DATE NIGHT

Since the day before Thanksgiving when he got his car, my son John & I have not spent much time together. He's usually headed to rehearsal for one of his shows , going to band practice or on the way to a girl's house. So I was a bit surprised when he asked, "hey mom, do you want to go see a movie one night this week since we're both off from school?"

When he was a little kid we would do "date night" maybe once a month. Our evenings out usually consisted of a gourmet meal at Wendy's followed by a trip to the local video game arcade. My favorite "date night" with John was the time when he was about 7 yrs old when we just decided at the spur of the moment to hop on the LIRR and go into NYC. It was the Friday before Christmas and the city was incredibly crowded. I don't remember where we had dinner or what we ate, but I do remember going to see Santa at Macys/ Herald Square. He was probably the best looking Santa I had ever seen & in those days John was still a believer...I still have the picture of John & Santa and I display it every year during the holidays.

Sweets for my sweetie

At least once a week or once a day I say to Matt, "Nobody loves you more than me... except your mom & dad...oh yeah and your brothers". After 10 months together I still get the urge now & then to tease this man that I love so much.... today he decided that he had to go on a diet because he feels he's starting to get round.

Usually Matt has ice cream every night for dessert about an hour after dinner. Tonight there was no ice cream in the freezer so he had 2 Hershey's kisses instead. I know he was tempted to hop in his car & head over to the supermarket but he had enormous will power. Any bets on how long Matt will last without ice cream?

Luv you sweetie!

The Ghost of Christmas Past

Matt is convinced we have ghost/s in our house..... he keeps hearing wierd noises in the basement, but I think it's just my guardian angels (mom & grandma)...he says as long as they don't empty the fridge they can stay.

Enough about ghosts, over the past few days I've been trying to recall my favorite Christmas memory, of course going to grandma's tops the list...but getting there took almost as long as Moses crossing the desert from Egypt to the Promised Land. When I was 10 or 11 yrs. old my dad came home from work on Dec 23rd and announced we were going to Puerto Rico to spend Christmas with the grandparents. Mom wondered how we were going to get there since we didn't have any plane tickets...no tickets, no problem dad had everything figured out, we would fly standby... we were given an hour to pack our luggage & get to Kennedy airport.. after a 3 hour flight (around midnight) my dad was able to find a rental car (no reservation) for the 2 hour drive from the airport to the farm (grandma's)...the grandparents were surprised when we showed up that night/ morning... the last thing I remember about that night was my grandfather's command to grandma "Our family is here, go cook something!" It was 5 a.m. on Christmas Eve!

I know we went to the beach every day (80 degrees daily)...but the rest of that Christmas trip is a blur.

Christmas cookies

The house is quiet tonight.... Matt is already asleep (work tomorrow) and John is at a friend's house. This is probably the only time of the year that I attempt to bake.... the last few weeks have been so hectic, the stores & shoppers have been insane... even people in their cars have been a little nuts!

Nights like this give me time to reflect on the fact that there are still a few truly good and noble people left in the world. One of them is my friend Raquel.... she lost her husband a few years ago and a year later she lost her son as well, yet every Saturday she's at a local nursing home reading to the "older folks" or playing bingo and letting them win.... every time I start feeling cynical about the lack of humanity that some people show...I think about the people I know who do good for others without expecting anything in return.

Accepted!

Most of the time I'm convinced that all teenagers are crazy...... living proof of this is my son John, who this week added several gray hairs to my head. In the past five days he has locked his keys in his car, left the house & garage keys attached to the garage door (OUTSIDE) for more than a day and last Thursday night he also fell asleep on the couch and left the oven on for over 3 hours...(burnt cookies!)

Today however, I have no complaints..... the "kid" got his first college acceptance letter and now it's starting to hit me that in a few short months he'll be leaving home.... just hope his roommate is not a neat freak.

Angel

Today the youngest McDermott got baptized. Olivia is such a good baby, an angel. What a good girl she was in church... didn't cry not even once. After church we headed over to Joey & Mary's house.... all the kids playing in every room of the house.... all the adults talking & eating & eating some more. Matt ate at least 3 sandwiches... maybe I'm not feeding him enough at home?

PB&J

Every night Matt makes his lunch to take to work the next day, he lays out his clothes and is ready for the next day.... I'm usually running around like an idiot in the morning trying to have my Captain Crunch, get dressed & pack a lunch all at once.. I could go on & on about the differences between us but despite them we seem to go together, like peanut butter and jelly.... he's the nutty one & I'm the sweet ( just kidding sweetheart)

You cook, I clean

There is an unspoken rule at the McCoy/McDermott house that whoever does the cooking does not have to wash dishes. Usually John sets & clears the table and Matt & I take turns making dinner. When I cook the kitchen doesn't get too messy.... but when Matt does the cooking the kitchen sometimes looks like a tornado (lol) but the food always tastes better when he cooks. Tonight he made a most excellent beef stew (carrots, celery, potato etc.)..... I'm definitely marrying this guy!!!!!!

Field Trip

This week I have the priviledge of a few days of peace & quiet while my son John is away in Williamsburg, VA with his AP social studies class. Did I say peace & quiet? He still sends me text messages reminding me to take good care of his car & a list of errands that he hopes I will be able to do for him in his absence.... miss him anyway!

Today I took my class to see a play at Hofstra University... for most of "my kids" this was the first time going anywhere other than the laundromat or supermarket with mommy. It's amazing see to see how excited they were to see some of their favorite stories acted out in a live theatre...... just another day in the kinder corner.

oh Christmas tree!

30 seconds after my son John came home from his dad's house , he was ready to go buy our tree. "Can we go now, can we?" It sounded like he was 8 yrs old again. We drove down to our local fire house, where we've been getting our trees for as long as I can remember. This year John did the driving. Of course he picked the biggest tree in the lot (almost). The fire dept. is nice enough to deliver it every year.

When the tree was delivered we realized it wouldn't fit in the living room (too tall). So the tree spent the night out in the yard & this afternoon Matt took out his tools and played lumber jack... he removed at least a foot from each end. After dinner John took all the decorations out the attic & started trimming our tree. Now he's asleep on the couch & only half the decorations are up. He's good out of the gate, but the kid lacks stamina.

Retail Therapy

Yesterday was the first Saturday in more than a year that I had completely to myself. During the time that my mom was sick I was at her side almost every day after work and every weekend. This weekend however, John was at his dad's , Matt was working O.T., and mom has been gone more than 6 months. She & I spent many Saturday afternoons at the mall ..."helping the economy", was one of her favorite pastimes.

After doing my errands (bank, post office, gas station), I headed to the mall by myself. I wandered in & out of the stores aimlessly for an hour or two. All I had to show for my effort was 2 pairs of socks (boring) and 1 or 2 Christmas presents. I saw a pretty party dress in one the store displays but didn't bother to give it a second glance. If mom had been with me, she would have insisted that we go into the store and try on the dress. She was always so persistent... "try it on, get it for the Christmas party at work"( I can hear her voice as I write this) .... maybe I'll go back for the dress this week.

Girls Night Out

The title is a bit decieving.... my days of all night partying are decades old...I spent yesterday afternoon with my favorite little girl, my neice Sarah.... she & I went to the nail salon, then to see the movie Enchanted.... wow this kid can eat!!!! she had a bag of popcorn, a red slushy and a bag of M&M's... Matt picked us up after he was through with work and he took us out for pizza...can you believe the niece gobbled up a slice of sicilian pizza on top of everything she ate 2 hrs. earlier!!!!!

The great thing about nieces & nephews is that you can feed them junk food & indulge them and at the end of the day you can send them back to their parents.

p.s. to my brother Jeff... I still haven't forgotten the time you took my son to Hooters (when he was 3) to pick up women...uncles are incorrigible! ( LOL)... luv ya!

A day at the DMV

Once upon a time there was an adoreable little boy who played with his ninja turtles, read Dr. Seuss books and ocasionally played video games. Then I woke up this morning, and I was mysteriously transported to the DMV where the "little boy" had turned into a 17 year old "almost man" was registering his first car. It was almost surreal, one minute I'm watching pee-wee soccer and the next I'm at the DMV getting plates for a teenaged driver. It was at that point that I started wishing that I could put him back in the playpen!

Now I understand why my mom went prematurely gray. She always said, "My grandchildren will be my revenge". Thanks mom!! I guess the moral of this story is that all the grief you gave your parents when you were a teen is nothing compared to what's waiting for you when your kids hit puberty so beware.

Thanksgiving 2007

The leftovers are in the fridge, the dishes are washed and the guests have gone home (except for the teenagers in my basement), and Matt is peacefully snoring in our bedroom.... everything went fairly smoothly for our first holiday in the McCoy-McDermott household. The food came out great (especially Matt's sausage & apple stuffing) he did all the cooking & I did the dishes, I'm definitely marrying this man!!!

The day might have been better if the "crazies" I'm related had arrived on time for dinner. Instead the relatives arrived more than an hour late & didn't bother to call or answer their cell phones when I called them. I really had to supress the urge to use a string of 4 - letter words today!