Family Pictures...Elizabeth Ann Photography

A few weeks ago we had our annual family photo session with our favorite photographer, Julie Scarpace. I am saving my most favorite pix for our Christmas card, but I wanted to share these with you. Julie was Kelsie's 1st grade teacher, I can't believe that's been 6 years ago already. I saw some of Julie's pictures of her girls (did she even have Carly yet? I can't remember!) on her desk and they were awesome pictures. I told her she had to take my family pictures...and she did. Now, look what happened!!! She has a great business! (Am I trying to take credit for her booming business? Hey, if I have to, I have to! just kidding, I know I wasn't the only person asking her to share her talents.) Anyway, the only bad thing that came out of all of this: She quit teaching the year Cameron would have had her as a teacher :( I tried to convince her to stay one more year, but no! You would have thought she would have done that for me! Anyway, she does a great job -- take a look at her gallery and her blog (bookmarked at the right) and enjoy.

THIS is the look! Kelsie's own personality, right here!

Cameron had the posing down this year. He even agreed that I should send his pictures that Julie took into the Gap or Old Navy, or to whoever's shirt he's wearing. For the record, it's Old Navy :)

Nice family picture -- I'm Julie's worst customer I'm sure when it comes to complaining about myself and how I look in pictures. This one is nice, but I really liked the one in our Christmas card. You'll have to wait for that one.

My best side? Hummm.... :)

Dancing with the Stars!!!

Ok, who out there is watching besides me? Did you watch last year? It was my contention last year, that Joey NSYNC Fatone had an unfair advantage being a boy band-er. So yes, it was good that Anton Ono won! Now, this year came. Again, my contention was that the Cheetah Girl and the Spice Girl both had/have unfair advantages. HOWEVER, I decided that if they let them in the competition, then have at it. Cheetah Girl was by far the best dancer in the competition and I couldn't believe it when she got the boot. HOWEVER, now, for those of you (my sister included) who for no understandable reason are voting for Marie (I bring my brothers for the sympathy factor) Osmond, what are you thinking? HOWEVER, if I want to be consistent with my original thought process, we need to give Mel B the spice girl the boot and let the non-professionals have at it. Winner then: Helio! No matter what...Marie Osmond should have been booted right after Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman...maybe even before her.

Circa '21

Thanksgiving isn't over yet! For at least the past 15 years, my parents have taken their kids & spouses out on the night after Thanksgiving -- to Circa '21, a dinner theater in Rock Island. We always have a great evening. Last night was no different. The musical was actually the same one they did last Christmas, which my mom & sister thought might be a bit of a bummer, but it wasn't! It was one of the best shows they have put on. It was a different cast, mostly, last night, and they did a great job. The food was the best they have served that I can remember. So, translate that into...they had normal stuff this year! They did throw in a few weird things for those who aren't quite as "normal" as I am, but the overwhelming selection was normal and delicious...we all agreed on that. Of course I ate more than I should have, but at least I drank water! Saved a few soda calories (granted I did have at least 2 sodas during the day, but who is counting???!) Anyway, here are some pictures of my family who I am thankful for:

My mom & dad -- they look as young as ever, don't you think? Taking care of our motley crew somehow hasn't aged them! Thanks to them for this special night each year.

Ok so, my sister & I agreed that we both look pretty darn good in this picture, so it has to be posted! :) :)

Jenny, Kristi & me, with Kenny trying to get some camera time.

Kenny, Alan, Mike & Kyle. They look pretty good, not as good as us girls, but they deserve some blog time.

Time for the show!

Now, bare with the graininess of the rest of these pictures. Granted, I wasn't supposed to take any pictures once the pre-show started, so I didn't use my flash. But I am not trying to steal anything, just document the night. Think that's ok? Anyway, Circa '21 (which means around 1921 which is when the building was built) is one of the last dinner theaters in the country that have singing waiters/waitresses. They put on a pre-show which is always good.

I set my camera on the table at the end and tried to point it up a little bit -- ok, so I didn't quite get it up high enough, but you can still see the gist of it thru the glasses, hopefully :) I hope all of you are enjoying your Thanksgiving weekend as much as I am.

Thanksgiving Pictures

I hope you guys all had a good Thanksgiving. We are at my parent's house in Coal Valley. We had a good day. Pretty much food and games. I re-learned how to play Euchre (I think that's how it is spelled). My sister made those cute little name tags for everyone. There was more of a variety of food than you see on my plate -- that's where my kids get it from Sherri. :( But what I do like, was delicious! The kids drew names for their Christmas exchange and that pretty much rounded out the day.

Shayna's baby Madison.

My niece Alisa's little boy Mathew.

The Real Story of Thanksgiving

I was listening to Rush on the way home from work today and he was telling the real story of Thanksgiving. Here's a link to the story, if you missed it:

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_112107/content/01125113.guest.html


"...So the Pilgrims decided to thank God for all of their good fortune. And that's Thanksgiving."

My Friend Patty

Most of you never knew my friend Patty. Even if you knew who she was, you probably wouldn't be able to communicate with her besides a smile, because she was deaf (but a smile meant the world to her -- the smiles my kids gave her, were priceless). Before her health failed, she came faithfully to church each week with a smile. She and her deaf friends, who are now my friends, at church inspired me to learn to sign several years ago; I wanted to learn so I could help them learn the Bible and praise God and I wanted to get to know these people.

Patty died this past week. I went to visit her in the nursing home yesterday; to check and make sure she was feeling up to us picking her up for Church today for worship and our Thanksgiving lunch. When I arrived and couldn't find her, the nurses told me she had died on Tuesday or Wednesday. I had seen her last Sunday. She was doing pretty well. She was excited about coming to Church today; getting out before it got too cold for her to get out. I cried when the nurses told me she died. I called her brother (besides her brother, Patty only had a cousin left living, but several friends who loved her) and he told me that she probably had a heart attack. He couldn't find my phone number to call and let me know, he was sorry that I had to find out that way. He did not arrange any type of service for Patty -- he sent her body to Arkansas to be buried where their parents are buried.

I cried some more. But you know what? The crying really is only for me, because I will miss her smile and her humor! Patty is home with her Lord right now. Patty is not living in a nursing home, missing her house and the ability to drive which she lost when she had a stroke in July. Patty is not eating that food at the nursing home that she would tell me she didn't like. So for Patty, it's happiness. For those of us who called her a friend and enjoyed her smile and her company, we'll miss her. She always made me laugh -- the stories she would tell -- priceless. The kids and I were planning what kind of a Christmas tree we would take up to the nursing home. But Patty will have the best Christmas ever.

No funeral service, no obituary, no get together for her friends to talk about how much we will miss her. So I had to blog, thanks for reading.

Best Buy? It's Not!

I don't know if I have the umpf to write it all out in all its ugly details, but today was my court date w/Best Buy. First, please hold me to this: I will never buy anything there again. I will, however, march myself back in there as long as this laptop is under warranty, to insist that they provide the services that we so deeply paid for. The laptop is on the blink again -- we are babying it along at this point. Somehow my husband figured out that if you squeeze the computer where the hard drive is, it will power up. Don't ask, it's ugly.

Anyway, here is what happened today: I showed up, BB sent an asst manager. I told my story, the judge asked the BB rep what she had to say. She produced some type of a document (I was not privy to it) that said BB left me a message at some point, notifying me that no data could be recovered from the hard drive and since I did not respond to that message, corporate policy is to destroy the hard drive 4 days after notification!!! Come on! You're kidding me! The judge at that point said, "well, that's bizarre"! I agree, for the record here.

HOWEVER, having said that, the judge stated that it would be difficult to put a dollar amount on my lost data, which I agreed it would be. He said that I would be entitled to the cost of the hard drive (big whoop), however, if the data couldn't be recovered from the hard drive, it wasn't worth anything. I contended that because I was potentially willing to pay over $1000 to have the data retrieved, at a minimum that is what it was worth to me. He didn't really go for that, so he gave me a judgement of $500, plus court costs. Now what will happen, I am not really sure about. The BB rep, in the hallway, told me she would give it to their lawyers and they will contact me. The judge, however, indicated that he thought their lawyers would appeal his decision. Can you even imagine that? Although they have lost me as a customer either way, once the warranty expires, but can you imagine them trying to fight $500? Go for it! The negative publicity is fine with me. The fact that they employed NO serious strategy to find the hard drive and tell me what happened to it is just unacceptable to me. I told the BB rep in the hallway that bottom line, their customer service was pitiful!

Veteran's Day

Ok, so yes, normally I don't think too much about Veteran's Day...it's a nice day off from work. But, I saw this on the Air Force weblink and it made me stop at least for a minute and think. Thank you to those veterans who read my blog, including my dad and my father-in-law. And thank you to those of you who are tomorrow's veterans -- those of you serving our country right now. God Bless.

Could it be possible? He's 15?!?!?

Happy birthday to Cody! Where does the time go? I can't believe today he is 15! Funny, I don't look a day over 30 :)

The Week in Review

We had a really busy week. Halloween is always fun, but waiting 'til the last minute to get costumes together...stressful. Cam decided he wanted to be a hippie (where does he get this stuff?); Kelsie was more difficult...we visited the Halloween store on Tuesday night and who knew...Halloween has become a 'holiday' for adults w/costumes that don't have enough material to them (at least the female costumes); at least that's the costumes they had at the store. It was disgusting! So...while waiting to pay for the hippie wig :), I noticed a sailor's hat -- $5.99, just the right price, so we grabbed that for Kelsie and the rest is history...


Ok, so call me naive...I took the kids and a couple of friends around to a few houses before leaving for 'Trunk Treats' up at Church. Before we left for Church, I put a bowl with candy in it out on the porch -- with a note. I heard rumors that some kids were taking more than 1 or 2 pieces :( If you were at our house and the bowl was empty, let me know and there will be a special treat for you :)

Here's the crew...minus our friend Meredith who also joined us for a few houses.

Hippie hair, complete with a pick. $14.99 well spent!

Our normal Cardinal Trunk up at Church -- we had quite a few posters left from last year, which again were a big hit. I need to check and see if I can lay my hands on some more b4 next Halloween. My friend Ruth did a great job organizing this event again this year. Over 350 kids came this year, it was amazing and great to see all of the neighborhood kids!

Friday night brought the end of the Fall Ball season. Cam's team played their last double header...BURRRR! Although it could have been colder, the wind cooperated thankfully, so it wasn't horrible. We came prepared with long underwear! Cam said it was horrible for him, though. His hands were pretty darn cold. They won 1 of the games, lost 1. Cameron pitched in both games and really did well. Until Spring Training...

Kelsie made the playoffs in her golf league! Woo hoo! She and Kenny headed out for the match Saturday morning. Cam & I went out to meet them at the last hole and were able to get this picture. Now, Kelsie was not a happy camper about her match -- but we tried to explain it's a tough game and you have to practice, practice, practice. After golf, we raced off to volleyball. I had my camera, but the games were so intense, I forgot to take any pictures! Kelsie's team won 2 of the games and lost 1, they really did great. 2 more weekends of volleyball for Kelsie's team.

Saturday night was our Church hayride/hot dog roast. The weather was great, and we had a great time until...

The HAY MONSTER attacked! Cameron was a crazy kid!!! The only hay left on the wagons was the hay we were sitting on! And if Cameron had his way, that would have been gone too!

I hope you all had a good week too!