Trans Siberian Orchestra

Mike has been listening to their CD for a couple years now. Friends of ours saw them in concert last year and say that this Christmas show is awesome. They will be going again this year. The concert was on Saturday Dec. 26 so I got tickets for me and Mike to go too (2:00 pm show).
We drive through the snow to the Allstate arena with plenty of time to find our seats - high up in the balcony. Who knew that those would be the best seats? Lets be realistic I got them because they were cheap and on an isle.

Clearly not my kinda music and I'm pretty sure that I would not of enjoyed the concert if not for the showstopping laser, fireworks, flames, strobe lights and huge video screen show. They played for 2 & 1/2 hours. Mike loved it!
We met up with the rest of the concert goer for dinner and Taylor (Stacy and Kory's 8 yr old niece) shows off her drum stick the drummmer gave her after the show. Her Mom had won seats on the floor through The Loop radio station.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra


This is just a taste of the show. there were people there from baby (1 yr maybe - clearly they could not get a babysitter this show is too loud for that age) to poeple way up there who had a hard time with the stairs.

Christmas

We started out with our traditional breakfast with the Dup's only this year we added one - That would be Matthew at the table on the end (Boy can that little one pack the food away) and we lost two - Dup had to work and Dave worked all night fighting crime so he was resting up for a long long night.


After spending some play time at Carrie's, Mike drove down to Aurora to pick up Keith for the night I headed home to make some lasagna for dinner.

The kids came over and Kaylyn headed straight for the presents. She can read names now.
She is in preschool ya know. Tall Uncle Bryan helped a little bit.


Bryan and Brian tried out Logan's new transformers. Both agreed that the new ones are WAY more complicated then they need to be.


Here are Mike and I and the boys playing around with Kaylyn's new princess head bands.


The grandkids found the sports Santa hats hanging by the front door and posed for this pic.


Stacy put together for Me and Mike a memory picture book of us and the kids made online through Kodak. Can you say tears?!!!! Loved it!

Christmas day we had dinner at the Dups'. Sharen can cook a ham and of course Dup still makes a tasty mimosa. We broke in the new wine glasses that they got from Carrie and Dave. Bryan joined us later for a movie.

A Merry Christmas!

Ceiling

We had our basement ceiling crash last May and have been without some of the tiles since then. I pointed out to Mike it would make a great winter project to get a new one up.
Mike got to work with help from his son and hung the braces. Some more help from the master electrician, brother-in-law Bill, who helped with all the electrical work (OK maybe Mike helped him with the electric). We now have switches at the bottom of the stairs and lights recessed in the ceiling to make the basement bright.

Mike and Bill hard at work.






A couple more days of fitting tiles and finishing the light fixtures the ceiling is done.

Mike let me choose the pattern. This one was a easy choice for me - I think it looks like a quilt.



The basement is very inviting now even to me and I NEVER go down there.

Baking Cookies

Some old traditions need to be repeated and remembered and baking Christmas cookies is one of them. Saturday Sharen and Mom came over to bake some Christmas cookies and spend some time together laughing and telling stories in my kitchen.
Sharen and I had made the dough for 2 kinds of cookies each on Friday so we were ready to bake. We both own Kitcheaides so it was very easy. I did miss using my old fashion mixing bowls though. I have 12 of them.
Mom's favorite cookie is 7 layer so she brought the mixing for it and that was the first pan of cookies in the oven. (I had the oven already preheated and ready to go when they got here at 9:00.

Sharen and Mom put the 7 layers together while I mixed the buttercream frosting fot the cutouts and thumb prints.


Carrie and Mathew showed up and we quickly put her to work.


Mike does what he does best and played trucks with the little one. Matthew loved all the trucks we had.


Cookies went into the oven and out for 2 hours. Some were sent to the garage for cooling down for the frosting - we were all kept pretty busy.

Mom got distracted for a minute - Helllooo Cookies! Focus Mother, Focus!


Bryan and Mary showed up and joined in the fun.


When Bryan and Mary were in Cleveland this summmer they visited the house where "A Christmas Story" (one of Bryan's favorite movies) was filmed. They brought me home a cookie cutter in the shape on a leg lamp.
Here it is decorated by Bryan.


Mother and her twins when all was done.


We had a great time together and more memories were made.

Making Presents

It has been pointed out to me that a correction is necessary to my last entry. I DO like to spend ungodly amounts of time shopping at JoAnne's and Menard's lawn center, but seriously that can't count as shopping.

I always find that if I can't find the right gift or something special, I end up making presents. Who doesn't like something homemade with love, right? Last year I made two quilts in the final week leading up to Christmas.
This year I knew that I was going to make some presents.

What I didn't realize is that it would be for someone else.
My friend Deanna wanted a bags game for her daughter who plays soccer at Judson University for a Christmas gift. Sewing the bags was the easy part - after a few days of painting I finally finished and can bring the game to bowling tonight and give it to her. I know she is going to love it. Not too bad if I do say so myself.

Now I can get back to sewing MY Christmas gifts.

Santa

I'm not a big fan of shopping. It is a little easier when I'm shopping for someone else though. So today I'm going out to try and put a dent in this list.
The line at the mall to see Santa was nuts. Those poor people!

Does anyone remember when you had a Santa in each department store? I think we had 4 to choose from in downtown Elgin when we were little. Ackemann's, Sears, JC Penneys, and Spiess.

Here I am with Sharen sitting on the lap of the Santa that sat at the bottom of the stairs in Joseph Spiess.

That's me on the right!

Wedding Planning Part I

I'm not sure how many trips there will be before August 14, 2010, but I'm hoping LOTS!
We had a great time on our first trip down to the Murphey's for some wedding planning. Lloyd and Maryellen were gracious hosts and opened their loving home full of family pictures to Mike and me.

We drove down on Friday and stayed with the Murphey's that night. Saturday morning after a wonderful breakfast Mary, her Mother and ME (I was so excited to be included) head out to a list of bridal shops to find the perfect wedding dress.
I promised my niece Carrie that I was going to be the perfect mother-in-law so I started out just standing back and taking pictures. That of course didn't last long and I was bringing dresses to Mary to try on. She looked amazing in them all - and I'm not just saying that - even a Mother of one of the other girls said so too.
Maryellen said very little. I'm pretty sure the whole experience was overwhelming for her.
I was going to post a picture right here, but she hasn't decided on THE dress and I didn't want to spoil it just in case.

Saturday afternoon we tasted the food at the banquet hall.


After deciding on a number for the reception Mary and Bryan signed on the dotted line, gave them a deposit, and booked the hall.


Mike and I stayed at the Days Inn across the street on Saturday night to check out the accommodations for the outa towners and then blocked some rooms for that weekend.

We met up with the Murphey's again at the church where Bryan and Mary will be married for mass Sunday morning. Mike and I both liked the church.

The girls headed out to David's Bridal to see more dresses. I wanted to see the dresses that Mary had tried on before and liked. So many decisions. Small Straps? Strapless? Halter? Silk? Taffeta? Satin? Lace? Plain? Beads? Empire waist? Mermaid? No Train? Cathedral Train? Long Veil? Lace Vail? Blush Vail? Full slip? Not to mention the colors. Ivory? Buff? Cream? Pearl? White? Yow!!!!

I told her the dress that she wants to leave on or the one that she wants to try on, again and again, is THE dress and I can't wait to find out which one she chooses.

Been Busy

or maybe just lazy - but I haven 't been online for a week. (Doesn't help with unemployment. They like you to LOOK for work.)

Anyway I have been busy. The house is all decorated. I switched things up this year and moved some things around with a mixture of some of Dar's things thrown in here and there. Mike says the house looks good.

I love Christmas ornaments! I have a bunch and usually I rotate the bulb ornaments that we had on the tree when I was growing up and the ones that I collected or made through the years. This year I put them ALL on the tree. It took me awhile, but I had the time so here it is. I stopped counting at 200 ornaments.



I wanted very much to have some ornaments from Darlene, but last year when her and Keith were taking down the tree they decided that they weren't going to put it up anymore so they threw the tree out completely decorated, so she had no ornaments in her Christmas decorations.

She did have this cute little golfer, that is now guarding my golf tree in the family room.


She also had these tacky string of fake poinsettias that lit up - One I put on the mantle and the other is strung along the hot tub.

Stretching a Meal

I don't cook turkey very often. The last time was the last time I hosted Thanksgiving. We had a turkey in the freezer so I didn't think about buying one this year.
Mike took it out of the freezer and into the basement frig on Monday.
Thanksgiving morning I got up to stuff the turkey. I cut the plastic off and the turkey looked sick. I looked at the sale date and it said May 2004. (I told you I don't cook turkey very often) I wasn't going to take any chances on making my family sick so I woke Mike up and sent him to the store in search of a Thanksgiving turkey. My only request was not a big one.
They had a 22lb and a 25lb, but he found a 12 lber. Sweet! The only thing was it was an Organic, corn feed and I'm sure spring water fed for $31.64. Who pays that much for a 12 lb turkey?
OUR THANKSGIVING TURKEY COST $31.64!
I had a really good laugh and said it better taste good too.
Mike cooked it on the grill and Yes it was really good.
I decided that this turkey better feed us for a few more meals so I took the bones and made some really good soup.
So with the Thanksgiving dinner, leftovers, and the soup I think we got our moneys worth.
The thing I was thankful for this year was that we could afford that turkey. (even though chicken would of been OK by me too)

Game Playing

Thanksgiving is over and I will admit I missed being with ALL my family and the soon to be new edition to the family. Mary went to St Louis.
We had the kids and grandkids over and I cooked the turkey and Stacy stepped up to the plate and made 2 vege dishes (both of them do overs, very yummy). I was boohooing cause the vege's is what I thought that I would miss the most from the lasts Thanksgivings. Not true! Turns out I missed the Euchre playing the most. I love to play cards and I never get the chance to.
I was poo pooing after dinner and decided to run over to Meijers and get a game to play. I was thinking about Scene-it.

Stacy and I and Bryan (he came too to make sure we didn't get a soap opera edition or something) with Kaylyn in tow headed on over to the Meijers. It wasn't very crowded which surprised me. We got the 2nd edition of the movies version.

Before Bryan got us Netflix last year I maybe saw 3 movies a year, but I was up for the challenge.

We had to keep separate Bryan and Brian or they would of swept everybody so we broke the teams down by size. Bryan is taller than Brian - (girls)Karen is taller than Stacy and the last 2 Kory is taller than Mike.

Team tall won - Bryan, Kory, Me - but it came down to the last question. Close.

Then we decided to just play the speed rounds and shout out the answers that we knew.
Final Scores.
Brian - 16
Bryan - 13
KAREN - 11 (I scored most of my points with the Spellbinder - think Wheel of Fortune with movie titles) I Rocked, and I was sure glad Sharen wasn't there she probably would of beat me.
Mike - 9
Stacy - 7
Kory 4

Maybe I need to have a Saturday night Euchre party at my house real soon.

She Said YES!

Last Christmas when Bryan and I were having one of our Mother/Son heart to heart talks that I love so much he talked about his future and Mary's name kept coming up. (Secretly I was thrilled). SO, I dug out the heirloom/keepsake diamond that has been in the Flory family for close to 100 years and gave it to Bryan and said "No pressure, just in case you may need it down the road." The Mary that I know would love the idea of a engagement ring with a history.
Since then whenever Bryan would call here is how our conversations would go.
Bryan - Hey ma, Guess What?
Me - She said Yes?
Bryan - No,(Bryan's voice with a sigh) I got a promotion
or I got 2 parking tickets in the last 3 weeks (I think by now he would know the parking situation around his apartment)
or I finally got a raise
or I'm going to a Cards game
or I hit a pothole and had to replace my tire
blah, blah, blah
Finally a couple of week before Labor day he called and said that Mary's parents will be up and he was going to ask Lloyd and MaryEllen for their blessing. He was soooo nervous, but he said everything went well.

The next step was looking for a setting to high lite that diamond. I suggested to him to put emeralds (Mary's birthstone) with it so IT was the only diamond on the ring. He liked the idea. While Mary was in St. Louis and on my birthday we went ring shopping. I had the most wonderful time and was very proud and honored to be helping him. We stopped in 6 or 7 stores with Mike in tow before Bryan was comfortable with asking for just what he wanted.
Bryan did an awesome job with the design and the ring looks perfect on Mary's hand. Now instead of just talking about their future they can plan it together.

Our last phone conversation:
Bryan - Hey ma - I asked her.
Me - And she said YES!

Old is New Again

When we were cleaning out Dar's house Mike and Kathy asked me if there was anything that I wanted. There was really only one thing that I could think of and that was Dar's china. It's beautiful and I don't have any.
Mike thought we should take her china cabinet to store them in too. I'm thinking No, but I can't tell Mike that his Mother's old cabinet is ugly so I agree to take that too.
I did finally tell Mike that the thing is old and ugly and to my surprise he did agree with me and told me that it was OK with him if I painted it.

After spending an afternoon of sanding I decided on white to match my kitchen cabinets.

I painted 1 coat of primer and 2 more coats of flat white, changed out the hardware to something a little more modern, and I love the end result.
Mike does too and I'm sure even Dar would love what I did to it.

And now I also have somewhere to show off my Mom's Fostoria glasswares that my sister Mary gave to me before they moved.

WHERE'S MY DINNER?

No, that's not coming out of Mike's mouth he knows better. That is what the Shady Lane deer are saying or what their body language is saying.

Our neighbor had started feeding the deer before they left for their winter home in FL and asked me to continue to feed them (once you start feeding them you have to continue). She gave me a 50 lb bag of wildlife feed which I store in the garage.

When the kids were over on Saturday we filled a pitcher and dumped it around the same spot that Lou was using. For the last 2 nights around sundown (4:30ish) I would look out the window and there would be 3 deers staring across the street at Lou's house waiting for their dinner. OK - it looked that way to me anyway. I since have been dumping a 1/2 pitcher of corn for the deer and the must find it cause every morning it's gone.

Homework

We had the kids over on Saturday while Stacy and Kory went to a wedding. Logan brought along his homework so Grandma could help him. Secretly I was very excited to help and then I found out he had to decorate a turkey and I thought Woo Hoo!!!
He had to cut out a turkey out of brown construction paper and then decorate it with anything but crayons or paint.
I had a great idea to head out into the woods behind the house to find some cool leaves and maybe some bird feathers. We hiked around the ponds and picked some awesome things to use. Dylan found some feathers that he gave to Logan to use.
We got back with our treasures and I helped Logan press some leaves between wax paper to flatten them. He was very careful with my iron.

Here we are putting the finishing touches on the turkey - It's tail.


And here is Logan with his finished product.


I made their favorite Mas-ta-choool-lee for dinner. Kaylyn had three helpings. Dylan and Logan thought that since I wasn't working that I could open up a restaurant. We would call it Grandma's Kitchen. I am the BEST cook and they would bring all their friends.
They had me at the first YUM!

Drives

Last weekend during the Bears game they had a toy drive for the Walter & Connie Payton Foundation. I head on over to the super Target to get toys.
I thought what would a little boy (Bryan's toy) and a little girl (my toy) would like. I spent too much time worried about getting the perfect toy.
I remember when Bryan was little and he would stuff match box cars into his pockets whenever we went somewhere so he would have something to play with. I picture some small homeless boy with these match box cars stuffed into his pockets so I buy some. Good Choice.
Now what better toy for a little girl than Playdough? Something creative. You get the dough with molds (I choose the food) all stored into a bucket container. Something for a little homeless girl to carry around like a purse.

When we got on the El I commented to Bryan how none of the fans in Bear gear had toys with them. Ok - Maybe they didn't know about the toy drive.
We head over to the game with hundreds and hundreds of fans still no toys in hand. Come ON people toys for kids!!!
With all they paid for a price of their tickets you would think that they could afford a little toy.

When I went to the grocery store today they were having a food drive and you bet that I bought something for the box and I will continue to buy things every time I see a drive. Even though we are on a fixed income and neither one of us is working I can't help but give something.

Vets Eat Free

Mike and I don't eat out much, but when we do, our favorite place to go is Applebees. Yesterday they were offering free dinner to all Veterans. Since Mike is a Marine we decide to take them up on their offer. They also passed out $5 off coupons for our next visit. Sweet!

They had a special Veteran's menu, but it had a wide selection of choices. Mike settled on the burger.
You had to bring some sort of proof that you served so Mike brought his discharge papers. When the waitress asked an older Veteran at a table behind us if he had some sort of identification he said no and then rolled up his sleeve to show her his USMC tattoo and asked her if that was good enough.
She smiled and said Yes Sir.

I was Wrong

In my last post...
You can have fun and still lose.
Bryan bought his buddies tickets to the Bears game on Sunday. If the weather was nice I would go and if it was crappy out Mike was gonna go. As you all know the weather was perfect on Sunday so I went to the game with my son.
We had a awesome time. I drove in to Bryan's and we took the El downtown and walked over to the stadium. The tickets were in the north end zone with a view of the lake. So while the fans at home were watching commercials - we were looking at sailboats on Lake Michigan.
We stayed to the very last second on the clock like good fans do and then got back on the El. Mary picked us up at Diversey and we headed on over to the Purple Otter and had some food and cocktails. They have the cutest bartender there. :)

Bryan 1991 - Bears vs Washington









Bryan 2009 Bears vs Arizona

It's more Fun when You Win

Friday night I suggested to Sharen that her and Dup join us for a last minute fish fry at the Moose. They have catfish (for Dup) and draft beer.
During dinner a lady comes by and sells me some 50/50 raffle tickets. They have the drawing AFTER the lightning games. Opps - looks like we stay for the 5 games of Lightning. The Dups were OK with this since they like to gamble. Only trouble is they can't buy tickets cause it's for Moose member only.

Used Lightning Cards

I buy 4 cards for the first game and Mike goes and gets another pitcher of beer. We were Not even close. The second game was cover the numbers down the right column. Mike gets one right away. I get nothing so I trade tickets with him. Sharen is not getting any numbers so she is switching with Dup. He starts calling some of our numbers and cards are being switched around the table. I end up with the WINNING card and yell Lighting. Woo Hoo - we win $40.00 (we had to split the pot).
On each game if you win you get to draw a number off a big board and if you guess the right number you win $5,000.
We had a discussion on what number we would pick if we won a game, Mike wouldn't budge off of 11. Turns out he let the lady that won with him pick the number and she choose 33. Loser!
3rd game nothing - The fourth game was the first cover all and Sharen and I knew we were going to win. (OK maybe it was the 5th pitcher of beer). The cards were circling the table and it came down to us needing 2 numbers. 55 & 57. I take the cards and start rubbing it over the table chanting 57, Olin Kruetz, 57, Olin Kruetz and sure enough 57. Sharen grabs the card and spits on it (it worked once before) and the very next number 55. Holy Crap we win again! We had to split the pot again.
This time I went up and Sharen and I decide on 55 the winning number and Mike birth year. I told the lady I wanted to go with 55 since we won on it. Loser!
We did cash in $46 that time and we drank another pitcher of beer or ma bye 2. Who cares? We came out ahead for the night, including dinner.
Yes! It is much more fun when you win!!!!!

RAH! RAH!

Coach Kribs - always keeping an eye on her girls

Hampshire Middle School was looking for a coach for their PonPom squad and Stacy was looking for some Christmas money for the kids so she volunteered.
Mike and I went out to watch her girls preform at halftime of the seventh graders basketball game.


The girls didn't want to look like the cheerleaders so Stacy decided on the long black pants instead of skirts. It's kinda hard to get 20 girls moving in one direction, but they tried and they all looked really cute with the ribbons in their hairs. I have to admit I did not recognize the music, but the girls got their groove on and perform really well.
The boys were playing Harvard and the score at halftime was 30-8 good guys.
All the boys had on the baggie, can't see my knees shorts. Am I the only one that HATES that?
Reminded me of when Bryan's six grade basketball team went to the big Middle school, Abbott, to play. That was the only year Bryan played - luckily I have it on tape. :)

Remembering Payton

The newspapers today all had stories about Walter Payton. I have one too.
When the Bears had their spring training in Platville we took a camping trip up there with the kids. It was Bryan's birthday and we camped in Galena a short trip by car to training camp.

The camp was wide open and we had the run of the place. This was before they put up chained link fences and the only thing that kept us off the fields was just a rope and your own judgment.

We spent the morning watching Walter Payton doing tires and then the ropes. We had taken our new camcorder (it was one of those huge ones that you rested on your shoulder till your arm fell asleep). It was really hot out and I had this great idea that at one point everyone would be thirsty so after taping some of Walter do his stuff on the tires and ropes and some scrimmage plays that the defense was running we settled ourselves near the drinking fountain (which was in the shade too).

Walter and Jim McMahon came over to get a drink and I shouted to them. They were maybe 15 ft away, but I wanted to get their attention for the camera. McMahon took a big drink and spit it out right at the camera and Walter gave a wave and a big wink.
They finished their drink and then Walter ran by us and high fived the kids. Yes, Bryan stood there with his mouth open and I'm sure that made his birthday.
We went back to the camper, had some cake, and spent the rest of the day by the swimming pool talking about the Bears.

FIREWOOD

We took advantage of the warmer dry weather and split some more wood.
These pictures should show everything, except that we worked together as a team for 7 hours straight taking turns lifting, manning the splitters blade, stacking, and burning the bark and rejects.

Before

Mike and Brian moved all of the large pieces (It looked like a scene from the Biggest Loser when Jillian has the contestants moving those big tires watching them trying to muscle those tree trunk pieces)

During

The bark was really wet and once I got the fire started it burned through the night and into all the next day.

After

We really had a good time and will reap the benefits of all our hard work for a few winters to come.

Yardwork

Seriously anyone who wasn't outside on Sunday missed a great day to get things done in the yard.
Mike and I started early with our yard work and then helped the neighbor split some of his tree. Just like when we were little we had to stop and come in because it was getting dark outside.

Before

During

I mulched all the leaves and then I bagged them

After

We still have quite a bit of the tree to split and will probably get to it some time this week if the damn rain will hold off long enough.
It's not easy work and our muscles are sore, but we have a great time doing it and the logs are rewarding during the dark cold winter days. An added bonus - I love the smell of fresh split oak.

Job Done

My one goal this summer was to get our shed painted. I thought I could get this done last week when Mike was gone, but the weather thought different.
On Tuesday we finally got the shed painted. The shed at our house now matches the deck at the Dupplers. Thanks for the paint, Sharen.

Before


During


After