OK, decided the album worked, but still wanted to post a few anyway.

December 2008

This month is a busy one for everyone. Here are a few pictures of how our month is going so far. Grandma turned 91 on Dec 11th so we had a family dinner. Also, the kids had their Church Christmas Program on the 14th. If you click on the picture link below it's supposed to take you to the picasa album so you can view them all. If it doesn't work, let me know. I'm still learning this part. :) J

December pictures

December 2008

Family Picture

Here's a picture of the whole gang on Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving 2008

Phillip

Frank
Charlene

Richard
Marsha
San
Emily's rockstar pose
Peyton, Gee Gee, Paige
James and Paige
James and Peyton
Mom and Dad on phone with Robin Weatherford in the Bahamas
Paiger
Ellie (begging)
Grandma
Peyton
Was able to spend Thursday with the family, overeating turkey and noodles. Then got to spend Friday evening with Marsha, Richard, Emily, and Phillip. Good Holiday. Here's a few pictures.

Piano Recital

This afternoon I got to go to the girls' very 1st piano recital. They seemed to handle it great. Sandy was blotchy and I was ready to throw up before I even got there. They did an EXCELLENT job!! Lauren was in the recital also. She is really, really good. Every child involved did fantastic. Seriously. I'd have never had the guts to get up there!!!! The only hitch, and totally hilarious moment was when Paige, Mom, and Peyton went for their curtsy and knocked over a small Christmas tree. The look on the girls' face is hysterical! Eventually I'll post some of the video from today, but right now I don't know how :) So, here are a few pictures.

Glasses, freckles, and a beard have never been cuter

Peyton got glasses this week. Don't think she's too sure about them yet. Paige'll want some too. She likes accessories! :)

Stealing two of Brookes pictures. Yep that's right, I'm a thief

This is Joe racing without mud. He finished in 8th place and got a plaque

Fall Collage

Brooke and Joe

 

Brooke, Joe, and I went to Forest Glen today to take some pictures. These are my favorites. I think. Maybe. Probably.

Veteran's Day

 

If you appreciate your freedom, thank a vet.

Peyton and Paige

 

The girls in November with their new hair styles. Gorgeous, aren't they?

November 4, 2008

Vote, People!

November 3

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EMILY!

Iron Man 2008 (quad races)

Oct 25th I went to the single muddiest event I've ever been too, and had a great time! I went to some field outside of Crawfordsville to watch class after class race quads all day. My friend Brooke's husband Joe races with some friends, Adam and Jonathan. So, we missed the start because we were still in line on the road to get to park. Then, they park us in a field of mud. Seriously. Then we, I should have told you that I picked up Lydia and her son Mike on the way,we wait in line to get our bracelet for the day. We NEVER find Brooke. But, we did find the truck and pitstop area. So, from there, I just set off walking the course. It's around 8 miles thru woods and giant hills and lots of mud. Believe it or not, I actually see Joe as he's getting close to us. I started yelling, "it's joe, it's joe, it's joe!!" I'm pretty sure by now that Mike thinks I'm nuts. Lydia already knows. We were hopping over logs and slipping in mud to get to the next spot. Then I turn back to Lydia and tell her she doesn't have to follow me if she doesn't want to. I have no actual plan. I just go to where I hear racing. Well, then she asks do I not want her to come? Of course, but we're gonna get messy and quite possibly lost. Let's get moving. I got some pretty good shots, and some pretty bad ones. Not easy to find the mud covered quad with the mud covered rider in the mud field.I don't care, I got the ones that count. I was waiting at the finish line when Joe crossed. I then proceeded to take like 30 pictures in 3 minutes. ..... Joe I AM NOT A STALKER! I promise! So, Lydia, Mike, and me head back to Joe's truck thinking that Brooke must be there. WRONG! After waiting a while, Joe takes off on foot to the start/finish. Sure enough, there she is. Camera held up in position for her to catch Joe crossing the line. POOR Brooke. She was a little startled when Joe asked for his hat. Pretty funny. By the way, Joe finished 21st out of 50 in his class. That's some serious hauling considering he started next to last!
Then came the moment I'd been waiting for since we got there.....Yep, you guessed it Monster Truck Rides! $5 and a sign in sheet, then climb the moving staircase thingy to the back of the mud covered truck. I started towards the front when I thought, huh, the actions gonna be at the back of the truck. So, I turned around and "let" a few people go on up past me, and headed for the back. There was mud flying everywhere. Lydia had her hands over her hair and squealed through the whole thing. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. I had globs of mud on my face that I refused to brush off. However, it did take 3 shampoos to get the mud and rock from my hair that afternoon.

The big story started when we got back to my car. A pretty red Corolla that sits about 4 inches off the ground. Has anyone jumped ahead and guessed the story yet? OK, so we got stuck, like 3 or 4 times. Thankfully we had Michael (very tall 14 y/o football offensive lineman!!) Yeah, for us. We started to lose Lydia around this time. It wasn't pretty. Unless pretty "whiny" counts. Sorry Lydia, but you know it's the truth. She's admitted it. But, Lydia, Mike, and some random men help push me out a few times. I tried to get Lydia to drive and let me push, I felt bad for her. But, noooo, she was not comfortable driving someone elses car. Fine. I got out the snow scraper and started getting the mud out from in front of the front tires. Then another guy with a shovel shows up and helps. At this point, I'm in front of the car jumping on every big mud there is hoping to tamp them down some. Don't know if it helped, but on the next push we were free. I didn't stop to let them in. I'd already told them the plan. I was driving to the road and would meet them there. So, once they caught up we were able to leave, finally! There's another good story. But, frankly I'm tired of typing now, so I'll just post a few pictures.

Iron Man 2008

More from Kickapoo

Here are some pictures I took on Saturday out at Kickapoo. There were tons of people out there in support of keeping our parks open. The colors were beautiful. I did some trail walking (read very easy, very basic, barely off the road). I did come upon about a half dozen or so wild turkeys!!! I wanted the pictures, but I DIDN'T want to get charged. Go ahead and call me a wuss. I'm ok with that. Those were some big, ugly things! Probably only 2nd in ugly behind the 'Jamaica' WILD BOAR!!!! Thanks to Chris Maring for taking care of that yucky business.

I'm still trying to figure out how to put an entire picasa album on this thing. I need help people. Let me know.

picasa album from Kickapoo Nov 1st, 08

Powells at Kickapoo

The main reason I was at Kickapoo last weekend was to take some pictures of the Powell kids, Lauren, Brooke, and Nathan. Brittany and I met out there with some help from Mickie. I wanted to take some from a bench on a trail overlooking one of the ponds. Turned out it was a little more of a hike than I remembered. Sorry Brooke :) The kids were great. Here's a few of the pictures from that day. They are really growing up!