Moving On...

I spent the first 18 years of my life in the same town surrounded by the same family, the same friends, and the same surroundings. I went to the same school my entire school "career" with the same teachers from year to year. Things rarely changed in my small town-sure maybe we'd get a few new families every year or so, but for the most part things were the same. In fact, of all the people I graduated with, I'd say that I went to school with 95% from kindergarten on up.

After graduating, I moved to "the big city" (In retrospect, saying Saginaw is the big city is really funny. Yes it's a large city compared to Harbor Beach, but it's NOTHING compared to the big cities I'm used to now :D) I spent four years in my new "hometown" and loved it. I met a great group of people whom are still good friends, I learned my way around town, knew where to shop, etc etc. Then I made a decision that would change my life forever...I decided to get married and run away to Chicago with George. (well sort of, it wasn't immediate, but in the scheme of things it was a quick process)

Now here I was, eight hours from my itty bitty home town in a town that had five elementary schools (WHAT?)grocery stores I'd never heard of (Jewel Osco? Dominicks? huh??) The traffic lights were different, we threw away our cans and bottles (um, hello, those are worth ten cents in Michigan!) you had to PAY to drive on toll ways-which incidentally, had at least one name and number to identify them. (And if I'm honest, after seven years down here I still haven't learned all the number/name correlations) Chicago land is so much more fast paced than the town I was used to. It was busy and loud and there were people all over the place-and forget about seeing a farm...yeah, not gonna happen.

The first six months were so hard for me. I was constantly homesick and just wanted Faygo and Koegels. (Michigan soda and hot dogs) I spent a lot of time on the phone calling people at home and we went to Michigan a lot those first six months...but gradually it got better. Gradually I realized that our quality of life down here was SO much better than we could ever have in Michigan. Unfortunately, Michigan, while beautiful and familiar, is an economic wreck. There aren't enough jobs to go around and once prosperous towns are now virtual wastelands of abandoned buildings and crime.

We've been here seven years and I can't imagine NOT calling Illinois our home. We love it here; there are job opportunities, there are cultural experiences to be had, there are plenty of things to do and see, and we are surrounded by family and friends down here too. Sure I miss being in Michigan sometimes. Holidays are the hardest because my family isn't always able to come here nor are we always able to come here--but that's okay. We see each other at least a few times a year and always enjoy ourselves. In fact, we're getting ready to go to Michigan for a week in August, which is sure to be a blast like it always is.

One thing that's made it easier to not miss Michigan is having Gabe and Bits. Seeing how they thrive in this environment, seeing how they LOVE being downtown taking in the sights, even hearing their little Chicago accents is wonderful. Chicago (land) is THEIR home and I'm so glad it is. They have opportunities I never had as a child for which I am very grateful for. They love it down here and I'm so glad. The first little bit after moving here was hard, but seeing them so happy and healthy here made that little bit of sadness worth it all.

Getting Settled

Hello out there from the Witkowski Clan!

We are just getting moved into our new place and will soon have new pictures to show everyone.

Gabriel just had his flu shot and did quite well with it. SarahAnne, being allergic to eggs, cannot have the flu shot, so we have to be extra vigilant with hand washing and covering our mouth this flu season!

Gabe sees a new therapist next week for a speech therapy evaluation. For those of you who have ever spent time with Gabe, you know that he is quite articulate and has a rather large vocabulary HOWEVER, he also speaks very very quickly and is often times hard to understand. We are hoping this is a one time visit with the speech therapist, though. Cross your fingers for us!

The whole family is caught up in election fever. We've been watching the debates and the kids have been throwing in their two cents. Bitsy generally says "Yay, Bama" or "Momma! Momma! Bama!" Gabriel, however, is a bit more clever. He says, when he sees Obama, "Hey mom, it's your new bicycle!" (from the website that says Barack Obama IS your new bicycle hehe) We were able to cast our ballots early due moving, so our votes have been cast-now we just wait to hear what the rest of the nation does in less than two weeks!

Alright...off to do some more unpacking...Geo brought a couple of pictures over and it's starting to look a bit more like home but we've got a ways to go!

xoxo

Moving...

Something exciting happened this week! We found a house to move to. It's about fifteen miles west of where we are now, so it's "the country" but it's still close enough that we can get to things relatively quickly. It's a nice little house with plenty of closet space and a big ole yard to run around in. We're moving the weekend of October 24, anyone who wants to help us is more than welcome ha ha :D

We're working on packing and getting things set for the move, the kids are excited (well Gabe is anyway!) because the house has a baseball diamond AND a library across the street from it. The town is SO small, there are about 800 people there, it's the Port Hope of Illinois (for those of you reading from the Thumb, you know exactly what this means) So far, I've found a post office, a gas station/convience store, two churches, and a bar. Ha ha. Sounds about right. We are going to be close to Northern Illinois University so Geo and I can both go back to school when the time is right. All we need is a good pizza place in town and we'll be all set :D Geo is going to be driving a bit further than he would normally to work, but he's not worried about that, he's too giddy at the prospect of a rake and lawn mower and a big garage that he doesn't mind the drive haha. Weird-o ;)

Anyway...think good thoughts for us while we're doing the packing and moving, we'll keep you all posted AND I might even post a picture or two ;)