Happy Winter!

I am so sorry that I have not posted anything in so long (again). We have had quite a few snowy day's, so most of the time we are enjoying inside where it is warm. A few things we have been doing while enjoying the holiday season...decorating the house, baking cookies, shopping for and spending time with friends and family, reading Christmas stories, going for drive's in our town to admire all the pretty holiday lights and decorations, and enjoying the holiday edition of "Saturday Morning Breakfasts" (this morning Jason made Santa Clause French Toast and Reindeer Oatmeal). Thursday we went to see Miranda sing in her school's Christmas play. All the children did such a wonderful job!

This coming week is going to be busy for me, time has caught up with me and I still have quite a few things to do before Christmas Eve. I have 5 people to shop for, Kylie and I need to get hair cuts and I need to buy Kylie new shoes to go with her Christmas dress. So that is what I will be working on from now until Christmas Eve.

I hope you all have a blessed Christmas and a very safe and Happy New Year!

Happy Day After Thanksgiving!

I am sorry it has been so long since my last post ~ it has been busy here. The girl's have been fighting something that just wont go away. They have bad colds and coughs but despite we had a wonderfully blessed Thanksgiving yesterday. My parents, best friend and her son came over to our house and we had a delicious early Thanksgiving dinner. Jason had to work that afternoon and evening so we ate at 1pm so he could have a Thanksgiving meal before work. We had Turkey and Ham, Mashed Potato, Sweet Potato, Stuffing, Green Bean Casserole, Rolls, and Cranberry Sauce. For dessert we had my mom's homemade Cream Cheese jello, Pumpkin Pie, French Silk Pie, and Mini Eclairs. We watched the annual parade which the kids love to watch, the kid's played, we joked, laughed and ended the night relaxing in front of the fire with a nice warm cup of coffee and Baileys. I am sorry I do not have any pictures to share with you, I was too busy cooking and didn't take any pictures. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday yesterday!

A Recipe to Share...

Here is one of my families favorite dinner's I make...

Italian Sausage, Peppers and Pasta

2 – 3 cups Penne Pasta (you can use any pasta you have)
1 pound uncooked Italian sausage links
½ cup beef broth
½ green pepper cut into strips (I use a full green pepper)
½ red pepper cut into strips (I use a full red pepper)
½ yellow pepper cut into strips (I use a full yellow pepper)
2 Romano Tomatoes sliced and then cut into four pieces
½ onion or 1 small onion diced
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
4 tablespoons basil
Salt – to taste


1 - Cook and drain pasta as directed on package
2 - Cut Sausage links crosswise into ¼ inch slices. Spray non stick skillet with cooking spray; heat over medium high heat. Add sausage, cook sausage until brown and no longer pink in the middle. Stir in beef broth. Cover and cook over medium heat 5 minutes.
3 – Add diced onion, tomatoes, peppers and 2 tablespoons basil. (I also add 1 or 2 cloves fresh garlic) Stir and heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4 – In a mixing bowl, toss pasta with 2 tablespoons oil and 2 tablespoons basil. Divide pasta among bowls and top with sausage mixture.

Blessings in Times of Sadness

Yesterday was a very emotionally hard day for me. My cat whom I got as a 4 week old kitten died yesterday morning, she was 8 yrs old. Despite the day's circumstances, I kept my plans to go visit my grandmother yesterday afternoon. While I went to visit Bushia, the girl's spent a few hours at Papa and Grandma's house. (Bushia mean's grandmother in Polish, and that's what we call her most of the time). Bushia lives in an assisted living home. She was very surprised and very happy to see me. She hasn't been her happy self for the past 5 day's due to some hearing loss from ear wax (she is getting drops to loosen the wax which causes her to not be able to hear normally, but that will be all taken care of at her dr appt tomorrow). Usually she keeps busy going to play Bingo and to Art and Music Class and to different meetings they have there, but because of the hearing loss she just stayed in her room. Bushia is 94 yrs old and we have always been very close. Even though she is up in age she is still very smart, funny and so with it. Her mind is like a 70 yr old, no kidding, and she does not look her age! I am so blessed to have special time with her, even though it is not as often as it use to be. I usually visit her 2 - 3 times a month. While I was visiting, we talked and did some cross word puzzles. She was laughing at how much easier it was for me to find those words that she was so sure were NOT in that puzzle. She would say "You are kidding me, you found it!?!" Since I was there at her dinner time, we had dinner together in the main dining room which was so nice, and good food! After dinner, we visited more and then it was time for me to leave. She continued to thank me for coming to visit her and told me how happy it made her. It's a blessing for me to have that time with her and in return we blessed each other by being together. Here are some pictures of my dear grandmother.

At my parents house celebrating Easter - 2000

Grandma and I (again at my parents house) - 2003

At a family wedding in 2006. She still always has her sense of humor. That is her making funny faces with my cousins! Before that picture was taken we were dancing with her while she was in her wheel chair.

Grandma and I outside in front of her home - 2008

In Memory of Midnight

Midnight was such a beautiful cat and very loving, she always wanted to be in the same room as you were in. Goodbye Midnight, we will miss you...

Veteran's Day

To My Husband on Veteran's Day...

You are my best friend, the love of my life, and my hero. It takes a strong man to do what you did when you were in The Marines. You were surrounded by many difficult circumstances, danger and war, which all tested your faith, strength and ability to continue. Thank you for all the sacrifices you made for our country, I am so proud of you. I'll never forget how worried about you I was when you were in Kosovo. I was so scared for your safety. I was in church on my knee's praying God would keep you safe and bring you back home, and He did. I love you so much and am so very very proud of you!

Saturday Morning Breakfast

Jason rarely can spend weekends with us because of his work schedule, so he always makes us wonderful fun breakfast's on Saturday morning's.

He makes several variation's of his Fun Face French Toast...

Apple Cinnamon Pancakes (so yummy)...

He makes many other things too, one of the girl's favorite's is Princess Pancakes! Every once and awhile he will surprise the girl's with a Prince next to the Princess.

Shopping at The Mall

When I said it would be getting cold very soon, boy was I right, not even a week has passed since it was in the 70's and it is now in the 40's during the day and in the 20's and 30's at night! Burrrrrr! Needless to say, we are now spending our day's indoors where it is warm. This weekend our friend's came over and we had a fun day shopping at the mall with the kids.

(Don't you just love Kylie's shirt!)

Fun Fall Day's

Last week we had some incredibly beautiful weather, it was in the 70's and that is not normal for November in Chicago! We knew that it would not last for long and soon it would be very cold so we took advantage of the beautiful weather and spent most of our time outside. While Miranda was at school Kylie and I had fun raking the leaves...

playing in the leaves...

and being cute...

At one point she decided to grab handfuls of leaves and run towards mommy and throw them at me. We had so much fun!

Once big sister came home from school, we had more fun!

Happy Halloween!

Some of my favorite Halloween pictures!

Miranda (Pumpkin) 2003

Miranda (Care Bear) 2004

Miranda (Strawberry Shortcake) 2005

Miranda (Princess) and Kylie (Baby Chick) 2006

Miranda (Snow White) and Kylie (Cow) 2007

Miranda (Witch) and Kylie (Care Bear) 2008

More Picures......

I will be posting more pictures of the happy couple as soon as my sweet husband can show me how to scan them and save them on the computer - I am having difficulties and need his assistance. He worked till 3am last night (this morning), so I am going to let him sleep and maybe he can get to it tomorrow.

Our Love Story...

Last month at the end of September, my husband and I celebrated 8 yrs of marriage. It all started back in 1993 when we were both in High School. It was the 1993 - 1994 school year. He was a freshman and I was a sophomore, we had a math class together, I didn’t notice him but he noticed me. He was sitting in the row next to me but in a seat behind me. He told me he had the perfect view of me and always looked at me, and thought I was beautiful. I met Jason later that school year, when we shared the same study period. We had a mutual friend, who was a sophomore with me and she was in band with Jason. Our friend was also in the study period and invited Jason to sit with us at our table. Once Jason’s friends came to that study, he sat at their table which was next to ours. That entire school year we were good friends.

During the 1994 – 1995 school year our friendship grew even more. We both did not talk about being romantically involved but we had both thought about it. The last day of school we saw each other and wished each other a good summer and said our goodbyes. All summer long I couldn’t stop thinking about Jason. I wanted to call him on the phone, but I didn’t know his phone number. I looked it up in the school phone directory and saw that he lived in a town that I was unfamiliar with and it was in a different area code then mine. I hadn’t ever heard of that town and I was afraid to call him because I thought my parents would get upset since it might be a long distance call. So I never did call him. Meanwhile he was thinking about me all summer too, but did not call me.

At the start of the next school year, 1995 –1996, Jason was the first person I saw when I walked into school for book day. We both were very happy to see each other, with gleaming smiles. We talked about what we did over the summer. Jason told me he got a pager. I asked him to give me the pager number so I could page him. I paged him that night, he called me back and we talked for hours on the phone! That school year we started dating and our relationship grew even stronger. Jason and I went to all the school dances together. (Home Coming, Winter Ball, Spring Fling and Prom)

We spent a lot of time together. I went to Sectional’s with his parents to see Jason swim, I also went to Jason’s brother’s wedding and Jason went to my graduation dinner dance with me and my family. After I graduated, I went to a local college but Jason and I still continued our love relationship while he was still in high school. In September 1996 he threw me a Surprise 19th Birthday Party and in October we went to his Homecoming dance together. We had our first break up shortly after that dance. Jason had decided to join The Marine Corp after he graduated from high school and I didn’t think our relationship could continue because he would be away for so long. We remained friends through the rest of the school year, even though we were not dating.

Jason graduated, and went off to boot camp. While Jason was in boot camp we communicated through letters. I always looked forward to receiving a letter from him. After he was in boot camp for about 1 month, in our letters, we wrote about our feelings for each other, and how they never changed. We still very much loved each other and wanted to be together. In September 1997 Jason graduated boot camp and was able to come home for a weekend. That is when we started to date again. I helped his family arrange a party for him at his brother’s house. On July 3rd 1998, Jason got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I was surprised but happy. During our engagement, Jason was stationed in North Carolina. He was out of the country for a total of 1 year on two 6 month deployments. We did not see each other very much but for short visits before his deployment and after. We communicated through letters and once and awhile he would be able to call me. The last 6 months before our wedding he was out of the country. He came home less then a week before our wedding. We got married in September 2000! We went on a very short honeymoon because less then a week after our wedding I moved to North Carolina with Jason. We lived there for about 8 months as a married couple, then Jason’s 4 yr enlistment was over and we moved back home to Illinois.

Miranda's First Day of Kindergarden

What a special day for all of us! Miranda started Kindergarden in August. As you can see, Miranda was very excited. She loves school! She is doing great, having lots of fun learning new things and has met lots of new friends. She is starting to read already and she loves doing her homework. Yes, you read that right, there is homework in Kindergarden - ha!