Rest in Peace, Henry.

I have been reading the blog of Katie Granju, whose 18 year old son, Henry, just died from complications due to a brutal assualt and drug overdoes. You can read more about her and her story on her blog http://www.mamapundit.com/. My heart aches for her and her loss.

It is a sad story. It is one that reminds me how some things - even ones very close to home - are truly outside of our control. No matter how much we try to make a difference, no matter how much support we give someone, the outcome of their life is theirs to determine. We can't force people to make good choices. We can't force them to accept help when it is needed. Someimtes, even though we are fighting as hard as we can, they slip away from us and succumb to their demons.

A columnist for a local newspaper, Steve Wildsmith, wrote about his interaction with Katie's son and hsi thoughts upon Henry's death, and I liked his perspective. You can read his story here. My favorite part was his closing line:

"Rest in peace, Henry. You were always loved. I wish that would have been enough."

I too wish that would have been enough.

A Bath for Taco

Normally Taco is a big fluffy ball of black pomeranian fur. Here is a picture of him when he went to Cameron and JT's baseball games. Note that his paws barely touched the ground the whole time we were there as ALL the Stokes kids wanted to hold him because they think he is so cute!

But the truth is that Taco is mostly fur. As evidenced by this picture where you can see he is just a tiny little thing once you get him soaking wet. Here he has just come out of the bath and is very disgruntled over it.

What you don't see is the explosive diarrhea that he had all over my living room which necessitated a bath sooner than normal. Oh the joys of having a pet in the house.

C is for Cookie

These are SO easy and very tasty! Its basically a variation on the 7-layer or Magic Cookie bars using pretzels as the crust for a delicious salty-sweet combination. I used regular milk chocolate chips instead of the hershey's mini-kisses. And I pulsed my pretzels a few times in the Vita-mix to get them nice and fine. FYI -- If you are impatient to try one when they come out of the oven and you try to cut these before they are completely cooled, the marshmallow will make a horrible mess and the crust will crumble all over. :) Voice of Experience.

Rocky Road Tasty Team Treats
source: Hershey Kiss Recipes

1 1/2 Cups finely crushed thin pretzels or pretzel sticks
3/4 Cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, melted
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)
1 3/4 Cups (10-ounce package) Hershey's Mini kisses Milk Chocolate
3 Cups Miniature marshmallows
1 1/3 Cups coarsely chopped pecans

1) Heat oven to 350 degrees F, Gerase bottom and sides of 13X9X2 baking pan
2) Combine pretzels and melted butter in small bowl; press evenly onto bottom of prepared pan. Spread sweetened condensed milk evenly over pretzel layer; layer evenly with chocolates, marshmallows and pecans, in order. Press down firmly on pecans.
3) Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned on top. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars.

Grounds for Sculpture

We went to visit Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ ... it was so much fun! Miriam had told me about them several times, but I just have never been able to arrange things to go.

This Saturday, my sweet honey lamb Ed woke up and spontaneously suggested we go and I was more than happy to agree!

If you have never been, it is worth making the trip ... It is on the old State Fairgrounds ... they have some indoor exhibits, but it is basically a 35 acre outdoor sculpture garden. The flowering trees were just in the tail end of their glory, so everything was especially beautiful.

Some of our favorites were the ones by the founder J. Seward Johnson -- he cracked me up. For example -- Dejeuner Deja Vu ... Here you can read more about this and more of Seward Johnson's work.
The thing I loved most about the garden was how the sculptures and the landscaping were designed to help you appreciate the beauty of both parts.

There were tons of peacocks every where roaming free on the grounds ... I love to look at peacocks and I took a bunch of pictures of them ... but they were a little scary too. :) They have this really loud call and with their long tail ... they are kind of big! :)

We had a great time and I hope that everyone has a chance to visit this little diamond nestled in the heart of NJ!

First day of Spring

We had such a great outing today. We went to the beach. We played and walked, dug in the sand, let Taco run around and sniff things, and had a picnic (in the car because we got a little chilled). Then we went to Rita's for the celebratory free water ice that they give out on the first day of Spring each year! Check out my new banner for a collage of fun snapshots from our day.

And best of all ... it was Ed's idea to go out for the day! I love it! So often he is quite content to stay home. So I love when he initiates an activity outside and especially one as fun as this!

Huge Waves Wipe out Spectators. Call the Coast Guard.

On the weather channel ... I was watching the latest weather videos and there came one titled: Huge Waves Wipe out Spectators

I had to watch it. I was then amused by the laid back comments of the surfer/announcers upon viewing the waves washing away the spectators causing them to break legs and have serious injuries. Check it out -- it's totally rad.

Digital Nation on PBS Feb 2, 2010

Ha ha ... This guys finds out 6 months after his son went on a backpacking trip that he was maintaining two separate blogs ... one for the parents and one for everyone else.

There is a special on PBS on Feb 2, 2010 about the effects of the internet on life as we know it. The above is just one of the stories they have been collecting over the past year. Go to this website to learn more about the broadcast:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation

Caring for Number One

A recurring theme in my life is that I look to the needs of others before my own. Ignoring to my detriment the fact that if you don't put your own oxygen mask on, you'll pass out and die before being able to help others.

So I really am going to work harder this year to take better care of myself. Taking time to do nice things for me as often as I do for other people.

Hopefully the nice things I do for myself will translate into a happier, well-rested and more enthusiastic Jenn! And we can all appreciate the benefits of that improvement!