r is for return September 30, 2007

I have a returned from a weekend of restful proportions.  Actually it was more than a weekend.  I left Wednesday evening with a van full of magazines, food and wonderful friends for a little getaway.  It involved speaking at a conference on Thursday and the rest of the time eating, reading, walking, resting and looking at pretty things, all in the company of delightful, smart, funny, caring women.

I returned to find that my husband and sons had moved a mountain, literally, of 15 cubic yards of mulch from our driveway to our backyard, rendering the beds out back much more healthy and good looking.  An amazing amount of work was accomplished.  That project along with the Cubs’ clinch and the Illini victory over Penn State were all miraculous in nature.

This week, I begin jury duty on Monday morning.  Only one week.  Off course I won’t be able to detail any of my thoughts on that here.  It’s my civic duty to protect the innocent until proven guilty!

p is for pleasant September 24, 2007

Our weekend had a pleasant rhythm.  Since Thomas was off to a XC meet west of Peoria and Chris had to work, J and I went out to dinner at Cowboy Monkey.  I love their shrimp tacos.  We saw some folks we know there.  We ran into  Bianca, Lyn, Ann and Bob.  We ran an errand to Sams after and then went home and watched “Blades of Glory.”  Notice I did not say we enjoyed it.  Chris came home from work and then turned around and went out to meet friends for a late dinner at Steak and Shake.  Thomas had a sleepover at his friend’s house.

We went for coffee as usual on Saturday morning followed by errands.  Our day was considerable freed up since the cleaning service had been there on Wednesday.  That continues to be just a very enjoyable decision.  John needed to feed the asphalt crews on Saturday and it was part of a misunderstanding that kept us from attending the wedding of a friend’s daughter.  Thomas ran a 5K Saturday morning and also had a birthday party Saturday night.  Chris ended up seeing a movie with friends late Saturday night after work.  We watched the movie “The Wedding Date” because it was on cable.  Other highlights:  John fixed our bathroom light; I made homemade granola; we grilled pork tenderloin and veggies and made delicious mashed potatoes for dinner.

Sunday marked the launch of the iPray series at church.  A good beginning.  John was at church from 8 AM to 2 PM due to various responsibilities.  When he got home, we went for a ride and got a drink at Za’s.  We went to a couple of open houses after dropping Thomas at a friend’s house for a Nerf war.  After we picked him up, we headed out to the farm where harvest is in full swing.  Dad came in to enjoy the homemade pizza we prepared and Ma’s apple pie.  It was a very nice visit.  The pizza was topped with zucchini, mushrooms, sausage and cheese (and various reduced combinations) and was quite tasty.  I got to reminiscing about my mom’s great cooking when I was growing up, prompted by a yummy piece of apple cake.  Mom made it from a recipe of Grandma Etta’s and it was nostalgic eating at its best!

My dad’s estimate for the corn harvest is at 180 so you know it’s higher than that, and with prices holding it’s looking like a year to be thankful.

t is for things that are bugging me September 24, 2007

I hate to go negative but I have just about had it with:

• commercials for men’s health products
• my constant forgetfulness
• bad weather predicted for our kick off tomorrow
• procrastinators
• many emails in one day from the same school
• volunteer managers who do not do a good job
• coffee that costs too much
• hotel switches (long story)

Okay that’s all.

r is richard scarry’s busiest day ever September 20, 2007

It all began with getting everybody out the door. That’s not too hard.  Then off to the University for a presentation.  Not too difficult because I was just back up in case Pam had her baby.  She did not.  So I went anyway, enjoyed a delicious sticky bun (the very same kind I used to enjoy in the basement of the Illini Union back in the late 70’s) and learned about fund raising and the campus charitable fund drive all morning long.  Then off to the office briefly before meeting friends at Panera – new day and time is working out well I think.  The crowd yesterday was slim, but delightful.  After that, I went home for a few minutes.  This was a real highlight because – get this – the cleaning service had been there.  My friend Anna has a cleaning business and they started this week.  The house was in perfect shape because we had picked up everything the night before to get ready and then they came in and did a great job!  It is wonderful!  Okay – I’m too happy about cleaning, but it was really a moment.

After that I had a presentation on youth volunteerism at the library (very poorly attended) and a meeting on a family volunteer event coming up in November.  When I arrived home it was only a few moments until small group began.  That was okay because J had everything ready including fresh apple donuts from Curtis Orchard, cider and a mix of candy corn and peanuts.  Normally I am appalled by candy corn, but when mixed with the right ratio of dry roasted peanuts (2.5 peanuts to one candy corn), it’s very tasty.  Plus dry roasted peanuts are one of my favorite things and remind me of my grandpa’s stash in the pantry.

So the day was long and packed with things to do and places to be.  Fortunately, Thomas’ friend’s mom drove him home from practice and Chris did not have to work and took care of himself.  I think John fed everyone dinner; I had a smoothie at Panera.  Those things are tasty.

The best part of the day though was reading Kate’s blog first thing in the morning and hearing the joy as she describes her internship.  It’s like she is doing what she was made to do.  Exciting.

By the way, it’s very hot here.  I am not happy about this but really it does no good to be cranky over it.  But the high 80’s and low 90’s are not my favorite range – especially when it’s about to be fall!

u is for usher September 17, 2007

Friday night was something out of the ordinary. J and I volunteered to usher at the Wall to Wall Guitar Festival at Krannert. We got to see Los Lobos in concert as a result (actually this was our motivation to usher – the concert was sold out.) In spite of some technical difficulties and what seemed to the untrained ear (mine) to be a very loud mix, it was enjoyable. Great musicianship and lots of spirited music lovers in the audience. Ushering was easy. The person in charge of all patron services was great – low key orientation, don’t worry about anything (including what you are wearing), you’ll do great, etc… Then we got to the person in charge of ushers for this particular concert and the first thing she said was not welcome, or thanks, or even hi, but “you are dressed in appropriately.” Apparently we had not gotten the memo on the basic usher attire. She had to go check if it was okay. Well of course it was okay and John managed to snag us a couple of cool W2W lanyards for volunteers, and we got right to work. But I did learn a lot about volunteer management!!

Thomas couldn’t run on Saturday due to a trampoline mishap on Friday, but we all went out to the meet at Mahomet anyway. It was a simply beautiful day. We did yard work all afternoon and enjoyed dinner at Dos that evening. I crashed early, but the boys stayed up and watched football. Saturday was also an Illini victory over Syracuse which we enjoyed over the radio in the backyard.

We all went out to lunch after church on Sunday and then kind of went our separate ways. J and I went to see the new western “3:10 to Yuma” yesterday, which I thought had a pretty interesting story. I am not a big fan of Westerns, however, nor of point blank shootings. But by far the toughest seen to watch (and listen to) was the doctor fishing for a bullet in a guy without benefit of anesthetic. Chris finished up an application for the Rotary Youth Exchange program last night. Now on to the Illinois app. Tis the season!

n is for not what it used to be September 13, 2007

Garcia’s pizza, that is.  I remember in the late ’70’s when it was a big deal and a huge treat to go there for lunch from school.  John brought some slices home for dinner last night, and while we all appreciated his thoughtfulness, the pizza was not a hit.  Our small group came over last night.  We watched a video called Be Still on contempletive prayer and spent some good time together catching up and praying for one another.

The weather is unspeakably beautiful right now.  Clear skies, perfect temperature, low humidity.  Unfortunately, allergy sufferers will have to wait for the frost – none in sight at the moment.

Busy, busy at work and off to get in early this morning to set up for a meeting.

p is for plans are in place September 10, 2007

I had a great meeting with the girls last night to plan a little getaway trip to SoIL.  Should be fun.  We decided to apply our resources to lodging rather than food and entertainment.  So we’ll have a nice place to stay.

Our meeting with Lisa, the college consultant, went well yesterday.  Chris is narrowing the field, and an interesting field it is.  I don’t know two many high school seniors whose first choice is MIT and whose second choice is a community college.  Very unusual and yet his reasoning is very strong.  We now know how to proceed and Lisa was very helpful and will continue to be as she reviews essays, etc.

No late meeting this week – yea! and so I was actually home by myself for a short time this afternoon.  I am keeping the laundry going and looking forward to Edison’s open house.

Oh, also, I began my facebook adventure this weekend.

h is for house full of boys September 8, 2007

Chris is home from work tonight and delightfully entertaining us with acoustic guitar melodies and disturbingly graphic images on Animal Planet.  Thomas has two friends over and all the nerf equipment is out in force.  I’ve already got a load of laundry going with everyone’s clothes from the trampoline and basketball event in the mud and rain.

It has rained a bunch here yesterday and today.  Yesterday afternoon sitting here watching out the window it was literally coming down in sheets.  This morning we were over in Normal for a XC race, but heard it was raining quite a bit here and continued til we arrived back in town this afternoon.  The race was huge and Thomas ran well, a personal best for the 2 mile.  He’s doing great considering this is only his 5th race (3rd 2 mile) and his is under 16 minutes.

We had a great lunch at Flat Iron – a make your own stir fry place – and shopped for cars.  We have pretty much decided on what we want, just figuring out the timing.

We had some leftovers for dinner as the boys preferred frozen pizza to homemade lasagna, and listened to the Illini on the radio while we ate.  Hoping to get to see some games this season, but this new Big Ten network is making it difficult.

Missing Kate on the phone-I called, then she called, then I called and still missed out on a time to chat – hopefully late tonight or early tomorrow.

j is for juggling September 6, 2007

Yesterday was a long day, but a good one.  I had a volunteer fair at work – not well attended, but not at all unpleasant.  Seems most of my days are going from early until late at work, as I had a meeting at the end of the day yesterday, too.  There are so many projects and extra responsibilities right now that my head is spinning.  And not it a good way.  Kind of in a Linda Blair sort of way.

Had an event with Coach W yesterday for work.  He gave a nice speech, funny and light hearted with some good points.  I can’t recall all of them right now but some were:  Ask people what they want.  Gather the best team you can.  Be willing to make changes.  Find the influencers.  Stuff like that.  Very enjoyable.

Last night our small group came over and we had a delicious cook out topped off by homemade chocolate cake – all very tasty and the company was good too.

Didn’t sleep well as I have many concerns right now.  Nothing serious, just a lot of worry balls to be juggling.  Working on that.

l is for long, hot race September 5, 2007

Yesterday’s highlight was the cross country meet in Rantoul.  It was very hot and the course was long (2.4 estimated miles), but the kids did great.  Thomas finished strong and with a smile, despite some adversity with his allergies and very big (for Central Illinois) hill which they had to run twice.  Ma and Pa were there which was great.  Thomas runs with a smile and talks to those he knows on the sidelines and has extra energy to jump and touch trees.  It’s fun.

Work is filled with curves right now and I’m not sure what to think.  The curves, by the way, are not the enjoyable kind.

John fixed dinner last night then went to Elders.  I ran a couple of errands and was pretty much asleep by 8:30, after helping Thomas with a homework project.

Chris told Dr. Hill today U of I, or  hopefully MIT.  Interesting.