Bad Blogger! Bad!

UGH, the time has slipped away from me again, work has been the busiest of my life and the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer - I have so many posts that I have started and vow to get posted soon. I HAVE to get caught up - SO much to tell :)

Whoops...

I seem to have lost a month. If anyone finds it, that would be great. So a quick synopsis:

• The week after my last post, I worked 60 or so hours and was ignoring a sore throat.
• The next week Brian left for a week to go to California for the first outrigger race of the year, Mary stayed with my parents for three days and I was sick, sick, sick. My voice was completely gone, but my clients were not - I still had so much work to do. Luckily I could do most of it from home.
• This same week, I took Friday off and was feeling better enough to spend the day with Mary. We went to an open gym play time at a gymnastics gym with some friends and Mary had a BALL. Jumping on trampolines, hanging from bars, sliding down slides. But the best part was a trampoline that was like a runway and ended at the edge of a large pit of foam blocks. Mary bounced her way down the run way and stood there - No, it's a 6' drop, she wouldn't jump in there by herself - YUP, she did! After the first jump, that's all she wanted to do. It was so fun to spend the day with her and not have to go grocery shopping or do errands like I have to on the weekend.
• Brian was asked back to race with Hokuloa - the club that brought us together. Since he raced with at the last race last year and now went back for the first race this year - there were probably some people who think he never left :) He had a great time and came home with a medal. I'm so glad he can go back, it makes being so far from California all the easier.
• Work, work, work. Okay, the overtime is great, but it's starting to wear on me. I still love the job and the people and the work - but I don't have enough energy at the end of the day to work out, cook dinner or write entries...I DO feel that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, it will lighten up hopefully starting this week when many people are out on vacation during the week of Memorial Day.
• Other than that, Spring came, we planted posies, painted Mary's room, Brian is making progress on the woodwork in the dining room. Some other big things happen but I'll have some future posts devoted to them - for now, here are the pics from the missing month.



Mary helping to plant lantana out front - they get so big around the tree



She has really liked helping out in the yard this year - makes gardening a lot easier!



Someone has started to pick out her own outfits :)



The FREEZE Opened for the summer -Woo-HO! Cheese fries and ice cream for lunch!



Some one wasn't too keen on sharing the cheese fries.



Sitting outside The Freeze - I used to ride my bike here when I was little - so fun to see Mary here now.



Brian heading off to California



The "before" picture of Mary's Room



...and after...



So pretty! I'm so pleased. to have a cute room for my little girl.



Mary loved it. For weeks she would say "my room painted" and she would go hug the walls.



First time playing with play doh



I showed her how to make worms :)



All the woodwork off the dining room and is re-finished. Brian is repairing the walls and then we can paint and put it back up! So exciting to see progress.






The wood work will match the re-finished door you can see. Years and years of paint to remove
I can't wait to see it all together. Brian is doing such a great job!






Mary gave a dollar to the veterans and got to pick out a flag.
Now when we go to the grocery store, she asks where the nice man is.






First time painting fingernails!






...and toes, too!



Brian clearing brush from the back of the house - he's busy, busy, busy






Trimming trees in the back - he did it all with a handsaw...






Play date and lunch out with friends when I took a day off!






Brave Mary finally went down the tube slide - it was a little too loud in there and she was nervous at first.







Me finally feeling better :)

It's GONE

Lonely front steps

When I drive to work, I take some smaller back roads that go through farmland. There is one little farm where a house in the distance often captured my attention. A cute square house with a small curved roof over the front door, a broken windmill stood behind it and a blanket of cornfield infront of it. When I see homes like this, I imagine when it was first built. The first family who was so proud to live there – able to truly see the fruits of their hard work manifest into a roof over their head, food on the table.

I admired this house to and from work every day until one day I almost drove off the road.

It was GONE! A backhoe sat next to where it used to be. My heart broke.

I have always felt like things have feelings, I always felt bad when I would get rid of toys, even books because they were something I loved, and I couldn't cast aside something I loved. My mom always said I was the kid who would come home from the fair with the one-eyed goldfish - it's true, I always would feel bad for the one eyed goldfish because no one else would pick him, so I gave him a home.

The same goes for homes. So much happens in a home, love, laughter, frustrations, spirit. How can you just demo that?

Brian and I have been kicking around the idea of starting a business. Architectural Salvage. Especially now while we are trying to find items for our house, the closest true salvage place is in Chicago, or Milwaukee or Madison, WI. I've talked to a few people and they have said that this area could USE something like this. After seeing the house above, I knew we had to do something. Just think of the items, the craftsmanship that was lost in a dumpster. So, game on.

After deliberatinng on names, for many reason we have decided that the most appropriate name is:

AMERICAN SEARCH & SALVAGE

My Dad is working on a logo now. More to come.

God Bless Dr. Bloom

Okay so when Mary broke her tooth, I know we said we wouldn't fix it. After all, it's a BABY tooth - as my brother said, "Save that money for braces later on." But the more I saw, it the more I lived with it, I wanted to get if fixed. If she were older, I'd probably live with it, but she won't loose those teeth for several years...so we fixed it.

I admit, I was a little apprehensive if this busy 2-year-old would sit still long enough for the tooth to set, but I knew my mom would be there working as the dental assistant and Dr. Bloom is such a sweet gentle guy with four kids of his own.

We talked a LOT about it the week before so she would be ready for what was going to happen. We practiced sitting very still...and talked about how when we were all done we could go get french fries. And it worked!

She. Did. Great.

She sat still, she wasn't scared, and when the treasure basket came at the end, she was in love.

Later that week, Brian was putting her to bed and they were saying God Blesses; on her own, she said "God Bless Dr. Bloom." Aww - sweet girl.

A little apprehensive in the waiting room...

Picking the tooth color with Marmee and Dr.Bloom

So glad we practiced sitting still!

YAY! Treasure basket!

Now a pretty smile, just like Marmee!

French Fries afterward - the perfect celebration for a great job!

Happy Easter!

(I started working on this post on the day after Easter...then things got busy...sorry for the delay!)

Okay, so I've never been that big into Easter, but we had a BLAST this year. We were invited to a brunch accompanied by bloody mary bar on Easter morning, there was supposed to be an appearance by the Easter Bunny and a bouncy house for the kids. The week before, we got a message saying that the Bunny Costume was over $300, but the Easter PANDA would be making an appearance and weather wasn't permitting for the bouncy house, but there would be other fun things for the kiddies.

Mary was more excited about the Easter Bunny coming than she was about Santa. She has her special basket that Marmee got for her last year and we set it outside her door for the bunny to fill up. That morning, she slept in. We finally woke her up about 8:30am and reminder her that the Easter Bunny had visited. We got some great video of her being excited to see what she got!

We had a leisurely morning and Mary opened her goodies from the Easter Bunny; she got bunny ears, candy, a dinosaur coloring sheet, a new bath duckie, new springtime PJs, AND the Toy Story Trilogy...I think I'm more excited about that one!

We went to our party and there were LOTs of families and kids there, it was really fun, but the kids it was so chilly out that the kids were just running around inside. Oh well, I thought, this is life in the mid-west. Mary was quite happy in the playroom on her own and THEN the Easter Panda arrived. I knew she might find it a little scary, so I found her in the crowd. Sure enough, she wanted nothing to do with him, but when she got Jelly Bellys from him, she thought he was okay enough to take a picture as long as Daddy was there too!

At that point, the hostess said, Let's go out and see the BUNNIES! Outside was a little petting zoo with bunnies, baby chicks and....lizards - HA! What fun. There was a big bowl of carrots and the kids could go in and feed the bunnies. Mary LOVED it and was very gentle. She would feed a bunny for a bit, it would hop away and then she would say "Come back, bunny! Come back!" Then Brian brought her to the lizard/frog table and she gave the little creatures a pat-pat. What a great idea and a great time.

For dinner it was time to go to Marmee and Grampy's. When Mary woke up from her nap, I told her that the Easter Bunny visited their house, too! "Easter Panda?" she asked - HA, I guess we have a new tradition there. My mom bought a gorgeous dress for Mary with hand smocking across the front, normally a dress like this would be about $70, but nope! She got it fro $2 at the local thrift shop. Mary was so excited to wear it, as soon as she put it on she said, "Mirror! Mirror!' and went to admire herself. My little girl.

I may have a new favorite holiday :)

Easter Morning Beauties!

Easter egg hunt in the living room!

Jelly Bellys from the Easter Panda

Keeping one eye on the Easter Panda!

BUNNY petting zoo

And Lizards, too!

Family Easter pic with bunny

My Mom's beautiful table set for the Easter Feast - She makes everything so beautiful!

Easter egg hunt at Marmee & Grampy's

Daddy helping

Special Egg the Easter Bunny left

Mary checking out some other goodies we got for Easter!

Working Girl

A few months ago I as boo-hoo-ing to my mommy group about how I'm not present in Mary's life. We were going through our bedtime routine, rocking and reading a book called "Mommy Kisses" where mommy animals kiss all their babies. Mary would point to all of the mommy animals and say "Daddy". While I am so happy that she has such a strong, caring father-figure in her life, that made me very sad.

The others in my group said to be happy that she has such a strong woman figure to look up to. That I am setting a great example. But I took that all to be "blah, blah" because they were trying to make me feel better.

Recently, Miss Mary has been wearing my shoes. She even trys to lift her leg to get into my tall boots which I find hilarious. One night she was clomping around in her PJs and my heels and she said, "I go work now. I go work!"

*smile*

Wow, I guess I am setting an example for her. It wasn't so long ago that young girls would not have seen that they had the option to go work as an executive (not a secretary) for a large Fortune 500 company and support their family.

When I was growing up, I remember my mom wouldn't let me ride my bike after 5pm because it was "Daddy-Come-Home-Time" and there were more cars on the road. I'm not sure if Mary would know what "Daddy-Come-Home-Time" is...we'll have to think of another name for it.

My Storm Trooper

Brian going out to snow blow the neighborhood

I never want to start out on a negative note, but….March in Chicagoland sucks.

It’s a schizophrenic month. Last year at this time, Mary had on a short-sleeve shirt and we went to the beach. This year, it snowed all day yesterday (luckily, nothing really stuck) and today when I got in my car the dash read 16*. UGH. The first thing I think of is Brian. It is still fresh in my mind that I want him to like living here and right now it’s a tough sell.

If ever there were someone who is going to power through the pain of a tough situation, it’s Brian. In January/February, it’s still novel and he enjoys getting bundled up and spending most of the morning with Baileys in a coffee mug and snow blowing the neighborhood. But in March, that novelty has worn off.

Thankfully, his resourcefulness finds things he can do. He uses this time to sand and stain the wood trim in the garage. Over the weekend he got bundled up and raked out the garden; “Dirt Therapy” as he calls it. When I see this, my heart gets all warm and fuzzy. He's a trooper.