Thursday July28th

So we woke up to thunderstorms and lightning. NO Y today!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Oh well, I really need to keep packing and cleaning.

Our vacuum is something from a bargain basement of unwanted trial and error design mishaps!
Really, it has a telescoping handle that doesn't lock into place and no attachments for getting into corners.
I use it EVERYDAY because I have to. E has a great way of making it necessary. Plus, it's just nice to have a 'fresh' floor each day when Brett comes home from work. AND, we don't really sit in our debunked furniture.

So, we have has a bug problem the whole time we've been here. They like to go to the corners of the place and die or to the kitchen. Since our vacuum doesn't have attachments I have to use paper or other means to take care of these nasty invaders.
I bought a dollar store broom last night and decided to sweep the carpet today.
 OMG, I moved the couch and really went around all the creases of the carpet. SICK!!!!!
Can you believe I clean this place EVERYDAY??!!!!!!!!!!!!! (cereal was just added to my pile before the picture)

the  cereal was added by my helper E

I CAN'T wait till SUNDAY! 

'Bog' (bug) has been in E's Vocab since we moved in here!

Count down to MI...

It is bitter sweet since we have to leave Brett. However, I don't think he's as upset as we are. 

Plus, he might have big decisions coming up. The management want to meet with him before he leaves.

WHY DAVENPORT!!!!??????

Wednesday July20th - 27th

YES!!! it's been over a week without an update.

With temps over 115degrees and humidity over 50% we have been forced to stay inside the apartment.
Brett gets home from work and is zapped of all energy. The fans aren't doing the trick in the shop plus he's been working 10-12hours and Saturday and Sunday!
Yes, he still LOVES his job and the guys there are giving him all kinds of respect and DON'T want him to go back to MI.

Meanwhile, E and I find things to do here. Painting, drawing, reading, dance parties, etc...
We did make it to the Y Mon, Tues and Wed this week.

Sorry for the lack of photos, the zoom lens is huge and takes blurry shots when handheld :(

it took less than 2mins for this mess!

This Hat has been great!

SAAB

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to the master mechanic who took the Saab away for $900!!!! What a beautiful deal!!!!!! He can fix it or make money off of selling the parts.
Either way, what a load off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday July19th

I can't sit in this dark apartment for one more hour! I quickly made E eat and loaded her in the backpack.
Heat index was already hitting 94 degrees at 8:30, supposed to hit 115 heat index today!!!!!!

We stayed at the Y for over an hour just to kill time and stay out of the apartment.
-side note there is another Norah at the Y and they had the same outfit on today! TOO Funny! There was another little girl wearing the same outfit as the Norahs, but in a different color (D has this one). THEN as we were leaving another girl walked in with the different color one on too! This is a very popular little item!

When we go home E did NOT want to get out of the backpack! I don't blame her!

me "let's get out of the backpack" E "NO"

Monday July18th

E and I woke up and ate breakfast. It was 94 degrees already and after yesterday I wasn't feeling up to throwing on the backpack and walking to the Y.

Brett worked all day and said he was drinking all day, but never had to pee. LOL!!! It was that HOT. He was soaked by the time he got home. 109 heat index today!!!

Not much to report. Although, a master mechanic is coming to look at the Saab tomorrow. Fingers crossed!!!!!! Not getting hope too high. :)

Sunday July17th

NOTE to self: DO NOT walk when temp is uncomfortable just to stand in.

Brett got up early again and went and did our laundry. very nice of him, but he went to the wrong place and came home with wet clothes :(          at least he tried :)

We packed the car and headed out for a walk. Worst decision of the day!!!!!
I was dizzy with swollen fingers and a headache by the time we finished 5miles. Brett didn't feel too hot either.
I LOVE jogging or running!!!! But today was SO bad!!!!!!
We sat in the grass in the shade for a while before we jumped in the car.

I checked the weather when we got home.  90's seemed like an understatement for what it really felt like outside.  Heat Index = 104 degrees with humidity = GROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So one again we sat inside for the night :(

Saturday July16th

Happy 87th B-day MIMI!

Brett left early and went into work. He was home by 10am and put the new Thule on the Jetta. We planned a bike ride then quickly realized my bike shoes were locked in the Saab. :( devastation!!!

It was already hitting over 90degrees!
So, we got dressed and headed out for lunch instead of a walk or ride.
We went to the Front Street brewery again. It's SO tasty there. I had fish and chips this time and Brett had the homemade sausage dinner. Both were VERY good. E enjoyed

After lunch we drove around the riverfront area and found HUGE OLD houses that sit on a large hill across the street from the river. We found the area we would like to live in and can NOT afford. It's a fine line between nice and scary here. One minute you are in wealthy up kept area, and it turns just in one block.

Because of the heat we came back and decided we would go out for our walk later.

Personally I can't stand to sit inside and watch TV on a beautiful day, but what can we do??

PAINT...

We did end up loading up the car and heading out to play disc golf.

Tuesday - Friday July12th-15th

So because my camera isn't really working, I haven't taken many photos lately.
We walked to the Y every morning this week. We saw the Google Maps Street View car a couple of days just parked on our walking route.
After Brett is home from work, we have been making it a point to leave our apartment. We've been disc golfing or walking to make sure we get out of here.

Still no leads on the Saab. 1 month and that thing HAS to be taken care of!

2 week countdown before E and I head to MI.

Brett's co-worker/leader at work went up to HR and asked about a car rental and hotel stay while he is in Iowa/IN for the last two weeks. He is getting both covered. Yes, they were going to pay for the IN stay anyway, but now we don't have any out-of-pocket expenses for when he is here in IA. SO NICE! I love this company, just not their location.

I know that this blog is NOT the same without E pics, so I will start carrying my phone and using it for pics more.

Monday July11th

We walked to the Y this AM. E and I were entertained by the marching band practice going on at the high school. They have a HUGE color guard section with a bunch a guys too! We watched them twirl the flags.
ahhhh....memories, LOL! of tenor and barisax NOT color guard. :)

After Brett got home we headed over to the splash park again. WOW, there was a different crowd there and it was large (in more ways than one!).
I was feeling self-consious about wearing just my bikini top and shorts, so I left my teeshirt on. What is wrong with the diets today? I saw a 2-3yr old boy with a can of soda. SERIOUSLY! The mom popped the top and just handed it to him! OMG! Enough judging others, sorry! As we left there all I could think was thank goodness that is not my situation.

We were going to check out another splash park in Davenport tomorrow, but they won't be open till Wednesday.

No pics today, the place was so busy that I wouldn't have been able to crop just E out.

Few Random Stories

I forgot to mention...

Brett was on his way home last week when he saw a woman walking on the highway. She was about 10feet in front of a broken down vehicle. Being the guy he is, he couldn't let her walk, so he stopped and gave her a ride.
He made a comment like "broken down huh? Cars can be a pain, I know"
She answers "oh, that's NOT my car, I just didn't get a ride home"
This was confusing, so he started asking her more questions. Come to find out, the lady was a bit crazy and he dropped her off all the way downtown. Miles from the highway!
Not at apartment building or such, just randomly at the river park area. It's where she wanted to go. A couple of guys at work advised against his kind deeds.

AND...
Sunday night we were going back and forth doing laundry. On the back stairs there was a pole and the outgoing mailbox container. It's just a wire mesh office type box with 'outgoing mail' written on a piece of paper and taped to the front of it, nothing fancy. I have NEVER put mail in it, bc I don't want it to get lost.
Well, case and point.
Brett saw a letter in the box and walked up to talk to the tenants. Just to let them know that the mail and mailbox was scattered about the stairway.
They came down and discovered that there were bills missing. They had a few of their checks stolen. Ahhh...the nerve of some people.

ALSO, we pulled a load of laundry from the dryer and it's now covered in pink! Not uniform as though something bled, but spotted and blotchy. Brett was thinking crayon, but there's no trace of anything like the paper or a waxy film. I have no idea what it was, but I think it was in the dryer from previous users. OMG!

Have I said how excited we are about coming home?

We are thinking that Bettendorf is the place to be next year. Their Y even has a little indoor water play area for kids and looks brand new from the outside. The trails, sidewalks and neighborhood looks great (compared to where we are now). The place where we would stay is a pretty big hike from the local Y. We would have to configure cars or bikes somehow? Anyway,

Sunday July10th

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

We started our day with a round of 9holes at the disc park. After that we were SWEATING!!!!!!!
SO on our last bike ride to rock island, we passed a free play park where they had a small water area.

We all ran home, changed and headed to that park.

E walked right in and never looked back...


We had two parents tell us that our child is fearless. And as we drug her away and she was freaking out a nice dad came up to us and said that she was super cute running around the park. She was one of the most out going and it was fun to just watch her for a while.

Parent lined the outside, but no one was playing. We weren't sure if we were supposed to go in or not? Finally, I had to go get E, so I had no choice but to go in. Brett lost his shirt too and started to play in the water. We were the only adults playing in the water. Oh well! They really missed out :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we peeled her away from the park, we drove around Rock Island and tried to find places to stay next year.

Saturday July9th

Today Brett had to work so E and I went over to play soccer at the school. Again, it was so hot this AM that she didn't last long. We came back and napped till Brett arrived around 1PM

We were invited to a birthday party for a guy's wife at Brett's work.

It was in a really nice place right on the river in Le Clair (where American Pickers place is & birth place of Buffalo Bill) They had a pontoon, jet skis and a grilling/sitting area all set up right in/on the river. SO nice with the breeze and water and fresh air! 

E sat on the jet ski for the majority of the time we were there. She kept pointing at the Extra large life vest and saying "go"

People were taking the skis out a making her very jealous. She tried to jump into the water MANY times! Luckily our reflexes are still quick enough to stop her. We did consider making her walk around with her life vest on. That may have just gave her the green light to jump!

We had BBQ & stayed for around 3hours! IT WAS SO GREAT TO LEAVE OUR PLACE! We didn't want to come back!

The houses across the river were HUGE. Again, my camera is out of commission for now, so no pics :(

Plus, I was attached to E, so I really couldn't take any photos! Brett took this one of her on the ski.

Friday July 8th

E actually put herself to bed last night! unheard of!

Today E slept in so long that I decided to skip the Y. We ate breakfast, got dressed and took her soccer ball over to the playground before it hits 90degrees today!
On the way over, she was taking her time in the parking lot. Next thing I know there is a deer trotting right behind us! What the?! I tried to get the camera phone to take some photos, but it wasn't quite quick enough to show just how close we were to this guy!

We played for quite a while. It was really fun to throw the soccer ball down the slide and see how far it would go.
After we were both nice and sweaty we headed in for a drink and some shade!

I have some good new about my camera. It's not the body that's broken, it's the lens. The bad news is it's the main one I use and will have to wait to buy a new one. 

Also, we are thinking that the $450 from the car dealer might be the best offer we will get. In which case, we are only out $250.00, plus the car rental fees, and the car. BUT at least we are going to get something for it. :)

Scrappers want to give from $200-400.00