Still Chillin'

Another cold front with nippy temps today. Won't be long though; spring is just around the corner for us. Jerry & I went to see "Avatar" in IMAX 3-D today. It was outstanding! The technology amazed us and the 2:40 movie flew by. Good story too, lots of action. We had lunch afterward at my favorite fast-food joint (Panera.) Good day for their soup.
My shoulder is finally responding to the anti-inflammatory so I am able to work with the Physical Therapist and do the exercises. I see the light at the end of the tunnel and it is definitely not a train.
Another school year is half over. I checked my data base to see how many DJJ students we had transitioned back into school. A staggering 450+ youthful offenders given another opportunity to get an education.

Official Announcement

The McQueen family get-together will be held at Rusty's Ranch in Farwell, MI on Saturday, June 26, 2010.

There will be more details in the days to come but now you can plan your time off from work and travel plans.

I hope (and G'ma and G'pa really hope) you can all make it!

Subzero temps.

I've posted some fun pictures to our own blog if ya'll are keeping up. Things are going well here...we've been busy all week so decided to stay close to home today. It's nice to not have somewhere to go. Especially since it's COOOOOLD.

We don't have any plans for the weekend, either, which is a change for us.

Rowan's on the tail end of a cold that she has handled nicely and kept from the rest of us (so far.)

Scott and I have kept up with the running and strength training (I LOVE my Wii Fit!!!!! Have The Biggest Loser and EA Active and use them almost every day) and are back down to below pre-holiday weight. Our first race is on March 21st - just a 5K.

Had our 31st house showing yesterday. Hopefully that wishbone we pulled at Thanksgiving will do its job and we'll sell soon.

Stay warm, all!

Didn't know about Ray falling. He, nor you Sandy need that. Take heart Feb. is soon to arrive, that is short, then March and lala, Spring is just around the corner. On the other hand, we are having more like winter here this year too. Cold weather reigns BUT the sun shines every day but heats us up very little.
Think of our summer gathering and get fuzzy warm. It will sure be a sight to see the cousins and second cousins together, our clan. YAY!
Tracy, g'pa says stick with it as it only gets worse with the kids. You think they are running you raged now, just wait until you add chauffeur, coach, mediator, nurse etc. to the present agenda. Those jobs now exist but not to the extent that you will inherit. We are sure have flashbacks from when our kids were young. YAY! Happiness!

Hurry up, Spring

I hate to wish away time, but this winter has gone on long enough. Ray fell on the ice Monday but luckily didn't hurt himself beyond a bruised butt and a bumped head.

Thanks to Eric and Suzanne for taking extra effort to post their newsletters. I love that the cousins are all reaching out using the blog and Facebook. Keep it comin'!

Love to all

Suzi's late NL

Hey all! It's been awhile since I posted anything on the blog, plus I missed the NL this month too, so its time to make up for it :) The holidays were very different for the Johns family this year, and although it was under unfortunate circumstances, I'm glad we got to spend so much time together. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers for our family during that difficult time. On a side note, I went to Cleveland to pick up Jim a couple of days before the funeral, and we got to spend some time with his family, and then we drove back to FH. While we were hanging out with our cousins at Gpa Johns' condo, V and cousin Nicki were cooking spaghetti, and garlic bread in the oven for all of us hungry hippos. All of a sudden, while we were playing cards in the dining room, the entire inside of the oven lit up in flames, it was completely on fire. Obviously, we're panicking, but thankfully, Jim was right there, and he grabbed the baking soda and put it right out. Good thing too, because none of us knew the correct way to put out an oven fire. V was searching for a fire extinguisher, but we found out later he didn't have one. But now we know - baking soda for oven fires. It turns out, our Aunt Sandee made meatloaf on Grandpa's request for his Xmas Eve dinner; so the grease must've spilt off the side. We were all grateful for Jim to be there, and was dubbed "firefighter" the rest of our time together.

Work has been OK, we're in the thick of our (last?) season of American Greed, and I've been crazy busy, but I'm only supposed to work 25 hours a week. It bothers me that my hours are restricted, while nobody else's are, but I'll take what I can get. As of now, my contract with KP is only supposed to go through April (unless we get another series). I applied for a second job at the beginning of December for a new restaurant opening near Wrigley Field. This isn't just any restaurant, but it's a Leo's Coney Island which originated in Michigan, and is a huge successful chain near the Detroit area. The owners are bringing the very first Leo's to Chicago, and they hired me to waitress at our informal interview. The only small issue is that the restaurant hasn't opened yet, they originally wanted to open NYE, but have pushed it back to mid to late February. But once it opens, I think it'll be crazy busy, it's in a prime location, the food is cheaply priced, yet very tasty, and it's 100% kid friendly which is a huge appeal around that area. We already had orientation, so I've met many of the people that I will work with, and everyone is great, including the manager, so that's a huge plus. I'll let you know how it goes!

When my mom was in town last week, her, Jim, and I went skiing near Kalamazoo, MI at a pretty nice hill called 'Bittersweet'. That was fun, and no major spills, so hopefully we'll all do it again on a huge mountain. I also had a few MI friends stay with us this past weekend to celebrate my birthday. We had an amazing time, going out til 5 AM, shopping, and eating at many delicious places (including Jim's restaurant). I went out for sushi for my first time, and sang karaoke for the first time (and was horrible!), so the entire weekend was a blast. Tonight, I'm taking Flynn to Disney on Ice while V attends one of Patrick's free shows in Wrigleyville. Flynn and I are going with Jim's niece Ally, and his sister Laurie. Ally and Flynn are the same age, so when they hang out, it's fun to see the super cute 3 year olds interact.

Fourth of July get together sounds great! Can't wait to see everyone!

Sandy sure glad I didn't talk to you this morning but I'm doing good. Hope that perks up your day.
Tracy, those "HATE" days are special, sent by God for reflection and peace. I do realize that it is difficult with the kids inside so much but enjoy.
Remember everyone, it is NL time.

Love/hate.

I'll get in on this action.

I love when Rowan (or Evan) sit on the couch cuddled up next to me.

I HATE being cooped up all winter!!!

We have plans to get back to our Tues/Thurs playgroup now that the tummy bug has made its way through our home. Maybe another playdate on Wed/Fri once I talk to the other moms at playgroup today. That will help the cooped up feeling. Scott and I both have doctors appointments today (routine) so he's going to work from home this afternoon.

Lots of primetime TV on these days, so at least we're staying amused!

Love/Hate

I LOVE January (almost) thaw!

I HATE funerals.

And I really hate when a day starts badly and goes downhill from there. It's only 8:30 AM and not looking good. Started with some big "duh" comments when chatting with Di, followed by running late, stubbing my toe on Ray's tool bag left on the dining room floor, spilling my coffee, and finding out that I don't have a grace period to spend the rest of my flexible medical account from 2009 despite what HR told me four times. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Thanks for the update Kathy. He will need your TLC just 'cuz.
He talked with Dad this a.m. and sounded pretty good but one can
tell he's in need of some comfort for awhile.
Love

Gout

Jim stayed home from work Thursday & Friday. He feels better today. He went to the doctor on Thursday. Confirmed it is gout. He can't take the prescribed medication because of his transplant. He's taking a low dose steroid & arthritis tylenol. He also can't take ibuprofin for any length of time. We also bought some cherry juice which the doctor says may help. He has stayed off it as much as possible & kept elevated. We haven't figured out what triggered it but hindsight as they say is 20/20. He's had minor pains that have been leading up to this major episode. He'll baby himself this weekend again just as he did last weekend and hopefully it will have run it's course by Monday.

On a brighter note the temperature has been above freezing for the last 2 days & is suppose to be in the 40's this weekend!

Gout----ouch! Dad/g'pa said that when he had it the doctor gave him a shot, with REST advice and it wears itself out, sorta. Our neighbor here had it, stayed off her feet, kept her legs elevated, took medicine and now is so she can walk a bit.
Jim have you been to a doctor?

NL etc.

Van, I'm going to pass the torch for the NL reminders on to you - you do a great job of it! I'm still trying to get input from folks for the 4th of July weekend (or the weekend on either side of it) for our get-together. Candi told me she would be in MI until July sometime. I have only heard from 5 people but will mention it again in my NL e-mail tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for writing and shaking the bushes.

Love to all.

I also read all the blog posts on our blog. Just been very busy lately, not much time to blog. I'll catch everyone up in our NL, which is....everybody...DUE TOMORROW!!

A previous post suggested planning a gathering in MI this summer. Is that something we're working towards?? Someone threw out the 4th for the time, was that supposed to be June or July 4th. I thought I recall Candy saying she'll be up north in June sometime. It would be so awesome to get ALL OF US to attend. Whenever a time is decided, please let everyone know. Thanks!
Great times await!!

Sorry, I have no ideas for gout. Hope you're feeling better, Uncle Jim. And Aunt Di, hope your shoulder feels better soon, too.

Gram, want to assure you that I read every single post. I don't write as much as I could, but that's because I have our own blog, too, and don't always have time to write for both. If ya'll want, I *could* post a link everytime I post on our blog, but I just don't have time (or sometimes energy) to write on both.

Excitement

Today is supposed to warm to 65 degrees and we are all so excited! The doc prescribed an anti-inflammatory for my shoulder and I think it is working. The pain still wakes me up at night, but I can do stretches and move it quite a bit without lingering pain during the day and that is progress.

We think Jim has gout. Any suggestions for cures/relief?

I have to wonder how many family members are reading our blog. Not many writing these days. I look forward to finding some news and bringing back a memory.

Tis true. By the time one gets warmer clothes, if you can find them down here, we will be able to swim and then have to find a place to store them. Woe is me, Joni, enjoy. More in NL later.

Update

Tooth is fixed, doc says the shoulder pain is probably just inflamation, and it is supposed to be 58 degrees today. All is much righter in the Sunshine State:)

You know it's cold when...

...Joni buys and wears a long-sleeve, turtleneck shirt and courdoroy pants! If you know me at all, you know that these are two wardrobe pieces that I swore I'd never own...never say never.

Sounds like you Florida folks could use some warmer clothes, too...brrrrrrrr!

Stay warm and well. xoxo

Well Diana, you sure are having your problems this season. Eat healthy food like chocolate and you wouldn't have to blame the poor carrots. They may be good for your eyes and make your hair red, but your teeth suffer. It's BBBBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR cold here too. 28 degrees this morning and our power was interrupted for about 10 minutes and the temp started to go down. Oh well, so much for living in FL.

Brrrrr

OK - I'm over it. I have worn all of my sweaters at least once so it is time for the cold to be DONE! Yesterday's high was 43 and, wouldn't you know it, the heat quit working in the early afternoon. By the time I realized it, the inside temp was down to 60. Imagine my embarrassment when the repairman came and flipped the switch on the circuit breaker. I had thought of that, but the numbers were still showing up on the thermostat so I dismissed it. Oops.
My shoulder is not recovering like I think it should so I'm calling the doctor today. It doesn't seem like I should be having this much pain 8 weeks after surgery. I also have to call the dentist because I lost a filling yesterday. DARN carrots!

Whew...

Good morning all,

The Hughes clan is on the road again. I don't know how Bethany does it every single day! They have GREAT kids, but she's always outnumbered 3:1 and even with Doug, the kids still have the advantage! Doug says they play a lot of "Zone Defense" - lol. Tracy, I'm sure you can relate - I give ALL moms props, and especially those who stay home, outnumbered on a daily basis. :)

The snow continues to fall here...big, fat flakes this morning. Heading out to the gym now then the grocery store - going stir crazy!

Have a fantastic Saturday!

Surprise visit

Late last night we received an unexpected call from Eric's friend from college, Doug Hughes (a.k.a. "Dr. Doug") telling us that he and his family would be leaving Youngstown area, where they were visiting family, and heading back home to Fort Myers. So they mapped their trip so they'd be driving through Dayton and could check out the accommodations at Hotel Pitts.

Doug and Bethany have 3 little ones: Brady - age 3, Avery - age 2, and Addison - age 6 months. They arrived about 2:30 this afternoon and the Pitts' household has been chaos ever since! lol

When they arrived, Doug handed me Addison to hold and she pretty much stayed glued to me until a few minutes ago when I reluctantly gave her to Bethany for bed. She still has that delicious baby smell...yum!

Now, it's 10 o'clock the entire Hughes clan is piled in our guest room sound asleep, Eric has fallen asleep on the couch watching basketball, and even Mozart has curled up on the futon for the night. Guess I should hit the hay too...g'night!

All of the below was interesting reading and I decided to write a bit. I had sort of given up as I visited daily to no messages for awhile.
We had a very quiet New Year's eve and day. Our weather has been less than pleasurable and we enjoy our home.
NL will be coming up soon so I won't go into any detail here.
It is our hope to be in Michigan for a family party and see Candi with her girls. Marc, Jamie and kids were here recently for a couple days and such a pleasure to see the family.
Hope this is a healthy, happy 2010 for all of you.

Ok, Mom, I get the hint. :)

Joni, if you ever want some good recipes, let me know. I'm always trying new things, and love to "health it up" so they're all relatively good for you. Most of the time. The other night I made a pecan encrusted chicken breast made with low fat honey mustard dressing and multi-grain cheerios...it was YUMMY! Another favorite is whole wheat oatmeal pancakes. We do breakfast for dinner one night per week.

Things are good at our household. Nothing too crazy to report; had a great time at Dianne's the week after Christmas but was very glad to get home to normalcy. The kids were typical toddlers out of their routine...but fun.

I'm enjoying spending a lot of time on my Wii Fit and training for some upcoming races, too. Scott is working a lot, and looking forward to flying solo this weekend as I leave Saturday morning for a girl's outing with some of the other MOMs (mothers of multiples) in my club...going to one of the girl's cottage up in N. Higgins for the night. Much wine will be involved, I'm sure. Her cottage sleeps twelve and there are seven of us going...we meet once per month for three hours or so and talk nonstop, so I'm sure it will be lots of fun.

Been taking E&R to a local playgroup at a gym, and have made a couple new mommy friends there, too. We'll have more playdates in the near future, I'm sure. It's good for everybody.

Gotta run. Yo Gabba Gabba is ending and it's lunchtime, so my bosses will need me. Love to all.

Thanks....

for writing, Joni. I was afraid the blog was turned off. I would love to hear from some of the rest of the family.

Snow Day

Now I know that many of you who are farther north won't think our weather down here merits school closings, but for SW Ohio - it was a heck of a lot of snow! We got over six inches this afternoon - they closed a few schools, sent some home early and even closed some businesses early (Eric was sent home at 3pm). We're still loving it up here, believe it or not. Yes, it's cold and snowy in the winter but we know that the spring, summer and autumn come too! :)

As for me, my boss would rather that I err on the side of caution, so I stayed home and hung out with Mozart and worked on the paperwork that always gets put off till the last minute because I never find the time to get it done.

Mozart just LOVES the snow! He goes crazy outside, rooting around in it, burying his nose then throwing it up in the air and rolling around in it. I even tossed his ball with him for awhile this afternoon. It's a bright red rubber ball that is usually soft and squeaky, but since it's SO cold, it was frozen solid and all squished up from him chomping down on it. It was pretty funny to see him chase this thing around.

I've started cooking a lot more now that Eric is home for dinner every night. Lately I've been experimenting with soups. I've never in my life made soup before this year. If it didn't come from a can that said Progresso or Campbell's, I was at a loss. But I got brave and asked the moms and grandmoms in my life for advice and guidance and have successfully prepared two soups. My first was a vegetable beef and the second was a chicken noodle. Thanks to Grandma for not laughing too hard at me when she found out I added an entire bag (yes, a pound!) of noodles to my broth! Oops - now I know for next time.

Actually, I shared some of the soup with our neighbors tonight(we have a TON) and in return, she shared a serving of her homemade fried rice. We visited with them last week and I think she and I are going to get together to exchange cooking tips and recipes later this month.

Hope everyone is staying warm and cozy...even you Florida folks that are getting uncharacteristically cold weather.

Summer

I like Sandy's idea of a summer get-together. We could work our vacation around the 4th I think.

Happy New Year from the frozen north!

We too spent a quiet night at home after taking Melodie out for an early dinner. We had a great time and she really enjoyed going out. She was planning to stay up until midnight but we crashed early.

I will write about this in the NL but I want you bloggers to know that Ray and I are thinking of hosting a family gathering in the summer when Candi is here. She told me she will be here all of June and some of July so we were looking at 4th of July weekend or the weekend before or after that. Your thoughts would be appreciated. I think it would be wonderful to get as much of the family together as possible.

Here's hoping for a healthy and happy 2010 for all of us! Love!!

1/1/10

Happy New Year Family! We spent a quiet night inside away from the night, although we could hear a lot of fireworks. We wish you all a healthy and happy 2010.