Vacation update

I guess it really is a vacation when you don't think about posting...
We have been having a great time. The kids have been doing clubhouse and having fun. They had Olympics last week and won some prizes. Ellie has been busy doing art project - magazine collages, painting rocks, asking to run to Michaels and Joann for supplies. Nick has been playing with the handful of Legos he brought with, the trains in the basement and watching movies. We tried to get the beach as much as possible...it has been pretty cool. We had a storm come through that wiped away most of our beach. It completely covered the biggest beach in water - the fire ring and volleyball area were underwater. At our beach they had to remove about 200-300 feet of boardwalk because the sand underneath shifted so much that they were at an unsafe angle.
We went to Dearborn on Friday. We did Greenfield Village and it was a lovely day. It was about 80 but has a beautiful breeze. We had very good pizza for dinner and then a swim in the pool. We thrifted our way back home - not really any great finds. We stopped at MSU for the best ice cream in the Midwest. We got back to the cottage and had dinner and a night swim but the water was freezing.
We spent a few hours at the beach yesterday. It was warmer out but there was a breeze and cloud coverage that made it nice. The water is still very cold. There have been great sunsets.
Visualizing my healthy and continually healing body and the new normal, Tree

Great weekend

Rob had Thursday and Friday off of work...we took advantage and got out and did things. On Thursday we joined him and the GGs for lunch. It was nice to have a visit with them and we brought Nick's bike so he could show them how he could ride it now we dropped my car off in the morning and they ended up keeping it the entire day but the USB panel now charges.
Friday we packed in the morning and headed into the city in the afternoon. We spent the afternoon at Lincoln Park Zoo. It was a beautiful day. We went to the White Sox game in the evening...our first time as a family. The kids had a great time and they won the game. We stayed for the fireworks after the game, too.
Saturday morning we slept in and then packed up the car and headed to Michigan. It took a while to get through traffic and get up here but we are here. Ellie and I went into town to get movies and groceries. We had dinner and went down for the sunset.
Today, Rob planted some shrubs I picked up yesterday. We spent the afternoon on the beach. We had a nice dinner and went back to the beach for a sunset swim.
Visualizing my healthy and continually healing body and the new normal Tree

WooHoo Wednesday

Monday morning was wet and rainy so we brought all my packages to the post office instead of leaving them for our mail lady. We were going to head north to thrift but changed plans. We went to Office max because Ellie is all about getting a bargain and they had Sharpie markers for a quarter. We had lunch of the way to pick Mom up. We went to Target and to the produce store. Rob took Nick to the pool and Ellie went to the mall with Neha. I got some time to myself.

Tuesday we did head north. We went to Gurnee and I found some good stuff. I found 5 youth sized Disney resort shirts, some vintage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a vintage train set, and a couple White Soc shirts or us to wear to the game Friday night. We hit a couple more stores on the way home and found some other good stuff...Christmas stockings, longaberger basket, quilt panels. The kids played outside while I got dinner ready.

This morning we were up and out to Buffalo Grove to watch the wee ones. They are getting more social each time we see them. We came home and Nick asked to try to ride his bike again...can't recall if I posted this or not but we took his training wheels off last week. Ellie went over to Neha's and it left Nick and me alone for a bit to work on his bike riding. Within about 5 minutes...he got it. By the time Ellie came back he was working on trying to start off by himself. He was so proud of himself- I was too. Mom and Dad came over for dinner, it was nice enough to eat outside again. We had chick'n, cauliflower, corn, fruit, veggie enchilada, and salad. I spread pesto on bread with some slices of tomatoes- so yummy. 

Visualizing my healthy and continually healing body and the new normal, Tree

Come On Polar Vortex

I am really looking forward to the cooler temperatures this coming week. It is way too humid out. The kids are loving it… Water balloon fights, sprinkler, pool, squirt guns.
Thursday Ellie I took part in an asthma research project at Northwestern University. It about took the entire afternoon up… But it's worthwhile research. Mom and Nick can do Playdate well we were there. We all ran to target after we came home for a little retail therapy.
Friday Ellie woke up with a migraine that kept her close to a bucket most of the day. We did meet Jo, Ole, Tony, and Teo for a bit of afternoon minigolf. Teo was so funny… He decided it was far quicker to put his ball about an inch away from the hole and kick it in, putt it in - pretty much anything other than golfing. We went to 7-11 afterwards for our free Slurpee.
Saturday we woke up to rain. We stayed home in the morning and started to get the basement back together. Rob and I worked on getting the tiles back down in the furniture back where belongs. Not surprised that when we got to the edge we have to cut some of the tile off because they seem to grow each time. In the afternoon we were joined by mom and dad to attend a memorial service for my friend Julie's dad. It was nice to see Julie, Karlton and meet their 3 week old baby, Benjamin...wish it were for social reasons. We came home and the kids played outside with our neighbor. Huge water balloon fights/tosses.
This morning Rob was the only one awake in time to get to church. Ellie helped me package up all my ebay items. I had about 25 items sell at the end of my auctions. I got some laundry done and the closet organized. Ellie and I ran to the farmers market but most things were too much money. We went to Mom and Dad's for dinner. Mom made a pasta pot with some of her farm veggies, chick'n patties, dip and veggies, cabbage, and fruit. The kids rushed outside afterwards for a squirt gun battle. It was very fun to watch.
Visualizing my healthy and continually healing body and the new normal, Tree

Where Are the Days Going?

Time is flying be good… Not really sure where it's going. We've been kind of monotonous this week, we've done seven eBay listing, swim at the pool, played in the yard, that's about it. Today we went up to watch the girls. They are full of personality, smiling and laughing. We did a bit of thrifting on the way home. We checked out ultra foods – surely a winner with Ellie. She loved their cupcakes. Mom and Dad came over for dinner...it was so nice out we ate outside. We have chick'n, broccoli, watermelon, salad, and sweet potatoes. Mom made banana muffins for dessert. Nick tried riding his bike without training wheels with good success. He is still wobbly but he had no wipeouts.
We hit the pool twice on Tuesday. I went with the kids from noon to 2 and then Rob took them from 5-7. They slept really well that night! I little girl at the pool told me I had a bug in my hair… I shook my hair and she said it went away. About eight hours later at home and feeling something and I realize the bug still in my hair. It was a hardshell yucky big ugly antenna bug. It  freaked me out so much I had to wash my hair in fear of the stupid dog laying eggs in my hair.
Visualizing my healthy and continually healing body, and the new normal, Tree

Happy 4th

Lots of the same stuff happening around here. Listing on eBay, shipping items out. Cleaning and organizing the basement. Gardening and playing outside. Ellie is helping me this summer list on ebay. We had our first learning experience on Thursday...she got about 6 items mocked up.
Friday was a very busy day. We started out at the church carnival...Ellie was firework fashionista and Nick was pedal power. Although they didn't win in an actual category, they both got to pick a prize for participating. We went to the Skokie parade, we met Mom, Dad, and UB there. It was a lovely day and the parade had some new entries. We went back to church for the races and to visit with friends. Nick won 1st place for his running race and Ellie won 2nd place. Rob and Ellie did the egg toss but didn't make it into the finals. We picked the GGs up on the way back to Mom and Dad's for dinner. We had a great spread of food and Kathryn and her boys joined us. The kids tried to catch butterflies and lit sparklers. We ended the day with the Skokie fireworks.
The basement is now 95% cleaned and organized. We went through and weeded out games and toys for our future garage sale. We moved some cabinets around to better organize my ebay boxes. We went to Mom and Dad's for dinner tonight and got to see the caterpillars starting to form their chrysalis. We grilled and ate outside and the kids ran around and got sweaty.
Visualizing my healthy and continually healing body and the new normal, Tree

June Left Water

The kids went to clubhouse on Monday and won the sand sculpture contest! We had lunch and then got on the road to try to beat rush hour traffic. We got home and turned on the air conditioning - it was hot and gross in our house. The kids and I went to Mom's house for a visit. We got to see Jo's caterpillars. We left before the rain came. We stopped at Aldi to pick up some basics and got a pizza for dinner. The rain started as we arrived home and didn't stop until early morning. The basement was fine until about 10. I went down to pick up my labels and with every step I took, the floor tiles bled water. When I lifted the tiles by the drain...the drain was a geyser. I screamed to Rob to come help. We got out injection pump hooked up and draining into the sink. It quickly filled both basins and then Rob put it directly into the sump. We got to most of the tiles up and vacuumed as much as we could. The power dropped out a couple times. Around midnight we decided we had done all we could and we would just create a force field of positive energy. 

Tuesday morning we woke up and were on the road up to watch the babies. The kids loved having some one on one time with each of the girls. We did a bit of thrifting on our way home. The kids played outside for a couple hours before we had dinner and went to cool off at the pool.

Today I tried to troubleshoot the DSL connection issue with at&t. I found out our connection was all good with them - meaning our router/modem fizzled out with the power outages. Mom picked us up mid morning and we headed out to Schaumburg to meet Dad for lunch to celebrate his birthday. We introduced Mom to Savers. We ate at Jason's Deli...it was fun for the kids. They got to see where Gramps works. We did some shopping on the way back home. The kids played outside when we got home and then we went to the library for our check in. I was able to pick up a new router/modem and we can connect again.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Visualizing my healthy and continually healing body and the new normal, Tree