"Cause Down the Shore Everything's All Right"

What are your favorite start of summer memories?

For me, nothing says summer like Bruce and the Jersey Shore. When I lived in NJ, my summer started the Friday morning of Memorial Day weekend with the traditional WPLJ Summer Blast Off at Jenkinson's in Pt. Pleasant. I never made it to the blast off itself, teaching somehow always got in the way, but I always listened on the radio to Joe Nolan's tribute to NJ speech and the traditional playing of Born to Run.

When I moved to New England, this was one thing I missed. Now with technology the way it is, I can enjoy it and share it with you. Happy Summer!





Joe Nolan 2008 Kick Off to Summer from RadioNeil on Vimeo.

Book Nirvana

I love bookstores. I admit it. My idea of a good time (besides spending time with Bruce) is spending time at a bookstore. So, you can only imagine my delight when I learned that Scholastic Book Fairs was moving their warehouse down the road and around the corner from my house. Yipee!

A few times each year, Scholastic opens their warehouse to the public and most books are 50 percent off. In the bargain aisle you can find some for $1.00. As a teacher who spends a good amount of money on books each year, this day is nirvana. So on Saturday JBJ and I drove over (we knew we would have too many books to walk), and searched the stacks.

I did buy a bunch of books for my class, but my favorite purchases were for Bug. Bug already has a library started so we added to the collection some really cool pop-up books and some fairy tales liked the one pictured here.

"Might as Well Jump" Van Halen

I’ve tried to start this blog many times and have never known where to begin. So today I’ve decided to take Van Halen's advice and "go ahead, jump " in to the blogging world. 

From where did the title for this blog come?

 
Bruce = Bruce Springsteen:  His music and concerts have kept me somewhat sane during this process.

Bug = the name we affectionately call our child.

Bulgogi = One of my first meals at a Korean restaurant. (Yummy)

In June we sent in our first application to our agency. Then came a collection of paper work, known as “the paper chase", meetings with social workers, home visits, classes and finally the letter that stated as of December 7, 2007 we were “officially waiting” for a referral from Korea.

Now comes the waiting. We have been waiting a little more than five months. When we began the adoption process, referral wait times were about six to ten months, but that time may be increasing.   Please send out some positive thoughts for short wait times.