Home from Kansas City to Crazyness!

It was not a "family" vacation but none the less a week at the USSSA World Series in Kansas City was a good week for us to end the softball season. Unfortunately there are too many adults that are not in this for their kids, but rather for themselves. Those "parents" just about ruined the entire week. We spent way too much time on damage control from fixing what other people had underminded us with and left 10 & 11 year old girls up in the middle of the night in tears. Fortunately, our own kids were not directly involved - well Alex was because the girls were all crying and talking in the coach's room where Alex stayed with Drew & the other coaches.

Here are a couple pictures of the team that played. There are more on the softball website.

We got home and were happy to see the for sale sign and lock box gone from our house. No longer is it on the market.

My mom has a new story going on... In the last week and a half, she has received flowers from a guy (a senior DeMolay and current Mason, Shriner....) she dated in high school. He lives in Missouri and mom is planning his visit here next month and visiting his place after. It's all a lot to take in. I thought it was a trip having 2 pre-teens but now we're adding a 75 going on 16 year old to the mix. She told me on Sunday they had spent 68 HOURS on the TELEPHONE in the last WEEK! Drew promptly said all the things to her that she had said to us about doing the very same thing. At least we were in the same area code. The other night she was on the phone for 4 hours!

We are counting on the month of August to finally get the boat in the water, go camping, school shopping and start school. Oh and softball try-outs are in a month too.

Vernon Hills Summer Celebration

For the last 20 years (wow that sounds like a long time!) we have volunteered at the hospitality tent for Vernon Hills Summer Celebration. This year is no exception.

Wednesday night was the celebration night for the 50th Anniversary of Vernon Hills being a "community". Huge crowd - over 70 half barrels were served. Gin Blossoms performed.

Last night was opening night for Summer Celebration with great fireworks and a tribute band to Santana.

Here is the schedule for the rest of the weekend. We will not be there Sunday, but they will.

FRIDAY, JULY 18
Hot Rocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 p.m.
A Rolling Stones tribute that would make Mick and the boys proud.
Mike & Joe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 p.m.
One of the Midwest’s favorite cover bands – U2, Maroon 5, Dave Matthews and original songs.
SATURDAY, JULY 19
Arra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 p.m.
Classic rock — a Chicagoland favorite!
The Fabulous Thunderbirds . . . .9 p.m.
Texas-style blues, including “Tuff Enuff” and “Wrap It Up.”
SUNDAY, JULY 20
Od Tapo Imi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 p.m.
Steel drums, dancers and more mix for an exciting island-inspired show — “Blue Man” meets Buffett!
Cherry Poppin’ Daddies . . . . . . .8 p.m.
Genre-blending swing/ska with attitude, featuring hit song “Zoot Suit Riot” and cuts off their new album, “Susquehanna.

Is it really about playing ball?

Just like mom and dad playing or not playing volleyball, we have become them. Sure we spend a lot of time with our life revolving around a softball but it is really so much more than our girls playing ball.

It works out really nicely that we have a great group of friends who just happen to have daughters that play softball. Fortunately for Alex, many of them also come with brothers.

So just when you think we are all obsessed over softball, think again about the myth that mom & dad played volleyball for so many years and they still call themselves the volleyball group.

The really cool thing is that we are sharing the game with our community and our girls have made friends with girls on other teams.

I have told the coaches of Northwestern University Softball that visiting them, going to their games, etc is just what we need for doses of positive. Plus, going to their games - it is free. Ashley went a few weeks ago to softball camp down in Evanston. It was 4 days 9am-3pm. For me to watch (while catching some rays with appropriate sunblock on of course), it was like a positive spa. Everyone - coaches and players are so nice and positive and easy to learn from, it is a great thing to be exposed to not just for the game of softball but for life in general.

Our regular season is over now. It was a pretty emotional season both good and bad but it is just about to get a lot more exciting. Our 10 and under team will be competing in Kansas City at the 10u central world series. The bus leaves Sunday morning. Stay tuned to our softball website for exciting news while we are there.

What we're up to...

Really, it's difficult to keep up with more than one website. Click on the link for Waukegan Lady Dawg Softball to see what we've been up to. There are a ton of pictures on the picture page.

Even better, come out to a game.

GO DAWGS!

Seriously, here's what's up

Just as our world is constantly changing - the price of gas jumps everyday the stock market drops... What sounded like awesome opportunities made us ask ourselves "what the heck are we doing?!"

We found out Mother's Day night on the way home from mom & dad's that Greg (Kesl's Woodworks) had made a decision that he and Drew should not be partners for tax saving reasons but they should be like consultants to each other and still do what they had planned to do. Greg had left Bill with one decent size job but that's it. Now he has nothing going on.

The week that school got out, I got tough with the realtors and asked what was going on - why has our house not sold. We had dropped the price almost $20,000 from the original listing price, what's up?! Within a couple hours I had more queries come my way than I had ever anticipated. A month and a half into the house being on the market and they just realized that we were competing with 50 other houses! I wanted to know what they were going to do to make my house stand out and get noticed. This week after we have been rethinking everything, we got a call Tuesday that someone wanted to look at the house and Wednesday someone was motivated and wanted to look at the house. I told them no, the house was not available to show until after the weekend.

We are reconsidering everything and will most likely just stay put. I found out where Ashley will be going to school next year so that is a relief.

In the mean time here are a couple reasons around the house that it is good to be where we are.

it has taken YEARS to get all that groundcover to become so full

going through the process of selling has instilled some new good habits

one being that the hardwood floor is mopped just about everyday

this is all that has been on the dining room table for 3 months

why didn't we do this before?

this is no longer the playhouse - it was requested that it now be refered to as the kid condo

ironically one of the rose bushes is a peace rose

it is really pretty and it smells nice too

this week i did my annual move plants around - moving the ferns hostas and groundcover from the north side of the house to this spot

a view of the maple tree in the back from the swing

so right now we are in the mindset that we're going to be good role models for our kids - not being quitters, staying to make a difference... next is to let the realtors in on our epiphany.

more later - i promise to update you on the last month