Here’s our backyard last week in the snow.

As you can see when this photo was taken, it was snowing. We have over a foot of snow on the ground right now, and average snowfall in a normal Chicago winter is 38″., and we’re at a total of 39″ so far this year.

That’s our little detached garage off to the right, and Robert’s trusty shovel leaning against the garage. We don’t have a fence in the backyard yet that separates us from our backyard neighbors, but we hope to someday, maybe by the time the baby starts walking!

I like winter, but this winter of 2008-2009 in the Chicago-land area is getting me down. I think it’s just the lack of sunlight, because we have had millions of cloudy days and not very many sunny ones. And now the freezing arctic cold has set in, when it’s too cold to even venture outside unless you’re seriously in dire need of takeout Chinese food.

I know we’re almost rounding the bases into the home stretch of winter, but it seems endless. But on the other hand, I don’t want it to be spring because we have more and more baby preparations to do! This weekend, the goal is to paint the nursery. At least we don’t have to go outside to do that.

Oh, and by the way? More snow predicted for tomorrow.

Our good friends Anthony and Jodi just welcomed a New Year’s Eve baby – little Alexander!

We’re so excited for our friends and can’t wait to meet the new little guy and hear all about him. Congratulations Anthony and Jodi!

We’re only sad because we live in different states, and wish we lived closer so our babies could be friends, like Anthony and I were as kids living in Chatham, IL. Maybe someday!

Robert and I are having a baby! Good thing we moved into a house with a yard. I’m 20 weeks along, and due May 2, 2009.

We are beyond thrilled – now that we’re well into the second trimester, we feel really good and have had very positive results from the blood work and ultrasounds, baby looks awesome. I’m starting to feel it move around, which is the weirdest thing I’ve ever experienced, and the coolest. I feel pretty good, although I usually have to go to bed by 8:30 PM.

We’re not going to find out if it’s a boy or a girl – we love surprises and suspense. We have 9 nieces and nephews between the two of us – 4 boys and 5 girls, and they are all amazing people, so we would be happy with either kind of kid.

We’re also not telling anyone our name selection because we aren’t interested in a lot of unwanted advice – although we are leaning towards the name Shecky, which works for either a boy or a girl.

It’s official. I’m growing a human. Hooray!

We recently acquired a new appliance for our kitchen. Now, usually, I’m not much for extra appliances lining the countertops – I prefer uncluttered space in the kitchen.

But lately, I’ve been thinking about sandwiches. Thinking a lot about them. So my dear husband Robert went to the Target and purchased A PANINI MAKER.

Ladies and Gentlemen – the Panini Maker is the evolution of the perfect sandwich. I’m a fan of grilled cheese, but this takes the humble grilled cheese to a whole new level. And it’s so easy to use!

We’ve had paninis three nights in a row, going for the fourth. Turkey and swiss on rye, with tomato, yum.

Panini makers would make the perfect holiday gift. That’s my holiday tip for the day as the holidays are rapidly approaching.

What an election. Crazy past 2 years. What a day yesterday. What an amazing speech last night. Congratulations America! Congratulations Barack Obama!

Flying home last night as we were landing at O’Hare, we flew north of Grant Park, where I could see the lights of the party downtown and millions of flashbulbs going off. I landed around 8:15 PM (early – can you believe it?), Robert picked me up, and we rushed home to get in front of the TV. Election returns were coming in fast and furious, and our level of hope was rising.

And then, the announcement! Obama Wins! Our hearts were full and our eyes were shining – what a proud and impressive moment in our history that we are all a part of. And then his acceptance speech – so awesome.

I’m elated and so is Robert. I woke up this morning thinking “we did it”. Never in our relationship have we watched a Democrat be elected to the White House, and we are so proud to give our support to a President like Barack Obama. Time to Cel-O-Brate! Yay Obama!

The next day, after our restless night at David’s house, we went to Boston, to see our favorite team play Baseball – the BOSTON RED SOX. We had a good time at the game, ate some Fenway Franks, and cheered on a winning game. Yay! That part wasn’t awkward at all.

After Boston, we made our way to Cape Cod, one of my favorite places on earth. Robert and I decided to continue the Vacation of Awkward Experiences by trying something we’ve never done before – stay in a Bed and Breakfast. We chose one on the internet that fit our vacation dates and location on the Cape. It was pretty awkward, especially because it was a clothing-optional inn.

No, not really. Sam and his wife Penny were new B&B owners – have only been in the business for 2 years, originally from New Jersey. They also have a lovely gift basket business if you’d like to buy a gift basket, they are for sale in the dining room.

Sam showed us around the property and to our historic bedroom, in the eaves of the second floor. The bathroom was across the hall from our bedroom, and that was way uncomfortable, but they provided robes to wear when we were out wandering the halls after our showers. Sam mentioned that we may want to make friends with the other guests like the folks from last weekend, who all went out to dinner together for every meal. Not a chance.

The most awkward part of the whole experience was that Sam wanted to control us. That’s why he got into this business. First of all, they don’t live in the “big house”, they live in a coach house in the back of the property. In order to keep tabs on the main house, there are baby monitors all around the common areas, so Sam can hear what’s going on, and come over and talk to you when you are outside of your room.

Every time we came back to the B&B, he popped up and wanted to talk to us. Common questions were: Where were you, where are you going, what are you doing next, how’s your room, when are you coming back, why do you keep sneaking around? We were accused of “sneaking around” every day we were there. We don’t even know what that means!

Talk about sneaking around – Sam even pops out of the bushes late at night. One night when we came back from walking on the beach, around 11 PM – he appeared next to our car to talk to us in the dark. Very awkward.

One Saturday morning, we decided to get up early and rent bikes, so we let Sam know we wouldn’t be joining them for breakfast part of the Bed & Breakfast.

We thought the most awkward way to ride bikes would be to do it together, so we rented a tandem bike and made our way down the Cape Cod Rail Trail – a bike trail made from an old railroad that’s been paved over. Very fun and very awkward, I laughed the entire time. We rode about 8 miles and then returned to the B&B for showers.

Sam and Penny were still in the kitchen, cleaning up breakfast. He motioned for us to come in – they had saved breakfast for us! When we said we’d already had breakfast (along the bike trail) he said “You’re cheating on Penny!”. Oh brother. Good thing we skipped that one too – it was a breakfast Robert would have hated with lots of sauces and souffles.

We like our vacations to teach us important life lessons. The lessons we learned on this one was – don’t stay at a bed and breakfast with stalkers, and always rent a tandem bike when you can.

Today is the big day for change!

If you need help with voting, check out Obama’s voting site at Vote For Change.

Now, stop reading the internet and go VOTE!

I will be on a plane today coming home to Illinois from California, and so I won’t know what’s going on in the election until about 9:00 PM tonight. The anticipation will be too much! I hope the pilots give us updates.

Good Luck, and get ready for change. GO OBAMA!

This summer, we took a great vacation. For those of you regular readers of this little blog, you’ll remember our vacation of last summer: A Vacation the Hard Ways, where we rolled dice while on a road trip to see where we ended up.

This year, we determined that the east coast was where we wanted to be, but since we can’t have just a normal, nice vacation, we needed a theme. This year’s theme was the Vacation of Awkward Experiences. (My brilliant husband came up with that). Again, it was in the car, (the new mini!) and it was road-trip based.

The goal of this vacation would be to challenge ourselves by doing things we’ve never done before – things that may make us feel awkward or uncomfortable. Pulling ourselves out of our comfort zone. Turning over new leaves. Experiencing things we normally would be too timid to do.

We took 2 weeks at the beginning of July and started driving.

The first Awkward Experience we encountered was staying at a friend’s house, a friend we don’t really know very well. I have a really good work friend, David, who I respect and admire. He lives in a gorgeous part of New Hampshire, and invited us to stop by and spend the night at his 1766-built farmhouse.

We had made it to Vermont, and made our way through the narrow state to New Hampshire. We called our friend David at around 9:00 AM, with the plan that we would meet them for dinner around their house and stay at a hotel nearby. We had even researched the hotels. But David insisted that we stay overnight at his house – and since this would be the perfect official start to awkwardness, we said yes.

The country that David lives in is very different than Chicago – lots of giant rolling hills, forests, and even moose-crossing signs. We were very excited about the moose crossing signs – but we’ve since learned that they aren’t out just walking around, crossing streets, disrupting traffic. They are a little more elusive than that – we never saw a moose, sadly. Or a bear. Every person we asked, “Have you seen a lot of moose?” and the response was always “oh, when I was a kid once, I saw one” or “At the zoo”. Very disappointing.

We got to David and Mary’s gorgeous house around 5 PM. It’s pretty crazy to be in a house that old – it felt like staying in a historic site. David made dinner, picked fresh from the organic co-op farm they belong to (it was delicious!), and his daughter introduced us to the goat and two sheep.

The night passed restlessly, as we felt too awkward to sleep. It was nothing that David had done or said – we felt very welcomed. But it was the first time we had stayed overnight at someone’s house who wasn’t related to us. Usually we’re in hotels! So Awkward.

The story continues as the journey does – and as this is the second official day of NabloPoMo – (National Blog Posting Month) you’ll have to wait to see what happens next.

For those of you who have been waiting with bated breath for a photo of our cool, awesome Obama sign, here it is, courtesy of Robert, my dear husband:

Remember to VOTE, people! If you don’t vote, you don’t get to have an opinion for the next four years.

Last week we were enjoying the fall weather in our back sunroom, with the windows open, when we heard the most sad sound.

It sounded like a hurt animal of some kind, just crying. A mournful, lonely, sad sound.

We looked out the window, and there, laying on the fence, was a poor little gray squirrel, just crying his little squirrel eyes out. Arms and legs splayed, head down, he looked injured. He just lay like a lump of squirrel on the fence for about 20 minutes and cried. “Is it hurt?” we wondered. Or was it attacked by the neighbors dog and chewed up and spit out? Or just depressed? The way it was crying, we didn’t know, but knew it was in some sort of trouble.

In squirrel emergencies, sadly, we are unprepared. We don’t have tiny squirrel medical instruments, or a squirrel hospital nearby. So we watched, and waited to see what would happen. After about 20 minutes of crying on the fence, the squirrel hopped down and began foraging in the yard, like nothing was wrong.

Robert decided the best cure for a crying squirrel would be some delicious nuts. He found our stash of whole nuts, and took a handful to throw out the backyard door at the poor squirrel. One of the nuts landed squarely on the squirrel’s head, Robert has really good aim. For a moment, we thought the nut killed him. But no, the squirrel shook himself, looked around, grabbed the nut and ran away.

We still don’t know why the squirrel was so upset. But the nuts from heaven hopefully solved whatever squirrel problem it was coping with.