Where has the time gone?

Today is my second son's 31st birthday. It's funny no matter how many years pass by a mother can still tell you every detail of her labor and delivery of every child  that she has given birth to. Having a second child is very different from having your first.
Before giving birth to your first child you hear every horror story from all the women in your family about their experiences. They had me frightened...I was afraid of the unknown. But with the second child you're a little wiser. When I started my labor pains with Joey I didn't want to rush to the hospital like I did with my first, I wanted to stay home as long as possible and besides...my living room needed vacuuming. I also remember being so hungry, I was craving chocolate and because I ran the Winro Roller Rink concession stand my garage was full of boxes of candy bars. I remember eating Snickers between my contractions. 
Labor was not as long as the first time and I remember my son looking exactly like his father when he finally made his appearance. I told the nurse that I guess I needed to have a girl in order to have a baby look like me. She told me she has never heard a patient talk about having another child immediately after going through labor and delivery.
We weren't like the young couples of today in regards to picking out a name for the new baby. We didn't plan on a name ahead of time we waited until he was born. And for some reason he just looked like a Joey.  I know that probably sounds weird but that is exactly what happened.

Here's a couple old photos of some of Joey's past birthdays. This one is his first birthday celebrated in Casa Grande, Arizona. He's being held by his Grandma Schroeder and his older brother Eddie is also in the picture. Don't know what kind of face Eddie is making...my boys never liked posing for pictures.

 Here is another birthday, also celebrated at the house in Casa Grande. It's probably about his 4th or 5th birthday. What a happy, happy face on this special little boy.






Happy Birthday my dear. I love you more than words can say.

Winter arrived on schedule in Winneconne...

Yesterday was a reminder of what Winter in Wisconsin is all about. All the things about living here in winter came flooding back. For instance:

I remembered what it felt like to have that icy wind coming off the lake and hitting you in the face...it was breathtaking, and not necessarily in a good way. 

I remembered how important it is to dress in layers, many layers. 

I remembered that a short, three pound dog can't walk out the door into snow piled almost a foot taller than her. 

I remembered how to shovel.

I remembered to turn on the 4 wheel drive in the KIA before trying to back out of the garage.

I remembered to slowly pump the brake so I wouldn't go through the stop sign into oncoming traffic and

I remembered to carefully protect my camera while I took loads of pictures in the blizzard.

First my brother Mike came down this road to plow me and the other neighbors out, then another truck came down to plow us out...not quite sure who was in the second truck but I sure felt lucky that they both arrived so early in the morning because I needed to get to work.

The men in the Public Works department put in some long hours in the wind and cold cleaning off our roads, sidewalks and parking lots on days like today and they do a great  job. Thanks guys. When I arrived at work today I saw this huge pile of snow and took a picture to show you that it was as high as the roof on our post office...then tonight when I was leaving work I noticed that same pile of snow. It looked amazing under the street lights and I couldn't resist taking more pictures. What do you think?

There was a few more things that I remembered today...the good feeling of coming home, the good feeling of my soft Packer lounging pants and the good feeling that sitting in front of a blazing fire gives me. No better way to take the chill of the day away.

We'll Follow the Old Man Wherever He Wants to Go...

After that awaking blast of cold air in my face first thing this morning, it began to snow. Would could be more perfect on a day like today but to sit in front of a nice warm fire in the fireplace? Nothing, so that's exactly what I did. Thank God my nephew Eric came by yesterday with the log splitter to cut my logs into sizes that fit into my wood burning stove. His timing couldn't have been more perfect.

With the snow outside and the fire in the fireplace - wrapping Christmas presents while watching White Christmas was the thing to do. White Christmas - I can't watch it without crying. You'd think after watching that movie at least once every year of my life since I was about 10 years old I wouldn't get so emotional. I can recite just about every line of that movie... doesn't matter who's part I have it memorized. The army scene when the soldiers sing "We'll follow the old man..." and then again in the end when they sing it at the Inn, I sobbed uncontrollably. You listen and see if you don't get emotional.

 We'll Follow The Old Man

I remember as a kid my parent's owned a Precast Concrete Company and at Christmas time they always had a party for their employees and spouses. These parties began at our home on Guenther Street in our basement. It was my job on the night of these parties to greet people at the front door and take their coats and put them away. If I was lucky, White Christmas was the movie playing on Saturday Night at the Movies on television that night. It was perfect timing to watch this movie upstairs as the party was going on downstairs. And to make that night even more perfect and if I was really, really lucky it would begin to snow that night. Now you have to remember this was before 3-D, Blueray, DVD, VHS and even BETA recorders and players. That was in the days when you had to watch whatever was showing on TV at the time on one of the three local channels. There was no pausing, no fast forwarding and no rewinding. We were one of the fortunate families who owned a colored television and White Christmas was one of the few movies that was filmed in color. I fell in love with that movie back then and it has been a tradition in my immediate family every year since. My boys all know this is my favorite and last year they bought me my own DVD version. Only a few years have gone by in the past four decades when I wasn't able to watch White Christmas and that was because there was some kind of legal rights issue going on for a few years and the company that owned the movie wouldn't allow the movie to be rented or shown on television.

So I guess if any of you watched a movie over and over again every year for decades you'd be able to recite every word and sing along to every song. I wonder how many gallons of tears I have shed over this movie.

How many of you are White Christmas lovers?

White Shots + Schroeders = Hangover

Last night was Rob and Jenny's annual Christmas get-together, but it the first time I was able to attend. Except for Sami and Eddie the whole family who lived locally was able to make it. I'll have to admit I probably drank just a little too much. I was doing fine until the celebration shots began flowing. Some white concoction that tasted like bananas (Mike said it was like drinking suntan lotion) were the first shots, followed by another white concoction that tasted like Cinnamon Toast Crunch - which by the way I never liked! Had to fill my belly with snacks, chocolate and ham sandwiches to soak up all that alcohol...at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
When us Schroeders are together there is always a sing-a-long. This music and these sing-a-longs have been handed down from generation to generation in this family.  "Heart of my Heart" was the favorite selection of the evening and of course there were plenty of Christmas carols sung. What was amazing to me was how fantastic my brother Mike's voice is. He used to sing in the choir and musicals in high school but I'm not sure I've heard him sing alone before. He sang a beautiful rendition of Silent Night.

 

We all had a great time but I didn't get much sleep. I got home late, or really early depending on how you look at it, and I wanted to sleep in this morning  but that didn't mean that Bella was on that schedule. She woke me up after only a few hours sleep to go outside. When I let her outside high winds were blowing inland from the lake and nearly took the back door right out of my hand. Nothing like a cold blast of air first thing in the morning to wake a person up. And I had my first hangover headache in a long, long time. I know it was those damn white shots!