My Kind of Town...Chicago is....NOT!

The last few weeks have once again been a blur, and blogging has been at the bottom of my priority list. I love to blog, and I wish I had the time to devote to it every single day. Sometimes, it just is not possible to justify the time spent here when so many truly important things are calling. My dad has been sick with congestive heart failure, and my mind and heart have been with him every moment that my body could not, so blogging has been cast by the wayside! I do truly apologize to my two faithful readers who keep coming back despite my poor attendance lately! (More on health issues in another blog!)

I don't think it is even possible for me to catch you up on every single thing that has happened in the past few weeks. My memory just is not that great anymore, and a lot has happened. I had surgery on my basal cell skin cancer on my face today, too, so I am really not the sharpest pencil in the drawer tonight! I guess that I will just hit the high points in no particular order.

We all took a week-long trip with Tim to Chicago last week. (I hate to announce those in advance, lest someone figure out where I live and come and rob my house! :) ) He had business, so we tagged along for the pleasure part! I have passed through Illinois many times and had a couple of trips to the Chicago area before, but it has been a few years.





It's always nice to look up and see a gun pointed at you when you enter a restaurant....The scene that greets you at the door of Portillo's, where we dined outside of Chicago




We had a nice time overall, but I am not a great fan of the Chicago area. (No offense to anyone who lives there. I am just a country girl who really feels funny in the big city!) I really thought there would be a ton of places to eat and shop, but I did not find either as plentiful and as conveniently located as they are in the area where I live in Tennessee. That really surprised me. We were out in the suburbs a bit, and every time we had to go find a place to eat, we really had difficulty finding something enjoyable for all of us.

Further, as we were up there when the immigrants took their day off to protest, we were kind of in the middle of all that. I got very frustrated one morning after stopping at two different McDonald's for drinks that the servers could not even speak enough English to get my order right. We found an alarming trend up there of numerous food service workers whose English is practically non-existent. How in the world is this country going to handle it when we are all expected to be bilingual if we want any type of service at all?

While in Chicago, we got to visit with my second cousins Amanda and her husband Tim, their baby boy David, and Amanda's little sister Abby. We worshipped with them on Sunday night and went out to a darling little pizzeria with some great Chicago-style pizza and hotdogs. That was probably the best meal we had there. We also got to see an "old" friend, Carolyn, who had recently left the church we were attending to live up there. To run into each other again so quickly showed just how small a world it really is, especially among Christians.


Cousin Amanda with my Tim


Amanda's Tim with little David, their son




Abby with her nephew, David


Sarah shows Abby her dental work...




Micah having a good time



Carolyn



Hannah and I having one of a hundred laughs with our Chicago family




Sam and Micah, fat and happy!



Our hotel was nice, and the kids and I enjoyed hanging out and catching some good movies. We drove into Chicago late one afternoon and showed the kids the major tourist spots in the city. We had fun making some pictures along the way and discussing the history of the city. It is fun to hear the oohs and aahs of the younger kids who have not seen the sites before.

After Tim's business was completed, we slipped away to Wisconsin for a day and got to see two of Tim's brothers that we have not seen in about 8 years. These two uncles of my girls had not even met them before, so it was a grand reunion for all of us. One of the brothers, Kevin, is serving in Iraq, and he was just fortunately on leave and home for two weeks. We stayed with him and his wife Jennifer, and we had a great time catching up and making a few pictures.


Reunion of 3 brothers, Tim, Kevin and Paul


Sarah does 6 years of catching up with her Aunt Jennifer!


Uncle Paul demonstrates how one big strapping fireman carries one chunky niece!


Sarah and Hannah with their hero/soldier/Uncle Kevin and beautiful Aunt Jen!




















We finally got our car situation all straightened out....I think! We now have one family vehicle, one economy car for the hubby to drive 112 miles per day, and one moderately aged but nice-looking old truck for the newest licensed driver in the house (Sam) to drive. Micah, age 12, is holding out for a Dodge Viper, or something exciting like that. I told him not to hold his breath.

Well, that's enough of an update for one blog! I'll be back soon with "the rest of the story," as Paul Harvey says!