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!

Happy Birthday Laura!

Today is my niece Laura's 31st B-day. Had she been born just a few weeks earlier, she would have been a true "Bicentennial Baby". We decided to keep her anyway.

"Free" Cougar's game

On Saturday night we went to watch the Kane County Cougars play the Ft. Wayne Wizards. Pete won 4 lawn seat tickets to the game from the library's summer reading program. We bought a few extra and the whole family went: Me, Jim, Petey, Mitchell, Roslyn, John & JD (Pete's brother from another mother). Well almost the whole family, George had to stay home. The weather was perfect (& no bugs), JD brought glow sticks for everyone, we had good hot dogs, great Summer Shandy beer, nachos, slurpees, cotton candy and then a finale of fireworks. We had a blast.


Petey & JD


Jim & Mitchell


John


Roslyn


Me & Roslyn


Snuggly Ros


'Da Big Boys


Mitchell in his "Ninja glow stick"


Ooooh, I need one of those sparkly things!


The sparkly things. (They remained at the ball park!)


The kids were great, the Cougars weren't!!


Moon rise


Sunset


Post game fireworks

Trout Pond

On Friday morning Jim took Pete & Mitch fishing at a local (stocked) trout pond. The trip was a success because the boys caught dinner. Jim grilled the fish and we ate them. I've got to say though, I'm not fond of trout. I finished what was on my plate with a happy face because I didn't want to disappoint Pete & Mitch. They were very proud that they provided dinner (never mind that Jim paid by the pound for the catch). Too bad there aren't any Wahoo, Mahi Mahi, Grouper, Amberjack or Tuna ponds around Chicagoland. I'm feeling the need to return to Key West for dinner!

Can you say "Daddy's Girl"?

Today Jim made cupcakes. Why? Because Roslyn had been asking for them for a few days. However, we had no cake mixes on hand so he just made them from scratch. The first time I made a cake from scratch was for my sister Susan's birthday, eons ago. It had purple frosting, got dubbed the Hamtramck cake & was the last time I made a cake from scratch. BTW, Jim has never made any cupcakes from scratch for me. I think I am now officially "second fiddle" to Ros.

End of a 24 year streak......

No, I'm not talking about the Cubbies. I'm referring to the fact that I have gone 24 years without a traffic ticket. Until today. While driving home from my Biochem class at NIU, one of Illinois' finest decided that the wide open spaces of the back country roads should not be enjoyed too much. Apparently, I was enjoying them 24 MPH too much, which translates into $95 worth of fun. It's just so easy to do in the Passat. I guess the GTI is not the only V-dub with fast .....

..... so when I was pulled over, I was hoping to be able to charm my way out of a citation. Imagine my disappointment when the trooper got out of HER car. She asked me if I had any good reason for going so fast. Of course what I was thinking was, "It's because I didn't see you or I would have slowed down!". How I actually responded was, "No". (I was traveling eastbound, a ways back behind a semi, and the trooper was traveling westbound behind a line of 4 cars, so she was well hidden.) Now, as I recall the event, all I can say is, Farfegnugen!

Form E-mails, yippee.

UIC & VCU have sent me the ever exciting form e-mails that state, "We've received your application, now send us more money, then don't call us we'll call you.". UIC is Univ of IL at Chicago and VCU is Virginia Commonwealth Univ, and yes, VA is still a commonwealth. Nothing official from the other 6 that I've applied to yet. But, no news is better than bad news in this game.

On a brighter note, after 5 tests in Neurobiology I'm getting an A in the class (10 more tests to go though). There's only been 1 test so far in Biochem, but I did get the high score on that one. Yeah me, no ducks involved this time. But the real kudos go to Jim for taking over the kids and the house when he comes home so I can actually get some productive studying done prior to 22:00. Double yeah Jim!!