Trivia Night

Last night, Jack and I met up with Kjell, Arne, Beth and Jenny to compete in a trivia contest at a restaurant in Kjell's neighborhood. It was so much fun! In the old days, we used to love to play the trivia games at places like TGIFridays when we would have our family vacations in Dallas with Tom and Ann. Back then, those games were more electronic, surprisingly enough. This trivia contest was live, with pencil and paper and answers couriered to the host. We ended up getting second place out of twenty teams. We missed first place by two points. Had Arne not been there, we would have been sunk. Arne is a music savant (meaning he is crazy smart about music). Seriously, he can hear two notes of a song and come up with the name of the song and the artist. At halftime during this trivia night, they play 10 songs, each for less than 30 seconds, and we had to come up with the title and artist. We would receive one point for the correct song title, one point for the correct artist and if we got both correct, we got a bonus point. Well, we got them all and that put us in first place after the first half of the game. At the bottom, I am going to post a video of Arne doing his thing.
 An example of a question during the regular portion of the game: Which Yankee holds the record of the best batting average (.393)? Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth or Joe DiMaggio? No cheating.

Jack is thinking

Beth and I  wore our scarves. Shouldn't that be enough?

Arne and Jenny wait for the results

our team captain and courier, Kjell

Here is Arne, being a music savant

Hillsdale County Fair 2011

On Saturday, October 1st, Jack attended his 39th consecutive Hillsdale County Fair. It was my 28th, though not consecutive, Fair. Wayne and Sally could not go this year. Wayne was cheering at Homecoming at Illinois and Sally had a swim meet to coach. They missed all the fun.
We left late Friday afternoon, right after work. We were on the road for about 30 minutes when the low tire pressure warning light went on. Jack decided to stop at an oasis to check it out. Good thing we did because the back right tire was almost flat. Jack put some air in it and I went into the gas station to ask if they provided any tire repair services. Of course not. However, they suggested we drive to the next exit where we could find an NTB or something similar. Luckily, we made it there and found a Firestone that was open and could help us. They said it would take an hour or so to get to our car. Having no other choice, we decided to wait and got ourselves comfortable in the waiting area. About half way into our wait, a huge hail storm blew in and it was horrible for about twenty minutes. Jack and I were reminded how God protects us. We were fortunate to have had that warning light and to have heeded it. Otherwise we probably would have had a blow out and it might have been in the midst of a bad storm. As it turned out, there was something wrong with the valve on the tire and it only cost $28 to fix. Soon enough we were on our way.
We went straight to our very favorite restaurant, Schuler's. We arrived about an hour before they closed and pretty much had the place to ourselves. The meal did not disappoint. Mmmmmm, love those meatballs and barcheeze and peppermint ribbon pie.

a little glass of Chandon to celebrate Fair weekend

The next morning, we checked out of the Hampton Inn by 11 and headed to the Fair. We had to meet up with a guy named Brian Watkins. Brian is producing a documentary about the Fair and interviewed Jack last year. Brian  decided he needed more footage and contacted Jack to see if he could follow Jack around the Fair and interview both of us this year. Of course we said yes!

Brian puts a wireless mic on Jack

Brian shared with us the sad news that there was no photo button booth at the Fair this year. First time in at least 39 years!!!! We were mature about it. Brian took a picture of us and we are going to have our own photo button made (he gave us a great place to do it...mpix.com). Brian was THE nicest guy. He is earnest and passionate about Hillsdale and filmmaking. There is a link to a site that has info about the documentary :here it is

imagine this on metal with a pin on the back

We did our usual things...corn dog, Fiske fries (the best!) and elephant ear. We played the water gun game, Jack did the Funhouse. We went to the birthing tent and saw newborn pygmy goats, then headed over to the Barnyard Babies tent. There were twin foals that were born several months ago. Did you know that twin foal births are highly unusual and pretty much never successful? The family whose mare had the twins had an informative display with all the details. They had no idea there were two babies in there!

checking out antique farm equipment

After we left the Fair, we stopped in at the college. We found our brick and sat in the deluxe student center and used their lightning fast wireless.

Jack with our brick and Central Hall in the background

Jack in front of Koon Hall, the dorm where he was an RA

We closed out the day with a return trip to Schuler's. Nothing better than a double Schuler's Fair weekend!

Loser!

I am such a loser to have not posted in almost two weeks! Sorry about that! I am going to lose my faithful readers (all 3 of them!) if I don't get busy.
The school year has been going well and I absolutely love the people I work with...kids and adults alike. I already have a few good stories to share this year. My favorite so far was two weeks ago when one of my Friday students referred to me and my co-worker, Jess, as "The Old Lady and her sidekick, Miss Know-It-All". It was hard to keep a straight face in front of the class. So funny! After we finished the group that we co-facilitate, Jess asked me which one of us was "The Old Lady" and which one was "Miss Know-It-All". I said that although I have been called a know-it-all in my private life more than once, in this case I thought I was probably the old lady. Jess and I are almost the same age...only 22 years difference :). I have been LOVING referring to Jess, a very accomplished social worker, as my sidekick.
I am also busy taking four continuing education classes this semester. I am taking one on SMART boards (there is a Smartboard in one of the three Friday classrooms I work in), one on iTechnology (AWESOME!), one on goal writing/ data collection/communicating student progress via graphs (difficult but important) and one called Beyond the Book, reading fiction relating to special education issues and applying it to our jobs. I love these classes that my special education co-operative offers. That was where this blog originated two years ago right about now. I had to create a blog for the class and emptynestingpatty.blogspot was born.
Thanks for reading!
good night

This past weekend Jenny took a picture of Abbie and me, sitting on the bench on Marmar and Susie's front porch. I remembered that I had a similar picture of Arne (my nephew, Abbie's dad), taken in the same spot almost 30 years ago. Check it out. Time warp! I have not changed at all, have I?

September busy-ness

September is a busy month. About this time is when all the facets of a new school year have kicked in and things are percolating. There is just not much free time/downtime and I know that, so why does it surprise me every year?? I do love being back in a routine and I do love a new school year with its fresh start, but my goodness, I get tired! It has nothing to do with my age. Nothing. Well, maybe something. But I do hear the young educators around me saying the same thing and that makes me feel better. Sally is coaching (assistant coach) for girls' swimming right now, so she is actually more tired than I am :) She leaves the house by 5:20 am at the latest and often does not get home til after 7 and is gone most of the day on Saturdays for swim meets. The good news is that  Sally is really enjoying her new school year and is loving coaching. I  love my job, too. So blessed.

We have lots of September birthdays in our family. It starts out with my sister Sue's birthday on September 10, then my niece Lauren on September 15, Jack and Downtown Sue on September 19 (born on the same day, three years apart), my brother Tom's birthday was September 25, and my mother-in-law Marie on September 30. On Saturday, Jenny and I took Abbie and Nina out to wish Sue a happy birthday. We also popped in to see Brooke's (Sue's dog) hydrotherapy. Brooke is recovering from her leg surgeries and is still having a hard time getting around and this seems to be helping. Abbie and Nina love to go to Marmar and Susie's and they loved helping Susie blow out the birthday candles.

At work, I am getting settled back in to my old building that we vacated after the pipe burst last January. That is worthy of its own post, which I will save for another day. Better get to sleep so I can keep up with preschoolers tomorrow! Good night.

The Labor Day tradition continues!

There is nothing like a fun tradition with fun friends. If you are reading this blog, you probably already know how much we value traditions here at our house. Like a LOT. And one of our favorite traditions is Mark and Cathy's annual Labor Day party, usually held the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. Having this party to look forward to is the best thing about the end of summer. We so appreciate all the time and effort and love that Cath and Mark put into this party. This year, two of their kids and spouses were not able to come.  Chris and Krissy were in Indiana spending the weekend with her family as her dad was celebrating his 50th birthday. Adam and Kristin just moved to North Carolina, where Adam is working on his MBA at UNC and Kristin has a fabulous new job as a speech language pathologist (working with assistive technology, I believe). We missed them big time. Jeff and Andi were there with Mason, age 15 months; LOVE the fact that we have the next generation represented! Wow. Hard to believe. Mason was so mellow (I must have said that 100 times!); Andi and Jeff are clearly loving being parents and it shows.

Andi, Mason and Jeff

Matt was a first timer this year and fit right in, which is not hard to do since everyone is so fun.

Jordan, Jack, Matt and Mark with the little grill

Don and Susan watch Matt dig into his first Peter Luger steak

the men

circle of love!

the moms

love our friends!

How blessed are we with these wonderful intergenerational (is that a word??) friendships! Truly an investment in all of our futures.

I love weekends like this

I thoroughly enjoyed last weekend. It was social and productive and the weather was absolutely perfect.

On Friday night, Jack and I met one of his old co-workers for dinner. John and his wife, Janeen, were in town on business and asked if we wanted to get together. John and Janeen live in California; John worked with Jack about 20 years ago. I had never met this couple, but feel like I know them from the yearly Christmas cards. We ate at the Union League Club and it was delightful. I even stayed awake til 11 pm, which is a record for me after a week of work.

On Saturday, Jenny and I took Abbie and Nina to spend some time with Marmar and Susie. The girls love to go there and they especially like to give Brooke, Sue's Newfie, treats. Karen and Sue often give the girls presents and you can imagine how much they love that!

You can't see the bows in Brooke's hair!

I just love this picture of Marmar getting some loving from the girls

On the way home, we stopped to see Sally at the high school. Sally is an assistant girls' swimming coach and the team was sponsoring a car wash to raise money for underprivileged kids. We got there just in time to help them put things away. Abbie and Nina are very good at cleaning up. They get that from Beth and her side of the family!

I had time to run a few errands and then it was time to get ready for a couples' shower for Caylen and Joe. It was the most incredibly beautiful setting and so well done. There were about 50 people there, including some of Caylen and Joe's friends.

How beautiful is that?

Parents of the happy couple

Hanging around with Caylen, Teri and Britt

 It was a bit stressful for Chuck and Teri because Chas (their 22 year old son, brother of the bride) had just undergone an emergency appendectomy less than 24 hours before! Chas was already home (I cannot believe how fast they send people home after surgery!) and they were busy checking in with him. Luckily, the shower was right across the street from their house.


Thankful for the fun times with friends and family!