Dos amigos a el restaurante de Pablo esta noche.

Tonight we had Ros & John's b-day dinner at Pablo's Restaurant. All the kids did great and we had lots of fun watching Petey & Mitch compete against each other in a hot sauce eating contest. The wait staff came and sang happy birthday to Ros & John and delivered fried ice cream to both of them. They had great fun hamming it up for the camera, even though John still isn't feeling well. You know he's sick when he didn't even eat his ice cream and asked if we could eat Roslyn's ice cream cake tomorrow. (I think that he & I have something viral along with the strep throat.) Once we have the ice cream cake, I'll post more pix. The extended birthday continues.


Dos amigos.


The Birthday Girl.


The birthday sombrero.


Roslyn's sombrero dance.


The Birthday Boy.


John making a wish.


Get ready....


.... and blow out the candle!

Happy Birthday Roslyn & John!!

Amazingly, it was 5 years ago today that our little Roslyn & John were born. They have been so much fun and we're so glad they're ours. Having two sets of kids close in age, I can definitely say that twins are easier than babies that are 14 months apart like Petey & Mitch (less competition). But I wouldn't trade any of them for the world.

We'll be having the family b-day dinner celebration on Saturday once Jim is back from his trip. Unfortunately, John & I have strep throat, so I hope we'll feel better by then. In a few weeks we're going to have a party with their entire kindergarten class at Pump it Up. Sounds like a big party, but there's only 8 kids total, including Ros & John. I always make them their own cakes. Just because they share a birthday, doesn't mean they have to share a cake! This year they decided to have Roslyn's cake after the family dinner and have John's cake at the party with the friends. It's a great plan and makes my life easier. I'll post some pictures of the kids with the cake tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy reminiscing with the pix below.


Baby Roslyn


Baby John


Big bro's (ages 6.75 & 5.5) & the bambinos (1 day old).


Cutie Ros.


Silly John.


The most fun had at Six Flags was Dad's shoe laces.


Waiting to go on the spaceship ride at Disney World.

Did you hear the news?

This afternoon I was invited to interview at The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) on Oct 30th. Of all the schools I've applied to, I didn't think that I had much of a chance at UIC. How nice it is to be wrong!

Ketchup

Actually, I'm playing catch-up but I just like saying the word ketchup. It's a fun word and flows nicely off the tongue. So here are some of the things that I need to ketchup on .......

1. Happy Belated Birthday Janiene!! Her b-day was on the 7th while we were in Toronto without convenient wireless access, hence the late posting. She's one of my 3 most favorite sisters-in-law, even though she is a Buckeye.

2. Petey's team played well in Toronto. They made it into the 1/4 finals as the wild-card with a 2-0-2 record, but lost their 3rd game on Saturday against the Mississauga Rebels. As we were leaving Sunday morning he said, "I wish the tourney was just starting, so we could do it all over again". Well guess what Pete, Thanksgiving is away this year in Toronto, so your wish is coming true.

3. And the biggest news is that we are starting to get all our ducks in a row for Mitchell to move home in December or January! We have to determine what type of classroom setting he'll be in, arrange all the support services, etc. Lots of things to get in place between now and then so that he can have a successful transition home.

Happy 39th Birthday Smokey!

Today is my Smokey the Bear's 39th b-day. My big sister Debby gave me Smokey for my 3rd b-day. He had been in retirement for many years but has been picking up odd jobs to pass the time lately. He is particularly good at getting into bed with Ros or John in the middle of the night to chase away bad dreams. When he was "born", he had new blue jeans, a belt with a fancy forest ranger "buckle" and a forest ranger badge on his chest. I don't remember if he had a hat, but here is basically what he looked like. Over the years his buckle and badge fell off, his belt broke, his jeans wore out, he was smooshed flat from snuggling and his smile & fur were loved off of him. Back in the 70's my sister Rhonda sewed him some new jeans and I drew him a new smile with a ball point pen. I recently had to resort to iron on patches to act as "skin grafts" because he was thread bare in many places. He also wears a sweater now for warmth. For those of you who have read "The Velveteen Rabbit", you'll know what I mean when I say that Smokey is real.


Smokey the Bear


Baby Zoso, Smokey & Cambear


John, Ros & their "friends".


John & his best "friends".


Ros & her best "friends"

Happy Birthday Susan!

Today is my sister Susan's birthday. She had just turned 7 years old when I was born and still likes to remind me that I "stole" her baby spot. So in her honor, we painted the interior of our front porch today. For those of you that don't know her personally, she's an artist, so that's why painting is in her honor. Anyway, I realized that I don't have any digital pix of her so I decided to post the pix of John assisting with the painting. His comment on the process was, "I'm not big enough to do this yet, but I'm doing a perfect job." He really was quite good at it, must be the "southpaw" in him.

Happy Birthday Patrick!

Today is my nephew Patrick's 17th birthday. He is also my Godson, which means many things, but one thing is that he still gets presents from me. He has learned over the years that these presents are often late. This year will be no exception! One of the other things about him being my Godson is that I get bragging rights above and beyond normal Aunt status. So, let me brag a bit:

- Patrick has earned a full ride academic scholarship for engineering. He'll attend Lansing Community College in 2008 for 2 years then transfer to Michigan State University for the remaining 2 years, graduating with an engineering degree of his choice.

- Not only is he smart, he's handsome too. Just look at the pix below.

- And, last but not least, he's NOT a nerd. Among his many athletic talents, he is an excellent golfer who got his second hole-in-one before his 13th birthday!

- If any of you out there know of a young lady that is worthy of Patrick's hand in marriage once he graduates from college, my finders fees are accepted via cash or money orders. (Another perk of being his God-mama!)


Big 'Sis Helen, Patrick & his Junior Prom date.


Patrick, his prom date and his friends.
(Kinda looks like each guy has 2 dates, doesn't it??)

Whew!

I am so glad my DAT is done. I took it Wednesday and it went pretty well. I did average on most of it, but really rocked the biology, reading comprehension & perceptual ability sections (90, 96 & 97 percentile nationally). Those 3 sections are historically the ones most heavily weighted by dental schools. So, hopefully more interviews will come my way. Keep your fingers crossed.

In the meantime, my new semester started. I'm only taking Spanish this fall, so I should be able to relax a bit. Petey starts Bernotas Middle School next week as a big 6th grader. We went to orientation on Tuesday night and saw all his classrooms and he was able to practice his locker combo. All very exciting. Mitchell goes back to ODTC tomorrow after being home all week. The weather has been crappy (Mississippi humid &/or rain every day), so he's been quite wound up during this home visit. Ros & John start Kindergarten after Labor Day. If we remain in IL, they'll do a 2nd year of Kindergarten because the age cut-off here is Sept 1st. But, because they miss the cut-off by only a couple of weeks, we'll have the option of having them tested and "waived" into 1st grade if we feel they're ready. However, that's a long way off at this point.

Outside Bernotas Middle School right after orientation.
(And yes, that is my 5th child JD in the pix.)

One point I forgot to mention .... Bernotas Middle School is on a "campus" with North Elementary School. Guess what the highlight of orientation was? Yep, the elementary school's playground!

The upside-down gang.

Monkey Mitchell

Monkey Roslyn


Bus driver John


The attempted "action shot" of John on the slide.

Happy Birthday Nicholas!

Today is my nephew Nick's 6th birthday. Happy B-day Nick! Be sure to tell your Mom & Dad that I still need new pictures e-mailed to me!


The Birthday Boy!


'Da boys.


Kristen & Nick

Interview invitation!!

Today, I received my first invitation for an interview. YEAH!! I'll be flying out to Phoenix on October 2nd to interview on the 3rd at Midwestern University College of Dental Medicine.

Happy Birthday Kristen!

Today is my niece Kristen's 5th birthday. I'm really glad that she's starting kindergarten this fall, because now I may actually get some recent school pictures of her. These pix are 1.5 years old. (Hint, hint Janiene & Tim!)


The Birthday Girl.


The cousin gang ... Nick, Roslyn, Kristen & John.


The girls hanging out.

End of a 24 DAY streak .......

Unbelievable! I went 24 years without a ticket until I got one in July. Now I only made it a whopping 24 DAYS and got one!! This time it was for "improper lane usage". There were a couple of cars stopped in the road waiting to turn left, so a car in front of me went around them on the right, so I followed as did the car behind me. But, because it was a "right turn only" lane into a subdivision, we got nailed. I say "we" because the car behind me got pulled over at the same time and the cop said that he would have pulled over the car in front too if he could have gotten all 3 of us. I took a look at my watch and was beginning to wonder if I'd get pulled over 24 minutes later. Thankfully, I didn't.

Happy B-day Jonathan!

Today is my nephew Jonathan's 22nd birthday. When I was in college, I used to babysit all 3 of my brother's kids in exchange for a home cooked meal & access to free laundry. Sometimes I would take the kids with me to watch an intramural ball game at school. The big kids (Melissa & Brian) would go play at the nearby empty field, but Jonathan was still a toddler and therefore usually on my hip. I later found out that many of my classmates thought that he was my son. Happy Birthday!


The birthday boy.


The Godpapa Big Jon & the Godson 'Lil John.


The "God knows what!"


The 'lil Bro, the vodka lover & the big bro.

Tagged.

There has been a little game of tag going on amongst bloggers that I know. When tagged, you're supposed to list 10 random things about yourself on your blog. I was tagged as "it" by my niece Laura. So, I'll try to come up with 10 things.

1. My preferred form of exercise is still running, however I've been swimming more lately because it's easier on my joints.
2. I love getting older (except for the "old" joints). I've never been one to hide my age, in fact my 42nd birthday is next month so feel free to send presents. It's my favorite holiday.
3. My 2nd favorite holiday is Halloween. Everyone's alter-ego comes to life and you can be anyone you want to be (and it's socially acceptable). Not to mention all the caramel that's available.
4. I really can't stand Christmas. Or cats.
5. I love going to school. I'm quite the geek.
6. When given a choice between ice cream or a Slushee, I'll usually pick the Slushee.
7. My dream vacation is spending a week or three in a small grass hut on a secluded island in Tahiti with Jim.
8. My favorite drink is tequila, specifically Margaritas, especially in the locker room after one of my hockey games.
9. I have come to the conclusion that even though I've always wanted my kids to grow up with snow, I'm ready for a single season warm climate, close to a mountain or two so we can drive the kids to play in the snow.
10. I don't believe that I'll have 7 years of bad luck by not tagging anyone, which is a good thing because everybody that I know with a blog has already been tagged.

2007 State Champs!

Mitchell's baseball team, The Good News Bears, won the Wisconsin Special Olympic's State Championship on Saturday in Eau Claire, WI! Congratulations Mitch & The Bears! Jim took the kids up to watch the tourny, while I stayed home to study. Ugh. I did get a lot done, but I would rather have been at the games.


The Gold Medal!!


Clown celebration


In the end, it all comes back to hockey!