Halloween 2020

Happy Halloween!!!  I hope you all had as much fun as we did.  We carved pumpkins earlier this week, finished up some milk gallon ghosts today and had fun collecting candy from all the creative candy chutes in the neighborhood.  Trick or treating was a huge success and between all the kids’ loot and the candy we have leftover, we are going to be good until at least Christmas.  

And we are finishing off the night by introducing the kids to the movie Men In Black.  HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Fall Update

It’s been a bit since I’ve given an update so thought I would jump on to let you all know we are surviving this odd year.  So far the best part of our year have been two trips!  With COVID restrictions we haven’t done much like we normally would however we did manage to get in two trips to visit with Nana and Boppa.  Here are some of the highlights!

Our first trip was over the 4th of July (yes...I’m delayed in posting) and it was so much fun.  Having the world partially shut down for a pandemic actually made our trip so much fun.  There were no expectations to fit things in and we were able to enjoy the outdoors either in Nana and Boppa’s yard, hiking trails or out on the lake.  It was nice to get away from our day to day and enjoy each other.

This game was so funny.


Hazel got to play with my old Barbies



























Summer wrapped up with the intro to remote learning.  The boys have pretty much settled in now although no one in our house is a fan of the set up.  In fact Zach was clever enough to start ditching out of his class Zoom meetings.  I only write this here because I want to look back and remember it.  Who cuts class in home school?!  Zach has always been our star student so we were a bit surprised when we found this out at parent/teacher conferences.  That clever kid got to endure his first experience with being grounded!  Luckily this all happened after we took a little break from school and work to celebrate Nana’s 70th birthday with a long weekend in Louisville.  

We loved seeing Nana and Boppa and had a lot of fun staying by the river and seeing all the barges.

Thank you to everyone that helped me with my mom’s birthday present!  I think it was a hit!














Now we are back to the new “norm”.  I’m trying to figure out new ways to interact with my customers at work since in person isn’t easy anymore and stay active with workouts..  Rich is looking for jobs and has picked up some construction/handy work with a local firefighter that does these kind of side jobs when he is off duty.  The kids have become better friends with the neighborhood kids and run up and down the street each afternoon all masked up and playing games. 

One of the best highlights of 2020 for me was last week when I led a team of 10 women for the Chicago Habitat for Humanity Women Build event.  We raised over $8000 and spent a day helping build a home for a woman homeowner.  We lucked out on our build day with cool but clear weather and our team got to put our drills and impact drivers to use while hanging exterior sheetrock on the second story of the house we were assigned to.   It was such a rewarding and fun experience!   I’m hoping to do it again next year.  

Now our next adventure will be Halloween! We hope everyone is well.  We are currently waiting in a line to have the family tested for COVID.  Unfortunately, Gloria recently tested positive so now we are taking all the necessary precautions.  Wish us luck!!  Love to you all!