getting back on track

I have not posted anything for a while for a few reasons. The main reason being that as more and more days came and went, I realized that it would take more and more effort to catch up on my blog and that made me avoid it altogether. But now, Jon started his new semester today and so our daily routines have begun to normalize. I realize that I need to get back to my real life. So I will attempt to give a short summary of our last 2 weeks.

First of all, some people commented and wanted more details about our crazy Christmas Eve. Well here they are in all their glory: We drove up to Chicago on Sunday (Dec 23) night and picked up Wendy from the Chicago Midway Airport. (Which was so busy, they wouldn't let anyone stop and wait for the people they were picking up, so we had to drive in a stop-and-go circle with hundreds of other cars 5 or 6 times.) We stayed at a hotel that I had booked online that was in downtown Chicago. It was an older but pretty nice hotel. The kids had trouble going to sleep because they were so excited about everything- Chicago, Wendy, Christmas. We should have planned better and brought the pack and play for Jonas and a sleeping bag for the kids- but we didn't- so Jon shared a bed with Seth and Maryn and I shared a bed with Wendy and Jonas. It was pretty much uncomfortable for everyone. Then as we were leaving the next day, a piece of paper was slipped under our door- it was a bill for parking at the hotel- $30. I have never heard of anything so crazy- a hotel charging you extra to park at their hotel! Next, we headed off to the museum to see the exhibit. We decided to be smart and save the $12 it cost to park there and park on the street a few blocks away. It was free admission day- so it was crazy busy. It was a challenge trying to keep our small group together. We went to the exhibit first and stayed in there for about an hour. It was really really awesome! There were costumes from the movies, a hovercraft you could ride on, an R2D2 you could build then plug in and drive, and a viritual game you played with small tiles on a large circle while watching yourself on a screen (hard to explain, but really cool). The rest of the museum was really really awesome too, three floors full of really cool interactive rooms about a variety of topics. By the time we got out of the exhibit, we only had the energy and time to go to a few rooms- farming, circus, and space exploration. Jon walked the few blocks, got the van and brought it back to the museum so we could load up the crew. He returned with a Christmas present from the City of Chicago- $50 ticket for not having our IL liscense plate on the front of our van. This is the law in IL, but there are so many cars in our town that don't have it, we have just been dragging our feet about getting it done. So we saved $12 in order to pay $50. Merry Christmas.

We had a nice Christmas, low-key, here at home with Wendy as a guest. We spent the next week getting our needlework on- me: crochet and Wendy: knitting. We both attempted to teach the other our skill, but both ended up sticking to what we know. We collaborated on a really cute sweater poncho for Maryn (that she won't wear- the stinker) and completed a bunch of other projects. I will post pics later this week.

We spent new year's eve at a friends house playing board games and singing along to the guitar (2 of my favorite things). Wendy went back up to Chicago to do the NYE thing and came home 24 hours later with Hans. We spent the next week watching movies, eating good food, crocheting/knitting, playing nintendo, and avoiding the outdoors (wind chill was below 0).

Last week...mmm...what did we do? My brother came home from a mission on Jan 10. Our town's library opened up their new building and we went three times (it's really cool). The rest of the week blends together.

And now here I sit. Dirty dishes, dirty laundry, dirty house, dirty kids- and I'm blogging. I guess my life really is back to normal.