F#@K!!

It's snowing ..... again.

Happy Birthday Mitchell!

Our Leprechaun turned 11 years old today! I made him a Rey Mysterio mask cake. I'm not a fan of the WWE myself, but since I need to stay in touch with my boys, I figured the old adage of "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" applied here. Mitch loved his presents tonight, but his favorite was the Micro WWE Arena that we got him. It's a wrestling arena that has a bunch of 1.5" high dudes that can body slam, "break" things, launch from the ropes, etc. and the whole thing folds up into a carrying case. As you can see, Mitchell also made himself a mask!

By the way, I wanted to send out a belated blog happy b-day to my sister-in-law Jan. Her b-day was last Monday and instead of blogging about her, I spent the time catching up with her on the phone. Hi Jan!

AAAAHHHHHHH!

More Snow!!! I'm done. Just lock me away in my bedroom until spring. I'll be dreaming of things like the scene below:

Mission Update

The Mission 97's took the state title today by beating TI 4-3, but the Midget Minors (91 & 92's) came in 2nd by losing in OT 4-3 to TI. So, after 9 out of 10 Mission teams advanced to the finals, 7 of those 9 now hold the state championship title and the other two teams are the runners up. That's 70% of the club holding state titles, a new state record. Way to go Chicago Mission AAA Hockey Club!

STATE CHAMPIONS!!

This afternoon the Chicago Mission '96 Pee Wee Minor AAA hockey team earned the title of State Champions by beating CYA 2-1! Congratulations guys! It's been a good year for them. They finished up tied for 2nd place in the three state Midwest Elite Hockey League, they're ranked 9th in the nation and now they hold the state title. Unfortunately, this is the end of their season because they are in a "minor" year (1st year pee wees). Regional and national title championships are only held for "major" year pee wees & bantams.

The Chicago Mission Hockey Club has had an unprecedented 9 out of 10 teams advance to the championship round of the Blackhawk cup this year (the 10th team lost in a shootout). Half way through this weekend the Mission 96's, 95's, 94's, 93's and 2 out of the 3 girls teams have taken the state title. We're waiting to hear the score of the 92's game tonight and the 97's have 1 more game tomorrow. Way to go Mission!!

Blackhawk Cup Season!

For those of you not familiar with IL youth hockey, the Blackhawk Cup is a series of games to compete for the state championship title. Last weekend Petey's hockey team competed in the round robin playoffs and won all 3 games, qualifying them for the three game "finals" against CYA (Chicago Young Americans). On Thursday they beat CYA 2-1 in TRIPLE overtime. That's three 15 minute periods (They're normally 17 minutes, but are shortened for the cup series), followed by two full 10 minute OT periods and just under 3 minutes into the 3rd OT, Pete's team scored for the win. On Saturday afternoon, they play CYA for the 2nd game of the series. If they win, the series is over and the hard-wear will be passed out. So, think hockey, think positive and think ...... GO MISSION!!


Now here's a moment of Mom bragging:
Petey scored the first goal of the game on Thursday. After being tripped, he managed to get a wrist shot off while on his knees. It hit the cross bar, bounced off the goalie's back, spun around on the goal line and then plunked down in the net!

Odd literature.

Imagine our surprise when Roslyn told us that she was saving her money to buy a "diarrhea book". I wasn't sure if this was an early interest in medicine or just some weird idea one of her brothers put in her head. When we asked her to tell us about this book she wanted, she said it was the one she saw on T.V. Needless to say, we started wondering if getting digital cable was such a good idea after all! Then it all became clear once we saw the commercial she was referring to .......

....... the electronic diarrhea book, for girls only!

Our budding artist.

John is such an artist, that he's compulsive about it. He'll get a picture or an idea in his head and the world stops until he can get it down on paper with markers or paint. That was the case today, he had a picture in his head on the way home from school and had to create it the second he walked in the door.

My sister, Susan, is an artist/art teacher and has shown John how to do a rough sketch of his idea before painting. At first he wasn't thrilled with the idea of following a process, he just wanted to do it his way. However, the lesson obviously stuck because walking in the door from school today the following conversation occurred:

John: I'm going to draw my picture in pencil before I paint it, that way I can get it just right.

Me: That sounds like a good idea, just like Aunt Susan showed you. That's how artists do it, and she's an artist.

John: Yeah, and she's old.

Apparently John respects Aunt Susan's "experience".

Too true!

In Friday's Tribune, someone had sent a letter to the editor that I had to share.

"Thirty days hath September, April, June and November. All the others have thirty-one, except February which hath ..... EIGHTY!!"

Anyone else sick of winter??!!

Cooties!

Sunday evening (right after Jim left for London) Petey spiked a 102.3 F and started throwing up, along with a moderate sore throat. Tylenol would bring his temp down to 99-101, but as soon as it wore off his temp went right back to 102.3 F.

Today I took him to the doc and his ears, lungs & throat were clear and the strep test was negative. Apparently there's a 3-5 day virus going around with these symptoms.

Late this afternoon his fever finally broke and I was hopeful that he had the 3 day version vice the 5 day version. But, as things go, his temp is back up to 101 F tonight. I just hope that we can contain these cooties so no one else gets sick.

Double Birthday!

Today is my Mom's 82nd b-day and my niece Lauren's 2nd b-day, Happy Birthday girls! We celebrated my Mom's b-day a week ago at my sister Susan's house. That's what these pix are from. I don't have any digital pix of Lauren because my sister-in-law is still really good about sending real pix in the mail.

Ros, John, Mom, Ella & Mitchell

Happy Birthday Sammy!!

My nephew Sam turns 24 today. He moved to Florida last year after he was accepted to golf pro school. He's proof that people live in Orlando that don't work for The Rat. Happy Birthday Sam and watch out for those attack-fish at the beach!

"And do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga...gunga -- gunga lagunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice."

Happy Birthday Errin!!

Today is my niece Errin's 28th birthday. She is also my one and only God-daughter and she in turn is Pete's God-mother. Errin teaches high school English in St. Paul MN. Since I didn't have any recent pix of her, her students were nice enough to send me this pix of her lecturing in class. BTW, in her honor our dryer decided to go on vacation, the motor seized up and the soonest the part will arrive is Friday.

Happy Birthday Peter!!

Today is Petey's 12th b-day, his last year as a tween. We celebrated it yesterday because he is at hockey practice right now and Jim had to leave for London. We went for the traditional sushi dinner and brought our 5th child along (JD). Pete then had JD & his buddy Cory stay the night. After all the kids were well sugared up on cake & ice cream, the 4 big boys (Pete, JD, Cory & Mitch) then spent the night playing shinny hockey and video games. Petey may be growing up fast, but he'll always be my baby boy. I love you Petey!

New Year's Shuffle

Just thought I'd give my blog a face lift for 2008. Feel free to discuss amongst yourselves.