We've been MIA

So the end of school has come and gone, we're in the full swing of summer and I must say that all that complaining I did early on helped! It really has been nice so far and these first three weeks have gone by quite fast.

I have been putting off writing and updated because I have so many pictures to share and hated the thought of blurting out a bunch of stuff and not having the show-and-tell part of it to post. It will be a while until I get my pictures downloaded from my camera. In fact, we are still waiting on our main computer to return from the HP band-aid station. We got some zing from our neighbor's lightning strike to their home during a storm a couple of weeks ago.

Did anyone hear on the news about the Midwest having some awful storms this season? Floods everywhere, tornados way too often for my liking - just really miserable weather. There were some days I thought we might need an Ark to get out of here, but we survived - yet the computer did not. Our phone lines were zapped too for a bit, but that was fixed fairly quickly. Thankfully, Tom saved the day and was able to retrieve all of our files from the PC's hardrive. That took some time though, and I was literally sick to my stomach with the thought of not being able to get them back. We had a backup of sorts, but nothing like we should have had. It's always at those moments that you hit your head on the table and say to yourself, why why why didn't we invest in another backup system!! Anyway, this snail of a computer that we are using in the meantime can not hold all my programs that I need to download and tweak my photos, so I will have to wait until the other one is fixed. I'm sort of having withdrawal symptoms though!

I'll try to find my Funny somewhere and post more often in the coming weeks, and of course there will be gobs of pictures when I'm finally all put back together again.

Check out the new link I added to the right under My Frequent Stops called Techtelic. It's a blog written by my cousin Mark, who has a wealth of knowledge in all things I consider "the latest and greatest" in the world of geek gadgets. I use the word "geek" in the most endearing way of course. I don't think that word holds the stigma of what it used to, when you'd picture some nerdy guy with tape on his glasses, highwater pants and a laugh that would make your spine shiver in a Weird Science sort of way. Computer geeks can actually be cool, and maybe even hip! I'm related to several of them, so I know firsthand. He has lots of groovy tips and tricks on his blog for your computer as well. Even though he uses a Mac, we still love him. He blogs when he is able to take a peek out from under his college books! Enjoy

2 more days

One. Two. That's how many days left until school is officially out for the summer. Can you sense my enthusiasm? That's over 2 1/2 months. That's 11 weeks. That's 77 days. That's 1848 hours. That's over 110,000 minutes of curtailing cases of the "I'm bored"s. Lordy, give me some strength! Just for fun, I might keep a tally of how many times I hear, "Can we go swimming? Can I watch tv? Can I play on the computer? It's too hot to play outside! Can I have another Popsicle? I'm thirsty! I'm hungry, can I have another snack?" All these phrases not to be outdone by my own sputtering of "Quit teasing your sister! No, you cannot have more cookies. We'll go swimming later. Go outside and play, it's nice out. No you can't have more tv time today." Don't get me wrong, I think we say these things every day already, but when summer comes it sure is a long day of repeating.

I'm trying hard in my mind to reach into the happy place and change my attitude about the dog days of summer. Attitude definitely has a hand in anything you need to handle, so if I change my outlook to something a little more positive then maybe it won't seem so bad right? I'm curious about what the people who just love summer say to themselves about it. For me, first I'm not anywhere near a "summer person". I actually yearn for Labor Day to get here so that I can see the light of Fall at the end of the sweaty, buggie tunnel of 90 degree weather. Being hot is just plain annoying. It makes me crabby, and sticky and that's not a fun combination. I'm a much nicer human around 7:30 pm when the sun is beginning to set. Here in Indiana though, it is still light out past 9:30 pm, so when I say the day is long I mean it.

Maybe I'm too uptight? What do you summer lovers actually love about it? Don't you sweat and get irritated by the heat? Do the bees and wasps find you in the midst of a thousand other people around like they find me? Do mosquitoes feast on you when no one else is being bitten? Does it not bother you to go through 5 bottles of sunblock every season making sure to slather your children up until they resemble the hue of a sheet of paper? That slimy greasy feeling that you can't wipe off your hands and your children never fail to rub it into their eyes.... Ok, yes, I already know I am very cynical about summertime so stop shaking your head! When I reread my thoughts on this, my own eyes are rolling. How do I change? I want to wake each morning and think, yes what a beautiful sunny, hot summer day to enjoy lots of time with my children outside in nature doing things they find FUN!

I think I will pledge to myself that I will try at least a few times a week to lie to myself and pretend that I am enjoying it all for the sake of others. Who cares if I need to shower for the second time in a day so I'm no longer sweaty. So what if I have to smell like a citronella candle from bug spray that will keep the vampires off me while I'm outside after dinner. I can keep the fridge stocked with freeze pops so that it doesn't matter if they eat 10 of them in a day. And I can buy a few cans of that aerosol spray sunblock. It's all sounding better and better already just talking through it with all of you. Cool!

Let's try this again shall we? Hey, did you know the kids get out of school for the summer in two days? Yeah, they do - and we get 77 days off to enjoy the summer together. I sure hope it's a hot one so we can spend lots of time outdoors playing. I'm really looking forward to it....

Are you a member of this club?

Well it’s official. I got my first “I hate you!” from my kid. I can’t recall sputtering those words this young (7), but I can bet my parents heard it a time or two out of my mouth. Karma is biting me in the behind. I was pretty mouthy as a child, but again I don’t think I was this young with attitude, maybe I was. I remember in my preteen and my teens though, ouch. So I guess I do know the feeling of not being able to bite my tongue, but is that really hereditary? I mean, look at this face - he doesn't know how to hate anything, where'd he learn this?

He was playing in the yard with some friends and I asked him not to do something on the swing set that was dangerous. He stopped then started doing it again a few minutes later. I told him to come over and sit on the deck for 5 minutes and I would tell him when his time is up. He kept asking if time was up yet, so I informed him a minute is added each time he asked. Finally, about the third time he asked me and I turned him away again with an added minute, I heard him say under his breath, “oh, I really hate this… and I hate you too” as he went to sit back on the deck. I stood there shocked for a moment and wondered how to handle that. I know he was mad and had a right to be, but saying he hated me was simply unacceptable.

He was told to come inside and stay in his room until dinner. We had a talk about it after dinner and then Tom talked to him about it later as he tucked him in. It’s sort of bitter sweet you know. Coming from this particular child, we almost rejoice in the fact that he knows how to be spicy, but it’s catching us a little off guard. And isn’t this spiciness supposed to be reserved for daughters? They are the ones made of sugar and spice you know…

Back in the olden days (ha-ha), when I was little, one punishment you’d hate to get would be soap in the mouth to “wash out the backtalk”. I didn’t get it too often, but I can recall the times in my life that a bar of Ivory Soap was introduced to my taste buds. Not fun. Picture the scene in the classic movie A Christmas Story when the character Ralphie was sitting on the toilet seat cover with a bar of soap sticking out of his mouth.


Yep, not fun. Sadly, I’d probably be arrested in this day and age if I did that to my kid. But I still threaten it. Then I have to chuckle when he asks me serious questions like, “will I make bubbles in my mouth if you put soap in it?”, “what if the soap doesn’t get all the ‘sassies’?”…. geez, how do you keep a straight face when you’re asked these questions?

Oh, I also got a note slipped to me from him while in his room. I instantly thought of my sister in law whose child slipped her a note out of anger one day and it lovingly said, “Mommy butt”. Isn’t that funny? It’s always funnier when it’s not your own child… Anyway, mine said (spelling left as is): “To Mommy from Carter. Dear Mommy, Carter wonts to go outside and play with my frinds.” He definitely gets and A+ for persistence. Little gems like this get put into his memory box next to the "I Love You, Mom" cards. It’s all about balance right?

Anyway, I’m not sure how it feels to belong to this new parent club of “haters” now. I feel anointed, yet a little defeated. It’s pretty much the way I feel about those horrid pregnancy stretch marks now on me forever. You try so hard to do your best job with your kids and this is how they thank you! Where’s Dr. Phil when I need him? Maybe I should mail my Mom a box of Ivory Soap with a note of apology, and the letters S.O.S…

Hey, it's May!

Hard to believe that the month of May is almost over, really. It seems we've been pretty busy around here to just now look up and see that there are not too many days left of it. Which means, school will be out very soon. HELP! Even the pool will be ready for swimming next weekend. Of course it will be freezing cold for the next month or so until it really warms up - but the kids don't care. They sit on the side with their blue lips and teeth chattering and claim, "No! I'm not cold!" when you suggest getting out and drying off.

Anyway - here's just a little update of what we've been up to this month - and some pictures to go along with the happenings!

Earlier this month a group that I belong to called Mothers and More did one of our community outreach projects, and we cooked and served breakfast to the families staying at the Ronald McDonald house in Indianapolis. RMH is located at the Riley Hospital for Children and they also have an off-site location available for families. These families can stay overnight here when they have an inpatient child at the hospital. We also collected donations for their in-house pantry and the house in general. It was a wonderful morning and we are looking forward to serving again!

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Mother's Day was great! I was showered with love from my family. Carter made me an adorable gift at school and the kids gave me cards and a beautiful picture frame to put three of my favorite shots in. Tom got me a gift card to my favorite nursery to get some flower baskets, my parents gave me two great planters for my deck and my in laws came over and planted a climbing clematis plant at my light post in the yard, which will have white flowers when in bloom.


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I spent last week buying some flowers and planting. I have my pots filled and I am eager to see everything fill out as the summer progresses. Carter really wanted to plant some vegetables this year, so I agreed to plant two in some containers. He chose tomatoes (Roma) and I chose Bell Peppers. I think we may do some pole green beans too. I also planted an herb garden in a container, which has basil, thyme, rosemary, garlic chives and cilantro. I'm excited to have the herbs on-hand right here to cook with. Let's hope they're not dead in a month! I am not known for my green thumb!


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Mother's Day was also exciting this year because Tom's graduation was that day! He's the proud recipient of a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer and Information Technology. It was a great ceremony and we are all very proud of his accomplishment. While his parents and I attended the day's festivities, my parents were gracious to stay back and watch our kids all day so we could attend without distractions. They were sorry to miss the formalities, but we got together for a nice dinner back at my in law's house that evening so we could all celebrate!



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Carter had a school function this month called Young Authors. One of his classmate's mom is a children's book author. She came into the class and shared a couple of her books with the students. Her illustrator even came in one day to teach the kids how to draw a couple of things too. The kids had to create their own story, illustrate it, sew the binding, make a cover etc. They presented their books to all the parents at Young Authors night. Each child got to read their story out loud to their group of parents, and show us the illustrations they made. It was incredibly cute and he did such a great job! Another little treasure to add to his keepsake book.


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Well that's all I'm going to cover in this post. We're looking forward to a nice 4-day weekend next week for Memorial Day. The Indianapolis 500 is next weekend, so the city is certainly geared up for all the hoopla that accompanies the race. I think we might hit the zoo for the first time this season before the end of May. We're looking forward to bringing Olivia to see the animals, and we are already chuckling at the thought of her reaction. We have a feeling she may be quacking like a duck, meowing like a cat or barking like a dog a lot that day. That is what she does for most animals she sees, regardless of their species! Should be cute - and yes, there will be pictures...

Did you know?

It's Meme time! Since my mind is jammed full of useless info at the moment - I present my latest "list"....

Ten movies I would watch over and over: Grease, Top Gun, Forest Gump, Jerry McGuire, Nat’l Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Pretty Woman, Erin Brockavich, Good Will Hunting, Ocean’s 11, Schindler's List

Nine people I enjoy the company of: (more than 9 to name!) My girlfriends, my family

Eight things I'm wearing: Pajama top, bottoms, socks on both feet, underwear, earrings, hair clip, loop recorder

Seven things on my mind: The answers to these questions, installed new light fixture and it works, should have purchased another beaded spoon today, I need to download some pictures from my camera, I’ve got to plant more flowers this week, my menu for Bunco night, I’m sore from Boot Camp yesterday

Six objects I touch every day: alarm clock, toothbrush, coffee maker, remote control, dishwasher, car keys

Five things I do every day: housework, cook meals, check email, surf the ‘net, read the paper

Four bands or musical artists that I couldn’t live without: Matchbox 20, Van Morrison, 70’s music, Daughtry

Three of my favorite songs of the moment: songs by Daughtry, Kanye West “Stronger”, "Unwritten" Natasha Bettingfield, any songs by Colbie Caillat

Two people who have influenced my life the most: Carter and Olivia

One person who has been nice to me today: Everyone I've encountered

Random Thoughts

Time flies - it's hard to believe that my last entry here was nearly 2 weeks ago! I have several random thoughts that I will post about today. The fist being a big "YAY!" because spring has indeed arrived. We have had some days in the 80's, which I didn't particularly like because that's too warm too fast. I don't enjoy when the weather goes from winter to summer with only a mere nod at a spring day here and there. But we have had quite a few nice days. "Nice" is a relative term depending on whom you talk to. "Nice" to me is above 50ish, but below 72. I would like months and months of this sort of weather!

Anyway, it's been warm enough for the trees to bloom and yard work to start. Mother Nature is giving us a treat this year with all these beautiful days! Pretty soon, she'll be stirring her pot and the spring storms with tornados will start to arrive. But for now, a big YAY! We have been thinking about ripping out some bushes out front and replacing them with something different. I pulled out a few already and am eager to get some splashes of color planted with some annuals. I have received some awesome plant suggestions from my Aunt Mary, because she rocks and would probably win at Plant Jeopardy if there was such a game. I do not have a green thumb, but I like to give myself an A+ for effort. In my mind I am a Master Gardener (my mother-in-law actually holds this earned title!) that can choose the right plants and kill nothing. In reality, I usually overspend on plants and flowers because I like how they look in the nursery, but they don't like the areas I put them in (um, shade plants really don't like the sun. Really.) I think I'm getting a little better though, so I wouldn't necessarily give myself a D or an F grade anymore. I read the little plastic labels and actually take into consideration that something needs full sun, or shade. Our house faces north, so sun in front is limited, yet my backyard gets no reprieve from the sweltering star. So, my mind has big plans and ideas. I just need to take one step at a time and do it right.

We did mulch around the house and plant 7 Arborvitae shrubs/trees around our deck last weekend. We will keep them trimmed to not grow above the deck rails unless we change our minds and want more privacy. But since the kids are still little, we want to be able to keep watchful eyes on them without having to look through the trees to see them play. We have a really pretty tree in the front of the house that blooms this time of year. Then it drops annoying little cherry-type berries. I wish it would stay this beautiful all year though...whatever it is! ("fruitless" crabapple tree from what I could find) And lastly, I couldn't post without including a couple shots of the kids. Olivia has learned how to make a fish face which makes me laugh so hard when she does it because it's unbelievably cute! Here are a couple pictures and a short video clip.




(click the arrow to PLAY)


Then, my handsome guy doing something I don't normally catch on film - sitting still! He looked so content looking at his year book, curled up in the chair the other day that I had to snap one shot before he took off running somewhere.

Shake, Rattle and Roll!

Holy Earthquakes, Batman!

Well, I guess we can say we’re not earthquake virgins anymore here in Indiana! I hope to never get woken up by one again, it was so bizarre. The earth did quaketh!! Say that 10 times fast!

Tom and I are laughing now at our reactions this morning. I was laying all comfy when all of the sudden I could feel the bed shaking back and forth. It was one of those "am I really feeling this?" kind of sensations. I thought maybe Carter was climbing into the bed, but that is not like him. I immediately realized once I heard the windows making weird sounds, that our bed was still shaking and this is not normal! I shot straight up just about the same time as Tom. He initially inquired to me, "what are you doing?" because he thought I was shaking the bed. I said back a few choice words, along the lines of, "Nothing! What the heck is going on? What is this?" A few of my perfume creams fell over on my dresser too, and Tom said wind couldn't do that... (haha!)

I leaped out of bed and threw open the blinds expecting to see some sort of funnel cloud about to suck us up, and then the house stopped shaking. There was not a leaf on a tree moving. I thought for sure a tornado was on top of us by the way the house was shaking and the windows were rattling and the house was making weird creaking noises. Then I thought we might need to get a priest in here to clear out the crazy spirits that were shaking our bed! So many things crossed our minds: Tornado? Evil spirit? Did a car hit the house? Was there a head-on collision on the road? Did someone break into our house? Was that… an earthquake?? (surely not, right?!)

It's always interesting to me to reflect back on the thoughts you have while in the middle of something unexpected. How does the brain process all of those movie-like images so quickly to your thoughts? I listened for Olivia over the monitor and she didn't wake. Carter stayed fast asleep. Tom got up and checked around the house just to make sure there wasn't a car crashed into the house, or someone breaking in. Then we said, duh turn on the news! The newscasters were a little perplexed as well and couldn't yet confirm what all the shaking was caused by. But within about 5-10 minutes they had their confirmation. But first, they received calls from viewers all over the place saying they felt the shaking too.

I called my parents and interestingly enough, Mom didn't feel it during her routine of getting off to work. Dad said he felt the bed shaking but thought it was the cats chasing each other on the bed. We talked to Tom's parents too and they were just as surprised to feel this little nugget as we were.

Our local CBS station said:

The initial earthquake hit with a magnitude of 5.2 around 5:36 a.m. Friday. After shocks have been occurring since then, originating in Illinois, but being experienced in Indiana. After shocks, their times and magnitudes as of 1 p.m. were:

6:03 a.m. EDT 3 miles NW of Mount Carmel, IL 2.5 tremor located 6.2 mile depth
6:15a.m. EDT 4 miles S of Noble, IL 2.5 tremor located 6.2 mile depth
6:36 a.m. EDT 6 miles NNE of Bellmont, IL 2.4 tremor located 11.1 mile depth
6:46a.m. EDT 7 miles NNE Bellmont, IL 2.2 tremor located 11.1 mile depth
7:55 a.m.EDT 6 miles NW of Mount Carmel, IL 2.6 tremor located 6.2 mile depth
11:14 a.m. EDT, 8 miles E from West Salem, IL. 4.5 tremor located 6.2 miles deep.

I guess you could say we're pretty lucky to have felt an earthquake under our feet, without having to go through any devastation.

Here’s a video of Evansville’s TV station during the quake. I am cracking up at the weatherman’s matter-of-fact demeanor while the shaking was happening and he wasn’t sure what to make of it. I think it’s pretty accurate of what most of us were thinking too! So weird, but pretty funny!

CLICK HERE!

Well, that's enough excitement for one day! :)

HBO Film

I recently watched an HBO documentary film called Autism: The Musical. It will be running several more times this month on HBO if you can catch it or record it. It is definitely worth the time.

Here is a brief synopsis of the film:

Autism: The Musical is a call to arms, bringing attention to a modern-day epidemic while celebrating the value of the human spirit in overcoming any challenge. The film introduces Neal, Lexi, Henry, Adam and Wyatt - five autistic kids who, along with their parents, take part in a groundbreaking theatrical workshop. The Miracle Project was started by Neal's mother Elaine Hall with an eye towards helping children with autism express themselves while learning to socialize with other kids. Over the course of six months, we experience the frustrations, challenges and triumphs of the families both on stage and in their home lives as they prepare for the show. The creative process provides a key to unlocking the children's inner worlds. We also see how patience, understanding,love and community can be used to help children with autism better adapt to the world at large.

Click here to watch a short preview of this documentary: 50 second clip

I have seen this documentary twice already, and saved it on my DVR because I know that I will want to watch it again another time. The first time I watched it alone, the second time I watched it with Tom. We were both moved by the children’s stories, and the director’s decision to not focus on medical terminology, or to have any medical experts on the subject giving us a play by play of the many one-of-a-kind quirks the children are displaying throughout the film. It made for a very candid, raw and touching film to watch.

Tom and I agreed that we saw so many similarities in each of these featured children that mirrored our own experiences with our son. It once again spoke volumes to us about how individual this disorder is for each person.

For example, we related Carter to Henry who is a child with Asperger Syndrome and has a photographic memory for things that interest him. Henry had a love of dinosaurs and reptiles at the time and Tom and I chuckled as we recall when Carter gets on a subject and obsesses about it. It has been anything from the 50 United States, their capitol and motto, to the US Presidents or his favorite dinosaur, the Parasaurolophus. We related how Henry would retreat into pretending to be a dino and go into his own world when he was anxious.

We related our son to Adam, and his love for music and being able to get lost in it. We related to a scene where Adam was featured at the dinner table and refused to eat or try something new, and the immaturity that came along with the reaction. We related to the peer interaction at school when Adam gravitated toward the girls of the group that would play with him. We also related to the meltdown that took place at the musical rehearsal as Adam needed to be carried back stage and was acting more like a 2 year old than elementary school age child with his shouts of “let me go!” and being out of control without a lot of provocation.

We related to Neal in situations that showed him self-stimming to calm himself by running in circles or attempting to retreat somewhere alone. One scene showed Neal getting physical with a boy at a party when he was overwhelmed by the stimulus. We related to how quickly our son has reacted in the past in similar situations and that sometimes it is still a challenge to deal with his impulsivity control in certain situations that get too overwhelming for him.

Our relation to Lexi, took us back a few years ago, to a time when Carter was doing echolalic speech all the time. We remember what a trying time that was for us to wrap ourselves around how to handle it. He doesn’t do it very often now, but sometimes we catch him repeating and we need to prompt him to be aware of it. Lexi and Carter are very similar in the sense that they both can mimic someone else’s speech to the exact tones and inflections of their voices, like when she imitated Coach E’s greeting.

And then there was Wyatt. I think Wyatt was the closest to how Carter is at this age (7) now. Wyatt had lots of questions and was very sensitive to things around him, yet sometimes didn’t know how to express his feelings. It seems that Wyatt is becoming very aware of himself and others around him and the way he is being treated. Bullying becomes a subject with Wyatt in this film and how it makes him feel. This hits close to home with us as our son is getting older and more aware of people not being kind.

The film was all so genuine, unscripted and fascinating. It really emphasized the vast differences the way that this disorder can present itself in each person, as well as how each family has found a way to cope. We found it so cleverly done, that although it’s titled “The Musical”, it was less about the show they were putting on, and more about getting to know each child and their family dynamic, and what makes them special and unique. It was not a film that has one sitting through a bunch of facts about Autism, or one that has you writhing with pain that you feel for these families. It is a film about hope, and possibilities, and about demystifying the world of Autism.

You will laugh, and you will probably cry. As one reviewer of this film said perfectly, “…the journey to opening night proves more rewarding than whatever transpires after the curtain comes up.”

If you can, please take the time to watch this documentary. It will open your heart, enhance your own views and what we teach our kids about acceptance of others, and will make you look at your own life in a new way. It proves that anything is possible, and that being different is really OK.

Kid Mania

Hope everyone had a nice Easter yesterday! We had a great day with family - church in the morning, then a nice meal together in the afternoon. Snapped a few pictures of the kiddos so I'm titling this Kid Mania because it speaks for itself. Maybe I'll find my wit soon and actually write something instead of just posting some pictures. For now, the laziness continues! Enjoy!

Click photos to enlarge....

Happy Spring!

It may officially be the first day of Spring today, but unfortunately, there are no new buds to photograph outdoors to prove it.

So, I will leave you with this beautiful flower instead....

Happy St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day – Celebrating the Green
St. Patrick is believed to have driven the snakes from Ireland. Once a pagan imself, St. Patrick is one of Christianity's most widely known figures. He is Ireland's patron saint, and died March 17 in AD 461.

The modern secular holiday is based on the original Christian saint's feast day also thought to be the date of the saint's death. In 1737, Irish immigrants to the United States first began observing the holiday publicly in Boston, and held the first St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City in 1766.

Today, the tradition continues with people from all walks and heritages by earing green, eating Irish food, and attending parades. St. Patrick's Day is bursting with folklore; from the shamrock to the leprechaun and to pinching those that are not wearing green.

The Leprechauns
The original Irish name for these figures of folklore is "lobaircin," meaning "small-bodied fellow."

Belief in leprechauns probably stems from Celtic belief in fairies, tiny men and women who could use their magical powers to serve good or evil. In Celtic folktales, leprechauns were cranky souls, responsible for mending the shoes of the other fairies. Though only minor figures in Celtic folklore, leprechauns were known for their trickery, which they often used to protect their much-fabled treasure.

Leprechauns had nothing to do with St. Patrick or the celebration of St. Patrick's Day, a Catholic holy day. In 1959, Walt Disney released a film called Darby O'Gill & the Little People, which introduced America to a very different sort of leprechaun than the cantankerous little man of Irish folklore. This cheerful, friendly leprechaun is a purely American invention, but has quickly evolved into an easily recognizable symbol of both St. Patrick's Day and Ireland in general.

The Shamrock

The shamrock, which was also called the "seamroy" by the Celts, was a sacred plant in ancient Ireland because it symbolized the rebirth of spring. By the seventeenth century, the shamrock had become a symbol of emerging Irish nationalism. As the English began to seize Irish land and make laws against the use of the Irish language and the practice of Catholicism, many Irish began to wear the shamrock as a symbol of their pride in their heritage and their displeasure with English rule.

Population Distribution

- There are 34.7 million U.S. residents who claim Irish ancestry. This number is almost nine times the population of Ireland itself (4.2 million). Irish is the nation's second most frequently reported ancestry, trailing only those of German ancestry. (The ancestry estimates exclude people living in group quarters).

- The nation as a whole claims 12% of residents as having Irish ancestry. In Massachusetts this number doubles to 24 percent!

- In Middlesex County, Mass., 348,978 residents are of Irish ancestry. Among the 54 counties where Irish is the largest observed ancestry group, Middlesex had the highest population of Irish-Americans, with Norfolk County, Mass., second, with 203,285.

- There are three states in which Irish is the leading ancestry group: Delaware, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Irish is among the top five ancestries in every state but two (Hawaii and New Mexico).

- There are 54 counties where Irish is the largest observed ancestry group. Forty-four of these counties are in the Northeast, with 14 in New York, 11 in Massachusetts and five in New Jersey.

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I suppose because my own ancestry is a good-part Irish (my given name was once O'Laughlin), I could wear one of those silly buttons that reads, "Kiss Me I'm Irish".... but I won't. What I will do though, is celebrate the holiday by making the tradtional Irish-American feast of Corned Beef and Cabbage. Or, New England Boiled Dinner is what my family called it in Boston. Although, my family prefers a smoked picnic shoulder (ham) to the cornned beef in the meal, so we use that instead. Below is my recipe!

Cook time: 3hrs
Prep time15 min for peeling veggies
Yields: 6-8 servings
1 Smoked Picnic Shoulder (approx 10 lbs)
1.5 small peeled whole potatoes per person
1-2 lg cabbage heads, quartered
2 Med. whole onions, peeled
1-2 turnip (optional)
1 1/2 lbs. of carrots peeled, whole

In large stock pot, cover with water 2" above ham. Add 2 bay leaves and boil for a total of 3 hours. Turnip can cook with this since it takes the longest. Add carrots to the pot 1.5 hrs before eating. Add cabbage & potatoes to the pot 45-1 hr before eating.

Drain, cut up ham and serve on a large platter with lots of butter, mustard & vinegar on the side to taste. Some crusty french bread and Enjoy!

*Note: If your pot is not large enough to cook the vegetables & ham together, the ham can be taken out when it's done and covered for an hour with foil until ready to eat. You can then throw all your veggies in the water and cook them up. You really can't mess this up. So Simple!

Where's Spring?

Stupid groundhog. I hate that he saw his shadow last month. Spring definitely does not seem close by, so I can only blame that on Punxsutawney Phil! And another weird thing, is that St. Patty's Day and Easter are so close this year - just doesn't seem right! Way too early in the season to be celebrating the Easter holiday....

But, today was our annual neighborhood Easter egg hunt. Around these parts, March is a cold and gloomy month - much like November. Needless to say we are all very much begging for Spring to arrive sometime soon. With the holiday being so early this year, the grass wasn't greened up yet, no spring blooms popping through the soil, and definitely no sunshine for The Hunt! But we managed, with winter coats, hats, gloves and children with enough energy to keep us all warm - it was as big a hit as it usually is!

One snag we hit this year though, is our usual location in the neighborhood was too saturated from all the melted snow and rain, so we moved The Hunt - to our house, in our back yard! Everything worked out great, got the hunt in before the sprinkles started up again, and all the kids seemed happy with their loot! We ended up with about 45 children participating this year.

Here's an example of the "Spring Feeling" we had last year during the egg hunt when spring actually arrived on time... look at the lush grass, the flowers... short sleeved shirts! See what a couple more weeks of nice weather and sunshine can do?



And here's some photos I snapped at this year's hunt today.... Enjoy!

More conversations with the 7 year old...

So as I mentioned the other day, we had a family dinner at my place this weekend. Carter has become fairly "Holy" over the past 6 months or so, and keeps offering to say the meal prayer. It's terribly cute, and I have to admit the very first time I heard him say one I nearly laughed out loud because of the cuteness and what he was saying. When we do bedtime prayers, he usually wants me to go first. I usually start out casually saying "Hi God, thanks for today...." etc. So I know where he's picked up the first line in his meal prayers when he begins it with "Hi God!". First he insists that we all join hands and bow our heads. He will peek up and call you out on your head bowing and eye opening if he catches you not being fully involved - and prayer time comes to a swift halt until said guilty party has fully complied. Then we heard something like this:

Carter: "Hi God! Thank you for our family and friends. Thank you for our aunties and uncles and grandparents. Thank you for making us born and growing us up. Thank you for Grammy and Grampy's birthday. Amen."

Could he be any sweeter? Just a side note, Grandpa Dunk usually finds the perfect words to use in a prayer for whatever occasion. Carter has dubbed him, The Prayer Man.... "Grandpa, you're the best prayer man!" I'm glad Carter has such good examples to follow!

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This is a conversation for both sides of my family, that happened just after the prayer this weekend. The Democrats and the Republicans. We have several of both I might add.... Mom using her sense of humor to tackle the awkward silence that began to happen as everyone was passing the food around the table, began with this...

Grammy: "So Carter, what do you think about the state of the world today"
Carter: "Oh, it's fine."
Grammy: "Well that's good Carter I'm glad it's fine - do you know who might win for President?"
Carter: "Um, no Gram."
Grammy: "Well, you have Clinton, Obama and McCain to choose from, who would you like to win?"
Carter: "Oh, I think Obama will win"
Family laughter inserted here.... and chides of "He Might" and "Ugg!" echoed around the table...

A silent pause as everyone composed themselves....and Carter curiously asks...

Carter: "What's an Obama?"

See, a little humor for both sides of my family! :)

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Weekend Celebrations

This weekend, we celebrated my Mom and Dad's birthday together (Mom's 2/25 Dad's 3/16) because all three of us children were in town together! My brother Jay was up from Tampa to judge a regional dance competition. The rest of us live pretty close to one another. Mom's having a little trouble saying 50-(five) because it seems like yesterday that she just left the 40's, right? Dad's celebrating his last year as a spry 50-something. Wonder if next March he'll have trouble saying sa-sa-sssa-sixty!

Here's a cute shot of my brother Jay with Carter - these two were definitely having a good time together yesterday. Carter couldn't get enough of Jay's willingness to be goofy. The two of them used the wrapping paper from my parent's gifts to wrap silly things for each other and hide them. A napkin, a fork, a matchbox car... this went on for quite a while as each pretended it was the best present they ever got once they found their surprise! This of course, was a remake of what my brothers and I used to do when we were little - we'd play "birthday" or "Christmas" and wrap items from around the house and pretend it was that occasion! Oh to be young again...

And finally, I had to capture our little princess finding her inner Diva. She is starting to show us more and more when she's not quite agreeing with what's going on. She'll glare at you with this look to protest putting on her coat, being told 'no no', not giving her food fast enough, or if she's just plain tired of you making stupid requests of her like "what does a duck say Olivia?" or "Can I have a smoochie?" So,here I present to you, her new sassy face she makes when she wants you to stop whatever it is you are doing that annoys her! Imagine the sound of a bull scratching it's hoof in the dirt, and you'll hear "oofffffff" coming from that cute pouty mouth of hers! Check out those squinty dartful eyes - love the lowered brows... too funny!

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In the news...

I'm a month early to discuss Autism Awareness since April is it's official month to 'get the word out' so to speak. There's one recent article in particular that has me, and I'm sure parents all over the world, scratching their heads again in confusion. It is in reference to the great debate about whether or not preservatives in children's vaccinations have been contributing to the rise in diagnosing ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders). There is such a continuance of of back and forth debate between parents, medical experts, manufacturers, chemists etc., it's making our heads spin. I think particularly so, in those of us who have a child with Autism. Let me just say, that I am in no way against childhood vaccines. I think it would be foolish of us to not vaccinate our children against disease and outbreaks that we can control. However, we have become more informed parents our second time around. With Olivia, of course we still vaccinate, but we have modified our shot schedule to include no more than 2 vaccinations at one time. Sometimes we choose to have only one if it's a particular dose of something we are uncomfortable with, and we'll come back a few months later for the next one. Even though manufacturers have claimed that they can produce vaccinations that are "Thimerosal Free", if you research enough you can find dozens of articles about the process of elimination during manufacturing (they start out using it, but the chemical process they do is supposed to end up removing it all by the time it's ready for market) - but no final testing to see if it's actually free of the mercury in the end.

The CDC won't even etch in stone whether or not they believe vaccinations contribute to this medical crisis.

Our son is 7 now, and was diagnosed at around 18 months old. Thankfully, someone in his Mom's Day Out program had experience in Early Intervention and noticed some traits that Carter was displaying. It was like 20/20 hindsight once we were informed about what to look for as "signs". He had so many, but we had no idea what the subtleties were. We chalked it up to Carter just being Carter - some interesting quirks and such. She urged us to get an evaluation, and from there we started our journey through the world of Autism. He is truly remarkable, and has come such a long way from the early years when we were just starting out. We immersed ourselves into therapies 5 days a week, several hours a day, for the first couple of years. Every day, you could count on therapists from Speech, Occupational, Physical, and Developmental to arrive at the house, or for an outside appointment elsewhere. He even had a a couple of intense therapies through OT, one called Samonas (sound therapy) that supplies stimulation to the central nervous system. He had Sensory Integration Dysfunction that inhibited his ability to walk through his world without being super sensitive to his surroundings (sound, touch, taste etc.) Another was called HippoTherapy (therapeutic horseback riding, click here for a pic of him). He wore leg braces from the knee down for a couple of years (click here for a picture) to halt the constant toe walking, which was having a physical affect on his muscle tone and causing him to consistently fall and get hurt. It's been a long road, but we truly contribute his great outcome to such early and intense interventions.

He is very high functioning now and within a regular classroom environment with his peers. There will always be a continuation of social and emotional learning for him, as he has trouble reading social cues from people and understanding emotions of others, which can sometimes cause inappropriate behavior (such as, laughing or mimicking the sound of someones cry, instead of offering sympathy). He continues to have therapy for speech and occupational within the school to help him with communication skills, and his fine motor skills. His sensory issues have drastically improved over the years as well. He is a joy to be around, and anyone who has known him from the start could write pages and pages about his turn-around from then until now. Early help, early help, early help... we can't stress that enough!

We think it's imperative that kids are screened for Autism at their early well-checks. I'm past my bitterness now of being told time and again when Carter was a baby, that my Mommy Instincts were overreactions and that boys just "sometimes develop slower" etc. I'm confident now that Pediatricians are being more informed about diagnosis and what to look for in terms of signs. No, we are no longer with the Pediatricians that had their hands on the doorknob in our earlier years. It's been trial and error along the way to find someone that we trust completely. We really love the doc we have now, and we were so thrilled to know they have early intervention screening practices in place for Autism (can you believe some offices STILL do not do the proper screening?)

Anyway, back to my original reason for needing to blog about this topic today. There is a ton of information on the Internet that one can Google, and I have links on my blog on the right hand side if you're interested in the nitty gritty of the disorder. So I will spare myself the quick rise in blood pressure and raising my tone of voice about all the things that leave us scratching our heads about this epidemic - I'll wait until April!

Now, to add to the Great Debate of vaccination contribution to Autism, I present the article at hand.... the headline reads:

"Government Concedes Vaccine Autism Case in Federal Court"

Click here to read the article..... head scratching isn't it!?

Boot Camp

Thank G*d it's Friday! I haven't been able to say that in quite some time, because I'm an at-home mom with my kids, and frankly every day is sort of like a Friday and it loses it's luster - it's just ordinarily another day that ends in "y"! But, today I can say it with gusto, because it means I have two days off before I get my butt whooped again in Boot Camp. Yep, I said it, Boot Camp. Not the Armed Forces kind, but shoot - it feels like it. I joined Indy Adventure Boot Camp for Women with my friend Monica. It's M/W/F at 5:30 in the morning for one hour. Yes, I have a new get-up time of 4:40 am. Ewww. Going on week three of this hell I'm actually paying for! I never thought I'd see the day that I was in bed before the local news. Now I find myself crawling into bed when I put the kids down at 8:30!

Anyway, I'm really loving this Camp. The variety is awesome - we do lots of cardio in the forms of running, obstacle courses, and aerobics. We do weight training with our own dumbbells, every kind of muscle builder you can think of, and floor work like stretches and Pilate's. Every day there is something new to do, so the days are never the same. It's really making my 30 minute at-home treadmill workout look like a stroll through the park! I need to step that up a bit I think. A number 4 incline at 4.5 mph on my treadmill used to make me want to puke - but I'm feeling so much stronger now and it feels great to be able to get to the end of a workout and not want to fall on the floor and die! ha ha! My heart is happy for me too.

I said that I was trying to make better choices about getting heart healthy and stronger, this is just one way I've been changing my bad habits. Another is I have not had any soda in THREE weeks! I used to drink diet soda, but still, to give that up that artificial sweetener has made me crave sweets less. I've only been having water or decaf beverages (tea, coffee etc.). I actually don't even miss it! And lastly, I don't snack on anything after 7:30 pm. This has been pretty easy to do since I have been going to bed so early! Making these three big changes has been challenging and motivating. Losing weight is important, but strangely, this is not about the weight for me this time. It's about getting stronger and the rest is just falling into place.

My next step is to incorporate some much better meal habits. I have to try really hard to make myself eat breakfast in the morning. It's not something I was used to doing. I've been taking the 5 minutes it takes to make a dropped egg on whole grain toast, decaf coffee sans sugar but a splash of fat free vanilla creamer. Yesterday I forgot to eat breakfast though, and realized that when my hands were shaking around 11:00. That of course snowballed into eating something breakfast-like, then lunch around 2:30 and then I forgot to make myself some dinner after feeding the kids. Hubby had class until 8:00, so he wasn't home to have dinner with me and I just got busy. I remembered at 9:30 last night that I never heated up my Lean Cuisine for dinner, so I got up and slurped down a protein shake with some banana in it. I figured I'd better get something in me before sleep because Boot Camp comes early and there's no way I'm eating before that workout! See? I need serious help with mealtime structure sometimes! The sad part is, I know what I need to do, but it's such a challenge to do it sometimes. There's always things to be done for other people when you're a Mom, and you just kind of take a back seat to your own needs. Baby steps, I'm doing it....

I just keep reminding myself about the story of the Tortoise and the Hare. Or the Little Engine That Could. Or c'mon, like a typical woman, the way my butt looks in the mirror.... :) Gotta pull inspiration from all places you know!

Bionic Woman

It's in! My newly installed Reveal Implant Loop Monitor! Read here if you missed that update.

I went in on Wed. morning for my treadmill test which took no longer than an hour. From there I had to wait on the results to give the go-ahead for the surgery. While I waited, they stuck me in a hospital bed and hooked me up to an IV for the next 5 hours. Boring, totally. I was finally in the Electrophysiology Lab for my surgery a little after 2-ish. Was out of there a little after 3-ish and home by 5:00!

The procedure was pretty simple in itself, but there just couldn't be a dull moment if I'm around could there?! Of course not! Well, it went downhill a little couple hours before surgery. They gave me some antibiotics in the IV drip called Vancomycin; routine to have some antibiotics before a surgery. I'm deathly allergic to Penicillin, so they had to use this drug. After being hooked up to this for a little while, Dr. W. came up to visit me and tell me he was ready whenever I was, but that the antibiotics needed to finish up. He commented that it was dripping very slowly, and left the room. I started watching the drip and noticed it was literally letting one drip go every 10 seconds. I'll be here all week if we wait on this! So I buzz the nurse, she comes in and finds a kink in my line near my elbow. I must have bent my elbow too much and caught it in a pinch - an hour ago! So, she fixes the kink and the drips begin much quicker. I settle back into some tv watching, and notice that I begin to itch my head uncontrollably. I couldn't stop scratching and my head began to feel like something was burning under my skin. My nose started to itch, around my eyes a bit too. So I buzz the nurse again and tell her that I'm really itchy. After checking me over, she obviously does not like this as I'm telling her I'm not feeling so good, and rushes out of the room and tells me she'll be right back.

Back in she ran and pushes some "Benadryl" into my line quickly and I immediately taste and smell something horrible like rubbing alcohol or metal or something. I yelled "yuck!" and told her what I was tasting and smelling, and suddenly I did not feel good AT ALL! My entire body flushed with such hot sensations, I was sweaty, dizzy, felt like I could not breathe well and was not able to see very well. I felt really really wrong and kept telling her that and asking if she was sure that was benadryl! She kept trying to reassure me, but I kept telling her something was wrong, I wanted to scream outloud by my body was like slow motion, even my speech. It was so weird. She told me she needed to get something and she'd be outside my room for a just second. She came back in with another nurse, some cart the other one was fooling with and my main nurse hooked me up to the blood pressure machine and oxygen measure thingy. My BP was down, heart rate was way up but my oxygen was still 100%, good thing. I started to feel better after a few minutes. Thank goodness!

Apparently what happened was when I was given the Vancomycin drip, I had an adverse reaction dubbed "red man syndrome or red neck syndrome". When she pushed in the Benadryl, that action pushed the rest of the Vancomycin that was still in my tube, into my body way too fast, and my reaction to it intensified because of how fast the meds were administered. All so confusing, but glad it turned out OK in the end. This is how I understood it when explained to me. I'm not a nurse or doctor, so I could have completely just screwed up this description. That's my disclaimer... haha!

Needless to say, once it was time for me to have my surgery, there was no way I wanted any sedatives put into my IV to keep me "calm" during the implant. I had had enough excitement for one day and was afraid of what reaction I might have to something else. I opted to have no sedation during the procedure, but he numbed the area with local anesthesia. I bit-the-bullet in the literal sense during this by not taking anything while it was done. Dr. Wrobleski joked to the recovery nurse that he just gave me a block of wood to knaw on - ha-ha! He actually does joke around, he was not all "business" this time and made me feel very comfortable in the operating room. I'm good to go now, all hooked up and ready for some heart episodes! The area is a little sore of course, but it'll be better soon!

Heart to Heart

American Heart Month


Take care of your heart!
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Bionic Woman? Terminator? E.T.? That’s what I think I’ll feel like this month when my shiny new device is implanted under the skin in my chest, to monitor my heart.

A little background history here – I have had “episodes” as I like to call them because they do not have a name as of yet. Episodes of my heart doing some weird Salsa Dance in my chest, possibly the Pasadoble, or maybe even the Conga! Whatever it is, it sucks and it’s scary, and it’s still undiagnosed on paper. This has been happening to me since I was nearly 17 years old. Back then, in the olden days and all, my cardiologist told us it was “growing pains”. Nice. I'm glad I'm still around when medicine could be improved! We could never catch these episodes because they were always reported after the fact when I’d go to the ER or something. Although one time I did get a reading while in the hospital of my heart racing at rest about 220 beats, but it was still not the same sensation as getting an “episode”. By all accounts, I have a good heart; strong, just the right size, spitting out the proper zigzags during a routine EKG. No traces of something outwardly causing these “episodes”. As one recent heart doctor told me, '...in your heart the plumbing is fine, you need to see the electrician'. And so off I was directed to a new heart contractor, in the field of heart electricity. Electrophysiology to be exact. My new electrician.

I like layman’s terms like that. Easy to understand and it makes things more human rather than using all those fancy Ivy League words they learn in Med School. So, I saw the electrician. I suppose with anything in medicine, there are specialists in all areas. But I figured the heart guys and gals would know everything about the heart from every angle, right? I learned differently, because there are way too many areas of the heart to be good at every single one. That’s why the plumber gave me the green light and passed me on to the electrician. We’ll get to the bottom of this soon I hope.

Hope – yes that’s what he gave me! Someone that gave me a reasonable explanation as to why this might be happening to me! Yay! Three little letters: SVT or Supraventricular Tachycardia. He carefully explained to me how the heart has an electrical system within it that originates from one place – the Sinus Node. That little pile of cells is the substation for the electricity that your cells generate to make your heart beat its own little rhythm through a pathway around your heart. Sometimes there’s a misfire, like when you shuffle your feet on the carpet in the winter and touch something – and then the electricity just goes ‘round and ‘round and ‘round in a crazy loop until the heart’s own pacemaker (the Sinus Node) thinks – Wait! Stop that! And resets itself.

This would explain the strange “Bang!” sensation that I get once my episode stops. I’m always wishing for The Bang once my heart starts palpitating and racing and doing those dances, because The Bang to me means it’s over. These episodes scare the you-know-what out of me. I’ve been reassured that my young healthy heart does its job for me and resets everything back to “normal” at the right time, and that I should not worry that I’m going to drop dead. What a relief – isn’t that want you want to hear?! My rational mind can take this news completely casually when I’m not in the middle of an episode. But when I am, and feeling like I might pass out any second if only that stupid Bang would happen, there’s no relief in telling me I’m not going to drop dead!

But I like my new guy – this medical electrician heart man – I have to trust him. He doesn’t make me feel stupid with all the stale, incomprehensible textbook jargon, he tells me like it is and takes the time to explain and draw and show pictures etc. I wish he was a little more jovial, and a little less ‘business’, but I’ll take it if it means he can fix me. He did crack a smile once, but his face almost broke. Kidding of course. He's probably a different person when not under the cloak of white, having to explain over and over to people what might be wrong with their major life organ.... you know, the one that determines if you are alive or dead. Guess it's not a very jovial subject - ok, I'll cut him some slack.

So after trying a handful of tests over the years without being too invasive, I agreed to finally have an implanted loop recorder installed under my skin to see if we can catch one of these episodes red handed. This will take the place of hooking myself up to a bulky portable EKG machine. This Reveal Loop Monitor has a battery life of over 1 year. Hopefully I will catch an episode nicely, so that Dr. Electrician can see exactly where and what the problem is coming from in my heart. If we can find something treatable, then he can go in there and do what’s called an EP Study where he can map out the electrical pathways in my own heart, and zap (ablation) the naughty path so that it does not receive a funky current, and hence stop these episodes.

Since February is American Heart Month, I found it appropriate to write about this little ditty, and remind everyone to take care of their hearts. I have many changes that need to be made in my lifestyle in order to be more heart-healthy, and this is just one step in that direction. Medicine sure has come a long way to be able to implant a device the size of a stick of gum under my skin to catch some waves. Who knew I'd have to wait 17 years though! Hopefully my new accessory will behave and we can have this cleared up, or at least some better answers. In the meantime, I can just pretend that I have some magic powers or attempt to signal some UFOs…. That would be fun. Beam me up, Scotty!

Rest In Peace, Oreo

ZIONSVILLE, IN. – One Dalmation Molly was found dead in his tank this week, after the owner searched feverishly to find him. He was found in the corner, upside down with his tail pulled into the filter. He leaves behind no siblings or friends. He was the sole survivor of said tank for many months. We’re sure he was greeted with much fish love on “the other side” when he was flushed. “Heaven’s down there?” his owner questioned as Oreo swirled around the bowl. Oreo suffered from a lengthly illness, and was preceded in death by many friends and relatives that once shared his home in The Tank. He held on as long as he could through his sickness to give a family the joy of pet ownership.

Oreo was a good fish. A dedicated pet to those who loved him. Each morning, he would swim to the front of the tank in anticipation of his tasty TetraColor tropical crisp breakfast. You could see his fins sway with glee as he chased around his meal as it floated within the waters. Oreo spent much of his days gliding through the plants, resting in the rock cave and admiring his reflection. He could even be seen throwing caution to the wind at times, and playing in the fierce rolling bubbles that spew from his scuba diver tank-mate. He was crazy like that sometimes. He was a handsome fish who took pride in his sleek body covered with dabbles of black and white speckles. He will be remembered with a smile, and when Nabisco cookies are being dunked in milk at the table.

Cause of death is still not known, but the owners of this tank may be charged with overfeeding, overstocking and glass tapping in excess. Initial findings of problem scales and some furry stuff may be to blame. Investigations are still pending. Be on the lookout for the suspects at your local PetSmart attempting to replace their beloved swimmers again. They have assured us the tank has been properly cleaned, disinfected and ready for new pets. They’re confident that Oreo will be guiding them from beyond. Rest In Peace, Oreo. Your home looks so empty, but we'll fill it with more swimming love in a few days.


Funeral and burial services were held privately in The Bathroom Down The Hall for the family.