Just me and my kid day

I am so thankful to God for giving me the relationship I have with my son. Today, we both were up well before dawn and on the road to St. Louis....to go shopping, together, just the two of us. We started this tradition when he was in a stroller and being in Pennsylvania, and the only people I really knew worked for Walmart (get the picture there was NOBODY off that day to babysit), I would just drag him along with me. Today, he drove me, so I guess the tables have turned a little. One year, I left him with my mom so I could shop for him, I went by myself and I was miserable (not to mention I got a speeding ticket on my way that morning that I kept a secret for over a year)...Anyway, I treasure each year that he still wants to go along. We don't really Christmas shop, we just bargain shop and eat, and visit and enjoy each other. Today was no exception. He was asked Sunday if we were taking his girlfriend, his reply: "Nope, it's a Mom and me day". It was a wonderful day for me, and I think it was for him too. (and driving to St. Louis Mills wasn't nearly the white knuckle experience for us this time!)

And By the Way.......

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!

We had a very quiet Thanksgiving at home, Robert went and got Mom and her dog, Mandy and brought them down for dinner (disclaimer: Mom is perfectly capable of driving but Robert seemed to think she would be better not driving at night if she didn't have to). We also had pineapple cheesecake for dessert for Andrew's birthday- he is allergic to eggs so no bake cheesecakes win out over cake when we celebrate his birthday and pineapple is his favorite.

Andrew of course, had to go to work, to get ready for the crowds in the morning. BTW, the Olney store shrinkwrapped their pallets with CLEAR shrinkwrap this year-if you have ever been to a blitz at Walmart, you know it is usually wrapped in black, so this year you get a little extra heads up on where the stuff is going to be. One day last week, I got in the jeep and there was a clipboard of where everything was going to be laid out but I was a good wife and left it alone.

Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving!

Did You Watch the Parade?

It seems I realize I have many traditions, one of them is watching the parade on Thanksgiving morning. I thought today's parade was really great and saw something that really intrigued me--The Awesome Original Second Time Arounders Marching Band; yes, it is the complete name- awesome included and of course, it is the alumni band on steroids. It was founded on the premise that band members never quit dreaming of marching one more time---hmmm.. there are more crazy people like me out there...that may be a scary thing!

Another really cool thing was Idina Menzel sang a song from her new album, I have got to get this! She was the original Elphaba from Wicked and though I have never seen her in person, I have the soundtrack with her singing. I love Elphaba and have always been more of an Elphaba fan than a Galinda fan.

Happy Birthday Honey!!

I thought it would be fitting to put this picutre in as this was the first pictures of us taken together, on Thanksgiving, the day after his birthday 17 years ago. This would result in being our only "engagement pictures" as a week and a day later, we eloped. So, it is the 17th birthday I have shared with him and number 44 all together.

This was taken the morning we left for Orlando with the kids last year, and this one......
was taken last Thanksgiving, as we shared our meal with the other band families at our hotel.

2008 Bands of the Year

Check this out!!!!

This is off of the ilmarching.com website.

Congratulations to Marian Catholic, Morton, Eureka, and Newton!

2008 Bands of the Year
Filed under:
News— ilmarching @ 5:59 pm
Every year after the marching season ends (after Grand Nationals), we conduct voting to decide which bands to name “Bands of the Year.” This year’s voting consisted of 11 voters, both Illinois Marching Online staff members as well as State of Illinois band directors - the largest turnout to vote we’ve had to date. All of the bands listed below have achieved high quality compared to their peers, and are worth of special honor.
This year marks the debut of our caption awards. Caption awards were discussed between the members of the Illinois Marching Online staff (band directors had no input). We hope these caption awards recognize special parts of some particular bands that really made this season outstanding.
Without further ado, the 2008 Illinois Marching Online Bands of the Year!

2008 Illinois Marching Online Bands of the Year
Division I1. Marian Catholic (87 points, 10 first-place)
2. Lincoln-Way East (68 points, 1 first-place)
3. Prospect (60 points)
4. Lake Park (55 points)
5. Victor J. Andrew (28 points)
6. John Hersey (24 points)
7. Lincoln-Way Central (22 points)*
8. Naperville North (22 points)*
Wins Tiebreaker: more ballot mentions
Outstanding Percussion: Victor J. Andrew
Outstanding Auxillary: Marian Catholic
Outstanding Winds: Marian Catholic
Outstanding GE: Lincoln-Way East
Outstanding Drum Major: Prospect

Division II
1. Morton (77 points, 11 first-place)
2. Lincoln-Way North (57 points)
3. Bloomington (35 points)
4. Lemont (32 points)
5. Dunlap (26 points)
6. Geneseo (24 points)
7. Washington (18 points)
Outstanding Percussion: Morton
Outstanding Auxillary: Morton
Outstanding Winds: Morton
Outstanding GE: Lincoln-Way North
Outstanding Drum Major: Galesburg

Division III
1. Eureka (39 points, 9 first-place)
2. Macomb (26 points)
3. Prairie Central (11 points)
4. Normal University (10 points)
IVC (1 first-place)Richmond-Burton (1 first-place)

Outstanding Percussion: Normal University
Outstanding Auxillary: Eureka
Outstanding Winds: Normal University
Outstanding GE: Eureka
Outstanding Drum Major: Herscher

Division IV
1. Newton (27 points, 6 first-place)
2. Tri-Valley (13 points, 3 first-place)
3. Atwood-Hammond (11 points, 1 first-place)
Watseka (1 first-place)

Outstanding Percussion: Atwood-Hammond
Outstanding Auxillary: Newton
Outstanding Winds: Newton
Outstanding GE: Atwood-Hammond
Outstanding Drum Major: Atwood-Hammond

Way to go Robert!

As many of you know, Robert has struggled for years with "booklearning". He can tear an engine apart and put it back together in his sleep ( he tore Mom's lawnmower apart at age 5, and yes, when he got it back together, it ran). His weakness has always been getting through school. Of course, this year he FINALLY got to take a shop class- which he has an A in, of course. The thing is, everything else has clicked, especially this semester. He has B's in History, Health and ENGLISH- he has NEVER in his life, had anything higher than a D in English. He has one C right now and that is in Geometry, but he and the teacher both think it could be a B by the semester's end. I am so very proud of what he is doing, for the first time in his life, I feel he really cares about his grades. Keep it up, kiddo. You are doing FANTASTIC!!!

Isn't this a cool picture?

The Logan County Courthouse is reflected in the chrome bumper of a classic car parked on the square. The new Route 66 signage will have a chrome theme to the new roadside signs.

Of course, I posted a couple of weeks ago that my sister, Nila, was doing freelance work for the Lincoln Daily News. This is really taking off for her and she has done several stories already. I think this is so cool because honestly, writing is her first love (and she is really good at it!). She also takes her own pictures though, which is also a hobby for her. I just thought this was too cool especially when you read the caption and see how it all ties into the article she wrote. I told her I think the neatest thing about writing for the paper is to be out and about and hear people talking and hear, "Well, I read in the paper....." and know that your story was what they were reading!