Finally!

SOLD!

Yes, it is true!  We finally sold and closed on our house this past Friday (7/22).  After almost eleven months and lots of headaches we can finally say that own only one home!  Although it is a little sad to close the chapter on our house in Atlanta, we are so relieved that we can focus only on our current house.  We have been putting off some home improvements and purchases because we always had the other house looming over us.  Now we can move forward with our plans and continue the process of making our current house our home.  While writing this post I realized that I haven't posted any pictures of our new home.  As we complete projects around the house, I'll be sure to post pictures!

The next part of the post is something I've been wanting to post for a very long time, but was afraid that I might jinx the sale of the house if I posted it.  I am so glad to finally be able to post it!!

The Top Ten Things We Miss about Atlanta, Illinois...

10. The Hot Dog Man--this quirky statue is something we often joked about but it was always something we showed off to our visitors from out of town.  I think we secretly loved him and were proud of him:)

9. Chubby's Bar and Grill--while Atlanta has more bars than it does stoplights (not a single one), Chubby's was one of our favorite place to grab something to eat and drink.

8.  The Smiley Face Water Tower--this is yet another quirky part of the town.  You can see the water tower from the interstate coming from the south and was the sign for me each evening when driving home from Rochester that I was home.  How can you not smile when you look at it?

7. The Dollar General--while living in Atlanta we didn't always have the DG.  It came during the last several years that we lived there and it was a much appreciated addition to the town.  It was a great place to run to get something you needed without having to run 20+ minutes north or south on the interstate.

6.  Casey's Pizza--this is more of something Derek will miss.  For some reason he loved the greasy stuff and often ordered it when the kids and I were out of town.

5. The Slide--Last summer Addy fell in love with the town's park, especially the huge slide.  One day she had the gumption to climb up it and she was in love after that.  We visited the park often just to take a few trips down the slide!

4.  Lincoln Walmart--Even though the Wal-Mart isn't located in Atlanta, we miss it dearly.  It was about a 17 minute drive from our old house, was always neat, never crowded, and had the shortest check-out lines of any Wal-Mart we've ever shopped.  Unfortunately we can't say the same nice things about the Wal-Marts in Bloomington/Normal and is why I miss the Lincoln Wal-Mart so dearly!

3.  Friends and Neighbors--We were very fortunate to have met many wonderful people during our five years of living in Atlanta.  We got to know the Cross family very well and miss seeing them.  Kalee watched Addy several days a week for her first two years and we were so lucky to have such a wonderful friend watching our little girl. Lynn and Derek worked together at State Farm and became good friends.  They often shared rides to Bloomington when one of them was down a car.   The Cross family has done so much for us over the years and we truly cherish their friendship!

We are also so thankful for our wonderful Atlanta neighbors, especially Moe and Theresa.  They have been a great help in keeping an eye on the house after we moved out and were always there to lend a hand when we lived in the neighborhood.

2. Our yard--We miss our Atlanta yard because it was low maintenance and we had planted several trees when we moved in that are now quite large and pretty.  We don't have trees in our current yard that we love and wish it would have been possible to move our Atlanta trees with us.  ONe thing we won't miss about the yard are the golf balls continuously entering our backyard as a result of bad shots form golfers.  I no longer feel like my children need to wear a helmet to play in the backyard.

1. Our First Home--Even though our current home was an upgrade from the last and we love our new space, the Atlanta house will always have a place in hearts.  It was the first home we purchased together and was the place in which we brought our babies home for the first time.  Many great memories took place for us un that house and it will always be remembered fondly.

Fourth of July at Lake Michigan

On July 4th weekend we headed to Long Beach, Indiana (near Michigan City) to meet my family for a holiday getaway.  We left at about 10:30 Friday morning and headed north.  As we neared Chicago we quickly realized that we weren't the only ones with the idea to take an extended weekend and ended up sitting in traffic around Chicago for over an hour.  A trip that was supposed to only be about 3 hours actually ended up taking around five. 

 Since there were seven of us and there are a limited number of hotels close to the lake, we decided to rent a cottage.  It had a lot of room for us to spread out in and allowed us to eat a lot of our meals at the house. 

Our home for the weekend

We didn't have many events planned, which is very unsual for me. We were mostly looking forward to relaxing and enjoying the lake and beautiful weather.  The temps were mostly in the low eighties, except for Saturday when it reached ninety.  We were about a block from the private beach and the house had a lot of outdoor living space of which we took full advantage. One evening we had a fire in the small firepit on the deck and Addy got to roast her very first marshmallow.  We also took advange of the grill on the back patio and Addy enjoyed relaxing in the backyard hammock.  In the mornings we headed to the beach for sand and water play.  Although the lake water was a bit chilly, most of us did manage to get at least out feet in.  Addy enjoyed collecting rocks on the beach and called it looking for "treasure."

Roasting Marshmallows

Mmm..S'mores!!

Papaw and his little buddy

Chillin' in the hammock

We headed to the outlet mall on Saturday, but didn't last long with the kids because of the ninety degree temps.  Ashley and I returned to the mall later in the evening on our own and were able to cover a lot more ground:) In the evenings we walked down to the beach to watch the fireworks shows over the lake.  The last evening of our stay we went down to the lake for the sunset and we were so glad we did.  It was beautiful and a great way to end our weekend.  We headed back to Illinois on Monday and Mom, Dad, Ashley also came over for a short visit before heading back to  southern Indiana. ''

Carter loves the beach!

Spotting sailboats

 Monday evening we headed to our small town 4th of July celebration.  Since this was our first 4th of July in the new house we weren't sure what type of celebration it would be.  We were surprised at how large of a celebration it was.  The whole town showed up to celebrate and the fireworks were great!  Addy and Carter really enjoyed them and also enjoyed spending the evening outside playing. We had a wonderful Independence Day weekend with family and enjoyed our time together relaxing!

Happy 4th of July

 

And he's off...

 

During the last week or so we have managed to coax Carter to finally take a few steps on his own. He had even mastered going from a sitting to a standing position on his own, which is a skill I always think of as coming after walking.  However, he remained very hesitant and cautious about the whole walking thing.  For several months he has been zipping around the house with his walker with little effort.  Each morning when we would bring him downstairs the first thing he would crawl to was his walker.  We started to call him an "old man" because he was so glued and seemingly dependant on using the walker around the house.  We joked that we needed to put tennis balls on it, so it would be so noisy or scratch the wood floors.  This morning we decided to hide the walker to see if its absence would inspire Carter to take more steps on his own.  Throughout the day he found substitutes for his walker--a giant ball, his riding toy, a kitchen chair, etc., but this evening he started taking steps on his own and by bedtime was become quite confident in his walking abilities.  So, I think we can finally say that we have a walker on our hands.

White Sox Father/Daughter Game

On Sunday, June 12th we headed to the southside of Chicago to Cellular Field for the Annual Father/Daughter White Sox game.  This is an annual event for the White Sox and is held around Father's Day each year.  Derek loves to attend this day and always looks for the date when the MLB schedules come out in the winter.  This was our third Father/Daughter game.  Last year we missed the event because our little guy was just a few weeks old anad wasn't quite ready for his first White Sox game.

 We left early Sunday morning and stopped for a quick breakfast at a small cafe along the interstate.  It was a fifties themed cafe and had a statue of the Blues Brothers, which Addy took an interest to and asked tot ake a picture with.  Addy isn't the most cooperative with pictures, so when she asks for one to be taken of her I always oblige.

We got to the ballpark a bit early so we decided to tailgate in the parking lot with the other die hard tailgaters.  Our version of tailgating wasn't as serious and thought out as others.  We sat in the back of our opened SUV munching on PB& J sandwiches, Cheetos, and Chips Ahoy.  We were envious of the grills and tailgate gear around us and decided that would would come up for a game and tailgate for real sometime.

Tailgating in the parking lot

Before the game the White Sox always have activites planned outside the gate for the Father/Daughter Day participants.  There were outdoor games set up, face painting, a balloon guy, etc.  This was the first year in which Addy actually cared about all of the activites.  She had a great time playing the games with her Dad and was so excited to get her face painted with fireworks.  Carter also got his face painted and even though he didn't seemed as enthused about it, he sat remarkably still while the lady was painting the Sox logo on his cheek. 

The highlight of the Father/Daughter Day festivities is the pregame parade in which all of the attendees get to participate in a parade that travels the perimeter of the ballfield.  It is really a fun experience and it something Derek loves doing with his kids.  It's so much fun to watch the smile on his face as he get so walk Carter and Addy around U.S. Cellular Field.  Each year we do this we are always on the lookout for any players or coaches that are lingering around the field.  This year we hit the jackpot.  While walking down the left field line Juan Pierre waved to Addy and a group of kids and Gavin Floyd walked right by us on his way to the bull pen.  As we rounded the area near home plate we noticed Tommy Lasorda was on the field for a pregame ceremony.  He was standing around chatting with another guy who looked to be pretty important.  As we got closer we approached them to say hello and the man with Tommy L. pointed to Addy's painted face and asked if we did this to you.  That is when Derek and I figured out that the other guy was actually Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner of the White Sox and Bulls.  Tommy Lasorda was very nice and was so gracious when I asked him if we could take a picture with him.  He even lifted Addy up to make sure she was in the picture.  Unfortunatley others had swamed in and were unable to get a picture with Mr. Reinsdorf, but it was really neat to just get to talk with him!  After that we finished our walk around the field and then headed to our seats.
Derek and Carter were also on the JumboTron during the parade around the field.  Fortunatly I looked up at just the right time and took a picture of the big screen. 

Making a catch in the outfield

Posing with Tommy Lasorda

Derek and Carter on the Jumbotron

Posing in front of the dugout



Addy and Carter love their Daddy!


We had upper level seats and when we located them we decided to move up several rows because it wasn't a sell out and we were able to take advantage of an empty row.  The weather was gorgeous and the temperature in the high seventies; it was great baseball weather!  We actually got to stay for the entire game, which we weren't expecting at ALL!  We cheered the Sox on to a 5-4 victory over Oakland.  We were so happy that we were able to stay the whole game and see the White Sox win.  Addy enjoyed the fireworks at the end of the game to celebrate the win.  She talks about Father/Daughter Day pretty frequently and has officially declared the White Sox as one of her teams.  The game was a great way to celebrate Father's Day a little early and is somethings we won't soon forget! 

Baseball Buddies

Face Painted+balloon doggie+ White Sox win= Perfect Day!