Another Great Senior Photo

Another Senior Picture

Senior Pictures

With graduation rapidly approaching - only one semester left - yesterday seemed like a good day to get Alex's Senior pictures out of the way. There were lots of good shots to choose from, more than we budgeted for, but we managed to whittle them down to an affordable number. The shot above is one of my favorites.

I'll post more as we approach the big date.

Christmas Feast Beggar

This year's Christmas feast included ham, which is one of Dolly's all time favorites. As expected, she worked her way around the table, taking full advantage of our inability to say no to her pretty face.

Merry Christmas

Linda Pays Us a Visit

In 2008, our good friend Linda moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. We've been in contact ever since through email and phone, but this week she surprised us by stopping by.

Always great to catch up with old friends.

Michele and Sam Share a Moment

Feeding Time

Scooping Out

The official snow measurement, provided by the lovely Michele: 4 and 7/8"

Dolly in a Snow Storm

It snowed pretty heavily this past weekend, we ended up with about 6 inches of snow or so at our house, but that's not the interesting part of this post. The interesting thing was the behavior of our cat Dolly. She doesn't particularly like going outside, she's a bit of a scaredy cat, but while it was snowing I found her pawing at the back door in an attempt to get outside. I was intrigued so I opened the door, and watched as she trotted out on the back deck. She then spent the next 10 minutes or so trying to swat snowflakes out of the air. It was very entertaining, and very unlike our cat.

I'm looking forward to the next snow storm, and apparently, so is Dolly.

Saxophone Choir at Angler's Manor

Alex and the rest of the saxophone choir performed their annual Christmas concert for the residents of Angler's Manor. A stellar performance by some stellar musicians.

Swim Meet

The Normal Community West High School Swim Team hosted the season's first home meet this past Thursday, which also turned out to be Nick's first swim meet. There were some goggles issues, and some first meet jitters, but Nick worked through them and was quite happy with his overall performance.

The visiting teams were Champaign and Urbana. Normal won handily.

Barnes & Noble Concert

Alex once again participated in a Christmas concert at the local Barnes & Noble. The crowd was very enthusiastic, and a bunch of money was raised for the school band.

Seedling Theater

Our good friend John performed once again in the Seedling Theater, and as he has in past performances, did extremely well. Many of his lines had the audience in stitches. Pictured with John are  his brother Jason, his mother Krissy, his grandmother Sandra, and his father, John Sr.

Christmas Concert

As usual, the annual Christmas concert was terrific. There are more pictures of the concert here.

Rock to the Rescue

December 4th was a great day. Michele and I attended the Rock to the Rescue fundraiser concert which raised over $300,000 for the victims of the tornadoes that blasted through central Illinois this past month. The concert featured performances by Brushville, Head East, Survivor, Styx, Ted Nugent, REO Speedwagon, Richard Marx and Larry the Cable guy as M.C. It was a great show, and as usual, I took lots of pictures. Yes, the picture below is of legendary guitarist Tommy Shaw.

To see more pictures from the concert, click here, and enjoy!

Thanksgiving 2013

This year's Thanksgiving celebration provided many great photo opportunities. The one above is a rare shot of me with all of my siblings, along with my Mom and Stepfather. These gatherings are rare, as our family is spread out over four States. More family shots are available by clicking here.