CAT Softball

Last night we went to Washington for Katie & Josh's (and others!) softball game. Justin stood by the fence almost the whole hour or so and just watched. He loves sports! Madison (Jen & Dan Adler's daughter) was there too, so he had someone to play with! Jen looks so cute and so ready to have her baby - I can't wait to meet him!!

When I was at the game last night I said how much I missed playing softball. Sandy's boyfriend was next to us and he said that his friends had a co-rec bar league team in the area and needed another girl for tonights game, so I said sure! The game is at 9:30pm though! I might be asleep by the 3rd inning... Oh well; at least I can just leave when Justin goes to bed. I have a job site meeting at 7am tomorrow and then a meeting with my boss at 4pm. Could make for a long day!

Here are some pics from last night:

Justin and Madison playing - until Madison saw my camera and then that looked like more fun to play with :)
"I'll let you take a drink...but you're not holding it" My semi-sharing son!
And that was enough sharing I guess? Next time we'll have to bring two :)
"Go Katie" Justin loved watching the game....especially Katie batting!
After the game, he carried Katie's glove to the car for her and then would not give it up. Luckily, Katie understands how his tantrums can be - espeically around bed time and just let him take it home and we'll give it back this weekend :)

The Hills 5-21-08

The last few days Justin woke up during the night and was more clingy, crabby than normal. I was afraid it was his ears again since it's been 2 weeks since our trip to the ER. I made him an appointment for 2:30pm yesterday. Rob got a call from daycare at about 11am that he was running and ran right into the corner of the shelf....you will see the results in the pics below! Anyways, we took him to Dr. Adams and he said that his ear is NOT infected - yeah!!! He got a clean bill of health. He also said that if you take him to the ER, they will most likely give him antibiotics everytime - whether he needs them or not. So I am going to be more careful and try to just take him to Dr. Adams if he seems sick. It was good though, becuase he was able to look at the bump too and was not the least bit concerned. He said that it won't be the last! He has 3 kids and he said that by the 3rd one, if they get hurt there better be blood or he's not concerned :)

We (read:Rob) also got his play area finished last night - I love it! I came up with the idea, but got really frustrated after the rotatiller kicked my butt and the ground was so lumpy and crappy. I quit and was ready to call a "landscaper" who would do it cheap! Rob said no that he would do it and I am glad - it didn't take him too long and it looks great! We got rubber safety playground mulch for it - that stuff is great! It feels like you're walking on packing peanuts. It does smell bad, but I am sure it will off-gas after not too long!

In other good news - Katie and I have FREE Tim McGraw tickets for this Saturday in Tinley Park! A lady Rob works with won them on the radio and can't go....score! Rob and I were going to go to BR for the weekend, but plans have changed so now I am going to the concert. I can't wait! Katie and I had a lot of fun at the BP/RA/CW concert, so I am sure we'll have a lot of fun here - it's outdoors and it's supposed to be nice out!

Have a great week!

Here are a few pics!

Getting ice cream at Culvers
Playing in the sandbox with daddy...
I love the new play area - it will be nice to not have to mow around the toys!
Okay mom - enough pictures!
The dogs out playing in the yard - about to pounce eachother!
Hanging out with dad!
Being a big helper taking the garbage out....
....and feeding the dogs.....
....good thing I'm here to help! :) He tries really hard, but that target is just so small to get all of that food into!

The Hills 5-19-08

Hello! Nothing too much new is going on here, but I thought I would post a couple of pictures. Sue, Buzz and Godsie were here last weekend. We had fun and got a lot done - thanks for the help!

The little project of making a play area for Justin turned out to be a bigger pain than I imagined. Our ground is so hard, almost claylike and it does not make for easy leveling. Oh well - it will get finished sometime when our arms are not so sore from the stupid rotatiler (sp?)!

Rob and I got a chance to go play 9 holes too - it was nice to get out and golf again! I love my new clubs! I really like the 4 hybrid; I hit that one really well. I was so excited to use my new (huge!) driver, but I can't hit it very well - I ended up using the 3 wood instead of the driver. Oh well! I also beat Rob on the last hole....the only one that matters :)



This is from a few weeks ago - the shed in progress! I will post pics when we have it all done!!!
Grandpa Brooks and Justin on a lunch break
Justin and the next door neighbors playing with Justin's fishing pole in the front yard - that's what happens when the only fish near here are Asian Carp :)












I pulled this bush out all by myself (with a little help from the Yukon) - I felt pretty good after that :)

















Justin and Jenna playing in his sandbox!












Rob teeing off - we don't have any pics of me because Rob has a much more important job than taking pictures...he has to watch where my ball goes :)

The Hills 5-16-08

I know I'm slacking on new pictures, but it's been a pretty busy week. I had a lot going on with work and we just don't seem to ever have the camera around!

On Monday it was nice out so we played outside and then went to a little bar/restaurant by our house called Germantown Grille - it was nothing fancy, but a good little place to get a sandwich or burger.

Then Tuesday we just hung out and went to Coldstone for ice cream.

Wednesday I met with my boss and went to the riverboat casino - fun little story...I am friends with some of the pit bosses there and one of them I saw working valet when I walked in. I asked if he got demoted and he told me that they fired 26 of the 29 valet staff! I guess if you play table games you can give your valet ticket to the pit boss and have it signed for free valet. Most of the valets would take a ticket that was not signed and fake a signature to put the $5 valet charge in the tip jar. They had a little sting operation and busted almost all of them! The sad part is, TJ said he worked the numbers and they were probably all only making an additional 25-75 cents per hour! So now he has to work out there until they can build the department back up because he used to be supervisor of valet before dealing and being a pit boss. At least it's summer and not freezing out I guess!

Last night Katie & Josh came over for dinner and to watch Ugly Betty & Grey's. It was fun! With Justin awake during Betty I would say it was about as far from relaxing as you can get, but then he went to bed and we could actually hear Greys :) I am so glad that they live in Metamora!!!!

Tonight Sue, Godsie (rob's grandma) and Buzz (rob's aunt) come into town! It should be a fun weekend! Rob and I are hoping to get the shed finished - we still have to finish siding and put up the door. It's hard to do with Justin home because he's such a big "helper". Also, one of the areas of our yard looks like it used to be a flower bed of sorts, but it's all weeds and grown over. Our plan is to tear everything out of there and put a border edge on it with the rubber mulch chips to put his sandbox and slide/climber thing on. That way we don't have to mow around it and have it kill the grass all summer. We'll see if we get to that!

I'll post pics this weekend or on Monday! Have a great weekend :)

Woo Hoo!

I think we finally found somewhere to live that might not crumble with the latest economy? Thank goodness we have Big Yellow and more hospitals than we can handle :)

This was on the news this morning:

Peoria's housing market second highest in nation

By Ashley McNamee
Posted: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 6:18 p.m.

PEORIA, IL -- It seems like everything we've been hearing about the economy is bad news, but there's some good news about Peoria's housing market.

CNN says Peoria is the second best performing housing market in the nation.

They say Peoria's median home price increased almost 10.5 percent in the last year.

Now the median home price in Peoria is almost $119,000.

One broker manager says it's Peoria's slow, but steady real estate market which helps it buck the national trend.

"The Peoria economy is still really strong, between Caterpillar and the medical industry and education," said Nancy Koch. "So that's the bottom line, if you've got a strong economy, good jobs, good employment, our real estate market will be great."

Cook says the average sale price of a home in peoria also rose $5,000 over the last year.

YEAH!!!!!!!!

Okay, this is my 400th post since I started my blog and I am happy to say it's VERY HAPPY NEWS.....we only own ONE house!!!!! Our closing was today and it's done and the papers are signed! Rob and I are so happy to have this behind us!!!!!

Weekend in Chicago!

What a FUN weekend! I had more fun than I have had in a really long time. Our whole family was together again; that does not happen nearly enough! With us in Illinois, Mike/Ry/Amanda in Michigan and mom and dad in Nevada it is hard to find time when we can all just hang out for a few days.

My mothers day was perfect! I got to be with the two biggest loves in my life, plus my whole family... All of us mothers were together (except Aunt Cathy - we missed you!). All was well until about 4:30pm that is when we had to say goodbye; then the waterworks started and didn't really stop. It is so hard saying goodbye!

Rob and Justin got me new golf clubs - I love them! I can't wait to get out and try them out soon :) They are purple and grey...so pretty! I will take a pic soon. I could only see them for a minute and then we had to put them away because my little monster (Dennis the Menace as Aunt Connie nicknamed him) wanted to swing them in the house...not a good idea!

Here are some pics from this weekend. There are lots more on our Picassa site - here's the website address:

http://picasaweb.google.com/brooksfam.blogspot/ChicagoMay911th



Mommy and her angel :)

Playing bubble hockey....
....concentrating so hard!
Intense game of euchre going on :)
Gramma and Justin reading before church on Saturday morning.
Alec and Grandma before church

Justin beating up Blake with a pillow!
Alec and the coolest godparents ever :)
Morgan and sexy Justin
A family picture! It was SO GOOD to all be together in one place again - it went by WAY too fast!
Getting a "poke in the nose - kabooma" from Great Grandpa. I don't think that Grandpa was expecting one back quite so hard :)

A friendly game of Texas Hold 'Em - 8 to 12 year old style :)
That's my little brother - it was starting to get drunk out!
Amanda, Mikey and Aunt Mo-chelle











Me and my mommy!















Papa and Justin reading books

Gramma and Justin being silly!
Hanging out on Mother's Day with my boys :)
This picture is PRICELESS! What you can't see in the picture is the walk up the stairs about 3 minutes before this was taken. They were all down playing with the Jacob's PS3 (like they did most of the weekend!). Amanda said to Ryan, "I was going to get you a PS3 for our wedding, but now I see you would never stop playing it". Then he got one from GG Rosebush for graduation - the look on her face says it all :)
The family with GG Metzler (minus Justin because he was napping; I wish he was in this!)

A graduation cake for Aunt Manda & Uncle Ry - congrats again guys; we love you!

Happy Birthday Uncle Mikey!!!!

Sorry this is a day late - we love you and can't wait to see you :)

Love,
Rob, Melissa and Justin

PS. Remember these toys? I wonder if they still make them.....

The Hills 5-7-08

Hi there! It's been a while; I know...we've been busy!

Last weekend Grandpa Kent and his friend John came to our house to help Rob build a shed. Thank you so much for all of your help!!!! Justin and I just hung out, went shopping and played outside for most of the weekend. Then on Sunday evening, Justin was burning up - he was so warm. I could not find our thermometer, and decided that by the time I went to town and bought a new one I could just already have him on meds because he was obviously sick. Our hospital has a website that shows waiting time at the ER and it was only 12 minutes so I took him in. Almost 2 hours later the doctor saw us! Justin sat in my lap and just looked around the whole time; and for those of you who know Justin that is NOT at all like him, so I knew something was not right! He had a 102 temperature, which is high, but not super high I guess for a toddler. They gave him Motrin to get the fever down and then the doctor came in a guess what - another ear infection in his right ear - what a shocker. UGH! So she was going to write us a prescription for augmentin or amoxacillan and I told her he has been on both numerous times and they don't work. I asked if we could just do a shot and be done with it. I felt bad because I know shots are painful, but they work quicker and we don't have to fight him to get him to take his meds and don't have to worry about missed doses. So we did that and then had to wait in the waiting room for 20 minutes to make sure he didn't have a reaction. She gave us ice chips (Justin LOVES ice) and he was in heaven. After a few minutes he wanted down and was all over the place, so he was feeling much better! I still don't know what we are going to do about his ears. He's had tubes in that ear twice now - they obviously don't work! Another appointment with the ENT specialist is in his future!

I had to be in our main office in Chicago yesterday, so Justin and I went to Jacobs on Monday night. He is staying with them for the week (Rob and I are going back there tomorrow after work). He had fun playing with the boys while I was there! Thank you AC for taking them - we really appreciate it! With Justin in Barrington for a few days, Rob and I will hopefully be able to finish up the shed. We have to put up the siding and the garage door for it and then build a ramp to be able to drive the riding lawn mower in and out. We'll be busy tonight!

I am SO EXCITED for this weekend!!!! It's Alec's 1st communion (my godson) and the whole family will be together for that and we'll celebrate mothers day too! My parents fly in on the red eye Thursday and get in early Friday morning. I hope they sleep on the plane because they get here at 7am - just in time for Justin's day to start :) It will also be my brothers, Aunt Manda, GG Rosebush, GG Metzler and Yinglings coming too. I can't wait to have everyone together. Justin is going to have so much fun playing with all of his cousins and getting lots of attention!

CONGRATULATIONS to my baby brother and Aunt Manda on their college graduations this week! We are so proud of you guys and can't wait to see you! I wish we could be there to see you walk, but we'll have a drink to celebrate this weekend :)

I will post pics and videos later today - the camera is home and I'm at work!

Happy Birthday Great Grandma Metzler!

We love you! Hope you have a great birthday! See you in a week :)

Love,

Rob, Melissa and Justin