Is This Normal?
The chaos that is the KerbersArchive for Dave
Mmm…steak…
Tonight we partook in one of our favorite winter traditions…going to Alexander’s for steak. We went with our friends Buck and Amy, and it was a really enjoyable night out. The reason I call this a winter tradition is because at Alexander’s you grill your own steak. They have giant brick enclosed grills that are constantly hot, and you get to pick your own piece of meat and cook it the way you like it. In addition, they have a big pan of potatoes all wrapped in foil, loaves and loaves of Texas toast, and a giant vat of butter with brushes so you can add as much or as little to both items. Add to that the many seasonings that sit around the grill and you really end up with a seriously good meal. To be honest, none of this is that fun in the summer heat. But in the winter, there is something about standing around a giant grill holding a cold beer that works. If you’ve never been, I highly recommend you visit one soon.
The finished product
I’ll admit that I was worried about decorating the tree this year. The kids were so excited to help and I knew they’d go at it full force with no regard to ornament placement at all. Anyone who knows me knows that this would be difficult for me. I love decorating the tree, and part of that is finding the perfect spot for each ornament. But when you’re two or four, it’s all about getting as many ornaments on the tree as quickly as possible in an area you can reach. Obviously we have very different approaches, which is a challenge.
Happily, though, I found that I could relax and let the kids hang their ornaments wherever they wanted. We had so much fun sorting through all of the ornaments…each one bringing back so many memories. The kids especially liked seeing the ones with pictures of them as infants. Emma couldn’t quite understand that the cute little baby was her. We kind of worked as a team…Dave was at the tree helping and I was at the ornament box pulling things out a little more carefully than they would have. As they hung more and more (most of them on the same few branches, of course) 
we all just had more and more fun. I will admit that we had to move several of the ornaments to other branches later, but the kids didn’t really notice, so they were satisfied and proud that they did it all by themselves. It was so awesome to watch them have so much fun doing this. I was happy I could let them!
We had such a great time, and we ended up with a gorgeous tree again.
The perfect tree
The kids and I got home from Sycamore this afternoon, and as soon as we did we all headed to Growing Grounds to get our Christmas tree. 
It’s nice tree shopping there, since all of the trees are inside their greenhouse. But today was warm and sunny outside anyway, so no matter where we were going, it was a great day to buy a Christmas tree. The kids were excited, and it literally took us about 5 minutes to find the perfect tree. Then they just started running. 
The greenhouse is probably about 30 feet from where we were to the end, and both kids just ran back and forth and back and forth about a million times. It was great to see them burning off some energy. It made me sad we weren’t at the tree farm getting our tree this year, because they would have loved running around there. Conversely, we would have had to keep track of both of them when they just wanted to run freely, so maybe Growing Grounds was big enough!
We have the tree in the stand, and I’ve got the lights on. We’re all very excited to decorate it tomorrow. I hope I have patience while doing so, because I’m pretty sure the kids will not be able to contain themselves.
Ahh…I love me some Thanksgiving
Last Thanksgiving I wrote about how thankful I am for all of the blessings in my life…and at the top of that list of blessings sit my loving husband and wonderful kids. So this year I thought I should probably change it up a little bit for my Thanksgiving post. Unfortunately, I can’t even pretend that I am thankful for anything more than Dave, Emma & Ben. They truly make my heart full and my life complete.
I hope that anyone who reads this blog has the same kind of happiness I feel on a daily basis. Sure, the kids make me crazy sometimes, and Dave and I bicker more than I’d like, but my life is truly filled with three monumental blessings.
I hope that I can always remember how lucky I am when the little stuff gets in the way.
I truly am thankful, but not just on this Thanksgiving night.
- I am thankful when I have to get up in the middle of the night to someone yelling, “MOMMY!”
- I am thankful when I and trying to get dinner on the table and someone’s at my side begging for attention.
- I am thankful when I’m the only one who can stop the fights, the fits, or the tears.
- I am thankful for the arms thrown around me every day for giant hugs.
- I am thankful for the millions of smiles and giggles that fill up this house.
- I am thankful that I get to hear, “I love you” absolutely every day of the year.
I’ll say it again…Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. I hope you stay thankful all year, too.
Early shopping
I have never been an early Christmas shopper. I like shopping when I’m in the Christmas spirit. And it super annoys me when people skip over Thanksgiving…my favorite holiday of the year. But this year, since we’re leaving for Florida on the 18th, I feel more urgency and stress surrounding our holidays. So this afternoon Dave and I started shopping for the kids. We went to Farm & Fleet with the intention of simply browsing and getting ideas, but we ended up getting several gifts for the kids that we think they will love. We also got a few gifts for some friends, and more importantly, we got organized. That helped me calm down a lot. Later, while grocery shopping, I even picked up some stocking stuffers! Me…buying stocking stuffers in November…when it’s still fall outside and our Christmas lights, while already hung due to nice weather, will not be turned on until the day after Thanksgiving. Unheard of!
I still hate shopping early, and I did miss shopping while being caught up in the spirit of the holidays. But you gotta do what you gotta do, and if being ready to leave on December 18th means I have to shop early, I’ll gladly do it.
Ahhhh…
Today was seriously one of the laziest, most relaxing days we’ve had in a very long time, and I enjoyed it very much. Since we set the clocks back an hour last night, the kids were of course up super early, but we all laid around in bed watching cartoons for about 45 minutes before technically starting our day by getting up and ready for church.
After church, we came home and did very little the rest of the day. Both of the kids had a lot of fun working in their new Halloween coloring books from Aunt Theresa, and Ben worked especially hard on some sticker puzzles she gave him. Emma had a three-hour nap, which was desperately needed, and Daddy got a short nap in for himself, too. I enjoyed watching the Bears game without interruption for once. It was great, and they even looked good and won! We had a couple of battles over wanting more candy, but Ben didn’t beg for it too much, so I was happy with that.
It was one of those days where Dave and I look at each other, smile and say, “This is the good stuff, Honey.” The kids were in good moods and had fun playing with each other. The crying was at an all-time low, I think. Ok, sure, Emma did fall off the back of the couch downstairs, got a big lump on her head and cried really hard for a few minutes, but hey, no day is completely perfect, right? Overall, there wasn’t a ton of chaos in the house, and we all spent some really enjoyable time just chillin’ out together.
Halloween fun
The weather made us nervous all week, but luckily it pretty much cooperated in order for us to have a very fun Halloween night. It was a tad bit chilly, but thankfully the rain finally stopped.
We started the night with pizza, and Grandma & Grandpa Kerber joined us first. Then Aunt Theresa came, and finally Auntie M, Salina, and Bella rounded out our group. It didn’t take anyone long to finish eating…the anticipation of trick-or-treating was on the forefront of everyone’s mind. 
So after we ate we changed into our costumes (which luckily were big enough to leave room for a couple of extra layers underneath) and headed out. Ben the panther, Emma the lion and Bella as Magenta the dog made up our costumed group. 
Since Auntie M and Salina both came with us, the adults outnumbered the kids for once, which is never a bad thing!
We started down the street and the kids were into it right away. Emma had not napped this afternoon, so after only a couple of houses, she was getting droopy and was pretty far behind.
But Ben was very patient with both of the little girls. He would wait out on the sidewalk and I can’t remember him complaining once. After about 40 minutes of trick-or-treating both of the girls were ready to head in. Neither of them really knew what any of the candy was in the first place, and they were pooped from walking. Plus, Bella had other stops to make, so Auntie M and Salina were off.
Ben, however, was still ready to go. So Dave took him around one more block. Needless to say, his pumpkin was very heavy by the time they got home a half hour later. He was so excited about some of the things in there. It was too funny. By this time Grandma & Grandpa had gone home, but Aunt Theresa still had a bag of goodies for the kids. They both loved opening these, and we had to have just one more treat before bed.
Both kids had so much fun trick-or-treating. 
We ran into almost all of our neighborhood friends and saw some pretty cool Halloween houses. While Halloween is certainly not my favorite holiday, I have to admit that a smile came to my face on more than one occasion tonight. There’s not much more you can ask than that.
Oh wait, icing on the cake…the Illini football team beat Michigan tonight, too! Woo HOO!!
Welcome home, Mommy!
When I talked to Dave from Springfield last night, he told me that the kids would be very excited to see me today when I got home. But I had no idea how right he was!
When I walked in the door, I realized that the kids were downstairs with Dave. As I started down the steps, I heard Dave say, “I think someone may be home…” Then the screaming began. “MOMMY!” As I hit the basement floor, Ben threw himself at me for a huge hug, and Emma was soon to follow. They both came back for more hugs and kisses repeatedly in that first few minutes. That awesome reception surprised me. But even more of a surprise was how often the same scene has been repeated today. While I haven’t gotten any more screams out of the kids (not necessarily a bad thing) I have gotten LOTS of hugs and kisses and have been told over and over that they missed me so much.
I had a great time at the conference, and really enjoyed reconnecting several professional relationships. But nothing compared to today…coming home is always a treat, and this time it was even more so.
Carve-o-rama
Tonight was pumpkin carving time! We had gotten a perfect carving pumpkin this afternoon, and after dinner we cleaned off the table and embarked in our adventure. It was decided by the kids that they wanted a happy face, so I drew the face on the pumpkin, and Dave cut the top off. 
As we expected, Ben wanted nothing to do with the “gross part” and Emma dove right in to scoop out the guts. 
So typical! It was cracking us up…she was totally into it. She said things like, “It’s digutsing” (which isn’t a typo…that’s phoentic Emma talk) with a huge grin on her face.
Since Ben was pretty much doing nothing during the entire “gutting” of the pumpkin, he decided he wanted to draw on his with a marker. He wanted very little help with this, and I was actually surprised at how awesome it turned out. 
Of course I had to use some serious persuasive skills to talk him out of drawing animals on it, and I also convinced him to put his name on the back so he wouldn’t write all over his pumpkin’s face. Once Emma saw him doing this, she wanted to do hers, too. I tried my best to help her draw a face, but of course she let me help with one eye before she yanked the marker away from my hand and said, “No, Mommy, I can do it myself!” Little Ms. Independent pretty much just drew some straight lines all over her pumpkin, but she was thrilled with it. In the meantime, Daddy was busy carving away on our big one.
Things definitely got a little hairy at times, and Mommy’s patience was tested big time, but overall, we had a great time, and the results were awesome.
Illini Saturday the sequel
For our birthdays in August, 
Theresa got us tickets to the Illinois vs. Michigan St. game, which was today. It was Homecoming in Champaign, which is always a fun day, and Dave and I were really looking forward to going to the game. But since we had been to the game last week, and saw how badly the Illini looked then, we had trepedations about our chances today. We had hope for an Illini victory, though, and looked forward to the game.
We were way too optimistic, I’m afraid. The Illini are awful. And really…using the word awful is being too kind to them. They didn’t do anything well today. Truly, the highlight of the game was when two fighter jets flew over the stadium during the pre-game show.
However, it was certainly not a wasted day. We got to see Ryan again, and he even went to dinner with us after the game at Papa Del’s, our very favorite place in Champaign. There is nothing better than enjoying a Pop’s pizza on a Saturday afternoon. There is just something about that pizza that is indescribable yumminess. I liken it to Mystic Pizza…one may never know what’s in it that makes it so good. But we do love it, and both Dave and I look forward to getting there at least once a fall. We were happy that we could take Ry with us to keep the torch for Pop’s burning on.
We’re still holding on to some hope for the Illini, but it’s very little. I can hardy remember a time when we were this bad at football. Honestly, I’m not sure that we’ll win another game this year. It’s a sad day in Chambana-ville. 
