The winner of the first Pittsburgh StorySlam was....

...My Uncle Mike!!!

I am extremely proud!  Here's the video of his talk (which is sideways, but still effective.)

Pittsburgh-palooza

We met my dad for lunch, then hung out at the park with him for a while.
I love this picture. It's very "Abbie."
Rachel's fiancee, Josh, tried to impress us with his domesticity by making us waffles one morning.

It totally worked.
And here is Abbie with her cousin Sara (actually, my cousin, even though I'm old as dirt.) They were inseparable this past week. Abbie tried to hide Sara in my mom's closet, so that she could stay with us. On our last day, they fixed their hair identically and wore almost identical outfits. No-one could tell them apart.

To my family - I had a great week! Thank you so much for all the meals, the entertainment, the chasing after Lucy when I was too exhausted to do it anymore, the only laughing a little bit when Lucy showed her most, ahem, intense colors, the love and attention you showered on the girls and on me. I love you all so much! Nothing is as soothing to my spirit as sitting around watching you interact, and admiring you all.

More from Pittsburgh

We really had a busy week, but it was all a ton of fun. Here are the girls at a park with their Grandma.
We went swimming in my aunt Margaret's swanky pool. Here is Lucy looking at my cousin Ryan with adoration. Ryan introduced me to his girlfriend as his "Aunt." I felt about a million years old. Thanks, Ry.
We went to the zoo even though it was raining buckets. Miraculously, the rain stopped as soon as we got there. Lucy insisted on wearing her rain poncho anyway.

Look how big these kids are. These are my "little" cousins. The babies of the bunch. How did this happen?

Uh-oh. I'm sorry, Chris. They made me do it.

I doubt the girls will ever grow enough to hit the "Ben Roethisburger" marker. (I bet I spelled that wrong, even though it is right there in the picture above. Oh well.)

More pictures from the Children's Museum

They had a giant maze built into a wall. It was pretty cool but the most amusing thing about it was....
This old man. What is he doing in there?
They also had an actual puppet from The Dark Crystal. This is one of the Mystics, my favorites. I almost died of happiness.

They also had a really cool art room, but I ended up being too busy to take pictures of most of the stations. You can see my cousin, Emma, painting here while in the distance my aunt, Colleen checks out the rest of the room.

A week in the land of my birth

The girls and I went into Pittsburgh this past week, and it was a busy, crazy, fun, exhausting weekend. The above picture is of an old-fashioned shaved ice stand that has been around since the early 30s. The old man in the picture shaved the ice for us by hand.
It was delicious!
We also went to the children's museum, which was seriously impressive. This thing was my favorite - a screen with dropping letters that could be manipulated by your image. You could "catch" letters with your body to spell out words.

The kids loved it.

More pictures in the next post!

Rachel and Josh

Congratulations, guys!

My baby sister.....

Is getting married!

I am so happy for her!

I think that she and her fiance are just about perfect for each other. They both have motorcycle licenses, despite the fact that neither one owns, has owned, or plans to own an actual motorcycle.

I find this fact extremely awesome.

Plus, Josh is an incredibly sweet guy. And he is good to her.

I like people who are good to my sister.

Plus, his parents are seriously cool.

(That doesn't really have anything to do with anything, but I know from experience that it's a
great thing to have good in-laws.)

Congratulations, Rachel and Josh! The two of you just made my day with your happy news!
(A picture of the happy couple will be forthcoming if Rachel is willing to provide me with one.)

Prayer Request

During Abbie's brain-tumor ordeal, I really, truly felt that all the prayers said in our behalf were what kept us going. Well, now I am hoping to harness some of that same power for a lady I have known... forever? At least since I was pretty young. Her name is Patty and she is just one of those people who are super-cool: gorgeous, funny, warm-hearted and just plain interesting. And she's just received some very bad news. Here's the request that I have sent out through email and through one of my favorite blogs:

A longtime friend of my mom's, Patty G., has just been diagnosed with stage IV cancer in her lungs. It has spread to other parts of her body as well, but I'm not clear on the details.

Some years ago, Patty and her husband adopted a little boy who had come into their lives and was in need of stability and love. They were, I believe, already in their 60s at the time (or close to) but they fell in love with this little boy and couldn't turn their backs on him. The boy is now only 11, and Patty means the world to him. Please pray for healing, and that this family can be showered with grace. Thanks!

I love my Mom! (Despite potential evidence to the contrary...)

I am, without (much) shame going to lay the blame on the five parasites...er, children, for whom I've shed every last remaining cell in my brain.

What happened? Well, in a nutshell, this: I met my mom, my aunt, and my Arizona cousin Katie in Gettysburg for the afternoon. Katie is a professed history geek and is spending a few days enjoying a stroll through the Civil War, and since she makes a wonderful (and cheap) tour guide, my mom and aunt and I met up with her to take advantage.

So I spent almost the entire day with my mom yesterday. It was a great day, it was great to see my cousin again, the museum in Gettysburg is way better than it was the last time I went, and I enjoyed spending time with my mom and my aunt. For the record, I knew without a doubt that my mom's birthday was coming up: I had prepared a cake for her, and I told all the girls to make her cards. I knew her birthday was the 16th, I knew it was right around St. Patrick's Day.........I just didn't realize that all these things had coalesced at that very moment.

Uh, in other words, I forgot that yesterday was my mom's birthday. You know, the woman who is responsible for my existence and all.

Yeah...

So, Happy Birthday Mom! I hope the cake still counts even though I made it thinking that I was - for once - ahead of the curve. I love you very much! And I hope nobody holds it against you that you have such a very stupid daughter.

Dilemma

What to do when you are a native of Pittsburgh, living in Baltimore and married to an obsessive Ravens' fan?

The thing is, I watch football because my husband watches football. Growing up, in a house that was absolutely dominated by estrogen, I almost never laid eyes on a game. I have a vague memory of watching a Superbowl with my parents, where I was very excited to be allowed to eat dinner in the basement. Later in life, my stepfather would watch the games.......alone, and we would laugh whenever we'd hear him yelling at the t.v. I think I maybe watched a game at my aunt's house occasionally, but the truth is that I was there more for the food and company than anything else. I am a Pittsburgher, though, and the combination of black and gold never fails to stir something deep in my heart.

Now, though, in order to avoid becoming a football widow, I watch it all. the. time. I know the names of a few players on every single team, and I long ago committed to memory the fact that scoring is called a "touchdown", not a "goal," or a "hey, they got some points - how many points is a whatcha'ma callit, again?" I listen to PTI and SportsCenter, and know what to expect from those guys. (Mostly predictions that are almost always wrong, but why should that stop anybody from tuning in to their t.v. shows, radio programs and magazine columns to catch every precious - and almost always wrong- word that comes out of their constantly running mouths?) Chris cares deeply about football. Deeply. And because I love him, I care a little bit now, too. Granted, back in the day, I couldn't see why he was so elated to discover that football player who lived almost-next to us, but now I can think back and say, "Wow! Ed Reed was our neighbor! Pretty cool!"

All that is to say - when the stakes are high and the Steelers are playing the Ravens, who do I root for? Well, what sort of choice do I have, really? The biggest football nut that I've ever known happens to be married to me, happens to be the love of my life, and happens to be my best friend. I root for the Ravens. But the Pittsburgher in me (and there are some places that leave its mark in your soul, no matter where you go or what you do: Pittsburgh is without question one of those places) is sad that I have to make a choice.

So, now that the game is decided and it's all over: Go Steelers! And looking at the above picture made me homesick for the days when I would have been there, wearing something black and gold and munching on chips while laughing at whatever jokes were being thrown around. The funny thing is, though, that I wouldn't have cared so much about who won then; it's not the team I miss, it's the company.

Been in the 'burgh

First of all: Hi Patty! (waves!) At least I know you will read this. :)

The girls and I made the trek into Pittsburgh last week, taking advantage of the summer break to get a longer-than-usual stay in the land of my birth. We had a great time! It was very nice to not only get to see almost everybody, but to get to see some of them a couple of times! We fit in a trip to the zoo (to see the baby elephants), a drive-in (WALL-E - loved it), a day at Kennywood (the standard, for me, against which all other amusement parks are judged), an afternoon at South Park, a brunch at Michael and Colleen's, and lots of time over at Bobby and Margaret's pool. At one point, Aunt Margaret stopped in at my mom's house, and Abbie immediately ran upstairs and put her bathing suit on. Pavlov would have been proud. Chris also made his way in over the weekend, bringing Jasper with him (to the delight of my mom, who I can tell has really missed being able to say, "Becca, get your damn dog!")

So now we are all back at home, decompressing after such a busy and fun week. I am really, really glad that we were able to come in. I miss all yins guys a ton.

I'm going to finally put up some more pictures on flickr, just as soon as I can remember my password, but in the meanwhile here's a good picture to sum up this past week. My mom, in an act of extreme bravery, doing what anyone who knows her would consider unthinkable: conquering her fear of heights to ride the Umbrellas with Abbie:

Happy St Patty's Day!

Last weekend we went to one of my favorite events in the world: the Pittsburgh St. Patrick's Day Parade! There are certainly fancier parades to be had, but in my mind you just can't beat a day spent watching dozens of mediocre high school marching bands, random groups of who-knows-who marching for who-knows-why, some of them wearing medieval garb, some of them wearing comfy sweats, some of them wearing chicken costumes.

I freaking loved it.

It was the day before my mom's 60th birthday (Happy Bday, Mom!) and thanks to Uncle Mike and his family, and Rach, we managed to surprise her on the way to the parade. The day began in the premium spots secured by Bobby and Margaret, drinking coffee spiked with Bailey's, and ended with a party at Uncle Mike's, drinking coffee spiked with Bailey's. Perfect.

I'm editing heavily here, partly because it's not possible to describe the awesomeness that is the Pgh St. Patty's Day Parade, partly because it's not possible to describe how happy and amused and heartsick I felt to spend an entire day with my family, something I haven't done in a long while. You guys will never totally know how much I love all of you, and how much the craziness that is the Chesters is a fundamental part of me. I might not join in on the most outlandish events (for instance, I kept my pants dry - and, ahem, on- all day) but I love you, too, for the rambunctiousness I've always envied in some (who am I kidding? most) of you. I really didn't need to see those pictures of Uncle Bob without his pants, though.

Anyway, here's a picture that I think sums up what I love best about Pittsburgh, and my family.

Thanks for a great weekend, everyone! And Happy Birthday Mom! I love you.


My favorite Irish cop (and Uncle Ron.)

too much of a good thing

I have become very good, masterful even, at sneaking zucchini into food. This past week we have enjoyed zucchini bread, of course, zucchini brownies (surprisingly delicious! You'd never guess it was loaded - loaded!- with zucchini), zucchini spaghetti sauce, zucchini omeletes, sauteed zucchini, zucchini-squash medley, and hamburger zucchini. So I guess the following exchange should not have taken me by surprise.

My mom is taking the older three girls for a couple of days, and she called to ask them what they would like to eat during their stay at her house. When she asked Beth this question, she responded, "Anything, really......well, not zucchini."

Proof of bad parenting

So........I'm having a kind of bad morning. I was up several times last night with cranky kids (bad dreams and teething, and a wet bed all in one night. Fun!) Chris is sick, and I am still dissapointed about having to cancel a trip to see my family this weekend. So this has been a lax morning so far -- Abbie and I are still in our PJs (which really impressed the Mormons who just stopped by), and I let the older girls dress themselves. So, just in case anyone is under the assumption that we've got it together around here (small chance, but still...) here is the proof of my poor parenting:

Claire's outfit:

On top of that, the girls asked if they could put on temporary tatoos. I let them, but did not monitor the application process. The result? Beth put hers ON HER FACE:

And exhibit #3 detailing my poor parenting, here is Abbie with a face smeared with snot. I'll clean her up........eventually:

update: while typing this, Claire wet her pants, so she is now, at least, wearing pants that match her shirt. And my motivation to take a shower just increased by quite a bit.

Mom, this is for you

Katie overheard me talking to my mother about her illness (she has pneumonia). Katie also knows that we were supposed to go into Pittsburgh this weekend for a visit, but had to cancel due to my (bleeping) back. So, with her ability - inherited from Chris- to think ahead and predict what will happen and how people will feel, Katie realized that Grandma Niccoli must be feeling pretty down this weekend, and she wanted to make her feel better. So here it is. I'm proud of my sweet girl.

Lord of the Menopausal Women

This past weekend, we drove into Pittsburgh to accompany Grandma Niccoli to the newest Michael Flatley extravaganza. I have to say that my girls, especially Katie and Beth, have been obsessed, absolutely obsessed, with an old VHS of Riverdance they found downstairs. They have the opening dance number memorized, with all three of them beginning with the group routine and then Beth breaking off to do Michael Flatley's part. It's very impressive. Katie also does a killer rendition of the Spanish dance.

So my mom has tried to capitalize on this to the fullest, since it gives her an excuse to indulge her crush on Michael Flatley. Needless to say, when she found out he was coming into Pittsburgh -- we were there!

Seriously, though, I have to say thank you to her for the tickets. I hate to admit it, but we had a really good time. The girls loved the show, and I had fun watching all the old women in the audience go crazy. And, bonus!, Michael Flatley managed to stay mostly clothed most of the time. (I cannot say the same for his young female dancers, however.) So thanks to Mom for the tickets, Margaret and Rachel for the sarcasm, the kids for the innocent enjoyment, and Charlotte (my mom's friend from high school) for the crazed applause that reminded me of my days as a New Kids on the Block teeny-bopper.