Feeling Nostalgic...

So an okay "hump day" turned into a great Wednesday! Out of the blue, I got a phone call from two of my good friends!! Julie and I have been friends since Kindergarten...she's now a doctor...I mean, full-fledged, prescription-writing, crazy-on-call-hours, doctor. It's awesome. I tell her all the time how proud I am of her...I don't know that she really understands just how proud I really am of her! She gave me this picture in a frame for my birthday a few years ago...nice, 'eh? It's from our Kindergarten graduation in 1986. I'm sure you can tell that I'm the one on the left, she's on the right. We don't talk or see each other much, but when we do, it's like we've seen each other every day!! What a valuable friendship I have with her!! I love and miss her so much!






Then, not even a half-hour later, the phone rings again, and it's my friend and former roommate, Kate! I haven't talked to Kate in I don't know how long (in person, that is...we've emailed). We met at CMU and lived together for two years. This is the only picture of her I have that isn't in a box in the garage...sorry, Kate! LOL She moved to Chicago after graduating so I really don't see her much! She just had a baby at the end of September and her and the baby (Lauren) and her husband, Geoff, will be driving through Flint tomorrow and she thought to call me and see if we could somehow get together! I, unfortunately, have to work, but they are going to try to stop by my work so I can at least run out and see them!!! What a great surprise!!! I really miss talking to Kate and just basically hanging out...especially playing dominoes! :) I wish she lived closer than Chicago.






Two other friends I didn't hear from today (although I probably will after they read this!) are Lauren and Sara. Lauren and I met at CMU and lived together our final year there. She now lives in Canada with her husband, Scott. That's definitely long-distance!! We talk every once in a while and they stop by and visit when they're driving through (her family lives on the west side of Michigan, so it's usually around the holidays!)...and we've started a tradition where she comes over for a weekend and we go Christmas shopping together. For Christmas last year, her gift to us was to paint Emma's new "big girl room"...so one weekend in March, she came over and pulled wallpaper, sanded, patched, primed and painted Emma's bedroom. I miss her terribly, too!!!








Sara and I also met at CMU through a student group at the church, St. Mary's. We have a great relationship and she's Emma's godmother. She was going to become a Dominican Sister (and be "Aunt Sista Sara"!), and we completely supported her, but for reasons of her own, she decided it was not for her and is now happy as a clam schmoozing for a hospice organization in the Adrian area. :)


I miss these girls so much and I wish we all had more free time to spend together...in the mean time, I guess we'll just have to settle for emails and phone calls!!

PS - Monique...I'm saving baby clothes for you...and I'm praying you have a girl! :) LOL

What a Weekend!

Whew, what a weekend!


Friday was great...Lynne (Tony's sister) and I went and picked up Bradlee and Emma and went to the Holly homecoming parade. Emma loved the marching bands and the floats...the theme was "The Wonderful World of Disney", which is right up her alley! :) Bradlee was fussy right before the parade, then once it started, he fell asleep! :)

Then we went to the high school/football field and enjoyed homemade chicken tortilla soup in the parking lot and then went inside to the press box (it helps to know people!) to watch the game. Emma, again, LOVED the marching band and all the half-time activities. Bradlee was still sleeping! Our friends, Matt & Desiree, were also there with their two kids, and Dorian and Emma decided to replace Daddy/Uncle Tony on the microphone!! We left after half-time and came home and went to bed. Both kids slept great that night, as did I!!!

On Saturday, we had swimming class and then Lynne came over again and we went shopping, out to dinner, then came back home and made caramel apples! The are SO good! Emma had a great time "swishing" the apples in the caramel...and especially enjoyed eating them!

Sunday we went to the apple orchard. When I was little, my parents took us to this apple orchard (Porter's Orchard in Goodrich) and it was a little hole in the wall...now, it's huge and has hayrides, a playground area and petting zoo! Emma had a GREAT time playing on the slide...and Bradlee (you guessed it) was sleeping! LOL He really is awake sometimes!! We then went to the Flushing Park and I got some pretty good shots of Emma playing in the leaves. What a beautiful day it was!!! I think my camera needs a break this week! :) LOL

FRIDAY!!!

Well, we made it! Today's Friday and it's the final day of Spirit Week...there will be one more post with pictures from the parade and game tonight!!

FRIDAY for Tony and Bradlee was "Class Colors Day"...since neither Tony nor Bradlee have a "class color", they just wear anything Holly-related....so here you go!

FRIDAY for Emma was the long-awaited "Pajama Day"!! Let me tell you, Emma has been waiting for this day for about 3 weeks now!! Special thanks to Aunt Lolo for the jammies...I think she wore them for last year's pajama day, too!! She just loves 'em!!

Stay tuned for the final event pictures from this evening!!!

One day to go....

It's Thursday of Spirit Week...only one more day of this madness to go!!!

THURSDAY for Tony and Bradlee was "Disney Character Day". Tony wore his shirt we got at Disney last year and Bradlee wore a cute little onesie with "Lucky" from 101 Dalmatians on it...apparently the office staff at school dressed up as the cast from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs...the principal was Prince Charming! LOL :)

THURSDAY for Emma was "Wear Your Clothes Backwards Day". She had a riot putting on her clothes backwards this morning...and it was even more entertaining seeing the front of her pants, which were on her butt, dirty because she was playing on the slide! Then she had an eye appointment this afternoon and I'm sure they were wondering why this kid had all her clothes on backwards! LOL

See you for the last dress-up day tomorrow!!!

Wednesday is Hump Day....

...As evident by the faces in these pictures! :) This is why I don't have pictures taken of ME at 6:30 in the morning!!! LOL

WEDNESDAY for Tony and Bradlee was "Pajama Day"...in my opinion, it's the best theme day of the week and was always my favorite in high school...even though you wake up, take a shower and do your hair and make-up and then put on your "going out" pajamas...ah well...it was still fun!

WEDNESDAY for Emma was "Red, White and Blue Day". I made her shirt, which you can kind of see behind her sweatshirt...and she was excited to wear red socks, too! Ah, to be 3 again! :) I have a feeling she walked into school doing her "U-S-A!" cheer Tony taught her!! :)

Tuesday!

Day #2 of Spirit Week.....

TUESDAY for Tony and Bradlee was "Secret Agent Day"...I was humming the James Bond theme all day long! Special thanks to Tony's mom for finding Bradlee's outfit...complete with the baby sunglasses!!

TUESDAY for Emma was Hat Day...after trying on ALL of her hats, she finally settled on the Disney Princess one...it was also picture day, so she wasn't allowed to wear her hat until after she had her picture taken...I had to get one before she left this morning, though!!!

See you tomorrow!!

Warning...it's Spirit Week!

So it's Spirit Week in Holly...which basically means that Friday is Homecoming. So, with that, comes a week filled of goofy-dressed children and husbands! LOL I'll try to post pictures each day...

MONDAY for Tony and Bradlee was "Stop Light Day" - wear Green if you're going to the dance and have a date; wear Yellow if you are going to the dance and need a date; wear Red if you are not going to the dance or if you don't want a date. Obviously, both of my boys wore red!

MONDAY for Emma was "Sports Team Day" - wear your favorite team colors! Naturally, Emma wore the good 'ole maroon and gold! (Tony says it's because I got to her first...LOL)...the truth is that I:

1. Get her dressed in the morning.

2. Gave her the choice of what to wear (Michigan or CMU or MSU)

3. Bribed her with a cheek tatoo of my Chippewas!!! :)

Can I help it if she has good taste? Geez!! At least she picked a WINNING team! LOL

Look for more tomorrow!

Is it Wednesday already??

Wow!! Where has the week gone?! It seems like yesterday I was just getting ready for my busy weekend ahead of me, and now not only is the weekend over with, but the week is half over with also! To be perfectly honest, I don't even remember what we did on Friday night, but I know Saturday and Sunday were packed with a ton of things!! Emma started swimming lessons at the YWCA on Saturday morning. She LOVED it!! She in the 2.5 foot pool, so she can touch the bottom and according to Tony, it really made a difference...she let Tony help her float on her back (something she was afraid of doing before) and was able to walk around the pool and gain some independence...now if we can only keep her on task with the class instructions!!

Saturday morning I helped celebrate "National Card Making Day" with my Stampin' Up friends and attended a workshop from 10am - 4pm. We made about 25 cards and 2 3-D projects, including a Frankenstein popcorn holder and a candy package that will definitely make its appearance at Christmas time for my colleagues!! Then my mom and I met Tony's parents and the kids at church and we set up the community room for Bradlee's baptism the next day.

Oh...you're seeing that picture right....Emma's taking after her daddy and reading on the potty! I had to get a picture! She's looking at a catalog I got in the mail and finding all the cool things she can ask Santa for. She got a pen and started circling things...I finally told her she could only circle 3 things that she really wanted, and she wanted 10, we settled on 5...I just have to find where she hid the catalogs to see what she circled so I can **maybe** put them on a Christmas list....

Tony was able to announce for the Michigan Invitational Marching Band Tournament on Saturday afternoon...his high school, Flushing, hosts it, so he has been asked to announce for it for several years now. He loves doing it, and I (usually) enjoy going and watching the bands as well...this year I just had too much to do, but I heard I missed a great show!!!

Sunday we had the baptism of Bradlee and Griffin, the son of our friends, Matt & Desiree. It was a great mass and both kids were pretty good..Griffin grinned the whole time, while Bradlee got a little fussy towards the end of the "big" part...Neither of them cried when they were immersed, and, to their parents' disappointment, neither of them peed on Fr. (Uncle) Paul!! Bradlee wore a gown that has been passed down in my family from my great-great grandma...she made it for my great-grandmother, who was born in 1907...so the gown is 101 years old! Aside from the coloring, it's in fairly good shape, with only a small tear on the bottom. My great-grandmother, grandmother, dad, uncle, aunt, me, my two sisters, my two cousins, and Emma and now Bradlee have worn it. It's pretty cool. Who knows who will wear it next, so it's my job to preserve it until someone else comes along!!

We had a nice celebration afterwards in the community room and enjoyed chicken salad sandwiches, party wieners, cheesy potatoes, meatballs, and cake and punch. It was a long and tiring weekend, and we would not have made it were it not for our friends and family that helped out so much!!

Emma had "ganaxis" (a.k.a. gymnastics) tonight, so Bradlee and I had some "mommy time" at home...I put him in his bouncy chair and grabbed the camera to try to get some shots of him smiling...something he does fairly frequently now-a-days! What a great one I got, eh??

We're in for another busy Saturday ahead...I'm volunteering at the "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer" walk here in Flint and Emma's got swimming again...and then Tony has to DJ that night! If any one's in town Saturday night and wants to hang out, let me know! We'd love the company!!! Have a great (rest of the) week and a great weekend!

P.S. Does anyone know how to post a video on here where it doesn't take FOREVER to load it?? PLEASE let me know! I have a great one of Emma doing some of her "ganaxis"!!!