I copied this from Autumn's blog!

This looked like fun, so SORRY AUTUMN! But I'm copying a little from you.

What's in a name?

What's In A Name?
YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet and current street name) Tiger Mapaville-Hematite????

YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/grandmother on your mother's side, your favorite candy) Betty Dove

YOUR "FLY GIRL/GUY" NAME: (first initial of first name, first two or three letters of your last name) L'Wol

YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite animal, favorite color) Cat Green

YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Ann St Louis

YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (first 3 letters of your last name, last 3 letters of mother's maiden name, first 3 letters of your pet's name) Wolwilcap

JEDI NAME (first three letters of your last name, first two of your first name, first two of your grandmother's maiden name, first three of the town you were born in) Wollorustl

P0RN STAR NAME: (middle name, street you grew up on) Ann Dandridge

Tribute to Olga Kristin Gould White

September 11, 2001. This is the day that will always stand still in my mind. I was working in downtown St. Louis, and as the other employees started coming in they were bringing with them tales of planes hitting the twin towers. Of course we didn't believe them, thought maybe it was some prank that one of the jokesters of St. Louis radio had come up with. We all went in the board room and turned on the television to find that it wasn't a joke. It was a horrible reality. We sat in the boardroom for over two hours, until the boss forced everyone to return to their desk and work. Honestly, that is the day I lost all respect for that boss. He watched the same news we did, heard the same reports as us, but still insisted that we return to the normal business of selling movie rights to cruiselines and hospitals? How ridiculous is that? I feel bad saying this, as the gentleman who was my boss at the time has since passed on, but I am very proud of the way my coworkers and I supported our country that day and tried to reach out to anyone around us who was personally touched by this horrific event.

Olga Kristin Gould White was 65, from New York City, and she was on Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. On that day that we will never forget, Kristin was en route to San Francisco to visit friends and the wine country. She was a widow and mother of one daughter, Allison Vadhan. After reading about her, I am amazed at the wealth of knowledge and accomplishments in her portfolio. She was fluent in several languages, she was her high school valedictorian, and she graduated from Cornell University in 1957. She had a 30 year career as a freelance writer, and her specialty was in medical issues for related publications. Of special interest to me is that she also penned stories using a pseudonym for the National Enquirer. I have been a fan of this tabloid for years, so I'm sure I read things of hers before I ever knew of her.

She seemed to have the life of luxury, at least in my eyes. She wore Ann Taylor, drove a Saab convertible around New York City, attended plays and the ballet, and was known to be highly intelligent, well-traveled, popular in her circle of friends, and lived a very full life.



When I look at this picture of her, she looks like she could be any friend of my mother's. Seeing pictures of her makes her life so much more real to me. While I only know Kristin through my research, as do many others, I read some wonderful comments about her:

Kristin was a freelance writer and editor for our medical publishing company in the 80s and 90s and she was a delight. You are missed, Kristin, by me--and by our mutual friends in Dublin.
Vicki Cohn (New York, NY)

I first met Kristin at one of her favorite jazz places in the Village she loved so much. We would talk about books, music, poetry, people and politics. She was always very friendly yet with a quiet reserve that made you want to know her even better. I just came across her card tonight and it made me think about how much she will be missed by not only her family, but by all of us whose lives she touched. Her joy of life was typically that of a real New Yorker and she shared those bright moments with everyone she met.
Dale Hardman (New York City, NY)

On the many tribute pages that I read, so many people sent heartfelt notes to Kristin's daughter, Allison. I too wish her well. I read that Allison was on her way to work on September 11, 2001, when she saw the smoke coming from one of the twin towers. She then saw the second plane fly into the second tower. She went home and checked her mother's itinerary online, because she couldn't remember if her mother was flying out on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. This is what gave me chills-she saw "Flight 93" on the email from her mother at exactly the same time the flight number and crash flashed on her tv screen. I can't even fathom the emotions that must have encompassed her at that exact moment. While I will never forget what happened on that horrible day, I'm sure Allison will also never forget that moment when she realized that her mother was on Flight 93. My heart goes out to her, my prayers are with her, and I hope she knows how loved and admired her mother was.

Craziness is starting again!

Well, kids are back in school and now my life is no longer my own again. Take this week for example. Tonight I have a board meeting at school, tomorrow Melissa has dance, Wednesday is open for right now. Thursday--right after school there is a PTO meeting, then there is a 2hr meeting at church starting at 6:30. I also have the auditors coming that day at work, so that will be a total day from hell. Then Saturday I need to go to my mom's real estate company for some training--I keep waiting for my first listing. She may have one, I have to wait and see. Then next Monday we have a girl scout meeting at school, then dance, then yada yada yada. I know it sounds like I'm complaining, but I'm not. One of my major goals with my kids is that I will not be the reason they can't be involved in extracurricular activities. My mom was never able to pick me up after school (too busy working) so it was hard for me to do anything. I remember sitting in front of school for 2 hrs in my cheerleading uniform waiting to be picked up after a game. I will NOT do that to my kids. So I'm happy to have them involved in things, it's just hard organizing all of it and keeping track!

I spent 3 hrs cleaning my master bathroom on Saturday. Do you think it was that disgusting? Not really, but I was pretty anal this time. It was really bothering me. My hair is falling out like crazy, so I have these long wanna-be-blonde hairs on the counter, sink, floor, and everywhere and I got sick of it! Mike was impressed.

Thanks to the support of Autumn, we have now been kid-free in our bed for 4 nights and counting. She made me think I could get Nathan out of my bed, and he's been sleeping in his own bed (which is right next to mine, so not all that impressive) and I have slept so much better--and so has he! Thanks, Autumn--I can always count on you for advice and support!

Ok, that's enough chatter for today. Back to my Monday!

Woes from the PTO

Well, it's been a few years since I was involved in the PTO (with Stephen) but I thought I'd jump back in with Melissa starting kindergarten this year. OH MY GOD!! What was I thinking??? On Saturday, we spent about 12 hrs painting the United States on the playground at school, and it was like 100 degrees outside and I'm not the world's best painter, and today I can hardly walk. I think I aged about 20 yrs in that one day. The school has 900 children, but there were 3 parents who volunteered to help, and one of them had the flu so we got her to go home and rest. Luckily, our husbands came up to help us, or we would have been there all night. So, I got to bed at about midnight Friday, got up at 6am Saturday, got to bed at about midnight Saturday and got up at 6 Sunday, got to bed at about midnight last night and got up at 5 today. I NEED SLEEP!!!! I think I'm gonna fall over if I don't get a solid 8 hrs of sleep tonight. Could someone tell my kids to cooperate so that I can get to bed early? How do other parents handle this no sleep thing?

Honestly--I'm happy to help out at school. I think it's very important to stay visible with the teachers, make sure they know who you are and that you are involved with your child's education. But, why don't other parents feel this way? School starts this Thursday, maybe things will change and more parents will get involved. If not, someone shoot me before I volunteer again.

Melissa's Birthday

Well, today is Melissa's 6th birthday. I was supposed to be off today, but had to take off yesterday instead. She was upset that I was leaving her with grandma, but I'll make it up to her over the weekend. I feel bad--her bday is before school starts and before dance starts, so it's hard to invite a bunch of her little friends to her party, which is what she wants to do. The dance girls she hasn't seen for 2 months or so, and I feel weird having our first interaction in months as an invitation to her bday party. So, it's just family tonight, and we're going to Cracker Barrel to eat and then going to swim at her grandparent's house. She'll be happy when it's all said and done. I'm more nervous about the fact that the class lists will be posted at school today at 4:00, so that's when I find out FOR SURE who her teacher is and who else is in her class. That is so scary! Anyone else obsess about their kid's teachers? I think I'm the worst. I'm eating banana bread while I'm pondering this, I wonder if that grosses Autumn out? I know she has a thing about bananas.

I've never had such a stressful vacation in my life, even though there were some good points--it was WAY too much driving for me. We left St Louis at 8am on Saturday 7/29 and checked into a hotel in New Jersey at 4:00 am 7/30. It doesn't take that long to drive to NJ, but if Mike is behind the wheel it does. He didn't make any reservations anywhere, I don't think he even knew exactly where he wanted to stay. We drove around for like 3hrs cuz every hotel room was booked, there was a convention of some sort there. We got a room FINALLY with one bed, which Mike, Melissa, Nathan and I all slept in. Stephen had to sleep on the floor. I got 4 hrs of sleep, then we got up to head to NYC. It was nice, if you can stomach the subway and the guy with the gun 5 ft away from us at Ground Zero. I would like to return someday without the kids. On Monday we went to Six Flags in NJ with a lovely family and we had lots of fun, even though it was pretty hot. I wish this family lived closer to us--they were so great!!! I joked around with the lovely mom and said "maybe we'll get to our hotel tonight before 4 am!!!". I should have kept my mouth shut--we left NJ Six Flags at like 8 pm and didn't check in the hotel in DC until 2 am. It was a SCARY hotel also, so we left there and went to the lovely Holiday Inn in Virginia--we paid a lot more, but it was SOOOO nice. Plus the restaurant had kids eat free, so it was well worth it. We stayed in Zanesville, Ohio on Wednesday night, and it was the nicest place we stayed the whole time. We swam in the indoor pool and the kids had fun--next year they want to go to Ohio for vacation.

Back to my stress--we went to DC on Tuesday, and we missed getting into the Capitol Bldg just barely--they had just given out the last passes. That's a bunch of crap--I pay so much in taxes, I should have my own room in the Capitol Bldg. We couldn't get into the Washington Monument either--same damn problem. They need to change a lot of things in DC. It was like 150 degrees outside and the kids all had red faces and Nathan had another heat rash, but at least I got to see the Hope Diamond!!!

OK, I'm done complaining for now. At least I got a week away from work. Now I'm back with deadlines and stress and worrying about the kids starting school next week and all the other crap. Aren't you glad you read this?

I don't fully understand this blogging thing. Am I to assume that anyone out there really wants to read about me? Doesn't that make me kind of self-centered? Am I supposed to post what I do every day, or just if I have something exciting that happens? I just don't know. I could sit here and type random thoughts for hours, but no one wants to read that. I'm very open to advice!