Is This Normal?
The chaos that is the KerbersArchive for gotta love the extended fam
Projects galore
We were lucky to have some help this weekend working on our deck project. Grandpa Scott, Grandma Judy and Brett came down to see Ben’s soccer game Saturday morning and to see Emma sing in church this morning. That left a whole bunch of time in between to get a lot of stuff done. Grandma and I decided it was time to tackle the window treatments in the dining room and front room. I have wanted to get going on them for months, but I knew I could get them done in two days with her help. It’s always easier to do these things with another set of eyes and hands and another opinion. So, while we headed to Hobby Lobby to buy fabric and supplies, Dave and Grandpa got to work on steps for the deck.
It seemed like smooth sailing out there. They got the steps put on and all of the railing up and secure. Awesome. Meanwhile, Grandma and I were making serious progress, too. We finished the front room window with very little problem on Saturday.
Today after church and lunch, the men decided it was time to take out the ugly bushes that lined the deck. Grandpa hooked up a tow strap to his truck and a bush, and viola…those things were gone in no time. Even though the weather didn’t cooperate with us, thankfully the rain held off until we got all of the bushes out.
And Grandma and I were back at it, too. Although the dining room window treatments was a bit more complicated than the front room one, we did a pretty good job with it, too.
It was a really great and productive weekend, and having help was so nice. The kids were so excited to have Grandma and Grandpa and Brett here at their events and spending the night with us. I’m super excited with all the new things we’re doing around here. I can’t wait to make even more progress!!
Happy Easter
We had a lovely day at my cousin’s house in Sycamore with a whole lotta great food and family. Every Illinois Henrikson was there, which doesn’t happen often. So of course, we lined the kids up and started snapping pictures.
Then we lined them up by age (like the pictures we have of all of my cousins together), too.
After the photo shoot, it was time for the egg hunt. The grownups hid eggs all over the yard and the kids were off.
Everyone loved it, and the fact that the Johnsons have a huge backyard definitely helped. The kids were running all over the place frantically collecting eggs. After a very short time, the yard had been vacuumed clean of colorful eggs and it was time for the kids to collect their booty.
It was a really great day. The weather was gorgeous, the company was fabulous, and the food was very yummy. I just can’t believe that I didn’t even get one picture of anyone eating fritters or even a picture of some fritters themselves! That is inexcusable. Guess I’ll have to wait until next Easter since they only get made once a year. Oh well.
I think the most difficult part of the day was that we drove up and back in the same day. I never like to do that because it seems like we spend more time in the van than with the family, but it was unavoidable this time. Thank goodness the kids are getting to be better travelers and they have so much fun with their cousins that they thought it was worth it, too. It’s the toughest thing about living two hours away from family for sure. But at least it’s only two hours, and it makes days like this possible. I love that.
Snow!
Much to our delight, Sycamore got an inch or two of snow late Friday night/early Saturday morning, so we packed up our snow gear when we headed north. The kids were so excited to get outside since we’ve barely had a flake in Central Illinois. Of course Grandma Judy and Grandpa Scott went out with them, and they had a blast. I wasn’t there to get any pictures that time, but of course they wanted to go back out Sunday morning, so Grandma graciously agreed to go out again. A lot had melted by then, but there was still enough for them to play around. This time I caught some of the action.
Ben began by hitting Grandma with a handful of snow.
But of course Grandma would get back at him.
And then nail him a good one. Good ol’ Grandma will never be outdone. 
They walked down to the “creek” (which is really not much more than a drainage ditch) and it was iced over. Both of the kids found giant chunks of ice to bring back to show me. Ben was calling his a slice of pizza.
Everyone had a lot of fun in the tiny amount of snow that was there. Let’s hope we get some soon!
A whole bunch of Henriksons
My mom’s maiden name is Henrikson. She and her two sisters lost their mother when they were still very young, and I think they because even closer because of that. All three lived in Leland, my hometown, and growing up we were all very close. There were nine of us grandkids, and we were really raised like siblings. We all spent a ton of time together, and almost every Sunday night was spent having pizza and popcorn at one of the sister’s houses. Each year we had a Henrikson Christmas party, and each year they were super big fun. We had a name draw, and it didn’t matter how old you were…you were included in the draw. Sometimes my grandpa would give gag gifts, too. One year he wrapped up pictures of himself for everyone in different sized boxes. Each time someone opened, he would just cackle with laughter. Another year he saved prizes from cereal and wrapped them up for us. Again, he just laughed and laughed about his antics. Whenever we were all together, there was always a lot of laughter.
Nowadays it’s much more difficult for all of us to get together. Some of the family lives in Florida, some in Georgia, and even though a lot of us still live in Illinois we all lead busy lives and find it very tough to coordinate a get-together. Somehow, though, we found a night when everyone Illinoian could come. I was even planning a trip up to Mom and Dad’s this weekend, so I didn’t have to make a special trip up just for the evening.
It wasn’t a traditional Christmas party; we didn’t exchange any gifts or anything like that. But we did catch up with each other and kept some of our old traditions. We made homemade ice cream, which was always a big event in our family. We also pulled out the old slides from the 70s and 80s. Man, I don’t even have any words to describe some of those. Here’s a couple of examples:
Some stylin’ thirty-somethings in the 70s. Yeah, two of them are my parents. Any guesses which ones?
This must have been my cousin Debbi’s birthday, as she’s the one opening a gift. I do love my hair…no question where Emma gets it, eh?
It was a fantastic night, and it was of course full of laughter. I feel fortunate to be part of the Henrikson family, and I’m grateful for the time we have together. Hopefully we’ll get to do it again soon.
Gingerbread house time
One tradition the kids have had for the last few years is making gingerbread houses with Grandma Kerber. She and them both love it, and I don’t have to do it, which is great for all of us. After the first year she realized that buying pre-constructed houses was the best idea, and now that we’ve done it this way, it’s been a much better experience. Dave took the kids out to the farm as soon as he got off work tonight so they’d have plenty of time to decorate their houses. Grandma was all ready so they got started right away.
As always, the kids had a blast and the houses turned out great. Dave said that this year was the best ever, as the kids are a little more independent and made things even easier for the grown-ups involved. There was a lot of licking of the fingers and sampling of candy, but the houses did get completed.
It was a really great night for the kids, and I suspect it was for Grandma, too. The end results, as always, are beautiful and will make a great adition to our table.
Ben’s basketball debut
This morning Ben had his first ever basketball game. He’s been having practices on Monday and Wednesday nights for about 4 weeks now, and as a culmination of the class the Mon/Wed class plays the Tuesday/Thursday class in actual games. I really didn’t know what to expect, but it was pretty fun for the kids. Ben’s team was the Wolverines and we played the Hawkeyes (in case you’re not making the connection, they’re all named after Big Ten teams). It was classic kid basketball, where each team member wears a different color wristband. The opposing team wears the same wristbands so each kid knows who to guard. Just as I expected, there was a lot of bunching around the ball, but overall they did really well. Ben’s specialty was defense, for sure. He was on his guy like glue. He never got a basket, but he did have a couple of shots and a lot of great passes. Most importantly, he had a great time.
Although I felt badly that Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Nanny and Brett drove all the way down here for such a short event, but it was fun to have them there for Ben. He was thrilled.
Thankfulness
I have so much in my life for which to be thankful, and although it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day frustrations and problems, I’m working very hard to remember to acknowledge my thankfulness. And today, on Thanksgiving, it seems appropriate to reflect even more than usual. The kids and I worked on a turkey centerpiece for our table earlier this week. The turkey has individual feathers and each person at Thanksgiving dinner was to write something for which he or she was thankful. We got such an awesome variety of topics, from things like electricity (from Ben) to sports (from Nolan) to good health (from Grandma) to a delicious meal (from Craig). It puts things into perspective, really. There are literally hundreds of things that we should appreciate daily, and it was important for me to start this kind of activity so I could get my kids thinking that way, too. While I was growing up I simply took everything we had for granted, and I don’t just mean the physical items I had. I had no idea that there were people without homes, without food, or without family members who loved them. And while I don’t necessarily want to expose my kids to many of the evils of the world, I do want them to understand that they have it pretty darn good and it’s important to be thankful for it.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I hope that no matter how small it may be, you can find thankfulness in your heart every day.
Moving day
It finally came…moving day! There is really only one word that describe this day to me…blessed. We were blessed with wonderful weather, we were blessed with some last-minute help, and we are continuously blessed to have such wonderful family and friends who were anxious to help in any way they could.
On the first load from the storage facility, everyone was still pretty chipper.
Brett was happy that the grown-ups were letting him help. I think that feeling left by mid afternoon.
Once again the oldest person here was showing the young pups how it was done. I bet Grandpa has helped me move about fifteen to twenty times in his life. He’s unbelievable.
Meanwhile Aunt Nanny was busy scrubbing the kitchen from top to bottom.
The men were stacking boxes in the garage, and I was quickly getting overwhelmed.
And then they kept bringing more boxes. And more boxes.
By the time I finally got pizza here, everyone was ready for a break.
During this meeting of the minds, Bob quickly learned that Grandpa Scott knows everything. I’m pretty sure that next time he’ll know just to listen and do what Grandpa suggests.
Even the kids got in on the move. Ben and AJ were so excited that there were boxes they could carry in. It also helped that these were bins of toys.
Of course it didn’t take long for them to discover that empty boxes are BIG fun.
At the end of the day, Alicia and Danielle graciously offered to empty the kitchen boxes into cabinets. I can’t believe I could relinquish control enough to let them, but I’m really glad I did…it was so nice to have that done!
It was such a long day, but we are in the house. We have so much to do tomorrow, too, but for now, I just can’t wait to get into my own bed and get some sleep. Before I do, though, I’m going to remember to give thanks for all the blessings I witnessed today.
Bring on the painting
Well, the ceiling mess was cleaned up last night and the carpets were cleaned today, so now it’s finally time to start painting! I can’t wait to get these white walls covered with some color. I started trimming the first room tonight, and tomorrow morning Mom and Dad are coming to stay for a few days to help. Grandma Judy is a painting champ, so I’m hoping we can really get a lot of rooms done in a very short time. Meanwhile Grandpa Scott is going to do a bunch of odd jobs like putting all the light fixtures we had to take down for the ceiling project back up and changing out some new door knobs. They are the best…they’re literally going to camp out in the new house until at least Saturday, which is moving day. We’re so lucky to have them helping us. I know we’d never as much done without them.
I love to paint. I don’t know if it’s because of my art background or just because it’s the easiest way to make a complete and total change for a room in a big hurry. Either way, I love it, but tomorrow and Friday may test my love. Our goal…to paint seven rooms in two days. Impossible? Maybe, but Grandma and I are going to give it our all.
Illinois Loyalty
Yesterday was an all-around awesome day. The Swartzies and Dave & I had separately gotten tickets for the Illini football game, which was a night game vs. Arizona State. We decided that we really wanted to get there to tailgate early, so they arrived at Aunt Theresa’s house about 11:30 to pick us up to head to Champaign. We first hit Ryan’s apartment to pick him up and get a couple of small grills. Then we headed to the parking lot to set up our tailgating camp.
Rod had found a parking pass to purchase, and it was in a great lot; directly behind the Assembly Hall. There was shade, there was grass, and truly, it would have been difficult to find a better spot.
We unloaded all the food and drinks, got the grills all set up, and the kids started playing football. After a short time, several of Ryan’s friends came to tailgate with us, too. It was such beautiful weather and so much fun to be around some really great current Illini while eating, drinking, and generally being merry. It took me back to my college days in many ways.
Once we finally headed to the stadium, we had to stop by to see the Red Grange statue. Brett had brought a friend who had never been to an Illini football game before, so it was basically a rite of passage for him. I never get tired of visiting Red. It really is a very cool memorial.
We didn’t have seats with the Swartzies, so once we went into the stadium we were on our own. Our seats were great except that there were two season ticket holders with the bolted on seats sitting next to us. Those are a nice feature, but they don’t leave you a lot of room if your bottoms are bigger than the small area allocated to each seat number. But I tried to get over that as much as possible, because we got to watch a great game. There is nothing quite like a night game…it just seems to be a whole different level of excitement in the air. Add to that the fact that we were playing a big-time opponent like ASU who happened to be ranked, and the stadium was nuts. The game was so good and we held the sun devils off. It went to the very last drive, but we did it, which is not something that happens every day with the Illini!!
I think the best part of the day was spending some time alone with Dave. We haven’t had a lot of time together lately, and we’ve both been missing that. It was nice to have nothing to worry about other than having some fun and winning a football game!
