Happy (Belated) Birthday Jeremy!

Okay, I'm not sure if it's the 23rd or the 24th or maybe even the 22nd..........but I KNOW that I have the January part right! So Happy Birthday to my "little" cousin Jeremy.

With Mom in 1988

In 1990 with "the graduate" and Travis

In 1979 with your new little yellow Easter duckie.

In 1977 with Trav
With Grandma H. maybe around 2000?
1990 with your goofy brothers..
1986 with Grandma and Nick- all dressed up!

Take care and stay safe over there........

The End of the Jellystone Years

Once upon a time......I took my kids camping every summer. Tent camping. Good old roughing it......well kinda. We went to Jellystone Park. Wisconsin has about 7 of these parks and we hit almost every one over the years. A great place for some fun family time. The activities are wonderful .....

Hayrides, playgrounds, pools with slides, lunch with Yogi Bear, arts and crafts, outdoor movie night, bike trails, boat rentals, scavenger hunts, arcade games, theme parties, all of Yogi Bear's friends... and.... Just ask my kids to sing the "Yogi" song to you!

These photos were from our last trip there in 2004. That year we upgraded to a cottage. (Everyone had had enough of sleeping on the ground and wandering down the road to the bathroom in the middle of the night). It was $12 a night for a tent campsite in previous years and I think about $30 for a cottage - so we were really living the good life here.

All of the Jellystone parks have bike trails. Nice scenic ride.
A walk down to the lake and some quality brother sister time...
Art and craft time. Every day there is some thing new.
Give me Mountain Dew and I'll agree to anything.
The cottage....complete with air conditioning. We sat on the front porch and played board games, had a picnic, and just enjoyed each other's company.
The evening campfire. Sit back relax, tell stories, laugh and just chill.

I also have many photos of the kids with Yogi himself, but those were taken on campouts with our friends, the Mortons,.....and that is another story.

Roller Coaster Ride

Here is my first attempt at a video.......

Go back to the post about my weekend away. Look at the winter photo of the kids' favorite roller coaster located in the Wisconsin Dells. Now- come back here and imagine that it is July......sit back ....relax......and take a ride!

FYI - Jake is behind the camera, Amanda is next to him (you'll hear her loud screaming throughout the video), Jocelyn is one seat back with Kendall (hiding) and Kyle is 2 seats back.

*If you are pregnant or have heart problems - you may not want to view this :)

Where does the Time Go?

My big brother's favorite saying......Where does the time go?

I can't believe that I haven't posted in over two weeks. I think that this is a record for me.

Life has just been so busy and crazy that I haven't had time to get down to the computer. I have also been snapping most of my photos with Amanda's little cheesy digital camera instead of my normal "fancy" camera. Unfortunately, I cannot download her photos for some reason. I had to go to Walgreens and burn a CD with all of the last two weeks in pictures so that I could open them on my computer.

And then, of course, there has been all this bitter cold weather that you are probably all tired of hearing me whine about...... and snow..... and more bitter cold weather..... and more snow...

Oh well...It's almost eleven...time to nestle in and rest up for more running tomorrow.

Thanks to those of you who "checked in" with me via e-mail to see where I've been.....

Quality Time

It is becoming so rare to have time alone with my two kids. Their schedules always seem to overlap or conflict and they are never home at the same time. Then when they are home...the house is usually filled with friends or they are just passing through with another destination on their agenda. When we do have a few minutes...it is just that ...a very brief time together.

I think that the big brother is going to sit on the little sister's head.
Okay, we spent ten minutes with you......Can we go now?
One photo together..okay...how's this choke hold look?
Yes, a nice pose so that you can both be released to go- wherever!

Mom's Weekend

For the first time in about 13 years - I had a weekend away. Two weeks ago, I traveled to the Wisconsin Dells with some friends. It was a great time .....

The Dells in Winter.

The hotel I stayed at is part of the amusement, water and go-kart park that my kids love to visit in the summer. Looks kinda sad all covered with snow.
The outside of the main entrance to the hotel ... it has an ancient Roman theme.
Judy, Tim and Ron in downtown Dells. Ron's wife Chris and I were both snapping photos for our scrapbooks. The others were very patiently waiting ...
Our breakfast run to Denny's in a blizzard.
So funny to see everything covered in snow....we always visit in summer.
I love the Dells in any season.
Train bridge over the Wisconsin river.

We enjoyed the scenery, restaurants, indoor waterpark, pools, and mostly the company. I met a lot of new people and stayed up late lounging with everyone in the hotel lobby. Most of the guys played cards and us ladies chatted. We also made the night manager turn the lobby big screen TV to HGTV.
On Saturday afternoon we had kind of an open house for the Packer game. Everyone gathered and roamed from room to room visiting and watching the game. At one point I counted 17 people in Judy and Tim's room - one of the main food-TV spots.

As much as I missed my kids, it was fun to get away.

More Basketball

What can I say?.......This is Amanda's life right now.

Basketball, school, friends... And making dopey faces everytime I pull out my camera.

Saturday the bus driver started up the bus at 6:30 a.m to try to get it warm by the time he picked up the girls at 7:45. It didn't get warm until long after they were at their Milwaukee destination- at almost 9 a.m. Another wonderful freezing cold day around here.
Amanda shooting a free throw at the Pewaukee game...Jocelyn behind her.

We took down the Pirates!

Actually, I am happy to report that the team won 2 more games this past week. They now have 3 victories!
Ya Hoo.

Childhood Dreams

Jacob has wanted to be a cop all of his life.....

It is a childhood dream that he never outgrew. Last Saturday, he had the opportunity to ride along with an officer from the Pewaukee Police Department to have some first hand practical experience of what this career is really like. He has decided on either Law Enforcement or Computer Game Design for his college major.

Posing for Mom who just HAD to take a picture. My son is very patient about my need to make every moment a Kodak one.
The really fun part was calling up my Mom and telling her that the police "had Jacob". I, of course, gave her enough time to panic and think the worst before telling her what was really going on....and that he was in the FRONT seat of the squad!

As they drove away..... the tears began to flow.

My little boy - almost 19 years old now - and moving on to live out his dreams.

Meltdown

This past week was soooooo cold. I don't mind cold, but when the wind chill dips down to double digits below zero - then I become a big baby. This is the cold that I can't stand.

It is so difficult to function in this kind of weather. And forget washing the car. My car was so full of salt and sand from the roads that it was white instead of black, but I couldn't wash it for fear that the doors and locks would freeze shut. Also, the house felt cold all week and we were all huddled under numerous layers of blankets at night. Basically, the whole week is a blur due to brain freeze.

Now, it is supposed to hit 50 tomorrow - begin Meltdown! We have a lot of snow piled up outside - so look out for flooding! It is also supposed to rain. RAIN! What is that??? It's January -in Wisconsin - not April. Crazy. At least I can clean up the sand off of the garage floor and do I dare wash the car?

Again...

Well, Amanda's team lost AGAIN today. I feel bad that they don't have the opportunity to play more teams that are a bit more compatable to their skill level. They are actually a "B" team playing in an "A" league. The problem is that the other schools in the area are not large enough to have both an A and a B team. So here we are....

The girls really seem to take it all in stride. They were in good spirits after the game.

Jocelyn and Amanda headed out to the mall. A little "retail therapy" heals all wounds. Amanda is on the left front end and Jocie is next to her.
A "real" fan in the stands today : ) That is someone other than her Mom and Dad - thanks Grampy for coming out to cheer Amanda on!

Vacation Fun

Christmas break is almost over.......

The kids have really enjoyed all of the snow that we have here. Both of them have been snowboarding a few times and Jake had the opportunity to go "up nort" to enjoy some snowmobiling. This was his first time driving a "sled". He loved it.

No photos of the snowmobile trip - or the snowboarding -but here are some of my famous "yesterday" photos.

Jake in about 8th grade - boarding with friends. That's Kyle on the far right.
This one was not posed. I just happened to catch them all with their eyes closed at the same time - what are the chances? It looks like they are pausing for a moment of prayer before going down the hill. Amanda (r) was probably in about 5th grade here.
My little athlete.


The first Christmas break spent at the ski hill. Jake at 11, Amanda at 8, and cousin Nick. The ski hill had a great deal during vacation that year. 4 lessons along with an all day lift ticket each time - all for $100. It was a great opportunity for the kids and their friends to learn to ski.

The skis Amanda is holding were about the length of a yard stick. She was so tiny!
Amanda tried snowboarding for one day, but then switched to skis. Skiing was much easier for an 8 year old to master. Now, seven years later, she is back on a snowboard.
Bub - age 11. It was extremely cold on this particular night. This was his first time on a snowboard. He has stuck with snowboarding all along and has yet to try skiing.

New Year's Day

Amanda and some friends went snowboarding today. This was her second try at riding a snowboard.

Our little ski hill - no mountains in Wisconsin.
Ummm...the one riding on her butt is Amanda!
Ready to hit the hill.
It was a pretty sunset tonight. Bunny hill in front and the chair lift going up the BIG hill in the background. We are definitely not in Vail.

Goodbye 2007

I rang in the New Year with the party animals in the photo......

They fell asleep before midnight. Needless to say, it was a wild evening.

Earlier in the evening, I was channel surfing on the TV and I ran across a Planet of the Apes movie marathon. All 5 of the movies were being played in order all night long. I have no idea why I stopped looking and decided to watch these....I never really liked them back in the 70's when they were first released. Actually the movies gave me nightmares as a kid. Anyway, this is what I did ALL night long! Finally at 3:30 in the morning- I taped the last one because I couldn't stay awake any longer. No nightmares.

The highlights of my evening were the calls around midnight from Jake, Mandy, Mom, Dad and Teddy.

Jacob was celebrating with friends in the Wisconsin Dells - now HE has stories to tell!

Amanda was at a party with a group of her friends. I dropped her off at 8 and picked her and a few friends up at 1 a.m. They then came home and partied until 6 a.m. She also may have stories to tell.

Welcome 2008!