Studio

When you enter our front door you will go into our living room if you go right, but if you go left....it is bead city! My studio is the room they put into this house to be the pastor's study. Rich has a study upstairs....I am in the downstairs office! I love my new space! I have already been busy in it and am sending an order to Ozzie's with my mom. She leaves tomorrow. I will take pictures of the downstairs Disney bathroom and our guest room after my mother has gone and her things are no longer there. Anyone need jewelry? I am ready to go! Anyone want to come over and play?

Kitchen and Back Yard

I love the kitchen....would like different cabinet color....but that is just me being really picky! I love the view from our kitchen table. It is so pretty. It will be lovely in the winter too I am sure. :0)

The door from our kitchen leads out to the patio. Our backyard is great for relaxing. I am anxious to do some of my own planting in the spring! A wonderful man from church planted the Cannes....not sure exactly how to spell that! The side yard by our gate is going to be fun to plant too. I want to get back to Lanesville and get some of my hostas to add in there!

The little garden was already planted for us when we got here. Isn't that wonderful! Everyone here is so very thoughtful! We have tomatoes, beans, rhubarb, beets, carrots, dill, and cucumbers! It is so very nice!

Tomorrow pictures of the rest of the main floor!

Our Living Room and Dining Room

Our next stop on the house tour is our new living room and dining room. I love these two rooms. They turned out just as I had hopped they would! Our new furniture looks perfect in the space. I love the lamp I got from Angie, thanks friend. It is the cream one with the green shade...it is perfect in the room.

We have a little built in shelf between the two rooms. We finally have a place to hang the beautiful stained glass cross that the Oberdieck family gave us a few years back. We had not found a place in our old house, but his is perfect!

I was not going to bring our china cabinet, but I change my mind at the last moment. I am so happy I brought it. I love that I can see my china and it is not packed in boxes!

The piano was a surprise from the congregation. I had sold my piano and they found this one in the neighborhood. Someone had passed away and they were wanting a home for the piano. I love it! Now I just need to have it tuned.

The dining room was just the right size for our things. I love how the baskets look in it! We have not put the tie backs on the curtains yet. Not sure if I want to or now. What do you think?

The dinning room leads to the kitchen....that comes tomorrow.

Our new house!

I have decided to blog about our new house for you. I am not going to do it all at once! Today, I am showing you the front of our house, the front door, and the entrance or foyer.

Our house sits right next to the school. I counted that it takes us about 26 steps to get from our back door to the doors of the school. That will be great in the cold weather! Our house really isn't like many of the others in the neighborhood. You don't see many houses around here made of Indiana Limestone, and it is not tall...unlike most in the area. As you will see from the posts to come, it is a lot bigger than it looks like from the outside.

I love the leaded glass door! I think it is so pretty. It brings me much joy to have such a pretty door! I suppose that sounds silly, but it is true.

As you enter our house you see the chest that belonged to my grandfather. On it I have a beloved Longaberger basket :0) I also have a beautiful vase given to my by my cousin Amy. It didn't have a place of honor in our former house, but it sure does here! Last, but not at all least, is the painting I have of three sunflowers done by my dear friend Brian Oberdieck. I will not go into the fact that I had to BUY this painting, and still don't have my Christmas painting from years ago....oh wait, I just went into it. Oops.

When you turn right after entering our house you will enter our living room. Pictures of that will come soon!

Fun Friday

This past Friday we decided to take a break from the unpacking and organizing and had some fun. We started our day by having a picnic at a park about 5 miles away. It was a lovely day. I loved the Gazebo! They have an indoor Olympic sized pool that is free for Ben to swim in. We may have to look into that!

Our next stop was a very large Chicago Public Library that was across from the park. I took two pictures before being told that I couldn't take pictures! LOL! We will be getting a card soon. A Chicago public library card also gives you access to the museums downtown! Gotta love that! There are also many programs to look into. To be quite honest, I haven't had time to read all of the fliers I picked up! We will focus on that getting involved in the community stuff soon!

Our final stop was our favorite place downtown, Ed Debevic's. We had a great dinner. Our waitress, Tina Latina, was a hoot. Ben loved the chocolate shake and I dig their cream corn! (See Sherry, it isn't mushy and gross!) We wanted to bring home the large blow up ketchup bottle, but couldn't swing it :0) We even got to see the staff dance on the counters! Fun day! Love this city!

Installation

On Sunday, August 9, Rich was installed as the new pastor at St. John's Lutheran Church, Chicago. Oh the day was lovely, even though it was blistering hot. (Nope, no air conditioning in the church!) We had many friends from college who are in the area come to attend. We also had friends from our former congregation in Chicago come to attend. My mom was there, along with Rich's family and our dear friend Davie. Rich also had a crowd from Higher Things in attendance. George, Rich's friend from Higher Things, and an amazing pastor in Texas, delivered the sermon. It was amazing! Rich can give you a link to read it. It was fantastic!

Our friend, and father of my godchild, Naomi, is the first vice president of the Northern Illinois District, so he was able to actually install Rich. That was so nice.

The music was SO wonderful. The church rang with beautiful organ music, trumpet, hand bells, and a lovely choir. Oh, I cannot wait to join in! It was so lovely.

The evening ended with a reception in the gym. It was the most delicious cake I think I have ever eaten, and I am still eating by the way! They rushed us through pictures a bit because the butter cream on the cake was melting in the heat! It made it though and so did we. Despite the heat, it was a great day!

Exploring!

We've safely made it to our new home in Chicago. After discovering where all our missing items were, we set out to have some fun and discover the area! Our first stop was with the Higher Things crowd. We went to the Chicago Brauhaus. YUMMO! Best German food I have had except for in Germany itself! We had some great German wine and enjoyed a fun night!

On Tuesday my friend Carol, a member of Mt. Greenwood Lutheran, our first parish, took us out for some sight seeing. She worked at the Ravenswood Hospital for many years, so she knows our neck of the woods quite well.

Our first stop was at Lutz's Austrian Bakery. Oh my!!!! We had a lovely lunch outside in their garden area, I so felt like I was back in Austria. I had a cheese and ham pie. Quite good. For dessert a lemon butter cream cake. It was difficult to decide what to have. Everything was so yummy.

Next stop the Paulina Meat Market. This was a German meat market and the smell as you walk in is about enough to put you over the edge. I ended up leaving with a smoked pork tenderloin and some sharp cheddar that had aged for 10 years. It was amazing! This is a place we will frequent for special occasions! Very good...a bit pricey.

Finally she took us to a cemetery. I cannot remember it's name for the life of me. I must look it up. It had many famous people from Chicago buried in it. The Pullman Family had a huge monument as did the Kimball family of Kimball pianos. Really pretty interesting. I could have done without the statue of Death, but still interesting just the same.

Thanks Carol for a great day! We enjoyed every bit of it! Cannot wait to see what we find around the next corner!