I Do!

There comes a time in a girl’s life when she finds that one true love. The man she falls head over heels in love with. She idolizes him. Her world revolves around him. She dreams of one day wearing the perfect dress and pledging her eternal love to him. For Nadia, and most every other little girl in the world, that first special love is with none other than their “Daddy.”

Nadia has been in a wedding, watched them in movies, and even seen video of Mommy and Daddy getting married. In her two year old brain . . . a wedding is when you dress up like the most beautiful princess in all the land. You find your true love, the one who will love and comfort and care for you forever. You carry flowers and play beautiful classical “princess” music as you walk down the isle to meet your prince. You meet him at the end of the trail and promise to love each other forever. Then you and your prince exchange rings saying, “with this ring I thee wed.” Then they say “you may now kiss the bride." They kiss and walk back to their party and dance. Here is the best part, at the end of the wedding you get to eat “birthday cake!” How wonderful!

Nadia has been talking about getting married for a while now. She just loves dressing up. So, to appease our little sweetie we gave her a wedding this past Sunday. And when asked who she wanted to marry she of course said “My Daddy.” We gave her everything she ever dreamed of for this special day minus the “birthday cake.” She didn’t even notice though. She was to excited to marry her Dad and that’s all that really mattered to her in the end. She took her vows very seriously.

All in all it was a beautiful day and a beautiful first wedding for our little girl. I have a feeling the next one won’t be as cheap. But that’s okay; thankfully we’ve got at least twenty or more years to save up for it. Boy will he be in for a surprise when he finds out this will not be her first marriage. We plan on playing the video of this wedding on her wedding day.

Please check out the slideshow I created of this beautiful day!

A Bit O Human Behavior

I have learned a lot through observing our human behaviors over the years. More so now than ever since having a child of my own. Nadia has been teaching me about many basic human instincts and behaviors which we are all born with. I’m not going to get into it all of that now though. I just want to share a story detailing one aspect of our human nature that I find amusing.

Pete was in the living room playing with Nadia while I was preparing yet another fabulous meal. I could see the two of them playing and Pete was letting her bounce on his belly. Pretty fun game, probably even more fun than jumping on the bed I’d assume. After a while Pete began to make a few groaning noises like it was beginning to hurt. Nadia of course paid no mind to him and kept on bouncing. She was having a great time. Finally he told her okay that’s enough for now. She persisted laughing the whole time. Pete kept trying to tell her to settle down and stop but she just wanted to keep on bouncing.

I started thinking this is a true behavior for all of us. It’s just so much simpler to see it in a child. We treat others exactly how they have allowed us to. If you let someone belittle you or talk down to you that’s how they will continue to treat you because you have given them the green light to do so. If you demand respect and love at all times that’s what you will receive. We as humans just want to “keep on bouncing” because that’s what you have allowed us to do.

Many of you may already know this simple fact. If you do, then congratulations. I just felt like sharing. It amazing to see how and when we humans begin to implement these basic life skills before life experiences get in the way.

Forgive me while I catch up

Let me first apologize to my loyal readers. I’ve been lost in a cyber-haven! Lots of my readers have been wondering where I’ve been and when are they gonna read about it. Well I could blame it on lack of time with all the fun I’ve been having this summer. I could blame it on all of the crazy running around I’ve been doing with Nadia and my exchange students. These are all true statements and al legitimate excuses but I think the real culprit has been MySpace. I have been wrapped up in catching up with old friends and family that I haven’t seen in years. It is amazing.

Since moving to California I have had to retrain my mind. Anyone I see who looks familiar is not. That is the sad fact. When I first moved here I saw so many people who looked like my family members and my friends. But each time I would get close enough to approach the familiar face would vanish and I’d be face to face with a complete stranger. Excuse me! I felt like I was going crazy and I’m sure the people who I ran after to talk to had the same idea. After a while I trained my brain to know that NO ONE out here is familiar or from my past. So, I stopped looking. I gave up any and all hope of being reacquainted by chance to anyone in my past. Que sera sera.

I started a blog about a year ago to reconnect with my family and some friends who I was lucky enough to stay in touch with. This made me feel good. Reconnecting, sharing stories and photos. I heard about the MySpace phenomenon but refused to give into temptation. My husband (the computer genius) said it was bad and that was good enough for me to want to stay away. Little did I know how much I was missing out on. My cousin Patrick invited me to join about a month ago and I did just to see how he was doing. This opened up a world of family and old friends which I never fathomed possible.

Needles to say I am now a MySpace junkie. I miss being able to stay in touch. Until now it has been so difficult from 3,000 miles away. This place has opened up a whole new world. I have found so many people who I basically wrote off. C'est la vie! My mind has been expanded. No more of what I had trained it to believe these past years. These people were actually here! I wouldn’t be surprised if I found some of my dearly departed friends on here through some sort of glitch in the matrix. But that is getting off the point and I would need to write a whole other blog about that one. Maybe even a series of blogs.

So what I’ve been doing and why I haven’t had time to blog is doing some much needed catching up. It’s good for the soul. Well . . . mine at least. I’ve been doing plenty of writing, just privately to my good old friends and family. So, if you are in my family or an old friend of mine and you’re on MySpace, look out! I’m gonna find you and find out how the heck you’ve been. I promise when I’m done catching up there will be many more blogs and pictures coming so please be patient.

I feel the need for speed

Check out the specs on this hot new car. I'm hoping this will be my next big purchase. It's the granddaddy of them all, the Bugatti Veyron 16.4. The Veyron would earn two membership cards in the 500 Club, courtesy of its 1000-horsepower quad-turbocharged 8.0-liter 16-cylinder powerplant. Vromm Vroom. That's hot!

Bugatti Veryon

Bugatti Veryon 2

Bugatti Veryon 3

Yes . . . I have switched over to the Dark Side

Okay, I have been super busy this summer with a trip back east, family gatherings, a wedding, a few birthdays, canoeing and now at home with 4 exchange students. Things have been crazy and hectic but I'm totally enjoying it all. I can't wait to start posting about all of our wild adventures.

But, the real reason for this post is to tell all my faithful viewers that I have succumbed to the pier pressure and am now on MySpace. Which is what has really been sucking up all my time. I am addicted! I love that I can find a lot of my family members and many of my friends (new and old) on this handy little site. I am loving it! So, from now on I will primarily be using MySpace for all of my posts but will also try to continue this blog as much as I can for those of you who are still not enlightened. Thank you all for reading up on our family adventures. It means a lot to me to know you care enough to take time out of your day to see how we are doing.

If you do have a MySpace account or want to create one (it's free) please send me an e-mail or comment on here that you would like to find me on MySpace. If you try to find me yourself you may have some trouble. I am using a fake last name and have set my home zip code to look as though I live in The British Virgin Islands. So, please give me a shout if you'd like too hook up on MySpace with me. Thanks all! Love and Huggs!

Happy Birthday Emily

This post is long overdue but couldn't be passed over. Last month we celebrated my adorable niece Emily's 8th birthday. She is getting to be such a little young lady. When I met her she was less than 18 months old. Time sure does fly when you're having fun. This is what she looked like as a toddler. She was just like a little cupie doll.


We had the privilege of celebrating two times with her. Once on her actual birthday and again over the next weekend. We had a wonderful time celebrating our special nieces very special day. Her party's were of course fabulous and she was a perfect little princess. My parents even got to join in the celebration all the way out from Jersey. Here are the pictures we took. Hope you enjoy!


Happy Birthday Emily! Hope it was a good one. We Love You!

There’s a thin line between dreams and reality

Somewhere in between that grey line lies the spirit world. Which if you start to contemplate weather that in itself is either dream or reality is even more boggling. If you are a loyal reader than you already know that I do believe in angels. I believe they talk to us in subtle ways everyday. I also believe that they have the power to visit us in our dreams. This is where I’m not quite sure it constitutes a dream or an actual visit from beyond and what really is the difference?

Those of you who know me know I had a dear Aunt, named Lynnie, who lost her battle with breast cancer last November. The last time Pete and I got to visit her was in April of 04 and we didn’t know she was sick then. It all happened so fast. Once we found out she was sick about a year or more later I tried to call her as much as I could. I wanted to stay in touch and sometimes the phone is a difficult way to communicate with a baby crying in your ear. I decided then that I wanted to make a blog for her and for all my family to keep in touch with them. I wanted to create a place where they could go to read about my life and enjoy current pictures too. This blog was essentially born for Lynnie. Unfortunately by the time I pieced it all together it was too late for her to enjoy. I hope all of the rest of my family can enjoy it now.


I had a difficult time knowing she was sick and there was nothing I could do for her. I wanted to visit her so bad but life got in the way. We are more than 3,000 miles apart. So many times I was tempted to jump on a plane even if it was just to see her for an hour to hug her. I received several sad calls from my mother updating me on Lynnie’s weakening condition. There were times when I fell apart crying to Pete. As the calls kept coming I started to become numb and remove myself from the pain of this harsh reality. I knew one way or another I would make it out to see her one last time or at least be able to see her family and help consol them. I just kept telling myself to keep it together until then. When she did pass away it become impossible for me to get out to her funeral. I never cried, I held it together, I remained numb.

So back onto the subject of dreams, I had one the other night, or was it a visiting? All I know is I had no recollection of it until the next afternoon when it hit me like a ton of bricks. Pete and I were driving out to the mountains and Nadia was passed out in the back car seat. We were talking about my family and about the people he would love to hang out with. He started spouting off names, “Uncle Johnny, Aunt Dottie, Aunt Lynnie, . . .etc.” Only I didn’t hear the etc. part because my brain was stuck on Aunt Lynnie. And then the light bulb went off! I remembered I had a dream about her the night before that I had not remembered until that very second. Before I even spoke he just looked at me and said, “I don’t know why I said her name but something just told me I had to say it at that instant.” Freaky stuff!

I proceeded to tell him “I had a dream last night about Aunt Lynnie. We were lying in her bed. It was Lynnie, Me, and then my mom all lying next to each other cuddling. My viewpoint in this dream was positioned looking down onto the bed at all of us. Aunt Dottie stood at the foot of the bed looking at us and my view was behind her. I never saw Aunt Dottie’s face I just assumed it was her. I was lying next to Lynnie hugging her and rubbing her arm and laughing with her and I kept telling her, “I love you, I love you so much!” The next frame in my dream she was gone and all was holding onto was her pillow and I was sobbing, “I miss you!”

As I told this to Pete I began sobbing and a wave of emotions came over me. I had to just sob. Was this a dream? I tend to think not. I believe I was visited by her for a very specific reason. Now that I am looking back on the dream I am thinking that the woman I was standing behind was not my Aunt Dottie but my Grandmother(Liz). I think she was her guardian angel guiding her on her journey.


Sometimes being separated by so many miles makes it difficult to grasp certain concepts especially if you have been removed by distance for so many years.
Sometimes I feel numb to evens that happen in life that are so far away from me even when they mean so much. Sometimes it takes a few more miles to travel before reality sets in. Thanks for coming all this way to see me. Thanks for letting me say my goodbye even though I couldn’t be there when it happened. Thanks for letting me know that you are still here watching over us all.

I love you Aunt Lynnie and miss you so much!