Thoughts on the upcoming holidays

I've been feeling good lately although I know some stressful times are coming. Thanksgiving is a stressful time for me as it's always at my house. I am so glad that Kerry is coming home for the holiday this year. Last year Pat and I packed up Rigby and went up to Gainesville to spend Thanksgiving up there with Kerry up at UF. We cooked Thanksgiving dinner for the 4 of us (Rigby included) and then went to the UF/FSU game. We had such a great time and it was good to get away from the stress of having Thanksgiving dinner at my house.

Kerry will be arriving on her birthday Wednesday in the morning and then Frank will be coming in later on in the day. They are planning to spend the holiday split between us and Frank's parents who live about an hour away. I don't mind sharing. I'm just happy to have them here. Jon and Cousin Stevie will be coming over for dinner and to meet Frank. It'll be Turkey for the carnivores, Tofurkey for the vegetarians and birthday cake for everyone. :)

Frank and Kerry

Kerry is going to spend Friday with me. We will be going shopping!!!!! Yay!!!!! It's been way too long since we have combed the malls for bargains. I'm sure we will be getting a very early start. There is nothing better in the whole world then Black Friday with the kid. :)

On Saturday we will be going to an engagement party in the morning and then I'm sure she will want to spend time with Frank before he goes back to Gainesville on Sunday. Kerry is flying out on Monday but she will be back in a few weeks to spend some more time with us during her winter break from Notre Dame.

The Grotto at Notre Dame

The three of us at Notre Dame Football Stadium

The golden dome at Notre Dame

I miss her. I can't help it. I just miss her and I'm so looking forward to spending some time with her.

It's been too long.

I was just fixing up Juliana's blog to reflect the teacher training that will be starting on March 19 and it made me realize that I have been neglectful of my own blog. It's amazing how quickly time passes. Here it is February 19 already. It really seems as if time is going faster as I get older. I remember my mom telling me "you turn around once and you are 65" and I see it's true. Well, almost true. I'm 58 not 65. :)

OK, let's see, what's been going on with me? Kerry came home to spend my birthday with me last month and it was the best present that I ever could have gotten. I am so in love with that child and I feel lucky every day to have her in my life. She has grown up into a wonderful, caring young woman and I couldn't be prouder of her.

Today she starts the interview process with the Masters program acceptance committee at UF. Her advisor, Charlie, has already made it very clear that she will be accepted into the program but she has to go through the process anyway. I think it will be pretty stress free for her. I would be thrilled if she decides to stay at UF.

Next week she goes to Notre Dame for her PhD interviews there. They want to meet her so badly that they paid for her airfare, hotel and food for the interview weekend. I know she is very excited about the prospect of starting her PhD at such a well known school but it's in South Bend, Indiana which is far away and VERY cold. I'm sure she will go there and knock their socks off. I'm still hoping for UF. I'm Mom. What can I say?

I start my yoga teacher training on March 19th and I am extremely excited about it. I finally will be learning to teach yoga from my guru, Juliana. Anyone who knows me knows about Juliana. She has changed me in a profound way. It's going to be about 4 months of learning about yoga philosphy, anatomy, asanas and teaching classes. I'm also thrilled that my very good yoga bud Ruth is doing it with me. I love Ruthie and it'll be nice to have her with me to study and practice with. I've started reading the required books and I am ready to go. I feel as if a new path is opening in my life and it's a very good thing.

I am also very excited about some upcoming things that I'm not ready to put in writing yet but I know about them and so do the people involved. I can't wait until March 24th.

Last month I decided to cut my hair really short. Now I know that this may not be a big deal to a lot of people but it was HUGE for me. I was upset about it until Pat came home the day I cut it and told me that he loved it. After that people started telling me that I looked 15 years younger and asked me if I lost weight. That was when I realized that I finally had the right haircut. LOL I will post some picture once Kerry brings my camera back from Gainesville.

As you can probably get from this blog entry, I am very happy and excited about life. I've got the most wonderful family and friends in the whole world. I am brimming over with joy. How lucky can one girl from Long Beach be? :)

Thanks For The Memories Timmy!!!

Hi Everybody,

I'm in Gainesville waiting for the pre-game hoopla to start. Kerry is on campus finishing up some lab work and when she is finished she will come home, pick us up and off to the game we will go. I can't wait. The atmosphere here is loony. It's like being at a Paul McCartney concert only more so. There should be 100,000 people at the game and we will be sitting with the students in the 10th row of the end zone. We have bought our Gators tatoos to put on our faces before the game so we should fit right in with the drunken students. LOL

Yesterday Kerry and I got up at 5:30am, put on 4 layers of clothes and waited in 36 degree weather for 3 hours to get the correct tickets for the game. They only had 500 upgraded tickets available and I think if we had been 15 minutes later we would not have made it. Kerry has a student ID but Pat and I had to have a certain sticker on our tickets or we couldn't go. It's just another way to make money but totally worth it. We froze our butts off but it was another wonderful time that we will never forget.

Pat has some kind of foot injury. His ankle is all swollen up and black and blue but he doesn't remember thing that might have happened to cause this. It started at home a day or two before we left and has just gotten worse and worse. I hope he makes it through todays festivities alright.

Rigby did really well in the car but all the activity of Kerry's apartment complex is driving him crazy. Every time a car door slams or he hears people talking he starts barking. He is a Lhasa Apso and that's what his breed is all about. He's an alarm dog which normally is a good thing but not so good at 3:00 in the morning. LOL.

Well, that's it from crazy Gainesville. We will all be at the game early to say goodbye to Tim Tebow. It is his last game at The Swamp and I'm sure there will be lots of crying and upset but excitement too. We will be going home tomorrow and back to work for me on Monday.

Goodbye Timmy. Thanks for 4 fantastic years of exciting, winning football. We will miss you. GO GATORS!!!!!

Go Gators Again

Tonight is college football's national championship game between the Florida Gators and the Oklahoma Sooners. The hype around here has been huge. South Florida is a hotbed of rabid Gator fans. Either we went to UF or our kids do. To top it all off the game itself is being played in what used to be called Joe Robbie Stadium and is now Dolphin Stadium in Miami. Everyone is going wild. The newspapers are filled with stats and stories about the coaches and players as is the TV coverage but when it comes down to it it's all about one thing. One player. Tim Tebow.

Timmy Tebow is the kind of kid you would want for your son. He is a nice, sweet and down home kind of kid. He is also fiercely competitive and that's what this game is all about. When UF lost to Ole Miss (which never in a million years should have happened) Tim got on TV and promised that "no player in the entire country will play as hard as I will play the rest of the season. And you'll never see someone push the rest of the team as much as I will push everybody the rest of this season. And you'll never see a team play harder than we will the rest of this season. God Bless." He said all this with a tear in his eye and we all felt for him. We knew that he was telling the truth as he knew it. So far he has lived up to this statement.

Kerry tells me that she has seen Timmy around the campus. She says that he is absolutely huge. She also says that he is a nice and sweet guy who is not in any way full of himself as one might expect of a famous football player. He is friendly and open to everyone. She says it's obvious that he wants to win this game. He doesn't care about another Heisman Trophy. He only cares about winning this game and having the Gators become the national champs. We all wish him luck.

I have to work tonight and I will be wearing a University of Florida shirt to Curves. I will be sure to dress Rigby in his orange and blue bandanas for luck. At kickoff time I will be in front of my big screen HDTV hoping for the best for Timmy and the rest of the Gator players. So GO GATORS AND GO TIM TEBOW. We are all rooting for you.

The Last Hurrah

OK. Here we go again. Today is the last day that I get to spend with the kid before she goes skippingly back to UF. This time she is thrilled to be going back because her boyfriend Zac will be there waiting for her. I, on the other hand, will be standing in the driveway crying when she leaves. It's always hard for me when she goes back after a long visit like this winter break has been. She's my bud. My other half. I miss the crap out of her when she is gone.

Kerry sitting on the gator on the UF campus

Today I will wake her up and we will go back to the Town Center Mall in Boca Raton. We will shop the sale racks at Bloomindale's, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Apple, Coach, Henri Bendel, Dana Buchman and Sephora among other stores. I'm actually hoping that these stores are totally shopped out because Kerry doesn't need any more clothes but I just can't say no once we are in the dressing room. It's kind of like I am with food. I just can't say no to either one. Kerry or Food. Hmmm.....

We will walk for hours and when we get hungry we will go to Salad Creations and get what we refer to as "a big salad". I usually get a "chopped veggie" salad with no croûtons and just a little cheese. My dressing of choice will be, gasp, full fat ranch dressing. Yep, full fat. A friend of mine taught me that a little full fat is better than lots of crappy tasting fat free. I plan on keeping The F*ing Agreement in mind while in the mall. No Ben and Jerry's. No gourmet pastries.

We will shop and shop and talk and laugh. Later on in the afternoon we will stop off at the Nordstrom's coffee shop where I will have a small regular coffee with skim milk and Splenda and Kerry will have an iced latte with lots of raw sugar. We will sit there, drink coffee and people watch. We will laugh at some of the rich ladies with their little dogs in strollers and their cosmetic surgery. I'll complain about money and Kerry will tell me how I shouldn't worry because someday she will be a doctor. I'll tell her that I don't want to spend her money and only want to spend my own. We will laugh about that.

Kerry and I having coffee at Nordstrom

We will shop until Pat calls and tells us that he is finished playing golf and is ready to go to Tijuana Flats for dinner. With the F*ing Agreement in mind I will order a small Black Bean Powerlight Burrito which comes in at about 280 calories. Not too bad. The trouble comes with the chips and guacamole on the side. I can give most of the chips to the kid but will I? I'll report in on our new blog called F*ing Agreement or here if I'm not able to get into the blog to post. (Laura and I have been having some technical difficulties).

We will all come home, pile into bed and watch football until Pat and I fall asleep and Kerry goes into her room to call Zac.

Kerry and Zac

It will be a totally glorious time for me spent with my incredible, beautiful, smart, gorgeous daughter who I love so much.

Then I will wake up and it will be tomorrow and Kerry will be leaving. OK, now I absolutely not lose control when she leaves. Remember the agreement...

Meet The Parents

Kerry's new boyfriend came in from Ft Myers the other day. She had come to me and asked if it was OK if he came for a couple of days so that we could meet him. I was totally up for that as she seems head over heels over this new guy.

Kerry started talking about this grad student named Zac around her birthday. She said "Mom, I met this amazing guy named Zac and we have SO much in common". I, of course, wanted to know what all this "in common" was. Well, it turns out that his mom is Jewish, his dad is Irish, he is a vegetarian, is an animal activist and an environmentalist. To top the whole thing off he loves dogs and even has one up at UF. I said "it sounds like you are looking in the freaking mirror". She got a dreamy look on her face and said "yeah".

Kerry had sent me some pictures of them together partying up in Gainesville so I had somewhat of an idea of how he looked. When he walked in the door I was blown away. The pictures didn't do this kid justice. What a good looking guy. He looks like the Irish side of his family with red hair, blue eyes and fair skin with lots of freckles.

Kerry and Zac

It turns out that he is 25 years old and a PHD student studying cognitive psychology. Not a dummy! He seems sweet, kind and totally into my daughter. He also passed the Rigby test which is all important. The dog loved him.

We all went to El Mariachi for dinner which is a nice Mexican restaurant and had a great time. We had Margaritas which loosened things up a bit. We ate way too much and laughed and laughed. Even Pat was very impressed by this, I was going to say boy but I guess he's a man. It was a just a wonderful time. I think he liked us too.

The happy couple

Now it's Kerry's turn to meet the parents. She is leaving this afternoon to spend a few days in Ft Myers with Zac and his family. I am not worried about this one bit. Kerry does parents very well. They always love her. I'm happy to say that Kerry has inherited my people skills and she puts them to good use. I expect a very upbeat report when she gets back.

I am thrilled to death by this latest development in my daughter's life. She seems so happy and I love the fact that Zac is up at UF with her. He takes care of her and she is the kind of person that sometimes needs that. (I'm thinking that is my fault for hovering over her her whole life.)

This time you won't hear a peep out of me. This is a good thing. Let's hope it lasts.

GO GATORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When Kerry got accepted to the University of Florida we had no choice but to become Gators parents. Anytime I wear a UF shirt someone that I don't know in a mall or at a gas station passes me by and says "go gators". It's what you do when you are a gator or a gator parent. One time I was walking through the Luxor casino in Las Vegas wearing my screaming orange Gator shirt and someone from the top of the pyramid yelled "go gators" at me. I, of course, yelled back. Like I said, it's what you do when you are part of the gator nation.

Saturday night was the SEC championship football game to decide who was going to go to the national championship game. It was between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Florida Gators. It was a HUGE game especially around here in South Florida. One reason for this is that so many of our local kids are up at UF. It's the premier college in Florida and if you can get in you go. The kids all work their asses off all during high school trying to get into UF. If they have great grades, great SATs, great extra circulars, great essays, great letters of recommendations and happen to play a mean clarinet they get in. If not, if's FSU or UCF for them. All Kerry wanted was to go to UF and I am proud to say that she made it, not an easy task these days.

Kerry playing at her junior recital.

The other reason that this was such a huge game was we wanted, we needed, we had to kick Nick Saban's butt. Nick Saban is the coach for Alabama and a few years ago the Miami Dolphins lured him away from college football and hired him as our coach. He sucked as many college coaches do when they come to the NFL. That in itself wasn't so bad but as the media was giving him a hard time for being a sucky coach a rumor started that he was going to leave the Dolphins and go back to college. Even that wasn't so bad. We would have understood that but the corker was when the newspapers and TV people asked him outright "Hey Nick, are you leaving the Dolphins and going back to college?" he said "No, I'm here and you can count on me." Well, needless to say, the next day he was gone. He not only proved himself to be a crappy coach but he was also a liar. This was the real reason that we all wanted the Gators to beat the Crimson Tide. To kick their asses all over the field. To humiliate them.

The game started at 4:00 and I was ready. I was wearing my UF shirt in front of my big screen HDTV with Rigby dressed in two bandanas. One blue and one orange. He is, after all, a Gator dog. I don't remember being this excited about a sporting event since Jimmy Connors played his last US Open or maybe Tiger Woods playing his last US Open. No, this was more important. We HAD to win.

Gator Rigby

It was a very exciting game. Tim Tebow, our superman quarterback, played his ass off as all of our Gator kids did. The lead changed 4 or 5 times. I sat on the bed yelling and screaming and finally the game was over and the Gators poured a huge vat of Gatorade and ice over Coach Urban Meyer's head. We had won. It was not the ass kicking that we all had hoped for but just winning was good enough. Nick Saban had been sent packing with his head down low and us Gators? We are going to the national championship game in Miami of all places. We will be playing the Oklahoma Sooners on January 8.

By the way, the Dolphins won yesterday without Nick Saban and are now leading the division so yeah, GO Dolphins and GO GATORS!!!!!!!

When you're 96 I'll still be your mother.

I am upset. I am really upset. I know it's stupid but there is nothing I can do about it. She's almost 22 for god's sake. Let go already! I can't. I just can't.

I remember my mom saying "when you're 96 I'll still be your mother". She used to say it to me all the time. I can hear her in my mind. I find myself thinking about that statement constantly now. 'When you're 96 I'll still be your mother". Now I know what she was talking about. I never really fully understood what she meant when she said that until right now, this minute.

My mom was much better at letting go than I am. By the time I was 21 (Kerry's age now) she couldn't wait to get rid of me. LOL While this statement is only partially true there was an element of that in our relationship at that time. I am feeling none of that now that I'm the mom instead of the kid. Our extremely close relationship is one of the highlights of my life and I really wish Kerry didn't have to go back to college. I will miss her so much.

Traveling together

I know that I will feel better about this in a few weeks. It always takes me about that long to settle into my life (or lack thereof) when Kerry leaves. I expect this time to be especially hard due to the fact that she was home for so long. Four months is a long time and I've gotten used to having her around. I also know that I will calm down once the phone rings which usually doesn't take long. She usually calls me 3 times a day and I am more than OK with that. It makes me happy. It allows me to sleep at night.

Happiness is.....

And now, there is this stupid tropical storm ruining my life. Tropical Storm Fay has been hanging over the state for days and days. Kerry has put off going back because of the inclement weather. School starts on Monday and she has to get up there but this damn storm won't go away and I'm freaking out over it. It's a 5 hour drive in rain and wind. Yeah, I'm real comfortable with that she said sarcastically.

OK, I really do need to get a grip on myself. Maybe I'll practice yoga once Kerry leaves. I need to get grounded. I have to work today and that will help to get my mind off all this for a while too. I'll be OK once I hear that she has made it safely. After all, when she's 96 I'll still be her mother.

Kerry proving that she is not 96 yet!

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! 9:24am, Coral Springs, Fl-Kerry has decided to stay here today and leave tomorrow. Mom is very much relieved. !!!

The Kid Is Coming Home

Kerry is coming home from UF tomorrow and I am psyched. She will be here for a whole month before she goes off to do her internship with the Oncology Dept at the University of Cincinnati Medical School. It has been months since she has been home and I am more than looking forward to it. I miss my other half when she is away which these days is most of the time. She has already told me that we will be shopping. LOL

Kerry and I bonding....in Las Vegas

We will also be spending a lot of time studying for the MCAT. This is an 8 hour class that Kerry will be taking on May 31. MCAT stands for Medical College Admission Test and is the test that must be taken and aced in order to get into medical school which is Kerry's dream. If you do really well you will have your choice of which medical schools you want to go to. If you don't do well you don't get into any medical school. It seems like everything is going to hinge on this test. Enough pressure here?

She has already taken a Kaplan course that taught her how to study for this monumental test however Kerry and I have our own way of studying. At least we did when she was in high school. It was always my job to find something to help her remember different facts. Usually it was something that I found funny about the way the word sounded or something in the definition that struck my funny bone. We always did a lot of laughing during these study sessions and she usually did well on her tests. We will be using the same study plan. Laughing goes a long way. It helps reduce some of the stress and it also gives her a way of remembering things.

I am looking forward to helping her study. I am also looking forward to our marathon shopping sessions which also helps reduce stress....well, it helps reduce stress for Kerry. It definitely stresses my pocketbook but then again it's always worth the money that I spend on her. It's the way we bond and you can't put a price on bonding with your only daughter.

The happy couple at the Grand Canyon

Kerry's Junior Recital

I have been back from Kerry's recital for almost two weeks and this is the first time I've gotten a chance to write about it and post some of the pictures.

It was a fantastic weekend and we were thrilled to see our girl. She looked great but was definitely nervous when we got there on Thursday night. It turned out that her clarinet choir had a concert that night. It was nice to sit in a big concert hall and listen to the kid play her clarinet with all the other underclassmen and graduate students. There were 32 of them and they really played well.

The UF Music Building

The UF Institue of Food LOL

During the concert Kerry's professor, Mitchell Estrin, came out and performed Motzart's clarinet concerto. Professor Estrin has played with the NY Philharmonic for many years and still plays with them today. He has many performances on DVD and CD and I guess he is like a rock star in the clarinet world. Pat and I recognized the music because Kerry had played it in ninth grade and we joked about how much better ninth grade Kerry was than Professor Estrin. LOL It was a real unexpected treat to hear him play.

Kerry and her very proud dad

Kerry's recital was the next day and although she had been pretty nervous earlier in the day when the time actually came she was suprisingly calm. She wore a long black dress that was very silvery so it sparkled every time she moved. She also wore her black high heels that we bought just for this event.

Kerry's favorite shoes

Kerry dressed and ready to go

She had a pretty full house and she was very happy with the turnout. She walked out on stage and played for a full hour(no pictures allowed). She was absolutely fantastic and got a standing ovation. Everyone came over to her to congratulate her and she also got quite a few flowers at the end of the performance. Professor Estrin came over and told her how proud he was of her. She was very happy with her performance which is highly unusual. It turned out that she didn't have to do this recital. She chose to do it. Professor Estrin said that it was going to answer some life questions for her. I think he was right.

We also got the pleasure of spending time with Kerry's boyfriend. His name is Sean and he is studying at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. He is a very talented French Horn player. We hope to see him perform one day as the first chair in the New York Philharmonic or maybe the London Symphony Orchestra which would work for me. LOL He is a very sweet guy and they seemed very happy.

Kerry and Sean

Pat and I were very proud of our only daughter. I still am amazed at how well she did, how beautiful she looked and how far she has come in just a few years. She never fails to amaze me with her determination, talent and drive. There is no doubt in my mind that she can do anything that she sets her mind to. Isn't that right, Dr Peewee? We love our girl.

Up to Gainesville to see the kid

I am here in Gainesville waiting to see Kerry. Her junior clarinet recital is tomorrow evening at the University of Florida and we are here to see her performance. She is very nervous but that is to be expected. She will be performing 4 pieces that will take one hour to perform. Three of the pieces will be played with a piano accompanist. One of the pieces will be played alone. Just Kerry!! I am very excited. It has been a few years since I have seen one of Kerry's concerts. Before she went to Gainesville I went to ALL of them so it will be great to see how much she has improved. I haven't even laid eyes on her in over a month so when I finally see her I will be a very happy mom.

I will take some pictures and I will post them here.

Stay tuned......