Happy Birthday Courtney!

Here is a picture of me and my sweet firstborn, Courtney Lynn. This was taken 33 years ago today right after she entered the world at 12:15 A.M. at Lakeland Hospital in Elkhorn, Wisconsin.And here she is at 3 months old.

And this is Courtney with our long lost Elkhorn friends, Patti and Tom Kovach. They live in Elyria, Ohio now as far as I know, but we have not been in touch for years. If anybody out there recognizes these two let me know. I do have a reader from Elyria and I was hoping it might be Patti!

I am going to try and scan a few more pictures, but I know my luck will run out soon, so enjoy what I was able to get up here.

Be sure and read my previous post about how we celebrated the birthdays!

Birthdays, Forts, Concoctions, Beer, and other tidbits

First of all, I want to wish a very Happy Birthday to my beautiful daughter, Courtney who will be 33 years old tomorrow and to my wonderful Son in Law Paul who turned 38 on Feb. 25. We just had a fantastic weekend celebrating their birthdays with them. It all began on Friday with a taco dinner followed by a night out with Alissa, Nathan, Courtney, Paul, Kev, Vikki, me, and John. We had a few beers and many laughs at Bismark's. If you're not nervous, you are not living, we decided that was our new motto and we will have it put on shirts for Christmas. We stayed out until 1:30! What a night. Before we went out on Friday there was some dress up time. Here the girls are modeling some swimsuit tops and winter hats. Lots of laughs happening here.

On Saturday we had a Tizita filled day. John and I took her outside for a nice long adventure down at the park. When we returned Courtney had constructed the coolest fort ever according to Tizita and we all spent time in the fort with Tizita.

There was lots of mixing ingredients going on, too.

Tizita took this picture of Gigi and me as she was leaving.

So, I just want to wish Courtney a very Happy Birthday tomorrow. I know she will enjoy her breakfast in bed prepared by Paul and Tizita!

I wrote some nice posts on her two previous birthdays so if you want to read up on details of her birth, just check out those previous posts.

So, this is why I do not decorate cakes for a living

A few weeks ago I saw a recipe on FB for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes. The recipe sounded so yummy, so I decided to make these cupcakes for Courtney and Paul's birthdays which we will be celebrating this weekend. Of course, we will have the traditional ice cream cake made by my mom, but I thought these would be a nice addition. Well, after two hours of putsiness (not sure if that is how you spell it or if it is even a word) here is the finished product. First step, the homemade from scratch cupcakes. I don't think I have ever made cupcakes from scratch, never saw the need, but the dough for these tasted very yummy. The cupcake dough has three sticks of butter in it! So, anyway step one was not too bad.

Step two was preparing the filling which tasted just like chocolate chip cookie dough, but has no eggs so no need to fear any kind of whatever it is you get from raw eggs. More butter in this filling, too. I had to cut out a little of the cupcake and put the cooled filling in. It was easier than I thought it would be. I pictured the cupcakes crumbling apart, but they cut easily and the filling was the consistency of playdough and I am great with playdough.

Then it was time to frost. I had purchased a kit that included some bags and tips so I could try and make the frosting a little bit fancy. I don't have much patience for this kind of thing and only a few of them look really nice, but they make a nice arrangement on a plate and I am thinking with all that butter, they should certainly taste very good.

Here's a little mouse or maybe a bear that I made for Tizita.

So there you have it. I will let you know how they tasted later.

Note to my future grandchild: I look forward to making sweet treats with you someday soon. Your future sister, Tizita loves to bake with me, but mostly she likes to create her own recipes so her finished products are not always edible. Maybe you will be more interested in making some real treats, but if not, that is okay, too. We will have you in our thoughts and prayers this weekend when we are all together celebrating your mama and papa's birthdays.

Career Day at St. John's

As part of our spirit week at St. John's today was Career Day. I was originally planning on going as a teacher wearing my everyday "teacher" clothes, but this morning I decided I should really try and get a bit more creative since I know some of my kids will dress up and I don't like to disappoint them or their parents. At 5:45 I was racking my brain which is less than adequate when it comes to costumes in general. Just ask my girls about their poor excuses for Halloween costumes as they were growing up. I guess I could have gone as a gypsy since that is what I always resorted to for the girls, but I don't think being a gypsy is even politically correct anymore and I don't even want to be one. I figured the least I could do was dress as something that I really wanted to be yet in my life.
Well, that limited the choices. I thought of a traveler, a beach bum, a retired lady with lots of money, a children's author, a scrapbooker, but all seemed a bit complicated so early in the morning. Finally, I remembered a shirt that John has that says, "This is what a really cool grandpa looks like." No, I don't want to be a grandpa, but I do want to continue to be a grandma to hopefully a few more little ones, so all I had to do was change that P to an M. Duct tape would do nicely. Took me all of two minutes and the shirt became my career choice for the day.

Here are my little twins. One hopes to a clown in the circus and the other wants to be a florist. I thought those were both some pretty unique ideas.
This is Dr. Laura. Maybe not a real original idea but both her parents are doctors, so it is a family thing.

Here is a little dental hygenist with all her equipment.

And, my personal favorite, a future paleontologist complete with bones, teeth, claws, tape measure, map, magnifying glass, and paint brush. It was really a cute, creative idea.

The remainder of my kids were mostly just dressed as kids with a handful of Packers and soldiers thrown in.

I certainly wouldn't win any awards for most creative, but I really do hope to continue grandmaing long into the future.

Note to my grandchild that I am waiting for from Ethiopia: I cannot wait to expand my grandmothering when you arrive home. I just know it will be double the fun with two little ones to love on and spoil. I pray you are happy, healthy, and that you know in your heart that someone cannot wait till you get here and join our family.

A Fun Day in Galena

First off, I saw that I had a visitor from Elyria, Ohio. Many years ago I lost track of a very dear friend who lived in Elyria, Ohio. Is it too much to ask that the visitor from Elyria might just be my long lost friend, Patti Kovach? And if it is you Patti, come back and let me know. If it is not Patti, then thank you for stopping and come back and visit often and again.

There now I am done with that.

Yesterday was a beautiful winter day. John and I decided to take a little road trip adventure to Galena, Illinois. The first time we saw Galena was back when Courtney was at Knox and we discovered this charming little town on one of our scenic rides home from Galesburg. The first time I saw Galena, I could not believe the way the houses and buildings are all built up into the hills. It amazed me. I had never seen anything like that before. Upon seeing Galena again yesterday, I didn't get that initial amazing feeling because I guess I knew what to expect, but as we walked up the many, many steps to the different levels of the town, I was still in awe of the way that town is built. We enjoyed a nice, long walk around the town crossing the Galena River on the cute little footbridges that they have built. It is so hard to capture the way the town is built with a camera, but you can see a few of the levels on this photo, I think.

Here is just one of the staircases that lead up to the different levels. I am standing about midway up these stairs. It was definitely a good thigh workout. We also decided it is not a town in which we would want to go bike riding.

This is one of the many cannons on display in Grant Park which is across the River from the downtown area.

These are the big flood gates that need to be closed when the Galena River reaches flood stage and threatens to go up over the dikes on both sides of the river. These gates enclose the downtown area. John is showing us how you would push them to close them.

And finally, here is a statue of Grant, who spent some time in Galena during his lifetime with John imitating the pose.

We traveled in three states on our little adventure. Wisconsin, of course, Illinois and then on our way home, we crossed the Mississippi River going into Iowa. Ended up in Lake Mills at Blue Moon for pizza and beers.

It was indeed a fun day!

I'm Proud to Be an American (not so proud of my state right now, though)

So, all the Democratic Senators left their jobs today and ran to Illinois and Iowa, of that, I am not proud. How long would you keep your job if you just decided to not show up for a few days? This is not how democracy works, but enough on that on my following post about my very sweet preschoolers. And, No, they are not protesting, those are homemade American flags and we are marching in honor of our country and President's Day. Many, mnay years ago, we started teaching our Mary Linsmeier Preschoolers to sing, "God Bless the U.S.A." We would wave little flags and sing that song at our programs. There was never a dry eye in the crowd. There is something very moving about three and four year olds belting out the words to that song. I wanted to recapture those moments, so we have been singing that song as well as marching to "You're a Grand old Flag." I have been teaching them the pledge of allegiance and we talk a lot about the brave men and women who fight for our country. No matter what happens here in Wisconsin in the near future, this is still the greatest country of all and I want these little ones to be very proud of it. Maybe if we start with our littlest ones and instill this pride in them, our country will be stronger and even better when they become our leaders.
I did tell them that anyone of them could be President someday. I told them how proud I would be for having been their teacher, but then I realized I would probably be dead! HA
I asked them if anyone knew who our president was now. A few answered Washington or Lincoln. I held up a picture of Obama figuring that my grandaughter would know the answer since she has heard a lot about him from her papa, but even after I gave the clue of Barak, all she had to add was OBruno. Yep, Barak OBruno, our President. We straightened that out and now hopefully, most of my kids will answer correctly.
Today I will go back to school and we will march, wave flags, and ask God to Bless the U.S.A. again today. I think we will ask for extra prayers for Wisconsin today, too.

Political views from a very non political blogger

I don't know much about politics and I certainly do not discuss politics especially with those who hold different ideas than I do. Since this is my blog though, I wanted to document a few things that are happening here in Wisconsin.
Our public school teachers as well as other state employees are protesting our new governor, Scott Walker's bill to have them pay a portion, a very small portion by the way of their health care and retirement. Today the schools all over the state were closed while the teachers marched on the capitol or maybe they shopped or just slept in. I was proud to be a teacher at a parochial school because I could feel the gratefulness of our parents as they brought their kids to school today. I find their actions selfish and wrong. (The protestors, not my parents) sorry for an confusion.
Since John has suffered his lay offs, I have a new respect for having a job. It took John six months to get his new job and we have no health insurance offered through his work nor do we have any retirement fund. John makes what he was making in 2000, taking a loss with each new job. Yet, I am not complaining because he is working and we are okay financially for now. And we are not alone in our financial woes. In "real life" we are all just surviving the best we know how. Many of my friends work for their health insurance, as in their whole pay check goes toward that while their spouse works for expense money. Sad situations, indeed. If someone could just guarantee John that he would never be laid off again, we would be so thankful and not care if we had to find and pay for our own health insurance and retirement, but that kind of promise is impossible to make at this point with our economy so messed up.
Anyway today, the democratic senators ran away so they wouldn't have to vote on the bill. What is that about? I say fire the whole bunch of 'em and hire new.
I hope when those teachers are standing on the protest line today, tomorrow and who knows how long
that they will think about all the people who stand in unemployment lines. Been there, done that and it is not fun!
Thank God for what you have and stop complaining about chipping in for a little bit of your benefits.
I am sorry this post is all over the place, but this just makes me so mad

Being a Long Distance Grandma

My co-worker became a grandma today for the second time. Her first grandson is two and a half. Her daughter and son in law live in Missouri about an eight hour trip from Watertown. She has only seen her grandson two times since he was born. She will not be seeing her new grandaughter any time soon either. I am not sure why she doesn't just hop in the car with her husband and go down there for a chance to hold that new baby and catch up on her grandson. When I told her to go visit, she said it is too expensive, too far, no place to stay, etc.

Now if it were me and I became a grandma today, I would be in that car with John heading down to meet the little baby, but that is just me. Just like John and I will be waiting in the Appleton airport for our next little grandchild to step off that plane, no matter what time of day. I would never let money stop me, Money has never stopped me from doing something that I really want to do. Even with John's lay offs, when we had to tighten our belts, we still did things without worrying about the money.

My co-worker will be the first to admit that she and her daughter do not have a close relationshiop and perhaps this has something to do with her lack of involvement in her grandchildren's lives. I feel so fortunate that I have such a nice relationship with both my girls. It has only gotten stronger over the years. If and when Alissa and Nathan have a baby, they will be living three and a half hours away in Bloomington and neither hell nor high water will keep me away. (That's right, Alissa, I will be there often) I want a nice relationship with my grandchild(ren). No absentee grandparenting for this grandma.

Today as my co-worker and I were chatting she told me that she is envious of my being a real grandma who knows her grandaughter. This just as I was feeling a bit envious of what it must feel like to know your daughter just gave birth to a baby of her own. (You know how strongly I feel about adoption, so this is just something I think I might like to experience, but if I don't that is fine.) Anyway after she said that I did stop and think how Tizita and I have developed a strong Grandma/Grandchild relationship. It was slow going at first when she was bonding with Courtney and Paul and we were only allowed short visits with little contact, but once we got over that period, I worked hard on building my relationship with Tiz. Now I can look at her and just know how close she and I are. We share many special bonds, but it has taken patience and work and lots of time. I could not have achieved this from a long distance unless I made the effort to visit often and that is not always possible when long distances are involved, but I sure as heck would have been there more than once a year!

I am hoping I can still convince my co-worker to go for a visit. It is not too late for her to start building that special bond.

Note to my new grandchild whoever you may be: I cannot wait to meet you and begin building a nice grandma/grandchild relationship with you, too. I suppose we will have to go slow at first, but don't worry I am pretty good at this grandma thing by now and it won't take us long to bond. Hurry home little one, I have some grandma hugs waiting for you!

Waiting and Wondering

I think it is time to start putting down a few thoughts about our next grandchild who will be joining our family sometime in the future (near or far, but the future, not the less) Of course, I hope it is sooner than later, but God has a plan and He has the perfect child in mind for our family. As Courtney reminded me the other day, Tizita is the perfect fit for our family and we had to be patient and wait for her, too. There could not have been a more perfect child and she was worth every second we waited.

I am thinking that a child about two years younger than Tizita would be perfect. As much as I would love to have a baby to hold and snuggle, I know that Tizita needs a sibling that can be a playmate for her. Is that what God has in His plans, only time will tell.

I am accustomed to girls and I think how much Tizita would enjoy a little sister. My girls were 22 months apart and grew up as best friends, still are. I would love Tizita to have that magical connection to a sister, too. Is a little sister in God's plans, only time will tell. (If God chooses a grandson, I know we would adjust and I suppose brothers and sisters can be close, too)

Tizita is petite, beautiful, funny, smart, sweet, loving, and very healthy. Now I know you are thinking that all grandparents say that about their grandkids and well they should, but in this case she really is exceptional in all those areas. International adoption is full of unknowns, there can be lots of health related problems as well as adjustment issues. Courtney and Paul breezed through all of this with Tizita thriving and blossoming as soon as she stepped off the plane. Will God grant such an easy transition for the next child, only time will tell.

There is much travel involved in bringing a child home from Ethiopia. A new rule mandates two trips to Ethiopia, one for a court date and one to bring your child home. Costs are high, paperwork is intense, you have to be committed to reach the goal in this adoption journey. The first trip to bring Tizita home went smoothly. Courtney and Paul made many new friends and enjoyed seeing the sights in beautiful Ethiopia. The meeting with Tizita went smoothly and without a hitch she was on her way home. Will God grant Courtney and Paul safe and smooth travels this time, only time will tell.

Is my future grandchild already born and living in the care center? I am guessing, "Yes." Right now that precious child has no name, what I mean is that he/she has a name, but I don't know that name yet, so when I pray for this child, I have faith that God knows for which child I am interceding. I pray that this child is happy, healthy, and thriving in whatever environment he/she is in right now and that he/she will be held safely in the palm of God's hand until Courtney and Paul take his/her hand and bring their baby home. This prayer, I know, God will hear and answer.

Note to my precious grandchild: We cannot wait to meet you someday soon. We already love you and we hope you can feel that love all the way across the ocean. You have a big sister waiting for you. She is going to take you under her wing and teach you all the things you need to know to survive life in our family here in Wisconsin USA. Hurry home, little one!

Happy Birthday to me and John!

I am watching the Super Bowl now as I post. I intended to leave my last post up until the game was over so as not to jinx anything, but I am going to go ahead and blog about the weekend. I just don't think what I do or don't do on this blog will have a bit of an effect on the big game.

This birthday tradition all started with John's 50th surprise weekend in Milwaukee with Courtney, Paul, Alissa, and Nathan. It was so much fun that we continued the tradition with four more celebrations in Milwaukee always doing something different, always having fun times even when our plans became more kid friendly when Tizita joined us. This year we opted for something different and it proved to be another great time. We headed up to Oshkosh on Saturday morning. Alissa joined us. Nathan was studying for a big test in Bloomington so we missed him being with us. John, Alissa, Tiz and I enjoyed a nice lunch at the New Moon while Courtney and Paul did some paperwork at home. When we got back to their house we enjoyed some yummy cupcakes made by a talented baker in Oshkosh. They were all different flavers and Packer theme related. We had oreo cupcakes with footballs on top fo them, triple chocolate ones with Raji's number 90 on them, we had red velvet ones, snickers ones, confetti ones with cheeseheads on them, some with Clay Matthews and Aaron Rodgers numbers on them. All good. We just couldn't get enough of those cupcakes!

After the cupcakes it was time to open gifts. We got so many nice things from the girls, husbands, and Tiz. Here I am opening the marguarita candle that Tiz picked out for me.

It was tough to get a family picture, this is the best we could do. Actually now that I see it, it isn't all that bad. It just sure took a good number of shots to get even one.

After gift opening we decided to help Courtney and Paul move their big entertainment center into their TV room as a storage unit for all of Courtney's yarn. It was a big undertaking, but we were so happy to help them and we all worked hard to get 'er done.

After that we were ready for some beer and pizza so we headed to West End Pizza. The beers were going down easily and the pizzas were yummy. It was a good way to end the day, but it was not over yet.

We broke out the personal Apple to Apples and then played some Loaded Questions. Even Alissa who is normally opposed to gaming had a fun time.

Sunday brought some snow, so Alissa headed out early. The rest of us went to church and then out for lunch. We ate at Tizita's favorite place for pancakes, Sherman House. We all enjoyed our food very much.

Then we were on the road home to get unpacked and ready for the big game.

Right now, it is going very well with the Packers ahead 14-0, but we all know things change quickly in the game of football.

Time to watch now!

My beautiful gifts from Tizita! I love them.

Go Pack Go

St. John's school sent this signed banner down to Dallas to hopefully be displayed at the Super Bowl. It is indeed an exciting weekend coming up for all the Packer fans in Wisconsin. ( I think that encompasses almost all of the citizens in WI, except for some displaced Bear or Viking fans!

It is also a snow day today so I am home enjoying some time off. There is much, much snow out there and this blizzard of 2011 will go down in the history books. Wow, two history makers in a week, a huge snowstorm and a Packer win at the Super Bowl!