One down and one to go - Teen 1 graduated from high school.The weather was perfect, the ceremony short, sweet but not too mushy and she was so happy. She'll be off to Brandeis University soon enough but for now she's enjoying the freedom and sense of accomplishment which she so deserves.
A few photos...
I know it has been a bit quiet on my blog. Not so in real life I'm afraid.
Between my mother being ill, some new challenges at work, one DD's up and coming bat mitzvah and the other DD's college/graduation stuff, it has been positively crazy around here. First some photos from tonight's prom. I can't believe this is the last one for her and that she will be in college soon. It looks like she will be going to Brandeis next year unless either Barnard or Univ of Michigan moves her off their waiting lists. She has her fingers crossed for one of those since Brandeis is just a too little close to home.
I just got home yesterday from an emergency trip to Florida to move my mom up here. She was planning on making the move this summer but suddenly developed severe pulmonary fibrosis in the process of being treated for lung cancer. So she is now on oxygen and in hospice but we did manage to get her up here to a facility which was quite the trick. One of my sisters came down to help pack up her and to start packing up her house. One of the cool things is we found all sorts of wonderful old photos and piles of recipes so you know I will being doing something with those later.
Next weekend is DD#2's big day. I heard her running through the service yesterday and she did a wonderful job. One good thing about my unexpected trip was that it gave all of us a chance to stop and assess what is really important for the bat mitzvah. It turns out it was good to let some of this stuff go and I thank my dear friends for helping us out in a pinch.
So hopefully things will calm down a bit here and I can find some time to post recipes and do some scrapping! Probably not until after next week though....
For quite some time I've been intrigued with creating recipe cards digitally and have used this blog to provide them for free. And it is amazing at how many people download them which is very cool. I started doing them to preserve recipes we use all the time or ones that are special for my family.
But then last year DH decided that it was time to lose some weight. Being the lovable geek that he is, he went around this by researching various options. I've long been a fan of Weight Watchers but he decided to do something much more radical which he recently posted on his blog Unpopular Ideas. You can read about the Southern NH Beach Diet. - the title is a tongue in cheek reference to the fact we live in southern NH, near a lake. And if you would like to delve into the biochemistry behind it you might read The Calorie Fallacy, though I will warn you that it is a very long post. It is an interresting read and follows his usual pattern of coming up with interesting and sometimes unpopular ideas.
At any rate I can tell you does work - he has lost a lot of weight. Sadly being a computer geek doesn't burn much in the way of calories but this diet does seem to work for him. It did mean changing our dinners a bit and interestingly enough one of my best sources of new recipes has been Weight Watchers which seems to be avoiding carbs now too. It gives you something to think about....
This is quite the year. First there is visiting and deciding on colleges; then there is writing essays and filling out applications. We're fortunately way past both of those things and now are at the waiting stage. The closer it gets, the harder it is for all of us. Usually content to let mail build up for a day or two, we are now checking the mailbox every day. Thick letters, thin letters - there doesn't seem to be pattern. But this weekend brought two new acceptances - University of Vermont (UVM) and Hofstra. The latter was sort of a safety school (though proximity to NYC was a large attraction) but then yesterday's mail brought word of a merit scholarship. In fact a very generous one. So now that bumped it up a bit to the let's-take-another-look-at-it-in-the-spring list. It might be a busy spring but at least UVM and Hofstra aren't far away.
We went to the school musical (Teen was doing sound) and I was chatting with one of the mothers whose DD wants to go into musical theater. In addition to applications and interviews, her daughter has to audition. So her acceptance isn't based on scores and essays but rather on a 2 minute monologue and 32 bars of music. Yikes - I should be thankful that my DD wants to do sound and not be on the stage. Talk about pressure. And they are still running around doing auditions - they have one this week.
When did it ever get to competitive? And how is it that we put so much pressure on these kids that they have to declare a major like musical theater vs film before they are 18. I know this year is the biggest applicant pool ever for colleges which ups the ante some but how many of us went to college with a clear idea of what we wanted to do? Gee - not me. Heck, I didn't even graduate with a clear idea of my career path. I'm actually thankful that my DD wants to major in English and be a writer because what she is looking for is a good liberal arts school. And that means she will have the freedom to take a wide variety of classes and try areas that she's never been exposed to academically. Who knows what she'll do - and it may well be writing - but at least the options are there.
Okay...I'll stop ranting ...time to check the mail box....
Sadly, my MIL died on Wednesday. As you can imagine it has been a bit busy around here but I did want to share a few LOs in did with her old photos. She had lung cancer and rapidly declined in the past two week, entering a hospice house last week. What has been wonderful is that my DDs got to really know her since she has been living with us since last May. Today would have been her 74th birthday.
Credits: papers from Nostalgic by Corina Nielsen; elements from Illusive by Corina Nielsen; font is Viner Hand and Augie; grid from FxFoto
Credits: papers from Illusive and Awakening by Corina Nielsen; frame group from Illusive ; font is Augie
Credits: paper is from Nostalgic by Corina Nielen; elements from Remembering You and Illusive both by Corina Nielsen; font is Parisian
Credits: font is Ticket Capitals Repressed; grid by FxFoto; paper from Nostalgic by Corina Nielsen
Credits: papers from Awakening by Corina Nielsen; stitches and pin from Windsong by Anne deJong and Marcie Reckinger; alpha from Cinnamon Tea by Cori Gammon; elements from Ribbon Edgers and Illusive by Corina Nielsen; heart from Eccentricities by Jean Brisebois; font is Augie
Credits: papers from Everyday Solids and Awakening by Corina Nielsen; Ribbon Edgers by Corina Nielsen; newsprint unknown (sorry); font is Augie
Always good to start off vacation with a bang. Certainly Friday started off that way with a bit more of the white stuff which made the day a challenge. But we certainly made up for that....
On Saturday Teen went to the Boston Silent Dance Experiment which she said was awesome. Never heard of a silent dance? That's okay - I hadn't either! So - you download a special track to your iPod and then everyone meets in a public place, in this case Fanueil Hall. At the appointed time, everyone turns on their iPod and the dance begins. She said there were about 400 people there! They did some activities and even danced in a conga line around the Quincy Market area which must have been quite a sight!
Here are some of her pictures
In the meantime, Teen13 made a new friend
Happy February Vacation!!
Big day at our house yesterday - Teen got an award! This was came a surprise to all of us but well deserved. Every year the NH Athletic Assoication honors seniors who play sports, maintain a B+ average and do community service.
It's held up in Concord and even features a speech by the Governor! Yesterday the girls were honored and there were ten girls from her school. Teen was thrilled to be among them. What a great honor!
This year we have three voters in our house. My DD is 18 and just registered to vote which is quite he milestone. And she's taking it quite seriously, listening to the candidates and reading about them. Since we live in NH, we've been living with the primary race for many months now and it has given her an up close view of the process. After all John McCain spoke at her school and she got to hang out and do some of the sound for it which was cool. Manchester, being the biggest city in the state, got lots of attention today with TV trucks and candidate everywhere. I walked past Hilliary today without even realizing it on my way to Dunkin Donuts although in my defense I will say she was in a crowd. Or maybe I've just become oblivious.... Still it is kind of cool to be in the limelight.
So tomorrow there won't be talk of candidate sightings and who is appearing where. And gone will be the motorcades and traffic tie ups. The snowbanks will look grimy again without all the colorful signs - at least I hope all those signs will be left up until spring. I won't miss all the survey and campaign calls at all. There were so many of them this week that at one point DH declared he was voting for Rudy because we had not had a phone call from his campaign. LOL
I'm sending out New Years cards this year....just too busy during December....obviously the photo was taken well before December so my intentions were oh so good, I just bogged down in the execution end of it.
Credits: Winter Wish by Amanda Heimann and ChereKaye; Khristy Schmidt frames, Corrine Nielsen staples and font is Augie
Last night was the annual Lord of the Rings Night at our house whereby a group of LOR groupies sleep over and watch all three extended versions back to back. Something like 12+ hours of viewing bliss for the trilogy obsessed - they can tell you exactly how many hours and mintues ( and probably seconds). And it occurs every Christmas break without fail (so far). Of course the night would not be complete without appropiate food - Eye of Sauron Pizza anyone? How about Lembas Cookies and (Root) Beer?
A lot of trial and error went into the recipe for Lembas Cookies and Teen #1 wants to be sure you know that she created this recipe herself. And I can certainly attest to the multiple attempts at coming up with something edible - LOL! She has graciously let me scrap it but it is hers and actually quite good. The cookies taste best warm and dipped in a bit of honey. Enjoy!
Click on the title for a download of the full sized version.
Credits: Art Bin Papers by Kim Hill at CG Essentials; Bent Frames by Khristy Schmidt; leaves from DSD Freebie by Scraphead; binder by Corina Nielsen at Funky Playground; pins by Catine H of CatScrap. Fonts are Tempus, Augie and Beyond Wonderland.
