the start of a new christmas tradition

6 days until DQ closes!!! 23 days until disney!!!! 9 monthes and 5 days until the wedding!!!!!!!!!!!

Angelina's 7th Birthday and Zip Lining

For Angelina's birthday we told her we could do whatever she wanted for dinner. She decided she wanted to have KFC, pumpkin pie, and candle light. These things went surprisingly well together... She finally got to find out her surprise birthday gift (trip to disney and one ticket to the park paid by Alyssa and Rafi *thanks guys!*) After dinner i conned my friends and their boyfriends into decorating the cupcakes I have baked in ice cream cones that would go to school with Angelina on her birthday. They turned out so nice! The boys got really competitive (the snake and the volcano...)

In other news...we went Zip Lining this past weekend, sooo much fun and such beautiful weather.

And one more thing; I joined the montreal roller derby bootcamp at the end of August. Its really popular here and the teams get lots of media coverage. I just did my level 2 test (there are 5 levels to pass to make it to team tryouts) and i'm feeling pretty confidant. You can check out the website at www.mtlrollerderby.com

This is what my brain looks like:

With the Dairy Queen season almost done (1 month to go!) I am getting really excited about two things: 1- going to disney with Alyssa, Rafi, Ben, Angelina and Tony in November. 2-Being able to do some real purchasing and DIY-ing for the wedding. Everything is booked for the disney trip the last things to do are make reservations and the restaurants we want to eat at, and keep an eye on the exchange rate and cash in at the right time. Now for the wedding, my mind is constantly brain storming and i'm so excited to make all my imaginings reality!

Lots going on!

Just saw some new pics on baby ben Alyssa's blog and was reminded how long its been since i blogged. Summer is flying by even though the weather still feels like early spring, lots and lots of rain and cool weather, the one good thing is that i haven't had to water my garden in a month. Work isn't as exciting as usual because of the weather and perhaps the economy, we are actually over staffed for once. Wedding planning is moving along, we have finally brought a deposit to the wedding hall for JULY 31st 2010!!!! We wanted to see the place around the same time of year before making a final decision. There are a few little things to work out before finalizing with them so we are keeping our fingers crossed that everything will work out. My dress should be arriving soon and the save the date cards are in progress. Besides that just alot of brainstorming and magazine/wedding blog browsing. We have a pretty good idea of how we want the day to go and are really really excited. We are not doing a family vacation this summer (saving for a trip to see the Firszts in the winter time :) We might go to vermont one weekend to hike up a mountain and have a picnic, and have been doing a bit of golfing when the weather breaks. Angelina is spending alot of time with her Dad lately cause he has the summer off, we miss her alot but she is having a blast (there is a huge community pool and park right across the street) Thats about all the news for now, im gonna check for pics of recent events to post up.

Busy Busy Busy!

Hi, sorry for the lack of participation, its the busy season for Dairy Queen so i'm working long hours and coming home to eat and sleep and catch some family time, not time for internet and tv. I'm going to post up some pics of the new developments soon :)

Lina's Dance

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally!!! Please start reading at the bottom because I messed up not thinking that the first thing i post would be the last thing you see... lesson learned.

Tony got tickets for him and Angelina in the all-you-can-eat section of the bell center! And they actually won!!!!!! Angelina spent the whole game trying to get on the big screen and when the game was over didn't want to leave. The 2 pretzels, hot dog, coke, and bag of doritos ultimatly got the best of her and she passed out in the car.

The person in this picture would like to remain anonymous. She is helping to hammer the "bungs" into the boat. It is coming along nicely! Launching mid summer maybe.

And then there is this gem. She is showing you her loose tooth, she has now lost both bottom ones, the toothfairy got lost on the first night but came through with ten bucks and a movie to make up for it. :)

The Drive home, i have twenty pictures that look exactly like this.

Typical of Angelina, checking the purse for gum.

Where's Tony??

There are also pictures of the butter balls, the empty gravy boat and several of people's feet...

These pics are from Grammie Lee's 80th.

Here are a few shots from our trip to Saint John. Angelina took most of these photos.
The first ones are from the Shower/engagement/30th bday celebration that we had with the Greens.

Last year Santa brought Angelina a new snowboard but it is really hard for kids under 10 to learn, so this year she got Skis and there is no stopping her! She made me follow her through this "teddy bear trail" and its a bit too narrow for snowboards, i almost made road kill out of about ten teddy bears. I forgot to give the thumbs up in my closeup :(

Angelina started her swimming lessons in January and is starting her level 2 this afternoon. She was always terrified of the water but now she counts the sleeps until her next lesson. Took about ten shots to get one were her bathing cap wasn't scrunching her eyebrows together.

This is a rare shot of our other kitten Radar. She was found in a back yard as a little baby and is very obviously a wild cat. She spends her days looking out the window at all of the birds and squirrels that she is going to have access to in the spring. She is Tony's baby and he is the only person she will trust to cuddle with her.

This the eldest of our two kittens her name is X-Ray. They have appointments to get the Bob Barker special in 3 weeks but we think that X-Ray might be preggers already, Grandma wants to keep the kittens because it will be a "good experience for Angelina" I think grandma just wants to become the crazy cat lady on the block.

Alyssa's visit!

So its been a pretty crazy couple of weeks!
First of all i'd like to say "HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALYSSA!!!!!" I had such a nice visit with my sister and her amazing baby! Having the baby around brought our family alot of cheer during a difficult time. We also got to celebrate my Grammy Lee's 80th birthday. What an amazing sight it was to have her at the head of the enormous rectangular table with all of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Got to see lots of family that i haven't seen in a decade and it felt good to feel connected to them again. Moving away has given us such great opportunities, but it still makes me wonder what life would have been like if we were still living in Saint John close to everyone. What a wonderful surprise it was to have all the Greens come and celebrate new babies and new life chapters! I can't thank Mike and Pat enough for throwing that party together. The drive back home was alright, Angelina's blue eyes saved us from yet another speeding ticket! Got off with a warning in woodstock, that would be the second time we get pulled over there! We decided to stop trying to keep up with my dad's car which was traveling at the speed of light.....and made it home for 1am. not bad

Back to wedding plans! Alyssa, Ben and I got to go do a little bit of wedding dress shopping on thursday last week. It was supposed to be just for fun and to get a taste for what kind of dress i like but we fell in love with the first dress and spent the rest of the day trying to find something that was as perfect. So...i'm going back to the store with mom and one of my bridesmaids on friday to try it on again and if all goes well put a deposit on it while its on sale. Sorry I wont be giving any sneek peeks even when i do get around to putting pictures up! :)

Taste Testing!

Hello!!
I was just looking at all the new pictures that Alyssa and Rafi put on their blog and can't get over how cute Ben is! I can't wait to see him smile!
So heres my news:
Tony had his last day of school this week and is starting his new job this monday! I am soooo proud of him, going to school and working 2 jobs for the past year and a half without ever complaining, how did I find such an amazing hard working man?!? He is going to be working for a company called "Abicus" they make hydrolic drives for mining machines (?!?) Its great because it is five minutes from our house and its a small company so he'll learn alot.
Angelina had the flu this week and spent three days home from school with a fever. She was finally better today but now my other baby (tony) is sick, so far he has asked for a massage and for ice cream with raspberries which i had to feed to him (he becomes such a sook when sick but its cute)
I am really excited for tomorow because we will be going to a reception hall to try the food, they are having a big reception for newly engaged couples. I begged Tony to let me go to value village and buy an old ugly wedding dress to wear for the dinner but he said i'd have to go alone if i did. ohwell....
Mom and Dad drove to New York on wednesday to go and pick up ANOTHER boat to rebuild. This will be the third chriscraft purchased in the past year and they are only half done the first one!
So thats my news, sorry about the lack of visual documentation....i'll get on that this week, i need to get some AA's for my camera so that i can upload them.

bridezilla alert:
checked the weather for july 31st over the past 8 years. there has only been 0.22 inches of rain. Hopefully the trend will continue......

Bridezilla in the making

Hey all,
So now that all the christmas hustle is over and done with i've got nothing to occupy my times and brain space with other than wedding plans! Even though i've got quite a while, Tentative date being july 31st 2010. Mom and I visited a reception hall yesterday that seems very nice! The only thing is that the garden's are a bit small for an outdoor ceremony, but its hard to tell with the 7 feet of snow that are covering the area. I'm going to meet with the manager of the place on monday to discuss dates and caterering ......
In other news Angelina had her first ski lesson on sunday and after two hours she was zipping down the hill!! We were so proud of her. Its was so exciting to see her go, can't wait until mom comes this week to watch! Angelina also had her first swimming lesson last week and her second one today, and finally she is getting used to being in the water. It was a little bit frustrating for Tony with him being a olympic calliber swimmer and having lina being the kid who strangles her parents in the pool refusing to put her upper body under water.
I've got about a month left before the store opens again so i'm going to do my best relax and enjoy having time to make dinner for my family and taking afternoon naps. I'm going to figure out how to put pictures on here soon so you all can see lina in her ski get-up and her bathing cap!

first blog

hello!
i created this blog mostly out of frustration because i cannot comment on other people's blogs without having an account.
I cannot guarantee quality or quantity but i'll do my best!

welcome to 2009 cyberfriends!! I hope you all enjoyed your christmas vacations, got to spend some time with your families and had at least one night of debauchery.
-December 24th Little Benjamin Firszt is born 6 days late. I am now an Aunt. I'm thinking Auntie Mel sounds alright, Aunt Melanie is terrible it sounds mean. My goal with this child is to make sure he gets dirty He is super super cute! Me my mom and my dad drove down on the 2nd at 2am and arrive in NC at 5pm. The only stops made were at the boarder (my dad always gets questioned because there is an asian James William Lee criminal) We were allowed to go pee only when the gas tank was almost empty and there was a gas station in the same vecinity of a drive thru. I did luck out once when there was an Arby's across the street had the bacon and cheddar with "pah tay ta"cakes. MMMmmmmMMMMmmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmm. So we hung out at my sister's place with the baby, leaving only once because i needed one of those crazy candy apples, this time i tried AVALANCHE (apple dipped in chocolat, peanut butter, roll her in rice crispies and then strategically placed marshmallows).
Had lots of one on one talks with Benni, I explained to him that i won't get to see him very often but that i plan on being his favorite aunt. and i also told him that when he is older i'll take him for metro rides and introduce him to earth worms and pop rocks.
Drove back the next morning at 2am leaving my momma behind. Since we had lost some weight in the car my dad brought the speed limit on empty roads up to 100mph. and we made it back for 3:45.

Okay on to the next news flash:
Christmas day was going on as it traditionally does, all the presents had been opened and we were about start to shoot each other with our newest version of the nerf gun (a family tradition to have a war). I had bought Tony a new snowboarding jacket for christmas and he kept saying he loved it so much he wouldn't take it off. He stood up, said there is something in his pocket, walk towards me, my brother shot him in the leg, he fell to one knee and then gave a big amazing speech which i only heard on the video after because i was confused and shocked in the moment. I had Nnoooooo idea that this was about to happen and it took me a good minute to remember that i had to give an answer. There have been times in the past where i have thought that maybe i'd never get married but over the past years I have learned how good tony is for me and how even though we are very different, we really bring the best out of each other. This is what went through my mind just before i answered yes and from that moment on i can't stop smiling! :) I love my ring it has three diamonds Angelina went with him to pick it up on christmas eve (it was only ready at 4:30, tony was freaking out). She explained to me that there is one diamond for each of us (her tony and I). I couldn't believe that she was able to keep the secret from me.
So on boxing day the only thing i bought was wedding magazines and to the surprise of all my family and my new fiancee, i have started planning (i am a procrastinator about most things). I really want to do as much as i can myself and am so blessed to have the winters off to do so. But I also have visions of how i want it to be and have to figure out how to do it! The exact date isn't set but its going to be summer 2010 so you all have time to dust off your dancing shoes.

New years we all drove over to ottawa to go to a wedding, it was nice to spend new years with my family (minus three *frown*) all of us dressed up. the next morning we were awakened by the sounds of the fire trucks across the street at the radisson, we had front row seats for the fire that happened there, nobody was hurt. Then we went downstairs and played on the waterslide before driving back home.

Today everyone is back to work and school, the house is empty and once again its just me and my laptop nuzzled in bed until 11. I have to start doing the yearly cleaning at Dairy Queen this week which i'm looking forward to doing cause i was starting to feel a little useless there in december. I'm going to pick up Angelina from her dad this afternoon and she goes back to school tomorrow, she is going to be so jealous when i tell her i saw baby ben, but she'll be relieve to know she'll get to see him in march.