We were out of town for the weekend, so my blogging was postponed.

We had Abby and her close friends over Tuesday night for their grad project/gift. I asked them to each draw or write something on 4 terra cotta pots so each of them would be represented on each of their pots. I told them I drew the inspiration for the gift from my own love of plants and the movie "How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days" (remember the love fern?). Lots of discussion on what to draw/write, but Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants theme seemed to dominate. I also promised a new plant every summer if it suffers an unfortunate death in their dorm rooms.

Wednesday we had Paige's end-of-year Little League party. A furious thunderstorm blew through about an hour before, but the weather turned out perfect for the party. There was lots of food and the infamous parent vs. kids wiffle ball game. The coaches commented on how quiet Paige was throughout the season. Paige???

I've been fortunate to continue working from home on Wednesdays. Mike has enabled me to see our work email and time sheets from home, so working offsite has become seamless! Never mind all the money I'm saving in gas!

Abby came home from work with a Clippers for Dummies set. We wondered if she was entertaining the idea of fashioning a new Britney Spears 'do... Why would Abby purchase a clippers for a house full of girls? Alex walked in a few minutes later ready for his appointment. He took his chair and Abby started 'er up! She did a great job and was very particular.

Saturday morning Jeff and I got up early with Bryn to see her off to her weeklong Mission Trip. They left church by 8:00am for Coahoma, Mississippi. She called us tonight and told us it was 107° today! The town is very small/rural. She painted houses yesterday and today and will be leading Kids Klub for the next two days.

We then picked up Paige and Abby and roadtripped to Appleton Saturday for the first of Paige's two Little League All Stars games. We lunched at Jeff's mom's then watched Menomonee Falls battle South Milwaukee at Appleton North High School. Typically, Menomonee Falls gets killed when we get to this level. But at the top of the 6th, we led 7 to 1!!! Awesome! But somehow South Milwaukee was able to score 7 more runs and win the game. Our girls were devasted. After the game we headed over to Jeff's sister's for Kayla's grad party. Another beautiful day, with lots more food, and fun! We left Theo at Terry's overnight for some spoiling. Sunday we drove the same the same route for game #2 versus Appleton Tornados. The game was delayed because the fields were wet, so we had some extra time to burn. We were able to stop in for a nice visit with Cindy and Dave before we had to return to the field. We lost again 9-3. We were so tired when we got home and I didn't feel like cooking, so we went out for Mexican food.

I'm trying my hardest to get Abby moving and organized for college. I think we've cleaned up all the graduation party stuff now (only a month later). She just received her housing assignment and roommate, so that should help make some decorating decisions and who'll bring what. She hasn't made contact with the roommate yet though. We just purchased her laptop so that'll involve some setting up. I've given her a guideline for how many clothes she can take with - only as many as fit in her one dresser. I'm going to buy some storage containers for all the ones that'll be left behind. How many do you think? 8? This last month before she leaves will go by before I know it....

This week was awesome.

I didn't work Monday as that was my floater holiday. I was able to do all my typical weekend chores since we were up north over the weekend.

Abby began a grueling work week. She basically filled in for everyone who took vacation this week. Today is her first day off since Monday and she's worked 8 hours everyday! Paycheck should be pretty nice though.

Paige and her Cardinals played their first game Tuesday evening in the Little League double elimination tourney and lost. It was a very close game. Their next game was supposed to be Saturday morning, but the overnight rains made the field unplayable. Haven't heard when it's rescheduled for yet.



Jeff left for Charlotte NC Wednesday morning to tour a chiller manufacturing plant. With Jeff working on such large hospital jobs, vendors like these are willing to escort him out to their facilities in hopes of Jeff spec-ing their equipment into the job. Jeff finally got in to the hotel at 11:30pm (they did not have a direct flight) and ate at the bar with his collegues since they didn't have food all day! Then they had to be up early for the tour/seminar Thursday. Friday he had another long journey home.

So Jeff missed an enjoyable Norman Design outing Wednesday evening. A printer that Norman Design sends a lot of our work to invited us out on one of their boats. A BIG boat! Abby worked all day and was a bit uneasy about the boat so she didn't come. But Bryn and Paige and I loved it. We were offered a great spread of sandwiches, fruit and drinks while the owner told us of the boat's history and renovations. Then we went out on Lake Michigan and trolled by a couple of sailboat races and enjoyed the Milwaukee skyline as the sun set. Bryn and Paige explored the lower deck and thought it was quite cool (2 bedrooms and bathrooms, living room, kitchen).

Friday I was off again. I had to accompany my now-adult daughter to the doctor for a shot. And I actually had to hold her hand while she got it. Funny the situations when they feel they really need you. I rode with Abby to work later and walked back home. I got to see a little fawn! It reminded me of my Y class teacher that reminds us "Little miracles are all around us if you just take time to notice." Jeff arrived home safely from NC and we were off to the Brewers game! Paige earned these free tickets through school for her good grades. We were up in the 2nd-to-last row from the very top of the stadium, but the view and breeze were fantastic! Paige's cheesy fries really liked her new Brewers t-shirt. And her fingers. And her legs. We accidentally missed the Sausage Race when I took Paige and Miranda down for their Dippin' Dots. But I did text in the correct winning Hot Dog beforehand! No call yet on my free trip to Spring Training. Ryan Braun even hit a home run for Paige because she bought his t-shirt with his number on it. So cool. The Brewers didn't pull through a win for us, but we had a fun time.

I got my hair cut yesterday (Saturday) and Molly said that her older son wants to marry Bryn. Molly raved about how Bryn is so playful and fun with her boys, so I think the babysitting gig is working out. If you'd like to see what Bryn does the rest of the time while I'm working, visit the link at the right to see Bryn's latest movie. And Bryn was blessed with her fellow Mission Trippers at mass last evening. She leaves in a week! I think today will be a shopping day. Better get organized!

Monday Bryn reluctantly visited the dentist for a 2nd time for some side fillings. She was hesitant to go back because of the many shots of novacaine to freeze her mouth the first time. All is good now though.

I worked solo on July 3rd. Don't worry - it was a good tradeoff. We could choose to have our "floater" vacation day either the 3rd or the 7th and I picked today! Work was very slow and quiet on the 3rd and I'm not complaining.




After work, we joined up with the Seeds to watch our Village Parade at 7pm and fireworks at 9:45pm. It was a beautiful evening and we didn't get caught up in the "reserve your spot" frenzy that precludes our village parade route. We actually lucked out by sitting in a left-turn lane that no one could stake out or put their chairs in early!!! Ha!

My brother Craig stopped by to take Abby and Alex out to dinner for her graduation present. I think they had a nice time. Craig continued his drive up north while Abby joined Alex's family for the fireworks.

Friday morning we woke up and left for the Cabin by 8:30am. Weather reports predicted a great weekend and it delivered! We swam, went tubing, fished, jet-skiied and had a campfire. Abby and Jeff drove into Appleton Saturday afternoon to meet Alex since he had to work Saturday morning. Abby took Alex for a jet ski ride that was a bit uneventful, but Bryn took him for a much more exciting (bit faster and actually went over the waves instead of avoiding them) ride later. But Abby got Alex back by calling him a weinie when he immediately decided he was done swimming after being bit by a fish. You do have to keep moving. We all enjoyed ourselves and relaxed and had fun! We returned Sunday evening and met Alex's family to return their son and to tell them all about the weekend over pizza. And it's so nice having off work today to do all my errands before I start up my workweek again.

The girls got a call for a new babysitting job nearby thanks to my sister Kristin. Kristin works with the father. The girls are able to walk to the house. They'll be watching a 10-1/2 month old little girl for 2 mornings a week. One day Bryn will go and the other Paige will shadow Abby. Their first day is tomorrow.

Yes, it's been a while. As you expect, a lot has happened.

The Saunders household has suffered a few major breakdowns. Not mentally, but in the way of machinery. Luckily Jeff is very handy and able to diagnose and fix most of our household items, but we did have to replace our lawnmower and trimmer. After days of a scientific process of elimination through vacuuming the coils, defrosting the freezer with a hair dryer Jeff was able to determine that our refrigerator needed a new thermostat so that's taken care of. And there will be no pictures to accompany my blog today as my computer is at the Apple store for repair. It seems my computer fit the profile (manufacture date and memory) for a tiny mishap where it shuts down unexpectedly (really fun!). So while the repair for a new power supply is free, I feel very handicapped without my computer.

Bryn has begun a new babysitting job for the summer for our hairdresser's 2 boys. Bryn will be their first non-relative babysitter. She'll be there 1 morning/week. And Bryn intends to go out for the high school Cross-Country team again in fall, so she's been following the coaches' recommended run schedule religiously.

Paige has been put in to pitch for her team thanks to a little mention by one of her previous coaches. I guess this year's coaches were unaware that Paige could pitch so she wasn't being utilized. Anyways, she's typically in for at least 1 inning every game now and is doing good. Just last week, Paige was chosen to play on the All Star team for her division. Pretty cool seeing as she's only a 7th grader in the 7th thru 12th grade division.

And of course, it's graduation party season. Every weekend I never have to cook, as there's always a grad party to go to. I finally got it together and chose grad party gifts. I just didn't want to go the gift card route. We took many great ideas from other parties and used them at Abby's party on the 22nd. We labeled the coolers with label cutouts from the packages, and we ran a movie of pictures from Abby's senior year on the TV. Abby had a great time being showered with attention and gifts. She was especially happy that my sister Meg made the drive from Indy - even exchanging kids one day due to tournament schedules! My other sister Kristin came even though she was feeling very under the weather. Abby has many thank yous to write for the very generous gifts. I was especially happy with the sub sandwich idea and our cake was so yummy! When my computer's back, I'll have to post a picture. The weather that day couldn't decide whether to cooperate or not. I think we had 3 quick storms pass through that alternated with sunshine. One idea we won't repeat is the "11:00am til whenever" schedule. Abby actually became tired of hostessing around 10:30pm.

We went as a family out to La Crosse this past Friday (27th) to accompany Abby to registration. We spent the night at the cool motel Jeff had discovered with Abby, Ali and Kendal last fall when they toured UWL. The trip is long - a little over 3 hours one way - but it's a beautiful ride. I got to sit in a School of Education session with Abby and could see why she got so excited over the Academic Advisor for her major. We signed Abby up for a checking account with a bank that's located in La Crosse as well as in Menomonee Falls. We took a tour of the campus, shopped in the bookstore, and drove to the riverfront. Abby registered for classes, but won't get her finalized schedule until mid-July. And that's when she'll receive her room assignment and roommate.

School is officially out for Paige and Bryn as of last Tuesday (June 10th). Paige walked to a couple fast food joints with friends after the early release on that last day and Bryn made her annual trip to Fuddruckers with Natalie.


I was treated to a surprise field trip at work on Tuesday. John's brother-in-law, Pat, is a teamster that works on movie sets and packs up equipment, drive the actors around, etc. Well, they're filming Public Enemies in downtown Milwaukee and an unmarked white van picked us up and took us to the Historical Society building!!! Pat even timed it around the actor's lunch break so that we'd have a chance to catch a glimpse of Johnny Depp! After an hour of hanging around with the inner circle of wardrobe, makeup artists, sound guys, etc. we left. But, luckily Pat's walkie-talkie announced that it was time for lunch so we looked for Johnny's body guard and sure enough Johnny was right behind!!!

That night, Bryn invited a few friends over for a Last Day of School get together. They played a little football, then burned their most-hated piece of band music in the firepit and roasted s'mores.

Abby was recognized at the Optimist Breakfast meeting Wednesday morning as one of the recipients of their scholarships. She was asked to come to the front along with the other winners and introduce themselves, where they're going to college, what volunteer work they've done, etc. Abby announced she will be attending UW-LaCrosse and her friend Anna almost tackled her when they went to sit down. Anna is also going to La Crosse, but never knew Abby was even considering it.

Paige had her postponed her birthday party Friday at Stonefire Pizza. It's like Chuck E Cheese, but they serve a buffet and it's much cleaner. The girls had a blast and even mingled with some boys from Franklin. A 13-year-old birthday party and they're checking out guys! The party was a great success.

Saturday Maggie came down for Grandparents Day at Little League and watched Paige pitch her first game. She was in for one inning and did great! Later, Paige slammed a triple! We thought it was gutsy to run to third but figured her coach at 1st base told her to go for it. Apparently, her only told her to take 2nd, but she felt she could make it to 3rd. She never slowed down. It was fun. Paige had to leave the Little League field for Tae Kwon Do testing so we said our goodbyes to Maggie. When Paige and I were almost to testing, we discovered we neglected to take her sparring equipment. So Jeff and Maggie drove on up and got to see her test. We drove Maggie out to the highway afterward and headed home to work in the yard a bit before going to Abby's friend, Ali's, graduation party.

To celebrate Father's Day, we took Jeff out to the field again. Paige had another game again today and got to pitch for 2 innings this time. She did really well again. And we won!!! The team really needed that confidence boost.

We left out Bryn's success stories in track!!! Bryn ran in regionals then made it to sectionals in track again this year! The Arrowhead Regional was held in Oconomowoc on May 19 where Bryn placed 2nd and advanced to Sectionals. Sectionals were May 22 so Jeff watched her place 4th in the 400 at the Regional meet in Germantown (top 3 places go on to State), while Kristin went to Paige's Little League game and Abby and I set up for her Girl Scout Gold award ceremony. Maybe it was the lack of family support for Bryn that day. We run in a tough division and she's definitely making progress each year so we're hoping next year is it!

First of all, I'd like to thank Paige for being a guest-blogger last week for me. Excellent job! I feel a little pressure following you.

Sunday June 1st
Accompanied Bryn to a Mission Trip meeting where she made posters to put up after a couple upcoming masses to ask for gas money. She's taken on a bit of a leadership role being a one-year veteran and she's proud of it. They're going all the way to Coahoma, Mississippi this year at the end of July.

Monday I had to run with Paige shopping while we dropped Abby at the dentist. Paige needed a one-piece swimsuit for a field trip coming up Friday. What pre-teen/teenage girl owns a one-piece swimsuit????? We found one luckily that fit Paige's fashion sense as well as her size.

Wednesday Abby had her last final exams. How the school was allowed to let the seniors out that early I'm not sure. They must've been getting pretty disruptive. Paige and Bryn have to go until next Tuesday! Paige played softball against the Marlins in the dense fog. Paige hasn't had a chance at the pitcher's mound yet, so we reminded the coaches and it looks like her turn is coming at next Thursday's game.

Thursday I was so busy at work I never even got up from my computer to eat and I ended up staying until 5:00! Then I met Jeff at the Little League fields where we ran the concessions til 8:30pm. We had a gourmet dinner of popcorn, hot dogs and Coke! I went home to cook 6 lbs of chicken for my contribution to the Student Council potluck (thank you Abby!) the next evening.

Friday Jeff and I were both off work. Jeff ordered another 8 yds of mulch dumped in our driveway early that morning. I cut up my cooked chicken, then went to the Y. Bryn had her first day of finals and was done early because she only had one. Earlier in the week I talked to the Financial Aid Office at Marquette about checking into any further aid options for Abby. They told us to come on in anytime, so we took Abby down Friday afternoon. We found the office and met with a Counselor. The Counselor didn't make our trip worth our while unfortunately. Apparently we've already done everything we could. Abby is accepting of the fact that she needs now to focus on getting her plans in order at UWLaCrosse for fall.

Paige had a very exciting field trip to Noah's Ark Friday!! The forecast held the possibility of rain late, but Paige said it never happened. She got her friends to go on her favorite ride, Black Anaconda, with her and the first time they got stuck!!! They sat for 15 minutes on an uphill climb, then had to walk down to the start. So what exactly are you walking on???? I knew there was a reason I don't like roller coasters. Paige borrowed a friends cell phone (no, she still doesn't have a cell phone and it's so unfair) and called us at the Student Council potluck. Paige actually was asked to go over to a friend's, but didn't want to miss hanging out at The Barn. A classmate of Abby's lives on an old farm and they throw parties in their barn. I believe the father was a gymnast so the interior is basically a workout facility complete with trampolines, a swinging rope and a foam pit. We shared a terrific spread of delicious dishes at the potluck and thanks to speeches by Abby's friend, Ali, and the Student Council advisor, Ms. Novack, also a terrific amount of tears. It's a very sappy bunch. Bryn is continuing the Saunders involvement in the Club by being elected as Secretary for next schoolyear.

Saturday was Abby's high school graduation. The silver cord is for 100+ hours of volunteer service and the gold&blue are for National Honor Society. Abby announced to us that "pictures are at Ali's at 4" which didn't quite fit our incoming relatives coming to our house to see Abby so I had to mess up all their plans (this is something I excel in :)) and Kendal ended up getting ready with Abby and having a quick photoshoot at our house with our family before going over to pick up Ali. In the meantime, storms were threatening with the tornado sirens going off multiple times. We hearded our guests down to the basement and the local weather took over all programming. Abby answered the automated call that the ceremony would now be inside vs. in the football stadium. Our allotted 4 tickets got me, Jeff, Paige and Alex into the ceremony. Kendal's parents gave us 2 more which allowed my parents to sit with us. Maggie and Terry graciously took the off-site seating in the cafeteria where they watched in air-conditioned comfort on the big screen. Many booms of thunder accompanied Bryn and the Wind Symphony while they played during the reading of names. The gym got plenty hot. Bryn and Tyler stood up and played their trombone slides fully out and back when their graduating siblings walked across the stage. The whole event only took an hour and a half and the heat was soon forgotten with a frosty mug of beer afterwards.

You think I've been slacking on the blog - I've really been neglecting the Y. I'm excited because I think I have workout partners for a new class I'm dying to try. Wednesday nights Abby and her friend Kendal are going to try "Zumba" with me. It's a mix of salsa dancing and exercise. Everyone who's tried it says it's really fun and people of all ages attend.