BMW Golf Champsionship at Dubdread

This weekend we went and did something that we have talked about doing for a long time. We had originally planned on spending Saturday at Cantigny but with Diana’s rehearsal running late and rain in the morning it didn’t work out. Well- we couldn’t just waste away the weekend so we came up with something else! We went to the PGA BMW Golf Championship.

Cog Hill Golf Course

Jason has always loved golf but since we moved to Illinois he has grown to love it even more. Only 15 minutes from our house a PGA Championship game is played every year at Cog Hill golf course. Every year we talk about going but never have. So since we have talked about it so much we decided to go and watch it this year. It was a lot of fun. The course was absolutely beautiful, the weather became fantastic, and it was amazing to see how well these guys can golf! We spent most of the day on the 16th and 17th holes and saw everyone we wanted to see!

Tiger Woods

We watched Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson play each other and actually hit not far from where we were sitting/standing. We also saw V.J.Singh, K.J. Choi, Paul Casey, Ryan Moore, Ernie Els, Kevin Na, and so many others! The really cool part was watching Dustin Johnson hit his winning birdie at the 17th hole – it’s what gave him the lead!

Dustin Johnson


So although we will never golf like those guys did it was a lot of fun to go and watch them play! It’s another experience we can mark on our list of things we have done – so no complaints from this peanut gallery!

Ian Poulter and his crazy pants

Quilting

So as many of you know I enjoy quilting! I have been working on a baby quilt since we started the adoption process and have finally finished it (that means we can get a baby now!). It started just as one quilt with storybook characters and then I decided to make that a wall hanging and make another quilt to match it. Before I knew it I had curtains to match and all kinds of cute stuff for a future baby room - now we just need the baby. I took the quilt with me to Utah and a friend is doing the actual quilting of it - it was larger than I wanted to try to do on my home sewing machine.


In addition I also finished a quilt for Jason's sister. I have made a quilt for almost all of my nieces and nephews before they were born. The 8 oldest were out of luck - I either hadn't figured out how to quilt yet or I didn't know them (Jason's side of the family). Jason's sister is expecting a little guy pretty soon so we picked out the fabric and I went to work. I think it turned out super cute.

Here are a couple of pictures of the quilts I've just recently made. The monkey one is the one for Jason's sister and the little blocks and appliqued characters is for our future child.





In addition I was reading a friends blog and found this touching parable/story that relates to quilting that I thought I would share.


The Threadbare Quilt
As I faced my Maker at the last judgment, I knelt before the Lord along with all the other souls. Before each of us laid our lives like the squares of a quilt in many piles. An angel sat before each of us sewing our quilt squares together into a tapestry that is our life.

But as my angel took each piece of cloth off the pile, I noticed how ragged and empty each of my squares was. They were filled with giant holes. Each square was labeled with a part of my life that had been difficult, the challenges and temptations I was faced with in everyday life. I saw hardships that I endured, which were the largest holes of all.

I glanced around me. Nobody else had such squares. Other than a tiny hole here and there, the other tapestries were filled with rich color and the bright hues of worldly fortune. I gazed upon my own life and was disheartened. My angel was sewing the ragged pieces of cloth together, threadbare and empty, like binding air.

Finally the time came when each life was to be displayed, held up to the light, the scrutiny of truth. The others rose, each in turn, holding up their tapestries. So filled their lives had been. My angel looked upon me, and nodded for me to rise.

My gaze dropped to the ground in shame. I hadn't had all the earthly fortunes. I had love in my life, and laughter. But there had also been trials of illness, and death, and false accusations that took from me my world as I knew it. I had to start over many times. I often struggled with the temptation to quit, only to somehow muster the strength to pick up and begin again. I spent many nights on my knees in prayer, asking for help and guidance in my life. I had often been held up to ridicule, which I endured painfully, each time offering it up to the Father in hopes that I would not melt within my skin beneath the judgmental gaze of those who unfairly judged me. And now, I had to face the truth. My life was what it was, and I had to accept it for what it was.

I rose and slowly lifted the combined squares of my life to the light. An awe-filled gasp filled the air. I gazed around at the others who stared at me with wide eyes. Then, I looked upon the tapestry before me. Light flooded the many holes, creating an image, the face of Christ. Then our Lord stood before me, with warmth and love in His eyes. He said, "Every time you gave over your life to Me, it became My life, My hardships, and My struggles. Each point of light in your life is when you stepped aside and let Me shine through, until there was more of Me than there was of you.

May all our quilts be threadbare and worn, allowing Christ to shine through.

Summertime and the City

Oh what do you do in the Summertime? Well, if you’re Jason and I then you have FUN and stay BUSY!
This summer has been packed with activity and fun things to do. Here’s a brief run-down of what we have done this summer.
• Brandon and Cami came to visit and we did some sight-seeing and watched the fireworks from Navy Pier.
• Rachel’s family came for a visit from Ohio and we had a big barbeque in the backyard and put Daphne in her first swimming pool – way too cold for her.
• Golf, Golf, Golf
• Our best friends Rob and Tiffany had a beautiful baby girl Cadence (yeah!) and then moved away to Oklahoma…(sniff sniff)
• Took a trip to Yellowstone, California, and Utah – more about those in other posts
• Diana finally finishes the baby quilts that she has been working on for a couple of years!
• Jason is a manly man and builds Diana shelves for the basement.
• Celebrated both our birthdays in July – man we just keep getting older!
• Jason and Diana go into a canning frenzy – canning strawberry jam, pickles, salsa, candied jalapeño relish, peaches, and something else.
• Went to the cutest little town, Geneva, with friends to go Antique Shopping.
• Planned trips to the Jelly Belly Factory and the Renaissance Faire.
• Watch Transformers 3 being filmed – only Jason had that privilege since they were filming outside his work.
Whew…if that isn’t enough to keep us busy we were working full time also! Viva La Summertime!

Trip to California

At the end of April Diana’s dad had a lung transplant. So come the end of May Jason and I decided that it would be helpful to them if we went out to California and stayed with them for a couple of weeks to help them out. My parents are renting a small 1 bedroom/studio apartment in the LA area. So Jason and I got to sleep on an air mattress in the living. It wasn’t too bad except we kept sliding into each other during the night  We would also work full time during the day on Chicago hours. So come 5 am California time we would be up and logged onto our work. The bad part would be that we would go to bed at 11 California time if we were lucky. But it all worked out and we had a great time visiting and helping my parents.
Although the trip was designed to help out my parents we had a great time doing other stuff with them too. We went on a driving tour of Beverly Hills and saw Barbara Streisand’s home as well as a lot of other “stars”. Every day my dad is supposed to do some exercise and so we found some exciting things instead of walking around the apartment complex. Most of what we did was on my parents list of things they wanted to do before they left LA. So…. we went to the beach one afternoon and just watched the wave’s crash and played in the water a bit – Dad just watched on that one. We went up to the Air Force base and did some shopping.

Then we took a trip down to Long Beach and went to the Queen Mary Cruise Ship. The haunted part of the tour was a little hooky but the rest of it was pretty cool. The most amazing thing was watching my dad walk up and down the stairs on this cruise ship without any problems. Before the surgery it would take him almost 10 minutes to walk up a flight of stairs because he’d have to stop and catch his breath. Now he was going up multiple flights of stairs without an issue. He was tired by the end of the day but we all were. I was so proud of him and how well he did!
We also took a day trip to La Brea Tar Pits. I guess there used to be Tar Pits in Los Angeles and prehistoric animals would get stuck in them. Well the tar preserved them amazingly well and we can now see these animals in all their glory. It was a great museum. They also had a beautiful area with vegetation and some live excavating going on. It was great. Thanks for taking us mom and dad.

My favorite part of the trip though was just being able to see both my parents so happy! My mother is relieved that the surgery is over and they can start to live again and my father is happy because he can finally breathe again. Before the surgery it would take all his energy just to sit down to eat dinner. Immediately afterwards he would go lie down and recover. After his surgery we would sit down to dinner and then visit for 2 -3 hours or play games. It was amazing!
I am so thankful that we had the opportunity to go out and be with my parents – not only because it was beautiful, sunny California but because the reason we were there was so awesome! Oh yeah, and I had a wonderful trip with my wonderful hubby!

Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup!!!!

For anyone who doesn’t know Jason very well this may come as a surprise to you. He is a HUGE hockey fan. He loves the game! So when our Chicago pro hockey team (the Blackhawks) made it into the playoffs Jason was pretty excited. When they made it to the semi-finals Jason was super excited but when they made it to the Stanley Cup playoffs Jason was beside himself with excitement!!! He informed me that if they won he was definitely going to be buying a few things.

No matter where we were Jason made sure to follow the Blackhawks – even at the hospital with Rob and Tiff as they were trying to have a baby Jason would check his phone to find out the score. Well as you can guess by the title of the blog the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup! The final game was an away game and it actually ended a little weird – no one knew for sure if they had won or not – a bit anti-climatic. But as soon as it became obvious that they had indeed won Jason jumped up from his chair and yelled! You’d have thought that he had won the cup himself. He was sooo excited. I was pretty excited as well.

Chicago was all abuzz with Blackhawk fever. If you thought it was crazy when the Bears went to the Superbowl you should have seen this city when the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup. Non-stop partying and Cup watching…the team that wins the Stanley Cup Finals gets to take the Stanley Cup to their hometown – each player gets a day with the cup. The first few days I don’t think the team ever slept they were spotted everywhere with that silver prize.

A couple of days after the winning game the city held a parade in the team’s honor. Nothing unusual about that until you saw the crowds. The city was packed!!! Just to give you an idea of the crowds that normally attend an event like this…when the White Sox won in 2005 – over 30,000 people showed up for the parade in their honor. The planners of the Blackhawk parade were expecting about 25,000 people to come – hockey didn’t seem as popular as baseball. Well the final count of people on the parade route was over 2 MILLION!!! That’s right – basically the entire state of Utah in the streets of Chicago to watch the team and the treasured Stanley Cup pass by.
And guess who was there to see it all – Jason! He and some other people from work walked down to the parade route in order to see all the fuss. He thought that they were pretty far back in a side street (about 15 rows back) until he turned around right before the parade reached him and saw the street he was on went back an entire block – over 40 rows of people crammed into a small side street. He had never seen so many people in such a small area. He got some great pictures and actually saw the Stanley Cup in person.


So needless to say my husband was very excited for his team…and we now have a bathroom in our home in honor of the Blackhawks. Our upstairs bathroom has a red and black color theme and when I mentioned that we needed some pictures in there Jason suggested the Blackhawks…why not! Go hawks!!!!

Feb/March trip to Utah

We are currently flying home from Utah. This was a somewhat impromptu trip but definitely worthwhile. After my sister-in-law Kristen, lost the twins, I was pretty low. In addition I felt so far away from my family and needed some extra support. The day we found out that the second twin, Josephine Diana, had died Jason called me and said that he felt that I needed to take a trip to Utah and be with family. He was planning to go out over the 27th of February for his friend’s wedding and suggested that I join him and get some family time and start healing. I hadn’t planned on going to the wedding because of my work and the fact that I was in limbo waiting for my dad’s surgery but quickly changed my mind. It was the perfect idea! I immediately talked to my boss and he gave me the okay. I then called my dad and asked if there was any way he could get permission from his doctor to leave Los Angeles for just a few days and meet us out in Utah so I could see them. Then I left a message for my brother, Marc, and asked when his daughter was getting baptized (my niece Kira has been taking the discussions and has decided to be baptized). Later that night Marc called me and said that Kira picked the 27th of February to be baptized – the exact same weekend we were going to be there without realizing that we were going to be there. Then a few days later my dad announced that his doctor gave him permission to go to St. George for a couple of days so he would be there too. Then my eldest brother, Marlowe, announced that he would make the trip to in order to be there with the family and support Kira. Athena would take some days off of work and meet us there too! So all of the sudden we had a family reunion scheduled. Thanks Jason for being such a wonderful husband and giving me time with my family.

Dad and his girls
On Tuesday night we flew out to visit family. Wednesday we spent the day visiting with Jason’s family and meeting our gorgeous new niece, Haley Sue. She is adorable! We also got to visit with our other nieces and nephews on Jason’s side of the family. Then on Thursday I spent the morning with my sister, Athena, and Jason went and played racquetball with his brother Micah. Then I went and saw my niece, Emma’s, school program and then spent time with Athena’s kids. Then Jason and I made a mad dash into Salt Lake to visit with his old boss’s boss, Wendy. Wendy just recently adopted a baby girl and we had the opportunity to see both her and her beautiful new daughter. It was wonderful to talk with her and hear about her adoption experience. It really confirmed to both Jason and I that the right child will come to us at the right time. Things work out for a reason and we just have to be patient and wait (although that is definetly not easy). After a great dinner at the Cheesecake factory we rushed over to Desert Star Playhouse to see my brother Bryan in their current production. It was fun to see him performing and he did a great job as always. It was also fun for Diana to catch up with old friends from her days of performing. As soon as the curtain went down on Bryan’s show we all piled into the car and started to drive down to St. George, Utah.
We arrived in St. George around 1:30 in the morning. We were all so tired from both a busy day and a long drive in the middle of the night. We got to the hotel and met up with Diana’s parents. We talked to them for a while and caught up on everything before finally climbing into bed around 2:30 am. So it wasn’t fun when our phone started ringing at 7:30 am with a phone call from Blockbuster saying that our movies were overdue…whoops! We decided that we might as well get up and start the day. We all went to breakfast and met up with Diana’s brother, Marc and 2 of his kids, Skye & Cody. It was a fun morning. Then Marc and Jason went shopping (Best Buy – of course) and Diana, mom, and Skye went shopping on their own. Dad and Bryan headed back to the hotel. We all met up a little later and watched the Olympics and caught up on everything that was happening in our lives. Marc brought over his 11 year old daughter Kira as soon as school let out and we went shopping again – this time to get stuff for a big family dinner. Around 4 pm Dad and Jason went to pick up Diana’s other brother, Marlowe, from the airport. He was flying in from Seattle. Then around 7 the final member of the family arrived in St. George – Athena and her family. The rest of Marc’s family (minus Ashley who didn’t get there until the middle of the night) all met at the hotel in Jason and Diana’s room and we had a great evening of visiting and laughing, and talking and eating. The younger kids went down to the pool and went swimming. It was wonderful! Although we were only together for a little while it was the perfect evening. I’m always amazed at how great it feels to spend time with my family. No matter how long it’s been since we’ve seen one another we all feel right at home with one another the minute we get together. It was a night that I will always hold dear to my heart.

Beautiful St. George in the winter
The next morning we all met for breakfast at Cracker Barrel and celebrated my brother Marc’s birthday. We managed to thoroughly embarrass him by singing happy birthday! Then we all headed over to the church for Kira’s baptism. My brother’s family has not been active in the church and since they moved to St. George, Utah their 11 year old daughter, Kira, started showing interest in the church. She started to take the missionary discussions and decided that she wanted to be baptized. That was the reason that all of us went down to St. George – to support her in her decision. It was a beautiful baptism and it was especially neat to have the whole family there supporting Kira in her decision. She has a beautiful testimony and I am so happy for her. Marc and his family seem very happy with her decision also and are making progress themselves in the church.

Diana's family
Immediately after the baptism we took some pictures but then we had to leave. Everyone else stayed there in St. George until that evening except for us. We had another exciting event to attend to. We drove back to SLC and got back in time for the wedding of one of Jason’s good friends from High School. Jason has a great group of friends and it amazes me how close they all are even after so many years. They all became friends in junior high school and have somehow managed to stay great friends after all these years. Everyone supports one another and get together all the time. When one of them gets married the entire group immediately pulls them in and makes them feel as if they’ve always been a part of the group. It is a wonderful thing and I’m glad that we have them as friends. Well the last of the group was married on Saturday evening and we had the chance to be there to celebrate that day with her. Christina and Alan were married in a beautiful ceremony at the Eldridge House in Bountiful, Utah. Following the wedding ceremony was a beautiful reception in which we had the opportunity to visit with so many people we know and love. Christina looked beautiful and so happy. We welcome Alan into the “group” and wish them a lifetime of happiness.

Alan and Christina's wedding
Sunday morning was another busy day…things never slow down when we go out to Utah. We had breakfast with Athena’s family and then said our goodbyes. Then we went and visited Jason’s grandmother in Farmington and said our hello’s and goodbyes. Then we went back to Jason’s parents house and watched the USA/Canada gold medal hockey game. It was awesome! Until the USA lost in overtime – oh, well – it was good while it lasted! Then we started cooking some favorites for dinner and had Jason’s whole family (except for his sister’s family in Kansas) over for dinner and visiting. We said our goodbye’s at the end of the evening to the family. But wait – the night’s not over yet. We had a visit from some good friends, Mike and Kim Palmer, and were able to ooh and aah over their new son, Tate. We also saw their adorable older son, Barrett, too. Just as a disclaimer to all our friends that we didn’t see this trip – we apologize but as you can tell things were way too crazy and busy and we barely saw the back of our eye’s on this trip let alone all our good friends! We did think of you and wish that we could have visited with you…next time!

Jason and new baby Haley Sue
Monday morning we packed up and then went for a fun lunch with some of Jason’s siblings to Wingers (love those wings). Then we said goodbye to the little nieces and then headed to the airport. It was a long exhausting week but totally worth it. We had such a wonderful visit with both our families and wouldn’t have it any other way. Although it makes me homesick to leave them all behind. Maybe we’ll get lucky and get a baby and can go back to Utah soon to show off our own little one soon.

Big and Small Miracles

Small miracles…
Life gives us many challenges but with it comes many miracles and blessings. Lately I’ve been making myself focus on the miracles that I have in my life instead of the challenges. One of the miracles we’ve experienced lately has to do with Diana’s mom and dad.

Diana’s dad has lung problems and we’ve slowly watched him go downhill with his health. It’s a very difficult thing to watch your parent’s struggle with poor health. Diana’s dad is very active and having difficulty breathing has been a trial for him as well as the rest of the family. It’s hard to watch him struggle. We all expected that this is the way things were going to be that we didn’t have any options. Well the miracle occurred in December of 2009. Ed, Diana’s dad, called and told us that he was going to Los Angeles for a consultation in order to have a lung transplant! We didn’t even know that was possible. Well, they went out there and after a week of extensive tests the doctors declared him eligible for the lung transplant. A couple of days after Christmas Diana’s parents packed up a few of their things and moved to Los Angeles, California to wait for a lung match. They got a small apartment to live in and patiently (and sometimes impatiently) waitie for a phone call saying that they have a match and Diana’s dad will have a new lung. It’s scary to think of such a major surgery but the knowledge that my dad will have a better life after getting the lung makes it all worth it. We don’t have to see him suffer like he was. In addition it’s been great to see my parents sharing another new adventure together and spending so much time with one another.

Post Surgery Ed

After waiting 4 months the miracle continued…Diana’s dad got the call that they had a match. A young man in San Jose, California, was in a skateboarding accident and was brain dead. His family decided to donate his organs in order to help others. The process of organ donation and tranplatation was an extensive one we soon found out. Ed got the call on April 29 but it was almost 30 hours later when he actually went in for surgery. The donor hospital had to make sure that all the organs had a place to go and they had to wait for the other doctors to fly in from all over to harvest them. The heart and lungs were 2 of the last organs to go. Once they harvested those they flew them back to LA and took my dad in. We were all on pins and needles waiting and although there was a little fear about what was about to happen there was also excitement. The long awaited day had finally come! Diana’s brother Marc and his daughter Skye drove to LA to help Beth (Diana’s mom) out. It was emotional support more than anything. The surgery went excellent! In fact the surgeon said that the rest of Ed’s organs were in such great shape he could see Ed sticking around for another 20 years!

Deep Sea Fishing after surgery

Now it was time for Ed to heal and get back to living! The hospital warned us that he would be in ICU for at least 1 week and then the hospital for 2-3 more weeks after that. Well Ed doesn’t like hospitals and told the doctors that he would be home in a week. Sure enough after 2 days he was out of ICU and within 1 week he was back at his apartment. Talk about determination!!! Nothing could stop him now. It hasn’t all been easy though. There have been set-backs, minor rejections, infections, and so many pills! He has never had to take medication regularly and now he’s taking close to 20 pills a day! He’s also going to group therapy, physical therapy, clinic once a week. He exercises every day and we monitor is stats 3 – 4 times a day. What a work out for both Diana’s parents.
Diana and her sister both felt like they needed to go out to California to help their parents out. Athena, Diana’s sister, flew out in mid-May and it was such a blessing to her parents. The stress of the whole experience had caused Diana’s mom to have a fever blister in her eye and so she couldn’t see and definitely couldn’t drive. Ed had a minor set back and they had to drain his lung and he wasn’t allowed to drive. So Athena went out as chauffeur and support crew. The day after Athena left, we flew out to help the parents out. Both Jason and Diana worked from her parent’s tiny kitchen and took turns driving them around and helping out however they could. The other half of the miracle came into focus during this trip as we saw Ed as he used to be. He would joke with us, sit and talk after dinner and we went and did things. While visiting we went to the Queen Mary (an old cruise ship that now has tours), we took driving tours of Beverly Hills, we went to the beach and just relaxed, and we played cards at night (although Diana lost all her chocolate and Good & Plenty’s to Jason and Dad). Now Ed has a new outlook on life and is living every minute to the fullest. On Aug. 18, 2010 they were finally released to move back home to Utah. Although they loved their time in California it was time to come home and get back into the routine of things.

Mom and Dad enjoying the Queen Mary

The second miracle is one that is hard to see, even now. Diana’s brother, Marlowe, and his wife, Kristen, found out that they were expecting twins. They announced it to the family over Christmas and everyone was so excited! They have had difficulties getting pregnant so this was especially a huge blessing. We then found out that it would be a little girl and a little boy! We were thrilled! In January, things took a turn for the worse and Kristen gave birth to the little boy, Trevor James, too early. He only lived a few seconds and then he was gone. It was devastating but we kept having hope that things would work out for the little girl. Things were up and down for the next week and a half for Marlowe and Kristen and the rest of the family but we kept praying. Eventually Kristen was allowed to go home but unfortunately things didn’t work out. About a week and a half after we lost Trevor, Kristen gave birth to the little girl, Josephine Diana, but she too passed away. Now you may be wondering where the miracle is in this experience…the miracle comes in our knowledge & the tender mercies of the Lord. When Jo was born she was a week and half older than Trevor and because of that she lived for 30 minutes. Both Marlowe and Kristen were able to spend time with her while she was alive – that is a miracle and a blessing. The bigger miracle though is the knowledge that we have that Trevor and Jo will always be a part of our family. Death isn’t the end and we will see both of them again. They will always be the son and daughter of Marlowe and Kristen and a part of their family. That is truly the most wonderful miracle we could ask for in times of loss.

Salt Lake Temple