Karwoski Life

Greetings from…HOME! We are finally back home after a long, but FUN, trip to California! We got in a little late last night and finally settled in to bed about midnight. Matt was worried I’d still be on California time and wouldn’t be able to sleep…but I don’t think I moved all night and slept in just fine! I think I never really was ON California time…I was always ready to go to sleep at like NINE! LOSER, I know! Saturday we arrived in Anaheim early in the afternoon…but our bodies were dragging. Our flight had been changed and we had to leave at SIX AM…BLECK! We were up at three to make it to the airport around five. Of course we had to fly through Chicago and had a 3 hour layover there…double BLECK. I just hate flying out of my way to get to my destination…but there wasn’t much we could do when they rerouted our flights from Denver to Chicago. Anywhoo…we got checked in at the hotel, looked around, took a few pictures off the balcony, and then crashed. We ended up snoozing for an hou...

Not even going to mention the election…except to quote my Dad and say that we are still very blessed to live in America and have the freedoms to choose our representatives. And that’s all I’m going to say about that. We’ve had another busy, busy week…and another one is looming in the horizon so I thought I’d take a few minutes to post this while I can. Halloween with the Kepler’s was just as much fun as I had hoped it would be. The kids were in fine form and happy to be out trick or treating. Hope and I took the kiddies around while Matt and Chad relaxed at home. Matthew wasn’t 100% sure he understood what he was supposed to do after ringing the doorbell, except to grab some candy and try to push past the homeowner and check out their house! We had to grab him more than once and pull him back outside! Stinker! Meghan was excited about the candy and surprised us all by offering to share her Reese’s peanut butter cups with her Uncle Matt (she only had 2 and gave one to him – which is a ...

I’ve decided to boycott the news…well, the TV in general I suppose. I’m just so, so, SO sick of being bombarded with all the election who-ha, political put downs, economic woes, and general bad newsiness. I know times are tough, really tough, for a lot of people…but come on, is there no good in the world today? Is there nothing fun, exciting, happy, and bright to talk about? I don’t want to be uniformed, but I just can’t take all this black doomsday crap anymore!! I mean, who is it helping? What GOOD is it doing? We can all sit around whining and moaning about this and that, worrying about the unknowns which lie ahead of us, creating knots in our stomachs, tensions in our households, anger in our workplace, but WHY? What for? Why are we doing this to ourselves!?!? It isn’t going to help, or change a darn thing. Honestly, I can see why so many other countries roll their eyes at Americans…we have so much to be thankful for and yet what are we doing to show it? I know there are people ...

Brr. It’s another cold, cloudy Monday for us here in Iowa…and fall is truly settling in. Though I think we’ll have a few warmer days later this week, I think we’re finally shifting into the colder weather more typical of this time of year. And it’s sooo dark in the morning. Bleck. I hate getting up and driving in to work in the dark, dark, dark cold morning. Next week is Daylight Savings time and that’ll help the dark morning, but create a dark early evening. What can you do? I did cheer myself up a little bit this morning as I trudged to the back door to let the dogs out, still half asleep…at least I don’t have to go out there anymore!!! I know I’ll really appreciate that fenced in yard come this winter when the temperatures dip down below zero…oh thank goodness for the new house and fenced in yard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The weather this weekend was a bit crazy too…terribly windy and chilly yesterday. Saturday we caught a break though. Blake stopped over and took Matt for a ride ...

Lots of things to update on…where to start. First of all Fall has officially arrived here in Iowa…it’s down right COLD. We’ve been turning on the furnace a little here and there and sleeping with an extra blanket at night. Last night the wind was whistling and howling while the rain poured down…a few degrees colder and we’d have had an ice or snow problem! It really sounded like winter out there. Thankfully most of the rain has now stopped and we’ll hopefully warm up a bit the next few days. Saturday night we’re heading up to the ISU game and I’m hoping we won’t freeze our you-know-what’s off! This past week we’ve made some changes. We had ourselves a pretty good heart to heart and decided to stop the TCM treatments. For us, what it ultimately boils down to is what is worth sacrificing for, and what isn’t. Right now, it felt like we were sacrificing a lot to go through the treatments, but weren't seeing any benefits. After such a jam packed year with the move, China, followe...

Just a few random thoughts about our dogs. I think we have the goofiest dogs…they are so loveable and just goofy. They love, and I mean LOVE the basement in our new house. They always run to their respective spots…Buddy on the futon, Penny on the giant doggie bed Blake and Amy handed down to us. They get so excited to go down there and often times just go hang out down there all by themselves. They’re just so proud of themselves when they plop down in their spots and just look at me. ‘See, see…we’re GOOD doggies!’ In this picture they look kind of scary with the flash in their eyes…but I just had to capture how funny they are in their own little doggie spots. They also play hide and seek with me. It’s dumb, I know…but when they get done eating their supper, or when they come in from outside and I’m in the other room they just race through the house trying to find me…searching excitedly from room to room…I can hear them approaching so I’ll usually hide behind a dresser, or in a clos...

My friend Julie's baby Graham is scheduled to have his breathing tube removed this morning at 10:30. They've been weaning him off the breathing tube this week and his results have been a little touch and go, sometimes handling things fine, and sometimes struggling a bit. Please keep Graham, Julie, and their whole family in your thoughts today as they wait to see if Graham will finally be able to breath on his own. This is a big step for such a tiny little guy who has already been through so much. He needs strength, and I ask for prayers that God will provide it.