Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn't come from a store. -Dr. Seuss

The other Saturday Mr. Bluth was in full swing with his finals and I managed to keep myself busy with a few trips to the grocery store. We had a heavy snowfall and the snow just kept coming which made walking to the grocery store a little difficult. The bags were dragging my shoulders and my whole posture forward which brought my eyes down. Before reaching our apartment I managed to look up and I was struck by the beauty of the snow covered street. I stopped thinking about how heavy my bags were and how I wish I would have made Mr. Bluth stop to get milk and appreciated the chance I had to be out and enjoying life. There really is beauty all around.

The rest of the month has been spent with Mr. Bluth finishing his semester and a long couple of weeks of finals. We also managed to celebrate Mr. Bluth's liberation at the end of the semester by trying to cram all the holiday festivities into one night. Zoo lights and the Christkindlemarket were our top favorites and we were able to enjoy both of those activities on a night that was relatively warm.

The sprinkles on top of our December Sundae actually occurred yesterday because we were able to spend time with some amazing people. We first had a feast with Sister Carmen. Sister Carmen is from the Philippines and has lived in Chicago for awhile. She was baptized into the Church 13 years ago and she is extremely dedicated and faithful. Just one example of her dedication is how she has worked in the temple every week for the past 10 years. While traveling around Chicago is fairly easy with public transportation attending the temple is almost not possible. She has found a way after taking multiple buses, a couple trains and a long walk so that she can arrive in about two hours.

We arrived for lunch and found ourselves a feast and we ended up taking a huge Trader Joe's bag home because she insisted we take the leftovers home.

We were spoiled with her love and she has a gift to make us strive to be more like Christ.

We later went to a fiesta with a family from Guatemala and found that practicing Spanish was not the best part of the night. The six tables with Christmas decorations and the other walls with trinkets sure made our night. Zoo lights did not even compare to their home.

Finally we ended the night with some close friends and lucked out with some great white elephant gifts.

There has been a lot of things to be wrapped up in this month and we are grateful for the moments we have had to reflect on Jesus Christ and feel of His love through small moments such as looking up on the way home from the grocery store to devouring an Oreintal feast. His Spirit and light is manifested in so many ways.

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Cold

Frigid


That would be the best word to describe the experience we had two weeks ago at the BYU vs Notre Dame game. We decided to make the trip into a low-cost affair. That just means we didn't purchase tickets beforehand and hoped we'd get lucky somehow. This is more Mr. Bluth's style than Mrs. Bluth's. She likes to plan stuff out. Anyways we loaded up and headed out of Chicago on Saturday. We were bundled in several layers and prepared for what was to supposed to be a pretty cold game. A few toll roads into Indiana and we started to hit the snow flurries.


Freezing


Growing up whenever Mr. Bluth would go to a BYU game his Dad and him would drive up behind the stadium as close as they could. They would look for a small spot where they could parallel park in the neighborhoods that were not too far away. I have a lot of memories of getting out of the car, grabbing the binoculars and cushy seat, and taking off at a brisk walk towards the sound of the stadium. As a young kid, I would practically have to run to keep up with my Dad's long strides (were they really as long as I remember? he's only 5'9").

I thought we would do the same thing for the game in South Bend. You know, just drive around and park in some neighborhood that was far enough away not too pay and close enough that we could hike to the stadium in a reasonable amount of time. It was not to be so. Unfortunately anywhere within walking distance is $20+ or "no parking." Oops.


Icy


We parked about as far away as you can and still have to pay for parking. Getting out of the car and my first thought was "Uh-oh, I don't know how long I can handle this--how is Mrs. Bluth going to handle it?" Mrs. Bluth is not known for her love of the cold, nor football.  We trudged to Notre Dame and passed right through campus (basically an Americanized Hogwarts). We saw touchdown Jesus. For tickets we saw plenty of scalpers but weren't ready to buy. I asked the BYU will call people if they had any left with the BYU fans. Yes, but at face value. $70.

We kept wondering around and just as the game was starting, a guy asked Mrs. Bluth if she still needed a ticket. He offered her an extra that he had for free. She has a strange power over men--I have yet to understand it. I found us a scalper who sold us two, right next to each other, for $25 total. Now we had three tickets and it had only cost us $25 for tickets and $20 for parking. Our plan was slowly working.


Glacial


Our seats had little pads! Sure beat sitting on the frozen, wooden plank. We were rather high up but I had a much better view than when I had gone last year and was sitting on about row 8. And we were only a section removed from all the BYU fans. We could feel their support, if not their warmth. There was no warmth to be felt anywhere.

I wish I had more to say about the game. I wish the weather were a side note to a terrific battle of a game. But the game was rather forgettable. And not just because of the outcome. Both teams looked a little sluggish and not Rudy-motivated.

The people around us were cordial and kind. The crowd in general had a great vibe to it because college football is all that matters on Saturday afternoons in South Bend. And except for the poor drunk girl that fell down the stairs, the whole section was a good time.


Frostbit


It didn't snow like that heavy-as-a-blanket snow that sometimes falls. It was just a really light snow. It would swirl around the stadium like a giant toilet. It seemed to be blowing from touchdown Jesus over and into the stadium and then out the other side. But it wasn't the snow that made things awfully cold--it was the wind. That cold wind would cut right through your coat, hoody, shirt, and thermal undies.

As halftime approached, Mrs. Bluth's toes were beginning to hurt because of the cold. She wasn't sure how much longer she would last. We found a warm room at halftime and I rubbed her feet. They were wet. The three pairs of socks had made her feet sweat. Which was now making her feet extra cold. We threw in a couple of hand warmers into her boots and bought some watered-down hot cocoa and agreed to only stay as long as we were both having fun. We lasted until well into the fourth. After BYU's 4th down attempt failed and Notre Dame was set to run out the clock we took off. We warmed up and voided our bladders in the basketball stadium and marched the long trail back to our car.

It turned out to be a $100 dollar day after gas, tolls, tickets, parking, hot cocoa, and hand warmers. And a bang-up great experience. Just a tad chilly.

#Panorama

#Coldkids

#touchdownjesus

#snowinatoilet

Moral of the Story: Don't take your car to Jiffy Lube

A few weeks ago we finally decided to get our oil changed. We had been neglecting this important action because Mr. Bluth did not want to spend money on getting the oil changed when he could do it for free. One minor problem with him doing it is the fact that we lack a garage and just park on the street. We also did not know where to take our car and, with a transient ward, it is hard to get good recommendations.

Time passed and no action was taken and so that left Mrs. Bluth with finding a coupon for Jiffy Lube and making the assumption that getting your oil changed would be the same anywhere you take your car.

One cheap oil change and a few weeks later we find ourselves at church. Mrs. Bluth stayed after to help teach a lesson with the missionaries while Mr. Bluth took our dear friend Mattie home. Now if you saw the news from last weekend you will remember that the Mid-West was hit with a powerful storm. The Chicago Tribune said that 80 tornados hit the Midwest with a lot of damage in downstate Illinois. Mrs. Bluth is in Primary which meant that she missed Relief Society when everyone's phones were going off about weather warnings and so did not know much about what was happening outside. The lesson with the Sisters was a great one and the invitation to be baptized was accepted. After the lesson, Mrs. Bluth phones Mr. Bluth and he proclaims "I am trapped in the car, you are going to have to run for it." The rain was falling from the sky so strong that it felt like you were underneath a waterfall. Mrs. Bluth offers everyone a ride and preparations were made to run to the car. As they are running to the car Mr. Bluth is shouting something and it is not until everyone was in the car that they realize he was telling everyone to stay inside because the car would not start.

All five of us sat in the car and Mr. Bluth continued to have no luck with turning the car on. Unfortunately we sat for too long in the car and almost everyone had left the church, but we did find one brave soul that tried to help us jump the car. After a few minutes of standing out in the rain and no luck with the car, our friend took everyone else home. We then proceeded to call AAA and found out that we would have a very long wait. We then spent the next 1.5 hours in the car watching the storm pass through along with stressing and laughing about the situation with our stomachs growling for food and our bladders ready to burst. When AAA arrived the sun was out and he find the issue with our car in about two seconds. He opened the hood and saw that our battery had too much corrosion built up on the battery terminals and it could not recharge. He cleaned off the battery and jumped in and the car started with no problem. Mr. AAA man was very helpful and when he found out that we had just taken our car to Jiffy Lube, he looked us in the eye and said to never take your car to Jiffy Lube. Our rotting battery should stand out like a sore thumb to any mechanic and yet somehow they missed it.

Lesson learned.

Another adventure to add to our books.

October 31

Mr and Mrs Bluth survived one of the least survivable holidays. I guess, at the end of the day, it's not so much what you are celebrating--it's with whom.

A few of our firsts.

--Mr and Mrs Bluth volunteered to make homemade root beer for the ward Halloween party. Bought the root beer extract, sugar and started mixing. For some reason, the brand of root beer that we used does not add any artificial coloring. So the root beer looked kind of like watered-down cream soda. But it still had plenty of sugar and dry ice, so it tasted just fine.

--Mr and Mrs Bluth also dressed up in a costumes couple. Neither of us are huge Halloween aficionados. Actually it is a tiny bit of an annoyance for both of us. Mr Bluth just isn't plain creative enough and gets grossed out by gore. Mrs Bluth gets startled easily. Nevertheless, the Bluths dressed ourselves up as Salt and Pepper (the seasonings, not the 90's R&B trio Salt-N-Pepa). Because he's the salt to my pepper. The apple to my pie. The smoke to my high.

--Mr and Mrs Bluth went to their first married couple Halloween party. A married couple Halloween party is very different from a singles/Provo party. This party increased our desire to participate more in the festivities and we are determined to be more creative next year. Hopefully in one year we can come up with a costume that is clever, easy to wear, and that requires little preparation to make (oh, and cheap).

And now to conclude this post with a little poem that describes what is currently happening in Chicago.

What is this?
The cold air whips as it passes
This is. . .
When the city gets more and more
nippy for the masses.

Has it already arrived?
This weather that,
Harshly and Hopelessly,
Forces us to cover up.
But summer was short lived.

Friends Forever

Anybody remember that song from Vitamin C called Graduation? It came out in 2000 and now 13 years later it popped into my head. The second line says “Where we’re gonna be when we turn 25” and here we are with Mr. Bluth in the last leg of his 25th year and Mrs. Bluth’s 25th year fast approaching. As the song continues it discusses how we move on with life and reach for our dreams but questions whether we will hold onto the past. The main theme is still being friends as much as our lives change and lead us to different paths.

The biggest thing that will ever be missed are people. What do I miss from BYU? My friends. What do I miss from San Diego? My friends. What will I miss when (if) we leave Chicago? Our friends. While there are plenty of other things to miss such as football from BYU, and perfect weather from San Diego, overall if there was only one thing I could pick it would be the relationships I formed and created in all those places.

We have a lot of wonderful friends here in Chicago, but one couple definitely stands out as some best friends. Friends that we will have forever. We both moved to Chicago the exact same week so we shared the first week of church together. Since that cold Sunday in January our friendship has grown and grown to the point that it feels like family. We don’t go a week without seeing them and all of our little adventures include them. To say it simply, they are the best.

Mrs. Bluth’s padres lived in Washington for the first 10 years of their marriage and they made a lot of friends with other couples that were just starting their families. Growing up, the Lee family always spent their vacations going and visiting their friends. Trips to Washington included just as much time visiting the friends as it did visiting the family. And that is how we imagine it will be with Tylor and Cheri. When the time comes when we are not living a half a mile away from each other, then we will plan our vacations accordingly to visit them. I guess we will have to go to Hawaii one day so that they can show us everything and their homeland.

Just in the last couple of weeks we have ventured over to the planetarium together for a perfect view of the city and a free day and headed up to Wisconsin for some apple picking. There are some pretty cool things in the Midwest such as going to orchards and eating apple donuts and cider.

We picked about 5 different types of apples and filled our huge bag. You might not be hearing from us for a while because we are cutting, coring, and then drying the apples. Putting our dehydrator to good use!

The Happy Crew.

The view from the Planetarium is incredible.
No matter where we go we will always find wonderful people that will be hard to leave and that is one of the many beauties of life.

Uncomfortable Bike Seats

There are two kinds of bikes in the world. The kind that hurts your bum and the other kind. On Saturday, Mrs. Bluth and I decided to go on a bike ride and both of our bikes were of the former type. It's true that you don't forget how to ride a bike. But you do forget how uncomfortable they are. When you are a child you barely notice the uncomfortable seats.

Neither of us has have had much use for bikes in our lives. I rode around the neighborhood on an assortment of second-hand bikes while growing up (thanks Dad for putting in a lot of time keeping those things running -- none of them were ever very nice , but you managed to always keep them working). Anyways, it felt good to go on a ride and thankfully it is still beautiful weather in Chicago. One important thing about bike-riding in a busy city -- you have got to be pretty cautious.

There are a lot of big buses, cars, other riders, and pedestrians. Stay alert, or be killed (or kill someone on accident). Actually it wasn't that bad, but it is important to be cautious.

 I speak of caution because it reminds me a little bit about doubt. Both involve you checking and double checking your surroundings and standing. Doubt ensures that whatever decisions you do make, it will be a well thought-out and calculated decision. Doubt drives desire for more knowledge. The Restoration of the church through Joseph Smith came because he doubted some of the things that he had been taught. Doubt drove him to desire clarification.
 --
We've had a couple of very great discourses on doubt recently. President Holland and President Uchtdorf have both given terrific talks on this indelible topic.

Both emphasized affirming what you do know. Everyone has at least a couple of principles that resound with them. Grab onto those little foundations that secure you in place. Then you can use doubt to explore all of the other doctrines and principles that don't make sense to you. Nurture the seed. The doubt drives discovery.

Caution on the road, like doubt, keeps you alert and aware. The discomfort of doubt actually stabilizes you by ensuring that you truly understand and endorse what is being taught. It forces you to actively pursue more knowledge. Too much comfort leads to too much complacency.

A Battalion

Merriam-Webster defines the word battalion as a large organized group of people that act together.

During Mrs. Bluth's mission in San Diego, she told the story of the Mormon Battalion while she was a part of a battalion. A battalion of over 20 sisters.

At the historic site, they were not separated by companionships, but rather they were united and all worked and acted together.

The relationships from those 18 months are eternal and the battalion sisters are family.

Mrs. Bluth would have no problem preaching to you about her mission, but instead will only highlight one aspect today.

The battalion sisters learned to sacrifice and in just one short summer they showed that they still could sacrifice and came to see us in Chicago.

Sister Sherman (Lindsay) and her new husband were driving across country (sound familiar?) to Connecticut where Blake got an incredible job. They endured all the traffic and came into the city to see us. We only had one night to walk around and show them a few things, but they did stay the night so many more laughs were shared before we went to bed. One small side note is that we live in a loft apartment so it was more of like one big slumbie party!

Sister Monarrez (Vanessa) is from a suburb outside of Chicago and her husband is from the same area, but they managed to take a detour from all of their family and friends and head into the city for some Pinkberry and a few hours with us! This was exciting because Vanessa LOVES Pinkberry and being her companion meant a few discussions on the goodness of that frozen yogurt.

To end the summer we got a visit from Sister Livingston (Jessie) and her mom and little sister. They drove from Virginia to Utah and once again scheduled a long stop in Chicago. We walked around and saw things, but the best part was just talking. Little Emily is probably one of the coolest almost 12 year old girls that we know and she even went swimming in Lake Michigan. We are very excited for Jessie to become Mrs. Brown in a few weeks and can't wait for the Mr. and Mrs. to come visit us!

One could say that we have been spoiled this summer with visitors and it is true. But the Battalion sisters worked together, sacrificed together, grew together and our relationships were developed while striving to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ and now nothing can tear us apart.

We would love some more visitors!

Today

"What day is it?"
"It's today," squeaked Piglet.
"My favorite day," said Pooh.

Today, Mr. Bluth is back at school. Today, we no longer have our evening to spend together. Today, we have a few more worries. But, today is a good day.

Summer was so good to us and we enjoyed every day and all of our adventures. We had quite the finale for our end of summer and can't wait for summer to come again.

Our last week before Mr. Bluth went back to school, we went to our first Cubs game and experienced Wrigley Field before they make it slightly more modern for next season. You really have to pay closer attention to the game with no instant replay screens, and one could say that you learn to appreciate the game a little more. We witnessed a rare occurrence and that was that the Cubs won the game! Go Cubbies!

The Thursday of that same week was Christmas for Mrs. Bluth. 13 professional dance companies from all over came to Chicago for one week and put on five different shows. Most of them had a price, but we got tickets to a free concert. Yes, we did arrive an hour early and, yes, we did dance all the way home. It was a beautiful show with a great variety of dance and Mr. Bluth was blessed for not having his usual meeting so he could stand in a long line and watch about two hours of dance.

Now we can't forget to mention that although school had already started that we still managed to play hard over Labor Day weekend. Has anyone ever gone boating on a river? Well we are now sold on the idea. We were invited to go boating in the Illinois River which we found about an hour out of the city. We went on Saturday and it was the first time we had really left the city and it is easy to be surrounded by skyscrapers and forget that Illinois is really REALLY flat. It was beautiful out on the river as both banks were completely surrounded by trees that you had no idea what was beyond the greenery, and it had a very industrial look to it with an occasional machine poking out of the trees or the big barges floating down the river carrying anything you can imagine to the Mississippi River. To top it all off, the water was the temperature of bathwater. Yep, the perfect temperature which made it very hard to get out of and a lot easier to crash into. We both were incredibly sore after wake boarding and tubing all afternoon, but we would choose to be sore any day to get to go out on the river again.

Sunday we had a 'young married with not as much responsibility' moment. We had been contemplating the idea of going to Nauvoo for the weekend and finally decided that we would not go for many different reasons. Well in the middle of our Sacrament meeting, Mrs. Bluth turned and said "Should we go to Nauvoo today?" and Mr. Bluth replied "yeah". We didn't say anything else after that just once the nursery kids were calmed down, Mr. Bluth ran home and threw a change of clothes and few other essentials in a bag and right after church we just went straight to the freeway to head to Nauvoo. We are pretty experienced with road trips considering that we have already driven to Chicago twice together, but we never get sick of them. Driving, talking, singing, and leaving all distractions at home was just what we needed. It was so interesting to really get out of the city and see what small town America looks like and the difference between the city and any town outside of Chicago is pretty much the difference between black and white (politically speaking, between red and blue).

Anyone who has ever been to Nauvoo probably remembers the small shocker of arriving and realizing that there is not much in the town. But then you drive up to the temple and realize that the small town has everything.

Monday we attended an early session at the temple and went to Old Nauvoo. While we didn't get to see as much as Mrs. Bluth wanted to see, we loved every stop and every lesson of the Law of Consecration and of the faith of the Saints. They truly gave everything to build the kingdom of God on the earth.

To end our impromptu vacation we went to Carthage Jail. This little detour home was well worth it and an experience we will never forget. It is amazing that the jail was preserved and the sweet reverence that was felt in the visitor's center and in the jail.

While there are still more things we want to see in Nauvoo and a carriage ride to go on, it was the perfect way to end the summer.

Summer will be missed, but we are excited for today.

Today is our favorite day.

Don't tread on me, say something

This blog post is going to be a little more illustrative. I feel like we haven't had a chance to really show how great living in Chicago is. I have not checked with Mrs. Bluth and so it is possible that some of these photos will be taken down later. BTW this is me again--not the usual Mrs. Bluth.

A welder by day and an exotic dancer by night, the young girl dreams of being a ballet dancer. Does the man she falls in love with, her boss, help or hinder her? Can she make it on her own or does she have to learn to accept help? I'm not sure, but the music was phenomenal.

We dressed ourselves up a little but and went out on the town to see Flashdance: The Musical. The theatre was much fancier than most of the people going and we were only about 10 rows from the stage. Things I learned: 1-Dancing is pain. 2-The 80's had decent hair, great music, and moderately sappy love stories.

We have also spent some time exploring the city. Because we enjoy living here so much, and even if we don't spend the majority of our lives here (which we still may, TBD), we still feel like we should be getting to know the city and familiarizing ourselves with the ins and outs. Chicago is gracious enough to receive us and we want to be gracious citizens.

We found:

Kayakers 

 A new friend (although it would have been a great shot without the photobomber)

A big building

 

Pizza

And a piece of art that makes clouds/mist

All right just a couple of quick thoughts and slogans. Back when I was an undergrad I would frequently walk to class by crossing 900 E and walking up a quarter mile of stairs. Inevitably I would come across a piece of grass or a lawn on my journey (alas, here in the city I rarely see grass--just concrete and steel). Sometimes the grass was not healthy. The groundskeepers would try and rope off the damaged grass and would put up little signs that read "Don't tread on me. I'm trying to grow." The fate of that patch of grass frequently depended on how much time I had until class started. If in a rush, the grass received a fresh couple of stomps.

The second slogan is the CTA slogan for preventing suspicious or bad stuff from happening on the trains or buses. Much of the CTA is plastered with signs that say "If you see something, say something." These signs have been up for as long as I have been in Chicago. One of them has a picture of an abandoned, Boston-foreshadowing backpack. A lot of misery can be prevented by just about anybody willing to do something.

These two slogans need to be held in tension when dealing with everybody we interact with. Do we ever stomp on somebody, not for the sake of stomping on them, but because it is more convenient/easier for us to do so? How many people have I unintentionally prevented from growing because I put myself first? Too many.

On the flip side, we sometimes do not do enough for those around us. We see a way that we could help and we don't. A few weeks ago we were awoken by a lady screaming in the street right next to our apartment building. At 3AM I looked out the window and could see a man grabbing and trying to pull a woman towards his car. She broke away and ran down the street towards a parked diesel. I called the police, I could have done and less and gone back to sleep. But I had seen something and knew I should say something. This story is far more dramatic then what I am really trying to explain. Yes, we should act when imminent physical danger is present. Most people would do the right thing in that situation. I'm not sure that we are usually making the correct decision in dealing with others.

In 42, which we watched the other night, Harrison Ford's character explains that the reason he wanted Jackie Robinson to succeed was because many years earlier he had not done the right thing to help one of his black teammates. He had never been mean or abusive to his teammate. But he had not done enough.

Are we doing enough to enable those around us? Or are we treading on them?

Don't tread on me, say something.

Mrs. Bluth has the day off today

As you can see from the post title, Mrs. Bluth is taking the day off from blogging. I, Mr. Bluth, have the day off from work so I decided to try "blogging." First I had to find how she makes a blog. Mostly I just read the blog by typing in mrandmrsbluth. . . and it pops up and I read and enjoyed. So I tried that but apparently there is no way to add a blog post from that URL. Luckily I started typing in "blog" into the magic Google bar and it brought up the "Dashboard" (I guess that's what they call it). Then I almost created a whole new blog instead of a new blog post. But now I am here blogging. Oh wow, I have to enter in my own paragraphs. This may have been a bigger project than I was expecting. Hold on.

Ok, here we go. With paragraph breaks.

Summer lately has not been very summerish. As I write this it is gently drizzling outside my window and the temperature has been in the 70's all week. Oh well.

On Monday Mrs. Bluth and I met up with some friends to participate in a brilliant game that combines 4 of my favorite things: basketball, bumper cars, whiffle balls, and Top 40's music. Instead of a basketball, the sport of "Whirlyball" uses a whiffle ball and little lacrosse/beachtoy/plasticky things to throw the ball from teammate to teammate. With the end goal of scoring a basket. While seated in joy-stick controlled bumper cars. While listening to Top 40's hits such as "Suit and Tie" and "I Love It."

We played 4 games of 15 minutes each. The strategy of the first game was figuring out how to get the bumper cars to obey our orders. If you think joy-stick controlled bumper cars sounds intuitive, well, maybe for you it would be, but it sure wasn't for us. We switched up cars after the first game and realized that our new car didn't respond the same way our first one had! So we re-learned how to drive. We also dedicated ourselves to learning the strategy involved to score in this game. We started with the "swarm soccer" approach. Everyone slamming into each other and yelling and trying to make short passes. We evolved to the "cherry picking" approach. This meant leaving someone on offense the whole time and just trying to throw the whiffle ball down the court where they attempted an easy lay-up.

Interestingly enough this wasn't that good of a strategy. It turns out that flinging a whiffle ball down the court was not as easy as it seems. A common occurence was for the ball to careen off a light or the ceiling on the way down. And unless you were dead on with your throw, your teammate would have to corral the ball in some corner of the arena and the other team would have had time to react and recover. Also, it turns out a lay-up isn't really a sure thing in whiffle ball. It's probably about the same level of difficulty as a contested three-pointer in basketball. Or a first date from a girl in your study group. Deceptively difficult to come by.

Anyways by the 4th game the team in the black cars dominated. The cars were a little more agile and responsive and that goes a long way since (because?) the only way to score is to get a million tries from right underneath the basket. So whichever team could get the best position for a rebound and a reshot always won.

I guess that is how life is too. Sometimes you get the car that is a little more agile, responsive, or just plain better. If you have that car, then you are more likely to get more rebounds and shots. But at least either way you get to play the game. And in the end, we all won. Why? Because someone had bought a flat (which is like 12 pounds) of strawberries for 98 cents. Which is like a penny a strawberry.

Now if I can figure out how to put a picture up I will.
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 Success.

Blessed

Mr. and Mrs. Bluth have been very blessed these last few weeks with Mrs. Bluth starting a new job and just a few days later having Mr. Bluth being offered a part-time job at a firm in the Loop.

We are feeling very grateful and our love for the city of Chicago has not stopped growing. Many visitors at church shared their testimonies and a couple mentioned that they thought it was quite a privilege to live in this beautiful city and we agree.

We have walked and walked and walked all around this city and we still cannot believe all the things Chicago has to offer.

We were blessed with an opportunity to give service by helping to paint some rooms in the school we use for church. The paint job took a lot longer than expected and Mrs. Bluth learned that she is okay with keeping her walls white for a little while longer due to the amount of work it takes to paint a single wall.

We added something to our repertoire of domestic adventures!
Freezer jam. Easy. Full of sugar. But so delicious. And Mr. Bluth calls this a blessing.

We went jogging/exploring one morning and we came across the Chicago Tribune building which has stones from buildings and landmarks from all over the world. We searched until we found the stone from the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake and feel blessed to have a piece of Utah with us out here in Chicago.

Mrs. Bluth married a great man because he will go to anything with her including symphony and children's choir concerts in the park. We attended an Independence Day Eve celebration on Wednesday and it was a great way to start off the holiday. We were definitely among the youngest generation that was in attendance and the most memorable parts of the night were watching the older generation sing all the words to the songs from their era. The most touching part of the night was when they did a tribute to those who have served in the armed forces and each branch would stand up when their song was played. The orchestra powerfully played the patriotic songs that we all love to hear.

Our celebrations continued the next day as we participated in our own 5k, went to the beach, and ended the night with a BBQ and fireworks.

While we had no Stadium of Fire and all the other outrageous activities anyone in Provo can participate in, we had a wonderful day with our little family and with our friends.

This Fourth of July we more fully recognized our blessings of living in this beautiful country and we feel very blessed with the opportunities and experiences we have been given.

Festivals

While the weather has not fully convinced us that it is summer, the festivals and events have told us otherwise.

One problem: there are TOO many festivals here in Chicago and we can't make it to all of them.

Taste of Randolph Street

This festival highlighted the many popular restaurants in the West Loop, and had vendors from everywhere, live music on three different stages, and other attractions. The best part about this festival was that it was in our backyard and it took us 15 seconds to walk across the street.


We splurged and got a duck leg for Mr. Bluth because how often can you just buy a glazed duck leg for a couple of dollars. He enjoyed every bite. Mrs. Bluth took one bite and agreed that it was good (it had an amazing glaze), but the thought of eating the animal she gave bread to all growing up turned her off from eating anymore.

Mr. Bluth was very content with his duck leg.

Rib Fest

Yup, we went to a festival that offered ribs, ribs, and more ribs. You could find a few other bbq style food items, but everything was centered on ribs. The street was PACKED and there were many times when you could not move, but we were able to get a sampler and some mac and cheese.

Good food. Good friends. And a smoke bubble making machine. Mrs. Bluth was trying to catch a smoke bubble, but we never fully captured the moment with the camera. Which means we need to go again next year because a smoke bubble is one of the coolest inventions.

After the Rib Fest, we made our way to Grant Park for the Chicago's Blues Festival. We saw a different side of Chicago and enjoyed being able to dance with no worries about the outcome of our moves because no one around us was sober. The performers were class acts and every thing about their performance made us believe that we went back in time to the 60's.

For most of June the weather has been in the 70's and the weather app shows that we are finally going to hit the high 80's and even the 90's. While our swimsuits and beach gear are ready, we will finally be able to begin experiencing a hot and humid summer in the Midwest.

Running is good.

Last Friday, Mrs. Bluth's coworker mentioned that she just got tickets to have cocktails with Lady Antebellum before they performed at Millennium Park that evening. Mrs. Bluth was happy for her coworker, but didn't think much more about the event. Later that evening, between relaxing and thinking of what we wanted to do, Mrs. Bluth casually mentions to Mr. Bluth about the concert and her coworker's luck.

Within seconds a spark lighted in Mr. Bluth's eyes and he suddenly wanted to go for a run and thought it would be best if we ran to Millennium Park. We googled the concert and there was hardly any advertising and media coverage, but Millennium Park is all out doors so we figured we could hear the concert from anywhere close to that area.

After running downtown on an evening with perfect weather, we arrived and to our surprise the lawn was free for the concert. We were close, small crowd, and the band was great live.

We now have more evidence that running is good. A simple run led us to a free Lady Antebellum concert. This city has sure been good to us.

On Sunday the police did not let anyone park in front of our building. The other side of the street was fine to park on, so it had little affect on us. Well we later looked out the window and saw a big trailer, the one that movie stars hang out in. We then went to the windows that open to the side street and sure enough there were camera crews and a bunch of people. The police were blocking the side street, but our windows allowed us to see a little more. While we don't know what was being filmed, and there were pseudo names on the trailer, we just know that something was happening right outside our windows.

open

The Bluths are considering purchasing a neon light sign that reads OPEN to place in their window.

Why?

Because their home is always open to anyone.

Over Memorial Day weekend, Mrs. Bluth's parents came for a visit. They were our first visitors and the first visit from parents since we have been married. A chance to show mom and dad that we are on the path to being grown ups and to show off our first home. It was definitely a journal worthy experience.

Chicago's deep dish pizza, Millennium Park, river boat ride, Lincoln Park Zoo, Cubs vs. White Soxs game, many other tours of the city and buildings, and adventures of riding the train kept us busy all day and then put us into a sleep coma at night.

Three full days are not enough so if you plan on visiting us, please plan a longer stay or multiple visits (or both).

The weekend's weather was cloudy, rainy, and chilly. With those factors it equated to very few pictures. Mrs. Bluth's mother refuses to be in most pictures so she was able to be our photographer and she was pretty busy with taking pictures of the buildings and the train. Mrs. Bluth believes that her mother will return home with 75% of her pictures containing some aspect of the train. Public Transportation is quite fascinating.

We went to Gino's East for some deep dish and the place is famous for the pizza, but also for the ability to sign/write all over the building.

We did find this signature:

"I'm a Mormon"

Proof that we went to the zoo:

The White Soxs' stadium was nice and they even had fireworks!

Half way through the third inning the rain started and within a couple of minutes the tarp was out to cover the mound.


The rain did not stop. In fact it turned into flash flood and we waited for about an hour until it calmed down a little and we could walk to the train. At one point, security was not letting anyone leave because it was too dangerous to go out in the storm. Mrs. Bluth's mother bought us ponchos except for Mr. Bluth. Mr. Bluth would not wear a White Sox poncho because he is a cub fan. So good old mama Lee went into the bathroom to find a clear garbage bag for him to wear. We all made it home safely.


It was a wonderful weekend.