Sue's Views

I'm still beaming after my baptism. Therese is usually about 5'10" but she was squatting down in this picture. It's a great picture of Ron...He's so happy in church, isn't he? I think he should try it on a regular basis. Don't mind me in this picture, my eyes tell the story. It's called a mountain of emotion from stress to relief and anxiety all mixed into one.

Yes, Bill, we had snow yesterday. May I be the first to wish you a very happy birthday. I'm sure there's a cocktail waiting for you at Sparky's if you play your cards right. Maybe Sally will take you to the fancy place by the condo. I looked on the weather today for Key Colony, and your birthday should be complete with a day in the 80's. Ah...get the sun tan spray! There's a plane ticket with my name on it...jk...only in my dreams.

Love,

Sue

Creepytime

We're making our preparations for the little darlings tomorrow night!  Last year we had good weather and a couple hundred showed up at our door.  This year the weather is expected to be good too, but there is a home football game - playoffs - think there will be much of a difference in the number trick-or-treaters?  

Look at this!!!

Big deal, a picture of our kitchen table, why would this ever be worthy of a blog??  This picture proves something very, very important.

Besides proving that we can keep the kitchen table clean (I think it was cluttered for most of the summer), it also shows that the little black dot that was in every one of our old pictures, is now gone!  We had our camera fixed and the picture now is super dooper clear!

Thats all cats!

Peaceful Coexistance?

Too bad they missed the Las Vegas wedding. Jim could have taught them a step or two.

Sue's Views

This was the day we traveled north with Sally and Bill to 40 mile point light house. There is a ship wreckage right on shore (or what remains of the bottom hull). We were searching for interesting shells. I just kinda liked this picture, with my baptism coming up this weekend and all. Ker-ploosh!

Love ya,

Sue

P.S. I got the Hughes re-installed. I'm back in business.

Pennies from heaven!

Funny what you find on your camera when it has been set aside for awhile. Our camera is in the shop for repairs and so we've been using our old camera this weekend. When I loaded the pictures onto my computer, look what I found!

This picture was taken a couple years ago. This was a very special day for Jim. We received these cereal samples in the mail. This is like pennies from heaven for Jim! It made his day!

I hate to name-drop, but...

We drove up to Miami for the second time in a week, this time in search of better CD rates, and we ended up at Ocean Bank in Kendall and drove right by OJ's house! He wasn't home, but we got a tip from the lady that wrote up our CD that he shopped at the same Publix as she does, on Kendall and 132nd Ave, and we drove right by that too! I tell ya, the excitement never quits around here! And also, in case you are interested, the gas prices up in Kendall were $3.69 and down here in Islamorada we only paid $3.19. Are we lucky or what? Yes, I know times are tough, but let's look for the small pleasures in life, and there are always a few of those. We had shrimp and wings for dinner at Sparky's when we got home. Now that's a small but important pleasure for sure. Hope you all have a great weekend filled with small or great pleasures.

update!

Hey everyone,

I really should be blogging more. I don't have any good excuses...

Winter is here! It's below freezing all day and we've been getting a
dusting of snow almost every night (and it stays). There's ice over
Noyes Slough (small river) and the lakes are freezing up. I told the
parents it's like the whole area is just a few degrees above freezing
all summer. It's amazing how fast things are freezing. Even the
Chena river has "frazil ice" which looks like slush flowing down the
river (learned that in my class last night!).

It's getting darker, too. After the autumnal equinox we lose a lot
more light per day than yous guys down south. The sun comes up
sometime after 8 now so I've lit up my bike. I've got blinky lights
on the front and back and a red light in my spokes (it's awesome) and
I've got my headlamp mounted to my helmet. I also bought some studded
tires. They're really awesome and I'm planning on doing a lot of
riding before it gets too cold (not planning on riding too much when
it's -40!).

This semester I'm taking a class-- Arctic Engineering. It's required
to get my Professional Engineer's license in Alaska. (sidenote: I sit
for the big exam in a year and a half!) Anyway, the class is really
cool. I've encountered a lot of differences between engineering up
here and engineering in MI and I'm learning a ton in the class.

I'm taking a class for work this week too. Yesterday was not so fun--
11 hours of classes! Never had that many hours of class in college!
Glad I don't have to do that again. So tonight I'm relaxing.

I had a great weekend in Kodiak visiting Brian. What a cool place. I
really liked it but I'd never live there-- it's so isolated! It's an
8 hour ferry to the mainland. The picture is of a beach we found. We
felt like we discovered it ourselves. So cool. Brian gets back to
Anchorage in a few weeks and we'll be able to resume our regularly
scheduled visits. ;-)

Well, that's the news from the north. I love reading all your blogs!

Aimee

On the "Must Have" List

I'm pretty sure just about everyone in our family needs this to help improve the self- portrait qualities. I know I'm putting it on my Christmas list.

Sue's Views

Here it is...my last night in Florida. I took out my diskette, so I don't have any pictures to show you. (I have it packed away, so I wouldn't forget it.) It's 11:00 and I just heard an iguana on the side of the balcony. We've got the air conditioning off and the door wall is open. I might have to close it if I hear any more scratching. Sally and Bill took me out for a birthday dinner tonight. I had b-b-q'd ribs. Yummy! I almost finished the 2 full racks! Tomorrow I'll get into Flint at 6:00 thhen drive home to Hillman from there. Back to reality. It's been fun having some memorable experiences to share with the famiy on the blog pages of life.
Good company, great times, but alas time has come
Just memories remain of all we have done
Our family is few but thoughtful and kind
from sixty one to fifty nine
My bags are packed, my skin is brown
My husband awaits my arrival in town.
So long for now but I wait for the day
for more frolicking and fun at life in the Cay!

Sue's Views

Gecko buddies surrounded me this trip in unny Florida. Today was quite a thrill;let me explain. While Sally and I were having a nice peaceful morning on the beach tanning and telling stories, I decided to walk over the beach next to the Cay to look for fish from the pier. nobody was on that beach and last year I spotted ll kinds of fish from that pier. I tip-toed so as to not disturb the fish (if there were any) took a long hard look...nothing! So I thought the fih were probably on the other side of the pier. I carefully went to rest my hand on the column of the pier to tke a peek...all of a sudden I heard a rustling sound, and then...ker-ploosh!!! One of these dang gecko monsters jumped out from my hand and jumped into the ocean! Yikes!! I let out hair raising scream, but my big sister never heard me. The lawn guys were manicuring the grass. I'm sure they got a chuckle over the 55 year old lady in the the lime green bikini who nearly got attacked by this gigantic lime green lizard. YUCK! The moral of the story is;stay on your own beach, or make sure you take along your big sister when you go fish spotting.

Sue's Views

Here's my creation that shoud have gone along with the last blog. sorry!

Sue's View

Here is the "jewelry tree" I found on the beach. In order to make the tree stand up on the slat table, I used the rubber part of a washed up pair of swimming goggles that I found washed up on the beach. I love to let my imagination run wild. Sally will always have this on the table when she comes down for a swim. If she forget to take off her earrings before a dip in the ocean, now she'll have a place to hang her jewelry. (Ha!) Oh the fun things we do to entertain ourselves. Sally and I were talking about all the fun times we've had during family get-together. Here's the million dollar question...How many family get- togethers do you think we've had ince Sally went away to college? I couldn't begin to count, but they've all been great. I think we should plan a huge family reunion for next year. Half-way between Sally and Aimee is about Denver. Who's game?

Tough Day At The Beach

First I had to "TOE" Susan in off the water because she was getting too sunburnt. Good thing I took Jr. Lifesaving twice, even though I flunked it, I remembered how to do the overhand tow which is actually quite easy when you have a noodle with you and you are rescuing someone on a raft. Then Sue and Bill went fishing off the shore. Sue caught this cute little grunt which sacraficed it's life to be cut up as bait to catch bigger and better fish, a baby snapper and a jack. It was a relaxing afternoon. But I tell ya, never a dull moment when Sue is around.