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The kids had off school last Monday so they could ease into 2nd semester. Also to recover from the Packers dismal loss the night before. We accumulated a new 10˝ of snow so it felt like a snow day.


Because of the snow, Abby, Bryn and I drove together to the High School Student Council meeting together. Parents were invited to recruit our help with the Student Council's biggest annual event: The Winter Carnival. I wasn't sure going in exactly what was going to be asked of me. I was one of only 2 rookies (Alex's mom was the other) at the meeting, so I was a little lost. The event is totally free to kids and the Student Council runs several games and blow-up rides. The parents come in with the Silent Auction: asking for donations. We're each assigned a territory to cover. I'd really rather make signs. So the kids meeting finished up a bit before ours and they wanted to go to Dairy Queen - I just wanted to get home. Most parents did like we did and drove together with their students so parents and kids needed to arrange carpools. I ended up driving Alex's mom home while Alex drove to Dairy Queen. I was invited to step into Alex's home and had a nice chat.

Paige and Bryn both made another trip to the orthodontist. Paige got her broken bracket repaired and got her color changed to orange. Bryn was told she's doing such a great job wearing her positioner, that she can keep doing it.

I had a crazy work day Thursday where 2 clients just couldn't stop making changes to their projects that were due that same day. I never had a moment before 5p to even try to hand them over to someone else! When I got the projects off, I left without a thought of another project that I just had to ignore for the day. I called in to work Friday morning and John, Mike and Kevin were kind enough to finish it up for me so I didn't have to go downtown. So I enjoyed a great day (I'm serious) working out, running errands, cleaning the kitchen and my refrigerator.

Friday night Paige slept over at a friend's so we let Abby and Bryn know they could have people over. Abby went to the HS basketball game and Bryn opted to stay home. Abby did call to let us know she was having some friends over after the game. Abby arrived first and prepared the snacks. Then followed Alex (of course) and his friend Adam. Then Tyler and Nick and Evan. Then Mark. What's going on here? No girlfriends? Ali and Kendal did come over about a half hour later but could only stay for a half-hour. Abby and the guys hung out til 11p.

Saturday Bryn came along to order Tyler and Alex's buttoneers for Turnabout. We went pretty neutral and maybe Abby and Bryn will embellish with ribbons or something else creative. We then watched Paige play her basketball game where she scored twice!

Saturday night we drove to my boss's house for my company holiday party. John's girlfriend made a delicious Venezuelan dish, paella, filled with scallops, crayfish, clams, mussels and chorizo. It was so yummy! The quiet, mild composure of Norman Design employees was confirmed by the evening's conversation pretty much controlled by John's girlfriend, Mike's wife and Kevin's friend. Jeff indulged a little too much in the paella and didn't have a very restful night last night.

On the drive home from church today, Abby reminded us that it is the 27th today and she would not waste her entire day with us. What? Another day not to forget: Abby & Alex's 4-month anniversary. I suggested using that new Y membership and run side-by-side on the treadmills. I don't think they liked my idea.

Abby should've contacted you all via email about Girl Scout cookie orders. The sale ends tomorrow, Monday, Jan 28th.

I'm having fun looking through old pictures scouring for the perfect picture of Abby for her last high school yearbook. There's a special section called "Senior Sendoffs" where you submit a picture and a special message for your graduating senior. I've gone through a box of Abby's old pictures and now I'm off to find my old photo albums!

finals

Monday Bryn visited the orthodontist again. Now he's replaced her clear retainer with a mouthguard-like piece called a positioner that she needs to bite into for 4 hours a day plus wear to bed a night. We check in with him again this coming week. Wonder what'll change then. We also are taking Paige in to fix a loose bracket. We sure are making a lot of trips to his office!

This past week marked the end of first semester. Abby and Bryn had final exams Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Jeff and I helped by keeping them at home more.:) We don't have the results yet. Abby met with her guidance counselor to make some 2nd semester schedule changes, namely dropping an art class because it conflicts with a required Composition class, and discussing the option to drop Calculus. The couselor advised her to stay with it. She'll have a study hall now, whereas she didn't 1st semester, and hopefully Abby will use that for help with math. They're off school tomorrow (Monday).

Thursday we received a very important piece of mail: Abby's acceptance letter from Marquette! I'm happy she's accepted at her first choice. Jeff's been busy working the number to get our taxes and financial aid forms set and in March we should hear exactly how much we can expect to be paying. We're sending info to LaCrosse as well.

Abby and Bryn went Turnabout dress shopping together (with Kendal) after finals were through Friday. Abby and Bryn both found dresses they liked and put them on hold. Kendal wasn't so lucky. Abby called my cell to let me know that the store would only hold the dresses for 2 hours! So I got in the car and headed for Brookfield Square. Unfortunately, I didn't get there before the threesome left and I just wanted to see the dresses on before I bought them. Many stores, like this one, have a no return policy on dresses. I looked them over and paid the bill but Jeff and I are still waiting for the home fashion show.


Paige's basketball team, Mercury, won their first game yesterday. Close: 11 to 10. Her division is 6th & 7th grade girls and only 20 girls signed up. So the same 2 teams play each other every Saturday afternoon. The organization is trying to coordinate games with local parochial schools to mix things up, but we haven't heard anything yet. Then we took the kids to the movie, American Treasure yesterday. I love those movies. Bryn and I ate too much popcorn.

Packer game's coming on soon. Go Pack! Jeff and I tried our darnedest to get Jeff to the game, but tickets were just out of our reach. Our two good friends, John and Dave, are up there now! Lucky. It's going to be cold, but how exciting! I've gotten a lot of use out of my Packer wardrobe these past couple weeks. We're headed over to Dave & Carrie's to watch the game this week (they were here last week).

The temperatures have made a few changes at the Saunders. We've been pulling Abby's car into the garage with these subzero temperatures because her car doors freeze and won't stay shut. Because Abby's car is compact, Jeff is able to fit his car in as well. Jeff's car just doesn't like to start when it's cold. Battery. Abby told us about how she drove holding the passenger door shut the other evening. I don't like the mental picture. The rabbits have also moved indoors and Theo seems to have no boundaries in the house, but for some reason really likes to play outside a lot more. His frisbee is like throwing a hockey puck.

back in the swing

The holidays were such a refreshing and much-needed break from our busy lives. But routine is good too. And so it begins... Sunday night blogging.


A week ago, I went with Bryn to a meeting for her summer mission trip. There's lots of fundraising and coordinating to do before July. This year Bryn's group is going to Coahoma, Mississippi – a bit farther than Cairo, Illinois where they helped out last summer. At the meeting, Bryn presented her committee's t-shirt design for this year's theme "Move." Cool, huh? They'll be printed up soon, as the church likes the mission trippers to wear them whenever they do their fundraising. They're going to try a bike ride in June instead of sponsoring the kids bowling as in previous years. I'm sure many of you will know all about it when Bryn's looking for contributions.


Paige had her first Band Concert for the year last Wednesday and it was great. She was even featured in a smaller Woodwind Ensemble. Paige is currently 6th chair out of 18 clarinets in her 7th grade band. Her lesson teacher says Paige is adapting well playing with her braces.

Bryn sat down to supper Wednesday night and announced, "I have some news." That gets a parent's attention! Bryn asked a boy to the Turnabout Dance that'll be Feb. 9th. Good for Bryn. I like her confidence. (Oh! The boy, Tyler, said yes.) Bryn apparently got his locker combo from his brother and put a sign in his locker with the big question. Abby got really excited "We can go dress shopping together!" Abby asked her boyfriend on Friday. I teased her that Alex was probably worried and insecure why she hadn't asked yet. I don't have the details, but I know it involves a Packer fleece blanket she made him and a stuffed giraffe. Difficult to put that together...

Jeff and I have been delivering Christmas presents late to the girls this year. We upgraded our little iMac in the kitchen and moved it into the dining room for a little more privacy (but not TOO much!) and less interruption. The girls love it because it has a camera in it and it's fast. I love it because it has some really intuitive parental controls and the new operating system - Leopard. It's so pretty. It was delivered to Jeff's work Friday within minutes of carrying the box into the house, the girls were pressuring us to have it up and running. Lucky it was easy to set up. I've had a lot of fun starting from scratch and trying to keep things set up right so it stays organized. And today we signed the family back up for membership at the Y as another Christmas present. Bryn wants to keep training for track and Abby says she'll go with!

Jeff's company, Ring & DuChateau, held their holiday party Friday night at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Fancy. It really is a beautiful setting in that atrium. The food was delicious! We roamed from the mashed potato martini station to the crab cake station, to the chateau briand station and of course, the dessert station. Each station had the one main entree along with a variety of sauces/salsas to accompany it. Yummy! We were also welcome to view the current touring exhibit which was a little disturbing (all works were completed in a mental institution), but the drawings were very detailed and intriguing.


My company party was scheduled for the next evening, but needless to say, had to be postponed due to the Packer playoff game. My boss John is not a Packer fan so he was disappointed to have to reschedule, but that game was worth it! The beginning made us all kind of nervous, but it was just so picture-perfect with the snow coming down in Lambeau Field and the Packers just doing their thing. Since our plans had changed, we decided to make a social event of the Packer game and invite a few people. I put out way too much food. I felt bad for Abby's boyfriend, Alex, who really wanted to watch the game but the rest of the kids in the basement preferred playing Guitar Hero or badly karoake-ing to the boombox, so Alex came up and watched with us parents for a few plays.

The Girl Scout cookie sale is on and this is Abby's last year selling. I put a link at the right so you can view the varieties offered this year. They're $3.50/box. Abby will contact you for orders.

happy '08

So we came back from up North, went back to work for a couple days, then traveled south.


The most important event about being home those couple days was that Bryn had her braces removed! She looks so pretty! She is a little disappointed in having to relearn to play her trombone without all that extra stuff crowding her mouth.


I had purchased tickets in the fall to the musical, Wicked, playing at the Oriental Theatres in Chicago for after Christmas. It turned out to be a perfect time to go since the kids didn't have their typical activities during break either. We attended the Sunday matinee and it was fantastic! Abby and Bryn are very familiar with the music because they've played it in band the past couple years. The story is basically a prequel to The Wizard of Oz (link at right). We left Milwaukee at 10:30am and drove right into downtown to park. You just never know what Chicago traffic is going to be like. We walked around a bit and found a nearby McDonald's for lunch. A homeless person offered Abby some bubblegum and asked for food from me while we were dining. After that, we walked around and admired some of the famous public sculptures. The Oriental Theatre was very ornate, as a theatre should be. Abby, Bryn and Paige all purchased Wicked-logo clothing as souvenirs.


We called Craig as we exited the parking ramp. It was snowing. Again. But it was really pretty with all the Chicago lights. Clark greeted us at the door at Craig's house and we left to take Craig out for his birthday dinner: pizza. We came back and admired all the hard work Craig has done remodeling his home in Lyons. We've seen it since the beginning, so we can see the progress. Craig shared some videos of some of his toy inventions and finished up the evening with Clark's Dog Show.


The morning we were surprised with an encore performance of Clark's Dog Show. We got a little tired of it being "all about Clark" so we began joining in and dancing with Clark's animals. Clark didn't care for this, so he would stop the show, turn off his strobe light and go to his desk downstairs. He would come back with a written referral for whoever was interfering with his show. We had fun, but it was time to go by noon.

We got back to Milwaukee on New Year's Eve day by 3pm and everyone got in line to shower. Abby had plans with her friends elsewhere, and Bryn and Paige invited guests to our house. Jeff and I agreed to this as long as we got to go to a movie first. We saw "Charlie Wilson's War." Interesting and worth seeing. The guests arrived at 8pm and we got to stay up to drive them home at 1am! I texted Abby at midnight to wish her "Happy New Year" and reminded her to "Be Safe." She texted me back that she had "kissed a random drunk guy" when the ball dropped, which I didn't think was very safe. Sassy.

New Year's Day our whole house didn't wake til 11am so it was really a half-day. I just did the typical household chores and filled in my 2008 calendar with all the kid's schedules. That is a full-day task!

Jan 2 was back to work, but the kids are off yet til tomorrow. Abby, Bryn & Paige all went in to the salon today and had their hair cut. Abby blew her gift certificate from Christmas right away and got her highlights.