Random thoughts for the evening

For Julie and Kara who both wanted to know what a CornJerker was....you were right on the corn husking thing! Hoopeston, our rival for this past Friday's homecoming game, is known as the "sweet corn capital of the world"--no kidding on that one--and their high school mascot is the CornJerker. I know....retarded. I much prefer our Storm.

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By the way, in case anyone was wondering the outcome of the homecoming game....our Storm really did prove to be a nightmare for the CornJerkers. We blasted them: 53 to 12. *giggle*

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Cameron got little confused tonight when Shane told him (during their shower) that he was going to wash his hair with some shampoo. Apparently, Cameron had some water in his ears or something, because he heard something somewhat different. To which, he then asked Shane this question:

"Daddy....why are you going to wash my hair with POO?"

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In the last two days, I have taken my boys on two bike rides. One on Tuesday, and one today. Yesterday, Colin cut right in front of me (seriously, he turned on a dime) and I hit his back wheel. Let me tell you....it wasn't pretty. I went down--HARD.

Yeah, it's funny. 'Till you understand that I had Cameron in a bike seat on the back of my bike, and Ethan in the bike trailer behind me. Now, Ethan's trailer (thank God) stayed upright; he wasn't scathed one little bit. However, just as I went down, Cameron--who was obviously very attached to my bike--went down, too.

The back of my left leg bore the brunt of the fall, however. Cameron managed to escape the whole scenario with just minor road rash on his left arm. Of course, this had to happen right in front of my neighbors' house (little old Mr. and Mrs. Fleming). They are sweet *retired* people who apparently sit and look out their windows a lot, because, not two seconds after I hit the ground, she came running. She was so sweet though; she made Cameron bend his arm so that she knew it wasn't broken *grin* and then we were free to go.

That was Tuesday.

Today, unbelievably, the same thing happened, except a bit of a different scenario--Cameron was on his own bike, and (maybe for spite? Retaliation?) this time it was he who cut me off (with Ethan in the bike seat). I sort of knew what was coming before I actually went down this time though, and managed--with the help of my right leg this time--to catch Ethan before he hit the pavement. Whew. Close one.

Guess where this happened? Yep. Right in front of the Flemings. Again.

My legs are seriously beat up and achy tonight. *sigh*

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Speaking of achy....

My wisdom teeth hurt me for soooooo long after I got them pulled out. Well, to be clear--my left side hurt me terribly badly. My right side was fine. I was convinced that I had an infection or something, but the Doctor kept reassuring me that "after pain is normal for quite some time."

I wasn't so sure, but I trusted what he was telling me.

Everything has been healing up nicely, and for the most part, the pain has gone completely away.

Until the last several days.

That's when I noticed something didn't feel right again on my left side.

And then (because I kept running my tongue over and over that area) I noticed a little bump.

That bump turned into something actually poking through my gum.

Something very sharp and pointy.

That something turned out to be a large piece of wisdom tooth that got left behind.

See, the doctor had told me before I had the procedure that my roots were very close to my nerves; that he was going to use a jackhammer-like device to break up the tooth (I'm sure the tool is called something much more professional sounding--but that is literally how I felt when he was using it to get the tooth out--like a jackhammer was inside my mouth....

jjjjjgggdddttt.....jjjjgggdddttt.....

....and then, he was going to suck out the little tiny pieces with a vacuum-like device.

He warned me that a piece may get left behind. Well, it did.

After much *wiggling* and *digging* around back there last night, I was able to set the (hopefully) last piece free. It-seriously-is huge. About 1/2 the size of my nail on my pinky finger. I figured it was going to be just a little sliver....but it turns out that it left a hole in the back of my mouth that was comparable to the size of the original one left by the whole tooth.

YIKES. So, my mouth hurts a little tonight...

Hopefully, that is THE END in the chapter on my wisdom teeth.

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I am so way behind on blogging. Which, is semi-ridiculous, 'cause I blog nearly every day! I still have yet to post about our trip to Missouri; my beautiful cousin Haley's wedding from this past weekend; and about 4 other things that have been going on around here. I don't know why, but lately I find myself saying--like, twice a day--man, I got to get that on the blog. Mainly, for my memory's sake....if I don't get it down right away, (most of the time) I will forget about it.

Does anyone know where I can find 2 or 3 extra hours in the day?

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We--well, Shane--carved the coolest pumpkin EVER last night. I am totally going to post a picture of that soon. Someone remind me in case I forget to do that. The front of my house is all decked out for fall/Halloween, too. I love it. There is just something about decorating for fall that makes me happy. Happy, happy girl I am. I'll post pics of that too....

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Finally, I am giddy. Deliriously, like a 4-year-old-in-a-toy-store giddy over what I am doing this weekend. For 8 years (nearly) I have been begging Shane to take me to an Illini football game. I grew up going, about once a year, and I love everything about it--the band, the cheerleaders (can't help myself--I could so do that stuff 10 years and 15 pounds ago), the hot chocolate and the crappy nachos and cheese....and of course, the big GAME!!

This weekend, the Illini are hosting their homecoming game against one of our Big Ten rivals, Minnesota--I totally got a wild hair when I heard about it and decided that I sooooooo wanted to go. I got on the U of I website and....the game is sold out.

Thank you StubHub, because.....

I got tickets!

They aren't the most fab seats in the world, but they aren't terrible either--and I am so there. Shane is coming too, but sheer force of my will. He doesn't seem nearly as excited as me (that's putting it mildly) but I know once I get him in the stadium he is going to have a great time. Grandma MJ is going to be holding down the fort here at our house, so we are free to have grown up day at the football field--I am counting the hours 'till kickoff!

Make sure to look for me on ESPN! *giggle*

Have a great night everyone!

Homecoming Parade

Last Friday, we had our annual homecoming parade here in our little hometown. We didn't go last year, because the parade is at 2:30 in the afternoon and the boys were napping; but this year, we had good reason for keeping everyone up: Colin was a part of the parade! His soccer team had a "float", so the rest of us plopped down on the side of the street to participate in the festivities, and to cheer for Col!

Just like opening night was, this is apparently another really big day for our community. I don't think there was a single person that didn't take the day off of work (or, at least, the afternoon) to be a part of the parade! Everywhere we looked, everyone was out--either in the parade or watching it.

All ready for the parade to start!

Ethan loved the fire trucks

Cameron loved the old cars

Ethan began checking out this yummy looking sucker....
....and then decided to eat it, wrapper and all

This is the side of Cameron that we spent most of the parade staring at.

Can you blame the kid? He was, after all, on a mission.

Here comes Colin's float! Pulled by the Terminix man

(who also happens to be Coach Tom) its...

The Salt Fork Storm U6 Soccer Team!! Whoot whoot!

Colin sitting with his buddy Devin

And there they go....

Ethan, not knowing Mommy is keeping a careful eye from behind, begins contemplating eating yet another piece of candy that is still in the wrapper even though he has been told not to more than a few times

And when I called his name.....he turned around, put the candy down, and gave me this look:
"No, Mommy! Of course I wasn't going to eat that candy. I'm much too innocent and obedient to do something like that. Perish the thought."

Of course, this is an election year, so we had several politicians in the parade. One was handing out nail files (with his name on it, of course) and Cameron picked it up and exclaimed, "But Mommy....this not candy!"

Apparently, the Storm take their floats pretty seriously....

Here is the 'Storm' Freddie Kruger getting ready to attack the poor Hoopeston Cornjerker that fell asleep a little too early on Homecoming evening *giggle*

And another not-quite-as-scary float

Ethan learned very early on in the parade that

a wave to the passing vehicles=CANDY

Ethan with about 3/4 of the 'loot'

Shane and Colin, pulling the stash out of the diaper bag....we got more candy at the Homecoming Parade than on the 4th of July!

Actually, I'd like to call this candy

"What I will be handing out to Trick-or-Treaters".....

Opening Night

We live in a small, rural village of about 2,100 people.

That basically means that most everyone in our town knows most everyone else. Except our family, of course, being as we just moved here 2 years ago. But I digress. We've met many, many people so far, and we're getting there....

I love the feeling of small towns where everyone knows everyone else. Growing up, my Dad lived in a community like that, and I always loved it. There always seemed to be something special about the area where they lived--all the kids knew each other, and all the kids knew all their friends' parents, as well. The parents in turn knew all the children, and everyone pretty much played with everyone and got along really well. I am sure there are exceptions to everything, but this was just my casual observation during the many times I visited New Jersey.

I remember going and watching some of my brother's events--football games and such--and there was always a great sense of community. Most of the town came out to the games--whatever sporting season it happened to be--and people called each other by their first names. They rooted for everyone else's kids as hard as their own, because, well....that's just what you do in small towns.

I always thought that was so cool.

Now, I am blessed to actually live in that same kind of small community. We attended our very first community 'event' last Friday night at the high school football field, and it was a lot of fun. (Another cool 'small town' thing--we live right across a large field from our high school and it's football field--close enough to hear all the plays over the loudspeaker and the cheering fans each Friday night home game!)

Our high school puts on a Fall Sports Kickoff Event each year, and every child that competes in any sport during the fall sports season gets to participate. There is food, people selling all things "STORM" (our mascot), a football scrimage, and lots of general fun and excitement towards the teams that are going to be representing the community.

It's a really big day for the kids, and it reminded me so much of what I used to experience out in New Jersey. Everyone was friendly, and welcoming, and I am already looking forward to our family being a part of many more activities like this.



My little soccer player got to be a part of the Kickoff this year, and I must say, it was neat to watch him parade across that huge football field; to hear his name called over the loudspeaker (to which Grandma MJ and Mommy cheered as loud as we could, of course); and stand with all of the other athletes like such a big boy.

All the athletes lining up at the end of the ball field--they each got to take their turn walking across the field!

Ethan, not so thrilled to be behind the 'bars' just watching again.....(that's the stinkeye look he likes to give)

Cameron, just as thrilled as Ethan was

Colin's turn! He's the second to the last one. This is the Under 6 Storm Soccer team!

I zoomed as far as I could from the bleachers to catch him waving up to me!

My sweet little boy....*sniff, tear*

The first section of the athletes--this is JUST the soccer players (boys and girls) for the fall season! (Colin's soccer team is the very first line of children, all the way on the right hand side of the screen)

2 generations of soccer players! Daddy and Colin

Proud, proud moments for sure.....with hopefully lots, lots more to come!