Um...OK

Some people fold the laundry while watching TV.  Isaac apparently is the laundry while watching TV.

Merz and Morton

For a nice little outing, I took my mother-in-law Heath to a local apothecary that has been around since 1875.  A seemingly endless selection of soaps, lotions, candles, oils, bubble baths...you get the idea.

I also took her to the Morton Arboretum, as I've become accustomed to doing with out-of-town guests.  However, it was so frigid we just ate lunch inside and then just drove through the 1700-acre grounds.

Smokestack

We recently discovered a series of DVDs called Mighty Machines.  Isaac is nuts-o for Mighty Machines!  He spends a good part of his day building and knocking down smokestacks and water towers, collecting trash in his garbage truck, and laying down pipeline.  You are about to witness the construction of a smokestack with architects, Isaac and Grandma Decker.

Can I Help?

It all starts so innocently...Dad, can I help?  What proceeds is found in nearly every family photo album I surmise.

Not you too!

Many Years!

Happy 36th Birthday, Sweetheart! 

May God grant you many, many years!

OK, besides some pretty rad decks, we also gave Chris a number of books to add to the Schmidt Family Library.  I was pretty stoked about how I wrapped this one.  My subscription to the Chicago Tribune has been paying huge dividends in the gift wrap department.

To my Dear and loving Husband

by Anne Bradstreet

If ever two were one, then surely we.

If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee.

If ever wife was happy in man,

Compare with me ye women if you can.

I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold,

Or all the riches that the East doth hold.

My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,

Nor ought but love from thee, give recompence.

Thy love is such I can no way repay,

The heavens reward thee manifold I pray.

Then while we live, in love lets so persever,

That when we live no more, we may live ever.