I've not been so good about keeping my blog updated. I've let Facebook take over in the "blog" area. Things have been quite busy the past three months to say the least. October brought a new drug treatment for Caitlin. She is now taking Humira shots every other week and they have been a blessing so far. (fingers crossed) They have changed her life to say the least. She feels 10,000 times better and has no pain and her strength is coming back. She looks wonderful and I'm just thrilled for her. November brought Thanksgiving and a ruptured Achilles tendon for Brian. He had surgery on December 2nd and is on crutches with a cast until the 30th. He will get the cast off then and get some kind of adjustable boot thing he will have to wear for 3 months (my nerve is wearing thin....). Conner started his high school swim season and is doing great. He was Swimmer of the Week a few weeks ago, which was exciting. Caitlin and Conner are both on Christmas break and I am on vacation. I'm loving it. :) That's about it. I'm hoping the new year will bring great health and lots of wonderful memories for everyone. Happy Holidays!

New Etsy shop

After much day dreaming, I've opened an Etsy shop on Etsy.com. I LOVE this website and will sit for hours looking at all the neat stuff people make and sell. I've made bunco game boxes and sold them on eBay before and my friend Diana thought that I should try and sell them on etsy. Well....after many months of thinking about it I've decided to do it. I've also started making funky little gift/trinket boxes as well. I really just love to sit and create them. Truly, I'm obsessed right now. :) Well, in my first week I have an order from a lady that owns a little retail gift shop in Texas for 6 of the bunco game boxes and I've sold another one on etsy. I'm hoping that I can sell a few here and there just so that I can keep making them. http://www.sandboxstudio.etsy.com/

Visit with Mother

Last week my mom came for a visit. My sister Cindy was driving back to S.C. from Colorado and my mom rode along. Cindy drove through so that she could drop my mom off for a visit. It was nice to see them both. Cindy stayed for a few days and then headed home and my Mom stayed until last Tuesday. I truly enjoyed having her here to visit. We took a little road trip to Champaign IL to visit with Cait and take a tour of the college and new apartment. It was a perfect day weather wise and company wise. I was sad to see her go...but she had to get home for her next round of company, my nephew and his wife and 3 young children. That will have the house hopping. :)

1st Apartment!

Well.....we moved Caitlin into her 1st apartment on Thursday. She headed back to school and this year she and two other girls will be living in a 3 bedroom 1.5 bathroom apartment. It's a nice size apartment, I was surprised at the size of the bedrooms. Not as large as her one here at home, but much larger than the dorm.

We got up early and headed out. One of her roomies, Rachel, was already there and unpacking with her mom. Her other roomie, Laura, didn't move in until Friday so we didn't get a chance to see her room all decorated up. The apartment comes furnished with a couch, love seat, end tables, coffee table, dining table and 4 chairs, beds, dressers and desks in the rooms.

Caitlin and I started to unpack while Conner and Brian went to buy cleaning supplies. The apartment was in pretty good condition...but the blinds were filthy. I think her room turned out pretty darn cute. She has some space on her walls that she will need to fill in with photos or something, but it is a cute room and perfect for her. We hung wires up and pinned up photos for now, but she can pin up other things as time goes on and change it up. All in all I like and and I think she loves it. (and that is all that matters!)

We left her around 4:00 our time. It was A LOT harder this year than last year. Maybe because she's in an apartment or because I'm not there to watch over her, or probably the biggest reason is because I enjoy having her around. My mom will be coming out next week for a few days and I'm going to take her over to visit Caitlin and see her new apartment (keep it clean Cait!) I'm hoping I can talk my mom into making a few dishes that we can freeze and take for Caitlin to put in her freezer......especially since the first call I got when I got home went something like this... "hello" -me "Rachel, where is the fire extinguisher?"-Cait "Caitlin!?!"-me "hold on mom....I know we have one, where did we put it?" -Cait "What are you burning?" -me "Well, we are trying to make the frozen pizza"- Cait Need I say more?

If you look closely in the bowl on the dressser, you can see "scoot" the black goldfish that will be sharing the room with Caitlin.

Summer in a nut shell

I've not been good about posting on my blog this summer. Partly because we've had a busy summer, partly because I'm on Facebook now and partly because I'm just lazy. So here is our summer in a nut shell!

1) My garden has grown like crazy. I love going out and picking tomatos and peppers and making salsa on the spot. The onion has not done as well as hoped.

2) Caitlin went to Taste of Chicago and Lalapalooza with her besties this summer. She trained and taught swim lessons. I have LOVED having her home for the summer. She started guitar lessons with Conner and just loves to play. Her health is improving and she feels good. She celebrated her 19th birthday on August 4th.

3) Conner trained all summer and it paid off for him. He participated in the Age Group Swim Championships in July and came home with a GOLD medal in the 200 fly!!! In addition he brought home two Silvers, one Bronze, one 4th, one 5th, and one 7th...dropping time in all events. Well deserved!

5) Conner started school last Friday. :( And Caitlin moves into her new apartment on Thrusday. :(

6) We went to a wedding last night and had a blast! We had great company and had a fun time dancing the night away.....my hips will hurt for a month now!

That's about it........ The summer just flew by!

Saturday night in Columbus

Last night we went to a little street party for a local bar that was celebrating 70 years. They blocked off the street and had a few bands playing etc. So the Wangs, Brennigars and Brian and I went to enjoy the festivities. (we met up with the Tablers while we were there) Well, as we were enjoying our evening of music and friendship we got a little "show" to go along with it.

Right in front of us was this couple. The man had his hand up his lady friend's very SHORT skirt. Higher and higher it seemed to go. As you can see...Hank may have had a beer or two to give him the courage to be in the photo!

I took the photos with my cell phone (while laughing hysterically) so they are not the sharpest...but you get the idea.

Yard Work

Way behind on the posting. Life has been busy. High school is winding down for Conner....1.5 weeks left! Caitlin came home just over a week ago. Glad to have her home. And, we've been doing some yard work.

We had quite a few dead spots from having two female dogs. So we dug up the bad stuff, put down clean dirt and seed. I can't tell you how nice and green the new grass is. It really came up thick. Couldn't be happier. We've planted some new perennials in the garden in hopes that in years to come the garden will be full of bright colorful flowers all summer. The bushes we planted last spring have done very well and look great.

And, I'm most excited to have a "salsa" garden. We've planted several types of tomato's, peppers and some red onions on our garden on the side of our garage. It's not a big garden, but it gets perfect sunlight. We've also planted a flower box herb garden on the deck. I'm excited to say we have lots and lots of tomato flowers and some actual tomato's growing on a few plants.