Autumn

It's fall! The temperature has been hovering in the 40's and the low Saturday is supposed to be 29! Love the weather. In fact, the weather is one of the very few things I like about Indiana.

The girls and I are getting over the H1N1 and somehow! Jamie escaped it. Go Jamie's obviously superior immune system!

This weekend will be crazy busy (so busy that we had to turn down camping with a group of friends) with Claudia staffing a junior high con (a church sleepover youth convention), Sammy going to a birthday sleepover for her very good friend, Emily and we're hanging out with friends on Saturday night and then we have church meetings all day Sunday. Which sounds horrifying, no? But the projects are *very* cool. We're working on what I call Unitarian Vacation Bible School (UU Peace Camp) and starting services for young adults on Friday nights. Both things are very, very much needed in our church and in this area.

I've taken a ton of photos since the last time I posted, and I need to get them up here. But for now, here are a couple of Jordan.

Saturday!

It's Saturday morning and I'm looking forward to Jamie making belgian waffles any minute now and date night tonight--we're going to a cocktail party!

I'm also looking forward to shoe shopping with Claudia. She wants black and white saddle shoes. I never would have guessed this!

Girlies are all three doing great in school. Sam's doing fabulously with her violin but she was frustrated yesterday because she thought they were going to actually get to use the bow, but no. They only learned to hold it! Jordan got a part in the new school play so she's excited about that and Claudia is rocking her AP World History class (which is a college class) and her honors Biology and advanced English classes.

The trees are turning which is always shocking, the weather's been cool (highs in the 70's). We may go pick apples sometime soon.

Finally--a post!

Hi, Everyone! Sorry it's been so long since the last blog post. We've been super busy and I posted this and blogger was being weird so I lost it. We had a great trip to Texas, and thanks to my mom and dad for being such great hosts for a week! We had pie at the Bluebonnet Cafe, awesome carne guisada tacos, fried pies at Atwoods, turkey sausage and brisket from a BBQ place I love in Marble Falls and my parents bought some really good pork ribs and brisket from a place in Austin. We also had lunch at Scholz's Biergarten one day and that was fun and also good (Sammy decided she likes weiner schnitzel!)

All three girls are now settled happily into school and life's back on a schedule.

Random photos from lately:


Claudia before school on the first day. Notice her funky new shoes she got at a boutique in Austin.


Jordan before school on the first day. Notice her cool boots she got in Austin.

No photo of Sammy because unfortunately, we didn't get to see her that morning (she was at her mom's). :(


On the way to Texas. We rented an SUV thinking it would be more comfortable to travel in. Think again! But even though there wasn't much elbow room, the kids were, as usual, FABULOUS travelers.


The girlies plus my parents in the Senate Chamber in the Texas State Capitol. I miss Texas politics--always fun and interesting, especially when compared to the deadly boring politics of the midwest.


Sammy and Claudia doing Wii boxing at my parents' house.


One day when Claudia and Jordan were at their dad's house, we took Sam to Johnson City and Fredericksburg. Fredericksburg is full of little shops and here Sam's playing the banjo in a music shop. We also had some German pastries (there's a large German population there) and Sammy learned a little about the Sunday Houses they have there, and Admiral Chester Nimitz who was from Fredericksburg.

On the way from Fredericksburg back to Austin, we stopped for peach ice cream and in various pastures along the way we saw emus, camels, all kinds of cattle and horses, goats, something that looked like ibeks, and buffalo.


Here she is playing an actual song on the dulcimer. Notice her cute earrings and nail polish!




Sammy outside a log cabin near Johnson City (where LBJ was born and raised and about 30 minutes from where I grew up).


Sammy and Jamie on the porch of LBJ's boyhood home. We took the tour. Notice the light blue paint under the eaves. Some Texas hillcountry homes do that to keep birds, wasps and dirt daubers from building nests.

Sunday!

We had a great weekend that included Jamie and I going out to dinner with a couple of really fun friends on Friday night, Claudia having a friend sleep over on Saturday night, church on Sunday, lunch at a Turkish restaurant with the kids (sans Sammy who is with her mom this weekend) with a crowd of our friends, the town firework display on Sunday night (they set them off about 100 yards from our back door so it's awesome! and makes the dog go, What the WHAT?!?) and inbetween all that, hanging out with the kids, Hagen Daz Five icecream (ginger flavor is amazing!!!), cleaning house, and reading a lot.

Here are photos of our day in NYC. We had a great time and hope to do it at least once a year from now on. I expected NYC to be intimidating, but it wasn't even a little bit.







Here are some photos from today. Notice Claudia's name tag says, "Hello, I'm AWESOME!".

Vacation!

Despite the coldest June weather *ever* (or something like that), we have had a great time on our vacation. We were in Atlantic City from Monday through Thursday. We did beach things, we did boardwalk things. And we spent time together as a family and it was fantastic. Jordan, Sammy, Claudia and I played a card game that was new to me--Kemps. Claudia and I played together and lost to the littles. But it was really fun! The hotel was really cool, too. It had a full kitchen and was two bedroom/two bath and the back door opened onto the boardwalk so it was right across the boardwalk from the beach.

On Thursday we drove to Philadelphia to spend a couple of days with Jamie's brother, sister-in-law and their adorable almost-three-year-old daughter. It's been really nice catching up with them and our SIL compiled a ton of information for us to take a day trip into NYC today.

So we drove to New Jersey this morning and hopped a ferry across to the city. We did a lot of walking and shopping and eating. It was a good first-time visit and we're going to try to make it an annual thing.

Here are photos of Atlantic City. I'll post NYC photos tomorrow when we get home.

First, Sammy and Jordan were just going to roll up their jeans and "wade".


Then "wading" turned into getting completely soaked and they ended up going back to the hotel to put swim suits on.








This is Claudia taking a break from looking for seashells.


Claudia and a dinosaur on the boardwalk.


New friends that Jamie and Claudia made by eating french fries.


What happens when you share a french fry.


"But we can't help but notice you have more."


Here we are trying to make it back to the hotel with the fries. They were following and hovering at eye level.

Pride Parade Float

We painted the top of the float for the upcoming Pride Parade yesterday. Very fun and I think it looks great! The day of the parade it will be placed on a flatbed trailer, sprayed with glitter and signs will be placed on the float as well.

Endings

It's the last day of school and we're all pretty pleased about this at our house. Tomorrow morning Jamie and I are having breakfast at Tulip Noir to celebrate.

We have a great summer planned:

1. Sam's going to be going to two different kinds of tennis lessons and sleep-away camp
2. Claudia's going to be going to Los Angeles and do a job shadow of a friend of ours who works as a graphic artist at a local tv station
3. Jordan's going to be going to sleep away camp, theater camp and tennis lessons
4. as a family we're going to Atlantic City, NYC, and Texas.

We're not doing a crazy happy last day of school dance, however. This week Jamie and I lost a friend that we've known for nine years to cancer. She was an amazing, wonderful person and she leaves a 10-year-old son. So everything is permeated with sadness at the moment.

Helllooooooooo!!!!!

Hola! Just popping in for a sec before work for some quick bullet items:

1. We found out that Jordan got into a theater day camp for a week this summer and she is thrilled!

2. Jamie was accepted onto the worship associate committee at church which is a very cool, big deal. He got it because he's awesome and the application he submitted was awesome and so he's going to be doing sermons and such sometimes at church.

3. I think I've been elected to the UU district board and I was definitely elected to serve another year as the Social Justice chair at our church on Sunday.

4. I found out a couple of our friends are "cemetery geeks"--they like to walk around cemeteries like I do!

5. Claudia's being slammed with projects and tests in this, the last two weeks of school. What the what?!? But she's working her butt off and doing a great job and has a good attitude about it. Very proud of her!

6. Sam and Jordan and some of their friends had a lemonade stand on Sunday to raise money for charity. Aren't they amazing?!?

7. We have an appointment with a veteranary behavior specialist on Saturday morning. Yes, seriously. The dog has one foot out of our household at this point, but we're still trying. Next up--pet psychic. (ok, not really)

8. Migraines have been greatly diminished but not completely gone. I've omitted caffeine, changed my diet drastically, I'm drinking a ton of water a day, I'm on a maintenance med, I'm using a cpap machine for my apnea and last night I went and got a pair of prescription sunglasses. This week I'm lifting weights and walking and yeah--this has all been pretty drastic but it has made a difference and I hope things will continue to improve.

Reading at bedtime:

Wednesday

And.......we're on day three of no migraine!! Yay!! It's been an adventure. I can hardly eat anything at all, and almost nothing good, so I need to get creative. I went out to lunch today for a birthday celebration at a nice Italian restaurant and had to skip salad, bread and appetizers and just have the chicken. It was kind of distressing but I'll adjust. Jamie's been very sweet and is doing the migraine food limitations with me even though I told him he didn't need to.

Other random things:

Jordan watched A League of their Own three times recently and then wanted to go play baseball so Jamie's been taking her to the park to practice and she's good!

Sammy's really happy to be finished with PE for the rest of the year. (they get out of school next Thursday) and Jamie's been taking her to the tennis courts and she's doing great!

Claudia had a great time at King's Island last Saturday with the band and actually rode a roller coaster!

We have three cookouts/parties to go to over the next two weekends which I'm very excited about.

Ok, so I think that's it for now. I'm off to try sleeping with the CPAP machine. Forgive me for all the shiny happy exclamation points (very tired) and wish me luck!

Ay, yi yi yi!

Hello, everyone! I have been neglecting this blog lately, but no more! I only have a second at the moment, but I have to tell you that Samantha and Jordan have chosen which instruments they are going to be playing next year. Sammy will be playing violin and Jordan will be playing trumpet. This means in our house we have a clarinet player, a guitar player, a violin player and two trumpet players.

I know what you're thinking.

I do!

And I agree!!

Mariachi Band!!!! (coming to a family reunion near you)

We'll be the Partridge Family of the Mariachi world.

Except the clarinet of course. But wait! Maybe I'll insist that they let me join. Isn't there a place in this world for a clarinet player who know almost all the notes?!?

Sammy's Choir Concert

Monday!

It's Monday! Wooo! Why is this exciting, maybe you're asking? Because it's Bright Monday and that means I have the day off. AND, since I have the day off, Jamie took the day off, too.

People I would like to see in jail:

1. CIA interrogators who allegedly waterboarded two people 266 times.
2. The Bush administration
3. The school officials who strip searched a 13-year-old honors student with no prior disciplinary problems because she was accused of handing out prescription strength Advil
4. That one banker who spent bailout money on a $6,000 trash can. It's true, I can't seem to get over that. I would have been awesome during the French Revolution. Viva La Revolucion! (I don't know any French at all. Maybe they wouldn't let me work on posters).

People I would like to see in school:

1. Claudia. The poor baby went to a church youth convention in Michigan this weekend and woke up Sunday morning with the flu. Which sucks for her, especially due to the fact that she's the only person in our family that had a flu shot this year.

People I would like to see in a poodle skirt:


1. Sammy! She needs a poodle skirt for her school choir performance on Thursday night so Jamie and I are in the process of making her one. The only problem--we don't sew so it's kind of slow going. It's really fun, though, and she's super excited about it. I think it looks cute so far! Now where the hell is my black thread?!?

People who are super tired and have had a headache every day for a solid week:
1. Me. ME! Claudia had a band thing on Friday night so she couldn't travel to Michigan with the rest of the group so I drove her to Kalamazoo on Saturday and that was an 8-hour round trip. Tired!

Also, I'm so sick of my head hurting. Here's the deal. My doctor says take the migraine medicine the minute you feel that you're getting a migraine because if you don't, everything gets inflamed and the medicine doesn't work as well/doesn't work. So, I do this and the insurance company just flat-out doesn't want to pay for it so they say, no, you can only have 12 pills in a 25 day period. Why? Because that's the manufacturer's guideline and we don't want you to sue us. Even though my doctor says otherwise. Even though, it's on my doctor if anything happens to me (and me, of course). So whatever, just say you don't want to pay for it. Even though, doctors prescribe drugs all the time off-label. And it's not like this is a painkiller or narcotic. It's just medicine that enlarges blood vessels in the brain.

Anyway, I have an appointment (first available--end of MAY) with my wonderful friend, J.'s, neurologist. J. went from having migraines just about every day to NEVER. J. strongly encouraged me to get an appointment with her because she told me right now I'm at increased risk of stroke (she's a nurse).

Word of the Day: Awesomeness!

It's spring break in suburban Indianapolis!

Animals
Jamie boarded the dog on Tuesday so we could go to Chicago on Wednesday.

When we got back from Chicago we noticed that one of three mice was without a head and the other one was completely missing except maybe a forearm or something. The last mouse, a blond mouse with pink eyes has made himself and his overly-large stomach a nice nest and is enjoying the wheel, food and water all to himself. O-K. I think we're all a little afraid of that mouse now.

In Laws
Jason, is awesome! We rolled into Chicago rather too late on Wednesday night and Jason was up waiting and even parked our car for us. Nice! And Leah, OMG, Leah! We had to have Claudia to the airport at 4:30 on Thursday morning and Leah took the day off from work and stayed home with the littles so they didn't have to get up when we left. Then when we got home she told us to go back to bed and she took Sammy and Jordan out on a Chicago adventure, complete with breakfast and lunch out, the zoo, botanical gardens and public transportation. It was AWESOME! And also, speaking of AWESOME, Andy took two days off work and I suspect Lysa cut her own vacation short to host Claudia in Philadelphia and they are taking her to do the coolest things!

Children
Claudia flew by herself for the first time (meaning, without an airline employee escort) and she did great! She sounds like she's having a fabulous time in Philadelphia with Andy, Lysa and Baby C. We're heading back to Chicago in the morning to pick her up from the airport.

Sam and Jordan were telling us they're planning on moving to Chicago when they grow up. They LOVED being in the city.

Sammy cracked me up--she told me that she felt that clothing is a girl's best friend. I told her no, fashion comes after a good education, prudent decisions, and smart money management and I think she thought that was kind of boring, but oh, well!

Sammy had a pretty fun day on Saturday. I took her to Ulta and she got a beyond fabulous haircut. Then we went to Macy's and she spent a pretty large gift card my parents gave her for her birthday and it was really fun for me, too. She was spinning and skipping and her smile couldn't have been any bigger. She had such a blast (I wish you could have been there, Mom and Dad!!)! She bought skirts, and she LOVES skirts, and a really cool shirt and an AWESOME pair of shoes. Then we went to Claire's to accessorize because my Awesome parents also gave her a gift card for that store for that purpose.

A teary thank you!
Our family--Don, Anita, Andy, Lysa, Jason and Leah--in their awesomeness have made our kids' lives bigger this weekend. THANK YOU!!

Photos
Thursday afternoon we went to Millenium Park to meet Jason after work.






Sammy in the Macy's dressing room and her new haircut!