I haven't been shy about my poem writing skills.
Nor have I held back bragging about the poems Gary writes for me.
But did you know that our poem writing genes have been passed down to our son Nolan?
I present to you one of his poems.
...Oh
by Nolan
He couldn't see her face
Just the back of her head
He knew she was beautiful
And that's all that needed to be said
He wanted to talk to her
But he was too scared
He wanted to call to her
But he never dared.
Just to see her face!
It would be so grand
And he just knew
It would not be bland.
He finally gained the courage
'cause he was as curious as could be
And only her face
Was what he wanted to see.
He roughly cleared his throat
And peeped out an "excuse me"
And then she turned around
But SHE was a HE!
Nolan wrote this last year as a school assignment. Thanks to said school assignment I have a whole book of poems by Nolan. This one was for sure my favorite. It was inspired by the school uniforms that our school system implemented last year that made the whole student body androgynous (which I think is awful). I remember hearing Nolan and Wes talk about how it's made it harder to know sometimes if you are looking at a dude or not. Now some may argue that THAT is the point but hello.... then there is reality.
Store bought edibles I recommend
This once was my absolute favorite Lean Cuisine.
Then this became my favorite. Yum.
But then....
Lean Cuisine came out with Butternut Squash Ravioli and I thought I'd died and went to the fanciest Italian Restraunt ever (heaven?) and it became my very very all time favorite Lean Cuisine.
However I do still love and enjoy the others because I could say that I would eat Butternut Squash Ravioli day and night but.... I couldn't do that with anything. Not even chocolate.
Speaking of chocolate, I must recommend Dove
Mercy.
Gary likes the dark chocolate bars. I like the individual candies like the picture above. They have these amazing flavors from a chocolate truffle center to caramel to raspberry and they just came out with banana foster.
Be still my heart.
And.....
*sigh*
It's pure love and adoration that I feel for chocolate and orange together. And Lindt makes the best orange filling ever. Ever.
Speaking of citruses-
These Lemongrass Chicken Spring Rolls are one of my best discoveries. The sauce they come with to dip the spring rolls in is divine. Who would have thought grass would taste so good with chicken?
If you know me then you know my love for sushi...
And finding this kit was exciting. I've made sushi and it's not hard, but it's slightly tedious (and sticky) and that's fine sometimes but sometimes I don't have time to cook the rice and roll the sushi because I have blogging to do. On days like that, this kit is a dream.
And lastly I have found a pure love for Italian Wedding Soup.
With it's pasta and spinach and meats.
But was sad to discover this soup has no history with Italian Weddings. Oh that beautiful story that could be behind Italian Wedding soup but... isn't.
So there you have it.... some store bought already made foods that you may or may not have tried before but if you haven't, I highly recommend you do.
I absolutely positively cannot, (cannot!) get enough pictures or video of my new nephew!
My sister posts them on her (private) blog. (sorry guys)
She posts them on our (private) family site. (sorry again)
And she sends them to me via text. And I reply, "Aw! SO cute! More! More!"
It's amazing how he's so little and yet she just puts a camera up to him and he knows how to be cute. He just..... does.
Like this video of cute baby Judson-
I watched this over and over.
Then I showed it to Gary.
Then I wanted my own baby (which I still ask for daily) to video and show the world.
Then Gary said no (which he still says daily) and I decided I must make do with what I have.
I took my camera and put it up to one of my babies to see what he'd do.
Yeah... No.
It just doesn't work like that- it's just not the same.
Church Doodling.
That's what my kids did a lot of yesterday....
It started with Zoe, who is but 7 years old, who has every right as a 7 year old, to bring her notebook for doodling.
(the notebook being the shape of trapezoid, so understand my cropping issues)
Starting with our trip there... it was Stake Conference, so it wasn't as close as it usually is.
Then Naomi asked Zoe to draw something and drew these beautiful flowers.
Zoe took back the notebook and drew flowers also, and a bee and butterfly and I heard Naomi whisper to Zoe, "Give the sun a smile." So she did.
Then, my favorite by far, Zoe played hangman..... with herself.
First she drew the lines below, then the hanging contraption, then she filled in the lines (and had to change the lines to fit what she filled in) then she drew the hanging person.
Next she drew some outfits.
And so did Naomi.
Nolan somehow snagged the notebook at this point. He drew what he saw from his angle.
That's me on the right, he was kind when he drew my (thin) arm and leg.
Rae apparently talked Nolan out of the notebook and drew Wes, her focus on the stray curl poking up on top of his head.
Then Nolan took the notebook back and to top Rae's slam, not just poking fun of the hair, but his tie and chin hair.
Then Wes wanted to snatch the notebook...
and Zoe's notebook full of sweet innocent drawings became mean and ugly...
(in church!)
...and I had to confiscate the notebook.
On this day, 17 years ago (seventeen!) My Nolan was born.
His story of getting here was a lot like Wesley's, except the doctors starving part. The doc's would try to induce in the morning and send me home in the afternoon to see where it would go. They did that for several days in a row before I ended up, again, with a c-section.
Born at 9 pounds 5 ounces and seriously... only 19 inches long... he was a shorty chubster. With the biggest head I ever saw on a baby.
We took him home and watched him grow..
And grow....
And grow...
And grow...
Chubbier and Cuter by the day.
Then toddling had this amazing slimming effect...
And the beautiful (yes, beautiful!) little boy with the curly hair got a hair cut..
And he became a little 'man'....
A little man that loved to play in the snow...
Who could fall asleep anywhere
And cry anywhere too...
But let's not dwell on that....
The cute chubster that we called Rollin' Nolan, and Nolie Olie has become quite the comic creator
Comedian-
And as we all know, movie maker (more to come some day....)
Happy Birthday my Nolan!
*You may have noticed I have two of (almost) the same blog entries below.
VOX totally was acting up yesterday and wouldn't let me edit or delete
the first one. The last paragragh on the more recent post was what I intended
to have posted.
Yesterday Zoe came home from school with her loot from the treasure box (that she visits weekly because she knows how to be a good girl at school).
A mood ring.
I heard her tell Rae, "It's a mood ring, I check it to see what my attitude is."
And then with this melancholy-like voice, "See, right now I'm very happy."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I recently finished this-
I enjoyed The Pigman, it was written for the Junior High aged, which is right up my alley. One of my main reasons is because of the language, have I even mentioned how much I dislike bad words?
In the back of the book there is an interview with Paul Zindel.
The question- In The Pigman , you use symbols, such as "%*$#", in place of four-letter words. Was that your original intent or did the publisher encourage you to avoid using controversial language?
His answer- I had to do what was comfortable for me, and I just felt that cursing- now I feel it more than ever- isn't really necessary. There is a difference between the written words and spoken words. I know curse words are thrown all around in kids' mouths, but such words don't help create a novel or a play. The type of language that has the highest literary merit does not happen to include massive amounts of curses...
Thank you Mr Zindel! Can you convince your fellow book writers of that??
The story is told of two high school students making friends with an elderly man. It is told from the youth's prespective and they take turns writing their story of Mr Pignati, aka The Pigman. Lorraine writing one chapter, John the next, until their story is told.
When I first started reading this book I thought it was recently published, but it didn't take long for me to notice otherwise and I checked- 1968. As this paragragh I am about to share will show clearly. But I really like this paragragh..... from The Pigman
...this English teacher I'm going to tell you about.....says I'm such a card. A card she calls me, which sounds ridiculous coming out of the mouth of an old-maid English teacher who's practically fifty years old. I really hate it when a teacher has to show that she isn't behind the times by using some expression which sounds so up-to-date you know for sure she's behind the times. Besides, card really isn't up-to-date anymore, which makes it even more annoying. In fact, the thing Lorraine and I liked best about the Pigman was that he didn't go around saying we were cards or jazzy or cool or hip. He said we were delightful, and if there's one way to show how much your're not trying to make believe your're not hehind the times, it's to go around saying people are delightful.
I often use the word cool when talking to the youth of today. (and everyone else, for that matter) So what I gather from that paragragh (which I think the youth would say they agree with) is that.... in '68 it was cool to say cool, therefor today it's not cool, so now when I say cool it's totally cool because I'm not trying to be up-to-date in my slang..... cool is the 'delightful' of 2008.
Yesterday Zoe came home from school with her loot from the treasure box (that she visits weekly because she knows how to be a good girl at school).
A mood ring.
I heard her tell Rae, "It's a mood ring, I check it to see what my attitude is."
And then with this melancholy-like voice, "See, right now I'm very happy."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I recently finished this-
I enjoyed The Pigman, it was written for the Junior High aged, which is right up my alley. One of my main reasons is because of the language, have I even mentioned how much I dislike bad words?
In the back of the book there is an interview with Paul Zindel.
The question- In The Pigman , you use symbols, such as "%*$#", in place of four-letter words. Was that your original intent or did the publisher encourage you to avoid using controversial language?
His answer- I had to do what was comfortable for me, and I just felt that cursing- now I feel it more than ever- isn't really necessary. There is a difference between the written words and spoken words. I know curse words are thrown all around in kids' mouths, but such words don't help create a novel or a play. The type of language that has the highest literary merit does not happen to include massive amounts of curses...
Thank you Mr Zindel! Can you convince your fellow book writers of that??
The story is told of two high school students making friends with an elderly man. It is told from the youth's prespective and they take turns writing their story of Mr Pignati, aka The Pigman. Lorraine writing one chapter, John the next, until their story is told.
When I first started reading this book I thought it was recently published, but it didn't take long for me to notice otherwise and I checked- 1968. As this paragragh I am about to share will show clearly. But I really like this paragragh..... from The Pigman
...this English teacher I'm going to tell you about.....says I'm such a card. A card she calls me, which sounds ridiculous coming out of the mouth of an old-maid English teacher who's practically fifty years old. I really hate it when a teacher has to show that she isn't behind the times by using some expression which sounds so up-to-date you know for sure she's behind the times. Besides, card really isn't up-to-date anymore, which makes it even more annoying. In fact, the thing Lorraine and I liked best about the Pigman was that he didn't go around saying we were cards or jazzy or cool or hip. He said we were delightful, and if there's one way to show how much your're not trying to make believe your're not hehind the times, it's to go around saying people are delightful.
Remembering the victims of 9-11...
On December 14th 2007, I posted this (back when interviews on blogs were all the rage)-
When Wesley was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 4 years ago his Endocrinologist told me about www.childrenwithdiabetes.com
, almost immediately I joined an on-line support group that I believe saved Wesley's life and my sanity. And there I met some pretty fascinating people.
The OT email list mean "off topic", I pronounce it "The OT" like "The OC". I perfer this list from the main list because it's not diabetes talk all day, which really could make me crazy, and yet they get it and I can still go to them about diabetes issues. Anyways...
These are my pick for The Most Fascinating People of the OT.
First I will introduce you to Mike.
Mike is a husband, father of two fine young men, and survivor of Sept 11th. Read here. Mike is also like a brother to me. No really. We argue all the time, but he starts it!! Mike has a voice of a mobster (but maybe that's just cause he's a New Yorker, or maybe it's just me). He loves showing funny pictures with the OT and he loves bad words. :-\ And I try and try to get him to clean it up, and he tries and tries ( I think?) to clean it up.... but... whatcha' gonna do? So here is my interview with him, with a couple of dirty wordies and I am going to blog later about bad words being my pet peeve... but either way... he made me promise not to edit out his words. And he tried (I think)... this is good for him. Mikey! So who demands more attention on the OT, you or me? What makes you and your wife so dedicated to one another? Do you have any messages for my readers (aka, my mother and sisters)? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ See what I mean... the brother/sister thing we have going here? (To read the other fascinating interviews I did- go here.) Today Mike shared with us (the OT list) the day that changed his life.... he said I could share, so I will give some snippets of what he wrote (and attempted to post to the minute of when his day began, but was off by 1 minute). He starts with showing the day was like an ordinary day... then... "I continue with my day as Fixed Income Operations Manager and at 8:46am, we hear a very loud explosion, and the lights in 2 WTC flicker..... ..."Get out.... RUN". I thought to myself that it wasn't OUR building that was on fire... why should we split? ..As I watch everyone zooming down the steps, I realize that no one is panicking, and I easily merge into traffic and begin my decent, with my phone securely in my leather briefcase and my briefcase hanging easily off my right shoulder.... ...We continue to descend relatively easily until we get to the 46th floor, which is where we came to an abrupt halt..Then a voice came over the PA system and said "Tower 1 was hit by an airplane. Emergency units are responding. Tower 2 is secure. You may continue down to the lobby, to the 44th floor cafeteria, or back to you office". I thought "Cool! Let me get back up to 80 so that I can see what's going on with Tower 1". I wonder if my brother in law, a 16 year vet of the FDNY and Godfather to Mikey, will be fighting this fire. So the congestion then clears and I bound rather lightly to the 44th floor and walk to the "shuttle" elevator that shuttles people from the 44th floor to the 78th floor (and back). I just missed one elevator, but it was so full that I probably wouldn't have been able to squeeze on. So I wait for it to return about 4 minutes later, and am the first one on. The elevators in the Trade Center are so big that when you walk in, you have to keep walking to the other side because the doors will open on that side at your destination. Actually, not sure what that has to do with size, however, I get to the other side and press "78" and turn to keep my back to the wall to save space for the other 30+ people who got on right behind me. The elevator fills, and the doors start to close... but then they open up again because something is blocking them. So we wait a few more seconds, they start to close again and then they open again. I am starting to get angry. That (closing and opening) happens another 2 or 3 times, so I say quietly to myself "If it happens one more time, I am going to yell at the kid with the backpack". When it happens again, I lean forward slowly, while preparing my tirade, so I can try to make eye contact.... ...We are walking with our arms stretched out in front of us and our eyes open. Then I close my eyes and realize that it doesn't matter whether they are open or closed, I cannot see anything either way.... ...Around the 10th floor, things are slowing down and then I quickly realize that the slowdown is being caused by us having to move into a single line. That of course means that the FDNY are coming up, and as I catch my first glimpse, I immediately start looking for my brother in law. Around the 6th floor now and I see pretty big cracks in the wall (inside the stairwell) and I think to myself "Is that from the bomb upstairs or is that from crappy construction?". ..... so I know that the closest exit is another 150 feet from here.... a few more emergency people are directing us the other way, and I am confused.... ...I walk through the doors and immediately am shocked by hundreds of sirens, hundreds of voices yelling at us to "RUN! DON'T LOOK UP! RUN!!!", and then I was off.... ... I see 2 incredible towers burning and a disgustingly thick cloud of smoke from both of them heading southeast toward Brooklyn. ....My fear is that they'll next hit the Empire State Building and The Chrysler Building. But then I look left (east) to the Brooklyn Bridge and I see that already packed with people running across and I fear that a plane will crash into my favorite bridge and kill another 10,000 of us.... ..... I realize that I am about to make call that I never thought I'd have to.... to tell Gigi that I am alive. I wash my hands and then my clean face, and I leave the bathroom and see that a line is free. I dial our number and then hang up, "Wait, do I have to dial 9 first?". "No" says Wai, and I dial again. Gigi answers.... and I start to cry. "Michael? MICHAEL?". "Hi. Yes, it's me, I'm ok, I'm out.".............." ..........................................
DEFINITELY you! I write and respond there to make people laugh. You write and respond there because you apparently have nothing else to do at home.
No, seriously?
You think I was kidding?
Can you list all the famous people you have met?
Sheesh, tough one. Franz Beckenbauer (at the time, the World's best soccer player), Gary Hall Jr., Dr. Kevan Herrold (trying to find a cure for Diabetes), Dr. Norma Sue Kenyon (same...), Rik Bonness, Sen Sue Collins, Sen Hillary Clinton, Sen Charles Schumer, Rep Steve Israel, Rep Peter King, Rep Carolyn McCarthy, Rep Tim Bishop, Jeff Hitchcock, Alexi Yashin (once thought to be one of the best hockey players in the world, but he eventually sucked and the Isles let him flea to Russia), Jaime Rivers, Zdeno Chara, Nicole Johnson Baker (Miss America 1999), Tom Karlya, Tony Graffanino (he plays an infield position for the Milwaukee Brewers... we bought his parents' house), Steven Baldwin, Billy Baldwin, Danny Baldwin, Zander Baldwin (we all grew up in Massapequa), Perry Pearn (Asst Coach of the NY Rangers), Gary Melious (owns the largest private residence in America (I think... OHEKA Castle), Al D'Amato, Colin Powell... I think there are more... drawing a blank at this point...
She is the perfect woman for me. Gorgeous, inside and out. I adore and worship her, and she me.
Who do your sons awesomeness take after, you or your wife?
Gigi, definitely.
Can you play any musical instruments?
No, but I can sing (for a couple seconds before people start throwing rotten fruit at me).
Do you really think Mel and I are the same person??
A lot of the time, yes. I think you do that so that everyone (except me) doesn't realize that you are having conversations with yourself while you try to gather as much attention as possible (see 1st question)
On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest (of course), how important is a cool escalator when considering a job?
It's a "0". But it is cool as hell that the great job I just got, with a great company and great salary/benefits has a cool escalator which curves a little more than 90 degrees as it descends from the 6th to the 5th floor.
Best thing in your life?
Gigi
The worst?
Tie: Nicholas having Diabetes has killed me on the inside. Living through 9/11 while my BIL and some of my friends died... that ALMOST killed me on the outside.
What (or who) gives you strength to get through the tough times?
Knowing that I don't want to be without Gigi... (that's why I don't want to die... because if I die, then I won't be with her). I am also afraid of failing.
So if I ever went to a CWD conference that you were at, would we argue like we do on the OT list?
No. I am shy in person, but I have very big Internet muscles. If we met there, we would hug, you would tell me that I am not a Fat _________ that Gigi is gorgeous, and then you would ask 1 question: "Gigi, what are you doing with him?"
On a scale of 1-10, how cool is Lorinda?
7.4
Don't you think you would be a good daddy to a daughter?
I would be a better Daddy to a daughter than I am to my boys.
How does it feel to be one of only two dudes on the OT list?
I like how EVERY woman on the OT list wants me.
I'd like to ask them how THEY dealt with your schizophrenia and non-stop attention grabbing antics.
And then I heard the most incredibly loud explosion and felt the elevator shaking violently......
Yesterday was SO tiring. First off, my stomach hurt all day, then I labored to get my house in order and when the kids got home I pushed real hard to get them to do their homework.
And then, after the stomach pains and the laboring and the pushing, I had a new nephew!!!!
Meet wittle baby Judson, named after his father. And he looks just like his father too. Good thing, if he looked like Anitra they may have felt compelled to name him Anitra and that wouldn't have been nice.
Look at how great Anitra looks!
I didn't look that good after having my babies. I didn't look that good last night, after the stomach pains and laboring and pushing I did. I don't know how she did it.
Of course when we talked last night she said, "it didn't even hurt." So apparently I was in more pain yesterday than she was, so that explains......
And look at the proud Pop-
Wait a minute..........
They said they were naming the baby after the daddy, but I thought his name was Jug?
