20 Year High School Reunion

It's been 20 years since I graduated from Elk Grove High School. It's hard to believe. I still keep in touch with Celine (on the left) and Maureen (on the right). These girls were two of my best friends in high school.

The reunion was interesting. A lot of people looked exactly the same and I didn't even recognize some other people. It was fun to catch up and see what people are doing these days. I saw a few old boyfriends and lots of girls from the Pom Pom squad. It was great to see everyone. See you at the 30 year!

Happy Birthday to my sister and me!

I flew to Chicago this year to celebrate my birthday. Eileen turned 39 again on the 4th and my birthday was the 5th. We are posing here in matching sweaters that my dad got us. We had such a fun time. We walked around the arboretum near her house. We went out for a really nice lunch. We had a birthday cake from Jarosch bakery. They make the best cake! I got Eileen some fun "over the hill" gag gifts. She had a great sense of humor about the whole thing. They have a ping pong table now. I was able to beat David a few times. But that will probably be my last victory. David is getting really good! The visit was too short. Next time I'll bring Jenelle and we'll stay a while.

What am I teaching my child?

Several kids in the neighborhood enjoy Ding Dong Ditching our house. It happened twice just this afternoon. Jenelle wanted to play the game with me. So I crammed myself inside her little playhouse. She would knock on the door and run away. I pretended to be the irate neighbor. She couldn't stop laughing.

After a few rounds of this game, I thought I better explain how it's fun to pretend to Ding Dong Ditch, but we shouldn't bother our neighbors. She said she couldn't wait till she was older and she could play the game. I'm torn. Playing Ding Dong Ditch is something every kid has done. It's a total kid thing. But I should be teaching Jenelle good morals; not encouraging rowdy behavior.

Anyway, we're having a good time playing it at home. Look out neighbors!

The Corn Maze

Every year our church has an evening at the Chatfield Corn Maze. For $5.00 you get a meal and the corn maze. This year the maze was in the shape of a globe. Last year the shape was a witch. I was talking with another mom and I mentioned that the globe wasn't very Halloweenish. Her response was, "the world today is a very scary place." She has a point.


We met Chris and Zack there. The kids had a great time running through the maze. It took 30 minutes to find our way out. After 10 minutes of walking, I completely lost my sense of direction. Good thing Curt was there to lead us out.

I've come a long way. I'm six!

Jenelle's birthday was on Saturday. She is 6 years old. I've added a picture from Jenelle's birth. It's hard to believe she was ever that tiny.


When Jenelle turned 5, we discussed all the big girl things she would do this past year. She would:
1. Lose her first tooth -- she lost two.
2. She would put her face in the water at the pool -- she is becoming a really good swimmer.
3. She would start Kindergarten -- she loves it.

We are setting some big girl goals for age 6:
1. Ride her bike without training wheels.
2. Sleep through the night without a pull-up.
3. Swim without floaties.

We'll add to the list as we think of things.

Jenelle had a TinkerBell party this year. We invited her Kindergarten class. We had about 10 kids. The weather was perfect so we had the party across the street at the park. We played musical chairs, hot potato (with a wand) and fairy tag. The kids liked fairy tag the best. One person with a wand (or a sword) would run around and tag all the kids. If you got tagged you had to freeze and wait for a fairy to come sprinkle you with pixie dust to unfreeze you. To make the dust, I dyed salt and added glitter to make it sparkle. The kids loved running around pretending to be fairies with the dust. Jenelle got a lot of great gifts this year. I don't know where I'm going to put them all. I feel a trip to Goodwill coming. :)



Last year we had a special Cinderella cake. I wanted a cool cake this year, too. We couldn't think of what to make. I had been reading Jenelle the book, "The Trouble With Tink" and that is where we got our cake idea. TinkerBell is a pots and pans fairy that lives in a tree. We thought it would be fun to make the tree as part of our cake. Curt did all the construction work. He built the tree, did the paper mache and then spray painted in brown. The cake was a big hit with all the kids at the party.

Meet my friend Mr. Bucket

Jenelle was throwing up on Thursday. Poor kiddo. She was up a few times during the night. She woke up in the morning and said, "My room smells like puke."

I currently have a cold, so I can't smell anything. Good timing I guess. It made it a lot easier to do the clean up. Jenelle missed school on Friday. She hung out with Mr. Bucket.

She was fine by late morning. I had a bunch of birthday errands to do that day and I dragged her and Mr. Bucket around with me. We all needed a nap that day.

I miss the lazy days of summer.

The school year has started and we are very busy. I miss the lazy days of summer when we could lounge in our pajamas until at least 9:30. I wake Jenelle up every morning at 7am. She always asks why I'm getting her up so early. School! School! School! I manage to feed her a decent breakfast and get her hair semi-brushed and then we are out the door.

Jenelle is enjoying school. I picked her up from school one day and she was all excited. "Mom I got to be the wake up person and the line leader!", she said. She is making lots of new friends. She is bringing home lots of papers. Jenelle's school requires 60 hours of participation from the parents. I'm going to work in the coffee shop and I plan on volunteering in Jenelle's class a lot.

Awana has also started. Jenelle is a Spark this year. I'm also a Spark leader, just not Jenelle's Spark leader. That is on Tuesday nights.

Jenelle is in swim lessons, too. I can't wait for those to be over. In fact we are skipping lessons today. We need a break! Jenelle is becoming quite the swimmer. She is putting her face in the water without goggles even. She is well on her way. She won't need the arm floaties much longer.