My Fallibility

Hello again,
Sorry it's been so long. I could make a lot of excuses of how I was really busy or my internet is too slow but let's face it, I'm just not that good at followthrough.
(Sidenote: I was reminded when watching an episode of criminal minds that blogs, twitter accounts and constant facebook posts are just a way for people to post about their lives to people who don't actually care about their lives, making the poster feel more celebrity-like. Now I'm not saying I want you to care about my life or that I want to be a celebrity. Still, I can't help but feel, nay, hope someone cares...but if not, at least I can use this as my outlet, my diary)

Without further ado:
Dear Diary, As I said before I've tried a lot of things and often quit them before I reach my goal or complete them:
*Guitar (more than the 7 chords for P&W)
*Consistantly working out (I fail that one over and over, esp. after the new year)
*Piano
*This Blog
*The Spanish Language
*Witness to Hope - JPII's Biography (3yrs and counting)
*An 80% free throw shooter (lifetime average)
*A solid, constant prayer life

Still, I am not here to share my missteps and fallibility but rather what I've been up to with pictures and videos to boot. Try to keep up. For Megan's B-Day (10/23 for those keeping track at home) we rented a movie and pushed the couches together to make a SWEET fort. We certainly had a great time with popcorn (from the whirlypop) and some tasty treats. Please note: the pink blanket is not mine.









A day later my brother and I got to go to a bears game. (A big thanks to Uncle Randy and Auntie Rose for their tickets!) We hadn't been to Soldier Field since it was renovated. The bears lost a bad game to a not so good Washington Redskins game, but we still enjoyed the stadium and the experience. Here's a shot of Jeff and I and a picture of Megan's favorite Bears player - Hottie Mr. Robbie Gould!














Then came Halloween. We hosted a party with Doug & Patty, A farmer and her cow, a Legend of the Hidden Temple contestant and of course a Publishers Clearing House winner caught off guard. We had quite the delightful time and invite you all to come next year.





















Next came a new addition to our house. A Piano! Our family friends, Tom & Melissa Miller were looking to clear some space in their house and offered their piano for the low price of...free+shipping and handling! So my dad and I went down to Decatur it up. Then, the night we got back we decided to redeem Megan's free meal at Noodles coupon - or should I say Pegan? Look closely at the receipt. We definetly told the girl her name was Megan yet she seemed to hear "it's like Megan but with a P" We had a good laugh with that one.
















Thanksgiving 2010 found itself at our new house! We were delighted to have Megan's family over for Turkey, Cranberries from a can and liver stuffing (that was a first for me. I think I need a few more years before I can actually say I like it). Anyway, we were able to move our dinning room around to fit a couple of tables and unite the Adult table and Kid's table...I finally got to sit with the adults! I also got to clean dishes afterward with Erin. Boy, how did I get so lucky.








Right after Thanksgiving our good friend Bridget was in town with her fiance, Teddy. It was fun to hang out with them again and enjoy the company of good friends! This is the four of us on the couch and the typical "Bridget & Megan Pose".












As we know, the Sunday after Thanksgiving was the first week in Advent which means...time for Christmas Decorations! I put up the tree (pre-lit is the way to go) and Megan topped it off with our angel. The rest of the decor was a joy to put up and we realized that with the purchase of a house also comes the purchase of extra decor to fancify the home. Nonetheless, our first Christmas in our house was quite a blessing.











We have also found that with a new house comes little repairs to keep it a sturdy shelter for family and friends. Included with those repairs came a installation of insulation. My dad and I found that in some areas of our house there was no insulation. Now let me explain to you how insulation in a home should work. Instulation is rated with R-values. The higher the R-value the better it will hold the temperature in the room. For example: exterior walls are required to have R-16 in them, Basements exterior walls should have R-13 and attics should have R-38 because more heat will try to escape up through the attic and R-38 is about 8" thick because it holds the heat better. Now in my attic we had roughly 2" of insulation across the entire attic, and 0" in some spaces. Thus, we put over 1,400sf of insulation throughout the house holding the heat and lowering our gas bill. Still, this was not an easy process with our attic being so small. Our knees were hurting pretty badly. So here are a few shots of before and after. (And a picture of our house after the first snowfall.)






















The next few pictures represent our December in photography. Christmas puzzles, singing Handle's Messiah with our friends (and 1000+ others in Chicago), building another house...of gingerbread, and baking cookies with my family - someone had play with the boys...pantsless.





















Finally, our Advent came to a joyous close as the Christmas season arrived. To say that Megan thoroughly enjoy her "Celtic Thunder" Cds would be an understatement. She put them in her car and has not stopped playing them since - esp. "Raggle-Taggle Gypsy". We also had such a delightful time with our nephews. We got them both a sleeping bag with headlight (as you can see). They seemed to love the lights since they could wear them on their head. I also got a great shot with my godson again.





















After our glorious Christmas with everyone we celebrated the New Year with our friends Dan & Lisa and Tom & Kristin. Our third annual gathering commenced with a tasty italian beef dinner and a sweet dance party on the XBox kinnect. We wanted to keep it casual...very casual. We wore our PJs because who are we kidding? We're all friends, no need to get all fancy if we'd be more comfortable in sweats. As you can see, our friend Dan donned a sweet onesie for adults, complete with the flap in the back for easy "use". We had such a blast dancing (some really great videos to come later of Dan and Tom popin' and lockin').











Lastly, Megan and I could use a little more closet organization. So I went to our trusty home repair store to buy some wire closet racking. (We have a Lowe's, Home Depot and Menards all within 10 minutes of our house so I go to they who have the lower price.) I took a day to rip out the old shelves, patch the wall, paint and install the new stuff. The photo below is of Megan's side of the closet and has really given us more space.













So that's what been happening. We've had a lot of joy, but we've also had some tough times. Prayers for us will always be welcomed and prayer requests will always be solicited. I PROMISE to try and post more than once a quarter for all those who may care about my celebrity-type life, but then again I am fallible.

Things That Have Been Keeping Us Busy

While I can give excuses all day long for not posting for a month, it would all mean nothing. I simply apologize to all of you for not updating what has been going on more often, especially becuase some of it is pretty funny.
We'll start with my godson Matthew. Over the past month we've had the great opportunity to spend a good deal of time with our nephews. As seen below, Matthew is getting pretty darn cute (he must take after his mother). Anyway, we had the pleasure of treating him to a lunch at Red Robin - he took full advantage of their unlimited fries special. Also following is a video of him trying to hit a ball as it is 'pitched to him'. Let's just say he is in the learning process.

Each year Megan's family is part of a charitable race at Arlington Racetrack which is named Horses for Henry, after her Grandmother's brother who died several years ago. This is a picture of the family going down to the track to take a picture with the race's winning horse/jockey. It is always an enjoyable event and maybe one day we'll be old enough to go down for the picture. (Then I can get my picture taken with a real live jockey, no matter how much their stature and secret lifestyle may creep me out. I imagine them to be on the shadiness level of carnies. Perhaps they can prove me wrong.)








Like I said, we've gotten to spend some time with our nephews and one weekend we got the chance to babysit for the night/morning. We had such a fun time playing games, reading books, singing praise and worship songs and eating granpy's french toast. Megan and I did get a good scare when at 4 in the morning Jacob climbed out of his crib and we heard a rather loud, THUD! Waking up in a panic Megan harshly wispered, "Jacob!" into the absolute darkness. He responded with an angelically cute, "Aunt Megan?" about 3 inches from her face. We then found out that bringing a squirmy 2.5 year old into your bed in the morning means that you don't get much sleep - or much of the bed as he likes to take up as much room as possible. We certainly had a fun time at our first sleepover. Here are a couple of pictures to make the occasion.








The next weekend we went down to visit Fr. John in Champaign. Now let me preface these photos by saying that I value the opinion of my wife, sometimes I question if I value it a little too much when I put on one shoe of each (gym and casual) and go to ask her opinion, then forget to ask her and even forget to change shoes until I realize when we are 2 hours down I-57 and I'm stuck with one shoe on and another shoe on. Boy did I feel like a doofus. Anyway, He was in such good spirits back in Champaign at St. Matthew's. We took him out to lunch at Dos Reales (the best Mexican restaurant this side of the Mississippi - heck maybe even the other side of the Mississippi). So after lunch we got the grand tour of the St. Matthew's rectory, church and school tour. We had a spledid time down there, as Champaign usually unvails a most welcoming atmosphere if not but for nostalgia's sake.











These two photos are of the Chicago Honor Flight 'welcome home' event at Midway Airport. My grandpa, on his 92nd birthday, was able to take part in this flight wich goes about 4 times a year to Washington D.C. with WWII veterans. The plane leaves first thing in the morning and the veterans (and their caretakers, as the average age is in the 80s) are able to tour the memorial sites which are dedicated in their honor. It is a very emotional day which is capped off by a 'mail call' on their flight home where they receive letters from their loved ones and this grand welcoming. As you can see Megan awaits with her sign, as many other did, and Grandpa has his picture taken with some of his children (Joan, Jane and Alan). It was a really awesome experience to be a part of, I would recommend going for a welcome home sometime.







So that is what has been keeping us busy over the past few months. Again, I apologize for the lack of posts. Still, consider yourself somewhat caught up with our semi-busy life.

Some of My Favorites

Just thought I would share with you (more to come)-
One of my top 5 favorite songs:


One of my top 5 favorite books:

A Steamy August in a Breeze

If you can believe it our August was busier than our July. Perhaps it was because Megan's summer break was coming to an end or perhaps it was because my boss leaving the country and leaving me in charge of his construction company. In either case, we were as swamped as the dog days in August. Still, we found time to have fun on the weekends with family, friends and each other. Here are a few pictures of the fun times we had.
On August 1st we headed up Lake Delavan to celebrate my mother in laws birthday. It was a blast. We always seem to eat good food when at the lake. This time was no different. The birthday of beautiful women now remind me of a quote from Archbishop Fulton Sheen when he said "To tell a woman who is forty, "You look like sixteen," is boloney. The blarney way of saying it is "Tell me how old you are, I should like to know at what age women are the most beautiful." Happy Birthday Mom!

In the middle of August we had the opportunity to go to my family's house in Galena with some of our couple friends. We spend a lot of the weekend playing games...(a lot being an understatement). We ate lots of food, shopped downtown, went to mass and experienced a less than mediocre mexican restaurant. One of the shops we went into was a games shop with many old time games, like these cap guns and stick horses, and fake puke and whoopie cushions. It was a fun weekend.









On August 28th our friend Steve Borello was ordained a Deacon in the Diocese of Joliet. It was our first deaconate ordination, and hopefully not our last. It was a beautifully joyous mass and a very exciting time for our friend. Here are a couple of pictures during the mass and after at the party for Steve (which included a soft service ice cream machine - Best Party Ever!).


The sunday after the ordination our neighbors, who are building a new 4 car garage in their back yard, needed to make some room so they offered us their shed. The only catch was that we had to move it somehow. This shed, 11'x17', would end up about 25 feet away from where it originally stood, but could not go through the fence which our neighbor just put up. Instead, my dad brought some 2x4s and large PVC pipes and, with the help of my borther Jeff and friends Chris and Mark, we pulled the shed along the pipes out of their yard and back into our yard. It was a tough job but well worth the value as we now have a place to put our lawn mower, decorations, tools and any other stuff that we can't fit in our garage. Thanks for your help guys! Oh yeah, my godson, Matthew, came along to help move the shed. His job was to pull with the truck.















Finally, over the Labor Day holiday weekend we treked back out to Galena with my family this time. We ate a lot, played some games, played with the boys, went for lots of walks, went to mass and even sung some P&W. Our nephews are at such a fun age right now, so 3 days with them was such a blessing. The two pictures are of Jacob with Megan and one of him acting like a 'woman of Jeruselem'. Very Pious.








I'll have more photos and videos soon. Updates will be coming more often now that I'm not as busy. Thanks for checking in.

Video Voting

So a couple of posts ago I spoke of what planners do - promote great places. Well, I have promoted and now it's time for people to check out some other great places and vote for their favorite (hopefully, mine).

Here is how you can help:
1. Go to this webpage - “Makes Your Place Great? Your Secret Corner of Chicagoland”

2. Click anywhere on the block of photos halfway down. (A new window will open)

3. In that block of photos click on the photo (with the play button) that is in the third row from the top and second from the right (its a black and white picture).

4. The webpage to open should say "South Cook Street, Barrington, IL - Submitted by Peggy B." (That is my boss). You can watch the whole video on youtube by clicking the link or scroll down to the bottom of the essay click on "vote for your favorite entry".

5. Polldaddy will open and the 17th entry down (about halfway on the page) click on the circle for South Cook Street, Barrington, IL and head to the bottom to vote.

6. See how many votes we have and tell your friends to vote too because, despite this being a Chicago event, you can vote early but not often (only once per computer).

Thanks,
Have a GREAT day!

Photos of the Summer

I wanted to share with you some pictures from the past month of our lives. I haven't been able to post them because of the move into our new place and the lack of internet in that time. Anyway, here they are with some captions of their own.

Here are a couple pictures from the show 6th Street played down at the LaSalle Power Co. in Chitown. Oh yeah, I got my picture taken with the lead singer. (He just happens to be my best friend I grew up with...Great show Mike; we're praying for you, keep playin!)



















These next photos are from the day Megan and I left our apartment and closed on our house. We celebrated with one of our favorite meals: Potbellys!!!





















Our first project in our house was to tear out the old shower surround and 1960s pink tile.













The next project was to tame the vast weed pit that is our back yard. (I'm still working this one.)









After all that hard work I needed a relaxing swim. What better way to do that than to enjoy a dip in beautiful Lake Delavan with my brother-in-law, Kyle, wearing a 'diaper' (A device usually used on babies, but can also be used when refering to a life vest turned upside-down and put on through the legs to allow one to float comfortably and enjoy a beverage or cup of Okey-doky.) We make these look good!










Next thing you know it's my birthday. Yup, July 15th I turned the big 2-4. Alright, maybe it's not that big. But I sure did have a great birthday! My wife made her delicious lazagna and my sister, brother-in-law and nephew Jacob (the smiling one) and my mother-in-law all came over for dinner. We had a great time and I'm even going to get to celebrate it again in a couple of weeks with the rest of my family. Boy, I am lucky! Here is a shot of what my wife got me for my birthday. A Stanley Cup Blackhawks shirt and 2, count them, TWO seasons of the Cosby Show. I sure am blessed!










Last year, 2 days after my birthday I got the privledge and honor of marrying the most loving, beautiful, perfect, god-loving woman. The kind all men hope for. So, two days after my birthday we got to celebrate our 1 year anniversary!!! (I realize three exclamation points may be overdoing it, as one exclamation point should always suffice as it relays excitement, we were really excited.) We went away to Wisconsin for the weekend to celebrate and stayed at a B&B in Mazomaine, WI (about 35 west of Madison). The weekend was wonderful; complete with a trip to a bonafide Cheese Factory, the beautiful Devil's Lake State Park, a trip to the movies (Despicable Me was the feature. While it was good and funny, I would wait for the video. $10 a person is too much. But don't get me started on movie theater ticket prices), Mass, a stop at the "Midwest Largest Shoe Store" and a sweet mini-golf course where it more resembeled a playground than a golf course. These are also some pictures of the room we stayed in. It had a beautiful garden view with a large hot tub, a nice KING sized bed and really cold A/C. All of these things were enjoyable on our vacation as we have none of them at home. The best part of the story of our weekend though came when we began our drive up North. As we sat on I-90 in traffic headed west Megan's Saturn - Olivia - decided that she did not want to shift gears any longer. Yes that's right, her transmission had worn out. Boy was that not perfect timing (On our way to celebrating our first anniversary and first home, we encounter a problem which would set us back an entire car). Thank God for our parents. (No really, we did thank Him for them, a lot!) We borrwoed my dads truck for the weekend and Megan's mom bought a new car and we bought her sweet ride: a 2006 Honda CR-V. It was a set back we weren't expecting, esp. after having just bought a home. But once again, God will provide...and He did!





















































Finally, on July 25 we embarked on "A Slice of Chicago" Pizza Tour with our friends, Dan & Lisa and Kristin & Tom. (Tickets were half price on Groupon.) It was a delightful tour of 3 of the first Deep Dish Pizzaria's in the world. We got to try pizza from Uno, Pizzaria Ora and Geordano's. In between the restaurants our tour guide spliced in fun facts of Chicago, walked us past several 'historic' buildings and threw in some pizza trivia. (Did you know that the #1 pizza topping in the U.S. is pepperoni and the #1 topping in Europe is Tuna? - yuck!)









So that has been our end of June and July. We've been busy...real busy. But more than busy, we've been blessed.