Squeakers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!