Merry Christmas!

Annual Hump-up day

Managed to make the traditional double batch of HumpUp cookies in time for sharing at Christmas

What a blustery day!

The snow was melting over the weekend, then froze Monday.
Made for a pretty 'cool' ice sculpture!

Most schools in northern Michigan were closed today, but us poor working slobs still had to find their way out of the house to bring home the bacon!

Welcome to the work force Adam!

Well, Adam has joined the Jervis B. Webb team as a field technician! He spent the last week in a SmartCart class, reading AGV manuals and now is ready to brave the real world and is traveling to Jacksonville Florida today for further OJT.

The long hours should keep him out of trouble!

Now it's occupied

The crafting supplies are moved into the crafting room.

So, now it is offically a scrap room!








And the closet:

The scrap room

Is pretty much done. Of course it is just in time, as this is Dawn's birthday, as well as her present!

A coat of paint and new carpet can make a world of difference.

Compare with the photos from last month, and you could be impressed:

Where the desk was:


Where the bed was:

Time out for music

Saw my little girl's Winter concert. Got to sit front and center.


She beats to the sound of her own drum!


The steel drum makes beautiful music!

First real snow plowing of the season

Winter is getting harder on us old men!

Teenage boy = dirt!

Been cleaning out our oldest boy's room (as he moved out some 6 months ago), preparing for a makeover, I took some pictures.

As it is, I think I should have had him sign a lease with a damages clause!
His new landlords did, and they don't even know him!
This is about 12 years of living.

Enter the room that seldom had the boots taken off in the winter ("just have to check something on the computer real quick!"):



This one's pretty bad--you can see where the bed was, and protected the lower 18" of the wall. Above that, filth!


Here we can make out where the desk was, as the dirty boots went directly there:


You can almost make out the original color of the carpet at the bottom of this picture, by the closet door:


Sorry Adam, I just had to share this!


While I had the day off, I managed to string the rope for my stairwell insulated door:

Turkey Day!

We were able to have our kids (plus one!) join us for Thanksgiving, along with Dawn's mom. Rachel was being a shutterbug.


We all celebrated the day off in our own way.

Kitten in the snow

Beckie took Julie out in the snow. The poor little thing didn't know what to think of all that cold white stuff!

I'm back (AGAIN!)

"Funny" how 5 days can change into 12, seems like in no time flat!
You don't know how good it is to be home until you're just gone too much!

Made it back in time to post my vote in the election of the century too!

Hope your man won!

Missed Halloween

I didn't get to drive my girls to town for their annual candy haul.
Dang it! Missing out on the candy "inspection" process too!

Dawn's mom took the girls out with their friends.
Beckie (left) with her friends Michelle, Liz & Kasey.


Rach (right) with her friend Liz:


Overall, it appears Halloween went just fine without my help!

Leaving on a prop plane

Isn't that supposed to be "Leaving on a jet plane"? Well, leaving home via Pellston means you'll ride a turbo-prop until Detroit, then maybe you'll see a jet plane.

On the way to Oklahoma City for a 5 day excursion to finalize that software!

I'm back!

Got back today from being in Oklahoma City for 18 days (and 3 weekends) for work.
Wow, that's just too long in one shot!

Oh, by the way, today is 17 years for the company too.
Of course no one knows or cares!

Ain't nothin' like work on the weekend

Actually, isn't that song suppose to be "Workin' for the weekend"? Instead, here I am leaving home on Saturday to go to Oklahoma City for 7 days of work.

Just like that!

I had the Mitsubishi on Craig's list for all of 20 hours and it was sold.
I guess I didn't list it for a high enough price!

Labor day bridge Walk

For the first time, I did the 'touristy thing' with Rachel and crossed the mighty Mackinac bridge on foot. We were part of the 40,000+ people that crossed this year with the governor.
Of course she was gone by the time we got to the starting line at 7:19am, and a few people were in front of us.



We were watching the watchers as we crossed:


It was a most excellent day for a stroll, 5MPH wind, sun and 72 degrees:



A view behind us after we crossed the finish line 1:39 later. Of course, as the Governor finished her run in 35 minutes, 27 seconds, she was long gone.


After we found the Taurus, we found this view of the bridge:


Found some videos posted from the same day on YouTube

Took some pictures

To sell the DCM I bought last year:
http://nmi.craigslist.org/cto/829517456.html

Moving day - David is gone :(

A little trip to Ann Arbor with an overloaded van and trailer got David off to school. The balance of the family stayed in a hotel in Belleville so "we" can go school shopping tomorrow.
a rather sarcastic 'yeah'

Wow! We made it back from Disney!

Where to start? Well, tropical storm Fay dumped rain on Orlando for 6 of the 7 days were there! It was the first storm to make 4 landfalls in the state of Florida. Read all about it at Wikipedia!

Dawn posted a set of pictures on her blog too.

Tuesday was a travel day.
Everyone's at the airport on time. Adam is still pretty unsure of the whole thing.

Our tickets had us on separate planes once we got to Detroit. Adam and I had a direct flight to Orlando, that got off the ground a half hour late. Kind of odd how they made an announcement about problems with cargo, then separately looking for someone that checked a cat, then 30 minutes later an announcement that maintenance had to finish up their log before we could leave.

Dawn, David, Rebekah and Rachel had to go through Atlanta, but that leg was running late. They were told they would have to catch the next flight after their scheduled one, though it might be delayed or cancelled due to Faye's approach.

Went to the Hoop De Doo Review at our resort, which was a really great show, with our table right in the front row!

Wednesday:
Downtown Disney
Got up late and went to Downtown Disney in the tropical storm, spent the day shopping.

Ended the day at the Polynesian Resort's Luau Cove to watch Hula dancing and a Fire dancer.


Thursday:
Animal Kingdom:
Got up at 7 to ride horses, but (of course) Faye had other plans for that -- the horse rides were canceled for the day.

Visited Animal Kingdom, where we rode Expedition Everest twice, went on the Kimajamin Safari, and topped it off with 50 minute wait and a ride on the rapids.






That evening another record was set: the canceling of Epcot's IllumiNations fireworks show.


Our home away from home (in the swap!):


Friday: Epcot for Late magic hours

Laundry and swimming in the morning, after Adam saw a 4'+ snake in the pool the night before.

Ate in London, where Rachel got Bangers and mash.

A huge amount of rain where we watched Illuminations without Dawn, who had to go back to the room.




Saturday:
Hollywood studios

We had sunny weather until about 2:30, at which time a T-storm dumped on us.









Finished the day with Fantasmic

and a good old pillow fight:


Sunday at the Magic Kingdom was rather warm, and not a drop of rain was found all day:








The blurry picture doesn't do the fireworks justice for our last night in Florida:


Troops are anxious to go home, as now it is warming up since Fay has moved further north.