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June 30, 2008
No News Is Good News!
My fantasy these days is a weekend spent going no where and doing nothing. We are so busy that we have color coordinated calendars. Most of the busy has been a lot of fun though, so I guess I can't complain too much. I have a ton of pictures to process and I will let the captions speak for them rather than blog about it here. Some of the things since April include:
* My boss and I presented at a decent sized conference in Chicago back in April. I have done tons of teaching, including to groups of more than 100 before but this was the first time I have presented at a professional conference. The conference was the 8th Annual Mental Health and Aging Conference Our talk was titled "Eating Disorders, Nutrition and Frailty in the Elderly" and was based on our experiences with a variety of eating difficulties we have encountered in our program and of course tons of digging around in journals, books and the internet. We had a blast and were well enough received that we were invited to give the talk again at a conference in Springfield, IL! Yay! Geeky fun!
* At the end of April we took our boys back out to our favorite place - Swamp Branch, Kentucky (I dare you to find that on a printed map!). Lots of four wheeling, lots of camping and there was a 13 year old, cough, coughELIcough that got to drive a jeep all by himself.
* Remember how I thought baseball would calm down for me when I went back down to two boys playing instead of all three? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA very funny. This year I have FOUR baseball players and the fifth (Eli) works the concession stand. Yes, we live at one ballfield or another. Last week, we had games four nights in a row. The boys are all doing VERY well though and I can easily see their skills improving. Jake's team (my 11 year old) has only lost two games out of fourteen so far. Chad's oldest son, Connor who is 9 has been able to pitch for three games. His first try at pitching resulted in three strike outs in a row. The two six year olds (Evan and Seth) are playing t-ball and loving it. We are almost up to the ending tournament so relief is in sight!
* My gramma made a brief visit to Southern Illinois in May! I wish that we lived closer together. Of all the people that shaped my life, hers was the greatest influence on me. Her driving personality and ambition set her apart from her peers in the business world in a time where women faced the famed "glass ceiling". I like to think that I got some of that from her. Either that or I am just a plain old pain in the ass. Oh and I missed her birthday in June as usual, Happy Birthday Gramma!
* My ex husband's sister, Susan, was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer at the very young age of 49. She was never a smoker nor did she work around any risky substances so it really caught everyone by surprise. She was just beginning to make plans for her end of life wishes when she suddenly got ill and passed away about six weeks after being diagnosed. She was a very sweet person that ALWAYS sent cards and gifts no matter that she hadn't heard from me or that I was divorced from her brother. Her children (triplets) turned 21 less than a week before she passed away. Very sad, she will be missed very much.
* Our poor, poor pontoon boat. Chad wanted to put new carpet down before getting back on the water this year. We took off the VERY heavy seats and canopy and ripped off the old carpeting to find that the marine plywood under it all was looking very scary. So it sits naked in the backyard of Chad's house waiting for the money fairy to visit us. Soon. Please.
* The first weeks of June brought the end of the school year. Happy to report that Seth did not get expelled from kindergarten despite the rocky start, LOL. Jake had pleaded and begged to trade from the trumpet to the clarinet this year and was allowed to do so under dire threats that he had to catch up to his class who were going to be on band year 2 while he was set back to the beginning. To my great surprise, my son who doesn't take much in life seriously not only caught up but PASSED his classmates and was one of three kids invited to play with the jr high band. YAY Jakey Wakey! Eli also did very well with his saxophone. I am looking forward to marching band getting going again - fun to watch them perform in parades. Eli also stayed on high honors with his grades and the Eagle club was rewarded with a trip to Memphis at the end of the year. I am very, very proud of how they are growing up. So much fun to watch them unfold.
* Chad took the boys and I on a hiking safari to a local State park called "The Little Grand Canyon". It actually looks nothing like the Grand Canyon thanks to all the trees but it is full of tall rocks, burbling streams and little critters that must be touched.
* The first weekend in June saw Chad and I back in Kentucky for the Annual Omer pig roast. This was my second year going and it was just as much fun as the first time.
* I had my 22nd anniversary of my 21st birthday and as a reward for not crying about it, Chad took me on a weekend get away to Cumberland Falls in Kentucky. This is just gorgeous. The falls are actually famous for being one of a handful of places in the WORLD where you can see a "moonbow". He planned it for the weekend of a full moon hoping we would get to see it but unfortunately for us, the full moon had passed enough that the moon rise was pretty late (2am) and it was very cloudy. Just means that we will have to go back, that's all. We are actually looking at going back in October or so to learn to kayak. The river was very low and we ended up paddling most of an 11 mile canoe ride which gave me ahhhhnold arms and meant that the "rapids" were few and far between. Got some awesome pictures - unfortunately I have to figure out how to get the pictures out of the camera because I pushed video each time instead of photo. Damn new fangled technology!
* Chad and I started the slow process of renovating the upstairs to be more family friendly. The previous owner had hung wallboard over top of four layers of wallpaper (including the original layer from the 1890's) in one of the larger bedrooms. This was just hanging off the walls and looked horrible. My goal with this house is to bring each room up to speed so that when I sell it when the boys graduate highschool, someone will actually want to buy a 140 year old house! Unfortunately, the house has been fairly neglected over the last fifty years and needs some serious elbow grease.
* Last but not least, this past weekend we carpooled in the Suburban with five of the Omer clan out to Chad's cousin's wedding in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I have never been to Tulsa before (not sure about the entire state of Oklahoma - I may have driven through it at some point). We arrived to find the entire city under construction which included the hotel we were staying at. The wedding itself was beautiful - the church was just gorgeous. The reception was at a Country Club. I think it is safe to say that we all had a great time and ate lots of fabulous food (who knew you could put lobster, avacado and curry together on a pita triangle?!! OHHHHHHHH so good!). My butt is happy to be out of the car though - seven hours one way, squished in with cousins who fart (SARAH) - just kidding.
The month of July is going to be baseball tournaments and NO TRAVELING. Lots of wallpaper scraping, plaster repairing, porch swing sitting and spinning of fabulous yarn. Or else I will cry.
Stay tuned for lots of pictures to go with at least some of the above activities.
Posted by DebC at 4:30 PM | Comments (1)