The Jungbauer Family Website

Memorable Day

Sarah and Rachel spent Memorial Day weekend in Atlanta with Bubby and Sissy (aka Eric and Tracy). It was Eric's idea and desire to share one of his most cherished childhood memories with his little sisters. The highlight of the weekend, aside from being together, was going to an Atlanta Braves baseball game. (Sarah and Rachel have never even played T-ball, but they still had a ball!!!)

The hard part was putting my babies on an airplane --- alone. Fortunately, it was a direct flight and I was on call so I couldn't go to the airport. Plus, I was so busy that weekend that I didn't have too much time to dwell on the fact that my girls are growing up and will be on their own before I know it.

Here is Eric's recap of their weekend:

First off, I cannot express my gratitude enough for letting the girls come down to Atlanta for the Memorial Day weekend to hang out with Tracy and I. I miss them terribly throughout the year, and it is hard when I see them once every four or five months when they are growing up so fast. This past weekend really meant a lot for me.

Okay, enough of the mushy junk . . . on to the good stuff.

We had an AWESOME weekend. Tracy and I picked them up from the airport on Saturday morning. Unlike their return trip out of Atlanta, it took me about 1 ½ hours to get through security.

So, when I showed up to their gate, I was pretty darn sweaty. The only thing I could think of while running through the terminal was how bad Erin was going to kill me if I let the girls sit in a strange airport for an hour --- but I showed up just in time. When I saw them --- Yes Sarah is tall, but Rachel is a dang weed, the way she is growing.

We walked through the terminal and came up the big escalator. It was kinda cool because as we got closer to the top you could hear the constant clapping and cheering from the crowd waiting for loved ones as servicemen randomly came over the top and appearedÂ…talk about goose bumps. Anyways, we immediately saw Tracy as she had a bunch of baseball balloons for the girls.

Okay, so we got Sarah's luggage and went out to the car. As we were leaving the airport, I started talking to Rachel. I told her that my birthday present to Sarah was the weekend down here in Atlanta and the Braves' Game. So, I said I had her "early birthday present" and I reached into the console and took out a pink iPod mini. I handed it back to Rachel in such a manner as to make sure Bear saw it very clearly.

Bear's face went ghost white.

Rae was pretty excited. I totally ignored Sarah. However, she was such a trooper. She went very quiet, and had this fake half smile on for like 10 mins as Rae tore through the box and started messing with the iPod.

I couldn't take it anymore and gave Bear hers. She was pretty darn excited --- pretty wild.

So anyways, we dropped Tracy off at work, and we went up to Alpharetta to grab breakfast and go to Jason's parents' house to meet up with them. Jason and his girlfriend, Jenn, met us there and we headed to the ballpark. Jason had a secret parking lot right across from the field - only $10! It is usually like $30 to park so close.

Well we got into the park and the girls were amazed how big it was. Pretty wild. We walked around, bought tomahawks and ballpark food --- basically killed about and hour and a half. Got to our seats and enjoyed the game. Tracy took a cab to the field and was only 30 mins late. GOOD TIMING!

Well after $80 in pizza, hotdogs, and nachos and in the 5th inning, Rae wanted to go hang out in the nose-bleeder seats. Those seats are seriously the coolest in the park. Not crowded, see everything, high up, skyline in the background - pretty cool.

Okay, so in the 8th inning it was pretty obvious the game was going bad for the home team. We headed down to our section, which had emptied out quite considerably. We decided to try and help the Braves to a 9th inning comeback --- a RALLY!!!! Yee-HAW! We stood for like 30 minutes doing the tomahawk chop . . .

. . . and rooting the Braves to a . . . . . loss.

However, I am pretty jealous of Sarah. You see I have been going to Braves game for the good part of the last 20 years. I have been to about 40 games. I have never been on the big screen. Sarah was in Atlanta for about 5 hours, and while she was standing, looking pretty in her Braves shirt, cowboy hat, doing the tomahawk chop, the powers that be decided they needed to put her on the largest HDTV screen in the world for about 7 seconds! THAT WAS AWESOME! I think her rubberbands on her braces were about 10 feet tall on the big screen. We all (all 50,000 people or so) saw it, including Bear and Rae.

Andruw Jones and Chipper Jones acknowledged our rallying cries and pointed to us while coming off the field at the end of the game. Wild! We took our time leaving the field.

It was seriously the coolest Braves game I have ever been to. The only thing it would have made it better would have been a win.

Well, we went swimming late afternoon, and then went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.

After dinner we walked around the city, then came home. Rae and Bear stayed at Tracy's and I heard they passed out pretty hard that night.

On Sunday, Bear and Rae cooked us breakfast and we went to the Renaissance Festival. We stared at all the strange people that come out of the woodwork for things like this, and ate a lot of "carni" food. Then we went on a lot of rides, and ate more food. On the ride home, the food didn't agree with Sarah. She started crying (because apparently her stomach was doing flips) and politely asked Sissy to pull over at the next gas station. Sarah bolted into the bathroom and came out 45 minutes later with Pepto-Bismol stained lips. Poor baby.

Went home, took a nap and then went to Bahama Breeze for Dinner with Nate. (Tracy's boyfriend. Sorry no one took your picture, Nate!) Ate a light dinner, then went to see Madagascar -- pretty funny. Went home, passed out. Said bye to the girls. (Don't tell them this, but I actually cried when I got in my car to go back to Mississippi.) I guess the girls went to DSW in Buckhead to buy shoes or something . . and there you have it, the weekend.

Again, thanks a lot. It was a super weekend.

Thank YOU, Bubby (and Sissy). NO matter how tall (or short) you are, Sarah and Rachel will always look up to you!

Butterfly exhibit

Rachel invited me to chaperone her third grade class on a field trip to the botanical gardens in Fort Wayne today. There won't be many more of these opportunities left. Carpe Diem!

The special exhibit right now is a butterfly room.

Here you see an extraordinary one-of-a-kind species, the Social Butterfly!

Life 101

Live like you are dying . . .

Live until you die.

Lucky 13

I remember when I was 13. I still have the scar on my shin to show it. I tripped over a tent stake when the circus came to town. I remember my dad trying to convince me to stick my hand inside the circus elephant's mouth. (Why?) I sprained my ankle while vacationing at "Heil's Haven" on Lake Wawasee and had my first ER experience at KCH. Ahhh, what memories.

Now my life IS a circus, the stakes are higher and I'm still wondering why I put my hands in........... BUT I LIVE where I vacation which is just a stone's throw away from my beloved childhood memories at Heil's Haven so I can work at KCH!!! (I really had no idea where I was going when I started to write this but it's amazing where I ended up!) I never would have dreamed that my 13th year would have such an impact on my life.

I never really thought that I would be the mother of a teenager either. I know it's the obvious result after the celebration of 13 birthdays, but it's like thinking of yourself as old --- it's just not something you can fathom!

Well, the inevitable did happen: I did become the mother of a teenager --- and I enjoyed every moment of it.

Friday I drove the girls in to school. I dropped Rachel off first as usual. As I waved good-bye to Rachel, I called Sarah's friend Kaila on my cell phone. Sarah gave me the "What are you doing, Mom?" look.

"Kaila, this is Sarah's mom. Could you do me a favor and pick up Sarah's homework today?"

("Mom! What are you doing? Are we going somewhere? Are we going shopping? Are we going to Fort Wayne?")

"Is Sarah sick today?"

"No Kaila, Sarah is not sick. She and I are going to Chicago for Sarah's birthday."

("REALLY?!?!?! Oh my gosh!!! Are we really going to Chicago? Are you serious? That is SOOOO COOL! I'm going shopping in Chicago! I'm skipping school!!! I can't believe it!!!")

(Tears well up in both our eyes......)

So Sarah and I headed to the Windy City.

We went to Schaumburg first. We covered every inch of the Woodfield Mall and then a bunch of stores on the strip. (Good thing Dad wasn't with us because we didn't even have time to think about going into Dick's Sporting Goods.)

We headed back into downtown Chicago around dinnertime. Sarah got to practice some map reading and navigation skills. She turned out to be a great co-pilot.

By the time we got checked into our hotel, it was after 8 pm. (Another good thing Dad wasn't with us because otherwise we would have had to go to bed - and without dinner.) Instead, we headed out onto the town and found an Italian bistro for a light late-night dinner followed by a stroll down the Magnificent Mile. By the time we headed back into our hotel room, Sarah was begging for a piggyback ride and flip-flopped into bed. She was so tired that she fell asleep watching her favorite TV show.

Did you notice anything peculiar? Strange? Totally out of character?

Not only did Sarah shop 'til she dropped, (a RARE occurrence) but we were so busy shopping on Friday that I did not even take one photo!

The next morning, Sarah was awake well before noon! She fueled up with room service and then we headed out for another day of power shopping.

Another inevitable moment. (She knew I had to get her picture eventually.)

Gotta rest. Shopping is hard work.

(We stopped at The American Girl - but only to get something for Rachel.)

Loaded . . . . with smiles.

Flip-flopped and shopped out.

It was a quiet but dangerous drive home. Sarah got whiplash doing head-bobs!

When we got home Saturday evening, Steve and Rachel were patiently waiting for us. They, too, had been shopping and had almost everything ready for the family party on Sunday! Rachel (with only a little help from Daddy) prepared Sarah's traditional birthday dinner of poppyseed chicken.

Here is the Birthday Girl patiently waiting for the party to begin --- and modeling one of her new outfits from our shopping spree.

The traditional "bread photo." (I tried just baking plain loaves of bread once. It only works when they're 11. Otherwise, my girls insist that I make numbers with the bread. Fortunately, they're happy with the big numbers and I don't have to make breadstick numbers anytmore.)

Sarah's buddy Jeff. Wherever Sarah is, Jeff is. Superglue can't begin to compete with this bond. (Jeff will come in real handy once Sarah starts to date.)

Cousins

Sarah received a special gold coin necklace from Gramma Jane. It is a 3-dollar gold piece from 1855 that belonged to Great Gramma Stands. Sarah begged to wear it to school the next day. I think my little girl is turning into a wonderful young lady. So far, I like having a teenager.

Postscript
After Sarah's traditonal birthday feast of poppyseed chicken, noodles, peas, "number bread" and salad with poppyseed dressing, I was called out to deliver a baby. When I returned home about midnight, the party was over and the house was all clean again. I guess I need to leave more often --- and praise my wonderful hubby more often too!