MARCH MADNESS

We have experienced a very sad loss at the end of February.  Jeremy will be in our hearts forever, what a great example of courage and devotion to life.  If there is any happiness coming from this horrible loss, it is the birth of Ace Anthony (Ellie and Alberto's) and the gathering of many family members from many states that we haven't seen for a long time.

It has warmed up a bit here, but it is really ugly brown all over.  I'm really am looking forward to the celebrations of Spring, if it will ever gets here!  

Wayne and I are celebrating our Twenty-Fifth Anniversary on the twenty-fourth of the month.  I love this man with all my heart!   I look forward to every morning that I wake up with him beside me.  The lessons that have been taught this past year with John and Jeremy's passings are forever embossed in my heart that life must be treasured one day at a time.  Live as though it were the last day.  

Ashby is swimming in 9 events for the Gold's Championship up at RPI this month.  He is also in the school play "Jungle Book."  He is playing the village elder (warrior?), Toomai.  It is going to be a very long March with so many activities i.e. school, play, scouts, cubscouts, swimming, singing (and fundraisers).  

If you haven't pick up a good book lately, try "The Five Love Languages," by Gary Chapman.  Discover your language, but more importantly your loved ones' language in order to feel loved.   I look back on my children's lives and wonder, did I speak their language?  Well...it is never too late.  I love my children more than words can express!

May the Irish Kiss us all and give us hope for the "Pot of Gold." or at least a Sunshine filled Spring!

TTFN

FABULOUS FEBRUARY

The month started off with the news of MR. GROUNDHOG seeing his shadow and I am not very happy with that at all.  It has been a long cold winter so far and I don't want to handle anymore freezing days!  The ice on the river has been frozen for weeks and the coast guard goes up and down several times a day to cut the path for the barges and ships.  One barge found itself stuck in the ice and the coast guard had to come rescue it out.  It took hours to release it from the block of ice.  Today it snowed again, but we had a fabulous weekend on the 13, 14, and 15th.  Ashby had a swim meet over in Connecticut and he did very well.  He has now qualified for many events for the Gold's Championships in March.  He will go to Silver's Championship next week and try to get qualified for more events.  He has done well in school and has been on the honor roll both quarters!  Kudos to you Ashman!  He has been working hard ranking up in scouting and next Tuesday, March 3rd he will get the STAR award.  He has been in scouting for 2 years and he has just LIFE and EAGLE left to accomplish.  He was chosen to attend the NATIONAL JAMBOREE in the summer of 2010 which will be held in Virginia.  We are so proud of him.  For those of you who don't know, I am working as a Reading Teacher for 6th grade students at Rondout Valley Middle School.  I am filling in for the reading teacher who is out on medical leave, we don't know when he is coming back.  I just finished my Presidency with PEO (a philanthropic education organization).  Wayne has stepped in for his Rotarian's and is finishing out the presidency for the club.  His president took a job out of town and couldn't fulfill the commitment.  Wayne is also very involved with the Rotary Youth Exchange and they are interviewing applicants and setting up exchanges.  It seems that it is always busy with the youth exchange students.  Ford Business seems to be picking up now and then and we do pray that it goes up from here.  Ross spent five wonderful days here in the warm country, warm for him (i.e. Buffalo has been colder than here!).  He came home on Thursday evening and drove home Tuesday night.  I want to say that he came to visit us, but you all know it was VALENTINE's Weekend and he spent time with beautiful Amelia!  It is so good to have her a part of the family.  Courtney is flying out to Utah tomorrow to spend time with all the FAM!  Feliz is doing fine.  We have beautiful wood floors throughout the home and so Feliz has red protective plastic nails on because I don't want the floors to get ruined.  Wayne took her to the groomers on Tuesday and she looks marvelous!  She is a much happier dog here on the river!

Well....the OX has spoken, carry on!!!

January Update

January is turning out to be a frigid month.  At the moment the sky is blue, the sun is shining in the sky and on the river.   The temperature is about in the 30's during the day and drops sometimes as low as 8 degrees.  The house is shaded by the trees which makes it seem even more colder, but "THE RIVER" looks mystical with the ice being carried up the river with the tide.  Two huge barges are bellowing through crushed ice with their tug boats moving them down stream and out to sea.  The flag is waving in the wind as they pass by.  It is high tide right now, but in about 3 hours the water will be moving south again bringing all the ice back down.   Yesterday it snowed 6 inches and at midnight it was freezing rain.  We woke up to a mess so Wayne, Ross, and Ashby went trenching out in their snow gear to snow blow the driveway and paths.  The "Apartment Loft" ran out of gas last night and the heat dropped to 43 degrees inside.  It looks quite arctic out there right now and I really don't care for the cold, however today is a sight to see the ships journeying up and down the river through the ice. 

Courtney left New York on Wednesday last week during an ice storm.  I am sure you can read about it all on her blog.  She starts classes tomorrow and she will be finished and graduated on May 8th of this year.  It was nice having her around.  I didn't get to see too much of her because she was working nights and I was teaching during the day, but we did get to squeeze in some time together.

Ross is still home and working hard.  He works everyday for a Tire Company delivering parts for them.  When he isn't working he is usually spending time with Amelia catching up on time with her before he leaves for school again in 2 weeks.  

Ashby is still doing all the "S" activities:  Singing, Scouts, Swimming, School.  On Thursday last week, he started to learn guitar and taking voice lessons.  He has mid-terms coming up and so the house is a bit stressful.  Starting in February he has many Swim Meets and then the big competitions to end the seasonal meets.  He has qualified for 3 events going into the "Gold's Tournament" in March.  He is hoping to qualify for more events, but it is difficult because he doesn't practice enough (just isn't enough time with all the activities).

Wayne and I cleaned the house this weekend putting away all the Christmas decorations in their respective home in the cellar.  This year I labeled and separated the children's ornaments in plastic bins with a directory as to when they received the ornaments.  This will be a nice gift for them to take when they set up house for themselves.   The wood floors shine because Wayne was on his hands and knees scrubbing, and ridding them of the salt and dirt that has been tracked in from the outdoors.  I started to hang a few Valentine's decorations to lift my spirits from the cold, frigid, arctic mood of January.