April, May & June

We decided to tackle some home improvement projects this spring and we began by painting the doors and trim inside the house and installing new hardware on all the freshly painted doors. I think we painted for 3 weekends in a row. The end result is good, but Jay had to work hard to re-hang all the doors. The old doors had a variety of hardware on them, so it is nice to have the same knobs and hinges on all the doors. Soon after we finished project #1, the faucet in the kitchen began to leak. We decided that since we had to replace a leaky faucet we might as well get a new sink and countertops as well. Jay has never installed countertops so we are waiting for his brother to come and provide some assistance. This project has moved slowly as the wrong countertops were delivered. Home Depot has been quite helpful and hopefully the right countertops will be delivered soon. The third project involved some yard work. The cable company decided to install new cables in our subdivision and unfortunately our yard was dug up to drill the cable under all of our neighbors yards. It was a bit of a bummer. Project #4 has been to finish up the project we started last summer which was to fix up our living room. Last summer we installed new flooring and painted. This summer we have finished furnishing the room. It's been busy, but we like the results.

In May we also celebrated Jenny's 5th birthday and Andrew's 2nd birthday. We had a nice birthday celebration with both sets of grandparents. It's hard to believe Jenny will start kindergarten this fall. She is not terribly excited as she was VERY sad to leave preschool. In fact, on the last day of preschool she cried when I picked her up.

We also spent a long weekend in Indianapolis. We stayed at a great hotel and due to a reservation mishap we ended up getting the executive suite. The room was something like you would see in a movie. It had a foyer, living room, bedroom, and 2 bathrooms. We were spoiled. The common hotel room is going to be a bummer after a weekend in luxury. We spent a day at the Children's Museum (huge) and the kids really enjoyed the Dora & Diego Exhibit. I had hoped to tour Lucas Oil Field (home of the Colts) but tours were not available on weekends.

June brought an end to the school year and we are enjoying summer break and the freedom it brings. The weather has not been great (we even had the tornado sirens go off last night) so we have not been able to swim as much as we would like. But it's still nice to be outside.

Jay and I are again playing city league softball. We have lost twice (which is two more losses than we had all of last year) and I fear one of the losses was largely my fault, although no one will come out and say it.

A trip to CA and a trip to Green Bay, WI is on the agenda for this summer. The Packer fans in the family want to go to Lambeau Field. Other than that we are looking forward to relaxing, walking for ice cream, and enjoying some better weather.

Birthday Pictures

Jenny (Rapunzel) is 5!


Andrew is 2!

Spring Pictures

Gulf Shores, Alabama

We returned on Sunday afternoon from a week vacationing with Jay's family in Gulf Shores, Alabama. We left last week Friday afternoon with plans to stop outside Nashville, TN. Due to some heavy traffic and an accident we didn't arrive at our hotel until about 2am. Both kids were still wide awake, but Jay and I were tired. On Saturday we finished the drive and arrived in much warmer weather than we had left behind in Illinois. Sunday and Monday were beautiful days spent on the beach enjoying the warm sun and sand. On Tuesday the weather deteriorated and we spent the morning walking around Fort Morgan - a Civil War era fort taken by the Union forces after the Battle for Mobile Bay. It was very interesting. Wednesday morning brought rain, but the afternoon was sunny. Thursday and Friday were spent by the beach or the pool. We enjoyed a good week of relaxation, good food, some cards, and fun time for the kids with their cousins. On Saturday we started the trip back home. We spent the night in Louisville and on Sunday we stopped in Indianapolis to visit Hinkle Fieldhouse at Butler University. It was very cool to see where Butler plays and where the final basketball game from "Hoosiers" was filmed. Jay and I were both surprised at the sheer number of people who, like us, stopped by to see the Fieldhouse. It was very cool. It was also good for the kids to run and stretch their legs. Too bad Butler didn't play a little better on Monday night. Overall it was a good trip, only marred by the fact that Andrew caught a bad cold and ended up with an ear infection. But he is on the mend and we are glad we made the trip.

February Weekends

February has gone by quickly. Jay and Jenny were ecstatic with the Green Bay victory in the Superbowl, and Jenny proudly wore her Packers sweatshirt to school the next day. She was thrilled when her teacher announced that anyone wearing a Green Bay Packers sweatshirt could lead the class into the gym for recess.

We also went to Grand Rapids to visit Jay's niece at Calvin. While in Grand Rapids we went to the Fredrik Meijer Gardens and walked through their nice (and warm) greenhouses. They have a butterfly "house" where we could watch the butterflies emerging from their cocoons. I'd never seen that before and it was pretty cool.

This past weekend we went on our somewhat annual trip to the Chicago Auto Show. We went with some friends and, as usual, we had a very good time. The ride back was filled with a lot of "If you had to buy a car right now, what would you buy?" Jay likes the Honda Pilot, I liked the Ford Explorer. However, we are not in the market to buy a new car, so we could spend our time looking at the cars we wish we could buy. Jay continues to dream of a corvette, and I continue to like the 7-series BMW. We also checked out vehicles for Dave and Shelly and came to the conclusion they should buy a big conversion van. On the negative side they get 12.5 miles/gallon, but they do have two gas tanks and plenty of room for everyone. :)

We are looking forward to a trip south later this spring. I'm getting antsy for some warm weather.

Snow Days

Another snow day! It's rare we get one snow day in the Chicagoland area, so to get two days off in a row is pretty nice. It seemed like most everyone was off of work yesterday as the roads were not passable.

We had plenty of notice the storm was coming, so by Tuesday afternoon the kids and I were home. Jay and Jenny went to fetch Jay's niece as the buses at her school were not going to run due to the approaching storm. The storm hit Tuesday afternoon and it seemed to pass through by Wednesday at noon. We've gotten a lot of snow before, but this storm was different as it was accompanied by high winds. In the pictures you can see some of the drifts are pretty high. It took Jay about 4 hours to dig us out. Needless to say he was pretty tired last night. Shoveling snow is hard work. Most of the roads have at least one lane open, but some of the subdivisions still need to be plowed. That, combined with extremely cold temperatures, caused most schools in the area to cancel again today.
I think the temperatures are supposed to climb this weekend and we are hoping to be able to take the kids outside to do some sledding.

Almost February

My Packer Fans!

Jenny and her snowman.

Andrew driving the bus at the Children's Museum in Stockton.

It was a perfect day for skiing.

The whole group

Once again it's been awhile since my last post.

December came and went and we enjoyed a good time in CA celebrating Christmas with my family. Jay and I were able to spend a day skiing with the siblings while Mom and Dad graciously watched the kids. We had a great day and we hope to do it again some time. It had been years since either Jay or I had skied, but we picked it up fairly quickly and we both had a very good time. The seven of us had a lot of laughs. January brought another trip to CA for my Grandpa's funeral. It was a sad trip, but good to share fun memories of Grandpa. It was different to travel with no kids. I enjoyed hours of uninterrupted reading on the plane. I think January and February are the worst months in the mid-west. The days are short, it's cold, and it seems to drag on forever. Jay and Jenny took advantage of a relatively warm day (30 degrees) to go outside and make a snowman. They also did a little sledding. We spent a lot of time this month hanging out with friends and watching football. The Bears/Packers game was a good reason to get together. Ours was a house divided as I enjoy cheering for the Bears and Jay has successfully brain-washed our children to root for the Packers. Jay was ecstatic the Packers were able to pull it out and Jenny has been praying for a Packer victory in the Superbowl.

Last Friday we took the kids to the Shedd's Aquarium in Chicago for the afternoon. Periodically the Shedd offers "Free Days" so we took advantage of it and spent a few hours battling the crowds and looking at the variety of fish and other aquatic creatures. We've been there a few times but it never gets old. God's creation is pretty amazing.

We've also begun the admission process for kindergarten. It's hard to believe Jenny is old enough for school. Where has the time gone?

We're supposed to get a huge snowstorm this week so I am hoping for the snow day. Even though I'm barely part-time it's nice to look forward to a possible day off.