My Sweet Indulgence

Tonight Tim and I have a "Stay at Home" date. I put my new 600 thread count 100% cotton white sheets fresh from the dryer on the bed. It is a simple luxury sometimes expensive, but well worth it. I can't buy any sheets with a lower count, but someday may venture into the 4 digit thread count.

While I was doing that, Tim ran to Starbucks for our favorite beverages a Caffe Mocha for Tim

Vente Hazelnut extra cream for me and hot chocolate for the boys.

Tim and I will drink our coffee in bed on my nice clean white expensive high thread count sheets

and watch Deadwood Season 2 Finale

Tell me we're not crazy, I dare ya

Third Times a Charm

Callahan's basketball team won their 1st game today! So we are 1-2 . Callahan scored a basket. A little boy just needs to make 1 basket to feel like a million bucks. Cal

was under the basket and took a shot...the ball went straight up and straight down (back into his hands) He again threw the ball straight up and again it came straight down...into his hands. On his third try the ball went up and through the hoop to SCORE! I soooo wanted to win this game and don't care if they never win again. The opposing coach also coaches baseball though not Cal's team. His son is in Callahan's class and is nice enough(you don't get to pick your dad) This man is a lunatic, during baseball season they were killing us and he would scream at his players to knock our kids off of the base (after they were safe) and then tag them out. Hello they're 9. He is "that coach" dirty. Who teaches little kids to cheat?

They are 0-3 . Karma. As I sat there with the other moms (yes, we gossip and shared war stories about this guy) I couldn't help but notice how Kevin, our coach encourages the boys and gives them hi 5's, good or bad. When a child doesn't have his arms up to block Kevin gives a shout "Sam, show me how tall you are" and boom the kids arms go up with a smile.

Am I still hangin onto some resentments...maybe a little bit

Lining up to "nice game" the other team

A very happy little boy

Weekend McGinty Style

After work on Friday Tim and I grabbed a quick dinner alone at Buca di Beppo. Buca is an authentic Italian restaurant that offers flavorful Italian dining. Dine with family and friends while enjoying the Italian traditions of food, friendship and hospitality. In the spirit of Italian culture, our dishes are served family style and are meant to be shared.

With bulging bellies we got home in time to get TJ and Callahan to basketball practice 6:30-8:30. It's great for them to get some exercise during this insane winter. Thank God for global warming otherwise we may have froze to death by now

Unfortunately Team Chriskie 3/4 grade lost their game on Saturday, but Callahan did win the Jump off to start the game

Team Chriskie 7/8 grade suffered the same fate on Sunday, but TJ did make an amazing 3 point basket which left him with a giant grin on his face

After shunning the idea of watching "Deadwood" for weeks, I finally gave in. Tim, again you were right. It is great, so great in fact that we watched 9 one hr episodes of season 1. Yes, I was up until 3am...I'm hooked and I make no apologies for it

http://www.hbo.com/deadwood/about/

ST PIUS OPEN HOUSE

After TJ's basketball game we headed to Karrick's open house. He gets so excited with any school function. Karrick takes us through EVERYTHING in his classroom. Again, he is not shy with his feelings and he was beaming with school pride. It broke my heart when he said "I want to stay at St. Pius forever". As much as I love St Pius with its strong academics and tight knit family atmosphere(not to mention all the baseball moms that I love, kids go there) It being a private school just can't compare to our Public School system and all the resources

that are available. Don't forget extremely high ISAT scores

Karrick running to get to his classroom

Karrick's winter wonderland

Karrick has moved on to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

and now shows up at sporting events as "Leonardo". Some of TJ's travel baseball teammates play basketball on opposing teams and their parents get a chuckle out of Karrick. Last time they saw him he was Batman...So yesterday

Everything New

My Sanctuary just keeps getting better. Tim and I went shopping and bought a new recliner, end table, rug, art work, lamps, new quilt, pottery and candles. We never laughed so hard as we did shopping. Our room now has a warm peaceful atmosphere and it matches! When I moved out of the house in 1985 I bought myself a bedroom set, 24 years later I still have it and wow is it outdated. We kicked most of it to the curb and only one chest of drawers remain. I must confess that this was all Tim's idea and I fought it tooth and nail. Tim, you were right and I thank you! I think us mothers have guilt when it comes to treating ourselves to something nice.

Next comes the closet, it's a nice size

walk in but could use some built-in

drawers etc.

The swag on the lamp clinched the sale for me. Yes, I even took down TJ's baseball pictures and hung actual framed art

Just a cool picture of Karrick

7th Grade Physics

TJ's Physic's class is studying the basic laws of motion. For his final project he was required to construct a roller coaster. They could use anything they wanted except pre made kits. TJ's idea was to use a marble and wire. He had a few unsuccessful attempts with thin wire and balsa wood. Instead of giving up, trial and error was the name of the game. I think he really learned a lot and thoroughly grasped the concept. He got thicker wire and redesigned his coaster. He soldered the wire together with cross beams and widened the rails which made it much easier to control the angle and direction of the rails (slope, vector).

Newton's Three Laws of Motion

Let us begin our explanation of how Newton changed our understanding of the Universe by enumerating his Three Laws of Motion.

I. Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.

II. The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors (as indicated by their symbols being displayed in slant bold font); in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector.

III. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Cal and Karrick were mesmerized and built their own

marble coaster on the floor using household items. (not shown)

TJ was itching to use spray paint

The finished product and TJ is doing his presentation at school today. I love projects that inspire kids to think and be creative. If you enlarge this picture (click on it) you can see where TJ had to label in pencil the laws of motion

Team Chriskie

TJ and Cal play Lombard Park District basketball. Callahan plays on the 3/4 grade team and TJ on the 7/8 grade team. Both teams are coached by their friends Jake and Josh's dad Kevin Chriskie. It's just plain fun and not a giant commitment. They practice every Friday night for an hour, Cal at 6:30 and TJ at 7:30. They each play 1 game a week. Cal on Sat and TJ on Sunday. All games and practices are held at our grammar school which is down the block. It really doesn't get much easier. Both TJ and Callahan play Center for their teams as they are the tallest...no big surprise.

Yeah, that's my TJ grabbing the ball

Team Chriskie 7/8 th grade had the 31

Callahan is #34

The 3 Musketeers: Josh, Ben and Cal

Cal's team lost by 1 basket

Royalties...Callahan Style

Callahan got a little surprise in the mail...a check from FORD. He did a shoot 2 years ago for SC Johnson and Family. To date for this campaign he has pulled in close to $2000 for his 2 hrs of work. I was in Walmart two summers ago and saw the giant display. I pretty much had to jump through hoops to bring it home. I assured the manager that the bug spray would still sell (his friggin picture was all over the display) if she let me walk out with "my babies picture" When you do big ads you get paid usage, which he got right off the bat plus his $90 a hour fee. Now last January a surprise check came for $500. They renewed his contract and his image was put on coupons .75 cents off the OFF....hahahha. What is this $150 dollar check is for? I don't know until I see him in a store. It's become the thrill on the hunt. He only received $43.00 of the $150 because $75 was owed for the last 5 months of his head shot displayed on the FORD website. $32 to Ford for their commission. The website fee is a business expense of $15 a month that all models pay. Since child models are paid a min of $75 dollars an hour it is well worth the investment. Is it weird that all my kids have filed individual tax returns at least once? Karrick being the youngest at age 2 for a Sears commercial.

Love the hugh placard, but very had to fit in with our decor

LET'S GO SKIING

We spent the weekend at Timber Ridge Lodge in Lake Geneva. Saturday Tim took TJ and Cal to Wilmot Mountain for a day of skiing and snowboarding. TJ met up with 2 new friends from middle school and they went off snow boarding together. Is my first born child really that old?I drove straight to the hotel with Karrick. We got the 2 bedroom loft suite that came with 4 water park passes for Sat and Sun and 4 lift tickets to the Grand Geneva Mountain skiing.

It was great to be able to hang just with Karrick. We went to the water park and game room. I love this hotel, brand spanking new and full of charm...not cheap

Sunday the boys skied at Grand Geneva (our hotel was part of Grand Geneva) and Karrick was soooooo excited to ski like "the brothers" for the first time. I was just a nervous bystander but had a great time watching my boys.

It was a great weekend vacation. Will definately go back to this hotel

Karrick jumping on the bed in the loft




We were on the top floor so we got the cathedral ceilings. The room was great 2 bathrooms one with big to person jacuzzi ,fireplace and balcony

The air temp at the water park was at least 90 degrees and the water was heated. I can't stand to be cold so this was made for me. I love the Dells but it was so cold at the water parks...freezing water and cool air. Shit, I am getting old

The look of horror on Karrick's face was priceless

No ski school needed...just dad
Tim was skiing competitively by age 4 and his parents have a condo in Keystone Colorado at the Keystone Lodge ski resort and spa. These boys

are following in dads footsteps

When we arrived home I went to hang up Tim's coat and pulled from his pockets no less than 7 hats, 4 pairs of gloves and a movie cameraLook at my Karrick go. I would baby him

not Tim just a shove and down he goes

Check out my panic attack...arms a flayling


Here is my Karrick on the hill one step up from the bunny hill. He starts going too fast and heading for a small hut. Tim runs to save Karrick and in the mean time knocks him over. The only thing I can do is scream then laugh. Tim is filming this video. We don't have any video of TJ snow boarding because he went off with his buddies

FIELD OF DREAMS

J started baseball camp at the Dupage Training Academy on Saturday. He is participating in the travel player division. It meets for 2 hrs every Sat for 2 months. TJ is at his happiest when out on the ball field. He was grouped in with the 13 and 14 yo in the batting cage. He looked nervous, 13 and 14 yo are muscular therefore they can smack the ball. A Hugh difference in size, the post pubescent boy looks like a giant. The instructor tweaked a few things with TJ's swing and within 10 min he was smacking that ball far and hard then got that look of confidence back in his eye. The DTA is just a gift for us. TJ took private pitching lessons there and will take them again after in late February to get ready for pre season.

TJ is very serious about playing ball, his dream is to play pro ball. As long as he still wants to play we do what is necessary to make that dream a reality. Of course my only stipulation is that he must complete college and have a back up plan. TJ has been making stop animation movies for a while now and is interested in movie making. He has some pretty sophisticated software and camera equipment and makes some amazing movie clips