As she reports that things were dry in Hannibal for the 4th... maybe too dry

Went home for the 4th of July. Had a good time - hung out with the ruthless and the toothless at Tanyard Gardens and heard a great band called Torque on Thursday night, saw lots of old cronies. Hung with the family on Friday, nearly broke my neck on a stupid carnival ride, and watched the fireworks from Union Street - perfect view!! Frog Jumping on Saturday night, and then a nice (thought short) visit with Katie and Regan on Saturday night. That pretty much sums it up: a little beer, family, friends, and a whole bunch of naps :) What more do you need from a vacation!! No mud volleyball makes things very different... drier, in more ways than one!

Happy Independence, all!

As she looks at the pictures from the weekend and says, OUCH

Great time had by all this weekend. We went to Kansas City to celebrate Anne's birthday by attending the Cardinals/Royals Game. We tailgated in the parking lot before the game, "watched" the game (I think Jimmy and I were in the line for beer for the majority of the time), went down to the Power & Light District downtown KC, and then it gets a wee bit blurry. Here are a couple of pics... you might guess which one is from the beginning of the night and which is from the end. :)

As she reports on our fun in the (not so much) sun

Well, we had a pretty great weekend, all things considered. Grace, Faith, Auntie Anne, Jimmy and I all met in St. Louis and had a fun weekend planned to continue the 6th birthday celebration. The Zoo, Grant's Farm, a little bit of this and that, some swimming, and so on. Saturday, we made it to the zoo and had a great time. Favorite sights were: the penguins, the hyenas, and for goodness sake - riding the TRAIN!! The showers were scattered and the cool temperatures were enough to keep the crazy crowds away. We did luck out and see Regan, Chris, Ethan and baby Gracie though!! Enter the rain. Our big outing on Sunday ended up being TARGET. So, Faith and Grace are now mean UNO players (though it is no secret when Grace gets dealt a Draw 4 Wild card), and we've seen the Adventures of SharkBoy and LavaGirl more than anyone needs to. But it was a great, relaxing holiday weekend, and the rain probably saved us from overdoing it. And who can beat putting on the goggles and playing in the hose in the backyard, anyway???

As she reflects on being so lucky to have a deer-hunting husband...

Last weekend, lucky us, Jimmy finally got his deer head back from the taxidermist. He's been dying for me to get a picture up for all to see. I found a picture of the deer, au natural (i.e. BEFORE stuffing) and here it is. So proud! Honestly, I never thought I would admit it, but it is kindof pretty. After you get over the whole 'killing-something-for-sport' thing. I don't know about putting it in the living room or anything, but maybe the... well... hallway?? :)

As she wishes everyone... Happy Earth Day 2008!

We went to Mizzou's Peace Park today and celebrated Earth Day with our fellow Columbians. It was great to sit in the sunshine and get HOT even! Faith and Grace enjoyed, as always, playing in the creek, holding crawdads, and catching tadpoles. Another favorite is always the Earth Ball (that's Faith taking a turn). We've been three years in a row now, and there's always something great to see... and something that makes us appreciate our natural resources. Cheesy maybe, but true. This year, we made Jimmy go and when we got home, he even picked a can out of the regular trash to put it into the recycling - without me griping at him first. Yahoo! :)

As she tries to type through the cloud of cough...

Thank GOODNESS Spring is Spring-ing!! We have been running around in a flurry of cough around here for what seems like weeks now. The girls have been hyped up on cough syrup for as long as I can take it! :) Hope everyone has started to thaw out and that we can all open our houses to some fresh air this week/weekend! Have a good one, everyone!

As she says "I told you so..."

I know, I know... Long time, no write. I knew this is exactly what would happen: that I'd take the time to get my page all set up, and then TOTALLY run out of time to update the damn thing. Well, finally, we have updates!! I had been trying to upload wedding pictures for the past month, but anytime I tried at work it made my computer lock up and the old computer at home was TOO slow. But we're cooking with gas now: new home computer, new speedy internet access, and, voila - new pics! I'll get more posted soon... I'm still learning!