There will be no white flag above my door

Where did this month go, my goodness it flew by. We didn't get much accomplished this summer and the end just sort of snuck up on us.

The kids will be back in school next tuesday. I've bought all the school supplies, at least the stuff that they usually need, any lists the teachers send home the first week I'll have to get later. I haven't bought school clothes yet. I'm such a procrastinator (I just really don't like shopping).

John went back to work yesterday, I already kinda missed him being here during the day, maybe that's cause the kids are still here ;). Time for us to get back into a normal routine which means we all need to sleep at a decent hour. Not that we ever really did anyway but we should.

Next weekend is my cousin's wedding, I'm so looking forward to seeing all of them again. I think the wedding has the Roaring 20's as the theme so this should be cool. My mom and I have to go shopping and find something to wear.

My dogs, well...long story short, Kyra and Basha had another bad fight and this time Basha got hurt so we have to find her a new home. We have them seperated right now because they are still growling at eachother. It was very scary for all of us, I was shaken up pretty bad as were the kids. Whoever told me to throw cold water on them, it didn't work! I had two soaked dogs and a wet porch floor.

Missing

There's always been a part of me that was missing well before I even realized it, I didn't pay much attention to it because I was so full of family I pushed aside for a very long time. Now I can feel it...more and more. As my family moves away and on with their lives and things change I can feel the emptiness growing. But somehow it always seems to work out one way or another and what's been missing just happened to find it's way back.

I've never had much contact with my dad's side of the family. Growing up I was blessed with a huge family on my mom's side so I didn't really miss out on that feeling of family. I had it all with them, my grandparents and lots of aunts and uncles and sooo many cousins.

My father's parents both died before I was born so I'm sure that is part of the reason why his family drifted apart, not that they were close to begin with but there wasn't much reason to try after that I suppose. Everyone went their own way raising their children and doing their thing wherever they moved to. I had the chance to spend some time with some of my cousins one year and then a few others in California on a vacation a couple years after that...other than those few occasions I knew nothing about them. I did connect with two of my cousins very well in those brief times we spent together and we kept in contact somewhat throughout the years.

My cousin called me and talked to me about helping him piece together a family tree, he too felt that empty feeling. I was actually happy to hear that because I had been thinking about that very same thing for awhile. He made a few calls to get some background information from one of our aunts and then one of our uncles who then gave him his son's number (our cousin) who was happy to hear from him and so on and so forth until one of my aunts phoned my father and as they spoke my dad decided to have a BBQ and sure enough they were willing to come. They only live a few hours away so it's a shame that so much time had passed but everyone was excited. I called my cousin and told him that our aunt was coming with her two kids and he got a hold of two of his brothers who live reasonably close and his mom and they all came too.

The reunion was very emotional and we all felt a sense of fullness but a desire to have more at the same time, if that makes any sense. We spent hours talking and laughing and it was just amazing. My cousin Margie is so much like me it's scary. There were lots of tears too but it felt so good, the hugs were tight and long and just absolutely overwhelming. No one wanted to leave, my dad stayed up later than he has in years and he had to work the next day, he didn't care.

I went home that night and couldn't contain my excitement and did some searches and started working on our familiy geneology. I woke up early the next morning and waited patiently for the city offices to open so I could request information and applications to obtain records of any kind that would aid in our search. We have so much conflicting information that we are slowly sifting through it and finding the bits and pieces that are the truth.

During my search I found some pretty cool stuff, whether or not they are related to my family or not it's still interesting. My mom always told me my dad's family was from Sicily but my aunt is telling me that they are from Calabria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calabria.

Growing up my mom also mentioned that my dad's great uncle was tied to the Mob here in Chicago but she thought he was a hitman for Capone. I found this and apparently he was more than that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Aiello. Ironically, I named my dog Capone Aiello ;) . She was a german shepard/collie mix, a really smart and beautiful dog.

This I thought was pretty neat http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.fc/qx/aiello-family-crest.htm?a=54323-224.

I got the applications in the mail the other day so as soon as I can get something back from the county records I can't do much other than maybe to talk to one other aunt that might know more.

The Path

Here's the short version

I went to the eye doctor on thursday, was there two and a half hours but the doc did a very thorough examination because I've been having some issues with my eyes lately. She dilated my eyes too so they were very sensitive to the sun the whole afternoon and I had a slight headache in the evening. Everything seems pretty healthy but she wants me to go see a specialist to be on the safe side. I had been putting it off for some time but Monette made sure I called and made the appointment ;). I'm so lucky to have friends who love me enough to get on my case ;) about those kind of things.

Friday we watched Clerks 2 and got some really good peeksa. I don't think anyone should waste their money on that movie. Even Josh thought it wasn't very good so just in case you were thinking it, it's not because I'm old!

I made Kimchi and it actually turned out really good for it being my first time. I found a few recipes online and took a lil bit from each one to make it.

Saturday we went out to lunch in China town, John's mom, my mom the kids and I. While we were in the restaurant Lola (John's mom) reminded us that it was Lolo's birthday (John's dad who passed away last year) so we started to talk about him and remember the nice things we did when he was alive. The kids were expressing how much they missed him when I noticed Rosie's face, she became really sad as she said again "I miss Lolo". God, how that broke my heart. I asked the kids if they wanted to bake a cake for him when we got home and sing happy birthday and with that my princess smiled.

When we got home and put everything away we started on Lolo's cake. Rosie was so excited because I let her do everything, all I did was measure all the ingredients and she put them together and even mixed it up. She was so proud of herself. She was even more excited because we were using the smartware baking pan Lola just got us that came in the mail the day before. Rosie had seen the commercial awhile back and thought it was cool (yay, my lil girl is gonna be a cook like her mommy!) and it actually works really well. After dinner we brought out the cake, said a prayer and sang happy birthday and Rosie ran to Lola's bedroom and brought out the picture of Lolo so he could see us. She left a piece of cake out for him too.

Today, we went to the airport to pick up Baby Huey. He just got back from QuakeCon and although he didn't win (but he didn't lose to a girl! like one of his friends did) he had a blast hanging out with his friends. I was glad to get him home as were the kids. He brought them lots of cool lil marketing things *shwag* they were giving out there. I think they enjoyed the blow up bat like things most, whacking eachother on the head with them. Josh got an official 2006 QuakeCon t-shirt. Rosie made sure daddy got to taste the wonderful cake she made for Lolo.

No existe la soledad

Si tienes un amigo, has merecido un don divino. La amistad leal, sincera, desinteresada, es la verdadera comunion de las almas.

Es la verdadera manifestacion del amor en la pareja, porque este suelo ser celoso, egoista y volnerable cuando no hay amistad en ella. La verdadera amistad perdura y se fortalece a traves del tiempo y la distancia.

No se necesita ver frecuentemente al amigo para que la amistad perdure, basta saber que este respondera cuando sea necesario, con un acto de afecto, de comprension, y aun de sacrificio.

La amistad no se conquista, no se impone, se cultiva como una flor, se abona con pequenos detalles de cortesia, de tenura y de lealtad; se riega con las aguas vivas del desinteres y de carino silencioso. No importan las distancias, los niveles sociales, los anos o las culturas. La amistad lo supera todo.

El recuerdo del amigo lejano, del amigo del ninez o el de la joventud, produce la intima alegria de haberlos conocido. Nuestra vida se entriquecio con su contacto por breve que haya sido.

La felicidad del amigo nos dea falicidad. Sus penas se vuelen nuestras porque hay un maravilloso lazo invisible que une a los amigos. La amistad es bella sobre toda poderacion.

Para el que tiene un amigo, no existe la soledad.