Hailey's New Sport

Hailey has been begging me to sign her up for skating lessons since the summer. We had to wait though as she was in cross country and wouldn't be able to make the lessons, and then the next session did not start until November. She even enticed one of her good friends into signing up too. 

She is obsessed with hockey - specifically the Chicago Blackhawks. She does this - she gets fixated on one thing and she is relentless in learning more about it and in this case - the team, hockey in general and learning how to skate. It's been a good 8-9 months where she's gone from just liking hockey to being all about it. It must have something to do with Connor Bedard. The season just started six weeks ago and she's already been to three games. But, let's see how long this obsession lasts. 

So each Friday at 5:15pm she goes to lessons and is on skating lesson #3 and making progress each week too. At her last class, she was definitely going faster and turning more so she fell four times but she absolutely loves it and never wants to miss a class. 

She may be the only one of my three kids who learns how to ice skate! I may have someone to skate with now! I actually used to own skates when I was a little younger than her. We had a pond behind one of the houses I grew up in so we'd go out to the pond and skate when time allowed. We didn't have lessons. We just figured it out. But I remember always knowing how to ice skate as well as roller skate. 

If she passes this level, she'll advance to level 2. And, of course she's already asked if she can sign up for that class. Her end goal is to get on the ice with a stick and puck! 

Debbie

We moved into our new house almost three months ago. It's less than a mile down the road from where we used to live. A few days after we moved in, a neighbor came over to introduce herself. She said she was moving to Atlanta soon and wanted to know if we wanted to buy her trampoline. I politely declined saying I don't let my kids on trampolines (too many people I know have had horrific accidents on them). She was bit off. Tom and I closed the door and agreed she was weird. 

Three days later, she came back at night. I was gone and Tom was home with the girls. She wanted ice and for him to pop popcorn for her since her power wasn't working. She proceeded to ask him for wine and parked herself at our island. Finally, he said Hailey was sick upstairs and he had to go. I told him and the girls we were not answering the door if she came back. Two days later, she did. Just after the girls and I had pulled into the garage. We did not answer the door and the girls and I hid in the back of the house. She left. Then the police came. 

Our neighbor was filming her on my porch and called the police. Apparently, this woman (Debbie, 60 year old female) was being evicted from her rental home a block over and had no power so the neighbors had been calling police and keeping tabs on her. Welcome to the neighborhood! Debbie had plugged her phone into our front porch to charge. The cop unplugged it and asked me if I wanted to join 16 of our neighbors who had no trespassing orders against her. I did even though other neighbors had her entering their homes through unlocked doors and making themselves at home in their kitchens. 

Still the no trespass order didn't deter her. Tom and I went out one Friday night for dinner. The girls were at home together when Debbie came back - knocking on our door/ringing the doorbell. Peyton immediately called 911 and did not answer the door. Debbie left and the cops came. Peyton handled it all very well. Spoke the cops. Put me on the phone with them. We turned in our ring camera footage. Then we all waited for the next week when she was evicted and all her stuff was put out on the front lawn.

That was certainly a crazy day too because they found an assault rifle she had stolen from one of our neighbors in her house! We were all glad to be rid of her and not have her roaming the neighborhood anymore. A few weeks ago we received a notice of trial in the mail for her and recently an actual subpoena for Peyton to have to testify against her in court in December. Crazy! We're trying to get her out of it but she may have to miss school and testify. 

It's been an interesting introduction to our new neighborhood (and how we met all our neighbors). We recently learned that Debbie had moved onto Elmhurst and is wreaking havoc in their town. She has been repeatedly offered mental health services which she declines and continues to make a nuisance of herself to neighbors and continues her petty thefts. 

Honestly, I'm just glad she's moved on to a different neighborhood! Let's see what happens if Peyton has to serve as a witness against her. Welcome to the neighborhood!

https://patch.com/illinois/hinsdale/hinsdale-woman-gun-charge-released

Celebrating 52!

Celebrating 52!

Tom and I both had birthdays in early November. I kicked off my 52nd year with an early morning paddle scrimmage. Then I came home to go to brunch with Tom and the girls at my favorite Brunch place - Buttermilk! I love that place! Back home for some presents (Peyton and Hailey helped Tom shop). Got to talk to Austen for a bit and then it was off to play my second paddle scrimmage of the day and then head straight to a Sound Healing class through my Barre studio with some friends. That was definitely an experience - a whole hour of relaxation - great to experience it but a whole hour of relaxation unless I'm getting a massage was a bit much. Then home for dinner and a coconut cake for my candle and birthday wish. It was the perfect way to celebrate my bday - a little time with family, a little time with friends and doing things I love. Great way to kick off an other trip around the sun. 

The next week, we celebrated Tom's birthday. We were up early because Hailey had a basketball tournament. Hit the Starbucks then the Dunkin Donuts (for munchkins after Hailey's game). Then home to watch the Bears game (Tom). Took Hailey to her confirmation retreat while Tom hung out and did some work around the house and talked to family and got a call from Austen. Peyton and I went to the grocery store and shopping then took Tom to an early dinner at Piccolo Buco (a place he wanted to go to). He got a birthday candle in a cake there and then he came home to presents before heading to paddle practice to round out the evening. 

Great ways to celebrate! Here's to another year of aging well!

52!

Happy Halloween!

It was a Friday night for Halloween this year and U of I planned their Dad's Weekend on it too (who does that?) so I was solo managing Hailey's Halloween activities while trying to hand out candy at our new house. Luckily, Peyton's Halloween party was on Saturday so she helped man the door when I had to run Hailey to meet her friends and when I made a quick run to the store for more Halloween candy. 

I wasn't sure what kind of numbers to expect trick or treating. On Tuttle, we got a pretty steady stream of trick or treaters - 120-150 I would say. But where we are now, we are sort of tucked away in the northwest corner of Hinsdale. So I bought 120 full size bars (I've done full size since COVID when we had someone to hand them out instead of going trick or treating with our young kids and leaving a bowl out). I wasn't sure if 120 would be too many or too few but the kids came in droves. I mean groups of 15-20 kids. It was so busy that by 5pm I was panicking that we were going to run out of candy with about 30 bars left. I left Peyton in charge and headed to the store to arm myself with even more candy. I was gone for about 40 minutes and called Peyton on my way back to see how the numbers were looking. By this time it's almost 6pm and she said it had slowed down quite a bit after I left. Of course. And it slowed down even more once I got home. By the end of trick or treating, we had about 12 of my original candy purchase left. 

But you know if I didn't go to find more we would have had even more trick or treaters and being the new people, we couldn't run out of candy our first year on the block! 

Hailey did a lot of walking with her group of six from Clarendon Hills to our house and then I drove them back. She was gone from 4pm-11:30pm. She either gave most of her candy away or ate it all or they didn't have any real interest in ringing people's doorbells because her bag was the lightest that I've ever seen for any of my kids on October 31. But she was happy. Dressed as Tigger from Winnie the Pooh while some of her friends dressed as My Little Pony (she told me she was not doing that). 

Peyton dressed up as Cinderella for her Halloween party the next day although I did not take her picture. I should have to - she looked so pretty! But I do have one with her and friends so you can get an idea of her costume.

Austen said he had a lot of fun for Halloween Weekend with Tom. I guess there's a weekend before Halloween that's huge at U of I and then this one too. They went to the bars, went to the fraternity (Austen pledged Phi Psi - and in a few short weeks should actually be a full member) and went to the game and some bars. But the best part of the weekend Austen said was getting food with his Dad. That kid is starving! Just a few short weeks til he's home for Thanksgiving and he can eat some good food!

A busy but good Halloween for all 3 kids! 

Peyton and friends!

Hailey and friends!

Phi Psi Halloween Party