A Little Reunion

Last Saturday, I had a mini reunion with some old friends from my high school days...to be exact, Key (Kiwanis Educated Youth) Club days. While it seems that more than half of our board members are gone, there are a handful of us in the area and a few that couldn't make it this time. It was a lot of fun, I can't believe I was on the board in 94-95 already! By the way, Key Club is the largest high school community service group and is international.

From left to right, Tom (Lt. Gov 95-96), Karen (Lt. Gov 94-95), Yours Truly (Lt. Gov 94-95), Jenny (Lt. Gov 94-95 & Gov 95-96), Mickey (Administrator forever & Builder's Club Admn) and Sean (Lt. Gov 94-95, 95-96, Circle K & Circle K Admn)

Last Weekend

We had some family in town last weekend just for a quick visit and a visit to the Auto Show. My brother, his stepson, my nephew & Pete headed to the car show. My other brother and I stayed home to watch Kiersten, our niece Dianne (whom I haven't seen since her 1st bday party July 4th weekend) and Peter. It took a little while for Kiersten to 'accept' Dianne playing with her toys. Though they fought over a few things, Kiersten's baby doll, eventually Kiersten shared her baby too! Dianne is just a tad shorter than Kiersten, but is certaintly round in the belly. She won't be 2yrs old until June 29th, but her 24mths pants are already too tight!! Kiersten doesn't have that problem!
You can see how long Kiersten's hair has gotten!
Dianne is sporting the short, chic hair.
The cutie pies.

Not too much here!

Not too much going on here. Some frusturating 4's and terrible 2's & a little cold being shared between the kids. Kiersten is napping and Peter went with dad (day off) to play at McD's jungle gym & an indoor golf arena so dad can practice.

We had a pretty bad ice storm here last night, but we didn't have to travel so the roads are nice now. Our neighbor's neighbor tree fell over into the road and blocked 1 side of the road all morning, but it got all cleared up. We are so happy we got our 2 huge ash trees taken down last fall. A storm like this would have knocked them down since they were dead and we would have lost power (not to mention our neighbors would be angry too since they would be affected!).

I'm supposed to have family visit this weekend, hopefully the weather clears up so they can drive here Friday.

Go Gators! Ouch OSU ( :

When we're not playing (Michigan) we always root for the underdog, that would be Florida even though OSU played horribly & was defintely the underdog in this game. Hey, at least there was only a 14pt gap at the Rose Bowl, NOT 27pts....a worst ever at the National Championship. Our only loss during the regular season was by 3 points to OSU, not too shabby considering we also loss BO the day before. Hopefully, this season we won't loss another icon before huge games (Bo & President Ford), it tends to hurt us. On to bigger and better things.....

Family Pics

These were the 2 photos (best of the lot) that I tried previously to upload, but had problems last month.

Back to normal

I began my New Years Day taking down the tree ornaments & putting everything away. The tree was picked up 2 days later by our garbage company (recycling truck) & except for new toys all over the house, no indication of the holidays in this house. Pete went back to work after 10days off and Peter went back to school after almost 2 weeks off. Pete starts 2 classes on on Monday & a 3rd class in March.

The only thing that is off is Kiersten's nap schedule (sometimes no nap) and the fact that it is almost 51 degrees outside. I'm shocked no one got sick this holiday week (knock on wood), but I'll take it. The Rose Bowl bombed big time for U of M and Notre Dame faired even worse. Florida has no chance against OSU even though we are not rooting for either team, who really cares!

I'm planning lunch/dinner with some old Key Club pals that still live in the area. The last time I saw half of them was at a convention in 2001 and I felt so old (: Reunions are fun though so it should be a good time!

Getting Ready for a New Year's Party!!!!

We went grocery shopping and bought Taquitos, Chimi's, cheese sticks, potato wedges (cheese & bacon), breaded mushrooms etc... I made little eggrolls (homemade recipe) and prepared our junk feast. The kids had a nice healthy dinner and only snacked on good stuff. The weather was warm, but rainy so it was good that we were home. We have been spending New Years with the kids the past 4yrs or so since its hard to find a sitter and we enjoy spending time with the kids. The way our schedule has been, we don't get a lot of family time anyway so this is important for us to be together.

The kids in their pajamas with their bellies full (dinner, snacks & some candy to keep them awake) and spent a lot of time dancing the night away.
Kiersten in her little pullout sofa pretending to be sleeping. She was getting too hot in her PJs so we changed her to a t-shirt & sweats.
Caught you!!!! You're not sleeping!
Singing to Christina Aguilera performing on Dick Clark's New Year's Special on ABC.

Getting ready for the ball to come down!

Saturday at the Henry Ford Museum

On Saturday, we decided to head down to Dearborn and visit the Henry Ford Museum. We try to stay away from costly admissions and things that the kids wouldn't really know to enjoy, but the Henry Ford is pretty nice for kids & adults. First, they are both still free (under 5yrs) and we decided to fork over $28 ($14/adult) since we didn't travel this week, we didn't spend money on traveling expenses. Luck would be on our side! Peter & I went to look for a bathroom & when we returned, some nice guy had extra tickets & gave us 2 so we got in for FREE! Can't beat that.

The Henry Ford has a lot of nice large exhibits. One of Reagan's Limo is here, Kennedy's infamous Limo (when he was killed) is here, Rosa Parks' bus from Alabama is here, an Oscar Mayer Weinermobile & tons of automobiles ranging from horse drawn buggies to almost current vehicles are displayed here. They also have large airplanes and trains and much, much more which we knew we couldn't get to. Everything is large and spacious so it was perfect to let Kiersten do her own walking. The kids had a really good time and even though Kiersten was CRANKY towards the end, she caught a second wind & didn't nap on the car ride home (40mins) Yikes! In a few years, we'll hit the Smithsonians.

Kiersten & Peter posing in front of an oversized Christmas tree.

Both kids love airplanes. We got to experience being in an airplane 3D, in a cockpit and seeing a replica of the Wright Brothers first flight.

Trains, Planes and Automobiles Galore!

This is one cool vehicle.
A large and beautiful train set filled with tons of beautiful scenic structures and gingerbread houses. It even goes through a mountain.

A smaller set where kids could run the train set. Peter taking his turn.