I WONDER! What Happened? Kids Retailer Closes After Only 3 Months

Posted on February 20, 2012 by

You know, I kinda hate it when this happens. I go to a new store and fall in love, vow to frequent it because it’s local and then I fail to return. Next thing I know, it’s closing.

That’s what happened to the big-box styled children’s store WONDER! in suburban Chicago. Except instead of it closing a year or two after opening its doors, it was a mere three months.

I was invited to a pre-opening of WONDER! and was awed by every square inch of its 135,000 square feet. It had everything a parent could want and more. I blogged about how it was Babies R Us, but with Whole Foods class.

But something went wrong. According to media reports, lawsuits were filed against the company and its owner Shane Christensen alleging unpaid bills that were in the tens of thousands. Then came the announcement about its closing.

I got today’s statement from the company that said it couldn’t keep its doors open “due to balance sheet considerations that impacted dwindling product availability, technology systems, and planned improvements.”

I have to admit I WONDERed how such a seemingly costly store would stay afloat in this economy, but I was rooting for them. I wasn’t the only one, the village of Deerfield extended tax breaks for the company and at the time, a trustee even called it “the biggest thing to happen to the village this year.”

When it opened Christensen said the business plan called for 19 more stores to open within five years. It sounded super aggressive, but I liked the idea and enthusiasm.

I look back and WONDER why I didn’t re-visit this store. He built it, why didn’t I come? On the weekends, I’d consider going there as a fun family activity, but would always end up choosing something closer to my home, which is 30 minutes from the store. Also, I figured it was packed with people, crowds that I didn’t want to deal with.

Apparently I was wrong about the crowds.

Not sure what all happened with WONDER! but I hope it makes a comeback, because the idea felt solid, even though the financing behind it seemingly wasn’t.

Christensen said in the statement he was “dedicated to ensuring that WONDER! will indeed see another day.” Time will tell.

Meantime, I’m going to go purchase a few bottles of wine from my local wine shop. Now if that closed, it’d be a real tragedy.

Posted in Parenting | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Wordless Wednesday: A Mural in Chicago’s West Town

Posted on February 15, 2012 by

 

A mural in Chicago's West Town neighborhood.

 

Posted in RandomObservations, Wordless Wednesday | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

She’sWrite is on The Mom Pledge, A Movement Against Cyberbullying

Posted on February 9, 2012 by

Today’s a great day at She’sWrite. Well, it’s always a great day here, but today is especially cool because I’m being featured on The Mom Pledge.

The Mom Pledge is a community of bloggers who have made a promise to treat each other with respect, basically trying to eradicate cyberbullying among moms. It can be a rough and tumble world out here on the World Wide Web, and since life is hard enough, why add to the drama?

If you’re finding me through The Mom Pledge, welcome! Some of my favorite posts are: An eye-opening, heartwarming trip to the grocery store, the tale of a heroic Marine beating the odds, quitting my job of 12 years and Ethan’s story. I hope you check them and others out and find a little of yourself here.

After all that’s part of the beauty of blogging, the connections you make with others can be powerful, or at the very least make you feel like you’re not the only nut in the nuthouse.

To find out more about The Mom Pledge, visit here.

 

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Running Hills to the Sound of Music

Posted on February 7, 2012 by

The last time I went running in Norway it was winter and I was unknowingly six weeks pregnant.  It was a challenging jaunt through the wooded area behind Hubby’s childhood home, but it was exhilarating.

About to go on a run with my SIL.

This winter, I went jogging in Norway again and this time I had my gorgeous sister-in-law with me. She’s recently been bitten by the running bug and is training for her first half-marathon in September.  Before arriving in Norway, we emailed each other that we should go on a run together, but once we were under the same roof, the late night wine-slogged conversations kept those early morning runs from materializing.

Finally, we agreed one afternoon we’d head out. Like all running buddies, we had to outline each other’s expectations.

“I’m slow.” I said quickly. I always like to get that one out of the way. (Team Tortoise and proud!)

“So am I, I just focus on finishing.” She responded, adding that she’d never before ran with someone and wondered if it was OK that she’d be listening to her iPod.

I laughed explaining that I usually don’t run with people because I get engrossed in the music too, so she was of no obligation to talk to me, or even run near me.

As one might expect from Norway in the winter, the pathways were icy but I strapped my mother-in-law’s metal spikes to the bottom of my shoes . My sister-in-law opted not to use any, saying she thought they’d just annoy her.

But she has what I call “Norwegian legs.” Those Norwegians can walk on ice like penguins, but without the waddle. The first time I went to Norway, Hubby and I were in downtown Oslo and I was doing my best Bambi-on-ice impression. I couldn’t stand up, my legs whirred beneath me and I held on for dear life to Hubby who navigated the ice-glazed cobblestones with ease. Yet again, it was obvious I wasn’t from around here.

My sister-in-law and I finally were all geared up, I even made sure to bring my new inhaler after remembering lessons learned from the climb up Sears Tower. We took a pic to memorialize the run and headed out. She bounded down the snow-slicked path and I reluctantly followed. I was perplexed as to how she could just run without worry of busting her tail.

But if she could do it without spikes, I surely could do it with them. I followed her. We ran through their neighborhood, the paths were twisty, had a handful of hills and even a tunnel or two. We ran alongside a main thoroughfare,  then on the backside of some type of plant and through the neighborhood of Hubby’s best friend. It was peaceful.

My SIL kept getting farther and father ahead, as her definition of “slow” and mine are clearly two totally different things, but it didn’t matter.  She’d pause and wait for me to catch up, greet me with her 100-million-watt smile and then take off again. I was happy to see that she too was having a good time.

It was such a freeing run because not many people were out. For those who know me well, you know that means I was free to belt out my tunes. And I did. I didn’t have to worry about spewing Eminem’s curses in my quaint little suburb, offending the Hunter-boots wearing, BOB-pushing mamas. I was in the hills of Norway, giving them my own little sound of music.  (Maria would have disapproved of the content, but been proud of my spirit.)

I got so into my run, somewhere along the way my spikes came off one shoe and I didn’t notice. (Nor slip!) Later, my SIL and I went back to look for it, to no avail.

So we headed home. She kicked it into sixth gear the last leg of her run and I broke into a smile. I felt strangely proud. There’s something inspiring about watching someone really get into distance running.  It’s like they’re starting to open a gift, unaware of the greatness inside.

I’m excited that she’s starting to fall in love with running and hopefully the next time we’re together we can go on a run again. Of course, as long as the late night wine-induced gabfests don’t get in the way.

Posted in Health and Beauty, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Wordless Wednesday: How many elephants do you see?

Posted on February 1, 2012 by

 

Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom safari

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Visiting the Doctor’s Office Reveals Life with Universal Healthcare

Posted on January 30, 2012 by

Here I am waiting at the doctor’s office in Norway. I’m one of those people who gets sick on vacation a lot. In Bermuda, I plied myself with enough alcohol to keep the germs at bay.

This time, I wasn’t so lucky. I’ll spare you the goopy details, but put it like this: I have an “upper respiratory infection.”

Anyway, I’m here in this quiet doctor’s office. There’s no music, no television in the waiting room. That’s the thing about public places in Norway, they’re all so quuuiiiieeettt. There is no elevator music in most of the malls, grocery stores and, well, elevators. That means as soon as I laugh out loud, which is the only way I know how to laugh, it’s clear, I’m not from around here.

So as I said before, I’m in the waiting room. Observing the locals. One man is wearing these thermal-like dickie outfits that every Norwegian seems to own. (I betcha they’re hella warm!) A young, sneezing girl with hair so red it must be called orange. I’d read a magazine, but I can’t. They’re all in Norwegian.

Thankfully the doctor calls my name. Upon walking into the office which was part exam room, part office, my husband asks him in Norwegian if he wouldn’t mind talking to me in English because I don’t speak Norweigian. The doctor readily obliges.

He asks me about my symptoms and after listening to me carefully, he asks to listen to my lungs. To do this, he explains I’d have to lift my shirt. I glance around. “Isn’t there a scratchy, paper top I could wear?” I wonder to myself as my American prudishness seeps through.

I sigh, quickly roll up my sweater and flash him one of my old black bras. He seems to barely notice as the frigid stethoscope does its duty.

Soon, my sweater is back down and the doc is asking me how I usually treat this. I tell him a Z pack and an inhaler. He doesn’t know what a Z-pack is and I can’t think of the medicine’s real name, so he Googles it. Azithromycin.

The doctor looks at me sternly and says he’s familiar with the medication, but that it’s not usually prescribed. However, he’s going to go ahead and give it to me since I probably have “American super germs.” He winks.

I smile.

He asks me about my inhaler, miraculously I can recall the word: albuteral. He nods. I’m guessing that means he knows what I’m talking about.

“And now, I assume you traveled with your health insurance card, right?” He arches his eyebrows.

I’m confused. Norway is a social democratic country that has amazing universal health care. I shouldn’t need my health insurance card.

The doctor winks again. And I totally get it. He’s teasing me about America’s health care system. It’s a system that many Norwegians find bafflingly bad as they have universal health care and it’s goooood. I mean really good.

Good as in it covers all citizens and residents, it’s cost-effective, there’s no co-pay for hospital stays or drugs and the co-pay for outpatient care is minimal. It’s also not tied to your employer so you can change your job or become self employed without having to think twice about your health insurance. I could go on and on, but I won’t.

Back in the exam room/office, the doctor begins writing my prescriptions for the antibiotic and inhaler. I look around. There are diagrams of the human body on the wall. A model of the spine’s lumbar area. Children’s artwork. I ask about the artwork and he tells me it’s from his son.

His wife hung it up because we are sitting in her office, she’s also a doctor. Impressive duo.

He hands me my prescriptions and as we’re about to walk out the door he says: “My wife is from the Bronx.”

What? Bronx as in the Boogiedown Bronx? (I didn’t ask that, but I wanted to. ) My mind is flooded with questions about their life and her adjustment to being an American in Norway.

But the ever-practical-Norwegian doctor has more patients to see and we’re politely encouraged to exit the office.

I’m happy. I got my prescriptions, I know I’ll be feeling better soon and can really enjoy the rest of my Norwegian vacation. But part of me starts to think about the more than 50 million uninsured Americans and how back home in the land of the free and home of the brave, they’d just have to muddle through, bootstraps and all.

 

*Photo by photostock/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Posted in Appetizer for Life, RandomObservations | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Wordless Wednesday: A View of The Woods, My Norwegian Escape

Posted on January 25, 2012 by

 

Our cabin in the Norwegian forest.

Hubby’s family owns a quaint cabin in the forest and here’s a look from the dock.

Posted in Travel, Wordless Wednesday | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Celebrating MLK Day in the Comfort of My Own Home

Posted on January 19, 2012 by

The morning of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I began to wonder what we could do to celebrate the slain civil rights activist.

So I did what I always do when I have a question. I went to Google. After finding no kid-friendly events in the surrounding area, I saw that the library was scheduled to have their storybook time for toddlers. That’s where someone on staff reads a few books to a room full of tots and often adds a song or two.

Surely, surely they’ll have a storybook time that’s somehow tied to MLK day.

We piled in the car, puffy coats, gloves, hats, snow boots and all. On the way to the library, we talked about King. It wasn’t our first conversation about him. When Logan was a baby I stumbled across a great children’s book called The Story of Martin Luther King Jr. by Johnny Ray Moore. We’ve read that many times and have used it as a jumping off point for discussions.

This day, when I asked him if he remembered me talking about Martin Luther King, Jr. He said flatly: “No.”

OK. I start talking about how King was this man who pushed for people to be nice to each other no matter what.  Before I can go much deeper, we’re at the library.

We head to the children’s section for story time.  There’s a story about a mitten. Then a wool coat. There’s no mention of Martin Luther King, Jr. I start to realize that the only thing that has to do with any brown person during this story time is me, sitting there. I was disappointed, but was glad the kids enjoyed themselves.

I was sure there’d be a MLK display of some sort at the library, one that I probably missed in my rush to make it to story time. When I asked one of the librarians if they had an MLK display, she pointed to a lonely shelf with about five books on it.

My heart sank. I’m not sure what kind of face I made, I just know that the librarian quickly, apologetically and stammeringly explained how there were more books before, but that most of them had been checked out already. She started to say something else but then stopped. I think she too realized how pathetic she sounded.

I grumbled that I would just reread the books that we’ve got at home.

On our way home, I started talking about King again, how he was a preacher, how he wanted everyone to be treated fairly, the March on Washington and how he won the Nobel Peace Prize (Logan learned about the peace prize when we were in Norway.)

Each night, we read a book before going to bed and it was clear to me what tonight’s book would be. We read the book and I thought it’d be neat to watch some of his “I Have A Dream” speech, so I pulled out my KindleFire and we snuggled up and watched the black and white footage of that historic day in 1963.

It was a little surreal. Using something so hi-tech to give my kid a front row seat to history.

I realized  I didn’t need the library to have something on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I had all that I needed in the comfort of my own home.

Posted in Appetizer for Life, Motherhood, Technology | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Build A Better Mousetrap: Finding Time to Make It Happen

Posted on January 17, 2012 by

I think there needs to be a way to teleport what I’m thinking right on to my blog. Now bear with me, I’m not blogging while drunk, nor have I gone off my meds.

There’s so many posts I want to write, so many things I want to say, but when it comes time in the evening when I’m done cooking, cleaning, calling, carpooling and coddling, I’m spent. I’ve got some posts mostly written though. There’s tales from the waning days of 2011. Half-written yarns about my three weeks in Norway. Snippets of thoughts on my weight loss, my latest trendy buys, launching my freelance career, being a mom with a new work/life balance. Oh yeah. Good stuff.

For awhile though I thought I lost everything on my computer because my hard drive died when I was in Norway and I hadn’t backed up my posts and half posts. My husband poked me again about using Evernote, which allows you to access your notes and other musings from your phone or any computer. Thankfully the GeekSquad recovered my stuff and I got a new hard drive.

But back to my original point. If someone could create an app or a plug-in or some such, I could just think these lovely thoughts and then BAM! They’d be posted with precision on She’sWrite.

Until then, I will have to figure out a way to build a better mousetrap.

Posted in Appetizer for Life, Blogging, RandomObservations | Tagged , | 9 Comments

My New Year’s Resolution: Be Flexible

Posted on January 9, 2012 by

New Year’s resolutions. Did you make one? I do every year and more often than not, I’m able to keep them. It’s not because I’m some super self-disciplined person who’s goal-directed personality doesn’t let anything get in her way.

Oh no. I procrastinate with the best of them. I generally keep my resolutions because I feel choose them wisely. Buuuuut last year, I did a Chicago bucket list and admittedly didn’t accomplish much. There were 12 items and I’ve done four. Whoops. They were: Run a half marathon, spend a day at Millennium Park, take a day to enjoy the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art and take the kids to the Garfield Park Conservatory.

I do feel my bucket list was pretty awesome though, so I’m still going to cross off the rest of the items. Promise.

This year, I’m going to return to Christine Kane’s idea of picking a word that will be your theme for the year. In 2010, my word was “Reclaim” because I felt the need to reclaim myself. Anyone or anything that took from me or didn’t add value to my life, got pushed to the backburner or out of my life entirely. It was really empowering and I loved it.

For 2012, my word is flexibility. There are a lot of big changes coming up this year for my family and from where I sit they all look like positive, yet challenging changes. That’s why to navigate them, I *know* I will need to be flexible. You know, accepting the things I cannot change and all that. Sorry if I sound cryptic, but now’s not the time to get into what’s on the horizon. Stay tuned though, I’ll definitely be blogging through it.

I chose “flexible” because I like to be in control, I like order, I’m a perfectionist. Things often have to be “just so.” There isn’t much flexibility. Sooooo, I am going to work on changing that. Wish me luck. What about you? What are you hoping to do new/different this year?

Posted in Appetizer for Life, Blogging | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments