Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Galway - Rainy Day Parade & The Lord Mayor

On December 29, 2009 in Galway, Ireland, the UDMB and UMass Band combined for a parade and concert in the park. Although it was cold and raining, we made the best of it and, in true marching band style, decided the parade must go on. I pulled a few photos from the UMass website, their photographer was fabulous! He got these shots... enjoy!





That's me in the center...



Drumline





This is me with the Lord Mayor of Galway. They picked me out for some photo ops (for the local paper? I don't really know and we did stay long enough to ever find out) I had to squat down because I'm 5'10" tall... the person taking this photo instructed me "Please squat down and give us a blow!" LOL!



Lord Mayor, Declan McDonnell and Me


After it all, it was time to party with our friends!



Saturday, December 26, 2009

I'm on my way!

Today's the day and I'm on my way! There won't be any updates on the blog until I return. I'll post Christmas then too. If you'd like to follow along, here's the link:

All Things Ireland for UD and UMASS

Monday, December 21, 2009

A little out of order but...

At Thanksgiving this year, both Kindergarten classes at Camille's school had a traditional Thanksgiving Feast. The Pilgrims and Native Americans (you are no longer allowed to call them "Indians") got together and put on a program. I was not able to attend the celebration, but I found these photos on the school website and could not help but share them on the blog... looks like everyone had a great time! Camille was a pilgrim girl... (I believe I posted a photo from home in an eariler post in November) Enjoy...

Camille delivers her lines from the program into the microphone as her friend Kevin looks on...
Father John and Camille's classmates enjoy the meal.

Prayers (so cute!)








Sunday, December 20, 2009

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Thursday, December 17, 2009

A Gig... then the Pour House

Camille had a gig today at the Costume Gallery for the 2011 Catalog. We don't take photos at gigs; for one thing, it's terribly unprofessional, for another, I don't think the costume company would appreciate it much since I am sure the designers work very hard and would not want their very unique designs to get "ripped-off" by other designers before they are debuted. Camille did a wonderful job again this year and afterwards, we took her to dinner at a new restaurant that Mike and I found in Haddon Township called "The Pour House". It was terrific and I am sure we will go back again soon!







Monday, December 14, 2009

Scattergories : F

*What is your name: Faye
*Boy name: Frank
*4 letter word: Fabulous
*Girl name: Fiona
*Occupation: Fisherman
*A color: Fuchsia
*Something you wear: Fidora
*Beverage: Fanta
*Food: Fudgesicle
*Something found in a bathroom: Feces (eewww!)
*A place: Fort Bragg
*Reason for being late: Fell asleep.
*Something you shout: Fine!

Your turn... play along! :)

Friday, December 11, 2009

First night of Hanukkah 2009

Zayde makes his famous latkes...
Yum!

Camille and Zayde light the first candle...


The Hanukkah Menorah...



The candles are getting low, the first night of Hanukkah comes to a close, but there are still seven more nights to celebrate!






Thursday, December 10, 2009

Camille's Hearing

We have known for some time now that Camille suffers from a hearing loss. It was picked up the doctors office when she had her first hearing test at age 3 1/2, but we were told not to be concerned because she did not have any speech or language delays and the screenings that are provided at the doctor's office can sometimes be unpredictable. She had a second hearing screening 6 months later at age 4. Again, she failed the hearing screen. This time we took her to the audiologist who was associated with her ENT specialist who sees her regularly for her chronic nosebleeds. The audiologist performed a evaluation and found a mild loss in Camille's left ear but said it was "insignificant" and sent us on our way. This year Camille's reading teacher and Kindergarten teacher both questioned her ability to hear properly so we took Camille to a speech and hearing specialist at Cooper. Cooper's assessment was different than the former audiologist in that the hearing loss was indicated in both ears.

Camille has a high frequency hearing loss, very similar to the audiogram below (this is a representative and NOT Camille's actual audiogram) If you click the link that says "Full Bandwidth" you can hear a short sentence. If you then click the link that says "Low Pass, 2000 Hz" you can hear how Camille might hear that same sentence.






In any case, the course of action right now is to get Camille better equipped to hear better is school. In the case of high frequency hearing loss in very young children, this is accomplished though an FM system, rather than hearing aids. The teacher wears a small microphone and her voice is fed to a speaker. There are two types, one where the speak system amplifies the whole classroom and the other where the speaker is fed directly to the child's hearing aid. Mike and I are in favor of the whole classroom version where other children could benefit from the system as well.

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Take a moment

Sometimes I think we get too caught up in the day-to-day rush to realize and remember how lucky we really are. Lately, I've been feeling bogged down. I have too much to do at work before the end of the year; an impossible workload really. I have the holiday "rush" to deal with, getting ready for Christmas and top that with a trip to Ireland (I leave the day after Christmas). I have band rehearsal for my trip to Ireland. There are lots of piano gigs for Mike to run to, we have one more big even for the foundation, the annual children's holiday party. Camille is so excited! It's another event she will be able to volunteer for.


On the other hand, I think we need to stop, take a moment and just remember how very fortunate we are to have so much, to have each other and what a very special time of year this truly is...