8th grade recoginition

Tonight Mandy & her classmates had a special program to recognize their accomplishment of finishing jr. high and getting ready to pass onto to high school.  Yes, this makes me all emotional and teary eyed to think of my second child to reach this moment in her life.  It's going all to quickly!

Here are a few pictures from our night:

Ready or not GHS....here comes Mandy Peterson!!!!

Recruiting for Friends & Payphones

It's so hard to believe that 18 years ago TODAY, Jim & I had our first date.  Mind you, it was just a "friend date", because I had a boyfriend (whom I promptly broke up with first thing the next morning).  I never get tired of telling the story that Jim approached me & said "I'm recruiting for friends.  Can I list you as a possibility?"  How's that for a pick up line?  Betcha you don't hear that too often, ok, maybe never.  But, hey...it worked!

Our date consisted of going out for pizza, attending a church service and then hanging out at the river front for several and I mean SEVERAL hours!  This all took place in Burlington, so that town has always had a special meaning to us.  

We visited Burlington just a few months ago when Merle was here visiting.  We walked the same area that Jim & I had done so 18 years earlier.  Something caught my eye.  A pay phone.  First off, you don't see many of those anymore.  Call me crazy, but that's like antiquish  Out of style.  A thing of the past.  My kids probably don't even know that they exist.

However back in my day (a sure sign that I've been around the block quite a few times)  payphones are all that we used.  There was one on every corner.  So on this particular night 18 years ago this exact payphone is what I had used to call home.  

Jim & I had arrived at the hanging out at the river front part of our date later in the evening. 8:30 p.m. or so.  I made sure I called my mom right away to let her know what I was up to.  Yes....yes....I was the ever obedient, innocent daughter.  *batting my eye lashes in true sincerity*  OK....so maybe that's stretching it a lot tad, but I did have good communication with my parents about such things.  Back then, my parents actually had a toll free 800 number that we could call when needed.  With my constant school activities and normal teen outings they wanted to make it easy to call when we came across any phone, pay or not.

Anyway, I called my mom, told her I was on a date.  I remember telling her it wasn't going to be long and that I would head home soon.  I was still a minor (17) and also still in school (just weeks away from graduation) so I knew a late night was not going to be acceptable.  Before I knew it though, magic was happening with Jim & I.  We talked and talked and talked and talked.  I knew on that very night that I would marry this man and spend the rest of my life with him.  About every hour or so we would stop so I could call my mom and let her know I was ok and that I was still in Burlington.  I don't remember the exact time, but I know it was something insane like 1 a.m. before we finally wrapped things up for the night and I headed home.  I still had a hour drive home and amazingly I didn't get in any trouble for being out so late.

Earlier in the evening the night air had gotten cool and Jim had given me his sweatshirt to wear since I was only wearing a white tshirt, green pleated skirt and sandals that night (yes, I remember EXACTLY what I was wearing)!   I meant to give him back his sweatshirt (honestly), but after I drove away I realized I still had it on.  Of course, back in that day there was no calling or texting him real quick to let him know I still had his sweatshirt. I drove home with it on, slept in it and wore it to school the next day.  I still have that exact sweatshirt hanging in my closet.

The rest, you could say, is history.  Nothing was ever the same.

It was a nice surprise to see that payphone in Burlington.  A nice piece of history that means so much to Jim & I.  A beginning of a new path that we were about to embark on, having no idea where it would take us except for one heck of a ride.

(Re enacting those phone calls to my mom since they didn't have cameras back in 1994...hahahahaha)

spring soccer

The last two years John & Andrew have played spring soccer. They really enjoy doing it! John is a little disappointed that this will be his last year. Into Jr. High soccer is only played in the fall & John already has plans to run cross country and/or play football.

This year has been a little different. I was asked to coach Andrew's k-1 team. I wasn't planning to do this, but since there was a need and I was given an assistant coach then I agreed to take this on. Both Jim & I have coached in the past, back when John and Brianna played in the k-1 league.

I have a full roaster of 15 kids. 15, 5 & 6 years olds. Yeah, it's interesting. Even for this mom of "lots" of kids and a high tolerance and great ability to handle it all with apparent ease....it's a lot! The kids are great though. I've had a great time so far.

Since I am busy coaching I haven't been able to be there at John's games as much. We often are playing within close proximity of each other, but at the same time. Or his game is right before mine, so I get to see a little bit then take off to meet up with my team, etc. Finally today, our schedules allowed me to actually sit and watch John's whole game. I made up for my lack of absence the first few games by snapping 40 some pictures. I won't post them all, just a few good ones. John is a great, natural players and shines on the field. John is wearing blue, take a look:

Andrew's game was much later in the morning so I headed home & told Brianna I wanted her to come and take pictures during Andrew's game.  One of the downfalls of being coach is that I don't get the luxury of sitting down & watching at all.  In the mean time a nice line of rain & storms rolled into our area.  We still dressed and got ready to go.  The lightening & thunder had stopped, but it was pouring rain.    I didn't mind being out there, I'm not made of sugar & I won't melt.  Most of our team was there, but the other team only had 4 players and the coach hastily replied "I do not want to be out there!"  I had to work hard to not judge the woman, I'm sure she's nice & a good coach.  But she was dressed in jeans & a shirt, hair & make up done to the max.  Even on a nice sunny day she wasn't dressed for the situation.   At least not in my opinion, which, that is all this is....just my opinion.  My team was very disappointed that we didn't have anyone to play.  Just for fun we did a lap around the field in the pouring down rain with a bunch of whoops & hollers.

Once back home I had Nina take a picture of us.  You can't tell, other than the wet ground, but it was still raining, although it had let up quite a bit.  I had chosen to wear my Joy Bondi Band mostly because the color matched best with what I was wearing.  As we were standing in the rain, waiting for the official call of the game a parent turned to me, read my band and said "that is a nice sentiment considering the situation".  It made me realize that even amidst the pouring rain and less than ideal conditions one can really have a sense of joy about the situation.

I promise to get pictures of Andrew's game next week.  Andrew is quite the natural player himself.

Dr. Paralikar

Carmen and Andrew had to go to the doctor last weekend. It wasn't anything too serious. They woke up feeling icky and I knew it was enough to warrant an office visit. One thing I love about the office we visit is that we don't have a hard time seeing the doctor.  Of course, it helps that we are very established patients and we have given them A LOT of business over the years.

16, almost 17 years ago, when we were expecting Angel we had no idea who to go to for a doctor.  We didn't even know if we should go with a family doctor or a pediatrician.  Neither one of us grew up in this area, so we relied on word of mouth of who to go to.  We never regretting going to the Children's Clinic and choosing Dr. Paralikar for our children's care.

I feel so blessed that we have been able to stick with the same doctor for all of our children.  He has welcomed each one into this world and has seen us through just about everything imaginable.  Lately he was having a lot of medical issues himself.  He was gone out of the office for several months and then came back on a limited basis.  It really made me appreciate how much we love and value his services.  He is by far, one of, if not the most experienced pediatricians in our town.  He can be a little old school from time to time, but his knowledge is priceless.

I know it's completely selfish, but I really hope he stays in practice for a really long time.  Never mind that he's already been practicing for 30+ years.  I actually have a friend who had him as a doctor when she was born and he's still practicing now and she takes her children to him.  I know it's inevitable, but I just want to hang onto him for a few more years.

I've never done this before (shocking, I know), but I took some pictures while we were waiting in the office.  What prompted this was I realized how big Carmen looked while sitting on the exam table.  *sniff....sniff*  It just blew my mind how big she looked and has lost so much of her baby-ness.  First we got the cheesy smile out of the way:

Then we got the silly face done:

That is all the time I had then Dr. Paralikar walked in.  One of the many great thing about him, there is often little to no wait time.  Since I still had my camera in hand I continued to take pictures with his permission.  I'm glad I got some shots of him in action.

I plan to hang onto Dr. Paralikar as long as possible.  Yes, we have other great doctors in our town, but Dr. Paralikar is absolutely the best!!!!

Illinois Marathon

Last year Jim & I ran our first marathon.  We survived and crossed the finish line together, which was the main goal of the day.  Jim swore he was NEVER going to run a marathon again.  Of course, I was hooked.  I knew I was going to love it.  I did things backwards and had already run an ultra that was farther than a marathon so, of course, I loved the 26.2 distance and knew it would do it again and again.  I was proud of Jim for doing what he wanted to accomplish.  If he was no fan of the distance that is ok with me.

Months passed and Jim decided he was going to do another marathon.  Not only that, but he was going to improve on his time and whole marathon experience as well.  We raced the same marathon that we had completed last year.  I love this race.  It's nice and flat.  They have a great organization, shirts, swag, people out cheering on the course, etc. etc.  I highly recommend this race and hope to make it an annual tradition.

Last Saturday was the marathon.  The weather started out pretty freaky.  Howling wind and pouring down rain before we even left the hotel was not what we were looking forward to.  Luckily the weather passed through rather quickly.  While it was still cool and overcast it turned out to be fairly ideal running weather.  This year our plan of attack was different.  Yes, we both wanted to improve our time.  If we stayed together, great.  If not then we were each on our own.  We had no doubt that one would do just fine without the other.

Carmen finished in 3:54, which was a 1:25 improvement over last year.  Jim finished in 4:30, which was a 45 minute improvement over last year.  Even more so Jim handled the running and after effects so much better.  He's becoming a pro!  Although he is back to stating that he will not run another marathon.  We'll see....

Here is a picture of us after the race:

If you want a much deeper detailed race report from my aspect, you can check out my personal blog. 

I already booked a hotel for next years race.  I plan to race.  The big question is: will Jim?