As 2008 comes to an end, the last few weeks have been VERY busy. Lots of new things getting us ready for the new year. We enjoyed a great Christmas with family in the new house in Crown Point, IN. It's very strange(in a great way) when your parents move into a new, bigger house. It was time for a change, and this is a great way to start the new year. If you are looking for a new home in the south suburbs, let me know, as my parents are selling their home on "just about an acre!"

Speaking of parents, our friends Sean & Hillary, are starting off the new year as NEW parents. On Saturday 12/27/08, Sean & Hillary welcomed Noah Harold into their family. We "wrapped" up our Christmas weekend with a visit to the hospital to see the new parents and Noah, who happened to be born the same weekend as the winter floods of 2008. Mmmmm?? Interesting!

We wish you and your family a very Happy New Year, and all the best for 2009!

The holidays are here...and we can not believe it's that time of the year again. It seems like we just went down this path not to long ago. Things are different this year in many ways. Our families seem closer than ever, and that is gift enough. There are so many positive things that happened over the last 12 months...everything from my parents building a new house to surviving corporate layoffs to getting involved more at church.

I think one of the hardest adjustments is the way our family is different from last year with loosing Grandpa in August. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about some memory of snowmobiling or spending time in the garage with the cars or riding go-carts in the tennis cart under the watchful eye of Grandpa and my father.

At his funeral, we heard great stories of how Grandpa had affected people lives thru the relationships he had at the liquor store. One of the most interesting stories was how he used to buy turkeys for those who couldn't around the holidays. We will never know all the details, but his generosity and concern for others was clear. Danielle and I had discussed it when things calmed down, and we wanted to continue Grandpa's tradition of helping those in need. We know it had been years since he took the time to do this, but we wanted to start it up again this year. Danielle talked to our pastor and found three families who were in need for Thanksgiving. One of the things that was discussed at church was to use the gifts you have, which don't always mean money, but other talents or time. We figured we would combine a little bit of all of them into something that would honor Grandpa's memory and help those in need. Since Grandpa was always planning for our future thru investments, we figured we would invest some money in three families and buy them a turkey. We used our connections thru the radio stations to get Baker's Square pie certificates, and were able to get each family a pumpkin & apple pie for free. We decided to take our time for "Tuesday Night Date Night" and drive from Elgin to Algonquin to Crystal Lake and drop off the food personally. Danielle had taken the time to research a turkey recipe and craft a little personal note to each family that was stapled to each bag.

"Tom Turkey Time" before Stop 1

We spent our own Thanksgiving in Appleton, WI this year with Danielle's family. After a very difficult week of layoffs and extra work, we finally made it up north. We were able to spend time doing fun things together. Danielle & Lynn spent time making cookies, which made their way back to our home. Rick, Geoff & I were able to finish the details of their new flat screen TV and blue-ray DVD player. They are watching TV in style with a new 35 inch HD flatscreen. Looks and sounds good.

This past Saturday, we finished all the home Christmas decorations by driving to Pine-Apple Farms to cut our fresh tree. By the name, you can tell they sell trees and apples. We walked a HUGE field in search of the perfect tree. At least I didn't pull a Griswold, and forget a saw.


Our tree was "squirrel proof"

We thought this would be PERFECT! Not!

After 15 minutes of searching, we found it.

Nothing better than laying in snow and using a hack-saw
to say "MERRY CHRISTMAS"

Me...Caveman...
You...Tree...
Me...Come with tree!

The Finished Product

Saturday night, we had an unexpected surprise from Michele & Domenic...Free tickets to the Bulls game at the United Center. Danielle has never experienced a Bull's game, so this was an adventure for her. All the different games and activities during down times of the game were very entertaining.

One of the best parts of the game was the fact that if the Bull's scored over 100 points and won, we won free a Big Mac from McDonald's. Enough said!

There is more time before Christmas and New Year's...
so we have many more things planned to get us to the end of the year....

And remember...the great Christmas Cat "Bud" says "Merry Christmas" and make sure to scroll up to the top of the page to enjoy some of our favorite holiday videos.

I am understanding that you truly not only marry the person you love, but their family as well.
This Thanksgiving, as we spent a lovely time in Wisconsin with Danielle's family, I would never thought I would wake up to see Rick out "shopping" for our Thanksgiving meal...in the backyard.

This weekend, we got to wrap-up a great birthday celebration week for my father by taking him to see Chicago's best new show, Jersey Boys, at The Bank Of America Theater on Saturday evening. The show gets a complete "Two Thumbs Up."
On a completely different note, the house work continues even though the snow is starting to fly. Today, work began on re-siding our home. We came home to a driveway full of house parts...and parts of our house missing.


Also, as the effort to reduce clutter in the basement continues, I have organized my collection of Simpson's collectibles. I am planning on selling it online, so if you know someone who would be interested, please forward them the blog address or have them email me at SimpsonsStuff2007@gmail.com. Click on each picture for a closer look.

http://mysimpsonsstuff.blogspot.com/

This weekend was a "home" weekend...literally. Danielle's parents made their way down to Chicago to help my parents make some decorating decisions in the new home they are building in Crown Point, Indiana.
Since they arrived on Friday, there was time for a little "Lake In The Hills" kitchen project. After trips to the big box stores, we ended up with new fixtures in the kitchen sitting area, as well as prep area. Rick installed two ceiling lights and a ceiling fan, while the team of "Rick & Eric" ventured into track and pendant lighting. Danielle had purchased a new kitchen set a few months ago, but the set was very large in the small area, and it was retired quickly to the basement. After a couple hours of planning, measuring, and use of a table saw, the kitchen set makes it's home back in the kitchen. Problem averted! The girls spent time in the yard prepping for the cold winter months ahead. As usual, we are very blessed to have creative and patient people in our family to help move these home projects forward.

New track lights shine down!

New kitchen set ready to entertain

All fixtures are new...and bright!

The weekend all started with the fun and festive art of asking strangers for candy, which goes against EVERYTHING our parents taught us....with Halloween. Lake In The Hills trick or treat hours were 2p-8p, so we got home later than expected, so we only had two T or T'ers. Our low turnout was very disappointing to the devoted "decorating" professionals. Below, is some of the effort that went into making our home very scary. The garage cranked out numerous SFX that made it creepy to walk up the driveway. Once you arrived for your candy, you needed to serve yourself from the bowl on the porch being guarded by the "Grim Candy Reaper."

Grim Candy Reaper

If you made it past the Grim Candy Reaper,
you had to face to Evil Demon Cat guarding the door.

This past weekend, Danielle and I have the chance to spend some quality time with the crazy, wedding "stick dunking" flower girl known as Avery Nelson. Her parents, Dan & Susan, had the chance to get-away to Lake Geneva for some R & R, so on their way to Wisconsin, they detoured to Lake In The Hills and "forgot" one of their two girls at our house. We got a full 24 hour doze of Jello, sugar buzzing, and Chuck E. Cheese. I will let the pics stand on their own merit:










Saturday started with The Nelsons stopping by...leaving the instructions, and once on the road, Avery running straight for the fridge and uttering the words "Alright guys...gimme something to eat!" Totally classic!! I guess she doesn't eat with her parents...just kidding.

We spent the afternoon running around the yard, and attempting to get Avery to take a nap and stopping by McDonald's in Crystal Lake...yes the one with a playland. After a lesson in sharing, we came back home to attempt a nap. We didn't have much success with her nap, so by that time, it was time for another meal, so it was back to Crystal Lake for a fun filled evening at what Avery called "The Fat Mouse"...Chuck E. Cheese!

Two hours and 40 tokens later, we had to extract Avery out of the fun to go back home and get ready for B-E-D. One thing I noticed right away is that D & I started spelling things five minutes into Avery being with us. Weird!

We all went to sleep on time or early, in case of the adults, and enjoyed light sleep all night, as I expected Avery to come walking in at any moment.

Overall, we had a blast with Avery and were pleased that Dan & Susan trusted us with their child. We are pretty confident that any issues arising from her time with us will not be permanent.

I don't know how you spell romantic, but the way we do in the Zapchenk family is to CARVE PUMPKINS. Paper may be the gift of choice for #1...but we do things differently here. Tonight, after spending the weekend revisiting Indian Lake Resort, our wedding site, we spent a quiet evening listening to Bobby Boris Pickett and "Monster Mash" while carving our first set of pumpkins. You are now entering...

L: Danielle's R: Eric's

Don't forget to check out the NEW Funny Video of the week...look on the right side of your monitor.

Like Spring cleaning...just really late! I found this movie that Danielle made over two years ago while we were dating to record our fun filled day at The Autobahn Country Club in Joliet. The ACC is a place where guys with a lot of money race their own cars each weekend, and pay $30K in annual membership. That's why guys like me, and my brother-in-law, Domenic, only could go once a year by being invited as part of another car club we were not a part of. Really, there's to many details to think about...just watch the video and you can re-live driving your own car at speeds of 110 MPH. My car is the metallic looking Trans Am, while Domenic is driving the white Dodge Viper. This video also captures the tender moment that was Domenic proposing to my sis, Michele at 100 MPH, and all the family fun we had a part of this day.

This past weekend, we finally had time for ourselves. No real work issues to deal with, and time to simply sit back and enjoy the 48 hours that we know as Saturday & Sunday.


Saturday started with a home-made breakfast, and time to relax. Once we enjoyed some down time, we felt it was time to tackle one of our summer projects that needed to be completed...a re-working of the garage. Achieving more space required moving a refrigerator to the basement, and claiming more wall space. As you can see, after two days, we got it done.



Saturday night, we got together with Dan & Susan from work...to see a play at the Mercury Theater in Chicago called "Screw Tape Letters." The evening ended with late night appetizers (and burgers) at RAM in Schaumburg.

Sunday, we finished up on the garage, and decorated for Halloween. Please don't be scared!



As a reward for a weekend well spent, Danielle crafted another batch of homemade CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES...DEEEEELICIOUS!


Hope you have a great week!

Scroll down to enjoy this week's new vid...it's on the right side of your screen. By the way, we just saw EAGLE EYE...2 thumbs up! Watch the trailer by clicking...EAGLE EYE TRAILER

We now resume our regularly scheduled blog. We are so sorry that we have been away so long. Summer 2008 has been far busier than either of us had expected.

Work and personal life has been VERY busy. Our first year of marriage has been exciting as well. Today we got together with Eric's family to celebrate our anniversary and Michele and Domenic's. Here...Danielle shows off her culinary expertise at House of Kobe. All of the fun was a great way to relax, and reflect on our first year together. It's been great to spend the last twelve months with a partner. We have been threw many challenges together. Many family, friend, and work challenges continue to bring us closer, thru the fine art of communication.

Sorry for the delay in posting some new info...we've been at the worst MOTEL in the state, therefore no wireless. How did we ever survive w/o the internet before the internet? Wednesday was a fine day with numerous interactions throughout 2 states. Our internet connection is quite slow, so if posts seems incomplete, we gave up until we can find a high speed connection.
We spent some time at the Star 88.3FM in Fort Wayne. Melissa Montana, the general manager, gave us the nickel tour, which was quite informative for the tech geek in our group, which means Danielle was totally bored with the hours of conversation about TSL, cume, contesting, and new studio design, along with budgets.

We had a great day at Cedar Point, with details to follow. We are getting kicked out of Fazoli's, where we are currently updated the blog. More later.

**ROADTRIP HAS BEGUN**

MONDAY: Civic is ready for the battle. New tires & an Oil Change!
TUESDAY: A little work, then the trip begins. We left Elk Grove Village at 6p and drove south, stopping for dinner at the ONE place that would set the tone for the trip...

We called Grandma Dottie when we were outside Dyer, IN. to sneak attack dinner plans. She showed up to join us for dinner. We enjoyed queso, dinner and good conversation. Once finished, we hit the road and drove for the next 3.5 hours to arrive in Fort Wayne, IN. at 11:00pm. Along the way, we saw many "pieces of life" that included Valpo University, a fence store, details on a leprechan hunt coming up in August, and Grovertown truckstop at mile 120 of our trip. Who says Indiana has nothing to offer?

We needed to stop 3/4 of the way for a late night Frosty...

Wednesday, we head to my freelance station, Star 88.3 FM (www.star883.com) and drive to Sandusky, OH. to enjoy Cedar Point. Thanks for checking in...check back often!!!