Morgen's Visit

 Morgen came to visit Chicago as her last stop in her travels to the 

"Lower 48."  I worked the entire week, but was able to spend some time with her.  We traveled up 103 floors to the Sky Deck on the Sears Tower, ehem, Willis Tower, and enjoyed spectacular views.  I haven't been up there since they built the clear ledges.  I made a B line to it.  It was so interesting looking straight down.  Some people were jumping in the glass rooms, that however, I did not do. 

 

 As you can tell it was a beautiful clear day.  January and 50 degrees.  Not too shabby.

 Two days later it was 7 degrees... and we went to the Chicago Wolves Game.  Adam was very excited to meet Skates.

 While Morgen was very excited to eat cotton candy!  

 The weekend was a fun one spent in Madison with old family friends Judy, Stan, and their daughter Kate.  Ann and Mike couldn't be there!  : ( 

We made a stop at Adam and Morgen's old home, their first home, the home their parents brought them too for the first time ever.  It was really neat hearing Morgen and Adam reminisce.  I have lived in the same place my whole life really, so I can not really relate.  If I want to hang in my old bedroom.  I still can.

 Here we are at University of Madison, standing in front of the ice cold lake.

Kate took the picture.

After an afternoon of shopping, eating brats, and doing Wisconsin things, we sat down to a wonderful feast of fried chicken, mashed potatos, green beans, salad, and a chocolate chip cheesecake, made by the hands of Judy.  It was such a nice day, and we can't wait to visit again!!!

We wish Morgen would move back to the lower 48.  It's always hard to say good bye to her as we never know when we will see her.  It's a long trip from Alaska.  But we were glad to have spent a week with her.  She's easy to please... Gene and Judes, Hockey, Portillos, Five Guys, Bowling, Chipolte, Grand Lux Cafe, BW3, Beer, the Zoo, and Coffee.  Gotta love her.

A Baby Is Born

 Our family was blessed AgAIn with a new life.

Alexander Daniel was born December 29th, 2010

to Rachael and Ryan.

He made his arrival 4 weeks early.  After many sleepless nights in the NICU at UIC, Rachael and Ryan were able to bring him home.  So, he was able to attend his own baby shower the first weekend of January.

 My gift to Baby A was his Baby Tree.  I transformed our Christmas tree into a tree of BLUE.

It turned out totally cute, and all the guests were impressed.  Including Alex's mommy.

I even made the tree skirt!  Crafty, I know.

All the guests placed their gifts for Alex under the tree.

Alex's first picture on Great Auntie Erica's camera!

Cupcakes from GPM

No party would be complete without Mr. BIG sitting in the dog's bed.

"This is so great.  I thought I would be worried at my baby shower, because you get all this stuff and then you have to  have the baby... but guess what, I already had the baby!"

Mother and Son

Congratulations Rachael and Ryan!!!!

Resolutions 2012

1.  I want to exercise more.  I don't do it nearly enough.  My measurable goal is to take every single class that LA Fitness has to offer.  I have been shying away from particular classes.  Shy away no more.  By the end of this year I will take every single one.
2.  Not only do I want to continue my volunteering with the American Cancer Society, I also want to start volunteering with my church.  This will force me to meet a few more people at church, which lets face it, what church should be about.  It shouldn't be about sitting in the back, and getting in and getting out as fast as possible.
3.  I want to send a birthday card to all my friends, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, young and old.  This may not be a big deal to them, but to me it just is.  Last year, I was so lax, forgetting some birthdays and remembering others.  This year I'd like to be on time for all of them.  After all, who doesn't love getting a little snail mail.  I am sorry to those of you who's birthday falls before this date.  You will get a surprise card later in the year.
4. I want to go to a new city, state, or country.  I don't know which yet.
5. I want to shop less and get rid of more.  I want to stop buying things just because they are on sale and more because I will use them to the fullest.  While I know it would be impossible for me to stop shopping the clearance racks all together, I want to be more aware of the fact that I might not necessarily need things because they are on sale.  There is never anything I just NEED to have.  And I NEED to remember that.

Resolutions in Review

Well it's that time again to make new years resolutions... well, actually I am 6 days late:

However, I can't make new ones without looking at the old ones and seeing how those turned out.

So I dug thru the blog files and found my post from January 2, 2011.  

Drum roll please:

#1.  I am going to start jump roping. I rarely exercise, I hate it. It just annoys me. I get bored. I get hot. My head hurts. It doesn't make me feel better. So I have bought myself a jump rope and will try to get my heart pumping somewhat. I do not know why I think this is a good idea, but it's worth a try.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED: 

Umm, I used that jump rope about 4 times.  Jump roping while fun was not successful.  I wasn't able to jump rope in the basement as the ceiling was too low, and jumping in the garage was just too darn cold.  When it comes to exercising I will find an excuse to not do it.  However, towards the end of summer hubs went to LA Fitness looking to get himself a gym membership, and in his craziness, decided to sign me up as well.   I have taken yoga, mat pilates, latin heat, and zumba.   When there is a class involved I am in, but when I have to do it by myself, I find myself cheating like you would not believe.

#2. I want to read more. There used to be a time where I could have 3 books going at once, pick them up, and know exactly where I was when I stopped reading the day before. Now I find myself re-reading pages and falling asleep finding the book on my chest hours later. To try and fix this issue we are buying more lighting. I blame the no reading thing on poor lighting in our home so we will see what we can do to get this resolution going.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

Although I didn't read a much as I would like too, I did okay, averaging about 1 book a month I would say.  We haven't added any extra lighting as of yet.  But we are working on it.  Kind of.

#3. I want to be more up to date on current events in this country and world. I know nothing about nothing. And I want to know something. I have made my home page CNN and have been trying to force myself to glance at it for 2-3 minutes to see if anything strikes my fancy, before heading to Facebook.com. I have also subscribed to TIME magazine. So far 0 of 3 issues have been read, to be honest, but they all came before 2011. Just saying.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

Didn't happen!  It is just so sad.  This world is a very depressing place.  I much rather read about good things, and news is never good.  I do have CNN as my home page still, but TIME magazine has been cancelled.

4. I want to start volunteering for something. After careful consideration, I have chosen what I will do. I will join a literacy team. I will teach an adult to read. Not the same reading I would do in Resolutions 2 and 3, much simpler, I am sure. Much more gratifying.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

I joined the Literacy Team and went through the entire training.  I was excited, I was pumped.  I was placed with Juanita, an English as a Second Language student.  Her and I hit it off, I met her every Wednesday at 1pm for an hour for about 3 months.  As the months went on, we decided to end our sessions due to the fact that she never had time to do the homework I gave her or to practice.  When we met she would be on her phone more than she would be talking with me.  Not the point, so that ended.

I also started volunteering with the American Cancer Society.  I have done a few events with them, and have met some pretty fun people.  My favorite is Beth, who lets me know of events that I might want to be apart of.  

5. I would like to start sampling some different churches in our area. It's hard to find a new church, one you fit in, and one that fits you. I would like to try.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

I sampled one.  And I love it.  Westridge Community Church won me over with my first visit.  I started going in the beginning of the summer, and by the end of summer I convinced Adam to come with me.  He was hesitant, but he did it.  And I couldn't be happier.  He comes with me on his own will, it's not something I have to force him to do, and for that I am thankful.

And there you have it my Resolutions in Review.

Happy New Year 2012!!!

New Years Day we celebrated Christmas with my side of the family.  It was nice to have everyone over at our house.  I always love having a full house.  And Adam and I are getting better on hosting, I think.

 Our nephews, and soon to be niece one day.

 Here's my trooper of a niece Rachael.  She just had a baby.  More about that in another post!  

And then I had to include this totally cute picture of Adam and his great nephew Marshal.  He just couldn't keep his hands off that beer.

A Colorado Christmas

We spent Christmas in Denver, Colorado this year.  It was a ton of fun.  Adam's brother Brenden lives there with his girlfriend Lynzee and their beautiful little newborn Kaiis.  It was my first time meeting both Lynzee and Kaiis, so I was excited.  

Morgen and Linda were there for Christmas as well, so it was a full house.  

Christmas Eve we did the J tradition of appetizers.

Christmas Day we did the J tradition of fried turkey and sides.

Needless to say I over ate.  It was so delicious.

Kai and Uncle Adam

I also had the pleasure of meeting the smartest dog I know, Choco.  She was such a sweetie!

Auntie Erica & Kai

I mean come on, isn't he just darling?

 One big thing I looked forward too while in Colorado is getting to see my brother Chris.  Here is proof that he came to Christmas.  I haven't seen him since our wedding 2 1/2 years ago, so it was pretty nice having him around.  It was his first fried turkey.  He was in love.

You can't beat this view everyday.

We went to this restaurant that had the best margaritas ever.  I am no longer the biggest fan of tequila, but in these you couldn't even taste it.  You just knew it was in there!  : )

 Thank you so much to Brenden and Lynzee for putting up with all of us!

You have a wonderful home and a wonderful family and we were glad to be a part of it!