Hello Again...I'm Baaaaaaack

It's been a while hasn't it?

It's not like I've been away or anything, Facebook has become my latest connection to the world. Facebook is a great way to re-connect with friends who have been gone from your life or who you may have forgotten about!!! There are other things you can "join" on Facebook and they are usually groups of people with something in common. For example, I'm on one that is for people who remember driving on the Circuit in Asbury Park. Now if you don't know what that was, then you probably wouldn't be interested. There are all sorts of sites and "surfing" in cyberspace can be an endless thing; makes one lose track of time!!! I also joined a few that connect me to my home town.

My latest favorite site on Facebook is Tales of the Jersey Shore, which is all about pictures and history of the Jersey Shore and is hosted by an author who has several published books. He posts pix from his collection and some are very good images. This was particularly interesting to me; an aerial of Long Branch, probably taken in the 30's or 40's. The Long Branch Speedway is right across from the pier--just about the place where the Ocean Place Hotel is located now. I thought this was a great picture, and I wanted to let everyone in on the author's blog page site, so visit if you want; it's http://talesofthejerseyshore.blogspot.com

Bye for now,
CJ

Summer in Bloom at the Jersey Shore

Hello again.

It's been a while.

Just finishing up our summer vacation (or should I say stay-cation?).

We loved having time off and being together in our favorite place in the world.

Our back porch is like our own tropical paradise.
Summer is in bloom again at the good old Jersey Shore!!!

Perfect weather, too.

Having a great time.

Wish you were here.

Love, CJ

The Cycle of Life is Complete...

Two Loving Daughters Have Completed Their Duty

It was on July 18, 2001 at age 80 that Mom had her first stroke, which rendered her no longer able to live alone. So Sharon and I moved her into assisted living. Over the next 3+ years, we managed every aspect of Mom's affairs, including many interim moves. By early 2004 Mom was living in the Alzheimer's unit, but unfortunately she suffered another, more debilitating stroke in September 2004. By the end of September 2004, Mom was in the Jersey Shore Center, an excellent nursing home, in Eatontown, NJ. At that point, Sharon and I started our lunchtime visits, 7 days a week. During Mom's first few months there, she was able to feed herself, but gradually lost the use of her arms and hands; she hadn't been able to walk since her admission, and was confined to a wheelchair. We kept our loving vigil on our Mother for another 3+ years, until Monday, February 11, 2008, when she left us for a better place. Mom was 86 years old and would have been 87 on April 4th. As you can tell, she was loved very deeply. We grieve her loss but also celebrate her life. She was a classy lady and will be missed. If you'd like to read the obituary, please visit the funeral home website at http://www.woolleyfh.com/?p=obituary_view&id=49126 and light a memorial candle in her memory.

Here are some videos that I happened to find saved in my computer:

A New Day Dawns...

Peace and Tranquility



We've been having a strange winter here at the Jersey Shore. Doesn't really feel like winter. I guess you could say it has been unseasonable. January was a recordbreaker because we had zero snowfall.

Our sunrises lately have also been quite amazing. I will make this post short and sweet, but I wanted to share with everyone who may not have a clear view of a sunrise or may not be awake early enough to see one!!!

I took these pictures a day apart at about 7:00 in the morning. I hope that you enjoy them. I don't know about you, but seeing such a gorgeous sunrise makes my day!!

Jersey Girl CJ

Yes We Are Still Alive...

Happy Holidays, Everyone!!!!!!!


Sorry to have been sort of "off the air" for a while. I've been checking everyone's blogs from time to time but keeping a low profile for some reason. What I've been reading lately has been some of the best stuff yet, so keep it up (you know who you are: Sarah, Jenny and Ryan!! And yeah, Kelsey's back, too!!).


So, yes we are still alive.


Just got the house decorated for Christmas today and I took this picture looking into our livingroom with the river in the background. It's my new wallpaper for my computer screen. So I thought I'd share.
Our tree this year is in the Family Room and it is visible to me when I am in the kitchen cooking. I like that. The lights and adornments on it look especially beautiful this year. Or do I say that every year?? Oh well...

So let me take this opportunity to wish everyone who visits this blog a very Happy and Healthy Holiday Season!!! I'll try to blog more often in 2008 if I have anything worthwhile to blog about. But I'll be out there in cyberspace reading all of yours...

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

Summer's Almost Over...

Here we go again, summer's coming to an end soon and the weather's about to turn cooler.

At least summer's a time when we can have lots of BBQs and have the "greats" over for pool parties. They are all growing up so quickly.

We recently hosted a BBQ with our niece Lauren and great nephew Gene who visited from New Hampshire for a couple of days. Lauren's Mom (my sister-in-law) also was here. We had a great time and the weather was wonderful while they were here!! They left the day the rain started.

Just wanted to put up some new pix to show how amazing these kids are.

Gotta love them!!! We sure do.

Our Next Generation

The Gathering of the Greats

Well, I am finally getting around to blogging about our recent family get together.

We had a barbecue at our house over Memorial Day Weekend and our Ohio family came for a visit.

I call it the Gathering of the Greats. We finally managed to get the two sets of our great nieces and great nephews together!! 3 girls, 2 boys. The 4 of them all played together while 3 month old Baby Abel was nearby being held and loved by all!!

It was a sort of cool day, but some of the kids wanted to go in the pool, so the poor dads had to freeze their buns off supervising them!!

At one point later on, I noticed that Eva (2-1/2) and Nick (3-1/2) were playing together inside the house in our makeshift playroom (which is really a very large walk-in shower and has lots of toys). It was a precious sight for me to see.

We had a good old fashioned Jersey Shore BBQ: Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Corn on the Cob, Homemade Potato Salad, and a huge bowl of fruit salad for dessert. Also lots of salads and an assortment of crab claws and shrimp cocktail with my own crabcakes; I also made fried chicken drumsticks for the kids, too.

We had a good time visiting and eating; the time passed by so quickly!!


We always love having our family get togethers...this one was especially special by getting our local and out-of-town families together and to also meet the newest member of our family.

Gotta love them!! They're Our Next Generation...

A Tribute to My Mom: Happy Mother's Day

Even though I have not been posting my own blogs lately, don't worry, I've been reading everyone else's...I just haven't had anything to write about. Somehow the time just gets away from me and I never seem to have enough of it.

In the spirit of this holiday weekend of Mother's Day, I'd like to post this collage that I made as a tribute to my Mom. The pix are mostly ones of she and I, and when you see how lovingly she looked at me, you can understand even more why I am at the nursing home taking care of her in these final days of her life. What more need I say?

Sharon and I will be there tomorrow (Mother's Day) and we're having our own little picnic!! I will bring sandwiches of my own making for us along with other goodies to munch on. Mom doesn't really eat, but we'll offer her all sorts of things and hope for the best!!!

Hope you all enjoy or enjoyed your Mother's Day!!! Remember to cherish her today because she could be gone tomorrow...

Love to all,

CJ

The Trees Froze at Bellevue

Yes, that's right; I said the trees FROZE at Bellevue!!

As you can see by the collage below, most of the trees at Bellevue are frozen (have been since the Valentine's Day Ice Storm of 2007).

We just got power back last night (out for a 36+ hours).

All I could do was take pix of the gorgeous iced trees; they're all adorned with crystals and in the sunshine they are magnificent (at least to look at).

Unfortunately, we had a lot of frozen limbs come down onto roadways, houses, fences and (of course) power lines. The outside world was a mess!!!

But there is now a peaceful look to the sunshiney outdoors. The storm is over and we are patiently waiting for the "spring thaw"!!!

Ahhhh, Mother Nature....!!!

The Cycle of Life: The Child Becomes the Parent

Perspective is always a good thing...

Here are our Christmas pix with Mom at the nursing home. It was their Christmas party.


Mom didn't really know it was Christmas--she didn't like the loud music and wanted to leave, so we left the party early. At least we know that we celebrated with her.

Here's a pic of what I typically find when I arrive to feed her lunch on a Mon., Wed. or Fri.:

It is what it is, and we must deal with it. This is the cycle of life; the child becomes the parent in the end...

We take care of her and make sure she is not hurting. She doesn't know who we are. But we cheerfully go EVERY day and make sure she is cared for and that she eats at least one good meal a day. These days, all she seems to eat are the desserts; we can't seem to get her to eat much food. Even my homemade stuff doesn't seem to make a difference anymore. We make sure her desserts are healthy ones like yogurt and Mighty Shakes and ice cream. I bring her bananas and she'll eat them sometimes if I bury them in her chocolate ice cream. She doesn't seem to make any sensible words anymore, so we have to guess what she's trying to say.

The cycle of life is amazing; the elderly are at the end of their lives and then we have the new babies in the family to carry on...I hope that Mom will get a chance to hold her THIRD great-grandchild, who is due to be born in late Feb.--a boy--the first great-grandson.

Life goes on and so must we...

Ho Ho Ho to You and Yours

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

What a whirlwind couple of days this has been...now it's over and we've got almost a week till we go back to work. I need a rest.

Everybody just left and my house is getting put back in order. Being non-parents, we are not used to the disarray that comes with having little ones around. Samantha and Nick (age 6 and 2) were really well behaved today, but of course got caught up in the excitement of Christmas.

We all had a great time and my filet mignon roast came out perfect. We had molten chocolate cake right out of the oven for dessert. After that there was no holding those children back any longer. Santa had visited Aunt CJ and Uncle Mark's house!! The pics speak for themselves (some of them are from Christmas Eve at their house).

Have a wonderful rest of the holiday season...and Happy New Year!!

CJ

It's Christmas Season at Bellevue

Happy Holidays, Everyone!!

I have been very busy this weekend getting our house "in the mood" for the Holidays!

I am now pleased to announce that it is the Christmas Season here at Bellevue!!

Lots wrapped and under the tree, lots more to be done!! Still some more decorating of the house to do , but getting the tree up and decorated REALLY gets me in the spirit of the holiday season. (And a package to Ohio will be on its way soon...)

Our weather is changing now and getting colder; we've had unusually warm weather up till now. A little dusting of snow on Christmas Eve would be nice, too.

So, Merry Christmas to all (Happy Holidays to some), and to all a good night!!

From CJ and Mark

30 Years and Counting Down to the Next One...

Yes, I made it to the Reunion! And it was really a fun time!

OK, granted, they "lost" about half of our graduating class (we had over 300). But of the 150 or so that they did locate, only about 55 of us showed up at the 30th!! But the group of "kids" who did show was really the cream of the crop... Some traveled from as far away as California. Most are still located in New Jersey.

Hubby and I arrived promptly at 7 pm (when the open bar began) and were probably among the first to get there. We got some seats at a table and the people quickly began to arrive.

The planners of the Reunion gave us a booklet with everyone's current information, and the tables were filled with these cute little thin glass candle holders with a picture of our school and "Class of 1976 - 30th Reunion" on it.

They also made us all wear nametags, which was a help to me because the guys really changed alot (mostly losing their hair...)!!

There was a DJ who played music from the 70's and 80's mostly, and of course there was dancing. At one point I noticed a bunch of the ladies on the dancefloor doing the electric slide all in unison!!! And they looked good!!

One of the planners also made a really good slideshow presentation; he narrated it beautifully. One part was a tribute to those who had passed away--I was blown away by seeing some of the names and pictures, some of them who I did not know had died. And a tribute to our teachers who had also passed away. It was very moving. The presentation went on to show some pretty funny moments of our high school times, making us all laugh!!

The lighting wasn't great for taking pics with my camera, so here are the only ones that came out at all. My friend (Adriane) brought her yearbook to the Reunion, and it came in quite handy as a tray to deliver drinks to our table!!

Really, though, everyone had a fantastic time!! Even Hubby said it was fun; he couldn't believe how friendly everyone was.

Can't wait for the next one--probably in another 10 years!!

CJ

COUNTDOWN TO REUNION TIME

Next Saturday night is my 30th High School Reunion. Finally, it is almost here!! I've got sort of mixed emotions about going. Part of me wants to go and then the other part of me is dreading it, kind of like school was in the first place.

Husband is going with me and we're supposed to pick up a friend or two on the way, so I'll be with a group--that's good. I should say that I am sort of dragging Mark with me--he owes me because I went to his 40th HS Reunion last August!!!

There's talk of us all bringing our yearbooks this time--they are practically antiques by now. I think it'll be fun to have it handy to look up some of the arriving guests. And maybe I can get some signatures I missed 30 years ago.

I hope that most of the class shows up. There were over 300 in our graduating class, and the mailing with the invitation said they were still looking for about 150 of them!! I sent for my tickets right away and got tickets #2 and #3. My friend who sent her money in late (after the deadline) got ticket #37. So I am hoping there will be more people than that.

I'll be taking my camera and hope to capture some great moments with old friends. The last time I saw these people was at least 10 years ago (at the 20th).

Stay tuned for my next blog where I will post the reunion pics!! If they are fit to print!!

The Art Pal Heroes Art Activities Book

My Latest Project: The Art Pal Heroes Art Activities Book

I have recently been tasked with developing an art activities book for the charity that I volunteer for. The charity is the Children's Art for Children's Cancer Foundation (you can click here to see the webpage: www.childrensartforchildrenscancer.org). Basically, they want to develop a coloring type book that can be handed out to children with cancer who are either being treated in the hospitals or at oncology clinics.

I've been working with this charity since 2002; I photographed the various artworks done by students (the Art Pal Heroes) in our local schools so they could be copyrighted and then helped get the artworks on their website.

Last March we did a fundraiser mailing, so now it's time to spend some of the money on grants and printing/distributing this coloring book project.

I've been thinking about all kinds of things I could put in there (its initial development has been totally left up to me). It has to be upbeat and fun for kids of varying ages. So far I've come up with a draft of the cover page, introduction page, and about 6 or 7 pages of activities mostly involving coloring.

The other night while hubby was at a meeting, I spent HOURS developing my own word search puzzle for the book. I was quite proud of myself when it was finally done!! And totally exhausted!! I think it will be my only word search puzzle...

So...anyone out there with any creative ideas for simple pages in the book, please help me out !! Anyone???