Going Downtown...

This weekend Can & Phil were in. We all went downtown and went out to dinner at the Grand Lux. We also had time to wandered around Michigan Ave. Here are a few pictures...

All of us in front of the Chicago River.
Steve, Can & Phil at the Grand Lux. Edy, Jason & Jill at the Grand Lux.
We Celebrate Can's birthday while we were at the restaurant.
Jill, Can & Edy in front of the river.
Edy and her favorite animal!

New Videos Coming Soon

Our house looks great. We have been working really hard to get it ready for visits from friends and family. Candace and Phill are coming tomorrow so before they come we will get the house all ready and take new videos of it and post them. The changes since we moved in are incredible. All the rooms have been painted, there is carpet down, our boxes are unpacked for the most part, and everything is pretty clean. We are getting into the groove of things and settling into our new life here. We have been attending IBC (Independence Baptist Church) and we have been learning a lot from the preaching there. It is hard to choose another church, but at least there are many good churches in this area. Jason worked on the outside of the house and even chopped his finger with the hedger. We went to the hospital and checked it out, but he didn't need stitches. It looks pretty bad though.

Anyway, work is going well for Jason, Logan is crawling around like a maniac, and I am enjoying being a stay at home mom. Logan is getting really funny and mischievous. He runs from me when I try to stop him from getting into stuff now and he started saying, "No, no, no, no, no" when I grab him. It is sometimes frustrating, but it is also fun to see his little mind working and thinking.

That is all for tonight. Look for the videos and updated pics of the house soon.

So much has happened . . .

It is now that time. Jason installed child locks on the cabinets. Logan is very frustrated by that, but at least he isn't climbing in our entertainment center or getting into our cleaning supplies. He is now starting to get around very quickly and get into everything. He keeps us very busy, but we love it!

We have been able to see our family a lot since we got here. Logan enjoys seeing his cousins Sarah and Hannah. (He enjoys seeing everyone else too, but we have pictures of Sarah and Hannah.)Such a cool kid!

Logan and Edy went up to Watertown, WI for her friend Hannah's daughter's first birthday party. Ella greatly enjoyed her chocolate cupcake and piles of balloons.

Watertown looks so good. The school looks very different from the way it did when I left. Watertown has a lot more stores and restaurants than it did when I was there. The downtown looked the sames as ever, including Mullen's.
On July 4th, we went to Jason's cousin's house. Logan was enjoying playing in the pool with Jason. He was totally into swimming and splashing. This other little girl in the pool thought he was supper cute. She kept calling him her "little puppy" and dragging him around the pool. That's okay, he enjoyed it anyway.

Moving on...

This past week was one of the craziest weeks of our lives. Here is the break down...

Saturday June 9th - My brother Dave's graduation. Congratulations Dave!!!!!

Sunday June 10th - Finish packing the house and load the moving truck. Notice the shed being pulled by the large truck. It got quite a few looks as we drove down the road.




Monday June 11th - Close on our house at 11am and drive to Chicago with all of our earthly belongings. This is a picture of Turkeyville. It is super exciting. They only serve Turkey. It is amazing if you like turkey.

Tuesday June 12th - Walk through our new house and close on it at 11:30am. Then rip all of the carpet out and start patching walls. We also emptied the truck into the basement and garage.

This is how totally gross the carpet was. We don't think they ever cleaned the floor or vacuumed. The house was totally disgusting. I am so glad we had lots of help.


This is the pile of trash we were left by the previous owners. We did take the carpet out on our own, but still, they left a lot of stuff.

This is the nasty tub. I tried to clean it, but I gave up. I don't have much patience for long, tedious cleaning projects. Mom G came and busted out cleaning the guest bathroom and the tub actually changed colors! Wow!!!!

Wednesday June 13th - Paint the whole upstairs

Above is the guest room below is the master bedroom. Jason also installed ceiling fans in all of the rooms.

Below is Logan's room. I have to repaint the Dr. Seuss room but that is going to take some time.



Thursday June 14th - Paint the downstairs and work on many other projects before the carpet comes.







Friday June 15th - Edy and Dad left to go back to Detroit for Heather Parson's wedding. I stayed and painted and cleaned.

Saturday June 16th - (our anniversary) I flew to Detroit for the wedding and flew back that night. George Phillips (Jill's dad supervised the installment of our carpet)


Sunday June 17th - Cleaned up the house and prepped it for furniture while Edy and my mom (G) drove back with Jill & Steve. Then we moved everything in. I also finished painting the kitchen. Mom G. was able to come and help clean and she really worked hard. You already saw the tub before. The kitchen floor was also totally nasty. Mom cleaned it for about three hours. Hopefully we never have to do that again! Logan is enjoying crawling around the new house. Grandma's cleaning spree made this "first bath in the new house" possible. He is really excited about taking baths.
Monday June 18th - Back to work

As you can see it was a super busy week but we have a great house now and it is in really nice shape. We would have never moved out or in without all the help we received. We would like to thank everyone that helped especially both of our parents, Nate, Nate's friends from B.J. (I'm sorry I don't know their names) Jacob, Robert, Phill, Donnie, Christy, Shaun, Gwen, George, Mark, Jim, Tim, Steve, and Jill. I think that is it. Please forgive me if I left anyone out. It is late and this has been a very long post!

Here are a couple of videos of the house before we started work...
(more pictures and videos to come)

Goodbye to an Era

This is a picture of me with my class at Bethany's Jr./Sr. Banquet. The Junior class is responsible for putting on the banquet which is a pretty big responsibility. Everything turned out really well. The place (Addison Oaks) did a great job and everything we were responsible for turned out great. The game (Senior Jeopardy) was a big hit as was the music.
I will really miss this group of kids. We have a blog that I hope will be a good way for me to stay in touch with them. They are beginning their senior year in a certain state of limbo. The principle who has been at the school forever, at least a really long time, is leaving too. I know this is a big deal to them, just because they want to have a good senior year. I hope to be involved as I can from a long distance. (No, I won't be able to make government an on-line class.) I am really, really, really going to miss teaching. I know I will love spending time with my "little man" though. Ever since I was little I have wanted to do two things. 1.) Be a mommy. 2.) Be a teacher. I have loved being a teacher. I love being a mommy. Hopefully some day down the road I can do both again.