Day Two

Poor Megan is sick again today! She made a great attempt at getting there today. She even got up and showered. I'm hoping she'll feel much better when she wakes back up later. I just feel useless when one of my kids gets sick. I know she's stressing out thinking she's going to get behind in classes since this is day two. Poor baby!

I had a nice long talk this weekend with my Dad. Saturday was his birthday. (Not to be confused with my father-in-law's birthday last Thursday!) Nice of them to have their birthdays two days apart. Makes looking for that perfect Happy Birthday Dad card easy! Although I suppose that if they weren't close together I could always buy cards and hang on to one - - - but knowing me I'd forget where I put it!

Gotta love it!

Just thought this was funny - and thought I'd share it with you guys. Not sure I'd know what to do with myself if some of those things happened! I'd be looking for Ashton Kutcher around the corner! Or maybe the aliens that took my usual children and left the perfect children....I'm lucky and thankful enough to know I do have some of the things on the list though! Ok - so the gourmet meal might need a cleaning crew to come in after it was made to clean my fabulous home in the perfect neighborhood - but I'm still thankful!

Big HAPPY BIRTHDAY WISHES to my father-in-law, Dale, today!!!

So Long RCA Dome

David called from work earlier this week and told me he had an opportunity to purchase 6th row seats for the Colts playoff game.

Most of you that know me know that the cost of something like this usually would have me saying "no". This is one of those rare occasions where I told him just NOT to tell me the price! I haven't had the chance to attend a home game in years! I knew it might be Tony Dungy's last year coaching - and on top of that it would probably be the last home game in the RCA Dome. I'm SO glad we went! Even though we lost the game - it was fabulous being

there for the final game! The seats were absolutely the best I've ever had. We even sat behind Channel 13's former weatherman - Bob Gregory. (The white haired guy).

This was our view of Dallas Clark making the 1st touchdown of the day. No zoom used!

I just HAD to get a shot of Bob Sanders dancing. Seemed like he did a lot of that!

I even wore my #29 jersey - although it is so old that when I got it it was for Eric Dickerson, not Joseph Addai. But Joseph is one of my very favorite players - so it works out well!

Just a few shots of Peyton in action!

Considering how many of our starters were injured this year I think we still had a great season. I'm hoping Tony sticks around for another year - but he's such a great guy - you can't fault him for wanting to have more time with his family.

David & I also had dinner at Ariane & Alex's Friday night. She cooked totally Japanese. She even got David to try edamame! Dispite the fact that something was a little too rich for my blood (maybe too much of the tofu?? - but it was sooo good) the evening was lots of fun! I'll have to get her recipes because the meal was wonderful. Maybe I should try cooking them one at a time to figure out which one got the best of me???? One of the funniest parts of the evening was David calling Katie to come pick us up at midnight. Although Ariane lives in our old neighborhood - less than a mile away - neither one of us felt too great about driving home. It was tooooo freaking cold to walk - so we did what we have always told her to do - call for a ride. We're hoping it made a lasting impression on her about being responsible! But it was a funny ride home! Another "first" you never think about when having kids!

Hello

How cute is this? Yesterday morning I was looking out the window and saw a white blob in the woods across the street. Yes, I didn't have my glasses on. So I got my camera figuring I could probably zoom in and figure out what it was. Ok, so I'm not a bird watcher - and am not sure if this is an owl or some other preditory bird - but thought is was cool that this HUGE bird was sitting in the trees. Then I noticed this squirrel climbing up to take a better look, too. They just sat there looking at each other for a long while. The squirrel even climbed around to a limb on the bird's other side - as if to get a better look.

We did get to see a few friends over the holidays. David & I had a really nice time meeting up for dinner with Mike and Karla Giardina in Oldenburg. This is our second year doing this - and we are hoping it becomes a tradition. We had a lovely surprise visit from the Diehn family this past weekend. David & I even went with Tim & Suzanne to see a house in our neighborhood. They will be moving back from England over the summer. They still have time for another house hunting trip home before it is really crunch time - which means we'll hopefully get to see them again.

The holidays are over but the kids aren't back in school until next Tuesday. I did the dreaded bill paying yesterday. Today is packing up the decorations. It should be easier this year - as last year I packed things in boxes per room. When I took down the lights outside this year I was even organized enough to map out what lights and extension cords went where. Scary how organized I'm becoming! So....this is what it's like to be a grown up? Me???

I wish everyone a wonderful New Year!

Merry Christmas to All!!

We at the Hull House wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!

Live, Laugh, Love!

Chicago....Ahh!

So the Chicago trip with Kelly was really relaxing! We got caught up in a traffic jam just south of the city - which turned out to be a jack-knifed truck. The highway ended up being closed down for hours so the police re-routed us off the highway (into the "hood") and we had no idea which way to go. It was totally cloudy - so we couldn't just look for downtown. So we

decided to act like we were on the Amazing Race and find our way! Turned out to be quite an adventure with one of us (hard to believe but not me!!) having to find a bathroom. Along the way we ran across a chicken restuarant called "Hienie's". Ewww! Being the mature people we are....I HAD to get a picture of it! The other pictures are views from the hotel. It was great. The city looked beautiful all decked out for the holidays with lights and snow. Did some Christmas shopping, too.

And what a difference a week can make. It is a good thing we didn't try and go this weekend. Megan and I have spent each of the past two mornings shoveling off the driveway. Snow, then ice, then rain, ice and snow! The winds are making it like blizzard conditions today. Which made it a little difficult for Katie driving to work this morning. She ended up off the side of the road. She's fine and nobody else was around her - so we just had to get her out of the ditch. Good lesson learned about gusting winds, probably a little too much speed and slick roads!

Laura was in from Virginia Monday and Tuesday. It was great to see her. She actually didn't leave until Friday night, but our schedules just didn't work out for the last few days of her business trip. Good thing she flew out before all the fun weather! Then again, maybe not. It would have been fun to have her snowbound here for the weekend! I had an extra shovel.....

All my shopping is finished and now the wrapping can begin! I'm really trying not to do a "marathon" event as usual. Wish me luck!

Thanks, again, to Kelly for helping me recharge my batteries! Nothing like a few drunken rounds of "Don't Forget the Lyrics" to make you feel on top of the world!

Winter Formal

Another year - another winter formal! Megan's first and Katie's last.

They both looked so pretty - if I do say so myself! For those of you wondering - that is Katie's boyfriend, Zane. Megan opted to go with girlfriends Allisa and Brittney. She was asked to go but I'm not sure she really wanted to start that whole "meet my dad" thing on a night like this. Probably a lot less stressful for all involved!!!

I am being adult-napped on Friday by Kelly. She is coming through Columbus on the way to a baby shower in Chicago. We'll be leaving after we get the girls off to school Friday morning - and won't be back until sometime Sunday night. Sounds like a slice of heaven!!!