Calling all Chicago DISers #3

[paintnolish]

Again, thanks for the well wishes for my sister. We visited her on Sun. and she is doing pretty well. The codiene in the pain meds makes her sick to her stomach, though, so she is taking OTC which doesn't work as well. We also visited my Gpa for lunch, which is always nice. He lives in Chicago, so we don't see him often (which I feel guilty about). Anyway, I don't know if you remember, but my Gma passed away last March after being married to my Gpa 60 years. Gpa seems to be doing okay and (this is cute) he has a "girlfriend" (I called her this). She lives down the street, is 94 (cougar, my Gpa is 92) and they go to church together.
erika- Great customs and what a wonderful thing to celebrate!
chell- Don't be stressed. College will be fun. It is great to be able to focus yuor studies on what interests you.
ID- We had conferences the other day. Nothing but wonderful things about the kids. Glad they save their bad behavior for me!
Tig- Welcome back! Can't wait for the mini-TR!
Slo- Feel better! So much sickness going around. There is an H1N1 clinic here on Thurs. and I might take the kids. I can't get it, though- too old!

Time to get moving! Have a great day!

 

[Bunchkin]

Morning!!


Survived a garage sale weekend at my FIL's. Threw out a ton of stuff there while trying to clear the clutter.
Tip for anyone with kids: do them a favor and go through your stuff before you're too old to manage it yourself!!! And stop being a pack rat!!!


slo Hope you're feeling a little better. I could see how at this time of year your allergies could be contributing to how you feel, especially if you also suffer from asthma which I'm guessing you do if your doctor has put you on an inhaler in the past.


paint Grandpa and his friend sound cute! Hope your sister is feeling well soon.

erika I hope the meds your DD is taking continue to help her. She's too little to have to go through any more.


irish dancer I hope your son is feeling better today.


chell I'm sure you'll make the right decision about school, so try not to fret over it.

Tigg Glad you're back and I can't wait to hear about your trip!

 

[Stitchfans]

Hi everyone. > Long long time no talk to. Haven't been on the boards that much lately. Been busy writing. Have three books finished, and now trying to find a agent. Thought my dad's BIL was going to "act" as my agent since he works for Little Brown publishing co, but was misled.

Also been busy dealing with oldest DD's problems. Her husband decided to cheat on her and then abandon her 6 months ago. She was handling things fine until she lost her job. He decided to break into her apartment and when the police asked her to come home to press charges she was told she couldn't leave without being written up, well they did more than write her up. Long ugly story, and she is still looking for another job. DH and I so far have paid three months worth of rent plus some extra money so she could eat. Can't do any more.

We ourselves are fighting our own battles since a dishonest driveway paver decided to cheat us. Everyone beware of and never hire
[B]O'Shea Asphalt,Concrete,Brick from Naperville Robert Doyle very dishonest. Cheating us out of $500.00.

He had told us that if we needed extra gravel he would have to charge us a little bit more than the original price which of course we more than understood. Well after the driveway was all torn he says he is charging us $900.00. When asked why so much he said for gravel, delivery, and labor. Then tells DH out of the goodness of his heart he would knock off $100.

After calling several landscaping places I discovered for the amount of gravel needed plus delivery would of been $300.00 tops. The one man who was doing all the work by himself, who was only getting $40 for the day gave me the measurements. So that means for 10 extra minutes it took the guy with the bobcat to spread out the rest of the gravel was $500.00 in labor.

He did a lot more, but that is our major complaint. So far I have been in contact with BBB and Lisa Madagan's office. Neither one so far have given me any confidence that the problem will be taken care of. Sure hope so. Sure hope everyone else is doing well. No doubt you all are preparing for winter. Sure am not looking forward to it.

Thanks for listening. Carry on.

 

[geffric]

Morning!!


Survived a garage sale weekend at my FIL's. Threw out a ton of stuff there while trying to clear the clutter.
Tip for anyone with kids: do them a favor and go through your stuff before you're too old to manage it yourself!!! And stop being a pack rat!!!

I second that.. go through stuff, because if you kids need to they will throw it out because that can't handle all the stuff..a friend of mine couldn't bear to part with things from her Mom but didn't have anywhere to put them.. so she took a picture of each item and gave them to goodwill...


Stich.. Read about your problem on another thread.. hope you recove some $$$ back.. sorry to hear about oldest DD .. hope she finds a job soon..maybe 2010 will be better for all of us looking for a job..

 

[Tiggerrn2]

Morning!!


Survived a garage sale weekend at my FIL's. Threw out a ton of stuff there while trying to clear the clutter.
Tip for anyone with kids: do them a favor and go through your stuff before you're too old to manage it yourself!!! And stop being a pack rat!!!


ITA. When my dad passed away, we had a huge auction (he had lots of antiques) and still ended up with the largest dumpster known to mankind full to the brim with junk!!I had to climb up a tree, get into the dumpster to spread the junk evenly because they will not haul it away if the top is not level. And yes, I do believe my father was a hoarder!!!
And now, my mother still has at least another dumpster full of junk left in the house! I dread the day we have to finish off the job. She will not sort any of it-too big a job and she is to easily befuddled these days.

How is everyone today. I know I promised a TR. I will get to it tomorrow if it is raining. I have been busy and working since getting home. Still need to go back to catch up.
Hope all those that are ill are mendingHappy birthday to all those I missed, have fun to all those headed off on vacation, good luck to all who have tests coming upand have a great rest of the week!

 

[disneygal922]

Hi Everyone! I apologize for my extended absence the past 2 weeks. Mike was in a car accident on his way to pick me up from work on our way to ohio. he is fine! his car has some bumper damage but the driver who hit him was uninsured so we are postponing fixing for right now b/c it will cost close to $1000 and with trying to buy a condo and the wedding... well, that's 3rd on the list Which brings me too... we've been condo hunting and have narrowed it down to 2!! very exciting. next, we've finished designing the invites and now just need to print and put together. i was able to make my adr's today! i got le cellier, WCC, TTS, CG, Jiko, citricos, coral reef, and kouzzina for the honeymoon and group ressies for biergarten and ohanas for the thursday and friday before the wedding. i have lots more to post but gotta run and finish some work before 5. i just wanted to say hi and appologize for my absence! also, happy belated birthday to everyone! hope everyone is doing well. i promise to catch up tomorrow morning!

 

[slo]

This the last school morning this week

Thanks for the continued well wishes


paint - I"m happy your grandpa is doing well, and is socializing with others his age - that's great!!!!!
**I'm sorry to hear about the pain your sister is in I will continue keeping her in my prayers!!!

Bunchkin - I don't have allergies, but I do get respiratory issues very very easily. I had terrible pneumonia when I was 15, and my lungs were damaged due to it, so now I get upper respiratory issues very easily. Katie is the same way due to her terrible RSV, twice, when she was a baby. Both of us have an inhaler, that is used, when needed due to allergies - not fun!!!!

Stitchfans - So great to see you!!!!! I'm so sorry to hear of all the stresses in your home I feel so bad for your DD - many hugs to her and I will keep her in my prayers for life to get better for her soon.
**On a different note - that's awesome about the books.
What are they about????

geffric and Tiggg -

DG - I"m sorry to hear of the car accident I'm glad no one was hurt, and the car is still driveable
**Your ADR's sound great!!!!!
**How exciting about the condo - you'll have to take pictures after you make a decision.



Well, I now have Katie on my lap, so that means it's time to get her ready for school.
Have a great day!!!!

 

[Stitchfans]

Hi Sandy! Thanks so much. The books are Romance novels. Two fairly clean ones and the third one not so. The first two go together, and I insinuate something is going on. Some family members and friends told me that steamy ones sell better. So my third one is steamy. I am kind of embarrassed over that one. Don't get me wrong it isn't real raunchy or anything but it does somewhat go into details.

As far as oldest DD there is a part of me that wishes she would come back home since she is in Oklahoma all by herself, but yet I understand her reasons for wanting to stay there. The weather is easier to handle, plus yes it is cheaper there. But with no job that does not make a difference.

Thanks again Geffric for the well wishes. I suppose if it is meant to be, we will recover some or all of our money. Hope everyone else is having a great day with no illnesses or worries.

 

[disneygal922]

As promised, I am catching up!

Slo ~ I'm sorry you haven't been feeling well lately. hope you are starting to get better Why do the girls have the rest of the week off of school? I will definitely post pics once we get in some place.

Tigg ~ glad you had a wonderful trip. I still haven't finished my TR from our trip in Sept.

Stitch ~ Sorry to hear about your situation with the driveway guy. Also, I will keep your DD in my thoughts and prayers.

Bunchy ~ glad you survived the garage sale. I bet you are glad it's over.

Paint ~ glad your sis is starting feel a little better. Also, I think it's cute your gpa has a 'girlfriend'. I'm so glad he's doing alright. it's great he has someone to spend time with.

princess.chell ~ hope you had fun on your field trips and hope your senior pictures go well!

ID ~ hope DS feels better soon. how'd DD's volleyball try out go?

Erika ~ the shirts are cute. I'm glad to hear the youngest's kidneys are doing alright on medication.

Everyone else~ hope you all are doing well!

 

[disneygal922]

WAAAAHOOOOOOOOOO!!! I called dining back today and was able to book CRT!!! I'm waaaay excited! so we are doing CRT instead of Citricos! Sorry, my colleague I share an office with thinks I'm crazy for booking meals 6 months in advance (though she does understand about some restaurants being hard to get). But I thought you ladies and gents would understand my excitement so I came here to share! And the wonderful CM marked that we will be on our honeymoon for our entire reservation b/c the CM yesterday didn't do that. I'm so excited!

 

[nd5056]

Hi, gang.

Just dropped in to say that the 'The Greatest Show On Earth' in Rosemont (Ringling Bros Circus) is 50% OFF starting $6.50 selected dates.

Check it out here:

.

 

[Tiggerrn2]

Hi all! Had to pick up DS from school sick today-he had a headache. He cannot return until Friday because of all of the H1N1 flu scare. So, here I sit. I had needed to get groceries and planned to clean out my DM gutters.
What's a Diser to do? I guess I will fill you all in on my trip.

We arrived Monday, October 19th to MCO on time! Made it down to ME and no line for our hotel (had done on-line check in and didn't even need to stop at the ME desk). We hopped right on our bus and the bus didn't wait for anyone else. We left directly for POR. No other stops! It was like getting picked up by a limo!

[/IMG] Went directly to the online check-in (didn't have to wait behind the "other" people in line) and had a great experience with CM. They had put us in Alligator Bayou Building 39!I told her I had requested the Mansion section, so she very kindly moved us right away. We had paid the water view price, so I was really hoping for a nice, high up view, but we ended up being on the first floor.

[/IMG] It was OK since we didn't have a balcony anyway over here. Had the only towel figure we'd get all week on day 1.

[/IMG] It was a Hidden Mickey head (not too hidden). I have to say, housekeeping wasn't the greatest for our stay. They left clean towels, but didn't always take the dirty ones and we rarely got fresh soaps. But we weren't in the room much anyway, so we didn't care. We'd all brought our own toiletries.
We got such an early start we headed off to catch the bus to Epcot for a snack-filled lunch via Food and Wine.

[/IMG] We stopped in the Riverside Food Court and grabbed a beverage,

[/IMG] then headed out to the bus stop. Wouldn't you know it, the bus was just pulling in. So off we sprinted to catch the bus (this was a theme for us this week) Better than waiting for the next one. And we were off for a nice light lunch. We went through Future World and, of course, had to stop for a ride on Soarin'!! Always my favorite. The stand-by time was 40 minutes, but we didn't wait that long. The fun que entertainment wasn't working, though.Rode to the right 2nd row. Hate seeing people's feet swinging above me. But the ride was great! As usual. Then we were off to World Showcase! Stopped in Ice Station Cool for a drink-had to get the newby to try the Beverly.Always good for a laugh!
From there it was on to snackville.

[/IMG]

[/IMG]Stopped at a few places today. Friends tried the grilled Barramundi in Australia and the Apple Strudel from Germany. I was holding out for the lobster roll in America!! And it did not disappoint! We wandered around to France for the lovely GrandMarnier/Grey Goose slushes-I had the orange and my friend tried the Lemon. Both were wonderful. By then we were pretty tired of wandering, so we headed back into Future World to catch the monorail-we had a 5:30 ADR for Ohanas that could not be missed!

 

[geffric]

WAAAAHOOOOOOOOOO!!! I called dining back today and was able to book CRT!!! I'm waaaay excited! so we are doing CRT instead of Citricos! Sorry, my colleague I share an office with thinks I'm crazy for booking meals 6 months in advance (though she does understand about some restaurants being hard to get). But I thought you ladies and gents would understand my excitement so I came here to share! And the wonderful CM marked that we will be on our honeymoon for our entire reservation b/c the CM yesterday didn't do that. I'm so excited!

great news.. that will be so fun..

 

[geffric]

Tyygern.. your pictures are great.. glad you had a great time.. can't wait to hear more.. BTW did I tell you I love the pictures.. oo I wish I was made of money and I could go back for more WDW..

 

[Tiggerrn2]

We popped into the Magic Kingdom for a quick look around.

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Wandered a bit into Adventureland and Pirates was 5 minute stand-by. We still had an hour to dinner so we figured why not. Then we headed out to the Resort Monorail around to the Poly for dinner.
I have to say, Ohanas was the BEST dinner we had this week! We enjoyed the entertainment, too. They sang a Happy Birthday tune to the birthday guests and the kids did their dance shaking the moraccas. No food pix here. Sorry. The bread, salad and the chicken wings were heavenly! (OK full already) The pork and steak meats were also terrific. The turkey was a little dry, but still OK. I wasn't fond of the noodles. The broccoli was good. Then came dessert-no room for dessert!!!!!But I stuffed a few bites of the most wonderful banana bread pudding ala mode into my mouth anyway!! It was so good. I wish I could've eaten more.
We pried ourselves away from the table and rolled on out to the Monorail-EMH at MK tonight til 1AM!!
We wandered into the park in time for the parade and fireworks.

[/IMG]

[/IMG]
Once the park cleared out after Wishes, we made our way into Tomorrowland and hit Buzz, Stitch (no wait-so we had to do it. It is still awful), and CaOP
then into Fantasyland for Philharmagic. We wandered around-Peter Pan still had a line. Never Mind-it's not all that. We headed over into Liberty Square and hit Haunted Mansion. Then into Frontierland for BTTM x2. 5 minute wait tops. It was chilly!!! No Splash! By now we were all a little cool and a lot tired. We'd made it til 12:30. Not bad since we'd been up since 3AM. Time to return to our Mansion. I believe this was the longest wait for a bus we had. But it was only about 15 minutes. Always seems to me, my longest bus waits involve the Magic Kingdom in one way or another.
On our return, we found these little fellows-they greeted us at our windows each night.

[/IMG]
And that ends day one!! Up next, some Animals and a great Party!!

 

[Tiggerrn2]

Tyygern.. your pictures are great.. glad you had a great time.. can't wait to hear more.. BTW did I tell you I love the pictures.. oo I wish I was made of money and I could go back for more WDW..

Thanks geffric! I wish I could go back again ASAP as well.
I will get a few more pix posted. Out of respect for my friends, however, I won't be able to post as many as I would like. They aren't on the boards and I know 1 does not post any pix online. So they are limited. Plus, who needs 20 pix of parades/castle/parties

 

[Stitchfans]

Tiggerrn2: your pictures made me "homesick" glad to hear you had a good time. the pictures were great!

 

[Bunchkin]

Hi!


Ribs for dinner here, made them in the crock pot. Roasted potatos and Tastefully Simple beer bread too (minus the beer, I used 7-Up instead).

Tomorrow I help in DS's class for their Halloween party! Things are run so differently here at school. The teachers are in charge of planning all parties and running them....no room moms!!! ?????

Tiggerrn Great pictures!!! I love, love, love POR!! So calm and relaxing there. And yet, so much to do.

disneygal Sorry to hear that Mike got into and accident. Glad he's ok and that the car is at least driveable. Hope the condo hunt is going well. Are you looking in Tinley?
I'm glad you got all your ADR's!! You must be soooo excited!!

Stitchfans It HAS been a long while since you stopped by and said hi! Glad you're back! Sorry to hear about all the stress your family must be going through! I hope you can find someone to help you get your books published.

 

[disneygal922]

Bunchkin, ribs sound so delicious! I've never had them from a crock pot though. mmmmmmm, potatoes! We are so very excited about our ADRs. The only place that is not new to us is the Biergarten! We always do Biergarten on our first day of a trip! The condo hunt is going well, we are looking in Tinley and Orland, mostly b/c I don't want to be too far from my dad and sisters who all live in Tinley. And mike's parents live in Tinley so i really want to stay in the area.

Tigg, your pics are great! I feel like our wedding/honeymoon trip can't come soon enough. I will say though, we went to the coke place on our last trip and i had heard so many terrible things about Beverly, I was really nervous to try it but I did, and I actually thought "wow, this isn't nearly as bad as everyone says." Mike agreed. We thought a couple of the others were worse solely b/c they were too sugary. i guess i'm in the minority on that one!

Geffric, I'm very excited about CRT if you couldn't notice.

 

[irish dancer]

Hi guys! Wow, Wednesday night already. My how time flies!

Today was a busy day. The girls had all school mass this morning, DD12s class was singing and she asked if I'd come so I did. Glad I did. The resource teacher, Sister Peter, was celebrating her 50th jubilee and the Bishop was there to celebrate mass. He also announced that our pastor has been named Auxillary Bishop for our diocese, they just got the call from Rome this morning! Unfortunately this means he'll be leaving our parish but it is exciting at the same time. Got a lot of errands done too.

DS went back to school, still coughing a bit but fever free for over 24hrs.

disneygal - glad to see you around again. So sorry about Mike's accident, glad he's OK. What a bummer about the insurance though.
*Congrats on the ADRs!! That is always an exciting part of the planning.
**No news on the volleyball, probably not until next week.

Bunchkin - how do you cook ribs in the crock pot? Recipe please....
*Have fun at the party tomorrow. Don't think DSs class is having a party, there is a carnival at his school Friday night though.

Stitchfans - sorry about the problems with the contractor, hopefully all will work out in the end.
*Sorry about the trying situation for your daughter.

Tiggerrn - Thanks for the pics and TR!! Ahhh, next best thing to being there is looking at pictures. We had a frog on the wall by our light many nights at POR.

nd - thanks for the circus info, will have to check it out!

slo - why no school Thurs and Fri? Lucky to get a 4 day weekend though - enjoy!

Tiggerrn & Bunchkin - I hear ya on clearing out parents' homes. My DMom is a pack rat, bordering on hoarding and it is going to be a complete nightmare to empty her house when the time comes. We've tried to work on it some but she gets so upset and panicky that we decided to just leave it. DH has been spending time with his mom and luckily they are NOT pack rats.

Well, I wanted to get to bed early....so much for that. At least it's before midnight though. Did I hear right that it's going to be nice (warm) tomorrow? I hope so! Have a great one everyone!