Lookout World!

Check this kid out! He's almost running!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Steve... your little man loves you more than you'll ever know.

Peace and Quiet???

I am sitting here at the computer. Brett is asleep. The house has just been cleaned for the 300th time this week. Steve is mowing the grass and I have showered. I putzed around and did little things that needed to be done that I've been putting off. Heck, Brett and I even took a 4 mile stroller walk this morning during the showing. And now I have NOTHING to do. Let me repeat this. I have NOTHING to do. I don't know what to do with myself. So, I decided that even though I haven't been inspired to write a good blog in awhile, I'd take a stab at something.

The past 3 days or so have been really rough for me. I think I reached another breaking point. We'd had like 28 showings (30 now as of this morning) without a bite. Our house has been on the market since April 24th so you do the math. That's like 2 showings every 3 days. We don't even have time to do laundry (and darnit, there you go... there's something that I need to do... oh well, after the blog) because we don't want the washer/dryer running while the showing is happening, and then folding it and putting it away? I mean, I compare living in your house while it's on the market to living in a museum. Everything has to be in it's place at all times. No dust can fall, no dirt can collect. And for us that means, no toys can be strewn, no dogs can drop a hair. I have started to have a lot of anxiety about even being in my house for long periods of time with Brett. He's at the stage when he toddles behind me and "undoes" everything I accomplish. Can't blame him, he's curious. But I cannot have a clean house if he's allowed to just live and be himself.

Showings are stressful, but manageable when Steve's here to help me get ready. Then, one of us can entertain Brett while the other gets everything together, but I about lose it when it's just me. I cannot deal with 2 dogs who are shedding the entire time I am trying to swiffer while holding Brett so that he does not try to ride the swiffer, or get his toys out. And, I go through this on a daily basis. I can't wait until this house sells, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. For as much positive feedback as we get, the negative feedback reads like this, "the floorplan doesn't work", or "such and such room is too small" or "too close to neighbors". Nothing we can do about it.

Well, time to cut the blog short... I hear a cry coming from the monitor. My peace and quiet is officially over :).

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

So this past weekend was our annual White Sox game. Steve, being from Chicagoland, loves his beloved White Sox and so do his entire family. For almost as long as I can remember, even before we were married, Steve and I have gone to a game every year. As much as I am not a sports fan, I do enjoy a good baseball game, and this year was pretty fun. We went with Steve's parents, and his brothers Eric & Chris.

Our annual game also is kind of special to me now, as I blogged about last summer. If you recall, the morning before we went to our Sox game 2 years ago, I found out I was pregnant with B. Well, I didn't know he was a "he" then, but I knew I was having a baby! So, Comisky Park is a little bit special to me now.

Brett enjoyed the game more this year than last... well, considerably more since last time he was 4 months old. He also got to try his new favorite food (and believe me, it's not going to be a habit).. nachos. He loved them both with and without the cheese. We didn't put jalapenos on the chips we gave him though :). He also ended up getting daddy his father's day present. It wasn't really planned, but when we got to the game it was COLD, and I had just worn a short sleeved shirt. So, I bought a Sox hoodie, and when I saw the price tag on it, I decided to get it in XL and call it a father's day present because with a price like that, it needs to be worn. And OFTEN.

Otherwise, a pretty successful day!

New Friends!

Yesterday Brett got to meet some new friends. Gwen, who I went to high school with was in town and staying with her sister Janet. Gwen has a 10 month old, Wesley, who I've seen pics of via Facebook, but have never met because they live in Wyoming. Janet has a 2 year old son, Ethan. So, Brett got to meet 2 new friends... one a little older and one a little younger...

I'm not really pouting. Mom, you just got a bad shot!

Hey, Ethan. Can I please play with your toys?

Man, forget the toys. We can just chew on our hands all day!

Pssst...Wesley. Just follow me. I'll show you what's up...

Mom, you say you want another one? Okay by me!

Wow. Just. Wow.

I haven't felt the creative urge to really write a meaty juicy blog in a long time. I usually cop out and just post pics of B man. But last night? I have to write about this...

So I had ANOTHER showing on the house yesterday at 4 (we've had 22 showings in like 5 weeks people! They are really exhausting me and testing my sanity, but that's a whole 'nother story). Anyway, with each showing I have to get the dogs into my car to drive around for an hour (in addition to swiffering up each last inch of dog hair... anyone want my dogs for the summer? You think I'm joking!). So, I grabbed the dogs at like 10 to 4, got in the car and drove south to my mother's to pick up Brett. No problem on the way down, but as soon as I got there it started raining. We hung out for a little while until there was a break and then I got back in the car with Brett to head home.

At first it started raining about the time I got on the interstate and as I drove it got heavier and heavier. Driving on 465 in rush hour traffic with very heavy rain is bad enough, but then right before I hit 69, small pieces of hail started falling. This wasn't cool. I was trying to keep my cool, driving like 40 on the interstate. Finally, I got to my exit on 96th street and it stopped. Okay, not bad. I was like 10 minutes from home max. From here I could go one of two ways. I could drive up Hauge Road (which just installed a stoplight and I was hopeful would be working) or I could drive through the airport to Allisonville. This adds like 2 extra minutes if both ways are clear, so I decided that I'd just take Hauge. About halfway up Hague I stopped. Massive line of traffic and the stupid stoplights that were installed a month ago still were not working... grrr... the rain resumed after I'd been sitting there for a couple of minutes and quickly escalated. Then all of the sudden, what seemed like a softball hit my car. I realized this was some major hail. Branches were starting to blow off of trees and then I finally got to the stop to make my left hand turn. Good Lord Almighty... this was the scariest thing I think I'd ever done. At that point I was driving DIRECTLY into the storm. 106th is hilly with nature preserves on either side so TONS of trees, plus it floods. I drove a little bit and then stopped because I was behind someone who wouldn't go any further so I really didn't have an option. Trees were swaying on both sides of me.. branches were flying and then the softballs really started. Clunk. Clunk. And then my windshield cracked. I could picture my car being totally dented up. But I wasn't really worried about my car. I was scared to death about the future of the occupants of the car. Brett was scared so he was screaming. Luckily the dogs played it (mostly) cool.

Finally I was able to start driving again. I could barely see, and places were flooded. And the softballs kept on a comin. When I got to my neighborhood my main street was flooded so I had to turn around amidst all of the rain and hail and drive the long way just to get into my driveway. I was shaking. It was very scary. Steve had made it home and had been trying to call, but there was no way I could answer my phone amongst all of the craziness that was happening. We checked out my car. Definite damage to the windshield and body.

About 15 minutes later the storm subsided and Steve went out to assess his car, which was also damaged. Neighbors were out on the phone to their insurance agents and taking pics so we did the same. Our neighborhood got it bad. Our siding looks like swiss cheese. I'm sure our roof is ruined, but we haven't been up there. Trim has big chunks of it ripped out. Our shutters are full of holes and our screens are ripped up. Oh, and we have a big hole in the back of our house. At least we didn't get it as bad as some neighbors who had broken windows and have put tarps all over everything.

Did I mention that we are trying to sell it???? Seriously. I think this is some crazy joke. Anyway, insurance is supposed to get back with us today. They are probably declaring our area a "catastrophe" which means something different for our claims I guess. I don't know, but this is crazy. I guess I'm just thankful that no one was hurt.

Check out the crazy pics...