Final Exam!

So here's the next Radiology Technologist class of students at Carl Sandburg College!!

17 2nd year students that challenged this old brain for a semester of FUN!!

Congratulations Class of 2009!

What Happens When We Don't Take A Nap?

Three years old (almost 4):

Goes to school every morning

Has to get up early to catch the bus

Supposed to take a nap in the afternoon.....

Can you guess which thing Little Miss didn't do yesterday?

A crabby night before she fell asleep at the table &

a crabby night after!

She wound up drinking two cans of her milk, but not eating anything.

And was up again at midnight fussying and crying. Not sure if it was because of the overtiredness or if she is starting to get sick.

I'm hoping that she naps better today! Because it is past 7AM and she is still not up & has to get on the bus in an hour!!

Christmas Tree Tradition

Last weekend before I left for my week at RSNA -- we cut down our Christmas tree!! The selection wasn't fabulous (and in fact, I think we're going to go back to our favorite one down by Bloomington next year). But was Amie excited to share in this adventure!

Tim said "Nah" when we asked him if he wanted to join. I guess it's old hat to him at this point!

Amie was a very good supervisor -- made sure that Daddy knew just what to do!!

And helped pull it to the truck!!

The best part of all was that this year after visiting the tree farm -- we did NOT wind up in the ER like last year when Amie broke out in hives all over her body!! We never did figure out what she broke out from, because the tree itself stayed in the house through the Christmas season. We went to the tree farm with some apprehension this year, wondering if it were one of animals they had there, or maybe a pestiside that might have been in the area.

Attempt #2 to visit Santa!

Attempt Operation "Sit on Santa's Lap" number 2 went down today......another failure!

This time we borrowed Kylee -- excuse me, "Amie Ky" as Amie calls her. We thought that if Kylee sat on Santa's lap, that we could get Amie to.....No Go!!

Here she is walking with her Kylee -- all good so far - Right?!!

Ut Oh -- what has Amie spied??

The response was so HUGE -- that there are no pictures of Santa or Amie anywhere near Santa!!

I tried to get some decent "Christmas" pictures -- but she was not very coorperative. She was in a very serious mood!!

She has decided that "Klas give Amie kitchen". But we can't convince her that she needs to sit on his lap and tell him -- but she is not having any part of that!

RSNA 2008

It's that time of year again! RSNA time! The week after Thanksgiving where we get to listen to all the vendors trying to sell us their products & we try not to let our poor feet & back break from all the walking!!

RSNA is held at McCormick place in Chicago -- which is right next to Soldier Field (I still think Soldier Field looks like a UFO was placed on top of it!)

This year they added a third floor of equipment & vendors -- it was good and bad. It was bad in that we had that much more walking to do -- but it was good, because it spread people out a whole lot more! The booths were not nearly as crowded as years past.

McCormick place in the snow -- of course it is usually snowy, slushy, or just yukky the week we are here!

So, we are half way through another RSNA week & I am ready to rest my aching feet & back & get back to a normal life. But, as always it is an adventure to see all of the new and innovative stuff that vendors are working on & dream of having the cash to get some of the new toys!!

I Heart Santa

Well, another Christmas Season is here! Amie definitely understands things better this year. But there are so many things that she is so funny about!

She watched the movie Elf with Grandma a week or so ago. When they got to the scene that Santa eats the cookies that the kids left out for him at the orphanage, Amie shouted "Cause Eat Amie Cookies" -- taking a breath between each word & emphasizing Cookies! (Cause is how she says Claus). It is funny -- it's one of her common sentences any more. She says it at least 50 times a day.

We've been trying to explain to her that Santa eats the cookies that the kids leave out for him. We also tried to explain that it's the nice thing to do because he leaves presents for kids. So, then she started in with another sentence (that we hear at least 50 times a day!) "Cause bring Amie Stuff" -- again with breaths between each word & the emphasis is on Stuff!

Her language is really funny to hear & try to understand what is going through that head of hers!

So anyway -- today we decided to take her to see Santa -- you see there was a very special Santa at Wal-mart! Shhhhh don't tell anybody, but Big Brother Chris helped Santa out & sat in for him at Wal-mart today!!


Notice the shirt -- "I heart Santa Claus" -- well I'm not sure it's true!!

Happy walking along, excited to see Santa (or so we think!)

Got Daddy's hand & big Cheezy smile!! What could possibly go wrong??

Ut Oh -- Dad is that Santa (must have been what she was thinking).....

.

Yup that's Santa! Surely you want to tell him what you want for Christmas!!

.

.

.

NOPE! She wants nothing to do with him!!

We even tried to have her sit with me on "Santa's" lap. Escape was on her mind!!

Oh Well -- I Heart you Santa!

BTW -- She didn't like him last year either!!

Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving from our house to yours!

Take time today to Thank God for all you have. Especially the special people in your life.