Twas the week before Easter...

Hubby's school was closed the week BEFORE Easter.  Guess the Board saved themselves having to give the teachers an extra day off by not having to give them Good Friday PLUS a holiday week...

Anyway, I took off the Monday and the Thursday and Friday of last week.  Thought I'd post a few photos from the week and insert the stories (you know there are stories!!!)...

I have no story about Shemar Moore other than to say he is probably the best looking man on television, in my humble opinion...  Now remember, Clint doesn't have a regular show these days...

My sister's dog Duncan is on the right, with the blue leash.  She just got his mom, Beanie, last weekend.  The breeder gave her up because she had a bad last litter and hemmorhaged badly and isn't show quality anymore.  Sounds a bit harsh, but sister is happy to have another doggie around the house!

On Holy Saturday, Mom and Little Sister C and I met at church, St. Valentine's in Bloomfield.  They had a Food Blessing, a lovely tradition we've been participating in all my life.  You bring your food for Easter dinner, or a representation of what you'll be eating, and you get it blessed by the priest.  We brought eggs, ham, kielbase, butter, salt/pepper, wine, candy for the baby's basket, holy water, etc.  It's nice to see newer, younger members of the church come with their baskets, decorated with doilies and napkins and flowers and herbs, not just the older Polish ladies who are left...

We've both been noticing our memories aren't what they used to be so we stopped in The Vitamin Shoppe to see what they had to say.  They suggested after Jack finishes his current bottle of Focus Factor, that he try some Acetyl-L-Carnitine (?), 500mg.  So that's the plan...

I spent Holy Thursday coloring my eggs.  I read the instructions and paid attention to them.  Left the eggs in the food coloring for the full 5 minutes, and was pleased with the colors this year.  Instead of weak, blah colors, they were deeper and who knew?  5 minutes dying time and the colors are better than if you pull them out in 2 or 3 minutes.

I went to get my hair cut AND I got new glasses, all in the same week.  Purple glasses, with green fading to yellow on the temple bar corners.  Love purple!

This is my new favorite shampoo/conditioner duo, Yucca Root Shampooing Cream and Conditioning Cream, by Nick Chavez.  It really makes my highlighted hair healthy and shiny and full.

Here's my new haircut...  I really liked the highlighting she did, and that was weeks ago.  She got real close; I have almost no roots showing!!!  (Pardon the double chin - NOT the most flattering pose!!!)

Here are some forsythia bushes on the road leading to our lake house.  I love this road in early spring, with these bushes flowering, and in fall, when the leaves on the trees have turned brilliant red and orange and yellow, but haven't fallen to the ground yet...

Here's my new Tom Bihn bag.  Expensive, yes.  But apparently it will last forever!  I like the idea of forever :-D

Week in the Life - Thursday, July 28

The usual, up at 5:50am, ready for the 7:20am train  Which was 22 minutes late.  Without any announcements on the track.  If it weren't for Eva's smartphone, we wouldn't have known.  Although then I could have turned around and "worked" from home...

Spent 5 hours doing that damned 500+ line report for Grainger. No matter what, I just KNEW I'd wind up doing it...

Ate two sandwiches for lunch - no idea why.  They were just so good...  Then I had to eat dinner 'cause if I didn't, J wouldn't eat dinner and he had nothing all day.  Think I'll be taking a Tagamet before I go to sleep!

Took some photos of theclock tower and the train station in Hoboken, Franklin Avenue in Nutley, the front porch of our house.

Tested Sue's chocolate chip cookies (she put too much baking powder or baking soda in them and she was afraid they tasted bad).  Chatted with Shifra and her girls for a little while, and an old neighbor (the Dennises up the street, who moved to Florida years 9 years ago).  She popped by to see the neighborhood...

Picked up some photos at Costco for the past few days of Week in the Life. 

Got P's anniversary card today.  It was a funny one!

Week in the Life - July 25th,26th, and 27th

I'm doing Ali Edward's Week in the Life project this week, and I guess what I'll do, starting a couple of days late, is summarize my days here on the blog, so I have a record somewhere, just in case the jotting down thing doesn't work!  (And I know it doesn't 'cause sometimes I forget to jot...)  I'll go back and add photos when I'm on my laptop...

Monday, July 25th
Took the day off from work to spend it with J - it IS, after all, our 12th wedding anniversary!  He got up at 7 to go to the gym; I slept in a little later than usual.  Got into the shower at 7:30, watched some Good Morning, America, lounging around in bed.  We opened our anniversary cards and then went to breakfast at the Corner Bakery Cafe (iced caramel latte and a slice of pumpkin bread for me, coffee and a banana for J). 

By 10am we were in Hoboken to help Gen and Murray move some furniture from her mom's apt to their house.  (Gen's mom passed away a couple of weeks ago and she has to have all her mom's stuff moved out of the senior housing apartment by Sunday.)  Spent some time just talking with her about her loss and about dealing...  So sad...  By 1pm we were done so we were off to WalMart.  Did a little shopping, didn't buy anything, though (THAT must be a first!).  J asked about air conditioners; he's thinking about putting a new one in our bedroom; the small one takes too long to cool off the room.  I think I'd rather put one on the first floor; we don't have a working one down there and it was pretty miserable last week when we had that heat wave.  We went to the Olive Garden for "soup, salad, and breadsticks" (no cooking for me on our anniversary!).  Back home where we both putzed around for a while, him in the basement and outside, me cleaning our room and the computer room.  It's still in a shambles from the burst pipe - need to really put all that stuff back in the closet!  Some cold salads for dinner; we were still full from lunch!  Dropped $25 at Mom's for A - she finally realized she can make some gas money cleaning Babci's house for her, a deal I offered her last summer and she forgot about until last week!  Went to my sister-in-law's house for our usual Monday dessert.  We watched T's graduation video to see her give her speech, watched E take a few steps on her own (she's thisclose to walking by herself!), and then went home at 10pm, watched some TV and went to sleep.  Happy Anniversary to us!!!  One of the best moments of the day:  E falling asleep in my arms - you can feel her little body just becoming heavier and heavier...  Love the smell of a baby!  Got the invitation for Ezra's bar mitzvah.

Tuesday, July 26th
Woke up at 4:30 to visit the bathroom (too much coffee the night before!) so played a couple of rounds of Words with Friends on my iTouch.  Back to work - the usual:  up at 5:50am, in the shower and getting ready to be on the 7:20 train to Hoboken. Took some tomatoes from our garden to snack on at work.  A tractor trailer got stuck under the Delawanna bridge near the train station - just can't understand how this happens.  You know how high your truck is - you know how high the bridge is.  If the truck is higher than the bridge, don't drive under it!  Seems easy to me...  Played catch up all day at work - lots of phone calls and emails... 

Caught up on some blog reading at lunch, and worked on a To Do list that includes prepping for Mom's b'day lunch on the 7th.  Lunch was pasta with peas and bacon in a cream sauce - not too healthy, I know, but yummy!  Of course I balanced my meal with a sugar-free raspberry iced tea!  Then I promptly ruined it farther with free Ben & Jerry's ice cream!  The B&J truck is apparently traveling the country and yesterday was Hoboken's day!  They were promoting two new flavors:  Americone (vanilla with caramel and chocolate-covered waffle cone pieces) and Late Night Snack (vanilla with caramel and chocolate-covered potato chips).  When I told J about it, he knew IMMEDIATELY I was an Americone kind of girl!  (He knows me so well!)  J had to go in to work at the garage at 8am instead of at noon; someone ripped the sidewalls on 128 tires at the Comcast lot!  Think they're annoyed at the new union regs?  We had a cold Spicy Italian sub at Subway for dinner and went to see HP7.2 for the third time!  (LOVE those free movie tickets on Tuesday nights!  Thanks, Optimum!) 

When we came outside, it had apparently rained; it smelled like a warm summer night's rain.  According to Neen, it STORMED while we were in there, complete with lightning and thunder!  And we missed it all!  Both of us fell asleep quickly last night - we must have been tired!

Wednesday, July 27th
Up at the usual time, a delicious iced caramel latte from Chock full o'Nuts to start my day.

Catching up on my blogging (you're reading this, aren't you!?!?).  Checked Amazon delivery notification:  yay, my 2nd Project Life binder is being delivered!  (Becky, mine is already too full for the one binder, so I ordered another!  Thanks, Ali, for encouraging us to add extra pages!).  Taking Mom to get our nails done tonight.

Here's a photo of the vitamins and supplements I take every night before I go to bed.  I do feel better in a number of ways, so I guess they're working.

This is a new blouse that I bought at Dress Barn earlier this week.  I also got it in maroon.  I got two others at the same time, a black and white floral tank that looks awesome with my white shorts, and a ruffled floral top that I think flatters my shape, but at the same time makes me look a little boxier/shorter, not in a bad way.

Words with Friends:  My name is Krys and I am a Words with Friends-aholic.

Dinner tonight was peppers and onions on a garlic pesto wrap - mmm, good!