Happy Birthday, Barnum, alias Barney

Yesterday my dachshund, Barney was 1 year old. His real name is Barnum. We got the bright idea to name him Barnum because Melissa's dog's name was Bailey. Thus the name Barnum and Bailey. It is truly a circus sometimes around here with those two, but we love them. Some have said that I am trying to replace the empty nest syndrome but I don't think so. I'm way too busy for that.

Barney came to us last year from a breeder in Indiana. He is a great pet and haven't chewed too many of my shoes unlike Bailey. She chewed up literally every shoe that I had. I think she was just mad that her Mommy left her to go away to school. Anyway, I can't believe a year has passed. He truly loves his cats that live here. He loves to chase and torment them. I think they love it too.

Happy Birthday, Barney!

NGU Parent's weekend

Duane and I just returned from the parent's weekend at NGU. Jordan played almost the entire game as center and of course they won! It was beautiful weather and we had a good time with Jordan and just being there in beautiful Greenville SC. It is one of the prettiest places we have been. Also, it is very close to Asheville NC which is also one of our favorite places. Of course I love those mountains. They are the Blue Ridge Mountains of which I was born right in the middle of them in Roanoke. There are nothing like them. Of course I am not prejudiced. Hope you enjoy some of the pictures that we took while there.

Of course my heart is in Virginia. So, when we passed the state line I had to ask Duane to stop so I could record that I was there. So close to Roanoke, but not close enough.

The entrance to the campus.

The waterfall behind the entrance.

more of the campus

The guys getting ready for walk through Friday night.

Jordan warming up for long snapping

The President of the school praying with the guys on Friday night.

Jordan snapping. That's him in front of the quarterback.

I understand this is Jordan holding. I have learned what holding is. He says he does it quite a bit. I thought that was illegal?

Holding again?

That look's like a guilty look to me!

Just wanted to show his shirt tail being out. His high school coach would be ashamed!

After the game pics. Stephanie and Jordan.

The 2 centers and good friends.

The Falls in downtown Greenville

beautiful trees that line the streets. There are shops on both sides of the street.

They even have street cars

On our way home. We stopped and took lots of pictures. In late October, when we go back, we will be taking more.

All clear in Dublin

Well, after the suppposedly Cat. 1 hurricane winds (that's how the Weather Channel says it) that blew through
here on Sunday, it seems that Lauren is finally going back to school. I have never been through a hurricane and still haven't but they did say it was a Category 1 hurricane winds. Pretty incredible as it were. It seems that all our AEP trucks went South to Texas where the real trouble was and left us in Columbus with pretty much nothing. So it was "lights out" for Columbus. Just yesterday on my way home from work, I saw about 10 AEP trucks barreling down the interstate from somewhere else. I couldn't make out from where, they just weren't Columbus trucks. So we helped someone else, and someone else had to help us. It seems that most people without electric still won't get their lights on until Sunday. We were most fortunate in our little town of Dublin, that we were without for about 12 hours. However, just a couple miles away from us, where the real affluent live, you know where they play the Memorial golf tournament, they are still without, thus why Lauren was out of school.

The phones finally turned on at the doctor's office where I worked yesterday. As soon as the phones turned on, my phone's light started blinking. It seems that those ladies have "serious" issues that couldn't seem to wait, and that is a big NOT. It's those perimenopausal women who refuse to think they are starting the process of menopause and it certainly couldn't happen to them. NEVER! Well that's my life. It doesn't matter to them that I am one of those perimenopausal women trying to start that process myself. It's sometimes hard to hear about yourself every single day.

Anyway, just wanted to say, all things are clear in the city of Dublin. Now we have to endure this presidential race again instead of hearing about power outages. We are a swing state you know and seem to have "Presidential" visitors almost everyday. Of course, both Obama and McCain canceled their events to Ohio because of our dilema, but now everything is a - okay. That too will be over I hope come November.

Also, since I have no more pictures to post of the storm, I thought I would show you our animal population in our house. You saw Mel's cats and dog, so here are ours. We replace kids with animals. We put air freshners in our house last night if that tells you anything. I will be glad to send half of the population out when Melissa moves to her apartment. The litter box will not be so overwhelming. However, they are sweet, but it is almost time for sweetness to go. We do love our grandcats and dogs however.


My dog Barney. His registered name is Barnum. His 1 year old birthday is the 29th of September.





Barney and Bailey, thus Barnum and Bailey... Get it?




Our 2 cats. Willie and Grace. Of course they are "Will and Grace." Willie is the stripped one.

I thought of those names. Can't you tell? Ingenious!

The day that tropical storm Ike came to visit.

After yesterday, I think I can appreciate just a little of what Texas just went through with Hurricane Ike. Of course our winds were about half of theirs. However, gusts of 60 mph winds were not fun to deal with. We couldn't believe the damage that it did. The rain went north of us, so it was all wind. Here are a few photos from around our neighborhood. We only had a few shingles blow off our roof. We were also out of electricity for a good 12 hours. Lauren's school closed for the day. Of course I will have to go to work. I was counting on being off today, but of course the power came on around 5 this morning, televisions blaring and lights all coming on. Thus the reason why I am now awake and posting!

I don't think anyone could imagine what true Hurricane damage can do until you are actually affected. This is not a drop in the bucket to what I have seen on television. Our hearts go out for them.

This is a neighbor's car.









A huge tree in the backyard of a neighbor.


Down the street in a front yard.


A totally uprooted tree.



Debris on a walking path.

IT'S MELISSA'S BIRTHDAY

Justin and Melissa at her 5th birthday.



Happy Birthday to you dear Melissa. Here are some random pictures that I have found on our computer. I hope you enjoy her life as we do. She and her Dad are traveling to SC to see Jordan today for his football game tonight. I certainly hope they are having fun. Lauren and I and the zoo are left here. We are not bitter!

Melissa was 3 when she got her 1st cat, Calin for Christmas. Calin lived until last year. Melissa slept with Calin every night like this. Because of the way they slept, unbenowst to us, Calin had ringworm and gave Melissa ringworm. Unfortunately, she got it in her scalp which is very bad. She had to take a caustic medication that could affect her liver. Because of that, she had to have a lot of labwork. That's when I knew she was one tough gal. Now 20 years later, she is still proving that to us.

In comes Bailey to the picture. Yes, that is a plastic cap on her head. Lauren put this to make it look like a shower cap and e-mailed the picture to Mel. Bailey came into Mel's life when she graduated from high school. She paid for her. What I never understood is that she got her and left for college. I guess that makes us Bailey's adoptive grandparents. She has also 2 cats. Can you tell she loves animals. We are enjoying having Melissa and all her pets at home right now. It is quite a zoo and no I am not talking about Melissa.

It's Bailey again!


Austin, after Austin, Texas of course.


Brady after Brady Quinn. How did you guess?

Being crazy with a friend from college.
Senior picture from high school

Colts game. Melissa is a huge fan.
Playing with big brother Justin. Grandma taught them a cotton ball game which she has all over her face.
This was not an unusual site having Calin sleeping on her.

The Floro girls. That's Aunt Carol and Aunt Shirley at Justin and Melodie's wedding. They were all quite pleased with each other, don't you think?

Mel's official rowing picture as a NCAA athlete at University of Cincinnati.


That's concentration.

This was taken at Ryan and Lindsey's wedding.

Our babies. All grown up!

Melissa will be living in Florence Ky and working at the Cincinnati airport as a TSA agent. It sounds so secretive like the FBI... She will be doing that for a while during her job search. Her desire is to stay in Homeland Security. Who knows she may be a FBI agent one day. Right now she is enjoying seeing a lot of celebrities come through and we are enjoying hearing the stories.