2 Years Old

Yea, I know this post is a little delayed but it's been a crazy month. Ian turned two on October 20th. Everyday he amazes me! Today I really miss him. I wish I could be at home and not have any responsibilities and I could just play with Ian all day. That would be living. Aaron is off on Thursdays and Ian is playing hooky today from daycare which is prompting the melancholy. I want to be at home carving pumpkins with them.

Aaron took me out to dinner last night for my birthday. We had a great time. He took me to an Italian restaurant that we hadn't been to before. White table clothes and everything! Very good food. I had veal pan fried with prosciutto and a caper sauce. It came with grilled asparagus and garlic mashed. Aaron had pumpkin ravioli. Both were yummy although I think I got the better end of the stick. Afterwards we went to see "The Secret Life of Bees". If you get a chance to see it, you should. Total chick flick so ya better bring the tissue. I had read the book and loved it and they really did a good job with the movie. Great birthday. My apartment is filled with flowers, I have some at work too, Aaron got me these earings I have been wanting for a couple of years, I am married to a great guy and we have a beautiful kid - what better way to start a new decade of life!

Ah Shit, I'm 40...

Swiss Guard Drum Corp

So I am a fan of drum corp as some of you may know. I found this video of the Swiss Guard drum corp just now and it is amazing! Mom, you must watch this. You will totally dig the snare work and the choreography.

Ok, I know I said I was back but...

Hi! It's been multiple weeks since the last blog entry and we've been busy. I thought I would be blogging more but it just seems that between Ian and work there doesn't seem to be much time left at the end of the day. Lately I've been just falling asleep when I put Ian down and Aaron comes in before he goes to bed to wake me up to move to the big bed. Work is less crazy which is good but the home life has been busy.

Ann Arbor was great! Both Aaron and I spent all week thinking about how we could manage to move back there. It wasn't realistic and we do love Chicago but watching Ian with Layale and Brian makes us think about how much he's missing out on seeing them more often. It was great to relax and take naps most days. I did gain about 3 pounds with all the meals out with friends and Layale's good baking and cooking (mostly the yummy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that constaintly fill the cookie jar - YUM!) We went to Domino Farms and to the Dexter Cider Mill one beautiful fall day. Pictures to be found on flickr - or if they aren't there yet, I'll get them up soon - it's a work in progress.

After we were home for two days (literally 48 hrs) we turned the car around and went back to Michigan for Whitney and Joe's commitment ceremony. This was a nice little gathering in the woods - very sweet. In the am we wen't to Klackle's Orchard for Ian's birthday which was a blast. (See more photos and more pony rides on flickr). On Sunday we had another birthday party for Ian at my folks. If you are keeping track, there was a party in Ann Arbor too - so Ian has now had 3 (yes, 3!) birthday parties.

This coming Sunday Ian has his forth birthday party for his second birthday! This one is for his Chicago/OP Posse. A couple kids from school and a couple from the neighborhood. He keeps us hopping!

That's the last couple of weeks in a nutshell. I'm at work and should be working so I have to keep it short. I will try to me more vigilant but no guarantees! Life just seems to be so busy these days - but in a good day.

I'm Back :-)

Thanks everyone for making me feel loved and making me laugh. Mary's right. I have been working and working and working. A lot. I have been working on a retail development of a portion of US Cellular Field. The project is on a very very tight schedule. They want to start demo at the end of the post season - whenever that may be for the Sox. So the most recent deadline was yesterday when we had to have an addendum to the Bid Set (the set of drawings that goes to contractors so that they can estimate costs and bid on the project) published and we had to have a set of drawings and a calc book published to the city for the permit application. I don't know how much this will make sense but just to give you an idea - the architect is still in the design process. We don't have all the information that we typically would need to get to this stage but we made some assumptions of what we thought the architect would want and we redesigned and redesigned as we got more information. Now it is up to the city. Or maybe the Sox. If they make the World Series I bet their permit will be prioritized. Who knows how the City of Chicago works?? All of this means that I have been working 12-15 hour days - including some weekends for the last month or so. Hard to tell, time has lost some meaning. I can't believe it is October already but that might have snuck up on me without the work. Oh - did I mention that I was made point person on the project? This means that I am going to be in charge... not bad for the newby, but more work...

The good news is that I racked up a lot of OT and I have a week off. I set some of that OT aside and Aaron, Ian and I are headed to Ann Arbor without me having to dip into my PTO. So I should have enough PTO to take the week of Christmas off too. Assuming that we don't have some other deadline. We'll see. I don't want to get to far ahead of the game. I thought it was good enough that I got the week off. We are driving today. As tired as I was, I was still awake at 5am today. I went to bed at 8:30 last night and I guess I am still a little wound up but that will wear off. I am really looking forward to a week of relaxing, visiting friends and seeing Ann Arbor again. I'm sure we will take lots of pictures so stay in touch and I will try to keep you posted.

Ian is growing and developing at an incredible rate. He does something everyday that amazes us. He is talking in short sentences now, can count to three and knows some colors. Aaron tells me that he was putting towels away a couple days ago and to do this in our apartment you have to stand on the bath tub (ah apartment living) - anyway Ian tells him "Don't fall, Dada". So Cute!! He will be turning 2 in just two weeks. Wow! We will be in GR the weekend of the 18th and 19th and will celebrate his b-day there on the 19th. (Yes, we are returning from A^2 on Tuesday or Wednesday and then turning around and driving to GR on Sat morn-busy month). Then the following week we will have a little birthday celebration here for him and his friends from daycare. Then the next weekend is holloween!! Yikes the time goes fast.

Ok. I think that gets you guys all up to date. Someone once said... (and I misquote) that hapiness is most often experienced at the end of a busy day. I concur.