Ahhh....springtime!

Spring has arrived in Illinois and I love it! It is so wonderful to enjoy the beautiful weather even though out here we really do get those April showers. We have been enjoying the weather and the fun things that Chicago has to offer us lately. This past weekend we went to the driving range on Friday before going over to Rob and Tiff’s house to watch a movie. Jason corrected something I had been doing wrong in my golf swing and it made a huge improvement! What a difference the smallest correction can make. I quickly told Tiffany and on Saturday we made the change. Which of course leads to Saturday – out on the golf course. I never imagined that I would one day be a golfer but I love it. Maybe it’s because I am outside and enjoying the beautiful weather and nature. Maybe it’s because it’s a sport that I can actually do with my arthritis. Or maybe it’s because it’s something that both Jason and I love to do together. Whatever the reason I’m loving it! We all had a good time…well almost all of us…Rob played with a different group of people and discovered he didn’t like “hoighty-toighty golf” – which is where you play serious…we like to have fun while we play.

Last week was also great because Jason and I went on a wonderful date! We went downtown to see the musical “Mary Poppins”. It was fantastic! They had the original Broadway Mary Poppins & Bert and they were amazing! The special effects were incredible and the music was glorious! Have I used enough adverbs???? My favorite part was when Bert actually danced on the walls and the ceilings of the stage! It was also sooo cute to see all the little girls dressed up for their first professional show…how cute is that. I told Jason that when we have kids we are totally taking them to shows. What a great experience for these kids to have and they seemed to absolutely love it! During one part of the show a group of mom’s and daughter’s sitting by us all opened up parasols when Mary Poppins did – so cute! Before the show we went to a wonderful seafood restaurant McCormicks and Schmicks – they had a special “tax relief day special” where entrée’s were only 10.40 (normally $30) so of course we had to try it out. In all we had a lovely evening together – even with me having to drive downtown with all the crazy cab drivers!

The final thing about this last week that I loved was the nursery kids. Jason and I both serve in the nursery of our church. We spend about 2 hours with kids between the ages of 18 months and 3 years old. It can get pretty crazy in there, especially since we had 14 kids there. Every Sunday at the end of church we are completely exhausted from running around with the kids but totally worth it. We love spending time with those precious children. Since we don’t have kids of our own we forget how innocent and Christ-like these little ones can be so when we get the opportunity to spend two hours with them we are reminded of it. It also makes the ache of not having children yet a little easier to bear because we get all the love we want from those little ones. They are boundless with their hugs and smiles. I love it!!!! Yesterday especially was fun because the kids were so happy and just so loving. I almost got a little teary-eyed as I watched Jason helping one little girl pray – he is going to be such a great dad one day. Anyways…we love it there!

The Adventures keep on coming...

So this month marks 3 years since we moved out here – well Jason anyways. Last night Jason bought me tickets to go see the Broadway stage version of Mary Poppins and afterwards we were talking and he mentioned the fact that before we lived in Chicago he had never seen a professional theater production (other than my Pioneer Theater shows). That got me thinking that since we’ve moved out here we have had a lot of “firsts”.

•First time living apart from one another since we were married (never doing that again!)
•First time Jason had lived outside of the state of Utah other than his mission
•We have added a country to our list of places we’ve been– Canada
•Jason added a ton of states to his list and I added a few more to my list of states we’ve been to.
•First time going to a Cubs game – or any Major League baseball game
•First time seeing a river dyed florescent green for St. Patricks day
•Jason’s first time at an art museum (I loved it – him not so much)
•First time going to Bulls Basketball game in a suite.
•First time seeing the Nauvoo temple completed (I had seen it while it was being built)

•First time to the top of the Arch in St. Louis
•First time smoking our own meat
•First time living in a city that was participating in the Superbowl (talk about crazy – it was awesome!!!)
•First time watching a movie being filmed (They were filming Batman Dark Knight outside Jason’s work for a few days)
•First time going to a Posh Charity Event.
•Diana’s first time golfing – and Jason embracing his love of golf.

I could go on and on but that is good enough for now. We have loved living out here and can’t wait to see what other new “firsts” we get to add while we are in Chicago. Luckily we have had some wonderful friend’s to share these experiences with – not to mention each other. We are so lucky to live in a place that offers so much!

Not the Captain...

William Ernest Henley wrote “I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.” This past week I’ve decided that I am indeed not the master of my fate but I will leave that into the Lord’s hands instead. As many of you know we are trying to adopt. Since January we have been talking to a young woman about possibly adopting her child. Well we found out this past week that she lost the baby. It was definitely sad for Jason and I to learn the news but we both found ourselves at peace with the situation. We know that the right child will join our family at the right time and we have to be patient. The thing that was especially special through all of this was the amazing outpouring of love we received from so many people. Everyone sent their love and sympathy when we shared what had happened. My parents were so sweet and sent a bouquet of flowers to be delivered to us and told us how much they loved us (that made me cry).

Overall it was a good learning experience and reinforced to both of us that we will one day have a child of our own to raise and love. The mother of the birth mother that we had been talking is a good friend of mine and shared the following quote with me by Woody Allen “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.” I know that I do that  I have no problem with patience in people but struggle with finding patience in my situation. I get so excited about something that I plan it all out in my head and then surprise it doesn’t happen. He knows the big picture and I am learning to trust in that. Thanks everyone for helping us through this experiencing and standing by our side!!!

Visits and Fun!

Visit!
So we had a spring break visit from Jason’s older sister Michelle and her family! It was so much fun!!!!! She has 2 wonderful daughters that we love to death and a great husband. It was such a great time together. They arrived on Saturday March 13 and brought with them some of Jason’s favorite ice cream – Blue Bell - from his mission days. You can only buy this ice cream in the south so we were super excited to have them bring this treat. On Sunday they went to church with us and then on Monday they started touring around the city.
Jason and I took half-days and full days off to spend time with them. We walked A LOT!!! We went to the American Girl Place (holy cow – all of that for a doll????), Navy Pier, Millenium Park, walked all over the city – and I do mean ALL over the city. The weather was unbelievably beautiful with temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s. We walked along the lake and enjoyed the gorgeous weather.
On Tuesday we got another visitor for the night – Diana’s brother Marc stopped over from Delaware. He was driving from Delaware to his new job in St. George, Utah and decided to stay the night with us. Hotel Bowler welcomes all! Since we were going to be having a full house we decided to make it complete and invited Rob and Tiff over and had a little party! Jason made his scrumptious hamburgers and brats and then we threw on some chicken for the healthy eaters. We played Apples to Apples and laughed and laughed all night. When Rob and Tiff left Madison immediately asked if they were going to come back the next night. I guess she loves them as much as we do .
Then on Wednesday my brother Marc took myself and the 2 girls out to breakfast while Jason’s sister and her husband went to the temple. While at Cracker Barrel for breakfast we bought the girls Webkinz animals and made their day. As we were leaving the restaurant Madison (the 9 year old) asked if Mr. Marc was also her uncle. I told her not really but he can be like an adopted uncle. Michelle, Morgan (her 12 year old daughter), and myself hit the stores for some shopping when they returned from the temple. They live in rural Kansas so it was exciting to hit some big stores.
Thursday was pretty quiet Jason’s sister was working on a unit plan and I got to help her. I had forgotten how much I enjoy writing lessons and brainstorming ideas to teach. It was a lot of fun. Then I made chocolates with the girls. We had so much fun. But the highlight of the night came when Jason got home and we finished dinner. We decided to go get some gelato for desert but couldn’t find any place open so instead we went and played with puppies! We played with 5 different dogs. It was great – until we played with with the Boggle and it bit everyone but me. But we all loved playing with.
It was a blast having them come visit. It is always wonderful to see family when you live so far away. We especially loved the time we would spend with the girls each night. They would come into our room and the four of us would pile on the bed and shoot nerf guns, tickle, or just joke around.
The house felt so empty after they all left! Thanks for coming to visit!

Chicago Premiere Night Charity Event

So it time to play catch up on my blogging! I didn't realize how long it had been since I last blogged but WOW! talk about being lazy. Actually it is more like being very busy recently.

I'll start from mid February when Jason, Rob, Tiff and myself went to the Chicago Auto Show Premiere Night First Look For Charity event. This was our third year going and it was as wonderful as ever! It is the night before the Auto Show opens to the public and is a black tie affair. There is catering from the hottests restaurants in Chicago and a spectacular event. Tickets are very expensive but I have an in and get them for free. Although I didn’t dress up as fancily as I have in past years it was still a blast! This year Tiff and I were speedy and got slippers before they started handing them out. Our feet truly appreciated it 



We arrived there before the gala even began so the boys could view all the cars they wanted to – even with that said they still didn’t see everything. The highlights of the night were the Transformer Bumble Bee, the Jeeps, Lambourghni’s, Range Rovers (they have a refrigerator built into the console!!!), and the Jaguars (talk about comfy leather seats). I also loved the Mini Cooper Convertible. Tiff and I had a blast going from food place to food place and sampling all the goodies while the boys drooled over car after car. By the time the night was over our poor feet were sore and the boys were still going strong. We ended up being one of the last people to leave.

It was so much fun to go there and mingle with the elite in Chicago Society and see such cool cars! The end of the night was especially funny when we had to literally pull the boys off the Jeeps to go home. They told us that they wanted to go look at the Porsche's before we left. So we let them go and followed slowly behind. We lost sight of them and asked someone working there where we would find the Porsche's and they said that their weren't any there this year. Immediately Tiff and I both said "Jeeps!" We knew where to find our boys - and sure enough - there they were playing with the Jeeps again. Ahhhh...to be young!

Happy Valentines Day!

So my goal to update this every week is quickly disappearing. The problem is that some weeks are so boring and nothing exciting is happening to us - or at least nothing that I think other people will find exciting. To me getting my house all clean is very exciting but I doubt other people will agree. But this week something exciting did happen - Valentine's Day! It was a great day!

The day started out wonderful with Jason letting me sleep in. Then we went out to lunch together at TGI Friday's (yummy)! Then we did a little shopping together and had a blast just spending time with one another. After that we went home and got some dinner ready for us and Rob and Tiff. We also got a phone call from a prospective birth mother (keep our fingers crossed)!

Rob and Tiff came over that night (we can't spend Saturday night without those two crazy kids)!!! We ate dinner and then went and did one of my all-time favorite things...played with puppies. That may sound a little strange but in our current apartment we can't have pets and we love dogs (especially cute little playful puppies). Last valentines day we fell in love with a Cockier Cavalier after playing with him on Valentine's Day and so we thought we'd keep the tradition going. This year we played with a fun Boggle (mix of a Beagle and a Boston Terrier) and a cute little Sheltie. The Sheltie was cute but sure did make me sneeze. The Boggle was adorable and so much fun. He grabbed my heart but not my wallet - over $1300 for that little guy. Maybe once we get a house we will adopt a dog but not right now.

Right before we went to bed Jason remembered that we hadn't given each other our Valentines Day cards. So even though we hadn't written anything in them we gave them to each other and had a quick laugh! Jason actually bought me 2 cards - what a sweetheart!

Welcome to Spamalot!

When we first moved out to Chicago Jason actually came alone. He moved out here and then I joined him after the summer. We tried to see each other every month at least. On one of my trips out to visit Jason I completely surprised him. He thought my brother was flying in to visit him and instead it was me. He was floored! It was a wonderful surprise. So on my next trip out he wanted to surprise me with something. He told me to dress nicely and that he had something planned. After he picked me up from the airport we went to a wonderful dinner and then he surprised me with tickets to the touring company show of Monty Python's Spamalot. It is a musical version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It was hilarious. I had the CD but had never actually listened to it. Jason heard it before I did! We were both laughing hysterically throughout the whole show! That quickly became Jason's favorite Broadway musical.

Now almost 3 years later Spamalot is playing again in Chicago. As soon as Jason heard it was coming back he begged for us to get tickets and go see it again. I didn't think anything of it and went on with life...well last night Jason came home and said I found some cheap tickets for tomorrow night to see Spamalot. Soooooo....we are going to Spamalot tonight. We ended up with 4 tickets so we are going to try converting others to love the show as much as we do.

See you in Spamalot!