February 2006 - Posts

• Butch's Birthday Collage

  Today is our son�s birthday. He is the youngest of our three children. We will not be celebrating his birthday today as we had our celebration on Saturday. He requested a special chicken dish that his sister Cathy made for his birthday dinner. As always, it was delicious. He shared his birthday �party� with his daughter Lyndsey whose birthday was earlier this month. We had ice cream cake and brownie ala mode and performed our double wish tradition twice on the birthday desserts. (Need to see an earlier blog for an explanation of this.) It is always very difficult to buy our son a gift. Like his father, when he wants something, he just goes out and buys it. I tried to think of something different for him that he did not already have. That was a chore in itself. I finally came up with the idea of making him a picture collage. I have lots of pictures already on my computer so I figured this would be an easy task. Well, let me tell you, it was anything but that. First of all, I needed a frame. I wanted one with lots of openings. I found that most collage frames have only six or eight picture openings unless you want either a very large frame or very small pictures. I managed to find one with twelve after going to a few stores. The problem was I had selected 18 pictures that I wanted to use. Hmmmmmmmmmm. The collage openings were three different sizes. I wanted to place the pictures so that the frame was horizontal �landscape�. That was fine, except most of the openings were vertical �portrait�. Lots of cropping, etc. was to be done before I could even start to print anything. Even though I had more pictures than openings, I wanted very much to use all the pictures that I had selected. I printed draft copies of all the pictures and then I made a �mock-up� of my collage so that I had something to follow. After much measuring, mistakes, printing in grayscale, wasting paper, etc., I finally was able to accomplish what I had planned. It took a little bit of ingenuity to have two pictures with same subject to be printed as one picture so it could be inserted into the opening in one piece, but I did it. The frame still had twelve openings, but it displayed eighteen pictures. Best of all, it looked pretty good and it �only� took me eight hours to complete it. I signed the back of the frame, gift wrapped it, and gave it to our son that evening. The smile on his face when he opened his gift was well worth all the effort I put into it. Happy Birthday Butch. Posted Feb 27 2006, 06:30 PM by dianastories with no comments

• Butch's Day at the Race

  Today is the Daytona 500 race which does not mean a whole lot to me, but I�m sure it does for my son, Butch. He is a big NASCAR fan and today he will be at the race rather than watching it on television. He works for a Fortune 500 company and he is one of eleven people chosen to participate in a worldwide business formation process. Well anyways, there are also perks that go along with this and, of course, meetings to be held at various locations. This time it just happens to be in Daytona Beach. We were told that he will also be able to visit one of the �pits�. Again, does not mean a whole lot to be, but I guess this is a pretty exciting thing for a NASCAR fan. My husband will be watching the race hoping to get a glimpse of our son should the cameras just happen to televise where he will be watching the race. Silly, huh. My son is a big Jeff Gordon fan. Who knows, he may even get to see him. Have fun Butch. Posted Feb 19 2006, 04:12 PM by dianastories with no comments

• Happy Birthday Lyndsey

  I have not written anything lately as I have been extremely busy. However, I could not let my grand daughter Lyndsey's birthday go by without writing a little something about her. Today Lyndsey turns 15. Hard to believe. I remember so well the evening she was born. She was so beautiful and so tiny. My son who does not do well with illness, blood, etc. was assisting my daughter-in-law while she gave birth. When they brought the baby out for us to see, I remember looking at my son and he was pale. His beard had started coming through as they had been at the hospital most of the day. He did not look his best, to say the least. Everyone was asking about the baby. I asked how my baby was doing. Well, anyways to get back to Lyndsey. She is a very happy young lady; giggling a lot at just about everything. She is a good student although she groans a lot about homework. She loves talking on the phone, watching movies on television and of course, using the computer. Shopping at the mall, dressing up, fixing her hair; they all spell Lyndsey. When Lyndsey was five and again when she turned 13, I wrote a Birthday poem for her. In reading them, there are some things that just have not changed. I am going to share a few lines from each of these poems. Lyndsey � 5 She likes to wear dresses with frills and bows With cute little tights or some fancy hose Her hair, it falls down her back With a headband on top to keep it intact Her eyes, they twinkle when she smiles or grins Or laughs real hard at some silly thing Lyndsey � 13 On your report cards, you get lots of A�s You�re pretty smart, that�s what I�d say On the computer you like to be To play games and write stories just like me You like to wear earrings and fix your hair And pick out something really nice to wear Like I said, not too much change going on here. She�s a little older and looks different, but some things never change. The last two lines of her last poem sums it up pretty well��� So Happy Birthday, Enjoy your day For adulthood surely is coming your way Posted Feb 15 2006, 09:06 PM by dianastories with no comments

• Reuniting Family Members

  Last Monday, I received a really great surprise. I got a phone call from a cousin that I have not seen since he was a teenager. He is now 52. He had been trying to locate us for some time. The last time we saw him, we were living somewhere else. In addition, our family name being so common and my husband who goes by a nickname most of the time made it difficult to locate us. Some way or other, he remembered another family member�s name, called them and that�s how he located us. He also had been trying to locate his Dad. Sad to say, his mother knew of his Dad�s death, but never told him. He found that out when he spoke to some other family member before my call. I tried to locate my cousin myself a couple of years ago. To back up just a bit, while I was on the computer one day trying to get information for our family tree, I noticed that someone was trying to locate their father. The name suddenly jumped out at me. The name was that of my father�s half brother that no one had seen in over forty years. He had moved out west and from what little information we had, he had died. I contacted this person and we compared notes. It turned out that my uncle was truly her father. Her mother told her very little about him and she had never seen a picture of him. She said she felt that she had this void in her life and therefore, she started searching for her father. I sent her pictures of her Dad that I had plus other family pictures (her Grandmother, etc.). Needless to say, she was thrilled. To get back to the other missing cousin, she asked if she had any siblings. I told her she had two that I knew of; a brother and a sister. I also told her that their parents had divorced to the best of my knowledge and that we had not heard from them in many years. I then started my search for them. Needless to say, I was not successful. I used old addresses and old phone numbers, looked up names on the computer, but all was to no avail. Early spring last year, I made a trip to Florida to visit my new found cousin. She had all the pictures that I had sent her in an album. We had a very nice visit and I continue to communicate with her. To get back to my phone call this past week, needless to say I was flabbergasted when I received this unexpected call. We talked for a long while and I told him about the sister that he did not know he had. I now had a surprise for him. I gave him her phone number and he called her immediately. Early the next morning, she called me and said �Guess who called me�. I told her that I certainly knew who because I had given him her number. In just a little over a week, we have talked on the phone several times and he and his friend made a visit to our home yesterday. While he was visiting, I showed him pictures that I took of his �new� sister who lives in Florida. He had already made arrangements to visit her in the spring. I personally feel that I am responsible for bring these people together. If it were not for me looking through the message boards on the computer that one day, they may not have ever known about each other. That gives me a really good feeling. Posted Feb 05 2006, 06:23 PM by dianastories with no comments

• Happy Birthday Dana

  Today is my grand daughter Dana�s 22nd birthday. I wrote a poem for her 12th birthday a while back. While I was reading it, I thought of how much she has changed. Of course, she would. That was ten years ago. Although she still enjoys bowling and going to a Syracuse Crunch game, she now likes to fix her hair, wear frilly shirts, etc. She is still quite the giggler and enjoys a good laugh. Her poem mentions cookies. Don�t know of too many cookies she has made lately; maybe slice and bake. One thing that definitely has not changed is the last two lines of the poem I wrote for her. I would like to share it with you. It started out one winter day When a sweet little girl came our way With dark brown hair and big brown eyes And lots and lots of baby cries It wasn't long before you know A toddler now she did grow Frilly dresses, ruffles, and lace But that was more her mommy's taste She took dancing lessons like little girls do But that didn't last after just a few She started to grow to be herself early No frills or fuss, her hair all curly She's more at ease in her jeans and Dad's shirts Than some frilly blouse and some fancy skirt She likes to play baseball and puts boys to shame As she hits the ball far throughout the whole game At gymnastics, she's great with a tumble or two Or walk the beam and that she can do She likes to play hockey and bowl a good game Like her Dad, they're one in the same But let me tell you about other traits She likes to bake cookies that taste really great She likes to write stories and read books a lot Or talk on the phone, believe it or not! She giggles and laughs at the craziest things And on occasion, she even sings The clarinet too she played for one year But now that is gone or so I hear Her interests will vary and her likes they will change But one thing for me will always remain For Dana's my darling and that she will be Even when she becomes a full grown lady Posted Feb 03 2006, 03:17 PM by dianastories with no comments

• Recalling the Blizzard of 66

  January 29, 2006 marked the 40th anniversary of the Blizzard of 66 in the Central New York area. According to news reports, the city of Oswego received 102.4 inches of snow from January 29 through February 2 and 42.3 inches of snow fell on the city of Syracuse. Today, there are stories in our local newspaper, The Post Standard, that recall memories of the storm from the readers. There are pictures of people on roof tops and snow piled half way up the sides of buildings in some areas. I remember our experience through those days as well. At that time, we lived in a two-family house occupied by our family on the second floor; my husband, our three children ages 6, 4 � and 2 and me. The first floor was occupied by my parents. However, at that time, my sister, brother-in-law, and their 1 � years old son lived there too while their new home was being built. There were also two dogs, our German Shepherd and my sister�s Wired Hair Fox Terrier. The streets were filled with snow up to or past your waist depending on your height. The snow plows were busy clearing the main streets so our street was not even close to being considered to be plowed right away. My husband, brother-in-law, other men and some women who lived on our street shoveled the street by hand. My Dad even tried to help until he was made to go in the house. (You will find out why shortly.) They used shovels to try to clear a path big enough for a car to drive through; no snow blowers around at that time. No one was able to go to work or school as the roads were not passable. We were fortunate enough to have a store close by to purchase milk, etc. Still, a path had to be made to get to the store. My husband used a sled making many trips to carry groceries back and forth for ourselves and our elderly neighbors. Of course, if the snow was not enough to deal with, our family had other problems. My children had come down with Chicken Pox a while before the storm. Guess what, my father now had them. He never had Chicken Pox as a child so there he was, a grandfather with Chicken Pox. He did look pretty funny with his whiskers trying to get through on his face. If that wasn�t bad enough, our sewer system decided not to work. This was not a good thing. I don�t remember all the details of how it was resolved, as I had my own problems dealing with three children, a dog, a broken sewer, and lots of snow. To add to that, my sister�s little dog while playing with our big German Shepherd broke her leg. So there she was with a cast on that little leg. Of course, she still had to be taken out for bathroom duties. This one day, she decided to run away from my brother-in-law after she had finished her duty. Well, let me tell you it was quite a sight to watch him run after her. She, being so tiny and light, just ran right over the tops of the snow piles; cast and all. My brother-in-law fell into the snow with each step with snow covering his whole leg. We all had a good laugh over that. On the bright side, the kids loved the snow. We bundled them up, put them on the sleds and they enjoyed lots of rides in the snow. Pretty strange, as we have had a very mild January this year; hardly any snow at all. But then, this is Central New York. As the saying around here goes, �Wait an hour, the weather will change�. Living in Central New York, you just never know what is in store for you. Posted Feb 01 2006, 07:39 PM by dianastories with no comments