TECWAE

THE IRISH PROSTITUTE  An Irish daughter had not been home for over a year.  Upon her return,  her Father cussed her. 'Where have ye been all this time? Why did ye not write to us, not even a line? Why didn't ye call? Can ye not understand what ye put yer old Mother thru?'    The girl, crying, replied, 'Sniff, sniff....Dad....I became a prostitute...'  'Ye what!!? Out of here, ye shameless harlot!  Sinner! You're a disgrace to this Catholic family.'   'OK, Dad-- as ye wish. I just came back to give mum this luxurious fur coat, title deed to a ten bedroom mansion plus a $5 million savings  certificate. For me little brother, this gold Rolex. And for ye Daddy, the sparkling new Mercedes limited edition convertible that's parked outside plus a membership to the country  club.....(takes a breath).....and an invitation for ye all to spend New Years Eve on board my new yacht in the Riviera and... ..'   'Now what was it ye said ye had become?' says Dad.   Girl, crying again, 'Sniff, sniff....a prostitute Daddy! Sniff, sniff.'    'Oh! Be Jesus! Ye scared me half to death, girl!  I thought ye said a Protestant.. Come here and give yer old Dad a hug.

Lent

What is everyone giving up for lent?

A few new pictures of Claire

Well, we've gotten the camera out a bit recently and here are some of the highlights. Enjoy.

Claire needs your help!

Ok, really it is Mom & Dad that need your help, but still....

We received this E-mail from day care and need some brainstorming ideas.

Dear Parents,

In honor of Dr. Seuss’s Birthday which is March 2, 2009 we are celebrating with a BANG! We are asking each family to create a hat from your child’s favorite Dr. Seuss book to wear in the Parade on March 2nd .

We will hold our “Annual Hat Parade” at 10:00 am as well as many fun craft projects, songs and stories throughout the day. We are asking for parent volunteers to sign up and read to your child’s class for the entire week. Sign up sheets are posted in each classroom.

Thoughts??

Happy Baby!

The truth is out - when I get home from work I hang out in long underwear!! :-)

I hope you enjoyed the video nonetheless.

Better late than never...

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Gail,
Happy Birthday to you!

We hope you had a wonderful birthday and didn't have to work too hard.

TECWAE

Yesterday I had a flat tire on the interstate.  So I eased my car over to  the shoulder of the road, carefully got out of the car and opened the      trunk.                                                                                                                                                 I took out 2 cardboard men, unfolded them and stood them at the rear of my                                                          car facing oncoming traffic. They look so lifelike you wouldn't believe!   They are in trench coats, exposing their nude bodies to the approaching    drivers.                                                                                                                                               I started to change my tire, and to my surprise, cars started slowing down                                                                             looking at my lifelike men. And of course, traffic started backing up.     Everybody was tooting their horns and waving like crazy. It wasn't long    before a state trooper pulled up behind me.                                                                                                            He got out of his car and started walking towards me.  I could tell he was                                                                          not a happy camper!                                                                                                                                    "What's going on here?"                                                                                                                                "My car has a flat tire," I said calmly.                                                                                                               "Well, what are those obscene cardboard men doing here by the road?"                                                                                   I couldn't believe that he didn't know.  So I told him, "Hello-o-o-o-o-o,  those are my emergency flashers!"

Claire's new "trick"

As you can see, Claire can now hold her own bottle. Meredith has been pretty good at helping her get her little hands on the bottle every night. Now, all we have to do is put her hands on the bottle and she holds it. Way to go Claire. Now all we gotta teach her to do is to mix the formula and water.

Claire Update

It's been a while since I posted pictures of Claire on here. In my opinion, she has really changed a lot. What do you think?

Yesterday, we took Claire to the park. She seemed to enjoy the swinging, although it was a little chilly.
First time on the swings
She loves her Daddy!
Friday night dancing with Mommy - Claire loooooooooves to dance!
Dad - check me out, I can dunk the basketball!

Remember that time I'm going to Abu Dhabi?

What do the picture below and I have in common?


We'll be in the same place the week of March 12-22nd!!!!


I just booked my ticket with some friends from MA to visit our friend Shannon who lives in Abu Dhabi. She has a crazy job, crazy living arrangements, and I am VERRRRRRRRRRY excited to go! Although my boss doesn't seem to share my same excitement....but here is why I think I deserve it.

So I'm pretty sure that 2009 isn't my year. I won't walk you through the comedy of errors that have occured in the past month, but I'll give you some highlights (or low lights):

• One of my best friends father unexpectedly passed away last week
• My friend from London was staying with me but Mere & Dan were kind enough to take him in while I was gone.
  
• I forgot my purse when I left to go home for the services because I was rushing - trying to beat the snow and ice! Who does that?
  
• I forgot my apartment keys on my way back to NJ because they werent in my purse, because my purse was in NJ
  
• I got in to a car accident on the way back to NJ - Keep in mind - no purse means no license. I was driving on 84 in Danbury and something (I'm assuming ice) came off the tractor trailer in front of my (which I didn't get the plates of) and smashed my windshield and put some dents in my roof....the size of a watermelon. The dents were so deep, I could see them from the INSIDE of the car, specifically right above my head! The force was so hard that it turned on all the lights in my car and unsnaped both sun visors!!! A few people have pointed out, if that had hit 4 inches lower, I would not be here today so someone was watching out for me! How bad luck has this car been for me???
  
• Since I was trying to catch a flight to Miami to meet my friends, I was going to try to ditch my car and catch a train to Newark but I stumbled on a car dealership. Dad told me to have them tell me if it was safe to drive. I go in - HYSTERICALLY crying (one person can only take so much bad luck!) - and the guy came out and looked and said it was safe to drive. Poor guy didn't know that to do with me. I tried to explain that I was okay and it was just alot going on at once but he didn't believe me in between my sobs.
• I made my flight! The Clemson Basketball game is on! I'm on Jet Blue so I can watch it! Things are looking up! Oh wait...the row my friends and I were sitting in were the only 3 tvs on the plane that didn't work - but we got free wine!!!
  

So I had to share because I'm super excited and I'm really hoping my luck turns around before we leave...in 5 weeks!!!

Happy Birthdays!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday Peggy & Maryellen
Happy Birthday to you!

We hope you both have fantastic days!

Family Weekend!

As we are all aware, Julie is leaving for the Peace Corp early this summer. She would like us to have family weekend before she leaves, so let's get planning. May looks like the right month, but Memorial Day weekend is out because Gail is working and Nicole will be in China, and it is a little close to Julies departure. Let us know what your availability is both Mothers Days weekend (May 10-11th) and the following weekend(May 17-18th).

Obviously it will be too cold to take Mimere to Vermont - and let's face it, as much as I love you guys, it might be a little small to be holed up together in Vermont if the weather is bad. Paula has a few suggestions

• pitch tournament
• nice meal on Saturday evening
• brunch on Sunday (possibly at Jericho following noon mass)
• Young ones can go to a bar on Friday if they insist (Tina and Paula volunteer to join us!)
• We could have our own bar - Peter makes a great raspberry martini

Throw out any other suggestions you might have - let's get together and have some fun! As Paula said, "All ideas are welcomed...now it is important that everyone get in on this conversation so be sure to talk with those who do not check the blog..."

Random posting and ethical debates...

The blog has been pretty quiet lately and I know there has been a lot going on. Where is everyone?? This morning I am sure some are recovering from Super Bowl parties and hangovers. No one would have wanted to be at our Super Bowl party - 7 babies all within 3 weeks of each other. Claire was the oldest, which sounds really weird to say.

Random thoughts - Going on vacation always puts me in the mood to get some good reading done. This morning I finally finished a really good book I started in Puerto Rico. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a good read. This is the basic summary - 13- year-old Anna Fitzgerald enlists the help of an attorney, Campbell Alexander, to sue her parents for rights to her own body. Anna was conceived as a donor for her sister Kate, who is 16 and has leukemia. Anna donated genetic material throughout her life, and the latest donation is for her to give a kidney to Kate. If she wins the lawsuit, she would not have to donate.

Let the ethical debates begin...

Speaking of ethics - what are you feelings on the recently born octuplets? The mother already has 6 kids, isn't married, and decided to undergo IVF. Just interested in your thoughts.

And I also owe an apology for missing Uncle Michaels birthday - Happy Belated Birthday! I hope you got to celebrate in Puerto Rico with a nice drink by the pool. And Happy Belated Birthday to Petra as well! And, yes, I know we have a few birthdays coming up this week...