So..............

So we have been so crazy that as you can see I have not updated my blog in two months. I am SO sorry to anyone that actual reads this thing. I made this blog so I could have a sounding board and I never use it.

So what have we been up to for the past few months. Well Jim loses his job on Aug 15th with the U of I thanks to our state being corrupt and broke so thanks again IL for your crapiness (is that even a word?) So needless to say Jim has been looking since March and has had two interviews (that's it), so we are a little overwhelmed with that bit of news in our lives, but there is nothing we can do that we aren't already doing so I guess we will just keep on truckin.

We had a wonderful 7th wedding anniversary on June 7th. We had a night alone without the kids and watched movie all day and night and swam and hung out in our hot tub in our hotel room, it was wonderful and our tradition that we have done since our second anniversary. It was a nice release from real life.

We had a great 4th of July. We went to the German's 4th of July Party (our first year) and it was a BLAST. The kids had a great time and I know that Jim and my folks and myself did as well. It was laid back, and super fun celebrating with all our friends. I know we can't wait to do it again next year. Thanks German Family.

Let's see then we went up to Chicago and went to the LGBT Pride Parade. It was awesome and I have never felt so much happiness and love in one place. If I had to experience what the 60's and 70's would have been like with "free love" "no war" this would have been as close as I think I could have gotten. I truly have never seen a group of people so happy and proud and I tell you, if we were all a little more open minded we could be just as happy and proud of who we are and where we come from. I think the LGBT should run the country. :) It was a once in a lifetime event for us that I hope to make more than than and go every year.

Then we went for a mini vacation to Key Lime Cove and Six Flags in Gurnee IL. OMG it was SO much fun. Key Lime Cove was amazing. It is an indoor water park with some of the neatest water slides and water activities inside a hotel that I have ever seen. They had a lazy river with a wave pool, a hot tub, fours water slides, another type of water slide, and then the kids play area which is a giant jungle gym in the water. It was so cool. The had an arcade, and a place that little kids could go to do activities and feel somewhat normal in all the chaos of the trip.

Then we headed over to Six Flags and my kids got pictures with Bugs Bunny, Marvin the Martian, and Porky Pig. They loved that part. Then we rode rides in the kids area, and my children rode an actually rollercoaster. I was SO impressed with them. They loved it. We also did the log flume and other bigger kid rides. It was a lot of fun, but we were very tired by the end of the day.

We also had VBS in July and it was so much fun. I did the crafts for the older kids at MUMC and it was a blast. I love doing art projects but I will admit that 2nd graders are the worse. :) J/K they listened worse than the 1st graders. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work. I spent many hours preparing for all the crafts and then I would have 2 hours to have 150 kids do those crafts 20 mins each class-it was rewarding and fun but truly exhausting. :)

Alex had some tests done this month as well to make sure that his heart was happy and healthy and it is, however that makes it almost impossible to get a name for the joint disorder that we have (of course I would rather him be healthy than anything else). So we will just keep an eye on it as he gets older and deal with what we can in the hear and now. He will have to start doing some physical therapy and he will have to do leg work to make his tendons and muscles strong.

Other than that, we have had a pretty good summer. I will admit that I am SO ready for our children to go back to school and I am sure they feel the same way. We look forward to more pool days, zoo days, Curtis Orchard days, and Prairie Farm days until the summer ends.

I hope you all find your summer going great and I hope everyone has a safe fun rest of the summer.

Liz

P.S. I will try to get some new photos up as well. We have been really bad about that lately.