Wedding

Samantha played matchmaker a couple years ago and the two people actually got married this weekend! Congrats to Michelle and Jason Woods.

The Wedding was at EagleBrook Resort in Itasca.










Samantha gave a reading during the ceremony and did a wonderful job!


















We sat with Some girls Samantha knew when she worked at the GAP

We had a nice time.

Hello Baby!

Check out the first photos of "the little Gopher"!


For those of you who can't make out...



During the ultrasound little Baby Betsinger was dancing around and flailing his arms and legs and he reminded her of the Gopher from the movie Caddyshack.

So now the baby will be known as "Little Gopher"


Don't be jealous, my son is already better looking that your kids. (Samantha thinks we are having a girl but I clearly see a big ole willy in that ultrasound...look close, you will see it too!)

The House

We have been working on getting settled in and unpacked. I mean its only been 4 weeks!

We have gotten a couple of things done so far...

<--There once was an old door that that looked like hell and needed some work-->

A little sanding action later and a couple coats of paint and waaahhhllllaaaaa!!!
a new old wood door with a skeleton key lock!

Next up was a little painting project in the dining room

I think i would ranther spend an hour watching paint dry
than spend an hour taping molding!!






But you cant paint if you don't tape.








This project still is in progress as I need to spend a little time touching up the trim and crown. Apparently I am the worst trim / crown taper in the known universe because there are drip marks
all over the corner crowns and it kind of looks like a crack head painted it.













<------------ If you look close you can see Samantha and both of those stinking dogs lounging on the couch!





While you might not think getting a fence is exciting, but with brown dog and yellow dog, a.k.a. Thunder and Lightning, a.k.a. fat boy and Crack, a.k.a. Oscergator and the Crack-a-dile, a.k.a...

The Oscar Dog








G. W. Cracker III











A fence is a wonderful thing for these crazy boys!





I do believe one of my favorite things about the new house has to be:

The dishwasher. Yea. Thats nice.

NEWS

WE ARE HAVING A BABY!

How is that for an update!

LIttle Alawishus is due in February!

I know we havent updated in a while.

I know it has been several months since we last made an update to this blog. So we will now effort to catch you up on the happenings at the Betsinger home.

Christmas has come and gone but not with out some holiday cheer at our home. Samantha decorated the tree with great care and even the dogs were in the holiday spirit!




Our new years eve celebration was wonderful. We decided to stay low key and go out to our favorite restaurant Tribella for some great food and few fine cocktails.


With all the snow and -3degree coldness we have pretty much stayed in and have begun watching the Sopranos! I know we are about 6 years behind on this series but the local video store has us through season 1 and into season 2! "What, no f'n zeit!"

February has brought a week of fun. We went to Moms house for a great birthday dinner.
Then on Saturday Feb. 17 Samantha took whisked me off to the Swissotel in Chicago for a day of fun time and fine dining.

We started the day with a dip in the pool and relaxed in the really hot hot tub. After some room service and a late afternoon nap we headed out to a fine dinner at the Chicago Chop House

Samantha had a giant Salmon filet while I munched on a beautiful 16 oz Filet Migon. After the meal and a wonderful piece of chocolate goodness for desert, we headed to the Redhead Piano bar for some live music.

It even gets better!
Samantha surprised me with a case for my watches! In the case were some surprises too.
From left to right are:

A watch that was my grandpa Browns that Sam had fixed with a new battery.

Next is the Bulova she got me for my birthday a year or two ago.

In the middle is my new Rolex
more on that in a minute.

Then is a new timepiece Sandy got me that fits the watch band that belonged to my dad.



I have been telling Samantha for years of my desire to own a Rolex. She managed to secure a new Rolex Daytona for me! I have to get a link or two taking out of the band but it is wonderful. Lets play a game..Real or not real...can you tell the differnce? Do you know the differnce other than the price tag?






Now You may notice there are still two open spaces in the watch case.

One of those will be filled in the future with the following:

A Raymond Wiel Parsifal or a Baume & Mercier piece.

Then when we have an extra $10 grand or so a nice little Breitling will fill that last spot just fine!

Cars

Samatha and I we talking about the different kinds of cars we have had and I thought I would put together a little photo collection of what kinds of whips we have had in the past.

Samanthas Collection includes:


This pretty 1988 Chrysler Lebaron that she drove untill she was able go out for a drink! From what I hear the car had no heat in 95,96 or 97! Brrrrrrrrrr!!













In the fall of 1997 Samatha made the leap to a 1993 Honda Del Sol! Sweet!



Just over four years later Sam dropped into the very hip Jeep Wrangler soft top!



With terrible gas prices killing us in the pockebook area, we decided to make a switch in 2005 and get Samantha a brand spanking new CHEVY AVEO. Please say hello to
Rosie Red Car!


Now my 1st Car was a bit differnt from Sams.
The 1965 AMC Rambler! I know your jealous!













From the Rambler to the grocery go getting, Fully loaded Ford Taurus wagon! I can assure you all the ladies were impressed with my ride in college!









After graduation I got the greatest truck of all time. A 1997 Chevy S-10 Short bed with step sides! I can not begin to count the number of times it was burried upto the axels in mud at the Konen farm or how many differnt off road adventures this little pick up truck had but I must admit that it held up rather well for all the abuse it too. 150,000 miles over 8 years and I still miss that truck!






After my truck died in the winter of 2004 we had the great luck to recieve a wonderfully maintained 140,000 mile, 1994 For Exploder!








On Tuesday we will say good bye to the now 195,000 mile Exploder and hello to the latest addition of our car family. A sleek silver Jeep Grand Cherokee Larado 4 x 4

Baseball

As the season winds down the season has again been quite a let down. The cubbies are one of the three worst teams in all of baseball. With a payroll of 100 million dollars you would think they could field a solid team..but alas...they do not.

I predicted at the all star break the white sox would fade badly and miss the post season and that appears to be true as well.

There is alway next year!

more than 1000 fans in Baltimore staged a protest and walked out of the stadium at 508 pm last night....in protest of another loosing season..i thought the decision of 5 08 was great in honor of Brooks robinsons #5 and Cal Ripkens #8...

perhpas the cubs fans should do the same!

One baseball story really angers me and it not steriods!!! is the low down dirt bag Pete Rose... while i admire the way he played the game and always wanted to be thought of the same way when i played as a kid...the man he is has proven to be as despicable a person can be. If i were to be likened to him today..i would probably ask someone to shoot me