Picture(s) #5

The first picture is of B1 and B2 in their softball uniforms. Hubby had to coach B1's game tonight by himself (the other 2 coaches couldn't be there) so he had to call in some "reinforcements." The second picture is of my dad hitting some practice grounders to the girls. Dad used to coach my brother's baseball teams for many years and tonight, he got right back into the rhythm! He also coached third base.

B1's team tied tonight. They haven't lost a game yet and this was their first tie. It seemed that many of them were just a bit "off" tonight. I guess at least we didn't lose!

B2's team WON their first game of the season tonight! Whoo-hoo! And B2 got a HIT! She has been struggling at the plate but tonight, she hit the ball!

Picture #4

Today was spent at Raging Rivers Waterpark in Grafton, IL. B1 and B2 get free tickets every year from doing a certain amount of reading at school so only Hubby and I had to pay to get in. We took a mutual friend of the girls' along as well (this reduces the amount of bickering that occurs between our daughters!). We had a good time.....due largly in part to the fact that the most we had to wait for anything was about 3 people. It was a great day to be there. The temp was 85 when we arrived, a shower had just passed, and the sun was coming back out. This picture is of a slide called the "Swirl Pool" but we like to refer to it as the "Toilet Bowl." You slide down the long tube and into this round, disc shaped thing. You go round and round in there for a little while until finally you plop out the hole in the bottom of it and fall into a pool of water that is probably 8 feet deep. There are 2 swirl pools.....one with a lid and one without. Today, only the one with a lid was in operation. The first time I rode it, I fell into the pool head first, but the next 2 times it was feet first.....the way I prefer!

Picture #3

Hubby and I went to the movies tonight to see "What Happens in Vegas." It was cute but not as good as we had hoped it would be. I think we were thinking there would actually be more of VEGAS in it (a place we both love) but only the beginning of the movie was actually set there. But it was a nice night out. We saw the movie at the Lory Theater in Highland, IL. This theater has been there as long as I can remember. Yes, they still use the ticket booth thing out front too. You don't see much of that anymore. Movies here now cost $4.50 (matinees are $3.00) but I remember a time when I believe the theater was about to go belly-up, so they began only charging $1.00. It must have worked; people came back, and now the theater is running fine it seems. And they actually show pretty recent movies too. The other offering right now is "Ironman." This theater used to only have one screen but many years ago, the balcony was closed off and made into a second (much smaller) theater. In grade school (yes, we called it grade school, not elementary school), I remember witnessing a make-out session for the first time. I believe I was in 6th grade and someone's older sister was sitting in the back row with a boy, kissing heavily. We were more interested in watching that than the movie! In high school, we would go to the Lory Theater just for something to do. We didn't care what was showing, we just needed a place to go. I saw "Romancing the Stone", "A Nightmare on Elm Street", and "St. Elmo's Fire" there. Oh yeah, and tonight was free popcorn night too! Yippeee!!!

Picture #2

We opened our pool about 10 days ago but the weather has been too cold to actually swim.....until yesterday! B1 had a ball game yesterday which started at 1:00pm. By the time we got done, we were very ready for a quick dip in the pool! We hadn't even hooked the ladder up yet but we did so yesterday. This photo was taken today. It wasn't quite as sunny outside today but the water was still good. B2 had to get out a little early because she has a game tonight. They don't like that "minimal swimming on game days" rule but that's how it goes in our house!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Well, the birthday weekend went very well. Here is a recap:

Friday night was spent first at the Spaghetti Factory, where I got to eat their awesome cheese garlic bread and my favorite.....spaghetti with mizithra cheese, oh yum! Our friends Dan and Willy joined us for dinner as they too had Cardinal tickets. Thanks for dessert Dan and Willy! Ha ha! We had parked at Lumiere Place (for free) and then rode their shuttle to the ballpark. The Cardinals won the game, Albert Pujols hit a home run, and the new guy Mather, whose first major league game was that night, had 2 awesome catches in right field and got his first major league hit. I was present at Willie McGee's first major league game back in the 80's too. Anyway, it was a great night. The rain held off long enough for us to get back to our car without getting too wet, thanks to the shuttle. For my birthday earlier in the day, I received a cake from Cold Stone Creamery, the first season of "Friday Night Lights", a gift card to Creve Coeur Camera, a gift card to Scrapbook Factory, and a memory card to use in my phone from Hubby, B1, and B2. I also received a home-made card from each of the girls.

On Saturday night, we headed back to the landing with more than food in mind (at least in my mind). We picked up 3 friends first and then headed to St. Louis. We parked in the lot adjacent to the Spaghetti Factory and then went to Hannigan's for dinner. I had never eaten there before Saturday night and we were pleasantly surprised. Three other friends met us there so our party consisted of eight people. We stayed there about two hours total. Then we went to The Big Bang, which has been a blast the two times I have now been there. Those guys are amazingly talented and can play anything you ask for on the piano! They did country, rock, fight songs, everything. It was great. We stayed there for like five hours! We were lucky to get 2 tables right in the center of the crowd and we were entertained the entire evening. The drinks helped too! Ha ha! While we were there, seven of my former students (who are all now of age) showed up. I knew three of them were coming, but the other four were a surprise. It was great! We left the landing about 1:30am and headed back to Illinois. Hubby (who was our DD and had been drinking diet Coke all night) decided that he needed food and the rest of us were in agreement. So we went to Denny's. I love that place late at night! I went to bed at 3:00am.

Today, Sunday, we celebrated with my parents and brother by eating dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. I love that place too! I had the Chinese chicken salad which was great and for dessert this time I tried Oreo Mudslide cheesecake. I try to make myself try a new one each time. I haven't had a bad one yet! We also had Buffalo Blast as an appetizer. If you like buffalo wings, you should try these. It's like they take shredded chicken, mix it with cheese and some hot sauce, bread it somehow, and deep fry it. It sort of looks like pieces of fish when it comes out on the plate. Yummo! My parents gave me a knick-knack to put in our sunroom and money towards my camera purchase.

It was a great weekend. I was lucky that my big day fell on a Friday so that I could make an entire weekend of it!

Now, during June, I plan to post a picture each day. I can't guarantee how successful this will be, but I am definitely going to try. I may have to take some of the pictures with my cell phone camera, so I'm not going to promise anything as far as quality either. We'll see how it goes! Here is the first one, a picture of my cake from Cold Stone. The cake was called "Cookie Dough Delirium."

40

It is shortly after midnight on May 30. I am 40 years old today. We are celebrating this weekend several times, which I am excited about. Tonight (Friday), Hubby, B1, B2, and I are going to the Cardinal baseball game. Before the game, we are going to meet 2 friends at the Spaghetti Factory, which is one of my favorite restaurants. I love going to the Cardinal game on my birthday! Growing up, my dad would try to get seats from his company every year on or as close to my birthday as possible so we could go. It was great.

Saturday night, some friends of ours are going out to the Landing to celebrate. We are going to start with dinner at Hannigan's and then play it by ear after that. Should be a fun time!

Sunday, my parents, brother, and the 4 of us are going to the Cheesecake Factory, another favorite restaurant of mine.

I have put together a list of some of the significant things that have happened in each of my 40 years thus far. They are:

1 – Celebrated my first birthday and probably began walking!
2 – My brother entered my life one month before my 2nd birthday
3 – I most likely began Sunday School sometime during this year. My Grandpa Jack died just before I turned 3. I wish I could remember him.....sounds like he was a great guy.
4 - Can't remember anything from this year.
5 – Began the thirteen looooong years of public school education!
6 – In first grade, I clearly remember an experience I had with math, grouping numbers by 10’s.
7 – In second grade, I had some trouble with separation anxiety at school and my teacher was so kind to me.
8 – I had Miss Becker for 3rd grade, a lady who had taught my parents as well! Also, we moved into the house where my parents still live.
9 – In fourth grade, I was Mrs. Cange’s “Student of the Week” during both the first week of school AND the last week of school. I was proud to be the very first one of the school year!
10 – In fifth grade, I got my first “C.” I was rather mortified and didn’t really like Mrs. Moore very much. The “C” was in social studies. My Grandpa Dotty died right at the end of 5th grade. He and my grandma built the house we currently live in.
11 – I remember that for my 11th birthday, my Grandma Philipine gave me a silver charm bracelet, which is still in my jewelry box today.
12 – I got contact lenses the summer after I turned twelve. I was also a cheerleader during this school year.
13 – Oh, the teenage years. I didn’t make cheerleading but I survived. Instead, I kept the stat book for the away basketball games. And I was salutatorian of my 8th grade class.
14 – The beginning of high school and going to school with kids from Marine and Troy, which was a HUGE switch for us St. Jacob kids!
15 – This was my sophomore year of high school. I had a boyfriend from St. Louis who I dated for almost a year.
16 – The driver’s license! It seems I was the one who drove on the weekends most of the time. My parents were cooler than my friends’ parents because all of them had to be home at midnight. I didn’t have to be home until 12:30. That way, since I was usually the one driving, I could take them home (most of the time in Troy) and still be home by my own curfew.
17 – My senior year of high school. I remember doing a lot of thinking about “life” during this time.
18 – Graduated from Triad and began attending Eastern Illinois University.
19 – This was the summer I began working at Dairy Queen in Highland and became friends with Hubby and many more people who are still a very vital part of my life.
20 – Hubby and I began dating a couple months before my 20th birthday.
21 – On my 21st birthday, I was still at EIU (the semester had ended and I was going to “intersession” which was a 3.5 week session during which time I took 2 classes). Hubby came up and visited me and we went to the local liquor store where I bought a bottle of wine. I think this day was one of the only times in my life when I actually WANTED to be carded!
22 – I graduated from EIU in December of this year.
23 – I started my first “real” job (post college) a few months before my 23rd birthday.
24 – Hubby and I got engaged on our 4th anniversary of dating, which was just a couple of months before my 24th birthday.
25 – We got married when I was 25.
26 – We moved into our current (and probably forever) house when I was 26 and we got our first pet, miniature dachshund Barney.
27 – I got pregnant with B1!
28 – I had B1!
29 – I began hating my job and Hubby began encouraging me to switch to a career in teaching.
30 – I got the best job in the world, teaching math at Triad High School!
31 – I got pregnant with AND had B2 during my 31st year.
32 – The new millennium and all the Y2K stuff, which didn’t happen
33 – This was 2001 and we all know what happened on 9/11 that year.
34 – B2 got pneumonia and had to spend a week at Cardinal Glennon. It wasn’t fun but I had full confidence in the doctors there and was never scared.
35 - We went to Walnut Grove, MN as a part of our vacation that summer. This town was made famous by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
36 – We went to Disney World and St. Petersburg, FL on vacation that summer – a trip I had literally been saving for since before B2 was conceived!
37 – We rented a cabin in Gatlinburg this summer and it was awesome!
38 – We went to Texas (Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas) this summer and had a better time than I think any of us expected
39 – My Grandma Philipine died in January of this year, Barney died in February, we got Shinza in April, and my mom got sick in December. We also went on vacation with my parents to Cedar Point, Cooperstown, and Niagara Falls, as well as 3 baseball stadiums along the way.
40 – My mom is slowly improving, which is the best birthday gift I could ask for.

I have had a great 40 years. I am such a lucky person to have a wonderful family, great friends, and a job I love (most days). I know I am truly blessed and hope that God gives me another 40 years to enjoy this life on earth.

Disappointment

OK, so last night we went to see the new Indiana Jones movie. I hated it. Don't get me wrong; I know that if I hadn't seen it, I would have been wondering about it. So I am glad we went, but ticked at the fact that we spent so much $$$ for such a terrible movie (in my opinion). My favorite Indy movie was the 2nd one....."Temple of Doom." I remember loving that one with the little boy in it. I think I was probably in high school when I saw it and maybe my taste in movies has changed drastically since then.....I don't know. But last night I found myself rolling my eyes and saying things like "yeah, right" to myself almost the entire time. Halfway though I knew we had made a mistake. We took B1 and B2 to see it with us and all I can say is thank goodness for the popcorn or they would have been completely BORED. However, it was cheaper to pay their way into the movie than pay for a babysitter! My advice if you really want to see it is to wait for the rental!

Memorial Day Sunday

Today was spent at the St. Louis Zoo with some old college friends of mine. Old friends are the best because you don't feel like you have to work so hard to please them.....they have been in your life long enough for you to know that even though you don't see each other more than about once a year, you can pretty much just pick up right where you left off. And our husbands and children just blend in with each other as well. It was nice. We visited the dinosaur exhibit and I managed to get sprayed in the face by one of them! We saw a good bit of the zoo in the 4 hours we were there. After leaving, we headed over to one of our very favorite restaurants just a block away from the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park. We love eating at Talayna's. I think we introduced my one friend to it when she was a student at Wash U and we have all been going there together ever since! They have the best house salad dressing! Hubby LOVES their lasagna. But nothing you order is ever bad. Yum yum yum!

I'm sorry I don't have any zoo pics to post. I took my film camera to the zoo today. I am saving for a new digital but don't quite have enough yet. Hopefully after my birthday on Friday, I will be there. Happy Memorial Day everyone!

Fishing

Last summer, we made a deal with B1 and B2 that if they went to bed on time without being told for like 40 nights straight, we would take them fishing. Well, they did it but the school year crept up on us sooner than we had time to fish! So we finally got it in today, almost a year later. Anyway, the fish weren't biting today. Hubby was the only one of us that actually caught anything and his fish was pretty darn small! But oh well, we had fun anyway. We plan to try it again at a different lake next time.

On another note, my friend over at the prologue of my life is attempting to post a picture to her blog every day during the month of May. I think I am going to try to do the same during the month of June. We will see if I make it! I know I have been slacking here lately with my posts but now that school is out, I should have some more time to dedicate to my blog. Stay tuned.....

Summer Vacation Starts

Today was the last day of school for high school students. If they didn't have to take final exams, they were done on Wednesday. Us teachers have to go back on Monday, Tuesday (the report card day for the elementary and middle schoolers), and Wednesday. I have some meetings to attend on those days but I will basically just be wrapping things up. They will be easy, laid-back days. I may start to work on some lesson planning for next year. It just doesn't seem like summer vacation time yet though. Maybe that is because it is so early this year or maybe it's because the weather just doesn't seem summer-ish. When I think of summer vacation starting, I think of WANTING to be in the pool. And that just hasn't been the case this week. I can't imagine being in the pool! I would be freezing! I hope it warms up soon so my mood changes a bit.

I got the nicest card today from a student which was totally unexpected. Had someone told me during the first month of school that this girl would give me a card on the last day, I would have said they were crazy. But strange things happen. I e-mailed the girl's parents today too and told them how I felt about their daughter and then the mom e-mailed me back. She told me of what a terrible week she had been having (she shared details of this) and that my e-mail to her had completely made her day. She said she was going to print and frame it! Wow. Sometimes the little things can mean so much!

Happy Mother's Day

What's up with the weather? Today's high was supposedly 57 but I don't think it made it that high. And the wind?!? It was just simply a miserable day outside. I can't remember a Mother's Day like this. Here are the gifts I received for Mother's Day: from Hubby and both girls I received a Disney Cruise Line book (so I can do even MORE reading about our upcoming trip), the 2nd season of Grey's Anatomy on DVD, a Molina (Cardinal) T-shirt, and a Cardinal bracelet that looks as if it was made from baseball leather. I had another bracelet just like it and I wore that one out. Funny thing about the Molina T-shirt.....I have shirts hanging in our basement with the names Vina, Grudzielanek, Rolen, and Eckstein on them. We joke that next year on Halloween, we are all 4 going to dress up like traded St. Louis Cardinals! Ha ha! Well, I like Yadier Molina now as well as Rick Ankiel so I hinted to Hubby that a Molina shirt would be nice (my birthday is also in May so he has more than one reason to buy me gifts!). But then again, I am almost afraid to get a shirt with someone's name on it because inevitably, they get traded.

HEY!!!! I need to get an Isringhausen shirt!! YEAH, then maybe they would trade or release him! That would be GREAT!

From B1, I got a real flower planted in a decorated pot and a fake hyacinth flower made from plastic 6-pack rings that her school recycles. It's really pretty cool looking and does look like an actual hyacinth. She spray painted it blue. From B2, I got a magnet of a picture of me and her that she also made at school. Those gifts are very special. I know someday when they are too "big" to make me things, I will miss it.

I went to graduation today at Triad. I haven't missed a graduation in my 10 years teaching (not even the year I gave birth a month before) and today's was a good ceremony. It always makes me feel good when the graduates applaud us teachers as we enter the gym. It makes me feel like what I do is really worth it. Then we went to dinner with my family at the same restaurant where we went on Easter. I had a stuffed pork chop which was really yummy! I hope all of you had a good Mother's Day as well!

What Kind Of Car Are You?

Go here to see what kind of sports car you would be if your personality took on that of a car! I am a Honda S2000 I believe, which I am not so thrilled about, although the picture I saw wasn't so bad I guess. Aren't those practical cars? I guess that is OK, but one of my good friends was a Chevrolet Corvette and I am jealous. I LOVE Corvettes! I want to be one of those! Let me know how you turn out!

Coincidence?

Thursday night, the four of us went to Triad Middle School, where B1 will be attending 6th grade next year. This building was formerly Triad High School, where Hubby and I both attended for four years and where we graduated from high school.

We sat in the gym with many other parents of current 5th grade students and heard the principal explain policies, procedures, classes, rules, lunch options, pick-up an drop-off places, times, etc. It was informative although since I too teach in the district,we pretty much knew most of it already.

After the principal was through talking, he encouraged everyone to walk through the building, particularly the 6th grade wing. In doing so, Hubby and I each showed the girls where our locker during our high school years was located. Back then, you kept the same locker for all four years. The combination changed each year, but the locker itself remained the same. I have "visited" my old locker several times since high school (I taught for one year in that building when it was still a high school).

I have always known that mine was locker #611. But the other night, after I pointed out my old locker, Hubby walked a little further around the corner and straight up to his old locker. How weird is it that his locker was #711? Maybe I'm just weird and a strange "numbers kind of person" but I thought that this a pretty cool coincidence!! Also, I graduated in 1986 and hubby graduated in 1987. Is that weird? Or am I?

Cardinal Game Pictures

As I said in my last post, we went to the Cardinal game on Sunday. Here we are inside the Bank of America Box.

This is Kay and Jim, who treated us to the tickets.

Here is a view of the stadium from our seats. I think that living so close to St. Louis, we tend to take advantage of the scenery. The Gateway Arch goes unnoticed every time we drive across the river, whereas if we were first-time visitors to St. Louis, we would be "ooh-ing" and "aah-ing" when we saw it!

The RED in the stands is pretty evident, isn't it?

Here is one view of the food we got to eat!

And here is the another!

Yeah, I took this picture.

For the games we have attended, we are 2-0 on the season! We'll see how we do on Friday night when we go watch our Cards play the Chicago Little Bears.

Party, Feet, and Baseball

B2 is having her birthday slumber party as I type this post. She invited 5 friends to stay. Four of them are here. The other had a dance recital this weekend in Peoria. B1 has one friend staying tonight. Why is it that B1 wants to dictate everything that happens at the party? Does she not realize that she is 3 years older than her sister and it's really her sister's party? She so needs to act her age and stop trying to run the show! It this what all girls do or just what our girls do? Gees.

I found out this week that I have Plantar Fasciitis in my right heel. It began hurting 2.5 months ago when we were in Vegas (Was it really that long ago that we were there? Seems like only a couple of weeks!). I woke up on the second morning and my foot hurt. I figured it was just "Vegas feet" because of all of the walking we had been doing. Not so. My foot still hurts. The doc gave me inserts to wear in my shoes for the next few weeks. This is not the time of year that I want to be wearing inserts, however. They don't work with flip flops! It's spring and I want to be wearing flip flops! I do have a pair of Sketchers shoes that I like though. They are a cross between tennis shoes and sandles. I also got a prescription of cortisone. It's one of those deals where you take 6 pills the first day, 5 the next day, etc. I will start that tomorrow. If things aren't better in 3-4 weeks, I have to go back. He did say that if it begins to feel better after wearing the inserts for awhile, I could wear flip flops and sandles again. It's always something, isn't it?

We are going to the Cardinal game on Sunday and we get to sit in the Bank of America box and have all the free food and drink we want! Too bad we only drink soda at ball games. But we will probably put away a good bit of food! We are going with an older couple who are friends of ours. Whenever it snows, Hubby makes sure to shovel their driveway after he shovels ours. This is their way of thanking us (him), and we think it is pretty nice of them.

I only have 18 days left to work this school year.............YIPPPPPEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One Busy Week

I am sorry I've been neglecting my blog here lately. Life has been incredibly BUSY. Just this week.....

Monday night I had "Personal Choice Awards" at school at 7pm. This is where each teacher is given the opportunity to award a student who they believe deserves to be noticed. We are encouraged to give our award to someone who may not be noticed as often as other students. I always enjoy this evening and seeing the look on the face of the student I selected.

Tuesday, B1 and her 5th grade class along with the 5th grade class in a neighboring town got to sing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" at the Cardinal game in the 7th inning. They were on the scoreboard too so it was pretty cool! Lots of parents and teachers went along to support the kids. We were pretty cold at the game but had a good time anyway. Hubby and B2 had to miss her softball practice to go to the game.

Wednesday, B2 has gymnastics after school. While B2 was there, B1 and I grabbed some dinner. Then we ran through McD's drive-thru for B2 on the way home to B1's softball practice. I had a meeting at church that B2 attended with me (she played in the kid's room) until Hubby and B1 could pick her up after practice was over.

Thursday was B2's 8th birthday. I picked them both up immediately after school and we went SHOPPING!!! Hubby met us and we all 4 got some shoes. B1 and B2 got some shorts and summer shirts as well. We ate at the food court at the mall (B2's choice for her birthday!) and eventually, we got home about 8:30pm.

Friday, B1 had piano lessons after school. Hubby was umpiring in Highland but got rained out in the 3rd or 4th inning after getting drenched. He met us at the Mexican place for supper. Then we headed back home and to the elementary school for a celebration where B1 got her trophy for this past season of basketball. Then the parents played a game against the kids.

Saturday I did manage to get quite a bit done around the house. B2 went to Brownie camp at 8:15am, Hubby and B1 first went to her softball practice from 12-2 and then conducted B2's softball practice (even though several girls were at Brownie camp) from 2-3:30. Last evening, Hubby and I went to a retirement dinner for a fellow math teacher and friend of mine. We went to Popeye's Chop House in St. Rose, IL. It was yummy!

Today, we went to church, then Wal-Mart to do our weekly shopping, and this afternoon went to Red Lobster to celebrate my mom's birthday, which was yesterday.

Whew! And tomorrow it all starts again..............

43 And Hoping For 50 Someday

I am pretty proud of the fact that I have been to 43 states and driven into every one of them, not flown over them. I was lucky growing up that I had parents who took us on a nice vacation every summer. We are trying to do the same for our kids. I think it is important for them to see the country we live in. B1 has been in 24 states (at 11 years old) and B2 has been in 22 states (at 8 years old). We won't add any new ones this summer but we will add Nassau to our list.

Little funny story: in 2003, while we were driving from Minnesota to Kansas City down I-29 on the far western side of Iowa, we were this close to Omaha, Nebraska. I asked Hubby to please drive into Nebraska, just so the girls and I could mark it off our lists. Hubby could really care less, but he did so to appease me! We drove into Omaha on I-480, took the first or second exit, turned around, and then drove right back into Iowa! But hey, we got to check another one off! I didn't think we'd be back to Nebraska anytime soon for a vacation or anything, so while we were right there, we needed to take care of it!

The 7 states I am missing:

Alaska
Hawaii
Idaho
Montana
North Dakota
Oregon
Washington

My mom says Oregon and Washington are 2 of the prettiest states she has visited. I look forward to going there one day. B1 wants to go on an Alaskan cruise. I want to go to Hawaii!

Suggestions

Anyone out there who's been on a Disney Cruise, let us know some "must-do's"! Our girls are 11 and 8. While on Nassau and Castaway Cay, we play to swim with the dolphins, go parasailing, do the stingray interactive adventure, and possibly snorkel. We also want to shop and spend some time at the beach. While on the ship, we plan to eat dinner at Palo one night (just me and Hubby) and do the family trivia contest. Other than that, we are open to suggestions.....let us know what you did that you really liked!

11 Things That Upset Me / Make Me Mad / Tick Me Off

1. When B1 is doing homework and says "I don't get it" and I try to explain something to her but she already has in her mind that she's not going to get it and so her mind is closed and she doesn't even TRY to understand what I am saying.....

2. When Shinza has muddy paws that must be cleaned before she can enter the house.....

3. When I step in water (even just a little drop) with socks on.....

4. When a waiter or waitress doesn't write down your order. Come on people, write it down. I would rather you bring me the correct order than be impressed with your memory skills!

5. Ooohhh.....this one really gets me fired up: when people assume that the Triad School District consists of only people from Troy.....Hello??? What do you think 'triad' means?

6. People who eat what they want, don't exercise, and don't gain weight.....

7. When B2 cries over the dumbest things, and when she speaks in her baby voice.....

8. People who are loud but really have nothing to say and only want to be the center of attention.....

9. When Hubby knows that B1 is pouting or unhappy about something and instead of just blowing it off or letting it go, he continues to badger her and poke at her about it.....

10. When you are in another state on vacation and you tell someone you're from Illinois and they automatically assume that you live somewhere around Chicago! Augh!!!!! NO, people, there really is life south of Chicago! I have now begun responding with "Illinois, but NOWHERE NEAR Chicago"

11. When you have worked on a concept in class for over a month and a student still looks at you like you are speaking in a foreign language when you are working a problem that they should know easily by now! (Um, yeah, if you would just DO YOUR HOMEWORK, we wouldn't have this issue!) AUGH!!!!!!!

March 26, 1988

Hubby and I have been together 20 year as of yesterday. Not MARRIED for 20 years, but together for 20 years. We began dating on March 26, 1988. Not that any of you really care (and some of you already know) but I need something to blog about, so here is our "story":

I started working at Highland DQ in May, 1987, which was the summer after my freshman year of college. I attended college 2 hours away from home (EIU), so this was only to be a summer job. Hubby already worked at DQ, as he had done since he turned 16. He was a senior in high school at the time, getting ready to graduate. We had known each other pretty much our entire lives, living in the same small town and going to the same schools. I knew he liked sports and he knew I did and I think that our mutual love of the St. Louis Cardinals was probably how our friendship began.

We worked together and got along well. We also got along with almost every other nightshift/weekend employee there. Hubby had a couple of friends who worked in Highland too at other eating establishments. We joked that they were "honorary DQ employees" because they would come in after we were closed and help us clean on many occasions. We were like a family that summer and did just about everything together. After we closed DQ, a bunch of us would go over to Pizza Hut and stay there until they closed at like 2am. This is where a lot of my weight came from!

In August, I headed back to EIU. That fall, I dated a guy from the Chicago area (yeah, I know.....what the he$$ was I thinking?). Hubby started his freshman year at SIUE and we remained friends. When I came home on weekends, sometimes I would work at DQ and I did so a lot over Christmas break that year. Once again, we had a great time together and with everyone else who worked there.

On Christmas eve that year, we got off work at 4pm and before we headed home to our families, several of us drove around Highland singing "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" in every drive-thru! Our boss had a small holiday party for us and after it was over, Hubby gave me a necklace with a heart and a pearl. I had known since Thanksgiving that he "liked" me but I couldn't decide if I liked him back or not. I kissed him over Thanksgiving break and I think again at Christmas break, but then in the new year, I wasn't as nice and sometimes when I came home on the weekend, I would kiss him, but sometimes I wouldn't let him come near me. I was mean. I just couldn't make up my mind (girls can be so indecisive!).

Finally, over spring break in March (Hubby had the same spring break week I did), he and I decided that on the Saturday at the end of break, we would attend a Blues hockey game together. We had gone to several other Blues games that fall and winter with friends and had loads of fun, but this would be the first one that we attended together, just the two of us. We had awesome seats, the closest I had ever been to the ice. We actually had seats that were one behind the other, instead of right next to each other. But they were good seats, so we didn't care. I remember that on the way there (after we ate dinner at York Steak House in St. Clair Square Mall), I was seriously sitting closer to his side of the car than my own. He drove a navy blue Thunderbird with the front seat that went all the way across, no console or bucket seats.

The Blues won the game. I have the ticket stubs at home. I can't remember who they played but I think the score was 3-2 in overtime. It was a great game. Afterwards, Hubby knew of 2 parties going on that we could attend. The first was in Troy at someone's house who I can't remember. It was an outside party and it was fairly cold. We didn't stay there very long. The next was in Marine and it was inside a house. There weren't nearly as many people there, only about 10 or so. I remember sitting on the couch talking to another girl and Hubby was sitting back against the couch next to me. All of a sudden, he leaned forward and just started kissing my neck. I was still talking to this girl and he kept kissing me. Finally I thought I better pay him some attention and began kissing him back. We went outside soon after that and before we drove home, we stood by the car and talked. I said something like "OK, let's try this and see what happens." And as they say.....the rest is history!

I seriously knew from that night on though that he would be the person I would someday marry. And he is my very best friend in the world. I think that because of our past, I believe that the best relationships begin as friendships.