Happy Valentines Day!!

Milo Wanted to Play Too!

Playing Word of Mouth

Bearded Dog

Where is Milo?

Milo Sinking in the Snow

A Boy and His Dog

Happy Valentines Day!

Today we get to stay home instead of going to fine arts. It was canceled due to our bad weather. Older son said driving home from work on the expressway wasn't too bad tonight, but going a little farther south from us the streets are bad. We are suppose to get about 4 to 6 inches of snow, but the problem is more of the blowing wind and drifting snow. Older son still has his classes unless we hear of closings before he goes.

I bought both of the boys a little box of chocolate and a card. I always like to do a little something. Younger son and I will probably get to play some games today with our extra time. Our new favorite lately is a game I picked up on clearance at Christmas called Word of Mouth. I never heard of it before, but we are having a lot of fun with it! It comes with 12 dice and a set of teeth as a shaker. Each die has letters on them. White dice are worth 1 point and red dice are worth 2 points. There is one wild die that can be used as any letter. You play to 300 points. It also comes with a two minute timer. In the two minutes you make words like on a scrabble board. The word made with the wild letter doubles the words value and any "food" word you make also doubles in points. The kids don't often beat me, but while I was sick last week we played a lot and both kids beat me. I do remind them that I was sick :) When younger son and I play games he usually comes out with 4 or 5. He loves Electronic Battleship too.

I think we are finally all mostly well again. Time to get the house back in order and catch up on some of younger son's school work. I have to run to the post office and Walgreens tomorrow. If the roads are ok, younger son has Confirmation at night. They probably will have it unless the roads are not drivable since we are almost done with that. They make their confirmation April 1st.

I watched the DVD Secret tonight. What a great video. It was featured on Oprah last week. It gives the secret of life. I put a link on my blog if you are interested. It is on how we all can make our own destiny and how our thoughts shape our lives. It is my plan to have a great family life, maybe find love, become wealthy, stay healthy, be thin, and change the world! I am only kidding a little :) I am going to have the kids watch it. Younger son is already excited about it. He said tonight, "so when I say I hate math, it makes it so I do hate math and each time it gets worse. If I think I like math and really believe it, I will like math and be good at it." I knew he was smart! :) It is not just positive thinking, but believing and putting out positive energy.

I did take a couple of pictures of the snow from our door way today, but they weren't that great. I will venture out farther tomorrow to take a couple if I have to go to the post office anyway, I might as well get pictures :) I better sign off and get some sleep. That is one resolution I am having a hard time keeping between Jason's coming home hours and Kevin's waking hours! I am lucky to get 5 or 6 hours sleep. I am aiming for 7.

Oh, one more thing. We saw In The Mood on Monday night. It is one of the best shows I have seen. Younger son and I loved it. Older son had to work. Younger son wrote a review of it. We like it so much we bought the 2 CD set that has the show on it. If ever it comes by you, it is well worth seeing it. I kept thinking the whole time how much my grandparents and grandpa Ed would have loved the music. I am sure they were watching with us! I must say younger son and I were the younger audience members. The band was just wonderful. They had a trumpet player that was so impressive that younger son wants to go and get the sheet music for some of the numbers they did.

Happy Valentines everyone!! Have some chocolate it is good for you heart! :)

In The Mood Reviewed by Younger Son

In The Mood

I saw In The Mood on February 12, 2007 at the Fine and Performing Arts Center located at Moraine Valley Community College.

Genre: 1940’s Musical Revue

This performance was 2½ hours long and I loved every bit of it. In the performance there was an orchestra called The String of Pearls Orchestra. In the orchestra were 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 3 saxophones, 1 bass saxophone, 1 drum player, a pianist, and a cello player. The 3 Saxes each had a clarinet and a flute with them and the bass sax had a regular saxophone and a clarinet. During the performance the trumpet players had a straight mute, a cup mute, and they also used hats to condense the sound. The trombone players also had a cup mute and they used the hats.

Singers and Dancers were in the performances. There were 3 men and 3 women that sang all through the performance. One of the guys was the narrator, who told a story of different things that happened in 1940. There was also a couple that swing danced a few times through the performance.

At the end of the performance all of the singers came onto the stage and they did a tribute to each branch of the military, by doing a medley about each of the different branches of the military. The singers went right down the list of the different branches and asked the people in the audience if they were part of that branch, than please rise. We had a lot of people who were in the military. I couldn’t believe how many there were.

***** I give this performance 5 out 5 stars. Out of all of the plays and other performances I have seen this performance is the best one. I would love to be part of the trumpets. I think anybody would like to see this performance especially people living in that era.

Happy February!

It has already been an eventful February. Younger son ended up sick, strep and the flu were ruled out and then his doctor ended up giving him a round of antibiotics thinking what he has is probably a bacterial infection. Needless to say a few days ago I came down with the same thing. I am hoping by tomorrow I will be feeling better each day. Younger son still has the cough and is stuffy, but feeling better. Just as I came down with it, older son ended up in the emergency room Saturday night. He was out Saturday playing basketball with friends from work for 5 hours. By the time he came home he was exhausted and a little pale. After he ate something he got chest pains that traveled down his arms and he started to pass out. They did a lot of testing on him in the emergency room after letting him sit 2 1/2 hours. They wanted to check his heart of course and then his brain. All test came back fine. His muscle enzymes were off, but that is from being slightly dehydrated and all the running around he did earlier in the day. They thought he might have a vessel pumping problem that would be worse if you were exhausted, dehydrated, or have a full stomach. He had all three. I took him for a follow up at his regular doctor today and she seems to think it was a combination of events and more digestive related. Right now we are going to monitor him and if it were to happen again he will have more tests, but for right now he just need to be rested and drink more. Since he wants to be a police officer it will be important to make sure if it is a blood pumping problem we get it taken care of. That is most of the excitement here. You would think between the hospital and seeing the doctor I would have gotten some medicine too :)

Well we finally got some snow today! Even sick I figured since I was dressed anyway, why not go out and get a couple of pictures. It was so cold I only took a couple before the camera's batteries read dead. Once indoors they were fine again. By Sunday we are suppose to get to 20 degrees, so I may try again. Today it is still in the minus range. The street are so cold that the salt put down by the plow isn't doing much of anything. Driving was bad today.

Older son just called. He is done with work and on his way home. He is stopping at Wendys to get something to eat. He always offers to bring younger son and I something too. Not great for my diet, but I haven't felt like cooking much either.

Older son and I love watching cops and CSI together. Well we decided to try CSI Miami also. I found I really like that too. I have season 1 disk one to watch tonight. Wends and CSI Miami sounds like a fun night!

Snow Day

Our Street

Milo Enjoying the Snow