THE HILLS ARE ALIVE . . . AND SO IS MAE!

Well, that headline didn't come out quite right. . .I guess you just had to be there! However, I wanted to add a few photos from our weekend in Illinois to my blog before I forgot about them.

In the top photo, my mom, Mae Valeck. It was a treat to spend six hours with her Friday and three hours again Sunday. The weather was unseasonably warm, so I took the opportunity to get mom out of the "manor" for a bit. Both days, I pushed her wheelchair (with her in it!) through the adjacent neighborhoods. We just walked along, observing the fall flowers and colors, looking at the houses and such. At one point, we walked 'through' a flock of local Canada geese lingering on a sidewalk near a pond and she enjoyed that.

The Mae Personality did surface at least one time After a jogger passed us on the sidewalk (running in 80-degree heat!) mom commented "She's running her feet off to give her ass a ride." I guess my mom is still in there, sometimes!

Today, we walked down to the local Walgreen's drugstore and bought an ice cream novelty. In this picture, mom is enjoying the treat. I got her to at least smile in the picture, so often she's just solemn in photos -- which is so unlike her true personality.

Standing to the right of her coach, Laynie Hillesland is pictured after her Volleyball team took second place in the Prairie Conference 8th grade girls volleyball tournament on Saturday, October 11. Layne is one of the tallest players on her squad and a good little player to boot! We enjoyed watching her in action. . . .through three opponents and a real come-from-behind victory in the second leg of her endeavors.

She's also and all-A student at Benarcik Junior High School and is enrolled in two accelerated classes: Science and History. Laynie is also an avid, avid reader . . . she's already finished off all of the Caudill Award nominated books for this year and is now doing presentations to elementary school classes about them!

In the photo above, Nephew Seth Hillesland stands next to his newest pride and joy . . . a 1993 Ford Escort Hatchback with 274,000 real miles on the odometer. One previous owner who loved this puppy and kept meticulous records of all maintenance work and repairs. Additional items on the upside: (A) Seth paid for this car himself ($500) with money earned from a summer job doing grounds maintenance for the school system, (B) it is completely paid for and (C) it runs!

Seth is now a junior at Oswego East High School, co-sports editor of their award-winning school newspaper (an All-American honor from National Scholastic Press Association). He didn't play a fall sport, but is in conditioning for the varsity baseball team where he is expected to be a starting pitcher. And, is beginning to check out colleges! Wow!