Good Bye to Brutus

Today we bid farewell to Brutus, John's very loyal Italian Mastiff (Cane Corso) of 11 1/2 years.

Brutus - 3 years old (February, 2001)

Brutus, Dawson & Verdell, August 2004

The picture above and the one below were both taken just 13 days ago on July 11th. Brutus didn't seem to be doing very well ~ I couldn't get him to move from his bed when I came downstairs. He was lethargic and lifeless and he appeared to be very "sunken" (if that makes any sense) which is why I took these pictures ... I'm not sure where John was, but I took them to show him how Brutus looked that morning. I remember thinking the pictures just didn't show how badly he seemed to be doing. He hardly moved all day and wouldn't eat a thing. But then he seemed to be back to himself the next day and we figured he was fine. Well, fine enough for a very old dog.

But when John came downstairs this morning, he found Brutus on his bed and he was already stiff. He died sometime during the night and I truly hope that he died peacefully in his sleep. John called me at work to give me the news and I was overcome with emotion. I couldn't believe how hard I cried! John was also surprised how I took the news. I guess I was just in shock, as it was very unexpected. He seemed just fine yesterday.

I looked on Snapfish and found some old pictures I had of Brutus. The above picture was taken on February 7th, 2004 (5 1/2 years ago). John and I were dating and Brutus was barely 6 years old. I can't get over how black his face was ... he turned gray so gradually that it was hard to notice how much he'd changed.

This picture was taken on July 3rd, 2005 (5 years ago). I'm pretty sure he was over 150 pounds in this picture.

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Brutus was a good dog who LOVED John more than anything. He was a loyal dog who would have done anything to protect John and our family. John and I complained about him often, but it was always for reasons that weren't his fault (he couldn't help it that he shed huge amounts of long black hair with each and every step!). He was often a difficult dog to live with because of his size and because we couldn't leave town unless a family member was willing to take care of him. But it was also nice having him around because we knew we would be safe from any intruders. We always felt safe with Brutus around. Although he'd be fierce with strangers, he was a big mush with us, always craving affection from us.

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John used to say that if Brutus really loved him, he'd die peacefully in his sleep so that John wouldn't have to go through the difficult emotional act of putting him to sleep. I guess this was Brutus's way of showing John just how much he loved him ...

Father's Day!

My girls are truly SO lucky to have such an amazing father. It's impossible to describe the love that John has for his girls ~ it runs so deep and I know he would do absolutely anything for them. I am so happy to have married John and have children with the worlds greatest father!

This year, I knew I wanted to get John a new pair of running shoes, since he's been exercising in the pair I got him for Father's Day 3 years ago and they seem shot! I wanted to surprise him, but I also wanted to spend some time with Reagan. So after yesterday's playdate at Jen's, I took Avery home for her nap and took Reagan with me to the mall. I told John I needed to get to Sephora because I was out of my all time FAVORITE product, my dry shampoo ... this was all true. For those of you who've never tried this product, order some today! I use this every other day so that I don't have to wash my hair each day. Unless you have really dark hair, I promise you'll be happy with the results! ... I seem to have gotten off track here, since this was supposed to be a post about Father's Day and I'm now talking about women's hair care products. SORRY JOHN!!

Anyway, I wanted to get John these cool sneakers by Nike and I was trying to find them at one of the stores also at Garden State Plaza, since I was already there. As I was going from store to store, I was also looking for a bathing suit for Reagan, since I hadn't gotten her one yet. Reagan was a trooper and followed me from store to store as we power shopped! When we came out of Lord & Taylor, we saw some people waiting in line (a pretty short line, actually) to get someones autograph ... when I looked down, I realized it was Justin Guarini. I took this picture with my iPhone and emailed it to John, asking if he wanted me to get him an autograph for Father's Day, since he's such a HUGE Justine Guarini fan!


Of course, I'm totally kidding about that, since John and I are always making fun of this guy and his bizarre career of milking the American Idol gravy train. I mean, it's not like he has a successful music career, right? He's certainly no Clay Aiken!

Once again, I've gotten off-track, at an attempt to be humorous. Sorry honey. I'll leave the comedy up to my better half!

The point of this very long rant is this: I spent the entire afternoon with Reagan shopping, the entire time telling her that we were getting Papa a pair of shoes for Father's Day and that she needed to keep it a surprise until the next day. The entire way home from the 2nd Sports Authority (where we finally found the desired style in his size), I argued with her about when we were going to give him the gift. She wanted to give him the shoes as soon as we got home, but I kept telling her it wasn't Father's Day yet and we had to wait until tomorrow. She was very unhappy about this but I finally got her to agree to the arrangement. She promised she wouldn't say anything about the shoes. It was going to be a surprise and she could give them to him first thing the next morning.

I pulled into the garage and even had Reagan help me get the shopping bags in order before we went inside: I put the shoes in the trunk of the car to "hide" them and we brought everything else inside.

To Reagan's credit, she did last about 60 seconds, but then the anticipation was just too great and the words came bursting out of her mouth, "Papa, we got you some new sneakers for Father's Day!!!"

John was watching TV and tried not to pay any attention to her and I used the opportunity to distract Reagan with our other purchases ... I got out her new bathing suit and told her to show John, then I even got out the dry shampoo. But Reagan was on a mission. She had to make sure John knew about his gift. Pretty soon, I gave in too, realizing it was a loosing battle and there was no way to keep the secret. John and I burst out laughing as we listened to Reagan's enthusiasm ... after she revealed the secret about 3 times, it occurred to her it was supposed to be a secret so she told John again by whispering into his ear. To be quite honest, I don't remember the last time I laughed that hard! Reagan was so excited about the gift that she was bouncing off the walls, talking about the shoes nonstop! John and I couldn't stop laughing at her and it will definitely go down as one of the funniest Mendez family moments. My words can't do it justice, so I'll stop trying to describe it now.

Anyway, I got the shoes out of the trunk and let Reagan give them to him, despite the fact that it wasn't quite Father's Day yet. Reagan certainly learned the joy of GIVING, which made me very happy.
We let John sleep in this morning, then I made a big breakfast for everyone. I suggested that we do something fun together as a family, so we all went to see the movie "Up" in the theater after Avery's nap. This was Reagan's 3rd movie and Avery's 1st. Reagan did VERY well (of course, since she's 3 1/2 and loves movies!), and I must say that Avery did quite well for a 20 month old. She got pretty antsy at the end, but that was to be expected. When the movie ended and we walked out of the theater, Reagan started crying. She kept saying, "I don't want to leave!! I want to see another movie!!" It was kind of cute at first because she'd had such a great time and we were happy we'd taken her. But the crying continued for most of the ride home and by then, it just wasn't cute anymore. Despite the crying, John said he had a wonderful Father's Day and he thought the movie idea would be a fun tradition to continue in years to come. While we were at the movie, I had ribs slow cooking in the oven, so I think the day was an overall success! I love you honey!!

Of course, I can't post about Father's Day and not give a little "shout out" to my own dad ... I was a pretty lousy daughter this year, and only sent him a measly card (I know, I suck!). I love my dad so much and appreciate all the things he does for me. He's an excellent father to me, father-in-law to John and Grandpa to my girls. Thank you, Dad, for being my wonderful father!! I love and miss you!!!

Picnic at work!

My office is in the background

One of the benefits of my job is that my office is conveniently located right next to a playground! This playground is for the benefit of the nearby neighborhoods, not a part of the office complex, but it sits right behind the parking lot, so I can walk there easily in a matter of minutes. I've been waiting for a beautiful spring day to ask John to bring the girls here during my lunch hour and today worked out perfectly! It was only a high of about 68 degrees, but it felt warmer in the direct sun. He picked up Reagan from preschool and was at the playground by 11:40. The girls played on the equipment until I arrived at noon, then we sat down for a picnic lunch. Reagan was too hot in the sun, so we moved our blanket underneath the slide for some shade :)

I took all these pictures on my iPhone ~ not bad quality, right?

I love this picture of Avery going down the slide!

Slide-induced STATIC hair!

Avery and John

She's getting good at posing, right?

One last turn on the swings before it was time to leave ... as you can see, Avery was pretty tired!

It was such a great break in my day, but it was really hard to return to work ... Reagan started crying, telling me she wanted me to stay with her. Luckily, a woman at the park started blowing bubbles with her grandson, so the bubbles distracted Reagan from being sad and allowed me to leave.

A long way for a slice of pizza!

While talking to Maribel at the Easter Egg Hunt in Westwood, she said that Marcelo wanted to have dinner at his favorite Uruguayan Pizza place (Marcelo is from Uruguay). As I mentioned in the previous post, Marcelo just lost his mother Norma, so he was in Florida all last week, helping his brother with all the details. I really wanted to go with them because we hadn't spent much time with Marcelo recently (before he was in Florida, he was in the Congo for work for a week and a half) and I wanted him to know he had our full support during this difficult time. But when Maribel told me the restaurant was in Elizabeth, NJ (south of Jersey City), I knew John wouldn't be crazy about the idea of driving so far for pizza. I wasn't sure if John knew where this place was, since we had both heard them talk about it in the past. I figured if he knew we were going so far, he was doing it in support of Marcelo who had just lost his mom. If he didn't know, then I wasn't going to be the one to tell him!

We agreed to meet at Maribel's house in New Milford and follow them to the restaurant. We got on the NJ Turnpike and headed south. As we passed the exit for Union City and then Jersey City, John got suspicious ... he said, "where is this place?" I said I didn't know, meanwhile I was texting Maribel (who was in the car in front of us), telling her John had no idea where we were going! They were laughing the entire way there! So, as we kept driving, John said, "This sure is a long way for a slice of pizza! It better be the best pizza I've ever tasted!" So I tried to make him happy by saying that we needed to be supportive of Marcelo right now, and of course his reply was "we could have done that back in Bergen county!" Anyway, he was a pretty good sport, since there was no turning back, but I know for a fact he NEVER would have gone if I'd told him it was in Elizabeth before we had left our house!

Maribel's brother Jose and his family (Doreen, Lauren, and Gabby) met us there too, so we took up most of the restaurant!

Joaquin

Joaquin and Marcelo

Lauren, Doreen, and Jose

Reagan and Gabby

Gabby and Joaquin

We ordered the pizza as an appetizer and it was awesome! The pizza is the plate at the top of the picture - the other dish was pizza withouth cheese, and the last one was something made of chick peas? Something like that ...

This was the "heart-attack on a plate" that everyone ordered for the main course ... I can't remember everything that was on it, but it was crazy delicious!

Sweet Gabby indulged Reagan and Joaquin, letting them climb all over her

It was a really nice night with John's family and I'm so happy we went. Marcelo was nice enough to treat us all to dinner, so THANK YOU!! It will be a long-running joke between John and Maribel now and I highly doubt we'll ever make the drive there again :)

Dinner with Hoon

Tonight was a fun family evening out. John's friend Hoon was in town from Korea (he's been working there on an assignment for the last 2 months) ... they had meetings together all day Thursday, then thought it would be fun to get together for dinner tonight as families. Hoon and Michelle live on Staten Island, so we tried to meet somewhere in the middle for dinner. We ate at Houlihan's in Weehawken (right next to Hoboken), which has an excellent view of Manhattan. The only bad part of the night was that we hit TONS of traffic on our way there. What typically should have taken us 25-30 minutes took us an hour and 15 minutes! We were so frustrated and felt bad we left Hoon, Michelle and Ian waiting for us. Luckily, both girls took great naps this afternoon so they were angels on the long drive, and then Avery took a cat nap on the way there.

I tried to take a picture of his cute son Ian, but he was camera shy at first and kept dodging my camera!
Ian and Michelle ... Michelle works in the fashion industry as a designer for Reebok and Adidas. She went to design school while in Seoul, Korea, then went to FIT in Manhattan.

I finally got a picture of Ian!

Reagan developed a mild fever this afternoon, but after a dose of Motrin, she was acting just fine, so we figured she was fine to go out. She was SO good throughout the entire evening and we were really proud of her good manners in the restaurant. I wish I could say the same about Avery, but she's at that age where she doesn't want to sit still in a high chair. She went back and forth between John and I most of the night, sitting on our laps.

My sweet little Reagan

Amanda, John and Avery

By the time we got back to the car, Reagan's fever was coming back, so she quickly fell asleep on the way home. Only a few minutes after she fell asleep, she started talking in her sleep. She said, "Mama! Avery's getting on the table! Mama, Avery's on top of the counter!" She is ALWAYS talking in her sleep and it's rarely just mumbling - we can usually always hear her words very clearly. She definitely takes after her mother when it comes to wild dreams and sleep-talking :)

The week of the funeral

As I mentioned in the previous post, we were very well taken care of the week of Nila's funeral. The first item that arrived was from my friends, (Nicole, Diane, Jen, Lisa, Sandy, and Karen) and it was a fabulous "Edible Arrangement," accompanied by 2 teddy bears for the girls. You can't see them very well, but it was full of chocolate covered strawberries that really hit the spot! Thanks ladies!

Reagan (decked out in her Super Girl costume) was excited about the fruit too!

Next came this beautiful arrangement from my parents and my sisters (Rod & Michelle, Benee & Doug, Camille & Brett) ... the flowers were beautiful and lasted an entire 2 weeks! We also recieved a potted plant from my sweet cousin Sara and her husband Steve, as well as a beautiful flower arrangement from Autumn and Chad (both of which I forgot to photograph). These lovely flowers filled our home and brought us much joy, so thank you very much.

Many others sent flowers to the funeral home ... There were SO many gorgeous arrangements there! I took the following pictures on Thursday morning of all the beautiful flowers before we made our way to Union City. A very special thanks to the following families who sent flowers (in no particular order):

• The Fernandez Family
• Bergen Primary Care (Wilkin Family)
• George Spyropoulos & Family
• Mr. & Mrs. Edward Sares & Family
• Richard & Dolores/Douglas & Marilyn
• The Calvo, Melillo, & O'Rourke Families
• Jose, Doreen, Lauren, & Gabrielle Fernandez
• The Berges Family
• The Staff at Stage Accents
• The Fonte Family
• Catherine, Dawn, and Family
• Domingo & L'Oreal Diaz
• Alfonso & Family
• Paul & Kerry Arbadji
• Bill, Fran, Jerry, Marge & Herbert

The funeral services were very nice and everything went smoothly. The funeral was at the church in Union City where Nila often attended Mass. When she first moved in, she was instrumental in getting them to provide a Spanish-speaking Mass service. It seemed appropriate that the Mass for Nila was in Spanish, by a priest who was originally from Spain (where John's father was from).



After the Mass, we went to the cemetary where there was a brief dedication of the gravesite by the funeral director and Jesus. It was incredibly windy that day, so we were all freezing. After the cemetary, all of the immediate family members and close friends went to a Cuban restaurant in Union City for lunch. Everyone was feeling extremely run down by then, so the lunch was a really nice way to unwind and relax. I was happy that my cousin Sara and friend Nicole came to support me to all of these events. I tried to take pictures of everyone at the lunch, but that's when my camera officially stopped working :(

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We were so grateful to have a welcome houseguest from early Thursday morning until Saturday afternoon ... John's cousin Nelly flew up from Florida to be here for the services and to offer her support. We loved having her stay with us and it kept our spirits up during a sad time. We saw her 1 year ago when she came to town for Avery's christening (she's Avery's godmother).

On Friday evening, we all went over to Maribel's house to be together with family. We had a really nice time together that night ...

Hanging out as a family ... Jose, Pepin, Nayda, John, Maribel and Nelly

Reagan, Joaquin, and Avery ... I love that Joaquin is right in the middle of my girls' ages. The 3 of them get together and play so nicely together!!

Pepin and Avery ~ Avery's great grandparents Betty and Wayne gave her this dress for Christmas ... it's a size 18 months and she's almost grown out of it (she's 15 months old in this picture)!

Reagan and Nelly ... I just LOVE this picture!

Lauren and Reagan

Joaquin and Gabby

Happy Birthday Honey!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband John! This seems like the perfect opportunity to write about something that happened this week. On Wednesday, I took Nila to Hackensack for her platelets instead of John. Since John does it so often (usually 3 times per week), I know it's a bit of a chore for him ... but since I rarely do it, I actually enjoy it. It's a nice break for me to get out of the house and I really enjoy meeting and talking with the nurses that take care of Nila. On Wednesday, I was happy that I got to meet Sari, the research nurse that is working directly with Dr. Goldberg on the study that Nila is a part of. As soon as she saw me walking in with Nila, she knew exactly who I was and she acted like we were old friends. She immediately started talking about John, telling me what an amazing man he is. I know he's an incredible person, but it was so nice to hear a complete stranger go on and on about the man I married. I was in heaven, listening to her gush about what a wonderful son he is to his mother, about what a proud father he is to his daughters, and about what a loving husband he is to me. She said he comes in with his mother, showing complete patience with her, taking his time to get her settled each morning, as if he has all the time in the world. He never acts rushed or like he'd rather be doing something else. He's there to make sure his mother receives the best possible care. She told me about her 3 sons and how she doubts any of them will some day take such amazing care of her. It was so nice to hear how much they love seeing John each week. John is the type of guy who has so much character, wit, and personality. He is always fun to be around, has an amazing sense of humor, and a great deal of patience. I guess he has to, now that he lives with 4 women! I often get wrapped up in the stresses of life; taking care of the needs of the girls, his mother, the dogs, and all the things that need to be done around the house. Sometimes John ends up taking the back seat and for that I feel horrible. I love my husband dearly and I need to show it more. I am so lucky to have married him and I look forward to spending the rest of my life with him. I love you honey!

For John's birthday, he wanted to spend it with his girls.

We started off with a big family breakfast. I made eggs, bacon and french toast

We got our first big snow storm yesterday (Friday), so Reagan was anxious to go play in the snow with her Papa! They got all bundled up and Reagan was so excited!

Reagan and John making snow angels in the front yard

Admiring their snow angels

Didn't Reagan's turn out nicely?


Here's some video of Reagan teaching Papa how to make a snow angel!

Here's some funny video of Reagan walking around in the snow. She just went through a growth spurt, so her snow boots no longer fit her ... we put her in rain boots instead! Hopefully Santa will bring her some snow boots for Christmas! John and I love the part in this video where she falls and says "I'm okay" ... she's so darn cute!

After playing in the snow, I took Avery over to Nicole's for her afternoon nap (THANKS NICOLE!!) and John and I took Reagan to her FIRST MOVIE!!! We went to the 2:30 showing of The Tale of Despereaux. Reagan was such a good girl throughout the movie. I liked it, but it definitely wasn't my favorite movie. It was just fun to take Reagan to her first movie! Luckily, Avery was great and took a 2 hour nap at Nicole's.

After the movie, we picked up Avery, then picked up dinner. John wanted to try a new place in Westwood called Jim Dandy's, a place for RIBS! We ordered take out, then came home to eat dinner. Reagan and I then made John a birthday cake ... he opted for something different, strawberry!

I tried to let the cake cool before frosting it, but as you can see, it was still too warm and the frosting just melted right off of it! Definitely not my best work, but I knew John wouldn't care how it looked! And Reagan was helping me frost it, so it was more about having fun. I also let Reagan take control with the candles ... she chose how many to put on it and where to place them.

Regardless of how ugly his birthday cake was, John was just happy to be surrounded by his girls on his birthday!

After the kids went to bed, John and I watched a movie together, something we rarely do but really enjoy. We watched the new Coen brothers DVD called Burn After Reading. John absolutely loves the Coen brothers and their wacky, clever films. This was definitely a good one, very entertaining, so I recommend it :)

All in all, I think it was a great day! Happy birthday to my fabulous hubby!!!!