Year 14...

Today is Emma's 14th birthday! At 10:29 pm tonight it will be official. Cannot believe all this time has gone by. I do believe we weathered her first teen year rather well. And I am hoping the next 365 days are just as smooth.

Tonight she is opting to go to a high school football game with friends instead of out to dinner with her parents. Really? My feelings are so hurt. :) We will go shopping tomorrow night to spend some of her birthday cash so maybe we can sneak dinner in then. I have no photos yet of the birthday girl but I will take plenty tomorrow. I do however, have a photo of Ellie to share that I took this morning. She is always around to indulge me. Love that.

Now, that's going to leave a mark!

Today Ellie and I drove around to deliver her birthday party invites. We were having fun until I decided to shut the SUV door on my thumb. OK...I really wasn't rationally deciding to do this and I really don't know how it happened...but boy did it hurt. As soon as I released the door, blood started squirting all over and then the pain arrived in all its pulsating glory. The poor dad whose house we were at did not know what to do. No one else was home and I am thinking he doesn't normally take care of any of the 'emergency' stuff when it happens. I was bleeding all over and he gave me a tiny Halloween Dora band aid. It was actually kind of funny and he could not for the life of him, find their first aid stash of supplies. I think I will be dropping off a first aid kit for him later this week. I did leave with ice and lots of paper towels and many apologies on his behalf.

Ellie felt terrible about my injury. She is just so sweet. It really looks worse than it feels and having a black nail for Halloween will be pretty cool. I am going to load up on some Tylenol (20 of them sound pretty good) and go to bed.

Here's a photo of my thumb. Hope it doesn't gross anyone out.

It's not easy being green... but it sure is cute!

Isn't this little tree frog just redonkulously cute? He was hanging out on our front door for a few days last week when we had some rain. He would sleep on the glass door behind the flower container during the day and at night he would feast on on the buglets that the front porch light would lure in. I haven't seen him in a few days but I am glad he stayed with us for a little while. Fingers crossed he comes back again.

Here is where he hung out during the day. We could watch him from inside the house and Ellie thought it was the coolest thing ever! If only the cats could see up that far on the door, I am sure they would be in agreement with Ellie.

Here he is after I woke him up (so rude I know). He hopped, and boy can he hop far, onto the side of the house. Love the little alien suction cup toes.

a visit to the state fair

The girls and I took a quick trip to the Virginia State Fair over the weekend. The weather was just too nice not to go. Much to Ellie's disappointment, we bypassed the rides. I am so leary of traveling rides and those individuals that assemble them. I always think someone forgot to tighten a bolt or run a safety check. That's all I need is to be 8 stories up on the Ferris wheel when our lap bar gives way.

Instead we spent our time enjoying all the livestock and fair food. The animals were great, especially the piggies. There was a momma and about 12 little piggies that were the absoute cutest little balls of pink blobs ever. Sadly, I could not get a decent photo because someone had slipped those piggies some redbulls. They were in hyperactive mode running all over. Sliding, skidding, pig piling on top of one another. We had lots of laughs thanks to those little guys. We also saw a 4 hour old calf. The mother still had some signs of birthing around her and the girls were grossed out, yet mildly intrigued. Oh to live on a farm....

Chicago!!

Wow... what a city and what a wonderful time we had. I was pleasantly surprised at how clean and breath-takingly beautiful the windy city is. It was less crowded than NYC with a tad bit slower pace, the shopping was more reasonable, the city was pristine with flowers around every bend and the architecture was absolutely incredible. In comparison, we did miss the street vendors selling items and food on the street corners and the energy of NYC is a bit different - it's a little more seductive and spirited in the big apple, however, we all really fell in love with Chicago...in a big way.

Our main reason for going to Chicago was to speak on behalf of St Jude. A true honor and we are so fortunate to be able to share our story about what this hospital means to us and to Ellie and her quality of life. We did this Monday night at a dinner for Kmart managers and executives. The dinner was held in the Sears Holding complex in Hoffman Estates, IL. What an impressive place. I don't know if you were aware that Sears merged with the Kmart corporation several years ago (... you probably did know that and I am the only one living under a rock that had no clue.) Kmart is a huge player in the upcoming Thanks and Giving campaign for St. Jude. They raised the most money last year out of all the campaign sponsors and this year they were formally recognized as St. Jude's corporate partner for 2010. Last year they raised close to 7 million dollars in the 2 month time frame of Thanks and Giving. Isn't that amazing! Like I said, it was a privilege to share Ellie's story. Tony Thomas (founder Danny's son) spoke before us and he really gave Ellie such a build up calling her a superstar and playing her commercial with Jennifer Aniston. The best part was being able to tell them all that she just celebrated her 8th birthday and is cancer free. Wonderful words to say over and over again!

Ellie and Tony. He looks a lot like his dad.

Steve and I have already talked about going back to Chicago for another long weekend sometime in the Spring. We learned that 80 inches of snow is normal for the Windy City in the winter months so I don't think we will go in the immediate future. It was also quite the romantic city with many cool hotels, clubs and restaurants. A nice getaway without the girls would be fabulous. I think Emma may kill us though because she was really loving all the shopping in Chicago. That girl has fashion in her blood and loves to window shop. We did treat her to her first leather coat on this trip. (I think we were just feeding the monster though.) Ellie loved the American Girl Doll Store and brought one of her dolls with her for a makeover. We have now been to the American Girl Doll stores in Chicago, NYC and LA. Mall of America in MN is next on the list. My girls are just like me with their love for being in a big city. It was really a wonderful time! Here are my favorite photos. You can check them all out by going to the photo link on the right side of the blog.

The view from 94 floors up at the John Hancock Towers

Lake Shore Drive & Lake Michigan. Beautiful!

This is my favorite photo from our trip. How I love my girls!


Stage Avenue = lots of shopping

Michigan Avenue.... beautiful church in the background. Look how windy it was...

The architecture was incredible.

Art Studio downtown

I was taking a photo of the flowers and noticed Ellie's pose afterward. cute!

Emma in the Hershey Store

Our hotel lobby... 2 disco balls. That's how we roll.

A segway tour - what a great way to see the city

Me & the Mister
photo by Emma

Ellie beaming at the American Girl Doll Store

Giordono's deep dish. :)

In our hotel lobby right before heading to the airport to come home.

Chi-Town

Just finished up today's orders and I am now ready to go pack for a long weekend in the Windy City. We have not had the pleasure of visiting Chicago before so we are all smiles to go. We are staying downtown at a very nice hotel and we will be packing in all the fun touristy things we can in 3 days. I am already dreaming of eating deep dish pizza and hanging out with my new BFF, Oprah. We are also going to speak on behalf of St. Jude and share Ellie's story. Praying for the right words to convince everyone to donate to this amazing hospital. They really only need to look at Ellie and how wonderful she is doing to know that aligning with St. Jude is definitely the way to go. :)

It's Kanye Thursday!

Here is a photo collage of Kanye Jude for your viewing pleasure.
These were all taken this week. He is still loving his porch time during the day and watching the butterflies and birds tease him from the outside. After lounging on the porch for a bit, he manages to meander into my office looking for a playmate. He misses his buddy Ellie during the day. I don't tolerate as much playtime as Ellie so thankfully he's happy enough to hop up in the mailbins and take a nap. The other cats only tolerate so much Kanye time too and after a few pounces he gets the message. He certainly is a delightfully crazy little furball.