the rest of the weekend

My mini report the other day was pretty lame. So here's the rest of the weekend, but keep in mind my earlier disclaimer...I didn't take many photos in spite of good intentions. Never seem to!

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SATURDAY

Saturday night was Ribfest. No pictures from that night, but you don't want to see a picture of me eating ribs anyway. Our entertainment that night was Joan Jett & the Blackhearts. They were great! The crowd loved her, especially when she played this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3T_xeoGES8

We couldn't help but sing along. It was contagious.

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SUNDAY

Sunday morning we got up early and had a quick breakfast, then got the kids in the shower and headed out the door to meet up with our friends for lunch. The boys rode their bikes to the train station, which isn't far away to us but is to them. It took them about 20 minutes to make it there, but they did so well. They were highly motivated - so excited to ride the train.

The train was packed, but we found a car with extra room for the bikes and even found a seat. There were a lot of extra riders on Sunday heading down to the Taste of Chicago.

The littlest guy brought his own silver train on board to recreate the scene of us riding. Both boys were on the lookout for train crossing signs and crossing gates. They loved seeing the cars waiting at the intersections as our train sped by.

Our stop lead us straight to our friends' house, but on the way we stopped at the park down the block from them to let the kids play a bit.

And, unfortunately, this is where the time sped up so much that I neglected to take any more photos and totally missed Brig and Dan's house. We got there, had a lovely lunch and visited a bit before having to head off again on our bikes to make it back to their train station to wait for our ride home. I did take this picture of our group walking back to the station, just so you can see the gorgeous neighborhood where we were.

By the time we got to the station, waited for the train, rode it home, and rode the bikes back to our house we had been gone a total of 5 hours. Crazy! It was still hot and sunny, so we did a quick change and got the kids into their suits before heading off to the pool for an hour to cool down. When they climbed into bed that night they were little zombies.

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MONDAY

Remember how I wrote the other day that "it's not all peaches and cream around here"? Here's an example that illustrates my point. Yesterday morning I woke up, stripped the beds, and took all the sheets and towels from the bathrooms down to the laundry room in our basement to wash them. When I started up the washer, I forgot to take a rag out of our stationary tub that I had tossed in there the other day. Our washer empties into this tub as it drains, and as you would expect, if there's anything in the tub that blocks the drain, the tub fills up and overflows. When the tub overflows, the water runs down the sides of the tub, covers the laundry room, and seeps into the carpet in the adjoining playroom (this has happened more than once in the 5 years that we have lived here.) So yesterday when I went down to change the laundry, I realized that there was a small flood in our basement - and that it was my fault.

Quick as can be I raced upstairs, dialed a place in town that rents equipment by the day, hustled my son into the car, drove to the place in the rain, rented a vacuum cleaner that picks up water from carpet, somehow managed to get the thing home, get it out of my car, drag it down the basement, and vacuum the carpet for the next hour.

Here's a picture of the vacuum cleaner. Big (and heavy) enough to pick up even the worst of what your stationary tub can throw at 'cha.

So, I don't really want to talk any more about the basement water experience, because chances are, you have had water in your basement, too, or some other unexpected problem in your house. And you know that, for as awful as it is to have to deal with it, it's a little more awful listening to/reading about someone else dealing with it. So let's get back to happier themes.

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MONDAY P.M. (a shower does wonders)

My husband had a birthday yesterday, 07/07. What a lucky birthday! He is a wonderful guy who is living a wonderful life. I was happy to help him celebrate it. Our sitter arrived at 7 p.m. and we headed out on the town for dinner together, but not before pausing to pose for a picture together (we continue to work on our New Year's resolution):

This is where we went to dinner...and treated ourselves to the best of the best. No regrets...

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Before I go, here's something else to show you. Later this summer there is an auction in town to benefit the United Way. The auction is for painted sculptures, which they have been auctioning off for the past several year. This year's sculpture theme is a "garden party" - benches, birdbaths, little garden creatures are the art. Well, I've been eyeing one of the sculptures and last night I couldn't help but take a picture so you can see why I like it so much.

Here's the front:

And the back:

The auction is September 12th. I am wondering just what this will go for...