Fishing Derby!

February 13, 2009-- I joined new and old friends (Melissa, Lorri, Debbie, Lucy & Barbara) for the "Women With Bait" Steelhead Fishing Tournament! Here are a few snapshots.~

Me & Mel

Time to take a break to warm up!

The gang's all here (including our trusty boat driver, Tony)!

Lucy & Mel
Here's the little trout (and sadly, the only fish) I caught...but it could have been a minnow and I would have been happy. I was just happy to yell "fish on!"

Here I am, fishing off the bow of the boat.

Debbie & Lorri

Lucy The fisherwomen (L to R): Melissa, Stacey, Lorri, Lucy, Debbie & BarbaraTwo eagles we spotted early in the day...
Melissa caught the only steelhead that day and it was a native so we had to catch-and-release. Here is Jeff (the guy who handles the the bait and all the fishing tackle so we don't have to!) netting the steelhead after Mel reeled him in. Tony's rolling with the video while it's all taking place.

Jeff & Mel with her steelhead! If I remember right, it was 26.5 inches. Way to go, Mel!

Me & Barb

Deb, Barb & Mel fishing off the back of the boat

Me, Lorri & Mel are taking a break

Deb, Lucy, Me & Mel
It's Deb, Barb & Lorri's turn to take a break

Barbara is consoling Ringo, our boat driver's dog, after he inadvertently took a hook in the mouth. Oh, the hazards of being a fisherman's dog...

The whole crew!

Happy Birthday, Diana!

February 5, 2009-- Here is a picture of the birthday girl (left) with Grandma Shirley (middle) and Aunt Lori (right) from Easter last year.~

Happy Birthday, Cheryl!

January 21, 2009-- Here is a picture of me and the birthday girl when we went to Vegas in 2007.~

More skiing!

January 18, 2008--

Dale and I went skiing again! When we went on the 1st, we skied on the mountain closest to my house and this time we went to a mountain closer to Mom and Dale's. It's one of my favorites places to ski because the mountain isn't that big but it's still challenging. The weather today was much different than when we went skiing on the 1st! We started out with all of our gear on (see above) and within a couple of hours we were unlayering (see picture below). It was about 40 degrees at the top of the mountain during the peak of the day and beautiful blue skies all day long.~

Skiing on the First Day of the New Year!

January 1, 2009--Dale and I went skiing on the first day of the new year and we were in for a windy surprise! It was blizzard-like conditions for much of the day and it was especially challenging trying to get back to the main side of the mountain from the back side because of the wind. We had a great time skiing though, despite the added "work" of moving the snow (there were no groomed runs that day) and here are a few pictures I took while protecting my camera from the wind and snow.

The picture of Dale was taken on the back side of the mountain. Isn't the mountain range beautiful?

The clouds in the distance broke just in time for me to take this picture.~

Is it a bird? Or a dog? Or a bird dog?

January 5, 2009-- I get such a kick out of our dog, Stanley, age 7, when he gets excited and thinks it's time to go outside to play fetch. (Yes, even in the snow.) Click on the video below to see what he sounds like when he knows it's "time." It's like I can't get my coat or shoes or gloves on fast enough. He makes this squeaking noise that seriously does not sound like it comes from a dog, let alone a dog his size (85 lbs)! The video quality is awful because the lighting was so poor but you'll get the idea. If only we could take such joy in our play time! You can kind of see that our female yellow lab, Holly, age 5, is equally excited bouncing up and down but she doesn't quite say it like Stanley!

Happy Birthday, Pops!

December 29, 2008-- Today is Pops' birthday! I have called my father-in-law, Terry, "Pops" since way back when Jeremy and I were still dating. Much like the nickname I gave Grandpa "Big Joe" way back then, it stuck. I even hear several of my in-laws call him that now. Here's a picture of Pops from Christmas with our neice, (Terry's Granddaughter) Addyson.~

Merry Christmas!

December 24-28, 2008-- Hi, everyone! I plan to post some info and photos from our fantastic Christmas adventures (six houses in four days!) here in the next week or two...check back soon!~

Christmas at the Ranch

December 20, 2008-- We were honored to join Gary and Melissa at the "Ranch" (see September posting entitled "Bogus Creek Ranch" for warm weather pictures of the same location) for Gary's office Christmas party. We had a great time and as always the food, entertainment and company were fantastic! Here's a picture of us in the covered wagon that they used to shuttle us back to the huge heated tent for the party.~

Happy Birthday, Uncle Tom!

December 16, 2008--



Here's to my wonderful Uncle Tom (the glue that binds much of our family together) who is a half a century old today! May your next half century be as adventurous and blessed as your first half century. Lots of love to you and the fam down in the warm part of the country. Happy Birthday! (Uncle Tom is pictured above with his grandsons--thanks for the pic, Manda! Hope you don't mind...)~

The Living Christmas Tree

December 5, 2008--

My friend, Carrie, and my mom, Cheryl, came to town to go to the Living Christmas Tree production with me. The production was a wonderful mixture of all types of Christmas music (with a live symphony orchestra & choir) and the lighting and special effects surrounding the featured "tree" were outstanding. Carrie and Mom were non-stop entertainment from before the time the show even started through the time we concluded our night around midnight. The whole evening was so much fun, I haven't laughed that hard in...well, I don't know how long. Thank you guys for such a great time!~

Basketball!

December 3, 2008--

It was fun joining Steve and the rest of his coaching staff for the basketball game here in town. (We missed you, Lu & Jake!) The last few moments of the game were really intense but the home team came out on top.~

Football!

November 28, 2008--

We had a great time at the game on Friday night with Robb, Rita, Matt and Ben, despite the chilly temperatures when the sun went down. (That's typical weather for our area though, so it was no surprise. We all came prepared with warm gear!) It was the last regular season home game and our team is undefeated!~

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 26, 2008--

Here's wishing you and yours a delightful and relaxing Thanksgiving or whatever you are hoping it will be (if you aren't into the relaxing part)!~

A "Salute" to Veterans

November 11, 2008--

What a privilege it was to attend the Veterans Memorial Dedication Ceremony on the BSU Campus today. The pictures and my description really won't do it justice but I'll try. The main part of the memorial is a (steel) silhouette of a saluting soldier thus the appropriate name of the memorial being "Salute." The ceremony was very moving with students, faculty and student veterans speaking. We were also treated to music of the 25th Army Brass Band Quintent as well as an AH-64 Apache flyover to start the dedication ceremony (seen in the video montage below).

On a separate but similar note, I would like to thank all of you in my life, and the thousands of those I will never meet, that have served and/or are still serving our country in the armed forces. Just to name a few (and I'm sorry for those of you whom I have failed to list): My Dad and hero, Rick; my Uncle Darrell; my sister Ange'; my brother-in-law Adam (still active duty in the Coast Guard); my Uncle Terry; my cousin Erik; my cousin Paul; Grandpa "Big Joe"; Grandpa Dean; my friend Gary H.; my friend Eric B., my friend Nancy N., my friend Sean O. and my late Grandpa Art. Thank you for making this country the land of the free BECAUSE of (you) the brave.~

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Maiden Voyage (Solo) on our Buell!

November 8, 2008--

As many of you may know, I took the STAR Course a few weeks ago and it really boosted my confidence with regard to my motorcycle riding abilities so I decided to try to ride our Buell (motorcycle). Our Buell is a little bit too tall for me to touch the ground flat-footed so I tippy-toed it and did just fine. After riding around our subdivision and a few neighboring subdivisions for a half hour or so, I ventured out to Gary and Melissa's house which is about 6-7 miles away. Here are a few video clips Jeremy took.

I really enjoyed my time on the bike today, despite the 48 degree weather.~

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More from Vegas...

November 3, 2008--

Here is a video clip from Jeremy while on vacation in Vegas (see previous post entitled "Las Vegas Motor Speedway (NHRA)" for details of his vacation). This is a video clip taken of Pro Stock Motorcycle Racer Karen Stoffer's burn-out during one of her test-n-tune runs in Vegas today. Jeremy was right there at the start line when filming this clip.~

Las Vegas Motor Speedway (NHRA)

October 30, 2008--

Jeremy finally took a vacation! Way to go, Jeremy! He's currently in Vegas with Mom and Don at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Drag Track for the NHRA drag races. They (Mom and Don) are both NHRA racers and they often frequent these big venues in their quest for points for the title at the end of the year (sorry Mom & Don if I don't get the race jargon right, please forgive me!). Anyway, as a crew member, Jeremy gets to go down the staging lanes with them and stand at the start line. He took this picture of Mom's car (Diana) presumably just before she did her burn-out in the water box--hence the water under her back tires but no smoke yet--before she staged at the tree and went down the quarter-mile track for a test-n-tune run. Jeremy reports that he is having a great time and if I get more pictures I'll update the blog as I can.~

Pumpkin Seeking & Carving

October 25, 26 & 29, 2008--

Melissa and I set out on a mission to find pumpkins to carve before Halloween so our first idea was to hit the pumpkin patch at the corn maze (you may have heard about this corn maze, it has Obama's & McCain's faces as the maze route). (Below is a picture of us on one of the bridges in the gigantic maze.) We went through the maze first because we didn't want to carry our pumpkins around and didn't want to walk them back out to the car (the place was packed and we had to park far, far away) but by the time we were done with the maze it was dark and we didn't bring flashlights. We thought about coming back on Sunday but found out they would be closed.

So we ventured out again on early Sunday evening looking for pumpkins (not just any grocery store pumpkin would do!) and headed toward another local corn maze, only to find that it, too, was closed on Sunday. So we ended up at one of my favorite little family farms called Spyglass Gardens and we walked through their patch (see picture below) and then found a couple perfect-sized ones sitting on a stand near the front of the property.

While we were carving our pumpkins on Wednesday night (sans the husbands who were out of town), we were treated to a surprise guest, Lee, our beloved pet-sitter. She was in town sitting for some friends of ours so she stopped by! In the picture directly below this paragraph, Lee is helping Melissa tape the pattern on her pumpkin.

Here is the final product! Stacey's pumpkin is the classic pumpkin on the left and Mel's is the cool one on the right.~

STAR Course Completed!

October 24-26, 2008--

After having been a passenger behind our husbands on our motorcycles for several years, my friend Melissa and I decided to enroll in the STAR Course to see if piloting our own motorcycle was something that interested us. (STAR stands for Skills Training Advantage for Riders - see graphic below for more details.) We had a fabulous time, despite the fact that our range hours (time scheduled for hands-on motorcycle training) were 8 am - Noon on the first day and 8 am - 1 pm the second day (it was around 40 degrees in the early morning hours the first day and around 30 degrees in the early morning hours the second day). Lucky for us, having been passengers on motorcycles already, we already owned all the warm weather gear needed for that temperature...but it was STILL cold! In the picture above, we are on a break between exercises, trying to warm up.

We took the "Basic I" course and the motorcycles were provided for our course so the bikes were perfectly sized for Melissa and I who are vertically-challenged (short!). We were both on little 125cc Suzukis (see us below by our assigned bikes) and they were perfect to practice on. Overall we had about 9 hours of range time and probably about 9 hours of classroom time. Melissa and I both passed the range evaluation (it's basically the equivalent of a "road test") and the written exam. All that's left is taking the written test at the DMV and we'll have our motorcycle endorsement! We are now seriously considering getting our own motorcycles so watch out world! Ha-ha! In all seriousness, if we learned nothing else this weekend, we learned that it's everyone ELSE we need to watch out for!~

Retreat on the Lake in the Mountains

October 17-19, 2008--

I had a wonderful time relaxing and recharging this weekend at a retreat on the lake in the mountains. I was blessed to be with some great friends (new and old)! Check out the scenery...isn't it amazing?!