Where’s The Mug?/Monday Quiz

Indianapolis Indians

Photo NOT in Indiana

I’ll give you a hint; David and I went on our second date to see the Indianapolis Indians at the Mud Hens. It was a school day game and this is where he went after the date.

The plan had been to do the mug I bought yesterday at the Indianapolis Indians game and tell about the game and the whole long weekend in Indianapolis, but the mug is still in David’s car. He sent me a picture of it from his phone this morning.

 Honors cords on both of them!

This was such a huge week! Notice the picture of me with my graduated nieces; Tori and Rina BOTH graduated with honors cords, something I just missed when I graduated, and I was beyond proud! We got in later than panned and the girls had already left with their grandparents to the Convention Center where the commencement ceremonies were. I didn’t see them until after the ceremony. We were all gathered waiting for them and when they came out they rushed in with hugs and hellos. Then it was picture time with everyone. When they were both standing in front of me, I grabbed the cords in both hands and held them up to them and said, “THIS is what makes me SO proud; I just missed having them. You both topped me!” I couldn’t hide the cracking in my voice.

They both told me separately that it meant a lot to them that I cried. I was told that I used the word proud right because I wasn’t just proud because they graduated. I was proud because of what those cords mean. They both worked hard to earn them and I heard many comments over the last few years about how much work and frustration the AP classes were, how much it wasn’t worth it, how it was killing their GPAs. But they both fought hard and protected those GPAs; totally worth it!

Now I can tell you about the big project I mentioned at the beginning of the year. Friends who know me in the scrapbook forums have seen the pages and now they are finished projects. I started working on books for the girls for graduation/18th Birthday girls in January 2008. I presented the finished books, one custom made for each of them with some pages the same and lots of them unique to them. They both loved the books, but they didn’t cry. They looked through them, but planned to read them when they were alone. Uh huh!

Before they opened the memory books, I gave them each their own copy of The Seven Habits of Hghly Effective People. That is a book they grew up knowing because I used it a lot and quoted it when we worked on projects; “Begin with the end in mind,” “Sharpen the saw” and always having a backup plan were a big part of my habits for effective Aunting! It was also a source of valuable tools for critical thinking and “big picture” decision making. Tori recognized the book right away as the book they were “raised on” and Rina thinks maybe it would be a good book to read before college. And here I was didn’t sign the books in case they didn’t want to read them so they could sell them for part of a text book.


Monday Mug Shot

Indianapolis Indians

My Sweeties are off to college in the fall! It’s not like I saw them all that much during the school year after they moved to Indianapolis, but occasionally they all went to Michigan on a weekend and there won’t be those anymore. But I do have bait to get them to visit me every now and then; I have Ya Halla, the Middle Eastern restaurant we all love in Toledo.

But yesterday was the day for kidnapping them, probably for the last time it would be kidnapping. The next time we spend a day together without their Dad around, it will probably just be adults getting together for coffee.

I had asked the girls before we left the Open House Saturday if they wanted to go to the game with David and me on Sunday. They were both quite enthusiastic with their “yes.” We picked them up at 11:30 for a 1:15 game. We dropped off luggage form the back seat to make room for the girls to switch it back before we went home. When we got to the park, early, as we walked in we were happily surprised to find out it was bobblehead give away day and we were early enough to get them! The Indians are the Pirates’ AAA team and we all got an Andrew McCutchen bobblehead, very cool. McCutchen is my favorite MLB player to hate. Okay, maybe hate is strong; I think he’s an awesome player, this coming from watching him beat up on the Reds and this year the Tigers in Interleague play. So the McCutchen bobblehead will go nicely next to Mike Piazza in our living room.

After getting the bobbleheads, we were then handed Chili’s bingo cards. The bingo cards were very cool! Each card had the free space and 24 possible things that could happen during the game. Tori and Rina both had “Pitch hits batter” on one of their spaces, but Tori was most vocal with “Aw, come on hit somebody!” The cards are actually pretty cool because it really makes you focus on the game to try and check all the boxes. In the end none of us got all of the spaces filled, but the “combined 20 hits” and even “total runs 8 or more” got checked off as the Indians beat the Syracuse Chiefs by a score of 14-6 with 19 hits for the home team and 10 hits for the Chiefs. If you like high-scoring games, that was one to see. Since there were so many high hit and run numbers on our cards, the high score was a good thing for sure!

The girls enjoyed a bit of their childhood, eating their way through the game. Tori proclaimed teat ballpark food has always been the best and she and Rina were both ready for Dippin Dots late in the game. All right, on the Dippin Dots, all four of us were ready! After the game we went to Chili’s with the coupons from the bingo cards, except that we didn’t order the things in the coupons. Still, eating at Chili’s was a thank you for the fun bingo game cards.

Tori posted from the game on Facebook that it was a great time and Rina said it was the “best day in a long time.” And no schmoozing; they had their graduation cards but hadn’t opened them yet at the time! David and I agreed that we were glad the day turned out just as it did! I don’t care if I’m biased; they truly are incredible young women. Onward and upward, girls!

1. Finish this sentence - The first thing I do in the morning is...

Take meds/vitamins


2. What is your favorite kind of pie?

Depends on my mood; Chocolate silk or Key Lime, t I’ll never turn down a nice ice cream pie.


3. Do you have pets? 

No, but Kaline and Carla do; they call them Mommy and Daddy.

4. What is your favorite chair in your house?

I want to someday get a “World Series chair;” one I can sprawl in with my knees draped over the side. Right now, there is no favorite chair.


And don't forget to add a 5th Question on your own blog so we can answer as we hop around!

Was your high school graduation in May or June?

I graduated in January, but the commencement ceremony for our class was in June.