Happy Birthday Gayle

So you're finally 39!

You were feeling fine....

Until you caught the swine.

Now you feel like sh*t

And you're not happy one little bit.

Soon your luck will flip

And you'll be on your trip

Enjoying a drink

Instead of puking in the sink.

I hope your birthday doesn't stink (like this poem)!

Love,

Your Favorite Sister

Fremd... 22 Years Later

Brian and I had a great weekend. We dropped off the kids with Brian's parents on Friday afternoon and headed for Schaumburg. After checking into the hotel we headed off for round one of shopping.

Let me tell you that normally Brian hates shopping. He would rather be anywhere else than in a mall. Whenever I have to drag him shopping with me, he complains that he is suffering from major leg cramps, his shoulders hurt and a headache is keeping him from thinking any positive thoughts. He refers to this as "shopping mall shuffle". I find it strange how he can run long distances (as in 26.2 miles), but cannot walk more than 10 minutes in a store....Hmmmm.....

For some reason, none of that happened this weekend. He was like a kid in a candy store. He is especially fond of Nordstrom Rack. He found a pair of shoes, a running shirt, a pair of pants which they hemmed while we waited and a few other things. As I mentioned above, Brian can barely last one round of shopping, much less a multi-round affair........I had to look closely to make sure he hadn't found a look-alike to take his place......this was definitely strange behavior......

At any rate, after our first round of shopping, we headed off to dinner at Yu's, a Chinese restaurant that is one of our favorites. That is where we had our rehearsal dinner before our wedding. This time we feasted on delicious seafood and Moo Shoo pork. We ended the meal with fortune cookies. My fortune cookie said that "A fun party is in your future". Coincidence? I think not!

Saturday started with breakfast at the hotel and a drive to Park Ridge where we hit up the Talbot's outlet - Round 2. Didn't find much there. And no men's clothes - Brian was devastated. Not even the single children's clothing rack that Brian used to spend 30 minutes reviewing (anything to pass time in a store dominated by women's clothing!). Had lunch in Mount Prospect at Gale's Carriage House (another of our favorites) and then back to Schaumburg to hit Woodfield Mall....Round 3.

I haven't been to Woodfield in years. I really had no intention of going this time, but I had two free gifts coming from Aveda, so I had to go and get them there because we don't have a store here in Northwest Indiana. While we were at the store, I had my make-up done by the sweetest young lady. She showed me how to use everything that I purchased. I have not bought make-up since our wedding 10 years ago so this was an exciting time for me. I felt like a grown-up again after she finished my makeup application. The best part was that I did not break out in hives from their products (a recurring problem for me)! After our purchase, we were treated to a chair massage. It was the most amazing massage I have ever had (not that I have had many). I walked out of that store feeling better than I have in years. Brian also received a massage and a bag full of samples from Christina, the sweet young lady.

After our mall trip, we headed back to the hotel where I met up with two of my high school friends, Kristen and Jenny. We chatted for a few minutes until it was time for Brian and I to clean up and change clothes for our high school mini-reunion.

We met my friends at a restaurant in Schaumburg where we had drinks and a delicious sit down dinner. It was so much fun visiting with everyone. Most of us saw each other at our 20 year reunion in 2008, but the reunion was so loud and crowded that it was hard to talk to anyone. This time was much different. We had the opportunity to talk, share photos and reminisce. It was interesting to hear about the jobs my friends pursued. Among the group was a V.P. for a major finance company, a BMW salesman, a doctor, an EMT, a federal agent, a music producer, a special events coordinator for Northwestern University and a few stay at home moms (I fell into that category).

Anyway we had a really nice evening with my friends. It seemed as if 22 years could not have possibly passed since our high school days. Toward the end of the evening, we asked the DJ at the bar where we ended the evening to play music from our high school days. I'm not so sure the other patrons of the establishment appreciated our music selection, but we sure did!

Well.... back at home now and back to reality. I have beds to make and laundry up to my eyeballs. Then there's dinner to prepare and kids to be bathed......

Thank You God

Tonight, while praying before dinner, we asked Caludia what she was thankful for.

Without hesitation, she answered "underground parking".

Okay then ...

We live in the middle farm fields.

No underground parking in sight.

Just a Little Hint....

Dear Daddy,

I drew a picture for you this morning.

Can you guess who it is?

It's Minnie Mouse!

Love,

Claudia

Note: Claudia has been saving her money in a pink Easter bucket for a long time so we can go to Walt Disney World. She often empties the bucket, sorts the coins and bills and asks if she has enough money for the trip. I keep telling her that she's getting there and to keep saving. She also draws pictures of Mickey and the gang just to remind us that she "needs" to go and visit the princesses. Claudia and William have even gone as far as create Mickey heads out of cardboard and glue them to our bedroom door (I wasn't too happy about that), but they got their point across. Keep saving your money Claudia. I hope you'll be able to treat all of us to a vacation in the future!

Catching Up....

William's Halfy Birthday

Valentine's Day party at preschool

Valentine's Day party

Well.... things are finally quiet around the house. Both kids are at preschool today. I actually have 2 1/2 hours to myself this morning!

This past month has flown by! Both kids were sick with colds and ear infections. The ear infections were a first for both kids. Poor William had a build up of fluid in his right ear which eventually ruptured his eardrum. It must have been incredibly painful. He cried harder than he did when he broke his arm a few years ago. After being up to our armpits in Amoxicillin, both kids are finally healthy (for now).

Brian was home for a week (mandatory furlough). It was nice to have him home to help out around the house (although it took several days for him to relearn the house rules). Prior to his week off, he made a long list of projects to do around the house. Guess how many of those projects he accomplished? One! Yes, one. You see Brian has absolutely no concept of time. What he thinks will take 1 hour actually takes 2 days. I've have come up with a formula that always works for him. He thinks a project will take 1 hour... double that = 2 hours.... then bring up a degree (such as hours to days) = 2 days. Only in this case what should have taken an hour, took 1 week (my formula was slightly off this time). Yes, it took Brian 1 full week to put the Christmas decorations away. The decorations were already boxed. They just needed to go back into the attic. Brian decided it would be easier to store the boxes in the basement so he had to clear a space to put all of them. This took several days of clearing, several days of cleaning and several days of carrying the boxes to the basement. Yup, that's Brian. Every project is long lasting.

William celebrated his HALFY Birthday at school. Since he has a summer birthday, he was able to celebrate is half birthday in January at school with special treats (little donuts). He wore a birthday crown and was sung to by his classmates. He really enjoyed the special attention. We celebrated at home too with a dinner request by the birthday boy (pasta and salad with brownies for dessert).

Valentine's Day was a BIG deal this year. Claudia was really excited about giving cards to her friends. She made her own cards with construction paper and doilies. She enjoyed writing her name on the first few, but then called it quits because "It was too much work." It took several days for us to finish her Valentine's cards! William passed out "Cars" Valentine's this year. He had fun choosing the cards for each friend. He wrote his name on each card as well as the name of the classmate it was going to. No complaints from him!

Both of the kids had parties at school - on the same day... at the same time. Thankfully, Brian and I both attended the festivities. We didn't want the kids to think we picked one child over the other so we divided our time between the two classrooms. The kids came home with a huge stash of treats! They both sat at the kitchen table searching through their candy and cards. Claudia asked who gave her each card. William was able to read all his friends names...although he just quickly scanned over the girl cards and offered them to Claudia. Claudia, in turn, gave her boy cards to William. Claudia has 5 more students in her class than William which made her loot pile noticeably larger. Being the sweetie that she is, she offered William a good chunk of her treats.

This past weekend, we made a trip down to Purdue for a little get-away. My sister's oldest had an indoor softball tournament in Lafayette so we tagged along. We didn't go to her games because she played on Saturday at 6:00A.M. and Sunday morning at 12:00A.M. and 2:30A.M.!! Crazy! We did meet some of our college friends that still live in the area. Mike and Angela are now married and have two children. We all met for lunch and then went back to the hotel for a swim. The kids had a blast playing together. Later that evening, Brian watched the kids and Gayle and I went shopping. I don't get out without the kids much, so it was a welcomed break! Thanks Brian! I owe you one.

While at the hotel, we stayed up late eating snacks and watching television... when it came time to go to bed, the kids got into a heated discussion on who was to sleep with who. Both kids wanted to sleep with Brian (no complaints from me) and argued until William decided that he would solve the problem. He used the all-time ultimate decision maker..... "EENIE MEENIE MINEY MOE". He won, but Claudia was not convinced that Eenie Meenie was going to keep her from sleeping with Daddy. William insisted that she lost and repeatedly said to her, "Claudia, we did Eenie Meanie Miney Moe and you lost.". Well... they both ended up sleeping with Brian which made me quite happy!

The next morning, we had breakfast and headed out to see campus. The kids weren't too excited about all the reminiscing that was going on in the front seat. "Remember when..." or "Look kids. Mom lived there and there and there and there....Dad lived in that dorm and that house and that apartment...." The kids wanted to get out of the car and run around, but it was too cold. We'll have to head down when the weather is warmer and do a walking tour of our favorite places. Speaking of favorite places, we did stop at Snowbear Frozen Custard for a quick treat. (A note to Kathy... the one across from our apartment on Stadium is no longer there. There is only one in the levee now.) No trips to Harry's for Long Island ice teas. We'll have to wait for a kid free weekend for that!

This weekend Brian and I are heading to Schaumburg to meet up with some of my high school friends. A few of them I saw at my 20th high school reunion in 2008 (dating myself) and the rest I have not seen in a LONG time. The reunion was so crowded and loud that I really didn't have the opportunity to have a conversation with anyone (other than shouting a few words). So this should be a fun time. None of my friends are bringing their spouses / significant others with them so I'm not really sure if Brian should tag along or not. I know he would enjoy himself. He has a gift of gab and could hold his own. But, on the other hand, it's hard to pretend your interested in high school "flashbacks" especially when you didn't attend the school. So... I may just have to flip a coin to see if I'm going solo or not.

That's it for now. I still need to upload all our photos since Christmas. That's next on my list.... along with doing laundry, making the beds and a date with the treadmill.

Brian's Public Enemies Review

Brian's first movie review came out today compliments of our friend Gina Z. or more commonly known as "Bean".

And now, Going to the Show with the Regular Bean:

In the role of a lifetime as prisoner extra #6969 in the movie Public Enemies, seminal actor Brian Stage shows us that no role is too small to showcase his oeuvre of seismic proportions. Small in stature and Big on talent, Brian literally has you believing he truly is a felon or other person of dubious interest. As we pan across the sewing room in one of the film's beginning scenes, we see Mr. Stage sitting in his chair fidgeting, thus gazing about...I truly did believe he was a real crook looking for his spool of thread to start his day. Even though, in several marching scenes we may not actually see his movie star visage; we do, however sense his brooding prisoner presence. If you're like me, and I know you are :-) then you will not want to miss this remarkable performance of a lifetime, and take pride in saying I knew him when he was just a fraternity pledge trying to get some sigs and drinking too much beer. Bless his heart that he found a good, beautiful woman to guide him and keep him humble on his path to Hollywood stardom.

Review #2 by Linda:

"Love it Bean!! I waited in anxious anticipation for my glimpse of our movie star....looking right past Mr. Depp, and quickly hit rewind several times to catch every nuance of his performance. I don't think prisoner #6969 could have been played more true to character than by Mr. Stage....I dare say that the excitement I felt in saying, "I knew him when", was uncontainable!! I can't wait for his next film, where we will undoubtedly hear his first onscreen spoken words. Great Job Mr Stage....you're on your way!!"

Brian's response to Bean's review:

Yes, Bean, my oeuvre is truly off the Richter scale......and I am genuinely flattered by your incredibly hilarious review with a thesaurus full of rich vocabulary (even a brooding prisoner such as myself can appreciate good language!). Even though it was no secret that your review had been conjured up in your psychic mind before even seeing my turn at stardom (as if you were channeling your inner Dillinger), I see that your eye for detail was in full focus, even to the point of noticing my fidgeting (I think that's the whole reason I was saved from the cutting room floor....my fidgeting talent!).Yes, I have come a long way from my Purdue days.....although I think my dabbling in lawlessness and run-ins with the excise police paved the way to my current pinnacle of success!

Happy Birthday To Me

Brian was selected by his employer to attend a leadership development class at Indiana University. He left on Tuesday....

Normally things run smoothly when he is out of town. This was the exception.

It started with William... who woke up and crawled into my bed. I kindly escorted him back to his bed because he was sick and I didn't feel like being coughed and snotted on (yes, I'm mean like that). William wasn't happy, but went back to sleep in his own bed.

Next, Claudia woke up (as in totally alert) at 3:30am and crawled into my bed. She started poking and kicking me. Then she started talking...

With all her jabbering, she managed to wake up Snoopy who began to whine and bark. I let Snoopy out of his crate so he could join the party taking place in my bed. He happily joined in on Claudia's plan to keep me from sleeping. After a stimulating conversation with Claudia, Snoopy jumped off the bed and took off to either amputate a few Barbies or potty in the house.

I managed to drag myself out of bed to search for the amputater. As I hustled down the stairs, I stumbled and slid down half the flight. I made it to the kitchen fairly quickly because I can slide faster than I can walk and shuffled through a puddle of dog pee. Yup, Snoopy relieved himself before I could let him out. Even though he had already peed on the kitchen floor, I opened up the back door to let him out. He looked at me like I had two heads and boogied into the living room. I had to pick him up and toss him out the door. I cleaned up the mess, let Snoopy back in the house and went back upstairs where I told Claudia she was going to go back to her own bed.

Do you know what she said? She said "okay" and grabbed my hand as we walked back to her bedroom. Miracles do happen!!

I actually fell back to sleep with Snoopy by my side until I was woken up a few hours later by William. We went downstairs together to discover that Rosie, the cat, had vomited in the dining room. Just as I began to search for a rag to clean up the pile of regurgitated cat food, Snoopy began to clean it up for me... by eating it. At least he's good for something! As disgusted as I was by his act of kindness, I was relieved that I had less vomit to clean up (I don't do vomit).

Meanwhile, William had woken up very congested and not feeling well. His cold developed into an ear infection which required a trip to the doctor's office and two trips to the drugstore... one for antibiotics and then another trip for numbing ear drops. The earache has caused William so much pain. He has never cried so much... which led to him to vomit twice... once in the kitchen which Snoopy "marked" before I could clean it up. There's nothing like the combination of vomit and urine!

All this chaos took place in this week. Today is Friday and my 40th birthday. This morning I was woken up at 3:00am by Snoopy vomiting in his crate (tossing up the limbs of the dolls he has recently amputated). I tried to go back to sleep but Brian made it entirely impossible by serenading me with God awful noises.

So... happy birthday to me. I hope my day involves a nap and possibly some Valpo Velvet ice cream with hot fudge (got that Brian?) and maybe even a glass of wine (but not the ice cream and wine together... maybe a cold beer and ice cream... just kidding....ewww!). And... Brian, don't forget to hire the cleaning service and personal chef. I'll be waiting for them today.

I certainly hope that this week is NOT an indicator of how the rest of my year is going to turn out. On a positive note, my kitchen floors are spotless due to the constant mopping up of vomit and dog urine and I had several hours of quiet time all by myself this morning! Bring on the rest of the day... and year!

Don't Answer the Phone!

During lunch today the phone rang. I looked at caller ID and did not answer the call because the number was unfamiliar and the caller was labeled as "unknown".

William said, "Aren't you going to answer the phone?"
I replied with a simple, "No".
William then stated, "I bet it's Purdue looking for money so they can buy new basketballs."

I found this really funny because we did receive at least 697 phone calls from Purdue (always after 8:30 pm) before we agreed to contribute to their "we need more money to build another red brick building" campaign. I guess William was paying attention when he heard me repeatedly say to Brian, "If it's Purdue AGAIN, don't answer it."

What We Did Over Christmas Break

I having been trying to write about our Christmas and what we did during our break from school, but there has been little time to get on the computer... so here is the shortened version. Check back later for details and pictures.

The kids had their last soccer game. The kids went to Mimi and Papa's house to bake cookies... the kids ate too many cookies. Claudia had a Christmas party at school. William had his Christmas program at school... heard a very memorable version of "Go Tell it on the Mountain" done with kazoos. The kids hung out with Grandma. We all went to the dentist. Claudia had 2 cavities (probably from too many cookies). Went to tree farm for our Christmas tree...brought tree home and decorated it and the rest of the house (Brian took out EVERY decoration we have and found a place in the house for each one). Snoopy ate a chunk of the Nativity Scene. The cat, Rosie, became a permanent part of the Nativity scene. We took Claudia to Children's Memorial in Chicago to see a pediatric orthopedic doctor who recommended she stop wearing her leg braces. Took the kids to the Wiener Circle on Clark... sat on bar stools, ate hot dogs and fries and watched people.... Took the kids on the "el" brown line from Diversey to the loop... Walked to Macy's... Saw the windows at Macy's, ate Frango Mint pie and saw the Christmas tree in the Walnut Room... Took the "el" red line back to Fullerton. Went to visit Santa.... Claudia asked for a talking pony and William asked for Pirate Legos. The kids went to Mimi and Papa's for the day so Mom and Dad could wrap, clean and cook. Christmas Eve was spent at Grandma's with the Bentons... I made a delicious beef tenderloin. Christmas Day was spent at home with Mimi and Papa and the Novaks... our table was set beautifully with our Wedgwood Signet Platinum.... used for the first time in 10 years! Went to the Brookfield Zoo in the evening with the Bentons... very COLD... still defrosting. Kids spent the night at Mimi and Papa's then went to the Museum of Science and Industry with Mimi and Papa and the Novaks. Claudia went to the dentist to have one tooth filled (they would only do one filling per visit!?!) Stayed home on New Year's Eve and drank sparkling wine from a water goblet because I was too lazy to move the Christmas decorations that were blocking access to the flutes. School and swim class started today. Attempting to return back to our normal schedule.

Christmas Past

ChRiStMaS 1974

Viola (mom), Me, Santa, Gayle and Grandma Claudia