Ransom Note

I received this in today's email. I guess I'm overdue for an update.

Top Ten!!! The Holiday Gift Edition

Blokus - Believe it or not, I think this is
my favorite gift this year. I bought it for Aliya. This is a great game!!! Aliya has become very strategic and can give me a run for my money. Ben and I have been playing for chores...he had to give us foot massages the other night and he has to clean the basement today! Blokus could be my vehicle for getting some stuff done around here! Yay!! If you just can't wait to play Blokus yourself, go to http://www.blokus.com/ and try the online version.

Footsoother - I was at Brady's house the day after Christmas, complaining (again) about the pain in my feet due to Plantar Fasciitis. My feet ache all the time and the pain first thing in the morning is excruciating. So Brady whips out from under the futon what has become one of my favorite Christmas gifts - the Footsoother. I can't tell you how long I stared longingly at the stacks of massaging products at Kohl's during the holiday shopping season, hoping that someone would put one under the tree for me. It's like Ping on steroids. Ahhhhhhh...

Canon SD750 - My trusty Canon S230 started giving me what looked like overexposed pictures, so Ben bought me a new camera for Christmas. Just a few years ago I bought my camera for about $400 and a Canon photo printer for another $400. For $220 (after rebates), Ben bought a camera with more than twice the megapixels, a photo printer, AND a 1 GB SD card. Wow!

Sansa Shaker MP3 - Aliya and Adlani each got one of these from Grandma Ginny and Grampa B. Other than the fact that it's a pain to transfer music from iTunes onto them, they're GREAT! They have a built-in speaker as well as 2 headphone jacks. The controls are easy to use, so Adlani can listen to "I'm in the Hallway" (Life is a Highway) over and over again.

2007 Toyota Camry - Ben's Saab has been experiencing technical difficulties so even though he was convinced that he could make it to 200,000 miles I had to put my foot down. While I was arranging for delivery of his almost-new car, he was bugging me to go to KFC (yuck!) and during the brief altercation that ensued he left me speechless by saying "It's all about you, Lori." Needless to say, he almost got a big lump of coal (to the side of the head) for Christmas. I'm still trying to figure out which part of my life is about me.

Tickets - This is the answer to what to buy for the people who have everything. If you don't believe we have everything, just look in our basement and garage. We bought Mom and Keith tickets to go see Wicked in Orlando. I'm so jealous. Adlani got tickets to Nemo on Ice in his stocking (we're going today with Karen and Shane), and Aliya got tickets to Princesses on Ice.

Gift Cards - Another great option for those who have everything. Ben and I got a gift card for the Melting Pot, the kids got gift cards for Disney when we go to Florida in June, and Mom and Keith bought us a "Do-It-Yourself-Christmas" gift card so we can buy whatever we want. Yay!

Julie Doll - Aliya saw this doll on Oprah and just had to have her. She's from the 70's, when I was in elementary school (No Aliya, there weren't dinosaurs back then.).

Geotrax Trains - Adlani has been begging for these and when I mentioned this at the office my coworker and friend Michele got "the look"...the look you get when you find a home for something that you want to get out of your house. Her son Cullen had outgrown them so she gave me a giant box of Geotrax trains, tracks, and buildings. Santa brought Adlani some additional pieces for Christmas so when Ben finishes cleaning the basement we'll have a whole Geotrax town down there.

Fisher Price Bounce and Spin Zebra - When Norah was a baby Aliya said she thought Norah would be a bull rider when she grew up because she was always flailing one arm around. Her love for this toy could be further evidence of that. It's like a self-powered mechanical bull for toddlers. She loves it!

Worst Toy of 2007 - Moon Sand
Kelli, if you're reading this, I'm sorry. I think I bought this for Isabel for her birthday. I meant well, I really did. It looks so cool on TV. It's squishable, squashable, moldable, and never dries out. What could be better? Well, Santa put a Moon Sand kit under our tree and Aliya bugged me constantly for 48 hours until I opened it. She was a little disappointed that it only contained the "sand color" Moon Sand, but I'm counting my blessings now. The stuff was everywhere!!! Seriously, there was no difference between bringing a bucket of sand in from the sand box and letting them play with it in the house, except that Moon Sand sticks to everything. Somehow it got tracked through the entire downstairs, Norah and Annie kept trying to eat it and I never saw anything remotely resembling a sand castle. When they started making snowballs out of it, the party was over.

Merry Christmas!

Ornery Little Cuss

When Norah was an infant

I frequently commented that she was "so easy-going". She rarely cried, and rode along from swimming lessons to birthday parties to soccer games without complaint. Well, Norah has recently entered a new phase, at least I'm praying that it's a phase and preferably a short one. The kid is stubborn as a mule! When she wants to be picked up (and only Mommy will do, of course), she attaches herself to my legs like human shackles until I relent. When she opened her Christmas gifts (or when she saw one that someone else had opened which struck her fancy), she freaked out while we tried to detach it from the box. She carried one of her new baby dolls around with wire still attached to the wrists and ankles because she didn't want anyone to touch it. When she's done with her meal, she throws the remaining food and utensils on the floor, where Annie waits patiently to see if there are any morsels worth dodging flying silverware for. I am constantly getting hit in the nose, mouth, or cheekbone by Norah's perfectly executed *flying rear head butts*.

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On the bright side, Norah is adorable, has a great sense of humor, and is starting to talk. Here are her words at 15 months...more, Mommy, Daddy (the rest are in random order), Aliya, Adlani, Lina (Boo), Shanie, Annie, Grammy, Grandma Ginny, Elmo (Melmo), Dora (Do-Do), Diego (Daydego), hi, bye, banana, apple, cracker, shoe, ball, up, Teletubbies, LaLaa, cheese (when posing for a picture), poopoo, bumbum, yuck, me, mine, no, help, ow, uh-oh, water (wa-wa), bottle (ba-ba, now her word for sippy cup). I always look forward to when my kids learn to talk so I can understand them better and they don't have to whine and cry to get their point across. The other day I told Norah to come over to me and she said, "No...Bye!!" with a huge grin on her face. It's a good thing she's cute.

Christmas Cards

If you're wondering whether your Greenabderrazak holiday card and updated annual photo are lost in the mail or you've been cut from the VIP list, mystery solved. We had a disastrous sitting at Portrait Simple a few weeks ago and the second sitting was scheduled during a snowstorm, so we just got some decent photos last weekend. Look for your Happy New Year card to arrive sometime in January.

Here's one of the best photos from the first sitting:
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Here's a preview of our updated annual photo (that's me under the sheet):

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If you just can't get enough of the Greenabderrazak offspring, you can view all of the pics from our most recent sitting by clicking this link and entering the last 4 digits of our phone number (0558):
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/ThumbAccess.aspx?e=3394592

We Got The Party With Us

The Friday before Christmas was the date of the long-awaited Hannah Montana / Miley Cyrus concert at the DCU Center in Worcester. After listening to Aliya and Victoria's constant bickering on the ride to Worcester and throughout dinner, I for one was wondering why Karen and I didn't spend the $300 on a spa day for ourselves. We arrived during the Jonas Brothers warm-up act, and at that point I realized that I had never attended the performance of a pop idol. The squealing and screaming each time one of the brothers executed a karate kick or half-split were deafening. Our seats were directly under the platform for the spotlights - centered right on the stage. The seats in that area are so steep that there were no heads in front of us and the girls could stand up without obscuring the view of the people behind us. One negative was that my head was on the same level as the boot of the kid behind me so I got quite a few kicks to the skull.

After a few Jonas Brothers songs there was a 20-minute intermission while the crew set up for the headliner. We were back in our seats just in time for Hannah to drop down in a box from the ceiling while the crowd went wild (this review accurately describes the noise level in the DCU Center as "the kind of squealing rarely heard outside of a pig farm" http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2007/12/24/miley_cyrus_delights_fans_of_hannah_montana/). Cigarette lighters have been replaced with lit cell phone screens and multi-colored lightsticks...the effect was very cool and likely resulted in less blistered thumbs and singed hair. I have to admit, I'm now a 40-year-old fan of the "product" that the Disney Channel has created. She's cute, she can sing, she seems like a nice kid (from what I saw on Oprah), so as long as Billy Ray keeps her away from the fast girls over on Nickelodeon, she should continue to be a hot ticket.

Shutterfly

I've been obsessed with getting this year's photo book completed in time to give it to the grandparents for Christmas. It turned out really nice!

To view it, just click on the link, then scroll down and click on "View Photo Book". You don't need to enter a user name and password.
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/project/8AZtHDJmzbNmED/landing

Annie

When we lost Zoe I didn't think we'd be ready for another dog anytime soon. But then I started having an email conversation with our dog trainer and she told me about the dogs and puppies from the Buxton (Maine) puppy mill that were going to be available for adoption because the breeder had been closed down by the state. While I was researching the puppy mill situation, I discovered that there's a miniature version of an Australian Shepherd. I LOVE Australian Shepherds, but they're fairly big and pretty hairy. The Mini Aussie seemed perfect for us!

I contacted the shelters but they couldn't tell me where or when the different breeds of puppies would be available. The first few puppies that went up for adoption got a lot of attention because of all the media coverage, so I started to think that even if I drove to Maine/New Hampshire to get a puppy, I might be waiting in line. Plus, I had my doubts about adopting a puppy that had been in state custody since birth.

So I went online and started looking for Mini Aussie puppies. I narrowed it down to one adorable puppy that was the right gender, the right age, and the right price. Coincidentally, her name was Zoe. Zoe lived on a horse and cattle ranch in Oklahoma (www.rocking2r.com), and within a few days she was on a plane bound for Logan Airport, and renamed Annie. Since Aliya had asked Santa for a puppy for me for Christmas, he sent her a note in the mail (left).

Annie was a little freaked out from her trip but she recovered quickly. She's the GREATEST!! She's very playful with the kids but she also loves to just lay on the lap of anyone who sits down. I've heard at least 4 people proclaim, "This dog loves me!" Actually, she loves everyone! She's incredibly smart and already housetrained. Considering that I remember passing the 100th day of accidents with Zoe (UGH!!), I was thrilled when she scratched at the door her first day here. She has learned a couple of commands and I'm sure she'll do well in her Puppy Kindergarten class next month. She will have no problem earning her Therapy Dog certification when she gets a little older. We're all very excited to have her in our family!!

Breakfast with Santa

As always, we had a fabulous breakfast with Santa at one of my customers' offices. There were craft projects for the kids, face painting, bagels & donuts, and of course, a visit from "the REAL Santa". Adlani had a scare when he was one of the last few kids to receive his gift (see below), but Santa came through.

Mother Knows Best

Remember when your mother told you not to tip in your chair? Well, Adlani didn't heed my warning and tipped over in his chair during breakfast a few weeks ago. He complained that his foot hurt so I took him to the school nurse who poked, prodded, and proclaimed him "fine". She called me a couple of hours later and said that she didn't think he was going to be fine after all. I had a meeting that afternoon which had already been rescheduled due to the color and quantity of Norah's snot, so I sent Ben on the health care odyssey that I usually have to deal with on my own. After a visit to the pediatrician and x-rays at the hospital which confirmed a broken bone in his foot, I caught up with them at the ortho office in time for the cast color selection and bathing instructions. It hasn't slowed him down at all. Two days later he was on the balance beam at Griffin's birthday party, insisting that he didn't need any help. The cast is coming off January 2nd - not a moment too soon because I think I smell something dead in there.

Give Till it Hurts!!

For the 3rd consecutive year, we are coordinating the holiday gift drive for the Pathways Family Shelter. Our original shopping list included 22 children, and all of them have been sponsored. Thank you to all sponsors and donors! This week I found out that 10 of the 14 families are leaving the shelter before Christmas, so we could potentially have 10 new families to shop for! It's going to be a crazy holiday season!

For anyone who would like to learn more about the shelter, their children's advocate sent me the information below. If you are a sponsor/donor for this year's gift drive, come on over to our house for brunch on December 15th (any time after 10:30 a.m.) and wrap, eat, drink, and be merry!

Thanks again!!

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From the Pathways Children's Advocate:

"PATHWAYS FAMILY SHELTER

MISSION STATEMENT
“Human dignity requires that every family has a place of its own to call home. Our purpose is to help families develop and use their abilities to resolve their homelessness and any related problems. We provide homeless families with a safe, temporary place to live and assistance in acquiring safe affordable permanent housing.”

Pathways Family Shelter opened its doors on April 30, 1986. Pathways is a program of the South Middlesex Opportunity Council and is funded by the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA). Pathways can accommodate up to 14 families. When a family (mother or father and child/ren, mother and father and child/ren, or single pregnant mother) becomes homeless, they are referred to DTA, who screens the family and places them in a shelter. It does not matter whether the parent in the family is working, receiving Social Security or receiving cash benefits from DTA, everyone must go through this process in order to be referred for shelter.

There are many reasons for a family being homeless and needing to enter shelter. Some families have lived with a roommate or a parent’s boyfriend/girlfriend, were not on the lease and for one reason or another were asked to leave the apartment. Some have experienced a layoff at work or were given reduced hours and found themselves unable to continue to pay their rent. Domestic violence, poor health and lack of support are also factors that have led many families to become homeless. Often, as problems begin to build before a family is actually homeless, the parent does not know where to turn or how to access the help they need. Frustration builds, the problems begin to intensify and they find themselves in crisis.

At Pathways, each family is assigned an advocate, who goes over the policies and expectations of the shelter with them and then begins to explore their situation (i.e., their credit history, their budget, and their medical/psychological issues). Referrals are given for GED classes, ESL classes, daycare, counseling and anything else that the family may need and be willing to try. Housing search is the most important thing that each family does. For most families, public or privately subsidized housing is the only realistic option at this time in their life. They apply to every open housing authority across Massachusetts and are put on a waiting list. This list varies between 18 months to 18 years. Sometimes there is a funding option available where for a period of a year a family would receive help with paying their rent (for example, they may pay $700.00 of a $1000.00 rent). A few families attempt market rate which means finding the cheapest apartment they can. Unfortunately, at this time, Section 8 is frozen, so this option which typically helped families leave shelter within a few months, is unavailable.

Families stay at Pathways typically between several months to 14 months. While in shelter, each family is required to save a minimum of 50% of their monthly income. Daycare slots are available for those parents involved in a school program or who are working. The work situation is a tricky one for our families. For example, a family of two cannot gross more than $1010.00 in a month in order to remain eligible for emergency assistance. This usually means that a mother or father who wants to work needs to take a minimum wage job or work part-time hours. If a family goes over the amount required to qualify them for emergency assistance, the DTA will give the family a termination from shelter date. The one exception to this is each shelter must have one non-emergency assistance room. The family that occupies this room can work and make as much money as they can. These are the families who are in the best position to be able to afford a market rate apartment.

If a family uses their time at Pathways wisely to work on improving their education, repairing credit issues, getting needed medical help, etc.; they improve their chances to succeed when they finally get an apartment. If they want, we remain available for support, referrals, etc. after they leave. When a family is able to leave Pathways to move into their new home, they use their savings for their first, last and security deposit. Whatever remains, they use for furniture and needed household items. Unfortunately, we do not have the space at Pathways to store furniture donations, but sometimes we are fortunate to be able to match a donor with a family who is leaving. We work to help families turn on their utilities in their new apartments, register their children in school if they move out of town, and provide ongoing support as needed."

If you have household items or clothes to donate, email Kim Hicks (kimberly.hicks@verizon.net) to see if they currently have a family who could use your items. They have very limited storage (one bedroom for each family), but if families are moving into permanent housing they can often make use of donated items. The shelter is always in need of toiletries, baby items, cleaning supplies, bedding, towels, and kitchen items. Your generosity is greatly appreciated!

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

Every year, one of my favorite customers hosts a breakfast with Santa and we have been lucky enough to be invited for the last few years. Here's what happened when Santa left a voice mail for us about the upcoming breakfast:
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Here's Aliya's letter to Santa for this year (click on it to view it as a larger image):

Happy Birthday Vic!!!

Baltimore Aquarium

On the way home from Myrtle Beach we went to the aquarium in Baltimore. The aquarium was nice, but the hotel was in downtown Baltimore which was pretty dicey.

The National Zoo

On the way to Myrtle Beach we stopped in DC for the night and went to the zoo in the morning to burn off some energy. It was great! And free!

Top Ten!!!

Electronics Devices You Need For a 1700-Mile Family Road Trip

~ TomTom One GPS - This thing is my new favorite possession. I bought it for $168 on eBay, and I can't live without it. It's so easy to program - you just tell it where you want to go and it plans the route. The one time we ventured out for a 5-block trip without TomTom ended with yelling and crying. On the way home there were some flashing signs warning of an accident ahead, so I told TomTom to go around a 3-mile roadblock and it found me a new route. The only negative is that when you're sitting in traffic you watch your ETA get later and later. We got stuck getting on the GW Bridge and there was no way around the traffic. When we finally got over the bridge our ETA had slipped to 2:25 a.m. Ugh. I do wish I had splurged on the Mr. T voice so I could hear "I PITY THE FOOL WHO DOESN'T BEAR RIGHT AND GET ON THE HIGHWAY!" We used one of the British voices so Adlani was constantly repeating in an English accent, "Keep right, and enter the motorway."

~ Dual Screen DVD Player - I was really worried about how the kids would survive the trip but it was like a dream come true for Adlani - constant movies and junk food for 36 hours punctuated by trips through the drive-thru. What could top that?

~ Extra DVD Player with Headphones - for Aliya to watch "her" movies or listen to CD's when she had seen The Incredibles (or as Adlani says, "The Uncrustables") one too many times.

~ Blackberry - so I could pass the time emailing my coworkers to make them feel sorry for me, or let the kids call unsuspecting relatives for entertainment. Also good for checking upcoming Cracker Barrel locations.

~ iPod - This came in very handy when Ben passed the Starbucks I had been searching 4 hours and 18 minutes for because I didn't say "please." WTF?? Some might call a 200-mile Dixie Chicks sing-a-long passive/aggressive behavior. I call it payback.

~ Standard Issue Dodge Controls (power windows, seatbelt warning, heat controls) - Also good for payback when the ignoramus is trying to sleep. Sudden braking also works well.

~ Digital Camera - so I could take cute nap-time pictures and landmarks like the pawn shop with the sign that said, "Good Used Guns." In a pinch I could also use it to entertain Norah by looking at pictures on the 1-inch display.

~ 3-Way Splitter for Cigarette Lighter - I'm surprised the current draw for all of these electronic devices didn't drain the battery dry.

~ Leapster - Two of these kept both of the big kids busy for a while and I'm confident that with the help of Little Leap Adlani will eventually stop singing "A says Guh".

~ Last but not least, the item that I will be adding to my packing list for the next road trip - a 12-volt version of Ping so I can have some shiatsu love during the ride. Finally, a backrub that I don't have to "pay" for, if you know what I mean.

10 States, 1720 Miles, 18 Hours, 19 Public Toilets...

...all of the fights and frustrations of the Amazing Race without the million-dollar prize at the end!

We had a great Thanksgiving at Grandma Ginny & Grampa B's new house in Myrtle Beach. Thanks guys!