Laura wanted her hair up a certain way...like an artist would have it. She also told me that when she says hello, she is going to say 'bonjour' because some artists speak french.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
The artist colony
Laura has been telling us for over a year now how her profession is that of an artist. when she does certain things she says that she does them because she's an artist. She got another easel for Christmas and did some drawing today with her new brushes and ink. She's actually not too bad. Catherine cant be left out so she did her drawings with a chalk base.
Laura wanted her hair up a certain way...like an artist would have it. She also told me that when she says hello, she is going to say 'bonjour' because some artists speak french.
Laura wanted her hair up a certain way...like an artist would have it. She also told me that when she says hello, she is going to say 'bonjour' because some artists speak french.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Merry Christmas 2008
Umple Eddie was telling us that his childhood with Santa Claus and Christmas ended upbruptly when he woke up for christmas to discover that the gifts under the tree included clothes and some dreaded flash cards. The first picture is of Jimmy with flash cards.....poor Jimmy.....it got better for him.
Jack showing his Italian side
Unfortunately for me I had to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas day. The eve was moved over to Kara's this year instead of our house because of the damage in the backyard room. On Christmas day we went over uncle Patrick's house and were going to head over to Karas. Well, we got a call when we were on the way to Patricks house from Kara saying she had no power at her house so Lyn ended up hosting Christmas for her side of the family.
Jack showing his Italian side
Unfortunately for me I had to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas day. The eve was moved over to Kara's this year instead of our house because of the damage in the backyard room. On Christmas day we went over uncle Patrick's house and were going to head over to Karas. Well, we got a call when we were on the way to Patricks house from Kara saying she had no power at her house so Lyn ended up hosting Christmas for her side of the family.
On Christmas morning Jimmy woke up up first and then the rest of them followed and were soooo excited about finding all the gifts. Catherine kept holding things up and saying that the gift she opened was just what she wanted. She got a new American Girl Doll. Laura got a bunch of girlie gifts, Jimmy at first opened the "crap" but then did all right with a bunch of wii games and a new DS. Jack was awesome. He reminded me so much of when Catherine was his age and would just stare at the gifts for a long time. He got tons of Thomas the train stuff and he would yell "tommy" every time he would open one. He was very cute to watch opening his gifts.
The next day was spent putting together a bunch of them and having them play with every gift one after another.
It was a great Christmas with plenty of drama, as usual.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
More Christmas parties
Today was Lyn's family Christmas party. With Nana being one of 16 kids, there are tons of grandchildren running around to keep the kiddos occupied. The kids are so fortunate to have all these kids around all the time. They are all good kids too. Cousin Jenny informed me that she reads the blog every day. She has beautiful little ones that look familiar from my childhood..I wonder why....... Cousin Marion is in charge of the nativity play. Jimmy was one of the three kings along with Jacob, Laura was an angel, of course, and Catherine was a lovely sheep. Emily was Mary again and Erin was a bearded shepherd. Jack was that kid near the manger carrying a wiffle ball bat...a little known history lesson there. Santa Claus made his annual visit with Jack making his customary screeches. Jimmy played football inside the hall with some of the little cousins and didnt take part in bashing the Santa Claus pinata. My favorite part of the day was when the kids were sitting patiently on the floor waiting for Santa to arrive and I got to lead them in the favorite Christmas favorites like Frosty the snowman, Jingle Bells, Rudolph and of course, Spongebob Squarepants.......
While sitting on the stage Auntie chrissy came up to me to show me once again why she is my lady. In her hands was a huge whoopie pie that she had managed to steal for me before the whoopie rush came. She is very good to us, always calling to check on us.
It was snowing pretty good outside but that didnt seem to stop many people from showing up. We thought about not going for a second but loaded up the hillbilly minivan and took it slow.
When we got home we did the finishing touches on the Christmas tree. It tilts a little bit and its location has changed due to the old oak's visit to the back yard room. We really miss that room being operational. Now Jack just plops in the living room demanding to watch tommy the train or hannah. He loves Rico from Puerto Rico yello aaaa-ooooo its Rico. He just sees him and laughs real hard. He didnt go right to sleep tonight, how rare!!! The girls looked so cute today. I can still just stand there and watch Catherine during these parties because she has such a good time with life. Her smile is so cute.
Then heading out to the driveway to crank up the 200 year old snowblower to feel that, of course, it was not quite working. How do we do it!! Again, I'm too good to Doe to let him come over tomorrow to fix it. That reminds me that this week we had three chainsaws to chop up all the trees that were fallen all over the place. He has one that is about the same age as the snowblower. I dont know but I think you have to kick it six times, talk nice to it and say a prayer to Saint Joanne and spray some hair spray on it to make it start. I tried and tried to start it...to no avail. I looked out and after about six seconds he had the sucker started and was chopping up arms of the old oak tree. It just isnt fair.
While sitting on the stage Auntie chrissy came up to me to show me once again why she is my lady. In her hands was a huge whoopie pie that she had managed to steal for me before the whoopie rush came. She is very good to us, always calling to check on us.
It was snowing pretty good outside but that didnt seem to stop many people from showing up. We thought about not going for a second but loaded up the hillbilly minivan and took it slow.
When we got home we did the finishing touches on the Christmas tree. It tilts a little bit and its location has changed due to the old oak's visit to the back yard room. We really miss that room being operational. Now Jack just plops in the living room demanding to watch tommy the train or hannah. He loves Rico from Puerto Rico yello aaaa-ooooo its Rico. He just sees him and laughs real hard. He didnt go right to sleep tonight, how rare!!! The girls looked so cute today. I can still just stand there and watch Catherine during these parties because she has such a good time with life. Her smile is so cute.
Then heading out to the driveway to crank up the 200 year old snowblower to feel that, of course, it was not quite working. How do we do it!! Again, I'm too good to Doe to let him come over tomorrow to fix it. That reminds me that this week we had three chainsaws to chop up all the trees that were fallen all over the place. He has one that is about the same age as the snowblower. I dont know but I think you have to kick it six times, talk nice to it and say a prayer to Saint Joanne and spray some hair spray on it to make it start. I tried and tried to start it...to no avail. I looked out and after about six seconds he had the sucker started and was chopping up arms of the old oak tree. It just isnt fair.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Normalcy (uh huh)
Life is returning to normal, whatever that is. Uncle David came over and fixed the hole in the roof so we dont have to have a real skylight. The back yard room is still unlivable but the rest of the house is ok. We really miss that back room though because all the kids have to settle and watch one tv and thats impossible to agree to. Jack wants to watch his Thomas all the time and the other kids have their own shows. A couple of nights before the boom boom Jack was in the living room watching Hannah Montana. In one scene she trips and falls over and down. He yelled O Hannah fall down O Hannah. He was very upset about the whole thing. Poor Hannah. Last night Jimmy woke up at around 3am and was in our room walking around and talking. For some reason he wanted to talk and then asked if he could go watch TV. Then Jack somehow ended up in bed shortly after. Not to be outdone Laura was heard gunning it for the bathroom because she was sick and had to toss em. Poor Laura was sick today. Lyn thinks it could be the chicken she ate yesterday and not a flu. Just in case it was something else, she didnt go to school. Catherine was the only one who stayed asleep but she was on the couch sleeping when I left this morning at 8am. For recording purposes I must mention that today was the first time I have appeared before a judge as a lawyer. Nothing too heavy but all the same it was fun. Kara sent me some pictures from the Teddy Bear tea. This was Catherine's first year and she just loved it. All the girls looked so beautiful.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Snap, Crackle and pop
Its amazing how long is takes for ones bones to thaw....
It all started Thursday night
Lyn called me at work and told me that she thinks that we lost a big tree in the back yard, she cannot see it because the power went out. When I got home at around 1am or so I took a flashlight around the house to see if any trees were down....The sounds of trees bending, breaking and then falling seemed to be all around. I heard three trees fall from the time I got out of the car. When I looked closer I saw that it was the tops of trees snappping or limbs snapping. When I got into bed Jimmy was there, wide awake. He had heard a loud bang, probably a transformer blow and that was it for him.
That night I lay awake listening to the cracking and crashing sound. At that time of night it makes everything seem worse. I talked myself into going to sleep around 3:30am thinking that if it were going to happen it was going to happen. Realistically, the kids rooms were safe from trees so I went to sleep. Bang boom and here we go. The old oak tree by the back of the house sent a missile flying onto and through the roof of the back yard room. Poor Frankie was sleeping on his couch and some of the debris landed on him while he slept.
Friday was spent trying to talk to a human being at the insurance company and then trying to find something I can do with a tree sticking into a house. Luckily, the person who answered at the tree company was a lady with a family and as I let her kno
w that we were a family with four kids and a hole in the roof I got a return call very quickly. 
A couple hours later two huge huge huge trucks pulled onto the front lawn, one of them a crane. I was so disappointed that the kids werent there to see it. It seemed that we got a large crowd watching the festivities. The tree limb went quite a ways into the house. It was like a missile shooting in. At first I went into the crawl space of the roof and thought I would just cut the tree....yeah right. It was solid and heavy. I felt that I had owned a home for twenty years and not once have I ever made an insurance claim so I just let it go and leave it to someone else.
The kids ended up staying over aunt Jo's house for the last two nights.
Sunday, Laura and Catherine went to the Teddy Bear Tea in Boston. Lyn says that the girls had an awesome time. Kara tells me that she took pictures so I'm waiting on that.
Unfortunately, I had the bachelor pad all to myself the last couple of days. Probably would have been better if it wasnt FREEZING. oh what a wimp. One of the nights I got home from work and went to the new case of beer we inherited and I almost even drank one....too damn cold.
Tonight the kids are home and everything is back to normal and we are all happy for that.
It all started Thursday night
Lyn called me at work and told me that she thinks that we lost a big tree in the back yard, she cannot see it because the power went out. When I got home at around 1am or so I took a flashlight around the house to see if any trees were down....The sounds of trees bending, breaking and then falling seemed to be all around. I heard three trees fall from the time I got out of the car. When I looked closer I saw that it was the tops of trees snappping or limbs snapping. When I got into bed Jimmy was there, wide awake. He had heard a loud bang, probably a transformer blow and that was it for him.
That night I lay awake listening to the cracking and crashing sound. At that time of night it makes everything seem worse. I talked myself into going to sleep around 3:30am thinking that if it were going to happen it was going to happen. Realistically, the kids rooms were safe from trees so I went to sleep. Bang boom and here we go. The old oak tree by the back of the house sent a missile flying onto and through the roof of the back yard room. Poor Frankie was sleeping on his couch and some of the debris landed on him while he slept.
Friday was spent trying to talk to a human being at the insurance company and then trying to find something I can do with a tree sticking into a house. Luckily, the person who answered at the tree company was a lady with a family and as I let her kno
w that we were a family with four kids and a hole in the roof I got a return call very quickly. 
A couple hours later two huge huge huge trucks pulled onto the front lawn, one of them a crane. I was so disappointed that the kids werent there to see it. It seemed that we got a large crowd watching the festivities. The tree limb went quite a ways into the house. It was like a missile shooting in. At first I went into the crawl space of the roof and thought I would just cut the tree....yeah right. It was solid and heavy. I felt that I had owned a home for twenty years and not once have I ever made an insurance claim so I just let it go and leave it to someone else.
The kids ended up staying over aunt Jo's house for the last two nights.
Sunday, Laura and Catherine went to the Teddy Bear Tea in Boston. Lyn says that the girls had an awesome time. Kara tells me that she took pictures so I'm waiting on that.
Unfortunately, I had the bachelor pad all to myself the last couple of days. Probably would have been better if it wasnt FREEZING. oh what a wimp. One of the nights I got home from work and went to the new case of beer we inherited and I almost even drank one....too damn cold.
Tonight the kids are home and everything is back to normal and we are all happy for that.
My little Laura proves to me once again that she could keep a smile playing in a mud puddle. She has named the tree that ended up in the backyard as "Stickland" as she and Catherine play in it.
First Christmas Party
Christmas party with Santa. The four sisters were dancing to Copa Cabana..shame shame shame....
First we had my families Christmas party. The girls followed the party by going to the Nutcracker with mom and Nana.
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