Old Stomping Ground

So lately, the last two Saturday nights, my trips for work have taken me to some old stomping grounds in Ohio. In 1982 &'83, we lived in Miamisburg, OH. Dad worked in Kettering, OH and we spent a lot of time in Dayton, OH. My trips have taken me right to the Dayton area, albeit late at night! :)


One both of my trips, I drove right by this location - and the first time it was like, "I've been there!!!" It's called Carillon Park. They have this huge tower with bells that ring out beautifully when they play them. It's also displays... Collections depict history of transportation and early pioneer life in the area, including original early railroad depot and section of the Miami and Erie Canal fitted with an original lock; Dayton-built motor vehicles; Wright brothers' 1905 plane; 1912 steam locomotive and tender.

We used to ride our bikes from our home over to the park on Sabbath afternoons. Awesome! Great memory.



I also had to drive pass the exit for W.P.A.F.B. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. It is one of the premier Air Force bases in the USA. Every summer when we were there, we'd go to the airshow there. Man, that was AWESOME!

I remember my first experience with the SR-71 Blackbird. At an airshow, they had one sitting on the tarmac. We got to go look at it. Then later on it took off and did a couple of slow loops around the field, then ZOOOM headed west. I remember 50 minutes later the PA announcer said, "Folks remember that SR-71 Blackbird that was here - it just landed in California." 50 minutes to go almost 2,000 miles. WOW.

Great memories, GREAT MEMORIES!

What an awesome Job! :)

Family!!!

If there was one nice thing about Grandpa's funeral, it was the fact that it brought us all together. We're all so spread out (I'm the worst, living the farthest out.), and it makes it hard to get together to tell stories, to talk, to share lives and experiences. So it was so nice getting together once again to catch up.

Here are some 'family' photos from our trip.

Uncle Dick wanted an updated 'family' pic of us - so he snapped one out in front of their house in Florida.

At Sea World, they have an attraction called "Wild Arctic." It it most awesome - and extremely cool in the building. A nice get-away from the Florida heat! :) While we were in the exhibit, they have many things for kids to touch and do - here are Joelle & Natalie sticking their heads through a hole in the 'ice-pack."

Here's a shot of the Howard/ Pester/ Scriven cousins. (Some obviously are missing. :( Here's Sheri, LouAnn, Jeannie, Evelyn, Linda and Larry.) There was so much 'talking' going on with this group it was hard to get a shot. He, he, he - Finally I got a couple and Sheri gave me a hard time about not liking them so take another. So I did, as you can see - they are quite the playful clan! :) I come by it honestly! He, he, he

Those left there on the weekend got up and had breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. As y'all know they all have the 'rockers' out in front, so I couldn't pass up this photo op.

Finally, I had mom take a nice updated pic of us at the Sunken Garden. This is kind of a nice shot if I don't say so myself!

Artsy & Stuff

Ok - some more photos to enjoy - most of this is artsy stuff.

On our latest trip we had a couple of times where the girls were EXTREMELY bored. So to keep them interested - I put a new card in the camera and said 'click away.' And they did, they filled it 3 or 4 times. I deleted a LOT of the pics, but kept quite a few for 'memories' sake.

While we were visiting at Uncle Dick and Aunt June's Natalie had the camera taking some shots. This was a theme of hers - shoes, with just the barest tip of her toes in the photo! Cute!



We really enjoyed Shamu at Sea World. It was really neat, even though we've seen it before - it was cool seeing Shamu jump out of the water with the guy on the tip of his nose.


At the Sunken Garden in Lincoln, NE we saw this beautiful flower on the water Lillies. Awesome.




Uncle Dick, showed me some photos of his time in the military, stationed on Guam, loading ammunition into P-47's. These are some of the planes he worked on. Sweet!

The Girls

On our recent trip to NE, the cousins - Emily, Rebekah, Joelle and Natalie had a LOT of fun together. (We were all a bit sad that Sarah and Brian didn't come though - I think they would have thoroughly enjoyed themselves too. Although, I'm being just a little selfish though. We're probably not gonna be able to see them until next Christmas and I love all my nieces and nephew and want to visit any chance we get!) They went everywhere together and I think really had a ball.

They didn't all sleep in this bunk in Mom & Dad's 5th wheel, but they probably would'a tried had we let them! He, he, he! Snapped a pic of them playing up there together one morning!


At the Lincoln, NE zoo - they realized that they were 'hatched' into this world. Did ja get that 'yolk?' Waaaa ha, ha, ha! (Sorry 'bout that bad joke)


The 'Sunken Garden' downtown had this statue at the top called "Rebekah at the Well." Of course my little Niece claimed it as her very own, but was willing to share it with the others for this photo op!


Grammy got involved in the 'girls only' pics here. I think she really enjoyed posing for this one.


Man, I LOVE it when they get along like this. The first morning we were there - we had to go into Wal-mart to pick up a few essentials. The 4 just naturally walked in holding hands like this. I didn't have my camera, so quickly grabbed Mom's and snapped a couple of shots like this. While for the time there - they got along very good - as always though, they did have their moments!



Of course I couldn't pass this photo up. And to kinda be more 'artsy' like my Bro-in-law encourages, I set them up like this and changed my camera to sepia for the shot. Turned out pretty good if I don't say so myself! :)

What a good trip.

Great memories!

Trip Pics

All righty then - I finally got things figured out to be able to get our trip pics posted. Ayi, yai, yai! How annoying!!! It was nothing wrong with the site - of course it was 'user error.'

Enjoy........

We were wanting to get to Florida at a decent time - so we left early. Basically we got the girls outta bed, and into their car seats. Isn't this just so cute?!!!





We spent the weekend with Doreen's Aunt June and Uncle Dick. It was good seeing them again and we had fun hanging out with them.



Sunday we went with Doreen's cousins to the beach down by Tampa Bay. Here's the 'human' fish we caught in the Gulf of Mexico. Man - I couldn't believe how warm the water was, it was like a big bathtub. It was so CUTE to see her diving down and looking on the floor of the ocean for things! What a blast.



The girls saw this replica of Shamu and wanted to get a picture with it - so we did...









Later on, we went to see the actual Shamu perform - and before the program Shamu was swimming around and we went down to see him, and this was close as we could get, so Shamu posed with the girls - cute!



Of course - we had to go to Nebraska for G-pa's funeral. After it was all said and done, we took some time to go Geocaching with family! Fun, FUN, FUN!







Since the girls, had to sit so long on the trip, we decided to play hookie from church and go to the Lincoln Zoo. We had a GREAT time!









Before the Zoo, we stopped by the Sunken garden to see this new 'garden' in Lincoln. We got a photo of the whole family together.

It was a good trip - all things considered!

What's Up? OR Bad Movies!!!

What's the deal - I've been tryig to post some photos of our trip on the site here and have had NO such luck. Frustrating, annoying, flat out irritating. Hopefully, things will get back to normal so I can put some fotoz up soon! I think you'll enjoy 'em.

So what is up lately? Doreen and I have been picking some pretty bad movies lately. Aaarrrgh! The last three we've watched, Anger Management, Fun with Dick and Jane and Shopgirl. They were all sad.

Well, Anger & Dick & Jane wasn't too bad, but for almost the entire movie, you feel extremely frustrated for the characters. They can't catch a break at all and it gets to be too much. It's just 12 things after another knocking 'em down, even farther. The boom, in the last few moments - relief. They both had funny moments, but not enough to save the movies.

Then, THEN Shopgirl, aparently wrote, and produced by funnyman Steve Martin - oh man, man O man. What a miserable movie. It has NO point, the music is awful, the cinematography, while interesting - is TOO artsy fartsy - it distracts from what the story is. Wow - this is just a BAD movie.

Ok - 3 strikes and you're out, we're on to the next batter, so hopefully the next couple of movies we get will be home runs! :)

The Trip!!!

Wow, glad to be back home. Glad to sleep in our own beds on Sunday night. Wow! What a trip.

Ok - so here's the short (probably long... grin) of it... We left a week ago Friday for a 9 hour trip to Florida for a 7 day vacation. Of course on the trip down, we did some geocaching and Natalie caught a cat-nap in her car seat. Thank goodness for portable DVD players. :)

Got there and enjoyed visiting with Doreen's Aunt June and Uncle Dick. Sabbath morning, at Sabbath School, I got a text message from my dad, that Grandpa Pester was in a coma. So I left and called Dad. And got the story - Grandpa had a couple of small strokes earlier in the week, which I knew about. Turns out he had a biggie on Wed evening and wasn't doing so well. Late Fri he slipped into a coma - then later Sabbath - dad called to tell me that Grandpa died.

So for the next few hours we tried figuring out how to work everything out. We bought non-refundable tickets to Sea World - had some other pretty big plans. So what to do - and how to get to Nebraska.

After the funeral got scheduled for Thursday afternoon, we had things in place. We cancelled the hotel and Islands of Adventure. Then we decided to go ahead and hit the beach with some cousins on Sunday, Sea World on Monday and leave for NE on Tuesday Am to get to the viewing Thur evening.

At church, Doreen ran into a cousin of hers that I hadn't met. So they brought the family over to visit for an hour or so Saturday afternoon. Also - Doreen's folks were in Orlando, FL - turns out they had a load to pick up Monday morning headed for West Nevada. So they were there too. We had a GREAT visit.

Went to bed early, got up early and headed down to Tampa, FL to go to the beach with some cousins that lived down there. By the way, we cached on the way down. :)

We had a lot of fun, then cached on the way home.

Sunday morning we got up early and headed to Sea World. And what a fun, FUN day!!! Although it was HOT and it rained pretty hard a couple of times - but we always had it timed to be under cover and so we thoroughly enjoyed the critters.

So Wednesday, we left early, EARLY for NE - realizing we wouldn't make it in one day 3 & 5 year olds. So we drove a 15 hour day and made it to Mt Vernon, IL - exhausted. We all slept, then up early and another 9 hour day to Lincoln, NE. The last hour on the road, Natalie was sleeping and Joelle was getting so wiggily, she could hardly stand herself! :)

We arrived in time for the viewing, then back to my folks 5th wheel where all our family stayed, Ma & Pa, Sis Staci and daughter Bekah, Niece Emily (Cindy couldn't make it cuz of her husband having surgery.) and the 4 of us. We fit nicely.

The next day we said our final goodbyes to Grandpa, then had some good family visiting time, did some swimming, played games and did some caching Thursday, Friday and Sabbath. Instead of church, we went to the Sunken Garden in downtown Lincoln, NE and then the zoo for a bit.

Back to lunch and then packing everything up and head home. We took 2 days heading home, did some caching and took our time, but finally got home and it's good to be home! Oh it's good to be home.

Check out these numbers from our trip...

Miles - 3408
Driving Time - almost 58 hours
Max Speed we drove - 86mph
Average Speed (Moving) - 58.5 mph
Average Speed (Total) - 48 mph
States we Passed through - 8 (FL, GA, TN, KY, IL, MO, IA, NE)
# of days with nothing but driving - 5
States we geocached in - 7 (Didn't do any in TN - this trip)
# of geocaches found - 23
# of fuel stops - 10
Gallons - 148.5
Cheapest Fuel - KY $2.67
Most Expensive Fuel - IL $3.01

Man - what a trip. What an experience - boy, is it GREAT to be home!!!!

Survival Kit for Constant Chaos

Here's a kit for you to survive the Chaos of life...


An ERASER, so you can make all your troubles disappear.
A PENNY, so you'll never be broke.
A MARBLE, in case someone says you've lost all of yours.
A RUBBER BAND, to strech yourself beyond your limits.
A STRING, to tie things together when everything falls apart.
A PLAYING CARD, so you are always playing with a full deck.
And KIND WISHES, to remind you that someone, somewhere cares!!!

Breakfast Quiz

In the middle of the table is a round food tray with five kinds of Fruits on it.
They are:

a. Apple
b. Banana
c. Strawberry
d. Peach
e. Orange

Which fruit will you choose? Please think VERY carefully and don't rush into it. This is great, I was astounded! Your choice reveals a lot about you!

Test results...

If you have chosen:

a. Apple: That means you are a person who likes to eat apples
b. Banana: That means you are a person who likes to eat bananas
c. Strawberry: That means you are a person who likes to eat strawberries
d. Peach: That means you are a person who likes to eat peaches
e. Orange: That means you are a person who likes to eat oranges

I hope you find fulfillment in this new insight about yourself. May it bring you peace and understanding, tranquility and all that other profound stuff.


Waaaaaa ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

Gottcha!

A World in Fluxuation

Ok - so we were supposed to be here in FL for 7 days.

Well - plans have changed!

On the trip down to FL I talked with Dad on the phone a bit. He said Grandpa wasn't doing very well. (I talked with him earlier in the week when G-pa had some mini strokes and then after he had a biggie stroke on Wed.)

Sabbath morning in SS I 'texted' Dad and My sis's as is my usual practice just to 'keep in touch.'

Got a message back about 30 min later that G-pa had gone into a coma Fri night and wasn't doing good at all.

So I walked outside and called Dad to get the lowdown. Turns out that after the biggie stroke, his left side was paralyzed and basically had completely shut down. He was breathing, barely, and that was about it.

Well - that was extremely sad to learn. Then after lunch during potluck - Dad called and G-pa had passed away.

So now, we've changed our plans. Tuesday morning we're getting up bright and early, leaving FL on a 26 hour trip to Lincoln, NE for a funeral. Sad - but sort of calming - because now G-pa no longer has to suffer!!!

Not looking forward to the LONG trip though!

More info later - if time and an internet connection allows!

Blessings!

Florida or Bust

Vacation is HERE!!!

Yeeee hawwww!

I've been at my new job almost 10 months now and lovin it. Although it is good to take some time to get away. I've been working extra trips to try and catch us up financially - so this time is important to not burn out!

Also - I've got an elbow issue happenin. I've got a bit of tendonitis going on in both elbows because of the work I do. So some time off will help those heal!

We're looking forward to spending some fun time in Florida. Friday we leave to spend the weekend with Doreen Great Aunt and Great Uncle.

Then Sunday we're gonna visit some cousins and go to Howard Beach in Tarpon Springs.We're looking forward to that.

Monday we'll check into a motel and then Tuesday Doreen and I have to spend 90 min saying 'NO' at a pitch for a time share. Then we'll head to lunch and then Universal's Island of Adventure! We'll spend another day at the same theme park. Then we'll spend another day at Sea World - then Friday head back home.


Hopefully, we'll be rested, relaxed and rejuvinated!

Tell ya all about it - with photo when we get back!

The Medicine You Need

Prescribed by the Great Physician
*****************************
The next time you feel like GOD can't use you, just remember.
Noah was a drunk
Abraham was too old
Isaac was a daydreamer
Jacob was a liar
Leah was ugly
Joseph was abused
Moses had a stuttering problem
Gideon was afraid
Samson had long hair and was a womanizer
Rahab was a prostitute
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
David had an affair and was a murderer
Elijah was suicidal
Isaiah preached naked
Jonah ran from God
Naomi was a widow
Job went bankrupt
Peter denied Christ
The Disciples fell asleep while praying
Martha worried about everything
Mary Magdalene was...
The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once
Zaccheus was too small
Paul was too religious
Timothy had an ulcer..AND
Lazarus was dead!

Now! No more excuses!
God can use you to your full potential.
In the Circle of God's love, God's waiting to use your
full potential.

No More Tom-catting Around.

As reported by Eric in his blog a while back...

Atlantic Ocean (March 10, 2006) – F-14D Tomcats from the "Tomcatters" of Fighter Squadron Three One (VF-31) and the "Blacklions" of VF-213 perform a fly-by in formation over USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) after departing for their home port of Naval Air Station Oceana. VF-213 and VF-31 are completing their final deployment flying the F-14 Tomcat. For the past 30 years, the F-14 Tomcat has assured U.S. air superiority, playing a key role in ensuring victory and preserving peace around the world. The F-14 Tomcat will be removed from service and officially stricken from the inventory in September of 2006. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Chris Thamann (RELEASED)