I Love Our Bed!

Get your minds out of the gutter people, that's not what I was talking about.....

Seriously though, I love sleeping in our bed! When we got married, we used the bedroom set that was mine at my parents' house. They bought it for me during my senior year of high school and when we got married 7 years later, it was in good condition, so it became ours. It was a double bed. We slept fine in that bed. We watched TV from that bed, read in that bed, talked, laughed, and conceived 2 children there. Everything was hunky-dory.

Then last summer, we opted to do some remodeling in our home, including updating our bedroom. We chose a new bedroom set which included a queen bed. I really wanted a bed that had a head and foot board, but after measuring everything, we knew that it wouldn't work in our small bedroom. We would have had about 1 foot of pathway to walk through between the foot of the bed and the dresser. I saw many bruised knees had we purchased the bed with the footboard. So instead, we opted for a wrought iron head piece and no foot piece. We were told that the measurements of a queen compared to a double were about 6-8 more inches in length and in width. I really didn't think this sounded like much and assumed that the space for sleeping would be about the same.

Anyway, we also picked out a mattress (I have no idea the brand name) with a pillow top. Yes, it's soft on top, but very firm underneath. I also chose to order some sheets from JCPenney that are something like 300 count. These are the closest I will probably ever come to having satin sheets. They are so soft! We also ordered a new comforter set from JCPenney. I looked through the catalog and picked out something like 8 different ones I liked. Then Bruce went through and narrowed that down to 3 and I chose the final one. It's a mixture of earth tones and I (much to Bruce's chagrin when he has to make the bed!) also picked out several decorative pillows. The comforter and pillows too are so soft!

So when you put the whole combination together of the awesome pillow top mattress, the almost-satin sheets, and the softness of the comforter, it can hardly be matched. But.....the best part is that the extra little space we have when we lay down is definitely noticeable! I seriously didn't think it would be, but it so is! If you know us, you know we aren't the smallest people you'll ever meet and now, I feel like I actually have my own side of the bed and that I can even stretch out! Sleeping this past year and 3 months has been awesome! I love staying in our bed on the weekends when I don't have to get up. I just love laying there and I love when the girls or the dog comes in and joins me/us!

Now,what exactly were you thinking when you read this title? Ha ha ha ha!

Our Little Teacher?

Yesterday was a half day for the girls at school because us teachers had a school improvement day. B2's teacher decided that it would be a good day for dress-up. B2 said that at first it was going to be an "anything" day, meaning you could dress in PJ's, crazy hair, or anything you wanted. Then I guess the teacher decided that might be too crazy, so she decided on career day. B2 chose to dress as a teacher (imagine that!). This dress is in their "dress-up" clothes bin and B1 wore it once on the same kind of day at school. We bought these glasses specifically for B1 when she needed them then. They have the lenses taken out. I made an ID for her with one of her wallet-size picture from this year. I wrote her name with '08-'09 on it and we pinned it to her dress. We didn't have enough time this morning to find her a lanyard and some old keys so I just gave her my school keys for the day and stressed how important it was that she NOT LOSE them! She looked so cute!

I'm not sure if B2 really wants to be a teacher when she grows up or not. I think she thinks she wants to be a teacher simply because both of her parents are and her sister wants to be one. I think B1 will be a great teacher. She is awesome with little kids and loves to play mommy (still) to her dolls. B2.....I think she would be great in a career with animals. She just LOVES them! Not bugs though!

De-Lurking

OK.....I am curious. Who is out there reading my blog? I've seen other bloggers who write these types of de-lurking posts. It's basically to find out who is reading this particular entry. So.....if you are reading this right now, you are REQUIRED to leave a comment. And I know some of you out there (Scott P., Gina C., Patty W., etc) who read my blog but have never commented. Time for that to stop! It's very easy, just click on comments at the bottom of this post, if your computer asks you if you want to display the nonsecure items, click yes. Then type your comment in the box and down at the bottom (assuming you don't have a google user name/password), click the anonymous circle. If you are using anonymous then also please sign your name in the comment box so I know who the comment came from. It's very easy.

Who are you rooting for in the World Series? Or don't you really care? We are rooting for the Rays because Bruce's best friend (he is one of mine as well) lives near Tampa and is a Rays fan. Plus, I like to see a newer team win. I bet the networks are ticked that they didn't get a Boston/LA World Series. Ha ha! Too bad!

Randomness

Not much has been going on with us this week.

* We had turkey breast, mashed potatoes & gravy, peas, and rolls for dinner tonight. It was very tasty!

*B1 begins her basketball season this weekend. They began practicing 2 weeks ago in the new SJES gym. Bruce says they could practice every day this week and he still doesn't think they would be ready. We'll see.....

* The girls were off school two days last week. Monday was Columbus Day so we were all off. Friday was the Madison County Teacher's Institute. It was awful. It was too crowded and you couldn't walk in the halls. The first speaker I had to go listen to was awful, and the exhibits were geared only towards elementary teachers. Why do they always forget about us high school people?

* Our best running back, JJ, got hurt in Friday's game. We won anyway, 41-18. He has an upper ankle sprain. I communicated with him late Friday night and again on Saturday morning via text message and he said he is going to sit out this week and let it rest. This week's game is nonconference. Hopefully he will be ready for the first playoff game the following week.

* We began buying a few Christmas gifts on Saturday. I can't say what we specifically bought because sometimes B1 reads my blog. I do feel a little bit better about what we are going to get this year though. I am one of those people who doesn't really mind spending the money to get the stuff, it's just knowing what to get that stresses me out.

* We ate dinner Saturday night at Sam's Pizza in Highland. Yumm-O! Then we managed to spend $275 at Wal-Mart on nothing much. The ecomony sucks.

That's all for now.

Brace Face

B1 got braces today. Here is a picture of her last night, just after her shower and just before she ate some popcorn for the last time in a long while! And here is a picture of her tonight. She claims she isn't really in much pain right now. Only one tooth was a bit sore. She went to basketball practice tonight too.

Sigh.....my baby in braces! Wasn't she just born a year or so ago?

Look At My New Toy!

A while back, I noticed that some of my Kenny Chesney songs on our shared ipod were gone. I asked Bruce about this since he is the one who takes care of the technology in our household and he wasn't sure why the songs would have disappeared. His only explanation was that maybe he had downloaded too much other stuff and that it had "bumped" some older stuff off. Who knows. Well, then I kinda forgot about it. Then a couple of weeks ago, I asked him if we could download some of the podcasts from Be Our Guest Podcast that I like to listen to onto our ipod. That way when (if) I walk, maybe I could listen to the shows during that time. He said that we could try to do that. Then again, I kinda forgot about it.
Thursday night, he came and sat next to me on the couch while I was grading papers. He told me that he had a "gift" for me in his pocket. I thought "yeah, whatever!" but I played along. Well, in his pocket was this brand new ipod, just for me! And.....it was loaded with all 59 (at the time) podcasts I had requested plus over 60 Kenny Chesney songs! I was very surprised and very happy! I will put some other stuff on there as well because as much as I do love Kenny, I would get tired of listening to just him.

I had the ipod in my purse the following day at school and chose to use the stopwatch option on it while we played a game in geomery class. One of my students said "that's a sweet color, Mrs. Frank!" I agree. I also think I have a sweet husband!

Have You Seen These?

I received an e-mail today from Dan D. that was too good not to share on my blog! There were a few more pics in the e-mail, but these are my favorites.

I love the broom!

And yes, this one is great too. I remember this year when Bruce and I went to our first Cards/Cubs game and we saw Fukudome's name on the scoreboard for the first time. We kind of looked at each other and said "what the......?" What the he!! kind of name is that? This picture is classic.

Not to keep dwelling on the Chicago stuff, but the comments made on my last post brought some more thoughts to mind:

J Rod.....our governor. He governs from his home in Chicago. When we were at the state fair this past summer, we wandered into the Republican tent and in there was an empty doll house that said "Governor's Mansion" on the front of it. Also on the front was a sign that read "Vacancy." I thought it was hilarious! I took a picture with my cell phone but it's not clear enough to put on the blog. Yes, he governs from Chicago. Wouldn't you think he might want to live and work in Springfield, the STATE CAPITOL? I don't claim to know much at all about politics, but through the years that he has been governor of our state, I do know of some education-related issues on which I disagree completely with his point of view.

When I became a teacher and began watching high school sports at the state level, I noticed that if a game was televised (usually football or basketball), the announcers always referred to the playing field (which was usually either Peoria or Champaign) as being in "downstate" Illinois. Huh? What the hell is "downstate"? Back then, in basketball in particular, the system was set up so that 8 teams would make it to the state competition. About 4 of them were from the Chicago area (and I understand that, based on population), 2 or 3 teams were from central or northern Illinois, and AT LEAST 1 (maybe 2) team was from southern Illinois. This team had to travel NORTH to get to the state competition. So why was it always referred to on TV by the announcers as "downstate"? I always hated that. Seriously, if you were to draw a horizontal line across the middle of Illinois, Peoria is definitely NORTH of that line and Champaign is close to the middle. So how can you say these cities are downstate??? For whatever reason, I think it sounds degrading to us southern Illinois folks. Maybe I'm crazy, but it's as if everything "important" happens "upstate" (in Chicago) and the rest of us should just follow their lead. Wrong.

And also.....I think maybe I have posted about this in the past.....I hate when you are traveling and begin talking to someone from another state and when you tell them you are from Illinois, they somehow automatically assume you are from somewhere near Chicago! That is an insult to me, honestly. Like I've said before, I really like visiting Chicago, but I would never want to be associated with living there. Uggg. This year and last year, when we were on vacation, when this conversation would start with a stranger, I began answering that question with "Illinois but nowhere near Chicago."

A Century of Sucking!

The sign is back. I absolutely love it!


So today I wore this shirt to school. I ordered it from the site you can see on the shirt, thanks to Dan D. forwarding it to me. I didn't get the shirt until about 3 weeks ago and I am so excited to wear it to a Cardinal/Cub game next year!
I waited for 2 of my students today who are Cubs fans. Actually, they were my students last year. One of them is a senior boy and has math first hour 2 doors down from my room. I seriously almost felt bad for harassing him when I saw the look on his face. I thought he was about ready to shed a tear. Really. Then the other student is a girl who has math 2nd hour right across the hall from my room. She can "take" a bit more than the boy. So I sat in her seat, waiting for her to show up. The teacher threw a blue dry erase marker at me to write "Cubs Suck" on her desktop (dry erase marker comes up easily when you use the cleaner). So I did. Then when she came in and came over to me, I put my hands to my throat and pretended I was choking.

I hope I never see the Cubs win a World Series in my lifetime. I know that the reason I feel so strongly about this is because I attended Eastern Illinois University and probably 2 of every 3 students there were from Chicago or its subarbs. I formed an attitude towards Chicago people within the first few hours of being at college. For real. I love visiting Chicago but I HATE all sports teams from there, simply because from my experience, people from there seem to think they are better than us southerners and tend to think that anything south of Kankakee is "southern Illinois." I got really tired of hearing things like "You don't know where Elmhurst is????" or "You've never eaten at Ed Debevic's???" Get a clue, people. There really is life beyond Chicago. No, I don't hold grudges.....

More Spirit Week Pics

Alrighty then, yes, this is me on the left! Yesterday's dress-up day was called "Theatrical Thursday" and we took that to mean we could dress up like anyone from a play or movie. So here I am dressed like a combination of the nerds from the movie "Revenge of the Nerds." Alongside me is one of my students.....a cute little pixie dressed as Tinkerbell. Unfortunately, that is all my stomach you see there, no pillow or extra fluff stuck in my pants. Yuck. I had many students who came in to my room and says something like "Oh my God, Mrs. Frank.....I thought you were a sub!" I also had people (students) who I don't even have in class walk down the hall and look at me and just start laughing. And even funnier is that in college, these were my real glasses. And I seriously thought they looked good then! Here's a picture taken today, Spirit Day, of me and our best running back. You can read about him here from an article that appeared in the Belleville News Democrat. I had JJ in class last year and he is a very respectful young man.....one who it is easy to tell comes from a great family.

When I came out to my car today after school, here is what I found. Stuff like this is what makes what we do every day so worth it.

The "BTS" supposedly stands for "Brotherhood Through Sacrafice" and is something that our football team chants before and after games.

AS ALWAYS....."GO KNIGHTS!!!"

Best Friends

Tonight is B1's first middle school dance! Here is a picture of her and her best friend outside our house before they left. Her mom was taking them and I am going to pick them up later. They sure grow up fast!


And here is a picture of me with one of my best friends. She also teaches math at Triad. We are wearing Eastern Illinois University alumni T-shirts. We are both very proud of the fact that we are EIU graduates! Today was twin day at school.

Gym Decorations

Here is a picture of the main decorations in the gym on Saturday night. As I said, the theme was Mardi Gras and I think the decorations turned out beautifully. This picture reminds me of something you might see in Vegas! The colors were awesome. Try to look closely to see it all or click on the picture to enlarge it.

Spirit Week

Sorry I haven't posted much lately. I can say I have been busy (which is true) but aren't we all? The days fly by and before I know it, I need to get in bed. I'm not one of those people who can stay up until 12:00 or 1:00 on a school night. I must get at least 6.5 hours of sleep each night, and I try to shoot for more.

This week at school will be crazy. It's Homecoming Spirit Week. We have a Mardi Gras theme going this year and tomorrow is "Mardi Gras Monday." I don't really have anything very exciting to wear tomorrow other than a green shirt and some beads. Tuesday is "Twos Day" so one of my best friends and I are dressing in college alumni shirts (she and I attended the same college but not at the same time). We will also both wear similar pants and shoes. Wednesday is "Wake Up and Go" day and it's one of my favorites. I am seriously thinking about doing just that.....waking up and going. No shower, no make-up, glasses instead of my contacts, just brush my hair and my teeth and of course put on a bra! Otherwise, it's off to school in PJ pants I go! Thursday is "Theatrical Thursday" and I think I'm going to reprise my role as one of the nerds from "Revenge of the Nerds." I dressed in this costume several years ago and it was a pretty good one. I'll wear old dark rimmed glasses, part my hair on the side and gel it down, a plaid shirt with my pants hiked up high and either a nerdy looking belt or suspenders. Also a pen protector in my pocket and some kind of nerdy looking shoes. Then Friday of course is spirit day and I will be decked out in total Triad garb. I'll try to post some pictures this week!

Happy almost-Monday!

Dogsitting and Good Food!

My mom's health is improving all the time now and she is back to work this school year. She still has to take a lot of medication but thanks to the doctors at Barnes, her life is slowly getting back to normal. So.......my parents got a new puppy the day after Labor Day. Their previous dog died back in May, during a time when my mom was at a low with her health. His name was Oscar and he was 13 years old. He had a good life but it's still hard to say goodbye to a great pet. The new puppy's name is Rusty. Both are miniature dachshunds. We got to babysit Rusty this past weekend while my parents were away for 2 days/1 night. What a cutie he is! We just love him! This little face is just irresistable!

On Saturday night, I ate dinner at the Top of the St. Louis Riverfront (Millennium Hotel) with three girlfriends. We had been planning this dinner for quite a while now and it was really nice. We were there for 3.5 hours and the time went by quickly. It gave each course time to settle before the next arrived and it gave us good, quality time to visit with each other. We are all moms of young children and a night like that is certainly welcome once in a while! We rotated a little over 2 times so we got to see the entire St. Louis skyline from all 360 degrees. I had goat cheese and mushroom strudel as an appetizer, field greens for my salad, a steak with garlic butter sauce for my dinner, and the three of us shared black and white cheesecake for dessert. Yumm-O!

The St. Louis Riverfront is under water right now because of Hurricane Ike. If you are not familiar with St. Louis, you may not know what you are looking at here, but this is the south leg of the Gateway Arch and as you can see, the water is pretty high on the trees in the background.....almost to the leaves! The road that runs along the riverfront is completely under water right now, for the 3rd time this season.

You Find Out Who Your Friends Are

You find out who your friends are
Somebody's gonna drop everything
Run out and crank up their car
Hit the gas, get there fast
Never stop to think 'what's in it for me?' or 'it's way too far'
They just show on up with their big old heart
You find out who your friends are
(lyrics from a Tracy Lawrence song)

Well, we certainly found out who our friends are this past weekend.

Hurricane Ike made its way up into the midwest and on Sunday morning, we got some pretty HEAVY rain. I was in the basement showering and when I was done, I noticed that the shower water was not draining as fast as usual. Then, a minute or two later, I heard the toilet make some weird kind of "bloop" sound and no one had used it! Then I noticed water seeping UP through the drain in the middle of the floor. Not good. I yell for Hubby to come downstairs and I guess he could tell by my voice that something was wrong so he came running......

He decided to plunge the drain in the floor and raw sewage pretty much came flooding out of it. Yeah. So B1 and B2 scrambled around the room taking things out and as far away from the drain as possible. Hubby got the shop vac and began cleaning up that mess while I drove the girls to Sunday School (right down the road). I came back, and just a few minutes later, the alarm was going off near the sump pump, indicating that the water level in there was too high. So Hubby and I went into pretty much full "panic" mode. He started shop vac-ing, I started scrambling for something to pour the shop vac water into because we couldn't pour it back down the drain (which still wasn't draining). We both got on our phones and began calling people for help.

As it turned out, eight other friends and family came rushing over to our house. We carried buckets and buckets of water from the sump pump (ground water by now, no more sewage) up the stairs and out the door, dumping it down the driveway. Finally, we got a little smarter and did an assembly line type of thing so everyone wouldn't have to continue going up and down the stairs. Hubby manned the shop vac with one other person helping him, friend Mike ran to a nearby town to get some equipment he thought would help, and brother-in-law Randy brought some kind of machine that we eventually got set up outside which pumped the water from the sump pump up through a tube and out into the ditch. Whew.

We were all seriously dripping with sweat by the time the water slowed down. The problem is that our basement has been waterproofed. This means that any water that comes in through the walls is channeled through little tunnels in the floor and all towards the sump pump. The problem was that with all that rain, the sump pump couldn't handle all that water. This happened to us once before but we didn't catch it that time until all the damage was done. This time, we got lucky. We are now in the market for a second sump pump to hopefully alleviate this problem if it arises again!

Thank goodness for good friends!

Friday Night and Food

First, a few pics from last night's football game. We lost to Mt. Vernon, 28-7. It wasn't a fun game to watch.The team and poms lined up during the National Anthem.

Poms with their "THS" letters - I always think this looks so cool!

B1 with a friend standing along the fence watching the game.

B2 in the bleachers.

And now.....I got this list from Casa Christy. It's a list of random strange foods. The ones highlighted are the ones I've eaten/tried. Looking at this list, I am not a very worldly taster I guess!

1. Venison

2. Nettle Tea

3. Huevos rancheros

4. Steak tartare

5. Crocodile

6. Black pudding - One of my very favorite things, ever.

7. Cheese fondue - at The Melting Pot

8. Carp

9. Borscht

10. Baba ghanoush

11. Calamari

12. Pho --Grand

13. PB&J sandwich

14. Aloo Gobi

15. Hot dog from a street cart - in Washington DC

16. Epoisses

17. Black truffle

18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes

19. Steamed pork buns

20. Pistachio ice cream

21. Heirloom tomatoes

22. Fresh wild berries

23. Foie gras

24. Rice and beans

25. Brawn, or head cheese

26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper

27. Dulce de leche

28. Oysters - just to make my dad happy!

29. Baklava

30. Bagna Cauda - OMG I love this stuff at the Collinsville Italianfest every year! And that is coming up next weekend!!!! YAY!!!

31. Wasabi peas - these things are a pretty darn good snack! I just got turned onto them last year from a fellow teacher.

32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl - no but one of my favorite meals to purchase at school is French onion soup in the bread bowl. It's seriously better than Bread Co.'s! For real!

33. Salted Lassi

34. Sauerkraut

35. Root beer float -and coke floats, and all that jazz

36. Cognac with a fat cigar

37. Clotted cream tea

38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O

39. Gumbo

40. Oxtail

41. Curried goat

42. Whole insects - yeah, but not on purpose!

43. Phaal

44. Goat’s milk

45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more

46. Fugu

47. Chicken tikka masala

48. Eel

49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut

50. Sea urchin

51. Prickly pear

52. Umeboshi

53. Abalone

54. Paneer

55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal

56. Spaetzle - not yet but I want to have some in the Germany pavillion on my next trip to WDW!

57. Dirty gin martini

58. Beer above 8% ABV - I HATE beer!

59. Poutine

60. Carob chips

61. S’mores

62. Sweetbreads

63. Kaolin

64. Currywurst

65. Durian

66. Frogs’ legs

67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake

68. Haggis

69. Beef Tongue - no, but my grandmother would make this often. She loved tongue sandwiches.

70. Chitterlings

71. Gazpacho

72. Caviar and blini

73. Louche absinthe

74. Gjetost

75. Roadkill

76. Baijiu

77. Hostess Fruit Pie

78. Snail - at a restaurant in Quebec City, Canada when I was 19 years old

79. Lapsang souchong

80. Bellini

81. Tom Yum

82. Eggs Benedict

83. Pocky

84. Shark

85. Kobe beef

86. Hare

87. Goulash

88. Flowers

89. Horse

90. Criollo Chocolate

91. Spam

92. Soft shell crab

93. Rose harissa

94. Catfish

95. Mole Poblano

96. Bagel and lox

97. Lobster Thermidor

98. Polenta

99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

100. Snake

7 Years

As some of you know, I am a sucker for "meme" posts.....you know, the kind where I answer a bunch of questions about ME. One of those questions often asked is something like "What TV show/movie could you watch over and over?" Around this time of the year, there are many documentaries on TV about 9/11 and when I see one of those, my eyes are glued.

I found one the other night while channel surfing. It was a play-by-play of every minute of that morning, beginning with the times when the terrorists most likely entered the airports. I can't imagine what it was like being on one of those planes. They interviewed a flight attendant and her voice was amazingly calm. I couldn't believe it. How sad listening to her voice on the recording, knowing what was going to happen to her in a matter of minutes.

As always, tomorrow I will proudly wear red, white and blue to school. I will encourage my children to do the same and saying the pledge tomorrow morning will probably choke me up a bit. 9/11/01.....WE WILL REMEMBER.

It's Podcast Day!

Today is the day that Bruce and I are featured on "Be Our Guest Podcast." We discussed the Disney Cruise. If you are interested in listening to what we had to say, go here and click on "Listen NOW!" We are episode #51 (today's episode). Click on the grey arrow. The actual podcast is 36.31 minutes long.

We are planning another cruise for the end of July, 2011. As of now, I believe that some friends of ours who live in Florida, my cousin, her family, and her parents (my aunt and uncle), and my parents are going to go too. We are hoping that some more of our friends choose to come along also. It would be so neat if we knew many people on the ship!

7th Hour Prep! Yippeeeee!!!

Alrighty then.....another school year has finally officially started! I am teaching 3 sections of Algebra 1B this year and 2 sections of Geometry. I have taught both classes in the past, but it's been about 5 years since I've taught Geometry. There are certain chapters in the book that I really enjoy teaching (quadrilaterals, circles, and trig functions with right triangles for sure). I almost always end up really liking the Algebra 1B classes as well even though they are a bit higher maintenance than Geometry. I got lucky this year and my schedule includes 7th hour prep! My schedule is: 1st hour Geometry, 2nd hour Algebra 1B, 3rd hour Algebra 1B, 4A lunch, 4B homeroom (study hall), 5th hour Geometry, 6th hour Algebra 1B, 7th hour prep (free hour). I have NEVER had my prep during 7th hour in the past. I have always wanted that prep time but never been lucky enough to get it. Until this year. I am very happy with my schedule. Tomorrow is our first home football game of the season, against Collinsville. We lost last Friday to Chatham Glenwood. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better outcome. Happy weekend!

Vacation Days 17, 18, 19 (The End)

Before I post what I wrote on the last 3 days of our vacation, I want to bring your attention to a new blog I have recently begun reading. It's Called "It's a Disney World After All." If you aren't big into the Disney stuff, you probably won't care about this blog, but if you are at all interested or are planning an upcoming trip, you may want to check it out! I love reading the updates about what is going on in the Disney Community. Also, I am still a big fan of a podcast called "Be Our Guest." Bruce and I will be on the show one week from tomorrow discussing the cruise leg of our recent vacation. You'll have to tune in! I will remind you then. Anyway, for now, here are the last pics from our vacation (finally!). The above picture is of course B1 and B2 with the Cat in the Hat. These pictures were taken at Universal's Islands of Adventure.The Grinch and me at some store in Seuss Landing, which was a very cool place!

This picture was taken in the morning, before we went to the park. We did a character breakfast at the Nickelodeon Hotel. That's Bruce and Little Bill!

Our family with Spongebob Squarepants!

The girls and Dora the Explorer. B2 claims she no longer likes Dora, but I think she really does still just a little bit!

August 5, 2008: The alarm went off this morning at 7:00 and we got up, showered, dressed, and down to the Nick Toons Café to eat lunch with the characters at 8:00am. The meal was a buffet and was pretty good. The characters in attendance were Spongebob Squarepants, Dora the Explorer, Wanda and Cosmo from the Fairly Oddparents, and Little Bill. The girls got their pictures taken with all of them and we got a family picture taken with Spongebob. We took a shuttle today from our hotel to Universal Studios’ Islands of Adventure. We arrived there about 10:30am. We covered pretty much the entire park, starting with Seuss Landing and heading around counterclockwise. I liked this park better than Universal Studios. It had more thrill rides and seemed more like an actual amusement park. We did get B2 to ride a ride where they take you 15 stories in the air and then drop you. We all rode it twice! We ate lunch in the Jurassic Park section of the park at a burger place and ate dinner outside the park in the City Walk area at a pizza place. We bought some final souvenirs before boarding the bus back to our hotel at 7:15. Once back, we came up to the room and packed as much as we could tonight. Bruce and the girls took things to the car and at 9:30, we attended a family game show type of thing in the Nick Studio. It only lasted about 30 minutes. Bruce and the girls finished off their arcade card while I came back to the room to type this! It’s about 11:00pm right now and just about time for bed. Tomorrow begins the drive home. I am ready to get there and see Shinza. I am not ready for the unpacking process!

August 6, 2008: We got up at 8:00 this morning, showered, finished packing a few things, ate the rest of the Cinnabon rolls (and B1 had a pop tart) for breakfast, checked out of the Nick Hotel, and got on the road. Before we actually got on the highway, Bruce decided he “needed” to have a Chic-Fil-A breakfast sandwich so we went through their drive-thru. Bruce drove the first 200 miles, to the Florida/Georgia border and then I took over for about 275 miles. We stopped for gas and snacks once and it happened to be at one of the same gas stations we stopped at on the way down to Florida over two weeks ago. Small world. Anyway, I drove through Atlanta during rush hour. We took the bypass but it was still full of traffic. Just on the other side, we stopped at a Mexican restaurant for dinner, which tasted good since we love Mexican food and haven’t eaten it in over two weeks now! So we drove for awhile after dinner and we were about 20 miles from the Tennessee border when we hear this loud noise coming from the back driver’s side tire. We pulled over on the interstate and checked it and found that the first layer of tread had completely torn off. Bruce said he saw it fly out the back side of the van through the rearview mirror. At first, we thought we ran over one left on the road from a semi truck. So we then drove slowly to the next exit (the tire wasn’t flat but still did not look good) and found a Wal-Mart with an automotive center but it had closed at 7:00pm and it was now 8:07pm. We ended up at a Sears automotive store that closed at 9:00. We called and asked them to stay late for us, which they did, and we didn’t leave there until 9:48. We gave both the guys working a pretty nice tip for helping us out. So anyway, then we drove for maybe 45 more minutes. We are now in Chattanooga, TN staying at a Country Inn and Suites. This is a very nice room, probably the biggest so far on the vacation! Bruce and B2 decided they are hungry and went to the Waffle House on the other side of the parking lot! Gees! We will be going to bed shortly.

August 7, 2008: Today we had breakfast at the hotel. It was a pretty nice little spread that came with the cost of the room. We then got on the road towards home. The first time we stopped for gas was in Kentucky and we discovered that there is a problem with the hose (tube) that carries the gas from the side of the van to the actual tank. We think it is some sort of complication that happened with the tire last night. We were able to finagle and got the gas into the tank, but had to leak maybe half a gallon onto the pavement at the gas station. We informed the attendant there and they took care of the spill. What a mess. We got a snack at that gas station and then kept driving. When we reached Mt. Vernon, IL at about 3:00pm, we stopped at Taco Bell for a small meal. We picked up Shinza from the animal hospital (she's not sick, that's just where she boarded while we were gone) about 4:30pm and headed for home! We drove around town and saw some big changes at the school that took place while we were gone. Mom and Dad came over to visit for a short while and we worked the rest of the evening on laundry, unpacking, etc. We drove a total of 2220 miles on this vacation. It is good to be home!

Side note: After we got home, we had the van inspected by a friend and family member. They believe that the problem with the gas tank happened when the tire tread flew around the tire and smacked into this hose (tube), causing it to come loose. Together, they were able to fix it at no cost to us! Thank goodness we know some people who know something about cars!

Another Stolen Meme

This time I stole it from Carmen over at Live, Laugh, Love Everyday. Like I've said before, I just love these things!

1. What time did you get up this morning? 9:30am (it's the LAST day of summer vacation for me, so I took advantage!)

2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Swing Vote

4. What is your favorite TV show? Grey's Anatomy and reruns of FRIENDS

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? a cereal bar or trail mix cookie

6. What is your middle name? Ann

7. What food do you dislike? good question.....I'm not sure I've met one yet, but I have never tried beets for fear that I won't like them

8. What is on your ipod at the moment? 80's, country, and stuff that is often played on Radio Disney

9. What kind of car do you drive? 1998 Ford Windstar (yeah, it's old and I'm excited to get a new one.....but for now, this one is worth soooo much more to us than anyone else and since it's paid off, I am going to drive it into the ground.....I'm hoping to get another year out of it)

10. Favorite sandwich? Jimmy John's Big John

11. What characteristic do you despise? people who think they are better than others

12.Favorite item of clothing? hoodies in the winter

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? I love, love, love vacations and love going to places I have never been. I really don't care where it is, if it's vacation, I'm gonna love it!

14. Favorite brand of clothing? Cato and Fashion Bug

15. Where would you retire? close to wherever my kids are at that time

16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? my 40th, this past May. I spent an entire weekend partying it up! Read about it here.

17.Favorite sport to watch? Baseball

18. Favorite TV show when you were a child? Little House on the Prairie

19. Pets? Shiba Inu named Shinza. I'd have more dogs if Bruce would allow it. But we LOVE the one we have!

20.When is your birthday? May 30

21.What is your shoe size? 10

22.Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? Not really. School starts for the kids on Tuesday.

23. What did you want to be when you were little? A nurse. I changed to a teacher during my high school years.

24. How are you today? Fine, thank you.

25. What is your favorite candy? Katherine Beich caramel bars

26. What is your favorite flower? Tulips.

27. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Friday.....the first "Football Friday" of the season!

28. Do you get along with your parents? Yes, very well. Thank goodness for them in my life!

29. What are you listening to right now? B2 and a friend down the hall trying to make animal noises (really!)

30. What was the last thing you ate? a bowl of corn/wheat chex for breakfast

31. Do you wish on stars? No, maybe I should though.

32. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Red.

33. How is the weather right now? Pretty nice for the midwest in August. I think the high today is supposed to be 87.

34. Favorite Restaurants? Talayna's, Cheesecake Factory, Spaghetti Factory, Lion's Choice, Taco Bell

35. Favorite soft drink: Coke

36. Real hair color? Brown.

37. What was your favorite toy as a child? Barbies

38. Summer or winter? summer

39. Hugs or kisses? Hugs

40. Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate except for ice cream

41. Coffee or tea? yuck.....neither!

42. Any little known talents? I can sometimes tie a cherry stem into a knot with my tongue!

43. When was the last time you cried? I teared up on July 27 when we boarded the Disney Wonder and they announced our family's name as if we were royalty.

44. What is under your bed? boxes of cards and drawing from the girls as well as some old pictures.

45. What did you do last night? Cooked dinner and went to B2's brand new school for a "getting to know you" sort of evening. The building is beautiful!

46. What are you afraid of? snakes

47. Salty or sweet? bitter or hot? salty, sweet, and somewhat hot

48. How many keys on your key ring? 5

49. How many years at your current job? This will be my 11th year

50. Favorite day of the week? Friday

51. How many towns have you lived? 4

52. Do you make friends easily? Yes