Life

My blog is definitely receiving third-rate billing lately, coming in far behind Facebook and Twitter. Who has time to be a mom, work, take care of household stuff, and keep up with all of this social media? So, for those of you who want an update, here's what we've been up to this past month.

Gavin turns two. Yes it's true! We are now the proud owners of a two-year-old, complete with mood swings, fits of temper, and cuddly hugs. Oh, and a Wonder Pets party. It seems that overnight our toddling baby has turned into a little boy, talking in complete sentences and requesting his favorite music, food, toy, etc. Gavs has also shot up in height and seems to tower above other kids his age; it is still hard for me to believe that I have a son who is in the 90th percentile for height since neither Joe or I are particularly tall. We'll thank Gavin's grandfathers and uncles for that gift!

He is beginning to say some really funny things...I knew this day was coming! For instance, I had a bra laying on the bed this week and Joe asked Gavin if he knew what it was. Gavs said, "For nipples!" Later the same day he said, "I don't like the cracks." I asked him what cracks he was referring to and he said, "Cracks on my booty." What?! It's crazy where he gets this stuff!

Laura becomes obsessed with couponing. I'll thank my friend Nicole for this one! Nicole was nice enough to walk me through the concept of super couponing and now I'm hooked. I'm one of those people that will drive to Dominick's just to "do a deal" to get four free bottles of Windex. Don't judge. You'd do it too if you realized that you can save crazy amounts off your grocery bill. Last week I spent $2.50 on a transaction and saved something like $20.00. Pretty good, right?

Oh, yeah. I also am just beginning work on the 2010 Harvest with Greg Laurie events (mark your calendars for the Chicago outreach at Allstate Arena, Sept. 24 - 26) and am now co-leading our church's moms' group.

Joe networks with cool design-y people. There's no news on the job front for Joe yet, but he has just five weeks until his first year in the MPD program is complete. In the meantime, he was able to attend Design Chicago where he met Gordon Segal, the founder of Crate & Barrel, and they will hopefully be able to set up a time to connect.

Joe also had the opportunity to attend the Q Gathering in Chicago this past week, a dynamic conference where church and cultural leaders came together to collaborate and explore ideas about how the Gospel can be expressed within our cultural context. I plan to go next year, but this year's program was just perfect for Joe since it featured talks from designers/ideators from the Chicago area. Joe had the chance to meet many of the speakers and particularly connected with a business designer from IDEO, which is a company he might like to work for. Long story short, it turns out that this IDEO guy lives in our town (what a coincidence!) and, in fact, lives on our street (imagine!), and (wait for it) lives in our building! We're thinking this could be a God thing.

We shall see!