Just Doin' Life

Groovin'

2011-11-11T18:19:00.000-06:00

1 year later

2010-07-28T05:09:00.001-05:00

A year ago we were learning about disappointment, changes in plans, and living with uncertainty. Today we can't stop staring at our amazing son!

A year ago we were getting to know our Reproductive Endocrinologist and hearing more than I ever wanted to know about infertility. Today we are calling the Pediatrician to set up Elliot's first appointment, where we will instead hear plenty about feeding, pooping, and sleeping.

A year ago we weren't sure today would even be possible, but here we are! Today has been a very good day, and maybe even slightly better for the fact that we couldn't see this far a year ago.

God has blessed us enormously.

And really, have you ever seen a child more really really ridiculously good looking?

A Christmas Miracle

2010-01-20T18:59:00.004-06:00

So I hardly ever post anything on here, but I thought the story of our Christmas Miracle deserved sharing!

This past year has been full of waiting, disappointment, doctor's visits, specialists visits, testing, and infertility treatment. We hit an all time low in November, when our doctor told us that despite their best efforts, our only viable option to have a baby was IVF. This was also 1 day after learning that our insurance was drastically reducing their infertility coverage for 2010. Not the best day ever.

After 2 weeks of crying, praying, and wondering what to do, we got the surprise of our lives- a positive pregnancy test! Two weeks after that, we had our first ultrasound, and there it was- a blinking speck, aka, a beating heart!

Two more weeks, and Baby Scheffers looked like a peanut:

Six days after that, my wonderful brother-in-law Brad gave us another peek at Baby Scheffers at his OB-GYN office. Now baby has feet!!!

Today we had our 12 week visit with the doctor, where we got to see that Baby now has official arms, legs, and even fingers. Very fun :)

So here we are, 12 weeks in, feeling terrible, but thrilled to pieces! The question now is, how to make sense of this? Dare we call this a miracle? Do we call it modern medicine that actually is effective, even when the specialists were not optimistic? Or do we call it doctors who simply overreacted to a situation that was never as dire as they predicted? I'm reminded of a post I made a long time ago about miracles. We always look for a way to explain it when unexpected things happen. It's easier for our minds I think.

But I prefer to believe that this was a miracle.

God chose to intervene when all other doors were closed. Maybe He just wanted to remind us that HE is the real giver of life.

Now, I know that He doesn't always intervene. And sometimes even when He does give, He still takes away. But for today, we will rejoice in the gift, and give the credit where credit is due- no offense to my fabulous REI dr. :)

Chicago Bucket List

2009-11-22T18:22:00.002-06:00

Every time we see or think of something fun we'd like to do while we live in Chicago, we put it on our Chicago Bucket List. So far, this has just been a mental list, but a few weeks ago we wrote it down on a napkin at dinner, and now it will be On the Blog Official. So here goes:

- Stay at the Trump Tower, Chicago Hilton, and Peninsula hotels
- Go to a Bears game
- Go to a Tigers/White Sox game
- Dinner Cruise on Lake Michigan
- Frank Lloyd Wright Tour in Oak Park
- Lincoln Park Zoo
- Ice Skating at Millenium Park
- Field Museum
- Museum of Science and Industry
- Art Museum
- Eat at Ditka's and Haray Caray's
- Morton Arboretum
- Horse/Carriage ride downtown
- Go to Second City

Any suggestions???

Harbor Lights Triathlon

2009-07-25T07:28:00.005-05:00

Last weekend Bryan did the Harbor Lights Triathlon up in Waukegan. There are no pictures of Ashlee, Hannah, and I spectating, but we were there cheering the whole way!

Here are Bryan and Aaron before the race:

Here goes Wave 2 into the water:

Here comes Bry out of the water. The nice part about this triathlon is that it's small enough that Ashlee and I can find the guys pretty easily at each point and they don't have any trouble spotting us cheering. Aaron had some trouble with his timing chip, so they weren't able to stay together very well this time, which was kind of sad, but we still got to see them both.

This picture shows Bryan asking, for the first of many times, "Where's Aaron?"

Starting the bike- Where's Aaron???

Ending the bike- Seriously, where is he???

Starting the run, still flying solo

Crossing the finish line- hurray!No worries, Aaron was close by the whole time!

One of the funniest things I have ever seen

2009-07-24T13:22:00.001-05:00

http://

Odd Day

2009-05-07T08:50:00.002-05:00

Have you celebrated Odd Day yet?

I know my mother will at least like this one!

http://www.oddday.net/
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/wdaf-odd-day-050709,0,2886700.story

Day 1

2009-04-21T13:52:00.002-05:00

Day 1- no accidents.
Night 1- no sleep.

Just kidding, we slept a little :)

A New Addition

2009-04-20T18:45:00.005-05:00

It's been a long time (again) since I've blogged, so there is plenty to update on (again), but here is our most exciting new news:

Welcome Bailey!!!

Hannah Pace came over and loved giving Bailey kisses:

More pictures to come...

Best Weekend Ever

2009-02-28T22:46:00.000-06:00

We just got home from the best weekend ever. We decided to take a random day off just to get away, so this Friday we headed up to Lake Geneva for the night. On the way there we stopped at the outlet mall in Kenosha, WI, of course, where we spent entirely too much money- but who really cares, the deals were fabulous! Plus, this is about the only time I can get Bryan to shop with me of his own free will. Something about outlet shopping works for him, so I'm happy to oblige.

In Lake Geneva we stayed at the Mill Creek Hotel, which was wonderful- and so much cheaper than everywhere else I looked! I was kind of amazed. We had a great time eating out, going to the movies, and playing on the lake. I would have been afraid, ok more afraid, of falling through the ice, but I figured if all these SUVs were safe then disaster was maybe unlikely.
There were plenty of ice fishers out in their little shanties, and also a big sailboat race on the other side of the lake. You can't see the boats very well in this picture, but they were just flying across the lake. Apparently boats go faster on skates/skis than they do in the water...I thought this was cool looking right at the edge- the ice looks like it got just slammed into the shore!Considering stepping out... Here he goes... I call this one, Boy on Lake:Fine, I'll try it too:As it turns out, ice actually IS slippery:Not surprisingly, Bryan stayed upright more than I did:

What a great weekend!

(Sidenote, remember when I used to wear contacts? Yea, those were the days. Due to being decently scared by my opthalmologist-friend Allison about all sorts of horrible things like cornea perforation, transplants and blindness, I agreed to not wear my contacts until my corneal ulcer has completely healed. But seriously, who exactly gets corneal ulcers?! I didn't even know it was possible to get an ulcer on your eyeball. Sigh...)

February Update

2009-02-28T20:57:00.003-06:00

So, I clearly don't blog very often. But there has been a lot happening- February was a busy month! Here is a brief update.

First we had the Superbowl, and we were joined by the Paces, Flinns, and Felkels (who somehow missed the picture-taking, sorry guys!)

Next we had Vicki's babyshower, and yes, this part would be more interesting if there were actually pictures of Vicki in it. Oops. When she starts a blog, which I'm sure she will at some point as the soon-to-be mother of twins, I'll be sure to link to her.

After that, our lives changed forever when we found out The Chew Chew, our very favorite restaurant, finally re-opened again! We have been waiting a year and a half for that to happen, and I must confess we went twice on the first weekend. Flinns and Paces joined us for our second visit, and here we all are enjoying the wonderful food and atmosphere of The Chew Chew:

The highlight of February came in the middle of the month when we got to visit our newest niece- baby Nora Kathryn. We love her tons already. Maybe her mom and dad will let her come visit us someday and we will spoil her rotten. Carolyn liked sitting in this box, and when I asked her to smile for a picture for me she said, "yes, and then I will get a jellybean!" And now we all know how her mommy gets such cute pictures out of her! haha! She's a smart one, that Carolyn :) On our way home we got to stop by cousin Elena's 7th birthday party. Those not-so-little blondies are sure getting big fast!

Another major highlight of the month was having our dearest of dearest friends, the Coxes, come stay with us for the weekend. We had a great time just hanging out together, making pancakes (of course), and watching Ryan and Amber learn about all the new baby gear that will soon become part of their life. Ryan and Amber's little one is due to arrive in June, and he or she will then join the ranks of baby Abby and Hannah as one of our pseudo-nieces (or nephew). We are so excited for them!

Another new blogger

2009-02-07T07:53:00.001-06:00

Welcome Cousin Lyndsey to the blogging world! Lyndsey is a traveling nurse, currently enjoying the wonderful February weather of Tucson, AZ. Ahhh, sunshine...

Baby it's cold outside!

2009-01-16T07:25:00.003-06:00

This is the weather we woke up to this morning:This is what I have to look forward to when I get to work:This is where I'll be pretending I am all day today: Or maybe here:

Or even here:
In all fairness, remind me of this in the summer when we have gorgeous, wonderful weather and these other places hotter than blazes.

Jury Duty

2009-01-12T20:55:00.003-06:00

I had quite the lesson in the legal system this past week- I was picked to be a juror on a murder trial. Definitely not a fun experience, but certainly educational.

Here are the top 10 things I learned by being on a jury:

10. Attorneys that are argumentative and confrontational with witnesses are a whole lot more interesting to listen to than those who are more polite.

9. Having the judge sit up so much higher than everyone else is at least partially to intimidate the jury.

8. Being involved with deciding someone's fate is not a pleasant place to be.

7. Sitting in a jury deliberation room for days on end,with only prison food to eat and the promise of being sequestered until a decision is reached, can actually drive one crazy.

6. A jury room halfway through a trial must be one of the most interesting places to test out social psychology theories. Would you cave if everyone else was against you and no one could go home until you changed your mind? Would your opinion of "reasonable" or "justified" change after hours or listening to other people's opinions about "reasonable" and "justified"?

5. A "jury of peers" means some of those "peers" will not know or believe one of the most basic fundamentals of our criminal justice system- innocent until proven guilty. Their vote still counts.

4. Smart, educated, reasonable people can hear the same case you heard and come to a completely different conclusion. Their vote counts the same as yours.

3. The question for juries to decide is not "guilty vs innocent," rather, it is "guilty vs reasonable doubt." Guilty men must go free if the prosecution cannot prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. This does not sit well with most jurors, even smart, educated, reasonable ones.

2. It is difficult to keep one's thoughts straight when there is an innocent victim. How does letting a murderer go free on a technicality give that victim justice?

1. NEVER be the defendant in a jury trial. No offense, but I would not want my fate in the hands of my "peers"!!!

Boy am I glad to be getting back to my Real job now!

Busy week

2009-01-12T19:56:00.004-06:00

Last week was a busy one around these parts. Bruce and Hayley came to visit us from New Zealand:

Sure wish we could fly to New Zealand this summer for their wedding! What fun that would be!

We also had Bryan's Christmas party for his work. This is everyone from his clinic that was at the party (the "W's" stand for "Willowbrook"- the location of their clinic):

Over the weekend we enjoyed playing Aunt and Uncle to Little Miss Carolyn. We had a great time watching Nemo, very serious business:Then we braved the snow to visit our neighbors down the street. Carolyn thinks running with her Uncle Bryan is HILARIOUS:Making funny faces at Miss Meggan's house:Carolyn found a very special new toy to play with at Miss Meggan's house- a flash drive! This toy trumped all other toys. Here she is explaining the wonders of the flash drive to Baby Hannah:Considering sharing:

We had a fabulous time with our dear niece!

New Years Eve 2008

2009-01-06T22:17:00.007-06:00

We were so excited to be joined this year by John and Kristy Sargent for New Years Eve! We Love our Sargent friends, and it was such a great time to catch up and hang out together.

We took the train downtown and had a fabulous dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, followed by a FREEZING cold walk to Navy Pier, some FREEZING cold fireworks-watching (and yes, we watched the Family Fireworks at 8:30, not the "real" ones at midnight. we're way too cool for that), another FREEZING cold walk back to the train, and finally warmth and cheesecake at our house as we rang in the New Year in the warmth of our apartment.

There were lots of pictures taken: John and Kristy are glowfaces apparently.

Riding the train, and wondering where Bryan's neck went:

Pretty city lights:
Festivities at Navy Pier:
Sent from Heaven, right when we thought we'd never be warm again:
Here's our stash:
John was quite excited about his cheesecake:Ok, we were all excited:

Thanks Sargents for coming to our house- we love you guys!

Happy 2009!

Christmas 2008

2009-01-06T22:10:00.005-06:00

We had a wonderful Christmas again this year. We are truly blessed to have two great families to spend time with during the holidays!

You'll see that this year there were a lot of posed family shots....

A great time was had by all- Merry (late) Christmas!

Lunch with Neighbors

2008-12-21T22:19:00.004-06:00

Today we had a wonderful Christmas Brunch with our neighbors, Flinns & Paces.

Hannah had a great time playing with Uncle Chris and Uncle Bryan: And little Abby was precious as always:Here are the girls (minus Hannah):

Not sure why we don't have a group shot of the boys, including Aaron who is somehow missing from these pictures, but they were all there. We had a wonderful time, and are so grateful for our friends!

Too bad we couldn't all bundle up like Abby for the ride home! Snug as a bug!

Our Back Room

2008-12-21T22:07:00.004-06:00

This is the futon in our back room- where, in theory, You would stay if you ever came to visit us. The only challenge with our "guest room" is that it is currently 28 degrees back there. (this picture was taken this morning when it was only 30 degrees, but it has, amazingly, gotten colder since then.)

Check back this summer for reports of the unbearably hot temperatures August brings to that little room.

Lacking both heat and air conditioning, this is clearly the most temperature-challenged zone in our house... sigh...

Home Improvement Day

2008-12-21T21:44:00.003-06:00

Every so often we have Home Improvement Day. I Love Home Improvement Day.
The latest HID began with homemade cinnamon bread (incredibly domestic, I know!), and ended with a face-lift for our bathroom.

Bryan changed out the medicine cabinet and lights, while I shopped for a new shower curtain and towels. Before:
During:
After:
Even small changes can make a big difference I think!

North Pole?

2008-12-21T07:56:00.005-06:00

This is the weather we woke up to this morning:

Maybe we live at the North Pole.

great news

2008-12-03T19:31:00.003-06:00

Great news- the blogging bug has finally spread to the other side of the family.

My lovely sister-in-law Kristin Scheffers joined the blogging world today, I'm so excited! She has lots of wonderful things to say- go check her out at: http://iftherewerewordstosay.blogspot.com/

Interesting story in today's Tribune...

2008-11-13T08:49:00.003-06:00

I don't think I would have been this brave at age 14. Or now- yikes!

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T19:49:00.003-05:00

We don't typically get a lot of trick-or-treaters at our house for some reason, which I always find disappointing. And then the ones we do get are often too old to be cute, just wearing some ugly mask for a costume, and holding out plastic bags begging for candy. Bleh.

But tonight Ashlee and Naomi brough Hannah and Sophia over to trick-or-treat, and they came dressed as twin bumblebees. They were by far the cutest costumes we saw all night.

Here Hannah shares her bee-antenna with Uncle Bryan. Awww :)

Welcome Abigail Grace Flinn!

2008-10-31T19:45:00.003-05:00

Abigail Grace Flinn finally made her appearance yesterday morning, weighing in at 8.2 pounds. Quite a lot of progress for one who gave her parents such a scare at less than one pound! We got to go visit her last night- what a precious little girl! Congratulations Flinn Family!

Morning Routine

2008-10-31T19:33:00.004-05:00

In honor of Amber's recent post (Hot Sheets) about her husband, Ryan, I thought I would share one of Bryan's newest quirks. Lately he has gotten very into having a morning routine. Now, Bryan has always been a creature of habit- he ate a bowl of Frosted Flakes every single morning for the first two years of our marriage (I once bought 15 boxes of Frosted Flakes at the grocery store because they were half off and I knew he would eat them all), followed by a long phase of Great Grains, then a slightly shorter phase of Wheaties, and currently his breakfast is oatmeal. Every single day. Oatmeal. He never switches it up, never is there the question of "hmmmm, what do I feel like for breakfast today?", if he makes a change it is a permanent change and he rarely looks back. The only problem this creates for me, is that any changes he makes are often without warning, and we might be left with 4 boxes of cereal in the cabinet that will no longer be eaten.

Anyways, the oatmeal breakfast is significantly more involved than a simple bowl of cereal, so Bryan has begun setting up his morning routine the night before. He puts the pot on the stove, the oats and raisins on the counter, and lays out the measuring cups next to his bowl and spoon. The coffeemaker is also prepped at this point.

Why this all needs to be laid out in such a perfect order the night before is beyond me. What a funny boy!

Fall and Smores

2008-10-19T21:24:00.004-05:00

We had the most beautiful Fall weather this weekend, so today Ashlee, Meggan and I (and Hannah too) took a walk through Riverside. A new activity for us, as Meggan is finally off bedrest, hurray!

I love this face Hannah makes:
Then tonight we enjoyed smores in the Flinns' firepit. Yum!
And a complete group shot, now that Aaron figured out how to use the timer:

Marathon Day

2008-10-18T10:58:00.010-05:00

Last weekend was Bryan's second Chicago Marathon. Here we are after eating the traditional pre-marathon spaghetti dinner:We got up bright and early and saw the Chicago sunrise- which I have seen more this summer than ever before, due to the sharp increase in marathons/triathlons this summer....

Our two youngest spectators waiting for the train:Our three runners walking to the start: Half of our cheering squad:
The youngest cheerer:
Carolyn was very cuddly and a just wee bit crabby about having her picture taken this early in the morning:And they're off! We managed to catch Bryan and Aaron and sometimes my dad (who we missed by just a few minutes a few times) at each one of our six cheering stops- Mile 1, 4, 11, 17, 20, and 25. Here come the strollers, racing through the sea of runners, on to our next lookout spot:
As the afternoon heated up, Carolyn reminded us all that a popsicle makes everything better:
Here's Hannah, cheerful as always:
Here comes Aaron at Mile 20, ready for a high five:
And Bryan, "No time for high fives, can't you see I'm running here?!"
Here are our runners at mile 25.5- less than a mile to go!

Dad is in The Zone...
And here come Bryan and Aaron, still going strong to the finish!
Proudly sporting his medal and ice bag:
A few minutes of rest before the long trek back to the train. The spectator team was ready for a rest also- after walking approximately 8 miles around Chicago chasing these runners around! And yes, I actually added up our miles- thanks to Gmap pedometer.
So proud of this boy:
The three marathoners:
And here is sweet Carolyn, still smiling even after a long and crazy day- what a champ!

Hannah turns 1

2008-10-18T10:53:00.003-05:00

Little Hannah Pace turned 1 two weeks ago. She's such a big girl now! Doesn't Uncle Bryan look handsome in his party hat?

Isn't she a cutie?
The traditional tasting-of-the-birthday-cake

Fun with the Coxes

2008-10-18T10:32:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago we went to Klackle Family Farms with our dear dear friends, Ryan and Amber. It was a gorgeous day, and we had a great time picking apples and enjoying all the carnival-style events Klackle had to offer. Unfortunately, we did not get to ride the camels. I would have loved a picture of that. Who knew an apple orchard would have camels....

We love these two!

At The Launch Pad you could put rotten/deformed apples in this giant slingshot and try to hit the targets. On my first try I pulled the slingshot back as far as I could, released, and BAM- the apple flew straight backwards and nailed my shoulder. I have no idea how that happened. I mostly watched after that.

Yea, we're "those people"...

Could you guys please live by us again sometime?
The day ended with salmon and asparagus on the grill- doesn't get much better than that!

Flinn Family Fun

2008-10-15T09:56:00.006-05:00

This is Chris and Meggan Flinn. We love them. Baby Abigail should be here any day now too, and we can't wait to meet her!

A few weeks ago we had a shower for Baby Abigail- a good time was had by all.

There is so much family resemblance happening in this picture!
Ashlee and I with the Guest of Honor

Water Water Everywhere

2008-09-14T21:18:00.006-05:00

Hurricane Ike shared some of his glory with us this weekend. The Chicago area had record rainfall- the most ever since they started recording in 1800something. You don't really notice rain so much until you realize it just hasn't stopped or even slowed down in more than 24 hours!

This didn't stop Bryan and Aaron from running the half-marathon this morning though. But it did stop me from taking very many pictures, partially to save my camera from getting drenched and partially out of complete crabbiness about standing in the freezing rain for 3 hours! Wet jeans are NO fun. But they did a great job, and hopefully this race helped in the preparation for the real marathon in October.
Here is Bry right before the race:

This is Bryan finishing, but all you can see is his white/tan hat. Great photography, don't you think?
After we dried off and warmed up, we thought we'd join the rest of Riverside in gawking at all the flooding. This is the gazebo on the corner by our house:
Here we are on a street that Bryan often runs on, flooded up from the river, through the park, and into the driveways of the houses across the street. Bryan is currently calling Ryan to share the drama. The Riverside/Brookfield photographer was actually there at the same time as us, and you can see us in picture #5 here.
This is the old cabin in that same park:

This is Bryan's "Seriously?!" face:
More flooded park/road:
And more:
This is the waterfall on the Des Plaines river, and it's really only impressive if you know what it is supposed to look like (much, much lower). But I thought I'd include it for those few of you who will appreciate it (Ryan and Amber!). There are also a bunch of basketballs/random stuff floating around that are not typical Riverside scenery:
Note the soccer goals in this park:
The bike trail leading into the park:
The Riverside library:
All of this water water everywhere unfortunately caused our dear friends the Paces and Flinns to have flooded basements (again!). They've been pumping water out like mad since last night and it's still tough to keep up with how much is coming in. So sad for their poor basements! We're staying high and dry up here on the 2nd floor, so we got to enjoy some quality time with baby Hannah this weekend while her parents worked on their basement. Baby Hannah loves playing with her Uncle Bry:

Well, that about wraps it up for this crazy weekend, but you can read more about the Chicago Flood here if you like.

Door County

2008-09-01T21:09:00.010-05:00

For Labor Day weekend we went to Door County in celebration of our 3rd anniversary (a little late, but July 30th never seems to be a good time to get away).
On our way up to Door County we passed through a whole lot of rural Wisconsin. It's definitely a different world! We actually saw a Piggly Wiggly- Sweet Home Alabama anybody?
There was also a tractor made out of hay:And of course, we had to document Sheboygan for Uncle Dave.

We stayed in Sturgeon Bay at an old farmhouse turned into a wonderful little bed and breakfast- complete with sheep and chickens!
This is Bryan's sheep face:Shortly after this photo, that plain looking fence you see above shocked the daylights out of me. No warning signs to be found about it being an ELECTRIC fence, just the lingering pain for several hours after. We did not visit the sheep again. Every morning our day started with a basket of pure heaven delivered to our door. There was a different kind of bread or muffin with a fruit arrangement every day. Such a wonderful way to wake up.Here is one of our fancy little fruit concoctions- we named it Strawberry Soup:Three days went by quickly, but there were lots of cute shops and restaurants to eat at...
... bike rides to be had... ... beaches to visit...... scenic overlooks to photograph...
... a Michigan game to watch... ... kayaks to paddle... ... and of course, sunsets to enjoy...
Ahh, the good life....

Bryan the Triathlete

2008-08-25T21:22:00.007-05:00

On Sunday Bryan competed in his first official International Distance Triathlon here in Chicago. He did awesome!!!! Several weeks ago he did a Sprint Triathlon about an hour north of the city just for practice, but this was the real deal- .93 mile swim, 24.8 mile bike, and 6.2 mile run. His parents got to come along for the fun, and we joined our good friends the Paces as well.

Here they are getting ready to go in the parking garage. At 5am. After leaving our house at 4:30am. After waking up at 3:45am. Early morning would be an understatement.

Bryan and Aaron's wave (there were 50+ waves of athletes, since they could hardly just throw 8000+ people in the lake to swim at the same time) didn't start until 7:45am, but they had to have all of their gear situated in the transition area by 5:45am, so we got to experience a Chicago sunrise in the meantime. Quite lovely I must say!
Here Baby Hannah makes the face that we were all feeling at this point:
Mom and Dad S waiting for the action to get started:
And here is Bryan, pondering his racing strategy it seems:
Baby Hannah got some practice walking with her Uncle Bryan during the pre-race waiting time. This picture doesn't even remotely demonstrate the length of the line for the portapotties. I couldn't get far enough back to include the whole line. It was insanity. Disgusting insanity.
On the right you can see where the swimmers all jumped in the water. Each wave had a different color swim cap, and they were released 4 minutes apart. Here you can see Bryan's wave (wave 21) with the white caps, all huddled together ready to swim. The yellow caps you see swimming already were a previous wave. What you do not see is the mass chaos of flailing arms and legs when the horn sounded for them to start.
Once the swimmers spread out a little bit we were able to spot both Bryan and Aaron and walk alongside them for the second half of the swim. It was nice to have them so close to the shore- we tried to cheer every time Bry came up for air!
Here you see Bry in the bottom righthand corner, just swimmin' away:

And here he is coming out of the water, headed off to transition to the bike:

We totally missed the bike part (it was quite a long walk from the swim area, and they were long gone by the time we got there), so we headed down to wait by where the run started. And here they come:
Next up, the finish line. We strained to see them coming around the bend. There they are, wayyyy down there:
Getting closer:
And here at last, hurray!
In a surprise move, Aaron dashed over to the sidelines and grabbed Hannah, running with her over the finish line, much to the delight of the crowd and several photographers who seized the moment for a unique photo. We were hoping to see that picture in the Chicago Tribune, but it hasn't surfaced yet...

Baby Hannah loves her daddy's medal:

Here is our little cheering section at the finish line:
The two finishers enjoying their gatorade:
Me and my Triathlete. Awwwww :)

So proud of you baby!

Miracles.... continued?

2008-07-11T09:47:00.005-05:00

The day has finally come- our Saturn Miracle has run out (or has it...). The Green Bean has been sold to a new home- and been replaced by a wonderful new addition, my parents' 2004 Saturn, known as Yzma. But on to the story....

Some of you may remember the last time that I wrote about car troubles we were having that were "mysteriously" healed. Our dear Saturn had come down with transmission problems, for which we were in no financial position to deal with. For no explainable reason, those transmission problems disappeared overnight, and she drove us around faithfully for the next 9 months. During that time we went from living on my income, to suddenly living on no income for a while- feeling beyond grateful that we were spared expensive car troubles during this time.

A few weeks ago, the very week that Bryan started his new job (bringing us up to 2 incomes! yay!), the Green Bean suddenly began to fall apart again. After waiting it out for a few weeks, and seeing the problems getting worse, we received final confirmation that the Green Bean was nearing the end of her life- on the very same day that we also received Bryan's first paycheck.

I asked the man at the transmission shop if there was any reason a car would have transmission problems, then stop having them for 9 months, then have them reappear suddenly. He said it didn't make any sense at all, he'd never heard of anything like it.

Interesting, eh? Cars don't typically wait to die for the exact day when it becomes affordable for their owners. It would appear that God is intent on reminding us, yet again, that He is more than capable of blessing our lives in ways that are not logically explainable...

Why do we have such a hard time remembering that?!

Hey, we have power!!

2008-06-16T21:32:00.004-05:00

Is it just me, or has the weather lately been just crazy? Yesterday morning we had this wild windstorm that came out of nowhere, and then left almost as quickly as it came. It was so loud and strong, I thought it was going to suck our windows out. Bryan thought this was funny, but I'm serious, it was wild. I could just see myself being sucked out and tossed onto the yard. And then suddenly regretting my choice of PJs.

Anyways, this storm (see official pictures here) actually did knock down a ton of trees in our area (the cops mentioned cleaning up 15 that morning before even coming to our street), including a giant one next door to us. That landed in the middle of the road. On a power line. It looked like this:

All day long the cops guarded the tree/power line combo. Tree-cutter companies came and went (apparently they weren't interested in working on the tree until they felt confident they would not be electrocuted by the live power lines entwined in the branches). The electric company came and went several times, always looking more bewildered than anything else. 24 hours later it looked like this:

Still no power. In addition to the no-lights and rotting-fridge annoyances, lack of power also means lack of hot water for us- so Bryan and I had to shower at the gym this morning. Gross. I despise showering at the gym. The very fact that I have to wear flip flops while showering or else I might get who-knows-what all over my feet makes me feel dirty. Not what I like to feel while showering.

Anyways, when we got home from work tonight the power was (gloriously!) back on! Hurray! We have lights, air conditioning, a cold fridge, and HOT showers again. Life is good.

Baseball

2008-06-16T21:15:00.004-05:00

Last weekend we got to watch Corey play in the regionals of the state tournament for baseball. They won the first game easily, and then unfortunately lost the 2nd game- a very sad moment. Here are some shots of Corey pitching. He actually played just about every position it seemed, but these are the only pictures I have for some reason...

Hole-in-One

2008-05-17T09:36:00.001-05:00

Here are the official pictures of Bryan's Hole-in-One. Taken on an iphone- impressive don't you think?

Life Update

2008-05-11T14:48:00.010-05:00

Well, it seems a lot has happened since I last posted. If you follow any of the same blogs that I do (my mother, my sister, Amber...) you have probably already read about most of these events. But I thought I should still contribute my update, so here goes...

Three weekends ago, our dear friends Ryan and Amber came to visit us:

We love them so much! While they were here Bryan and Ryan went together to the bike store and picked out Bryan's new road bike (aka, Graduation Present from Everyone). Many thanks to all who contributed to this great present! Here he is on his new bike...

And sporting his fancy new clip-in shoes... The weekend after that, our dear Irvings came to visit us. We had a wonderful time with them as well, going to the zoo, PFChangs, and just spending time hanging out. Here are Brad and Carolyn checking out the monkeys at the zoo:

Ashlee, Hannah, and Meggan also came to the zoo with us, and here is what Hannah thought of the monkeys:While we were all out at the zoo Bryan was at the Loyola golf scramble with Aaron and Chris- and he got a HOLE IN ONE! Even not being a golfer myself I was able to grasp that this is an extremely significant moment in the life of a golfer. And it didn't hurt that his hole-in-one came on a hole that was sponsored by Dell, leading to a free computer for us!

Here is a shot of Bryan holding his hole-in-one-ball:

This past week we had one more major event happen, but that one I believe is deserving of its own post... see below....

Bryan Scheffers, DPT

2008-05-11T14:00:00.000-05:00

It's official- Bryan is a graduate! School's out! WOohoo!

We had both sets of parents and one set of grandparents able to come in to watch him graduate from physical therapy school on Thursday. We had such a great time seeing all of them. Most of my pictures from the actual ceremony are terrible, but here Bryan is waiting to graduate:

And here he is getting hooded:He's officially a Doctor of Physical Therapy now! I'm so proud!

After the ceremony we all had a wonderful dinner out at Tuscany. What a fun celebration to have with our families!

I wonder if I have too many shoes....

2008-04-29T22:39:00.002-05:00

So, I recently decided to clean out my shoe closet. And by "clean out" I mostly mean "move all the winter shoes to the back and the summer shoes to the front." In this process I discovered that I own 36 pairs of shoes. After taking a closer look I decided I could do without 4 of those pairs, as I almost never wear them.

This leaves me with 32 pairs of shoes in circulation... and the slight feeling that this might be excessive...
Nevertheless, I'd say my chances of going all summer without buying anymore shoes are slim to none. There are worse problems to have, right?

Julie + Andrew

2008-04-29T22:12:00.004-05:00

Last weeked we got to see my wonderful friend Julie Wiant marry Andrew Meyers in good old Holland. It was a beautiful wedding and so much fun to see her get married!

Here is the happy couple, Mr. & Mrs. Meyers, Congratulations!

Now we have matching pictures from our wedding days:

It was also great to see my dear friend Steph Post, who came in all the way from the Dominican Republic:And of course, what's a wedding without a picture with my very own someone special...

Kalamazoo Christian = State Champs

2008-03-28T10:30:00.004-05:00

Two weekends ago we went to Lansing to watch the Kalamazoo Christian basketball team win the state championship! It was quite a game, with a few tense moments close to the end that the Comets quickly overcame. You can read the full story online at http://www.mlive.com/highschool/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/sports-2/120564661582260.xml&coll=7#continue , which includes a quote from Corey at the very end.

Here are some pictures- Corey is #11. If you click on the pictures you can see where he is a little better...

Here's Corey making a shot...
And wondering if it's going in...
This is the first few moments of celebration after the win. Unfortunately my camera died at this point and I was unable to get any pictures of the team with the trophy.

Congrats Comets!

Carolyn's Bathtime Adventures

2008-03-09T22:02:00.008-05:00

This weekend we went to Michigan and had a wonderful time visiting Ryan and Amber, going to Julie Wiant's wedding shower (yay Julie!), and hanging out with the fam. A great time was had at all of these occasions, but as might be expected, the only pictures I have from the weekend are of Carolyn. So, without further ado, I present to you Carolyn's Bathtime Adventures.

Ooooh, I love to play in the water!

maybe I should put my feet in it....

or maybe the water needs a kiss....

this is an awesome cup...

would you like to try my awesome cup? full of soapy water?

I am happy to share...

sometimes I think I'm getting cuter every day...

Jobs

2008-03-06T10:48:00.003-06:00

It's true- the day has finally come, Bryan and I have both been offered and accepted jobs! Hurray! Bryan will start working at ATI after he graduates in May, and I will start working at Outreach Community Ministries on Monday. ATI is a private outpatient physical therapy clinic with locations all over the Chicago area, and I will be working with young moms in the Wheaton area. We are both very excited about these new developments, so we thought we would share them with you, the blogger world :) .

Babysitting

2008-03-06T10:39:00.003-06:00

Last weekend we got to babysit little Hannah Pace while her parents went to dinner. Look how much she's grown!

2 hrs old

5 mos old

She does a great "deer in the headlights" look...

And of course she loves her Uncle Bryan

This Old House

2008-02-25T23:03:00.003-06:00

When friends come over to our house for the first time we often hear, "Wow, what a cool old house you live in! It has so much character, we just love it!". Most of the time we agree, but tonight we experienced more of the Old and less of the Cool.

Apparently somewhere in this giant building one of the Cool Old Pipes is clogged, and our kitchen sink is currently full of our upstairs neighbor's shower water. Only it's black. Soapy, but black. Gag. So, as any more showers from him will surely flood our kitchen, we got to meet our new neighbor (did I mention we had not met him yet before tonight?) by asking him to please not shower. Lovely introduction, don't you think? He'll probably pee in the shower now.

Here is Bryan, dutifully plunging the sink. Completely ineffective, but a great manly effort.

Oh, and as a sidenote, the ladybugs have decided to invade again. In February. During a snowstorm. Are they really seeking shelter or just harrassing me??? Shouldn't they be dead???

Drama, drama, drama...

Texas

2008-02-25T22:41:00.004-06:00

Over the weekend I got to go to Texas with my mom. It had been 2 years since I last went down there to visit everyone! It was a great time of visiting, eating, chatting, driving around, and enjoying that Texas sunshine.

Here's mom and Papa looking at old slides from when they lived in Europe. This was my mom's pet project for the weekend, and I must say it was quite a success.

Aunt Nancy watching the slide-viewing.
Granny and Papa sitting together in the living room at Grace House. I like to hear him still call her babydoll!
This is my mom's "focused" face. We saw this a lot this weekend in relation to the slides.
Here is Cade's basketball game. He's quite the sportsman (#1). They didn't win this particular game, but it was fun to watch him play.

Peyton has gotten so much bigger since I last saw him over the summer! He likes to show his muscles and generally run around everywhere.

A quick moment of sitting and reading with Aunt Nancy. So precious.

Somehow there are no pictures of Uncle Jack, Kelsey, Mark or Erica from this weekend, but we had fun seeing all of them too! Hope it's not quite as long between trips this time!

100 people in a bubble

2008-01-30T17:39:00.000-06:00

Well, today's Oprah experience was exactly what it sounded like- strange. We got to the studio at 5am (5am!!!) to get checked in and ready for our 6:30am practice run. That's right, we had to practice being in a bubble. Mostly we had to practice holding still, not breathing, and making sure no body parts were hanging off the floating platform we were standing on while the Bubble Man worked his magic. Wouldn't you hate to be the person whose butt popped the World Record Breaking Bubble?

Then there was more waiting, a LOT more waiting, and then we all lined up again at 8:30 so we would be ready for the big reveal during the live recording at 9am. You wouldn't believe how being in a big bubble brings out the inner highschooler in so many people- there was pushing, shoving, and cutting in line, all in efforts to be in the front row of the bubble! There were also some really interesting choices of attire that certainly didn't reflect the frigid-awful subzero weather we're having here. OH my...

Anyways, here's a picture from Oprah's website of the Bubble People. You can just imagine me in the very center, well-hidden behind the tall people, and trying desperately not to choke on the afro in front of me...

A strange morning, but hey, how many people can say they were in a giant bubble on Oprah's stage? Only 100.

Be sure you....

2008-01-26T08:22:00.001-06:00

.... watch Oprah this Wednesday! Read here about the world record Oprah's trying to break on her Wednesday show, and then be sure you watch because, that's right, I'll be there!!!

Called out of random good luck and then selected for our shortness (yes, they actually asked how tall we were), Ashlee Pace and I will be part of the 100 people Oprah's putting in a bubble on Wednesday. Who knew being short would get me on Oprah someday! Hah!

Now, if I could only figure out what to wear for my on-stage debut...

Ushering Debut

2008-01-20T18:03:00.000-06:00

Today Bryan made his ushering debut in "Big Church". Since the men who usher in the downstairs service usually wear suits, Bryan had to step up his game a notch from what he was accustomed to in the more casual service he used to usher in. Doesn't he look handsome! And you should see him pass an offering plate... wow! :)

Suicidal Giraffe?

2008-01-20T18:00:00.000-06:00

Poor little Dusti!!!

Man Day

2008-01-20T17:55:00.000-06:00

Last weekend Bryan had Man Day with some longtime friends. They started with grilling brats (yes, grilling in January) and tossing the football, and ended with going to watch the Michigan/Northwestern basketball game. Probably the only situation when it's acceptable to get together with a bunch of guys, wear matching outfits, and go out in public.

NYE

2008-01-20T17:50:00.000-06:00

On New Years Eve it snowed like crazy here, and it looked so pretty when we were walking home I just had to take a picture. Of course, none of my pictures came out looking anything like the real thing. This was the best I could do with Picasa:

Keyword Analysis

2008-01-08T10:33:00.000-06:00

Can you believe that you can actually find my blog on google? And not just 1,000,000 pages in, I'm actually on the first page!!! I have recently learned that 17 complete strangers (I assume) have found my blog by googling the following words (without the quotation marks):

"largest corn maze in the world" - #8
"chicago marathon 2007 finish line pictures" - #6
"life is good corn maze" - #5
"goo goo dolls lifehouse" - #5
"god miracle explanations" - #2
"lifehouse and goo goo dolls tour" - #2
"runchi" - #1

I was particularly impressed with how high I placed for the Goo Goo Dolls ones. And really, "god miracle explanations" - who would have ever known that would lead someone to my blog?

If you don't have statcounter on your blog, you should probably get it immediately- who knows what info you're missing out on!

The first time Bryan has ever shown interest in a candle...

2007-12-29T22:40:00.000-06:00

Over Christmas we inherited another wonderful computer from my dad (thanks dad!). This computer was put on disability and retired from regular service due to a serious problem it has with shutting down without warning whenever there is static electricity. However, since Bryan has implemented his new system (touching the metal candle base every time before using the computer) there have been no further shutting down incidents. I just had to laugh. Who knew candles were so multi-purpose!

Christmas

2007-12-29T22:34:00.000-06:00

Well, I pretty much never remember to take out my camera at important family gatherings such as Christmas, but for complete coverage of the Barton side of Christmas you can visit my mother's blog or my sister's blog . Unfortunately, there are no other Scheffers blogs, so there won't be any pictures up of that Christmas, but a good time was had by all.

While in Troy we did have a chance for a quick visit with 2 of the 3 Sargents. Isn't Jeremiah precious!!!

Lights on State Street

2007-12-20T21:38:00.000-06:00

Every year since we moved to Chicago we have accidentally ended up downtown on the night that they have the parade for the Lighting of State Street. This year we actually went on purpose with some friends from Hope. It was beyond freezing, but we had a great time- and a great dinner at Cheesecake Factory, of course. Good times with good friends!

Somebody give this child a cookie- quick!!!

2007-12-20T21:35:00.001-06:00

To see happier pictures of my precious niece, visit http://irvingfamilyblog.blogspot.com/

Fun times with the Sargents

2007-12-20T21:23:00.000-06:00

We love the Sargent family.

Could this child BE more adorable?!Whenever we go to visit, they always provide wonderful snacks...
And there is the traditional girls picture by the tree...
And a new tradition this year apparently- Kristy posing Under the tree...
What great friends! :)

Happy December!

2007-12-01T03:12:00.000-06:00

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1125983963

Happy (late) Halloween

2007-11-09T19:02:00.000-06:00

The Pace family stopped by to see us on Halloween- even the dogs were decked out for the festivities!

Robbers!

2007-11-04T20:31:00.000-06:00

Aren't these lovely flowers? I think they're beautiful. I bought them last week on a particularly crabby trip to the grocery store, shortly after being robbed at the gym. Flowers really can brighten even the worst of moods.

Not pictured: My purse, fully packed duffel bag, 2 cases of CDs, and one small Saturn window.
Also not pictured: The loser robbers who broke into my car, took all of my things, and promptly went to Mcdonalds for a snack on my credit card. Mcdonalds. Seriously.

Sidenote: Before you start thinking "OH, she left her purse in the car... bad move..." let's just remember that this was done on purpose, to avoid having my gym locker broken into as warned about on signs all over the gym. Clearly my solution was ineffective...

The World's Largest Corn Maze

2007-11-03T12:28:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we went to the World's Largest Corn Maze with our 2x2 group from church. Being the end of the season, the maze had already been a bit wrecked by so many other visitors making "cheater paths" through the corn, but we had a great time finding all 24 checkpoints anyways.

Here is the Richardson Farm, seen from the observation tower:

and here is the maze: Mapping our our next destination:

The girls: The guys:
We snacked on fresh kettle corn most of the afternoon- yum!

And there were smores at the end of course. Here is Allison enjoying a bite:

RunChi

2007-11-01T21:44:00.000-05:00

Here is Marathon Man Bryan, sporting his brand new RunChi hat... many thanks M&D!

Miracle or Logical Explanation?

2007-10-23T22:09:00.000-05:00

Why is it that we find it so much easier to search for the logical explanation in a situation, rather than recognize and accept that maybe God really did hear and answer our prayers?

Exhibit A: Back in August we had a little problem with the Saturn. Actually, a big problem with the transmission to be specific. Two different mechanics told us the transmission was messed up and would cost us many many dollars to fix. So as we were wondering what to do and where we would come up with the money to do it, we prayed that God would help us out. A few days later we took the car in to Mechanic #3, who examined the car and told us there was absolutely no problem whatsoever with the transmission. And the car has run perfectly fine ever since.

Logical explanation (there never was a transmission problem and the electrical system reset automatically), or miracle (God answered our prayer by fixing our car) ????

Exhibit B: For the past few weeks I have been getting a lot more headaches/migraines, been very sensitive to light, and noticed a general blurriness. On Friday I went to the optometrist, thinking I just needed a new contact prescription. The optometrist said she could not correct my vision fully, even with a new prescription, because my optic nerves were swollen. My pupils were also not reacting correctly to light. So I took my referral to see a neuro-opthalmologist ASAP home with me, and promptly googled "swelling of the optic nerve." For the rest of the weekend we worried about horrible things like brain tumors, MS, intracranial pressure, and permanent vision loss. I also had terrible headaches most of the weekend. So today we went to my appointment where I was pronounced 100% healthy. Perfect vision, perfectly responsive pupils, and absolutely no swelling of the optic nerve. Also my first headache-free day in a while.

Logical explanation (there never was anything wrong with my optic nerve and the optometrist just read it wrong), or miracle (God heard the many prayers going up this weekend and healed whatever was wrong with my eyes) ????

Why is it harder to believe in the miracle? Why do we pray for God to work in our lives and then search for a way to explain it ourselves?

I want to be a person who believes in miracles...

Biking

2007-10-21T15:15:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we decided to take advantage of the lovely fall weather, so we rode our bikes up and down the lakeshore trail. It was a great time, but boy was I tired by the end. 17.28 miles is no small distance!

Here we are taking a break down by Shedd Aquarium, which turned out to be the perfect spot for some picture-taking.

Check out that cloudless sky- talk about blue!

Multicolored Asian Lady Beetles

2007-10-18T19:34:00.000-05:00

This is the corner of our living room.

What you do not see in that picture is the infestation of THESE little monsters:
These are called Multicolored Asian Lady Beetles, and they have decided to live in that corner of our living room, crawling all over the ceiling and basically looking disgusting.

After noticing this bug infestation I googled it (of course, what else would a person do?), and learned quite a bit. Not to be confused with the plain variety of ladybug that I always thought looked quite friendly, Multicolored Asian Lady Beetles get in your house, leave some stinky yellow discharge everywhere, and potentially even bite. Horrifying.

Fortunately they are not particularly bright creatures, and have therefore not figured out how to get out of that corner and into the rest of our house, which makes me feel at least a tiny bit better.

Oh, and does anyone else feel like Chicago is under some kind of bug curse? So far this year we have had the Cicada Invasion, Attack of the Itch Mites, and now Multicolored Asian Lady Beetles. What insect will terrorize us next??!?!

Day O' Fun

2007-10-16T21:03:00.000-05:00

So last weekend we hopped over to GR for a quick day o' fun with our friends the Coxes:Bryan and Ryan had a great time at the Michigan game: ...while Amber and I spent the day buying honeycrisp apples at the farmers market in Rockford and shopping in Grandville. We also got to stop by the Irvings' for a few minutes, where Auntie Amber got to read Carolyn a story:

... and Carolyn got to show Auntie Amber her teeth:
We love our friends!

Busted!

2007-10-12T15:02:00.000-05:00

So, yesterday I came home from work with a busted lip. That's right, working with toddlers can be much more extreme than you might think. Lesson learned: never underestimate the power of an angry 2 yr old.

Side note, in case you were wondering, I do not have a picture of this war wound because the swelling has gone down and the bleeding is on the inside, so there's really nothing to see anymore. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Chicago Marathon '07 + Heatwave

2007-10-08T20:41:00.000-05:00

This weekend we had a great time with both of our families here for the Chicago Marathon. Unfortunately, it was pretty much the worst weather for a marathon, but all 3 of our participants made it to the finish- a Marathon Miracle! Read about all the drama here on the Chicago Tribune.

Here are our 3 runners moments before the race:

I had a hard time getting action shots of Bryan while running (because he was going so fast of course!), so here are two body part photos of him. First we have his left hand, waving at us at mile 2:

And here is his right foot (white shoe, red stripe), with his friend RJ in the blue shorts running next to him at mile 11:
We also found my dad eating Goo at mile 11:

... and my sister, looking perkier than anyone should while running in that heat:

At mile 17 we found Bryan and Laura again (my dad was nowhere to be seen), and Bry stopped and walked with us for a few minutes while taking a water break. This is also where he began cramping up, an unfortunately miserable turn of events for him. Mile 18 found him on the ground, unable to move. Somehow he managed to get up after a few minutes and run another 8 miles in to the finish. I have no idea how runners do these things!
After finishing our cheering duties at mile 17 we all piled on the train to head back downtown for the finish line. The train was quite packed full of very smelly, sweaty people:
At the very end, Kristin and I ran down to meet Bryan and Laura and run the last half mile or so in with them. We stared and stared at the runners passing us, with several false alarms of Bryan or Laura sightings. At first we were so hoping we hadn't missed them already. After a while, we were just hoping they weren't among the 300+ being taken away in ambulances (Bry actually saw someone getting CPR on the side of the road! Yikes)!

Just when we thought we couldn't take the waiting any more, there they appeared- running side by side! So Kristin and I jumped in and ran with them- past all of the people cheering and the swarms of photographers capturing all the runners' finishes (yes, I felt a bit poserish, but who cares at that point!). It was so fun to be able to find them at the very end and be there when they accomplished something so huge!

Here's Bry, moments before finishing. This was not quite the, "I'm so excited to see you!" face that I was hoping for, but I found out quickly that he was pretty disoriented from the heat and feeling entirely miserable, so I decided to not be offended.

And this is how the crowd in general looked after crossing the finish line. For me, this shot sums up why I have no interest whatsoever in running a marathon myself. This loooks like torture.

Too bad the marathon people had run out of ice already by that point- we certainly could have used it for their poor overheated bodies!

Overall, a good time was had by all, and Bryan is already scouting out the next marathon he can run to work on his time. Have I mentioned that runners are crazy people?!

Welcome Baby Hannah!

2007-10-06T08:22:00.000-05:00

Hannah Daneen Pace has arrived! She's wonderful and beautiful and we are so glad we got to visit her last night. Congrats to Aaron and Ashlee!

Oh, and I'm not positive I spelled that middle name right, but it's close :)

Apple picking...

2007-09-27T20:35:00.000-05:00

On Sunday we went apple picking with Aaron and Ashlee Pace. Unfortunately, the apple orchard was not quite as glorious in person as it had sounded on their website. Note the scrawniness of the tree Ashlee and I are standing next to. The apples themselves were scrawny as well, in addition to being worm-filled. Gag. The owner actually gave us one bag for free- I think he knew how crappy his little "orchard" was. So, we picked out the least wormy ones and got out of there as quickly as possible with enough apples to make an apple pie, which was actually pretty good. It's pretty hard to have a bad apple pie I think :)

Lifehouse & Goo Goo Dolls

2007-09-23T13:34:00.000-05:00

For our final August Event we went to the Lifehouse/Goo Goo Dolls concert downtown at Charter One Pavillion. This concert was supposed to be the night of The Big Storm, but apparently their "rain or shine" policy does not include tornadoes, so the concert was postponed to the next week (after we had already gotten there and parked of course). It was a fun show though, and a lovely night for it. Once we arrived (for the second time) and discovered that there was no covering whatsoever to protect one from rain, I was actually quite glad that the storm was severe enough to merit breaking the "rain or shine" policy.

Here are some pictures from Lifehouse:

And here are the Goo Goo Dolls. In the center we have Jonny, the main singer (who did a wonderful job of course), and just to his left we have Satan. Not sure what his real name is, but he looked and sounded exactly how I would picture Satan if he was a singer.

More August Events...

2007-09-22T13:29:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures from the girls weekend in Chicago, which was luckily the weekend before The Big Storm.

Bryan and I had a great time watching Peyton and Carolyn while the others went to see Wicked. What sweet babies!

And here are some pictures from our walk back to the train after dinner that night.

The Big Storm

2007-09-22T09:55:00.000-05:00

4 weeks ago it rained. A lot.

This post would be a lot more interesting if I had pictures of the field that turned into a lake, complete with a floating port-a-potty and a family of three canoeing. Or the gazebo in the park under 4 feet of water, with a dozen confused deer stranded on the other side. Or the many, many trees that were uprooted and thrown all over cars and houses by the wind and tornados. Or our dear friends' basements that flooded with sewage as the storm raged.

Unfortunately, all I have a picture of is our very clean and empty refrigerator- the result of losing power for 3 days. Oh the drama.

Welcome!

2007-09-22T08:24:00.000-05:00

Welcome to our new blog home. For previous pictures go to justdoinlife.blogspot.com .