Mobile blogging from Marmar's

I am out at my mom's right now and I just took this picture of her reading this blog. I am going to post it and show her the marvels of modern technology!

Why I Love Summer, reason #1

We had our first Birthday Club of the summer on Thursday. Sheila and Christy were the hostesses and we celebrated Sue and Kathy's birthdays. It was a beautiful evening after raining on and off all day. We had appetizers and drinks in Sheila's screened-in porch, which was completely cozy and relaxing. Sheila and her husband, Marty, have one of the coziest homes I have ever been in. Check this out:

This porch overlooks her new pool and gorgeous landscaping.There was even a robin's nest in the tree to the right in the picture, complete with baby birds! There were eleven of us (Jean couldn't come because she was working) and we sat there til it was dark, just visiting and laughing. For dinner, Sheila and Christy served a chicken and pasta dish (oh my gosh, it was light and refreshing, a little balsamic vinegar and basil, cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella!) and a big salad. For dessert, we had an angel food cake with fresh berries. It was a quintessential summer night, one that I will remember with great fondness next winter when it is dark and snowy outside!

Stormy Weather

We had a fast and furious storm on Tuesday night. It was crazy! At 7:40, the sun was shining and I was thinking about going out to run some errands. For whatever reason, I decided not to and I am glad. Less than an hour later, a huge storm blew in with strong winds and lots of thunder and lightning. It lasted about 30 minutes, but its effects were felt for several days. We were without power at our house for about 12 hours, but many of our neighbors were out for three days. And we were fortunate that we did not have much damage, not even tree branches down. The north side of our block was hit hard, with huge limbs all over the place. There were giant trees down all over town. Here is a picture of one a few blocks away.

Downtown Sue's

We had our traditional Father's Day celebration at Downtown Sue's yesterday. Fun times with the family! Everyone was there except for Paul (in Fla) and Sally (in Wisconsin with Matt) and we also had Rick, Lauren's BF, there. Wayne makes fun of my picture taking ("Let's get a picture of...[insert yet another combination of people]"), but I love having the pictures to look back on. In case you hadn't noticed, I am pretty big on looking back! So here are some of the pictures of the fam :) I won't post them all. Thanks for hosting, Downtown Sue!

Fathers

I have been so blessed to have wonderful fathers in my life. My dad was one amazing father. That Celine Dion song, "Because You Loved Me" sums it all up. That sounds a bit trite, but it does. As I have said many times here in my blog, one of the greatest gifts my dad gave me was his good mood. I could always count on his great attitude. I loved his laugh, his love of life and his love of family. Such a wonderful legacy he left with all of us.

I have also been blessed to have a wonderful father-in-law. Bill has always been so supportive and encouraging, never judgmental or intrusive. He is a good man. And he is fun to be with, too! I don't hold it against him that he is a Cubs fan :).
Then of course, there is my husband, Jack. He is such a great father. I can sum it up by saying that he has never raised his voice at either of our kids. He hasn't needed to because Wayne and Sally respect him and his opinion of them so much. Some friends say the fact that Jack has never yelled at the kids isn't a big deal. Their logic is that who needs to yell at kids that are like Wayne and Sally? Well, to that I just ask, which came first?
What a big, important job it is to be a father. God bless all the dads out there. Happy Father's Day!

What a week!

Wow, it has been an interesting week. Here are some of the happenings-
- my mom fell on Monday but thank God no broken bones this time (remember almost a year ago when she fell and broke her hip and wrist? yeah, we do). Poor Marmar is not well. Trouble with the breathing and not feeling good at all
-my friend, Greg (husband of my college friend, Lynn), well, he has been hospitalized in a cardiac thoracic ICU with an aortic dissection since last Friday. I found out about it shortly after I arrived at my mom's Monday afternoon. Just been texting with her and not really being too helpful at all. Yet.
-my friend Mike had his knee replaced on Tuesday (and I have done nothing for him yet either)
It has been a stressful week, even with my shortened summer work schedule. I don't like when people are not well. I just don't.
Let's bring it up here. (that's what Jean and I say when we therapize on our walks and go into the Debbie Downer mode)
On a positive note, I have had a good start to my summer speech work. I love the kids I work with and the summer evaluations have been interesting. And we had a delightful time last night in the city with Mark, Cathy, Don and Susan. Jack, Cathy and I took the train downtown, met up with Mark at the train station and then cabbed it to North Rush Street to meet Don and Susan. It was a beautiful evening to be in the city with friends, enjoying the energy of being with good friends.

the girls

the guys

Just a couple of fun pictures (updated!)

Here are a couple of pictures from last weekend. I am updating this a few days later. I posted these with a different program. They are huge pictures, aren't they? I didn't let you know what these were. You were probably dying of curiousity!

The first picture is of Nina and Abbie at Susie and Marmar's with the Nabisco products. Oh, yeah, supporting the Waynester.

The next two pictures are from Caylen's shower on Sunday. Such a gorgeous afternoon outdoors. Beautiful bride and a fun day. There is a picture of Brittany, sister of the bride and Kay, grandmother of the bride. And one of Joe and Caylen (bride and groom, of course) and Sally. The last picture is Teri (MOB), Colleen (AuntOB) and the bride.