Just Call Me Haha: Our Wknd

Wow, can you believe it’s the end of January already?! I feel like it’s true when they say time goes faster as you grow older.

Our weekend was awesome. In an effort to beat traffic, I left our place around 4pm with the car/Oscar and drove to Glenview. Since there was virtually no traffic, I got out there pretty quick so I stopped at The Glen and popped into Vonmaur. Ben took the Metra to the ‘burbs and I picked him up from the station. We avoided traffic and saved about 30 minutes of driving time, so I’d say that’s worth the $4 Metra ticket. Although Ben’s one complaint was that he’d wished he’d remember that you can drink on the Metra and had brought a beer with him; how typical.

We drove up to Oshkosh, WI. Total, it’s about a three hour drive, but since it was broken up, it went by quickly. The cabin of our friends is really a charming little house on Lake Winnebago; WI’s largest lake. It was dark when we arrived so it was hard to tell just how big the lake was…but this was the view out the front window at 7:30am on Saturday morning:

Gorgeous, right?

Saturday we went into Oshkosh and went to a brewery for lunch, Fratellos. It’s inevitable; wherever we go, we’re now on the hunt for new brew. But it was interesting since it was attached to the mall. However, we got 8 – 5oz samplers for $10; which is a hell of a deal. After eating we wandered around and eventually made it back to the house (so proud of myself; I resisted doing any slightly buzzed shopping; although I did debate on red jeans from The Limited, but I think the only reason I thought they looked good was the alcohol so I put them back).

Later we watched Moneyball with Brad Pitt.

Have you seen it?! I had no idea what it was about, although SIL mentioned she’d really liked it. Here's the synopsis from imdb.com: The story of Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players. It was awesome. I’d definitely recommend watching it.

Late Sunday morning we packed up and got on the road. We stopped in Milwaukee to see the kid’s I used to nanny for. As I mentioned, they now own three units/the entire floor of a condo building and you can tell right when you get off the elevator (actually, you have to be buzzed or have a key fab for the elevator to stop on their floor). They redid the hall and everything.

While there wasn’t actually a half-basketball court, it was still pretty amazing. Walking into the newest addition, immediately ahead there’s stage with curtain and spotlights; the rest of the room is probably about 20’x30’ and almost entirely windows looking out on Lake Michigan. It’s open to a kitchen (although the mom told me they’d had all of the gas lines turned off; so if a kid turns on the stove knob; nothing happens). All of the kitchen cupboards are filled with playdoh, games, art supplies, etc. Amazing. Going down the hallway, straight ahead is the guest suite complete with a balcony looked at downtown MKE (they used to have this in the other portion of the condo minus the balcony. The former guest bed is now being transitioned into a den).

The second bedroom of the unit is the “playroom” (although really, it’s like this whole unit is a playroom). There are industrial strength monkey bars across the length of the room; including two fire poles to slide down. There are two twin bunkbeds set up in an L-shape in one corner (for sleepovers), two large bean bags, a mounted flat screen (used for Wii, apparently M, the 6 year old boy, is a huge “gamer”). There are bookshelves with more books, games, dolls,etc.

However, I’d have to say my favorite part is all of the art work and wall décor. Throughout the entire space, there is framed artwork, pictures, worksheets, stories, etc, that the kids have made over the past years. It is such a cool display, but in a non messy cluttered way, I love it!

So anyways, we played with the kids for about two hours and caught up with the mom. I found out that one of the other former babysitters, whom I lived with for one year but never truly bonded with for whatever reason, is pregnant. It was kind of a shock. She just got married in May 2011 and moved to Texas. The thought of people my age having kids, is still just a bit scary to me! I am so glad we were able to stop. I sometimes forget how much I love those kids. They’re now 6 and 7.5 and I’ve known them since they were 9months and 2. How crazy is that?

Ben refused to let us stop at the outlet mall, even though I was driving, so that was a bummer; but overall we had a great relaxing weekend hanging out with some of our favorite people!

In deals:

· Starbucks: $2 Breakfast Sandwiches/Wraps through 2/4, with the purchase of a drink
(Note: They have some new ones like the ham, egg and cheese and the chicken sausage wrap. I tried the ham, but was not impressed! Gouda bacon is still my go-to)