Happiness Is ...

Today's blog is really a continuation of last week. I had too many picture to post all at once, so I've decided that this post will be the remainder of the pictures.

Happiness is family lunches at Panera. Keziah and Eric are family too!!

Happiness is Mr. Eric climbing the rock with you!!

Happiness is my brother learning to crochet so that he can help his daughter learn!!

Happiness is having a friend like Keziah that can teach him how.

Giving & Receiving Joy

Today lunch was held at Panera Bread (Keri dearest, it was my very own important meeting). I hadn't had a chance to spend much time with my brother's family and I wished to rectify that. As mentioned in an earlier blog I had a book to give to my nephew Sammy. My little guy is so very smart and looked through the whole book fascinated and explaining the difference in "diggers" to me -- apparently they all have their very important job. Being the brilliant aunt that I am, I was prepared -- I came with paper and colored pencils for him to get started right away. Sammy was a great sharer and he let Myia do one as well. As you can see they both took it very seriously. Myia then went on to decorate hers with an American Flag sticker and wrote "Made in the USA" -- so clearly I have done my job with these little ones. :-)

I also had a gift for Myia. If you know anything about my oldest niece, she is a princess beyond anything you can believe. She HAS to wear dresses, fancy shoes, and her clothes must match. She is also quite the lady. I once told her that it would be easier for her to get over to her mother if she crawled under the table... she was HORRIFIED. Aghast she turns to me and states "ladies don't crawl under tables"... now I know. So in keeping with my little lady's personality, I found the most precious necklace with a dainty star on it and she was quite happy. Myia also made sure to keep the box to store it in and keep it safe.

Today's Joy brought to me by two of the loves of my life. Giving them joy brought me more joy than I could have imagined.

Joyousness for today...

I am feeling a theme for my blogs... :-) Keep checking back to see how many different titles I can find to use for this theme.


So here's the back story to today's joy! I worked at my mom's store today and called her at the end of the day, exhausted and sharing some things on my heart -- being the wonderful, caring mama that she is, and always one to take care of me -- she said "go get yourself something nice for dinner on me". Thus began my mission.

I headed to Whole Foods more because that's the direction I started driving. I intended to drive to the A&P but always forget that it's off of Goffle Rd and not Lincoln Ave. (Sorry if you don't live in this area to follow that).

I shall now break down the pieces to this evening's joyous dinner.

I am not a big sushi fan, but I do enjoy California Rolls although I would prefer them without the crab meat ... TA DA -- I have Avocado and Cucumber rolls with brown rice -- the beginning of the meal.

After the delightful appetizer, we continue the meal with a potatoe pancake, zucchini Parmesan latke (google it), and broccoli rabbe with sauteed whole garlic. To top it all off, I am going to use some delicious salad dressing that my sis-in-law Sarah made for me -- thanks darlin.

What am I drinking with all of this deliciousness? Honest Tea... it's my new obsession - honestly!! That's why there are three that you see, "Agave Mate", "Mango Acai White Tea", and "Lori's Lemon Tea". Hope mom doesn't mind that I bought three. I also have another one in the refrigerator that she bought me earlier in the week (did I mention that she takes care of me?).

Now that I've shared my meal with you, I shall share the dessert portion of today's joyousness moment! I haven't decided if I shall eat the two separately or if I shall eat them at the same time.

My family is a big supporter of the frozen fruit industry, I am in favor of any fruit that someone else takes the effort to cut up and freeze. That being said, I've never seen Mango's be a choice before -- in Ecuador we (mostly my mom and our precious maid, Maria) used to have to do all the work of cutting up the mango and freezing them, and now you can buy a bag at Whole Foods -- life is good.

To round out the night I am eagerly anticipating my Coconut Almond Ice Cream bar made with coconut milk. You can't eat too many of these because the coconut milk makes them quite high in fat -- but man are they delicious.

Joyousness for today, brought to you by Whole Foods (and my sweet mama)!!

What brought me joy today...

Dinosaur Invasion
As I walked in to the home office tonight I almost tripped over this guy -- although he looks quite scary in this picture, he's actually much smaller. The joy of this little guy being in the middle of the office floor is what it symbolizes... it means that little Rodney was playing with it and the toys surrounding it. Little guy took a nap on Grampy's "piddow" this afternoon and then spent some time at Grammy & Grampy's house playing with the toys. Everyone knows that knows that the toys that you don't get to play with every day are better than the boring ones you can play with whenever you want. ALSO -- if I know my dad, I can pretty much guarantee that this involved Grampy down on the floor playing with little Rodney bringing endless delight to both of them. Grammy was probably close by either spoiling him with treats or hugs.

Arrival of Books

I can't think of many things that bring me more joy than new books... but new books for my babies bring with it the anticipation of the look on their faces when they realize that Nonni got them new books. Recently a friend needed some help reaching a goal of selling Children's books, so I decided to see what she had available. (See her great site here). The Shapes Jigsaw Puzzle book is for little Rodney - all the other kids LOVED any puzzle books I brought home so I am sure that Rodney will feel the same way. Sammy, on the other hand, is fascinated with "diggers" -- can you believe that I found a book called "Diggers". He's going to love the endless entertainment this brings him.

Lest you stop and think "only books for the boys, what about the girls, you cad" - have no fear, they are spoiled rotten in their own right, this time just happens to be for my beloved boys. Can't wait to give these to them on Sunday along with some stickers. Oh and I have some jewelry and stickers for the girls too. :-) Sure do love my babies!!!

Thanks for sharing in my joy today!!

A blast from the past...

Yesterday was amazing. My High School had a reunion cookout. People that I hadn't seen in 14 years came together for a wonderful time of reminiscing and catching up.

Initially I wasn't sure about this, I thought I'd stop by for a little bit and see who was there and then once I'd had one too many awkward silences I'd make up some excuse and head out. Eight hours later (2 hours past the scheduled time of the end of the bbq) I had to tear myself away. As evidenced by the lobsterness of my shoulders in this picture, I had a fun time hanging out in the sun. It was like no time at all had passed, but it was also as if none of the drama of high school had ever happened. So many times throughout the day I just and looked around in amazement at how well it worked and how much fun I was having. It was like I had found a whole group of friends and family again.

Next year's already being planned, and hopefully we'll be having some get together's throughout the year. Can't wait.

Do I really have that much to say?

I've joined Twitter, feel free to follow me. Between email, texting, Facebook, Blogging, and twitter I spend a lot of time trying to think about what to say. And then I start to wonder... do I really have that much of value to say that I need 4-5 outlets? Each outlet serves a different purpose though and connects me differently.

Texting is my favorite way to communicate with my beloved sister (other than in person). Our schedules rarely mirror each other and so we don't see each other or get to talk quite as often as I'd like. I had to update my monthly text allotment, simply to be able to communicate as often as I wanted. We text about ... everything. From the inane (like the current conversation consisting of how to avoid the evil swine flu that is "lurking" according to a recent news report) to the deep.

Facebook is a double-edged sword. I'm thrilled to be able to stay in touch with people like never before. I'm excited to have found people from past lives that I thought I'd never see again. The downside (well, beside those people that I'd rather have left in the past) is that it's quite impersonal at times in the sense that what I say has the potential of reaching all 350 on my friends list (yes, I'm THAT popular). It provides a means of sharing in my friend's lives in no way like it. Just today I was able to see pictures of one of my dear Nashville friends that reminded me of how much I miss her, and allows me to not lose touch. Besides, how else would I know what Hogwarts House the Sorting Hat would have put my friends in if I didn't have FB?

Email is our oldest of all these forms of communicating an sometimes get tossed aside for the easier means of communicating. Rather than receive emails, I get texts, posts on my wall or even messages within FB. It still works well for certain things though. My friend is spending the summer in Scotland (I won't get in to how deep the jealousy goes) and since we can't talk daily as we used to, we have gotten quite proficient at updating each other via email. It is the most personal of all these forms of communicating.

Blogging is a means of keeping people up to date on my life. One problem I have is that some of the things that I want to blog about shouldn't really be for public consumption. Eithr I'm upset at someone that might potentially read the blog, or I might offend people. I do enjoy it as an outlet though and should use it more often. Facebook updates and twitter have taken the place of blogging for me. The downside to that is that those are done in snippets without a lot of thought or explanation -- the blog post would then have the full story.

Twitter is my newest way of avoiding things that I need to do. I have this friend, we've been friends since high school. She's a dear friend of the family but I don't always see her or if I do it's a short "hi, how are you" before chaos ensues around us. Twitter has given me a means of connecting with her and following her passionate desire to protect this country from what's goin on around us. Without Twitter I don't know if I would have reconnected with her so well. Oh, and we talk about Twilight too.

Lest we forget the original form of communicating, I also write letters from time to time.

Give my regards to Broadway...

A dear friend recently sent me this picture (check out where it came from here) because she knows of my undying love for my city.  There just happens to be something about skylines that make my heart skip a beat.  I enjoy the great outdoors and appreciate seeing stars, but LOVE cities... don't ask me to explain it.

I'm excited to be able to say that I'm going home to it.  Sure, I'll be technically living in NJ, but will be taking any opportunity that I have to be close to my beloved NYC.