Leapin' Leprechauns......

Here is Thomas John, the Leprechaun!

Halloween II

Here we see Tom and Payton sorting through some Halloween candy.......Tom and his friend went Trick or Treating in Mill Creek, and Tom's friend ended up with thirteen pounds of candy - after Tom gave him his chocolate stuff!

Tom most generously gave Aimee a few pieces of chocolate that had been hidden in his stash. Aimee, Matt, and Paytie surprised us at the BlingMansion for some Trick or Treating tonight! Too fun!

BlingDaddy went out for a yummy Aurelio's pizza that we totally devoured between the four of us - one teeny piece was left. It was an extra large........

Blingdaddy

Here we have BlingDaddy in his white suit and black hat......I was kidding him and told him that he looked like someone else we know named Bud....

Happy Halloweeney!

Here is Miss LeenieBeanie in her cheerleader outfit, wishing you all a Happy Halloween! :) I will probably get more pictures later today, but for now, this one will have to do! Tommy's going to be a leprechaun, Kelly a nun, Kate a "boob", Paytie a ninja - anyone else? I am thinking of doing my eyes up with some nasty black liner and donning my witch hat for the Trick or Treaters later.........won't have to wear anything special, 'cause I'm in my USUAL.....

Guess what? Tommy J made the "official" school basketball team yesterday!!!! We don't know yet if it's the "A" team or the "B" team, but either way, it's not the "club team" from last year! Isn't that great? He seemed kind of in shock yesterday that he made it - I really believe he was fully expecting to have to play "club" again this year. Must be the new height - you know - being five foot five! LOL

Kate and Brent will be on their way down to Urbana later today to spend some time with Kelly. How fun is that? And Sunday is another concert for Kelly, which at this point, I am planning on attending.....hopefully nothing will intervene in the next 48 hours to change those plans. How exciting! Seeing Miss Kel three weekends in a row!!!!! Speaking of Miss Kel, I will be transferring the money into your account later today, dearie, when I get my cash from Jean.....haha.....I have NOT forgotten your request, I promise.

Yesterday BlingDaddy had the MRI of his Achille's. Of course we will not know the results for a while.....please all keep your fingers crossed for NO SURGERY!!!!!!!!

Speaking of surgery, Grandma Lois will be having her cortisone shot in her spine in a few weeks, and the doctor told her that if three injections don't do the "trick", she will also be looking at surgery. Two discs are involved in the deterioration process......yes, children, it definitely sucks to get old! But it's better than the alternative, pretty much any day.......

If anyone doesn't get their fair share of Halloween goodies tonight, please feel free to bop on over to the BlingMansion. BlingDaddy didn't think that I had purchased quite enough candy for tonight's festivities, and has bought enough to last us until at least Easter! :)

And please do not think that I have forgotten how to space paragraphs, but for some reason, even though I have tried several different times to engineer a few spaces between paragraphs here, the Powers That Be won't let me! In addition to being Halloween, today must be Let's Ruin Our Eyes Day!!!!!!

Snow in October !?!@#!@?@?!?

Yes, folks, it has snowed here already in lovely Chicagoland! We had some on Sunday, and again yesterday. Thank heavens nothing has really stuck to the ground yet! I have heard that for Halloween on Friday it might be as warm as 60 degrees, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. It's just so awful when it's cold and blustery on Halloween - not only for the kids walking around, but for me standing at the door freezing while passing out candy! LOL

Speaking of candy, I just realized that I don't have any yet! Looks like a trip to Woodman's is in store for later this afternoon......

Blingdaddy is feeling a bit better today, and could go back to work tomorrow, however, he's considering taking the entire week off and not returning to the ole' grind until Monday.......hopefully he will be able to get the pneumonia vaccine in a few weeks and prevent this from becoming an every-five-month-occurrance! Not fun at all, especially when the ribs get cracked from the coughing. :(

On Saturday Paytie is having his upper GI done - hopefully that will all go very smoothly and nothing too hard to correct will be discovered. I have to say that the past few times I have seen Mr. P. he has been so peppy and wonderful you would never know at all that something was bothering him. And he has grown at least two feet since the end of August! LOL I kind of dread the day he's taller than dear old Tommy - that will NOT sit well with Uncle Tom, but you all KNOW that is what will eventually happen - at least not for five years or so! hahahaha

Kate and Brent are making the drive to Urbana on Friday to spend Halloween with Miss Kelly! She is very excited about it, but now she prolly has to find a costume......when she was home last weekend she didn't find anything she wanted to spend sixty dollars on - yes, that's how much the interesting costumes were! Kate may share her angel wings and halo with her. Kelly informed me that if you are going to dress up on Halloween it has to be something cute but slutty. Gee, wonder how Kate is going to look slutty dressed up as a "boob" with Brent????? Can't wait for the pictures of THAT outfit! Thank you, dear Princess Jules for that suggestion! :) What are YOU going to be for Halloween? Inquiring minds want to know!

I am just keeping my fingers crossed that the threat at U of I that someone is going to be shot on Halloween on Green Street is a hoax and nothing more. It is getting ridiculous that innocent people have to be frightened to death just going about their normal everyday business. Too bad we can't somehow identify the wackos at birth and send them to their own little island - maybe Antarctica? Let them prey on one another instead of the rest of us who just want to live in peace and harmony.......

I can't end on that note, so, quick, send your happy thoughts this way! I have something: Little Miss Kiersten is sitting next to me and her pants have just fallen off - must be nice to be so slim that your pants fall down! LOL

Kelly's New 'Do

And here we have Miss Kelly in her new 'do.....okay, it's not all that different, just trimmed a bit!

Birthday Party

Last night was a big Party Night at the Mansion.......and we have the pictures to prove it! Here is Paytie hugging his Mama while the rest of the family sings "Happy Birthday".

Kate made the drive from Schaumburg, and Kelly came by bus from Urbana.....LOL It was almost a full house, (we miss our Boston Congingent) and it certainly was giddy!

Kate had the best stories about kindergarten last night. Several times there were several of us who nearly wet our undies........or snorted some food down the wrong pipe......or spit our drinks out onto the floor.......Kate was definitely on a roll. Too bad there is no video footage - might have won something on America's Funniest Home Videos.

The best story was the one about the little girl who decided that the door "cling" decorations Kate had put up for the beginning of the school year looked good enough to eat. Kate's pretty good at re-telling these things......

Sadly, BlingDaddy is suffering with pneumonia again, and spent most of the night upstairs in the bedroom. Hopefully the drugs will take effect soon and the nasty bugs will go away.......but until then, it's out with the nebulizer and antibiotics......

Happy New Job, Jules! :)

Well, I guess that everyone knows by now about Miss Julie's new job, but I thought I would make it "official" and put it print here! LOL

Also, Blingdaddy had his appointment yesterday with the orthopedic guy yesterday. He needs to have an MRI on his Achilles and go from there.....doc says it's torn, but doesn't know the extent of the damage yet. Hopefully there will be no surgery involved here, just therapy.....also, his cough is getting a bit better, but the ribs are still hurting......pain, pain, and more pain. Yikes.

Grandma M takes off for her European cruise TOMORROW! Uh oh, forgot to call her to wish her bon voyage......thought she left Thursday! Oh, well, what's one more black mark against me in her little black book? Tom is reading this over my shoulder and told me that last time he was there Grandmama showed him her Euros....how cool is that? I"VE never seen a Euro.....

And while we're on the Grandmas, Grandma Lois is staying with a lady from her church who called her last Friday. This is an 88 year old woman who, of course, is all alone (her daughters live in Virginia and California, and she's a widow). She was recently hospitalized for pneumonia and now has been feeling scared at night and is afraid she's going to kill herself. Isn't that lovely? So Grandma has been staying with her, but she's hoping that by Thursday or Friday someone from the church will be able to relieve her! I got to hear the whole BM thing again - I don't mean to make light of this but I guess that Grandma can't take a dump unless it's on her own toilet or something.........sheesh! Okay, maybe some day in about 20 years I will be in the same situation, but I sure hope not......I promise not to tell any of you if I am, though, okay? :) Gross topic.

Tonight on my walk I was wondering about the impatiens that are planted around the driveway to the golf club - they grow in a mound so that the edges are lower than the center, but the ground underneath them doesn't appear to be higher. I cannot for the life of me figure out how the gardener guys get them to grow that way! Pretty soon those impatiens are going to be yanked out of the ground for the winter....boo hoo It was really, really cold tonight - Miss Jules, my birthday hoodie was just not quite enough to keep me from feeling the cold, but I believe it was in the lower forties, so that's pretty nippy.

I just knew that Kelly was going to call me when I was on my walk, so I brought my phone with, and sure enough, it rang when I was at the halfway point......it was nice to chat, and plan what she's going to do this weekend when she comes home (shop (are you surprised?), get a haircut, ravage her room for more stuff to take back to school with her - after all, we got everything into the car on the way DOWN there.....LOL

I don't believe I mentioned Aimee's birthday here.......Blingdaddy, Tommy, and I went to Red Robin with Aimee, Paytie, and Matt for lunch on Saturday. Very fun! Paytie was soooo well behaved, even Blingdaddy commented on how great he was. We all stuffed our faces with burgers and fries......Tommy discovered that he can eat a Boca burger there on a plain sesame bun! He couldn't believe how full he was from that and the fries. In any event, it was a very nice birthday lunch, but we are still going to have a little something for her on Friday when Kelly comes home. Kate, I don't believe I remembered to mention this to you....hopefully someone else has!

Aimee, Matt, Kate, and Brent went out on the town Saturday night in St. Charles, and Paytie came to the BlingMansion for a sleepover. He was an angel, and not one cross word passed between him and Tommy. Yay!

Sunday morning I left for my trip to Urbana for Kelly's orchestra concert - very fun drive listening to music in the car - Jon McLaughlin is always entertaining for me....throw in a little James Morrison, Leona Lewis, and Miley Cyrus and I was in musical ecstasy...LOL

Okay, so I know that you are all waiting to hear my report on "Kelly's Matt", aren't you? I went to lunch with Kelly and Matt before the concert. It was really nice gettng to know him a little bit (and I do mean VERY little since we didn't have all that much time). I can see why Kelly likes him. :) One word: dimples. Okay, that's not the only reason.....LOL I hope that you all get to meet him one of these days. Seems like a "keeper" to me. :)

I guess I have spewed on enough tonight and will now sign off to go do a little reading before bedtime. See you all soon! :)

'Twas the Day Before Aimee's Birthday.......

Hard to believe that tomorrow our Miss A will turn 29! It's such a bogus number - most people don't believe it when you say you're 29! LOL Hurry up and turn 30, Aims! :)

I just got off the phone with Kate, who just had her doctor's appointment to find out about her Achilles and her IT (ileo-tibial - might not be spelled right.....) band pain. He recommended therapy for both, but sees no permanent damage. Yay! Kate is already thinking about how much time she can shave off her NEXT marathon. hahaha

Yay for Kelly!

Well, Miss Kelly has been working her little behind off studying, and it has paid off! She just told me that she has received A's on several tests she took last week - two of them were really, really hard, and she never thought she'd have done so well! Sounds like she's got one of the highest grades in the class going there! Yippee!!!! Atonal dictation sounds pretty challenging to me, and her singing test also went well, along with a Theory test where the average class grade was 78 to her 91! Isn't is nice to know that sometimes hard work DOES pay off?

Oh, and let's all be thinking good thoughts for Our Miss Jules! She's had a few good interviews and is going on one more today (thanks for sharing, Aimee! :)). But the one from yesterday sounds PERFECT! It would involve her dance background!!!!!! Wouldn't that just fry BlingDaddy's butt? LOL

It's a gloomy, dreary day here in Chicago, but it's never dark in our hearts, is it my loves? In case I haven't mentioned it lately, I love you all, and I thank God every night that I am so blessed to have my amazing family. MWAH (That's a big kiss, in case you were wondering....)

SHE DID IT!!!!!!! (Not that there was a doubt she wouldn't!)

Congratulations to Miss Kate for completing the Chicago Marathon today! It was amazing to be a part of the crowd, and amazing to be related to such a trooper! We love you, Kate!

Marathon Stuff

I have just taken the liberty of signing up several of you to receive text messages on your phones as to when Kate passes certain points in the Marathon on Sunday. Hope you don't mind. You have all received text messages that you need to reply to in order to receive the info.

Thinking of Miss Jules Today.....

Here is hoping that Miss Jules will have a good second interview today - while I did not get to speak personally with her, I had it on good authority (Miss A) that there is a good chance of Mrs. J. getting paying employment soon! :) Keeping fingers crossed for you, sweetie!

Last night Miss A stopped by with Mr. P to hem his Tai Kwan Do (is that spelled properly?) outfit. Very cool. Looked fantastic on the Winter coloring (it's all white), but kind of reminiscent of doctor scrubs.....hmmm......could we have our own M.D. one day? Wouldn't that be something?

Today is a half day of school for Tom, with NO SCHOOL tomorrow and Monday. Guess it's Columbus Day? I really should keep better track of these things.....

Saying lots and lots of extra prayers that Kate has a good run on Sunday and does not do herself too much bodily harm running 26.2.......last time I spoke with her, she did say her ankle was feeling much better.

Holy Pumpkin, it's October Already!

Time is flying by, and this weekend is the Chicago Marathon already! I am sure that Kate will feel amazing when she crosses that finish line. :) Aimee and I are making plans to take the train down to the Loop so as to avoid the horrendous traffic. Still debating whether or not to take the laptop so that we can check on Kate's every movement via the wonder of the Internet. Isn't technology amazing? I guess that the number bibs have a GPS implanted in them or something like that......

Friday night is the dinner to celebrate 35 years (or more) of working at BlingDaddy's place of employment! We are going to the Art Institute, and there will be more than 100 people there. Sure hope the dinner is delicious. Will have to save all my Points for the day on Friday! (BTW, I am now at minus 19.2 and counting.....) And maybe get in a walk in the AM after doing the train drop off. I myself will be taking the train into the Loop that day. BlingDaddy will drive down in the morning so that we don't have to worry about the train schedule on the return trip.

The following weekend we will be driving to Urbana to hear Kelly's first orchestra concert of the year, and perhaps get to meet Mr. Matt as well. I must ocnfess to being curious about the guy. After all, if Kelly is dating him, he must be special! I am hoping to bring lots and lots of goodies for Miss Kel, and also some of her warmer clothing. She doesn't even have a COAT with her! hahaha Better stay warm until then......and I think that she is regretting her decision to leave her lovely BOOTS behind as well. Just this morning it was raining cats and dogs when she was walking to class......sheesh....

Oh, and here is the AVON website: www.youravon.com/jgoier

Well, it's nearly naptime for Kiersten, so I'd better vacate the chair......I do believe that Princess Jules is on the phone! Yay!