Libertyville Savings Bank

“There are moments which mark your life; moments when you realize nothing will ever be the same and time is divided into two parts: BEFORE this and AFTER this.” – Fallen Saturday, May 28 th at 12:16PM my husband and I welcomed our beautiful baby girl into the world. Everyone had told us how amazing that moment was going to be. Family and friends told us that you don’t know how much love your heart can hold until you are holding a brand new baby in your arms. They were spot on. The moment she was born and the months that have followed have proven that advice to be true. Alexis Jade Deao was born 2 weeks early, but healthy as could be. After a couple days we got to take her home, and I’m not sure that I have ever been so excited or nervous for any other adventure. As we were leaving the hospital my husband and I kept looking at each other saying, “This is real. We are taking her home with us!” We felt as though we didn’t know nearly enough about how to care for this precious bundle!

WOW how time flies!! As of February 11 th of this year I have been an employee of Libertyville Savings Bank for 10 years! I have loved working at LSB; I have made a lot of great friends and memories over the years. I was 14 when I started working part time at LSB. I worked Saturdays and summers through out high school and college then started full time. Since I wasn’t old enough to drive when I started, my mom would drop me off at either Blain’s or Amber’s house in the mornings and I would ride with them. I started at the teller line and transitioned into several different rolls over the years. I opened new accounts, was Jennifer’s assistant, scanned a lot of files, and was a loan clerk. Now I am the bank’s investment Officer. It has been great to work in so many areas of the bank to gain a general understanding of what everyone does. Things have changed a lot over the past 10 years. When I started LSB had three locations, Libertyville, Fairfield, and Eldon. We built the Keo

The Barn tour for 2016 is in the books and if you missed it I will try and give you a glimpse of what you missed.   The barn turned “100” so of course we had to have a party, balloons, cookies, beverages and cupcakes.   A friend of Tammy’s even brought presents for all of us, pillow cases made out of material with barns and barn quilts on them. We also gave out pins to anyone that wanted a memento of their visit.      The barn was built in 1916 by my Great Grandfather Schyler Colfax Morris and has remained in the family since that time.   They raised Percheron horses and held horse sales at the barn as well. Mom has saved a brochure from a sale that was held in Oct. of 1924.   The barn has three levels; the main level housed a cream separator room, two granaries and a corn crib and space for loose hay. There was also a hay loft above this main level. The basement has 7 horse stalls and 8 stanchions for milking cows.     Unique feature in the horse stalls is the lazy susan type

As we begin this season of Thanks and Giving, it’s a perfect time to reflect on things in life we are thankful for.   As I started to write my thoughts to paper, it didn’t take long for my list to grow and here are a few (in no particular order): My Health: Something we can easily take for granted and I’m grateful for each day I have it. My Husband:   Simply put, my life is better because he is in it. My Family:   My dad, siblings, nieces and nephews.   My mom, grandparents and other loved ones no longer with us. They all have helped shape me into the person I am today and bring joy to my life.   My Home :   There is no place like home!   I’m grateful for the safety and comfort it provides and nothing beats a quiet evening at home.   It is where I get to put my passion for home improvement projects into action or perhaps more accurately stated, where I come up with the ideas and my husband makes them a reality. Our Veterans, Active Military and Reserve :  

I was raised in a family that watched lots of sports.   It really didn’t matter who was playing. I think my Dad just liked watching the competition of a good baseball, basketball, or football game.   If the TV was on it was more than likely tuned in to a sporting event.   We’d watch lots of Iowa football and basketball games, but the Holy Grail in the Johnson household was if the Chicago Cubs were on TV.   For much of my childhood we did not have cable TV, so it was a real treat when we were able to get the Cubs on one of the 4 stations our rabbit ears pulled in (usually it was when they were playing the Cardinals and losing.) At some point my parents splurged and ordered a small cable TV package where we could get WGN and watch the Cubs on a regular basis. The only family vacations I remember involved traveling to Chicago, St. Louis or Kansas City to watch baseball games.   It would have been a boring miserable life growing up for some, but not if you loved baseball like my Dad

This is so true in regard to our vacation this year.   The last several years we have gone on vacation with my sister and my brother-in-law.   Each year we pick a new destination and the vacation begins.   We headed out this year for Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.   My husband and I had visited Myrtle Beach a few years ago and couldn’t wait to go back.   When we visited last time we went to the ocean every day.   When we got there this year, after a few minutes of choppy water, my sister figured out she was not a big fan of the tide coming in and knocking her around and decided she much preferred the pool we had walked past on our way to the ocean.   So, we packed up our stuff and headed to the pool.   I had expected each day we’d be on the sand and instead we were in lounge chairs on the concrete by the pool, but I loved it. The big highlight of our trip was that the four of us were going to go on a deep-sea fishing excursion.   The guys talked us into it because the boat was ai

On the morning of Sunday August 20 th I took off on a journey to Columbus, Ohio to spend the week participating in the Eastern leg of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour. For many years I have watched the crop tour as it travels across the Midwest and in 2016 I was accepted as a scout on the farm tour. We were all scheduled to report to Columbus, Ohio by 8:00 PM on the 20 th for orientation. That evening I met approx. 50 other scouts that would be making the journey westward that week. Out of these 50 scouts, over 1/3 were from other countries, around 1/3 were farmers from the Midwest and the other 1/3 were other people from various states that were involved in some sort of occupation that revolved around row crop production. Out of these 50 scouts we had around 13 teams of 3-4 people all traveling in one vehicle for the day. I had volunteered to be a driver and each day I would have a different set of scouts riding with me. In the front seat we would have the navigator (which was usuall