Results tagged “Katrina”

I don't know if everyone sleepwalks at sometime in their life, or if some people do it a lot and others none at all. When I was a kid, I had a couple of sleepwalking incidents (the one I remember is my mom telling me I walked down the hall with my pillow and when asked what I was doing with it, I told her I was putting it in the dirty clothes. I didn't wake up, but went back to sleep. I did it enough that my parents kept the door to the basement shut at night because it was right across from my room and they didn't want me falling down the stairs.

Daniel has a funny sleepwalking story where he carried on a conversation with his parents, asking them a variety of questions, the whole time he was sound asleep.

Those are kind of funny stories and though I knew sleepwalking could be dangerous, I didn't really think about it.

When the talking and giggling won't stop!

Katrina and I enjoy taking photos. We think some of them are good. So, when we heard about the Campbell County Art Show, we both wanted to give it a whirl. There were over 180 pieces of art entered in the show. There were student divisions (ages 5-10 and 11-17), and these were further broken down based on medium. Then there were categories for Novice (never entered an art show), Amateur and Professional. And these were also sorted by medium.

Pictures were to be dropped off between 8 and 9, then the judging would begin. Then at 1:30, winners would be announced. Katrina and I were going to go home between drop off time and announcement time, but there were so many beautiful pieces of art work to see and we were having fun hanging out with some friends of ours that were there, so we just stayed. We left for a bit to get some water and hit a couple of yard sales, then we came back.

My daughter is a little closer to her vending machine dynasty! Since receiving her first bubblegum at Christmas, she has made enough money to purchase her second machine and fill it with M and Ms. Today we placed it at the Campbell County Extension Office! Watch out Donald Trump, Katrina is on her way!

Birthdays are special. I know some people don't care to make a big deal out of them for one reason or another, but just think about it. Our birthdays celebrate the day we came into this world! And each of us has an affect on others that we have met during our lifetime. That's a pretty amazing thing to celebrate each year. So in our house, we tend to go all out for birthdays. In fact, I would rather do more of a present thing for a birthday than for Christmas, just seems right to me.

When the kids were little, I was known as the party queen. I would put together the most amazing and fun birthday parties. One year we had great fun with a pokemon party. Another year, Katrina had a jungle party that we are still talking about. But as the kids grow older, the fun themed parties are falling by the wayside. This year Jack's idea of an awesome birthday party was playing Halo with his brothers, his dad, and some friends. And there was pizza, ice cream, and a movie involved too. Last year, Katrina had a sleepover at the church. We had so much fun - making crafts, baking cookies, playing hide-n-seek in the dark.

My daughter is a pack rat. And I say that with deep love, affection and more than a touch of annoyance...She keeps everything! She has toys that belonged to her when she was two that she doesn't want to get rid of (fortunately my mom has storage space for them). She can't pass a yard sale or thrift shop without rescuing some poor stuffed animal from it's unloved, unwanted status. Toy breaks? You would think we could throw it away...only if I can prove the broken bits are dangerous. Otherwise they must be kept in case the parts can at some point be used in some other fashion...say building a clubhouse. I guess I should be glad that my daughter is the consummate recycler! If only we had the space...

She can't keep her room clean. Part of it is her nature...she has a tendency to get stuff out and leave it out when she is done (an ongoing battle as I am the exact opposite - but she gets both the clutter tendency and the pack rat habits from her father). The other reason she can't keep her room clean is there isn't enough for all of her stuff! She finally got tired of the stuffed animals covering her bunk beds, but she wasn't willing to let them go...so, we have two big plastic tubs and three garbage bags in her closet full of stuffed animals. There are two other plastic tubs - one holds dress up items and one holds blankets. Then there is a dresser for clothes, a dresser for hair stuff and other small stuff/souvenirs. She has a book shelf filled with books, a hamster cage, and other odds and ends. She has another book shelf with LPS items and another hamster cage and two jewelry boxes she has been given. And in the middle of the floor, there is a box of more odds and ends...pokemon cards, hairdresser play stuff, papers....so today, we picked up some clear shoeboxes from Walmart for 94 cents each. We will sort the odds and ends and put the boxes neatly on the book shelf. Hoping that for awhile...she will be able to keep her room clean.

However, I am afraid the 9' x 10' room is going to explode!

Yesterday was a Red Letter day for Katrina. But first let me back up a bit.

For years, my daughter has been hounding me with ideas for her own business. She wanted to build a lemonade stand here in the neighborhood (understand, we have only a few neighbors, not really enough to make that endeavor worthwhile.)

She gives concerts and sells us tickets to come see them. She offers to do extra chores for cash. She will make handmade items and then try to sell them to us. She has talked about setting up a website and selling stuff through it. The problem with her selling us stuff is that...well, we aren't repeat customers. We each buy one of her items, but then we don't want to buy anymore and then she is left with unsold stock.

Last spring we suggested she try a bubblegum machine. I owned 8 vending machines back in the mid 90s. I made some money off of them, but once I had children, the time and money spent seemed less worth it. Places went out of business and I was looking to make way more money than what I was making. But what I was making would be more than enough for a 9 year old girl.

So, Katrina asked our hairdresser if she could put a bubblegum machine in her shop. Mandy gave her permission, but then the whole idea was put on hold. For those of you who are here with any regularity, you know we have been traveling a lot this year. We didn't want to be gone and abandon her machine for weeks on end. So we waited.

She didn't say anymore about it, but when I was thinking about what to get her for Christmas, I thought the bubblegum machine would be a perfect gift. It would get her started on her first real business adventure and it was a way better gift than the same amount of money spent on Littlest Pet Shop. I was thrilled with The Gumball Machine Factory. Their prices were good, their product (once it arrived) is well made and I was able to have them put a decal on the front of her bubblegum machine. She was so excited to get this gift. And for the few days it was in our house, she did a good business from visitors!

So, back to yesterday. We took the vending machine to Lakestyles and she watched with pride as Mandy was her first non-family customer. Here is a photo of Katrina and Mandy with the bubblegum machine in place.

Daniel compiled a video of our trip to Australia. It is unedited (what do you expect from people who have had no sleep?).

Well, it has taken awhile for me to write about the last two days of our trip, mainly because I have been busier than an ice cream man on a hot summer's day. But that's a different blog post...maybe;)

On our last day in Chicago, we (all four of us this time) grabbed a bus and headed to the Museum of Science and Industry. We had not been able to see this on our previous trip in Chicago and had heard it was definitely the place to visit. We were particularly interested in seeing the Harry Potter exhibit.

We left our room at about 9 and ate at Houlihan's for the breakfast buffet. Awesome omelets. By 10, we were on the bus. Unfortunately, our bus had a technical difficulty on the way there (some access panel on the side hadn't been locked down, so it was popped out and posed a hazard to driving. We had to wait about 30 minutes for a supervisor to come and lock the panel so we could continue on our way. At least it gave us a chance to chat with other passengers!

We decided to see Wild Oceans, the Omnimax presentation and got tickets for the Harry Potter exhibit. Now, let me tell you, we love Harry Potter, but we were not happy when we found out that the cost of the tickets just for that exhibit were between 15 and 18 dollars each! You already pay about 20.00 for entry to the museum, and then they have several other exhibits where you have to pay extra to see them (for instance, seeing inside of the U-505 or visiting the Smart House). But all complaining aside, we really enjoyed our visit and wished we could have stayed longer, but I developed a migraine headache in the afternoon and we had to go.

Well, today we slept in a little, then we headed out at about 11:00. First we ate lunch at McDonald's, then we headed for the subway/El. It was our first time ever riding it and we were excited and nervous.

After about an hour which included figuring out how to get our passes for the subway and the ride, we arrived at our transfer point - the Rosemont Station. Then we got on a bus and headed to Woodfield Mall. And lastly, we took a trolley and were delivered to the front door of LegoLand Chicago Discovery Center.

It was really cool and you see photos of the amazing sculptures we found there by visiting my flickr page.

We saw a miniature Chicago made with Legos:

We rode through a medieval castle in a dragon car:

Yesterday we went to visit Shedd Aquarium...in the rain. Yep, we have hit some major rain here in Chicago. In fact, looks like it will be raining again today...

But, since we drove and have the Xterra, we are prepared. I have rain ponchos stored in the back! After breakfast, we found our bus stop and headed to the Museum Campus. We were delighted to be riding on a Clean Air Hybrid Bus which was recently purchased by the city of Chicago with stimulus funds...our tax dollars at work! It should make a huge difference in the air quality here in Chicago as well.

We spent the day at the Shedd Aquarium enjoying the sights of the lovely fish.

It's always fun to see the videos and get moment by moment action...so here are three from yesterday! Enjoy!

Well, we left Virginia yesterday before 8 a.m. We had a pretty uneventful drive. I drove in the morning and Daniel drove in the afternoon and evening. A highlight of the day was we took an exit looking for a promised BP station. We never did find the BP station, but we drove through a beautiful section of Kentucky and saw some amazing homes and beautiful horses. I don't believe I have ever seen such magnificent homes outside of Newport, Rhode Island.

We stopped in Indiana so Daniel could get a haircut (didn't want him looking shaggy for the conference) and we had dinner. We later stayed at a Holiday Inn Express and I tell you that staying there is a great deal for the money. Free internet. Free breakfast. Clean and comfy rooms.

Today we drove the rest of the way into Chicago. I was thinking about driving us around here for the places we are to visit. The drive in was enough to convince me to forget it. I am not qualified for city driving! After we got settled in, we are staying at the Hyatt Regency where the conference is, Daniel went to the conference, and we walked a bit south for a McDonald's (and found a food court). After lunch, the kids and I walked North up Michigan Avenue (also called the Mile with tons of great places to shop). We were headed to the Hancock Tower and saw many strange and wonderful things along the way.

I believe I enjoyed our time at the top of the Hancock building more than the Sears Tower last year. We enjoyed a complimentary cup of coffee (courtesy of our Chicago Passes) and we bought a couple of items in the gift shop and just really enjoyed learning about Chicago. We were up there for about 90 minutes, or maybe 2 hours, I wasn't really keeping track. It wasn't very crowded and the audio tour was awesome! I chose to listen to the kids version because kids' tours always give the best information.

While at the top of the Hancock Tower, we enjoyed looking at the beautiful Lake Michigan and it was neat how small Navy Pier looked from our vantage point.

Off to the left of Navy Pier and the filtration area, there was this roundish looking building. I wanted to know what it was, but it wasn't mentioned on the tour. I zoomed as much as I could, but couldn't really get a good picture. It looked to me like a Merry Go Round out in the middle of the lake (Katrina thought the same thing, separately from me). Finally I went up to the desk to ask because I just had to know...

It is a pumping station that goes with the water filtration area. It pumps water out of the lake for the people of Chicago to drink. I like my idea better. Wouldn't it be cool to have a Merry-Go-Round in the middle of the lake that you could only get to by boat???

As we were getting ready to leave, I couldn't find Katrina (this is a frequent happening) and I about had a heart attack when I did find her...

She kept pointing that it was a long way down as she worked hard to clean those windows!

We left there and stopped in Borders (it is the first time I have been in a Borders and I was really amazed!!!!!). We picked up the newest Daniel X book, then headed to Hershey's. Well, we had to go after we ran into the Kiss out on the Mile. Then we headed to the Chicago Tribune building.

We had learned while on our tour that reporters used to bring back pieces of places they had visited (i.e. a piece of the Great Wall of China, a piece of the Forbidden Temple in China, a piece of the Berlin Wall...). And these pieces are embedded in the outside of the building. It was really cool!

So, now we are back in the room and it is dinner time. More later...I have some videos to share too:)

The last week has flown by.

My 43rd birthday was last Friday. My hubby and children sang Happy Birthday to You at midnight while we were driving from Illinois to Virginia. I slept for a couple of hours that morning, but there were birthday calls to attend to and I have a hard time sleeping during the day. So I opened loads of lovely cards that had come in the mail, enjoyed reading birthday messages on Facebook, and began the unpacking process. Katrina and I got most of the stuff unloaded from the truck, but the lock on the u-haul had become jammed during the drive here. We ended up having to get bolt cutters to deal with that particular situation.

Jack and Katrina each had a gift for me that they had sneakily won at the fair. Jack presented me with a Wonder Woman doll and Katrina gave me a cute stuffed bunny and dog. Katrina also presented me with breakfast in bed and made some toll house cookies and put a candle in one for my birthday.

Friday night, we were in bed pretty early...all tuckered out!

Saturday was movie watching day. We began watching the miniseries Taken. This is the Spielberg extravaganza from about 7 years ago. I didn't get to watch all of it when it first came out because I was too dang busy with a 6 year old and a 2 year old. So, we bought it on disk and started watching. There are 10 2-hour episodes. We finally finished watching it today. I found it very intriguing but the ending left me unsatisfied. I wanted answers. Ironically the point of the whole thing was that we are all searching for answers and that is part of life.

Sunday, we attended church in the morning, did some unpacking in the afternoon, then headed to Roanoke to meet Bruce, Ryan, Charles and Joann. Daniel took us all to the Outback Steak House in honor of my birthday. It was most yummy and Bruce gave me the beginnings of a trollbead bracelet. I hadn't heard of troll beads, but Bruce said they are the big thing in jewelry right now. If you haven't heard from them, think a new take on charm bracelets. I like these a little better though as the charms don't hang down and get caught on things. He bought me a bracelet and a two beads - one a blue bead with a gold stripe in it and the other is a lion (I am a Leo). I spent about an hour yesterday perusing their site and making a wish list of the other beads I would like to have. The guys are happy to have this help when it come to gift time!)

After we ate dinner, Charles told me he wanted to take me to see a movie on Friday and we would talk later in the week about it.

Well, yesterday was day 8 of our great Illinois adventure. On Thursday, we will be heading back home, but whe still have a lot to do yet.

I spent yesterday morning getting my webmail set up. I have been using Outlook for ages, but some times when we go out of town, Outlook doesn't want to work properly. The problem with that is that I never set my webmail page up with my contacts and since I don't have everyone's email memorized, it is a pain. Now my contacts are all imported into my webmail and I was able to set my spam settings on my webmail account to automatic delete. Now instead of getting 200 junk mails a day, I am down to 10. Thank goodness! While I played computer guru, the kids did school work, then we went to Anderson Aquatic Park in Normal yesterday. They have a huge little kid area with lots of splashy toys and a fun slide.

They have a life size chess board and Katrina and I enjoyed playing with that. I had a picture, but it was too fuzzy to share.

They have two large one slides, a diving board area, a 5 foot swim area, then a 3.6-5 foot swim area. I read most of the time we were there. After we were there for an hour, Jack was ready to leave (Xbox Live has been calling his name and he can't play it at our house). So I called Daniel who picked him up on his way home from work. Then Katrina and I stayed until 8. The last hour or so, I played in the pools with her. Afterwards, we had to stop and check out the nearby playground.

Well, the last three days have been pretty tame. Friday, the kids decided that they just wanted to hang out around the apartment. Daniel got home early. We did some packing. It's hard to do too much as a lot of the stuff he uses pretty regularly. He has an awesome keyboard out here and he played some and we sang with him. That was fun.

Saturday, Daniel and I watched movies. We watched an old Steve McQueen movie called Bullit. It was very good and even though an older movie, it was one that I didn't see the end coming. We also watched A Haunting in Connecticut. After seeing The Haunting of Molly Hartley (0 stars on that one), this was a definite improvement. Then we watched 12 rounds. It was also a tolerable movie to watch. Very fast paced, though one can't help but wonder if the hero of the story really could do all the things he did. Then we watched The Unborn. Another good movie. And we finished up by watching Coraline with Katrina. A bit of a dark tale, but we really enjoyed it! Hopefully, Katrina got the message that home isn't as bad as one might think;)

Yesterday we each kind of did our own thing. I am reading a really good book. Jack has been enjoying playing XBox Live here because our satellite connection just doesn't support it. Katrina was outside some, inside some watching some TV and playing with her Littlest Pet Shop Critters. Katrina and I did take a walk. She loves being outside. There is a pond here behind the apartments that is a bird refuge. There are tons of wonderful bushes, berries, flowers just right for birds. On this side of the pond there are bushes next to the pond that are loaded with red berries. If I was a bird, I would love it!

There are also all kinds of flowers:Queen Anne's Lace is the one I knew. Then there are blue flowers, purple flowers, morning glories (okay, I know another one) and lovely yellow flowers!

We stopped for awhile and threw bread to the fish. They were very happy to get the bread, and very skittish. They would eat any of the bread that floated, we had to squeeze it up so it would sink. We got video of this and when I figure out how to link to it, I will.

Then we walked around the other side of the pond. It is cool because on the pond side, there are tons of bushes and on the other side of the pathway, home owners or the city has planted cherry trees and what I think are juniper trees. It makes a lovely area to walk through!

During our visit, we have noticed a little baby bunny that frequently visits. Katrina caught a couple of shots of him yesterday. Isn't he cute and tiny???

We spent yesterday morning doing school work. Then in the afternoon we went to Fairview Family Aquatic Center. This is a water park in Normal, IL. Unfortunately, they are in the midst of remodeling so the two giant water slides had been dismantled in preparation to be replaced. But the children still had a lovely time. There were slides, a diving board, two lap swimming lanes, and a zero depth pool with tons of fun children amusements. The kids liked the water slides and the diving board the best. And while there Jack taught himself how to dive. I got that on video and when I can figure out how to put it on you tube, I'll share the link.

Jack said this water slide was best
Katrina agreed.
Katrina made friends and they spent a bit of time playing with a water toy that enabled them to first stop, then pour a bunch of water onto the person waiting below. Katrina liked it when it was her turn to get water poured on her.

I spent most of my morning yesterday blogging while the children did some school work. After lunch, we went to the nearby pool for a couple of hours. There weren't very many people there and without a diving board, the kids lost interest quickly. We are going to be going to a water park today with a bit more going on.

After supper, Katrina wanted to go play at a nearby park playground area so we went for about an hour. Parks here in Bloomington are wonderful. There are multiple ponds and lakes, trails to walk on, picnic tables, benches, spectacular playgrounds, and geese. We are here during a cool summer (shhh...don't tell the global warming people...oh yeah, that's right, it's global climate change now...). So the weather has been spectacular just to be outside. Not humid, not hot, and a lovely breeze. The only reason that Katrina and I left after an hour was we had told the guys we would be home them. I should have called and prolonged our stay!

There are a lot of geese here and we enjoyed watching them wander around until one tried walking across the road, then we were hollering at him to go back. He almost became goose fricasee!
This piece of equipment is a balance beam and a see-saw all in one. You can sit on it and bounce one another up and down similar to a see-saw movement without the jarring. Or you can walk across. We did both.
She jumps and lands on her feet! Swings are probably one of my favorite pieces of playground equipment and Katrina agrees. And check out the stuff under her feet. I don't know exactly what it is, but it is very unlikely that a child could fall on it and get hurt. It is soooo comfortable to walk on!

One more time on the slide before we go...wheeeeee!

Monday, July 20th, we were up at 5:30 a.m. We got ready to go and left Virginia around 6:30. Before we left, Daniel told me to drive safely...and what did I do, when backing out of the drive way, I backed into his car and knocked out his parking light (good thing I wasn't going fast)...geez!!!! I almost decided to stay at home at that point as it didn't seem like a good start to me.

As we headed towards Roanoke, I was dismayed to see ominous skies up ahead. By the time we reached Roanoke, we were in the midst of a good old-fashioned gullywasher during rush hour traffic. The rain was pouring down and up (the roads were flooded in places and when we drove through the enormous puddles, the rain came up as well as down). Had the windshield wipers on full blast and everyone was going 10-20 mph under the normal speed limit. Boy, was I glad when we drove out of that...and I was still debating the wisdom of this trip.

The rest of the drive was beautiful. We drove across West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and into Illinois without incident. We stopped every couple of hours either to eat or get gasoline or just to stretch our legs. We arrived in Bloomington at 9:30 EST. We got unloaded and of course Jack was busy trying to get his piece of home here...computer on, XBox working....you know the important things!

Well, we are busy, busy, busy today (of course that isn't too unusual in the Markham household), but today we are extra busy. You see, Katrina is turning 9 next Wednesday. Last year for her birthday, we had a great day out shopping, but this year she wanted to have a party. Not just a party, but a big party. And not just a big party, but a party with a sleepover.... So we started making plans back in January. First the guest list...it ended up with 25 names! Then we looked for a venue. We didn't expect all of those girls to come, but we needed to be prepared and our house was not big enough. So we lined up the fellowship hall at our church.

Then we made up invitations and sent them out. Of 25 people, we heard back from 20 (I was pleased with that) and of 20, 15 were coming! Yikes! So the last few weeks we have been busy getting party items and food and planning activities. So, here's the list of anticipated events.