August

Muffles

Fall decorations

Ready for fall ...

Daddy/daughter time

In our house, daddy/daughter counts when Andy pulls up a golf course on the iPad and discusses with E how best it should be played. They talk about the yardage, the water, etc.

Peaceful

It's so cute how Muffles sleeps with his paws falling over the edge of the bed.

Dolled up

L put some flashy new earrings in this morning and decided to wear a cute headband to school.

New blanket

E spent yesterday afternoon making a new, longer fleece-tie blanket for B. We miraculously got B to go to the fabric store a week ago so he could select the fabric for his blanket. He chose a nice blue plaid and we picked a matching blue backing. when I woke up this morning he was sleeping on the couch, covered in his new blanket.

It's a deal

A neighborhood mom asked on Facebook the other day if anyone had Littlest Pet Shop items they were willing to sell. I asked L if she was ready to part with hers and she agreed it was time. She's going to sell three play sets, accessories and just over 40 little pets for $50. L and her friends played with them a lot and fortunately they are still in really good shape. I was surprised she found as many of the pets and accessories as she did. The mom is supposed to pick them up this week and hand over the cash. L couldn't let go completely, though. She pulled out five of her favorite Littlest Pet Shop animals to save forever. One of those is a cat that she thinks looks like Muffles.

Smart girl

I've been battling a cold since Thursday afternoon - sore throat, nasal congestion and runny nose, cough, headaches - ick. And I figure there's no reason to fall asleep in the living room when there's a nice comfy bed waiting for me upstairs so I went to bed early. L stayed up later than I did, but wanted to make sure I woke her up early. She knew exactly where to tape the note so I'd find it - on the coffee pot! And this is what she stayed up to make:

It's a Dr. Who poster she gave her friend, J, today at her birthday party.

Good check-ups

Here's E trying to calm the cats down before we took them to their annual check-up at the vet this afternoon. L got home from school just in time to join us. The doc said both cats look great. August weighs 13 pounds and Muffles weighs 9.5 pounds. He said we could switch them to the indoor formula of cat food since it has fewer calories and indoor cats don't get as much exercise as outdoor cats do. He said we don't really want them getting much larger. He said Muffles has a slight heart murmur but it probably won't ever become a problem. I did opt for the three-year rabies shot rather than the annual shot so they shouldn't have to get any shots next year.

Road trip

While I stayed home shuttling kids around Wednesday, Andy was on his way to Milwaukee with six co-workers to see the Cubs vs. the Brewers game at Miller Park. They got to sit in a nice skybox with drinks and food, which I have to say, is the best way to watch a ballgame. The weather was fine in Milwaukee as the Cubs lost, but here it stormed all night. L and I went out to pick up a pizza and had to wait in our garage until the rain stopped enough to make a run for the house. We did consider eating in the garage and calling E and B to make them run out to us to get the pizza. Andy got home about 11:30 p.m. after we were all asleep. He did take a nice picture of the park.

Hide 'n seek

August loves to hide from us. Too bad he doesn't know his tail isn't hiding with the rest of him. At least he's easy to find.

Learning a new remote

About a month ago we noticed that our cable box would sporadically stop working, giving the TV what the kids called "the green screen of death." We'd have to shut everything down, then restart it, missing parts of our shows and messing up all our recordings that were in progress. When Andy was watching TV and got the "green screen of death" about four times in a matter of 15 minutes, he decided it was time to call the cable company. It was impossible to convince them that there was a problem with their cable box. They wanted to send out a technician to look at it when we thought it would be best just to exchange it. At one point they said we needed to talk to their home security department to get it fixed. Obviously they had no idea what they were talking about.

Instead, they talked (suckered?) Andy into upgrading our service. Today, he worked from home in the morning while the technician hooked up four new high-definition cable boxes and showed us how the new remotes work. With the upgrade we also get (read: pay more for) all the movie channels so the kids had better put those to good use. Best part is the ability to record four shows at one time and watch them from any of the TVs in the house regardless of on which TV it was recorded. Not sure we'll ever find time to watch all of the shows we can now record.

Yep, it's Monday

I had to drive E to school today so she could take her golf clubs for the meet today so I gave B a ride too. We were about two blocks from the school when I casually asked whether he had his ID. "Oh, no!" This from the kid who rarely forgets anything. E starts going on how he can get a temporary one, but we were running early so I drove him back home, we got the ID and I took him back to school. He's also been warned that will never happen again. Next time he'll be in line for the temporary ID.

Then I'm trying to finish up L's scrapbook in the basement when the phone rings. It's always scary to look at the Caller ID and see "Public Schools." It's 1 p.m. and it's L. She's in the nurse's office, not feeling well and wants to come home. Of course, though, she rode her bike to school and needs to get that home. The nurse explains that students can leave on their own as long as a parent calls the school back once they reach home. So she's sick, but well enough to bike home? I'm expecting a miraculous recovery.

And E scored a 54 in her match today - sixth place on her team of six players. Ugh. They played Hinsdale South but on their home turf at the Oak Park Country Club. They were tied with the top four scores from each team so had to add in the fifth-place scores and OPRF won, but with no help from E. She said they're going to be practicing tomorrow since the coach is letting them sit out tomorrow's meet. I think she said she has two other meets this week and since tomorrow's meet is not a conference match, coach has decided to give some other girls a chance.

Offering suggestions

We're not planning on attending the church's annual retreat at Tower Hill Camp this year because E's golf schedule has conflicted in past years. We've been going since L was born and she was not happy about the possibility of missing it this year. Enter our church family. One mom, L, offered to take L to the camp with her on the Friday night and because she's staying through early Monday morning, another mom, M, offered to bring her back Saturday night. L won't get the entire weekend away as we usually stay till Sunday after breakfast, but she will get to the enjoy the fall weather and Lake Michigan. Hopefully the weather holds out.

The church is planning a fun day of youth activities and L decided she wanted to be in on the planning so she contacted M, our minister of children's education, and started making suggestions. M called L this afternoon to continue the conversation and here's L, searching the internet for craft ideas and forwarding them to M in an email. It was something productive for L to do on this rainy Sunday.

Golf lesson

Andy got L into the back yard this morning and gave her a good 30-minute golf lesson. She has some interest in playing golf but my suspicion is that she wants to play for the accessories - the skorts, the shirts, clubs, etc. He said they might go the driving range tomorrow to practice some more. I'm assuming E will go along. Today she was at a golf tournament in Deerfield with the OPRF team so Andy was able to instruct L without comments from the peanut gallery. B spent the day at his friend IR's house. IR missed three days of school this week due to migraines but apparently was on the mend today.

After the golf lesson and some lunch, Andy went to run a few errands. I asked him to stop at the grocery store on the way home to pick up some lunch meat and cheese from the deli and what does he come home with? A 12-pack of beer. It's not surprising that he'd pick up some beer, but I had to roll my eyes after seeing the name and the illustration on the box. Oh my.

E shot a 101 on 18 holes and said she could have done better. She was the fifth-place scorer for her team with the fourth-place girl coming in one shot ahead of her. Coach didn't have them stick around to see who placed in the tournament. He said there were quite a few really good teams playing so he was considering this tournament a way to prepare the girls for other upcoming 18-hole tournaments in which the team will have a better chance of placing.

Funny message

The Japanese teacher who's been fortunate (?) enough to have E for three years and B for his first year has quite the odd sense of humor. She makes up nicknames for all of her students, has her room decorated with Brad Pitt posters and gives the impression that she doesn't speak English well, especially to the first-year parents.

B came home from school with a note on his Japanese homework from sensei, his teach, that said, in Japanese, "You're cute." Of course, he had to find an upperclassman to translate for him and he couldn't wait to show it to E. I knew there had to be a story behind that and today he told it all.

Apparently, sensei was teaching the students basic directions in class yesterday - come here, go away, sit down, and so on. She motioned to B to "come here" and gave the command in Japanese, but since he didn't understand what he was saying he relied on her motion, which he though meant "go lower" so he squatted down in class. She started laughing and shaking her head and told him, "No, come here," motioning even harder. When she got him paired up with another student to continue their work, she walked over to his homework and wrote her funny message for him.

Round 2

Last night was curriculum night at the middle school and tonight Andy and I went to the high school for the open house there. Above is E's physics classroom (the first thing I noticed was the planets hanging from the ceiling and that Pluto was not represented). Andy took E's schedule and I had B's schedule. We spent about five minutes in each class and were able to double up on a few (when E had study hall, Andy came to B's Japanese class with me, etc.). Most of the teachers went over their office hours, class expectations, grading. Certainly not the most exciting night, though it is nice to get to know the teachers a bit so when the kids are complaining about them I know who they're talking about. Andy was ready to support the Booster Club and buy an OPRF golf polo that was marked down to $30, but we couldn't find the one he liked in a medium so no shopping for Andy tonight.

Curriculum night

Tonight Andy and I headed over to Julian for L's curriculum night. The PTO provided sandwiches for a quick, light dinner which was great since we just had time for a couple of slices of frozen pizzas before leaving home. We went around to all of L's classes, walking through her schedule and meeting her teachers, spending about eight minutes in each class. They also took the opportunity (again) to tell us how wonderful the International Bacalaurete program is that they're working on implementing (I'm still not convinced).

Half-way through the evening Andy had to leave and pick up E from the high school. She had a golf match in Glendale Heights and she was back in scoring position with a 51 so she was happy about that! E had played this course before and it has lots of water so she wasn't looking forward to the meet. One of the girl's parents also bought pizza for the team to celebrate their daughter's birthday. E came back to the middle school with Andy and spent her time visiting with her former teachers.

B had a bit of a problem on the way home from school. He stayed for the video game club meeting (again!) and while he was riding home, the chain slipped off this bike. He can pedal, but the gears don't move. We're not sure it can be fixed. We might be out shopping for another cheap bike this weekend.

'Hey, young lady!'

L was rushing to class this morning when she heard the school's resource office yell, "Hey, young lady!" from down the hall. He reprimanded her for wearing shorts that were too short. Shorts and skirts are suppose to reach the wearer's fingertips when their arm is hanging by their side. L said she didn't realize they were too short until she was riding her bike to school. She heard it from a few teachers today too. I actually picked out her outfit today thinking the temperature would reach 98 today, which it did, and she'd want to be cool. The school's dress code totally slipped my mind. When E was there she never wore anything too short and B's shorts were (and still are) almost down to the knees. If it happens again, she'll end up in detention. B and his friend, B, who were here after school playing video games said agreed that her shorts looked fine. I'm sure they're seeing shorter shorts on those high school girls!

August

I opened the front door today and August jumped right up on the shelf, knowing that E has been growing some grass out there. We tried growing some on the kitchen counter but the cats were eating it in the middle of the night so we had to try again on the front porch. Of course, now we're concerned that every time they hear the front door open they'll race to go out there.

B tried out another club after school today. This time he went to the ping-pong club. He lost his match but said he'll probably go back next week. E played a match today at the county club against Willowbrook. The team won, but she didn't score and she wasn't happy about that at all. Still, she's playing in fourth position for Wednesday's match so coach hasn't lost faith in her yet. L found out last night she has a part in a play this fall at Julian. She'll be playing the role of Delia in "The Devine Hamlette" in December. She also had her school picture today and wore a cute pair of jeans. She said that "cute Ryan in math class" (to differentiate from Ryan, who's E's friend A's little brother) said hello to her today as opposed to his usual hi. "You know, in a way that he liked what he saw," she said. Lord, help me.

Bridging

E's fearless Girl Scout leader, M, invited the families over today for the girls' bridging ceremony from Senior Scouts to Ambassadors. We were only there for about 20 minutes, but she had the girls run through all the activities they'd done as seniors - held garage sales, made over 3,000 bones and took them to Springfield and Washington, D.C., earned three badges as a troop, met with their state senator, among other things. She also read a proclamation the senator had passed by the Senate honoring the troop for its many efforts and E got a copy to bring home, suitable for framing, of course.

Here the girls are after the ceremony, being a bit goofy as they posed for the parents' photos.

E got a bridge path, the three badges, a pin for participating in the cookie sale, a pin to celebrate the Girl Scouts' recent 100th anniversary and her new Ambassador handbook. The girls will spend a lot of time this year working toward their Gold Award. E is planning a project to teach people about the environmental problems of using plastic bags and creative ways to reuse and recycle the bags instead of tossing them in landfills. All of the girls have written their Gold Award proposals; their next step is to go before the council and get the project approved. Their leader said very few are approved on the first presentation. Instead, the girls are typically given ideas to make revisions to their projects. Could be a long process.

And what's this?

Andy got a pin for his volunteer service for the troop. He helped last year with the cookie delivery. I think he was surprised.

A year ago

This is my thumb a year after my injury. The scar isn't very visible, but my thumb still doesn't move the way it used to. I am grateful that it does move though it constantly feels stiff. I continue to get feeling back. The inside of my thumb is especially numb and makes it difficult to count things with my left hand. I have to be really careful with money. The doctor said the healing process is pretty much complete a year out from the injury so I'm guessing it won't get much better. I am able to do most everything I did before ... and I have replaced our drinking glasses with acrylic ones.

Catching up

I worked on L's scrapbook this afternoon. I finished four pages - back to school 2012, Halloween, gearing up for Christmas and Christmas. At least I'm not a year behind any more.

Andy and I took the kids downtown for a deep-dish pizza dinner at Due. Surprisingly for a Friday night we were able to walk right in and be seated. It would have been a nice night to sit outside, but the patio was already full by the time we got there. B knew we were going, but opted to go to his friend B's house to play video games. Andy went to pick him up about 10:30 p.m. My boy is growing up.

A little sister gift

E came home from golf practice tonight with a gift from her "little sister," a freshman who's on the junior varsity team (and who knows B). E got a T-shirt that says "varsity" on the front and it's hand-decorated on the back, saying "Big sisters turn little sisters great women." E wasn't sure whether all the JV girls got together to make the shirts. E also got a pack of thin Sharpies (I like this girl!), a pack of gum, gummi bears, lemonade packets, hairbands for her ponytails, earbuds, a little notebook and two rolls of duct tape - orange and blue, of course. When E announced herself as the girl's big sister at the beginning of the season, she gave her a gift bag full of items too (socks, gum, energy bars, a golf ball that E had decorated and a few other things). E's little sister is playing in her first match on Monday so E might make her a duct tape flower with a good luck message.

Tired

Muffles made good use of our pew for his afternoon nap.

L had a workshop after school today to learn how to audition for a musical. She volunteered to try a solo vs. singing with a group of girls and the director complimented her on her strong voice and told her to put a star by her name. Not sure what that means, but hopefully it will bode well for her. She came home so excited. Auditions are tomorrow for all the fall plays.

E had a golf match today and ended up scoring in fourth place again for the varsity team. They beat Addison Trail. The girls had a match last week against Hinsdale Central, and E scored, but the team loss, as they always do playing Hinsdale. It's the toughest team in the conference.

B stayed after school to check out the video gaming club. He played video games for two and a half hours before deciding to come home. He thinks he'll go back next week. How could he not like that?

More pink

L conveniently left her homework at school today so we took the "free" evening and re-dyed the pink stripe in her hair - just in time for school pictures on Monday. L stayed after school today for a workshop on how to audition for the Julian plays. She recited her "Hello, Stonehenge" monologue from Dr. Who. She loves that she gets to scream during parts of the monologue. The other kids all told her she did a great job and the directors told her she might be a girl they'll be fighting over since each kid can only be cast in one play a semester. She's certainly the drama queen of this house. The school has five plays planned for this semester, one of which is a musical. Tomorrow, L will attend a workshop on how to audition for the musical. Auditions are Thursday. Break a leg!

Protecting Dr. Who

When we were at the University of Wisconsin yesterday, there was a poster sale outside the Student Union. I saw someone flipping through a variety of Dr. Who posters and we told L if she cooperated on the tour (not complaining about the walk, the heat, being bored, etc.) we'd let her pick out one poster. She chose this one of "Things I learned from Doctor Who." Today we found a poster frame. It was a buy one-get one free sale so she also got a frame for the Dr. Who Dalek blueprint poster she got at Disney World. When we took it out of the package, we realized it's actually a huge postcard!

Campus visit

Today we headed to Madison for E and her friend, A, to tour the University of Wisconsin campus. E would love to go to a Big 10 school and she's been to University of Illinois enough times that we thought we'd let her see another Big 10 campus to have something to compare.

We left home about 7:30 a.m. and drove through about 40 miles of construction at 45 mph, getting into Madison at about 10:30 a.m. We walked around a bit in the downtown area before grabbing lunch at State Street Brats to get to our tour starting point by noon. Here's E and her friend waiting for their food:

We checked in at the South Union Visitors Center. L couldn't help but pose in the Bucky the Badger cut-out.

The walking tour was 90 minutes, making a complete circle around the campus. Here the tour group stopped on a hill overlooking Lake Mendota, near the lakeshore residence halls and not far from the main group of class buildings.

It's a really pretty and hilly campus, right on Lake Mendota. Fortunately, it wasn't too hot but it was definitely humid. L was at the front of the group for the whole tour. She might be sold on Wisconsin.

Here are some shots of the campus.

After the tour, we headed to the campus bookstore. They gave us a 20 percent off coupon for taking the tour so E found a pair of black sweatpants she wanted. They say "Wisconsin" down the front leg and "Badgers" on down the back of her other leg. L, of course, couldn't resist trying on one of these hats. Look familiar?

Then we walked a little over half a mile to the Wisconsin capitol which was the focal point of the Taste of Madison. Instead of buying coupons like you do at the Taste of Chicago, the Madison festival accepted cash which was really convenient and the food being offered was actually sample-sized so we could try several things.

We let the girls go explore on their own while we found some cheese curds. Andy decided to taste of cream cheese stuffed jalapeno wrapped in bacon.

We were very happy to leave Wisconsin without L buying the cheese hat she had to try on in every store we went in to. L was also fond of these overalls.