Chicago: Day 2/Iowa: Day 1

The plan for today was to get up and attempt to get into downtown Chicago, seeing as how it was Saturday and the traffic wouldn't be as intense.  But when we all woke up and Jasmine opened the curtains in the hotel room, we saw that it was a miserable, rainy day.  So we nixed the Chicago idea.  I was disappointed, because I really wanted to be able to say I had gone to Navy Pier.  But taking the kids down there in the rain would have been a stupid idea.

Starting off on our trip!

We decided to have a leisurely morning in the room, then pack up our stuff and get on our way to Iowa so everyone could relax at Jasmine's house.  I wasn't looking forward to the 5 hour drive because the longest Punkin had ever been in the car was about 2 hours and I didn't know how she would do.  She wound up surprising me, though.  After we were checked out and loaded into the car, we took off and she fell asleep pretty quickly.

Iowa Scenery

The drive itself was quite uneventful.  Jasmine's car doesn't have A/C so it was warm, but the airflow from her open window made it bearable.  Most of the beginning of the trip was cloudy as we were driving by Illinois corn and soybean fields.  I really liked the scenery - Jasmine says it wasn't as pretty as the route she took to get to Chicago, but I still enjoyed it . It reminded me of when I was a kid and we would drive from Texas to Pennsylvania.  Lots of low hills and farmland, with big white farm houses and fields of cows and horses.  The kids weren't nearly as interested in the scenery as I was, so thankfully they were really interested in Punkin's Dora and Barney videos on her DVD player.

The gas station we stopped at

At one point as we were driving through Illinois, we realized we needed gas soon, so we got off at the next exit.  The only gas station on the entire exit was 3 miles off the highway in a tiny little town called Lyndon (population 1,500).  I loved the little town - you could tell, even just driving down the two lane road, that everyone in that town knew each other.  We found the little Conoco gas pumps, which were sitting in front of a little place called Gibson's General Store.  The station was right across from a corn field sitting between two houses, and it was so CUTE!  I swear... if I could be sure that I was within a reasonable driving distance of a Wal-Mart and a Taco Bell, I would LOVE to pack Punkin up and move to a tiny little town like that.  I even looked on Zillow as soon as we got to Jasmine's house to see if they had any houses for sale in the town (there were 2).

The People of Iowa Welcome You!

The Mighty Mississip!

Not long after we got back on the highway, we passed into Iowa and I was able to cross state #26 off my list of states visited.  I am officially half finished with my Bucket List goal of visiting all 50 states!  I'm still behind, though.  I wanted to hit a new state every year until I turned 50, but I'm 29 and I'm still only at state 26.  So hopefully for the next couple of years I can hit at least 2 new states per year to catch up.  I was driving, so I made Jasmine pull over so I could take a picture of the Iowa sign, lol.   I even took one with my phone so I could upload it to Facebook and show people that I really WAS in the land of corn!  Not long after that, I got really excited because we crossed the Mississippi River - something else that reminded me of when we used to take road trips when I was a kid.

We stopped in Cedar Rapids to have lunch at Olive Garden.  It was nice to get out of the car to stretch, but disappointing that we still had an hour or so to go to get to Jasmine's house.  We ate fairly quickly and got back in the car.  Punkin put up a fuss - I think because she was hot and was REALLY tired of being in the car.  She didn't do too bad though.  I really am proud of how well she has handled all of the traveling thus far.  She's not been good at long car trips in the past but she seemed to make the best of this one.  I think it's because she had her DVD player.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to buy her one of her own since the one we have is my friend Michelle's and we'll have to return it.

We drove through downtown Independence, but I was so tired that I didn't pay much attention to it.  I'm hoping we'll get to go into town one day while we're here so I can take some pictures and experience a taste of small-town life.  Once we got to Jasmine's house, we did a whole lotta NUTHIN.  No one even really wanted to move.  The kids played in the playroom while the adults just vegged out.  I met Jon, Jasmine's husband, and their friend Dave, who kind of lives in the basement like some old hermit of an uncle.  He's nice though, so I can't really complain.  We had Hamburger Helper for dinner with ground beef (only important since Jasmine has been trying to sell me on the idea of eating ground deer meat - ew) and again I was surprised with Punkin - she's not a beef eater but she totally polished off a big bowl of that enchilada Hamburger Helper!  Bedtime went easy - I rocked her in Silas' wicker rocking chair and sang Rock-A-Bye-Baby to her over and over and she fell asleep on my shoulder.  I love rocking my babe. :-)

Jasmine and I watched part of The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds until I fell asleep on the couch.  It was a damn long day, and I was tired!  Thankfully the couch was comfy and I was able to sleep all night!

Chicago: Day One - The Bad Stuff!

I was really excited to go to the Lincoln Park Zoo.  In the weeks leading up to this vacation, I researched it on the internet and found it's one of the last free zoos in the US.  So I was super excited about going, especially because it was going to be free and because I know how much Punkin loves animals.  I wish I had been more aware of where our hotel was in relationship to the zoo, though.  We pulled it up on the GPS on my phone and found it was about 12 miles away by way of I-90, which is not that far at all.

Once we got going, though, we found that it certainly wasn't going to take us only 20 minutes, like the GPS said.  The traffic in Chicago is HORRIBLE.  HOR-RI-BLE.  Almost as soon as we got on I-90, the traffic started, and it was dense.  There was no way to move from lane to lane and we never broke 10 mph the whole time.  The kids were okay at first... they both dozed off.  But almost an hour later, when we had only gone about 5 miles, Silas woke up in a complete meltdown.  Punkin slept through it at first but soon it escalated into a fit the likes of which I've never seen and she woke up crying, too.  Silas was screaming and crying so hard I thought he was going to throw up and choke.  He wouldn't calm down for anything and both Jasmine and I started to get panicky.  Jasmine was getting claustraphobic and I was starting to have a panic attack.  About that same time, my phone died, and we had no GPS.  So we were stuck in this horrible traffic with a screaming toddler, a crying toddler, no idea where we were and no idea how to get anywhere.  I remembered that GPS told us to get off at Lawrence Street, so we looked out for it, but it was closed due to construction.  Silas was still screaming, so we tried to get off at the next exit, but it was closed for construction too.

Chilling in the car while we panicked on the side of the road.

That's the point I completely lost control.  I was in absolute panic-attack mode.  I could NOT GET OFF THE DAMN HIGHWAY.  There was NOWHERE to go.  No exits were open, no lanes were moving any faster than 5 mph, Silas was having a nightmare meltdown, Punkin was scared, confused and crying, there was no air conditioning in the car and I had no idea where we were.  We finally crept up on a little sidewalk on the right side of the highway and I made Jasmine pull the car off the road so everyone could try and calm down.  I used Jasmine's phone to call my dad in Florida to tell him what was going on while she took the kids out of their car seats to calm them down.  I was on the phone with my dad for almost 20 minutes, trying to tell him where we were and what was going on while he looked Chicago up on MapQuest and gave us some suggestions.  We were only 5 miles from the zoo (according to MapQuest) but going there at that point was the farthest thing from our minds.  We just wanted to de-traumatize the kids and get back to the hotel.  I called Monica and let her know we were turning around.  We finally got back in the car and eased our way back into the traffic, then crept along till we came to the next exit, where we got off.

We found a Dunkin Donuts and pulled in and got the kids some donuts to eat, hoping food would appease them for a while.  I was still in a panic, though, because I knew the only way to get back to the hotel was to get on the same highway going in the other direction, and the traffic looked just as bad over there.  I couldn't take another hour of sitting in the car with screaming kids in the back.  I called my dad again and he gave me some more tips (gotta love my daddy!) on how to get back to the hotel from where we were.  The kids had been fed and they seemed to be happier and I was calming down a bit, so we got back in the car to head back to the hotel.

THANK THE GOOD LORD JESUS ABOVE, we hit a major detour on our way back to I-90 and managed to miss the majority of the traffic on the highway heading back.  It only took us 15 minutes to get back once we got going.  We got the kids upstairs and into the bath (they were a mess from donuts) and then dressed for bedtime.  We called Monica and asked if she wanted to bring Elodie up for a pajama party and she did, so the three kids ran around the hotel room together till bedtime while Jasmine and Monica kept a close eye on them - I don't know if it was stress related or what, but I had developed a fever and a stomach bug and was curled up in bed trying not to die.  After Monica and Elodie left, Jasmine and Silas crawled into their bed and Punkin and I snuggled into ours.

I wish the day had turned out better, because I was really disappointed about the zoo.  Punkin had been asking about seeing animals for days and I didn't even get a chance to show them to her.  It was really nice being able to meet Monica and Elodie though!  I've now officially met 4 women from the BZ board - Jenn and Evan, Genia and Bryson, Monica and Elodie, and Jasmine and Silas!

Chicago: Day 1 - The Good Stuff!

Julianne and I had to be up at 4:30 in order to leave the house at 5:00 a.m. to get our 7 a.m. flight.  I wanted her to go to sleep at 8:30, but she decided 10:30 was a better time.  So I was up until 10:30 until she fell asleep.  And then I couldn't fall asleep, so I got very little sleep on Thursday night.  I eventually got out of bed around 3 a.m. and just putzed about the house waiting for everyone else to get up.

Once we were up, we all got dressed and ready, then headed off.  We got to the airport later than I wanted to and the line at Southwest was really long, so we were already running short on time when the lady at the counter told me that since I didn't have "proof of age" that I had to buy Julianne a separate plane ticket.  So my dad put it on his credit card and kept the receipt since they said he could mail the receipt in and they would refund the price of the separate ticket onto his credit card.

Once we got the ticket issue settled, Julianne and I had to RUN through the airport.  Security started out to be an issue, but I found a decent guard who helped Julianne and I get through ahead of everyone else.  Once we were through, I hoofed it onto the tram, then had to sprint from the tram to the gate and we were the last ones on the plane.  They had to make people on the plane move seats so there would be two seats next to each other for us to sit in.  At first they insinuated that I should just hold Punkin on my lap but I made a big stink about just having paid for a ticket for her and they were able to move people around.

Watching Dora on our flight

Juli and Silas' first picture together!

The flight itself was uneventful... Julianne did really well, especially since she had her own seat.  Played a little, read a little, watched some of her Dora and Barney DVDs, slept a little.  Once we landed, we found that our luggage hadn't made it onto the plane, so we had to wait until the next plane for Orlando came in, an hour later.  It wasn't such a big deal because Jasmine and Silas weren't at the airport yet, so we found a bench to sit at near baggage claim and just hung out there.  Once J&S showed up, we let the kids run and walk around while we waited for the bag to come, which it did on the 10 a.m. flight.

After we had all our bags, we headed out to the car, jammed everything inside, and took off.  We flew into Midway and we staying in Rosemont, so we had a bit of a drive . We used the GPS on my phone to get us to the hotel, but we hit bad traffic on the way so it took us a while to get there.  Chicago wasn't really what I expected... maybe because we weren't downtown, but it kinda looked like it needed some heavy duty industrial strength scrub brushes taken to it.  Everything seemed kind of gray and dingy.  It could have been because the day was overcast, but I have a feeling it looks like that even when it's sunny.  It was only the outskirts though, so I was still really looking forward to getting some lunch and getting to the zoo later in the day to REALLY see Chicago.

The hotel was really nice (except for the EXORBITANT parking fee of $22!).  As we were unloading our stuff in the parking garage, we ran right into Monica and Elodie!  Elodie is such a cutie with her big blue eyes!  And for anyone who had any doubts, Monica is SO sweet and nice!  When we checked in, the first room they gave us was tiny.  I swear I've been in storage closets that were bigger.  Not only that, but there was no view and there was only 1 king bed, which was SO not going to work with two adults and two toddlers.  So we spoke to the lady at the front desk, who worked something out for us and told us we would have to move as soon as we got back from lunch.  We were okay with that, especially because they said we could leave our stuff in the first hotel room while we were at lunch.

The three kiddos eating lunch at TGI Friday's

I used the GPS on my phone to find a TGI Friday's nearby the hotel, so we talked to Monica and agreed to meet there for lunch.  It was so cute - the waitresses put all three high chairs on one side of the table while we three adults sat on the other side.  It was so cool to be sitting there with these women I had only known on-line!  And the kids were SO cute together!  They didn't pay much attention to each other at the table, but they sure were interested in the food and their drinks, which naturally, all 3 managed to spill on themselves.  It was okay, though - we had a good time with our kids and just being together!

View of the skyline from our window

Our plan for the day was to try to get the kids to take a nap back at the hotel and then head to the Lincoln Park Zoo.  Back at the hotel, I stopped at the front desk again and we got our new room keys and went to our new room, which was much bigger and on the 9th floor, so we had a nice view!  Even though the sky was still overcast and hazy, we could see the Chicago skyline, which was cool!  We also had our two double beds, which is what we were really after in any case.  We pulled the shades and put the kids in bed, but they were having none of it.  They wanted to get down and explore, which is what they wound up doing.  So Jasmine and I were the ones laying in the beds, trying to rest while the kids were going nuts.  Eventually we talked to Monica and found out that Elodie wasn't in a napping mood either, so we decided to get up and get going to the zoo since it closed at six.  We got the kids ready, got in the car, and took off!

And that's when the shit REALLY hit the fan.  More to come!

Packing, packing and more packing

I feel like I've been packing all day.  Maybe because every time I put something new in the suitcase, Punkin would find a way to hop up on the bed, snatch it OUT of the suitcase and run away with it.  Argh.  After we had a good-bye lunch with Bren (who is SO sweet, BTW!) my mom came and gave Punkin a bath, then took her back to her house so I could get some packing and cleaning done.

I think I'm almost done.  I have a couple more shirts, my bathing suit and some snacks for Punkin left to put in the bags, but then I'm done.  I'm going to my BodyFlow class at 6:30, coming home to get Bo, then heading over to my parents' house.  I'm hoping to have both Punkin and I in bed by 8:30 since it looks like we'll be getting up around 4:30 to leave for the airport at 5 to make our 7 a.m. flight.  Ugh.  Just saying that makes me tired!

Leaving on a Jet Plane!

Punkin and I are leaving to go to Chicago on Friday!

A few years ago when I got pregnant with Punkin, I joined this online community called B.abyZon.e, which is like a virtual neighborhood for women who all have similar interests - getting pregnant, being pregnant, or parenting.  I joined the September 2008 Due Date Club, which is exactly what it sounds like - an online club for women who were all pregnant and due in/near September 2008.  We started out the board with an awful lot of moms, but unfortunately we lost a lot of them early on due to miscarriages.  The moms that made it through the first trimester generally stayed up with the board all the way through their pregnancies, but then after the babies were born, moms started getting busy with their kiddos and we lost a lot more of our ladies, especially when everyone started moving over to Facebook.  I was really sad to see the board slow down, but it was still nice to be able to communicate with everyone on FB.

Some of the moms that I found myself identifying with more than others were LaNeisha and her son Nico (born the same day as Punkin!), Suzette and her daughter Skye, Jasmine and her son Silas, Julie and her daughter Autumn, Genia and her son Bryson, Monica and her daughter Elodie, Amanda and her daughter Jordyn, Kelly and her daughter Riley, Mary and her son Sammy, and Julie and her daughter Tenley.  These are the women who initially stayed on the board and moved to FB, so it was easy to keep up with them.  I met Genia and Bryson several months ago when they were in town on vacation.  Punkin and I went to Olive Garden with them and we had a great time!  It was really nice to be able to put a physical person with all the typing we did every day.

Over the past several months, I've gotten a lot closer to Jasmine.  She used to be the host of the board, but stepped down after her son was born because she just didn't have the time anymore.  Julie and I both stepped up to be hosts, but after a big fight (that I admittedly was a big part of) Julie got frustrated with the lack of respect and the lack of participation on the board (I don't blame her one bit!) and stepped down, leaving me as the host.  (We won't get into what happened with Janelle, who was supposed to be the other host on the board).  It was hard for me to keep up by myself, so Jasmine stepped back up to help me out.  Once she became the co-host again we started talking more off the board and got to know each other well.  We talked about all the stuff we would do if we ever got together but it was always more of a joke than anything, especially after looking at airfare for Cedar Rapids, which is the closest airport to her, and finding out that tickets were over $400 roundtrip.  Per person. EFF THAT.

  Well, early in the summer I got frustrated that I wasn't going to be doing anything except house and dog sitting for my parents, so I decided to make it a point to figure out how to get to Iowa to see Jasmine and spend some time there.  Plane tickets to CR were still a million bucks each, so I talked to Jasmine and she said she would be willing to drive to Chicago to pick me up if I could fly into O'Hare or Midway.  So I did some research and found plane tickets for less than $200 flying into Midway, so I went ahead and booked one.  Unfortunately the cheapest flight I could get flying out there takes off at 7 in the morning and the cheapest one coming back gets in at 11:00 at night, so Punkin's schedule is going to be a mess.  That's okay, though.  I'm willing to mess with her sleep for two days to be able to take a real vacation!

So we fly out Friday morning.  Thursday night we're staying at Nana and Pap-Pap's house because they're taking us to the airport.  Punkin is sitting on my lap since I didn't want to have to buy her a ticket so I'm worried about that, but hopefully since it's such an early flight and it's on a Friday morning, there will be at least one empty seat on the plane (hopefully next to me!) that I can set her down in.  I just checked the Southwest website and there are still tickets available for both flights, so keep your fingers crossed!  If not, she'll have to make due on my lap.  I borrowed one of Michelle's portable DVD players so hopefully that will keep her entertained on the flight.

After we get in to Chicago, Jasmine is going to pick us up at the airport and then we're going directly to the hotel.  Punkin will have been on a 3 hour flight and Silas will have been on a 4 hour car ride, so both kiddos will need to stretch their legs.  Monica and Elodie, who live in Minnesota, will be meeting us at the hotel and then we're going to the Lincoln Park Zoo!  After that we're going to have REAL Chicago pizza for dinner (and some other moms might join us for that!) and then Saturday morning we're going to do Navy Pier and FAO Schwartz.  I am SOOOO excited just thinking about it!

I'm going to try to keep the blog updated while I'm gone so those of you who want to keep up with our adventures can!

Birthday dinner... sorta

Brenden took me to Kobe last night for my birthday dinner.  My birthday was Tuesday, but I spent Tuesday evening with my parents, so he took me out last night instead.  Throughout the day my stomach had been feeling a little off, but I tried to ignore it.  Brenden came to my apartment and we took Julianne to my parents' house, then went to Kobe.  We didn't have to wait too long (which I was worried about because the parking lot was packed) and they sat us at a table with an older couple and their young daughter and a deaf couple with another gentleman (not sure of his relationship to them).  I was proud of myself because I was able to not stare as they were using ASL!  Normally I'm pretty bad about staring.

Anyway, we had our soup and salad and I was fine, then came the veggies and I was okay, then came the noodles and I was... sorta okay... and then came the meat and I was... not so okay... and then came the rice and I was really not good.  I brought most of my food home because I just couldn't eat it.  I drove back to Mom and Dad's to get Punkin and they met Brenden and we sat and chatted a bit, but I wasn't feeling good and of course that irritated Dad and he told me to go home, so after a while we did.  I had Brenden drive home and as soon as I walked in the door I collapsed on the couch.  I don't remember a lot about the rest of the evening, I just know that Brenden got Julianne ready for bed and rocked her to sleep, then emptied the bucket every time I got sick and helped me to the bathroom to get in the shower.  He went out to get me ginger ale and Gatorade, he gave me a wet cloth for my head, and he stayed with me till I fell asleep.  He had to leave to go home because he had to work today, but I'll tell you, if a guy cleaning up after you when you have the stomach flu doesn't make him a keeper, I don't know what does.  :-)

I was feeling better when I woke up this morning, but not great.  So I asked J if he could take the Punkin and he said he had to work all day.  That's one of the things that sucks about being a single mom... sometimes you just CAN'T take care of your kiddo and there's not much you can do about it.  I don't know anyone else in town that could take her for the day, so I asked Mom to watch her.  She came and got her and she and Dad took her to McDonald's for pancakes.  I tried to get up and do some cleaning, but that didn't turn out to be such a great idea.  So I'm trying to take it easy even though every fiber of my body is telling me to take advantage of the time without Punkin to get stuff done.  I suppose I'll have time to do that later, but I just hate how I have all this "free" time and I can't take advantage of it.