The Hairs

Well, it's official, the Hairs are leaving us! Actually, one already has. Will left for Utah Sunday morning, leaving Caitlyn and the girls here while he gets a job. I am still trying to tell Caitlyn she can leave at least one of them here, but she won't!

It is funny to me that in this day and age with all the technology and everything that in some ways we seem to be going back to the way thing were in the 30s and 40s. When Caitlyn and Will first came to live with us it seemed like their situation of living with parents was unusual. As time went on we heard of more and more people doing this.

Also back in the day people would go far away to find work and send money home to their families. Separations were not that uncommon. It seems to me that if you really step back and look at society it is very cyclic, it doesn't matter how much technology or modern the times seem there will be times of plenty and times of famine. I for one hope to out live this time of famine.

Good luck in Utah Caitlyn and Will! You had better skype us!

Chicago Weekend

What a fun weekend! It started with Doug and I driving to Illinois on Thursday and on Friday we drove some more to the Rockford/Chicago airport to pick up Kristin, Jacob and Kimball. Kimball's name is appropriate as he is shaped like a ball! What a handsome guy he is!

Friday night all the family got together at Denise's house for pizza and visiting! It was nice to see everyone. Some of my family came by too. We got to meet Jess and Tiffany's youngest, Ramsey, he is adorable!

Saturday morning was kind of lazy which was nice. Doug, Kristin, Jacob and I went into Chicago for a soccer game at Soldier Field in the evening. We walked around a little bit before the game and ate hotdogs from a street vendor. Mmmm...Doug really misses Chicago style hotdogs!

We saw the USA team play against Poland. I didn't realize how huge the Chicago Polish population was. We were surrounded! All thru the game we heard Polska, Polska, Polska! I think there was even some Polish cursing but I'm not sure! I was going to cheer for the Polish team because no one told me that the US team wore blue and the team from Poland wore red. I brought my red Ohio State sweatshirt to wear. Fortunately it never got warm enough for me to need a sweatshirt.

There were some crazy fans there. They call themselves Sam's Army. They were covered in red, white, and blue. Most of them had some kind of flag cape. It was fun to watch their group get bigger and bigger. Kristin says they follow The US team all over the place!

Kimball got to stay with his great aunts Niece and Sis. I'm thinkin they spoiled him. I did hear him say that he particularly loved his cousin Taylor!

They say that two heads are better than one but I'm not so sure when its these two! They were trying to solve a word puzzle on my Kindle.

One of the things I most wanted this weekend was a pumpkin pie blizzard. I was supposed to get one on the way to the airport Friday, but guess what, there are no Dairy Queens between Shorewood and Rockford! We went to the Dairy Queen in Shorewood on Sunday on the way to take Jacob to the Peoria airport. I was sooo excited! I talked Kristin into getting one too because they are sooo good! Guess what...we were about half way done with them when we realized that the girl put in the cookie part for the crust but forgot to put in the pumpkin! Lame! Well Caitlyn got me one today and Kristin made sure that they put in the pumpkin! Mmmm....

Well, this blog is long enough and I am getting tired. I did forget to put in somethings like getting lost on the way home from the Rockford airport. That was fun...just ask Doug! Thank goodness for Caitlyn and google maps!

At The Garavaglias

As you can see from the pic, we had so much fun at the Garavaglias! Happy 18th birthday Eric! and congrats on making the hockey team! It seems weird to me that they play hockey in Texas. Do they import their ice from Canada?

New Background

Okay, Okay , I know its not the 4th of July yet or even close to being, so why the patriotic background? Let's just say that this way if I forget to change it I am covered thru July. Besides Memorial Day is at the end of May, that is coming up fast right?
Not much new going on that I know of, still waiting for someone to go into labor. Doug is coming home from Colorado today. Hope the fishing trip went okay. Although I understand that not much fishing went on. To much snow... hello boys ... April ... Colorado ...! Maybe in June the snow will be gone!
Happy Birthday to the April babies! Kathy Bug, Jordan, Caitlyn and Molly! Soon to be joined on an unspecified date by Jocelyn! Hope I didn't miss any!
We are pretty sure Jocelyn will be an April baby as Caitlyn had a Doctors appointment this morning and she is 3cm dilated and60% effaced! Coming soon to a hospital near us! Caitlyn will be okay if she doesn't come today as she would like to avoid any Friday the 13th birthdays!
That's All!

Moose Poop!

Yesterday while at church I got to talking with a friend of mine about our Sunday dinners. It turns out we were both making pot roast. She had been smart and defrosted hers the night before and it was now cooking in her crockpot so when she walked in the door after church she would smell its deliciousness. Mine however was still defrosting in my kitchen sink not making a delicious smell yet! She went on to tell me she would be making homemade dinner rolls when she got home. That sounded good to me! She gave me her recipe as she knew it by heart ( she makes them all the time and it is very easy). So when I got home I proceeded to get my pot roast cooking and then got out all the ingredients for the rolls. She was right, it took me no time to have the dough mixed up and in a warm place rising (or so I thought!). After an hour I checked the dough and there it sat...only slightly bigger than when I put it in there to rise. Now what should I do? Forget the whole thing? I was really looking forward to nice warm homemade dinner rolls. Not to mention how nice it would make my house smell. Start over? I got all the ingredients out again. I really didn't feel like mixing up the dough again. Just make the best of what I had and use that? I chose option number three. I went ahead and used the dough that I had. I put three balls of dough into each muffin cup and baked them about twenty minutes. It did make my house smell good but they really didn't rise any more. They actually didn't taste bad either. They were just a little dense. At the end of the meal (which was delicious by the way) caitlyn looks in the bread basket and says "mom...this looks like a basket of poop!" then Doug looks in there and says " yeah, if we were in Canada that would be a basket of moose poop!" Thank you Doug and Caitlyn! Lesson learned... check the expiration date on your yeast!

Cute background Katie! So, I haven't been on the blog in over a year...oops! I always forget about it, but Kath wanted me to find out where Kristin (& Kimball) is registered.
Is all that snow starting to melt yet? We're jealous here! You Ohioan snow hogs! Ours is almost all gone & the girls (<---) miss it!

Brad

And Happy birthday to Brad! How did I go so long and not know that his birthday is in February? No wonder Kristin used to flirt with him when she was 2!

Side Note: Boy is it snowing like crazy here! The schools are scrambling to get the buses there for early dismissal. Hooray for snow days! I bought a new tobaggan for the last snow but no one got to use it due to illness. Maybe it will see some action tomorrow!