Chicago with Rodarte's

Last week our friends from California, Hector and Christy, visited from Monday to Saturday. This was Christy's first time in Chicago.

I took the day off work Thursday to go to the city with them.

We started off the day at Lou Malnati's for breakfast.

Then we took the "L"-train up to Lincoln Park Zoo. Admission is FREE!

Ben liked the giraffes.

This was my favorite... I call it the yoga ape.

We ate at Giordano's, then ended the day shopping at H&M. This is how Ben and Hector shop.



One of the nights, Hector and Christy took us out to eat in Naperville at the Rosebud Italian restaurant.

We have more pictures if you click here.

Falling Trees

We've had a lot of major storms here the past few weeks. For a while I felt as if we had a tornado watch or severe thunderstorm warning at least every other night.

I've become quite the fraidy cat when it comes to tornado watches. Lately, I've made myself and Ben sleep in the downstairs bedroom because I was too fearful of sleeping through the possible tornado siren. Wimpy, I know. It doesn't help that we sleep with a very loud fan...so we can't hear anything.These are photos of a tree that was blown down from this morning's storm. This tree is (was) located at the park down the street (where we held last year's Pumpkin party).

The Landscaping's Taking Over Our Home!

Our landscaping is getting out of control. Don't get me wrong, it's beautiful and we love it. But, there are a few things that need to be trimmed and we just do not have the tools for it yet. Ben did buy some clippers and trimmed up the short green bushes, but there is one bush that is HUGE and pretty much covers our entire house! This bush was one that we were contemplating removing, until we returned from vacation and found this:

So, we'll be keeping it, but we'll need to talk to our landscaping friend, John, and figure out how to maintain it.

It's been fun spending our first spring here and having a surprise of different colors every few weeks. Check out the colors in our entry way:


Another surprise popped up this season in our backyard. We noticed, in a very random spot, that someone planted these tulips and other flowers, just in one spot. I think the previous tenants may have buried a pet here!


Check out the difference in our yard between April and May. (Keep in mind we did not plant anything new.)

April 2008:

May 2008: