Summer Girl

Tomorrow is Charlotte's last day of school.  (Okay, so I have to admit, I haven't bought the teachers' gifts yet . . . that'll keep my busy tomorrow morning.  If you have any great ideas for what I can run out and get, please post!)  When our photographer extraordinaire, Heidi, took this picture Charlotte was nursing a broken nose.  Heidi somehow got her to smile. 

Charlotte is my side-kick, and is turning 5 this summer.  She's going to have another year of pre-school.  I wish Charlotte was "ready" for kindergarten, but I am lucky to keep her as my partner in crime for one more year.  Summer is here, Charley girl!

Anyone know Senator Obama?

The South Dakota presidential primary is Tuesday, June 3 (Henry's birthday). We thought it would be meaningless since it's on the last possible day - but it turns out we are getting more presidential political attention than ever. Hillary Clinton was in Aberdeen 2 weeks ago. Barack Obama was here yesterday, and Bill Clinton is coming on Tuesday. Kel and I actually saw Bill Clinton speak back when we were still students at G'town (President Clinton actually went to G'town).

Kel is obsessed with us getting a zebra skirt and a monarch dress to Senator Obama's two girls. I have them in my possession. I just need to figure out how to get them to his people. Our angle is his discussion of small business yesterday, and our best possible connection is Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin - who also went to G'town and graduated a year behind us (and is a superdelegate in favor of Obama). Steph lived in the Fishbowl with us for a week or so during her sophomore year when she broke her ankle. I'm charged with heading to her local office here tomorrow to see if I can get these red white and blue maggie delaneys into Senator Obama's hands.

The dress looks a lot like the one in this picture - only we don't have holly berry (the red in this one anymore) - so we used new snow red.

That's our however many degrees of separation to Senator Obama. Seems like Kel should have a more direct link, she is afterall, in Chi-town...

Here's to small business

South Dakota has its primary on Tuesday. Senator Obama passed through Aberdeen on Saturday. Erin and her family attended a town hall meeting . . . I have yet to hear what she thought. I did, however, find a little You-tube clip from yesterday's event with his thoughts on small business.

Brother and Sisters

I love it when we get to see pictures of your girls in maggie delaney!  These are Annie's kids on Mother's Day!  (It must have been nicer in Garden City than it was in Chicago!)  It's great when we actually catch our kids loving each other.  I am hoping this picture will dull my memory of Charlotte hitting Delaney with a very large, heavy plastic Dora doll today.  

must be that time of year.

School is almost out. Maggie is done tomorrow, and I think Delaney is done next week. Kel and I talk every day, and we end up knowing so many more details about each other's lives that we would if we didn't have maggie delaney to bring us together every day. Our conversation today was about who made the more disgusting sack lunch for their daughter today. Our fridges were both pretty bare this morning.

Here's what the girls ended up with:

Delaney had:

a half a peanut butter sandwich (because there was only one piece of bread left and no jelly)

a box of raisins (not exactly fresh ones)

a small bag of pecans (the dregs of a bottom of a can of pecans)

two pickles (I guess Kel thought she needed a vegetable)

Maggie had:

green apples and peanut butter (this is actually a staple in our lunch boxes)

pepperoni (because doesn't everyone eat spicy pepperoni with sour apples?)

chocolate milk box (because I felt guilty sending her to school with pepperoni for lunch)

Which lunch do you think is worse?

Maybe there is hope for my golf game!

Mother's Day 2008...

I took Maggie and Henry to the driving range. My golf lessons got cancelled because it rained the last three Thursdays. I was bitter about that and itching to get out there, so I took the kids and we hit the driving range, literally. Update from last year... my driver still does not work. I am still in love with my fairway wood, but other than that, the rest of my clubs don't like me very much. I just started golfing with my girlfriends last summer. We did the "divots and drinks" lessons and then did social league. I am a bit obsessed with the idea of becoming a decent golfer, and I'm thinking it's going to take at least 30 years to achieve this goal.

This morning, I had an email from my dad in my inbox. His dad, Ed Hogan, was a really good junior golfer in the St. Louis area many years ago. My Aunt Eileen found all these neat newspaper articles about my Papa Hogan's (who died in 1969, the year before I was born) golfing successes, and my dad's email included 12 articles from the St. Louis Post Dispatch that my Aunt Eileen had found. I am hoping that I got a gene or two of my Papa Hogan's. Maybe there is hope for my golf game. I'll keep you posted on the driver.

grow old with grace ... or at least fewer wrinkles

love: philosophy hope in a jar

Kelly makes fun of my makeup and skin care obsessions because I'm a little naive when it comes to these things - I like the simple things. My mom always uses Oil of Olay, and she looks like she's 45 (she's not, but don't tell her). The facecream my children will associate with me some day ... the one I'll still be using in 30 years ... hope in a jar.