• personal

    st. baldricks 2011

    The boys decided back in December that they wanted to participate in the St. Baldrick’s fundraiser this year to help raise money for kids cancer research. I was so proud of them (but couldn’t look at the shaggy hair for another second!) for doing it!! They raised just shy of $800 between the two of them. A big THANK YOU to all of you who donated to them or to the cause. The boys are working on their thank you notes this week, so if you donated to them be on the lookout for those.

    Before. (they were NOT happy with me for this. at all.) But I had to show the height and width of the hair. And here we go! Jack:And Patrick: This was Patrick’s reaction after seeing Jack with his head shaved. Jack, before & after. (the hair growing over the ears was killing me)Patrick, before & after. Omg, SO much better!!! I think they actually really like it. St. Baldricks contacted me and asked me to photograph the event (as much of it as I was there for with the boys) and of course I was happy to. I tried to get some of each of their friends who were also shaving their heads but I’m sure I missed some of them. Here’s what I did get. Joe before (look at all that hair)…and it’s all gone!My nephew Brendan got shaved, too!My favorite girls were there too. Not getting their heads shaved, but selling baked goods and raising money. And some of the adults getting shaved too. John was going to do it but he has a trial coming up this week and didn’t think the jury would look too favorably on an attorney who looked like a prison escapee. Maybe next year. Oh, and Timmy says he’s definitely doing it next year too!!

  • bsquared business,  personal

    new old pictures

    Just came across these today. I think I must’ve been saving them for a specific purpose but I now have no idea what that purpose may have been. But I love them and am glad I’m posting them now. From our October 2010 trip out east. In a no trespassing area of the docks. But really, I was actually supposed to pass up this wall? C’mon.

    I’d just like to add how proud I am of my boys. Especially the big ones this past week. They are working so hard at everything- baseball (practices with their trainer), drums (in the all-district band concert and NYSSMA), school (waiting on those progress reports but I have no doubt they’ll be awesome), Jack’s starting a band with his friends for the middle school talent show,  and getting ready for St. Baldricks (getting their heads shaved this Saturday while raising money for kids with cancer). It’s not too late to donate if you are interested. You can find them here: Jack’s page & here: Patrick’s page. They have surpassed their goal, but they continue to accept donations thru Saturday. They are good boys.

    In related news, I was contacted by St. Baldricks and asked to volunteer to photograph as much of the event as I can for them. They’ll use my pictures for advertising, on their blog, website, etc. They found me online and liked what they saw I guess, so now I’m in. So if you are there and getting shaved or shaving look for me with my camera and smile!

    And in other news, we will be renovating our upstairs bathroom (the boys bathroom) next month. Lots of before and after pictures to come soon so be on the lookout for those. I was able to pick out everything this morning from fixtures, to towel rods, to tub, vanity and toilet, medicine cabinets, and tile for the tub, floor and accents. Bam. Done. (If only the rest of the construction process was that fast and easy, right!?)

    One last thing- if you a blog stalker in the Milwaukee, St. Paul or Chicago areas and you are interested in a photoshoot with me this August, please email me at bethbeyrer@yahoo.com to set something up. Maybe I can avoid all of the baseball games and just take pictures!? I can hope.

  • personal

    chinatown

    Went into the city last night just to go to our favorite Chinatown restaurant- Peking Duck House. It was as delicious as ever. Did a little walking around (well, it was just to get from the restaurant to the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory and then from there back to the car.) Didn’t feel like lugging the big guns, just took some fun shots with the iphone.

    Hope everyone has a great day. Back to real posts tomorrow. At least that’s the plan.

  • disney,  personal

    disney 2011- hollywood studios (part 4)

    Are you totally sick of Disney yet? No? Good. Me, neither.

    We hit up Hollywood Studios which basically = Star Wars. All Star Wars, all day. Unfortunately Star Tours was closed for refurbishment but Timmy (and Olivia) got to do Jedi Training Academy. Olivia almost didn’t get in because all the spots were filled but she used her Jedi mind powers and said with a wave of her hand “i don’t need a pass. i will be a jedi.” And it worked! Must be more of that Disney/Force magic.

    We need this for our house. There are other characters at DHS. Really. We ended up getting almost the last of the fastpasses to Toy Story Mania which were actually at the same time we were having dinner at 50’s Prime Time Cafe and then the park closed right after dinnertime. So after speaking to a TSM cast member, we ‘traded in’ our fastpasses and went early in the day. It was great and so nice of him. I made sure I left him a compliment at Customer service before leaving the park. Receiving his lightsaber from the Jedi master. A little training. Uh oh. And the battle is on. And then it was Olivia’s turn. Force push. “you will stop taking pictures of me.” Too bad the force doesn’t work on Mommy. Even the street sweepers are talented at Disney. Done just with water and a broom with a rubberband on it. Trying again to use the force on me. Not working. All the kids at dinner with the remnants of the delicious chocolate shakes. 

  • disney,  personal

    15 for Friday

    Welcome to another ___ for ___ installment. I’m trying for 15- we’ll see how it goes!

    1. I started writing this post earlier this week (what? Do you really think I can just remember everything I want to write? I gotta start writing it down or *poof* it’s outta my head. So I wanted to add my thoughts for everyone in Japan, Hawaii and those with family and friends there too with the developments of this morning. So scary and sad! And California too- hoping it turns out to be nothing.

    2. Buying one of these for Timmy. Wishing I could get the big boys onboard with some bynto boxes too, but they have to be able to throw their stuff away because they can’t make it back to their lockers after lunch but before their afternoon schedule. And you can bet your butt they wouldn’t be happy carrying the box around the school with them for the rest of the afternoon!

    3. Got my new iphone earlier this week! So excited and so happy verizon was able to work it out for me even though I wasn’t really due for an upgrade yet. I mean really, I’m giving you more money and signing a contract for an extended time- what company wouldn’t want that business?? I’m just so happy that my calendar will sync to all my mac stuff now. (imac, macbook pro, ipad and iphone) If any of you blog stalkers have any suggestions for apps you love and can’t live without I’d love to hear them. And how much do you looooooove my cover? Everyone says ‘it’s so you!’ It really is!! And there’s a pink border going all the way around. Like it was made just for me!

    4. The big boys decided to give up Xbox for Lent. Now that is a huge comittment for them and I was really surprised that that’s what they chose to give up. Very impressed, but surprised. Hanging out with their friends here or at their houses is going to really be the toughest part.

    5. We are SO totally Mac’d up over here. Between the imac, macbook pro, the boys 2 macbooks, apple TV, ipad, 3 ipods and 1 iphone we are a walking advertisement for Apple. I just wish my grandpa was still alive to see it all. He would’ve looooooved it. This was the man who owned every gadget and cool electronic- and the very latest of everything technological. Timmy adores the ipad and plays it until the batteries are dead (hence the charging in the photo). Our favorite apps include: air hockey, kid blocks (like legos) nasa, up, jigsaw puzzles, little things, bartleby’s book of buttons (love this one- can’t wait for vol. 2), pokematch, canknockdown, spongebobmarble, playwords, wackaMonsta, StickWars2, AngryBirds, AngryBirds Seasons, Join It, Hess Jet, The Bubbles, Mr.Giggle, WDW waits, smurfs village, ScoreCenterXL, Kindle, Life, People, Sudoko Daily, Backgammon, Friendly for  FB, CNN, and about a thousand books for Timmy.

    6. We bought both boys new Disney jacket/sweatshirts in Disney- one red, one blue (of course). Patrick’s sweatshirt went missing and after checking in the area it was lost and later at city hall, it never turned up. They gave me the phone # for lost and found and I called when we got home figuring we weren’t finding that sweatshirt anytime, ever. Low and behold, it was found and Disney shipped it right to us at no charge. Customer service. None better in the world.

    7. After my 34 day sickness the new doctor I saw who is actually an allergist/immunologist tested me for my spring allergies. Every year since I was little I have been miserable every. single. spring. Itchy eyes, itchy throat, itchy face, stuffy nose, and general miserableness. The only thing that has ever worked is Benadryl but that turns me into a b*tch because all I want to do is be left alone to sleep or just makes me so stupid I can’t function. Being that I’m only allergic in the spring until the trees are done blooming we decided to forgo the allergy shots and he gave me some prescriptions. I’m hoping they work. It would be so nice not to suffer one spring and enjoy all my outside shoots!

    8. I felt every second of my 41 years the other day. When trying to get the serial #s off of some of my camera and computer equipment I couldn’t read the tiny #s. At all. Blind. I had to actually put on those drug store magnifying/reading glasses to see. Horrifying. Seriously.

    9. Why does it always start raining at 3:15pm? It never fails. As soon as you get up to the school to pick up the kids, the skies open up. It can be a beautiful (or at least not rainy) day before that but you can set your watch by 3:15 rain.

    10. While we were in Disney on day 3 John got really sick. He fell asleep at Epcot on a bench, and could really hardly make it back to the hotel. He tried coming to meet us at Hollywood Studios the next day but had to leave after 30 min. I called the front desk that night and they gave me the # of a local doctors office that makes ‘hotel calls’. Ok, this is the best thing and I wish doctors here still made housecalls. The dr. was in the room within one hour of calling. Took a full history, blood pressure, temperature- all the usual stuff that would happen in a doctors office. He did a rapid flu and rapid strep test (the strep came up positive) and left John with a full prescription bottle of antibiotics for 10 days. So, you’re feeling like crap, the doctor comes to you so you don’t have to wait in the waiting room feeling miserable and catching everyone else’s sicknesses or drive anywhere, and you are left with a prescription with no drive to the pharmacy, waiting on line, waiting for the prescription. The whole thing cost $300 (they don’t take insurance but they do give you an itimized bill that you can submit to your insurance company). To me, worth every penny even if we get nothing back from insurance. I would totally pay that here if I was really, really sick or if the boys were sick enough to not take out. I think it would be a big, big business here. Doctors, you listening? Housecalls- wave of the past and future.

    11. My friend Brian posted this Adele video on FB and I had to steal it. I loooooove her. Her house looks pretty, too. When I was explaining her to someone I said “she’s kinda like Amy Winehouse but without the crack and the crazy.” But that kinda soulful voice. Enjoy.

    12. Timmy just got some new Star Wars sheets for his bed. (everyone of the boys-and me too actually- loves star wars. Jack just added a picture of Darth Vader to his cell as wallpaper and recorded Darth’s theme song as his ringtone!)

    So, since he’s over the whole Superman/Batman thing I’m selling his Pottery Barn Kids bedding and accessories. One twin set of superman sheets (these have since been discontinued at Pottery Barn Kids), one twin set of batman sheets (this style has also been discontinued), one Superman pillow sham and one Superman lampshade (the lampshade looks exactly like the pillow sham). The sheets cost $60 a set originally, the sham $36 originally, and the lampshade $35 originally. I also have 2 tin wall hangings (one superman, one batman which were $10 each ). Everything is in great shape. I’m offering all of it for $75 (it was about $200 worth at purchase) and you’d have to be able to pick it up. No shipping. Please leave me a comment here, on FB or email me at bethbeyrer@yahoo.com if you are interested.— updated to add—everything is SOLD.

    superman sheets:

    Batman sheets:Superman pillow sham and same colors/logo on lampshade. (sorry about the wrinkles- this was right before I put it in the dryer!)Tin wall hangings:

    13. Been busy downloading lots of new apps for my iphone (some of the ipad ones transferred, but not all). Some of my favorites: QuickTip (a tip calculator for those of us math challenged), Survival Guide, ShakeIt (a polaroid picture app), Incredibooth (a photobooth in your phone- my favorite and you can bet I’ll be bugging you to take a picture with me!), photosync (transfers any pictures taken on your iphone to your computer), solitaire, backgammon, urban spoon, flashlight, and facebook. Any other suggestions would be great! And I was so excited that my ical now syncs to my imac, macbook pro, ipad and iphone that I had to take a (polaroid app) picture!