Tastes Changing?

Thanksgiving at Grandma's will be interesting.

Dad

Dad getting a trim after cataract surgery. The plastic was to keep hair from getting into his eyes.

Dad was almost like the man on the horse after his surgeries..Arms up, celebrating triumphantly! He is seeing so much more than he had been. After getting the second surgery done, he wanted to read EVERYTHING, just to practice.
We hadn't spent much time together in quite a while and really enjoyed each others company over the past few weeks. Mark has been in Korea and Jeffery is a teenager so it was just he and I most of the time. Nice to be together.

Surprise!

So, I'm doing dishes and I look out the window and think to my to myself, "is that a watermelon"? I dried my hands and walked outside to the edge of the lawn and YES, it is a watermelon! And YES, it was this big the first time I saw it.
I have thrown a watermelon into the desert instead of the trash, to see if the animals would eat it. I never realized it would grow. I guess we got just enough rain this year.
Dad convinced me to pick it. I don't know if it was quite ready or not but I picked it and cut it open. It tasted just okay and had TONS of seeds. I threw the seeds back out into the desert. Lets see what happens????

CAJFW- Sorry you missed the experience

CRAZY AUNT JUDY FROM WISCONSIN
She is definitely and "experience", lol! She can remember so many funny stories. And if you ask her a question, she says, "That's a long story." and of course, it is....it doesn't matter what the question is. She is a nut! She NEVER stops talking. We had a great time. She went with me to pick up dad in Hobbs. It made the trip go by really fast!

James and Nanny after dinner. It just hit my how truly lucky I am to still be in Alamogordo. I've have thought so much of leaving after the kids are gone and maybe someday I will but for now I realize how nice it is that when everyone comes back home, we get together at Lily's, Nanny's or my house. I think the kids may want that some day.

We all loaded up in the motor home and took an overnight trip to Albuquerque. Here is Lily, Mel, Dad and James with Robert and his family. We ate at this restaurant that reminded us so much of how we grew up. It was eery...a song came on the juke box and I could feel tears running down my cheeks. When I looked up at Lily, she was also teared up. Happy Memories!

Lily was Elk hunting when Judy arrived. We went to pick Lily up in the mountains and this is Judy, all dressed up for Lily. Acting CRAZY!

What Have I Been Up To?

I'm out the door on the way to Hobbs for Dad's cataract surgery. Its tomorrow morning, the 30th at 6 a.m.
Well, some good news. We found the leak! We've been through numerous contractors, the guy that originally roofed the house has come out three times to try and find it, two stucco guys, two insurance claims, three ceiling repairs, expensive sealing of the roof and FINALLY, we found a roofer that came out and saw the design of our house and said, "I think its the door. I don't think its sealed properly. " We put water exactly where he said to and water came pouring into the living room! I think we have finally found it this time!

I'm up to seven miles! I ran seven miles on Saturday.

Mark is on his way to Korea and we leave for Greece shortly after his return.

Sorry no pics. I will send those to Jake on the new phone! LOL! sorry.....

I love you guys!

Fisherman

Virtual Makeovers

Guess What I'm Going to Be Doing in Greece?

I'm so excited! I ran a marathon about seven years ago. It was an amazing experience! I hurt my back during the run and the doc has advised against running the streets so I don't get to run like I used to. I'm not going to be able to do the whole marathon, 26.2 miles but I am going to do the 10K. That's only about six miles.
I did (ran/walked) four miles this morning. It took me about 45 minutes. I'd like to do the entire 10k in about 50 minutes so I will have to build up an endurance... Of course, Louise will be joining me as she did the marathon. Mark, Lily's son and Mark, my Mark will also be participating but I'm not sure what distance they will be doing.
Just the thing to give me a little motivation!

Precious E

Good Sport

Wii Fitness. This is Mark doing the Dance Off. Isn't he a good sport to let me take pictures?

Drippin' Chicken!

Guess What!? Our old frig took a dump too! When I went to get something to defrost for dinner I noticed that there was slime juice dripping out of the freezer.
Mark had been in it earlier and said, "Ya know, when I went in for a drink....and stopped mid sentence." Well I had a trash can full of chicken, hamburger, pork chops, shrimp and veggies. I think it happens at least once to every family.
The old frig was at least 20 years old and it came from JC Penney. It held up pretty well, I thought. I was able to find an almost identical one at Lowe's. It was a simple stainless steel "looking" for $450. Not too bad considering we keep it in the laundry room and I just needed something that worked.

100 Posts

This is post number 100. So I guess I average about fifty posts a year.
The blog has been an awesome way of documenting simple life events and its been great for keeping in touch.
I find myself always carrying a camera. Something I never did before. If I did carry the camera, I would take a picture or two and now everyone knows that each event or photo is a potential blog entry.
Next 100 posts?????
Coming soon...November Greece and Thanksgiving at Mom's in Oklahoma, December another "over 40" birthday and Christmas, January is a new year, 2009, Jeffery graduates in May. Are you planning a trip to NM? Kristin continues as a full time college student. Jeffery college??
Empty nest this year...
Mark and I will continue to travel and we'll do more of it together.

Derya & Alev in Alaska

You see these signs everywhere...Some say "Give Moose a Brake"

Tubing close to midnight. Derya is the one on the right, airborne.

This is right about midnight.

People fish during lunch. Downtown Anchorage


Views like this everywhere...just driving.
Alev and Derya playing hockey. It was fun to watch. I've never seen hockey before and everyone that spoke to us reminded us just how talented these two are.
More driving...


This is the view from the girls back patio. Right in the center is a glacier. Its difficult to see in this picture because of the clouds.
A river just down the street from their house. We watched this beaver for a long time.
Mark and I played a little golf.
Alev-Athlete of the year. She has made a commitment to the University of Wisconsin. Derya is also considering Wisconsin. Both to play soccer and hockey. It is very likely that Alev will be in the 2012 Olympics!

And flag football. These two are on the go every minute. They don't sleep much especially this time of year when the sun shines almost 24/7. We had a really nice visit.

Quick Drive on a Warm Afternoon

Mark and I went for a quick drive to the post office. Of course, we took Brewster along for the ride. It was in the evening and it was pretty warm. We had the windows rolled down and the air off. It must've gotten a little warm for Brewster.
He's never done this before, at least we THINK he's never done this before.

Traveling with Jeffery

This is

how he rolls...

Alright, Mom, quit taking pictures. I'll stay awake...FRILL!

No, seriously.

Ya, right.

Okay. I'll drive.

Rain

We could see the rain rolling in, happy, enjoying the overcast skies, the coolness, the smell of the rain and watching movies...and then after two days of constant rain the roof started to leak. Water came from the vents and all the lights in the kitchen. We were so upset because we've worked for years looking for this crazy leak. We've sealed the flat roof, patched the stucco and thought we had it all taken care of and yet it still leaks! Once again the ceiling has to be repaired and one wall repainted. Although we are disappointed, it didn't seem all that bad compared to the poor people in Ruidoso. We soon felt blessed after hearing that over 300 people were evacuated from their homes in Ruidoso which is only 45 miles away. Homes and bridges were just washed away and all we had was a leak.

This is Mark covering the upstairs balcony which is where we think the leak originates. Look at it pour!

Happy Birthday Kristin

Top Rated Movies of Ten Years

Mark will only watch movies that rate in the 70's on rottentomatoes.com. If I ask him to watch something and it has a low rating, I always regret it.
I was looking at the site and they've given the top rated movies of the past ten years. We're always looking for a decent movie so I wrote them down. I didn't include the number one pick because I had already watched all of those. Here's the list:

98 Truman, Shakespeare in Love
99 The Iron Giant, The Insider
00 Traffic, Best in Show, You Can Count on Me
01 In the Bedroom, Memento
02 Spirited Away, Bowling for Columbine
03 Spellbound, The Fog War, Capturing the Friedmans
04 Sideways, Hero, Maria Full of Grace
05 Murderball, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit, Good Night & Good Luck,
Enron; The Smartest Guy in the Room
06 Pan's Labyrinth, Casino Royal,
07 Once, The Bands Visit

Happy 17th Birthday Jeffery

This is the wrapped gift. Jeffery's teammates presented him with this club when he won the state championship. Mark and I had a case built for it.

Jeffery has never liked cake and ice cream for his birthday. We always have to come up with something different. One year it was cookies that spelled out Happy Birthday, Jeffery, we've had brownies, we've had strawberry gooey stuff and this year it was waffles. We celebrated first thing in the morning. Of course, the house was decorated, a tradition that Mark loves and a few birthday gifts. Its hard to see him grow so fast. I'm so happy to think of the many happy memories we have shared. And if I'm lucky he'll never leave the house, like Dave's kids!