Christmas Card Picture and Letter

Okay, once again a LOOOOOONG overdue post. Here is this year's Christmas picture and letter. Somehow, this year, we never managed to get a picture of all of us together. So, I did a Picasa mosaic and came up with the "photo" below.

Hope to get on a more regular routine of posting. Thanks for hanging in there :-) See you soon.

1. Blain practicing his Cello
2. Adam and I at the Bellagio in Las Vegas
3. Hayden's 13th birthday - He & Christian are on their way to their first concert (Shinedown)
4. Blain and Parker at Parker's baseball game
5. Christian and Nicole - pre-Homecoming pics
6. Adam outside of Maple Grove Farms in St. Johnsbury, VT
7. Christian (snare drum) and Hayden (clarinet) getting ready for the FWB Christmas Parade
8. Hayden practicing his Baritone Saxophone for Jazz Band
9. Hayden and Parker hanging out at the beach
10. Blain and his clubs
11. Parker at the bat
    

Merry Christmas everyone! Boy has it been a busy year, but we are lucky to have our family, our health, and happiness as 2010 arrives. Last year’s incident with my gall bladder resulted in successful out-patient surgery with no problems since. Once again we spent a lot of time with band activities; for Hayden as he started with the Pryor Middle School bands and with Choctawhatchee H.S. as they prepared for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade! We enjoy helping out the band and while I continue as a fund raising chairman, Julie manages the band’s web site. Christian played snare drum for Marching Band, plays bass drum for “Indoor”, and still plays bass guitar in the church Praise Band. Hayden plays clarinet in the Pryor football and concert bands, and also played baritone sax for the jazz band – the instrument case stretches all the way across the van when he has to bring it home! Up in SC Blain continues to play the cello, and Parker stays very busy with sports (baseball and now basketball).

Spring cleaning was one of our chores this past year – we cleaned and helped renovate the H.S. band room. The band room was basically gutted and then refitted with new instrument lockers, carpet, and paint. It looks GREAT and is a source of pride for the students. We removed, cleaned, and stored hundreds of trophies; and have some fun videos on our YouTube site including “teenagers with sledge hammers” tearing out the old lockers. Julie also shared “Best Show 2008” honors with the Jekyll & Hyde cast from her Stage Crafters group. She hasn’t been as active on stage this year but she’s been busy building their scrapbooks as one of the Board Members. All those “mad craft skills” were also validated as she became a Stampin’ Up demonstrator and is now in business building her sales and ideas – she also has lots of great stamping/crafting videos on the YouTube site. Julie and I closed out March with a trip to Las Vegas during one of my work trips. We had a great time, saw one of the amazing “Cirque” shows, and got to visit Julie’s mom and Tony during the short 3-day trip.

April arrived with some fun April Fool’s Day pranks (chocolate covered “foam” marshmallow candy…) and some good times together with Blain and Parker for Spring Break. Along with some golf and quality time together we also got spent some time at the pistol range, where we tried out some of my guns I’ve been gathering for “when the zombies come to get us” – as Julie likes to joke. Seriously, it’s fun to learn gun safety and good shootin’ and I know our collection will continue to grow. Even Christian’s girlfriend Nicole joined us and she (and Julie) put a few rounds into the target (we’re still looking for the other shots!). In April Christian joined the work force with a job at Chick-Fil-A, including the 5-0 “D”, or 50% discount for employees. He still enjoys working there as much as his school and band schedule allow. Julie also chaperoned Winter Percussion to Dayton, Ohio for the championship and had a good time even though the team did not fare as well as in past years – more to work toward this year!

In May/June Julie and I spent a weekend on the Harley at Thunder Beach – an awesome motorcycle rally just an hour away in Panama City Beach. We checked out a great southern rock/classic rock band that helped us raise money for the Macy’s trip, got to catch up with some old friends from Korea and my “Baron’s Motorcycle Club” time, and sat on the side of the road watching bikes “cruise” the street along Florida’s beautiful white sand beaches. I also traveled to SC to see Parker play on the Spartanburg Phillies baseball team – they came back from a 2-loss start to battle a last inning game and take 2nd place over a long weekend tournament. It was great to see Parker play ball, and he, Blain, and I enjoyed the time together too. Back in FL Hayden also played baseball for his second year. Christian turned 17 and Blain & Parker turned 13 in May, and Julie and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. After successfully painting the kitchen together I think we’re good for a few more years, too!

During the summer break Julie and Hayden worked with our church’s Vacation Bible School, Blain enjoyed some extra learning with a Vocational Technical school program, and Parker continued with baseball. Blain visited FL for some vacation time and we got in some more golf too – he was part of the golf team at school this past year and is interested in continuing…he is starting early and learned a lot already. Julie and I went to Vermont for a week and loved the solitude and travel. We drove around northeast VT and enjoyed time on the porch reading & relaxing. It was also cold enough to have a fire in the woodstove at night – something I’m sure our “northern families” will grin at.J In July the roads got a bit more dangerous as Christian registered his own car! Actually he did an impressive job resurrecting an ’89 BMW that one of his friends had left to him, and the car runs fine for getting him to/from school and all of his activities. He is very proud to be a licensed driver and it does help out a LOT with all the running around we seem to do every week.

As summer wound down and school started back, I traveled on my annual “pilgrimage” to Korea for work, fun, and great friends. The football season started with all of the band activities and fund raising for Macy’s, and Hayden participated in a Robotics competition against kids up to H.S. age – we had a couple of fun weekends watching their robot work through the tasks and compete, and they learned a lot for “the next time”. Hayden turned 13 in October with his traditional “ice cream sundae burger” and a “kiss for the stuffed moose” at McGuire’s, in addition to his first concert (Shinedown) with Christian in Pensacola. Julie went to Chattanooga for a Stampin’ Up regional meeting, and Christian was named a Homecoming “Gentleman” for the H.S. TV news club. Julie was a proud Mom, for sure -- she still substitute teaches almost daily and enjoys keeping up with the school goings-on. I still work for L-3 and enjoy my work and occasional travel supporting Air Operations Center training for our brave and busy men & women that serve our nation.

So as December arrives once again Julie and I wish you happiness and thanks for what you mean to us. We feel blessed and hope that things are also good in your lives and the lives we all can touch. Even with times as tough overall as they are we have so much to appreciate, be thankful for, and be thoughtful about. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We – including our dog Lexxie -will travel to upstate NY (everyone wants SNOW) for Christmas, but you can keep up with our activities and photos with the on-line links below:

http://www.juliemichellesblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.juliemichelle.smugmug.com/
www.myspace.com/karaokejulie

Vermont Vacation Part 2

More Pictures from Vermont

1 Mom and Pop's Sugar House. This is the syrup that Adam buys every year. It wasn't until this year that I realized why. Their property is right next to ours. So the trees they "sugar" are as close as you can possibly get to getting syrup from our own land.

2 We enjoyed an early birthday dinner at Elixir in White River Junction, VT. It was so delicious!

3 A giant can of syrup outside of the Maple Grove Farms Factory. We wanted to take a tour, but they were remodeling the floor so we had to settle for the gift shop.

4 We had a great time playing Scrabble almost every night.

5 I so enjoyed having time to read. During our vacation I was able to finish the last two books of the Twilight series (Eclipse and Breaking Dawn). Such good books - especially when you curl up next to a cozy wood burning stove.

6 A giant block of cheese painted on the wall at the Cabot Creamery. We toured the creamery and saw how they make various cheeses.

7 The Maple Grove Farms Factory (that we couldn't tour)

8 Mom and Pop's Maple Syrup Sign

9 Stirring the cheese curd and adding salt before it gets pressed into molds.

10 Adam's Dad's Headstone

11 Mom and Pop's Maple Syrup - did you know it takes 40 gallons of Maple Sap to make 1 gallon of Maple Syrup

12 Cheese samples at the Cabot Creamery. I dared Adam to ask one of the employees "Who cut the cheese"? He wouldn't do it, and I couldn't do it without busting out laughing. Heck, I'm LOLing right now just thinking about it. "Who cut the cheese"? ROFLMAO I'm such a sucker for potty humor.

Some Pics From Our Vermont Vacation 2009

Adam and I had a GREAT time in Vermont. Now we are back and there is so much to Blog about I don't even know where to start. I took hundreds of pictures (big surprise). I'm going to start with some nature shots and add more as I can. When y'all get sick of hearing about Vermont just let me know :-)

1 The Family House. Well loved and appreciated by lots of family members.
2 Queechee Gorge - White River Junction VT
3 One of the many Brooks that you find all over this area
4 Texas Falls - Hancock, VT - spectacular!
5 It rained almost everyday
6 The temperatures were cool during our stay. Sweet Adam built a fire in the wood stove on the cold nights to keep me toasty.
7 The meadow behind the house.
8 My cool boots. They may not be stylish, but they kept my feet dry in the many puddles caused by all of the rain.
9 A great wildlife hangout - we just never happen to see any when we're there. I really wanted to see a Moose, but no such luck.
10 Adam and I had a picnic lunch here on our way to Cabot, VT.
11 Scenic spot - this is a bigger picture of the wildlife hangout in picture #9.
12 Another scenic spot - this one is less than half a mile down the road from the house. The picture does it NO justice. It is a breathtaking valley with low hanging clouds and the cutest little red roofed house.

Another Great Week in Review

Found an old post that I started, but never got around to actually posting. I will be taking a break from my blog this week. So this will have to tide y'all over until I return :-) By the way, the next entry you see will have written by a 40 year old - EGADS! Can you believe it? I can't!! We plan to spend my birthday evening at the Flightline eating good food and drinking cold beer and singing karaoke. So, if you're in the area . . . stop on by. You'll have a good time, I promise :-)

Adam, Mark and I went for a ride up to Ponce de Leon. We stopped at a place called Sally's to eat. Good burgers and awesome Southern veggies!!

We really enjoyed the ride along Bob Sikes Parkway. It was lot more interesting than the roads we usually take. We even saw a family of turkeys.

Right before school got out, we had a "Car Smash" fundraiser for the band.
Hayden prepares for battle.

Hayden takes a whack! The kids had a lot of fun beating the crap out of this junker.

The kids were gone one weekend, so we decided to paint the kitchen. We did it too! It felt really good to get it done.

Okay, that's it for now. I still have lots more to catch y'all up on, but it will have to wait. See ya' on the flip side of 39 :-)

Adam and Blain headed out early Wednesday morning to play golf. They had a great time and were able to get in nine holes before the heat really started getting bad.

On the cart.

On the course.

We went to the Mall the other day. Near the Food Court they have a "Wind Tunnel" machine. The boys got in and for a few seconds they felt "hurricane force" winds. Turns out the machine only goes up to 79 MPH. That is just 5 mph over the minimum for a Level 1 hurricane. It was still fun, but during hurricane season we have felt real winds stronger than that. Oh well, it was fun for them and fun to watch.

Now - Hayden and Blain at the Mall.

Then - Hayden at the campground during Hurricane Katrina.

Yesterday Adam and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. He brought me a beautiful bouquet of daisies. Daisies and Sunflowers are my favorites! He also brought home my favorite chocolates. Then we went out for sushi.

Aren't they gorgeous!

Yum!! We had a Volcano roll, a Destin roll, a Crunchy Shrimp roll, and a Dragon roll.

Style Marcher Band Room renovation continues. We haven't been able to put the trophies back in the Band Room yet. But, we had to move them out of the concession closet that we have been storing them in. So, several of us spent an evening moving them from concession storage to the equipment room. Fun!

We put two rows of seats down in the van, and still could only fit 1/4 of them.

Blain rides in the back of a pickup carrying another load.
Empty shelves awaiting trophies - forgot to take an after picture :-(

Friday Fun

Hayden and Blain had fun at the music store on Friday. Playground Music hosts a Guitar Hero competition during the summer. Each Friday kids sign up to compete. The winner gets a $25 gift certificate and a chance to compete in the finals at the end of the summer. Last year's winner got an autographed guitar (can't remember who autographed it). Hayden and Blain were both eliminated in their first round, but they had a good time anyway. There's always next week :-)

Hayden and his competition go head to head on "Expert." The song was by Metallica (can't remember the name).

Blain and his competition go at it on "Medium" to "Toxicity" by System of a Down.

After dinner we went "Cosmic" bowling (blacklights and loud music). It was a lot fun! Everyone did pretty darn good, and no one fell on their rears (the floor was really slippery). I did sustain a sports injury :-( The ball thumbhole tore a chunk of my skin off. I had to get a band-aid from the snack bar :-)

This pic was taken before the blacklights got turned on.

We had to call on our technical experts (the boys) a time or two when the computer got our scores wrong.

Summer's Here

And we are in full swing!! Adam and Blain got back from Parker's Baseball tournament (pics to follow) on Monday. Blain will be staying with us for 2 weeks. So far we have been to the Base Pool, the Skating Rink, the Library and today it's the Golf Course (I'm staying home for that one - too hot!!)

Being Goofy at the Pool

Of course the boys have also managed to squeeze in time to play Guitar Hero and whatever shoot 'em up games they are into these days. I can't even watch those :-(

Last night we played "LIFE". The new edition "Twists and Turns" is so much more fun than the version from back in the day. I recommend it! There's no money, or paper to keep track of. It's all done with a hand held gizmo and debit cards.

I started out as a Strawberry Picker. As the game progressed, I got "promoted" to a Homemaker, a Nanny, a Clown, a Wedding/Event Planner, an International Translator, and was just about to be a Television Minister when the game ended.

Hayden got a major haircut yesterday. It's still not short, but it is shorter than it was and cooler for summer. She also thinned it out quite a bit. That boy has thick, thick hair!

Before

During - another lady was absent mindedly sweeping the floor. She suddenly looked up and said to Hayden, "Is all of this hair YOURS"? WOW! This was taken when he was about 3/4 finished.

After - so thrilled to be having his picture taken - NOT!

Out to dinner at Logan's. They were out of big tables, so Adam and I sat at our own table next to the kiddo's table.