30 Day Blog Challange, Day 1

I need some inspiration to start writing on my blog again, so when i saw that my friend Debbie was doing a 30 day blog challenge, in which one answers questions and gives information about one's life (that's college speak for ya lol ), i thought i would join in....then I got busy and forgot....and now i remember again. So, they are on their ten day already, but, since some of the entries can be short, i'm gonna try to catch up. I'm not gonna link my posts on the author's blog, but i will tell you now that if you want to join in or see how others answered, you can go to her blog at  this location and read all about it. Now, onto day one:



Day 1-Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts

Me (on the right) and Erin at a Bon Jovi Concert in March

Well, for those few who follow me, this info may be a bit redundant, but...whatever...at least i'm writing again. So, my name is Michele Lee Furman (Maiden name is Burton), i will be turning the big 4-0 on halloween of this year. Wow, where has the time gone? I live in Delaware with my husband of 19 years and my three birth children and another "adopted" daughter (all teenagers). At this point in my life i have been working on my Associates degree in Human Services since fall of 2007 and i should be done by fall of 2012. I had planned on being done in 2010, but my youngest daughter asked me to home school her, so i cut back on my schooling to stay home and teach her. It was one of my better decisions!! I have been home-schooling Rachel for over 2 years, and she will go back into public high-school next fall. She is looking forward to it, and part of me is too; and part of me will miss this special time with my youngest daughter. I did home-school my other two children for a couple years, and they both streamed back into public school very well. My oldest graduated last year and is attending the same college that i do (in fact, we may actually take a couple courses together next year, lol) and my son is in 11th grade and doing great! Prior to 2007, i spent 15 years raising my kids and being a home maker. I am looking forward to the next phase of my life. Now, on to some interesting facts (if i can think of any)
   
15 interesting facts
1) I was born on Long Island, New York
2) I have moved 22 times--sometimes only staying in one place a few weeks before moving on
3) I longest i have ever stayed in one house is the one i live in now, it's been over 12 years
4) I LOVE BON JOVI  :-) I have seen the band live eight times and plan on seeing them again. That band is my guilty pleasure and i have loved their music since 1986!
5) My sister has been my best friend my whole life.
6) When i was sixteen, i fell in love with my boss, who was 20 and didn't like me. He was the first person i ever really loved, but since he had no feelings for me, nothing happened and i moved away and went on with my life. 5 years later we were married--and have been ever since :-)
7) I was a live-in nanny for over a year with my cousin Beth.
8) Jesus has been in my heart since i was 8, though during my teens i kind of forgot that fact....
9) Jesus forgave me and He is a huge part of my life now....just the way i like it  :-).
10) I don't really have any close girlfriends outside of my family.
11) I am terribly afraid of spiders.
12) I always wanted to live in a small town or on a farm
13) On the other hand, i always thought it would be neat to live in New York City :-)
14) I'm not comfortable in big crowds. (excluding Bon Jovi concerts)
15) I am left handed

Well, that wasn't to bad. I'm gonna do the other days now, until i have to get up and make dinner at least, then i'll try to do some more. 

Graduation Week Part 2 --Finally--

So, i keep putting off writing on my blog because i don't quite remeber all the details of Erin's graduation week. But, i figure i need to just start writing again and maybe it will come to me.
As a recap, my last blog left you in suspense as to how the week went after i picked up my sister and Erica from the airport. That was a Tuesday night (well, actually early Wednesday morning). So, we got home from the airport around  2 a.m. and pretty much went right to bed. Erin and Jess had spent the night at a friend's  house, so Kat slept in Erin's room that first night and the Rachel and Erica slept in Rachel's room. It was so nice to wake up the next morning (Wednesday) and have my sister in my house with me! I don't remember if my in-laws came over for breakfast, but eventually they came over to hang out with us, as did my parents. It was nice being all together. We decided to make a big pan of ziti and salad for us all to eat before the graduation ceremony that evening. Erin was in and out during the day, getting ready for her night (for quite a while i must say), and had a great attitude, even though i knew she was nervous. She had practiced her salutatorian speech that morning at the Bob Carpenter Center and said that she was ready. I think I was more nervous than she! We all had dinner together and than my parents went back to their hotel to get ready, we all got ready, and off to graduation ceremony we went. Thank God i listened to my hubby when he said we needed to get their early. The seats were filling up very quickly....and we had almost 15 people to find seats for. Finally we all got seated (in the front ;-)) and waited for the class of 2010 to come in. As soon as the seniors started coming in, i got all teared up. I watched as Erin made her way up to the stage, as she got a seat of honor for being salutatorian. You can imagine how proud of her i was-and am. The ceremony went well, Erin's speech was GREAT, and she got her diploma. She looked so great up there, she sounded so sure of herself-- and i have been told by more than one person that her speech was wonderful. After the ceremony, some of us came back to the house to celebrate with cupcakes, ice cream, and a home made cheese cake that i had made. I got the recipe from my friend Debbie's daughter Rachel's blog. It was so rich and delicious. Thanks for the recipe Rachel :-) it was a big hit.
Wow, see how much i actually remember now that i'm writing this down, lol. Here are some pictures on Grad night:

Erin and Jess after graduation with my parents

Erin before graduation with her friends

Erin giving her salutatorian speech

Erin and Matt

Erin and her proud parents

Erin's Graduation Party Cake

Erin on stage with the valedictorian and officers of the senior class

Thursday, me, Steve, Erin, Jess, Ryan, Matt, Kathy and Erica went to the hotel that my in-laws were staying at to take a swim in the pool. That was fun and noisy! Than we came back home to see my parents for a bit and had home made Chicken soup for dinner.
Friday i took Kathy to her friend's house and then went to my friend Courtney's house (where we were having Erin's graduation party the next day) to get the house ready for the party. There was a lot to do and it was hot, so i was pretty much exhausted and cranky for the rest of the evening. I said goodbye to my in-laws, who were flying back home, and pretty much just hung out with my sister for the rest of the evening.


Saturday was the party, and it was a pretty good day. I'm not much of a party planner, and generally do not like hosting parties, so it wasn't my favorite day. Thankfully, my hubby knows that i don't like hosting parties and he really did most of the work that day. All in all, Erin had a good time...and that is what it was all about. After the party there, we came home and invited about eight of the kids to stay and hang out at our house, where i was much more comfortable anyway. So, that was relaxing and fun. I got to hang out with my sister for a while and i really enjoyed that. I didn't really get to spend any time with my parents, which i did not enjoy, but it really couldn't be helped, there was just too much going on.
Sunday, my parents and my sister went back to Florida :-( and everything pretty much went back to normal.
So, that was graduation week. All in all, it was a great week spent with family and friends and fun. Now, Erin is done with high school and is starting her first college class next week. We have hit a couple little snags with trying to figure out her financial aid for college, but hopefully it will all work out. If it doesn't, i will probably blog about it and complain, lol.

Other than that, our summer has gone pretty well. We (me, Erin, Matt and Rachel) went to Florida for two weeks to have a proper visit with family. I wish it could have been three weeks like it has been for the past couple of years, but Erin and Matt could only take off 2 weeks from work. I am hoping to go back in December to visit my new grand-nephew (who is due in September) AND my new grand-niece (who is due in December). School starts back on the 24th of August for me and the 31st of August for Rachel and Matt. Right now i am still trying to wade through curriculum choices for Rachel's last year of homeschooling before she goes into high school. I am really nervous that i won't prepare her enough for her to be comfortable with high school work. There are so many choices out there for curriculum and i don't want to make the wrong choice. This year we are focusing on reading comprehension and writing skills....lots of writing skills. Because, in my opinion, if you can read well, comprehend what you read well, and write well, than you can do well in any subject, except for math--which will be pre-algebra this year (i think). Science will probably be general science, and history will be American history. I am trying to keep to our school district's sequence for science and history so that she will be prepared in ninth grade. So, i need to have her reading and writing curriculum chosen no later than this time next week, and i guess i'm gonna have to buy her next Saxxon math book soon, i have my eye on e-bay :-)
That's about it for now...hopefully i will be more diligent writing on here in the near future.
Today i am thankful for:
1. The opportunity to have another year home with Rachel...because after that, i will probably be working and she will be in high school...so i just want to enjoy her for the whole year!
2. Erin's willingness to give college a chance and her mature, grown up, responsible actions.
3. Matt's desire to go to college, no matter what it takes, and the hard work ethic that he has.

Graduation Week Part 1

Well, it's been more than a while since i posted anything on my blog. I would really like to be more diligent with writing on here. Since my semester is over now I will get back to writing, but  i didn't want to write anything for a while there because i wrote so many papers, proposals, and assessments during this last semester. I needed a break. And, since i had been planning Erin's graduation parties and planning for family to come, i had zero time and desire to write anything. But....now school is over, graduation is done, and family that was visiting are all back home. So, it's back to normal around here (whatever that is, lol).

My semester ended in May and I wound up on the Dean's list again ;-).( My GPA is now 3.9). I also gave up my position as President of the Human Services Honor Society, thank God. But, i took the office position of Historian...which is really nothing more than a glorified picture taker. At least i am still an officer, but this way i have, like, zero responsibility. The next semester i will be taking only two classes so that i can focus on Rachel. Since it will be her last year of homeschooling before she will go off to high-school, I feel that i need more time devoted for her and less for me. Once she goes to high-school, i will finish my school full-time and then, hopefully, get a job in the Human Services field. I think i have a year of school and a half-year of internships before i can graduate. Well, enough about me....Erin will be joining me at Del Tech next semester for her first year of college. I can't wait for her to experience college life. I think she will really enjoy the experience.

For those who don't know, Erin graduated high school on June 9th as the salutatorian of her class. We are beyond proud of her! We wanted as much family and friends around her as possible at this special time in her life, so we invited like 15 extra people to come to the graduation ceremony and then had a party for her the following Saturday. My in-laws were scheduled to arrive on Tues morning from Southern Florida and my parents and sister and niece were scheduled to arrive on Tues evening from North-Western Forida. So, the week before they were all scheduled to arrive.....the cleaning began, lol. The house needed to be spring-cleaned anyway, but my parents and in-laws had not been to my house in years and i really wanted to impress them....and wash away like two years of un-spring-cleaned dirt in certain areas. Everything got washed, including the ceilings, which took me like six hours one day. Finally, everything got done (except the window sills, i forgot about them) and the house looked great. I was ready to entertain! My in-laws arrived on time, so i spent the first part of Tuesday with them. It was really nice to see them, since we had not really seen each other for a couple of years. Our last couple of visits were not that great (mostly my fault) and i had some apologizing to do...which I did...and was promptly forgiven :-) So, I truly did enjoy my in-laws, and i'm truly looking forward to more good visits.

My parent's and sister's plane was delayed so they did not arrive until almost 1 a.m. That was not too pleasant, especially since we got a flat tire on the way to get them from the airport, which is an hour away! We were on the side of the highway at midnight, trucks were wizzing past at what seemed like 100 miles an hour, and all i could picture was one of the truck drivers dozing off and swerving off the road and hitting my van while Steve was trying to change the tire! Rachel and I hopped over the guardrail to try to stay safe while we watched Steve start to jack up the van to put the donut back on. The van was almost jacked all the way up and then *bam* the jack breaks and the van comes crashing down! Thank God we are members of AAA and they came and changed our tire only 13 minutes after we called. By the time we got to the airport, it was sooooo late that Dad and Mom already had gotten their rental car and drove off to Uncle Denny's house and Kathy and Erica were waiting outside for us. It was so great to see them, it felt like forever, but it had been almost a whole year since i've seen them. We got them in the van and me and my sister just started talking and talking and pretty much didn't stop until i brought them back to the airport five days later, lol. I didn't get to see my parents until the next day when they came over for dinner before the graduation. It was so great to see them! My only regret is that i really did not get to spend  that much time with my parents :-( but it really couldn't be helped.

Well, i'm tired so i will blog about the rest of the graduation/family week tomorrow. Good night...and i promise, i''ll be back soon and much more often. Till then:
Tonight i am thankful for:
1. My sister, who is my best friend
2. My parents, who i don't get to see near enough
3. My Erin, who always works hard to be the person she wants to be, even when the going gets tough!! I'm so proud of the young woman she has become! Thank you my darling daughter for a wonderful week.

My Two Concerts

Well, the Bon Jovi concerts were both great, but the first one was absolutely awesome! The only thing that could have made it better was if i had my hubby with me. But, being inside the circle (aka, in the "pit"), was the best. I could not believe how great my seats were when i first got there. There were only three rows in front of me, and directly behind me was the the back half of the the stage that the boys would come onto for about 5 songs during the concert. David Bryan, the keyboard player, was like right in front of me, albeit i was staring directly at his backside :-). I mean, i was leaning on the stage! It was incredible! And, on the way back to the main stage, Mr. Jon Bon Jovi SHOOK MY HAND!! Oh man, i thought i would faint! Absolutely incredible. For the next night, Erin had won 2 tickets to the concert, so i got to share my love of Jovi with my eldest. The seats were ALL the way in the back, up in the "nose-bleeds", so it was a little scary at first, but we got into it and i got to watch Tico work his magic on the drums for the first time ever, so that was all good. Now, i see that they are dropping floor seats for the shows at the new Giants Stadium in May, but those seats are like 400 dollars a pop, so i don't think i'll be making that concert. I would like to go to that one with Steve, even in the "nose-bleed" section, I mean going to Giants Stadium to see Jovi is a dream to me, but, finances are tight and we got a lot of things going on, with Erin's graduation, party, and summer travel to think about, not to mention the never-ending medical bills, i may have to wait for next tour. Until then, here are some pictures from my two concerts this tour:

 This is my view of the stage right behind me:

This is how close Jon was to me, too bad the picture is a bit fuzzy:

And this is David:

and Richie:

And Richie and Jon:

And these are the only pictures of the second concert of me and Erin:

It was a great two days!
Have a good week.