Chicago, IL Trip!

Jaroski Family visits Wauconda, IL, birth place of:
Joseph Jaroski, Kathryn Jaroski and Grace Jaroski!!!
This house was our home for 10 years. Three bedrooms, 1 tiny Master Bath, that everyone was always in, 1 full bath upstairs, 1 powder room down, 1 Family Room with wood burning stove (we added), one Office/Living Room plus a basement that was always a mess!! Oh, yes. One dining room, that was actually used for eating, one Kitchen and Laundry Room.
I had the most difficult time driving away from this house because of all the wonderful memories it held!! It was a GREAT HOME!!! All 3 children were born in the Master bedroom, Kathryn before any doctor arrived.

This is the lake, where Jared, Graham, Joseph did their fishing for northern pike, largemouth bass and more. Graham was interested in ice fishing, so they did that too!! During the summer, we went swimming and sometimes took our boat for a ride. Great memories of the 4th of July party!!

This is Westminister Reformed Presbyterian Church, where we worshiped for about 5 years before moving to San Antonio. This is where we learned about the Reformed Faith, asked lots of questions, listened to lots of discussions, and after about 2 years, thought, "There might be something to this theology!" People never pressured us or told us we were wrong, but patiently explained their faith. We baptized Jared, Graham, Joseph, Kathryn and Grace here. Praise God for His mercy to us!!!

Thanksgiving, 2007!!!!
Grandma Neri celebrates her 96th birthday!!!
Hip hip hurray, Grandma!!!
We love you and are so glad we got to spend Thanksgiving with you and Mom J!!!!

Craig showing off his turkey dinner! Yum.

Looks like Joseph had something beef oriented, the carnivore that he is.

Ditto for Jared, and Graham and Grace!

Truman and Joelle with their 96 year old Grandma!!!
A big blessing, and wish we lived closer.

Kathryn!!

Miss those days of eating out with Grandma N. They are precious to us!

This is the John Hancock Building, 900 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60610. I worked at this building for 5 years before marrying the man of my dreams! This is the lobby. I worked on 23rd Floor, Near North Insurance Agency. Truly an education. Working outside the home in an office is not all its cracked up to be.... But it was fun being downtown!

Outside the John Hancock Building, Michigan Avenue.

The American Girl Store!!! What a great place!! Okay, I know they support lesbian ideals, but it is a American Girl is a great concept, and I admit to loving it too!!! This is the equivalent of the Marshall Field & Co. toy section I used to visit as a child. Amazing!!!!

Joseph and Graham love the Echo equipment, and wanted to visit the headquarters in Lake Zurich, IL. They make great trimmers and blowers....(I think.) This is 15 minutes from where we used to live.

This is the home where Graham Carver Jaroski was born, before the doctor arrived. Fun delivery, being my first homebirth. Craig remodeled this home entirely on the inside, then we ran out of money. We sold it, and the next people (we think) remodeled it on the outside. We did not get here during the day, but the Christmas lights are spectacular. This was our first home, after moving out of our townhouse. It was very comfortable. Three bedrooms, 2 full baths, 1 living space, kitchen, plus basement. We grew strawberries in the backyard. There was a creek just below our property.

Grandpa Al is doing well, and we all enjoyed seeing him for a visit!!!

Amy Walker introduced Craig and I in 1984. We got married in 1986. She and Pat are a terrific couple and we loved our visit with their family. They also have an older daughter, not in this photo.

Now we celebrate with Crispy Cream Donuts for breakfast on birthdays, but in Illinois, we always took at least the birthday person to Walker Bros. for an unbelievable experience in dining cuisine!!! :-) We miss those days.....

Our 7 kids with Grammy.

Bruce and Gail's home, Lombard, IL. Bruce is Craig's brother. We had a LOVELY dinner there, celebrating Grandma's 96th birthday, and Gail's 55th!!!!!

Our 7 kids with Great Grandma!!!

Uncle Jack and Grammy, Gail!!!!

Hope you have enjoyed this post, seeing where we have come from. These days were very happy for me, and I treasure them. Thank you Lord, for the gift of seeing it again.

FALL IS HERE

Fall is here, and we have been busy doing lots of different things...Kathryn posted some pictures, so I will try to add the prose. First of all, I turned 47. I know, I am getting old!! Actually I do not think too much about it, which is good. Life is much too full to dwell on my age. My cousin sent these lovely flowers you see pictured. Beautiful, aren't they? Since I don't work at 1800flowers.com anymore, I feel out of touch with flowers and it was a wonderful surprise. I never bought the flowers for myself anyway. I always thought I would, but never could scrape together money.

My birthday was wonderful, and we celebrated heartily, though was dampened by Joelle and Truman being quite sick with bad flu. They are mending nicely, though the cough still lingers.

This was taken just before Grace got her first haircut at Great Clips! We took advantage of $5.99 special, and Anna did a great job. Grace is thrilled with her new look. We are blessed to have THREE lovely girls!

Grace and Anna after the haircut.

Random photo of Graham acting surprised. He has great expressions.

This was taken at a birthday party, and one of the last hot days of Fall.

Truman romancing the camera, which he has a knack for.
We love this little boy!!

Joseph running the mower in the neighborhood.

Jared doing the siding, as it gets molded. Did not have
to deal with this in Illinois.

Our Joseph!

Jared and his beloved.

Our Grace!

Truman Russell!

Joelle eating homemade granola, something I just learned how to do.

If I were to interpret our life from my blog, it would look like all we did this summer was swim and sleep. That is hardly the case. Everyday after work, I would make a meal (breakfast/lunch), then head out with Joseph and Graham for a lawn job. That does NOT mean squeeling tires on a nicely sodded lawn, rather, driving all over town with a lawn mower and tools in tow. It has been a good (and yes HOT) summer that is just now starting to cool...I think. Evenings are now 70 degrees, and days are hovering about 90.

God has been so good to give all the boys either landscaping jobs, auto detailing jobs, odd jobs of all sorts. So when we play, by going to the pool, or what have you, we do ENJOY, because sometimes it seems that work is all there is. But it has been and continues to be rewarding!!

Kathryn and I have been doing ebay. Check out our items at roughrider1863. We offer quality items at a great savings. Kathryn has a way with the camera, and I try to write the copy, to attract business. We have almost all our school books bought.

Grace has been very helpful with watching the younger 2, Truman and Joelle, who could care less about ebay. They enjoy finding snails, frogs, and more outside, and riding their scooter and lawn mower. Everyday when the boys leave, Truman looks wistfully at them, wishing he was old enough to go along! He will grow up fast, but hopefully not too fast.

This is one of our last days swimming at the WONDERFUL pool God has blessed us with in San Antonio. Joelle and Grace like to have jumping contests, and this is a shot of them jumping in. Joelle has not been afraid to go in the deep end....unliker her mother, who used to dread it entirely. The joys of children.

This is our Joelle, while I was trimming her bangs. She
is so much fun, as you can see from her antics as Kathryn
photographs her! We love you, Joelle!

Truman just waking up from a long nap.