It's Back...

With the warmer weather and rain around Christmas all of our snow had melted. Well, Good Morning, it returned over night. Big fluffy snow, the kind that looks so pretty but piles up fast.

An hour ago when this picture was taken we had 8 inches and now there's another inch out there. It's not going to snow all day though. Phew.

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We all played B-I-N-G-O last night with my middle sister who plays every week and we all won N-O-T-H-I-N-G except for my ten year old nephew!! He won fifty bucks!! He was so cute when he won. As for me, I'm slightly bingo challenged. I have to concentrate very hard, I can't talk to anyone, I can't watch the monitor, I have to listen to the caller only. Please don't say other numbers out loud or it will screw me up. Even then it's a crap shoot getting all the numbers. Good thing hubby was watching my boards last night as I missed a few a couple times. Geez. How do senior citizens do it? But I think I could get addicted to bingo except for the cigarette smoke. Last night while waiting for bingo to start I did some bingo dauber art on my paper bag and left a message for the next person who gets it. "This is a lucky bag" but it really wasn't at least not for me.

This kid's dauber art is much better than mine.

I need to refine my technique.

When I looked on line for a picture of a bingo dauber I found sites full of bingo paraphernalia. Who knew you could get bingo bracelets...

or Elvis bingo daubers. Betty Boop was the most popular.

I don't know why, did she play bingo?

I'm not that old, she was before my time.

I'm pretty sure that this bingo bag doesn't come with the luck included.





For the serious bingo player, a seat cushion.
Or maybe for the bingo player with hemorrhoids or with a bony butt.




Ticket holders. For those of you that can't keep track of your winning ticket. I would need one of these as I lost the cap to my sisters brand new purple bingo dauber. We finally found it at the bottom of the garbage bag with the used paper bingo boards.

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I'd like to wish all a healthy, happy, safe and prosperous 2009.

May your new year be filled with success in all of your endeavors
and may all of your goals be met.

Thank you to all that have stopped by A Summer's Day and to those that left me comments too! You know how bloggers love comments.

Here's to more in the new year!!

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Peace

Sunday dawned with a high wind warning for western New York and it was very cold on our visit to Niagara Falls. I kept reminding Kevin to make sure Therese brought proper I.D. to get across the border into Canada and guess who was unprepared at customs? ME! I had my birth certificate but forgot my wallet so I had no photo I.D. We had to go inside to immigration where they ran a background check on me. I must have passed because they let me in. We didn't stay long at the falls, just long enough to take a good look and snap some photos. The wind was gusting over 60 mph and poor Therese, all five feet of her was getting blown around plus the mist blowing off of the falls was making everything wet so we left and went to the butterfly conservatory.

Hello there! Are you looking at me?



Every out of towner that visits Rochester will visit Wegmans. It's a family owned grocery store that has gradually grown to several other states. Click the link, it's an impressive market. Open 24/7 363 days a year and it's the only place I can find my beloved Mallo Cups.

Just before they left to return to New York City.

We all had a nice time and Therese liked it here. She was so surprised that everyone is so nice here from waitresses to sales clerks as well as how large some houses are and how much open space there is. She's never lived anywhere other than NYC so it's a big difference.

I held it together when they left as I didn't want to make a scene or make Kevin feel bad for leaving but it was hard. I looked forward to his visit and am down over his leaving. I know, suck it up, cut the apron strings and all that jazz but damn I miss him.

Christmas

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Christmas or whatever you may happen to celebrate. You know that killer cold I had? Well it morphed into a nasty sinus infection on Christmas Eve day. My doctor's office is closed until Dec. 29 so I thought I'd ride it out. Well that gross green snot had other ideas. By Friday the right side of my face started pounding, I could hardly move my mouth and my eye hurt along with extreme pressure. Long story short I had to go to Urgent Care and I hope to never go again. I got there at 2:40 pm and got back to an exam room at 6:10 pm. The place was full of sick people plus the emergency departments of all the hospitals were code red meaning they were full and would only take trauma so sent all others to Urgent Care. I was too sick to complain so I just waited it out. Now I'm on meds and doing better.

My best Christmas gift; both of my boys home, one from NYC, the other from college.
The whole family goes over to my sister's house Christmas morning and stay through dinner. The boys open their stockings at home before we leave. Cody purloined a candy from Kevin's and thought he'd hit pay dirt but alas we watched him take it and poor thing didn't end up eating it. That was his first insult of the day.

We arrived at my sister's where her and her husband had breakfast ready for all. Some years back one Christmas morning we found what we call the fireplace channel. Ever since then every year we have it on while opening gifts. It's just videos of different fireplaces and has Christmas music in the background.

Before opening. That's my niece and nephew in the middle and my boys at either end. The dogs are Bella the black German Shepperd pup and Maize the golden retriever. Poor Cody, insult number 2, he had to stay home. :(

Don't hurt your eyes looking at this GQ specimen. The hoodie and slippers he got for Christmas. The socks he already had as well as those shorts.

Kevin's girlfriend Therese flew in on Christmas day. We picked her up at the airport and brought her back to my sister's for dinner. They will be here until Monday when they leave to return to NYC. The first night she had trouble sleeping because it was so quiet. Sunday we will take them to Niagara Falls, the butterfly conservatory and Niagara-on-the-Lake then the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Today is like a spring day here, 60 degrees out. I hope it's this warm tomorrow for our trip.

What did my friends in the blog world get for Christmas?

Is he or isn't he?

Santa Claus

The age old question, is he real?

The 411 on that subject in my kindergarten class is this; I happen to be privy to a conversation at one of the tables at center time. Johnny and his friends are discussing Santa and little Joey pipes in that there is no Santa Claus. There was nothing to be heard except stunned silence. Finally one students says "there is too Santa Claus!" Meanwhile I'm giving the shhhh sign to Joey so he will stop saying that. No luck with that. The kids then ask Joey how he knows this and he replies that "his mother told him so, there is no Santa, he's not real." Johnny fires back, "well your mom is stupid!" Now I have to step in. I explain that it's not nice to call someones mom stupid, it's rude and it hurts feelings. Apologies are made. I then take little Joey aside and tell him that if his mother told him there is no Santa that's okay. She's certainly not stupid. It's just that the other kids believe that he's real so let's keep this between us and let them think he's real.

There is a pretty good age gap in kindergarten, we have some kids that are a solid five years old, some that just turned five in the months since school started and some that have just turned six. But geez at any of those ages they should still believe in Santa! I'll never forget when my oldest asked me that same question. I asked him did he really want to know and he said yes he did. I told him there is no Santa. The look on his face crushed me. I should have lied. I then told him I'd kill him if he told his little brother.

I did go on to explain that there is a little bit of Santa in everyone. If you like to make people happy, give gifts to your friends and family as well to others less fortunate then Santa lives in your heart.





Cheesy, yes, but I believe it.




That same little boy I told so long ago that there was no Santa is on his way home from New York City today for the first time in 5 months! I'm so excited, it's the best Christmas present ever. Now if only Dominick the Italian Christmas Donkey would get out of my head, the day would be perfect.

History Lesson

Joel Roberts Poinsett 1779-1851

Have you ever heard of him?

He was a gentleman well versed in knowledge as he studied medicine, law and military science. He was also fluent in Spanish, French, German and Italian. He was active in United States politics serving in the House of Representatives, he was a trailblazer for what is now known as the Smithsonian Institute and President Madison appointed him to the Ambassador to Mexico.

He also had an interest in horticulture and was an amateur botanist. While he was living in Mexico a plant caught his eye, Euphorbia pulcherrima. In 1826 he brought this plant to America and it was first called "painted leaf" or Mexican fire plant. Today we know it as Poinsettia as it was renamed in his honor.

I buy a poinsettia every year but for some reason I don't have much luck with these plants. Their leaves drop off quickly. I do love the white ones the best if they're pure white, not greenish white.

They come in various colors, I think these look like pinwheels.



This one is a pretty salmon color, a nontraditional color for Christmas.

The red seems to be the most popular color. Did you know that the actual flower is the little yellow clusters in the middle and the colored leaves or petals are called bracts.

Round One

Our first major snowstorm of the season technically occurred in fall. It was Friday and caused numerous headaches for drivers. My afternoon kindergarten session was canceled but actually the whole day was canceled for me as I was home with a wicked cold.



On the shores of Lake Ontario. Doesn't it look cold? We get the majority of our lake effect snow off of Lake Ontario. Once in a while we get lake effect courtesy of Lake Erie like the storm we expect today. There won't be as much snow but blowing and drifting of what we have. Expecting wind gusts up to 50 mph.

This was after Friday's snow.

Out and about Saturday. The plows are keeping the roads clear of snow and ice. For those who live in warm climates and never have snow, the white stuff coming out of the back of the trucks is road salt. It melts the snow and ice and gives your car a "beautiful" patina of speckled white.
Out front we have a large Japanese maple (below) as well as a smaller weeping split leaf Japanese maple but no pine trees. We buy a cut evergreen, stake it up and put lights on it. We leave it up all winter because the birds like to play in it. Here it is after the snow.

Our front door.

Here's our little tree at night.
In the background is the little Japanese maple under the front window.

Yeh, Happy Holidays

Nothing during this busy time of the year says Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or Joyous Kwanzaa like a freaking cold.




I'm not talking about the little cold that allows you to still go on your with your daily life with a case of the sniffles. I'm talking about the cold that puts you down in the bed. The cold that sucks the energy out of you. The kind of cold that doesn't let you taste the fine dining that is a McDonald's fish fillet with extra tarter sauce delivered to your bedside by your loving hubby. The kind of cold that makes you wonder how your head can be so packed solid with goo but still lets you have a runny, raw nose. The kind of cold that takes away any enjoyment in reading a good book, doing a crossword puzzle, watch TV or surfing the net. The kind of cold that you just lay in bed wishing you could go to sleep for a few days and wake up refreshed without the dry flaky nose. On that note I'm going to go and try and do just that.


Oh by the way, for your next cold try Puffs tissues with aloe and Vicks in them. They are wonderful. They're soft on your sore nose and smell good although today I can't smell anything. Another good point is that your dog won't like the smell of them. Dogs are gross sometimes and my dog loves a good wet kleenex. Yuk. I'm always having to get them away from him or carry a bag around with me for the snotty ones. The Puffs with Vicks; he wants nothing to do with them so I can leave them all over my bed.

You Smell

Take it from me, television sucks in the month of December. I can prove this because I'm watching VH1's 100 Teen Stars. One thing I notice in the month of December is that the airwaves are prolific with fragrance commercials. Suddenly it seems all sorts of celebrities come out with their own perfume. I wonder if they wear their own? Do they think that the public will buy it just because it has their name on it? After all I'm positive that they didn't work in the lab putting the different scents together to come up with the product. They just slapped their name on it and want us to buy it. I'm not really a perfume wearer, I like body lotion better. Even that I rarely wear but when I do it's usually Estee Lauder's Beautiful or Elizabeth Arden's Sunflowers. Most of the time I just want to smell clean, like Dial soap. One of my kindergartners once told me, "Mrs. B, you have a nice smell coming from you." The first "perfume" I ever wore was Love's Baby Soft. I saw it in the store the other day and was surprised it was still in production.


I thought I'd list out a few of the celebs that want you to smell like their name. Some have more than one.

Sarah Jessica Parker: Lovely
Britney Spears: Believe, Midnight Fantasy, Curious
David Beckham: Instinct, Intimately
Jennifer Lopez: Glow Eau de Parfum
Paris Hilton: Heiress Eau de Parfum (what does an heiress smell like?)
Hilary Duff: With Love
Kimora Lee Simmons: Golden Goddess
Christina Aguilera: Inspire
Shania Twain: Starlight

Then there's the celebrities that don't even bother to come up with a name for their product, it's just...
Celine by Celine Dion
Carlos Santana by Carlos Santana
Patti Labelle by Patti Labelle
Tim McGraw by Tim McGraw
Danielle by Danielle Steele
Mariah by Mariah Carey


But the commercial that bugs me the most:
Sean John: I Am King
I think he must have an ego as large as Donald Trump's who in fact has his own fragrance called, you guessed it, Donald Trump by Donald Trump.


Oh, and the number one teen star was Molly Ringwald in case you're interested. Or not.

Parking

Parking can be a bitch in New York City. Take it from someone who has experienced it first hand; me.When we moved our oldest to the city in August we were there from about 3 PM on Friday, gone by 10 AM Sunday and managed to get a parking ticket.

Within two weeks of living there our son received a parking ticket. The fine was $45 but he didn't pay it right away. We know this because his car is still registered to our address and the notices came to our house. I say notices because they kept coming. By the time he paid it the fine was up to $75. Last week guess what, another parking ticket notice. We called him and said pay it now! Turns out that's small potatoes.

I hope he's not on his way to being on the outstanding parking ticket list like this guy. Seems that Alexander Khamish owes a whopping 81,000 dollars in parking tickets!

That's 415 parking tickets since 2004. Khamish isn't the only culprit, there are others that owe thousands of dollars in fines also.

Screaming Gifts

Have you ever come accross an item in a store that screamed someone's name when you saw it?

I was in Barnes and Noble today and was purusing the 2009 calendars when suddenly my eyes fell upon this one.

Whose name was it screaming you wonder.

Tornwordo! Tornwordo! Tornwordo!

Who the hell is that you ponder. He's the proud owner of the blog Sticky Crows and a blogger that I regularly read. If you regularly read him you would know that for some reason he obsesses about poo.

Tornwordo, this is the perfect gift for you!

Won't you be a Santa too

Christmas shopping. I'm done. I'm wrapped. Woo Hoo!

This year I tried something different.

As you can see I wrapped everything in the same paper and I like it. I wasn't sure if I would. I usually wrap in all different kinds of paper to the extent that I will buy certain paper to wrap certain people's gifts in. I had multiple rolls of Christmas paper that would last over the years.

My school does a monetary collection at school. Students are asked to participate by doing an extra chore at home to earn some money or donating their ice cream money. A food drive is also held. Meanwhile teachers are asked to submit any student family that may need extra help at the holiday. At the end of the week the families are divided up and a group of teachers shop. I've done this for the past nine years. This year $1,004 was raised, enough for each student to have 60. spent on them as well as 35. for each sibling they had that didn't attend our school. I had two families to shop for and both were students from my kindergarten class which was nice as I know them. I can't wait to see the new clothes on them and hear about the toys they got. Of course they don't know where the stuff came from, as far as they know it was from Santa. The next morning after shopping we bring all the gifts into school where through out the day whenever the staff have a few moments we wrap them. Yesterday the gifts and food baskets were delivered to the families before the children got home from school.

Now going back to my all one wrapping paper story. I donated all my rolls of wrapping paper to school and bought one kind. It feels good to know that I chose the gifts for my kids and then wrapped them myself with my paper.


In these tough economic times if you can donate to an organization that helps families have a nicer Christmas PLEASE think about it. There's the Salvation Army for one and also Toys For Tots. Trust me, you'll make a child happy and feel good yourself too!

I Do

My how the years fly by. It seems like yesterday I went to bed as a newlywed and woke up this morning celebrating my 26th wedding anniversary. I clearly remember my 4th anniversary as I was very happy that I had now been married longer to my present husband than my first. Have all 26 years been blissfully happy? Nope, there were ups and downs, highs and one very low but we weathered the storm and with hard work the storm clouds cleared.

We've gone through seven cars, had three dogs, lived in our house 25 years, raised two great kids and our marriage is stronger than it has been. Tonight we went to our favorite restaurant and enjoyed a delicious steak dinner where I was presented with a gift bag. Now in all these years we've never given anniversary gifts since it's so close to Christmas. (why did we decide to marry so close to the holidays? I don't know and I picked the date.) In the bag was this watch which is perfect for me. I love different and funky things. How lucky am I?

I didn't get Hubby anything but will make up for that later ;)

Snowman?

Last week when we still had some decent snow the kids down the street built a snowman. Well the snow melted and little by little so did the snowman.

The snow started to melt and so did the snowman. I realized it looked familiar to me.

I can't decide if it looks more like E.T.

Or Professor Farnsworth from Futurama.

What's your opinion?

Meet the new family members

My sister and husband's 8 year old black German Shepard died suddenly a few weeks ago. His name was Loki from Norse mythology and means mischievous troublemaker. He developed bloat and was gone within 12 hours. It was very sad. My brother-in-law's parents live with them and he takes care of them. Unfortunately they should be in a nursing home but he won't do it. His father is blind and suffers from dementia and his mother has Alzheimer's. She asks several times a day, "where is Loki?" They then have to explain to her over and over that he has died. The decision was made, they decided to get not one new dog but two. They came over today to meet us.

Cody, this is Bella. Bella, this is Cody.







This is Hawk. He will have a long hair coat while Bella will have short hair.

Are they not the cutest? I think they look like little bear cubs. Right now 75 lb. Cody towers over them but eventually they'll be more evenly matched. Their father weighs 90 lbs and mom weighs 65.

Friday at School

Friday we had an assembly at school. It was a group of 15 dancers called "A Moving Experience" from the Arc of Monroe County. If you're not familiar with that organization it was formerly called Association of Retarded Citizens. This troop was made up of male and female dancers who varied in ages between early 20's through 50's. Several had Downs Syndrome and a few had suffered traumatic brain injuries. There were two dancers in wheelchairs and some were what you might relate to as "slow". I hate the word retarded, even as a kid I didn't use it in my vocabulary. It sounds so mean and disrespectful and I cringe when I hear others banter it around. I was happy when this organization changed their title.

The school invited them to visit so they could preform and so our students could learn a few things. First; everyone is different, we are not all the same. Second; you can do things if you try. Third and what I think is most important; empathy. (Click the link if you don't know exactly what that word means. We need more of it in this world.)

The dancers had three adults that took care of them, led them in the dances and helped with some of the movements for the wheelchair bound. Of course the dancing was simple movements so they could do it and they had scarves to add to drama of it. The performance was interactive in the sense that the choreographer, Susan Ware taught the students some of the same motions that they could do from their spot on the gym floor. She explained that the dancers liked to see the audience dance with them. I wish you could have seen the dancers. You could see that they were proud of themselves and the joy that they took in it. The music was perfect and kid friendly. For one dance the gentleman with the troop took the hand of a wheelchair dancer and did a routine complete with spins.

For the final dance Ms. Ware explained that the group came up with the words to a song they called Peace Table. They discussed and decided that to have peace in your life you need four things. Respect, Kindness, Love and Understanding. She taught the children the sign language for these words so they could participate. A card table was brought out with a cloth and dishes as well as chairs. The dance began, the music was beautiful, everyone did the signs as Susan spoke the words. After a minute or so I noticed that one of the ladies in a wheelchair was starting to slip down. (For all assemblies the students sit on the gym floor and one thing about kindergarten is we always get the front row.) Now this woman is almost out of the chair and on the floor and nobody on the dance floor seems to notice. I'm thinking what do I do? I'm the closest adult to her! Well finally they noticed and turns out it was part of the dance. She crawled over to the table and pulled herself up into a chair. It took her what seemed like forever to do this but in fact was less than a minute. The dancers continued to dance until she was seated at the Peace table. Then they all came to her and put their arms around each other. That was the end.

Now if you know me, I am an emotional person and it turns out I'm not the only one. Every teacher around me also had tears flowing. With over 400 students, grades K - 5 in the gym you could hear the proverbial pin drop. They all realized that they had just seen something very special. It made everyone stop and think how lucky they are in their lives to be healthy. Now I know how lucky I am, I see what's out there. I have worked with autistic children, emotionally disturbed children, Downs children and kids with learning and physical disabilities. I have 2 very smart and healthy boys and am the luckiest mother in the world.

This was truly a moving experience.

Stupid is as Stupid Does

Maybe stupidity should be a criminal offense. How stupid can a person be? I'm referring to Plaxico Burress of the New York Giants. (Doesn't his name, Plaxico sound like the name of a drug company or prescription medicine?)

Over the weekend he somehow managed to shoot himself in the thigh while in a night club in New York City with a hand gun that he didn't have a permit to carry and was also unlicensed. I'm going to go all anti or pro NRA here but why bring a loaded gun into a club? Did he want to be ready for anything? Did he want to appear macho? It was just an accident waiting to happen and he's lucky he shot himself and not an innocent bystander. What was he thinking? Obviously he wasn't. The penalty for this is a felony with automatic jail time. My opinion? Throw the book at him and make an example out of him.

Many, not all, of today's athletes and celebrities think that they can do what they please. Perhaps thinking the rules and laws don't apply to them because they're rich and famous. They shouldn't be treated any differently than the average Joe when it comes to this stuff but you know how it is; money talks.

Mr. Burress has plead not guilty and since I'm not a lawyer I don't really understand how you can plead that when it's obvious you had the gun and shot yourself. He has procured the services of attorney Benjamin Brafman who coincidentally (or not) was Sean Combs' lawyer when he was arrested on the same charge in 1999. Brafman somehow managed to get a unanimous not guilty decision for P. Diddy on that occasion. I don't think it will be as easy this time since the new law that was enacted in 2006 makes this a felony with no parole option.

I'm interested to see how this all plays out. I'm predicting that Plaxico Burress will get out of this weapons charge somehow and manage to keep his job in the NFL. What a great role model for his young son.

On second thought if stupidity was a crime the jails and prisons would be overflowing more than they are now. Everyone does something stupid sometime, just somethings are more stupid than others.

Over the Weekend

We took our youngest back to college yesterday but he will be home in 2 weeks for 39 days!! He will work some hours at his old job at Ben & Jerry's. We found out over the weekend that our oldest will be able to get home for Christmas. He and another nurse switched a few days. He comes home the 23 and returns the 30. His girlfriend is flying in on Christmas day and will leave with him on the 30th. Her family celebrates the holiday on Christmas Eve. I will have to be on my best behavior for 5 days.

On another note I heard about the incidents around the country on black Friday in Walmart and Toys R Us. This was the first time I had done shopping on that day and was surprised at how pleasant people were. Everyone waiting in line to check out was civil and chatted with each other. The only place that was chaos was Toys R Us. As a matter of fact the only grouchy people I heard in my travels were in that store and I was one of them. They need a better system.

We put up our outside Christmas lights over the weekend and also our tree. I like it up early but take it down shortly after Christmas. Once on Dec. 26 and always by New Years Eve. I love the anticipation leading up to the holidays but when it's over, I want my regular life and house back. How about you?