Elser Family Blog

Well, K left for Switzerland this morning. She wants me to post daily so she can see what is going on around here a daily basis… Hmmm.

Here are the kids at the airport, before it really sinks in that they are not going to see mommy for a week…

Here they are when they realize there stuck with dad for a week, and K when she realizes she is getting away from the kids for a week.

Here are the rugrats taking a bath.

We were messing with the software that came with the camera… It’s got all sorts of affects. Like “coloring book” for instance?

Or this one. I think I combined double sepia, with coloring book.. I thought it was art-n-craftsy looking.

Story.

I don’t know what this means, but I am sure some of you will laugh when you hear it.

I received a call the other day, from my friend Fred in Columbia. “Ed, you need to come and move some of the stuff your storing in my warehouse” I figure he is tired of looking at it, so I tell him I really appreciate him storing it for me. He replies, “Oh, its not in my way at all, its just that someone ran into the building with a car, and I don’t want anyone stealing your stuff through the hole in the wall!”

“OH” ok, I said.

So, I drag my Father in law to Columbia to pick up my stuff from Fred’s warehouse. It was all my big stuff…. Compressor, Booth type table, motorcycle, lathe, industrial shelving, lawn tractor, and barber chair.

Somewhere along the line, Fred and Bob (my F-I-L) started teasing me about my “stuff”, and asked me where I got one of my “things”.

“Well”, I said “I got that motorcycle from Hector about 1992, when he lived on the south side of Chicago… His neighbor threw it out”

Where did you get that booth table?

“I found it on the side of the highway in 1987, I couldn’t pass it up”

Where did you get the Sears tractor?

“My neighbor in Columbia asked me if I wanted it, he was going to throw it out.. Could you imagine, throwing out a sears tractor??”

Where did you get that shelving”

“sportschannel said get rid of it, so I did, right into my garage!”

Where did you get that barber chair?

“Bill Sawicki, an artist in Chicago gave it to me for fixing something for him”

Where did you get that compressor”

“a friend at ETV in Columbia was getting rid of it, how could I pass up a two stage, 80 gallon industrial compressor? Those things retail for 2k”

“Uh, do you see a trend here Ed?”

He didn’t have to ask about the Lathe…

He had scavenged it out of the garbage where he worked and gave it to me.

I had not paid a red cent for a single thing on that trailer.

I’m not sure what to make of this revelation.

Anyone need a used Crib? The one that all three of my kids grew up in. R has figured out how to climb out of it.

What is that?

Where did I get it?

…In the trash behind the resale shop in Forest Park, Il. about 1997…

I was organizing my archived files, And I found a letter I wrote to H before she was born. Sorta interesting.

Hello Baby Elser 12-12-97

You went to your first “rock” concert last night.

You went to Q101’s (a radio station in Chicago) Twisted Christmas

4 concert with 3-11, Sara McGlathlin, Duran-duran, The Cure,

Chumbawumba, and a couple of others. It was at the united center

where the Chicago Bulls normally play. We were in the Fox sports

Skybox on the south side of the floor. Are you going to be a

music fan when you grow up? I hope so. If I’m lucky, you’ll learn

to play the banjo! That would be cool.

Love, Your Father.

Hello Again Baby Elser 5:40 metra out of union station 12-15-97

You already have a nickname…..hmmmm.

We sent a note out telling people of you, and at the end of the

note we (I) signed it “Kathi and Ed and Fetus Elser”

well, When Elden and Mike read the note (at different times) they

thought it said “Festus” When they found out there mistake

everyone laughed so hard, that they decided to keep it. We’ll

see…

I wanted to make some promises to you. Some of them might be

things that should be taken for granted, and others perhaps not.

1)I promise to take you camping and to the zoo.(easy-no problem)

2)I promise to keep my temper when disciplining you, and make

sure you know I’m doing it because I care and not just because

I’m mad (slightly more difficult)

3)I promise to help you figure out problems for your self, not

just fix it for you.(this might be really hard for both of us)

4)I promise to do things with you, and not make excuses. I know

this is a little vague, interpret it how you want and tell me,

I’ll let you know if that is what I meant.

5)I promise not to yell at your mother in front of you.

more to come…..

Love, Your Father

We went to the Colonial times celebration at the NA living history park (its about 6 blocks from our house)

I really like this event, because its not commercial at all. They have a corner where people are selling stuff, but most of the tents are just manned by people who want to explain how things worked “back in the days” I hope it stays as popular and uncommercial as it is for a bit. Here are the girls trying to pet a sheep. This sheep was not wanting for attention, it was wanting for FOOD! Guess you had to be there.

Here is the demonstration of the cannon fire process… It my be small, but it is loud!!

Here is a example of the uncommercialnes.. This guy was just happy to show the kids how these toys worked… He was not hawking them.

This spinster was cool.. She asked H If she was the oldest sister, and H confirmed.. Then she asked how old she was, and the lady said, “well, your not old enough to learn to spin! Come back when your older” in a serious voice.. But then explained that it was the oldest sisters duty to learn, and she will have to teach her younger sisters. H was pretty entranced by it.

M and R got the short end of the stick in the pictures today… Sorry you guys. Here is H holding a fox skin.. She just figured out that animals have to die for skins and for us to eat them. I’ll let you know if it has any affect on her appetite. 🙂

This is the second year we attended this. Lat year I took my movie camera, so If your reading this years from now, there aught to be some film of it laying around somewhere.

Today was also the NA homecoming parade.. It passed right out in front of our house..The girls watched and collected candy, while R took a nap.

The next event is the “Jack-o-Lantern Jubilee” which also has a parade. We were out of town last year, but we will attend this year.

As we sat down to dinner, M said “We didn’t say our prayer” So K said, “why don’t you say it tonight M.” So M started singing (to the tune of Frere Jacques)

“God our father God our father, we thank you we thank you, for our many blessings for our many blessings, a-men a-men.”

I thought that was pretty neat. I don’t know where she learned it. It must have been at school. (she goes to 3k 3 days a week at the local Baptist church.)

Here is R as a happy baby. He has some kind of virus causing yuck on his face, but as his father, I still think he is the best looking baby on the planet. 🙂

Thanks to R’s cousin Kimm, I have some photos of R last Christmas. Thanks Kimm!

Here he is with all of his cousins (once removed) sorta funny, how there is a generation gap there.

OK, there was one generation gap in the last picture, here is another generation gap, the other direction. Still sorta funny, when you think about it!!

We went to a birthday party on the river in Augusta today. It is a really nice little park with a playground. (we have gone there before.. Its the one with no fence between the playground and the river.) Anyway, here are a couple photos just for you.

Here is one more of a little play in the park. I would like to take this moment to thank all of you who view this blog.. If it wasn’t for you, I would probably take half as many pictures as I now do, and my documentation of my family would be incomplete… So, thank you!

I fixed the link to the video from the WRDW website.(mentioned in the last post) It should work now.

K, H and M made a scare crow for the porch.. I don’t know if its going to scare any crows though… It just looks a bit to happy and inviting.

They took down the flagpole today. It was put up by the 7th Grade class of 1923. It was not a dignified removal, but It will be put back up next to the boyscout shack. I suppose that is consolation. (for more on the story, look back a couple months.. I was quoted in the paper as being against the public park next to our house being modified to suit the church next door.)

Here is H playing in the fog from the fog machine we got for Halloween. It’s pretty fun. I hope we have some visitors this year.

Here is M being silly. I don’t know why I take pictures of her being silly, I just do.

Hey, we got our prizes for the sears contest in the mail! woo-ho! The pictures you see were taken on the new camera, as a matter o’ fact. And the book collection is pretty cool! A boat load of various books, most all in hardback. I estimate $500 in books at the cover price. The whole process was pretty fun, I gotta tell ya.

And a little more teevee time for the kids.. Media hounds they are….

Click here to see video

I cant help but know I’m bragging, but I ask that you bear with me, my kids are only young once. 🙂

hmm

I don’t know what happened to my Password protect page. Ill have to check out the code later… Did one of you guys hack may password? fess up! 🙂

Man, this work thing is ridiculous. Its gotta slow down soon. Some stuff going on with the kids, Ill post a real story tonight! Thanks for holding on…

Sorry about not posting lately, I’m REALLY busy at work.. I have not forgotten ’bout yall.

Check THIS out. I’m so lucky, I have a beautiful wife and family.