Monday, June 30, 2008

Graduation Party

Xander attended his first graduation party this weekend. Gilly helps out at his daycare sometimes, and so all the daycare kids were invited to the party. And boy did they have fun! There was a blow-up pool, and I can tell you that had the kids going for hours. When it was time to leave, Xander cried and cried!

So big congrats to Gilly for graduating, and for getting so many great awards! Good luck in college!!

Friday, June 27, 2008

Inspiration

This field is across the street from the house I grew up in, and where my brother now lives. It's the field Joe and I got married in. I love this field! But there's something not a lot of people know about this field of mine.

When I was a teenager, I would walk past this field quite a lot on my way up the street to babysit. With nothing else to think about, I used to make up stories on my way to and from. Especially at night, when it was a little scary, I'd imagine aliens and kidnappers and stuff like that. One of the things I imagined was a girl who walked into the field and somehow ended up in a different world altogether. And unlike the aliens, this story really stuck with me.

At the tender age of 14, I typed out my first "novel" on my mom's manual typewriter (using a very quick two finger method!). It was 25 pages long and jam packed with action. Over the years, I continued to work on this idea. Page length grew, characters changed, I filled up a book with back history and mythology, and even crafted a map with overlays and everything. Today, this novel still languishes on my computer, unfinished. Every few months I get the bug to start working on it again - I'm in one of those periods right now - and imagine what a sense of accomplishment I'll get if I can ever get the darn thing finished!

I still have my original version of the story, signed with my oh-so-hip 14 year old pen name Cassie Christian, and the characters are never too far from my mind. So stay tuned, and maybe one day I'll be able to report my triumphant completion of my life's work! Maybe...

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Happy Birthday!

This is my dorky younger brother, and he just turned 31! Xander and I helped him celebrate over at his place yesterday. Eli BBQ'd some awesome (and I do mean awesome!) strip steaks and we had a nice family dinner.

I have to admit that it's hard for me to think of my brother as a grown-up man with a family and a job and a life and everything. Anyone else have this problem with their siblings? When I look at him, he's still about 8 years old, and annoying as heck!

Anyway, just wanted to give a birthday shout-out to my little bro!

Friday, June 20, 2008

Absent Friends

I've been thinking lately about some friends that have disappeared from my life. Everyone has those - people you hang around with for a little while, and then for whatever reason they're gone. Moved, changed their circumstances somehow, had a falling out...there's lots of reasons we don't keep some of our friends.


So today I'd like to give a shout-out to friends (and family...you know who you are!) that I have fallen out of touch with. And if you're secretly reading this blog right now, please drop me a line and let me know how you're doing! I promise I won't stalk you if you do! Oh, and sorry for all the pics of me in there, for some of my friends these are the best pics I have of them!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Kindergarten Screening


Finally, the day we'd been waiting for arrived. Xander had Kindergarten screening yesterday. He was so excited, he was pinging off the wall as soon as he got out of bed. He packed his Spiderman backpack with school essentials - a peanut butter sandwich, his Animaniacs CD, two light sabers, and Super Bear. He was ready!

It was a proud Mommy and Daddy day, I'm happy to report. Xander was polite, confident and friendly. He did all the screening things they wanted him to, he played nicely with the other kids, and was very enthusiastic about taking his bus ride after we watched the bus safety video. One little boy was crying, and Xander offered to hold his hand. Awww!

When we left, Xander wanted to know if we could go back the following day. Poor guy is going to have a long summer!! But I'm so excited for him, he's going to love Kindergarten. And hopefully not beat up any of the other kids while he's there!

Monday, June 16, 2008

Mommy's Little Helper

"I love washing dishes!!" Xander had begged me for to let him wash some dishes, so after I finished up the heavy-duty stuff, I gave him some things that I'd already washed. Boy, did he have fun! He used three different scrubbers, loaded with soap, to wash the few bowls and spoons I'd left out for him. And then he discovered the little sink hose. More fun!

I know I should enjoy these helper moments now, because once washing dishes becomes a regular chore he won't be so thrilled to do it. But as long as he can pick what he wants to do, he's happy. Yesterday, with no dishes available for him to wash, he decided to Swiffer the kitchen floor instead. Mostly in one section by the cat dish.

Who knows? Maybe Xander will turn out to be one of those people who just loves to clean! (Certainly not a genetic condition!) That sure would be nice, since I hate doing dishes...I really, really hate it! Hmmm...I wonder if he'll do windows?

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Happy Father's Day!

Just a shout-out to my hubby, Joe. He may not always be the most patient dad, but he sure has his moments! Like dressing up and playing Indiana Jones wth Xander. Or coloring with him on couch. A million little moments that add up to some pretty happy memories between father and son. It's no wonder that Xander wants to do everything that his daddy does!


And to all the dads out there, have a great Father's Day!!

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Just A Regular Day

I try to have fun and entertaining things to write about on this blog, but some days are just regular old days, where nothing much happened. Like yesterday. I went to work, I came home, and I played outside with Xander for a little while. We played a little baseball, then kicked around the big purple ball. Then we ate dinner, Xander went to bed, and I scrapped. Nothing much exciting, but I sure do like this picture Joe took. And I do have an amusing Xander-ism I can share.

The night before last, Joe and I were watching Godzilla (the Matthew Broderick version). Xander popped out of his room a couple of times, enough to catch a glimpse of the big lizard doin' it's thing. He asked what we were watching, we told him, and off he went to bed. Yesterday morning he asked me if the God who made us was a big lizard too. LOL! I told him I was pretty sure he wasn't, and that Godzilla really had nothing much to do with God that way. That seemed to satisfy him.

Just another day at the Bruno house!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Fun With Despair.com

I forget now which friendly soul pointed this site out to me, but it never fails to make me laugh! It's full of pessimism, and despair (duh!), but the humor is really good too! You can buy t-shirts and mugs and other things, but my favorites are the posters. You know those motivational posters offices have hanging up? These are like anti-motivational posters. Here's an example of one I got off their site:


For extra fun, you can also craft your own poster with your own photo and depressing verbiage, like the one I did:


So, if you're feeling a little down and need a pick-me-up today, head over to despair.com and have a laugh on me!

Monday, June 9, 2008

My Pampered Chef Party

Well, it was mine and Joe's really. I'd booked it from Angie's party at the end of April, because I know how much Joe likes kitchen gadgets and this way he'd get to try some out. Of course, for me having these parties is very nerve-wracking. I have to get my house nice and clean (and then pretend it's like that all the time!), and I have to obsess over whether or not anyone will actually come. That's why I don't have these things too often.

But it worked out just fine! We had five guests for the party, and Amanda (the consultant) made a tasty Jerk Chicken Nacho dish for us all to share. With orders at the party, and orders from work, Joe and I were able to get our hands on some free stuff, which is why it's so good to have a party!

And I'm happy to report that Joe was on pretty good behavior, even though some of his gal pals were there that he likes to torment. And Xander was happy that his cousins came to play with him while the grownups did their thing. He greeted our guests at the door with a potato chip and dip, it was so cute!

Now, how so I get Joe to become a Pampered Chef consultant so we get even more free stuff? LOL!

Thursday, June 5, 2008

The Lost Egypt (A Story By Xander)

My delightful 4 year old son told me this story the other day, and I taped it so I could 1) craft a scrapbook page of it, and 2) show everyone what a literary genius he is! So enjoy this original tale by Mr. Xander Bruno! (Please note the in the original telling, Egypt was pronounced Engypt.)

Once upon a time, there was a lost, lost, lost Egypt. And a guy named Pharaoh, who had a gun and a sword. And he went somewhere. He went somewhere. To a big, big pyramid. And that was the lost Egypt.

And he stopped the car, opened the door, and shutted it really tight. He went inside the pyramid. It was really spooky. There were green glowing eyes. He looked to see what it was and it was huge. It was a really huge, huge, huge spider! It was creeping along and he shot it with his sword, then it laid down softly, closed its eyes, and it was dead.

Then behind him there was a big sound like this: “ooowwaaaahh”. And he looked and you know what he saw? Mummies! And then he just looked at them, and shot them right through the face. Real quick. Then he tried to run but he couldn’t. There was tons of mummies. The mummies had swords. And then he saw a guy that looked better than him. It looked a lot like Steve, his brother. Then he fighted all the mummies. He drove his sword right into their eyeballs, and he shooted them right in the mouth. Then they died. The end.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Bruno Vacation - Day Four

It's check-out day, time to head home. The weather, which was beautiful all week, was rainy and overcast - good driving weather! We lingered in the room for a while, Joe and Xander enjoying one last go at the hot tub. (I'll spare you more photos of that!) Then we turned in our key cards and packed up the car. We lunched at Friendly's before hitting the highway.


Of course, on the way we had to stop at The Dinosaur Place in Montville, CT. We'd passed it on the way to Mystic and Xander really wanted to go there on the way home. So we did! Xander got a chance to dig in the mine for precious stones, and pan for gold (pyrite). We also spent considerable time in the huge gift shop, and Xander walked out of there with a new "guy" and a t-shirt.
Luckily, Xander slept most of the way home so that we weren't bombarded by the "Are we there yet?" questions. We rolled through Oneonta on around dinner time, so we stopped at Denny's to eat. We all got breakfast platters, since we hadn't eaten any actual breakfasts our whole vacation. And then we were home.


It was a great vacation! We all had such a fun time, even Joe! When I asked Xander about his favorite parts of the trip, he said: "Watching tv, playing with my guys, and the hot tub." Little sucker! I for one am glad to be home, back in my own bed, and no longer subjected to countless SpongeBob episodes (I'll probably never get the theme song out of my head, though). Thanks for sharing in our first - but hopefully not last - family vacation!

Cat Lady

Cat Lady
For the March All About Me Challenge at ACOT