OK, its been a while...

It has been so long in fact that I entered my password wrong two times.

According to the blog I have not been on here since the last weekend of June! Yikes. I will try to catch you up without putting you to sleep in the process.

JULY
It will actually be quite easy to catch you up for July because not much happened in that month for us. We had a Fourth of July Bar-B-Q with Mary, Ben, and Danny. Mary and Ben purchased a whole bunch of fireworks and Phil and Ben set off the most amazing back yard firework show that we have ever seen. It was like watching a professional show. We only got scared twice. Once because Ben gave himself a pretty nice burn on his hand and the other because one of the fireworks decided to go off about 15 feet above our heads instead of way up in the sky! Besides that it was a perfect night. For the rest of July we finished up baseball where Joe's team took 4th out of 12 and Jim's team took 1st out of 13! It was a good baseball season for us but I was excited to be done with the four nights a week. That excitement only lasted for one week however because Jim started football and that is five nights a week for two hours!

I was able to get away on a girl's weekend, which is always so much fun. Mary, Annie, and I took my mom to Shipshewanna, Indiana as her Mother's Day gift. It is a cute little Amish village with shops and resturants up and down its few main streets. We had lots of fun walking in and out of the little stores and getting a chance to visit with out the "boy/men" interuptions that usually happen when all of us get together! What we didn't know when we planned the trip was that the town completely shuts down at 5 PM. We were sitting in the hotel room wondering what we should do when Mary saw that there was a county fair going on a few towns over. So, we all packed in her van and drove to the county fair. We had a surprise when we found out that Pat Benattar was perfoming that night. We sat and listened to a few of her songs and walked around the fair eating food that was OHHH so tasty but OHHH so bad for us. It was great to get away with just us girls and I can't wait until we can plan another trip. Where will we go next time, girls?

So, that was July!

August

August started out with a bang! On August 2nd my baby brother finally got married to the love of his life, Annie! Most of us did not know what to expect of the ceremony because it was going to be different than anything we had ever been to. They got married under a canopy of flowers, out on the lawn at the Grand Geneva. It was such an elegant and beautiful yet personal ceremony that almost everyone was left in tears. It started out with their very good friend and roommate for the last four years, Bergen, singing while Annie came in with her dad. From there it went right into their personally written vows. Each of them vowed things that were meaningful to all relationships and things that were meaningful to just the two of them. For instance Annie vowed to bring him green apples when he is sick and to scratch his back until he falls asleep. Anyone that really knows Ray knows how much those two things mean! He had very personal vows that even included some of his students from Gage Park that had attended the wedding. He started out by saying, "I know that marriage will be ...." and his students all yelled, "HARD WORK, COACH!" It was really cool and unexpected which made people wipe their tears for a minute and giggle! After the vows they took love letters that they had written to each other along with a bottle of wine and two glasses and put them into a box that was made of cooper roofing materials. (It was made by Ray's boss, and roofing owner, because that was how Ray supported himself through his college years.) Together they nailed it shut and will not open it again until their 10th anniversary. They also used a Celtic tradition and "tied the knot" with a ribbon around their hands. To end the ceremony they released two doves that promptly flew away side by side! Immediately after the ceremony we all went in to the reception hall and that's where the real party began! All of us in the bridal party were introduced to the White Sox theme song which was quite hard for Phil and the boys!! At least Ray had given them Cubs hats to wear during this difficult time!! Besides that it was a very typical Ryan wedding with a full dance floor all night long. It was fun to see that the Clark family pretty much kept up with us in the dancing department. I would say the floor was pretty equal with Hagerty/Ryan's and Clarks! Jimmy ended up to be the family member with the most stamina however because he NEVER left the floor. He danced all night long with anyone that would dance with him. At one point Phil and I looked over and he was in the middle of three teenage girls just dancing away. We both looked at each other and knew that was a sign for what lies ahead!! All in all it was an awesome wedding and we wish Ray and Annie all of the luck and love in the world! Welcome to the family, Annie, we love you!

August brought us more than a new sister-in-law and aunt! It brought the boys and me back to school. (insert sob!) It is a mixed bag for me because I want so badly to finish school and have my degree but I love summer and being off too! I always mourn my time with the kids when school comes. We spend so much time together in the summer staying up late, laughing, going to baseball games, just making memories. As every summer ends I get so sad because I actually really like my kids and enjoy being with them! Sadly though the time has come when we must once again live our lives by homework, assignment notebooks, and bedtimes. We will live for weekends and holiday breaks!

Even though I am upset about having to go back to school I am actually excited about the classes that I am taking. I am finally in some classes that are for teaching. After all of this time with Gen Ed classes it is so nice to have a subject be something that you actually feel you can and will apply in your future career. It has been so fun to hear the professors say things like... "When you are a teacher" and "Your students will..." The first time I heard that I got so excited that a spontaneous smile came onto my face. MY STUDENTS!! Yes, I will soon have my own students. It really gives me the drive to keep plugging along at this!!

We also attended another Ryan family gathering in August. This one was much more casual than the wedding, which was a fun change after this year of weddings. We went to a Kane County Cougars game that Bridget and Dan Fors arranged for all of us. We first met at their house for some swimming, hot dogs and brats and then went on to the game. It was so fun visiting with everyone and their kids. The Cougars were losing through almost the whole game but came through in the end with a win. (HA, I bet most of you thought that I didn't know that b/c I chatted for the whole game!!) After the game was an awesome fireworks show then all of the kids got to go and run the bases. Everyone that attended had so much fun and would love to see it become an annual event. Thanks to Bridget and Dan for doing all of the leg work!

Well, now you are pretty much caught up on our lives. Sorry that this was such a long one!!

Later Gators!!