With the crazy weather we’ve had the last couple of weeks, it is hard to believe that it is really summer here in Chicago.  Last weekend, for Will’s birthday party, it was hundred degrees.  At one point (since we can’t have a birthday of his without rain), we had some pretty severe weather come through here too.  We had put up a tent outside and everybody had to grab on and hold.  Little did we know, but about a mile or two away, that same wind uprooted pretty large trees!  We also lucked out, because many parts of my village lost power.  I lucked out that it wasn’t mine!  Just as the storm started, I was starting dinner, so life would have gotten really interesting without power.

It’s hard to believe that Will is 4 now though!  He officially turned 4 on Tuesday which also happened to be his last day of school.  After his presentation at school, we surprised the kids and took them to Kung Fu Panda 2!  They loved it.  Heck, I loved it!

Then we had crazy weather.  We sustained over 100 degrees for several days in a row.  I also remembered that our air conditioning unit is on its last legs.  It was put in in 1994 (I have the paperwork from the prior owners).  When it was so hot outside, we couldn’t get the house lower than 78.  (It was set at 74).  We luck out that we have a basement that was even cooler than that.  However, I still want my house to get as cool as I want it!  However, air conditioning units are expensive.  You are going to spend a lot more on that than an antique vanity with mirror or really any bedroom vanities on the market.  At this point, I think we are just going to put up with it.  However, it gets much hotter here I’m not sure. (We have lucked out now that we had some thunderstorms come through and cool us down.  I think we are in the 60′s now!)

With the start of summer, I also have some projects I want to get done.  One of them is painting the front porch.  I’ve asked for advice of what color I should paint the porch.  Everyone I have asked I told me a different color!  It’s enough to drive you insane. 

I also think I need to repaint the bathroom.  Right now, it’s a light green.  However, it is tiny, so it has to be a light color.  (We did a complete remodel a couple of years ago, so I don’t need any new bathroom decor.  Just new paint.)  I can’t decide if a light yellow or brown would go good in there.  I don’t mind painting.  I just hate taping and picking out the color. Sigh.

How have you spent the summer so far?

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I know we’ve all seen the movie (okay for those who haven’t, its about 2 men who are dying who make a list about the things they want to do before they –wait for it– kick the bucket. Hence, the bucket list.). You’ll find thing on a bucket list like skydiving, riding in a race car, etc.

I bring this up, because Bill and I created a bucket list for our yard.  It’s everything we want to do.  I have trees I’d like to cut down.  My front porch needs to be replaced (anybody got about $10,000?  That’s all I need to tear down the ugly tiny porch we do have, and we’d love to create a wrap around porch around the front of the house).  Bill wants to put in a driveway (since we don’t have one, because we have an alley that runs on the side of our house.  (Our garage kicks out into the alley).  I’d like a new garage.  We are currently creating a flower bed along the side of our neighbors fence, since when they replace the fence, we can’t get grass to grow over there anymore!  I’d love for somebody else to do this for me.  :)  It’s a ton of work, but if it looks as good as it does in my head, it’ll be worth it in the end.

I know my yard bucket list isn’t as exciting as skydiving. However, it’s all stuff we hope to do someday. Do you have bucket list for your yard?

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Oh the joys of having a four year old (who is almost five and cries almost everyday because she is not five yet).  Madison has finally started noticing things – especially things called commercials.  Every single commercial she sees she wants whatever product their are selling be it a pancake ball maker to a baby that swims (though she said she wanted that and a towel to dry her off too so she is able to think beyond the commercial).  It has gotten to the point that she actually will take the remote and pause the TV to make sure you see what she wants (and no I am not kidding about that).  Needless to say, we have started talking about money.

I will be honest — Madison has no concept of money whatsoever.  However, we have explained to her that daddy goes to work to make money so we can buy things we want.  (Madison asks every morning where daddy is and why does he have to go to work).  This conversation is daily so hopefully one day she’ll get it.  She is too young to understand that 5 pennies is the same as a nickel.  In her head, more coins equals more money.  I am hoping that because we are starting to talk about money now already that she won’t fall into the traps so many of us have.  I don’t want her to be one of the many Americans who carry loads and loads of credit card debt (which her parents do not.  We pay off ours every single month.  If she does choose to have credit cards, I want her to be smart about it.  For example, the one credit card we have gives us 1% of purchases.  That 1% is then directed to the principal on our mortgage).  I want her to be able to live within her means and be happy (which her parents also try to do).

Capital One has stepped up to the plate and has developed a Moneywi$e eLearning tool to help us teach our kids about money.  It is more for teenagers than my little ones.  However, there are definitely some tips on there that I can start teaching my children now.  I have to thank Parent Bloggers for bringing this to my attention.

When did you start teaching your children about money? Over at Bargain Life, there’s a great article on the effects of couponing and the family.

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Bill put a really cool show on tonight. It is called Deadliest Dozen and it is on the National Geographic Channel. They are going through different countries and continents and letting you know what the deadliest twelve things are for each. So far, we have watched a show on India and Africa. Bill has decided that we are never going there. LOL. Next will be Australia. I do hope this do one for us here in North America or the United States. This show is just really interesting.

I love when we accidently come across a show that we hadn’t planned on watching, and it is great. The fact that I am actually leaning something is a plus. You never know when you need this information for a trivia pursuit answer. LOL. I have learned that I like the really pretty green mambo snake. At least, that is what I think they called it. It is fluorescent green and lives in trees. It is also very deadly, so you do want to stay away from it.

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Went to a Lia Sophia party on Tuesday. One of my friends had it. Was pretty cool. I had checked out the jewelry online and didn’t really care for it. However, once you see this stuff in person — wow! I ended up setting up to have a party. It’ll be sometime in June. If you are interested in anything, check out their webpage at www.liasophia.com and let me know if you want anything. They also have a lifetime replacement guarantee. If you are not satisfied for any reason (including you just not liking the piece anymore), they will replace it as long as you own the piece. Since Madison seems to wreck everything nice I have, I like this guarantee.

Sooo back to the yard we go this weekend. Our goal is pull out the old swingset and the tarp underneath. We are going to try and grow grass there. Anybody got any advice on how to do this? We went and bought fertilizer and grass seed. I wanted to just get sod, but Bill said no. Also, we cut the grass last night. My god, it was about a foot long. I could not believe it. We have 2 full garbage bags of grass clippings. We also ended up having to buy a weed wacker. We’ll be playing with this shortly.

We also bought Madison a bird feeder. She likes to look out the front window and talk and wave to the birds in the front trees. We’ll see how this works.

The exciting news happened this morning. Madison pulled her diaper down and said potty. Bill ran her to the bathroom and she actually went on the toilet. We did a potty dance and are very excited for her. This has been extremely hit and miss with her. Most of the time she does not tell us. She could care less if she’s sitting in a wet diaper. If anyone has any potty training advice, we’ll happily take it.

Well time to get running. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

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