Home Sweet Home

So this past weekend, I got to go get a taste of my future life. A glimpse into the inner workings of Chicago. The city has a bid in for the 2016 Olympics. It is filled with fabulous architechture, great views, diverse culture. and fantastic sports teams. Yup Sounds pretty spectacular right? Tons of Glitz and glam. Thats us.
Well, I have been doing some research. Kevin and I live in "America's safest big city" currently. Chicago has murder and crime rates 2.5X the national average. Kevin will be attending the University of chicago. It is a fabulous and presigious school. Good ol' Barack taught there at the Law school, Yup we will live just a few blocks from Obama himself. Every time I think about moving there, a song pops into my head (I was rasied on oldies) Jim Croce was right on When he wrote his song....

Well the south side of chicago
Is the baddest part of town
And if you go down there
You better just beware

That does it there. Sums it up. I got to take my sister and her little baby boy house hunting. We saw some impressive things, in some equally impressive neighborhoods. I just have to share my favorite picture of the day.

Yes, that is mold on the wall, and have you ever seen a fan do that? I hadn't. The houses all had some type of similar charm to that. I guess that is why they were so cheap. I think my other favorite thing, was when I was with my real estate agent later. We went to go look at another property, and pulled up in front of the place. She didnt get out of her car, so I waited, unsure if this was the place or if she was lost.... (I'm going to give you a little back-ground, of the area, the population is 99.7% black. I am not, as kevin LOVES to point out) I noticed throughout the day, that these people don't work, they are just out running amuck all day long, doing, who knows what. I bet it isn't good though. Kelly had been sufficiently nervous all day, but these are my future neighbors, I have to be nice and embrace them. Back to the story, So I look out my window and there are probably 15-20 big black guys, in their mid to late 20s. just hanging outside. My real estate agent then calls me and said "don't get out of your car" I am a pretty tough girl and as my little sister once said, "Nobody wants to rape a tall girl", so I wasn't that nervous. She went on to say "if you get out of your car now, within 5 seconds you will be surrounded" That sounded intimidating. I then reflected on the Chicago crime reports I had been reading. Car Hijacking, assult with a firearm, 1st degree murder, Theft of $300 or more. None of those things sounded very good, So I decided, if I couldn't even look at a place because of rif-raf, I probably shouldn't live there.

Cute Colton helping us house hunt

The best part of the visit, was that I got to see my cute sister and her family. I got into Chicago, and drove down to Southbend that evening. Kelly didn't tell them I was coming, and they were very suprised and excited to see me. We got to go to Mike's softball game ( we got there for the last out) but I am sure mike was amazing. We played at the park, found "treasures", went out for a "special" dessert because Aunt Cathy was in town, and watched some amazing bike riding skills. It will be so fun to be so close to them for a while.

Halle was going up and down driveways. Very impressive.

Mads, showing off her modelling, watch out new Jacob!!