Nothing like having only a plate of glass between us and solid concrete 103 stories below.
Monday morning (4/12), my sister Lisa called. She informed me that she had breast cancer and would be having a mastectomy in two (2) days. The doctors found a massive tumor in her right breast. The doctors did not know if the cancer had spread to Lisa's lymph nodes or if she would need chemo or radiation.
I received this from one of my friends and I needed the extra chuckle today. :o)
When he had gone about three blocks, he met an elderly man. The man was sitting in the park just feeding some pigeons.
The boy sat down next to him and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the man looked hungry, so he offered him a Twinkie.
corrupt governors, Chicago Bulls, and outrageous movie stars to Chicago's real love, which is BASEBALL!!! In fact, the main topic of one of our morning news shows was a poll being conducted on which baseball team, the Chicago White Sox or the Chicago Cubs have the best fan base. If you want to want to place your vote click here http://www.nbcchicago.com/around_town/debat
es/. So far with 11 days remaining, the White Sox fans are winning the poll!
Lynn and I are having the time of our lives with family visits. Lisa, my sister, and her family are in Chicago visiting their daughter, Cori. For some of Lisa's family, they are meeting Seth for the very first time. We got the entire gang together last night in Glenview at Hackney's Restaurant. I will be heading with Lisa, Steve, Kim and Andrew for a fun-filled adventure to Nauvoo, IL. We will come back tomorrow. Poor Lynn, Cori and Jeff have to work, so sadly, they will not be able to go with us to Nauvoo. Picture postings of Nauvoo will be posted soon.
Last week with Vali (our niece) was wonderful as we toured various parts of Chicagoland. We had a nice time when we visited my sister Ami in Dearborn, MI. I am going through over a hundred pictures (I'm not kidding either) of our outings so I can post some of them, send copies to Vali, and to just categorize them. Here is a picture we had taken of the three of us when we were sampling brewed root beer at Walter Payton's Roundhouse Restaurant. I have more pictures to post or I will put them on a small video at another time.
Wow! It has been amazing living in Chicagoland. The communities that dot the landscape surrounding Chicago and Chicago itself really get active and festive for their holidays. North Chicago celebrates St. Patrick's Day the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day. Then the South side of Chicago follows suit and celebrates the 'BIG GREEN' day on Sunday. Parades, dying parts of the Chicago River green, wacky and elaborate St. Patrick's Day costumes, are all part of the holiday revelry.
of the Irish be with ye this week and always! 
ver since. We visited with my other niece, Cori, her husband, Jeff, and their lovely son, Seth, on Saturday. On Sunday morning we traveled to Dearborn, Michigan to see my sister, Ami. We had a fun time in 
Dearborn. Besides being w/Ami, John, Max, Tim, Sydney, and Vali; we also met up with some good friends, Shirley and Lee, and toured Henry Ford's Museum. Vali and I returned to Aurora on Tuesday.
Tomorrow, Friday, we are heading to Cantingy Park, tour parts of Naperville, and who knows what else we will find to do. Saturday we are heading back to Chicago for a St. Patrick's dinner cruise. We will be feasting on corn beef & cabbage, potatoes, soda and dessert. Then we will rush back to Aurora for a Mystery Dinner activity. Sadly, on Sunday we will be putting Vali on the plane for Salt Lake.
Hopefully, I'll have the pictures I took ready soon so you can actually see for yourselves how much fun we really had this week. :)
If you know me, you wouldn't be the least surprised to find a giraffe enclosure in my circular space that would give me and my house guests the rare opportunity of a man/woman/child-to-giraffe and giraffe-to-man/woman/child relationship.
sh air, a little serenity, and a quiet place to think. :)
Can you answer these?
If one doctor doctors another doctor does the doctor who doctors the doctor doctor the doctor the way the doctor he is doctoring doctors? Or does the doctor doctor the way the doctor who doctors doctors?
If something happened in the nineteenth century, but nobody really knew about it until the twentieth century, which century should it be tested with? Does the answer change for something that was started in the nineteenth century but continued on into the twentieth century?And who, pray tell, made a reading list that lumps the two centuries together and then organized the exam with them separate?
What about saying these tongue twisters really fast?
Have a Good Week and Happy Valentine's Day! 
-Shelly
coming into their homes because of the rapid amount of rain we received. Once again though it has turned bitterly cold. I think December and Ja
nuary's high temperatures have been 10 degrees above zero and lower. Many days we woke up to below zero temps. Here are a few pictures a photographer on the Internet took of the Fox River in Jan. 2008. (The Fox River flows through downtown Aurora breaking the city into Eastern Aurora and Western Aurora. Lynn and I live in East, East Aurora. We border the Naperville/Aurora bounderies.) I loved the pictures. The snow we've accumulated this year though is deeper than the pictures indicate. We drove over the Fox River on Friday and the ice is pretty thick and snow covered in many places.
..."We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America. ..."
I am back on the unemployment line again. I was hoping to work with the Samaritan Counseling Center http://www.samaritancounselingnwsub.org/sam.htm for at least a few years. However, wishing and actually ‘doing it’ are two different things. During these difficult and hard times, individuals, along with families, need the professional help they will find at the Samaritan Counseling Center. For me, there are no hard feelings since I learned so much from those I worked with in just a short amount of time. Experience is my greatest teacher. 
bove. It is funny when 7 degrees is considered to be warm.
ent out of life.
For our other special friends, Happy Hanukkah!
And for all of our other brothers and sisters who live on this planet who share their deity holidays on days other than December ... It is our wish that we all can find peace and happiness in 2009 and beyond.
y mom
and dad, which we placed on our balcony. I'm sure the planes landing at O'hara and taking off from Midway airports can spot our 
beacon of light. Our little place in the world brightens up the area. Actually, most of our neighbors homes are decorated ... it's a nice warm feeling driving up to our house and seeing all the pretty colored lights and feeling the spirit of the season.
to her dad and had him help her tear the page out of the book. Then she handed the picture to me. I gave her a hug and told her thank you for the picture. I asked her if she could write her name on the paper. She was too young for that, so her dad wrote her name on the top.
