Packing

To whom it may concern,
I am so excited to go see my sister, however, I am having a very hard time packing. Trying to fit all of my liquid toiletries in little 3 oz bottles all in a 1 quart bag is not easy. Luckily, Erin will bring shampoo and conditioner and lotion and all of that jazz for our Morocco travels; we only need to bring enough for Spain. I'm also having trouble with this carry-on/checked bag issue. I have been measuring suitcases and packing and unpacking and checking requirements online and I am very overwhelmed. If we carry it on, it needs to be 21" tall, by 7" deep, by 15" wide. Do you know how small that is?? My parents have several options, but the 21" one is 9.5" deep. The 22" one is 8" deep and the 24" one is 10 " deep. Even those don't meet the requirements. Although it can be 15" wide...all of them are only 12-13" wide. Can I take those extra inches and use them for the depth? Can I please bring my little rolly suitcase and my backpack on the airplane from Madrid to Morocco? Erin says you will lose it if I check it. I don't want that to happen. But I just saw online that I can only bring 1 carry on. But if we check bags, then we don't need to worry about the dimensions so carefully. Do you see my dilemma? Also, picking clothes to pack is hard. I just want to be done packing and on our way!

Try not to miss me too much. I will be back in blog land, hopefully with pictures of camels and monkeys, in a week and a half!

Morocco here we come!

Girls Night Out

Last Saturday night was Bridget's bachelorette party. We started at her house, drinking yummy drinks, eating spiked jello, snacking on yummy snacks and having all kinds of girl fun. Then we went to her favorite bar to spend the rest of the night. A great time was had by all and by Monday morning I was fully recovered!

Bridget and her bridesmaids

Robin, Kristina, Bridget, me, Becky

We had shirts that said "Bridget's Bridesmaids" and our names in hearts on the bottom

Becky's said "Bridget's Matron of Honor"

Bridget's said "Bride to Be" with the wedding date

Bridget also had a bachelorette tiara, bachelorette sash, and flashing ring!

The favor bags I made

Every person brought a pair of underwear for Bridget that represents their personality. She had to guess who brought what. She guessed mine right away. I won't tell you what the front said!

Bridget gets showered again!

You saw the pictures from the first shower we had for her, but we also had a shower at work for my friend Bridget. She works with all of the deaf and hard of hearing kids in the district that are in self-contained classes. That means she goes to 4 different schools and is in and out of many buildings each day. I wanted to make sure she was honored at work too, so I threw a work shower for her with our friend Kim who teaches at the middle school. It was a surprise! She thought she was coming to meet me after school for a parent-teacher conference. Instead, she walked into a party with all of her co-workers from 4 different buildings!

We had the kids make pages for her for a book about weddings and getting married.
They were hilarious!

She was very surprised!
(Although this picture was staged!)

Yummy food Kim put together!

Delicious Cake!

The wedding is coming fast. Just about 5 weeks away!

All about Adam

Well....it is not quite spring yet...but I had to share these pictures!

Adam bowls every Wednesday night. His team just got new shirts that he is just THRILLED about (said with tons of sarcasm. He voted against this design, but as you can see, the middle aged men won! I just had to take a picture!

Adam has a bit of a sweet tooth. This was his dessert one night when we were watching TV. He was serious. I was working on homework and he paused the TV to go get some dessert. I looked up and burst out laughing when he set this down on the coffee table and pressed "play". Then I had to pause the TV to go get my camera! Just LOOKING at that makes me gain 5 pounds!

Happy 50th Birthday Mom!

On March 2 Mom turned 50! Dad arranged a surprise get together for her the day before her birthday at Lou Malnati's. We were worried that we wouldn't be able to pull it off since she had been in the hospital. However, she played right into our arms by suggesting we go out to dinner on Sunday night since Adam has class on Mondays. We happily agreed and said we would meet them there. Many of mom's friends and family were there to surprise her when she walked around the corner! She was truly surprised. Good job Dad!

Surprise!

Dad checking to see if she was REALLY surprised!

Adam and Christian
I couldn't hold him either because of my illness =(

She is a beautiful 50 year old!
(I always thought 50 was old until my mom turned it!)

I gave her a die cutting machine that she is SUPER excited about.
She is a die cutting maniac now!

Happy Birthday Katie and Amanda

A few weeks ago we got together with my NIU friends to celebrate Katie's and Amanda's birthdays. Everyone came out this way to go to dinner and then back to my house to play a rousing game of Cranium. This was at the beginning of my cough (when I just had a tickle and didn't know it was going to be serious), so I couldn't hold little Layla. =(

Amanda and Layla at dinner

Katie and Layla at my house

Hector and Amanda

Kristin and me

Layla snuggling with Amanda

Adam using the Cranium clay

Hector acting SOMETHING out for Josh!

Thanks for coming out this way. We had lots of fun.
Layla, I will have lots of hugs for you next time!

Cough, Cough, Bleck!

I have been a blog slacker over the last few weeks due to the germs of preschoolers who refuse to cover their mouths when they cough invading my immune system (and Adam's!). First, I came down with the stomach flu one night suddenly and was home with all kinds of fun issues for a day. My assistant was home sick too with a fever and cold so I only stayed home one day (Monday). I can't bear to leave my little kiddos with two subs for too long (even though they don't cover their mouths!).

The same night I came down with it....Mom did too! It caused a Crohn's flare up and she ended up in the hospital for several days. (Although the doctor's think it was just a coincidence that her Crohn's flared up within hours of me having my "symptoms", Dr. Stephanie believes the stomach virus caused the Crohn's flare up). I wasn't sure if it was food poisoning or a stomach bug until two days after I had it...Adam got it. At least I won't be afraid to eat at Potbelly's again!

As Adam was getting over his stomach bug, I started coming down with a cough that turned into a cough and high fever. So the next Monday, I was home again with a fever of 102.3 and a bad cough. (People at work must have thought I was taking long weekends away somewhere!). I went to the doctor and he gave me antibiotics and cough medicine. I woke up the next day a new woman! Although I probably should have stayed home another day....like I said...it is hard to be away and I don't like actually using sick days for being home sick!

A couple of days after coming down with the respiratory fun....Adam got it too! He didn't get the cough...but he enjoyed several days of a high fever and congestion.

.......but I think we are healthy now. We better be! Morocco is coming fast!