June, 2011 | The Angel Forever

Monthly Archives June 2011

Prev Month( 5th ) Next Month( 7th )

ZooKeeper Screening for Capital District

Posted on June 30, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

The summer is here and there is a constant stream of movies starting in the theaters. I have noticed a lot of them are geared for families with younger children. One of the movies coming out next Friday, July 8, 2011 is ZooKeeper featuring Kevin James.

Here is a trailer about the movie:

More about the movie from the PR agency:

In Zookeeper, the animals at the Franklin Park Zoo love their kindhearted caretaker, Griffin Keyes (Kevin James). Finding himself more comfortable with a lion than a lady, Griffin decides the only way to get a girl in his life is to leave the zoo and find a more glamorous job. The animals, in a panic, decide to break their time-honored code of silence and reveal their biggest secret: they can talk! To keep Griffin from leaving, they decide to teach him the rules of courtship – animal style. The film also stars Rosario Dawson and Leslie Bibb and features the voices of Cher, Nick Nolte, Adam Sandler, and Sylvester Stallone.

Rated PG for some rude and suggestive humor, and language.

If you live in the Capital District area and would like the opportunity to go to a screening of ZooKeeper, here is your chance. The first 40 people to go to GOFOBO.com will receive the opportunity for two people to go to a screening at Colonie Center on July 6, 2011. Here is the information that you will need. Remember these passes will go quickly, so do not wait too long.

If you get the tickets and go, please let me know. We may also attend. I would also love to know what you think after seeing the movie. I have a feeling this will be a movie that both of my boys will enjoy

Disclosure: I was asked by the PR company from ZooKeeper to share this opportunity with my local readers. I received no compensation for doing so. I was told that I could print passes for my family and we hope to attend the screening as well.

Categories:
fun local event Movies summer

Read To Me Big Brother

Posted on June 29, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Categories:
books brothers jsl nhl summer

Tuesday Tales – Summer Library Fun

Posted on June 28, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Tuesday Tales

Summer break is finally here. We try to spend a lot of time outdoors playing, running, biking, and so on. Of course, we also make sure to read. The summer is the perfect time to rest/cool off at the end of a busy day and read a book. We own a lot of books, but the boys adore going to our local libraries. A field trip to the air conditioned library means time to play, read, check things out, use computers, and catch up with friends.

As a child, I have so many memories from summers with my neighborhood friends. I remember when our local library started doing a summer reading program. Our parents would take us to the branch to sign up, and we would go back each week to write in what we had read. As we got older, we would often walk to the library, have lunch on the way, and make an afternoon of the experience.

For our first day of vacation, I took the boys to the library. I had already signed NHL up for the elementary aged program. Once he reads books, he can log in and record the titles that he has completed. For every five books that he read, he will receive some sort of prize. NHL is finally into chapter books. He has finished two of the A to Z Mysteries, read JSL several picture books, and started one of The Boxcar Children books. I am so proud of how he loves to read and is trying items out of his comfort zone.

JSL was able to sign up for the pre-reader program. You receive a calendar and mark each day that you read 15 minutes to your child. This is not hard for us to do and JSL seems very intrigued. When we got back from the library, he begged me to read him three of the books we took out. The boys are also excited about events that are taking place at many of the library throughout the summer.

So did you participate in a summer reading program as a child or are your children doing one this summer? I would love to know all about them.

What have you read recently? Please be sure to link up to your Book Posts, and/or leave a comment below. Include something you read on your own, with a child or someone else. Tuesday Tales are all about spreading the love for books.

Categories:
books fun jsl looking back nhl photos summer Tuesday Tales

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly – 10th Anniversary Edition

Posted on June 27, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

As I have mentioned before, Friday was my 10th Anniversary with TechyDad. He went to work, NHL went to school for his last half day, and JSL and I stayed at home to do some cleaning. We had someone stopping by later in the day to check on a clogged bathroom sink. Thanks to this sink, we were forced to wash hands in the bathroom tub.

The day did not exactly go as planned. You see, thank goodness the plumber came early. He showed up at 11:30-ish instead of 2-3. I had to leave shortly after to pick NHL up from school. When he left, we knew we had some large issues. He said he would go to lunch, get supplies, and come back about an hour later to get to work. In the end, he was at our house until about 7:30 at night. Our initial plans were shot and even other items had to be changed. Still, we made the best of the situation.

The Good:

We went to my parent’s house to have cake with the boys before putting them to bed there. Thanks to fumes, we could not stay in our house. Here are the delicious cakes that we had

Once the kids were FINALLY into bed, TechyDad still wanted to head out to dinner. Since it was almost 9:30, we had limited choices. I recalled a new Sushi place not too far away, so off we went to Mr. Fuji Sushi. Our experience at Mr. Fuji’s was amazing. The food was delicious, the people there super nice, and the atmosphere wonderful. Since it was so late, we ordered two appetizers and three sushi rolls to share.

To start we had Age Tofu and Vegetable Tempura

Then we had a Philadelphia roll, Avocado Peanut roll, and Sweet Potato roll

Yes, I believe this is the best sushi I have had in a long time. We will definitely be heading back to Mr. Fuji again soon.

The Bad:

We thought that the plumbing issue would require snaking the pipes. When they tried to do this, the snake refused to go down and kept going up into the pipes instead. When JSL and I left to pick up NHL at school, they were debating a few options.

Try to go in the attic and snake things and it may last 1-2 years IF we are lucky.
Replace the old pipes in the section that appeared to be the root of the issue with PVC pipes.

I went to pick NHL up and bring the kids home for lunch.

The Ugly:

When they arrived back at our house, I saw them hauling a long section of PVC pipe. I knew it was the best thing, but I was paranoid and worried about things. As they started to work in the basement on cutting the pipe open, it started to get more complicated. They could not get to the top of the pipe from the basement. Suddenly, wall removal was needed. Yes, I think I aged several years in this afternoon from making big decisions on the fly and listening to the noises in my house. I knew that they were capable, but it was driving me batty.

The guys came back upstairs to give me the news and I immediately knew we made the right decision. You see, the pipe in the basement was nearly closed shut. The old material has basically closed itself shut. I never went to look in the basement until a while later. I gave permission to remove wall to get at the sink pipe within there. The hole got larger than this, but you get the point from this view:

After a lot of power tool noises and labor in the bathroom with the wall and pipe fighting, they finally got that sucker out. Check this bad boy out. Yes, this nasty object was pretty much what was happening down stairs in the basement as well. Here is our corroded galvanized pipe from within the wall:

It was not an easy job, but these guys were amazing. They dealt with my paranoia and got the work done and well. They even cleaned up the mess when the tiles on the wall next to the sink spontaneously fell off – no I am not joking. Apparently, they were not put on right by previous owners. This was good under the sink since nothing was ruined getting to the pipes behind the wall. I was too sick at the mess during that time to take a photo. I am also sparing you from photos of the basement pipes and sludge that came out of them. Let’s just say old toothpaste and soap are not pretty nor do they smell nice.

In the end, the pipe is fixed, a few more will need this down the road, and we need a massive bathroom rehab soon. More good news, the pipe works and we have a new faucet that is not leaking. Thanks to spray that was used during the cleaning process on the tiles/pipes, there are horrible fumes in our house. It has been a rough few days and we are so very lucky that my parents are here for us.

So there you have it, the good, the bad, and the ugly of our 10th Annversary!

Psssst. . . if you need a good person for home repairs in my area – just let me know. This work, along with the roof, and broken main water valve were done by the same person. Highly recommend.

Categories:
bad news decisions family food glorious food house messy nasty things photos TechyDad vent yummy

How Will Our Garden Grow? – June 2011

Posted on June 26, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

I always wonder what will happen when we plant our garden. You see, we have a track record with things happening. On the top of my garden worry list:

Will our neighborhood bunnies eat everything?
Will the rain/hail/storms ruin it?
Will the sun/heat/humidity kill it?
Will we get anything to harvest?

Two years ago we had some success, but last year we had nothing aside from some fresh basil. This year we hoped for the best, put the plants in a new location and kept watching. This is what they looked like just over a month ago (May 22 to be exact):

The two small tomato plants are in back, pretty sad looking zucchini plants in the middle, and the small peppermint plant. Check out what they looked like as of Friday. We will start the tour with the zucchini plants. I think you will see that it seems pretty happy.

Yes, they are thriving at this point and even have a few other items that have us very excited. Check this out:

Those tomato plants have gotten to the point that they had to move. They were too large for their location and needed a bit of extra support. As you will see, there are also some tomatoes growing on that.

That tiny little peppermint plant has already had leaves plucked from it and consumed by the boys and some neighbors. Check out how it has grown over the same period of time:

After we bought the initial plants, we found some cucumbers to grow. They had a rough start, but are finally perking up and doing better with a bit more space.

Now we just have to hope that the weather, bunnies, newly found chipmunks, and other natural issues let our vegetables continue to grow so we can pick them and eat them soon.