Mobile Maddie

Wisconsin Weekend

This weekend, Maddie & I flew up to Jackson, WI to visit Jon & Becky and to meet Abigail. We had a great time even though Madison wasn't feeling her best. I had to pick her up early from daycare on Friday because she had a fever of 101. She slept almost all day until we had to leave for the airport. She slept through most of the flight until we hit some turbulance and she threw up. It was all over her clothes, my clothes, and her blanket. Luckily I had packed a spare outfit in her diaper bag & I was wearing a tank top underneath my shirt. I also happened to have a garbage bag with me for the dirty clothes (I had intended it for the car seat, but it didn't fit). She did a little better once we got there. I gave her some Tylenol for her fever. She threw up one more time in the middle of the night, but that was it. She did much better on Saturday. She still felt warm, so I continued with the Tylenol treatment.

It was so nice to see Jon & Becky again. Even though it's been nearly a year since I had seen them, it felt like it was only yesterday. The only difference was the location and that we both had little girls with us. We spent most of the weekend just relaxing and catching up. Saturday morning, we went for a walk around the neighborhood. After lunch, the girls went down for nearly a 4 hour nap. We couldn't believe it. Becky said that Abby NEVER takes long naps. Maddie's been known to take 2-3 hour naps from time to time.

On Sunday, we went to their church (First Immanuel Lutheran, Cedarburg, WI). After church we had lunch at this crepes place in downtown Cedarburg (a quaint little town). After lunch we drove out to the campus of Concordia Wisconsin. It's a small campus (like all the other Concordias), but it's located on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan.

Maddie tolerated the flight home much better, though she was a bit cranky & tired. Eventually she fell asleep.

More Pictures

The house would give us a slightly longer commute. But a huge plus is that we'd be able to keep Maddie in her same daycare. We'd still be close to church & Bryan's parents. While the other house was closer in miles to work, it wasn't near any highways.

New Offer

The owners of the property countered back. After some heavy consideration, we decided to retract our offer and make one on the other property we considering. This one is located in Blue Springs, MO. It's a rural & wooded site of 10 acres (two streets from a major thoroughfare). It has a steep hill and two branches of a creek running through it. There is an existing manufactured house on the property which will serve as temporary residence until we design & build our dream house. The house is in good condition, if not better than the other one (the other required quite a bit of work which the pictures did not show).

The site is peaceful and serene, unlike the other one which was surrounded by a development. The site has almost everything we wanted (hills, woods, water). The price was right, too (about $30K less).

At about 1:00 this afternoon, we received word that the seller has accepted our offer of $215,000. She even agreed to throw in 2 riding lawnmowers. We close June 25th).

This was a really tough decision for us. We really liked both properties. I even made a +/- chart. There were significantly more +'s on this Blue Springs property. When we spelled it all out, the only thing we liked about the Lee's Summit property was the lake and nothing else.

Here's a picture from the listing (I have a better on the computer one at home).

American Idol

I don't know how many of you follow "American Idol". Personally, I don't. I've never seen an entire episode. I don't really get why it's so popular. This season, however, one of the contestants (one of the 3 finalists), David Cook, is from right here in Kansas City - Blue Springs to be exact. He even went to the same high school as Bryan. Apperently he was in town last week doing a bunch of promo stuff for TV & radio. Bryan said that he was in his office building one day and was followed by a bunch of screaming teeny boppers (there's a radio station also located in the building).

We Made an Offer

We made an offer on a house! It's located in southwestern Lee's Summit, MO. It was built in '74. It's about 1800 sf with a finished basement. 3 bed, 2 bath. The house is in decent shape. It could use a little work, though. It's also not really our style. But the best part, the main reason we want it, is that it is located on 6.3 acres with about a 2 acre PRIVATE lake. Here are a few pictures.

Maddie Jump Up

Madison just LOVES her "Johnny Jump Up" that Grammy got her last weekend. I just wish my camera recorded sound so you could hear her laughing.

Weekend Fun

The last time we traveled to Michigan (at Christmas), we had to deal with snow & ice storms, which delayed our travels a bit. This time, it was tornados. This picture was taken at sunset Friday night, just hours before the storms hit (the picture really didn't do it justice, though).
I'm so glad we were able to go to Grand Haven, MI for Andrew's wedding. It was so nice to see everybody, many of whom I haven't seen since before OUR wedding. So of course Madison was quite a hit. She just laughed and smiled at everybody, even the strangers we passed along the way. She handled the traveling a lot better than I thought she would. She's getting to the age where she doesn't like to sit still for long periods of time. She wants to move and stretch and play. She slept through most of the flight to Chicago. She didn't do to bad during the 3 hour drive to Grand Haven, either. We were thinking, though. With the time we spent driving to the airport, waiting for the plane (which was delayed), the flight, waiting for our bags in Chicago, getting the rental car, trying to figure out how to install the car seat (we should have just brought ours), dealing with Chicagoland traffic, and driving all the way to Grand Haven, we probably could have just driven from Independence. I think we only saved about an hour. Oh well. Although the travels may have been a bit stressful, it was nice to relax and spend time with my family. Here is a picture of Madison enthralled with the Tiger game.

The wedding was beautiful. Christie looked beautiful. I believe a good time was had by all. Hannah and her friend Chelsea watched Madison (and Seth) during the wedding. Mom kept Madison overnight. It was nice to have the night off. Madison didn't sleep very well while we were there. I think she just missed her bed. She was probably also a little over stimulated by all the new faces and attention. Of course she enjoyed every minute of it. She LOVES being the center of attention.

Finally, here is a picture of Bryan & Maddie at Lake Michigan.