Fernando arrives tomorrow night

Our exchange student from Spain arrives tomorrow night at 7PM. They are still deperately searching for home for 4 teens still not placed. School is finally over and Stefan started day camp. I was greeted with Stefan's report card on Friday in the mail and drum roll........FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER STEFAN MADE HONOR ROLL.....I hear the clapping! We are so proud of him! He is so happy at day camp and has a great time doing a Teen Travel program. He told me that after the first day his arms hurt when he got home from hugging everone. He is such a sweet little man...love him. Allie continues working at her day camp. Speaking of Allie my dear friend Ann Marie and her husband Rob gave us the video they took of the wedding....really really nice.....in the beginning the dubbed in Josh Groban singing the Prayer it so nice of course I cried when I watched it! Thanks Ann Marie and Rob you are the best! Bill and I are anxiously awaiting our trip to North Carolina on Friday! Bill & Fernando will be driving down together and Stefan, my parents and I will fly down on Friday morning. It will be good to get away for some down time. The next weekend we are going down to Washington DC with the boys. That leaves us the next two weekends to do some more American things with our visitor from Spain. Perhaps tubing down the Delaware in Pennsylvania and maybe Philadelphia along with a stop at Dave & Busters for some classic American fast food and video games? We'll figure it out! The weather here in NJ continues to be hazy, hot and very humid. When you go outside it is like someone opened an oven door.....really gross! Onto Tae Kwon Do with Stefan.

Catching Up

Ok so it has been way too long since I posted.....Happy first day of summer! Yay! I don't know if Stefan or I are more happy that the school year has come to an end! We had a great weekend. I had the family over to celebrate father's day. What could be better than sitting by the pool, swimming, sunning and drinking pina coladas with family and friends? I went to Westfield on Saturday with my Mom to be an extra in my cousin Greg's video soon to be on you tube for his single Jersey Country. It really was fun. Good luck in realizing your dream Greg~
Still packing up Allie's stuff from her room. Sixteen years of stuff is way too much to pack up alone. The flood of memories kept rushing in .....all the memories are jam packed into boxes. Bill & I (okay Bill) made a last minute decision to have an exchange student live with us for the month of July. His name is Fernando he is 17 years old and comes to us from Spain! This is his third time abroad....in 2008 he was in Ireland and in 2009 he was in England.....and now his wonderlust brings him to New Jersey! I hope he bonds well with Stefan and Stefan is able to converse better in Spanish with him living with us.......I will definately keep you posted how this whole thing goes! Onky two more weeks until we go to our home in North Carolina so excited to have my mom & dad see our home and to celebrate mom's 85th birthday. Then on the weekend of July 10th & 11th we are going to go to Washington DC ....to show Fernando the capitol of our country and to see Allie & Ryan! YAY.....hopefully drop off some wedding gifts she has at the house and some more of her memory boxes! Since Stefan is having single sessions at school this week......I need to sign off now and go home to be a mom. Glad Monday is over. BTW please offer up a prayer today for Fr. Tom's brother Michael who is having kidney surgery for a cancerous kidney. His name is Michael Serafin, a great guy who has his dad living with him and two of his nieces. Amen

Thank God it's Thursday (-:

As of Memorial Day our office started "Summer Hours" YAY At least now I have an opportunity to get the laundry, housework and gardening done and still feel like I have a weekend. Stefan is going camping this weekend with the Boy Scouts to Dutch Spring (scuba/snorkeling/swimming park which really an abandoned strip mine) and Bill is not doing this trip with Stefan. This makes Stefan and me happy. As much as Bill tries to go on Stefan's scouting trips he can't possibly make them all. The reasons are many but leaving work early on Fridays really puts him behind at work and he pays the price for it all week. We finished painting Stefan's mancave aka Allie's old room on Monday and have a few minor things to do before he officially moves in and makes it his own. The weekend looks to be hot, hazy and humid...typically NJ! Work has been really crazy lately. We have a funeral and wedding on Saturday and two Confirmation masses on Sunday with 90 young adults getting confirmed. On top of this Fr. Tom called me today to tell me that his brother Michael is in the hospital with a grapefruit sized tumor on one of his kidneys....some people just can't get a break....he has his father and his two nieces living with him and his wife....so they already have a full plate....prayers please. I also found out that my cousin had a second miscarriage....so sad. There are so many people out there who want babies....heartbreaking to think that babies have become expendible. Prayers again please. Starting to look forward to the July 4th weekend Stefan and I are flying down to our home in North Carolina with my parents for the holiday. My mom is turning 85 on July 3rd and my dad will be 88 on August 9th and I really want them to see the house while they are both healthy enough to make the trip. There might be some more surprises in store for them when they get there. Hope it all works out.