Merry Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas to all my family and friends!!!

Christmas past - the first year Henry was with us (2005) :




Christmas present :




Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season!

HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY KYLE!!!

Today is my baby's 8th birthday. It's so hard to believe that it's been eight years since I was in the hospital with him. I guess I should just be thankful to have such vivid memories of the experience.

Here he is in the hospital eight years ago, with my swollen hand. I remember saying it looked like he was going to have red hair and one of the nurses disagreed with me.

Kyle is a very genuine, caring, kind boy, not to mention extremely smart. He makes me proud everyday! He's also a comedian, but at the same time is becoming more responsible. I'm so thankful for him and who he is. I can't imagine life without him.

Happy birthday, Kyle! Mom-mom loves you!

It's been a good month...

So far. Things are changing. I usually can't stand change, but this is different.

First of all, three out of four Miners are celebrating birthdays this month. I'm first. My birthday is the 16th and I will be turning 36. (Aaaaah!!!!!) Kyle is next. On the 21st, my baby will be eight years old. Then on the 28th, Jason will be the big 3-9. That's just not right. I met him when he was only 19!

Tomorrow is a big day for Jason. It's his first day at his new job!!! After almost 15 LONG years at his old job, he resigned. I'm pretty sure he would've killed someone if he had stayed there much longer. The company has been going downhill the last few years and Jason was miserable there. I worry a lot, but I'm not worried about this change. I'm happy for my husband and excited for him to get settled into his new job! I wish him the best.

I can't believe the holidays are upon us. I'm almost done shopping. There are two VERY excited children in our house. They can't wait for Santa to come. (Yes, even my almost 11-year old still believes!) Kyle's favorite saying is that holidays are about family. He came up with that himself and he's right!

If I don't get back to my blog before Christmas, I wish everyone Happy Holidays!

Kyle's turkey project

Kyle had to disguise a turkey for school. The object was to chose a disguise to prevent the turkey from being eaten this Thanksgiving (nice thought for 2nd graders!). Kyle decided to turn his turkey into a different bird, a penguin. Penguins are one of Kyle's favorite animals. It was supposed to be a family project so I helped by making the scarf, ear muffs and mittens. Please notice the natural colored feathers to help make it look like there really was a turkey under the disguise! I think it turned out pretty cute and was a creative idea.

There also had to be a little description included from the turkey describing what he's disguised as. Kyle wrote that his is going to the North Pole to take care of his egg, as male emperor penguins do.

Three cats and a collie

My Hen curled up on his bed

Emma in one of favorite spots in our room

Yoda curled up on our bed, showing one of her bald spots


Cole hanging out on the couch

Halloween 2009

Happy Halloween! It's the end of the day. Trick-or-treating is over and the wizards are tired. Justin and Kyle were in their costumes most of the day. They wore them to bowling for the costume contest. Kyle won first place in his division. He received a $20 gift card to Toys R Us. Justin didn't place. Two boys dressed as Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus won.

I have to send out a HUGE thank you to my talented mom for making these awesome costumes! It didn't take her long, but she bought all the material and made them with her own two hands. She made the shirts, pants, belts, cloaks and hats for both of them! Needless to say, the boys got a lot of compliments today while wearing their costumes.

Pumpkin carving

Kyle asked me a couple days ago if we could carve a pumpkin. I love pumpkins and always buy a few every year. However, I don't like to carve them since I like leaving them outside until Thanksgiving. But I told him we could if he helped. He was really excited and said this was going to be the best Halloween ever!

Kyle chose the face he wanted for our jack-o-lantern and the carving began. I didn't get a whole lot of help. Kyle was supposed to scoop out the pumpkin's guts, but gagged at the first handful, so I did the rest.

I'm not a very good pumpkin carver, but Kyle was happy with the end result. Currently, our jack-o-lantern is on the porch with ants on and in it. Yuck.

HE DID IT!!!

He is Tony. Tony is my brother the marathon runner. Tony qualified for the Boston Marathon this morning!!! He ran a marathon in Cleveland, OH this morning and finished in 3 hours 8 minutes. This is 17 minutes less than his last time! WOW!

I believe Tony's first marathon was Chicago 2004. (I'm sure he'll correct me if I'm wrong.) His time back then was about 4 and a half hours. He has run many marathons since then in many different states, including two ultra-marathons which are 50K. It became his goal to qualify for the ultimate, the Boston Marathon. When running is your sport, you need patience which Tony has. He has the patience that I lack! He used that patience and endurance and reached his goal.

I'm so excited for him and SO very proud of my little brother. Way to go Tone!!!

(The above photo is from marathon in Batavia, IL that Tony ran in September. It's just a proof that he e-mailed to me, but our parents are in the background watching him cross the finish line.)

I'm still here

I didn't fall off the face of the earth, I just found Facebook. I use it to update and don't have to type as much as I do on my blog. This was more fun when I first started it. Now I feel like all I do is talk about what room I painted and my sons' good grades. That's what my life revolves around. However, my mom requested that I post something and no matter how old I am, I have to listen to her.

I'm enjoying autumn. I love the cool weather, my fall decorations, wearing sweatshirts, and the smell of my pumpkin spice candles. I'm listening to the boys running around outside with their friends right now. The weather is beautiful today so they need to be out while they can! Soon after dinner the sun will set and it's homework time.

Justin and Kyle have had another great start to the school year. The lowest grade on Justin's progress report was a 94% and he has the highest reading level in his class. The only downside is that although we're proud of him, we're not surprised. Kyle is coming home with excellent grades on all his papers despite being in the accelerated program.

Hopefully we'll be getting out to one of the state parks this month. We try to do a nature walk this time of the year when the leaves are changing. It's nice that the boys appreciate things like that. My brother, Tony is going to Ohio this weekend for a marathon. He hopes to qualify for Boston this time. I wish him the best!!! Then in November, he's participating in the New York marathon. Pretty cool!

I also need to have a moment of silence. Today is the day the I totalled my car back in 1995. It was my green '95 Mustang. I was fortunate enough to walk away from the accident, but at the time that car was really important to me. It was my first big purchase after college.

That's all for now. In a few weeks it'll be Halloween, so I'll have pictures of the boys in their wizard costumes that my mom is making. Stay tuned.

Back to school

Today was the first day of school for Justin and Kyle. Justin returned as a 5th grader and Kyle as a 2nd grader. I'm such a proud mom, but I can't get over how fast time has gone and how big they're getting!

Justin is already excited that at the end of the year the 5th graders get to go on a big field trip to Navy Pier. The elementary school that Justin attends is attached to a middle school. Because the elementary school is so full, Justin's classroom is IN the middle school. He thinks that's cool.




Kyle started at a different school this year just down the street from Justin's. Kyle was invited to begin the district's challenge program this year which is only available at certain schools. He's not nervous about the accelerated learning (I think he's happy about that), but was a little nervous that he wouldn't know anyone in his class. Fortunately, he already knows a few of his classmates.

Today was a short day for them, but it went well. Hopefully the whole year will go smoothly!

Henry update

Since a lot of people have shown concern for Henry (mostly on Facebook), I thought I'd share some good news...

He walked down the hallway a couple times today!!! I was freaking ecstatic! I'd been trying not to stress out about it too much the last couple days. Since Kyle hadn't been feeling well, that helped me focus on something else. Today, Henry seemed less stressed. He went a little further into the hall than normal so I decided to coax him a little. I almost fell over when he came towards me. The phermone diffuser may be helping already.

As a reward, Henry got to go out in the backyard with Justin and his friends tonight. He ran around like crazy! They were all having a lot of fun. Henry is exhausted and will be getting a terrific night's sleep!

Time flies...

I can't believe it's mid-August. The boys go back to school on August 24th. To me, that's the end of summer.

Jason was on vacation last week. He'd like to sit around and play video games the whole time, and fire up the grill, but we did get out to the Museum of Science and Industry mainly to see the temporary Harry Potter Exhibition. A lot of the museum is under construction (much like Brookfield Zoo when we were there), but they still charge full admission. I'm not a big Harry Potter fan, but the exhibit was enjoyable, maybe because Justin was so intrigued.


This past weekend, Jason and I had a wedding to attend ( a co-worker of mine) and on Sunday I took the boys to their first Kane County Cougars game. It was a work outing. The weather was HOT and it started to rain in the 7th inning, but Justin and Kyle seemed to enjoy it. I think Kyle enjoyed his funnel cake more than the game, but Justin was interested.

As for this week, I think I should've stayed in bed. On Monday morning I spent about two hours on the phone trying to get things straightened out with the hospital and insurance companies from an incident with Kyle back in March. He was pushed down on the playground on accident, but hit the back of his head on the pavement pretty hard. As a precaution, I took him to his doctor and a cat scan was performed. All was normal, but everyone at the hospital seems to be confused that the school's insurance is taking care of the charges, despite the fact that Jason has faxed the papers to them about three times and we've both made several phone calls in the last few months regarding the matter! Ridiculous. I'm pretty sure I was in the middle of a nervous breakdown when I finally talked to someone with a brain that had the answer.


Then there's my bigger and hairier problem named Henry. He's pushing me over the edge. For some unknown reason he will no longer walk down the short hallway on the first floor of our house. There is a wood laminate floor in the hallway that leads into the kitchen. This is the same floor we've had the entire time he has lived with us (four years!). He only wants to walk on carpeted areas. And yes, I tried putting throw rugs down for him. It's gradually gotten worse. We used to be able to call him a couple times and he'd get up enough nerve to walk on it, but now he'll just stand at the edge of the carpet and whine. This morning I actually picked him up and carried him down the hall to the back door so he could go outside. He weighs 85 pounds. He's calm unless he's trying to get up the nerve to walk on the floor. He's never had any behavior problems and part of the existing problem is that I don't know the cause.

I am a veterinary professional and constantly give advice to people about their pets. But here I am in the middle of this odd situation with my own pet and it's beyond frustrating!!! I just want to help him, but I think all I can do is be patient (which I suck at). Hopefully in time he'll regain his confidence. And in the meantime I should just be thankful that he hasn't become aggressive or destructive instead. I love my dog and want him to be normal again.

*I did purchase a plug-in device for Henry. It's called DAP, dog appeasing phermone. It's supposed to mimic the comforting phermone that his mother once secreted. However it can take four weeks to see improvement. I just bought it yesterday. I actually used a device similiar to this for cats a couple years ago and it seemed to help.

Backyard work

I've been wanting to get rid of these ugly bushes for years! (I'm talking about the ugly ones with the yellow flowers.) They were here when we moved in almost 7 years ago. I hated the alternating pattern around the deck (not my landscaping style). They grow like crazy and I trim them down every year. I decided to do that earlier this week, but found that I couldn't cut much off without showing dead branches underneath. I figured this was a good excuse to dig them out. Now they're gone and our yard looks bigger and better! It looks great without them, like they were never there.

A visit from Becky and Bob

Becky is Jason's cousin from Los Angeles. Bob is her husband. Becky's 25-year high school reunion was this weekend in Indianapolis. Since Bob had never been to Chicago, they decided to head up this way for a couple days after her reunion. (Bob is not sheltered - he has lived in many states, just never stopped in Chicago.) So we got to spend a few hours visiting with them yesterday at Jason's parents' house. It wasn't long enough, but nice to get to know them a little better. I had only met Becky once before at our wedding. Obviously I didn't get to spend much time with her that day. We've been communicating on Facebook the last few months, so I feel I've gotten more familiar with her that way.

Jason's family is all over the country. Some are in the Washington D.C. area, Ohio, New York, and California. Fortunately, we're kind of in the middle of all of them and near a big city, so we get visits from an uncle, aunt, or cousin now and then. Becky's mom and dad are headed out here in the fall so now we're looking forward to that!

I'm back!

My apologies to those that regularly check in on my blog. I appreciate your patronage! Despite this cool weather, it is summer and I just haven't felt like sitting at the computer (except to check in on Facebook!). Here are a couple new posts for you...

Yearly trip to the zoo

Every summer the boys and I take a trip to Brookfield Zoo. We were there yesterday. The weather was perfect, but that meant a lot of other people were there as well. The zoo is currently undergoing quite a bit of construction. I wish they would lower their admission prices if I can't even go inside the pachyderm house! Seriously. I'm also wondering if the lions died. Only about two years ago, my boss did a root canal and placed a crown on a canine tooth of one of the males, so I know they had one there. (I think there are pictures of him doing that procedure on riverheightsvet.com)

Overall, the three of us had a nice day together. But we do plan on going up to Milwaukee County Zoo in August when Jason is on vacation.

Master bedroom re-do

I finally got mine and Jason's bedroom redecorated. It was this sage green color with navy blue accents. I had done it a couple years ago and it started to look stale to me. A couple months ago, I found a red comforter that I liked. I knew it wouldn't look good with the green paint, so I'd have to choose something neutral. I decided on just a light colored neutral mushroomy sort of color and chocolate brown for an accent color. After I painted all the walls this light color, it was very plain looking. I knew I was going to use a stamp or a stencil to liven it up. I found a wall stencil that I loved. It's a scroll design on an 18" square. I chose to use it on the largest wall in our room which is 15 feet long (because I'm insane). I think it took me about 12 hours total. Fortunately I'm very happy with the result!

There's Emma enjoying the new comforter. Red is not a good color for hiding cat hair!

School's out!!!

Today is the first full day of summer vacation! Too bad we're having such yucky weather. Oh well, the boys don't care as long as they don't have to go to school.

Justin and Kyle brought home the most awesome report cards! I already mentioned that we knew Justin was getting straight A's again, but seeing that many A's on one piece of paper is just amazing. For the 4th quarter, he was graded in NINE subjects. His teacher added a little side note that said: "What more can I ask for? You are a great kid! :) "
AND, Justin had lunch with the assistant principal (who will be the new principal for the 2009-2010 school year) on Monday. Only one student from each class got to have a special pizza lunch with her for being the best behaved in the class. He was also given an award for his excellence in behavior. I told him that was almost better than his perfect grades. What better compliment can you give a 4th grader?

Kyle has that wierd report card with the E's and M's. Twenty out of the twenty-four catagories that Kyle was graded in were E's, meaning that he consistently exceeds the district standards for those things. His teacher commented that it was great to have Kyle in her class this year and to keep up the good work at his new school. He has to make a transfer to move into the challenge program.

Wow, I sure do brag a lot, but I just can't help being so proud of my sons! My sons who are now a 5th grader and 2nd grader.

The boys' bathroom makeover

I still liked the decor in the boys' bathroom (the hall bath upstairs), but it was getting old. We've lived in this house for almost seven years and I had only painted it ONCE! That's unusual for me. Obviously I had to find the right shower curtain to replace the one that we had. I found one last week and decided to go for it. I have never used turquoise paint! I'm not really a fan of the color blue. I like the way it turned out, but it doesn't look like a room that would be in our house. Crazy.

I'll be tackling a bigger room next. Mine and Jason's bedroom.


(The before picture is on top.)

End of the year achievements

There are only three more days of school left! The teachers handed out the end of the year awards today. Justin and Kyle both came home with two awards each.

Justin received an achievement award recognizing that he got straight A's all four quarters! Kinda kills the suspense of opening the report card in a few days, but that's okay! I always reward the boys at report card time with small gifts ($10 or under). After Justin received his 2nd quarter report card, he said he thought he'd get something pretty big if he had all A's for the whole year. I told him we'd give him $50 if he did, knowing he most likely would. I guess I have to take a ride to the bank!
Justin's 2nd award of the day was the principal's award. This one is special because only ONE student in each class gets it every quarter. At the bottom his teacher wrote: "Thanks for being such an awesome hard worker all year!"

Kyle was awarded a perfect attendance award for the 3rd quarter. He also received an award for academic achievement.

Congrats to both Justin and Kyle for their outstanding achievements!!! And thanks for continuing to make your parents so very proud of you!!! You both had a wonderful school year and we love you both!!!

Unusual hair day

For the last 26 days of school, both the boys had an ABC countdown to finish up the year. Each day they had a different theme or activity that started with that day's letter. Their countdowns were different. Today was "U" day. Kyle had under the sea day - perfect for him! Justin's was unusual hair day. This is how he went to school this morning! Back in kindergarten they had a spirit week and this is what we did for crazy hair day. I can't believe he wanted to do it again four years later!

I named it "Pidgee"

If I see an animal in need, I help it. This has always been my nature. I'm not much of a bird lover, but they're animals, none the less, so I feel I am required to help them too.

On Memorial Day, I spotted a pigeon standing on my neighbors' drive-way. It was one of those pigeons you see on the sidewalk in downtown Chicago. We don't normally have those hanging out in our subdivision. I walked up to it and noticed it had bands on it's legs. I figured it belonged to someone, but I know nothing about pigeons. Hoping it would fly away, I left it alone. Later that day, it was in a different neighbors' backyard (next door to us). I decided to capture it and keep it in a cat carrier overnight. I was a little hesitant to catch the bird since I didn't know what it's reaction would be. It turns out that it had an injured wing, so it was pretty easy to capture. I put it in a carrier, gave it some bread, and named it "Pidgee".

The next morning, I started out by calling our county's animal control. I have very little respect for them due to previous experiences, but I figured I'd see if they could put me in the right direction. I mentioned the bands that were on the bird's legs and the guy told me it must be a racing pigeon. I almost fell over. I had NO idea there was such a thing! He told me I had to get the number off the band and look it up online to locate the owner. Seriously.

After I wrote down the number from the band, I found the pigeon union online. Yes, there is a racing pigeon union! They're located in Pennsylvania. So I made a long distance call and was told I had to call the supplier of the band. They gave me the "owner's" name and number. These people told me that they no longer owned the pigeon and it belonged to someone else. After I had this injured bird for 24 hours, I decided to contact the pigeon union. I was concerned not only because I didn't know the extent of Pidgee's injuries, but he also wasn't eating. I was referred to a member of the union that lives near me that would probably help me out. When I talked to him on the phone he sounded like the oldest man that ever lived! He's been racing pigeons for 50 years! He was very nice and helpful and came to rescue Pidgee. He said Pidgee probably ran into the power lines across the street from us and assured me he'd be okay.

The whole ordeal still seems unreal to me. I still can't believe people race pigeons! To each his own, I guess.

Kyle's news

Last night after the party, we came home and Jason went to bed (he has to turn in early on Saturdays since he gets up at 4am for work on Sundays). Shortly after that, Kyle decided one of his teeth was ready to come out. He's had two that have been pretty loose for the last week. Kyle has never removed his own tooth, I've pulled the last four. He told me it hurt when I moved this one so he wanted to do it himself and he did! When it came out, he showed it to me in the tissue. I told him I was proud of him. Then the drama came (typical for Kyle). He said, "I'm so happy I'm gonna cry!" He sat on the couch crying his eyes out for a minute. But there was no crying this morning when he showed me the $5 the tooth fairy left.
The new hole in Kyle's mouth is the on the bottom on his right side.

Justin's new high score

Saturday night we celebrated my father-in-law's birthday with Jason's family. Sarah, the eldest granddaughter, threw out the idea of a bowling party. So, we all met at the bowling alley and then went back to Jason's parents' house for cake and gifts. Everyone bowled except for my mother-in-law and me. Justin had an awesome time! He wound up with a 166 game. That's his new high! He was really excited. I guess he was just having a good night, because his next score was a 157.

Justin also had his state parade at school on Friday. I just wanted to mention that his grade on the float was a 28/30. On his written report he scored a 98%. (Only 10 more days of school left!)

Making Arizona

Every year at the boys school, the fourth graders have to research one of the fifty states. They are required to complete a written report and design a float to go with it. There is even a parade during school hours where they drag their floats through the halls. Since Justin's in fourth grade this year, it's his turn to be a part of this experience. Justin wanted to do California, Florida, or Hawaii, but those were taken. He wound up with Arizona.

For those of you that think this float looks good, I thank you. I personally don't like it, but that's because of all the stress it caused Justin and me. Justin's teacher sent home directions for the project which I read several times. After the completion and having to ask a neighbor for help with this thing, I can tell you that her directions were crap! It took me a while to get the right size box from work, so even though we had more than enough time to work on this, we just started last weekend. I figured once it was started we'd get it done pretty quickly (at least I was right about one thing).

Justin is imaginative when he's writing, but not a very good designer. I came up with a plan for his project after looking at pictures of Arizona online. I found a pretty picture of a sunset desert. Since we were told we needed a box that couldn't be a shoe box, I figured we were making a large diorama that could be seen by the parade spectators (even though it's called a "float"). When someone tells me I need a box, I automatically assume stuff is going IN the box, not ON it!

Late Sunday morning, Justin and I had everything prepared for the project - he painted all the scenery and I made the cacti. I told him we'd break for lunch while our things were drying and then we'd assemble it afterwards. That's when he tells me he thinks we're supposed to turn the box upside down and put our display on it. I won't type the words that went through my mind at that moment. Here I am thinking this thing is coming along great and we're almost done! He was aware of my plan the whole time! Weeks ago, long before we started, I told him what I had in mind for this! Poor Justin began crying at the kitchen table while I'm running around FREAKING OUT!!! I didn't even mention that had to go out and buy $20 worth of supplies for this thing, which I think is wrong, but anyway...

Thankfully, Justin is good friends with a boy down the street who is also in fourth grade. Better yet, his sister was in fourth grade last year. I often talk to their mom, so I got her on the phone to find out the truth about the float. Yes, our display was to be on top of the box. She came over to look at what we had done and helped me adjust it so we could still use everything we had already made. I couldn't thank her enough!

This is the finished product. Justin seems to like it. The parade is on Friday afternoon. Jason will be attending, but I'll be at work. After all the hatred I've felt for this project, I've decided it's probably better that I won't be able to go.

My sons and I on Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to the mom's in my life! I hope you have a delightful day. I know this day may be difficult for some. I have a couple of my followers in mind. You're in my thoughts and I wish you well.

The chairs in which we sat

Friday was a sad day for my mom and I. Our favorite Starbucks was closed for good. It was one of the older stores and didn't have a drive-thru. We were told they weren't bringing in enough money. Well maybe they shouldn't have opened so many new stores a couple years ago. There is a new one that opened a little over a year ago about a mile from our old one with a drive-thru. My mom and I were all excited about it at first, but after going there once or twice we went back to the old one. We missed our chairs and familiar faces.

This is a picture of our favorite chairs. They were kind of gross, but very comfortable. This is where we sat on most Tuesday and Wednesday mornings for the last two years. And this is me with "T" (Taneshia) our favorite barista. Her smile brightened up the whole place. We know the location she's being transferred to, so we'll be going there to visit her on Tuesdays!