Do you know what this is?

 

OK, I have to admit, I messed with the color of this photo quite a bit. But only to emphasize what I really saw in the night...

Moon-bow

 

I didn't mess with the color of these photos at all...

 

The other night, I looked outside, and saw this moon-bow. It was even more pronounced in real life... it was so cool!



It's a full moon. Have you heard the legend of the Jersey Devil?



I'll tell ya all about it later...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CUPCAKE!!!

 Happy Birthday to you, dear Cupcake! Another year, another dollar... no, that's not it.

Today is the day that my darling husband celebrates his birthday. I would tell you how old he is, but I don't remember. He's officially one year older than I am for the next few months. He'll have to remind me how old that actually is, when I see him later.

Thor is a wonderful husband and father. We've been together for a lot of years now -- something like 28? I think -- and I still think he's the best guy ever. He drives me a little crazy sometimes, but I know that we're even, because I drive him a little crazy too. We are very opposite in a lot of things, but they say opposites attract, so I guess it works out ok. After all these years together, I guess we've gotten used to each other. Or we've agreed to disagree. Or maybe he's just gotten better at giving in, which is more appropriate.

Thor likes things neat. He isn't the kind of husband who leaves his wet towel laying on the bed. (That would be me.) He straightens things up after himself, and after me, and after the kids... Which is a wonderful thing. He is a really smart guy, and enjoys reading, up until the book puts him to sleep; he is interested in weird science things like string theory, and nature shows, and cooking shows; and he loves music, any kind, and he's even willing to tolerate the kind that I like. He is also the life of any party, drinks heartily, laughs the whole time, and then cleans up before he goes to sleep. I love that about him -- I should have a birthday party in his honor! But I'm not going to, we still haven't recuperated from the last party in the house.

I'm not getting him much in the way of a present, either, this year. Happy Birthday, honey, I'm not charging ANYTHING on the Am Ex card. And, you can keep your (free) boat.


So, Happy Birthday Cupcake... Many many more...I Love you!

Not a boat video.

I made a video. Actually, I made two videos. I made a boat video. But it's a little short; some pieces are missing.

But I also had 613 pictures for a campfire video. Well, actually, it's a slide show. But... That's at LEAST 400 more pictures than I usually put in a slide show. And I took them so it looked like a video; I was experimenting with stop action photography.

So I ended up making this fire video instead of a boat video. Hopefully Thor will take some photos this weekend if he goes on the boat; and then we will have enough photos to finish the boat video the way I really want it.

So here it is.

The fire one, not the boat one.

The Boat is In the Water.

 

And I planned on posting a bunch of pictures here today to show you the whole thing. But what I really want to do is make a video of the whole thing, because I've got some really cool progression photos. I think it will make a nice video. So I've gotta get around to that, but it won't be tonight.

Tonight, we had Chinese food to celebrate the fact that with Frankie at college, we are allowed to eat chinese food. :D
Yay!

And tomorrow I have to start the early shift at work again (Groan!)

So I've gotta go to bed, like RIGHT NOW. Or else I'll NEVER be alive in the morning.

Good Night.

Move in day at Rowan University

 

We got up WAY too early, after a late night of partying. And then we headed down to Frankie's new school, Rowan University.

Move in day was pretty well organized. I didn't have to sit in traffic at the school - only on the Turnpike, and Rowan had nothing to do with that. There were plenty of people around to direct us to where we had to go. We backed in to a spot, unloaded, and had all of the kids carry stuff up to the room. And there is a LOT of "stuff."

We had a lot of helpers...

 

A lot of Frankie's friends came down for the ride. About 2 hours one way, with traffic. It was very nice of them, and I know it meant a lot to Frankie.

And it was a good thing they came, because there really weren't that many people around offering to help. We did get there a little later, so that may be why.

So you could say we actually had THREE cars, because we had my car full of "stuff," and no room for anyone else; Thor drove the Thor-mobile with Nicky and Steven, my nephew; and Booth drove Frankie and the other kids. Then, Armand and his parents drove in a separate car. It was a little bit like ... a parade? A wagon train heading west? I don't know.

The Steam Room

 

No, actually, it's the dorm room. Tiny. And with a bunch of sweaty bodies carrying in tons of "stuff", it got so steamy in there that my camera lens actually fogged over.

And you can probably see how tiny the room is, too. This is the angle with the beds -- most of the room.

After the kids left -- I threw them out and told them to roam around the campus for a twenty minutes or so -- we started trying to organize. But, in the end, we did little more than put the sheets and blankets on the beds. Most of the organizing will be done by the roomies while they are hanging out tonight, I guess.

 

We had a (nice?) lunch together

 

Well, the food was quite tasty. I just expected more choices -- they have so many stations and varieties of food to choose from in the cafeteria -- but it seemed like none of them were open. The choices were limited, and unusual -- no regular fries, only sweet potato fries? stuff like that.

Make yourself Comfy.

 

Plenty of activities were set up in the "pit", which I didn't really notice. This is a blow up chair, the friends all sat down together for a quick picture before they said goodbye.

The brothers hug goodbye.

 

<3.

My hug goodbye

 

What kind of a unnatural mommy am I? Not only didn't I cry, but I took a quick picture as he walked over to give me a hug, so I could blog about it later!


I did call him about an hour after we left, though. Just to be sure everything was still OK. And I haven't been texting him... at least, not much. Only once.



After we left the college, we went to our friend's house, and took the boat out. It was Nicky's maiden voyage on the "Broken Drum." (Ya can't beat it.) I'll post those pictures tomorrow... so come back and visit!

The Going Away party

We had a little going away party for Frankie, on the night before we took him to school. I took maybe 100 photos... here are just a couple... then later today, I plan on posting the pictures of College. Check back again tonight or tomorrow, ok?

 

The party started out being just a way to keep Frankie home the night before he left for college. I knew that his friends would want to see him off, so I told him to invite a few of them over -- not every single kid he knew, just a few -- and we would have a campfire.

But since I was having the kids, I figured I'd have the family too. And it grew to 30 ish people... and I wanted to keep it small.

William got here early with Gram and Pop. RJ stopped by early, but had to leave because he had to work on the ambulance squad.

The girls were here...

 

 
Booth was here...

 Puff was here...

 
His roomie came by for a while...

 
There were plenty of other people, too... I didn't get great photos of everyone... but you get the idea.
People were hanging from the rafters!

Everyone was milling around at 10:00 PM

 

Chaos in the Toy Room

 

Kids were EVERYWHERE :D which actually makes me happy.
It makes Nick pretty happy, too.
No one was injured in the making of this photo. Alexander was tossed around a little, but he didn't seem to mind much.