Ianformation:

Well, it's all about Ian.....mostly!

An acceptance letter came in the mail today, so Ian will be attending Purdue for Engineering. It's rated one of the top engineering schools in the country...plus its close to home. :-) About an hour and half away. He believes a few friends from school are going there also so he might already have roommates he will know. Ummmmmm.......I already get teary eyes thinking about him leaving, you may not want to be near me next August.

And.......we got Ian's Sr. pictures back. I was a bit concerned seeing he is in Jesus Hair Mode, and that will be preserved for.........ALWAYS! Alas, they didn't turn out half bad, and he looks as cute as ever.

Brian comes home from a week in Liverpool on Saturday and I leave for Edinburgh on Sunday. Edinburgh, Indiana...theres an outlet mall there. :-)

Hope to have more news for you soon, but we are just not exciting people...but we like it that way!

M

Africa Hot!

Well, it has been Africa hot here! With that and the kids going back to school I've got a lot done in the past week. In my quest to rid this house of the typical surburban white fireplace that everyother house in any subdivision has, that has been fullfilled. I asked Scotty in California to make me a little bit larger mantal to fit on top of the one we have. His reply, "Let me see if I have a tree big enough." I kid you not! :-) He did not, and had to succumb to the lumber yard at Lowes. But he prevailed, he cut it and put a beautiful bevel on it, and stained it walnut and it looks great! I painted the white, cream and brown glazed like the kitchen cabinets. Painted over the gold on the gas fireplace, and Brian and I retiled over the old stuff. We in turn vowed never to tile again and decided those tile guys are severly under paid!
Heres a pic, click on it to make it bigger, sort of like me opening the pantry door.........

I also just wrapped up the website I was making for author Nancy Turner. She is just wonderful to email with, and it's nice to enjoy the author as much as the stories she tells. I contacted her out of the blue because I loved the cover on her second book "Sarah's Quilt" and thought it would make a neat webpage. :-) It turns out that it is the quilt of her great great grandmother in the story and she couldn't be happier that the website graphics are made from it.
Heres her site...
http://www.nancyeturner.net/

I told her she must be famous because somebody bought the domain nancyeturner.com and wanted to make some money off of her to have it, so we went the .net route. :-)
Kids are back in school, and back in their old routine of getting up in the ungodly hours of the morning. Went to Collins classes last night and he has a pretty good crop of teachers. Ian's open house is next week. Had Ian's Sr. picture taken last week, when I get the proofs I will share some on here.

No news in the Brian dept. with the exception of Mim sending a video of movies of his first year. I will try and put some on youtube and share him (and Brenda thinking he is a huge doll) with the world. They put the movies to music, just the melodys and the first one is.....I feel like a woman by Faith Hill. Too funny! Thanks Mim that was an incredibly nice thing to do!

That's about it...stay cool!
M

Hot Weekend!

Last Tuesday we went on a campus tour of Purdue University in Lafeyette (I will learn how to spell that if hes accepted *grin*) with Ian. Went to the little regular college speal and then we went to a special meeting for the engineering dept. Brian was really impressed and wanted to go back to school! :-) They bring all engineering students into the same program and one class is just different engineers discussing their careers, so the students dont have to pick an engineering field until they are sophmores. The college is huge, but the campus seems smaller. Anyway.....thats one of the places Ian will be applying. You usually find out pretty quick if you are accepted, and we plan on getting the app. in by Wed.

Last Thursday Brian and I left for Niagara Falls. We got there around eighty thirty and went to view the American side at night. They light it up at night. The next morning, we paid a visit to the jewelers that are making the "Claire's rings" and they surprised me with a beautiful bracelet to match the rings. Then they offered one for Diana, and I asked for one for Janet who helped, one for the designer, and I asked for one for Diana's asst because she would remind Diana when we needed stuff. :-) Marie who I worked with a lot when I was making the first orders was as wonderful in person as she was on the phone.

Heres a pic...


After that great visit we crossed the border into Canada and saw the falls on the Canada side. You know me and pictures.....I took only a couple. But here they are...

Niagara Slide Show.

Everyone says the Canadian side is better.......and everyone is right! Not only with the views, but the landscaping around the falls is beautiful. Brian said the Canadian side reminded him of Disney World, and the American side was like the Wisconsin Dells! :-) Oh and special message to Gretchen...they had a Hershey Store there and yeah I got ya a wee something.

After the falls, we headed toward Fergus, Ontario and met up with a bunch of friends from my net reading group at a Highland Games, went to a cocktail party given by Diana and Doug, and then a dinner with the group. It was fun.....but it was Africa hot! I didnt take one picture but I have a feeling there will be a ton of them of me out there to showcase just how bad a picture subject I am!

The van got hit in a Tim Hortons donut shop, and Brian got the guys name, but not the insurance info. Took it to the shop today and the small (in Brians words) dent that the guy( who owned a body shop) hit us said would be around 250 to fix, is in reality 800 to fix. Brian got his name and number, but not insurance crapola. Needless to say Brian and I are in "discussions" of his habit of thinking things are no big deal! In my forty-four years of living, I have found when I person says one of their boo boos is "no big deal" it really means "I'm incredibly stupid sometimes!" :-)

Kids start school on Wednesday.....how they will catch the bus at 6:58 I have no idea!

M

Another Month Bites the Dust!

As usual summer is going way too fast!

Last week Soncerae and 3/4 of her family came to visit on her way to visit old friends in Granger. She's skinny now and I hate her! :-) I haven't seen her in a couple of years and the visit made me realize how much fun we have when we are together.

On Wednesday last week, the boys and I met up with the Simpsons, non-yellow variety, for their annual boating on Lake James day. We got a lot of fun in before the rain started and didn't end. Thank goodness another friend of ours lives on the lake and we had a nice dry place to pass the time. Thanks Betsy! Highlight of the trip was Daniel falling into the dirty channel in a downpour. Just wish I saw it. :-) Thanks for the wonderful day Simpsons!


I finished a webpage/graphics I was making for a friends new candle business. It turned out rather pretty. It really was a joint project, I made the page and graphics, and Angela did all the text and the fantastic pics she took of her candles.
Here's the site...
Tartan Candle Company

Next, Im working on a site for her horse hair bracelets. Which I cant wait for her to sell because I think they are the coolest things!

The kids...they are just enjoying the last couple of weeks of summer. They did have to clean the garage today though. We all saw The Simpsons Movie today, if you are a fan...go see it!
Simpsonize yourself at this site: Simpsonize Me!

Here we are. Im thinking I look better as a Simpson! :-)



As usual Ive been playing on here way too much and laundry is stacking up!

Hope all is well on your end!

M

3-Adults 1-Child

The big news for today is that Ian turned 18! I'm not sure when I got so old but I believe it was about at 1:07 p.m. this afternoon. I always ask the kids what they want for their birthday dinner, they can either stay home or go out. Ian picked chicken/cheese/brocolli casserole...of all things! I guess we are all cheap dates!

Here's a picture....also a hair update too!



Last Friday Mim and Sylvia took a ride out here to celebrate Ians adulthood. We went out to dinner and had cake. Oh and looked at some old pictures Barry was converting from slides. Let me get one to share. :-)

That would be Brian and Norm on the night of their Mafia induction! Im not sure of the year but Im guessing its Brians HS graduation, I remember he wore that suit. Are they stylin' or what?????? I think its .....what?????

Tomorrow we are off to Lake James in Angola to visit and some boating with friends. Thurs. my old (she has a 19 year old *grin*)neighbor is visiting while passing through Indy.

Yesterday my mom would of been 74, it's been two years already. And she is still very much missed.

It's been beautiful here, hope its the same where you are!

M

No News is Good News, Right?

Well, I haven't updated this is bit. I've been working on the candle site for a friend, and the website for the author, both almost done.

Brian's dad popped by at 8 a.m. on the 4th of July. Half of us were still sleeping, so Brian and dad went out to breakfast and we played games the rest of the day. Introduced grandpa to Scattagories and he kicked our ass! It was also on the fourth I found these little fall leaves on the ground already. I dont know if its because its been really dry and we had some very cool nights, but they were only one inch big and with amazing color! I scanned a bunch of them!


Nothing else really going on, just dentist,Dr. and ortho appts. Brian and I golfed on Sunday when it was 92. We were drenched when it was over and it wasn't even raining.

Evanovich fans, Lean Mean 13 is out, and its really funny!

July must be nature month for me, I saw a blue butterfly land on the pile of poo I was picking up the other night. I have never seen a blue butterfly before. It's the first time poo was purty! :-) When I was done I came in and googled it, and it was an endangered Karner variety...just beautiful.


Just made some reservations for Niagara Falls, Brian and I are going up there in August.

Hope all is well on your end!
M

Yellowstone Mancation!

Hello All!

I finally got some pictures of the boys mancation uploaded to a slideshow. I was waiting for two rolls of film to be developed. It usually takes us a year to get film developed. :-) But we took it in this weekend, only to find out that there was nothing on them. We think they got zapped by the airport xray machines. Luckily they had the digital camera with them also so they have some photos. Brian looks as happy as ever and the kids look as put out as ever!

Last weekend Brian and I went and saw Ocean's 13 while the boys saw Die Hard...both groups approved of their choices.

We are expecting rain this 4th of July so we will prolly just hit the movies...maybe "Evan Almighty", or I think they renamed it..."Aunt Cheryl in Texas!"

Without further ado....enjoy the pictures!

http://ivmoores.com/family/slides/mt.washington.html

Have a safe fourth!

M
...this slideshow software is neat, and it's free! Here's the link...
JAlbum

Without Data....

...you're just another person with an opinion!

HUH! You all know I monkey on here making graphics, and theres a site that puts them on merchandise I found. So.....Brian asked me to make a mug with that on it, and some graphs. He gave them to his Six Sigma trainers, and he got one for himself. So I made it...and I said....nobody is going to buy this!

https://www.cafepress.com/ivmoores.88540991

Not even a year later Ive sold around 18 of these babies, the most Ive sold of anything...to mostly women for some reason. :-) We are thinking its female engineers fed up the male engineers they work with. I hate it when Brian is right!

I just finished another You Tube casting video, for the book "Twilight" this time. Lot's of gals on one of my reading groups are in love with this book. It's actually a Young Adult book, hence why the cast is so young that was picked. I offer to make these because its made in Windows Movie Maker and I dont know too much about the program. So I just make the pictures and then load it all in there with captions and music. This one took about 10-12 hours to do...and Im pretty fast with this stuff, it's addicting.......and I dont eat while I do this stuff so all's good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp6jXcb-1w8

Last weekend was Kim's shower, it was lot o' fun! Kim got a lot of bakeware, nice stuff, and Im hoping she didnt see me put it in the van on the way out. Renee, Elise and I stayed till about 10:30 pm, and Georgia & Will had a six am flight the next morning for Key West...and Georgia hadnt packed yet.

Next week sending dear son to look for a job. He had a blocked saliva gland taken out yesterday at the dentist. Couple of stitches is all. Tomorrow night Barry and the kids are coming to stay overnight before heading out on Sunday to take them to camp.

That's about it,
M

These is my Words!

I read this book by Nancy E. Turner back in 98. I had just learned over the spring there was a sequel, nabbed it on Ebay :-), and read it. "These is my Words" is the diary of a young girl (hence the bad grammer in the title) who moves to Arizona in the late 1800's. So it's filled with the hardships one endured making a cross country move by wagon during that time. Starts out with the bad grammar of an uneducated pioneer girl and as Sarah grows, so does her use of the English language and her writings. It's like Little House on the Prairie for adults!

Anyway....I really enjoyed them and immediately after the sequel I went to see if the author had a website. She did.....and it was not very pretty! :-) So out of the blue I emailed her and asked if I could make a nicer one for her, in appreciation of two very good reads! The third book in the series comes out in September of this year, and the website will be up and running on her own server long before then...its still a work in progress, I dont even have the new cover yet, but thought I would share...

http://www.ivmoores.com/nancy/index.htm

Authors are just the bestest!

M

Boy Crazy!

The boys came back from their "mancation" on Thursday. They went to Yellowstone Park for five days, where they hiked and saw lots of animals, especially bison. Had great weather with the exception of one day. I will get a scrap book up of the pictures one of these days. Above is a picture of them on Mount Washington, seems it was very cold and sunny and Ian got a wicked sunburn. He had his hood up like that all the time so it was in the form of a circle on his face! :-) Brian came home with two HUGE blisters . Brought me chocolate as a souveigner...good boys!





I received the other drawing of the boys last week! Sue does just amazing work, and is so reasonable! Her website is on the left...The Art of Surprise!

Went to Rachael's graduation party last week! I had made a little beach bag with necessities for college. Toothbrush, flip-flops, towel, things like that with little poems attached. Also bought her a very very large pair of old lady white cotton underwear and put her name on the back "Rachael's Panties" with the following poem...

Hang these old lady panties on your dorm room door,
and Dad won't worry about the boys anymore!

Sunday is neice Kim's Bridal Shower, she's getting married in Sept. to a wonderful guy. I like him lots, because he once killed a spider for me! :-) Renee and Elise are coming tonight and we will all go to Cinncin on Saturday to Georgia's... sisters are a wonderful thing!



Kids are out of school, Brians back to work on Monday, and Target seems to be calling me....all is right with the world.



M