What a weekend!

And its only Saturday!

Well, our day started Friday with my aforementioned last 5AM at The Container Store....I didn't savor it as much as I should because I felt kind of out of sorts...but I plugged away. After that came bowling - I again, didn't feel great, but kept on enjoying my Personal Cheering Crew (there wasn't daycare available yesterday, so Liam was on hand to provide many, many "HOORAY MOMMY!" cheers....even when I only knocked one down.). Then after bowling we went straight to the doctor for Lola's 5 month check up.

Lets just get this out before I go further....Lola is a B-I-G chunktastic girl!

Weight: 18 pounds 8 oz (> 100th percentile)
Height: 27 inches (100th percentile)
Head: 17 inches (95th percentile)

Gigundic! Its great to see her thrive and grow, but I can't help but feel I'm impeding her motor skill development by feeding her too much or having too fatty content of milk. I mean, she's SO chunky she can't even play with her toes because her belly gets in the way! I know its all ridiculous to think....because the doctor didn't mention any concern about her being "too" big, but still. I suppose I just need something to worry about.

Any who. Toward the end of the appointment, it finally dawned on me that what I was feeling could possibly be the effects of Liam's stomach bug he had on Wednesday night. And once I realized that, it was downhill from there. I got home as fast as I possibly could, put both kids in bed (it was nap time, thankfully) and raced to the bathroom just in time. It was as if someone made an annoucement to my stomach "EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! ALL CONTENTS MUST EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY! FIND THE CLOSEST EXIT, TOP OR BOTTOM, AND GET OUT NOW!". TMI, yes, I know.....but nothing but the truth here on this blog.

Thankfully, I was able to call Pat and he was on his way home, and the kiddos were sleeping while I was holed up either in bed, or in the bathroom until he got home. It was awful. The stomach cramps, the nausea. I couldn't even talk without wanting to ralph. The intensity of the illness tapered off through the night, and this morning I've been mostly OK with the exception of feeling like I've been hit by a truck. Apparently all that heaving wreaked havoc on every muscle in my body. Oh, that, and not being able to eat or drink much.

Needless to say I missed my shift at The Container Store today, as well as some fun with friends that I had to back out of. Hopefully I'll feel more normal tomorrow.

I would just like to take this opportunity to publicly thank my dear, wonderful, amazing husband for taking care of every one in this household over the past 24 hours. I love you so very much, and I appreciate you every day...but especially under these kind of extenuating circumstances!

New House visit :)

I spent some time this morning visiting our soon to be new house. Had to meet up with a couple of contractors to arrange work to be done after we close on the 17th. Also did a few measurements in the kitchen because I think we're going to put a few cabinets in. It was really exciting pulling up and seeing the "Sold!" sign out front :)

I was also surprised with how comfortable I was in the house by myself. In general, and especially in new places, I'm a bit skittish and weary when I'm alone....Jumping at all sorts of noises and such. But not today. It felt very good and natural, which is a good sign I think.

Its been a rough day - Friday I was out of commission most of the day due to a strange stomach issue. It must have been something I ate at The Melting Pot on Thursday night - it just did not sit well at all. I hurled a couple times last night, and spent most of the night awake on the couch trying not to yak. FYI - dry heaving while pregnant is not fun - I have no ab muscle at all and I am SORE as all heck today...all around my core. I'm starting to feel better though - thanks to Pat taking good care of me with Gatorade, pretzels and toast & jam. He's been awesome, especially considering that he's done about 90% of the packing while I've been chained to the bed. I did improve enough to finish packing Liam's room tonight though.

We've got the bathroom to pack, a wee little bit of bedrooms and the rest of the kitchen to finish out tomorrow, and then we'll be pretty much all boxed up. I think the kitchen we might wait til' Monday to finish up...its pretty tough to live without eating.

That's all for tonight - have a good evening and GO WINGS!!!!

Photos from our Day in the City

Here are a couple of pics from the train ride. Liam was pretty pumped. He loves trains, and he likes to watch people - so it was right up his alley :) We don't actually take the train very often...buses are more convenient.

And then a couple of pics snapped on the boat tour. First, the newest addition to Chicago's Skyline - the Trump Tower.



And, the most famous - The Sears Tower.

A Grand City Weekend

I keep putting off posting, with grand hopes of uploading / processing my photos to include in the posts....but then I just get lazy and end up not posting at all.

So, I figured I should record the weekend's events, then add photos later. Maybe.

We had a great weekend - one of our last ones in the city - so we decided it would be great to be tourists in our own city. Friday, we spent the morning at Shedd visiting the new, re-imagined Oceanarium. It was actually quite lovely - a bit crowded and hectic, but overall a great visit.

Saturday we didn't do much as a family, because I had a birthday party to photograph downtown - but it was a lovely day to spend celebrating!

Sunday was sunny, but chilly and windy......we took a train ride downtown and took an architectural cruise on the Chicago River (Shoreline Cruises - check them out!). It was a pretty awesome 60 minute tour, even with a squirmy wormy toddler, Pat & I both enjoyed ourselves. Then, a quick lunch on Navy Pier and we jumped on the train back north.

That is definitely one of the things I'm going to miss - access to amazing public transportation. The EL is not right outside our door (like it was when Pat lived in the Gold Coast), but its a nice, easy stroll, and such a very nice way to see the city (at least the elevated portions of the Red Line, anyway). I love passing through the neighborhoods and seeing all the decks and brick buildings.....and especially passing Wrigley Field. Just a cool place to live, you know? I'm thankful for the time I've lived here...but I know that its time to move on. I'm ready to head back to the 'burb living. Its just more my gig anyway.

But I digress....

Today was a leisurely day as well, the local cemetery - Rosehill Cemetery - has a Memorial service & Parade every year. Being that its only a block away, we decided to actually make it to the parade and service this year instead of just walking through the Isle of Flags later in the day (as we have the two years previous). Its a beautiful sight, actually. Flags that have graced the coffins of local veterans line the pathways along the cemetery's entrance (donated by friends and family). Even before I knew the flags' origins, I thought it was beautiful. We made it partway through the ceremony (we missed Abe Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and the Civil War re-enactment) and headed home with an incredibly tired Liam. I've also been admiring our neighborhood a lot lately as we walk through. Very nostalgic, I've become. I'll miss the old buildings, the old old trees.....

Then I spent the afternoon babysitting a sweet little girl, and now I'm home. I can't seem to shake these damn headaches - I'm sure they're just allergy related, but they are annoying just the same.

Tomorrow is our home inspection on the new joint. Thanks to Gayle for the recommendation on inspectors! Keep your fingers crossed that all goes well!!!

Liam update :)

We had Liam's 18 month check up yesterday, and everything went well. He's 24.5 pounds, 33.5 inches. Long and lean, as the doc says :) AND, we only got one shot! WHOO HOOO!!! I can't believe his next appointment is at 2 years old. Sheesh - he's such a big boy!

Yesterday we also had a family adventure at Chase Park: Our very first Easter egg hunt! We actually had a mini hunt at our house on Thursday with the family over so he could practice :) Worked out well actually. He was excited to pick up "Eggies" again, and he put them right in the basket. Wasn't really diggin' the Easter Bunny though. Not surprising, since Santa kinda scared the bejesus out of him at Christmas too.





Yes, he did keep those ears on the entire time. Even after we went inside to play on the toys :) Its only because we put them on right before he went to look for eggs, so he was immediately distracted, and I'm pretty sure he forgot he had them on :) No matter - he looked adorable anyway!

Here's a scrappy update for you....

Playing around with Text...


Papa


St. Patrick's Day 2009


How to give me a heart attack


Bunny Ears


I'm realizing after looking at these that my kid needs a hair cut. Badly. Although he rocks the shaggy look pretty well.

OK, well, time to clean for our 3rd showing of the week. We're still getting plenty of traffic, but still no bites yet. I've got my heart set on selling this place, so I continue to hope and pray that each showing will end in a sale....but its taking a lot of energy out of me!! I refuse to be negative though...its not much in my nature.

Big pile o' crabbiness

That's what I am lately. I've got quite possibly the shortest fuse this side of the Pecos. Everything irritates me. Everything pisses me off. It's really not a fun way to live life, you know? Especially when you have a slightly sick toddler, who is kind of whiney.

Anyway, when I've got my pissy pants on it gets pretty tough for me to want to blog. It, too, makes me angry. For no particular good reason.

But, what makes me happy is to have a husband that is home from Vegas, even with money in his pocket. Not as much as when he left, but its always good to come home with some, right?

Now, we three are going to take a walk on this fabulous Sunday morning. If I can kick this headache I might even partake in a couple of open houses this afternoon. We shall see what the day brings!

Fun Evening!

After quite a steady, heavy 10 inches of snowfall - I jumped in the car and headed to Wicker Park to pick up Gina and head to the airport. Her hubby and little nugget were flying back home from Cali. She had a bit of car trouble, and we did NOT want her preggo butt stranded in snowy madness while her family waited after a long day of travel. I took the opportunity to snap away and get some practice in :)

Here's Gina, waiting not so patiently for her peeps to show up....

Awww - the little nug :) Audrey's soooo sweet!

Some shots of Midway



On the way home, it was so snowy and pretty! As I was walking home I shot some scenes around the 'hood. Nighttime snowy shots make me happy! The first is a self portrait :)

Ziggy the Zebra visit

Here's a post from Pregnancy.org bulletin board :) Our board mascot came to visit us!!!!

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

First things first....Emily, nice try covering for Ziggy. He told me all about it. He wasn't hidden in your clean laundry.....he was in Zebra REHAB!! Decided he liked the drinky drink a little to much and checked himself in. Its OK now Em, everything is open and honest here, and we don't think any different of him now, do we???

Anywhoozers - Liam, Honeybuns and I really enjoyed our time with Zig man.....and lets just say, I don't think his stint in rehab helped him all that much......I mean, he was hangin' out with the Irish/Mexican folk for a while!


Lookie what we got!!! I'm soooo excited!



Liam, um....not so much. "NO MOM!!! Not the box. NOT THE BOOOOoOOooOOOOOX!"



First thing Zig-man lays down for me when he gets out of the box is this...."Lady, you gotta help a Zebra fix his hair! This 'do is WACK!"



So, I take him to get his hair did. Looks much better, and he says he feels so refreshed!



"Alright, alright...this dude seems pretty cool. Has good taste in colors...."



"Hey Ma! Did you hear this guy? He says he's been all over. Even to Montana!? MONTANA!!! Can you believe this guy!?"



Yes my dear friends, sometimes my son is a bit dramatic. He loves Ziggy. Then he hates him. Then he loves him again. Its like a tortured artist. "Enough of this silly Zebra!! I wash my hands of you!! BE GONE!"



Liam and the Zigster watching Sesame Street on the Spiderman couch...."Yeah, watch this segment Ziggy! This Elmo guy CRACKS me up!"



Has anyone seen a little boy with a red Zebra?? I can't find them ANYWHERE!! No trace of them at all....hmmmm....maybe they are plotting against me.



There they are! "Peek-A-Boo!" Liam actually covered his eyes this time. Usually, its one hand over his eye, the other one on an ear, or on the top of his head....you get the idea :)



"Zebra? What Zebra? I don't see no stinkin' Zebra here."



Ziggy helps Liam get ready for bed by reading "Tails" together. Ziggy says "Hey!! I've got a tail too!" while Liam sips on some warm milk.



Ziggy, Hugo the Hippo and Liam are all pretty sleepy after a long day of livin' it up.



The next morning (this morning) we all wake up and get ready for what is usually the biggest game of the season....Michigan vs. Ohio State. Sad to say, this year has been a horrific one for Michigan Football....the worst in 129 seasons to be exact. Which was reason enough to break out the booze and for Ziggy to fall off the wagon. It's going to be a long one. Besides...its tough to be a University of Michigan fan when you're all RED!!! And yes, our TV is gigundic. Definitely a Honeybuns purchase...his last before Liam was born LOL :)


Hooray! There is hope!!! "WHOOO HOOO!! Michigan Scored!!"


Halftime of the UM/OSU game....While hope was still alive and before we were crushed to oblivion. Ziggy doesn't quite belong, he's the only one without Michigan Cool Pants :)


After the football game debacle, we headed out to see some sights. "WHOA! Chicago is AWESOME!!!!!!"



"Hmmm....should I go for a refreshing dip in Lake Michigan??"



Crusin' on Lakeshore Drive



Ziggy sitting patiently in traffic {AGAIN} after visiting Piggy Toes trying to find Liam some shoes for his freakishly chubby fat feet. To no avail I might add. Well, we couldn't find a pair that was less than $60....which is just ridiculous.



Mmmmm.....Is Ziggy thinkin' what I'm thinkin?? I think he is :) STILL off the wagon :)




Daddy, Liam and Ziggy walking to the condo after an afternoon in the city. No garages or driveways for these city folks! By the way, this really bites on a COLD day!!! Today was a warm 30-ish with a chilly lake breeze.



Adios Chicago!! We had an AWESOME visit - Safe travels Ziggy as he's off to see Liane and Alyssa!!!

Orchards a go go

We're visiting Indiana this weekend hanging out with Shannon, Patricia and Michael whilst their parents are off in West Virginia white water rafting somewhere.....we spent last night keeping our Friday Game Night tradition alive with Clue, and we also taught the kids how to play Yahtzee. It was pretty fun!

Soooo......today we had the bright idea of going to an orchard / pumpkin patch because Pat and I really, really wanted some apple cinnamon donuts. On a Saturday. So we loaded up the car.....took the scenic route through Gary.....and 45 minutes later we ended up at a wonderful little orchard with a MILLION of our closest friends. Three giant parking lots. All full with cars from Wisonsin, Illinois and Indiana. Craziness I tell you. Craziness.

Shannon and I fought our way through the crowds to get some cider and donuts - and we didn't even bother to go to the kiddie farm or hay ride because everything cost a gazillion dollars. Liam was kind of sort of cranky because I think he's coming down with something....either another molar or a cold or something. Anywho - I'll be damned if I was going to drive all that way and not get a few photos.




It was a beautiful day, and the drive back was much quicker (we took a different way). There was also no major fights between kids. And, the donuts were pretty delicious - so all and all it was a good day :)

what's good for the goose

Soooo - whatever nastiness Liam had for his stomach virus / diarrhea-ness apparently was lovingly transported to me. Last night, I had some serious, uh, bathroom issues - complete with waking up a couple times during the night and having chills and such. I didn't feel much better this morning, but managed to shower and go to church without yakking all over the place. Actually, there hasn't been much barfage at all despite the consistent urge to do so. I finally ate some chicken noodle soup at about 4:00pm, the first meal of the day for me. I feel slightly more human....only slightly.

:::::::::::: HOME SELLING ISSUES :::::::::::

I know its a shitty market - I think we all know that. But still, it doesn't make it hurt any less that no one wants to buy our home! I love my home.....so it seems like someone else should love it too. And since they don't, by association they don't like me either. I know its a far stretch to make that association (nor should it really matter) - but that's how I feel sometimes. We've been on the market now for about 90 days-ish (not absurd at all in the molasses market). On the bright side, our realtor, the Great Adrian, is doing a bang up job getting us out there, and we've had quite a bit of traffic with people coming to look through. If only the right people out there would find us - the world would be right.

Adrian and I are going to start looking at properties to help narrow down our future home search. In addition to bringing house selling karma, I would like to have a better idea how far our money will go and where the best neighborhoods to search are. I held off doing it because I didn't know when / if our place would sell. But now, I'm certain our home WILL sell, so to maintain that positive vibe we're going to move forward. Make sense? If not - its not all that surprising since I haven't eaten much today.

:::::::::::: MOMENT OF ZEN :::::::::::

My son is cute. That is all.

Its late....

My back hurts. My feet hurt. and I'm tired. Alas, here I am, wide awake, trying to finish the last minute details for Liam's party. I would have been running around about 100 times less had I just decided to buy a birthday cake instead of make one myself. But nooooOOoooOOooo....Kim just had to make delicious carrot cake for our recipe exchange that I just HAD to have again....so that's what I spent the majority of my time doing today. It is delicious though, even if the decorating job does look a bit ghetto. Whatev, it still beats the Great Birthday Disaster of 2007.

Now, I'm working on the picture / video Montage. I wasn't even going to do one (I mean, I wanted to, but then talked myself out of it), but then after visiting a friend and watching her wedding montage thingy, I got all emotional and figured it would probably be a good idea to do something of the sort. so I am. And its taking F-O-R-E-V-E-R!!! It better turn out bad ass or I'm going to be PISSED!

Regardless - it looks like it will be a beautiful day tomorrow, so it should be a good time :) Can't wait for Liam to open some presents!!!

One of my playgroup chickies, Ireen, dropped off a much awaited birthday outfit today (its made by her, and another awesome mama, Kate). I SOOOooOOOooo totally appreciated her coming over - of course, it was nice to see her, but man, it just stinks big stinky butt not having a car somethings. Anywho, the outfit is for Liam to wear at the par-tay tomorrow. I can't tell you what it is, you'll have to wait and see the photos. But, I can tell you - it is AWESOME and SOOO adorable, you might just explode from the cuteness. I also gave her the wedding album I've been working on for a good chunk of my time the past few weeks. My very first piece of commissioned work! It came out so lovely...I was proud of myself! I learned quite a bit, and can't wait to work on more. AND - I earned 1/2 of the money I need to go toward an external flash for my camera!!! ooHHhOOohHHH - Investment money :)

*side note* The video is still compiling. WOW - Liam has grown so much this year!! Sniff sniff...I'm getting so nostalgic!! *end side note*

That's about it for now....I'm sure I'll have oodles of photos to post after tomorrow evening :)

Labor Day Weekend

We had a blast in Indiana! We saw one of Shannon's cross country meets (my first one, very exciting), played bags, listened to music, played lots of MarioKart on Wii, drank some beers, had some seriously fantastic meals and of course, took oodles and oodles of photos!! Check them out at Flickr when you get a chance :) I even took family photos of the "Indiana O'Briens", but I haven't uploaded those. They came out sooo nice :) I was pretty proud of myself!

I discovered I really do like dirty martinis, especially with blue cheese stuffed olives. YUMM-O!!

Here's a cute family pic before we got eaten by mosquitos:


In this pic, Liam was doing one of his new tricks....giving "Pretty Eyes" - he makes this silly little mouth and then bats his eyes over-exaggeratedly :) Its really cute!


Thanks O'Briens for having us over :) We had a fab-u time!

Beautiful Day!!!

WOW! What a gorgeous Sunday it was! About mid-seventies and sunny, with a slight breeze off the lake. Ahhhh - so refreshing! And how did we spend this fabulous day, you ask? Well, we started with a 5K run in Lincoln Park for the local PBS station, WTTW. It was a fun run, and we could take the stroller with us, so it was a great time for the whole family. Cousin Adrian and Serene joined us for the 3K walk too - double the fun!

The Sesame Street Characters, Arthur, SuperWhy amongst other peeps were out in full force too. Of course, seeing those characters meant waiting in line for quite a while, and since Liam doesn't know the difference yet, we skipped the meet and greet part. BUT - we did have AWESOME run times! 32 minutes for me, 28 for Pat. Pat was convinced it wasn't a true 5K, but I just like to think we did AWESOMELY!!!

After getting home and clean, we met up with friends Ben and Keren for a picnic in the park! Seriously - doing nothing but relaxing on a blanket in the grass while overlooking the lake and Ben grilling us delicious food was quite possibly the most perfect way to spend the afternoon. LOVELY! I didn't even take any pictures, that's how relaxing it was! And, after we got back home Liam and I took about a three hour nap. Heaven I tell you - HEAVEN!

Now, we're getting geared up for the week. Mommy group stuff tomorrow at the beach, and of course, on Tuesday...along with some other job hunt/start up stuff.

Oh, and my BABY is ELEVEN MONTHS OLD!!!! HE's almost one! ACK! How did that happen?!?

Have a great Monday tomorrow!

Busy busy bee!

I've been very busy since my last post! We took a trip to MI, saw my cousin Dennis tie the knot, and then spent the rest of the weekend having a very nice visit with one of Pat's old college roomates and his family in Plymouth. It was REALLY fun - they have a lil' man a week younger than Liam, so it was really cool to see them play and interact. I'm pretty sure Matt taught Liam how to wave, so we're pretty in debt to them :) It was just a nice weekend - great food, great conversation, and very relaxing! We went to the local park, and to a spray park too!



After visiting Karli at nerd camp, I stayed behind with my family while Pat went on to Clarksville, MO for the week. Our visit was fantastic (which is more than I can say for Pat's business trip....who wants to spend a week in St. Louis? LOL) and I had a great opportunity to practice lots of photography skilz...Karli's Senior Photos and some musical pics of Kyle at a bar. Karli's photos took about 5 hours total to take - about 10 gazillion different locations and four different outfits. I went to a Great Lakes Loons game with Karli and her friends, and reminisced while perusing through old high school uniforms that the school was selling. I did pick up a couple cheerleading uniforms and pom pom outfits to add to my Halloween collection...not like I could actually fit into them, but you never know.

Here are a couple of the photos (with added Textures I was playing around with).




Oh, I also starred in my first cable commercial :) If you live in the greater Saginaw area and see a spot for Hamilton Street Pub, look for me "Cheers"-ing a couple other people in the beginning of the commercial. I was excited to make the final cut :) It was pretty fun to be a part of that.

I also ran with my mom, and on two occasions ran three miles at 11:00 miles, which is like world record pace for me. Pat and I have a race on Sunday for WTTW (the Chicago PBS station) so we'll see how that pace keeps up.

Liam and I took the train home to Chicago last Friday, and he was Mr. Social Butterfly! We must have walked up and down our train car 10 times, and each time he was smiling and waving at everyone....at one point he was called the "Official Button Inspector" because he was check out everyone's recline button as he was passing each seat. He did so well, until he misstepped at the end, bonked his head and bit his lip. Damn teeth. He bled pretty well... I knew he was OK, but nothing makes you feel like a horrible mother when you hear people say "OH my GOD he's bleeeeding". Yes, I know. He's bleeding. Thanks for pointing that out.

Since our return we've been trying to get things in order - we had an Open House on Saturday (one person came) and another Open House today, this time for Brokers.....today went well, Saturday, not so much. But, such is the market, and we'll keep plugging along with guarded hopes. And, Adrian made cookies and that is never a bad thing. Also, open houses and showings give us an excuse to really clean the house well, so even if we don't sell the house at least its clean and shiney and I don't have to feel bad if my kid eats a cheerio off of it.

The rest of the spare time has been spent editing, uploading and playing with photos. Lots and lots of photos. I think after it was all said and done I took over 800 pictures last week, almost all in manual (whoo hooo for me!). I definitely didn't do great, there was still a lot of correction of exposure to be done, but I had to do it to learn.

See the fruits of my labor at my flickr account: Karin's FLICKR

Soooo, that's it. Now, we're dealing with a semi-sick child. He's had a runny nose for about a week or so. Took him to the dock today and no ear infection or anything, so its just a waiting game to see if it will clear up or not. We'll give it another week or so. Keep your fingers crossed!