see.purpose

This weekend, Mike is flying to Florida to play in a very special golf tournament.

Flying to Florida to play golf for a weekend isn't something he does regularly!
He is playing in the:
Tropical Realty's 6th Annual Golf Tournament
And the cause?Miss Lola!
Here she is when she was a sweet little baby!
She looks like Miss Muffet!
Lola and Miles playing, I think he just licked her!
Lola has the sweetest smile, an adorable laugh and a HUGE amount of character!
I don't think I have ever seen a picture where she wasn't smiling!
When she knows Uncle Mike is coming, she runs to the door and yells:
"UNCLE MIKE, UNCLE MIKE!!"
It is probably the cutest thing ever!!
So why is there an entire golf tournament for Lola?
Well, this is from Lola's Gigi (Mike's mom):
"Lola was born with a rare disease called Sturge-Weber Syndrome (SWS). SWS is a congenital neurological disorder of unknown etiology. It is an enigmatic syndrome, seldom hard to recognize but often difficult to predict or treat effectively. As a parent/grandparent you try to protect your child/grandchild from whatever comes their way and when you can’t it’s the most horrible thing in the world. We wish she wasn’t born with SWS and we wish we could go inside her brain and take it all away, but we can’t."
"Lola and Sturge-Weber Syndrome have taught us to cherish every single day and not take one moment for granted. We know that this syndrome is highly unpredictable and not well understood and that her future with SWS may be hard. So we view every day that is full of her laughter and song, as a true blessing to our family and anyone who knows her."

The love and compassion of Lola's family, friends, doctors, nurses, and community is remarkable! And the money they have raised in this tournament has helped fund SWS research.
And that helps Lola and all the other people affected with SWS! What a beautiful thing!!

Check out www.lolasgift.com

Have fun at the tournament everyone!!!

Love, Aunt Mel

see.oops!

Every 2 weeks we make a trip downtown to our nearest Trader Joe's.
We buy 2 weeks of groceries and head home.
Trader Joe's is usually really busy and the isles are tight so we split the shopping list and shop separately. (This unfortantly leads to more impulse buys on both of our accounts because we aren't actively supervising each other... I'm snacking on 'rocky road chocolate' right now!)
Today, I finished up my half of the list and carted over to Michael, who was sampling the delicious Trader Joe's coffee. (see: see.addiction)
We are in the market for a new coffee so he told me this was strictly research. I agreed and tried some too.
Meanwhile, I wanted to consolidate our carts, so I ask Mike where his cart of groceries was.
Mike: "Oh... right there" turning and pointing to an empty spot next to the potatoes.
His cart was gone!
Now... I can appreciate the time management strategy of taking someones full cart of groceries while in the grocery store in order to save time! Unless it is our cart of groceries.
Mike looks around and says... "Mel, that guy over there took my cart!"
my response: "haa haa! well, go get it back!"
Talk about awkward. The guy accidentally grabbed Mike's cart while sampling coffee and left his cart behind. The situation was resolved quickly but not without a really good laugh!

see.addiction

We have an addiction.
2 people.
one house.
one mutual addiction.
To what, you ask?
Coffee.
Total. Complete. Addiction.
I am aware of my needs. I recognize them and give in. Every morning, I take out the beans, grinder, and pot. Grind up a few cups worth of those precious little jewels of motivation.
Brew and sip.
Mike, however, believes he can go without... ha!
Well yesterday our needs were tested when we ran out of coffee and mutually decided to drink Green tea instead. Just for the day.
Note: we both enjoy tea and drink it often. we both only have 1 cup of coffee each day and in the morning only!
My day started out alright, I was a bit sluggish on my bike ride to volunteer at the hospital.
However, by lunch time, I was feeling the beginning affects, I felt run down with a mild headache. I thought... I must just be hungry.
I ate lunch and sipped a cup of black tea. By this time, a more painful headache started. A few hours later, on the way to my evening class... I gave in. I stopped by my supplier (Starbucks) and got my caffeine fix.
Fast forward to 12:45 am. Mike comes home from diligently working in the library on a paper. I am still awake and can't sleep because I am waiting for him (this is what I tell myself) and we proceed to chit chat until almost 2:30 am!
After we have exhausted every single topic for the day (including NPR stories and news stories we have both read) I confess that I filled up on caffeine that afternoon and then...
HE CONFESSES TOO!
He got got his fix from the bakery nearby at about the same time!
And by 2:30 AM we were both still juiced from our afternoon fix!
What can I say about this?
I love my morning cup of coffee. I love that it is hot, semi-sweet, slightly creamy, sociable, slow, mesmerizing, and delicious. But! I hate that I am so addicted and going without causes physical pain!
And the thought of decaf is insulting.
What to do?
I think I will consult a cup of joe to contemplate our options...

see.Opa!

This past Easter we went Greek.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take many pics from the days festivities but below are the highlights.
As told to us by our hosts (my Greek Landlord, Niko, and family): in the Greek Orthodox Religion, you go vegetarian for the entire length of Lent. The last week before Easter, you don't eat ANY animal products... eggs, cheese and the like.
After midnight on Easter morning (so around 1 or 2 in the morning) everyone gathers around and enjoys a large pot of hot, steamy, lamb (intestine) soup. To prepare the stomach for the next day's meal (as seen below). Mike and I were fortunate enough to get invited over for the 'midnight soup' and I was beyond excited to partake in this tradition.
*I try to put my personal vegetarian feelings to the side to enjoy moments like this.*
The night was really fun, there was traditional egg cracking and Niko's mom won!, laughing, loads of Greek, and the soup was flavored beautifully.
The next morning, or a few hours later really, our backyard was full of tables and chairs and one very very important guest:

The rest of the lamb! Again, just part of the tradition.
So you can imagine, the warm sun, cool breeze, Greek music, laughing, talking, and the lamb on the spit.
It was quite the Easter Greek-a-palooza!!Eventually, it started to rain, but that didn't scare ANYONE off! We all just went inside to enjoy dessert, coffee, and wonderful conversation.
At one point, a discussion started about the Greek to English translation of the word Opa!
Everyone had a say...
"It means, to celebrate!"
"It means, cheers!"
and on and on...
Finally, Niko's dad put it quite simply and with a huge smile...
"Opa! means Opa!"
And of course we all chimed in...OPA!

see.gary.allen

Saturday night we went to the free- Gary Allen concert!

It was a good time. Here are a few pics from the day and night...

At the park with Miles, pre-concert.

Easton Corbin opened the show...
he's "a little more country then that"

One of the only pics of us from the night and I totally chopped half of Mike's face off... oops!

Here he is... the star of the night!

see.a.winner

Mike just won tickets to a Gary Allan Concert tomorrow night. He was jumping up and down with excitement when he told me earlier today. The conversation went something like this:
mike: "MEL! Guess what?!! I WON!! I WON!!
mel: "YESSS THAT IS AWESOME!! (I am a big fan of winning in general)
mike: "Do you know what I won?"
mel: "um no... but I like winning and jumping..."
mike: "I won the Facebook Contest for Gary Allan Tickets!!!
mel: "YESSS!! who is gary allan????"
I now have the assignment of listening to all of his songs before tomorrow night.
Luck is shining a little light on our coach house tonight :)

see.we.jam

It's strawberry time!!
Chicago is just starting to see the peak of strawberry season and I took advantage of the low priced berries and bought just enough to snack on and to make some homemade strawberry jam.

10 cups of strawberries, sugar and pectin.
This is the product of an excellent Christmas gift (thank you Ian)
My canning kit.
Last time I made marmalade without a canning kit... I burned my fingers, and the place was a mess... this time- things were a little different.

In order to keep things sterile you must keep jars in boiling water. That's pre and post fruit fill. It is quite a task to keep up with...
but the results!!

So worth it!
I love that when I make things at home I make more then I intended. In this case I figured I would get maybe 5 jars of jam out of my strawberries... wrong!
I was able to fill 8 jars plus some left over!!
We have already enjoyed multiple mornings of toast with strawberry jam and Mike has consumed several pb+j's.
Yum!

see.n.sip

Kahlua.
I have been interested in making Kahlua ever since I realized I could make it at home. (several years now)
I hesitate to call it "homemade", I suppose making it at home constitutes the title, however, Kahlua is so easy to make and involves very very little effort.
It is simply a process of stirring a few ingredients together.
See for yourself :)

Vanilla Flavored Coffee.
The recipe I used suggested Chocolate Flavored Coffee... but I'm not a huge fan of chocolate... HUH! I know.... moving on.
Step 1: make a 12 cp pot of double strength coffee... i.e. enough grounds for 24 cups.
I was afraid of over loading the coffee maker so I made 6 cups of double strength coffee 2x.

When the coffee is finished brewing and the house smells delicious...
Step 2: pour all the coffee into a large stock pot and bring to a boil.

Step 3: When the coffee reaches a boil, add 2 lbs. of light brown sugar. eek!
It took all my strength to pour 2 lbs of sugar into the pot. 2lbs of sugar is an enormous amount of sugar... however, I don't foresee "we" sitting down to a huge mug of Kahlua. We use it just like you would any other strong alcohol. Which is sparingly... at least this is what I told myself when I poured the last pound of sugar into the coffee.

Step 4: Once the coffee has cooled to room temperature, pour 750 ml of Everclear 151 proof alcohol into the pot.
Not sure if your local liquor store sells this? Just look for the bottle that says "Extremely Flammable!" haa ha

You really can't go wrong with coffee, sugar and liquor.

Step 5: Add 4 - 6 tablespoons of vanilla extract.

Step 6: fill up some nifty bottles with your Kahlua

Enjoy!

see.sunny.days

The cold frozen ice sheet of winter is slowly lifting here in Chicago. As stated on the radio "this week will be unseasonably warm" as in high 50's and sunny!!
I am told by many native Chicagoians "not to get used to this!! it can turn on you quickly" so...
We TOTALLY took advantage of this unseasonable event by rushing out to the lake's sunny beaches to one of the area's most popular dog parks.
It was still cold but oooo! that sunshine felt like warm honey on our pale dry faces.

And the dog.
He typically has a case of "doggie ADD" meaning he does not play with just one dog, or in just one area, he is all over the entire dog park the entire time... but on this dog park day, his usual non-stop wondering that displays itself as consistent jogging looked more like sprints.
He has been inside for TOO long!!

This beach is just north of the city.

Miles, post-seagull ambush.

This is a marina near the dog park. We were admiring the color of the water... until we noticed there is still ICE in the water!!
Chunks and chunks of it!!

The city!!

see.green

Happy St. Patty's Day.
Chicago has a special way of celebrating St. Patrick's Day and that is by polluting the river...
OK, not really polluting.
They dye the river a bright green color EVERY year, this tradition has gone on for over 40 years!
This year the festivities commenced on Saturday 3.13.2010
There was a big parade and the bars opened at 7AM! People dressed up in funny costumes and roamed the streets wearing green smiles from their green beer!
I missed out on the green river but made it out in time to enjoy a green beer.

Mike's green river pic.
Apparently the dye is a special "family" secret blend of all natural dyes and ingredients. The powder form dye looks like orange tang before they pour it into the river.

St. Patty's Day ALSO happens to be a very special little girl's birthday.
Happy Birthday Ms. Lola Happel!!
This picture was taken last year when she was just 3 years old.
She is now an elegant young 4 year old!!
We love you!