Brad stealing home.........

we call him "flash"!

I love my peonies!

the ultimate woodpecker!!

I was VERY excited this afternoon- the girls and i were having "tea" after school, and I happened to look out the window- there at the edge of the yard was a PILEATED WOODPECKER! I saw one once in Washington state, many years ago and have often told the kids about it, because they are the COOLEST bird ever- they really do look just like woody woodpecker and they are HUGE! So, I grabbed the camera and took about 50 pictures- of which only one turned out because he was busy bobbing around pecking the tree stump for bugs. he was about 20 inches long from top to bottom- totally made my day!!

'special needs " soccer

Nikki had her 1st day at soccer today and just loved it......she is in a special needs soccer program because of her physical delays. there were 16 kids in her group- only 2 girls, so they hit it off right away! many of the others were little boys with varying degrees of autism, so it was quite chaotic for the 1st half hour or so. Overall it was so much fun for all of the kids and I'm so glad we found this group so she can experience playing soccer at all!

Catch 'em high, catch 'em low.......

Elise has been playing softball this spring and is doing a great job as catcher!

April showers.........

DID bring May flowers! my white lilacs and Bleeding hearts always bloom together......we are having a wet but flowerful spring.

hmmmm, maybe I can keep her in here til she's 30...

more corn!!

At the iron pigs game.....

Obamas back yard............

my dads watch

my mom asked me if there was anything of my dads i would like to have........I remembered he had kept this old watch of his in his 'man-jewelry" box on his dresser for many years. He wore this watch when i was a little girl and I always liked it.

church window

this is a window in the rebuilt church at the original jamestowne settlement. I sat along time on the benches, wondering what it must have felt like hundreds of years ago being one of those people who came across the ocean to make a new life here......

teeny tiny flowers

I found these itty bitty flowers at the old jamestowne settlement in Virginia- everyone was just stomping over them looking at the sights- sometimes we forget to see whats right under our feet

mmmmmm, corn

bodie island light house

we visited this beautiful light house and got to meet a gentleman who used to paint the outside of it ( hanging from a rope )when he was 19 years old.........a mere 74 years ago! He was amazing to listen to and we all enjoyed his stories

to be 11.........

sometimes I remember just what it felt like to be that carefree............... Elise and Brad on the beach in Kitty hawk NC last week. the water was freezing but they had a wonderful time just running and jumping and being kids.

Wednesday, March 25

my new toy.........it's pink. thats my boy rockin' out playing the Beastie boys on guitar hero........

Tuesday, March 24

I found this picture today of my older brother and sister holding me up on kevins bike.......taken ( ack!) in march 1966, 43 years ago this month! i turned 3 that june. that was our house near Atlantic city NJ.

Monday, March 23

my 1st seeds are up! these are Hollyhocks......my dad used to plant them in our border garden when I was a little girl- if you plucked the flowers off, they looked like ladies in fancy gowns when you turn them upside down. I will teach Nikki how to have a "hollyhock" ballroom dance this summer!

Monday, March 23 , Trio

All three of my children are playing violin now- I love it! Elise is playing so well now, I look forward to hearing her practice. Brad has made tremendous progress since he started in September, it seems to come easy for him as many things do. Nicole started private lessons about a month ago and just played her 1st few notes yesterday. It will be a challenge for her as it takes a LOT more strength than I imagined for her to hold and bow, but it will also be very good to help build her strength. She LOVES it and is blessed with the most patient and sweet teacher . I hope all three kids stay with it!

Sunday March 22- ahhh, sunshine!

After 2 months of condo living in our basement ( we had an especially cold few months tis winter!) Panda was VERY excited and happy to get back to the fresh air and sunshine!

Saturday march 21

My husband went off the deep end today and bought guitar hero, world tour! this is Brad ( in front) his friend kraig ( white guitar) Elise ( singing) and Nikki ( rocking the drums, who knew???) in their band, "the mob". I will admit, when the kids went to bed, dan and I played it for a couple hours...Nikki gets her drum skills from her MOM! An unexpected side effect from this game- dry eyeballs. You are afraid to blink cuz you'll miss your mark! Dan mainly bought this because next week, the Metallica version comes out........the kids will never get to play with it after that~!

Friday march 20- 1st day of spring!

I spent the afternoon starting seeds for my gardens!

Thursday March 19 - the artist that is Oscar........

when i was in las vegas a few months ago, I was walking through the spendy-mall at Bellagio and happened by the Oscar De la Renta store.........i was awestruck by this gown. Now, I am not a gown kind of gal.......but I could NOT get this thing out of my head!! It was soooo pretty, orange poppies , just floating on chiffon- WHO AM I??????? I looked it up when I got home, it only costs $5990.......maybe someday I will be someones fairy Godmother and wish this dress on them!

Wednesday march 18

I ran across this box today- had put it away a few months ago after my dad brought it back from Atlantic City for me. ( I didn't want to eat the whole box in one sitting!) I love this stuff- it brings back wonderful childhood memories of the boardwalk in AC when I was a little girl! ( many people don't know that I was born in atlantic city, just a few blocks from the boardwalk!) I always did believe they tasted like sea air and sunshine!

little Ricky ( Little Rikki, little Nikki!)

about 19 years ago ( oMG where did the time go???!!!) my sweet, but not smart cat Gracie gave birth to 4 kittens.........on top of the fence. Yes, you read that right, she had them on top of a fence!! ( there was about a 4 inch 2x4). I was away at a dog show and my also not-so smart room mate had let her outside for the day when he left for work- when he returned, he found her sitting on top of the fence with one live kitten, the others had fallen to their demise. At the time, my room mate was in an "I love Lucy" phase and talked with a cuban accent like Ricky Ricardo all the time- he took to calling the kitten "Little Ricky", and it stuck. Little Ricky turned out to be a wonderful cat, an amazing mouser who we often watched giving the neighborhood cats mousing lessons in the hay field by our house. I had Ricky for about 8 years- one day, he didn't come home and we worried coyotes might have caught up with him at last.

When i came home from our last trip, Nikki had been givin a stuffed kitty by her grandma and asked me to help her name him- of course, the resemblence was amazing and we named him "little Rikki"! he is Nikkis current favorite and leads quite the pampered Life!

well, I am so far off track, I have decided to start fresh and go 365 days from now ..........my dad passed away 3 weeks ago and life has been kind of a blur since. we had to get plane tickets for 5 of us to fly from Pennsylvania to Alaska within a few days, which was stressful enough, but then dealing with the funeral, family, friends etc has been exhausting. i'm in a pretty good place with it now, and throughout the days I am feeling very blessed to have had such a warm and loving Dad who affected so many people in a positive way. I do fine until bedtime, and it seems to catch up with me there every night. So, i tend to put off bedtime, which means I am not getting as much sleep as I should.....anyway, here are a couple photos for now, and I will try to get myself in gear to stick with it daily! the young picture of my dad is from when he was in the coast guard up in alaska for the very 1st time- it totally grabbed him by the heart and he moved up there 4 more times during his life! It has a special hold on me too, and I know someday i will end up back there.

Thursday, February 6 , upside down sky

At first look, this may seem to be a picture of clouds up in a blue sky- it is in fact the TOP of clouds against the blue ocean or the caribbean from over head in a plane! It was so pretty!

Wednesday, February 5

our last day here- a beautiful place, but we are both ready to go home- miss the kids so much and wish they could have come here too!

Tuesday, February 4

Dan was on a golf outing all day, so I spent the ENTIRE day sitting on the beach reading and sleeping......heavenly! ( oh yeah, and drinking pina coladas......)

Monday, February 3

We rented a car today and drove around the island- a lot of fun!

Sunday, February 2

ahhhhhhhhh, we finally made it!