Ryan's Graduation Party

Today I take a deep breath after having a wonderful graduation party for my son Ryan,  yesterday!  Not only was it a spectacular day weather-wise, the food, the guests who came to celebrate with us, and some surprise visitors (college room mates from Ohio, Jodie Smith and Rosalie Franek, Ryan's favorite nurse Joan Feldman, and "our gang"from Special Love, Inc), the day was very special!  A big shout out to Linda Misencik in helping me prepare the house and some of the food (and also cleaning gutters with me!) to prepare for the party.

I'm thankful my son was so excited and genuinely happy to celebrate this milestone with so many people that helped him/us get to this point in his life.  That is the true blessing!

BSoleille!  The bright side of it "takes a village" to raise a child!  Thank you all!

Terri

Photos from the weekend....

Summer Delectable

The sweet corn on the cob is in and tasting delicious. I could not stop with eating just one today and had another. My favorite way to eat it is with a little butter and Old Bay seasoning. Yum!

BSoleille!  The bright side of summer vegetables. 

Terri

Old Rag Mountain

A rainy forecast kept the crowds away to a very popular hike on Old Rag in the Shenandoah Mountains in Syria, Virginia!  However, two crazy over 50 gals decided that we could do the hike, and kept optimistic on the 70% chance it would NOT rain.  We did not win the rain part, but were two of the four total people on the mountain today.  The very challenging one to two mile rock scramble was simply amazing, and the mountain laurel (looks like rhododendren) was in full bloom throughout the mountain top in lush white, pink and dark pink-stunning!

The rain came at lunchtime so we found some "shelter" under a boulder and ate our sandwiches deciding if we should continue on knowing that the granite could get slippery.  After about 20 minutes, the sun peeked through and a father/son team came striding through the trail.  After some pleasentries and photo ops with the two groups, we decided to "follow" them up on the rock scramble and complete the entire hike.  I'm so thankful that we did, since our stopping point was just before one of the most spectacular vistas we saw today.  Our total hike time was about four hours, but it took a little longer to take photos and admire the valleys below as well as the surrounding mountains.  And as first timers on this hike, we did well in the packing/dressing department.  Lots of water, layers of clothing and hiking boots are a must!

BSoleille!  The bright side of a nine mile hike through crazy weather on Old Rag.

Terri (and a big SHOUTOUT to my husband as we celebrated 26 years of marriage today, Yeah!

Photos of me and hiking partner, Linda Misencik, and the only other two people out there today, Robert and Lugao Casberg- the father and son team

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New York Beauty

After a little hiatus of anything quilt related, I went to my guild meeting tonight (with guest, Linda Misencik in from Ohio), and delighted with our speaker Linda Hahn. She is prolific in "stash busting" and also plays with designs for New York Beauty blocks. She was witty and fun and there were one or two block designs I am interested in doing for a future quilt. Easy peasy too!

BSoleille!

Terri

Photo of Linda Hahn and her New York Beauty quilt. 

Housework is so Overrated!

Twelve hours of cleaning house is not the least bit interesting. The only good thing that the house smells nicer and I got 5048 fuels without a run or bike ride. I'd rather do the active thing and quilt any day then spend the day doing housework. I did happen to escape for an hour to the dump (I mean recycling center), Goodwill (did some purging ala house cleaning) and the grocery store. 

I can't wait to get up in the morning to do some more cleaning and wash floors!  Yippee!

BSoleille. The bright side of that "Pine sol" touch!

Terri

Dog Tired

After a great weekend of "camping" with spotty cell phone service, its nice to be home after driving 1004.3 miles since last Friday!  And all the rain today made the drive a "white knuckled" one that you tend to see when the snow is flying and temps in the low 30's.  I am thankful we arrived home safely but a wee bit tired. 

Lastly on this post I want to give a shout out to my friend Carrie who, at the last minute, "volunteered" to dog sit for my pups when my neighborhood girl got the dates mixed up. I think they had so much fun in Bowie, MD, that we are not sure who is more "dog tired", really!

BSoleille!

Terri

My photo today of Lucy-Loo lounging around quite a bit.

The Race

I'm thankful for a full day in the sun plus a "fun" time running in the Kelley's Island 5K. They also have a 10K, but I'm lucky to have covered 3.1 miles since I feel so out of shape!

BSoleille!

Terri 

My today is of most of the gang out on the Island. 

From the KI Winery to the KI Brewery

A great day spending quality time with family and friends on a sunny day on Kelley's Island. With a quick trail  run at one of the state parks, to lunch at the winery then dinner at the brewery we all had a great time. I'm thankful that the last event, "The Chris Smith"benefit, was a resounding success!  All proceeds raised this weekend will benefit a high school cross country runner from the high school Chris coached at, Sandusky Perkins. 

BSoleille!

Terri

Photos from today including my favorite set of identical twins: Bill and Don Tomoff; lunch with family,  and dinner with Bowling Green State University Cross Country Alumni. 

Kelley's Island Ohio

I'm thankful to have arrived safely today with son and nephew in tow for a fun filled weekend at Kelley's Island. We met up with our people coming from all over Ohio and midwest. Camping, visiting with friends and the Island race on Sunday are a few highlights this weekend!

BSoleille!

Terri 

Photos our tent, me and Jodie Smith and the rest of my tribe at the Caddyshack!

CPR

As an employee of the Anne Arundel Health Department, yearly CPR renewal is a must. And for good reason. Every year there are some slight changes provided by the American Heart Association that seem better for all. I'm thankful to have passed the test for another year!

My photo are the adult dummies that we practice on.

BSoleille! The bright side of a healthy heart!

Terri

Potluck Picnic

My first Wednesday of the month bee held our meeting on the water in Edgewater, Maryland. (One if the gals has a cottage three houses from the water/park).  It was a great idea and fabulous night to catch up with each other and eat finger licking good chicken and the other sides plus brownies for dessert. Although we did not do any quilting per se, we did give our June birthday blocks to Carrie. 

Photos of the bee (Mary, Carrie, Susie, Cappy, and Janet) and the sunset from tonight. 

BSoleille!

Terri 

Two "Cooks" in the Kitchen

It did not take long to be back in the saddle of domestic "bliss" with barbecuing for my son and nephew Brandon (who flew in today from Cleveland-and boy are his arms tired!). TeeHee I could not resist that joke....

They had their minds set on the grocery store and getting all the fixings for a good meal. My photo today is of them putting on the "rub" for the chicken, plus corn on the cob and red potatoes. I'm thankful to everyone's delight the food turned out fresh and tasty. Ummm good. 

BSoleille!

Terri

Last Day in New York

Two days ago at the Boston vs. Yankee game we saw a grand slam by Boston. Tonight we got to witness another grand slam by the Yankees who won 7-4 over the Cleveland Indians. It was another outstanding evening even though there were heavy rains in Manhattan and the Bronx prior to game time. The fanfare, team loyalty and tradition are something to see from a pure baseball stance and the whole experience was very enjoyable. 

As this grad trip was for my son Ryan, I am thankful that we were able to stay and visit with the McCarthy family on Long Island during this trip. I met Mary Jean when we were 17 years old running with the Easy Striders Summer Track Team and have remained dear friends, albeit long distance, for almost 35 years! She and her husband Bob and their four children were the consummate hosts in welcoming us to New York. 

BSoleille!

Terri

Photos of me and Mary Jean and the Indians vs. Yankees. 

New World Trade Center/9/11 Memorial

A break between Yankees game afforded us to see the new World Trade Center and the 9/11 Memorial in lower Manhattan. It was a beautiful day to see the humble sight of the two reflecting pools and the names of all the victims of the attacks from that fateful day.  We learned the painstaking task of how the names would be placed (adjacency to friends, colleagues, and loved ones as opposed to alphabetically), which took two years to hammer out with the designers and architects. 

And as a poignant tidbit, there is a "Survivor" Tree at the memorial site that not only survived the attack on 9/11, but once it was lovingly "restored" by several horticulturists, was almost lost but survived a few recent hurricanes. I mention this because today is "National Cancer Survivorship Day", and my son is a survivor. He felt a kindred spirit with this tree and took its photo as one of my photos from today's events. I'm thankful we went today of all days-very apropos. 

BSoleille!  The bright side cancer survivorship to all survivors!

Terri

Beach Week or The Big Apple?

Instead of going to beach week (most kids here go after they graduate), my son Ryan had designs on heading to NYC to catch a couple Yankees games this weekend. So in March when the seniors are booking places in Ocean City, Maryland, we were combing through the Yankee MLB website looking for tickets that were priced "reasonably". 

So I'm thankful it all worked out for him. Traffic was crazy getting into New York City but that is to be expected and we got to our destination with time to spare in getting to the Bronx. 

Too bad the Yankees lost to the Boston Redsox (at least they were as I write this post from the game). And we got to see a grand slam home run, again for Boston, but it was pretty!

BSoleille!  The bright side of my first time in Yankee Stadium!

Terri

Heir And a Spare

It is not royalty I'm talking about, rather two bikes that work. Last summer before I invested in a new road bike, I "fixed" up my 25 year old one with new tires, brakes etc. So this weekend while pumping up my tires on my "new" bike I blew out the back tube. Because we were on time crunch, I'm thankful I was able to hop on my old bike and get the ride in with "The Best Daughter"!

Tonight I had that tire repaired and got in a quick ride on a beautiful evening. 

BSoleille!  The bright side of a ride!

Terri 

Cats to Ducks

While at a small planning meeting for the 4th Annual Cameron Diamond novice swim meet coming up in July, I could not help but notice the Diamond's family cat named Buddy who squarely sat on a stack of books for a solid 45 minutes with nary a move. He was quite majestic in his stance and turned once when called. This was the moment I snapped his photo. 

After some time we went into the garage to get some event TShirts (for a TShirt quilt), and as I looked up from the boxes, three ducks were waddling up the driveway honking away and eventually made their way in. For sure they were not afraid of people and walked up to all of us. The biggest scare though was when they decided they had enough of us and noisily flew out charging right at us as they made a quick exit. We howled with screams of laughter with these crazy ducks!

BSoleille!

Terri

Jackie's TShirt Quilt

This past weekend I was able to give a thrilled Jackie V. her much anticipated TShirt quilt that her parents ordered for her as a high school graduation present.  As you can see from today's photo, I believe I met her expectations and then some.  Congratulations to a lovely young lady who graduates in a couple weeks (Lots of Virginia schools graduate in June). 

BSoleille!

Terri

Memorial Day!

I would be remiss if I did not thank the countless men and women in uniform that keep our great country safe and our freedom alive. So a big hearty Thank You for your service to this great land, and all the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. Truly, this blog and our freedoms were made possible in keeping  the democracy alive through our great military and all its glory. 

God Bless America!

Terri

Burning Fuel

Today it was all about burning "fuel", and it got jump started by mowing the front and back grass then referring three games of soccer in bright and sunny with a perfect temperature day (really to do most anything outdoors). Then it was off to a high school grad party for our friend Alex!

My big number today......6,000 "fuels". 

BSoleille!

Terri

Two out of Four...

A big wind and bright sunshine were a decent combo to referee a couple games of soccer today.  Originally I had four games scheduled this afternoon, but once at the fields, the third game got cancelled (the fouth game was cancelled midweek).  I'm thankful that I will get paid for the third game though, as it was a long drive out to Western Regional Park in western Howard County, Maryland (beautiful grounds and fields, I may add).  The U14 Boys set was quick and fast and the crew I worked with was fun!  Tomorrow I'm working a few games of U16 and U19 Girls in my county, still a part of the Columbia Memorial Day Soccer Tournament.

I am going to add one more note to this post (I promise it will tie into the above paragraph):  I just started wearing my Nike Fuel Band once again after a long hiatus of not wearing it due switching out a couple of broken ones.  I finally set up the new band and have been wearing my new one for almost one week now.   Knowing full well that I wanted to run as much as I can while on the pitch to maximize "fuel", I have to say I am retiring the day with 4900 "fuels"!  My goal for each day is currently set at 3000 "fuels", and I hit that as soon as I was done with the two games.

BSoleille,
terri

Photo: Our two pups not getting any "fuel"; only "rest".

Recall Notice X3

Our 2003 CRV recently had three recall notices on various items with the vehicle.  Once Honda started calling the house, I knew I could not wait any longer and took it in for the recalled repairs.  I am thankful I did because one part had to be ordered, and the vehicle was deemed "undriveable" at that time (that is,  according to the Honda dealership mechanics).  They had the car for a full three days to get everything repaired.  I realized being down one vehicle puts a kink in the regular routine of more drivers than cars;  if only I can get the kids proficient in driving a stick shift we would be all set!

BSoleille!  The bright side of another working vehicle in the driveway!
terri

Photo:  There are class clowns, and now a class cookie-sweet!

Major Milestone Met

For parents getting one kid through high school is an achievement, getting two (or more) is a double bonus!  Tonight my son, Ryan, graduated from Archbishop Spalding High School!  A beautiful ceremony highlighting the almost 300 graduates of the class of 2013!

For this wonderful young man who faced many medical challenges throughout his youth, this pinnacle is a strong testament to his unwavering spirit, a super strong community of caregivers (doctors, nurses, medical staff, tutors, teachers, family, friends, and neighbors) and faith that he could achieve this dream, is nothing short of a "miracle". 

A Big Hearty THANK YOU to the many folks who helped Ryan (and his family) on this wild journey!

BSoleille!  Forever bright: The Entire Class of 2013!

Photo of Olivia '10 and Ryan '13. 

Quilt Class

Even though my sewing and quilting has been been significantly reduced the last couple weeks, I am thankful to have snuck in a class from Dawn Stewart. She is a rep for Handi-Quilter, plus designs patterns and has a plethora of sewing and quilting knowledge. I hoped I gleaned enough hands on knowledge  today to enhance my machine quilting. 

BSoleille!  The bright side of learning something new!

Terri

Photo of Dawn in her quilt studio holding one of her quilt samples. 

Oklahoma

No words can really describe the devastation in Moore, Oklahoma, and the surrounding areas despite all the media coverage. My heart and prayers go out to the people of that state as they try to slowly navigate all the destruction and the rebuilding of entire communities. We, unfortunately, have to realize that Mother Nature is our biggest terrorist on days like this. No matter how many guns or tanks we have, it just doesn't matter to a mile wide tornado with 200 mph winds cutting through towns, schools and hospitals, plain and simple. 

Prayers and a solvent Red Cross seemingly is what is needed out West! I hope the great people of Oklahoma find some kind of peace as they move forward in the clean up process. 

Terri 

Refreshing Beverage

Now that the weather is finally warming up, I've gone from drinking hot tea to my favorite summer time beverage, unsweetened iced tea (with a lemon wedge, of course). Nothing beats it for cooling off and quenching thirst. I have brewed several pitchers of this wonderful dark amber colored refreshing liquid and plan on it until the first frost months away. 

My photo is freshly brewed Lipton iced tea. 

BSoleille!

Terri

MMCF Walk

This afternoon was the Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation Walk in Alexandria, Virginia. I mentioned in a couple previous posts about the dog quilts I made and donated to this cause and a tshirt quilt as well. I have to report back that according to the founders, Vicki and Peter Brown, the tshirt quilt raffle basket was one of their most popular items from on- line ticket sales to the event today!

I'm thrilled that I could give back to this great foundation and help support their mission in helping kids with cancer. The woman who won the tshirt quilt service was also thrilled and told me it will be for her daughter -using all her sorority TShirts and more. 

BSoleille!

Terri

Prom

Unlike their parents, my kids have been fortunate to go to their respective high school proms. Tonight was my son Ryan's prom in downtown Annapolis, Maryland. Of course prior to the dance, multiple photo sessions with the group of kids he went with was a "requirement", which includes the one for my photo today.

Three high schools in our county had their proms tonight. I hope they have fun and stay safe on their big night!

BSoleille!  The bright side of dancing the night away....

Terri

Sandy Point Park

This afternoon I volunteered to meet an ice cream company who dropped off two carts of ice cream for the Blues Fest this weekend at Sandy Point Park. The ice cream sales will benefit Special Love, Inc (for kids with cancer). 

The grounds looked great and the huge stage was set up and ready for sound checks for the various bands playing Saturday and Sunday. The park is at the foot of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge with a nice beach. I took today's photo on the beach looking towards the bridge. 

BSoleille!

Terri

Senior Dinner 2013

Tonight was Archbishop Spalding High School's class of 2013 senior awards dinner. Many impressive students going on to a bigger academic stage, plus all the awards for excellence in service, citizenship, merit and spirit. I am very thankful in reporting my son, Ryan, received a few awards and one that surprised all of us. 

He received mention and certificate for completing 223 community service hours; the Color Guard Award (given to two students who consistently raised and lowered the flag each and every day school is in session); and the surprise of the night, the Spirit of St. Augustine Award (with humility, courage, sheer determination and profound faith, this student has only begun to realize his true academic potential)!  That award made our night and we are so proud of his school accomplishments because the last four years were quite challenging for him in many aspects. His perseverance seemed to pay off tonight.  

BSoleille!  I believe Ryan's future is bright!

Terri

Superheroes

I have mentioned in previous posts that the games I play (mostly words with friends) and Netflix has substantially cut into my reading time. However, lately I am muscling through a book called "Down Range-Navy Seals War on Terror" by Dick Couch. He was a SEAL in Vietnam and has written several books on Navy SEALS that are excellent. I am really enjoying this particular book. 

Today's SEALS are the epitome of a supercharged GI Joe, and all the Special Forces are working hard to keep America safe.  But these guys are simply amazing and I couldn't last a minute in any of their training sessions whether it be on land or sea!  I cannot believe how tough they are not only physically but mentally as well. Yowza!

BSoleille!

Terri

Gunnar

Yesterday I was lucky to go for a walk with puppy Gunnar in Ohio and his Mom, Linda. He's a German Short-Haired Pointer and he loves to point in that doggie sort of way at mostly birds and other animals as we made our way around Beavercreek Park. 

But one of the best things about Gunnar is that he loves those knotted left over tshirt toys I make. He's gone through a big bag of them already and is down to his last few "toys". I'm fixing to send him and two other dogs a couple bags of these beloved "scrappy" toys. 

BSoleille!

Terri

Photo of a pointed Gunnar. 

"Old" Friends Reaquainted

To garner cheap airfare, sometimes flights are "scheduled" at odd times. But that did not stop my son and I to enjoy our last day visiting in Cleveland. The son got to go to 1.5 games of a double header MLB Indians vs. Yankees, and I got to visit with two friends.  First up was a trip to Amherst, Ohio for lunch and a walk with Linda Misencik.  (I ordered the Lake Erie perch). 

Afterwards I headed back to Cleveland and and met with a friend I had a crush on in 2nd grade, David Gentile!  We've played phone tag for a couple years and texts recently and we finally worked out a long awaited visit from 4-5pm today!  We talked nonstop catching up on our lives and I also got to see his four kids and beautiful wife, Beth! Wow. Good stuff and I'm thankful we were able to work in this visit. 

BSoleille!  The bright side of hanging with an old track and field and cross-country buddy!

Terri

Photo of me and Dave.