The Lake

This is the Lake. Rock Lake in Lake Mills, Wisconsin. My family has been vacationing here for 52 years. Yes, 52 years! My Grandpa Chet started the tradition back in 1956, packing up the wife and kids and heading from Iowa to Wisconsin for vacation each summer. My mom liked the town so much that she moved there, which ultimately lead to her meeting my dad (who moved to Lake Mills his senior year of High School). I guess this town has some roots for me, huh?! This was mine and Jeremy's 7th year (Andrew's 5th year) vacationing with my family. It's definitely an unbreakable tradition for us now, as well!

Andrew enjoys the lake more than anything else in Wisconsin. He loves to wake up and head straight out to the lake and hang out there ALL day. No meals necessary! Just give him a bathroom break every now and then, some water to drink, and the sand and lake. He's set! Here he is steering a remote control boat with Uncle Chet and Logan.

Here is the sandy beach that he played at all day every day!

Kayak trip with daddy!

Don't worry, Dad. I got this!

Tubing (notice - outside of the wake)!

Jeremy's turn!

Here is Andrew playing Pole Golf in the back of my Grandma's cottage.

Me and Jeremy at the Sand Bar.

Our last night in Wisconsin. (Tear, sigh). Fish Fry at the Pine Knoll is another tradition. We've not missed a year at Pine Knoll. I go for the dessert - Strawberry Shaum Torte (sp?). Pictures are fuzzy. Dang cheap camera...

My Grandma and John.

Aunt Debbie, DC, and Michelle.

Uncle Dave and Kate.

Daniel and Aunt Diane.

A real rainstorm that lasts all afternoon (not just 15 min.) - with no dust! I love it! That's why Wisconsin is so green and we're so brown, I guess.

Chi Town

This year our annual vacation was a little different. The airfare to Chicago was cheaper than the airfare to Milwaukee so we decided to tack on a couple days to our trip and see some sights in Chicago. Neither Jeremy or I have ever been.
We took the public transportation everywhere. The cost was $9.00 for a 2-day pass for me and $9.00 for a 2-day pass for Jeremy. Andrew was free. That is as many rides as you want on the L-train and the buses. Pretty sweet deal!

Here's Andrew "driving" a fake train at the O'Hare Terminal L-train stop.
Here is Andrew and I on the L-train from O'Hare to the city.

Our first day in Chicago, we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo. It's a free zoo, but it is just like any other zoo I've been to. Same cool animals, it's just free! Amazing! We ate dinner at the Weber Grill which was recommended by Josh. It was neat to see the indoor grills that they cooked the food on. Of course, the food was yummy! I had a big ol' hamburger and Jeremy had Prime Rib. Then we took a trip downtown to take a gander at the Sears Tower. It was TALL, of course. We didn't spend the $18 each to take a trip up it, but it was still fun to see it from below. Due to my memory card malfunction, I don't have pictures of any of those sights.

We did get to see Union Station though. It's a train station and I'll swear that I've seen it in the movies, but I don't know which movies... It was cool and really old looking inside. Just a big room with a lot of old brown wood benches everywhere. It was really quiet in their, too. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? What movie(s) is this place in? I should've taken a picture of the inside...

Day 2 we visited the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum. We ate at Pizzeria Uno's (yummy!) and we had dessert at the Hershey's Factory (brownies, cookies, ice cream, etc.).

This is a picture of Nemo. Andrew took the picture! He was very proud of it!

Again, Andrew's photography of a shark!

The Field Museum - the same museum in A Night at the Museum w/ Ben Stiller.

Andrew, Jeremy, and Sue. The largest complete T-rex. That is not her real skull. It weighed too much to put on the skeleton. The real skull is upstairs on display. It weighs 600 lbs. I think.

Beautiful Chicago. View from Shedd Aquarium.

Preschool

Andrew had his first day of preschool yesterday. Up until yesterday morning, he was not looking forward to this new adventure. He was saying, "I don't want to go to school!" I was pretty worried. I was thinking that if he dislikes school already, that's going to be a long 14 odd years of his life. I tried thinking of ways to get him excited for school, but I couldn't come up with anything that worked.
Fortunately, he woke up yesterday morning with a new attitude. I'm not sure what changed his mind, but he came and woke me up saying, "OK, I want to go to school today." And he meant it! He had no problem walking into Ms. Jones house with a smile on his face and no look of nervousness about him. That's not normal for him, especially since he'd never met Ms. Jones or been to her house before.
To my relief, he left her house the same way; all smiles! He also said he wanted to go to school everyday, and when I told him it was only 2 days a week, he was bummed.
P.S. I had more pictures, but when I was uploading them to my computer they disappeared and when I checked my memory card they were gone from there, too. I'm really bummed. =(

God's Work

This is what I accomplished yesterday - 24 sets of Financials (there are 4 missing from the stack because Property Managers took them for meetings). This was the work that was suppose to last me all day yesterday and today. If anyone doesn't know what Financials are, they are a monthly report of finances for each Community (as in HOAs) that I do Accounting for. I have to produce a set of Financials each month for each Community that includes the Balance Sheet, Check Distribution, Income/Expense Statement, Yearly Spreadsheet, and General Ledger. I'm not going to go into the boring details; my point is to say that they can be time consuming.
I was a little worried about this week as it is the beginning of the month which means our most busy time here in the Accounting Department. I was worried because I have 3 days to get all my work done before a week and 2 day vacation. I planned on doing the Financials on Monday and Tuesday and doing everything else on Wednesday (little things like depositing checks or cutting checks to vendors). So, anticipating a stressful and hectic week, I prayed Sunday night and Monday morning and asked God to please help me out. I was a little specific in asking Him to give me guidance and wisdom in my work, including helping me prioritize in the best way possible. I normally pray before beginning my work anyway, just asking Him to help me complete the work and have me catch mistakes early on, etc, but I've never really thought to pray in advance for the day's work ahead of me. I guess I know how I get before a trip (anxious, stressed, annoyed with work since it is in my way of getting ready for the trip, etc.) so I thought this time to go ahead and hand over my worries to God.
Apparently that was the best thing to do. I came to work and had nothing on my desk to take care of before starting Financials. I had no voicemails or emails (which is very strange for a Monday morning). All I had to do is sit down and begin Financials. On top of not having any voicemails or emails all day, I only had 2 phone calls. Again, that is very strange for a Monday at the first of the month.
Needless to say, I was not the least bit stressed or irritated with customers or co-workers and I was able to bust out my work and be done with it.
Now I wonder what will be in store for me today and tomorrow. I may have long boring days, but it will be better than being stressed and frantic! And I have a peace that everything will be completed and off of my desk when I leave for vacation. Ah, the sweet smell of answered prayers!

To Dream or Not To Dream

On our way to the babysitter's house this morning, Andrew asked me if I had any dreams last night. I said I don't remember if I did. Then I asked him if he had a dream. He said no. Then he said he saw a piece of my dream in his room last night. What? I asked him what he meant. Then he said, "Well, I don't know if it was your dream or Daddy's dream, but I saw a piece of a dream in my room last night." I'm not getting it, but I think he remembers a little bit of a dream, but maybe it didn't make sense to him so he thinks it was one of our dreams. I think he is still convinced that it was a piece of mine or Jeremy's dream...