Valentine Treats

What fun I had with Ben today. When I pick him up from school, I stand in the vestibule outside of locked doors. I can hear the kids getting their coats on and getting ready to go home before I can see them. The procession usually starts with one of the teachers leading the children one by one in a line to the vestibule. From there, they sort out who's mom is there and walk the children out to the car. Since I walk Ben home, I'm always the first "pick up" person they see and they usually take a minute to tell me what the activity of the day was.

Today was not only Valentine's Day, but Christina's (a Ben classmate) birthday. Her mom brought in heart shaped donuts. The teacher told me, "look for Ben to be on a sugar high, the kids had Valentine's treats and birthday donuts today."

Usually Ben is at the front of the line to leave, but today he was way in the back. The kids are used to seeing me now, so some of them came up to show me what they made for their moms. To each one I said what a great job they did and how much their moms would love what they did. Suddenly, I was surrounded by the class, each showing me their treasures. The next thing I heard was Ben's voice from the end of the line saying in a very indignant voice, "Mo Mo, I'm over here...." He cut out of line and came running up to me and held up his gift for Jenna...."Mo Mo, look at mine first," he said.

I loved that moment. It reminded me of a time when I went to Jenna and Jon's church and did nursery time with Jenna. I was sitting on the floor near the TV and one of the little kids just came over and plopped down in my lap and started to watch TV. Now the whole time I was in the nursery, Ben was running and playing with the other kids--until he saw this little boy in my lap. From across the room he started to walk toward me, his little arms swinging back and forth as he said, "no---no----no---no." And then proceeded to remove the little boy from my lap and sit down. To be coveted by Ben is always special to me.

I looked down at him and his face was full of chocolate. For a minute I thought he needed a shave!! It got even better when we went home and he tried to get a Mommy to let him eat a treat, "cuz, he didn't eat anything."

Speaking of treat--Ellie was up and wide awake when I came by. She laughed at me and followed my voice and movements and seemed really glad to be up and in the middle of everything. What fun I had....now, if I could only wake up Sammy so I could see him too, life would be good!!!

Friends

I am lucky to have had some really good friends during the course of my life, but three stand out as the best--Nina Hall, Pat Mason and Joyce DePaulo.

Nina and I go way back...back to the AmeriTrust days. We each had little girls that were almost the same age and we were both single. Although we saw each other at work, we didn't really meet until I bumped into her at Halle's during my lunch hour. I was looking at a red scarf and this voice behind me said..."buy it, red is your color." We've been friends ever since. We used to call our little girls, "Ebony and Ivory." Nina's daughter, Ebony was a beautiful chocolate brown color and Jenna was the whitest white Nina had ever seen. Once when Nina was going on an overnight date, I was going to watch Eb for her for the weekend. "Don't touch her hair," Nina said to me...that made me laugh, but there were two other funny things that happened that weekend. When Nina and her date drove up into my driveway to drop off Eb, her date looked at me and then at Nina and said, "you can't leave Ebony here, she's white." But the best part of the visit was when our little Ebony and Ivory's were arguing in the bathroom as I was taking a shower. "What are you girls fighting about," I asked. One of them pulled the shower curtain back suddenly and Jenna said, in a very proud voice, "see, I told you she was white all over." Ebony just stood and stared at me...amazed. Nina moved to Chicago years ago, but if she called today, we would pick up right where we left off.

Pat Mason and I worked at Ohio Savings. I have often told people that when I first saw Pat, I didn't know who she was, but I knew she was somebody. How true those words are. Pat has had a wonderful career and I am lucky enough to work with her now at New York Life. When National City was purchased, Pat was displaced. I got her resume in a heart beat and by the time she was packing her desk at Nat City, she was already a NYL employee. Pat is my mentor and my friend. She prays over me at lunch and laughs when I am wicked. She is a wonderful person and I am lucky to have her in my life.

I had dinner with Joyce this evening. Joyce and I met at a golf course. We were both taking golf lessons and the class was told to pair up for part of the lesson. I remember looking at Joyce and thinking, "she looks like a nice lady," so I went up to her and asked if she wanted to be my partner. We've been friends ever since. I wish we golfed more. When we first started actually playing we went out when it was supposed to rain. Oh it rained alright. We were on the third or fourth hole and it was just pouring. We didn't care. The men ran for the club house so we had the whole course to ourselves. We could do, "do overs" if we had a bad shot and putt on the green ten or twelve times without worrying about the people behind us waiting to play. There was just one little thing we didn't think about....not only was it raining, there was thunder and lightening...and there we were swinging our clubs high above our heads. Pretty soon, we saw a man on a golf cart coming towards us. He told us he was looking for us and we had to go in. It was dangerous being on the course in the rain and lightening. He took us back to the clubhouse and all of those men who ran in when it started to get bad applauded us for being the last ones in. They bought us a beer, and we were never intimidated by them again.

Many people have come and gone through my life. I haven't given most of them up willingly, but yet they are gone. I am a better person for knowing all of them, but I am far, far better for having known my 3 friends.

Just Me

Tony is away at his last conference before retiring. I've written before about how the house makes noise and something always breaks when he is gone--but this time seems different. We woke up to more than 3 inches of snow this morning and I knew I was going to have to shovel this evening or I wouldn't be able to get into the garage. I left early so I would be shoveling in some level of daylight, but I found that the driveway had been shoveled already....hmmm.....I took Tony to the airport at 7:15 a.m., but his flight didn't leave until 10 something....did he come back and use the snow blower?? Did he tell the neighbors to keep an eye out for me while he is gone? Did he call Steve Rak and have his crew do the driveway? Knowing Tony, it could have been any of those, but it sure was nice not to have to shovel.

I bought a new workout CD--Billy Blanks, Jr, Dance With Me--Groove & Burn, so I did that this evening. Fat and disgusting just isn't cutting it. I was working out to the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders for awhile, but they were depressing. When they swayed and coo-ed, "sexy walk, sexy walk" it was a whole lot different than when I did it. At least Billy is bald and black so I don't feel the same level of competition working out with him as I do the "chicks."

Work has been a zoo--but an exciting one. I wish I had found NYL years ago. There is so much to do and so little time.

And....I've been connected with two very dear friends in the past two days, that oddly have crossed my mind of late. Dave Jeanclerc (pronounced Jon-Clair) was a temp that I hired way back in my Chemical Financial days. He turned out to be pure gold, rising up through the ranks and staying with Chase Bank until apparently just recently. How nice that he reached out to me for help. And then, Len Chervenak. Len and I worked together at the Plain Dealer. We shared each other's work pain and had some really great times together. He used to have a dog that he named De O Ge. I didn't get the joke for quite a while...look again....D O G. De O Ge's name was just dog. I used to tease him that he was going to give the dog a complex by having no identity. Anyway, Len found me on LinkedIn. How small the internet makes the world.

Tomorrow, I hope to walk Ben home from school. I haven't been able to for the past two days due to work demands. I have my 3 dimes, so I'm ready to go.

And go, I should. It's just me here tonight, but I feel somewhat accomplished today. I had a healthy dinner and then worked out. I did the dishes and some laundry and got ready for garbage day. I even sewed a button back on to one of my blazers this evening. Go figure!

Happy Birthday, Jon

It's always nice to see Jenna, Jon and the kids, but it is especially fun when we have an event to celebrate. Saturday, we celebrated Jon's birthday with a great dinner made by Tony and the entertainment provided by Ben being cute, Sammy being his sweet self, (as you can see by his photo) and of course, Ellie being the little girl we just adore. She was awake and semi-smiling. I think she has finally figured out that her family is goofy but loveable!!

So, happy birthday, Jon. I hope you use your gift to get something that you will enjoy--just for you.

And now, the photos!!!


Ellie hears that the food Papa made is good, so she'd like a taste!!

Here's Sam doing his "photo face" saying "GEEZ"....or is this is rock star face? I always get them confused.

And here is the birthday boy and his big boy who helped blow out the candle.

Next up in June.....Mommy--oh boy, guys, get ready for more ice cream!!