she wore blue jeans and a rosary

Good news! NO, I'm not pregnant, but, I don't have to wear my brace anymore!  Hooray!  One step closer to a full recovery.  I had my doctor's appointment last Wednesday the 11th at Rush in Chicago.  An hour and a half drive for five minutes with the doc seems pretty ridiculous, but he is amazing & I am so glad that I was referred to him.  I have been going to physical therapy for 14 weeks now, and have probably around 12 more to go.  Doc says if I don't get my knee all the way straight they will have to go in and do an  arthroscopic clean up of the scar tissue that has built up that may be causing my knee to not straighten all the way.  The slight bend in my knee is causing my right leg to be shorter than my left which is causing a bit of a limp.  Sometimes it is more noticeable than others, if I wear tennis shoes, my foot feels good & I walk pretty well, if I have flip flops on, my foot hurts horribly and my limp is definitely noticeable.  Fingers crossed that by my next appointment (Oct 17, 6 months since surgery) that I have worked hard enough in PT to get this sucker straightened out.  I do not want to experience another surgery, even if it's only arthroscopic.

After my appointment we picked up my cousin who goes to Loyola and took him to lunch at a place called Wilde.  It was amazing & we had such a good time catching up with him.  I had this amazing bison burger with mozzarella & bacon plus sweet potato fries & a Goose Island IPA, sooooo good! 

This past weekend Kid Rock came to town to play for the annual LaGrotto's Concert for a Cause.  I have no idea what the "cause" was for this year, usually money to benefit a school.  It was fun.  We actually got some rain a few hours before the concert, it has rained every year for the last few years the day she holds her shows, REO Speedwagon actually cancelled one year because of weather.  So we got a horrid storm and a torrential downpour of rain for awhile.  I can't remember the last time we had rain since then!

The girls!

me & the hubster!

We're making really good progress on the house.  We are hoping to be in by August 1st so we don't have to pay double payments, but we'll see.  Most of the rooms are painted, our room should be done tomorrow then all the rooms but the kitchen and the bathroom are done.  The kitchen and bathroom are still being worked on, plumbing in the bathroom had to be moved around and we have to install a tub surround and plumb in a shower.  We also have white waynes coating (??? not sure if that's spelled right) going up on the wall & floor to be laid, plus the painting.  The kitchen needs flooring, paint, & we have yet to tackle the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations in Quilters White.  There are tons of things to be done outside, but all those things can be done while living there.  It is looking so cute, classy, & quaint.  I will definitely be posting pics when it's all said and done.  

No news in the baby-making business.  Still taking my temp & hoping for the best each month.  Maybe I should just give up all my techniques & to quote Carrie Underwood let "Jesus take the wheel"... 

One more thing to mention then I am off to bed... I can't believe how quickly our one year anniversary is approaching.  

 We have matching wedding date tats, Joe's on his wrist, mine on my neck.

What I'm looking forward to:

• Eating the top of our cake! Yes, this is one of the top things.  Our cake was done by a lady who has been around forever & her cakes are just awesome.  I wanted lemon cake with raspberry filling and Joe wanted white cake with strawberry so we alternated layers & of course the only bite of cake that I had was when Joe tried shoving a whole piece in my mouth so I am anxious to try my wedding cake.
• Hot air balloon ride.  We were supposed to do this on our honeymoon last year in Galena but we didn't get to because of all the pilots being gone to a hot air balloon festival.
• Renewing our vows.  Yes, we are going to renew our vows!  We are doing it at the Iron Horse Social Club & Motorcycle Museum & I cannot wait.  It's a biker bar/motorcycle museum in Savana.
• Camping.  We are going to camp a night or two a Poopy's in Savana on our way to Galena since Eagle Ridge is pretty expensive & we love to camp.
• Bike trip!  We did our honeymoon on the bike, I hope to do all of our anniversaries on the bike.

Take Care Ya'll!