That's What You Get!

The kids haven't been the only ones busy working on their Christmas lists lately. Bret has decided to go ahead and join the 21st century and enter the world of iPods. So in hopes of getting a brand spanking new shiny iPod for Christmas, he's informed me that I get the lucky task of importing all of his CD's to the computer so that they'll be ready to go. Lucky me. This is only a fraction of his collection.



I love me some clutter free shelves, so I will give in and do it.

Meet Soncho

Earlier today, while off from work for Veteran's Day, Bret made a trip to Walmart to get his oil changed and came back with a Love Bird from Super Pets. (I'm not sure how he managed to get so side tracked, either.)

While growing up, Bret had a Love Bird named Poncho that lived to be 20 years old. Poncho ultimately ended up being Grandpa's bird when Bret went off to college and passed away just a couple of years ago (Poncho, not Grandpa!). Ever since then, Bret has toyed with the idea of getting one for our home.

So, meet Soncho, our new Love Bird. He looks like the mini parrot that he is and has the best disposition. He's already bonding with us and has quite the personality. But the best part is when he's sitting on your shoulder and starts preening your hair and nibbling on your earlobe. It's totally therapeutic.

Soncho

The kids were really surprised when they got home from school today.

Christmas Came Early

Ashley & Ryan found that Christmas had come early this year when they got home from school today. Grandpa had dropped off a new Lego Train set for under our Christmas tree while the kids were at school today. We spent all night putting it together and Ryan is now in lego heaven.

Are you wondering what that is standing in the middle of the train track? Check back in a few minutes...

It's All Over Now

I found my first strand of grey hair last night and I'm not even 31 yet. I knew life was going to be over after I turned 30! I called my mom last night at 11pm after I found it, horrified. She thought the dog had died and started laughing hysterically at me when I told her what was really wrong.

I'm calling Shawn for a hair appointment tomorrow because where there is one, there's sure to be more. I'm over due anyway to have my highlights fixed.

Weekend Update

With the Christmas season getting close, I did a little furniture rearranging to make room for the Christmas tree in our family room. This meant moving our oversized chair into our bedroom, which meant moving Daisy's bed to a different spot. I'm guessing she's not too happy about it since she decided to bunk with Ashley.

Ashley finally got to change her earings, but it took us an hour to get the original stud back into the hole last night, so I think it may be awhile before we try again. She's pretty bummed.

I am officially old and do not understand the new style of dressing that is going through the Middle School. Can someone please explain to me why girls are wearing a t-shirt, knotted in the back, over a cami? Maybe if I try out this look myself, Ashley and her friends will be horrified and it'll end the craze so they can move onto something else?

Last night we watched Brooke & Mitchell for awhile. The kids were excited to see them. Mitchell is following in Ryan's footsteps and discovering the world of Star Wars.

Our niece and nephew seem to like us a whole lot more when their parents aren't around. Maybe it has something to do with the bowl of candy sitting between Brooke and Ryan? At 8pm at night? He He.

This morning, Bret took Ryan to his Cub Scout field trip to the Greater Peoria Regional Airport to tour one of the Caterpillar Company Jets.

Ryan got a turn to sit in the cockpit.

Sitting in comfort.

The whole Den thanking the pilot for showing them his plane.

Springfield Trip - New Salem

This was my favorite part of our whole Springfield trip. While I was never into history when I was in school, I've become more interested in it now that I'm an adult. I love seeing and reading how people lived in the past. It really makes you appreciate what we have now. Wouldn't it be awesome to go back here back for a day or two to see what it was really like back then?

The kids outside of the visitor center.

Once you leave the visitor center and head down a now paved road, you enter the small town and feel like you've been transported back in time. There is a road that winds on down with cabins on each side, most of which you can walk right up to the doors and see inside where it looks like they've been untouched by time.

The kids sitting on the back porch of the first cabin we explored.

We couldn't have picked a more beautiful time of year to visit.

Ryan was excited to see how kids his age went to school back then...

...and immediately began pretending he was the teacher. He could have played here all day.




Families lived in a one or two room cabin with a separate out building as their bathroom. All of the cabins had huge fireplaces to keep them warm in the colder months.



The town doctor's cabin.


The kids in front of the tavern. I would have thought that this was a bar until the lady at the visitor center explained to us that a tavern back then was more like a hotel. She explained that unmarried men didn't live alone. They either stayed at the tavern or with a family simply because they couldn't take care of themselves. (A-hem!) They apparently needed a woman to cook for them, make their clothes and just plain do everything for them. (Any men out there reading this right now?)

We took pictures of all of the cabins, including inside of them, but I won't bore you with all of those. Towards the end of the town a stair case (120+ steps) now take you down the path that leads to the towns Wood Mill. Going down was fun...

...but going up was a different story.



Even the kids needed to sit down when we got back up to the top.


The scenery on our walk back to the front of the town.


And look - they had duplexes back then! Two different families lived on each side of these cabins. Hope they liked their neighbors.


That's it for our Springfield trip. I'll have more pictures over at Flickr soon.

Springfield Trip - Lincoln's Tomb

We got to Lincoln's tomb and were disappointed to learn they were still redoing the floor on the upper level (they had been doing this 2 years ago when Bret brought Ashley) and that we wouldn't be able to go up there.

The kids rub Lincoln's nose for luck.

Inside the entrance of the tomb.

I had been here back in 8th grade, but didn't remember this part of the tomb. When we walked in here, it felt very strange to me - like we were intruding and didn't belong here - especially taking pictures. Obviously that didn't stop us, though.

After leaving the tomb, we got lost for awhile trying to find the War Memorials. The cemetary is very large.

The kids in front of the Illinois Vietnam Veteran's Memorial.

The World War II Memorial.

And what is it with Ryan always having to go when there is NO bathroom around?!

The Korean War Memorial.

One more post to go - New Salem Village.

Springfield Trip - New State Capital Building

This morning when we woke up we had forgotten all about the time change. So instead of it being 6:30am when we rolled out of bed to get ready to find some breakfast, it was actually 5:30am. Ouch.

She'll probably kill me for posting this picture, but I couldn't resist.

After eating breakfast, we drove over to the Capital Building to find that we were an hour early for the next tour, so we killed some time taking pictures.

This may be my favorite picture from the whole weekend, even if he didn't want to pose for it.

Once we had successfully frozen our behinds off outside, we went into the capital building to wait for the next tour. To keep Ryan from getting too bored, we let him take pictures - many that had to be deleted. This is just a couple of them.

Most of our pictures from inside the building didn't turn out because we didn't realize that the flash was turned off. Here are the kids in front of the Governor's office.

A quick pic before heading back to the car.

I'm not done yet so check back for Lincoln's Tomb and New Salem Village. I will get these done today if it kills me so that I can move on...