Hippo

I picked up this cute Alligator at IKEA yesterday. I was

shopping for shelving units for the laundry room, saw

this and thought it would be perfect for reading in bed.

It is completely impossible for my neck to be

comfortable while reading, Ever!

I have been calling it a hippo up until 2

minutes ago...what is wrong with me? It was

clearly a hippo for 24 hrs...now it's clearly an

Alligator....will it clearly be a monkey tomorrow?

Is 45 the new 75?

It's almost Christmas

The Sears Wish Book is out!

Callahan was just 3 when he shot his first Sears

Wish Book, now he is 10 1/2 and still posing.

Cal in jeep looking at the cute girl with curls

These were shot in late August. All shoots take place in big

warehouses without air conditioning. My poor Cal

almost fainted during the winter scene. The set

designer had difficulty with the snow covered tree, it kept

leaning. By the end of the shot I saw Cal starting to sway

I seriously thought he might faint, They finally had to put the

 kids in  front of industrial fans to cool off

while they fixed the set..(coats on) When

the shot was complete I had to peel the jacket off Cal

as he was drenched it sweat

Callahan did a 4 th shot, but you just don't know

 until the catalog comes out what pictures are used.

It was Callahan on the floor playing with a electric

train. The Wish Book shows a tiny
 child playing with the train, which is much
 more fitting. Cal still got paid for all 4

shots

Love Is...

Surprise flowers from Tim...again!

My new hair

I am 45 years old and for the first time in my life, I

had my hair professionally colored. I have always

used "the box" and only "the box" that was on sale

The result was brown that always turned brassy red

within 2 weeks...hence the hair pulled back with the Scunci

My before shot...little scary

Joy Harris from the Lombard Hair Cuttery 630 620 9562

was my stylist and I gave her free rein. The result is

fabulous. I love the color and the cut, it moves and feels

light. No Scunci! and NO brassy red!

I'm so excited, I've never had my own stylist before and all

my boys gave me a huge thumbs up

out of the mouths of babes

Karrick's decorated Turkey

foil leaves and candy corn

I took the day off  work to volunteer in Karrick's

kindergarten classroom. I forgot how cute and honest

5 year olds are. I was helping kids decorate a blank cut-out

of a house. They were to write their house number on it

and make it look like their real home.

Well, one little girl drew a large 3 pane window with

a beautiful semi-circle window above it on the second floor.

I asked if that was her bedroom and she replied:

"oh no, that is my mommy's master bedroom and

my daddy has the little bedroom down the hall"

 moving right along

cell phone grainy picture 

I'll never forget when my Callahan was in preschool

at the Academy of Movement and Music in Oak Park

I worked in the 3 year old classroom while Callahan

was upstairs in the 4 year class. I needed to take a

personnel day and when I came to pick Cal up a few

of the moms shared a little gem with me. It turns

out it was sharing day so when it was Cals turn

he stood up and said:

"my mommy couldn't come to work today because she 

had to go see the judge"

The horror!

 It was for a speeding ticket, but Mrs. Donna

didn't know that

The horror is that these teachers probably know

way too much about our personal lives. Little

kids lack filters and just belt it out. I would have

never known had these moms not been volunteering that day.

A few years back I taught 1 st grade CCD at Sacred Heart, the

stuff that came out of these kids mouths was amazing.

None of us are safe..ever wonder why teachers look at you

funny at conferences....hmm? Think about it

WWE...seriously!?

Callahan was booked to shoot an ad for

 one of the big box stores so we headed

downtown. We arrived at our 2 pm booking at 1:45pm
They appeared to be a little backed up, so we took

a seat in the lounge and watched TV.

2 pm came and went, as did 3 pm

By 4pm Cal was getting a little pissed. Studios get off track, but

 someone always keeps you informed and usually there is
 a toy/game room and if not a full spread of food,
 at least snacks, pop or water.  Not here, we had a drinking
 fountain and hard chairs and tables.
They did provide a giant plasma TV..

Special care is always taken when dealing with child models,

 an unhappy child will not photograph as a happy child

They are Kids!

Cal, always the professional held it together very well, he

did grumble

"this is so not worth $75 an hr, would you sit here for

2hrs for $75 an hour?"

"Honey, I am sitting here for free"

At 4:30 they finally called him into hair and makeup.

Well if the Mohawk didn't kill him, I

certainly thought the outfit would. It was a WWE

t-shirt with the faces of all the wrestlers on it.

and YES, the championship belt.

My first thought was

 "Oh dear Lord, if this day doesn't break him, nothing will"

I'll be damned if that little boy didn't march on set with

a stiff Mohawk, white trash t-shirt and a big gaudy

replica belt. My little professional jumped,

 grrrrred and flexed his way through it.

 He smiled the smile that says

"WOW, am I having fun dressing up as a fake wrestler"

He wore that belt with pride, he took off that belt

held it above his head and cheered as though he just

won the lottery.

15 min later the photographer called it a wrap,

told Cal what a great job he did.

Callahan exchanged pleasantries, thanked all involved,

changed right into his street clothes, put a baseball cap

over the Mohawk and headed toward the door.

Me: " Callahan, I am so proud of you. You really got

into the character...way to go!"

Cal: "I wanted to get the job done asap, take

that outfit off and get out of there,

" I am NEVER COMING BACK HERE AGAIN!"

I second that. Talking with other moms leads me

to believe this is standard procedure at this

particular studio.

One of the reason Callahan works all the time is

because he always gives 100% and really

sells the product, no matter what it is

Homeless

TJ started volunteering at our local PADS shelter last week

to fulfill community service hours in order to make his

 Confirmation.  He really enjoyed it, so this week Callahan

and myself decided to join him. We set up cots and put on the

bed linens, set up table and chairs and served food.

Within the first half I had to fight back tears, tears of pride.

To see TJ, Cal and a couple other kids just jump into action was

amazing. When the people showed up, I wasn't fully

prepared. I often talk about my "bubble" that I live in.

"All that other stuff", well thats not part of my bubble.

There were families just down on their luck, there were what

I assumed to be the "addiction crowd" and what

appeared to be  people with some mental issues. One

thing I do know is there were a lot of people. Here

was a place in the middle of my bubble that fed, clothed,

provided hot showers, medical care and a bed to people without.

It was a powerful experience for all of us. It was a great

learning experience for the kids. They realize that it can

happen to anyone, our ride home was filled with all

kinds of questions. Living in Lombard, there is not

a whole lot of diversity, economically or socially. It's

very easy to get wrapped up in my world. This was

a great experience and my "bucket" was overflowing.

knocknard

Tim took Callahan and Karrick to Grandma's in Long Grove

 on Sunday. When they returned Karrick

comes running into the house holding this fruit

"Mommy, look what i picked at grandma's,

It's the almighty knocknard  and it looks like a butt"

He declares with pride through giggles

weekend pictures

Pictures from Hidden lakes forest Preserve, Glen Ellyn IL

Surprise Roses from Tim

finally was able to stain our deck before the snow

boys...

Bass in the Class

Mrs Novak,5th grade Science and Math teacher
(in yellow fleece on the right)

Bass In The Class is a program run by the Forest Preserve where school

 children would agree to raise smallmouth bass, to introduce to
 the cleaner streams. The  program allows children to be
 stewards of a real ecosystem.
Callahan's 5 th grade Science class is participating in the
"Bass in the Class Project"in partnership with the Du Page County 
Forest Preserve. His class raised  8 small mouth bass for the last
2 months. The kids switched off bringing feeder minnows
to feed the Bass.
 Bass are top line predators in Illinois waters. This project allows 
students to see how they behave, and how they catch their prey. 
Today the class went to Hidden Lakes Forest Preserve in
Glyn Ellen to release 6 of them (2 will remain in class
until the spring then they will be tagged and released)
The kids monitored the quality of the water by doing biological sampling.
 Students collect and identify benthic macro invertebrates
 from the DuPage River to determine the health of the water.
 Some of these organisms can tolerate a lot of pollution,
 while others cannot tolerate any. They work with 
naturalists in the river, and their findings are entered into
 the state's database.

The kids that chose to attend the release, met at school

 this morning to pick upthe fish.

 They all took turns monitoring the water temp

My guess is about 15 kids participated.

(not mandatory)
There were other schools also releasing their own Bass

The PTA gifted each grade this year with their own digital
video recorder..how awesome is that!

Callahan and Rosie were in charge of removing 1 cup

of water and replacing it with 1 cup of lake water. They

had to make sure the water temp didn't go down more than

 1-2 degrees or the fish would die of shock.

 Every 15 min they would do the same water exchange.

About 45 min later, when the bucket water temp was close enough

 to the lake temp, the Bass were released

This was originally for middle and high school students.
Callahan's science teacher Mrs. Novak heard about it years
ago and brought it to the 5th grade classroom. She had to
 apply for grants and take special classes to be certified.
 Now it is a rite of passage for 5th graders at
Pleasant Lane Elementary.

We were there maybe 2 hours, so the forest rangers set up
activities to keep the kids occupied when it wasn't their turn in the water

Each fish had a number on it that corresponded to a question

about the aquatic ecosystem. I am not exaggerating when I say

Callahan knew every single answer. He kept quiet until the other

 kids would give up...then pow! He whispered the answer

 in his friends ear and of course answered his own.

 This is not classroom material

example:

 Name a creature that lives on the bottom

 that can be right or left handed?

After everyone gave up, Cal answers

A Snail?

How does someone just know that? seriously?!

Needless to say Cal walked away with multiple packs of gum and

mints....prizes

Certain bugs found in certain waters

Blue cap bugs found in clean water, scales down to

red capped bugs means dirty yucky water (leeches)

making fishing lures

It was a perfect day for the bass release, warm and sunny.
When TJ did it 3 years ago it was cold and rainy.
I took some really cool pictures while playing with my
camera...will post later


some info taken straight from Mrs Novak's home page

Lego toilets?

Yes!

I bought Karrick the new Lego City Police Station.

Just because

It was quite pricey and took me 3 hours to put

together, but boy oh boy is it cool. Very detailed right down

to the toilets in the cells. Karrick being 5, well... poop, farts or

anything regarding the bathroom is the funniest thing EVER!

Took about 2 seconds for him to get the guys on...

If only I were dooce...

I had what I consider the most ridiculous time with our local

PEPBOYS. Our 2000 Chrysler Town and Country van.

(not the Space Shuttle) was not running right.

 The engine light was on and she had "no hussle"

as TJ would say. It started out fine, they ran their dianostic crap

and identified the problem, replaced the sensor for $560. Thats

when Moe, Larry and Curly took over. To make a long story short

It wasn't the sensor, so "we weren't charged for that" it was the

Flywheel, a $120 part with $990 of labor...hmmmm

would the labor had been only $430 w/o the sensor?

Believe it or not, this process took 13 days, 4 visits and

many hours sitting in Pepboys waiting area. One of

those times, stranded for 1.5 hrs listening to
"we're just finishing up" then it was "not sure"
thats when a friend picked me up.
four days later it was ready so I went back and

 wrote an $1100 check and drove away only to be back

within 24 hrs. I was at JoAnn fabrics buying fleece for my

13yo to make blankets for the homeless. Seriously, I

couldn't make this shit up. While pulling out of the strip mall

accelerating up the hill, I found myself going backwards towards

the car behind me, what that driver was yelling, God only knows what.

I put my flashers on and waved everyone around me,
 then I gunned it up the hill across the street
 down the block to PepBoys. Curly took it right in

and 1/2 hr later with a big smile informs me
 "all fixed ma'am, All she needed was 4qts of trans fluid"
  Nimrod!
 My first thought, (well my second thought,
 because the 1 st thought was Nimrod!.)

was, you took out the entire transmission, took it apart

(hence the $990 labor) and you forgot to fill it up with fluid?

What if my trans had crack, locked up or whatever it is
 called when you drive a car without the almighty
 transmission fluid.

It began to cross my mind that I got the intern grease monkey

(Please refrain from smoking dope on my time)
 .All better...NOPE

24 hours later, ding ding ding Engine light! No giddy up and go,
I'd hit the gas and you're just reeving the engine in the
middle of the street, for any Mack truck to come
barreling down the highway and take me out.

 Tim and I bring it back in, call for Wally

the manager.( aka "Moe".)
 Explain our plight. He looks up at us with his

big Goober lookin eyes and says
 "ya know, ya really need to be careful when
 putting 4 qts of fluid...
" "Moe, Moe...I mean, Wally, YOU put the freakin

fluid in"
(cut to Moe wide eyed)

"huh?"

My Tim is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to any
and all engine, computer, electrical put together and work crap.
Had it just been me...I shutter to think of where we would be.
without Tim's constant imput, Moe, Larry and Curly
would still be scratching their heads and my receipt
would be 100 feet long

4 days later and a lot of "we just don't know"

by the Three Stooges. We have our van back.

 It now runs like a Diesel Truck. My eyeballs shake, due to

grasping a vibrating steering wheel. Sure

they fixed a little oil leak, changed some spark plugs and did a lot

of tinkering around w/o charge, but I'n not real clear on

the real cause of problem or what was free or hidden in our

$1100 bill.

In regards to  dooce.com she writes a blog that I follow,

as does thousands of other people. on a good day I have 15

 She has 1 million twitter followers. I have zero...

 Dooce had a problem with her maytag

washer and after her run around, she received a personal
phone call from Mr. Maytag himself  and a new washer

(which was donated to charity I believe)
dooce maytag saga

if I was her do you think I would have

gotten a prize? I think I deserve a prize.

Had this episode gone down years ago,
I may have had a different response
Pepboys really dodged a bullet
 (figuratively)

Some may say I had some anger issues
or as I like to put it, lack of patience

Disclaimer:
(not due to anyone or anything
in particular...maybe I was born with it.
Ya know, it was exceptable to smoke and drink while
pregnant in the 60's...just sayin)
My life coach has made me carry a rock
around for quite some time now
to represent the weight I carry from
hanging onto anger and resentments.

I chose to leave my rock at home during
this 13 day fiasco
(progress not perfection)

Fabulous Sunday and Dennis the Menace

Like any family with school age kids, when a weekend day

happens to be free, it's as good as winning the lottery.

We hung out all day as a family. How often does mom take a kid here, while

slept's another one there. Not today. The sun was even shinning.

Lots of football (I will regret that tomorrow)

Tim is back from the trailer park and living the

suburban dream. Tomorrow he will hop on the train and head

downtown to his job in the financial district. I'm happy to say the

mullet, bare chest and cowboy hat are safely tucked away for another year

He even finished shaving his head

Left over pumpkins = target practice. My boys

love archery and are pretty good at it.

We have used our deck furniture more this weekend

in the driveway then the entire summer on our deck.

My cool photo of the day, makes you a little dizzy looking at it

Karrick marches over to my neighbor Paul
that is using his leaf blower and declares

"Real men use rakes"

Paul wide eyed replies "really?"

Karrick "and this is what a rake looks like!"

The guffaw that came out of my mouth could be heard for

miles

Don't let that blond hair, big brown eyed innocence fool you

He is Dennis the menace

I really enjoyed today, there was something special in the air.