Sears Tool Sale

So last week was Spring Break around here and we didn't go anywhere because Julie had just gotten back from California. Since we didn't have any school or anything planned for the week, I loaded up Grace's schedule and I think she had a great week. Monday she played with her friend from across the street as her Dad was on Spring Break too.

Then on Tuesday she had a play date with her friend Kailei from school at our house. It was the first time they've played together and it went really well. They got along just perfectly. Then on Wednesday she played with her friend from around the corner and Thursday with another friend from school that she's been really close to but hasn't played with before outside of school. Her name is Nevina and they've been close for a very long time but for some reason have never been able to play before now. Then on Friday we went with our friends from down the street to see Seussical the Musical.

I don't know if you've seen it but it was really fun. Grace had a great time and was even dancing along in her seat. I think she might actually be interested in seeing Horton Hears a Who! now since that is the basic plot line for the show.

Then over the weekend we didn't do a whole lot. We're trying to clean the house up a bit so our house-sitter doesn't have to live in a filthy house. Today Grace and I had preschool story time at the library. I think she really enjoys going to this. She always looks forward to it. I'm guessing she'll be disappointed when this class is over. I'll have to keep my eyes open for future classes.

As far as the drywall contractors is concerned, the two estimates I've gotten are night and day. One was more than twice as much as the other. I'm waiting for a third contractor to be available so I can get an estimate from him but that will have to wait for us to come back from vacation.

So you are probably thinking that the subject of this post is about tools and wondering when I'm getting to that. Well, I got the greatest deal yesterday - even Julie was impressed with the deal I got. I'm taking this auto restoration class in May and I am going to need certain tools to do the class. One of them is a pneumatic cut-off tool. I got my Craftsman Club flyer in the mail last week and they had this cut-off tool on sale for 50% off. I couldn't believe it. The sale didn't start for a while so I was waiting to buy it until the weekend. Then I get an email from Sears saying that on Sunday night from 6pm to 9pm they were having a 10% Friends and Family sale. So I got it for 60% off and was pretty excited about it. Maybe not so exciting for you, but for me it was great.

Ready for drywall

Sorry again about not writing for almost a week. As you can imagine things were a little hectic with Julie gone and then there was Easter, etc., etc. So here's a rundown of the last six days. On Thursday my Uncle came over to help with the house again. Grace went to preschool and Uncle Bill and I got the exhaust fan ducting replaced and a new vent hood put outside which turned out to be a great idea because birds had taken up residence inside this ducting. This explains why the fan in the downstairs bathroom was basically useless. I still feel we need a new fan, but at least the fan we have should work better.

I drilled holes for conduit in the garage and installed the sub-panel for electric out there. Then we got all the electrical conduit in place and started pushing some wire. However we ran out of wire so we'll have to finish up on Friday. Thursday night I took Julie's brother to O'Hare Airport as he was heading out to sunny Arizona with some of his friends. They were going out for spring training to watch some Cubs games. So I didn't get to go to bible study again this week. Hopefully next week...

So on Friday Grace had preschool again and my Uncle came back to finish up the electrical work we had begun on Thursday. We pushed all the wire and got the new circuits working: one for the low-voltage distribution box I put in for my cable and telephone lines and for the new outlets in the kitchen and then another for the server that will be moving into the basement. There aren't any more spaces left in the breaker box for the garage sub-panel, so we'll have to add that when we expand the box to a 200 amp box. But the really good news is that the family room is officially ready for drywall! I'll talk to my BIL on Easter and see if he has time for us anytime soon.

Saturday we were re-acclimating to Julie being home and enjoying being together again so we didn't really do much. Sunday was Easter so obviously we went to church as did the rest of Lake County, WOW! We've never seen that many people at our church at one time before. Thank goodness we got there early - really early. Otherwise we would not have been sitting for the service.

After church we had some time for me to make some cinnamon bread and then head over to Julie's parents for Easter dinner. We were there and one of Julie's sister's and our BIL that will be helping me with the drywall in our family room was there. The rest of Julie's family is on vacation/spring break. So anyway I mentioned to my BIL that we were ready for drywall and he said that he couldn't do it until he gets things done at his own house. So now I'm searching for a drywall company to come and install this for us so we can move forward. I'm tired of not having a ceiling in my family room and we need this done now.

So starting today I've begun researching contractors and will be getting estimates soon. I'm anxious to get this room done so we can do other rooms in our house. We have so many ideas and so little time and money which is why we have been doing so much ourselves to save money. I just don't feel comfortable doing drywall on a ceiling myself if I want it to look nice. It wouldn't be a flat surface if I did it. I could probably get away with doing walls, but ceilings are (at least in my opinion) much more difficult.

That's about it for now. We're going on vacation ourselves soon so we'll be busy getting ready for that. But I'll try to update soon.

Hump Day

So it's Wednesday and it's been a long week already. Monday was pretty good; Grace had her preschool story-time at the library. Since it's from 1:00 to 1:45 and we normally eat lunch at one we got to the library early so that we could spend time at the library before her story-time and then leave as soon as class was over and get home to eat lunch. But I suppose we got there a little too early because she spent time with the computer that reads books to you and then picked out a few books (at my prodding) and she was already asking if it was story-time yet. I'm guessing that we shouldn't get there quite so early the next time we go. Next week is spring break so it will be a couple of weeks before we're back there.

After that we just came home and hung out. Grace has been congested and coughing this week, especially on Monday, so I really just wanted her to rest so that she'd get better without really getting sick. Tuesday was preschool and she was so happy it was nice to see. She got up and did her homework before going to school so we didn't have to struggle with that. I had stayed up late Monday night baking cupcakes for Grace to bring to school because she was the snack person Tuesday. One of the kids in her class who is actually a friend of hers, Kenny, is allergic to eggs and tree-nuts. So I had found a recipe some time ago for cupcakes that doesn't have eggs and I used it to make these Monday night.

They were actually pretty good. The frosting was incredible. Honestly the cake part of them tasted pretty good, but I thought it needed something. And I'm not saying they needed eggs, just that it needed something and I couldn't figure out what it needed. Anyway, they were a big success as Grace came home and couldn't wait to eat the leftovers. But she saved one for her Mom to have when she gets home. Speaking of Mom, Monday was her birthday and she "got" to celebrate all by herself on her trip.

Tuesday was preschool for Grace and she brought her cupcakes with her. Apparently they were a big hit as there weren't many left. I honestly don't remember much else we did on Tuesday. After staying up so late making the cupcakes the night before I was too tired to do much on Tuesday.

Tuesday was my Mom's birthday (Happy Birthday Mom!) and Monday was Julie's birthday--yes she celebrated all by herself in California--and yes she's a St. Patrick's Day baby. Now on Wednesday Grace has dance and gymnastics and we went through the day as usual. But as the week is progressing I'm noticing that she is missing her Mom a little more each day.

So that's where things stand so far this week. Julie is supposed to come home on Friday, but we are also forecast to get 5-8 inches of snow so hopefully that won't affect her flight home.

Boyd Coddington

Anyone watch American Hot Rod on the Discovery Channel? I was an avid watcher. I didn't always agree with the direction Boyd took on things or his design ideas; although he was a genius designer. But he seemed like a down-to-earth guy and just an all-around good guy. I just found out today that he died back on February 27th. I can't believe I didn't hear about it at all and I find that ridiculous. Someone as important to the automotive industry as he has been, I can't believe it wasn't covered by the news media.

Here is the article I found: Boyd Coddington Statement

Rest of the week

On Thursday Grace had school and we were supposed to have bible study that night with my Dad but it turned out that he was sick so we didn't do that. On Friday Grace had school again and then we had dinner at Julie's parents house. Saturday Julie and Grace went shopping at Kohl's while I worked on the house. Then we went to a friends house for dinner and were there too late as Grace completely lost it when it was time to come home. Then Julie packed for her business trip before we went to sleep. She left this morning and will be learning all week.

So for Grace and I we're on our own for a few days. So far things are going well. She listened pretty good today. It was Palm Sunday so we started the day at church and brought our palms home. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but when Grace goes to children's mass, she calls it Children's Mask - very cute. She was so cute right after that because the boy sitting next to her was making crosses with his palm and she wanted to make one with hers. I said I didn't know how to do that but we could try when we got home or she could offer to trade her palm for the cross he had made. She was shy and didn't want to ask, but then a few minutes later she went to ask him and he offered her the cross before she could even ask. It was really cute. If my memory serves me correctly I believe he was the boy that did the very same thing a few years ago. It's kind of funny that we were sitting by him again. We also saw Grace's god-parents there today. They usually go earlier I think so we don't normally see them at church. Which reminds me I forgot to ask Sharon how her Mom was doing after her surgery...

Church went long today and we parked in a spot we don't normally so it took awhile to get out of the parking lot. When we got home Uncle Bill was already done installing the solid vent piping to replace the existing flexible piping for the lower level bathroom fan. And we now know why the fan wasn't moving much air; some birds had set up shop in there and had it packed quite full of just about anything they could fit in there. So while I want to replace the fan because it's useless and loud, it will work at least a little now.

We also started trying to get a 220 line out to the garage to place a sub-panel out there. We ended up not having enough materials, but at least we determined a route to get it out there and got it started. Now I have a set of tasks to complete before Uncle Bill comes back (hopefully Wednesday) so we can move forward with this part of the project.

After he left I started working on the railing in the kitchen by pulling it out and trying to determine the best way to install the half-wall there. The issue is that you need to extend a 2x4 down below the level of the floor to provide support for the wall so it doesn't wobble. The problem with that issue is that under where the half-wall will be is a double 2x10 support beam/joist and at the end of this support beam is another double 2x10 support beam/joist at a 90 degree angle. To determine this I had to trim out the underlayment so I could see the support beams under the floor. I think my only option is to extend the wall a few inches past where it originally ended so that I can extend a 2x4 down against that second set of support beams. You never want to make walls protrude further into a room; especially a room that is already small and that you want to be as big as possible, but I don't see any way around it. But it's only a few inches right?

So that's the current state of the family room project. Things are close to getting to the next phase and that's very exciting. Hopefully we can get things moving along on the family room and make some serious progress. We've got to get this room done so we can move on to other rooms -- kind of like double jeopardy where the scores can REALLY change.

March has arrived

I forgot to mention in my last post that people who feel as I do about Berkeley California are boycotting any products being sold from there. Just check the address of the companies website you are doing business with and if they are headquartered in Berkeley simply choose not to do business with them.

Anyway, March has finally arrived and the temperatures are actually starting to rise...yea! Looks like the high today was about 42 which is a very welcome change. Of course Grace is all ready to spend time outside since it's "a nice sunny day." The only problem is that it doesn't quite feel that warm when you're outside as the perpetual Chicago wind makes it feel much cooler.

On Monday Grace and I went to see her pediatric ophthalmologist and the appointment went very well. I'm not sure if they even checked to see how her eyes looked as far as healing from her surgery back in October, but if they did it must have looked fine because it wasn't mentioned. What the Doctor did say was that she looks really good, her eyes are still perfectly straight and her eyesight is still very good too. He changed her prescription so we'll be getting her some new glasses, but he's very happy with how she's doing. So happy that he wants her to come back in three months for her next checkup and then it will be nine months after that before she'll need a checkup.

After this appointment we had to rush to the library for preschool story time. This week was the first week of a six-week program. Considering how far away we were from the library while at the doctor's office and how much time we had to get there, we did excellent by only being 10 minutes late. We went about 30 miles in about 40 minutes. That's not easy to do with road construction and traffic, but we did it. Good thing we don't go during high traffic times.

Yesterday I managed to drop Grace off at preschool and drive all the way to Waukegan to the County Clerk's office to get an original copy (oxymoron) of her birth certificate so we could register her for kindergarten. This is the only document we still needed to get her registered, but there are a couple other documents we'll need to get before she'll be able to attend in the fall. After I got those copies, I went to her school and picked up a registration packet so I could fill out the forms during the day and be prepared for the registration in the evening. Then I had to run and pick her up from preschool as she's only there for two hours.

So I was able to do all of that in the two hour time-frame and I spent a good part of the day filling out all of the forms they required. Some of the questions they ask are quite honestly difficult to answer because they involve knowing your child in situations that you normally don't see them in. Like "how does your child react to discipline?" This was an especially difficult question because how she responds to us is completely different than how she responds to other people of authority. Also the sheer volume of questions and documents they require was a little enlightening to me.

Here is a list of the documents I had to (or will need to) supply for Grace to be able to attend kindergarten at her school:
-Original county birth certificate (they make a copy and return it)
-One of the following:
- - Real estate tax bill
- - Mortgage papers
- - Signed lease agreement
- - Affidavit from local resident attesting registrant is living with the owner at no cost.
-Two of the following:
- - IL Driver's License/State ID Card
- - Voter registration card
- - Residence Insurance document
- - Vehicle registration
- - Public Aid card
- - Gas or electric bill
- - Cable TV or Credit Card bill
- - Other (as determined by Superintendent)
Also the following health documents (by the time the school year starts):
-Health examination form filled out by pediatrician
-Eye examination by an eye doctor (not general physician)
-Dental examination form filled out by her dentist
Plus I had to fill out the following forms:
-Registration form
-Affidavit of Residency
-Session request form (AM or PM class)
-Textbook loan request (borrow text books)
-About your child (getting to know you information)
And $100 registration fee.

The documents I haven't completed yet are the Eye and the Dental exam forms. We just need to get them filled out and turn them in before school begins in the fall.

Grace is really excited about going to kindergarten in the fall. She asked this morning if we could go there today-so cute. I said no obviously and that didn't make her happy. But today was a normal Wednesday, we were busy. Dance class this morning was good. She's learning two dances for the recital in June. One is "Limbo" and I can't remember the other one. They are really cute though.

After that we came home and my Sister stopped by so that Grace and my niece could play while she ran to the grocery store. Surprisingly she didn't want to take both girls grocery shopping. I'm not sure if I've talked about this here before, but I just can't deal with taking Grace grocery shopping. It's much much easier, and faster, to do the shopping without your child in tow. It's just not worth it. It's just aggravating and time consuming.

Anyway, after that we ran back up to Antioch for gymnastics. We were actually early for that class - amazing. I was reading the book I'm currently reading while she was there. It's called "Write it When I'm Gone" about President Gerald Ford. It's really interesting and has piqued my interest in Richard Nixon and Watergate which will be the subjects of the next books I read. Grace worked on the routine she'll be doing in her gym show next month. So far it looks really cute. I think she really likes doing it.

After gymnastics we ate dinner at Culvers. Believe it or not we don't really eat there very often any more. You may have noticed I don't mention it here that much any more. That was not an omission on my part as we've been eating at home as often as we can. Of course she's still only eating her usual array of three options, but we're doing that at home to save money and so that Grace doesn't get bored with eating out which was beginning to happen.

Julie didn't join us this week because she was out shopping with Aunt Connie. We finally decided when we were going to Arizona this year and got the tickets - yes tickets. I was thinking we would just drive out this year because it would save us a lot of money over purchasing airline tickets, but then Julie got this email from Orbitz about a big sale they were having and we were able to save a ton of money. It'll actually be cheaper than driving as we're flying for about the same price as just buying the gas, not including the hotel stays and food along the route. So we'll end up getting there faster and cheaper and everyone is happy. Oh and did I mention that Aunt Connie is joining us? My Mom has been telling her to come out to see her for years and she's finally decided to go out there and she's going with us this year. We're going next month and actually that time is approaching pretty quickly.

So anyway Julie and Aunt Connie were shopping for luggage for Aunt Connie to use for the trip and some other stuff too I think, so I put Grace to bed.

Berkeley CA Special Edition

I'm not sure if you've heard about this since the regular media isn't covering this but as a former Marine I'm just appalled. The Marines put a recruiting office in Berkeley CA in January of 2007. Sound crazy? or sound pretty normal? Sounds pretty normal to me especially since I served in the Marine Corps and I appreciate what it means to have the armed services that we have protecting our country and keeping us free. I don't care how you feel about the current situation regarding our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, or how you feel about the current President of the United States, you have to be proud to live in a country that is free and to have our military protecting us.

The City of Berkeley CA however apparently wants a communist government and no military to protect them from foreign or even domestic threats. They have asked, no told, the Marines to leave their city -- that they aren't welcome there. I suppose if some type of emergency happened they wouldn't be welcome to help out either right? I find this appalling and completely unacceptable. First of all what happened to freedom and equal opportunity? And that's beyond the fact that this is a government agency charged with protecting our very freedoms they are abusing.

Personally I feel like these people are hurting our country and are fighting a losing battle as Marines NEVER give up. Trust me I know because I am one. If they studied the history of the Marine Corps or any branch of the military for that matter, they would understand in a very short time how many soldiers have fought until their death in order to ensure our freedom.

And now two city council members are encouraging everyone to come out to the recruiting station to "help" protest. These are the city council members that said during a council meeting that the Marines weren't asked to come to Berkeley and it would be nice for them to just leave. What is this country coming to? I would love to see these people protest in the face of an entire platoon of Marines in full battle gear, loaded weapons including mortars and vehicles including tanks. How do movements like this start anyway? How do citizens of this country start thinking that the very soldiers charged with protecting us are the very problem this country faces. I just don't understand.

There is a group taking on this threat to our countries armed forces that is called moveamericaforward.org. If you feel the way I do please check out this site and help out however you feel is appropriate.

Home from Michigan

I'm behind again here and I'm sorry for that. Last week (first week of February) was crazy busy. Last Sunday we went to our nephew's birthday party. I don't remember what else we did that day or on Monday. On Tuesday Grace had preschool and then I went to the village board meeting that night. It was a crazy meeting as usual; I still want to go to another village's board meeting to see how different it is which I'm guessing it will be quite different.

My personal feelings about this last meeting are that while I respect and appreciate one particular trustee's efforts, I don't think deriding the new Police Chief is going to prove or change anything. The Chief was embarrassed and annoyed by the line of questioning that he was bombarded with. I believe his thoughts were that he could concentrate on creating an exact budget or he could actually work on getting the department up and running. Those weren't his exact words, but were the gist of what his sentiments were after the meeting was over. I'm not discounting the fact that an actual budget isn't important and I'm not saying that the chief couldn't have just said that we will have one by such-and-such date, but I don't think what occurred at the meeting was necessary and it was definitely not productive.

Enough politics; on Wednesday Grace had her dance class where we were told that she will be dancing (or can if we like) at a church Fashion Show and Mother/Daughter Tea Party in March. Then we had to get home because the locksmith was coming over because we lost one of the keys to our house and so we had the locks changed so we can sleep at night. Now we begin the process of having extra copies made and then to re-distribute them to everyone that has a key. Quite honestly I didn't realize how many people had keys until I sat down and tried to think how many copies to make.

After that we went back to Antioch for gymnastics. There were so many parents there this week in the waiting room that I didn't even have a place to sit. I had only brought a book and a magazine to read and I ended up sitting on the floor reading my book instead of reading in a chair because I didn't have room.

Thursday was Valentine's Day and Grace had preschool. At school she had a Valentine's party. Grace was excited about "Valentime's" Day this year; that's what she calls it. This was also our last day at home before leaving on vacation. So throughout the day I was starting to get things ready for vacation, but most of our preparation was at night. We both went to bed late after getting almost everything ready for Friday.

Friday we finished getting things ready and brought it all downstairs but then weren't sure if we were going to even go. Grace was coughing and didn't really feel very good. Obviously in the end we decided to go, but for most of the weekend she didn't feel very good. So with the decision made I loaded up the car (albeit a little late after making the decision to go) and we ran up to Julie's sisters house and picked up our niece.

After that we all went to the Chicago Auto Show. I don't have any of the pictures ready to show you yet, but overall it wasn't so exciting. There were some good cars there to see, but for the most part it was just another auto show. I made sure I saw the Audi R8 which was really cool. It's an exciting car and looks really nice. Wish I had a spare $120,000 to just throw away to purchase one. Ha-ha.

With our late start we got to the auto show late and likewise left a little late from there as well. So we ended up driving later up to where Julie's brother lives and we ended up getting there sometime after dark. So we didn't even "see" the house until the next morning. On Saturday we went to a winter festival just a short drive from their house at a local resort. It was pretty cool even though I didn't get to go on a horse draw carriage ride. Grace and Julie and our niece all got to go on a snowmobile ride. Grace got to go on a pony ride and we watched a cherry pie eating contest. It was about that time that Grace decided that she just didn't feel well enough to be out there anymore so we headed out to go back to Julie's brother's house.

Speaking of the house it is really nice and quite large - larger than our house. I especially liked the yard - quite large and a nice neighborhood too from what we could see. Obviously since it's winter people are just like they are around here - you only come outside for brief periods. Most people you just don't really see in the wintertime until it starts to warm up in the spring.

Saturday also happened to be their daughter's first birthday so we were lucky to be able to enjoy the celebration with her. She's really cute and fun and puts up with her brothers quite well too. So after a day outside we had a nice party inside with a huge meal, a great cake that our niece wasn't sure what to do with at first and great times. I was especially enjoying the movie selection that the boys were watching. Not movies that Grace would normally watch, but for some reason while it was on there, no complaints. If we turned on those movies here - most movies really she complains. I'm not sure why that is but she'd rather watch a 30 minute program on TV than to watch a movie. That's why we don't really buy her any movies anymore because she doesn't really like to watch them.

Sunday we were heading down to see my Grandpa in Grand Haven and isn't it our great luck that it was freezing rain. It was pretty bad up there in the morning before we left with about an inch of ice on the ground. It was an ice skating rink in the driveway and getting the luggage into the car wasn't so easy, but I managed and it was actually warming up outside so the ice was coming off the car as I was filling it with all of our stuff.

Then after we got on the road (late again but mostly because of the weather this time) the further south we got the better the roads were. We made it down to Grand Haven before dinner and stopped to get our condo rented before heading over to see Grandpa. He decided to join us for the night as well and we headed out to get some dinner on the way back to the condo. We spent the evening talking and enjoying the really nice condo we rented and then finally to bed for the night. Grace got to sleep up in a loft that actually has a loft. So there is the loft upstairs where almost all of us slept but then there is a ladder up to another loft that Grace just had to sleep in. It worked out pretty good, but I think Julie and I would have been more comfortable up there instead of where we actually slept, but I was so tired it didn't really matter.

I wish we could have spent more time there, especially visiting with Grandpa, but we needed to get home because Grace and our niece had school the next day. And actually our niece had dance class that night. This trip was truly uneventful and we ended up getting home a little earlier than we planned. The next two days Julie had taken off work so we could do things around the house. So since my laptop's touchpad hadn't worked in some time and I finally had the opportunity to take it in for repair I did that on Tuesday morning.

This would explain why I haven't posted this blog until now. I took my laptop in and they kept it until Saturday the 8th of March. That's about two and a half weeks. The problem wasn't really the touchpad at all, it was the motherboard where the touchpad connects. So they had to order a new motherboard and it was backordered and so I had to wait that long to get my laptop back. I really missed it! Especially since I didn't have a desktop computer either. I was computer-less for several days.

But then President's day sales occurred and I was able to finally get my desktop computer, which is incredible! It's so nice to have a computer again. Especially after having nothing for a week or so. I suppose I could have timed that better, but I didn't, oh well. Only the strong survive right? ha-ha.

So anyway, back to what I was talking about. That was Tuesday that I took my laptop in and then on Friday Cubs tickets went on sale. Grace and I are going to two games by ourselves this year. Plus one with Mom (Julie) and one with my Dad (up in Milwaukee.) So all total we'll get to see four games this year. Any more and we'd have to start selling things on eBay (actually I've been selling some things anyway.)

Then the next morning my sister had her baby - April Josephine. She was 9 lbs and all cheeks - very cute! Then next day was the Oscars. I have to say that I thought they were pretty good. Especially considering the writers strike but I've heard many people saying how they feel the Oscars are just old and aren't really needed anymore. Obviously I disagree since I like them so much (and we're decorating our family room with that theme.)

Anyway, the next week we were busy again as usual but nothing out of the ordinary if I recall. We did have another village board meeting on Tuesday but it was much more civil than the previous one. I have to say though that there are some unhappy people in this town. That's all I'm saying.

Really nothing else happening that was out of the ordinary until this last Sunday, the 2nd. Julie had put a load of laundry in the washing machine and started it as we were leaving for church. When we came home from church, the machine said it was spinning, but it clearly wasn't. It was broken, and lucky for us (great planning) we let our extended service agreement lapse almost a year ago. So we had no way of getting if fixed under any warranty. I called Sears repair and they were able to come out on Tuesday. He reaffirmed our fears that it was pretty much dead in the water and that he personally would buy a new one considering the steep repair costs on this one.

So I set out to determine which washing machine would be the best for us and I thought I had it all figured out, but the guys at Best Buy helped us out a little and we ended up getting the Whirlpool Duet Steam washing machine. They delivered it on Friday the 7th. Best Buy was great (found out our neighbor went with them the last time he needed a washer too.) They matched the price of a local company which was at least $200 less than their sale price and they got it out to our house first thing the next morning. Plus one of the delivery guys found my keys that I lost outside snow blowing.

I've been purposefully not mentioning this for fear that someone would find them before we did, but one time when we got over a foot of snow and I was out snow blowing, I had done the walkway out to the driveway, and then moved our cars out to the street so I could get the driveway done. Usually after having done that, I put the keys in my jacket pocket and zip it up to prevent them from falling out. When I was done snow blowing I went to get the keys to Julie's car out but they were gone as I had forgotten to zip up my pocket.

We rented a metal detector, looked every time the snow melted (it still hasn't completely melted) and still we had not found them. That's why we changed the locks on the house because we weren't sure if someone else had taken them after finding them in the snow or something. Well, the one guy is finishing the hookup for our new washer and the other guy is bringing in the drawer that goes underneath it and comes in carrying these rusty keys asking if we had dropped them. What a revelation! What a day! I took the rusty key rings off and cleaned everything up. The inside of the remote wasn't even wet after all that time in a snow bank-amazing. The remote still works and we have our peace of mind again. I'll definitely be more careful about that zipper when snow blowing!

So the universe is now back as it should be because the next day CDW called to say my laptop was ready! I've had my laptop now for almost two days and it's just nice to have it back. So now I finally have a desktop computer again (after two months), my laptop works again and the keys to Julie's car have been found. Ahhhhhhh, so this is calmness and peace in the universe.

Now tomorrow Grace goes to see her pediatric ophthalmologist to see how her eyes are doing four months after her surgery. Then we have to hoof it home because she has preschool story time at the local library shortly after that. I'm going to try to get to the doctor's office early so that will hopefully help with the time constraint.

Then Tuesday is preschool, but in the evening she has Kindergarten registration. I think she's getting excited about kindergarten already. Her and Julie were pretending to be riding the bus tonight as I was cooking dinner. Actually Julie was driving. So I think there are a few things I need to procure so that Grace can go to school. I have some things, but they need things like her original birth certificate which we don't have or can't find. Neither of us really remember getting the actual certificate, just what the hospital gives you when she's born that you basically fill out yourself.

So while Grace is in preschool I'll try to get some of those things and see if we can't get her all set on Tuesday for the fall. There is a village board meeting on Tuesday also, and then the Chicago Flower and Garden show is going on right now too. I've been wanting to go to this for several years and have never made it. Maybe Grace and I will be able to go by Sunday which is the last day. We'll just have to see how everything goes this week. It should be jam-packed as usual.

Alright, I'll stop rambling. Sorry for making this such a long post but I just haven't been able to write for some time now.