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Getting Ready For the Holidays in July

Posted on July 7, 2011 2:18 pm by TheAngelForever

As I mentioned the other day, we often try to get my niece, nephew, and two boys for a photo together for our family members. As you know, that quest is often a comedy of errors. You would think that it would get easier, when you are trying to do this with only two children.

Insert extreme laughter, sarcasm, and rolling eyes here!

Yes, I will admit it. Since we had the kids, we actually start to think about Christmas cards long before December hits. When Global Influence and Storkie asked me to participate in a post about Christmas in July, it made me laugh. By Halloween, we begin to talk about a photo shoot with the kids. What should they wear, when should we do it, and the list of options goes on.

Then, we inevitably forget about time and it is nearly Thanksgiving. TechyDad and I start to talk about things, we agree to photo cards.

The clock is ticking as December is suddenly here. Some years, Chanukah has already begun before my birthday which is early in the month. This is about when we really start to panic. Yes, we need to get cracking. Photos must be taken, cards ordered, and then ship them out.

The photo shoot itself is usually full of stressful, but fun laughter. The boys get silly and we keep snapping away until we hope that we have at least one photo to work.

Once the kids are asleep, TechyDad and I sit at the computer and toss out a lot of the pictures. Once we find THE one, we have to agree on a card. Since we are Jewish and a lot of friends celebrate Christmas, we opt to make New Years cards. This is also a nice way of being able to drag out the process a little longer and not being late.

So, admission time here. How are you about getting your holiday cards ready to send to family and friends? It may only be July now, but before you know it the holidays will be here.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post from Global Influence and Storkie. For sharing this information, I will be receiving compensation. All content and opinions are my own.

Global Influence Network

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holidays jsl looking back nhl photos sponsored post TechyDad vent

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly – 10th Anniversary Edition

Posted on June 27, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

As I have mentioned before, Friday was my 10th Anniversary with TechyDad. He went to work, NHL went to school for his last half day, and JSL and I stayed at home to do some cleaning. We had someone stopping by later in the day to check on a clogged bathroom sink. Thanks to this sink, we were forced to wash hands in the bathroom tub.

The day did not exactly go as planned. You see, thank goodness the plumber came early. He showed up at 11:30-ish instead of 2-3. I had to leave shortly after to pick NHL up from school. When he left, we knew we had some large issues. He said he would go to lunch, get supplies, and come back about an hour later to get to work. In the end, he was at our house until about 7:30 at night. Our initial plans were shot and even other items had to be changed. Still, we made the best of the situation.

The Good:

We went to my parent’s house to have cake with the boys before putting them to bed there. Thanks to fumes, we could not stay in our house. Here are the delicious cakes that we had

Once the kids were FINALLY into bed, TechyDad still wanted to head out to dinner. Since it was almost 9:30, we had limited choices. I recalled a new Sushi place not too far away, so off we went to Mr. Fuji Sushi. Our experience at Mr. Fuji’s was amazing. The food was delicious, the people there super nice, and the atmosphere wonderful. Since it was so late, we ordered two appetizers and three sushi rolls to share.

To start we had Age Tofu and Vegetable Tempura

Then we had a Philadelphia roll, Avocado Peanut roll, and Sweet Potato roll

Yes, I believe this is the best sushi I have had in a long time. We will definitely be heading back to Mr. Fuji again soon.

The Bad:

We thought that the plumbing issue would require snaking the pipes. When they tried to do this, the snake refused to go down and kept going up into the pipes instead. When JSL and I left to pick up NHL at school, they were debating a few options.

Try to go in the attic and snake things and it may last 1-2 years IF we are lucky.
Replace the old pipes in the section that appeared to be the root of the issue with PVC pipes.

I went to pick NHL up and bring the kids home for lunch.

The Ugly:

When they arrived back at our house, I saw them hauling a long section of PVC pipe. I knew it was the best thing, but I was paranoid and worried about things. As they started to work in the basement on cutting the pipe open, it started to get more complicated. They could not get to the top of the pipe from the basement. Suddenly, wall removal was needed. Yes, I think I aged several years in this afternoon from making big decisions on the fly and listening to the noises in my house. I knew that they were capable, but it was driving me batty.

The guys came back upstairs to give me the news and I immediately knew we made the right decision. You see, the pipe in the basement was nearly closed shut. The old material has basically closed itself shut. I never went to look in the basement until a while later. I gave permission to remove wall to get at the sink pipe within there. The hole got larger than this, but you get the point from this view:

After a lot of power tool noises and labor in the bathroom with the wall and pipe fighting, they finally got that sucker out. Check this bad boy out. Yes, this nasty object was pretty much what was happening down stairs in the basement as well. Here is our corroded galvanized pipe from within the wall:

It was not an easy job, but these guys were amazing. They dealt with my paranoia and got the work done and well. They even cleaned up the mess when the tiles on the wall next to the sink spontaneously fell off – no I am not joking. Apparently, they were not put on right by previous owners. This was good under the sink since nothing was ruined getting to the pipes behind the wall. I was too sick at the mess during that time to take a photo. I am also sparing you from photos of the basement pipes and sludge that came out of them. Let’s just say old toothpaste and soap are not pretty nor do they smell nice.

In the end, the pipe is fixed, a few more will need this down the road, and we need a massive bathroom rehab soon. More good news, the pipe works and we have a new faucet that is not leaking. Thanks to spray that was used during the cleaning process on the tiles/pipes, there are horrible fumes in our house. It has been a rough few days and we are so very lucky that my parents are here for us.

So there you have it, the good, the bad, and the ugly of our 10th Annversary!

Psssst. . . if you need a good person for home repairs in my area – just let me know. This work, along with the roof, and broken main water valve were done by the same person. Highly recommend.

Categories:
bad news decisions family food glorious food house messy nasty things photos TechyDad vent yummy

Wedding Day – 10 Years Ago

Posted on June 24, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Wow. Ten years ago today I married JL. Way back in the day, he was not TechyDad. The Angel Forever was getting ready to become the Mrs to her Long Island Love.

At that point in our lives we knew that one day we would be parents, but were young, naïve, and focused on our wedding day. The stresses leading up to our magical day all melted away on that beautiful Sunday morning. Before we knew it, our ketubah was signed and we were standing under the chuppah in front of all of our family and friends.

Most of the actual wedding day events are a blur to me. I hardly recall eating, drinking, or much. Thank goodness we have photos. Here is a rare moment when we sat down at our wedding table. Note that even Mickey and Minnie were invited to celebrate before we went to visit them on our honeymoon.

The next morning we left early for our long awaited Disney World honeymoon. This was JL’s first time there and I was determined to make him as crazy about Disney. I do believe it worked.

We had a magical ten days at Disney dining, exploring, relaxing, and romancing. I think JL saw that Disney World is not just for kids. We went to see Cirque du Soleil La Nouba, and did several behind the scene tours and were spoiled as newlyweds. Yes, we were Disneyfied!

Since we stayed at The Beach Club Resort, we walked from our resort into Epcot a lot to dine. We would enter the park via France in World Showcase. Almost ten years later, we stopped for a rare photo together while visiting France

My letter to TechyDad from last year still holds true. I am beyond lucky to have an amazing husband and best friend. It has been quite an adventure the last 10 years, and I look forward to many more magical moments together. I love you with all of my heart and look forward to the rest of our lives together.

So my question to everyone today:

Where did you go on your honeymoon and have you ever been back? If you are waiting for the honeymoon of your dreams, where would you like to go?

For more wedding photos and memories:

Pssst . . . be sure to stop by my Cars 2 giveaway to enter for a chance to win some great items.

____________________________________________________________________________

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 #157

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Aloha Friday Disney dreams fun jl looking back photos summer TechyDad travel vacation

Tuesday Tales – Rory’s Story Cubes

Posted on June 21, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Tuesday Tales

Hi, TechyDad here. I’m guest-posting for today’s Tuesday Tales. And here’s one of the tales:

Once upon a time, there was an alien who took his pet bee on an airplane. They had received a post card from the alien’s good friend Bigfoot. They tried to find Bigfoot’s home but turned in the wrong direction and got lost. They looked all over and finally found the fountain in front of Bigfoot’s cave. They were just in time for his birthday party. The End.

No, this isn’t part of a great piece of literature. This is a story that I just made up. Don’t worry. I’m not reviewing my own stories. I’m reviewing *how* I made this story up. I used nine small dice called Rory’s Story Cubes.

Each die in the set has six sides like a normal die. Unlike normal die, though, there aren’t dots, but pictures. The goal is to make a story using the pictures that come up when you roll the die. You roll them all at once and try to come up with a story that fits. Alternatively, you can work with other people, rolling one die at a time and taking turns adding on to the story. Here is what I rolled that became the story above:

The genius here is that this prompts kids (and, let’s face it, grown ups) to exercise their imaginations. Each roll of the dice results in a different set of images. Since there are over 10 million possible combinations, you could play for years without repeating the same story twice. Even if you rolled the same images twice, a simple shift in the order you put them in or interpretation of the images can drastically change the story.

This can also be used to help kids practice their writing. As you saw above, my story wasn’t long. Less than 70 words (and I purposefully lengthened it). At this length, it shouldn’t intimidate early writers at all. A child could think up their story and practice writing it out with no problem. In fact, children might be more motivated to write their own stories than to write answers to questions or copy printed texts.

Since the use of these story cubes seems to be limited only by imagination, here’s a quick imagination exercise for all you readers. Look at this Rory’s Story Cubes dice roll:

Now, what story can you make up using these pictures? Leave your story in the comments below. Let’s see how many different stories we can get from the same nine images.

Want to see and hear what NHL thought of Rory’s Story Cubes? Head on over to TechyDad.com to see his video review.

What have you read recently? Please be sure to link up to your Book Posts, and/or leave a comment below. Include something you read on your own, with a child or someone else. Tuesday Tales are all about spreading the love for books.

Disclosure: Our son picked out Rory’s Story Cubes while shopping at a local book store. He thought they looked like fun and used a gift card that he had received for Passover to purchase it. All opinions are our own and no compensation was given. One widget within the review is for my Amazon Affiliate where I will receive a percentage of money for the sale should you opt to buy Rory’s Story Cubes. Note from TheAngelForever – as a teacher this would be a great classroom gift to send to your child’s teacher.

Categories:
Educational Guest post Product review TechyDad Tuesday Tales

Golf, Food, Family, and Fun

Posted on June 20, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Mother’s Day and Father’s Day around here are typically days that we try to do something fun and different with the kids to enjoy a day together. This year was no different. We opted not to go strawberry picking and took the boys to a local miniature golf location. They have the traditional outdoor one, but also a fun glow in the dark indoor one. Since it was beautiful outside, we did the outdoor one. For Father’s Day they were doing a pay for 18 holes and play all 36. It seemed like a good plan.

I opted not to play, instead I took photos, walked, helped the little guy (his first time playing), and whined. Yes, I was in a cranky mood. The boys were not listening, heat, and rough condition of the greens were making me wish we had gone to get strawberries. After a bit, I calmed down some and we muddled our way past 26 of the 36 holes. It was getting late and I knew the boys were getting antsy.

TechyDad picked a new place to try to lunch. We went to Saati Deli and Catering and had an absolutely delicious meal. The people were super friendly, the menu huge, and food amazing. TechyDad and I decided to split a big grilled cheese sandwich for the boys and get them a small french fry (they rarely have them). Then we split two sandwiches to try. I selected the Grilled Vegetable, Fresh Mozzarella, Pesto and Balsamic Glaze. TechyDad opted for the Feta Cheese, Fried Eggplant, Pesto, Lettuce and Tomato. Yum, yum, yum – we all loved the food we had. There is no doubt that we will be going back here again.

From here we splurged and went back to the ice cream place that Nana and Papa had taken us to a week ago. Since I was not a huge fan of the kind I had last time, I tried something new. OMG – I was in heaven. Seriously, check this bad boy out:

This has to be one of the best ice cream flavors I have ever had. It was Peanut Butter Caramel Cookie Dough. What is not to love about what combination?

We went to do a little shopping and then went home to grab some items to take to Nana and Papa’s house. While there the boys played, TechyDad took a nap, and I prepared the Asian Salad that my father requested. Here is a sneak peak of what was in that:

We had a wonderful dinner with my parents, fantastic new-to-me watermelon, and then came home to get the boys into bed. No, it may not have been exactly the day we planned, but it was a great day with our family.

What did you do to celebrate Father’s Day this year?