My friend & co-worker is leaving

Tomorrow will be a sad day at work. It is Holly's last day.

We have worked together for over 11 years.

She started 2 months before me back in Feb. 1997.

She is 1 month older than me.

We became great friends.

We were roommates at old Pine Island apts from 1997-1999.

I'm hoping she thinks it is ok that I am posting all these pics on my blog, she is probably my only regular reader!

Things I will never forget about you:

When the huge pine tree fell on your car in the blizzard of '98

Your love of plain m&m's

Your love of Pepsi (not coke)

Our talks of your love life

Boston Market & McDonalds

Being the Pork AND Beef Queen

Helping me when it was 'raining' in my office

Being a part of my wedding proposal on the marquee

Being a bridesmaid in my wedding

When you got extensions!(wish I had a pic of that)

Living together for 1.5 yrs

What a great singer you are!

When you sang the National Anthem at Comiskey!

When you Finally found your man and came to work with a ring on your finger

When you had the winter wedding of your dreams, complete with the muff!

When you laugh at me when I get stressed out or pissed & help calm me down

I am feel so blessed to have you as a friend. You know those associate surveys we take every year at work? Remember the question, "Do you have a close friend at work?" I have checked 'yes' EVERY year since '97. You have always been that friend.

I wish you much happiness at your new job and all the future brings! I'm so relieved that you will still be 'close by' with your new job.

Enjoy your weekends to the fullest now with all that extra money you will be making!

We MUST do lunch Regularly!

Holly, I love you & I will miss you very much!

m.e.

First Day of Kindergarten!

I can't believe my boy is starting kindergarten already. Do all mothers feel this way about their first borns? They must.

He excited and didn't seem nervous at all. Trent and I took him to school together. I didn't get emotional in the classroom either. I think it was because so many people were in there and it was getting stuffy.

Ethan got to meet his teacher and she handed him his name tag to wear.

Each student is a number, he is 18. He then went to find his mailbox-red 18.

Then he had to find his cabinet to hang up his backpack-orange crayon.

Once all the kids had their nametags she rang a bell and told everyone to find a seat and grab a book to look/read. Most of the parents said their goodbyes at that time.

I went back around 3 to pick him up. My mom had gone with my sister to pick up Matthew, who is in the morning K class.

Here is my sister with Matthew after his first day of kindergarten.

She had time to tag along with me to get him then.

He was the first one to run out to us! (partly, because his teacher knows my mother and I)

Here he is with his teacher...

So proud of my little boy.

I wanted to pay for his after-school care so went down to find the classroom. As we were walking down the halls my mom was noticing that it was getting close to the classroom that she had when she taught at this school years ago. We find rm 37 and it is HER ROOM! It looks different, after a remodeling a few years ago. But she had to emphasize to E that it was your grandma's classroom! Well, the supervisor lady was busy signing kids in, so didn't want to deal with the money then.

Grandma thought that his first day deserved a treat, so she suggested DQ. Ethan, of course, was thrilled.

When we got home I forgot that I had set up the slushy machine surprise. We saw it at Target over a month ago and he was begging for it. I told him we would wait until it was on sale. Well, a couple of weeks ago it was finally on clearance, so I got it and hid it for a surprise first day treat.

I had it all ready to go and displayed in the kitchen. He walked in and noticed it right away and was so excited! Well, we had to try it out. Yeah, he just had a kiddie cone, I know.

Target didn't have any syrup left, but I found some at Meijer. I just got cherry & lime.

Then-the major shocker later that night. Ethan casually said, "Hey, Mommy, I got it and didn't swallow it this time!" I really didn't understand what he was talking about, then I saw he had something in his hand. He top tooth fell out!! It had been loose and bothering him when eating certain things....that are healthy. This is his 3rd tooth he has lost!

(those red stains on his shirt are from the slushy, not blood)

He looks so different! I knew he would, but it really is shocking to me. It is such a big gap! It is such a revelation that he really isn't a baby anymore now!

T and I get to see Jim Gaffigan tomorrow! That should super funny! We got the late show, hope T gets a nap in earlier! Ethan gets to spend the night at my parents. Amazingly, it is only his 2nd time spending the night at my parents' house.

Summer pooltime

Ethan took a couple of lessons this summer. Molly, a hs girl, came over to our house and gave him lessons in our pool. I think she was only here 3 times.
He made progress, but not giving up on the floaties quite yet.

He will jump in from the side and knows to hold his breath. That is major progress.
Here is jumping in from the top step of the ladder...


Jumpin in pool from top step-Summer 08 from M.E. on Vimeo.

So funny, how he says "I know" instead of 'thank you', need to get him on that more.
Trent showed him how to jump off of the side of the deck. So proud of how brave he is jumping in the pool now.


Jumpin in pool off of deck Aug 2008 from M.E. on Vimeo.

Tomorrow is his first day of kindergarten. He has Mrs. Pettit, who I was hoping for. He got afternoon as we requested. I'm going to take a half day tomorrow to take him and pick him up.
My baby is growing up!

Fun at the Fair 2008

My family loves the FAIR. I don't think it is just me, T & E love it also. We love that we live super close, too!

At our 10 day fair, we went 6 times this year! Last year was 7. It was hot & humid 2 days we went and also rain 2 of the days. On 8/9 we got caught in the rain and had to run home that night! We got A. Dorthy fudge and I was hoping it wasn't getting drenched.


We had to explain to Ethan when we went he wasn't going to get to ride on rides each time. He usually was happy to at least play rollerbowler. Rollerbowler is T fav game and he is pretty good at it by now. I didn't win this year, though! I think he won at least 4 times at it this year.



I am a member now, so I got my punch pass! We went mostly before 3, which is free, so we only had 2 punches on it! Plus A sent me 2 single admin passes, which we didn't need.



We went Friday and let E get a wristband for rides. He loved just hopping from ride to ride. It was super sunny & humid that day and not many people were there so no lines at all! On this day, Ethan was interviewed by the newspaper. He was asked his favorite fair food. He was actually eating a snowcone at the time, but he said "Corndog". They took his picture and he was happy. I was hoping it was going to be a b&w pic in the paper as his lips were bright blue from the snowcone! The next few days we kept checking our paper to see if this pic had ran. It finally did on Tuesday.






We went Saturday night.




Then Monday afternoon we went with cousins and my sister. I took Monday off, so I watched my niece & nephew. We made pizzas for lunch.






When my sister was done at work we went to the fair around 2pm. A was so nice and gave wristbands to E and his cousins. I didn't realize that Amanda would be very cautious on what she rides. The boys really tried almost everything.

Front seat on gator coaster at Fair '08 from M.E. on Vimeo.p>

Matthew & Ethan going down Fun Slide at Fair 08 from M.E. on Vimeo.

We went Tuesday night for the fireworks. Our program said they would start at 9:30pm. T was still at work at 8:45 and I was wanting to walk over to get a spot. He said he would be home by 9pm. Well, at 9pm I start hearing super loud booms over our house! They decided to start early, I guess. We saw the majority of them over the lake.


On Thursday Ethan took part in the hotdog eating contest. Hotdogs are his fav. We explained that he didn't have to stuff it in his mouth. There were like 45 kids entered and just 3 trophies. Each kid got a bottle of water and 1 hotdog. E was a little surprised it was over in like 15 sec.



We went on Saturday for dinner & to watch barrel races and then it rained that night.


The summer is almost over now. Ethan starts kindergarten on the 21st. He is afternoon, but we still don't know his teacher.



We are going to High School Musical at SPT on Sunday.
I'm taking E and Amanda. They are soo excited!