Random Thoughts on a Fall Night

* This is such a beautiful time of year. For some reason, I am really enjoying the fall colors this year. I love driving down the streets of my town taking in the scenery. I am finding a certain comfort in the depth of the colors this year.
* This is a very busy week at work. I had Parent Observation Day yesterday and today which means the parents of my students come to our class with their children. It is always pretty hectic. Tomorrow is the second part of the continuing ed class that Lisa and I are teaching (from 4 til 8:30 )and I have a meeting first thing Thursday morning. Add to the mix Halloween fun with 3, 4 and 5 year olds and sugar...Good thing I love my job.And I really do.

*I am learning about blog etiquette. I have heard you aren't supposed to comment on your own blog. I often want to comment on the comments and I guess you are not supposed to do that. I might do it anyway :)

*I was pleased with the Dancing with the Stars results show tonight. In case you were worried about how I felt about Louie and Melissa Joan leaving in the double elimination.

Thanks for reading...

Grace and Sally

Friday night was busy and great fun and all about Grace and Sally.

Friday was Senior Night for my goddaughter Grace. She is captain of her cheerleading squad and it was their last home game. There was a ceremony before the varsity game with the parents escorting their cheerleader or football player on to the field. At half-time, the cheerleaders performed a routine, though they were not able to stunt because of the rain. They were awesome. Grace had quite a fan club there, including her parents, two sisters Caylen and Brittany, her brother Chas, her godfather Uncle Steve as well as Aunt Colleen and two cousins. We had so much fun watching Grace. She is talented, beautiful and so genuine. I also enjoyed catching up with everyone else. I love how close their family is and just how fun they all are.
As for Sally, she received the Carole Ann Ryan Award from the Illinois Council of Teachers of Foreign Language. There was a banquet Friday night and Sally was presented with the award. Sally was recognized for her enthusiasm for learning and teaching a foreign language. She was the only one who received this award this year and it was for all juniors or seniors in Illinois colleges or universities who are majoring in teaching of foreign languages. We are so proud!

Robbie

Today we attended a memorial service for a wonderful person. I shared a few words at the service about Robbie. Here is my tribute to her.

I had the privilege of knowing Robbie for about the last 14 years. Robbie came into my life when my brother, Tom, married her daughter, Ann. I was trying to remember the first time I met Robbie and I am fairly certain that it was at Robert and Barbara's house at a big family picnic. And I remember liking Robbie from the first moment I met her.


When I met Robbie, she was already widowed. I'm sorry I didn't have the chance to meet her husband, Robert. I have heard so many wonderful stories about him and obviously he was a great man...look at the children he and Robbie produced...Robert and Ann.

One of the things I admired about Robbie was how comfortable she was being by herself. Robbie wasn't the kind of person who needed to be surrounded by a lot of people all the time. She loved being at home. Robbie took great pride in her home and loved to have a project to work on. And how about her yard and landscaping? Wow, she probably could have worked as a landscape architect. Her backyard was a haven for her and I know she spent a lot of time outside enjoying the fresh air. It seemed to me, during my conversations with Robbie, that she didn't need a lot of company...as long as she had her phone calls with Ann, her cat Friendly, her wonderful neighbors, some juicy magazines, American Idol, the Chicago Bears...she had plenty to keep her busy.

Even though Robbie didn't mind being alone, that didn't mean that she wasn't a party girl. When thrown into a social situation, she definitely stepped up. Whenever Robbie came to our house for a family celebration or Thanksgiving or whatever, she always showed up perfectly coiffed, in a sharp outfit, with stylin' shoes and she never came empty handed. Robbie never wanted to be the center of attention which was a good thing since her son-in-law Tom took that role. Tom loved to make her laugh. I know our family has always felt loved and appreciated by Robbie, particularly my son Wayne...ever since Robbie told him that he reminded her of a young Elvis.


Robbie was a strong person who was able to handle tough times. Just ask the guy who broke into her house several years ago. You don't mess with Robbie. I loved how Robbie was able to use her sense of humor and sharp wit to deal with difficult circumstances. She was the queen of one-liners.

Although we are going to miss Robbie terribly, we take comfort in knowing that she doesn' have to face any more tough times and the fact that she has now been reunited with Robert and Tom. God bless you, Robbie. We love you.

Deep thoughts early in the morning

Recently Sally sent me a link to a friend of a friend of friend's blog. The blog is about a 2 year old girl in Houston who is battling a neuroblastoma. The primary author is her mother, but the other day Layla's dad posted and it was pretty profound. Here is part of what he said:

"Much of how we react to the things that happen in our lives is based upon our perspective. The angle we are looking at them from, physically where we stand. To wake up every morning and feel grateful for our blessings requires that we know what it is like to not have them, to have stood for a time in a place without those blessings and to feel the difference in a real way."

I think this is so true about so many situations. It's like the old Joni Mitchell song goes, "You never seem to know what you got til it's gone". Health, job, youth, friends...it applies.

Today I am going to try and be more grateful for my blessings and the beauty in the little moments in this day. At least until someone annoys me :)

Out of the Rut

As empty nesters, Jack and I have to fight the temptation to stay in our comfortable everyday routines. It is pretty easy to just work all day and hang out all evening. Very relaxing, but if I am not careful, I could turn into a shut-in, especially now that it is getting colder and darker every day. One of our mottos these last few months has been "Out of the Rut!" So I am happy to report that we got out of the rut this weekend and did a couple of fun things.

On Saturday night, we traveled up to the northern suburbs to have dinner with Michele and David and Ric and Ann. We all met when our sons pledged Sigma Chis together at Illinois. We were originally going to cook out on the beach (what a neat idea for October!), but it was too cold. Instead we had a potluck supper at Ann and Ric's. It was such a fun and delicious evening.

Earlier on Saturday, Jenny had called and invited the fam to come over to see Abbie and Nina on Sunday afternoon. Jenny also mentioned that she and Jay, along with Kjell and Marie, were going to take the girls to Blackberry Farm in the morning on Sunday (Arne and Beth were getting some much needed down time). As part of our "out of the rut" weekend and since we had gone to mass on Saturday night, we decided to tag along. It was such a gorgeous fall day, sunny and about 50 degrees, and we were so glad we went. Here are Jack and Nina getting ready for some rides.
At Blackberry Farm they have a small train, a hay ride, and a carousel during the fall off season. They also had pumpkin painting. And it wasn't crowded! Here are Nina and Abbie waiting for the train in the replica of an old time train station. After the train ride, Kjell, Marie and Abbie got their picture taken with the "engineer". The next picture is Jenny, Jay and Nina.
After Blackberry Farm, we met up with Marmar and Susie back at Jenny and Jay's. Marmar loved feeding Nina. Marmar hasn't lost her touch!
I think I will try to have one post every week or two that is in the category of "Out of the Rut". If anyone has any good ideas for out of the rut activities, please feel free to suggest some!

More about Dane

I wanted to share something that Dane's friend Adam wrote about Dane. It is so true. I wish everyone had had the opportunity to know Dane. Adam and Dane were good friends from the University of Iowa days. They have some good stories!

The Four Pillars of Dane

Loyalty without hostility
Confidence without cockiness
Honesty without brutality
Optimism without naivete

Also, I just figured out that if you click on one of the pictures on here, it enlarges the picture and you can see things in better detail.
Hope everyone is having a good Saturday! It's Target time for me!

Danefest 2009!

This week in my continuing ed class, we learned how to post videos on our blogs (among other things, of course!). I have been wanting to learn how to do that so I could post a video from Danefest. Before we get to the video, I should tell you about Danefest.

For those of you who don't know, Dane is my nephew (my sister Jenny's middle son) who died very suddenly on 2/25/05 at the age of 23. That is him in the picture above. How much cuter could he be? Such a tremendous loss. No words can describe how much he is missed by us all. I will be posting about Dane often on this blog, I am sure. Anyway, we had a gathering of some his friends and family the August after he died and this gathering, called Danefest, was held at a White Sox game. That was the year that the Sox won the World Series, you might recall (Cubs fans don't like to recall that). We decided it was about time for another one...finally, four years later.. so we gathered again at US Cellular Field this past August.

We had tshirts with "The Dude still abides" on the back. One of Dane's nicknames was The Dude (from the movie "The Big Lebowski"). We also had a tribute on the jumbotron pictured above and here is a group shot. It was so awesome to be together with other people who love and miss Dane. A good time was had by all. Looking forward to doing it again, but hopefully we won't wait another 4 years.
Last but not least, here is the video of Abbie and Wayne and other Danefesters grooving to "You Should be Dancin" at the game. We love you, Dane! In the words of O.A.R., "we miss you, our friend, oh so patiently"