Happy New Year:)

Woke up to a light dusting of snow this morning, which will apparently turn to rain later, and then instead of magical powdery stuff, I guess it will just be....yuck.

Thanks to a gift certificate:) I finally got one of the books that has been on my Amazon.com wishlist for a couple of years

Mysteries and Histories: Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes by Wes Oleszewski

having grown up in Michigan, and also living there the year the Edmund Fitzgerald sank, which I've never forgotten....I've just always been interested since then in stories about shipping on the Lakes....yes, I am That much of a geek :)

My book came yesterday, Woo Hoo! and I'm almost done with it.

of course, at the same time, I'm still reading The Sandbox , which has been really cool......a lot of the blog posts that are featured in there I remember reading 'back in the day', and it's like revisiting old friends.

Well, mainly just wanted to wish everyone "Happy New Year"

we have felt so very blessed in 2009, and want to wish everyone a safe, happy, healthy and blessed 2010!



Christian Glitter by www.christianglitter.com

The Balloon lives on.......

Remember the Balloon I bought for Tony back in October while he was recovering from his heart surgery?
Well, it's still hanging around.....(although the cats have destroyed the ribbon that was attached to it.)
It's been floating in a corner of our living room all these months, until the other day I noticed that, as more helium has been slowly leaking out of it, it was starting to drift across the room towards the Christmas tree.

So, I moved it to our bedroom.....forgetting that we run a fan at night.

The result of that was at about 3 a.m. the next morning? we were suddenly awakened by the noise of something Caught in the fan....and when Tony yelled 'what the heck?!' and threw his arm out as he sat up?

His arm hit the balloon and it started singing "Don't worry,Be Happy"

Heck of a way to wake up........still Laughing :)

Christmas pics

Posted our Christmas pics on both MySpace and Facebook, for those of you who are on neither of those sites? the pictures can be found on Facebook Here

Merry Christmas!

Let it snow,let it snow!

Official total says 16 inches, with 1-3 more possible (its still snowing, 24 hours+ since it started!)

The last December choir concert

April with her cousin at her last Holiday concert for the choir......the years go by so swiftly!!

Christmas cookies are done:)

Tony spent the last week doing his Christmas baking :) and here's April helping him decorate the sugar cookies the other day..........

as Homer Simpson might say?.....Mmmm......sugar cookies....oatmeal cookies....peanut butter balls.....-potato candy.....fudge.....chocolate chip and M & M cookies.......

First snow of this season:)

We were walloped today with the first snow of the season, and Tony got this great pic of the front of the townhouse, thought I'd share:)

Happy Thanksgiving

Comments by ZingerBug.com


As we give Thanks today for the many blessings in our lives, wishing you and yours a blessed and bountiful Thanksgiving.

Just popping in....

Son Ben's fiancee, Emma (and grandson Aiden's mom:) has started a blog to chronicle the rough time she's currently going through, you can find it Here
keeping them in our prayers here!

other than that, not much else new......the entire fam (sans myself:( will be gathering soon in the Great White North, wish I could be there, ah well....some other year!!

Tony continues healing well. all the rest of us are doing ok, several of us here seem to have had some 'stomach thing' this weekend, so there's not a lot of energy around here today, which is too bad, as it's a gorgeous day out!

and I'm off to catch up on some blog reading, plus I Really need to finish off some letters for soldiers and get them out in the mail......

and then, of course, there's always time to watch the Redskins Lose,lol........sorry Tony!

Pic from my HHS 30 year reunion

Picture of Tony and I taken from my 30 year reunion dinner ....I think he looks pretty good, for someone who was 16 days post-major heart surgery when this was taken :)

(for those of you who might be confused? I went to 3 different high schools......I grew up in Michigan and went to Parchment H.S. for 2 years, went to Monseignour John R. Hackett H.S. in Kalamazoo my junior year...yay! for Catholic high schools.....and then moved to Virginia and went to Harrisonburg H.S. my senior year.)

The Healing is continuing....

Tony continues to do well in his recovery, and I went back to work last Thursday and worked 4 days straight,lol, after being off so long.....I also got Older, we celebrated my birthday on Oct.18 and son Kyle (or should I say 'former son Kyle',lol) bought me a cake that said

"Happy Almost 50 Mom"...........ROFL.

Dustin comes home for a visit tomorrow, and so I expect it'll be another silent time on the old blog here.....we'll be busy:)

Blessings along the way.......

We were so blessed in so many ways, during our recent ordeal (more my Husband's ordeal than mine, of course, no one cracked My chest open!)......

we were blessed that Tony had Not had a heart attack before the blockage was discovered, as the docs had said they're not sure he'd have survived it.

we were blessed that, although the blockages in his heart were so bad, there was no other damage to the Rest of his heart.

we were blessed that we Hadn't taken our vacation yet, to go to Michigan for my 30th reunion at one of my former high schools, so I still had some time left to take off from work.

we were blessed that the docs decided to admit him, and rearranged their surgery schedule to get his surgery done so quickly.

we were blessed by so many prayers and good wishes, from so many loving family and friends and co-workers.

we were blessed that my Mom is so tech-savvy, and kept so many folks updated for us, so I didn't have to worry about that.

we were blessed that I had a room provided for the whole visit, so that I didn't have to drive 2 1/2 hours to come home, and keep having to run back and forth.

we were blessed by so many random people in the hospital, like the nurse whose name I ever even knew, who went out of her way to tell me about the other hospital's cafeteria.....I just crossed paths with her several times, she wasn't even one of Tony's nurses......

or the folks who it turned out lived in the same area, who before they left from Their hospital stay, gave us better directions for how to drive home.....

my previously mentioned 'Angel' friend, who took time out of her weekend to do so much for both me, and Us :)

one of the most unexpected blessings, for me, was the last night of our stay (although I didn't know it was the last night at the time:).......
I had left Tony's room, and stopped at the drink machine to get a drink.....and heard the most beautiful piano music. There was a piano in the main lobby, and the atrium I was in on the second floor overlooked the lobby.......I looked down, and someone was playing the piano.

sat down to listen, and the person played for about half an hour, I just closed my eyes and listened to the beautiful melodies, and felt my cares sloughing off......a true moment that 'refreshed the soul'....a delightfully calming way to end that evening.

I could go on and on, we really felt the hand of the Lord covering us in so Many ways throughout this.........

but the bottom line for both of us was, for all the above and so many other reasons......we have felt Truly Blessed.

Adventures in Hospital Land part 2

The other story I wanted to share is that, on the weekends, the cafeteria in the V.A. center that families can use is closed.
(and the few times I ventured out from the hospital? I Always got lost, lol.....but, I've now seen Howard University...nice university.....although not really right next door to the V.A. hospital:)

anyway, there is a hospital right across the street from the V.A. hospital in DC, and happily, one of the nurses at the V.A. had told me that the cafeteria at the hospital across the street Was open on the weekends.....

so, on the Sunday, I decided to walk over there......to get there,it was kind of a long city block.

On my way to the cafeteria, I passed a gift store at the other hospital, so I decided to stop back by there after I got my food. They didn't allow flowers or cards in the SICU, so I was looking for balloons.

I found "The Most Annoying Get Well Balloon EVER",lol....it Sings...."Don't Worry,Be Happy"...every time you tap the balloon.

So ,of course, I bought it :)

(LOL......which led Tony to say later....A"what kind of nurse Are you?"....and B"why would you
Do that to someone recovering from surgery"??????)

after several days, he said "ok, I think it's funny Now".

the real story though, was if only someone could have caught on video, me walking back from the cafeteria/gift shop....I was carrying a bag with my food, had decided to buy both a drink And a coffee......and I had the balloon ribbon wrapped around my hand, because it was really Windy out.

so, every time the wind blew, it blew the @#$% balloon into my head.....and then that %$#@ Song would start playing again....while at the same time, more of my coffee kept sloshing out the top of the cup over my hand and shirt front.....

(there's a reason I'm a card carrying member of "Dork's r Us",lol, if you hadn't figured that out by now:)

halfway back, I was thinking to myself, as the balloon once again bopped me in the head and started singing 'don't worry, be happy".....'if I hadn't spent so much money on this *&%$ balloon? I'd pop the darn thing right now!"

anyway....just another story from our totally unexpected and unplanned 'adventure' in hospital land :)

Adventures in Hospital Land Part I

For the 'lighter side' of our recent sojourn at the V. A. Hospital in DC , just wanted to share the story of when Tony first woke up after surgery and was still on the ventilator (they don't immediately remove people from the ventilator post-surgery)

I had been told that it was very likely he wouldn't remember my first few brief visits back to the Surgical ICU (SICU).....the first visit, he wasn't awake.

The Second visit, he grabbed my hand and started trying to spell onto my palm....however, he just kept drawing 2 lines, so I really couldn't figure out what word he was trying to spell....I said 'honey, I'm just not that good at charades".....the look he gave me,lol....

The next visit, he first spelled "W H A T " and when I said "what?" he nodded, so then I said "well.....what 'what'?"again, the 'look',lol....

then he kept holding up 4 fingers, and then spelling "H E A .." and before he could finish I kept saying "no, honey, they didn't have to do a quadruple bypass , they only had to do a triple bypass" (see, I was so sure he was trying to spell "H E A R T" and asking if they had had to bypass all 4 arteries to the heart....I also finish other people's sentences,lol:)

Finally, 45 minutes later.....I realize he's trying to spell "4 Head"......I said "oh would you like me to wipe off your forehead?" the look on his face,lol, said "my gosh, she finally gets it!"

The next morning, when they had taken the vent tube out, I asked him "how much do you remember?" He looked at me and said "One, you're not that good at charades, and Two.....don't try and finish people's words for them when they are spelling them out!"

darn it...what happened to "he'll be too groggy to remember much" ? :)

Yay,we're Home:)

On October 8th, Tony had triple heart bypass surgery.....he has come through fine, and is recovering well, and we just now got home from the hospital today:)

Thanks for everyone who sent so much love, support, and prayers.

More later........

Happy Birthday,Mom:)

Hope you have a wonderful day!
September 12,2009

Alan Waddell's Book

For several years, I followed Alan Waddell's website Walk Sydney Streets

his family has now completed the book he'd been compiling, and there is ordering information for it Here

To Alan's family....your father's website was, and still is, one of the bright spots on the Internet. He was, and continues to be, an inspiration to many.....and he is missed.

This is cool...how does the internet see You?

My brother-in-law sent me this, pretty cool :)

http://personas.media.mit.edu/personasWeb


Personas is a component of the Metropath(ologies) exhibit, currently on display at the MIT Museum by the Sociable Media Group from the MIT Media Lab. It uses sophisticated natural language processing and the Internet to create a data portrait of one's aggregated online identity. In short, Personas shows you how the Internet sees you.


Enter your name, and Personas scours the web for information and attempts to characterize the person - to fit them to a predetermined set of categories that an algorithmic process created from a massive corpus of data. The computational process is visualized with each stage of the analysis, finally resulting in the presentation of a seemingly authoritative personal profile.In a world where fortunes are sought through data-mining vast information repositories, the computer is our indispensable but far from infallible assistant.Personas demonstrates the computer's uncanny insights and its inadvertent errors, such as the mischaracterizations caused by the inability to separate data from multiple owners of the same name. It is meant for the viewer to reflect on our current and future world, where digital histories are as important if not more important than oral histories, and computational methods of condensing our digital traces are opaque and socially ignorant.

Personas was created by Aaron Zinman, with help from Alex Dragulescu, Yannick Assogba and Judith Donath

August 8......again

Well, it's August 8th again.....and, as usual, time for me to re-post about my own personal memory of President Nixon's resignation....I posted this last year
Down Memory Lane

and it's Still the same 'memory',lol, so I'll just re-post the link to my previous post (which I think links back to my previous-previous post? I'm going to get lost, I can already tell,LOL)

in other news? Tony bought April a car, and Kyle bought himself a new car.....so our driveway is full now :)

and we are off today to a Lavender farm, sounds RELAXING, which is about what speed I want to achieve this weekend.

Enjoy your weekend!

Need a Bicycle for your One to Five year old?

My brother-in-law, Adam Tracking the Grizz is an avid cyclist

and he's recently become a dealer for Strider Bikes
(from their website: The Strider™ running bike teaches kids age 1-5 years old how to balance and steer a two-wheeler.)

If you're interested? check out his website for his dealership , called (appropriately enough:)

Adam's Bike Shop

The Anniversary of the Moon Landing

Have seen people posting all over about it, my particular memory is that we were at Grandma's house in Clearwater,FL and we stayed up late to watch it........and sister Sue fell asleep Just before the moon walk came on!

1969, I'd have been almost 9 years old. I can still see in my mind's eye the living room at Grandma's, I remember thinking it was cool that we were in FL while it was happening.....like being in the state where the rocket had taken off from made us more a part of what was going on,lol.

Farewell, Frank McCourt

Time has the story here
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1911633,00.html

I remember how blown away I was, when I first read 'Angela's Ashes'.

Godspeed, sir, and rest in peace.

Happy Father's Day!

Wishing all the Fathers in my family a Wonderful Day! :)

More pics from Court Days

Here's the rest of the pictures from Court days.

"Court Days"

Here's just a few pictures of April in her costume during 'Court Days" 2 weeks ago

(...the reason for the wait is that our camera suffered a fatal accident, and so we had to borrow my uncle's camera for me to take pictures, and he is forwarding the pictures to me as he has time)

April did a great job, and ,LOL, when I first got there, I walked right past her without recognizing her!!!

She later participated in a skit that I found hilarious, because it was a group of ladies in 1860's costume discussing 'modern medicine' and remedies that they used....how times have changed!

School is out for April as of last Thursday, and we are supposed to pick up the pool this coming Friday, Yay!:)

Not much to say.....

Well, if you judged our lives by what I post here on the 'family blog', there's not much going on, huh?
but really, how many times can you write......."went to work, came home"?....LOL
(there's a Reason this blog is subtitled 'watching paint dry')

A Red Thread to China, the sis and bro-in-law's blog, is going 'private'......so head on over there and see what to do, if you want to continue following their story.

I have been spending most of my time on the Internet lately doing my research on Fallen Soldiers for the volunteer work I do for the Soldiers Angels Living Legends team.......sadly, too many fallen heroes lately, my thoughts and prayers are with all of their families.

other than that......the school year is winding down for April, and it boggles my mind to think she'll be a Senior next year!! Kyle comes by on a regular basis to do his laundry,lol. I keep up with the family news on Facebook, and mostly it's just the same old, same old around here. I Really miss having a pool, but we put a pool that was on sale on Layaway yesterday.....Yay!!!

Dustin seems to be doing well.......working hard. Havent' heard from Ben and Emma lately, but I'm sure they're busy,too.......life seems to be on fast forward some days......at least I had my recent 3 day weekend to recharge a little. I'm SO looking forward to Michigan in Oct, for my 30 year reunion of the high school I went to for most of my school years, even though I moved to Virginia for my senior year.

This upcoming weekend is my weekend to work, but I managed to be able to take a day off for Sat, to see April participate in the 'Court Days' that they have downtown..........she'll be wearing a period costume, hoop skirt and all, I'll have to get pics of that.....should be pretty cool :)

and that's the latest exciting news from our neck of the woods.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms in my family,
and Happy Mother's Day to all Moms!



Christian Glitter by www.christianglitter.com

The dog killed the pool:(

Well, actually, I think it was the Owner who Let the dog out who 'killed the pool'....which would be...ME.
Tony had started setting the pool up yesterday, and saw 5 small tears he needed to patch, so he stopped filling it up and patched them and left them to dry.

And then yours truly let Brownie out into the back yard and Forgot about her being out there, alone with the pool......until Tony asked me "where's the dog? did you ever let her back in??"

at which point we both raced down the basement stairs to look out into the backyard.......and saw a blissfully happy, incredibly mud and sand-covered dog cavorting across the vinyl bottom of the pool in joyous abandon.

I can laugh about it now:) at how gosh-darned Happy the dog looked........but I sure didn't feel happy last night! while viewing the long gashes that her nails had ripped into the vinyl.

So, it's 'goodbye, pool.......you served us wonderfully for 2 whole summers, and we had a great time with you" (and I think for awhile the husband was considering carting both Wife and Dog to the dump,LOL, along With the pool !!)

April asked later in the evening "what are we getting Mom for Mother's Day?" and her Dad replied "apparently, a POOL!" (don't think that was really on the gift list, until I decided to let Brownie outside:) so see, there's a positive side to everything......now, my bad decision and forgetfulness led to an easy gift-buying decision for my family......LOL.

My Easter gifts

It's taken me too long to find the time to get this uploaded! but what a nice surprise this was to come home to just before Easter:)

(and what did I get Tony?LOL......flower Seeds for him to plant, since he's been saying for 2 years he wants to put a flower bed in the back yard.......like the exercise bike for Christmas, this just proves that I'm a Practical gift giver, and my husband is the Romantic gift giver,lol)

Our 'she-kitten' is a 'he-kitten",LOL

And so we found out last Friday that our kitten we rescued and Thought was a 'she'.....turns out to be a "he".....LOL.

Happy Birthday,Bro:)

Hope you had a great day!
(I always forget the time difference,sigh)

Sis Tracy has more here
Happy Birthday, Uncle Kirby!

"Little boxes....."

So yesterday while Tony and I were driving to the Highland Maple Festival

we were listening to the local radio station there WVLS 89.7 FM

They play an eclectic song list, as it's hard to get stations over there in the mountains,so I was happily singing along to several oldies that came on (and those of you who know me? know that I Can't carry a tune,lol......so, Tony was suffering:)

Anyway, I guess it was hearing the oldies earlier that made me think of this song
Little Boxes by Malvina Reynolds

when we passed a little subdivision on a hillside while driving back home. (it would be cool at this point if I could insert a picture of said subdivision, but I am more famous for the pictures I Didn't take, than those I Do,lol:)

I started singing the song, and Tony was like "what in the World are you singing?????" I'm like,"Dude, you never heard this song?!"

so, I went looking for it when I came home, I found the song on YouTube

YouTube Pete Seeger:Little Boxes

(and I'm sure it's the Pete Seeger version I remember, from 'back in the day')

while searching for it, I found that the song was the opening song for the first three seasons of the Showtime series Weeds ....just an interesting side note, I've never seen that series.

But, I digress, here's the pics we Did take yesterday

Highland Maple Festival 2009



it was a perfect day, just a little chilly but not too much, we had a great time:)
and now, we are Much fatter,lol, what with maple donuts and maple sugar candy and maple fudge ...........

Links of my Brother's recent interviews

Sharing some of the links with interviews with my brother, Kirby.

CNBC Video: US is "Wasting Taxpayers' Money"



CNBC Video G20's Plan Lacks Detail



CNBC Video: Which Automakers Will Ride Out this Crisis?


CNBC Video: Is US Debt Still Desirable to China?


I highly respect what my brother has to say , and I hope more folks will listen.


(oh, and just in case you're saying to yourself......"is Kirby really her brother?"
You don't have to take My word for it,lol........my sister posted about all of us back in 2007, over at
A Red Thread to China:Siblings )

Happy St. Patrick's Day

One of my favorite singers....enjoy!

More Pet Pics

Our Day at the Zoo last weekend

Went to The National Zoo last weekend with my oldest son and his fiancee and my grandson and April

and had a great time!:)

My Anniversary Gift:)

A map of the US with spoons from each of the 50 states:)

(I got Tony a Redskins steering wheel cover and Redskins floor mats,but forgot to take pics before they were put into use:)

Happy Birthday to my Little Sister:)

Happy 1 Year Anniversary,Feb.28th

woo hoo! been married for one year now, to the best husband in the world!:)

Reading

via friend Guido at Atlantic Lines
(and apparently also making the rounds on Facebook, but I never seem to have time to respond to any of the 'tagged' notes I get on there)

The BBC say the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on their list. How many have you read?
Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an ‘x’ before those you have read.
2) Tally your total at the bottom.


Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
X The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
X Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
X Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
X To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
X The Bible - (parts of it, never read all)
X Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
X Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
X Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
X Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
Complete Works of Shakespeare
X Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
X The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Middlemarch - George Eliot
X Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
Bleak House - Charles Dickens
War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
X The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
X Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
X Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
Emma - Jane Austen
Persuasion - Jane Austen
X The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
X The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
X Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
X Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
X Animal Farm - George Orwell
X The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
X A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
X Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Atonement - Ian McEwan
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
X Dune - Frank Herbert
Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
X Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
X The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
X Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
On The Road - Jack Kerouac
Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
Moby Dick - Herman Melville
Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
Dracula - Bram Stoker
X The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
Ulysses - James Joyce
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
Germinal - Emile Zola
Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
Possession - AS Byatt
X A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Color Purple - Alice Walker
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
X Charlotte’s Web - EB White
The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
X Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
X Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
X The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
X Watership Down - Richard Adams
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
X The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas (read it in French,lol, sure couldn't do that Now!)
Hamlet - William Shakespeare
X Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo


Total: 36

Happy 70th, to my Dad:)

Wishing Dad a Happy 70th Birthday!






and Tracy chimes in with Birthdays )

Happy Birthday,Kyle!

Happy 23rd, Son:)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope everyone has a lovely day:)

Thoughts from my brother on Fox Business News

My brother,Kirby Daley, appeared on Fox Business news this morning,
and then also at this link on their interactive web broadcast.

I couldn't watch it, had to work......but here's a bit of the video from the webcast




the thoughts of a man I respect a great deal, who has been sounding a warning since 2007.

My brother on Fox Business News again:)

Brother Kirby is appearing on Fox Business News this morning from 5-7 a.m. EST.........

And will also be on at Noon EST on their interactive business link here

http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/entertainment/check-foxbusinesscom-live-weekdays-noon/


(which I'll be at work, so I'll miss the webcast, darn!)

Go, Kirby:)

Slideshow of Welcome Home and Random Hawaii pics

Finally Blogging the Hawaii trip:)

Well, it's only taken me a week,lol....but I had to upload pics and videos, and the week was just too busy to get it done most evenings.

(I'm going to split this post up between here and the 'Mail Call!' blog)

The above pic is a 'teaser' for you to click on the picture links, be warned! I had about 234 pictures from the 330 we took, to choose from to upload.....and then I got confused uploading them,LOL....but I tried to pick out the best ones.

Besides welcoming Dustin home at about 1:00 a.m. on Jan. 27th, while we were in Hawaii we also drove to the North Shore a few times, visited the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor, visited the Punchbowl Veteran's cemetery, and drove around Diamond Head to the eastern side of the island to take a hike up to the Makapuu Point lighthouse (pictured above)

even though it was often overcast and rainy and a little chilly (for Hawaii...we missed an ice storm back home while we were gone, so I'm Not complaining) Oahu was still absolutely beautiful, and we had a fabulous time!!!

so, here go the links:

The photos I posted on Facebook

First Album

(the link for album 2 will be on the other blog,it's mainly the welcome home pics)

Album 3

Album 4

Album 5

(there's another album from Punchbowl cemetery, that link will be on the other blog......and the story will be over there)

Now, for the video links....I posted the videos we took on MySpace (I have been uploading pictures and videos half the day here,LOL.

The 'Welcoming Ceremony' video link I'll put on the Mail Call! blog, but here are some nice videos we took of beaches and waves:

surfers at North Shore beach

more of beach at north shore

waves crashing (we saw some Beautiful sights on our hike, and took several of these)

waves crashing again

waves crashing 2

waves crashing on eastern side of the island

and this last one is of a beach near the lighthouse

a beach video (with a fire truck beeping as it backed up, towards the end of the video,lol)

well, I think that's got the 'blogging the Hawaii trip' covered! Enjoy!

The link to the Welcome Home part of the post is Here

Back to 'Real Life',LOL

Ok, so last week we were Here



and tonight, it's doing this......






back to reality,lol:)



(I'm still working on sorting through all the vacation pics...it'll prob take me all week! between work, etc......and, of course, the addiction to Wii Golf,lol, have to factor in time to play a few rounds of that)

Aloha,Baby! :)

Off to Paradise:)

HUGE Thank you to Kyle, for watching the homefront while we're gone!!!!!

(and thanks to Tracy and Adam, for taking such a great pic back in 2003!)

See y'all when we get back!

Happy 17th, April, on Jan.21rst:)

Wishing you a wonderful day!

Updates (on 'watching paint dry':)

Well, after spending eons of time voting for Mom and Dad's dog, he didn't make it to the next phase of the contest:( ah,well, we still love you, Teddy!

It's cold and rainy and gloomy here today.......but just in case you were wondering?

Hawaii Weather today....Oahu forecast

Sunny, haze. Highs around 78. Light winds becoming south around 10 mph in the late morning and afternoon.

(not much longer till we're there.....Woo Hoo!!!!!:)

Did I mention that April is once again in the musical this year? They're doing " Hello,Dolly! "
I made the comment to a friend that I just thought that was a weird choice for the musical this year......and she reminded me that the Pixar movie, Wall-E had elements inspired by Hello,Dolly! Wall-E meets Hello,Dolly!

(so, yeah, I guess I understand the choice better now:)

actually, I'm kind of looking forward to the musical.....out of all the years I either helped as the stage crew on high school musicals, or went to See high school musicals? I don't remember ever seeing that one.

and that's all my exciting news for today:)

Happy Birthday,Tony! on Jan.6th :)

Happy Birthday, to a wonderful husband and father, and to my best friend:)