Maham Moments

First day of 2nd grade

2010-08-26T15:13:00.000-05:00

Griffin started 2nd grade yesterday. He was very excited to head off to this new adventure. He had a great first day. He seems to really like his teacher and is eager to go back to school!

Soldier Field, Chicago

2010-07-12T16:33:00.000-05:00

We had an awesome opportunity to go to Soldier Field to have a behind the scenes tour and to hang out with June Jones, head football coach from SMU. The Chicago Alumni group from SMU (Southern Methodist University) planned this event. There were probably 300 people there for food, drinks, fun and a great tour.

1. June Jones, head football coach, SMU

2. Soldier Field

3. Visitor's locker room. Interesting fact: no one is allowed in the Bears locker room. There has only ever been a handful of visitors that have seen it. Solely reserved for the players and the organization.

4. Dallas and I

5. and 6. Griffin making what will most likely be his only catch and pass on Soldier Field.

7. Griffin in the press box.

8. Autographed helmet that was raffled off during the event.

9. View out on Lake Michigan from atop Soldier Field.

Living Room Makeover

2010-06-15T15:17:00.000-05:00

Before: When we moved in this house 3 years ago, there was very little decorating done by the prior owners. They were only here for 9 months before being transferred to NC. One of the things they did was put up these rust drapes in the living and dining room. They had beads on them but I got rid of those right after we moved in. I'm not a "drapery bead" girl. Honestly, I never liked them. So about 2-3 months ago I couldn't stand them another minute so I took them down. This was the perfect opportunity to introduce GREEN into my home. I love green but after having so much of it in our Texas house I completely omitted it here. But as you can see from the "After" pictures I got my green!

After:

I got new panels in a burlap fabric from, of all places, Meijers! I love them and I decorated the room around them. I used the same rods that were already there. The adorable polka dot chair is from Overstock.com. It was a little scary ordering it site unseen. I love it! The rug is from Tuesday Morning. I exchanged out a rectangle mirror for the round one seen in the after photo from another room. The coffee table/foot stool is from Home Goods. I didn't get a before picture of this but we had a HUGE armoire in the dining room and it is GONE! The last after picture shows what I have there now. I'm still trying to decide what to hang on the wall over the table. I also added the 2" wood blinds in a bright white, some new pillows and a lamp. Oh and a few accessories all from Home Goods.

These two rooms are now bright and cheerful! I enjoy them so much now. It was fun to do and I owe a special thanks to my friend Gail for the great advice.

Squeakers

2010-05-09T17:15:00.000-05:00

I got a very fun Mother's day present this year! It was love at first site! She's precious! The animal shelter had named her Tangerine but after spending 15 minutes with her yesterday, I quickly determined that Squeakers was a much better name for her! It's amazing that in the 24 hours that she's been home, she has become part of our family. We love her already!

Soccer

2010-05-09T17:08:00.000-05:00

Griffin is having fun in Spring Soccer. They are getting better each week. This is the last season of co-ed and 3 on 3. It's all boys in the fall and I think (and hope) it's 5 on 5 at least!

Shelby

2010-04-15T21:58:00.000-05:00

Goodbye Shelby. We loved you so much and are going to miss you terribly. You were such a good kitty and brought so much joy to our family. Thank you for being with me for 16.5 years.

Kayaking - Spring Break

2010-03-21T14:45:00.008-05:00

My dad.

My mom.

Me.

My boat.

Griffin.

Griffin. You would have thought he kayaked every week. He did great. His favorite thing to do was get real close to the edge and try to get stuck. When he got back in, his boat had all sorts of branches, leaves, etc. inside it!

We went to Jasper Park yesterday and enjoyed the beautiful weather. All four of us decided that it would be fun to kayak. It was wonderful as you can tell from the pictures. They were having a Spring Fling at the park so we had a picnic lunch and listened to a great bluegrass band. Griffin enjoyed the playground and bounce house/slide. It was a perfect day.

Spring and such

2010-03-18T17:03:00.004-05:00

Spring has sprung in Chicago! I am so thankful for the warmer weather and the signs that in just a few sort weeks (well, maybe months) my yard will once again be full of flowers, leaves and so many of God's creations. I will have to admit, this winter seems rather mild to me. I'm afraid it means I'm getting "use to" the cold. I think of my friend Kara, who would laugh the first winter I was here whenever I would complain about the cold (which was all the time.) Now, I just pretty much accept the fact that it's COLD here for many months of the year. But I sure do appreciate spring and summer so much more!

There is one thing that has happened over the past few weeks to bring huge delight to our family. Griffin has found a friend who lives right down the street. To most of you, this does not seem like anything big. But as long as we have lived here (3 years) there has been no little boy for Griffin to play with. We have wonderful next-door-neighbors that have 3 girls (and one very little boy) that hang out with Griffin but they are NOT the same as having a BOY, around your same age to play with. Brandon is fun to have around, enjoying doing all the "boy" things that Griffin likes. They play football, hockey, ride scooters and right now they are across the street in the open lot with a shovel and bucket digging up treasures. Griffin had his first sleep-over at Brandon's house a couple of weeks ago. His mom made it extra special for them and I hear they didn't go to sleep until 11:30 and were up at 4:15am. They even took a picture of the sunrise to prove they were up so early. Thank you God for Griffin's new friend. May they have a life-long friendship.

Happy Birthday Griffin

2010-02-28T22:40:00.003-06:00

We celebrated Griffin's 7th birthday this weekend. So much fun!

Griffin:
loves sports - playing, watching and reading about
enjoyed watching the Olympics
loves school - great at math and reading
fidgets all.the.time
loves pizza
loves playing Wii with Daddy
loves playing board games and cards with Mommy

Thanksgiving - Apex, NC Style

2010-01-18T15:25:00.006-06:00

We have the most wonder friends - the Strong Family. We knew them while we were in Dallas, TX. Carly and Griffin have known each other since they were about 6 months old. We ventured down to North Carolina to spend Thanksgiving with them. It was one of the best holidays I've ever had. You see, Stacy is known as "the hostess with the mostess." And I'm not kidding. Her house is beautiful, so warm and inviting. You walk in and you are instantly relaxed. And then there's her cooking. We'll get to that in a little bit. Stacy and I spent 7 hours cooking in the kitchen on Wednesday and had a ball. We just worked so well together and we both enjoy doing it so much that it was great. Thursday, all we had to do was cook the two turkeys - one fried and one roasted. We brined them both. One in a sweet brine and one in a spicy brine. They both turned out fabulously and no one could really pick one over the other in terms of which one was better. Thank you Strong Family for a wonderful visit. If the offer still stands, we're up for doing it again next year!

Our Fall Visitor

2010-01-18T15:07:00.004-06:00

Aunt Barbara or Aunt Babs as Griffin likes to call her came to visit for a few days while Dallas was traveling to Malaysia. It was great to have her here and helped break up the 5 weeks that Dallas was traveling. Most weekends he could come home so that was good but it made for a lot of long weeks in a row for Griffin and I. We were always so glad to see Dallas when he got home from his big trips.

One of Griffin's all-time favorite things to do it play with Aunt Babs. One afternoon they played outside in the backyard for over 2 hours. Barbara created an obstacle course using everyday items from our garage. She then used a timer and Griffin did the course over and over again.

Happy 2010

2010-01-18T14:52:00.005-06:00

Found this old blog update that I never posted!It looks like I've taken a bit of a break from blogging. My goodness. It's been 2.5 months. So much has happened.

NOVEMBER

Griffin played basketball for the first time in Nov. and Dec. He really enjoyed playing.

Veteran's Day. Griffin's school had a celebration and invited all the local veterans to the school to enjoy the performance put on by the first grade. Griffin had a small speaking part and he loved all the patriotic songs - It's a Grand Ol Flag, Star Spangled Banner, etc.

Halloween Party

2009-10-31T15:46:00.002-05:00

Thursday was the Halloween party and parade at Griffin's school. I am "room mom" so I did the planning for the party. It was VERY stressful. How can a group of 24 first graders stress me out? I don't know, but they did. Well, that anticipation of it did anyway. I was not sure I had enough planned for the hour OR enough fun things.

Well, it turned out perfectly. The kids had a BLAST, there was plenty to do, and the teacher even said she loved what I planned and how the party went. Whoo hoo. The weather held out so the 600+ kids could go outside for the parade.

I'm sure you are wondering where the the great pictures of the adorable kids are. Well, the camera was with me and I went to take a picture and . . . . nothing. I forgot to put the memory card back in the camera after downloading pictures the other day. With my old camera, you could take about 20 pictures that would be stored directly to the camera even w/o the memory card loaded, but not with my new one. No card equals no pictures. So there are no photographic memories of our 1st grade Halloween party. (Yes, it's killing me but I'm trying not to show it!)

BYOP

2009-10-25T22:09:00.006-05:00

Our friends have a BYOP party each fall. This is the first one we were able to attend. BYOP stands for "bring your own pumpkin." They set up at a local park near their house and everyone brings a snack and we just hang out and carve pumpkins. Dallas was not able to go with us because he was in Austin and since he's the official pumpkin carver of our family, we didn't bring one. Griffin was VERY lucky to start hanging out with Nikki who was working on her own pumpkin. They become great friends and had such a fun time working on their pumpkin. Nikki's pregnant with their first child who is a little boy. She got a small taste of what it will be like to have a son! Wonderful!

One of the neatest things was about 10 guys from the party were playing kickball and welcomed Griffin to join them. He had so much fun hanging out with the "dads."

It was VERY cold out and no one was ready for such cold weather yet. There were lots of people wrapped up in blankets that were in the trunks of their cars!

Finished

2009-10-25T21:58:00.003-05:00

Here is our kitty cat Shelby checking out our newly finished deck. It is 24x14. Of course it's missing furniture, our grill, a hot tub (don't I wish) and of course some landscaping and potted plants. But we are very happy with it and can't wait to enjoy it next summer. Thanks Dave and Craig for doing such a nice job and being such good entertainment for Griffin when he got home from school everyday.

A night out

2009-10-25T21:35:00.002-05:00

We were invited to a charity gala/auction event last night for Lifespring Ministries. It is a charity that our church has been supporting for the past several years. They help women and their children get back on their feet after various unfortunate life events. The women are counseled, loved, taught about Christ, taught life skills, job skills, etc. The charity runs mostly on donations.

The evening consisted of a dinner, a basket raffle, a silent auction and a live auction. We went with 4 other couples. We really had a lot of fun. One of the couples bought a honeymoon vacation trip for their son who is getting married next June. That was exciting. Three of the couples (including us) won a gift basket. Oh, and the best part was a game called Heads or Tails. You had to buy a strand of beads for $20 in order to participate. Everyone stood up and either put their hands on their head or on their bottom (heads or tails). The MC tossed a coin and if it was heads and your hands were on your head, you advanced. Tails, you sat down. It only takes about 3-4 minutes to play the whole game even with a room full of people. Our friend won the entire pot which was over $1,000.00.

Cookies

2009-10-18T13:02:00.003-05:00

I went to a baby shower last week and the expectant mom was given a container of 100 cookie cutters. This was such a thoughtful gift because the mom loves to cook. Just think of all the memories she'll make with her baby making cookies. It got me thinking that besides using cookie cutters for play dough, I've not made sugar cut out cookies with Griffin. Bad mommy. So I went to the store and bought Pillsbury sugar cookie dough so we could make some cookies. But then I realized all I had were a few cookie cutters mixed in with the play dough stuff. So I just baked round sugar cookies and let Griffin have at it with regards to decorating. I had orange frosting and some brown sprinkles. Great for halloween, right? Griffin also thought he'd really like to use the Valentine's sprinkles as well. Why not? So we got those out - red hearts, pink sprinkles, pastel jimmies, etc. He had so much fun making his cookies. And you know what? They were beautiful in our eyes and tasted great!

"During"

2009-10-16T16:58:00.003-05:00

We are having a new deck put on the back of our house. I don't really have any before pictures but I do have a few during. The weather has been terrible while they've been working on it. It's been, one day on, one day off for the past 2 weeks. This is fine with me since we really won't be able to use it until next May (for you in TX - that's when it will be warm enough up here to enjoy outside again)! The guys have one more day to finish up the steps and lighting. And to clean up the yard!

I am so thankful that there are skilled carpenters that know how to do this stuff. And I can't wait to landscape around the deck and show you those pictures in the summer!

Remembering

2009-10-15T16:02:00.003-05:00

Today is a day for remembering babies that have gone on before us. Some went on before their mom and dad even knew if they were a boy or a girl. Some went on before their mom could even feel them moving in their tummy. Some moms knew the sex of their baby, felt their baby kick and even held their baby only to have their time of earth shortened by God's magnificent plan.

God's plans and our plans don't always sync up. Ok, hardly ever sync up. But I know and believe it to be true that GOD is in control. He knew us before He even created us. He knew that our babies would only be with us for a short time. He returned our babies to Him well before we wanted.

But I am a better mom to my son living here on Earth because of my son living in Heaven. Ryan is whole and rejoicing with his maker. And Griffin is here with me and for now, God has entrusted him to me. I'm thankful for that.

So to all you mommies who are remembering your children today, know that I remember and am praying for you today.

My son, Ryan Michael would be 7.5 years old today and in 2nd grade. I miss you baby and please know that YOU make a big difference in my life.

Life

2009-10-08T17:03:00.005-05:00

Well, it's been a LONG time since I've blogged. I don't have much excuse except not much has been happening around here. Griffin has been fully immersed in Cub Scouts and Awana.

Cub Scouts are every other Monday evening and one Thursday a month. Then there is also a Den monthly outing and a Pack monthly outing. And of course, opportunities to sell popcorn. You would think it would just be, "ask your family and neighbors to buy some popcorn" but it's oh, so much more than that. First of all, did you know you could buy a TIN of popcorn for 50 (FIFTY) dollars? Isn't that the most ridiculous thing you have ever heard? And the cheapest option is $10 for a tub of unpopped kernels. Fortunately, Dallas took Griffin to a "sit and sell" - that's not what it's called but I forget the name. It's where they go stake out unsuspecting shoppers at a retail establishment and coax them into buying said overpriced popcorn. They went to a Lowe's in town and along with one other boy and dad, sold about $325 worth of popcorn AND got over $100 in donations. Now that's what I call a productive 3 hours. Griffin's goal is $500 worth of popcorn sales to earn $150 towards his dues or some combo w/ the donations. So he splits the sales w/ the other kid as well as the donation. With the few other sales he made to a couple of neighbors, his aunt and Grandma, I think he'll meet his goal. In the mean time, I've got $18 tins on my dining room table if anyone wants some GREAT Boy Scout popcorn!

And Awana is a weekly gathering of children who learn to know, love and serve Christ. It is held on Sunday evenings at a local church. Griffin is learning to memorize scripture and well as learning bible stories and having a ton of fun with a great group of kids and adults. The best part for me is the car ride. We are carpooling with 2 families who each have 2 girls going to Awana. So I've got 5 little kids hanging out in the back of the Suburban talking about life together. And since I am a mom to a little boy, it's been fun to hang out with these girls and see that side of things. Wow is all I'm going to say about that.

Friends

2009-09-21T14:55:00.003-05:00

I was looking over my pictures this afternoon and realized I didn't blog about our two trips to Kentucky. I'll have to do that later but first I want to tell you about these people. This is actually three generations of a family. First is the momma/grandma - Ellen. Next to her are her two daughters Beth and Andrea and last is grandaughter/daugher/niece Caia Jewel. This is a picture of a family who loves each other with their whole heart and also loves the Lord.

Lake Michigan

2009-09-17T19:40:00.004-05:00

Last summer we visited St. Joe Michigan. I would rank this as one of my most favorite places. It is a small town with a nice square, nice restaurants and an awesome beach. So for an "end of summer" fling, we decided to go there over Labor Day weekend. It's only a 2.5 hour drive for us. We packed up on Saturday morning and headed out. There is a large area between the square and the beach. In the middle of the last century, there was an amusement park there. It's been gone for a long time however, the town is revitalizing the area and built a gorgeous fountain area for children to play in. It opened the day we arrived. This is going to be a huge hit with tourists.

We played in the sand, swam in the surf, took beach walks and relaxed. It was perfect.

Sunday morning must have been a sailing regatta or something because hundreds of people went out to the pier to visit and watch the boats go out. We got there on the tail end of things but it was neat to see ALL the sailboats out in the water. I would say there were over 200. We watched them as they got further and further away.

One neat thing about the weekend was that Dallas and I decided that whenever and if-ever we retire, it will most definitely be around water. We both love it. Now to start saving for a boat!

Cathi

Friends

2009-08-30T21:37:00.001-05:00

Summertime

2009-08-30T21:03:00.004-05:00

Zachary. I think he enjoyed his hotdog. And it was his first try at light sabers. He was a natural!Dallas and Griffin enjoying a game of bags.
Our friend Bill having fun with Griffin.
Amy, Stacey and Dane.
Ben, Caleb and Christian enjoying their hotdogs, chips and grapes.
Roar!!

This summer has been very bazaar weather wise. We had one hot week in June and that was about it. Most of the summer reminded me of Fall in Texas. And today was no different. The skies were filled with big puffy clouds and it was so blue. The sun was warm but in the shade it was cool. We had 3 straight days of rain so we did not know what to expect when we got up this morning. I was so happy to wake up to blue skies especially since we were having some friends over for a cookout. We spent the whole afternoon in the backyard. It was wonderful. Hopefully, we'll have a few more weekends to spend outside before Fall in Illinois hits.

First day of school

2009-08-26T19:34:00.003-05:00

Today was the first day of first grade. It was drizzling when we headed off to school which made it fun because we dodged puddles and used our umbrellas. Griffin was not nervous at all and marched right in that school like he'd be going there for years. I was able to walk him to his classroom door but after today, that is not allowed.

It continued to rain most of the day so they had indoor recess. And it was POURING when I went to pick him up. Oh well, it's only 8 houses and a field away so it wasn't that bad.

Our next door neighbors - Sydney, 4th grade and Kennedy, 2nd grade
Griffin and his teacher, Mrs. Ward

We are looking forward to a fabulous year!!

Flowers

2009-08-25T21:58:00.003-05:00

Here are a few pictures of flowers found in my backyard.

Tooth

2009-08-25T21:52:00.002-05:00

Griffin has had this snaggletooth for the past couple of weeks. It was so loose, it was crooked and looked very funny in his mouth. I was anxious for it to fall out before he started school. So tonight at 7:30pm Dallas got out the handy-dandy needle-nosed pliers and pulled it out! It took just two pulls and not a tear was shed. I was so happy it was out AND so was Griffin. He's got his tooth in a little box right next to his bed just waiting for the tooth fairy. If you remember from an older post, he likes to keep his teeth so he leaves a note for her to please leave the tooth!

Bye bye Bluie

2009-07-29T22:33:00.003-05:00

The other day Griffin's beloved fish, Bluie passed from this life to the next. I was surprised to see that Griffin cried over the fish. We buried Bluie under our Ryan tree in the backyard.

RIP Bluie.

Independence Day

2009-07-09T13:19:00.005-05:00

We had rainy, cold weather for Independence Day but it didn't stop the Coleman's from having a great party! This was Griffin's first big experience with backyard fireworks and oh my goodness, he LOVED them. Him and Madison were front and center for the show. Oh and sparklers and poppers! They were a huge hit! And it sure is nice that the Coleman's live just a block or two away from prime Ribfest Firework-watching! After the firework show, we went back to the Coleman's and had s'mores. We had a great time!

John and Robbie

Laura and Christian. Cabeb was sick so he was in bed at 7:20. Christian was able to hang with us until 11pm!!The Clark Family
Lady Liberty - oops, I mean Madison
Archie's bag board. I hope it didn't sustain too much damage w/ the festivities.
Griffin and Madison
Sisters - Laura and Amy
Christian - he loved the fireworks after the initial noise-shock wore off!
Amy and Dallas
Griffin and Madison in the front row. Griffin was dancing to the fireworks as they were going off.

Thank God for our country.

Baseball

2009-07-09T13:03:00.004-05:00

Griffin has been playing coach pitch baseball this summer. It has been a great experience for him and all the boys. There are 5 coaches and they do an amazing job with the kids. They have MUCH more patience that I ever could. Griffin's attention span is about one hour and the games usually last an hour and a half! He's been know to sit down in the outfield and/or pick the grass.

Ouch

2009-07-02T19:29:00.003-05:00

Tonight we decided to take a family bike ride. Griffin is riding a new bike that is much bigger than the one he learned on. He hopped right on and off he went. We had a great ride until we got to our friend's driveway. Between the turn, slowing down and the incline of the driveway, Griffin skidded out and landed on his chin and knee. He was very brave and only cried for a few seconds but I know it hurt. His chin is one big bruise with small scrapes. He was very nervous to get back on but we really encouraged him to do so and he did awesome. He even rode it up OUR driveway when we got home! I was proud of him! We've cleaned him up and now he's sitting with Dallas watching Star Wars.

Garden pics

2009-06-27T16:28:00.004-05:00

We planted two river birch trees around the garden that WAS under the big tree. We love river birches and they do get pretty big and add a nice texture to the yard. GROW TREES GO!

The veggie garden contains - green onions, several varieties of lettuce, sage, basil, parsley, cilantro, jalapenos, egg plant, zucchini, cucumber, 4 types of tomatoes. Today I made a pasta salad using the zucchini, onions and basil. I'll use the lettuce to put on our burgers tonight.
This picture is from the other day but I wanted you to see how colorful the garden looks - you'll notice the purples, red and yellows from this angle.

This last picture is of our compost bin. It has cantaloupes growing out of it. I guess it's an added bonus to the stuff growing in our "real" vegetable garden.

It amazing what a difference a couple of years make for perennials.

Cathi

Backyard

2009-06-27T16:13:00.002-05:00

I have always liked gardening but this year I have been studying up on it. I am learning what plants like what soil, sun/shade, height/spacing of plants, etc. It's been fun and I wish I had an acre or two to make some gardens on. But I don't so I'll just stick to my backyard. It was an open pallet when we arrived except for the BIG TREE in the backyard. Remember? So the first summer we put in a perennial garden around the tree.

Then we added our vegetable garden.
Then we added our Ryan tree.Then this summer I added a garden around the Ryan tree.
And then this WEEK I added another small perennial garden.

Stay tuned for some new pictures of all the gardens.

Hanging out

2009-06-25T22:01:00.004-05:00

Griffin and I have been hanging out this week. Dallas is 1/2 way around the world in Brazil. It is our first week home (with nothing planned) since school got out at the beginning of the month. It's been nice not setting an alarm or having someplace to rush off to. We've been to the gym twice, grocery shopping, to a friend's house for a playdate, 2 playdates here, dinner out tonight. A fun week! Oh, except for the heat. It's been over 95 degrees all week! Very hot for Illinois.

On Tuesday, G's best little buddy Kade came over and they played all afternoon. They had a blast (as you can see!)

4 special people

2009-06-20T22:12:00.004-05:00

Charlotte. 5.5 y.o. Outgoing. Kind. Beautiful. Helpful. My niece.
Rehm. 8 y.o. Smart. Wise. Absentminded. My nephew.
Eliza. 3 y.o. (almost). Quiet. Timid. Cuddly. Cute. My niece.
Ruby. 3 y.o. (almost). Adorable. Talkative. Outgoing. Friendly. My niece.

I love them all and am so glad I got to spend some time getting to know them all better. A great trip to Austin!

2009-06-20T21:54:00.002-05:00

Caia Jewel - my friend's granddaughter. Isn't she adorable? We got to spend some time together while we were in Texas.
Playing at the park. She loved it there!
Ellen my amazing, sweet, kind, loving friend (who doesn't read my blog so she'll never know I said these things about her) and Caia.
This is Caia's sister, Bailynn. Isn't she beautiful?
Griffin and I hanging out in Ellen's pool. It was so nice. If I ever move back to Texas, I'm going to need a pool in my backyard.

Graduation

2009-06-20T21:51:00.002-05:00

Dallas was about to get a ticket to Justin's graduation from Rockwall High School. Many of us were able to watch it from afar since it was available via streaming video. It would have been nice to have been there in person but the laptop screen had to do! Justin will be going to the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO. in the fall for college. We are proud of him and want only the best for his future. Way to go!

Vacation

2009-06-08T21:11:00.002-05:00

We are on day 5 of our vacation to Texas. We spent the past 4 days in Ft. Worth and drove to Austin today. I wish I could load some pictures but I won't be able to do that until I get home. On Friday Griffin and I drove to our old house. It was great to see it and it looked just the same. Griffin did not remember it. He did recall the pool and playground around the corner. We got to visit with a few of our old neighbors which was great! Then we spent the afternoon at my friend Melissa's place. She has two boys who are 5 and 9. The 3 boys went swimming for over 2 hours while Melissa and I talked and soaked up the sun's rays. We took the boys plus Melissa's 2 nieces out to dinner then to our old church for movie night under the stars. Saturday we were able to watch Justin's graduation on the computer via live streaming video which was pretty cool. Dallas was able to go and see the occasion in person. Wait until you see the pictures of Justin and Benjamin. They are all grown up! Then we spent the entire afternoon in Ellen's pool. It was so relaxing and fun. I've finally got a good start to my tan! Sunday was spent worshiping at our old church with great friends and having an awesome Mexican lunch at The Blue Goose. THE BEST MEXICAN FOOD EVER! Then it was back to Ft. Worth for more soaking in the sun.

This morning we drove down to Austin and got to finally spend the afternoon with Griffin's cousins! I have missed them SO much and it was just great to see them. Maybe I would have made a good "girl mommy" after all. These 3 little blondies have just pulled at my heartstrings. I can't get enough of them. (Pictures to follow!) Dinner tonight was at Chuy's - another great Mexican restaurant. Notice the theme? You CANNOT get good Mexican food in our area at home so we need to have our fix while we are down here.

Cathi

Park

2009-05-29T20:43:00.004-05:00

Griffin is getting so good at riding his bike! We took a nice long ride around the neighborhood tonight. He didn't stop one time! After our ride, we picked up Dallas and we all rode over to the park. I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to continue practicing picture taking with my relatively new camera. Here are a few shots.

Memorial Day

2009-05-25T18:00:00.003-05:00

What an excellent day! We joined our friends, The Colemans, for the Naperville Memorial Day Parade. Madison was walking with her Daisy troop so we went to cheer her on. It was a cool day which made it a great day for parade watching! The other great thing was the Colemans live very close to downtown so we just parked at their house and we all walked over. We then went to their house for lunch and some great socializing. It started to rain so Amy, Julie and I decided to go to the movies - Ghost of Girlfriend Past. It was a very cute movie.

As we celebrate Memorial day today, let's remember all the U.S. service men and women, past and present, who have fought for our freedom. Thank you!

Guess who got a haircut?

2009-05-25T17:56:00.002-05:00

A little adventure

2009-05-23T22:50:00.004-05:00

This week I went with a local garden club to Hornbaker's Nursery. They had some truly amazing gardens and the selection of plants was second to none. Over 500 variety of hosta! Who knew? This nursery was about an hour and a half away and I could have spent the entire day there and a lot of money! I actually ended up not buying a thing - just too much to choose from.

So when I got home, I started researching plants. I love working in my garden and since the house is only 3 years old, there were lots of gardens I needed to put in! While researching, I came across a website the does plant exchanges. Once again, who knew? Well, there was a post from a sweet woman who said she wanted to "gift a new gardener" with some perennials from her garden. We exchanged emails for a couple of days and set up a time to meet.

Her family lives out in the country about 2 hours west of here in an area called Chadwick, IL. They are farmers and have a cute farmhouse and lots of smelly cows! :) Oh, and of course, beautiful gardens around her farmhouse.

We stopped in Dixon, IL (location of Ronald Reagan's childhood home) for lunch at a local diner then continued out past farm after beautiful farm to Karen's house.

We had a tour of her gardens and she let us have whatever we wanted from her garden. It was overwhelming, all the choices. I think I ended up with over 20 plants! I will have to get a list together of what I got and of course start taking some pictures once they flourish and bloom! One of my favorite things was an iris w/ variegated leaves.

We didn't get back until evening time and the plants were looking rather dry/wilted so I quickly got them in the ground all around the yard. It was dark before I was done but I knew they wouldn't make it without water soon. I can't wait to see how they do!

Cathi

Decorating

2009-05-15T19:50:00.006-05:00

A few months ago we got a new tv and entertainment center/cabinet. It needed some accessories but I have not had the time to get anything yet. Well, my friend Stacy (see post below) is awesome at decorating and such. So while she was visiting, we took Sunday afternoon to go shopping for some new stuff. It was so fun. With several new items, some re-arranging and borrowing from other rooms, I've got a nice looking family room. We also worked on the tops of my kitchen cabinets. I'll post some pics of that when it's finished. But in the meantime, here are some of the family room and front hall.

BEFORE:
AFTER: (I need to mention, I don't have pictures in the frames yet. And I just took these pictures at night. They would look better if there was some natural sunlight but I don't want to wait until tomorrow to take more pictures.)

Our "bunny proofed" backyard

2009-05-15T19:39:00.003-05:00

is not very bunny-proof and I am beyond angry. Griffin got up this morning and as he was putting up his blinds he yelled to me in my room, "Mommy, can I go downstairs and scare the bunny out of the yard?" I was like, "there's no way a bunny's out there." I took one look and sure enough, there was indeed a bunny. We ran downstairs together, threw on our shoes and off we went. I'm sure if my neighbors were watching us, they were cracking up. I was throwing a bucket at the bunny and Griffin was yelling at it. Low and behold, it jumped OVER, yes I said OVER the fence. The fence is about 4 feet tall. I was so mad. How in the heck can a bunny just OVER a 4 foot fence? Well, I saw it with my own two eyes.

Just moments ago, I looked out in the backyard. Yup, the dang bunny is there again. This time we chased it all around and he attempted to just the fence 4-5 times and couldn't get over. So now he is stuck INSIDE our yard.

I just planted the rest of the vegetable garden and my wave petunias. These things are a feast to a bunny. Guess he's going to have a good night.

I'm going to go out there and open the gate - maybe he'll saunter out that way!!

Yup, it worked. Darn bunny!

The Strong's visit

2009-05-15T19:13:00.006-05:00

Our wonderful friends came to visit us for a long weekend. A great time was had by all! We started our weekend by going to Griffin's soccer game. He was so excited to have his best girl friend there that he scored 5 goals! Then we went home for a quick shower and change of clothes before heading off to Chicago. We went to the Museum of Science and Industry for a couple of hours. Then had a fun adventure. We took a cab to American Girl Store. Carly and Stacy shopped while Griffin and I walked around Michigan Avenue. He didn't want to have anything to do with that store (and neither did I!) We met up with them again, walked around a bit then went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner. There was a long wait but they told us to check the "bar" area. There was an open table and we got right in. Thank you Chicago for banning smoking in restaurants. Dinner was great. We decided to have the entire "city" experience and take the BUS back to the Museum where our car was parked. Thank God for cellphones and the Internet - we figured out the bus schedule!

Mother's Day

2009-05-10T19:53:00.004-05:00

This is a purple lilac bush in the front yard.
This is a white lilac bush in the corner of our backyard.
Raised Vegetable garden.
This is our Ryan Garden. We planted the tree last year and made the bed in the fall. A very kind friend of mine gave me several cuttings of perennials from her yard. I stashed them in my veggie garden for the winter and they ALL survived. Almost the entire bed is from those plants with the exception of 2 rose bushes I bought this Spring and a hosta my next door neighbor brought over on a shovel a couple of weeks ago. Can you see why I love perennials SO MUCH?!? I can't wait to see what this looks like when things start to grow and bloom.I bought this purple rhododendron yesterday to replace one I had in that same spot that died over the winter. It's the only thing currently in bloom since I sure it was force-bloomed in a greenhouse someplace before making it's way to Lowes.

I had a nice mother's day. It started with, unfortunately, not sleeping in. Oh well. We went to early church, Sunday school, then to Outback Steakhouse for lunch. Then I got to do one of my favorite things for the entire afternoon - work in my yard. I planted several new things, did a weed treatment and fertilized most of my plants. I even got in a long walk - it was a beautiful day. Here are some pictures of our yard. For those of you in the south you have to remember, we've only had spring for the past few weeks so nothing is in bloom yet. I'll have to update the pics in a month or so and hopefully you'll see how well my perennials are filling in and adding color to the beds. Also, can you see the little "twigs" in my vegetable garden? I've got tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, onions, sage, cilantro, basil, zucchini planted.

Oh and along these same lines. . . I got a great Mother's day present. Dallas worked very hard on the fence and he "bunny proofed" our backyard. He put wire mesh along the entire perimeter of the fence. Bye bye bunnies. You won't be getting any food in this yard!

Tooth Fairy

2009-04-27T20:53:00.003-05:00

Griffin noticed a bump in his mouth a few weeks ago. It was his permanent tooth coming in behind his 2 bottom front teeth. In a week's time he looked like a shark. He had 2 rows of teeth! We ventured to the dentist and had the front 2 teeth pulled! Griffin did great - no tears or fear! The dental assistant suggested Griffin write a note to the tooth fairy and ask her to leave his teeth. So she did, along with a $5 bill. Remarkably, the tooth has moved forward and is almost in the proper place.

Downtown . . . again

2009-04-19T21:22:00.002-05:00

We got to enjoy the great downtown of Chicago again today. Now granted is was cool and misty/raining, it was still a lot of fun. Dallas' sister-in-law, Laura and niece, Brooke were up for a few days from Houston, TX. We went to Gino's (again) for some yummy pizza then headed over to the Museum of Science and Industry (again) to see some of the things we missed last time. That place is BIG and nearly impossible to see it all in a day or even two. The main reason for our return visit was to see the baby chicks hatching. Griffin has 32 eggs in his classroom right now that are just 18 days away from hatching. They are learning all about chickens and eggs at school. I thought it would be neat for him to get an advanced look at what will be happening in just a couple of weeks with the classroom eggs. Well, I didn't realize it takes up to 10 hours for a chick to make it's way out of an egg. So watching one do so is sort of like watching paint dry - rather boring. But that's ok, we had a great time anyway.

My camera was at home and my sister-in-law is still on the plane with her pictures so none for the blog today!

Easter

2009-04-12T20:47:00.003-05:00

We were able to dye some Easter Eggs before we left for Chicago. We (our family) kind of think it's a rather over-rated Easter holiday tradition. We finished in about 10 minutes and put them in the frig and didn't think about them again until I made deviled eggs for dinner tonight! But anyway, we did it and here's a quick look.

One of the things the Easter Bunny left Griffin was a large Lego set. Dallas and Griffin spent most of today building it. Dallas was the "supervisor" and Griffin was the "structural/mechanical engineer". They had a lot of fun. It was the Rogue Shadow.
If you think this one is cool, wait til I post about the set he bought yesterday at the Lego Store on Michigan Avenue.

Cathi

Chicago

2009-04-12T18:32:00.006-05:00

Our friends the Kocurek's came up to Chicago for the weekend and we got to spend some of it with them! We had a great time and it was so nice to catch up with them after not seeing them for almost 3 years! Dallas went to college with Scott and Michelle so they go way back. Their son, Alex is a freshman at Notre Dame so they picked him up to spend the weekend here along with their two other boys, Wesley and Zach. Michelle's parents were also here and it was great to see them as well! One thing that was really funny was there thin Texas blood. There were VERY cold and just think - it was SPRING time!

Navy Pier

The view of Chicago from the end of Navy Pier Griffin at Millennium Park.Even though we've lived here for 2.5 years, we haven't done many of the touristy things in Chicago. We were able to see lots of the sites and the Museum of Science and Industry in the 2 days we were there. And we hit Gino's East for lunch on Saturday and got our fill of delicious Chicago style pizza (thin crust).

Springtime in the Chicago Area

2009-04-06T08:13:00.003-05:00

Spring Break 2009

2009-04-01T17:21:00.004-05:00

It's over and all I can say is I wish I were back there! We had a great vacation. It started with a long drive to Hilton Head with a stopover in Frankfort, KY. The hotel was "awesome" in Griffin's words because there was a Jacuzzi in the room.

We got to my parent's house and the big reveal of Griffin's surprise was waiting for him. My sister, Barbara, flew in for a visit. Griffin was very happy to see her. She's the best Aunt ever.

Saturday morning Dallas and I were up and 'outta there for our drive down to Jacksonville to get the cruise ship. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the terminal's computer system and it took us 2 hours to check in. Luckily everyone was in a good mood so it wasn't too bad. Once we got on, we explored the ship from top to bottom and had a late lunch. We set sail to some rough waters. It was rather rocky that first night but it was smooth sailing after that (thank God!)

We spent the second day at sea doing two of my favorite things - soaking in the sun and reading a good book. The third day was docked in Nassau, Bahamas. We took a long walk around the streets of the town, did some window shopping and got a drink at Senior Frogs. It was a beautiful day. Day four was at Half Moon Cay. Can you say glorious? It was so pretty there. We took another long walk and explored the area. It was so pretty and at times we felt like we were the only two people on the entire island. Day 5 was at sea where we did more sunning and reading. There were 2 comedians on the ship which provided nightly entertainment. They were pretty good and we enjoyed catching the show each night. We also spent some time watching others perform karaoke. This was hilarious. The audience really got into the singing and dancing right along with the "performer." I don't think I need to tell you that we did NOT participate in any of the singing!

We got back to Hilton Head on Thursday afternoon and got to spend the next couple of days with my parents and my wonderful Aunt who was visiting from California.It was so good to be on vacation.

Good-bye cold, Hello warm!

2009-03-18T19:47:00.005-05:00

Well in 24 hours we'll be somewhere in KY heading to Hilton Head. We have a reservation in Frankfort, KY which is about 6 hours from here. We hope to be on the road the following morning by 8am. We've got someplace TO BE! The biggest surprise for Griffin will be waiting for him. My sister, his wonderful Aunt Barbara, is flying in to surprise him with a visit. He'll have 3 nights and 2 days with her. He is going to be so excited. She is one of those awesome Aunts. She always lets him wake her up in the morning and they head out to find some coffee (for Barb) and "bug juice" for G. Then they hit a playground or park. That way the rest of the house can sleep in!

I'm sure they'll also play lots of games, work on some fun math (she's a math teacher) and go to the pool. They need to practice the things he learned in swimming lessons over the past 3 weeks.

Then when she leaves on Monday, Griffin will have his Grampie and BG all to himself. He is going to have so much fun.

And so will we.

Happy Anniversary!

2009-03-13T15:10:00.004-05:00

Today we are celebrating out 10th wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe it's been that long. Then again, I look back at what has happened over those years and wow, it's a lot! I wish I had a wedding picture to show you but believe it or not, it was pre-digital camera era. We had so much fun at our wedding with our friends and family. Justin had just turned 8 and Benjamin just turned 5. It's hard to imagine that they are a Sr. in H.S. and a Fr. in H.S. And of course, our Griffin. We continue to thank God for our little guy every day.

In order to celebrate, we are going on a little vacation. Here is a picture of what we are doing.

We took a cruise for our honeymoon so we saw it fit to take a cruise for THIS anniversary. We will be driving to Hilton Head to drop off Griffin with my parents (which he is really looking forward to) then we'll head to Florida for the cruise. We can't wait! Love you honey! I wonder what the next 10 years will bring?

Legos

2009-03-10T17:14:00.004-05:00

Griffin received several Lego kits for his birthday. He is really into them and loves building. There was one set that was a little difficult for him and he wanted my help. This is a rarity because normally Dallas would help with this type of project. But you see, he was in Paraguay and it HAD to built that minute. I am not gifted with patience and have zero interest in building Legos but felt it was my motherly duty to help when needed. I was good at following the directions and finding the pieces but I was NOT good at having the entire ship break apart when one of us pushed too hard to put another piece on! We worked for what felt like an hour and it was time for bed (thank God!) Dallas made it home the following day and was able to finish the ship with Griffin.

I am very thankful that Dallas and I have different likes and talents - they come in handy when it comes to parenting.

Cathi

"Daddy"

2009-03-09T19:50:00.003-05:00

Griffin had to write a story about a snowflake. He chose to name his snowflake "Daddy." This is what he wrote:

Daddy fell in my house and Daddy wet in my Gaimcoob. (went in my Gamecube) is what he meant to write.

This just cracked me up. This was posted on the bulletin board outside his classroom door. Can you imagine the random adult passing by and looking at the paper - "Daddy wet in my Gaimcoob."

He is just too much sometimes!

Cathi

RED

2009-03-03T15:27:00.002-06:00

Griffin came home today on red. I think I've written about this before. You know - the whole stoplight for behavior thing. He's been on yellow once and red twice. Today his note said he was on red for "slamming the bathroom door repeatedly." What the heck?

I asked him WHY he did that?

His response was, "because there was a kid in the bathroom and he asked my why I was in there and I thought he should KNOW why - to take a bathroom break. And he made me mad when he asked me that."

That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

With no tv, video games or computer over the next 24 hours maybe he can learn how to better exercise self-control.

Cathi

Growth Group

2009-02-28T22:24:00.004-06:00

This is a picture of an amazing group of people. It was the first time that ALL of the members of our small group were able to be together AT THE SAME time. I am honored to call each of these people my friend and I am so glad God put us together in this small group. We are having more fun getting to know each other and walking this journey we call life, together.

Birthday Party

2009-02-28T22:10:00.002-06:00

The party was a complete success. There were 12 little guys here for a little fun. We had pizza, played with lots of Griffin's toys and got in some party games. We played spoon/egg relay race, balloon relay race, hot potato and "pin the electrodes on Darth Vader." Then it was time for cake and opening presents. I think everyone had a good time and Griffin was very appreciative of all his friends who came to celebrate with him.

The birthday continues

2009-02-27T17:08:00.003-06:00

This was Griffin last night when I went to tuck him in. I think it was the first time that Molly, our kitty cat, had ever slept with him. I can't believe how cute they looked!
This was Griffin working on the Lego Racers kit from the Strongs. It was funny. Griffin was adamant that he could NOT do the Legos by himself. So Dallas and I started egging him on that we didn't think he could do it either. There was no way a 6 year old could make that car. No sir, no way at all. This kid LOVES a challenge so of course, he went to it; following the directions to a T. In about 10 minutes he had his very cute racer made. He liked it so much it had to come to dinner with us!

This was Griffin right after he opened the awesome package he got in the mail from The Strong Family in North Carolina. He was looking at his Star Wars book and determining if he could read it or not. He decided he could, with a little help.

Tomorrow is his birthday party. God give me strength. I've got 14 5 and 6 year-olds coming over for 2 hours!

Cathi

Happy Birthday Griffin

2009-02-26T19:39:00.003-06:00

Today is Griffin's 6th birthday. It's hard to believe he was born 6 years ago in a freak Dallas, TX ice storm. It was so icy out we didn't think we were going to make it to the hospital. We did and just after Noon, this cute little baby boy was born into this world.

Today is a rainy, relatively warm day and we are celebrating as a family. He had a great day at school and as soon as he got home, he tore into the present his Aunt Barbara sent which was a StarWars Legos Wii game. He was lost in that game until his Daddy surprised us by calling at 4:30pm to say he was on his way home! What a great birthday present! Griffin opened the presents from us and his BG/Grampie then we headed to his favorite place for dinner - Chili's. He is now sitting in the family room playing Bolt for the Wii (a gift from us) with his dad.

It's hard to put into words how much I love this kid. I thank God for him everyday. He is so caring, smart and fun. I can't imagine my life without him.

I can't wait to see what his 6th year brings.

Chicago

2009-02-22T16:53:00.006-06:00

One of my best friends, Stephanie came to visit me for the weekend from Minneapolis. She flew in for my 40th birthday celebration. Another friend of mine, Katie, went with us to downtown Chicago for a fun girls weekend. We woke up on Saturday morning to 6 inches of fresh snow but that didn't deter us. We took the train into the city and cabbed it over to our hotel. We were able to check right in and spent some time in our room relaxing, visiting and having a toast!

We went to Elephant and Castle Pub for lunch. We spent all afternoon there - eating, drinking, visiting with some people from the city and just having a great time. After strolling down Michigan Ave to do some window shopping (and even try on some fur coats), we got back to the hotel room. Thanks to Dallas' status at the Wyndham, we had cheese, crackers and a bottle of wine waiting for us.

We relaxed, went in the hottub and got ready to go out for dinner. We went to Bandera which was excellent. It was after midnight before we even made it back to the hotel.

Thank you so much to Stephanie for traveling so far and to Katie who left her duties as a mom to make my birthday so special! Love you both!

Cathi

Baseball

2009-02-16T20:12:00.002-06:00

It's hard to think about baseball when it's 30 degrees out but Spring training is just around the corner. Not really but it sounded good. Today Griffin and his two buddies, Tyler and Dakota, went to a neat little baseball clinic indoors. They got to field, bat, throw and catch pop flies. It was fun to watch Griffin enjoy a sport he hasn't gotten to play in months. My friend had her camera and she got some great shots . . . . . . of the netting protecting us from flying baseballs. Her camera would only focus on that darn net so needless to say, I don't have anything to show you.

Now if I had my D-60, it would have been a "whole nuther" story.

Cathi

OUTSIDE!!

2009-02-10T17:41:00.003-06:00

There is life after a winter inside, in Chicago!! God blessed us with a SIXTY degree day today. The ugly grey snow is GONE and there is GREEN grass everywhere. I had my sunroof open today while driving. I took an hour long walk around my neighborhood to just enjoy being outside in the sunshine. When Griffin got home from school, we ran to the library (had this planned) then came right home to be outside as long as possible. He rode his bike and scooter and we took a walk. He then played with the neighbors while I shop vacc'ed the garage. It was full of salt and sand and pebbles. I even washed my car. I had to drag out the hose from the garage but it was well worth it! I can now see the color of my car.

It's suppose to rain all day tomorrow then go back to the mid 30's. That's ok. This day of warmth and sunshine was well worth the wait.

Cathi

Weekend plans

2009-02-06T13:43:00.003-06:00

What an uneventful week. I think that is a good thing. Dallas was in Brazil for the week so it was just Griffin and I. We had a nice week together. On Wednesday night we went out to Pizza Hut to use Griffin's certificate he got at school for reading a certain number of books. The pizza was bad, the service was terrible but G and I had a fun "date night" together. We also spent some time playing Raving Rabbids on the Wii. What a funny game. You "shoot" your opponents with toilet plungers! Love it!!

We are both very excited for the weekend. I am going scrapbooking with some friends locally for the entire weekend. Bags are almost all packed and I hope to get a LOT of pages done. Griffin is excited because he gets his Daddy all to himself. They are just the best of friends and G really missed Dallas while he was gone. There is a trip to Chuck E. Cheese in their plans for tomorrow. Dallas is already trying to figure out a way to go there without having to eat the horrible pizza!

I'll miss you boys. Have fun together! Love you!

Let the force be with you

2009-01-31T19:02:00.005-06:00

Griffin has a fascination with Star Wars. I don't know a THING about Star Wars. I watched the first few movies back when they came out in the 70's. We are now the proud owners of the entire set; however, I have not watched even one minute of them. It is a "Daddy and Griffin" thing to do.

So tonight Griffin really wanted to play "light sabers." His first question to me was, "What color do you want to be?" I didn't even know the colors that were available so I had to ask that first. Blue, green and red. I picked blue. So that means I was, oh no, I forget who I was. Well, anyway, Griffin and I were on a team together. He was someone with a very Asian sounding name and he was green. Dallas was Darth Vader and was red. We ran around the basement for a half an hour mostly in the dark with our light-up light sabers. It was a blast and hopefully something G will remember for a long time!

Slow week

2009-01-30T16:30:00.002-06:00

I guess we have not had much to write about in the past week. We've just been "living life." School for Griffin, work for Dallas and for me well, going to the gym, volunteering at G's school, cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, and a board meeting for our neighborhood.

Life is good. We are so blessed! Have a good weekend.
Cathi

Fun in the snow

2009-01-23T16:03:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was a warm day relative to the last 3 weeks. So when Griffin got home from school, we went over to the park/school to play. I brought my snowshoes along so I could get some exercise as well. And the camera had to come along because well, you just never know when the perfect shot might be "right" there. Griffin did a great job of getting me with my snowshoes on. You should have seen him. I think he might be a professional photographer some day. He laid down on a snow bank, took off his gloves and was holding the camera with the LONG telephoto lens like he WAS a pro. Of course I didn't show you this one
and five others just like it! :)

The cold has returned and we won't be doing this again until at least the middle of next week. It was fun while it lasted!

Something new

2009-01-20T13:51:00.003-06:00

Well, that was a workout!

Today was my first time to try snowshoeing. 35 minutes of snowshoeing was a harder workout than an hour of cardio kick-boxing! I wore my heartrate monitor (like I always do when I workout) and was amazed at how high my heartrate was and at how many calories I burned. So I'm thinking this might be a good alternative to going to the gym.

A few things I learned:
-- Always bring tissues with you
-- A bottle of water is necessary
-- Wear a hat, your ears will be cold
-- You will SWEAT!

Thanks for the snowshoes Barbara!!

Cathi

For my Southern friends

2009-01-19T15:23:00.004-06:00

Here are a few pictures from a snow storm about 2 weeks ago. We've had several more since then. I cannot see my mailbox from the front windows now because the snow is piled so high. This was taken by me standing INSIDE the house with my telephoto lens. Griffin is out playing with his 3 friends.

Day 5

2009-01-19T15:18:00.002-06:00

Today is day 5 of being off school and we've really had a great break. We did not have many things planned so we spent a lot of time in our flannel pants just hanging out. We have greatly improved our Wii playing ability.

Last night our new friends had G and I over for dinner since Dallas is somewhere in the Caribbean doing something or other. (I'll admit it, I'm a little jealous he's there and I'm not!) Then today the same friends came to our house and the boys played and played and Nichole and I just talked and talked. It was really fun.

We are happy to report it's WARM today. It's 18 degrees.

I bet it will be hard to get up and moving tomorrow morning!

Cathi

Day 2

2009-01-16T10:54:00.002-06:00

Well today is day 2 of no school for Griffin. It's just too cold to make these kids go outside. Yesterday was filled with Wii tournaments, Play Doh, coloring, tv watching, lots of reading, and some cuddling in my bed when we were just too cold to get warm any other way. So far today on day 2 we've made chocolate chip waffles for breakfast (for Griffin anyway) and played a round of Wii bowling and a baseball game. I won for the first time ever! I just suggested to Griffin that he goes upstairs to get dressed. His response was, "Mommy, I just want to relax some more and watch a show." Like he can't relax with his play clothes on. Oh well, I'm off to clean the bathrooms.

One more thing. Monday is a holiday so this is turning into a 5 day weekend. Had we *known* this, we might have been able to plan a little trip. The only people we know within driving distance are the Stone Family. It would be a great trip but they live in MINNESOTA!! Not sure if I want to go NORTH in this weather.

And, Dallas is leaving Sunday morning for a trip to some Caribbean Island. I guess I'm suppose to feel bad that he has to travel on his weekend but give me a break. He's going to the Caribbean. At least it's suppose to be 20 degrees on Sunday. I think we'll suntan!!

Cathi

Weather forecast

2009-01-15T18:24:00.001-06:00

Here is the latest.

Current temp: -18.7°F
Low for tonight: -24°F

Clear. Bitterly cold.
Lows 21 to 25 below.
Wind chills as low as 35 below to 45 below zero.

I want to go to the happy place! God help us!

Today

2009-01-14T13:30:00.003-06:00

My hair

2009-01-13T15:53:00.002-06:00

Thank God it's fixed. I do realize that this post will be completely useless without pictures however, no one is home with me to snap one. Back in December, I called up my salon to make an appointment with Sarah, my stylist. She was out on maternity and not due back for a few weeks. They suggested a *wonderful* master stylist named Tom. Now Tom would cost a little extra seeing that he was "a master" and all. I was game for this so I made an appt. for the following day.

Tom's a talker. He talked non-stop for the 2.5 hours I was there getting my hair done. I could tell you his life story as well as all about how *great* he is at doing hair - especially curly hair, his *speciality.*

After 2.5 hours and my ears hurting, my hair was cut and highlighted and I was sent on my way with my hair sopping wet. Out into the Chicago December air you go! Once I got home and my hair was dry, I could tell what a terrible job he did on the highlighting. I called my trusty friend, Ellen, to ask her what I should do. You see, I was at a JC Penney Salon and she knows a thing or two about them. She said I must go back and get it fixed or get my money back. So I nervously went in the following day and guess who was standing right there - master stylist Tom. I told him I was sorry I was back but I was not happy with my hair color. Guess what? He completely agreed - went so far as to say it was "bad." He put me in the chair, caped me up and started on some more highlights, talking the entire time! It was painful. After he finished with the foils, washed my hair and sat me in the chair he said, "I *still* missed some spots and need to do more." So guess what? He had to dry my hair, put more foils in, put me under the dryer for 20 mins., rinse, wash and back in the chair AGAIN. We thought it was enough and looked ok, but it's hard to tell with wet hair. So I was sent back into the Chicago December air with a kiss and a prayer that it looked ok.

Well, it didn't.

But I was not about to go back. I had this very bright blond/yellow/white streak in the front of my hair/forehead area. I was thinking that I was going to have to dye the entire thing brown then start over again.

Christmas came and went and on vacation my good friends and family concurred with me that something had to be done.

When I got home from vacation and was hanging up some clothes in the closet, I saw the sweater I was wearing when Tom did my hair and it had bleach spots all over the back!! That was the deciding factor. I called up JC Penneys and spoke with the manager. I was *very* nice and really wanted nothing more than to make her aware of what happened to me. About 20 minutes later, Sarah called me. She was back from maternity leave and she would fix my hair "on the house." Whoo hoo.

And that happened today. She did a great job and I'm happy with my new hair.

I know, I know, you need a picture.

Cathi

Camera

2009-01-09T12:24:00.004-06:00

My sister-in-law, Jennifer is having a fit over not having a working camera. I would feel very much the same way. So I got to thinking about my new camera. I've had it about 3 months now and have really had a lot of fun with it. Over Christmas break I did take about 550 pictures a few of which you've seen but most you have not. There are a few that stand out and I'd like to share them here. Remember, I do not use any photo-editing software (yet) so there are just raw images right from the camera. I look forward to lots of great photos with my Nikon D60. And also to someday learn how to use editing software to make them even better. (Is that cheating?)
My sister Barbara playing Boccie ball.

Barbara and Griffin on a woods walk.
Griffin in the woods.
A nature trail in my parent's neighborhood.
Mr. Squirrel.
A small nature center in Jasper County, SC.
Barbara.
Griffin.
Ellie and Davis.
And my absolute favorite - Miss Ellie. Isn't she so cute? And with that hair - is how I imagine my daughter would look like if I ever had one.

Atlanta, GA - Part II

2009-01-07T19:44:00.008-06:00

Ok, where was I?

The second stop was at the Weer's home. I had warned Griffin that he might not have as much fun since Kyle, 11 and Kendra, 10 are older and might not want him tagging along. Boy was I wrong. They were so amazing with Griffin. They let him play with their video games, board games and overall welcomed him with opened arms.
We rang in the new year with silly string, sparkling cider and a few fun games of bowling on the Wii. The Weers and Maham families decided this would be a great tradition and we hope to spend many more new year's eves together.Kendra and Griffin had great fun each decorating a gingerbread house. You can see how well they turned out. Griffin loved the icing. It was by far his favorite part. The house traveled home well and it's sitting on our counter right this minute.

One thing I did on vacation that I am NOT proud of was leave my purse at a Mexican restaurant we had dinner in. I didn't realize it until 11am the following morning. Beth called and they said they did not find it. I had this weird suspicion that it was there so I asked Dallas to drive over and ask all of the waiters if they had found it and a reward would be offered. Dallas walked in the door and the manager said it was sitting right under the hostess stand. And there was not a single penny missing. Praise God. Then the morning we left, I misplaced the car keys and it took us 20 minutes to find them. I'm approaching my 40th year and my memory is going!

Thank you both for a great vacation!

Atlanta, GA and Great friends

2009-01-04T20:18:00.006-06:00

Two of my best friends live in Altanta, GA. Well, one in Decatur and one in Peachtree City. We were able to spend a few days with both of them over the Christmas break. We had such a great time. They welcomed us with open arms and we feel like family when we are there.

First stop was to the Driskell's home. Betsy and I have been friends since we were 5-6 years old! Amazing really considering we haven't lived in the same area since we were in 6th grade (plus one other year when we were seniors in h.s.) Betsy's two kids are 6, Davis and 4.5, Ellie so right between Griffin's age. We have been getting them together years since they were born and now they are enjoying growing up together. It was so neat to see their imaginations working together. This picture was on Betsy's front porch. They were on a "houseboat." Griffin was the dog, Ellie was "7" years old and Davis was a teenager. I asked where the parents were and they said they went overboard and died! (whatever!) The had taken all the cardboard out of the recycling to make their boat. And of course they had to have a place to sleep so they got pillows and blankets from inside.Aunt Betsy made the kids a chocolate fountain. What fun! Here is the "during." And here is the "after."
Let me put the second stop in a new post. This is getting long!

Wii

2008-12-26T18:12:00.003-06:00

Santa brought Griffin a Wii. Need I say more? We set it up in his Grammie/Grampie's bedroom at their house in Hilton Head. We had a great game of bowling last night. And you should have seen the sweat when Griffin and Dallas had a boxing match. Wow -- it's great exercise! You'll also notice G has on his box shorts - too hot for his pants! :)

This is going to bring our family hours of entertainment in the coming months and years. Thanks Santa!

Christmas in Hilton Head

2008-12-26T17:50:00.003-06:00

What do you do when you're on the coast on Christmas day? You go to the beach! It was beautiful out and Griffin had a ball. There were lots of families and just as many dogs out there. We stayed for about 2 hours and loved every minute of it.

We came home and set up the Wii and had a friendly bowling competition. Those pictures will follow this post!

I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas. It was the 7th anniversary of the birth/death of my son, Ryan so it's always a difficult day for me. But thank God, I do have so much to be thankful for.

Cathi

Nature

2008-12-24T21:17:00.004-06:00

Griffin and I took the golf cart over to the nature path yesterday morning. We had a great time together. It was so peaceful on the path and fun to just visit and talk with him. His imagination is so fun to watch. This kid loves numbers. Everything is about numbers. So our walk had distance markers along it and we did lots of addition and subtraction while enjoying our walk.

The only critter we saw was this cute squirrel and a few birds.

I'm also having so much fun with my new camera. I am trying to play with it and learn as much as I can by trial and error. I am pretty happy with this back of pictures especially the squirrel. Griffin's learning with me.

Fun in Hilton Head

2008-12-24T18:59:00.008-06:00

To my friends reading in Chicago, I'm sorry. It was 76 degrees here today. We had the air conditioning on in the car while we were out. It was a beautiful day. I heard it wasn't so nice in Illinois. Want to come here for a visit? I'm staying til April (just kidding!)

Here are some pictures from our Boccie ball game the other day. This was taken from a 5 year old's perspective.

Merry Christmas!

Cathi

Well that was fun.

2008-12-21T14:40:00.003-06:00

Ok, I'm just kidding. We left yesterday morning at 6:30 to drive from Aurora, Illinois to Bluffton/Hilton Head, South Carolina. Through Illinois - check. Indiana - check. Kentucky - check. Tennessee - check. North Carolina - check. South Carolina - check. I drove for 3.5 hours of the 15 hour trip and it was through the Appalachian Mountains and was raining the entire time. Not fun. But we did make it here and really did have a great trip. We have a Garmin and one of the things it shows in your "trip history." We only stopped for 37 minutes the entire way here! Not too bad if you ask me. We had 2 drive-though stops for lunch and dinner and then 2 other stops for a bathroom break. Griffin did great. I had no idea Legos in the car would be such a great success. He played with those for hours. It was about 20 degrees when we left Illinois and when we arrived in SC it was 65 degrees. We'll take it!

This morning we had a great game of Boccie Ball. If you don't know what that is, check out the link. It's a great game regardless of age/skill level. We had three teams and after about 30/45 minutes it was a three way tie 8-8-8. We decided that was a good way to end it. Then we hit the croquet court of a little croquet. It was so nice to be outside without even a coat on! I have some pictures I'll have to add later.

Cathi

Computer Problems

2008-12-17T10:36:00.002-06:00

I needed a new fan for my laptop so Dallas went to Fry's to get one. Unfortunately, after it was all taken apart, he realized it was the wrong fan. He quickly put it back together and it appeared to be working. The next morning I went to use it and I could not get on the Internet. OMG! Major problem for me. Oh, I didn't mention Dallas left for El Salvador on a 6am flight and won't be home until midnight on Thursday. So I have no computer access. I am having withdrawals. But I do have a great stay-at-home-mom neighbor that is allowing me to use her computer. What would I do without her! Thanks Jodie. I have on my PJs and brought over a cup of coffee and we're visiting. She's sewing, the kids are playing and I'm being a crazy woman on the computer. I had to stop the mail, stop the newspaper, check the bank balance, look at Facebook, read my "board" and do a quick post here. I have a lot of updates for y'all to read but no means to blog. I guess I could just stay here all day! Just kidding Jodie.

And one more thing - it snowed 6 inches last night! I was out at about 5pm shoveling the driveway. I had to get it done because I was having a dinner party and wanted the ladies to be able to park on the driveway. I was about 1/2 way done and my wonderful neighbor (not Jodie, but Dan) came over with his snowblower and did it for me! Thanks Dan. Then this morning I was shoveling the last 2 inches that fell and he came over AGAIN.

I only know a few of my neighbors and I'm lucky they are as great as they are!

Cathi

I knew this day would come

2008-12-10T16:41:00.002-06:00

Griffin's class does the green light, yellow light, red light thing for behavior. I think I've even mentioned it here before. Well, the day is finally here that Griffin was on Red. He went from 67 days on Green to Red today. The weird thing is, I happen to be in his classroom today when he went to Red. I saw it with my own two eyes. He crawled up and was about to stand on his table. And it was the third time TODAY that he did it. Safety is the number one priority of the teacher. This behavior is not safe and will not be tolerated. I have a note I have to sign and return tomorrow.

I made Griffin say sorry to his teacher before we left and then he started to cry. He was disappointed because he didn't get a sticker like the other kids. It's the little things, I tell ya.

No consequence at home. We just discussed that we will no longer climb on our table at school or any other place.

The funny thing is when the kids get in the car for the ride home they always ask each other if they were on Green and of course they always are. So when Griffin told them he was on Red, they couldn't believe it!

Australia

2008-12-05T17:04:00.003-06:00

My sister-in-law just commented on her blog (or was it her Twitter?) that she had a visitor from China reading her blog the other day. Well, I just came here to check something and noticed I had a visitor from Australia. How exciting. I hope there was something they found interesting.

Cathi

Follow up

2008-12-04T16:45:00.002-06:00

Dallas thought maybe I should post a follow up to the post from Tuesday. You know the one where I said Griffin would have consequences for his behavior that morning. Here's the story.

I was sitting at the kitchen table when he was dropped off from school. He comes bounding through the door and announces, "Can we go to the bowling alley today?" I was cracking up because I had no idea where this idea came from. I figured they were talking about it in the car and he said no. So I asked him why he wanted to go to the bowling alley today. The response, "Well, mommy, since I can't watch tv or play video games I was trying to come up with something fun for us to do instead." Wow, what a smart kid. And here's why I am telling you about this. I said, "Sure, let's go." We marched right out the door and were on our way. The entire time I'm thinking it's so funny that I said yes and I absolutely did NOT follow through with the consequence.

We got to the bowling alley and there were a lot of cars in the parking lot. I knew this was not a good sign. Sure enough every lane was filled with a high school match. No alley available for us. So we left, got a Slurpee on the way home and played together for the remaining afternoon.

So to my friend who asked for parenting advice this morning - I have no idea what I'm doing!! Well, I guess I do but I'm not doing it very well!

Cathi

This Morning

2008-12-02T14:11:00.002-06:00

was one of those mornings. You know the ones. Griffin decided he couldn't (read. . . wouldn't) do anything himself. It started with the clothing. He couldn't take his pj's off himself so I had to help and while I was at it, could I just put on his clothes too? Then it was breakfast time. I poured the cereal, milk, and OJ. He ate. He couldn't clear his dishes because he *had* to go get something from his backpack right.this.second. Then it was time for shoes. OMG - you would have thought he was putting on shoes he wore in 2005. "They are killing my feet. They are too tight." So I had to adjust socks and put the shoes on for him. Then it came time to brush hair and teeth. I pretty much do this already for him in the morning so I did these two tasks with one major meltdown during the teeth brushing. I'm still not sure what that was all about. And finally, coat, hat, gloves and a scarf. No kid (well, my kid) can put these on himself, so I had to help with these. Into the car we go (7 minutes late) and guess what? He could NOT get the seat belt buckled. So out of the car I go to buckle the belt for him.

I guess my friend Amy put it in perspective for me when I arrived at her house to pick up her son and I said it was a rough morning. She said, "just try multiplying that by THREE!"

So this afternoon, when Griffin gets home from school, instead of watching tv or playing, he'll be practicing all those tasks/chores to make sure he can do them himself tomorrow!!

Good thing he's cute!

Comments

2008-12-01T14:30:00.004-06:00

I'm beginning to think no one is reading my blog. It sure would do my heart good to have a comment or two (even if it's bad) once in a while from my faithful followers! :)

SNOW SNOW SNOW!!

It's been snowing for about 30 hours now. Griffin just *had* to go out and play before school this morning. The poor child doesn't even have any boots. They are WAY too small from last year. But Mom to the rescue. I went out today and got him some new boots and those cool Crocs with the lining. I think he'll like these to throw on for quick errands in the winter.

Is this the last year. . .

2008-11-30T13:32:00.003-06:00

that Dallas will be able to lift Griffin to put the STAR on top of the tree??

A trip to Costco

2008-11-25T14:31:00.003-06:00

This is how Griffin traveled through Costco today. He was enjoying the life of luxury while I was stressed out at fighting the huge crowd at Costco. I had no idea how crowded it would be but Thanksgiving shopping was in full swing. Of course, I went there for three specific things, left with 7 and forgot to get one of the three. I'm losing my mind!

I also spent the morning in Griffin's classroom. It is always such fun being with those kiddos. They make me laugh and smile. I truly admire Griffin's teacher for her dedication to the kids. She really loves them and it shows.

We cut out of school a little early for G to get a flu shot. He did awesome - the nurse looked at me like, "are you going to hold him down?" Not necessary for Griffin. It took about 5 minutes total which was very nice. He got to pick the lunch place afterwards, so we headed to Chili's.

We are looking forward to the next 5 days off of school.

Cathi

Even More Disney Pics

2008-11-22T16:15:00.003-06:00

More Disney Pics - Animal Kingdom

2008-11-20T20:55:00.004-06:00

I wanted to show a few more pictures from the trip but since I don't use Picasa, I don't think I can show one of those neat slideshows. I'll have to just post them one at a time. Here they are.

ANIMAL KINDOM - oh, and something I forgot to mention in the previous post. Griffin's most favorite ride. The one where you get ALL wet. I forget the name. He and Dallas rode it 3 times, I passed on it.

A Magical Place

2008-11-19T13:02:00.012-06:00

You know all that stuff I read prior to going to Disney World about it being a magical place was just, you know, stuff. Whatever. Well now that I have experienced it with a 5 year old, I have to agree, it is just magical. We refer to it as "the happy place." Everyone there is happy - the workers, the visitors, the hotel staff, the people in the airport. We did not run into one uptight person in the 8 days we were gone. All weekend, as we were getting acclimated back to Chicago weather and life in general, Dallas kept saying, "I want to go back to the happy place." We even had Griffin saying it! So with that said, let me tell you about our amazing trip.
We arrived on Wednesday night and stayed at an airport hotel which worked out great. My parents drove down from Hilton Head so they had a car and were able to pick us up.

Wednesday morning we drove to Animal Kingdom Lodge to check in and most importantly get our passes to the Parks. We decided to tackle Epcot first. We hopped on the bus and were there is a jiffy. First stop, "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience" in 3-D. This is actually important to the whole story so this is why I'm sharing this. Griffin did NOT like this at all. He did not like the things coming at him in 3-D. He actually cried and I had to take him out.

It was not crowded at all so we were able to do everything we wanted and only had very short lines to wait in. The Test Track was probably our favorite and we did that 3 times. We ate lunch in Mexico (which wasn't very good.) We only visited Mexico and China because these areas weren't too interesting to Griffin. He was much more interested in things like "Mission:Space" and the aquarium. We are Disney Visa card-carrying members so we had a private character meet 'n greet which was fun. Here's a pic from it.

We ended up back at our hotel room around 8pm and Griffin was anxious to go swim in the amazing pool at AKL. The adults were able to sit at the bar AND watch Griffin swimming at the same time - very smart on their part!

The next morning we headed right over to Magic Kingdom. Our first stop, Stitches Great Escape. It was a movie type thing like the 3-D movie from the day before. Guess what? Griffin hated it, cried and I had to take him out again. Poor guy. But then we hit the rides and he was happy as can be. He loved them all. The faster, darker, louder, the better for him. He loved Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We stayed here most of the day then headed back to Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Boma. It was awesome and I highly recommend it. We went BACK to get in some more rides and to see the parade. We walked over 10 miles this day (and actually the day before as well!)

Our final morning was to Animal Kingdom, just a short ride from our hotel, the Lodge. We went straight to the Tree of Life to the "It's tough to be a bug" 3-D movie. Can you guess? Griffin hated it. I can't believe the three (RANDOM) things we picked to do first at each park where things Griffin did NOT like at all. He said, "Mommy, I get to pick what we do first tomorrow on the cruise!" I can pretty much say without a doubt, my son is NOT a fan of 3-D movies!
We did all the rides here and took in the Lion King Show and the Nemo Show. Both were awesome, amazing actually. And I highly recommend them to anyone (young or old) who goes to AK. We stayed until about 6pm. I was so tired and ready to rest but not Mr. G or Dallas. They hopped on the bus and went over to Magic Kingdom and took in their favorite rides one more time. They stayed until 10:30pm! It was all I could do to stay awake before they got back!
Sunday morning we spent some time on the grounds of the Lodge - the playground, the lookout areas and of course, the pool. Then we headed out for the Disney Cruise. I think I'll save that part of the trip for a new post!

DISNEY

2008-11-18T15:55:00.002-06:00

Disney update coming soon! (I promise!)

And we're off!

2008-11-05T09:58:00.003-06:00

Back in a week full of great times and great memories!!

Disney World, here we come!

Cathi

All My Bags are Packed

2008-11-04T11:04:00.002-06:00

I'm ready to go . . . . What song, what song? Come on . . . you know. Think way back.

Well we are ready to leave for Disney World tomorrow. I ran to the store this morning to get a few little travel items and I'd like to get to the library to get a book, but other than that, let's go. Oh wait. I'm still waiting to hear from a neighbor to see if they can drive us to the airport. I guess that's a pretty major detail I don't have taken care of yet.

Please pray for safe travels for us and for the seas to be calm while we're on our cruise. See you in a week!

Cathi

PS. The answer is Peter, Paul and Mary - Leaving on a Jet Plane written by John Denver.

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T20:14:00.003-05:00

The perfect evening. It was beautiful out and Griffin had a great time trick or treating with his Daddy and friends Kennedy and Teddy. He's one happy boy! I hope y'all had a great evening too!

Gig'em Aggies

2008-10-30T22:15:00.002-05:00

Is that even how you spell gig'em? I honestly have no idea. But I have a little boy who likes to cheer hard for the Aggies and they way he does it is by screaming at the top of his lungs, "Gig'em Aggies" while watching them beat up on Iowa State over the weekend. On Friday afternoon we left for Ames, Iowa to watch the Texas A&M Aggies play the Iowa State Cyclones. It was a pretty evenly matched game (because they both stink this year, did I really say that?) and the Aggies came away with a WIN at the end. Dallas' parents flew in from Austin, TX to go to the game with us. It was fun to catch up with them and spend the weekend together. It had been almost a year since we'd seen them. Dallas' dad decided he didn't need to spend any more time in Iowa. You ever been there? If you have, you know why and if you haven't, there is no reason to go there and find out why. But if you do, you'll know about 5 minutes after you enter the state - There's nothin' but flat and corn fields.

Field Trip

2008-10-30T21:48:00.003-05:00

On Tuesday, Griffin and I went to Kuiper Farms for a field trip with the entire Kindergarten at his school, over 350 kiddos. It sure was fun. We boarded 9 schools buses and headed up the road. It was about 30 degrees outside when we left the school. The kids were bundled up in hats, scarfs and gloves. Well, not Griffin. He couldn't find any gloves and did not want the three pairs of mittens I found so he went without. It didn't slow him down too much but it was pretty chilly out there on the farm. The children had so much fun and really enjoyed their time outdoors. The best part was the "Haunted Forest Walk" we took. Youl see some pictures above. I was in a group with Griffin and three of his friends, Luis, Aiden and Alexa. A great time was had by all.