So I thought I'd make a list and make some of you smile. Perhaps you'd like to share some of your 'happy things' (you can do so by clicking the comment link at the end of this post.) I asked Alexandra to draw pictures of things that make her happy and this is what she gave me. My list follows.

Theresa's 'Happy Things' (By no means comprehensive, just a few that come to mind)

1. The silly antics of my husband. Over the years, he has made me laugh more than anyone I know, from his impression of Mr. Miagi catching flies with chopsticks while we were trapped in a torrential downpour in a seedy Millinocket, ME restaurant to his humorous travelogue from this year's Superbowl.

2. Alexandra's laughter. Need I say more?

3. Thinking about what good parents I have. My whole life, everyone has remarked on how beautiful my mother is and how smart my father is. I am very proud of them.

4. Walt Disney World. I didn't tell Alexandra what was on my list before she drew hers, but you can see we both named it. It truly is the happiest place on earth. This is the rollercoaster she drew (Thunder Mountain.)

5. A good cup of tea. Alexandra and I had lunch at the local tea room today. What fun!

6. Signs of Spring. As we drove home, I noticed the lake was full of geese, returned from their winter home in the South. I can also see the shoots of our perennials starting to poke through the dirt. Right now Alexandra is outside riding her bicycle in the driveway while Ted does yard work.

7. The feeling of driving on an open road, itinerary in hand, at the beginning of a long road trip

Nine Lives

2008-03-04T22:13:00.004-05:00

These pictures were taken this weekend as Alex enjoyed what was, apparently, the end of his ninth life. He passed away this evening at the ripe old age of 17. He was the most remarkable cat I've ever seen...he loved to be around people. He didn't run and hide from company like our other cats and he let Alexandra play dress up with him and cuddle and love him in a way that would send most felines scurrying for the refuge of the basement.

Nearly 17 years ago, my sister and I were browsing in a pet store in the Staten Island Mall, when Alex chose us to take him home. We had our backs to his cage while looking at something across the way, when suddenly, we felt little claws latching on to our jeans. I turned around to look at him, he cocked his head and meowed at me and implored me with those sweet kitten eyes to take him home with me. The rest is history.

We will always love you, Alex. Rest in peace.

SNOW! (again)

2008-03-01T15:59:00.004-05:00

I've been so sick and tired of all the snow and ice storms we've been getting up here this year (school has closed 5 times so far this season starting with the Monday before Thanksgiving), that I haven't really had the motivation to take any snow photos. Well, we got a few more inches last night and it seemed like a good day for sleigh riding, so out we went. Here are a few shots. Ted was riding the shovel down the 'sled slope' to pack the snow down more and make it faster for Alexandra.

Hopefully, this was winter's last hurrah (it is supposed to be 50 degrees here on Monday) and that accursed groundhog will just stay in his hidey-hole next February and keep his long-winter, gloom and doom forecasts to himself.

Happy Birthday, Jennifer!

2008-02-26T20:51:00.004-05:00

On Sunday, we celebrated our niece Jennifer's 18th birthday at a family party. Congrats to her on this milestone event...this is the year she gets to drive without a provisional license, graduate from high school, start college and vote in the presidential elections.

In other news, Alexandra lost one of her top teeth this week. She pulled it out herself at night and snuck it into the tooth fairy box. The tooth fairy had obviously already left to make her rounds, because she didn't arrive until the following night.

Can you see the gap in the picture below? She was feeling too silly at Jennifer's party to properly diplay her missing tooth.

Flu & Loathing in NJ

2008-02-20T16:01:00.005-05:00

Not much news to post. We had a nice long weekend, but unfortunately Alexandra came down with the flu or some flu-like virus. After 2 trips to the pediatrician and an extra day home from school, she seems to be doing somewhat better today. Still not her usual energetic self.

We did get out to Mom & Dad Bergen's for a turkey dinner over the weekend. Here are a few half-hearted shots. (I wasn't feeling too great myself that day)

Got a bunch of scrapping done.

And Laura and Chris must be enjoying sunny Florida...here is the photo from downtown Disney that she texted me. I see hidden Mickeys!!

Superbowl XLII

2008-02-02T17:40:00.001-05:00

At the last minute, Ted scored a ticket to the superbowl showdown between his beloved Giants and the Patriots. He is sending me regular updates from his blackberry, so I thought I'd post them here (interspersed with photos of him, his Dad, and even Great Uncle Joe displaying their Giants pride over the years):

7AM Saturday

FIRED UP!!

Got up at 2AM. Drove down to airport.

America is going soft. Airport bar not open at 4:00AM.

Bobby would have been disappointed.

Bloody Mary at 6:30AM..

Nicey Niice!Plane is half full of Giant fans.

Need Ronny here to get these (bleeps) FIRED UP!!!WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

9:36AM Saturday

Ok. I'm sitting in the front of the plane surrounded by a group of Giant fans.

Luckily, I had "Elite Club" boarding so I was able to get on the plane before the general boarding. Not quite 1st class but better than nothing.

Stewardess (that's what we used to call "flight attendents" in the good old days) likes us up here. So she's making sure we are getting drinks. We're doing Dewars on the rocks now.This is going to be a 48 hour long tailgate party.

Video portion will commence once I touch down in Tucson.

GO BIG BLUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

6:26 PM Saturday
Rolled into Phoenix without incident. Stopped at cheap Motel 8 on the way to shower, shave, and change. Lots of cactii out here. Makes me want to go rattlesnake hunting! Johnny Pinto and Kevin are enroute from San Diego and should hit town by 6PM. Camelback Resort in Scottsdale is where we are staying, so I checked it out 1st. More cactii, but landscaped in a most spectacular fashion. I'm now sitting on the patio of the golf club here in front of the fire. This place is a bigger, nicer, desert version of Crystal Springs. I'm enjoying my second Stella Atois hoping the people from Mos will get to the 18th hole.

11:30 AM Sunday
Just got a call from Ted, hopefully he will be sending more blackberry updates throughout the day, but after his last post yesterday, he wound up going to Reebok's Commisioner's Party with people from his company. He said Earth, Wind & Fire were the entertainment, there was a red carpet and lots of celebrities in attendance. He was more focused on the sushi bar and the spanakopita, since all he'd had all day was some beef jerky and the adult beverages he mentioned in his earlier posts. He got to bed around 1:3o AM, so basically he was up for 24 hours straight. Now he and the coworkers are headed to breakfast to get ready for the bus leaving for the tailgate party at 11:30 AM Phoenix time.

4:30 PM Sunday (2:30 AZ time)
Ted called in again. He was walking the perimeter of the stadium, having visited with John Pinto & Kevin (Guys he normally tailgates with here in NJ), on his way to the NFL tailgate party. Basically, the conversation was me listening to him (and the others in the background)shout and cheer as he walked past the various Giants fan set-ups. The official NFL tailgate party has more security than Fort Knox, he said, and then had to hang up so he could go through the checkpoint.

1:50 AM Monday (11:50 AZ time)

Final Update: SB XLII (sent via blackberry by Ted)

It's 11:50PM and I'm finally letting it sink in.

The New York Football Giants did what no one thought they could do.Perfect ending to a perfect day.

The Giant faithful were out in the desert today. Tailgating in a dirt parking lot in Arizona.

A great game for football fans, where great defense by both teams set the tone for most of the game.The Giants hung in there all day and near the end the Patriots did what they do so well. Methodically, clinically move the ball down the field and take the lead with 2 1/2 minutes to play. The cocky, arrogant, undefeated Pats fans started to talk smack all through the stadium. As a paticularly annoying "Bast-in-ite" patted my #10 jersey on the back and told me to

"wait till next ye-yah",

I calmly turned around and told him,...

"Don't celebrate yet buddy, Eli is gonna pull a 49 second special on your ass".

And he did. And big bother Peyton jumped and pumped his fists as his little bro pulled one off for the ages.As Eli scrambled and escaped a sack to complete an amazing catch by David Tyree, he looked more like his dad Archie. I turned to my buddy from Baasten and did my best Teddy Kennedy.....

"Errrrraa... Looks like we still got a game theyra buddy".

Then with less than a minute left Eli to Plax for the game winning dagger.I calmly turn to my New England friends, shake their hands and say...

"Oh well.... I guess it's 18 Wins and 1 GIANT loss for you guys!"

After a nice steak, it's Jack Daniels a nice victory cigar and toasted marshmallows around a mesquite fire pit.It gets no better.GIANTS ARE CHAMPS!! Strahan, Toomer, and Feagles get their rings. I'm sure Tiki is happy for his buddies. He should have stuck around.

Kevin Boss is the "New #89" Just ask Bavaro.

Nice prediction Plax

Finished Project

2008-01-19T13:28:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally finished the canvas from the class we took last Sunday. Mom, Laura and I had fun playing with the Ranger crackle paints. It's paint that has the crackle medium in it, so there is no pain-in-the-you-know-what multi-step process involved. Here is my canvas. Maybe Laura and Mom can send me a picture of theirs...they came out really nice. And even though it was essentially the same project, they each look different.

We settled into a rythym of carrying Alex between the upstairs and downstairs this week. I made a bed for him out of a cardboard box, an old pillow and blanket. While we are work and school during the day, he sleeps downstairs in it. At night he sleeps upstairs with us and then meows around 2 or 3 AM to be carried back downstairs.

When we were running errands this morning while my car was being serviced, Ted's car overheated. We managed to make it back to the mechanic's by chugging to the top of the hills and then coasting down the other side with the engine off. Oh joy.

Not much else on tap for this weekend. Our inflatable Giant (football, not Jolly Green) is poised on our front lawn, hoping for victory tomorrow at Green Bay. I'll be making some cards for ToniAnn Carbone's Crop Blue Auction.

Wishing everyone else a nice, relaxing weekend!

Sad, yet Scrappy, Weekend

2008-01-13T09:11:00.000-05:00

Alexandra and I came home on Friday night to find that Alex appeared to have suffered some sort of stroke. He has extreme difficulty moving his hindquarters and has lost his sense of equilibrium (probably because cats get a lot of their superb balance from their tail.) This is the cat who used to leap onto people's shoulders and make himself into a living fur stole ('shoulder-kitty' was another of his nicknames.) I'd find him perched on top of the refrigerator or a narrow railing and now he's falling off of beds. Ted reorganized the laundry room so he doesn't have to go all the way down the basement stairs for food or litter, but we now have to be vigilant...he always wants to be around us. He can make it up the stairs to the bedrooms, but not back down. Last night, when I got home from scrapping, he rushed from the bedroom to the top of the stairs to greet me and then I watched in horror as he tumbled down the flight to the landing. It fills my heart with sadness to see him so feeble. He is 17 years old, so I guess it is not unexpected, but I'd hoped he'd make it a few more years.
In happier news, I attended the first Memory Station Crop held in St. James Church in Goshen yesterday. I think Sue has found a good location for the daycrops this time. The church hall is spacious, well lit and has really big conference tables. Thanks to my all my Memory Station friends I was able to laugh and forget my kitty woes for the day.
And today, my Mom, sister and I have a short class, taught by Jen Starr, scheduled at the Riverside Scrapbook Company. We are going to get to play with Ranger crackle paints! Oh great, something else I'll have to own and find storage for :)

Jesus Got the Coin This Year

2008-01-02T21:09:00.000-05:00

My parents hosted the New Year's Day get-together yesterday. Every year, my mother makes the vasilopita, a traditional Greek pie/cake for New Years. My father cuts the pie, first reserving a piece for Christ and then one for the house. Next, each person present is served a piece in age order...the youngest gets the last piece. Whoever gets the piece with the hidden coin is supposed to have good luck for the new year. This year, the coin was in the first piece, so hopefully that means we will all have good luck.

Here is this year's picture of the vasilopita. For some reason, we photograph the pie every year. Considering I started using a camera in the 80s, I have about 20 vasilopita pictures that all look the same (well, except for the black & white one I took the year I was dabbling with developing my own photos.) Give it another 5-10 years and we should have enough for a complete scrapbook retrospective on the Vasilopita, starting with the ones my grandmother made that were 'too dry', 'too raw' or just plain 'lousy' (but, 'you'd better eat it, cause that's all you get!')

Happy 2008 & 2007 Year in Review

2008-01-01T10:49:00.000-05:00

I always intend to send out one of those 'year in review' letters with our family Christmas card, but just can't seem to find the time. I hear many of my friends hate to receive them anyway, although I always read & enjoy the ones I get. Some of them will be the only 'conversation' I have with those friends all year, so I am grateful for the chance to catch up. So here is our year in review. I'll try to keep it short, but if you're one of my Christmas-Card-Letter-hater friends, you don't have to read it :)

January

The year got off to a great start with a trip to Walt Disney World. We splurged and stayed at the Beach Club Villas this time and enjoyed a wonderful week of escapism from workplace woes

February

Grandpa & Grandma Massa celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary

Cousin Tiffany and Evan got engaged

March

Grandma Bergen turned 70

April

Greek Easter and Western Easter fell on the same day.

One of my layouts was published in Scrapbook Dimensions

May/June

My company announced major lay-offs to come at some vague date in the future, so I got busy sending out resumes

My scrap group was invited to attend a taping of the Martha Stewart show. Unfortunately when it aired, it was preempted in NJ by a John Corzine press conference, so I'll never know if I had my 15 seconds of fame.

Ted, Alexandra & I went to Bar Harbor over Memorial Day Weekend. You can read about our trip here.

Cousins Gerard & Kristen graduated from college. Both went on to law school.

Cousins Tiffany and Evan graduated from dental school. Tiffany went on to an orthodontic internship and Evan to endodontics.

Our niece Amanda graduated from grade school (8th grade).

Alexandra and her school put on a lovely Mother's Day tea performance. Here is a clip.

July/August

I accepted a new position with an underwear manufacturer and took the last two weeks of August off to get ready for the new job/start of Kindergarten. See those pictures here.
Cousin Nick Loizos got married

September

I started at the new job and it was such a relief to be doing meaningful work again (hey, I know it seems trivial to most, but someone has to make underwear.) The old company had become a toxic environment to work in.

Alexandra started Kindergarten. She loves it, as well as Family First Academy where she goes for before and after care

October

The usual fall fun ensued... we went apple picking, pumpkin picking, foliage ogling and Alexandra was Tink for Halloween

November/December

Henry died at the ripe old age of 15. We buried him next to Cleo. Alex, who is 16, is now our only remaining kitty.

Alexandra and I went on a road trip adventure to visit cousins Christine, Mike & Isaac in South Carolina. You can read about our trip here.

Christmas came and went in the blink of an eye. Ted had to work a lot of weekends, but we still managed to get to all the parties, bake cookies, get the tree, etc...

Happy 2008 to all our friends and family!!!

How My Blog Got its Name

2007-12-31T11:30:00.000-05:00

My daughter, Alexandra, coined the phrase 'Going Scrapbooky' when she was around 2 1/2 years old. I have been an avid scrapbooker since around 2002, right after my mother discovered the hobby. She, my sister Laura and I started going to crops, expos and store openings together on a regular basis...this replaced our old mother-daughter activity of going to the movies together. As anyone who scrapbooks knows, the hobby begins to take on a life of its own...it's an obsession, an opportunity to socialize with other similarly obsessed women, and a shopping addiction.

Anyhow, I think it was sometime in 2003 that we heard about a new scrapbook store opening in Matamoras, PA. This is right across the river from us, and boy were we psyched for the grand-opening. We all met at my Mom's house (and this time I brought Alexandra with me) and we all piled into my sister's car for the 5 minute drive over the bridge. Well Alexandra, sensing our excitement, was positively bouncing up and down as Laura strapped her into the car seat and announced that, this time, she was 'Going Scrapbooky, too!!' Here is a picture of her from that summer...already starting to use the computer and scrapbook just like the big girls.