Mrs. O

This is a difficult post for me, I have been trying to write it for days, but it is a very important post.

I have just lost a very important person, and that person is my best friends mom.

On Tuesday August 19th at 10:30pm I received a call from my very best friend of 37 years, telling me that her mother has passed away.

I knew the call was coming, but was not sure as to when. When I saw Suzanne's name on my cell phone, I knew why she was calling. I did not want to answer the phone.

Suzanne's mom has lost the battle. For the last 10 months she has been fighting non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and on Tuesday August 19th the cancer unfortunately won.

Mrs. O was a wonderful women, strong, caring and has raised a wonderful daughter, that I am proud to call my friend. Mrs. O should be very proud of the daughter that she has raised. Suzanne is a terrific mom, wife, nurse and friend.

Suzanne and I have been through alot together and have always been there when we needed each other. That is why I had no problem in coming the 200 miles the next day after I received the call to be there for her. Well I would do just about anything for her, and she for me. I have spent 4 days with her and her family. I know she would have done the same for me in a heart beat.

Mrs. O as I said was a very strong women, and she fought hard to overcome this nasty disease but it was to much, even for her. This is where Suzanne gets her strength without a doubt.

Suzanne was lucky to have such a terrific mom, who was there to help her out when she decided to return to school to become a nurse. Mom was there for her 5 daughters when she was needed. Not only did Suzanne and her husband John appreciate and love her, but the 5 girls did as well.

When I would be in town, and would see Mrs. O, the first thing she would say to me was "Give me my hug" and of course I did.

I would like to end this with a thank you to her, for giving me my best friend, life would not be the same without Suzanne.

I will also miss my hugs.

I love you and will miss you deeply.

Jane

Wordless Wednesday

My hubby took these pictures on Sunday while we flew over the Delaware Water Gap in NJ.

Thank You, Thank You!

Thank you Karen and Gerard Zemek for the award. I am honored. This award was given to me by them for my: Website /Blog Two & Two = Nine.

The rules of the award are as follows:

1) Add the logo of the award to your blog

2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you

3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs

4) Add links to those blogs on your blog

5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

Here are links to the seven blogs I've passed this award on to that I enjoy reading:

Apron Strings & Angst

Grocery Mama

Kidzarama

Mommy Confessions

Candid Carrie

One Crazy Chick

Zander and Me

Thanks again for the award.

Wordless Wednesday

Hiking in Bryce Canyon.

HOW DO YOU DO IT!!!!

That is the question of the day.

How do you ladies do it.

How do you manage to post almost everyday.

I have been home from my vacation since July 24th, and this is pretty much the 1st chance I have gotten to post. I have been home maybe 2 days in a row before I am on the road again, going somewhere and doing something.

Ok, I came home on the 24th from Vegas, on the 26th I had to take my daughter Spoony to Long Island, she wanted to spend the summer there with her cousin. Got home on July 30th.

On August 1st was in the car again, for a couples weekend with friends in the Poconos, got home on August 3rd, my 23rd anniversary.

Left again on August 5th, back to Long Island, but for reason that were not good. My best friend of 37 years, her mom is not doing well, but that will be another post. Got back today which is August 6st.

Ok I am done, do not have to leave again until August 16th, to take Spoony to college in New York City. So I can now post my heart out, I think. Oh I know something will come up.

My job wants to know when I am coming back, but I am just to busy to go to work, besides I think I am already working. The only problem is there is no pay. Whats up with that?

Grand Canyon. From the left, The Man, Face, Spoony, my niece, myself and Skaterdude.

Leaving On a Jet Plane

Flying out today on a 2 week vacation with the family to Las Vegas, Arizona and Utah. Will be posting pictures along the way.

(Leaving on a Jet Plane (Peter,Paul and Mary)

All our bags are packed, We're ready to go.
I'm sitting here, writing this post,
I hate to write this post on the fly.
But today its baking, and it's only morn.
Hubby's waiting, I'm tooting my horn.
Already I'm so excited I could cry.

So miss me and comment to me,
Tell me that you like me,
Come on back to view my post when I'm on the go.

I'm leavin' on a jet plane, I don't know when I'll post again,
OK, I have to go.

There's so many blogs around the town,
So many times I've missed a round
I tell you now, I won't miss a thing.
Every place I go, I take a photo, Every night I'm home, I'll post to you
When I come back, I'll tell you everything

I'm leavin' on a jet plane, I don't know when I'll post again,
OK, I have to go.

Now the time has come to leave you
One more time let me tell you
Now I'll mose along, and I'll be on my way.
Think about the days to come
When I will post my photos on
my blog each and everyday.

I'm leavin' on a jet plane, I don't know when I'll post again,
OK, I have to go.

HAPPY 4th OF JULY

HAVE A SAFE AND FUN 4th OF JULY

Its Quiet Around Here

Well the day is turning into a very good day.

I went for my 6 month mammogram this morning. Its a scary thing going after having breast cancer last Feb '08. Good news I am still cancer free. Yipee, Yahoo....etc.

It is now Thursday afternoon and its nice and quiet around here. Which is very nice for a change of pace.

The reason for the quiet house is:

1. My hubby and Spoony went up to the Adirondacks for the 4th of July.

2. The Man is at his friends house because they will be having their annual bon fire. The boys get together and burn all their books and papers from the school year. They have been doing this ritual for the past few years.

3: Face is working at Ihop.

4: Skaterdude, who was going to the Adirondacks, is now punished until Wednesday, for getting himself into some mess with a group of boys. I am to embarrassed to even tell the story. So he is chilling in his room. Well at least he cleaned it today.

You are probably wondering why I stayed home, well someone has to get things ready for the family vacation (to the Grand Canyon) we will be going on. We leave on Tuesday. It just seemed like to much, take a 3 hour car ride to my brother-in-laws and then 3 hours back on Saturday, just to get back in the car on Tuesday (4 hours) to drive to Long Island to catch a flight to Vegas. Na, not for me.

So today I will just enjoy the quiet, tomorrow is another day. I will start getting things done then.

So enjoy the 4th of July everyone.

I will however go to the fireworks display over at the park tomorrow night with the 2 kids that are around.

A PAINTBALL GAME GONE SO WRONG

Poor guy, got caught up in the cross fire.

ITS OVER

It is Monday afternoon, and all I can say is "THANK YOU".

Here is a picture of my daughter Spoony in her Prom Dress. My little fashionista designed and made the dress all by herself. I am very proud of her.

Its finally all over with. The prom, the company, the party, the clean-up, all done. The last of my guest have just left.

It has been a long but fun process.

The prom was great and so was the all nighter, according to my daughter. At my daughters school, they have an all-nighter after the prom ends. They set up the high school with all different activities for the kids to do, and it runs from 1am to 6am. They do this to keep the kids from getting wasted and driving. They even raffle off a car. My daughter won a 15 dollar gas card.

Friday I started preparing for the party, my in-laws were here to lend a hand. That was a great help.

Saturday my sister in law and girlfriend, (after driving 3 hours) came and helped with the cooking while I was at the ceremony. They are great, always there to help. The party started at 4pm and lasted until 2am. Everyone had a great time. My son's band played for the party, that was a big hit.

Sunday morning out of town company came for breakfast, and everyone except for my friend Deb left. I spent all of Sunday on the couch vegging out, enjoying the company of my friend, Deb, who I have not seen in about a year.

Monday, slept in until 9:45, shame on me. Took my girlfriend to the bus station, picked up thank you cards, and returned the beer cag.

I am just so happy that it is all over with.

Now I have to start getting ready for our family vacation to the Grand Canyon which we leave on the 8th of July.

PROM NIGHT

Tonight is Prom Night, I will be back later with a picture of my baby in her dress.

My 1st Wordless Wednesday

Here is a picture of Skaterdude at his best.

This is all he does day in and day out.

Schools out for Summer

Yipee, Yahoo, Wahoo, and all those other silly words, school is out for the summer, and I am a very happy camper. I love the last day of school, you think I was the one going. I just love the fact that I do not have to deal with kids and homework, test, school projects, etc. for 2 whole months. I also like having my kids home with me.

I have just returned from Skaterdudes 8th grade graduation. I am so very proud of him, he received tonight the Academic Presidential Award, The Perfect Attendance Award, and was also on the Honor Roll for 2 quarters. Considering the child spends most, did I say most, I mean all of his time on his skateboard, its amazing he does so awesome in school.

Well when the graduation was complete I had to go and introduce myself to the Assistant Principal, since I have spoken to her on the phone every few weeks for the last year, due to Skaterdudes obnoxious behavior in school. I felt I needed to meet her in person. She loves my son, I mean he is a cutie, and its hard to get mad at him, but he really does some pretty stupid things. My daughter even wrote a paper for her English class on the dopey things he does, but he still manages to pull out a 90 GPA. Now if he would only apply himself, he would be even more amazing.

Still the same I am very proud of him, and am thankful that I have 2 months to recoup before he hits High School.

Now the next thing is Sr. Prom on Thursday night for my daughter Spoony.

TOO BUSY

I just returned home from a week on Long Island. Had a very nice time, while I was there. But now it is time to get back to the everyday living.

I may not be posting most of this week, way to busy.

Skaterdude is graduating from Middle School on Tuesday night.

Spoony has her Sr. Prom on Thursday night, I may post then, her picture in her prom dress that she designed and made all by herself, my little fashionista.

My in-laws are coming up with my daughter Face on Thursday

Spoony's graduation from High School is on Saturday.

Then the party begins at 4... 70 plus are coming......

So I will be shopping, cleaning, and of course cooking.

Have a great week.

Bathing Suits

Please explain to me about the way bathing suits are sold. I remember when you could go into the store and buy your bathing suit all together, a top with a bottom.

I have been to 2 department stores this week looking for bathing suits for my 2 daughters, ages 17 and 20. You want to talk about getting absolutely frustrated, well that was me.

You find the top part of the suit, then good luck finding the bottom that matches, or the right size. I would come across a top part, like it, then look around for the bottom, and when I find the bottom part, they only have one size left, and somethings I would not even find a bottom that matched. What is everyone just buying the bottom half. Are all the girls going topless? I am not getting this.

And to top it all off, the bathing suit section is like a bomb went off. It is a mess.

I did manage to come out of this mess with 2 suits for my 20 year old, because they had a sale if you are lucky enough to find the other half of your suit it only cost you 88 cents. This was at Penny's. So instead of a 50 dollar suit, it was 25 dollars and 88 cents. So she ended up with 2. (got home and one did not fit....SHIT) hate to go back. Daughter number 2 only got one, she wanted a tankini and that was not on sale, but it was just as hard to find.

So it looks as if I have to go back to the bathing suit war zone.

Please pray for me.

The Dam Seagulls

Sitting on the beach yesterday, with my BFF.

The dam seagulls, are a pain in the ass. What little scavengers. They are trying to pick garbage out of the garbage cans, ya know the ones that are like a mesh, pulling out straws, dropping them, then trying to pull out plastic bags. They were really getting on my nerves. There was one seagull, that was determined to get this plastic bag that had a bag of chips in it away from this persons blanket. He struts up and picks it up and marches away, we yelled at him, he drops it and we put it back, placing it behind the peoples cooler. Then he kinda just walks around looking like he is just hanging out. Then he walks around the cooler to the outside and grabs the bag, again we yell at the dumb bird, and this time we placed the bag under a towel. Ok so that is a done deal now. Now there is this lady with her kid sitting eating lunch on their blanket, and down swoops a seagull and snatches the women's sandwich right out of her hands. What I don't get is that there is a whole Atlantic Ocean a few feet away with plenty of fish in it to eat. They can't be that lazy, to go fishing. As we were leaving the beach a little boy was standing in the sand with some potato chips on the ground in front of him, and I swear all the seagulls at the beach were surrounding this poor little boy.

I am sorry but I am not at all a bird lover, of any kind.
I will tell you my other bird story another time.

Fathers Day

Any man can be a Father, but it takes a special man to be a Dad.

Well its Sunday night, Fathers Day.

We celebrated Fathers day yesterday (Saturday) which we do every year.

Its hop in the car and drive 3 hours to my sister in laws house, this has been the theme for the last few years. (Prior to that it was at my in-laws house, but things change.)

All of my husbands brothers and their spouses come, along with their children. Even my mother comes. (since my sister is married to my brother-in-law).

Its a nice day to pay respect, love and admiration to the dads. I have to say that each one of the dads in the family deserve the right to be called Dad.

My father left when I was 9 years old. Yeah, I saw him here and there through the years, but it was nothing special. Sad to say.

My father did meet my oldest daughter when she was about 2 years old, but never had the chance to meet my other 3, because he had passed away 2 weeks after my 3 child was born. Not that is really mattered, he didn't really seem interested in my daughter when he met her. Oh well.

The sad part of it all is that 3 months before he passed, my grandmother(His mother), whom I loved dearly had passed away, that was hard. But after my grandmothers passing, I was talking to my father again, and was hoping that something would come of it this time around, but unfortunately that to came to an abrupt end. He passed away alone, when he really didn't have to.

My father was just that a father, he was not a dad for pretty much most of his life. The way I see it is that he is the one who missed out.

My father-in-law is a wonderful dad, and I am proud to call him dad. The man will do anything for me and I will do anything for him.

Because of the wonderful man he is, my husband in turn in just as wonderful with his children. So I guess you can say that I am a lucky women. I have a wonderful husband for myself, and a wonderful father for my children.

I would like to end this with just one thing, and that is:

I love you Mike.
I love you Dad.

Happy Fathers Day.

She is Done With High School

Today was my 2nd daughters last day of High School. I am feeling real old here.

I remember like it was yesterday, I never expected her to go to school at all. When she was 4 years old, she became a nursery school drop out. Had to be home with me, and her brothers, they were 2 and a new born.

I couldn't make a move without her being like right up my ass. We would go to see friends, and she would just stand behind me and hold onto my leg. Even when she knew the people we were visiting. My friends would try to pry her away from me. But nothing worked. All I would think was how am I going to get this poor child to school, she won't leave my side, OH CRAP.

Then it was time for Pre-K, and what do ya know, there she went, off on her own. She loved going to school. But she still hung onto me when we went out to visit friends. Boy, how I miss those days.

So she is done with high school, and is graduating on the 28th, with honors, and a grade average of 95. Pretty cool.

I am so very proud of her, we did go through some rough times, but all turned out good in the end.

My baby will be heading to New York City to attend The Fashion Institute of Technology to study Fashion Design, in the fall. So I have her for just a little bit longer.

Love you Baby Girl, and I am very proud of you.

What A Beautiful Day

I have to say that today was an absolutely beautiful day, weather wise.

The kind of day where you say, screw the house cleaning and the laundry, forget cooking dinner. I am getting my sorry ass outa this house. The kinda day where you go out and do whatever it is that will make you happy to be alive. Whether its laying in the pool on a float, swinging on the pouch swing, playing in the park with your kids, or driving in your car with the top down and the music blasting (provided you have a car that the top goes down on, I myself drive a mini van, so I am not doing that).

The last few days have been so freakin hot and humid, that I have really not left the house since I went to work on Saturday night. I just couldn't stand the heat and humidity, and with the hot flashes that just seemed to never go away, it was just brutal for me.

I was so looking forward to today, after hearing the weather forecast. But I ended up missing most of the day, and am not a happy camper about that at all.

The reason for my missing this absolutely beautiful day, was due to the fact that I did not get home from work until 6am this morning. I should have been home by 1am, but no such luck. So after being up for close to 24 hours, I needed to get some sleep.

I am an auditor for a company that does inventories for stores.

Last night we were doing a store, where I started at 9:30. There were some new hires, that made a mess of the counts, so needless to say, I had to stay and do recounts from 1am until 5:45.

The guy running the job, decided to do things his way, and instead of fixing the counts, by printing them out and just adding or taking away items, he decides he is going to delete all the work out of the computer that was wrong and have the few of us left to recount all the areas that got fucked up.

That has got to be the stupidest idea ever. What the &^%$#@ was he thinking, or should I say not thinking. Then while I was doing the recounts, I am finding nothing wrong, the store employees made the mistakes, not us, (well some of us did make some of them, but not all of them) and the counts were right, but he had already deleted the work, so we had no choice but to do the work all over again.

NEVER AGAIN!!!! Not me, no how, no way, will work with him again.They can fire me, if need be. One of our employees, decided to just give up and leave at 4:30 and went home. Wish I could have the nerve to do that.

So since I got home at 6am, my absolutely beautiful day was spent sleeping....UGH.

I did manage to get outside and sit and swing on the pouch swing this afternoon, and it was ahhhh.....so nice.

"Singing"

On Sunday morning I was on my way to pick up my son The Man from his friends house so that I could take him to work. I was listening to the radio, and a song from ELO titled "EVIL WOMEN" came on. It put a big smile on my face. The reason for the smile was that it made me think of the following story.

When The Man was younger maybe 8 or 9, I have a hard time keeping track of what they did at what age. Well anyway we are big fans of ELO, my husband and all the kids, so we would listen to the tape in the car when we would travel.

Well one time while traveling and listening to the tape, The Man starts singing along to the song "EVIL WOMEN", when it came to the lyrics Evil Women, you could hear him in the back seat singing "He is a women". We are like what are you singing. We then informed him that the lyrics were "Evil women". He was just a bit embarrassed.

Another time we were in the mall down in Florida on vacation, and The Man was singing again, as we were walking through the stores.

These are the lyrics he was singing "Ghost man, Ghost man, don't stand so close to me".

I am sorry, but I just busted out laughing, poor child.

I once again informed him that the lyrics to the song were, "Don't stand, Don't stand so close to me". By the Police.

Today The Man is 16 and is the lead guitar player in a band, he writes his own music, but he DOES NOT SING.

APALACHIN

Apalachin is in the Southern Tier of New York State. This is where we migrated to 10 years ago from a very very far place (actually 200 miles away) Long Island.

I have yet to meet someone who does not make fun of the way I speak, right off the bat, its like "Your from Long GUYLAND", and I say "No I am from Long Island". They seem to think that that is the way we say Long Island. Not me, never have. They say I have an accent, I don't think so. We Long GUYLANDERS just change the "ER" at the end of a word to "A", such as "HAMMA" instead of "HAMMER".

Well all is well and good, they can pick on me all they want, at least I know how to really pronounce the name of my town.

OK, so you see this towns name and you would think to yourself,

Apalachin could be pronounced A-pal-a-chin. Nope

or

Apalachin could be pronounced Apple-Lay-Chin. Nope, that is spelled Appalachian like the Mountain range. This is the way most people pronounce the name of my town, (the people who don't live here, that is) like my good old friends in Long GUYland.

So the correct way to pronounce the name of my town is:

APPLE-LAY-KIN.

After 10 years I still don't get it.

WHAT THE.....

Last Friday night, we had some of my friends from work over for a BBQ. We were talking about our kids and the things they can come up with to say. This story about my son skaterdude came up. He was maybe 3 or 4 years old at the time.

When telling this story I am going to have to use the "F" word, sorry, but there is no story without it.

I was downstairs in the laundry room, doing what else but laundry. Skaterdude came in very serious looking with something in his hand ( I think it was a battery charger, if my recollections is correct, but that doesn't really matter, it what he said) and looking right at me with his tiny hand out stretched and said "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS", not believing what I heard, I said "what did you say", again he said "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS". I didn't know what to do, I was pretty shocked at his word choice, but I have to admit, I was laughing inside, because of the way he used the word it was priceless, but needless to say I was not happy with his choice of words. I gave him a little swat on the butt, and told him to never use that word again.

On our way back upstairs, I decided to test him on the lesson just taught. I said "Skaterdude, what was that word you said just before"? His response, "I'm not saying that again", lesson learned.

So when I walked into work Monday morning one of my friends turns and asked me "Jane WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS"?

I just had to laugh.

Moving Out

After 48 years, my in-laws have sold their house in New York, to take up permanent residence in Florida, where they have pretty much been for the last few years.

They are now up in New York taking care of the sale of the house and getting rid of all their stuff.

I happen to be in town and offered to help them get started.

NOW THE FUN BEGINS.

Needless to say the pair of them are total frazzled, this is a difficult process for them, sad but it needs to be done.

After about an hour with them, I knew that this feat could not be accomplished without the aid of a six pack of Corona Light. So yes I jumped into the car and headed to the store. I picked up my six and a couple of limes.

OK....Now I am ready, let the games begin.

We started in the closets, (remember they live in Florida, so most of their clothes are down there) and this is how it went:

Me: Do you want this?

Mother-in-law: Yes

Me: Do you actually wear this?

Mother-in-law: No

Me: Does it fit you?

Mother-in-law: I don't know?

Me: Will you wear it again?

Mother-in-law: I don't know, maybe

Me: Ok, it goes

I then proceed to put it in the bag that is going to the Lupus Foundation.

This went on for hours.

My father-in-law is ready to do his closet. So here we go again, do you really need this, are you really going to wear that, blah blah blah. Some of the shirts were just plain ugly, and I told him so. I ended with if you are keeping these clothes that I have never seen you in before, ok, but when I see you again you better be wearing this or that. He is going to be wearing alot of clothes next time I see him.

Well we managed to consolidate 3 closets into 1. It was difficult, and I ended up with 5 bags going to the Lupus Foundation, and one bag in the garbage. Hooray for me.

My husband and his sibling are going there for the weekend to help out. I get to go home.....yippee

I told my sister-in-law to make sure they bring plenty of wine and beer to help them get through the weekend. They will need it.

But I did get a wonderful lobster dinner at the end of the day.

Back To Work

Well today was the day, I went back to work.

The day started off at 4:45, was leaving the house at 5:30, could not find my cell phone, so I decided to call it from the house phone, but the cordless house phone went dead. Five minutes later my son The Man came up the stairs not looking to happy, he had my cell phone in hand, the ringing woke him up, well to bad, maybe you shouldn't have had my phone.

Left the house got to my office and was pretty cold, it was only 50 degrees, so I proceeded to put on my work sweatshirt, to find out that I had taken my husbands Jet sweatshirt. (We need to wear shirts and sweatshirts with the company logo on them). So I was going to have to just be cold and deal with it. Went to unlock the office door, when I noticed my daughters car key in my bag, and realized that I took the wrong car. Hubby was taking my van in for the inspection. Well that is not getting done today. Then went through an hour of on and off again hot flashes. Well this is turning out to be the day of all days.

Well I made it through work, and it felt like I never even took off 2 months. Can honestly say that I was not the happy camper being back on the job. But everyone was very happy to see me back, which was nice. Finished work at 12:20 and got home at 2:00. Great time to relax before the kids get home from school, yeah right no such luck, my daughter Spoony walked in 5 minutes after me. Then the phone starts ringing, then my son, Skaterdude soon after that walks in. No rest for the weary. Oh well guess it will be an early night for me, because it will start again at 4:45am on Tuesday.

Well all that is left for this day, is my hour walk with the hubby and cooking dinner, doing some wash, and then its off to bed for me.

Sleep tight!

Sunday Evening

Well its Sunday evening, hubby is cooking dinner, Skaterdude is out skateboarding in the front of the house, my daughter Spoony is at a horse show, The Man is playing his guitar, and my daughter Face is down on Long Island.

That gives me a minute to sit and write this blog before dinner is ready.

Well tomorrow is Monday and my 1st day back to work since the surgery back in March. I really don't want to go back, I have been enjoying my time home, working on my website, and just getting things done around the house. Oh well, I guess the vacation is over.

I am scheduled for 4 days this week, and I have to be out of the house Monday and Tuesday by 5:30, Wednesday by 4:30 , that's AM. Thursday I will be working at night, don't have to be there until 9:15. That's a bit better. I prefer nights, and keep requesting them, but someone is not listening. I will get there I hope. Life is just to busy during the day to go to work.

I hope I will remember to get up in the morning, and I hope that my legs will get me out of bed, I have spent the weekend hiking through the trails around town. I actually did 2 hikes yesterday and another 2 day. I would say that ended up being about 8 or 9 miles.

Well it's dinner time. Good Eats.....only because I didn't have to cook the food, it always taste better when you don't do the cooking.....

Websites and Blogs

I have been doing a bit of searching on the web the last few days, and have come across a few sites that I really enjoyed. I would like to share these sites with you all.

My fav is......The Mom Blogs.....GREAT SITE www.themomblogs.com This site is for moms that blog, meet new moms, share ideas, chat, play some games. There are alot of great blogs on this site, you have to check it out, there are a few listed on my site in the sidebar.

ThunderFap www.thunderfap.com. This site has things that are free, today I got tampons and deodorant for my daughter. They update the list of their daily free samples.

Coupons www.coupons.com At this site you can print free coupons.

The Womens Nest www.thewomensnest.com another of my favs. Forums, articles, shopping, everything for women. This is a must to check out.

I am not done with my searches as of yet, will be posting more of my finds. Till then I hope you get the chance to look these sites over.

EARLY DETECTION

Early detection is the key. I feel very strongly on this topic.

When I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer last February, the only way it was found was through a mammogram. The tumor was only the size of the tip of a eraser on a pencil. That is pretty small. I was lucky that it was caught so early, it did not spread to my lymph nodes, which was great. So all I had to do was have a lumpectomy and 37 rounds of radiation, and I have to take meds for the next 5 years. I feel I got away very very lucky, and I sure it was because it was found at an early stage.

So please all you women out there, please make sure you get your mammograms done every year. I now have to have it done every 6 months, and that's ok with me.

Please if you are on this site, click on my Breast Cancer Link, to help provide free mammograms to those who are in need.

Thank you.

The End of the Weekend

Well the end of this 3 day weekend is coming to a close. And what a beautiful weekend it was, weather wise.

I spent a good part of it being a taxi cab driver, but with absolutely no pay, (whats up with that) but then again that is really no different then any other day. Just a few more extra trips. With 4 kids you have to expect it, even when 2 of them have cars. But my daughters are smart, they will not drive their brothers places, unless they get gas money. My one daughter, Spooney, will take my car when she has no gas, and that is a big deal, because she absolutely hates driving my mini van, its so uncool.

Its mom, take me here, mom pick me up, mom take me to work, pick me up from work, run to the stores, come back, run again. You would think that gas was free.

Kids have no concept on how much it cost to go places. I have learned to charge them for rides, mow the lawn you get some rides. Weed wack, that is some more rides. Clean, clean clean, there's a few more rides.

Look at that, I get things done, and all I have to do is sit behind the wheel, and walla things are done. Works for me.

Then to top it off I drove my daughter 230 miles to her grandmothers house on LI, so that she could spend the summer here. As I stated in my last blog, she is home from college, and was no way, no how going to stay home in upstate NY for the summer, she neeeeeeds to be here, where there is more going on. I really can't blame her.

I grew up in Queens New York, and always had something to do.

So I will stay here until Wednesday, then head on back home, another 230 miles WAHO!!!!

Home, but not for Long

Well its Friday morning, and I am home, thank you very much.....but not for long, another road trip is coming on Tuesday.

My oldest daughter Meg is on her way home today from college, but she does not intend to stay to long. Tuesday is it, Meg will be heading down to LI for the summer, she wants to be near the city, and all the fun stuff, that we don't have up here in the sticks.


And yes, I will have to accompany her down, for she has never driven down to the Island, and is a bit nervous about doing so. Can't really say I blame her, after my nice trip, make that 2 trips down last week.

I really won't mind the travel if the gas prices would stop going up....its nuts, but out of my control, so no need to bitch about that.

I really am looking forward to my baby coming home, just wish she would stay a bit longer, but she is 20 years old and will do what she wants to do.

My poor mother, I hope she can handle this, she is 80 years old, still works 1 day a week. But having to have 2 girls (my niece is living with her too, because her college is close by, and she is taking summer classes) ages 19 and 20. Moms been then, done that. Sorry mom! Told mom, to kick my daughter out and send her sorry ass home to me, if she does not want to follow G'ma's rules.

I am sure there will be no problem, G'ma loves having the girls around, I just hope she has not bitten off more then she can chew. They really are good girls, but they don't always think.

I will pray for you G'ma you are the best.

My Friend > My Enemy

As you can see I have added a link on my site here, for breast cancer. Please if you are here, would you please click on the button. Thank you!!!

The reason for my adding the Breast Cancer Link is because I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in Feb. 07. I have been cancer free for a year now. Waho.

I will tell you one thing and that is for 2 fairly small words, they are really some big ass kicking words. You hear them, and then everything goes black, you hear nothing else. The doctor could finish with you have also won a million bucks, but you won't hear that. But you then get back into focus at some point, and then its the tears, and then its ok I can do this, and I will do this, and I will win.

Well this blog is more or less not going to be about my Breast Cancer, its about my BEST FRIEND, and how she was there for me.

When I found out about those 2 nasty words, I call Suzanne, and like the trooper she is, told me everything will be fine, and proceeded to give me the name of a doctor to go and see. Mind you I am 200 miles away, but if she told me this is the guy to see, dam right I was going to make the trip down.

Well let me tell you, I am so very very grateful to her for that, the doctor was fabulous. I am still coming down to see him every 3 to 6 months, and that fine by me.

Well anyway, I came down a few days prior to my surgery. Suzanne took me shopping and just hung out with me, trying to keep my mind off of things. My husband was with me, but I needed her at the time. Spent the night before the surgery with her, not really doing anything, not even really talking, but that was ok. It was knowing she was there for me.

Anyway after the surgery was done, I was home at my moms house, when she became ill. Well so much for resting up afterwards, I think I got an hour in, when I had to take my mom to the emergency room. Suzanne is a nurse at the hospital, and when I went to her floor, she just looked at me and said, "what are you doing here, you just had surgery." Well I told her the story, and she came down to the emergency room with me, told me to go home and she would look after my mom. Needless to say, she did, and did look after her for the next few days, because I had to get back home (200 miles away) to my own family.

I am very happy and grateful to have a friend like that, who is always there when you need them. I am truly blessed.

I think everyone should have a friend like that.

Because I am not, no way going to share mine. SORRY

Manhattan

Well its Sunday evening, I am down on Long Island again for the 2nd time this week. I came down on Friday evening, so that my daughter could go into the city to take her placement exams at FIT (Fashion Institute) where she will be attending in the fall.

I presently live 200 miles northwest of the city, in a small town in upstate New York, for the past 10 years.

I grew up in Queens and worked in the city for 10 years. So none of this is new to me.

I learned on Saturday, when I had to go into the city to pick up my daughter, that I have not lost my edge. That is my edge for driving in Manhattan. I still got It, and the It is the attitude you need to be able to drive down there. I was still able to compete with the best of them.

Between the taxi's honking their horns at you and cutting you off, there are those real nice folk, who will not by any means let you into a lane, because they are in such a rush to get know where. Yes I was yelling at people, (but no one heard me accept for my mother and my niece, who were in the car) the hands were also flying around. One guy even gave me the finger, go figure.

I have to admit after living upstate, I really can not stand to drive down in the city, it is just to frustrating to do.

Don't get me wrong, I love the city, and am a little bit jealous that my daughter will be living there for the next 4 years.

But when I go to visit her, I think I will take public transportation.

My Friend Eileen

Its Tuesday night at about 11:00 pm. I am pretty wiped out, I spent a good part of my day sitting in traffic, on a normal day I would have made the trip in about 3 hours, but today it took me 5 hours. I was down on Long Island today to be there for my friend Eileen.

Eileen's mother passed away on Friday May 9th, and the funeral was today Tuesday May 13th.

I have been friends with Eileen since we were about 12 years old. There is not a thing I would not do for her, or she for me. Eileen is what you would call a true and loyal friend. Eileen's mother, I am sure is very proud of the way her daughter turned out. Eileen's mother has done a wonderful job in raising her daughters, considering the fact that she was diagnosed with Parkinson's when Eileen was about 4 years old, and was fighting a losing battle. Eileen is a loving, caring, and thoughtful person, and is always there for her friends, and family.

We have had alot of fun together in the years that we have known each other. We have been there for each other when times got tuff, and we have been then for each other when times where great. I don't think she has every forgotten to send me a birthday, or anniversary card to me or my husband. I am proud to call her my friend, and I hope to be her friend until the end. Eileen, I love you. You are truly a friend in every sense of the word. And needless to say EVERYONE LOVES EILEEN.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

I would like to wish all the mothers out there a very very Happy Mother's Day. Here is a little something from me to you:

God's Masterpiece

Is MotherGod took the fragrance of a flower...
The majesty of a tree...
The gentleness of morning dew...
The calm of a quiet sea...
The beauty of the twilight hour...
The soul of a starry night...
The laughter of a rippling brook...
The grace of a bird in flight...
Then God fashioned from these thingsA creation like no other,And when his masterpiece was throughHe called it simply - Mother.-
Herbert Farnham

I recieved this in an email from a friend, and wanted to pass it along to all those great women out there who's name is mom.

Its been 6 weeks

Well its been six weeks since I had my hysterectomy. I am still home from work. Will be going back to the doctors on the 12th. Feeling great, except for the hot flashes and night sweats, that keep me up most of the night. What I would give to just sleep through the night, just once. Unfortunately, I can't take any hormone replacements, due to the fact that I had Breast Cancer last year and am taking tamoxifen. Oh well, guess I have to just grin and bear it.

Well since I have been home, I decided to create a website, and that is pretty much what I have been doing, and having fun with it I might add.

The website is called Two & Two = Nine, and the address is tipsandtells.googlepages.com. The reasoning behind the title, is that the site is being created by my best friend of 37 years and myself. Between the two of us we have 9 children. The site is about tips and ideas that we have used to get by, we also have some cute stories about how funny kids can be. We do encourage our readers to email us with anything that they would like o add to the site. You can even shop Amazon on the site.

Well I should be going back to work on the 20th, but now my husband wants me to stay home and continue with the website. I am not to sure at this point what I want to do. It would be kinda nice not to go back to the job, its only part time, but the hours can be crazy. Some days I go to work at 3 or 4 am. Sometimes its nights, it is different from day to day. I am an auditor, and I go to different stores and do the inventory. I would not miss the hours, that's for sure.

Well time will tell, and I will let you know the outcome, will she or won't she that's the question of the day.

Have a great day.

CSE MEETINGS

Well this morning I went to my son's CSE Meeting (Committee on Special Education), this was my 13th CSE Meeting. My son is now 16 years old and a 10th grader, and has had a IEP (Individual Education Program) since he was 2 1/2.

The meeting went well, some things have changed for the better. His learning abilities have improved, he now only needs help in his writing skills, and will only need to go to the resource room 1x in a 6 day cycle. He will also be going to a course in Auto CAD this fall for 2 years. They send them out to Boces for the morning where they can learn something usable, and then come back to school in the afternoon for their core classes. When he is finished with high school he will be certified in Auto Cad and will be able to work at it while attending college.

My son has been in the system as I said since he was 2 1/2, and it works, but as a parent you must be involved. As a parent you have alot of control over his/her IEP. There is alot some schools do not inform you of, what you can have as far as help. They also have to follow the IEP, that is Federal Law. There are plenty of websites out there, that you can access for help. I have been doing this for 14 years, and have learned alot. But when I first started I did not have the access of the Internet for help.

I have spent many a times fighting for things that my son needed, and yes I did get them, you pretty much need to stay on top of things. I even went as far as stating to the head person of the CSE that I was going to sue the school district, if my son did not get the resources he needed, and guess what, within 2 weeks it was done.

Push, Push Push, you are your child's only advocate, and if you don't do it, no one will.

The pay off is worth the effort.

You can read more on my son and also my girlfriends daughter in Learning Disabilities at our website, that has a link to this blog.