Whirlwind

It has been a busy few days and nights. Thursday was Nick's field day and picnic at school. The day was re-arranged because of the impending storms. They began the day at the park for their field day and then had their picnic lunch in the classroom. I went to the park to help out and play. I picked up the pizzas to take for lunch. Nick actually tried and liked the pizza. I think I went to Kohl's in the afternoon but that could have been a different afternoon because they have all been glued together in my mind. If it was the Kohl's day, I picked up some great clearance clothes. Almost everything I bought was 90% off. When the kids got home from school we went to Mariano's for $10 pizza night. If you are ever in the neighborhood of a Mariano's on Thursday night - a whole sheet pan pizza is $10 and they will put whatever ingredients you want on it. We had seriously just walked in the door and it started pouring rain, lightening and thundering. It was great because the pizza took 30 minutes and the rain had quieted down by the time we left.
Friday was another crazy day. I got the kids onto the bus and did my wii workout and took a shower. I had the volunteer breakfast at school. It was nice, as always. There was a dance, song and music performance. I came home and did some laundry. Rob came home and Mom and Dad picked us up to head back to school. Nick's Pint Size Poets was on Friday afternoon. It was very cute. Thy each had a couple lines to recite and then a poet followed each recitation. Nick did great. Ellie was able to come down for a little bit of it, too. Mom and Dad drove us home and then Rob, Nick and I went to grab some ice cream as a treat. We had Rob's union picnic after Ellie got home from school. We were off to the forest preserve. It was supposed to have some kid activities but becks of the storms things were cancelled. We stayed for a little bit but parted ways when it began to rain. Mom and Dad offered the kids an overnight and they happily took them up on it. I dropped them off but Nick had a little meltdown. I think he is a bit sad that school is done and he won't be in his routine. We talked for a while and he decided to stay. Rob and I went to try Las Fuentes in Morton Grove for dinner. It is nicely decorated and they had a nice menu, the salsa and chips were good. Unfortunately, way too many things went wrong with our order and after about 90 minutes we walked out.
Saturday morning I met Jo at Mom's house and we went rummaging. Dad took Nick. Ellie, and Tony fishing.  Mom watched Matteo. Jo and I had fun and we were able to get a lot of things accomplished without little hands. I scored a bag plus of clothes for the kids. We came back to Mom's to meet up. The kids had caught about 8 fish and had a great time. We came home to pick up Rob and were on our way up to Lindenhurst. Our friends, Geoff & Donna, had a graduation party for their oldest son, Weston. It was great to visit with them because it has been way too long. We stayed and visited and Nick played with the boys for a couple hours. We must try to get together more often because we miss them. We made our way home via some stores. I stopped at Bass Pro to return the shoes I bought last week. We stopped at Community and we scored some nice clothing. Ever growing Ellie needed some new shorts and we were able to find her about 6 pairs. We came home and picked up dinner from West of Edens because we were all starving and couldn't wait to make dinner.
Today is National Survivor's Day, happy to be celebrating it. We started at church. This is the second time in a row that during the service a huge centipede has scurried past us, Rob killed it. We visited with friends after the service. We traveled north to see Dean's new house. They just closed on Friday and are in the process of moving and cleaning. The kids loved playing together and we got a bit of visiting in, too. We were on our way back home when Mom called and asked if we could stop for soy ice cream - we struck out. We went to 3 stores with no success. It was family Sunday today. Mom made everyone's favorites - corn pudding, pierogi, noodles, fruit, salad, broccoli and cauliflower, salmon and bbq chick'n. We had smores pie and blueberry buckle for dessert. The kids got to visit  and play for a bit. We came home and Rob and I got all our paperwork together for our refinancing - pain in the butt. We all took showers and got the kids to bed.
Ellie finishes up on Tuesday, this year flew by. I will post again next Sunday because we are headed up to the cottage for a couple days. Visualizing my healthy and continually healing body and the new normal, Tree