I'm BAAAAAAAACK!!

Hey Blogging world I'm finally back to updating this ol blog of mine. I just needed to step back for a little bit to find my mojo again. Things have been like a rollercoaster lately, with some UPS and some DOWNS. It's a good thing that I love the rollercoaster otherwise I might be puking in the garbage by the hotdog stand at the amusement park. But I digress, let's play some catch up shall we, oh where to begin?

Let's start with family... Mom is back from Finland it was a rough trip for her, she too had some UPS and some DOWNS, my grandmother is doing well, my mom has made arrangments to make sure my grandmother is checked on daily and that she gets the help that she needs, this wasn't an easy task, my grandmother was VERY against the whole idea (at first), but my mom stayed strong and basically gave her two options, either you let someone come and help or you go into a nursing home, your choice. I'm proud of my mother, this was not easy for her, my grandmother, well she can be down right MEAN to my mom, she has always been very kind and loving to me, but not my mom. Grandma can be tough to deal with but man oh man she has all of her facilities still and at 90 years old that is pretty awesome, she is still sharp as a tool and knows more about what is going on in the world then my mom & I put together (which really isn't saying much since I know nothing HAHA). Here is a picture of my grandmother at her 90th birthday party while my mom was in Finland.



She also is not on any medication either well they just recently put her on 1 pill a day to help her from getting UTIs, but otherwise she is healthy as a horse, but stubborn as a mule. (Gee I'm so witty today, I feel like me again). Anyway, so mom is back and it is good to have her home (except for the smoking), we went up to Portsmouth, NH this past Sunday her friend Julie and my friend Gosia came along as well, it was a perfect day, until the restaurant I hostess at called and asked if I would come in to work, I felt bad for Pierce he really sounded strapped and I said sure but I won't be there until later we are just leaving NH. Remind me to tell you about the CRAZY lady who came in.

So the rest of the family is doing well also, dad and I are getting along pretty well lately, last Wednesday I went over for family dinner all the kids were there even Christos the adoptive brother (he's not really adopted he's just someone my father has sort of taken under his wing), my father also had this Greek guy over that he knows from the flower shop (he's a customer) his name is Stamatis he was a nice guy, I think Katerina was trying to fix me up with him, I'm like um no that's okay I don't date Greek guys, but I did invite him to come with us for Friday night sushi, he lives near where we go and everyone is invited. Anyway, so Wednesday night dinner was good, the kids are doing so well, and check out the picture my brother Vasilis took, he is a freshman in highschool and taking a photography class, this kid has an eye, he is such an artist by nature, you cannot believe some of the drawing, paintings and computer art that he has already done.



Now that you are caught up with the family lets talk about my trip to Portsmouth, NH, last Sunday my mom, Julie, Gosia & myself went up to Portsmouth for the day we left around 9:30am and went to the Sheraton for a nice brunch, from there we took a walk all around Portsmouth, I never realized how pretty it is up there. There were a lot of sights to see and we took some beautiful pictures. Here are a few but the rest you can find here





The weather started out a bit cloudy and chilly but as the day wore on it turned to blue skies and good temperatures. All in all it was a great day, my mom said that Portsmouth during Christmas time is absolutely breath taking, so if we have the time we might drive up one night to check it out. I like these little day trips we have been taking I am learning so much about New England and love to learn the history of these little towns. It still amazes me that we can live in a city like Boston yet drive an hour out and be in a town that is still small, you can't get much better then that.

The next place that I think some of us are going is Salem for Halloween, Gosia being from Poland has never really experienced Halloween so I say the best place for it, is Salem, MA, there is so much to do this month there and I'm trying to figure out which event will be the best one. So things are finally getting to be a bit normal again, I'm still working on some issues but overall I think I'll be okay I tell you it has something to do with autumn I always get down this time of year because I know the darkness and winter are coming, I'm not good during the cold months. But this year I'm going to try to not let it get me down. Wish me luck, and it feels good to be back.

I Want More...

That's Enough!

A day with Mom

This past weekend my mom and I went on a trip up to Rockport, MA to have a mother/daughter day, see my mom is going to Finland today for 5 weeks because my grandmother is turning 90 and she needs some help and she refuses any. Needless to say mom needs to go there, to take care of some things, so I had suggested a couple of weeks ago, that we do something fun/special just the two of us on the Sunday before she leaves. We picked Rockport.

Rockport, is this quaint little town on the Northern Coast of MA on the Cape Ann peninsula. It was a perfect day too, not too hot no too cool, we get there late morning and walk around and check out all the stores. We buy some Pulla which is a wonderful yummy bread that comes from Finland. I usually make the rolls myself but haven't done so in a while, I think it might be time. We buy some elephant ears, (no not real elephant just a fried dough that is very delicious). There is this one gallery in Rockport that has some of the best landscape pictures I've ever seen, unfortunately I can't think of its name. The one thing I love about Rockport is it feels like a small Scandinavian village. The houses are small, and very close together.

I took a picture of a street that I just thought was so beautiful the way the houses lined up.

A fisherman's shack on Bradley Wharf in the harbor of Rockport has been duplicated in photos and art so many times that it is considered the most recognizable picture in the world.

This is a photo of it (I took this off the web because we didn't take a picture of it I know what was I thinking).

After touring and walking around Rockport we head over to the Halibut Point State Park, this is where my mom used to go when I was sick. She said that sometimes she just needed to be by herself, she found this place to come, to sit, to think and just be alone. I know my mom went through so much while I was going through treatment, it was not easy for her to watch her only child fight for her life. So I was very grateful and appreciative when she said she wanted to show me her favorite place.

The park was formerly the Babson Farm granite quarry, beginning in the 1840s, granite was quarried from this area, first on a small scale and primarily along the coast, and then on a much larger scale when the Rockport Granite Company acquired the Babson Farm quarry and expanded its operation. Shortly after the Cape Ann granite industry collapsed in 1929, 17 acres on the eastern side of the quarry were purchased and given to the Trustees of Reservations. The remainder of the area sat unused until late in World War II when a fire control tower (now the park's Visitors Center) was constructed to provide aiming information for the massive coastal defense guns that guarded Boston and Portsmouth Harbors.

This is of the quarry

This is the fire control tower

After walking around the quarry, we headed down the trail to the beach.

Mom turn around and say CHEESE!!

When we got down the trail we have to hike on all these rocks to get to where my mom would sit and think. It was so beautiful and peaceful.

Me in deep thoughts. (I'm shocked that I just hiked on all these rocks!)

These rocks are very high up from the beach, actually there isn't really a beach, its just rocks and ocean. In the picture you can't tell but they were at least 40 feet up. When we were sitting I was about to take a picture and dropped my mom's filter cap on her camera and it dropped WAAAYYYY down between the rocks. Again sorry about that mom.

Here are a couple more pictures of the surf and some fisherman.

Once we left the park we headed to Gloucester to go for lunch the food was great, the drinks were better but what was the best was us watching these two people try to dance to a Brazilian band, it was hysterical (I took a video of them, but I can't post it, cuz I'm just not that mean). After lunch we get into the car and head home we took a detour by the beach to check out if the festival was still going on. While we were driving on the road by the beach, this seagull decides that he wants to walk across the street. So he does, he actually is in the cross walk and all the cars stop to let him cross, he waddles across with this look of arrogance as if to say, "that's right I'm in the cross walk so you all have to stop." (If my camera hadn't been in the back I would have tried to get its picture). My mom and I just lost it, we laughed the rest of the way home. It was a perfect way to end a perfect day.

I Want More...

That's Enough!