Life at Willis Creek Ranch

Homecoming Parade and football game

Sun, 5 Oct 2008 17:09:02 -0500

Saturday morning we headed in to town for the TSU Homecoming parade. Since Homecoming was about 3 weeks earlier than usual we were much warmer than is typical. It was sort of nice not to be huddled in our coats and mittens all day long! :) I do love a parade and this one never disappoints, although there didn’t seem to be as many area bands marching as we had last year. But, here goes my old alma mater! Brings back memories. :)

This time I was able to get a photo of Beth! She and Lanny were named Alumni of the Year - quite fitting.

Daddy and Harry Gallitan always get a kick out of wearing their KSTC sweatshirts.... that story goes back a long way, doesn’t it? :

We stood in front of Patty’s University Bookstore but the bands weren’t playing at that point in the parade. Julie was disappointed so Patty took action! It worked! So Julie was obliged to pay her off. Money well spent. :)

Julie, Maria and Patty

Mom and Juan (who came up for the festivities)

That afternoon we enjoyed the football game - winning in double overtime!

Homecoming Banquet 2008

Sun, 5 Oct 2008 16:42:58 -0500

This was quite a busy weekend around here. We all attended many of the events associated with Truman Homecoming 2008. Friday night was the annual alumni banquet.... it was good to be back for that after missing a few years. The boys even went with us and had a great evening. The food is always super yummy (thanks to Dennis!!) and this year was no exception. I forgot to take a photo of the salad and main dish, but here is the important one, the dessert. :) It was a delicious meringue with fruit topping.

Jackson was excited!! :)

Homecoming is always a time to see old friends.....

like Ben Pitney shown here with Daddy

I was glad to get to visit with Sally

And of course we always love to see Jerry and Alicia.... even if she does try to hide from us. :) :) (just kidding!)

And you know we take advantage of any opportunity to be together as a family.... even TSU Homecoming!

Lanny and Beth were honored as Alumni of the Year. I can’t believe I didn’t get a photo with Beth!!!!! But here are Daddy and Lanny. :)

After the festivities - heading for home and still holding hands after 54 years!

An $800 crab rangoon and other economic happenings

Sun, 5 Oct 2008 16:24:36 -0500

What seemed like such a great idea turned out to be a bit costly. Last Wednesday evening we decided to head to our favorite Chinese restaurant for a quick and easy supper. As I took my first bite of crab rangoon (one of my favorite things!) I sensed that there was something a bit different this time.... crunchier, somehow? Hmmmm..... no, that would be my own tooth, broken! Ugh. It wasn’t the fault of the restaurant, I had a small fracture in that tooth already and I guess the timing was just right for it to break. It did sort of put a damper on the rest of the meal, at least for me. :) The next day my dentist worked me in and put on a temporary crown. I go back in a couple weeks for the real one - all for the everyday low, low price of $805. No, we don’t have dental insurance. You know the truly ironic thing? We were running behind on Wednesday because Jonathan had been to the dentist that afternoon (only $115 for him!). :) Ugh.

Then on Thursday my dear husband was working on digging post holes for a new fence he is putting up right next to an old fence that is falling apart. As he was digging the post holes he kept having a feeling that there was something he was supposed to be remembering.... (feel free to think “uh, oh” here) As he finished digging the final post hole, Jackson said to him, “Dad, this hole over here is smoking!” Uh oh. Oh yeah.... NOW he remembered. The last time he put a fence up here they hit the electric line to the barn!

Luckily, the repair guy is a good natured fellow who was able to come out the very next morning. And he only made 1 or 2 jokes about the last time he came.... for the very same area.... for the very same repair. :)

Basement update

Sun, 5 Oct 2008 16:00:23 -0500

Well, Marvin and Jackson got the wall put up on the storage room/TKD practice room side of the basement. This wall divides one half of the basement into 2 smaller rooms. The room pictured above is for storing the toys that still get used around here and to provide an area for Jackson to fully practice Taekwondo without getting in trouble for knocking stuff down!!! :)

The backside of this room is the new all purpose storage room.

Now they have moved all the “stuff” in the basement from the other side back to this side - we have just shoved it all in these 2 rooms. I am seriously considering getting a trash dumpster to help me clean this area out. I am betting that fully half of what is down here is either missing parts/pieces or of no use to anyone anymore. But, I think I will deal with that another day.... :)

dismantling the old shelves

Marvin has begun the work of drilling the foundation boards into the concrete on the new family room side. He is definitely going through the concrete drill bits with this job!! It is hard to tell, but the layout of the new room is visible - the (perimeter) boards drilled on the floor are the base for the walls that will come!

We are doing something a bit different on this side. Since we still periodically have some small leaks, especially in the front wall, we are building this room with a 3 foot “hallway” around it. This will allow good access to all the heating and plumbing in the ceiling and also give a buffer between the outer walls (of the house) and the interior walls of the new family room.

It may be slow, but we are making progress! :)

The start of something big

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:43:07 -0500

This may not look like much, but trust me - this IS the start of something BIG! We are finally gearing up to remodel the basement. Up to this point our basement has been a wide open area with a concrete floor (painted green no less) that served as a toy room/catchall. The boys used to ride their little bikes and scooters down there during the winter, but they seem to have outgrown that. More recently they have been longing for a family room type area where they could “hang out”. :) We tried to do that by putting an old living room furniture down there, complete with a TV, but it didn’t work. What they REALLY wanted, they kept telling us, was a REAL basement. (uh... I actually thought that this WAS a real basement.... but I digress.) They love Julie’s basement especially and always feel more comfortable in hers. I think they like the cozy feel of her basement with the true finished walls (not our totally uncool panelling!), full carpeting and a room surrounding the big, scary sounding heating and air conditioner apparatus. I can’t say that I blame them.

Well, we are finally doing it. We are going to create a family room on one side - complete with real walls and carpeting. :) The other side will be half storage and half TKD practice room/toy room. We are doing this ourselves to save money. Of course, you realize that I mean the royal “we”. Poor Marvin. He is absolutely amazing!!!

Here is what he did today.... this is the wall splitting the storage room/TKD room.

Jackson has been a big help to him as well. I know Marvin was especially glad to have him to help with this....

...everything in the basement had to be moved to one side - but soon they will get to move it all back to the other side! Ugh!

Wish us luck! Please!!!!

TKD Tournament

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:10:33 -0500

Saturday we travelled to another town for the “Battle of the Belts” - an annual Tae Kwon Do tournament. Jackson was pretty nervous about this one, moreso than usual. He felt like he just didn’t have his pattern down as well as he would have liked. They taught the pattern while we were out of town at the fair and after he returned he felt he just wasn’t catching up. He has been practicing a TON at home but still wasn’t feeling too confident. Well, what he was lacking in confidence, he made up for in effort.... he got 2nd place at tournament in his pattern! Yay!! Turned out to be well worth the time and expense to drive there! :)

In ready stance before doing his pattern

Whew - finished... but still not sure how he did. There was a lot of competition.

You can watch part of his pattern on a video clip here.

Jennifer was able to come and meet us there - that sure made everyones day!

To celebrate we all went to Olive Garden for dinner. Yum!

Jackson was definitely excited to head back to TKD class this week! They had a group photo of everyone who attended tournament this year - and there were quite a few.

We are so blessed to have this do jang in our little town. I just have to take a moment and brag on all the fantastic TKD teachers. We have two 7th Dan Black Belts, at least one 6th Dan Black Belt and many, many 5th Dan and below Black Belts. To have not one, but 2 “Masters” is pretty cool, and fairly uncommon. They all volunteer their time and graciously share their love of the sport with the students. Wow. Pretty cool! :)

Dinner with friends

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:52:11 -0500

We had a special treat tonight. We got to go to Macon and meet Jim and Linda for dinner! It was a good halfway point to meet up and we plan to do it again as soon as possible. It was so good to seem them and, as usual, we laughed a lot. It is always a wonderful time when we are all together.

When your cousin is a Marine....

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:38:47 -0500

...it is only natural that you might enjoy playing “Marines” from time to time. I mean, what could be better than setting up a command post and securing the area.

Of course, it doesn’t help if your Mom makes any sort of “awwww” comment - remarking on how cute it is that you are using your old space tent as your big, tough Marine base.

There they go... off to patrol the perimeter.

I feel safer already!

A beautiful day

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:15:12 -0500

What a beautiful day!! We are making up for last weeks rainy, dreary weather. This entire week is forecast to be sunny and mid 70’s. That is just about perfect weather in my book. :)

The boys enjoyed tennis lessons with Doug. It has been awhile since they had a lesson - back in July as a matter of fact. We will continue with lesson through the end of October. I love that the boys enjoy tennis so much. It is a sport that they can play their entire lives. Jackson has turned into quite a good player - taking after his Dad! Jonathan has such enthusiasm for learning - a wonderful thing since he wasn’t sure he would even take lessons until I MADE him! :)

I think Jonathan likes picking up balls with the hopper almost as much as the lessons!! :)

Here are more photos of the beautiful day - from start to finish!