South Beach, baby

So, Seth and I have been doing the South Beach Diet for the past few weeks. I've dieted on and off before, but never with any results. Last month I had my blood drawn and was told my cholesterol was ridiculously high. I tried to explain it was genetic, but she wasn't sympathetic. Around the same time, Seth's life insurance guy suggested he go on the SBD in order to get a better rate on life insurance. Ouch.

So, we both started this together. The first week was rough. Seth was in a rotten mood and I kept sneaking ice cream. But now it's actually working. We don't crave junk anymore. We've stopped eating "white" carbs and eat mainly veggies, lean meats, dairy, and some fruit. Even my pants are starting to hang on me. Yea for South Beach!!!

Our new digs!

Our new sandbox. I wasn't a fan at first. I hate sand. It gets everywhere. But they love it. Especially Harry. He can spend an hour filling a bucket and then dumping it out.

Our new playsets. Thank goodness for Craigslist! They like to pile on the slide and ram into each other. They are such boys!!!

Cape Cod with a white picket fence. How Americana can you get? It's perfect for us and we're so grateful to have it! (we're renting for a year; see previous post)

the dunes

Update

So, the last you heard, we were waiting for an offer on our place, a condo in downtown Chicago. I think it was the same day, definitely the same week, when we got it--an offer. Now, we had imagined that moment many times where we look at each and start laughing and doing the happy dance in our kitchen. But it didn't quite turn out that way. After we crunched some numbers and decided we could afford to sell it for the lower-than-we-wanted offer, we got the really bad news--she had an FHA loan. NOOOO!!!!!

We didn't really know why FHA was bad news, but we were about to find out. During the two months between accepting the offer and actually moving, there was no point when we could really embrace the fact that we were moving and get excited about it. Seth likened the whole experience to running through a war zone and dodging bullets. There were outstanding assessments, outstanding special assessments, lawsuits, etc. Our association was like cottage cheese. The building is solid (thanks to our rebuild), and the association was well run, but we didn't think a government agency would be able to see past all of that and actually approve our condo for the loan. But they did.

And then one hour later, three weeks before we are scheduled to move, we got sued. That's right--we got served. The Sheriff showed up at our door and served us, and our neighbors, with papers. It seems our developer never fully paid a plumbing company for all the work they had originally done on our building. The plumber had filed a lien and was now foreclosing on the lien. How did the FHA folks miss this? It seems he only sued us by name, and not PIN number, so when they ran a search, they missed it. Can you believe it?

Our attorney managed to get Chicago Title to agree to cover this lien, as we had title insurance, and the FHA lender didn't have a problem and agreed to fund the loan. So, two weeks out, we finally have assurance the sale is going to go through. But then, the next ball drops--the closing date we thought we had (6.4.10) was not possible. We needed to close on May 27. It's now May 20th. We don't have a place to live, as we were advised throughout this entire process not to put money down on anything, since we had no assurance that the sale was actually going to go through.

Seth takes a half day off work, and drives around Wheaton, Winfield, and Glen Ellyn and literally knocks on doors and calls numbers and actually found us a place to live. A real house!! That's also a long story, but suffice it to say it was a total God thing and we are very grateful.
We had 5 days to pack. I took the boys away and Seth packed for two days. Then we returned and Brice got sick. Like, pukey sick. They day before we moved, my parents took both boys and Seth and I stayed up all night packing, then moved, then unpacked in 2 days.

Whew.

quote

A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, Do it again; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough... It is possible that God says every morning, Do it again, to the sun; and every evening, Do it again, to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. --G. K. Chesterton

What to do, what to do...

This June marks our five year anniversary. We have been dreaming and thinking and pondering what to do to properly celebrate this momentous event. Five years and two kids, one nasty lawsuit, a leaky condo, two jobs at big law firms, and the like. So, at least to us, it's a big deal. One to be properly feted. Here's what we are thinking:

* London to visit dear friends and have a proper roasted dinner, lots of beer and curry and tea.
* Paris--we know no one and I speak just enough to humiliate us. But who doesn't love Paris??
* China/Hong Kong-- Seth grew up in China and is always itching for a visit "back home." We want to walk around, see the sights, absorb the vibe and EAT.
* NYC--we haven't been back since we moved four years ago. We want to go and visit old friends and eat (no big surprise there) at Burger Joint, have sesame ice cream in Chinatown, shaved ice in Koreatown, saganaki at Yanni's in Brooklyn, and dumplings at Wonton Garden.

The rub is that we will have precious little time. We strong-armed my parents into keeping the boys for two nights. I don't think we could do China or Singapore (oh, I didn't mention Singapore? The food...) on that time schedule. What will probably happen is that we will go to Saugatuck or perhaps, Leelanau Peninsula for a little getaway. That's ok. The big trips can wait. For now, it's just nice to be together.

Getaway

Our room at Hotel Palomar. I love the color scheme.

Don't you love the picture above the bed? Made to look like a mirror reflecting a very cool scene.

I'm pretty sure we were the first ones to stay in this room--don't you think?? I wonder if it even has batteries yet!

Relaxed and happy.

So we got away last night. Our good friend Dawn agreed to babysit overnight (!!) and we went to stay at the Hotel Palomar in Chicago. They are just opening and were running lots of specials, so we jumped at the chance to get away and treat ourselves.

Coincidentally, it was right around the corner from a restaurant we've been dying to try--XOCO. It's one of Ricky Bayless's places--street foody and casual. They only serve tortas and soups and desserts, but oh. my. goodness. It was amazing. Oh, and the churros. How I love churros! (Our churros consumption alone bumped us up to Executive Status at Costco!!) What a lovely way to spend an evening--good beer, amazing food, and churros. Oh, and no children.