Blank & Blumer Christmas

I wanted to get this posted right way to share with Brendan who is in Panama now. Brendan, we MISSED you!! Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano Nuevo! Double click to get full-size slideshow. :)

Kylie's Play

Tuesday night we went to Kylie's Christmas play. First their musical group the Sidesteppers performed. Kylie is 3 rd from right. Then she played Mrs. Claus in the Souders Elementary production of "Broadway Santa". It was big hit! I posted a slideshow and 2 short videos I took of the performance. :) Double click to make the slideshow full screen.

Ya Ya Chicago Weekend 2008 - 11/30-12/3

We had our usual great time in Chicago! We had to change our dates and there were 70,000 Radiologists in Chi-town with us and no hotel rooms so we ended up in a fabulous (and expensive) apartment on Walton right off Michigan Avenue. Since we probably won't do this again we decided to have a cocktail party to repay our kids and friends for the great parties they have for us each year. ;)

Double click on slideshow to make it full sized. :)

Thanksgiving in Chicago November 27

We had a great time! Double click on the video to make it full size then click on slideshow. There are captions.

Visit to Alexandria, Virginia November 14

This is the incredible sculpture we went to get at Lenny's but it was just too large and fragile to haul home. :'( We are trading for another similar but smaller piece later.

Bonnie in front of her fall blooming Magnolia

Sandi and Alan - she looks younger then ever!

How great to be together again!

Cousin's Rob & Corinne
We had a bittersweet visit with Dennis' Aunt Colette
just days before she died. We held her hand and think she knew we were there.

Catching up to do!

Gee, I have not blogged for over a month! I have some catching up to do! We have been to Alexandria, Virginia, back to Chicago for Thanksgiving and my annual Ya-Ya. I will try and add a few pictures!

This is me caught by Jorge's iphone stuffing the turkey!

Amy & Jorge's farm "Alcazar"

Double click to get a larger view then click slideshow on far left.

Trick-or-Treat

My niece Mandy's children looked adorable on Halloween!
Newborn Carter as a spider ;)

Riley Kate makes a perfect little Fairy Princess :)

And of course Chloe is her favorite thing, an OSU cheerleader!

Look at Carter! He is just a little over a month old!

We had the cutest trick-or-treaters tonight! :)

Minnie Mouse was Hannah & Billy & Brian's cousin Lily
and the beautiful princess was their cousin Payton.

The two skeletons were Billy & Brian :)

Hannah was a Purple People Eater!

Visit to Vince & Nancy's in Melbourne, Florida

We rented a car and drove from Palm Beach
to Melbourne to visit our Heron Bay neighbors,
Vince & Nancy, who winter there.
They are great hosts and great friends and we had a lovely time.
They showed us all the sights we could do in 3 days. :)

Cocoa Beach

sandhill cranes along the canal that runs behind their home

Vince & Nancy on their patio in Melbourne

Everglades Tour

We went on an Everglades tour!
This is the airboat.

The Everglades were absolutely beautiful
and nothing like we imagined.
Shallow sawgrass and beautiful vegetation and wildlife

Quite noisy but great fun

Dennis held 2 yr. old alligator :)

This is a 50 year old alligator!

Mansion Tour and other Palm Beach Fun

We went on a mansion tour of homes on Palm Beach.
They were spectacular!

We had a great time in Palm Beach :)

State Auto Board Retreat - Palm Beach

We are having a great time in Palm Beach! Last night we ate at Chez Jean-Pierre. Today we had massages and tonight the entire group went to Ragtops Motorcars where we dined among vintage autos and were entertained by Marilyn Monroe and Elvis! Dennis and Marilyn really hit it off but I managed to get close to Elvis too. ;) Check out the video of Dennis and Marilyn below.

Just Cards :)

This has been a slow week as to activities to take pictures of but a very busy week with my cards2customers.com business! Many of you know about the card business I started this summer. I signed on two new distributors and I am quite excited! Both are daughters of very good friends of ours.

The first is Christine Schmidt, daughter of Bob and Anna Moone. Christine lives in Westerville.

Next is Lisa Hurst, daughter of Jane and Tom Wright. Lisa lives in Denver, NC, near Charlotte.

Both are wives and mothers and this should be a great business they can build from home!

Remember me when you make a trip to the store to buy your next $3 Hallmark card! Our cards are much less expensive, you just choose a card online from the card catalog using any computer and all the work of mailing the high quality card is done for you. You can even have your own handwriting and signature fonts, enclose a gift, and upload your address book if you like. The custom picture features are amazing! Think of someone you would like to send a card to and go to my website to send a free card! cards2customers.com. Let me know what you think!

Road Trip to Athens

Dennis and I went with Larry & Brenda to OU's Homecoming last weekend. The weather was great and I took so many pictures I have created 3 slideshows of the weekend so you can reminisce. :) The theme was quite fitting for Athens: "Get your Green On". The first is the parade.



Here is a campus tour :)



Nothing like football on saturday!


Movie of Marching 110 alumni band below
turn up your speakers. :)

Jack Visits the Lake :)

Sandy & Jeff and their adorable (and very well-behaved) grandson, Jack (age 3) came out for a visit to the lake tonight. :) Jack loved his first boat ride and had fun at the Copper Penny. It was more than a little chilly on our return and probably marks the end of boating for 2008. :(

Introducing.....Carter Joshua Napier

This is our new nephew, Carter. :) Isn't he precious? This is Mandy's third baby, and first boy. Carter was born on Monday, September 22, 2008 and weighed 7# 5 oz.
The proud grandparents, Joan & Bob, hold their new grandson:)
Lots of grandparents for little Carter. :) Larry & Brenda hold their first grandson.
The happy family, dad Josh, mom Mandy, Riley Kate age 3 and Chloe age 6.
This is Mandy's cousin Stacey and her little boy Ross who is 9 months with Mandy and new cousin Carter. :) Stacey took all the pictures and sent them to me. Thanks, Stacey!

Downtown Columbus on a Saturday Night

This is very hard to make out but it is a picture from COSI, looking across the river to downtown Columbus. In the forefront, is some blue and pink color that is a bandstand with a band playing and the bright spots you see behind that is "waterfire". This consists of floating fire pits full of firewood that are lit from a boat and burn on the water. It is a really pretty sight and they do this several times each year.
We then walked over to an Arts Festival at Genoa Park along the Scioto River in front of COSI. There were some beautiful things but we were just not in a buying mood. :(
Sandy & Jeff Glassman and Dennis at the Gay Street Festival. We ate at Tip Top and had Salmon Fritters and Eggplant Fries. They were out of their fried green tomatoes. :( The festival was just a conglomeration of booths and a band was playing. The weather was beautiful.

This was interesting!
We were downtown and walking along High Street when we saw this "Parade" come by. It turned out to be a memorial service in the form of a parade for their friend, Damen Johnson, who died a couple of years ago.

Amy Runs Half-Marathon in Chicago

September 14, 2008. It rained all day! Amy finishes with her best time of 2:45:46 and this after having major knee surgery in February! Congratulations! :)

Gabe's Transplant

We were still without electricity but we got up and headed to Cincinnati for Gabe's long awaited kidney transplant. Dr. Munda performed the surgery at Christ Hospital. Friend Jason was the donor. Both patients did quite well. Gabe's new kidney was putting out urine immediately! We saw him a few hours later and he looked fantastic and said he felt great! See for yourself. Alex and Laura were there along with us to support Co. The transplant nurse and social worker checked in too. Co said last night Gabe was watching the game! Amazing and great news!