How I spent my day off

All I can say is....THANK GOD WE HAVE AIR!

everything went right out the window onto the deck

bleach, mask and gloves...my new best friends

organized chaos....have to itemize each piece of clothing lost, right down to brand

Thank God our deck is giant...can't sort in grass that is 2 feet high. We also lost the lawn mover

A bag of cement and I mean cement, not mix

give boys a hammer and they're always willing to help

love my little red wagon

surprisingly, the cement board wasn't wet (just bottom 2 inches) I did however have to remove the wet insulation and let the studs dry out. I need a new plan...maybe no insulation and just replace the bottom foot of wallboard. Who knows if this is a new weather pattern and not just a fluke (15in of rain in 24 hrs...2x in 2 years) or 2 times in the last 20 years

the big screen was spared

My pretty Patrick...photo by TJ

couple pictures from Wisconsin

A darling picture of my 13 year old in his last week of his first teenage year.

I just got back from a much needed 5 day vacation up in whitewater WI with the family and some friends. We just left the mess in the basement, packed up and went. I couldn't take another hot, muggy, smelly day. We had an incredible time. Baseball ended, Callahan completed a week at IMSA and we had 1 week before high School football starts. I just got home from the parent meeting....INTENSE....TJ starts double work-outs tomorrow in the heat, for a good 5-6 hrs a day until school starts. Then it's practice after school everyday for 2 1/2 hrs~plus 1 game a week.

Callahan is studying for the SAT's.. Yes, my middle schooler needs good SAT scores to get into his high  school of choice, IMSA... not to mention straight A's.. Some budding IMSA hopefuls take the SAT 5 times...5 times. All this is way to much for me to handle. Both my boys will have a tough year and so will I.

Needless to say I'm about 2 weeks behind in updating my blog

Callahan enjoyed quiet mornings while the sun came up to read his book "The Red Pyramid"

Cal's favorite place is up at the lake

My sweet fun loving 1 st grader

I took an hour and went on a nature walk through Kettle Moraine State Park and snapped lots o bugs

cool shots from Michigan

click on moon to see the craters

Thunder 2010 Finale

The 2010 season has come to and end. The boys had a spectacular season playing in 6 tournaments, winning 4, 1st place trophies...three by sweeps! The Thunder family is really something special, from the coaches to the players to the families. There is a real sadness when it all comes to an end.

This week we were in North Aurora, it was hot and the days were long.  Our boys did a great job...we played 4 games and went 4-0

My other special boys

Now I need to address the fact that my home is a disaster area...we have not recovered from flood 2010. None of our appliances came on except the hot water heater. My brand new furnace, central air, washer and dryer are all fried...my lower level smells like a toilet...an unflushed toilet. Everything needs to be ripped out....AGAIN. My deck is litered with tons of clothes covered in black flies (I just chucked everything out the laundry room window)

This mess is much worse than 2 years ago, but we are insured this time. Oh well, life goes on. We have less than 1 month before the boys go back to school and we have a whole lot of summer to pack in

starting with a trip to Wisconsin on Thursday

Time out from the toilet...to sweep a tournament!!!

The 13U Thunder hosted the Lombard Tournament this weekend.  Mother Nature called and cancelled Friday and Saturday. Saturday night our Thunder dads were out shop-vacing the fields at 3 locations. Sunday 6:45 am they were out grooming all the fields. We completed an entire tournament in one day utilizing 3 of Lombards Senior ballfield parks. The Thunder swept the tounanament. Our boys played a triple header; they practiced 1 hr prior to game 1, then 3 back to back 2 hr games with only a 10 min candy bar-drink break . The Championship game was 2 hrs later. We won all 4 games....3 by slaughter.

My house was still filled with sewage...I used a 12 ft piece of PVC pipe and fished out TJ's uniform from the sludge. My dear team-mate mom, Karen washed and dried it for me. The boys stepped up, as we were not the only one w/o water and power. Look at their faces in the team pictures...sweaty, dirty, hot and tired boys. Needless to say a good 11 hours of baseball in the 95 + heat index is taxing.

TJ and his special fan...

The Flood

We woke up to a flooded lower level and street. Seems like we've been through this before...we have, 2 years ago FIRST FLOOD and clean-up

Life throws you curve balls, can't let it get you down. Here is how we made the best of a rainy rainy day

kayak parking here

gotta love the self timer on continuous shoot mode...

Look closely in the water...my stainless steel front loader was bobbing and tipped over...with all the clean clothes I had folded on top

look how deep the water is...we can access the breakers from the laundryroom window...thank God

No reason not to enjoy yourself, just because your house is underwater. A bunch of friends came by to make the best out of a rainy day

No many people can say they kayaked in their backyard

Water volleyball

The afternoon sun came out and it will rise in the morning...

I see land!