Indigestion

I just love this comic strip, more then often it hits close to home.
Click directly on the comic strip if you can't read it.

Congratulations Ethan

Last night we attended the Awards Night at our sons high school.
Ethan was invited to attend not knowing what he would receive.

They started the ceremony with the Community Organization Awards; these are awards and scholarships given out by villages and organizations in the sorrounding area. The representative from the Darien Lions Club stepped up to the podium and asked if Ethan would come on stage. Ethan was presented the Bob Counsell Scholarship from the Darien Lions Club. He was awarded a $1000.00 scholarship that is renewable for a second year if he maintains a B average his Freshman year of college.
Plus he is to participate in the annual Darien parade. He will ride on a float/well actually in a convertable with the 3 other scholarship recipents. (Note: Darien does not have a High School so the students attend different highschools in the area depending where they live.) Congratulations Ethan!


Before the ceremony started


Lions Club Member and Ethan (he is on the far right by the balloons)


See there he is


The award presented


Ethan with his scholarship letter, I should have had him holding the check too.

17th Layout of 52

I was trying to post my layouts in some kind of time frame order, but that isn't working.
So here is a layout it is of Todd when he played with the Joyful Spirit "The Noise" band. They performed a "Blues Friday" serman on Good Friday

Card 17 of 52

I made this card for a weekend card challenge that I participate in.

More Flowers That Bloomed

I actually took these pictures yesterday. I don't know the name of the purple flowers, my mother in-law gave them to me a few years ago. They are actually a ground cover, so much they invade the grass.

Worth a separate post

Today Ethan received his cap and gown for graduation next month. They give them out a month ahead of time because they have a Senior awards assembly for those who have won awards over the past 4 years. During the Senior awards assembly the recognized students have to wear their cap and gowns.
When he got home, he handed us a letter he received while getting his cap and gown.
We have been cordially invited to the award assembly on Tuesday April 29th.
We don’t have a clue what award Ethan will be receiving. It may be that he will be recognized for one of the 2 academic awards that he already received or it may be something totally different. We will have to wait until Tuesday to find out.

BIG SIGH!!!

Well we had a very productive day today.
I started the day painting and it went incredibly quick. I love Glidden paint, it goes on so nice and only one coat needed. I probably also helped that we primed the walls 1st. I was done painting by 10:00am While I was painting Todd dug holes for the Peony bushes that a co-worker gave to me. Once we accomplished these two chores we headed out to Menards and got molding, decorative bricks, top soil and grass seed (Ok, I know I work for ACE Hardware and we went to Menards. If I want to get my discount I have to order directly from the warehouse and then wait a week for the merchandise to arrive. I don't get discounts at the local ACE stores) Anyway when we got home, I filled the tire tracks that the UPS driver left in our parkway with the top soil, and seeded the area. Todd took the decorative bricks and placed them around where the peonies were going to go. Then we had lunch and I asked for a ride on the Harley, we took an hour ride; it was a nice ride but ended up being rather windy. After we got home I then made a card for the weekend challenge I participate in. Once done with that, we packed up the car with shovels and boxes to go get the peonies. We ended up getting quite a few bushes; pinks, whites and purples we think. We will find out for sure once they bloom. Once we got home, Todd with help from the boys planted the bushes. I think when they fill in and bloom they are going to look really nice where we put them. I will take pictures of them once they take off and bloom.
So now we are relaxing after a very productive day!

Painting

We are trying to get some painting done before our sons graduation at the end of May.
I don't mind painting, I actually like it. It's all the prep work that goes into it that I don't like.
Hopefully we will have all the painting done by Sunday.

Gorgeous Weekend

What a gorgeous weekend the weather was so beautiful, I rode on the back of the Harley and my daffodils even bloomed!

New Driver in the House

Well we now officially have 4 drivers living in the house.
Jordan went to the DMV today and passed the driving test.
So now he can take his "roomy" Van out all by himself!

16th Card of 52

Card #16
This reminds me of a muppet. I stamp-lifted the idea from another blog. We will be making this card at camp this weekend.

16th Layout of 52

Here is layout #16
This was Easter 1999

Earthquake

This morning after I got out of the shower Todd told me he had a dream that we had an earthquake. The bed was shaking and the windows rattling. He said it woke him up.

We were driving to work this morning and sure enough IL had an earthquake at around 4:36am. According to the radio it measured 5.1 magnatudes

Of course I slept through it. I am so oblivious to things. Something could happen 2 feet away from me and I would miss it.

Deer In My Front Yard

I just got a phone call from my oldest saying he made it home from school. They had half day today so he wanted to let me know all is fine at the homefront.
Here is how the conversation went after:
"Mom I forgot to tell you, guess what I saw last night?"
Me: "A deer?"
Ethan: "4 Deer!"
Me: "Where did you see them?" (I sent him to the store last night to get milk so maybe on the way there he saw them.)
Ethan: "In our front yard"
Me: "No way! No Way! What time?"
Ethan: "Oh it was when we were asleep, I heard a noise and looked out the window and saw them"
Me: "No way! What time about?"
Ethan: "Around midnight"
Me: "Why didn't you wake us?"
Ethan: "I didn't want to disturb you"
Me: "Cool, I wonder why the dog didn't hear anything" (The dog gets excited over someone walking on the sidewalk but 4 deer don't phase him.)

I called Todd to tell him and he said he thought he saw hoof prints in the yard this morning but didn't think much of it after that.
So 4 Deer were in my front yard last night and I don't have any pictures of it. UGH!

Happy Birthday to ME!!!!!

It's not very often that birthday's fall on weekends. So today I started the celebration of my Birthday weekend. (My birthday is actually on Saturday) I took today off originally to have a long weekend. Then I started thinking; how can I spend my Friday? I 1st thought about staying home and cleaning or getting my house organized. But then I thought why should I clean/organize on my birthday weekend. So I packed up my scrapbooking materials and headed off to Archivers. I stayed for about 4 hours and got 12 pages done. I was very please with what I got done and will post them in the weeks ahead.
Tomorrow I will spend my actual birthday with my family. Todd has made plans so I will find out what those plans are tomorrow.
Sunday will be back to normal; grocery shopping and catching up on laundry.

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Getting to Know You Survey

I received another one of those getting to know you surveys in my e-mail.
This one is themed by 4's. You have to have 4 answers for the questions. I replaced 2 of the questions, you know that ones that say who will send this back; yadda yadda...

Here are my 4's
A) Four places I go over and over:
Work, Grocery Shop, Home, Bed

B) Four Favorite Foods:
Mexican, Chinese, Fried Chicken, Zuppa Toscana

C) Four of my favorite places to eat:
Tapalpa, New China Kitchen, Papa Pizza, Popeye’s

D) Four places I would rather be right now
Scrapbooking at Archivers, On Vacation, On a Beach, Bed

E) Four Favorite Movies:
Sense and Sensibility, Elf, The Grinch: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Young Frankenstien

F) Four TV shows I watch over and over:
Boston Legal, Celebrity Boot Camp, Little People Big World, Gene Simmons Family Jewels

You can copy and send me an e-mail with your 4's if you want!

15th card of 52

I made this for a card sketch challenge. I am not crazy about this card; I did make a different one with a different theme and different pattern paper. I will scan that one and post it in the near future.

15th layout of 52

They were 2 years old at the time.

New/Used Van

Well Jordan got a new/used car today, sort of.
We purchase a used Dodge Caravan today for our son’s use. He doesn’t have his license yet; but will be getting it within the next 2 weeks.
We really weren’t planning on purchasing a car for him until sometime after he had possession of a drivers license, but the van was such a great deal that we couldn’t pass it up.
A while ago Todd asked Jordan what kind of car he wanted so Todd could start looking and getting an idea what was out there in the price range we wanted to spend. Jordan said “Blue with a lot of room.” He hates getting in and out of Ethan’s little car. So when we heard about this van Jordan wasn’t too interested. The day we went to look at the van, Todd took Jordan with him; Jordan liked how much room was in the van. Later that day, we discussed buying it and I told Jordan if he doesn’t want to drive the van, he could drive my car and I would drive the van. Jordan agreed to that idea and so we decided to purchase the van. Today we purchased the van; Todd had Jordan drive it home. He said he really likes it and wants it to be his car. He likes how roomy it is and how much visibility there is in the van. So we now own 5 vehicles 1 being a van a teenager doesn’t mind driving.

Here he is with his new/used van

14th Card of 52

Here is card #14

Ever have days like this?

My son found this websight and shared it with me. It is rather funny and bizzare at the same time.

Garfield Minus Garfield
http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com/

This is the premise of the website: Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb