Well we made it halfway through our first Christmas holiday and we are still alive. We drove up to my parents house on Friday night after work and drew names that evening for our Gag gifts. The rest of the weekend had many activities planned for the family and for Eric to get confused by all the people he met.

Saturday night we went over to our family friends, the Harrison's home for some food and games. Yet again the girls were beaten by the boys in Taboo. Eric brought it home in the last round getting seven cards!?!

Sunday, Eric was blessed enough to meet my dad's side of the family. Which actually wasn't that bad and we stayed a little longer than expected, only to later brave the Winter storm back to my parents home.

Christmas Eve, we had church and just squeezed into the 3:30p service. Then we headed to my cousin Kris' house to spend time with my mom's side. Eric walked around their house saying over and over that we need to move (hint: they have an amazing house). We all came back home after the gift opening to my parents house for Gag gifts and our gifts to each other. We all did quite well on our presentations but nothing could compare to my dad's gag gift to Eric. My dad got a little crazy and explained to us why he was laughing so hard the night before by himself as he put the gift together. Eric recieved the special tools he really wanted and he got me a label maker. Such love, huh!

Christmas we woke up to a special breakfast and then ventured to the movie theater to see National Treasure Book of Secrets. We all liked it and thought it was pretty decent. There are even some signature Nicholas Cage looks in this movie. We had lunch, and Eric and I were back on the road home, to work the next day. We hope you had a great Christmas and we will keep you updated on the Zapchenk Christmas this coming weekend!

This weekend Eric and I ventured into the art of Gingerbread houses. Our friend Carly got me a kit for Christmas and I was able to dable in my creative skills. I was also able to sit myself down to finish our thank you cards, which needed to get done.

Early Sunday morning Eric and I awoke to sauna like temperatures in our bedroom. Finally, after Eric went to check the thermostat he realized it was at 28 degrees, trying to heat up to 65. Luckily it was only the thermostat and nothing more serious like our heater. We went over to Menards to get a new one and as you can see it is pretty schnazzy.

Also, we have decided on our new home church - Westridge Community Church. We both really like the pastors and think it is a great place to start out our marriage.

We are very much looking forward to the Christmas season and spending the first weekend up in Wisconsin and New Year's in Illinois.

Merry Christmas Love, Danielle and Eric

We hope you had a great Thanksgiving last week. We had a blessed weekend with all the activities going on in the Zapchenk household. As Newlyweds there is a lot to be done besides gaze into each others eyes lovingly...we have a house to run and most importantly decorate. My parents (minus my brother due to his new job answering customer service calls for Kodak) made their way into Chicago Wednesday night and we were up late baking Chocolate Cupcakes and an apple pie. I came to find out that my mom and I have completely opposite baking styles. She's all over the place and I'm not. Luckily she cleaned every inch of our house this weekend and made up for it. My apple pie turned out great, granted I did make a special practice pie for the staff at work.

Thanksgiving day we made our way to Eric's parents home in Crete. Nothing like all the married children and their parents for the holidays. But, it was so much fun and we ate great food and had time to talk smart and be with everyone. We even got to go downtown to see Domenic and Michele's new condo. My dad and Michele went into decorator mode and started envisioning colors while Eric, my mom and I tried to tap dance on the floor.

The next day the alarm struck early as we got up for Turkey Renovation. You wouldn't think that we would call in the parents just for Thanksgiving would you? No, we had an agenda of completing the upstairs bath and completely redoing the downstairs bath. Plus, a couple other projects on the way. Home Depot did become our home away from home as we selected our colors, tools, new vinyl peel and stick and other random items.

My mom went into cleaning mode and made a complete makeover in our dining room by just getting the boxes off the ground and put in their places from the wedding. My dad took the upstairs painting, while Eric and I worked on the downstairs and replaced the peel and stick. For those who haven't seen the ghastly blue color in the upstairs bath, you have been saved. We painted a nice neutral color to go with the bath items Ryan and Katie bought Eric two Christmas' ago.

The downstairs got new tile and we painted the room Regatta Blue and a deep brown with white trim. We have a couple items to put in. But, we both love them. And if you didn't think that was enough my dad decided to master his acrobatics on an extension ladder in our foyer. We put up the awesome clock we got from Millaine and Matt and Rhonda and Mike (Thanks guys!) and then decided to get a new light fixtures. For those that are in the market, check out Menards they had the most variety and the best pricing compared to other stores.

As my dad was hanging off the ladder over the second story, Eric said, "Your Dad is crazy, and there is no stopping him." Yes, Eric there is no stopping for decorating in the Derks family. An hour or so later we had a new fixture in the hallway upstairs and in the foyer and there were no broken bones. Plus, Eric's parents drove up to witness the action and they were nice enough to help out and cook us a steak dinner. And where did we get to eat it, in our clean dining room - kudos mom!

But, of course the most important factor was what Bud thought. He liked it and showed his approval Sunday morning with some regurgitated cat food on the dining room floor. Thanks Bud. For all the hard work we put my parents through we took them out to dinner at a place that is becoming my favorite special night restaurant, ZED 451. It is like a Brazilian type restaurant, but has a lot of fresh fruits, veggies, cheeses and breads on their Harvest table. However, it is a prix fixe meal and isn't the every night dinner.

Well, that's all we did this weekend. Hope you had fun and didn't get stuffed on Turkey (no pun intended). We made it through our first major holiday as a married couple and our looking forward to Christmas in Wisconsin!

Blessings, Danielle and Eric

Sorry for those who have become dedicated to our blog. We are so sorry that it has taken some time to write out what happened at the wedding, honeymoon and now our home life together. Only one month ago Eric and I were married at Indian Lakes Resort with some close friends and family. It was definitley a wedding that was a sight to see (See previous blog entry for the link to all wedding photos). We were blessed to have the help of my parents who created everything from the kids costumes to the flowers and ceremony backdrop. Plus, Eric's mom and sister putting together our favors and gift bags for the hotel. The day went so fast for everyone, but was just a great time for all. We got married at 11am and it was hilarious for me to watch the 7 kids dressed as fall items walk down the aisle towards Eric. My bosses daughter fell once in the middle of the aisle then ran back towards the pond in the atrium where she proceded to try and jump in before her dad saved her. To see her mom's very humorous account of Avery's antic's visit their blog by clicking their family blog .

I did so well that morning by being calm and not tearing up every five minutes, but when I walked up those couple stairs and saw Eric, I completley lost it. Not a big suprise I guess :). It was really nice and the music was amazing. The ceremony seemed to fly by right into a round of pictures with family and the wedding party which consisted of our dads and my two best friends Amy and Hillary. Eric and I had our own time to get some great photos in as well.

Finally, we went into the reception as Mr. and Mrs. Zapchenk, which was amazing. The Wednesday prior to the wedding, Indian Lakes upgraded our reception site to the upstairs ballroom that completely made it even cooler. Our cake was so good and it was donned with Mr. and Mrs. Sprinkles that is a personal story in our family now. We ate great food, talked with Friends, danced to my mom's favorite Christian-Jewish song and just took it all in. It was such a fun day and we were really able to make it feel intimate by having tidbits of information about us at each table and donating money from us kissing to our Compassion Child, Dayana, who is 10 and lives in Columbia.

Eric and I got to spend the night in the wedding penthouse at Indian Lakes and have chocolate covered strawberries and champagne (which we didn't even drink, who even likes that?). The following morning we ate brunch with our family and opened the rest of the presents at our house with them. We left for Jamaica on Monday at 6:30a from OHare and were in Montego Bay by 12noon. If you ever have the chance to go all inclusive, do it! It gives you a lot less stress on where to go and how much you are spending. We were able to relax for eight days without the phone calls or added stress of work and anything else that pops up. The biggest questions were when do you want to grab ice cream, do you want to take a nap and which pool should we lounge at? Rough I know, but well needed for Eric who hasn't taken a vacation in 6 years!!! By day 8 we were ready to leave and come back to Chicago to be in reality. Not necessarily work, but homelife with just us and of course Bud the cat.

So now, we have been married for a month and are adding touches to the house, putting stuff away and making it our little piece of the world. As you can see we have added:

a monstrosity of a shower head- which is nice,

a timed coffee maker for our tea next to a plate from Eric's mom

and hung up some pictures around the house.

All is well and thanks again to everyone who helped and gave us support as we got married!

For those of you that are interested in viewing our wedding photos, visit http://www.weddingprints.com/EventLogin.aspx?sid=93245 and the password is Zapchenk.

Eric and I have the copyrights to the pictures (we haven’t received the CD yet) so if you want some copied to a CD or e-mailed, let us know.

For all of those who are waiting for pics of the event and honeymoon, those pics are being processed by a many men in white lab coats in a foreign country. As soon as foreign policy allows, we will post them for your viewing pleasure. However, we were able to sneak a few that Sandals took of us.

Over the last few weeks, time has become a precious commodity. From wedding planning to radio station events to some needed personal time away from it all, we have been very busy.
Where did we leave off...the last post was from Danielle's Wisconsin wedding shower...GO!

A few weeks ago I (Danielle) was blessed with yet another Wedding Shower thrown by our church. Eric's whole family was able to come up and meet everyone. There were a lot of great gifts, fun and tears. I know I am an emotional person, but I had to continually keep using the toilet paper from the toilet paper bride game. With our gifts we started putting things up in Eric's house. We took some time on a Saturday to clean our soon to be master bath and put things together. See the transformation below.

Home Renovation: NEW WINDOWS
Along with planning a wedding, multiple work events, seeing family and friends and the day to day... we purchased new windows. The Feldco crew came out and now our house will be more efficient come this winter. The best part for Eric was to be able to walk over to the new sliding door and move it back and forth in one swift motion. He did that for about twenty minutes...just kidding!

Radio station events: Having a national radio host (Laura Ingraham) in for a two day station event including hosting over 500 WIND listeners at The Stonegate Conference Center in Hoffman Estates was a project. The past week was the AM 1160 WYLL 2007 Pastor's Appreciation Brunch, where we hosted 400 area pastors for a morning of fantastic prizes and fellowship. We can't forget all the planning for the first WIND morning show remote broadcast / one year anniversary celebration from a pancake house in Schaumburg.

For the second year we traveled out to the Joliet Autobahn Country Club for some high speed touring action. For those of you that may be concerned, don't worry we didn't race other cars, it is completely just for the fun of zipping around a track. We got to leave work a little early for the tech check to make sure Eric's vehicle was in peak condition. At 7pm on Friday we found out that Eric's brake fluid was dirty. On any average car the fluid would have been fine. However, for racing that could mean losing your brakes. So to make things easy we decided to bleed the brake lines ourselves with kit from Auto Zone. With positivity and a little bit of perseverance we emptied out Eric's dad's garage and used the trusty internet directions to guide us. By the time it was 11:45pm and we had only gotten one wheel completed, we decided to call it a night and bring it to Merlin's in the morning. With some time on our side Eric attended the mandatory meeting and I took the Trans Am over to Merlins to fix the issue. They had it done in under an hour and the tech working on it didn't realize the car was mine when he walked into a waiting room full of men and didn't pay attention to me. LOL! Anyways I got back to the track in plenty of time and Eric was able to have a great day at the track. With his whole family there, it was humorous to think back a year and realize what has developed since then. Michele is married to Domenic and we are only days away as well. Eric's mom said what is next year? And then smiled and said, "I think I know." If she is thinking babies we hope that is still a little farther off for us. :)

Both of us have come to grips with the fact that single life is over and we are ecstatic about it. To celebrate our upcoming union we had some Bachelor / Bachelorette festivites over this past weekend. Both of us went out for steak with our co-workers and on Saturday the girls went out to Bengtsrom's Pumpkin Patch in Homer Glen. It was a lot of fun and my pig even won the pig race. I went home with blue ribbon and a sticker that said, " Number 1 pig rooter." All in all it was a blast and I completely think everyone needs to make a trip out there. Click the play button below to enjoy the action!


Now the countdown is in full swing...less than a week away! This week is full of last minute details that include meeting with the photographer, first dance practice, tailoring of clothes, AV appointments, etc.

We look forward to our marriage and thank all of you that have helped make our engagement and planning go so smoothly. Look for the next addition of the Eric and Danielle Zapchenk blog coming soon. Probably with a much more tanner couple just whisked back from Jamaica!

This past weekend, Eric and I went our separate ways as you can see in his previous entry. My girlfriends and I headed up to Appleton for a fun weekend and a time for a little bridal showering.

After getting in late on Friday night we got up early and ate at Schriener's Diner...a place where I called home for 5 years as a coffee hostess and server. Then we headed over to the farmers market downtown to get some flowers, fruit and veggies for the shower. It was a little colder than we expected this weekend and so we had to raid my dad's closet for some extra sweaters (see Hillary and Amy on the left).
Saturday night we had a nice dinner, went to church and stopped by the salon to get myself a perm for the upcoming nuptials. Eric said he likes my hair curly and if that is what he likes, that is what he will get.

After a lot of preparation, especially from my mom, we had the shower on Sunday with a whole bunch of family and friends. Everything was going smoothly, but the potato soup wasn't getting warm enough. My mom told Hillary to put the crock pot on the stove top and heat it up on high. As my mom rang the dinner bell. The crock pot cracked and the bottom gave way. Luckily in the midst of the smoke and the fire alarm going off we scooped it into another bowl and still salvaged what was left. Nothing brings excitement like a little kitchen drama to a wedding shower.

Over all it was a great time! My mom and her friend Dar dressed up as these two old ladies and gave me some advice for the wedding night. There were great gifts and plenty of laughs. The girls and I left in the afternoon only to get back to Eric for a little dinner and some time together. As we countdown the days we are getting so excited and are thrilled to be married to each other.

P.S. if you are reading this and don't have your RSVP in. Send it in!

Finally, the weekend is here. There are many things to get done for the wedding, but it's nice to know that the work week is over. This past week offered a brand new "character building" experience at the radio stations. Wednesday morning at 3am, I received a phone call from a staff member that the automation network was not running correctly. The "automation network" is all the computers that store the audio and run the radio stations, in turn, making money for the company. The problem could not be fixed over the phone, which allowed me the pleasure of driving to Elk Grove at 3:15a and working until 7p that night...nothing more relaxing than a late night cruise to work. Long story short...after about 4 hours and multiple phone calls, a power surge destroyed a power supply in the main network server. Hard to believe I went to college for communications...not computer repair. Below are "action shots" of the event.

Top to Bottom:
Top: Anyone seen the missing computer?...I just saw it a minute ago!
Mid: "The donor and the patient"...the donor PC in the background was used for parts.
Bottom: Successful surgery. The gray box(new power supply) in upper left needed to be replaced so the computer would work. I had a taste for spaghetti after this "new experience"...wonder why?

One of the projects I wanted to get done this weekend was to install the front bumper guards on the '55 Chevy. I ordered these parts months ago, and have been on backorder. They showed up this past Friday at work, and now they are on the car.





The weekend will be a time for catch up around the house, some garage things, some time with Geoff at the house, and some relaxing in the new bed from the Bedding Experts, which was delivered last weekend. Danielle and the girls are "above the cheddar curtain" in Appleton for her wedding shower on Sunday. I'm sure she will post pics of all the fun ASAP.

After ten years of being together Eric's sister Michele and now brother in law Domenic tied the knot this past Saturday. The weekend was a blur of many fun and happy moments with family and friends. After making our way through the Labor Day traffic we had the rehearsal and dinner with everyone. It is always interesting to see people practice their wedding and the different emotions everyone has.

The big day was pretty stress free for the Bride and Groom and things went off without a hitch. The ceremony was nice and everyone looked great. I used my oratory skills once again to do a reading and Eric looked pretty sweet in his tails. My parents also made an appearance for the weekend and they were the hit of our table at dinner. There was even a dance between my dad and Eric's grandma Vi, who said she wouldn't get out on the dance floor.

Monday we were able to relax a little bit and get a new matress and take a cruise in the '55. Both families are looking forward to the next one and are getting plenty excited about the 37 days left.

The realization has truly set in that we needed professionals to finish our DIY Disaster.
After doing some research and thinking it through, we decided that this little home improvement adventure has turned into a full blown project of great proportions and expense.
I have been very lucky in the approx. 7 years in this house that many things have not gone wrong. I have had it easy. As the project list grows and time to do it shrinks, a long term view was needed in regard to our window trim issue. Danielle & I plan to stay at "Casa De Magoo" for at least 3-5 years, so some up-keep to preserve resale value was needed.

Looking at the current condition of the house windows, it was decided that we should not trim around old windows. Long story short...Feldco Windows & Siding has an install order for 14 new windows and a new patio door, which should be installed in 4-6 weeks. They will retrim all the windows, and we are working on the details to finish all the trim work on the bay window. If you need new windows or siding, please call Feldco. http://www.4feldco.com/

It's a great wedding present to the future Mrs....so now she won't freeze in the winter. I'd say between the new AC system installed earlier this summer, and now the new windows...the value of the house most likely is on the rise.

We'll keep you updated on the progress of the project, and post pics of the professional destruction as it happens.

Let's just say that owning a house and keeping it up comes with some challenges. Eric and I after watching a couple home improvement shows felt up to the challenge of changing out the rotting trim on the bay windows. Saturday morning came and we went after the trim with a vengence.

Destruction is only fun when you don't need to fix it. Replacing what you broke is the challenge. So, after the destruction Eric and I measured twice to cut once new pieces of wood. We headed off to Home Depot with visions of granduer only to be later dashed to the gutter along with the rotting wood.

The sign of a true man is to realize your limits and admit it. To quote Don Henley and The Eagles..."We have taken it To The Limit!" Our next challenge will to make sure we do not get any paper cuts as we flip thru the yellow pages for a qualififed contractor to "rectify the situation!" (Emphasis on the wreck!)

When you blend two families, you never know what kind of relationship will come out of it. Crazy, dysfunctional, normal, silly, annoying...the list goes on. This past weekend we spent the weekend in Wisconsin for a little engagement celebration for Eric and me. Both of our families have met before and this was time for some serious one on one.

The blend of our families, crazy-yes, dysfunctional-no, normal-hardly, silly-of course!, annoying-never. It went extremely well, with no empty stomachs and we had a lot of fun. My mom made a bunch of food and we were able to play a rousing of game of Taboo. Eric led the guys to victory by gaining six points at the final round.

Sunday we had lunch together at Fatello's on the glorious Fox River in Appleton. Yes I know more food!

The next time we'll all be together will be Labor Day weekend for the gala-wedding of the younger Zapchenk as Michele and Domenic get married in Indiana. Details to follow!

This weekend was like a small edition of a HGTV show at Eric's house. After discovering the front porch pole was deteriorating Eric, Geoff (our pool boy) and myself hopped in the car to home depot. After ordering a new pole we noticed the mailboxes. We chose a simple plastic mailbox and had it up in no time. And, for those of you that are leary about putting up one yourself, just look at who we had put our's together! Soon everyone on the street will be buying one!

This weekend started with a road trip into the city to attend the Sox vs. Mariners game on the south side with Pete & Danielle. (Free tickets are the only way for me to go to a Sox game--Go Cubs!) The seats were fantastic, four rows behind first base! Many a foul ball came our way, but the only item caught was a free Chevy T-shirt from the Chevy Road Crew by me. I gave it to the little kid behind us 'cause he worked hard for it too, he was just to short around all of us "big guys." We all had a good time...I think! Since we were downtown, and Pete & I are such radio geeks, we decided to go see Dick Biondi at his new radio home of True Oldies 94.7 FM . For those who do not know, I worked with Dick for many years at Oldies 104.3 WJMK-FM as his remote board operator, and Pete did as well. Pete now runs all of Dick's weekend sock hops. Learn more about them at www.djenterprisesdj.com. Danielle, Pete and myself all hung out with Dick in the studio for a hour, listened to him mention us on air(and tease us!) and then drove back home. Danielle was very patient as the two guys lived out more radio geek moments...be prepared for many more!

Radio Pic 1. The 3 Amigos
Radio Pic 2. I think Biondi loves me!



True Oldies 94.7 FM was part of the ABC Radio Group, along with ABC-7 TV. We got to see the 10pm news from their State Street studios. It's a very cool operation to see.

TV Pic 1. Lively banter around the news desk
TV Pic 2. Ron Magers inquiring on a segment
TV Pic 3. Mark Giangreco getting ready for sports

Geoff has officially moved in to Eric's house this past Tuesday. For those of you that are wondering about when I move in. No worries, Geoff is slated to move out in September. He is in the process of looking for a youth pastor position at a church. He had another interview this morning, so we hope to hear something soon. Overall I am sure Geoff and Eric will be just fine, they already went to Best Buy and Chipotle together. Geoff is also over at the TGIF in Crystal Lake on Route 14 if anyone wants to see his serving skills.

It's taken a few days to recover, but we made it! One of the busiest "work weekends" this year. Friday night, AM 560 WIND hosted "Dennis Miller-LIVE" at the Soifetel O'Hare. Close to 500 listeners came to enjoy free food and hear Dennis speak. After the main event, a V-I-P party was held for clients to meet Dennis. I worked with Dennis and his people from Westwood One(the people who broadcast his show from CA.) to get him to all the right places on time during the evening and Danielle worked her planning magic as she does so well.

On Saturday, Dennis sang the national athem at Wrigley Field and enjoyed the Cub's game. After the game, Dennis joined us for "Rockin' For The Troops, " a benefit concert to raise money to send everyday items to our troops abroad. Over 8000 people came to the concert to see Big John Howell (WIND Mornings 5a-9a), Dennis Miller, and Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band. It was a long evening for us, wrapping up at 11pm.

On top of it all...The Derks family was in town to help D's brother Geoff move into one of the empty bedrooms in my place. Geoff is waiting to hear if he will be hired at a church in Huntley, so it works out for him to be close. After more wedding talk, and a nap, we had a Backyard BBQ at the house to wrap up the weekend.

Can't wait to see what next weekend is like!

For Eric and I this summer has been truly busy. This weekend alone we were at NASCAR in Joliet for AM 560 WIND, at Eric's sister Michele's wedding shower and not to mention planning our own wedding (which we did get our photographer in order).

Eric loves NASCAR so he was definitly able to be in his element. I on the other hand laugh at all the different places God has decided to put me into being with Eric and also being in radio. NASCAR is definitly an experience. The event was well worth it for the station (85,000 people were in the stands) and WIND was pretty pimped out with our RV and HUMMER.

This upcoming weekend we have 6 different station events between the two stations, plus my parents are coming down to talk wedding. It should be fun, however we are trying to keep everything low key.

Michele and Domenic's shower was a great time and I made friends with the flower girls while Eric was with all the guys in the men's area. :)

My parents also graced the front cover of the Post-Crescent for their garden. In Appleton's very prestigious garden walk this past Saturday. With all their dedication to the garden they definitly deserve it. To see the article click here.

We hope you had a relaxing weekend and for those we haven't seen in awhile we hope to see you soon. Love E & D