looking back | The Angel Forever

Category Archives looking back

Happy 1st Birthday Cora

Posted on November 30, 2010 9:45 am by TheAngelForever

A year ago today, a beautiful little baby girl was born. Today many of us will be wearing pink in her memory.

The following was posted on Facebook by a friend of Cora’s mother and I wanted to share it:

Today is Cora’s birthday, and because of Cora, I now know that CHD can often be detected by a simple, non invasive pulse ox test, and to celebrate Cora’s birthday, I’m not just wearing pink, I’m also putting my pregnant friends on the spot and telling them to request one before they go home if they have a hospital birth.

As I wear pink, I will be thinking about Cora and her amazing mother and father, Kristine and Ben. It is because of their willingness to share their sweet baby girl with us that many lives have been saved and more will continue.

Previous posts about Cora:

My angel forever – Cora’s Story in honor of congenital heart disease awareness week (Guest post by Kristine Brite McCormick)
Thinking pink for Cora
It’s time to wear pink for Cora
Wearing pink for Cora – 7 months

Hugs being sent out to Kristine and Ben. Thank you for sharing your sweet baby girl and Happy 1st Birthday to Cora.

Categories:
bloggy friends health awareness looking back

Thing 1 and Thing 2

Posted on November 27, 2010 8:19 am by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL and JSL,

On Thanksgiving day we confused you and your cousins a little. We decided to exchange Chanukah gifts with cousin SG and BA. Since it was less than a week before it started and we will not be seeing them during the holiday, it made a lot of sense to the adults. Here are the four cousins all together at Nana and Papa’s house.

Then it was time to open the presents. Cousin SG and BA started with theirs first while the two of you waited patiently.

The two of you received a cool container filled with dozens of dinosaurs. Along with this JSL got an iXL Toy Story 3 game and NHL a Cars Mater game for the Nintendo DS. Then I was in love. When Uncle I and Aunt M were in Florida a few weeks ago, they asked sizes for the two of you. I knew that they had gone to Islands of Adventure and thought about asking them to buy you something. They must have been mind readers since they bought them as part of your Chanukah present.

What the two of you may not remember is when JSL was born Daddy and I started to lovingly call you Thing 1 and Thing 2. That first Father’s Day we actually bought Daddy a Thing 1 and Thing 2 set at Build-A-Bear Workshop and he still has them in his office. I can not wait to see the two of you wearing these since they have so many fun memories.

Love,

Mommy

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If you want to participate in Dear Kid Saturday, head on over to Cutest Kid Ever by clicking on the button below.

Categories:
brothers cousins Dear Kid Saturday holidays jsl looking back nhl photos

School projects

Posted on November 12, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

When I was teaching, I was a pro at assigning projects to my students. I had a lot of fun coming up with new and creative ways for my kids to do things like book reports and science projects. Of course, the flip side of these items was correcting them. I spent countless hours creating rubrics with my grading policies, expectations for each section, and more. Once the items came in, as exciting as it was to see the creativity of my students, it also meant a lot of work correcting/grading them. Not simply slapping a grade on them, but writing comments as to why points were deducted per the rubric and beyond. In the end, it was well worth it. Of course, I did have complaints about some of my projects. The calls, e-mails, and personal visits happened many times. Most of the time, things ended well and everyone was happy.

Now I am getting a taste of life as a parent helping with projects for my own boys. NHL has had a few of them here and there, he is a second grader after all. On Tuesday, JSL (3) came home with his first ever school assignment from nursery school. I smiled as I watched the little guy get so excited that he had homework. I read the note that was on a large sheet of construction paper:

Dear Parents,

In conjunction with the upcoming holiday of Thanksgiving, we will be focusing on our families.

Your homework is to depict what your family enjoys doing together. Use pictures, stickers, etc.

Homework is due Friday, Nov. 12th.

Have fun,

JSL’s Teachers

So, JSL has been talking non-stop about doing his homework (I need to record this excitement to use for when he gets older). Thursday, he helped me to pick out some photos. We went to CVS and had them printed out. Then we sat down on the floor to arrange them on the paper. He helped me to glue them on (had special photo glue I was testing), and then added fun stickers of his choice from my collection. Here is the final result:

So my question for you this week:

If you have children, what has your favorite project been that they have brought home? If you do not have kids, or they are too little, what was your favorite as a child?

P.S. Be sure to stop by and enter my Mastermind Game giveaway and TechyDad’s Mastermind Animal Tower giveaway.

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #125

Categories:
Aloha Friday holidays jsl looking back milestone photos school

Thoughts of Florida dance in our heads

Posted on November 6, 2010 10:39 am by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL and JSL,

This week, we told you that Uncle I, Aunt M, Cousin SG, and Cousin BA were going to Disney World. It seems like Florida and Disney World in particular were on our minds.

Wednesday morning we woke up to this scene:

JSL got into the car and we had the following conversation: "Mama what’s that?" You were pointing to the frost on the windshield. My reply: "That’s just another reason for us to move to Florida to be near Mickey Mouse!"

Of course, I think you heard Mickey Mouse and just assumed it meant we were going there. At the end of the afternoon, I picked you up and told you that SG was going to see Mickey Mouse at Disney World. You immediately insisted that we get on an airplane and go right now. You did not understand that it was not something that we could just do. Tears resulted and you insisted we had to go and see Mickey Mouse and go on your Winnie the Pooh ride.

Luckily, a visit to Nana and Papa’s house stopped the crying. A little later in the evening, you asked for your Disney World hat and proceeded to parade around the house with your ears on.

Fast forward to Thursday night. I happened to mention to NHL that they were eating dinner at The Crystal Palace that evening and going to Boma the next night. NHL, you immediately stated that we had to go now and meet them at Boma. I think you really like it there.

So many wonderful memories of Disney World and our time there. Makes me so happy that you enjoyed and remember the time there. With a little Pixie Dust, we hope to be going again soon.

Love,

Mommy

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If you want to participate in Dear Kid Saturday, head on over to Cutest Kid Ever by clicking on the button below.

Categories:
Dear Kid Saturday Disney family jsl looking back nhl

The importance of date nights

Posted on November 5, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Date nights are not something that TechyDad and I frequently get. Life just gets really busy and we never seem to coordinate a time to go out. Sure, we watch movies at home when the kids are asleep. Sometimes, we even break out a board game like we used to before having kids. Still, it is nice to go out to a child free dinner at a location more for adults.

On Saturday night, my parents offered to watch the boys so we could go out to dinner. We had a Restaurants.com certificate to use at a local restaurant called Mangia. It was the night before Halloween and pretty quiet when we got there. We decided to share an appetizer (we hardly ever do this) and decided on our meals. Here is what we ordered:

It was a very nice meal and delicious (even reheated the next day for leftovers). We tried not to talk about the kids too much and focused on other items. We planned sitting down and testing out some new games that we had to review and making time to watch a movie that I took out from the library. It was a great meal and very relaxing. With any luck, we will be able to get out again before my birthday in December.

So my question for you today:

If you have kids, do you make time for a date night with your spouse? For everyone, what would your ideal date night be?

P.S. Be sure to stop by and enter my Mastermind Game giveaway and TechyDad’s Mastermind Animal Tower giveaway.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #124