Andrew's Chicago Adventure

Here is Andrew's recounting of our trip to Chicago.

I just got back from Chicago yesterday, and it was a lot of fun. I went to a live recording of my favorite NPR podcast: “Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!”  


At first, we couldn't even find the auditorium, because we had two different addresses. We eventually found it, but that lead to an even greater torture. We had to wait for an hour and a half for the show to start. I was sure that my head was going to explode.

The show was great, even if it ran a lot later than it was supposed to. I then got to meet the panelists and Peter Sagal, the host. I got their autographs.  My hair matched Mo Rokka's shirt. All in all, a great experience.

Afterwards, we took the subway to our hotel area. We walked around our area until we
had done a loop, and then we decided to go to Weber Grill. The food was o.k. but the grills were pretty amazing. I fell asleep quickly that night.

New Toys

My stamp club order came in this week and included the new In-Color inks and markers to go with the papers and ribbons I've had since July.  I finally got to make a whole series of this card:

Chrissy, our club leader/SU! demonstrator showed us a card a friend of hers had made that was very similar to this - sorry I can't give proper credit here.  I did several in this Melon Mambo color, and others in Rich Razzleberry and Bermuda Bay.  I also varied the sentiments to cover a variety of occasions.

More fun new stuff to come...but first I take Andrew to Chicago for the live taping of this week's edition of NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me".  He loves this show and downloads the podcast each week.   Then he's requested we visit the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art and The Art Institute on Friday before coming home.  Dad gets to play "substitute teacher" for Nicole on Friday!

Settling In

Well, another week has passed, and I'm finally getting a chance to post again.  You've probably seen me email about Nicole's blog, which includes a really fantastic recounting of our field trip to Shedd Aquarium  in Chicago.  Apparently in my enthusiasm for her postings I misunderstood her willingness to share it widely, so I'm in the doghouse right now.  It will probably be a while before she allows me do that again!

Other than that, we've had a good week.  The field trip was a big success, as was the clay class she took on Friday.   Our daily routine is working well for both of us, and she's clearly very happy and content with the arrangement.  I love seeing what creative projects she comes up with during her free time in the afternoons.  She's created restaurants, craft projects, imaginary games, gardening/composting projects and more.

The weather here has been fantastic.  Nicole and I have been soaking it up as much as possible, knowing that we've got months of winter ahead!  Today we all went to my mother-in-law's place in the country and really enjoyed seeing what's happening on the land.  Frogs in the pond, persimmons slowly ripening, butterflies flocking to the flowers, birds at the feeders, and volunteer pumpkins and squash covering the compost piles!

I've been busy doing my regular PTA Council stuff and continuing to plan the Mothers and More Seasoned Moms Getaway.  But I've also had time to play in my craft room.  Hope you enjoy:

Here's a tote filled with 8 identical blank cards.  I think the totes are fun to make and really cute!
















I'm thinking about making one filled with these cards, too:








Here's what I came up with for the Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge this week:

And a couple more I just played around making:

Starting Over

As much as it pains me to say it, I've found the Apple/Mac application that I truly hate:  iWeb.  I've never been happy with my (in)ability to incorporate photos with text on a blog page, so I'm trying out Blogger to see if it's easier.

Since it’s been nearly 2 weeks since I posted you might have wondered if I’d given up already! No, I’ve just been really, really busy with other stuff.

First, I’ve been working every day homeschooling Nicole. While we’re having some issues when I give her assignments that she doesn’t want to do, we’re basically getting along well and making good progress. I’m hoping to get her to start a blog to do some writing about what she’s studying - stay tuned to see if that ever happens!

Next, with the start of the school year comes the start of PTA activities. I taught 3 officer training classes in the last week, conducted the first Champaign PTA Council meeting of the year and worked to set up the schedule of speakers and locations for the year.

Then there’s the Mothers and More Seasoned Moms' Getaway to Chicago that’s a month away. More contacting people to set up activities/meals/lodging/ registration procedures and all the stuff that goes along with that. Looks like it’s going to be a fun weekend with women coming from California, Atlanta, upstate NY, the DC area and the midwest.

Finally, I’ve been able to grab a little bit of time in the Project Room. I borrowed my friend’s chalk pastels to do a some cards inspired by my late summer garden of black-eyed Susans and purple coneflowers. This is Inspired by Nature by Stampin' Up!

Thanks to Nancy Riley’s iSTAMP iPICKS week 42, I found the tote to hold the matching set I made. It has 8 cards and envelopes (2 birthday, 2 thanks, 1 sympathy, 1 thinking of you, 1 “Live with Passion,” and 1 get well). 

Then I played with putting Whiff of Joy's Melinda Reading 

under some of the flowers.

I also saw some cute cards with fish made from punches here 

that I just had to case!

And there’s still 2 more days in the long weekend to play some more. 

Hope you all have a great Labor Day!