I just finished organizing years worth of pictures into photo boxes. It was a fun trip down memory lane, but it was funny to notice huge gaps of time with no pictures. I know where the pictures are, they are stored on computers all over the place. I think I might try in the future to be more deliberate about developing some, so that I can have a hard copy too. I also wish that I had electronic versions of some of the great shots that I found to share, but since I don't, I thought I'd share some Christmas pictures from the side of the family I only see on occasion.

My Aunt Judy (one of my dad's sisters)

My Aunt Pat (one of Dad's other sisters)

Some of my Cousins

My cousin Sam

Uncle Augie

Oh Christmas Tree...

Just spent a fun weekend in Chicago which is all decked out for the holidays. We tried to see how many Christmas trees we could take our picture with, so I thought I'd share a few.

The tree at the Drake. This is right before we went out into the horrible, freezing wind.

We were waiting outside of the Music Box Theatre to go to a sing-a-long showing of White Christmas.

A little dark, but this is the tree outside of the John Hancock building.

Not a small chance

I actually am hosting Thanksgiving!!

There's a Small Chance...

That I may be hosting Thanksgiving Dinner at my house. It's a funny idea, since really I'm the one that lives far away (except for my uncle, but that's a whole other story). Anyway, while this whole idea is for me to be selfish with my time (and travel), if it happens, I kind of look forward to doing the cooking and the hosting (even though it frightens me also). It's out of my hands right now as others are weighing in with there opinions.

My Weekend

I just finished eating a bowl of ice cream after raking the leaves. I find it enjoyable that it was warm enough outside (65 degrees) to warrant ice cream instead of hot chocolate. This weekend has been quite full. I started by helping some people clean the house they just bought. I couldn't help feeling a little jealous of this happily married couple in their cute new house. While I was there they got a call from a relative telling them they were pregnant, and I couldn't help but overhear the conversation. Turns out this couple who I'm feeling jealous about cannot have children even though that's what they really want. It reminds me that other people can understand my struggle to really want something that just seems so elusive.

Anyway, on Saturday my grandma came and visited. It was quite the the trip for her and I was proud of her for doing something that she was nervous about doing. She told me quite a few stories, but she also told me that when I was little I was hard to love. Now, I already knew that I was a little on the difficult side when I was younger, and thought this was hysterical. My grandma felt so bad and must have lost sleep over it, because this morning the first thing she did was apologize for saying that.

Today was the jingle bell 5k. I wish that I had a better run, but you just could'nt ask for a more perfect day for running. I'm looking forward to the rest of day and of course the Amazing Race!!

Morning Routine

I woke up this morning after a much needed 8 hours of sleep and as I was getting out of bed I was thinking how I have a very exact morning routine (filled with lots of lollygagging). So, I get up do my normal stuff and just as I'm about to put my contacts in I realize that I don't know where my contacts are. The case is sitting on the counter where it should be, but it has nothing in it. It's only been 8 hours since I got ready for bed, but I don't think that I threw them out, so finally it dawns on me, maybe they are still in my eyes. In the 10 years that I have worn contacts never this has this happened, I was so tired last night, I forgot to take them out. Suprisingly they didn't have that stuck to your eye feeling like they do after a nap.

Okay, sorry to bore you all with useless stories, I'm just baffled by this strange event.

Finally Finished

The final detail has been done on the house and it is completly paitned. (I'm pretending that I don't also think that the front door needs painting now). I've put a before and after picture just ignore the snow in the before picture. A few things learned during the process. 1) Before you rent the Home Depot truck to bring home new siding, make sure you bought the right siding so you don't look silly bringing it back to exchange. 2) Make sure to think twice about your painting clothes, you might just wish you hadn't ruined your only pair of really comfy pants. 3) When ever undertaking such an ambitious and not cheap project in conjuction with others, make sure to agree on price ahead of time, no matter if they mention splitting the price several times.

In other house news, I just planted a bunch of bulbs of some really pretty flowers. Can't wait for spring to see how they turn out.

Last but not least, not house related, but I'm counting down the hours until the new season of the Amazing Race begins!!!

A View from the sidelines

I had the opportunity to go and watch the 30th running of the Chicago marathon. We went and got a great spot around mile 22 (it was such a good spot that we even spotted ourselves on tv later). It was fun to watch the elite runners, but I did learn that its lonly at the top. While I'm used to runnig with a mass of humanity around me, the elites and seeded runners are practically by themselves. It was aslo interesting to see that even some of the "better" runners had to stop and walk. I had also never seen any wheelchair participants, and while we missed the winners of that race go by, we did get to see quite a few of the wheelchair athletes. One guy appeared to only have use of one arm and so he cranked himself the whole 26.2 miles with just one arm. While the weather was rough, most of the people who passed us seem to have the usual expressions, some with determination, some with relaxed faces and those with agogny (I'm extremely familair with the last one). If you haven't seen the any of the finishes to the three races (wheelchair, mens and women), I suggest you check them out, as they were all filled with drama.

I felt a little twinge of remorse for not running early in the weekend, but watching the runners, I was quite happy to be on the sideline, maybe some other time that desire will return, but until then, I'll enjoy my view from the side.

I've got that feeling again

Every now and then I get this excited feeling, like something big is going to happen. I think maybe someone will give me lots of money, or I'll meet the man of my dreams, or I'll finally drop those 10 pounds. Nothing ever comes from it, but it's always fun to wonder....

Wow, It's been a long time

I had to look, I couldn't even remember what the last thing I had posted was. Well, it's Saturday night am I am exhausted. I'm currently in charge of my neighbors dogs, and I let them out a little while ago and am waiting to go bring them in for the night. This is crazy to me, but my neighbor called me 5 hours after they left to ask how the dogs were doing. I didn't have a great answer, I had let them out once and that was it, but really since I am not an animal lover at all, this just blows my mind.

Vickie's Half Marathon

When: August 12, 2007

Start Time: 5:50 am

Course: Mostly Flat winding through The Twin Citites

Course Refreshements: Provided by Twin Cities Park District(s)

Course Entertainment: iPod (On The Go 3 Playlist)

After Party: 6 Hours of House Painting

Official Time: 2:24:30

It's All Mine

They can't take my college education away from me, because I have finally paid off all those student loans!! After 9 long years, a day to celebrate!!

Christmas in July?

I'm thinking about not exchanging Christmas gifts with anyone this year except for family. Any thoughts/takers?

Garden Update

My Mom's been asking how the garden she helped with was doing, so here's a picture to see what's growing.

I saw these in my neighbors garage...

and I secretly hoped they would invite me over to play. (okay in all honesty, theirs has the Cubs logo on them). So today, I'm inside reading a book and I hear this bang, bang and I think to myself, I bet they are playing the "bags" game. Well, I needed to water my garden anyway, so out I went and sure enough they were out playing. And being the nice people they are... I was over playing in no time. Another friend of theirs came over and my team won 2 of the 3 games (I don't think I helped that much, but I get credit for the win none the less). So I didn't get ahead in my summer school planning, but that will still be there tomorrow.

Summer Update

Schools Out: I've been enjoying my first week of no school, but I did get the call yesterday that I'll be teaching summer school (sorry Krista, no Nebraska for me). I'm actually looking forward to it, well, the pay check and a little bit of a schedule. I'm done by 10:15 every morning, so it only takes part of my day.

Nature Watching: I love listening to the cicadas. I've been driving with my windows down and the radio off in certain areas just so I can listen to their singing. I also saw a strange sight the other day. A opossum (or maybe a raccoon) was climbing up a tree and there was a deer standing next to the tree just watching him. It was a strange sight in the middle of the Chicago suburbs at 5:30 in the afternoon.

Activities: On Monday I start tennis lessons. Looking forward to meeting some new people and actually learning some basics of the game. I'm also considering running in a half marathon in August. I've started running a little again, so if I commit I'm ready to go. I had a nice run this morning minus freaking out a few times when the aforementioned cicadas landed on me.

White Sox: What can I say. I'd just like to see a winner. We are going tonight, the promotion is mullet night with fireworks. Should at least provide some kind of excitement.

Great Gift

As far as I knew, Saturday's Sox game was like all the others (except for the possibility of rain). Turns out, my mom and Rich had a suprise in the works for me. Things didn't go exactly as planned, but I did end up with an amazing autographed baseball.

In case you are unfamilar with the White Sox, it's Mark Buehrle. I'm told I almost got to meet Mark, but truthfully, I'm kind of glad I didn't. I would have felt so silly. But it was very thoughtful and a great gift.

European Beer Man talked to us too. He said "Girls, do you want a beer?"

Kristin commenented on my last post that I should start a fire in the grill. I did that last night. I let it burn on high for about 35 minutes. I turned the grill off about 8:45. Here's what it looked like this morning.

In other news, I got new hair yesterday. Here's a quick pic).

The Bird is Back

The nest is in the re-building stages.

I think the bird is really mad at me, because it keeps perching in my flower pot and when it flies away, pulls the flowers out.

Any ideas on how to find him a new home away from mine?

Happy Mother's Day

My mom came down for the weekend, to help me start a garden and to celebrate mother's day. As a gift giver, I want people to really like what I give them, so I was a little nervous about my mother's day gift, but for no reason, because my mom loved it and had a lot of fun using it. My mom was also a great help, while I was picking out plants for my garden. I'm not sure why I have this sudden interest in growing my own vegetables. In fact, I really prefer thinking that all of my meat comes from the store and not some farm, but anyway, in a few months hopefully I'll have some great produce to show for all of the digging I did this weekend. Here's what it looks like as of today. I'll provide updates as it flourishes. If nothing else, I'm pretty sure that the marigolds will make it.


On another note, when I was much younger, we had a raccoon that made its home in our attic. Apparently there was a hole in the roof and it got in. It never really bothered me until someone came to fix the roof and didn't bother to make sure the raccoon (and her babies) had made it out. So once the raccoon figured out that is was trapped, it went CRAZY and scared me half to death. I blame this experience on my fear that rodents will appear in all places. I don't like crawl spaces, attics, barns or even old basements, because I never know what might be lurking around. So hopefully this gives you some understanding of why this

creeps me out so much. Last year, some birds tried to make a nest in the grill also, but not to this magnitude. I really had just looked in the grill maybe two weeks ago and it looked great, now I have this, complete with an egg. Even though I've cleaned it mostly out, I'm going to have a hard time using the grill. Can anyone say charcoal?

Field Trip

I chaperoned a field trip to the Shedd Aquarium this week. I've been wanting to visit places like this for a while, so it was nice to get the chance to go (for free even). This was the dolphin show, although truth be told, they did lots of explaining how they train the dolphins and not that much of showing us what the dolphins can do. The view out the windows of the lake was breathtaking and made it worthwhile.
The penguins were so cute. I wish I could have watched them a little longer.
One of the things that struck me the most, was the amazing variety of fish and creatures of the sea.

Let's Go Fly a Kite

It was very out of charcater for me, but I let my 2:00 fly kites yesterday afternoon. They have been asking every since we studies quadrilaterals in the winter, so in combination of a student teacher leaving and good weather it seemed like I might as well give it a chance. Amazingly we had the perfect day, nice temperatures and the right amount of wind. I haven't flown a kite in honestly I don't know how long. Have I ever even flown a kite? Well, it turned out to be a great time. The kids had fun, I had fun, and even got to fly a kite.

Last Weekend

Just thought I'd share this picture from last weekend. Krista and I went up and hung out with Babs to celebrate our birthdays. We did some shopping, got our nails done and then went out for dinner. It was a great way to celebrate turning one year older.

Pictures

Well, I kept trying. Here's us at our first game of the year. Hopefully we never have to dress this warm at a baseball game again. Oh Wait, if we had to dress warm in October, I'd be okay with that!

Take Me Out To The Ballgame.

Hey White Sox Fans (and everyone else). Went to my first game of the season. Let's just say it was more like football weather than baseball weather. They said in the first inning the windchill was 9 degrees, lucky for us, we were an inning late and the windchill rose to like 15 degrees.

Got to see lots of my favorite White Sox game stuff. If I'm going to be honest, I'm 1 for 2 in the scoreboard games, but ask anyone and they'll tell you that the baseball was under hat number 1 at the end, even though they showed it under # 3, so I like to say that I'm 2 for 2 (Go Cheese Pizza!). Some of last year's most memorable vendors are back with us this year, such as Skeleton Guy and European Beer Man. And to top of the White Sox winner, the fans were cheering down the exit ramps. Who could want more?

Pictures are on their way!! Did I mention the snow that started falling in the 8th?

I got to spend some time in T-ville this weekend. I wish I could describe what it's like to go back. I know it won't last long, but I really cannot go anywhere and not run into someone I know. It's not that I'm super popular, it's just seven years of teaching 120 plus kids who are getting married and having babies.

Anyway, I saw Kelsey perform in My Fair Lady. I wish I could say I loved it, but it was really long (3 and half hours to be exact). Kelsey was great, I can't wait to see her in a more professional setting. Also, had a great time visiting with Joe and Sarah, Dave and Cathy, and totally in the wrong place, but Doug and Sheila also. Here's a few pics.

Spring Fever

It's official for me. I took my winter coat to the cleaners!!

Wish You Were Here!

It's Monday morning here, and I'm getting ready for my second full day in the great city of Dubai. Yesterday, we did some shopping in the bigget mall outside of North America, then we tried to find the track. Sorry all you race fans, but looks like I missed the races by one day and the horses won't be back until later this month. The track looked cool from the outside though. In our quest to find the horse track, we also found the camel racetrack, so we got to see some camels cross the road in front of our car. After spending some time in a traffic jam (only an hour or so) we headed to Wadi City where they were showing movies under the stars. They had a big screen set up and hundreds of huge pillows on the top of the roof. The movies of the night were Flashdance and Dirty Dancing. We only stayed to see the first movie, Flashdance, but it was a fun experience. I'm still fighting some jet lag as I've woken up both nights I've been here around 3 in the morning and can't fall back asleep forever. Other than that, everything is great.

We are off to the beach today, it's ladies day. Can't wait to put my feet in the Persian Gulf.

New Toy

So I bought a new camera today, and what I should be doing is writing a paper about these books, instead of taking pictures of them with the new camera.

And The Winner Is...

Just a few pics from last night's oscar party.

It's That Time of Year Again...

McDonald's has Shamrock Shakes. This could be bad for my hope of taking off a few pounds before vacation.

Do you remember the song by Joan Osbourne, "What if God was one of us" or Chicago "Hard to Say?" These two songs were used in a weightlifting class today. I thought it a little strange.

I am really uncomfortable with how well I know my driveway. My back can't handle much more shoveling of snow.

Can you say 5 day weekend?

I just got news that school is cancelled for tomorrow again! This is great news for me, since I can't get out of my driveway. I'm sure the snow plows will get here soon enough. This just adds to my nice weekend. Let me give you some highlights.

Mom came and visited on Saturday. It was nice to talk to her face to face.

I got almost all of my school work done on Sunday, so that I could just relax on Monday.

Monday, I got lots done, my ISU class got cancelled, I did some shopping, and I got to enjoy a nice dinner with Krista and Hannah.

Today, I did my taxes, wrote a letter of recomendation that needed to be done and had dinner with my next door neighbors after shoveling lots of snow.

I'm hoping that by the afternoon tomorrow, I can head to tan and the Y. Tomorrow will be the perfect time to send those e-mails I've been wanting to write, so if you've been waiting for a repy from me, tomorrow might just be the day.

Just Some Ramblings

* My neighbor came over and helped shovel my driveway. Quite a blessing, it cut the time down in half and my feet were freezing.

* Two days in a row this week, a major intersection has had a light that would never change to green (the way I was going of course). This morning, I called the police to make sure they knew.

* I'm loving free download Tuesdays on i-tunes. I never know the artist, but I figure, I'm getting stuff for free.

* I'm really not liking the class I'm taking right now. So far we have watched two sets of videos that were made while I was still in High School. I'm pretty sure this does not constitue a CURRENT issue or trend in mathematics

* I really want to start tanning, but I haven't got the gumption to actually go just yet. It sounds like a lot of work, especially in the beginning when you only get to go for 5 or 6 min.

* I'm hoping that the weather gets nicer and mom can come visit this weekend.

* I thought I was going to complain a lot more on this, suprised myself.

Super Bowl (I don't know the number)

As I'm heading over to the Johnson's to watch the game, I have a few memories of watching the super bowl in 1985. Here they are...

1) The super bowl shuffle
2) Going to Grandma's to watch it on the big screen
3) Wearing my P.E. shirt. (Our mascot was the Patriots)

Don't know that I'm cheering for the Bears anymore this time, but I do hope they win.

My Time With Hannah

I've had the pleasure of watching Hannah twice this week, unfortunatly she doesn't quite see it that way. Both times, I barely get in the door and she starts crying. Today she was asking me to go back outside. Don't worry, it always has a happy ending. We play a little, sing a little, eat some cookies and all is well.

Today, she wanted to watch the "Kid Video" It's a video of kids songs that brought me way back to my childhood. It was kind of fun to sing "I may never shoot the artillary...but I'm in the Lord's army" with actions and all. It cracked me up to think of how many times I would have sang these 17 songs (although I only knew 16 of them), and how quickly the words came back. If you grew up in Sunday School, I recommend this video just for fun. See Krista if you need to borrow it, she may be able to convice Hannah to give it up for a day.

Since I took down my Christmas decorations today, I thought I'd share a few pictures from the last few weeks.


This is one of those houses that you just have to drive by, stop and look at. I think the tree has so many lights, it's almost like being at Rockefeller Center.
Here's a family picture from Christmas morning. I like that you can see Rich's favorite accessory.

I met this "celebrity" at a visitation. I analyzed everything I said to him afterwards. I can't imagine what I'd be like if I met an A lister.