Tucker

Chris and I had to make one of the hardest decisions we have had to make. We decided that we couldn't take the chance of having Tucker around Lauren any longer. He has bitten her a couple of times and we decided after the last time he needed to go to a home without children. We tried to find another home for him and contacted every rescue agency we could find, but nobody would take him. It was with very heavy hearts that we returned him to the Champaign Humane Society. We were very relieved to find out that they will be able to put him up for adoption because they have many people without kids come in. We are very hopeful that he will find a happy and loving home.

Tucker has been a great dog. Darcee bought him for us (actually she gave me the money to get a dog from the Humane Society and helped me pick him out...best birthday gift ever) almost 9 years ago. He was a great companion for Chris and I the first 6 years we had him, but he just didn't know how to interact with children. I think he just saw Lauren as competition for our attention. We loved playing Frisbee and ball with him.

Chris and I decided that the house would seem empty without a dog and we also wanted Lauren to get a chance to grow up with a dog. We spent quite a bit of time on the net researching breeds and decided to get a Jack Russell Terrier. We found a great breeder in Westville and will be picking up a 12 week old female tomorrow. She won't make us forget Tucker and the pain we felt leaving him behind (as well as all the great times), but hopefully in time she can become just as big a part of our family as Tucker was.

If you know of anyone without kids looking for a dog send them to the Champaign Humane Society and tell them to ask for Tucker.

It's been a great Christmas

We have had a really good time this year and it hasn't been quite as big of rush as the past few years. We all must have been really good because there are bags everywhere holding presents! The smoke at Chris' parents really bothered us this Christmas. Lauren was up most of last night Friday as well. Last night she coughed and coughed and eventually got sick.

We are off to Mom and Dad's to open a few last gifts!!

Christmas Eve....Eve....

This year Dave and Donna moved their Christmas Eve party ahead one night to make it easier on everyone. We had a great time, but it did make today seem like Christmas Eve all day. Chris and I have been hard at work wrapping presents each night to get ready and I only managed to goof up one present (how was I supposed to know that Chris bought a nightgown for herself just like the one for Aunt Sue?).

Dave and Donna gave Lauren a pony (not a plastic one!)! She loved it, but so far it hasn't been named yet. Chris suggested Sassy and that may stick. The Tribute was packed for the trip home and we still have 2 more days of presents!

Gingerbread Men

Lauren and I baked gingerbread men and Christmas trees last night. We iced them with red, white and green icing. Lauren did a good job. We had a lot of fun. We lost several heads and legs but we put them back together with a little icing. We ate a few but we have lots to share with family and friends.

Tonight we have hair cuts. Brad and I are meeting Grammy, Pa and Lauren at Escape and then we will pick something up for dinner. Illinois plays tonight against Mizzo. I believe we all plan to gather at our house for some Illini action.

GO ILLINI!

At Home..

I hear laughter and giggles again throughout our home and now it's beginning to feel like Christmas. Brad is finally home from his long trip to Australia. We can now finish up our shopping, wrap our gifts and put them under the tree awaiting Christmas day.

I need to shop for groceries tonight so that our refrigerator and pantry aren't empty. My plan tonight is to just enjoy home in the presence of my family!

Late Night..

Well I've almost got the house cleaned. I've worked really hard and sort of deeped cleaned in some areas. YUCK! It's just too bad I don't have a maid.

Brad is off...left Melbourne around 7:50 p.m. our time. I didn't get to talk with him so apparently he couldn't get internet access. I pray that his flight is safe, smooth, and that he can sleep some. It's such a long haul.

Lauren did ok this evening. She does have a cold which I may need to take her by Carle tomorrow morning. She is complaining of an ear ache. The quicker I get her in the better for her. We don't want to have to stay home next week because of a sick child.

I'm headed off to bed...good night!

I'm so excited...

that I actually get to leave the office at 1. I am leaving lots of stuff that needs to be done but it can wait until Monday. Job security, I guess! I'm so happy its Friday and I can actually enjoy it outside the office. This past week has been a long one. With Brad gone I just feel like the whole world is on my shoulders. I know I'm capable of taking care of myself and Lauren but when he's gone I tend to be more needed. Go figure. Well, off I go to clean.

It's Friday and Daddy Comes Home Tomorrow!

Lauren woke up bright and early this AM, despite the fact that she didn't get to sleep until after 10. Hopefully she will rest good today at Michelle's. Bill and Rita will be picking her up and spending the evening with her. I am hoping to get off of work today at 1 to go home to clean and do laundry. Super clean that is. I would be quite embarassed if someone came into my home right now. I haven't even made our bed for a week. I plan to see if my parents want to come over tonight. If not I'm sure Lauren and I will enjoy a quiet evening eating whatever is in the cabinets and watching Mary Poppins. I have got to get her off that movie. It's almost driving me crazy! We have a big day tomorrow as I scheduled an appt to get our pictures taken at 8:40 AM. I don't know what I was thinking when I scheduled it but I'm sure going to try to make it happen. Then hopefully Lauren will nap either before we go to Indy or while traveling there. Daddy comes in at 7 CST so we will be there at the gate waiting anxiously with open arms....

Friday night

This is probably my last post from Australia unless I find wireless in Melbourne before I head to LA. I have had a great time and the HK staff (as well as everyone else) have been unbelievably nice! I really hope I will get a chance to return to Adelaide to visit with all my new friends as well as catch a Footy!

Today went pretty well (not near as exciting as Chris's day!), but I was hoping to leave around 4 so we could see some kangaroos. Unfortunately, Dell and Panasonic conspired to prevent me from leaving. I had everything else wrapped up, but a new color printer and the multi function laser copier. I told Chris to go ahead leave me around 6:00 so that I could finish up, but when I called a taxi they said the wait was over an hour so I am just going to wait here until Jack and Chris gets finished with dinner. It actually worked out ok because I will be able to finish up everything and clean up my inbox. They might even bring me a pizza which sounds great even though I have been stuffing myself since I left!

It was almost a sleigh ride...

without the jingles. Let me just start out saying I've almost conquered Brad's Australia trip without harming us; however, I do have two more days left. I'm sitting here laughing and wondering whatelse could happen to me...My evening started out like this: I stopped at the groomers to pick up the dog. He is clean shaven and looks like he feels better. A little cold but clean. They must not have taken him outside because he peed like a race horse when I got him. While driving out to the interstate I noticed there were lots of cars getting off of 74 to go down 150. The highway looked ok from a distance but once I got on it it was not so ok. It took me about 40 minutes to get to Fithian. Since I had the dog I decided to go home to drop him off, change my clothes and then go pick up Lauren. Snow began falling and it was quite pretty. It was big flakes, falling very slowly but it didn't last long. I got changed and rushed out to get Lauren. Actually I drove slowly because the roads were covered. She was waiting for me with a big smile. We jumped in the tribute and headed Oakwood bound through the country to go to aunt Mary's. Again I'm driving with caution. I turned right off of Michelle's road then turned left toward JoEllyn's. All of a sudden I felt a BIG bump and I was out in the middle of the cornfield. Lauren immediately asked me what happened. I answered her calmly, "we are in the middle of the cornfield honey, but we are ok. Mommy just needs to turn around here and drive out of the field." So, I turn around and drove out where I came in. I stopped the vehicle and got out to examine to make sure I didn't have any flat tires. While I'm outside the vehicle Lauren is hallowering at me to shut the door, apparently she was cold from the wind. I got back in and thought, "what just happened to me?" Lauren repeated over and over that I hit a big bump and ran off the road. So I finally realize that the road wasn't straight and that I had to turn. (At this point I'm thinking "where are the arrow signs when you need them?") I came to a stop sign and now the roadway looks familiar to me. It's straight! I tried to call Brad, like he can do something, but couldn't get him. So I called Stuart. He must have known from my voice that something had just happened because he immediately asked me if I needed help. So I started to explain to him that I was ok but I just ran right into a cornfield. I asked him to get Brad on the phone. Stuart was so kind. He thought he was going to have to come and pull me out of the field. I totally appreciated his concern and help getting me connected to Brad. In the meantime I hear this little voice from the back saying "Mommy be careful, there is a car coming". At that moment I just about lost it. If she was just a little bit older I would have stopped the vehicle and let her drive. She was in a better frame of mind than I was at that point. I talked with Brad and we laughed about the incident but I have to say I am so thankful that nothing big really happened to us. I was quite the "thinker" at the time of the incident but now that it's over it was pretty scary. So I'm sure if you ask Lauren she will share with you her side of the story. -- We did have a good dinner with aunt Mary and uncle Ken. Uncle Ken and I had a nice visit while aunt Mary showed Lauren all of her christmas bears, santas, snowmen, etc. Lauren did take a bath there. That gave aunt Mary and I a few minutes to open gifts. We left there around 9:30 and headed over to Moon Baby's to get the ornaments. Lauren was quite excited about going over there so she stayed awake for that ride. All the animals came running up when we got there so it was fun for her. The ornaments are now wrapped with snow and care and I will get those out tomorrow. Lauren fell asleep on the way home from Moon's. I am now very sleepy for staying up way too late and Lauren is fast asleep in her bed. Hopefully for the night until 7 AM.

Today was such an adventure. Hopefully tomorrow my voyage will be calm and smooth.

Good night!

Office Christmas X-change

We had our exchange over the noon hour. It was fun. We had Papa Del's pizza. Yummy, yummy. I got votive candles. The cranberry scent is my favorite. I have just the right place for them, on the fire place. Jennifer got my Elmer Fudd present. She loves it. After looking at him out of the box, I should have kept him for myself. But...that's not what Christmas is about. It's about giving. And I'm glad she got him.

Blind Shopping

Ok, since I'm on the subject of my mom I'm going to express more frustration....

She is out Christmas shopping for me at Bergner's. Instead of asking a sales associate where the dress suits are she called me asking where they are. She's beside the escalator. I'm literally telling her which way to walk..turn and to stop. All I have to say at this moment is .... WHY ME!

I've said this many times... Am I sure my parents are my parents? I need a vacation!

Who is the Cake Lady?

Ok. Tomorrow, let me say that again, tomorrow is our birthday celebration in the office and guess who is responsible for getting treats. ME! So, I got on the phone this AM to find someone to help bake a lemon cake and a white cake. Of course County Market nor Schnuks has lemon. So my last resort was the Cake Lady. But of course I don't know her name and since Brad is a world away and at this time sleeping, I couldn't ask him. So I called my good friend Lisa at HK and asked her "Who is the Cake Lady?". She graciously gave me her name and number. So I call her and she is just WONDERFUL! She is going to make me a couple of small cakes: lemon and vanilla. Plus she is going to try her best to get them done today so that she can send them with Michael in the morning so I don't have to make the trip to Mahomet. Did I mention that she is just WONDERFUL! I'm telling ya, I am so unorganized. I have got to start planning....

Added Stress..

Well the famous phone call came in from my mother. "Your dad wishes you would come around". Like I needed that. It's so disappointing to me that they don't take the opportunity to come visit me or us. It's tough being a single mom, working full time, taking care of a 2 year old, and everything else that life involves. Tonight I'm having dinner with aunt Mary and uncle Ken. Tomorrow night I plan to stay home. May be I can get mom and dad to come over and we can have dinner or something. With Lauren not feeling well I'm not taking her over there to a smokey environment. It's just way too much. We need to rest...

Sesame Street Live!

We had a great time last night. Lauren really enjoyed the characters. I am totally ashamed that I don't know half their names and I couldn't even sing some songs. We watch way too much Mary Poppins and not enough Sesame Street. During the intermission the kids were up playing by the stage. I offered to watch Kathryn while Marcy was chatting in the back with Stacy Witmer. The next thing I knew Kathryn was gone. I couldn't find her so Tonya and I frantically searched. Unbeknownst to me she slipped away to travel up the stairs into the crowd of people. I freaked and ran up there to get her. After that I gave her back to Marcy to watch. Lauren fell asleep on the way home. She was a dead body so I just took off her pants and coat and put her to bed.

At 12:30 she woke up! She needed to go to potty, and get a drink. I forced her to take tylenol cold. She is all stuffy, coughy and sneezy. At 2:15 I finally got out of bed with her and told her that mommy had to go to her bed. She cried and hollered out for me twice. I immediately went to sleep I was so tired.

It's 7 here and I'm just out of the shower. I best get going to get myself ready. I have to have the dog at the groomers at 8:15 a.m. I need to get the munchkin up.

I need bigger pants!

Everyone here has been so nice! They have taken me out to eat each night and I have had a great time, but may have to by an extra seat to get back! Tonight we are off to the Christmas party which will only stretch my belt more.

I have been writing about how nice everyone is here and one of HK's authors just stopped by to drop off an Australian Rules Football for me!!!

Tomorrow night I am pretty excited because there is a Cricket Test on. Jack spent 30 minutes describing it to me and I think I have it down, but it will be interesting to see.

Lunch Hour Errands

Ran to the bank to finally get Lauren's savings bonds issued that were given to her 2 years ago for her baptism and for her birthday day this year. We should get those in the mail in the next few months. Also I am getting one for Mac for Christmas.

Got a lot of stuff done this morning here at work. I still have quite a bit to do though. I'm taking Friday afternoon off so that I can get some stuff done around the house and wrap some Christmas gifts. Brad had the house in pretty good shape before he left but since he's been gone I've wrecked it. It's actually been quite fun!

Well, I best get back to work now...

Icky Snow

The snow is turning black. Hopefully there will be fresh for Brad to enjoy when he arrives home. The roads this morning were clear but you have to be very caution driving. There were several cars off the road but I believe it is because people drive too fast. It is raining as well as spiting snow. It's just plum ugly out.

I'm looking forward to tonight. Hopefully the weather won't ruin it.

Cold..

It's a cold morning. Lauren woke up at 5 this morning with a runny nose and sneezing. I believe she is getting a cold. I'm hoping she rests well today so that she can enjoy Sesame Street this evening.

I talked with Brad last night and he sounds pretty good. He is anxious to get home.

Sleepy Night...

We are off to bed. Lauren fell fast a sleep after saying good night to daddy. I also fell a sleep but it didn't last long. I got up and did a little organizing for tomorrow and straightened up the house. I am now off to bed myself. I am looking forward to going out to dinner with Marcy, Kathryn, Tonya, Mac and Lauren and also seeing Sesame Street. Lauren is excited to see Elmo. Hopefully she is having sweet dreams about him and that they come true for her tomorrow.

Good night...

Another Quick Lunch Hour..

I ran out to pick up a few more Christmas gifts. It's amazing how much you can get done in an hour. I went to two stores. I am going to have to talk with Darcee tonight about a couple gift ideas that we had. Great minds think alike; however, we live in two different states so getting the gifts can become a little more complicated.

Had a quick sandwich from Fazoli's. Not so good. Next time I will wait in line somewhere else.

Back to work... Oh, Grammy is picking up Lauren this evening so I can get some errands done. That Grammy, what a wonderful lady!

Drama morning..

I believe both of us are having daddy withdraws. I thought I was doing good until Lauren got up. First thing said was "I don't want to go to Michelle's". Urgh! Then the crying started after telling her that mommy has to go to work. She refused to put on socks, didn't want to wear her snow boots, wouldn't wash her hands or face and cried the whole time I brushed her hair. I lost it twice but I was able to take a deep breath and not be frustrated. She just held her mouth crying. So, I believe we are both missing daddy too much. I depend on him to help in these situations and Lauren depends on him for love and affection.

Australian Rules Football

We had another really good day yesterday and today is off to a great start. Stuart finished up some of the things we were working on yesterday while I slept and I am now starting to catch up with where I wanted to be on Monday. If I can just work out there fancy Panasonic Copier/fax/printer I will be sitting in great shape!

Last night Jack and Chris arranged for a tour of stadium where the Adelaide Crows play by their lead medical officer. It was great to see behind the scenes of a pro team and he explained in great detail their training program. They have very nice facilities (probably equivalent to a solid college program at home) and they are looking to build a brand new medical/training facility to replace the nine year old one they use now.

After the tour, I went out to eat with one of the staff members and her husband. We went way up in the hills to a restaurant with a great view of the city and I had kangaroo!! It was excellent and very lean (kind of like the best cut of steak you can imagine).

The weather is beautiful here today! High around 75 and mostly sunny. Thursday is supposed to be close to 90, but the rest of the time it will be in the low 80's. Hopefully there will still be some snow there when I get back (everyone here loves snow and wishes they could see it...they apparently never have had to shovel much or they might have a different opinion!).

Lunch Hour Went Fast..

I dashed out the door to go to Target. I picked up some house stuff and then did a little Christmas shopping. Mrs. Santa found the Crocodile game so that is marked off the list. I also picked up the orginial Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. I look forward to watching it tonight. I got some stuff for the girls. I was going to give them gift cards to Escape but I've decided to get cards from a clothing place they both really like. I will have to venture to Danville for those.

On my way back to the office I stopped at Wendy's for a double. Yummy, yummy, how I forgot how delicious their burgers are.

I can breath now..

As expected the Christmas cards became a priority. I had the genius idea to run the cards through the colored printer and... Horray! it worked. I finally finished writing out the addresses and now I can actually get my work done, or started anyway.

It's almost noon and I need a break.

It's Definitely a Monday!

As usual I was late. I did stop by HK to drop of the phone and Sandra's candles. And... once I get to work I tried my best not to stress out over tasks but damn it! I'm tired and someone getting all in an up roar over not having his name printed on the Christmas cards is beside me. If his signature wasn't so horrible everyone would know who he was....

It's Monday!

Yes I am tired. I didn't sleep well. I woke up about 4 times and Lauren woke up around 4:00. She didn't stay awake long but I did get up and go in with her. So Monday is starting out like a Monday.

I have a few errands to run over my lunch hour today. I need to get some groceries and stop by HK to give Stuart the phone back and also give Sandi her candle stuff.

...

Bitter Sweet End...

I really anticipated the day to be a disaster when Lauren refused to take a nap; however, she did really well. I took her to the K of C and basically dropped her off with my mom and sister. Then I went to Big Lots to get a toy for Mac's Christmas party. I walked around the store for quite a while. I ended up getting a My Little Pony carasul and wrapped it in the car. After wrapping it I remembered that a toy is not what I was suppose to get. So I called Tonya and asked her and she told me that I was suppose to get a game. As ususal Tonya baled me out because she had a hungry hungry hippo game that she was going to give Mac for Christmas, she wrapped it for Lauren's gift to give. Then I went to county market and bought cup cakes. I ran back to the K of C to pick up Lauren. When I got there she was having a great time and was in line to get her face painted for the second time. She had a snowman on one side and wanted a yellow flower on the other. It was cute. I was quite surprised she allowed them to paint her face but lots of other kids were having it done. We finally said our thank you's and goodbyes.

We got to Tonya's at 4:30, which was the time the party started. We had pizza to eat and lots of other snacky stuff. The kids opened their 'games' and all the moms bought the same games. Hungry hungry hippo and the crocodile. Best of all Mac ended up with a hungry hungry hippo so he wasn't out the game for Christmas. The crocodile game is pretty fun so Santa will have to do his magic on Christmas Eve, or before, to get one. All the kids played well. By 6:30 they were all getting a little tired and started wanting what the other had so we all started packing up.

Jennifer Hill, the party lite gal, brought my orders so now I have more stuff to deliver. Most of it is in Fithian so it won't be too bad. I think I only have one thing that goes to Sherri White, which I can send with Bill to Rantoul.

The outcome of my day is this: I've decided that I am totally unorganized and would be an unfit mother if I was a single parent. Shopping at the last minute for a child's gift, not getting the appropriate gift needed, not taking the time to bake cup cakes or cookies for the party, running from one place to another without being completely exhausted and not giving my child a nap defintely puts me in the unfit category. It all stresses me out!

I am now super tired. I am hoping I get a good nights rest as tomorrow starts a new work week. Our week looks pretty clear. We are having dinner with aunt Mary on Tuesday, and on Wednesday we are going to go see Sesame Street.

Lauren and I did get to talk with Brad. It is bitter sweet to hear her say good night to her daddy, especially when she whispers 'good night daddy, i love you'.

Good night,
The Exhausted Mother

Bad Start to Afternoon

Well, we are off to a bad afternoon. We came home from church early so that we could get in a earlier nap but it's not working out that way. We ate lunch around 11:30 and got in bed for our nap at 12:50. After an hour I finally got up. Lauren is still awake. The first Christmas party starts at 2:00. Yes I'm frustrated... I believe I'm going to take her to the party and she will have to miss Mac's party if she falls a sleep.

The battery in the garage door opener went dead so I replaced it. I took the opener apart because I thought that was the way to open it. That lead to having to place the board inside and cables all back in the correct position before I could screw it back together. Come to find out all I had to do was take the battery cover off. When your already frustrated everything seems to be more difficult than what it is. Urgh!

Windy Morning

We woke up at 7:30. It is really windy. Lauren had nemo cereal for breakfast. As we were watching the dark blue clouds come rolling in we turned our heads and looked back and it was completely white. The blue turned to white. It was kind of freaky. It really was a matter of seconds. It's suppose to flurry today but not mount to much.

We are getting ready for Sunday School. Our plans are to come home afterwards to take a nap. We are planning to go to the K of C with Aunt Lori and then go to Mac's Christmas party.

jj vlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllyyyyyll
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Exhausted & Tired

Today was fun; however, I am exhausted. It was nice to be able to tell daddy good night. Lauren shared many things in her giberish language. It was quite funny. I think she thinks the more words that come out of her mouth the more important she is, understandable or not. We finally got to bed and read a couple stories. She plopped around but it didn't take much to get me to sleep. Not forsure when she fell a sleep. I woke up at 11:20 in her bed so I'm getting myself ready to go to my bed. My bed is a little cold since part of it is empty. I guess I can go to Lauren's bed if it becomes unbearable.

Good night!

The Wizard of Oz and The Grinch

All in one night! I tried to watch It's A Wonderful Life but the Grinch was seen passing through the channels. The worst thing about it is that it just started. Urgh! Oh, by the way, the Illini play out east so it wasn't on TV. Double urgh!

Car Unburied

That was a hoot! I bundled up like an eskimo and unburied the car from snow. It wasn't really that bad. I just wanted it out from the road and in the drive way. It only took me about 20 minutes. I have to say that I enjoy the warmth inside. Lauren is still napping but I'm only going to let her sleep until 5:30. I'm going to work on work Christmas card envelopes while I snack on barbeque lays chips. I plan to stay in tonight, watch the rest of Mary Poppins and watch the Illini play.

Australia is beautiful!

We took a 5 hour tour of the countryside yesterday afternoon and took in the coast as well as Adelaide's wine growing region. It was a very neat trip! Australia (or at least this corner of it) is a great place to visit. The people are extremely friendly and the countryside is beautiful!

We had a few problems with the VPN yesterday and I am a little behind, but hopefully Stuart and I can take care of it today!

Shopping Adventure

Lauren and I had a good time in town. We picked up Mickey D's and ate it at the mall. Santa and his Elfs were there. They also had a choo choo train. Of course Lauren rode it twice. We had to take quarters from the Tribute to pay our way. We shopped at Elder Berman and I found a black down coat with a hood. It is exactly what I was looking for. I also got a red scarf, hat and gloves. I am now ready to battle the cold, brisk weather. Speaking of cold weather it is now snowing again and the wind has picked up. While we were shopping I decided that Lauren needs a pair of boots to play outside in and also a pair to wear out causal. So we picked up a couple pair for her. She was trying on all kinds of shoes while I was deciding. We need to really work on showing her how to get her shoes off. She flung a slipper to get it off and it went up in the air. Of course I laughed and she tried to do the other one. I guess that's what I get for laughing. We are now home and I'm trying to get her to nap. She is wallering in the bed. Hopefully Mr. Sandman will come along and sweep her eyes shut.

Off to Town

Well, we've accomplished getting ready to go to town. We are both wearing our white long sleeve tees and orange Illini shirts (Twinkies) to show off our Illini spirit. We plan to go to the mall, eat lunch and do some shopping. Don't know how much we will get done since it's already almost noon time. I'm sure we will be napping on the way home. Well at least one of us.

Quiet Morning

So far it's been pretty quiet around here. Lauren woke up just a few minutes ago and said she was tired so she fell back to sleep. I caught the pesky mouse last night (YEAH!) but the clean up was a little yucky. It wasn't just stuck to the trap but also the kitchen counter. I detached it and threw it away in the garbage outside. Hopefully he doesn't have a friend.

My plans are to just enjoy the warmth of our home and do some cleaning this morning. Lauren and I may venture out to the mall to do some shopping. I do need to get out all the tastefully simple stuff and deliver it sometime this weekend. Just thinking about doing that makes me have the chills.

Tonight we have been invited to go to the Christmas party at the Greer's. I haven't quite decided just yet if I want to go. Tomorrow will be a big Christmas party day as my sister wants to take Lauren to the K of C for their gathering and also The Hill's are having a kids party. It will be a fun day!

Good Night Daddy

i love you daddy. i have been good. we went to muncie and saw the Live Nativity.there were
cows, goats and camels. they were eating hay. 9t66 there was a baby and his mommy and daddy in a manger. it was so neat we went through twice. i ate ice cream and popcorn. i watched mary poppins tonight. have a good afternoon.

lots of kisses

love lauren

['];kkkkkkkkkkkkg mmmmmmmmm k;;;''

Thank Goodness It's Friday!

Boy, I'm so glad 5 PM is a few minutes away. I am beat. The work load has been steady but my work progess has been slow. I just can't get motivated. Hopefully having the weekend to rest and slow down will allow me to get energized for next week.

Not forsure what our plans are for the evening. Part of me wants to go somewhere since Brad's not home (it's not fun being home alone). Once I hit the cold air that will probably determine if I want to be out tonight.

Lauren apparently had a good day with Grammy and Pa. I hadn't heard from them just until a little bit ago. Grammy replied saying it took a while to get in a nap. I figure that would be the case since Lauren was able to sleep in this morning. Hopefully she is in a good mood so we can play tonight.

Well, need to finish up a few things here so I can get out at 5...

Hello Sunshine!

It is so pretty this morning. The snow is glistening and the sun is shining. I am headed to Grammy and Pa's to drop Lauren off so that I can head to work. We got some good rest last night. Lauren is excited about going to Grammy and Pa's instead of Michelle's. Hopefully one of these days she will actually tell us she likes it and wants to go there...

Top Ten List

Here is the top ten list of things you learn when traveling to Australia!!

10. War of the Worlds is not the best DVD to watch when flying.
9. Indian spiced chicken in peas and rice is way better than it sounds.
8. In a budget cutting move Australia now uses monopoly money (pictures to come later).
7. iPods are awesome for traveling halfway around the world.
6. $4,000 extra for business class looks pretty cheap after spending 14 hours in the economy section.
5. Deodorant is not required by Qantas Airlines.
4. Quaker Oats Apple Crisp breakfast bars are the best thing since sliced bread.
3. Dallas airport staff can de-ice a plane in 15 minutes.
2. Right Guard deodorant works for 34 hours!!
1. Greeks bladders shrink to the size of a woman pregnant with octuplets when flying to Sydney.

Thanks for all of your prayers the past few days!! I am doing fine and working away here. I think some of the stuff I brought with me is going to allow me to make free phone calls so I will try to give everyone at some point (it worked from the Sydney airport, but I am having problems here.

Time for a rest

well, we didn't do so well passing the 'go to bed' test easily but Lauren finally fell asleep. Didn't want to read or have mommy lie down in bed so she cried herself to sleep. I believe the last words mumbled were "daddy, daddy". Sometime in the middle of the night I will hear from daddy, and it will be nice.

Our driveway has been scooped thanks to Pa so it will be easy to drive right out tomorrow morning. Hopefully the roads will be clear enough to pass through to Michelle's and to work.

Tomorrow is Grandpa Darr's birthday (Dec. 9th).

Good night.

Brad's in Sydney

I heard from Brad around 5ish. He had the chance to get online to check email and call me. He sounded really good. I'm sure very tired. He said that he watched several movies and listened to his Ipod quite a bit. He has one more leg to Adelaide and hopefully he can get some good rest.

We had dinner with Grammy & Pa. Pa was going to go out in the snow and play around with the snow blower since Brad isn't around to do so. The Illini play at 8. Lauren is in the tub at the moment and has decided that she's going to be a fish and swim under water (face first). She came up gulping for air and swallowed water. What a challenge I have!

The Snow is Here!

The snow started falling around 11:30 in Champaign. It's just like a white blanket. It's quite beautiful.... until you have to drive in it. I left town around 3. It took me an hour to get home. The roads were quite treacherous. It's so nice to live in the country.

According to the AA flight status Brad has landed in Sydney. He will have an hour and a half layover than up he goes again to Adelaide.

Awaiting Snow!

When I got Lauren up this AM I told her it was going to snow. She is all excited. We safely traveled to Michelle's. Of course we went through the whole "I don't want to go" conversation. Once we enter the driveway she was asking for Mac so I left thinking "she'll be fine". It's tough leaving your child at daycare. Mother's shouldn't have to go through the torture.

Rita called and offered to pick up Lauren's favorite meal (chicken n'noodles) for dinner tonight. So our plan this evening is to eat noodles and watch the Illini game with Grammy & Pa...

Aussie Bound

Brad is on the plane headed to Australia. I heard from him around 11ish last night. I won't hear from him again probably until 3 pm today (I think). He has crossed so many time zones I can't actually remember at this moment.

I'm anxiously anticipating the 6" of snow we are suppose to get today. We will test my independence of driving myself to work and back as well as getting Lauren to and from Michelle's out in the country....

Air Status & Evening

As I type, Brad is in the air. By the time I'm finished he will probably be landing in LA. That will give him time to get through customs and get settled in to catch his plane to Sydney. I look forward to hearing his stories of sliding into Dallas, cross country skiing out and running his marathon to get aboard USS Sydney.

Lauren and I had a good evening. We are pooped from our own adventures today. This evening we went to Marketplace and rode the carausel, walked the mall and then took my mom out for dinner for her birthday. We all had a good time. Exhausted but good.

We are now snuggled in our warm and cozy beds (Lauren is anyway) and praying for Brad's safety in our dreams.

Good night. Love you!

And off he goes...

Well, I've just arrived home from Indy. Brad is south bound to Dallas. Hopefully he will get out of Dallas as they are having an ice/snow storm today. I'm waiting to here from him. ?====== Lauren and I almost had our first catastrophe: the train engine came apart from the rest and it took me a few moments to get it back on, but accomplished it with pride and with a happy child. We are off to the mall to ride the horses with Nanny and have some dinner.

Last hurdle cleared

Yesterday I realized that I had lost my Australian Visa information. They have this great online process and you aren't supposed to need any paper work, but I wanted to have something just in case something came up. I couldn't even check the validity of my visa on the site because I didn't have the reference number. I called their visa office this morning and everything is good! We are off to the airport!!

Christmas decorations

We finished putting up our decorations with an assist from Mom and Dad last night. This year we went all out and put a train around the tree. In the process we rearranged our TV room. It was supposed to be a temporary change because of the tree, but we really like it so far!!

Late to the party

I bought an iPod back in June and have really enjoyed it. I don't use it a ton, but it is great on a road trip or out in the yard. Since I am getting ready to head out to Australia this week I have been looking for ways to entertain myself on the 28 hour trip and I found it. Podcasts are the coolest thing ever!! They have been on iTunes since July, but I never got around to trying them out until this weekend. So far my favorite is This Week in Technology. I used to really enjoy the Screen Savers on TechTV until G4 bought the station and killed the show and this podcast give me a chance to hear the same guys!

I was feeling lame for just "discovering" podcasts until I remembered this post by William . :-)

First Snow

We woke up this morning to 2 inches of snow. I didn't know it was going to snow so it was a nice surprise. It doesn't look like it is going to be around long, but Lauren had a fun time with it!

Stuart had a wild ride into work this morning while he was waiting for an accident on the interstate to be cleared he saw the WICD news van crash into the ditch!

Australia

I am officially going to Australia next week. The trip has been delayed a couple times so I waited until the last minute to buy tickets just in case, but everything is set. I am excited about the opportunity, but also a I don't like the idea of being away from Christina and Lauren for so long. I will be working at HK's subsidiary setting up a new network, server, and several new computers.

It should be an interesting trip! I will leave Indy around 3 p.m.on the 7th and get to Adelaide at noon on the 9th with stops in Fort Worth, LA, and Sydney. The return flight trip is even worse. I take off from Adelaide at 9 a.m. on the 17th and arrive in LA on the same day at 8 a.m.!

We're here!!

We made it to Washington PA around 4:30. Lauren did a great job in the car (with a little help from Mary Poppins). Rachel has already taken to Chris! She is snoring in her arms as I type. It is freezing here and we decided against going out again. We are going to try out Vocelli's pizza.

Thanksgiving

We had a really nice Thanksgiving. It was nice to be at Grandma Trankina's this year. Moon, Mom, Chris, and Grandma prepared a wonderful meal with the best desserts ever! I stuffed myself and then fell asleep watching the Lions get crushed.

We are heading out first thing tomorrow morning to meet Tom, Darc, and Rachel at Washington PA. We are going to spend a couple of nights with them. It will be our first time meeting Rachel! The Tribute is loaded up and we are taking 30 DVD's which will hopefully keep Lauren entertained. We are also trying out Grandpa's GPS. Hopefully it will get us there without any wrong turns!!

Chicken Little

Last night Chris and I took Laurent to see her first movie and had a really good time! It was really neat to see Lauren's face when we sat down in the theater. She got a restless the last few minutes of the show, but did a great job. After we settled in to the theater I ran to the concession stand to get some popcorn. The line was crazy and the person in front of me used a $100 bill to buy a $3 coke!! Like a dummy I bought a pop with the popcorn so I had to wade through the line a second time to get a $4 water for Lauren.

The movie was better than I thought it would be. It was pretty cute and was also the perfect length for restless 2 1/2 year olds! We will probably have to add it to the DVD collection when it comes out.

HK Upgrades

We wrapped up a project this weekend to move HK to a new ISP. Bandwidth doubled and we were still able to save $400 a month! We had power surge in the middle of the upgrade that turned a 4 hour project into a 14 hour one.

Chris had her big sale at the church today and it was a big success. She is now going through the catalogs to figure out what she is getting!

Rough week saved by Greyhound Sushi!

This week really wore us out! After Halloween Lauren started getting sick and we kept her home from daycare every day except for Monday. She has another ear infection, but the medicine seems to be doing the trick. To top things off Tuesday night I had to work till 3 am on a problem with HK's voicemail server, and on Thursday we found a new Trojan Horse on one of our servers. Symantec sent us a new definition file for the threat. I even caught Lauren's cold!

Thursday one of the consultants we work with took me out for Sushi in Bloomington and it was awesome! Apparently, the best fish distributors won't come south of Joliet so this restaurant worked out a deal with Greyhound Bus to transport fish on dry ice! I thought he was joking at first, but the waitress confirmed that their fish is delivered by bus!

Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Lauren dressed up as cow girl riding a horse and hit the candy jackpot Sunday night. She was a little shy at the first few stops, but got into it as the night went along.

Maybe one kid is enough... :-)

The weekend was going great. Kelly and Lisa watched Lauren on Friday night and we went to see the new Zorro movie (not so great, but it was the only thing up). On Saturday we were having a good time watching Olivia and Hanna when it happened... Lauren asked Why? and I gave her an answer not thinking too much about it. Five minutes later I heard her ask Chris Why? and by the end of the day I think she had asked Why? 357 times! Today has been a little better with only around 10 Why's. As if that was not enough Lauren came into the bathroom and told me she needed privacy and proceeded to shut the pocket door and go to the bathroom. It has been a weekend of firsts!

We are going to Trick or Treat tonight. Chris picked out a cool costume for Lauren, but it is kind fun putting it on and taking it off which we have to do each time we get in the car. She is going as a cow girl riding a horse so we figured we should go this evening when we had more time. Hopefully we can make it to all of the stops with the costume on!!

Chicago

Chris and I had a great time in Chicago! We stayed in a very nice hotel that had recently been remodeled (we had a plasma TV in our room!) and we had a very nice view of the city. Saturday night we went to a nice Mexican restaurant and I had the best burrito ever!! Sunday we hit the Magnificent Mile. Chris found a really nice outfit at Ann Taylor and I had fun drooling on new Macs. We even found Lauren a cool shirt at Niketown.

Live from the Apple Store

Chris and I are having a great time in Chicago (more to come), but we couldn't resist putting a post up from the Apple Store. Wow...they have a bunch of stuff here I want!

Hurricanes!

This has been one of the worst years for hurricanes with 3 of top 10 strongest storms occurring this fall. Fortunately all three weakened before hitting land, but they still caused a great deal of destruction including Katrina that destroyed a large part of the gulf coast.

This hurricane season has now had two storms named after members of the Trankina family!! First there was Hurricane Rita which at one point was a monster Category 5 storm. Rita weekend just before hitting near Houston, but caused considerable damage. Grandma gave Mom a hard time about the it, but now there is a storm named after her! Hurricane Wilma is now off the coast of Mexico. At one point Wilma was the strongest storm on record. It has weekend, but is still expected to cross the Gulf Of Mexico again and hit Florida.

Long time no blog

We have been running the past several days with no time to blog. Last weekend we took Lauren to the Covered Bridge Festival and had a great time. Mansfield is a zoo, but we managed to escape with a little money left only to fight traffic for a couple of hours to get home. On Sunday we topped off the weekend with a cook out at the Hill's. We had a great evening and kept Lauren out too late. We ended up giving her a bath there before we came home. She fell asleep just before we got home and then we woke her up getting her inside...getting her back to sleep a second time was much harder!

As if things were not busy enough, I have spent the past few nights working with our Australian subsidiary planning for the trip. It looks like I will be heading down in December now, but it could get pushed back.

Mom has been with Darc and Tom the past week and comes home tomorrow!!

Busy weekend

Wow! What a busy weekend! It is finally fall and we took advantage of the great weather. Lauren and I headed out early to get Grandpa Darr's lawn mower from John Deere. After picking it up we headed to the mall to get a birthday gift for Chris. We even were able to ride the horsees a couple of times before heading to Best Buy! We topped that off with meeting the Marbles at Shades Park and taking Lauren on her first rugged trail hike! She did a great job and probably walked 2 miles.

After Church we headed to Curtis Orchard and had a great time. Lauren's favorite part was riding the live merry-go-round twice. We made it home just in time to celebrate Chris and Bill's birthdays.

Whew...we can't wait for Monday so that we can go to work to rest up a little for next weekend!

New Pictures of Rachel

After much delay we now how pictures of Rachel on the web site with her parents! I was starting to wonder if there were any pictures showing the happy parents. Trankina Web Site

Rachel's First Picture

We would like to thank everyone for the calls of encouragement and support. Rachel’s first photo has been posted on the hospital web site. Go to the link below and select the September (9/30) baby page. The password for Rachel is “Divan”. We will try to send out more pictures as we find time.

http://www.growingfamily.com/webnursery/babypage.asp?UrlID=0X2Z8H2C1A

Tom & Darcee

Lauren changes day care!

Chris and I have been really happy with Lauren's day care the past 2 years. She has been going to a very supportive home day care and we never worried about her during the day, but she is now getting older and we felt that a more structured setting would be good. Lauren will also get to spend the day with Mac which makes it even better!

First Post

After making fun of my friends for having blogs the past few years I am going to be a sheep and join the herd blogging. For the most part this blog will be used to keep our family up to date.

So why not start this blog off with a bang!! Congratulations Tom and Darcee!! Rachel Elizabeth Divan was born September 30th in Maryland.