Spring was here - what happened?

It is 32 degrees this morning and is supposed to snow 5 - 8 inches tomorrow. What the heck? Everything had started turning green and looked beautiful. I know I wanted it to snow last time - but this time I am so over it. No more white stuff!

Alec got his orange belt last night and broke a board with this kick.

Alec's 'surprise me' homework

Alec's home work for his STRETCH (STudents Reaching Excellence Through CHallenge)class over Spring Break was "surprise me". They could do anything they wanted.
This is a link to Alec's blog and what his surprise was for his teacher.
Alec's (and Brad's) Spring break project - watch the videos

:0) Have a great day!
Leisha

Rest In Peace Aunt Evelyn

My grandfather's sister Evelyn passed away Saturday at the age of 97. Her twin sister Charlotte is still living. As you can see from the obit below - she had a large family that will miss her - children, grand children, great grandchildren and even great great grandchildren. And that does not even count all the nieces, nephews, and greats of all of those. Rest in peace Aunt Evelyn. You can finally be with Uncle Bob and Forrest again.

Mary Evelyn (Douthat) Young, 97, of Belton, MO, passed away March 14, 2009. Visitation will be held from 4-6 p.m., Sunday, March 15, 2009, at the Park Lawn Chapel, Hillcrest Road at 83rd Street, Kansas City. Private entombment will be Monday in Memorial Park Cemetery. Evelyn was born August 22, 1911 in Kansas City, Missouri, the daughter of Claud and Maggie Douthat. Along with her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Robert H. Young in 1986, a son, Forrest "Bubbie" Young in 1951, and a great grandson, Jacob Parrish Trussell, in 1986. Survivors include her daughters, Judy Rader (Richard) of Peculiar, MO, and Barbara Yu of Laramie, WY; her twin sister, Charlotte Marietta of Belton, MO; five grandchildren, Scott Tafel (Ruth), Dennis Rader (Lisa), Kim Standley (Mike), Cindi Trussell, and Kristy Jones (Mark); twelve great grandchildren, and three great- great grandchildren.

Happy Birthday Taryn!

Happy Birthday to our beautiful daughter!

Portraits

Winter or Spring?

Saturday we had the lovely snow fall. Yesterday it was 81!!
Today it was in the seventies and a gorgeous day.
I am glad we had one last snowfall but am loving this spring weather.

a detour on the way to Spring

Well I guess we get to see a bit more winter before the buds and blossoms.
We went from brown to WHITE!

Spring is on the way..

It is hard to believe that February is almost over. It has been a very mild winter here in Blue Springs. Only about 3 more weeks and it will be spring! Yeah! I am sooo ready for the trees to to bud and flowers to bloom. I want to see green! Currently everything is an ugly brown.



Michael has been here for 2 1/2 weeks now. It has been nice getting to know him a bit better. I hope he is feeling at home here with us.

Other than that - things have been pretty routine. Work, school, scouts, Tae Kwon Do, piano etc. I am enjoying school. Mostly I have learned how much I don't know. There is a lot to learn!

Just some pics

The newest member of our household

Birthday Party Pics

Party at Lunar Mini Golf



Party at Grandpa and Grandma's - the pinata

the cupcakes

giant balloon that is now in our entry way stuck to the ceiling until it loses its helium


Birthday morning cinnamon rolls - The 4+5 instead of 9 candles was his idea. He loves math!


The other birthday boy :)

Our baby is turning 9!

Happy Birthday to Alec on Saturday!
Love you kiddo!

Happy Birthday to my hubby!

and many more!!!!
I love you!

History is being made this week...

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Tomorrow is the inauguration of our first black president. Dr. King would have been very pleased. Congratulations to President Obama!

In the Glascock household - it is a pretty quiet week. All my boys have been enjoying their day off lounging around the house. I went to a movie and lunch with Carla. It was nice to see her. I miss seeing her since we don't work together anymore. We saw 'Last Chance Harvey' with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. It was pretty good.

My first two days of school were uneventful. I am the oldest student in the class - but that's okay (I guess). I think it will be a good class. I have been finding out how much I don't know!

I reconnected with a couple of old friends on Facebook this week. I know some people think Facebook is silly - or just for teenagers - but it's not. I really enjoy checking in with my 'friends' everyday.

I guess that is it for now. Time to do something productive.

Jake and Jill's party at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Happy Birthday to my nephew!

Happy 17th Birthday Jake!

I guess that last time I really updated this was 12/30.
Let's see what's been going on.....
New Year's Eve was very quiet. It was just the 4 of us at home this year. We all made it to midnight and toasted with sparkling grape juice.
It was back to scouts on the 5th, school on the 6th and TaeKwonDo on the 7th. Then on the 8th Alec started piano lessons. He is a busy boy. He wants drums for Christmas next year. I told him if he could stick with piano for a year - he could have them. The middle school requires piano lessons before you can play percussion in the band - so it seemed like a good place to start. He really liked his first lesson and even made up his own little song today. It is actually pretty good! He is a nut.
Both boys got their grade cards this week. Alec got all A's and +'s. Jason got all A's and B's and gets to attend the academic recognition ceremony for the third year in a row for having a GPA over 3.5!

I guess that is about it. I start school on Wednesday! I am a little nervous about going to school with all the youngsters! :)

I got this from my mom and dad for Christmas. Isn't it pretty?

Happy Birthday to my niece

and watch out on the roads - she has her learner's permit! :)
Happy Birthday Jilly!

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.