fruit of our labors

 

The beauties found their way into a tasty pasta salad. After two days Grace is still asking for more.

welcome to the jungle

As high as an elephant's eye, well if it were a short elephant. Our mere 12 tomato plants have grown like crazy! And our raspberry bushes (sadly raspberry season is now over - don't worry, Nate made the most of it by going out every morning to pick some for his breakfast) have decided to try and completely take over our garden. Their thorns are sharp! I thought I'd post a before picture and after of the 'back forty'. Please note the picture with Nate also has our garden owl, Percival (he has successfully scared away real birds from nibbling the fruits of our labors). So any ideas what to do with all of the tomatoes we'll have coming in, furiously and quickly?

live action from the butterfly house

Again I am going to direct you to click into my friend's blog. She described our day at the house of butterflies so well, and also has a great clip of Grace. It is so Grace and I thought you may get a chuckle out of it.

not my favorite

Today was not my favorite, but nonetheless provides a somewhat interesting story. Click here to read about it. Meanwhile I'm headed to a bubble bath!

hot tub, summer in the city

Well, it is officially humid and awful here. You can tell because I finally put out our very green blow-up pool today. The kids had a great time. Jimmy especially thought it was quite fun. He kept saying he was going in the "tub outside."

butterfly house

We went with our friend Kara (who has been away visiting family for a long, long time and we are so happy she's back!!!) to the Butterfly House. It was beautiful! Both Jimmy and Gracie had a great time. Grace studied the brochure and did her best to label each butterfly we saw. Jimmy tried very hard to climb on all of the rocks, get into the waterfalls, and catch the butterflies. In between chasing him (and pulling him from the edge of the water and getting him down from the rocks) & giving Grace my undivided attention to learn about the fascinating butterflies, I tried to capture a few pictures of this beautiful place we were in. On a side note, we learned that butterflies enjoy warmth and serious humidity! It was so muggy in there that it was actually more comfortable outside!

holiday weekend

We celebrated the 4th with Salsie & Pops. It was a fun day full of bratwurst, chicken legs, pie, Texas sheet cake, baked beans, Grandma's famous shrimp salad (though it has been years since she has actually made it, but its still hers!), etc. I think we're still full!

On Saturday we all went downtown to visit Millenum Park. The weather was incredibly beautiful. It was hard to believe it was July in Chicago! The kids loved playing in the crazy fountain. After we dried them up, we headed North on Michigan Ave. The people and the sights were so fun. But most of all it was fun to share the day with Sals and Pops!

We made it back to STL after we stopped for a "quick bite" in Lincoln, IL. If given a chance, Nate will do his best never to eat at a chain kind of restaurant. Usually this is great, but not on a road trip with children! We found ourselves at Daphnae's Family Restaurant. The food was fine and the service was very friendly. But, my oh my, did it take FOREVER! Love you dear!

what's your ride?

I picked this off a friend's blog. It really is too funny not to share. Perhaps you can relate on some level. I don't personally recommend the Zima, just for the record.

the light at the end of the tunnel

Eight years ago we were in the midst of our palatial basement apartment (by palatial I mean around 400 square feet) packing and tripping over boxes to move to a new frontier - St. Louis. We would be there for four years. We're still here (do the math if you wish), and know what? We really like it here. Our house size has almost tripled and our family size has certainly doubled. But what we don't always like is the craziness of Nate's work. However, (this is where we begin to see the light at the end of a very long tunnel) Monday marks the beginning of his last year of residency! I can't believe it. Med school wasn't bad, but residency has been something to reckon with. I must admit that every year gets a bit better (and I think the best thing about this coming year is knowing that it is the last one). I chose to post this picture to illustrate our excitement.

sad feet

I imagine by now, most of my devoted readers know that The Caveman in my life came to this world with an orthopedic problem commonly referred to as clubfoot. He started to undergo non-invasive treatment at the age of 10 days and today no one would ever guess he had non-normal feet (they carry him to and from trouble very quickly, just as you'd expect two-year-old feet to do). Sadly there are children born in other countries who are unable to receive treatment as early as J. And so where J can run and jump and climb and spin - someone else cannot. There are various groups and organizations that assist these kids and one of them is CURE. If you click on the CURE link you can "sign a cast" and $5 will be donated. The five bucks pays for a cast for a child (FYI - J had to go through 4 or 5 sets of casts). So if you've got a chance to do it, would you mind? J thanks you (and so do I).

lazy daze of summer

It is hot and we are lazy. And so far, I'm okay with it. I started taking swimming lessons once a week and it is really fun! Grace is not too pleased that I am taking lessons and she isn't, but her turn will come soon enough. Last night we all went to the pool (it is indoors and I love it because there is no worry about sunscreen and all that!). Jimmy displays no fear of the water; he just loves to go "schwimmin"!

sexy at 32

According to a very trusted source, being a surgeon is considered one of the top ten sexy jobs. In honor of that announcement I thought I'd post about the surgeon that lives in our house. He turned a little bit older this week (I'll let you guess how old), so of course Grace planned a birthday party. This is who was invited: Grace, Jimmy, the Birthday Boy, and me. We had a swell time, ate lovely food, and partied hardy all the way until 8 p.m., at which point half of the party guests went to bed. Happy Birthday, Nate!

for all you grandparents out there in need of "entertainment"

I realize this is not the best, and for some you may think "What?!" Nate thought it blog-worthy and since it is his birthday I thought I'd post it for him.

my kind of town

Last weekend (well really the weekend before), Nate and I went all by ourselves to Chicago. The kids were only 30 minutes away from us, but they could have been 30 states away for all I knew. It was a fun and much needed break. I went into the city a tired and haggared mother and I emerged a happy, fun mom.

here comes the sun

Summer is officially here in our house. That means that it is summer vacation. That means that Grace is home a lot and has lots of extra energy. That means that I am running out of energy. Any ideas of what to do with the extra "sunshine"?

newsie news

Anyone ever been to San Diego? I've been there once and I must say it was quite lovely (to prove it, I posted these pictures). If you're interested in visiting SD, wait at least 13 months or so because by then we'll be there! We found out this morning that Nate matched in their Pediatric Otolaryngology program for the 2009-2010 year (that would be July to July). We're pretty excited and I'm only minorly terrified (y'see it is a far cry from my midwestern roots but they do have fablous Mexican food and living by the ocean has to has its perks, right?). So now you know our newsie news. Feels good to be in the loop, huh?,

watch out, here she comes

And so it goes and then it went, our year of Kindergarten. Our big night was last night and Grace was in fine form. She said to one of her fellow graduates, "Y'know, this reminds me of our college graduation." Oh, if only college graduations are as cute and short as this one was! But at least she's got goals, right? Its hard to say which part she was most thrilled about - her "graduation hat", the "golden metal" she got (each kid got a medal instead of a paper diploma), the fact that her Salsie and Pops came, her surprise at Nate being there ("Daddy, I can't believe you aren't at the hospital!!"), or our celebratory trip to Cold Stone (where she marched right in and told EVERYBODY there that she just graduated from Kindergarten). It was a sweet night and I just can't believe that she's growing up so fast!

future career

Grace has decided to be "An ENTF (that's Ear Nose Throat & FACE) Veterinarian." She'd also like to work for The Cardinals and be an ENTF/Vet for the player's animals. No doubt it will be a demanding career, so she decided to begin preparations early. The other day she did a heart replacement on her dog, amazingly the surgery took a matter of minutes and of course the dog has an incredible prognosis. I think so far Jimmy's future career will be in extreme cuteness and maybe competitive Cheerio eating.

feelings

Today is one of those days. I could be fuming mad that my car is sitting in a repair shop, or I could be thankful I was able to get all of my errands done this morning and have Grace at school before it decided not to start again. I could also be grateful that a repair shop is just across the street from school and all the Kindergarten moms are more than happy to help me and James get home, get Grace from school, take her to a birthday party for a classmate this evening, etc. So I guess I'll go with feeling Grateful instead of Fuming because it just feels a little better.

the rest of the trip

As Kindergarten graduation is fast approaching (Tuesday) I realize I'd better post the remainder of our spring break trip before it isn't technically spring any more!

While on our trek we discovered the Berlin Wall (or at least a section of it - which I must say was rather moving, I wasn't expecting to have feelings about it, but I did. I suppose I could blog about that at a future date) and the Church of St. Mary. A church you say, big deal! Well, yes it is a big deal as this is a 12th century church from the middle of London. Crazy the things you find in Missouri!

We also found the Bass Pro shop in Springfield. Quite a place. If you haven't every been there once, you owe yourself a visit. (Even if it is just to put on a camo bathrobe, to sit in a camo recliner, and read a bow and arrow magazine for just a minute so your spouse can take a picture of you!)

There are beauties to behold inside (like underground) and outside (like on a nature hike). We did both such things in the Branson area (thankfully we did not venture into any shows as the only shows Jimmy cares for involve Cars or Buzzlightyear). Everyone enjoyed a view through their 'noculars' (that's what Jimmy calls 'em).

All in all, we learned about the treasures of our state, survived a few days in Branson, and really had some nice family bonding time. So much so that we can't wait for spring break next year!