Life: It Happens Everyday

New York State of Mind

As soon as we got back from Maine, me and the kids and my friend, Susan drove out to NYC. We hit a few scrapbook stores on the way to NY and 1 on the way back but in between we hit a few sites - we didn't get all the things that I wanted to in, but we did have some fun...

We made it to Times Square in Manhattan...the day started out so gloomy and rainy - like most days this summer.

M&M world in Times Square was a definite must for Susan and the kids. If you can fathom this - 3 floors of M&Ms and merchandise...quite a site!
 
So many M&M's...all different colors. Even different color combos.

This is our family favorite - NYPD colors.

 

Down at Battery Park stands "The Sphere" - this was the sculpture that stood at the World Trade Center plaza before 9/11/01. In front of it is an eternal flame.

 

Susan, Mom and I took the kids to the Statue of Liberty. She was beautiful and a great subject - she stands tall and straight and never blinks.

 

I had to borrow Susan's Canon 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 to take this shot - if there is one thing about Ms. Liberty it's that she is a big girl. This isn't the best shot in the world as you really can't see my kids faces in the photo - but it's proof that they were there...

Vacation is coming to a fast end. But I think I'm ready to get back to work on Tuesday...I still have time to take at work, I'll just have to find some time to take it.

More from Maine '09

More photos from Maine '09

This is Eva's toussled look.

Dylan babysat Eva for a few minutes. Dylan is my one kid that looks most like my husband. Eva is my sister-in-law's one child that looks most like her. Adam and Kristin bare a pretty strong resemblance...and yet these two kids don't even look related...oh well...

Melody never looks at me when I'm taking her picture - I got all excited about this one...

Uncle Rick with Christian and Noah sitting on the dock, fishing in Maine - this picture probably epitomizes what our Maine vacation is about - just sitting around the dock of the bay - wasting time.

This is my nephew Andrew...in a rare calm moment - he is usually create some kind of trouble that usually ticks at least one person off.

On this vacation, EvaMarie was the most willing subject. She makes the greatest faces ever.

This is Angelica on vacation - she is bound to be an architect or engineer or something...she built multiple sand forts, complete with pond water moats.

This is Dylan getting shot my Melody's water gun while wading in the pond.

I took this picture of Melody with my Canon 50mm f/1.8 - I love that lens...
This was a photo I took of our view from the cottage - I took it from the kayak though....it's so pretty in Maine...

I took this one of my niece Meghan and her little frog friend with my Canon 50mm f/1.8 too.

Thanks to my kids and nieces and nephews and extended family for letting me use their photos here. You guys are great to shoot!!!

Back from Maine

This year's summer vacation wasn't as great as it had been in past years. Mom (my mother-in-law) broke her kneecap in half a week ago. She ended up having surgery to repair it on Saturday and came up to Maine to be with us on Tuesday.

My sister-in-law, Laura's sister, Jackie (did you get that - it's a little confusing) passed away while we were up in Maine last weekend. She and my brother-in-law, Scott had to come back down from Maine for a day and then returned since the services weren't until yesterday and today.

I caught whatever bug my nieces and nephews had in Maine...although it's a quick bug; Adam got it while we were up in Maine for about a 1/2 a day. I hope this only lasts a 1/2 day. My friend, Susan, the kids and are scheduled to drive to NYC tomorrow for a few days. Plans include the Central Park Zoo, MoMA, the Statue of Liberty, Max Brenner Chocolate, Rockefeller Center, Ellis Island and Ground Zero.

We'll be back by Tuesday - and then I am home until the following Tuesday. Pictures I took up in ME...

This is my niece Samantha - she is child#5 of my BIL & SIL, Sam and Kristin. Sami is 3 days older than my Angelica.
There was one lonely little duck - who made a cameo appearance once the whole time we were there.

I love these two together. Some people think they look like twins but they are 30 months apart and I don't think they look anything alike. We took this picture the first night that we were in Maine.

This is Christian, cousin Kim's 2nd oldest - she has 4 adopted kids who have been officially hers for only a year but I can swear that they've been around forever. Christian was climbing a rock and instead of warning him to be careful, I decided to shoot him instead - that's a responsible adult for you.
This Uncle Rick and Noah, Kim's youngest. I love that they're looking at each other and not at me. I also love the bokeh in the back of Uncle Rick's head.
Dylan was such a good big brother taking his sisters in the kayak - despite Angel's precarious position, no one ever turned over in the kayak.

This is my littlest niece, EvaMarie. The poor thing had her goggles on too tight.
It was so humid up in Maine this week. I took my camera out of the cottage and didn't think about how muggy it was - my lens was fogged up. Still, I took this picture of Sami...I like the mist over her...kinda cool.

I did some crazy things on vacation. I paddled out in the kayak to stand by the kids on the raft when there weren't any adults in the water. The pond level is over their heads where the raft is. And you bet that I took my camera with me...what was I gonna do if I needed to jump out? I would have put my camera on the raft and prayed that it wouldn't fall in the water. This is Melody, Dylan and my nieces, Caitlin and Meghan on the raft.
Eventually we got all 11 kids out on the raft - in the back standing (l to r) - Andrew, Dylan, Connor & Dennis. The only boy sitting is Michael. In the front row sitting (l to r) - Meghan, Melody, Sami, Eva, Angel and Caitlin.

After the picture, the kids who stayed on the raft insisted on jumping into the pond - so I backed away in the kayak and got this lovely shot. I'm usually a sucker for the fuzzy background but I don't mind that the whole thing is in focus here.

Gotta get packing - going to NYC for a long weekend visit with the 'rents...more on Maine and NYC soon.

The Waiting Game

Breaking news  - literally...mom took a fall and broke her knee...vacation may have just turned into a stay-cation...hopefully, we'll know later today...

While we wait...

This is Angelica in the pool - she's learning to swim without the floaties but has them and the noodles in this shot.

I just hate waiting!

What have I been doing?

Working...I feel like I'm constantly working - working at work, working at home, working in school, working on relationships...however, I have found the time to take photos:

I am determined to learn how to consistently shoot well at the pool on a really sunny day. This is Melody at Aunt Sandie's pool.

I took this picture of Angelica turtlebacking Adam at the pool while they were trying to create a whirlpool by swimming the perimeter of the pool.

Both of these pictures were taken with my Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 on my Canon 50D.

Vacation begins on Friday - mentally, I think I'm pretty much on vacation. Things are a little more chaotic than usual with so much happening. Can't wait to get away -

Pictures I took the other day

Last weekend, we headed to Frank and Kelly's to celebrate their housewarming/kids' birthdays. They have a lovely home...and they had great weather for a backyard party!!! It gave me the chance to take these photos:

This is Dylan attempting to eat corn on the cob without any front teeth.

Angelica has both her front teeth in but can't seem to keep the corn in her mouth...

 

Melody - this dear child has no idea where her mouth is...

 

Here's Melody swinging at the pinata...

 

That's Melody making contact with the pinata...after 25 kids and one broken foam bat, an adult broke out an aluminum bat that one of the bigger kids used to whack the pinata 4 times before it broke open...there was so much candy in there that the pinata let out a sigh of relief when it poured out its contents.

Thanks to Frank and Kelly for having Cole and Sierra so that they could have a birthday party in the lovely backyard attached to your beautiful new home...Adam and I have so much to graduate to...someday!!!

Susan's birthday

I tried posting this last night but then lost it somehow...I did though figure out how to make my blog go the entire width of my browser...it involved an upgrade in the account I have here but I think this makes me happy.

The other night we went to New Toyko in Plymouth, MA to celebrate my friend, Susan's birthday...
This was our extremely happy to be employed hibachi cook...he smiled the entire time that he cooked for us.
The entertainment was pretty hot!!!
....and it got hotter!!!

He did a great job with the erupting onion ring tower volcano...
And this - the final result! So yummy - even as left overs because we were so stuffed!!!!

Hope you had a great birthday Susan!!!

I'm disgusted with myself

So here is how my weekend went...note: the highlight of my weekend was that I worked on Saturday (that's not entirely true)...

Went to work, went to a quick demo at the Scrapbook Cupboard (my favorite place in the whole wide world), came home and went to Frank And Kelly's housewarming/ kids' birthday party, came home and shopped for Claire's birthday gift, came home and wrapped it, had dinner, scrapped a card and went to bed.

Sunday am...woke up, scrapped another card, drove to CT for Claire's birthday, met the 'rents at Mike's 'rents' house to be gifted mom and dad's old Sony 46" LCD flat screen TV because our poor Samsung 40" died last week...yes, I've gone more than a week without a real TV...the Samsung would have cost us $500.00 to fix, but since mom and dad got a new one, this one needed a home (and I needed a TV). Got to CT only to find that I left my camera battery charging at home (not to mention that I left my sunglasses too!!!!!) Drove home from CT, stopped in Foxboro at the Bass Pro Shop to get Adam his banjo 006 Minnows for our trip to ME in a couple of weeks (my husband loves watching infomercials when there is nothing else on TV). Went to IHOP, got home, put the kids to bed and plugged in the the TV - thanks mom and dad!!!!

You know what ruined this whole weekend - missing the battery in my camera!!!! I am buying a couple of spares so that I am never without one again!!!! I SUCK!!!! This is why there are no pictures of Claire's birthday party here. For this I am sad and very disgusted with myself. I've got a busy few days ahead of me - pictures (unfortunately, none from Claire's birthday) will probably go up between Tuesday and Wednesday when some dust settles.

Thanks for reading this awful tirade!!! I promise to be better by 9am when a different hell breaks loose. Heigh, ho, heigh, ho - it's off to work I go....

Dislikes on TypePad...

I'm not happy about the fact that you need to rotate the orientation of your photo before uploading - sometimes...must be some kind of setting I need to figure out.

Also, the basic templates cut the size of your pictures...I don't like that but will have to figure that one out tomorrow.

If I can figure out TypePad before my 14 day trial period is over, I may make this switch permanent. We'll see...11 days left and counting.

More learning on this weblog

So far, I like how big the pictures are on TypePad. On Blogger, I can't get pictures this big. Although, I am not sure that I need the pictures this big (especially the vertical ones). I still need to figure out how to get the horizontal ones bigger...more pictures:

Taken at Traci's birthday party while she was opening gifts. Our friend Susan won for best gifts - pictures of NASCAR racing and Traci's sweetheart, Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

  Tonight was Recognition Night at HarborOne Credit Union (where I work and love it!!!) I happen to strategically park myself close enough to the stage to take some good shots of our speakers. Our key note speaker tonight: Liz Walker from WBZ-4 News. As I understand it, she has resigned from channel 4, attended and graduated Divinity School and is an ordained Elder. Liz had many wise things to say; particularly that you don't have to leave your hometown to be a hero - do what you do everyday to affect those around you and you can change the world.
Tonight's recognition night was one of the best ones I'd been to since joining HarborOne 5 years ago.

  Ah, now that's a pretty good sized vertical picture. I also like the size of the horizontal picture of Liz Walker.

More blogging tomorrow - if I can stay awake - I have back to back 12 & 1/2 hour days...good times!!!