after we finished at the lego store we wandered around on michigan ave. for a bit. tim kind of wanted to check out the niketown store (but was sadly disappointed- they didnt have any college sports teams stuff at all), and also checked out the disney store so we could get a couple things to bring back to the girls back home. 
the big plans for the day in chicago mostly revolved around bub getting to go to his new favorite place on earth: the lego store! he was so excited to go that he told us in the morning that he had dreamed about legos all night! after the half hour drive to downtown chicago, we found a place to park and walked over to michigan ave. we didnt exactly know where the lego store was, but that was ok considering we had gotten downtown 45 minutes before the lego store even opened! after figuring out where it was and heading up to the third floor of the mall, we found it. bub was in his glory! as soon as the doors of the place opened he raced inside, leaving his dad and i in his dust! he spotted the star wars legos right away and was all set. we pulled him away from them for a couple minutes so he could walk around the rest of the store and check out all the cool stuff they had to offer, but he quickly returned back to the two sections of star wars legos. bub was given an important decision to make while we were there: he had been given money from his grandparents and from his mom and dad to buy his christmas presents, not he had to make sure he made some good decisions about which lego sets he wanted! not one to take the decision lightly, he spend the next hour going back and forth between the two sections of star wars legos looking at his options, weighing his choices carefully. he finally picked two larger sets, and two smaller ones and was happy with what he decided. then we waiting in the 15 minute checkout line (it seems that everyone finished their lego shopping at once...) and bub got the latest addition to his star wars lego empire!
eventually, after the movie was finished, we tucked bub into bed. i had planned ahead and gotten the inflatable matress out of the shed for him and got it ready in the second bedroom of our place. as he was getting ready i began to realize what a production this was going to be! after the matress was blown up he asked if we had a night light for him, which for some reason, we did. next, he asks for a fan so that he can have some noise while he sleeps. next up, he needs some music playing so we had to sort through some music so we could have a good cd playing while he slept (granted, the music playing was mostly so that it would drowned out the noise of the trains as they go by during the night), then he needed an alarm clock in the room so he could tell what time it is if he woke up in the middle of the night. yeesh, that kid needs a lot of stuff just to go to bed! i guess i cant complain too loudly since i need a fan blowing too...
early in the week i got a call from my brother in law tim. he asks me if i have any plans yet for the weekend. i dont. so he runs an idea by me: would it work if he and my nephew came down for a night and we all went to chicago together on saturday? well, of course! what a fantastic idea! well, i spent the rest of the week cleaning up the house (not because we are slobs, but because he was also bringing a couple pieces of furniture for diana and i and we needed to make some room for them) and getting ready for them. they arrived friday night and we had a blast! soon after they got there and settled in we ordered pizza and hung out watching a movie. the movie was pretty bad, but that didn't matter- i got to spend some quality time with my favorite nephew ever!!!
one of the biggest challenges about being married happens when the holidays come around. the big question arises: whos family do we spend it with? well, diana and i were able to avoid that little problem this year already- her mom and david invited us over for thanksgiving three weeks early! we were both very excited to go see her family and at the prospects of a delicious meal! they decided to have it a bit early because dianas step sister (and her son) was visiting that weekend and because barbara had the day off of nursing, so it all just worked out perfectly! we got there sunday afternoon and had a great time. the food was amazing and we were able to just lounge around and enjoy the day and the company. always a great time to see her family!
every year our school has a soup supper fundraiser, and every year i get roped into making the wall decorations for it. i enjoy making the decorations, but i've really got to get better at not waiting until the day they are due to get started on them! the fundraiser this year was for new uniforms for the basketball teams, so the decorations were in line with that idea. i was pretty stuck coming up with an idea on what i should do, but then i just figured i could make a bunch of basketballs and silhouettes of basketball figures. easy and affective! they turned out pretty well and did their job, so everything was ok. diana and i stopped by later that night to enjoy the soup itself- which was amazingly good!
halloween has never been very busy on the street we live on, but diana and i bought some candy to hand out just in case. most years i've lived here i would only get about 3-5 visitors at my door on halloween, but this year it was quite different! i dont know what it is, but there were dozens of groups of families walking around our street getting candy! diana and i decided that instead of opening the door and having our stinky little dog scare the trick-or-treaters half to death, we would sit outside on our porch and welcome the kids as they stopped by. it was a good time seeing all the little kids dressed up as different princesses and ninjas and pirates and all the rest! we did run out of candy after a while, but we were able to help out quite a few candy-hungry kids!
one of the girls at the place diana works at was getting married and diana and i scored an invitation! because all the people from the salon were going, they closed down early that saturday (which diana didnt mind too much...) so everyone could attend. we went to the reception and had a blast! i hadnt really spent much time with diana's new coworkers, so it was great to be able to finally put faces to names. 
after diana and i got home from the great weekend with miranda and levi in milwaukee, we had to go and pick up our stinky dog from her dad's place. we took the indiana toll way and stopped at one of the rest areas along the way. i had never been in this rest area, so i was really surprised and quite excited by the fact that it had its own penny cruncher! i know, having a penny that says 'indiana' on it isnt very exciting, but adding another crunched penny to the collection is! ah, its the little joys in life that keep you going, huh?
the place that miranda and levi were most excited about going to in milwaukee was the harley davidson museum. (dont worry, the place wasnt on fire, they just bring in some of the fire equipment to show it off on the weekends!) both of them are big motorcycle people and come from motorcycle families. as for diana and i? well, we werent all that excited about it, but were willing to try anything once. turned out to be a lot more interesting than i would have thought! we had a fun time learning about the history of the company and seeing all the really old motorcycles and stuff. the coolest parts were seeing the motorcycles they manufactured for the wars. we all ended up having a great time there- i know my dad would have been jealous!
when diana heard that milwaukee had a buca di beppo she announced that we just had to go there! never one to turn down a really delicious meal, i agreed. after heading back to the hotel from our visit to the third ward, we made a reservation and headed over to the restaurant. now, if you have never gone to buca di beppo, then you are missing out on an amazing time! its an italian restaurant that serves their food family style. that means that you really only need to order two things to feed three people. well, we ordered three things, and boy were we full- and we had tons of leftovers!
one of the places that diana found while researching milwaukee was the third ward. its an old part of downtown that has been rejuvenated recently and is filled with cool little shops and ends with a great fish market type food commissary. we stopped there one of the afternoons we were in milwaukee, just to check it out. there werent a ton of places for levi and i to check out, but diana and miranda were in their glory! levi and i wandered around for a bit and found ourselves in the food market. it was a really cool place that reminded both of us of the fish market in seattle, it was a bunch of little kiosks that that sold specialty foods and trinkets. levi and i found a seat on the second floor and chilled out for a while and just chatted. eventually when the girls arrived there as well we took a walk along the waterfront and got to see some more cool sights of milwaukee.
one of the things we knew that had to be done while in milwaukee was to go on a tour of a brewery. well, none of us really much care for beer, so levi found a milwaukee brewery that made beer and soda! we went on a tour of the sprecher brewery, which was pretty cool, and then at the end we got all the soda we could drink (and we could drink a lot...) it was a pretty cool tour, but sitting around after the tour just chillin and chatting was even cooler!
after we decided on milwaukee for our weekend destination, diana quickly went to work trying to find things that we could do while we were there. she found a cool old mansion that we could tour through, its the old pabst homestead, the home of the family behind the beer fortune!
over the summer diana and i made plans with her best friend miranda and her husband levi to take a trip this fall for a weekend away. we spent the next couple months thinking of places to go. we originally wanted to go downtown chicago, but soon realized that that was way too expensive! that forced us to get a little more creative and try to think of other cool places that didnt involve too long of a road trip. we decided on milwaukee. i think the deciding factor was that they have a harley davidson motorcycle museum and levi loves harleys. works for us, just so long as we get to go away for the weekend!
the other day i get home from work and diana tells me 'there's something wrong with the tv'. i check it out and cant get the dvr to turn on. after about five minutes the thing turns on, but there is a slight problem: it says that it has lost everything saved on it. what?!? i am completely dumbstruck! everything we have saved on there is gone?!? what a pain! turns out our dvr decided it needed to reboot itself and everything we had saved on there was erased.
every year we teachers get a couple days off of school to gather together and remind each other why we do this whole teaching thing. this past thursday and friday we had our annual teachers convention in south bend, indiana. its usually a good time of listening to speakers talk about different subjects that pertain to our field and give advice or ideas on how to improve our curriculum. the seminars are pretty interesting, but the real highlight of the convention each year is just getting to sit down and talk with someone who does the same thing as me. talking through some of the things that work and dont work with fellow middle school teachers is always great. hearing others problems or triumphs renews me as a teacher, and its just at the right time: when the newness of the school year has faded away and the harsh reality of three more quarters sets in...
it was mom's birthday last week but diana and i werent able to make it up there to celebrate, so instead we met in the middle! saturday night we headed over to benton harbor, the halfway point to grand rapids, and met up at texas corral with mom, papa, jill, tim, and the kids for a special dinner! it was a great time for everyone, diana and i were so excited to see the family- it felt like it had been forever since we last saw them! the kids are growing up so fast! we got to sing happy birthday to mom (along with the entire staff of the restaurant!) and gave her a few presents too. i know mom always loves it when we make a special event out of her birthday, and i'm pretty sure she had a great time!
we had a free sunday and knew diana's mom needed a little company, so we grabbed our dog and headed over! barbara had some time off, so she came by too- a mini family reunion of sorts. its always nice to see her family, especially on a lazy sunday afternoon! we got a chance to talk with her mom and david about a few things and just generally lift each others spirits. it always does those girls good when they are together- it recharges their batteries, i think. i guess thats what makes family so valuable: no matter whats going on, they love you. even the stinky dog too.
Things have been kind of slow around here lately, which i rather like, to be honest with you. diana and i havent been up to too much, just taking it easy. its these slow times that really make me appreciate the life i have: a good job, a roof over my head, and the love of a good woman. oh, and a stinky dog...