What I did today

I spent the day hanging out at my sister's house with my nieces, and their pets. They swam, they ate, they argued, they Easy Baked some interesting concoctions that were supposed to be a cake, brownies and cookies. They made a mess of fingernail polish. They pierced my eardrums more than once with screeches of pain, anger and delight. I did my laundry, for free, in air conditioning. It was a little slice of heaven.

Here is the "day spa" which involved Emily and Lizzie painting Marli's nails some interesting shades.

This is the final result of the nail painting.

This is Barkley. She's the best dog on the planet. She's also a little camera shy.

This is Sugar. She's older than dirt, but the sweetest, most lovable cat ever!

This is Cookie. He squawks anytime the girls' start screaming.

This is Hope, the newest addition to the family. She doesn't like to be held, she's a huge fat cat and she is the daughter of the cat that has adopted my dad at work.

At the races... Yeehaw!!!

After torturing me for 2 days by text message and email about the fact that they were at the NASCAR races at Chicagoland Speedway, Jen and Mo begged an extra ticket from their hosts and invited me to the Sprint Cup race Saturday night. Needless to say, I was out the door in a heartbeat!

The traffic was much better than I anticipated and parking was not bad at all. I was a little worried given all the rain we’d had over the previous couple of days. Jen and Mo met me at the entrance to the infield and we headed over to the Expo area to spend some money. While I was waiting for them, I spotted Jamie MacMurray and Kasey Kahne being driven around on golf carts. On the trek over to the Expo area, Richard Petty passed us. You couldn’t miss the guy in his signature black hat, but of course, Jen and I noticed and Mo missed it completely.

It must have been fate that the first trailer we encountered was a Newman trailer. I got shirts for Marli and me and a sticker for the car. We wandered a bit more, I got stuff for the other kids and then we headed back to the infield. I had no idea what to expect and boy, was I surprised with my first view of the track!

They were in the new Turn 4 area of the infield and I think if I wanted to, I could have spit on the track from where we were. Holy cow! It was amazingly calm around there despite RV’s packed together like sardines in a can. Except for the spot directly across from us; it was empty. I really think Fate was on my side this weekend!

I thought it was loud in the grandstands. Man, was I wrong! It was so loud that we couldn’t hear a thing that was going on. I brought my radio and headphones figuring I could listen to the broadcast on US99 and protect my ears at the same time. No way that was happening. So really, we had no idea what was going on outside of our view, which while nice and close through turns 3 & 4, left a lot to be desired on the other side of the track. It wasn’t a terribly exciting race, no major wrecks, not a lot of bumping and passing. But it was an experience I’ll never forget, that’s for sure. I took pictures of several of the busses for my dad to look at so he can make his own. Though I think after having experienced the race from both the infield and the grandstands, my ideal way to spend time at the track is to camp out/tailgate in the parking lot, but watch the race from the stands.

After the race was over I hung out with Jen & Mo a while since I figured it was silly to fight all the traffic. We wandered all the way around the infield. We saw a bunch of haulers leaving, though none of the important ones (Newman). We saw a massive pile of tires and some of the most bizarre RV/bus setups you could ever imagine. One RV had a slide from the top to get down. A few slots actually had little pools to kill time in. And I saw more bean bags being thrown in one place than I ever have before in my entire life (I have to get a set of those).

Thanks Jen and Mo, I had a fabulous, once-in-a-lifetime night!


Click here for more pictures

More Fireworks

It was another crazy day. We hauled ourselves up to Palatine for Jillian's graduation party. There was, of course, plenty of yummy food and drink and lots of family. Unfortunately we had to bow out early to get Chelsea home so we missed out on some of the fun, like cake, s'mores by the fire pit, and swimming.

We drove straight through to Bourbonnais to drop Marli and Chelsea off at Chelsea's house and headed over to Great-Grandma's. We visited with her for a bit while Lee did some work there. We made a few more stops, then pulled over to the side of the road to watch the fireworks. Actually, we pulled into a parking lot of a small plaza that would enable us to get the heck out before all the people at the mall swarmed the roads.

The show didn't start until after 9:30, but when it did, it started with a bang. I honestly thought they were starting with the Grand Finale. The show went on and on. I, of course, forgot the camera (story of my life), so Lee suggested I try to take pictures with my phone. Imagine my surprise when it actually worked! Not all that well, but they are not bad. Here are a few of the better shots. Those lights at the bottom, that is Northfield Square Mall. They light them off from behind the mall every year. The show went on for so long that we actually got bored and left early. We were probably 5 minutes out of town when I saw what I assume was the Grand Finale out the back window of the car.

Independence Day

We broke tradition this year and actually went to the park to see the fireworks. We dropped the van off in the parking lot at the park in the morning with the chairs and coats. We walked back later in the evening. I'm so glad we did that. By the time we got there around 8 the whole area was a madhouse. We met up with Marli and her friends on the walk to the park and that was about the last I saw of them until the fireworks were over.










After the fireworks show we went to my parents' house. From their deck you can see all the fireworks you could ever want to see. We usually go to their house for the fireworks because you can see the shows from at least 4 different towns, not to mention the assorted pyromaniacs in the area. The fireworks were too far away to get pictures of, but Marli and Chelsea made interesting enough subjects!






When we got home, Lee's ex-wife called that they were taking Nate to the ER, so Lee and I hopped in the car and headed down. He's all good now, but it was a LONG night. So you will please excuse me as I head back to my bed for some more shut eye. There will be more fireworks pictures posted tonight or tomorrow. Bradley is doing their fireworks tonight and since we will be in the area anyway, I have decided that we will stay and watch them too!

Abigail, Olivia and Keara

These are some pictures from our trip to Olney to visit the new little bundles of joy! Abigail and Olivia were born Friday, June 20. They are the first twins to ever be delivered at their local hospital, and they have become quite famous. People stopped is in the aisles at Walmart to ask if they were the babies they read about in the paper. It was pretty fascinating to get all that attention from strangers, but the people in Olney are all very friendly.

These pictures are in no particular order since putting pictures in blogger is about as difficult as doing calculus!


Marli took a little nap with Olivia on the boppy on Saturday afternoon, and there she is holding Abigail when we first got there.



Keara is a great big sister. She loves to hold and kiss the babies. They are so tiny that they are just the perfect size for her little arms. I think she has dolls bigger than those girls! :)




The girls love their boppy pillows. They snuggle right into them to sleep. That's Abigail there by herself. When they are together, it's Olivia on the left, Abigail on the right. We can tell because Olivia's skin is a little darker, and Abigail's face is a little rounder. They have different personalities already too. Abby is always happy, eats like a pig, from the bottle or nursing, and sleeps really well. Olivia loves to be held, gets a little gassy, prefers her meals in a bottle and is usually the first of the two to wake up.



No, that's not a huge crib, it's just a tiny baby. They don't have a whole lot of fat on them yet, but they do have lots of extra skin. Look at those little skinny legs! Keara and Marli had a blast out on the Slip & Slide Friday and Saturday... that was $20 well spent.

I can't wait to go back, hopefully sometime in July. If only they didn't live so far away!

The Newest Webkinz

This is what happens when you send Marli into her room to clean:

See that black animal between the monkey and the bear? Yep, that would be our guinea pig, Licorice. He is apparently the newest addition to her Webkinz collection. Oh, to be able to understand the mind of a 13 year old girl.

They're Here!!!

Well, not here exactly... but the twins have been born!

Abigail Elizabeth was 4 lbs. 15 oz and Olivia Jean was 4 lb.s 14 oz. The girls aren't giving their parents much of a chance to rest, but they are doing well. Keara is loving being a big sister so far and is really gentle with them. Tiff still can't tell them apart yet, but she will before too long. She said Olivia is a mommy's girl, very affectionate and lovey. Olivia is more alert and looking around at the world all the time. Marli and I just might have to go visit them on my day off. It's too bad they live so far away!