A May Get-A-Way

May is the season of college graduation. Jac and Zac have two cousins graduating this year. One, Crystal, graduated from San Diego State. She plans to continue on with law school. You go girl! Two, Bryon, who graduated from UPenn's Wheaton School of Business. Bryon has been here on the east coast and we have served as one of his home away from homes during the times he has not been able to return to California for holidays. We joined a large representation of the Arnold family to take part in his graduation ceremonies.

In days gone by when Bryon was a youngster and Uncle Chuck was a bachelor, they had a very special Uncle/nephew relationship. Chuck would work a 4am- 2pm shift then after work help his sister and brother-in-law with after school day care. He would pick up Amber and Bryon from school and care for them until their parents returned from work. Chuck did this long enough that the teachers once wouldn't release the kids to their Dad, Michael, as they believed that Chuck was their dad. I've known these kids for 12 years. They are all grown up now, adults, as we are reminded how we are not so young anymore. All of us as a family have become quite fond of Bryon. We thought a road trip to join his graduation festivities would also be an educational one for the little ones even if it meant to play hookie from school for a day. The kids got to see an Ivy league graduation, what it's like to live at school and check out their big cousin's apartment, and they got to join up with many relatives that we see all too little due to distance.

Bryon and Jacquelyn

Zac with Uncle Mike and Aunt Arlene

A thumb wrestle while waiting for dinner.

Jackie whipping Uncle Mikes butt in the game.



Chuck, Zac and Aunt Joann

Chuck's sister Arlene and her daughter Amber.

The prestigious Wharton School of Business

Bryon marching in with his friend Dale.

Dale graduated with a dual degree of engineering and finance. He's 'wicked Smahht'!

Bryon's fan club

Congratulations Bryon!

A once in a lifetime moment.

Proud crying mom (left), Grandma Helen on right.

Cousin Katie with Bryon and the kids.

Proud parents, Arlene and Mike.

Bryon and his girlfriend Lauren, she graduated last year from UPenn with a degree in Bioengineering. She will be on assignment for 9 months in Switzerland starting this August.

The whole clan who came from all over to celebrate with Bryon (minus Jyrki, who took the picture).

Once in a while I get out from behind the camera for a photo.

Bryon with his older sister Amber.

Bryon has taken our little ones under his wing.

A few of the future college graduates of our family.

Akseli and Zachary. Akseli is another fraternal twin. His sister is Noelle shown in the picture above.

Bryon has accepted a job in NYC and will be living in a Manhattan luxury apartment with his friend Dale.

He was a player of the Champion football team.

The kids checking out Bryon's apartment.

Chuck Sr. better known as "Gramps".

The little kids up in Bryon's room playing video games while the big kids were downstairs exchanging gifts.

Bryon and his Bro's.

We made a quick stop to see the Liberty Bell, but it was closed, so this was taken at night from a distance through a window.

Late night snacking at a detour to some landmark 'Philly' cheese steak joints before bed.

Jackie is seriously pooped, but won't complain because I warned her she would have to be a big girl for this grown up trip. Such a good girl!

Geno's steaks have been featured on TV as a landmark food establishment and for the messages from the establishment's owner, see below.

On the way home, we took a detour for a family field trip to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. The kids toured both, but had to fill out a workbook at Lady Liberty. Upon completion of the workbook, they got a badge for becoming a junior national park ranger.

We are pleased that Bryon is starting his adult life on the east coast and won't be far away. Good luck Bryon!

Spring to Mind

Agh! I just can't seem to keep up! I figured I better get some highlights of spring put together before it's over! Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial kick off to summer here in New England. Even though the calender says summer begins at the summer solstice in June, here, most people celebrate the beginnings of summer this weekend by putting their boat in the water or opening their pool or opening their summer homes. Beaches will officially begin to charge for parking to non residents. So spring can seem short here. Sometimes we can get that freak snow storm into May. If old man winter is unkind, it can feel like we jump from winter to summer without a spring. This year he was kind. We've had a nice spring. Easter was very warm. Here are some shots of the annual easter egg hunt in our back yard. The kids absolutely love hunting for eggs.

THAT'S A LOTTA EGGS!!

Here are some photos of the kids school open house in April. Jacquelyn and Zac are in seperate first grade classes. They did very well with this transition. We are very pleased with each of their academic growths this year. Jacquelyn has made great strides in her reading abilities. She is so much more confident and fluid with oral reading. Jackie is a very hard worker in school and with her homework. She consistently aces her math assessments. Zachary has always been strong in reading, as he began reading at 4 years of age. His challenges this year have been focusing on assignment's instructions to complete tasks appropriately, rather than rushing just for completion! He has also struggled with writing tasks as he is a lefty. We had him assessed by the school OT, just to be sure he fell with his grade level, and he did. He has really worked on these struggles and now has wonderful handwriting and rarely has an assignment left incomplete. It's been a good first grade school year and we are already submitting our children's needs for second grade placement. We will keep the kids in separate classes.

Barrow's students are called Shining Stars.

The classrooms walls are decorated with lessons and assignments.

Jacquelyn and Ms. LaBella

The kids beamed with pride to show the parents all of their hard work.

Zachary with his teacher, Mrs. Becker.

Happy Belated Birthday blog

I have really neglected you blog! Even missed your first birthday. I've had a bit of writer's block caused by an abundance of stress and unfortunate events. January felt like the dead of winter blahs, so I felt no creativity then. Then, in February, my misfortune happened. I lost my wedding rings and my right hand diamond ring at work. I'm sure you are asking how can one lose three very important rings. Well, I did and it's hard to recap without feelings of angst and pain. I've spend two months working through the grieving process and have accepted this fate and let them go. I'm not sure I want to go into the details and torture myself with reliving it again. I assure you I did everything in my power to recover them but they have not turned up. My only conclusion is it is a case of theft of opportunity. I have kind supports saying someday I may discover them somewhere in my home, but that has yet to happen. Thankfully, my rings were insured, but that only lead me to be subjected to a fraud investigation process that sure does toss salt in my wound. I have finally been cleared honest and will be able to replace my lost jewels. So that was my February and March. Me drowning in my sorrows while the rest of Massachusetts was drowning in record breaking rains and floods. The same time as I submit my jewel loss claim the rest of New England is filing claims for water damage, just great.

So, we enter April (isn't the diamond the birthstone for April?). A time for beginnings and hopefully better times to come. Well, we have been blessed with a lovely April, spring sunshine and warmth. Things are getting better, up until a week ago. My husband, a store manager with consistent annual top performing evaluations, a devout veteran of 19 years with his company (which I will remain nameless) was given the best news he could hear! He was getting transferred to a store that would finally meet his wishes for recognition of his commitment and hard work. Yet in one hour, this assignment was taken away from him and he got re-assigned to a south shore store. As word gets out, his peers, his employees, his customers and family are all shocked and wonder how they can do this to him. In fear of sharing too much here and this getting into the wrong hands, I will not go into this further, but only state that this is the worst outcome I've seen in the 15 years I've shared this journey with him. He has to commute through the city to get to work. Best case scenario, 1.5 hour commute one way. The cost in time and money to make this commute adds up to a demotion in our view. How can this company ask this of him and offer NOTHING for his trouble? Our juggle of two working parents with only one day of daycare help worked when he worked close to home. He was able to be involved in family dinners, attend t-ball practice during the week, pick the kids up after school once/week and I was able to contribute 25 hours of work to help make ends meet. This 'political' decision has pulled the rug out from under our lives and it just doesn't seem to matter to central management. This is a blow to us and had caused immense stress in our household.

So there's the current events and struggles we've had in our household. I haven't had my creative urges for months, but I do have some entries in the works that are not full of whining and complaining. Throughout these hardships, I haven't lost my perspective that we are still among the fortunate and life could certainly be harder. Here's how I figure it; if this is my dose of crap, I'll take it 'cause it could be much more tragic and I still have much to feel blessed about. I didn't lose my kids or have them kidnapped. Everybody in my family is healthy. We have jobs. We have an intact home. We have each other. This is what makes me feel fortunate.