we have launch

Hello faithful readers! Please go to www.pandasneezes.com for my new website! You can subscribe to my new rss feed there. Yay!

so close...

Safe to say that I have been slacking just a titch on the blogging front. I can't believe that my last post was last September...eep. I even found a few blog drafts that I never got around to completing. But never fear readers/relatives, the sneezes is back and will be moving very shortly to it's new permanent home on my soon to be launched website. In the past few weeks, I have finally found the focus to sit down and finish the design and have resorted to some of Ethan's tactics to get B to sit down and develop my site. But they have worked and my site is coming along nicely.

Big news is the Snowmageddon 2011. Snow, lots of it, everywhere, pretty much bringing Chicago to it's knees. We ventured out today for a bit, it was beautiful and kind of unbelievable how tall the drifts of snow were. Both of my men had a blast running and jumping into the snow. B invented a throwing game of sorts that involved launching Ethan into the snow, which both seemed to enjoy but for very different reasons.

To sum up the past four months, things have been moving along nicely. The biggest news is that B and I bought a condo. It's bigger and better then our old place and we are both thrilled with how well it has come together. Other then that, jobs are good, Ethan is great and we are slowly but surely moving ahead with some wedding planning. I have my dress and we sent Save the Dates out a few weeks ago. I feel like things are starting to pick up as we move closer to the date, now that most all of the big things have been decided upon there are a seemingly endless amount of details to attend to. It has also made both of us wax poetic about how it all began and how far we have come to be together.

On that note, must go spend some time with the finance before we fall asleep. Not to worry, regular blogging will resume from this point forward. New sites a coming and so is my 2010 in review, better late then never.

under contract

A few months back, the lease on our apartment was up and our landlord allowed us to go month to month. B and I kicked around the idea of maybe buying a place. Our place was starting to feel a little bit small and with the upcoming nuptials, B pointed out that we would have nowhere to put any wedding gifts. It is also kind of an inconvenience to guests to have to either sleep on Ethan’s floor or on a blow up mattress in the living room. And real estate prices were still low and we could take advantage of the market.

There are of course many pros and cons to home buying. Were we staying in Chicago? Would we be able to find something that we loved? Could we afford it? Should we be taking on something like this in the midst of planning a wedding? And in the end would it be worth it?

We thought that it couldn’t hurt to at least test the waters and see what happens and so our real estate adventure began. We randomly found a realtor who on the very onset, told us not to get emotionally attached to any property. We looked at over a dozen properties, some we liked, some we didn’t even bother going into, and two we actually bid on. The first of which we got outbid on and were crestfallen. We found that we were not very good at not getting emotionally attached and were ready to stop looking and wait it out until after the wedding.

Two weeks passed and another property went on the market just a block south of the one we just lost the bid on. We were much more hesitant to go and look but after a few walk throughs, we loved it. We placed a bid and then the wait began. While on vacation, I saw that the property was “Under Contract,” and we were totally and completely crushed that we had again lost the bid. I talked to our realtor, who looked it up and saw that it was indeed under contract and she had never received any word back on our bid. She instructed us not to be too disappointed and gave us a pep talk that this happens and that we will keep looking.

The next day, we received a phone call, text and email letting us know that our bid was accepted and the house was under OUR contract. It seemed a little surreal and took about a day to process. There are still a lot of hoops to jump through but we are both extremely excited at the prospect of having a home. It is going to be quite an undertaking, we will basically have to gut it and start from scratch. But that is what we are the most excited about, getting to choose everything and be creative with the space. Should be interesting.

we made it

So after four fast food meals, six movies and two days of travel by car, we made it. And it was worth the trip. We arrived last night to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We rented a house with my two brothers and their families and my mom to a rented house (read: huge) a mere two hundred yards from the ocean.

For the past two years we have taken a Labor Day family vacation together. It kind of started out of the blue, but has become something of a family tradition. We have taken turns choosing a location to meet at and this year it was our turn. We wanted somewhere warm where we could all stay together in one house. We kicked around some ideas and came to the Outer Banks. When we were booking it, there was an option for hurricane insurance, which I quickly checked no to. Then Hurricane Earl came in for a visit and it was a stressful week before constantly checking the radar but we lucked out and have happily made it here.

Day one of beach vacation: spent the majority of daylight hours on the beach. B explained to me that when going on this kinds of vacation the key is to spend as much time on the beach as is humanely possible. And that we did. It has been a welcome change of pace to have nothing else to do but to hang out on the beach and sit and play in the water.

covet.

I have been terrible about ye olde bloggeroo lately. But there have been pretty exciting things going on. The other week we headed out to the suburbs to spend some quality time with B's parents and their pool. The main reason for this journey was to continue the never ending quest to find a wedding dress. I will preface this by saying that I found the dream dress I wanted very early on in the search but it was slightly over my dress stipend and B started wagging his finger and I was starting to feel a titch guilty about such a large expenditure. There were conflicting opinions about what to do and I pretty much had given up on this dress (after going to Macy's to try it on three times).

My future mother in law was extremely excited about a small bridal shop that carried sample dresses that all of her friend's daughters had had good luck finding dresses at. She was overly hopeful that they would have the exact dress that I had come to love so much, but I was not so optimistic. After a brief description of what I was looking for and mentioning the name of the designer, our attendant confirmed that they did carry that designer but only by special order, not off the rack. As luck would have it, five minutes later we found my exact dress. It was a wonderful surprise and I was over the moon about it. This did not stop me from trying on other dresses but I saved it for last and upon putting it on, we all knew that the search was finally over.

And not only did I find my dress but I also found a kick ass veil. Something I was not planning on getting, but after trying a few options on, the owner said that she had the perfect veil for me that had recently come in and that had been featured in Vogue magazine, music to my fashionable little ears. Suffice it to say, it was not a hard sell and it really was perfect, both modern and chic and went great with the dress.

One more thing off the checklist, and in my mind, one of biggest. My lovely bridesmaids also found great dresses that they ended up getting an incredible deal on, which makes me (and them) very happy. Other then that the wedding planning has been slowly inching ahead. Not too stressed about much, the wedding still feels pretty far away. But I do get pretty giddy about the thought of being husband and wife and getting to spend a day celebrating with everyone. It's going to be great.

urgent care

For the past week, Ethan has been sick, really sick. What started off as him not feeling good and spending the day with his grandma turned into an entire week, with a spiking fever of 104. I got him back on Friday and he seemed well enough but still a bit off. We spent the weekend pretty low key, had soccer, had lunch with nana and papa and later on, went to a friend's BBQ. All was going well, until our friend's daughter started screaming "Ethan's mom, Ethan's puking!" And there he was in the kitchen with some strawberry spit up on the ground. The kid next to him kindly explained that Ethan was yelling for so long that he threw up. Awesome. We soon departed and headed home. It did not occur to me at this point that maybe Ethan was not 100%.

The next day, we decided to take Ethan to the "elephant zoo" (Brookfield Zoo) because he had missed the field trip there on Friday, and he really wanted to see the bear exhibit. We arrived and what started as "two adults and one child" turned into "I would like to purchase the annual family membership," which in my mind pretty much inexplicably insures that we will never return. The zoo was hot and all of the animals were hot. We were all moving pretty slow, especially Ethan, who usually bounds from animal and animal. He even refused popcorn and ice cream, which made us start to think that something was definitely off.

Later that same day, Ethan started to complain that his stomach hurt, this went on for a few hours. We took him into urgent care, which was a rather interesting experience. The doctor was wearing a three piece suit with a red tie and had a rather large bald head and spoke with an incredibly thick accent, calling Ethan, "BABY!" We both felt a little dubious. But his diagnosis ended up being spot on, he told us that it was not appendicitis, and then wrote us out a prescription, explaining that it was an anti-nauseous drug. I informed him that Ethan wasn't really throwing up, and then he smiled and assured me that he will most definitely throw up. And as if on cue, Ethan starts vomiting, all over the place. It was horrifying and slightly hilarious at the same time.

Unfortunately, the hilarity did not stop there. The next day, Ethan continued to complain that his stomach hurt and I thought it may have been because he hadn't pooped in two days. So I fed him a bunch of prunes and then B tells me that water helps with constipation, so he drank a bunch of water. And then we laid down to read books, and then he says that he has to go to the bathroom. Success, I thought. But really just the opposite. Ethan started puking all over the place, again. But this time we were not in a doctor's office that we could leave, we were in his bathroom encouraging him to focus his energies on the toilet. We were completely unsuccessful, he was like a loose fire hose, prunes and water everywhere.

All of this may be a bit too much information. But I did take away from this an important lesson, that sometimes you have to go through some bad to remember the good. Ethan reminded me that what I love about him is his endless amounts of energy and the sound of his sweet voice asking endless amounts of questions. Seeing him feel so bad and barely eating for the past few days was rough, on both of us. But I am happy to report that the monster awoke bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning, and is back to his normal self.

twin cities

Because my blogging has been so sporadic as of late. I forgot to post about our trip to Minneapolis over the 4th of July holiday. We had decided a few months back that we would make a return trip to Minneapolis. The night before our trip, Mandy and Frank came with their boys to spend the night. It was kind of a frantic but once we got everyone down we did what we do best, have some drinks, talk and hang out.

The next day, after I went to work for a few hours, we headed up for a very long 6.5 hours of driving up to the twin cities. Ethan was great, he is now the proud owner of a gently used Apple 3g phone that is now essentially his video player. We finally arrived, and settled in for the night. We chatted and hung for a bit but everyone was pretty exhausted.

The next day, we woke bright and early. The boys watched cartoons and Mandy and I did something we have NEVER done together before, after almost 20 years of friendship...we went for a run. I was very happy to have the company and impressed that she had agreed to go.

After this, we went out into the blazing hot heat for a trip to the zoo/carnival. Frank and I took the boys on a ride that successfully made all of us ridiculously dizzy and slightly nauseous. The boys went on some other fun rides and then they had their first corn dog, followed by a gigantic popsicle, not the best nutritional choices, but we were on vacation. We perused the zoo portion and I will sum it up by saying, that Owen did a fine job grilling the zoo staff about the fake banana and Ryan went home really wanting a pet monkey. After finding our way home, the boys napped and we relaxed. B made ribs for everyone for dinner, it was delicious and we enjoyed the entertainment of small children playing in a pool. Later on that evening, Andi and Marc flew in. And now the group was complete. Needless to say this completion was followed by lively conversation, good beer and my new favorite cocktail of sour mash and ginger ale (courtesy of Frank).

Saturday, Aimee and Ryan threw a 4th of July BBQ. It was a great day and even better evening of grilled meat, cocktails and catching up. Sunday and Monday were a blur, Mandy and Frank hit the open road back to Michigan and we went the park, the Mall of America, took a long walk, ate good food, and spent quality time together. It was great. The whole weekend was great. Ethan and Owen had a ball together, Everett is catching up quick and little Asher will be part of the gang soon enough.

We thank Aimee and Ryan for their bravery in letting three of their friends stay in their home with their respective families. There wasn't a night or more then an hour that went by without someone crying about something. We thank you both for hosting all of us, we surely did not make things easy but in the end it was worth the many miles traveled for a few days that we could all be together.