Mom and dad celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary with a surprise visit from all their children. What a great time we shared together with mom and dad. We had a nice evening out with the family and all enjoyed a fabulous dinner.
Hubby and I went to his brother’s house the next couple days. My sister-in-law and I sat and visited both days and even went outside to enjoy the cool of the early afternoon and evening. I’m so frustrated with myself for not getting the boys (our nephews who are 12 and 10 years old) pictures while we were there. The boys were out jumping on their trampoline performing some cool stunts and even nominated my sister-in-law and me to be the official judges. Of course Aunt Deb said “I think you guys are both very good” they both play baseball and are each on two teams this summer. I asked my sis-in-law how in the world she keeps up with these two busy guys who play on a total of 4 teams. She is at practice almost every night and inundated with 4 games on the weekends. Wow!
Our summer is starting to take off quite fast. We are preparing to leave for Sis’s high school graduation next week. She lives up north with her mom and brother. We are all looking forward to a great visit. Hubby’s brother lives in the area so we plan to spend a couple days visiting with Hubby’s brother’s family and their boys. They have a total of 4 boys and they came in pairs like having two different sets of children. The older two are grown and through college and the younger two are approximately 9 and 11 years old. We always have great family times with them and we are all looking forward to our visit.
It’s so hard to believe Hubby’s baby daughter (Sis) is graduating already. She was just 10 when I met her and now she has blossomed into a fine young lady. She is still undecided where she’s going to college so I’ll have to fill you in on that as the time comes.
In other news, my pottery has finally dried and I should be having a bisque firing sometime this week. I will probably wait to glaze the pieces till after our trip and I’m anxious to see what the final outcome will be.
Is it really Wednesday already? I got up this morning thinking it was Tuesday but I just noticed my blog calendar informing me that it’s actually Wednesday. Where oh where have I been? It’s been a busy week in the studio and guess that’s where my head was this morning. I will be heading back to the studio to finish up the pieces I worked on yesterday. I loved adding the knobby feet so much on the pieces I made last week so I’m going to carry on with the same this week. I probably should change it up a bit but for now, that’s what’s clicking for me.
We have a busy weekend coming as Kristy arrives Sunday. She has her finals this week and her summer break officially begins for her on Friday. Her Aunt will be picking her up Friday and Kristy will spend a couple days there visiting and will be home Sunday. Guess I need to get that red velvet cake on my list of things to do. Actually… the last time I wrote about making the red velvet cake… Kristy later called to ask that I please omit the cake for her as she was watching her weight. Boy did I catch trouble from her friends as they all expected to see that cake when they came over. I won’t let them down so I will prepare a cake for all of them.
Kristy called me a couple days ago to catch up with everything at the home front. She wanted to know about my hair and if I’m letting it grow, the answer is (yes), wanted to know about her dad and Lauren’s trip, and an array of questions. My, her voice was so bubbly and sounds like she’s getting ready for her freshmen year to come to a close.
Hubby and Sis are wrapping up their stay in the city. Today they checked out what all the fuss was about on Broadway. There was a War protest going on which consisted of approximately 300,000 people and the demonstrators stretched for about 10 city blocks. Look for them on the news tonight, you just might see them. Traffic came to a halt and many roads were closed. After their stop at the protest they went to visit Chinatown and dined at a placed called Wo Hop. Tonight they are off to see the Broadway show Wicked and then do some last min. shopping before they head back to the hotel. This is their last night in the city and I can’t wait to have Hubby back home.
I’ve missed him a great deal, especially in the evenings. I kept myself occupied with my pottery, working in my studio till around 9:30 each night. I took time off today to have a nice massage and then did some errands. I’m just about finished cleaning the house and have the vacuum to run and I will be all done for the day. I’m taking a break from the studio and will be watching some movies later on. I think I’ll have some popcorn with my movie too; they seem to go together nicely.
After hearing from Hubby, I wonder if he is ever going to get a good nights sleep while staying in the city. He was up till 3:00 AM with the sounds of sirens, horns and much noise from the street below, guess they forgot to sound proof the Hilton. In Hubby’s words “They call this the city that doesn’t sleep. I call it the CITY THAT WON’T SHUT UP!!! This is definitely a jungle, but one of steel and machine.”
Last evening Hubby was able to catch up with an old friend (Brennan) they met in the 4th grade and went thru high school together. They were young buddies who loved getting together to play chess and do whatever else boys love doing. Hubby had not seen Brennan in over 25 years so this was a real treat for the both of them. They all enjoyed a nice dinner together then Brennan took them for a quick tour of the Theatre District which included Times Square.
Brennan plays the violin, might I add the “Stradivarius” for the Brooklyn Philharmonic & the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, he is the Concertmaster (or first violin chair) for Brooklyn Philharmonic and Associate Concertmaster for New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. One day I hope we can attend one of these majestic performances.
Hubby and Sis have been making plans to visit New York University and Columbia University in the next couple weeks. Sis has been accepted to NYU and is on the waiting list for Columbia and will be making her decision soon. She has her appointments set up for both colleges and she is one happy little girl. Aside from visiting the two colleges, she is looking into Broadway tickets and already making a list of things she wants to do on their close to 5 day stay in the “Big Apple”. So, this explains why I have not had any time on my computer today as Sis and Hubby have been upstairs in the office utilizing both computers and making plans.
I’m being summoned from below to wrap things up so we can go out to dinner. I think Olive Garden is where Sis wants to go this evening, so that it is.
Sis (Hubby’s daughter) and I had the greatest time at the mall today. She found this dress first thing but asked them to hold it while she shopped around. After shopping and shopping she kept going back to this one. She looks so nice in this dress and we found the perfect heals to go along with it too.
One really cool thing about Sis and me is that we have a great friendship. She and I can talk about anything together from her friends to her boyfriends to cooking or whatever. She has always been quite frank and open and I hold these moments close to my heart. Today we stopped for a little treat in the mall and enjoyed more conversation while relaxing. At one point she stopped and said “I love you Debbie”. I can’t begin to express just how much that means to me and of course I told her “I loved you too.”
My pottery workshop was a great success. Yesterday Margie worked on the soy pot and the vase as pictured above. She taught us how to mix it up a bit with the vase by adding a lid and arms. I’ve added a couple more pictures to my workshop album so you can see the demo of the vase changed up a bit. I am so anxious to get started on some more of these projects myself and incorporating some of these techniques on the pieces I create.
I took over 100 digital pictures the step by step method and will be getting the pictures ready for my friends in the class.
I’m pretty much unwinding today. I’m getting a little laundry and housework done. Hubby and his son just left for Olive Garden and then the airport. What a great weekend and I’m getting started off this week on the right foot.