Thanksgiving 2013

Bridget and family came all the way from Ohio to have Thanksgiving and get Colleen married.

 Emmett gets lots of hugs from Nanna

 Once the TV goes on the conversation stops.  I was talking to Henry and Emmett but cartoons trump Poppy.

 David and Mason came over to see us before they went over to Becky and Doug's farm.

 Colleen and Sarah.  Look at the glow on the bride to be.

 Mason was interested in what the other children were doing. He is still in the let's climb on it stager.

 With help from Nanna.  He negotiates the dismount successfully.

 Colleen encouraging Sarah to drink. She got her to do it.

 All my girls.  Notice the cornucopia load of stuff on the table.  Eating is probably the #1 thing that happens here during a visit.  I love it.

 Nanna gets ready to take a picture

 David and his big boy

 With Nanna

 Cootie and her big sister

 Add Ben

 Katholis galore

 Molly and Henry

 Again but with Fruity Pabbles for accent

 Mason loves to work the lift

Everyone playing with a hidden Sarah

Armistice Day

Well we have gotten past armistice day yet again.  WE have had better days. The band played at the VFW tonight and as usual there were 1 in the audience for every 3 band members.  Not the best concert we ever played but most of the members were there.  Even the ones from out of town.  On the way out we were surprised by driving sneet.  That is snow and sleet.  It seems to have stopped as I write this but we will see in the morning.  A front came through and the temperatures have dropped like a stone.  High tomorrow barely above freezing.
No new photos.

Time on the clock

I was fooling around on the net and found a time calculator.  As an interesting site it wasn't bad.  I figured out that I now have 25,000 hours on my personal clock.  Not a bad milestone.  Birthdays come every year, if you are lucky. This is a once in a lifetime.
If you are curious.  The web site is Timeanddate.com.

Last Saturday Trap Shoot

Got up at 5:30 this morning and it was 41 degrees and raining.  My mature self said "NO WAY" and I went back to bed.  By the time I got up near 9:00 the sun was out. Still cold though.

I started a fire for the first time this season.  We broke down and got a new grate.  What spendthrifts.

Just after 1:00 Colleen and Justin stopped by on the way to a wedding in St Louis.  Don't they look nice.

All for now.

Sarah's Birthday

Well, Sarah has had another good Birthday.

When she got up all her current friends were waiting for her.

She has a new favorite doll that Cootie brought her. The doll sucks from a bottle, goes to sleep and snores, and giggles when you press her tummy. Sarah is very happy with it.

Here is the cake.  We had it made at the grocery and they did a very good job.

We all sang Happy Birthday

and Sarah enjoyed her cake.  The dinner was corn dogs (her favorite) with other sides.  We have had a very good birthday this year.

Officially Fall

OK It's officially Fall. Got so cold in the house yesterday that she turned on the heat.  I still have the AC in the windows and will leave them in for a while.  Made that mistake before.  Took them out then it got hot again.  Sarah's Birthday today.  We have great plans. Will add pictures tomorrow.

What a difference a day makes

Wow!  24 hours ago I was sweating in front of a fan and we had the AC going full blast.  Then last night it rained, and a front came through.  Man oh man. Yesterday in the 80's.  Today it was supposed to hit 63 but I just came back from the store and it is 54 out there.  We haven't run the furnace, yet.  I think it will warm up some next week.  I wonder what ever happened to Indian Summer.  It used to get cold, freeze for a couple of days and then get nice for 4 to 7 days then off to the ice palace till spring.  Doesn't seem to do that anymore.  I just hope that winter will hold off till at least December 1.  We can get the wedding in without snow and ice.
I remember going to my mom's in Carbondale for Thanksgiving and having the roads snow and ice all the way.  That trip took 7+ hours for what was usually a 3 1/2 hour trip.  No cell phones to let the folks know we were OK.  Mom gave me piles of crap for making her worry.  I was going as fast as I could but still buckets of crap and guilt.

The Equinox

Yesterday was the equinox here at the home front. Saw Colleen and she helped a lot by getting Sarah out of her funk.  Sarah has been worrying us a lot. She drags the left foot and doesn't want to put any weight on it.  Refusing to drink. General lethargy. Took her to the DR and got some antihistamine so we will see. Not much going on here. We are all marching towards the wedding of the century. Only 65 days to go.

Clayville

Well Clayville has come and gone again.  What a glorious weekend it was. Dave and I had a wonderful time. The weather was perfect.  Low 70's each day and not a cloud in the sky.  Gentle breeze to carry away the powder smoke and I made a new gong so when you hit the target you were instantly rewarded.
Here we are at the end of Sunday.

 As you can see my little boy isn't so little any more.
We even got the guns 99%+ cleaned before we went home.
It doesn't get any better than this.

Still Swealtering

   It is hot again. I mean really hot.  95 degrees and 90+ % humidity. All I do is sweat.  It is too hot to work in the basement.  We get the AC running by 9:00.  They say it will break later in thew week but that doesn't help now.  We will see how Fall works out.  By the by, no rain lately.  Now the farmers are moaning drought again. I guess no one is happy.
   OK I have moaned enough.  Trap shoot on Saturday and the weather may be nice.
   I really don't think anyone reads this but I'll keep writing every so often just on the chance that someone does.

An Evening's Observations

The other evening I was sitting in the backyard waiting to turn some chicken I was bar-b-quing when I noticed that it was indeed a very nice evening indeed. There was a pleasant breeze, and the cicadas were buzzing in waves.  The sound would rise and fall in a most relaxing way. The chicken got done, and I went in to dine. All in all a most pleasant evening.

My family is here for the fair

I really had a very good August.  Molly, Ben, and the children came for a real long visit.  We were so lucky to have them for a week. What a treat.

Emmett Decided to craft and created robot man.  The inspiration for this effort was that Molly and Mom had Craftapolooza day.  They moved into the Dining room and just crafted till their eyes fell out.
Ben and I took the children to Scheels to ride the ferris wheel.
That was a good time for all as we were the only riders and the operator let us go for a good long time.

Here are some more from Craftapolooza day.

We got invited to Carrie and Dave's for dinner.  Dave Cooked.

Carrie entertained and I must comment on how nice her house looks.  I have never seen it messy as long as you don't count Mason's room.  She really has a flair for decoration.
Sarah had a good time.

I don't have any photos of the children as they were just blurs of activity.  What a bunch. David was happy and all had a good day.

Finally at the Fair.  As soon as we got there Ben disappeared. He said he would be right back. What he came back with was an electric Rascal that he had rented. What a treat. I can't walk as far as I used to and this made all the difference.

We all just hung around and ate as I found a stand that sold $1 corn dogs. The children sucked them down like Sherman going to Atlanta.

We were going to try the milk a cow but found Doug instead.  Carrie's step dad had a hauling gig. I won't mention what he was hauling but there seems to be a never ending supply at the fair.

That scooter held backpacks, stuff and children.  Bridget figured out that she could sit indian style between my feet and the boys got on each leg and we just rode and rode.  We went places I haven't been for decades.
Conservation world which is way off and gone on the edge of the fair.

We found race cars.
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and it was Queens day.  All the county fair queens were there and whenever you turned around there was a queen.

We found these two while viewing the butter cow.  There were even queens with A. Lincoln.

ONLY in Illinois.

The children did pushups for the National guard guys to get plastic cups.

David got in the act.

But BEN did his with claps in between.  Even the natty guard guys were impressed.

The children found a floppy guy

Then went to the fire station to be trained as Jr. firemen.  This included some fire pole training.

Bridget got her face painted. She sweated it off before we got home.

Then to finish off the day Henry and Ben took the scooter back, David et. al.  wanted to stay and Molly and the children and I took a ride on the Chair lift.  Henry and Ben rode it round trip and we joined them on the return which got us close to the car.  On the way to the sky ride we passed the giant slide and all rode.  I stayed to record the event on video.

All in all a very good day was had and the usual result of mega activity in the sunshine and heat was felt.

I could not have had a better day , Thanks Ben.

The only drawback was that everyone went home.
the next day. I will see you all soon.