House Guests!

For the next 10 days, we are blessed to have Omar and Alfie stay with us! They've been here twice before and are just these amazing little characters. Omar likes to "talk" and Alfie just likes to quietly hang out. When treat time comes, I love all these little faces looking up at me. I like to pretend they really love me and could care less about the treats. Yea, right! lol Left to right, Omar, Alfie, Snowy, Chilly.
This is Omar, watching the MTV Video awards with Vanessa. He must've found them as offensive as I did, so he just took a snooze on the couch. Well, I did enjoy Pink's performance. You can see his stitch area where he had emergency surgery 2 weeks ago. He developed bloat (his stomach twisted 180 degrees) and if it weren't for the quick thinking of his daddy Keith, he would've died. I am so grateful that he is o.k and here to take up my couch!

New Hair (again!)

Well, its a lousy pic of me, but you can see that I dyed my hair very dark brown with some purple on the sides. You can't see the purple really well, but its there!

Human Race Chicago

Today was such an exciting day! We took the train to Chicago so Vanessa could run in the Nike Human Race. This race was put on worldwide all in the same day. In the U.S it was in Chicago, Los Angelos, New York and Austin Texas. It was also run in places like London, Tokyo, Munich, Istanbul, Taiwan, Buenos Aires and others. Twenty cities worldwide total. One million runners!! It benefitted 3 different charities. There were 14,000 runners in Chicago, starting and ending at Soldier Field. It was the most amazing sea of these red Nike shirts, and when the race started it took almost 1/2 hour for everyone to cross the starting line. It was the coolest thing to see, all these people running for charity. Vanessa did fantastic! Out of 14,000 in Chicago, she took 2,011th place. Of the women in Chicago, she took 526th!! Of the worldwide women she took 4,683 and all total out of 1,000,000 people, she took 40,072. Does that all make sense?? We are so proud of her and so happy with her results. She ran the race in 52 min 19 sec. It was so hard to find her running in that crowd, but I did get to see her come over the finish line. Glad she dyed her hair darker last week cuz she was easier to spot! LOL Heres Vanessa and Sam pre-race. Sam wants to challenge herself and run it if they hold it again. Rick and I would like to volunteer at it next time and be a part of it. No running for us tho! LOL
Just miles and miles of red shirts!!

As soon as the race was over, everyone who ran the race was treated to a concert at Soldier Field by the band Fall Out Boy. This is a picture of Pete Wentz from the band (the one who's married to Ashley Simpson). Sam was able to get in a little later and join her sister for the concert. See how close they were to the stage??? Rick and I got to sit outside on the hard concrete waiting for them. LOL But it was a beautiful night with a great breeze coming off Lake Michigan so we didn't mind. Lots of people watching to do! Soooo, it was a great day and I am so grateful that we got to go and that Vanessa was able to be a part of something really special.

Day in Chicago

I thought I'd put up the pictures of our Chicago trip while I'm nervously waiting for Michael Phelps to swim!! Went to Chicago for a day of shopping with my niece Tracie and daughter Sam. It was a really beautiful day and we had a good time! Here is a pic of the Chicago river. This is the brand new Trump tower being built right by the river. I think one of the winners from the "Apprentice" show was supposed to be over seeing this project. I also think I read somewhere that he was taken off the project, for whatever reason I don't know?
This is just a pic of a cluster of buildings. The air show is going on this weekend so the planes kept flying overhead. It was kinda creepy cuz they were just so loud!! Did'nt get any pics tho :(
And here is a pic of me and Sam by the subway.

Trip to Madison

Today I went to Madison with Samantha and Vanessa. Sam goes to school there so we were cleaning out and packing up her old apartment for her to get ready to move to a new one. It was a beautiful day! We had a nice lunch at Red Lobster, shopped and then packed and cleaned. And no arguments!! LOL I didn't once yell at Sam about her driving!! LOL She actually has become quite a confident driver in that crazy city. :) Got to go to my favorite store, Urban Outfitters, where I found a pretty scarf that I've been looking for. It's vintage type, floral and I just love it! The girls couldn't believe I paid what I did for it, but hey, a girl can splurge every now and then !! My picture taking leaves alot to be desired, this I know. :)
And, ofcourse, a shopping trip isn't complete without a new mag! If I come home with a new mag, its been a great day! LOL

Charlies "House"

I am dogsitting for a sweet little dog named Charlie. He has decided that my photo tent is to be his house for the week!! He's such a little dolly!

More Flying Lessons!

Thats it!!! I quit my post as the unofficial caretaker/sucker of wildlife!! LOL Last night we had a horrible storm. Really high winds/hail & heavy rain. When I got up early this morning, it was storming again and when I looked out the window in the backyard, I saw a big nest on the ground. I thought it must've been the old nest, from previous robins, that had gotten blown away in the wind. Wrong. I went back to bed & got up a couple of hours later & let the dogs out. We are babysitting Bootsie, our neighbors black lab, for 2 weeks. So all 3 dogs go out & go immediately to the nest. Bootsie was really interested, so I went out & sure enough, it was a new nest that I hadn't seen & there was a baby robin trapped under the nest. Poor little guy! Soooo, I was trying to turn the nest over carefully and check the baby out (there was one more baby that was in the yard already), but Bootsie was bound and determined she was gonna get that bird and the parents (and their cheerleading section) were dive-bombing me and Bootsie. Then Bootsie really pissed them off by jumping in the air & trying to catch them! grrrr. I just couldn't get a handle on Bootsie & she was fighting me so badly that she slipped out of her collar. Finally, Samantha heard the commotion & came out & managed to get Bootsie in the house (my 2 dogs, surprizingly, didn't want anything to do with this mess). So I picked up the baby to see if he had any injuries (much to the dismay of the parents). It could walk and move its wings, but part of his wing looked funny, kind of like raw. So I put it back in the yard to see what he would do. Came out several times during the day & he had moved, but every time I got close, the parents dove at me, like a quarter inch from my head this time! And forget getting a picture. Geezz, I'm just trying to help their kid! LOL After watching baby today & keeping the dogs away, it finally made it to the neighbors yard. So its on the move, I just don't know if he flew or walked. If I see it tomorrow and I can get close enough to see if it's really hurt, I might try & take him to Fellow Mortals in Lake Geneva (about a 45 min drive) where they re-hab animals. We have never had this much bird/nest activity in one summer! I love the little ones, but between the dogs & the parents, I'm all wore out for the season. Until the next one. :)