Tour of Ireland Continues

Love this picture of the doorman at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin. Loved this hotel and hated that we only spent one day there. The rooms were very elegant and the service outstanding. There was even afternoon tea in the lobby area. One thing that amazed me about Ireland was the toilets. Our toilets are oval shaped and rather long. In Ireland (everywhere), the toilets are round. Completely round and not very large. You really notice it the first time you see one because all of a sudden you have all of this room in the bathroom. Usually stalls in airports are tight squeezes - not in Ireland where the toilets are round and you don't have to move around it to close the door. COOL!!!

Casey is giving a funny look because as we were walking back to the hotel from Trinity College and the Book of Kells, we saw Dartmouth Road. It took us about 5 minutes to convince her to stand in front of the street sign. I have to include this picture because she couldn't believe we made such a big deal of it.
This is a picture of Ireland President Mary Macalease's (sp?)home. It is located in Phoenix Park in Dublin. It's hard to tell from this picture, but a light is always left on in the front window to guide Irish immigrants back home. Mary is the second female president they have had in row. She is well liked. I think the prior president was a Mary as well.

This is a picture taken from our tour bus on the way to Kilkenney on our 2nd day in Ireland. Everything was so green and uninhabited. All of us kept saying throughout the trip, that if this beauty was in America it would be surrounded by condos and expensive summer homes. We like to spoil beauty so that we can look at it. Here everything was so unspoiled and beautiful.

More Irish pics

Here are more pictures from our Ireland trip. After arriving in Dublin after a night flight from Philly, we napped at our hotel briefly before a tour of Dublin. Our first stop was a castle in Dublin. Mave, our tour guide at the castle, was great. This picture is the throne that was made for Queen Victoria. The legs were cut down to be very short to accommodate her short stature.

This next picture is the Pope's cross that was erected in 1979 for Pope John Paul's visit. A mass was held at this spot (Phoenix Park) and was attended by most of Dublin. The picture is slightly blurry because this is the only time we saw rain during the 10 days in Ireland. We had the best weather.

I took many pictures of the doors of Dublin as their colors were wonderful. Our tour driver told us that the doors were painted bright colors originally in defiance of the edict that doors be painted black in mourning for the passing of an English monarch (can't remember which one). The Irish, who didn't like being under English rule at the time, decided to paint the doors bright colors. The tradition continues today and everywhere we looked we saw brightly colored doors (all over Ireland).

This next picture is of Kilkenney Castle in Kilkenney. We had a nice bus ride their and explored the town and castle. The castle was over 800 years old and incredibly beautiful. The gardens and landscaping around the castle provided lots of places to sit and view the scenery.


This last picture was taken at the Choate farm in Kilkenney. We stayed at the farm with our host family for two nights. We were paired up with a couple from Massachusetts, Kristen and Chris. We hit it off immediately, and the proprietor, Kathleen, just assumed that we were all traveling together. Greg pulled out a wiffle ball and bat from his suitcase and we all headed to the cow pasture to play. Chris loved it and Kristen and I joined in as well. Brian, Kathleen's son, joined us as well and loved having the chance to play ball with us. He is a hurler and played competitively in Kilkenney.

More to come.

The beginning of our Irish trip log

Our first day of our Ireland trip was completely devoted to flying there. We left Sunday p.m. and arrived in Dublin at 8:45 a.m. The flight was on-time which was nice, but sleep eluded me on the plane. Arriving in Dublin was great, Casey pointed out the sun rising as we came upon Ireland (it was 1 a.m. EST) and that was pretty weird. We got our suitcases and headed to customs. To me it felt like the kids going to Hogwarts on the Hogwarts express as most people had carts loaded with luggage and were being herded into a single line.

CIE met us promptly and before we knew it we were on our way to the Burlington Hotel where we would stay the first night. We got our rooms and decided that a nap would be best before our tour of Dublin at 2.

That is just what we did and it helped a little. Following a hurried lunch, we boarded the tour bus for a trip around Dublin. Our tour driver and guide, Jim Lynch, was great. An absolute riot to listen to as well. Our first stop was a tour of Dublin Castle. It was okay, but we were still pretty tired and a castle tour was not the best idea. The tour guide, Mave, was very nice and informative, which helped.
As you can see from the picture, the kids were pretty wiped and didn't seem too happy about the tour. It was interesting though and, like I said, the guide was very good. One phrase used by the guide when discussing the fact that two people were supposed to get married, but the groom left the bride at the altar, she referred to it as the groom "pulled a runner." I loved that phrase. It turned out that the groom's friend ended up marrying the bride to avoid her embarassment and they had a happy life together. Neat story.

More to come another day.

June Catchup

June marked a big month in our house as Greg graduated from middle school and Casey graduated from high school. Let me back up one day and say that I had knee surgery on Thursday, the day before graduations, to remove a cyst from my knee. Of course things did not go as smoothly as possible as I aspirated something during the surgery and they wanted to keep me overnight in the hospital to check so that I don't get pneumonia. After 2 chest xrays, they finally let me go home even though I spent the entire day in the hospital.


Greg's graduation ceremony was at 9:30 a.m. and we enjoyed the ceremony. Greg got the Honors Geometry award for excellence. Christi was able to attend his promotion ceremony and hung out with us at the house afterwards. I got a little teary-eyed at Greg's ceremony as it hit me that he would be a high school student. After the ceremony, we went home and did some preparations for the after graduation ice cream party. Christi was a big help and it was so nice to just sit there and gab with her. She is such an important part of our family. Larry and Mark had gone to the Philadlephia A's historical society and out to lunch.


Casey's ceremony started at 7:30 p.m. and Larry and I had front row seats. The ceremony was fantastic and the school did a great job honoring each student. Casey's valdictorian speech was wonderful and she got applause during and after the speech. She was so polished standing up there. One of her teachers commented that "she taught her everything she knew" which Dani Buckman overheard and laughed about. Both Dani and Christi were able to attend the ceremony, as well as Chad. We were happy to have such special people join us. We had a "dessert party" after the ceremony which was well attended.

I was pretty wiped out, but the weekend celebrations were far from over. On Saturday, Casey and I went to Christi's baby shower at Dani's house. Their mom Geri was there and it was fun to see them. After that, Casey and I went to Casey II's graduation party. The boys went to the Phillies game that day. Boy was I ever tired after a busy 3 days. On Sunday, after Mark left, I basically crashed.

Greg celebrated his 14th birthday on June 20 and we had presents and cake and dinner out the next day. Greg was attending sportsbroadcasting camp all week at Villanova and having a great time. Hard to believe Greg is 14 and a freshman in high school. He gets taller every week and is handsome as ever. He is a great guy and has handled following in Casey's footsteps just wonderfully. He is going to go far in life because of his personality.

We had company from Maine - Reed, Erica, Tommy and Gracie.

They basically just used our house as a hotel, as they had other plans, but that was fine with us as it was just nice to see them. Greg and Tommy hit it off perfectly - 2 boys, lots of baseball cards, baseball games, and baseball talk. Gracie is still as cute as ever and it was nice to really talk to Erica and Reed. We met them again in Reading after they had left our house. We had gone out there on a rainy Sunday to stock up on clothing. We actuallly ran into them twice!



Finally we took a trip to the Jersey shore. The Flowers loaned us their beach condo in Ocean City and we spent the day on the beach and boardwalk. It was fun watching the kids ride the rides again after a 5 year absence from the Jersey shore. We ate pizza on the boardwalk and bought saltwater taffy and fudge. We all agreed, though, that we prefer the South Carolina beaches and trips. Just seems to be a different class of people.

Also, in June, my brother John celebrated his 50th birthday. I hope he is taking stock of where he is and what he wants to accomplish. I wish him well. I hope to see him on his trip back East.

A Busy Week in June

What a good week last week was. It started on Sunday when Larry and Greg went to tennis and then to Philadelphia to stay overnight for the 24 tournament the next day. This is a tradition with Greg and he wanted to do this for his last 24 tournament. They had a nice day and Casey and I went shopping and had pizza for dinner so we had a nice day too. Early the next morning, Casey drove me to the train station before school so that I could catch the train to Philadelphia to see the 24 tournament. I got there just as the tournament was beginning. Greg was in his lucky Scott Rolen jersey and ready to defend his championship from last year.


Larry and I watched as he went through the first round - it looked like he had really good competitors and it wasn't until we saw him counting his cards that we noticed that he had 2 and 3 dot cards which gave him enough points to win the round. On to the second round and he blew the competition away achieving 61 points. He was a silver medalist after 2 rounds. Next up the silver medalists (8 in all) were set up at 2 tables. Greg again won his table and received the gold medal. Larry and I were so proud of him and surprised at his success because he really didn't put much time into it this year as he wasn't sure he was going to compete again. We couldn't see him at the gold medal table as he was way across the room. Robert Sun, creator of the game, proctored the Platinum table. When the championship round was complete we watched Greg's face for some reaction. None was forthcoming so we just assumed that he was not successful. Boy were we wrong! Larry and I were standing there when they announced that the Platinum champion was a repeat winner. WOW - he did it. He repeated as Math24 Platinum Masters Champ. He was given a hard time when he went up to receive his trophy because he was wearing his Rolen jersey. They plastered a 24 t-shirt over his jersey for the pictures. Once again, we celebrated his success with a trip to Dave and Busters. What an amazing kid he is.

Casey had an awesome week too. The week before she had finally finished her graduation project with her demonstration of aikido moves. Katie C. helped her with the demonstration. She ended up with a 98 on the project which is fantastic because she had to do this all on her own because of scheduling issues.

Wednesday was the high school awards ceremony and once again Casey received her fair share of them. She received a few academic awards - Gifted, Science, and Spanish, a citizenship award, and her National Merit $2500 award. She was also the first and very surprised recipient of the Hillman Family Scholarship award in honor of their father, Mr. Hillman, the physics teacher who is retiring after this school year. It was very emotional for Casey as she loved AP Physics and the class inspired her to consider engineering at Dartmouth. Mr. Hillman was very surprised as well.

This week is all about graduation. Both Casey and Greg graduate on Friday. Hard to believe that Casey will be heading off to college and Greg will be starting high school. Where did the time go?

Dog Days of Summer

This past Memorial Weekend has been a hot one. It makes me realize that the hot summer days are just around the corner. It's funny how I don't mind being stuck in the house during the winter when its very cold and snowy, but I do mind being stuck in the house when it is only hot outside. I look out the window and see all of the yardwork that still has to be done. In the winter, everything is dead and dormant and the yardwork doesn't really call to me. This morning, I trimmed the front shrubs and boy was it ever hot. I had Kitty on the lead in the front yard and now 2 hours later she is asleep on the living room floor - too hot to gather up much energy to even jump onto the sofa. My outdoor work for today is finished because the temperature will be over 90 today. With cooler weather planned for the rest of the week, the work that is calling to me today, will just have to wait until then.

Memorial Day Weekend Already

Hard to believe that the unofficial start of summer begins this weekend. Memorial Day came up pretty quickly this year. With it brings the end of the school year which I am not looking forward to as much this year. Usually, I love the start of summer, because schedules are very relaxed and I don't have to get up so early every morning. This year it is a different feeling because Casey is graduating from high school and I know that this is her last real summer at home as school will keep her pretty busy. Greg is graduating from 8th grade and will be busy during the summers with sports and other activities. I'm feeling pretty old these days.
The school year is winding down as we are busy going to activities at school. Greg had his last band concert the other day and because he isn't doing band in high school, it is probably the last time we see him on stage playing percussion. Greg's baseball season finished with 2 tough losses, but overall it was a very good year. He really liked the coach and enjoyed playing. Casey is finishing her senior projects and winding down her high school career. As we are finishing high school, she is getting inundated with materials from Dartmouth and things to fill out and return. She is getting excited about college and I'm so happy for her. A lot of her classmates are staying nearby, and while I would like to have Casey around all the time, it is good that she is wanting to stretch her wings.

Here's to summer - hope it's an exciting and productive one.

My First May Post?

Wow, I can't believe that I haven't posted since late April. Things have been busy, but not that busy. April ended with a bang - Casey had her photo shoot for the Best of the Class at Longwood Gardens. It was a beautiful day and I got a bunch of great photos. While she was doing the filming and interviews, I was happily walking around the beautiful gardens and sitting and reading a book. She got a day off from school and I got a trip to Longwood Gardens. A side note, I also went to a Barnes & Noble in Delaware and read the entire book "Where Women Create" while in the store. It highlights female artists' studios and gave me a lot of ideas. I will probably buy the book the next time.

Greg has been busy with school and baseball. His team is doing very well and Greg is having a great time. He plays first base and bats second in the lineup. It's nice to see him playing and not having pain in his shoulder. He will be doing a few baseball camps this summer and may go to Boston with a team in Trenton. They will play baseball, see the Redsox, and visit the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Last weekend, Greg won the Bucks County Math24 Platinum Masters Competition. He is the defending Greater Delaware Valley champ and he won by quite a large number. Next up is the Regional Competition at the Franklin Institute in June. Due to funding issues, there is no state tournament this year. It's a shame because Greg has been to the state competition the last 2 years (earning silver medals) and hoped to end his 24 competitions with a state gold medal. He was lucky in that he was able to compete in 24 while it was a big competition.
I wonder about the future of it as the company focuses more on the online competition (which Greg hates doing). We are amazed at what he has done in 24 - 5th grade (Bucks County champ), 6th grade (3rd place Bucks County, Silver and Gold medals at Regionals, Silver medal at States), 7th grade Platinum Level (2nd place Bucks County, Silver, Gold, and CHAMPION at Regionals, Silver medal at States), 8th grade Platinum level (Bucks County champ, ?). What an amazing kid he is.

I had a wonderful Mother's Day with Casey and Greg (Larry was in Illinois). I was showered with gifts and had dinner at Don Pablos - a perfect day. The school year is quickly coming to an end and with it Casey's high school career. I am feeling older and older every day and have to work at slowing down so as not to miss a thing. I'm proud of what Greg and Casey have accomplished and am excited for them as they move to the next phase of their life (Greg-on to high school, Casey-off to college). I can only hope that we have raised them well and given them a sense of who they are and what they can accomplish. We are truly blessed.

College Visitations Done - Decision to be Made

Eight days, three colleges, and now it is time for her decision. We left the Wednesday before Easter and drove to Providence, Rhode Island for our 2 day visit to Brown University. The drive was great considering it was evening and close to a holiday weekend. We made the trip to Providence in 5 1/2 hours including a longer than planned stop at Cracker Barrel. The entire next day was spent on the Brown campus doing tours, meeting with admissions staff, etc. The campus is pretty and right in Providence. Casey thought our tour guide was "hot". He had a great personality as well.

Next we were headed up to Maine for an Easter weekend with family. The drive was great and we stopped for lunch in Wells Maine at Billy's Chowder House. The view was incredible and made me feel so happy to be back in Maine. It only took us about 5 hours to get to Aunt Rina's house. We got settled in and visited for awhile. Then we headed out to dinner with Uncle Tony and Aunt Isabelle at the Chicken Coop - boy the memories of that place were very strong. We also stopped by to see Aunt Pauline after dinner (she worked at the Coop for 30 years tending bar). The entire weekend was spent visiting with family. At times it was overwhelming for Casey as she didn't grow up surrounded by so much family due to the fact that we lived far away from family. She did enjoy herself even it at times it seemed too much. Easter Sunday was spent at Kenny and Margaret's beautiful house in Belfast. The food was fantastic and the laughter abundant. I love being from a big family.

Early Monday morning we drove to Bowdoin for their accepted students program. Casey had pretty much decided that she wasn't going there so we didn't spend much time visiting the campus. We got in the car around 11 am and headed home to sleep in our own beds for 2 nights before heading to Dartmouth. It was a long drive but we got home around 8 pm. Two days later we were on the road again to Dartmouth and their accepted students Dimensions program. Casey stayed in the dorm and did activities with current students. I basically was on my own for the entire time. I walked all over the campus and took a lot of pictures.Once again we were heading home; the college visitations done. Now she has a decision to make. Bowdoin is out of the picture so we are left with Brown and Dartmouth. It is a big decision and I know that she is being very thoughtful about it.

I hope this trip is one that Casey will remember. I took lots of pictures and did journaling every night about what we did. I enjoyed the traveling with Casey and spending time with her. I hope that Larry gets to do this with Greg. I would like to do this trip with Greg too, but I don't want the next four years to pass too quickly. Life is just passing by way too fast and I want it to slow down some!!

It Snowed Today

April 8 and it snowed today. Not very much but snow all the same. We also had a freak snowstorm on Wednesday that lasted about 30 minutes. It sure is pretty when it snows on the blooming trees. The weather has been freaky lately and my sinuses have been feeling the effect. I love to see the forsythias all in bloom along the property line. They certainly stand out as you are coming up Street Road. My peas are starting to come along nicely. Maybe this weekend I will plant the lettuce seeds.

April is here and the college acceptances have been received. She is in at Middlebury, Smith, Bowdoin, Brown and Dartmouth. The decision is down to Bowdoin, Brown, and Dartmouth and after our trips to their accepted students programs, a decision should be made. I think it will end up being a tough decision for her and she may wait until the last moment. There was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal this week talking about how hard the college application process was this year and how some of the top schools were even harder to get into this year. They specifically mentioned Brown and Dartmouth which made it even more impressive that Casey was accepted to both of them. What a credit to all the hard work she did; and the fact that she did it all on her own. When I read about people who have done this and that for their kids (made their Pine Run Derby cars, reviewed their college essays, helped submit information for scholarships), I am even more impressed with her because she did it all herself. We did not read her college essays or approve her college applications. We did not make her take SAT prep courses. We did not set up additional college interviews for her. We let her take control and responsibility and she didn't let us down. I am glad that we let our kids be responsible for their grades, activities, etc. Too many parents make excuses for their kids and take on their kids problems and desires. We have always been a presence in the kids' lives, but we let them take responsibility once we feel they can handle it. I am so proud of both of them.

Busy Busy Busy

Look who I got to spend time with last weekend --- Donna Downey. On Friday I took two classes that she taught at Memory Lane and had a blast. She is really a fun person to be around. I actually picked up a few tips from her and enjoyed the spark of creativity she provided. I met some really nice people and felt that I need to take more classes to provide more inspiration. I even signed up and attended the crop on Saturday night and boy was I glad that I did. I sat with some very nice girls that are part of the PA Scrappers group on yahoo. They were very welcoming and the time just flew by. I even accomplished putting many of the animal pic pages together for the animal scrapbooks.


I haven't actually done too much scrapbooking lately but the ideas are certainly swimming around in there. I started the 21 day challenge on Rhonna F. blog and did Day 1 (YEAH!). Days 2 and 3 await my creativity. I also signed up for another quarter of BPS with Donna Downey. Again, I started out strong and then stopped doing the assignments. I intend to change that right away. I do see a pattern of starting a lot of projects and then failing to complete them all the way. This isn't just in scrapbooking, but in other areas. That is something I really need to work on. Maybe that will be my bad habit that I break during the 21 day challenge.

This picture was taken by Donna when she was demonstrating how to lose 10 pounds in a photograph. This picture was taken from above and yes, it really made me look thinner. I have to remember this!!!


Spring is here and the weather has been warm and sunny. I am ready to get into the garden and start planting flowers and vegetables. Maybe this year the garden will be much bigger and more plentiful. The forsythias are just about ready to be in full bloom and this weekend our property should be lined in bright yellow.

Signs of Spring

Just a few signs of spring seen this morning. It is still pretty cold out and I am not sure if the peas I planted last week will make it. We haven't had a frost, but it has been cold here.

What I'm doing now!

It's been over a week and time to play a little catchup on what's new. Here in number format is what has been happening:

1. I am continuing my preparation for the A+ certification test which I hope to take by August. It's an awful lot of reading and memorizing and working with my fixer up computer, but I do enjoy it. I only wish the study guides where smaller and more portable. I have to say that I am really enjoying listening to the Harvard computer class on my iPod. It makes my long walks very interesting, especially when I get information that I can use. The only drawback is that I think I am boring my family to death when I start talking about computers. Oh well, it could be much worse.

2. I am looking forward to taking 2 classes and cropping with Donna Downey next weekend. I just love reading her blog and following her scrapbook journeys and creativity. I am nervous about cropping outside of my comfort zone but I think it will be fun just the same. I still am not feeling all that creative lately even though I continue to buy more scrapbooking stuff (especially the new Basic Grey). I just have to dive right in and start working on a new project and see where that takes me. I want to blame it on my setup in that it is hard to scrap at my desk, but that just isn't so when I see the spaces other people have. Anyways, I hope to get inspired with the upcoming events at Memory Lane and hope to do more posting and submitting of projects. I am still planning on going to the Creating Keepsakes convention in July.

3. While studying and scrapbooking, I always need to have something to watch on my laptop. Lately it has been the Sopranos. Love the show, love the characters, love the humor, hate that Adrianna got bumped off. I go through different phases, Gilmore Girls phase, 24 phase, Frasier phase, etc. Right now it is definitely the Soprano phase. I really enjoy the music that is a part of the show. They are in the sixth season now which is scheduled to be the last one. Too bad, as it is really a good show with excellent writing. If only JAG would come out on DVD, I would be a very happy camper.

4. Walking, walking, and more walking. Today I started my long walk (2 miles) without Kitty so that I could go at a faster pace. My legs were a little jelly-like when I got home, but well worth it. Hopefully, I will make this a daily habit as I really need to get on the stick and lose weight. Now that I know what the problem with my knee is (a cyst), and the resolution, I can begin to think about going back to karate. I really do miss it and how it made me feel (empowered, strong). Casey and I plan to go back in April. YEA!

5. I haven't done very much reading lately but did finish the book by A.J. Jacobs about his reading of the encyclopedia. It was very entertaining and Greg wants to read it this summer. I am also reading The Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Rosenthal and find it interesting. There has been scrapbooks classes done along this theme and I may try to do my own Encyclopedia of ME. I just picked up James Patterson's book The Jester and find it very true to his format (3 pages per chapter=easy and fast reading). I went to the library yesterday for the first time in awhile and picked out 4 books to read. Hopefully, I will get through all of them (especially the Sarah Vowell book).

6. Still working on the two websites for 2 non-profit groups. One is just beginning and the other is nearing completion. Hope they go over well.

Another quilt done this weekend

and Casey wants it. It was just a block of the month log cabin quilt, but she loved it. I will put a border on it and get it machine quilted and she will have it for college this fall. She will also get a Tshirt quilt eventually, but she is still wearing the tshirts that will go into the quilt. This picture is the flannel quilt I finished for the family room. It is made of all flannel fabrics that I purchased at a quilt store in the Adirondacks. It has a very outdoorsy them and Greg fell in love with it (it's pretty warm) and now it is on his bed. Larry keeps asking when he will get one. I'm pretty happy with how I have been finishing projects lately. After working for the last 7 years, it has been nice being home and getting other things accomplished. I have chicken stewing on the oven and homemade noodles drying for dinner. Greg and I threw a baseball around after school and I spent 2 hours outside with the dog. What a life!!!