Real-life conversation in the van today. If you’re young and dreamy about what lies ahead for you as a wife and mother, you might not want to read this.
Matt: “Do you know what tomorrow is?”
Me: {thinking} “April Fool’s Day?”
Matt: “Yes, but that’s not what I’m thinking of.”
Me: (channeling my former Catholic-school girl) “Uh, Holy Monday?”
Him: “Is that a thing? No. It’s something you love.”
Me: (with excitement, thinking he’d checked our shared Google calendar for tomorrow) “Oh my gosh, is it restaurant pizza day and I don’t have to pack lunches?”
Him: “No.” And he didn’t say it, bless his heart, but I’m sure he was thinking something along the lines of “You are so lame. When did you become this person who gets that excited about potentially not packing lunches?”
SEVERAL weeks ago, I started mentioning to Matt that I wanted to take the boys somewhere for a long weekend for spring break. For whatever reason, he kept dragging his feet about making a commitment to this, and I lovingly, patiently waited until he decided he was in (insert eyerolls, lots of sarcasm here).
When it was all said and done, it was nearly a last-minute trip, at least in this planner’s eyes. Late on Tuesday night we solidified our plan, which was to leave Thursday when Matt got home from work and drive up to Chicago and stay three nights. Oh, and we weren’t telling the boys about it, so it could be a surprise.
Can I just tell you how hard it was not to spoil the surprise, even though it was just 2 days? I had so much packing and planning to do and had to be so secretive about it, but we pulled it off!
Here’s the video of us telling them what was up…I knew the second they saw the DVD player hooked up in the van, they’d be confused…
Aunt Heidi and Uncle Jeff, I hope you feel really special right now
The first 20-30 minutes of the trip was spent telling them what we planned to do, and nonstop excitement and chatter. So fun. This included lots of talk about watching the Illini/Indiana Big Ten Tournament game the next day, which was being held in Chicago (the boys asked immediately after that video ended if this meant we were going to the game). Tickets had long-ago sold out, but Matt was holding out hope for scoring (relatively) cheap standing-room-only seats on StubHub. However, we didn’t let the boys know this; we told them our plan was to drive by the United Center in the morning so they could see where the game was, and then head up to Lincoln Park to BWW to watch the game.
Obviously, we got into Elmhurst (where our hotel was) really late, so we got everyone to bed as quickly as possible. First thing in the morning, Matt was online seeing if tickets were available. They were, and barely under what we decided we were willing to pay! He printed them out and presented them to the boys at breakfast…lots of celebrating followed, as you might imagine!
Only Jack Henry was less-than-thrilled about our non-seats…we got in the United Center right when the doors opened so we could claim a good standing spot, so our total time at the game was 3 hours+. He sat on the floor and asked when it was going to be over a million times, and the Illini lost, but it was still totally worth it. It was such a fun experience to be at the Big Ten Tourney, and one that the older boys will certainly remember for a long time!
We spent the rest of Friday afternoon having lunch at Pockets and then traipsing all over downtown in a steady, cold rain, until we were freezing, drenched and crabby. We spent some time recharging in the van on our way to see Aunt Heidi, Uncle Jeff, Lucy and Rockit dog, so by the time we got to their condo, everyone was in a good mood again. We walked to a bar & grill a couple of blocks away and had a fun dinner with family to wrap up our night!
Saturday’s agenda was to see Wrigley Field (just a drive-by) and my old apartment (no one cared but me), and then head down Lake Shore Drive to Hyde Park for the Museum of Science and Industry. By some miracle, we literally crossed over the Chicago River AS it was being dyed green for St. Patrick’s Day…like we could see the green swirling in the water! So cool, especially because it was something we hoped to see, but knew that we’d have to go out of our way later in the day to make it happen.
The Museum of Science and Industry: love, love, love. Would definitely recommend to anyone with kids 4 and older, or even just adults. Tons of great stuff to see, lots of buttons to push, a huge variety of neat exhibits. We saw the new Animal Inside Out exhibit, which prompted alternating “ewww” sounds and hilarious laughter (there are a few human specimens – all male, by the way – in addition to animals).
The rest of Saturday was spent driving to Schaumburg {during which time I enforced “mandatory napping or you don’t get to swim in the hotel pool tonight,” which was glorious and one of my best ideas all weekend} to go to Ikea and then have dinner at Portillo’s, which was, of course, delicious, and the only meal all weekend that pulled me off my diet.
The boys all got to swim, but I bowed out gracefully when we saw that the pool was FULL of people: primarily unsupervised children age 7-15. Our boys didn’t care, and swam for a bit before bed.
Sunday morning wasn’t quite as early a wake-up, and I was shocked when I texted Matt from the fitness center to come join me for breakfast and got a reply that everyone was still in bed. At nearly 8:00am! This is simply unheard of in our family, which means, I guess, that we sufficiently wore them out over the weekend.
We had one more fun thing to do, though, before leaving the Chicago area, and that was stopping to visit our friends, the Kellys. I love what Karen said in her post: so good to see your BFF in real life, and know she exists outside the virtual world we use to stay connected. Our kids just pick right up where they left off nearly 2 years ago, the last time they saw each other, which is just so fun to see.
After a too-short stop with them, we headed back to STL a bit nervous about the weather, but only encountered a brief stretch of sleet before it turned into all rain for the remaining 100 miles or so.
Here’s a photo-dump to wrap things up!
hotel breakfast…actually, quite good!
group shot at the united center
excited fan
copycat excited fan
he’s an original :)
my favorite lunch
our rain-soaked reflection in the bean
at cousin lucy’s condo (first visit there for the boys!)
not a great pic, but lucy was imitating jack henry after dinner and it was so cute
a framer for their room – particularly because they rarely have a nice moment together right now.
at the museum of science and industry, watching baby chicks hatch. like literally one came out of its shell while we stood there waiting.
the boys were super excited to get inside the full-size jet!
afore-mentioned mandatory naptime.
ikea fun!
waiting for dinner at portillo’s, one of the boys noticed this sign, and that it was their initials! i had to explain who LBJ was…
Right out of college, Matt lived in this tiny town in northern IL, south of what’s considered the suburbs, in an efficiency apartment. Lemme tell ya, it was special. Month-to-month rent meant the clientele was also, ahem, a little special, but he made do since it was what he could afford, and really, he grew to love his little place.
So much so that I remember him one time mentioning, after we were engaged, that maybe we could live there together for a while if we needed to after we were married. I remember laughing my head off at him…this place was like 350 square feet max with 1 closet and a nasty bathroom (though, truthfully, that was pretty much Matt’s fault). I was like, “We don’t need anything fancy, but it has to be bigger than this.”
The kitchen was also gross, primarily because my beloved didn’t really cook, except to occasionally boil some water for mac and cheese or spaghetti. If he did this, though, he’d leave the dishes in the sink forever, until they got so bad I can’t even talk about it without wanting to throw up. I’ll put it this way: I went up to see him one weekend, and I got in town before he was done with work, so I got his key and went to his place to clean it. I saw how bad it was and told him I’d still do it, but that he’d have to pay me, and that I would be throwing out any dishes I deemed not salvageable.
BREAK: Matt Diehl, you’ve come a long way, baby.
All of that to say: we did not eat meals in that apartment very often. And because we were poor college/right-out-of-college kids, we ate fast food with some regularity.
Sometimes, I didn’t really want a whole serving of fries, but just wanted a couple. And my sweet boyfriend/fiance? DID NOT LIKE TO SHARE.
Somewhere along the lines, he came to terms with the fact that he was in love with and marrying a girl who does, indeed, like to swipe a fry or two from the bag if she’s not getting her own. He’s ok with it now.
So when I saw this card yesterday at Kohl’s, right by where I was killing a little bit of time while I waited to return something, I stifled an out-loud laugh. It would’ve been the perfect card for Matt to give me 15 years ago or so.
Let’s take a little trip back in time, to mid-2002. You should be hearing Nelly songs in your head right now, and picture me driving a white Chevy Malibu.
We looked like this (I’m a 6-months-pregnant bridesmaid, but that dress hid my belly pretty well):
About 5 weeks later, though, in the spirit of full disclosure, I looked like this before an Illini game:
Clearly, not a flattering angle for a pregnant lady, but still…that is a whole lotta belly.
Anyway. In our snug little home of a little over a year, I was several months pregnant and nesting. I LOVED this house – it’s probably still my favorite of the 3 we’ve owned – but the layout of the 50+-year-old ranch was a little strange. Right as you walked in the front door, you were in a good-sized, open room that was to function as both a living room and dining room (because there was no room in the kitchen for a table). The real living room was in the finished basement, so that entry room had only a dining room table in it for 2 reasons:
1. We didn’t already own any furniture that fit in the small space.
2. We were poor.
However, with a baby on the way, I just hated the idea that there was nowhere comfortable to sit in our entire main floor of our house. I pictured friends coming over to see the baby, and having to sit at the dining room table or on a barstool in the kitchen didn’t sound OK to me.
So I begged and pleaded with Matt, and after doing some shopping, we settled on the super-cheapest furniture we could find and actually liked the look of: 2 Ikea Poang chairs (at $49.99 each, I think) and a Lack side table (the table was $9.99 10 years ago, too, but back then it was made of real wood, not plastic and fiberboard). In addition to being in our tight budget, it also fit in the small space we had to fill.
We joked about how inexpensive they were, and had the mindset that we’d just keep them as long as we had that house, and then if there was a place for them in the next house, fine, and if not, we’d just sell them at a garage sale. I did love having them there, especially that first Christmas with our newborn Luke, when I’d sit in one of those chairs and feed him by the light of the Christmas tree in the middle of the night.
Well, at the next house, they fit perfectly in front of the window in the office. And they stayed there for 6+ years. Despite being off-white, and having 3 baby boys, 2 who spit up profusely, they still looked pretty good. We only washed the slipcovers once at that house (due to marker on a cushion) which was enough – getting the covers back ON those chairs is a 2-person, involves-some-cussing-type task.
When we moved to this house almost 3 years ago, the Poangs and Lack came with us again, though a bit begrudgingly by now. Matt and I were both kind of sick of looking at them, but again, they fit in the corner of the office just fine. Plans and budget to buy other furniture for that spot were not in place, so it just seemed best to keep using them for a while.
So here we are 3 years later. No plans to replace those chairs right now, so when I took down the Christmas tree and put the room back together, I noticed how hideously dirty the covers were. Several marker marks, a really dirty spot from a shoe, and an pencil mark mysteriously in the shape of an x; I decided to wash them. I reminded Matt how horrible it was to get the covers back on, and I told him I’d likely need some help when they were clean and dry.
It took him doing most of the work to wrestle those covers back on, and then we decided to tighten up the screws on the chairs, which hadn’t been done in 10 years, so they were a little wobbly.
After all of that, I’m thinking they aren’t going anywhere for a few more years. In fact, I joked about sending them off to college with Luke when he has his first apartment. Which will probably actually happen, since we’ve kept them this long already…
A long time ago (like a whole year) I had a poll here on the blog, asking people what they thought of tattoos. You can click on the results button to see what the outcome was, or you can vote now if you didn’t before!
So here’s the deal…I love tattoos. Especially on guys. Good ones, that is. And clearly, I am the judge of what constitutes a good or bad tattoo:). I even like tattoo sleeves (when the neck is not tattooed), on the right person. Like on a singer (ahem, Adam Levine) or athlete or chef. Not on my banker husband, though I wouldn’t mind at all if he got a tattoo that I deemed cool.
After thinking about this for forever (literally, since college, I’ve been thinking about what I would get and where, and was just never convinced of what I wanted until recently), I FINALLY decided to get one on our trip to Nashville in October. My sister Hayley had gotten 2 in Nashville, and I knew where she had gone, so I thought I’d probably go there.
I should probably mention what I was going to tattoo: the number 27, Matt’s and my “I love you” substitute, in his handwriting, on my ring finger. My theory was that this was a good gateway tattoo…if I hated it, it would mostly be covered by my wedding rings all the time. And if I loved it? I could go without my rings on occasion, or tattoo something else meaningful in a more noticeable spot later.
On our first night in Nashville, we went into a tattoo parlor near where we were going to have dinner. Just to talk to an artist and get some feedback. The guy we spoke with was literally like 19 years old, looked high as a kite, and called his girlfriend, who also worked there at the desk, “Babe.” He told me that there would be some minor fading over time with a finger tattoo (which I knew), and assured me that he could do the tattoo, even though he hadn’t done many fingers.
I had a *slight* panic attack here.
We left, and I told Matt there was no way that kid was tattooing me. Then I started freaking out a little bit about whether I really wanted to do it or not (like would I hate this at 75?) and then I had a Long Island Iced Tea and felt better, and knew that (due to alcohol consumption) getting a tattoo that night was out of the question.
Fast-forward to the next afternoon, when we were in the vicinity of the tattoo shop Hayley had been to. I had decided that yes, I definitely wanted to do this (if not now, when?) and stopped in to see this guy.
Long story short, the owner, this man COVERED in tattoos, refused to do my tiny, will-be-covered-up tattoo.
Why?
He basically told me that I wasn’t hip enough for a ring finger tattoo. Said that he (and “most artists”) won’t tattoo a finger unless the client already has a sleeve, because you have to “earn” it. He said, “I mean, I didn’t even do my fingers until I had my sleeve done.”
Ahem. Enter my incredible self-control for not telling him what a jackass he sounded like. Really? A holier-than-thou tattoo artist? I mean, if I wanted to tattoo an 8-ball on my finger or forehead, or curse words, or something like that, I’d get it. But REALLY? A tiny I love you from my husband isn’t acceptable?
Obviously, I left Nashville without my tattoo, pretty bummed. And I’ve talked to a friend here about where she got her ring finger tattoo, and her artist isn’t in town anymore, but she did have a referral. When I decide I want it, I guess I’ll have somewhere to go, but it just seems kind of anti-climatic now.
So. Finally. The tattoo story. I’d say “The End” but I really don’t think this is the end…
Sigh…I can’t believe our year of dates is almost over!
Saturday brought another daytime date for us. The plan was for us to explore the antique shops in Alton, IL, get some lunch at Fast Eddie’s Bon-Air, and then drive up the Great River Road to Grafton for the scenery and a couple more shops.
It just so happened that we got an absolutely gorgeous day for it, too…an unseasonably-warm 70 degrees and sunny before rain and highs in the 40′s returned by Sunday afternoon.
We started out in downtown Alton around 10:30am at Steve’s Antiques. Oh my gosh…one of the coolest places I’ve ever been, simply because it’s got EVERYTHING. This is not your typical, tidy antique shop. This place will make you feel like you’re a picker.
this made me laugh!
Located in an old warehouse, it’s dirty and breezy (due to some broken windows), so you have to be willing to get your hands dirty.
apparently all 6 stories used to be steve’s…now it’s all on one floor
Also, you should know that there is:
-some scary, weird, GIGANTIC nude art
-THE scariest taxidermy I’ve ever seen. Pictured below is a goose with its tongue out. Not pictured is the standing-on-his-hind-legs fox with a small rodent in his mouth, that, when I turned the corner, literally scared me so badly I let out a small shriek.
why. why?
However, there’s also just tons of cool stuff. I got this old piece of a mail slot for 5 bucks, and I’m putting it in our little kitchen memo area. The owner is verrry laid back, and much of the stuff isn’t marked, so you just have to ask how much it is. I get the feeling he’d be willing to make a deal on anything in there.
matt checking out a big selection of old fans…i took this in case he actually found us another diehl fan!
i wonder where this came from…
By 11:15, we decided we’d best head to our lunch destination: Fast Eddie’s Bon-Air, the classic bar-with-crazy-cheap food (for real: 1/2 lb cheeseburgers are $1.29…7 delicious chicken wings, called “Hot Chick on a Stick”, are $2.99). It’s a place you really just need to see – lots of history, TONS of seating that by evening is filled (lunch is the time to go – we only waited 20 minutes for food), and reasonably-priced drinks. So glad to check that off our bucket list!
There are several other shops on Broadway, with one (j & k Trash to Treasure) that had particularly neat stuff…you could easily spend a couple of hours here. We passed, however, on the Historic Museum of Torture Devices (yeah, no thanks…and a big ol’ “are you crazy?” to the mom and dad who enthusiastically took their 6 and 8 year old kids in while we were standing outside the shop next to the museum).
After all of that we headed up the Great River Road, along with about half a million bikers (a shocking number of whom were not wearing helmets – another “Are you crazy?” moment for me), looking for eagles, spotting a couple, and then stopping in Grafton, where we checked out a couple other small shops. I bought a cute vintage, orange and white gingham-checked half apron that I’ll wear to prepare our Thanksgiving feast this year. Oh, and it was $3, which again, I couldn’t believe.
That wraps it up! One more date to go, and that one isn’t planned yet because December is so busy…
October 9th was Matt’s and my 13th anniversary! And this would have been posted near then, except that we had major internet/cable connection issues for the past 2 weeks, and all of that is now resolved and working, as we are now AT&T customers!
Our original plan was to leave on Friday (the 5th) afternoon for Nashville, so when we woke up Saturday morning, we’d have the whole day ahead of us. Then, we found out that Luke could run in a cross-country meet on Friday afternoon, plus he had an event up at church, so we changed our plans. Instead (and this was all Matt’s idea), we planned to get up at 3:45am and head out as soon as we got ready.
Naturally, it rained Friday all day, eventually cancelling the cross-country meet. Oh well. We tried.
So while we were glad to have so much of Saturday to spend in Nashville after our 4:15 departure, there were several times that day when one or both of us was regretting the early wake-up just a little bit.
We started the day in Franklin, perusing the antique and other shops in the downtown area. Lots of fun places, but my two favorites had to be Philanthropy and this awesome shop full of antique items being recycled/upcycled, whose name I can’t recall. We lunched at McCreary’s Pub, where our first brush with southern hospitality occurred…it was very crowded in this tiny place, and a sweet family offered to scoot over and let us share their table with them! So, so nice…and, we ended up chatting and they strongly encouraged us to go to one of the historic sites on our short list.
I’m SO glad they recommended Carnton Plantation. It’s a home that was caught in the middle of the Civil War’s Battle of Franklin, and the house became a field hospital for the Confederate Army, caring for hundreds of wounded and dying soldiers. There are literally blood stains in the wood floors of the bedrooms. Utterly fascinating, and made even more amazing by an incredibly passionate historian who took us on the tour.
After all of that seriousness, we headed to the mall, and then downtown to our hotel. We loved our location, and no Priceline view this time! Oh, and the plate of chocolate-covered strawberries accidentally waiting for us in our room (they were supposed to go to another guest, but they let us keep the ones they’d already put in our room)! We headed out for the evening, and despite the rain, had a nice dinner and evening, capped off by the entertainment of the guy who walks around downtown with an inflated condom on his hat, selling condoms for a dollar to couples as they walk by. And here’s a related PSA: please, if you need a condom, don’t buy it from a guy on the street corner. End of announcement.
Sunday was spent breakfasting at the Loveless Cafe, touring Belle Meade (which we LOVED…more fascinating history), visiting Antique Archaeology (the Nashville store for the show “American Pickers”), and then watching the Cardinals-Nationals game, before heading out for a late dinner at Merchant’s (downstairs, on the casual menu).
We also managed to sneak in some fun stops on Monday morning before heading out of town, starting off with a belly full of pancakes from Pancake Pantry, and a tour of the Ryman, which was very cool. Also, my amazing husband suggested we return to the mall to get a purse from the Fossil outlet store that I’d seen and loved on Saturday, so we took care of that, too
HUGE thanks to my sister and Matt’s parents for hanging out with our boys so we could get away!
matt at the entrance to the cemetery at carnton plantation
they grouped the soldiers by state
carnton house at left, slave house at right
the back porch of carnton
front porch at carnton
the not-priceline view from our hotel!
tanya’s chocolate-covered strawberries
mmmm…loveless!
in front of belle meade
and an unobstructed view…lovely, isn’t it?
this was a fun, but quick, stop!
this tag cracked me up :) instead of just saying nfs (not for sale), it says VERY NFS.
a little relaxation during the game…
touring the ryman. oh, how we wish we could hear johnny cash sing here!
The original plan for our September date was to go hiking at Castlewood Park, followed by a picnic. However, since we had a Friday evening available with a sitter, and we needed our Saturday to do yard work and other stuff like that, we opted to drop the picnic and just get the hike in, and go out for dinner somewhere afterwards, since it would be dark.
We’re flexible like that, especially since this date was originally supposed to be one of our spring dates that got lost in the shuffle when kids were sick and stuff.
We’ve hiked very little at this park, which is sad given that it’s practically out our back door, but we know which route is our favorite, so (for you locals) we headed for Lone Wolf and took the turn towards the River Scene trail near the stairs. It’s a beautiful place, especially near dusk, but I have to admit, my active imagination gets the best of me.
Matt was lucky enough to hear my ramblings about how creepy parts of the hike are…it feels like a chase scene in a horror movie could take place on the trail along the riverbank*. The trail is cut through tall trees, and to your right is the Meramec River, and to your left is a railroad line. Spooky.
I am, however, fascinated by the history of the park, which used to be a resort area filled with cabins and speakeasies and clubs. You can read a little about that here.
While nearing the end of our hike, we came to an open field with 8 deer grazing, and while they stopped when they sensed us, they kept right on eating as we walked nearby. Altogether, we spotted 27 deer in the park that night!
view 1 from the bluffs
on the bluff…matt has seeds in his cheek, for the record.
view 2 from the bluff
the end of our hike, in the big open field, right at sunset. look closely and you can spot the deer we saw when leaving the woods!
We finished our date with a pizza dinner on the little patio at JJ Twigs, one of our favorites.
*Which reminds me…I have no idea why Bennett is freaked out about being alone on any level of our house, or worrying about bad guys/monsters under his bed. Where could that even be coming from?
Phew. This date did not quite go as planned. But it was still fun, and it gave us an idea of another date (or, potentially, family outing), that we’d like to do soon!
The original plan was to go to a Cardinals game and then to Three Sixty, the downtown rooftop bar (I love rooftop bars/restaurants. A lot.). However, Matt had just gone to a game a couple of weeks ago, and we didn’t have tickets yet, so we just came up with another idea together, and that was that we’d go spend some time in Forest Park.
Specifically, we decided to go to 2 places we’d never been before: The St. Louis Art Museum (I know, it’s shameful that we’ve lived here 13 years and never been) and then The Boathouse for dinner (again, I know). We had a bit of a time limit, as we could only head down to the park around 2:15pm, and SLAM closes at 5, but since we’d never been, any time there was better than none.
80 degree day + Saturday in Forest Park = atrocious traffic and parking situations, but we worked it out, and walked about a 1/4-mile to the art museum, excited to explore something new when we arrived there around 3:15.
We spent 45 minutes walking through, admiring lots of cool (and let’s face it, some really freaking weird – see pictures later) art, impressed that for the first time in my life, I was standing feet away from Picassos and Monets and Manets and Seurats.
And then, it happened. Matt’s phone rang, and it was a local number, but not one that we recognized. He let it ring a time or two, and we decided he should answer it. Thank goodness we did…it was the dispatch service for our burglar alarm system, which was currently going off. And the police were headed to our house.
You know that feeling when your stomach falls and adrenaline starts rushing through your body? That.
We headed very quickly back to our car. I called my sister, who had the boys at a nearby park, and asked her to drive home immediately to meet the police, since she was easily 30 minutes closer to our house than we were. In the meantime, our neighbor, who I was just getting ready to call, called me to ask if I knew what was going on, and to tell me that my house had police all around it (dear neighbors, glad we could provide some entertainment on an otherwise-quiet Saturday afternoon in the ‘hood.).
Long story short, there appears to be no evidence that someone tried to break in…we think we had a faulty sensor on a window, which we’ll get checked out by our alarm company. Thankfully, this all got ironed out before we left Forest Park, and when it was evident that we didn’t need to meet with the police, we stayed where we were. Obviously, we’re super-relieved that it appears to have been a glitch and not a real issue, and thankful for our neighbors, the police, and my sister, who all jumped into action when it was needed.
So, it was too late to walk back to the museum at this point, and we were already hungry, so we headed for an early dinner at The Boathouse. Great atmosphere, very fair prices, great service and food that’s good enough…let’s face it; people are primarily going there for the location and the ambiance, not the food. Good servers make it good enough that we’d go back.
We ended the date by heading over to the Loop for a drink at the Moonrise Hotel’s rooftop bar, where the people watching was excellent. Loved that we could end our night out in totally relaxed fashion.
yay! we’re here!
heading into the museum…
there’s beautiful art like this, hundreds of years old and so detailed that it looks almost like a photograph…
and then there’s creepy stuff like this one, called, “Peace,” and described by the artist as being 2 children in an embrace. um, this looks like 2 kids making out. gross.
picasso!
max beckmann’s titanic piece…took this picture for luke, our titanic enthusiast.
1 of monet’s water lilies…you know, the one you had a poster of in college, right next to your anne geddes poster. don’t act like you didn’t.
finishing up the evening at the moonrise. i like him.
We got home early enough to be able to watch The Hunger Games, out on DVD yesterday! Seemed appropriate to watch it on another 12 in ’12 date (date 2 also involved watching this movie!), and it was fun to have my sister watch it with us, since she hadn’t seen the movie or read the book yet.
We’ll definitely be back to the art museum soon, as we didn’t get to see very much of it. Plus, it’s free!
Last weekend, Matt and 4 friends of his went to the Lake of the Ozarks. It was the group of guys from our small group, and we wives were happy that they finally planned something and actually did it, since we annually make a fall trip to Chicago and have no qualms about leaving them home for the weekend with the kids.
Friday night was great…4 of the 5 of us girls (one couldn’t find a sitter – boo) who were left behind got sitters/family members to watch our kids, and we went for pedicures and then dinner. Lovely start to a weekend alone with the kids.
And then that night, there was a huge, loud thunderstorm. Normally, I love storms if they’re not accompanied by a tornado, but I have to admit that I love them less when Matt’s not here*. As of last spring, the boys were champs at sleeping through storms, but since we’ve not had any for so long, two of them woke up and came into my room to sleep. So from about 4:15 on, no one slept great. Oh well…not a big deal.
We spent the morning around the house, with me working on laundry and etsy stuff and getting the boys’ fall clothes out to see what we had. Around 10:30 I opened the blinds to discover this:
Someone had vandalized our landscape lighting. Tore all of the posts out (they even stuck one out in the middle of the yard), and ripped all the wiring from underground as well. I was so angry I was shaking. I just don’t understand why…why is it fun to destroy someone’s property? While theft is a horrible thing to be a victim of, at least I understand the mentality that someone wants what I have, so they take it from me. But destruction simply for the sake of destruction? I don’t get it. And from my discussion with a police officer and my neighbors, I found out that this has been going on in various forms in our neighborhood a lot lately…paint in people’s fountains, paintballing cars and sidewalks, busting out car mirrors, etc. Not cool.
We’re hoping to be able to reuse the light fixtures, and the wiring was at least not ripped from the wall, so the electricity should still work throughout. Sigh.
Saturday’s stress gave me a lovely fever blister that I’m still fighting.
Just as I was ready to settle in for a quiet night of watching the Olympics and working on etsy stuff, I realized that the storm that I’d seen on the radar earlier was not going to pass south of us, but rather, it was coming straight through. Luckily, it lost a bit of steam as it made it to our area, but it was still a huge storm. Super thankful for the rain…not thankful for that one bolt of lightning that hit my DVR, thus wiping out all recorded TV shows/movies. Tomorrow, I get to wait for the Charter repairman. Yay.
So. Clearly, this happened because Matt was gone.
All of this is behind us now, and I’m looking forward to the week ahead…our last before school starts!
*I was going to write a whole separate post about this, but let’s be honest, I stink at blogging lately, and it might not happen. My sister WAS here both nights with me, which I’m so thankful for! Hayley’s living with us for a couple of months as she transitions out of her old job and into school and a new job. Later this fall she’ll be moving into her own place again, but in the meantime, we are LOVING having her live with us! This completes the Pals sibling trifecta of all 3 of them living with us at some point.
