Kidnapped!

Monday marked Emily's 13th birthday! (Yep, I'm officially the mom of two teenagers - oy!) Two of her best friends, Emily R and Sydney showed up at our house at 6 a.m., dressed her up silly, and took her out for breakfast before school started. Thanks go out to the sainted Mr. R who so kindly sat out in his truck for 1/2 hour that early in the morning while the girls dressed Emily!

Sydney, Emily, Emily R

An Eventful Day

Yesterday was an eventful day off work for me. My mother-in-law (ahem--pardon me....former mother-in-law!) and I went shopping in historic Old St. Charles and had a lovely lunch at the Mother-in-Law House. Yes, I thought it would be funny to dine with her there! (I've tried to include the links, but they are not working for some reason.) It was quite lovely and Victorian (my favorite) on the inside. I had their baked potato soup with salad. Their homemade celery seed dressing was yummy!


We walked up and down the cobblestone streets, along the Missouri River, looking in the quaint little shops. Many of the buildings there date as far back as the 1700s! Lewis & Clark, famous American explorers, started out here. It's only ten minutes from my house, but I always seem to forget it's there. It's definitely a little vacation away from home and a great place I like to take out-of-town guests.

After the shopping excursion, she left and Katie, Emily, and I met their dad at the post office to apply for passports for the girls. No, we don't know where we're going! But I want to be ready when the opportunity arises!

An evening at the lake

We are having such unbelievably beautiful, cool weather here in St. Louis. Normally at this time of year, it's unbearably hot and humid. The girls and I hung out at Creve Coeur Lake which is just 5 minutes from our house. My dad used to take us here when we were little and his generation used to trek out here for family picnics.

Catch Up

Lest my loyal readers think I've become obsessed with Twilight (who me?!) I decided to show you what else has been going on in our lives this summer.

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Katie and her friend, Brittany, had a Double Sweet 16 picnic a few weeks ago. It was a hot and humid day, but the kids had fun, especially with the water balloons!

Britt & Kat

Em & Kat

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"Bring Your Child to Work" day took place in July also. Even though my girls have almost outgrown it, they still enjoy coming to work with me for a day and helping out in our department. This year the theme was the presidential race. The kids paraded around in these candidate masks. It was kind of scary! Especially when I was concentrating at my computer and looked up to see Obama right next to me!

Working Girls

Hilary and Obama (with a braid!) pay a visit

A parade of candidates (scary!)

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We celebrated Gram's 99th birthday in July also.

Barb & Gram

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Katie's first driving lesson (in the library parking lot)! She did very well. Check out her new specs! She looks so grown up.

It's hard to believe 16 years ago I was folding, sorting, and rearranging tiny baby clothes and dreaming about when my baby would arrive (not until August 22nd). Now just look at her!

No wonder these Twilighters are obsessed!!

OMG! - I finished Eclipse and am onto Breaking Dawn today. No wonder the fans are crazy. Unlike Katie who insanely read the book 17 hours straight (and paid for it later), I'm going to bed now, but I'm sure I will dream about it all night!

(hee! hee!)

Read!

I love to read but just never ever seem to find the time these days. Tonight brought an unexpected free evening, so once I sign off here, I'm going to catch up on some reading. Let the paper work and house work sit and wait another evening. I've GOT to finish Eclipse so I can move on to Breaking Dawn!

UPDATE (next day): Well, after an unexpected long phone call from an old friend, and updating my journal, I DID get to read a bit before I fell asleep. So I call last night successful!

Breaking Dawn Midnight Release Party

We had a fun time at our local Borders last night. The night was filled with costume and trivia contests, a debate over who was better--Edward or Jacob, and a scavenger hunt.

One of the participants in the costume contest.

Katie participated in the trivia contest which started out with 20 - 30 people. She made it to 5th place before she missed a question! She also took part in the costume contest and got several votes for her Volturi costume (for non-Twilight readers, the Volturi are the Italian division of vampires).

One of the very few guys who was there. He joined in the costume contest as the character Emmett. I think he looks like Emmett! He was also very happy for me to take his picture!

Right before midnight (when they could sell the book), a countdown began as if it was New Year's Eve! At the stroke of 12, screams went throughout the store as those lucky enough to be first in line (Katie was 5th!) rushed toward the counters.

It's 10:41 a.m. as I write this. Kat is still upstairs reading and has not been to bed yet (little freak!) She said the book is very intense and good and she can't put it down! I'm almost finished with Eclipse which is the 3rd in the series, so I'll be looking forward to reading Breaking Dawn, the 4th and last in the series.