Where In The World Are Deb and Chad?

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February 6, 2007

Look! I'm not dead!

(sorry, a little Saturday Night Live humor for you) Yes, yes, Thanksgiving was eons ago. My excuse for not writing is that my life is full and happy (and I am getting lazy at writing, LOL). So much has happened that I have to get my calendar out to remind myself.

I have now run a total of six 5K races over the last six months. Check this out (look down at the 40 year old section). I really enjoy running now - my time gets better each time. As an added bonus, I have reached my weight goal for the first time in YEARS and have discovered yoga. For something as calm and serene as yoga is, it puts some serious muscles on. I am never doing another sit up as long as I live.

Eli turned 12 and I treated him to a night in St Louis to see the play "Spamalot". We are huge Monty Python fans. We had a great time and discovered that there are a whole lotta other geek/dorks out there just like us. The theater was PACKED. HAH - I fahrt in your general die-rect-tion!

I took a very large step towards making this house my own by spending an obscene amount of time scraping off faux grecian wallpaper border (and my knuckles as well) in my bedroom. I hereby declare wallpaper border to be ILLEGAL - serious felony. Don't do it! I mean it. And wallpaper remover chemical nasty junk? Completely and utterly worthless. After I gouged the crap out of my wall (who the hell puts wallpaper border two feet lower than the ceiling? WHY?), I learned to SPACKLE. Love SPACKLING. Like the word even - go ahead, say it: S P A C K L E. The stuff I got goes on pink and dries white. Pretty cool. I sanded it off and discovered that plaster powder goes FAR throughout a house. Not even remotely possible to get it all off. So ask me what color I painted my bedroom? Did you guess that I haven't painted yet? Cookie for you if you did. I can't seem to pick what color I want. I have even bought two cans of paint but just can't commit. Ah well. That is one of my New Year resolutions - paint my room.

Seth turned five. I cannot believe that my baby is five. Fortunately for me, he still hasn't caught on to the fact that I never have a party for him. I am fairly sure this is the last year I will get away with that. He is a very cool kid. He is turbo charged and laid back all wrapped together. He is not afraid of a challenge! He learned how to rollerskate in the space of two hours.

Christmas was very quiet. We had dinner over at my Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Bill's house and then we went to the movies to watch Charlotte's Web. Who ever thought of seeing a movie on Christmas? I never even knew theaters were open!

I went semi public with the fact that *IamdatingaguynamedChad*. Eeeeek, don't make me say that again. This is the first time since my divorce SEVEN years ago that I have dated (with the odd exception of a date here and there). I am still trying to figure out how not to be lonely without hurting my children. A very fine line. I still hold to the FACT that I will not remarry while my kids are still home (if ever at all). So far, so good. I have been seeing Chad for just over six months but only introduced him to the boys a month ago on New Years.

New Year's was a lot rowdier - I took the guys over to my friend Chad's house. He has two boys ages seven and five. They took us four wheelin (ATV) which we had never done before. My three boys took to it like ducks to water. Chad rented a pinball machine for the party at his house and it never got a moment's rest - what a great idea!

Jake turned ten but he is still my sensitive guy. He didn't get a party either (nobody did this year!).

Speaking of four wheeling - I bought an 80cc Yamaha Badger for the boys! I eventually want to have one for each of us (those suckers are expensive!). We love being outdoors and this is just another way for us to play outside. I have also bought a little 60cc Yamaha that is currently junk but is being revived as we speak by a mechanic. Seth has been riding one just like it and LOVES it.

I convinced Chad to learn to ski. We made a whole weekend of it and had a fantastic time. We kicked off our weekend by going to Chicago, having an amazing meal at Jack's On Halstead and then seeing the Blue Man Group. If you haven't seen commercials or late night shows with these guys on it, they are hilarious. Performance / musical artists with audience participation. Come on, any show where the audience gets TP'd is guaranteed to be FUN. Then we went over to Galena, Illinois to Chestnut Mountain Resort. Gorgeous! They had lots of snow and we lost no time skiing. Chad was a very quick student and was off the bunny hill within two hours (maybe even less!). I have never seen anyone snow plow down a mountain as fast as he can. He is the snowplow king. We skiied a bit on Sunday as well and then took off in pouring down snow. 45mph for the first two hours. Loads of fun. The drive should have taken us about seven hours but really took about nine. Three hours from home my check engine light came on. Guess how stressful that is?

Okay, so the van has been burning oil pretty amazingly for nearly a year now. I am trying to get it paid off and get a new vehicle. That the check engine light came on throws a monkey wrench into the plan. I took it to my usual repair shop and they informed me that I need to replace the engine (the blue book value on it is only 4K at best!) or get a new vehicle. Then they promptly offered to buy the van from me for a thousand. Hmmmm suspicious. Chad's mechanic buddy checked it out and found a whole lot of incompetence had been committed on it so we are hoping to get it back together and make it last another year. YAY! Meanwhile, I am driving his beast of a vehicle - a suburban. So cross your fingers that the van will live a little longer.

Wow! You are almost caught up!

Last week, winter visited us with some seriously fricking cold weather. And snow. But just a little bit. I took off work an hour early last Thursday and took the guys up to Chad's house (he lives about half hour away). He pulled us around on a sled behind his four wheeler. What? Does that make us rednecks now? Seriously. Oh, and guess what I learned? No, no, no, not how far away the nearest ER was. I learned that you should zip up your jacket pocket that contains your keys and camera BEFORE doing this. Found the camera right away but the keys were gone. The next day Chad was able to find the keys in ten minutes with a great big magnet that is usually used to pick up roofing nails on construction sites.

Sunday, he brought his boys over to our property to help us build trails for our four wheelers. We had an absolute blast!

Let's see, what have I left out? Steve! He is doing so well. We are truly grateful for his health. He has managed to develop a very close relationship with the boys and that makes all of us very happy. He is a great dad and we are very glad to have him back in our lives.

So how was that for an update? I am going to try not to go two months between posts but you know how it is. My New Year's resolution is to have fun - so far, so good. Pictures in the Gallery! Don't forget to click on the picture to make it larger and to read the caption better!

Posted by DebC at February 6, 2007 12:16 AM

Comments

Posted by: Kim at February 6, 2007 8:32 AM

Posted by: Chad at February 6, 2007 2:52 PM

Posted by: mary Lou at February 22, 2007 2:46 PM

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