Wednesday, August 26, 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEAGHAN AND MOM !!! :)

Hi everyone!!

Great to see so many people at Mom and Dad's on Sunday! If I would have been next door to their house, I would have looked in the backyard and thought the Corn Fest was THERE!!!

Happy Birthday to Mom (Gramma) and to Meaghan !!! I can still remember 19 years ago, dropping Nick and Josh off at Mom's house in the morning (for the Reindl August birthday party!) and driving away to go and have Meaghan at the hospital :) It was fun to watch the little guys hop up Gramma and Grampa's front steps, jump into the house and Gramma wave good-bye to us, wondering if her "birthday buddy" was going to be a boy or a girl :)

God bless Mom and Dad for babysitting that day...can't imagine trying to have another baby with two kids under two in the hospital room!! And I still can remember the first time Josh and Nick looked at Meaghan and thought, "What the heck is Mom bringing home NOW??!!"

Mom, thanks for all the things you do for me, like weeding the garden when you are walking past the house and you can't take it anymore, letting me know that I left my front porch light on again and advising me that after living in our home for four months, I really SHOULD buy front curtains ! :)

Meaghan, how lucky I am to have you for a daughter! You make me want to be a better person and volleyball player, especially since you have been subbing on my two volleyball teams all summer long!!! How in the world did you learn to become such a fabulous player??!!! I enjoy your helping me try to be healthier this summer, and also how you look after your own health and well being, like...when I mention to you a little ailment I am having, and the first thing you ask me in your most nurturing and caring voice, "Hey, is THAT hereditary??!" You make me most proud, however, when I see you checking out the clearance racks while shopping and holding up something with a little rip, that's like $40 OFF the sale price saying "Hey, do you think Gramma can sew this??!!!"

I seriously don't know what I would do without either of you in my life. Many, many happy birthdays and thanks for MANY cherished memories...

~kelly

(that's mom to you, Meaghan...)

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Our Friday night

Hi all, just wanted to share what the Gregory family does on a Friday night. I had to work late and arrived home around 7:00 pm. Waiting for me were Noah, Kimberly and Rita. I had promised Noah we would go to the Pre-played video store earlier in the week (Noah reminded me at 6 pm when he called me at work!)

Off the four of us went. To the pre-played store for Noah to get a game then to dinner. Well, three blocks from home we decided (3 against 1) to skip the video game store and go to dinner. (Note: Noah and I went to the game store Saturday morning, so my promise was only delayed for a day.)

We drove to Cross Plains to have dinner at Monk's. This restaurant is situated in "downtown" Cross Plains next to the restaurant/bar Kimberly is working/managing at. The place isn't opened yet - I will let Kimberly blog all about that .... hint, hint, hint.

Needless to say they won't have much competition. I had the fish and it was OK, Rita's baked fish was OK, Kimberly's chicken wasn't that good nor was Noah's mini-corn dogs. I always thought mini-corn dogs were labeled such due to the size, but it is the portion!

Meal was eaten, bill paid and off we go. I recently purchased a speed board sign at work. I put it up for the first time this weekend and I wanted to see how it worked at night. So, we took the long way home for me to drive by the sign. On the way there we drove by Vitense and decided to stop and play some mini-golf. It has been over 15 years since I have been to that place - my it has changed. We had a good time mini-golfing and I remembered a while back Rita saying she has never gone to a batting cage to bat balls. So, I thought it would be a good idea to bat some balls - what the heck. Between the 4 of us we batted (or at least had thrown at us) 140 baseball/softballs.

We were on our last couple of tokens and what does Rita do but get hit by a softball. I know, how does one do that? Only my dearest Rita can! Now, you are thinking she got wacked in the head - no that didn't happen. The ball hit her thumb and bent her finger nail all the way back! OUCH! Poor girl is going to lose that nail.

We limp Rita back to the car. I am sure this occured because now it is 11:00 pm, WAY past her bedtime. We took a drive past my speed board sign (I didn't forget.) Then Noah wanted to see a few parts of the town where I work. So, I drove my family through a few areas in the Town. Greg - we waved at your place of employment - just so you know.

Back home around midnight - Noah straight to bed, but the rest of us aren't that smart. We stayed up a while longer. Kimberly, of course, was just getting her night started and left around 1:00 am to have some MORE fun. We didn't go to be until 2:00 am (see, we aren't old!)

I hope you made it through this extremely long post to get to the one paragraph that was funny. But, now I must go and turn on the pre-game and start making some Nachos for the game.

Can't wait to see everyone Sunday - the weather should be perfect!!!!!!!!

Scott

Monday, August 17, 2009

WI State Fair

As you may have already read in my comment to Dawn's Post, I went to the State Fair on Saturday. I went with a friend of mine, and her boyfriend. We enjoyed music by Madison County, The Toys, and about 5 minutes of The Now (that was all we could handle). We also enjoyed the weather and the food. For those of you that don't know Madison County, they are a country band out of, well you guessed it Madison. They actually have 3 CD's out and every now and then you can catch one of thier songs on Q106 in Madison. Did anyone else make it to the State Fair?

On Sunday I went and visited with Mom, Dad, Brenda and Ashlynn at Mom's house. And then I had the priviledge of going out and seeing the Storey Families new home. I'll let Brenda fill you in on all that when she has some time. Brenda and Brain I am soo proud of both of you!!

While visiting with Ashlynn, I did some Ashlynn aerobics, and I have to say, I am a bit sore today. I was lifting her above my head and she was smiling and giggling. What a hoot. Ashlynn is quite the entertainer.

Carissa and Jesse, are you going to be at Grandma's on Sunday? I haven't met Pyper yet. And I think it would be fun to watch Ashlynn and Pyper play. I hope to see you there.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone on Sunday, have a great week!
Love,
Amy

Friday, August 14, 2009

Food on a Stick, Animal Smells... what could it be?


Polly Want a Cracker???

Well, Aunt Rita, have you recovered from your wii-pisode with your personal trainer??? I hope you and the virtual dude are getting along better now... can't we all be friends? LOL

Yesterday Chris & I just took a day off... we've been plugging away on our computers for hours on end, months on end and just needed a break. It was a beautiful, sunny day, so we opted to give State Fair all of our un-divided attention! It was GREAT!!!!

We saw baby lambs... and they are so cute. Saw the baby goats too... I still want a goat... someday I'll have my pet goat. We ate plenty of fried food and drank our "fair" share of fresh squeezed lemonade... you should see the refillable cups this year... they have a HUGE 64 oz. gallon size. Now that's crazy. Personally, I wouldn't have wanted to carry that around all day! We of course indulged in the required cream puff and opted to skip the chocolate covered bacon.

It really was a beautiful day. We could both act like kids and people watch. Lots of Laughs and absolutely no stress! It was bliss!

Hope you get a chance over the weekend to experience bliss... be thankful for what we have!

Love to all!

Dawn

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Me and my WII

So, I've been trying to work out on a regular basis lately - going to the gym, hitting the treadmill, working on the nautilus, and doing my bender ball and Wii Fit at home. Well, I'd earned enough points on my Wii that it gave me a new yoga pose! Yeah for me! So, I click on the new pose right away because, like my daughter Audrey, I am very impatient and want everything right now! The trainer warns me that this is an advanced pose and I may want to practice the easier poses before trying this. I immediately dismiss that notion because I am sure I can do it.

I manage to get into something resembling the pose the trainer is doing, and I say, "Rita, you are awesome!" Shortly thereafter, I lost my balance and fell off the board (please feel free to laugh, you won't hurt my feelings). I regain my balance and I am contemplating getting back on to try again when the trainer guy says, "Hey! Where'd you go? I know you fell off the board." I stick my tongue out at him and get back on. I don't even attempt to get back into the correct pose, I just stand on one leg until the time runs out. After the time runs out, the trainer lets me know again that he knows I fell off the board and then tells me that I am not ready for this pose and I need to practice the beginner poses more before attempting this pose again. I have officially been reprimanded by a computer generated personal trainer.

Quite frankly, I can hardly wait to try again to see if he's gonna make some smart alec comment again, like "Ooooh hot shot, back again? Think you'll be able to stay on the board this time? Maybe you should change your name to Grace - NOT!" When I get this pose down, I'm gonna tell this guy off!

Hope y'all have a great day!
Love,
R

P.S. Let this serve as proof that nothing is too menial or silly for our family blog - anything goes.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Frozen corn adventure

Hi, me again. (I warned you!)
I took Friday off and Noah and I went to Reedsburg to visit my parents and do a task. The local grocery store owner (Viking Village, my very first employer) grows his own sweet corn. They were selling the corn for $1.00 a dozen with a limit of 3 dozen each. I stopped and picked up 3 dozen, Mom went to the store to get her 3 as did Dad and my brother.

After visiting for a while we husked the 12 dozen ears of corn. We ate lunch of hot dogs, brats and corn (surprise!). Then we boiled the rest of the corn and cooled it off, cut it, bagged and froze it in freezer bags. This was Noah's first time to freeze corn. He said he was really bored husking corn and helping with the cooking and freezing part. But, this evening we had a bag (all bags we made were about 12 oz) of the corn. He was very proud of his work and loved his frozen corn!

About 3:00 pm we decided to head home and get home before my beautiful wife. Noah and I decided to drive through downtown Dells to see what was going on. Holy cow were they busy! We were on the bridge over the WI River and I said to Noah, "What were we thinking coming this way." Then ....... BOOM, we were re-ended by some young kid in his parents very nice and fairly new SUV.

Thank God we were driving my beater truck we bought earlier this year (see a previous blog). This kids car had well over $4,000 in damage and his bumper and front grill were ripped off. My truck on the other hand had the bumper moved about 1/2 inch. Good 'ol American technology of building vehicles with metal and not plastic! (We'll see what the body shop says about getting the bumper fixed.)

Noah was very exited about this accident (he has been in more than I have now I think!) He could remember exactly what happened.

Hope everyone is staying cool this weekend. Have an ice tea and thank God noone was hurt in our crash!

Scott

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Lambo

Sorry for my absence. I had issues logging into my blogger account - but all is fixed now and here I come!! My beautiful Rita was suppose to post this earlier, but she didn't so here I am.

We have a new addition! No Rita is not joining the crowd and having a baby, we have a new puppy. We picked him up last week Friday. Can you guess his name?

Right! Great job! It's Lambo. He is a little dog, no Great Dane for me :-( but he is cute as heck.

I have attached a one minute video showing the cute little bugger. Enjoy.

Note: please read Rita's response I am sure she has so much more to say, but she went to bed early to get up at 5 am with her new little baby.

Scott


Tuesday, August 4, 2009

A smile a day...


Good Morning, Good Morning... I woke up this morning needing an extra smile... So I went to my computer and downloaded the pics I took on Thursday when Ashlynn, Mom & Brenda came over. Ashlynn loved playing with Cody & Brandi... and really got a kick out of running a circle through the Kitchen, Dining Room and Entry Way.

Because I needed a smile, this one worked just as prescribed, I thought maybe somebody else may need a smile too... and I love sharing! So here's a smile for everybody! While I'll be enjoying the heat & humidity today (I've been waiting for this all summer!!!) I know many of you (Mom & Brenda) will probably be swearing at me. LOL Don't worry, I can handle it... I've got strong shoulders! :)

Hope everybody is having a Terrific Tuesday! Smiles & Love to all!
~Dawn

Sunday, August 2, 2009

What's New at the Rusu and Jude house...




So Rob and I are pretty busy people.  We have been working like crazy all summer so I figured I would share some of the things we've been up to. To kick off the summer we went to LA to visit our friends and all of the places we love so much! We had a great time and will be back again soon.  Then for Kim's bday, a.k.a the 4th of July, we went to my aunt Danella's beautiful lake house in Minoqua,WI and went boating and spent time with family all weekend. Then literally a week and a half later we were in Branson, Mo for my family vaca with my daddy's side of the family.  From there we went to Vegas for Robert's 30th bday were we got bottle service at Jet nightclub at the Mirage hotel! We just returned back home a week and a half to a empty house because well we were gone the two friends we had renting out rooms finally moved out.  So now we are sanding and staining all of our cabinets and wood floors.  We are getting there but I have to say my patients is being tested because I always want things done right away.  The next step is furniture for our living room and kitchen.  So all in all the Lord has blessed with all that we get to do and have!!  Rob's Jazz bar will be opening up by fall so that will be another project and crazy time! There are some pics from our trips for you to enjoy!  Hope everyone is well and may the Lord bless you and keep you safe!!!!
 
 Love Audrey and Rob (people always say Rob and Audrey but I think my name should come first haha)
                

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Welcome To August

Grandpa and his helpers

Hope you are all enjoying your summer. Early this year God and I had a talk. I asked for a cooler summer so I could walk outside more, so I could have time to clear my thoughts and plan a simple yet memorable Christmas for you all and especially Mom and Dad. Well, I guess he listened to me and I am very sorry to all the heat lovers, but God has once again blessed me.

Now with all that said lets talk about exchanging names. Let's have an ornament exchange for one group and a gift exchange for the little ones. Both are completely optional so I will need your help putting together a list. I would like someone from each family to take charge as the captain of their team and get me a list of who wants to participate and in which drawing. I am very hopeful that you will all cooperate very expeditiously and that we can have the drawing in August at Mom's birthday party. I will send postcards with the results to each family so you can post it on your refrigerator. You can access me here at the blog or on my email doucette56@charter.net. I love to see the kids and their gift opening so I hope there are kids who would like to participate in the fun. Thanks for all your help enjoy the rest of your summer.

Julie