Grandparents Hit the Town

Okay, so I'm a bit behind....2, of the 3, sets of grandparents came to visit in Sept. Sept. 19th Robert's parents came in for a car show and visit, even driving the 3 hours from MI in Rick's Duce '32 Ford!.....




Then, 2 days after Pam and Rick left, my dad and Marla flew in from CA for my birthday weekend. We were super busy and did lots of fun stuff, including a trip downtown. There we walked around Navy Pier, took an architectural boat tour of Chicago, followed by speed boat ride out in Lake Michigan! Peyton took Grandma & Granddaddy into the American Girl store for a tour!, we people watched as we rode a city bus and walked all over, ate some GREAT Mexican food at a hip corner restaurant to celebrate my birthday (complete with Margaritas, of course!), - we must have walked about 6 miles that day! It was wonderful adn we were all pooped. My dad and Marla babysat for us one night so Robert and I could have a real date - they had a great time....

October Days...

About 2 weeks ago we went to the pumpkin patch with our preschool friends (8 kids total). We pet and fed goats, donkeys, saw baby pigs nursing on Mama Pig, held baby chicks, went through a corn maze for kids (3 times!), went for a 'hay ride', slid down a TALL slide, and picked a pumpkin - followed by lunch with everyone. The four girls are Macy, Peyton, Chloe and Kendall - Peyton's best friends here. They all go to her school and live in our neighborhood!






My friend Jamie (Kendall's mom) lived in Charlotte for 7 years, so we compare everything here to Charlotte, of course. This pumpkin patch was NO Hunter Farms, for all you Charlotteans (sp??). The hay ride was through a small corn field in between 2 neighborhoods and lasted maybe 7 minutes! The animals were everywhere, so as soon as you sanitized your hands, the kids were off to another animal getting licked - do you know how much sanitizing gel we went through that day and antibacterial wipes??!! We did have fun though; it just made us realize, yet again, how very much we miss Charlotte!

City Farmers!

This summer we planted some seeds to see what we'd get. So many vines starting growing, 2 of them all over the place and one of them actually bloomed! It was dark green and little so we just knew one of our watermelons had taken. Peyton and I would go out every few days to check on it, as well as our tomato plants. She and Robert were in charge of picking the tomatoes when they were done and looking out for the pesky tomato bugs. Well, in September while her grandparents were here (Hines), Peyton excitedly showed them her watermelon (now dark green and lighter green striped, as many watermelons often are)....Grandma broke the news that that was no watermelon, it was a pumpkin! Peyton was soooo upset (it was almost comical) - how do you tell a 4 year old that something we've been calling and watching grow for months as a watermelon isn't really a watermelon (remember, it's still green, NOT orange) and it's really a pumpkin????!!! Grandpa said we City Farmers don't know anything! Well guess what, we do have an ORANGE pumpkin now! Peyton and Robert picked it last weekend, just in time for Halloween. We are so proud of our watermelon/pumpkin; special having one straight from our city-garden!

Soccer Days of Fall....

I was going to post Peyton's soccer pics and a video from this fall (I still am) but came across some of her first soccer days. She was just 2.5 years old and too cute with her soccer ball. Peyton loved the ball and playing but was quite unsure of the group thing~ Well, we've come a long way since then! Peyton did a soccer session through the park district programs (really big here); it lasted for just 5 Saturdays and that was just enough. Again, she loves the ball, playing soccer, and actually is quite good at kicking and dribbling, but still has a phobia about the group thing. She would practically freeze up when it was time to play a game. We finally figured out that she's afraid of getting hit with the ball or one of the boys (she was the only girl) running into her. Instead, she would take her ball into one of the goals and sit on it and wait for the Sharks & Minnows game to be done. Or she would flutter her arms like a bird and drift aimlessly from one end to the other. BUT she was a super-star during warm-up and kicking and drills! Here are some of the highlights from the past 5 weeks:

Top Weird Things about Illinois

Since living here, now 7 mos., we have discovered some very odd things about this state. After discussing them with my girlfriends over Girls' Weekend, I decided that may make a good post for the blog. So, here they are, in no particular order...

1. Kindergarten is NOT mandatory!...although most(educated)people send their kids.
2. Preschool here is only 2.5 hours long....in preparation for half-day Kindergarten...
3. Kindergarten's 'half-day' is actually only 2.75-3 hours long! What do they learn in that amount of time??? Half-day to me means at least 4 hours.
4. People spend BIG money for kids' birthday parties
5. You know you're in cold-country when one of the neighborhood's amenities is it's own sledding hill!
6. Food: processed foods (can goods, cereal, rice, etc.) is more expensive than down South, while dairy and produce are MUCH cheaper than down South.
7. Property taxes are WAY more expensive - new of $6-10K vs. our old of $2500.00 annually!
8. People seem unsure over an invite for family dinner date night. In Charlotte & Atlanta, we were always going to somebody's for dinner or having someone over.
9. LOTS of kids here; people with 3-6 kids is NORMAL! Robert says it's the cold winters!!
10. You should see the way people decorate for Halloween here. My friend, who lived in Charlotte before, said to just wait til we see what they do for Christmas!

With regard to #4 and #10, good thing we aren't the Keep-up-with-the-Joneses type!

I'm sure more odd things will come up as time goes on; I'll let you know as they develop. Winter is coming so that could be a whole other blog post...or 2...especially since you all know I'm DREADING my 1st full winter here!

Go RED RAIDERS!!!

Texas Tech is currently ranked #7 in the country!!! Yeah! Next year we are finally planning a trip out West - to the panhandle of Texas, Lubbock - complete with dust storms, high winds, and tumbleweeds! I haven't been out since I graduated in May of 1995; I've heard I won't even recognize the town now with so many changes to school and surrounding areas. Will be fun to take Robert and Peyton around to show them my old hang-out spots and such and go to a game!
Get your Guns Up! Go Red Raiders!! (I tried to upload an image of the Double T for this post but it wouldn't let me - any ideas, anyone??? I'm still learning this blog business!)

Ludington Beach Trip-August 2008

Wow, I'm REALLY behind! Where does the time go???? We went to Ludington, MI (where Robert's grandparents had built their retirement home over 25 years ago) for our summer vacation. Just 3 hours from us now, we spent a whole week there in early August. We spent quality 'just-us' time, had old friends come visit that we had met in Atlanta 9 years ago (and now live back in MI), had Robert's parents come for a night and 2 days, and then had some more 'just-us' time - it was WONDERFUL! Very relaxed, slow-paced, refreshing and rejuvenating (and quite cheap!). Spending time at Grandma & Grandpa Tchozeski's house was so nice for all of us. Robert spent LOTS of time there growing up - summer time, holidays, weekends, etc. and it was special to be able to share some of that with Peyton. We walked the beach lots, toured the local lighthouse, walked to 'town' for ice cream, shopping, dining, and the local park, went to the beautiful state park for hiking and frolicking on the beach....just fun, relaxing times! Even Willow got to enjoy a lot of the Ludington fun - play on the beach is her favorite! Some pics from the trip:

Also, a video from the beach. If you can hear it, I say that it looks and sounds like the ocean, but it's Lake Michigan - just beautiful (although I'm still quite partial to the OCEAN and saltwater having grown-up in South Texas as a beach girl!!)!


More updates to come later...I am quite behind. Since our August vacation, we had the start of school, the start of soccer and ballet, and grandparents' visits. I'm heading to Girls' Weekend this week for 5 nights, so once I'm back, I'll update some more!