Big Weekend

Some big events this weekend... Britt's gymnastics team is going for the State Championship. Brittan is my 16 year old niece. She's been doing gymnastics since she was 4 years old and she's pretty darn good. Here's a short clip so you can get an idea of how she flies through the air.





If they get the State title, it will be ten years in a row for the team. She generally places and the bars are her strongest events -- usually scoring in the 9s!!! Wishing her a good score on bars and everything else tonight.

Tomorrow is a birthday party for Garrett. His birthday was really earlier in the month but weather and other commitments meant that they could not get to the Cape earlier. They live about 2hrs away. Anyway, he turned 4 and he wants as many parties as possible. So does little brother Ryley who's favorite food is cake.

Then sometime between today and tomorrow is my sister's birthday-- yup she's a leap year kid. We have yet to convince her that that means she doesn't have a birthday but for every four years. She thinks that being a leap year kid means that she gets an even bigger party every four years. She's a student again at age 47... gonna be a nurse this time. The first time around her studies centered around art -- and she did well as an artist. But she and Steve (structural engineer with a good position with a good firm in NY) figure putting 3 kids through college is gonna cost. So its hi ho, hi ho its back to school she go!!!!

That's all for now from us.

The Happy Birthday Boy

Wow!!! 30 years have gone by... I remember it like it was yesterday. I got home from work and your mama told me that this baby is coming. We piled back into the Beav's old International and made the drive from Falls City to the mid-wife in Dallas on the King's Valley Highway. It was a foggy, rainy night... could barely see the center line and we were near empty. Oh what a night!!! Your mama was in full labor and had to stick her hand up under the dash to keep the windshield wipers wiping-- the motor was burned out. But we made it and you waited til we got there... Thank you very much. Cecilia Miller, the mid-wife carefully placed you in a basket beside the bed. She said the baby needed his own space. As soon as she left, we scooped you up and moved you into the big bed and there you stayed for years.

That old International was a favorite play pen for you for years. You'd play in there while I worked on the house and on the fruit trees out there in Falls City. It was one way to keep you from climbing up the ladders when I turned my back. There are pictures of you up on the roof when you were way too young to be up there.

This picture is from a trip back to Gramma and Grampa's about 1980-81. That's the trip that you made the footprint at Gramma and Grampa's. I think Erin took a picture when she was here a few years ago.

We are planning on visiting spring - early summer even if Martha has to put me in a suitcase so I don't freak out about the plane. Sasha understands. Happy birthday and lots of love to you and your crew.

Merry Christmas

Time Flies...

Wow... all of November and half of December has flown by. Doesn't seem like we have been extra busy but the time just flies on by anyway. So starting with now and working backwards... We are getting our first snow storm of the year. We're loving it- David likes to get out there and find animal tracks in the snow and I just like how pretty everything is with a coating of snow and well ya gotta have it for that Christmas spirit.

We are just a bit bummed too... he was hoping to get a roofing job done this weekend. The storm will delay the finish but it seems every weekend has had some weather problems. He's been working his way around the neighborhood for the last 4-5 months. We laugh at what he calls his truck...

Yup, he loads it up every morning with his tools and shingles and off he goes. (During turtle egg laying season this is his turtle ambulance... that's a story for another time).

So currently he is roofing for our neighbors across the street. He hasn't stayed still long enough up there for me to get a picture but he is up there somewhere. As you know he does really nice work and it seems as he finishes one job another one comes along. After years of working for some real lunatics he really likes doing these smaller jobs himself.

I work in a medical practice of 14 cardiologists. It is also close to home... a 20 minute walk... but I don't walk -- it would make sense to walk... but I don't. I took the job with hopes of being involved with some software implementation projects but these have been delayed and delayed and delayed again. There is plenty to do in the meantime but I would really rather be doing software support.

Thanksgiving
So we had a good Thanksgiving... all my brothers and sisters and their families and my mother got together. It was actually a combination Thanksgiving and November birthdays. Like you guys my family has a bunch of November birthdays- my mother, a sister-in-law, a nephew, and twin nieces.


My brother's boys count David among their best of friends. Garrett (blond) is 4 and Ryley (red head) is 2. When they arrive they run in to check out the turtles...
Both of them keep trying to pick them up but as soon as the turtle starts moving his legs they get scared and drop them.



They are a lot of fun. Garrett takes a quick scan and knows all that is going on. Ryley studies everything. David and Ryley played with a bunch of rocks for about an hour.


Ryley discovered pockets and found that if he put too many rocks in his pockets he couldn't keep his pants up!!! Every step he took caused his pants to slip lower and lower.

They finally hit the ground and he had to take some of the rocks out to get the pants back up!!!


Turtles

These boys helped Grampa David with the turtle hatchling release in October. He decided to keep only two painters this winter. So he released the rest of the 24 that he hatched. They need to go back to the same spot that the eggs came from. Its just the way turtles are.

Last spring, David's nephew Robby assisted. Robby took 3 baby snapping turtles home for the winter. David kept 16 baby mud turtles, 9 baby painters and then we had to go up to Boston and take back the snappers cuz Robby's dad had gotten tired of taking care of them. The whole pile got released in the springtime... just in time for Grampa David to start bringing home new eggs!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

BIRTHDAY GIRL

Just a day in the life...

We'd better do some writing here or we'll be thrown out of blog-world!! I hope that it becomes more comfortable to write about our normal day-to-day little ho-hum life here...

We've been doing our fall chores-- putting the summer stuff away and getting ready for the fall & winter. Grpa Dave is finishing up some projects. He made a little deck/big porch for the people across the street and now is doing a couple of things at my mother's house which is right next to our house.

He fixed my old playhouse. My dad built it when I was about 4. It was beautiful back then-- I had linoleum floors, windows that opened, a table with chairs and my desk. As I got older my sisters took it over and later it became a shed and the critters moved in. So David has fixed the door and the floor. My brother's 2 boys were here and got a kick out of the house too. I have a short video of the 2yr old Ryley playing in it but its on its side. Didn't know you couldn't rotate videos :( I told Grpa Dave that he would have to move over to the playhouse if he was bad but I think he thought that would be kinda fun.

Afterwards, I went with my sister and my nieces to look for their homecoming dresses and Grpa went off for a walk. He went to the beach and got to see one last Monarch butterfly. Every year these butterflies migrate to Mexico for the winter then come back in the spring. Last year he saw lots of them over three days. This year he only the saw the one. It flew along the beach to him and landed on his hand then flew away.

Manatee on Cape Cod

So I think I mentioned to Lawless Ladies that the excitement here lately was a manatee that took a wrong turn and found himself at Cape Cod rather than in Florida. Clearly he should have asked directions somewhere along the trip!!! Anyway both of us have always wanted to see a manatee so it was pretty cool that this one came to the Cape. We only got one picture that really doesn't show much so here are a couple of newsclips that tell the story...

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081008/MEDIA0302/81008020

The water here is too cold for him so they did have to catch him to move him into warmer water.

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/misc?url=/_flash/gallery/gallery.html&Avis=CC&Dato=20081011&Kategori=MEDIA0102&Lopenr=1011002&Ref=PH