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!

February

Happy Valentine's Day family! Wow, it's already February! I personally am glad to be rid of January. Let's hope February brings and end to that really cold weather. Brrrrr...
This month we have three birthdays that I know of off the top of my head. Happy Birthday Cade and Kristin and Kevin! If there is anyone else please let me know so I can put them on my calendar.
Not much going on here, unfortunately Jordan did not make the drum corp he was trying out for which means Doug and I get no more weekends in Florida :( Jordan is okay with it though. He is already making plans for his summer like hanging out with his mother! We are going to have so much fun!
Caitlyn has finally gotten back to work. I don't think she likes teaching 3rd graders! Today she has 2nd graders we'll see how it went when she gets home!
Doug is crazy busy right now. Hopefully it will result in some closings so he can get his eye surgery.
I'm just waiting for warm weather so I can get back outside walking.
Chaela is expanding her vocabulary daily and eats more than just about anyone in this house. She needs to cause she is a girl in motion!
And last but not least Will just keeps on doing school work. I think he made the Dean's list last semester! Go Will!
The End!

A Brief Update

Just a quick update on whats been going on since Christmas.

Doug and I took Jordan back to Florida for the next round of auditons. He called Saturday night and said that it was pretty rough and he didn't think he was going to make it. He was right, the official e-mail came finally and said good effort but not this time. He's actually okay with that happening. He said he woke up Saturday morning and started wondering what he was doing there. Maybe another year of growing as a person and a drummer will find him in a better place for these auditions. Now he wants us to plan a trip to Florida so he can spend some time on the beach. He loves it there!
Caitlyn is heading into her third trimester! She is mostly doing good, just the usual pregnancy aches and pains.
Kristin is not to far behind Caitlyn and also doing well! She is coming home in March so we are going to head off to Illinois to give her a baby shower. Can't wait to see her!
Lindsay and Nick are busy with school, school, school! Oh and sometimes work.
Doug keeps working all hours with not much to show for it now but we keep telling ourselves it will all pay off someday.
And I just keep babysitting and crocheting on Jocelyn's blanket. I need to finish it so I can get started on Kimball's. I can't wait for this spring when our family expands!
I thought I might be going back to work at Joanns also but the manager who told me to come in after the new year got transferred! I guess it wasn't meant to be.
Anyways thats all thats new!