Home Again

On Friday (July 17th) I decided I wanted to go home and visit my family. So Ben helped me buy a ticket that night. I quickly emailed Mom and told her to keep it a HUGE secret! (She did great by the way). So then I spent the weekend in anticipation of being home and surprising my Dad on his birthday by my arrival.



Here am I in the Philadelphia airport waiting to be picked up and escorted home by Mom, Isaac & Olivia! I'm just thrilled to be here (but very tired too since I left my home in WI at 4:30 am and made it to Philly by 1:00).



So here is Olivia and I. We are the bookends of the family!




Here's my youngest brother, Isaac, who was very excited to see me! He's really my big brother though, if we're talking about height.




The ride home was an adventurous one! We are such silly kids!!! The memories we make are awesome!




Olivia's feet are the same size as mine now. Too bad we dont live closer or we could share shoes. Nettina never lets me borrow hers (dont worry Tina, I still love you!)




Olivia showed me what kind of garden they are working on this year (minimal with everything going on at home) but they have some great tomato plants growing! Yum!




After the ride home, I ran into the house and yelled for Jonathan to come here. He freaked out and was like no way, my sister is here! Pretty awesome surprise for him and great timing too on my part because he had 2 days off while I was home!

After a nice hot shower, from traveling and all, I got to catch up on my family's pictures of the past months (included was Dad & Mom's trip to Hawaii).




My parents are so cute together! I love them so much!!!! :)




So, here is the surprise story. On the way home from the airport, we were deciding how to surprise Dad since he wouldn't be home for a couple hours after work. We finally decided on a game of hot and cold to have him locate his presents. I was hiding on the dryer, so when Dad opened it up, I jumped out and yelled, "Happy Birthday!" It was a great surprise for my Dad! At first he was scared thinking what is jumping out at me, but then he realized it was me and was so excited to see me return home for a surprise visit! Too bad Benjamin had to stay in WI and work!




Here is Dad with a collage and fireballs as presents from Olivia. She is so thoughtful!




Here is Dad on his birthday with 2 out of 3 daughters. Missed you tons Nettina!




Here's a picture the brothers jumped in for! And we had a pie and ice cream celebration after we got back from eating out at the Mexican restaurant. Yum! Mom and I split a steak portabello mushroom skillet. Delicious!



Kudos to Mom for keeping my visit a secret & a surprise! I love her so much! (Dear Mom: I love you!)




Here are my brothers and their game faces!




Dad let Olivia light the candles. Here goes #47 for my Dad! Good luck blowing out the trick candles Daddy dearest!



Now we hold the torch lighting ceremony. Commonly known as sparklers!





My brothers in the background having sparkler wars. Me with my mouth open.




Jonathan doing a sparkler dance. Me with my mouth open.




The fun things you can do with sparklers!




Notice Dad, he has two torches (one in each hand) and two sparklers (one in each hand). Haha, silly Daddy, tricks are for kids! And of course, me with my mouth open.




Jonathan's Photography. We always do random things, and there is Jonathan, waiting to take a picture of it!




Then, on the 22nd we went and did errands. Shopping of all sorts! Olivia & Isaac love each other so much they had to be buckled together too! ;-)




Here's me enjoying the ride!




Gotta love the green landscape and sweet roads!




Then on the 23rd I made Hawaiian lays (Mom taught me) and watched the PCC movie. Also, I made dinner for the family before I flew out.

Jonathan was the only one who didnt come with me to the airport, so this is our goodbye picture. Sweet memories! He had band practice!




Dad & I!




Mom & I!


Olivia & I!


Me & the house! :)



Me & Isaac!

Getting home was an adventure! We left the house and booked it to the airport, except you cant go more than 5 mph when traffic is clear backed up on every road there. Blah. So I got there with 40 minutes till my plane left... crunch time to say the least. But when I arrived to check in, they said weather conditions made the plane delayed and so it wasn't going to be arriving till 10. (Meanwhile its like 6:55 and my plane was supposed to leave 7:40.) So I had tons of time to spare. So I made Ben a Hawaiian lay while waiting and started reading a book (Roses & Daisies) that Mom lent to me. Its a great book! So I ate some food and sat around till my plane boarded. Then we sat on the run way for 45 minutes. Blah. I couldn't sleep the whole way home either and usually planes put me to sleep, so that was a bummer too! But finally I made it back to Milwaukee and my sweetie was there to pick me up and take me home! "How sweet it is to be loved by you!"

What a wonderful vacation home! I got to help out on Isaac's Eagle project & be there for Dad's birthday & spend time with my siblings reading books and doing bead crafts & playing The Great Dalmuti!!! :) Loved it! Had so much fun! Hadn't been home since last year, so it was time for a trip East!

I love my family! "Family, isn't it about time?" Love you all!

Thanks for those who read all this. Some of it is repeated from the last blog entry, but that's ok. It was so great that it could be said twice! :)

July 20

Ben and I woke up this morning at 4:15 in order to get me to the airport for my 6:30 flight. I flew from Milwaukee to Chicago, waited in Chicago for 3 hours (I read Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume) and then flew to Philadelphia. I slept on the plane ride and it made it go by so fast. It felt like I was only asleep for 5 minutes and then we were there. I landed at 1pm (Eastern time) and waited for Mom, Isaac, and Olivia to pull up and escort me home. No one but Mom knew I was coming and so it was a great surprise for my siblings! It has been a year since I've seen my family, too long!

Then we had a fun, silly ride home! Then when we were home Jonathan's friend pulled in, so I ran into the house yelling, "Jonathan, you're friend is here to pick you up." And he was like what? And when he saw me, he was like no way, oh my gosh. It was so sweet!

So, I unpacked and got ready for my first day home. We had so much fun planning on how to surprise Dad that I was home. The surprise was that I came home on Dad's birthday. It happened that this was the perfect time to come home, and luckily it just happened to be on Dad's birthday. We finally decided that he would search for his presents around the house and found me sitting on the dryer and I popped out and yelled, surprise happy birthday! It was great! He was indeed so surprised! :)

Then we all talked for a bit about how I came to be home and such. Once Jonathan came home we went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner to celebrate. It was yummy! Mom and I split the portabello mushroom stake skillet. It was fabulous! Then we went home for cake and ice cream! Yum! It was a fun day! Then the 4 of us children fell asleep watching a movie in the den.

I love being home with my family! :)

(Pictures to come later)

Saturday Night Live

Tonight started by going to the Marcus Majestic Theater to see if there was any way we could move our 10pm Harry Potter reservations up to an earlier show so we could go to bed earlier (it being a 3 hour long movie and all). So we got 9:40 tickets instead. Then we went over to Menards (its like Home Depot) and wandered around there for an hour looking at fireplaces, bathtubs, sinks, kitchens, toilets, garage doors, front doors, beds, and everything else for a house that we'd love to own someday.

The store closed at nine, so we went down the road to Steak 'n Shake for milkshakes. Yummy! And so as we were heading to our car, Benjamin had his Heely's on and was cruising to the car, didn't stop, went right on by it, and then crashed/wrecked at the bottom of the hill. His shoe came flying off and he laid there for a moment before I realized he really was hurt, so I ran down the hill to him and helped him up. He hurt his foot a bit, but not too bad. He is so crazy! I told him that I'm going to start making him wear his helmet when he wears those Heely shoes of his.

Then we went back to the theater in time to find seats and watch the show! It was a really good movie! I really want to read all the books again now, after seeing the movie! So, here are some pictures of us enjoying/trying out the tubs and toilets! We love having fun together!








(Above) This is me in my dream tub!!!!!



And that is our fun Saturday night for you, coming live from Brookfield, Wisconsin! :)

Move #3

So, we moved again. Yes, that's right. 3rd time this summer. Holy cow, what is going on?

Well, here's what happened, or what they told us happened...

The manager had to shut down an apartment and he decided to close the bigger one down and keep 2 smaller ones open. So the family (2 adults + 2 kids) that was being moved out of the bigger one was going to move into one of the smaller one bedroom ones. Instead the manager asked us (2 adults) to move into the one bedroom and since we were living in a 2 bedroom we would let the family live in that one. (I hope that all makes sense.)

This morning at 9 we started throwing our belongings in boxes, bags, suitcases, whatever we could find so we could move down the street to our new apartment. It was a crazy, stressful time! Then once all of our stuff was moved, it was 11:30 and time for Benjamin to be at work, so he quickly showered and left. I on the other hand did not want to stay around my apartment that I did not want to be living at that was destroyed by the piles of belongings all over the place. So I went out to the mall, then to Wal-mart, and after that I went to the grocery store (with my girls of course so I could rant & rave about how frustrating this situation is).

Then one of my good friends, Jamie, came over and helped me put things away and organize this disaster of a home. I really appreciated her help!! It would have taken me twice as long! I was avoiding coming home cause of how long it would take to unpack/organize everything into our new place. But she left and I finished up the last little touches and now, it officially looks like home once more.

By the way, we only found out that we were moving late last night and had to be out 1st thing this morning. Blah!

But who really knows how much longer I'll be here in Wisconsin anyway. I had a phone interview yesterday with an elementary school in Jordan School District (south Salt Lake area), a 4th grade position. I'll hear back within the week. I'm very hopeful and excited! I really want to teach again! I love it!

So thanks to everyone who let me rant & rave, who helped us move, and to the prayers sent my way for a teaching contract! I love you all!

Milwaukee Brewers vs LA Dodgers Game

This past Saturday Ben sold one, got done, and had me come get him. Then we went off to the baseball game. It was fun! They had fireworks for home runs, slides off the sections, cheerleaders, tons of beer (being Millers Park and all) and a sold out game. Luckily we got tickets and made it in! The stadium is huge and very unique! I hope you can tell that by the pictures I posted here! So we started out siting on the lowest section, then we kept hopping around the stadium to experience it all. We ended the game all the way at the top as you can see in the last few pictures. Fun night! Then we all went out to Chili's for dinner!

4th of July Boating

Benjamin worked on the 4th and got finished early so we could enjoy our time together! The manager here in WI has a boat and so all of us went out on the boat. It was a beautiful even with lots of mosquitoes, a beautiful sunset and fireworks right off the lake. So much fun! Then we all went to dinner. Hooray for a great 4th of July!