More Family Weekend

Here's a photo shoot of the Thorn kids at their second Chop House dinner in 2 weeks...Spoiled??

Surprise!

Hi Everbody,

Thanks to all of you who made it to my going away/graduation party this weekend! For those who didn't...you missed a great time and for those who left early...you missed watching my entire family dancing on the Ginger's bar! The rest of family weekend has been very busy. Linny, Mom and I went to Spacio for massages yesterday afternoon, last night we hung out at our place and watched movies, today we all went to MayFest in Lincoln Square and then to dinner at the Chop House. Now I'm completely stuffed with prime rib and ready for bed. Linny is moving into her new home tomorrow and I'm starting to move my boxes into storage. Can you BELIEVE I'm leaving in 9 days??

I've poured my last pint :(

Sunday night I worked my last shift at Ginger's Ale House. I laughed, I cried, I danced on the bar one last time... I'll miss it there a lot!

MMmmm...Steak!

On Wednesday night Auntie Ronni, Uncle Lee, Linny, Jason, Dana and I had a delicious dinner at the Chop House. MMmmm... I had the prime rib and it was very very good. It was a graduation/bon voyage dinner for me and I was very lucky to receive happy graduation, bon voyage, happy birthday AND merry christmas cards all at once! Also, Auntie Ronni and Uncle Lee gave me a Sony Handycam so I can record all the amazing places I'm about to see! Cool! I think there's a way to post videos on this thing...I'm going to figure it out. I shouldn't even be online right now, because I have 45 pages of papers to write before Friday, but it's okay, it will all get, done, right?? I'm really tired, worked last night and got up early today and have to work again tonight so I think Toe and I will take a nap. Love everyone.

Ame

Cubs Game + Steph = FUN...and other news...

Hi People,

The past two weeks have been kinda busy for me. Last Wednesday I, along with my fellow McCormick Tribune people (the group of us in the scholarship program at school) put on a symposium (conference thing) on community revitalization and gentrification in Chicago. It was actually a big success and over 110 people showed up for it. I was facilitating a group on how community groups can be involved and it was a good conversation that I wish we had more time to finish. My biggest complaint is that we didn't get to really synthesize things because by the time we got done talking about the issues we only had a few minutes to think about solutions. Overall it was a good night and I think it at least got people talking. I also got my mid-terms back and got A's on them. It's not all me me me though...Linny is working really hard at school right now and has been writing papers and taking tests left and right. She has a straight A average and plans to keep it up. Ms. Smarty-Pants. She will be finishing up in October if all goes according to plan. Finally, Mothers Day was mom's three year sober anniversary and we are all really proud of her. We went to Arlington Park for a few hours, but it was cold and we were all tired (for varying reasons) so we made it an early day. My dad won some big bucks on the last race thought! Woo Hoo! Last night I went to the Cubs game with Steph, my friend from Gingers. It was a lot of fun and the Cubs kicked butt! We had hot dogs, bud lights, and of course, cotton candy. Whoever figured out that spinning sugar at high heat would make that deliciousness was a genius! We left after the eighth inning because is was FREEZING and met Linny for some hot chocolate and baileys at Gingers. A good time had by all. That's about all I can think of for now. Tomorrow is my last day at my internship, so I'll have extra time in the next two weeks to get my finals written, then it's just packing and moving time. They took me out for a nice lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and said nice things about me and gave me presents! It was nice to see all the kids even though it was just for a little bit on Sunday. Let's try to find a night to go to Brunetti's before I leave..

Love you guys,

Ame

Toulouse got a makeover!

Check out the before and after shots of Toe! She went from scraggly to sleek in just 6 hours at the groomer!

Ginger's Photo Album

Just a few shots of life at Ginger's! Ame Steph and Linny...Linny and Phillycakes...Amy and Phil having acting class (show me angry...show me delighted!) and Ame and Steph doing our best to liven up another Saturday night...Come see us some time!

Ride 'em Cowboy!

Yee Haw! Today me, Linny and Jason went to see professional bull riding with Auntie Ronni and Uncle Lee. When Uncle Lee asked me last week if I wanted to go see bull riding i said thanks but no thanks. Then after some discussion with Linny, we decided that besides the fact that it might be fun to see some guys mauled by bulls, we also realized that it could be some excellent people watching...who doesn't love a bunch of rednecks?? Actually no, we just realized that any time we go anywhere with Auntie Ronni and Uncle Lee...its a great time. And it was! We did get to see some bulls trample some cowboys though. When we walked out to the car, we discovered that Uncle Lee had not only left the keys in the ignition, but he had LEFT THE CAR RUNNING!! Haha. He said he was just trying to keep it warm for us. Thanks Uncle Lee. After that we went to dinner at Maria's (for Mexican). So...good time had by all. Thanks for a great day!

xox
Ame

Go Cubs Go...

CUBS Win! CUBS Win! Last night my dad took me to the Cubs game and we watched them crush the Mets 7-1. It was a lot of fun and nice to hang out with Ronnie. We had great seats on the first base line and Ron Santo sang the 7th inning stretch. A good time had by all. It was a gorgeous night...probably the best weather we've had all year! Ronnie thinks this is gonna be the ubs' year...let's wait and see!

xox
Ame

Nice day for a white wedding!

Wow Shannon McDonough is MARRIED! Yesterday was a big day, I went to Shannon's wedding to her new husband Adam. She is the first one of all my high school friends to get married so it was really fun and exciting! Even better maybe was the fact that this was the first time since graduation that Shannon, Dana, Lisa, Kelly, Annette and I have all been together! We re-created our prom pic from 8 years ago (YIKES!) and all had a great time. Shannon looked amazing (see pics) and was serenaded by all her groomsmen during the reception. The church was in Hampshire, IL and the reception was in Crystal Lake. I went with Josh (Dana's boyfriend) and Ann (Dana's mom), and they were both excellent dates. Also, the wedding favors were delicious (see pic of me eating white chocolate lollipop). The suburbs sure are a different world though...felt like I was away on a trip again! Well, back home now, reading about children, families and the law. Tonight I'll be working at Ginger's if anyone wants to stop in!

xox
Ame

More Munich

Hi again!

I've just realized that you can't see my pics on myspace unless you have a myspace account...so I thought I'd post a few more on here for ya. First, you see me and Corie in a decorative pit of some sort, sitting on things that look like bottle tops. Next you have a cute little square with German cafes. Then is Theatinerkirche, and Odeonsplatz, the square where Hitler was arrested in 1923 right before he was imprisoned and wrote Mein Kampf. Next is the Chinese Tower in the Englischer Garten, with an Oom-pah band on the second story (we ate a huge lunch here at the beer garden), and finally you have the view of Hoenschwangau from the castle on the mountain. The yellow castle you can see was King Ludwig's other castle in the village...I mean, is one castle really enough for anyone?? No way! Anyway, hope you like the pics! Auf Wiedersehen!

Munich was GREAT!

Hi Everybody,

Well, Munich was fantastic! We did a lot of sightseeing in a little bit of time...These pics are: Me having a Radler (beer mixed with lemonade) at the Chinese Tower beer garden, where we also had some bratwurst, levakase (bologna-flavored meatloaf thing), dumplings, and of course, pretzels...A monument in the Englischer Garten which is bigger than Central Park...Me being confused in the U-Bahn tunnel...Double fisting dark radlers at Hofbrauhaus (the most famous German beer garden...they were HEAVY!!!)...and finally Neuschwanstein Castle on the German/Austrian border. It was SO PRETTY! King Ludwig of Bavaria had it build in the late 1800's and he dedicated it to Wagner's operas...strange...he even had a whole room build to look like a cave and grotto scene in one of the operas. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it was really cool. We took a two hour train ride to get there, spent about an hour at the castle and then had dinner at a cute bistro in the village below. We ate a ton, went to a carnival (my new main pic), saw all kinds of famous buildings, squares and monuments, and of course had plenty of german beer. We were only there for two days but we covered a lot of ground. I posted a lot more of the pics on my myspace page, which is www.myspace.com/ameonthemove so if you look there and click on "pics" there are about 60 or 70 shots from the trip. Back home now and back to the grind. I have three papers to write this week...Yikes! Wish me luck! I think I'll go visit Linny at the Four Treys for a while, then get to bed early. I'm not really jet-lagged, but I am tired... See you all soon for the family pic.

xox
ame

Happy Almost Birthday to Dana!

Hi Everybody,

Tomorrow is Dana Jones's 26th Birthday!! Happy Birthday Big "D"! She will be celerating by attending the White Sox game with a bunch of people. Ew. Go Cubs.

I'm going to Munich tomorrow night. Yes. You read that right. I'm going to Munich tomorrow night. Just till Tuesday afternoon. My friend Corie works for United and she invited me along...so why not!? I've never been to Munich before. I hear there's good surfing there, from some artificial waves they make in the river. I'm up for anything. So I'll post some pics when I get back.

Everything else is good...school's cool, internship's cool, my plane tickets are booked so I'm leaving on June 10th for Dublin and then going to Barcelona to board the ship on June 25th. That's all the news I have for now.

Love to everybody!

Amers

Happy April Fools Day

Hi Folks,

Today I went back to school for my final class term! Yippee!! I'm taking "Children, Families and the Law", "Clinical Treatment of Adolescents" and "The Social Meaning of Race". My law class is being taught by an actual lawyer and she seems very serious, a lot different from my social work professors who are all pretty casual. She won't even call us by our first names. She took attendance and when she called out "Ms. Thorn" I almost didn't raise my hand, because no one ever addresses me by my last name.

My internship is going well, I only have about 6 weeks left there. The most interesting part of it has been being part of an advocacy group for court-involved girls. We've been working on recommendation papers for the state and county juvenile justice systems regarding the health and mental health of the girls in the detention center/jail. It's a pretty big debate because on one hand, we want to provide good services to the girls in detention and hopefully keep them from returning. On the other hand, we don't want detention centers to be the best option for a judge when she's trying to decide where to place a girl. I'm going to a big conference about it next week at the Fairmont, which my organization is co-sponsoring.

Other than that, same old, same old. Thorn kids had lunch with G&G last week which was really nice, and always entertaining when Saddlebrook Farms stories are involved. Then I stopped over at Auntie Julie's for a while and got to play with the kids, so that was nice too. I'll be at Auntie Laurie's house on Sunday, along with Linny and Jay-bird, so we'll see most of you soon.

Love Ame

Spring Break '08 Baby!

Hi everybody,
Sooo...I finished writing my last final on Tuesday morning, phew! Then I went to meet my friend Evelyn from D.C. who was in town for a conference at the Hilton on Michigan Avenue...ooh la la... We had a great dinner at The Italian Village on Monroe, have you ever been there? It's really cute. It's decorated to look like you're sitting in at outdoor courtyard in Italy somewhere. So we had A LOT of food and some chocolate mousse for dessert...mmmm...and then I stayed over at her hotel which had the comfiest big beds ever. Wednesday I went to my internship for a few hours, then when Ev finished her conference around 2:00 she came to see my office and we did a little sightseeing downtown. We walked through Millenium Park, made the hike over to Navy Pier, shopped at Borders, had some Starbucks, and then it was time for Ev to catch her flight back to D.C. It was a great day! Today, Linny and I brought some groceries down to Theresa's house on the south side, and then we took two of her daughters shopping downtown for the day. They're on spring break this week too and they said we saved their break...they've been sitting home bored all week. Hooray for us! We all bought some shoes, except for Linny, got some delish Garrett's popcorn and had a smoothie at Watertower Place. Another great day. So we aren't spending spring break on a white sandy beach somewhere...but we're still having a pretty good time. I'm working at the bar the rest of the weekend, but I don't go back to school till April 1st. Oh how I love sleeping in. Well that's all that's new and exciting around here. Dana's in Las Vegas with Josh and Linny and I are watching a movie with Toulouse. Three months from now I'll be in Europe...but until then I'll be right here on the big red couch. Love you all!

Ame
(and Linny and Toe)

Can it please hurry up and be summer?

Buon Giorno! I think that's hello in Italian...now I've just got to learn some Greek. This is my itinerary for the summer, pretty cool, huh? The map shows a 24-day cruise that I'll do about four times while I'm there. Venice is going to be our home port so we'll be there every 12 days or so, stopping for an overnight. That'll be really nice, because usually you get to a port in the morning and have to be back on the ship by 7 or 8 at night. It'll be great to have two or three days there at a time. Uncle Lee is still trying to figure out what would be the best ship job for him now that I found out that the clocks change themselves when you go to a different time zone. He had his sights set on being the clock changer...so now we have to come up with an alternative. I just found out that one of the girls I sailed with in Alaska will be with me this summer so that's cool, it's always nicer to get to a ship where you know someone. (Not that I have a hard time talking to new people...haha...) The hardest part about all of this is that I have to keep all my tattoos covered while I'm working. THAT will be a challenge. Looks like it's long sleeved shirts for the summer. Luckily the ship is super air-conditioned. Right. Well. Just thought I'd share my little map with you. If anyone wants to come visit me you can stay in the penthouse suite for the bargain price of about $20,000...

xo

ame

Have you ever seen such a cute girl???

Okay I'm talking about TOULOUSE, of course. She's just so cute I want to squeeze her til she pops! We've been on the couch a few hours now. Just watched Michael Clayton which was VERY good. I worked at the bar from 6am-noon, now I'm on a break and I go back to work tonight for more fun fun fun. Is anyone actually reading these? Haven't gotten a lot of comments lately people...Dying to know whats up with the family these days...

Okay well just thought I'd invite some participation. Hope everyone's happy and healthy.

xo

ame

Family Night

It's family night here at The Ashland. Me, Linny and Jason are eating pizza, having a beer and watching a DVD of me, Lin and Uncle Lee zip-cording through the Mexican Jungle. Whoa, flashback! Luce is sleeping on my lap and Dad is here trying to fix our furnace...we have no heat! And it's cold out! Who else is ready for summer to hurry up and get here???

Nothing much else going on really...Linny and I are both stuck into school, lots of papers to write and books to read. I have a paper due tomorrow that I haven't started yet, which is why I'm sitting here blogging. Ha. Let's hear it for procrastination! Spring Break is only a few weeks away... but I'll be staying in Chicago. No more vacations til I leave for the ship in June!

What's happening with everybody else? Ronnie's 51st b-day is coming up in a few days. Can you believe it's been a year since his Prom Party? Time flies. Well folks, that's all I've got for you. Sorry there's not more to entertain, but life is a little boring at the moment.

Emerald Isle

Hi everybody,

Well I just got home from a three week trip to Ireland and IT WAS GREAT! I had so so so much fun. We spent a few days in Dublin, then 10 days traveling around the country, and then another week back in Dublin. We went on a tour of an old prison in Cork City, saw a bunch of monkeys and other animals at the Fota Wildlife Park, went hiking to a cool waterfall in Killarney National Park, and spent two nights on the Irish speaking Aran Islands which has three thousand year old ruins and amazing cliffs dropping off into the Atlantic. We mostly stayed in B&Bs with some really entertaining owners, but splurged a few nights for nice hotels, and ate and drank A LOT. It was such a blast! Back in Dublin we went to the Guiness brewery and Christ Church Cathedral, St. Stephen's Green and Trinity College, where we saw the Book of Kells. I even changed my flight to spend two extra days because I was having too much fun to leave. I'm telling ya, if I didn't have to come back to finish school I'd probably still be there! Steve's family was really nice to me and one night we cooked them a "real american dinner" of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn, tomato soup and apple pie! They'd never had meatloaf before! Well, I hope everyone is doing well. How was the baptism? Sorry I missed it!

xox

Amy

Bon Voyage

Hey Friends and Fam...

Well, I'm leaving again. (What's new, right?) I'm actually leaving three times in the next year. First of all, I'm leaving on Thursday night to spend two weeks in Ireland. Woo Hoo! I'm staying in Dublin with Steve but we're also going to travel around a little bit to places like County Cork, County Kerry and Galway. I'M SO EXCITED!! I'll definitely post pics when I get back.

Next, I'm leaving June 12 for Venice to spend six more months working on ships. I'll post my itineraries when it gets closer and you can see where I'm sailing.

Finally...and this is the big one...I'm leaving in February 2009 to spend two years in the Peace Corps. I've been going through the application process for almost a year now, writing essays and getting recommendations, going to interviews and reading up on possible posts. Finally, my recruited called me last week with my potential placement options. They offered me a youth development post in either Africa, Eastern Europe or the Caribbean, and I chose the Caribbean. I had been planning on going to Africa, but after a lot of thinking, I decided the Caribbean is a better match for me...easier to get home for visits and easier for you lovely people to come visit me! Plus the guarantee of gorgeous white sand beaches didn't hurt. I won't know which island I'll be on for a few more months, but it could be Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Grenada, Antigua, St. Vincent or the Grenadines. So, if you want to know more about the Peace Corps and what I'll be doing, you can go to http://www.peacecorps.gov/ and fill your brain with info. Right now I'm just waiting for my welcome packet and then I'll spend a few months getting medical clearance, legal clearance and waiting on my country assignment.

Sooo...that's all the big news I have for now. Yesterday was Susie's 50th B-day and we had brunch at LePeep. She got lots of fun gifts, like a spa day with me and Linny, candy, slippers, lotion, a nail buffer and other assorted stuff. J.T. picked up the tab since he's such a high roller.

Everything else is good, Linny is in school full time again and taking loads of classes, Dana is working long hours as usual and Toulouse is lazy as ever. I'll have finals when I get back from Ireland and then just one more set of classes before graduation.

Hope everyone is doing well and surviving the snow if you're reading this in Chicago. Cross your fingers that my flight gets out okay on Thursday night!

xo

Ame