Cool Quote

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...It's about learning to dance in the rain!"

I don't have a source for this quote other than a friend emailed it to me but I like it!
I love quotes. Pithy little sayings that hit the spot. I hardly ever remember any and I have many books of quotes and I have tons of little scraps of paper all over the place with them jotted down. So, I'm thinking that Cool Quotes may become a regular feature on my blog and be a nice way fro me to collect them and be able to refer to them when I want.

TGIF!

It's Friday. I'm glad. I'm tired. It's been a busy week here at work.
Today after work I am rushing to a girlfriend's house to catch the tail end of a lesson on making Pastel de Guayaba. It was a last minute thing and you I will post about it later. I want to finish an embroidery project I'm doing. I want to put some pictures on CDs for my dad, brother and another friend. I want to print out pictures from graduation. I want to work on some scrapbook pages. I want to watch a movie or 2 cuz they are relaxing. I want to bathe the dog. I want to cook or bake something out of the ordinary. I have a dentist appointment on Saturday and I think 18 want to go college clothes shopping on Sunday.

We'll see what gets done. I'm thinking not half of that will get done.

OMG!

I'm freaking out over here. I never talk about work (I don't think) but I am freaking out over here because the other woman that works here has just given 30 day notice! We are a VERY small operation here. There are 4 of us plus a part-timer. She has been working with the owner since the beginning of time - longer than all his wives put together! She's goto gal. She knows EVERYthing. She knows how he ticks. She knows where everything is. She knows how he likes everything. OMG! I think we should shut down the company. What am I gonna do?!?!? I can't fill her shoes. HELL I don't WANT to fill her shoes. OMG!!! How are we gonna manage?!?!?!?! I know we are all expendable but OMG!!!!!! Everytime I touch something today I have been thinking...I don't know how to do this! OMG! Gimme Patience! PATIENCE! GIMME ENLIGHTENMENT!

We decide to do an outdoor event = rain

Key West has been on level 3 water restrictions due to drought conditions. They should have called us earlier. Because that's all it took was for me and my family to want to stay and see the sunset for the skies to open and shower down on us. After a long hot day and the Trolley Tour which I recommend if you have never done it, we had dinner at The Rum Barrel (The Southernmost Philly Club in the US) and then walked over to have a slice of Key Lime Pie before heading to Mallory Square to see the locals do their shows and watch the sunset.
We felt the winds picking up but kept deluding ourselves and saying it would be a quick sun shower and move on as is common in FL, especially the Keys. The sprinkles started the camera and my in-laws ran for cover in a store. We milled about and watched some vendors pack up but one stayed. An escape artist, a la Houdini. The drops were getting bigger but he would get into the straight jacket and chains and escape if we agreed to stay and watch and not take off. We agreed. The sun teased us and peeked out from behind a cloud as he got tied up into his contraption. By the time he was locked in the rain was lightly but steadily coming down. As if nature were working with him, as his drama unfolded so did the rain. He got free and as the crowd was dropping $ in his open case the thunder and lightning came. A careful dash to the car and good-byes were said as we were driving home and they were driving back to the camp site for another night. We drove home in the dark in the pouring rain with our hazard lights on so that other cars would see us at 35 mph for 3 hours! Need rain? Call us and we'll make plans for an outdoor event near you too.

Memorial Day

I know it's the day after but...
Did you think of all the fallen service men yesterday? Did you say a prayer of thanks? That is what Memorial Day is all about. On TV, I watched the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier and talked about it with my boys. 18 saw it when he went to close-up and we all shared our thoughts. We also talked about the tour we took in Key West, we learned about it's connection to the various wars, it was a home to many a Navy, the base there, the statue of the sailor in the cemetery facing out to sea saluting all those who left and never returned. It was very interesting and fitting for Memorial Day weekend.
I again told the story of one of my best friends in high school who's brother was a marine who died in an embassy bombing in Beirut. It was the closest military death I have experienced. It was devastating to all of us at school. I pray for that family and many others.

The Plan

Here's the plan for Sunday...
to eat this:

and watch this:

Spring cleaning

I am forever spring cleaning at home. The idea is one drawer at a time, one closet at a time. I'll get there.
Yesterday it was the blog that got the spring cleaning. I'm not done. Later today I will work on my sidebar stuff. I finished that books months ago, read another one and am on yet another one. Gotta add to the blog roll and delete too. Just general organizing and culling to do.
Hope you like the fresh look for summer.
Here's wishing everyone a great long weekend and a toast to the beginning of summer.

Mental Feng Shui

A friend sent me this as a chain email and I liked the message so here you go! I deleted all the chain mail parts.

Mental Feng Shui
ONE. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully. T
TWO. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, t heir conversational skills will be as important as any other.
THREE. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.
FOUR. When you say, 'I love you,' mean it.
FIVE. When you say, 'I'm sorry,' look the person in the eye.
SIX. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.
SEVEN. Believe in love at first sight.
EIGHT. Never laugh at anyone's dreams. People who don't have dreams don't have much.
NINE. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.
TEN. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.
ELEVEN. Don't judge people by their relatives.
TWELVE. Talk slowly but think quickly.
THIRTEEN. When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, 'Why do you want to know?
FOURTEEN. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
FIFTEEN. Say 'bless you' when you hear someone sneeze.
SIXTEEN. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
SEVENTEEN. Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; and Responsibility for all your actions.
EIGHTEEN. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
NINETEEN. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
TWENTY. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.
TWENTY- ONE. Spend some time alone.
A true friend is someone who reaches for your hand and touches your heart.

Must ...

My SIL realized the other day that 18 may never be back here to live. Obviously, he will be back for vacation stints and visits but who knows where things will lead while he's in college and if he will be back to Miami to live his post-collegiate life.

That prompted a lot of you haven't done this;you have to before you leave and you haven't that; you have to before you leave. So, he threw up his hands and said that we could have Sundays. Basically anyone can claim him for all or part of Sunday to take him to to what he MUST do before leaving Miami. When they were listing things many of them 15 has done and remembers doing but apparently 18 didn't go or doesn't remember.

So, we are starting this weekend. Memorial weekend. SIL's family goes RVing in Marathon Key. It's also MILs birthday. 18 has never spent the night in the RV, so we are driving down Saturday to meet them and stay the night. Sunday we are all driving down to Key West to spend the day, take the tour and have dinner for MILs bday. I hope 15 decides to go with us, even though he has spent many a night in the RV because it will be lots of fun to all go and neither of them has ever been to Key West. When they were little we used to go to Bahia Honda (another Key) but we never went down to Key West.

I'll keep you posted on what he has dubbed as his 'cultural adventures tour of Miami'. There are many things unique to this town (as any town) and I know we take them for granted because we live here. The thought of him leaving and not enjoying them will prompt us all to see our hometown as tourists. I have been wanting to do that for quite sometime.

Graduation dots

Well, one down, one to go. It was a jam packed weekend. Here are some highlights:

* A little after midnight the night before, 18 sends me a text that he's got another ticket, to invite my dad. At that hour I call my dad. He laughs because a few hours earlier his girlfriend's son called to invite her to her grandson's graduation because they had just gotten a ticket. So, originally, neither of them were going to see their grankids graduate and now a the last minute they both could but due to time and driving distances only one could. He drove her to see her grandson's. They came to my house the next day for the brunch. 18 then tried different friends to see if they wanted the extra ticket. At that hour, it was hard to give the ticket away.

* After the actual ceremony which is downtown, they block off the street and all the graduates and their families congregate there for hugs, kisses and pictures. It's quite a scene. A sea of blue caps and gowns all milling back and forth. Lots of fun.

* Since we exited through the side of the theater in stead of the front my inlaws got lost finding their car and walked an extra 10 blocks! My MIL says she may never wear heels again!

* Once we all got home we each went to our separate beds and crashed fulling clothed in our graduation finery. Hubby and I napped for about an hour. 15 slept for a couple and 18 slept 7 hours! When he finally got up and showered of course he went out to party with his friends.

* Regardless of the fact that we were hosting a family brunch to celebrate 15 woke up Sunday and had his bowl of cereal unable to wait for the brunch or break his routine. It was funny to see. It was like he was sleep walking through the motions of prepping his cereal etc. Very odd but funny.

* I need to buy an American coffee pot maker and a larger Cuban coffee pot. For these events I am constantly borrowing an coffee maker. I don't know what happened to mine. At one point I know I owned 2, now I have none. I don't get it. As for the Cuban coffee pot I have a small one for daily use. I mean it's only 2 of us, we throw the leftover coffee out everyday. When we made the coffee on Sunday, I thought there was enough but I NO. I overlooked my best friend (who incidentally had offered my her VERY large Cuban coffee pot). I had to make Cuban coffee twice. Then she doesn't know but when I was preparing it I almost really messed it up my dad and FIL were there and almost choked laughing at me because instead of putting Cuban coffee in the pot I was putting American instant coffee! That would have been a disaster. Gratefully, I noticed before I closed it up.

* I am very happy that the cleaning lady is going today to clean up after the weekend events. Hubby and I would clean up for 15 minutes and sit and veg in front of the TV for 45. At that rate it took a long time to pick up.

* Tonight we have lots of laundry to get to since we spent the weekend partying. No rest for the weary.

We are good and tired. Lots to be grateful for.....

The Final Stretch

Here we go...18's last AP test is today, Graduation Mass is tomorrow night, Graduation on Saturday with a lunch after that, and Sunday a family brunch to celebrate. My emotions and my mind are a jumble. I look at him and think 'Wow, that's MY son. He's a good kid. I did that.' See, I get misty just writing it. I need to take a deep breath. I have been doing that a lot lately.

He's so clueless. He has no idea of all the things I want for him. He has no idea of all the joy he's brought me. He has no idea of the satisfaction and pride I feel. He's so many things. A loving son and grandson, a good-natured brother, a good friend, an excellent student, a proud athlete, a determined person, a bit head-strong, a take charge kinda guy, not much time for foolishness unless of course it's time to fool around, good with little kids, a joker, a good listener, willing to try new things and comforted by tradition.

I have been doing a lot of reminiscing and I want so many good things for him. I simply pray that he will always be safe and happy. Good luck son on all your future endeavors.

The Best Laid plans...

Have I ever mentioned that hubby loves his job. He's a project accountant which means he spends some time in the office and lots of time at the various projects his company has around the county.

Anyway, today he had a 7:30 meeting and after was going to have time to stop at home to have lunch. Save a few bucks eating leftovers in the comfort of home before heading to the office. And before he actually even went to the office he's stopping by the high school to get the graduation ticket for his mom so she can see 18 get his diploma. Perfect. Life is good.

Our microwave is temperamental shall we say. The screen isn't visible right now. It works. You just have to remember what was where on the screen and hope you are pushing the right thing. So, hubby serves himself a plate of leftover fried rice and hits what he thinks is 2 1/2 minutes (who really knows), goes to the bathroom and the doorbell rings. It's the mailman, he has a certified letter for him to sign for. He does and gets the mail and put it all on the entry table and goes to get his food out. The plate got SO hot he burned his hand because obviously he grabbed it with his bare hand. In an attempt to not drop the whole plate on the stove top he did a juggle thing with both hands and the plate burning more than one finger as he got the plate to the counter. No spillage. Good. The cleaning lady came yesterday and people are coming over tonight. He quickly seeks relief and sticks his hands under some cold running water. OK. Good . Now he gets a glass out to serve himself some water. Opens the fridge and grabs the water pitcher not really looking carefully and as he pulls the pitcher out crash goes the glass bottle of lemon juice all over the kitchen floor. GREAT! There's a dirty towel on the floor from 18s workout yesterday. He grabs that and starts soaking up lemon juice and sweeps up glass and soaks up lemon juice and wets some paper towels and goes over part of the floor that was sticky. Dumps the towel in the washing machine. Fine. Done. So, it smells lemony fresh. Gets his glass of water and plate of food to scarf down lunch at this point because now he's in a hurry AND now his rice is COLD! He ate it cold not wanting to go another round with the microwave.
He called to tell me the story on his way to the office and I was laughing so hard I was in tears. Did I mention I have people coming over and now I gotta hurry home and vacuum up the tiny pieces of glass and mop the kitchen floor. I hope it's not overly lemony smelling. Gimme patience.

ADDED LATER....I just called hubby to ask what the Certified Letter was. He doesn't know. He left it with the rest of the mail and didn't open it! LOL!

Mother's Day

It's always rough for the obvious reason of it's in my face that mom's not here. I get very melancholy and wistful this holiday.

I was recently asked by a friend who's father recently passed, How long does it take to get over it? I told him, I'll let you know as soon as I do. He just looked at me in quiet silence. Then asked, You mean I'm always going to hurt like this? No, I reassured him. It won't always hurt. There will be days it hurts to the point of crying and days that a memory is a comforting warm blanket that helps you through something. But you never forget. They never go away. At least that's how it is for me.

This mother's day, I got my cards, spent time with the extended family, went to my nephews' piano recital (it was lovely!), BBQd at SILs, called other moms and wished them a happy day. It was all perfectly nice. But in the back of my head, nagging at me all day, occasionally causing a lump in my throat was that I couldn't give my mom a hug, that she never met my kids, she would love sitting and telling them all the stupid things my brother and I did as kids and that she did too. Hell, it's making me cry as I type this.

My sweet boys!

No! I am NOT being sarcastic. After dinner last night I sat at the table with both of my sons and we gabbed for about two (yes 2!) hours. It was lovely.
We talked about school stuff but not the grades, the people and the dramas that are in every high school - the stuff soap operas are made. Some of the other things we talked about:
sports (duh), their friends, upcoming summer dreams, college wishes, wouldn't it be great if..., remember when..., comparing my high school days to theirs, weekend plans.

It was great, we didn't watch TV, we didn't do any chores. We just sat, the 3 of us and talked and talked and talked. Really nice. They have no idea how much it meant to me even though I told them.

Athletic Banquet

Yesterday was another long day. We attended the boys Athletic Banquet last night after work and we had a really nice time.
We reconnected with a bunch of parents we hadn't seen in a while. That was nice. I knew boys on many different teams and it was nice to see them all getting their awards. 18 received the Senior Award in Track and Field. We were very surprised. In fact I missed the picture and quite frankly wasn't listening to what they were saying. Why, you ask, did I miss such a special moment? Well, because I was busy at the other end of the stage getting a picture of 15 who received his Letterman's jacket for Track and Field. On the way home we asked him what the coach said as the introduction to the award. He said he didn't hear it because he was looking over the table for his District patch when another coach punched him in the shoulder and said Dude, listen! Pay Attention! and he turned and listened just in time to hear his name. He was very surprised. We all laughed.
His best friend since 1st grade also received a Senior Award for his sport, Hockey. It was great to take a picture of the 2 of them with their awards. I have pictures of those two boys doing assorted things going back to 1st grade, it's great that they are still such good friends. I hope they can keep in touch through college.
Like I said, 15 got his jacket and his oldest friend (brother of 18s friend) also received his jacket (also for hockey). We are GREAT friends with the parents and I was so happy that all 4 of them received awards last night. It was great! I am so happy for all of them.
I took tons of pictures. The lighting in the place is a horrible yellow but oh well. Neither of my sons gave me a hard time about the pictures. They actually called me over to take pictures of different groups and with different friends. I think they appreciate it more, now that they see all the 'old' pictures in the scrapbooks I am making. I think they are enjoying the memories. I certainly am enjoying the ride.

Sprain or Fracture - your guess

Heck your guess is as good as theirs! 18 had been running in Track for the past month with a pain in his foot. The school trainer thinks it may be a small stress fracture and told him to have it x-rayed. 18 decided to keep running and check it out after the season was over. Since it is now over he now has an appointment with the doc but it's not until the 21st. So, he decided to go to an After-hours clinic (which has been wrong with broken bones for us before) and get the x-ray just to know because apparently NOW we need to know.

After a few hours they told him they don't think it's fractured. They think it's just a severe sprain. It's not his ankle, the swelling (yes, it's been swollen a month) is on the top towards the outside of the right foot. Anyway, they say it MAY be a minor stress fracture or a severe sprain. HULLO!!! Isn't that what we (my insurance) are paying you for? to tell us what's wrong? for what might be wrong he could have stayed home and polled that family and friends. They gave him a prescription for pain meds which he's not going to take, crutches which he used to walk outside of the clinic because he felt weird walking with them in his hands in front of their faces, and told him he should stay off of it and follow up with an Orthopedic. Gee Thanks! WhatEVER!

Seeing RED!

Red Pepper Flakes that is. I have discovered Red Pepper Flakes. Discover is the wrong word, they've always been there, I just never really used them.

Since I am cooking more and more veggies now, I gave my lazy susan a spin to look for something new to put on them and make them un-boring. When it stopped the Red Pepper Flakes were staring at me. Hmmm... I tossed in a few dashes and YUM! The jar I had was probably as old as Methuselah, so I bought a fresh jar and have been using it on all my veggies now making new combos every day. Basil and Red Pepper Flakes. Fresh Cilantro and Red Pepper Flakes. Fresh curly parsley and Red Pepper Flakes. A squeeze of lemon and Red Pepper Flakes. You get the idea. Last night I made grilled chicken breasts with garlic, scallions, chunked eggplant, lemon juice and you guessed it Red Pepper Flakes. DELISH! Baby, Where ya been all my life?!

Track Meet Stuff

We had a great time. Here are a few highlights:

* 3 of out boys got medalled in their events. We came in 15th out of over 65 schools. We had no injuries.

* A new state record was set in pole vaulting at 17'6". It was really cool to watch the entire stadium watching this boy, oohhhing and ahhhing and cheering him on. They stopped all the other events so that everyone could watch him.

* One of our coaches drank the other coach's contacts and chaos ensued. C1 didn't bring a case and so he left his contacts in a glass with saline solution. C2 half asleep in the morning grabbed said cup put water in it, drank his meds and left the glass on the counter empty! He left for the park with a group of students who had to register earlier. C1, who is basically blind without his contact, couldn't find the glass, the phone calls started to find his Dr., get the prescription faxed, go buy glasses, get kids to where they needed to be, get C2 to buy his glass. Good thing that a bunch of us parents went and there were extra cars and drivers.

* At dinner I almost yelled out to one of the kids "Let me eat your cherry!" but I caught myself at Let me and rephrased to "Are you going to eat the cherry on your sundae? No? May I have it please?" Whew! It was really close.

* I got the mother of all sinus headaches while I was there and went to get Sudafed. Did you know that now that particular decongestant is regulated and they were just shy of asking me for a blood sample to buy it. Apparently, it's used to make some street drug. Who knew!? not me!

All in all it was a good weekend. We all had fun and came home tired and happy.

I'm leaving

not on a jet plane.....Bwahahaha!

So we are taking off today to Winter Park, Florida for the State Track Meet. The actual events are tomorrow and we will be back on Sunday. It starts early on Saturday and end really late thus the extra days. I think it will be a nice quick getaway amidst all the end of year chaos that's going on. We are all excited!

Expired

Most of our food and drink products now have expiration dates on them. How far past that date is it ok to consume the stuff? This isn't Mission Impossible the container doesn't self destruct when it expires, hmmmm, maybe I'm on to something. Self-destructing food containers when the item reaches the point of non-consumption. You heard it here first people, just for the record. Anyway, back to reality. I rely on my nose; my nose knows when not to eat something because it's gone bad. I really don't use the date for much more than a guide. The other day I was going to use my last bouillon cube and noticed the box expired 2 months ago. I'm thinking how does this go bad? I used it, we all ate and we are still walking and talking.
So, last night at Coffee night the barista was going to toss a bunch of their sandwiches and salads because they expired. The date stamped on them was 4/30. I understand that they can't sell it anymore because if something were to happen to someone they'd be out of business. He offered them to us. We all took one for lunch the next day. My nose will know when I open it today if it has expired or not. Meanwhile I am looking forward to my chicken tarragon sandwich later. YUM!