Twenty-Seven and Holding!

This past Friday marked Kyle's first time in a few years that he wasn't out of town for his birthday, and I was thrilled to be able to make a big hoopla out of the occasion. (In the Sheppard family, birthdays are a huge deal and I have strived to convert Kyle to this way of celebrating since we've been married).

I "travelzooed" and found a 4 star hotel in the heart of Chicago and a fabulous sitter to stay with Cade overnight and another fabulous sitter to relieve her for the afternoon and evening on Saturday. Friday morning Kyle was presented with a few gifts and an invitation to spend the night in the city with "the girls" (Savvy and me).

After a drive in rush hour (who would have thought going to the city on Friday afternoon would take so long?) we arrived at our destination, The Ambassador East Hotel. There we dined at the world famous Pump Room-- also a four star experience. We were given the choice of Evian and some other kind of water we couldn't pronounce to start our evening with. Kyle blankly looked up and said, "Ummm, I'm fine with tap water."

We were really interested in ordering an appetizer... but nothing on the menu looked all too appetizing (we aren't four star restaurant regulars but maybe sometime in the future stuffed pumpkin gnocchi will sound good)... so we just hit the main course:

<< I ordered the buffalo short ribs. Yum!

Kyle ordered Amish Chicken and an $8 side of mashed potatoes--worrrth it!>>

Dessert:

Kyle's birthday dish of apple fritters>>>My dish of double chocolate delight. This was a "shot" of hot chocolate with a piece of dark chocolate cake and passion fruit ice cream.

After lounging in the restaurant listening to a live jazz musician and watching an old sugar daddy at the bar pick up on young ladies, we headed back to the hotel. 2 1/2 seconds later Michelle fell asleep and Kyle watched 3 or 4 channels at once with full power over the remote-- a supreme birthday treat for any man. Savannah was amazing and slept some 6 or 7 hours straight. It was the best sleep I've had in months.

After an extremely lazy morning (no pitter pat of Cade's feet down the stairs at 6 am!) we headed to the city where we walked to the Hancock observatory:

We then attempted public transportation and spent 40 minutes on a bus to take us to the museum of Science and industry where we saw the famous display, "Body Worlds" a collection of human cadavers disected with great skill and artistic talent. It was AMAZING!

We came outside to find the wind howling and snow falling. We waited for about 10 minutes for a bus and finally gave in and got a taxi to take us back to the hotel to pick up the car. Cool picture of the ride home:

...To Break An Egg

For scouts earlier tonight we had a great competition--to invent a contraption that would prevent an egg from cracking if dropped from 30' in the air. I divided the group into five teams and they had 30 minutes to gather supplies from around the church. Here were the rules:

• 30 minutes to gather materials
• size of contraption must be smaller than mini basketball
• egg must not crack or break at all
• no running in church or else....

The winner on the competition was a tie between group Gabe, Tivan, and Dray and group Skyler and Alex. To break the tie the team that could throw the unbroken egg the farthest would win....and the winner is TEAM GABE, TIVAN, AND DRAY. Congrats to all of you. The most unique design was Mike Bates and Andrew Stevens. Take a look at the pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/kyle.woodbury/BoyScouts

I have ARRIVED!!!!

Kyle and Cade took a trip to Boise and left the girls at home to make it over (well, that wasn't the purpose, but that's what happened!). Having a week of just Savvy and me was the perfect combination of restful and productive. New moms are always told to "sleep when the baby sleeps" but I was too stupid to do that with my first and found myself deeply regretting that with my second. During my "vacation" (as kyle calls it) I got to do just that. I had nobody to answer to but my little baby (granted, newborns are demanding in many ways but they sleep a lot, too.) and that was great.

My first item on the to-do list was to get the kitchen and bedroom painted. With a house minus the toddler, the possibilities are endless. I've always been the one to do the painting in the house--Kyle hates painting--or so he says. I have yet to see him actually paint come to think of it.... Anyhow, I consider myself to be perfectly capable and can think of dozens of things I'd rather do with $300 bucks a pop. However, if you've seen our ceilings you would understand why I would hesitate to take on painting the kitchen and bedroom. They are vaulted up to the pitch of the roof. Up until this point it has been either white walls or a broken neck. When we got our cabinets installed about two months ago one of the installers (is that what you call them?) was actually a painter by trade but business was slow. I had him give me a quote for painting our kitchen and bedroom. My eyes popped out of my head when I looked at his quote. Inexpensive did not begin to describe it. So-- I booked him for 2 days of my "vacation". Can I tell you what a HIGH it is to come home after running errands for 4 hours to find your entire kitchen painted without doing anything more than purchasing the paint?!! It was incredible! To hire a painter in the book of Michelle-isms is to arrive. I have arrived!

My kitchen, by the way, is a dream come true. It's apple green (actually, Benjamin Moore calls it Dill Pickle but that inaccurately describes it) and it makes me so HAPPY! When I tell people what color it is I get a cordial, "Oh!" that really means "oh-my-goodness-that-sounds-horrid!" But you know what? I don't care because it's what I've dreamed of and as long as I like it and Kyle doesn't hate it, we are in gooooood shape.

The bedroom was painted a rich tan/brown/carmel color. It completely transformed the room and made it feel so warm and cozy. I am officially in LOVE with my house now. Happy Valentines Day to ME!

(ps when I say cheap i mean cheap. $120 for the kitchen and $150 for the bedroom. What a STEAL!)

Supermom

No, the title of this post is not in reference to myself. I am currently on Day 3 of survival after my own mother has deserted me to ---gasp--- take care of my own children, house, and hubby. My heavens who does she think she is? Well, let me tell you..... For some reason I just can't quite nail the science of how this woman managed to come into unfamiliar territory and do 85 loads of laundry, make breakfast, lunch and dinner, bathe and change the diapers of my two children, play games and read books to my toddler, cuddle my 3-week old and clean my entire house. I am lucky to get one of the above done and a shower before Kyle gets home from work. I assume eventually I'll get the "hang" of it and catch on to the secrets of the mysterious speicies, superous-womanous.

To elaborate on the trip a bit more, Gramma brought Cade a sticker-book, a tradition going on almost a year now. This one topped all the others, being one that Cade can reallllly re-stick and re-use over and over again. There are many sticker books that claim this, but only the farm animal sticker book holds true to the claim. Gramma also surprised us with the Savanna Smiles DVD, a priceless movie. The girl in this movie is absolutely adorable--so adorable her face made me vow to myself to name my first-born daughter after her.

I shall keep you posted on my progress of "getting it together" and "staying on top of things" ..... Hail to all ye Supermoms!