WHILE I WAS AWAY

I have thought, and rethought, on my next blog post. I had some "cute" ideas...but there is so much to talk about, I thought it best to just play catch-up and then go from there. That being said, this is what I have been up to for the past several days.

So my hubby and I went to Chicago on Father's Day weekend. We flew out on Friday morning and arrived early evening. We went to Millennium Park, sat in the amphitheater and listened to a Beethoven symphonic presentation. SO FUN. We met a pilot friend of DH's. He, and his wife, enjoyed the music with us. We then went and had some real, Chicago-style pizza. OMG!!! YUMMY!

We stayed at the Conrad...pretty nice digs. We got up the next morning and saw some of the sights....The Bean. (Really...it's a big bean. LOL)



Went to the aquarium and the planetarium. Though these were totally fun, the highlight of MY day was eating at Frontera Grill....a place I have wanted to eat for YEARS! It was so good and such fun. LOVED IT!!!!

Saturday night, we went on a dinner cruise on Lake Michigan. It was totally fun...though I DID fight a touch of motion sickness. I didn't embarrass myself...just had to keep my eyes (while seated) on my sweat hubby vs. on the coast. (Honestly, that was not such a bad deal. :D)

The next morning, we went to the Field Museum. It was a lot of fun. We saw a weather exhibit...bought son #2 some tornado "stuff." The boy is fascinated, and scared senseless, by twisters. So we are hoping education will help dispel the fear.

We flew home and happily greeted our boys, who had been staying with my parents. We hugged sons 1, 3 and 4. Upon hugging number 2, we were told, "Watch his head."

It seems that a mere 3 hours after we had landed in Chicago, my 2nd son was "riding" son #1. Apparently, #1...a.k.a. "Bucking Bronco" decided to throw his rider. Son #2, a.k.a. "Grace" fell INTO the hearth, cracking his head OPEN and spraining his arm. The night's activities warranted a trip to the ER where "Grace" was stapled closed and released for a week of "take it easy" and call on Friday. (And no, my folks didn't call because they knew our trip would be ruined...the boys were well taken care of.)



Friday comes, staples are pulled, arm is re-examined and LO and BEHOLD, the arm is BROKEN!!! (Yes, we will be dealing with the ER for releasing "Grace" with a broken arm and no splint or cast.)

But there was fun to be had between the staples put in and the staples pulled out.

Monday was filled with a bit of laziness on the parts of Mom and Dad...we were TIRED. Tuesday, I went to a "Girls' Night Out" and played Keno...SO FUN!

Wednesday, we went to visit DH's grandparents. They are funny...love 'em...but they are funny. "Quirky" might be a better word here.

Thursday, we went to the lake with some good friends. DH and his friend went golfing. The 2 of us moms took our 6 boys to the pool. We all had a lot of fun. We ended the day with spaghetti and the boys playing hide-n-seek and other chasing games. (One reason we were so bothered by the fact that #2 did NOT have a cast....we would not have let him run and play, had we known it was BROKEN!!! {Do I sound bitter?})

Friday, we had a day of pediatricians, orthopaedists, casts and McDonald's. Then there was a meeting at our church. We are about to move into our new building. Our old auditorium seats about 900. Our new one will seat 1750 with a capacity to expand to 3500. SO EXCITING.

Last night was a lot of fun for me. Our women's ministry group hosted an all-nighter. After the meeting, there were about 60 ladies sticking around. We had food, praise and worship, a serious (and wonderful) time of prayer, games and talk. Around 1:00, people began to trickle out...but there were about 12 of us (hard-core) who stayed until 5:00 a.m. I was SO tired when I got home. My hubby, wonderful man that he is, kept up with the kids and let me sleep until 2:30. LOVE MY MAN!

Well, that is it in a nutshell. I have SO much that I need to talk about still, but I wanted to get this up. I'll be back soon.