indy, awright?

Here's where we spent Thanksgiving this year - at Meg's house on Alameda Place in Indy. My kids had off for the full week of Thanksgiving so it was a perfect time to make the trip down. We left early (4:30am!) on Wednesday morning and made it down in 5 hours! The weather in Indy was so nice Wednesday - it was 60°! Bryn took the opportunity to get a run in and I tried to take Mia for a walk (she made it down the driveway and then wanted to go home).


After settling in a bit, we decided to make any Thankgiving meal items we could that day. Meg chose to make her apple and pumpkin pies. Abby, Bryn and Mia all peeled apples and we had a couple apple crises as the peeler didn't seem to like some of our apples.

Jeff, Meg, William and myself all woke up early (7am) Thanksgiving morning so we could get the turkey in. Meg had seen a great recipe for roasting the turkey on the Food Network that she wanted to try - as long as she could get someone else to do it! It involved making a butter log that got sliced into medallions that needed to be slid under the turkey's skin. Needless to say, Jeff and William were nominated the "sliders." All the food turned out great - especially the turkey! Meg kept everything warm for leftovers in her latest bargain buy, a roaster oven with 3 separate warming trays.



Meg, Abby and I woke up by 5am Friday morning to do our traditional shop til you drop on Black Friday. We hit Toys R Us first and that took a full 2 hours. Crazy! We were in a short line for 1 whole hour! Why do the checkers let you apply for credit on the busiest shopping day of the year???? We eventually hit Starbucks, Kohls, Circuit City, Old Navy... and Abuelo's for lunch! It was fun. Jeff took Bryn and Paige to get some shoes they had both seen in the ads. Paige wanted Heeleys (tennis shoes with roller skates in the bottom) so she could skate with Bryce and Logan. The kids all got a chance to take a dip in the whirlpool. That night, I lounged in the theater chairs and happily watched Shrek 3 with the kids.



Saturday we got to see Bryce play an indoor soccer game before we left for home at 4pm. Again, another easy commute back to Milwaukee.

Last Monday, I celebrated my 44th birthday. I stopped at Panera on the way in to work and brought in coffee cake. The guys asked what the occasion was. Typical. After work, I went to Abby and Bryn's conferences at the High School for 3 hours. Don't worry - I still got a homemade birthday cake and Crocs! Abby's conferences were what I expected. The term "senioritis" was used a lot. Jeff and I are helping Abby - a lot - with managing her time. Bryn's conferences and Paige's (the following day) were all good news.

Last Wednesday Bryn finally had her Cross Country Banquet. Her coach went on a trip immediately after the season ended so that was the reason for the delay. One of the girls parents owns a local bowling alley and let the team use one of their banquet rooms - really nice! All the girls were brought up individually and recognized for their individual good attributes - the coaches were very prepared and sincere about each runner. Bryn was thanked for not joining the golf team and was presented with a big plaque for being the best runner on the team. Way to go Bryn!

I didn't work this Friday so that I wouldn't have any time restrictions because I had a lunch date with my three good "mom" friends. We all lived in the same neighborhood when our kids went through elementary school and we all have one child that's currently a sophomore. When the kids were younger, we'd get together 4-5 times/year and now we're lucky to get together 2 times! Our job situations have changed and these high school years seem very frenzied, but I'd rearrange my schedule anyday to make these luncheons work out. We do get to see each other at band concerts, cross country meets and football games.

And, my nephew Mitchell went with his football team (Kimberly, Division 2) to State this Friday and WON! Link for story at right, as well as Mitchell Hintz's stats. Congrats Mitchell!!!!! And the best part is he's only a sophomore, so he's got a chance for a 3-peat!


I also got to pick up my new glasses Friday (they left a message they were ready on Tuesday with one of my children... need I say more?) and they're so great! My old ones were entirely rimless and, in my opinion, totally not worth how expensive they were. So I was definitely against going that way again. My new ones seem so much clearer to look through and I don't have to take them off so much like I did the old ones. (Not that I have to say this, but of course this is the only one of three pics where my eyes were kinda open.)

I picked up Abby's senior pictures on Saturday and we're very pleased. The photographer still owes me my sheet where I had written down what everybody ordered... Now I supposed I should buy 3 frames so all my kids senior pics will match when they're hanging up.

I neglected to mention that Paige has been given the go ahead to get her braces! I think if the orthodontist scolded her again about not wearing her nightbrace enough, Paige was going to let him have it! So tomorrow Paige gets to have new molds taken. Thank goodness she wants those braces so bad because those molds are icky!

We're off to Indy early Wednesday (to beat the Chicago traffic). We haven't been to Indy for a while so we're looking forward to a nice visit. We'll come back late Saturday - again to hopefully avoid a lot of the Chicago traffic.

busy week

Paige and I checked up on our geocaching hitchhiker, Clover, and saw he was found yesterday and is on his way to Vermont. It's really exciting! You can click on the geocaching link to see what this is all about.

I was met Monday morning at work with a great surprise! A pricey gift card to the Apple store for a bonus. It also had conditions: I could only use it on myself. My boss knew I had just lost my phone and also that I never had an iPod, so the exact amount of the gift equalled the amount of an iPhone... so now I am the owner of my own iPhone. It's so cool! I've loaded a few picture and iTunes and it seems to work so smoothly! Of course I've placed a link at the right.

Last Tuesday night, I went out for dinner with my girls' babysitters, Wendy and Robin. They're such nice people. I'm so glad that they think to get me out once in a while. Their kids are just a bit older than mine so listening to their stories is invaluable.

Abby had an easy week starting school at 11:00am on Tuesday and Thursday while Bryn was testing and the school had to be kept as quiet as possible (juniors and seniors had late start time). Abby actually had an art field trip on Thursday that started at 9:00am. Luckily her friend Erin called and woke her up at 9:20. The bus left at 9:30.


Paige competed in the city-wide "Best of the Best" Tae Kwon Do tournament. She won a medal for her form and breaking her boards. She broke 2 sets of wood boards each on her first try! She was grouped with many girls a belt above her.

Bryn and Abby woke up early Saturday morning to rake yards for Student Council. Then Abby cheered her friend, Ali who won Menomonee Falls Junior Miss, on as she competed for Junior Miss Wisconsin. Ali didn't win.

Kristin, Bella and Lucy were going to come over today to check out the swingset, but we had a new family program at church that took most of our morning and afternoon is naptime! Jeff's taking down the swingset and Kristin and Carlo intend to rebuild it in their backyard.

day late

I've been so good at updating this on Sundays...


It was Halloween this past Wednesday and it was actually kind of nice out for trick-or-treating. Paige dressed up as a vampire! Paige went out on her own with a friend (without me!) for the first time this year so I made her take my cell phone. Abby asked Jeff to build a fire in our outdoor firepit and kept warm on the driveway while handing out candy. Paige returned with a lot of candy - but no cell phone. We all tried calling it but no one answered.


Saturday Abby had another event at the nursing home for Girl Scouts, but she was unable to get out of working so Dana and I went it alone. It went well. We had the Brownies ask the residents questions and drew turkeys for door decorations. I think Abby and Dana are really feeling confident and good about what they're putting together. We have another scheduled in December, then will do another in January and February.



Sunday I organized a geocaching event for the 4-H Club that Bryn and Paige are in. I had to purchase a "hitchhiker" (I bought a 4-h beanie baby) that you place in a cache that you find on the internet. Our hitchhiker has a ID tag that you also register on the geocaching site and you can read its log as others find it and place it into new caches. We're entered in a national 4-H geocaching race hoping that our hitchhiker travels to all 50 states!

Oh! A neighbor called "home" from my cell on Saturday. He found it while picking up dog poop in his yard. Ewww...

Today, my boss surprised us all by rewarding us with an Apple gift card for the extra hours we've been putting in the past couple months. While we were all thankful for him noticing, we were really taken aback at his graciousness. Now what to buy...