Turtle Power!

Today is Chase's 4th birthday and he had his friends party at the "birthday capitol of the world" (as they said during their show) at the famous Chuck E. Cheese's yesterday! After taking my cake decorating class this summer, I was motivated, so I volunteered to bake him a cake for his birthday. He chose Ninja Tutles and I was instructed to make Leonardo....the blue one. After spending quite a bit of time on ebay (this pan came out in 1991), I finally got the cake pan! This was my first character cake, and I definitely learned a lot. Especially looking at it from the top....I know I need to put the stars a wee bit closer together. But for the most part, I am pretty darn proud it actually looks like a Ninja Turtle!

Pumpkins Update

Good pumpkins in the new batch!

We have picked most of the pumpkins in this section!

Sad pumpkins ruined by too much water =(
But luckily, there weren't TOO many!

We picked 30 more good ones on Friday!

The biggest one we have!

The last of the cucumber crop

(Not including the 13 jars pickling in my refrigerator!)

Adam digging out carrots

That is a sad stumpy carrot!

Most of the carrots turned into gross yucky orange goo.
!?!?!?!

The slime residue in the ground

All of the ruined carrots. =(
What happened???

The last of the corn. We did get two good ears, and they were yummy!

Overall, we apparently rock at growing cucumbers. The onions are wimpy. The carrots were good until they turned into orange mush. Too much rain? We waited too long to pull them? We don't know. The corn was infested by bugs. But the pumpkins are looking good still! Let us know when you are ready to buy your pumpkins for Halloween! I know a great place for you to get them!

More Flooding

Out my upstairs window off the street behind me. It was flooded from the front doors of the people on the other side of the street to the front doors of the people behind me.

I had to stop on the way home from church today and take pictures of Schaumburg and Barrington. I had to take a couple detours to church because of two areas of flooding. On the way home I just had to take pictures of "Lake Barrington" here.

I pulled in the parking lot on the west side of Barrington. Doesn't look like anyone is going to Jimmy Johns or Baskin Robins today!

The water is up to the bridge in the pond on Barrington.

From the Baker's Square parking lot. The parking lot is flooded, Barrington is flooded all the way to the pond across the street.

In front of my school is getting worse.
If there was school today...the buses wouldn't be able to get in!

Yesterday the water was just on the driveway across from school.
Now it is up the garage door.

Another view in front of our bus lane.

One of the streets on the way back to my house. I wanted to get a pictures of one of the signs that says "Water on Pavement" that are everyone, but I couldn't get one because of traffic. Way to state the obvious!

Flooding in Schaumburg

Dad sent me pictures of some flooding in Schaumburg.

The Flood of '08

At least that is what Adam and I are calling it. I know there is crazy flooding everywhere....I had to avoid several flooded roads on the way home from Religious Ed this morning in Schaumburg. This afternoon, Adam and I drove around our neighborhoods and took some pictures, because we just can't believe the horrible flooding. We feel so bad for the unlucky people who just happen to live in the areas that flooded so bad. Luckily, back in 1886, farmers built their houses on the highest part of their land, so his house is fine. The cellar is leaking...as always....but that is why it is nice he has a cellar and not a basement! So far, where I live is OK. The end of my street is completely under water, but I can access my house from the other end of the street. Most of the side streets in my neighborhood are underwater too...but luckily, many are high enough to stay fairly dry.

Lake Stephanie

My sidewalk

At the end of my street!
The close grass is my side of the street and the deck that is almost flooded is across the street.

On the way to Adam's house

Check out the water up to this lady's thighs!

In front of my school

Good thing it isn't a school day!

A truck across the street from my school. The water is past his tires. Luckily my school sits high....I think we will be OK.

Adam's brother's backyard. A huge tree came down this morning, they think the ground just got too saturated. They have a large retention area in their backyard and it is totally flooded up to their shed and sewage is backing up in their basement. =(

If you were wondering about the pumpkins, so far they are OK....but they are sitting in some water. If the rain stops, we will go wading and pick them tomorrow.

Adam's aunt's backyard. =(

Adam's street


How does this happen??

This is up the street from me....we can't figure out what could have happened.


Check out the speed limit sign.

Lake Bartlett
This is an intersection in downtown Bartlett. I guess I'm not going to Jewel today!

Google Reader

Google Reader is awesome.

I just needed to say that.

But seriously...I know all of you at least read this blog along with Erin's...and probably you have several others you look at as well. Instead of having to log onto each blog individually every day to see if there is something new...you should use Google Reader! You sign up for an account. Then you input the web addresses of the blogs you read. Then every time you log onto Google Reader (it is my homepage) it tells you if any of your "subscriptions" have an update. You can even read the updates right there. If you want to leave a comment or check out the features on the blog, you can still go directly to the website, but this is a nice way to check if there are updates without going to each site daily!

Go to:
www.google.com/reader

Sign up for an account and it will make your life a lot easier!

They aren't even paying me to tell you to sign up!

Ever since a co-worker so nicely told me about it...it has made my life a lot easier and I am better able to keep up with all the blogs I read!

Erin is Famous!

Adam is taking a Photovoltaic (Solar Power) class this semester that began last night. He opened his book and was shocked to find a picture of Erin in one of the first chapters!

Little Richie Starts Preschool!

Cute uniform!

Mommy and Little Richie at preschool

Daddy, Mommy, and Little Richie
(Daddy and Grandma had a much harder time than Mommy sending him off to school!)

Playing with trucks

Little Richie is now enjoying preshool immensely!