Changed His Life....

I'm posting for Jason, who found his ultimate stir-fry sauce: Soy Wasabiaki (green label, found at Jewel). He said he feels like he's in an Asian restaurant when he's eating it.

Mmmmm....

Somethin' to watch

American Idol Gives Back

Thoughts... anyone....

americanidol.com

Hair Olympics

Our church had a ladies night at a salon that a woman in the congregation owns. We had a hair olympics- teams of 3-4 had to do a person's hair with what was given them. I was the model, of course, but I think we could have done much better if given thought and time. Here is the outcome:

And here is the well-deserved winner:

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Though my mom won't see this I still want to celebrate her & display her birthday pictures. She is an awesome mom and I love her very much. We went to Chili's (her favorite margarita place :) ) for her birthday bash. Attendees included Grandma Becker, Becky, Jason, Stef, Tom & myself. Here are some pictures of us all with the birthday gal. She won't mind me saying that she is 78. I hope I look that good & have all that energy when I'm her age. Go get 'em mom!

Painting 101

Cheryl and I went to a Painting 101 class tonight. Here is our interpretations of Matisse's Goldfish. I'll let you guess who's is who's.
A:


B:


Close up of the fishes:


(Is anyone else glad to not have to look at Eric's bruised hairy foot?)

Eric's Nasty Foot

The whole entire thing is discolored. Sick.

Oh, it happened playing volleyball. He landed on it wrong trying to do his awesome 1/2 fliperoo spike.

Weekend in MN

I just got back from visiting the Millers. We had so much fun!

A few highlights:

Cal pee'ed all over the bathroom and his face and hair. He was really excited I was there and couldn't contain himself. When Leah and I found him in the bathroom the pee was dripping off his hair into his face.

Cal said to me today, "I wish we could get married". Ahhhhh.....!

Isaac is adorable and likes to grunt and point and run and laugh.

Alisa and Kevin came over with Aiden. He's so cute and sweet. Alisa and Kevin are natural parents.

Eric busted his foot and was forced to sit around and play video games all weekend.

My hair looked weird all weekend since I didn't have a working blow-dryer.

Oh, and I feel like a zombie. I'm so e.x.h.a.u.s.t.e.d. I don't know how Leah does it!

Greetings from Chicago, IL

Its obvious its the middle of winter and no one is doing anything fun. This site is boring!

"Get your *ss moving and the soul will follow."

~ The Boss

Birthday Lady

Sexy, Strong, and (sad-to-say) Sick. We love Sally.

Happy Birthday, Mom.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JASON!!

A special start to this world on a Sunday afternoon,
His mother was baptized, baby still in the womb.
That was late spring and by the end of the year,
What joy! A boy! And not an eye without a tear.

Home… gazing… the shimmer of moonlight caressing his face,
All would be changed forever now. We wouldn’t remember a time without him in place.
Some colicky nights that he quickly outgrew,
To play happily alone or giggling & gurgling when attended to.

A little boy with swings and sandbox, sitting under the sun,
And two sisters coming along to eventually join in the fun.
In school he liked reading and did well in art.
He made lots of friends and must’ve broke some little girl’s heart.

In junior high he wore a mullet and light blue tapered jeans,
He played basketball & was crowned king, well liked by his peers it seems.
In high school we found he had his dad’s legs & speed,
Breaking records in track and running hard in cross-country.

A short stint at college, some jobs here and there,
It took him awhile to find a calling in which to place care.
He found a house he loved and wanted to make a home,
And a girl of his dreams to bring to so they would no longer roam.

We skip ahead now and find him being born, again, somehow.
Jason David Staton, a babe to this new life he’ll avow,
But I see a great man of faith, admitting he’s been broken,
Wanting all to taste of this world to which he‘s been woken.

His art is still there and comes out in different ways:
Plaster molds, cooking, walks in the woods with his dogs these days.
His heart is kinder from the soft blows of love.
He’s still funny and quick, oh the crazy things he thinks of!

Well, birthdays are a great way to end out the year,
Thinking back with love on all you hold dear.
And this is my way of saying to my son
I love you Jas and because of you I’m the blessed one!

Have a great birthday Jas!

Love you,
Mom

Our Pigeon Man

Here's an article more fully describing Joe Zeman Jr., aka Pigeon Man.


He was remembered:

STEF'S DAY!

What is the date? Good grief! The 21st!
Today’s the anniversary of Stefanie's birth!

Since that's the situation, the event at hand,
There should be a big celebration in the land.

For Stef is special, a child of God
And I want to bless her with more than a nod.

She's funny and fun, thinking she might be Lucy.
The Golden Girls make her laugh till she's light-headed and woozy.

Stef’s always sweet and thinks the best of others,
That helps Carol and me since we are the mothers.

Through good times and bad, through thick and thin,
She stands by her man and believes in him.

She'll shop till she drops especially at Target,
A sale, a reduction, she's likely not to forget.

She loves her dogs, to dream, and draw,
She'll rearrange a room and paint a wall.

There's plenty more that I could say,
But let's hear from you all on Stef s special day!

Happy Birthday Stef!!

Love ya,
Sally

R.I.P

A Chicago man widely known as "the Pigeon Man of Lincoln Square" was struck and killed by a van Tuesday afternoon on the Far North Side.

For the full story

(hey, I can't see my tool bar to insert a link or change fonts etc. Any ideas?)

UPDATED to fix link. Still don't know why you can't see the toolbar.

ERIC IS HOW OLD?!

Eric woke up this morning and said with a cry
“I’ve turned 30 today.” “Oh me!” and “Oh my!”.
Now don’t feel downhearted, dejected or sad,
I’ve shown up to tell you it’s not all that bad.

For Eric’s fulfilling a lot of his dreams,
A husband, a dad and a great job it seems.
He’s got friends all around and a church he can love,
Blessings galore sent straight from above.

You might think he’s quiet, guarded or shy,
But you see his true heart when he plays with his guys.
He wrestles with Cal and makes Ike giggle,
They lay on the floor and wriggle and wiggle.

His friend from the 6th grade and love of his life,
You see that he’s proud of Leah his wife.
He’s faithful and loyal, hardworking, consistent,
Emotional, loud or a braggart he isn’t.

He’s easy to love, has a true servant’s heart,
If he’s called to help out, well, he’s just doing his part.
If you’re there on a weekend to the bakery he goes,
You may even find him baking cinnamon rolls.

So you see by this tale that all’s well and good,
You’d probably pick 30 too if you could.
So say what you want & don’t hold it back,
Of cheers on his 30th may Eric have no lack!

Happy Birthday Eric!!

Love ya,
Sally

Awesomeness

I thought I better post this since my last knitting post was this debacle. (Thanks Richard!)



Awesome, right?! Yeah, I'm pretty proud of myself.

(The camera makes Kari's art look crooked. Its not. I would never let that happen.)

Recap

Mom
Gift card from Williams Sonoma
Rosie Thomas CD with the REM song on it
gift certificate from Arcadia Knitting www.arcadiaknitting.com
John Hiatt CD, esp one that has "Have a Little Faith in Me"
Best Buy gift card

Tom
Gift Cards to best buy

Leah
clothes. Medium shirts. Size 8 pants. Or medium pants
Banana Republic, Gap and Old Navy
No sweaters
I would love a little sharp knife. Preferably Rachael Ray.

Cal
An umbrella (they sell them for like $6 in kids' toy stores)
Another membership to the museum or the Minnesota Zoo
books
Cal needs a puzzle organizer. "They" have these wooden table-like things with slots for wooden puzzles. I have no idea how much they are or where to find them. And it's late so I can't look it up right now.

Isaac
http://www.elc.co.uk/toy-34123
http://www.creativekidstuff.com/ ...tasyblocks.html
http://www.creativekidstuff.com/...ravel- town.html
socks.
Books
Also, there are these cds put out by Putamayo and they are great kids cds. You can find them at children specialty shops. Here's the link to their home page.
http://www.putumayo.com/en/ putum...tumayo_kids.htm

Becky
iTunes gift cards
more art from Kari
earthy smelling candles
The Complete Vegan Kitchen (or another Vegan cookbook)
an orange tea pot
a pasta/veggie streamer pot

Cheryl
Game Stop gift cards
Cool (outside) vest - size L
another business card holder from Leah (she lost it and it was her fav)
Sweaters for work – Size L

Richard
Anything from They Might Be Giants Discography.
Blues Brothers
Blues Brother 2000
Clerks X
Best Buy Gift Cards
"The Year of Living Biblically" by A.J. Jacobs

Kari
the Oppenheimer CD (they only have one, so if you go to Best Buy or something, I think it should be pretty easy to find). I'd also like the Social Distortion greatest hits CD. Any of the "Dexter" series of books would be great, too (except the first one - I just splurged on that). So, I think that includes "Dearly Devoted Dexter" and "Dexter in the Dark". They're all by Jeff Lindsey.

Eric

Jason

Steph

Heyyyy Jason, Steph and Eric give us some ideas.

Christmas Exchange

Stolen from Sarah Jane on their family blog:

"Hey All-Talked to Leah Rose last night about our annual Christmas Exchange, we both agreed that we should still do it. If anyone opposes strongly just don't participate. We thought we could try it a little different. We could do a boys and a girls gift exchange, with a limit of 15$. So I'll buy a gift for the girls exchange (no gift cards) (something like jewelry, bath and body, something for the house etc) and Brian will buy something for the guys one (tools, video game, poker chips etc). Then on Christmas we'll play the game where we pull numbers and steal. So mom, dad, you can play, Sally, Grandma Holper, etc. Anyone who buys for the exchange is in. Sound good? Leah is telling her side I'm telling ours. YAY CHRISTMAS"

Thanksgiving

Hey Familia. I'm using this post as a kind of mass email. Cheryl and I are leaving for Seattle tonight - I'm hoping we don't end up sitting in Ohare all night! I'll miss you all this weekend. Just another Thanksgiving seperated.

I plan on kicking a little A this weekend with the scavenger hunt. Watch out.

Let the Hunt Begin

Thanks for all the suggestions. I hope that this turns into a lot of fun.

The Rules:

Attempt to take a picture of yourselves with the items on the list.
You get one point for every picture, and .25 points for every member of your family(pets included) you can cram in there.
1 extra bonus point per picture if you capture "that guy"(will add link at home) in any of the pictures.
10 points for being the first to complete all the pictures.
5 points for being second.
100 points if you are married to a Kari.
Just post your findings here.

The List:
A cow
A Baggage claim
A delicious pint of beer
A $50 bill
A star fruit
A unique building
A Winning a poker hand
A Letterman's Jacket
A broken mug
A mouthful of cranberries.

Have fun!

A Must See Film

Thank you Richard for pointing this out: