It's a boy!!!

Our newest member of the family. Mojo, a 7 month old German Shepherd! Yes, he's big already... imagine how big he will be when he's full grown. We were approved for the adoption today and he will be delivered to our home tomorrow!! Now, that's what I call service from a pet rescue center. His current foster mom, Mindy, drove 50 miles for us to have a visit and we were so thankful. His name is Gatsby at the shelter, but since he's only had that name for two weeks, we thought why not see just how smart this breed is and change is name again!??!!

We through out a couple of names before we even found the dog. We liked Potter, Indy, and Shep. But once we heard Scott do his impersonation of Austin Powers saying "Gikky, my Mojo's gone"! We had to go with it. Besides, Mojo sounds really cool. We are all very excited about getting the dog. Annabelle especially. She has wanted a dog for more than a year now.

Let's hope all goes well with the adjustment to our home. Let's also hope I don't go crazy with dog hair in my house. I keep telling my self, it's just a house, we must live here too so that it's a home. Mojo was so cute and sweet, that I didn't care to much about the hair once I met him.

First Day of School!!!

So they are off to 4th and 6th grade. YEAH!!! Okay, I'm a little sad that my baby and her big brother (even though she is physically bigger!) are both in the secondary grade school this year. How fast they really do seem to grow up. Here are the annual first day of school pictures. They both are very excited about school starting.

Of course the first day of school could not be a whole day. So when they arrived home at 11:15 am, I had McDonald's for them. They were both so happy. Annabelle said "Today was the best day ever!" Scott said it was the first year that he knew everyone in his homeroom!

There they go...walking together - getting along. Let's see how long this lasts.

Last weekend before school starts!

So this was the last weekend of summer vacation. Our kids start school on Wednesday. It was fun, it went fast and it ended with our niece Grace turning 5!!! Grace is the one in the middle holding her birthday pie - not a cake lover. Grace's Aunt Nancy (one holding the pie) was the creative baker of this one. She made Grace's name out of pie crust and it turned out so cute. Almost the whole family (Mark's side) turned out for this special day. Brackins were in New York. They missed out on some awesome pizza and pie. Greg, Mark's oldest brother, didn't miss a thing. He enjoyed it all.



The weekend was so beautiful and we didn't want it to end so on Sunday, Dana (left) and Kevin (Mark's brother and wife) hosted us for brunch and a swim. It was well worth the drive (25-30 minutes) the food and company was fabulous. The pool was nice too! The kids had a blast swimming and playing with the dogs Rocco and Tia. Annabelle wanted to take Tia home with us. Mark's parents made it out too. So we had a double treat! Well back to reality. Soccer schedules, school work, and trying to fit the fun in.

Work, work, work

Many people ask me where I work. So here it is. The first picture is the main entrance of the building I work in. Smith Engineering part of SEC Group, Inc. A civil, structural, water, waste water, engineering firm with surveying and construction services. We are one of ENR's top 100 engineering firms. This first photo only shows about one fourth of the length of our local office. Yes, I work within 5 minutes of home. It's an awesome commute. Sorry Mark who travels 45 minutes daily each way.

The other pictures are of my office.... okay it's the lobby of our office! But, it is also my office. See the last picture. That's my desk. I work in the lobby area because I not only answer the phones, write contracts, file, handle the supply orders, bind plans, deliver plans, water the plants, but I get to greet our guests. Being an Administrative Assistant, can be fun at times. I have a great view with lots of windows. I have to admit it's nicer than some of the engineers' cubicles they have here.

So you are thinking now. Wow, her job isn't as great as I thought. Well that is where many people are mistaken. It's not where you work or always what you do, but the people for whom you work that makes a work place great. I have worked in beautiful offices and had a horrible staff to work with. I've also worked in real dumps and have met the most wonderful people. So, today's thought is no matter what you do for a living, if you are truly happy working for or with the people you work with, well then it's a great job. This motto goes for those stay at home mom's too.

Mini garage sale!

This weekend was beautiful. I wish I had pictures but I was so busy enjoying it that I didn't grab the camera. Saturday started with our kids mini garage sale. Instead of a lemonade stand, our kids decided to sell some items they were no longer using. YEAH!!!! Of course, we sold everything at dirt cheap prices. We wanted to move it out of the house. We held it from 9 to noon and only posted two signs (one at each entrance to our subdivision). The result... $84.00! We were thrilled. That is a lot of books at 25 cents each. We sold a few VCR tapes, some games which our kids are too old to play now. Mark and I even slipped a few items in and sold them; an old golf club set $10 - and I sold a set of winter dishes to the lady across the street for another $10. All and all we were happy. We laughed about what did sell and what did not. I also was puzzled at how people dicker about price when an item is marked $2????


We discovered a few traits we never knew our kids had. Scott is a natural salesman. (Someone help us! I see used cars in the future. Is it possible for someone to go to Harvard and come out selling used cars?) He was actually really charming. Ladies would come up the drive way and he'd start out with a "Hello". Then he'd ask "Is there something particular that you're looking for"? My mom and I would totally chuckle. Yes, Grandma came out to observe the craziness and she brought Dunkin Donuts!!!

Annabelle had a different approach. She would just stand around and listen. When they would mention something like "My granddaughter likes bugs", Annabelle would start whipping out books or tapes that had anything to do with bugs. The coolest thing was we sold a kids alphabet book that was titled "A is for Annabelle" to a lady you had a niece named Annabelle. What a small world.


Both kids were excited about their sales for the day. When we were done - they helped us pack everything up for charity. It was a good experience for the kids and it jump started our weekend.

Cubs!

We went to our annual Chicago Cubs game a couple of Fridays ago. I know I'm bad for not posting earlier. I was busy last week.

We went by Train, which means 1 hour and 15 minutes from our town to downtown! Then we grabed the subway to get to the north side of the city to see the game. It was a long time to travel but we love the Cubs! You may think we are crazy, however we are not alone - check out the other people behind Scott and Annabelle.

The kids are a little slap happy here, but by the 8th inning they were more than glad to go home. Not enough snacks in the world could keep them from complaining about how tired they were. So yes, we traveled all that way to leave before the end of the game. We lost this day by one run. Bummer.

The next day we went to the carnival in town. Wish we had pictures for you but we left after spending $20 on an all you can ride wristband for Scott. Once he found out that no one else wanted to go on rides he ripped it off and could not ride anything! Yes, you guessed it - Mark and I were furious!!! Nothing a few (many) weeks of no allowance can't fix. Sometimes parenthood isn't so much fun.