Our summer!

With so little energy this summer, I put off blogging for awhile. Now, I've had a few weeks of rest at my mom's house and should probably write about our summer before the stress of preschool starts!!

Summer kind of officially "started" on May 30th - my birthday. Jill let us drop the kids off and Steve and I headed to Macaroni Grill for a nice birthday dinner. During the dinner, I told Steve that things were about ready to change and he was going to be a daddy again in about 9 months!! He was shocked and very thrilled! I also took the time to warn him that based on previous pregnancies all the things I expected of him. :) He likes me to spell things out for him, rather than to assume he knows them. He took it all to heart and started taking very good care of me as soon as I started feeling sick a couple of days later! Some of my "requests" were: bring me food whenever I asked and not ask what I want - just bring me SOMETHING, help more around the house with chores and the girls, and overall take good care of me. Well, he decided to take it one step further and even quit his job within a few days since I couldn't do much more than be bed or couch-ridden. (Well, that's the positive spin on things - the fact that he was sick of his job and a particular car he was working on factored in too.) So he became Mr. Mom to Emily and Ella and me. I was very grateful to not have to do all the normal household things. He took E&E on every errand and even to a few fun places. I caught up on old sit-com re-runs, read the Twilight series, and got really good at electronic Sudoku and Solitaire.

We did enjoy a family reunion at Lagoon and the Sundance cabin for a weekend. Steve took the girls out all day on Lagoon rides and I sat under the covered terrace guarding the food and bags. The reunion at the cabin was great because the girls had entertainment all day long. Steve only had to fix one meal and we only had to plan one activity. It was a great break. He even took Emily all the way up to Stewart Falls this year. She walked the whole way up, and daddy took pity on her and held her most of the way down.

As the summer passed, and Steve just didn't have enough time to do adequate job hunting, and as I melted under the inadequate swamp cooler, and the girls brains numbed with the number of hours they spent at the computer and TV; I got the idea to come visit my parents for awhile. It seemed to be the perfect solution to all 3 problems. I spent some time checking airline prices before suggesting it to Steve. He was a little too agreeable and I called my parents. My dad thought it was a great idea and even encouraged us to stay longer. I was able to add a few days to the trip for the same price, so we went for it! I used priceline.com and their name- your-price deals. I was able to negotiate reasonable rates for me and the girls. They were very excited when I told them and had a VERY hard time waiting the 3 days until we left!

We had to leave early in the morning to get the airport in time. I'd only left the house a handful of times throughout the summer, so this was a big excursion for us! Steve dropped us off curbside where we were able to check our luggage. I used the stroller to cart the girls and their carseats and carryons through the airport. We made it through security ok and of course had to walk to the furthest terminal in the whole airport. I was able to get them to switch our seats so I would be right across the aisle from the girls. We only had to wait about 10 minutes before they began boarding passengers with children. Then we had to walk to the furthest airplane. Turns out they wouldn't let us use our carseats, even though I'd diligently read the website. Luckily they fit in the overhead bins. Then I spent the next 3 hours trying to entertain them. The activities I had lasted about half the time and then I just tried to keep them relatively near me after that. They enjoyed the trip, even though their row had no window. I hope we get one next time. They had trouble with their ears when landing, and luckily Ella fell asleep the last 10 minutes so it wouldn't bug her as much. I didn't get nauseous until the very end when the plane quickly went back up to elevation and circled the airport a couple of times. But even then we still landed 10 minutes early. By the time we'd gone to the bathroom and gotten to the luggage carousels, our luggage was almost already going back into the backroom. So I quickly ran and got it and we made our way outside. Emily was a big helper and pushed the heavy stroller with Ella and the carseats, while I negotiated the two big suitcases. We made it outside and got to drink in the heavy, humid air until Grandma arrived. We'd made it!

We've sure had a good time here in Naperville. Grandma's taken the girls to the children's museum several times a week. We've done lots of shopping and taken care of the girls school wardrobes and my maternity wardrobe! They played outside in the sprinkler, we've got to Humanitarian Aid twice, played at my friend Becky Duffield Jenson's house, they've gone to a few parks, grandpa took them on a walk around the neighborhood and through the woods in the back of their house, gone garage saling, went to build-a-bear and rode the mall carousel, and we visited the Morton Arboretum's children's area. They've had a great time and have been fairly well-behaved. They've gotten a bit homesick the last few days and have had some harder moments, though. They sure miss their daddy - he became especially more important to them the last few months.

However, we did get a last minute visit from Steve! My parents had offered us their "old" Toyota. We had been going back and forth on it and after I'd only been here about a day, we decided to go for it. So I got him a one-way ticket for the next day. Luckily, he was traveling by himself because his trip didn't go as smoothly. His flight left Salt Lake so late that he missed his Phoenix connection. So he had to wait several hours there and didn't get to Chicago until very late that night. He took a taxi to my parent's house to make it easier. We enjoyed a couple of days with him before he took the car and started his trip back. He stayed for a couple of days in Omaha, Nebraska visiting his sister's family and his brother. He doesn't get to see them enough, so he had a good visit. He got out of there later than expected because of a tire issue, so he decided to stay the night at Mark's house in Rock Springs, Wyoming. He finally made it back and continued the job hunt. He had a final interview with an insurance company that a family friend works for and was able to get a job as the tech support trainee. This should be a temporary job until he gets enough training and an opening for another position opens up. He started last Thursday and is very excited about it all. Can't believe I'm married to a white collar office guy! I'm afraid all those burly muscles from lifting car parts are going to slowly wither away. Sigh.....

I've been able to do a lot more while at my parent's house. Grandma has helped a lot with the girls, but I try to take care of them when I feel well enough. We've gone out a lot, but she also lets me stay home and rest sometimes. I'm mostly just working on getting my energy back, most the nausea is gone. I know once I get home on Tuesday, I'll be full-fledged into getting ready for the preschool year. Emily is very excited for Kindergarten and I'm very terrified about it! We have her Kindergarten assessment appointment after we get back. I know she's a smarty, but I worry about her being away from me! I hope it will help her socially - she makes friends easily, but she also breaks down easily. Ella's excited for preschool and her teacher, "Miss Tim!"

I'll have to add some summer pictures later since I don't have the computer camera cord here at my parents. Thanks to those of you who helped us out this summer!