Proud Mamma

I am so proud of B1! She was chosen to represent her class (5th grade) in the school spelling bee. There were 3 kids chosen from each 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade class. She never made it to the school spelling bee in either 3rd or 4th grade. This year, not only did she make the cut to participate in the school spelling bee, but today she finished 3rd overall at school and was one of 4 students chosen to go on to the district spelling bee! Yay for her! I am hoping the next one is in the evening so I can go without missing school myself!

Planning For The Summer

Last night, I met with several other people in our "group" and we chose our Cardinal tickets for this summer's games. Hubby and I share a season ticket package with these people and we buy 5 games of 4 seats and 5 games of 2 seats. That way, we get to go as a family sometimes but also, he and I get a "date night" once in awhile too. I love Cardinal baseball. Even if the team is going to be made of up "strangers" this year, we will eventually have to get used to these players! I grew up going to Busch Stadium and I just love the smell of the place. I reminds me of being a kid and walking across the bridge from the old parking garage into the stadium with my parents and brother! Great memories. But anyway, I feel that a couple of the dates I picked were awesome. I got Friday, July 4! So we plan to book a hotel room (and yes, I know I should do this sooner than later) downtown and stay down there for the fireworks, etc. Even though Fair St. Louis is smaller than it used to be, it will still be fun. Also, I got Friday May 30, which is my birthday. When I was growing up, I used to ask my dad to try to get "Shell seats" for my birthday every year. (My dad worked for Shell Oil and they had 4 tickets to each game 10 rows behind the Cardinal dugout.) My dad usually succeeded and if I was really lucky, he would have my name put on the scoreboard!

Also, today, I booked all of our Disney meal reservations for this summer. You can book these 180 days out and today was exactly 180 days before the first reservation. Well, I found out that since we are staying on Disney property, I could go ahead and book ALL of my reservations for meals, even if some of them were more than 180 days away! YAY! So here is what I booked: the first night we will attend the Polynesian Luau. I really wanted to book Mickey's Backyard BBQ but this will be a Wednesday night and they only do the BBQ on Thursday - Sunday nights. I've always wanted to do the Luau anyway so I guess it was a sign. The next day (which is also our 15-year anniversary) we will have dinner at the 50's Prime Time Cafe in MGM Studios. The day after that, we will have lunch with the Princesses in Cinderella's Castle in the Magic Kingdom. And the day after that, we will have breakfast at Chef Mickey's in the Contenporary Resort. Then we go on our 4-day Disney cruise, then come back to Disney World, and one of those days, we will eat at a restaurant in the Canada portion of Epcot called Le Celliar. It's a steakhouse. I was having trouble trying to decide between that one and the sit-down restaurant in Mexico, but for whatever reason, chose Canada. We shall see.....

LOSERS!

Anyone watch "The Biggest Loser"? We do. Well, B1, B2, and I do. Hubby would probably watch it with us as well but it seems he usually has basketball games on Tuesday nights. We are watching it right now, as I type this on the laptop. We never watched it in any of the other seasons but this time it looked interesting, so we decided to set the TiVo to record it. B2 likes watching the weigh-in the most but B1 and I like the contests, etc.

When I picked the girls up from my parents' house tonight, my mom was standing at the stove, cutting up potatoes to make part of their supper. It was good to see her being domestic. I asked her if she is hungry again now and she said yes. She claims that some medicine she takes makes her hungry. I told her that is good! She had another bone marrow test done on Friday so we are waiting on those results and then finally a treatment plan.

Gotta love the "no smoke"

I really love this "no smoking in public places" law that ILLINOIS has put into place since Jan. 1. Tonight, B1's girl scout troop was in charge of the food stand at our local bingo hall. In the past, you could definitely plan on coming home from working there smelling like an ash tray. Not tonight. It was awesome! The four of us worked all evening, selling food and soda. We also played a few bingo cards and I even won one game (there were several winners, so I got a whole $6!). But the no-smoke factor was great. Last weekend, we ate dinner one night in Missouri. When we were seated, they asked "smoking or non?". I began to think "Huh? What do you mean?" but then I remembered we weren't in ILLINOS anymore. From what I have seen at the places we have been since Jan. 1, the law is working out nicely and people are cooperating well. My lungs are happy.

Unnecessary Talking

OK, yeah I know I have been rather neglecting my blog. But I've had a lot on my mind and it seems that B1 and B2 have had a bit more school work than usual. It's January and it seems that in January every year, they get a bit busier at school. B1 has a science fair project she's working on, which really isn't that big of a deal (final product not due until March), but still takes a little time to think about. And the fact that science was never one of my favorite subjects doesn't help! They both have Young Author books due on Feb. 2 as well. I am always so happy when that project is completed and turned in! Again, English.....not one of my favorite subjects! I can do grammar for the most post, but writing? Yuck. They both got their report cards yesterday and B1 got all A's and all S's for satisfactory in her behavior/socialization. B2 got an A in the one subject they actually give a letter grade for in 2nd grade (I seriously can't remember which subject that is right now). But she went from an S to a P (progressing) in social studies and as usual, got a P for "controls unnecessary talking." This is a continual thing with her, she talks when she isn't supposed to at school. Last year, one quarter, she actually got an S in the talking category and we were so happy!

Update

We visited the doctor at Barnes (Siteman Cancer Center) on Friday. His plan for now is to treat my mom with drugs and begin to look for a possible bone marrow match. Her spirits still seem to be good and my parents went out to eat last night and also to an antique mall. Today, she came to B1's basketball game (in which B1 scored 5 points!) and they are planning to eat out again tonight. She claims she has been feeling much better since receiving platelets last Saturday and again on Friday the 4th. She will go to the hospital (Barnes) again tomorrow and get 2 more units of blood. Then on Friday they go back and see the doctor for the actual plan of medication.

So many people have been so kind to me and my family throughout all of this. I sit in church and look around and see all these people who I have known my entire life and I know that I could ask almost any one of them for help and they would not hesitate. I think growing up in a small town is wonderful in that regard.

B2 and I took the dog for a walk today in the almost 70 degree temperature! What a great day. The wind was blowing a little bit but it was pretty darn nice outside and our dog was happy to get some exercise! She looks at us sometimes with those big eyes, just begging us to play with her!

And finally..... if it affects you and your commute, then I feel bad for you, but I am SICK of hearing about the stupid highway 40 shutdown on the news!!!!! Get over it already and move on!