Palatine

Well, we've been in Palatine now for about a week and we love it. Though we seem to be having some door issues: Alan's garage door opener doesn't work; the front door handle won't turn, so we can't open it; the downstairs bathroom door doesn't fit entirely in the doorframe or something and it's a task to get the door closed (even Alan hates it); the sliding glass door has a burglar bar that we haven't yet figured out how to remove and spiders have made the space between the glass and screen doors their home. So, looks like we'll need to let the landlords know so we can use everything properly!

We've been having some crazy stormy weather lately. It seems every week we're getting tornado warnings. this last one they actually sounded the sirens in the Loop and cancelled flights and delayed Metra. Schaumburg Mall was even shut down and people were asked to go into shelter areas. Craziness. I don't think any tornado touchdowns were reported though (which is good!).

We have yet to completely finish moving our stuff out of Oconto, believe it or not. We probably only have about one trip left if we take both our cars and then we have to clean the whole place (yuck!). I'm thinking we need to get that done this weekend because our lease is officially up at the end of this month, which is next Thursday! We still have a lot to do at the new place too. Lots of organizing needs to be done in the next 2 weeks because Alan's mom and brother are coming in to town. we don't even have a spare bed! Yikes. Need to look into that too. SO much to do still!

With that in mind....here's this week's Thursday Thirteen

Things We Still Need to Get/Do

1. New Phones - Our respective phones have both decided to basically crap out. I wonder if AT&T purposely designs their phones to basically die after 2 years so you HAVE to get a new phone. Alan and I talked about possibly switching to Verizon to get better service (and reception), but we've both kind of been wanting iPhones, which are exclusive to AT&T. So, we have to discuss this weekend what we're going to do.
2. Computer chair mat - I'm still not sure about this one. I don't know how often the desk is being used currently since the desktop computer is up there and we both only use our laptops. Maybe I should relocate my laptop upstairs so the computer room doesn't exist for nothing.
3. Guest bed - I saw American Mattress was having 40-60% off sales and before we moved some place was offering free bed frames w/ mattress purchases. I don't remember if that was American Mattress or not. Either would be a great deal to get something for the guest bed!
4. Build bedroom furniture - We still have one big dresser to put together (well, Alan) for our clothes. It took him a couple hours to put the last one together trying to decipher IKEA's instructions, but it looks nice. We've yet to decide where we're going to put it in the room either. We may have to do some rearranging.
5. Finish up moving/cleaning Oconto - We need to steam clean the (terribly ugly) carpet that's there, even though if they plan on selling it they SHOULD remove it but we're trying to avoid being charged extra. We also need to do some minor repairs on the upstairs toilet roll that fell out of the dry wall.
6. Computer cleaner - my screen is filthy. I was reading a few weeks ago that Macs need special cleaners for the screens to avoid damage. Looks like we could afford to invest in some.
7. Paint guest bedroom - I saved some pictures of rooms I'd like to style the guest bedroom after based on the color palettes. The landlords said we could paint. Not sure if that will get done before our visitors come.
8. GI appointment next week - The Imuran seems to be doing really well for me so far. I haven't had any stomach pains since my partial obstruction 2 months ago. So, the weekly Humira shots in combination with the Imuran is doing its job. I'm scheduled to finish Entocort at the end of this month as long as I'm still doing well. So, hopefully I'll get the "okay" to stop at my appointment next week. I'm anxious to hear about when/if another colonoscopy may be scheduled in the near future and what the plans for meds are: stay the same or change.
9. Look for a job - I probably should/need to at least find a small job to a) give me something to do and b) give us some extra money in the bank. Still not sure what I'm doing about school. It'd be nice to get a small office job at Trinity or something at a clothing store to get discounts, haha.
10. Find a church - Now that we've relocated I want to start searching for a church to attend on a regular basis. Rich actually decided to move to Chicago instead of teaching in Korea. He's thinking of planting his own church, so who knows. We may be involved in doing that with him. He's planning on getting here in the fall.
11. Get back to a cooking schedule - I can't stand I've been eating junky sorts of food since we're still transitioning between houses and plan on bringing the remaining groceries we have in the old fridge here. So, we didn't pick up too many things on Sunday when we went shopping.
12. Browse for new couch(es) - My mom offered to buy us a new couch as a housewarming present. So, she told us to start looking around for something we want and she'll buy it when she's in town in 2.5 weeks.
13. Get the cars fixed - Alan's car has no AC, so he has to use my car to go to work because it gets to hot. My car is burning oil way too fast and still sounds clunky, not to mention STILL needs the driver's side door handle reinstalled.