Old friends

 This past two weeks at home, I was able to reunite with my four best hometown friends. It is always incredible to look back on old times, share new stories and laugh until your sides hurt no matter how long it's been since you've seen each other. Coming up on our ten year reunion from high school, it's remarkable to think about how far we have all come. With three of us pregnant, and two engaged to be married, it is hard to ignore that life has moved forward and we are not kids anymore. But it is also clear that life has been good to all of us, in such different and beautiful ways, and there is nothing more I could ask for of my girls.

 Kim, Lisa, Me, Joey ( JoJo's fiance Billy in background :)

 Lisa K (40 weeks!) and Meg G (18 weeks)

 With my Danielle at her shower in CT (she's due May 30th!)

 Me, Kimmy and Lisa

*Lisa had her babygirl on May 13th: Justine Lee
Congrats Mama!

"The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart. " ~Elisabeth Foley

On the Road Again

On the Thursday after Easter, Emmet took our newly licensed, packed out red Volvo station wagon and headed down the east coast toward our final destination of Miami, FL. It was sad not to be able to travel with him, but I had to do my Field Experience for my Master's Program at the local elementary school up the block for two weeks.

                New York plates! 

His trip was broken up perfectly by a pit stop in Washington, D.C.  for two days and a week in South Carolina at his parents.  In D.C., Katherine was able to set up a White House Tour on Friday night for Emmet and his parents along with a free steak dinner! What is unbelievable is that the following Monday it came out that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. Little did the Ferriters know there was so much going on while they were there!       

The Situation Room

 Katherine, Tom, Rosalie and Emmet at the White House

  Emmet and Tom at the Air and Space Museum   

Once in South Carolina, Emmet got to do his two favorite things in the whole world: eat lots of good food and play golf. It was a much needed rest after finals and the move back to the U.S. He also got to take a trip up with Conor to the main campus at USC where Conor will attend in the fall.

 Conor at USC

GO Gamecocks!

Brianne's 26th Birthday

We kicked off Bri's birthday celebration with birthday cake and candles on Easter night, then continued the party at Yankee Stadium the next day. There is nothing like a baseball game in New York to make you feel like you're in America again. 

 Bri with Momma and her two best friends from home, Becca & Abby

 Emmet's first time at Stans!

 Sisters <3

 The whole crew

Steak sandwiches recommended by the Gleason's - to die for!

 Even Uncle Dennis and Aunt Joanne came!

Easter Sunday in West Babylon

Some formal shots

And some informal shots of ladder golf in our yard ( I gave this game to Bri for her bday)

dEGGorating for Easter

We finally made it home just in time for Easter weekend on Long Island. Thanks to Kerin, we had a lovely Easter egg decorating night in the very kitchen I grew up in- so good to finally be home for a holiday :) Check out the faces of the Gorman clan I missed so much.

 Bri, Sean, Meg Emmet, Mom, and Kerin

 Aww

 Kerin and Dad in action

 Results

Pretty display and pretty big sister

A Final Reflection

 Saying Good Bye to Dominica is sad. It was so hard for me to put into words the past few months in my own journal what I loved about our life here, what I was so afraid to lose. Then my mother in law loned a book to me recently called A Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1975) which I felt spoke directly to the very feelings I have about island life:

"The geographical boundaries, the physical limitations, the restrictions on communication, have enforced a natural selectivity. There are not too many activities or things or people, and each one, I find, is significant, set apart in the frame of sufficient time and space. Here there is time; time to be quiet; time to work without pressure; timme to think; time to watch the heron; watching with frozen patience for his prey. Time to look at the stars or to study a shell; time to see friends, to gossip, to laugh, to talk. Time, even, not to talk..."

"Simplicity of living, as much as possible, to retain a true awareness of life. Balance of phsyical, intellectual, and spiritual life. Work without pressure. Space for significance and beauty. Time for solitude and sharing. Closeness to nature to strengthen understanding and faith in the intermettency of life; life of the spirit, creative life, and hte life of human relationshis. A few shells.. I must remember to see with island eyes."

After the LAST FINAL in Dominica

There no need to try and explain how excited the boys were when they finished their last big exam... and now that we now they all passed with flying colors, I am happy to post the evidence of their victory swim on PBH beach on our last night in Dominica!

 boys will be boys :)

 Emmet, Meg, Kyle Adams, Kyle Phillips, Taylor, Carlo

 literally jumping for joy (ok Taylor and I coaxed them into it...)

last beach day together on the isle...

 and after sad good-byes with all of our close friends-above Emily and Nathan Shelman (Heidi, your good bye hug definitely made me tear up!)

 The sun literally set on our time abroad living in the Caribbean <3

And it was quite a sunset to remember

Dedicated to Rosemary

When we moved into our apartment, we found out that with our rent we get a housekeeping service that comes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays every week. A housekeeper? How snobby of us? How did we swing this one? And here she is, our housekeeper, my girl, my friend of 16 months, Rosemary.


When I first met Rosemary, she was very shy and almost standoffish. The only thing I could get out of her was a "Hey Baby" or an "OK Baby" which she would use in almost every situation:

 "Good morning Rosemary. How was your weekend?"
"Okay baby"

"Have a good day Rosemary. Enjoy your afternoon"
"Okay baby"

Emmet would lovingly call her "the refrigerator" or "our linebacker" because she was so strong and and was built like one sturdy lady. As time went on and Rosemary and I spent some mornings in my apartment together before I worked, I started to break down her shell.Most of our talks were short and sweet and focused on what she loved-her eight children and five grandchildren and barbecued ribs.

My top two Rosemary moments will make me laugh for the rest of my life. The first one happened during second semester. I was home making pumpkin soup and she came in at 9 am as usual. I had on the AMC channel as there is always a lack of good day time television on so I tuned in to "Little House on the Prairie" for fun. After about a half hour, I looked up from the stove and Rosemary was standing there with her mop teary eyed looking at the TV in a daze. It was a scene where Michael Landon was bringing his blind daughter Mary a birthday present.

"Mary be blind" she said sniffling. "You love dis show?"
"Yes," I do.
"Good show. I watch at home all de time."

Who knew? Rosemary was a complete softy. From that day on, we were buddies. Rosemary always came in to check on me everyday even if she wasn't cleaning our place and always had to give me a nice sweaty bear hug.

The next instance was after I told Rosemary I was pregnant.

"Rosemary, I have something great to tell you. Emmet and I are having a baby."
"You making baby? You making baby! Oh dat's nice. Dat's so nice" (Add sweaty bear hug)

Two months later, she came in unexpectedly when I was in my underwear and a tank top. She asked, "How's de baby?" and she came over and lifted up my tank top to feel my belly.

"Sure as de sun will rise, it's gonna be a boy. Rosemary always know. Emmet gonna be happy man." And she walked out smiling.

We shall see if she's right... I promised I would call her and let her know. She wrote down her cell on our computer desk.

Rosemary has been crying everytime we see her for the last two weeks. "You be leaving me..." she says. Rosemary, we will miss you dearly. You are one in a million. We will never have another housekeeper who loves us as much as you do.

An April Shower to Remember

Sunday I was at home packing feeling sad and kind of like a hermit. It seemed like I had been packing for hours and I still had things I needed to get rid of, Emmet had a huge test on his mind and was studying at the Annex, and I felt bittersweet about leaving our wonderland here on the rock. The girls had planned a "last drink at sunset" down on Portsmouth Harbor at a little bar called "Cabrits," but I was thinking I would just stay in and relax. However, being the good friends they were, the girls gently coaxed me into joining them anyway.When I got out of the transport and walked toward the water...

SURPRISE! There was a beautiful baby shower set up, just for me. I can't even describe how I felt, but there were definitely more than a few tears shed under my sunglasses. I had NO IDEA this was all going on. I wanted to share a few pictures on my blog for my memoirs and to show all of you the island shower I was a part of. I stole all of these pictures from Emily- she gets all the credit.

Now I can't begin to depict the creativity and craftiness that went into the makings of this shower, but let me provide a few examples. Reminder that we have no stores in this country. Everything was hand done, homemade, and from the heart.This is a pin that was handmade and pinned on me as soon as I arrived!

I have to admit these shoes are my favorite thing in the whole world right now-a better gift I could not have dreamed up. They are the very first present I have gotten for our child and for some reason holding a concrete little pair of sear sucker baby shoes made becoming a mother all seem so real. I can't get over Emily's talent in being able to hand create these little wonders, but I will keep them forever. Emmet loves the sear sucker and has matching pants. They must have known we were a New England family....

The girls cooked all of the food themselves. I was in awe of the beautiful buffet. There were homemade honey rolls with barbecued chicken, bow tie pasta salad, chips and snacks and the most delicious cupcakes topped off with little individual "baby" toothpick signs in them. It all tasted fabulous.

 The attention to detail impressed me to no end...

Couldn't ask for a more beautiful seaside venue

 Had to play some shower games... Scattergories, and questions about babies with answers from Emmet were the highlight

The sweetest girls in the world- Thank you with all my heart. Check out the homemade sign by Emily and Heidi in the background! You guys need to go into business...

Love this photo. Unforgettable day. Unforgettable women. Unforgettable shower. Can't wait to tell Baby Ferriter all about it some day...