"Oh, come on!"

This goes along with my last post... what phrases do you always say? I just thought to myself "oh, come on!" Joshua just started saying it all the time. I asked him yesterday where he picked it up. 

Here are the sayings, I can think of, that I say all the time...

- Are you kidding me? Are you kidding? (Laura started saying this in college b/c of me...)

- Seriously?

- Quit! or No! (... especially to the dog)

- Kid or Kiddo (Ethan use to ask why I call him kid and two days ago he said, "I'm not kiddo, I'm kid." I'm sure the ppl around me wonder when I say, "Ok kid, let's go." I say it more often then one would think...)

- Huh?

- Chico or Chica

- Really?

- If you say so.

- No se. (I don't know)

What do YOU (how you doin'?) say all the time?

Favorite Words

This will actually be short!! I'm reading "Eat Pray Love" and this lady is in Rome learning Italian and is talking about the language. 

"Attraversiamo."

He couldn't understand why I liked it so much. Let's cross the street? But to my ear, it's the perfect combination of Italian sounds. The wistful introduction, the rolling trill, the soothing s, that lingering "ee-ah-moh" combo at the end. I love this word. I say it all the time now, I invent any excuse to say it  It's making Sofie nuts. Let's cross over! Let's cross over! I'm constantly dragging her back and forth across the crazy traffic of Rome. I'm going to get us both killed with this word.

Giovanni's favorite word in English is half-assed.

Luca Spaghetti's is surrender.

This made me think about Spanish class in high school. There was a sentence, "Tengo una cita con Maria." in the text book and we would say it constantly. My friends, Phillip and Karina, had to memorize paragraphs in French class and would constantly recite them. All through high school these phrases or paragraphs would stick with us. 

Anyways, my favorite words in Spanish are matemáticas (math) and pantalones (pants). I enjoy dank je wel (thank you very much) in Dutch. They're just fun for me. Do you have any favorite words or sayings? English or any other language??

This also reminds me of Phillip, "For those of you who don't habla es-pan-ol, el nino is spanish for... THE NINO!" - Chris Farley

Summer

I LOVE summer!! I just got back from taking Chance on a walk, I had to carry him part way. (Side note: I'm scared of ticks! I had never seen one before last week when I found a dog tick on Chance's ear!) 

While on the walk, I could smell a pool. I love the smell of pools and I LOVE swimming! I have been swimming since I was a baby. I even went to the YMCA for preschool. My mom and dad always say how scared they were watching us jump off the diving board.

Here is a picture of my sister, me, Stephanie (my cousin), and my brother sitting on the pool deck. We got stung, at least once, every summer walking to the pool, when it was farther back in the yard. I have so many memories from the pool. One of my first is standing beside the pool and my Uncle Jerry singing, "Alana Maree, as tall as a tree." My (great) Uncle Jim hung a swing on the limb of an apple tree for Courtney and Daniel to swing in when we were out at the pool. I remember Megan, Courtney and Daniel (my cousin Missy's kids) hating swimmies. At first, Daniel hated the pool all together! He would scream bloody murder! We loved making whirl pools and then trying to go the opposite direction. Synchronized swimming was always fun. Or all of the competitions. Who could stay under the water the longest? How many (forward and backwards) summersaults in a row? Who made the littlest splash jumping into the pool. How fast could you swim from one side of the pool to the other and could you make it both ways under water? Let me tell you, I had some great lungs! Making a wave pool was always fun, even though we would get in trouble for making the water splash out of the pool. Actually, we would get in trouble for several things, but that didn't stop us. Of course, we weren't allowed to walk on the edge of the pool. We would try to see who could make it the farthest around. Hopefully, if you fell it was into the pool and not to the ground. What kid doesn't love a chicken fight, what parent does? Who's allowed to dive into a 3 foot pool? How many times did I hit my head? I don't think that many... I can't remember. ;) 

When we moved to Midland, I was 4/5, a lot of kids got summer passes to the public pool. I stopped getting stung every year but I starting getting pink eye. Our feet would also get blisters and worn raw from walking (running) around the pool. The lifeguards had plenty of band aids for our feet! I was in love with a pool worker, Smudge, and various other life guards throughout the years. Our parents would go to work and we would go to the pool as soon as it opened at noon. We would stay until it closed at 6 and then head home for dinner. One would think you had to be accompanied by an adult. Nowadays you have to be 12.... What did I do for 6 hours at the pool?! Well, the same things as I stated earlier... except going the width, sometimes length, of an olympic size pool and add a few feet to the depth. We would see who could tread water the longest in the deep end, 12 ft.  Diving (forward and backwards)/canon ball/flipping/etc  competitions. We would form a 12 ft. tower, in the corner, and another person would swim down, go between the bottom person's legs and swim up the tunnel or stay at the bottom and the next person would do it... we'd see how many people we could stay under water for. Eventually, there was a concession stand. I loved the taffy! Anyways, there were so many other things we'd do throughout the day.... 

If we weren't swimming at the pool, we were swimming somewhere else. We would go 

to Raccoon State Park and go swimming in the river... stream... pond... body of water... whatever it is.... Darlington Park was another place we'd go... it had a huge water slide and if you passed a swimming test you could go down it! There was also Beaver Creek State Park... you get the point... we were swimming somewhere. This is from left to right, me and Kristin, at Raccoon State Park. 

When we moved back to Ashtabula, I was older and we would go swimming in Lake Erie. We'd go out on the boat and go tubing or skiing... I broke my nose tubing with a friend. This is a picture of our attempt to take a picture.... Sort of from left to right... my cousins, Justin, Daniel, Courtney, my sister, Kristin, and me. When we all fell in, Kristin tried "saving" me. I didn't have a life jacket on so she tried to hold me up as she went under water, as if I can't swim.... It didn't take her long to realize that.... 

I would love to jump in a pool right now! I miss living in FL and laying out by the pool almost all year round! Having a nice golden tan... Hopefully, when I'm all grown up, I'll have a pool! :)

Josh's Birthday

Yesterday, I stopped by Target because I had to buy an ink cartridge for the printer. Across the street is the Somerset Patriots Stadium (a professional baseball team). There was a sign in the median that said "Game Today 6:05". Joshua enjoys sports and I thought he would love to see a baseball game on his birthday. After Target, I went to see how much it cost. The most expensive seats were 12 something and it went all the way down to $5 for the lawn section. I gave Bill a call and asked what they were doing for his birthday. They didn't have plans so I told him about the game, figuring he would want to take them. He thought it was a great idea but it was supposed to rain. I left and later Bill and I decided if it didn't rain I could just bring them and get tickets then. So, I ended up taking the kids to see the game.

The guy in the ticket booth asked if I had any preferences on where to sit. I didn't care so he said he would give me the best available. 

Joshua started asking if they game was over in the first inning. He continued to ask EVERY SINGLE INNING!

 They really enjoyed it and there were fireworks afterwards! 

(Side note, when we were on our way home, Joshua said the game was missing from the DS. He thought it might have fallen out when it fell out of the van, which I didn't know happened. So, I had to go back to the stadium and guess where I was parked. I pulled into a spot and it was the exact same one!! The game was on the ground, I'm just glad no one ran it over, including myself.)

Vacation!!

... On Wednesday, I flew out to Phoenix to visit Courtney!! I was so excited!! On Thursday, we went with Courtney's sister, Kristy, and brother-in-law, Bob, on the Sheriff's boat. I was VERY excited about this!! I've seen awesome pictures of the lakes in the mountains and, of course, it's even better in person!











We stopped at a sandy area and got a good laugh getting back into the boat!

We even had to "pull over" a boater for not having an observer while a friend was skiing. 

These pictures and text are going to be all messed up but I don't feel like dealing with it. I have faith that you can figure it out! :)

Friday morning, Court and I went to see the Mesa Temple. It was so pretty!! Then, we drove to San Diego to visit Jon... this wasn't the original plan but ended up being a lot of fun! First, we hadn't seen Jon since he was teaching us on his mission in good ol' Athens, 3 years ago! Second, San Diego is BEAUTIFUL!! 

On our road trip there, we had to make it fun! We took pictures of cute guys... there were only a couple.... We ended up seeing the guy from Colorado, guess which vehicle, an hour later pumping gas next to us!! He asked how the picture came out. We tried to see all 50 state's license plates... I think we ended up seeing 30 states. We tried really hard to get truck drivers to honk... one guy was unhappy with Courtney and honked at us going past as we were also giving him the trucker's honk signal... I'm surprised we weren't run off the road!  At the very end of the trip, I was taking a picture of the houses on the hillside and a guy asked me to take his pic... he blew me a kiss.... I think I'm in love! HA! 

I was way excited when we finally made it to Jon's. I failed to mention, Courtney was afraid of driving on the highway in Ohio... so, driving in Phoenix and San Diego was the first time riding with her on a highway!  I'm alive to tell the tale! 

Court and I had never seen the Pacific Ocean and Jon took us to Ruby's, which is at the end of a pier... how awesome is that?! After dinner, we went to see the San Diego Temple! Just another thing about San Diego that is amazing! The next day, Jon took us to Center City Cafe. We sat outside and enjoyed the morning. Afterwards, we went to visit my (ok, try to follow me) Grandmother's (Baba's) sister's daughter. So, I call her my great cousin Dorothy. We spent about an hour with her and her husband, Mitch. It just keeps getting better... we went to the beach in La Jolla... I just love San Diego! For lunch, we had mexican. Then, went to a park and laid in the grass... I haven't done that since I was a kid, even then I might not have... I was afraid of ants! (shhhh) Court took a nap.  We had a long drive back so we left around 5:30. On Sunday, we had lunch at Courtney's mom's before I headed to the airport. It made me so sad to leave... It was an awesome week!

Vacation!!

I'll start out by saying, I had an amazing vacation!! In the end, it made me realize how much I really do HATE living in NJ.... 

Last Friday, my cousin Missy and her fiance, Kenya, came to visit. We went to NYC on Saturday. Missy had never been on a train, so that was a new experience. We saw the Empire

 State Building, then walked down to China Town.

I've mentioned this before, I hate doing it! I enjoy seeing where we are taken, but other than that I hate it! I was excited when that was done and out of the way. When we finished there, we walked to ground zero. From there, we took the subway to the Statue of Liberty. We rode the Staten Island Ferry past the Statue of Liberty. This was the first time I was able to get right back on the Ferry without having to wait another half 

hour. From there, we took the subway up to Time Square. We ate dinner then headed back to Penn Station. I thought, it was a really great trip to the city. 

On Sunday, the three of us drove to Philadelphia. We saw the Liberty Bell and walked around. Of course, being in Philadelphia, they had to eat a Philly Cheese Steak! Cha Cha (242-242 text any question and they will give an answer) said that Geno's Steaks is the best in Philly. Being Easter, their rival across the street was closed. The line curved around the building. Missy and Kenya both agreed, they aren't the best Cheese Steaks. It's the experience, right? We drove back to the hotel in Hillsborough and spent the rest of the day relaxing and catching up on the past few years. I was really glad they were able to come out for the weekend!

I went up the the city again on Tuesday to see Live with Regis and Kelly!!! I have been watching Regis since I was little, before Kelly became the co-host. I arrived at the train station and caught the 5:58 train. I took the subway to 66th (Lincoln Center). To my surprise, when I came out of the subway I was at the Temple. The studio is one street up. While waiting in line, I met some cute older ladies. The people behind the ladies had two tickets but needed two more. Since I had an extra ticket, I got the wife in and the husband had to wait but eventually got in. I sat four rows back, almost directly in the middle. Kathy Lee (the original co-host) was the guest. They also showed 

electric cars. Kelly drove the Mini Coupe out the doors at the end of the show. During the commercial break, Kelly was getting a feel for the car and hit Gelman!  To our surprise, after the live show, they taped Matthew Broderick and Russell Crow! (I hate adding photos... the one of Matt Broderick disappeared and I don't want to add it again... )

THEN, leaving the show, an intern from The View asked if we wanted to go watch the show! They only had 80 ppl and needed 120 more! I can't say I'm a fan of the show, like I said earlier, it's all about the experience. The entertainer during commercials was cute! That's a plus right?! 

Purim

Purim is a Jewish festival that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people of the ancient Persian Empire from Haman's plot to annihilate them, as recorded in the Biblical Book of Ester. They have a carnival and dress up in costumes. Gab wanted to be a Pez dispenser and Josh wanted to be a Hershey Kiss. Ethan picked a costume, a dalmation, that a previous nanny made for Gab. So, it was my job to make the other two costumes. I didn't think it was going to be hard but I needed a working sewing machine. I don't know how to fix the tension on my boss's machine. Thanks to Charity and Dan for letting me use theirs (Charity's). They didn't take long to make but I was glad to finish! Not too bad for my first costumes.