Paige and Miranda walked from school to Rotary Park to record portions of a Cross Country meet for her media studies class. Yes, Paige had already done this part of the "documentary" assignment, but unfortunately the teacher didn't remove Paige's recordings from the camera before lending it out to another student so all her filming from the September meet is gone. She said she captured a lot of the same elements she had before so she was happy. Now she has to edit it in the school media lab to complete the assignment.

Since Paige had yet another sleepover scheduled for Friday night, Jeff and I decided it would be "movie night" for us. Jeff came up with the idea to try out an historic theatre in Wauwatosa, the Rosebud. We settled into our comfy couch (all the seating there is couches), ordered a pint of beer and buttered popcorn and watched The Social Network in style! It really was a pleasant experience. And the movie was great! I highly recommend it.

Early Saturday morning I traveled out to Waukesha to pick up Bryn from Carroll because she asked so sweetly. A fellow Cross Country graduate asked her to go to the Sectional meet up in Saukville. I took Bryn back as soon as she returned so she get in her swim workout for the day. She's very diligent about staying on schedule with the workouts the track coach gave her. When Paige returned from her sleepover, she accompanied Jeff up to Appleton to visit his father. Richie's doing great after his 3 stent heart surgery. Rehab to follow.

We greeted parishioners at the 11 o'clock Mass Sunday. Paige sat with her fellow to-be-confirmants and had class after Mass. In the meantime, us parents had a meeting about when to schedule their 2-night Confirmation Retreat. Ugly. I say, just pick a date and deal with it. What's cool is that they try to do it in summer—"campout" style.

Jeff celebrated his 48th birthday on Monday (25th). Hard to make workdays feel special, but I cooked him a nice dinner and then Paige and I took him out to Kraverz for an ice cream sundae. But the birthday doings didn't end there! Jeff bought like 6 boxes of muffin and brownie mixes and baked them all to bring in to work for his birthday treat the next day! He said they lasted in the office kitchen less than an hour. And then we both moved furniture. I hired my cousin to clean the carpets Tuesday and it makes it so much easier if we can get as much furniture off the carpeting as possible.


So our carpets look amazing. Jeffrey does such a thorough job. Highly recommend him too: CarpetMasters. We're moving furniture back today and Jeff's excited to rearrange. Whatever. Got home from work today to find our outdoor storage chest for the kids sports stuff strewn across the backyard. Picked that up. Got back in the house. Doorbell rings. It's some guy who hands me his business card and says "I was just driving by and noticed your roof shingles flapping. I stopped because I'm a roofer..." Yay! I'm sure that won't be expensive.

Last night I had an Art Guild meeting where I showed off my latest creation: a blog. It's still in its infancy, but I received appreciation for promoting our little organization even further. You know with all this blogging and website creation I've been doing, I barely have time to work!

Obviously, things have been hectic. Hence, my blog neglect.

Bryn got some time alone at home last week Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday while the rest of us went off to work and school. We were able to spare her the car 2 of the 3 days since she agreed to get us where we needed to be to make it work. So Bryn was able to get her beautiful blonde locks cut on Monday and visit the foot doctor on Tuesday to have molds made for her custom orthotics.

Paige fitted Bryn with one of her handmade knotted bracelets. Paige takes custom orders by letting you choose the thread colors. So far, Abby, Bryn and Maggie are all wearing Paige originals!

Paige started a new tradition in the Saunders household: she would cook us dinner once a week. Her specialty? Hamburger Helper. She served her first meal on Monday: Cheesy Hamburger Macaroni. Jeff and Bryn are in heaven with this new dinner staple. Not my favorite but I love that Paige wants to cook.

Jeff and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary on Tuesday, Oct. 12th. My parents, driving home from Chicago, stopped in at my work to serenade me with "Happy Anniversary" and brought Jeff and I a cake and flowers. That evening, Jeff and I dined at Amici's out in Richfield. I love the atmosphere there. The wine was delicious! So was the food.


We spent a fabulous couple days at UWL for Friends & Family Weekend. We asked Maggie if she wanted to come along and we were met with an enthusiastic "yes!" She drove down from Appleton Friday afternoon just before Paige was bussed home from school. From our house we were able to shoot straight out 94 for La Crosse. Just north of Madison, traffic stopped. It took us 1 hour to go 6 miles. We could see our intentions of getting to Abby's work before it closed at 8:00pm vanishing. When we finally reached the next exit, we took it! My iPhone GPS came in mighty handy as I navigated us west and north from Lodi to Merrimac — stop! As soon as I narrated that our ride would be taking us across Lake Wisconsin, we ran right into it! But how to get across? No bridge in sight, but cars lined up in 3 lanes... Ah! A ferry! What else could make our trip take any longer? Our frustration eventually left us as we watched the nostalgic ferry skim across the Lake in the sunset and we all smiled at what a happy accident this turned out to be. We arrived at Abby's work just to see her close up and walk to her car. Maggie invited her to have a sleepover in her room at the hotel with Paige complete with snacks and movies. Apparently, Abby and Paige pooped out before Maggie did. Saturday Abby gave us a walking tour of UWL ending with a souvenir stop at the bookstore. We dined at a local establishment, Rudy's, which was open for the last day of the season! Downtown, we walked the along the mighty Mississip and sampled ice cream and another local venue, The Pearl. We found sweatshirt and t-shirt bargains at a big sale at the Expo Center. Crossing campus, we drove up to the view from Grandad Bluff. Abby chose our eating spot for dinner and then we spent a long time browsing where Abby works in La Crosse, Tree House Gifts, which is huge!

While we were at dinner Saturday night, Jeff received a phone call from his sister letting him know their Dad was admitted to the hospital and having heart surgery. After hearing his Dad did well through the surgery, Jeff drove up to Appleton Sunday morning to visit him with his sister and nephews. All good. Because Jeff had to go to Appleton, I chauffuered Paige over to Beloit that same morning for a select softball tryout with the Columbus Xplozion. A little disappointing in that we drove 1.5 hours only to have Paige pinch run from 3rd to home 2X. No batting. No fielding. No pitching. The team invited her to lunch. In Janesville (no thank you!) after the game and to their next tournament, which is indoors Thanksgiving Weekend. So I guess they liked her in the end.

Monday Jeff flew out to Virginia again for his monthly meetings on Martha Jefferson Hospital. He flies in tonight yet. Yesterday I was able to attend a seminar instead of working which always perks an employee up.

Menomonee Falls High School had its Homecoming Week this past week. Paige joined in and had a twin on Twin Day, found a Germantown T-shirt shopping at Goodwill with Jeff for Rival Day, dressed completely "sophomore blue" on Class Color Day and was able to choose from a multitude of spiritwear for Spirit Day on Friday.

Jeff and I tag teamed getting Bryn back and forth from Carroll to her orthodontist appointment on Tuesday. It was for a retainer check which Bryn didn't even have with her. Didn't even pack to take to college! Needless to say, they asked her to wear it for 24 hours for the next 2 weeks, then every night from then on. Bryn just conveniently heard the end date of "2 years" when she initially got her retainer, and took it upon herself to stop wearing it exactly when that 2 years was up. Other bad news... the orthodontist wants the dentist to check on having her upper wisdom teeth removed. The dentist had written Bryn off to this point.

The annual MSOE hunt was this past weekend and Jeff left for up north Friday before lunch with his caravan to Waubeno. Jeff was disappointed that the weather was so warm again. For the first time, a few guys brought their sons up along with them. Jeff said they were good and it ended up that the boys were the ones to shoot the one and only bird all weekend.

Bryn caught a ride home from Carroll with a friend Friday evening and got back just in time to catch another ride to the high school Homecoming game. Paige was at a sleepover so I had the evening to myself. I did a little more of my photo archiving, then watched a rental movie. Next morning, Bryn asked to take the car to check in on how Student Council was doing with Homecoming Dance decorations. That let me take a nice walk to the grocery store where Bryn picked me up when I was done. Bryn hung out with Paige Saturday night while I celebrated Dave & Carrie's 50th birthdays at a party at their house.


We all slept in this morning. Paige got a text from her freshman softball coach to call him and when she did, she found out he talked her up to a select softball team and got her a tryout. He's definitely her #1 fan. The drawback? The team is in Columbus. Like an hour away. Jeff also found a Milwaukee team that has an opening that'd like to meet her, so we'll see how this all rides out. I drove downtown to do my every-other-week office cleaning and let Bryn and Paige be lazy without me around. On my ride back, I called Kristin and invited Bella and Lucy to come over and bounce. We're certainly not going to have many more warm days to enjoy the trampoline before we take it down for the winter. Bryn and Paige chased Bella and Lucy around and around on the tramp. After that, we all put up some stretchy spider webs on the bushes outside and lots of window clings inside for Halloween. Jeff arrived back from his hunt weekend by 5:30 and I cooked chili, per Bryn's request, for dinner.

The Art Guild started up another year with our first meeting this past Tuesday evening. Being around all those creative people really inspires me to draw or paint again. Thinking that will be my 2011 New Years resolution. I feel like I have to set a date, otherwise I keep letting the time slide by. We had a guest speaker that worked with these vibrant crayons that she applied with brushes like paint.

I felt so efficient on Friday simply by completing an astronomical amount of errands during the day. Nevermind that I missed my client's call 3 times because I was also supposed to be working from home. I delivered leftover canning jars to good people who can use them. I delivered hand-me-down clothing to a great family with girls a bit younger than Paige. We thought we found a bike for Abby on CraigsList, but never got a call back to come look at it. I scheduled an foot doctor appt for Bryn when's she's home next weekend to be fitted for permanent inserts per the request of her track coach. I shopped online for my goddaughter, Logan's, birthday present. After all that, I certainly deserved to be treated to the monthly church fish fry! Abby arrived home about 5pm and was able to accompany us.

Saturday was a day I was looking forward to: Carroll University's Homecoming and my 25th Reunion year. Jeff and Paige were up and running to get to her 8am pitching lesson in Horicon before any of Carroll's events were to happen. Abby was invited apple-picking with Mark and his family. So I headed out to Carroll late morning to catch the Alumni Art exhibit with Bryn. Bryn and I then headed to the bookstore to gear up for the day. Then we followed the music to the tailgate activities in the parking lot and met one of my college girlfriends and her daughter. We ate lunch and watched the Homecoming Parade together. The football game, which we seriously questioned if we would sit through or not, wasn't until 3pm, so we had a couple hours to kill yet. Bryn was a good sport and showed off her dorm room to Sue and her daughter and guided us through campus. Walking past a tailgate tent, I heard someone shout out my name. It was my good friend, Tim! He was there with his college roommate for the day. I questioned who sponsored the particular tent they were in and they didn't know, but were more than gracious acting as hosts and handing out beverages! Tim's daughter, Maggie, goes to Carroll too and she took a study break to hang out with us for a while. Jeff, Abby and Paige met up with us under the tent and we all decided we had the best spot in the house as we could watch the game going on directly across the street, drink and snack for free and be covered as the weather deteriorated and began to rain. We stayed til halftime then decided to go out for dinner and warm up. Bryn chose the Olive Garden.

Paige made her Fall Ball debut today playing side-by-side with the high school JV and Varsity softball team in their last game. Paige got to pitch 2 innings. She was also put in as a pinch-runner—everybody loves watching "Spidey" steal and run those bases! Of course, she scored. No sliding required. Her freshman coach was there watching and encouraging Paige. He's the reason she was invited to play. After the game, he came up to me and commented how athletic Paige is, how much talent she has, what a good attitude... And he texted Paige after we left that he already called the coach of a team he wants her to play on next summer! Good boost for Paige! So another chilly day outside. Luckily I planned my day right and went right into baking goodies for Abby to take with her back to school.