A Buffy Video

I've never done video here before - I hope that it works. This is a clip of our Buffy that my brother took on his camera. We both wish that we had taken lots of videos of her. I took some on my camera also but on 4 clips I stupidly switched the angle of the camera during it. I was able to figure out how to fix this on Windows Movie Maker and did one clip so far only I probably could've done a better job on it. Mom says it's fine. I kind of said a curse word during one when mom got in the way which I feel bad about. I guess audio can be edited too but it might take me a while to figure that out. We didn't take videos of her until the final couple days of her life. I keep thinking of all the other cute videos and photos we could've taken but I should just be greatful for what we have. I never even thought about using my camera for videos before this, I thought that it would be too hard to figure that out and it wasn't even that difficult. Mark says that there is a way to pause it while filming - I'll have to look that up. Not that I have much to take video of anymore. I hope that everyone has a wonderful New Year. This will be my last post until 2011.

Scrapbook Stuff 1

I was looking through one of my many scrapbooks the other day and seeing this made me both happy and sad. I miss our sunshine spaniel. This is my favourite scrapbook because it has mostly spaniels in it. I have another one with other doggies like golden retrievers. My brother says that I have too many scrapbooks. I had more stuff in them but over the years got rid of some of this. I was thinking of throwing out some more like from the TV ones. I would never throw out any of my animal pictures and articles though. Other scrapbooks that I have - about 4 tennis, classic actors, 70's - 90's TV, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, James Franco, British TV, Don Mattingly, Duran Duran, Bon Jovi, Travel, Concerts and Events, personal and more also. I use the 1 , 2 or 3 inch binders and put sheet protector pages in them. Maybe some people might think that doing this is kind of teenagish but I enjoy it.

Christmas Show

I can't really remember much about this show or even if it was a class or Girl Scout trip. I do recall that it was pretty exciting going to New York City and that I had a good time. I can't believe that this was 30 years ago.

Figure Skating Shows

My mom and I really enjoyed watching figure skating during the Olympics in the 1980s and early 1990s. We got to go to 2 shows in the early to mid 90's. Brian Boitano was at both of them. We took some pictures but they did not turn out that great. Boitano and Witt are in the first 2. In the bottom 3 are Petrenko, Kerrigan and Boitano. You can clearly see on the program page who was at the first one but it's harder to see on the second - Torvil and Dean, Nancy Kerrigan , Oksana Baiul and Victor Petrenko are included in this one. We went with a couple of friends. Skating 2 was at MSG in New York City and the 1994 show was in New Jersey at the Meadowlands. I'm not sure why after 1994 I lost interest in the figure skating. I must've been watching it in the late 70s a bit too because I remember getting the Dorothy Hamill haircut a couple of times back then.

More Christmas Memories

The top 3 photos are of Christmas 1986. My brother didn't get his first Lego set until that year. We both got an A&S bear. We used to like going to that store. The below photos are from 1979. I'm remembering how for quite a few Christmases we would get certain fragrances as gifts for family members. Dad - Old Spice, Mom - Charlie, Grandma Wrunski - Jean Nate, Grandma Wancea - Windsong. We would go to Christmas Eve mass at St John's - I think it was at 10:00. Afterwards we would look at the animals in the nativity set outside - llamas, sheep and goats. Then Dad would drive us around to look at the lights. There was also those small brown paper bags with sand and candles in them - I forget what the term for them are - at some of the houses. We enjoyed having the Yule Log on TV, watching White Christmas, It's A Wonderful Life, and all the holiday specials, particularly Rudolph, The Little Drummer Boy and A Year Without a Santa Clause (the Heat Miser and Snow Miser were so funny) We were always allowed to open our stocking stuffers before our parents woke up but the other gifts had to wait until afterwards. Christmas was always my favourite holiday. I have so many good memories of it.

Christmas 1973

I don't really remember much about this Christmas. I like looking at the photos though. The nativity set is on top of our TV/stereo cabinet. We used to hang our cards on the one wall inside garland shaped like a tree. We used to get alot of them in the 70's and 80's. I think that mom got about 8 of them so far this year. She only sent out one card this year - to her sister. I do remember the two dolls and the blanket in the one photo. I used to put some of my old outfits on the big one that's on the couch. Our living room looks very patriotic - red carpet, white paneling and blue couch. We had that carpet and couch in the basement for a long time after we redecorated that room.

Christmas 1981

The lighting isn't that good on the top 2 photos but you can still see my Miss Piggy and Kermit dolls. I was so happy to get those that year. My brother is holding the Colecovision football game in his hands in the photo of us with our grandma.I'm glad that Ginger got into the photo with mom and Mark - we don't have that many pictures of her. On the end table in that one is the angel that I made which I mentioned in my Christmas craft post - it's a little hard to see. Another photo of us with our friends Suzy and Jenny. We only got to see them 3 or 4 times a year when they were visiting their grandparents Mr. and Mrs. K who were our neighbours. They are from Allentown, PA. We only visited them a few times out there. I wish that it could've been more.

My Birthday Memories

The top photos are of my 6th birthday party in 1975. Cousin Sal is sitting in the lounge chair. My friends Erin, Tracey and her brother are also there. We don't have any Christmas photos from that year which is disappointing. On my 10th b-day part of it was at the Clark Lanes bowling alley. For my 12th birthday I had a slumber party. A couple of the girls made fun of me that night and I ran up the stairs crying. My Aunt Dorothy scared us. She was outside the basement window smoking a cigarrette. Mom knitted mittens for everyone at the party. On my 13th I got to pick a restraunt to go to and I chose a seafood place down the shore. I have photos but I didn't scan those. The bottom photos are of my 16th b-day at the Fulton Restraunt in Rahway. I'd love to hear some of your birthday memories.

Christmas 1976

I got my Family Tree house this year which I loved playing with and also a tea set. Mark and I are having fun decorating the tree in the first photo and our friends Suzy and Jenny are in the second one with us. I forgot to write in my Christmas 1977 post that they were in the one photo. Mark and I are sitting in the reclining chair with Uncle Mike. I'm wearing another one of my favourite dresses.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone and thanks for reading my blogs posts throughout this year.

Christmas 1977

The first photo is actually of my birthday which is on the 21st. Mom made those Santa curtains. I got my Superstar Barbie and Mark got Ken that year. I'm wearing one of my favourite chilhood dresses. My dad's family would always come over for Christmas dinner. We would have a second Christmas at my mom's sister's house between that day and new year's day. I loved decorating for this holiday. Sometimes when I was a kid I would make my little people and small animals visit the baby Jesus at the manger set which we still have. Mom got a newer one that looks like Lenox in the early 90s but I don't like that one as much as I do the old one.

Christmas 1974

Mark and I loved playing with my dad's train that we put under the tree. I sometimes put my little people and small animals on it. The train actually makes noise and it looks like steam is coming out of it. Mom let us put the ornaments on and she did the garland and lights. This is the year that I got my first bike with the training wheels.Mark got his wagon and Lincoln logs - I liked playing with both. Mom liked getting us games every year - Uncle Wiggly this time. Our cousins are in the one photo - I'm also holding my favourite doll Teresa in it. That's our family friend Gail in the 2nd photo up top. I love her crocheted sweater vest.

Christmas Crafts

I got this Woman's Day magazine in the early 80's and made about 4 of the craft ideas from it, including this angel but of course mine didn't turn out so nice. It is in a couple of my holiday photos which I've either posted already or plan on posting. I used an oatmeal container for the body and styrofoam ball for the head. I threw away all the decorations that I made but am glad that I kept the mag. I guess that at the time I had fun making these things. Mom said that she liked them. She made some nice Christmas crafts like a few latch hook rugs and a big Santa picture with the Tri - Chem paints. It's in the background of a picture in my Christmas 1980 post. I liked the handmade ornaments on our tree the most. They were made by family and friends and others we got at our school's Christmas bazaar, including a reindeer made out of clothes pins.

Christmas 1979

My mom liked buying us games every Christmas and this year it was Battleship. We got a few Make It Bake It kits too - suncatchers or stained glass window ornaments, I guess either description applies to these. Mark got some Battlestar Galactica figures. I wish that we had some pictures of my gifts. Probably a Barbie was one of them. I loved our old stereo with the record player and 8 track on it, our Encyclopedia and yearbook set and the big stereo/tv cabinet that are also in these photos. This is the first year that we got a live tree. I meant to put the top photos below because these are after Christmas morning. We went over to my Aunt Sylvia's house later that day or maybe the next day. I'm wearing my favourite sweater, Mom made this for me and also ones in different colours for my 2 friends. I hadn't noticed the Kirby vaccum cleaner under the tree until recently, so now I know what year we got that.

Christmas Music

I always loved listening to my mom's Christmas albums. She has Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Doris Day, Mario Lanza, Kate Smith, Elvis and a few others. She got my brother and I The Chipmunks one which we liked when we were kids but after about 1981 we didn't care for anymore. I dubbed those albums onto tape and we have a few holiday cds like the 2 in the picture. For many years we did not listen to any of these but the last couple of years we got back into doing so. I'm still a bit depressed about not having our Buffy pup around anymore but I will try to get into the holiday spirit and listen to the Christmas tunes that I enjoyed so much when I was a kid. We only have one decoration up so far - the wreath on the door. Perhaps I should get some more of our decorations out.

Christmas 1985

This is the year that I got my Pound Puppy that I named Chip, a Cabbage Patch premie that actually had my name, a raccoon to add to my collection and a Peaches and Cream Barbie. I'm glad that my mom took that picture of my brother when the Yule Log was on TV. We enjoyed having that on. We had live trees from 1979 - 1989. I loved decorating for the holiday when I was a kid. The stockings in front of the tree were handmade by my Aunt Al.

My Final Buffy Photos

I know that this is starting to seem like a Buffy blog, but I just had to post a couple of my very last photos of Buffy. I only wish that I had taken alot more of them. I don't usually like being in pictures but I just had to have mom take a few of Buffy and I together. I should've posted the one of her looking up at the camera though. I took 198 photos of her in about 6 weeks. I sent them to the Walgreens site to be printed out. I keep thinking about cute shots that I could have taken over the years like her playing in the snow. She was such an adorable puppy but I only took 12 photos of her then. I haven't really looked at the video clips of her that I put onto the computer yet - I messed up a few of them by switching the angle during parts of it. I never took pictures of her from mid 2005 - December 2008 which I totally regret. I know, I should just be greatful for the photos that I do have which I am. And I will always cherish the good memories of her. It has been almost a month since she's been gone and it has felt like longer. We now have her ashes on the video cabinet in between 2 pictures of her. She was such a sweet sunshine spaniel.