This Involves A Few Costume Changes and Even Some Soil

This is Gary. But in real life, he was so Chuck Norris that day.


I But I doubt Chuck would proceed with the day with waffle in his beard.



Chuck Norris does not get frostbite. Chuck Norris bites frost.

Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.


You might want to check this link out below. Or Chuck Norris will find you tonight.

[Just be sure to use your back arrow when you are done with the Chuckisms and not actually close the site and shut down Internet Explorer like I do every time and then have to open up Explorer again to get back to GillsAGoGo again. Just a helpful tip/reminder. That you smart followers probably don't even need.]

http://www.chucknorrisfacts.com/



So, these are The Littles dressed up for Poetry Night at Caroline's school. We hadn't quite perfected the costumes as you can tell by the mismatched knight top with the police pants bottoms and the fake/invisible sword. And the multicolored skirt that Red Riding Hood doesn't typically wear. But that was just like Rehearsal #1 of this long week leading up to Halloween.









Jack had Pick A Decade Day at school. Can you believe this is his actual hair. Did you ever see it looking so ... in control? And this kid is like 5'2 now so watch out.

This was Rock Star Day. Yes, not only are there Halloween costumes to dream up, we have Red Ribbon Week with a different theme for each different day at each of three different schools, so, yeah, life has involved a few wardrobe issues this week.

Like do we wear the fur or not wear the fur??

Do we have camo pants?

Can you fit into the black t-shirt?

Can you walk safely in two different shoes?

Here's Grant on Mismatch Day. Hmm, kinda looks like Grant on any other day?

Oh, but, no! This boy's crazily mismatched when you really notice.

And speaking of CRAZY, how do my brownies look? Honestly? Not so good? Right, because they were inedible. Because they were actually not brownies but remnants of oven-baked mud.

Here, let me explain. In 6th grade, there is this thing in Social Studies where the kids study Mespotamia and learn about the bricks of the ancient civilization. And then they have to make their own mud brick and the teacher judges how it withstands various tests to determine the grade. So Jack goes out on a rainy day (haven't they all been?) and fills a box with dirt from our garden. He could have mixed in other organic materials but you know, that was a pouring rain so I think he just kinda worked fast. This was two days before the project was due. No Syrian sun to dry this brick. No dry air to dry this brick. So the night before the project is due, despite it sitting on the heat vent of the family room, I come home from stamp club around 10:30 p.m. and this is on the countertop.

Mom, put brick in oven on low temp. if you stay up late flip every once in awhile. -Jack

'Cause I love staying up way into the night flipping a 15-pound chunk of mud from the same place Scooter tromps around and does who know what else. In my own personal oven in my own kitchen where I spend my life cooking healthy, nutritional HYGENIC food for my family.

So I did what any mom used to making sacrifices for her children does, I put the blasted chunk of mud on a cookie sheet and heated the oven up to 175 degrees and baked that mud brick. All night long. Turning every 15 minutes. Well, no, I did not actually flip it because Hello, Sleep? I love you more than my child's mud brick.

So the next day, the brick was baked to perfection; well, maybe not to perfection since it passed only 2 of 3 performance tests, but I think this mama scored an A on Mom of the Month test.


And Scooter got an A+ for Best Treeing in a Quiet Way.

Around Our House

Halloween fun!

The fire bush got extinguished.

Scooter treed something this morning.

Scooter still treeing something. How long can he hold this pose? He's not barking, thank goodness.

Up next, all of the events of the week. A far bit more exciting than these.

Grant-- Two in One Day

Yesterday, walking home from the bus stop.

Grant: The bus driver doesn't call me Ryan anymore.

Me: Good! Maybe he finally got the memo.

Grant: What's a memo?

Me: Well, it's a message, like if you work in an office and information is sent out. Like, Ross, he got a memo that they can't wear jeans at work anymore.

Grant: He can't wear jeans there?

Me: Right.

Grant: You mean he's gotta wear sweats?

In the Grant Category

Just to set the tone....

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9507E1D7103EEE34BC4152DFB166838A669FDE

Now, October 26, 2009, true story:

Conversation over breakfast this morning.

Caroline: Mom, for Halloween, did you ever dress up like a witch?

Me: Yes.

Caroline: Like a cat?

Me: Yes.

Grant: Like a miser?

WHAT??? Where does this stuff come from in his brain?????? I am a psychologist, right?

Grant, you just sealed it. Quirkiest kid ever.

Pre and Post Piggie Flu

Pre-Flu Events:

Grant's book report earns all A's!

He chose this book because "it was the shortest one."

But his shadowbox looked great and he did a great job summarizing the story.

Mrs. Teacher thought so, too.

Miss Caroline FirstGrader before school one day.

Of course, I know that every mom thinks this about their own, but isn't she just a beautiful girl?

Last week, I chaperoned this group of 1st grade girls at the zoo on a drizzly, dark 40 degree day. And they were "screamers."

Sophie, Sondra, Caroline, Kaitlin

This Mr. Handsome is getting ready to go to preschool.

Scooter likes to wash the door glass for me. On a daily basis.

Grant finally removed his bracelet he had been wearing, marking the time a soldier from our neighborhood had been deployed to Iraq.

Here's the sweet story that goes along with it.

Several months into it, Grant had mentioned that the bracelet was feeling really uncomfortable on his wrist. I told him it was ok for him to take it off, even if Greg wasn't back home yet.

None of the rest of us had managed to keep ours on even one month.

But Grant wouldn't take it off, not even once, not even for a second, until Greg was safe home from Iraq.

Luckily for Grant's wrist, Greg came home three months earlier than expected due to some decision about bases to be left in Iraq instead of being dismanteled. His wife came over to give us the invitation for his welcome home party and told Grant that Greg had landed in back in the US of A, good ol' California, that very day.

Grant whipped that bracelet off that instant. It had left a sunless-mark of indention around his wrist where he had grown over the months while the combat boot laces it was woven from had not. Gotta say he is a hardheaded kid, but sometimes that is a true asset.

So, we went to the party and had a great time seeing Greg who said he is going to pay Grant a special personal visit one of these days soon. He was touched by this little 9 year old knucklehead, you could tell.








And then the H1N1 flu hit our house last weekend. First was Sam but his was a shorty. Then me... this is me today, Day 5, now that I am mostly well. A picture during the midst of it would have been too harsh on your eyes.


And here's Grant today on his Day 4. He's fever free now and getting better. If he looks a little less-than-chipper, it's because of this...

SCHOOL WORK!!

And this is just make up work for 3 missed days. He spent most of today working on it and isn't finished yet. Plus, he'll have to make up today's work and possibly tomorrow's also if he stays home again.

I can see now why Mrs. Campbell doesn't give homework--she works them non-stop while they're at school.

And then today, it hit Caroline. Her temp just a bit ago was 102.9 and here's hoping hers can be a shorty, too.

Sam fully rebounded as you can see from this shot of today, and we really want Mr. Jack to just avoid the whole blamed thing.

And Gary, too. Oinkin' flu is no fun.

Trust me on that one.

Jack Plays Tennis, But You'll Just Have to Take My Word

Jack decided to sign up for tennis this year. New school, new sport! We were so excited for him, and so proud!

Here he is in yellow alongside his doubles partner, Matthew Morse, who happens to be a very good friend, and also a 6th grader.

Matthew came to visit Jack while he was in the hospital in St. Louis in July. A really nice kid!

Ok, not the best photographic shot. This is between points or something and they're just casually walking at the end of the court. But there is another match's ball whizzing into the screen. Maybe we'll see some real sports action in these pictures?!!

Oh, okay, so I caught this one when it was Matthew's serve.

Let's go, Matthew!

Here they are playing the other Edwardsville Middle School, Liberty vs. Lincoln. That's some hot competition going on! Rival schools, you know!

[The day following this, they played Triad Middle School. Sorry, no pictures. ]

Ball boy, Sam, ready to run cross-court to retrieve runaway tennis balls. In his cowboy boots.

Hey, this one is a good enough picture you can actually see the pink stuff all over his shirt front.

My bet's on popsicles, but who really knows?

Oh, man, again, not such a good picture. C'mon, where's Jack??

He's who we came to see!

Scootch over, Matthew, please.

Dear Blogger,

You seriously need to fire Ms. Photographer if this is the best she can do.

Into the sun? Geez! How amatuer.

Maybe we can work with this shot a little?

Now, can you see him? He's holding the tennis ball. He has a racquet!

It's Jack playing tennis!

Jackson, my tennis man, you did great for your first tennis season!

You can't help it that your mom has no camera skillz.

And I might add, a videographer she aint.

But still, check out this serve!.

Thinking of Days Past and The Present

July 13, 1996

It's easy for me to remember my Top 5 Days ever. This was one. I'll even go so far to say this is the number one. Because if it didn't happen first, I would not have had Top Day numbers 2-5.

Gary and I were extremely happy that day and have been most of the days since then actually. I have only a few Saddest Days Ever and that's not bad out of nearly 42 years. I realize how fortunate I am to be able to say that.

Our outdoor July wedding. We were both so proud to have our very best friends standing with us. We didn't need four, six, eight attendants each to have our wedding.

I vividly remember a panic-induced, teary 2 a.m. phone call from me in my townhouse in Centralia to Gary in his apartment in St. Charles, Missouri, just days after our engagement with me sobbing "but this Bride's magazine has this list of fifty things you have to to do one year/six-months in advance of your perfect wedding and we have less than three months--we can't get married!"

And Gary's calm reply was: "Diane, all we have to have to get married is each other, a license, a ring, a preacher, and two witnesses."

Witnesses, easy. The two best friends, Candi and Dale, covered that. We were lucky that we also had all our families and friends at our wedding, but it didn't have to be a big showy affair with an array of bridesmaids in bad dresses. Having our two best friends standing next to us that day was all we wanted.

But we did manage to add in some extra beyond the necessities, and one of those was having a flower girl. This cutie pie is Julia Maria Hayward, the daughter of my best friend forever,

Candice Paige Caraker Hayward.

Which brings me to my number one saddest day ever.

Dec. 2 , 1996
The day Candi died. My best friend. Gone forever.

It took me so long to actually hear it and then to believe it. A congenital heart condition that no one had any idea existed in her. A seemingly healthy woman suddenly dead at age 40.

And she left behind her own husband, Doug, imagine her soulmate like Gary is to me, and her three young children, Julia, Mason, and Susannah. Could anything in life be more sad?


But yesterday was a happy day. My kids got to meet Candi and Doug's kids out for a quick lunch at Applebee's as Julia, the little flower girl all grown up, was here considering SIU-E for college.

So, I got to chat with and hug Doug and his beautiful girls, and even though her name was mentioned only a couple of times, the whole time I was thinking of my BFF and what a fun, cool girl she was. The Xenia girl and the girl from Cobden. Maybe it was our po-dunk beginnings? Whatever, we just clicked together.

From the first day we met in college with her huge, bright shiny-penny permed hair to our wildly fun Current River camping trips to going to see each others' newborn babies to briefly working together as school psychologists in the same office, she made my world so much more special.

It was fun to see her two girls.

I could tell there's a fun-loving, goofy streak there, too.

Doug

Susannah, 13

Julia, 17

Mason, 15 years old, didn't get to come since he had to play goalie for his soccer team that day, and this was the best I could do for a picture of him. Thanks, Facebook.

He was actually at our wedding, also. And Susannah, too. Little fetus that she was under her mama's peach dress.

Candi, miss you and love you forever, girl.

Gills GO GO GO GO

Here are the three racers the morning of the Edwardsville Rte 66 10K. Karen scraped ice off her windshield that morning of 10/10/09.



Diane, age 41
Karen, age 53 (that's what Gary said!)
Gary, age 42

It's Gary Gar and the Spunky Bunch!

And the last sighting of the world's worst sweat pants that ended up in the Walgreen's Dumpster at the start of the race. Yippee! Diane's wish come true. Bye-bye, you bad gray things from 1990, including big oil spot stain and elastic bottomed legs. Bye-bye!




And then SURPRISE! Ross shows up. He came to watch his mom cross the finish line! What a sweet son!

Not sure who actually is in this picture that we might know, but this is the finish line at the Edwardsville Library, some 6.2 miles from the starting line.

The race involved old cobble/brick streets, modern city streets, and paved trail through the Watershed (wetlands) area and woods, some hills but mostly flat.

Here's the cheering section at the finish, minus Grandma who is behind the camera. That's who we have to thank for the fine photos. Thank you! And thanks for getting all these kiddos up and out into the cold morning when I know they didn't make it easy.

And the first of the Gills to cross the line was Gary. He placed second in his age group and met his personal goal, bettering his time from last year. I admit I have no memory for numbers so I will guesstimate his time was 47 minutes. I think that is about right. Pesky details!

And then came this character crossing the line. Who? Ross, is that you? You were only here to watch!

Not spontaneously pop into the race at the last minute with no preparation. And totally beat the two girls who'd diligently trained for 5 weeks! With an awesome time of, again sorta somewhere, around 1 hour!

Then here comes Karen crossing the line. Karen, who I was referring to as Racehorse that day.
She was kickin' it! Her time was, like, 1:03.

And here comes clean-up girl a couple of minutes later, definitely later than her goal, but at least still running. The legs just didn't have the mojo that day for some reason, despite some new rockin' tunes on the iPod, including Miserlou by Dick Dale and Turning Japanese by The Vapors.

Hey, we did it!! This looks like it could be a before picture, we look so unaffected.

Well, but then there's this that I call an action shot. Ross losing his lunch? Before breakfast even?

Gary was the sole contender for the Open Eyes award.

Ok, take 2. Better this time!

The family involvement was superb even though we were missing some key members this go 'round. But I doubt if we are done with this race thing. Let's do it again!