It's the holiday season (no exclamation point)

I think that I have been putting too many exclamation points in the titles of my posts, so I refrained from using one for this post. In case you were wondering.



I am beginning to get into the holiday spirit. I have not started Christmas shopping yet, but the house is decorated (or as decorated as it is going to get) and there is snow on the ground and it is the third Sunday (or Saturday night) of Advent and we are working on our Christmas cards and only one more week of work and...well, you get the idea.


I think it does help that the weather has been wintry. We had a few days of snow and really cold, as in 20 below wind chill. Lucky Jack was in Houston and Austin for most of it. My next door neighbor (the one who moved here from Arizona) has been asking questions about winter preparedness ever since she and her husband and kids moved in in August. It only took two days of snow (less than 3 inches altogether) for them to buy a snowblower. The picture above is Maddie doing her first run with her snowblower. She is adorable. I did have to chastise her for not wearing a hat or at least covering her ears. I am an expert on keeping warm.



Jack and I went to mass tonight. Our parish is doing something neat for Advent. They made paper ornaments with a family's name on each one. We were all asked to take an ornament and put it on our tree at home and pray for that family throughout the Christmas season. I like that. How interesting that the one we chose was the Kraft family.



Good news! Sally passed her content test!!! This is a test administered by the state board of education that one must pass in order to be certified. And it has to be passed before student teaching, so we were thankful that Sally passed on the first try. Especially since it was a five hour test that she had to take on Saturday of Dad's weekend. Way to go, Sallygirl!



In other news, please keep Jack's brother Mike in your thoughts and prayers. He had surgery on Thursday and has a tough recovery ahead.



Please also pray for my friend Sheila whose sister Linda died very suddenly last week at the age of 58. Also please pray for one of my very favorite ECE (early childhood education) teachers, Brigid, who was just diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery last week. Brigid was my next door neighbor for a year at the LLC and she is an awesome person and teacher. Love her.



Good night. Heading to bed....

First snow of the season

This is what I woke up to this morning:

There was about 1/2 inch of snow dusting the ground. It was a nice surprise. We have had such a mild November and (so far)December that I have been lulled into a false sense of warm :). Our new next door neighbors moved here from Arizona and lived in Houston before that, so they have been anxiously awaiting the first snow. The kids were so thrilled and were trying to make a snowman this evening, though the snow was too powdery and there wasn't enough of it. It was fun to see the snow through their eyes.

Jack and I saw two movies this past weekend. On Friday night, Jack, Christy and I went to see "Everybody's Fine" with Robert DeNiro. It was good and meaty. It provided lots of food for thought. Then late Saturday afternoon, Jack and I went to see "Up in the Air", the new George Clooney movie. It was only playing downtown so we made the trip. It was worth it as it was another movie that made an impact. After the movie we stopped for dinner and guess who sat down right next to us? Former Gov Jim Thompson and his wife Jane. We were like the stalkerazzi and I took this picture of them eating dinner. I am sure they appreciated that.

In other news, Sally sprained her ankle yesterday. She was able to walk on it but it was quite swollen and painful, so she got it x-rayed this morning at the student health center. It is not broken, thank goodness.

I can't believe that Christmas is so soon and that I only have nine more days of school before Winter Break. I have lots to do before break, including 5 annual reviews & one three year re-eval. I am not even worrying too much about Christmas shoppping yet. It'll all get done. Always does.

You can't take a video during Mass!

Jack was so pleased to have us all together in Mass and decided to take a video. Check out the reactions from Sally and me. Priceless.

Thanksgiving Break 09

It was such a great Thanksgiving break. Some of the highlights included:

having all four of us, Jack , Wayne, Sally and I, all under one roof for 5 nights in a row!

the impromptu visit from Jenny, Kjell, Abbie and Nina on Wednesday (see pictures from the previous post)

hosting Thanksgiving dinner for Jack's mom and dad, sister Sue, and brother Paul and my mom, Sue, Jenny, Jay and Kjell and the four of us; also, Matt joined us for a couple of hours and it was fun to introduce him to the rest family (also some pictures from this are on the last post)

the delicious pulled pork sandwiches that Sally made for us for dinner on Tuesday. She got the recipe from her roommate Sarah and her mom and boy, those sandwiches were good!


Jack's burst of energy on the day after Thanksgiving. He put up the outside decorations and then insisted we go get our Christmas tree. The best part was listening to him trying to get the tree to stand up straight while I was napping in the other room :)


Jordan's Christmas party! Jordan knows how to throw a party, let me tell you. Fun people (there were lots of JD and Eliot's friends and also he includes MY kids and Matt!), tremendous food, fantastic drinks and beautiful music. It was an absolute blast. I might have to do an entire post just on the party, that's how good it was. Here are just a couple of pictures from the night:

Mark, Sally and Matt

Tej, Cathy, Don and Susan



Our host, Jordan and his cousin, Bobby


Wayne and Jack
Jean, me and Christy

another highlight was attending Mass as a family on Sunday.

For sure the part of Thanksgiving break that I liked the least was watching the kids pull out of the driveway on Sunday evening. Thank God they both got home safely and we have Christmas break just a few weeks away.

A picture post

Above is a follow up picture from a previous post..Sally and Matt at the Bears game, courtesy of Susie. Thanks, Susie!!!
Happy day after Thanksgiving! I will write a proper post soon, but in the meantime, here are a few pictures from the day before Thanksgiving and also from Thanksgiving itself.
Abbie, Nina, Jenny and Kjell came to our house for a little while on Wednesday since the girls were spending Thanksgiving with Beth's side of the family this year. They are growing up so fast. Our favorite line of the day was Abbie saying "I love you, kitties...sooo much!" It was so sweet.




Thanksgiving Day:

Heavy thoughts

I love this week of the year. It's a short week and it's all about family and food, which are two of my favorite things. And since the kids are older and living away from home, I especially love this time of year because it means Wayne and Sally will be home. As I mentioned in my last post, Sally got home last Thursday. Totally loving having her home. Wayne's plans were to head home yesterday afternoon (it's about a 5 hour drive). Wayne was in the area by dinnertime but had a meeting in the city and met some friends for dinner. He said he was probably just going to stay downtown overnight so we went to bed after DWTS (and boy, Donny really stepped up last night, didn't he?). At 11:30, the doorbell woke us up and it was Wayne! I can't even tell you how it felt to see his face in the window. Oh my goodness. And to wake up this morning, knowing that all 4 of us were under one roof... what a great feeling. And it made me think of my sister Jenny and how much she must miss Dane's face, his hug, his voice, his presence. I know, you probably weren't thinking I was going to go there, but I never forget her loss, our loss. And as long as we are going down the grieving path, let's just go ahead and talk about how much I (we, my whole family) miss Tom. This time three years ago we were so grateful that Tom and Ann had just moved to this area from Houston. Tom was in the thick of his battle with a GBM (brain tumor) and we were so thankful to have them home so we could be some support to them. I will never forget his last Thanksgiving with us. Jenny picked up Tom and Ann to bring them to our house and Tom insisted on stopping at SavWay, as was his tradition, and picking up some champagne...two magnums of Taittinger. And even though his communication skills were impaired, his sense of humor was not. God, I miss Dane and Tom and Pawp (my dad). They would be the first to say to not be sad, have fun and appreciate the good times. And I do enjoy life, but try to never forget what really matters.

Thanks for allowing me this time to grieve. It isn't pretty or easy but it is important.

Sally is coming home!

I am so excited! Sally is on her way home as we speak or as I type, I should say! U of I has the whole week of Thanksgiving off and she only has one class tomorrow and it was cancelled. I can't wait to see her!!! Sally is stopping off at Marmar and Susie's to have dinner and to pick up tickets for the Bears game on Sunday. Susie is very generously giving the tickets to Sally and Matt....soooo generous. I will make sure to ask them to take pictures so I can post some on Monday. Wayne is coming home early next week...yaaaay!
In the meantime, I am heading out pretty soon to a birthday dinner for two of my friends. This will be my second night out in a row. Impressive, I know. (I went to Bunko last night. Didn't win anything, but had a good time.)