I don't have much to post, but a few pictures to share. Please excuse my horrible photography, these are off my phone.

Heather has completed driver's training. Now for the next 6 months we need to log 100 hours, 10 of which are at night. Against the advice of the instructors, what a better way to log hours than to take a trip to visit family. So 2 days after receiving her permit, we loaded up and headed to Columbus. 11 1/2 hours down, 88 1/2to go. Now that the weather is cooperating (which it wasn't so much on our trip, by the way) we may have to take a drive to Geneva!! And I believe Ann Arbor is in our very near future as well, to visit with Rachel and Jameson. While we're there, we may as well take in some shopping at Birch Run. She is doing quite well, given that she lacked the cabin driving that Matt and Mike experienced for at least 3 years prior to their legal driving. She continues to excel academically, as well. It is very important to her to do well, so she can pursue her dream of teaching kindergarten. Most of you know her school of choice is Texas Tech. Which has a great education program. And Uncle Luke has told her that Texas is a great place to teach.

The boys are doing very well in their programs at MMI. They do not care too much for Phoenix (it is too BIG and too HOT). But they are nearly 1/3 of the way done. I know Mike is very homesick and they really have no time (or money) to visit. They had just one week off at Christmas, and that is it until Christmas 2010. But we communicate several times a week via cell phone. As soon as his computer is fixed I think we are going to attempt video chat. When he has this capability, I will let you all know!

Here are some pictures of our trip to Patty's. We went mini bowling, and CeCe did a mini fashion show for me, of course when we weren't watching The Brady Bunch. I am still amazed at the amount of snow that fell. (And I'm from Michigan)

Cruefest2

Kelly, Tammie Keim, and Mike Cox. And that is Mike's son Brandon in the green next to him. I had to snap this picture and send to Sara, wish she could have been there with us.



Bring back memories, anyone? I just couldn't resist when I saw this car pulling into the parking lot.



Kelly and I. She hasn't changed one bit. We had the BEST time.




The Zimmer clan. Jake is 15 and Cole is 13. It was the first time that I've met them. It was great to get together with our kids for the day.



Heather and I tailgating! What a fun day we had spent with eachother and great friends.

Well, that's the update for now. The boys leave for Arizona on Wednesday, Sept. 2nd. Keep them in your thoughts/prayers that they have safe travels.

Glasses

Not much to report. But I needed to post something, just to keep up with the rest of you.

Another school year is winding down. Heather is finishing up her freshman year, and Michael has completed his senior year. As you can see from the pictue, she's joined the ranks of the 4-eyed. She's almost the same age Mike was when he got glasses, but by far WAY older than Sara and I were (2nd grade).

One more year down ....

Well, another year bites the dust!!! And you know I don't feel any older than I did ... sure I have to hold stuff a little further away from my eyes to read. And my bones ache after sitting in one spot too long. And I'm a tad forgetful. But, still that's not old!!! We celebrated the day after by going to the Motley Crue concert, now those guys, are old. We took the kids, this is Heather's favorite band. I am so glad we shared this experience. She will have this memory forever. Kinda like the Beach Boys concert that Mom and Dad took us to when we were 12. It was almost 5 hours of pure rock and roll. There were 3 groups that opened up for them, The Last Vegas (out of Chicago), Theory of a Deadman, and Hinder. ALL were fantastic. And the Crue ... well, they were just awesome.

We are all doing pretty well. We both made it through the large cuts that our companies made and have jobs to go to every day. So, I count my blessings every day. We got the financial aid paperwork completed and filed for Matt and Mike. Now we just need to get Michael a job and a car. Say a prayer that he finds something soon. Even McDonald's isn't hiring. It's crazy.

Old Friends ...

Thanks to the world wide web, I have reconnected with an old friend. Come to find out she lives just up the road, so to speak, within 15 miles anyway.

We met for a 2 1/2 hour cup of coffee the week after Christmas. You'd never know that it's been more than 20 years since we actually had a conversation.

Patti says hi to all the Cronley's and had some good memories to share that I'd forgotten.

I think I probably sent all this out in an email, but I wanted to post the picture that she shared with me.

Not too much is happening in the frozen tundra. We get a dusting (or dumping) of snow almost every day. It so reminds me of the olden days, you remember when I was a kid. I wished Rachel and happy 42, yesterday. That means that ours is right around the corner.

Work is good, busy!!! Which I am grateful for. We just downsized globally nearly 100 employees. The 2nd restructuring in 9 months. Just pray for our state, there are so many people without jobs, the unemployment office fielded 6,000,000 calls in the month of December alone.

Hope everyone is healthy, and keeping warm. Boog/Tracey, you are probably loving the freeze, what is it there now ... 70???

Winters Remembered

Here are a few pictures of our gigantic snowfall. This was the morning after the first snowfall, on Dec. 19.


After this snowfall, we had a one day break, and received another 3-6 inches daily until Christmas Day.



Upon returning home from our very fast trip to John/Suzanne's, we had nearly NO snow. But it's snowing (kind of) this morning. Geneva is a wonderful place! I am so happy to have family members so close!! (At least close according to the Cronley definition.) I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday!!!!

Here is the new house. This was taken a couple weekends ago, when the weather was beautiful and we were trying to get some leaves cleaned up. I absolutely love it!!! It's nice to have us all on one level again. I miss having a master bath, but don't miss the time it took to clean 3 bathrooms, and all those stairs!!!

Also is a picture of the new Jeep in the garage. It's also fantastic!!!

The weather is now what it should be. 20's at night, 30's during the day ... we even got a dusting of snow, just in time for opening day. Hopefully I'll have some good news from Dale and Mike's hunt!