A great big happy FIRST birthday to nephew Luke. This is a picture posted on his mom’s blog from his first Halloween. Cute, no?
Tag: family
I have all of our pictures from Trunk or Treat in a Web Gallery on .Mac. You should be able to view all the pix and download your favorites!
We participated in our first Trunk or Treat Wednesday night. It was great. We had a big turnout. There were over 60 cars and a bunch of kids in costume. And a bunch of adults in costume, too.
Everyone seemed to have a good time. It was fun to walk around, seeing everyone at their decorated cars, passing out candy.
Of course, one of the most talked about things – or people – was the couple of Pastor and Naomi. At least, it looked a lot like them. (Sam and his friend, Adam, if you don’t know. Sam has the wig.)
After a work-filled weekend last week, decided to avoid it this week. Almost succeeded.
I knew the beginning of today – my official day off – would be work-related. The City of Fort Myers was getting rid of some computer stuff, so I went and snagged several computers for the church. The big prize was a mint Dell PowerEdge 2500, loaded with six drives and redundant power supplies, and…okay, I’ll save all the non-geeks from the details. It was cool.
The next few hours were spent at my Friday chore – grocery shopping at WalMart. Our store is undergoing renovations, so the expedition was a bit long today.
After lunch Sam and I went and strolled through the new Sports Authority and our new SuperTarget, with an additional stop at BJ’s and – one more time – WalMart.
Trudi made 5-star chicken enchiladas for supper, along with southwest eggrolls with cilantro cream sauce. Then some ice cream for dessert.
Good day.
That – among many – is one of my favorite lines from the movie Toy Story. We finally purchased the DVD and gathered to watch it as a family a few days ago. It would rank high on my all-time favorite list. We’re gradually trying to get all the DVD’s of our favorite movies that we have the VHS copies of.
Getting to spend a couple of days with Mom and Dad. Dad and I will be at a Teen Challenge “event” tomorrow. Looking forward to it.
Took this picture while they were looking at stuff online. Got this post up within 15 minutes (made the previous post about BQ first.)
Technology allows us to do all sorts of useless stuff – quickly.
Just got done with our Friday Family TV Night Tradition Thing. We love to watch Monk and Psych, two shows on the USA network. They have a weird schedule, where they show about six shows, then take a few months off. So, now we have to wait until January for new episodes. Sigh.
Numbers comes back (on CBS) in a couple of weeks. Another favorite.
Rings: $1500
(Really, I have no idea. I’m sure Trudi could tell you to the penny, but the rings I bought her were from MaryAnn Ballance, who gave me a great price on a custom-made set.)
Reception: $1500
(Again, I’m just throwing out numbers. I know it was quite a bit, and that the only thing she got to eat was the bite of cake and a banana I grabbed on the way out. You can tell we weren’t eating much by how skinny we were!)
Tux with tails: $120
(Alright, I really stink at this because – besides the fact that I can remember that I paid $3.88 per gallon for orange juice last week, while I only paid $2.79/gal for gas yesterday – I can’t remember what I paid for anything. I do know that I had tails while all the rest of the guys had regular tuxes. And Trudi’s dress was lovely and, no, I am clueless about what it cost, although I’m sure she told me, though I don’t think she ever did tell me how much she paid for my ring. The bridesmaids dresses were red. The ceremony was at First Assembly in Ocala. Some things I remember.)
Twenty-one years with the love of my life: Priceless.
(It was all about the punchline anyway. Thank you, Trudi, for 21 years together, four wonderful children, and – yes – even the hairy dog.)
Got to go to G’ville and let Shae experience her first Gator game on Saturday. It was almost the full enchilada. Rode up with Gary Robles and his son Adam, parked in our traditional parking area, made the walk past the union and up to the stadium, then spent about an hour looking for tickets to scalp.
We were successful – as expected – and got half-price seats, though rather high. (It’s a little harder to scalp for 4.)
The only thing we missed was walking on the north side of the stadium past the Krishnas and seeing the band come into the stadium.
But Shae loved it, the Gators won (despite a sloppy third quarter), and we got home safely – about 2:30am.Go Gators.
I’ve really got to get better at this blogging thing.
Blogs are great places to celebrate your family and friends, and to give a shout out on special days. Sometimes I’ve done that. But this week has not been good.
So, a late and early Happy Birthday to mom and dad. Mom’s birthday was Wednesday. Dad’s is coming up this Monday.
Great parents, even if their son is lacking on his blogging.
Summer thought it was funny that we call it Labor Day, but no one works.
Plenty of people work on Labor Day – firemen, nurses, cashiers at Sweet Bay. And it’s a good thing, since I had to go to Sweet Bay for some rock salt.
That’s right – homemade ice cream! With cookie dough! It was a great way to end a very lazy day. We ate our ice cream and watched old home movies from “back in the day.”
Sweet.
(The picture at right – Summer, back in the day.)
No, this isn’t the best picture of her – but we think she’s cute no matter what.
Another big day at the McDaniel hacienda – Sawyer Layne turns 8 today.
Genuine and likable – she is a joy and constant pleasure to her family and friends. We are blessed to have her.
Happy Birthday, Bean!
In 1995 we made the decision to begin Shae’s formal education at home. We heard – and have heard many times since then – of all the dangers, drawbacks, and challenges of homeschooling. There are – even now – many misconceptions and myths about what it means to homeschool.
Our decision was not on behalf of anyone else – it only concerned Shae, and what we felt was best for her and our family. It was scary, especially for Trudi, because of the great responsibility.
At the time, we only committed to doing one year at home. We felt we could try it, and if it didn’t work out, we could always try the public school system. Each year since 1995, we have renewed our one-year contract. For each additional child, we have asked, “Is this the best thing?” And each time we have felt it was the right thing.
It has been challenging. We have made mistakes. We hope we’ve done a good job. But Shae has been great. She is a wonderful young lady and has been a terrific example for her brother and sisters.
Last year, Shae experienced something other than homeschool for the first time when she dual-enrolled at Edison Community College, taking one class each semester in Punta Gorda. However, the bulk of her time was still at home, working on her high school studies.
Officially, she is still a high school senior. But last Friday she began classes at Edison in Fort Myers, taking 15 hours of college courses.
Bittersweet is a cliche. It’s also an apt description.
3 more to go.
FIFTY.
The big five-oh. Halfway to 100.
I remember when we were kids, from time to time we’d look ahead and say, “When I’m ___, you’ll be ____.” Or, “when it’s 2000, I’ll be ___, and you’ll be ____.”
It was hard to imagine having a sibling this old. Or being this old myself. (Of course, I’m not there yet, but obviously it’s not that far away now.)
So, Happy 50th Birthday to my sister, Cherie! (That’s us, 41 years ago in Mansfield, Ohio.)
But that’s not all.
Because it’s also Shae’s birthday – named Shaelyn Cherie to honor her much older aunt. Seventeen is a pretty big number, too, especially when it’s my daughter.
Shae has been a constant delight. Monday was a sad day for us, as the other three kids began their homeschool year without their older sister for the very first time. (Even though she is officially a high school senior, she is taking all her classes at Edison Community College this year.) Instead of the usual Math, Bible, Latin and all the rest in the schoolroom, Shae went off to work at Jorgensen Contracting.
Happy 17th Birthday, Shae! (In the picture: cousin Jason, toe-picking Shae, cousin Ben, cousin Jenni.)
The kids slept in this morning while I went to the business session of the General Council. A new superintendent was elected for the A/G – George Wood. Alton Garrison was elected as the new Assistant Superintendent and John Palmer was chosen to replace Bro. Wood as the General Secretary.
Just after noon we got word that the kids had been chosen in the callbacks for their small drama group. Out of 124 entries, they were one of only 17 callbacks.
We spent a couple of hours practicing and getting ready for their big performance. And it was…um…well, I think we were all a little disappointed.
Don’t get me wrong – they did well once again. But it wasn’t their best. And the crowd didn’t seem to be with them at all. But they already exceeded our goals by getting a callback, so we’re pretty happy. It will be interesting to see tomorrow if they made it into the top 10.
After more of the business session, we went to Buca di Beppo with Pastor Goss and his family, where we ate ALOT of Italian food.
On the way back to the hotel, we swung by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, then by a fancy mall so I could look at the new iMac in the Apple store.
Last day in Indy tomorrow.