Val-isms

A new path sooner than later

If I have learned nothing else over the past 7 years that I've known my wife, it's that life really is a journey and change is good.  Even change that happens without your permission.  Even change that causes you to catch your breathe.  That's life. 

Our journey has not been a smooth one.  Not by any stretch of the imagination, but then again, whose is?

This week, we hit a little bump in our journey, once again, when Linda was laid off from her job.

Fortunately, since we had taken the risk and started a photography business back in October of 2010, and she had planned on quitting her day job by the end of 2012, this turn of events has just led us to accelerate the initial plan.

She has some jobs booked and income coming in this month and in June.  She has made some connections with people who are setting her up to network and get some free advertising, as well.

Her company gave her a decent package and her insurance will cover her thru the end of June.  She will then go on my insurance. 

Yeah, it's a bummer that the decision was not hers to make, but it was just a matter of timing.  We are both looking at this as an omen, that it's happening now for a reason.  We believe it will work out and that whatever happens, we'll deal with it.

The upside is that she has a nice home office already set up for her photo editing.  It's springtime and the weather is starting to become nice - how nice to be able to make your own working hours so that you can appreciate a beautiful day outside? 

I am confident that her talent and drive will enable her to take this business as far as she wants.  She is following her dreams and how often does a person get to do that when it comes to a career?  I can't wait to see how great this all turns out.

We'll be ok.

Oh, and anyone reading this ... whether you live in the tri-state area (NJ, CT ,NY) or know someone who lives in that area, and you/they need some pictures taken (i.e. family, children, pets, events, etc...) - please contact her at [email protected] .   Her website is: www.etanaphotography.com .  And Etana Creative Photography is on F*CeB**k - so go ahead and become a fan! 

We can work within anyones' budget and deliver some spectacular images to remember some special moments in your lives.

Shabbat shalom.

5th grade talent show

Friday night, May 13th (yes, Friday!) was my daughter Sophie's 5th grade talent show.  It's a big deal for the 'seniors' of the elementary school that she goes to.  However, not every 5th grader participates.  It's purely voluntary, whether you are part of an act or helping behind the scenes with the show.

When Sophie first announced that she was going to be doing a dance routine with her 3 BFF's (Kayla, Tory & Bridget), I was surprised, but pleasantly.  Sophie tends to be on the shy side when it comes to doing things where she would be the focus of any attention.  As much as I love her friends for a variety of reasons, I'm really glad that they are all really outgoing, which I'd always hoped would influence Sophie at some point to get her out of her comfort zone and into doing more fun things.

There were many dance rehearsals, after school and at her friends' home, so I never actually saw the routine before the night of the show.

I am totally guilty of the 'do as I say, versus do as I do' syndrome, because I am certainly not one to get up in front of people and feel comfortable by any stretch of the imagination.  I always encourage Sophie to do those types of things, and tell her she'll be fine when she has to make presentations at school, but inside, I am sick to my stomach for her and secretly hope for the best.  Then on the day of the presentation, she is SO cool and calm and does such an amazing job, I am just completely stunned... and proud. 

So Friday came and my ex has planned on picking her up from school that day and to bring her to the school after dinner by 6:30.  Linda & I met them at the school then and went in to get a good seat (3rd row from the front!).  The show was starting at 7, but as with all of these types of things, it's a little chaotic and it causes some delays.

There are to be 15 acts and Sophie's group is about in the middle.  We snap quite a few pictures of the girls in their matching outfits (navy blue sleeveless hoodies with earphones on the front, white shorts and crazy colored anklet socks) as all of the groups are lined up in order of their time on the stage and I can tell that they, along with all of the other acts are both excited and scared.

As in all schools, there are the cliques of kids and the acts reflected them.  There was the 'bad boy' doing his version of break dancing and the 6 'popular' girls doing a dance routine to a medley of Justin Bieber songs (spare me!!), and some magic trick acts, 2 different boys doing solo karaoke versions of "Soul Sister" and "Animal", and a few other acts with gymnastic stuff and other things.

The audience, which was made up of the parents of the kids in the acts along with other 5th graders who were not participating, could not have been more supportive and appreciative of every single act.  Sure they applauded a little bit louder for the really great acts, but every act was made to feel extremely proud of their efforts.  I'm sure that not one act came off that stage not feeling great!

There were 4 outstanding acts, as far as I was concerned and of course, Sophie's group was at the top of them.  The 2 karaoke singers were excellent.  And then there was a very funny, but short, dance that involved 4 boys who dressed up with outfits that made them look like midgits (shirts/heads made to cover their heads so that it made for a distorted body shape, but very funny when they started doing their little dance around the stage!).

When it came time for Sophie's group to take the stage and in those moments when the curtain was closed and they were getting set up, my heart was beating so fast, I thought I was going to pass out.  I could not have been more nervous than if it was me about to do a dance up there!  It was ridiculous!

The introductions were made by the emcees and then the curtain opened up and the music started (Usher's "DJ's got us falling in love") and the girls started moving and all of a sudden I wasn't watching my little girl.  I was watching a performance.  I was watching a wonderfully professional performance of 4 young women who were so confident and poised, it just blew me away!

I could see that they were all a bit scared when they first came out, but they took the cheers and whistles from their peers and it boosted their confidence and all of a sudden, they were just 4 friends dancing together like they always do.  Except this time with a more formal routine.  (that they made up by themselves)  They were great!

I didn't realize that each one would have a 'solo spotlight' dance in the middle, so when Kayla had hers, I started getting nervous all over again for Sophie... but by then, she was on a dance high and was enjoying herself SO much, that she just danced.  She LOVES to dance -  she does it all the time around the house.   But to see her dancing on that stage - with such a happy look on her face - surrounded by her friends and peers, it was incredible.  I didn't want it to stop.

But it did, to the resounding cheers of parents and kids alike!

It was a highlight moment for me and I hope for her.  She has so much going for her, but she lacks confidence.  Here's hoping that this will give her a little boost so that she will continue to do new things and not let fear keep her from doing things.

Linda video taped it from her iPhone, and it was too large a file to e-mail anyone, so we posted it on yo*tu*e.  Here is the link if you want to check it out:  Sophie Talent Show 

It was truly a magical night!  One that I won't soon forget!

Passover 2011

Linda, Sophie & I are very fortunate to be a part of a wonderufl Jewish community filled with people who we think of as family.  These people include us in holiday celebrations and in every day occassions, as well.

With my sister in Manhattan and my parents not always around at Passover, it's been hard the past few years to be with our immediate family, so last year, our friends Ellen & Jack included us in their 1st night seder and it was wonderful.  It had enough of the traditions and great food, without it being an evening that ended at midnight!  Perfect!

Last years' group included many people who either didn't have family around, grown kids who lived far away, etc... it was fun.

This year, that crowd had other plans and it was just going to be the 6 of us plus our good friend Bob.  Bob actually was Linda's 5th grade teacher who was with his partner of 50+ years - - Jesse.  Jesse passed away about 3 years ago and though Bob was raised Catholic, our Temple welcomed these 2 men as a couple and embraced them to the point that Bob continues to come to services and continue his adult Hebrew classes.

To make the seder a bit larger and include another child for Sophie to hang out with, we invited Sophie's friend Amelia and her parents, who are good friends of ours.  They're not Jewish, but have always been interested and were thrilled to receive the invite to come tonight.

It should be a great evening.

Tomorrow night we'll be at our other friend Kristen's home for another fun and informal evening.

We are blessed to be included with both of these wonderful families.

Chag Sameach... Happy Passover!

Taste of spring... meeting with clients...full-time Mom-time!

We had a little taste of warmer weather on Saturday, but it was kind of cool and cloudy today.  Having weather that doesn't involve rain or snow is fine with me!

We had our first client over to go over the pictures from her daughter's Bat Mitzvah and pick the 60 for the album.  It's funny how some people have no idea about how to view pictures online.  Linda had given her the link to her private online gallery and we received glowing reviews in e-mails raving about how wonderful the pictures were.  (Yay, Linda!).

However, as the woman was sitting in Linda's office which has an iMac computer with a 27" screen, and Linda double-clicked on the first picture, we were surprised to hear her exclaim, "Oh, I didn't know if you did that, the pictures got bigger.  I just thought you had cropped the pictures strangely."  Really?  She thought those thumbnail sizes were the pictures being given out???   Has anyone seen frames for that thumbnail size pictures????!!  I'm chuckling outloud as I type this!

Anyway, it was a fun 2 hours as we heard stories about every person who was at this event - good, bad, and everything in between!  Fun times.

We ran some errands the rest of the day, which included a trip to IK*A to pick up a bookshelf for Linda's office.  Linda & I put it together this afternoon and rearranged a bit and it really looks nice in there.

My ex left this morning for a business trip, so Sophie is with us full-time until Friday night when she returns.  This is the first time, as we left her at the train stations, and were walking to the car, Sophie took my hand and said, "I don't like that Mama has to leave to go on these trips, but I do like that we get to spend some extra time together."  It was a great way to start my day.  I squeezed her hand extra hard and agreed that it was nice having her with us for 6 days in a row.

While we were putting the bookshelf together, Sophie was busy with modeling clay making a miniature (about a foot tall) replica of the Statue of Liberty as part of a project  being done on Immigration.    She is very talented and I helped just a bit.  We'll be painting it tomorrow night.  Will post pictures of the final entry in a few days.

Here's to another week beginning...

April Showers

As you can see, my basketball 'theme' was short-lived.  

It's April and it's raining.  Creative blog post, no?!

The college basketball season ended last night, as far as I was concerned, when our UCONN gals somehow managed to lose to Notre Dame in the semi-final game.  I didn't watch the first half of the game as Linda was too nervous and we decided to check out the show "Body of Evidence' with Dana Delaney (which was actually pretty good).

When Linda left the room, however, my curiosity took over and I flipped to the game which was about 4 minutes into the 2nd half.  We were down by 6 at this point and I continued to watch as Maya Moore seemed to be the only player who was fighting to win the game.

It was disturbing, sad, frustrating and just down-right gut-wrenching to see the minutes and then the seconds descend to when the final buzzer sounded and I sat just slack-jawed staring at the TV in disbelief.  I had not once considered the possibility that they would lose.  In fact I had laughed and guffawed as the other #1 ranked teams fell by the wayside!

At about a minute and a half left, Linda joined me and by the time the buzzer sounded, she was just as upset as I was.  Sad and pissed.

But we were happy that we'd decided not to do the road trip out to Indianapolis, IN as it would have been MUCH worse to have witnessed it in person.

I mean, seriously.  Who cares who wins when it's between Notre Dame & Texas A&M?  Though we'll root for ND, as they are a Big East team.  But we won't watch the game.  The season is over.

Tonight, the UCONN men are in the Championship game playing against Butler.  It's ironic that the men made it this far when at no time during the regular season, did anyone think they'd have a chance to get past the first couple of rounds, let alone advance to the Final Four.  And the women are out of it when everyone just assumed that they'd be picking up their 8th Championship (3rd in a row!).  sigh.

Anyway... moving on.

Sophie is busy planning her skit/dance for the 5th grade talent show which will take place in May.  She is doing this with her buddies and it should be pretty entertaining.

Last week, my ex & I took a tour of the Middle School that she'll be attending next year and were in awe.  It's fairly new (13 years old) and has all kinds of stuff that will provide Sophie with a range of opportunities to see what interests her.  From sewing, cooking, graphic arts to computers and music, she should be exposed to a broad range of topics.  It should be an interesting time for her and her friends.

Quarter close at work kicked my butt last week, but this weeks seems MUCH calmer, thank goodness.

Go UCONN men!

March Madness

The madness is our lives. 

2 full-time jobs and starting a business can completely consume some serious time.  And then our day jobs have been lately taking some of our night time hours and even some weekend hours, so that's really putting a 'squeeze' on us both. 

Fortunately, we really work well together and are balancing things like making time for Sophie and each other, though I must say, the time the 2 of us have together has mostly been spent sleeping! :) Or playing "dueling pc's" as we are together in the house, but working.

Our first Bat Mitzvah event on March 12th went well... there were some glitches and things that happened that we noted and will adjust things so that they don't happen in the future, but all in all, it was a long day, but we felt great when it was over.  We should have pictures to the client by this Monday.

Our next Mitzvah event is Memorial Weekend.   And then we have 2 more in June! 

But in the meantime, we got contacted by a woman from our Temple about shooting her wedding on May 21st of this year!  It'll be a small event (about 50 people) at their home which happens to be in the next town over.  Her daughter is a classmate of Sophie's at Religious school.   They've invited the 3 of us over for dinner tomorrow night to scope out the yard and the park down the street where the wedding ceremony will take place.  It should be a nice evening.

On March 19th, we sponsored the Brotherhood breakfast that always follows the 8am service in honor of our 1 year wedding anniversary (crazy as that is to believe - - a whole year has passed????!!!).  We were called up for the aliyah during the Torah portion of the service and Sophie came up with us for moral support (neither of us is really crazy about being in front of people and then add singing in Hebrew to that, well... I actually lost the feeling in my hands during it!)  But we did fine.  And we got many good wishes from our Saturday morning community which was nice.

Our actual anniversary was on the 22nd - a Tuesday.  We usually have Sophie on Tuesday nights and Tuesday is my crazy day at work, which makes it hard to tell what time I'll get home.  So we went out Monday night just the 2 of us and had a lovely Thai dinner and remembered the past year together.  I still feel like the luckiest and happiest woman in the world when I look in Linda's eyes.

And now to the #2 reason that March is our favorite time of the year...  Our UCONN women are doing well so far in the NCAA Women's Basketball tournament making us very happy.  They play again at noon tomorrow against Georgetown.   They haven't been having complete romps up til this point, but they're winning, and that is all that matters.

The UCONN men won tonight to get into the Men's Final Four!  It would be very cool if both the men & women went all the way, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Sophie continues to grow and is only about 2 inches shorter than Linda, so depending on the shoes that either of them are wearing, they're almost looking eye to eye.  It's a tad unnerving to Linda, but Sophie LOVES it!  Sorry, honey.  It's pretty much a given that it's not IF, but when she is going to be taller then you.

She got her 2nd period marking report card this month and this was the first time that she was really into her grades.  It wasn't just ok to  have a bunch of VG's (very goods).  She wanted more O's (Outstanding). I told her that she has to work harder for those but VG's were just that!  I'm glad that she's starting to take her school work a little more seriously.   She's a bright kid, but the work is going to start getting tougher and more of it next year when she's in Middle School. (I can't believe that she's going to that BIG school next year!)

My sister and her daughters traveled to Israel last Saturday and will be returning this week.  They are having a wonderful time with my folks and my brother and his family.  It's strange to think that the majority of my family is in Israel without me and my famiily.

I think that about brings things up to date.

Go UCONN!

Checking in

Starting a business takes a lot of time and energy... but the good news is that we're busy because people are contacting us and we're doing a lot to get prepared.

You see... Linda has 4 Bat Mitzvahs booked  -- 1 in May, 2 in June and 1 is in 6 days!!!  It's very exciting and we're hoping that this is something that is going to continue to grow and grow!

Oh and our day jobs are keeping us plenty busy, too!  In our spare time, we sleep!  :)

Another week...

The snow is slowly melting but there is still a ton around.  The almost 60 degree weather today helped that cause.  But it's gonna be in the 40's for the next few days, so the snow will not be going completly away anytime soon.

Sophie pulled a tooth out tonight herself.  This is huge.  To say my daughter is a baby about her teeth is an understatement.  The adult tooth had already come up behind it (as was the way for ALL OF HER TEETH so far!), but the baby tooth was holding on by a thread... for a very long time.  So hideous it was, that it was sitting at a tilted angle and was actually getting in the way when she tried to bite down.  Anyway, it's finally gone.  Tooth fairy time.  Yes, she still believes.  Yep.  She's 10 and a half.

My ex has been away on businesst this week, so I help her out when she's gone by tending to the cat (that is partially mine) and the guinea pig (which is Sophie's).  It makes for an extra stop after picking Sophie up from school every day, but it is what it is.  The animals need to eat and checked in on!

In addition, my Mom needed to have some bathing suits sent over to Israel for her water therapy that she's doing for her knees, and it just so happened that our Temple was sending a group over to Israel this week (in fact, they left today), so I was able to get over to my parents' home, get the suits and give them to a friend who is going on the trip, so my Mom will have them this weekend!  Love when things work out like that!

This coming weekend we had plans to get together to watch the UCONN game with some friends and then head up to the Hartford area to some other friends home for dinner and a sleepover.  The UCONN plans fell thru to change of plans on the friends' part (we may have a few friends over to our place instead) and we got a message from our Hartford friends that they were splitting up (after being together about 11 years) and they said it probably isn't a good time to get together.  (ya think????!!)  Very sad news.

Sophie has a sleepover on Saturday night with twin girls that she has been in Religious school with since 1st grade.  Over the past year, they have become much closer and I know the parents pretty well, as they are pretty involved with the Temple (the Dad serves on the board with me).  I'm thrilled that the 3 of them get along so well.  I'm sure that they'll have a good time.  Glad it'll be at the twins' home.  They have 4 kids.  They probably won't notice another one!

Linda has her first client meeting on Monday (a day which we both have off from work!) to discuss the Bat Mitzvah that is coming up on March 12th.  Very exciting.

We know of a 6 year old little girl named Julia who is in the hospital battling a very severe case of pancreatis this week who could use some prayers.  So if you do that sort of thing, could you say a few for her?  I'm sure her family would appreciate them and any positive thoughts you want to send her way.

I guess that's about it.

Shabbat shalom.

... going north

We both took the afternoon off today.

Meeting at home where we'll finish packing and then load the car.  Only 1 set of skis, since Linda will be the only one skiing.

We'll have a bite of lunch and then get on the road.

Estimated arrival is about 5, where we'll be meeting the other 3 couples for dinner at the town restuarant.

My plan for the weekend is to read the latest Patricia Cornwell novel, eat, drink & relax with our friends.  Linda will be taking pictures of our surroundings and our friends and skiing on Saturday afternoon.  Can't wait!

We'll head home in time for the Super Bowl, not that either of us cares, but hey, go Packers!

More snow in the future, but no storms this weekend... we hope.

Shabbat shalom.

Looking pretty

What a difference a day makes... here's a picture (taken thru the window in my cube with my blackb*rry!) of the top of our parking garage:

 

The drifts are about 4 feet... and with the rain over the past few days which coated it nicely and left it perfect for reflecting the extremely bright sunshine.   Oh, and it's a high of 28 out there! :)

But hey, at least the roads are dry and there is no wind chill to factor in.  And it's supposed to be this way for 2 days...

My knee is feeling pretty good today and my first physical therapy session will be on Monday afternoon.

Trying to gear up for a Temple board meeting being held tonight... (yawn!) and looking forward to getting home to start packing for our weekend away in Vermont!