Tim and Carrie's Blog

The first month of 2011 has been an overall very good month for us Packer Fans!  The Packers won all 3 games in the playoffs and are heading to the Super Bowl!  Woo Hoo!

Earlier this month, we had Caleb over for the weekend on January 8th and 9th.  Caleb really likes to come by himself to visit, probably because he doesn’t have to compete for any attention!  He gets it all to himself!  I had to work both Saturday and Sunday this weekend, so Caleb got to be with Carrie all weekend.  One of his favorite activities when he comes here is our Saturday morning trip to the grocery store to get donuts.  He always seems to look forward to it!

The next weekend (15th & 16th), Hannah and Caleb came over for Friday night through Saturday night.  Well, Hannah left Saturday night and we took Caleb home Sunday after church.  The Packers playoff game was Saturday night that weekend, and I tend to get rather loud while watching Packer Football on the TV.  This apparently did not set very well with Caleb, as he went downstairs to watch a DVD movie.  He even shut the door when I was yelling “Go, Go, Go!” at one point in the game.  The poor little guy!

That Sunday, we headed to Tomah and picked up Elizabeth to drive her back to Madison for 2nd semester at college.  Caleb came with us, as he would have been home alone all afternoon.  Joshua and Hannah were with their church group sledding and Danielle was working all day.  So Caleb came with us!  After bringing in Elizabeth’s things to her dorm room, we went to a restaurant on campus to eat supper, and then headed back to bring Caleb home before we came back to Onalaska.

Later that week, I had to go back to Madison for a company meeting on Friday morning.  Carrie took Friday off and came with me to spend the day (after the meeting, of course) with me.  After we checked out of the hotel, we went to lunch at Old Chicago and happened to meet some friends from our church there!  Brad and Betsy Gerdes were there visiting their daughter and her fiance’. 

After lunch, we went to take a tour of the Wisconsin State Capitol building.  Our tour guide did a great job showing us the building.  We got to see the Governor’s conference room, where many bills are signed into law and press conferences are held.  Now, when I see the Governor on TV at the Capitol, I recognize parts of the room!  We also toured the State Supreme Court room, the floor of the State Senate and the floor of the State Assembly.  We learned a lot about Wisconsin history and State Capitol history that day.  We were both fascinated by the experience.

Unfortunately, our schedules didn’t allow us to meet up with Elizabeth or any other family members, so we headed home after the tour of the Capitol.

This week, I celebrated my birthday.  I decided earlier in November that I wanted to take my birthday off from work.  The way I submitted it, I ended up with 3 days off this week.  So I have been home the last 3 days, and I have to say I really enjoyed it!  Tuesday I spent at the dentist, followed by a lunch date with my mother-in-law, and a supper date at the local hibachi restaurant with my bride!  I had a very nice birthday!

That’s about all for now.  Back to work tomorrow from my little 3 day vacation!

~Tim

The Christmas season kept Carrie and I very busy with our jobs, church, and the kids. 

On Sunday, December 5th, Carrie and I attended Hannah’s and Caleb’s church childrens’ program.  Both had significant speaking and singing parts in the presentation.  We went to Joshua’s and Hannah’s band concert on Tuesday, December 7th in Tomah.  This was Hannah’s first band concert.  She plays the French Horn and Joshua plays the Trumpet.  On Thursday, December 16th, we attended Joshua’s and Hannah’s choir concert.  Hannah was in the 6th grade choir and one of the Show Choirs, and Joshua sang in the 8th grade choir.

Christmas Eve was spent with me playing in the church’s band for both Christmas Eve services.  After the services, we went out to a Chinese restaurant with about 60 of our closest friends from church. 

Christmas Day was spent in Hokah at Diane and Gordon’s farm.  It was fun to catch up with everyone. 

3 days later, we had all 5 kids over and went back out to the farm to go tubing by Diane and Gordon’s cabin.  Gordon had plowed a path with his tractor and Carrie and Diane had gotten some tractor tubes and had them blown up before we got there.  There are lots of videos of the tubing time at http://www.youtube.com/hamot2.

New Year’s Eve was our 2 year wedding anniversary.  I worked in the morning until 3:00 and then we went out for dinner around 5:00.  Unlike last year, we didn’t go out and spend $2,000 on a new TV, stereo and vacuum.  Instead, we drove back home because the roads were icy and there were a lot of cars were in the ditch.

New Year’s Day was spent watching the Wisconsin Badgers play in the Rose Bowl.  Ben and Giselle were over to watch the game with us.  Even though the Badgers lost, it was probably the most entertaining college bowl game this year.

Finally, today we watched the Packers beat the Chicago Bears and qualify for the playoffs.  What a great way to end the holiday, wouldn’t you say?

More next time,

~Tim