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Good morning,

My sister Elizabeth just sent me this photo from our visit to the Milwaukee Art Museum last week-end. I thought it was a really cool picture and wanted to share it with you. It is a picture of a sculpture by Chihuly, a very famous sculptor of blown glass.

Barry is from Milwaukee and I remember him taking me to this museum on one of our early dates. We went to see the Picasso exhibit. It was really neat. They had all of Picasso's pictures laid in order from his earliest works to his most recent. I found it fascinating how different his early works were as compared to the works he has become famous for. His early works were very "real." Pictures of landscape and animals on a farm. So different from the abstract later stuff.

I not only remember Picasso's works that day. I remember strolling hand in hand with Barry. I remember the glances back and forth and the feeling I was starting to get in my heart. I can still feel that moment like it was yesterday.

I hope you are having a good day,
Deb

Today Barry and I and both of our families went to Milwaukee to participate in the yearly Make A Wish event. Make A Wish is an organization that grants wishes to children when they are ill. Today they were hosting a 5K run to raise money for 10 wishes.

Barry ran and the rest of us volunteered and cheered on the runners.

After the race, we went next door to the Milwaukee Art Museum. I have enclosed a photo of the museum. It is a very impressive building designed by the architect Santiago
Calatrava. The building was designed to look like a ship. Three times a day the wings on the building open. We got lucky today and saw them opening just as we were arriving.

After that all of us went for brunch. It was a great day. Each time our families get together, we talk about how much fun it will be to be able to include a child in some of our yearly traditions like Make A Wish.

Our week-end was a bit of a fish problem solving adventure. All of a sudden, we have 2 fish who have become sick (our Emperata Angel and our Sailfin Tang). They are developing some funny discolorizations and one hasn't been eating. We notice the Ph is low, but can't figure out why. So we took some photos of the fish, along with our filter and a water sample to a local aquarium store.

Turns out we had a few pieces of gravel jammed in our filter motor and this was causing the filter to malfunction, which then affected our water quality.

The filter is now working fine and we have treated the water and the quality is back. last night the Aggel started eating again!

We tend to learn the most about caring for our fish in an emergency situation. So it was stressful, but all in all a good lesson. And our fish are getting a little extra TLC.

Today we're off to a Brewer's game. While Barry has moved to Illinois, he will never really be an Illinoisan. He is a Milwaukee guy at heart and a die hard Brewer's fan. We're going to have dinner at the park with some friends first and then apparently we have seats 8 rows behind home plate. Bar is quite excited. It looks like it's going to storm today, but the Brewer's stadium has a roof which can close in inclement weather. Barry has not been so happy with the success of our Chicago Cubs and Sox this year. We'll hope for a Brewer's win today.

Today one of Deb's patients is graduating. She has been working with him for 2 1/2 years so today was a little emotional. We threw a party with cake, cupcakes and his whole team of therapists were there. First thing he wanted to do was put a finger in the frosting of the cake! What could be better? We put music on and danced and just had so much fun.

Today Barry is off to Paduka, Kentucky. Hard to believe he has to go all the way to Paduka to find corn! Barry is filming a commercial about corn. With all the rain and flooding we have had, the corn has taken quite a beating. It is either very small in height for this year, or in some cases is not growing at all. So Barry has been in search of a good field of corn and Paduka it is!

We are having a wonderful time in Florida and we are trying everything including many sports new to us. We have been sailing, water skiing, playing archery, and today Brynna braved the trapeze. Tomorrow we're off to the ocean!

Here we are a couple days into our vacation and having a terrific amount of fun. The kids can't get enough time in the water. We have also tried a little golfing, the first time for several of us, and our niece Brynna is thinking of trying the trapeze at the circus tent later.

Our family left for vacations today. Here we are wearing shirts with my grandparents photograph on it and celebrating them along with Deb's parent's anniversary. We have just arrived at a Club Med in Florida and can't wait for the adventure to begin.

Today is a bit crazy. Our air conditioning failed yesterday. Our biggest concern? The fish! As you may have already learned, we have a 75 gallon saltwater aquarium. Anyway, tropical fish are very sensitive to temperature. There is a heater in the tank, so cold is not an issue. But if the air temp gets too hot, you have a problem. And wouldn't you know it...it's 90 degrees here. Deb got up a few times last night to take the lid off the tank and blow a fan's air across the top of the water to cool it down and a neighbor stopped by today to do the same. Most of the time, the aquarium is very calming and so much fun to watch. At times like this it can be quite a challenge. But we love it!

Today was a really great day. I am a pediatric physical therapist. 2 days per week I work in a children's hospital. I also own a private physical therapy practice where I work with children in their homes. Working in children's homes is great because it gives me a lot of opportunity for "real life" exercising. I can take the little ones outside and work on climbing at the park or work on balance by walking on the sand at the beach.

Today was a beautiful day out and I took one of my 3 year old patients to the beach. He has a neurological disorder and had never been in the lake. The beach is a great spot to work on all kinds of strengthening by walking in the sand or water, squatting to pick up stones, laying on your tummy in the water...

Anyway, when I put this little guy in the water for the first time, he initially squealed and headed out. (the water was quite chilly). He then turned, looked back at the water and headed back in. I think he must have laughed for the next 20 minutes straight. I couldn't help but laugh right along with him. I have a pretty amazing job and there are moments like this one when I really take a moment to stop and appreciate life.

Hope you have a great week-end!
Debby

Hi,

We had a really wonderful Father's Day with our families today. We first drove to Milwaukee and had brunch with Barry's side of our family. It was a feast with eggs, bagels, coffee cake and Barry's favorite...chocolate chip pancakes!

We then had Deb's family over to our house tonight for a barbecue. The weather was perfect so we grilled out chicken, hamburgers and corn on the cob and watched the sunset as we ate outside.

All in all, a pretty terrific day!

This evening we went to hear Debby's sister Elizabeth sing in a concert. Elizabeth is a high soprano and has a beautiful voice. Music is a large part of our family. Debby's mom plays the harpsichord and her other sister, Kathy, sings as well. Both of Debby's sisters sang at our wedding which was an amazing experience. Tonight's concert was a mix of classical, jazz, show tunes, opera, and popular music and it was a lot of fun.

I came downstairs this morning and found our porcupine puffer fish blown up. I hollered for Barry to come see. It is a bit of a freaky site. They inhale water and blow up to about four times their size with sharp quills sticking out 180 degrees around. It is a defense mechanism for them. We have an angel fish who is getting large and more aggressive and we have a feeling that he might have been disturbing the puffer. Anyway, he only stayed blown up another 20 seconds. He blows the water out and looks like a balloon deflating. That was a lot of activity for this early hour.

Hope your day is starting out well.

Debby and Barry

Barry and I were out walking in our neighborhood last night. We passed a gentleman walking his dog-a Schipperke. I was so excited. I grew up with a Schipperke. They are quite rare so I don't come upon them very often. They are so cute. They are typically black and look like little foxes with thick hair and pointy ears. Interestingly, they have no tails. They used to work on barges and apparently their tails would get in the way. So they have been bred out. Schipperkes are known for being very social and for being wonderful with children. My dad named our dog Brussel Sprout because he came from Belgium and the capitol of Belgium is Brussels. We called him Sprout! Anyway, it brought back a lot of childhood memories to see him.

Hello,

The Chicago weather finally realized it was spring and graced us with a day of sunshine and 86 degrees. One of our favorite things to do as spring approaches is to jog through our community together. We love to run around the lake and watch the kids playing at the beach. Today as we came around a bend, we saw a mother goose and five new babies. They were still all fuzzy and wet. Quite amazing!

We hope that you are having a good day and enjoying a few rays of sunshine, as well,
Debby and Barry

It's about 9:15pm on Wednesday night and we're packing to fly to Arizona in the morning. We're heading to visit Barry's Aunt and Uncle in a town called Surprise. They tell us that the temperature is supposed to be in the 100's. Considering it was only 50 degrees in Chicago today, the heat sounds pretty good to us. As for Debby, it truly can never be too warm for her. She craves the heat and can run outside in 100 degree heat. Barry will probably need a few jumps in the pool.

As we pack and plan for our trip, it's hard for us not to talk about how much fun it will be to bring a child with us on our adventures.

Yesterday we celebrated our niece Rebecca's 2 year birthday. Her mother loves to bake and had asked Rebecca what flavor cake she wanted for her party. Rebecca chose strawberry. It was the pinkest cake you've ever seen; and of course, it was the hit of the party!

Here we are celebrating Deb's mom's birthday. Our niece Brynna decided silly string would be an important addition to the festivities. As you can see, Barry agreed!

This week we traveled to Colorado to see our Niece Brynna in her horse show. She rides a horse named Anabel who Brynna said was a bit of a stinker that day! The day was beautiful and the show was staged in front of the Rocky Mountains. Quite an awesome view. We were so impressed with Brynna's poise and knowledge of her horse. She is definitely my sister, Kathy's, daughter and my father's granddaughter. They are animal lovers at heart and can never learn or experience enough. It was a wonderful week-end.

We celebrate our birthdays about 2 weeks apart. Barry has started a tradition of throwing us a "surprise" birthday party on the week-end in between our two birthdays. That was today. Barry sends invitations out saying "Surprise Birthday Party for Debby and Barry. Where? At Debby and Barry's house. RSVP: Debby and Barry. Our niece called to tell us it was a little weird to be having a surprise birthday party that we know about! :)

As we celebrate and get ready to place our profile online, it's hard not to start dreaming about how much fun it will be to include a child in our celebrations.