American Idol 2024

Busy Summer...Good Busy

The summer is just flying by.
I have been living without TV and internet since May.
I have done pretty well without it.
I have read all the Twilight books
And spent quality time with Tristyn.
That right there is a great summer in itself.

Thanks to my friends for keeping me busy
And keeping my mind off other things.
Sarah and Miles and Dustin have played a huge part in our summer fun.
We went to the water park, Brookfield Zoo and McDonalds Playland.
The kids loved it!

Tristyn and I spent a couple of days in Wisconsin
Visiting my cousin Michelle and Simone and Colette!
They had a blast playing with Nug.
We went to a butterfly garden, the farmer's market and the zoo!
We also had ice cream, but it was too cold to swim in their pool.
Tristyn loved being woken up by the roosters every morning.

My friend Betty's wedding and bachelorette party was a blast!
I even wore a dress for the occasion.
Yes...a dress.
See flickr pictures for more details.

We have spent a lot of time with Grandma!
We celebrated her birthday and went to Pipes and Pizza.
They have a huge pipe organ with tons of different instruments.
It used to be a movie theater and they changed it to this pizza joint.
Really fun and Nug loved the music.

We have been to the beach a couple of times.
The last time we went it started raining.
Tristyn loves the sand and the seagulls.

She is also on her way to walking.
She can go across the living room floor between two people.
Still a little wobbly though.
She is very smart and loves to eat and read.

Easter and More

Tristyn got this little chick from the Easter Bunny.
She is TOTALLY OBSESSED!!!
This afternoon she started dancing with him.

We had two Easters this year!
Last weekend Tristyn and I spent the weekend with my mom and Kev.
We had a great time and spent the night for 2 nights!
We all had breakfast and went to church together.
Julie and Brian came over for dinner and to play with Nug.

Yesterday we had Easter at home.
The kids were in Tennessee with their dad last weekend
So that's why we waited until yesterday to do our festivities.
Breakfast was awesome again and dinner was yummy!
We had to postpone the outdoor, in the dark egg hunt due to rain.
I will post pictures from that later on.

Kid Updates...
Ashlee has started wrestling school.
Yes...wrestling school.
Like...pro wrestling.
She's nuts.
But...she loves it and it's better than sex and drugs right?
She's going to prom with Billy and still working at Mickey D's.

Leslee is playing on the AAU basketball team.
She has tournaments everywhere and practice late on school nights.
Soccer has also begun.
She is an eating machine and growing like a weed.
I seriously think she is almost taller than me now.
She is a schedule freak and addicted to texting and Twilight.

BJ needs to clean his room.
I swear something died in there.
He got a haircut!
He's loving wrestling and actually went fishing with Bones yesterday.
They only caught one small fish, but he was happy.

Tristyn has a total of 4 teeth now.
She can say, "hi," "cat," "mamma," "sis," "BJ," "Les," and "binky."
She loves waving...even when she's still asleep.
Her favorite foods are greens, dumplings, bananas and pretty much anything.
She eats like a cow, but is still a little nugget.
She loves to walk along the couch and do pull ups in her playpen.
Elmo and Mickey Mouse are her friends.
Today she didn't want to leave daycare.

Billy is our adopted son...not really.
He's Ashlee's best friend that lives down the street.
He is single and looking.
Going to prom with Ash and the Shimmer after prom.
He's still plugging through Mickey D's with Ash.
He insists that Tristyn say, "Billy!"...but she won't.
Poor guy.

Me...I'm here.
School is truckin along.
I'm excited to go to Cleveland for the marathon.
It will be a fun road trip for Billy, Ash and Me.
And it will be good to see all my buds.

Smiles For All

This has to be my favorite video so far.
I hope it brings a lot of smiles to everyone out there.
I went to put my PJ's on and tossed Tristyn on the bed.
She bounced a little and thought it was hilarious!
I love her laugh.

Makeover Night!

Tristyn and Rhonda.

Headbands are cool.

6

+

---+....love Tristyn

Can you tell a difference?+++++

Ahhh...me and moisterizer...whatever!



Filling in my wrinkles.

Sarah and Betty...the girlie girls.

The boys having tea.

My friends Kate had a makeover party.
Miles and Dustin hung out with us too.
Tristyn had fun with the headband and celery.
We also made up a new game.
Yoga Ball Wars.
You know it was all Dustin's idea.
You balance on the balls and see who can stay on the longest.
Here's a video of our rodeo.

Snow Days!

We had two snow days on Thursday and Friday.
The temps were FREEZING!
On Friday my journalism buddy Sarah had a Wii party!
Tristyn and I braved the cold and had a great time!
Here is a video of Tristyn and Miles playing.
Miles finally got a haircut!
He looks so handsome.
Tristyn loved playing with all of his toys.

Mommy and Tristyn Interview

Here's a little video of me and Tristyn.
After dinner we went downstairs to hang out on my bed.
I thought I would share this with everyone
To spread some smiles.
I love her little laugh at the end.
And I want to eat her toes!
I can't believe she is 6 months old.

And I can't believe that I have over 300 blog posts.
That is nuts.
But...I hope I'm keeping you all entertained!

Sort Of Tristyn Update

Ok, ok...I officially suck at blogging!
I looked on Kelly's site and hung my head in shame
As I saw how long it's been since I have updated!!!
Sorry fans...I will try to be better!

So, this video above is from Tennessee.
Tristyn is about 4 1/2 months old at this time.
We were shopping and my favorite part
Is Ashlee and Billy at the end of the video.

Anyway...Tristyn will be A HALF...6 months on Wednesday!
A HALF!!!
I can't believe she's that old already.
Time really flies when you're having fun.

I plopped her on the scale the other day
And she was about 14.5 lbs.
Still a peanut.
She is still bald as can be with a couple of random hairs that stick up.

She loves to play on her mat and roll over.
Her new trick is sticking out her tongue and blowing spit at everyone.
She loves to fly when I say, "Super Nug!" and chew on her right fist.
Her favorite song is "I Love You" from Barney and "Shake It."

She loves Pepsi.
Not the drink...but the colors, the can, the cold!
She thinks she is smart enough to drink from an actual cup.

She LOVES taking baths with Mamma...loves it!
She loves when I brush her wanna be hair.

She loves school and they love her!
She loves the sound of a male's voice.
She cracks up when she farts!
Her favorite real people foods are corn and mashed potatoes.
She loves to trick Mommy in the morning by ending up on the other side of the crib.

She loves listening to Leslee's clarinet.
She loves watching TV and cooking with BJ.
She loves riding to school in the morning with Billy and Ashlee.
She sings the whole way!

I swear...I will have some new pictures and a video up by Wednesday.
One that actually shows her at 6 months old!!

Flooded Munster

Rafting down White Oak Ave.

Bulldozer on Fairway Ave.

Channel 2 news in front of my mom's neighbor's house.

Water two houses down from Mom's.

Yesterday I went out to my Mom's house in Munster.
As I drove the back roads I kept running into road blocks.
I had a very scenic view of the Region.
As I drove down Ridge Road and looked north
My stomach began to drop.
I drove down Kraay and could see water.
I was able to pull into my Mom's driveway
Since the water stopped right BEFORE her house.
I ran into her house and immediatley went to the basement.
It was dry as a bone.
DRY.

This is a video of her street.
She was very lucky.
She called a little bit ago.
A house or garage exploded somewhere in town.
It shook the entire town and flames rose 8 stories.
But that is all hearsay for now.
I will have to watch the news.

We all went back to school today.
Mom doesn't go back to work until Monday.
She also got an order to not return to her house.
Keep praying.

Flood Images

The Bait Shop in town.

Flooded Wisconsin Street. We think the bridge collapsed.

The Community Center.

Holy Floods!

I think I should have built an ark.
It rained for approximatley 4 days straight.
On Saturday morning we had a foot of water in our basement.
NIPSCO came out and shut our power off.
We unplugged everything down there and re-plugged in our sump pump.
It finally turned back on and pumped out all of the water.
Thank God because the water was POURING in.
Melissa said she saw it seeping through the walls and under the stairs.
I couldn't look.
Melissa even got in a RubberMaid tub and floated around down there!
I had huge puddles in my backyard and back lot.
I would consider them small lakes.
Since the hot water heater is water logged...
The kids took showers outside.
Talk about making the best out of a crappy situation.
We're ok.

My mom on the other hand lives in Munster.
They were on Good Morning America.
The Little Calumet River burst at the seems.
My mom lives right down the road from it.
Last night they were told to evacuate.
Kevin went back to the house because he was too stressed.
The entire day she packed up her house.
Thank you to all the friends that helped to store her stuff.
The last time I heard from her
The state police were parked in front of her house.
The river was up to her driveway.
I hope my Dad is up there putting his bubble over her house.

We didn't have school today and are off again tomorrow.
All of the roads are flooded everywhere.
We tried to get to Hobart High School and couldn't!
This is a video of Lake George in Hobart.
My little puddle in the family room and basement
Seem like nothing compared to all of that mess.

Fun at PayLow

Tristyn was being so cute at the grocery store today!
Yes...I'm a nerd and brought the new camera with.
But look at the great footage I caught!
Don't you just want to squeeze her?!?!

Thank you to all of my blogger friends on flickr!
They all came together and sent me a gift card for a shower present.
They originally wanted to purchase our stroller and travel system
But we already had it!
So, we decided to use the gift card to get a video camera.
We've been using our little digital cameras for videos
And they were just not cutting it.
Now we can capture all of our crazy times in good quality.

Stay tuned because you know I'm going to be a video nut now!

Work Day At Lake Central

Miles and Tristyn had a blast at school today!
Miss Sarah was working the yearbook booth at registration
And I was there for the first issue of the newspaper work day.

You would think that from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
I would get something done.
Nope!
We chatted with visitors,
Ate a hamburger,
Fed Miles marshmellows,
Slid across Miss Sarah's room in a wheelie chair,
Took videos and pictures of the cute kids
And got NOTHING done.

Oh well.
There's always tomorrow!

Sleeping Future Journalist

Here's a video of my tired, little journalist.
This is what we do at school in the summer.
Nothing.
Just play with kids all day.

Hanging Out With Tristyn

Tristyn and I hung out on the couch all day long.
She is so alert these days!
Here's another video of the cutie little nugget!

Tristyn Update

We took our first walk yesterday to say hi to the neighbors.
She slept through the whole thing.
The neighbors thought she was adorable and wanted to steal her.
Time to lock the doors.

Here we are at Pay-Low...our grocery store.
This was her second trip there.
We live there.
This is the place where I told Tammy to hurry up because I'm really in labor.

Here's Tristyn in her bouncie seat from my friends at work.
It vibrates and lights up and plays music.
She loved chilling in it and watching MTV with Ashlee.

She has been so awake, alert and all smiles lately.
Still a happy camper!

Here's another video of her cute hiccups.
She had them really bad here and they were really loud.
My little squeeky duck!

Little Baby Hiccups

Tristyn is the hiccup QUEEN!
She had the hiccups a LOT in the womb.
She has then every day outside of the womb!
They are sooo cute and she sounds like a little duck.
Here's a little video of them.
I hope you can hear them.

Fun With School Supplies

Here's a little video of fun with Miles in S-103.
So much fun with paper clips and a rubber band ball.
He also played peek-a-boo with himself in the mirrors.
And at 13 months he found his way
From the auditorium to my classroom...
Close enough to Mommy's room.
I was impressed.
He is totally a journalism dork.
I love it!

Normal Family Easter Egg Production

Warning...there is a little cussing in this video.

One f-bomb, the d-word and the s-word I think.

I know...cussing and Easter eggs...not a good combination.

First Amendment Symposium

Here's a video of my 2005-2006 editor in chief Zach King.
He's giving his speech about Truth at the First Amendment Symposium.
He made me so proud!!
It was an awesome teacher day.