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For those of you that still read this, I've switched to facebook. You can find me there if you sign up for facebook, as well. If you haven't started on facebook, it's a highly addictive site where you can find your old friends and keep up with new ones. Come on, my MOM even joined! I'll still post here if something major happens.

Holiday 2008 pics

At Claire's 40th birthday party! Arlene, Me, Brian, Claire's aunt Chetty, Claire, and uncle Daniel. We stayed with their aunt and uncle when we went to Paris last year.

Brian's 35th birthday cake. Isn't it great?

"SHH! Her is seeping!"

Kalie and I made Christmas cookies. Think we need more flour?

We got her a rolling pin for Christmas.

Santa came to see Grandma Sparks at rehab.

At Tavern on the Green in NYC.

Video games at the Helmuth house. Notice the lipstick on Brian's cheek. Us girls had a makeup party.

Harley's 6th birthday. They had frozen melon.

Isn't he cute?!!

Joy really hates getting dressed up for Christmas.

Cookies for Santa

Sunny Florida

We're happy to be here in sunny Florida. The weather has been perfect since we got here a little over a week ago. We enjoyed Christmas with Brian's parents. Brian took me to the beach on the day after Christmas. On the 27th, we had two parties! One was here at Brian's parent's house and the other was at Claire and Arlene's for Claire's 40th b-day! Happy Birthday, Claire!! Claire's aunt and uncle that we stayed with in Paris were there. It was really nice to see them again. They invited us to come back and stay with them!! I wanna go now! O.K., maybe we should wait til spring. Or, maybe we should wait until we're done with school in about 5 years. We have a little over a week before we start back to work. We're hoping to relax all week and maybe go back to the beach on New Year's Eve. We need to get our fridge fixed and we PRAY that it's fixed before we go back to work, preferably Friday.

It's COLD!

Winter is here! I don't care what the calendar says! We're sticking it out in the RV (for now). We might move into the house over Thanksgiving weekend. We only have 6 nights of work left here in Ohio before we head for Florida. Those are the plans right now, anyway. We're grateful to have a job lined up.
The last couple of weeks have been rather stressful. Brian's beloved Grandma fell a couple of weeks ago and cracked three vertebrae in her neck. For three months she has to wear a collar which keeps her neck rigid. Because of the collar, she started choking and had to have a feeding tube placed. Because she choked on food, she now has pneumonia. The family had a meeting today with the doctor. It was a very emotional day, but I think that the right decisions were made. She's still oriented (not confused), although at times she is difficult to wake up. We'll just have to keep praying that she doesn't have to suffer and that she will recover if it is God's will.
We were going to go sit in line on Thanksgiving in preparation for shopping on Black Friday. However, we decided that it was probably more important to spend Thanksgiving with my Grandma as it looks like it will probably be her last one on this earth. Never fear! We will still be shopping on Friday. For what, I don't know. It's all about the thrill of the hunt!
We plan to head for Florida mid-December. We have lots and lots of plans between now and then. I hope we get everything done!

What a summer!

It's been quite a summer! Almost two years ago we surprised Mom for her 70th birthday. This year was Dad's 70th birthday. When Mom had her birthday, I blogged that we'd have to celebrate Dad's birthday a year early or a year late to surprise him. Well, that didn't happen. We were trying to set a date for his party. His birthday is July 27th. It didn't suit everyone to have his birthday then. We settled on June 29th. It worked perfectly! Mom's sister, Ruby, and her husband, Dale, came to visit them for the weekend. They told Mom that they wanted to spend time with each of us kids. They made the rounds to everyone's house. Donna conveniently invited them to come down on Sunday. Dale & Ruby didn't mind being used to get Dad down to Richard & Donna's house. It was so fun to see Dad's face when everyone filed into the pews behind them at church. I still can't believe that a) we all made it and pulled it off and b) we surprised him!
Mom, Dad, & us 5 kids.
Ruby, Mom, Dad, & Dale
It would have been nice to have pictures of the whole family. It was starting to rain, though, so we were happy to get the pictures that we did. Harold & Carol Uhl, our neighbors from 1970 to 1981 even stopped by to wish Dad happy birthday.


Brenda, Phyllis, & I had fun surprising Elaine with a cooking class for her birthday. We told her to wear clothes that she didn't mind getting dirty (true) with closed-toe shoes (true) because we were going spelunking (not true). I acted like I let it slip that we were going to go traipsying through a cave. This is NOT Elaine's idea of a good time. Brenda played right along, acting like I had really let the cat out of the bag. She acted like she was really upset that I let it slip. I'm not that good of an actress, though. Elaine was really quiet, looking down at her soup. She finally looked up and said, "I really hate picking peas." She was quite happy, though, when we walked up to Sur la Table and she realized what we really going on. Our teacher was very good and the four of us were the only ones in the class. We learned how to make French desserts.


It was really nice to be home for Red, White, & Boom on July 3rd. It's one of those things that I love to do in Columbus. We've also been to Schiller Park a couple of times for free Shakespeare. We got free Ohio State Fair tickets. The Fair isn't as fun as it used to be when we were young and crazy. Brian & I did, however, break the mouse roller-coaster/whirly ride. He denies it, but I still think that Brian prayed for that to happen. It didn't go around as it went up and down the hills. He's not so pumped up about rides that go around and around and around. He was a good sport, though, to go with me.

We've been cleaning out the storage shed that we've had for 7 years. WOW! What a job! We are astounded at the stuff we've been paying to store for so long! We are having a humongous garage sale on Sept. 4, 5, & 6 if anyone needs anything. Come on over!


Last week Brenda & I drove to Michigan to spend two nights in a cabin with Jenni & her family. Jenni's sister, Rachel, go married in Indiana on August 9th (Congratulations, Rachel!). We spent Tuesday sitting by Lake Michigan watching the boys play in the sand. It was Hannah's first trip to the beach. She didn't really seem to enjoy it. I'll have pictures later. It was so good to actually spend some time with her family! It's always good to see Jenni, too.


This summer was Grandma Helmuth's 90th birthday, Dad's 70th birthday, and Brian's Dad's 60th birthday. We left Columbus yesterday, knowing that T.S. Fay was pounding Florida with rain. We were very happy that we were able make it down. We were a bit anxious about flights being cancelled, but our flights were both on time. We had no difficulties. However, the landing was one of those where everyone clapped when the pilot actually got the plane on the ground. We had one nice drop that I enjoyed, but some people screamed. When we actually were landing the plane was rocking back and forth quite a bit. They were just getting people ready to go ride roller coasters! We worked Tuesday night and only slept on the planes. When we got here we were quite tired, so we were in bed by 9:30. Brian woke up (and woke me up) at 4. Oh well, we're on vacation. We'll just take a nap this afternoon. Claire & Arlene picked us up at the airport and brought us over to Brian's parents' house. Larry was sitting at the table eating when we walked in. It was so fun to see his face when he saw that it was us! We're taking him out to eat tonight and then having a bigger party on Saturday. Brian said that we're not flying anywhere for any more surprise birthday parties. (See blog about Mom's 70th birthday.) He already told his mom that we'd be here for her 60th. The county just southeast of where we're at is being seriously flooded right now by T.S. Fay. It's raining here, but no flooding yet. The schools in Seminole County aren't even closed today, so it must not be too bad out there. It's supposed to rain through Friday. They really needed the rain here, though. We're looking forward to a relaxing weekend with family and friends.


As you can see, this summer has been a great one to reconnect with friends and family. Does it get any better?

Skateboarding Bulldog

Those of you that love bulldogs have GOT to go to youtube and look up videos of a skateboarding bulldog named Tillman. It's hysterical! I'd like to teach Joy or Harley to do that!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQzUsTFqtW0

I'm afraid though, that this is what our dogs would do:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYwv8iQSMFA

Does it get any cuter than this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XabRyNKwThI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L_aAVn1j5c

And, here's what would happen if we had kids:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBSZn30OSsI

This one is HYSTERICAL!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAPoClLR8TE

Happy 90th Birthday, Grandma!

Yesterday was Grandma's 90th birthday! Here's Grandma with her 7 children.

Ocean City

After 10 years, I returned to Ocean City, MD with friends. This time I took my husband. The last time that I went was for my bachelorette party. Brenda, Elaine and I went every year for quite a while. It was a bit chilly . . .

"WE'RE GONNA LAY OUT!!" (Notice the blankets and the furious flapping of the umbrella!) We laid out during hurricaine Fran years ago and found sand everywhere for days. This wasn't that bad this time, but it was pretty chilly. Here's what some other people were doing:

We had so much fun relaxing, reading, eating and shopping. We always stay at Lankford Lodge which is an old, huge house right on the boardwalk. This time they upgraded us to a three bedroom apartment with a kitchen and our own porch overlooking the boardwalk!

Two nights we had magnificent light shows on the water:



One of our favorite places to eat in OC, Seacrets:

Two mornings we were awakened by hot rods invading OC. They were allowed to drive right on the boardwalk!

We need to go again sometime soon! Maybe we'll wait until it's warmer!