Summer's over & I haven't blogged - - Oh My !

Aug 7, 2009 (Fri)

I haven’t blogged in a very long time. Lots to do every day.

I’ve been looking for a job, taking car of Alex, taking care of Sparky, doing laundry, doing Alex’s job (emptying/loading the dishwasher), & trying to stay on a regular sleeping schedule. Haven’t even taken any naps in a long time. Speaking of the dishwasher, I bought new dinnerware. Yeah! I love getting new dishes. So I put them in the dishwasher & then put them away & took the old ones out & packed them in the boxes from the new ones. My new dishes are beautiful! Very colorful. But what am I going to do with the old ones? Will they be just more boxes going out to the garage? Maybe I can give them to someone. Suggestions? Anyone know of anyone (college kid, maybe) moving out of the house in need of dishes?

The standard "4 Sturniolo Girls" pictures we take on every holiday. July 4, 2009.

On Tues, Rosalie & I went to a sneak preview of “Julie & Julia.” What an excellent movie! Excellent! I would love to see it again.

This is a picture of Dennis (Cathy's husband), Jan (Lewis's brother from VA), Matthew (Jan's youngest son), & Allan (Lewis's twin brother) on July 4th at Cath & Dennis's house to celebrate the July birthdays (Cathy, me, Aunt Bertha) & the 4th of July.

Lewis & I just got back from Fleming’s (Steakhouse) for dinner. Their margaritas are very strong. A little too strong for me. Again, Alex chose not to go with us. He does not like going out to eat.

Lewis & Jan's oldest son, Jason on July 4 at Cathy & Dennis's house.

Alex & I went to Terri’s today for lunch & a little swimming. Sparky had quite the adventure. She jumped in the pool & swam around for a while, then she’d go to the steps & get out, then she’d want to get in again but was hesitant. It was so cute. Once we got inside she decided she liked stairs (since we don’t have any), so she kept going up & down her Aunt Terri’s stairs. Just like a little kid. I took a few pictures of her with Terri’s camera since I didn’t have mine with me.

We had lasagna for lunch.. Since Alex doesn’t eat cheese, I stopped & got him a chicken teriyaki sub at Subway. A ft. long one. He ate ½ of it for lunch. I wrapped the other ½ up & put it in Terri’s refrigerator. When we were getting ready to leave, I took it out of the refrigerator & threw it in one of my bags (with Sparky’s toys). When I started to get it out for Alex for his dinner, it was nowhere to be found. Lewis went out to my car & looked under the seats, I called Terri, I looked in the trunk (because I put the wet towels in the trunk). Can’t find the thing. I do not want to be smelling rotten chicken in a day or 2 when I get in my car. Terri said maybe I put it on the roof of my car when I was loading stuff & drove away with it like that. But I know I put it in my bag. Quite the mystery.

This is a picture of Alex & his lifelong friend, Ryan the day they passed their driver permit test.

One of the extra bedrooms at Terri’s house is now a nursery. It is so cute. They have everything in there for Caleb & Ailani. Sure brings back memories.

Alex’s 6/12 surgery went well. He is now 3 inches taller. He lost 17 pounds after the surgery but has started gaining some of it back now – now that he is eating real food again. He’s no longer using the walker. Still has to wear the brace thru Sept. He walks very well. No shuffling or dragging. It looks normal to me. It’s just that the brace isn’t comfortable for him so he can’t sit for long periods of time. Also it makes him very hot so we keep the air conditioning on a lot cooler than we’re used to.

Alex, Sparky, Lewis, & me at our house in early July, 2009. Doesn't Sparky have a beautiful smile? (Alex is wearing his back brace in this picture. He just put a shirt over it.)

Game night was last Sat. We LOVE game night. Jan made ratatouille & short ribs. Everything was wonderful, as usual.

Took Alex to the orthodontist a couple wks ago. He will go back in early Sept & MAY get his braces off at that time.

Sept 8 (Tues)
Just spent Labor Day & celebrated Natalie’s 14th birthday at Cath’s house on Sun. Adam came back from Flagstaff for the day. Nice to see him again. He loves college.

I am in the process of making a variety of labels for Arizona Air. Alex suggested I sell my Arizona Air in a different container - - a glass container “so they can see what they’re getting” rather than the metal can I use. I think that’s a great idea. I will be pricing small glass containers. Trying to come up with some kind of a logo too.
www.ArizonaAirForYou.webs.com
Go ahead & take a look. But be warned – there are some ebooks on my site that I was intending to sell, but I have changed my mind. I’m going to take them off & make the site for Arizona Air only. Since you, my blog friends, are the only ones seeing this blog & my website, I feel okay giving you the address without having first taken the books off. I haven’t sent the web address out to anyone yet since I am in the process of changing the label. I think the white background is ugly. It has to go.

The 3 of us went to see “District 9” yesterday. Bad bad bad bad movie. I hated it. The night before we rented “State of Play”. Also a bad movie. I figured it was time for a good one. Last night we watched “Mamma Mia”. Now that was cute. I can see how it would make a better stage play (that it was), but it was a pretty decent movie.

Alex is on the homebound program until the middle of November because he’s wearing the brace. 4 teachers come to the house & he takes 1 course online. You’d think that would be a piece of cake, but he seems to have an unusually large amount of homework.

When Sparky came back from the beauty shop 2 wks ago her back left leg was weak. She has been limping now for over 2 wks. I was wondering if she sprained it. She doesn’t seem to be in pain. When I massage the leg, she doesn’t tense up. So I went online to the same site we buy her all natural, organic, holistic dog food & biscuits & got her some doggie glucosamine. That should help with her joints. If we don’t see results in about 3 wks, I will take her to the vet.

Sept 25, 2009 (Fri) Alex got his back brace off last wk. He is almost back to normal. Takes about 1 pain pill a day. He’s doing very well.

Since he couldn’t go to school for the first 3 months of his sophomore year, he has been on a homebound program. His teachers come to our house & teach him here - - one-on-one. I think he’s getting much more out of his classes. Doing very well. He also takes 1 class, an elective, online. Since that class is 6 wks, he has to be online 2 ½ hrs a day since it is so condensed. He is now going to physical therapy several times a wk. And fortunately for me (unfortunately for Lewis) there is a wholesale gift shop right next to the physical therapy place. So guess where I’m hanging out when Alex is being massaged & banged around? I took Sparky with me last wk. The ladies at the physical therapy place as well as the owner of the gift shop, just love her. They make a big fuss over her. She is so used to that. I try not to leave her home alone if I don’t have to. I even take her into the grocery store the few times I stop in for an item. No one has ever told me dogs are not allowed. Then we go to the office supply store & she rides around in the cart. She is very happy to be having so many out-of-the-house adventures since her mommy has been unemployed.

Aside from that, Alex is doing a lot of reading - - and of course his beloved fantasy football. Guys! Their strange little hobbies. I guess I shouldn’t say that. My niece, Adriane is in the fantasy football pool too. Alex, his uncle, cousins, friends. Last yr he won the pot - $200.00. I don’t know what it is this year, but he certainly follows it very well. He knows his sports stats like my dad did. He is truly my dad’s grandson! My dad would have been proud of him!

Alex’s English teacher has him reading “The DaVinci Code” now. Then he is supposed to watch the movie & make notes of the differences. I loved that book. Not so much the movie.

Something else is going on with Alex: He is writing like a maniac. I think I’ve mentioned before that he has written a sitcom pilot & the second episode. He has also been writing a movie or two. Constantly working on screenplays. He still wakes up in the middle of the night with ideas for his movies & writes them down. I bought him a little digital recorder for his birthday last year so he can just record his ideas, but he says it doesn’t feel like a real writer doing that. He enjoys actually putting his ideas down on paper. He also prefers that to typing them out on the computer. That’s my boy! Taking after his mom - - - except I do EVERYTHING on my computer. Some of the ideas he’s read to me are really unique. Sometimes he surprises me. I am so proud of him. I have enjoyed this time being home with him too. Since I’m not working this summer & he’s been on the homebound school program, we’ve been home together every day. I am really enjoying that. I have worked ever since he was born. Never really got to be a full-time mom to my child. Now, even though he is not totally dependent on me & is pretty self-sufficient, I am so enjoying being with him every day. We have some great talks. I feel bad sometimes when I think of all the years I missed, that I could have been home when he got home from school, instead of sending him to day camp or after-school camp. So believe me, I am relishing every moment of this. When he comes out to tell me something, interrupts what I’m doing, I don’t’ even care. It’s just so nice to have a kid who actually WANTS to share his ideas with his mom.

Since I’ve been home, although I do look for jobs, the oddest thing has happened to me: I have started cooking. I know - - Don’t pass out. Lewis always did our cooking – forever. He suggested that, since I am home in the day, I make the dinners. I was appalled when he said that. But I started digging through some of my old recipes & found that, to my surprise, I actually like it. Even more to my surprise, Lewis has been liking what I make. He actually compliments me every night. Sometimes he even raves about the meal. So unusual!

I make my dinner plans 2 wks in advance, write it all down, then send Lewis to the grocery store. I still don’t like grocery shopping. One day when I was in Bashas’ looking for a mango to have for lunch, I saw a bag of ripe bananas for 99 cents. 99 cents for that entire bag. I figured I could make banana bread with them. So I brought them home & have been baking for days. In some batches I’ll put walnuts & milk chocolate chips. In other batches I’ll put the walnuts & cranberries (craisins). I make them into mini muffins instead of a loaf. When Alex’s teachers come, I set a plate of them on the table. His geometry teacher even took a baggie of them home with him. He actually made a fuss over them so I gave him a few to take home. No one - - I mean NO ONE -- has ever raved about anything I’ve ever cooked or baked. Except my Sturniolo meatballs. But that’s my dad’s recipe, not mine. Actually, it was my grandma’s recipe. They are the BEST meatballs.

So now I have compiled a little book of all of my recipes & am publishing them into a cookbook.. Some cookbook company does that for like 15 bucks. Pictures too! You know how I love my little projects.

Lewis & I are going out with Rosalie & Henry next wk-end. It’s been a long time. We are really looking forward to that. When we go out with them, our 2 boys hang out together. They met when they were on the same Little League team when Alex was in the first grade & their son, Jonathan was in the 2nd grade. They’ve always gotten along very well. Jonathan is a really nice kid.

I am still “trying” to sell Avon. I am really just an e-rep. I have a website where people can go to order the products & have them sent directly to their home with no shipping charge. No minimum order either. Maybe you should look at it:
http://www.YourAvon.com/CKowal
Go ahead……..order lots of stuff to keep me in bananas!

Last night Lewis rented “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.” I loved it. My boys did not. It’s more of a chick flick. I really enjoyed it. They kind of mumbled & groaned all through it. I kept ssshhhhhh-ing them.

Oh, this is so cute. Sparky is sleeping on the couch behind me right now. She is having one of her doggie dreams. She’s making little mini barking sounds & her legs are kicking. I wonder what she dreams about? I still think it’s probably about chasing lizards in the backyard.

Well look at that. It’s noon already & I haven’t started my chocolate chip banana muffins yet. I guess it’s time!

Later. Hugs.
Candace