Happy 2009!

It has been a busy last few weeks. Although I complain a lot about them - I do enjoy the holidays. But I also breathe a big sigh of relief when they are over for another year.

We had a very nice Christmas. We went to my mom and dad's on Christmas Eve as is our tradition. We had a few presents for the kids, ate chili and a lot of sweets, and had a good time just being together.
On Christmas Day we stayed home. The boys didn't get up until 8:30 or so - believe it or not. We lazed around and enjoyed the day. My parents and sister came by later in the day for a short visit.
Around 8:00pm Christmas night - Michael, Taryn, Brady, Hunter and Autumn arrived. We had a nice visit and we're glad everyone could make it. We took a family picture which I posted a few days ago. They went back to South Dakota on Sunday afternoon. It has been very quiet around here since then.
Brad has been working and the boys and I have mostly been hanging around the house. We did go see the movie "Bedtime Stories" with Lucia, Sabrina and Marissa on Monday. It was cute. The weather has been in the upper 50s for the last couple days - so boys have spent a lot of time outside. I am very glad that they haven't spent their whole Christmas Break on the computer. Alec has gotten very good on the pogo stick he got from Gram and Gramps and Jason has been riding his new Ripstick. (He already was very good at riding it. His old one just got run over by a car.)

Here is the front and back of the calendar Alec made me for Christmas. I like Brad's gray hair and how skinny I look ;)
Happy New Year to all!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Family

Our family




Trent and family

Snow...

I am sitting here watching it snow and thankful I am at home.
The kids are out of school due to the snow and Brad is working from home.
Alec's spelling bee was supposed to be this morning. I think he was actually a little disappointed that there was not school today. Not sure when they will reschedule it for. They only have 3 more days of school until Christmas break.
The boys also had a snow day last Wednesday. At this rate they will be going to school until mid June.
My last day of work on Friday was kind of sad - but I am not sad today! This is my official first day of 'retirement'. And what a wonderful day to be at home!
I went to Warrensburg yesterday to meet with an advisor and get enrolled for classes. School starts January 14. I have one class on Mon, Wed, Fri and one on Mondays only. I am really looking forward to learning more about photography. I did find out that I will need a new camera - darn! ;) I am really good with that except for the $$$.

Happy belated Birthday to my 'baby' brother!

Other big news this week.....

Alec won his class spelling bee and will be in the school spelling bee on Dec 16. He is very excited!

Thanksgiving

We took our annual trip to Pineville, LA. Brad's parents are always kind enough to have us all there for Thanksgiving. Normally, we go, as well as Brad's brother Bryan, his sister Tami and their families. Bryan and family could not make it this year. Brad's other sister Teresa and family usually have other plans.
All of our boys have fun playing together over the long weekend - and the rest of us enjoy visiting and eating :)
Here are the boys in 2002 - Alec, Seth, Trevor, Jason and Ryne.

And now - 6 years later.....(Trevor couldn't make it this year)

Here they are acting silly with Aunt Tami looking at the Christmas lights.


It seems to have taken me a week to get caught up on everything - and I am not quite there yet. This coming week is going to be busy - but after that I guess I will have a lot more time! My last day of work is December 12. That day will be exactly 25 years from when I started working in the retirement plan business.

one more thing....

Yes - I did quit my job this week. My last day will be either 12/12 or 12/19. I am not sure which yet. I want to transition everything I am working on and not leave anyone unduly stressed.

3rd grade performance

He looks so serious! The teacher told them to look at a point on the ceiling and that he did! He said it was scary in front of all those people.


Here's a very short video. They were adorable

A pond no more....

The pond back in it's better days - Oct 2002


A pond no more..... - Nov 2008

It has been a while since I posted..

I was happy to see that Obama was elected president of the USA. I have a good feeling that he will make a good president. Time will tell.

Our backyard pond is gone. We hired someone to install underground drains for the natural spring and fill in the hole with rock and dirt. It is done and currently covered with hay until next spring when we can plant grass. It looks so much better. The pond was nice - in it's better days - but it was a lot of work and had become unmanageable. I will post a pic one of these days when I get around to taking them off my camera.

Brad went back to work last week. So far so good. He told them he no longer wants to be a team lead - so he doesn't have to to deal with that anymore. He does not seem stressed.

I went to a purse party Friday night at a friend's house. It was more about seeing old friends than purses. It was fun. There were 20 or so women there. Most I work with now or used to work with. We ate, drank and gabbed.

Saturday both boys had sleepover parties to attend - so Brad and I had some 'us' time. We didn't do much - but that was fine. I love my boys - but having peace and quiet and alone time with Brad is nice sometimes.

Sunday was another day out for me. I went to lunch and shopping with Carla and Jennifer for Carla's birthday. It has become a tradition for the three of us to go out for each of our birthdays.

That's about it. Next week I may have an update on my decision about my job.

a few more pics

The boys helped Grandpa move dirt. They worked hard!



Alec in his Tae Kwon Do uniform

Time off, teacher's conferences and Halloween

Brad's vacation continued last week. We all joined him on Thursday and Friday. The boys were out of school for teacher's conferences and I took a couple of days off.

Conferences were good. Both boys are doing great!

Halloween was fine. Alec was invited to a friend's for trick-or-treating and a sleepover. After I dropped him off - Brad and I stayed home and Jason went with the rest of the cul-de-sac on the Steven 's annual hayride/trick-or-treating. It was a nice night and there were many, many kids out. We had several trick-or-treaters but not as many as I expected. Probably because the neighbor's houses were dark - so not everyone wanted to journey into the cul-de-sac for one house.

Marissa and Alec

Sabrina and Jason

Alec's jack-o-lantern

Jason's jack-o-lantern

not too much more news this week

Jason's voice is changing! I keep hearing this deep voice that is not Brad and wondering who it is :)

Brad's 1st week off went by very quickly. I do not know of he accomplished what he wanted or not. Mostly he wants to de-stress and relax. He pretty much did that.

Happy Birthday Autumn Rayne!

Our sweet granddaughter turns 7 years old today!

Rest in Peace Kieth

Kieth John Koehn, 44, died Monday, Oct. 13, 2008, at his home in Overland Park.

He was born June 1, 1964, in Garden City, to John W. and Valetta F. Nichols Koehn. He grew up on the family farm north of Sublette, graduated from high school there in 1982, attended Kansas State University and later graduated from DeVry University with a bachelor's degree in computer science.

Mr. Koehn had been employed by Trailblazer Installation.

In September 1986, he married Julie Saul. They later divorced.

Survivors include his parents, of Sublette; two sons, Jonathon Maxwell Koehn of Lawrence, and Anthony Thomas Koehn of Overland Park; a brother, Wendall Koehn of Wellsville; and numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his grandparents.

Funeral was Thursday at Wilson's Funeral Home in Wellsville, with burial in Wellsville Cemetery.

I worked with Kieth at both UMB and American Century. I hired him and was his boss for a short time at UMB. He hired me and was my boss for short time at American Century. He was good guy and very smart. It is very sad to see him gone at such a young age.

Rest in Peace Kieth.

the past week....

Let me think...
Alec started in the Roots & Shoots club at school.
Jason started electric guitar lessons. He goes once per week for 1/2 hour.
I went to a purse party at Michelle's sister's house. It was fun - and of course I bought a purse (and a few other things too).
Jason spent the night at his friend JR's house Friday night. He was bit tired on Saturday due to lack of sleep - but he had fun.
I spent 3 days in OmniScript training. It has yet to be determined whether I will actually use it. ;0)
And Brad - well he worked a LOT last week. And he almost quit his job. Looks like, at least for now, he will stay with DST - but he is officially on vacation - starting today - for 3 weeks. That gives him some time away and some time to figure out what he wants to do. I guess I better hold off on my decision for a few more weeks.
That's about it....
Hope everyone has a great week!

Happy Birthday..........

to my wonderful father!


and a few days late to my handsome step-son!

October

Did you know........
No other month starts on the same day of the week as October in leap years.
Just a random fact to make you think.

I visited UCM in Warrensburg today. They offer a degree in photography - which I am seriously considering - with a minor in Graphics. Warrensburg is closer than I thought but still about a 40 mile drive. I think a commute for something you want vs. one for a 'job' will be well worth it. There aren't any other colleges around here that offer the photography degree.

This Friday, October 10 - Brad's grandmother - Gladys Willis - will be inducted into the Jena High Hall of Fame. There was an article in the Jena Times. Unfortunately they must not archive their articles on the net - because I can no longer find it at thejenatimes.net. It was a very nice article and this is quite an honor. I certainly can't do her accomplishments justice with just this little blurb - but she was a teacher for many years, is very involved in her church and still volunteers at the hospital one day a week. Gladys - aka 'Mammaw' Willis will be 94 on October 17.

September is almost over!

Happy 1st Anniversary to Taryn and Brady!


'Events' of the past week:

Monday - Cub Scouts

Thursday - Alec started Tae Kwon Do

Friday - Alec's friend Nick spent the night. His room is now a disaster - but at least they went to sleep at a reasonable hour.

Saturday - Alec and I went to Westlake to sell popcorn for cub scouts. We had a 2 hour shift at the 'show & sell' table. When our shift was over at noon we went to lunch with Mom and Dad. They picked Jason up from home and we ate at Rancho Grande. Later in the afternoon - (after Jake's baseball game) - Grandpa came and picked up Alec and he spent the night at their house.
Jason and I went to the mall and got some fall clothes for him and me. Then we came home and Brad, Jason and I watched 'Baby Mama' on DVD.

Sunday - Jason and I picked Alec up and went to the pet store. We were looking for a turtle for the boys to keep as a pet. We found a couple but decided to do some research. They sound like a lot of work! I told the boys they had to take care of it - completely. I don't think Jason realized how much work it would really be. So anyway - we are still turtle-less.
Later in the afternoon all 4 of us we went to the Stone Creek 'picnic' at Vesper Hall. There were not very many people there. I think a neighborhood picnic should actually be IN the neighborhood. Oh well - maybe next year. We did at least get a BBQ dinner.

That's about it. Right now I am procrastinating. I need to do laundry and clean up around here but just don't feel like it right now. It will get done eventually ;)

This pic is actually from last year's popcorn sales.

Beautiful weather this week

This week the rain was replaced by lots of sunshine and wonderful Fall temperatures. I love Fall!

The week was pretty uneventful. Just the normal school, work and scouts.

The weekend was a bit busier. I took Friday afternoon off week to get ready for our garage sale. Jason went to a Super Smash Brothers Brawl tournament at a friend's house Friday night. He had a lot of fun.
Saturday morning - bright and early - Lucia and I opened the garage sale. People really do show up the minute you open the door. Crazy! Even all the kids got up early and helped out. Garage sales are a lot of work! If it wasn't for selling our upright freezer - it would not have been worth all the trouble. I probably will not be having another for a very long time (if ever :)
We were worn out and closed up around 1:00pm. We got quite a few customers earlier but the traffic had definitely slowed by then.
I took a shower and then a nap. Both were very refreshing.
Saturday afternoon Alec went with a friend to Worlds of Fun and spent the night at his house.
I went to the Plaza Art Fair with Vanessa. Brad and Jason hung out at home.
The art fair was enjoyable but very crowded. The nice weather brought everyone out and about.
Sunday was a recoup day for me. I did clean out the freezer so the buyers could come pick it up - but the rest of the day was pretty lazy.
I guess that's about it for now.
I hope everyone has a great week!

Rain and more rain

Last Saturday - Brad and I had a very nice night out. We went the Power & Light district. Due to the rainy weather and no big events happening - it was not crowded at all. Which was fine with us. We mainly wanted to see what it was like and what all they had down there. We ate dinner at Famous Dave's BBQ. There was absolutely no wait. We had a nice relaxing dinner and good conversation. After dinner we went to the KC live area and walked around. Luckily it is outdoors but covered. We were going to stop by the Howling Moon dueling piano bar for a little bit but decided against it due to the $7 cover charge per person and the fact that we didn't want to stay that long. We will go back another night and maybe take some friends with us. After we left there we went to Best Buy and Barnes & Noble - our usually date night venues. I know it doesn't sound very romantic or exciting - but we like it and that is all that matters.

Sunday morning Brad left for Chicago. I went and picked up the boys at Grandma and Grandpas and we spent a nice quiet day at home.

Monday was our first cub scout meeting of the school year. We have 5 new boys. With the 6 from last year - that makes a pretty big den. Chad is going to do all the meetings this year and Crystal is going to help. I am going to just do the behind the scenes bookkeeping and I am very happy about that.

Tuesday was a busy day. I went in to office after Alec got on the bus. After work it was a rush to get dinner and help the boys with homework before my 7:30 scout committee meeting. Alec was having a bit of a melt down about his stretch project and I was no help since I had no patience. We really needed Brad that night :)

Wednesday - school, work and Alec finished his project for Stretch. Hunter called that night and we had a nice conversation. Unfortunately part of the reason he called was to tell us he broke his collar bone playing football - OW! He had just gone back to practices after the doctor cleared him for his knee issues - and about 15 minutes in - BAM he broke the collar bone. No more football for him.
His good news was that he has been nominated for Homecoming royalty. We are very proud of him. There are 5 boys and 5 girls in the running. They will find out the results on 9/22.

Thursday - school, work, dinner at Salt Iguana, trip to the Guitar Center and fall school clothes shopping at Kohl's.

Friday - school, work, tornado warnings and hurricane Ike. Brad came home - yeah!

Saturday - lazy day at home for me and Alec. Brad and Jason went to Bass Pro Shop. Jason climbed the rock wall and made it to the top. I think they had a good time and it was nice for them to have some 1 on 1 time.

Today - time to get my butt moving and get ready for the garage sale next Saturday.

Jason rock climbing

Mom's 70th Birthday Party

Guess my updates from now on will probably be on Saturdays. Since I now have to work on Fridays - bummer!

I think the party turned out nice last Sunday. It was bit hot in the basement, but no one melted. (except maybe me a little bit :) I could not seem to cool off. There was a lot of body heat! There were 40 people in attendance.

Not really much else to report this week. Alec is really enjoying his Stretch classes. He wishes they were every day.
Coming up for this week:
Brad and I are going on a 'date' tonight to the Power & Light District.
Brad leaves for Chicago tomorrow and will be there all week at a conference.
We have our first cub scout den meeting of the school year Monday night.

Here are some party pictures.

now other news for this week.....

Well as you can tell from the pictures I posted last week - school started and they finished painting our house.
The boys (and Brad & I) seem to be adjusting well to the back to school routine. Alec had his first day of STRETCH yesterday. STRETCH stands for "Students Reach Excellence Through Challenge" and is the Blue Springs Gifted program. He will be traveling to a different school one day a week and working on special projects. He seems excited about it. There are only 3 other 3rd graders in his class so they should get lots of personalized attention!
Last night was curriculum night at Jason's school - so I got to meet all his teachers and hear what he will be doing this year. He has all the general classes as well as Family and Consumer Science (FACS) and French.
Taryn and Brady arrived last night for the weekend. They have tickets to the American Idol tour at the Sprint Center. All 10 finalists will perform but they are really going to see David Cook.
Taryn, Brady and I actually got to see David Cook live and in person just an hour ago. They unveiled a mural that had been created in his honor in downtown Blue Springs. It is very nice. I need to get a picture of it from Taryn. I failed to take my camera or my camera phone with me. It was a nice event because it wasn't well publicized so it wasn't horribly crowded. It was just a nice little home town event.
Taryn and Brady have gone to downtown KC right now to pick up their tickets for tonight. The boys are at school. Brad and I both have the day off. And how we spending it? - We are in separate rooms both on the computer. Oh well. :)
Sunday we are having a big party for Mom's 70th birthday - so I guess I better go clean house or something. I'll post pics of the party next week.
TTFN!

Donna

An old friend of mine passed away this week. It is very sad. I haven't seen her much in the last several years - but I remember fondly the years I worked with her at UMB. Her name was Donna Otto Moeller and she died much too young. You can read her obituary if you click on her name. It was a great pleasure to have had her as my boss, mentor and friend at UMB. She was such a terrific person. I know she will be sorely missed by her husband, son, father and many siblings. When I was searching for her obit - I actually found her mother's too. She also died of cancer - less than 1 month ago. My deepest sympathy to all of Donna's family.

Exterior Painting - Before and After

oh how they've grown....

2002

2005

2008

Scouts, School and House

It is about time for scouts to start again. We will start den meetings again in a few weeks. We had our August pack get-together on Sunday. It was 'Anything on wheels and water toys'. Alec took his Rip-Stick and a spray bottle. I think he had a good time and was soaked by the time we went home.


Last night was 'meet the teacher' at Alec's school. I had not met his teacher before. She seems very nice. The school population increased a lot over the summer and they are having to add teachers and a mobile unit for more classrooms. The new 3rd grade teacher they hired happens to be Jason's teacher from kindergarten. That is not the teacher Alec got - but it is a small world.

The painter's started on our house this week. So far so good. Here is a before picture and an 'in progress' picture. I will of course post the after when it is all done.


Before


In progress - they have the new main color on the front and 1/2 of the back. The trim has not yet been painted.

08/08/08

Today is 8/8/08. The 3 moms and 6 kids in our cul-de-sac went to Super Splash today. It is a small water park in Raytown. The mom's mostly sat and talked and the kids went on the Avalanche and other water slides over and over again. It was a nice afternoon. There wasn't much humidity and the temperature was in the 80's.

Right now the boys are next door at their friend Jacob's 11th birthday party. Brad is not yet home from work so it is pretty quiet here.

Other things we did this week:
Saturday - Alec went to a sleepover birthday party for his friend Michael B. Brad, Jason and I went out to eat at Outback Steakhouse and then school supply shopping. I bought a new printer too. It was Missouri's back to school tax free weekend.
Sunday - Cleaned the carpets
Monday - Jay, Al and I saw the movie Swing Vote
Tuesday - I worked from home
Wednesday - I took the afternoon off and took the boys to register for school
Thursday - The boys spent the day with grandpa and grandma and I went into the office and worked.

Exciting stuff! :P

not much to report this week

Since I just wrote Monday - not much to say today - but thought I would post anyway to keep up my momentum. I have been enjoying updating this every Friday - even if no one reads it. :)

This week has been routine - work for me and Brad - play for the boys.
We have been dealing a lot with insurance companies trying to get a good rate for Hunter's car. It is ridiculous how much it costs to insure a 17 year old boy. And the fact that he is in South Dakota and we are here- complicates it even more. Oh well - such is life.

Today I have just been making a list of all the things that need to be done around here. It seems to keep getting longer all the time. We do have someone hired to paint the house - but they don't know yet when they can start. We have also talked to someone about working on our landscaping - but we are having a hard time finding a time to meet with him. We've GOT to do something with the stupid pond - which right now is pretty much just a mud hole.

That's about it. I guess I did have more to say than I thought - mostly complaining though.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and week!

South Dakota continued

We had a pretty nice weekend with the kids.

We got a later start than we wanted to on Thursday. We planned on leaving at 2 and didn't get gone until 4:30 (Brad's work was the culprit). We stopped and picked up the boys at Grandpa and Grandma's where they had spent Wednesday night and Thursday day. And then we finally got on the rode. We made good time - I was driving ;) and we only stopped a few times for just few minutes. We made it to Sioux Falls around 10:15 and checked into the Ramada. We got a suite and it was nice (Big!) Around 10:30 we headed to the Eastway Bowling alley and lounge to watch Michael's band - Empty without Reason. We made it before they went on - so that was good. Heavy Metal is definitely not my kind of music - but we were very impressed with Michael's drumming. He is good!

Friday we slept late, Brad worked from the hotel and I took the boys swimming. The Ramada has an indoor waterpark that the boys really enjoy. Around 2:30 Hunter came over and we went to eat at Famous Dave's BBQ. yummy! After that we went back to the hotel and Taryn, Brady and Autumn came over. Autumn, Jason and Alec swam for a bit while the rest of them looked online for a car for Hunter. We were supposed to spend most of the day looking for a car but we only got a little shopping done. We did drive around a little bit after swimming and then we went to Taryn's for awhile. That was about it for Friday.


Saturday morning Brady came over at 8:45am. We were all still sleeping. Brad and Hunter were supposed to be up and ready to go. Brady was taking them to see a car in Hartford. They got up and were ready to go pretty quickly. At around 11, Brad called and said they were going to buy the car. It is a silver 2005 Dodge Stratus. They bought it from Bob's auto sales which wasn't really in Hartford but about 10 miles out in the country on his farm. Oh well - Hunter likes it and Brad thought it was a good deal. The rest of day was lunch at Godfather's, more swimming and a trip to the mall for Taryn and me. Around 7:00 we headed to Taryn and Brady's for dinner. They grilled burgers for us. It was nice. We all watched Ocean's Thirteen on HBO and then Michael came over. He had been at work all day. We all visited til about 11 and then called it a day.

Sunday we slept in again and then checked out of the hotel at noon. We picked up Autumn so we could take her home to Beresford and said good-bye to Taryn and Brady. Hunter met us at I-Hop and we ate 'brunch'. It took forever. By the time we got our food - we were all starving and cranky. It was probably just me that was cranky :) - but anyway. We met Hannah at Burger King to drop Autumn off and then went to visit with the Orrs. Hunter is going to live with them during his senior year so he can graduate from Beresford High School. He went to Beresford schools from Kindergarten to 8th grade and has really been missing all his friends. He came to KC for his freshman year and then to Sioux Falls for 10th and 11th. Anyway - we talked to them and got things squared away - hopefully. They are very nice people and are great to open their home to Hunter. He is a lucky kid to have so many people that care about him. His mother and family, his father and family and his 3rd family - the Orrs.

We made it home around 9:00 last night and here we are! Brad is taking the day off. The boys are still sleeping and I am just goofing on the computer.

Until next week.........

Autumn swims like a fish!


Hunter


Autumn and Alec playing DS


Hunter stayed at the hotel Saturday night so Alec's bed was 2 chairs pushed together. He called it his 'crib'.