$50 Bucks Baby!!

My aunt and uncle were coming to stay the night with us last Sunday. Moving in had taken a bit longer than I had planned, and when I walked down the stairs in the morning I saw a mountain of boxes where the living room should be. So I started to empty them–and my Grayson was right next to me to help. He took all of the flattened boxes to the garage–he took boxes upstairs–he picked up trash. Anything I needed, he was right there. I did get a little help from Blake and I got nothing but attitude from Jacob. But my Grayson never left my side. We were planning to take my Aunt to my husbands restaurant for lunch and I told Grayson that he had earned the rare treat of dessert after his lunch. However, as we finished up and I handed him the last task I needed to have complete before the house was ready for company–he asked if he could vacuum. I had literally just worked his tushy off–and he volunteered to vacuum. Now, I’m no idiot–and he did an Ok job and as he was putting the vacuum away I walked by and just said–”Grayson, $50 Bucks!!” He knew what that meant-but wasn’t sure he heard me correctly, so I repeated it. Jacob overheard the comment and had a wicked attitude–and I just let him know that Grayson helped from beginning to end-even though he didn’t know there was compensation involved, he never complained and in fact, was a joy to be around and even after it all–he volunteered for another job. And for that–how could I not reward him bigger than I’d ever rewarded anyone before! In fact, it reminded me of an earlier moment–that some of you may remember as well! Grayson has always been a very sweet helper–I’m lucky to have him!

But It’s MY Blog!!

I have been really lucky in the past. I was able to use this blog as a place to vent…to release the frustrations of family that you don’t really get to vent all that often. This is a public–yet private space all my own, so I felt safe to just let my rants roam over the pages of my blogs–after all, no one close to the people and events even knew the address of my blogs–until now! Turns out–the other Executive Chef that works with my husband put in the restaurant name in a search engine–and up pops my wonderful blog. I’ve never said anything disparaging about anyone at the restaurant–and held high praise for it–but the problem stems from the fact that this man also knows one of the main characters of MANY of my rants. Whoops!! Not that I really care what happens to said character–but there was just a little too much information given for someone who may know the family. I was going to tone it down a bit–and leave out some of the trashy details–and will for now–but honestly, nothing I’ve said wasn’t true–and if the fact that I’ve publicly ‘outed’ you for having created a Jerry Springer moment in our family makes you uncomfortable–TOUGH–you should have thought about that before you started wreaking havoc!! Anyway–cryptic for all of you newcomers–but if you’ve been here before–you know exactly what is going on!!

Suburban Life!!

I just got home from grocery shopping! I know, it’s 2:46 am, but honestly–there is a 24 hour Meier (my favorite store) just down the road from this house! The old house had a Meier about 30 minutes away, and I can guarantee I’m not driving 30 minutes to the grocery store when it’s 2 in the morning.

Everything is closer to this house. All of our favorite restaurants, the mall, my church! Truly, there isn’t anything I’ve gone looking for that I haven’t found extremely close. My husband couldn’t find a place to get his hair cut here, but I honestly think that was caused more by the fact that we normally look locations up on the internet, and we didn’t have it. We are NOT the Yellow Pages kind of folks.

I love it here! There are a ton of mosquitoes, but other than that–life is pretty perfect!

Great Day!!

I would like to know how it is possible to put on a new outfit and your stylish boots–and suddenly you are up and raring to go for the day! I have been so tired today–probably because I was up until 3 in the morning working on my new internet!! But then–I finally got around to getting dressed for the day–and the energy surged!! I got so much done! A big sofa taken to the basement. The love seat moved to the family room and the kitchen table taken down in order to get the new dinette set and chairs up and running. I vacuumed the main floor-and even got a little carpet cleaning done upstairs! I NEVER have this much energy–but really–the clothes just do it for me–I guess!!

I need to head back over to the old house tomorrow and get some work done! I haven’t been there in a few days, and I feel like I’m really not being a good steward to get that house ready to be sold or rented! The sooner I get it finished–the sooner I don’t have to pay the tax bill on it–that should be incentive enough!

Beautiful Summer Fun!!

I have been rummaging through pictures recently and found this really cute one of Blake and Barrett. For some reason, it’s just the epitome of summer in my opinion. They are playing in the water fountain at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Nothing too structured about it–just a really cute candid moment with two really cute little kids!

I love this photo because of the color, the light–and most of all–the innocent moment of childhood that it caught!

I HATE AT&T!!

Can you believe it? I’m still in shock! I disconnected my beloved computer on September 1st in our old house–and hooked it up later that evening in our new house—and NOTHING! Nothing until today! I was supposed to have my DSL hooked up 3 different times–waited on hold with AT&T for 20 minutes a shot to make sure there was a work order–every time I was given a waiting time of three days. After the last confirmation for the 10th of September which never happened–my husband got a call at work congratulating him on his choice of AT&T and letting him know that his new DSL order would be up and running on the 18th of September. My husband LOST IT!! He was screaming and swearing at the poor customer service rep who just called to congratulate him. He was dropping F-bombs on her (he NEVER does that) and just venting 2 weeks worth of rage! She was able to move the date up from the 18th to the 17th—’don’t strain yourself there lady’–and then yesterday when they set up the DSL, they disconnected the phone line. So again–no internet! Finally at 2 pm today–the guy was out fixing the phone line, and the DSL went out–his response–”give it an hour”! So 4 hours later, my husband sat on the telephone for nearly 2 hours trying to get it all worked out. As you can see–he was successful–but all I want to say is:

I HATE A.T. & T.!!!!!!!

Peggy Was Here!!

My aunt was just in town over the weekend. They are on a 2000 mile road trip visiting all of the Church History sites along their way. They stopped here in Chicago for a one day layover between Nauvoo, IL and Kirtland, OH. It was so fun to see them! They arrived at 3 pm, and we headed for a quick tour of downtown. We started at Soldiers Field with the hope of beating all of the traffic from the Bears game-which we did–and we ended with a trip to the Sky Deck of the Sears Tower. I’ve lived here for 5 years and have still not visited the Sky Deck. At $13 a head it will be a while before this family of 6 actually makes it to the top!

It was dark when they made it back to ‘Terra Firma’ and we headed to my husbands restaurant–well, we did make a quick loop over to Harpo Studio’s so she could have a little “Oprah” photo op. My husbands restaurant was closed by the time we made it back, so we headed to a late dinner and then home to get my kids and Uncle Mike to bed. My aunt Peggy and I stayed up until 1 in the morning just chatting. It was so fun to have her here, even it was only for 18 hours!!