I love this!!!

a poem that my dad got for matt in NYC:

That's My Boy by Robert Pavlinsky

As I held you in my arms, I shed a tear,
Just a little baby, not even a year.
You were everything I could have asked for and more,
So cute and adorable, right to the core.

I watched you get bigger and stronger each day,
Learning to behave, and know what to say.
Going from booties, to sneakers, to shoes,
Growing up so fast, sometimes gives me the blues.

But time doesn't wait, as you go off to school,
Just be yourself, don't worry about being cool.
I support you in whatever you decide to do,
I want nothing but the absolute best for you.

I love you with all of my heart,
I'd sacrifice anything, to do my part.
You have brought me so much happiness and joy,
I am very proud to say, THAT'S MY BOY!

Matt's First Haircut!!

So we took Matt to Snip-Its today in Nashua for his very 1st haircut! To be honest, we won't take him back there again b/c we didn't really like it there but he did pretty well once we entertained him & gave him some crackers (having us provide the entertainment kinda defeats the whole purpose of going to Snip-Its!) I think next time, we'll either try the one in Burlington or maybe just have my hairdresser do his hair instead. I did get a piece of his hair to save, but it wasn't a curly lock of hair so I was bummed about that, and they didn't give the Baby's First Haircut certificate either. =( But he looks very handsome w/his new 'do!!

The Latest in the borough

The past few wks have been really busy with 30th bday celebrations, Matthew accomplishments, and we had a doggy guest stay w/us for a week.

My 30th bday was really nice. Phil invited my gf's over for a few drinks. Its funny to see how much we've all changed over the yrs. Normally we would've wrapped things up at a nice 2am, all the while having the radio playing, the blender going, and all sorts of crazy laughs. This time around, we (I) was too tired to whip out the blender (LOL), we just sat around the table & talked about life now which is old age + dirty diapers, and by 10pm, we were all done for the night. LOL After the 10pm wrap up, Beth, Juney & I hit a few bars in Lowell. It was (finally) a nice night out with regards to weather so walking around downtown Lowell was nice. =)







We had some big Matthew accomplishments over the past 2 wks. He is officially walking and today, perhaps inspired by the olympic games, he decided to climb on top of the coffee table and (with Mommy's help) leap off, and back up, and leap off, and on & on we went. Yes, my baby is now climbing all over the tables in the house. LOL



Then we had a doggy guest stay for the week, Abby. Abby is my brother's dog, she's a beagle & she is super sweet. BUT she did pee in the house, tried escaping from the fenced yard, and helped us to discover a bees nest which swarmed & stung me- and that was within for the 3 hrs. HAHA! But once she got settled, she was fine. She was a little nervous around Matthew but she did ok with him. She loved to snuggle with me. She eventually bonded with Brady and she would either play with him, spoon with him, or use him as step stool to get to bigger/better things.



I had a really crappy start to the wk. Nothing big, just one of "those days". Today was bad weather - AGAIN - I had to talk to a super annoying person (try giving computer software tech support to someone who doesnt know what "click on this" means- who instead asks "U mean left-click or right-click??" uuummm yeeaaaahhh) so that pushed on my already short patience. Then on my way home from work, fortunately I had my window down b/c a rock flew into the window, grazed my head, and crashed into the backseat of the car. Little scary!

Which brings us to now. As most of you know, Matthew is a very independent, very mobile kid. He doesn't like to be helped, or to sit still. Tonight tho, he created his little "leaping off the coffee table" game so at least I got to actively help him do something, then, surprisingly, he sat on my lap and let me read an entire book to him!! Which totally made my day. Of course, as soon as the book was done, he was done sitting still and he went on to explore and play. He walked around the house holding Pooh bear with no hands! Yep, he held onto Pooh bear by biting Pooh bear's nose and holding onto him with his teeth.



Then he sat on the floor and played with an empty juice bottle where he amazed himself (and me too) with his understanding of how to screw the cap on & off. He's just the best!!

He's officially walking!!!

That's right my people! My little man is officially walking. Before today, he would do little walking spurts of 5-6 steps here & there but today, he's been walking all over the place!!

Ooh and because he is not very fast with the whole walking solo thing right now, he is still using his walker to chase Brady around. Yep, he is now chasing Brady with his walker thing which he thinks is just the funniest thing, and then Brady gets even more hyper than he usually is and he starts barking & running around and ugh ya..around & around it goes!

But today is the day thats going down in Matt's little history book as being his first real day of walking!!! I'll have to post pics soon.

Ooh also, we got him the twilight turtle today to see if it would help him to calm down when I put him down to bed. He was fine sleeping on his own for awhile, but out of the blue, he started to freak out- not even when I left the room, but before that- actually, right when I would say "goodnight sweetie pie, i love you" b/c he knows when I say that, that means I am leaving. So now as soon as I even start to say that, he tweaks out. And he should've gotten better by now but he's instead gotten worse. So we bought him the turtle & I'm hoping it will help. When I put him down tonight, he did tweak but only for like 2 minutes and then he was calm which is already a huge amount of progress so fingers crossed that this continues to work!!

We're moving to Memphis!!

Ok so not today but after watching a RE show on HGTV, I am seriously considering it!!
Germantown, TN to be exact.

Ok seriously, we can get 2x's the house, for about $100k less than our current place which means.... I could work less and be at home w/Matt more!

Seriously check out this house...

http://www.realtor.com/search/listingdetail.aspx?gate=google&source=a15696&ctid=92998&mxp=25&bd=4&bth=3&typ=1&supads=pup%252cpun&sid=a2c7a8f884a245b9bf7a6ca7129e5cf7&pg=5&lid=1101416876&lsn=43&srcnt=135#Detail

Ok dude, seriously...SERIOUSLY!!
http://www.realtor.com/search/listingdetail.aspx?gate=google&source=a15696&ctid=92998&mxp=25&bd=4&bth=3&typ=1&supads=pup%252cpun&sid=a2c7a8f884a245b9bf7a6ca7129e5cf7&pg=11&lid=1101463492&lsn=109&srcnt=135#Detail


And the town stats are great!
http://www.ci.germantown.tn.us/factsfigures.html

Strap on ur cowboy boots kiddies cuz we're going on a field trip to elvis land!!

Hey, Jen, if u guys have to relocate for B's work, maybe we can relocate to TN together! haha

Do I really sound that bad??

Here's just a brief background of my job description for those of you who don't know what I do, so my little story will make more sense.

I work for a very small online company in Burlington, the office is located inside my boss' house. It is just my boss and I here at the office. Because we are such a small company, I do a little bit of everything, including sales, marketing and also tech support calls (which are honestly sometimes such a pain in the u know what!!)

Our software end users are based mainly here in the states but we do have some international users as well- mostly located in Australia, Canada, and the UK. Most of the calls tho are tech support calls from the southern states.

So here is the point of my blog: Do I really sound that bad?? In the past, I've had callers ask me, based on my accent, "are you from NY?" and I thought "ugh NY? No way!" and I just shrugged it off thinking that caller obviously wasn't used to northern accents. Then about a week or so ago, I had another caller and this time she asked if I was from Jersey! Jersey?? OMG NO! I am soooo NOT from Jersey & I soooo don't sound like I am from Jersey!! What an insult! But then today, today was the worst of all. This time, a caller asked me if I was from.... u ready for this... LONG ISLAND! Could their be any more "yuck no" place to sound like your are from the Long Island?! Couldn't she have atleast just generalized it and just said NY? I mean Long Island? Nooooo!!! Now I am just mortified!! Ummmm no! I am from Boston! BOSTON!! And we Bostonians are not to be confused with Jersey and/or Long Island, NY! I mean, I really don't sound that bad right? RIGHT?? Awww gawd! Whats da mattah w/dese guys? I'm from Bawstun! I don't have time for dis. I gotta go drink my ice cawfee now and then get in the cah so I can head down da xprussway to Bawstun, maybe I'll stop at the pahk and buy some Sox geahhh. Go Sox!!

Randy Pausch passes

I normally don't really care so much about public figures on a personal level, but when Phil called me today on my way to work to tell me that Randy Pausch had passed away today, I was honestly saddened.


If you haven't heard of Randy's story, I strongly recommended reading his book "The Last Lecture" It is a truly inspiring, touching, and amazing story. Randy was a professor in the Computer Science dept at Carnegie Mellon in PA. He was a pioneer in his field with regards to virtual technology and he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given only months to live back in 2006. He very much so reminded me of my old boss, Jean Ichbiah - who was also very much a pioneer in his field of computer science and who also passed away due to terminal cancer.


For those of you who are familiar with my Myspace page, you may have noticed the quote I use in my heading that says "Its not the cards your dealt, its how you play the hand" That quote was from Randy's book. And basically, in a nutshell, his view on his cancer was that he could not change the cards he was dealt, there is nothing more he can do to change the outcome of his illness, so he decided to instead change the way he "played the hand". For his last lecture, he decided that he was not going to talk about cancer, and how sad he was, he instead talked about achieving your childhood dreams, and how he was happy to have achieved all of his dreams in his lifetime. He did the lecture and wrote the book because he wanted his 3 children to have something special to remember him by, and to also something that could allow the kids to know him on a more personal level - especially the youngest who he feared would not have any memory of him at all.


To read his book and to hear him speak at his last lecture is just beyond inspiring. I really recommend the book, I don't want to give to much more away about his story for those who want to read it.



To read more about Randy's life and obituary, please see the link below.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/148949/last_lecture_computerscience_professor_randy_pausch_dies.html