Midwest Keech

Well, it's been almost a year since I've shown the blog a little love...Oh well, I think I'll just start from now. Things have gotten a little crazy around here in the last few months with us making plans to move from IL back to AZ. Our house here sold in 4 days! INSANE! After the quick sale, things became a little more definite & I ended up making a house-hunting trip to AZ. It was a crazy few days. I saw about 35 houses in 4 days. While I was in AZ, we actually offered on 2 different houses. The first one, we were just too late. The second, however went around a little. We offered, heard back that they had other offers, and RE-offered. All this time, the sellers were on vacation & their realtor was trying desperately to reach them. Well, they came home to 3 offers on their home (we were the best), rejected the offers, and pulled the house off the market. JERKS! Either they weren't serious or they think they can get MORE if they wait a little. On my last day,...

February 2, 2011 was the day we got a TON of snow. In fact, it's only the 2nd time I've been snowed-in since moving to Illinois (the 1st was the blizzard 4yrs ago that caused Allison to be born a day later on 2/14). This is what I could see from our front door. Believe it or not, there should be a street here. Our front steps were COMPLETELY covered with snow. Not only did it snow, but the wind whipped up & caused the snow to drift. This "wave" by the front door was cool looking. Here's the backyard. The tricycle is near the edge of the yard & the alley. Several neighbors spent the day shoveling their driveways, and a couple shovelled a path out to the street. When Bryan went out to shovel our drive, a neighbor came over to help. We have great neighbors. Monster pile of snow...This is only from doing 1/2 the driveway! Smile Bryan! That's a LOT of snow! We were able to get out of our house/driveway, but many people in our subdivision were stuck until t...

Have you ever heard the Green Day song that goes "Wake me up, when September ends"? OK, well most of their stuff is un-listen-to-able because of the language, but I do like me a bit of Green Day. Anywho...September is over ALREADY and now it's officially October. I don't feel like we DID much, but at the same time, I feel like I have been CONSTANTLY running here, there & EVERYWHERE. So, what have we been up to? Well, soccer season started just as September began, so we've been spending our fair-share (and then some) at practices (2X per week) and games on Saturday. It's a good thing I've decided that I like soccer. *smile* Adam also received a ton of awards (some pins, some belt loops) at the Cub scout pack meeting. He was very excited. I guess I need to go get him the ribbon-thing to put the pins on & a cub scout belt to put the loops on. Add those to my to-do list. Also on my list lately has been exercise. Yeah, I know...who would've guessed?...

I have a friend...Jessica. I know I've mentioned her before, probably many times. We were fortunate to spend some time with her & her family while we were in AZ in June. What I may not have mentioned, is that she is totally & completely OCD. When she gets upset, she gets down & takes a toothbrush to the kitchen floor. I have always teased her about being a "neat freak". We were quite a pair...her being a total clean nut (mostly her dad's doing, long story), and me kind of a sloppy joe. This last week, while planning for a baby shower, I did LOTS of cleaning & organizing. Aren't you proud Miss Jessica? The house was very clean. Well, for about 5 minutes until we lived in it. You know how it is. I did want to share some fun pics that I took this week. The kids sit on the stools @ the counter. They are pretty sloppy, and drop lots of stuff sometimes. The floor gets quite sticky & dirty. I have been trying to find a way to make them more aware of t...

Things have gotten busy at our house. I've got lots of "projects" started & in various stages of completion. I past years, it's been hard to get the tree up. I usually get it decorated by about the 12th (sometimes later), then I can't seem to get it taken down until mid-January. I know, slacker. This year, I was motivated. We put the tree up on Saturday after Thanksgiving. We had to re-arrange some furniture, but the tree is up so we can enjoy it. Well, it's up so I can gripe at the kids to stop touching / taking / pressing / swinging / yanking / flipping the ornaments. We've had a couple of casualties already. The kids all had a great time hanging things on the tree. What a cute little bunch of kids! How sweet. We must be super-ambitious this year. Bryan borrowed a super-tall ladder to put up Christmas lights up on the house. I was a little stressed out by having him on the roof. It's probably a good 30ft from the base of the ladder. CRAZY! It loo...