Did you notice the change in my blog title?

I am one happy camper this evening because we have gone from empty nesters to having a full house...at least for a little while. As we all know, Sally has been living at home for the last six weeks while she has been student teaching and will continue to live at home for at least the first year after college. And then, a few weeks ago, Wayne was promoted and that promotion meant a move back to the Chicago area! Jack and I couldn't be any more excited. Wayne starts his new position as a customer category manager tomorrow and while the housing, move etc fall into place, he will be living at home also. It's probably only until June 1 and then he will be moving into the city with some friends from high school. But in the meantime, I am thrilled that all four of us will be sleeping under the same roof for a month or so. Here are two pictures from this evening. The first is Wayne unloading his car and the second is Wayne and Lily. Lily is happy to have Wayne and his laundry home. Me, too. :)

"...because it's Mom's weekend"

One of my favorite weekends, for the past 7 years, has been Mom's weekend at Illinois. Actually, I have great memories from Mom's weekends when I was at U of I and my mom came to visit. We still laugh about Marmar trying to get in the bunk beds in the open air sleeping dorms at Gamma Phis! I have also enjoyed my Mom's weekends with my kids. Sally and I invited Jack to come along this year since we are in the home stretch with our kids' college days. Plus, Jack is so much fun! Even though Jack was along, the weekend was all about me because it was Mom's weekend. That was my reason for anything that I did that I felt I needed to justify. It's Mom's weekend!

We got a little bit of a late start on Friday because of work schedules, or should I say, student teaching schedules. We stopped in town for a quick sandwich before getting on the road. We had plans to meet up with some friends at Firehaus. We were a bit late in meeting Lisa, John, Kim, Betsy, Peggy, Danny and Colleen because of a little snafu with our hotel check-in. It took three tries to get a room that was right. That makes it sound like we are picky. We are not. The first room had a king bed which wasn't going to work with the three of us. The second room was occupied. Definitely not. The third room was perfect. Kinda like Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Once we got checked in, we headed over to meet our friends. It was great to see them. It is so hard to believe that these kids were friends in preschool and now they are all getting ready to graduate from Illinois. The next picture is the moms toasting to that!
We stopped by an apartment party for a while. We really love Sally's group of friends. It is a mix of sorority sisters and guy friends. That group is how Sally met Matt. We stayed until about midnight and made the obligatory stop at Second Story for a slice of fresh, hot pizza. Oh how I will miss that stairway.


On Saturday, we slept in and then had the free breakfast at the hotel. They have the BEST made to order omelets. I think what I like best about them is they are thin and full of whatever I want. I had two of them because it was Mom's weekend, after all. We took it easy during the day because Sally had a bunch of work she wanted to get done for student teaching and Jack had some work to do for his business trip on Monday. While they were hard at work, I went to Chico's to check out the sales. I hit the jackpot and bought several things because it was Mom's weekend. We had dinner reservations for 5 pm at Outback Steakhouse with several of Sally's friends and their moms. We were a party of 17 and it was a delightful time. After dinner, Jack, Sally and I made a stop at Kam's for old times' sake. It was like being in a time warp with the 70s music playing (Doobie Brothers' Black Water and Aliotta Haynes and Jeremiah's Lake Shore Drive). We had another apartment party to go to, at Jamie, Caitlin and Meg's place, just one floor up from Sally, Sarah and Danielle's (that is a picture of their building). A good time was had by all! We left there about 1 am and stopped at One World Pizza..because it was Mom's weekend. Again we slept in on Sunday and I had my awesome omelete (only one this time) and we were on the road home by noon. Thanks for a great weekend, Sally!

Christy's birthday celebration

We had our first birthday of the year in our birthday club. It was Christy's birthday on 4/15 and I was the hostess (we draw names to decide who hostesses for whom). We did a field trip to one of Christy's favorite diners, The Depot Diner (see November 8th post if you want; I can't figure out how to link to one of my old posts!). We had 9 of the 12 members in attendance and we were able to squeeze around a table in a cozy little alcove. The diner is small (probably seats less than 30 people) and they don't take reservations, so we lucked out with being able to be seated right away. The Depot Diner does not serve alcohol, but allows you to bring your own wine and does not charge a corkage fee (even better!). We ordered a cheeseburger and cut it into pieces for our appetizer...soooo good. I had the BLT again, but the next time I go there I might have to get the pot roast sandwich that Christy and Kathy got. I had a bite and it was reaaaally good. Dessert was freshly made donut holes served with a light mocha sauce. Oh yeah. I liked that. We had a wonderful time eating comfort food and visiting and just enjoying each other. It was a great way to celebrate Christy. Love you, Christy Ann Marie!

Chuck's 30th anniversary

Can't believe how busy I have been lately. Really unusual for me, but I have had a bit of a social life in addition to my work schedule.
On Wednesday night, Jack and I went downtown to help celebrate a special anniversary. Our dear friend, Chuck, was celebrating the 30th anniversary of his first day on the job in Chicago. The reception was a surprise for him. Most of the attendees were his coworkers, but there were also a few family members and friends invited and we were honored to be included in the celebration. I loved the display of all of his head shots over the years and there was a video montage of classic Chuck moments. It brought back many memories. Teri and three of their kids (Caylen, Brittany and Chas) were there and did a lovely presentation in Chuck's honor. It was a beautiful evening. And what an accomplishment to celebrate. How many people these days celebrate a 30 year career with one organization? Amazing.

Hello, my faithful readers!

I apologize for the lack of blogging lately. I just don't know where time goes. Here are a few things that have been happening around here.
First for the sick report:
Marmar has been down -but not out -with bronchitis. She is on the mend, thanks to Sue who makes sure that Marmar gets the love and attention and meds that she needs. Marmar is not patient when it comes to being sick and does not like it one bit. Glad she is feeling better.
On a more serious note, Mike (Jack's brother) is not feeling well and is back in the hospital and we are praying for a quick recovery for him. He is being well taken care of by his wife, Sue (what is it with these Sues? must be a care-taking kind of name!).
Next, in happier news-
As mentioned in previous posts, my coworker Ruthanne just adopted a son from Ethiopia. She picked up Daniel in February and has been on maternity leave since then. I am ashamed to say that I had not yet met Daniel as of last week and so I had to fix that. On Friday afternoon, I went over to her house and got to meet Daniel Bereket and spend some time with his big brother, Andrew and their mother. Daniel is adorable and Andrew is such a good big brother and Ruthanne is a wonderful mother. Such a beautiful family.

Spring Break and Easter Wrap Up

I have to say that it was, overall, a very pleasant Spring Break that culminated in a lovely Easter. I am a bit disappointed that I did not clean out even one closet or drawer, but there's plenty of time for that, right? The only negative of Spring Break was the loss of Mandy. I miss her, but her sistercat Lily really misses her. Lily did not eat for almost 4 days, so Jack went out and got her some sushi grade ahi tuna and that brought her appetite right back. I wonder how Lily processes Mandy's absence. Or do cats even process things???

Easter was great fun and we made it a two day celebration. Of course, we missed Wayne being here, but he was having a great Easter in Cleveland with Julie and her family. We celebrated with my side of the family on Saturday in the early evening. We went to Arne and Beth's new house (it is awesome!!) for dinner and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and especially loved spending time with Abbie and Nina. Sue and Marmar brought Easter baskets for the girls and they had fun exploring them. Abbie got the organization gene from Beth and we got a kick out of watching her put things away as soon as she
opened them.




























We went to 11 am mass on Easter and got there right before the big rush. We were smushed in pretty tight and I was sitting between Sally and a 20-something yr old guy with long hair, tattoos and piercings. Hmmm, well, I thought, interesting...guess it's good that he is at church on Easter (how judgemental am I?!) and then the mass began. This guy had the most beautiful voice and sang with such spirit. I was in awe! I was so blessed to be sitting between this guy and Sally (who also has a beautiful voice). At the sign of peace, the people in front of us turned around to see who was singing so beautifully. I wanted to take some credit, but I could not.

In the afternoon, we met Jack's mom, dad, sister Sue and brother Paul for an early dinner at Franconello. It was wonderful to see everyone and the food was delicious. Paul had a plane to catch that evening so we were glad it worked out that we could get together.
On Monday it was back to work and reality. I thank God that I have such a lovely reality! and only 8 weeks left of this school year.

Spring Break part three

There has been another highlight of my spring break so far. On Tuesday morning, Jenny and I headed out to Indianapolis for an overnight visit with Ann. Sue and Mom were invited too, but couldn't come because of work and such. On the way (kinda) to Indy, we dropped off Sally in Champaign. She had some catching up to do with her college life since our little student teacher was on spring break, too. It was such a gorgeous day! Sunny, warm (70 degrees!!!) and a great day for a drive. It was soooo wonderful to spend some time with Ann. We went out for dinner Tuesday night and then came home and put on our "softies" or "jays" as Ann calls them. Tom bought matching pajamas for Ann, Sue, Jenny and I during one of our Denver trips so of course we had to wear them. We watched American Idol, the DVRed results for DWTS and then watched "16 and Pregnant". Very relaxing. We slept in the next morning, then went out to explore the darling downtown area. I was so excited (and I am not kidding) to find carpet squares for sale for 50 cents each. I really needed them for my classroom and it was so handy to find them when I wasn't even looking! The carpet store also had some cool larger samples of fancier carpets (like Jenny is holding). Had to get a couple of those, too.

We wandered around the area and found a cool old church that had been converted into an art gallery/gift shop/cafe. We had a great lunch (spinach, feta and tomato quiche..mmmm) in a very serene setting. Afterwards, we took a ride around the area, enjoying another beautiful day of sunshine and warmth. It was hard to say good bye to Ann. Wish she lived closer. Ann always makes us laugh and being with her makes me feel Tom's presence. To quote Jack's famous line, "Thank God for Ann!"