Summer in February

It was so dang nice out last weekend.  Caroline and I went out to Wang Gang wearing sandals.

Potato power

Sam's science fair project.  He found that potato size did not make a significant difference in the amount of electrical charge produced by a potato. 
Future electrical engineer? 

Southern and Southern

Two big college visit days for Jack, one week apart, interviewing at Carbondale and Edwardsville.  Both were great days and I'm just so proud of him.  Decision to be made in March. 

Short cake

I didn't realize I had snapped a picture of Grant with both his German desserts.  With this view, you sure can tell the left one was a shorty.  And we camouflaged the broken one with all that chocolate.

Just desserts--redo with pic

Grant signed up to take in an authentic German food to his Spanish class.  No, just kidding, he takes German. : )

Well, I spotted two cake mixes at Aldi, which happens to be a German company, and brought those home. He made this one, a Black Forest cake, and it looked so pretty but turned out about an inch tall.  He made the second dessert then since the first one sorta flopped, a Marzipan loaf. It ended up cracking in two, or threes actually, and came out a bit overdone.  How do you say, oh well?

Naja!

German desserts

Grant signed up to take in an authentic German food to his Spanish class.  No, just kidding, he takes German. : ) 

Well, I spotted two cake mixes at Aldi, which happens to be a German company, and brought those home. He made this one, a Black Forest cake, and it looked so pretty but turned out about an inch tall.  He made the second dessert then since the first one sorta flopped, a Marzipan loaf. It ended up cracking in two, or threes actually, and came out a bit overdone.  How do you say, oh well?

Naja!

The day she decided

Caroline took over from me working on getting a splinter out of Gary's foot and realized she kinda liked messing in people's skin. Now she's saying she's going to be a dermatologist when she grows up. 

Sam's last pinewood derby

Actually it was the last one for this family, and you know, that's ok. Sam didn't win but he enjoyed it nonetheless.  Grant and Jack helped out that day, too.

The Hill redo--don't know what happened to the picture

My first meal on The Hill

One day early January, the three of us went to St. Louis and after several attempts to eat at various places failed, we finally ended up at Guido's. Caroline had some pasta dish and I had cannelloni and it was incredibly delicious. This was Ross' muffaletta sandwich. He loved it, too. It was a long wait but so worth it.

Jack's induction night

Jack was asked to join the English honor society. I noticed there were a bunch more girls than guys. I wonder if they liked his bolo tie.

My first meal on The Hill

One day early January, the three of us went to St. Louis and after several attempts to eat at various places failed, we finally ended up at Guido's. Caroline had some pasta dish and I had cannelloni and it was incredibly delicious. This was Ross' muffaletta sandwich. He loved it, too. It was a long wait but so worth it. 

One of my favorite baby pictures

Grandma Ruth
Died at age 93 on December 20, 2015

Family line-up

We took this one hectic day when I said we *had* to have a picture right then for our Christmas card.  I don't know, it was probably on Dec. 22 or so.  Gary got the tripod out and no one was really feeling it.  Although the smiles aren't bad, it just didn't really turn out how I envisioned so we went with the old summer time picture instead. 
Maybe it's all on Bob for looking so meh here. 



Funny that Jack and Grant are wearing the exact same t shirts both days, and Gary's shirt looks quite the same too.  

Ross' 30th birthday in December

We went to Ikea and ate hot dogs and cinnamon rolls and he admired the duvet cover he wanted. Then we went to The Loop and I saw this little nugget of humor at the record store where he bought himself the Green Acres Season something DVDS, and I was mesmerized by the supplies at the art store.  After that I got bad noodles for our next meal but his were good and then we each ate a really excellent cookie, although without a milk.

I was amazed by an adult man in a three piece suit on a what's now called hoverboard navigating over the trolley tracks on Delmar. I filmed a little video of it but probably won't put it up here. 

And we went to a weird used stereo business to see if he could get a record player needle where we were led upstairs by the owner from some foreign nation to this closed-door room filled with of all kinds of dusty piles of stereos, ranging from super nice to junk, and then we got to hear the most magical, unique, expensive old speakers I've ever heard and a bit of the story behind them.  

If I'd had a few thousand dollars I would have bought and given them to Ross for his birthday and maybe then he would have been so astounded by my generosity that he would have given them to me as a thank you.  I swear any music would have sounded beautiful through those.  Sounds strange but it was a very cool experience and maybe we can go back sometime with witnesses.  

No pictures of the speakers or birthday boy exist from that day. As I remember, he was quite unhappy with his previous nights' haircut having a cut-in part that was way too high, and demanded no pictures be taken. 

Bob scenes

Bob likes to hang out on the couch, play "Sit" on the rug, and wear bags on his head.

Not really the last one, but I won't forget this night when Gary put the little chips bag on him and Caroline was freaking out and screaming to get it off.  Not because he was going to asphyxiate but because HE'S GOING TO GET SALT IN HIS EYES!

Christmas 2015

Hitting 100000

I was the one driving the Altima when this special day happened. Sorry, Gary, that you missed it since you are the one that put all those miles on. Doesn't seem quite fair.   

When dryer balls go bad

Two different ones in the same week!
What a tangly mess!

Thanksgiving 2015

Noodle City

 I don't know why, but these seem to be my only pictures from Thanksgiving.

        Food and family about covers it though, right? 

Wise words

Don't let your mom schedule your wisdom teeth removal surgery two days before Thanksgiving. 

Well, unless it was really to your benefit so that your days of school missed are minimized. 

Grant had five wisdom teeth and you can see those bottom two were doozies, totally lying horizontal.  We used the same surgeon that did Jack's, who I completely trust but I will say Grant's first experience with anethesia was not so fun and his recovery from this was a little rougher than expected.  But that was that, it is over, and he'll never have that surgery again.

San Antonio is lovely in November

Our trip to San Antonio was awhile back, but definitely worth remembering.

Mr. Handsome  -  third from left

Gary's team at work was recognized at a fancy banquet so we were both flown out and put up and fed and entertained, getting to spend the weekend enjoying a little more of Texas like we did in May.

Our hotel and that bright blue sky I love

Here is his new suit and my purple dress. Unfortunately/fortunately?, I spent too much time laying by the hotel pool in the warm sunshine followed by a couple of cocktails to have enough time to properly fix up my hair that night but oh well. The sun and drink was definitely enjoyed and the night was fun, too.  

Our first day there was beautiful, shorts weather but the next day became really windy however, still sunny.  And even better was we knew it was snowing back home.  We took a tour of area missions and our tour guide was named Diane and she was hoot. We saw some really interesting things but my main memory of this day was how badly I had to use the restroom... at an ancient, remote mission. Bathrooms aren't easy to come by and I had to walk a long way to get there and every single step was scaring me.

At the Alamo...again, but that's cool

Sunday's sunset and it's time to fly home

As always, big thank you to the grandparents that came and stayed with the kids so we could travel together. And thanks to Gary for working his tail off and earning a fabulous trip like this.  

Oh you guys

I just went plumb AWOL on the blog, but I guess not really since I kinda gave myself permission to drop it for awhile.  But now enough time's passed that I have missed doing it and feel like it'd be something I would regret down the line if I didn't make some attempt to record the life of my family.  

It (this life) is just flying by so fast like each day has a jet engine behind it. Lame-o simile/metaphor/whatever it is, but hopefully you understand the point. When a day feels like it's actually made up of about six hours and and then the next day is here before you can even imagine, so many things get lost.  I realize I just gotta stop and take it in while I'm living it, or it's all gonna be gone before I know it.  

Now is that *closer to turning 50* hitting someone right in the face or what?

So, coming up soon, here's what all's been going on with us.