Carol's Climbers Hustle Up the Hancock Once Again!

Carol's Climbers did it again! 2012 marked our third year participating in the Hustle Up the Hancock, an athletic event (stunt?) benefiting the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago. We did the Full Climb, which meant 94 floors, or 1,632 stairs.

We participated in the event in honor of my mother-in-law, Carol, who has battled a complex lung disease for about two decades. Matt had an important work trip that kept him from climbing this year, but Carol's niece (Matt's cousin) Carrie and her friend Angel came all the way from Montana to join me in the effort. Carrie did the half climb with us back in 2010.

Luckily, Matt was able to spend time with Carrie and Angel Friday night and part of Saturday. We had lunch at Joy Yee in Chinatown on Saturday afternoon after exploring the wonderful tea and trinket shops and bakeries in the neighborhood. We all enjoyed our food and our crazy drinks!


Then Sunday morning we got ready to climb! Approximately 4,000 climbers do it every year--and the full climb sells out in about an hour! Angel, Carrie and me waiting before the climb


We all did it and felt great when we got to the top. You can see I was ready to celebrate as I crossed the finish line (balloon arch)!


Carrie, me and Angel with our medals at the top


Mom and Dad were our cheer squad once again! I appreciate their support so much!!!


After we waited in the long elevator down and popped by the expo for our pictures and unofficial times, Mom and Dad drove us gals to Munster where we all had dinner with Carol and John. We had an awesome dinner of lasagna, garlic bread, salad and two scrumptious pies. Oh, and don't forget the homemade apple cider! All a wonderful celebration of our day, Carol, and Carrie's visit.

Aunt Rona's Big Surprise!

My Mom and Aunt Rona outdid themselves this time! My Aunt Rona lives in Texas, so she doesn't get together with the other three Schmiedeknecht sisters (in Indiana and Michigan) as often as any of them would like. Aunt Dawn and Aunt Rae both have birthdays in October, so Mom and Rona cooked up a plan to surprise them last fall. And they actually kept the secret until February! Very tough to do, but well worth it when we all got together on a Saturday for lunch, and guess who showed up! It was a great moment and they got to spend time together the rest of a long weekend. All four sisters together and they mostly stayed out of trouble! :)

Aunt Rae hugging Aunt Rona


Four sisters: Aunt Rae, Aunt Dawn, Mom, and Aunt Rona

Mr. K Honored and Appreciated

A few weeks back, Mr. K was honored as part of Homewood-Flossmoor Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day. During a basketball game each year, the athletes each get to pick a faculty or staff member to honor. Several students approached Mr. K this year, but the first to ask was a varsity cheerleader.

The original date of the game was snowed out, so they did it the following Friday night. Mrs. K. was (and is) very proud! GO BIG RED!

We even made a quick stop to Mr. K's classroom, where all that "shaping of young minds" takes place!