I have hogged the computer for hours now - there are 3 new posts (4 including this sentence).

Our Series of Pictures... be careful what you wish for, these are pretty sweet!

Can you identify all these little ones?

Drew & Ashley

Ashley 6 weeks old

1996 Tree Cutting

Grandpa's Tree Farm, Woodstock


Drew & his little princess snug as a bug.

Ashley & Alex

Ashley 1 year, Alex 2 1/2 months old
Visiting Santa 1997

Ashley did not want to have anything to do with Santa.

Those are the shoes! The nubuck shoes I thought Ashley had to have. Alex's mocasins were from our trip to Colorado in 1996 before Ashley was born.

Daisy, Alex, Ashley, Tricia & Drew

Ashley 2 years, Alex 1 year, Daisy 6 months

1998 Tree Cutting - Grandpa's Tree Farm, Woodstock, IL

Visit with Santa 1998

Visit with Santa 1998

1998 Christmas in January

Ashley 3, Alex 2, Daisy 1 year old

1999 Tree Cutting - Grandpa's Tree Farm, Woodstock, IL

Visit with Santa 1999

Visit with Santa 1999

Ashley 4, Alex 3, Daisy 2

2000 Tree Cutting - Grandpa's Tree Farm, Woodstock, IL

2000 Visit with Santa at 'The Fishy Store' ~ where Santa lives ;)

Another visit with Santa in 2000.

They must have been really good

& Santa must have been really thirsty to have to visit the grocery store!

It is disturbing why we do not have a picture from 2001. It was a crazy Christmas season. The kids & I made star ornaments using wire and beads as a crafty patriotic gesture.

Ashley 5, Alex 4, Daisy 3

2001 Tree Cutting - I know we cut a tree at Grandpa's Tree Farm

Ashley 6, Alex 5, Daisy 4

2002 Tree Cutting - Grandpa's Tree Farm, Woodstock, IL

The year Grammy & Papa went with to cut a tree. Papa took this picture.

Ashley & Alex

2002 Andrew Cooke Magnet School

Winter Wonderland

January 2003, a great day for snow!

Ashley 7, Alex 6, Daisy 5

2003 Tree Cutting - Grandpa's Tree Farm, Woodstock, IL

At Grandpa's Tree Farm, the trees were $38. You gave them $40 and you got a $2 bill as change. When they started handing out singles as change, we looked for a new tree farm to go to.

Alex with Santa

2003 Andrew Cooke Magnet School Winter Wonderland

Ashley with Santa

2003 Andrew Cooke Magnet School Winter Wonderland

January 2004 Grammy's Christmas Party

Ashley 8, Alex 7, Daisy 6, Maddie 5 months old

2004 Tree Cutting - Richardson's Farm, Spring Grove, IL

Grammy went with & took this picture

Ashley & Alex Visit with Santa

2004 Andrew Cooke Magnet School Winter Wonderland

Ashley 9, Alex 8, Daisy 7, Maddie 1 1/2 years old

2005 Tree Cutting - Richardson's Farm, Spring Grove, IL

Ashley & Alex Visit with Santa

2005 Andrew Cooke Magnet Winter Wonderland

The year Ashley had the lead in the Nutcracker.

Ashley 10, Alex 9, Daisy 8, Maddie 3
2006 Tree Cutting - Richardson's Tree Farm, Spring Grove, IL

The first year the kids cut the tree down.

Ashley & Alex Visit Santa

2006 Andrew Cooke Magnet School Winter Wonderland

The year Alex had the lead, Papa Snowman in the 3rd Grade Play

Ashley 11, Alex 10

2007 Tree Cutting - Richardson's Tree Farm, Spring Grove, IL

The year we thought everything in our life was going to change.

Drew worked the day the kids & I cut the tree.

We ( I) were worried Drew was going to say the tree was too big. I ended up cutting a little much off & it ended up that it could have had less cut off to be just right.

Ashley & Alex New Year's Eve 2007

We got an awesome amount of snow that night & went out to make a snowman in the dark.

Ashley 12, Alex 11, Daisy 10, Maddie 5

2008 Tree Cutting - Richardson's Farm, Spring Grove, IL

As we all get older, this is still one of the best days of the year.

I am thankful for our Family and Friends

While I really loved being up north last Thanksgiving with our friends, the Hathorns, it was good to be with family this year.

Thanksgiving week began a week ago Friday when Drew & Alex got out of work and school to go up to Bill's to hunt deer. They were up there Friday and came home Tuesday night. They did not have a successful trip but the permits are good for the December hunt at well. Wednesday they took Daisy and Maddie out for a treat to hunt pheasant at Chain O Lakes State Park. The dogs had a great day & the guys made some awesome Greek lemon, phesant & rice soup. YUM!

While the guys were gone Ashley & I had a pretty busy weekend ourselves. Friday after school we had friends over for "Friday Afternoon Club" then we were off to rehearsal for Rainbow Official Visit.

Saturday morning we returned to Waukegan Masonic Temple for Raidant's Official Visit. Ashley is Drill Leader of the assembly now. She was an oustanding drill leader. I am very proud of her. As drill leader, she presents the American flag for the pledge and escorts people around for introductions. For OV there are a lot of introductions so she had a lot of floorwork.

Sunday we continued Rainbow events with pie making for a fundraiser. The adults and the girls made a total of 100 pies to sell at the Lake County Court House on Tuesday. We only worked on Sunday but it was fun.

Monday & Tuesday we went to school and enjoyed the Dancing With the Stars Finally without channel flipping.

Wednesday we went to Borders where Ashley got the books she needed to be in the Rebecca Caudill reading club at school. She has 4 books to read by sometime in January after which kids in the 'club' will create questions about the books, answer them and test each other. Eventually they will compete against students from the other schools in the district. Ashley all ready has 1 book read, a book report for Communications class written and has started the next book.

Thursday we picked up my mom and went to Grandma & Grandpas to enjoy the company of family, especially our sweet little nieces and for a great Thanksgiving feast.

Yesterday, I'm not sure what the heck we did. We did not participate in black Friday. We played games, watched football & just hung out.

Help! I'm on Facebook and I can't get off!

Facebook is a social networking website launched on February 4, 2004.[1] The free-access website is privately owned and operated by Facebook, Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profile to notify friends about themselves.

2004 - that explains why I am now connected.

The excitement of this blog has taken a backseat to Facebook. Facebook has been a fun way of reconnecting with friends from all chapters of life. Some names & faces are blasts from the past. It is amzaing how old pictures resurface! It is amazing where everyone is in their lives - my roommate, Amy from SIU - married, no kids, Senior Marketing Director of Universal Studios in California. Susie Barbacovi - married, no kids, Director, Global Trade Compliance & Policy of Abbott Labs. One month ago, Susie stayed at the Trident and ate at the Oberoi and Taj, which are currently under terrorist seige in Mumba! There are 9 degrees of separation between me, Julie & Geoff's friend, Greta and one of Drew's fraternity brothers, Brian. It is interesting to see who is married to who, who is divorced, who has kids, etc. It is really fun to see children's resemblances to their parents. I decided this morning that it is comforting especially this time of year to connect with people who knew my dad when... elementary & junior high friends who were involved in slumber parties, Halloween parties...
What's really cool, this is a place where most of us are relatively the same age - approaching 40.
If you're not on Facebook, you should give it a try - your friends are there.

Happy 1st Birthday Cora!

Facebook Phenomenon

Facebook is a "social networking website" launched on February 4, 2004.


Thanks to a great friends, I have discovered a great way to connect with friends from high school and college. We are finding pictures like the one below that have been on the internet for years & we didn't know it. I took this picture for the house & as a class assignment. Carbondale is now pretty much a dry town. Drew's fraternity has been gone from SIU for many years as well as some of the places we frequented - torn down!

With the teacher I work with getting married in June, I have recently gone through our wedding album. Looking people up who were in and at our wedding that we haven't seen in 15 years is fun. It is great catching up with everyone, seeing where everyone is geographically, who is doing what, who is with who, who has kids, etc. It is amazing what we remember about each other. I can't decide yet if Facebook makes me feel older or younger. The great thing is that we're all getting older. It is also a great reminder of who we were then and who we are now.

Tricia's Facebook