Memories

Throwback Story: My Bad Hair Days and the Story Behind Them My Bad Hair Days and the Story Behind Them

When both of my sons were little, I noticed that the texture of my hair seemed to have changed overnight. Regardless of what shampoo/conditioner combo I bought, how many times I blow dried it and how many haircuts I got, I could not seem to control the unruliness of my hair.
The only time my hair looked good was after a beauty salon haircut and blow dry. This pattern continued shampoo after shampoo for around eight months. Needless to say, I was very distressed about this problem and thought that perhaps becoming a mom had changed the chemistry composition of my hair and that I was probably stuck with the new texture forever.
To make a long story short, this pattern stopped abruptly one day when I walked into one of my restrooms and noticed that my oldest son was pouring liquid hand soap into my shampoo bottle.
Me: What in the world are you doing?
Son: I was just doing an experiment.
Me: Why would you be using my shampoo bottle to do experiments?
Son: Well, my teacher at school mixes all type of liquids during science class, your shampoo bottle was handy and I wanted to try it myself.
Me: (Suddenly making a connection between my different hair texture and these experiments) How long have you been doing this?
Son: Since the new school year started.
Me: (Trying to remain calm) What else has you been mixing?
Son: Well, every time I take a bath, I mix things into your shampoo.
Me: What kind of things?
Son: Things like dishwashing liquid, mouth wash, hand lotion, toothpaste, laundry detergent, vinegar, hydrogen peroxide ext
Me: (Getting very agitated) Don’t you realize that I wash my hair with the shampoo and lately my hair has been looking like crap?
Son: Yes, I noticed that your hair looked messed up lately.
Me: (Trying to control my Puerto Rican temper) Well, if you noticed, didn’t it occur to you that you should stop this behavior?
Son: Well, I wanted to see how different your hair looked when I poured different liquids into the shampoo.
Me: Don’t you realize that I have a job and want my hair to look decent when I report to work?
Son: Well, mom, I did not think of that. I am so sorry.
Me: Omg, you better be sorry and stop this behavior immediately.
Son: I will and again I am sorry, but I really was hoping to find the magic ingredient that would make your hair look great.
Me: I appreciate the idea behind it, but perhaps you can use your own shampoo bottle to do these types of experiments.
Well, my son was grounded from playing video games for a week and as far as I know, stopped this behavior and never tried the same experiments using his own shampoo bottle. Gee, so much for quantitative style research. smile emoticon
So the moral of this story is that if you are a young mom and your hair starts responding differently to your shampoo, question your kids as I cannot believe that I am the only young mom that has had this experience. I can laugh about it now, but it really was not fun having unnecessary bad hair days.

Here is a picture of me and my kids on one of those bad hair days.
NellKids

My Son’s 15th Birthday

My family and I headed out to Downtown Disney yesterday to celebrate my youngest son’s 15th birthday. As we drove there, I started to reminisce about the events as they occurred on the day he was born.

The date was Feb. 7th, 1994 and it was a beautiful day. My doctor had chosen to induce me so I could resume taking some medication that I needed at the time. My in-laws arrived at my home the day before so they could stay with my older son, whom was then 5 1/2 years old, while my husband and I were at the hospital. My husband and I reported to the hospital early that morning at around 6:00 AM.

My labor was induced, I refused any medication for the pain and everything went very smoothly. My son was born naturally at 4:00 PM. At that moment, I remember being incredibly happy and picking up the phone to call my in-laws. To my surprise, no one was answering the phone and I started to get worried. However, a minute later I heard my mother-in-law’s voice. She, my father in law and older son had just walked into the hospital floor were I was at and she was asking the nurse at the front desk about my status. The nurse told her that my baby had just been born and directed them to my room.

My older son got so excited when he saw his new baby  brother.  I will never forget the first thing he said which was “mom, he looks like a puppet”. Precious words to hear from my older son. When I mentioned this in the car , to my the same son who is now 20 years old, he did not remember saying this. My husband also did not remember this.

I reminded my husband that when we got home from the hospital two days later, there were many live Peacocks waiting for us in our front yard.  No, this is not a typo. The neighborhood where I live is inhabited by many Peacocks and no, it is not normal to see wild Peacocks in Florida.

This is the story about how we got the Peacocks as it was told to me by a friend. She said that many years ago, a elderly couple had two Peacocks living with them as pets. This was against our city rules and ordinances as our area is not zoned for any kind of wildlife. The couple went away on a short vacation one time and while they were gone, the Peacocks escaped. They were found much later, but by then had reproduced and pretty soon our whole neighborhood had a colony of Peacocks.

Getting back to my original story, I wondered how in the world did the Peacocks decide to surround my front yard that day? Did the Peacocks sense that a new life would be coming back to my home that day?  It was as though they trying to celebrate with us the birth of our new baby.

When we arrived at my home from the hospital, my in-laws automobile and my other car were inside my garage.  Therefore, my husband and I had to park in our driveway and carefully navigate through the crowd of Peacocks. I was kind of worried that they might try to attack the car seat as I got out of my car with our new baby. This was because I had previously seen them take an defensive stand against other people and also animals. However, I should not have worried as they seem to get out of my way as I got out of my car to let me pass.

Well, it been a great journey since then. I believe that everything happens for a reason. While I cannot claim to know the reason why the Peacocks chose to surround my home that day, I can only speculate that maybe they sensed my son would live a good life and be a wonderful son to have. If that was the reason, then I guess they got it right.

My son is now 15 years old and I could not be any prouder as a mom.He is now a ninth grader and made the honor roll this semester. His GPA of 3.00 was higher than I ever achieved in ninth grade. We celebrated his birthday by going out to eat at. “The House of Blues, taking him shopping at the Lego store there and watching the movie, “Push”.  Needless to say, we had a wonderful time.

Here are some pictures of my son and some pictures of the Peacocks that I took at a much later date:

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IMG_2778

My older son meets his younger baby brother for the first time.

WilliamScieFair
WilliamScieFair

My son during the Science Fair last school year.

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2_11_08_fairRibbbon

My son showing off the ribbon he won when he placed fourth place for the Junior Environmental Science division.

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IMG_2020_1

My son and I on vacation last summer at one of the caverns in North Carolina

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IMG_2653

Here is a picture of a Peacock in my backyard.

Peacock
Peacock

Here is another picture of a Peacock on my back yard.

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IMG_2652

Here is another picture of a Peacock in my backyard.

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IMG_2651

Here is a picture of a group of Peacocks in my backyard

This is a video showing some of the Peacocks in Cape Canaveral that I found on Youtube.

So, does anyone have any ideas as to what might have caused the Peacocks to gather in my front yard that day or experienced a similar situation ? I look forward to your input.

My Special Thanksgiving Story

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I got married 23 years ago to a wonderful man who is still my husband. We have two great sons and I have spent every Thanksgiving weekend with him since then. Some years, we also had our special dinner at his mother’s home who lives just 2 hours away from our home.

For most of our married life we have had a heavy financial burden which most people refer to as a mortgage. Therefore, I was never able to travel to spend this holiday with my side of the family whom live in another state.

Likewise, most of the people on my side of the family also had big mortgages and were not able to visit me. My mother’s only income is Social Security. Therefore, the last time I saw my mother and sister was 5 years ago. I had also not seen my other sister for 10 years. Recently, this situation has changed as my husband and I finally paid off our mortgage debt.

So, this year, I woke up on Sunday the week before Thanksgiving and decided that it was time for a visit. I got on the Web to make my flight arrangements. I called my niece, whom recently moved back to the town where my mother and sisters live and asked her if she had room for one more person for Thanksgiving.

She asked me why and told me she was expected at my mother’s home for dinner at 2:00 PM. I told her that her schedule was perfect since my flight would arrive at 1:00 PM. She was very excited to hear the news and immediately offered her home as a place to stay. I quickly accepted and asked her not to reveal my plans as I wanted to be a surprise guest. She promised to keep my secret and to pick me up at the airport. So far, everything seemed to be going great and I felt so happy.

After I got off the phone, I started to tell my husband all about my new Thanksgiving plans. He was very shocked at first but finally stated that it was a great idea. He said that he would manage just fine along with my sons and that they would go to a cafeteria to eat dinner. Needless to say I felt very guilty at first but finally concluded that I deserved to spend this day with my mother and sisters for the first time in 23 years.

The day finally arrived. I got on two flights which went very smoothly and got there on time as scheduled. My niece picked me up at the airport and we went directly to my mother’s home. I had butterflies in my stomach and was kind of worried that my mom would have a heart attack upon seeing me since she is eighty plus years old.

When we got to the house, my niece told me that everything looked perfect as she noticed that both of my sister’s cars were in the driveway. She said for me to follow her so I could nonchalantly walk into the home right after her. I did exactly that. My niece had a key to my mother’s home so she knocked on the door and quickly let herself and her family in. I casually walked in right after them.

The first person to see me was my middle sister whom I last saw five years ago. She gasped as soon as she recognized me and then said,”oh my God”. This reaction then caused my youngest sister who I last saw 10 years ago, to check out what the fuss was about. She also had the same response.

My mother then walked into the room to find out what the commotion was about and suddenly noticed me. She started screaming with joy and had tears in her eyes. Wow, what an incredible moment this was in my life. Everyone was hugging and kissing me. The feeling I had was just wonderful and I truly felt blessed. It was just so great to see my family members again. My mom said, “it was the nicest Thanksgiving present she could ever get”.

I stayed in town until Sunday morning and then flew back to Fl. I had the most amazing time and I can hardly wait to do this again. Now that I no longer have a financial related excuse, I will be doing this more often. As a popular TV commercial implies, family memories are just priceless, for everything else there is MasterCard. Here are some pictures:

My mom and I when I first got there.

My Mom and I when I first got there.

My two sister and I.

My two sisters and I

My middle sister and my mom.

My middle sister and my mom.

My family clan and I.

My family clan and I.

The women in my family clan and i.

The women in my family clan and I.

The men in my family clan and I.

The men in my family clan and I.

The nephew holding up my niece's daughter.

My nephew holding up my niece’s daughter

My fireworks during the Cleveland city Christmas parade.

The fireworks during the Cleveland city Christmas parade.

Posing with my family members on the last night of my trip.

Posing with my family members on the last night of my trip.

Epilogue:

Concerning the possibility of my mom having a heart attack, my nephew in law told me an amusing story. He related that when he first moved back into town, which was pretty recent, my mom invited him and his family to her house. She then picked up a Tae Bo exercise tape and asked my niece and nephew to participate with her in her exercise routine.

Thinking that my mom would only do ten minutes of the tape, my nephew in law and niece agreed to join in. Well, my niece was the first one to quit after only 20 minutes, my nephew in law was the next one to quit. To everyone’s shock and amazement, my mom completed the whole exercise routine. So, I guess I should not have worried and I am so happy to know that my mom is so physically fit.


My First Tarot Card Reading Party

Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Thanks to an invitation from my MYSPACE friend, Buddy Dolan, I got to attend my veryfirst Tarot Card Reading Party last night. I had no idea what to expect but I must say that I had a very amazing time. There was a total of 6 people attending. This number includes the psychic himself.

The psychic’s name was Tobi Ellison. He is well known in the Paranormal communities of
Orange County, Florida and Los Angeles, Ca. He started out by telling us that he always
had abilities to predict things as a child and later decided to hone in on his abilities by
learning the art of card reading to tell people’s fortunes.

We then had a short question and answer period. I asked him if he was affiliated with

Cassadaga which is a town near Orlando where all residents are Psychics and found out
that he was not. I did find out that he is currently working on a web site that will be online
soon.

Next, he led us through a meditation type exercise. He said it was very important for
people to be relaxed to allow any spirit guides or spirit energies to come through our space.

After our relaxation exercise period, the card reading began. He asked the first participant
to shuffle a deck of cards and then break them into two parts. These card were ordinary cards
and not tarot ones. He uses these kinds of cards for the first part of the reading. He uses
special angel cards for the second half of the reading.

During the first half, he reads the persons fortune in front of the entire group and advices the
person not to interrupt him during the reading. He then gets out a set of angel cards, shuffles
them, and ask the person he is reading for to chose 4 cards at random. During the second half,
the person he is reading for gets an
opportunity to ask questions.

The psychic continues this process with all people attending the party. Every once in a while
he will interrupt a person’s reading for a moment because he would get a sudden message
for another person in the group. It was so fascinating and entertaining to hear everyone else’s
reading and to see an expression of their faces of pure amazement as they listened to Tobi.
During the party, we all took little breaks for food and drink. Diana, who was hosting the party,
had a lovely apartment and did a great job providing refreshments for all.

Personally, my reading could not have been more accurate. I have gone to other psychics before
and paid up to $ 50.00 for a reading. However, never before did I have a reading where I said
nothing and the psychic said it all. Out of the entire group, he told me that I had psychic abilities
and that I should get some cards and learn how to use them to do psychic readings.

He also advised me to go to Cassadaga when I can because it would help me to hone in on my
abilities. He said the time was finally right for me to come out into the open and use my
gifts. Also, that by next year around this time, I should be an entirely different person.

These statements did not surprise me in the least bit. I always known I had special abilities to
predict things and ever since I was eight years old, I have been seeing things of a Paranormal
nature and had strange things happen to me that I could never explain.

Up until I joined several online social networks 13 months ago, I have been scared to tell anyone about these things for fear of being rejected and labeled insane. However, since I have been been a member of these online groups, I have met many people in the Paranormal community that are like me and it has empowered me to open up about my experiences and abilities.

I currently teach college students and in the past, I wouldn’t even dream of speaking to my
students about these topics. However, these days, I am speaking to everyone of my classes
about my experiences without fear. To my surprise, many students have opened up and told
me about their Paranormal experiences.

The psychic was not selling any products, however, he highly recommended for every one to
watch, “The Secret” and also, “The Secret behind the Secret”. He also recommended for one
of the people in our group to read, “Many Masters, Many Lives” and for another to read,
“Conversation with God”. His normal fee for a reading was $35.00 which I gladly paid.

In all, I had a wonderful time and met a bunch of friendly and interesting people. However,
my favorite part was meeting my MYSPACE friend, Buddy Dolan. He has been on my list
since the first of the year. I have enjoyed my chats with him very much and thought he
was a real gentleman and great person. Well, I was not disappointed. Buddy, thanks for
inviting me last night and for being my friend.

Here are some pictures of the event:

Here is a picture of Tobi and I


Here is a picture of our group:(One person did not wish to be in the picture)

Here is a picture of Buddy and I:

Winning the Game of Life

Winning the Game of Life
8-15-2006
Hi Readers:

I have been sad lately because my first baby is leaving for college this Thursday. It is a hard transition to make for anyone. This Thursday will also be my 21st anniversary so I will be on a real roller coaster ride. I thought I would share a motivating conversation that I had with my son this evening.

I remarked to my son that he was leaving on Thursday, I could hardly believe it and how did this happen? He told me,” mom, it happened because you won the game of Life”. This made me feel so much better.

So, parents, there you have it. When you get to this point, you have won the game of Life. This is a wonderful way to look at this difficult transition. So, remember, that with every milestone in our children’s life, we are getting closer to winning at the game of Life!

The Paranormal part of my trip: Part 1

The Paranormal part of my trip: Part 1
7-27-2006

As most of my Paranormal related friends know, Charleston, SC is one of the most historic and haunted cities in America.

I found out during my trip that one of the reasons why it is so haunted is because for many years the city had little or no building codes. Therefore, new homes and buildings would be constructed over existing graves and cemeteries without the bodies being removed and buried elsewhere.

Another reason is because many neighborhoods have been declared historical sites and therefore existing construction can only also be kept up or restored but never torn down. A lot of people in the Paranormal field feel that spirits tend to hang out at places that were familiar to them during their lifetimes. Therefore that is why spirits stay in the same Charleston area where they once lived.

My first Monday in Charleston, I decided to schedule a ghost tour for my family. We went on the tour described on this site. Ghost Tour

As you can tell from the site, the tour is based on a book written by Julian Buxton, a former local college professor who grew up in a haunted house. The book’s name is, “The Ghosts of Charleston” and the book is described later on at this URL: Ghost Book This tour was a 90 minute tour. However, I will tell you the two best parts of it and then something that happened only to me.

In the first best part of the tour, they took us past the old jailhouse where most prisoners were kept and showed us the gallow area in the back yard. Here is a site with information and pictures of this jail. Jail Info She told us that public hangings were the norm in Charleston during the 18 hundreds and that these events were like public entertainment for the community.

Then she told us the story of Lavina Fisher. She was a very beautiful woman who was probably the first female serial killer. She and her husband operated a boarding house outside Charleston called, ” Six Mile House”.

When a solo boarder showed up at their door, Lavinia would spellbound the guy with her beauty and ask him many personal questions. She wanted to be sure that no one would miss the guy too much if he should turn up missing. If the guy was a good candidate, her and her husband would murder him and then confiscate all his belongings. They would sell the victim’s property in town for a profit and bury his body in the grounds of the boarding home. When they were finally caught, Lavinia went to the gallows dressed in her wedding gown. Just before she was hung, she asked the stunned crowd that if anyone had a message for the devil to let her know because she was about to meet him. Since then, her ghost has been seen in a number of locations, including the Old Jailhouse. Here is a picture I took of the outside of the jail.
In this tour, we were not allowed to enter the jail so I decided to schedule a tour inside this jail during my next night in Charleston. Stay tuned for part 2 of this story which I will write later.

In the next best part of the tour, we walked passed by a building called, ” The Wagner Building”, which was used to house offices in the old days but it is now currently a restaurant. You can find out more about this restaurant at this site: Haunted Restaurant . She told us the story of a cotton merchant who was having problems with bill collectors. He rounded up all the cotton he had and shipped it to another location hoping that it would be sold for a profit and he could pay off his debts.

It turns out that on the night the ship was to leave the port with his shipment, it caught fire and he ended up loosing everything he ever owned. This man’s office was on the third floor of this building which is now a restaurant. He decided to hang himself right there. He used wire to hang himself instead of rope and was decapitated.

Today, the decapitated spirit is seen by diners who frequent the third floor. Normally this floor is closed to the public however there are some local diners which request to be served dinner on this floor. The last time the apparition appeared, a new manager which had just graduated from college saw it. He was so frightened, he quit his job on the spot and went back to live in New Jersey with his parents. Here is a picture I took of the restaurant.

Now I will tell you the story about what happened to me while I was standing on the street looking up at this restaurant. Some of you may know that since I was 8 years old, I have had more then one close encounter with a Ghost. I do not know whether this would count as a ghost story, I will let you decide this.

As I just stated, while I was standing on the street, I felt that all of a sudden there was pressure on the back left pocket of my jeans. It was as though someone’s hand was pressing down on the pocket. I knew there were other people in the same crowd where I was so I did not panic. I however thought that it may be paranormal in nature. So, I decided quickly to take my own hand and without turning around, slap the pocket so I would hopefully trap whatever was causing the pressure on the pocket. I thought that if it was someone’s hand, I would slap it and find out who was doing it. Also, if it was an insect, I would also trap it. Well, as you might have guessed by now, there was nothing there to slap or touch. Right after my own hand slapped my jean pocket, the pressure disappeared. As I said, you guys decide whether this was a ghost or not. I invite your comments to this experience or any part of my tour.

My Charleston and Georgia Fitness Related Trip

My Charleston and Georgia Fitness Related Trip
7-26-2006

As most of you know I spent the last 10 days on vacation. I went to Charleston SC and Stone Mountain Ga.

My favorite part of my Charleston trip was going to the V for the first time and getting to meet Jenn Carmen, Tracy Long and Carissa Foster. Also, having my picture taken with these three ladies who have been my fitness idols for a long time. My favorite part of the Georgia trip was hiking up and down Stone Mountain.

I went to the V on the first Monday and Wednesday of my vacation. I was able to get two one day passes for $25.00 each. On Monday, I got there just in time to take a class with Tracy Long herself.

As most of you know, Tracy was in the June issue of Self magazine.If you missed reading the magazine, here is a link with a slideshow which show the pictures of the 12 Speedy Shapers Exercises she demonstrates in the magazine:

Tracy Long Slide Show

I felt so lucky to take a class with her. The class I took was called Functional Strength. Here is a link which explains a little about this type of workout:

Functional Strengh

I then took a picture with Tracy and chatted with her for a while. They will be filming new workouts in either Sept or Oct of this year. Here is the picture of Tracy and I:

Tracy’s class kicked my butt. Even though I used anywhere from 5 pounds to 12 pound weights for the entire workout, it was so hard. As most of you know, I usually use weights as high as 25 pounds. I did not think I would make it through the workout.

I went back to the V on Monday evening to take another class. This one was called, “Core Cardio” and the instructor to my surprise and delight was Carissa Foster herself. As most of you know, her picture is on the cover of the Firm Maximum Cardio and Firm Core Cardio 1 workout video tapes.

Well, I thought this class would be easy because of the Firm Core Cardio workout that I mentioned above. The girl at the counter told me, it was the hardest class they had. At this time, I am thinking to myself, yeah right!! Boy, was I ever wrong. This class is based on the new core cardio type workouts that work your waist area to the max. Here is a link of a review for a similar workout to the one I did:

Core Cardio

I did not think I would last throughout this workout. It worked core muscles I had no idea I had. I was completely toasted by the time the hour long workout was over.

After the class, I took a picture with Carissa and to my delight, Jenn Carmen also joined as in this picture. Here is the picture:

I also decided to buy all four of the new TLT workouts. I was so excited because Tracy Long autographed both of the workouts that she leads and Jenn Carmen autographed the workout that she leads. Unfortunately, Susan Harris was on vacation and I did not get to meet her.

On Wednesday I went back to the V for more workouts. I met up with Nancy Williams who is a fellow Firm Ya Ya member and just happened to be in town for a vacation herself. Her user name is jesemy.

I thought I would take easier workouts then Monday since I had major DOMS on Tuesday and found out I had more muscles then I ever thought I did. I took a 90 minute Satsang Yoga class with Jeffrey Cohen. Here is a link with pictures of Jeffrey and information about this class.

Satsang Yoga

To our delight, Tracy Long was a student in this class. I thought it would be easy like the Firm Power Yoga workout. How naive I was, it was nothing like it. The Yoga moves were so tough and it was hot in the exercise room. I thought I would not make it through this class. Jeffrey had to help Nancy and I with a lot of the moves. Our bodies felt like twisted noodles when we were done.

Next Nancy and I decided to take another class which was easier. It was called, ” Back to Basics”. It used a Stability and a Medicine ball. This class would have been challenging for beginners but for Nancy and I, it was just the class we needed after getting beat up in the Yoga class.

Nancy and I then purchased some V baby T-shirts and got to chat with Tracy and Jenn Carmen for a while. We also met Tracy’s husband who also works at the V. He was super nice. Nancy and I also took another picture with Jenn and Tracy. Here is the picture:

After the first week, I left for Stone Mountain in GA. On Sunday, I decided to hike up the mountain with my entire family. This was the first time I had ever hiked on a mountain and it was so challenging. I however thought it was great cardio workout. After we got to the top, I wanted to hike back down. Well, my whole family whimped out on me and I hiked down the mountain by myself. As you can imagine, it was a whole lot easier to hike back down the mountain. Here is a link to the mountain:

Stone Mountain

The next day, no one in my family felt sore. However, my buttocks area felt sore and it might have been because I used different muscles hiking back down then I did hiking up the mountain.

Well, that sums up the Fitness related part of my trip. I will write another blog later to talk about the Paranormal related part of my vacation.

The Paranormal Part of my vacation: Part 2

The Paranormal Part of my vacation: Part 2

7-30-2006

As I stated in the first part of my vacation blog, the second night I was in Charleston, I went on a Haunted Jail tour. This site here describes the tour: Jail Tour Description 1
There is a better description of the tour on this site: Jail Tour Description 2

Many apparitions have been spotted in this jail over the years and many times, ghosts have appeared in pictures taken by tourists at this jail. Other times, cameras have mysteriously malfunctioned while someone was in the jail trying to take pictures. Upon leaving the jail, the camera then starts to work normally again.

The tour guide told us that many tourist have also reported jewelry such as rings that they were wearing when they entered the jail mysteriously disappear from their hands while they were being worn. There have been cases where both earrings disappeared from women ears at once.

Here are three pictures taken by random people who have visited the inside of this jail. These pictures were found at: Jail Picture Site

I uploading them to my Photobucket account giving credit to this site as the source since I could not link the pictures from their site directly here.

Here is the first picture:

Here is the second picture:

Here is the third one:

My husband and I took as many pictures as we could while we were still inside the jail. It was a really scary place to be inside, especially since it was not well lighted. Here are some of our best ones. Ghost sometimes appear in pictures as full apparitions and other-times as orbs.

The following pictures have orbs which may be dust or may be paranormal in nature. I will let you guys decide this. For those of you not familiar with the concept of orbs, here is a good site that describes them:
Orbs

Here is the first picture taken by my husband:

Here is the second picture which I took:

Here is a third picture that I took:

Here is a fourth picture that I took:

Here is the last one that I took

Well, that sums up the Paranormal part of my vacation. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. I invite comments on the pictures and tour.

Today was my son’s graduation

Today was my son’s graduation
May. 18,2006

The graduation was today. Boy, what a great and emotional day I had. The graduation was amazing. It included a formal military parade, a military style marching band and the students were dressed in military dress uniforms and white leather hats that look like the ones that NYC police wear. At the end of the graduation, everyone threw their hats up in their air and started hugging each other. This was the last all male graduating class at that school because this is the first year that they admitted girls as students and none were seniors.

My son got an award for excellence in Web Page Design using Flash. This was a surprise for both of us. I knew he was taking a Web Design class but had no idea my son was really good at using Flash. I don’t know if you have ever played with this software, but even though I teach Computer Science, I find it very difficult to master.

The graduation was also web cast live. This was another surprise. As I said before, this school is a military type prep school that not only has day students from my area like my two boys but also boarding students whose parents live in 26 different countries. Therefore, families of students whom could not travel to see their sons graduate were able to see the graduation online.

Being a student at this school is similar to working at the United Nations. However, both of my sons do not believe that this school is unique and take the school environment that they are in for granted. The school also offer flying lessons and many students there are pilots. My boys however are not interested in flying lessons.

The majority of the parents who board their children there are pretty wealthy. Unfortunately, I am not one of these wealthy parents. Last year, one of the parents from Japan was so happy with the progress his son made at the school that he invited several teachers and the principal of this school on an all expense paid trip to Japan. Now, why can’t I get that lucky?

My New Graduation Dress

My New Graduation Dress
May. 10th, 2006

Hi Readers

I went shopping today and found a really nice black dress to wear on Friday. It fits perfect and was the only one at TJ MAX in that style and size. I guess it was just there waiting for me to get to the store to buy it. It was a $100.00 dress marked down to $30.00 so I think I got a good deal.

Tomorrow, my son’s school is having a special dinner for all parents and family of HS seniors. They raise money to do this every year. My whole family will attend. My mother in law and my husband’s aunt (my mother in law’s  sister) are flying in tomorrow from St. Louis to also attend the dinner and graduation. Unfortunately, my mom lives in Cleveland, Ohio and cannot attend.

I am getting so excited, anxious, sad and happy at the same time. I do not know whether I can sleep tonight. Lucky for me, I am done with my students final exams at work and already turned in grades. My new students for the summer do not report until Monday. Also, tomorrow, I only have to attend a two hour meeting at work and I am off for the rest of the day and I am off all day on Friday. At least my work schedule matches perfectly with my family activities this time, so I guess I have one less thing to worry about.

Please continue to keep me in your thoughts and send good vibes my way. Hope everyone has a great night.