Thanksgiving!

It has been awhile since I've blogged - obviously. Over the past few months, the Facebook bug has bitten our family and friends. It is nice to catch up with classmates and friends who I haven't seen or spoken to in decades - now I am farming with them or beating their Bejeweled scores :)

Many people say "if I haven't talked to them in that long, there is a reason...". I don't agree - life just gets in the way. We graduate and everyone goes their own way. It doesn't mean we didn't get along. Anyway...it is nice and I enjoy my visits with friends near and far.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow - our yearly adventure in decision making - who's house will we eat dinner at? It used to be that my parents ate at 2:00 and Dave's mom ate at 5:00 - we'd just eat at both and suffer the consequences later. Now they both eat at 2:00. We are typically the "floater family", scoping out which family is expecting less people and go there and have dessert at the other. We are truly blessed to have such a dilemma. So, tonight, I will help my dad make stuffing and get everything together, while Dave will make 6 pumpkin pies at our house.

• I am thankful for my family and friends and the health and safety of all. People often wish for happiness or money, but I'll take health and safety - the rest will work itself out.
• I am thankful for the men and women in our Armed Services who fight for freedom - both ours and others.
• I am thankful for a large family of people who generally all get along.
• Most of all, I'm thankful for my husband and children who are the loves of my life.

I wish all of my friends a Blessed and Happy Thanksgiving!

Post-St. Patrick's Day

Since I now have a few readers (I think 3!), I've been reminded that I haven't posted in a few days (thanks Emily!)

St. Patrick's Day went off without a hitch. Dave and I took Emily and her friend Megan out for the day with us. I was the designated driver! We headed down to ORIGINAL Quaker Steak and Lube in Sharon which was celebrating it's 35th anniversary (not to be confused with all of the shiny, new franchises that have popped up everywhere! Emily and Megan wanted to go for green eggs and ham, but we weren't ready to go in time, so I made them at home and saved $10.

We got to the Lube at 10:30 am and it was already PACKED. We headed next door to Tully's (the 2nd of the original "3 by the River") and there were quite a few tables there. We muched on some healthy magna fries loaded with cheese and bacon (to absorb the alcohol) and some green beer.

By 11:30, we had 2 tables out on the enclosed patio off the back of the Lube. Dave's stepdad, Doc and his friend Bigga Jim arrived to pomp and circumstance since they are always the life of the party and have enjoyed quite a few friends and followers at the Lube for the past 35 years. (Plus, it was Doc's birthday). The owners had their chairs all waiting for them and this year a special portajohn was in place so they didn't have to go far (Doc is an amputee, so it is hard for him to manuever the tight crowds.

Dave's sister Laura, and her daughter Tess met us, as did Dave's nephew Jason and Laura's son Patrick (who sadly had to leave us to go to work!) The sun came out and the sides of the enclosed porch were raised, leaving us in the sun to enjoy the 65 degree day - it was gorgeous.

By 3:00, the entire parking lot between the buildings were filled with green-clad revelers. My favorites: the man wearing the "I (shamrock) Leprechaun Porn" tshirt, and the stocky young man in the lime green unitard, boxer shorts, red beard and green top hat. It is a lot of fun being sober in the midst of a mob of drunkards ;)

We headed over to Tully's to see the Irish Stepdancers at 4:00. Since as of last month, Hannah was still performing with them, they asked her to join them for a song. They also asked if anyone else knew how to dance, of course everyone shoved Emily up. She was a good sport, although ill prepared to dance in a tube top and green sweater - took some maneuvering to avoid a wardrobe malfunction. There was a great band called the Barflies on after the dancers - I'd like to see them again, but they were too loud for that venue and there is something weird about rocking out to a band at 5:30 in the afternoon - or maybe it's because I'm just too old.

We headed home around 7:00 pm - it was a really fun day!

St. Patrick's Day preview...

For the first time in 12 years, St. Patrick's Day will be celebrated as it was meant to be, in a bar, without our children :)

Because I am not a bit Irish, I never knew what the big hullabaloo was about St. Patrick's Day. This changed on March 17, 1985 when my boyfriend - now my husband - said "we are meeting my dad for a beer at Irish Bob's - at 10:00 AM!" My first thought was "who goes to a bar in the morning?"

Prior to that, I didn't know they made green beer and those who know me, know: a). I don't drink much and b). when I do drink, I'm a lightweight. But you know, I'm game. We met Karl at Irish Bob's at 10:00 am and Dave's brothers and sisters met us later. We were there until 9:00 pm that night. Since none of us had eaten much throughout the day and no one was in any condition to drive, we wandered across South Avenue to the China Gate - because nothing says St. Patrick's Day quite like 8 completely trashed celebrators dressed in green barging into a Chinese restaurant where apparently the patrons had never heard of St. Patrick's day.

Anyway, for the last 12 years, my daughters have been Irish Step Dancers. (see video) I've seen the "tsk tsk" looks appropriately given to bad parents who take their kids out of school to dance in bars all day (LOL). Homework is pushed aside from March 1-18th as mandatory practices, and bookings all take precedent. When the pub patrons ask why we have to leave the bar so early (10:00 pm on a school night) we say "well, her teacher expects her to be in 4th grade bright and early tomorrow!" I wouldn't have traded it for anything - neither would have they. They have had such great experiences performing and have made such terrific friends from their hobby.

Emily "retired" a few years ago, but last month, Hannah hung up her ghillies to pursue other interests - we will still go and watch our friends perform, but this year Dave and I will be where we belong - along side his family at 10:00 am drinking green beer - yep, I'm still the lightweight, so I am the designated driver. Sadly, we'll be done by noon and back home for the day - aww...getting old sucks!

Happy St. Patrick's Day - drink responsibly!

Tired of winter...

Ok, we have to be in the home stretch towards spring. Our "tease" of 65 degree weather last week did nothing except make me wish it was April (oh yeah, and melt the snow). Tonight, it snowed again - my hands haven't been warm in 5 hours.

We had a really, really, nice Valentine's Day. Emily was working, Conor had the winter homecoming dance at the school, so we thought it would just be Hannah, Dave and I. Hannah informed us Friday night that her cousin was coming to town to stay at my dad's and they planned a sleepover there (YAY!) So, Dave and I had some appetizers and champagne and the most romantic meal of all - Subway - and headed out to see "The Wrestler". We usually try to see the movies nominated for Academy Awards and so far we've seen "Slumdog Millionaire", "Benjamin Button", "The Reader" and "The Wrestler". I've never been so depressed in my life. They are all very good movies, but other than "Slumdog" none end happily - they are, however, all good movies. I can't get past Mickey Rourke looking any different than he did in 9 1/2 weeks. I get the feeling that movie is really what his life has been like for the past 15 years...

Ok, I'm off to bed... more later!

Scary week...

We've had this blast of winter weather, first the 13" of snow last weekend and now the "balmy" 12 degrees - wind chill of 1! And today is the WARM day...

We are all hunkered in for the evening. The realization that mom really isn't overprotective and doesn't want anyone driving when it is bad has now settled in.

Last Saturday night, Emily and Tess (my niece) were coming home from their grandparents and as they were merging on I-80, Emily slid on black ice, heading sideways across 2 lanes of highway, she was able to straighten out the car just in time to be hit by a tractor trailer. Fortunately, he had seen her slide and had enough time to react a bit and caught the driver's side end of her car. They were thrown off to the side of the road and are sore, but thank god, no injuries. The car has no back end and is totaled. Had she spun a 1/4 turn in any direction, they'd have been killed. It was so, so, scary.

So, I'm more than ready for spring and the snow to go away! I've said it before, I do not want to win the lottery, I have my friends and family and our health and safety. When you have that, you have it all.

Happy New Year!

Well, we've all made it through to the New Year pretty much unscathed. It was the first time in years that I was off almost the entire holiday with the kids - well, with Hannah since the older two no longer care if I'm home (not publically at least!)

As if we hadn't eaten enough, we had a baptism between Christmas and New Year! Colton Timothy was baptized on December 27th. Here is a picture of all of the boys. I'm sure he will grow up quickly with the twins dragging him around everywhere. They are a lot of fun - and a nice diversion from, and for, the older cousins.

We took our yearly "cousin" picture at my dad's on Christmas Eve. It is amazing to see how much everyone has grown. Steve, who is the oldest at 20 is no longer obviously the "big kid" having now been caught up to by his 6'3" 15 year old cousin Robby. So, we have 13 Goodyear cousins, 20, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 7, 5,5,and 1 month. (and this is only half of the cousins for my children - Dave has 18 on his side of the family, ranging in ages from 24-5).

I love big families!

Time flies...

I was sitting at home the other night making my list of cookies to bake. I asked Dave what he wanted me to make, knowing full well that he would answer "I've never met a cookie I didn't like".

It was then that I realized that I did NOT have 3 weeks until Christmas, but only 2! YIKES! It happens every year - it is Thanksgiving and I think I have all the time in the world and then suddenly it is December 15th.