HB to me!

Thank you to everyone for all the lovely notes, cards, gifts, and Facebook postings for my birthday.  As you know, this is my least favorite day of the year but you have all made it special.  Mark and I had a lovely dinner at Bernard'O's last night, went to a movie today, having pizza tonight, and cheesecake later when Ryan gets home from work.  (Mark had to make sure we had the right "numbers" for the cake...oh great!) 

My mom baked me a prune roll and mailed it to me - and don't plan on sharing any of it!  Then Jill brought me the cutest cake ever...and I ate all by myself...

My crafty friend gave me the greatest craft embellishments in this awesome box ...

  

Then my jewelry-making friend helped me pick out the beads and she made this GREAT hedgehog necklace for me.  Makes me smile as it reminds me of our trip to Scotland where I saw my first hedgehog...

And of course my babies are spending the day with their mom in Jake's "bat cave" under my desk ... cozy ...

I am a LUCKY GAL!

With great sadness ...

Mark's uncle, John Cupparo, died this afternoon after a very brief illness with his children and family by his side.  We find happiness in his reunion with his dearly loved wife, Mary Rose, whom he has missed so over the last few years.  Has been a sad, sad day and our hearts are with his children as well as Mark's mom and her sister.

And we're off ...

After a nice week off, the rat race begins full speed today.  Connor has a week of missed work to catch up on and lacrosse practice starts three times a week until June with games on Saturdays.  Ryan has his training this week and I have my monthly Craft Night tomorrow night - yippee!

Yesterday a friend called to see if Ryan wanted to go see Linkin Park with her as she knows how much he loves rock bands.  Her son didn't want to go so Ryan was ecstatic to join her.  I'm not sure who chaperoned who!

His first job

Ryan had his second interview with the GM at Round Table Pizza yesterday and was offered the job!  He is very excited and will be the "dough roller" since he is a big guy and the dough is ~30 lbs each.  He has the training next week and officially begins the week after.  At the moment it's from 8a-2p four days a week which works out really well with his school, meetings, and the other kids' schedules. 

Bad dog!

Was it a racoon, a squirrel, or a big furry golden retriever who loves to dig?  The big question is when did he accomplish this lovely act of destruction?  Good thing he's cute ... and that I needed to return to the store where I bought the flowers originally so I could get two more to replace those that couldn't be saved.  Hence, I'll try again ...

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

Happy Valentine's Day!  The kids have this week off for Winter Break so it is always great to sleep in and have a more relaxed routine to the day.  Connor is still battling a cough but at least he's improving daily.  Good thing as he's going to have a lot of work to make up next week due to his sick days.  Of course no Valentine's Day is complete without getting a little heart of candy!  I have fond memories of always getting one from my Dad growing up ... thanks Dad!

This afternoon Ryan's new girlfriend, Molly, is coming over for dinner and dessert.  So, since it is a holiday, the table needed to be festive.  Connor and Kelleigh had a great time crafting place cards for the table.  Connor also handmade cards for everyone complete with sentiments he looked up on-line; Kelleigh crafted each persons favorite animal.  We'll have our favorite beef tenderloin ("Cal Beef" recipe) and then make camp pies over the fire.  Fun fun!



Mark surprised me and had chocolate covered strawberries delivered ... and I don't plan on sharing with anyone!





Yesterday the boys decided to make chocolate chip cookies which is always a hit.

Ready for the Super Bowl!

The boys are ready to cheer their Steelers to a victory!  We are going to friends who have a huge theatre screen in their media room to watch the game.  Hopefully will be an exciting game.

Connor is finally feeling better after having a high fever since Thursday night.  Kelleigh had the same thing the week before so we are hoping that it doesn't continue through the family!  We told him we all enjoyed the quiet as it's the only time that child doesn't talk!  As if we weren't having enough fun with teenagers in the house, Kelleigh entered into womanhood this week.  There should be a law against that at 12-1/2!!  Of course she knew everything and didn't need me to tell her anything. 

Include on your prayer list that Ryan's intradistrict transfer gets approved for the Fall.  We met with his counselor on Thursday to go over his courses and he needs to attend Mt. Carmel in order to get enough credits to graduate on time.  If it's denied, he will have to be a 5th year senior at New Directions (the independent study program he's currently doing) and won't be able to play football unless he wants to at RB (which he doesn't).  I also submitted paperwork that would allow Connor to transfer to MCHS too if Ryan's gets approved.  He really wants to go to the high school Ryan is at as it's their last time together.  PRAY it gets approved so he can enjoy one year as a "normal" high schooler!