Mother's Day in Chicago

Have I mentioned two of my sister-in-law's are pregnant right now! Ya, double the fun! They are due two days apart. With that said I had the fabulous opportunity to spoil my own mother and mother-to-be Miss Jacki down in Chicago for mother's day :) I ordered a new print for our living room and "to save on shipping" thought it would be fun to go down to Chicago to pick it up and my mom and sister came along with me, kicking and screaming and so mad they were going of course! We shopped quite literally until we dropped! By the time we got to dinner we didn't care where we went, we hardly said a word to each other, stared at our food and all nearly fell asleep at the table!

Our real treat though was lunch at The Purple Pig- Cheese, Swine & Wine. It was a real cool concept, almost tapa's style. You all order a bunch of smaller dishes and share among everyone. The real interesting part is that you can order all at once or order as you go. As the chef makes the dishes they get brought out to the table, so everything comes in shifts. You spend as little or as much time there as you want. It was a ton of fun. Here is a sampling of our tastings. The asparagus salad was AMAZING!


Salt Roasted Beets with Whipped Goat Cheese and Prosciutto Vinaigrette


Braised baby Artichokes, Fingerling Potatoes, Asiago and Salami Toscana


Asparagus and Hazelnuts with Arugula and Treviso


Prosciutto Bread Balls


Eggplant Caponata and Goat Cheese


Milk Braised Pork Shoulder and Mashed Potatoes

A Moment in History

Where were you when.....

For our parents generation it was "Where were you when President Kennedy was shot?" or "Where were you when Princess Diana died?" Now I could answer that question for my parents because they were at home and I was asleep in bed. I can remember my mom walking me up to tell me Princess Di was in a car crash and then a short while later coming to tell me she had passed away. I was pretty young then so I didn't know much of who Princess Diana was or why we should care, but I remember.

It was a busy weekend for history...

Friday, April 29th - 2011
Princess Diana's eldest son and second heir to the thong of England married his long time girlfriend, a commoner, Kate Middleton. I think the fact she was a commoner created such overwhelming hype about the wedding. It's just like the fairy tails you read to the children. I on the other hand could give a ripe if she's a commoner or not, I'm just obsessed with weddings and this was for sure a biggy! I ask Chris all the time if I can get married again, much to my dismay, he tells me I can not. Bummer! When I was looking for my own wedding dress I had visions of Princess Grace Kelly dancing in my head. Unfortunately there were not many dresses out there that gave that look and feeling. Then of course Kate Middleton steps out of her Rolls Royce and BAM...Grace Kelly. The jealousy consumed me! Oh well.....maybe when I marry my second husband ;)

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge - Prince William and Princess Catherine on their wedding day
Check out the similarities to Princess Grace's wedding dress....



So lastly....

Sunday, May 1st - 2011
Osama Bin Laden the mastermind behind the World Trade Centers attack was captured and killed by US Forces.

Where were we when the World Trade centers were attacked? I (Ashlee) was in my junior year of high school. I remember walking to physics class hearing a lot of buzz around the hallways. By the the time I got in class the teacher had the tv on and we are all watched in shock as the image below came up on the screen.



We were watching live as the second plane hit the second tower. The rest of the day was very somber and it seemed in every class the TV was on and that's all that was on the lesson plans that day, watch the news. I remember hearing reports that all major cities with prominent buildings should be on high alert and although I don't think Milwaukee was high enough on the list, it was enough to allow fear in our hearts.

Chris remembers living in his college home and getting ready for class that day. He passed through the living room and a friend told him their has been a plane crash in New York. He didn't think much of it until details started to unfold. He then remembers the fear everyone had that gas prices were going to rise over $12.00/gallon. Lines formed for blocks at every gas station. The raise in price never came, but the fear did.

President Bush declared a war on terrorism and no one will ever forget where they were and the hysteria the attacks caused. September 11th, 2001 the New York skyline was forever changed, a permanent reminder of the fear we had that day.




The man hunt and war on terrorism has continued now for 10 years. The capture and death of Osama Bin Laden has finally put to rest the soles of the over 3000 lost on 9/11 and of the many soldiers who went to war for this country to ensure that we are safe and never have to feel the fear we did that day.

Bin Laden's death is not the end of the story, but merely the end of a chapter.

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was wonderful and much needed! Let me give you a run down of a few of my favorite things....Mama Mia's garlic bread, Cookie Dough Ice Cream, sleeping in, chick flick movies with Dad, grilling out, Brewer's games, sleeping in, shopping, shopping, shopping, fantastic museum exhibits, everything Frank Lloyd Wright, and plenty of family time. What's even better than all of the above....all of the above happening in one rock star weekend!



Yeah, it was a wonderful and much needed Easter weekend!

The Official Results are In!!

So proud of my family!! We ran the Oshkosh 5K this past Saturday, and even though the weather was beyond cold and it poured rain the entire run, we didn't let it get our spirits down! When everyone agreed to this I heard a lot of "I'm only going to do this once, then cross it off my bucket list" or "It's almost time for my first and last 5K." When all was said and done....I wasn't hearing too much complaining and I even heard a couple "I'm going to run faster in the next one!" Yup.....next one....I loved hearing that :)

Here's Dad, dry and all pumped for the race to begin


This is what a bunch of wet drowned rats look like after a run in the rain. Check out all those smiles though! All Rockstars!


Mama Kermit....hehe...she's going to hate me for this picture, but she looks so darn cute! ;)



...and now for the official results...

Chris - 28:07 Minutes
13th in Male 30-34 Age Group
141 of 774 5k Runners



















Ashlee - 29:54 Minutes
13th in Female 25-29 Age Group
231 of 774 5k Runners


Tony - 32:17 Minutes
26th in Male 25-29 Age Group
317 of 774 5K Runners



















Mom - 38:30 Minutes
17th in Female 50-54 Age Group
474 of 774 5K Runners



















Dad - 47:08 Minutes
20th of Male 50-54 Age Group
588 of 774 5K Runners

Guest Blogger: Princess Contessa

Hi Mom! It's me, Tessa! Let me get right to the point...where the heck are you!?! Dad says we're going to visit my seester and then leaves without me and seester keeps saying something about this place called Hawaii, like that's suppose to mean something. That crazy dog is here and she keeps trotting around this place singing "That's my Mama, That's my mama" What a weirdo!

Anyway, I was a good girl when Dad left. I didn't even cry about it. Seester came home and gave me lots of love. On Wednesday though my nerves got the best of me. Seester left in the morning to go somewhere. She must go to the same place you do because she comes home later in the afternoon, just in time for for my nummies! Speaking of nummies. I ate some the crazy dogs food, I should have known better. My stomach got upset and I puked right by Chris' feet. He wasn't very happy with me.

Thursday was a good day though. I got lots of sleep and seester keeps crazy dogs food away from me now, just in case I have another moment of weakness. Chris left for one of those long trips like dad does, but seester was around to love me up and she scratches my butt a lot. I love that about her.

Friday Chris was home again and we took a nap at lunch time, I love a good crotch to lay in! Seester came home looking tired and wearing walking shoes....I was confused though, we didn't go for a walk.

Oh! and Saturday we took a long car ride! I was excited and made sure to annoy them the whole way. I thought they were bringing me home to see you but it turns out we were going to Grandma's house. It didn't look like any grandma of mine, but crazy dog kept singing "That's my Grandma! That's my Grandma!" I think something is wrong with her! I had fun though, there was a basket full of toys, a bone for me to chew, a new yard to poop in and lots of new smells!

Mom, Dad, I think it's time we talk about me moving out. I met someone today. He's really great, lots of energy, big ears that stand up, just like me and he is looking fine is all that black fur! I met him in Seester's backyard. We were outside moving around that white stuff, can you believe they still have some of that up here!? Well, before I knew this shadowy figure came sprinting full speed ahead and swept me off my feet. I wasn't afraid, so I didn't nip at him. I'm embarrassed to share but I even lifted my leg up for him. Naughty...I know...but it felt so right! By the way...it's Wednesday and it has now been over a week. When are you coming home?

~Tessa

April Fools Midnight Run 5k

This past Friday I ran my first 5K of the year. This was an evening run and the weather all week was not looking like it was going to cooperate...snow and rain. As it turned out, the weather thankfully held out and it was just a bit chilly at 45 degrees.

My official finish time was 31:38. Just 1 minute and 38 seconds shy of my goal. I've got two weeks not to shave that time off. For some reason I felt I didn't need to wear my watch for this race and I really wish I had. I probably would have pushed much harder if I was watching the time. All in all, this was a great test run and I now know what work I have ahead of me.

The lovely ladies I work with, Left to Right, Susan, Susan's husband Dave, Rita, Lynn, Ellen, Moi, and Wendy. The theme was crazy hats...I opted out....didn't feel like spending any money on anything and decided my warmth was more important!



Ellen and I before the race. A big congrats to Ellen for running her personal best and placing in her age group!! A great accomplishment!!

Chris' TN Golf Trip

Hi everyone! I just returned from a trip to TN with 19 other guys from WRGC to play golf for 4 days at two different courses. This is the first time that I have made this trip and hope to return again in the future.

The trip started with by friend Nick and I driving the 10 hours to Paris Landing State Park on Sunday the 6th. I am sure that you saw the pics that I sent Ash from our stop in Metropolis and overall, the drive was a pretty easy one. Of course, we did start the trip with me sleeping through my alarm so I was an hour late picking up Nick but that was about it for drama.

Once we arrived in TN, the rest of the group had already arrived and were out on the course. It was a cool 40 degrees when we arrived so Nick and I just rested and waited to catch up with everyone for dinner. The next 4 days were great and I played much better than I expected. I was fortunate enough to get a couple of birdies each day and to win a few dollars so that made the trip that much more wonderful.

The weather got as warm as 55 or so but we only saw the sun once or twice during the whole trip. I made sure to pack warm clothes including a good amount of the clothes that I usually save for ice fishing. The courses were pretty wet from all of the rain that the area had recently received so we were not getting too much roll on any of our shots. The pics that I have attached do not give a good representation of the elevation changes on the two courses but trust me, the majority of our shots into the greens were either uphill or downhill.

One of the pics is the entire group from Wednesday, one of our warmest days. The little guy on the end, opposite of me, got a hole-in-one on the last day. It was quite the celebration as it was his first one and it was on the only par 3 that no one in the group had birdied all week. There are also some picks from one of the bars where they had deep fried bacon with gravy. One of the other guys ordered in and as were were all grabbing a piece, I snapped this picture. It was pretty salty and I would have to say that it was not too tasty.

Thanks for reading and please continue to check out all that Ash will be including. Take care and I will try to write again in the coming months to give my side of our life but Ash does a great job detailing everything.

Chris