It's my birthday

It's my birthday. I thought I would take this opportunity to get back into the swing of things. Many of you have chastised me for being a bad blogger. You're right. And, I don't have an excuse - interesting things happen to me every day. I should share more.

Because this has been a jam-packed 10 days, I thought I would catch everyone up on what has been happening.

Last Thursday
We got back from Hawaii. It was a wonderful trip, and an opportunity for Mike and I to really reconnect. Oh... you want pictures? Click here.

Last Saturday
Angela's sister Michele got married! Anyone who knows me, knows I love weddings. Mike and I were responsible for watching Zach during the ceremony. I said a little prayer while we were in the beautiful catholic church during the ceremony, "Dear God, Thank you for Cheerios." The wedding was stunning, as was Michele. The reception was at the Lincoln Presidential Museum. We ate and danced between the White House and a Log Cabin. It was truly charming (with the exception of the John Wilkes Booth was statue, which I swear was giving me the evil eye).

Tuesday
We're refinancing! We have successfully completed a year of payments on our house, and with rates low it's the perfect time to save a little money each month. We are keeping our fingers crossed that all of the hard work we have done over the past year has paid off when they do the appraisal.

Wednesday
We bought a car. Like I said, it's been quite a week. This is the first new car either Mike or I have ever owned. It's a 2010 Volkswagen GTI. 4-door, manual, white. We are nervous about driving it, parking it, eating in it, and looking at it. The best part... satellite radio, baby. That's 24 hours of show tunes a day for Ann. (Sorry, Mike!).

Thursday
My family doctor finally told me it was time to go see a specialist about my sinus problems. Yesterday, I met with Dr. Raviv and had a wonderful and reassuring experience. He knew exactly what I was going through and did not seem worried that we would be able to knock it. It's a combination of heavy hitting drugs right now to completely kill any infection, followed by "maintenance" drugs to suppress further infections. To find out what exactly my body has decided is trying to kill me, I am going to see an allergist. Good news, even if it's the cats, he says we can work around it.

Friday
That's today. And, today is my birthday.

The Cat Lady

Mike and I are leaving for vacation on Friday afternoon. We are heading to the Georgia coast for a week. It's our first real vacation in over three years. We have taken lots of weekend trips, but we are ready to get away!

One of the last details I needed to iron out was cat care. I know saying that out loud makes me sound like a crazy cat lady. But, let's be honest, you all think I'm a crazy cat lady already. You (well, some of you) are just too nice to say it to my face.

Vacation pet care is big business around here. We found a service online that seemed reputable, and met with the catsitter (?) tonight. She provided references and a brochure about her care. She also sent over paper work for new customers. The form is three pages long and includes questions such as "Is there something that will bring your cat out of hiding (the sound of the can opener or treat jar, for example)."

Not only will she feed the cats, she also scoops the litter, brings in our mail, waters our plants and makes sure the house is ok. That's $15 (per visit) well spent!

In other news...

I like for my blog postings to have a theme. Unfortunately, tonight's blog is full of one-off stories about my day. While I hope you all enjoy the This American Life style of tonight's post, I apologize in advance for the random nature. Our story tonight, in three parts.

Act one: Lady, are you serious?!

While rants about the gym (and more specifically, the gym locker room) are usually the property of my cousin-in-law-in-law, Angela, I felt this story needed to be shared.

For those of you who have never been to a Lifetime, let me help you visualize the locker room layout. Imagine a long rectangle. At the top-left corner is the entrance. Flanking the entire left wall is a row of sinks and a continuous mirror. The rest of the space is full of groups of lockers shaped like a U, with the open portion of the U facing the mirror.

We all know that the locker room is full of naked people. It's one of those things no sane person looks forward to. I look straight into my locker and try to move as quickly as possible while changing in and out of workout clothes. Tonight, when I finished my workout, I returned to the locker room to find a woman sitting on the bench in the middle of my "U" of lockers butt-naked, facing the mirror and plucking her leg hair. She was still there when I left.

Act two: a shot, a pill, a spray, and an addiction...

I am, once again, suffering from a sinus infection. We have finally found a family doctor, which makes it so easy to make an appointment. As this is my third infection this year, the doctor felt I was probably going to need to get some imaging of my face done in the next few years - joy! But, for the time being, he gave me an allergy shot, an antibiotic to kill the current infection, and a nasal spray to help prevent future infections (which is said I could take or not take depending on how I feel over the next month or two). Because my sinus infections usually manifest as a terrible headache, he also offered me pain medication. Seriously? He offered it twice. I thought about saying, "oh yes, can you make that oxycontin?" just to see if I could get away with it.

Act three: a tree!

I know I keep promising updated yard pictures to the entire family. Well, here it is. The petunias have taken over the hostas, but neighbors continue to comment on the remarkable transformation from last year to this year. Way to go us!


p.s. - Please forgive our brown grass. We are trying to kill the weeds and the yard is mostly weeds.

Lunch break

Today I was rolling into my third day of headache. At first, I thought it was another sinus infection rearing its head. I did the neti thing and the Zyrtec and went to bed. None of that seemed to do much. After a bit of investigation (let's be honest, one can get addicted to WebMD), I have decided that I get tension headaches. My mother was prone to terrible migraines and, while I have thus far escaped these, I too suffer from headaches that are best treated by an early bedtime.

Today after sharing my hypothesis with Mike he said, "Sounds about right. Maybe you should try to relax." Brilliant deduction Holmes. Why hadn't I thought of that?

But, the more I thought about it the more I realized he was probably right. Even though my motto lately at work has been, "it's just paper," translating that into behavior is easier said then done. So at lunch today, I took Mike's advice. I found an equally stressed (and likable) coworker and told her we needed to go for a walk. We both brought our lunch, but couldn't bear to spend another day eating something reheated while hunched over our computers.

I have to say... it worked. I felt better all afternoon. I think this is going to be a new lunch tradition. If nothing else, I need to step away from things for 30 minutes or so in the middle of the day and regroup.

A baby, a fence and a tomato

This weekend was a success. It was actually full of multiples successes.

Mike and I had a great date on Friday. We ate sushi and just talked. With the endless house projects, we don't spend much time sitting around. It was a great way to start the weekend.

On Saturday, we got up early and headed to Clarendon Hills to babysit Zach. Angela was in Rhode Island racing hard and David needed to finish up his investor report at work. We had so much fun with Zach. We went on a walk, took a trip to the grocery store, and played hard. Mike and I have always been good partners and it is fun to see how our parenting roles are naturally evolving, as well. While I spent time cuddling (Zach is working on his fifth (or one endless) cold and teething), reading and changing diapers; Mike was all over the place playing with blocks and trucks. My favorite part of the day was when Mike showed Zach his new juggling skills. The sweet little guy would just sit there staring wide eyed and with a full smile. Then, right at the end of each routine as the balls started to fall he would giggle. To top it all off, Mike kept saying, "I'm a clown." Mike and Zach also have this new routine where Mike points at Zach and says "You the man!" Zach then points back at Mike and smiles at himself. David scolded Mike for teaching Zach to point, but I am secretly (except that I am posting this all over the internet) going to encourage it.

On Friday, I made an ambitious to-do list for our weekend. The big project was to remove the chain link fence that runs along the side of our driveway. When we were looking at this house, I said to Mike, "if we buy this place, that is coming out on day one." Well... it may be day 280 (or something like that), but it still feels like quite an accomplishment. I think our neighbors were thrilled as well. All of the posts were sunk in serious concrete (over 18" deep) and covered in some horrible plant. We still need to finish taking out some stumps, but it's an amazing improvement.

And last, a little surprise. As many of you know, I miss farm tomatoes. I tried to grow them last year in pots, but it didn't turn out very well. This year, I picked a spot with good soil and plenty of sun. The plants are thriving. Both have outgrown their cages once and are close to doing so again. (Which is bad news bears since I bought the largest ones I could find.) The plants are covered in buds, so it should be a delicious fall of BLTs!!! And, today the first little tomatoes appeared.

Our Tree

*Family and friends have reminded me that my blog is a great way for us to stay connected in a personal way that is difficult for all of us in our busy lives. As such, I have recommitted myself to letting you know what's new and interesting in our lives. I cannot promise that I will post every day, but I will be better about staying connected. So... here we go!


Today we bought a tree.

Mike and I found very early in our relationship that we are both Magnolia lovers. My grandparents had two southern magnolia trees in their beautiful yard. I remember the lovely white blooms and the rich, waxy leaves. Alas, these trees cannot survive in the cold Chicago winters. I had two magnolias growing up, full of bright pink blossoms. It was the perfect climbing tree (which, I managed to fall out of a few times). As soon as we bough our house last year, we knew we wanted to plant a magnolia in the front yard.

But, did you know about all of the different types of Magnolias? Turns out our local garden center did. They didn't make the choice easy. There were hard decisions to make. More like a tree or a bush? White flowers or pink flowers?

We settled on an Elizabeth Magnolia. This coming spring it should fill our lawn with beautiful yellow-white flowers. It's going in the ground next Saturday. I'll make sure to update with new front-yard photos

Welcome to Our House!

Root canal and a movie

About ten weeks ago I needed to get a crown. It wasn't a terrible experience, but it wasn't fun. Our dentist wasn't my favorite, but he seemed fine. But then, about two weeks ago, my tooth started to ache... to throb... searing stabs of pain. Accompanied only by a move, too much work, and a sinus infection (oh, goodie!).

It was at that point, that I decided it was time to find a new dentist. As I do whenever I need to find reliable information, I turned to the internet. After spending an hour or so reading reviews of dentists and checking out their websites, I settled on making an appointment with Dr. Shepstone in Glenview.

People! This is the dentist. You have a cavity? Cleaning? Oral surgery? I've got your guy.

I set up an appointment to have an exam and meet the dentists, as I wanted to test the waters after my last experience. I was immediately impressed with his professionalism and thoroughness. I was even reassured by the families in the waiting room. Call me crazy, but a waiting room with one of those block roller coasters, makes me feel like I belong.

Today, I went in for my root canal (because, yes, I needed one... not just a crown), and I wasn't disappointed. The appointment started with my dentist explaining that I would be wearing movie goggles during the entire appointment and he would place a guard in my mouth to hold my jaw open so it wouldn't get tired. What? I'd never heard of such fancy gadgets. They got started by numbing me up something fierce. At three points, he stopped to ask about my comfort level. At the half-way mark, we took a 10 minute break to let my jaw relax. And, they gave me pain medication before I left so that when the local anaesthetic wore off, I wouldn't be in any pain.

While I am sure I have a few painful hours and nights ahead, it was a fairly painless experience. That, and Score is still a pretty good movie!


p.s. - if you need a new dentists... GO HERE! http://www.glenviewfamilydentist.com/

p.s.s. - I'm working on the house pictures right now!

Interesting night...

Question:
What do you get when you live near a forest preserve and you put out trash in a can without a lid?

Answer:
An opossum adventure.

At approximately 3:30 this morning, a band of opossum toppled the trash can and started on a trash bag. At approximately 3:45 this morning, the cats were alerted to the situation and started going crazy. At approximately 3:47 this morning, the opossum called his friends and the motion light started going on and off on and off on and off - shining directly in our window. At approximately 3:50 this morning, one opossum found the fried chicken and all hell broke loose.

Have you ever heard opossums fight? It sounds like they are ripping each other apart. And then the cats were REALLY going crazy.

We went back to sleep at about 4:30. Mike picked up quite a mess this morning. We are purchasing the world's best garbage can on our way home tonight.

Home ownership is fun!

Yeah, yeah...

I promise we will get everyone an update in the next day or two. I also promise that we have before and after photos coming soon!

Stay tuned...

House update

If you are the blog fiend I am, you have probably been wondering how things are going at the house. While we are definitely making progress, the house is now in a greater state of disarray than before. Here's some of the highlights:

We pulled up all of the carpet. In case you don't remember one bedroom was royal blue, one teal, and one a lovely shade of rose. Under the carpet lived beautiful hard wood floors. Even better, two of the three rooms do not need any refinishing. What will one day be the guest room has some water stains in the wood. Nothing a good area rug can't fix (cover). On the down side, the beautiful wood in the hall and stairs still needs to be finished; but it is sanded and ready to go.

We took out the horrible shower door... and a few of the wall tiles at the same time. Oopps. Another exciting project for our hero Robert!

After the carpet, we started tackling the wallpaper. Room one - pealed off in complete strips without any problem. Both bathrooms were your typical wallpaper adventure. This meant the use of a scraper and steamer, but still the paper came down in a completely reasonable way. Then we moved into the kitchen. The next day we were STILL working on it. Last night, I tackled the entry, while Mike traveled for work. Tonight, Mike started on the basement and I joined after Common Threads. Can I just say, if you are EVER considering a textured wall paper... don't. stop. STOP!!! You should not live with it and you are dooming your future home owners.

However, most exciting, we are making progress. Things are getting done, despite a few small surprises. And, we haven't hit any stumbling blocks we cannot overcome.

Next week it's time to start putting the space back together. After seeing our trash pile, we thought you would all enjoy seeing our "new stuff" pile. What you have here is two toilets, three sinks, 3 ceiling fans, 6 light fixtures, hardware for everything, new face plates for everything, four new faucets; plus the 50 feet of crown, four closet doors, 2 counter tops and 5 regular doors not shown. It's going to be a good time!

We are homeowners

This was quite a roller coaster of a day. We woke up excited to close on our house late this morning. Mike headed off to work for a few hours, while I was going to get some extra sleep and head to the bank to get a check for our closing costs.

As of last night, our attorney still had not received our final closing costs from the title company, so first thing this morning, I called to follow up. We were closing at 11, and as of 9 a.m. we still didn't have anything.

At 10:05 I received a call and was quoted closing costs more than 5 times what we were expecting. This poses a really cash problem when you are supposed to sign on the dotted line in less than an hour. After the seconds of stunned silence, I asked "WHAT?! WHY?"

Apparently, the title company had decided (this morning) we needed to pay indemnity insurance (two or three times your property taxes - for those of you who don't know, like I didn't until today) even though we already set up an escrow account for our property taxes. All seemed fishy, and I called the lender, who called the title company and told them they couldn't do that and to take it off. At this point I went from crying because we didn't have enough cash to close today, to feeling nervous.

About this time, Mike rolled into the driveway and we headed out to the Title Company office for closing. After circling in around for a while (Google Maps failed us today), we finally found the office, headed up and checked in. "You're not closing here today. You must have the wrong office." We promptly held up our meeting notice provided by the attorney, only to find out we had been scheduled at their other office. Oh, of course, how silly of us to have come to the wrong one.

We arrived, only to find out lender pointing out more and more mistakes to the HUD-1 (form with what we have to pay), then the attorney showed up and pointed out more and more mistakes. All told, they printed four copies of this document before they got it right. The seller's attorney was quite a site as well. This fly-by-night man of law (I assume that's what he would want to be called) was wearing a fancy black t-shirt and had a number of hand written documents for our attorney (who got a kick out of the whole thing - until he started to get annoyed) to review.

Two hours later... we were down to less than a third of the closing costs we expected to pay. We left with more money that we ever expected (Can you say New Sofa? Seriously, someone ask my husband.) and brand new keys.

But wait, there's more! We started work on the house this afternoon. We collected trash and pulled up carpet in two of the bedroom. We snapped a few pictures... please enjoy!

Life is beautiful

After anxiously waiting, the newest member of our extended family arrived last night.

It was a long, difficult haul for Mom. I won't steal her thunder, but feel free to read about her superwoman experience here.

We are very lucky to be the closest family, and spent the afternoon (not so) patiently in the waiting room. We did enjoy some good people watching. Our favorite was Brody Lane's grandfather watching Nascar on You Tube, while eating Doritos and drink Mountain Dew. (I realize this is about 25 stereotypes rolled into one, but I promise it's an accurate picture.)

All of the waiting and phone calls was worth it when we got to meet little Zachary Marshall. He is a healthy little man full of snuggly noises and the beautiful scent of a baby.

Small accomplishments

Many of you know that I am an anal retentive list maker. I like neat rows and small boxes next to each item. I find great joy in swiping my pen across a line or slicing a check through one of my boxes.

The last few weeks have been full of big tasks. Tasks that leave you exhausted at the end of the day, but with no great sense of accomplishment. It's the way you feel when packing up a house. 10 boxes may seem like a lot of work, but it's only a bookcase or three kitchen cabinets.

Today, I had a press-ok at our printer around noon. Lucky for me, the printer is right by my house, and so I decided to take the afternoon off and come home. I am still doing some work and answer emails; but it has been a completely satisfying afternoon. Check. Check. Check. I have spent the afternoon enjoying the joy that comes with cleaning a toilet and swapping out laundry.

Some of you might be surprised to know this feeling is generally unrelated to the forum in which something is completed. For instance, I can spend three hours on a challenging business problem and feel just as good as when I finish a batch of cookies.

A true peak into my psyche... my level of satisfaction is directly related to the number of people who are affected by my work. This is the only reason dusting is not quiet as great as making a birthday cake. This also may have some baring on my obsession with planning rockin' events.

In any event, today I am feeling good (and my house is feeling clean), so stop by and I'll make you a cake...

What are the little things that make you happy?

Knife skills

A few months ago, I signed up to volunteer for an after school program called Common Threads. For those who have never heard of it (which is nearly everyone I know), it's a program that teaches inner city children how to cook within the context of cultural education (food from a different country each week) and nutrition.

The program was founded by Art Smith - Oprah's former private chef. Many of you may know about it from Top Chef Chicago.

Food and cooking for others is a really important part of my life. I also love kids and have been looking for a way to get more involved now that we seem to be settling in to life in Chicago(land area).

Due to its Bravo publicity, I had to go through an interview, get fingerprinted and wait my turn for a new round of classes to begin. (Good news... I passed!)

With classes starting in a couple of weeks, it was time for our training session. The majority of the session was spent going over curriculum, expectations and rules. However, the most interesting portion was knife skills. I LOVE to chop and know how to do it correctly, so that part of the lesson was review. However, when we got to the "how to handle knives around inner city kids" portion, I started paying attention.

Before I go any further, these are 8- and 9-year-old children. They signed up for the program because they want to. The biggest concern is that they don't chop off their own fingers.

However, there were some things I, being from a small farm town, wouldn't have necessarily considered. For instance, these kids get nervous when they see other kids with knives. So it's a class rule to announce that you have a knife if you are behind someone (I imagine it to be similar to riding on the bike path; except you yell "knife back here," rather than "passing left.") The second thing is that, under no circumstances, are the kids ever to take the knife away from the cutting board or hold it up in the air.

I am assured that nothing has ever happened. And I don't, in any way, feel threatened. My husband, however, is convinced I am going to get "knifed" and put pepper spray in my purse.

The Perfect Tank

While, I am sure you are all anxious for my finding, let's start this blog by talking about the cami.

The camisole is, I believe, the female equivalent of a man's white undershirt. (At this point I should warn the men in my life, you may not enjoy the detailed review of the cami.) More importantly, when you are a large chested lady (like myself), it's a necessity for deep-v necklines or lighter sweaters.

But the cami is not designed for those who are curvy. It has a tiny straps, which barely cover my grandma-like bra straps. "But they have a built in bra?" my small-chested friends comment to themselves. Silly ladies, that shelf bra doesn't hold up anything substantial. In fact, the shelf bra is more trouble than it's worth. It only pulls the camisole down, showing off everything one is trying to cover up.

And so, I have been on the hunt for a tank made of the smooth cami-like fabric, but with the coverage of a good ole' fashioned tank top.

Today, I found it! After an entire summer of searching, I found a collection of exactly what I wanted at Target... of course. It's the best $7.99 I've spent in a long time.

Leaving town

Tonight I am packing for my final NY trip of the year. I enjoy the tradeshows, and I am very lucky to work with a group of people I enjoy spending nine, 12-hour days with; but we are all feeling a little overwhelmed with this trip.

Not only is there a lot going on IN the office (for those of you who don't know we are launching Dunder Mifflin Infinity and I'm on the party planning committee), but there's a lot coming up all over the place.

My manager, and tradeshow compatriot, is getting married the weekend after the show. Yeah, she's got balls (slash crazy). This not only means she is leaving me a little early this show (which, in case she reads this and feels guilty, SHE SHOULD), but she is also leaving me in charge for the two weeks following the show during her honeymoon.

Our darling second cousin (though, I still think Aunt Annie sounds the best) is due the first week of the month. This, of course, means I will be preparing ample meals upon my return, so I can barter for baby time. (note: please no baby until August 22. Then, go for it!)

We close on our house in late September and still have finalized paint colors. What do you think... Nantucket Fog or Blue Arrow for the guest room?

And, I want to take a nap.

Photo montage

Do you ever have a moment when you realize how awesome your childhood was? Or how scary your parents really looked in the 80s? Or, how much money people wasted on developing film?

I had such an evening. In preparation for our big move, I suggested that we organize the basement and get rid of as much as possible. The hubs wanted to start by scanning in all of our family photos. As anyone who has gone through a parent's things can tell you, parents take a lot of photographs. We have boxes and boxes. Tonight we decided to tackle one box. That small box took us over an hour to flip through (at a really fast pace).

Overwhelmingly, the verdict was things that seemed important, are not. For instance, for three years in a row we went to Disney Land at Christmas. Each year, someone (possibly the small child who begged for the camera) decided it was imperative to take a photo (usually blurry) of every single float in the holiday parade. That's approximately eight rolls of blurry floats so precious that they have survived five moves and two decades.

Another example of something we experienced was the notion that you should send those relatives you do not frequently see entire rolls. Here's a picture of your cousin picking up an Easter egg in 1991. Here's another. Another.

We have decided to tackle a different box each night until we are threw then all. Eventually, we will have them all scanned in and available on DVD. Something for all family and friends to look forward to.

Busy

I want to put an apology out into the void to whomever I owe one to. I realize I have been difficult (if not impossible) to contact lately, but life seems a little chaotic.

Take this week, for instance:

Saturday - We (hubby, bro-in-law and I) moved Mike's cousin from the South Side to the top floor of a four-story walk up. While the entire family is thrilled to trade in hardcore gang bangers for the more gentrified gang bangers of her new neighborhood, we were not thrilled about the lack-of-elevator situation.

Sunday - While moving said cousin, our window regulator broke. Apparently a common problem in VW's, this meant we had to park our car on the city streets with the driver's side window down (a.k.a., stuck in the door). This also meant that Sunday was dedicated to, once again, thanking Baby Jesus for my brother-in-law who (with the help of my amazing husband) spent the better part of the day disassembling the car door and fixing the problem.

Monday - Bright and early, I am off to the airport. Exit on to 294 is closed. Alternate route is at a stand still because of crossing gate failure. Run into airport. Plane is delayed 145 minutes (for no good reason!). No movie... ON A FLIGHT TO SAN FRANCISCO! Spend the evening schmoozing.

Tuesday - Bright and early, back to (different) airport. Fly home and actually land a little early, which is very good because I need to rush to the dentist. They quickly numbed my face and insert my permanent crown. I went home, made dinner, and then had to drug myself because of residual tooth pain. But, of course, I cannot sleep because I managed to get jet lag in one day.

Wednesday - Off we go to the house inspection first thing in the morning. The good news is that there were not any problems we didn't expect and we liked (and trusted) the inspector. (Call for referral.) Then I was off to work - driving because it was so late. Someone want to explain how there is still rush hour traffic at noon on Wednesday?! I worked really late to make up for going in early and ended the day with another restless night.

Thursday - This is today. It's my Friday, because I took tomorrow off. That's a good thing because it was a rough day. It involved slamming my knee (which is now under frozen peas) into the corner of a tradeshow crate and then stabbing myself with a staple (finger now in band-aid). The hubby is running late, which is ok because it means I get to talk to all of you for a few minutes, and I got him to pick up dinner on his way home. (thanks!)

So, call me if you need me, but don't be mad if I forget to answer. And, have a great weekend!

It's a steal!

Our offer was accepted! That means - baring any unforeseen inspection finds - we will be moving into our new home this fall.

The picture above is the front of our new abode. Remember, I like a good project - so there is much to be done. (Starting with that hideous awning.)

Sparing everyone the pain that follows the announcement of housing costs in the greater Chicago area, I will say that we got a bargain. It has been on the market for over a year, but we are getting it for $119,000 less than the original asking price. (That's more than my mom's house sold for people!)

And, I call that a steal!

Now I have to get back to amassing paperwork for the bank.