Sad

Here's my conversation with S this morning:

S: Mommy, I wish I wasn't allergic to anything, like Trinks. And my stuffed animals.

Me: silence

Living with a hernia

Apparently I have been living with one for a few months now. I went to the dr for chest pains and ended up asking about the lump on my stomach. Good news about the chest pains - exercise asthma. I'm not really surprised and pretty much diagnosed it myself on Saturday rather than call 911. I get to take an inhaler before walking. Yippee. Now I just need to figure out when I can have surgery before this hernia becomes an emergency. I have no days, there is no one who can back me up at work because my boss is still out, so this could be a challenge. I'm trying to see if the surgeon is available right before the NY vacation.

Growing up

Trinks once again rose to the occasion and was involved in Aunt Charlotte's funeral. She spoke about the great great aunt who she loved to visit. She looked much older as she sported a brand new short hair style.

I'm still a little numb about everything. I heard that my other grandmother is doing poorly. I'm, of course, in denial. I won't believe anything until I see her tomorrow. I am a little nervous as bad things happen in threes and I have been feeling like the angel of death lately. Trinks wants to come with me, probably to play with the dogs more than anything else.

I ended up driving through Freehold, NJ, blasting Bruce Springsteen and crying to "My Hometown". Every once in a while I get a little homesick. Some days I wish I could move home. Then I see some of the locals and they piss me off and I know why I left. Old Freehold is dying and the replacements are inferior.

The end of an era

After we returned from NYC, we stopped to see my grandfather. All the kids were in the pool, my father pretended to watch them carefully and Pop Pop was sleeping when my mom and I decided to run errands. We stopped first to pick up my grandmother's ashes. We didn't know what to do with them in the car. I felt she should ride up front, so I held them on my lap. I thought we should have done something holy, but we drove to FoodTown and picked up 4 bake at home pizzas, and headed back to feed the kids. As we passed the nursing home Aunt Charlotte was in, I asked if we could stop in for a quick visit.

My mom agreed it would be good since she was planning to go tomorrow morning. When we got in Aunt Charlotte's room, it was clear she wasn't going to live much longer. We held her hand and watched her slip peacefully away. Once we were sure she was gone, we called a nurse to pronounce her. I am so grateful she wasn't alone at the end. I am also happy to know she isn't suffering anymore. It still plain sucks.

Growing up, my sister, cousin and I used to play together a lot. Aunt Charlotte was my cousin's grandmother and my grandmother's older sister. Aunt Charlotte would let us get away with almost anything. She had a ready smile and a nice laugh. She lived for her husband, and outlived him by 10 years. She suffered from Parkinsons and it was hard to watch her lose her strength.

There is so much more that I could say, but I am tired and should probably get some sleep before I attempt to go to work tomorrow.

American Girl Place

Samantha BEFORE her makeover.

Samantha's new hair do. It's the style of the month.



Happy Birthday Trinks!!!

Oh Nuts!

I took both kids to the allergist today. Trinks nearly had a panic attack before the test began. S went first and was fidgety because it started itching. Then Trinks went into panic mode and completely freaked out. My mom got to hold her down for the scratch tests. She's allergic to NOTHING. The dr. doesn't quite believe it, but the next step is intraderma injections. Hmmmmm - NO! I am treating her as if she has dust and cat allergy. She does have asthma and will be on preventative meds until we go back in October.

S, on the other hand, is no longer allergic to eggs. He is allergic to TREE NUTS! Good thing I gave him a Nutella sandwich for lunch. He was only tested for cashews and pistachios, which means he can still eat Nutella. And since peanuts are dug and not grown on trees, we don't have as much to worry about. We have to have an epi pen. I dropped the prescriptions off on the way home, so tomorrow will be the epi pen training. Trinks will also learn how to use it. It's a good life skill to have.

So all in all it was a great day in the City of Brotherly Love. We took the Ben Franklin Bridge out of the city and had a lovely snack at Weber's Root beer. It's a car hop and the kids had a blast. Right now they are at the carnival as their reward.

My Katrinka

My daughter was given the nickname Katrinka by my grandmother. I believe she was almost two at the time. Grandmom kept calling her Katrinka just to watch her stamp her foot and yell "I not Katrinka!!" So when it came time to name her for the blog, I took the shortened form of this nickname - Trinks. When I'm mad, I'm more likely to expand the nickname to Katrinka Marie than use her real name.

I have never been more proud of my Trinks than this week. We went out to dinner for her birthday and then I told her we were going to see Grandmom. She was okay with that. When I got in the car, I explained we were going to say good bye. We both cried on the way up there. Trinks was very brave and talked to Grandmom, even though Grandmom was beyond speech when we got there. When she was done, she went to sleep in the other room. When I informed Trinks Grandmom died, she was sad. I then asked if she wanted to get up at the funeral and talk about Grandmom, and without hesitating, she said she wanted to. All she wanted from me was notecards.

My mother and I sat at the kitchen table and watched Trinks write for a couple of minutes. She wouldn't let us read it, but left the cards on the table when she went outside. Mom read them, teared up, and noted that Trinks has been to too many funerals. Below is what she wrote, in her own unique spelling.

My great grandma was a great woman. She loved animals. She went to a party and we saw Cinderella and we all wor tearas. And we all miss her but we can cary her in our heart so let us remember her.

It was short, and absolutely perfect. While we waited for our turn to speak, Trinks informed me that she didn't want to talk about the Cinderella trip. She was able to edit her remarks while standing at the podium. We had her go first so if it got too intense, she didn't have to be there. She did great. I know Grandmom would have been proud of her Katrinka.

I'm gonna love you. forever and ever

forever and ever, Amen. My grandmother died tonight. She waited until she had seen everybody, then she drifted off peacefully. She died at home, surrounded by family. Trinks and I are in NJ until we figure out the order of events. When my mind isn't so cluttered, I'll try to be more poetic. In the meantime, I'll continue to sing Randy Travis in memory of Grandmom.

Happy Birthday Trinks!!!!

Trinks turns 8 today! I still can't believe it. It seems like yesterday she was just a baby. Now she is a fiercly independent girl who could probably take me down with just a few kung fu moves. I'm so proud of all she's accomplished and look forward to watching her find her place in the world.

The kids are back

And don't they look like they had a blast?

Our trip

We had two sunny days - Monday when we drove to Sturbridge, MA and today when we returned to DE. We decided to get a jump on our trip and left Monday, stopped to see my grandmother. We then drove to a rest stop in CT, where I found a discount hotel book. I decided Sturbridge was the best place to stop. I even decided on Days Inn. We drove up, hubs didn't like the looks of it, so we headed to the Publick House. This was a cheap, decent place. We had a large room with cheesy wallpaper, a balcony and a king sized bed.



We took off Tuesday morning after an awesome breakfast. It was only an hour to Boston and we found the with minimal swearing. Surprisingly, they had a room for us, so we regrouped, discovered a tour of Fenway and took to the streets. We walked 7.6 miles that day. We hit Cheers, Boston Common, and the Public Gardens. We were so tired that we ordered room service for dinner.



It was overcast on Wednesday, but we skipped breakfast and headed to No Name for an early lunch. I ended up getting the lobster salad, which was the most lobster I've ever eaten in one sitting. The food was simple and good, the atmosphere non existent and the service impeccable. We rolled out of there and headed off to the Wharf. We got to the Aquarium before the skies opened up. At that point, it seemed the Duck tour would be our driest option. It wasn't. The roof leaked, but it was 1.5 hour tour of the history of Boston. Hubs slept through the land part, but was wide awake for the sea part. After it was over, we were soaked and freezing. The lightening made the decision for us - cab back to the hotel. After a nice rest, we headed back out for dinner in Little Italy. We chose La Prezza for the sole reason they had zuchini flowers on the menu. It was a great choice. We wandered back through the markets. Surprisingly there was no rain that night.





It rained all Thursday morning - a nice torrential downpour. We skipped breakfast and watched TV until lunchtime. We went to Zuma for lunch. It's a nice Tex Mex restaurant in Quincy Market. Since the rain stopped for a while, we wandered around, heard thunder and headed to the Aquarium. It's a small building on the wharf. I think the best part of the Aquarium was the penguin exhibit. They took up the whole first floor and were so cute! We then headed out for a nice Greek dinner with a stop for gelato in Little Italy.



This morning we woke up to sunshine. It was our only time to see all the buildings without the fog. We took a stroll one last time, took pictures, then hit the open air market for some great deals on produce. Our goal today was to hit Bartly's Burger Cottage in Cambridge. We navigated to Harvard Square, got a parking place, and found the restauruant. Apparently it's closed until July 8. At least the restaurant right next to it was good. We ate, got back on the road and I proceeded to backseat drive until CT when I took over the driving. It was a great trip and we're a bit sad to be home. The kids should be home tomorrow. We've missed them!

Boston Myths

I was told several things about Boston before we left.

1. Boston drivers are Massholes. I found this to be false. I had more issues with the idiots in Connecticut who couldn't drive 5 miles without running into one another.

2. There are only Duncan Donuts, no Starbucks in Boston. I found this false as well. I couldn't walk one block without running into a Starbucks. For every Duncan Donuts I saw, there were two Starbucks. Within a 1 block radius of our Hotel (Parker House at the corner of Tremont and School), there were four Starbucks.

3. Parking is impossible. Didn't even try to find out about this one. We parked the car on the first day and got it back this AM when we left.

4. A GPS doesn't work in Boston. I found this to be true. Damn Garmin doesn't work, doesn't recognize streets, and got us trapped in an alley when we tried to get to the hotel. I spent most of the ride home screaming at it because it wanted to take us over the George Washington Bridge. We wanted the far more scenic Tappen Zee bridge. Thank goodness for real live maps. And thank goodness it was a really nice, easy ride home.

Hortense hates the Red Sox

Instead of watching a game, we took a tour of Fenway. It was just over 2 miles from the hotel, and a really nice walk. Once there, we toured the public places, including the Green Monster, and then sat in the press box. I had the seat of the statistician. The coolest thing was seeing the two redtail hawks that fly around the stadium. As you can see in the last picture, hubs was subtle in showing his disdain for the Sox.