A season ending

Anyone who knows me, knows that I spend a lot of time at sporting events. When I was younger I enjoyed participating and playing sports but I attend now to support & cheer for nephews and nieces.

Another season of school-fall baseball is nearing an end. The last home game was earlier this week, one of the fathers gathered all the 8th graders after the game for a group picture. This group of 7 boys have been playing sports together since they were old enough to play organized sports......flag football, summer baseball, basketball, school/fall baseball, track....you name it, if it's considered a 'sport' they'll play. While I'm looking forward to watching them play football, I can't believe they'll be in high school next year! Front Row - Luke, Kaleb, Nick

Back Row - Johnathon, Jacob, Zach, Steven

They won some and lost some this year, but supported each other no matter the outcome of the game - they really are a great bunch of kids. I think the fact that they all attend church has something to do with it, but that's just my opinion.

We only have two more regular season games (one tonight, one Monday) and then the regional playoff's. Good Luck on the rest of the season Boys!! Of course I'll see you in a few weeks on the basketball court......oh, basketball starts Saturday, Oct 23rd. I wish there was a way to attend basketball without having to sit on bleachers, those things kill me by the end of the season - I know I'm getting old.

If you like to see some of the pictures of Johnathon click the link below:

CLICK HERE!!

There are galleries of the other players also or you can click on an individual game and watch the progess of pictures from that game on a slide show (shorten version of the game!). I only have about 1 1/2 games posted so far but hope to have more done this weekend - we'll see how it goes. Check back often, as soon as I get the baseball ones done I'll start in on basketball......a BIG THANKS to the coach for allowing me to sit on the field during the home games!! It's great not having to shoot through the fence.

Special Fans!

Siblings........

As some you may know and many more of you don't......my nephew Johnathon has 6 siblings. He has one sister who is my brothers (Brittany) who of course we love dearly and see all the time. He also has 5 more siblings by his mother.

A little history - Johnathon has lived with my parents pretty much since he was born and after a small battle, obtained legal-temporary custody of him when he was around 5 years old.

In the mean time, his mother had many more children. While Johnathon was living in a safe, stable environment with my parents his siblings weren't as lucky and eventually DCFS stepped in and placed his sisters and brother in foster care. They were all adopted by their foster parents when his mother permanently lost custody. Johnathon was of course adopted by my parents.

Johnathon's situation with his mother was a little different than his younger siblings 1.) he was 'aware' of what was going on - even though he may not of completely understood everything 2)he wasn't removed by DCFS since he didn't live with her. He does continue to see her a couple times a year, usually for dinner with my parents present. His siblings though had a total break in contact and due to the nature of the situation, that also meant that Johnathon no longer got to see his siblings (we quickly found out that according to IL law, Johnathon had no visitation rights). He's never met his brother, he was taken when he was only a few hours old - we have yet to meet him but hope to some day.

All that history being said, the mother of the three oldest girls contacted us and decided to bring the girls to Johnathon's baseball game last night! We didn't tell Johnathon they were coming, he hasn't seen them in 3 1/2 years. The game was already under way when they got there......the only downfall to the night was the rain coming down which kept me from getting my camera out.

It was a very emotional reunion. Most of the parents in the stands and the coach had be informed of what was going to happen and I think most had tears running down their checks. The girls mother was a little apprehensive that the two younger ones wouldn't remember him, but the way they lit up when they saw him and clung to him the rest of the evening ended those doubts quickly.

After the game, Johnathon had the girls stand at the top of the bleachers and introduced them to the team - he was so excited for everyone to meet them. For the first time in a very long time, the Junior-High Baseball team BEAT Carterville.....it was believed by the team that his sisters brought them good luck and were made honorary mascots and asked to attend all the rest of the games!

They agreed to have dinner with us uptown, giving the separated siblings time to visit. We hope they'll get to see each other more frequently now and someday we'll get to meet his youngest sister and brother.

It wasn't raining in the Opera House so I got to take pictures..........introductions are now in order.

This is Shelby, she's got the thickest brown hair - cut in the cutest style. She giggled most of the night at anything Johnathon would say........

.......and this is Delany. She was the one most attached to Johnathon before their separation and was the one most attached to Johnathon last night - literally attached as in wouldn't let go of him. She's always had the sweetest personality, a trait that's only gotten stronger. She's such a pretty little girl, inside and out.......
........and Brooke, who has the biggest, prettiest brown eyes. Brooke is more quiet and reserved than her younger sisters. She's grown into a beautiful young girl. Brooke has the same thickness and natural curl/wave in her hair that Johnathon has.

We/I tried taking a picture of all four of them. They were all giddy though and had a hard time sitting still and Brooke kept closing her eyes every time the shutter would close.....oh well, still a cute picture.

Delany wouldn't let Johnathon get but maybe 12 inches from her.

Shelby liked "posing" for the camera.

Brooke was sitting next to me so I wasn't able to get as many pictures of her. She wasn't quite as camera happy as the other two either.
Delany took this picture of Johnathon (I let the girls take a few of the pictures)

They were having fun "playing" with Johnathon's hair - aggravating him was more like it! Johnathon is attempting to let his hair grown out, he wants a shaggy cut and to be able to flip his hair (basketball's coming up though so I'm thinking the growing out won't last much longer). Course I told him that when his hair is long enough for them to part it and play with it, it's time to get it cut!



This one loved the spaghetti at the Opera House.

I think the girls would have let me sit and take pictures of them for hours and Johnathon would have sat and visited with them as long as they'd have stayed there. Toward the end of the evening, Shelby announced "okay, I'm ready to go home with Johnathon now" and just looked at him and grinned.

We're very grateful to their mother for realizing that Johnathon was also a victim of the situation and agreed to allow their reunion. Johnathon was sooooo wound up when he got home last night, it took a long time for him to fall asleep last night.

Even though we had to sit under umbrella's and got a little wet watching as baseball game......SV beat Carterville and more importantly, a long awaited reunion took place.

It was one GREAT night!

Quick update

I know I'm behind on my blogging.....sorry. Life's been busy, what can I say.

Today:
1. Went to my house to start prep on wedding stuff for this weekend
2. Attempted to wash vases & jars in my dishwasher (doesn't work when the hot water heater is turned off, just a FYI for anyone else out there remodeling), so I started washing them by hand - to be continued tomorrow
3. Received delivery of fresh flowers from both UPS and FedEx!
4. Packed my car and dad's truck with tent, tables and chairs
5. Went to Johnathon's ball game in ZR (SV wins!!)
6. Go to MOB house and set up party tent and tables and chairs for rehersal dinner
7. get home about 8pm and fall onto couch, tired

Thursday:
1. Make floral arrangements for rehersal dinner
2. Delivery arrangements to MOB for rehersal dinner in the early am hours
3. Return to my house and assemble all floral arrangements
4. Prep all supplies and 'stuff' for wedding

Friday:
1. Pack up cars with wedding stuff
2. Decorate Kokopelli's for outdoor wedding and indoor reception later that evening
3. Breakdown tent from MOB houses during wedding ceremony
4. Breakdown wedding/reception later in evening

Saturday:
1. Attend two baseball games in Pinckneyville @ 10am and I believe 1pm
2. Take pictures at a 55th anniversay party later that evening

Sunday:
1. High school senior photo session early Sunday evening

......I don't understand why I can't get anything done on my house! Oh and I have about 4 photo sessions to get edited. So that being said I think it's well past the time for me to be in bed, long day tomorrow and then again Friday and then again Saturday. I should have time to do a real house update next week - progress is being made, promise.

Magazine Covers!

Katie's softball coach contacted me about creating magazine covers for the girls on her team (I'd been to several of the games and she knew I had pictures of all the girls). While making them for Katies team I also did one for Matthew.

You can see Katie's team HERE!

House Update: Week 7

It's been 7 weeks now since I signed on my house. The past couple of weeks haven't really had much progress to speak about.....sorry.

I learned the hard way that I 'DID' need to sand my base cabinets. When we put the doors back on, one stuck and when I opened it paint peeled off. So the cabinet doors are once again off and we've started peeling off paint and sanding the bases. It was kind of one step forward, two steps back. Better to find out now before the cabinets are full and everything else is done in the kitchen - less mess this way.

My bathroom & closets are waiting on plumbing, electrical work and sheet rock. Unfortunately it's been way too hot to climb into the attic to do electrical work and my brother and I have both been too busy to help dad with the plumbing/sheet rock.

Thankfully baseball/softball for the summer has ended! I've done about 10 photo sessions since the end of ball season with about that many booked in the near future. I've also decorated a several weddings and have one more wedding this month along with a 55th anniversary party. This past weekend I did floral arrangements for 30 tables (with 6-8 candles on each table too) along with 14 bouquets & 2 corsages and delivered it all to the Chase Park Plaza in St. Louis. That was the first wedding which I traveled that far to. It went great - of course I didn't get pictures to prove it! Side note, I had to rent a cargo van to get everything there and am very thankful that I did - Arielle and I would have never got all that stuff into two cars.

This week we're to have record temps, in the 3 digits with heat index's of 115 to 120 degrees and I HAVE to get pictures edited. Those two factors mean that not much will get accomplished this week on the house. By September the temps should be decent again and once we get started on what's left it should go pretty quickly. Still shooting to be in by Halloween!

Jambalaya Recipe

This is what was for lunch at our house today, and it was sooooo easy and for the most part it all came out of a box! Semi-homemade, my favorite kind of meal.


You start with a box of Jambalaya rice mix, a package of sausage (type is your choice or in my case what happens to be in the fridge), a can or two of beans - I usually use black beans but black eyed peas were in the cabinet, and extra ingredients to your taste. I typically add a can or two of diced tomatoes, an onion, some red pepper and lots of garlic. Dad canned homemade salsa yesterday and didn't have room in the canner for this jar.....so I used it today, after all it had all the 'extra' ingredients combined in one.

I did add a few more tomatoes (fresh out of the garden - no cans this time of year) and a half a head of garlic. What can I say, I LOVE garlic.

Simply dump all ingredients (along with some water) into a stock pot, bring to a boil and turn down heat allowing it to simmer for at least 30 minutes.

Once the Jambalaya was in the pot cooking I used this box, following the directions on the back to make a small pan of cornbread.


We had a few small zucchini that needed to be fixed before they went bad. Fried zucchini seemed like a good side for the Jambalaya & corn bread. Simply slice, dip in egg mixture, dip in flour/bread crumb mixture and fry in hot oil. This was my favorite part of our lunch!

I love FRIED ZUCCHINI!!!! Prep, cooking, eating and clean up last about 1 hour total.
Just doesn't get much better than that.

Found a Treasure

Dad found this in the ceiling of the little hallway between the kitchen and bedroom(the one I'm making a dining room).

It almost fell on his head as he was taking down the paneling ceiling.

A little elbow grease and a new shade and it'll look good as new! Can't wait to display it in my completed kitchen.