116* MONOPOLY

This morning I had to force myself to get out of bed--> I could have stayed in bed all day and I wish I had.

Until tomorrow...

MONOPOLY- ONYX EDITION

[+[+[+[ RANDOM TOPIC]+]+]+]  $$$$$$$$MONOPOLY$$$$$$$ 

more MONOPOLYs

Kenny was a very big fan of MONOPOLY-- it was his favorite board game for most of his life. We played through two sets of original monopoly until they were worn out or too many pieces were lost. We played as a family when the boys were very much younger. During his teen years Vincent lost interest in playing with us so we didn't play very often. Kenny and I played by ourselves a couple times but he thought it was too boring with only two people. We tried to play when we had company because then we had more players. We would play for hours, and hours. Until somebody actually ran out of money. It could be so much fun! And we would laugh and be silly- order pizza- or have snacks. Kenny won most of the time-it was the only time I knew Kenny to be ruthless. 
It's hard to remember when we started buying novelty sets. Maybe when he was 15 or 16. When I was looking for the games to take pictures there seem to be a couple missing. I know my Dodger Monopoly is packed and the Transformer Monopoly is in Vincent's room because it is his.
I remember buying Kenny the Here & Now version for Christmas one year because he wanted something different to replace the one we had. Another memory I have was going to Barnes & Noble's with Kenny when he saw the onyx edition he gasped aloud and darted straight to it. I knew I was going to buy it for him. It is very cool on the inside. The houses and hotels look like little crystal gems and there is a very cool spiral holder for the property cards, which I haven't seen in any other sets. Regardless of that. Kenny's favorite things were the blackened token pieces and black dice with silver dots. I found a lot of extra tokens when I took out the parts to take the picture. There were 23 tokens-]some from the original game and I don't know where the others are from, maybe one of the lost games.

~ ~So many double tokens!! ~ ~

Element of the day (day 116)
#114) Uuq- Ununquadium-] radioactive  
Discovered in 1999 by scientists in Dubna, Russia.
Obtained by the fusion process of bombarding plutonium with calcium.  

115* ROOT^BEER

Kenny's favorite root^beer

``````` RANDOM TOPIC````````
 ----------{ ROOT ^BEER }----------

Kenny wasn't one who like a lot of soda. In fact, no one in our family is--we tend to only buy soda for parties or get togethers. The one soda Kenny always chose was root beer. He liked it from a young age and he rarely drank any other kind of soda. Most of the time we would buy Mug's or A&W in 2ltr. bottles. Until he became a teen that is-] during his mid-teens Kenny decided he wanted to buy root beer in bottles for his birthday. I think at the time, the idea of  it being like real beer was appealing. I remember the first bottled root beer he bought was Barq's, the drink he chose most often since early teens. Eventually, he stopped drinking it because of the caffeine content, he got it into his mind that drinking caffeine was bad so he quit drinking Barq's; he didn't drink coffee or tea either> such an oddity in my opinion. But, yea-]that's one of those things that made him special to me. The following birthday Kenny wanted to try a new root beer in a bottle so we bought IBC. He liked it a lot and continued to buy it for years. On his dresser he has two empty bottles with his 'Mickey' hands on them. The following birthday he wanted to buy bottles of root beer he had never tried before. So we got Stewart's, DAD'S old fashioned, and he stuck with IBC because he knew he would like it. Then he began trying other brands just for the fun of it and he discovered a new favorite. It was Henry Weinhard's- he liked it so much that he kept an empty bottle in his room till the day he died. I put the hand back scratcher in it, but he just kept the empty bottle. I think it was during his sampling of different root beers faze that he began collecting bottle caps. I guess many things about Kenny kind of all come together.

Until tomorrow...     


Element of the day (day 115)
#113) Uut- Ununtrium-] radioactive 
not found naturally or occurs in such minute amounts that it does not reasonably exist on Earth.  
Reported in 2004 and awaiting confirmation.

114* our last thanksgiving

   the only possible way for me to make it through yesterday was to think as little as possible about past thanksgivings because it would have been impossible to function if I had thought about them.
    
   as a result, I have been reflecting a lot today about our last thanksgiving together. it was during the time I was having health problems. I had only been on medication for a couple weeks so I wasn't completely well yet. that is one of the reasons I didn't cook; however, I did make a turkey that saturday. Kenny helped with the stuffing and the basting of the turkey. and I managed to make my very special candied yams- my Grandma Tanis taught me how to make them when I was a young teen. we made many thanksgiving dinners together. 
   anyway, back to our last thanksgiving. Kenny and I had pumpkin pie with cool whip for breakfast. then he drove me over to his Grandpa Ken's because I wanted to visit him--by then I knew Ken had cancer. Ken was the best man I ever knew. Even though Mike( the boys' dad) and I had been divorced for years, Ken always invited me over for the holidays. I went quite often when the boys were young; however my appearances were less frequent over the past years. when we got to the house, we found out Ken was asleep so I didn't get to visit with him. Kenny drove me home, then he went back to his grandpa's, but he made me promise I would return later before he left. Vincent was already there because he had spent the night before. most of the day I spent on the couch because I wasn't feeling well.

   late in the afternoon, I went to Ken's house. when I walked in the door people noticed I didn't feel well. I heard I looked terrible, which I'm sure was true. the house was full with Kenny's cousins and their families there as well as my in-laws. Kenny was very happy to see me- he was smiling a lot. mostly everyone had already eaten so I had a little food and spent a little time with the family. I gave a round of hugs, then went to the outside house to hang out with the boys. Vincent was out there, then Kenny came along. Vincent was watching videos about the Willy Wonka movies and watching the original "chocolate factory" movie. he showed Kenny and I some of the reviews, they were really quite funny. then we all watched the Johnny Depp version of the Wonka movie. I fell asleep for a bit during the movie but it was still wonderful to be there together. I remember Kenny was extremely affectionate that night-giving lots of hugs and sitting next to me as I laid down on his mattress watching the movie. he must have known it would be our last thanksgiving together. it was the only time we ever hung out like that together at his grandpa's, just the three of us all by ourselves. he and Vincent stayed there that night and I drove home and went to sleep on the couch with Ravenne. 
    that was our last thanksgiving together- I remember thinking it was odd that Kenny was very insistent that I make it to Ken's that day. on other years he would ask, and if I said 'no' he was okay with it. that was the only time he made it clear he would be very unhappy with me if I didn't show up so I went despite my lack of energy. of course, now I am immensely thankful that I did go and have those few precious hours with my sons together. it is a beautiful last thanksgiving memory.

until tomorrow...

Element of the day (day 114)
#112) Uub- Ununbium-] radioactive    
Discovered in 1996 by S.Hoffman, V.Ninov, F.Hessberger, P.Ambruster and G.Munzenberg and others, Germany.
Highly radioactive metal. It has never been found in nature. Chemistry is believed to be similar to mercury.  

113* A day without turkey

~*~ HAPPY THANKSGIVING ~*~

Thanksgiving was definitely different this year. It was the second year I did not make turkey because last year Kenny made me promise I would go to Ken's for thanksgiving and we ate there. However, I did make candied yams and pumpkin pie last year, two of mine and Kenny's favorites. Vincent doesn't eat those. This year I made a ham for the first time in several years because it is Vincent's favorite. I haven't had to make it because Vincent was always able to eat it at his Grandpa Ken's. He's not much into turkey and stuffing,, so today was very non-traditional for me. I took over Kenny's job of mashing and preparing the potatoes. He's been doing it the last few years and he basted the turkey for me alot too. I taught him how to make stuffing and he stuffed the turkey the last time we made one. Year before last we made a turkey for Thanksgiving and Christmas with all the trimmings. It was fairly fabulous-- I've always loved cooking these special meals for my family.
                                     

--Kenny's favorite fork on top of Kenny's favorite towel--

                       


I took a pic of Kenny's favorite fork, which he would have used today if he was here-we would've had candies yams, stuffing, turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, celery with cream cheese and the Hawaiin rolls Vincent likes (we did have those today).
Anyway, I survived this one without my beloved Kenny. It could have been worse--even so, there were more than a few intensely grave moments. Somehow, I managed to get through them. I listened to the twilight soundtracks repeatedly and cried lots.

Until tomorrow...

Element of the day (day 113)
#111) Rg- Roentgenium-]radioactive  
Discovered in 1994 by S.Hoffman, V.Ninov, F.Hessberger, P.Ambruster and G.Munzenberg, Germany.
Highly radioactive metal. It has never been found in nature. Chemistry is believed to be similar to gold.  
 
 

112* (2) random topic & random pics

### RANDOM TOPIC###
 ---\ STICKY NOTES/--- 

I just put a sticky note on my laptop to remind myself of something for tomorrow-- it got me thinking about how Kenny liked to leave sticky notes everywhere, especially on his bedpost.

Here is the picture I took of Kenny's bedpost before I removed the sticky notes and packed up his belongings from it.

 these particular sticky notes were about his chemistry lab at fcc.

Sometimes Kenny would leave sticky notes on the tv or the refrigerator. He had more in his room that have already been removed. I kinda wished that I had hung onto them; although there wasn't anything of significance written on them.

***:**:More on the Twilight Saga:***:**

I was in such a hurry to get my blog done before midnight that I left out some very important information. As has been established Kenny died shortly after Breaking Dawn part 1 had been released, so when it came out on dvd in February> my darling (he would so hate to me say that) son Vincent bought it for me in place of Kenny buying it for me. I was thrilled and touched in the deepest part of my heart. Vincent has become very thoughtful of me since Kenny's passing. In small ways he does some of the things Kenny used to do. Thinking of Vincent and Jheremy practically renews my desire to keep on going despite all the loss and sadness. I'm almost there==> I only need a direction, a purpose and a place to live.. 

Kenny, Amy, and Ben-Awards Ceremony 2010

~Kenny in a bin with?- at Ben's~

                                                      

 

Ben^Kenny>Callie>Amy @Bullard High

 

 

 

 This is the gang before the break up. I apologize if anyone is offended that I choose to put this picture in the blog. All of you were a part of Kenny's life---a part of his little bit of happiness here on Earth and he cared for all of you so I put in the picture as a tribute to his friendships with all of you. I hope you understand and hold onto the bonds you shared.

112* a gesture of love

I am currently listening to the soundtrack for breaking dawn part 2--yay, super yay,, its fabulous!!

Finally, six days after opening I got to see the movie! :) Now, I am not going to go on about how I am a super twilight fan; although I am. I've read every book- twice--and I'm about to start my 3rd go around with those stories.

A couple weeks ago, I was listening to the twilight soundtrack, my favorite song from it caught my attention: #11. Naturally, it got me thinking about November being the 11th month of the year and the date of Kenny's death 11/29/11. I do find it interesting the way numbers have so many coincidences in my life.

There is a Kenny story to go along with my twilight fascination. Last fall, during the period of time when I was instructed to "rest and stay stress free" and I was doing lots of nothing and getting sad and bored>>my adorable son went out and bought me the first three movies from the twilight saga. It was an extremely sweet gesture coming from Kenny, especially because he wasn't a big fan of movies in general and, even more so because he thought the entire twilight series was silly. It was late in the evening when he came home from Target and handed me the plastic bag containing the movies. He didn't tell me what was in the bag. However, he had asked me about the movies-> I had been re-reading the books. It think I had just read the first two or three and was talking about how much I liked the movies even though they weren't true replicas of the books. Anyway, we had been talking about them. Then he surprised me with all three at once! However, I wasn't able to persuade him to watch any of them with me-> not even a minute! He actually laughed at the suggestion- a true, "no way that's gonna happen" Kenny laugh. So, even though it was late I stayed up till 3am and watched all the movies consecutively. It was such a pick-me-up. I am extremely grateful to Kenny for that. 

note to Kenny 11/21/11

breaking dawn part 1 came out on Nov. 18} eleven days before Kenny died-there's that number 11 again and I didn't even know it. I wanted to see it very badly. Kenny kept telling me I should go see it even though I was still not feeling that great. He thought it would make me feel better and he was right. On the Monday after it was released I decided to go see it. Vincent was gone and Kenny was in school.


 I left Kenny a note on the white board, which is a practice of mine when I'm going somewhere and the boys are sleeping or not home. It was the last note I ever wrote to Kenny. I didn't erase the note for many months after Kenny died. It was very difficult for me to do; however, I made myself erase it. I didn't want to lose the memory completely so I took a picture of the white board before I erased it. Then I made a notation on the bottom of the board. To this day, that notation remains. I will keep it there as long as I have the board because in part I want to keep every part of Kenny I can and partly because it is associated with a good memory Kenny gave to me.

There's another part to this story. I call it the Tommy Twilight story. I'm not sure if it was that night or another night. I was getting ready to watch or was just beginning to watch twilight when Tommy came over. I was sitting on the couch and Tommy strolled into the living room. Immediately he started teasing me about the movie. He was relentless, laughing at me, although he was only kidding. Kenny heard him and stormed from his room to the living room rather quickly and loudly. In a stern, strong tone he said "don't make fun of my mom"--and he was totally serious. Tommy apologized and said he was kidding, and the whole thing blew over; but it was heartwarming that Kenny came to my defense so enthusiastically. I recall Tommy telling the story at Kenny's goodbye service, probably because it was still fresh in his mind. Then he went on to say lovely things about our family-} an exchange of love. I like remembering about that little happening in my life. It is a reminder of the special relationship Kenny and I had>and even though it hurts much and re-ignites the missing pain I smile through the tears as I store the memory in my heart to think of again another time.

Until tomorrow...

Element of the day (day 112)
#110) Ds- Darmstadtium- radioactive   
Discovered in 1994 by S.Hoffman, V.Ninov, F.Hessberger, P. Armbruster and G.Munzenberg and others, Germany. Highly radioactive metal. It has never been found in nature. Chemistry is believed to be similar to platinum.