Ok, so it's been a while

I know, I know ... excuses, excuses. But truly, I have been VERY busy and have not had time to post.

Anyway, thought I would post a short note to let everyone know what's new at the Fitzgerald's . My work is still crazy busy. I have two client conferences coming up ... one in April and one in May. My work life will not slow down until they are both over (May 13). Pray for me.

I took care of the "aching jaw" thing. Turned out to be a top wisdom tooth that had to come out. After a trip to a new dentist and oral surgeon, my mouth is now one tooth less than it was last week. The procedure was long and stressful (I will spare you the details), but the drugs were good (both during and after the procedure). To be honest, I'm just thrilled that the problem was correctly diagnosed and corrected. I feel much, much better :).

Elizabeth is doing great. She has been on Spring Break this week and hanging out with Bern. They spent one day at the ice cream shop and one day at Disney's Animal Kingdom. On Wednesday afternoon, I left work a bit early and we took her to a 3-D Movie (Mars Needs Moms) -- it was cute and lots of fun for us all to be together. On Thursday, Bern's brother Gerry came for a visit. Bern, Elizabeth and Gerry all spent St. Patty's day (during the day) with Bern and Gerry's other brother Mike (it was his birthday). Bern came home and made some rockstar corned beef, cabbage and potatoes. Yum!

Elizabeth really loves being with her uncles. They are both so kind to her, even though she forces them to play endless games of cards, tic-tac-toe and checkers. It's amazing to see them together laughing a playing. Really cool.

We had the porch on our main level screened-in on Friday. It is something that we put off for a while because we didn't want to block the lake view. But the mosquito nuisance, along with constant cleaning of dead bugs, live frogs and dirt, made us think that we just had to bite the bullet and get it done. To be honest, you really can't tell much difference re: the view and it is super nice to not have to worry about frogs and mosquitoes. We should have done it years ago.

Steph and Jack came yesterday for a visit. For dinner, Bern made some awesome (I mean super-awesome) salmon on the grill using oak planks and special sauce. Everyone loved it -- the salmon, the secret sauce, the rice -- everything. We then went downstairs and had a fire in the firepit. Elizabeth roasted -- I mean burned -- marshmallows. It was tons of fun and great to spend some time with them. They got along great with Gerry (who leaves on Monday).

If you haven't already heard, Wowee got a new job at Fiserv and she really seems to like it. Unfortunately though, she is working super hard with lots of long hours. We really miss her. It's very strange to see so little of her (no longer at my work and not at the house much) these days. We are all hoping that things will calm down for her at the new gig and she can come hang with us again.

Tomorrow we will go to church and then hang out at this super-cool German bakery in a little town called Yahala (near Mission Inn in Howie in the Hills). They have dozens of types of bread (huge loaves with awesome crusts and soft insides), as well as pastries, cookies, etc. They also have an outdoor area where you can sit at wooden picnic tables, listen to live music and have a bratwurst with sauerkraut (yum) for lunch. On Sundays they have free pony rides until noon, so Schwinks should have a great time -- cookies, pastry and ponies -- who could ask for more!??!!

See -- nothing too exciting is going on around here. We're just keeping on keeping on. Love you guys and miss you guys.

B.