2014/03/13 Thursday: Layers of Ridiculousness

We visited Henry's future school for the first time, to deliver the ridiculous amount of paperwork they require, along with an unwaivable registration fee.  I think both of these things are ridiculous barriers for a lot of families, and I suspect they're in place to keep poor families out of our posh district.

2014/03/12 Wednesday: Non Stop Winter

Just days away from the official start of Spring, and we woke up to this.  I think actual
Spring won't be starting for a while.

I went to the Relief Society activity tonight.  Our ward boundaries have recently expanded, so it was fun to meet some new women who are now part of our congregation.

2014/03/11 Tuesday: Best Party Ever!

My kids will never again be content with just a cake and party hats, because they went to this birthday party.  It was like a medieval Chuck-E-Cheeze, but with better rides.  The kids got to go on these bumper gliders a couple of times, and you knew from their expressions and the joyful noises they were having the time of their life.  We got a ton of tokens, which they used to play games and go on a few small rides.  They got tickets from the games, which they traded in for plastic trinkets and candy.  I think it was as much fun as Disneyland.

2014/03/10 Monday: Seeing the Ninja

One does not find the ninja, the ninja decides to reveal himself.

2014/03/09 Sunday: Angelic Gigi

2014/03/08 Saturday: Art at Work

2014/03/07 Friday: Dinner At Freddy's

For anyone in the Berwyn/Cicero/Oak Park area, dining at Freddy's is a must.  You go feeling like you've missed the orientation class, because you can't figure out what's going on, but it's worth it.  Take cash, expect to wait in line, and always get some Italian ice or gelato for dessert.

2014/03/06 Thursday: Seriously?

Gigi absolutely refuses to wear pull-ups.  So more than once at Costco I offered to take her to the bathroom and was refused.  Then she threw a tantrum, and as part of that wet her pants in front of the food court soda machine.  After cleaning up in the bathroom and emerging with her in her shirt and diaper, a kind soul gave us these penguin pants out of her diaper bag.  Bless her.

2014/03/05 Wednesday: It's Alive!

The stars aligned in my favor- the dryer motor I ordered from repairclinic.com came overnight (even though I didn't pay for overnight shipping), the freezing weather kept trauma quiet so Nick got a little bit of sleep at work last night, and we were right about the motor being the problem.  Winning!  I would recommend repairclinic.com to anyone in the market for dryer parts.  They have good video tutorials, a nice database to search for parts based on the model number you're fixing, their return policies are generous (you can return for a year), and of course, their shipping was very fast and reasonably priced.

It took about an hour to replace the motor, but he stopped to eat dinner in that hour too.  The dryer starting sounds totally different.  It used to sort of drag itself into motion, now it's a perky instantaneous roaring to go.

2014/03/04 Tuesday: More Everything is Awesome

What do you do when it is so unbearably cold outside?  You go to Legoland!
Miss C got to come with us.  They've made some changes there, many of which I don't like.  They've changed the car ramp, so once you've built your car and send it down the ramp it becomes airborne, flying into the abyss and crashing on the ground and breaking.  Not awesome.  The car also has the potential to hit people  as they walk by, which explains how Gigi got hit in the face with a flying Lego car.

2014/03/03 Monday: The Dryer

We spent the morning with Deborah, grabbed lunch at Portillo's, including a couple of combo sandwiches for souvenirs for the people at home, and then took her to the airport.  Her next visit has to have warmer weather so we can actually see the city of Chicago.  I think the warmest it got here was 23 degrees, but that's before accounting for the humidity and endless wind.

Our dryer hasn't always been working lately.  It will start if it's cold, but not if it's been running.  Google leads me to believe this means the motor is dying, but we wanted to eliminate other causes before we spent $135 on the new motor.  Nick took the dryer apart, cleaned it out, checked everything he could, and we still believe it's the motor.  He's using his very favorite tool (outside of a scalpel, I guess) the Hitachi 90-degree impact driver.  He really, really likes it.  Since he got it, he other cordless drill has essentially just gathered dust.

2014/03/02 Sunday: Orchid Show and Little Prince

We went to the Chicago botanical garden to see their first annual Orchid Show.  They have the Missouri Botanical Garden beat by sheer volume, but much of it is using existing orchid greenhouses, which feels a bit like cheating.  Missouri has Chicago beat on artistry though.

The kids loved it when a volunteer showed them some plants they could touch while we were in a desert room.  We went home and Deborah made us a fabulous pot roast dinner.

That evening the adults attended Lookinglass Theater's production of "The Little Prince."  It was amazing.  I have seen a lot of plays in my time, so when I say this is one of the best plays I've seen, it really means something.  My cousin Kristy collects copies of "The Little Prince", and now I understand why it's a work you would focus on and try to remember its lessons.  And those who know it understand that my children are my roses.

2014/03/01 Saturday: MSI and Junction Diner

The kids, Deborah and I headed to a day at the Museum of Science and Industry, knowing once Nick got home from his trauma shift he would need to spend time sleeping.  Henry would not go into the theater, he refused to even look inside the theater.  He hasn't been in it since he was 18 months old, and he screamed until we left then.  So he and I missed the movie, but Georgia and Deborah said it was beautiful.  We spent that time playing in the space/NASA area, which we both love.  The moon-landing video may or may not have made me cry when they said "We came in peace for all mankind."

After MSI, we went home, collected Nick and had dinner at the kids' favorite place, the Junction Diner, where your food is delivered to you by model train.

2014/02/28 Friday: Deborah's Visit

I don't have pictures of this for some reason, but Deborah's visit started today.  Nick's mom came to spend a long weekend with us.  I picked her up at the airport, and then called Nick.  Our plan was that if things were slow (trauma-wise) at the hospital, we would come and eat with him.  Maybe it was yesterday's 7 degree high, or perhaps it was just good luck, but things were slow.  The kids and I enjoyed seeing their dad at work and spending time with their grandmother.  Nick gets a cafeteria allowance that he usually doesn't use all of (because he packs a healthy meal for lunch every day), so the kids got to go wild on treats.  They each got a soda and a cookie, and since it's the last day of the month and his allowance doesn't roll over, he bought a bunch of granola bars and snacks for the residents lounge.

2014/02/27 Thursday: Fortress of Solitute

There are two children hiding in this picture, but I'm not going to tell you where.  

2014/02/26 Wednesday: Trauma Night

I went to the Chicago Metropolitan Trauma Society meeting, without Dr Nick.  His program presented two really interesting and heartbreaking cases, one of which was name "The Magic Bullet," because the external signs didn't hint to where the internal injury was at all.

The high was 14 degrees, and yes, I'm working in Fahrenheit.  It is really, really cold, and I hate it.  I valet parked and felt pretty bad for the valet who had to go walk in the cold to get my car.