Things to Do Before Back to School

1. Have lunch with a friend!


Melinda and I have been friends for almost 30 years. We've been through a lot together, good times, and not so good times, but the best part of it all is we "get" each other and are not afraid to be truly honest with each other. I believe everyone needs a best friend with whom will rally for them yet, let them know when they are off track. Melinda is one of those kind of friends to me. We use to live about 10 minutes apart and saw each other often, but now Melinda lives in Crystal Lake and I in Aurora, over an hour apart. Needless to say, we are not able to get together often because of the distance and our schedules, but we do manage to meet at least once a year at favorite restaurant, Maggiano's in Schaumburg. I believe everyone needs a Melinda in their life.

2. Prepare my Classroom.

In my five years of teaching this has been the first year that I didn't need to completely set up a new classroom - so Kristen and I were able to put up a "Dr. Seuss" type tree outside of my classroom. Students involved in my Buggy Book Club can put a bug on the wall with the name of their book. By the end of the year my wall is pretty full, as last year my 8 students who participated read almost 1000 books! Way to go kids!!


3. Visit with the Newlyweds.



Jake and Lauren stopped by for a couple of days before heading out to DC for their fall internships. It was so fun having then around again. The two of them are like "two peas in a pod". One night while playing Spinner with them Erik called and we video chatted with his family. It was so fun to be all "together" via the Internet and to see Eli keeping his parents hopping. He is quite a busy guy! They are such a sweet, cute family and we look forward to the "Eli Show" each Sunday night.

On Thursday Lee took them down to the train and off they were to DC. We were all a little concerned about the train ride as after we had bought them tickets, we heard all kinds of horror stories on the train arriving hours late. But they arrived only 17 minutes late. If only the airlines could do that. We wish them all the best on their fun adventure.

This One's for You Bill!

The girls and I left for Girls Camp on a Sunday evening. We were driving down I65 a road I am not unfamiliar with since my grandparents lived in southern Indiana and I traveled on that road many times to visit them. Anyway, as we were nearing our designation the girls and I noticed many synchronized red flashing lights. We could figure what they were and since I hadn't traveled down this road for awhile I was puzzled. I didn't remember an airport being near Lafayette. Huh!!

As we got to the flashing red lights we realized that is was a field of wind turbines! Hundreds and hundreds of wind turbines!! On our way home during the daytime we took many pictures, but here are just a few.


They stood in a row and looked liked soldiers. Each row of turbines would face a different direction, I guess to catch the wind no matter which direction it blew.



I couldn't believe how many wind turbines there were and it went on for miles and miles.


Kristen said it reminder her of Europe. I on the other hand have never seen so many wind turbines and was quite fascinated by it all.

Girl's Camp

Well I promised to post about our church's Young Women's Girls camp that the girls and I attended the last week in July. Actually, you could hardly call it camping, but I loved it! It was somewhat like camping Hilton style.

Our camp this year was in Lafayette, Indiana at a Boy Scout Camp. Here is a picture of the wonderful lodge that we ate in, that my craft "cabin" was in, and that I slept. It was equipped with central air conditioning, Wi-Fi, a fully functioning kitchen, (all the meals were prepared for us) beautiful flush potties, sinks, and a terrific shower. I slept directly under the air conditioning vent. Ahhh…


As the girls and I were packing up for camp I needed a cot or some sort of air mattress. Lee proudly showed me the cot that he had used when he camped with the boys about 10 years ago. It has been stored in our garage all of these years. We set the cot up in the living room to test it out and he showed me how he would put a small inflatable mattress on top of it. He encouraged me to try it and was proud of the comfort it had provided him. I tested it out, it seemed just fine and I proceeded to pack it up by deflating and rolling up the mattress on top of the cot. As I did this a piece of plastic that held two poles together broke. This should have been my first clue as to the future of this cot and me, but I thought no problem I'll just get a clamp, fasten the two poles with clamp and all will be fine.

At camp I had four other roomies. They all had brought air mattresses. I was the only one with this "deluxe" set-up. That night I as I climbed into my sleeping bag and was settling down to sleep every time I moved my cot creaked. I was concerned that I was disturbing my roommates so I tried not to move very often. Additionally, as I slept the plastic pieces that were holding my cot together would break and all of a sudden a shoulder or foot would jerk downward. I was sure I was going to wake up on the floor. When I awoke in the morning I looked under my cot to discover many plastic pieces on the floor. So off to the dumpster my cot went.

Fortunately, we were close to town and every small town has a Wal-Mart, so I purchased a super and quiet Coleman air mattress! WOW, I was livin' now! Not only was my air mattress comfortable, but much to my roommates delight, it was quiet too!!

My main purpose to attending camp was to run the craft cabin with another leader. I honestly feel I had the best job at camp! Below is one of our crafters with her craft. Cute huh? If you haven't guessed her name was Abbey. (And, by the way notice the wonderful facilities!)


We also offered the girls opportunities to make their own "license plates." I made one for my classroom that said ED U K8 and below where the state goes I wrote Mrs. Hartman.


We offered many other crafts of which I don't have pictures for but included, mini-scrapbooks, washer scrapbook paper resin necklaces, sand art, beading, felted beads, and more. We were a busy and popular part of camp.

So that sums up camp according to JoAnn, but I did take Kristen and Katie with me.

Kristen went as a leader over the 1st year camp girls. Unfortunately, she didn't get to sleep in the Camp Hilton Cabin, but slept in a tent 2 out of three nights. The last night she was able to join me in the Hilton Cabin.

Katie went as a 2nd year camper. She slept in another cabin that also had air conditioning and bunk beds with box springs and mattresses, a small kitchen and a bathroom. Her successes included completing a 5 mile hike on a terrifically hot day, and learning how to shoot a BB gun. She actually was very good with the BB gun and made several bullseyes. She also enjoyed swimming, camp fires, and of course the crafts.

Guess Who?

Can you guess who belongs to this foot?



Well, if you guessed …



… Kristen - you're right! Yep, this is the third summer in a row that Kristen has injured her foot. The first summer she needed to have part of her toe nail removed as it was infected. Last summer she broke her toe and this summer … she has a stress fracture. She injured her foot as she ran her foot into a chair as she was packing to go home. Go figure!

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles?

Well actually it was planes, shuttle bus and automobiles …

A week ago Friday, Kristen left her wonderful college campus BYUI at 9:30 am and boarded a wonderful shuttle bus that looked somewhat like this…


She took a four hour trip to the Salt Lake Airport, in what was suppose to be a fairly comfortable ride, but early on in the trip it was noted that the air conditioning was broken. So she enjoyed a four hour trip in 90 degree weather with no air conditioning. No problem, you may say, just open up the window, but… the only window that could open was the drivers window.


Good news though she arrived at the airport in plenty of time to catch her flight out to Denver and then to Chicago. But… the flight she was scheduled to take to Denver was delayed in arriving to SLC so - no problem says Southwest, how about we fly you to Vegas and then you can take a connecting flight to Chicago. So off Kristen goes to Vegas Baby!


She arrives in plenty of time to make her connecting flight to Chicago. But… in Chicago we are having terrible thunderstorms and needless to say, they delay their departure, waiting for the storms in Chicago to pass. After a two hour delay - they take off to Chicago. Yippee!


So, instead of arriving at 10:40 pm she arrives at 12:20 am. No problem we say, we are just all so glad to have her home we (Lee, Katie and I) jump into our car and drive off to Midway. But … to our surprise, (it really shouldn't have been a surprise, with the storms we had that night) the place is totally slammed. It takes us 20 minutes to drive from the entrance of the airport to the Southwest terminal. Finally, I go into the airport help Kristen with her bags and Lee circles the airport.



It's amazing that she can be all smiles and look so wonderful after only 15 hours of modern day travel! As any mom, I am thrilled to see her and we enjoy small talk about her day as we wait for her luggage…


Along with a million other travelers in the wee hours of the morning.



So we wait …



And wait for - a hour and a half - tick, tick, tick - meanwhile mind you, Lee is still making that 20 minute circuit around the airport loop another three times.


And just when we think that perhaps her luggage is lost and are headed to the lost luggage counter what do we see, but her luggage on another carousel going around and around. Who knows how long it had been going around that carousel!



Finally, we all loaded up in the Honda and drove home arriving at 2:30 am. Not bad, I guess if you compare yourself to the pioneers who traveled for weeks to make the same journey.

And a day and a half later, I loaded her and her sister Katie up in the Honda and off we went to Girls Camp for four days in Lafayette, Indiana. Let the good times roll!

Pictures and fun details to follow.

Smile Pretty!!

Today Katie woke up and her smile looked like this. Yes, I know it looks somewhat like a train wreck, but because we went to the orthodontist her smile now looks like…

Just imagine what it will look like in just a short 24-26 months! Priceless!!

Sew What?

Thirty backpacks that what! I spent this afternoon with three of my friends doing one of the things that I love to do the most - SEW! We made 30 cute backpacks for girls camp, fun, fun fun. We also decorated 30 hats with gems. We will be stylin' at girls camp!