Moments 05 19 :: Week 05

Snuggles.


I don't really love Spring, but these blooms make it so much nicer.


Memorial Day "Murph" crew. While I was doing this, the boys went to Pinelawn for the annual service.


Last weekend was also State Championships. 4:00pm games every day Saturday - Monday. Sunday's game was during a downpour. It was crazy. Here's the really insane thing -- we couldn't finish the game due to thunder and lightening, so have to play the final 5 minutes on Saturday! The scores are so close that 6 of the 8 teams are in qualification for the Semi-Final game, which will be played later that day.
----
It's been a very sad week. At Wednesday's soccer practice, the boys and parents found out that one of the families was in a very bad car accident. The 16-year old was driving himself and 4 of his brothers (it's a family of 10) to practice, like they do almost every day. He lost control of the car and it flipped several times. Three of the brothers were ejected from the vehicle. Three were released from the hospital later that night, but two are still in critical condition. One is the 13-year old and the other is C's friend who plays on the other U15 team, but who played with him in the Fall and Winter seasons. His prognosis sadly is the worst it could be. It's heartbreaking, to say the least. I hope for an absolute miracle for the two still fighting, and hope for strength for the parents, the brother who was driving, and entire family.

Moments 05 19 :: Week 04

Back from a day of work. These two refereed three games together. H has really developed into an amazing ref. C was so excited to get a few more games under his belt.


Finding inspiration in nature. A robin egg just joined our box of treasures. Robin egg blue might be my favorite color ever. We had a nest on our porch, and hadn't seen the mama bird hanging around since we got back from our trips. Brian went to check on it, and we found an egg on the ground and another cracked one in the nest. I'm sure crows got to it.


C had soccer games Friday-Sunday this week, which included a pretty sweet victory against one of the top teams in their bracket.


Sunday night dinner crew. Can tell we are related?


May 20th was National Rescue Dog day, so of course I couldn't go without saying how great we all think our guy, Storm, is. We adopted Storm when he was 10 months old. We were his third home. Can you even imagine? Thank you to the parent who didn’t want to the responsibility when their son went to college, or the other one who returned our guy after three days when they decided their young daughter wasn’t helping out enough. (All true stories.) The boys were 2 and 5 when Storm came home with us. We went to an art fair and came home with a dog. Seriously, I can’t even make that stuff up! Besides art and an amazing bench I still think about, the shelter happened to be there. 12 years later, I still can’t figure it out why anyone would give him up. I guess it was just meant to be because we all adore him.

A Few Hours in Chicago

Oh my gosh, what a fun day! Brian planned a little trip to Chicago, and I decided to join him for a few hours. We both took the train down --  so much more relaxing than driving. He actually took an earlier train, so it was fun meeting up in the city a few hours later. Once we connected, we wandered around for a couple hours before it was time for our reservation at the WNDR Museum. I totally apologize for the photo overload, but what a fun place! It takes about an hour to get through, with surprises around every corner. When you entered, there were a couple resident poets who write a custom poem for you. Brian's topic of choice was German Shorthaired Pointer and Gretel, mine was sunshine. Here's how ours turned out. Of course. That little stinker. After the museum we went to Publican for lunch. Then it was time for me travel back to Milwaukee! It really couldn't have been a more perfect day. I'm not sure why I don't do little day trips like that more often.

New Orleans :: Final

I was the first to have to leave on our last day in NOLA. Penny, Amy & I walked to Café du Monde again before I had to take off. Always so sad to leave these ladies. What a special trip this was. I still don't know how I got so lucky.

Our Airbnb, right off of Bourbon Street, was absolutely perfect for the five of us. From the outside, you opened a door that lead to an amazing indoor courtyard. Which we didn't end up using at all, surprisingly. But that's only because we had such a great balcony too! Anyhow, in the courtyard was this awesome, giant mirror, so of course it called for a group photo before every outing. Only the first photo was upon a return instead, and that was on the first day after I met everyone at the restaurant.

What a fun few days. I love this kooky city and these amazing women. And, I'm so proud of Emma and all of her accomplishments. She slayed college, and I know she's going to continue to do great things. It was such an honor to get to celebrate her and her graduation for a few days.

New Orleans :: Day 3

Unfortunately, Emma ended up getting really sick in the middle of the night and basically slept on the bathroom floor for hours Our best guess is that it may have been a rogue oyster from the first night. She woke up feeling much better, but ended up resting in the room most of the day. Such a bummer! Especially since it was the most perfect day. Penny and I decided to head out and grab beignets & coffee from Café du Monde. We hung out in the park, where Mel & Amy met up with us a little while later, then we all went to the French Market for Bloody Mary's at Organic Banana.

Lunch was a crazy little place Mel found called Red's Chinese. It was pretty amazing. We had pork buns, smashed cucumbers, ginger scallion noodles, cheeseburger fried rice and broccoli. The broccoli was ok, and one dish too many, but the rest was perfect. You guys, cheeseburger fried rice. So flipping good! What a fun find. Leave it to Melissa. We even were able to pack up some rice and bring it back to Emma.

Melissa ended up stayed with Emma for a bit while Amy, Penny and I wandered more. We visited amazing antique stores, I bought a hat. We stopped at The Chart Room for a cocktail and ended up marching in a Second Line parade! Seriously, we saw a lady with a Jaywalkers sash on, not thinking much about it. As we were leaving, the rest of the band showed up, and next thing you know, the police escort was there and we took off marching with the band. The core group was the three of us and another couple. Occasionally other strays were join in while we marched down Bourbon Street. I was even able to text Mel & Emma and they got to watch the spectacle from our balcony. So funny. We didn't know where the parade would take us, but didn't care -- and as it turns out, it walked us home! Seriously, it ended a block from our apartment. What an escort. We couldn't stop laughing about it.

That evening, Emma was able to join us. We went to Frenchman Street, which was an area Brian & I didn't make it to last time we were in NOLA. It was so fun! We spent some time at the Palace art market before going to Snug Harbor to hear Charmaine Neville perform. Let me start by saying, she was such a nice person and was chatting and hanging out with us before the show even started. She was such a great performer and so much fun. The highlight was when she brought Emma (and a couple others) up on stage to help with a song. So fun. We came back to our room and called it a night. It was quite the day.

New Orleans :: Day 2

Day two, was Sunday -- Mother's Day -- and we sure did make the most of it. Turns out, the evening before had quite the storm. We all heard it, but didn't think much about it. Until we walked around and saw sand bags outside doors, and restaurants and stores closed. Supposedly it rained 6 inches that night. The restaurant we were going to go to brunch at was flooded, so we hopped on a street car and rode up to the Garden District. We ended up at Ruby Slipper, which was delicious. And it worked out perfect because we had a reservation for a Garden District tour that afternoon. The tour started in Lafayette Cemetery and had us strolling through the neighborhood. It was really informative and interesting. Afterwards, we came back to the apartment, spruced up, then went right back out for our dinner reservation at Shaya. When Brian and I were in New Orleans a few years ago, so many people recommended we go there. And we didn't. And I have been regretting it ever since. It did not disappoint, and a great way to celebrate Mother's Day. Emma said she wanted to take us all out dancing, which, didn't necessarily appeal to any of us. Ha! What we ended up doing, however, was absolutely fantastic. We went back to our neighborhood for a drag show. You can never go wrong with that, in my opinion. After, we went back out on Bourbon Street and walked into Fritzel's European Jazz Bar. Such a great atmosphere. We only stayed for a bit before stopping into the grocery store to get Penny a toothbrush. And of course, we got a kick out of walking around with our beers. Such a fun night. A perfect day.