Yankee Fan vs Red Sox Fan November 6, 2009

The rivalry between the Yankees and Red Soxs in New England goes beyond the team. The fans have been battling forever, it divides the workplace, friends, and even family. As a Yankee fan I battle everyday with Red Sox fans…one of the cons living in CT. During the year we keep very close track of what each team is doing, waiting to pounce on the opponent whenever we have the chance. We proudly wear our Jerseys, hang our flags, and decorate our lawns.

This year we got #27…WOO HOO…eat our dust Red Sox!!!! We don’t want to leave out our rivals in this grand celebration…..so how do we include them?? Well, we decorate their lawn………

Congratulations to the 2009 World Champions!

Leaves Covered My Dining Room Floor November 6, 2009

I’ve been known to do some crazy things. Well, at least my family thinks they were crazy. My modo is “Have Fun”! You know the old saying,”You only live once”? I try to show my children you can have fun and be a little crazy, harmlessly. One Thanksgiving morning, I grabbed the kids, brought them outside, filled my arms with as many leaves as I could and carried them into the house and dropped them right on my dining room floor. My girls looked at me as if I had lost my mind. I told them …. Let’s go! Go get those leaves!! When they realized I was serious…the running and the giggling commenced. We ran in and out dropping the leaves on the dining room floor until it was covered. Talk about laughter……I still laugh just thinking about it.

I did tell them, we couldn’t keep walking over them, crunching them down until the guests came. So if they needed to walk through the room, they would need to shuffle…of course I had to show them how. I never had them offer so much to carry the dishes, glasses, silverware, and anything else that needed to go into that room. They shuffled in and out all morning…laughing all the while. I was getting a kick of how happy some leaves on the floor made them.

When the family arrived, they too thought I lost my mind but just laughed it off as another Rachelism. It was a huge hit for conversation. The girls also got to proudly tell all how they helped with everything that morning.

The clean up was fairly easy, I swept everything into a pile and everyone helped to put the leaves in bags, then I vacuumed the rest.

It was a Thanksgiving we will never forget! Well besides our Beetlejuice Thanksgiving.

Panic call- it’s lice November 3, 2009

Last night was an extremely late night in NYC (that’s another post) and today I planned on staying in my PJ’s, being as productive as I could and working all day. I receive a panic call from my daughter’s best friend, (she’s also like a daughter), Her daughter (who’s like a granddaughter) was scratching her head like crazy and she was concerned she had lice. This is something I used to deal with at work quite often (I was a cosmetologist) and I know how freaked out people can get. I tell her to calm down, just because she’s itchy doesn’t mean she has lice. I explain to her how to check for it and to call me back. She calls back and guess what? She has it…..now I talk to her very matter of factly, It’s not the end of the world and very common among children. It’s going to be a pain in the ass but it’s curable! I explain the whole process of what to do for her daughter, herself, the house, the car, and who she needs to call.

I then remember my husband telling me how the baby(she’s not really a baby, she’s 5) came over yesterday and she slept at my daughter’s house. SHIT- now I have to check everyone’s head and totally sanitize the house. Of course my daughter calls me and is freaking out, so I tell her I’ll be over to help.

After sanitizing both houses, and checking everyone’s head- I give the clean bill of health. Just in case though, my daughter wants to run to Target to grab Rid….just in case. I finally get back at 9 pm and put on my pj’s…better late than never.

Lice…..when most think of this disgusting little pest of a bug, they get totally freaked out. If you think you or your child have lice, stay calm and follow these steps.

What are lice?
Lice are tiny bugs that live on the scalp and neck. They are not able to jump or fly but they are highly contagious and can spread quickly from person to person. They spread mainly through head-to-head contact, sharing clothing, bed linens, combs, brushes, and hats can also help pass them along. They are not dangerous and don’t cause disease. They do feed off the blood by biting a couple times a day, causing red bumps that itch. They lay eggs are the hair which are called nits.

Checking for lice

You will need to part small (very small) sections of the hair and look for the actual bug (louse) and look for the nit. The nit looks like a piece of dandruff stuck to the hair (usually close to the scalp) and doesn’t come off easily.

What to do if you find it

You will need to purchase a treatment shampoo (Rid is good) and a fine-tooth comb. There are kits that include the nit combs.

Treating hair

Follow the directions on the medication. While the hair is wet, you’ll need to part the hair in tiny sections and comb-out the nits. Sometimes olive oil is used to help get the nits off. You can use conditioner after you use the shampoo o make it easier to comb through. This process is tedious and takes some time.

If your child is under 2 years, call the physician.

Treating the house

1. Wash all bed linens and clothing that’s been recently worn by anyone in your home who’s infested in very hot water (130° Fahrenheit, 54.4° Celsius), then put them in the hot cycle of the dryer for at least 20 minutes. Dry clean any clothing that isn’t machine washable or store all clothing, stuffed animals, comforters, etc., that cannot be washed or dry cleaned into a plastic bag and seal it for two weeks.
2. Vacuum carpets and any upholstered furniture (in your home or car).
3. Soak hair-care items like combs, barrettes, hair ties or bands, headbands, and brushes in rubbing alcohol or medicated shampoo for 1 hour. You can also wash them in hot water (130 degrees F; 55 degrees C) or just throw them away.

Calls

Call your child’s school, daycare, and anyone they may have come in contact with.

You can find complete information at www.cdc.gov/lice/head/factsheet.html

They Confiscated Vinny! October 28, 2009

We become protectors, saviors, dieticians, nurses, and much more after having children. Parents will do anything for their children when we see them upset. My husband and I have raised two daughters, one married and one in college. This is our empty nest time, right? Well yes except for the dog and three cats. We weren’t planning on having animals when we stated our family. My oldest daughter somehow talked us into getting a dog, then there was the cat. OK we now have the perfect family. yeah ummm right…unless you have a save all daughter who loves to take in all animals, which is how we wound up with two more cats.


As I said my youngest is away at college and she decided along with her roommates that they needed an animal. So Courtney and Katie, the Einsteins of the bunch, went and bought a dwarf hamster, they named him Vincenzo. Mind you, it’s against school policy to have live animals at school, but then again, they ARE college students. When we went to visit I was amazed and proud to see how well they were taking care of Vinny…I mean he was alive and looking very healthy with a clean cage. They had him in a ball and let him roam all over the suite. He had the life of Riley.


This past Friday my husband gets a call and on the other end was his little girl so upset, “They confiscated Vinny!” she cried. “You have to come get him!” Now mind you, her school is in Jersey. I hear my husband say, “See what you have to do to get him back and I’ll be ther on Monday.” OMG- are you freakin kidding me, we have a dog and three cats who are extrememly good at hunting rodents, squirrels, and any other small animal. He will not last in this house, not to mention we don’t need something else to take care of. Katie’s parents can’t take him unless we were going to put him on a plane and send him to Calif, so we don’t have a choice. OK it’s all settled……daddy to the rescue…the big sap….this is NOT the man I married, I have no idea what happened to him, but he used to tell people to go scratch an ass. As Frank Sinatra says, he’s wrapped around their finger!


Meanwhile my son in law is having a birthday dinner for my oldest. The whole family is coming on Sunday and he needs macaroni and meatballs. Guess what, he never made it before so my husband offers to teach him how to make sauce and meatballs. They go shopping, buy everything, go back to the house and start cooking. My oldest daughter, Crissy, thinks it’s so cute that her daddy is teaching her husband to cook Italian that she posts it on Facebook. AHHHHHH Facebook, the wonderful internet, where everyone knows all that’s happening. Courtney sees the post and calls daddy….OMG, you’re bringing me macaroni and meatballs, right daddy????? Of course, he says. Here’s the sappy man again. Ummmm, the whole family will be over, we won’t have enough to bring to Courtney. Guess what???? Sunday my dear husband now has to make another whole pot of sauce and 3 LBS of meatballs…LOL. Notice I am NOT in this, unfortunately I had to work.(awwww)


Monday morning he leaves for NJ, brings macaroni and meatballs, and takes Courtney and friends out to lunch. He grabs Vinny and all the food and accessories, straps him IN THE SEATBELT in the back seat (this is a hamster, right?) and brings him home. After cooking for 16 hours, driving for 4 hours, delivering food, and playing chauffeur, my husband has Saved The Day! We now have Vincenzo…who I must say is awfully cute.

Vincenzo in his old cag

Today when I walked in, my husband said Vinny looked sad and we needed to go get him a hamster playland. Guess what….Vinny now has his own Disneyland and I find myself liking this little guy. He’s very amusing and seems to like us…maybe because we saved him!!! Of course we had to assign him his own room to keep him safe from the cats. The things we do for our children, one more thing in the memory bank.

Vincenzo's new Disneyland

Glenn Beck’s book signing October 23, 2009

On October 3, 2009 I went to Glenn Beck’s book signing at  BarnesandNoble in North Haven, CT. What I like about Glenn Beck is he is not bias, he goes after everyone, left or right and he’s honest, intelligent and humorous. He’s an ordinary guy giving his opinion after he does careful research. Do I always agree with him? No, but I respect that he is trying to look out for us average people.


I met some very interesting people at the signing.  There had to be a thousand people there, men and women of all ages. They came from all over the state and some all the way from Rhode Island.  I spent most of my time waiting…. out side in the rain…. with Marty and Dot, just an average couple struggling like the rest of us. We talked about how hard it is to survive just to pay your normal bills. There were all kinds of hardship stories and everyone was not happy with the government- and they ALL did not want the healthcare bill to go through. Of course there were (what I call) the crazies. People so far to the right, there will be no compromise. Then there were the veterans….my heart goes out to these people, they risk their life for all of us and they’re pretty much shit on. There were some protesters (local high school kids) they stood there with their signs that read “Young People for Peace and Socialism.” They weren’t confrontational at all and I had to give these kids credit because lots of people were walking over to them to “debate” . A reporter, Pamela McLoughlin,  came from the local newspaper “The New Haven Register,” see her article here. Pamela refers to those who showed up as “a certain camp”, which doesn’t surprise me since most media is so biased they fail to recognize that this camp is the majority of middle class citizens tired of being screwed over.


So anyway, I wait in the rain for hours, Glenn was supposed to be there at 8:00 and didn’t show up until approximately 9:30. Our number was finally called and surprising the line went very fast. You were whisked through having only a second to shake Glenn’s hand and say hello. Of course me being me, I had to get more in, so I quickly said, “Hey Beck, You need to get more active on Twitter!.” Beck just laughed- I’m hoping he’ll remember that and actually start to converse with us “little people from the camp” on Twitter.


Below you’ll see the video- I hope you enjoy it, as it’s my first video, shot and edited by Me!

Wordless Wednesday- Always Remember October 7, 2009

The Durham Fair October 5, 2009

Each year at the end of September we round up the troops; my husband, kids, mom, mother-in-law, father-in-law, friends, and my cousins. We all head to the Durham Fair. This is a fair you don’t want to miss. We get to eat, shop, check out animals, tractor races, the kids go on rides, and there’s always great live entertainment. We always follow our same routine….First thing…FOOD! Everyone go grab their grub and meet under the tent.

What’s a fair without Apple Fritters

Let’s go see the exhibits-

One of our apple orchards                                                                                               Huge flowers from all over

This is thee biggest squash and watermelon I’ve seen- ya think they used Miracle Grow?

















Now time to go check out the animals- These little guys were getting ready for the pig races- how cute!



This hawk’s wingspan was about 3 feet and I’ve never seen an owl up close (no owls in the city)

















The huge hill kills us but we have to go to my favorite place- Hot Leathers

















To the shopping/craft tent but First- we need a bag of the mini donuts- Hot off the grill..YUMMMMMM















Our feet hurt, we’re stuffed to the hilt, our wallet is empty, and we’re all freezing since the temp dropped but I wouldn’t trade it or miss it. Plus I get to annoy everyone with the wooden bullfrog I bought. If you come to CT in September, check out our fairs!

Nominate a Teacher to Win $100 September 28, 2009

Did you know teachers spend an average of $1200 of their own money on classroom supplies each year? That’s $4 billion annually! That’s why OfficeMax joined with Adopt-A-Classroom to create “A Day Made Better“—a national cause event founded to erase teacher-funded classrooms. This year, “A Day Made Better” will take place on October 6 where 1,000 teachers will be surprised in their classrooms each with $1,000 worth of essential supplies from OfficeMax. That’s more than one million dollars donated to help teachers! Principals at needy schools nominated the teachers for demonstrating dedication, innovation, and passion.

To pay-it-forward, OfficeMax and Mom It Forward have teamed up to create awareness about the issue of teacher-funded classrooms and to give you the opportunity to get involved and help a teacher in your community on behalf of the “A Day Made Better.” Here’s how…

Simply nominate a teacher of your choice to win this giveaway by following the entry requirements. Be sure to check out the prize and criteria!

Prize

One exceptional teacher will receive a ONE HUNDRED DOLLAR gift card to OfficeMax. This can go a long way when it comes to classroom supplies!

Criteria

This is a giveaway that is meant to be given away. What does that mean? You get to nominate a teacher by sharing why this person is exceptional and deserving of this giveaway. The best part, every story told helps raise awareness in an effort to erase teacher-funded classrooms. The winning teacher will be chosen based on the following criteria, so be sure to tell us why your teacher is most deserving:

• Dedication: does everything in his/her power to deliver the best possible education for his/her students.
• Innovation: thinks outside the box and engages his/her students through creative learning activities & programs.
• Passion: expresses a genuine passion for education and shares this enthusiasm in the classroom.
• Need: demonstrates a need for essential classroom supplies.

Entry Requirements

To enter your teacher, you are required to do two things.

(Note: post a separate comment for each entry.)

1. NOMINATE THEM BY LEAVING A COMMENT ABOUT A TEACHER YOU FEEL WOULD GREATLY BENEFIT FROM A $100 GIFT CARD FROM OFFICE MAX AND WHY THEY SHOULD WIN.

2. POST THESE MESSAGES BELOW ON FACEBOOK AND/OR TWITTER.

(Note: Be sure to leave comments here with links to your messages.)

• Teachers spend avg $1200 of own $$ on school supplies annually! Help erase teacher-funded classrooms. http://bit.ly/3VUNvC PLS RT #omx
• Nominate a teacher 2 win $100 in OfficeMax classroom supplies. Enter here: http://www.detroitmommies.com/?p=1775 PLS RT #omx
• Join the “A Day Made Better” movement to end teacher-funded classrooms at http://bit.ly/UJ3LF #omx

More than 30 sites are participating in this campaign between now and Sunday, October 4. Visit http://momitforward.com for a list of all the giveaways! You may enter a different teacher on every site, but you may only win once!

Thanks so much for helping pay-it-forward to teachers in your community! Please join us on Tuesdays, September 22 and 29 from 9 to 11 pm ET for Girls Night Out (#gno) on Twitter if you’d like to meet the team behind the cause: @officemax, @adaymadebetter and @Adopt_Classroom. Hope to see you there!

We want to give every teacher the opportunity to win!!!!!! If you have any questions about how to enter, please contact me!

Touchd@sbcglobal.net

http://Twitter.com/RachelFerrucci

http://Facebook.com/RachelFerrucci

Fine Print

Entries are due Sunday, October 4 by midnight PDT. No purchase necessary to enter. Winners will be selected by me based on the entry that in my opinion meets the above criteria. OfficeMax, Adopt-A-Classroom and Mom It Forward play no part in choosing the winner of this giveaway. OfficeMax, Adopt-A-Classroom, and Mom It Forward employees are ineligible to enter. In a spirit of fairness, my personal friends and family members are also ineligible. Entries that do not follow all of the entry requirements will not be considered. The winner will be notified and have 24 hours to confirm receipt of the email. If no response is received within 24 hours, another winner will be selected. Open to participants in the U.S. 18 years and older.

CONGRATULATIONS to Cheryl Budge (@TheBudgeBunch) and Mrs. Nelson!! You have won the $100 gift card from Office Max!

Crocs the New Sports Attire September 27, 2009

When Crocs first hit the scene I didn’t buy a pair because I wasn’t crazy about the look. I heard many people in the music and fashion business say, “you wouldn’t ever catch me wearing Crocs in public”. Two Christmas’s ago my husband bought me a pair with the fuzzies and I thought to myself, “he doesn’t know me at all, why didn’t he get me a soft plush pair of comfy slippers?” He knows I’m always cold, especially my feet- I mean I freeze to where I can’t feel my toes…it’s THAT bad. I didn’t want him to feel bad so I wore them one day around the house and holy crap they were thee yes thee most comfiest shoes that kept my feet sooooo warm. I instantly fell in love with them. I think I lived in them all winter, I didn’t care who wasn’t wearing them due to the stupid fashion police- they have no idea what they’re missing! I mean I wouldn’t wear them to a cocktail party but I’ll be damned if I don’t strut my Crocs through the grocery store…yep that’s me…warm feet shopping…singing…hmm hmmmm!


Now I have to go to their site and what to my wondering eyes should appear but NFL Crocs…I’ve died and gone to sports attire heaven. I am Steelered out from head to ankle, plus accessories- Terrible Towel, beads, Steve the Steeler Snowman, but nothing Steelers on my feet. My daughter had also saw the Steeler Crocs and wanted a pair so I figured I would wait and get a pair for her for her birthday…just in time for the next football season. Guess what ???? They were sold out of our sizes everytime I went to purchase them. ARGGGG. I finally found them without the fuzzies and ordered them for my daughter- I was determined to get the winter ones for me.


In Feb I went to Blissdom09 and guess what we got in our swag bag?? Yes- A Croc gift certficate- can it get better than this…not at the moment. Of course when I got home and went to purchase them, again they were sold out. After talking to George (from Crocs) I decided to wait until they were in stock and George said he would make sure I got them. Well guess what I just got…WHOOT!!! Yep Thank you George (my Yankee buddy) and thank you Crocs.




I feel like it’s my birthday(singing). So check out these bad boyzzz and if you don’t have a pair of fuzzies (actual name is mammoth) for the winter, you’d better jump all over that or you’ll be left out in the cold…literally!


Now some FACTS for the fashion police. Many celebs wear Crocs, Jack Nicholson, Jennie Garth, Faith Hill, Al Pacino, Brooke Shields, Rocker Steven Tyler, Mario Batali, and President George Bush to name a few. Our own superstar Guy Kawasaki has said he was a fan. So put that in your pipe and smoke it!!!

Please share in the comments if you have Crocs and if you can have any pair, which would it be?

Grease September 14, 2009

Those of you who know me, know I like to have fun. I will sing, dance, and do nutty things even if it means it could be an embarrassing moment. I told some of you about the surprise 40th Birthday Party my family threw me and about some of the play by play moments. Well you asked to see the infamous Grease Dance, so here it is my friends- Be kind and oh you might want to pee first so you don’t pee yourself. The lovely other dancers are none other than my dear family.

Don’t forget to tell me what you think in the comments below!