Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas Greetings to Family & Friends!! We hope this letter finds you all well and in good health. 2008 was another eventful year for us. In March, we went to Minneapolis to our friend Rusty and Tina’s wedding reception at a Minnesota Wild game. In April, Aaron went to Kansas for a work trip. While there, he was able to see his Uncle Skipper, cousin-in-law Brad, and his parents, who happened to be in Kansas that weekend for some meetings.

In June, Aaron graduated with his Master’s degree in Computer Science from DePaul University. We are very happy that he has completed this great task. Aaron’s parents and nephew Jake were able to make it to the graduation. We had a backyard party to celebrate. That weekend we also took Jake to his first minor league baseball game in Schaumburg to see the Flyers. He even got a baseball bat as part of a giveaway promotion!

We went to Aaron’s cousin Nick’s wedding in Minnesota at the end of June. We spent time with Aaron’s family at the wedding and reception and we also went to a Minnesota Twins baseball game where they played the Brewers. Sheila wore her Cubs jersey and hat during the game! She is a loyal Cubs fan! We also were able to go to a Cubs - White Sox game at Wrigley Field this summer with our friends Ryan & Katie and Sheila’s brother Bob. We were excited to see the Cubs make the playoffs, and thought this was “the year”, but they are the Cubs, and were swept out in the first round of the playoffs. As the Cubs’ fan motto goes, “wait ‘til next year!”

In July, Rusty & Tina came to visit for Aaron’s birthday and we went downtown to shop and sight see. Aaron got to meet Mike Ditka at his restaurant! Also, in July, we spent six days in New York City. This was Aaron’s first trip to NYC. We stayed in Times Square. We saw many of the video signs that Aaron’s brother Brent’s company (Daktronics) put up in Times Square. We went to two Twins vs. Yankees baseball games at Yankee Stadium. Twins lost them both. L We went to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the World Trade Center Memorial, United Nations, Grand Central Station, Central Park, Empire State Building, and a tour of the Conan O’Brien show and Saturday Night Live studio! We got a lot of walking in those days. We saw the play Young Frankenstein and laughed all the way through it. We even took a trip to Connecticut to see some of Sheila’s friends. Sheila loved seeing them again and Aaron got to see some places where Sheila lived and worked.

Over Labor Day weekend, we went to South Dakota to see Aaron’s family and to take some family pictures. Bailey insisted on being in the photo!! While we were there, we went to the South Dakota State Fair and enjoyed the carnival rides and a couple of concerts! George Jones was old and .38 Special rocked!!

In September, Sheila’s Mom Dorothy passed away after a long bout with Alzheimer’s. She was 83 years old. Dorothy’s 10 children and many of her grandchildren and great grandchildren were at the wake and funeral. Sheila is very blessed that her Mom was able to make it to our wedding and to have lived as long as she did. Sheila loved her dearly and she will be greatly missed. The photos we have with Dot bring smiles to our faces.

We spent time with Sheila’s college girlfriend Cathy and her family from North Carolina in March & late September. Sheila also traveled to Nashville, TN to spend time with her friend Jeannine and her new daughter Alexandra Morgan.

In November, we went to Indiana to spend time with Sheila’s brother Bob and his family. It was first time Aaron had been to Bob’s house. Aaron loves the movie room at the house! Also that month, Aaron & Bailey made a surprise visit home for an awards ceremony for his Dad. We also spent Thanksgiving in South Dakota. It was Sheila’s first time there for Thanksgiving, and it had been several years since Aaron had been back for that holiday. We went to Aaron’s high school’s benefit auction and had fun seeing old friends again.

As for our daily lives, Aaron is still employed at Motorola as a software engineer working on Canopy Wireless Broadband products. Sheila was laid off from her job in late August but within two weeks she got a job as a Customer Service Representative at Mid American Group (insurance brokerage firm), She has be racking up the frequent flyer miles with her business travels this fall/winter. And Bailey is still our guard dog. She is great at picking up every food item that drops on the floor. She still loves her belly to be rubbed no matter who does it! We’re looking forward to the adventures in 2009! Have a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year! God Bless you all!

Bailey Christmas!

Every year we have a Christmas party with friends and coworkers. This year, that party is tonight. So, to get into the spirit, Bailey dressed up and posed for Christmas photos!

Merry Christmas from Bailey's Blog!!

Christmas Crunch!!

For nearly as long as I can remember, I have been somewhat of a sucker for good marketing and slick packaging. I'll buy things I don't even need as long as it looks cool or like it will be fun to play with or have. I think I have found the root of all of this.


Yep. Christmas Crunch. Bow down!!! For some reason, this was my favorite cereal growing up. And only because it was Christmas Crunch. Back then, they didn't have "Holiday Shapes". All they had was red and green colored crunch berries. I don't remember ever eating regular Cap'n Crunch, or even Crunch Berries, but that's exactly what Christmas Crunch is -- Cap'n Crunch Crunch Berries cereal with slick packaging and cool holiday colored crunch berry marketing. I think it was the fact that Cap'n Crunch was dressed up as Santa. Here is the old school packaging I remember as a kid.

So last week, when Sheila went to the store, she asked if I wanted anything, and I asked for Christmas Crunch. Flat tire and 2 hour AAA wait later (see a previous post), and the grocery store (Dominick's) didn't have any. It had been several years since I had Christmas Crunch, but every season, I get my hopes up that maybe it will be back out again.

Well, tonight my luck has turned! I was walking through the Jewel grocery store, on my way to the checkout lane, and there, on the end of one of the aisles was my holy grail. Christmas Crunch!! 2 for $5!!! Well, what would you do? I bought two boxes! And now, I have just enjoyed a bowl of glorious, wonderful, awesomely grand Christmas Crunch. And, I'm well aware that if I had just bought Cap'n Crunch Crunch Berries cereal, I would have experienced the exact same taste sensation, but somehow, someway, Crunch Berries aren't even close to Christmas Crunch. Long Live Christmas Crunch!!

Rage Against The Machine

So there was some pretty huge news out of Illinois yesterday. Our sweet-Lego-haircut governor got caught in a good old fashioned bribery and pay-to-play scandal. It's kind of refreshing, in a way, to have a political scandal that doesn't involve prostitutes, airport restrooms, young male paiges, and the unbelievable supportive spouses crying crocodile tears standing by their man.

I just read a good article that sums up some of what Illinois Politics are all about. You can read it here. Interesting quotes from the article:

• “Government in Illinois isn’t about political ideology or helping people,” said Christopher Mooney, who teaches political science at the University of Illinois-Springfield. “It’s about which idiot brother-in-law are you going to get a job on a road crew because he helped you get into office.”
  
  
• “We have a culture of machine politics and it lends itself to corruption,” said Simpson. “We are the capital of corruption in the U.S.”

And, now, we have a President Elect who is a direct product of the "captial of corruption in the U.S.". Hopefully he was above all of these things, but I find that kind of hard to believe. In order to get anything done in Illinois you have to play ball and become tainted. Although, throughout the election, we never really did hear about anything accomplished by him in his time in Illinois legislature, so maybe thats proof that he isn't corrupt!

Here's to hoping.

Baby It's Cold Outside

This weekend Sheila and I ventured outside to put up lights and decorations outside and to get our Christmas Tree for inside. The past few years, I have always gone up north to a tree farm to cut down our tree. That was a day after Thanksgiving tradition. This year, since we were up in SD for Thanksgiving, we decided to go the easy route and drive 2 blocks to the pre-cut tree lot right at the entrance to our neighborhood. Well, it cost about twice as much as the cut-your-own tree farm tree, but it was alot easier to find a good tree without worrying about missing branches or squirrels.

So yesterday was the day to get the lights up outside and get the tree home. Today was the day to get the tree into the house and get lights and ornaments on it. We finally got it up and all decorated and were ready to sit down and relax when Sheila decided to go to the grocery store. She gave me a small list of items to do while she was gone and I swear, I was actually going to finish them! Well 10 minutes after she left, she called me from the store telling me that the front tire on the car was completely flat. So, I had to go be her knight in shining armor and change the tire for her while she was shopping.

I arrived at the grocery store to find the tire was beyond flat. I think it was inverted somehow up through the bottom of the rim. Not good. So I got out the spare tire and the other tools to start the job. I got the jack in place and was ready to loosen the lug bolts and not a single one of them would budge. I nearly gave myself a heart attack trying to loosen them. Some random guy tried to help and he couldn't move them either. It appeared that the bolts were literally frozen. I guess that happens when you have an alloy (lug bolt) connected to steel. They were locked up tighter than OJ Simpson!

I went in and found Sheila shopping and we had to call AAA. I spent the next hour and a half sitting in the car in the parking lot waiting for the roadside assistance to arrive. He finally arrived, thankfully 45 minutes ahead of schedule, and went to work. He had the same problem but was finally able to get them all loose. He had to use a t shaped tire iron and use his foot and his arm to get enough leverage on the bolts. Once that was done, 5 minutes later I was on my way home. Now, I get to take the tire/wheel into to the tire shop to see if they can be saved. I'm pretty sure the tire is toast, I just hope the rim isn't bent.

Anyways, its been a fun, extremely cold weekend. Tomorrow Sheila leaves again for a few days for work, this time to Nashville. At least Bailey is here to keep me company!

Dad rocks!

So my dad is getting this great award from the city of Huron, SD tonight, the Distinguished Civic Service Award. My brother Jon wrote a terrific tribute to him here. I couldn't agree with him more on this. We all are very proud of him. We have known for many many years what many others in Huron knew, and now the rest will know, that our dad is a very selfless man.

We all learned very early how important it is to give back to your community and your family, and not in that order. Being the youngest of 3 sons, I got to see how important it was to our parents to be supportive and involved in everything their kids were doing. I can't remember a single time where mom and/or dad were not at a function of ours. If one couldn't make it, the other was there. Most of the time, both were there. I still remember a Christmas Concert at school that dad was going to have trouble getting to because of meetings on one of his many boards. He made it just in time. It was just a Christmas concert, and I was the only one left in school at the time, but it was important for him to be there, and he made it.

Us three boys were involved in different things. Brent and Jon were involved in basketball, soccer, and track. I was involved in one-act plays, oral interp, and band. It didn't matter what it was, they made it to pretty much every event. Dad never ran into a function that was too far away. I remember going along to drop Jon off at hockey camps in northern Minnesota, basketball camps in Kentucky, taking me to a German language camp up in northern Minnesota, going up to Fargo to watch Jon run an indoor sprint when he was running track for the U (a race that lasted all of 3 seconds because Jon sprained his ankle pretty much out of the blocks). All of that didn't matter, what was important is that we went and supported each other. Have you ever known someone who thinks Chicago is on the way home from Branson, Missouri or Des Moines, Iowa? Since I've lived in Chicago, mom and dad have made those types of trips many times. If they are within 6 hours of us, then we're on the way. :)

That value has been greatly instilled in us kids. That is why I am back in South Dakota right now. I knew as soon as I saw that he was getting this award that I had to come and be a part of his big night. After all, nothing has kept him from coming to support us. Its been a long day, I left home at 5:30AM, but I wouldn't miss it for the world!

Thanks, Dad, for all you've done for us and the great example you and mom have set for us. You really deserve this recognition and I'm glad to be here for you this time.

Bailey needs a Chiropractor

Tonight, Bailey was just chillaxing and watching some hockey while laying on her back. Sheila noticed her acting strange by shaking her arms and legs. Sometimes, when she is asleep, she'll dream and start running and growling in her sleep, but her eyes were wide open. She couldn't straighten or move her arms. I watched her struggle for a bit and kinda rolled her over and felt the top of her back. It felt like her sholder blades (if dogs have them) were somehow tangled up. i only felt one, so the other one seemed like it was locked up somehow.

This went on for a few strange minutes. she couldn't walk or stand up or anything. I started to massage her upper back where her arms meet (the shoulder blade area) and finally got to the point that i could feel both of them. It finally corrected itself and she was back to normal running around and jumping all over the place.

Very strange, but I thought I'd post this one for my brother Jon the Chiropractor. He'd be proud of me. I maniuplated a dog's back. Is that something you learn in the second or third year? :)