Consider Yourself "Tagged"

What age was your best birthday (so far) & why? I would have to say my 21st, going out partying all night without a care in the world, the best group of friends making my birthday absolutely fantastic.....and safe.

What was the worst? My 32nd, I was having chemo and couldn't eat, stay awake or even really think about birthdays.

What is the best present you have ever received? My favorites are the handmade cards my girls make me every year, and my mom bought me my birthstone ring for I think it was my 16th birthday.

What was the weirdest? I got a "Happy 30th" birthday card from my aunt for my 29th birthday....that was wierd.

Where would you most like to spend your birthday? Not working, home or abroad with my girls and family enjoying Italian cuisine and wine!

What is your zodiac sign? Aries likes to lead. A good challenge is happiness to Aries. Aries goes through life with confidence and a enthusiastic outlook on everything. They can lack patience and often don't finish what they start. People born under the sun sign Aries are generous and frank with friends. They have a gift for fun. Aries can fall in love quickly and out of love even more quickly. VERY TRUE!

Chinese Year? Tiger people are sensitive, given to deep thinking, capable of great sympathy. They can be extremely short-tempered, however. Other people have great respect for them, but sometimes tiger people come into conflict with older people or those in authority. sometimes Tiger people cannot make up their minds, which can result in a poor, hasty decision or a sound decision arrived at too late. They are suspicious of others, but they are courageous and powerful. Tigers are most compatible with Horses, Dragons, and Dogs

Summer Crazy

I have been a slacker - this summer is flying by. As you can see from the photos above, we have been busy, busy,busy with softball for two. Hannah played on the Tri-County 4th and 5th grade league. She had fantastic coaches, unfortunately, we had some Cheerleader Moms (thank you Briana!) and Dads of our own. Drama - I just do not understand why people feel they have to live vicariuosly through their children. I mean, Lance and I were both very athletic growing up and our girls, they like to play sports for the social part, but they don't LOVE the game like we did. And, we are okay with that. They are having fun, they are learning and they are not us. I guess we get that, its unfortunate other parents do not. I feel so bad for some of those girls that walk up to the plate with their parents yelling "choke up" "bend you knees" "step back in the box" "that was your ball!" "what are swinging at the high ones for" "you gotta RUN" "you gotta make GOOD throws!".....seriously, this is what I have listened to for the past 6 weeks, so to say that I was relieved her team lost their 1st tournament game and were out, well, yeah, I was very relieved.

Gracie's team on the other hand had great parents, great group of supportive go-getter girls with no attitudes (maybe its the difference between 2nd/3rd grade girls and 4th/5th grade girls). Their team improved every single game and even though Gracie started out swinging very weak, they supported her learning and by tournament she was hitting hard grounders and getting base hits. Go Gracie, even though she is totally not there because she loves softball, she continued to work at getting better and improving and it showed. Her coached were so patient and always made time to explain to the girls when they could have done something better....that is how they learn, such a great experience. And this wonderful group of girls grabbed a Championship at the League Tournament - way to go girls!!

Avery has been her sister's biggest cheerleader, rooting them on and amazingly, she LOVES the game. She hits and fields right with them and she can't even play for 2 more years. Maybe she'll be the one who loves playing the game. Either way, doesn't matter as long as she has fun. That's the whole point.

The girls are signed up to be junior cheerleaders this fall for our High School Football team, which should be entertaining since all three of them can do it this year. We're looking forward to school clothes and supply shopping, one of our favorite days of the year! We do shopping, lunch, more shopping and then a stop for ice cream. Then we come home and label our supplies, get the in the backpacks and count down the days til school. This year, all three girls will be in school all day, not sure what I am going to do with my time, but I will volunteer as much as my work schedule allows and I am hoping I will get caught up on some of my scrapbooking. HA!

Chat with y'all later !!

Tim Taylor, tunnels and worms!

We found out over the winter what fun it is to buy a home from someone with the mentality of "Tim the Tool Man" Taylor. I'm not kidding these people who owned our house before us must have jacked with everything and did it half-assed. Here we are digging up the sump pump line and relaying it. The idiots before us layed the line about 1/2 inch underground, which in freezing Northwest Illinois winters, it cracks, and then defeats the purpose of having the excess water pumped AWAY from the house. So, we dug down 14 inches and layed new pipe.....Lance says it will not freeze now. The girls were loving this weekend, because 1st - we got to dig in the dirt. Then, 2nd, we got to walk in the "tunnels" as they called it. And, finally, 3rd as the photos dictate we got to play with worms! Avery & Gracie thought the worms were fantastic little pets and wanted to know if we could put them in a jar and keep them. Ummm, no girls, no pet worms. LOL! There is more work planned for this weekend, so expect some more pics!! Have a happy week!

Thoughts - as borrowed from another blog

what inspires me:
1. watching people, their emotions, reactions and interpretations of life and its surroundings
2. my daughters, each and every day
3. children, all children and their innocense
4. the beginnings and continuations of friendships that i know will last forever
5. handmade cards/gifts and handwritten words
6. nature and all of its beauty and glory

things that crack me up:
1. comedy central (most of the time :o) hehe)
2. my girls most of the time
3. a good movie (Tommy Boy, Caddyshack, Animal House)
4. my nephew and girls doing the "straw farting" out of their armpits!

what scares me:
1. dying young and without reaching all of my accomplishments (like raising my girls)
2. losing my parents and/or children
3. heights (i can do it, but i do NOT like it.)
4. violence and violent crimes
5. the unknown

on the dream horizon:

1. travel: Hawaii, Jamaica and Europe are top picks
2. catching up on my scrapbooks!
3. learning the "learning curve" of photography and digitally creating art
4. i would love to write a book. someday :o)
5. hearing the song "she's a hottie" and knowing that is ME! ha! not likely, however, this is the "dream horizon"

my favorite places on earth:
1. my bed
2. estes park, colorado
3. maui, hawaii
4. walt disney world, florida
5. cape may, new jersey

issues i often have to confront/work hard at:
1. patience
2. accepting my imperfections
3. finding that "perfect" balance
4. not worrying about my health

things i'm good at:
1. being a loving, supportive mommy
2. celebrating - even the little things
3. being a good friend to those who are good to me
4. working through conflict
5. cooking, i love to cook and i think i do pretty okay
6. having faith in the big picture
7. smiling. i'm a smiler. giggling. i'm a giggler too.

things i'm not so good at:1. being on time (for anything!) i am a procrastinator.
2. planning ahead (for birthdays, holidays)
3. staying on task (i tend to jump around from laundry to dishes to cleaning to dusting)
4. forgiving those who have hurt me
5. mornings (i do it, but i am not so hot about it, ask my girls)
6. gardening (and i really wish i was!)

foods i have a weakness for:
1. lasagna
2. cheddar baked potato soup
3. turtle cheesecake
4. my hot nuts (flamin' cajun crunch by planters)
5. Coke

why i do what i do:
1. because it pays me well.
2. because it has a better retirement.
3. because i want to
4. because it feels like me

The Good with the Bad

My cousin Christopher and his fiancee Allyson are being married over Memorial Day weekend. Our original plans were to drive from Illinois to Houston, Texas with all three girls. 18 HOURS of driving with THREE girls. I think Lance thought I was losing my mind. I thought it sounded like fun, except that we'd have to make the trip in 5 days, driving included. With the gas prices soaring higher than ever, we decided last weekend that Avery and I would fly down to the wedding and Lance and the eldest girls would stay home. Hannah and Gracie aren't even that bummed about it....they have "Field Day" at school that Friday and would have otherwise had to miss it. Avie is done with school on Thursday so it will be a little celebratory weekend for her and I. I am so psyched to see all of my aunts and uncles, cousins and their children. It's been since my Grandpa Hook passed away in 2006 since I've seen most of them!

On the other hand, we received word yesterday that Lance's Grandma Midge passed away. She had suffered at the hand of Alzheimer's Disease for many, many years. I am pretty sure she has had it since I have known her, almost 13 years. She is his step-grandma, she married his Grandpa Catour after his Grandma Catour passed away. But, she is still his grandma and we will all miss her smiling face. We will spend this weekend with his family saying our goodbyes and attending services. Seems like we have been doing this all-to-often lately and it really bothers our girls. We are going to have them attend the visitation, but not the funeral. They did not see Grandma Midge much (usually just family reunions) and they would be much more confused by it to go. Wish us luck!

Nesting, Exercising and Music!

Been a little absent lately. Not that I haven't been here, just nothing profound to write about. We've been happily enjoying the 70degree weather the past couple of weeks. We've cleaned out our garage, our basement and all of the closets. Everything is so much nicer to be around when it's clean and organized. I've done a little card-making but no hard-core scrappin' since I sorted the pictures. Which I find as funny since that's the excuse I used FOREVER as to why I wasn't caught up.

I've taken to working out 3 times a week to the Biggest Loser Cardio Max and Power Sculpt DVD's. You know how women are always trying to lose that "baby weight", well I never had that problem but I have 30 pounds of "chemo weight" that I need to lose. I need to feel energized, alive and happy again. Not that I'm not happy, I just don't like the way I look. So scratch that, I want to feel pretty again. The tapes are really making me feel good about myself, even though I don't "see" the results yet. I will keep plugging away.

I leave you with a pic of my girls at Hannah's Music Festival last night. It was a "Go Green" theme, all about preserving our earth for the generations to come. Happy Weekend, I'll be back next week!

Photo Organization ~ Mission: Accomplished!

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, but I took on the task of organizing my photos. You see, I used to be an organized scapper, I scrapped in order and never got out of order. That's how I always knew I wasn't caught up, lol! I spent all of last week and most of this week organizing all of my photos in order....you know the photos that were all thrown in a box in the Shutterfly and Walgreens sleeves. I put them all in chronological order in photo boxes to match the color scheme in my scrapbook room. I feel so amazingly exhilerated to have that done, and all without reading Stacy Julian's Photo Freedom....not that I don't want to, I just can't find the time. It's on my list.

So, I came across (in my pile of crap under my scrapdesk) a bunch (like 50) of old layouts that were ruined a couple of years ago when we had water backup into our basement. I managed to save all the photos with the help of some great photography people who gave me info on how to save them. Here is my first layout "re-do" of these pages. I actually saved the pages too, to be able to transfer the journaling accordingly.......this is Gracie's 3year old preschool class carnival. Here's hoping this inspires you all to make a page or two.