So, thank you all for wonderful comments especially those on the anniversary of my grandma’s death. They brought me to tears today.

Once I get settled, I’m going to post about our trip, and catch up on all the blogs I read. I missed you!

For a lot of my PBA/PVC information, I turn to The Soft Landing Blog. I have also used the shop section of their website a couple times.

As TheYoungest started to get older and older, I’ve been waiting for “The Safe Sippy” to come back. I’ve had my eye on that sippy cup for a while, but it has been sold out. It is finally back and I bought a couple from The Soft Landing. My package arrived quickly and I was very happy. There was a little error which was quickly fixed by the Soft Landing people and they even wrote a personal note in the second package they sent apologizing for the problem. Nice customer service!

We’ve been happy with the sippy cup. TheYoungest loves it too. So far, it hasn’t disappointed and I feel good knowing she’s “safe”.

I guess I’m the crazy one as one of the houses has sold. It wasn’t the most expensive one as that one is still for sale. Any takers?

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I know 89 years is extremely old, but it still hurt to lose her. I think what makes it worse is that she had a hard, hard life. She was Austrian and lived outside Vienna when the Nazi’s came through. Although she and the rest of their village weren’t Jewish, they still took the men into the army and put the woman and children in a concentration camp. My mom was 4 years old at the start of the war when she was put into the camp. She was lucky to be with her mom, my Oma. My mom’s three cousins were separated from their mothers who were in a different camp, but the cousins ended up with my mom and Oma. To this day, they credit my Oma for keeping them alive.

My Oma’s mother died in the camp. She didn’t have a coffin, so before they came and took her body, my grandma sewed her mom’s body into a blanket so she’d had a coffin. She was probably around my age when she did that. I can’t even imagine.

After the war, she was blind from malnutrition. She was hospitalized and eventually recovered. She and my grandfather were eventually reunited after giving up her wedding band to a man who helped find him. They immigrated to America. When they went through Ellis Island, their would-be sponsor decided her didn’t want them because they had a child. They had nothing- one suitcase between the three of them and the clothes they were wearing, couldn’t speak the language and had no idea what to do.

My Oma and Opa decided to go to Chicago. They settled here and worked as janitors, a cleaning lady, factory-line workers. My mom went to high school here without knowing English. Working over-time and covering their friends’ vacation, my grandparents saved enough money to buy their own six-flat. Shortly before I was born, they sold that and bought a 24 flat. I grew in the building right next door to her. They then sold that one and bought a new building which my parents still own today.

She was a remarkable woman and I miss her dearly.

TheYoungest looked adorable in her bonnet. We had many people asking us where we got it.

The Butterly tent was a lot of fun. It was the first time we went through it even though we’ve had a zoo membership for a few years. The oldest two really loved it.

The butterflies are hard to see, but there were all over the flowers.

TheMiddleChild wanted her picture taken with the butterflies.

The animal faces are another high point for the girls. They love being all the animals we’ve seen.

The penguins are always good for entertainment.

It was very hot that day. The polar bears were enjoying swimming in the cool water until….

One decided to pee.

“What did you do that for?”

(If you’ve never seen garlic straight of out the ground, make sure you scroll down, it is very cool.)

Small heads of lettuce. That should be it until fall.

Curly parsley.

Cooking greens.

Eggplant.

Fennel.

Onion.

Cucumbers.

Garlic. Last year was the first time I saw garlic like this. It’s very cool. Their heads are huge too.

Tomatoes- first of the year.

Small head of cabbage.

Squash.

Green pepper.

8 ears of corn. The first for the year. Yay!

I’m happy to say that I’ve finally updated it.

In updating it, I have also weeded out my google reader a bit. I was subscribed to a lot of blogs and after one day of not reading, I would get overwhelmed with how many posts there were to read. Then I would rush through to skim all of them, without really enjoying the ones I wanted to enjoy. Now it is at a more manageable level.

Don’t worry though, if you had posted in my blogroll post, I didn’t delete you out. It is important for me to know my readers.

4 large glue sticks

1 folder with two pockets

1 box of tissues over 200 count

1 70-page spiral notebook

1 box Ziploc jumbo size bags

1 box Ziploc gallon size bags

1 box Ziploc sandwich size bags

1 backpack

2 large containers of disinfectant Wipes

1 Excited Kindergartner

See those markers there? The ones right in the center front? TheMiddleChild wanted them at the store. I said no, because we have about 500 million markers at home, and they weren’t washable. Somehow, when I wasn’t paying attention, they found their way back into the cart. Then somehow, when I wasn’t paying attention, they found their way onto the checkout belt. Then somehow, when I wasn’t paying attention, they got placed in the front center of our little display. It wasn’t until after I took the picture that I realized they were there.

And I certainly will not confess to how many of those things I did and how often I must have touched that package of markers.