Cheeky Monkey!

ADD Awareness Day

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Going Forward

When events happen that change our lives – your wedding, birth of a child or a tragedy like 9/11 – the moments of that day become ingrained in our memories. The events, the weather, the smells and our emotions our sense memories are so strong that it seems as though it just happened.

With such strong memories, it is easy to forget how much time has passed. I can hardly fathom that six entire years have passed since 9/11. How much our world has changed. How much my life has changed.

I had just returned to work from maternity leave after having Andy – who is now in the first grade. He now has 2 little brothers – one of which is in Kindergarten. Todd and I crossed the big 3-0 line into real adulthood (or so I’ve been told…). We had a tragedy of our own when a fire started in Andy’s room (Our family marks time as “before the fire” and “after the fire”.). We moved out and back home after renovations. Colin joined our lives – and had his first birthday. The ‘stang and I parted ways (..sniff..). I’ve changed jobs 3 times. I taught myself to knit. I discovered the world of “real” diapers and started my own custom diaper biz…

It was hard to believe 6 years ago, but life has gone on… and it keeps on going – with or without us. We can’t go back to being innocent and ignorant, but we can’t hide in fear either… Go.. Live.. Love…

Never Forget

Where were you? The question we are all asking one another today.

I was in the truck on the way to a jobsite. I actually sat in the truck listening to the radio most of the day. The news kept coming in... More planes missing… another crashes into the Pentagon… one more in PA… the President was flying around somewhere… are we under attack? Who is doing this? Is it really happening? The whole thing sounded more like an action flick than reality…

Being a Civil Engineer, I knew the towers were going to come crashing down- soon. Tens of thousands of people were about to die. I was – and still am – impressed at how long those towers stood – at how many people were able to escape with their lives. It was as if the hand of God was holding them up as long as he could - in answer to all those praying for the people inside. In the days following, critics were quick to blame the engineers who “should” have designed for such an event. Tell me this – on 9/10/01, how many of us could have even imagined something like this happening? Exactly… The buildings were engineered way ahead of their time. The engineers who designed the WTC are the unsung heroes of 9/11.

We hear a lot about the Firefighters and Police officers who died trying to rescue others. I don’t mean to belittle the NYPD or NYFD or make light of their losses, but why don’t we hear more about the people who died sitting at their desks, reading their e-mail or getting their morning cup of coffee b/c as far as they knew… it was just another Tuesday morning. What about those on the floor above the impact? They knew there was no way out. They made their good-byes and waited for a painful death. What about the people on those planes who were just taking an ordinary flight and ended up riding in a bomb. What of the flight crews murdered by the terrorists? We seem to almost have forgotten the plane that hit the Pentagon and the lives lost there. Can it be that this tragedy is still to great to wrap our minds around six years later?

Where I live, only an hour from The City (we’re so close we don’t even need to say New York), we could see smoke rising from the west for weeks. If you went to the beach, you could see the Manhattan Skyline and the smoke billowing up from ground zero. On a clear day (remember how clear and bright that day was?) you can still see the skyline and anyone around here can tell you where the WTC was. There is a gaping hole to remind us of how much we lost that day.

We lost more than real-estate, more than those 3000+ lives. We lost our innocence and our security. We used to feel safe. War happened “over there”. Terrorists were in South America and the Middle East. If we saw an unattended bag in the airport we might have brought it to lost and found. Now we are afraid to open our mail. An unattended bag gets the building evacuated and the bomb squad is called. We are spying on our neighbors and suspicious of cab drivers. I can no longer promise my children that nothing bad will ever happen to them.

The truth is – we are never really safe. We just didn’t know that before.

So I ask you blog readers: Where were you the day our world changed? Share your story, thoughts and reflections in the comments…

What do you eat?

that is the first thing people ask when I tell them about our assorted food allergies. we eat a lot of things.. just not dairy, beef, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts or Cheerios...

.. but there is dairy and wheat in everything...

true enough.. read a few labels and you will be surprised at some of the things that contain dairy and wheat ingredients. BUT it is not in EVERYTHING!

sure, there are some things - like Sunbutter -that I need to go to Nature's Way for, but for the most part, I shop a a "normal" grocery store. I can get soy milk, yogurt and Cheese in the whole foods section.

Shop the perimeter

I can't remember who said it to me or if it was in reference to eating healthy or saving money, btu it applies to both. I dont' care what major supermarket you go in, BUT - you find your fresh produce at one end, then usually the deli ( you may need a little extra thought in your deli order to keep it helathy..) then your seafood and meats along the back. the dairy case, eggs and fresh OJ (I get the kind with Calcium and D added since I don't drink cow milk) then your fresh baked goods. then of course, I need to hit the paper goods and cleaning products aisles BUT I am trying to use more re-usable containers and I am shifting to more natural cleaners live vinegar and baking soda.. ones that won't kill me kid if he accidentally gets hold of them....

yes, I do get some stuff in the middle- cereal, some snacks/treats and Todd's diet soda (I do want to stay married... and I am considering the diet part a small victory at this point..) but the core of our diet comes from the perimeter - Fresh, whole, natural foods.

It takes to long to cook from scratch.

not really. chop things ahead. use a crock pot. stir fry! every fresh cooked meal doesn't have to be a Sunday-dinner roast! learn how to recycle left-overs into a new meal! my mom could feed us for a WEEK on one large roast chicken! you cna even make big meals on the w/e and freeze the extra for the week.

Back to School!

Andy is off to first grade and Ryan started Kindergarten!




The children were returned to us unharmed, so we sent them back again today :P



Todd and Colin were SO excited they didn't know what to do first... so they napped... I was more productive... I used up my Sugar 'n Cream from Dish Rag Tag! (we're in the home stretch now!)



I also made these over the w/e. I also made 2 REALLY cool Star Wars dipes, but the camera battery decided that would be a good time to quit and I had to mail them out before it could re-charge.