Spring is a Busy Time of Year

My seniors are getting ready to leave Assumption. While their journey comes to an end ours, continues as we still wait for a heart and another jump to the top of the list.

This is my view on my way into work every day. I love springtime the best because all of the trees turn bright green and the flowers all are in bloom. I love this drive in because it reminds me of the first time I rode to Assumption with Dad on our way to pay my first tuition payment. Anyone who knows me knows I have the worst sense of direction on the planet! I am nothing without a GPS. I was not 100% familiar with how to get to Assumption when I was accepted. I had been there and loved the campus and all it's beautiful grounds but I was still unsure of the drive. I remember driving there with Dad that day to drop off my tuition and thinking, WOW this is such a beautiful area, I am going to love driving to school everyday through here. Well 21 years later, I am still making this commute, now as an employee many years after graduating from Assumption and I still never tire of the ride. 

Dad had a pretty good week. He played two masses this past weekend and has lucked out as far as spring allergies. Some people we know can't see very good right now and can't stop sneezing.  

We had a very very busy week. On Wednesday Lilly and Kylie invited us to their school. A petting zoo came to visit. I will try to get the photos off my camera for next week. It was extra special because Adele was there too!!! All four girls were at school together :)

Here's a cute photo of Adele snuggling a baby bunny :) The kids were so excited to see and hold all the animals (Except Kylie...she was done with them after about 20 minutes and then just wanted to jump on and off the only rock in the the school yard....which is flat!)

I spent Friday day prepping and baking for our friend Marie's 50th birthday party on Saturday.  Mom got to go to a much needed girls night out on Friday night. She had a great time, and I was very glad she decided to go. Dad and I stayed in and watched one of the slowest games in Red Sox history. Dad fell asleep first then I fell asleep for a half hour on the couch....BIG mistake....I ended up being awake until 2 a.m.! Naps are no good at night! The Red Sox won thank goodness!

Saturday I was back in the party planning mode. I met our friend Tammy and her Uncle Vin at the church where we cooked the rest of the meal and got everything together we needed. Then we headed up to the Bullpen Bar at SHARC (Shrewsbury, Health and Racquet Club) to get things ready for the party. Marie was surprised and so happy when she came in. She kept saying she didn't realize she knew so many people!

The cake was cute. Our friend Evie, makes really great cakes and even put Marie's baby picture and her picture from a few years ago on the cake! It was a fun Saturday night and Marie was so grateful to everyone for coming to help celebrate her birthday. 

My school year is winding down. I am really going to miss my Graphic design 2 class I am taking. I have had such an amazing semester. Several of my pieces have made it into school art shows and I submitted a few to the Graphic Design Club Award Presentation and they made it into that show too. It's really great to see the pieces you worked so hard on all year up for people to see.

This is the TV2 class that takes place every Monday in my Studio. I have helped each of these kids with their projects over the course of the semester. I have listened to them complain. Listened to their joy and laughter when things were going as planned. The worst part is breaking their hearts when I had to tell them to redo their project because I knew they could do better. The professor who was a good sport, (and is on the bottom of the pyramid, beard and glasses ) Bruce Lundeen, has the worst part of the class, the grading. Three of these kids will be leaving us in a few weeks. One is going to China to teach English, One is going to Disney World to work in the College Program and the last one is still undecided in his future endeavors for now.

Three years ago two students walked into my office looking for work study positions and interested in TV production. Since that day there has literally been blood, sweat and tears in our office but somehow we made it out on the other side better people than before. I never thought I would see the day that two of these kids would be working together again, and not only together but producing a documentary that was nothing short of amazing!

It was a large crowd on Sunday afternoon in the Hagan Campus Center. Friends and Family came out for the Football Documentary on Assumption's football program simply entitled, " The Hounds" after our own Assumption Greyhounds. We had kids who actually wrote the soundtrack for the documentary, some that did filming, audio, editing, running up hills with cameras, shooting practice in the rain, going to camp with the players at 4:30 in the morning during the summer and staying with them 24/7 until it was done. These kids worked so hard! This is what I am proud to say Assumption College Communications program and ACTV can do! They did the job, did it well and are selling the documentary to not only players and families but Alumni as well. I am so VERY PROUD of them!!!

This is a screen shot of one of the practices they filmed.

Tonight was the end of the theater program as we know it. There will be some changes made to the program next year and for some of my students sake I hope it works out favorably. A bunch of my kids were in today's production so I decided to go and support them in their final hour of class. So many of them did a great job. They did all different things from monologs to singing and dancing. The opening number was a giant dance with the whole class, choreographed by a student. They did a good job and I  only hope they can continue.

Tomorrow we start final exam week. Today was our senior send off for out work study students that are graduating. Very sad :( We will miss them and wish them all the best!  

I have my Graphic Design 2 final exam next Monday but I am through with the assignment part so I am  relieved that is done. 

In your prayers this week I would like to ask if you could include my friend Stacey's family. They have had a rough year and just suffered another devastating loss. They need some positive thoughts and prayers coming their way. Luckily they are a strong family who are there for one another. If you could say a prayer for them I would greatly appreciate it and I know they would too.

I hate to be greedy and ask for more prayers and well wishes but we still need them. Luckily Dad is stable for now. His appointment last week was frustrating due to the delays he had. The Boston Marathon nightmare really taxed the area hospitals. They lost track of schedules and time due to the emergencies and severity of the situation. This made Dad 's appointment take forever and they had to skip and reschedule certain parts of his exam which he wasn't happy about. It's like I said to my Mom, any other time he has the right to be upset about being made to wait. This time, knowing what all those people suffered through and some who are still suffering being made to wait is the least of our worries. I would rather wait all day knowing doctors and nurses were being held up in the operating room or ER saving someones life and limbs. Is it inconvenient...sure it is...will we get to open the hospital door with both hands and walk out on both legs...yes, some victims of the attack do not have the same luxury.

Thank You everyone for your continued unwavering support. We are blessed to have such wonderful family and friends and we could never do everything we do without support and help from all of you. Thank You for your prayers, thoughts, well wishes, cards, calls, texts, emails, and visits. We appreciate everything you do for us.

Until Next Week,

Laurie

29 Days Done

Spring has sprung....right?...It may still be winter from the feel of it!

Dad's 29 Days at the top of the list are over and he still has his same heart. We are back down to 1B status until they feel fit to move him back up for another 29 days :(

Friday we were watching the continuing marathon bomber nightmare and fearing for our family members who live in Watertown. Mom and I were thinking..."what if it was one of those guys hearts that Dad got?" how awful would that be :( I guess that is why they do not tell you who the donor is. I can't imagine getting the stone cold heart of a rotten coward like the marathon bomber! Thankfully things turned out ok thanks to the amazing efforts of the Watertown Police department and the FBI as well as all of the first responders who put their lives on the line to keep all of us safe. Thank You guys and gals for all you do!!!

Kerry came over with the girls on Friday while Brendan was still banished to the basement due to illness. We had fun :)

We had to watch "Belle" AKA Beauty and the Beast. Lilly said she hadn't watched it in a long time because they left it in Maine...likely story...I think I may be leaving my copy at the Maine house too :) Kylie the whole time was more concerned with who was off the screen and not on..."where's Belle?...Where's the Beast?...Where's Gaston?... I happened to snap this picture while she was sitting. For the rest of the movie she would bounce around to whom ever would answer her 20 questions.

Dad and Kylie added another chapter to their novel...The never ending saga of whatever. She stole the pen right out of his vest to start writing.

A wonderful donation was made to Dad's benefit, in the form of a custom knitted hat. Michelle Roy donated three gift certificates to Dad's benefit. I was lucky to win one in the raffle. We e-mailed back and forth and Monday my hat arrived! It was just as I hat ordered, cream cable knit with a purple flower. It has been cold enough to wear it too! Thanks Michelle.

On Sunday I helped the Mastro Family out with coffee house and took a few donuts over to the girls. They were so happy with their donuts :) Thanks Tammy, Marie and Uncle Vin you made them smile, even from behind the sippy cup of milk Kylie is smiling.

Dad had a great appointment at Brigham and Women's today. Other than the elevated BP which seems to always be the case...he has no fluid build up and he is finally over the awful stomach bug that knocked him down for the count last week. I am very thankful he recovered before Marathon Monday when if his fever did not break we would have had to go to the Brigham and that would have meant being stuck in Boston and there for the nightmare that will be forever in our minds when we think of the Boston Marathon :(

Our final production at school was on Sunday. The theater club put on a great performance. It will be sad to see some of my seniors go this year. It's hard to believe that in two weeks they will all be gone :( The kids did an awesome rendition of "Master of the House" with the ENTIRE cast. It was incredible and I am glad the seniors will have the good memories to look back on.

We are in crunch mode at school. I made 8 posters for my final presentation which will be on Thursday. I couldn't come up with just one idea so I did 6 and two alternates. I submitted some of them to the Eye on Design symposium that will take place tomorrow night at the school. I am looking forward to seeing everyones work from all the classes presented. 

The last two weeks of classes can either make or break you. I think it is breaking some who thought they could coast along. I had to help a few students in the art lab tonight who were having trouble mastering a few skills in photoshop. It was basic stuff but it seems the professor they had did not explain a few things to them that would have made things 100 times easier. In 5 minutes I was able to show them a shortcut that saved them hours. I am very thankful that I have had awesome professors and teachers who allowed me to refine my skills and make the Adobe editing software invaluable to me

Thank You everyone who continues to check in on Dad and us and are continuing to keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We are so thankful for all of you. Please remember to keep all of the families who are hurting from last Monday's tragedy in your prayers this week too.

Until Next Tuesday,

Laurie

STAY STRONG BOSTON

 Injured Boston Marathon Spectators and Runners need all the prayers they can get. 

Please add them to your list of people to pray for. 

 I am going to work backwards this week and start with the newest goings on first. We have been hit again by a tragedy in New England. The Connecticut school shootings were awful and yesterday the horror continued. It is so very sad to think that on a beautiful day in April our lives would be altered again for the worse. I only hope that in the days to come we have more answers and that there will be an end to the hate that invaded the spirit of Boston.

Our week was full of ups and downs. Dad and Mom were both sick. Mom got herself two antibiotics and Dad got the stomach bug. Mom is still not feeling well and went back to the doctors again today. Dad is feeling a bit better but it was a little scary there. He is still a little on the dehydrated side and still VERY tired. He keeps dropping his head to the side when he sleeps so Mom and I devised a plan:

To use Julie's Boppy pillow to keep his head up. He was cracking up right before I took this picture. The Boppy was unsuccessful

The warm weather needs to come and stay. It's mid April and we still have our pellet stove going 24/7!

The end of the week and the weekend brought the plumber and the cable guy to our house ( In that order). We now have a non Tsunami effect toilet and un pixelated cable on the lower channels only in three of the 4 rooms ( cable guy is coming again tomorrow.) The only room it doesn't work in...Dad's office...the TV that is used the most in the house!!! 

The cable guy was awesome! He spent the better part of two hours fixing our cable issues. Turns out the squirrels ate through out main line coming in from the pole! He replaced all of our splitters, connectors and wires and they only thing left to do is replace the connection to the main line in the basement and fix one more wire in Dad's room. We definitely monopolized SELCO that day. A shout out to Jimmy Henrickson for allowing me to have working cable in my room non pixelated for the first time in over a year!! Woot Woot

We had a few highlights this week as well. On Friday I got to go with My cousin Tracy and Adele to see if the new baby is going to be a boy or a girl. Well Tracy and I were convinced it was a boy but...

Adele was right all along and is VERY excited about having a little sister!!! As is Auntie Laurie :) and so the spoiling continues :)

Wednesday was Duck Day on Assumption's Campus. For those of you who are not familiar with Duck Day. At Assumption College we have our very own duck pond with our very own ducks. Every winter a professor who owns the ducks takes them back to his farm to stay warm in the winter. Every Spring we roll out the red carpet and welcome the ducks back to our duck pond on campus

We love our ducks!

The kids had a great time 

 

Lilly with her banana and Donald Duck quacker that Papa bought her on our first trip to Disney World when she was almost a year old :0)

Kylie let me wear her duck hat...only for the picture :)

Julie was all ready for her 1st Duck Day with her Ducky slippers :) too cute!

My friend Stacey came to Duck Day with her kids for the first time too. They loved it. Lexi also really liked talking and playing with Julie. Travis,Lexi, Lilly and Brendan even had their pictures taken with Pierre, the Assumption Mascot...Contrary to what one may believe I was not wearing the Pierre outfit on Duck Day!

It was a week of ups and downs like I said. I was very thankful that Dad did not have an appointment at the Brigham today. His appointment is next Tuesday. That was a blessing to not have to try and get into Boston today in the aftermath of yesterdays tragedy. 

Thank you to everyone who still continues to support us and check in on us. We are so very lucky to have such wonderful family and friends.

Until next week,

Laurie

Spring...Finally

 So we have snow and flowers in the yard...

The FLOWERS are winning!!! I am very happy to say we have more flowers than snow in the yard. It was a beautiful beginning to the week as the temperatures have been mild.

We had a pretty good week. Dad is continuing to do well and is even playing the 4 p.m. mass on Saturday's regularly with plans of returning to Sundays soon.  We still have no word of a heart yet :( There are still a few weeks that Dad remains at the top so keep the good thoughts and prayers coming.

Dad and I went to Home Depot on Friday. We got some new pavers for the garden, some air fresheners  for the cars and this beauty! This hydrangea has 8 huge blooms! It is so pretty. It's Purple, Pink and Blue an makes a really nice addition to our kitchen. Mom is going to plant it outside later in the season. We are trying to think of the best place to plant it so we can see it from the deck.

Me with the Andy Warhol "32 Campbell's Soup Cans"

This Saturday I was lucky enough to be part of the Assumption Art Department's Spring MoMA Trip. It was my first trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York! It did not disappoint! In addition to the infamous Campbell Soup display there was a famous picture that was visiting MoMA and it happened to be there while we were there!

Edvard Munch's "The Scream" was on display for us to see and photograph. It was amazing to get right up close to the pastel picture and see the actual strokes Munch drew when he made this piece.

We also had the pleasure of seeing "Starry Night" by Vincent Van Gogh. A friend of mine called it the Kim Kardashian of the museum because it is the most photographed work of art in the place! It was still very cool to see and you could see the paint on the canvas!

This piece was something I always wanted to see Monet's Water Lilly's! It was so HUGE! It took up one whole wall of the museum and it was impressive. You could go right up close and look at it. It wasn't behind glass so you could actually see all of the paint texture and brush strokes so clearly. 

Sunday, Kylie and Julie came over to play. Poor Lilly had a cold so she couldn't come over :( Grammy and Kylie set up some cakes for a tea party :)

Julie and I hung out and watched them set up :) Julie is 4 months old tomorrow!!!

Joe and I signed up to run the Disney half Marathon in January next year. I will be 40 and he will be 12 years younger than that! My friends Cherie and Stacey are going to do it with us too. I am very excited! I wish Brendan would run it with us but his response to us was, "yeah, you guys are crazy!" So I am taking that as a...not going to run it with ya!

Side note...dear SELCO ( Our power company ) if you are planning on disconnecting our power to change over power lines could you let us know a little sooner than when 5 trucks pull down the street! Lucky for us Dad has 4 batteries fully charged at all times to run the pump or we would have been in trouble!

That's all the news that's fit to print on the Palumbo homefront. I am please that Dad had another good week and we hope this trend of good health continues! He is in a much better position now than he was even two months ago. He feels well enough to be out and about and that's what makes the surgery and all it's hardships worth it! 

Thanks again for everything you do and continue to do for us, we are so thankful to have such a wonderful support system!

Have a great week everyone. Until next Tuesday

Laurie

Easter is here...we are still waiting.

Happy Easter Sunday... with SNOW???

This is our family photo op from Easter. Every year we take a photo in front of the flowering trees in Auntie Janet and Uncle Jimmy's yard. 

This year we took the photo with trees that had no leaves and snow! Where the heck is this so called Spring?

Dad had a great week. 8 days on the list and no heart. I guess the Easter Bunny Didn't get the memo in time or he would have included a heart in Dad's Easter basket! So we still have three more weeks of waiting. Not giving up hope yet! The good thing is, is that Dad is stable and is feeling pretty good so if this is how we have to wait, I would rather be waiting like this than have him sick in the hospital waiting everyday. 

Kerry took a picture of Julie and I on her first Easter. She was soooo cute. She and Kylie had on matching dresses. Lilly had on a pretty dress that was beautifully handmade. It was given to her by our friends Amy and Adam for Christmas and she has been wearing it ever since. Lilly may be the new fashionista!

Despite the cooler temps we still managed to have the annual Egg Wars. For those of you new to our family egg wars, it goes kind of like this...

...Uncle Jimmy starts with the official theme song and story of Princess Lebonea who is out to save Easter as we know it. It used to be a double elimination challenge but now with 52 contestants we have resorted to single elimination.  You take an ordinary hard boiled egg that must be colored with official Paas Easter egg coloring kits. ( I think Billy Giguere missed this memo...I saw that shalakky lookin egg Bill!! ) Whom ever has their name on the top bracket ( see above chart ) hits the name on the bottom by tapping the eggs end to end. If your egg breaks your out. If it doesn't you move onto round two. This year we had the youngest member of the family to ever win egg wars...Mason. He turned one and won Egg Wars all in the same year!

The kids played duck duck goose for the better part of an hour. Colin would just chase whom ever was picked as goose regardless of if it were him or not :)

Lilly and Kylie shared their bubble bucket with their cousins. Emma had fun blowing bubbles too 

Lilly showed Colin how to use the blue wand to blow bubbles...I guess this one was the best. Colin tried VERY hard to blow the perfect bubble.

The girls stuck to bubble blowing and Dad chased Colin around playing catch with the plastic mits! He slept for a good hour after the game. (Dad...not Colin)

This is our cousin Molly who is Kylie's BFF. They stuck together like glue pretty much all day. Molly will be a fantastic babysitter someday :)

Adele wore her new Easter dress and Colin sported his cute little shirt. What this photo is leaving out is the unfortunate accident Adele's tights had with the driveway causing her to wear pants under the dress and the two permanent grass stains on Colin's pants making his knees black. The most important part...they had FUN!!! This photo of them is priceless :)

This was Julie's first Easter so we wanted to take her photo with her big cousins Julia and Shannon who are the next oldest after Katy ( who we skyped to wish a Happy Easter to also ). I call this photo..."Two Jewels" 

 Shannon was so happy to be holding a baby that didn't cry. I guess Emma was not so happy when Shannon use to try and hold her. Julie was a little confused as to why she was having her photo taken so many times. Shannon is a natural when it comes to having her photo taken. All smiles here :)

Andrew all the while was very busy drawing on the driveway. He even drew a circle around himself. I think he was working on the master plan for the family beach house he is going to build when he become and architect! He is pretty good at the sidewalk chalk rendition of a construction site!

At the end of the day Julie got into her new Easter jammies I got for her for Easter. They are complete with Bunny ear slippers. She is too cute! Thanks to Kerry for sending the cute photo my way :)

All in all we are at a good point. Everyone is healthy and happy and looking ahead to the day the phone rings and we have to continue our journey into Boston.  

Thanks again for everything that you do for us. Your continued support is invaluable and we are truly blessed to have such a wonderful support system who continues to stand by us. We are very fortunate to have such an amazing amount of family and friends that stand by us.

Until next Tuesday,

Laurie