Chicago for the 4th of July!

We got to go up and visit Paul's folks for the 4th of July.  It was one of the HOTTEST weeks of the year, but we lived to tell the tale, thanks mostly to a box-a.c. that kept our room at a cool 79 degrees and a new car that is a JOY to ride in regardless of the temperature outside.  :)  MORE importantly, it was wonderful to catch up with them for no reason other than to visit.  :)

We traveled up there on the 4th of July, and other than unwinding while listening to the fireworks go off around the neighborhood, we didn't really celebrate in any other way.  It was over 110 degrees with the heat index, so it really was too hot to do anything.

Here are some pictures of our short (a couple of days) trip:

Chicago, off in the distance

Paul teaches Paulette how to use the iPod

Not pictured: a picnic on the bed, enjoying the air conditioning and good pita and kebabs.  :)

One of the many pretty fountains at Old Orchard (an outdoor mall)

Making a wish!

Saw this movie.  It was awesome.

My in-law's living room.  Someday our place will look this nice.  :)

Little Quiapo, a favorite Filipino restaurant in Chicago (off of Lincoln and McCormick)

Gotta have the buffet look like a jeepney, for sure!

And what Filipino restaurant could stay in business without lechon?

My first plate--pancit, lumpia, rice, adobo, and some strange meatloaf

My second plate--more lumpia, pork skewers, mango gelatin, something resembling ube, and a coconut/sweet corn gelatin thingy that was surprisingly good.

It was a short trip, but a fun one.  :)  Thanks, Tony and Paulette, for letting us stay with you for a few days!  Getting out of the house alone was worth it, but getting to visit with you was even better!

Summer to-do list!

With summer literally on our heels, I couldn't wait to put together our summer to-do list!  I made it a printable 8"x10", and it's pretty generic, so you're welcome to print if out and use it if you want.  :)  If you like the background but want to have your OWN to-do instead, I've also got the background for you--just the stripes, and fancied up with the birdie/cloud word art.  Enjoy!  I'm gonna print mine off and put it in a green or silver 8x10 frame for the mantle...but you could just as easily post it to the fridge.  :)

FULL SUMMER TO-DO DOWNLOAD

BACKGROUND--JUST STRIPES

BACKGROUND--DECORATED

Project 366--March 12-18

Go HERE to get your very own BLANK .png version of this page for personal use!

I've decided to start theming my pictures throughout the week, to make things more interesting...after 70 days, just documenting things I did is getting boring, y'know?  Maybe having a "theme" each week will inspire some creativity and better pictures.  This week I just stuck with a color theme--black!  And I stuck with the theme a little over half the time.  :)

Mar 12--subbed in a junior high math class half-day and a second grade class the other half. Too tired for any fancy pics, so just took a pretty one of my black lab mix, Obi. :)
Mar 13--helping my sister and niece move into their own apartment!  Woohoo!  And a primary presidency meeting.  Cerene is in love with the color black, so everything in her new room is black. 
Mar 14--lunch with some cool gals! More moving with the fam (though not much).  And I made CTR bookmarks for Primary (more on that later!).
Mar 15--cleaning the house and traveling to Chicago with Paul, Cerene, and Caida! (her teeth are black from all the candy)
Mar 16--eating ourselves silly in Chicago! and babysitting a neighbor's kids when we got home.
Mar 17--St. Patty's Day/birthday/housewarming party!!!  Would you believe I didn't take a single picture of the actual party?  Major regret!  But I was just having too much fun.
Mar 18--MY 29TH BIRTHDAY!!! Church, choir practice, home teachers, and dinner from a neighbor.  It was a nice, relaxing day.

Boston!

I love getting to tag along with Paul on his business trips.  Boston in February wasn't *quite* the relaxing break that Tampa in July was, but it was still really fun.  ;)

We flew on Southwestern out of Chicago Midway, both of which we will probably never do again.  Look at this crazy line just to get to security!

Look carefully...it goes all the way back!

And trying to find two seats together was more stressful than it should be.  I don't really love the no-assigned-seats policy, especially when traveling with other people.  And it caused some drama for other people when they were overbooked.  Entertaining though THAT was, I think we'll stick to other airlines in the future.

ANYWAY.  Once we got into Boston, we had to travel about half an hour out of the city to get to the hotel.  So basically it wasn't really anywhere I could go walk around in during the day.  Which was another bummer.  HOWEVER.  If you are ever in Boston and need a thoroughly entertaining and genuinely nice driver, I *highly* recommend Dimitri from Accessible Transport.  When we called and said we wanted to go to the North End for dinner (in almost a question), and he asked where in Little Italy we were going and we didn't know how to respond, he said, "Be ready at 6, I'll take care of it."  And boy, did he!  Not only did he come pick us up from the hotel and drive us into Boston for a low, flat rate, but he gave us a FREE hour-and-a-half taxi tour of the city.  Being a cab driver, and living here since his family fled from Chernobyl, he really knew all the best places to go and see and do things.  He even let us get out regularly and take some pictures, etc.  And THEN he recommended this really great little restaurant (Ravia's) and pastry shop (Mike's, just a block away)...it was *amazing*.  I had this honey butternut squash ravioli that was SOOO good, and Paul's salmon was good enough to even make me salivate.  And, thanks to Mike's Pastries, I now understand the famous line from the Godfather about leaving the gun and taking the cannoli.  ;)  We had a blast, and I think he did, too.  I love being around people who just love what they do.

Here are some pictures from the night...since it was nighttime, and this was on my camera phone, a lot of the pictures didn't turn out.  :(  But the memories will live on.  Hahaha.  :)

Chinatown.

 The theater district, including a theater called the Majestic (made me happy even if it wasn't the same as the movie) and the Blue Man Group theater.

 The Cheers bar!

 A super-SWEET old-and-new library...some parts were from the 1600s and others were much more recent.  If you know us, you'll know how bummed we were that we couldn't go in!

 The USS Constitution...from afar.  Guess who jumped up and down like a little boy when he saw this?  :)

 A cool monument at Bunker Hill.

 Check out this awesome suspension bridge!  

 Driving over a certain bridge...ever heard of the Boston Tea Party?  :)

 Old North Church...

And this is where my camera died for the night.  :(  We also saw (right around the corner) Paul Revere's home, Boston Commons (kinda like Central Park, but in Boston), a cool old cemetery from the 1600s, the old city hall (or something) that was the site of the Boston Massacre, a SUPER-expensive hotel where rich people can pull their yachts right up, dock, and walk right in, an aquarium that we really want to go to someday, the New England holocaust memorial, and lots of cool little boats and whale-watching tours. Quite a lot to take in in a couple of hours! 

Anyway, the rest of the week was mostly Paul working during the day while I stayed in the hotel room and read or watched movies.  In the evenings we went out to an outdoor mall for dinner and just to get out of the room for a while.  Here are a couple of pictures of our last night out:

P.F. Changs...Paul's first time!

Some of his coworkers/boss on the boot!

Pretty orchids, even if they are fake!

Check out this end table!  I SOOOO want one for our library someday!!!

We were both getting over colds, so we didn't really have the energy to do much more than that, but that was okay.  We did what he came to do and then some.  So it was a good time. :)

It was a sweet little trip, and I'm SO glad I got to tag along, especially over Valentine's Day!  But I think we saw everything we really wanted to see there and we were both ready to come home by the end of the week.  Maybe someday we'll go back and go whale watching.  :)  Wouldn't that be grand?

Mom's Campout Birthday!

We went camping at McCormick's Creek State Park, in "enemy territory" (about 17 miles out of Bloomington--IU country! :).  I think it is my favorite state park in Indiana.  There's a cute little waterfall that, had I brought other shoes/flip flops, I would have TOTALLY been in.  There's a pool (but you have to pay extra).  Lots of campgrounds, trails for all levels of hikers, and best of all, HORSEBACK RIDING!  It's only $16/person, and you get to ride a trail for about 50 minutes.  We had a great guide that made the horses trot a lot, too, which was fun.  I've been on a few of those kinds of trails before and this was the longest, prettiest, and most fun one ever.  The park also has caves, picnic areas/playgrounds, a little camp store, a nature center, tennis courts, fishing (if you're into that sort of thing), and a restaurant.  Also, it's all VERY clearly labeled as you drive around, and I loved how organized everything was.  (It's also right outside of Spencer, so if you need to run into town for anything, you can, no problem...we made a few McDonald's drink runs!)

We set up Mom's three-room tent, went and did a little hiking (mostly to the waterfall), then explored the area a little before going to ride horses.  After that, we made a little campfire and cooked over an open flame--my favorite part of camping!  All food tastes better that way.  It's just a fact.  When it got dark, none of us liked ghost stories enough to tell them and none of us play guitar, so we mostly just sat and chatted quietly before going to sleep early.  But I use the term "sleep" lightly, because it was in the eighties even after midnight and there was NO breeze, so we were all boiling and suffocating and Paul discovered he's a little claustrophobic in the tent.  THEN, we had a huge thunderstorm...I mean, HUGE...the thunder was right on top of us and even knocked over a few trees right next to the campsite!  Once again we got wet, although it was a welcome change after all that heat...but still.  I only slept a little after the thunderstorm and I think Paul slept even less.  Hahaha, Paul was certainly NOT converted to the joys of camping (not that he really tried), and I had to promise I'll never take him again...even though that makes me super sad because I LOVE IT!  Ah, well.  There are always my sisters and my mom.  And maybe someday, when we have our own expensive, weather-proof gear and there is only sunshine predicted for a whole week and it's in the middle of October when it's beautiful and dry and cool, MAYBE I can convince him to do it again, for me, out of love.  But probably not anytime soon.  Next time, I'll also make a whole three-day weekend out of it or something...being on a tight schedule, we had to forego some of the things we would have liked to do, and we had to pack up camp super early and head home in time to teach primary!

I still had fun.  And it WAS my mom's birthday celebration, after all!  :)  She had fun, too.  So it was worth it.

And now the pictures...the fun part.  :)

Our tent(s).

BEFORE...notice how most of them are up-and-down?

AFTER the storm...a few more trees are sideways.  :)

Waterfall pictures...

Horseback riding pictures...

Campfire pictures: