April Surprises

April 2011 is almost over... and it was a month of surprises.... first the snow melted... here was the last of it, or so we thought!
The trees were bare.... just rain drops ......

Paula came to visit....

We even had a fire, and grilled outside... sure seemed like Spring had finally come to Wisconsin

I took this picture while driving back from Illinois... if you zoom in on it you can see it is a house that is falling over.... doesn't really belong here, but I can't delete it....

While in Illinois Grampa helped me make dinner, and mashed potatoes for the first time!

And then suddenly it was winter again... we got 10 inches of snow!

And we got a puppy! Guenivere of Camelot... born March 4, 2011 ~ Gwennie

Stella is adjusting to the new addition... well as well as Stella adjusts to any new addition!

Chris and Steff , Mary Kay,Grandma and Grandpa all joined us for Easter and got into the whole

puppy thing!

Steff fell in love with Gwennie, and kept Stella feeling loved too!

Chris and Mark shared a magic moment

Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed our antics too!
And because we always try to show our guests a good time we let them help us put the dock in the water....

3 great minds, all Hatton's, figured it out

Steph and Gwennie bonding

Gwennie discovered the lake....

And Stella went frog hunting

Chris had a contemplative moment while he modeled his green crocs

And I encouraged Gwennie to join Stella and me in the water

The dock is in the water and secured!

Grandpa relaxed on the deck, which hasn't really officially been opened for the summer yet

Mary Kay bonded with Gwennie, and is thinking about getting a puppy of her own after she retires
Gwennie had some shots today, and we took her for a long walk, so she is pooped! She is growing like a puppy.... she was 6 pounds when I brought her home last week, and 9.7 pounds today at the vet! Mark and I are working on house breaking her... and we are pretty well trained! She does need socialization though, so....
We hope you all come and visit us soon!

March, A Wild and Crazy Month

March has been a wild and crazy month for us. Mark needed a project while recuperating from his surgery and decided to tackle the picture albums. Quite the project... we were only about 20 years behind!

It has been fun (and a little scary) to go through so many pictures from the last twenty years. As Mark pointed out, we really crammed a lot of living into those years! No wonder I am so tired!

We did have time for other projects, like making a really wonderful (some would say sinfully delicious) lemon cream pie.....pie.....

Bird Watching.....


Taking pictures of Mark and Jason on a bulletin board on the way into Adams-Friendship....
Visiting Mark's Family in Mundelein/Grayslake.
We had dinner at Mary Kay's Chinese Restaurant, where everyone knows her name! Mark had a Japanese soda which had a marble in the bottle.
Mark cooked dinner for us on Saturday night at his parents' house. We went to a great grocery store which had exotic and cool foods, and ran into Aunt Helen, who came for dinner too!



Mark's Chicken dish was wonderful! Even Dad ate assparagus!

It was good to see the family and get out of the Wisconsin Winter for awhile. The grass is starting to come up in Illinois, and there are even flowers poking up from the ground. No wonder the Democratic Senators ran to Illinois....

If anyone has any hints on how I can get this post to work the way it used to please let me know!

February 2011

February has been an amazing month... The Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl!

We went to Washington to see Michael and his family,

then we went to St. Louis where Mark and Justin built Annie a wall and put in a door in her attic.

And I had wonderful pictures of everything... I had a great picture of Lori and Sharon on the couch watching the game, another of Mark enjoying a brat and a beer!

I had pictures of me reading to Patrick and Rebecca, and pictures of George opening his birthday presents. Not to mention the great pictures of the wall and door going in. My favorite was the one of Annie opening the envelope of retirement cards for the lady who used to live in her house that Mark found under a carpet in the attic. Not only were the cards sweet, but they contained $48!

But alas, I uploaded the pictures last weekend to the computer and then deleted the pictures from the camera. When I went back to the computer the pictures had disappeared. Gone like the poem from Reflections of a Water Mellon Pickle..

never to be seen again.

The final February event was Mark's prostate surgery. I did take a picture of him waiting to go into surgery under a Baer hugger blanket, which is a plastic blanket connected to a hose, which blows in warm air. I must sayit was something I hadn't seen before!

{This isn't Mark, but it is a picture of someone under the blanket.}

Mark's surgery turned out well.... he is recuperating at home. I am handling some of his jobs. Today I learned to use the John Deer on the driveway and only took out a bit of the lawn. I also did the Dump solo, and I have been cooking! Here is one of my creations. We both hope to lose weight from this endeavor.

Mark recuperating.... slowly but surely.

He has an excellent nurse!

We are looking forward to March and the beginning of spring.

Hopefully I will have learned more about the workings of my new camera.... and have more of my own pictures to share!

Christmas With Chris and Steph

Christopher & Stephanie came to celebrate Christmas with us this weekend. Father Dan would be so pleased that we are still keeping the spirit of Christmas alive well into January!
Stella was thrilled to see Chris and Steph.... and get to sit on the couch!

She listened intently as Steph told us about the Border Collie puppies that will be available for adoption this spring. We are hoping to get one when Steph and Chris get their "Jim".

The first gift Chris opened was a Dr. Pepper bottle opener.

As you can see he was quite excited.
Here Stephanie was patient with my trying to get my new camera to do what I wanted it to do.
Stephanie's present: A handpainted Polish Pottery bowl.
Chris got a set of pots and pans.... here is an illustration

of just how fast my new camera is!
My present:Smiling St. Francis with a menagerie of animals!
Sunday morning we viewed the Lourdes Academy

1995 production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC starring the Hatton Children

Needless to say Steph was very impressed and Chris was very embarrassed!
Piggy Back rides!

Chris and Steph didn't stay to watch the game... believe it or not they don't care about football!

It was a wonderful game!