Burying St.Joseph...

Mom and Hugh just put their house on the market, so we stopped by after church to help bury St.Joseph . Worked like a charm twice for Chris and I. Work your magic St. Joseph!!!

Ball Squared...

The Ciccone's had a fun filled Saturday full of ball-baseball and softball that is. The Redsox started out our day and won their first game! Jake got a great hit which you can watch on the video below.



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Great game guys!!















This is Christopher with his Walsingham buddy since kindergarten, Billy Roberts. Can you believe how tall Billy is???
Billy's sister Megan is on Erin's softball team. Chris and, Megan and Billy's dad, Ken coach the girls. Christopher and Billy will both be in fourth grade next year at Walsingham and Erin and Megan will be in second.



We are sooooo proud of Erin for how well she did today, but more importantly are thrilled that she loved it as much as she did!!! She was so excited during the game and was great at rooting her teammates on. Tons of her friends were there as well.




She hits...



She runs...



She scores!!!!! Look at the genuine excitement in that beautiful child's face!!



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Hooray for the Rivercats!!




Erin and her friend Reilly from D.J. Montegue




















Erin and friends from Walsingham, Caroline, Lindsey, and Megan.

Happy Hour on a beautiful Friday night

Finally a beautiful night after a week of a lot of rain. Cocktails were definitely in order! Chris took all the kids to the school's county fair, so John, Kristie, Myself, and Luscious Leona Littlefoot (otherwise known as Lilly Pulitzer Campbell) were able to kick back and bask in the glorious sunshine and wonderful evening-thanks babe!!! Lilly is quite the ball fetcher and will chase them all night if giving the opportunity. Lilly and Maddy hang out on occasion and get along pretty well. They're jealous of each other though because they know that each one of their momma's loves and spoils both of them. So they are constantly vying for our attention when they're together. Maddy's a little less tolerable because she's so old and neurotic.

Good times!!!





Isn't she the cutest little beagle you've ever seen!!! Here she is in action. She's fast!!!




She's a total daddy's girl!

Hope everyone has a great week end!!

Cheers!

Still working...

In case anyone is wondering if i've forgotten to post the "after" pictures of my closet and bedroom, I haven't. I'm actually still working on it, believe it or not. My closet is getting pretty full...yet my bedroom doesn't seem to be getting any emptier. I'm beginning to wonder if there's enough ritalin in the world to get this job finished. My original intent was to tackle Erin's clothes after this, but i don't know now.
BTW the power didn't come back on until 5 am today. Unbelievable.

God bless you Benjamin Franklin!

It's been 62 minutes and 13 seconds since our electricity went out. I've missed Americas Next Top Model and Idol will be starting any minute. If it weren't for the battery in my computer and my verizon wireless card (which has proven itself to be worth every penny I pay for it tonite alone) I might just have gauged my eyes out. Wow, what we take for granted. Does anyone know what it is you hit on your keyboard that makes it start automatically deleting letters when you're trying to fix a word, instead of just adding the new letter in, so you wind up having to type the whole freaking sentence over again?? I hate that!! Anyways, it's like we have no tolerance for any deviation from the norm. No "margin of error" for anything that in the slightest bit disrupts our normal routines (damn, it's starting to get hot now-with the power being out I've got Erin, and of course Maddy, right on flippin top of me). I mean, God forbid we get inconvenienced in any way . Did anyone catch Poprah today? Really sad, what's going on in Africa. It breaks my heart to think of those children. God Bless them.
All right this freaking keyboard is pissing me off. Time to Ebay.

For now...i'll pay homage to Ben Franklin & Tom Edison for bringing light into my life!


Before There Were Lights: A History of Electricity in the U.S.

For thousands of years, people all over the world have been fascinated by lightning. Some wondered how people could put that kind of power to practical use. But it wasn't until the 18th century that the path to the everyday use of electrical power began to take shape.
Ben Franklin proved that lightning was a form of electricity.
Maybe you have heard about the famous kite experiment by American Founding Father and inventor Benjamin Franklin. In 1752, to prove that lightning was electrical, he flew a kite during a thunderstorm.
He tied a metal key onto the string and, as he suspected it would, electricity from the storm clouds flowed down the string, which was wet, and he received an electrical shock. Franklin was extremely lucky not to have been seriously hurt during this experiment, but he was excited to have proved his idea.
Throughout the next hundred years, many inventors and scientists tried to find a way to use electrical power to make light. In 1879, the American inventor Thomas Edison was finally able to produce a reliable, long-lasting electric light bulb in his laboratory.
By the end of the 1880s, small electrical stations based on Edison's designs were in a number of U.S. cities. But each station was able to power only a few city blocks.
Although the majority of people living in larger towns and cities had electricity by 1930, only 10 percent of Americans who lived on farms and in rural areas had electric power. At this time, electric companies were all privately owned and run to make money. These companies argued that it would be too expensive to string miles of electric lines to farms. They also thought farmers were too poor to pay for electric service.
New electric lines brought TVA power to the rural areas in the Valley. (Photo courtesy of the New Deal Network)
President Franklin D. Roosevelt believed strongly that America's rural areas should have the same access to electricity as cities did. In 1935 the Rural Electric Administration (REA) was created to bring electricity to rural areas like the Tennessee Valley.
By 1939 the percentage of rural homes with electricity had risen to 25 percent. The Tennessee Valley Authority also set up the Electric Home and Farm Authority to help farmers buy electric appliances like stoves and washing machines.
People in the Tennessee Valley found that electricity transformed their lives in ways they could not have imagined.

Bye bye Asheville!!!

Not sure why this picture turned out blurry-i'm guessing my lense fogged over-but it sure is cute! Erin and I had sooooo much fun with Kris, Matt, Campbell, and MolMol and can't wait to come back after baby sister arrives. Thanks so much for everything, we miss you tons already!!


As for everyone at home....

we're on our way and can't wait to see you!!!

Cheers!

While we were out...

Chris, Christoher, John, & Shane went to check out Christopher's camp he'll be attending this summer in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Christopher was nominated by Walsingham to attend a two week National Scholastic Excellence Program in July and we couldn't be prouder of him. He had several courses to choose from and ultimately decided on a Greek Mythology and Leadership curriculum.

The boys were also able to catch a Baltimore Orioles game. Superstar Shane caught a homerun ball-way to go dude!!!

Video of first night...

A little trick to watching these videos. Press play, let it start, then pause it. Let the lighter grey bar go all the way to the end and then play it. Otherwise it stops and starts over and over.


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Wrap up for Friday...

It was pretty rainy today so we took the girlies to a discovery/learning type museum. It kept us dry and the kiddies happy. Here are Erin and Campbell in the parking garage ready to roll!!

Back to first night pics...

As evidenced by theses pictures, it took no time at all for Erin and Campbell to become best buds~it was so sweet!!
double scrunchie alert!!

From the burg to the ville.What's been going on...

As you can see, things are pretty bad right now in Williamsburg, so Erin and I decided to head west to the mountains of North Carolina over spring break to visit Kris, Matt, Campbell, and Mol Mol.

It sure is beautiful here. The view is gorgeous...

They do things a little different out here, but we're learning to adjust (i'm actually trying to figure out who I gotta kill, or sleep with one, to get a freaking martini !). In Williamsburg you're likely to encounter people who look like this...


Not in Asheville. You saw earlier the people we saw at Pizza Hut (did i mention Kris took me to Pizza Hut???). Asheville is also known as an artsy town so you're likely to run into these gals (i swear to god they came up when i did an image search for Asheville N.C.).



They're identified as "Baraka Mundi". Kris claims she never heard of them (i wasn't gonna argue with her).
This is at least my fourth time up and everytime I ask to go see the beautiful Biltmore Estate.


She always has some excuse. This time it's because she's "pregnant" .

Even Flat Stanley has been.

In all seriousness we've been having a ball. Erin and Campbell have been inseperable. Erin is getting a real taste of what it's going to be like having a little cousin around. She's a great babysitter and loves being with Campbell.

The weather has been wishy washy. Yesterday we were able to get some time in at the park. Campbell's a tough one to catch on film...she makes you work real hard. So you'll see more of them apart than together.