Freezing rain

Brrrr, it's been so cold these last couple of days. And it's going to be even colder tomorrow! This is our first experience here with freezing rain.  So glad we have this new fireplace gas insert downstairs though.  It is really helping heat up the house!

I'm loving our new indoor/outdoor thermostat too.  This one is in color!  I gave up looking for our old one.  I swear there is one box missing from the move!  Well, the outside temperature is registering at 35F:

Not quite freezing temperature (almost!) but the rain is definitely turning into ice as it drips:

The branches are icing up too!

We were pretty much in between the pink (ice) and the green (rain).  The storm thankfully did not end up being as bad as I thought it would be.  Dodged another winter storm - phew!

There were so many tree limbs scattered along the roads today.  Bobby came home late last night and ran into this huge one in the middle of the road.  Yikes! 

Bob was actually traveling back from Georgia late last night.  It was a good thing his two planes actually made it to their destinations because so many flights were canceled yesterday! He was actually in GA for a job interview.  I know, we'll see what happens!  

Quick trip to Richmond, IL

Last weekend, we decided to go to Richmond to eat at a restaurant called Brathaus.  Obviously, we were hungry for some German sausages :-)  

Look at this baby glass of Guinness I just ordered!  

I don't normally drink during lunch, or drink in general but I just couldn't pass this up :-D

The sausage with onions and sauerkraut is looking pretty tasty!

I don't normally order a side of mac-n-cheese either but there had all these specialty ones on their menu, so figured I'd try some.  Hmmm..., unfortunately, it was just so-so.  Nothing to brag home about.

I love the old houses here.  This one is pink in color!

There was a chocolate and fudge store across the street but since the boys didn't really eat much, we decided to skip that.  I did however, find a cute casserole dish.  I just couldn't pass up on these cute owls:

I only paid $20 for it but look how much I can sell it for on the internet!

So I guess, in case I am ever needing $80, this is the item to sell.  Ha ha!

I saw a nice photo frame in a different store and have a perfect photo at home for it.  It's actually a photo of my sister and I with my mom and my grandmother. So perhaps it's another excuse to head up there this weekend.  It's only about a 40 minute drive, towards the Wisconsin border. Plus, this way - we can finally get a chance to visit that chocolate and fudge shop too.  Yes, of course it's still about food and treats as well! :-)

Charlie's tooth

We were all just minding our own business last night, when Charlie said, "I lost a tooth!".  It's almost so weird that the boys are still losing teeth since it hasn't happened in such a long time now.  This one was actually his metal tooth. So looks like we don't have a pirate in the house anymore:

Should I melt the metal down and use it for something else??!  Ha ha, just kidding.  And yes, we still use this little bunny tooth bag to be put under the pillow.

I seriously wonder if Charlie still believes in the Tooth Fairy???

I mean, he should probably know by now that it's just me?  Or I suppose he's just playing dumb because I am giving him money in exchange for a bad tooth.  Ha! I would act dumb too! LOL!!

And so now, there's a void space in Charlie's Invisalign retainers:

We were told that this should not be a problem.  So, I believe this is his upper first premolar - and erupting as per scheduled. Let's hope he is taking care of the rest of his teeth since having the Invisalign retainers.  He just told me today after lunch that he rinsed his mouth out with milk before putting the retainers back on.  This kid, I tell you!!  We better get these boys to our new dentist soon for a cleaning! 

Trip to Art Museum - for Dali

It's been a while since our last trip to the Art Institute of Chicago. We were there for a Cezanne exhibit back in September of last year. Woah! A lot longer than I had expected. I just hope it not going to be as busy.

I keep thinking that we would take the train into the city, but somehow we would always end up driving instead.  If only the train ride was more straight-forward, as in no additional mode of transportation after the train stop.  I'm not so keen on the 14 stops on a bus (30 min ride) after a 45 minute train ride!  So until I figure it all out, we will be in our car for at least 1 hour to the art museum. I used an App to find a decently priced parking spot, so if anything at least we got that going for us.

While waiting in the lobby, I noticed that this lady was wearing her winter coat like a backpack.  I looked it up and here it is online!

So neat! Canadian Goose brand and for $1,500.  OUCH!!  So I guess we are not getting these. But perhaps it's as easy as sewing a few of these attachments and finding the proper "backpack" strap??

Okay, ready for a fun day!  We are meeting some friends here today too:

So, it seems that there is a cat hiding in this photo.  See it yet??!

It's actually just a silhouette of a cat, in between the man and the woman. And the cat's tail is in between the man's legs.  Ha!

Learning as we go along in the museum - this big artwork is called Sky above Clouds, by Georgia O'keeffe:

Also learning that it's her point of view from traveling on the airplane during 1950s to 1970s.  And did you know that O'Keeffe holds the record for the highest price paid for painting by a woman? Her Weed/White Flower No.1 sold for $44.4 million dollars in 2014. Cool!

The kids are taking a little break.  Or perhaps there's just something about sitting by a big window and looking at the train tracks down below:

Graham said this installation was his favorite of the day.  It's called Islands by Izumi Masatoshi.  These rocks were quarried in the Tohoku region, northeast region of the Japan island.  All 3 pieces of weigh about 12,000lbs!

I think the spiral staircase is pretty neat too!

Okay, here's the main reason for visiting the museum today.  It's the museum's Member Only exclusive look at Salvador Dali's collection.  And there are definitely some interesting ones.  I didn't realize there was so much sexual innuendos!  Charlie's like giving me that look, like "Seriously, Mommy??!": 

I guess by looking at the man himself, he does seem like an "interesting" person:

Definitely some interesting artwork:

If we had to choose, the piece below is probably our favorite artwork out of the entire collection today.  It's called The Image Disappears:

When I first saw this image, I actually saw the woman first and had the toughest time seeing the bearded man.  So strange!

Okay, so Dali basically copied another artist's work - Vermeer's Woman in Blue Reading a Letter and mushed it with a Spanish artist's face??!

Well, according to Charlie, Dali has a very "disturbing" collection.  Ha!

Moving on to the Ryan Learning Center before closing time! The boys are sewing with raffia - based on the work of an artist which I unfortunately do not remember:

Cute! Graham's sewing is very geometric - straight lines:

And of course, Charlie's sewing is of a fish!  Curvy lines, nature: 

Both boys are so different from each other!

Alrighty, time to head home.  Boys are hungry and there's actually a Chick-fil-a across the street!  The architecture of the building housing the restaurant chain was very similar to this one.  Definitely the best looking Chick-fil-a building that I've seen:

This sign is too funny!!

At the very bottom of the sign, it says "In any event, please be careful."  Someone has a funny sense of humor around here :-)

We went to get some dessert before heading back to the parking garage.  Graham wanted some macaroons.  And we definitely misread the ordering system because he thought he was getting more than one! Ahhh, the disappointment!

What a fun day in downtown Chicago. I just wish it wasn't so difficult to get to!  And now, there's the 1.5 hour ride home that we have to endure.  Sheesh!!!  I really need to figure out how to ride the train!

Happy Valentine's Day

For this Valentine's Day, I decided to cook up some lamb chops.  I can't remember the last time I made some!

The lamb was a bit fat but it cooked up beautifully!  Charlie didn't hesitate to grab the lamb chop by the bone:

Graham was a bit more conservative - eating the chop with his fork and knife.  He absolutely loved the flavor!  I don't think he has actually eaten lamb before:

We ordered a cake - crème brulee cheesecake.  I loved how Graham figured out how to divvy it up.  He used a marker pen to draw the lines on the outside of the container.  Clever! I wouldn't have even though to do that. Ha ha!

We let Graham buy this little torch (don't ask me why!) but he finally had his chance to brulee his piece of cake:

I know Bobby said no gifts, but he really wanted one of these:

Yup, an indoor putting mat!

This one has little "bridges" that you can putt under.  It's probably another month of so before we are finally brave enough to go golfing outside. So, in the meantime, I guess we are practicing indoors!

I also bought some shirts for the boys - all  sun protection clothing. It was from one of my favorite brands and it was half off on top of the sale. So I obviously couldn't help myself.  Hopefully they can wear it by next month.  The weather is suppose to warm up, right??!

Happy Valentine's everyone!  As the boys get older, I hope we can continue to do things together as a family and build memories together XOX

New gas insert fireplace

Bobby and I  kept going back and forth about getting a gas insert for the fireplace downstairs.  The chimney needed to be worked on, so either pay for that or just bypass the repair and install a gas insert instead. Obviously there was a huge difference with the amount to be paid but I think we made the right choice. Not only does it look good but it's heating up the house nicely too!

It was funny but Graham also picked the style as I did - using these glass pebbles vs fake logs:

He did want a mirrored back but I went with a solid striped pattern. Oh well, too late now. Don't think I want to spend anymore money as it's functioning just fine now.  

Sure beats having all the firewood piled up like what we have upstairs for our wood-burning fireplace!

And don't get me started on the mess from the wood chips and also the ash to be cleaned up after as well. Phew! The gas insert is too easy - everything works on a remote and even with no electricity, the flame will still come on as long as the battery within the unit did not die out. 

This new fireplace is definitely doing the trick.  We are able to spend more time downstairs now:

The more comfortable temperature recently also gave me a reason to go through all of our DVDs. And wow, we have a lot of it!

I hope we spend more time playing games downstairs vs. watching TV upstairs:

We were actually supposed to have a whole-house generator installed last Dec/Jan but that fell through as scheduling with the installer didn't work out. I'm so glad we decided to nix that idea because I think this new gas insert is also helping with the temperature upstairs.  I'm not sure if it's my imagination but I don't think the furnace upstairs has come on as often.  The temperature upstairs still registers at 65F (we do have our furnace set at 66F) but somehow, perhaps the floor isn't as cold?!

I did finally cave in and bought another one of these indoor/outdoor thermostats.  We did have one in California but I can't seem to find it. I swear there is one box missing from the move!

Recent happenings

Yup, another piece of furniture!  Somehow we have accumulated even more pairs of shoes.  I blame this wet and cold weather - needing shoes for the rain, snow, etc:

Looks like the sneakers are being put away for now!

I thought the bottom shelf would fit more shoes but at least there's a few more pairs that can be tucked away for now:

And I picked up this handy-dandy light with a magnifying glass at the local thrift store.  I know, I'm getting old!

This light has already come in quite handy on a few sewing projects.  It's so much easier to thread a needle.  Ha ha!

I managed to empty out a few more boxes last week.  Woohoo!!

Does it count if I combine 2 boxes into one and then get rid of the other??!

Looks like my snowman has melted!

I had some extra pineapple puree so I decided to make more pineapple tarts.  This time I made the tarts in heart shapes - in time for a friend's birthday and also Valentine's Day (last week):

Charlie came home one day from school and totally just plopped himself on the couch.  He must have been so tired because it didn't take him long to fall asleep!

We've been helping out at Graham's school again for their next theatre production.  If only Graham would help vacuum at home too!

Never missing a beat when Graham can be on his phone:

The set looks so good!  Feels good knowing that we helped so much in putting this set together:

We have been checking out a few antique stores in a couple of small towns near us.  I thought this lamp is just the cutest!

I didn't get it but maybe I will next time. We'll see.  It sure beats looking at an Ikea lamp on my bedside table.  Ha ha!

And Bobby bought this - he keep saying it's an old toaster.  I think it was labeled as a trivet:

It's not very level though if it is a trivet!  So the mystery continues:

Bobby was attached to this antique binder as well:

He said it spoke to him.  It's fairly large and needed a bit of repair:

Not my finest stitch work but hopefully it will hold together for Bobby's upcoming interview!

I suppose this is how you find out something is not supposed to be in the dishwasher.  It was Bobby's favorite as well, as I would make him his iced tea in it.  Oops!

Another Oopsy!  I totally over-watered it and didn't realized that there was a lot of standing water inside the outer container.  I think I need to just stick with succulents!

And one final Oopsy - yeeeaaaah... over 160lbs! Gosh, I have not been this heavy ever! Okay, only when I was pregnant with the boys, so I have no excuses right now!!!

Never a dull moment in this household!