Golden Birthday

A2 turned 12 on the 12th! We celebrated all week long! Tuesday was a holiday so we traveled to my parents for the day. A2 had requested meatballs and pie for lunch. She was happy to oblige. D's mom came too so A2 got to spend the day with his grandparents and cousins.

On Wednesday, which was the actual "birth" day, he took treats to school and I took him to lunch at Cracker Barrel

That night he requested meatloaf and mashed potatoes...

Friday night he had four buddies over to spend the night. I had planned a scavenger hunt at Walmart. It took them two hours, but they had a ball!


Here are their instructions:

Walmart Scavenger Hunt
Read all directions before starting! VERY IMPORTANT!! You are getting $10 to start this game. If you get all 20
points you each get to earn $5 to spend at the end of the game. If you get 15-19 points you each get $3. Less points
than that---oops, better luck next time! Keep all of your purchases in “the bag”. You must complete each
assigned task before starting on the next.

1. Buy a cheap little toy, sticker, or piece of candy and find a kid with his/her parent and ask the parent if you can
give it to the child. Have them sign this sheet. The cheaper the better. You need your $ to finish the game
Sign here:_____________________________________

2. Get a Wal-Mart associate to do a dance move! Have them sign this sheet.
Sign here:_______________________________________

3. Find something that a baby would enjoy eating and eat it—after you buy it, of course. It comes in a jar and
costs less than 40 cents.

4. Get 1 round slice made from a cow product, (should be white).

5. Find Mr. Butler and say real loud “I can’t believe it’s really you, can I have your autograph!” He’ll be in Wal-Mart somewhere.

6. Find Larry Boy and purchase him. Hint—you should NOT be in the toy department!

7. Get 2 liter plastic jug with fizzy brown goodness inside. Less than 80 cents. Are you old enough to buy that?

8. Sing Jesus Loves Me to a baby. Toddler, if you can’t find a baby. Make sure you ask permission first. They need to sign here: _____________________________________________

9. Buy the cheapest thing you can find in Wal-Mart.

10. Find an employee named __________________ and have them sign this sheet.
Sign here:_____________________________________________

11. Buy 1 yellow treat for curious George.

12. Buy one round piece of “FORBIDDEN” fruit. Remember Eve?

13. Buy a black pen. That would have been handy a lot sooner, huh? Think cheap! Did you read the very first instruction at the top of the page before you started playing this game?

14. Pucker up, boys! There's a girl somewhere just dreaming that you'll be her first kiss. Get some “Lava Lips” for less than a $1.

15. Buy something that belongs on a thin clear string called “Madman”. Think Lake! Less than $1

16. Find the truck in the parking lot, take the envelope off the windshield and follow the instructions.

17. Introduce yourself to five strangers by shaking their hand, all of you. Have them sign this sheet.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

18. Take the Underground Railroad and eat a cookie as fast as you can! You can share.

19. Find a man with grey hair and ask him to give you a penny. Be polite! Tell him you’re on a scavenger hunt.
Have him sign this sheet ___________________________________________

20. Okay, find Mr. Butler and tell him you’ve finished.

Watch this...

I rented this movie today. Expelled: No Intelligence Required. It's a "must see" if you haven't already seen it...

Not much of anything

I don't know how it got to be Wednesday already, but here it is....

Yes, obviously we got to see IL beat IA last weekend. It was an absolutely beautiful day! Campus was so pretty! D is proud to have passed on some Illini pride and A1 is aspiring to be a full-fledged orange and blue girl in about 3 1/2 years.

First quarter is over and I am proud to report that report cards will be costing us heavily. (We do pay $ for A's. We figure that school is one of their jobs right now and it's an opportunity for them to achieve great things $)

Can we all just say thank you that the election is finally over?? I woke up feeling good this morning to be able to put this election behind us. And yes, I voted for the "other guy". I'm OK with the outcome though because I don't put my hope in any man. We are happy here in the 18th district that Aaron Schock got elected. He will be the youngest member of Congress and at 27 shows a lot of promise.

Not much else I guess. Have a great week!

D and and I drove to Pekin Sat. night to see this. Excuse my poor quality picture--all I had was my cell phone.

Being honest....

Historically the months of August, September and October are busy, not just for us, but probably for most of us... History has repeated itself yet again this year, doubly so, it feels like. So anyway, I feel like I have had a pretty good handle on the calendar and myself--until yesterday.

Last week was full mostly because I was doing my part in getting ready for our annual Harvest of Talents at our church. My part means baking, lots of it, and sewing. So anyway, Sunday we were having the celebration service where the check of the money raised is presented to IDES. As we were getting ready D says "Hey, wasn't A2 supposed to sing in the choir this morning?". The calendar part of my brain went into hyper mode.

He not only was supposed to sing in the church choir, but more importantly he was supposed to sing in the school choir at the Lutheran church for both services which D's comment jogged my memory to include. A2 signed up for the school choir this year because he had a choice of 1. choir or 2. Music Appreciation class. He felt like option 1 was the better choice. BUT, you have to sing in their church on choir days or you get an F!

OK, so, back to hyper mode. I proceed to chew everybody in the house out (don't ask me why it makes no sense, just being honest here) about how each of them had a hand in forgetting the morning's schedule. This chewing continues as A2 and I are driving to church only to learn that he'd missed the first service and we had to wait for the 2nd service to begin. In the midst of one particular chewing which happened to be about his choice of shoes (which happened to be his yard mowing shoes, yes, his mowing shoes to match his khaki pants and slicked down hair) and how that was not acceptable in this particular church, do you get the picture? As we were turning around to go BACK home to change shoes so that we got back in time to hopefully salvage at least a C on this assignment A2 calmly, but insistently says this....

"Mom, people have days like this. You just don't know about them because people are too embarrassed to talk about them. But people have days like this. We just don't have them very often. Can you just accept that, mom?"

OK. Done. I started laughing at the ridiculousness of the whole morning and apologized. We got home, changed the shoes, returned to watch him sing, made it to our church in time to hear the sermon, (he missed the church choir thing altogether) came home, took a nap.

I'm still analyzing why I became unglued at the whole situation. I was at least glad to provide comic relief for my family as they all made fun of the whole thing yesterday afternoon, but still...

Actually this week is pretty uneventful for all except A1 who has 1st quarter tests all week. So, I will be doing my level best to give my calendar to the Lord and release some of the anxiety associated with the past three months...

The four grandchildren of D's mom...

Shes' One!

You might remember a year ago when I was able to be present for the birth of this little girl. You've seen pics of her throughout the past year too because she's just so adorable. We GET to watch her every Wednesday--we all look forward to her coming! She turned one on Sunday. Happy Birthday, little sweetie!