Trip to Wrigley

Big Z vs. Junior
Ok, so Griffrey is a bit past his prime. It was still fun to see him play and in this case bat against the Cub's Carlos Zambrano.

Hey, it has only been a week so there isn't a whole lot to report on. The past week the city of broad shoulders has basked in the warmth of the sun's rays. The mercury edged up past the 70 mark 3 times this week if you count today. It is a much welcome and in many ways needed development. So with the weather being so nice we found some outdoor activities to fill the week. Actually, mid-week we got incredibly fortunate and received an invitation to the Cubs game from Brian and Erica. It was Kelly's first trip to Wrigley and Brian and the Cubs didn't disappoint. The seats, Brian got them, were six rows behind home plate and the Cubs won by almost 10 runs. I ate a big bag of peanuts which added to how impressed she was with the whole experience. A big thank you to Brian and Erica.

When Saturday rolled around we decided it would be a good idea to take out the bushes the previous owners allowed to take over the front yard. It all started well with the branches and what not coming down very easily. Even the first of the three stumps came out fairly quickly. It is when we hit the second and largest stump that we began to question our ability to accurately estimate the amount of work these house projects take. It took just about everything both of us had to get that thing out. The hatchet got lots of work as did the branch trimers. Who knew these bushes had such huge root systems. Either way, we would not be denied and the bushes are gone. I have provided some before and after pictures for your enjoyment. We got about a 6x12 area now to play with. Some will go grass, the rest planted with plants yet to be determined.

Correction!!

I was informed by my brother that it is in fact not he who keeps up the blog but instead Brooke. I was wondering why the writing was so good, just kidding Tim. A big thanks to Brooke from us as we love seeing pictures of the little one. All of a sudden I feel much better about myself and my lack of posting. Hey, look at that. Two posts in a week. I guess I will see you all in June.

Workie, Workie, Busy Bee (I lie)

Life has just been hectic lately. I had to get a haircut and go to the dentist, all last week. As a result I have been unable to keep up the frantic pace of updating this blog once a month. Its tough to imagine that my brother is able to handle a new born, running his own business, is a volunteer firefighter, and he still updates his blog more than me. I guess the busy excuse kind of falls apart. Well, I am just lazy. Not that any of you were buying that I was too busy excuse. Anyway, Kelly has been busy traveling for work so I guess that is my excuse.

But enough of my rambling. Let's move on to what has happend to the little American Four Square at 330 N. Humphrey Ave. We have taken the past month or so to do some decorating. Which means a lot of walking around stores looking for stuff. Stuff that doesn't do anything, it just looks nice. So it does do something, it makes the house feel like a home.

The picture below shows the newly painted door that leads to the half bath. For fun, scroll back a few blogs and see how far everything has come. The bathroom is where we found the refridgerator when we moved into the house. We really like this color, it is the same we have used upstairs. The beautiful shade to the left was made for us by Kelly's mom. It brings a ton of colors and a touch of elegance to the office.

As the door swings open, over the light switch of course because we forgot about the whole turning the lights on part when we put the switch in, you will find our beautiful half bath. It has a basket for magazines and everything. What a great room.

This is the bathroom window. We kept the old ice door. We think it looks wonderful.

Returning back to the room the bath is off of, our up and coming home office. The federal government is kind enough to allow us to work from home on occation so we thought it would be nice to have a comfortable place to do this. The shade on the top of this window is again made by Kelly's mom and really goes on top of the other window. But we have it here for now. We love waving to Nolan (our neighboors 6 year old) while he is eating and all but occationally we want some privacy. The room has a lot of junk still piled in it from this weekends work but if I had to move all of that before I took pictures for the blog it would not have been updated for another month. The room has our desk, computer and a small chair for reading or sitting. We have recently learned that we have a bird's nest in the old stove's exhaust vent. It is a bit odd but we will wait until this fall before we fill it up. I am fairly mean, but not that bad.

This is the opposite wall in the office. We hung three pictures here, each of which is special. One is of the cherry blossoms along the tidal basin in Washington, DC. that I took the spring before we moved. One is of the steeple of the Old North Church in Boston that I took during our trip to visit friends, and the last is a picture Kelly took of tulips she had outside of our first apartment together. Cheesy, maybe but Kelly will punch you in the throat if you make fun.

We also painted the small room between the living room and the office. The door to the basement is in this room. We went with Mississippi State Maroon to remind us that not all places have such awful winters as Chicago does. A little bit more trim work and this area will be done. And yes those are baby gates. But fear not, they are to keep Gatsby in the office during the day.

So after a long day of painting and week in New Orleans Kelly relaxed with the dogs. They love their mom.