118* Kenny and the peace sign

today has been an emotional whirlwind. i spent hours and hours looking at pictures, i smiled, i cried, i remembered so many happenings of years gone by.

as i was looking through boxes i came across kenny's report on his ap college board chemistry test--of course he received the highest score--he had quite a ridiculously bright brain.i also found his near perfect final high school report card.even at fcc he was on the dean's list. he was astonishingly smart at times and it drove me crazy that he would never admit it!

sometimes the waves of loss and sadness still leave me feeling numb, and it takes all my mental strength to continue what i'm doing.a part of me says i don't want to move> i don't want to think> or type> or keep my eyes open; and the other part of me struggles against those thoughts trying to force myself to finish what i am doing.

it almost feels like i'm facing a deadline; as if another huge shift will occur in my life on the 29th. today its been 52 weeks. how could that much time go by and i am still in the same place? i want to be gone from this. i want to carry my kenny in my heart and walk away, leaving my shattered life behind me. i'm ready for something new> something more> something different> i'm ready for smiles and happiness again...
and as Kenny would say "PEACE"

Vincent(6), Kenny(7), Chocolate Factory Bear(?), Jheremy(11)

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KENNY and the PEACE SIGN

Kenny at 6th grade camp

sinister & silly pirate-hahaha >>age 10

 ~Kenny was a young boy when he started flashing the peace sign while taking pictures. I tried to find as many pictures at different ages as possible with him showing the two finger peace sign. As he got older, Kenny would include the single word phrase "PEACE" when he gave the sign. It was something he did very often whether or not a picture was being taken. To me, it was one of Kenny's distinguishing personality acts-> it was true to the way he lived his life. He was a very peaceful person despite all the emotional turmoil he dealt with. He was the peacemaker in the family. He was also the most forgiving person I ever knew--I used to think it was detrimental to his self worth; however, now I see it as an amazingly honorable way to live. He cared so much about those around him that he was willing to sacrifice his heart to allow others happiness.

**--The Cipolla Gang--**

{-- Vincent
     Kenny
     Kristy(cousin)
     KT (cousin)
at their Great Grandpa Sam's-- 2005
side note:for one month every year Kenny and Vincent were the same age!     

Kenny (16), Johan, Vincent (16)-Vincent's 16th bday

after the shaved hair--age 17

Kenny being his silly self- 18yrs.  =) I LOVE U!!!

 

 

 

 

    

Kenny(18), Mom(me), Vincent(17)- June 2010

  



 Element of the day (day 118)
#116) Uuh- Ununhexium-radioactive  
Only recently reported

117* random items of the day

Today I looked about Kenny's room, in the kitchen, and throughout the house to find as many of the random items Kenny once took with him to high school.

An assortment of 'Random Item(s) of the Day'

This isn't nearly everything in the picture and I won't remember them all either---> but I'm gonna try to remember as many items as possible and make a list of the things Kenny took to school:
 1) saucepot             2)white spatula       3)metal spatula
 4)wooden spoon  5)baster                      6)metal tea pot 
 7) cheese grater    8)crazy straw           9)slinkys
10)wooden top      11)salad tongs          12)juggling ball
13)treasure chest  14)foreign coins     15)catchball toy
16)purple flute      17)back scratcher   18)snake
19)mini cone          20)mesh !                         21) mesh ?
22)blue plunger    23)flashlight             24)glitter balls
25)giant spring      26)mini canoe         27)metal plate
28)sonic gold ring 29)sail boat              30)gold clock
31) bell                       32) wooden cat       33) giant dice
34)giant m&m        35) giant sponge     36)metal coin
37)EXIT sign           38) tripod thingy    39)R/R nail
40)spike gel ball    41) prism                   42)dealer coin
43)doorknob                                44) gear shift knob 
45) towel hook                             46)mini rubik's cube
46)boxing frog pen                    47) magnifying glass
48)shopping cart wheel              49)shopping cart man
50) rubberband ball                  51)springy cat toy

With the exception of the EXIT sign;which he wore around his neck--Kenny would pack the random item in his Bugle Boy backpack and sit the items on his desk from class to class where allowed.

spring cat toy in its new home- Mr. Fisher's room

The springy cat toy that once belonged to Vincent's cat was a very popular item. After Mr. Fisher made a request to keep once of the 'random items' in his classroom, Ben took the cat toy to be put with other stuff on display.

Until tomorrow...

Element of the day (day 117)
#115) Uup- Ununpentium-] radioactive    
Reported in 2004 and awaiting confirmation.
Persisted for less than one-tenth of a second before decaying into element 113(ununtrium), which persisted for over a second.  

 
  

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

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 ----------{ 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.