My Black Friday

I had decided that I wanted to have the experience of shopping on Black Friday at 5:00am with all of the other ‘bargain shoppers’ out there, so off I went. I was going to start at Target, but it was obvious that I wasn’t even going to be physically able to get to Target, so I crossed that one off my list. Next on my list was the local mall. There I got a parking spot right next to the door, picked out some items, and checked out quickly. It was 5:30am by now so I stopped for breakfast, and amused myself by listening to the stories about the brawls that broke out across the street at Walmart. I was feeling pretty confident by now so I decided to attempt a stop at Kohl’s. Found some things I absolutely had to have, so I stood in the check-out line for 35 minutes. All in all a good day, and by 7:30am I was home and ready to start the rest of my day.

We spent the rest of the day decorating the house and getting it ready to welcome some of you in a few weeks. Today we attended the Mannheim Steamroller concert and the two activities have put us in the Christmas spirit.

While we were in Iowa we helped Stephanie and Caitlin decorate their Christmas tree. Caitlin did a great job of distributing the ornaments evenly around the tree. She is just a little short to reach the top. We’ll be able to gauge her height each year by how far up she can decorate the tree.

Enjoy the Holiday Season.
Love to All,
Connie

Black Friday In Belmond

Happy Black Friday all!!!  We hope everyone had a safe day as they navigated their way to the stores.  I know we had the least amount of population and traffic to navigate of those who chose to shop today and we took full advantage of the situation.  We managed to work our way through Best Buy, Kohl's, Target, and even the Goodnature Store before returning home this afternoon.  Then we made our way to Belmond for the annual Thanksgiving Parade and opening of the Santa House.  We used our heads this year and procured a prime spot on the parade route right in front of the Santa House.  So, this year we only waited about 10 min for our turn in the house as opposed to over an hour last year. :)

We hope everyone is having a great weekend and we'll see everyone in 3 weeks!!  :O

Here are some pictures of our snuggle bun warming up to her favorite man in Red.

Happy Black Friday and we'll see you soon!!

Love, Bryan Stephanie and Caitlin!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We wish you all an enjoyable day.  Good food, good friends, precious family and maybe a nap thrown in to make the day complete.  We're thinking of all of you on this family holiday and looking forward to seeing many of you in less than a month.

Enjoy and be thankful!

Love,

Charlie and Connie

It Showered Again in Ohio this Weekend!

More fun and celebration was enjoyed yesterday at the shower for Vicki and baby Nina.  Many nice and useful gifts were received and appreciated by Vicki.  Here is a sample:

The ladies getting ready for the gift opening

Many of these were received.  It will be shopping time in Killeen for the new parents.

And many of these....Vicki really liked the frilly bottom on this one.

Alot of these will be used also

Another essential

A handmade keepsake from GG

A gift from Great Grandma J

A winter need for a toasty baby

A special message to Nina from Grandma and Grandpa

A special message to Eric from Nina

It appears that Vicki will need another suitcase to take all the gifts home!

Finally, a message for Nina; we're all anxiously awaiting your arrival, Princess!

Love to all!

Happy Birthday Kristen!!!

Happy Birthday to you.......

We think the kids will enjoy a brief stroll down memory lane to celebrate your special day:

6 months

1 1/2 years

3 years

Toothless

And after all those years, still as cute as ever!!  :)

We hope you enjoy your special day. 

With love,

Mom & Dad

A Beautiful Day in Ohio with only one Shower

The shower for Matt & Diana's baby went very well today.  A very nice get together and many very nice and useful gifts for the baby.  Here are a few pictures:

Congratulations Matt & Diana!  We can't wait to welcome your new member of the family!

Love to all!!

At the Carwash

Today, we had terrific weather for a November day in Iowa.  We spent most of the day shopping, but we decided to wash a couple of cars when we got home.  As you can see by the photos, Caitlin was Grandpa's little helper.  I think they both enjoyed themselves.  Although Caitlin has some unique strategies for using the hose, both of the cars looked great in the end!  What do you think?

Stephanie

All's Well....

I  know that the family has been waiting to hear about my dad's surgery, so I thought I'd let everyone know what happened yesterday at once. :)  Dad went into surgery at 7:45 am CST yesterday for a procedure that was expected to take between 3.5 and 4 hours.  At about 12:15, the surgeon came out to give us the news.  Dad made it through surgery just fine.  They did an arthroscopic procedure to reintroduce blood flow to his legs and to fix two separate aneurysms in his body.  Everything went well and now the arteries are fixed and he has blood flow to his legs.  However, he paid a price.  During the procedure, they sent a catheter in through his arm to try to gain access to the arteries that needed to be fixed.  However, they were unable to use the arm arteries to reach their required destinations.  So they went in through two different incisions on either side of his groin.  Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal.  However, they irritated the veins in the arm to the point that they swelled and began to press on the nerves in the arm.  He was left to suffer severe pain in his arm for hours while the veins healed and the swelling went down some to relieve the pressure on the nerves.  Fortunately, the pain had subsided by around 9 last night (after about 8 hours of hell).  He's doing much better today and is looking forward to coming home probably tomorrow.  He's still having trouble keeping food down right now, but we're hopeful the nausea will pass before too long.

I would like to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers over the past weeks.  The fear of the unknown was far greater than the risks associated with the procedure.  Turns out that there wasn't that much to worry about after all.  He'll make a quick recovery and is looking forward to playing golf in the spring.  Thank you for everything and I'll talk to you all soon!!

Bryan

Caitlin's New Bedroom

Today Caitlin's Big Girl mattress set was delivered and that triggered a redo of her room decor.  Grandpa attached the headboard to the bedframe and we got the new mattress in place.  Grandma and GG put the new bedding on and after dinner, the ladies of the house put stickers on the walls to create a new theme in the room.  Fairies and hearts and flowers!  There are still a few finishing touches to be done, but it looks alot different and fresher now!

We'll post more when it is finished.  For now, it will be Caitlin's first night sleeping in her Big Girl bed with GG!

Love to all!

Hello All!

Just wanted to give and update.  Diana had her first shower yesterday.  We also had some fun on Halloween.  The restaurant is moving along.  The baby shower had a bit of a Transformers theme.  Here are some pics for your viewing pleasure.

Finally Finished!!

It's been a long time coming, but the weather cooperated just enough this week so that I finished the steps in the retaining wall.  Here are a few pictures:

Steps looking down from the patio

Entrance from the Walkout Level

Looking up to the patio

A shot including the textured treatment done to the old existing concrete retaining wall

The "Big Picture" or, what people see driving down 8 1/2 Mile Rd.

We're very pleased with the final results and glad that we had the texturing done to the old wall.  That just completes the whole project.  Man, am I glad that project is done!  My back is glad too, except I'm straining it again with all the lumberjacking I've been doing lately.  Hauled 8 pickup loads of logs, most 10-12 ft. long and stacked them with the lumber I bought in late summer.  One truckload came from Janet's mother's farm tonight and Kent and I will be getting more tomorrow, weather permitting.  So I've got alot of cutting and splitting to do!  Spent 3 hours this morning hauling and dumping 40 yards of topsoil around the edges of the new driveway and sidewalk.  Had a work crew that spread it while I was doing the frontend loader work.  They also planted grass seed so I hope it will grow in the Spring.

All in all, a busy day in the Ginky Weeds.  By the way, I talked with our neighbors that have the animal menagerie next door and found that the peacock is theirs.  I told them I tried to give it to the zoo last week and they laughed about it.  Maybe they wouldn't have if I had succeeded in giving it away.......and I forgot to ask if it has a name.  But it will always be Sneaky Caitlin Anderson Keekup to me!!

Have a good week and love to all!

Charlie