Our nephews

We have 5 handsome nephews that we don't get to see often enough. They are pictured here oldest to youngest:

Don's sister, Kathy's two boys, Adam (18) and Brandon (15).
Adam is heading off to university this fall.

My brother, John's, son, Cole (14). An expert in martial arts and solid as a rock!

Don's sister, Barb's, two sons, Eric (7) and Michael (5). They keep us well entertained as you can see! (Always wash your kids' hands after they play with crayons in restaurants ... you never know how they were used before you!)

Nola

Don's mom passed away on Thursday, January 7th. She was 84. She had a long battle with Alzheimers which robbed her of many years at the end. Here is a photo of Nola; this one taken in 1993 with Carolyn who was 8 months old during this visit to see us in Richmond Hill. She always enjoyed her grandchildren.

There was a beautiful service for Nola in Ingersoll on Monday, Jan. 11 where we celebrated her life and enjoyed the music that was so enjoyed by her. Adam, our nephew, put together a beautiful slide show presentation reminding us all of her better days and the many good times we all shared with her.

Personal space

I'm one that needs her personal space. I'm not one that likes people standing too close, especially strangers. Its hard to manage your personal space on an airplane, but most people, big and small, work hard to stay within their alloted minuscule space, i.e. the narrow space between armrests.

Except the person beside me when I rode back from Florida. She was amazingly unaware of any personal space courtesies. It was irritating me until Carolyn, my daughter, leaned over and said, "Forget about it mom. Pretend you're on that show where if you can tolerate the person without losing your temper for an hour you'll win $100." This completely changed my perspective and became a challenge - a game to pass the time away while I was bashed in the arm countless times.

And in hindsight I find the whole situation funny. Here are some of the things my seatmate did:

• Set her carry-on bag down on my foot and let my leg support it during take-off
• Massive sighs and massive shifting in her chair rocking the row
• Asked if she could put her lunch garbage on my tray (I said 'yes' thinking she was getting up to go the bathroom - she then made herself comfortable and didn't move, except to reach across me to drink from her cup on my tray!)
• Slammed me across the chest with her arm
• Hit my arm to talk to me even when I was reading or talking to Carolyn

Okay, it was very weird but I did realize later that she had some issues. She was met by someone as soon as she got off the plane and helped out of the terminal to where some anxious person was probably relieved for her safe arrival.

Where's my $100?!

Christmas 2009 in Florida

We had a wonderful week in Florida with H&B. Perfect weather, great company, and plenty of delicious food. Spent a lot of time on the beach walking and reading. Saw 'Avatar' one night ... as Bryan says, "It was good but they ripped off 'Fern Gully'" - a popular kid's movie years ago. True!

As usual we went to The Sailfish Marina for our first breakfast. Here's 'casual Santa' with Bryan, Dad, Carolyn & Don:

And we were back to the Sailfish for a stroll on the piers on Christmas Eve, looking at boats worth more than our house. The palm trees were all lit up - very pretty.

Out to dinner on our last night in this last photo. Don showed up minus some facial hair that he'd had for years and years. Here's Don, Mom, Bryan, Carolyn, Dad and me.

Hope you all had a great holiday with family and friends too.

PSU canning weekend

This weekend 10 wonderful kids stayed with us for their PSU fundraising weekend. Most are from NJ and PA, one is from MD, and one is from Cleveland, Ohio. There were 8 guys from the same Frat as Bryan and 2 girls who are in nursing.

As canning weekends go, apparently it wasn't the most successful in terms of collecting donations. They seemed to be competing with the Salvation Army and the weather. About mid-afternoon on Saturday it started to lightly snow, then just dumped down on us for the next several hours. It was still relatively mild so the snow fell in huge fluffy flakes. Pretty to watch; not so pretty to drive in.

Chilling and napping in the family room after fundraising: Rush, Bryan, Brian, Nick, Andrew, Mike & Kyle.

Breakfast group: Brian, Mike, Julie, Nick, Rush, Nicole.

They're all back to school for the last week of classes, followed by a week of exams. Then, home to their families for the holidays.

Bless you!

Sneeze and the whole world says, "Bless you!" Die coughing and no one says a thing. Why is that?

It amazes me how quickly people (even complete strangers) are programmed to say "Bless you!" after a sneeze. Since I am a multiple sneezer this has always been a bit embarrassing. I sneeze once and 20 people say "Bless you" ... but I'm just getting started. Those who really know me don't say "Bless you", they count, "One, two, three, four, ... ten, eleven ..." You've got to really hang in there if you want to bless me.

From wikipedia:
Bless you, or God bless you, is a common English expression addressed to a person after they sneeze. The origin of the custom and its original purpose are unknown.

An alternative expression to Bless you that is sometimes said after a sneeze is the German word Gesundheit.

A legend holds that it was believed that the heart stops beating and the phrase "bless you" is meant to ensure the return of life or to encourage your heart to continue beating.

Workin'

Most days you can find me sitting at my laptop working, emailing, surfing and facebooking. And sometimes Cathy joins me.