Halloween time

Kiersten painting a flower on her baby sister!

Kali is dressed like the girl from "Tron" she was in white w/ white hair, but the pictures didn't show both her glowy lights and her whites w/ awesome boots!

fake eyelashes with sparklies on them

5 of the 6 Howie's the Joker from Batman

Ross had to wear a skirt because his legs were still pretty smooth from shaving them for his swim meet.  I thought he should take this opporunity to show them off. It's pretty manly to shave yourself for a swim meet, but it's not cool talking about it after the swim season is over.  At least it's not a tattoo.

A great backdrop at the ward party!

Butterfly Binnie

New York Trip

I tagged along on a business trip of Ross's to New York.  It was a due diligence meeting and they put him up in the Waldorf Astoria.  So of course, I had to go! I know these pictures are out of order, so bare with me while I jump around on the timeline, but just describe the pictures as they come up!  Here is a picture of (front row) Uncle Jimmy, me, Aunt Vera, Aunt Betty, her daughter Joyce Ann and in the back row, my brother Pete and John, Betty's youngest son.

We took a train to NJ and Uncle Jimmy picked us up, took us to a quaint eatery in a strip mall and then on to Aunt Betty's where we looked at her walls of pictures and spend time reminiscing with her!  She's such a sweet lady!  I loved spending time with Uncle Jimmy, he reminds me so much of my late grandpa, same phrases, same voice, and just sweet as could be.

 Ross also took me to see WICKED on Broadway! It was a fantastic show.  We bought the sound track and some other photo books.  This picture was taken from just to the right of our seats, which were fantastic!

After "Wicked" we took a stroll around Time Square.  WOW!  What a night life!  The weather was fantastic, the atmosphere indescribable!

We also went to the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island.  Weeks before our trip, Ross went on line and bought us tickets so we could go up INTO the statue.  Which was a fun experience!

On Ellis Island, we found the wall of immigrants, below are pictures of both of my great grandfather's names.  This is my Grandpa Covino's dad, and below him you'll find my Grandma Covino's father, Vincenzo Marinucci's name.  What FUN to find these names!

This is a fun picture in Little Italy just before dinner.

We asked a local gelato salesman where the best place to eat was.

he told us to go to Angelo's.  I must agree. That is some of the best Italian food I've ever had!  (Excluding food in Italy, herself!)

Ross is occupying Wall Street here.

We rented bikes & went around Central Park.

 here is the Alice in Wonderland sculpture.

And "the clock" in the Waldorf where we stayed.  Apparently it's a "popular" photo spot...so we decided to be like lemmings & have our picture taken there!

And in central park, the Balto monument.

The bike

You may or may not remember this birthday present, but after a fantastic day of his very last high school meet and breaking personal records, finishing up his eagle project and having to look forward to doing NOTHING for the next few months, a day full of HIGHs in emotion...we learned that Rossi's bike was stolen.

Some people have told me "well, whoever took it must have needed it more than him."  Well, yah, I guess that's a nice thing to think about to keep you from being bitter and angry - but in all honesty, whoever stole it from him, didn't need it more than him.  What they NEED is some ethics.  What they NEED is to EARN their own bike - and I don't count learning how to pick open a lock as the right kind of education.  What they NEED is parents who taught them right and wrong.  What they need is consequences for their action.  Maybe their intents were good "I'm stealing this bike because my dad is a drunk and just left our family, my mom has cancer and lost her job and my siblings need to eat, I need a bike so I can get to work and back to get money so I can feed them..." How very proud this mother must be? She taught her children to value the old addage "what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine" wait...not sure any responsible parent would teach their child that.  What?  I'm going too hard on the mother of the bike thief?  After all the bike thief is also a child of God.  Well, so was Lucifer, and his sorry butt got kicked out.  Sometimes you need some tuff luv. 

That bike was my son's transportation to seminary, school, work...and more than anything, when he needed a break and to get out to relax in a quiet location to write in his journal, he would take that bike out for a ride...to feel the wind in his hair, to go where cars can't fit, and to find his center again.

To the bike thief....may the fleas of a thousand camels infest your arm pits.

My baby boy is in the paper again!

Here's a fun story on the community clean up project that Rossi helped prep for (it was his eagle project to prep the house for the community day!)

Last meet of the season...

It's like saying goodbye to an old friend.  Here are some great pictures of my baby boy - and a video of his fantastic run at the 100 butterfly.  (Notice how far behind he was from the guy to the right - and how he caught up with him after being under water about 1/2 of the pool distance!) You hear me at the end "Did he break a minute?" and then I saw the final time & then you'll hear some squealing...yah, that was me.  He was so pleased with himself after that race, and he should have been!  It was a fantastic race.  59:58.  His previous time was 1:02.12

Now here are some other photos of him swimming throughout the season.

 I have to look at those shoulders and think DANG! Is it just me - or can you actually see those muscle fibers?

Eagle Project

Ross's eagle project was to prepare a home to receive help from "Mormon Helping Hands."  He had to take down a dilapidated wall and replace it with siding, so his house could get a fresh coat of paint, grade the yard to prepare it to receive rocks (also for "Mormon Helping Hands") and remove his "fence" (which was a combination of iron rods, chain link and steel doors) Those came down - and a chain link fence went up. So here is the yard "before" (the level between the yard and the sidewalk was about a foot difference, the yard had to come down to be level with the retaining wall in order for the rock to stay in the yard and not spill over to the sidewalk.

here are some kids digging out the fence and bringing
the grade down.

Here is a view from the sidewalk of the modge-podge of fence...steel doors, iron and chain link between the two.











Here are some of the boys moving a steel door - they were some pretty heavy buggers!












Below is a "before" of the house - where the wood had rotted away and/or fallen off?  We took this wall down and put up the siding (which was difficult, because the 2x4s did not have consistent spacing and - if you see toward the bottom, they didn't always go from top to bottom, in one board...



below is a nice "before" of the front view of the house and yard.

 

And below me now is the "AFTER" picture, with rock in and house painted and fence put back up!