• Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Favorite Things,  Fun in Chicago,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Pretty Pictures

    Listen To Your Mother Chicago 2014: Wow, That Was Quick!

    May 12, 2014

    It’s been a full week (eight days, actually!) since the show, and I can’t even believe THAT, let alone the fact that the 2014 season, our THIRD season in Chicago, flew by faster than a…what is one of those cute southern sayings? These last two weeks, in fact, have flown by faster than a…never mind. I can’t think of anything. QUICKLY. They went by QUICKLY. In the last two weeks Tracey and I drove to Milwaukee to see that show, we put on our own show, we drove to Valparaiso to see the NWIndiana show, and yesterday I drove up to Madison, where it all began five years ago, to…

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  • Amazing People,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    Donna Day 2014: Bringing Awareness To Childhood Cancer

    February 25, 2014

    It’s that time again: today is Donna Day, a day on which I am joining a huge group of bloggers in trying to create some waves regarding childhood cancer. Donna Day is named for the daughter of my friend (and 2013 LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER CHICAGO cast member) Sheila Quirke, who blogs under the name Mary Tyler Mom. Sheila and her husband Jeremy, who also have two young sons, lost their beloved Donna in 2009. Donna’s Cancer Story is documented in a series of thirty-two posts that Sheila wrote. Their story is hard to read but I think it’s so important to read anyway. No family should have to go…

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  • Amazing People,  Proud Moments

    I Just Helped Give Birth to 13 Babies And I’m Exhausted.

    February 19, 2014

    After an anxious, emotional (understatement), and sleepless (mostly) weekend of laboring, Tracey and I finally gave birth to thirteen bouncing baby girls. Well, adult girls. And we’ve both already lost all of our pregnancy weight! Amazing, right? The cast of LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER CHICAGO 2014 was announced today (by us, the proud parents). I might have even sent LTYM Founder and National Director Ann Imig a text asking, “If LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER CHICAGO is Tracey’s and my baby, would that make you the grandmother?” Maybe I sent that text. (I did.) I am so glad that the hardest part of our season is over, and now it’s onward…

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  • Amazing People,  Spreading the Bloggie Love

    Our Gang Was Her Gang, But That’s All I Know.

    February 13, 2014

    Shirley Temple died a couple of days ago at the age of 85. The news of her passing (from “natural causes”) was sad, naturally, and I spent some time that morning contemplating what I know about her life. First of all, she was one of the most famous child stars of all time, making more than sixty films (features and shorts) over a seventeen-year period. Her most famous song? This one. After working in television during the 1950’s and 1960’s, she left show business and became politically active, eventually becoming a U.S. Ambassador. She was a breast cancer survivor. I posted this on Facebook, after reading about her death: A…

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  • Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Blessings,  I'm Apparently Old.,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz,  Proud Moments

    A Simple Birthday Message

    February 3, 2014

    For J, who turns nineteen today… I knew I wanted to write a post on your birthday, but I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to say. I kind of wanted to say that I can’t believe you are nineteen already but that, although true, sounds overdone. I definitely wanted to write about how I have just one more year of saying I have a teenaged kid, but that’s stating the obvious… I was going to write that I am so proud of the young man you have become. You’re a caring, thoughtful, and responsible person, and I couldn’t ask for any more than that. You care about your school…

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