Summer

Well the summer has definitely came up on us quickly and is seeming to go by just as fast. The boys have both been very busy with their summer golf tournaments with the central illinois junior golf tour - http://www.cijgt.com/they had five tournaments in june and have had a little bit of a break in july - Their summer has pretty much involved getting up in the morning, doing their daily chores, riding their bikes to the country club, playing 9 holes, eat lunch there and them swim for a couple of hours- rough life huh! Oh to be a kid again - I'm sure they have no idea how good they have it- though I try to remind them frequently. Brady is getting ready to leave tomorrow for his golf camp at the UofI in champaign. The boys have both faired well, Alex had a rough start but not to our surprise as the tournament level does create an amount of nervousness, he has definitely improved from his first tournament to the last one he has played. Alex actually placed first in the third tournament he played in and was interviewed by the local paper (it was in Mattoon) so he was excited. Brady has been pretty consistent usually finishing second or third., but this is usually out of 12 - 15 players in his age group. Work at Hershey has been good, I have been able to arrange my work days around the golf tournaments. Chad had some time to enjoy some of the summer early on , but is now again starting a three week turnaround at the refinery , but this will be the last one for the year. He is looking forward to the fall as he missed out on the hunting he usually does at that time of year and will get to this year. We went to Nashville over mothers day as a get away weekend for me and we had a nice time. I got to go to the Cheesecake factory for dinner - the boys had never been there and the only time I had was when visited Melanie in San Antonio. Between the golf tournaments and work, I have not taken any time to scrapbook and would really like to catch up- still have all the pics from our Christmas vacation.

Earthquake!!

Once again time has went by quickly and I have managed to neglect my blog. I'm sure I have plenty of things I should cover since my most recent entry, but only 2 things really come to mind -Mannie the office cat and the 4:37 am earthquake that we experienced today. I was basically awake lying in bed this morning when it happened and I still can't believe it. It took me a few seconds of the rumbling and shaking to realize what was going on. Chad was asleep but quickly sat up in bed and immediately worried about the many cranes he has at the refinery. When it stopped - they say it was about 10 secs but it felt alot longer to me, I said "was that an earthquake?" Chad then said -maybe there was an explosion at the refinery. I went to the front door window and saw that the sky above the refinery looked normal. Brady then got out of bed a little freaked out, he checked on Alex and he was sleeping away. I was worried that he would be upset that he missed it, but he wasn't and then he (along with the rest of us) got to experience an after shock around 10 something this morning. Overall, I'm thrilled that I got to experience an earthquake, but quite honestly it scared me.

Now on to Mannie (named after a crane brand-Manitowoc). We adopted a cat from the humaine society for Chad's office trailer as they were having trouble with mice and also thought it would be nice to have an office pet. We got her last Saturday - after a 2 week waiting process - she had to be spayed before we could have her. She is the sweetest cat, unfortunately she has been in the shelter since Sept. and was intimidated by her new surroundings. Over the past week this has gotten a little better, but now she has developed an upper resp infection and a GI virus - this we learned after a visit to the vet. So we are giving her antibiotics twice a day and I had to also force some water and food with a dropper as she's not eating much. I'm worried about her - she has been such a positive energy in the office - Chad says all the different guys that come in and out of the office have all been asking about her and giving her attention, so I hope she gets better fast.

The picture above is of the boys in the famous FAO Swartz toy store in NY,NY.

Hello Strangers!

So I go to check out my dear friend Melanie's blog and of course she has just about an every day entry and I feel completely guilty that I can't keep up with my blog. I guess I just lost motivation to keep it going as it seemed that my mother and melanie were my only visitors. But now that I have been at my great new job at Hershey, I am away from all the wonderful ladies that I worked with in the labor room/OB, so I thought I might give it another try and maybe they would also visit and I could keep in touch with them through my blog. So, I am quickly going to say hello to anyone reading this and say that my WH is finishing up another long turn around at the refinery and school for the boys is actually tamed down as neither one of them has a school sport right now. Needless to say thought that they are happy to have nice weather starting so they can get back on the golf course. Brady went out today after we got back from mom and dad's and he played well - 38 for 9 holes. He already has plans to play after school tomorrow. I have so many pics to post so I think I am going to start with our New York pics and share them one by one. This pic is at the Rockefeller Center/Plaza Christmas tree - Christmas in New York was so wonderful and we all loved it so much that I think it will be hard not to go back next December. We have also talked about going back during the summer. We went to Rockefeller plaza twice - the first day we were there and again on Christmas day when we stood in line freezing for 2 hours so the boys could ice skate by the big tree - it was worth it - they had a great time and I know they will remember it forever!

Catch up!!

Guilty as charged, I have completely neglected my blog and appologize to my two readers - Melanie and mom. Summer has been busy and of course we are out of the house so much that I haven't made time to sit down at the computer for more than a quick minute or two. So now that I'm finally here I will try to sum up the past 2 months, though I know I will forget something.

School was out around May 18th with SS#1 out first two days before his brother as the eighth graders get out earlier than the others. SS#1 had a Graduation or 8th grade appreciation night that involved him getting dressed up in a shirt and tie that he picked out himself - see pic. I thought he looked handsome. Since graduation he has kept busy with golf - playing every chance he can at the country club along with private lessons 2 nights a week and his tournaments on the central illinois junior golf tour (http://www.cijgt.com/) have started. He has so far played in three tourneys placing 2nd and then 3rd twice. He is improving his game each time and we are encouraging him that that is what matters the most, not winning. I would of course like to see him win once for his self esteem though. SS #1 also went to the Fighting Illini Basketball camp at the U 0f I last week for 4 days/3nights. He says he had a good time but is thinking of going to a golf camp next year.

SS#1's birthday is coming up late in July and he will be 14. His growing continues to amaze WH and I. We measured him at the beginning of May and he was 5'9 1/4". Then Sunday night - June 24th, they measured again as he "appeared" to have grown more but we truly thought our eyes were just deceiving us, but they weren't, he measured 5'10 1/2"!!!!!! They funny thing is he isn't getting any bigger around the waist, so he definitely is a bean pole!

Now for SS #2. His summer hasn't been as busy, though he has had 3 baseball games a week since the first of June. He has had some great hits and fielding plays but no home run yet and that seems to be his personal goal. His team has only lost 2 times so they and another team are facing off for the Championship title next week. It should be that last game, but our baseball league is starting another baseball league and of course SS#2 wants to play. He has also had some golf lessons and played a few times, but doesn't have the "bug" to play alot like his brother. We have been swimming as much as the weather and our schedules allow. His birthday is Monday and of course he is looking forward to that. He has chosen not to have a party with friends but to take a friend to Holiday World like his brother is going to do. We haven't set a date for that yet, but I think we will try to go in a few weeks.

WH has been busy lately digging a pond at our land in the country. It has been time consuming, but is coming along well and he thinks he will be done this weekend. I've taken some pics but will have to post later.

*shout out to my dear and wonderful mother - Happy Birthday!! Love you!

Pics with this post are from : graduation and a pic of me and the boys that I had enlarged for WH on father's day - he has it in his office.

time flies

Well time is once again zooming by. Today ss#2 had his last "track meet" at LGS which is a spring event they have every year. He did well overall with 3 firsts and 2 seconds. Running fast seems to be a strong point of his athletic abilities. Unfortunately that is probably the only advantage he has over his brother as he is just not as coordinated. But SS#2 has an easier time in school, so I guess they each have their own strong points that compliments the other.

SS#1 is counting down the days till school is out which as he just told me is only 8 - again, like I said, time is zooming by. And I'm sure that before I know it they will have their birthdays which are in July and half the summer will be over, then school again and I'll have a freshman in HS and one in Middle school - WOW! Only making the point of enjoying each day with them as much as possible!

Field Trip

Well the week has flown by again. Yesterday I chaparoned a field trip with SS#2's class to Springfield. We visited Lincoln's tomb, the new Lincoln Presidential Museum and then Lincoln's home. I had been there as an 8th grader but liked seeing it again and of course the Museum is new. Plus, I think I appreciated it more as an adult. SS#2 said he enjoyed the trip. I had been worried about the 3 hour ride on a school bus full of kids but thanks to my video ipod and Advil I survived. I will post pics later.

We had a quiet but somewhat busy weekend. It was bitterly cold so no outdoor activities. The house was shown on Saturday morning and we haven't heard anything so i am assuming they were not interested. WH was busy as the company he works for had to move to a new office building. Apparently where the office trailer sits now is in a "cloud zone" of some sort if there was a problem at the refinery, so they got a new office trailer - this one is bigger - put at the site of their shop (which they tore down) that is across the street from the refinery's office building. So anyway he spent most of Saturday getting things set up. SS#2 and I helped Sat night. During the day the boys and I moved the computer into their room and put a table in the den so WH could have some work space as he has had to do a lot of work at home lately and the computer desk we have is very small. The boys are excited to have the computer in their room.

Yesterday was pretty quiet. I see I have not mentioned that WH got a new truck. The car salesman that we have bought from since we have lived here called us about 2 weeks ago with a 2007 Dodge Ram that had actually been bought by someone else but they couldn't afford it so they had to bring it back, therefore it was about 12,000 off the original sticker price but practically brand new - only 2000 miles on it, so it was hard to pass up. We weren't exactly looking to buy a new truck but it just fell into our laps - its a pretty bright blue - WH favorite color - so it seemed too good of a deal. We still have the other truck as it is in good shape and we want to keep it for SS#1 as it will be just about 2 years and he will be driving. Our big issue now is were to keep it. With WH having a company truck to drive we have 4 vehicles at our house. I have tried to rent a storage space but there aren't any available. Obviously storage buildings would be a good investment if you have a place to build them.