KC's Blog

Trick or Treat

2008-11-05T02:23:00Z

We carved....

We tried to find our way....

We hugged.....

We were SCARY (& cute!)

ICE WOLF NINJA

Countess

Back In Time

2008-10-18T15:21:00Z

My dad asked me to take some pictures for him...he was getting his buddies together to restage a picture taken in 1958 with 3 of their cars. As soon as I get my scanner I'll post the old version. It was some of the same guys and some of their sons.

Brady Gets 4

2008-10-18T14:42:00Z

Happy 4th Birthday Brady!

He was very specific about his birthday plans. First, he told me I was invited. Then he told Brett, Anna, Rachel, Drew, Lauren, Grandma, Grandpa, and Grandma Kunz. He said he wanted his name on the wall (and that we could paint over it later with white) and balloons. The party would be at Chuck E Cheese with cake at home later. He said when he is ready to "get 5" that he would let me know the plans for that one too.

We celebrated at Chuck E Cheese with Grandma & Grandpa (first timers!) and Rachel. Grandma is glad that they teach kids gambling at such a young age.

We had cake at home... a cake with Brady and his favorite Planet Heroes on it. Drew and Lauren joined us there.

Love you, Bud!

Sunbirds

2008-09-19T03:45:00Z

What a season! Anna's first "real" softball experience. She played tee ball for 2 years, but this was the big change to actually using a softball and hitting off of the pitching machine. I coached her team and had 3 awesome assistant coaches, including Coach Grampa.

Batter up! Anna was a natural at the plate.

Not what the coaches meant by "ready position", but usually what we got.

Anna's favorite positions were First Base, Catcher and "Bench". We had 11 girls and I was so worried about hurting the feelings of the first girls to play "bench" position...but little did I know that it would turn out to be one of their favorites. Who knew.

Two of my favorite questions that I heard at every game:

"Coach, when is it my turn to play "bench"?

"Coach, who are we versing tonight"?

And here they are, the SUNBIRDS!

I could not have imagined a sweeter group of girls. They were the best. We started out with 3 losses....at that point I was hoping that we would win at least ONE game this year! Only Anna & one other girl had ever played any kind of organized ball, so we started a little rough. But, all of the girls got to play all of the positions equally. Their improvement in just a few games was unbelievable! We ended up in third place for the season and then....

First place trophies for the Tournament! It was so exciting. They were awesome.

Even Brady gave one of the champs a kiss. Oh no, wait, I think he was trying to nab her snack.

Anna was chosen to be one of the team's All-Stars. Great job Anna! She's next to the blue Heat coach.

It's Blog Season

2008-09-19T03:27:00Z

Summer is over...now maybe I can sit down and catch up!

Let's see...I left off with Anna's Birthday! OOPS...that was APRIL. I'll try to do better. Have I said that before?

Our first big event of the Summer was Rachel's Graduation from SIU. She now has a degree in Dental Hygiene and passed her boards with no problem. She rocks! She has been hanging out here a lot lately and we love it. She's thinking about moving to Florida though....

CONGRATS, RACHEL!

It was Mother's Day the next day, so the kids made me go out with them to celebrate (ouch, twist my arm)! Notice that they have the shots and I have a Corona and the camera. Rachel & Drew said that I had to make it until at least midnight so that I could have a "Mothers Day Shot" with them. I will say that it was definitely a first. I was having such a great time with them that I acually made it until 2am. It a really fun night and a great Mothers Day! Thanks Rachel & Drew~

More to come....I don't want to overdo it on my first day "back!"

April Birthdays

2008-05-22T02:52:00Z

Happy 7th Anna Grace! April 11, 2008.

She started her morning out with the long anticipated "Intendo DS."

Then it was a Suburban load of Anna and 5 friends for a trip to the "Big Mall."

6 more furry friends came back home with us!

Happy Birthday!!

It was also Lauren's birthday in April. She had some help blowing out her candles. Her real treat was a Key Lime Pie!

Shakey Shakey

2008-04-18T10:33:00Z

I'm awake, I might as well blog! Who felt the quake? Sometimes Anna shakes my bed to wake me up...except she wasn't there! It lasted for a good minute. The bed was shaking and something was clicking. I knew right away that it was an earthquake! I don't know how my sister deals with the really strong ones, and more often. Anna will be bummed that she didn't wake up.

I'm sure this will be the talk of the day!

Bobbie's Wedding

2008-04-16T03:34:00Z

I'm on a roll. Bobbie and her Dad.

The wedding party on the beach.

Awwwww...Jeremy got down on one knee to say his vows.

The Johnson's first kiss!

The happy couple. Just Married!

Plano girls. This was after the power went out at the reception!

Ok now I'm exhausted. See you next year!

Quarterly Report

2008-04-08T03:41:00Z

About every 3 or 4 months.

Seems like that is how often I have time to sit down and type and upload a pic or two.

It has been vacation central since the end of February!

February 24-March 2 Punta Cana family trip

March 20-25 Snowmass for Anna & I

April 3-6 Bobbie and Jeremy's wedding in Florida...Adults Only!

I guess we'll start with skiing...we planned the trip because my sister was going to be in the country. Anna & I left the boys at home. Brady is a little too young. My parents and my Aunt Mary and Uncle Henry joined us. We flew to Denver and drove to Snowmass. It's supposed to be 3 or 4 hour drive, but it was a blizzard, so we made it into about 7 hours. We were lucky to get over Vail pass...it was shut down going east.

Gotta carry your own equipment, Anna!

Once we were there, the snow was beautiful when we hit the slopes the next day. My sister, my dad & I took turns skiing with Anna between our skis. Finally, I let her go, thinking she would fall right away. Nope, she has great balance so she went flying down "Fanny Hill". She was getting close to the lift lines so we yelled "Anna, fall down!" and she did. I got the silent treatment for a while. She went back to the condo with Grandma.

We were down in the apres ski hangout and pretty soon, here she comes with Aunt Elizabeth:

At least she was back in the "saddle"! The next step was holding Grandpa's pole. That seemed to work. Then I was "holding" her pole, too. Except she didn't know that I really wasn't doing anything at all to help her ski. By the end of day 2, she was skiing on her own!

She thought it was pretty funny when Aunt Elizabeth fell down. (So did I, it doesn't happen very often!)

Day 3 in front of the BLUE run she just went down and DIDN'T fall. I don't think I went down a blue until I was about 13.

My mom, sister and Anna by the signs for the runs we spent lots of time on. I learned to ski on these runs too! Dawdler and Scooper.

Not only did Anna learn to ski, Grandma taught her how to crochet, too! Also, she met a new friend that she named "Bun Bun." He was well fed while we were in the condo.

A tradition has been to go to the Crystal Palace in Aspen. I probably went for the first time when I was about Anna's age. It's a dinner theater, and the owner, Mead Metcalf, is celebrating his 50th year of entertaining there. It was kind of sad...he's retiring after this year.

The girls at the bar before the show. Uncle Henry, Anna, Aunt Mary.

Grandma and Grandpa

It was a great trip. Anna says that she can teach Brett to ski next year!

Coming within the next 3 months: Punta Cana and Bobbie's Wedding!

G.N.O Girls Night Out....And what a Night!

2007-12-09T16:56:00Z

What a day for Anna & I:

Mileyworld.com membership bought in September               $29.95
Tickets bought back then when Anna wanted to go             $ZERO (Ha, fat chance!)
2 tickets purchased last saturday because of the $29.95    $156.90
A glittery hoodie and tall boots from wal-mart                      $27.83
Parking at Allstate Arena                                                      $15.00
Glow in the dark thingy                                                         $10.00
Concert program                                                                    $20.00
A nice family who stopped us in the hall and gave us           $ZERO
    two blue wristbands (THANK YOU WHOEVER YOU ARE!)
The last 2 pictures of the night                                              PRICELESS!!

A long story! Anna has loved watching Hannah Montana and both she and Brady know all of the songs on her first CD. Back in the summer she said she would like to see her in concert. I thought, ok, I'll check it out...probably like getting tickets to "My Little Pony" or "Dora" live. No hurry. WRONG! Sold Out. Ok, she's 6, she won't care if she goes or not. She really didn't say too much about it, besides asking a couple of times.

Then I heard that if you are a member of her fan club, you could get tickets. So, I signed up for mileyworld.com, thinking it was a free trial. I got an email that said I was being charged, so I emailed back right away and said "cancel my membership". No response. I called. I emailed. No response whatsoever. None.
In the meantime I tried to get tickets via mileyworld.com, and there were none, of course. I noticed that it gave me this code to use while trying, but didn't think much of it.

So, I called Discover after many attempts to talk to a human being at mileyworld.com (I still think that none exist). I asked them to remove the charge because I cancelled right away and nobody will respond. About 6 weeks went by, and I got a response from Discover saying the charge was valid. Oh well.

Then, last Friday, I got an email from mileyworld.com saying that they were going to open up more seats the next day to mileyworld.com members who tried to get tickets before, had a code, but didn't get any. That was me! So I got on right away at noon, and searched. I found single tickets. So, I though I had two held, and made my purchase, but one didn't work. So I searched again. Sold out! This was about 12:05 and they went on sale at noon! I searched a few more times and another came up. Too bad it was accross the stadium from the first one. Oh, well, I could always sell them for $400, right?

I didn't tell Anna. I wanted to surprise her. I thought, it will be all moms, right? Chances are out of the 4 people I may be sitting next to, someone would understand and be cool with Anna sitting on my lap.

So, yesterday morning started like this:

The new sparkly hoodie and tall boots from walmart. I asked Anna who might dress like that.

She guessed it right away. She didn't even know the concert was that day. It sunk in fast!

h ANNA h.

We went early for the mileyworld.com "party" meaning "stand out in the cold and follow lines around and wait with 2000 moms and 4000 girlies for 6 prizes. Oh, they were supposed to have the pink miley bus, but it broke down on Lake Shore Drive!

More of our friends....                                               Warming up in the car and celebrating our tix!

We finally went inside and found our first "seat". It was just to the side of the stage, in the second row of the balcony. An awesome seat! It turned out that many other moms had single seats and were looking around for people to trade so they could sit close to each other. Here is Anna right by our seats. I wanted to go check our other one, which was straight across the way but in the lower section. Anna thought our seat was "the best." So I traded with another mom for a seat that was 3 away from ours and we stayed.

The Jonas Brothers opened. Cute boys! They were very good!

First, she was Hannah Montana. The Jonas Brothers came out for one more in the middle. Then, she was Miley Cyrus. A great show with lots of action. She changed outfits about every 2 songs. It's unbelievable that she is only 15. Here are a few concert pics:

We were wandering after the show and a dad with his wife and 2 kids stopped us in the hallway. "Are you two sticking around?", he asked. I said, yeah, we're just checking it out. He gave us 2 blue wristbands. "Put these on and go to section 109. Have fun." So, we said "THANKS", not knowing yet for what, and headed for section 109. We waited for about 5 minutes and they walked us across the street into another building. Here is what happened:

What a first concert for Anna! It was an awesome experience!

The only concert that topped it.....

FINALLY, Anna

2007-11-11T17:04:00Z

Anna FINALLY lost one of her two front teeth that have been dangling in her mouth forEVER!

I think all of the cheering for the Reapers and Illini might have done the trick. (Or, her yelling, "Mom, be quiet!")

I went out to get the mail and come back in to Anna crying hysterically and holding a bloody kleenex on her mouth. "I can't find my tooth! I can't find my tooth!" I got her calmed down enought to tell me what happened...Brady bumped her in the mouth and her tooth came out. We found it on the office floor! I told her I'm sure that Brady would love to help her get the other one out, too! She said no thanks.

All she wants for Christmas is her one front tooth....yeah right.

The Best Football Day for an Alumni Ever

2007-11-11T16:53:00Z

Could yesterday have been any better?

First, it was Plano 26, St. Joe Ogden 22. I listened on WSPY. I wish I could have been there! Great job, Reapers. See you next week in the semis against Aurora Christian. GO REAPERS!

Next, it was a HUGE upset in College Football!

ILLINI 28, BUCKEYES 21! Great job, Illinois, beating the Nation's #1 team. And Juice is only a Sophomore!

I bet it was fun in Champaign last night....

This Reaper and Illini Alum says thanks for the excitement! Keep it going! I always think it is so funny that both schools have the same "Loyalty", I just had to change a few names and colors!

We're loyal to you Illinois,

We're "Orange and Blue," Illinois,

We'll back you to stand

Gainst the best in the land,

For we know you have sand, Illinois,

Rah! Rah!

So crack out that ball Illinois,

We're backing you all Illinois;

Our team is our fame protector,

On! boys, for we expect a vict'ry from you Illinois!

Che-he! Che-ha! Che-ha-ha-ha!

Go Illini go!

Che-he! Che-ha! Che-ha-ha-ha!

Go Illini go!

Illinois! Illinois! Illinois!

Fling out that dear old flag of Orange and Blue,

Lead on your sons and daughters, fighting for you;

Like men of old, on giants placing reliance, shouting defiance

Oskee wow-wow!

Amid the broad green plains that nourish our land,

For honest Labor and for Learning we stand,

And unto thee we pledge our heart and hand,

Dear Alma Mater Illinois.

Happy Halloween!!

2007-11-03T01:48:00Z

Brady is 3 and Grampa is 69!

2007-10-18T03:36:00Z

Isn't it the Terrible TWOS?

Anna & Brady snuck downstairs on his birthday morning and Anna took this picture. We woke up to MOM! DAD! HELP! HELP! BRADY IS OPENING HIS PRESENTS! He was tearing right into them.

We had birthday dinner with Grandma, Grandpa, Granny, Drew and Lauren. It was a Thomas Party!

Brady sang the loudest, to himself!

He LOVES cake! Anna could take it or leave it. Can they be more opposite?

October is a Birthday Month. Grampa turned 69 4 days later! We went to Red Robin for his birthday. Brady and Grampa both got the singing and birthday sundaes. Grampa's is missing because Anna was "trying" it. Happy Birthday, Dad!

We had MORE cake, of course. Do we do anything but eat?

Anna has a friend named Emily that she met in Kindergarten. It was instant friendship when Emily moved to Yorkville, a little while after school started last year. This year, they are lucky to be in the same class and are so cute together. Here they were reading/singing all of the poems from their poetry book from school. Too funny! I hope she will have lifelong friends like I do. Thanks Julie and Traci!

Anna's hat from the Sandwich Fair.

I'm Thankful For:

2007-09-26T13:52:00Z

Brady......wakes up smiling every day...

Anna......loves her Unicorns....

She had to take this picture for her math homework...not the math that I once knew!

Car Shows With Grandpa

2007-09-26T13:42:00Z

Anna, Brady & I have been following Grandpa Don around to car shows the past couple of weeks, especially since Brett has been working so much. The first one was at the Sandwich McDonalds....

The River radio station was there giving stuff away, and the announcer would go up to the roof of McDonalds and throw t-shirts to the crowd. Anna wanted one so bad, but I made her stay close to Grandpa's car. She said that all the shirts were going to the end of the building. I said to be patient....stand by the back of Grandpa's car and maybe he'll throw one this way. Sure enough, he did, and Anna caught it on the fly! Pretty good for a 6-year-old! She really wanted one of those shirts.....

The next show was at Oswego Drag Strip Days...

It was a perfect day. On the right, my dad is talking to Norb Locke, sharing old Drag Racing stories. For my old friends, you might remember Mr. Ned (Ned Locke) from Bozo's Circus. This is his son! I am so happy for my dad to be able to race every weekend. He is having a blast!

Drew is 22

2007-09-26T13:24:00Z

We celebrated Drew's 22nd birthday over the weekend. He has changed so much...I can't believe he was 9 when I first met him. Anna and Brady just LOVE it when he is here. It's funny because he used to have as much energy as they did. Now he can only take so much of "spin me"....."again"....."again"....."again"! Anna said that Drew still makes the best fort in the world. His girlfriend Lauren came over too. She's beautiful and very sweet. He requested steak, mashed potatoes, and vegetables for his birthday dinner. It was good! We had a great night.

Pre-Preschool

2007-09-12T22:02:00Z

Brady has wanted to go on the school bus with Anna since last year. He's finally going to 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 year old preschool at the YMCA on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-11. It will be so good for him to play with some kids his age! He started out with a request for a waffle for breakfast.....

His "Packpack" is ready....

He was singing "YMCA" for the past week! And there it is!

Directly to the trains....

Brett & I went out to breakfast & to Kohls. A mini vacation! We WERE very happy to see Brady when we picked him up. He had a great day!

First Grade

2007-09-05T13:41:00Z

First Day of First Grade!

Anna was so excited about starting school!

She and Brennan waited for the bus together.

Bye bye my sweetie!

I will miss her! I am so excited for her. What a great time in her life. Things will change for me, too! I will get to spend some time alone with Brady and get some of MY stuff done now! I am really looking forward to all of the changes. Maybe Brett & I will even get to go on a date! Probably to Best Buy or Lenscrafters, though!

Now, more time to play trains! Brady starts 2 1/2 year old preschool at the Y next week.

It was great having my sister here for a few days. We had lots of fun and even had tickets to a Cubs game. It was a come-from-behind win on a D-Lee homer. We drove the Vette downtown on a spectacular day. Topped it off with some Sushi and an Icy Fruit! We're all going to miss her....especially Anna. I don't think she let Elizabeth out of her sight all weekend!

Summer in Minutes

2007-08-25T04:35:00Z

Summer seemed like it flashed by. I left Aon after 11 years on June 15 and I don't even know how I ever had time to work before! It has been a wonderful summer off! It started with Anna's Graduation from Kindergarten. There wasn't really a graduation, but one of the moms thought they should have one so some of us got together for a little party for the kids.

Then, I said I would be glad to "help the coach" for Anna's Tee Ball team. Well, all they heard was the "Coach" part, and so there I was. I coached and had 2 helpers...one was my dad who coached me since I was 9! Anna had lots of fun and did pretty well, too! Just look at that windup!

We spent a lot of time playing with our neighbors. Brennan and Anna liked to draw giant chalk monsters on the driveway. We did some fishing at the "No fish" Fish Pond.....so named by Anna!

We had a great time at the Yorkville 4th of July celebration. We have watched the parade from the same corner since I was a kid. The Carringtons had their race faces on this year...Brady completed the race for the first time and even took 2nd! Anna got the DOLLAR! She said she could feel her heart beating because she ran so fast. She said it was the best day of her life....

Anna and Brennan took "Bone and Arrow Class" as they said it....Archery at the YMCA. They both loved it!

Funny how they like some of the shows that I used to watch and I laugh whenever I see "1970" on some of the Scooby Doo shows that they have been into lately. It's so funny to hear them both sing the entire theme song. (Even funnier when Brady is singing Hannah Montana, he'll appreciate hearing himself sing that in a few years when he is trying to be cool!) This picture was from our day at Great America. Anna and Brady both loved the "Whizzer" as much as they love Scooby and can't wait until they are tall enough to go on the next roller coaster!  Anna said it was the best day of her life.....

Of course we had plenty of fun in our back yard water park....

Anna was begging Brett to help her make a lemonade stand, so they did. There are not many potential customers walking by our house, so the owners of Suzy's said it would be ok if she set up her stand at some of the early volleyball games. Her first day as an entrepeneur brought in $35. That included a $10 tip! She said it was the best day of her life...hmmmm....that sounds familiar!

My dad has been having the time of his life racing! He was top eliminator a few weeks ago FINALLY! Here is the article from the Record:
Don Hausler, long time Plano dragracer put his big block Chevy powered dragster in the winners circle at Route 66 Raceway Sunday, August 5, 2007. Don was top eliminator in the super pro class with runs of 8.02, 8.02, 8.04, 8.06, 8.06, 8.03, 8.04, all at 166 miles per hour. The all important reaction times were .028, .008, .000. .031, .003, .017, .001. The final was against former track champion Dave Ancel of Minooka and was decided by a .0021 second margin of victory!   Don said the Hausler Masonry, Contractors Equipment, Wholesale Tire, Allen Racing Chevrolet was totally awsome all day and was unaffected by the extreme heat and humidity. This was Don's first "Top Eliminator" prize.

We had a wonderful "City Girls" overnighter in Chicago with Julie and Jordan. We hit the Rainforest Cafe, Chicago Childrens Museum, Build A Bear, the Funhouse, the Ferris Wheel, Hard Rock Cafe, and Shedd Aquarium. What a great time! We are so lucky to have such great friends as Julie and Jordan! We can't wait until next time.

Anna's Addiction: The "Crane Game."   How appropriate it is that she just found out that her 1st grade teacher is Ms. Crane!

We went to "A Day Out With Thomas" last weekend. Anna and Brady both had a great time (I have to admit, it was really cute!). This was Brady's reaction when Thomas pulled us away in the train!

That's some of our summer highlights...I'm caught up!

Now we are looking forward to my sister's visit over Labor Day weekend. She's in the U.S. attending Santa Clara University's two-week-long Global Social Benefit Incubator program. The program gathers social entrepreneurs from all over the world who are trying to combine their contribution to a common good with a coherent business model. She's coming in Saturday...we're going to the Cubs game Sunday, and looking forward to spending time together! Woo hoo!