Aaak! Friday Again!

How can it be that the time has flown past again so quickly and it's Friday once again? Well, since I can't answer that complicated physics question, I shall blather on......just had a nice little blurb composed and the Cyberspace Gremlins took it away......sh__! I am not a happy camper today - too many computer glitches that are extremely frustrating........

I was very sad to have been thwarted in my attempt on Sunday night to drive to Evanston to see Kate's last CCC concert. The wind and the snow conspired against me, and Kate called me as I was wending my way through South Elgin and said to turn back because the weather appeared to be getting worse in where she was. Oh, well, I definitely have many beautiful memories of the CCC concerts I saw Kate perform in, and am keeping fingers crossed for local auditions so that she can still sing in a good choir, just one that is closer to home. :) (Brent, too!)

Tuesday night was Tom's Band concert - very good stuff played, especially by the top group, the Wind Symphony. They had an especially cool piece that featured a good reader with an amazing speaking voice, narrating The Night Before Christmas, accompanied by a Christmas medley. Fab! Wish you all could have been there.

Wednesday night Tom had Religious Ed and I had my knitting group Christmas party at the home of one of the members. It was the most magnificently decorated home I've ever personally been in - wish I could have taken pictures so that you could all have enjoyed the vision as well. Simply amazing. I would not be surprised if the person admitted to me that she had at least $50,000 worth of Christmas decorations in her house. Just a sampling: every window that I could see in the front and side of the house (four car side-load garage with windows above) was festooned with a beribboned wreath.

There were many twinkling white lights on the outside as well, and some lit snowmen grouped near where the brick walkway joined the driveway. As you approached the front door (which was a beautiful, HUGE, creation of dark wood and lots of clear glass so that you could clearly see the enormous, beautifully decorated tree in the entry hall), you were greeted by the sound of Christmas music playing (I spied some small speakers near the front door), and two four foot tall wrought iron angels holding lit candles (real candles) on either side of the front door.

Once you stepped into the house, it was as though you'd entered a magazine spread - everywhere you looked, there were pieces of greenery, lit candles (truly there must have been at least fifty of them - thirty alone on the fireplace mantel in the family room), pinecones, and cranberries.

I have no idea how many actual Christmas trees were in that house, but I am going to say at least ten, between the entry hall, diningroom, kitchen, and family room. The largest was in the entry hall, second largest was in the family room, but then there were smaller ones - two in the diningroom on either side of the sideboard, a medium-sized one in the eating area of the kitchen (which adjoined the family room), and several other small ones on tabletops.

The family has three dogs, and the dogs were all rather small, so they had three dog houses lined up in the eating area of the kitchen - they resembled bird cages in that they had 'slats' that formed the sides and roofs of the cages. Each dog house had a red glittery star with the dog's name inscribed on it. I asked Laura (the person who owned the house) if the stars were on the dog's houses all year long, and she said no, that was only for Christmas. The rest of the year, they had little dog-bone shaped name tags!!!!! OMG!!!!!

Needless to say, I would guess that this house was over a million dollars when built several years back (it's in the new section of the Tanglewood subdivision in Batavia), and I would estimate that the square footage was in the six or seven thousand squre foot range (not counting the immense basement). Amazing!

So last night was the concert for Kelly's 4th and 5th graders. Kel said that the kids sounded pretty decent, but there were a few incidents that made the night less than happy for her. After the concert, one of the moms came up to her and said, "The concert was good, BUT I could see every child in the orchestra except for mine, and I am really angry about that right now. You need to keep that in mind for next time!!" Can you believe this? What kind of stupid person blames the orchestra director for not being able to see her child? Maybe if her kid were any good, he'd have been in the first row....maybe if he practiced he'd be better.....maybe if she had a BRAIN she might have gotten off her lazy ass and moved so she COULD see her kid.......or all of the above.

There were times through the years that I couldn't see one or the other of my children who were performing at a particular event, and it was upsetting, but never in a million years would I have dreamed to go up to the director of the event and bitch about it. How ridiculous. Okay, enough ire!

I spoke with Julie earlier this week and she told me that Hunter had taken a bad tumble, split his lip, and ended up with a bruise to show for it all.......it will be a relief when he's a bit older and more steady on his feet so that she doesn't have to worry quite so much about these things.......

I'm not sure of the date, but I know that very soon, Payton will be boarding the plane to Boston to spend time with Julie, Scott, and Hunter. What a fun experience for him! That child has logged more miles in seven and a half years than I have logged in fifty seven years! haha

Oh, well, I need to get wrapping on Alene, Kiersten, Jean, and Mike's gifts, since I believe that today is the last day I have the girls until after the new year. :) And maybe tonight will be the night we finally put up the Christmas tree.....defintely doesn't look much like Christmas at the BlingMansion yet!

Weekly Report

Well, here it is Friday again! So much news, such slow fingers......

Where to start? Hm, stream-of-conscious writing works best for me, so here we go:

Last night was Kelly's first concert - 6th, 7th, and 8th graders at OJ Middle School. She was amazing. Poised, confident, cheerful. You name it, she WAS it! LOL Of course it made me tear up something awful just watching her march out with her students following, and after the concert was over, it was very, very nice to overhear such great comments. A few that I can remember verbatim: "It was a fantastic concert. She did an amazing job. She has so much poise for someone so young - this is her first year out of college!" One of the dads came up to Kelly after the concert and told her that he's never heard the group sound so good, and he thought they sounded like the high school orchestra. (This, of course, is probably a slight exaggeration, but the sentiment was definitely sincere...) He also told her that last night's concert would be a tough act to follow. All in all, a very good evening.

And then there was the two hour drive home. Yes, it was quite the challenge: blowing snow, total darkness, and very little clue as to where the road actually was! Driving west on 143rd was pretty awful, but I had hopes that when we reached I-355 we would see clear road. Total disappointment there. It was basically impossible to see where the lanes were, so we all guessed. Luckily, the other drivers on the road were pretty conservative, and there were only a few idiots trying to drive at normal highway speeds. (Kelly and I saw several of them off the road, with their headlights at 90 degrees to the highway.) In any event, we drove carefully, and arrived safely at home around 10:30. Kelly did a fantastic job, and you all would have been really proud of her. :)

On to Hunter news: his doctor has decided that he needs to be on inhaled steroids for the winter, since his wheezing has hung on for so long. Hopefully now Julie will see/hear an improvement in his breathing/coughing and sleeping. While there are many GOOD things about being born into this family, there are certainly a few clinkers involved.......funky allergies and asthma are a few of the things it would be nicer to do without.

What else? Kate has her last concert (one of them - the other is Thursday night) in Evanston on Sunday afternoon, and I plan on going. BlingDaddy isn't quite sure yet, but if he feels up to it, then he will be there as well. Grandma M would also like to go. Big sigh. Reminder to self that one day, (hopefully) I, too, will be 82 and a PITA.....

Kate also had her Holiday Program last night at school, and she and Brent took an hour to get home from WoodDale, so I guess two hours from Orland Park wasn't all that bad. Brent has a picture on FB of Kate sitting on the stage directing the kindergarteners. She had several parents come up and tell her that the kindergarteners were the best part of the program, which means a lot, because those kids don't have the music teacher from the school - they have Kate and her fellow K teacher, which mostly means KATE! haha

It's the jewelry show this weekend that BlingDaddy and I like to attend. BlingDaddy is looking forward to going to Gibson's for a late lunch after the show. He was perusing the luncheon menu yesterday and salivating over the delish-sounding items offered for our dining pleasure. Hopefully it won't be too crowded. Or we should make reservations. :)

The other day, Miss Aimee took Miss Josie to the office for a number of hours......and they survived! LOL Aimee also shared that the other day, Josie refused to take a bottle from her. I say, Smart Cookie. But makes things more difficult for Aimee, that's for sure.

BlingDaddy's treatment this cycle seems to be going well. He feels pretty decent today, except for the 'gas coming on'........however, the doctor is thinking of changing his regime next time due to the neuropathy that BlingDaddy is experiencing in his hands and feet. But just this mornign he was thinking that it felt better, so who knows. I guess that neuropathic symptoms are somewhat common with this one particular drug. The doctor assured BlingDaddy that the other drugs are just as effective. Hopefully he wouldn't have the same type of allergic reaction to the new drugs as he had to the current one, either.

Well, I can't think of anything more, although I am QUITE sure that there IS something else lurking in the dark recesses of my mind.......

Hard to believe that it's nearly Christmas! Hard to believe that I have barely begun the SHOPPING! Not.

Safe Arrivals :)

Well, in a funny coincidence, Kelly arrived in Champaign at the very same time Julie landed at O'Hare!

Thank you to the Great Universe for keeping everyone safe so far this weekend!

Countdown to Christmas

So, it's already December 2nd, only 22 more shopping days to find that Perfect Gift for that Special Someone.......Blingdaddy and I have commenced with the shopping. (Of course, it's all because Blingdaddy is prodding me along - left to my own devices, not ONE Christmas gift would have been purchased yet.....)

I have been Cooking for the Fields'''' (dang, those apostrophe thingies always stump me!), and Tom wants to know why I cook for Aimee but not for HIM! Hmmmmm, take a wild guess here, pardner - Aimee (and company) LIKES my cooking and EATS EVERYTHING I MAKE. :) Bless you who like my cooking. Today I whipped up some Split Pea and Barley soup, and yesterday I conjured up some Autumn Stew, white wine, squash, and all! Quite tasty, I believe, although I have not actually gotten to eat any myself yet! LOL I did manage to scarf down some of the split pea soup today before bringing some to Aimee......Apologies to Miss A, though, because I meant to bring over some nice, crusty bread to go with it, and returned home to find the bread sitting on the kitchen counter.......Tom might have to choke some of that down.

Spoke with Jules today and found out that she will be arriving tomorrow night somewhere in the vicinity of 7:20 PM.....Blingdaddy just called and said that we are supposed to get five inches of snow, beginning on Friday night and continuing into Saturday morning.....hopefully Julie will arrive before then, and Kelly will have hightailed it to Champaign before the onslaught......aaaaah, always something to worry about.......

How is everyone coming with the Christmas decorations? I saw on FB that Brent and Kate already have their tree up in all its glory, and Aimee and Matt have their tree up, sans ornaments for the time being......we at the BlingMansion have no tree up yet, sans ornaments or otherwise......sigh......maybe this weekend......of course you all know that I DETEST dealing with Christmas trees and leave the putting up mainly to the youngun's..............(yes, I am wondering about that apostrophe again......)

So I believe I mentioned earlier that Kelly will be traveling to Champaign this weekend - Matt has a party from work to attend and asked Kelly to accompany him.......tonight Miss K will be arriving home VERY late - she has a concert to attend from one of the other orchestras in the distrct - one of the Jens is conducting - and she needs to observe to see how someone else in the district handles concerts. Kelly's own concert is next week - please forgive me but I've forgotten the exact date...dang, I just checked both of my calendars and it's not written on either one of them! I am falling behind in my calendaring......nothing is new on the face of the earth, is it?

Speaking of nothing new on the face of the earth - I lied. There IS something new - some new bacterium (or was it bacteriA? That's what I get for speed-reading) has been discovered in a lake in (where else?) California. Blingdaddy told me on the drive to the train this morning that there was going to be a news conference on the discovery of LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS, and it turns out it was the bacterium news. What a letdown. I thought that maybe there would finally be proof that aliens built the Great Pyramid!!!!! Phooey!!!!!!!

On that note, I shall leave you all to ponder...........

Family Tradition We Could Do Without......

Now, don't fall over, seeing posts two days in a row, but when I get in the habit of visiting this blog, I really get going! hahaha

I spoke with Jules today, and it seems that Hunter is following the unhappy family tradition of wheezing under the age of one......he got to also follow in Auntie Kelly's footsteps and have a chest X-ray taken under the age of one to make sure that there is no pneumonia lurking - whew, no pneumonia! Poor little guy is now getting nebulizer treatments every four hours as needed, and Julie has had the fun experience of trying to give treatment to a baby who wants nothing to do with one. Hopefully it will get easier (and hopefully he'll not need too many of them). Gosh, does every branch of the family need its own nebulizer? We should get stock in the company......

I also got to speak with Miss A, and passed along the names of a few LLL leaders in the area. It doesn't seem all that long ago that I was attending meetings. :) Dang.....

The baby pics being posted by Jules and Aimee are just too, too darling, and I am going to have to steal a few! There, you can see on the sidebar, I have stolen a few! :)

BlingDaddy stayed home from work today - he was feeling very tired. It's so odd how the chemo seems to affect him more when the meds are NOT flowing through his veins!

Tom helped Grandma M finish off her Christmas decorations yesterday......she had a very sad day for some reason.....guess she's upset over the Tom (cousin Tom) fiasco as it continues to unfold, as well as BlingDaddy not feeling his best, and not-so-hot medical news from Auntie Renee....she might need a hysterectomy in the near future. Something about bad readings on her Pap smears. I haven't heard it directly from Auntie Renee, only from BlingDaddy, and sometimes things are garbled in transmission.

Today must be one of the darkest days ever at 4:30 PM!!!!! Actually appears to be 8:00 PM! And now it's pouring down rain - guess that there is a chance for snow later in the evening.....well, it is nearly December in Chicagoland, and snow must not be far behind!

Nearly December?

I can't believe that little Josephine Renee is already eight days old, but there you have it! I had to laugh at the comment Matt put on a picture he posted on FB - 'she sleeps all day and parties all night'! Matt, I know it's not really funny at all to be sleep-deprived, but your comment was really hilarious. :)

Well, we didn't get to have Thanksgiving at Brian and Cindy's, but I think it still turned out to be a nice day - very fun to finally get to meet Grandpa Dan! I know that everyone else had already met him, but not Blingmama! LOL He and BlingDaddy had a great time chatting away.....Grandpa Dan loves to talk about hunting, and BlingDaddy just pretended he knew what Grandpa Dan was talking about! hahaha

I am sure that Aimee and Matt are sorry to see Grandma Gail go back to Indy - she has been a nonstop whirlwind, cleaning, cooking, and doing laundry this past week. Dang, now I have to try to do something equally helpful!!!! Truly, at times like these, it makes us all wish that all branches of the family were closer in geographical distance. I am still lobbying for a huge Geneva/St. Charles/Batavia contingent of the family.......maybe one day!

Kelly has been in her glory these past three weeks - she has gotten to see Matt three weekends in a row - oh, wait, that will be including this coming weekend when she travels to Champaign for Matt's work Christmas party....in any event, she's had a smile on her face! LOL They went to see the new Harry Potter movie yesterday afternoon and said it was a good one! Hard to believe that the Harry Potter saga is drawing to an end....

BlingDaddy continues to hold his own with the chemo treatments - neuropathy be damned!

Nothin Much New in November.....

Oh, maybe that isn't entirely true....LOL.....but it was a good title, right?

Aimee and Matt had their floors refinished in the three bedrooms, and also some new trimwork done in the bedrooms - crown molding looks lovely, and the new bedroom door on "Junior Mint"'s bedroom is gorgeous! Hopefully yesterday the cleaning people arrived and helped make the house a bit more spic n span from all of the work being done over the last week. Nothing like having your bed in the livingroom to cause a little chaos!

Tomorrow is Kate and Brent's Open House - should be fun - Kate spent the day yesterday shopping and cooking, so I expect something totally yummilicious.

I am going out on a limb here and saying I sat here just now looking at the calendar, and November 14th popped out to me as a good day for Junior Mint to make and appearance. What do you think? Three months before Payton's birthday....sounds like an auspicious date. :)

We are all kind of looking forward to having Thanksgiving this year at Brian and Cindy's house. Except for the fact that Blingdaddy and Aimee can't spend much time there because of dog dander, it should be a nice day. When is the cure for animal allergies going to be perfected?????

Kelly has had the lovely experience of another parent complaining about her - some fourth grader told her mom that it was too loud during tuning and Mommy complained to the music teacher, who passed along the info to Kelly's Mentor, Eli, who passed along the info to her....how ridiculous. I would love to trot around Orland slapping a few of the cowardly parents living there who can't seem to be able to communicate directly with someone they are unhappy with. Hopefully Brent will not have any such problems, since parents are paying him directly! LOL (Not that I want any parents to have a problem with you, Brent....)

Blingdaddy started up with chemo on Wednesday. So far, so good. He made the nurses schedule out the rest of his treatments for the rest of the year, since we are now at the point where all of the out of pocket requirement has been met and we don't have to pay ONE CENT for anything the rest of the year!!! It was pretty cool the other day when I drove up to the window at Walgreen's and received four of Blingdaddy's prescriptions FOR FREE!!!! And it's nice to know that the $30,000 worth of chemo the next month and a half will also require no payments from our checkbook.

Let's see....Thanksgiving will be upon us very soon - also Aunt Corinne's 50th birthday. If anyone remembers, it would be good to send her a card. :)

Oh, I don't believe I commented on Tom's first Jazz Band concert - Kelly couldn't be there since there was a concert in Orland that night that she had to attend, but Kate came along with Blingdaddy and me, and we had a fun night listening to the kids and seeing them in all of their costumes. Tom was the color Purple, and I made him some spiffy purple and black plaid pajama pants to wear with a purple shirt and purple hat. His group sounded very good, and truly it is an honor that he was picked to be in the top Jazz Band at his school as a sophomore. Go, Tom!

We were very sorry not to have been able to get to Kate's concert for the CCC the week before, but are looking forward to the Christmas one......

Wind Woes

Well, today is certainly windy, although so far, not quite as bad as I had anticipated from the weather forecasters.......Kate couldn't leave for work at her usual time today as the sirens were going off in St. Charles and everyone was told to stay indoors. The sun just peeked out here for a few seconds, though, and Kiersten wanted to go for a walk! LOL Kelly left for work extra early this morning in anticipation of having a rough trip....hopefully it was all for naught.

Oops, spoke too soon - just had a windy blast come through. My cute Halloween lights are hanging from the tree like a drunkard put them up.....and I removed all the tombstones from the front display as a precautionary measure, and am very glad I did, or else they would be scattered throughout the neighborhood by now.

We are looking forward to Tom's first Jazz Band concert tomorrow night - I had to whip up some purple plaid pants for the occasion - he's dressing as the color purple. :) He seems excited about the pants AND the concert! LOL

Aimee and Matt are still debating the various plusses and minuses of new cars......hopefully they will decide before Junior Mint makes his/her appearance. :) Much more convenient to get a baby carseat into a larger vehicle!

Jules and I had a very nice chat yesterday as she walked home from Scott's office with Mr. Hunt Man. I am thinking that Boston will be receiving some of the wind we are having in the next few days. Or not. Weather doesn't always translate the same a thousand miles away, now, does it?

BlingDaddy and I will be attending the neighbor's Halloween Party on Saturday night - we bought costumes from the Discount Uniform store in St. Charles - he will be a doctor in a white coat, and I will be a nurse in (of course!) black scrubs. :)

Aimee is OLD! LOLOL

Okay, Aimee, you're not really old, but I couldn't resist the title! I know that Miss A had a lovely day yesterday, staying home with Paytie while he battles the flu, and she worked her little self to the bone, cleaning and doing laundry, but it was better than being in the Slave Cave she's usually in. :)

I just spoke with Miss A on her way home from her doctor's appointment, and the doctor mistakenly informed her (she didn't want to know) that the baby is currently 6.6 pounds.......I think that there might be a little bit of 'error factor' in this number, and am quite sure that Aimee is not going to give birth to an eleven pound baby.

Hoping that Hunter is not so unhappy today - Miss J reports from Boston that the little guy just doesn't seem to be himself lately. It might be teething, or possibly something he's eating is not agreeing with him. Whatever it is, hopefully it will go away very soon. We only really like happy babies, now, don't we? hahaha

Blingdaddy's fever seems to be going away - he's been plagued with nightly fevers since last Wednesday or so. Last night was much better. :)

I need to download the pictures of the Halloween decs I put up in front of the house. They're pretty cool, if I do say so myself! MUAHAHAHAHAHA.......

October Update

Lots has been happening in the extended Goier clan lately......Aimee had a great shower on Sunday, only to end up in the hospital last night with contractions! She rested up a bit today, but I think she'll be back in the saddle tomorrow.

Julie and the Hunt Man went back to Boston this morning.....so sad! It was very nice to have them here for five whole days! They'll be back when Junior Mint makes an appearance (but hopefully that won't be for at least four weeks or, better yet, six! :)

BlingDaddy is having surgery tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM. We need to be at the hospital at 9:00 AM to begin the festivities.....will probably have to leave the house around 7:30 just to be sure we get there - last week it took more than an hour to get there from home.

Tommy J has a lesson with a new guitar teacher tonight - this guy's supposed to be great at jazz, and since Tom's a part of the Jazz Band now, he thought it would be a good move. It's always time to move on when your teacher can't really answer your questions anymore......

Hopefully tomorrow will go very smoothly and we'll all be back home before you know it. :)

Good September News :)

Well, Blingdaddy paid an unscheduled visit to his doctor today to talk about swollen glands under the armpit, (which turned out to be a hair follicle, AS I SUGGESTED THIS MORNING!) and had an opportunity for her to look at his MRI images from Friday. Two of the three spots on the liver are TOTALLY GONE and the one remaining one is half the size it was!!!!!!! Is that fantastic news, or what?

But she did have a bit of not so good news, and that is that his blood is not right now 'strong' enough for surgery. The hemoglobin is still good at 12.1, but some other factor having to do with immunity needs to be higher for him to have surgery. Guess we shall have to ply him with fresh veggies and fruit some more! :)

Tom is having a great time with Jazz Band I. We are so proud of him to make it into the 'top' band right out of the gate. :)

I am babysitting today for the little sis of a girl in Alene's class. Gabby has been very sweet, but about five minutes ago, I think she hit the wall. (By that I mean, she's had enough of being with a stranger she doesn't remember ever seeing before - after all, she recently turned two, which is old enough to know that she doesn't know me!) I did get her to stop crying, but I think that had more to do with her deciding to stop on her own rather than anything that I did for her!

Kiersten will wake up soon, and I think that Gabby will feel better when Kiersten is back in the picture. Children are always more at home with other children......

Kate is Already 26!!!

Well, I did manage to wish my sweet KayKay Happy Birthday on her FB page, but didn't get here on Saturday, did I? Hard to believe that Kate is now in her 'late' twenties! Okay, technically, guess it's mid-twenties......LOL

Julie and Hunter arrive tomorrow - been cleaning today, but Kate, my dear, you do have a LOT of books to pick up - I was going to toss them all, but I don't think I should do that. I know you're busy, but one day soon, you WILL retrieve your things! :)

Kelly had her 'orientation' day today - basically, it had to do with the mentoring program....Hope it went well!

Tonight I meet up with my friend from Piper School, Mary, as well as two 'girls' who were in the class ahead of Mary and me - Kath and Carol. Should be fun. We're going to that restaurant next door to Cadillac Ranch in Bartlett. I'm trying to look at the route from Google Earth because Route 59 is closed at a RR crossing I must get past, and Kelly said that the detour is HELLACIOUS.

Grandma M has been a busy bee here today, pulling our weeds. Gotta love a grandma who works in your yard for free! LOLOLOL

Nearly August.....

So, today Paytie arrived with his Football Haircut - a BUZZ!!!! I think it's adorable, but Mama doesn't like it much, and says it's too 'military looking'. I guess it might give that effect, but to me it just looks cool (as in temperature-wise) for the summer. Thank heavens that Payton had already gotten a 'shorter' type 'do last month, because the shock of seeing him with LONG and then BUZZED would have knocked me off my feet! LOL

Tomorrow Kate & Brent arrive home from Mexico - hopefully they will handle the news of their flooded basement well. It looks pretty decent down there now, what with all the hours Aimee, Matt, Tom and I spent wet-vaccing up the water, the fans I had going down there for several days, and the Damp Rid Blingdaddy suggested we open up down there. We were working on getting a dehumidifier, but Best Buy sold out of them within a fifty mile radius of here, and Blingdaddy said he wasn't driving more than fifty miles to get one.....hopefully we will be able to find one sometime soon. Grandma M. graciously offered to pay for one, let Kate & Brent use it for a bit, and then wants to use it in her basement.

I can't wait to see all of the pictures from the honeymoon, and am sad that we haven't heard anything from them the whole time they've been gone - kind of scary for them to be out of the country and totally out of contact. Hopefully they will show up fine and dandy tomorrow. :) The Worrier part of me sometimes kicks in! LOL

Blingdaddy has been having some low BP readings this past week - kind of crazy, but I guess that one particular med that he's taking for chemo is known to lower BP - Avastin. His BP has been as low as 98/58 recently, which, as you all know, is EXTREMELY low for him! This morning, it was back up into the usual range of 125/85. Once again, the ding-dong-doctors have dragged their feet on giving him any guidance in this matter. He called the oncologist's office to ask if he should change his BP meds during the time that the BP was so low, and her office commented that they don't know anything about BP meds and he needed to contact his GP for guidance. So he called the GP's office, only to be told that the chemo was affecting the BP and he needed to ask the oncologist for guidance! WTF? I guess this is a good illustration of how you need to be pro-active about your health and take matters into your own hands. God knows, if you waited for a DOCTOR to actually give you some guidance, you could be six feet under before you actually got an answer!!!!! GRRRRR!!!!

Aimee recently sent me an interesting article on Oral Allergy Syndrome. It talks about how certain allergies (such as allergies to cantaloupe, for example) are tied to other pollen/tree/grass allergies, and if you are allergic to ragweed, you are more likely to be allergic to cantaloupe during the ragweed season, but probably not as bothered other times of the year. If anyone is interested, I will pass it on, although perhaps Aimee actually sent it to everyone and I just didn't notice the header on the email......

Aunt Corinne sent me a hilarious article from the newspaper recently - it talked about mothering and how even the best of us can sometimes make bad mistakes - such as the time one mom chastized her hypochondriac daughter for complaining about her 'stomachache' and told her if she was so sick, she should go to the doctor: the little girl walked the three blocks to the doctor's office and the doctor discovered that her appendix had ruptured! And there was the classic story of a mom baking cookies with her four year old, taking out the cookies from the oven and snapping the oven door shut with her foot, only to find that she'd closed her son's head in the oven door.....the kid always mentioned how much it must have hurt Hansel & Gretel when the witch tried to bake them in the oven, since his mom had tried to bake him, too.....OMG! I was reading the article to Kelly yesterday after she came home from work, and I was laughing so hard (I know it doesn't sound particularly funny the way I have relayed it, but trust me, the article was hysterically funny) I could barely speak, and my tum hurt for fifteen minutes afterward from laughing so hard. Thanks, Corinne! Hope they had a great time on their annual Wisconsin Trip! They should be arriving home this weekend from that. The really scary thing about the article, though, was that I'd done SEVERAL of the actions myself through my Mommying years........(such as sending a kid to school with a broken bone and not believing a sick child was truly sick....) Oh, well, since everyone has survived, I guess we can say all turned out well. :)

Yesterday was Tom's last day of tennis lessons from the high school. He's spent the past three weekday afternoons from 5 - 6:30 slapping tennis balls around the courts at the high school. Ask him about it. I think he might even tell you he liked it a little bit! LOL Yesterday afternoon, he and Paytie had some fun batting tennis balls between themselves out in the cul-de-sac. Yes! Run off that excess energy! :)

And in other news, yesterday I had the dis-pleasure of opening up not one, but TWO letters from banks (BOA and Wells), addressed to Miss Kel and me, informing us that we were not credit-worthy candidates for the car loan for Kelly's Jeep! The insult! The surprise! What a load of CRAP. I know for a fact that my credit score as of two weeks ago (when we drove the Tahoe home) was 801. Is that not credit-worthy? And Kelly's is seven-something, which, I was told, was very good for a 22 year old with very little credit history. Guess now I know that I am NOTHING without Blingdaddy's good name, am I? In any event, Harris Bank kindly extended the loan to us, and Kelly already has the payment booklet to prove it!

Today we get to have a visit from The Exterminator! Doesn't that sound like fun? And won't the checkbook like that little $250.00 drain? Ooooh, yes! Blingdaddy noticed some yellowjackets (okay, not SOME - if it were only SOME, we wouldn't be needing the Exterminator, now, would we?) buzzing merrily around the overhang of the study's roofline. Then they all disappeared somewhere UNDER the roofline......little bastards. Unfortunately, they can chew through drywall and need to be killed off pronto, before they make their way into the house. Gee, for some reason, we are a yellowjacket-attracting kind of family. Several summers back, a guy we had out to explore the possiblity that raccoons were nesting in the attic (thankfully, THAT was all just a figament of Blingdaddy's fertile and over-active imagination) discovered a HUGE nest in the attic right above Tommy's room - that explained why, for several days before that, I was finding yellowjackets buzzing around the entry hall window.......OMG, it may just be my mind playing tricks, but I swear as I sit here at the computer, I can hear faint buzzing.....Well, The Exterminator should be here in the next half hour or so, and, I say, not a moment too soon! Blingdaddy attempted to spray the buggers himself the other night, but merely succeeded in covering HIMSELF with hornet & wasp spray, and needed to come inside immediately, gagging and coughing, and plunge himself into the shower.....

Aaaah, don't you just love summer? :)

Y'all'l be very proud to learn that our own Miss Kel took, as she termed it, the "Big Girl" way home from Orland recently - yes, I'm talkin' 'bout her first drive on 355, and then on to I-88!!!!! OMG, she really IS a big girl now....please excuse me if I take a small moment to cry now.....one more child has come of age.....only one left. Can you just picture your Baby Bro tooling around town in the next year in the red Wrangler? Makes me want to crawl uner the covers and not come out for a looooooong time.

Looking foward to having Miss Julie visit for a bit before the Sweden trip - she and Hunter will be here before you know it, and in no time, we will all be looking out our windows at snowflakes dusting the earth. Just think of that next time it feels sweltering hot outside!

Moving Along....

Kelly ends her first week of teaching summer camp tomorrow, and is off for a visit to see Matt in Champaign.......

Blingdaddy's hemoglobin continues to rise, and is nearly at 12.0 now! And his kidney function also continues to improve! I say, it's his new diet! :)

Paytie has been having fun this week at summer camp at the Christ Community Church in South Elgin - OMG, is that place HUGE!!!!!!

Kate and Brent leave tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn for their Mexican Adventure. I see some lovely photos in the future. :)

Tom has been having tennis camp this week and last......I believe he has another week left. Not sure if this experience is spawning a new love for tennis or not, but he has been surrounded by mainly GIRLS the past two weeks....LOLOL

Happy Birthday to Matt!!!!

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Mattheewwwwww,
Happy Birthday to you!

OMG, The Majority of My Children Are Married!!!!

Well, hard to believe, but Kate & Brent's wedding is already a memory, and Auntie Renee was kind enough to remind me at the reception that now more than half of my children are married!!!

July 16th, 2010 was a beautiful day, and a wonderful memory.

What's next? :)

Just a Little Over 48 Hours!

Hard to believe that Kate will walk down the aisle to Brent in a little more than 48 hours.....a few last-minute things, but Kate has everything well in hand, and no real worries, especially now that she has gotten her dress back and it's in somewhat better shape. (This from Tom, who might not have listened too closely to what Kate told him this morning! LOL)

Right now I am listening to Kelly and Tom play their piece for the wedding ceremony - sounds lovely - hopefully it will sound just as lovely on Friday evening. :)

(Update on the dress: I spoke with Kate, and the spots are virtually invisible.)

Julie, Scott, and Hunter will be arriving at the airport tomorrow at 2:20 PM, and will be staying with Aimee, Matt and Paytie. I'm not sure what time exactly Matthew S. will be arriving tomorrow, but sometime before the dinner, I believe.

Things are moving along at warp speed! Beam me up, Scottie! :)

Long Time, No Post

So, it's been a very long four weeks since my last post. We all know what's been going on, but so far, so good. Blingdaddy has his second chemo treatment on Tuesday, and will be working from the Warrenville office next week to make things easier. :) Sometimes the Powers That Be are kind of nice!

Blingdaddy, Tom, and I had an interesting dinner tonight at Chipotle around the corner. Blingdaddy had a hankering for the yummy veggie tacos he had last week from Chipotle, so the three of us walked down for a bit of a nosh. When we were walking to an empty table, whom did I see, but FRANK from Bachelorette this season. Yes, he was there with a rather blah looking brunette, who was not at all into him. She looked kind of stone-faced, actually. I could hear snatches of their conversation (or, well, I should say, I heard snatches of FRANK talking), and one of the things I heard him say was, "I wish that they would have shown me as more happy and carefree". It was kind of fun sitting there watching someone I've watched for weeks on TV. :) But then again, I am such a celeb lover.....

Heavens to Betsy

Well, time flew and Kelly has already returned from her trip to San Diego with Matt. I haven't seen any pictures yet, so I'm not entirely sure WHAT they were doing when they were gone.......

I hear that yesterday was Miss Julie's first half day back at work....we are wondering how you and Hunter fared with your first separation. Not as awful as you'd thought? MORE awful than you'd thought? Inquiring minds want to know. :)

Brent is officially looking for a new job. Macaroni Grill was too horrible for words, and he decided he was not going to take it anymore....

Aimee, Matt, and Paytie had quite the adventuresome weekend camping in Indy - thank heavens that Matt is adamant about checking for ticks, because one was discovered on Payton, trying to make a home in a very private place......OMG! Do you think that perhaps the child will want to sit in his room reading a book for the next ten years or so? Okay, I thought not! But, sheesh, first the fishhook in his finger, and now the tick! I don't want to even contemplate what could be next.....

And the real reason I'm blathering on and on is that Blingdaddy is in the ER now, and wouldn't let me stay with him since I have Kiersten. Now that Kelly is awake, though, I might leave her with Kel and hop over there......Blingdaddy was feeling poorly this morning on the way into work, and decided to hop the next train coming back to the 'burbs. I picked him up at 8:45, and he called the doctor's office. Doctor is off delivering a baby - can you believe he still does that - and the answer from his office was to go to the ER, which is what we did.....hoping that nothing too serious is happening, but Blingdaddy did have some worrisome blood test results come back last week - for some reason (most likely the meds he takes), his red blood count is not what it should be - much too low. Prayers would be good.

Bon Voyage to Kelly (and Matt)

Today is the day Kelly's been waiting for! A trip to San Diego with Matt. :) Sounds like fun.
Can I come along? Don't you want your Mommy to be there, too? Can't wait to see the pictures you will take.

But right now I am thinking I would love to go back to sleep for a few hours. Miss Kel and I went to see the 9:30 show last night of the new SATC. Of course, we loved it, but both agreed that probably the first movie was the 'better' movie. The scenery was wonderful, though, and the storyline was interesting.....saw some FAB previews, though, and hope to set foot inside the movie theater again in 2010! (I think that would be a record - usually once a year or once every two years is my average! LOL)

Here's to a trip full of lovely memories for Kelly and her Man. :)

Very Sad News

It's been a while since I've visited the blog, I see, and I have to tell my girls about some sad news I just received from my friend Charlotte Knopf. A very inspirational person to me, Kathy Baker, passed away in the night. Her husband woke up and there she was next to him, dead. It is so shocking. She was not sick. She just went to sleep and didn't wake up, which, I suppose, is the ideal way to do it? No pain, no long suffering. I guess that was Kathy's reward?

I think that you girls will probably remember the name Kathy Baker. Kathy was one of the first people I met through LLL, and she was also involved in the food co-op for quite some time. In fact, I remember well the mornings we would meet at her house for casefilling meetings that would last for hours. :) Very happy memories. Do you girls remember her house in Lombard that was always in a state of disrepair? The upstairs bathroom walls (I think that was the ONLY bathroom in the house, and she had six children!) were decorated with writing that her children had done at various points, expressing their frustration with the amount of time the remodeling was taking!

Lynn Kelly and I just talked about Kathy the other day when Lynn was asking me about breastpumps for her sister Katie.....I actually suggested that Lynn contact Katy Lebbing, another LLL leader. And I seriously considered calling Kathy for help for you, Miss Jules, when you were having so much trouble trying to nurse Hunter. I am now very sorry I didn't give Kathy a call. She always had THE BEST advice and wonderful wisdom. Her beautiful spirit will be sorely missed, and I can't even imagine the shock her children and grandchildren are experiencing right now.

So it is with this in mind that I take this opportunity to tell you from the bottom of my heart how much you mean to me, and how very much I love you. I am the luckiest mom on the planet, to have been blessed with you amazing children (and now, grandchildren!). And to you guys who have managed to steal the hearts of my daughters, you are also special, and, while I will not lie and tell you that you mean as much to me as my own children do (because I'm sorry, if anyone says that other people mean as much to them as their child/children does/do, they surely are LYING), I will say that I am very happy that you all have become a part of our family. :)

We only have the present. There truly is no guarantee of tomorrow. Each day is a gift. Please enjoy it.

OMGOMGOMG!!!!!!!!

Kelly has been offered the job in Orland! She's excited, and will most likely be calling the principal tomorrow to formally accept it. :)

Pretty exciting to be offered a job the day after graduation!!!!!!

Of course, no one deserves it more than our Miss Kelly, right?

SO PROUD OF YOU, SWEETIE!!!!!!!!

Inspection Day

So, it's Inspection Day for Kate and Brent's house....Blingdaddy took the day off to make sure the Inspector doesn't miss any glaringly obvious 'things', of course! Hope Brent holds up well under the pressure of it all....LOL...don't be surprised if Aimee pops in for a visit during the inspection, since she's dying to get inside the house. :)

Hope all goes well and nothing too horrible comes to light today. I am rooting for No Nasty Surprises, and feel confident that none will appear!

Got together with Kate on Sunday and helped tie little bows on the wedding invitations. They are so pretty! Soon they will be wending their way to the invitees in the mail. Hard to believe that the wedding will be upon us before we know it. Kate reminded me that my calendar was not reflecting all of the busy times in the next few months, so I've updated accordingly. :) Hope I didn't forget anything, but if I did, please let me know.

Tommy's foot is much better, and he played some Driveway Basketball yesterday afternoon. He's looking forward to playing again tonight at Delnor, if Matt is playing. Perhaps eventually Kate and Brent will also join Delnor and it can be Family Night there on Tuesdays. LOL

Julie has posted some cute pics of Hunter on FB, but in case you all have forgotten what he looks like, here's one to keep handy. :)

Quick Updates

I am still reeling from my whirlwind time of visiting Kelly for Mom's Day weekend, and going straight to Boston and meeting darling little Hunter Grey, but had to update everyone on the latest goings on in the extended Goier clan....

Kate and Brent put in an offer tonight on a house in St. Charles. Don't know the outcome yet. I got to see it with them this afternoon - very nice amount of space and has been cared for lovingly by the same person for twenty five years.....keeping fingers crossed for them! :)

Tommy was playing basketball tonight with Matt at Delnor and at the last second before he had to go to his guitar lesson, he somehow twisted his ankle/foot and is now hobbling around....well, not exactly right now, since it's after one in the morning (just can't sleep - Julie, are you up with little Hunter?) and he's sleeping, but you get the picture. Luckily, he has no school till Friday, so hopefully he'll be feeling less pain by then!

Kelly's Interview

So, here is a picture of Miss Kel before her interview.....guess what? She was told that calls would go out next week for second interviews......an hour and a half later, she received a call for a second interview TOMORROW. We get to have her home one more night! :)

Welcome to the World, Hunter Grey!

Wonderful news last night - Hunter Grey Kauffman has arrived, all seven pounds, one ounce, twenty inches of him! April 13th, 2010 - a wonderful Birth Day. :)

LOVELOVELOVE his name, Julie and Scott!

Baby Boy Kauffman's BirthDay!!!!!!

Looks like Julie and Scott's Little Guy wants to come today!!!!! Her 'water broke' this morning!!! Her labor is starting the exact same way my labor started when SHE was born!!! Isn't that crazy? If it goes the same as mine did when she was born, she will have a pretty easy time, because that's what my experience was with her. :)

OH, YAY!!!!! :) Thinking of you, Miss Jules, every second!!!!!!

Oh, NO!

Julie and Scott were both victims of food poisoning last night - both are feeling better now, but I guess that it was not a pleasant night. Julie did manage to go to her nonstress test this morning, and the inducement is scheduled for next Monday. Hopefully Little Guy Kauffman will decide to show up on his own before then! :)

Blingdaddy and I attended Kate's CCC concert yesterday - great music, and Kate had a small solo in "What a Wonderful World". We got to give her a ride home and chatted up a storm. :) It's always so wonderful when we get to spend time with any of our fabulous children. We do appreciate every second, believe me!

Kelly is having her Jury as we speak - thinking good thoughts for her - it's the last one she ever has to do!!!! Such a relief, I am sure.

Tuesday night Kelly arrives home for her interview with Flossmoor on Wednesday. Now Kristi has also gotten an interview for that position - right after Kelly's time slot! Hopefully the interviewer won't have a 'thing' for blondes, because that is the ONLY thing Kristi has going over Kelly...sorry, don't mean to be mean to Kristi, but she is NOT my daughter! :) Looking forward to getting to see Miss Kel in her lovely black suit from Banana that she found over the weekend.

Blingdaddy stayed home from work today - back was killing him. Hopefully it will get better as the day goes on.

Love to all.

Busy, busy, busy

Well, we had a wonderful time in Sarasota last week, and have spent the last week doing laundry and getting back into the 'real world'........think I could have taken another week in Florida - so lovely to see the Gulf, the gulls, and the palm trees!!!!

Hoping to hear any second from Julie and Scott that their little one has decided to have his Birth Day! :) These are certainly exciting times in the family!!!!!

Kelly will be coming home on Tuesday night for her job interview in Flossmoor on Wednesday. She texted me last night (where she was at a music event that Ken and Amy Tanaki were also attending - the teachers she co-oped with last semester) and said that Ken confided that the Batavia orchestra might be in need of a new teacher next fall, as well as several other jobs in the nearby area that he was not at liberty to talk about quite yet.....Kelly might have more than one possibility - YAY!!!!!!

Next weekend is Mom's Weekend at U of I, and I am looking forward to driving down for the last time for the SAI brunch....okay, that came out wrong - I'm not happy that it's the last one, but I'm happy to be going to it!!!! :) Sorry, Miss Kel!

Well, today is a fabulously sunny day, and I am going to throw on some gardening clothes and get out there in the yard!!!! I am hoping that none of the snakes like the day and have decided to stay inside their horrible little homes.

Update on Grandma M

Blingdaddy arrived home last night some time after midnight. Grandma M's MRI was just fine. Her face was quite abraded from her fall in the parking lot at Oakbrook....guess she was there to purchase a baby gift for her neighbors across the street and wanted to go to Nordstrom's because she had a coupon.....sheesh! She should have just gone to Old Navy at Danada and been done with it.

Blingdaddy said that she had to have a few stitches above her eyebrow - that cut wouldn't stop bleeding. Who knew you could cause such damage falling from a standing position? The man in the cubicle next to her at the hospital had also fallen, but he managed to break three of the bones in his face, and Blingdaddy said that man didn't look nearly as banged up as Grandma....guess that's the magic of the MRI - showing you the damage underneath. In any event, no blood clot to the brain for Grandma, as the doctors had feared.

All I can say is poor Miss Kelly! Her birthday dinner interrupted by the phone call from Grandma........When Blingdaddy arrived at the Danada Urgent Care, the doors were all locked (it was after closing time) and he had to bang and bang on the door until someone finally appeared to let him in.

Then, he didn't know where the ER was at CDH!!!! He went to the east side of the building, when ER is on the west side of the building! And while Grandma was being tended to, there was a fire in the building, which shut things down for a while. It might actually be funny in retrospect, but I know it was NOT laughable to Blingdaddy at the time.

While Blingdaddy was with Grandma at the ER, Aimee, Matt, Payton, Kate, Brent, Tommy, Kelly, and I carried on with our dinner at the original Taco Grande near the river. (We missed you, Julie and Scott!) The food was as good as usual - I have had such a taste for a Veggie Taco for the longest time! We did have a few good laughs before we were basically kicked out of there at 9:30.....streets roll up early during the week, I guess! There were still lots of cars on the street in front of that Irish pub a few doors to the north, though! LOL

This morning it was back to 'regular stuff', with Tom off to school, Blingdaddy off to the train, albeit a tad later than usual, Kiersten arriving on my doorstep, and me at the keyboard of the computer. I LIKE usual! :) And let's keep it that way for a VEEEERY long time, please!

So, for now, all's quiet on the Western Front. :)

Congrats to Matt!!!!

Matt just learned that he received one B+ and one A in the two classes he completed last week! FAB!!!!

I never had a doubt you would do it, Matt. :)

Dinner The Day After :)

So we will be meeting up tonight at El Taco Grande (OLD location near the river) between 8:00 and 8:15 for Kelly's Birthday Dinner. :)

Tommy and I will show up after I pick him up from Rel Ed.

Can't wait!

Happy Birthday to Kelly! :)

Can you all believe that our Miss Kelly is twenty two years old today?????? Seems like just yesterday she was seven and Tommy was a baby....sigh....where have the years gone?

Happy, Happy Birthday to you, Kelly! Hope you had a fun night last night at Second City with Kristi and Remington, and that the hotel in the city was lovely. Can't wait to hear all about it later today.

Tonight Blingdaddy has a Retirement Dinner for one of his favorite people at the Company Which Shall Not Be Named, so I believe we are planning to going out to dinner TOMORROW NIGHT to celebrate Kelly's birthday. :) (After Tom gets home from Religious Ed - 8:15 PM) All who can make it are invited. Don't know yet where we will be going.

Lots to do before our trip to Sarasota......trying to tie up loose ends this week and do some laundry and packing. :)

This post is written in PINK in honor of KELLY today! :)

Breaking Health News....

Blingdaddy's echocardiogram from yesterday showed that his heart is fine, according to the call from the nurse I just received. :) Now we just need to hear the results from the 'breathing test' he also had yesterday. Gee, how come he still feels so crummy?

Just spoke with Miss Jules as well - her ultrasound shows Baby Kauffman in the head-down position - ready for take-off! LOL But the doctor said that he is looking a tad tiny, and now Julie's going to have to go for ultrasounds every week (a little voice in my head is saying it's two times a week, but surely I am mistaken?) to monitor his size and the state of the placenta. Oh, the wonders of Modern Medicine! Upon reflection, I came to realize just how many 'small' babies have come into Blingdaddy's side of the family: Auntie R., Brian, Tom, and Brady, for starters! Gosh! And look at the size of them now! LOL

Kelly will be leaving for home in a few hours. YAY! I will meet her and Kristi in Lombard on Butterfield Road and I-355.

Update on her 'birthday' trip: Matt has family members who are traveling to Italy in late May and have invited him (and Kelly) to come along. I guess that there are still family members living in Italy and they would be visiting them. Sounds like a lot of fun to me!

Had a fun visit with Paytie last night while Matt and Aimee took a night out! Congrats again to Matt for finishing up his Accounting class and earning his Masters Degree!!!!!

Signing off to feed Kiersten some lunch.

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!!!!!

Kate has been offered tenure.

HA! Never a doubt in my mind. :)

Good Tuesday/Bad Tuesday?

Well, the suspense will soon be over, and Kate will find out whether or not she has a teaching job for the fall. Her summative is right after lunch.

Whatever happens, Kate, you will be FINE and your beautiful light will continue to SHINE!!!!

Kelly Update :)

I'm talking with Miss Kel right now, and she reports she ACED her Music History test from last week!!!!! WAY TO GO, KELLY! :) :) :)

Not to be obnoxious, but Kristi got a "B", and Erica got a "C".....LISTEN UP, prospective job interviewers, KELLY IS THE BEST!!!!!!!

Blingdaddy Update :)

(oops, you have to read the post before this one to get the scoop on why I'm updating y'all.....)

So, Blingdaddy just returned from the doctor's office.....doctor thinks that he most likely has scar tissue from having had pneumonia. Not such a bad diagnosis, right? But he still wants to do a few more tests to make sure. See, I told ya! :)

Weekend Report

As you can see, colors are back today! :)

We had a very busy weekend and are now recuperating! LOL Miss Kelly arrived at Oakbrook before 11:00 on Friday, and Kiersten and I were on hand (early, luckily, since the bus arrived QUITE a bit before the scheduled time) to meet her, and we strolled around for a bit, since I can NOT drive into the parking lot of a shopping mall and refrain from stepping inside at least ONE store! Blingdaddy's Shopping Bug has bitten me and I am now hopelessly infected......

Miss Kel was happy to sleep in her comfy, cozy bed for two nights....she says her bed in the apartment feels like concrete, and, having sat on it on Sunday, I must agree! (Although it is a very pretty room, and a humongous bathroom she has!)

In any event, we had a nice Friday night - Kate and Grandma M. drove out to join us for dinner.....actually, Kate and Grandma did not eat anything, but sat with us as we stuffed ourselves silly and talked up a storm. Kate had driven to Wheaton to drop Brent off at work, and decided to stay around to see Grandma.....at some point that I no longer recall, I received a phone call to my cellphone that was very mysterious, but turned out to be not the prank I'd thought it to be....a woman called, saying she'd found this phone at Olive Garden and the number she called was designated as "Mom".....we called Aimee, thinking it might have been hers, left at lunchtime, but that's as far as we went (Kelly and I) We thought it could not have been lost by Miss Jules, and we didn't think that Kate would have had time to eat at Olive Garden on Friday. Plus, she had mentioned that she'd forgotten her phone AT HOME.......LOL....We knew it wasn't Kelly's or Tom's, and those are all of my children accounted for, I believe!!!!! Oh, well! Mystery solved. It was Kate's. Nice to know that there are honest, consciencious people in all walks of life. :)

Let's see, I am now forgetting all of the amazing things we did over the weekend! Waited too long to write about it all! LOL Oh, right! Saturday morning, Kelly and I were up bright and early and on the road to Stephenson High School in Lincolnshire for the Lake County Job Fair for teachers.....not quite the wonderful event it was billed to be.....there were thousands of people looking for the five jobs available! Okay, maybe a slight exaggeration, but not by much. No orchestra jobs, and Kelly really does NOT want to have to drive to Lake County every day, either!

While we were there, Blingdaddy and Tom went for a drive to Arlington Heights and Guitar Center. Tom had a guitar in for repair (the used Fender he'd gotten last summer was never quite right - the whammy bar didn't fit into the spot it was supposed to fit into to - and it was ready for pickup.) The repair shop there did a fantastic job of working on the guitar, so if anyone has a 'sick' guitar, feel very confident that Guitar Center in Arlington Heights has just the person who can fix it right up for you. :)

Upon arriving home on Saturday, Miss Kel felt inclined to take an afternoon siesta, as did Blingdaddy......(eeew, not together!)........around 5:00 or so, I woke Blingdaddy up, and we were off to meet some of Blingdaddy's 'train friends' for dinner at Mahnattan's in Carol Stream. We had a VERY fun time. There were three other couples, two of whom we'd been out with last weekend, and the fourth couple was equally nice. It turned out that the fourth couple are very good friends with a guy Blingdaddy used to work with at The Company Which Cannot Be Named. Small world.

The food at this place was quite excellent - I scarfed up every morsel of my Shrimp Diabalo, and Blingdaddy enjoyed his ribs. A very odd fact about our dinner companions, though, is that not one of the other three couples has children! Of course, Blingdaddy and I have enough children for the rest of them, but it was still kind of strange.....one of the men had children with a previous wife, but that was it. Not one of the other two men or three women had children of their own. And the one couple definitely had no children by choice, the woman having confided to me that she'd been asked for her hand in marriage by another guy before her husband came along, but she turned him down because he wanted to have children and she did not.

Another couple consisted of a woman who'd been married before, but divorced maybe seven or so years ago, and a man who has never been married. They live together, and 'foster' a number of dogs. I guess they actually work with a dog placement center and make home visits to prospective owners to make sure they have suitable homes for the canine adoptees.

The fourth couple consists of the train conductor Blingdaddy has known for a very long time (he's the guy who had children with a previous wife), and a woman he's been married to for about fifteen years who used to travel around the country (literally traveled 360 days out of the year) administering hearing tests to railroad employees from just West of the Mississippi to the California coast. Very interesting folks. The train conductor is the guy who wrote a book about his 'conducting adventures' several years back that you may have remembered me mentioning. :)

Manhattan's features live entertainment starting at 9:00 PM, so we hung out to hear some of the music. It was really good! The group playing was called Route 66, and the lead singer has a great voice. People were dancing on the small dance floor. It was a tad on the loud side, though, so we didn't stay past 9:45 or so.

Aimee and Matt had dropped Mr. P off earlier, since they were also going out to hear some live music that night with Jodie, one of her sisters and one of her brothers, and some other "Jodie-related" folk. They were not pleased about the cover charge they had to pay, since they'd also had dinner at the place, but I think that they had a fun night, nonetheless. Paytie stayed overnight, and when I tiptoed into Tom's room a little after midnight to turn off the TV, he piped up with, "Hi, Grandma!" I thought for sure that he'd just woken up, but he said he'd been up the whole time! Aimee informed me later that he'd taken a hefty nap that afternoon (he obviously had the same Napping Bug that had bitten Kelly and Blingdaddy!) and that explained the late night. The night before he'd had an overnight at the Children's Museum (? I think that's what Aimee said...) and was up quite late as well......hopefully he got back on his usual 'schedule' for the school week! :)

So Sunday, we were all up somewhat bright and early to make the drive to Urbana to take Kelly back to school and to attend her orchestra concert. :) We had quite a fun car ride, and Blingdaddy did not even turn on the radio the whole way there!!!! It was nice to sit and chat and see the sights (Tom was entertaining himself by oohing and aahing over the miniscule populations of the towns we drove through.). Something we haven't done in quite some time.....foreshadowing of our upcoming drive to Sarasota, I hope, because it was just SO DURNED FUN!!!!!! :) :) :)

Tom and I got to see Kelly's apartment - it's quite nice, but much smaller than I would have imagined.....it had been Unofficial that weekend, and the ground floor leading to the elevators was covered in a mixture of unknown slop, spilled and sticky beer, barf, and what I strongly suspected to be urine......NOT a pretty sight. Hopefully it's cleaned up by now! (Coincidentally, Kelly just called me and reports that now her buillding reeks of bleach - cleaning accomplished!)

(Insert little note here about Kelly's concert on Sunday: Matt met up with us, although we didn't get to go to dinner or anything since Kelly had a Chapter Meeting and Blingdaddy was in a hurry to drive back in as much sunlight as he possibly could......the concert was good, but the first piece played was a tad 'much' for me - too modern....the final piece was by Beethoven, and I don't think I've ever heard a piece by Beethoven that I didn't like!)

Just had a nice little 'walking to class' chat with Kelly -it's windy in Urbana today! LOL She and Matt chatted a bit more last night about the Disney trip - he will most likely be buying a new car soon, so their trip will be a four-day trip, which Kelly thinks is just fine, because she was a bit worried that one whole week there might actually get BORING!!!!!! I bet there are lots of new things there that we don't even know about, since it's been THIRTEEN YEARS since I've been there!!!! Holy Toledo! Hard to believe. But, sadly, true.

I had a nice talk with Miss Julie yesterday. She is going for an ultrasound next week to determine the position that Baby Boy Kauffman is lying in - the doctor couldn't tell from the visit last Thursday. Hard to believe that maybe within the next four weeks we will get to see (okay, some of us not in person, but through the wonder of Modern Photography) his angelic little face! :) Julie reports that her doctor assures her that everything is going well.

More news from Julie that some of the rest of you might already have gleaned from FB: Rebecca and Richard are engaged!!!!!!! So excited for Rebecca. :) Julie says she knows nothing about the ring, etc., but she thinks the wedding will be in Sweden. Hmmm, wonder if we will be invited? Could be my chance to get to Sweden for a 'good reason'! LOL In any event, congrats to Rebecca and Richard on their upcoming marriage!!!!!

I think that's most of the news that's fit to print.....Blingdaddy is at a doctor's appointment as I write this. I don't know how many of you have been filled in on his situation, but he's been having shortness of breath lately, and his rheumatologist said he needed to make an appointment with his Primary Care physician to get to the bottom of it all. I am hoping for a diagnosis of "Old and Out of Shape", but that might be wishful thinking......

Sending a hug to all. :)

Thursday's Ramblings

Hmmm, no setting for colored print today????? How annoying to be limited to basic black! LOL And you all know how much I adore black, just not on my BLOG!!!! Not even sure if this will actually 'take', so I shouldn't devote too much energy here, I guess.

Kelly is coming home this weekend - maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow morning. She has to confirm with me so that I can make the trip to Oakbrook. Such a chore! LOL I am looking forward to checking out some new Chanel lipstick at Macy's....dang, I should never read beauty blogs, should I? They just feed the beauty junkie inside me! LOL

KK called with somewhat scary news last night....the teachers in her district at the Early Childhood Center who are not tenured are losing their positions for the fall. Hopefully the two teachers with tenure will not knock her out of HER position. She feels pretty confident that won't happen, but one never knows....please say a little prayer for that.....

And, speaking of PRAYERS, I discovered last night talking with Miss Kel that she does NOT remember the Hail Mary!!!!!!!!! I am a horribly deficient mother if my child does not know this prayer, so, just in case the rest of you have had a memory lapse, here it is:

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen


Not too hard, right? :) And you know it's a good one, because it's a prayer to a MOM, and MOMs always try their best to answer their children's prayers! :)

Whew, That Was a Close One!

Just got off the phone with Blingdaddy - guys, we just had a close call!!!! Blindgaddy was asked (briefly, thank heavens!) to go to Korea for two years!!!!! I am so glad that Larry found someone else's name to put on the proposal, because I really did NOT want to take Tom to Korea for high school, and I certainly did NOT want to be thousands upon thousands of miles away from most of my Dearly Beloved Children!!!! Of course, when Blingdaddy called earlier to tell me of this situation, I seriously thought he was kidding, because it is SO something he would kid about.....I, for one, am quite happy that we will NOT be packing our bags for Korea any time soon - although I have a number of countries on my 'to see' list, KOREA is NOT one of them!!!!

Aimee and Matt had a bit of craziness at their house the past few days with most of the front of the house upstairs not having power. Thank heavens, it was something that the electrician found somewhat quickly, and was able to fix! Blingdaddy had a call in to Uncle Ken, the Master of Electricity, but UK didn't get the message until this morning, when the electrician was already performing his magic at 409!

I know that there was some other interesting news, but I can't remember it right now.....oh, well, one little tidbit is that Matt and Kelly are going to wait until June for Kelly's birthday trip to DisneyWorld, because then they can stay a week rather than just three days if they go in March. Good things are worth waiting for! :) What a delightful birthday gift!!!! I guess I might as well not even attempt to get Miss Kel a gift, since nothing can compare!

Kate reports that Brent has been enjoying his new position at Macaroni Grill. Miss Kate spent about twenty four hours with Blingdaddy, Tom, and me on Saturday/Sunday. It was a fun treat! Blingdaddy, Tom, and I had driven up to Highland Park on Saturday, so that Tom could drool over some Fender Custom Shop guitars at a store there, and on the way back, we stopped to pick up Kate and go to dinner at Red Robin in Stratford. Kate and Tom drove back to the Blingmansion afterward, and Kate graced us with her presence overnight!!!! :) It almost felt like the good old days when we had more children than just lonely Tom in the house...

Saturday morning Tom had a solo & ensemble contest at the high school - he was required to attend by the band teacher - LOL. Guess what? Tom is actually seriously considering switching to the string bass and orchestra next year! Kelly has him pretty convinced that it would be a fun experience. Now I just have to look into how much renting a bass would cost - I am guessing it would NOT be cheap! But the good thing is that the school would provide a bass to have during orchestra class! No toting THAT puppy to and from school! LOL

Saturday morning, while Tom and I were at the high school, Blingdaddy was doing his best to obtain tickets for the June 29th Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival. And, guess what? He did it! We are looking forward to twelve hours of fab performances, including one by John Mayer. :) Tom is in his glory!

It snowed again at the Blingmansion this morning......I am getting a bit tired of the Snow Removal Patrol, but then again, it is nice exercise!

It's time for Kiersten and I to make a grocery store run. TTFN

Happy Earthquake Day! :)

So, by now everyone knows that we had a small earthquake in the Chicago area this morning around 4:00 AM.....Tommy, Blingdaddy and I all woke up. Of course, poor Tom had no clue as to what was going on, but Blingdaddy and I, Wise Creatures that we are, knew immediately.... :) Mike Maxstadt told me that he at first thought that the snowplow had hit their mailbox and went outside to look, whereupon he found his neighbor across the street ALSO outside checking to see that her mailbox was still intact! I think that a LOT of people in the area lost a few hours of sleep last night! I know that I, for one, have been up ever since it woke me, and will probably be feeling quite droopy later in the afternoon......

Congratulations to Brent on being hired at Macaroni Grill yesterday!!! Kate called with the happy news. Sounds like a (hopefully) fun job, and once they hear him sing they will not want to ever let him go! :) Gosh, it's a crazy world when you need to have two interviews for a serving/singing job, isn't it?

In other news that may or may not have made its way around the Family Grapevine, Aimee, Matt, Paytie, Blingdaddy, Tommy and I are all set with hotel reservations for Spring Break in Sarasota, Florida. :) We are looking into renting a minivan now so that we can all travel together. Airfares for that week are ridiculous, and Aimee convinced us that driving will be the way to go. HOPE we don't regret it!! Can you just hear Tommy and Paytie bickering in the back seat???? Actually, I know that Paytie is a great little traveler....it's TOM I'm worried about! LOLOL Kate might also come along. :) Poor Kelly's break is the week before.....boo hoo.

Speaking of the Kellster, she's been a bit under the weather lately....a nasty cold that brought on the crappy asthma.....hopefully she doesn't make Matt sick for his 25th birthday on Friday! That would NOT be fun......and she is still hating her new apartment. She had a talk with at least one of the girls about keeping the door locked, but it didn't seem to do much good. Please say a few prayers that the Crazed Rapist on the campus doesn't find his way to her door. I just feel sick over this, and would love it if she could find another, safer place to live, but it seems as though that isnt' gonna happen.

Tommy and I looked out the back window late yesterday afternoon to see three coyotes/foxes/who-knows-what-they-were? running through the marsh area.....and about twenty minutes later there was a spate of eerie howling. Wonder what they were doing?

I was happy to talk with Miss Jules the other day! :) And in case no one else has seen it, take a look at the FB picture of Scott resting in the rocker/glider in the nursery. Such a pretty color on the walls! :)

Which somehow reminds me that I need to give Grandma L a call. Have not spoken with her in a bit and need to catch up on Brian Doings. Aimee got to meet him on Saturday night when Grandma and Brian stopped by to visit for an hour or so, being in the area for a party as they were....

Speaking of grandmas, Grandma L's new wood flooring is being installed today - started on Monday and yesterday she was dismayed to learn that Carl's son (Carl being the floor installer that we used for the bedroom) did not show up on Tuesday, having gone out drinking the night before.......today Carl showed up for work with two different people - heaven only knows where his son is. Grandma learned the other day that he has already been convicted of two felonies! And he's only 19.....hmmm, I would think that if he had two felony convictions he might be in jail.......

And moving on to more family news, Uncle Ken and Aunt Corinne (or as I usually call them, Uncle Corinne and Aunt Ken) are in Florida on their trip to Key West. They flew into Miami yesterday and are driving the rest of the way, stopping to see Cousin Sue along the way. She lives on one of the more 'northern' keys - maybe Key Largo? The memory fails.....Jenny and Mike get to stay home and take care of Clint. They must be really happy right about now, don't you think?

So, I think that's all the news that's fit to print for now. :)

More Breaking News

Well, it's official. I just spoke with Kelly's landlord, and he will NOT be letting her out of her lease and we will have to be paying to rent two apartments in Urbana........What a honey of a guy. I guess my faith in my fellow man is just a little bit shaken today....sigh. The fact that a girl can't breathe when she's in his building isn't enough reason to let her out of her lease. Guess that is on the same par with: "my roommate and I had a fight and don't want to live together anymore".....

Oh, well, I didn't really want to go on a vacation this year anyway. And this is NOT to make you feel bad, Miss Kel. You can't help the genes you were 'blessed' with, now, can you?

Breaking News

So, here is the latest that you are just dying to know:

Kelly is going to have to vacate the apartment she is in now - she's been having problems with her asthma since she arrived, and gets better when she's out of the place for a prolonged time....sigh.....there are some possibilities of places she can move into, but we are keeping fingers crossed that the landlords will let her out of the lease.....otherwise we are going to be paying for two apartments. She can't continue to live in a place where she can't breathe!!!!!

Grandma L is 'back' with Brian. She's been 'undumped'. She didn't go into specifics, but I gather he called after about three days and apologized. I am not holding my breath on how long this is going to last, but for now, she's happy that they are 'friends' again. His son and wife had a new baby girl born on Monday. I guess that they are relieved that she is 'normal' since they'd been told she would have Downs. Gosh, wouldn't it be nice if these tests were 100% reliable?

Kate and Brent met with a florist last night - have not heard the report yet, but Kate was excited to be talking with this woman - she did the flowers for Katie Kreig's wedding, and Kate thought that those flowers were gorgeous. :) Hot pink and orange are what they are looking for. YUM! Kate said she didn't care what kind of flowers were in the bouquet as long as there were no carnations!!! I said that I LOVE carnations, so she said I could have them in my corsage! LOLOL I love the fragrance of carnations, but will admit that roses are probably more beautiful to look at. :)

Tommy got A's on his Math and Science finals. :) Attaboy! Of course I am always impressed when my children do well in Math! LOLOL

I am sitting here waiting for the HVAC guy to arrive. Gee, he was supposed to be here between 8:00AM and 10:00AM. It's 11:20......what's wrong with this picture?

Our master bath is nearly finished being painted!!!! Yippee! This means that maybe this weekend we can get the lighting finished over the mirrors and I can actually use the room when it's dark out!!!! What a novel concept!!!!! Since May there have been no lights in that room except for the little 'stall' area.....am I patient or WHAT???? :)

Hoping that everyone has had a chance to check out the pictures of the bedroom on FB to see our pretty new bedroom floor and furniture. I thought it was pretty funny that Kelly's friend Remington commented on the furniture! :) AAAh, the wonder of modern communications!

It's nearly time for Miss Kiersten to have some lunch. She is such a sweetie pie. I can't tell you all how much I wish she were a part of the family. I know that you would all enjoy being around her as much as I do! :)

Monday Again

Happy Monday, everyone!

I am sitting here with little Kiersten pulling on my arm and she's saying, "Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly"....I think she is trying to tell me that Kelly is home today! LOL But one never knows with small children, does one? A week from today she would be wrong in telling me that Kelly is home, since a week from today Kelly will be back in Urbana and getting ready to go to class. Boo Hoo. I have really enjoyed having Miss Kel around since last May, and it will be a bit of an adjustment for me to be without her.....

Let's see, a lot has happened since the last post. Grandma L appears to have been dumped by her true love, Kelly has taken her standardized test, BlingDaddy and I had dinner at El Zarape with Aunt Corinne and Uncle Ken, and I think that Julie and Scott went on their trip to the Bahamas and are back home now. And Aimee and Matt celebrated one year of marriage over the weekend - how can it be that it was already one whole year since we were all in beautiful St. Lucia for the wedding? Time has flown by - maybe took a Lear Jet or something, because the past year seems to have gone past more quickly than any other in recent history for me.

So I have not spoken with Grandma L since last week, but at that time she was really upset because Brian broke things off with her. She wouldn't go into detail because she really couldn't speak about it without bursting into tears, but I guess eventually she will tell me what happened. Uncle Ken and Aunt Corinne are glad he's out of the picture, but sorry that Grandma is so unhappy. I guess love can hurt no matter how old you are.....

Can't wait to hear about Julie and Scott's trip to Nassau. Hopefully the weather was nice and warm, although pretty much anything would be warmer than the weather we've been having in the midwest! I am really tired of snow and freezing temps!!!! Makes me think longingly of moving somewhere that snow never falls. But I could never go off and leave my children behind, so all of the rest of you would have to agree to come with! LOL Okay, that's never going to happen, but a mom can dream, can't she?

Tom has been hard at work studying for finals. This is his first experience with them, and I think that he's handling it very well - you would all be amazed at how he's studying 'ahead' and turning papers in early so that he gets extra credit points. :) I think it's hard for him to follow in the footsteps of such diligent students, but thank you, girls, for providing such great examples for him to follow! Had you all not been such good students he might not feel quite so compelled to work this hard. :) Looks like he's going to keep up the family tradition of all A's and B's. This system that the school district has in place so that parents and students can see grades all the time, any time, is really crazy! I keep forgetting to go and read the school newsletters, though. They are only available online now - nothing comes through the mail anymore. Modern technology!

Grandma M had BlingDaddy out with her yesterday looking at wood with her -- she is going to replace the flooring in her entry hall, kitchen, and family room with some sort of wood. I guess she's been inspired by the BlingMansion! LOL I forgot to mention that on Thursday and Friday we had our master bedroom carpeting ripped out and pre-finished wood flooring installed. It was not very messy at all, and it looks really nice. It's been weird, though, having all of our things crammed into the guest bedroom.

Oh, I also forgot to mention that on Wednesday afternoon the Salvation Army came to remove our old bedroom furniture. OMG, what an experience. These two guys came and at one point I was quite sure that the man standing on the 'bottom' and the dresser were going to topple right over the bannister and smash onto the entry hall floor. Thank heavens the man caught himself and the dresser and disaster was averted. It was such a relief to see that furniture safely out of the house, but now the bedroom is totally empty. Very strange. We have ordered some new bedroom furniture, but it won't be here for about four weeks or so. If you would like to see it, go to bassettfurniture.com and click on bedroom furniture, then the 'Chatham collection'. We ordered the bed, the 'tall' dresser with the mirror, two nighstands, and the lingerie chest. It was all on sale, and we got it in the black choice rather than the brown wood. It will be nice with the walnut flooring. The floor also has that 'distressed' look to it. Very rustic and pretty.

I think that's about all for now. What's new by you?