Happy 20th Anniversary to Us!!!

What's Coming . . .

New Hampshire, Boston, Matthew's Birthday










Publishing Party, Easter, Pottery Piazza















Yep, lots of posts I need to do! But I have no time. We are leaving for our anniversary trip tomorrow, and I have lots to do. All of those posts will have to wait until next week. Sorry!

Driving . . .

Oh, how I wish I had one of these signs . . . I have driven with Collin a few times in the past few days, and have so badly wanted people behind us to know that he is just learning. He is getting better though. He just needs to practice A LOT. Oh, how I wish he could be driving in California! The intersections are so weird here. Driving situations in Connecticut are a little hairy.

The reason why we were driving a few times together was to go to the bank to open an account for Collin. The first we drove over there, the bank was closed. Ugh. The second day we drove over there, Collin only had one form of identification instead of two. I guess three times really is a charm! And it helped driving the same route three separate times. I told Collin we should just drive that every day. We met practically every driving scenario on the way: crosswalks, railroad tracks, turning with an arrow, regular left hand turn at a stop light, merging, funky intersections, and on and on. At any rate, we're hoping to get in lots of driving so Collin can get his license soon. Moving right along!

just a sidenote

aren't these the cutest slippers you've ever seen?



i'm just sayin'

Soccer and a Big Birthday

The spring soccer season started last Saturday. Matthew didn't play last year and decided to play again. The times we have for Matthew and Michaels' games on Saturday mornings are kind of the pits. Michael plays 8:45-10:15am, and Matthew plays 10:30am-12:30pm. By the time they're finished, half the day is over! It's all fun though. And we usually get quite a few Saturdays rained out.

Mike took Michael this time. No pictures except this one of him holding his shirt by the fence. Nice. Michael made the first goal! They tied 2-2.


At Matthew's level they have 4th graders - 8th graders playing together. That's quite the spread, but it works out well. Matthew got right in there as usual, playing awesome defense.

Sunday was Collin's 18th birthday!!!


This is a magnet I have on the fridge ---


Isn't it the cutest picture ever?


It's hard to believe this little guy is now 18 yrs. old!

Collin couldn't decide what he wanted, so we gave him money. That's too boring, so we got him a few fun things to open. One of those things was silly putty. It was really funny when we reminisced about the time Mike banned silly putty from our house after Lauren slept with it 11 years ago. Collin said, "So I guess that means we're allowed to have silly putty when we turn 18!"

(the card was one of those funny ones that talks)

Collin asked for strawberry cheesecake. Yummmmm!!!

(btw - 1/16 is worth 6 ww points)

Happy Birthday, Collin!

My New Freezer

i have no time for this post, but i just had to tell you:

Oh, what a glorious day! My new fridge has arrived, and she's gorgeous!

Out with the old . . . . . In with the new!!!

The old one was 20 cubic feet. The new one is 21.
We had that fridge for 18 years. It's as old as Collin!

(we won't be replacing collin)
I don't really care how it looks, although it is very pretty.

I mostly care about food staying frozen! I am so excited to fill 'er up. I haven't
used the door of the freezer in years since nothing stayed frozen in there.
And I haven't used the top shelf of the freezer in two years since the
thawing issue started. It will be so wonderful to use ALL of the space now!

Don't I know you??

Lauren made the best cookies over the weekend. She asked me if it's possible to make cookies out of Funfetti cake mix. I said, "I don't know. Let's Google it!" Sure enough, we found a simple recipe:

18.9-ounce package of Funfetti cake mix
1/2 Cup butter, softened
1 Egg

Bake at 350 degrees, 9-12 mins.

And I only ate one :) The Pillsbury website also has a recipe. It has 1/3 cup of oil and 2 eggs. I think she should try that next time.

So, I was dropping off the boys at school this morning when the lady at the drop off for Michael's school stopped me. She said, "You know, Bruce needs some more payments for his . . . you know . . . his thing . . . " Long pause until I said, "Who is Bruce?" And then she started laughing, "I'm sorry! I thought you worked at Central Office! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Funny that I was in my pajamas with absolutely no makeup on, and she still thought I was someone she knew one her way to work. I wasn't surprised though. I can't tell you how many times people think they know me. I get it ALL THE TIME. "Don't I know you?" "Did you grow up in Georgia?" "Aren't you married to Joe?" "I swear I know you from somewhere!" I always reassure people, "Believe me, I get it all the time." I must have a very familiar looking face. It was funny a few years ago when there was another woman at our church who people always mistook me for, and she had the same problem. Most people really thought we were the same person. I didn't mind since she always had a friendly smile on her face. When I see her now we always give each other that knowing smile that says "Oh, my twin friend - I miss you!"

New York Knicks

Madison Square Garden

New York, NY

One of Mike's colleagues has season tickets for the NY Knicks. When he can't use the tickets, he sells them to friends. So, Mike got a pair so he and Michael could go see a game! Since Michael played basketball for the first time this year, it was fun to see a professional game.

Here they are at the game. So cool!

Their seats were good, and the popcorn was tasty!

Here is the team warming up.

Game on!

Halftime

And the Knicks won!

Cat Grass at the University

Almost a month ago, Matthew (and I) completed his science project involving pH levels of water and growing cat grass. It was a daunting task from the beginning, totally overwhelming Matthew. He did one last year and knew he wanted to put some extra effort into it this time, and was NOT looking forward to it. Once we finally chose his topic, it took forever to get around to planting the seeds. I was able to get him to do it one day and had him water the plants as he should. The one thing we did not do was to measure the cat grass as it grew. Oops! At the eleventh hour, we did measure the final length (for as far as we were planning on going according to the time we had). And then we made up the rest of the measurements. So bad! It seemed to be ok and even made sense. To tell you the truth, we were just happy to have it done!

Now fast forward two weeks. Matthew got strep throat and had to miss school for two days. On the first day, his friend Sergio called after school to tell him some news. He said that the principal announced who was chosen to go to the Western Connecticut State University Science Fair, and Matthew's name was called! Matthew and I were like, "NO WAY!" We were laughing so hard. "And we made up the measurements!" Matthew really couldn't believe it. At the end of the second day he missed from school, his friend Jake called and said the same thing. Crazy. It was true. Matthew was chosen to show his science project display board at West Conn. Very cool!

Matthew and I drove over to the university Friday night (just 15 minutes from our house) and walked through the rain to the new science building. I wasn't sure what to expect. We quickly found out that it was a special science fair just for our school. All of the kids were dressed to impress and ready to present their projects.

The superintendent pulled all of the parents aside while the students got ready. I was so impressed. He said, "It's not going to do your students any favors if you all stand around and drink coffee while we're here. I need to you to walk around and approach the students. Ask them what they did, how they did it, what they found out, etc." The university scientists were also expected to show up and ask the kids questions, but they got stuck in a meeting. Bummer.

Mike arrived just as we started walking around. Matthew looked great!

People asked Matthew some great questions and were very interested in his project. One guy who was a gardener asked LOTS of questions! Mike followed me as I approached kids. (funny guy. he just stood behind me and didn't say a thing.) It was amazing all of the things these kids did. I had a lot of fun!

After an hour, it was time to go home. We made our way across the campus in the rain and called it a day. What an honor it was for Matthew to be chosen. Very special.