Younger Son With Our Travelers Looking at The Lunar Eclipse

These are pictures from our recent Lunar Eclipse on February 20th. The pictures aren't great, but it was freezing and I took them without a tripod. We wanted to be able to record a couple of pictures since the next Lunar Eclipse won't be here until December 21, 2010.

Lunar Eclipse

Lunar Eclipse

Lunar Eclipse

Lunar Eclipse

Catching Up

While we have our visiting traveler I was planing on updating much more often, but after the last update I ended up with the stomach flu for three days. So I can't even say I am behind updating since we haven't done much to update! I was sick Thursday through Saturday and just started feeling like eating again Monday. Yesterday I had to have a mole removed that took a few stitches and some soreness, but I am glad it is done. I am having a little trouble driving since it is on the back of my right leg and hits right where the leg sets down on the seat. They told me not to even take off the bandage for two days.

Besides that things have been pretty quiet. Luckily the kids didn't catch anything from me yet, so their routine has been about the same. Last Wednesday night younger son and I went out to see the eclipse and took a couple of pictures. I will down load them next. It was freezing that night and my fingers were numb in just a few minutes from trying to get pictures. Thursday morning I still had to make it to an appointment to get our taxes done at 7 am. I was never so glad to be home! I knew by then I wasn't feeling well, but just thought my stomach was upset. A couple of hours later and our taxes would have had to wait. I did run out Sunday afternoon when the sun was out to mail some bills. We have another 4 or 5 inches of snow again too. I think I read or heard that this is the 5th highest snowfall we have had for a season. The last few years have been pretty dry with not too much snow. I think we all forgot how much snow we use to get! I can do without the ice though!!

The kids are just coming home from fine arts now. Older son is then off to work and younger son has youth group tonight. That's about it here.

On Our Way To Fine Arts With Our Travelers

Our New Traveler with All Our Travelers

Milo Welcomes Our New Traveler

Flat Brothers Are Home and Brought a Friend!

Our brothers traveled to South Korea last month to visit The Nungnae Elementary School in South Korea. The class is an English one and the kids all wrote a little note that returned with our travelers. Our traveler climbed Namsan Mountain. They saw the sights in Dongdaemun. The brothers visited Seoul Land and rode a Viking and train. They even had a picnic to Hangang Park with their new friends. Our traveler came home with a list of Korean letters so we can put together words.

Our traveler brought home a friend from South Korea. We have visiting Flat Tae-gug-ki. It is actually the Korean flag. I took a picture of it with the pages the kids sent with their pictures. I will post it next.

Today has been quiet here. Older son DJ'ed a wedding this afternoon. I have to stop myself from following him and taking pictures :) Younger son just practice his trumpet and hung around the house. I mostly wrote letters and was online. We are all home tonight watching the finale of The American Gladiator. Younger son wants the teacher to win.

We have had rain most of the day and about 40 degrees. The rest of the week will be much colder and snow likely. Right now we are back to mud instead of ice.

There has been so much is the news lately that has been terrible, I have been struggling with it all. I had some bad news from a friend of mine this week too, involving an other violent crime. One of older son's friends goes to Northern. We were very relieve that she is home safe, but grieve for the children that did not make it home. They are starting classes back up on the 25th of this month.

I am going to go find the pictures I took and put them up. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Happy Valentines Day!

A very happy Valentines Day to all. The kids were happy to find a little chocolate in honor of Valentines Day when they woke up :) I hope they eat it quickly so I don't!

It has been pretty quiet around here with all the bad weather we have been having, if we don't have to go out we don't. I fell walking the dog when we had the last ice storm. Which leads me to wonder out loud why I am the one walking the dog in this weather. Oh well, it is normally good exercise for both of us :)

Older son was just promoted at work again and is now running his own dock! He was so happy. He has been wanting to get back on the docks for over a year and out of the office part. When he was made supervisor a while back, they put him in charge of new hires. He is definitely more a hands on type. He is now running a dock with 6 people and loving it. They gave him a troubled dock and he was actually happy about the challenge.

We went to my sisters Sunday for a family game day and ordered our airline tickets for our upcoming trip. We have less than 90 days until we leave now. By then my nephew will be done with his first year of college and older son will be done with college and hopefully moving on to the police academy.

Younger son is starting drivers ed the beginning or March for 5 weeks. So I imagine I will be in the car a lot more!

It is in the 20's here today and tomorrow and actually feels warm! Still gloomy, but we are hoping for sun soon!

Not too much of an update! We have been pretty boring lately :) Hope you all have a wonderful day!!

The New Cut

We were both surprised how much hair he had cut off. He is already thinking next time he will leave it a little longer. He is so curly, that in between is hard. I do like the neater look. It took him almost a year to decide to get it cut, so I am sure we have some time before the next one. He wanted to keep it long for his play last December since he had to have messy hair. His next part it won't matter the length of his hair.

We survived the Super Bowl party. Older son had about 10 of his friends over. Younger son and I hung out most of the time with the dog in the bedroom. We made it easy, just a few snacks and ordered pizzas. I didn't have too much interest in the Super Bowl this year. If the Bears aren't in it, I really don't care too much who wins. I'm not a big football fan. To me the Bears haven't been the same since the Super Bowel Shuffle days! Now that was a team! Kind of like when Michael Jordan left the Bulls.

We are expecting another snow storm today. If I lived a little closer to the city or north of the city, I would be getting a foot of snow today. The south is supposed to only get 1 to 3 inches. It is coming down pretty hard right now. The streets were just getting icy when I took younger son to fine arts this morning. Older son has one class then meets younger son at fine arts for band. I told him if the weather is questionable just to get him and come home. Most of the Chicago area is getting 1 to 2 inches of snow per hour from 10am until 6pm. Lots of accidents already as the rain turned to ice and now snow.

We had a tragedy happen this weekend. I debated on weather or not to mention it to our travelers, but it is a sad part of life that happens. The town I grew up in and older son wants to be a police officer in had the unthinkable happen. A man walked into a Lane Bryant store after it just opened Saturday morning and shot and killed 5women. He walked right back out and escaped before police arrived. Turns out he shot a 6th person and she survived. We did not know that until Monday morning I believe. She has been very helpful and police have a good sketch of him. We heard he decided on this store because he did not want to encounter any men. It was also mentioned he had tried sexual advances on at least one woman before the robbery started. He robbed all the women and shot them gang style after he tied them up. He did shoot the 6th women, she played dead and survived. It has really hit the community hard. There has never been anything like this in the town or nearby. The newspapers compared the town to Mayberry. To see police officers in this town with guns drawn was unbelievable. I drove by it Sunday morning. It is in the same town as our church only about 20 minutes from me. I am not naive I realize things like this can happen anywhere, but I like a lot of others live pretty well in denial of it being able to happen so close to home just to get on with everyday life. Otherwise having to worry each day as you walk out of your house would be too much. The town is Tinley Park, IL it made national news and is still all over the papers in Chicago. Because of an armed robbery in our own building complex recently I started walking the dog instead of the kids. Especially after dark. There were other reason, but that was the big one. Our police are watching our complex too since we have had some criminal activity here, but I pray each time the kids leave the house they make it back safe, because I have to let them go. What will it be like when older son is a cop? I like on the TV show Full House when the dad tells DJ when she is learning to drive he would like to bubble wrap the town to keep her safe. Well I would have to bubble wrap the town and make sure all the criminals have toy guns, now likely to happen. Faith, which will have to be it in a nutshell. Faith everything will come out ok, faith my kids will return home, faith that I am making the right decisions, faith.

Trying it Out Before Friends Arrive

Before The Game

Watching The Game

Half Time

Milo Wondering What's Going On!

Whenever the big table comes out and the cooler, He knows something is going on.

Milo's New Coat

Happy February!

The first month of the year has already passed and I am playing catch up. Younger son turned 15 the end of December and we have been meaning to take his yearly picture. We were waiting until he had his hair cut, but with all the snow we had over night I thought it would be a nice setting. We went out and took a few pictures. We ended up with about 8 inches of snow last night. We brought his coat with us outside in case I took too long deciding where I wanted him :) After about 10 pictures he had had enough and came in. So what do I do? I grabbed the dog. It was just about time for his walk. He was too funny. Most of the snow was taller then he was. He enjoyed climbing a couple of snow drifts and barking at cars as they went by.

Older son had to shovel out his car to get to work. The people that plow our parking lot had just gone by and if you were parked you ended up with a snow bank behind your car.

My chemo patient I write to just graduate from the ChemAngel program. She is doing well. She was my 5th patient. I still have my senior patient I write to also, so now I have to decide if I am going to continue on with a new child or take a little break. I am giving it a little more thought this time then the others. It is one of the most rewarding things I have done.

Besides taking pictures and doing laundry that was about it for the day. The last two day I did quite a bit of grocery shopping since the storm was coming and older son is having a super bowl party on Sunday with 10 to 15 friends. Younger son and I will be in the bedroom with the dog :)

Yesterday younger son had his eye appointment again. The pediatrician though he saw something else wrong with his eye, but thankfully his eye was fine. We ended up canceling his dentist appointment for 8am this morning. I am so glad we did. Even if I would have been able to get the car out of the lot, I am sure the streets would have been bad. I just rescheduled.

Our travelers are staying warm inside and looking forward to the super bowl party!

This Was My Favorite

This Was Younger Sons Favorite

Older Son Shoveling out Our Cars on His Way to Work

The Front of Our Buildings

Milo in The Snow

Milo Wondering Why I Am Not Walking

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