Tanner turns ONE-Bryce turns FOUR

Tanner turns ONE on June 9th and celebrated with his very own chocolate cake this past weekend
He partied with:
his brother Bryce and sister Brooke
Great Grandma C.....
Oma and Opa
Nina and PaPa
Aunt Sarah
Ron, Jan and Allison
Granny J and Bill
Grandpa Ernie
and
Mommie and Daddy


The kids romped in the backyard while the adults sat on the deck. Come evening they had a bonfire.


Bryce, who turns FOUR on June 15th got a very cool triceratops that he had to sleep with Saturday night.

And while it was also my birthday (I'm in the double digits), I wasn't subjected to riding to the party in a car this small....





....or sitting at the birthday table to eat dinner....


...but, I did manage to score some kisses at the end of the party from this guy.



My cousin Ron and his wife Jan from Peoria and their grand-daughter Alli (daughter of their son Matt) shared the celebration since Alli and Bryce were born the same day. Something that surely made our grandparents smile.

April History 101

Another April, another tragedy.

April 16
2007-Virginia Tech-Male student, Cho Seung-Hiu, killed two in a Virginia Tech dorm, then killed 30 more 2 hours later in a classroom building. His suicide brought the death toll to 33, making the shooting rampage the most deadly in U.S. history. Fifteen others were wounded.

April 18th
1775-Paul Revere rode from Charlestown to Lexington to warn Massachusetts colonists of the arrival of British troops during the American Revolution.
1906-San Francisco Earthquake-4 square miles were destroyed and more than 500 died in San Francisco alone. (my gr gr grandparents lost everything they had and died three years later within days of each other).

April 19th
1775-The shot heard round the world....Colonial Minute Men took on British Army regulars at Lexington and Concord, MA.
1993-Waco Seige-The siege at Waco, Texas, ended when FBI moved into the Branch Davidian compound with tear gas and cult members set fire to the compound killing over 80 people.
1995-Oklahoma City Tragedy-The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was destroyed by a car bomb. 168 people, including 19 children were killed.

April 20th
1999-Columbine High School Shooting-Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. 14 students (including the shooters) and 1 teacher were killed; 23 others were wounded.

April 28th
1996-The Port Arthur massacre in south-eastern Tasmania, Australia was a killing spree which claimed 35 lives and 37 wounded mainly at the historic Port Arthur prison colony, a popular tourist site. Martin Bryant (28yrs) eventually pleaded guilty to the crimes and was given 35 life sentences without possibility of parole.

May 18th
1927-The Bath School disaster in Bath Township Michigan USA was the setting of three bombings which killed 45 people and injured 58. Most of the victims were children in second to sixth grades attending the Bath Consolidated School. Their deaths constitute the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in U.S. history. The perpetrator was school board member Andrew Kehoe, who was upset by a property tax that had been levied to fund the construction of the school building. He blamed the additional tax for financial hardships which led to foreclosure proceedings against his farm. These events apparently provoked Kehoe to plan his attack.

Abraham Lincoln Museum/Springfield IL

Illinois State Capital in Springfield IL

The old Illinois State Capital

White House replica at the Lincoln Museum

The Lincoln family (plus one) outside the White House

Lincoln as a young man when he lived in New Salem, IL

Dolls at the gift shop at the museum

Lincoln statue at New Salem visitor center

Cabins at New Salem Park

Cabins and wood fence at New Salem Park

New Salem Park

The old Lincoln Tomb

The 117-foot tall granite tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery contains the bodies of Lincoln, his wife Mary, and three of his four sons.

Visitors often stop to rub the nose of this evocative bronze bust at the entrance to the Lincoln Tomb. It's the work of Gutzon Borglum, who is most famous for his rendition of Lincoln at Mount Rushmore. You can see the original marble bust in the the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Down the street from the Lincoln home.

The Lincoln Home in the midst of renovation.

Road Trippin

We spent the weekend away so all I had was the palm connection and not much of that as we were on the go a lot. I'll eventually post some pics from the weekend, but for now all I have time to post is this antique sampler that I've been in love with for decades. It is found in one of the cabins at Lincoln's New Salem State Historic park where Abraham Lincoln lived as a young man. We visited the new (opened Apr 2005) Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield and it was fascinating. I even got a couple of stitching kits of charming little profiles of Abe and Mary. Anyway, I wanted to take this sampler off the wall and photograph it really well since it's hung over a bureau and is over my head, but the volunteer was a cow about it and I had to do the best I could to get it without any glare. I heard that a local group of women have reproduced some of the other antique samplers they have at the park (but not this one) and I hope to find out about those this week.

Their parents bed

I stole this picture of the boys from my daughters My Space account. I didn't realize it was taken so long ago, but it was taken around Christmastime. This is their favorite place to sleep, mom and dads bed.

The boys

This is all just clean fun with Tanner and Bryce.

Tanner wonders who the heck that baby is.

Tanner is protesting not being allowed outside at great grandma's house.

Tanner the dare devil will climb on anything. Cruising at 8mo.

PEEK-A-BOO

Family fun night gave Bryce this spider on his cheek.

Babies are so fickle, they can go from this to....

.....this in a matter of seconds.

Isn't mommy's headband cute in my hair???

The library program theme was Blues Clues and Bryce is in his bone nametag and dog ears.

Bryce was making a necklace with beads at the library program.

The boys at the library with Blue.

Chief Illiniwek's Last Dance - Feb 21, 2007

This is our beloved Chief Illiniwek. He's the symbol of our University (of Illinois). He was an 81 year old tradition and I have known personally a couple of the past chiefs. In February he was retired from performing at sporting events due to sanctions by the NCAA. It was a very sad day.

Index of Chief Illiniwek Representatives
Lester G. Leutwiler / 1926-1928 / Deceased

A. Webber Borchers / 1929-1930 / Deceased

William A. Newton / 1931-1934

Edward C. Kalb / 1935-1938 / Deceased

John Grable / 1939-1940 / Deceased

Glenn Holthaus / 1941-1942 / Deceased

Idelle Stith Brooks / 1943 / Deceased

Kenneth Hanks / 1944 / Deceased

Robert Bitzer / 1945-1946 / Deceased

Robert Bischoff / 1947

James A. Down / 1948-1950 / Deceased

William G. Hug / 1951-1952

Gaylord "Dean" Spotts / 1953-1955

Ronald S. Kaiser / 1956

John W. Forsyth / 1957-1959

Ben Forsyth / 1960-1963

Fred Cash / 1964-1965

Rick Legue / 1966-1967

Gary Simpson / 1968-1969

John Bitzer / 1970-1973

Mike Gonzalez / 1974-1976

Matt Gawne / 1977-1979

Pete Marzek / 1980

Scott Christensen / 1981-1983

William Forsyth / 1984-1985

Michael Rose / 1986-1987

Tom Livingston / 1988-1989

Kurt Gruben / 1990-1991

Steve Raquel / 1992

Jeff Beckham / 1993

John Creech / 1994-1995

Scott Brakenridge / 1996-1997

John Madigan / 1998-2000

Matt Veronie / 2001-2004

Kyle Cline / 2004-2006

Dan Maloney / 2007

SAVE THE CHIEF!!!

http://www.honorthechief.org/history.html

Logo designed by Jack Davis.

Knee deep in snow

I know there's a saying about being careful what you wish for....well there must be one that says be careful what you complain about. Last week it was the frigid cold sub-0 temperatures and that dab of snow we got. This week that was easily topped by the blizzard we got all day Tuesday. The wind howled, the snow just kept coming (for 14 hours with 14inches) and the drifts just grew bigger and bigger. When DH came home he couldn't get in the front door until he scooped the porch free of snow. I would have gotten the mail from the box next to the door, but I couldn't get the door open. Compare this to what you saw last week and you'll know how my DH spent his day off today, while I sat inside coughing up a lung for the 4th day in a row. Right now it's well below zero again and they say tomorrow brings more snow. Don't think I'm complaining here...because I'm not. There is a place in western New York State that has gotten over 140inches of snow, which I can't even begin to imagine.

And that desk at work....I never made it into work this week so it's still waiting for me in that horrid state come Monday if I feel any better by then.

SNOWY & COLD!!!!!

On the street where I live with the sun coming up! This is what it looks like now....no more going to work in the dark.

2208 Club with the driveway half scooped. This snow was like scooping feathers at first, now it's just like moving bricks, so I'm praying for a warm weekend and that the rest will melt.

OMG, this is my desk at work in it's current state! TGIF!

Anywhere but here would be fine

There's a blizzard outside my window this morning. The past several days it's been below zero with wind chills well below zero which means it's been too cold to snow. When I came to work yesterday morning it was -7F so we're having a bit of a heartwave today at 9F degrees above, even if the snow is creating havoc on the roads and forcing schools to close early.

I'd like to be somewhere nice and toasty right about now. In fact I've been dreaming of the Grand Haven Michigan Kite Festival that we've attended a couple of times in the past and I'm thinking we need to go there this spring. May 18-20 will be the 18th Annual Great Lakes Kite Festival to benefit the Children's Leukemia Foundation....hey, it's for a good cause. I wonder how COLD is it in Michigan right about now? That thought alone makes me feel warm.
Here are some past festival pics:


These large kites are such fun to watch blowing in the breeze.


The lighthouse at Grand Haven Michigan is one of the most scenic around and we can't go there without walking the entire pier.
Just plain fun on the beach.

My guys

My three most favorite guys!!!!

Slippery Super Bowl 41!!!!!!!!!!!

We were rooting for the Bears, (can you tell) but we live about the same distance from both teams, so it wasn't a hardship to root for the Colts by the 4th quarter. I think the resounding refrain at our house last night was "Grossman you're an idiot!!!!!!!!!"