The new year brought us one big happy joy! As you found out last month, we are expecting a little one in May. This month we found out, it's a.....
Well...it's been some time since we've last updated - oops, I'll blame that on the pregnancy. Yes, you heard right! In late September we were blessed to find out we are expecting. I guess you can say that has been the most exciting news that you've missed. The last couple months have flown by. Jodi has had a pretty smooth pregnancy and hasn't dealt with many of the symptoms that stricken many pregnant women. She's counting her blessings but with that has come some moodiness according to the rest of her family. We're anxious to find out the gender in early January and we'll be sure to share as soon as we know.
Hello school, jeans, sweatshirts, bonfires, falling leaves and Friday night lights!
It's fall and we're off and running! Kaleb and Eric have now started school as well. Kaleb is adjusting to his new 5th grade teachers and looking forward to a full year at East Jackson. Eric is managing his school day and coaching cross-country again. Just when you begin counting down the days to summer, you blink and you're back to the chaos of a new school and no free time. That's what life is like in the Kramarczyk household.
September brought homecoming's for both Lansing Catholic and East Jackson. Jodi's 2002 Cheerleading State Champions were this year's honorees at the LCHS homecoming game - what an honor for those hard-working girls from 10 years ago. The team and coaches were gifted with a beautiful cross key chain with their state championship engraved into it. What a wonderful day it was!
Well - it's been quite some time since we wrote last. The summer time always seems to fly by. We did enjoy our first anniversary celebrating with a variety of "paper" ticket concerts throughout Michigan. Eric has written about them on his travel blog which you can read HERE. Now that he has that going, I'll let him tell the world about his/our travel adventures and I'll just post the monthly updates for our family here.
Also this summer, we enjoyed a lovely two weeks with my Jodi's parents who came up to visit from Florida. That included a wonderful three days in Caseville and Frankenmuth spending time with them and Jodi's grandmother.
March 2012 was an adventurous one for the Kramarczyk family. A big change was in story for Kaleb as he changed schools mid-month. The change has been great for all and Kaleb will be a better student because of it. We're excited for the opportunities he will have with his new school. He's adjusting well, meeting new friends and doing well academically. We're proud of him!
Jodi and Eric had different spring break's this year so Jodi took an opportunity to travel to Italy with her high school as a chaperone during her spring break at the end of the month. Jodi had an amazing time visiting the cities of Verona, Venice, Florence, Siena, Assisi and Rome. The inner photographer came out and Jodi came home with 1500+ photos of her journey through the Tuscan sun. No surprise there though. We're still waiting for them all to be fully edited and available for others to see. In the meantime, here are a few sneak peeks. We hope everyone had an enjoyable start to the "spring" season!
Hey Friends!
February has been a good month to us. The Michigan weather has been mostly cooperative and we've been able to have a little more fun than we typically do in the winter. Jodi finished her competitive cheer season - her team finished as League Runner-Up, District Runner-Up and a Regional finalist. Eric also finished his girls' basketball season. Kaleb has kept busy at school wrapping up his second trimester. We're still waiting for the report card - hoping for good results :)
A long President's Day weekend this month allowed us to spontaneously get on a train for two-night's in Chicago. We made the decision around noon on Saturday and about 5 hours later - we were on an Amtrak train to the Springhill Suites by Marriot in downtown Chicago. We arrived pretty late on Saturday but we're beyond thrilled with our hotel accomodations - a full recommendation to all of our friends and family. We got a good night's rest and were up early on Sunday to take to the town. We spent a great deal of time on the Magnificant Mile shopping, enjoying the sites and sipping on hot chocolate from Ghiradelli's. We then made our way to Millenium Park for some pictures and ice skating. From there we tried to make a trip to Shedd's Aquarium but the line was beyond long so we taxied to Navy Pier for site-seeing and lunch. The weather was beautiful for February - little wind and temps in the 40's. Nothing a pair of gloves, hat and winter coat couldn't handle. Kaleb was a trooper and never complained about all of the walking. After a couple hours at Navy Pier we made the treck back to our hotel for some time in the pool and hot tub (the pool was on the 27th floor which Kaleb thought was "so cool"). With our bodies warmed up and relaxed, we headed about 4 blocks north to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing and getting a good night's rest before our early morning wake-up call on Monday. Our train was scheduled to leave on Monday just after noon so we got up early in hopes to make it to the Skydeck at the Willis Tower. Unfortunately, the line was so long that we had to delay that adventure for our next trip to Chicago - hopefully this summer/fall. Overall, it was a really nice trip for not having any ahead of time plans - made us think spontaneous planning is the way to go next time.
January has been a busy month for the Kramarczyk family. Eric has been making the most of his 8th grade girls coaching season. It's been a challenging one in terms of victories but he's enjoyed his time with the team and feels good about their daily progress. Kaleb has enjoyed watching his Dad coach and spending time at the games as the "team manager." I don't think he enjoys watching them play as much as he enjoys playing on their iPod's - or at least that is what he tells us. Jodi's cheer team has continued their climb up the ladder, earning many top scores and a win at one of their invitationals in mid-January. With practices, games, competitions and more - it hasn't allowed for much family time.
The little time that we did have, we celebrated our niece Alli's first birthday party, Jodi's mom's birthday, and a cousin's baby shower. Then there was the distress of a broken down truck, a broken iPad, broken wedding dishes and the continuing agony of when our home furnace will no longer work. As fast as money came in - it went right back out. What a start to 2012.
We have a lot to be thankful for, despite all that - we've enjoyed a wonderful winter ... including, clear, safe roads for Jodi's 45-minute commute to work. It almost feels like spring on some days - making us anxious to begin some renovations on the house and get it up for sale - looking forward to blogging about a new home in our future. We hope that everyone else in enjoying their start to the new year, wishing you all lots of time with family and good health.
