so, this is our one and only (for now) grandson. his name is alex baron. he was born a little earlier than originally thought, on saturday december 19, 2009, at 1:55 p.m. vancouver time.

he weighed 7 lbs 7 ozs. my exact weight at birth.

it seems a little surreal to have a grandchild, since we live in b.c. and he and parents live in italy. we are going to see him and them in february for his baptism. this will only be for 2 weeks, but what are ya gonna do? that's life in the big city.

i spoke to sabrina, his mom, today and she told me her mother in law waited around for over 2 hours to see him awake. but all he did was sleep. this is funny, since sabrina, all she did was eat and sleep. my sisters waited hours for her to wake up to play with her, but nuttin' doin'. she slept all the time. then, when i had the second one, dario, all he ever did was cry, scream, and no one wanted to get near him. what a difference two kids are.

it seems impossible that next year, i will be turning 50. next month would have been my parents 50th anniversary, but they are both long dead, so there won't be any big party for them. i know they both wanted to celebrate that momentous event, but...

well, here is wishing everyone a great end of 2009 and may 2010 be filled with peace, love, joy and much health. let auld acquaintance be forgot and all that.

truly disappointed, in certain people

why is it that no matter what you tell people: the good, the bad, the harmful, the whatever, they don't, won't, can't believe you. it's true, you have to experience some things for yourself to truly understand them, but when you have had things in life smack you hard, why do you still choose not to see.

they think we don't know what they are doing to themselves, and in association to everyone else around them. i only hope they wake up soon and smell the smoke!!!

yesterday was my boo boo's birthday. we had family and friends over. i cannot believe how loud it was. there was more noise last night, than at our banquet on the weekend. last night: 30 people, banquet 650 people!!!!!!! i guess italians + wine + food + wine + more italians = LOUD LOUD LOUD.

we had 2 priests, 6 people who have come from italy, 3 of them plus their kids have been here for about 18 months, one has been here for 6 months and then tuesday night another arrived, and he is staying for 6 months. i was actually called a trafficker by my goddaughter!!! what nerve. after i'm helping humanity to settle down in canada, i get called a trafficker.

i think everyone had a good time. it's always nice to get together with people, even if some of them you see on a more regular basis than others.

i was criticized by the young folk that i don't post on here that often, but hey what do you want from an old lady.

anyway, we are going to italia in a week for about a week. today, i got an email from the daughter in italy, that she is already having contractions. her ob gyn found she was dilated 1 cm. not the end of the world, but she is still 6 weeks before her due date. so, now she has to take it easy. let's hope that kid will stay put til it's time to make an official appearance, which is december 24,2009. oh well, they don't listen after they're born, why should they listen before they're born, right???????????

end of an era

well, it's the end of an era, in a way.
we have 4 children, the last one finally reached the milestone of 19 years. we are now officially done raising them. any mistakes they make, are their own to resolve. any accomplishments are of their own doing.

it's been a hard road at times. some of those times harder than others, but we made it!!!!
now we are on the road to "grandparenthood". this will be a new untested, uncharted (for us anyway) road.

next year, for me, it will be the end of the "young" years and the start of middle agedom. i don't know how i feel about that. it's not the number, it's the "what the hell have i accomplished in all that time"????

i have a husband, 4 kids and ........... no job, no career, no nuttin. oh well, on my tombstone, you can write, she tried her best

so hallowe'en is this weekend. i've always loved hallowe'en and christmas. i love to decorate for both. since all the bambini are now adults, i cannot ask them to help me take out the decos, especially for hallowe'en, as it is not important to them. so, no more scary spiders, no more tacky grave markers, no more coffin with someone in it scaring the bejesus out of the little kids. sigh........... they say all good things come to an end, i guess it's true for our home as well. maybe i'll sell the stuff. any takers?????????????

hello everyone!!! i have a confession to make. i find it unbelieveably funny how people think that when ethel and i spar on facebook, they all believe it. i've had people actually ask me if we are pissed off at each other with the stuff we've written.

i feel that as a young girl, i was not allowed to express my witty, timeless humour. i am now taking full advantage of it. i've had 3 people over the past year or so comment on how funny i am. how i like to joke with people. i guess i had, without even realizing it, suppressed it because i was always afraid of my parents' reaction.

i've been told, quite often that i have a very weird, dry, sick sense of humour. now, with facebook i can BE FREE to say anything (well maybe not everything) i want, and know that i won't be reprimanded. i love technology!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

very angry

yesterday morning, i got up and went outside to get my paper. when i opened the front door, this mess awaited me.

it seems that sometime between sunday and monday, some jackass/es came by, with shovels, no less and STOLE all my husband's prized stelle alpine. these are his favourite mountain flowers. on closer inspection, i haven't yet confirmed it mind you, it looks as tho my dad's olive tree was also snafooed!!!!!!!!!

it takes a lot of balls to come into our yard, when we have a locked driveway gate, and also a walk-in gate. now, i wonder if they saw him leaving early sunday morning to go hunting and thot this is the perfect opportunity to do it. i hope they can live with themselves. it takes all kinds in this world.

a day of thanks

today is thanksgiving. when i was growing up, our family never celebrated thanksgiving in the traditional "inglese" style. actually, we didn't celebrate it at all!!!!

now i'm married, and we still don't celebrate it. you see, it's HUNTING season. sooo, this time of year, there is much more to be thankful for. let me elaborate.

i'm thankful for the fact that if and when hubby catches something, we have delicious moose, deer and this year for the first time, thanks to dario and his zio, elk meat. no hormones, steroids, or other crap in the meat. tender, tasty clean meat.

when it's hunting season, it means the men are not here, and that is truly something to be thankful for. less cooking, less cleaning, less "babysitting". all good.

i'm also thankful for the usual things in my life. i have a husband, who even tho at times, he makes me want to pull my and his hair out, i realize that i have a husband!!! he may not be the perfect guy, (trust me he's not, but then is there?), but he's here. i have 4 adults, who each one has given me their share of grey hairs. they are all different, which makes life very interesting.

i'm thankful for the fact that one day, hopefully, our children will be married with a family and i can go visit them and laugh my head off at them while they are scrambling to keep their family in check. life is good that way.

i'm thankful for the fact that even tho we may not see each other very often, my sisters and i seem to get along. there were times, in the not too distant past, that it didn't look like that would be. my parents are both dead, and it's my 2 sisters and myself from my family left. so, for birthdays, easter and christmas we get together.

i'm thankful for the fact, that because of the job hubby has, i have not HAD to go to work. i was able to stay at home, raising my kids. i feel that i've, i'm going to say sacrificed which is too strong a word, but i've given up something by staying at home. years ago, i used to take pride in the fact that i was a stay at home mom, now, it's almost an embarrassing thing to say. you see, i don't have a JOB, CAREER, i'm just.....

i'm thankful for the fact that i have friends, to laugh with, cry with, do stupid things with. one in particular. we call each other lucy and ethel. i told "ethel" i wanted to start a blog. we both laughed soooooooo hard cause we both thought what will THEY say. they being our chiluns. but i did it. she hasn't yet, but she told me she will.

i'm thankful for the fact, that over the years, with our friends we've made many memories. some memories are great, full of fun. some memories, as in life, are not so happy. we may not see all our friends on a regular basis, but we can pick up from the time before and carry right on.

i'm thankful.

wishing y'all a great day, but not to be thankful just for today. be thankful in general. there will be no turkey in our home today, but that doesn't mean there won't be thanks. have a great one

truly invigorating

i want to start off by saying that i have some news.

i never thought I would think of getting one myself. i looked around and everyone, everywhere has one, some people even have more than one. young and not so young. so why shouldn't i? i know, i'm old and maybe out of touch, but why shouldn't i? i haven't told many people, only a select few know. some people have one for many years without others knowing, and they get on with their lives just fine.

some see it on a regular basis, while others keep it a dark, deep secret. i will start off slowly. it didn't hurt as much as i thought it would, really. i know, you're probably thinking, what the hell are you doing? at your age? what will everyone think of you? maybe one day i will regret it, it's too late, i've come this far, i can't turn back. so, think bad of me, think good of me, think whatever you want of me, what's done is done, for good.

now, onto bigger and better things. today is settimo's birthday. i can't believe how old he and we are all getting. oh well, it's all good for now. ya gotta live life to the fullest and somehow we do, everyday. gotta go and bake a cake for the birthday boy.