Nothing but Rain

Yep. Two plus weeks of it. We still managed to enjoy our time with family and friends. And I always adore some alone time with my man. Nothing like it.

Ron and Bon joined us for a week and Lauren and Nathan came down for Easter weekend. Rick and Ron caught plenty of fish. Enough for a Good Friday fish fry and then some. Ron caught a 20lb. spoonbill catfish that he cleaned and fileted. Not knowing what it would taste like we cooked a small portion and all decided it was not fit for human consumption. However, it was the biggest fish Ron has ever caught. Go Ron!

Nathan trailered his new motorcycle down here but only got a chance to ride once. I felt bad for him. All he wants to do is ride that bike. When he was buying it a few weeks ago I told him he needed to get a helmet for my daughter and he did. He is such a nice young man. The nicest boyfriend Lauren has ever had. I can't find a thing I don't like about him. Makes me suspicious, just my nature. But I'm going to try and lighten up. Lauren, Nathan and I stayed up late one night playing Sorry and the two of them were so busy jumping each other that I won. Twice. I love it. I never win at Sorry but they won't play Scrabble with me anymore. I'll have to wait until we go to New York this summer to play Scrabble. Gotta beat Caroline.

And then there was the egg coloring party. Rick made his usual "Floyd" egg and Nathan made a "John Deere" egg. Yes, he's a farm boy. Lauren made an "I heart U" egg for Nathan. I looked at Nathan and said, "I used to get the "I Heart U" egg!" So Lauren made another one for me that simply said "Mom." Oh well.

We had some of the most incredible storms over the past 2 weeks. Several trees in the hood are down including two of our neighbor's trees that fell on her boat dock. A total mess. It looked as if the neighbors would be able to salvage their boat dock but after more heavy rains and rising waters the dock just couldn't take anymore and went under. DOH!

Rick had a client come down for a weekend of fishing. Something they have been trying to do for years and finally managed to get it together. Well, needless to say there was no fishing. It was all we could do to get to the dock. But the inventor and the patent attorney put their heads together and came up with the Redneck Raft. I have to say it worked pretty well except that you really need to step onto the raft in the middle. Learned that the hard way.

Last but not least, our house was struck by lightning. We were lucky, though. No fire and no serious damage. But it did fry our TV, surround sound, my beloved ipod, the Wii and my Jacuzzi tub. Currently waiting for Lakeysha, the insurance adjustor, to get back to me. I have expect to get screwed by the insurance since insurance is the biggest "legal" scam going. As soon as you make a claim, boom, up go your rates. We'll have to see what happens with that. I sincerely hope I am wrong.

Cadiz April 2011

A couple of weeks ago was my last Mom's weekend at U. of I. Colleen flew in from New Mexico to tag along with me, Karla and Michaelene. Then, just for fun, Rick came down on Saturday. That meant that Rick, me, Karla, Mikey and Colleen all shared a hotel room Saturday night. Rick has been known to crash Girl's Weekend in the past and the girls never seem to mind. He fits in quite well. So we get back to the hotel on Saturday night about 2am, Rick is parking the car and we are heading to the room when someone says, "Do we have to sleep in our bras?" Turns out it wasn't an issue since we were all tucked in by the time Rick got to the room. Lights out, ready to crash and who starts the giggling? That's right, Rick. We all were like, "REALLY Rick?" Guess he never had too many sleepovers.

Lauren has a good friend, Billy, from high school that pitches for U. of I. baseball. Billy and Rick have always had the baseball bond and have talked incessantly about the game over the years. It was fortunate for us that Billy was pitching that Saturday of Mom's Weekend so we finally got to see him play. Rick sat right beside the girl with the radar gun and asked her after each pitch how fast Billy was throwing. Billy was so thrilled that we came to see him play that he got Rick a game ball signed by the entire U. of I. team. It now sits in a case on our fireplace mantle in the basement. A nice addition to our sports memorabilia collection.

Oh, and Ozzy loves college!

Mom's Weekend U. of I. 2011

Next up is graduation weekend. Where did those 4 years go?

A belated happy birthday shout out to Justin. Love you and miss you man.

And Henry is walking! Look out world!

OMG!

That was my response when Lauren called today to tell me that she was the proud recipient of a full scholarship to Pepperdine University! Actually, it may have been, "Are you fucking kidding me?!" It was one of those. We are so proud, as are her brothers. She has worked so hard for everything. I have always said that good things come to those who do good. I think she just might believe me now. She told me she posted something to that effect on her facebook page. The time has come. I must do the facebook thing. UGH!

Oh......and Happy 50th Birthday to my big brother Michael! So good to see you today. May you have 150 more!

Its Official

Skating is over and Lauren is heading to California this summer. Two big whammies.

IllinoiSkating actually got the chance to spend a day at Disneyland before competing. This photo is of the four seniors, at Disneyland, who skated all four years. There were others but they didn't last. Illinois placed 8th out of 9 teams. They had their best skates of the year and you can't ask for more than that. So sad to see it end. I can hardly look at the pictures without tearing up a bit. It's been a crazy 12 years. But so much fun. To my daughter: While I will miss all the good times we shared during your skating career, I am totally psyched for the next stage of your life. Pepperdine look out!

Yep. Its a done deal. Lauren will be attending Pepperdine University . We went for a tour and she was sold. We were sold. It wasn't hard to sell any of us. The campus is gorgeous and the graduate program that Lauren will be in only takes 6-12 students per year with about half of them continuing studies to pursue doctorate degrees, something Lauren is interested in. Most of her classes will be 6-12 students with the exception of her few "gen ed" classes that will have about 20-22. There are only 3500 total students at Pepperdine, smaller than Lauren's high school by 500. Wow. What an opportunity. Good for her. She has worked very hard, not only in college, but high school as well. I have always said that good things happen when you work hard. I think she gets it. First thing on her list is taking surfing lessons with her brother!

As for our time with the grandkids.......Too short. Audrey and Henry are growing up so fast. Henry is the happiest baby you have ever seen. The only time that kid fusses is when he is tired or hungry. That makes things so simple. Feed him or give him a nap. All the pictures can be viewed here. Disneyland, story time, park trips, meals and just plain fun. And we get to see them again in August when we take Lauren to school. Yippee!

Finally

Yesterday Lauren received an acceptance letter from Pepperdine University. Thank the good Lord. For the past month I have been inundated with phone calls and text messages from Lauren wanting to know if the mail has come and if she got anything from any of the schools she applied to. Like if something from one of the schools came in the mail I wouldn't call her! Pepperdine and USC are her top two choices, both of which we are touring on Monday while in LA. But just look at this place, who wouldn't want to go there? She has yet to hear from USC but just knowing she got into Pepperdine will make vacation more fun. We leave tomorrow morning for 11 glorious days in southern California. The first 4 days will be skating nationals, Lauren's last, then it's a week of fun with J & J and Audrey and Henry. I simply cannot wait to kiss those babies all over! So while we will have lots of fun over the next week it is also bittersweet. This will be the last time we see Lauren skate competitively. 12 years and it all comes down to this weekend. I hope I can hold it together. After Saturday there will be no more skate painting, bun sewing, I-L-L I-N-I yelling, late night lobby parties with the other parents and no more drama. At least skating drama. But Lauren loves drama so I'm sure she will find another source ASAP!

Go IllinoiSkating!

Happy to LIve in the HG

At least today. Two reasons. The first being the mayoral election coming February 22 in Chicago. Rahm Emmanuel. Really? He is the front runner as of now. He will most likely win only because of his association with Obama. It doesn't seem to matter that he has not even lived in the city for the last two years. In my opinion, that is why he should not win. Then there is Carol Moseley Braun. Where should I start? At a recent mayoral candidate forum she called another candidate a crack addict! If you don't believe me, Google it. This is who we want to run the great city of Chicago? And when she was a senator years ago, she was caught using campaign funds to fund a vacation to Hawaii with her then boyfriend. When asked to reveal her past years tax returns she told the public it was none of their business! That statement was quickly retracted and the spin doctors when to work. She is currently in second place behind Emmanuel in the polls. Why? She is a black women. Good for her but not a reason to vote for her.

Reason number two: Everyone knows by now of the great snowstorm of 2011. For a week prior to the storm, the media warned of the dangers impending. "Stay home!" "Take public transportation!" Yada, yada, yada. Most people did just that. Not the 300+ motorists that wound up stranded on Lake Shore Drive. Each and every one of them needed to be rescued by the city costing taxpayers lots of dough. They aught to be responsible for at least some of that cost. One motorist even admitted to being on his way to Starbucks! Idiots, all of them. And now they are screaming at the city for not rescuing them sooner. These folks need to take responsibility for their own moronic actions and stop blaming the city. The majority of Chicagoans are more than pleased with the handling of the blizzard. But the media will continue to focus on these idiots because they deem it "news."

So, while the politics in the HG leave much to be desired, I am thankful to live here. At least today.

IllinoiSkating Senior Team Takes Silver at Mids

This year IllinoiSkating has two teams: Collegiate and Senior. Lauren skates on both. There are several levels for colleges. The most popular being Collegiate and Open Collegiate. Those are the levels at which Illinois has skated in the past. This year they advanced their program and eliminated the Open Collegiate team and added the Senior team. I guess you could call it a rebuilding year. Unfortunate for Lauren since she is used to skating for winning teams. Senior level is the highest level of synchronized skating. And there are only nine Senior teams in the country, four of which are in the Midwest division. So while they took silver this weekend, there were only two teams competing in their division. The other two Midwest teams received a bye because they placed in the top four at Nationals last year. Illinois was either going to get silver or gold and they got silver. The big test will be at Nationals in March where all nine teams will compete. We're just hoping not to come in last place at Nationals.

There is nothing we love more than traveling, especially to see Lauren skate. But we love to come home to our pillows and our coffee. Ahhh, the simple pleasures of life.

And I really hate the Packers. All those cheeseheads will be wearing their championship t-shirts at Soldier Field next season. UGH!

Still Snowing

I am just loving this storm. It's hard to tell how deep the snow is from the pictures without someone standing in the snow, but trust me, it's deep. I just walked Ozzy and a few times he became lost in the snow drifts. He actually did his business standing up! The snow plows have yet to come through. No biggie though. Truthfully, no one is going anywhere anytime soon. Even Rick's office closed today. In his almost 40 years practicing law he has never had a snow day. Sophia was super excited to have a snow day until she found out that she would have to go to school an extra day at the end of the year to make up for it. She was not happy about that. And it is so cold and windy that the kids can't even play in the snow. Just too dangerous. I was only 2 years old when Chicago was hit with the snowstorm of 1967. However, I remember my brother Joe opening the door and the snow was taller than me. Today I walked through some drifts that were up to my behind. While I am only 5'3" that's still a lot of snow! I took a few pictures, nothing too exciting.

Snowstorm of 2011

IllinoiSkating is supposed to head to Rochester, MN for Midwestern Sectionals today. So are all the other midwest teams. Safe travels to all the skaters. And go ILLINI!