Roadtrip Games

I went to the beach and I took…..

a- apple

b- beach towel

c- cookies

d- my dog dino (this is where tori informed me the fun part was that you could “take” anything)

e- elephant

f- food

g- galoshes

h- hippo (hope we have a big car)

i- ice cube tray

j- jaguar

k- a kite

l- lemons

m- a mop

n- a nutritious snack

o- an opal (tori had no idea what this was)

p- platypus (think we’ve got enough food and animals?)

q- queen

r- my running shoes

s- sand toys (gotta have something for the beach right?)

t- a turkey (to feed the jaguar)

u- an umbrella

v- a very red ball

w- a wax candle

x- a xylophone (it was either that or an x-ray bird)

y- a yeti

z- zinfandel

so this is the game where you have to repeat everything as you go along. we had a good time with it. and it was nice to kill some time as the 5.5 hour drive took over an hour longer than it should’ve due to the highway being shut down for construction. oy.

the best part of the game was the end. tori said “zinfandel” and i just laughed that it was her idea. until she informed me that she thought that was a flower (got her zinnias and zinfandel mixed up) but i thought it was a GREAT thing to take to the beach so we left it as is.

we have totally enjoyed our girls weekend. photos and more details to follow.

Sick

it totally puts a crimp in your style doesn’t it? tori was tired yesterday and i figured that the lay around recovery day would be perfect and she’d be good to go today. but no such luck. she started to tank again late yesterday afternoon and was up several times during the night because she was hot, she was cold, she thought she was going to be sick (she wasn’t), she wanted cough medicine, she needed to be propped up, she had a scary dream, etc. so needless to say, we are back on the couch again today.

so instead of going to zo’s classroom to read baggie books or working the book fair at their school over lunch, i’m home with tori doing more laundry in the hopes of ridding her bedroom of germs and catching up on my loose ends.

of course i’ve thought of a few more since i posted:

buy the library book that we lost – we lose one every summer thanks to zoe

plan the october picture lady presentation that i’m finally doing this thursday.

work on a belated anniversary gift for my parents (had a great idea, no follow thru)

track down my sister’s rockin’ anniversary gift that i ordered 3 weeks early and it still got lost in the mail. need to get in touch with amazon.

off to work on my knots and all things healthy. i see chicken noodle soup in tori’s future….

Undefeated! Sold! Little Orphan Tori!

Whew.

It’s been a very emotionally exhausting (but good) weekend.

I think i need a weekend to recover from the weekend.

So, up first was connor’s championship football game v. kaneland on saturday morning. it was a glorious day for football. crisp fall day with sunshine and a light breeze. oh, and mud. because the sunshine was new and the fields had not had time to dry out. boy howdy was there mud. i took over 180 photos at this game. figured it was my last shot to do so and who knows if they will ever be undefeated again ya know? so here’s a quick run down sans editing…there’s no time to get those all edited right now.

i thought it was a bit chilly for “kick butt” short shorts but they were loud cheerleaders!

the first half was NOT bulldog football. we couldn’t get anything going on the offense and if it weren’t for TWO goal line stands…kaneland would have won this battle. connor’s easy to spot at this game…he wore red socks.

i call this “cleats in mud…a still life”

i think this was a reverse play of some sort. and yes, i messed with camera settings and accidentally bumped camera settings due to the stress of the game so not all of these are clear shots. but it’s a nice block by connor…

at halftime it was 6-0 kaneland. but the bulldogs were back in the 3rd marching down the field and tying the score. i moved into the end zone for a few shots. he really wasn’t the only one on the field, but he’s on the left side (weak) and there wasn’t always someone lined up directly in front of him. typically they were to his left.

a better overall shot as we were driving for yet another score.

we almost didn’t pull this victory out. they were driving with less than 2 minutes to go and had a TD pass called back because the QB was over the line of scrimmage and the last play of the game was a pass that was batted down on the goal line.

bad pieced together team photo because i don’t have a wide angle lens and there were 50 people taking pictures of this crew. connor is right above the word “crew” in 2nd row (and he’s crouching down so the other guys can be seen…he’s not that short)

whew…totally blew out this photo but that is the school plaque.

57 & 58

steve & connor

offensive left guard & offensive left tackle

they are also in scouts & wrestling together (and he’s going on philmont with chris and connor too)

holy cow does he need a haircut!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

ok, at the game, we got a phone call from a prospective buyer of our truck who had been out to see it the day before. he called as soon as i got home (and chris walked out the door to pick up connor from the bus…WITHOUT his phone) and i made the call that we’d make the deal. it was a bit less than what i wanted and a bit more than chris’ bottom line so i guess that’s ok. but then i was filled with anxiety about the cashier’s check. by the time they got here, all banks were closed but we copied everything, took down his driver’s license and they were such a nice family i think it’ll be ok. oh, and we got half the money in cash! crazy. never seen that much cash before.

so we had to say goodbye to our most favorite vehicle ever….

chris is actually in mourning. he’s been bummed since it was driven out of our garage.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

today was a very early morning for tori and i as she had to play handbells at the 8am service at church.  it was her debut in the bell choir and she did a great job. she said she missed notes at the 8 o’clock but by the 9 o’clock she was hitting a lot more notes.

at church we learned that tori’s friend lauren (7th grade) had gotten a part in the play. so tori rushed home to the answering machine to see if she had gotten a call. alas, no.

meanwhile, helen came over and she and tori got ready to attend the CropWalk which is an annual walk around the river to help raise money to feed hungry people. we were just about to walk out the door when the phone rang…..it was the director of annie jr! she asked tori if she would like to be an orphan and tori quickly accepted. so i’m not sure how much walking tori did at the CropWalk. I think she was floating most of the way. we will have a mandatory meeting a week from monday where we should learn more about what is going to happen and then eventually tori will be assigned a particular orphan (at this point she just is “one of them”) and we’ll then know if she will have any speaking lines/solos or if she will be an ensemble orphan. heh. is that an oxymoron? ensemble orphan? a group of onlies? yeah, i’m tired.

like i said….emotionally exhausting weekend….but all good.

Tonight

The bulldogs are officially headed to the championship game on saturday as they beat wredling 29-6. connor had a really good game. it’s hard to stand out when you are on the offensive line but he made some great blocks for a quarterback keeper for a touchdown as well as for a 2 point conversion and a nice running play.

it was nice to be up in bleachers for a change but that put me farther from the field as well. it was freezing at the game. i seemed to have gotten a lot of blurry pics. i’ll have one more chance to get some decent shots on saturday when they play for the championship. although it won’t be any warmer. better figure out my settings by then…..

tori has officially survived her first audition for community theater. there are no photos as parents are not even allowed in the theater (we are stuck waiting outside in the hallway). i think i was more nervous than she was. they started by taking the first 10 kids in to learn a quick dance routine and then they performed it as a group. i’m glad they did that first. i think that helped tori’s nerves. then they took them upstairs where they sang for the director and 3 others. she was supposed to sing the 2nd verse and refrain (you only get 16 measures) but started with the first verse. so she stopped and started again and then made it through.

they plan to cast 50-60 kids for this show. hopefully she gets a part as i think this would be a great experience but the time commitment is huge. she had a really good attitude about it. i don’t think she will be devastated if she doesn’t make it but i also think she feels pretty good about making it.

zo had soccer practice and managed to not freeze. and that we will consider a success as well.

Today

Tori will win the position of student council secretary (she is the only one running)

Tori will attend her first “real” audition at Rising Star Theatre. She hopes to be in this play:

Tori performed annie jr. with her school last spring. she was one of the orphans (july) and loved it. so she thought it would be a good play to audition for in community theater. but she can’t audition a musical piece from it so we had to find another one. she will be singing “colors of the wind” from Pocahontas. wish her luck!!!

Connor will play in his first playoff game this season. as the first seed, they had a bye week last week. we are playing wredling who we beat 44-6 or something like that…..but i get bleachers which means i can take photos from a different angle…in the rain.

Zoe is attending an outdoor field trip to fermilab to learn more about insects….in the rain.

Zoe is supposed to have soccer practice but i’m secretly hoping it gets canceled (due to rain) as it is at the same time as the audition and the football game.

Madison Photowalk

a couple weekends back, the boys were camping at the boy scout illinois jamboree with 1500 other scouts so the girls and i decided to take a road trip to madison, wi. my girlfriend katrina had flown in from california to watch her little brother compete in the ironman. the race was on sunday so we went up on saturday to go out to lunch with them and then do a photo walk with katrina (complete with ice cream of course!) prior to the big event.

katrina is an amazing photographer and she even teaches classes at Get It Scrapped where photographic neophytes like me can learn new tricks. i must admit, i was hoping she’d photograph the girls and then send me the pics…but she did one better. she made this photo collage page for me instead. and i love it.

Tori ran into her 5th grade teacher up there as well. Her husband was competing in his 4th ironman. so amazing!

Justin did a great job and finished 400th out of over 2100. it was very fun to hang out with him before the race and then see some of katrina’s photos. what an amazing accomplishment.

all in all, a great road trip.

She’s Going to Be an Actor

she already likes being on stage. she can sing  and it seems to come naturally to her. and of course, she keeps faking me out when she’s not actually sick…..oy.

supplies can be found at designerdigitals.

Ironing

tuesday night before school, i told tori that she needed to iron her shorts for the first day. to which i got the standard whine of "but i don't know howwwwww to iiirrrrrrronnnnnnnnnnn."

so i said, that's no problem, i'll show you.

the next thing i know she's ironing cloth napkins for dinner.

tonight she decided to iron her outfit again. the WHOLE outfit.

so while i'm working on my computer this evening, i hear this,

"hey connor, i ironed my underwear so they won't get in a wad!"

niiiiiice. i think we've created a monster.

First Day of School by the Numbers

6:15am – connor’s alarm
6:30am – my alarm
7:00am – my shower
7:15am – wake tori for a shower (wonder how long she’ll keep that up?)
7:20am – embarass 13 year old with first day of school pics in the rain

{for the record i got cool mom points for buying this shirt}
7:23am – connor leaves on the bus
7:45am – wake up the soon-to-be first grader
8:00am – cajole, beg, plead, bribe zoe to eat breakfast (unsuccessful)
8:05am – make zo’s lunch and hope that she eats more than 2 bites of it
8:15am – dry and curl tori’s hair (now i KNOW she won’t keep this up!)

8:25am – take pics of the girls in the rain

8:30am – find 2 non-broken umbrellas and head out to school so we can find a place to park as it’s raining (hasn’t rained on the first day of school in at least 11 years i heard someone say)
8:45am – grab a quick hug from each girl and a few more photos as they head into school.

{notice that she switched to rain boots for the walk…could she be any cuter??}

{tori is quick to tell me she hates photo shoots…..riiiight.}

9:45am – arrive home after the PTO coffee (having been talked into being a head room parent for 5th grade…..oy) and revel in the quiet
12:00pm – get a call from the middle school nurse that the football player’s back tightened up again and he needs aleve
12:30pm – arrive at the school and wait for said player to come to the office so i can “watch him swallow” the aleve (school policy)
12:47pm – get back home and once again revel in the quiet

2:27pm – start work on this blog post and silently thank nana and papa again for the outfits from florida. they were perfect back to school clothes both for pictures and because there’s still no a/c in the school….sigh.

3:07pm – leave to get a parking spot near the school (it is still raining) and remember that i promised to make a “special treat” for the afternoon treat and i um forgot (must have been all that reveling) so i guess we’ll hit panera for cookies after school instead!

3:43pm – pick up 3 girls, drop one off at her house and then get more cool mom points for the trip to panera.

4:30pm – get back from dropping zo off at her best friend’s house and letting tori ride to the park with her friends…revel in more quiet??

Who would’ve thought that I’d turn 40 and the 10 year old would need reading glasses?

tori has been complaining about not being able to see and getting headaches so we finally headed to the eye doctor today to see if there was a problem. she was really excited (and was adamant about wanting green glasses) before we got there so i wasn’t sure if she really needed them or not.

turns out, her distance vision is fine but she’s over-focusing when she reads. sounds like a common problem with kids. their eyes don’t relax well and it can cause headaches. so the doctor suggested reading glasses from the drugstore. she is to wear them for reading, computer, drawing, writing…basically anything close up. it should help her eyes not have to focus so hard and therefore relax when she looks back up for distance stuff.

i’m happy because this is a much cheaper alternative and i’m glad her eyesight isn’t going yet. she’s happy because she gets 2 pair (one for school and one for home). we weren’t able to find green ones at wal-mart today so we still have to go on a hunt. it’s also hard to find glasses that aren’t too big for her 10 year old head.

we finally settled on these and although i still think they are a little big…she’s totally digging them.

wonder if it’ll get her to read more??