The Handshake & The Family

This post will lack the pictures and videos which have become standard to this blog - in part because Megan has the camera and is away for the weekend, and part because I've had two things on my mind.

The first has to do with the handshake. Now I must say that I've tried writing my thoughts regarding this topic several times and each time I sit down to write I'm not sure how to convey my thoughts, so I've come to the conclusion that I will write and that will be that. At the end of February I went to an International Council of Shopping Centers ("ICSC") Conference in Chicago for work. (The basics: It is a gathering of retailers, developers and municipalities who discuss market trends and try to make 'deals' happen). So I had this opportunity to learn about the private sector as well as public/private partnerships. And in a separate presentation given by several private sector people several key words were said which caught my attention: Strong Language, Penalties, Clawbacks. When the lawyer presented these ideas she referred to the public sector needing to instill these tactics in agreements made with private sector companies. The 'strong language' is what first caught my ear and made me wonder what happened to The Handshake; to making an agreement, putting in the hard work and keeping your word? The presenter continued by saying that penalties and clawbacks must be written into all contracts to not only cover the contractee but inflict damage upon the contractor if ALL terms are not met, regardless of if the job is completed and both parties come out ahead. It made me think about lawyers and law, in development in particular, shows that people don't trust each other; that selfishness runs high when money and development is involved. It saddened me to hear that we need 'strong language' to protect ourselves. What has happened to social, business, personal ethics? What has happened to love; to wanting what is best for not only ourselves but our neighbors too.

My second thought regarding The Family came at the same conference when it was mentioned how much money Chicagoland alone spends each on stuff. $100,000,000,000.00 Yeah that's One Hundred (100) Billion Dollars each year on STUFF! Our expensive lifestyle don't allow us to have a family with just one parent working. To support our homes, TV, iP_ds, cars, video games, dining habits, fancy clothes and every other kind of material item not increasing our love for others. After taking a closer look at our life I've realized Megan and I too could cut back on the frivolities of life and get back to quality time and cheap fun with family. Leave the material things behind and love. That's my simple thought, if we scale our life back to the bare necessities - Faith, Hope, Love - we'll find our lifestyles to be more lavish than they ever could be.

Our society needs to ask, especially in the economic market, what it can do to love, because that is what will hold us all together, not what it can do to isolate friends and family. That's my thought on the topic. Maybe not the most eloquently stated but its been on my mind and is now off.

Finally Shoveled Out...And More

Well we finally shoveled out...and with the help of the strangely warm weather and rain much of the snow has melted. Still I felt I needed to share these pictures with you of what our driveway looked like covered in a 19" fluffly blanket.


After shoveling out we decided to bake cookies. Our only problem was that we didn't have any butter. So what do we do? We drive out and get some butter. The road picture shows the intersection of Higgins & Roselle Rds.


No that's not an elderly neighbor...that's Megan!

Shoveling Like A Man

As I once said at the beginning of this blog, the Art of Manliness is an excellent website promoting the lost art of chivelry. Here is a great article on properly shoveling your driveway - esp. with 16+ inches of snow. I also recommend the "13 Things A Man Should Keep In His Car" article.

Enjoy!

Uncontrollable Laughter

Have you ever started laughing and just couldn't stop? Then, after laughing for a while you can't seem to remember why you started laughing? My godson Matthew is one of the best a laughing non-stop. This video is just one example of him laughing up a storm. Another time, just this past Sunday, I was playing hide and seek with him. He would hide under the table and I would walk into the room and say, "Where's Matthew? Is he behind the couch" Then I would hear a small reply, "No" followed by laughter. So I said again, "Is he next to the chair?" And again, "No...hahahahahahaha". Then when I finally found him - it wasn't too hard - after asking "Is he under the table?" and he replied "YES!". We would laugh and laugh and he simply could not stop. So here is the video of him laughing. It always brings a smile to my face to see others smile.

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: