Day 8 and 9

Day 8 began early - we wanted to leave Kalamazoo and get on the road. We had big plans to make it to Sikeston, MO that night. We were hoping to get to Lambert's (Home of the Throwed Rolls) for dinner. The drive was fairly easy. The ever famous McDonald's was our stop for lunch. The boys were busy watching their movie so we rigged them up in the car like this:

We arrived in Sikeston, checked into the Comfort Inn and then decided to head over to Lambert's...the place we all had been dreaming of for miles. We see a line but I wasn't too concerned there is ALWAYS a line at Lambert's. Just as we are getting out of the car I hear over the loud speaker "The wait is 2 to 2 hours and 15 minutes for a table - just so you know." "WHAT?!?!?" It would have been like eating at 8:30 at night! I noticed people actually camping out in camp chairs behind their cars in the parking lot. What in the world? It's good -but not THAT good! There was no way we all could last for 2 more hours for dinner so we headed over to Ruby Tuesday. Evan was off the wall at this point. He needed some food and fast - thank God for that salad bar with crackers! I even got a free margarita - so good enough for me at Ruby Tuesday.

Day 9 was long and tiresome - nothing to report here - just more driving back through Missouri, Arkansas and Texas. The boys did great. We pulled into the driveway at 5pm. Roadtrip Summer '09 - over and out.

Day 7

We had come up with a plan, late the night before, to leave for South Haven around 10:30 that morning. The weather was supposed to be beautiful and I really wanted the boys to experience the beach of Lake Michigan again. We did pretty good and actually left by 10:45. Dave and Chris stayed back to golf.

We arrived at North Beach in South Haven and we were immediately whisked away into the ideal Lake Michigan summer day. The breeze was nice, the temperature was right and the sand was soft. The Lake looked so beautiful and huge – just amazing. The water was chilly – just as it should be. We dipped our toes in the sand and water, watched the waves come in, took some pictures and did some walking over to the channel where the boats come in and out from the Lake. We suddenly started dreaming about a future summer where we all rented a beach house for a couple of weeks. The simplicity of life on the beach sounded so inviting. It would be incredible and hopefully our dreamings will happen in a couple of summers. I would absolutely love it!

those beach houses back there sell for over $750,000 and taxes are $26,000 a year - crap!

sweet baby toes in the sand

my cousin Betsie and her Mom, my Aunt Kathy (Mom's sister)

We headed over to lunch in the Downtown area – Clementine’s. My aunt Carolyne and her family drove up to meet us there. We enjoyed another delicious meal together.

That's Riley - daughter of my cousin, Shannon, or my 1st cousin once removed, with Evan...they are second cousins because they share the same great-grandparents...got that? BUT...they actually look a lot a like...same coloring, eyebrows, nose, blond hair...weird, huh? I'm actually fascinated by family trees and geneology and how everyone is related. I'm probably the record keeper of all this stuff for our family now.

We did a little more shopping in the shops, bought the “buy a dozen cookies get a 2^nd dozen for a penny” at the Golden Brown Bakery. Then we piled in the cars to go to Sherman’s. I wrote about our adventures at Sherman’s from our trip last year here. This place was busy today!!! Evan got a Blue Moon…and he was providing true entertainment for the whole restaurant. It looked like a crime scene of a smurf accident by the time he was done.

Our original plan was to go to Fricano’s that night for dinner – to toast Uncle Mike - and to toast our family. BUT….we were still full from our lunch at Clementine’s and Cyndi couldn’t join us that night. So we enjoyed some snacks, leftovers and what-nots for dinner instead. The kids had a great time playing together again and we visited some more. Kath and Dave spilled the beans….. Matt and Lisa have some exciting news – they are expecting a baby in February!!! Wow! How exciting - another great-grandbaby for Grandma!

This was our last night in Kalamazoo – it was bittersweet, for sure. Wish we didn’t have to leave a) because we didn’t seem to get enough time to visit and spend together and b) because the drive home sounded awful. But we know it will be good to be home too.

Day 6

The original plan was to head out to South Haven and Lake Michigan that morning with my cousin Shannon and her crew. But the weather didn’t seem too great and most everyone was still tuckered out from the night before and we didn’t get as early a head start as originally thought. We made plans to head to Grandma’s apartment. She had stuff she wanted to show us – and we hadn’t seen how she had the place fixed up since Ralph passed away last summer.

It looked so nice and organized and I’m really glad that we had a chance to go over there. Bryan was so nice to keep the boys occupied while Grandma gave me stacks of old pictures and we went through some of her jewelry collection. She really wants to make sure we all have something that was meaningful to her. It is amazing the amount of jewelry she has collected over the years – 70+ years. I love how she used old candy box trays as little compartments to organize earring and rings. She had labels in each compartment for certain pieces that she wanted to remember – like “from Ireland”. “My mother’s - age 18”. It really was a treasure to see how she knew where everything was from – it was like a visual journal of her life in a way. She remembered if she bought the piece on a trip, if it was a present, if it was passed down from her mother. Her sets of pearls – one longer, one shorter. One from Grandpa after he messed up one Christmas and bought her a coffee pot. The expensive pieces Ralph picked out for her because he really treasured her and wanted her to know it. A pin her first boyfriend gave her when she was 16. The earrings I wore on my wedding. The rings I remember seeing on her fingers and the necklaces I’ve seen her wear around her neck. It was awkward as she laid these trays of jewelry out in front of me, Mom and Aunt Kathy. Telling us to take some things, ask first before taking others, writing down what we might want “when she meets her demise” as she kept saying. We each left with a box of treasures from her collection and life.

All this jewelry sorting was making us hungry. We had a yummy lunch at The Coffee Bar. We did a little bit of shopping at the Goose – seems to be a tradition of our visits to Kalamazoo. I really did want to buy a new Vera Bradley purse but decided against spending some more money that day. Mom made out with some Brighton jewelry goods. The boys were pretty exhausted at this point but they were hanging in there….such troopers.

We headed back to the Sprague’s to chill for a bit before we were going to go eat pizza at Bilbo’s….we got a little too relaxed and decided to just stay there and bring the pizza to us. What a great plan! Sitting out on the back porch was splendid, the boys played, we ate and talked and laughed. Cyndi came over to join us too. Betsie and Chris arrived from Indy.

It was an excellent day - Mom has all the pictures on her camera...so I'll post those later. Check out the earlier trip posts - I have pictures and video from Chicago added on there.

Day 5

Our plan was to get up fairly early, eat some quick breakfast and then get out on the road toward Kalamazoo, MI. What actually happened was we got up not as early as we hoped, we ate a breakfast that took longer than expected and we left for Kalamazoo right at 9:00am – rush hour in Chicago.

We ate breakfast at a Dunkin’ Donuts that was a short walk from the hotel. It was actually right in front of the Trump International Tower or whatever you call it…the shiniest new building in Chicago. It was busy – because that seems to be where everyone is stopping for their coffee that morning. We scarf down entirely too many donuts for what a family of four should consume and we head back to the hotel to pack up the car.

Greta the Garmin was programmed for Kalamazoo the night before so we figured it would be no problem once we got in the car. Apparently, Greta the Garmin decided to not want to wake up and function that morning as she kept recalculating and acquiring her satellites really slow. So we tried to guess where to go while she was still napping and that wasn’t so great. She then seemed to wake up and then be with us for a bit until we were really on the highway – then she told us to exit and then immediately said turn back around and get back on the highway…Jesus, this is not what we need at 9am in Chicago on a Wednesday morning. So, we get out a map and do it the old fashioned way. Okay – now we’re good and on the road. Scenic point – Gary, IN is not very pretty and I’m glad I don’t live there. We thought for a moment that we might go see Michael Jackson’s birthplace and then quickly decided it wouldn’t be worth it.

We arrive in the Zoo at 12:45 on the dot – just like Greta told us we would (once she got her act together). Uncle Dave and Grandma were there – so we hung out, rested and visited until Kath came home and Mom arrived from her flight from Texas. Carolyne, Pat, Shannon, Preston, Riley and Quinn also arrived. Suddenly a full house! The weather was trying desperately to not cooperate with the eating outside plan. We made do and had great hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner. Delicious! We set up our sleeping situation and the night came to a close. Plans were still up in the air based on the weather for Thursday…so we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Day 4

We started our day at Cosi - a little Pandera Bread kind of place a few blocks over. The coffee was so freakin' hot that it took until after we ate breakfast before we could actual drink it - but it was good!

We found the bus that would take us to the Navy Pier. We arrive a bit early before everything opens but we got to explore a little before the crowds arrived. We signed up for a boat tour (free with the Go Card) and then headed over to do some rides (free with the Go Card). We road the carousel and then the little kiddie up downy lighthouse ride.

The boat headed out at 10:30 to tour the shoreline of Chicago.

It was beautiful weather again. As we were learning all about the various architecture of the city, 3 "United States of America" helicopters flew by and around the pier before they finally landed. Everyone on the boat was a flutter that it was President Obama.

It very well could have been - because it was the very same helicopters a President of the United States would ride in. The weather was absolutely fabulous at this time of day and the views were gorgeous.

I'm so glad we didn't have to pay for this boat ride - but glad we did it!



We then did the Navy Pier ferris wheel

- even though I had a death grip on Evan the whole time.

It was great but I requested that nobody move too much while we were at the tippy top. The trickiest part was gettin' on and off that sucker.....it doesn't stop and there are itty bitty doors you have to squeeze your butt through. And the fear of being stuck halfway in a gondola as it goes back up is enough to motivate you to throw your kids out and move as quickly as possible.



Lunch, Garrett's Popcorn, and then the Children's Museum. This was also included in the Go Card purchase - just the Children's Museum part. What a great place - the boys LOVED it and really didn't want to leave. They had some great hands on things....it really was incredible!

this is the piano slide in the kid invention section - cool!

Things to build, climb, color, touch. We really could have spent more time here but we had the rest of Chicago we had to squeeze in today so off we went.


We then waited for a double decker tour bus (free with our Go Card) to take us up to the Water Tower Area. We got seats in the very front on the very top. Great view and really fun and touristy! We decided to stay on and get off at the Sears Tower (now called the Willis Tower - even though no one in Chicago calls it that). The tour of the Skydeck was also included in our Go Card....so up we went. Apparently, this trip of Chicago is going to be a test of my fear of heights and high places. At the top of the 103rd floor they have 3 sky boxes where you can walk out over the city.

see those boxes sticking out - those are people standing in there.

It is all glass or plexiglass or whatever - totally see through all the way around you. We did it...we walked out on that thing and lived to tell about it. My knees were a bit wobbly and I stayed just long enough to get the picture and then off again.

Here's the video proof we did it!

I mentioned that there were 3 boxes ...there actually was a 4th. But it had a crack in it. A crack that occured when they tested it with over 7000lbs of pressure. Nice. Now, that was a bit freaky! Glad I did it but I have no need or desire to relive that experience.

Stand off the edge of North America's tallest building - check.

When we got off the double decker bus I asked the guy how to get to the Red Line to go to the Sox game. "up this street until you get to State St...go down and hop on going South". Sounds easy enough. Everyone we had asked so far said the best way to get to the White Sox game was to travel on the Red Line....that was it - no other options. So the Red Line it was. We had walked out of the Sears/Willis Tower at 5:00 on the dot. That is quittin' time in the business district where we were...that equals crowded streets/sidewalks of business folk that were ready to go home. And here we are, stroller, backpack, 5 year old with head in the clouds, bag of Garrett's popcorn that doesn't fit well in the stroller. I'm zooming by everyone headed the way the guy said. We keep walking and walking. Then we started to second guess ourselves....pull over get out the giant map of the CTA system to determine if we were going the right way - and we were. Okay, made it. We see the stairs going down. "Dear Jesus, please help us as we navigate the L system with our 2 boys who are tired and cranky as we head to a White Sox game. Please help us fit strollers through tight places, spill as little popcorn as possible, and keep us from getting squished on the train. Amen." Now, I've done subways in foreign cities before - Boston, St. Louis, Cleveland, NY but this was all without kids. Dear Lord, what were we thinking? The train was crowded...standing room only but we only had like 3 stops to go before we could get off. Brennan is yelling, "when can we sit?!?!?" "Brennan, just stand and like it and keep your mouth quiet, these people have worked hard all day and they need to sit down on their way home and there is no where to move to so just keep it quiet." One nice lady did offer to give up her seat...maybe more so to stop hearing Brennan complain about his 5 year old self not sitting.

Whoo hoo!!!! We made it.

Everyone intact and ready for a ballgame! Damn...should have bought tickets online the night before - it would have been MUCH cheaper. Oh well! We're here 1 1/2 hours before the game.

So our timing wasn't so great - but we were here. The US Cellular field is beautiful and you could just feel the tradition in the air. Bryan and I ate the Chicago-style hot dog (mine with no onions, thank you very much).

We figured when in Rome..... it was good, real good. I didn't even mind the pepper thingamabobs on there. The boys were hungry and ate up their food too. The night was nice...it felt good to sit and relax at the game. It wasn't real crowded and it was fun to watch the fans. We left after the 5th inning since it was dark and we still had to navigate the Red Line back to the hotel.

We did fine...we are pros now. Completely knowledgeable of the Chicago CTA system.

The Red Line has a stop on Grand street - directly in front of the hotel! Yippee!! We had a brief thought to go get ice cream (as we had used that as a bribe for good behavior way back at the Navy Pier) but figured the boys had long forgotten about it.

I'd say it was another successful day in Chicago. I'm completely wiped out and ready for bed.

Day 3

I really wanted to wait before I posted the rest of the trip so I could include pictures and video but I'm afraid my memory will not hold out that long - so I'll insert them later if you want to check back then.

UPDATE: Pictures and videos are up and running.

On to Day 3:

I woke up bright and early, got ready then woke everyone else up to get them ready. The hotel gave us a list of breakfast restaurants within walking distance - so we decided to try out The West Egg. We packed everything up that we needed for the day as we weren't real sure when we'd get back to the hotel. We had a full day planned.

We found The West Egg....everybody was enjoying their breakfast.

And the moment. The moment of all moments. We were getting ready to head out so I do the bathroom check -"who needs to go to the potty?" Evan didn't really answer which means he's already done something in his pull-up. I turn him around to check and that's when I saw it. The disaster that had hit his back side. It was all over his shirt, shorts, legs. It was everywhere!!!! This is what happens when you have too much milk at dinner. I quickly haul him to the bathroom...but...at The West Egg the bathrooms are down a very steep staircase. AND, of course, another mother was walking her children to the same bathroom at the same time. I'm panicking...I have NO change of clothes in our little backpack. Just another pull-up and a package of wipes. If you are squeamish or eating something as you are reading - just go ahead and skip the next paragraph.

I begin to undress him on the changing station...it is the slimiest, greenest, drippiest, smelliest shit that has ever come out of him. I was horrified and so was this poor other mother in the rest room that was desperately trying to ignore the scene I was causing in the bathroom. Evan is standing (there is no way I was having him lie down) naked on the changing table thing. I have used half a package of wipes to clean him off as best I could. Next step - what do I put him in...clearly he has to go back to the hotel room, bathe and change his clothes. The only thing I could do was rinse his clothes off in the sink. Luckily, the other mother and her 3 children have left the restroom as I'm sure they were scarred for life after what they witnessed. Evan has on a pull-up and now soaking wet/half poopy clothes. I call Bryan on his cell, "meet me outside - we are not coming back to the table!" And that was that. We walked the 7 blocks back to the hotel room - the kid got another bath and a change of clothes. We also packed another set of clothes in the backpack "just in case." Oh - so gross!

After our small delay we were back on track - we walked back out to Michigan Ave and found the bus stop that would take us to the museum campus.

We happened to meet a lovely family that was from Ennis, TX on their family vacation. They told us about this "Go Chicago Card". I'm telling you - if you ever come to Chicago to purely sightsee - than get this thing. It saves you a ton of money and time. We had to buy it online or at certain locations in the city...after doing some research we finally learned that we could buy one at the Shedd Aquarium. We weren't really planning on doing the Aquarium - we have a great one in Dallas....but now we "had" to since it was included in our Go Card price. We did that whole Aquarium in less than an hour. You've seen one fish you've seen 'em all, right?

After a small lunch on the grounds of the Campus we headed to The Field Museum. Sue was most excellent in the eyes of Brennan and Evan.

We did as much as we could muster in the museum...animals

(seriously, how many dead, stuffed animals can one see?), Evolving Planet (with more bones), Ancient Americas and the Underground Adventure (where you get shrunk down in size to learn what it's like to be a bug in the dirt). Everything really was interesting but my ADD was in full force. We saw soooo much!

We then hopped on the bus (again) to the Water Tower area to do the Hancock Building Tour (included in our Go Card). I did buy a bus pass - once we figured out how much we were really going to use that. We did check out the Hershey Store

(while Evan napped in the stroller) and got our free Hershey Bar. The Hancock Center has 95 floors...the Tour is on the 94th floor...Jerry Springer lives in the Hancock Center. They had great audio tour headphone thingies - that just "frustrated" Brennan to no end.

it was all very fascinating.

We headed to Gino's East Pizza on Superior Street.

Aunt Eleanor headed down there to meet us for dinner. Uncle Jim wasn't feeling to great so he stayed back at home. We were so excited to eat there and we decided on a half sausage half cheese medium deep dish. After we order it the waiter says "okay, that will be about 45 minutes, 'kay?" "WHAT?!?!?" The place specializes in these things and it takes 45 minutes?!?!?!? How in the world were we going to keep Thing One and Thing Two occupied for 45 minutes! Aunt Eleanor was very sweet and I hope I looked like I was really paying attention to what she was saying - inbetween the screaming, Coke spilling, arguing, and jumping-in-chair behavior coming from Thing Two. BUT, the pizza was REALLY good once it did arrive. We wolfed it down - except for 1 piece that we took to go along with a Cannoli for later. We helped Eleanor hail a cab - even though this octogenarian needed no help what's so ever! Said goodbyes and headed back to our hotel. The weather has been gorgeous and it really was a nice evening walk back.

The boys took a swim in the hotel pool

and then they were seriously ready for bed. Glad to report that there were no more poop issues - at least from Evan and that cannoli was really good.

Time to rest up for Day 4!

Summer Road Trip '09 Day 1-2

We've taken on a pretty serious road trip this summer....1 that would involve 4 total days of driving across the country, 3 nights in Chicago and 3 nights in Kalamazoo. Whew!

Day 1 - Reid's 2 year old birthday party was at 10am and we had prescriptions to pick up across town then we finally could leave Arlington - it was 12:30. The drive across east Texas and Arkansas was uneventful. A few arguments over the DVD player and headphone usage - but all was fine. We had hoped to make it to Sikeston, MO but realized after making it through Little Rock, AR that we did not have that much more in us and driving at night didn't sound much more appealing. West Memphis, AR was our Day 1 resting place. A Comfort Inn worked just fine for our first hotel stay. The boys slept in the same bed together, no problems but it was late.

Day 2 - we were up early - or at least I was. We made it down to breakfast by 7:30. The hotel had one of those free continental breakfast dealies - but about 5 itty bitty tables to sit at. Seeing as they were all full we opted to sit at the comfy couch and coffee table area in the "lobby". The boys were "starved" for breakfast...I handed each a cake donut to ease the hunger while Bryan was in charge of making the waffles. You'd of thought I handed them exploding donuts because it was quickly the biggest mess created on those comfy couches. Seriously. I was so embarrassed but nobody was kind of enough to give up their "table spot" to a family of 4 with messy boys even though they were only drinking coffee and reading the paper. Oh well...I guess we taught the Comfort Inn a lesson to get more tables.

We headed out on the freeway of love - okay it was just I57 toward Chicago. We made it through Missouri, crossed the Mississippi and in to Illinois. There was a little more action from the backseat that morning. Brennan was super grumpy and suddenly the 14 year old teenager that "doesn't want to go on a stupid family vacation". Geez - take a nap already. Anyways...the boys had to take turns deciding what movie to watch but there were issues. Issues with the headphones. Brennan has his own pair of headphones. They are his and his only because they are the kind that actually sit in your ears a bit and they are covered in his ear goo. I packed another pair for Evan that go on top of your ears but we quickly realized that one side was broken. He kept taking them on and off his head and we kept having to put them back together - it was starting to get real annoying but we were dealing. I had the brilliant idea to bring along a picture book and CD combo - for Saint-Saens Carnival of Animals. This is where Brennan's prepubscent attitude came into play. Evan was totally into my little cultural/teaching moment and Brennan was not. We all fought through the attitude, enjoyed listening to some music and then quickly hooked the DVD player back up so their was some more quiet time. Lunch happened in Effingham, IL at a Wendy's - pretty uneventful.

Then there was a potty break - can't remember exactly where but it happened at a Target where I purchased a new set of headphones...there, issue solved. I happened to be the one on driving duty when we actually arrived IN Chicago.

I survived and Greta the Garmin (thanks Paladini's) was awesome at getting us to our hotel. We arrived at the Hilton Garden Inn on Grand Ave at 5pm. We were a bit bleary-eyed and hungry but we were impressed by our handicap-accomodated hotel room. Seriously nice with kids - it has a giant bathroom so showers and bath issues are easy here!

We called up Jim and Eleanor Casella. Bryan's great Aunt and Uncle on his mother's side. They live right downtown on Randolph street. The last time we saw them was in 2001 when Bryan and I drove to Chicago/Michigan BK (before kids). They are so sweet and wanted us to come over for dinner. So we venture to their apartment, in our car, through the streets of Chicago. It got a bit tense...lots more honking, one way streets and people that cross extra slow in cross walks than we are used to. But, all's good - we made it. They met us in the lobby and took us up to "their" restaurant. It's the restaurant in their building on the 7th floor. Jim and Eleanor have lived in this building for 39 years - that's long enough to call pretty much anything "their's" at this point. We were the only ones there that night, at least when we first arrived. Our heads were still swimming and couldn't really focus on what to order. Evan ordered spaghetti - what?! - when the heck does he ever order that? And I couldn't talk him into the less messy grilled cheese sandwich...no way! Bryan ordered the Italian sausage sub or some sort of gastric nightmare, Brennan had the chicken fingers and I ordered the spaghetti as well. What was I thinking? Well, Meg, the waitress finally delivers our meal after the boys are climbing the walls and Jim and Eleanor are looking at us like we have wild, wolf children. The biggest plate of sgetti is delivered right in front of Evan and the same size for me...apparently she didn't pick up on the fact that I was ordering from the "kids" menu. oh well. But, I felt like I was wrangling a wild monkey trying to manage Evan and his meal at "their" restaurant. Brennan was devouring his along with every bit of ranch dressing and ketchup he could squeeze on his plate, licking fingers and slurping milk. Nice. And the boys were drinking their weight in milk (this will be an important fact later). Some employee even had to go done to the store to buy more milk!

We went up to their house to sit for a minute but again - wild, wolf children had taken over our boys. They have a beautiful view of the Chicago skyline but it was hard to take in when I was trying to prevent Evan and/or Brennan from destroying any number of things in their very non-kid proofed home. It was lovely to visit but I was tir-ed. So, we kindly smiled, took pictures,

gave hugs and off we went back to our hotel. Once the bed situation was worked out we slept and slept until 6am when I woke up ready for Day 3.

Sleepless Night

Tonight I pretty much got about 2 hours of sleep. I tried to sleep - but my mind would not shut off. We are getting ready to leave for a driving trip to Chicago/Michigan and the thought of packing is overwhelming. It shouldn't be - I'm pretty organized in that department...but I like to have it all done ahead of time. So maybe I'm thinking about that.

It could also be that we've seen close to 20 houses over the past 2 weeks and none of them were jaw-dropping. BUT, there is one that we keep going back to. I've been thinking about it all night - what we'd need to do to make it our "own", what kind of timeline, expense, etc. I've also been picturing us living there, furniture layout, where the Christmas tree goes at Christmas. My mind is just not shutting off.

We've had one showing of our house this week. The pictures just got posted online - so there should be more action very soon. The pictures actually turned out really nice. Keeping the house super neat hasn't been that bad this week. It gets a bit challenging with the kids at times but easy enough to pick up and they do cooperate in that department.

We are looking forward to be gone and the house can be shown and nobody will be here to mess it up....a bit concerned about being gone, an offer, than what? But there is no sense in worrying about the unknowns...but my restless mind isn't taking it's own advice.

It has been so incredibly hot lately - it is just miserable to go outside....but it does get pretty old hearing people complain about the heat when we DO live in in Texas. I'm sitting in the kitchen, awake, trying not to wake anyone else and listening to the rain fall....very nice. Looking forward to the Michigan summer and breathing the Michigan air.

Here We Go!

Since we have announced this news on Facebook - I figured it was time to announce it on my blog.  

We are moving.

Well, we have put a for sale sign in our front yard.

We are wanting to move.

We will hopefully move quickly.

Bryan and I have discussed moving from our current house for sometime...well, ever since we had Evan.  We knew that we would begin to outgrow our space.  But, it is with a heavy heart.   We do love so many things about this house and all the wonderful things that have happened in this house.  BUT, we do want to live a little further North, a little better school area, and closer to all the things we do.  

We have talked and talked and discussed when would be the right time to move - well, the answer to that is never.  We both have secure jobs at the moment, we make an excellent income and we are done having our children.  So, the time seemed right enough.  We don't have the best timing in the world - as it would have been a bit smarter to have started this process in the beginning of the summer vacation than in the middle.  But, we at least have the ball rolling. 

We have a sign in our yard.  

It's exciting and scary all at once, of course.  We are anxious to find our next perfect house.  We are anxious that EVERYTHING will happen in our favor, timing, financing, etc.  It would be ideal to move from this house to the next before the school year starts - so keep your fingers crossed that that will happen for us.  

I'm a planner and an organizer - so I like to know ahead of time what will happen.  And we all know that in real estate there are no guarantees and no knowing what exactly will happen. There are plenty of houses out there that fit our criteria.  And we begin our looking process tomorrow.   I'm sure I have a few sleepless nights ahead of me (and Bryan).  But we truly feel this is in the best interest for our family and we are finally jumping in to it.  

BTW, does anyone have any boxes?

Dinner Blues

Having been married for nine years, having 2 kids and a full time job - dinner time is a thorn in my side.  I do like to cook.  I do like trying new recipes.  I do like having something simple, healthy and tasty ready to go.  That, of course, does not always happen.  I do not have the time inbetween after school activities and the bedtime routine.

Having talked with all of my friends - this is a pretty common problem - stay at home mom or not.  It is an unending problem - so I thought I'd share some things I've used along the way if you are looking for something new to break up your routine.

Super Suppers Cookbook....I made about 75% of the meals in this book.  I loved it!  The theory is that you can make most of these meals ahead of time and freeze them or refrigerate them until you are ready to actually cook them.  Very yummy!  And they had some fancier recipes in there that you could use for entertaining.

Deceptively Delicious Cookbook - Jerry Seinfeld's wife wrote this one.  I liked it...and my kids did eat some of the "healthier" versions of stuff in it.  If you pre-make all the purees and have them frozen and ready to go it's great.  I still use ideas from this book all the time - but only when I remember to actually buy the veggies/fruit to make purees.  My favorites from here are the chicken nuggets with spinach puree and flax seed - the boys do gobble those up.  And adding squash puree to boxed mac and cheese is a big hit too.  I like to giggle while my kids are eating loads of veggies - like I've beat them at the game or something.

OAMC - or Once a Month Cooking.  I tried this idea with my Mom and sister - I love the concept and the actual getting the cooking done ahead of time.  We prepared all this food and split it up between the 3 of us - it took an ENTIRE day to cook all of it.  It takes A LOT of planning and some major shopping to truly accomplish this.  There are several websites out there with OAMC meal plans - I did find one site that had meal plans for beef, chicken and pork recipes and a breakfast plan.  I loved the breakfast plan and have used that idea several times....especially since we don't have a whole lot of time in the morning to accomplish much past cinnamon toast crunch.  Only thing was a made a butt load of french toast and froze it - then the boys decided they didn't like french toast one day - and now it still sits in my freezer.   It works great for taco meat, meatballs, pork roast, etc.  If you have a giant freezer this is fabulous - if not - you are screwed because you have no where to store all this great food!

I also love to try and save money in the whole grocery shopping experience...Along came The Grocery Game.   I was never much of a coupon cutter before - but this changed our life.  The concept is that you stockpile items when they go on sale and use the coupon for that item so you get it at the lowest possible price.  It organizes the store sale adds in a format that is easy to read and convenient.  It is not that expensive for a subscription and once you get going on it - you really can save some money.  Especially in your family staples like toiletries and cleaning supplies.  I did get a bit overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I was stockpiling and had to cut back on the purchasing of it.  But I have saved or 57% on a grocery trip before!  

My latest adventures is in e-mealz.com.  You pay a small subscription fee - you choose a meal plan (low-fat, couples only, store specific) and then  you can print out a 7 day meal plan with full recipes and the corresponding grocery list - all based on what's on sale at the store that week.  It has gotten our family to branch out a bit from our normal meal items and the recipes are so easy to follow.  It does save money and I have even combined the e-mealz and grocery game lists for even more savings.  It saves me time in that I don't have to be hunting for recipes or deciding what to make for dinner that night.  Most of the recipes make plenty so we've been able to freeze half for a meal in the future.  We've slacked off a bit this summer since we are home and I'm beginning to try and use up what might be in our pantry or freezer.  I totally recommend this to anyone that feels a little crunched for time and overwhelmed by deciding dinner.  Click on my button over there to check it out!  They even have sample lists you can download before you sign up.

Happy cooking!