I love Birthday's!!

We had a great night last night!! We met our friends, Bruce and Julie at "Sauce" and had a GREAT dinner. I had this fabulous caramel crusted salmon and John had Pad Tai. It was SO good!! John had brought a cake but we didn't have time to eat it because we were going to a movie.

We saw The Last Kiss which was such an amazing movie!! Zach Braff and his co-star Jacinda Barrett were SO good in this movie. It was so nice to see a movie about a relationship that didn't star the A list actors (ie. Ben, Brad, Jenn, Angelina, etc.) These characters were so believable and seemed very REAL. I had no idea what this movie was about and going just by the title I thought it would be a typical romantic comedy but I was pleasantly surprised. I would recommend this movie to anyone - even John liked it!

We came home to an empty house (kids slept at Grandma's). My plans to sleep in this morning were dashed by John waking up at 4:00am because he was so excited about DRAFT DAY!!! Today is a big day in his life. For anyone who's husbands participate in hockey pools you'll understand. I try not to pay too much attention to it but from what I understand these grown men all pretend to be Hockey team Managers and they choose a team and follow their team throughout the hockey season. They make trades and have suplemental drafts and blah,blah,blah!! He had his laptop in hand and headed to his buddies house bright and early!! Too funny!!

Today my parents are coming for dinner and John is cooking a vegatarian dinner from the REBAR cookbook. It'll be another fun day!! I'm off now to take Stephanie to her riding lessons.

For all my friends at SCRAPFEST this weekend I hope you're having an awesome time. Have a wonderful dinner tonight and be sure to tell us all about it.

Cheers!!
xo
t.

Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone!!

And thank you to my awesome family for waking me up this morning with breakfast in bed. I plan to have a wonderful day and celebrate all the blessings I have in my life. This time next year I will be turning 40 and I will never be able to say that I'm "30 something" again. I am going to make my 39th year a good one!!! I have so many goals for this year and I'm excited to get started!!!

Thank you to all my friends at Pick of the Patch (www.pickofthepatch.com) for the wonderful Happy Birthday thread... I love you all!!!

xoxoxoxoxox
Tara

September 11, 2006 - Five Years Later...

John and I visited the site of the World Trade Center while we were in New York last month. It was an emotional and surreal experience for both of us. I had not completely understood the scope of this disaster until I stood on the ground where it took place. We took the subway to the World Trade Center site and when we exited the subway and I saw the sign(above)I knew this was not going to be easy. What struck me the most looking around me at the memorial was all the "regular" people walking the streets. People going to and from work, shopping and siteseeing. The people in NYC are no different than in any other city and if it happened there it could happen anywhere.

There was a man standing at the memorial preaching facts about the incident that I found fascinating. I don't know if he does this everyday but he was extremely passionate about getting his message out to everyone who would listen. I learned alot about the WTC site from listening to this man. I learned that not just two buildings collapsed that day but seven. The World Trade Center consisted of seven building (two towers, four smaller buildings and a hotel) which all imploded on September 11th.

The WTC site covered 16 acres of land. One hundred and sixty four (164) buildings had to be demolished before construction commensed and during peak construction 3,500 people worked at the site. A total of 10,000 people worked on the towers; 60 died during its construction. The twin towers each had six basement floors which housed two subway stations and the largest shopping mall in lower Manhattan. The WTC had it's own zip code.

The temporary memorial is very basic. It consists of a plaque with all the names of the deceased on it. The title of the plaque is "The Heroes of September 11, 2001". There were three large signs which provide a timeline account of the days events. The mood at the memorial was very somber. People were standing, reading and listening. Listening to the different languages being spoken around me I was reminded that this not just an American tragedy. The entire world has been touched by this and have come to pay their respects to the lives lost. We stood and read every name on the memorium and the timeline signs with the sounds of construction in the background. From what I understand they are still working on building up the ground from the huge crater the implosion created.
I took this picture (left) looking up at the sky where the twin towers once were. I cannot even imagine the fear, the pain, the loss and the disbelief the people of New York experienced on this day five years ago. We will all talk about the tragedy today on this Fifth Anniversary and remember where we were the moment we first heard that an airplane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Tragedies like this make us think about life and humanity differently. When such a horrible event occurs, it's easy to believe that the world is an evil place. We must remember that in the face of difficulty people do pull together and good does prevail. We must live life to it's fullest each and every day....
_____________________________________________________________________

September 1, 2006

Today is the day that Sandra Flower and I officially hand over Pick of the Patch to our dear friend Sandra Wharton. We both accepted a buy out from Sandra and today is the day Sandra becomes the sole owner of POTP. Today is a day of mixed emotions and reflection for me. I can't believe how young Sandra and I look in this picture. I will only speak for myself but I feel like I have matured through this process of growing Pick of the Patch from a crazy idea to what it is today. I feel like I've toughened up and learned to trust my ideas and instincts better. Perhaps that would have come with age over the past two years anyways but I choose to believe that POTP has strengthened my belief in myself and helped lead me to the place I am today.

There are a few things that I will NEVER do again...

I will never say to a business owner, "Oh, you're so lucky to have your own business". I will say, "You must be an incredibly strong person and a great time manager - how do you do it?"

I will never assume that things just "happen". Behind everything that you see in front of you someone has worked countless hours to make that happen. I try to see that in everything I do now. When I eat out, when I attend an event, when I see a play or a movie or just listen to music I am conscious of how much work someone has put into that very thing I am enjoying at the time. It makes me more appreciative of everything around me.

I will never assume that business owners are lucky enough to "set their own hours". When you are running a successfull business there are never enough hours. You are always working and when you're not working you're either thinking about work or feeling guilty for not working.

I will never underestimage the power of women working together.

I will never again put myself in a position when I feel frustrated with my kids when they want my undivided attention (and that's a tough one for me to admit). Or when they are talking to me and I'm not really listening because my mind is elsewhere or when they ask me why I have to work so much. ..."but mom, it's Saturday".

Thank you POTP for teaching me the life lessons that I needed to learn at this point in my life. Thank you POTP for bringing a group of wonderful ladies into my life that I know will be life long friends. Thank you POTP for making me realize that the grass is NOT always greener on the other side. I have so many fond memories that are making me cry right now but I know POTP isn't going anywhere. Sandra is full of incredible ideas and the store and community will continue to grow and flourish under Sandra's very competent leadership.

To my fellow flowers girls... Be good to Sandra, her job is not an easy one.

To Sandra Flower... Thank you for being my partner through this incredible journey. I am proud of what we accomplished together and that we have remained friends through it all.

To Sandra Wharton... Good luck my friend. I will ALWAYS be here for you.

Tara
xo