• personal

    the oldnew mac

    As most of you already know, my computer bit it not too long ago. Fortunately, it waited to die until I was done with the ‘have to have this finished before Christmas’ sessions and projects. If it was only a week earlier, I would have been buried in a shallow grave right next to the dead pc.

    So Mr. Mark at Rockville Camera had this Mac G5 sitting unused in his basement and offered it to me. I (of course and with huge thanks) took it and we are becoming fast friends, I think. Still lots to learn and lots to try to transfer from the PC but overall, getting the hang of it. Also going to have to buy some software so I can still use my Windows documents and possibly some font issues, but in the big scheme of things (and being kinda forced into the mac switch) it wasn’t nearly as traumatic as I had imagined. And it already had Photoshop CS2 installed! Bonus!!

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    Plus the tower throws off lots of heat so I am really liking that cause you know I’m always freezing. And the white keyboard, mouse and silver screen and tower really look good with my pink chair, pink cell phone and pink mouse pad.

    Oh, and the verdict on what caused the PC to die? Overuse. No, seriously! The PC is back home and sitting upstairs in the scrapbook room/office til I can get up there and put it all back together. We’ll just keep it and use it as a second computer. Can’t have enough backup!!

    And a big thank you to Paul (our IT guy) who worked so hard to fix my overworked computer and saving everything from the black hole of  file stealing.

  • children & families

    the lefe kids

    Reporting in from Florida… the weather was great yesterday and after walking about 2 miles in the  morning, I got a big fat almost 2hr massage and then went to the pool for a few hours. Lunch on the beach side and then some reading on the balcony. Think that will be how most of the days go and really, it dosen’t suck. Today we’re mixing it up a bit and going to the Miami Dolphins vs. Houston Texans at Landshark Stadium (it’s still Joe Robbie to me). It’ll be Timmy’s first game and mine too (have been to a lot of college games but never an NFL game. Too cold for that nonsense in NY). Should be fun!

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    Now on to the pictures. Obviously, these were taken well before Christmas for holiday cards and just to have. So I guess the answer to my own question a few posts back is no…I will not be caught up anytime soon.

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    The oldest boy played on the same baseball LL team as Jack & Patrick. He’s a funny kid.

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    She’s so lovely and so cute in her little outfit. Loved the boots! Rockin!

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    This little one we refer to as our ‘wild card’. He could really go either way for the shoot. Last year we witnessed the ‘not so into the photoshoot at all’ side. This year was ‘still not into it but this crazy lady can make me laugh in spite of myself’. I’ll take it!

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    You might recognize mom from her music together classes, or from the blog, or because she’s the one who makes the photo jewelry, jujewels. I have a few from her and did some as gifts for the holidays. They’re really awesome.

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    Hope you guys enjoy your pictures and had a great holiday!

  • personal

    snow day! in florida. sorta.

    It’s not really snowing in Florida.  But this is the first post I’m writing from there and it’s about snow.  Go figure. The blizzard hit us with 15.1″ of snow last Saturday.

    Somehow looking at the snow pictures from Florida just doesen’t seem as bad as it did in NY. Don’t hate me but it’s 72 degrees (at night) and I’m looking at the lights on A1A. Can’t wait for the morning so I can see blue sky and green palm trees and turquoise water.

    Ok, so you hate me a little. But you know I really, really, REALLY needed this vacation. Saturday morning holds a massage and lunch overlooking the ocean. Ahhhh….

    You just know there’s gonna be trouble looking at those expressions.

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    and there was. For Jack, anyway!

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    Love those sparkly eyes and rosy cheeks and nose.

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    Timmy was like Randy in A Christmas Story. He couldn’t put his arms down and he couldn’t get up when he fell over.

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    Totally nailed this shot of Patrick. Right before the giant snowball fell on his head.

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    After shoveling the driveway (it’s long and narrow and John can’t do it cause of his back surgeries) for 1.5hrs I helped the boys build a snowman. He came out pretty good I thought.

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    Really so glad to only be looking at snow pictures instead of living in it. Sorry.

  • personal

    merry christmas!

    Here’s a few from what our Christmas looks like around here.

    Each of the boys have their own trees with their own ornaments that they have picked out or received as gifts over the years. It’s a great tradition!

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    The tree. Daytime and nighttime. Ahhh….

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    The infamous leg lamp (aka the hot glow of electric sex gleaming in the window. Or Frageelay- must be Italian).

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    I asked Santa for coordinated presents under the tree this year. He rocked it!

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    Jack woke up this morning at 8:30, Patrick at about 8:45 and we had to wake Timmy up at 9:15!! But the first thing he asked was “is it Christmas morning and there are presents??!” Can’t start a day badly like that!

    Then the unwrapping commenced and there was happiness all around.

    And the aftermath.

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    Gotta go clean up and ummm….pack! Being that we are leaving in 3 hrs I guess I should get on that, huh?

    Merry Christmas, everyone!

  • personal

    the radio city christmas spectacular

    As a birthday gift for his mom, John bought tickets for ALL of us (and I do mean all… Joe, Gail & baby James, Inez, Thomas, Brendan, Sean & Aidan, Mom & Dad, and us) to go see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.  Since the ‘menfolk’ always go to baseball games together, he figured this would be something fun for his mom and everyone else too.

    The only catch was that since there were 14 of us (the baby didn’t need his own ticket) the only show that was available for all of us to go to together was the 9am on a Saturday morning. So that meant getting up at 7am, on the road by 7:45am, and into the city by 8:20am. Which we did. For me, under duress cause that’s even earlier than I have to get up to get the boys to school! And I worked the night before, shooting a party til 11:30pm and not going to bed til around 2am.

    But of course the show was worth it and the kids all had a great time! I think Grandma did too!

    Love watching their eyes light up at the whole spectacular spectacleness of it all.

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    We also celebrated Aidan’s birthday and took a picture of all the boys together again back at grandma & grandpa’s house.

    We are headed over there again tonight for Christmas Eve and then on the plane tomorrow afternoon to Florida. Can’t wait!!!