Our House

My sister Andrea has been asking me for a tour of our apartment. So while I am away from my lovely apartment, you all can look all through. It is rather untidy, (books on the floor, that sort of thing) but really it was very clean when I took these photos--we had cleaned the house spotless that Saturday.

To start our tour, here is the lovely, one and only bathroom. With the shirt of Elena's hanging to dry after I washed out the poo she had gotten all over (she recently learned to take off her diapers--time to potty train!)
The master bedroom--Uggh. I can't wait to decorate my room how I want some day. First to go will be the dresser, and well the bed, and the white shelve thing that I got as a wedding present--okay pretty much the only thing I'll keep is the candle holder. That's the one thing I bought myself in the entire room. Oh, and the long mirror, that was my Christmas present this year. :)


This is the kids' room. This room I like. It is rather a smorgasbord of free stuff and garage sales too, (at least furniture wise) but all the decorations are purely me. Ahhhh. Zen. (Well except a green star and monster on the door Ana hung up). The red lamp in my room is actually supposed to be in this room, but Leo's and my lamp died.

The kitchen. Notice, no dishwasher. Washing dishes is the bane of my existence. Also, as the only air conditioner in the apartment is a wall unit in the kids' room, this room is literally an oven in the summer. Last summer I baked as little as possible.
Our dining room. Okay, our pantry with lovely designer cinder block shelves and storage for our washer and dryer which are not hooked up. That's right, we have to use the laundromat in the basement. Joy.
Our library/dining room/living room. Elena loves to get all the books out. She's learning to put them away now though. :)
Our living room.
Another view of our living room. Elena also loves to get out her clothes. That's what is all over the coffee table. All in all I like this apartment fairly well. It's bright and sunny and spacious (for a two bedroom apartment). Sometimes maurading squirrels and the stairwell to the basement that is held up with a two-by-four where the steel framework has collapsed out kind of scare me, but I really can't complain that much. I hope you enjoyed the tour.

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday was great! I took a long nap, we had FHE about Nauvoo (we're going there this coming weekend) and then ended the day with icecream cones. Icecream always makes things happy! The new flavor (at least new to us) Twix by Breyer is scrumptious. :)

Today Ana went to a friend's house and Elena played on the patio with her shopping cart. What a silly girl. She likes to put her doll, teddy bear, and blanket in it instead of any of the toy food I bought her. Too bad there wasn't a toy stroller at the garage sale instead.

Too bad this post's title is a misnomer. Yep, this is the post I've been waiting to publish since Monday. So it was actually Sunday and Monday that the events described occurred. Oh well.

Errrr....

Sometimes I hate computers. Mostly when they're not working. I've had a post written for three days now waiting to publish it, but I'm having issues uploading photos again. So until that is fixed, there is going to be a sad lack of posts. Lo siento.

Futbol

I find it amusing that everyday once school is out the tennis court behind our apartment is filled with boys playing--yep, you guessed it, soccer. Sometimes they just play half court, but sometimes they take down the net so they can play full court soccer. Hee. Hee. You'd never guess that about 75% of our apartment complex is Hispanic, eh? There are a couple Asian boys out there playing most days and a few Hindu kids as well. The boys playing range in age from 5 to 12-14 from my best guess, along with a couple dads out there coaching every now and again. The tennis court is the only level area in the complex, and I thinks that's why they play there. I also think the apartment complex would be hugely popular if they took out the tennis courts and installed two nets instead. :)

Here and There

Friday I went garage sale shopping--I can see that becoming very addictive. I bought a little toy shopping cart for Elena (which she loves!!!) and plastic toy food. Elena likes to put her doll and blanket in the shopping cart and then try to climb in herself, which causes it to collapse. Hee. Hee. It's funny to watch. I also bought several skirts for Ana and a dress (I'll post pictures of that later!). I also bought the complete set of Little House on the Pairie books, which is safely tucked away for a Christmas present to Ana. :) I bought a sewing machine too--I was soooo, sooo excited. They promised me it worked. It doesn't. I took it to the repair shop and for about $100 I could get it fixed. Yeah, that's not happening. I could practically buy a new one then. Errrr. The lady said if I had issues with it I knew where they lived, I wonder what they would say if I really did show up and ask for my money back ($35). This Saturday we went to the Public Works festival--it included a ride on the street sweeper and on the lift thing that they use to fix electrical wires. I also got a free geranium and lunch for all of us. Ana had a ton of fun. Elena has hit that clingy age and wouldn't let go of me the whole time. When the tiger of whatever it is (in the picture above) came up to us, she screamed bloody murder.
In other news, I hit a car afterward. Errrr... that really did not make my day.
And this is what happens when your 18 month old decides to dress herself (Dad helped a little with the shirt). She also likes to pull out every pair of socks in her drawer and put them on. Funny girl.

Mi Corazon

This is a tag I received from my sister a while ago and finally decided to pass along. Anyone who wants feel free to join in.

How long have you and your husband been married?We've been married 4 yrs, 5 months, and oh, well, I don't really feel like counting up the days, besides it's not like I'm taking into account leap years or anything like that. How old is he? 27 years old--28 in August.
How long did you date? How long did we date--before what? Before we kissed, were engaged, married, what? This is not a very well defined question. Anyway, we dated two weeks in person and then 3 months over the phone before Leo proposed and then we were engaged one year exactly.

Who eats more? Right now while I'm pregnant, I'd say about the same. Usually though, Leo eats more.

Who eats more sweets? Me.

Who said I love you first? Leo--but I said it back to him right after.

Who is taller? Leo--really it's true! My dad measured us with a level one time. Who sings better? Definitely Leo. By far.

Who is smarter? Leo in math and those sorts of things, I'm better at the reading/writing end of things. Leo's also far more dedicated to schoolwork than me.

Who does the laundry? Me mostly, but Leo's really good about helping when he's home.

Who cooks dinner? Again me mostly, but Leo often makes rice or will cook the meat--he's way better than me at grilling (once I got him past the Colombian thing that all meat has to be cooked to well done vs our favorite now--medium rare.)

Who does the dishes? Me mostly, but mostly because I'm always home. Leo helps a lot with them when he is home and doesn't have homework.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Me, but it changes depending on the setup of our room.

Who pays the bills? Me. How else could I get away with spending like I do?? Hee. Hee. Okay, just kidding. I try really hard to stick to our budget, I'm just not that good at it.

Who mows the lawn? We've always lived in apartments and never had to mow a lawn, but I'm sure that's a task that will go to Leo. In fact the other day we were driving somewhere and saw about three women mowing their lawns and both of us commented on how that seemed weird (especially since one had a husband that was out there doing other yardwork.)

Who drives when you are together? Leo--always. One time I was trying to get him to speed because we were really late for something and he wouldn't, but he pulled over and let me drive. Then I was stopped by a cop. Oops. Luckily she let me go with a warning after I started crying. (I blame it all on the pregnancy at the time).

Who is more stubborn? Me, hands down.

Who is the first to admit when they're wrong? Me. Truly, Leo is more of the avoid conflict sort of person, so I usually end our fights. (A fight being where Leo avoids speaking to me for lengths of time while I fume and fume.)

Whose parents do you see the most? About equal really. Although we lived by Leo's parents the first couple years of our marriage.

Who kissed who first? Leo kissed me first, but only after being really sweet and asking me if it was okay that he kissed me.

Who proposed? Leo. But I asked him on our first date.

Who is more sensitive? Leo, he's much more sweeter than me.

Who has more siblings? Me. 9 siblings vs Leo's two brothers.

Who wears the pants in the family? Pretty equal actually. One of our biggest fights was when Leo informed me of a decision he had already made. Yeah, that didn't go over well. Usually that doesn't happen though.

Another random thing about Leo is that he hates having his picture taken. Hence almost all of these photos have someone else in them too. The one just above was taken the weekend he proposed and I guess he was so twitterpated, he didn't put up as much of a fuss about his picture being taken.

I also love how patient Leo is. I definitely needed to marry someone who was patient! I love how he loves playing with our kids and how he's so friendly--he always seems to get along with everyone. Whenever he's home, our whole house just seems so much more light-hearted and happy, it's wonderful! He always manages to make me laugh even when I'm really upset or sad. He's so supportive too--I love that!! He totally encourages me to pursue whatever I'm doing, whether art project, book club, etc. Best of all, I LOVE dancing with him!!! Que rico!!

Finally Some Pictures!

At the Botanical Gardens--I love poppies!!!

At Navy Pier and the Magnificent Mile.
Around Chicago--the art piece was Lindsay's favorite, and Elena asleep on the L. Playing at the park.
More of the Botanical Gardens.

Computer Issues

I've been having issues with our computer of late, including but not limited to: not being able to load pictures on my blog and not being able to compose emails. So I am very sorry for my lack of pictures, especially since I have so many I want to post. Errr.

It's been another crazy week. Fun though. Very fun. My sister Lindsay came from Utah to visit us. We went to Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, the Art Institute (where we saw the Winslow Homer exhibit-which I thought was great, only Elena was being fussy by then), and the Chicago Botanical Gardens (it was beautiful too, so serene and tranquil--one of our favorite stops). AND most phenomenally, she took me to Wicked. My favorite songs are now on the playlist if you want to hear. It just doesn't compare to hearing it live though. Wow and Wow again. I think I could easily spend a lot of money going to Broadway shows. I also drove for the first time in downtown Chicago. I did very well too, for all those who mock my driving skills (I know there's lots of you out there!) Anyway, until I am able to post pictures, you all will have to make do with that very limited description.

The crazy part of the week was that Leo decided he wanted to change careers. No more being a pilot. He loves his job, but doesn't love the lifestyle. He's very routine oriented and being a pilot doesn't lend itself well to routines and regularity. He's planning on applying to BYU in the fall for the executive MBA program in finance and working as an engineer while he goes to school. Life is so funny how fast it comes at you. I've thought several times in the last year that we had things fairly well planned out for several years in the future and then. . . we're given a seven-year-old and now this. I'm not really complaining, it's just surprising that's all. I don't really mind the career change either, obviously we had long discussions about it. I'm actually glad Leo had a chance to be a pilot, maybe now he'll be happier in whatever job he ends of doing, instead of wishing he was a pilot without knowing the realities of the job. Anyway, I don't know what will happen in the next six months . Maybe something else will turn these plans on end. We'll see. I'm not holding my breath.