Paradise

Another beautiful day here in Paradise! Temperatures hit 45!! It was one of those days that brightens your mood and tricks you into thinking spring is coming. I'm trying not to be fooled as they are calling for snow this weekend. Jason has fridays off this quarter so we are hoping to get out of the city and get a little hiking done. We are having a hard time deciding where to go since for once we have so many options! 

Congratulations are in order for Jason and Sarah Sanderson as they welcomed a new addition to their family on the 3rd! His name is Wade Nathanael and you can see pictures if you click here!

Finally!

My temporary Illinois nursing license came in the mail yesterday!! I am so excited! 

Kathy got discharged yesterday, and is home with us now. Hopefully we can keep her comfortable until she is ready to make the long trip back to Washington. She's doing incredibly well! 

I said I would post a few more pictures from the past week, so here they are...

Jason and I with our crowns on at Medieval Times

We spent some time downtown walking around. This is the inside of one of the Macy's. The top 2 floors are offices but the rest is all shopping!
Dave and Kathy enjoying Pot Belly's sandwiches. I made the mistake of okaying hot peppers. They were hot!!

On Sunday we went out to coffee with Dana & Tyler who recently got engaged!

Yesterday marked 5 months of marriage for us!!

Hospitality and Hospitals

Hospital room couches have become all too familiar to us in 2008, as this is the second stay in 2 months. This hospital does have internet available to patient's families so my blog is truly coming straight from the source of action. Jason had his appendix removed the first week of the new year, and now his mother has joined him in the ranks if the appendixless.  It does not seem that Barnes and appendixes get along very well and I am slightly concerned about the last name I have adopted:) Kathy's did rupture so the surgery was much more intense. She is doing well now, thanks to Morphine, and we're hoping for a speedy recovery. The doctors are saying 5 days in the hospital so with 1 down that only leaves 4! She has been a tremendously good sport! 

Dave and Kathy have been visiting us for 1 week, and before the rush to the ER we were having a great time. I don't have pictures from all our adventures on the computer yet. However, I do have a few. 

Jason and Dave were able to visit metal machine companies and other businesses that Barnes Welding buys from.

The workers came for dinner one night. We had a lot of fun visiting with them. 

I have never been to a Medieval Times show, so we went for lunch on Friday. Inside the castle there is a huge arena where they do a show with knights, horses and the whole works. They also feed you an awesome meal, but don't give you any silverware so you eat everything with your hands. Messy but fun! 

Chicago Happenings

Since our freezing Illinois weather isn't very conducive to outdoor activities today, I thought I would update everyone on our life the last couple of weeks. Dana G threw an awesome Superbowl party for everyone, and we did enjoy watching the Giants beat the Patriots although we didn't get to see the whole thing. We left for gospel meeting before halftime and thought we could make it back by the end....

However, we got 3 inches of snow and it was coming down hard, so the roads were a little less than desirable. Going 20 or less the whole way it took a good hour to get home.

We pulled into our parking lot right as Eli Manning was making an amazing pass for the victory!

This past Saturday started finals week for Jason, so he has been glued to the books and studying hard! It also was the start to the Chicago Auto Show which claims to be the largest in the nation. So a friend and I went while the hubby stayed home and studied..I did feel sorry for him but had a blast driving..or at least pretending to drive..some pretty amazing cars.  We are going to go again this Saturday so Jason can get a chance to see it all.

An H3....now wouldn't that be nice!

International had a HUMONGOUS truck at the show. Starting at a mere $125,000 it was so tall I could hardly get in. Pulling up to 15 tons with four reclining bucket seats, 1 computer complete with keyboard, navigational system, 3 DVD screens and Bose speaker sets for each seat it was pretty impressive.

Saturday night Jason badly needed a break from studying so we headed out with Jeff and Cassie to try a new restaurant. We had heard of this place where the waiters are actually rude to you so we thought...why not? The food was amazing, but you don't go there expecting service. Soda is free as long as you get it yourself, but if you ask your waiter and he gets it for you it will cost $2.50. They encourage the throwing of napkins and other paper items, self service and sarcasm. 

Our waiter made this lovely hat for me to wear...

And also gave Cassie more than enough straws...after all, he didn't want her to ask twice.

Todd and Ina Prouty left to start their new adventure in Kegums, Latvia today, so Sunday after meeting we had a little going-away party. We will really miss them around here, but look forward to visiting them in Latvia some day!

The girls and I

Wish Jason luck on his finals this week and I'll have more for you soon! We are looking forward to having Dave and Kathy with us next week!

Additions!!!

We are so overjoyed to announce we have two new additions to our family!!! We're very excited for what this will add to our lives here in Chicago and are already searching for extra room in our small apartment for them to call "home." Jason is also concerning himself with making extra room at our dinner table. One's a little smaller and sweeter than the other, but both are adorable nonetheless! I have posted what pictures we have gotten so far!

Here they are!!

We were given a fondue pot for our wedding and have since fallen in love with this style of cooking! Our two new pots will join the likes of an oil/broth pot, a cheese pot, and a chocolate pot!

This is a dessert pot which can be used with chocolate or caramel for dipping such things as apples, strawberries, bananas, pineapple, brownies, cake, calories...you get the idea!

This lovely cherry red pot will be used with either a broth or oil for cooking meat, poultry, sea food, or vegetables! Please stop by for dinner as we have pots enough for plenty!!

Winter - midwest style

Weather....I know...not exactly an interesting topic. However, I wanted to give you a glimpse into the craziness of our winter. We went from weeks of what the weather broadcasters coined "bitter cold" to 40 degrees and raining. Now they are predicting wind chill of -40 tonight.  Thankfully our building is required by the city of Chicago to provide heat of 68 degrees! During our "bitter cold" spell we would wake up in the morning to a beautiful view...or what would be beautiful, if we could see out our windows!

They would completely frost over! 

I used my blowdryer to thaw the windows, unfortunately it didn't last long.

On a side note, today marks four months of wedded bliss for us! 

First and foremost, Jason is recovering nicely. Not 100 percent just yet, but getting there! He has been working really hard to make up tests and lab time that he missed. It has been a blast having Beth with us, and we're glad she still has a few more days! It's been fun to play tourist again, and see all the sights Chicago has to offer. It's just our luck that most of the museums are having a "free week" this week, so entertainment is cheap:) We are heading to the aquarium this afternoon and then some of the bigger museums tomorrow and tuesday.

Beth's first day in town I wanted to show her the areas that I frequent, so I took her to my favorite produce market. She was quite impressed that you bottle your own Extra Virgin Olive Oil. They make pickles in a huge bin as well and you just pick out the ones you thinks are ready. It's pretty awesome, has great prices and makes shopping kinda fun.

Later we decided to take the bus downtown to go through the parks, see the Buckingham Fountain and a few of the popular buildings as well as do a little shopping. We tried to hide our hick side and refrain from gawking at the crowds of interesting people. However, it did come out at one point when the Green Peace cornered us and tried to persuade us to join. Beth, frankly but kindly, informed them that our father is a logger and our cousins are whalers. They cleared their throats and sent us on down the sidewalk. Thank you Bethany.

Before we left the house Beth made sure she was well prepared for our neighborhood!:)

It started pouring rain while we were downtown so we stopped into Ghirardellis for some Classic Hot Chocolate. It was perfect!

Jason heard over the radio that Heartland was putting on a free concert for Friday night. We only knew one of their songs but decided to check it out anyway. Tyler and Dana joined us and we had a blast! They played for 2 hours, plus two other bands played before them so it was a long night!