Friday Favorites—Creative Cursing

My friend Rebby gave me this book for my birthday.  It's a mix n' match profanity generator and it's hours of belly rolling laughter.  Happy Friday Slut Donkeys!

Day of the Dead

Today is il Giorno dei Morti, Day of the Dead—an Italian celebration of remembering our loved ones who have died.  Since Currier is Sicilian born, we’ve adopted this tradition in our home.  This morning Currier and Rya woke to presents “brought” to them from the dead.  I’m sure most people think this is morbid but I think it’s a sweet way to open a conversation with my children about death and give them the opportunity to honor and cherish our loved ones who have passed on.  

Buon Compleanno A Te

Last night we threw Bruco a surprise party for his 8th birthday.  He was genuinely surprised.  I honestly think he had no idea that it was his birthday and the T-bone steak that I was cooking was actually for him!  Bruco may be the world's worst dog, but he's our dog and we love him and his quirky ways!   

Cinderella and General Grievous

Cinderella and General Grievous hit the hood hard last night. The princess and villain hoarded as much candy as their dainty and greedy little hands could carry.

Halloween 2011 was deemed a success as they both passed out in candy comas with smiles (and some chocolate) on their faces.  

The Currier and Coleen Show

For the past two months Trent’s been traveling A LOT for work.  Last week he had to go down to Jacksonville, Florida so he took Rya D. with him so she could spend a week with her Mimi and Papi in The Villages—I had one less child to care for and Rya got spoiled rotten—win win!  Currier and I had a week to ourselves.  We had sleepovers in the guest room every night, watched scary movies way past our bedtime, ate junky cereal for dinner, carved pumpkins handpicked from the pumpkin patch, played video games until our eyes and hands hurt and we giggled like fools over our shared humor.  It was a great week and Currier never wanted it to end.   

Currier's First Painting

Yesterday Currier took his first acrylic on canvas painting class at Bottles and Brushes.  He painted me a rocket ship for my birthday.  

He took this very seriously!  The instructor said, "I have a feeling I'm going to be seeing a lot of this kid!"

Race For The Cure

Ella flew in from Wisconsin for the Race for the Cure.  It was a beautiful day for a run!

That evening the ESAC girls met at 17 North for dinner and drinks to celebrate Ella being in town.  It was a short and sweet visit and I felt honored to be a part of her trip back to Charleston!

I Wanna Be The Girl With The Most Cake

I had to pick up Rya from school early last week because she wasn't feeling good.  This made her feel better.

Lunch With My Favorite Kindergartner

I had lunch at Currier's school.  I smuggled in Subway and we sat at the cool kids' table!   

Friday Favorites- Paolo Snoring

Paolo has a deviated septum from being hit by a truck.  He's had several unsuccessful surgeries to try to correct it.  This is what we live with as a result. 

Collecting BOX TOP$ for Kindergarten

Currier is collecting BOX TOP$ for his Kindergarten class this year.  If you happen to see one on your cereal or snack box please cut them out and send them to Currier. Each one is worth a dime so they can add up quickly.  Thanks in advance for participating! 

Feeling Itchy

When I picked up Currier from school today he had this sticker on him.  It reads: "Children in your child's class have head lice.  Please go to http://laurelhill.ccsdschools.com/ and click on the clinic folder on the left for more information."  I haven't stopped itching since. 

My Wacky Kids

Our days at the pool are limited now that the summer is quickly coming to an end.  The air is turning cooler and Halloween decorations are out.  Summer went by too quickly.   

I love these precious moments.

Valdez Alaska

I had the privilege of attending a conference in Alaska this past week. It was the Alaska Museums/Alaska Historical Society Joint Annual Conference in Valdez. My Publisher, Donna, and I arrived in Valdez late Tuesday night after 17 hours of traveling. We woke early Wednesday morning a bit jet lagged and disoriented (truthfully hungover!) and ventured around this foggy harbor town.

That evening we embarked on the Opening Reception Glacier Cruise with other history enthusiasts (total geeks!). The delicious catered food, open bar and views of several waterfalls thoroughly impressed us. The fact that we didn't actually see a glacier on the glacier cruise unimpressed us.

On Thursday and Friday we attended the conference at the Valdez Convention and Civic Center where we accomplished our goal of making contacts with potential authors for our local history books. 

On Friday we had a little down time before heading to the airport so we took a drive to the Worthington Glacier because we refused to leave Alaska without seeing a glacier (giant ice cube!).  We also drove by countless waterfalls along the way but much to our disappointment we had no run-ins with any wildlife such as bear, moose, baby seals, penguins or huskies.     

We also got a great view of more glaciers from the airplane. I'm not sure what was more frightening—the rickety prop airplane ride to Anchorage or the fact that we didn't go through security to board this flight but the incredible views of the snow capped mountains and glaciers outweighed the fear (the cocktail named Northern Lights didn't hurt either!).  

We had a four hour layover in Anchorage so we ventured away from the airport to a bar called Humpy's where I met an old Newburyport High School friend for a couple of drinks. Steve and I graduated together over 20 years ago and we haven't seen each other since.  He's a pilot up in Anchorage now and if it wasn't for facebook our drinks, shared laughs and sarcasm would have never occurred some 4000 miles away from our home town all these years after high school. I love how facebook makes the world smaller (YEAT!).

After our quick Anchorage outing, we headed back to mainland America feeling lucky for our Alaska experience where the air is cold and fresh, the salmon is something I will talk about for the rest of my life, and the nature is for lack of a better word "breathtaking". We arrived back in Charleston yesterday afternoon feeling thankful for the sunshine, modern conveniences of the mainland and for the lack of camouflage, flannel and facial hair.