The Fruits of Our Labor

After months of watering, weeding, fertilizing, chasing bunnies, and praying we *finally* have something to show for our hard work...
A few gorgeous little tomatoes...going to taste so good with fresh basil and olive oil, don't you think???


After thinking we'd never even get any blossoms, we have been rewarded with baby green beans; it took all I had in me to NOT pick them and eat them tonight :)



AND, literally, the products of my labor...(okay, I only labored with *one* of them, but I have been watering, feeding, and praying for them, surely that counts for something, right?!)

a picture is worth a thousand words...

Happy Anniversary...

Love is patient; love is kind
and envies no one.
Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude;
never selfish, not quick to take offense.
There is nothing love cannot face;
there is no limit to its faith,
its hope, and endurance.
In a word, there are three things
that last forever: faith, hope, and love;
but the greatest of them all is love

Happy Anniversary George, here's to many more happy years!

Jammin' For Joey

I now interrupt this normally happy sappy blog with something a bit different...

As most of you know, George lost his little brother Joey in an accident nearly five years ago; like George and JD, Joey was an excellent bowler. After Joey passed away a scholarship fund was set up in Joey's name and for the past four years, our family has been able to give two deserving high school kids a $100 scholarship toward higher learning. After this years' scholarship presentation, however, the scholarship fund ran dry. Not wanting to see this scholarship stop, a woman who was (and still is) involved with the league Joey bowled on set up "Jammin' For Joey" with help from another local bowling alley, a nightclub, and a local band. Tonight in West Chicago, at The Kingpin Nightclub(@Bowling Green Sports Center) from 7:00-10:00 p.m. the band Back Stage Pass is going to be playing. Tickets are $20 at the door with all proceeds going to the scholarship fund...if you're not able to make it and would still like to make a donation (in whatever amount you see fit) please contact me and I'll let you know how you can do that...and if you are unable to contribute financially, please keep us in your prayers, as we know it's going to be a fairly difficult night for all of us; a very bittersweet night indeed.

Friday...Friday...Friday

Geo was off today, so we thought we might invite his mom out for a picnic and a hike in the woods. We had a blast; we tried out a "new" forest preserve, one with a cool bridge over the Kishwaukee river. We had a *great* afternoon! Thanks for coming out Grandma Dyan!

Vacation Bible School

Tonight Gabe started Vacation Bible School; oh my goodness did he LOVE it! He's been singing "This Little Light of Mine" since he got home-so cute. I'm so glad he had fun; he met quite a few of his future classmates!! I'll have pictures later this week; Friday is the children's presentation night and then an ice cream social-how wonderful!

*whew*

After a fun week with Aunt Katie and Aubrey, everyone went home yesterday afternoon...thanks for the fun visit guys, see you in a few weeks!

Busy busy busy!

We had a busy weekend with all sorts of family in visiting...whew...have a picture or two :)

Not only were Aunt Katie, Uncle JD, and Aubrey here, Aunt Faith, Zoey, and Christopher were visiting as well! Woohoo


Aubrey, SarahAnne, Zoey, Aunt Faith


Nap time!!

Happy Fourth of July :)

Hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July! Ours had a rather dismal start; it rained most of the day but later on in the late afternoon/early evening it cleared up and was actually pretty nice outside. We all ate WAY too much, had too many cupcakes (yum! thanks Tiff) and had a great time. Hope you all had a wonderful day as well.

We have a busy week ahead of us, Aunt Katie, Uncle JD, and Aubrey are coming to visit this weekend-and Aunt Katie and Aubrey are staying for a week, woo hoo. In the meantime, though, I have 82 loads of laundry to wash, dry, and put away and the house needs a thorough vacuuming. Man does this carpet pick up dirt ha ha.

Post 100!!

That's right, this is the 100th post in Witkowski Family Happenings.


In trying to write something amazing and fantastic I've come up with some ideas that have ultimately been scraped:
-The top 100 things about the Witkowski family that you may not have known
-100 cute things Gabe and SarahAnne do on a daily basis
-100 of the Witkowski's favorite things
-A 100 word essay extolling the virtues of the ever so humble Witkowski family
-100 100 calorie recipes that we like to eat

and so on and so forth...I think you can see why they've been scrapped. He he.

Instead, I'll leave you with a few pictures from our visit to Garfield Farms, an 1800's style farm a few miles from here. It's all original buildings/equipment and the kids had a BLAST. They have oxen, geese, chickens, ducks, turkeys, hogs, and sheep. Some of the species they have were very very endangered. For example, they have five geese and that represented 1% of the total population of these particular geese in the entire world. When have you ever seen 1% of the total population of anything? You probably haven't. The chickens we saw were also 1% of the total population of the world (though they are making a comeback because of a partnership between Garfield Farms and the Museum of Science and Industry) It was an amazing learning experience for ALL of us, we learned how laundry was done in 1840 (I came home and kissed my washing machine) Gabriel dipped candles, and we learned a lot about how hard farming was hundreds of years ago...it makes you very thankful for what you have.

And on that note...I'm so thankful I have such an amazing, beautiful, wonderful family. We have smart, funny, sweet, and caring children and a good strong marriage...which makes for a great family!

Gabe and Dad checking out the barn


Dipping candles (he later said "I didn't like that Mom")


Duke, one of the 'show' oxen; SarahAnne was enthralled and would have stayed all day. At one point she put her hand through the gate and stroked his nose; she would have climbed in if we would have let her.


Watching the Oxen "show"


Enjoying being in an open space with lots of fresh air