Two years ago

 Two years ago, Tizita was here with John and I for a little over a week while Courtney and Paul traveled to Ethiopia to meet our little Natnael.

John and I had such a great time with Tizita during those days.

She spent the days at school with me.

Such sweet memories.

 There were always so many kids at school that just loved having Tiz there.

They always included her and made her feel to welcome.

 It was so easy to have Tiz here for that amount of time.

She always slept right between John and I in our king bed and never had a problem with missing her mama and papa, although I am sure she did miss them.

 It was spirit week at school while Tiz was there.

Here she is with two of her good friends dressed up for Hawaiian Day.

 We took her to Bloomington for the weekend to celebrate Alissa's birthday.

She got to spend time with so many people who love her so much.

Grandpa and Tiz enjoyed some fun times in the motel pool and

Gigi, who also came with us, had more than one toast with Tiz.

Just look at how happy Tiz was.

 Tiz was also at school for red, white, and blue day.

Grandpa was one lucky guy because he got to spend his birthday with Tizita.

One day her took the day off and stayed home with her all day.

I got home after a long day at school to find a fort that took up the entire playroom.

Those two were sitting in the fort and all I could think was, "who is going to put all this away!"

I also could not get to my bedroom to change my clothes because that fort was in my way.

Those two made quite a team!

 Our time with Tiz was almost over as we took her to the airport to meet her mama and papa.

 The time had gone so quickly.

 The memories we made together during those days will last a liifetime.

 At night, we would always look for the moon (not sure you can even see it in this photo, but it was there in Bloomington) and we would talk about how mama and papa were seeing that very same moon.

Even though they were a half a world away, we still shared many things.

Courtney and Paul shared some wonderful times with their precious son, Natnael.

Little did any of us know that just a few short days later, he would be called to his heavenly home without ever getting to his home here.

Bittersweet times.

And I got the Pictures to post!

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 I had to switch search engines in order to allow the photos to load, but it finally worked, so here are some of the photos of Alissa in honor of her Birthday yesterday.

The top one is from her second birthday.

I vividly remember that cake, it was so over done with decorations!

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 I just love the above and below pictures.

They make me sad because John and I looked so young and so happy.

Not that we are not happy now, but wow, those were the best days of my life for sure.

I also think I need to take this photo to my hair stylist so she can make my hair its natural color.

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Just look at all the hair on that sweet little girl.

This was a Halloween costume, one of our best creations, especially the braids.

It's PippyLongstocking in case you couldn't recognize her.

I used hangers to make her braids stick out like that.

The girls enjoying a kitty cocktail at Grandpa Ken's bar.

He was their personal bartender.

We still enjoy our times down in the basement around this bar, so many happy memories of Ken.

A Mother's Day a long time ago.

And I will leave you with this photo of the girls on one of our many trips to St. George Island.

Such good times down on the Island.

So, now you have been able to see some photos of Alissa and the rest of us.

Like I said, it is bittersweet to see these photos.

Sweet memories for sure, but bitter because I miss my life back then.

Would I wish it back, probably not, because I am sure I am only recalling the happy times and forgetting  the stressful, worrisome times.

When we are eighty, I will probably look at photos from today and think that it was the best time of my life, too.

A Polar Vortex and A Birthday

We have been in the midst of what the weathermen are calling a Polar Vortex for the past two days.

Schools have been cancelled all over the Midwest due to this Vortex.

Facebook is full of people experimenting with blowing bubbles and throwing hot water into the cold air.

I tried the bubbles and it was a huge failure, but I have seen FB pictures of successes with the frozen bubbles that look like glass balls.  Maybe using the bubble gun was not the best idea.  I did not try the hot water throw but that looked pretty cool on people's videos, too.

I did freeze some colorful ice cubes and make a suncatcher, but that is still out frozen in a cake pan.  I will have to check on that later.

Now I am done with this so called Polar Vortex and ready to go back to school.

Now on to some other news.

34 years ago today, I had a baby girl, my second.

It was a very snowy day, but there was no Polar Vortex that day.

She arrived, delivered by a nurse, with a head full of beautiful reddish hair.

Her birth story is on this blog more than once, so if you are interested in it, just go back to this date in past Januarys.  You do this by going to the sidebar and clicking on the year and month you want.

If I knew how to put a link right here to those past posts, I would do that, but I can't figure it out.

At any rate, here are some of my photos of Alissa in honor of her birthday:
Well, scratch that, I can't load any pictures today, so I will just close with this.
I scanned lots of photos today, too.
I will try to upload them another time.
At any rate, Happy Birthday to my daughter, Alissa!
Tomorrow we go back to school.
I must say I am ready to get back because today I was at my wit's end.



Go Pack Go!

In just about one hour, the Packers will play the 49ers in their first play off game.

It will be way below zero at Lambeau Field with the wind chill.

We will be watching it in the comfort of our nice, warm home.

I hope they do well.

It would be nice to see them go a little farther before the season ends.

While I was scanning the other day, I found a few oldies but goodies from a trip we took to the Packer hall of fame.

Here they are:

So, Go Pack Go!



Celebrating John's 59th Birthday

John turns 59 today.

All the schools in Wisconsin have been closed for Monday and not because of John's birthday.

There is some very, very cold polar air coming into Wisconsin tomorrow, Sunday and the schools have closed already.

The Packers play their first play off game tomorrow in that intense cold.

Anyway, I just wanted to document that about the weather since it is so very cold or it will be in a the next twelve hours.

This morning John and I did take a walk just to get out before the chill sets in.

After our walk we enjoyed chili for a birthday lunch.

John opened his goody box and got nine out of ten correct.

We had some cake.

It was a good birthday.

Tonight we will go out for dinner to Elias and then we will hunker (is that the word?) down for the cold.

The cake topper is the ornament from The Christmas Story movie.

Kev and Vikki gave it to John for his birthday and we used it for the cake.

It is actually an ornament.

I was a scamming fool yesterday and I want to share a few of my favorite pictures of John over the years.

We do not have very many pictures of John as a child, but here is one that we managed to find.

Cute little guy, wasn't he?

This is our engagement picture.

We were so young and full of dreams at this point.

Just look at John's head of dark hair.

 Once a Packer fan, always a Packer fan!

This is one of John's first Packer caps, followed by many, many more.

 This is one of many formals that we attended in college.

John loved his bow ties.

 

I am not sure who's birthday this was, but I love looking at my sweet little girls here.

 And then look at my cute family on Halloween.

 Here John is reading to the girls.

I think it looks like Alissa is bored and I think it is because she has already read the material and she is waiting for John and Courtney to finish.

Alissa was an early, avid reader.

 This is John sleeping with Alissa while we were visiting Patti and Tom Kovach in Ohio.

And they were both really sleeping.

 This is John's 25th birthday.

Alissa was born just three days after this photo.

I love this one.

There are so many things to love about it.

Look at John's short shorts and his tight socks.

Look at how they are squishing Alissa.

Look at Courtney's tall socks.

It just makes me smile.

 Fort Dells, one of many fun family trips we took over the years.

 A stop on top of Pike's Peak during a great ten day trip out west.

 One of many trips to Florida.

We all love the ocean.

A family Christmas photo.

 

Of course, there are many, many more pictures, but this is all for now.

I just want to wish John a very, very Happy Birthday and thank him for being such a great husband, my best friend, a devoted dad, and now, an awesome grandpa.

Life was, is, and hopefully will continue to be good for us.

New Year's Eve and Back to Reality

 Happy New Year Everyone!

We celebrated at the Carrington Inn located at the Landmark in Egg Harbor.

We enjoyed a delicious buffet where we both managed to over stuff ourselves.

Then we had a few beers and champagne at midnight.

In reality, the time between nine and midnight were the longest three hours of our lives.

John and I were just waiting for the ball to drop so we could go back to our condo and relax.

I know, we could have gone back at any time, but we had this goal to stay out till midnight.

 

 As I said, the food was so yummy.

The dessert table included a chocolate fountain, need I say more.

Messy, but oh so yummy.

After eating, there were two bar areas in which to hang out.

There was karaoke going on in one bar and a live band in the other.

We travelled between the two areas and thought there were so many odd people out.

I am not sure what some of them were thinking when they got dressed for the evening.

Now, John and I are no fashionistas, but we do look in a full length mirror before we step out.

There was even a wedding reception going on in the bar with the live band.

We couldn't figure that one out.  Were they too cheap to rent their own venue and band?

It was bizarre.

At any rate, today John went back  to work after a nice long break.

I am going back to my classroom today to transform it from Christmas into a winter wonderland.

It was a wonderful Christmas and vacation in Door County.

So, on that note, Happy New Year.

May 2014 treat you well.