0.993170741

Blog title (numbers) courtesy of Dakota. This is a calculation of some kind and he will let us know what this means at some point. (we hope)

Poor Jewel, sore throat, sneezing, coughing and a stuffy nose, She stayed home all day today. It was freezing cold with winds, so we're glad she didn't have to go out.

On Wednesday evening, Daniel had a smooth and safe flight from Chicago. He arrived when the kids were at church activities and Patricia at her meeting. It was a happy reunion for all.

trivia: Diane Jones (Patricia's sister) husband Lewis, is in the hospital having tests done. He has water in his lungs and probably has pneumonia.

gratitude thought: A hot bowl of soup in the winter. Nothing like it in the world except a warm hug.

Afrochef

Remember the Easy Bake Oven?

Dakota and Jewel decided to make a cake the 'Easy Bake Oven' way. This oven was a gift from our friend and ward member Paola Valez along with some other games like 'Hands Down". Other than the rubbery texture, the taste was great as they put loads of chocolate frosting on top.

We are waitng for Daniel to fly in from Chicago tomorrow evening.

gratitude thought: I love watching my kids play with games and do things I did some 40+ years ago. It's like watching my life being slowly replaced with the activities and paths of my children. Watching them grow is simply joyful...and then someone screams or hits the other. All part of the journey...

We get a family snow day!!

Jewel, Dakota and schoolmates from our charter school. After playing wii sports, they had a 'kosher' dinner. It's been great having the kids learn about each others' religion. They're Orthodox Jews from Russia.

The family went to bed on Thursday evening, (Patricia at midnight) thinking there was no way that we would have a snow day. Between 12:00 midnight and 5:00 am, we were covered in six inches of snow. Seminary, and both schools were closed. Yipee. Patricia curled up in her warm bed and slept another two hours after the 5:00 am Seminay cancellation call.

Daniel feeling ill, did not go into the city but left his laptop at work. Since he needed it to fly to Chicago on Monday, Patricia braved the snow and went to fetch it for him. Long time since she has been in NYC walking around in the snow.

Saturday: two basketball games for Dakota. One win, one loss. Patricia cooks 'Runzas' for the meal exchange at church.

Sunday: Family split. Daniel and Jewel attend East Brunswick ward. Patricia and Dakota attend the Stafford branch for ward conference. Dakota hangs out with some of the Stake youth and gets to attend ward youth conference.

gratitude thought: Grateful for Kristen Smith who has moved into our ward. Such a lovely family and a big hello to you. I will check out your family blog! Dakota told me that you were doing one.

Grateful for Daniel's Christmas gift to me of the GPS. This 'robot map' has helped me get around the state of NJ, and without it I would have pulled my hair out. That robot's montone voice has become my friend!

Heritage Day & Lunar Eclipse

Edelweiss dress !!

On Wednesday, Jewel had 'Heritage Day' at her school. She picked her Edelweiss dress that Oma gave her several years ago from Germany. She had her hair up too, as she looked like a little fraulein but frau mommy put the hairpins in too tight.

Tueday, Dakota had a math test that was a killer. He takes comfort that one of his exams can be dropped from his average. Daniel had a late Presidency meeting and only was able to get four hours of sleep before heading off to work. By Wednesday night, he slept like a log.

A big hello to Tricia...happy belated birthday and I hope your year will be a great one. It was so great to hear from you and I miss you too!

We had a fantastic front door view of the Lunar eclipse last night (Wednesday). It was just a clear cold night, perfect for looking at the moon and fun to staying up watching.

gratitude: grateful for 10:00 pm each night, when I get to call my dear mom to check in. I love hearing about her activities in SC and catching up on all the news. She is just so much fun to talk too!

President's Day

...a day off for all but Daniel.

We went to the home of the Llera's (a wonderful family in our ward) as Jewel had a playdate with Jessie and Junior, and Dakota watched a movie with Courtney and Sara called "The Mummy." Patricia and Sonia went to A.C. Moore to buy materials as Patricia has an upcoming lesson for ward conference. John Llera is a big Mets fan, like Patricia and they had a chance to talk baseball, steroids, Hall of Fame and integrity.

FHE: We'll finish watching "A Work And A Glory" movie and will have key lime pie for dessert. We were given an Amish dough to knead, bake and then to pass along like a chain letter. This will be interesting...

trivia: Andy Pettite has news conference to defend his position in regards to Roger Clemens and an alledged steroids conversation.

gratitude thought: grateful for families that extend their frienship to the kids and open their homes to us ;-)

Yeah..the weekend fun!!

Jewel began her weekend with a four day break from school. She went with mommy to the hair salon to watch mommy get a wash, conditioning and a blow dry style. Jewel is so grateful for her head of curls and that she doesn't need to do the same things mom has to do to her hair. Patricia is just waiting the day that Jewel has to comb that head of curls by herself instead of mom combing it while listening to the screams.

Friday evening Jewel went rollerskating with Andrew, Stephanie and Mr. Jan.

Saturday was a basketball game for Dakota and the YM. In the evening was a Stake meeting for Patricia followed by the youth Stake Valentine's Dance. Dakota wasn't feeling great so we found some advil for him from one of the Stake Relief Society sisters attending the dance, and he was better. We were home by 11:30 pm with Jewel anxiously waiting up.

Daniel's work week was busy and he was quite tired but able to catch up on some needed sleep.

Sunday, Dakota stayed home from church with Daniel as he was still under the weather. By afternoon and medicine in his system, he went to the youth fireside with dad as the Teachers' Quorum was in charge.

trivia: Barry Bonds found guilty of steroid use in November 2001.

gratitude: grateful for days off from school and to spend time with the kids. Monday February 18th, is President's Day. Both Jewel's school and the college are closed. Daniel has to work :-(

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HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY



The kids wrote Daniel little love notes, gave him a single yellow rose and went out to eat hamburgers.








To all of you in our lives, you are in our hearts...we hope your day was filled with love and happiness!! Thank you for all that you are.

Icy bells.....

Jingle Bells, Patricia yells
the Volvo wants to slide

she pumped her brakes, and turned the wheel
but all they did was glide..

Jingle Bells, all is well
the family's home and safe

Patricia gripped the wheel so hard
her hands are chapped and chafe

Lots of snow, freezing rain and ice on the road. Driving conditions were awful and Patricia couldn't park the car near the house. She and the kids had to park elsewhere after sliding backwards down a hill (unable to stop the car when brakes were applied) and she walked the kids home while Dakota walked Jewel home. She was able to drive to the train station to pick Daniel up. The six minute trip took 35 minutes, each way.

Stake Presidency meetings cancelled tonight!

gratitude thought: so very grateful that after sliding so much, I never hit a car. Came close twice. Once when I was inches from rear ending someone. The other when the car skidded sideways into a parked car, and we squeaked by missing by a hair.

trivia: Dakota is sad to lose his Physics teacher for the sememster due to illness. He has a new teacher and thinks she is extremely boring. He knows he has to stay in the class to graduate so he has to just grin and bare it.

Dinner with 14 year old Rutgers student and Dakota cancelled due to weather.

Baby it's cold outside..brrr

Cold temps in NY/NJ continue. The windchill on Monday was -7 and today it is 10 degrees. There is snow coming too, not much but a nice sprinkling.

Monday, the kids had regular days in school and Daniel had a pretty normal workday. Dakota is glad that his dad is home as they can ride to early morning Seminary at 5:30 am.

Patricia went to help her friend Kaye get bills in order to help her qualify for Medicaid. Her doctor found small growths in her left lung and she will go for a biopsy on Wednesday. She had treatment for lung cancer two years ago.

Patricia has her small jobs this week and is making frantic phone calls to NYC to find service opportunities for the upcoming Stake Youth Conference in June. Turns out that NYC is a difficult place to volunteer. Insurance and Unions are big in the city. Also as the Manhattan ward building will be under contruction, the youth now have no place to use classrooms for lessons. The city is very expensive to rent rooms and even if the church paid for the classrooms, religious instruction is forbidden in many public places in NYC.

Daniel has Stake presidency meetings tonight and Patricia and the kids will eat out (a rare occurance, especially during the week). Dakota is going to meet another 14 year old who began at Rutgers this year. He is a first year student doing research on stem cells. Hopefully the two can become friends and if Dakota can get into Rutgers, it'll be great to have a same age peer.

gratitude: I'm grateful for friends. My friend Nina called for my birthday and after playing phone tag, we finally got a chance to talk. I met her when I was 16 years old training at the Alvin Ailey school. She is a piano prodigy and an excellent ballet dancer from London and Montreal (duel citizenship). There are no words to describe reconnecting with my friend and talking about the past dance life we shared. So many memories, such glorious, fulfilling and fun times in both our lives. It is way cool to have enjoyed her friendship these past 33 years. We both miss those days.....miss dancing.....miss that life....

trivia: Black History month continues...grateful for the contributions Black Americans made to the USA. While helping my friend Kaye, we listened to an R&B station featuring black musical artists. I was blown away listening song after song. what enormous talent in the music industry.

Who would have ever thought a Black man would be running for President and doing so well?? My ancestors must be grinning from ear to ear.

Blustery winds in NJ, Wind chill is 1 degree at 10 pm

Busy, busy weekend. Daniel arrived home from SF on Friday night, Jewel was counting the hours. Pat did not get to see him at all as she was driving into a pretty secluded area for her Stake LITE retreat with the YW. She spent the night with 30 YW and a few leaders. Lots of fun and little sleep.

Saturday morning, Dakota had an all day Scout Merit badge clinic. Jewel had daddy all to herself and was very content to stay in all day and play games with dad. Pat returned home to cook for the RS dinner exchange. She made 'smothered pork chops in gravy' for four families which Daniel delivered to our ward. Pat was quite tired and completely forgot the Leadership Broadcast that evening. Oops! We'll download it off the Internet as we heard it was pretty amazing.

Sunday, Pat drove to Eatontown, NJ for two ward conferences back to back. Daniel, Jewel and Dakota drove to our regular ward.

trivia: baseball pitcher (and possible Hall of Famer) Roger Clemens, is all over the newspapers for his alledged use of steroids. He denies ever taking them.

gratitude thought: The Eatontwon ward made lunch for the Stake leaders as they had to stay in the building six hours, and some of them for eight hours. I was soo hungry and it was wonderful to begin the next meetings with a full tummy! I was very grateful for their graciousness, and that I didn't have to eat the mashed up peanut butter and banana sandwich that I brought from home.

Videos!

NJ High School Diploma

Jewel performing in a school play!


The days have just flown by while Daniel has been out of town. Between school, Mutual, ballet (Jewel) and piano (Dakota), the car continues to guzzle gas.

Highlights of the week, Jewel performed with her school in a Native American play. This is the first time we have tried to add video to the blog. Jewel is on the right with little pigtails.

Dakota finally received his high school diploma from the state of NJ. He is very, very happy! His two year college degree will come in three months.

Daniel's presentations at work went well and he is coming home on Friday night. Patricia will be staying overnight with the Stake YW for a LITE retreat. She has to give her first devotional and is very nervous.

gratitude thought: EFY registration made possible by Mable and Oma and Opa's generous birthday gifts to me. Thank you so much for helping us make this possible for him.

trivia! Cousin Linda in South Carolina will be getting married on August 16th!

Danny Boy goes West

Daniel left this morning at 4:45 am, as Patricia drove him to the train to travel to Newark International Airport. Daniel didn't rest much as the passenger in front of him snored for the entire five hour flight to San Franscico.

Jewel was home today as she still had a low grade fever. She worked on her research project, Titanic and will write about all the things that went wrong, caused the ship to sink and why so many passengers died. She may draw the ship in oil pastel. Dakota's Physics class was cancelled this morning so he only had his Political Science class. The class assignments are to watch the Presidential debates and follow the elections, which he really enjoys.

Patricia is walking very slowly today as she enters week four of her training with coach Dakota. She did more today and really feels it.....instead of cooking tonight, (as standing is painful for Patricia and she thinks her heart fell out and is sitting in the treadmill) the family will have sandwiches and for FHE watch part of 'Work And The Glory'.

trivia: Go Giants!! They beat the undefeated New England Patriots in a 17-14 thriller. When the Giants scored the winning touchdown with 38 seconds to go, I was on the floor. To be 18-0 and lose the only game of your season, THE Super Bowl has to be rough.

gratitude: grateful that I am not the wife of a New England Patriot player. Putting those men back together will take all year long. That Super Bowl loss was a big ouch!

grateful for a birthday package that arrived from Oma, Opa and Greg in the mail today. Jewel was home to open it and we just loved our gifts. New clothes for me is always a treat..and we love our books and chocolate as well.

News: Our new Prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of latter Day Saints, is President Thomas S. Monson, 1st counselor is President Henry B. Erying and 2nd counselor is President Dieter F. Uchtdorf.

Birthday celebrations January 30th-February 2nd

Patricia wearing her Christmas outfit,
for birthday dinner at the Olive Garden.....hungry folks


Menu at the Olive Garden
Jewel- Speghetti
Dakota- Herbed Salmon
Daniel- Tortilloni and beef ribs
Patricia- Seafood Alfredo






Wednesday January 30th was Patricia's 49th birthday. The day was spent running errands driving the family around. She received some flowers and dinner from ward members and phone calls from the young women and Oma,Kevin,Diane, Kaye and Mable. When Dakota was at Mutual, a kind friend 'Starr Turner' babysat Jewel so Daniel and Patricia could have a free hour together. These moments are so rare that after dinner (at home) they just sat and stared at each other!!!

gratitiude thought: As I reach the last year in my fourth decade, I am and will always be grateful for the family I have been blessed with and kind and loving friends:

Oma, Opa & Greg, always loving, supportive and generous through all our hard times.

Linda, Andrea for thinking of us with cards, clothing, kind words, & support

Camille, Leslie for their examples of being sweet and their hearts always open

Shelly, Bruce for the impact of their parenting and giving us such lovely cousins

My sisters, Diane and Kathy who always have loving words for Dakota and Jewel

My brother Kevin, with a heart of gold and for being a lovely man

My mom Mable, who is a best friend!

My dear Jewel whose temperment and spirit match her name, Dakota whose zest and apppetite for life and how fully he lives it is contagious and Daniel whose depth as a man and wisdom makes me stretch everyday.

For friends I have met over the years in the many states that have created many wonderful memories.......

Friday, Patricia had a birthday lunch with some church members at 'Panera Bread' on a rain soaked Friday, and Saturday the family listened to the funeral broadcast of Gordon B Hinkley.

After church on Sunday...Daniel began packing for his week long trip to California.