Frisca

I can't say enough about my feline best friend. This little girl has been with me through the best and worst times of my adult life. I found her along side the road during my sophomore year in college. The poor thing was in horrible shape, but by evidence of today, sprang back and has filled all of our lives with her fuzzy joy. Our little 17 year old bundle of joy still demands her meals three times a day and we are happy to oblige. Thank you, Frisca for continuing to brighten our days!

In Motion

My latest photography project... After all that time learning about how to get that perfect picture in focus, I decided to take another route and play with light and motion. The first picture was taken at the end of winter while the Christmas lights were still in the trees in downtown Naperville. I managed to get close enough to the street without getting hit by any Metra buses! Tom and Rhea were then very patient with me as I asked them to walk around in circles for a half hour. As it turns out, I went with my first shot of them...lol

Rhea's Birthday

Christmas

It was a Merry Christmas indeed!!!  The house was decorated and the excitment of our two darling children made this once again, the best Christmas ever.  We enjoyed all of our usual traditions of finishing all the decorations by Thanksgiving day so we could enjoy the lights, trees and Christmas houses for the entire holiday season.  Stephen and Rhea made their usual Christmas gift bags for the family and eagerly awaited their big Christmas morning.  I think it's obvious that they had a GREAT Christmas and concluded with their usual "crash" by 5pm....

Happy 4th of July!

We had a fantastic 4th of July week. That's right, a whole week of celebration with my birthday on Monday followed by the 4th of July weekend. The kids gave me a beautiful necklace for my birthday and then proceeded to go on a two night camping trip with dad. It was really quiet around here, but I got caught up on my sleep and took advantage of the time to get the house back under control, get ahead on curriculum, and even watch two movies snuggled with the ol' kitty, Frisca. She really enjoyed sleeping in the big bed for two whole nights!! Dad's home now, so it's back to the basement.

I enjoyed getting things done, but found myself walking in circles by the end of the second day. It was nice to see them come home, only to find them crashed out in their beds after lunch. Oh well, I guess they had a great time with dad! They came back to life by the evening, so we pulled out the fireworks and finished off the left over smores supplies from the camping trip. YUM!

Rhea still has issues with loud noises, so Tom makes sure to have enough smoke bombs on hand as well as things that sparkle without too much sound. She loves to chase the smoke around the yard and smells REALLY bad by the end of the evening! We moved onto the rockets as it got darker and I moved inside with Rhea so the boys could have their fun. Rhea still enjoys the rocket, but from the inside window. Some rockets had sparkles, some had parachutes, and then there were the good ol' bottle rockets. As you can see, Stephen really enjoys the rockets and held his first sparkler. These are much safer than when we were kids. I remember hot metal rods that would throw sparks all over your arm and hand. I was never too keen about them and was happy with the new design. These things are huge, but don't give off too much spark while keeping everything away from the body. Daddy's big finale was a sparkle fountain that had little pops at the end. Just enough for Stephen to enjoy and not too much for Rhea. I was hoping to take her to a fireworks display this year, but maybe next time. We'll revisit the issue when we can at least get her to stay outside for a bottle rocket.

Happy 4th of July everyone!!!!!

Winter