Facie’s Ramblings

Tomorrow the kid starts daycare. I am not even sure that is what it is called when your kid will be 10 in about 2.5 months and headed into fifth grade. As I said on Facebook, it has been almost five years since I had to gather up extra clothes, write my kid's name on things, etc. I am not even sure what the etc. is  because I cannot remember what you are supposed to do when you send your kid off to a child-care facility (which in this case is a church-school)! J is a little apprehensive about it, but I think she is also slightly excited (and by think, I mean hope and pray). It will be a chance to meet some new people who hopefully will be kind-hearted. We are both glad that the place provides breakfast, which means that J can sleep in an extra 10 minutes from what she did the past nine months. The place also provides lunch, most choices which she likes, which also means that she won't have to pack her lunch too often. I still am sad that she has to do this. I am sad that she ...

I am considering taking a break (again) from blogging. As I have lamented about before, I don't feel as if I can say everything I want to for various reasons (even though there are some things I really want to say and almost need to). I also am not sure too many people are reading the blog anyway (I hardly think the referring sites that I have never heard of and quite obviously seem to be spam really count). I have never wanted or needed a big following, but when only a handful of people comment on and/or send me an email about a post and I can't get off my chest what I really want to, I am not sure there is much of a point. Besides, it is not as if I have been writing often or about much anyway. So I guess I will leave you with what is happening now, some of it, unfortunately, not without angst (at a level I am willing to share). I have adjusted fairly well to working again, but I am not sure my kid has. She has been very moody and sassy lately. I have not done well in pun...

Ten (nine, oops, bad math) years ago, I celebrated my first Mother's Day. I don't actually remember a thing about it, including where I was or whom I was with. My mom may or may not have been working (if the latter, then I was not with her). I may have been here with the hubby, the kid (who was a baby at the time), and most likely my MIL. The hub's grandmother was still living in SC with his (now deceased) grandfather, so they probably were not there. We could have been at my MIL. Or, actually, we could have been at the hubby's restaurant (or maybe he was no longer there). Yep, no clue. What I do remember is the Mother's Day before that. I, just over five months pregnant, took my mom to Heinz Field for a brunch. When we arrived upstairs, the hostess was handing out these nice, thick hardcover Steelers books to the moms. She asked me if I was a mom, and I recall touching my stomach and saying, "In utero!" Fortunately I got the book. :-) I don't remem...

When I started my thank-you note project, I had high hopes. There were so many people who deserved short, but thoughtful, notes, and surely I could find those people. But this task has proven more difficult than I had imagined. A week ago, I decided to email the woman who runs the fish fry at our church/school. If you have been to a fish fry, you know how hectic and busy it can be. I volunteer for a shift every year, and it is hard work, but it does not come close to what M, the woman in charge, does--scheduling people to make sure there is enough help, setting things up, keeping track of food, telling people what to do, answering questions, stepping in as needed in addition to running the kitchen, and probably a dozen other things I don't even realize. She works so hard to prepare for this weekly Lenten event, and when the actual night comes, she is grace under pressure. So I decided to email her to express my gratitude and appreciation for all she does. It was just a simple,...

I have a handful (well, maybe two handfuls) of things on my noodle, starting with a memorable Thanksgiving, so let's get right to it! Not sure which I will remember more about Thanksgiving day, my adult cousin's obscene t-shirt that he refused to remove for me or my three-year-old nephew trying to hit Jordan with a two-pound weight, but missing her and instead nailing his older brother in the head, which resulted in a trip to the ER . Good times! I wish my brothers and their families lived closer. I tend to be all about quantity since I typically see them only two or three times a year, and it gets crazy with so many people, including seven kids ages eight and under, in one small place. In one week I will be 40 . I still think I am okay with that. Ask me again next week at this time. Some people are idiots. I realize I did not say anything new there, but Black Friday tends to bring out the biggest morons and jag-offs in full force. Ugh. Speaking of jag-offs, while in I...

May your travels be safe, your food be yummy, your family fights be limited (or, better yet, non-existent), and may you find at least one thing to be thankful for. I have many blessings, which I will try to remember over these next few days, particularly while sitting in traffic, being annoyed by a family member, or moaning about how much I have overeaten. I need to remember that I have a car to drive, family to visit, and food to eat. Yes, I am indeed blessed. Happy Thanksgiving! Oh, and can I just say that I am also thankful that Sidney Crosby is back on the ice and that I won tickets to see the Nutcracker. Almost makes me forget about my dead TV. :-)

Before I launch into my thoughts about the scandal at Penn State involving former assistant (until 1999) football coach Jerry Sandusky and the apparent cover up (at least ignoring) of Sandusky's sexual abuse of youth, let me say that unlike many alumni, I cannot personally be embarrassed by something involving my alma mater when I had nothing to do with what happened. I am still Penn State proud, though a little less for sure. Now on to the story... The 23-page attorney general report on Sandusky in graphic detail recounts how a respected man sexually abused eight youth over the years and next to nothing was done to either stop it or keep it from happening again. It is pretty sickening. Throw in a dozen other news stories, blogs, and comments from various people and you find your head spinning as you try to figure out what really happened. Here are some of my thoughts: I understand it was a report and not a trial, but the stories of eight youth as well as the eye witness...

I love fall. I love the cooler air. The beautiful leaves. The flavors of fall. Oh, how I love thee, pumpkin. Let me count the ways: coffee, creamer, ice cream, cookies, roll, cake, pie, gobs (or bobbs, as I noticed Giant Eagle called them), seeds, soup, bread. I am surely missing some. Yesterday alone, I had pumpkin creamer in my coffee, pumpkin bobbs (I think I can get down with that), and pumpkin roll. Fall also means the pumpkin patch. For the past four years, my mom, Jordan, and I have gone to Reeger's in Indiana County. I look forward to it every October, and I am never disappointed, though I must admit nothing has topped our first corn maze experience. We typically start off at said corn maze, and each year Jordan becomes more and more competitive (hmm, wonder where that comes from), racing to get to the next clue/riddle. This was the muddiest year ever, but still fun. Here she is, all business about figuring out this riddle Nonnie and Jordan, with just one clue/...

A blog I visit from time to time recently had a post about free-writing. Well, that was the part of the post that most intrigued me: Kristen explained how she responded to a simple prompt of "I" and went on to write about herself uncensored for five minutes. As my 40th birthday looms ahead (just over two months), I decided to try this free-write myself. So here goes nothing, off the cuff, from the heart. I... I worry a lot, about more things than I should. I love my kid and my husband more than anything else. I love my kid more than my husband, and I know I probably should not. I like football and hockey, to watch. I am a Steelers fan first and a Penn State fan second. Once I had a kid, I decided it was okay not to watch too many PSU games, but I do my best to watch all the Steelers games. I don't think you should leave sporting events early unless you have an emergency or some pressing concern; whether it is a blowout or a close game, I want to ...

This summer I made it a point to try to take at least one pic of Jordan whenever we went somewhere, which most often was a park. I wanted to capture all the great, fun things we did this summer, knowing that it was probably going to be my last summer not working for quite some time. So here goes. I have expressed my love of Frick Park, particularly Blue Slide Park, in other posts ; it really is one of our favorites. And this summer marked the first one I did not feel the need to follow J around like a little puppy dog. I actually let her run around and explore, though, admittedly, I would panic if more than three minutes went by and I had not seen her. In the pics above, J is at the end of the blue slide, and then hanging several feet above concrete (which scared the crap out of me). We also visited another section of Frick Park, the area on the corner of Braddock and Forbes, a few times. There is not as much to do as Blue Slide, but we go there to mix things up a bit. In the p...

Last night, Jordan and I attended the third of three public meetings related to Kate and Peter's Treehouse. When we arrived at the tent at the Frick Environmental Center, Jordan and I were greeted by Marijke Hecht, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy director of education. She asked Jordan if she saw her picture on a recent Conservancy email, to which Jordan happily (and slightly embarrassed) replied yes. (A few days ago, I received an email about this night's meeting, and when I opened it, there was Jordan's picture, messy hair and all, larger than life. Cool.) But on to the important stuff. At this latest meeting, once we arrived at the actual site, we were greeted by large posters about the project. Here are a few pictures. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing, and my phone takes crappy pictures, but it will give you some sense. The posters also included some photos from the previous meetings as well as some of the comments that people wrote at the meetings. Here are a...

When I worked at my last (almost full-time) job, I did not go out a lot without the kid for the mostly obvious reasons: I felt guilty missing the few waking hours I had with her, and I really just missed her. That is why while at my last job, I often talked coworker friends into two-hour lunches or leaving at 3 p.m. for early happy hour; I hardly missed any evening hours with J and I still got to have grownup fun. One would think when you have not worked regularly for over two years, the guilt of being away from your kid would lessen. But if you know me and how my mind works, you would know it really has not and it goes beyond money. At swim lessons last week, two moms and I were talking about how when our husbands spend time with the kids (or kid, in my case), although we are grateful to have that time alone, we often find ourselves missing our kids, wishing they would hurry home, or in my case, often joining in on whatever Bri and Jordan are doing. Fortunately (for lack of a bett...

Kennywood! Kennywood! Kennywood! Kennywood! Kennywood! Kennywood! Kennywood! Yesterday, Bri, J, and I went to Kennywood to celebrate J's excellent grades this year. The last time I was at Kennywood was in 2000, when the Aero 360 first opened. I won a contest on the now-defunct B94 and was one of the first few people to try out that new ride. Even though my body started rejecting spinning/turning movements back in the late 1990s, I managed to employ mind over matter for that experience. The last time I had spent an entire day at Kennywood was back in 1994 or 1995, when Bri and I were just dating and had gone with one of my friends from high school and her boyfriend. Back then, I could ride all things that spin, twist, turn, or loop. The good ole days! We started off our morning on the Phantom's Revenge, which is a super-fast coaster (85 mph) with some twists, but fortunately no loops. In hindsight, it was probably not the best way to begin a day at Kennywood for someone li...

I hope all of you had a lovely Christmas. If yours was anything like mine, you may still be in some sort of a food coma. I started eating a lot of cookies Christmas Eve and since then have stopped eating (not just cookies) only when I was at church, in the car, or sleeping. A lot of my pants are too big anyway... Anyway, now that the secular season is winding down, I wanted to share some observations: Even though I have been listening to Christmas songs since the 19th of November (Light-Up Night is the "official" start of the season in the Burgh), I am not ready for the radio stations to stop playing the jolly tunes. This morning, I was pleasantly surprised to hear Christmas songs on two stations, but I am guessing that is for us Church folk, who are still in the Christmas season.  I like to think that I have finally accepted that no matter how many times I ask my MIL not to buy Jordan a lot of gifts and/or spend a lot of money on her for Christmas (and birthday, for tha...

This holiday season (for the record, I am referring to it as the holiday season because Christmas does not start until December 25 and it seems a little too narrow to refer to it as Advent), I am doing just what I said I would not. Well, I am doing what I said I would a few weeks ago, which is embracing the season . I listen to Christmas music every day in the car (mixed in with some sports radio, of course). I am trying my best to be extra pleasant to people while waiting in long lines. More often than usual, I let cars in traffic get in front of me. I have worn my various Santa hats (PSU, Steelers, red) several times , including yesterday during lunch duty. I bought a gift for the angel tree at church and have given a donation to the food bank. And I finished my Christmas cards before Thanksgiving and painstakingly waited to send them out until November 29 (just could not wait until December 1). The thing that I did not want to do was get caught up in the presents, which is exact...

In less than an hour, I will be 39. I have no bad feelings about this. No feelings of impending doom because I will be 40 next year (God willin' and the creek don't rise, as dad always said). No feelings of sadness because I have not yet accomplished a lot of great or impressive things. I just want to be glad that I have made it this far. Proud because I am in pretty darn good shape, thanks to running, swimming, and just keeping active in general. Thankful that I have a roof over my head, food in the house, a healthy family, and a still-working husband. Grateful that I get called in to substitute (even if it is not as often as I would like, considering the day I had on Wednesday, I should probably be glad). Lucky and blessed that I have been able to spend the amount of time I have been with my kid over the past 1.5-plus years. Fortunate that I live in the US, where we have freedom of speech and religion and the right to vote. And happy that I am able to write this blog (and f...

I have a bunch of thoughts swimming around my head. But since they center around things that are currently perplexing and/or bothering me, I am forgoing a "random ramblings" post title. Here goes nothing. I love Joe Paterno. But I am not sure if he should keep on coaching. On the one hand, he has done so much for the school, and he really is a great, funny (at least he was when I met him about eight years ago) guy. But on the other hand, considering he is almost 84 and seems to have lost a bit of his step, shouldn't he hang it up? Is there an intelligent reason that about 13 million people are still paying off last year's Christmas purchases? I saw this stat on the local news and was appalled. Other than someone's buying a car or perhaps a computer, IMHO there are no other purchases that should not have been paid off within a few months (for the record, if I get to the point where I have to carry a credit card balance, it would not be for gifts, but I am tryin...

I am guessing that in years past, I have listed things for which I am thankful. Might as well continue down the path. So here goes my list. I hope every single one of you can find something, even many things, for which to be thankful. Wishing you a happy Thanksgiving, Toforkey, and Slapsgiving! Family (especially Jordan and Brian), friends, and Sadie too Roof over my head and food in the fridge and cupboards Health Football and hockey, particularly winning seasons for the Steelers, PSU, and Pitt football teams (as well as my fantasy football team) and the Pens Running and my improved times Pittsburgh Freedom of speech and religion and the right to vote Tenacity That Jordan likes school The most wonderful time of the year That I actually have my Christmas cards ready to go (just waiting to mail them so people don't receive them in November) Funny things Food (I kind of already said this, but I just love food, particularly on this most special food day of the year) H...

When Skippy missed that short field goal last night, I said, just as I did last week when he missed another short(ish) one, "The Steelers must have known what they were doing when they did not sign him to a long-term contract." Not that it would have mattered. The Steelers were totally schooled last night. I did not care so much when they lost to New Orleans. After all, the Saints were the defending Super Bowl champs, who perhaps did not take the Browns (aka the Clowns) as seriously as they probably should have. Plus, the Saints are in the NFC, so no biggie. But for the love to Pete, the Pats, who are, unfortunately, in the AFC, sure seem to have the Steelers' number. As much as I do not like Big Ben (as a person), I thought he played pretty well last weekend (and, yes, I realize, that was against the Bungles). Sure some throws were low or high (I forget), and he probably had an ill-advised pick (who can remember), but he just looked good overall, particularly the way...

Last week, I had a particularly trying day while subbing. I don't think I have ever gotten through a day without some small challenge, which is typically the loudness of a large class (and for the record, I think having over 30 kids in one class is too many). But usually, all is well that ends well. The day started off fine. By late morning, I bribed one of my toughest (i.e., largest) classes by saying if I did not have to tell them to be quiet more than two times, I would let them out two minutes early. The school has no time between classes, which means that other than the first period, no class really starts "on time." But since this class is right before lunch, and I was hungry and knew we could get through what we needed to, I figured this was an acceptable trade-off. The class was probably about as quiet as it ever was; I did have to say something three times, so, much like I parent, I did not hold completely to my threat, but I called it a success. And as the s...