Logan's Here!

 Logan James Richardson

June 3rd, 2010

7:56 am

10 # 2.3 oz.

22 inches

 

Logan loves his Auntie Lisa...and I think she's pretty fond of him already too!!

Leaving Today!

I leave this afternoon for Texas!!  Mimi's little bundle of joy should be arriving in a few days and Mimi and I have lots of stuff planned for before he gets here!  I will continue to post on facebook and here on my blog, but I'll also be updating her blog over the next few weeks so she can concentrate on the new baby!!  Keep checking back...I will take lots of pictures! 

The Willis Tower (a.k.a. The Sears Tower)

Shawn has a few things on a list that he wants to do in Chicago...now that we're moving in a couple of months we decided we better start doing those things.  One of those things was to go up to the observation deck in the Sears Tower (which is now known as the Willis Tower).  Thursday we decided to head downtown for the afternoon.  It was a beautiful day!  We walked around looking up at all the tall buildings like total tourists!  The observation deck in on the 103rd floor of the building, but you start 2 floors below the ground floor, so the elevator ride was really up 105 floors in 60 seconds!  My ears were crazy popping!  The have a relatively new thing in the observation deck with full glass boxes that extend from the building so you are able to look straight down below your feet at the river and buildings below.

Shawn got a video of me when I was first walking out on the ledge...it is a pretty strange feeling to stand on a piece of glass when you know you're 103 stories above the ground!  I commented that Mimi would be having a heart attack, which is the truth! There were a bunch of small kids there with a school trip and they weren't afraid at all!  They were jumping on the glass and laying on it.  Kids aren't afraid of anything these days! 

After we left the Willis Tower, we walked a bit to find a Lou Malnati's Pizzaria.  Our favorite pizza in Chicago!  We are both going to miss Lou's, but luckily you can have froze Lou's shipped anywhere in the country.  I don't think it's exactly the same, but we'll just have to make sure we eat Lou's everytime we come to visit Dad.  So Dad, at least you know we'll be coming to visit you ;)

The Stanley Cup Finals!!

Lets Go Hawks!!

For those of you not following the Stanley Cup Playoffs (which is crazy!), here is an update.  The Blackhawks swept the San Jose Sharks in the Western Conference Finals and are going to play in the finals for the Stanley Cup!!  Woohoo!  The Eastern Conference champs are the Philly Flyers (we can take 'em!).  Game 1 will be this Saturday on NBC at 7pm CST/8pm EST.  Even if you've never watched a hockey game before you should.  They are awesome!   Much better live, but right now the tickets are obviously way too expensive here in Chicago :)

Game 2 is Monday

Game 3 is Wednesday

Game 4 is Friday

Hopefully no other games will be needed because I feel another sweep coming on!  I will be leaving on Sunday to go to Texas to help Mimi with new Baby Logan who should be arriving either Tuesday or Wednesday...which means I will have to find some sort of tricky way to watch the games :)  I will find a way to make it happen! 

On a side note (although it is a really important side note) Mimi had an ultrasound yesterday and Logan looks good, but big!  She is going to the doctor again today and will likely be scheduling a C/S for next week!  Yay!

Visiting Andrew

We have been slacking in our reports of how Andrew is going lately, but I think of that as a good thing!  Nothing to report is good, right?  It means there are no problems :)  Well, finally we got to see for ourselves.  Andrew has been back in Indiana with his family since early April and we finally all had time to go visit.  His family have a lake house north of Ft. Wayne that we've all been to before, so we went to Indy to see Theresa first on Friday, then headed to the lake for Saturday & Sunday. 

What a great weekend! As you can see, Shawn had fun :)

Andrew is doing SO WELL!!  I can't even describe what a great feeling it was to hang around with him.  It felt almost like old times.  You can definitely tell he's still there, he just has a really hard time with communication.  He is talking more though and if you give him time he can usually say what  he wants to say.  Typically he talks in single word statements, but he is able to get across what he wants or needs.  He still loves to watch movies (shocker!) and is still a neat freak :)  He is able to walk much better than when we saw him last at the end of February, but he still has no feeling on his right side.  The facial droop he was experiencing on the right side of his face is gone, and when he smiles now it is with his whole face!  It's great to see!  He has a brace he can wear around his calf and ankle to support his foot when he walks and it helps him be almost completely independent when he walks.  He occiasionally needs a little help, but if he can do it himself he wants to.  He is trying very hard to be as independent as possible.  I could go on and on, but I'll just post a few pictures and update again soon!

Andrew & Theresa

Shawn & Andrew

Andrew and I

Happy Birthday Leif

Today would have been Leif's 30th birthday.  It has been about a year and half since his life was ended so tragically, and not a day goes by that I don't miss my friend.  I am thinking about him today and remembering the many years we spent together.

Our first date - the winter dance our senior year of high school.  We look so young!

The last picture we took together when I was visiting him in Florida a few years back.  We had a great time that week!  I have so many memories...

Insane Drivers

Shawn and I had an interesting drive home from Muncie on Sunday evening.  It was really windy all the way up 65 toward Chicago and the semi's were all over the road.  There was one that was driving quite erratically...but we just waited until we had a clear spot in front of it and then sped up and passed him really quickly.  The worst driver along the way was once we hit the Toll Road and were heading toward the Skyway bridge.  There is a lot of construction along the road, but there was a minivan that was swerving across the center line repeatedly...then the guy started driving on the center line!  It was crazy!  We were trying to get around/pass this crazy car for over 4 miles while he drove like he was drunk!  I almost had Shawn call 911 to report drunk driving.  Makes you wonder about people!  We made it home though, safe and sound and then back to work.