Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts

Wild Wings











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Late in August, we took a trip with friends down to Wild Wings bird sanctuary inside Mendon Ponds Park. We enjoyed looking at all the birds, from hawks (several kinds) to vultures and yes, even a crow. There was also a bobcat (I think!). We then walked the trails and tried to feed the birds. Others were having luck, but I think we might have only had 2 birds eat from our hands. Either way, it was fun! Thought I'd just post a few pictures, since i have a ton to get through! At the end, the kids sat down to look at the Monroe Sheriff's horses. (Yes that means these pictures are backwards, stupid blogger)

A Look Back At 2008

Have a seat as I walk you through 2008 briefly...

January: Not much to report this month, as we barely made it up to see the ball drop. I was still blissfully home daily with Kian and cooking up a storm.

February: Kian started crawling. Things got interesting around the house. More cleaning and more safety measures ensue. We host a small Superbowl party and Kenny's birthday dinner back to back.

March: I get the wake up call that I need to go back to work. My former co-workers and boss beg me to come back. I agree. We start the daycare search, with dread.

April: I start back to work on the 7th to what is supposedly half-day week, but is not. Kian goes to daycare for the first time and survives.

May: We prime and paint white over the wood walls in our family room and paint the rest of the room gray. It takes a full week. I plant a garden, smaller than years before, but still good. Kian loves outdoors. I celebrate my first official Mother's Day and birthday all in one by making a big brunch at my house for my mom. Hmm...

June: We take Kian to Seabreeze for my employee picnic on his birthday, with Jon of course. We celebrate Kian's 1st birthday with immediate family and friends. He hasn't got this walking thing down yet, but can sign and say a few words. Kian's first cousin Grant is born to Paul & Elissa. We celebrate Kevin's first Father's Day, by going to the campground for fishing and a picnic.

July: Kian loves the fireworks displays we take him to. We go camping with Patrick and Savannah at Gravel Ponds. Kian can make several animal sounds and has quite a few words.

August: Kian starts walking (finally!) more cleaning up after the child and more safety measures installed. We go camping at Alleghany State Park with my family and enjoy our short vacation. Courtesy of Jon we get to take Kian to the zoo for the first time. He loves seeing all the animals, and we're thrilled with our membership.

September: Our busiest month: We have enough of Kian's daycare and make the switch to Pearce 4 Kids, Kian adjusts well and loves it. My mother-in-law begins watching Kian on Mondays, great for our checking account! Kevin celebrates his 28th birthday. Kevin and I celebrate our 5th anniversary by taking a trip to Toronto and watching the Yankees lose horribly. We stay in China town and laugh at the silly signs while Kian stays home with Aunt NeeNee, the first time alone overnight without us! Kian falls backwards on the driveway and requires a Saturday visit to the pediatrician to clean out the cut on the back of his head and make sure it doesn't require stitches-it doesn't. This walking thing takes a toll on all of us! We also attend the Roberts Wesleyan reunion and parade-nice to see those friends from 5 years ago-5 years already?! The pediatrician doesn't believe me that my child has at least 40+ words. hehe.

October: Kian runs into a corner at daycare and requires an after-hours doctor visit to glue his deep gash together on his forehead. We begin to understand that having a little boy means lots of blood, bruises, and dirt. We stock up our first aid kit. Kian is a scarecrow (homemade) for Halloween. We hide from the trick-or-treaters by going to Wegmans and watching movies in the dark afterwards.

November: Kian votes-so he thinks (and still has the sticker on his car seat to prove it). Kian begins talking in 2 word sentences. We enjoy our two Thanksgivings, start Christmas shopping and November flies by. Jon secures our Strong Museum membership for the year-woo hoo!

December: Kian loves Christmas this year and gets 4 of them! Winter weather finally (?) hits NY and we get dumped on a few times. I have to drive through a blizzard for 2 hours to get home. We take Kian to the Museum and he can't get enough, luckily we get to go again and again... We ring in the New Year with a few friends, quietly.

And then... I'll tell The Rest of the Story! Just like Paul Harvey...

*yawn*

I've been busy. I'm tired. There are a billion things going on in the next week and a half. So, here's my half-hearted attempt at a post. It's boring. It's random point&shoot pictures from a massive bonfire on Saturday. It was fun, fire was huge, considering we threw a Christmas tree, 2 doors, plywood sheets, lattice, set of deck stairs, and who knows what else on it. It burned all night long, and smoked for 12 more hours until I made Kevin hose it down because I was tired of the neighborhood smelling like a campground. Maybe later this week I'll finish up my EI posts, blog about something interesting (like that will happen) and discuss my daycare issues and changes. IF work lets me. It's crazy out there man!

Jocelyn and Kourtney


Elissa with Grant, Paul, Josh and Kristin



Meghan, Kevin, Amy & Mark



Joe relaxing by the fire.

*To be fair, none of then had any clue I was actually taking their picture. And yes, the "night" setting didn't do squat for helping my pictures. Whatever man. Like I said, I'm tired.

blast from the past--one is silver and the other's gold?

So today we went 'home' to see the tri-town parade in Rushville. I haven't been out for that in years. When we go to visit my parent we just go to their house. But, since the Kenny and Kiara always march in the parade and I had people on my 'visit list' we went out.

Wow. It's so strange. Places change so much, but barely change at all, at the same time if you know what I mean. It looks different, but it feels the same and the people are the same, maybe older, grayer, whatever, but overall it's still Rushville. Sometimes that's why I don't like going "home" because things change so much. Houses where there used to be woods and fields, strange things, and I like to remember it how it used to be, when I grew up. Keep it like that perfect snapshot from 12 years ago....

I ran into Andrea and Carrie (I won't use last names because I don't have permission ha!) whom I haven't seen since graduation day. Literally. It's crazy. And it's always hard, because I didn't have all day to ask what's been happening in their lives since that day, nor to explain mine. So, we did the quick small talk before moving on. I would have talked more but...

I had to find Monica, and Robin. They are the two I've known forever-Monica since 3 years old in ballet and preschool, Robin since kindergarten and purple knee socks. (luv you Robin) And more often than not it was the three of us always together, sometimes more people in our circle too. They are really the only ones I've kept in contact with since graduation. I'm not sure why I lost touch with other people, maybe just not as close, maybe they went too far away, who knows. So, I finally got to see Monica's baby, 4 months after he was born...oops.

We also saw some old familiar faces I haven't seen in years, too many years. Good friends, fun, silly people who I grew up with. And kids who aren't really kids anymore. Goodness it's strange. It really makes me remember things I haven't thought of in years, and it's fun, but I'm a nostalgia sap so... It's weird to remember all the old memories of silliness and just plain teenager years, fun, the years we had no worries or responsibilities, and see us all 'growed up'. Working, having kids, having lives and responsibilities. And you go through that mind-numbingly fast flashback in your head while talking to them, with those pictures of randomness in your head while they're telling you about 'adult' things they do and are now. It's fun, encouraging, sad and weird at the same time. If that makes sense.

These are people I've missed, but not in 'weird' ways. In good-friends-growing up ways. These are friends who encouraged me, helped me grow and mature, saw me through good times and bad, just grew up with for decades really. It's strange how easy it was to drift apart and how familiar it all was immediately. I miss them all and it'd be nice if we could all get together more often to just be and know each other again. Plus, now we all have kids who can entertain each other =)

....And then there's my baby girl Olivia. Holy Moses...ain't no baby anymore. Something about that girl, from day one, the day she was born I was drawn to her. I'd 'steal' her every chance I got, spent most of my afternoons and evenings after school at that house with her...miss her like crazy...

Yapping about Yessica

*Warning* overuse of parentheses and sarcasm noted!*

Jessica. You would think that was her only name, but it's not. Jess, Jessie, the usual suspects, plus there's her last names Newcomb, Scholten, Pyhtila, Glorcomb...then there was Aunty J (to my Aunty K) and she started this strange thing about Domi-J (more on that later) but then I began calling her Yessica (I guess her Dutch grandmother does also) and she began calling me Kwyten/Kwytenbug. And thus was born the Kwyten & Yessica show.
But, I'm ahead of myself already. Let's back up, to the day I actually met this girl. It was June of 1999. We both had decided to come to Roberts and were participating in an overnight orientation. Alphabetically, our last names were close to each other and we were put in the same groups, a lot, that weekend, and in rooms near each other. For some strange reason that only God knows, because God has a mega sense of humor I guess, we connected that weekend and latched onto each other. We also drooled over the same guy, I think I remember who, but that doesn't matter anymore, neither of us got him, nor wanted him much after that.

After much deliberation (90 seconds) we decided we should become roomates in the fall. So we signed up and crossed our fingers. That fateful day in August rolled around and my sad parents brought me and my meager belongings to Roberts. We pulled in the parking lot and there was a huge pickup truck, overflowing with bags, boxes, baskets, trunks, you name it, it was in there. My mom says "wow that's a lot of crap, I feel sorry for whoever is that person's roommate". See, here's God's sense of humor again...you knew it didn't you? That was Jessica and all her junk, ...er stuff, and I was that poor roommate. That girl filled our 12x12 room to overflowing. I was getting kinda nervous about where I was even going to sleep with all her clothes and hygiene products!And speaking of hygiene products, that girl loved baby powder like fat kids love cake. Unlike my asthma lungs loved cigarette smoke, which is what that room looked like every morning, and what it felt like to my poor, pink lungs. Eventually she got over that, like 2 years later.
So, we figured out how to fit me in her room and thus began our love, love, hate, love relationship. The very first thing Yessica screamed me stupid for was my yoga tape, yes VHS tape. She said it was satanic, I said it's only stretching. We never worked out that year anyways. We fell into a strangely comfortable, on-edge relationship. We began feeling so comfortable with each other that we began to argue. Little at first, but over the years it grew bigger. And we liked it, so odd that we were.

When I finally decided I'd had enough of the highschool boyfriend, but was still sad over the end, she came home with me and helpfully pointed out every other good-looking male that breathed. This is when the craziness started. The thing is, we were both "good girls", we both were focused on our school work and studied a lot, but also needed some down-time. So, we created alternate personas. Neither of us had a car, so we were stuck on campus a lot, but we liked the other girls in the hall, so it was okay. We liked them so much, we decided to entertain them with our alternate personas. Or we'd sit in our rooms, on our exact same computers across from each other, instant messaging each other while talking to each other on the microphones...to test them out of course!

May rolls around and we begin talking about the next year and decided, despite our few spats, we should be roommates again. We sign up again, choose our room and we're set. Over the summer I distinctly remember going to her home in Syracuse, eating a stir-fry, skillet-in-a-bag thing and then vomiting all night while, wonderful friend she was, slept right through it. Then there was the time I 'pretended' to 'climb' a tree on campus and she jokingly yells out "SECURITY!" and of course the security guard was just behind her on his bike and thought she needed help. He gave me a "talking too". (basically, while laughing, he told me please don't get hurt and crack my head open climbing trees on campus, especially since it was a 3 inch around sapling.)

Back in school again, I meet Kevin and she meets a guy. This caused lots of arguments, I mean clearly these boys were taking us away from each other. How could they? She became super involved with the nameless boy and we began having more arguments. I vividly remember a yelling match down the hall with dorm-mates and my friends present. She soon left me, for another roommate on the other side of the quads, spring semester. Jody let her have boys in her room, even though it was against the rules. After we cooled down we still hung out and obviously in May we just knew we had to be roommates again, but we were getting the campus apartments this time as juniors! We just would be perfect together rooming and sharing an apartment again!

This time actually was the worst hate, love, hate time in our lives. She continued seeing that boy, got engaged to him, un-engaged a few times and re-engaged a few times. I tried to ever so gently point out, that I didn't think it was a good idea. But, she disagreed. She also helpfully pointed out all of Marine Guy's faults and Kevin's too.
And thus Psychotic Hour was born. I claim Jess came up with all these names, I do not want any patents or copyrights associated with me. This usually consisted of whatever argument turning into a chase around the apartment, flying freezing, cold water hitting everyone and everything, laughing and snorting and being so loud that our neighbors would pound on the wall or door to shut us up. And it was only 9 o'clock! And cheap wine, nor beer, nor vodka had ever touched our lips.

Essentially, we knew how to push each other's buttons, how to make each other laugh hysterically and how to drag each other out of the pit of despair. It really was great. Except those times she would beg and cry to me she needed to pee while I was in the shower, and I'd lovingly unlock the door, and be blasted with freezing cold water on my naked body. Yep, that's love. Why she thinks that is so funny, I don't know, and yes she still thinks it's the most hilarious thing ever in her life.

Then, it happened. She married that guy. I was supposed to be in her wedding, but just before we decided to go into one of our hate modes and I didn't. I feel bad, but then again, I didn't want her to marry that guy. And with good reason, as he left her high and dry and did her wrong. I had some foreshadowing perhaps... She got back at me by not coming to my wedding. And you know what the best part is? We laugh about it and think it's funny. There really was never any hard feelings, well none that wouldn't dissapate after 23 seconds.

When Kevin and I had a big fight right after we were married, she came and spent the night with me, leaving her then-husband alone. And when he left her, I spent the night with her and left my husband alone. There's no beating around the bush, we say what we mean, and mean what we say, and sometimes we say it mean. When I think she's being stupid I tell her, when she thinks I need some smacking around she does it. But we have learned we are better off NOT roommates. Even when she came to stay with Kevin and I one time, I yelled at her. Lord only knows why, it's just what we do. Sadly, I haven't seen her in person in almost 2 years, she hasn't seen Kian yet. I can't punch her in the gut or pour freezing water on her, but I can make her snort like nobody's business on the phone or even on instant message. Sometimes I think she knows me better than I know myself, better than Kevin or my mother even do.

She's a gypsy now. So, I don't know when I shall see her again. She's here and there and everywhere (kinda like the Gummy bears--come on you know you remember that song!) Ok, okay she's not really a gypsy. She set off on some sort of missions trip April 2006 and it turned into this Moses thing where she travels the world for 40 years...or something like that. I just know that every few weeks I get more emails and news that she's in another country or state or continent, or joining a convent, or selling orphans on the black market or preparing monkey meat in Tansinia...you know, the usual things people like her do. But, I don't know what I'd do without her. She'll put the fear of God in you then make laugh so hard your brain flies out your nose. And we all know that everyone needs a friend like that. So, here's to Yessica, my longest relationship yet-9 years and still going strong.
And now you know the rest of the story. Good day.

Ode to Jon

I told him he'd be the first on my tribute list.
Jon and Kevin went to school together from about 3rd grade on. They both went to Brockport College, but in totally different degree programs. I think they rode the bus togehter? He'll correct any misinformation I put out there. So, I met Jon when Kevin and I were dating. I believe we went to his house to swim after I moved into my ghetto apartment (yes the days of ghetto brook apt, i mean meadowbrook apt don't let the pictures fool you, they don't tell about how Kevin's car got broken into, how the guy downstairs beat his wife and we always had to call the police, or about the 100 lbs of marijuana they confiscated from there, yet I digress...). Soon, Jon and Kevin were cluttering up my apartment with video games, naughty words, furry animals and strange Simpsons phrases.

So, we carried on this way, me going along with them for swimming and frying my brain with all things Simpsons. Jon was even in our wedding, although he still claims he wants his money back, especially for his tux. Sorry, outta luck buddy!
Jon liked to help me introduce Kevin to vegetables and decent restaurants. Jon and I convinced Kevin, like only a year or so ago, to try green peppers at San Jose's Mexican restaurant (delish!) He finally agreed they weren't that bad. Jon also gave us Grandpa Sam's Italian restaurant. Mmm mm!
And who was the first person Kevin called and the first person to arrive to help us do a major one-day moving relay out of Ghetto brook? Jon. Of course. With a truck. And helped us move all day, for two days, into the mumbles townhouse. What a guy. hehe. And again, helped us move into our house? Yep, Jon. He and my brother loaded up moving trucks, other trucks, ripped up carpet in the new house, you name it. And he helped me convince Kevin that every house obviously needs a cat! And now we have two.

Oh it doesn't end there. Jon has been the go-to guy, the fix-it guy, pretty much any and all, he does it. Thanks to Jon I have a dimmer switch in my family room. And Jon came over one day and helped me steam, scrape, peel wall paper off until we were both covered in glue and nasty old country mauve paper. He loves to spend Kevin's money at Home Depot, and it's usually worth it hehe. There's plenty of other projects he's done or assisted with too. Moldings, baseboards, trim, landscaping... Although, he's the one who got Kevin wanting a hot tub, thanks a lot, so much that we ended up with one! And one of the first to come see Kian after he was born. As Kevin's mother likes to say "what would we do without Jon???" =)
(caught the cat mid-air here. these are old and he'll kill me for them! especially since he's all buff and stuff now!)
Some of Jon's favorite sayings:
"who has a rabbit for a pet anyways?"
"hoo hee hah"
"why you little!"
"are you stupid?"
Gosh, I wish I could remember them all, they're quite funny...