So Much To Do

And so little time to do it. How in the world is it already the end of July? Where has the first half of 2008 gone? It seems like every time I turn around there is something else to get done, or somewhere else that we have to go (fun or otherwise), errands to be taken care of, pre-school shopping, and then just the regular routine on top of all of it. When did life get so frantic and full up? This week we've been at vacation Bible school at church. It has been quite fun. The beach and surfing theme has been nice - all of the kids seem to really like the music. It sounds like the old beach music from the 1950's and 1960's. I think I need a nap now....

Chalk Art

Decided to get sidewalk chalk for the mini. It is the new "it" toy in our house. At least I don't have to clean it up - Mother Nature takes care of that for me!

She drew this and told me that it was a whale. I think she did a super job! (I added the waves underneath it)

4th of July Fun

So we took a road trip for the July 4th holiday, to visit with the family down at the lake. It was total fun with a few incidents of pandemonium. I guess that's what can happen when you have 4 children toegether, ranging in age from 3 to 9 years old. There was swimming in the lake, tubing, water skiing, fireworks, sparklers and general, all-around fun. As with all such get-togethers, there was fabulous food, fun board games, at least two poker tournaments (adults only, of course) and one belated birthday celebration. All in all, it was totally exhausting, but we fell asleep with smiles on our faces every night!

Big Girl Bed and a Playset

The mini got a new big girl bed recently, as well as a new backyard playset. She adores them both. The bed she's had for a little over a week and she won't let either DH or I even pretend to sleep in it. She's terribly protective of her new bed.






As for the playset, it was installed yesterday and is absolutely huge! Somehow, we didn't think it was going to be quite so big when we ordered it. And of course, we spent too much money on both the playset and getting the yard ready - and we're still waiting on the sod and mulch to complete the backyard makeover and finally make the yard look better, but the mini is way too excited to care about that. She couldn't even wait long enough for the last bits of the set to be put together before she had to get on a swing. Then, after all of yesterday's excitement, she was so tuckered out that she was asleep at 5:00 p.m., and slept through the night without even waking up for supper. Poor thing!

Driveway Delight

After six weeks of waiting, rain and heat delays and a couple of scheduling conflicts, our driveway was finally finished today. Woohoo! Now we can park both vehicles off the street and the mini can get those fabulous driveway chalks she (and by "she" I really mean her Daddy)has been wanting. I am so looking forward to watching her artistic talents grow as I sit outside on our new driveway (with a big glass of sweet tea and a portable fan). Nothing says "welcome" on a hot summer day like freshly poured asphalt!

And the mini's playset gets delivered tomorrow - now we just have to get the landscaper out here to grade the area we've picked out to set it up!

Weekend in Chicago

DH and I went to Chicago for a mini-vacation a couple of weekends ago. Well, it was really 4 days, but hey, who's counting? Anyway, we had some good food, some good laughs, some good shopping and some good tours. The architecture of Chicago is truly interesting because of the great fire of 1870-something (sorry to those of you who are avid historians, but I didn't keep the actual date in mind). Apparently what happened afterward was that some forward-thinking city fathers, in order to make the city great once again, shortly after the fire invited several young architects with different ideas to rebuild. In short, you get lots of different styles. It was a truly magnificent place to see.

We had breakfast at Lou Mitchell's one morning because it is apparently a famous diner in Chicago and a "must do" for anyone visiting the city. Lots of politicians and celebrities go there and they have the pictures hanging on the wall to prove it. I can't say we were overly impressed with either the food or the atmosphere, but I got a picture of the sign, anyway.




This is a picture of the wallpaper that was in our hotel room bathroom. We stayed at The Blackstone on Michigan Avenue. It was really nice and had been recently renovated. Actually, our tour guide from the architecture tour we set up said that the saying "shady deals made in smoky rooms" (or the general phrasing like that) came from a presidential nomination in the late 19th century that took place at the hotel. Apparently one of the presidents (and I hesitate to say which one because I don't know for sure and don't want to slander anyone) was never on the actual ballot during the campaign nomination phase of things but through a shady deal struck in a smoke-filled room on one of the upper floors of The Blackstone Hotel in Chicago, he became the party nominee. Kind of cool, huh? We stayed in room 1706. Strangely enough, I took pictures of our bathroom wallpaper, room number and a couple of shots of the lobby, but I never did take a picture of the hotel's exterior. Silly me.






This is the ceiling in the lobby - truly beautiful with all of the hand-carved detail.





The lobby staircase with the psychadelic carpet - I got dizzy a couple of time just looking at it!



This is the famous Sears Tower - we went up to the observation deck on the 103rd floor, but the pictures didn't turn out since it was night time and it was raining. It was cool to see fireworks below us over at the White Sox baseball stadium, though.



I thought it was cool to get the reflection of some of the other buildings across the Chicago river in this building - do I know what this building is? No, but I like the imagery.


A view of Lake Michigan from Grant Park, where we went to the Blues Festival on Saturday and Sunday.

This is a scale model of the city that you can see at the Architectural Institute on Michigan Avenue.




While we were at the Blues Festival (B.B. King was there - and it was a free concert, people!!!) A huge thunderstorm, complete with torrential rain and lightning moved over the city and everybody quickly walked/ran from the streets into the shelter of buildings and parking lots. It was actually quite memorable - even though I didn't take pictures of the rain itself since I didn't want to destroy my camera. Still, I got a couple of decent shots of the stormclouds moving toward us.



These pictures are of DH and I enjoying a famous Chicago-style deep dish pizza at Giordano's. It is a chain pizza place in Chicago, but still really good. We ordered a small pizza and still had too much for the two of us to eat.




Possibly the most exciting thing that happened while we were there was that we went to see a comedy show at The Second City comedy club. Not that the show wasn't truly funny and all, but guess who showed up, and sat RIGHT BEHIND US!?! I don't know if any of you watch reality t.v., but we watch Top Chef on Bravo. And Stephanie Izard (she's the one on the right), who won the 4th season recently, was at the show. I've officially had my first "celebrity" sighting and I think it was much better than if I had met some super-famous movie star. She was really friendly and let me make a total fool out of myself so that I could get a picture with her. I'm such a dork! But it was really super cool!

Sweet Culinary Success

For whatever reason (probably because I had sausage in the refridgerator that would have gone bad if I didn't use it), I got the urge to actually cook breakfast the other day (normally we just do cereal or whatever can be heated quickly in the microwave). And miracle of miracles, I have finally, at least on one occasion, made a decent, from-scratch, breakfast of biscuits and sausage (sawmill) gravy. For those of you who are from THE SOUTH, you all understand how important this achievement is. It is practically a right of passage. My mama's little girl is finally grown up!(sniff)