Horseback Ride

This is what you do when you no longer have a job... you hang out with your children in the mornings and give them horseback rides around the living room.  *grin*

Dressing One's Self

Yes... I let her wear this to daycare...

Roar #3

This is my friend Janice modeling a hat I had made for the son of a friend of mine... the girls were in bed when I finished, however, so I needed a hat model, and Janice was more than willing.  :)  Of course, a little beer doesn't hurt.  She is excellent at roaring as well.  (Thanks, Janice!  Love you!)

 

(This is the third Roar hat that I've made... so easy and fun!)

Silly Picture

Hopefully you can see the poof from this headband Adam was able to keep on Raven's head... she is not one much for wearing stuff on her head (even winter hats disappear as fast as they can... hence the wearing of mittens that are way too big... ha!).  But, she sat for a good five minutes with this thing before she noticed it was even there.

 

erin

Update on Raven

So... I've not been great at updating on Raven like I was with Julia when Julia was this age... but know that she's growing well and learning and a regular little monkey.  *grin*

 

I thought I'd write a quick post to update on what Raven is doing these days...

 

... she has said, "book", "bass", and... she just said a word this morning that shocked me... I will have to try to remember.  She has only said those words once... she has this attitude of, "you know I know what it is, you know I know how to say it, so just deal, parent, 'cause I'm not doing it again".  Ha!  (She has said other words too; we have a list somewhere but in all of the "house picking up" we do, we've managed to miss-place a number of things.)

 

... she says, "uh oh" on a regular basis and does things specifically so she can say it.  Throw that cup on the floor?  "uh oh!"  Tip that pile of books over?  "uh oh!"  Pull all the clothes out of the dresser?  "uh oh"

 

... Raven knows what "time-out" is.  Sad, but true.  Julia didn't understand/learn this until she was almost 2 years old, but Raven is very aware of her naughty nature and tests us plenty and has learned what time-out is because of it.  Now all we have to say is, "Go to time-out, Raven", and she plops her butt down on the steps.  Julia thinks this is fantastic fun.  Julia has gotten a time-out along with Raven for "tattling" and carrying on about Raven being in time-out.  Vicious cycle, there.

 

... Raven knows how to shake her head "yes" and "no" and it has made life a lot easier.  I will say, "do you want a drink?"  She will "say" yes or no.  Are you ready for bed?  (Amazingly, she says "yes" and means it... SO COOL!)  She understands SO much... it is unreal... and so it has become easier with her because I can ask her yes or no questions and get an "honest" answer from her.

 

... but she has also started throwing tantrums when I refuse to give her what she wants.  Today she wanted the toothpaste SO BAD and when I wouldn't give it to her, it was an all out tantrum.  Hilarious.  And bad, bad, bad.  Ha!

 

... she runs, and one of her favorite "running" activities involves going up to her sister, grabbing something that she is playing with, and running away as fast as she can.  Which isn't very fast, but Julia is non-confrontational, and so instead of going after Raven, she starts crying instead.  We are teaching her to go and get back what was taken from her.  All the while, Raven is wielding her evil little grin and running around with her loot clutched in her hot little hands.

 

... she suddenly has TONS of teeth.  Including molars.  She has gotten ~10 teeth in the last 4 months.  CRAZY.

 

... (I hesitate to write this because then it might backfire on me...) finally, after many months of not, Raven is sleeping through the night again and sleeping ~11 hours straight.  It is pure bliss.  *I* am getting sleep again and I have finally been able to reinstate my "7 AM Rule"... i.e., not going in the girls' bedroom until 7 am, even if they wake up before then.  This gives me time to get ready in the morning... yay!  I've been waiting for this day for about 7 months... ever since that summer cold Raven had, we've been struggling with sleep... so yay! 

 

... she is finally realizing that me leaving means mommy won't be in the room anymore, so nursery at church has become a load of fun again.  Just when Julia stopped crying when I left her in there, Raven has started.  Oh, Joy.

 

... she loves to make animal noises.  Funny, most of them all sound the same, but if you listen close, they do have some different sounds.  Her "best" ones are cow and fish.  But, she loves to try them all.  It is especially funny to watch her bark.  She bobs her head as if bobbing her head will make the "woof" come out easier... hilarious.

 

That's all I have for now, but I will try to be better at updating on how and what she is doing!

 

erin

GO, PACKERS, GO! Congrats on a Superbowl win!

We thoroughly enjoyed watching the Superbowl last night with friends and were even MORE excited that the Packers won!  YAY!  GO, PACKERS!

 

The girls were mostly enthralled with toys they don't often play with, however they were good for a "touchdown" now and again. 

 

erin

Off to Chicago

On Friday, we set out for the snow-covered land of Chicago to move Adam to his apartment.

(What?  Yes, Adam started school at Siebel today already!  The last few months have FLOWN by and already Adam is off on his brewing adventure while the kids and I brave the cold back in Iowa.)

We arrived in Chicago Friday afternoon, and thanks to a heads-up from a friend, we were prepared for the rush hour traffic (which starts at 3 pm on Fridays, apparently).  We stayed at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, which I found through priceline.com, thanks to a suggestion from a friend.  While we could have paid less money to park our vehicle farther out and take the train into our hotel, we opted for paying the hotel fee for their garage as we had all of Adam's stuff in our car.

Friday afternoon we walked through the conference center (which will host the 2011 Chicago Auto Show this coming weekend) and to the McCormick Place lakefront view where we were able to see the lake, boats on the lake, and also had a grand view of the Planetarium and downtown.  It was also cool to see the start of the setting up of the Auto Show.  It smelled like exhaust in that entire building.

(Excuse me for not having pictures right now but I wanted to get this post out but have yet to unearth the camera from wherever it ended up over the weekend...)

After this longish walk (which involved chasing after Raven, carrying Raven, and going backwards to get Raven multiple times when she decided it was fun to head in the opposite direction), we went back to our hotel room to determine what to eat for dinner.  A quick use of the iPhone found a pizza place that was only about 5 blocks from our hotel, so we pulled on our shoes, bundled up in our coats, and headed out again (it was brisk out, to say the least).

Now, as you might have heard, Chicago got snow this last week.  A LOT OF IT.  So, it wasn't any wonder that there were still unshoveled spots where walking through the snow sunk one up to her knees.  There was a lot of ice and snow... well... most of our walk, it seemed, which made the trek to the pizza place even more exciting, only to arrive and find out that they didn't have beer.  BUT, they had the Chicago deep dish, which is what we were after.  So, we settled into a nice-sized Chicago deep dish pizza, and amazingly enough the kids ate WITHOUT bibs and neither one of them got any pizza on their shirts.  How this happened, I do not know.

After we returned to the hotel, Adam took Julia swimming while I put Raven down for bed.  Fast forward to 9 pm, and we were all asleep.  Tiring day!

We took our time getting ready Saturday morning and then piled into the car to find Siebel.  We knew the address of it and we braved traffic to find it.  After finding Siebel, we headed towards Adam's new digs in Logan Square.  Thankfully on the way we saw a Dunkin' Donuts where we stopped in for breakfast... we hadn't ordered hotel breakfast because it was very expensive and the piece of cheese was not enough to tide the kids over to lunch.  We ate a bunch of donuts, which the kids thoroughly enjoyed, and then headed off to find Adam's apartment.

We were fortunate to get a parking spot right in front of his place - this was amazing in itself because we quickly learned that a.) cars were still snowed in and no going anywhere soon and hence, not giving up their space and b.) those who had left their spaces "saved" them with chairs and stools and up-turned buckets... you saved your spot.  We met Adam's landlord, who took Adam on a stroll to the nearest grocery store, and Adam and the girls and I unpacked his stuff (Julia was a great help, making sure underwear and socks ended up in the right drawers).

After getting Adam's apartment settled, we headed out to grocery shop and pick up a rug at Target.  Thankfully the Target we found was ALSO a grocery store, because the amount of time it took us to get to Target and then to navigate the crazy busy parking lot of Target and then to actually shop... well, let's just say that we spent about 4 hours our Target Trek to get there, get the stuff, and get back to Adam's apartment.  I can honestly say I've never seen any Target that busy except at Christmastime.  When I refuse to go to a Target.  Ha!

We unpacked the groceries and made sure the girls got a snack and then made snacks for later that evening.  We decided to go to Portillo's in Skokie for a late lunch/early dinner, and thankfully it was quiet and kid-friendly.  We enjoyed our hot dogs and fries and shakes, and I also bought a chocolate cake to share with our Superbowl gang on Sunday. 

After Portillo's, we just drove.  We drove around for a couple of hours finding things and seeing things and generally checking out the lay of the land within a few miles of Adam's apartment.  We randomly drove by Lane Prep School and then read about it on Adam's iPhone because we were in such awe of the place.

This time we headed back to the hotel fairly early and after hanging out in our room for about 45 minutes, we both got suited up and took the girls down to the pool... for about 1/2 hour for Raven and about 45 minutes or so for Julia.  It was enjoyable watching our kids in the water and spending a quiet evening together as family.  After eating a snack back in the room, we put the girls to bed and hunkered down ourselves for a little reading, only to both be asleep by 9:30 pm... oh, well!  It was an exhausting weekend!

Sunday morning we packed up the car, drove to Walgreens to get Adam his CTA pass and some cold medicine, and we dropped him off at the train stop to send him on his way.  It was sad (but quick) to see him go but we'll see him again soon!

Adam will catch you up on his first week of school with a new blog post later this week, and I'll post some pictures later.  If you want his mailing address (please note he will only be in Chicago until March 26th), please let me know!

erin

Guest Blog: A Little About Adam

Adam is preparing for his class at Siebel, which starts next Monday.  He is guest posting on another blog, and since I "review" what he writes often, I asked if I could guest post his posts on my blog as well as a way to keep everyone updated as to what and how he is doing.  Here is the first one!

 

Guten Tag!  My name is Adam Draeger and this is the first blog in a series about exploring a career change into professional brewing. 

 

I am enrolled with the Siebel Institute of Brewing Technology in Chicago/Munich from Feb 7th through April 30th.  I wanted to use this post to give you my background and how I decided to take this class.

I grew up in the beer state of Wisconsin and graduated from UW-Platteville with a BS in Engineering Physics (which is a fancy title for a combo of electrical and mechanical engineer).  During my freshman year I met a homebrewer (and future fraternity brother, Tim "Cream" DeTroye), but at that time, the thought never crossed my mind that I would/could homebrew due to the fact that (I thought I) didn't like beer (AKA. Bud, Miller and Coors). 

 

After I turned 21 my roommate got me to quaff Bud Light regularly, but I didn't enjoy it.   I tried Rolling Rock and Sam Adams with marginal improvement.  It wasn't until I visited a brewpub in Madison, WI, called the Angelic Brewing Company (now closed) that I had my first beer epiphany.  The place had the awesome brewpub atmosphere that I continue to seek and relive any chance I get.  It also dawned on me that this beer was only made in this one location for consumption in this one location.  I was experiencing an unique beverage that was made locally by somebody from raw ingredients, but not just a beverage.....BEER! 

This first epiphany turned me into a beer hunter and I desired to experience as many brewpubs & craft beers as I could find (and as a college student...afford).  I started light with the cream ales and kolsch-style ales then drifted darker toward the pale, red and brown ales eventually making my way to the stouts and porters. At one point my thoughts took me back to my freshman year and Tim's ability to "brew his own."   I'm a creative guy, and I love to make things....why not recreate some of my craft and brewpub favorite styles of beer myself? 

It was 2000 and I was interning at Lands' End when I read John Palmer's (free online) book called "How to Brew". I was so cautious about my descent (errr...ascent) into brewing that I just kept reading and studying for a year before I let myself take the plunge. 

 

My first batch was made in Freeport, IL, on June 30, 2001, while on internship with Newell-Rubbermaid. It was a hefeweizen extract kit that I called Ninkasi's Sumerian Wheat, named for the first beer goddess. 

 

After 19 batches of extract brewing, I upgraded my system to all-grain -- mostly to be more creative and save money.  Fast forward 9 years to when I made my 100th batch of beer on Aug 18, 2010 (not counting the many ciders and meads that I've brewed as well).

 

For the last six years I have lived and worked as a process engineer for Pella Corporation in Pella, IA.  While over the last 10 years I have considered the Siebel brewing course many times, it never seemed feasible for my family and me for me to take the plunge and take off time time from work to do so. 

 

In October, the company took a look at the bleak forecast for 2011 and decided to offer a voluntary retirement/separation package instead of just laying employees off.  (I have a lot of respect for this company and have no ill will towards my job, manager, or coworkers.)  

 

My wife and I discussed and saw this as an opportunity to move to (possibly) Colorado, a state after our hearts.  After a lot of prayer and discussion we felt that God was telling us to take the separation package and sell the house, but nothing further was for certain.   So we started putting feelers out in Colorado to see if any of them would be blessed.  I also signed up for the waiting list for the Feb 7th start of Siebel's next program.  I was explicitly told not to get my hopes up as there are rarely cancellations.  I put my energy in to job hunting for engineering positions in Colorado...I even applied to New Belgium as a facilities engineer. 

 

After a month of searching and praying, I received a call from Siebel saying that there was a cancellation and that I was the first on the list.  More discussion ensued and my wife and I decided that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore a career change and I accepted the position in the class at Siebel.  

Since being enrolled in this course, I have done some preparation for the class.  I am reading the MBAA's practical handbooks and my local brewery, Peace Tree Brewing Co has agreed to let me job shadow their head brewer, Joe Kesteloot.   My wife, Erin, and girls (Julia, 3, and Raven, 1) drop me off in Chicago on Friday, Feb 4th, and classes begin on Feb 7th.  My next posting will be about my first week at school and adjustment to living in the "windy city."  Until next time....Prost!

Brotherly Visit: New Year's Eve

I can only remember one New Year's Eve in the last six... or more... that I haven't spent in Cedar Rapids with our friends there at our friend Angela's house.  This year was no exception.  However, this year Alex was visiting, so we asked if Alex could come along.

 

I may be biased, but I felt as though Alex fit in well with our friends.  He is a personable guy and everyone was nice to him and seemed to accept him into the group for the night.  However, Alex is ALSO an AMAZING uncle, and he delighted Julia over and over that evening.  One of the ways he did so was by playing his ukulele and allowing Julia to touch it and play it as well.  I'm pretty sure this was the highlight of her night!

 

(That, and laughing so hard that she peed her pants... and the floor............. ha!)

Another Hat

Here is a hat that I made for my sister on New Year's... it was a lot of fun to make and very quick to work up... I hope she loves it!  :)  (I heard that she does, anyway!)