The Official Start To Summer!

Memorial Day Weekend and the Official Start of New England Summer...Let the Planting Begin!

When Assumption College was located on West Boylston Street there was a chapel complete with stained glass windows. When President Cesareo took office at Assumption the Alumni, both of Assumption College and Assumption Prep. asked him "when can we get the windows" Well President Cesareo,The Alumni Association and some generous benefactors are making it happen. This is a photo of one of the windows that has been placed in the Testa Science Building. I took the photo at night so you can see how beautifully lit from behind it is. It costs a small fortune to have one of these windows restored so it will be slow going but we already have three paid for! It's nice to bring the old into the new.

Dad had an ok week. He is still pretty tired and has some aches and pains due to muscle loss. He needs to get into some kind of fitness and strengthening routine. It's a catch 22. He is so tired he can't exercise and he does not have any energy because he doesn't exercise. He needs to ask about going to Cardiac Rehab so he can gain some strength back. He is getting too skinny. I must remind him to eat more chocolate!

As I said, Memorial Day and the Official Start to New England Summer also means a weekend at Auntie Peggy's Cape house with the Giguere clan :) This weekend we managed to fit 13 people in the house :0)  Sometimes it is upward of 25 or more. One year we have a photo with 39 people!!!! We are a happening bunch.

Katy, Steve and I biked to Woods Hole on Saturday and met up with the rest of the group who drove down for lunch and a visit to the Woods Hole Aquarium. It was misting but not pouring rain so it wasn't a bad ride. Stephen treated us to lunch at a little place called the "Fish Monger" it was very good! They had lots of stuff Katy and I could eat too :)

We then went to the infamous "Woods Hole Sweatshirt Shop" Now I don't think any one of us know what the real name of the store is but the family all knows what we are talking about when we mention "the shop" I am pretty sure we managed to outfit the entire family in Cape Cod gear!

Here are a few smiling examples :)

Molly managed to buy a "moustache necklace" for the amazing price of $2.99. She loved it! She wore her new sweatshirt and moustache all weekend. Katy Gave her a shoulder ride, which soon turned into a piggy back then into walking. As you can see they make a tall pair which is not conducive to walking through shops :)

One of the kids favorite games to play is "hide and go seek" The "seeker" as Emma calls it, counts in one house while everyone else hides in the other house. Molly picked out a cute spot. 

On Monday we went to the Towner's for a family bar-b-que. With delicious food and loads of entertainment watching Adam and his friends build a chicken coop for his and Amy's new chickens. They are outgrowing their inside home so time to move out!

This is Maurice. Lilly named him after Belle's father in Beauty and the Beast. He has a great hair-do. He is so soft too :)

Lilly managed to get a few pats in before he had to go back home with his siblings.

Lilly, Kylie, Papa, Bill, Auntie Laurie and Daddy also played a great game of Bocce. Bill definitely won! He is a great Bocce player but he told Lilly that she won and that she was the best player :) Lilly was quite happy about that. I wanted to snap a photo of them playing, but it's hard to hold three Bocce balls, help one of the girls throw and take a photo!

Adam and I packed up Dad's car at the church so he and Mom could head down to the Presbyteral Retreat for the Priests in Hyannis. Between all the medical and sound equipment they could open up their own hospital band stand!

I have been using the skills I learned from all of our additions and re-models to help Brendan and Kerry with their new house. It's an older home so it needs some updates but it will look AWESOME when it is all finished. A lot of Blood (from a few slivers) Sweat (from wearing Tyvek suits) and Tears (when Julie is hungry) are going into this house and it will be so nice when it all comes together and is finished.

Thanks again for keeping up with us and checking in on Dad. It's nice to know that We have such wonderful family and friends who are with us every step of the way :)

Until Next Week,

Laurie

Spring is Hopping

We have been hopping around like bunny rabbits since the start of May!

Dad had an OK week this week. Not great just ok. He still has some of the nerve discomfort in his neck and it seems that he was not following the diuretic instructions right. He had an appointment today, he has lost too much weight we need to pack on some muscle pounds. He will hopefully, now that the meds are straight, not be as tired and will be able to stay awake to walk or maybe even go to the gym.

It looks like we are in this for the long hall. Unless something happens Dad's wait for a new heart will be a long one. He is lucky that he is healthy enough to remain on the LVAD. So they said live your life and go about your business.

Lilly and Kylie had a sleepover on Friday Night! We watched "Annie" and Lilly and I made Fudge for Kylie's birthday and Julie's Christening on Sunday.

We also went to a fundraiser at the Shrewsbury Highway Dept. 

Lilly and Kylie got to go on Dad's Firetruck

 

 Julie, Brendan, Kylie, Lilly and Annie pose for a quick photo on the truck!

The fundraiser was held to raise money to help build a playground at Parker Road Pre-School. The little boy who the playground is being dedicated to passed away and it was his dream to be a firefighter. One of the playpieces that will be in the new playground will be a play firetruck. Many of the town's Firefighter's, Paramedics, Police Officers and Highway Department employees came out and volunteered their time for the event.

Later that day I was able to go to a birthday party for my friends 4 year old twins! They were so cute

Lexi and Travis turned four and had a great party. My friend Stacey made an amazing Castle cake for Lexi and Spiderman cake for Travis. They were so cute no one wanted to cut them :) They got a lot of really nice gifts that I know they will have lots of fun playing with.


As I said it was a busy weekend:

This is Archbishop Michael Banach. He use to be "Fr. Banach" to our CYC group some 20 years ago. He was nice enough to say Mass at St. Anne's this week while he was visiting the area from Rome. Fr. Paul and I took a quick picture with him before running next door to the church for Julie's Christening. Luckily Fr. Paul was saying the mass! If he was late I was too :)

 

The Christening Dress that Julie is wearing is the same dress I wore on my Christening Day! Lilly, and Kylie wore it too. So all 4 Palumbo girls have worn this dress that was made by my Paternal Grandmother. We were very lucky to have two grandmothers who sewed so well!

 

This is Julie's "Christening Team" for lack of a better explanation. It's her Godmother/Aunt Krissy, Godfather/Cousin Nick, Mom, Kerry holding Julie with a beam of light on her head (That just signifies that she is gifted) and her Dad, Brendan. 

After the Ceremony we headed back to the house for a birthday party and christening celebration. Julie was as good as can be all day even with all the commotion she was great :) Kylie got to open all of her gifts and was pretty excited. She especially loved a little shopping cart/car that she could put her "babies" in and push them around the house.

 

Because the girls were not interested at all in the Bruins Stanley Cup Playoffs, Papa read them the three little pigs book. This was after I had read the day before the "real story" of the three little pigs 5 times. Lauren's Mom knew that they loved the three little pigs story so she bought them a book which is told from the wolf's perspective. They LOVED it! They made Sue (Lauren's Mom) Thank You notes complete with hand tracings :)

Oh an after the Bruins game...We WATCHED the three little pigs on TV. They are kind of obsessed with the story :)

Thanks to everyone who is still checking up on Dad and visiting, calling, texting or sending cards. Some days are worse than others and it's your unending support that helps all of us get through. 

Until Next Week,

Laurie

Dedications, Graduations and Celebrations

We had another BUSY week

 When we started off this week Dad was not feeling so good :( We learned he was dehydrated and his blood levels aren't where they should be so he had to rehydrate, lower the diuretics which were causing the dehydration and eat some more salads which thins your blood.

He is feeling a little better now thank goodness!

 

We were able to attend the dedication of the new Box 4 Rehab truck for the Fire, EMS and Police Departments. Dunkin Donuts graciously donated much of the funding for the truck as well as private donors who donated the rest of the funding. As always the Leary Firefighter's Foundation came to our aid again and helped fund the project.

Brendan and Joey Miloz worked with Jose Ramos and a few of the other WFD guys to make another response truck that will be dispatched in the event of an incident, disaster or fire. 

 

Brendan couldn't make the dedication because he had to work so he made sure to photocopy his face and duct tape it to the passenger seat of the truck Joe drove down. Steve gave us a Box 4 uniform shirt for Brendan so Joe and I put it on his seat and took a photo to send him. He was there in spirit :)

 

The trucks are really both beautiful inside and out. We are very lucky to have such awesome pieces of apparatus as part of our fleet. 

 Sweet Bakery on Shrewsbury Street made this awesome cake that looked just like the big truck! They also made a whole bunch of cupcakes with dunkin donuts colored decorations on top. The cake was so cool no one wanted to cut into it so mostly people ate the cupcakes :)

This week also marked Assumption graduation

This is a pretty dark image but at the podium is standing our commencement speaker Richard DeLauriers. He was the FBI agent responsible for the James "Whitey Bulger" Capture, The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum leads and most recently the capture of the two Boston Marathon bombers. When he was introduced and when her received his honorary degree he received a standing ovation that lasted a full three minutes. People could not stop clapping for him. It was wonderful to have an Alum as important to American history as he is to Assumptions history! There were tears of joy shed by many on this day.

I will miss my senior students. It is always bittersweet to see them graduate, knowing full well they will not be returning to Assumption in the fall. I wish them all the luck in the world!

 

This Saturday at UCONN my cousin Gabby graduated with her doctorate in Pharmacy which means she is a doctor of Pharmacy and the only doctor in the family :) I AM SO PROUD OF HER!!!! She worked so incredibly hard these last 6 years! I couldn't be a happier cousin :) We are all very proud of her!

 

Sunday we celebrated Mother's day at Auntie Janet and Uncle Jimmy's. Lilly decided that she wanted to dress up like Little Orphan Annie. She got the outfit down complete with the heart locket! She was so cute :) Kylie had on a cute little shirt that said make everyday happy. Those kids certainly make everyday of our lives happy. We are so luck to have them :)

 

Julie and Dad got in some quality rocking time. Julie was a little bit fussy but she had plenty of people to entertain her.

My cousins from Alaska were visiting again for mother's Day and to finish cleaning out my Aunt's house since her move. It was so great to spend the day with them too. Most exciting was that my cousin Katy is home from traveling the world and learning about other cultures. I am really looking forward to spending some quality time with her at our annual Memorial Day weekend at the Cape. 

We hope to spend some more time with our cousins from Alaska this week. They are all heading back to Alaska on Saturday and we won't get to see them until the fall :( It's great having them here. We have so many family members in Alaska it's too bad it's so far away. I wish we could just beam back and forth and visit more often. This summer my Auntie Phyllis Ann and my cousin/Godson Jacob are coming to visit! Jacob will be attending a program through the Boston hospitals for students interested in pre-med. Who knows we may have two doctors in the family soon :)

 I am exhausted due to allergy season. I had to take a silly children's chewable benedryl to stop my eyes from watering, my throat from itching and my sneezing from blowing my lungs apart! It's really not fun. So I am pretty sleepy and hope I can at least come out of the fog in the morning in time for kickboxing or I may be the one who is boxed :(

That's all the news that's fit to print. Stay tuned for next week. Dad has an appointment on Tuesday so I will report the findings in the next blog post.

Happy Lilac season everyone, and may the sneezing cease soon!

Laurie

 

 

 

Month of May

 I love the spring!

 

This is what the Assumption Campus looks like in the Spring! This is only one area! We have the most beautiful campus. Our B&G dept. does an amazing job landscaping and keeping Assumption beautiful. It's nice that graduation is when all the trees and flowers are in full bloom on campus.

We are getting ready to say goodbye to our seniors on Saturday. I will miss their smiling faces and the variety they have brought to our office each and every day for the past four years. 

 

 As the students are moving out and cleaning out their dorm rooms they leave behind the most amazing things. Like this little gem of a robot/award. I mean how can you just leave this behind...it's quite the work of art! Very creative those college kids :)

Dad has been having a bit of a rough week. He has a pinched nerve or something in his neck that is causing him a lot of discomfort and not allowing him to sleep very well. I am hoping it goes away on its own and very soon. A crick in the neck is never fun and he has enough going on without having something silly like this making him uncomfortable!

We had a very busy weekend. Mom and Dad went to a memorial service on Saturday for one of Dad's cousins that passed away. While they attended, I watched Lilly and Kylie with Joe and Lauren who came home for the weekend.  We played games, ate some lunch, and took a rest so Kerry could get the house ready for another showing. Lilly had me put on "Rapunzel" so she could watch it because "I haven't seen that movie in a very long time" ... I guess last week was a lifetime ago to a three year old :)

 

Lauren's Mom and Dad came up this weekend to to meet my Mom and Dad and go to the wedding weekend at Crompton Collective. We love Crompton Collective. Check out their web site and make sure to visit the store it is SO amazing there. The whole place is decorated so cute! 

It was like we have known Lauren's Mom and Dad forever. They are SO nice and very down to earth people. Lauren's Dad and my Dad sound like they grew up in the same neighborhood just in different states! Joe is very lucky to be marrying into such a nice family. We hope they come back up to visit again soon. It was fun having them here.

Kylie and Lilly Do not like when my Dad takes off his glasses to read

Dad is trying to read them the three little pigs while Kylie is trying to put his glasses back on. Then she is pouty because Lilly wanted to see the pictures too. We have decided this version of the three little pigs circa 1970 is not a good one. He eats the pigs! It's a good thing the kids can't read yet!

 Julie and I worked on our self portraits. Joe sneaked in the first one, so we took one of all three of us in the next one :) Julie looks scared in both :(

 

On Sunday Mom made an awesome breakfast and Lauren's Mom picked up special heart shaped donuts for the girls. Lilly ate hers like a lady. Kylie ate hers like a toddler :) She wore her pink frosting proudly!

 

 Lilly loves Disney's movie "Tangled" which she calls Rapunzel. She loves Pascal the Chameleon in the movie. Joe and Lauren brought her back this Rapunzel shirt from Disney World. It's in one of her favorite colors...purple. She wouldn't put it on for them when she got it but now I don't think she will want to take it off. I sent them the photo so they could see how much she likes it. She completed the outfit with a tutu. Julie was also sporting a tutu today. 

I went shopping on Friday with Crystal. When we shop I feel like we are back in our college days again...only now we have money to actually shop with :)

 this sign was in a store we visited. I just loved it. Especially the snapshot of the two girls sitting on the steps. It reminded me of taking our picture on the steps at the beach house.

Well that's all the news that's fit to print. As my school year is coming to a close our journey to a new heart still continues. I can't believe we have been waiting for as long as we have and still...no new heart :( Please continue to keep Dad in your thoughts and prayers. He deserves to get a new heart soon. With all that is going on in the world it's hard to focus sometimes. I am grateful that at least Dad is stable and home with us but if he could get rid of the crick in the neck and get back some energy that would be great too. 

Thanks for all of your prayers and continued support. The well wishes go a long long way. We are very lucky to have such wonderful family and friends :)

Until Next Week,

Laurie