Megan had her last Christmas party at the sitter's last night. :( She will be in kindergarten next year. The kids were adorable as always, and a great time was had by all. We are so excited to see the Pacyna family in a few more days! We are also very ready for the holiday shut down. Work is very chaotic this time of year for me, and on top of the usual stuff, we are moving to a new location at the end of the week. Ugh! Looking forward to the new location! My office is huge and has a door. Yeah!! It will be a great space for everyone. Happy Holidays!

Happy Halloween!!

Jenna and Megan had a blast this Halloween. The weather was BEAUTIFUL! Jenna was Gabriella from High School Musical 2 and Megan was a princess. The bottom of her dress had fiber optics in them, so it lit up when she pushed a button. We went trick or treating. Jenna pooped out before Megan did. Then we went to see if some friends were around to visit with them. Can't wait for next year!

Pumpkins with their Pumpkins

Here's our little pumpkins. They had fun last night scooping out the guts of the pumpkins and pick out the seeds to roast tonight.

Changes at ISU

Work has been lots of fun. Typical representation of Illinois. Everywhere you look, there is construction. The first set of pictures is actually construction I don't mind. :) The first one is my new office. The view with the fencing and trees, is one of the entrances to our new space in Vrooman Hall, in Hewitt and Manchester Halls, which are residence halls on campus. We will be located on the "garden level"/basement. The one picture is the large stairwell that will bring us natural light. It will be a nice area once it is done. We are moving December 4th, if all stays on schedule.

The other pictures are of what remains of Walker Hall, a former residence hall. For those of you familiar with ISU, yes, that is Hamilton/Witt you see from the street that is front of Fairchild Hall. Dunn/Barton and Walker have been demolished to make way to the brand new Rec Center that will actually be located on campus!! It have been weird to see the buildings that you normally could not see due to those buildings being there.

Of course, the construction does not end there. There is a new parking deck being build where the old tennis courts are. They just started working on those this week. It's fun trying to drive around campus. Ugh.

Gotta love the movies

We decided that the girls love HSM so much that we would go to the theatre to see the latest one. The show was pretty full, still some seats left, but not too many. We decided not to torture Daddy and let him go see Max Payne, which he thought was really good. The girls did really well, until about an hour into it. Megan decided that was enough and want to leave. So, for the last 40 minutes I had to listen to her complain that she wanted to go to the bathroom, wanted her back rubbed, wanted to go home...need I go on? I've decided that Megan will not be going to the theatre again until she is 5. Jenna loved it. It was a good movie, yes, I do like the other movies. Jenna is counting down the days til we can get it on DVD.

Our family's new additions

Well, since Riley has passed, the girls have been really good at not asking for a new pet. Jenna has been earning an allowance and saved up her money to buy a beta fish, Caitlin. Her fish is blue. Megan was very sad that she wasn't going to get one, soooooo. She ended up with her beta fish, Butterfly. They haven't forgotten to feed them yet, so we'll see how long that last.

Mommy, I did it, I did it!

If you did not already know, Megan is doing gymnastics. She LOVES it! Every time she does something, she has to yell out, "Mommy, I did it!" When it is time to leave, she says, "I LOVE gymnastics! Is it tomorrow again?" So, I guess if this continues we will become gym parents. I picked up a catalog of leotards so she can wear that instead of her t-shirt and shorts. Okay, brace yourself....the one she picked out is $46! In her size!! What the f@*^%&! I know there are worse sports to be in as far as cost goes, but geez! We are going to go look and see if we can find ones that cost less this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed!

Our weekend in Belleville

Well, the weekend has come and gone, as usual. We had a fun time in Belleville yesterday visiting Robyn's Dad. While we were there, we were able to visit with Caitlin and Jarod and their new baby, Lyla Ann. She is one month old today, awww. The girls had a ball hold her and playing with the puppies and kitties while we were there. After that, we went to Big Mama's and had some delicious bbq. After dinner, we had some fun out in the nearby field throwing walnuts from a walnut tree and trying to knock the rest of them down. Yes, the wonderful things their Daddy teaches them. :)

Look out, Chicago, here I come...

Nothing too eventual has been going on in the Schuline household lately. Jenna had her first sleepover with her friend. Megan was so tired by the end of the night, but refused to go to bed without them. She kept on asking them, "Guys, are you ready to go to bed yet?!" Too funny. Megan and I went to bed around 11. Jenna and her buddy stayed up til about midnight. They were really good.

This week, I'm headed to Chicago for a conference. My coworker and I are presenting at a National Advising Conference. It's being held at the Hyatt Regency downtown. We are taking the Amtrak up. The University rate is unbelievable! It will cost me both there and back, $24. Crazy! Of course, the rate is only good for business travel. This will be my first time taking the train up to Chicago from here. Megan is looking forward to picking me up at the train station on the weekend.

Jenna is signing up for her school's circus. Keep your calendars open for April! Megan is starting gymnastics and LOVES it! She was like a little monkey on the bars the other day.

Well, better get things done so I can leave without a million things to do, just a few thousands. :)

Chill People!

What is up with people and their attitudes?! I've been having conversations with people this week about how people have been acting lately. I volunteer for the PTO at my daughter's school where I do the directory for all the classes. Families were suppose to submit their forms for this thing at registration. I have sent an email recently letting them know I need the info by a certain date, otherwise I cannot print their family info in the directory. I have received numerous emails back from people that have a tone and down right yelling at me and my helpers whatever their reasons for not getting the info to me. Ugh!

At one of Jenna's meetings yesterday, one of the parents dropped off their child late and was all pissy because they didn't know where the meeting was, even though their spouse responded to an email that was sent a little bit before the meeting that they would be there.

One of Jenna's friend's mom is a high school teacher and she was telling me that this year she is having parents coming to her and telling, that's right, telling her that she needs to change what she is teaching them because it is too hard. What?!

We blamed it on the economy, but that is still no excuse. What is up with people having no respect for others?

Yucky Peanuts!

Decided to take a day off from work and have a "ME" day. A day where I can do whatever I want, which was to veg in front of the tv and do nothing pretty much all day. I decide that it is time for me to go and pick up Megan from the sitter. When I get there, she is wearing a different pair of shorts. When I ask her what happened, her sitter says that she threw up. All over her pants, blankie, horsey, and the sitter's carpet. So, I'm thinking, great, I take a day off just cuz and this is what happens... Megan gets the flu, I have to figure out if and when I can take off tomorrow, etc... We get home and she is fine. No fever, no stomach pain, asking for food. So, I ask her if she had any cereal today, she says no. I ask her what she had to eat today, she says, I don't know. I thinking ok, she just got a hold of oats, one of the foods she is allergic to. That is the typical reaction that she has when she has oats, pukes them all out and wants to eat again.

The sitter then calls to see how she is doing. I tell her fine, no more pukes. She says that Megan should be fine to come back tomorrow. I asked why. She then says that she made brownies for the kids and grabbed chips for the brownies. They ended up being peanut butter chips. So, that explains the pukes. Of course, our sitter feels HORRIBLE!! Megan was doing fine, so figured pukes where cured the incident. Well, as the night progressed, Megan starts coughing and coughing and sniffling and sniffling. So, I give her benydril now know what the problem was. After about an hour, her sniffles and coughing stopped, but then her eyes started to puff. Hence the picture. Poor thing! Thankful, her breathing is fine, no rash, no serious signs of the reaction. I can bet that our sitter will be more careful! I told Megan that she is allowed to tell her sitter that she was bad and not allowed to give her brownies anymore!