We arrived!

Sorry this post took so long in coming! First it was because it took a long time to get our internet set up. Second, it takes so long to upload photos that I really wanted to get a bunch of pictures up here so that people really enjoy their visit after so long! :)

I'll walk you through the last two weeks!

Saturday, June 7th, Josh and I left for Chicago with our friends Jay and Wendy Oldaker and Adam and Carrie Babcock. We left from Canton, OH. Norah stayed with Grandma and Grandpa McCowin and they drove her up on Sunday, which was awesome! Norah was getting over a cold and I think it would have been a lot harder had she been with us.

Here we are in Canton, getting ready to leave....

Anyways, the drive went really fast and our friend Branden Mast met us at our new apartment building with our keys! He had come the week before to get them for us so that one of us did not have to fly in during the week to get them. The guys unloaded and the girls started setting things up and the truck was empty in an hour! We all put things away, put shelves together and started showering so we could go downtown for dinner.

We went to Giordano's for famous Chicago stuffed pizza! Here we are enjoying it....

(L-R--Wendy, Jay, Josh, Branden, Adam, and Carrie)

Now, on to some important things! The apartment was clean when we arrived, which was nice! Now after being here for 24 hours I notice that some things are not to my liking! I'll let you see if you can tell which of the four things below where cleaned by me and which were not! The picture is not a great one, but I think you'll be able to see a small example of my work!

Next comes our "junk drawer." Well, I guess there is not a lot to say about it, but I thought I would include it in our tour here!

(Pictures of the apartment will come soon! We may just do a video with our camera and upload that!
Not sure yet! Check back!)

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In case you are not aware, I am a triplet. Most of my time as a 6-12 month old was spent in a laundry basket. You see it was simple crowd control for my parents and I'm sure my older brother David did not mind the peace of mind either, even as a 5 year old! :) Norah spent some time in a laundry basket the first couple of evenings here as we tried to set things up and organize. She also spent a lot of time in only a diaper because it was so hot!

This is the view out of our living room window. It's nice that there is not a building right up against our windows.

Norah had a bath and spent some time in her robe! She looked so cute!

Our friend Katie made us this wrap and this was the first time we used it. Now this is definitely not me at my finest hour, but it was hot and we needed to walk to CVS to get Norah a fan for her room. Thanks Katie! It works great!

And Yes, I am wearing Umbros!

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We have beaches here in Chicago in case you didn't know! When we came two years ago to visit Tim and Marisa here, I was really surprised to find that there were beaches here. One day last week we took a long walk to the 57th street beach. Norah loved it! The water was cold and I could not stand in it for too long, but it did not bother her at all.

I thought this was cute!

My sister-in-law Heather's sister Suzy let us borrow this cute little bathing suit for the summer since their daughter is too small for it! It fits Norah perfect! Thanks Suzy!

Here is Norah enjoying her book from Aunt Heather. She can't put it down!

She got stuck in her little box.

For Father's Day we got all dressed up and went to try out our first church in Chicago! The funny thing was that the church we choose was a bilingual church-Chinese/American. We had no idea. The people were so nice and we really enjoyed it! We were the only ones there that did not speak Chinese. We might go back after we look at a couple more churches. This outfit came from cousins Jason and Lyndsey and we love it!

Later on Sunday Branden came to visit. He lives very close to Chicago, so we made dinner, but while it cooked we went to a Japanese garden close to where we live. It was built during the World's Fair in 1893, which I'm sure Josh will blog about soon because he read a book about it and the World's Fair took place in our neighborhood, and we have been going to some of the places that are still around from it.

Norah started holding her bottle! Yeah!

Norah and Daddy playing the guitar together.

Our friends Jenny and Matt who we know from Wheeling gave us a box full of clothes for Norah before we left. We pulled this outfit out the other day and thought it was so cute. We took Norah around on some errands in it and she drew all sorts of crowds.

If you have never used Craig's List or Freecycle in your area you should! We got some old school bikes yesterday and a child's seat for Norah for super cheap! Today we got her the smallest helmet we could find and it is a tad to big, so we have to put a sun hat underneath it....this picture is just a preview of the first Elek Family Bike Ride which will take place tomorrow (friday)! We can't wait and we promise to post pictures!

OH Yeah! I got a job! I start on June 30th. I'm working at a hospital south of where we are. I'm not going to put too much detail here, but feel free to ask questions about it. I'm really looking forward to getting started. I will be working closely with patients and that will be fun! It is not a social worker position, but similar to a social work position in a lot of ways. The great thing is that I will be interviewing for a manager position soon. They asked me if I would be interested and I haven't even started! I owe lots and lots of thanks to my friend Betsy who recommended me! Thanks Bets! More to come later...

One more thing...I figured out how to add e-mails to a list so that you can get an e-mail everytime I update my blog. If you want me to add you send me an e-mail and let me know!

And!!!! We live 4 1/2 blocks from Barack Obama!!!