A long overdue update

Six months! That is how long since I last posted. Holy Smokes!

We have just enjoyed a week with my brother Eric, and his family. Syd goes to school down the street and Dane is looking at schools in Chicago as well so it is great to see them "often".

This will just be a quick little post with a picture as well of the kids from today. They each got a new basketball this morning and enjoyed made up games with a box and a laundry basket in the front yard. :) You will notice that Ana got glasses! This was just a couple weeks ago, so I am not tooooooo far behind in that newsflash. She is doing great with them as well as with the patching of her right eye for three hours a day. Hopefully her left eye will be strong and mighty very soon. :)

Life is good and full. We are immersed here in Chicago - or at least as much as our schedules allow. Kurt is in a travel season at work, so that weighs in at different times. I work about 27 hours a week, but am home still with the kids when they are home from school. It is a great gift to still be able to do that. We enjoy our neighborhood so much and love it that the kids have so many friends here in this pocket. Simon and Ana always have each other too, which is fun. Some days it's hit or miss, but I guess that makes them normal - HA!

That's all for now - off to read before bed!

Lisa

Happy 6th Gotcha!

Six years ago, we got the "thumbs up" that Ana, then 9 months old and a tiny little 10 pounds, would be our daughter. She joined our family that day as our "foster daughter" and then we worked steadily for the next 3 1/2+ years to make it all official. What a fun journey it's been. We love you Ana Banana!

The Gotcha Queen, and her gigantic piece of traditional cake.

It's a little tricky, getting all four of us in a "self-portrait". Simon got a little squished. ;)

The cake, made with love, by Daddy. :)

We are having a good summer, here in Chicago. The kids and I have been to Nebraska (along with my sister and her three kids), Simon has been to Michigan for a week with his cousins, and this week we are enjoying a nice visit with our British friends from Ecuador. We have been downtown a lot this week, and it's been delightful. :)

Yesterday we enjoyed a nice outing to the Brookfield Zoo - something we had not done before as a family. We had a lovely afternoon together and then spent the evening with friends. It marked the beginning of spring break for our kids, so it was a good way to spend the day. :)

Today of course, is Palm Sunday and a beautiful day for me personally as I got to sing with the church choir again at our home church. I have been on a "sabbatical" of sorts as I have sought to pare down my extracurricular activities in order to focus on school. Today marked my first day back and I have to say that I was my usual emotional self - which was good. :) It was a beautifully majestic day to reenact when Jesus rode into the City of Jerusalem on a colt...and also to prepare for the Holy Week ahead. May we be ever mindful, Lord Jesus.

Enjoy this video of our niece, playing the harp. :) She had a part in a concert this week and we were delighted to be able to attend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3rNdm3CQt8

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Birthday

I forgot to bring my camera to the Christmas celebration in Grand Rapids, but I did grab some highlight shots here at home. My brother and his family, sister and her family (minus husband) and our family enjoyed some time here at our house after Christmas. It was delightful, noisy, busy, lovely and cup-filling goodness. :)

Today is Simon's 9th birthday, so there is a picture of him as well, and also a picture of the Siblings that had to bid farewell as Syd stays here to attend college. We are happy to have her with us for the next week until classes begin. She is in the blue shirt below.

Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving

We drove to my parents house in Nebraska for Thanksgiving and spent a lovely four days with them. We got home this afternoon and had time to spare to enjoy something that the kids have been wanting for a long time. A pet!

And so, without further ado, let me introduce...Hazel. :) She came with that name and we thought it was pretty cute so we kept it. Isn't she sweet? She is ten weeks old, so just a baby yet. She rode on my lap most of the way home and did great. She slept most of the time and purred almost constantly. Kurt, who has always claimed to hate cats, was the one who pushed us out the door and out to the shelter yesterday to get a kitty and I must say, I do believe little Hazel has Kurt wrapped around her little paw. ;) And the kids? Well, I'm sure it goes without saying that they are both so very, very excited. Simon can't believe she is really ours and here to stay. Ana keeps having random loud bursts of laughter and giddiness and we know that Hazel is the reason.

And yes, I am allergic, but so far my Zyrtec (which I was taking at mom and dad's anyway, since they have a cat) is going strong and I have had no issues. Let's hope it stays that way - HA! :)

Catching up...again

It's been awhile since I've posted any happenings so I thought I would take a few minutes to catch up on the little things around here. :) Simon and Ana are happy and growing, as usual. Ana is learning to read and doing so, so, so well! I am very impressed with her teacher and how she teaches. Ana comes home with her little bag of words everyday and she is up to about 20 so far. Today she came home with a SUPER JOB certificate for reading them all correctly. We work on them nearly everyday, so we are very, very proud of her. She was happily sporting her hip new Pilgrim look (see above) after school and so of course I couldn't resist a photo. She wore it to pick Simon up from school and got some interesting looks on our walk, but they didn't phase her. :D

Simon is doing well in school and brought home all A's with his first report card at quarter. He likes his teacher a lot and is happily engaged with many friends in the neighborhood and church. It is good to be settled into life for our almost nine-year old.

Yard work! We've been busy cleaning up the yard for the winter. The kids have been a big help. :) Some day we'll get that garage painted or sided... (in the meantime, we continue to enjoy our new bathroom)

Yesterday we had our first fireplace fire of the season - I say fireplace fire because I personally did have a fire in the kitchen last week as I accidently lit Ana's Barbie lunch bag on fire. Oopsie, Mommy...

Anyway, Kurts parents were here yesterday so we enjoyed Children's Sunday at church and then an afternoon with a nice fire, etc. The boys busted out the Lincoln Logs and built the huge tower above.

That's all for now, folks! :)

The final, finished product!

Out with the old...

In with the new! Isn't it beautiful? I am so proud of Kurt! He did such a great job, and of course, by doing it himself he saved us a LOT o' money. He said he's ready now for the second bathroom...which is in Simon's room...and boy oh boy is it ever U.G.L.Y. In the meantime, enjoy this new look. :)

Almost done...

Thought I would update you with the progress in the bathroom. Kurt is beginning sink installation tonight.

Remember that we started here.

Time to cast your vote

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls: It is time once again to cast your vote for your favorite Halloween Pumpkin! Last years winner was never officially announced, though I'm SURE that I won. :D Voting is open until it closes. ;)

Got Playdoh?

These girls had a heyday making pizza together the other day. I told them they could mix the colors "a little" and well, you see what they considered a little. Ah well, it was almost time to get some new anyway. ;) Little L. is our neighbor and she and Ana are good buddies.

Home improvement...

So I can't remember if I've mentioned this before but a few weekends ago I went on a retreat...and Kurt was left home "alone" (but with the kids, of course) and as it typical for him, he took on a big project in my absence. ;) Kurt met me at the door the day I returned and he literally had sweat dripping off of his face. Thus...the beginning of the 1st floor powder bath re-do.

This is the before photo and it's pretty lousy as it was taken on our cell phone. Had I known that a large project was going to happen in my absence there would have been better documentation. HA! We're pretty sure that the tile is (was) original because of the style of it, and while we toyed with installing something to fit the era of our home (1940's), we opted out of that.

This is pretty much what was left when I got home! Everything went out to the alley trash and the sink disappeared within hours. The toilet? Not so much. ;)

This was an interesting remnant of years worth of wallpaper from behind the commode. Looks like there were some cool styles.

And that brings us to today - Kurt just finished installing the tile, with the exception of the area under the radiator to the left - not quite done yet as we ran out of tile. Oops - forgot to include that in our measuring! I really like the tile and Kurt did a great job of installing it. After all the paste stuff dries, he'll seal it, let that dry and then do the grout work. I'll keep you posted with photos.

Test Photo

Here's Ana Banana - allowing me to give the new camera a whirl. :) She slept in until 10 today while Simon went to his early soccer game. I'm pretty happy that at least one child will sleep in on the weekend!

Watch out!

I got a new camera - and I might actually post on here again very soon. :)

1st day of school

This entry should be called "we survived summer" - HA! No really, we had a beautiful summer and last night when I put Simon to bed we reviewed the many wonderful things that we all got to do and it was a pretty good way to recap the weeks that had passed. Today however was a great day to hop out of bed and go to 3rd grade and kindergarten. I cannot believe that our children are the ages that they are! Both kids loved being back, enjoyed seeing their friends and meeting/reuniting with their teacher. Simon has a new teacher and Ana has the same one she had last year, but now for Kinder.

I am pooped. I worked today and then tonight participated in a focus group downtown regarding a new talk show that is potentially being launched this fall. It was a pretty slick/fast (2 hours) $100, plus I won $50 in the "early bird" drawing for being 15 minutes early. I can't remember having ever won a drawing before so it was pretty exciting. he he he Oprah was taping on Michigan Ave. right when my focus group was beginning and Michigan was closed to traffic. It was practically on top of the location for my little job so it was fun to hear the cheers and music and see the set up. I did not see Oprah, but it was a fun site nonetheless! No camera with me though, otherwise I would have a photo or two here. ;)

Nighty night!
Lisa

Cooperation at its best!

We came up to TC for a quick little weekend before school starts. I had not yet met Betti (she's adorable! wonderful! loveable!) and the kids hadn't been together for a while so we are making the most of the holiday weekend. The kids are having a great time, as usual!

Summer smiles

Summer is almost over - kids go back to school in two weeks. Thought I'd get some last shots of the kids out here, besides just the one below of Ana. They are both growing up so much and we are so proud of the people that they are becoming. They are wonderful children with beautiful hearts. Simon lost another front tooth recently. We like the look - don't you? :)

Ready to take on the world

It struck me tonight that Ana totally looks grown up and ready for kindergarten - so of course that called for a photo. Where does the time go? Isn't she a beauty?

Ahhh, space - again with pictures this time :)

Since moving into our house nine months ago, we have become increasingly aware of the fact

that we have a LOT of STUFF. Stuff from when Simon was a baby, stuff from seminary, stuff from apartment living, stuff from having moved a zillion times over the course of the last 15 years of marriage - stuff. You get the idea. So, last weekend we began in Anas' room. We cleaned and sorted. We threw stuff out, we gave more stuff away. We organized and beautified. Why oh why I didn't take a before picture is beyond me, but trust me - it was ugly. I determined that Ana had the biggest mess in the house - not only because she takes after me in the cleaning department, but also because all of the baby stuff that we had from Simon ended up in her room. It had all been in storage while we were in Ecuador and it somehow alllllll ended up in her room. Bins and bagsful. Aren't you so sad that I don't have a photo? Sigh. I even looked back at photos from the months we have lived here and there are quite literally none of her room besides right after we painted.

Anyway, enjoy the after and know that this weekend I believe we are moving on to our room - it is the second worst. Simon however would like for his room to be done so we may be moving there next. Wish us well and good luck in our quest of paring down - again. It's nice to be doing this with the intention of staying somewhere, rather than with the intention of moving on...which is the usual pattern as you know. :) Hope you are all having a lovely summer!

As a point of interest - the Raggedy Ann dolls on the bench were both made by my mom. The red-haired one is mine from when I was a little girl and the black-haired one is Ana's. :) Incidentally, the bench they are sitting on was made by my dad.

Ana has spent a lot more time in her room since the massive cleansing. She was out of sorts the day we did it...perhaps she thought we were moving...but now she is delighted.

Ana requested that I take a photo of her Hello Kitty that hangs on her door. :) Here you go Ana Banana!

By the way, I put this on my Facebook page today, but I should mention this here as well. Yesterday Ana had another follow up appointment for her new ear and it was an incredibly encouraging time. She is now hearing at 10 decibels - which is less than a whisper. She can totally hear and understand us when she is only wearing that ear. It is a truly a miracle. She told me the other day that her "new ear isn't ouchy any more" and that was music to my ears. Truly...a miracle.