Man Hands

Just thought I would share a little video Claire (and Dan!) sent me when I was working Tuesday night!

Joe Buys: Crime Scene Investigator

Well, not exactly. But here's a shot of Joe all suited up as a cop to be on CSI: NY.

The episode is called Past, Present, and Murder and will be on at 10 p.m. some Wednesday -- keep an eye out for it!

Tiny Dancer

Actually, if you look at these pictures, you'll see Claire is not the tiniest of dancers compared to some of her dance classmates who she towers over. But she's still pretty damn cute.

Dan and I were front and center watching her third-ever dance class with teacher Miss Elizabeth and about 20 other kids at the Borgo School of Dance near our house. As you can see from the pictures, she's got pretty good form -- far better than many of her classmates! (Not that I'm biased.)

Kids other than the Baidas boys!

I can't help but overload this blog with Lucas and Anthony -- I need some contributions! (No, I will never stop harping on you all about this!)

Send me some stuff from time to time -- vacation pics, sports pics, funny stories, movie reviews, jokes, updates -- whatever you want!

Here are some pics of Miles and Jude that I poached from the Gregory family Snapfish account!

Stay tuned for the adventures of Miles and Maggie in Sarah's neighborhood!

My favorite quote from Lucas and Miles playing together (other than when they were -- literally -- screaming at each other because Lucas wanted Miles to come downstairs and Miles wanted Lucas to come up) was when Maggie asked if Lucas and Miles needed help with something and Miles said, "We're working together!"

Frosting cookies with Gigi

Gigi brought some V-day cookies for Lucas to frost -- and decided to introduce Anthony to his first frosting while Mama was at the store...

In Gigi's words, "It won't hurt anything."

Photo Booth Session

Sarah, Gupp, Sarah's friend Denise and I had a little bachelorette Valentine's Day dinner on Saturday. We enjoyed salads, veggie lasagna and creme brulee (my first attempt and not bad if I do say so myself!)

Then I shared the fun that is Photo Booth, which is just one of the many reasons why everyone should by Macs.

Even the most hardened heart will laugh and have a good time with it. Here are some of the best shots.

Steal a Pencil for Me

Today I watched one of the most touching and heart-wrenching love stories ever, the documentary Steal a Pencil for Me.

The movie chronicles the love and lives of Ina and Jaap, who met in Holland just before they each were sent to a concentration camp, where they fell in love through letters while in the camps. I tend to watch all kind of random documentaries and occasionally find one that I just love for one reason or another. I'm so glad I tossed this into my Netflix queue on a whim.

A couple of Web sites...

I just wanted to share a couple of Web sites I enjoy reading when I have time. First up is Dooce.com.

It's the blog of a woman named Heather B. Armstrong, a former Mormon in Salt Lake City who blogs about her life as a woman, a wife, a mother, a person who struggles with depression. She has a photo of the day, writes a letter to her five-year-old every month, is sharing her current pregnancy with the public, swears like a sailor and is hilarious.

(Example: Her two books are: "Things I Learned About My Father in Therapy" and "It Sucked and Then I Cried")

Her husband also has a blog, which includes his take on living with a person who struggles with depression. It's a really interesting blog, which started as a past time and now pays the bills.

The second is something I just read about last week, then saw the blogger on Rachel Ray today (I've been home sick for days). It's the blog of Matt Logelin, who started blogging from California to share his wife's pregnancy with their family back in Minnesota in late 2007. His wife, Liz, gave birth to Madeline on March 24, 2008. She died the following day, unexpectedly, when she stood up to go see Maddie in the NICU and collapsed, a blood clot traveling to her lung and killing her instantly.



He has continued his blog since, which includes all of the ups and downs, angers, frustrations, joys, sadness and everything else that he could possibly feel. He has gotten an outpouring of advice and guidance from parents around the world through the blog, and has started a foundation to help the widows of young parents.

I started before the baby was born, and got all choked up when it goes from "Maddie will be here in an hour!" to Liz's obituary a few days later. He seems to be a great dad, Madeline is adorable and it's a really honest and real look into single parenthood and dealing with grief in general.

You can check it out HERE.

Until the wheels fall off

Daniel did a story on Melanie Rutherford, a local singer/songwriter who even sang on one of Joe's songs. Listening to some of the audio clips from his interview with her (available on his music blog), she definitely seems like a one-of-a-kind person who has an amazing voice.

Check out the story, which printed in today's MetroTimes, HERE.

A little blast from the past

Here are a few photos to take us back a bit -- from about 25 years to just a few years ago...

"Stop getting me!"

I stayed with the boys Wednesday night while Sarah and Loren went to the Pistons game. I had a movie on my computer for Lucas as he ate (or was supposed to be) but as I was getting Anthony's dinner ready, Lucas started talking to him -- really talking to him. Mimicking his constant "Da-da" and trying to make him laugh.

It's been amazing to see that over the course of my 3 weeks here, I've watched Lucas finally step into the big brother role. He talks to him, wonders if he's OK, asks where he is. He says, "Hi, baby!" when Anthony wakes up. He'll let us know when Anthony has spit up. He constantly makes him laugh. And Anthony already is looking to Lucas for reassurance.

Upon seeing this "conversation" happening, I decided to record it. At first, Lucas just wants his movie back on, but then he starts talking to him. My screen was blacked out so they didn't know I was recording. But you can see at the end -- once they can see themselves, they both ham it up for the camera.

Just a little glimpse into the start of their brotherhood, so I thought I would share.

February birthdays!

Happy Birthday to Janet today -- I hope she's having fun in the sun in Florida for her birthday.

And a happy birthday coming up to Maggie on the 24th!!!



Hope I'm not forgetting anyone!

Snapshots

by Karen-Balice Gregory

I spent the greater part of today going back in time...literally. I read about an estate sale here in town and uncharacteristically got up and around to get there when it started. Although I am a huge fan of second hand stores (where I unload things I would like to get rid of and purchase things that I usually don't need), and sometimes garage sales, I have rarely frequented an estate sale. This particular one intrigued me because the house had been locked up for 30 years. It was located only a few blocks from my grandmother's house and I was curious. Who would just abandon a home for three decades? What could they have left in there? What would it be like to walk through someone's life almost as it was lived so long ago? I spoke to the estate sale organizers and was able to glean only a few facts about the family. The names Vigo and Roger Nielsen were on the labels of piles of magazines stored there. The daughter, now in her 80's, is in a nursing home and her children live up north. Apparently the daughter (and her siblings?) did not want to deal with sorting or getting rid of anything so it has just been stored there. Lord knows this is not the only family home that has come to this fate through the years but it's the first one that I have ever had the pleasure of visiting.

In some ways it felt rather intrusive going through their things, looking at boxes of pictures, handling old toys and dolls that once belonged to people who may have died before I was born. There were dozens of old calendars from local businesses that I had only heard of. In the basement were stacks of old cigar boxes and jars. The magazines dated back into the 1930s. As I started looking through the pictures I found one of my classmates (including two of my sisters and a cousin) posing in full chorus garb with none other than my last principal, Sister Mercia, sternly looking into the eye of the camera (if that wasn't a chilling discovery!) To my surprise was yet another snapshot in time...my father's graduating class and to top that a beautiful wedding picture with my father as a groomsman. I recognized only one other person, Willie Slowinski. The crowning glory was a great black and white photo of distinguished looking gentlemen...a handful whom I recognized. It must have been a group of bank board appointees, Elks or Moose, or some professional organization. There they were: Dr. Campbell, Dr. Faust, Dr. Buck, Dr. Tanheimer and a dozen or so of their buddies. They appeared to be in their 30's and 40's but who could tell? All I know is that they were much younger than I am now. As I was standing in line to pay I found one last memory. An old friend of my parents and a neighbor when I was growing up, “Did” O'Donnell in all of his youthful glory with a head full of dark hair posing with his beloved drums. There were many nights that we Baldie St. kids were lulled (if you could call it that) to sleep by their beat. I bought them all for the price of a Mocha Latte.

The most precious find of the day was a small diary. I am a sucker for such things because they open up a world to me I would otherwise never know. Written in the year 1946 (5 years before my birth) and penned by a young woman who was a nurse, one entire year was posted in this small black book with 3 days per page, 5 lines per day. There were a handful of days not noted throughout the year and much of it was mundane "wrote letters"; "listened to the radio"; "cleaned room"; "went to church." But it's fascinating to me to walk through someone else's life lived so long ago. She speaks of friend and family illnesses, movies she saw (Bells of St. Mary, Lost Weekend, Spellbound, Wuthering Heights), studying for boards and finally graduation. Letters to and from Roger (stationed in Korea) and on and off duty references at the clinic and hospital were noted. I haven't read it all but I think I would have enjoyed knowing this woman who worked so hard to have a career, cared so much for her family and friends and was very dedicated to helping and healing the people around her. And I thought time machines were only the stuff of movies! No admission fee here but worth the time and energy it took to step back and step into the shoes of local history.

I feel funny.

I'm pretty sure everyone -- whether a parent or not -- can appreciate this clip off of YouTube, of a boy after dental surgery. Poor guy. But I'm glad his folks taped it so we could get a laugh!