a quest ended

I know we've said this before only to have to eat our words, but after a few wrong turns, some detours, and misdirections, we are finally moving forward on purchasing a house.


More pictures are at our shutterfly site (link at the right).

Like many of the other options we had explored before, the house is in our favorite town, 2 blocks from an elementary school, 3 blocks from a middle school, 1 block from a park, with the L, two grocery stores and several restaurants in walking distance. The house is a 3-bedroom 1.5-bath rehabbed house that turns 100 years old this year. It fits us well, and we are very excited.

Our sense of relief is palpable as we get the last few details in order. I literally walk around feeling the desire to exhale deeply.

In the end, our nearly 12-month delay between accepting an offer on our condo and closing on the new house

• allowed us to live in a new part of Chicagoland (thanks so much to Grammy A and the whole family for letting us crash at her house for the last 4 months),
  
• allowed us to get into a much better house at a similar price, and
  
• definitely taught us patience as well as a great deal about the real estate industry.

Most of all, it taught us we don't want to go through this again any time soon, and fortunately we believe we have a place that will work for the long term.

Thanks to everyone for all of their thoughts, prayers, and words of encouragement through this process. We know what we have been through is nothing compared to the struggles that others go through with health and much more serious issues, but we are very glad that the process is coming to an end. We are slated to close and get moved in by the end of July.

Ra-chel

Today, for the first time, Rachel pronounced her first name with two syllables! She's been "Rae" for quite some time. Today, just when I was about to become fed up with her hollering in the back seat during a long ride home, she popped out a few good "Rachel"s. What a crafty one! I think she probably sits up in her crib at night practicing things like this to have handy for just such a moment. Whatever--it works! Once again, I'm so glad we gave her the name we did. It just works for her. We sure love our Ra-chel baby!

New photos at our shutterfly site--enjoy!

Fathers Day

On Sunday, completely unsolicited, Rachel said to her Daddy, "Happy Fathers Day!" It actually sounded more like "happy fah-ee day," but she enunciated so carefully to get that second syllable in fathers that it was just darling. She also said it to Papa on the phone and Grandpa on Skype. So yesterday we taped it to share. To all you fathers out there, happy fah-ee day!

Should we have named her Bear Grills?

We thought Uncle Tim, especially, would appreciate learning of Rachel's incredible survival skills. Yesterday, we went outside to play in the rain. (Great opportunity to make use of Rachel's new croc-knock-off shoes' water resistance!) The child, who has any number of cups and sippies available to her all day, knelt down on the ground at every divot-in-the-sidewalk puddle and took a big sip. "Let no water go to waste!" is apparently her new motto. And after each sip, she'd stand back up and say, "Cold--brrrrr!" She's a hoot. She adores playing with water in all its forms. I guess we should have suspected this, given her penchant for eating ice and snow last winter!

So, about these shoes...we went shopping for sandals the other day. There was a disappointingly small selection in her size, and as it turned out, she was between sizes and none fit her well anyway. But that didn't really matter, once she found a pair of sparkly pink jelly shoes (four sizes too big for her) and fell shoes-over-head in love. She was not what one might call cooperative in trying on any sandals after that. We compromised with the pink croc-knocks, and she's barely stopped wearing them since--bedtime included! Here she is, fresh from a sip of "cold-brrr!" puddle-water--all ready to start fashioning dishes out of leaves and rope out of dandelion stems.

Daddy's Home!

One of the coolest things about living in a house (instead of a third-floor condo) (still the temporary house, alas. Maybe someday we'll have something to call "our house.") is getting to watch for Daddy to come home and running out to meet him. Aunt Beth captured one of these moments the other day...


It was a gorgeous day, with a visit from Aunt Beth, and Daddy came home early...what better day to wear the Beloved Pink Capris? Rachel's world was a very good place that day!

Rachel continues to talk up a storm. She's begun stringing words together. Our favorite is when, bored in her car seat, she grabs a handful of her hair and says loudly, "Ow! Let...go!" (Perhaps it's bad to laugh when our daughter is in pain, but the whole situation is just too funny.) Last night at dinner, she said, "Thanks, Daddy." (Talk about warming your heart!) And she has shown me how often I say "all right" and "okey-doke" by picking up those phrases herself. Too cute. It's delightful to have actual conversations with her now.