Happy 12th Birthday, Emily!

Emily turns 12 today! As usual, we woke her up with the Beatles "Birthday" song. She doesn't want much for her birthday - her choice for dinner, movie night with the family and a Facebook page. Dinner & movies are planned for tomorrow as Kate will be coming home for the weekend. She's graciously coming home to help out her sisters while David & I make a QUICK trip to FL for a friend's wedding. We'll only be in FL for 19 hours. Wish we could take more time to enjoy relax on the beach, but at least the wedding is actually at the beach. :)

Just how I'm feelin today!

Deja vu

We've just recently gotten word that Gabi's cancer is back with a vengeance. She has a new, fast growing tumor in a totally new place. She will be going to the Dr. tomorrow to talk about whether to even attempt chemo/radiation again. We had a wonderful visit with Gabi & Papa Saturday that even Kate was able to be there for. We appreciated the effort she made in meeting up with us! After the visit the six of us had a nice dinner together before Kate left for "home". I think it was harder to watch her drive away than it was for us to leave after moving her to the apartment.

On a lighter/happier note we got to babysit Connor, my Godson, Friday night. He is changing so fast! He's starting to have a little of Lauran showing up in his face now. Sarah got to hang out with him before she left for an night of skating. Emily & her friend, Katie, helped take him on a walk and I think the walk did them good too as they both went to bed quite nicely later. Megan was a trooper & hung out with me all night. It was really nice that Lauran hung out for a few hours when she came to pick him up. Reminded me of the Friday nights we would get together with her & her mom all those years ago - only then the baby was Kate!

The girls have all been enjoying having their own rooms since we got Sarah moved into Kate's old room last weekend. Yes - we totally LABORED on Labor Day weekend. But it's nice being able to get to their trundle beds easily now Em & Sarah aren't sharing. Makes school nights much smoother, too!

Today was a nice quiet day with the laundry...David was able to get in a 24 mile ride. Cody hung out over here all day with Megan. A very peaceful day, which we really needed. Tomorrow its back to the trenches...off to fight the good fight. Hope everyone had a great weekend. Keeping my fingers crossed that my cousin Michael & his wife Jillian (who is 40 wks & 4 days pregnant...ouch!) have baby Thomas SOON!!!

Hello, Is there anybody still out there?

Ok, I know it's been MONTHS...but I'm still alive! As my cyber friend, Kathy says, I've been seduced by Facebook! I have reconnected with a ton of friends from high school and old friends - and just seem to be there instead of here...I will try and correct that! So to catch you up...May saw a weekend trip for David & me to Philadelphia to a wonderful event planned by my brother, Kevin, for my parents 50th wedding anniversary. It was great! I've told my brother that if that "lawyer thing" doesn't work out he'd make a great event planner - he thinks he'll keep his day job. June is a blur & I remember nothing but work, home, band camp for Em, waiting for Lauran to have the baby, work, home, band camp, waiting. July saw the birth of my Godson, Connor Michael Fox on the 2nd (his mother's birthday!) and an offer on the house that with a bit of drama finally concluded with a closing in Aug. Still in July...Kevin & Lisa are heroes again as they flew Megan up to Milwaukee for a weekend of fun away from the parents. She's still talking about what fun it was. The next week John & Kelly Turner came for a quick visit - and surprised us by taking Megan, Emily & Sarah home with them for 4 glorious (for us at least) days. Kate had to work...so she missed out. Kelly ended up taking Em & Sarah with her to Alabama to visit another friend of ours for 2 of the 4 days. We also celebrated Sarah's 10th birthday - my baby is no longer in single digits & she's loving it! August brought the conclusion of the "old" house saga and a return to school for all the kids. It also saw the bittersweet moment of us helping Kate to move out into her 1st apartment in Bloomington. She won't be returning to the nest next summer as she has a job with a law firm that will keep her in Bloomington. So we loaded it all into a U-Haul and headed out. It was a LONG day! Luckily the next day we had Connor's baptism - so it helped soothe my heart. We are still hanging in there with the business and hoping for a turn in the economy soon! I am telecommuting more days than I'm in the office - and that helps since the office is a 35-40 min drive. Although I'd love to have so much invoicing to do to make it so I had to go more often...Ok, so now we're basically caught up & I promise not to drop off the face of the earth again! Hope you all had a great summer. Drop me a comment to let me know you're still out there, too! Oh and a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Zane today!

Megan's 16th Birthday

Saturday was Megan's 16th birthday. We had a WONDERFUL day! Megan, Katie and Sarah (more details in a minute) had their boyfriends over. Emily's 'bf', Tyler, wasn't over (Em was too embarrassed to call & ask him over - but since I know his mother spent part of the day floating in the freshly opened pool, I'll bet he was busy, too!) Zane brought over his Guitar Hero & Rock Band. Now, I've heard about these forever from friends, but never had the opportunity to play. Boy could I get addicted! It was way too much fun even with no alcohol involved! Normally we're more of an introverted bunch. David jokes that he just doesn't like people. I can be dragged out(I mean persuaded)by friends and usually have a great time - but am not an instigator. So to have a bunch of people over just to hang out is not our usual thing. For me it's because I worry too much. Is the house clean, do we have food or drink for all, will the kids behave, are we interesting enough for hours on end....for David, well, see above. I had asked Meg & Kate if they wanted to have the guys over for dinner for Meg's birthday. Cameron (Sarah's 'bf') lives down the street and just came down to play and ended up joining in. He's great about just hanging out - just like Cody & Zane. I'm sure David appreciated a little more testosterone in the house for awhile.

Maybe we're turning a new leaf with socializing. Friday night we went out to dinner with friends. Sarah's Godfather, Jeff, was in town. Now that man is an instigator. He's always good about making time to see us when he comes to town. We were joined by Katie's Godfather, Mike, Jeff's mom and Jeff's business associate & his wife. We lingered after dinner and it was really nice.

Sunday my parents made the trip over from Cincinnati to see us. It was a quick trip, as my sister had had hand surgery & was unable to do just about anything for herself. They needed to make it a short trip as they had to get back to her, but they wanted to give Meg her gift. They were able to stay long enough to see the "old" house after the open house was over. The open house that day went well. One woman that saw it brought her husband back to view it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it sells quickly. I just don't want to have to maintain the gardens all summer. I really need to take care of my own - which currently are weed infested.

So socializing...a new leaf or just a fluke??

Happy Birthday, Katie!

Happy 19th Birthday, Katie! Hope all your wishes come true!

Well, it's finally done! The old house is officially on the market. They've taken the pictures and it makes it look sooo big. I told the realtor not to get near me with that camera 'cause I didn't want to see what it would do to me! I'm always so nosey and want to see other houses - so if you're like me...and I know most of you are...go to www.c21breeden.com and put in for single family homes at the $164,900 price. Ours is the first one that comes up - Kensington Ct. The MLS# comes up some house in Michigan - so I can't get you there that way. We already had one showing today and have another scheduled for Sunday. Keep your fingers crossed for us!