A Day In Chicago

Angie & I, my girlfriend Jill and her daughter Jenna spent the day downtown Chicago. We intended to go to Shedd Aquarium but since King Tut was sold out at the Field Museum everybody else had the same idea. The line to get into the Shedd was 3 hours long. So after paying $15.00 to park for 35 minutes we decided to go to plan B. The girls wanted to go to Ed Debevic's for lunch. Our waiter was great. He put a hat on my head because he didn't like my hair. He wouldn't take Angie's order because she had on "too much mascara". He told my girlfriend Jill to go back to her cornfield. Angie and I had our picture drawn before we left. After our insulting lunch, we left to find an IMAX movie. We wanted to see Happy Feet but it had already started so we settled for A Night In The Museum. The movie was just ok with a few funny parts.

Surprise Party

Casey gave herself a surprise birthday party last night. Unknowingly to Dad & I she invited the whole basketball team over for a sleep over party. I had to scramble to get some pizzas and snacks together. I had girls sleeping all over the place. She will probably never see another day. Somebody help me with this child.

Bill & I are invited to a New Year's Eve party in Michigan. Do I have any takers for three lovely children?

Scott finally came home last night, after missing his flight in Oklahoma and had to stay over another day. We opened gifts again last night in the midst of the kaos and he was happy with his presents.

Amy's Surprise Visit

Amy and the kids (ages 5 & 2) showed up last night about midnight - what a nice surprise. Her knee looks more like a cantaloupe than a knee. She is baking Christmas sugar cookies with the kids, that is part of her gift to us.

Just kind of a lazy day today - gearing up to take down and put away all the Christmas decorations.

Merry Christmas

It's Christmas morning and you know your kids are teenagers when the parents are up before the kids. Once everyone was up and the turkey was in the oven - we opened presents. Everyone seemed please with what they got this year. (No, it wasn't shoes!). Russ and Sarah will be here in the early afternoon and will stay for dinner. Scott called from Oklahoma - we will have his Christmas on the 27th. Bill's sister & kids aren't coming after all because she got kicked by her horse - ouch.

I've started hitting the "eggnog" already so I hope the turkey can finish cooking itself.

Merry Christmas to all and I hope your Christmas is a happy one.

Christmas Eve

My most favorite day of the year - it even beats out my birthday. When I was a child, we would open all the gifts on Christmas eve and then Santa would bring even more. My brother and I would wake each other up and run out to the tree to see what Santa brought. As we got older and the inevitable happened, we would open just one gift on Christmas eve and save the rest for Christmas morning.
Now my kids camp out on the floor and sleep under the tree. The first one to wake up the whole family gets to play Santa Claus and give out the gifts.

Have a great day everyone and I hope Santa is good to you.

Happy Birthday Casey

Today is my daugher's 15th birthday. She was born on the busiest shopping day before Christmas in Providence, Rhode Island. My husband was trying to be there for me but constantly on the cell phone talking to his stores and wanting to be there for them. Once Casey was born and we went to sleep he left the hospital and worked til midnight. Casey and I spent Christmas Eve in the hospital and we brought her home on Christmas Morning in a giant red stocking the hospital gave us. Today she is a freshman at PCHS and plays on the high school basketball team. Have a fun birthday today Casey - I love you.

Last Day

It was a fun and festive last day of school before Christmas. We all brought in delicious food and everyone was the holiday spirit. The day ended with the annual PSHS Christmas Party. The banquet hall was decorated very nicely with poinsettias and lights. Mr. Scanlan did a great job as DJ and got everyone involved in a "Who is it" game. We picked Carol as our descriptive person because she has so many great qualities to describe - it was fun. The special treat of the night was Mr. Albright serving Carol her long-lost childhood dish of "Spam". It does bring back memories.

I love all you guys and I look forward to the new year with a great attitude and admiration to what each of us bring to the Media Center. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in 2007.

It's Getting Closer

I think I have a sneaky suspicion of who my Secret Santa is. But I will have to wait until tomorrow to find out for sure. We should have everyone bring their gifts to lunch tomorrow so we can see what everyone received. We seem to be very low key this year - I have hardly seen anyone's gifts. Are they that bad???

Stressbusters

Stressbusters was a success. We had teachers dropping by to chat, have a Christmas cookie or treat and some hot apple cider. (By the way, Someone didn't bring any cookies!) They also could make a simple crystal icicle ornament. It is just a nice break from the day to talk about how far behind we are in Christmas shopping.

Christmas Cookies

Saturday was a day for bonding with the kids. Casey & I made and decorated cookies and Angie & J.D. ate them. We also made mints in pink and green . . . mmmmm they are so good.

Secret Santa started today and Stressbusters is tomorrow. This is a fun, busy and short week before Christmas vacation.

Happy Birthday Angie

Today is my daughter Angie's 17th birthday. She was born on a snowy morning in Providence, Rhode Island. She weighed in at 9 lbs. 4 ozs. My husband delivered her in the delivery room at Women & Infants hospital. My husband named her Angela Lynn because when he was a child, he was in love with Angela Cartwright from "Lost in Space". Today she is junior at PCHS, she has her driver's license and will be looking at colleges soon. Have a great day today Angie, I love you.

Oberweight!

Thank you Anastasia for the delicious vanilla milkshake from Oberweight . . . er I mean Oberweis.

No basketball game tonight but there is cheerleading practice.

The Memorial Party was a success because it has brought the refrigerator back to life. So now we are thinking about a resurrection party - whadda ya think?

A Moment of Silence

Let's dim the lights and nod our heads in a moment of silence for our refrigerator. She died over the weekend. A memorial service will be held in her honor, date to be announced. (PARTY!)

Welcome back Anastasia. It's good to have you here.

It's Sunday Already?

Linda to the rescue! I was lost on the east side of Joliet trying to find the Stone City Softball warehouse where my daughter was practicing. So I called Linda frantically to try to talk me through where I was going. She didn't answer on the first try so I left a message and she immediately called me back and got me to where I needed to be. Thanks Linda.

There were no flies on me on Saturday. I don't think I sat still for 5 minutes all day. I took Casey to her basketball game (they lost big time) then drove downtown Chicago to take Angie to her cheerleading competition at UIC (they took 2nd place). Then I went to the movies with my girlfriend Jill to see "Holiday" with Cameron Diaz, Jude Law (oooh baby), Kate Winslet & Jack Black. It was definitely a chick flick with a weak beginning but had a good ending. We gave it 2 stars.

Today I am doing my never-ending laundry and have to take J.D. to baseball practice at 6:00 pm. By the way, my gas tank is empty!

The Weekend

Looking forward to the weekend. I will finish up with the Christmas decorations and start Christmas shopping because there are only 16 shopping days left and tree needs some presents underneath.

Saturday brings a busy day with physical therapy on my foot, two basketball games, baseball practice, softball practice and a cheerleading competition. There goes the full tank of gas I just put in my car.

Then there's Sunday to do the laundry and housekeeping and everything else I didn't do during the week. (Do I sound like I'm whinning?)

Author Visit

Nancy Werlin visited us today and talked about her new book "Rules of Survival". I read it last week and thought it was just okay but after meeting her and listening to her talk about her writing style it made me think deeper about the story. It was based in New England and that brought it closer to home for me. Nancy autographed my copy of the book.

Anastasia came in for a few hours today because she is returning from maturnity leave on Monday. It will be good to have her back. (Another reason to have a party) She is also joining our blogging club. It will be fun reading about Jude and his new baby sister Maia and their adventures.

We drew names for Secret Santa today. It only took 4 tries this year! Everybody seemed pleased with the name that they drew. It is always fun thinking of different ways to deliver the gift without getting caught and revealed.

Today is Pearl Harbor Day. Take a moment to remember our soldiers.

Carol's Birthday Party Day

It's finally here - we've been waiting all week. We all brought food to share. It seems we never have enough reasons to have a party.

Tonight Plainfield South plays Plainfield Central in freshmen girls basketball. Casey made me promise to sit on Central's side and cheer for them. Of course I will, but I will have my Plainfield South T-shirt on underneath!

Michelle is back to work today. I guess her husband is going to have a long recovery after breaking his leg in two places. The surgery went well and we all wish her the best in patience, love and understanding for nursing a sick man is not easy.

Happy Hump Day because the rest of the week is all down hill.

Let's Have Cake

Today is Carol's actual birthday. Rosemary baked a delicious chocolate/chocolate cake. It is very good. She is spending a good part of her birthday morning watching Heroes that I taped for her last night. Enjoy your day today Carol and the fun continues because there is more partying tomorrow.

FiFi's Present

Today we gave Carol her birthday present. It was a statue of a flamingo playing golf compliments of FiFi. More to come on Wednesday - the actual party day.

The Village

Well I finally got to put up my Village today. It looks awesome. We were setting up the Christmas tree and only every third row would light. It is very frustrating. Looks like I am going to get a "real" tree this year and then buy another artificial one after the holidays when they go on sale. (Ka-ching!) That must be the sounds of the holidays everybody talks about. My snow blower wouldn't work either but I had a back-up of Andrew (Angie's boyfriend) and my son J.D. to do it for me.

Bill and I went downtown Chicago on Saturday night to meet some friends in from Michigan. It was Dave's birthday so we went out to dinner then back to the hotel bar for drinks. Good times, good friends and good cheer. Downtown looks very pretty all decorated for Christmas.

Snow Day

My wish came true and the first day of December is a Snow Day from school. So today I am decorating for Christmas, having hot chocolate by the fire and watching movies - NOT. Sounded good though didn't it. In reality I will be doing laundry, shoveling the driveway and working at the store so my son won't have to drive in from Plano.

Carol, I hope you got home last night instead of staying in Plainfield.