Graduating!

Since it's graduation season, I decided this would be the perfect Throwback Thursday Stories picture!

I was so excited when I finally graduated!  The thought of no more school, and getting ready for college was thrilling!  My graduation was extra special for me- and for my family.  My grandma had arranged for my Uncle Sherel, an alumnus from my high school to give the commencement speech.  I thought that was pretty cool!  Before the ceremony, he told me to give him a signal if he'd been talking too long (he did, but I didn't do anything).  When it was time to go onstage and receive our diplomas, my uncle took mine from the principal and presented it to me himself.  Such an honor!

The next day, we had a blowout of a graduation party at my grandparent's house.  I had family from all over the country there.  Not completely sure if they were there just for me, or because my uncle had given the commencement, but it was amazing!  You can see I got luggage, which I still have- although one piece has gone missing.  Behind me is my dad, holding my baby sister, Ashely.  Yes, that's a 17 year age difference, and next year, SHE will be graduating high school!  I look like such a baby in that picture, but I look exactly like my dad.  We even have the same smile!

A flashback of a flashback!

 Here I am again, linking up with The Mom Creative for her Throwback Thursday Stories!

Today is a flashback of a flashback!

Every year during homecoming week, each day was a special day where we got to do different things to raise spirit.  We had pajama day, camo day etc.  This day was 70's day and I had the advantage of my mom saving some of her clothes from when she was in school and they actually fit me!  My friend, Cindy and I decided we'd wear them- and I think we were the only ones with authentic clothes! 

It was a lot of fun, but my plaid dress was a little short.  It was quite difficult going up the stairs, and when I dropped my pencil in typing class, I had to have someone else pick it up for me.  This was during our sophomore year, 20 years ago.  Geez, that makes me feel old!  I tried to get Kate to wear that plaid dress this year for homecoming when they had hippie day, but she wouldn't wear it.  There's always next year!

Florida- a TBT treat

 Once again, I'm linking up with Jessica's Throwback Thursday Stories!  I had good intentions to do this again last week, even had my picture and story all ready in my head, but by the time I got out of the shower, I got distracted and completely forgot.  I'm good at that!

When we were kids, Christmas meant more than Christmas Eve service and a visit from Santa.  It meant that after we went to our Me-maw and Pa-pa's house Christmas morning, we'd head to our Granny and Pa's, load into their car and make the 17 hour trip to their vacation house in Boynton Beach, FL.  This was exciting for us- we got several weeks off of school, away from our parents, enjoying time with our grandparents (and getting away with way more than we would at home)!

Those trips meant daily trips to the beach (even when it was too cold to swim) and stopping at the 7-11 beforehand to get an ice cream sandwich.  It meant walking along the jetty and seeing the manatees, Pa building us ocean liners (because any grandpa can build a castle, who else builds ocean liners?), and our very own tide pool.  It meant picking oranges and grapefruits in the backyard and Granny juicing them.  It meant seeing all of Pa's family.

Near the end of our trip, our parents would drive down, spend a few days and then take us home while Granny and Pa stayed behind until March when Illinois winters weren't too unbearable.  We did this every year until I was in 5th grade and my mom decided that I would have too much work to catch up on (she always arranged with our teachers to send our homework along on our trip so we wouldn't be behind).  I can tell you that those trips hold some of my most precious memories.  Granny and Pa no longer have that house, but still go down every year after Christmas and stay with my uncle.  I know Florida holds a special place in all of our hearts!

Throwback Thursday

Holy cow!  It's been a while since I've blogged.  Too long.  My last post was back in January, just days after getting back from our Orlando vacation, and I didn't even finish that out.  Our two days at Universal was as far as I got, and I didn't even write about Disney.  Fail...  So, to get back into the swing of things (maybe, hopefully) I'm linking up with Jessica from The Mom Creative and her new Throwback Thursday Stories.  I'm so excited about this because it combines my obsession with photographs and history!  So, with no further ado, I take you back to 15 years ago yesterday.

My sweet Kate turned 15 on Monday.  I'm not entirely certain how that happened, but it did.  She was 2 days old in this picture.  She'd had a rough time already.  Hours after birth, the ped. noticed a petechiae rash that can be an indicator of infection or liver issues, so a blood culture was necessary.  Not long after, the ped came to my room saying they needed Kate because she was VERY sick and needed to be started on iv antibiotics right away.  If she didn't respond within a few hours, they would have to airlift her to another hospital with a NICU.  SCARED US TO DEATH!!!  By evening, we got word that there was improvement, so she would not have to be transferred.  Long story short, there was a mix-up in the nursery when they came to do the original blood draw and Kate was fine.  The baby across the hall was not so lucky, though, and she was airlifted later that night.  I was up walking the halls, pushing a very agitated Kate in her bassinet to keep her quiet and witnessed the whole ordeal. 

Even though Kate was completely healthy, they required that she remain on antibiotics for 3 days until the final culture came back clear, so we had an extended little stay in the hospital.  On her 2nd day, the nurse came to get her to have her picture taken for the hospital website.  In 1999, the internet was still in its infancy.  I'd only been online a few times, so this was pretty exciting!  We were 2 hours away from our families, and many of them hadn't been able to make the trip up to see us, so we liked being able to show everyone in a new way!  The above picture was sent out to so many of our friends and family.

The next day, the hospital confessed that it had mixed up the labs and that she had not had any infection.  Her final culture had come in clear and we were given the OK to go home, finally.  Some question why we didn't take action against the hospital, but we were simply so happy to have her healthy that it was a non-issue.  Besides, that's not in our nature.  I do still wonder how that other baby turned out. 

And a sweet side note about this picture.  My mom printed it out and gave it to my grandpa, who was over the moon to have a great-granddaughter.  I've always been his "number 1 granddaughter" (and his only granddaughter among all the boys), so he was thrilled to have a "number 1 great-granddaughter." (still, she's the only one).  He took the picture and put it in the sun visor in his truck.  It was there for years, long after she had left baby-hood behind.  Now, that picture is hanging in his garage, 15 years later.  I smile every time I see it, knowing how much he loves his Kate!

Universal Studios- Island of Adventure Day 3

I'd been keeping track of wait times for both Universal and Disney for weeks and saw that the Harry Potter ride Kate had been so excited to ride was rarely less than 2 hours.  We figured if we got to the park at 8 when it opened, we could go straight to it and have the shortest wait.  So after getting lost, we still made it there at 8 and went straight to the ride which already had over an hour wait.  We got in line and as we went along, the signs indicated that it was a roller coaster.  Kate knew from the day before that I wasn't riding any more coasters, but some of the others were game.  Then, the further we went, Kate backed out, and suddenly, all 6 of us were cutting out of line.  She thought that it was a tour of Hogwarts, and when she found out it wasn't, decided it wasn't her cup of tea.  So all of that anticipation led up to nothing!  Sigh.  But she did enjoy the Harry Potter area of the park, which even I will admit, was very detailed and neat.  I can not begin to describe the craziness of the people, though- grown adults dressed as people from the movie, waving wands, and the wand shop... had a huge line just to get in the door.  BTW, the shop next door sold the EXACT same wands.  Kate said you had to buy the wands from the wand shop, not the other.

 I'll admit, the snow in this one kinda made me miss being at home.  Kind of.

After lunch, the kids wanted to ride a water ride.  It was a good deal chillier than the day before, but Pa-pa and Grammy said they'd ride, so they went.  And they got wet, really wet despite the ponchos.

Preston can't pass up a chance to climb something, so when he saw the rock wall, he had to do it.

While Grammy and Pa-pa went on a ride we didn't want to go on, we spent some time at an arcade- again, Preston's favorite!  He played basketball and skeeball and won a few tickets.  A couple that had been playing while we waited came up to us and gave him 100 tickets, saying they were too old for the prizes!  He was thrilled!  He was able to get a Fun Dip, and giant Pixy Stick and a Tootsie Roll with his tickets.  No surprise that he chose candy!

Preston found more carnival games and won a caterpillar!  At this point I realized we'd be going home with a lot more stuff than I planned on.  Always, do though.

While browsing through the souvenir shops before leaving the park, we found some Oscars for Wold's Best Daughter, and World's Best Son.

 

After getting back to the house, we decided to order Applebees takeout since we were so tired.  Keith called the Orlando restaurant instead of the one in Kissimmee, and when they went to pick up our food, they found out it was the wrong one.  We did eventually get our food- cold, and an hour later, but it was fun.  Stay tuned, because it will happen again!

Next up, Disney World!

Orlando Vacation Days 1 & 2

Our crazy vacation started right at midnight on Friday.  We had a 15 hour, 933 mile trip to Orlando, so we figured driving at night would let the kids sleep half the way.  Of course, they were so wound up and excited that an hour into the trip, they were both wide awake...  They eventually fell asleep and we made amazing time, sailing into Chattanooga right as the sun came up over the mountains.  Beautiful!  They were both up shortly before we made it to Atlanta and then things went downhill.  GPS kept telling us to keep right through the city.  Even though the lanes were exit only, Christopher kept right and you can guess what happened...  we exited.  Thankfully we were in a nice area.  Actually, we were right at the doorstep of the Ritz Carlton- literally, the doorman was 5 ft from our car.  Betty (GPS) got us back on I75 only to tell us to keep right again.  And yes, he exited.  This time we were in the ghetto, BIG TIME!  A little scary!  Betty got us out of the ghetto, but took us WAY around Atlanta.  Thankfully, she got us back on our original track and the rest of the trip was uneventful and we pulled into our resort at 4:00.

My sister-in-law and her family had made it into town earlier and we waited a short bit for my in-laws to arrive before we went to buy groceries.  Afterwards, the guys went out to buy the rest of our tickets for the week.  Then we crashed, and crashed hard after being up all night.

The next day we had plans to go to Universal Studios.  The kids were thrilled to be wearing shorts!  It was 33 when we left IL, so this was pretty cool for them.

We had a good time.  We did get rained on for about an hour, but the rest of the day was OK.  The sun never did shine, but it was warm.

 We ate lunch in the Simpsons area of the park- actually in Moe's Tavern.  The kids were clueless as to who the Simpsons were, but growing up with them, we thought it was neat.

 Preston is a sucker for carnival games so he just had to play. 

 And he won a pillow.

 They had this huge Christmas tree that I just knew was real, but it wasn't.  Who knew they were that big?

 By 4:00 we were all pretty worn out, so we headed back to the house and cooked our traditional spaghetti dinner.  It started 10 years ago on our first big family trip (coincidentally to Orlando) and we got slammed by Hurricane Charley and everything closed down.  The only thing we could find at the store was stuff for spaghetti, which we ate right as the storm hit and the power went out.  We've continued this meal every year since. 

Preston's favorite activity of the week was playing pool in the garage.  He loved it in Gatlinburg, and was thrilled to be able to play again.  We played a lot of pool!

2014

Hello!  It's been a while since I've blogged.  A LONG while.  Life kind of got busy last fall when I debuted princess aprons in my shop and I literally spent my days (while the kids were at school) sewing non-stop from September to the week before Christmas.  I never expected such a fantastic response, but it was wonderful!  I put my shop on vacation for 3 weeks to re-coop, and am now back open and am beginning new items to add in the near future- think spring and Easter items!!!

Our Christmas season was a little unconventional this year with a big Orlando vacation planned for the day after Christmas.  I'm not quite sure whose bright idea that was, but it is unanimous that we won't be doing it again!  Even though we had a fabulous Christmas, and surprisingly, low-key, having to get ready for a major vacation at the same time made it a little harried.  Our trip was absolutely wonderful, and I can't say how refreshing it was to not cook or clean for a week, especially after how hard I'd been working!  I'll be sharing our vacation in the near future before I forget all of the details!

What I did not enjoy about our vacation was leaving 70 degree temps behind and coming home to 3 inches of freshly fallen snow (roads were still bad) and it being 16 degrees.  Talk about a shock!  Then to top it off, we got a foot of snow Sunday and we've not gotten above zero since.  I'm not a cold weather girl AT ALL.  In fact, I HATE being cold more than I can express.  It's so cold that our boiler can't keep up.  This afternoon it was 61 in our house.  SIXTY-ONE!  The kids and I have been holed up in the basement, which contrary to conventional wisdom, is the warmest place in our house thanks to the boiler downstairs and the fireplace.  When you walk upstairs, the cold hits you, and it's not nice.  Christopher finally got out a space heater this afternoon and put it in the kitchen so I'd come up and fix dinner.  It wasn't like I had much of a choice, though, because we're snowed in and can't go out to eat.  Thanks to the heater and the oven, the upstairs warmed up some, but it's still not up to normal.  Tomorrow it's supposed to get to 20, so the boiler should be able to catch up then and we'll get some relief.  That, and I've got 2 kids who are dying to go play in the 4 foot drifts once the wind chills aren't -36 degrees!

Here's to a fantastic 2014!  I promise I'll try to get on here a lot more this year!