Chicago, Day One

am sitting in bed right now waiting for vance to fall asleep. it's a good-sized hotel room, but he can still see me and keeps saying, "hi mama!, hi dada!". so hard not to laugh.

our hotel is across from the apple store and our view looks down on the crazy people in line for the iphone. it circles for blocks and i'm loving that starbucks has set up a tent in the middle of the chaos.

we ordered in geno's tonight then walked around michigan ave. i bought appetizer plates at crate and barrel. pretty excited about those. justin looked for work shoes and golf shoes. no luck on either. actually, if the people at nike town find his size in the golf shoes he wants they're going to call him tomorrow. we'll see.

while moving around furniture to accommodate the crib we found some porn. exactly what you want to find in your hotel room. so, i'm trying not to imagine what was going on here last night, but i always find that my imagination is much worse than reality.

tomorrow we're going to head down to navy pier and check out the children's museum. weather is supposed to be nice. am looking forward to it.

justin is sleeping. vance has finally stopped chatting, but i can hear him moving around. guess it's time for me to call it a night.

nighty night!

Had a wonderful visit with family from Texas last night. They headed out this morning to drive to Chicago and we'll be joining them, along with even more family, tomorrow.

Chicago seemed to be a convenient meeting ground for a get together that usually only happens once a year, at Christmas. I think it's pretty amazing that every one's busy schedules were clear on this particular weekend and allowed us to sneak in a visit. I think it would be great if we could do this every summer. It's great to see all the boys (4 of them!) play together.

(I have mentioned that Justin and his family only produce offspring of the XY variety, right?)

We'll return on Sunday and leave on Monday for Arizona. (We don't go anywhere all year and Bam! we're packing in 3 trips all in one month...) I'm anxious to experience this Dry Heat that everyone has told me about.

Justin took Miss Daisy Fuentes to her hotel this morning. Hotel? Yes, hotel. Daisy will be living la vida loca until Sunday. The amenities are pretty silly and I'm sure we'll get made fun of for taking our dog here, so I won't even list them. Over the weekend you can look for Daisy on one of their three doggie cams. Click on the picture for a link to their website. Have a great weekend Y'all!

Vance put himself in Time Out yesterday.

This could mean one of two things. One, he is so gifted that he acknowledges when he's done wrong and knows he has to take it like a man. Or two, he's not quite grasping the seriousness of Time Out and is completely mocking me.

Think I know my answer. He's freshly 2 and already a smart-ass.

I was surprised when he did it. Time Outs are relatively new to him and we really don't use it that often. I didn't even threaten that he was going there. He was doing something that he wasn't supposed to be doing and I mentioned if he did it again I would take away the ball. Off he went to the corner and said, "Baby Time. Baby Time".

This is a rare family picture taken All Aboard! at the STL Zoo. Today is all about playing catch-up with laundry, groceries, stuff needed at Target, and a trip to Vance's doctor.

I think I have everything done. Except the whole nothing to wear issue, but I'll deal with that a couple hours before the event.

(I am my mother's daughter.)

I'm sure Justin is thanking his lucky stars that he's in the wedding and will have to be at the church way before I even start to think about what to wear. That way he doesn't have to deal with craziness that I emit while trying to make myself look presentable.

I'm thinking this will be my last post until after the weekend. Please remind yourselves to check out the Friday Freebies on Friday and have a great weekend.

We're South Bound and Down tonight, heading home for a wedding of a good friend.

I have:

not packed.
not packed for Vance.
not packed for Daisy.
nothing to wear for the rehearsal dinner.
nothing to wear to the actual wedding. (I will don the black dress for the reception)
not postponed our mail yet.
not refilled my allergy prescription.
not filled up the car with gas
not started watering the plants and grass one last time.
not vaccumed out the back of the car. (filthy from all the plants and landscaping material)

And for some reason I'm sitting here with my computer on my lap and twirling my hair like I have nothing to do today.

Burp!

I'm at a loss for new content right now, so until something pops into my head, enjoy an old movie clip of Vance. This was taken a little over a month ago and it's funny to see how much he's grown since. I'm still in awe of how quickly they grow and change!

Landscaping is done for the summer. Couldn't be happier. Here's some pictures.

The landscaping in the front was done last summer, but we had to replace the 4 grasses that were in front of our columns. Digging through rock to replant sucks. It's so much easier the other way around. The other 2 pictures are in the back. Hopefully the grasses will do well here and grow so that we don't have to see the lovely electrical box. It's hard to see everything we planted - most of the plants are small. Will have to compare pics at the end of the summer to see how much everything has grown. Seems like I'm missing something...Oh, we also did work around the mailbox, replaced 4 other plants in the front, and did rock and shrubs on either side of the patio. No wonder Justin's back hurts...

Done with Sears for pictures. For good. Everything is too painfully posed. I think the picture lady scared Vance with all of her "try to get the baby to smile voices". He looked confused as in, "Why is this lady talking like this?" She missed what could have been good ones because her "clicker" didn't work. We didn't even get any good ones with his cutest shirt on. Anyway, here's a preview.

We spent the rest of the day landscaping. I think we're finally done. Camera battery is charging - will take pictures later today.

Happy Father's Day to all the Daddy's out there! Dad, if you're reading, Happy Father's Day to you! Thanks for being a great Dad! Love you!

Justin is spending the first part of his day golfing. I made him blueberry muffins (from scratch!) last night, so he could take some with this morning. Just the beginning of a day full of surprises!

Smile For Me Baby

Vance is getting new pics taken today. I still have no idea what he's going to wear. And (this is new) when he sees a camera or is asked to smile he gives us a Grill Face. "Show us your grill Vance!" Picture Day is going rock.

Speaking of rock, we'll be doing that today too. We got a lot done Thursday night and last night, so hopefully we'll finish up today. I'll post pictures when we're done.

It's Friday

Almost forgot! For Friday Freebies click here! That's a lot of F's!

Thank You Letter

To the man who decided to park within inches of my car in the extremely empty parking lot:

Thank you. Leave a can opener next time.

Hugs and Kisses,

Charisa

Helpful Household Tip

I bought a bottle of Clorox Antibacterial Kitchen cleaner last week. It smells like the stuff they used to give you to clean desks when you were in grade school. It smells awful. Just a tip in case you're in the market for cleaner and interested in switching brands.

Senor Stinky graduated from Little Gym today. We celebrated afterwards by having lunch at Chipoltle, ordering 3 tons of rock to be delivered tomorrow, and not taking a nap.

Vance wore his medal for most of the day. The safety goggles were added later in the afternoon to complete the ensemble. Here he is with 2 of his favorite books.

I added more pictures from Little Gym to Flickr, so wander over and check them out.

I forgot to mention earlier that while we were Philly last weekend another phone book was delivered.

More Random Thoughts

• The neighbor has a son 2 years older than Vance. She offered up all his old underwares to me yesterday. I really didn't know what to say to that.
• I'm contemplating about doing the whole PayPerPost thing. Annoying or not?
• Season 3 of Top Chef starts tonight on Bravo. V. exciting.

Today is the last day of Little Gym for Vance. They're having a special class to show off what they've learned for familly and friends. Should be fun! I'll take pictures if I can!

I'm bored with how things look around here, so I'm going to be doing some redecorating. I've also started to add some new links, so check them out!

More later!

New Haircut

Vance got his ears lowered yesterday by a scary mandresser who was wearing a tank top. Anyone who watched Shear Genius knows that is a No No.

I'm still decompressing from being away. So is Vance. The grandparents have spoiled him rotten and it's going to take him at least another day to get thru his cute little head that Mommy is the boss, not Baby.

He whimpered for a good 45 minutes yesterday when everyone left. By everyone I mean The Grandparents, my mom, and her friend. Deb and her friend were on their way to Kohler, WI and spent the night on Sunday just to break up the drive. Kohler is, I'm guessing, about 2 hours from here. They had tee times on Monday morning and it would have sucked for them (and their game) to have gotten up early Monday and driven the whole way from STL. Here's where they're staying. Yeah, they're roughing it.

Vance and the mountains of laundry wore me out yesterday and that's why I haven't written about the weekend. I also took Vance to get his hair cut yesterday and Yup! turns out that he does have eyes under that mess of hair. He looks about 4 years older with his new cut, so I'll have to post new pics later today. As for Philly, here's two highlights:

Had Philly cheesesteaks at Tony Luke Jr's. Bobby Flay did a Throwdown there. Read about it here. Not sure who won the throwdown.

Had Delilah's mac n' cheese. Bobby Flay did another Throwdown here and Oprah named her the Queen of Mac n' Cheese. Read about it here. To see pictures of Bob and D click here. I do know that Bobby won this throwdown.

I had big plans for this post. I was going to recap our weekend in Philly with stories and pictures. It was going to be great.

I accidentally deleted the majority of my Philly pictures this morning. Don't worry, I still have 20 close ups of the Deer Bones bottle. You know, all the important ones.

(Sidenote: Funny, the Deer Bones resembles soy sauce. However, that is soooo not the case.)

The pictures that I lost were of that non-important building with the clock, that little cracked bell, and the group shots. All the group shots.

More later. Must go now.

I'm working on it....

Grounded

Our flight was cancelled due to high winds. We've been rescheduled to leave tomorrow at 7:20 am, with a 30 minute layover in STL, then off to Philly. Crap!

Philly here we come!

Hair Don't Part Deux

Today in the shower I used this product on my hair, hoping it would bring a little more blond out. Holy hell, that's exactly what it did. The white blond streaks are effing back. My hair looks frosted. Wonderful .

Edited to add: Wait. Since I used the "Blond" glaze last time, do you think if I used the glaze specifically for brunettes it would go back to the way it was?

OK, I'm feeling the heat....Vance has an appointment to get new pictures next Saturday.

The neighbors 4 houses down are putting in a pool. We have only met them once, so I don't think we'll be seeing any pool time what so ever. This is not the point. When I first heard the news I was rather confused. Even though we have beautiful springs and summers they are short-lived. That's a lot of money for such a short time frame to enjoy it, even with a heater. I was chatting with another neighbor about it a bit ago and now everything makes sense. Turns out, he's a hockey coach and is going to freeze it in the winter for practicing.

Hair Don't

First there was...I don't even remember the first lady's name. I might of went back to her, but she was leaving the Hair World and opening up a Dinner Studio. Then there was Tricia. Tricia's first passion is working with horses, something she still does this day. I think she should focus on her horses, not hair. Gina's name was added to the list last night.

I got my hair cut and highlighted last night. I will not be going back to Gina again. I got nervous when I first saw my hair after it had been shampooed. I didn't have my glasses on and I thought is was maybe the light and the fact that it was still wet. When it was almost dry I was all, "Whoa, Gina...I'm a little concerned". The highlighted parts were white-blond and the lowlighted parts were too dark. Too much contrast between the two. A little skunkish. She said that she could tone it down, so back to the shampoo room I went. Now, there's hardly any blond left. She mentioned something at the end, "Oh, you must have wanted golden blond highlights". I said I wanted blond highlights. I'm not a colorist. I didn't know to specifically ask for golden. Maybe it is my fault. Thinking it's time to try Pebbles.

None of This Will Excite You

Had a great time on our night out. Justin and I both looked smashing and the restaurant diners voted us "Best Dressed Couple" there. Not really. We ended the evening with drinks at a local restaurant here where I was schooled in wine by a twenty-something alternative rocker type. It was my first time at this restaurant, but Justin's third time. When The Crazy's come here to make cookies around X-mas time, Mark and Justin always seem to sneak off and get a couple drinks there.

Saturday and Sunday were devoted to landscaping the back yard, which is only half done. We spent a small fortune buying plants at an overwhelmingly-large greenhouse situated in the middle of Nowhere, Wi. and right next to a horse farm. For being in the middle of Nowhere, it was very picturesque with all of the rolling hills and old barns you could see. Vance loved seeing the horses. "Horses eat a grasss" for the rest of the weekend.

It's raining here. It's been raining here off and on all weekend, but steadily since yesterday around 5:00. Justin found a tree that we planted face down today, so that's good news. All the rain is making the dirt too soupy to hold it upright. Must go buy a stake to keep it up today.

I guess that's it. Must go and buy stamps today. V. annoying. Our Post Office does not have a drive thru, so in we go! Thank-you's for Vance's birthday presents will not send themselves. 41 cents! That's crazy! Have a great day!

I didn't realize how much comment action the last post would get. Thanks for all the ideas. That being said, what's everyones problem with belts? Remind me not to bring that idea up again! And I love the fact that Dave had so much to add! 23 more points for him!

It's our 5th anniversary today. Iris will be coming to watch Vance tonight so me and the Mr. can dine amongst other adults. We have a 7:15 reservation here, in case anyone wants to send free drinks (or chocolate cupcakes) our way!

In other random news, I went to the eye doctor today. I ordered new frames, which won't be here in time for our trip to Philly, which sucks. They sent me home with new contacts to test drive, but after an hour I was already starting to get a headache. I took them out - will try again later.