Tuesday, September 29, 2009

I'm going to try to catch up on what we've been doing since the beginning of August. Here goes. Bruce took a trip to Texas in the motor home. Do you know that that is? That's the back end of our motor home and it's the last time you'll ever see it looking like that. Bruce took our RV to Texas to get a new paint job and get the inside spiffed up a little bit. I asked Bruce to take a couple pictures so we could always remember what our house looked like before it's face lift.

The following weekend, our daughter Amy and her friend Amber joined us at the lake for some summer fun. The new tube turned out to be a real hit. Looks pretty comfy, huh?

I had a fun time!

The next weekend Bud and Shelley came to visit. The first thing we did was put them to work. See what Bud is doing? He's reading the directions so he and Bruce would be sure to get the new bar stools put together correctly. Thanks Bud!

The stools turned out great.

We watched a little football. The KSU cheerleaders have nothing to fear.

We enjoyed time at the pool.

Bruce, Bud, Melissa and Amy went parasailing.

And they all survived.

The next weekend Bruce and I joined Alex and Joy in Topeka for a balloon glow.

Bruce and I spent a weekend in Branson. Bruce was really tired of dieting. I turned my back on him for two minutes and this is where he went.

Bruce found some new friends.

The band season as begun and we enjoyed the grandsons' first exhibition. They are both drummers and we are very proud grandparents.

During the past 1 1/2 months, I had a birthday and I am now less than 1 year from retirement. WAHOO. We've begun planning our retirement trips. We've made plans to attend the Daytona 500 with my brother and sister-in-law. I achieved my weight watcher lifetime membership and have maintained the loss. We have seen Lindi go from a shy little thing to a fun-loving little dog. We still go to work every day and those days go by quickly. We continue to thank God for our many blessings.

Sunday August 9, 1009

This week we had the great pleasure of visiting with our buddies Lynne and Woody Barlow. We have travelled from one end of this country to the other. Lynne and Woody spent a couple nights with us so we had the time to plan our next trip which will be to the Northeast in September 2010 right after I retire and we get back from Germany. We sure miss the Barlows.

Saturday Bruce and I spent the majority of the day bumming around. We were all excited about going to the T-Bones baseball game because I thought we had an air conditioned suite. NOT. We had an open deck facing the sun in the 100 degree heat. We had dinner and were home by 8:30. I guess I need to pay more attention to our accommodations next time. The joke was sure on me.

Sunday morning began at 4:40. DeAnn walked with 5 friends in the Breast Cancer walk. We had a great time and some good exercise. It was hot by the time we finished and even DeAnn was dripping wet. YUCK.

Bruce was home cleaning the kitchen while DeAnn walked because Cash and Molly were coming for brunch. DeAnn fixed lunch and the seven of us (Bruce, Melissa, Alex, James, Molly, Cash and DeAnn) were eating by 1:15. Yum.

Lindi was not impressed by that kid being in her space and was happy to have dad to herself.

Is Cash cute or what? He likes food – my kind of guy.

Do you see why Lindi was jealous?

I was in my glory. Too bad Cash and his parents live in Michigan. I could get used to him.

Tonight we are off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz. Our friend, David Thompson, is the Lion and tonight is the last night. Got to run.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

This one is for you Snookie! Here is a brief synopsis of the last 2 1/2 months with the Hoovers. It is not pretty but it is a blog and I promise to get with it and stay with it. We moved out of our apartment and are now house sitting for a year. We hunted down and purchased all new furniture for the condo. We managed to get rid of all of our old stuff from the condo. We helped Amy search out new furniture for her condo and made arrangements to move her old stuff to Melissa's apartment and move Melissa's stuff to the dumpster. By the next morning someone had picked up the unwanted furniture so all kinds of people have new stuff now. We've been to the lake as much as possible and have had all kinds of great visitors both t the lake and here in Lenexa. We enjoyed a poker run in the Bell's beautiful boat. We've been to South Dakota to visit my family and went to Montana for a family wedding. We've been to some great wine dinners and tastings and have spent as much time with friends as possible. We've watched a close friend go through extensive pancreas surgery and heal nicely. We worked and have even managed to sleep a few hours. Here is where we stayed in beautiful Ennis, MT for Mollie and Travis Denman's wedding.

Chad and Tina Cartwright, Nikki Wagner, Vickie and Curt Cartwright.

Uncle Roger and cousin Craig.

My Dad and Craig's grandson (I can never remember his name)

Bruce enjoying the Rainbow Valley Lodge.

Powell Gardens near Kansas City.

Kansas City at its finest.

Our good buddies Bruce and Michelle.

B1 and B2 on the plaza.

Guess who?

Beautiful picture taken by Michelle. She is GOOD!! Thanks Michelle.

Shopping at City Market.

Dinner at the condo. LaVon Baker, Betsy Pepper, Pastor Pepper, Jack Montgomery, Cathy Montgomery, Rick Fury, Wendy Fury, Don Baker at the condo,

You can see that dinner was boring and no one had any fun. NOT!

Don and LaVon Baker.

Bruce, Lindi, DeAnn, Mom and Dad

Mom, DeAnn and Dad

Bruce and his new girlfriend.

I apologize for all the non-blogging that has been going on and promise to do better.

May 17, 2009

We had a whirlwind weekend! Friday after work we drove to the lake with a storm bearing down on us all the way. Fortunately we arrived at the lake and unloaded all of our junk before the clouds opened up and poured rain. The wind blew and the lightening flashed but that's about the size of our storm. Saturday morning Bruce and Bill White moved our boat from the old slip to our brand new slip with the brand new lift. The slip is so wide that we had to have a walkway built so Bruce is able to put the cover on the boat. Now is this a nice lift or what?? After Bruce moved the boat we drove to the RV storage unit because we had the car loaded with "stuff" I had "borrowed" from the motor home. I put everything away and left for the grocery store. Bruce drove the RV to our new storage unit which is really close to our condo. Now Bruce is going to go through all the boxes that have been safely stored in the shed for the last five years. He is going to get rid of all kinds of stuff. hahahahahahahaha. I'll let you know how that goes!! I spent an hour at the store gathering up all the groceries we will need for Memorial Day weekend. No one in his right mind goes to the grocery store at Lake of the Ozarks on the holiday weekend. Meanwhile Bruce and Lindi were patiently waiting for me to pick them up after their hour and a half wait for me. When we got back to the condo Bruce and I had lunch (3:00 p.m.) and Lindi played with her favorite toy. She is finally learning how to play and she's getting pretty good at it. My next project was baking muffins for a "Building Six" birthday party. Of course I tried two new recipes and they both turned out great. One of them was a chocolate chip, banana nut surprise muffin. YUM. The "surprise" was a dollop of raspberry preserves. The other batch was a blueberry yogurt muffin. I had Bruce eat one of each to be sure they were ok. After our busy day we went out for fajitas at our local Mexican restaurant. Sunday morning I made a fresh fruit salad and we were off to the "Building Six" birthday bash. This is Mike and Donna David. Mike was the birthday boy and Donna was the hostess.

This is Mike (the birthday boy) and Ginny (the birthday girl). Notice the red stuff in the glasses. That is blood orange mimosa and it is GOOD! Mike and Donna own a wine distributorship and we are all customers now! We also loved the peach bellini.

Here's the really full Building Six gang.

Immediately after we ate, Bruce and I left for Topeka to celebrate Samantha Sturgeon's high school graduation. Samantha is Alex and Joy's niece. She plans to go to Washburn University to study to be a pediatric nurse. Sam is a beautiful young lady with a brilliant mind. She was in the National Honor Society and in the top 10 of her class.

Here you see Samantha with Joy's sister, Jodi.

Samantha and cousin Michael.

Samantha and her sister Kasey.

Samantha read "Oh the Places You Will Go" to all the little ones (and us too).

By 8:00 we were home and glad to be out of the car! We will be off to the lake again after work on Friday, May 22.