My daughter is 16 years old today. I'll be shopping for her birthday present while she has a party in Orland Park with her father and a few of her girlfriends. Probably something golf related. She can't wait to try out the new clubs Anastasia and I got her for Christmas. I hope her father actually shows up and doesn't disappoint her, or embarrass her. (Both are always a possibility.)
Of my two kids, my son is definitely the more mischievous one. See Happy Birthday To My Baby!. Although I do believe my daughter was the instigator in the Water Sports incident. She had to be, because of the two, she was the only one who could reach to turn on the faucet. that, and she was enjoying it too much.
My daughter is going to be finishing up the PHP (Partial Hospitalization Program) on Wednesday and since Spring Break starts on Monday, her teacher and I agreed it would be better to have her resume classes at the therapeutic school after spring break. That way she has time to get back to her old schedule, which requires her to awake much earlier. Her doctor with the PHP has reduced her medication again, beginning last night. This has me very nervous because she will be spending her entire birthday with her father.
No word on when she will come home today, so we will likely celebrate here tomorrow.
Lola's Diner won 6th Place in the Comment Contest! Considering I think I only left 4 comments, that's pretty lucky. Cash would have came in handy, but EC credits spend pretty good too.
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Come join me for If I Could Blog Back Time Thursdays! We'll be taking time out to share some memories. We'll Blog Back Time with possible ways to right past wrongs or about how times have changed. We'll share childhood memories, school/work memories, family and friend memories.
Today's topic is: Childhood Memories
I grew up in a southeast suburb of Milwaukee, WI. Like many young families in the 60's, my parents bought a ranch in a new subdivision. My sister and I had plenty of friends our own age.
We were really close to 3 families on the block. In the summers we were thick as thieves. We rode our bicycles all day long. This was just like my first bicycle, a Schwinn Hornet. Mine was black and white. They made these from 1951 to 1958. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say mine was one of the earlier models. My Father got it used and I was mortified because all the other kids on the block got brand new bikes. Theirs were shiny new, 1970's models. Not works of art like this Schwinn. I had no appreciation whatsoever. If I still had that bicycle it would be worth thousands of dollars. What I really wanted was one of these. The highly coveted Schwinn Sting-Ray. The boy next door had a brand new one and he would not let anyone else ride it. Ever.
During Summer Break we got up early, had breakfast, rode until lunchtime, came home for lunch and then we were back out until dinner time. We rode around the neighborhood and through the fields behind our grade school. We rode our bicycles to the bowling alley and back several times a day just for something to do. When we got really bold, we started riding on 27th street (Hwy 41) and rode to the Southgate Mall and back. Our parents didn't have a clue where we went. The only time they did know was when someone slipped and said that we were planning on heading to Southridge Mall which was 5 miles away. We were told that was too far, which was kind of silly, since our trips to Southgate Mall were 4.5 miles away.
In the winter there was a pond that froze over in that field. We convinced my parents that we needed ice skates and they got us used ones. We'd disappear for hours in that field skating on that pond.
Now it's your turn. Please post your Childhood Memory on your blog. Then come back to Lola's Diner and leave the actual post link here. Please grab the html code for If I Could Blog Back Time Thursdays! Badge HERE. Please note these links are STRICTLY for If I Could Blog Back Time Thursdays! participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.
Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!
In April I will continue to leave positive comments at many of the blogs I visit. I will again be rewarding my top commenters in April. So let the comments begin!
We ran off for a whole night this weekend. A whole night! Whoopie! We’ve had a gift card to Starved Rock Lodge in Utica, IL burning a hole in our drawer for 2 years. It was a Christmas present from Anastasia’s Mom. We were saving it for when we had enough money to add on to make a long weekend, but we never had the money. Anastasia hadn’t had a day off from her caregiver gig for a whole month and everyone had been on edge since my daughter’s hospitalization. We needed to decompress.
Anastasia gave the executive order, made the reservation and gave the instructions. She told the kids to grab their swimsuits and pack a change of clothes. Before running to the grocery for snacks and sodas she asked me to pick my poison and informed me that I was going to get drunk. (Since Anastasia had never seen me drunk, this would be a double treat.) Well, alrighty then. I’ll get drunk. You don’t have to tell me twice.
Anastasia wanted to take her Monte Carlo because the gas mileage is better than my Pilot, but my back was so bad when I woke up Saturday that there was just no way I wanted to sit that low. Besides, the kids absolutely hate climbing into the back her 2 door car. Even though I woke up with back pain worse than normal, I decided I would drive. I’ll admit, it’s a control thing, and I really do love to drive...and the heated leather seats in my car do make it much more enjoyable.
Anastasia had thought of hiking since the weather was cool. But shortly after we started out, it started to rain. Plan B was swimming.
We got to the lodge a few minutes before check in. After we checked in, we vegged-out in the room before dinner. We had the buffet in the dining room. It was more expensive than we normally pay for dinner, but we were splurging and the prime rib was delicious.
After dinner Anastasia took the kids swimming while I tried to find some comfortable way of sitting or lying. My back pain was horrible. So bad, that I didn’t even want to attempt to go down to the hot tub. I sat in the room, read 2 Sunday papers, watched Sex And The City The Movie and broke open the Bud Light Lime. Possibly an odd choice when I could have picked anything that didn’t require a blender, but I enjoy it. Besides, I find it really hard to shake my frugal ways. I had only gotten ½ way through the movie and they had already come back from swimming. For 2 kids that looked forward to swimming so much, they sure didn’t stay in the pool long. By this point I had downed 5 beers. Not much if you’re a drinker. But for someone who rarely has more than two, five in little more than an hour…well…I was still feeling pain, however I was pretty gosh darn happy. Goofy even. For some reason I started talking in Yoda’s voice. You remember Yoda, don't you?
I ahh, did this for a couple of hours. I was uber silly. I don’t think we ever laughed that much. I’m not sure if Anastasia will ever tell me to get drunk again though. Lol!
We had a really, really good time. It didn't even faze us that there was a Christian conference at the lodge that weekend. We woke up to snow. The trees covered in snow were gorgeous. Anastasia took lots of photos. And our son took one photo before I got up. I’m NOT posting it here. No, not this one. It’s was awful. I look…dead. I did not, however, feel dead. I felt fine, except my horrible back pain was still there.
We had brunch in the dining room. Again, rather expensive, but in keeping with the theme here, we splurged! As brunches go, it was quite good. After brunch, Anastasia and the kids went to the gift shop and splurged some more. The ride home was nice. The roads were surprisingly clear, the scenery was snow covered and beautiful. All around, a very nice teeny, weeny, itsby, bitsy, mini vacation.
Friday night I hurriedly put together My Fifth Conversation 10 Months – 10 Lives Challenge. Thank goodness for the interview with Melissa at Why Be Normal?. My heart hasn’t really been in it lately because those posts don’t seem to get many Comments. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very thankful that I’m not getting hate comments, but I wasn’t getting any feedback at all. I was beginning to wonder if it was worth the effort.
The whole point of Join The Impact’s 10 Months – 10 Lives Challenge is to "engage in 10 conversations with someone who does not understand our struggle and help them to see our point of view. We are not asking that you try to infringe on or disrespect their beliefs. Change can not occur with insult, it will only occur with respect. If all of us work hard to positively affect 10 lives, we can change this entire nation!"
Happy Birthday!
