Ramirez and Anderson Family: May 2011

Hello,

I cannot believe how cold it has been this spring! I am so over winter and ready for the pool and air conditioning. I don't remember ever having this late of a spring. Usually we are working in the yard by now. Paul did a bit of cutting and trimming but it is so wet he is limited to what he can do. Every time I think about going out to work on the flowerbeds or the barn it is cold and rainy and I give up. I have gotten out to ride Jimmy but we both come back a muddy mess! His poor feet get stuck in the mud and we can only walk. Living on 10 acres of clay is not fun when all it does is rain. When it is dry the ground is like rock.

We went to New York City for Spring Break this year and met Anna's parents there. Anna flew out Thursday morning to get in some extra time with them since she had not seen them in 8 months. Paul and I drove to PA on Thursday and stayed with Paul's brother Mike and then we drove to NYC on Friday. We got there late so we just stayed at our hotel in Brooklyn and went out to eat. Saturday Paul and I went shopping in Manhattan and it rained most of the day. We met Anna and her parents for dinner that night. It was so nice to finally meet them and we had a great time. My camera was broke so Anna's mom got pictures but I don't have them yet. I fixed my camera later so the picture below are from the last few days of our trip. Sunday Paul and I went to Chinatown and Little Italy. We ran into Anna, her mom, and her sisters in Chinatown shopping at a street fair. What are the chances we would run into them? It was so funny. Paul and I ate in Little Italy and went to see Priscilla, Queen of the Desert that night. Strange play...

Monday Paul went to get his son Paul, aka PIII, at his apartment in Brooklyn and we spent the day with him since he was off work. Anna's parents dropped her off at our hotel on the way to the airport. The 4 of us spent the day in Brooklyn. We went to Coney Island and had a world famous hot dog at Nathan's. We went to a park that overlooked NYC and while Anna and I were taking pictures we realized they were doing a model shoot a few feet from us. We went to PIII's bar/restaurant and ate dinner. PIII is the manager of the Loving Cup Cafe. We tried to walk around the neighborhood but it started to rain so we went to a little pub that PIII goes to and he played some pool with his father. These guys stated to play pool with them and PIII told me the one guy was Ed Westwick (Chuck from Gossip Girl). I don't watch the show but Cheri does so I took pictures and texed her. She was very mad she wasn't there : ) We went back to Paul's work and watched them film a talk show. It was a fun day getting into PIII's world for the day.

Tuesday was beautiful in New York City so Paul, Anna, and I headed to Central Park. While we were walking in the park we walked right into them filming Glee!!! I saw the director's chair with Ryan Murphy's name and some lady confirmed they were filming Glee. We tried to stay by the filming but we ended up being kicked out and took pictures from across a grass area. When we finally quit watching the actors walked right by us to go into their dressing rooms (on a semi). Most of them waved and thanked us for watching, except Rachel, she kept her head down and didn't look at us. It was so exciting to see them! As you can tell I am a big fan. We ended the day by going to Serendipity and getting a Frozen Hot Chocolate, Dyan's Candy Store, and getting take-out chinese in Chinatown. It was a really good day.

Wednesday we left NYC and drove back to Slippery Rock, PA and did the outlet mall and stayed at Mike's again. We got home Thursday and I drove to Adrian and Clint and I moved Cheri back home. She will be home for a few weeks and then she is going to Oxford with some people from her college until the end of June. She will be doing a study abroad for 8 credits. She is excited and I am nervous. I wasn't too worried until this bin Laden thing happened. Now I worry about her flying out of the country but I guess we can't stop our lives. She will be working at Abercrombie when she is in town this summer. I'm so glad to have her back in the house. I am getting better about the empty nest thing but I still like when they all come home.

Friday was riding my Jimmy Choo and Saturday was Amanda's graduation from Western Michigan University. Graduation was at 9 am and then we had a nice party at their apartment clubhouse afterwards. Amanda already has 2 teaching interviews. She had one Tuesday in Perrysburg, Ohio and that one looks really promising! I told her it can't be that easy. We are keeping our fingers crossed and saying a prayer. Clint and her are working for Paul this summer at the schools. Amanda also applied to teach summer school in Ann Arbor. They moved into our old Forest Valley house. Clint has been looking for a career job and is looking into finishing his schooling at Eastern or University of Toledo. He is going to see who takes the majority of his credits from Specs and Western. I will probably have him and Cheri graduating around the same time.

Charlie was home helping Clint and Amanda move back to Bedford. Charlie and Kortnie are still living in Nana's house in Lincoln Park. He is still working at Great Lakes Steel and they won the trial there (meaning they have the business) and will start new trials so he will be working a lot of overtime this summer. Kortnie is working at Tim Hortons and looking for a hospital to do her clinical. She went to school to be a phlebotomist. She heard that the Red Cross is hiring this summer so she wants to get in with them.

Paul is reffing spring soccer and I am just chilling trying to finish my school year (it isn't over until June 15th this year because of all the snow days - ugh!). My Zumba is done for the year and I am looking for a new place to teach next year so I can have more control over my students and classes. I am going to a Zumba conference in Orlando this summer and will get certified to teach Zumba Toning too. Anna is graduating June 5th and her mom is coming June 1st for a week. We are going to have a party for her June 4th. She is here until June 23rd. I can't believe how fast it went by! We are really going to miss having her around...okay, I'm not going to think about it or I will cry.

Hope all is going well with you!
Love Ya,
Cindy