top 5

summer is my favorite time of year. there are many things to love about summer...here are our top 5....

1. sun! sun! sun!
even though i don't worship the sun like i used to it still gives me great joy to see sunshine and feel it's warmth on my sun screened face.

2. the summer holidays
there are 3: memorial day, july 4th and labor day and they all rock. the 4th is my favorite, probably because of the fireworks, and i look forward to it every year. the summer holidays are what all holidays should be: fun, stress-free, full of hamburgers and friends, warm, vacation-like and no gifts!

3. flip-flops
some of you get to wear them all year. weather in the northeast does not permit that unless you are 18 and in college and even then weather is not actually permitting it...you are just dumb. i love the flop and on that point will never flip.

4. hamburgers & beer
both just taste better in summer...and usually are plentiful!

5. longer days & less clothes
ryan came up with this one and it's a great one. if you live in a place that has four seasons you can sympathize. during the colder months it takes at least 10 minutes longer to get everyone properly dressed to leave the house. (if my mother is here it can take up to half an hour because she wears about 35 layers.) summer means leaving the house in what you have on and that's great....zero minutes to prepare. we also live in a place that sees total darkness arrive at 4p for 3 months of the year. need i say more?

happy summer!

1/2 birthday top 5

i love the 1/2 birthday. i insist on acknowledging mine and have even told complete strangers that the day was upon us. i celebrate mine on march 22 (no gifts required - emails are welcome.)

anyway...enough about me. yesterday was wil's 1/2 birthday. his 1st 1/2 birthday, in fact, and neither of us can believe it. we love him more every day and remain in awe that he came from us.

the top 5 things fun facts about 6 month old wil

1) he eats everything...literally. if he is sitting with us as we begin dinner (or breakfast, or lunch) he will reach for the food on our plates and, on occassion, take it from us for himself. he loves fruit, vegetables, chicken, cheerios, pizza crust and buns from chick-fil-a. we are glad he has a healthy appetite...that leaves no doubt that he came from us. ha!

2) he can sit up by himself. fun!

3) he scoots backward all over the house.

4) he flirts incessantly with women...in the neighborhood, in the grocery store, in the gap...old, young, attractive, not so much, everywhere and anywhere. and they love it.

5) he loves, absolutely loves, snapping. and, evidence that he's sure to be brilliant, he has started trying to snap himself. it's hilarious and remarkable but that little thumb and middle finger go together as he watches us and, although he doesn't attempt the motion, we think it's pretty cool that he gets those chubby little fingers together.

he's fantastic. i won't apologize for thinking so. we are thrilled with our 19 lb, 12 oz baby who grew an inch and a half last month and looks more and more like his dad every single day.

happy 1/2 birthday wil! here's to many, many more.

top 5

wednesday night while watching american idol i told ryan that we needed to think of a new top 5. it's been too long. ryan didn't have his thinking cap on...in fact, he was asleep...so i had to do the thinking for both of us....again.

in all honesty my brain wasn't working too well either. it had been a long day and i was ready for sleep. i started looking around the room to see if anything would inspire a new top 5. i didn't have to look very far. curled up between us on the couch was our very own lucy lu. there are thousands of reasons to love lucy....here are only a few.

top 5 reasons we love lucy

1. lucy doesn't look like any other dog

in an age of designer dogs and purebred pets (not that there's anything wrong with that!) lucy has a style all her own. her appearance is so unique that people always stop to ask us exactly what kind of dog she is. we usually say that she's just a mutt...just lucy...and it makes us happy every time.

2. she is living proof that the journey IS the destination

regardless of where we're headed, what we plan to do, who we plan to see, how long we plan to be there...lucy is excited to go. she makes every adventure exciting and greets the world with an open, willing, joyful heart.

3. she faces her fears head on

lucy has never liked the water. when we got her she was deathly afraid of the garden hose and took the long way around puddles on our walks. after her knee surgery in january 2007 she needed to swim as part of her physcial therapy. not only was she afraid to swim but she was unable to swim. ryan and i bought her a life jacket (hilarious), strapped it on her and threw a ball into a little pond near our house in MA. she did not want to go in after that ball but she trusted our crazy cheers and made her way in for it. we kept this up weekend after weekend until she could swim without the life jacket. she now takes a running leap and flies into the atlantic ocean to fetch the ball. she is an impressive swimmer - strong, fast and determined - and has a blast riding the waves.

4. she loves wil

i was nervous about lucy's reaction to wil when we brought him home from the hosptial. lucy was my constant (and on many days only) companion during my pregnancy. when ryan moved to NJ in february she kept me company. when i moved to NJ last july we spent all our days together taking walks and playing ball. i wasn't nervous that lucy wouldn't like wil but that she'd feel replaced. turns out...she doesn't feel replaced at all. she loves wil and layed down at his feet (literally) when we brought him home. she has been so gentle, so patient and so loving toward him. our only complaint is that she'd like to lick him to death if we'd let her. i suppose that's not a big complaint in the scheme of things. we know they will be great friends when wil is older and we will be glad to have someone to share our ball throwing duties.

5. she loves us

lucy is a loyal, unflinchingly constant, gentle, loving friend and companion. she loves and lives with utter abandon...in the moment, for the moment, unconditionally. she causes us to stop daily and share love, show love, receive love. it's not something that we always remembered to do before her and it's a wonderful lesson. without her our life would be less interesting, less funny and less unexpected...although we might have more room in bed but, hey, nothing is free.

we love lucy...she's our brown-eyed girl and we are better for having her in our lives.

top 5 ~ special earth day edition

today, in honor of earth day, i am doing a special top 5. the planet is a precious gift and we all have a responsibility to protect, nurture, and preserve it for future generations. i am trying to live a greener life and hope to encourage others to do the same. making one small change each day can make a big impact. here are some easy (and FREE) ways to do your part to honor the planet by doing your part to protect it.

top 5 ways you too can be GREEN

1. use your own bags at the grocery store

even replacing ONE plastic bag with a canvas bag brought from home will make a huge impact on the environment. this is too easy not to try at least once and you can do this regardless of where you live.

2. turn off the water when brushing your teeth

EASY.

3. drive the speed limit

driving fast and breaking frequently use more gas. slow down, save $, save the planet!

4. recycle your cans

almost every town (even towns without a recycling program) has a scrap metal yard. taking your used cans to the scrap yard not only helps the earth but puts green back in your pocket!

5. turn down the thermostat

for every degree you lower your thermostat you'll save 1% to 3% on your heating/cooling bill.

make an effort to do at least one of these things today in honor of mother earth. respect the earth! for more ways to get started...click here or here.

top 5

i love to read. everyone that knows me know this. when it was nap time in our house growing up, mom and lindsey would actually lay down and sleep... i would lay down and read. i get so excited going into a library or a bookstore that i have to visit the bathroom first just to calm down. i am so fond of reading that at times i find it difficult to articulate the reason why. i'll simply say this...

• i will sometimes sit and stare at my books remembering their stories & characters
  

• i have spent (almost) as much money on books for wil as i have spent in diapers

• i can tell you what time of year and at what age i've read most books

• i currently have 11 books in my nightstand and 5 large magazines on the floor next to it
  

reading is my addiction, my passion, my distraction and my friend...and this time, the subject of my top 5.

betsy's favorite books...thus far

1. disgrace ~ j.m. coetzee
2. the thorn birds ~ colleen mccullough
3. bel canto ~ ann patchett
4. youth in revolt ~ c.d. payne
5. clowns of god ~ morris west

this is a difficult task for me. even as i write this i believe the list could look something like this instead:

1. gone with the wind ~ margaret mitchell
2. the executioner's song ~ norman mailer
3. native son ~ richard wright
4. unless ~ carol shields
5. fall on your knees ~ ann-marie macdonald

and i hate that i am leaving out: death comes for the archbishop, lucky, the corrections, white teeth, little women, a heartbreaking work of staggering genuis, a separate peace, the color purple...and on and on and on.

ps: also, a lesson before dying (thanks mom!) which i read long before oprah even had a bookclub. i cried so hard reading the last 10 pages that i could barely see....like i say...it's almost an impossible task.

pss: apparently no one cares that this is an impossible task and everyone has a top 5. here are some that i feel need a mention (this is the last time): lonesome dove & i know this much is true (thanks emily!) and memoirs of a geisha (thanks shara dee!)

so grab a book...or try one of these. maybe it'll make your top 5!

top 5

it's time again for a top 5. i asked ryan for a new list and asked him to pick the category. after only a minute he said...CANDY! everyone likes some kind of candy - some people are chocoholics, some love the sour stuff and some just love it all. for me, there's nothing better than frozen candy - especially peanut butter cups and butterfingers. in fact, i bought 11 LARGE bags of candy for halloween because i was told our neighborhood got "hundreds" of trick-o-treaters. i guess maybe this was an off year because i ended up eating most of the candy myself. maybe that's why wil weighed almost 9 lbs at birth! anyway...candy....SWEET!

ryan's top 5 candy list

1. twizzlers
2. peanut m&ms
3. reese's peanut butter cups
4. reese's pieces
5. twix

Top 5

Betsy's TOP 5 Travel Destination Wishlist:

1) Morocco
2) India
3) Portland
4) Greece
5) Savannah

I really enjoy traveling. I haven't done a lot of it in my 33 years but I've visited enough interesting places to know I'd like to keep going. I wish I had the $$ to finance some of these trips but, cest la vive! With any luck I'll get to these places...and many more....someday. I realize that these destinations aren't for everyone (thinking of Dad, aka Stevie, in India is enough to make me pee my pantalones!) but they are high on my list...in fact, they're my TOP 5.

Top 5

Ryan's TOP 5 beer list...

Ryan loves beer. REALLY loves beer. So getting him to narrow the list to 5 was a difficult task. Over the past 2 or 3 years (with a 10 month break for me!) we have tried over 100 different beers in our quest to collect as many different bottle caps as possible. We have a couple of great art projects in mind for those caps...mabye one day we'll stop collecting and start creating. Until then, CHEERS!

1) Pabst Blue Ribbon
2) Sam Adams
3) Yeungling Lager
4) Corona
5) Blue Moon