One more

Heath emoting his gun, and 2 brothers relaxing at the end of a busy day.

Grandson fun

Oldest & Youngest

Heath & Gigi enjoying a moment together. If you know Heath, you know he is a inverterate spreader of stuff. Everything goes on the floor in abandon and many pieces.

Well - the day after Gigi spent hours sorting and working on the edge of the puzzle we discovered Heath had neatly returned all the pieces to the box.

Go Figure?

Holiday Bowl Hopes

For several years now we've held out slim hope that the Beavers would make it to the Holiday Bowl. It's looking like we may finally get that chance... or maybe we're hoping again. Regardless, George and Nathan are murmuring about a quick trip to the game if the Beavs do get an invite. If they do come, can they stay with you, Mont & Evie, or should they book a hotel? It would likely be 2, maybe 3 nights. (the game is the 27th) Also, we have a booking deadline with our season tickets of Dec. 3 to order priority bowl game tickets... would anyone down there want to go with them to the game?

Now back to hoping...

Thanksgiving Fun

I can't believe no one else e.i. Kyle or Heidi has posted some pics yet. Mark had some great ones of the tow truck drivers.

We had such fun I don't know where to start.

First off the little boys thought the house was great fun. Those stairs and loft were perfect for nerf dart gun battles and ambushes. And the running & hiding potential was terrific, too. Esp for the little Petries with their 3rd floor apt noise limitations. Jacob met me when we arrived (about an hour after the Schmidts) by running up the stairs with glee and looking over the rail at me.

The big boys had fun with BB guns out back. Kyle said our lot looked like the wrong side of town(or something like that) with all the shot up soda cans, milk & waterbottles, plastic cups, etc. The little boys also loved their first time shooting. Jacob is quite the shot!

The little boys also enjoyed 'army' games in the woods and tall dry grass.

Dinner was delicious! the men did the potatoes - 3 peelers, and one chef! Windy did an abundance of pies. Heidi is an all around good cook.

I'm praisiing the Lord for all around safe travel there and back for everyone.

Mont, Gigi and I had 2 days to rest up before we headed home Tues. Whew! Hope Christmas is as good fun!

Me waiting for my turn in the intersquad

Monique on floor

All set

The leaves are all raked and blown, the lights are up on the house, the Christmas tree is decorated, the stockings are hung, the kittens are curious and the weather outside is frightful. Well, not really, but it finished my sentence nicely.

Anybody else have their stuff up yet? I wasn't really ready, but I was dragged into it kicking and screaming.

How many Turkeys?

The neighborhood turkeys showed up after we all ate.




OK - how many turkeys are roosting in this tree? There were a good number more turkeys in various trees.


We had a really good visit with the Naughton's and George's Mom.

Still MORE Atlanta Family fun!

Here are the other pics (enlarge) which I tried to post with the others seen below in "Fun in Atlanta" that got "lost" last eve till being "rescued" a few min ago.

1. Monique helping Ethan shoot the "Corn Cannon" at "Uncle Shucks Corn Maze", aprox 45min. north of N&T's. (Mike thinks we were also maybe 25-30 miles from the Tennessee/So. Carolina border!) Note the similarities in Monique & Ethan's profiles! :-)

Was SUCH a fun day together there! A great, new cultural experience!
"Boiled Peanuts" (in the shell) are an "interesting", popular regional snack"! I'm glad we tried them though they didn't "score" too many "points" with a lot of our "crew" ;-) "Tunnel Cakes", a deep fried "lacey" patterned "dough", piled high with powdered sugar passed all taste buds, however! (Any of you ever try either of these?!)

I LOVED listening to the "y'alls" & soft "drawls", which sometimes differed depending upon the ethnicity/geography of the speaker.

The corn maze was 2.5 mi long if you took all passages, which it SEEMED to me & some of the others like we did! ;-) Topped it all off with a hay ride of course!

2. Train fun at Zoo Atlanta! (K&M rode together in a different, "car", and typically exited before I could catch their pic, sigh!) Ethan, like his Great Grampa Ray, Great Uncle Mont, & THIS Gramma, LOVES trains, though ball-play still out ranks all else!

Zzzz now!
mc/Gramma

Intersquad!!!

The intersquad was today and we got scored. These are my scores:
beam: 7.1
bars: 7.9
floor: 8.3
vault: 8.6
vault is actually my worst event. These are what I can remember of Monique's scores:
beam: 8.1
floor: 7.5
vault: 8.8
vault is her worst event, too. Level 2's didn't do bars because half of them (not including Monique) can't even get on.
I will post pics later.

Rollin' Again

Whew - it was a simple fix and they are on the road again. Thank You, LORD!

When MOnt got to work this morning he found his boss had messed up his leave requests. He had been given Wed off a long time ago. Then he asked for 1/2 day on Tues. She gave him 2 hrs, but this am had him down for a full day today and 2 hrs tomorrow. She straightened it out when he showed her his paperwork - I'm so glad he keeps duplicates!

Now - what can the Petries experience?

Bang....Fizzle

UGH- as of 8 am this morning H&M are stuck with a blown out engine at the summit of I-15. ???? Now where will we all spend Thanksgiving ??????

PTL - they are safe as the engine blew just as they crested the summit and they were able to roll off the off ramp.

We are waiting for word as soon as they are towed to the Ford dealer in Victorville.

SIGH

More Georgia family fun!

MAYBe this is what I tried to paost last eve butsome how got "lost" online. Gues I'll post & see what comes up, then edit if necessary! mc Gramma

From our house to you...

We wish you all a blessed Thanksgiving!!!!

(Skylar was particulary excited about doing this family portrait I had to haul in out from under numerous pieces of furniture before the picture finally came together right.)

In the background is Gigi's picture from the Chicago youth convention from way back when. She won the right to go and see the BIG CITY.

Thank You

Hi - Every One who sent me birthday greetings. Thank You! Gigi

Denver Weather: A Continuum

High today: 76
High Wednesday: 29 (low of 16)

I have tried to explain this place to people, but these numbers are much better illustrations.

Where will YOU (and yours) be this Thanksgiving?

Thought I'd best toss this out before the "cooking crunch" begins!

I'll start - we'll go to our Dallas family for traditional fare AND PTL, I'll be off work ALL day! YESSSS!

Next anyone???

mc/Gramma

I love kindergarten

Jake's Thanksgiving feast was adorable. In the previous weeks, every kid had made both a pilgrim hat & collar, and a Native American vest, headband, necklace & bracelet. They each chose which one they wanted to be and Jake was the only male pilgrim in his class, though there were a few others from the other 2 classrooms.



They paraded out, lined up and made a recitation of the Thanksgiving Story, then did a Pilgrim prayer and a Native American chant-ish thing. Then they all held hands and in a big circle did 2 Native American dances: the toe-heel and the squat. The picture of Jake dancing is from the squat dance.






And one more bonus picture:

I thought of Darcy this morning

when I heard "Dude Looks Like a Lady" on the radio. Ask her why.

Also, Kyle has been grumbling about the lack of active posting lately. Kelsey has been nearly singlehandedly upholding the blog. But, to this I say, "Gee, Honey, you took about 870 photos of Heath in his Turkey Hat singing songs at the kindergarteners' 'Thanksgiving Friendship Salad Social' last Friday. Wouldn't everyone like to see them?"

By the way, Heath now knows the difference between "waddle" and "wattle".

If you blink you'll miss it...

That's the way I feel about my whirlwind trip to Chicago. But here I am home again and have a few pictures to prove I really was there. Mary & I left this house about 5 am Monday morn and I arrived home 11pm Wed night. YAWN!

I had a wonderful time reconnecting with cousins I had not seen in 35 years. Windy was 1 yr old the last time I saw them. We girls had slumber parties and dinner with the male cousins. Out of 10 cousins still living I saw 5. The others all live out of the area. And I got nice visits with Uncle Adolph -95- & Aunt Patti -93.

The picture is the cemetary where my great grandmother is buried - and maybe my grt grandfather too though never found his name. She died early - age 53 after 10 kids - and was in her parent's plot. He remarried and died at 90. As you can see it is right next to O'Hare and is being swallowed up by eminent domain - they'll move your loved one at your expense.

The 2nd picture is no one related - I had just never seen a gravestone like that. Did the whole family die at once???? One round marker said Vater, and another Muter, Most of the people in this cemetary died before or around 1900.

Hey Kelsey - great to have you posting !!!!!

Chattahoochee

This is the beautiful Chattahoochee river.

Alfaretta ! - Fun at home

(Enlarge) Not necessarily in order
1. Emma put "earrings" on Grampa during outdoor play :-) - note the perfect weather!

2. Monique going upstairs with the Saturday am waffle breakfast she'd composed from Nathan's cooking for her Mom to enjoy in bed. (YUMMM!). Oh but she is difficult to "catch"! - I dashed upstairs ahead of her to her to attempt this shot, though she still managed to duck! :-)

mc/Gramma

Denver Weather

Highs this week:
Sunday: 69
Monday: 52 -17 degrees
Tuesday 70 +18 degrees
Wednesday: 41 -29 degrees
Thursday: 59 +18 degrees (forecast)

hilarious

KJ

and welcome Kelsey! Nice to hear from our (now) Atlanta fam.

Trike

Ethan riding his trike.

The "Praying Mantis" ;-)

- - At "Zoo Atlanta"! ;-) mc

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Happy birthday GiGi!!!!!!

Gymnastics

Me and Monique at gymnastics.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIGI!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to Mom/Gramma/Gigi!!!
Happy Birthday to YOU!!!!

89 saucy years!!!!

Molving On 2

My pictures are in reverse order. The bottom is the 2 sections still together being readied to go. Then the first one hooked up and moved to the corner so the other truck could get in and hooked up. 2nd pic is the 2 separate sections and top is the 2nd half with its truck.

Mom said when they were driving off they hd a man on top of each section. I wonder how often this crew does this. They sure seemed to know exactly what to do next. Only by God's grace did I give a decent message as my mind was more on the action here than my Bible. I know it was OK because the retired pastor resident commended me. PTL

Moving On....

As you can see the Zolezzi house finally was moved Wed. It was supposed to go the week of the fires - but I guess had to be postponed.

I was so disappointed that I had to leave for my nursing home service and missed the actual pull-out. I so wanted to get pictures for you all. (and see it all myself) Gigi saw it on her way home from aerobics. She said it was quite something what with 2 sections and several police cars and escort vehicles. I'll bet a few drivers were irritated along the way!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

I'm taking up Darcy's suggestion of a thread.

A couple weeks ago was "Red Ribbon Week" at Jake's school. My guess is it probably was at your schools too. Anyway, each day the kids got some sort of giveaway goodie to go with the theme for the day. One day it was a king-size Snickers bar. Just before bed, he brought it out and proceeded to take a big bite, but since it was, as I said before, just before bed, Mark told him to put it away without taking another bite. Jake protested,

"Dad!! I got this for being drug-free!!!"

Let's all congratulate Jake on staying drug free all the way through preschool and kindergarten. Jake, you deserve a Snickers.

Perspective

Jordan is nursing a broken heart from ending, once again, his relationship with Alli. Tonight he told Tyler about it. Tyler is the friend who was in the terrible car accident this summer (98% recovered at last nuero visit!). Tyler's response: "You'll get through it. God has bigger plans for you. Just be glad he didn't use a 5-ton truck to tell you."

As Nasty as I Wanna Be

Today I woke up at 4:00AM, drove to the office, picked up a company car and two other guys driving some of our delivery trucks. We drove to a location by 5:45AM to start our largest annual food drive (apprx 150,000 pounds in 5 days). It is sponsored by a hard rock station with a less than desirable morning show format and the first conversation went like this:
"Hi, Kyle P., Denver Rescue Mission."
"Hi Kyle, glad to meet you. Nasty."
I met the on air personality "Uncle Nasty" first thing out of my car. Now, he curses more than my dad in a bad mood, but he really is a nice guy. There is a story that goes behind how we became affiliated with this group, which I will go into on another post, but the highlights of the day for me and the Mission are:
Dave and Busters is our remote loction for the week and they fed us breafast lunch and dinner and all the beverages we could drink. The line went "You guys feed thousands of people a week, we can cover 4 of you for lunch."
The manager also gave me $50 worth of video game cards for Cade and Heath after he heard about Dave and Busters being their reward for their behavior and hard work and accomplishments in school this semester.
Two people donated today probably beyond their means because the Mission has helped them get off the streets. Mark 12:43 anyone?
A 25 year old kid gave us his change jar that he was going to take to Vegas next month.
Another 25 year old kid handed us $500 in cash and smiled and quietly disappeared...
The best story was our waitress at Dave and Busters. When she saw that our bill was taken care of by management and we were from the Mission, she started to cry. Apparently we helped her two years ago when she was homeless. We found her a house for which the landlord reduced the rent dramatically, and then we furnished it for her. She was able to get off the streets and get a job she was proud of and you would never know it looking at her. It was one of those "Sometimes this stuff pays off" kind of moments for all of us at the table. She still lives in that house and says "my furniture is so beautiful, thank you."
No one at D and B knew her story, and she just happened to be our waitress. Crazy, huh? We are gonna give her a big thrill and put her on the radio tomorrow.

Zoo Atlanta - peek a boo!

What a wonderful day at Zoo Atlanta (yes, that is correct). ALL of you need to come to N & T's - it is wonderful here. MB

Whaat?

Heath just drove his dump truck, loaded with hot wheels cars, into the living room, and started to dump it. When I reminded him that we don't create toy piles in the living room, his brother jumped to his defense:

"But,Mom," he said, "it adds human interest."

Whaaa? Where? How?

FOOTBALL

Well, I guess at the end of the day some of us will be cheering and wonderfully happy and others will be mourning a loss. ;-)

The gloom was great last Saturday when USC lost. Esp since we were in Orange with Stefan, Mark Sr. & Jan.

Go Trojans!!

Only in So Cal

Mont & I attended the 'open house' for the new Vons at Liberty Station yesterday afternoon. Liberty Station is the name for all the development at the old NTC. If you shopped from 4pm - til 8pm you got 10% off your purchase. What a mob scene! If you weren't surrounded by other customers you were tripping over Vons employees.

I said all that to say that this Vons is actually 2 buildings connected by a courtyard. An uncovered courtyard. So in one building you get your canned goods, frozen stuff, liquour. In the other building you get your meat, dairy, and produce, and deli. You can only check out in the canned food building - unless you can get in the one express lane in the other building. I forget where the bakery is. I know we have few rain days here - but I'm wondering just how I'll feel on a cold drizzly day about going outside with my shopping cart between items. And if you miss something and have to backtrack for it - what a hike!

I generaly avoid what I know will be mob scenes - but our cupboards were bare after a month of minimal shopping - so the 10% sounded good, and Mont had told me so much about the store since he did a number of inspections there that I was anxcious to see this strange crittur.