Somewhat wordless wednesday…

So that state championship we missed for my awesome sisters wedding….they won…

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i have lost count…

I know I just recently sang my sisters praises…but I have to do it One. More. Time. Because really? How many other people can brag about this…

on her way…

at the finish! I cannot expect her to do anything else but this at the finish line…god I love my sister!!

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One of my favorite places…

is Mystic Seaport. I worked there, I have friends there, I got married there. To say its kinda important to me is an understatement.

We have been married for two years, and in that two years Nick has surpassed me in height and strength…this is my favorite picture…we are standing in front of the L.A Duanton and the Charles W. Morgan, both on the the dry dock for work. Work I have followed in detail. I just like that I can share it with the boys…

 

 

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Conversations over Candy…

Yesterday I came home with a blinding headache, the kind that make you want to chop your head off if there is another loud noise, bright light, or rancid smell. We had dinner, cleaned up, and I went to lay down. Before I did that, I left the Halloween candy from work on the table. Now it is no secret that sweets in this house do not last and the paltry amount of candy I had brought home would only tempt the sweet buds. None the less it went on the table. There was a bag of M & Ms, a couple of bite size snickers and a twix. Kevin went to take a shower and I went to lay down, gingerly, on my softest pillow, because my hair hurt. This is what happened next…

N: “Where did the candy on table come from?”…

Me: (with my hand smashing half of my mouth) “I brought it from work…”

N: “Is it for me?”

Me: (eyes closed, hair throbbing) “Its for anyone who gets to it first…”

N: “Jen…whats my dads favorite candy?”

Me: “I think its easier to answer what candy isn’t your dads favorite”

N: “So I should eat the M&Ms before he gets out of the shower?”…nosh nosh nosh

He is catching on…

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ten on tuesday…

or photographic proof that graduation is official…

i have to thank my friend amys husband brian (who will be this next year!!) for the picture, i know my parents and my sister have some pics as well, just havent gotten them yet. best part of the day? walking down the stage then the aisle and looking up over the crowd and seeing my parents, my sister, nick and my husband everyone cheering for me and my husband giving me the thumbs up…

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my dad…

has always been a huge part of my life. he was the first guy to ever get me a valentines day present. and well, some things never change.

i get a call at work. its my dad asking if i am at work because the museum is closed. i told him i was in my office and asked why? turns out he was here to sing to me!!

they brought me a rose…

and totally made my valentines day!!!

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!!!!

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to mary…

i remember when you were born and mom and dad took me to the hospital to learn how to be a big sister. i got to wear scrubs and a face mask and a hair net, i thought that was the bees knees. then when you came home i got a sparkly shirt that said “I’m the Big Sister” it was blue. you got a bear dressed as a clown, i was a bit jealous because, well it was so soft and all i got was a lousy t-shirt…

i know you still have dog and remember coming home from school when ann and john were visiting and when they gave you dog he was instantly attached to you for years to come. i tried to convince you that you should name him cinnamon, you were convinced for about a minute so to this day he is just dog. i cannot however picture dog full of stuffing and not ‘blind’…

i remember when we both were at st. joes and although it wasnt “cool” to be around younger siblings, i still always wanted to know how you were doing and if everything was okay. i admit to laughing when joe gallagher threw you in the leaves at the bus stop, but i always had your back at the norths…

i remember dreading going to highschool but always appreciated the awe that you gave me when you saw either on the basketball court or the softball field…

i remember moving away to college and not even being nervous for myself, but more nervous for you because you were going to start highschool, deep down i knew you would do just fine and of course you did, but for the first time i wouldn’t be there. i admired your strength then…

senior year of college i remember coming home for your pre prom party and watching you in that gorgeous blue dress with the boy whom you had known since kindergarten, get pictures taken, and parents doting on the both of you. the amount of maturity at that moment was overwhelming, my little sister was growing up…

the summer after your senior year of high school and my graduating from college we went to jersey. i remember sharing the guest room at grandmas house. somehow i had convinced you to have the super hard bed that was set up for the nun (thankyou!) and we had a great conversation where you voiced your concerns about college and all that entailed, my simple answer to you was “you will be just fine…” and you know what? you were!

after moving half way across the country and graduating from dayton, you came home. i remember the heart to hearts over lost loves and consoling you that you had made the right decisions.

i remember and am forever grateful for when you painted my toenails after my surgery, i know how much you HATE feet, but after driving at break-neck speeds to help me and i turned out okay, i think painting them was no big deal…

i also remember being slightly envious when you moved to jersey to start your grad program mostly because i admired your strength to follow your dreams, when i wasnt in that place just yet…

i remember sitting on the front step of my new london apartment with you on the phone just after my heart had been broken, you told me everything would be alright…and it was…

for a lifetime of memories, these are just a few, my sister is such and important part of who i am, she is someone (perhaps the only one) who knows me the best. so now the next chapter may be advice on weddings and marriage, because she said YES!!!!!!                  CONGRATS MARY!!!!

I love you from the bottom of my heart!

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and then we all float away…

so its raining, and by raining i mean A LOT, and by A LOT i mean the ground is still frozen which makes the water just pool. add to that really high winds and a general feeling of crap and i would have to say that is a great definition for a monday!

this was my last weekend before classes start again and i had grand aspirations of being creative. every once in a while i get the urge to make something. my problem becomes the question of what i want to make. my first thought was “ohh i will paint something.” all those great crafty blogs have found furniture that miraculously becomes a gorgeous piece of furniture with just a few coats of paint. immediately i find obstacles…1) i have no ugly found furniture. 2) i have no space to put the amazingly re-done found furniture. 3) in fact i have no space to actually amazingly re-do a piece of furniture. 4) i have no paint to transform the non-existent found furniture. and then things start to spiral out of control and i find myself just staring at what i do have and thinking that i will never create anything amazingly cool from found furniture ever. EVER.

instead i putz around the apartment, read a magazine, watch whatever the boys are watching and wonder what happened to that creative side of me…

and the last day before my life becomes full of reading, classes and papers, is spent picking up nick from school early because he has a touch of the plague, making some comfort food, and catching up on all the great crafty blogs that turn old silverware into wall art and taunt my hidden creative side…

perhaps i will just construct a boat…

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just a couple questions…

would it be wrong of me to encourage nick to use the name of the person who tormented me in middle school in one of his homework assignments that included listing suspects for various crimes committed in town?

am i considered a “wicked” stepmother because after months of telling nick no text messaging, yet he continued to text, i decided to block all incoming and out going texts?

will that come back to bite me?

and really what is the definition of a step mother any way? i think its kinda mean, i don’t consider myself a stepmother, i am just jen!

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thursday thoughts…

• tonight we embark on a time-honored tradtion; open house for high school. (insert some type of music in the background) thats right, kevin and i will trek to the highschool, the same high school kevin went to, to learn all about schedules and to help “ease the transition from middle school to high school.” no joke that is what the news letter said! i havent figured out how i feel about this, i met nick when he was in fifth grade and i always knew high school was next. i may have to marinade on this for a bit…
• i want to know why whenever we download a dave matthews cd set the trak listings are all wonky, we put three discs from the same show into itunes last night and each disc had different information on them either it was the concert name being different or the name of the artist, that made finding the new discs in the library a nightmare…
• i was watching a gaggle of geese in the lacrosse field across from the parking lot this afternoon and began to wonder why are they called a gaggle, that lead to why on earth are a group of frogs called an army or a group of owls a parliament…
• last night i had a wonderful conversation with a long-lost (recently found through facebook) friend. a sister of a former best friend of mine who went to the same high school and college as i did. she recently had a baby who is so very adorable and we were able to catch up a bit, it was just nice. i also learned that her sister is still in a word crazy and for a brief moment i thought about what life would be like if she were still involved in mine, then i snapped back to reality and thanked my lucky starts she is not…is that wrong?
• external hard drives and moving iphoto libraries are not my friends right now…anyone have any idea how to make the disc not locked?
• this break i have read three or four books, one of which called Provenance all about art forgery and another called The Billionaires Vinegar this one about wine forgery. i have decided that i want to find that one thing that i can study and live and become an expert so when there is another great con they can call me and i can look at whatever it may be and say with absolute authority that whatever is fake is in fact fake…how cool would that be?

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