Summer begins

May ended with graduations, potluck, hanging out with Bob and Jenny, and Memorial Day.

Nathan's brother Jason, his cousin Ethan, and my cousin Kayla, all graduated from High School.  Nathan's brother Josh graduated from 8th grade. So, we spent a few evenings going to graduation parties and graduations.

Josh and Nathan. 

Nathan and Jason

 We had potluck at Trent and Heather's a couple of weeks ago.   We played  the "newlywed game," or a variation of it, which was quite fun.  We had a good evening. :)  

our garden is growing.

I really like the raised beds. They do take a lot more watering, but weeding is so much easier. I just pull up a 5-gallon bucket and sit while I weed. 

The flowers on my front porch are looking so pretty.

Somewhere in there, we celebrated my Dad's birthday by spending the evening at the farm.

The girlies had fun running around. As usual :)

Nathan and I finally hung up one of our purchases from IKEA.  Every time I go to IKEA, I've drooled over their kitchen ideas, particularly, this cool decorative bar.

I think it adds something to our decoration free and rather boring kitchen.

Peonies! Last year, our peony bush had a grand total of 2 buds, I believe. This year, it exploded :)  They are beautiful, big, light pink blossoms. And, the smell awesome.  It is a close race between lilacs and peonies for my favorite flower. 

:)

yay!

Nathan and Bob wanted to get together, for what Jenny and I joked was a play date.  They played games and worked on one of Bob's board game designs. 

Cecily was helping

We stayed home and relaxed and worked on projects on Memoria Day.  In the evening, we went over to Wendi and Daniel's for supper.   It was a good time as usual. :) I think I won Henry and William over when I pulled out my phone and showed them pictures of trains, puppies, and sharks on pinterest.

The first weekend of June,  we had a garage sale. Yes, we have enough stuff to sell. I think it's ridiculous how much stuff we store and hold on to just because it might someday be useful.   Lena and my mom also brought stuff too.

A full (but clean!!)  garage.

Jack came for a while :)

We let him swim in a bucket during a slow time.

I sold our old kitchen chairs and got rid of a lot of clothes and other junk. So, it was a success. 

Saturday,  Lena and I went strawberry picking. I didn't want much. I don't eat jelly very often or use strawberries for much else than just eating them. :) 

my pickings

That afternoon, I cleaned and cut them up.

drying off.

 Some went straight into the freezer for smoothies and pies.  Some, in the refrigerator for eating fresh.  And, some went to ice cream sauce. :)

all covered in sugar and waiting to boil

Oh. yah. 

Fresh strawberry sauce on ice cream.

After lunch, Lena and I went to the pool with Jack. It was a super hot day, and I haven't been swimming yet this year.  Jack seemed to enjoy it for the most part. :)

cool dude just relaxing at the pool.

Baby B seems to be doing well.  I have a doctors appointment coming up soon, but I think from all the kicking that's been going on, I don't have much to worry about. 

And so, summer had begun.  I have lots of plans, goals, and dreams for the summer, but we'll see when we will ever find time to get that done. June had started out without much going on, and we've found ways to stay busy. :)

In Christ

~Michelle

Trip to Chicago

Late as usual...

Nathan and I have been wanting to go to Chicago for a while and we happened to have an open weekend over my birthday. 

I've always wanted to stay at a fancy hotel.  I've usually stayed at  cheap, but not creepy, hotels.  So, I thought it would be fun to stay somewhere nice- big pool, awesome room, beautiful lobby, etc. 

I looked online and found the Kinzie hotel in downtown Chicago. It looked like it would fit my criteria.

We left Friday the 13th after work.

Our first indicator was that while the website implied that there was free parking: "park all day at the Kinzie while you explore Chicago", there was no free parking.  For one night in a parking garage down the street, it was $56.





our room

Our room was nice. It was big, modern, and had a decent view. Until I realized that the wall of windows looked out on the hotel next door, which also had walls of windows, and I could see a couple in their bedroom having a bit too much fun...



Another thing about window walls: The walls and ceilings between you and the rooms beside and below you are thinner for a foot indent around the windows.  (That's how the building looks completely glass from the outside and you don't see big gaps where walls would go.) But, that also means that you can hear everything from everyone else's rooms.  Including, the 2:00am phone call my neighbor made to the front desk about the drunks in the street below who were obviously keeping him up as well.  And, then there was the constant honking, traffic, and trains all night long.

I didn't sleep well.

Breakfast was skimpy and they didn't really have a lobby, only a private room on the 6th floor that is only open for 3 hours a day. 

Needless to say, for a 'fancy' hotel, it was not worth it. And, I would not recommend it. 

Our hotel on the right

In the morning, we walked around Chicago a bit. It was grey and cold.



Chicago river

Millennium park  fountain

selfie at the bean

the lake front

beautiful gardens

The highlight of our walk.

Buckingham Fountain

It was huge!

Happy cold, tired birthday to me...

:)

We killed some time in a Starbucks to warm up before we went to Giordano's for some awesome Chicago style deep dish pizza.



Barbeque chicken bacon and a three meat Italian 

Now this was worth it :)

After lunch, we walked back to our car and headed to IKEA.  The real reason we wanted to go to Chicago. :) 

We bought way too much, but most of it was completely necessary.  :)

We had planned to go to Woodfield mall after IKEA, but my legs were killing me from all that walking and we were both exhausted, so we headed straight home.

It was a great birthday weekend. Even despite the hotel frustrations.  Nathan was a great sport letting me drag him around downtown Chicago and IKEA.

I'm officially a quarter of a century old...

And, it's already June.  And, time just needs to stop! :)

In Christ

~Michelle



May

I'm not quite sure how May is almost over.  This happens every month, so I should be surprised.


We celebrated Emmy's birthday in early May.  She is two now. And definitely in top two cutest nieces ever. ;)

Emmy's bird cake and bunny cake to the far right.

We spent mother's day with the Wyss's at the condo's.  It was the typical gathering with plenty of good food, sitting around, and interesting conversations to overhear.



Jack seemed to enjoy himself. :)

Jack and Nancy (Lena's grandparents) joined us.

I'm sure with them and Andy, Pearl, and Grandpa and Grandma, the conversation was hilarious.

And, with May comes flowers.  I love late spring and summer.   I spent way too much time and money at the Washington green house one afternoon.



What a glorious sight.

my cart was full of wonderful things

I spent that evening planning flowers and the garden. 

Our porch back to it's summer-time glory. :)

We have 5 rhubarb bushes (?) and they have been going nuts.  I still had some rhubarb in the freezer from last year, so I bought some strawberries and made a few pies one evening.



all the necessary ingredients :)

yum

plain rhubarb complete with a lattice top.

and the strawberry rhubarb.

Not only is our rhubarb doing well, our strawberry patch is exploding.  Not many have ripened yet, but there are lots of little green ones.



The first ripe strawberry.

It was amazing.

My birthday came and went. :)  There will be more in another post.  And, work has also been keeping me busy.   Last I went to the doctor, baby B, as the baby shall be called,  seems to be doing well.  Poor Nathan will have to deal with my ever increasing bouts of nesting and planning. :)

In Christ

~Michelle

Gathering of the Alumni

Two weekends ago, we hosted a U of I reunion. We tried to invite the young groups from when we were at U of I.   Out of 40 possible (maybe more) we got 23 guests. :)

Taco bar. 

We had plenty of food.

It was a beautiful day, so we were able to move the festivities outside for a while. 

Tristan brought some outdoor games. 

A few brought their musical instruments. We sang a few country western songs. :)

It was great fun.  A solid turn out from the UIUC YG. I miss the intelligent conversation and comfortable silences.  The best part of college was the young group, it was so good to be back together with them for a bit. 

In every day activities: we planted our garden. 

He is such a trooper.

Actually, he knows more about gardening than me.

our rhubarb is going nuts :)

Asparagus! 

our strawberry patch has grown.

beautiful green and sunshine

The other evening I invited us over to my parents for supper.  For two reasons. I feel sick and don't feel like cooking.  Of my two lilac bushes we only have one bloom and the farm has tons.
The girlies were there. I took them out flower picking with me after supper. 

I think these are my favorite flowers.

:)

I'm loving spring.  Those few warm days we had were amazing.  April was crazy. We are looking forward to a quieter May. 

In Christ

~Michelle