Happy BriDay to Brianna

 This birthday is extra special for Brianna...

 

she’s celebrating her first birthday as a 

married lady…

and

her first birthday 

as the First Lady

in their first owned house.  

Bri and Christian are now proud homeowners

 in the 

Boston neighborhood 

of Dorchester or

"Dorchestah" 

as the locals pronounce it.  

Bri and Christian may not 

have the 'honorable distinction' of being

OFD …

”Originally From Dorchester"

but 

they are most def

DBC ...

“Dorchester By Choice.” 

 

Anywhoooo…..

I remember 3 decades and one year ago…

trying to come up with a girl name for my 3rd bambino.

I hadn't settled on a name

(whoops, meant to say "we")

until I first heard it at a 

 "Newcomers group" craft demonstration.

The instructor mentioned her daughter "Bri" and 

told me it was short for  "Brianna."

  I scurried home (with my crafty craft in hand),

looked it up in my Book of Baby Names…

and found the name was 

Irish Gaelic for  "strong one."

"Brianna" seemed like the perfect name 

to go with her Irish last name. 

WE loved it.

Little did we know, 

that Brianna would fit her name to a "T." 

With each year that Brianna grew…

she grew 

                                                                           and grew

 to resemble 

“strong one” ...

strong in 

her convictions, 

her will, 

her loyalty, 

her love of family, love of friends

her compassion, 

her empathy,

her party planner, thrower and goer skills,

physically strong…

(that time Brianna and I

went to get a wardrobe closet  in a huge and heavy box at IKea,…

and I may have whimpered out loud to get someone to take my end.)

If you are looking for someone who will 

have your back, 

keep a secret,

be a sounding board, 

mediate a problem, 

stand up for you,

be a loyal and trusted friend,

work hard,

play hard, 

attend a concert with you,

party with you,

AND

take your end of an extra heavy IKEA box,

Brianna is your girl.

If they could bottle Brianna….

Brianna would be a 

Bourbon Old Fashioned...

Strong 

and 

Sweet.

"Bartender, 

I'll have the BriBourbon Old Fashioned, please."

Cheers to Brianna on her 

BriDay.

Congratulations Brianna & Christian

 I'm in burst mode...

the pictures are in.

Brianna and Christian were married February 19, 2022 

and I have been waiting for photos of their 

most perfect wedding day.

Granted, the word “perfect” is often 

overused, overdone and over said.

  They say "nothing is perfect," 

but that day, 

their day, 

was next to Perfect.  

Basically, 

Perfect’s twin sister.

With a wedding in Boston in February…

we could have had a Nor’easter dump on our plans.

A major storm is guaranteed to happen at least one weekend in the winter.  

Luckily the Blizzard of 2022 for Boston

was 3 weekends before their big day.

For the lucky couple, the weather was clear..

so we could see the Boston Harbor skyline.

Thank you weather gods.

And many thanks to our God above, 

PaulA was there to walk his “Sweet Wishy” down the aisle after 

living through a sudden cardiac arrest in September and 

having a  subsequent double bypass 3 weeks before the wedding.  

If that ain’t enough to give a 

bride and the mother-of-the bride extra stress,

not sure what is.  

PaulA wasnt missing it tho...

he was there to walk Bri down the aisle,

give his FOB toast and to 

dance with his little girl to "Yellow" by Coldplay.

Brianna…

our sweet wish

bringing joy, happiness and sunshine into our lives.

Our version of the color yellow.

And with friends and family

we witnessed the beautiful heartfelt vows they pledged to each other…

and their first dance as a 

Mr. & Mrs.  

"Love You for A Long Time" by Maggie Rogers.

I had never heard this song before...

but now I have it on repeat.

Anywhooo…

So many details go into planning a wedding…

but as time goes on…

you never remember every detail..

okay, Brianna and Christian might…

their pictures and video will help…

but you do remember 

how you felt.

When love fills the room,

love is all you need.  

That is truly the icing on the wedding cake.

looks like the bottom of Bri's dress is a cake...yum

As a country Rascal once sang,

My wish 

for you

Brianna and Christian.... 

is 

may your love be forever present…

and may your love propel you through all the days of your lives.  

The other “stuff”….

what you do, where you go, what you have, 

is sweet…

but true love is the 

sweetest

icing on the cake 

of life.

And to Christian,

 we are thrilled to have you as a part of this fam damily.

You're a perfect fit.

 

Love filled the room that magical evening…

and love fills my heart for Brianna and Christian.

2/19/22, Brianna & Christian's wedding day....

Perfect’s Twin Sister.

Manomet 2.0 HOMEwork

 For some time now we’ve been busy 

building Mano 2.0 

which has been exciting 

but has required lots of HOMEwork…

lotsa visits to plumbing stores, tile stores, floor stores, 

kitchen stores, quartz stores, 

you name it stores….etc etc etc

I’m hoping now that all is said and built…

I get an "A" on my HOMEwork  

Or at least Extra Credit for the work involved. 

I remember a particular visit to a plumbing store 

where after too much time there…

I got the freaky feels.

As I walked through an aisle of toilets, 

I was caught off guard when 

a few toilets raised their lids.

 After I put 1 and 1 together

and got Number 2, 

I realized the toilets weren’t alive. 

So then, 

 I did what every mature acting person would do.

I walked back and forth to get them to raise and lower again  

and again 

and again.

There is nothing like a 21 toilet salute.

I am not a fan of automatic lids on toilets for a 

couple of reasons.

Number 1:  they would be especially creepy at night.

Number 2:  ….ummmm

Number 1 and Number 2 ….

That pretty much sums up toilets.

From the bowels of the store,

 I moved up the pipeline 

to faucets.  

After staring at kitchen faucets way too long…

the long goose necks seemingly came alive.  

No longer were they mechanical devices for delivering water…

they were evil creatures …

twisting and turning themselves toward me…

in an effort 

to grab me and pull me down the drain. 

It was time to plumb and run.

As months upon months 

rolled by 

with unending waves of Manomet 2.0 HOMEwork,

I hit the plaster wall 

when it came to choosing paint. 

Paint ain’t easy, folks.  

There’s so much to consider like

undertones and 

LRV (Light Reflectance Value.)

Apparently

if the room is facing east/west/north/south...

our guys,

Ben Moore and Sher Williams, 

can look differently on your walls.  

 So don’t forget your compass, Columbus.

There may be 50 shades of gray, 

but I found there are 100 shades of white…

super white, pure white, simply white, alabaster white, etc etc.

I went round and round with so many different whites 

that I painted myself into a corner.

The whole paintful experience had me turning 

Ghostly White…

which could have been the perfect white 

but I also had to consider…

Sickly White.

Anywhooooo

Manomet 2.0 HOMEwork is finally finished

and turned in.

All we need now for finishing touches is…

visitors.

If you’ve managed to read 

this blog 

thus far….

you are cordially invited.

My Sister Jayne

 Sadly my dear sweet sister Jayne passed away in March.

 

Jayne fought cancer for a couple of years…

fighting a tough and heroic fight and

I admired her great strength and bravery through it all.   

There were many days when we would chat about things,

                                                                         like sisters do,

                                                                  and 

there were other days, 

when we would just cry, like sisters do.  

The sister/friend bond is a strong one and forever. 

In the end, Jayne was at peace,  

but it’s so hard to make peace with saying goodbye

to someone you love. 

No matter how many years you have together, 

you never have enough. 

I’m still thinking that I’m going to see her,

talk to her, see a comment from her pop up on FB.

I hope I never lose the feeling that Jayne is still with me.

Growing up, I shared a bedroom with Jayne.  

She was the best roommate... 

the proverbial teenage drama around sharing clothes was never an issue.  

It probably was because Jayne quickly grew past my 5' 4" inches 

to her lovely lanky 5' 9". 

She would have looked pretty silly wearing my pants. 

I remember Jayne in our bedroom at night…

lying in the twin bed next to me, 

       the two of us chatting about our day, 

                                                                             as sisters do,

                                                         then wishing each other   

                                                            goodnight.  sleep tight.

                                             

Anywhoo...

Jayne was a gentle and beautiful soul, 

loved  travel, her dogs and her family.   

She was not only a great sister…

she was a great Aunt….

literally and figuratively. 

She was a wonderful and loving Aunt to 

Chelsea, Colin, Brianna 

and Natalie, 

                                                                                 Natalie's  2nd bday

 

but also a Great Aunt  to Chelsea’s Ansley and Presley.  

These kids were Jayne’s pride and joy through all the years.  

They all knew how much she loved them and

Jayne knew how much they loved her.   

It was a mutual love society. 

Back in the day,  Jayne and I both took Spanish in high school.

                                                  She was Juanita and I was Carlotta.  

We were far from fluent 

but that didn’t stop the daily Juanita - Carlotta convos.  

During  dinner, the spanish language was

 sliced, diced and butchered more than our food.

Juanita pass the pollo, por favor.  

But Carlotta, this is a burger???

Besides known as mi amiga, Juanita…

Jayne was family famous

for the time she kissed a lady bug and it crawled down her throat.

(Okay, she was  3)

Hence her family nickname, Jaynie bug .

Whenever I see a ladybug,

 I  think of Jayne…

we all do. 

Family stories and sweet memories of those we love and

keep deep in our hearts 

must be passed down.

Now it’s time to tell Ansley and Presley about the time their 

 Aunt Jayne swallowed a ladybug.  

Pass it down.

Our sister Jayne will be greatly missed by us all

but we are comforted  knowing she is with our parents.

“We grew to the same beat of our mother’s heart.”

The day Jayne died, I sadly went to bed that night, 

closed my eyes and 

I clearly saw Jayne's face...

the side of her face

the same way she looked 

when I would look over and say goodnight to her from my bed.  

Buenos Noches, Juanita.

Goodnight Jayne. 

                                                                                              Sleep tight.

                                                                                       I miss you.

    

                      

Happy Birthday Colin

 It's only fitting that Colin was born on 

Valentine's Day

a day all about love.

aka

Colintine's Day

The day Colin was born 

he had my heart...

                                                        hook, line and sinker.

Before he was born tho,

I wasn’t particularly sweet on Valentine’s Day...

(maybe savory)

because it comes with a runnnnn on

reservations.

Unless you’ve made dinner reservations early 

you are late to the party of 2. 

You and your valentine are left looking at each other like…

'what up Val?'

But sometimes you get lucky, and land on your sweet feet 

like I remember one Valentine’s Day back in the day. 

(Colinboy was away at college so I was free from making

meatloaf for his usual requested birthday dinner.)

PaulA had forgotten to make dinner reservations so was SOL

(sorry out of luck)

 (of course, not my fault)  

but after some scrambling…

PaulA found a reservation online at a Chinese Restaurant 

we had never heard of.  

He tried convincing me that this was a great idea…

and that the restaurant was gonna be the 

DimSumDiggiity.  

He had read they had a large tropical fish tank and a grand piano…

which sounded summa cheesy to me.  

I wasn’t biting at first…but he is my Valentine for life…

so off we egg rolled.

And, of course, PaulA was right!  

I ordered their signature scorpion bowl the size of my head…

and the rest was Valentine’s history.

The experience left us Wonton for more, 

so we went back the following year for Valentines’s Day.  

So Colin…

may you always pull a Peking Roasted Duck out of your hat…

and 

land on your sweet and sour feet like your Dad.

Anywhoooo….

On this day filled with hearts and love, 

PaulA and I remember and celebrate our cute Valentine …

💗

He’s still cute, 

but our baby

has a beard now.

Stuck in the middle 

between Big C and Sweet Wish…

Colin is sooo loved by us all.

He's in our hearts 

this Colintine's day and beyond.  

This guy is the best son 

                                                         a mama could ask for

Happy Birthday Colin

Cheers to you 

for making Valentine's Day extra special

for me.

We love you 

and 

your BIG ideas,

your BIG ambition, 

BUT, most of all 

your 

BIG HEART.

💖