Tressa and her 4 H pictures

Not to be out done by her sister, Tressa has pictures too, they just needed to be tweeked before posting. She is sooooo picky!

Summer of 2011

Tressa when you think of the summer of 2011 what comes to your mind...

HOT, but we have a pool to cool off in...hey, it is a Walmart pool and it brought down the property value but who cares.
Having friends over...GOAL!!!!!  Womens USA soccer team just scored!

4th overall in Swine Showmanship....Senior Division next year...yikes!

Mom when you think of the summer of 2011 what comes to your mind...
Mumford and Sons, Awesome year for K for her first year in 4H,  the makeover of Chris...

Kennedy said she enjoyed swimming, working with Joy and watching TV...
The fair is over and we have enclosed some of our favorite photos...

Kennedy excels at her first 4H Fair

One thing that both girls now have in common is that their first year in 4H was awesome.  Tressa went to State Fair her first year for geology and won Reserve Champion in the Carcass scan, now Kennedy can brag that she won Grand Champion Grade Dairy AND Champion 1st year Showmanship!  We are so proud of her in how she showed and the hard work she put into working with Joy her calf.  She really loves Joy as she does any animal, but this one is special.  Her goal was to win a purple ribbon and she topped that with a plaque, chair for showmanship, bucket and lead rope.  Awesome K, we are so proud of you!!

Pigs are next to show and we all ask that God will bless us with patience.

Kennedy turns double digits...

The baby turned 10 last week!  It seems like yesterday I was holding the new baby as they wheeled me up to the third floor, her dark hair and little toes, how perfect.  Now she is in Martial Arts, up to my shoulders in height, imitating her sister and loving the hot dogs.  She can challenge us and at the same time hug us!  God has blessed us in so many ways and she is at the top of the list...Thanks K for being so loving, caring and always helping when we ask!!

It's been too long....

What? Has it been over a month since I last reported to you about the family?  Too many things have happened that I do not know where to begin.  We are in our last week of school...woohoo...and nobody is as excited as Kennedy!  I am ready for the girls to be home, however, it will be a busy summer for Tressa.  She will leave for camp a week after school, return for 2 days and leave for State FFA convention for 3 days.  Then we will only have 1 week to complete 4H projects and then it will be time for the fair.  I am worn out already!  Kennedy looks forward to just sleeping in and watching movies!  We hope to go to Canada this summer, but that is still being planned...gas prices have shorten our travels. 

The cats are doing great!  We now have 4 pigs and 1 dairy calf for the fair.  The weather has been crazy this Spring, but I think we are finally getting summer weather. 

We had a nice Easter and we hope you enjoy the pictures...one is from the park in Columbus we had a good time, I took the girls to there for Spring Break.  I would like to say we would of had more pics but it takes a half hour to do this one.  Oh well maybe next time.

Must be Spring

It's that time of year again, pig season! Recently purchased 3 out of 4 pigs for 4H. This is the way we usually see them as it has been too cold to come out of the hut. This is Kennedy's first year in 4H and we decided to go purebreed for her. We are still looking for one more pig for Tressa, hopefully soon. We have not named the pigs although Chris has one named picked out, but I think we will stay away from that. We will see how the season goes, wish us luck!!

Family Addition

Although Fancy could never be replaced, we have adopted 2 cats from PAWS, Richie and Marley, they are both 9 months old. Marley is all black with one white spot on her chest. Richie is black and white with a cute pink nose. Marley is shy, while Richie is always into something. The girls are on Spring Break so they are able to spend lots of time with them. Tressa took the cute pictures.

Costa Rica

Chris and I were fortunate enough to take a vacation to Costa Rica last week.  It was very warm and we enjoyed relaxing by the pool and ocean.  There were some Chicago Bears players there too who Chris got his picture taken with.  The monkeys in the trees were great to watch as were the iguanas.  I think the girls enjoyed the break from Mom and Dad, although Kennedy told Grandma that 6 days were too long they should only be gone 2 to 3 days.  Our first day back Tressa was sick followed by the afternoon call from the school that I needed to pick up K because she was sick, oh well back to reality.

Just pickin ice...

We spent the weekend trying to open barn doors by picking at the inches of ice around the doors.Notice my chunk of ice that I conquered with my hay bale hook

Kennedy had an sledding accident and hurt her finger.  If you ask her how it happened she will tell you that it was Dads fault he was going too fast. 

Our Boy...

It is with great sadness we report that our Fancy has passed away.  For those of you wondering who?  He was our 4 1/2 yr old cat.  The girls and I had come home last night and found him asleep in his favorite spot on his favorite blankie in front of the window, where he liked to watch the dogs play and make faces at them as they shivered in the cold and he stayed nice and warm.  He was supposed to go to Purdue when Tressa went to college, but I always said he would stay with me to comfort me while I cried that she had grown up.  We will miss him banging his head against the patio window letting me know that he wanted in or proudly showing off the many mice that he killed, he was a good mouser.  Tressa took the above picture last week during the ice storm.  Chris had always said no more cats after Fancy, I don't think so...

ICE STORM 2011

In the few minutes I have left of electricity, I write this while listening to the sleet hitting the windows.  The house, yard, driveway and barn are covered in ice, but God has blessed us with electricity.  Fancy sleeps on my lap and Chris and Tressa are watching Prince of Persia.  Kennedy has just come out of her room after playing with her toys and now sings for us in the kitchen.  The girls will not have school again tomorrow so we will snuggle in for the day.  The girls enjoyed sledding on the ice today until Kennedy bumped her head on a pole.  We are well and look forward to Spring...

2011 Here we come...

We rang in the New Year with a couple of train horn blows with friends and neighbors or I should say Chris and Tressa did, I ran home to be in my pj's before midnight. Before we got together with neighbors we met with Chris's family to celebrate Aunt Sandy's 70th birthday.  She has had a rough year battling cancer, but has such a positive attitude and knows her priorities, God first. 

 I have included some of my favorite pictues from Christmas.   Me with the traditional stockings, Tressa, K and Grandpa K and the boys and K with their new hats.  I love K's expression!  As you can see Tressa turned 18 on Christmas day.

The trouble with girls....

Can you just comb it right Dad?  Dad the stylist loves to comb Boo Boo's hair just before she go's out the door.  Tressa did a great job capturing the moment where K has had enough and is ready to go eat her doughnut.  We really got the camera out to capture how Kennedy had dressed for church, a beautiful dress with sweatpants and halloween socks. 

Merry Christmas from the family cat.

Merry Christmas from Fancy C. Janes!  Fortunately you cannot see my scared hand from trying to get the hat on, but he looks so cute!

Merry Christmas 2010

Ahhhh, tis the season...the season of rushing, baking, parties and telling Santa what would fit nicely under my tree.  Kennedy had the opportunity to meet up with Santa over the weekend and has requested a DS, Ipod and Harry Potter Lego set.  Big ticket items just like her sister.  Tressa has her eye on a laptop, upgraded Ipod, speakers for the Ipod etc.  Basically Tressa has a longer list. 

We continue to be BLESSED by our Saviour every year and we hope that he has BLESSED you as well in 2010.    It has been a year of weddings, travel to warm locations and travel to historic locations, awesome year in 4H and fun times with friends.  Next year looks to be some of the same, but I hear that it should be more of a year of babies...no not me.  Congrats to our retired Security Captain.

Thank you for reading our blog and we look forward to keeping you up to date on our family in 2011.

My favorite things...

Oprah showed her favorite things this past week, so I thought I would share some of mine...

Kennedy reading to me
Fancy laying on my lap
Tressa and I fighting over the radio between Elvis and Hip Hop, no one can beat the King
My brothers laugh
Sitting with Chris in the shed, summer weather and Country Gold playing in the background
TCM movies on a rainy or cold afternoon
My mother and I laughing on the phone
Baking cookies during the Holidays
Jesus my Saviour
Aprons
The girls laughter as their Dad tickles them
My sister who is a good listner
Friends and a glass of wine
Singing "Because He Lives" it makes me cry, but if that doesn't get you to believe!!!
Neighbors on 900N Block
Pig shows
My nephews stories
Grandpa Karls stories

Came across another classic on TCM the other night and I even got Chris to watch it with me.  It was so funny and I had not seen it before!  Starring Cary Grant, "Room for One More."  Loved it and I hope I come across it again!

Previous Blog Update

In reviewing the past blogs I realized I did not do an update to the County Fair letting you know how Tressa did in Showmanship.  Let me remind you that last year she did not get called back in after the first round and I think that lit a fire in her.  This year she did get called back after the first round and ended up coming in 3rd overall in her division.  I was so proud of her!!!  I was a nervous wreck, but she was calm and cool and did such a great job. 

North Carolina 2010

Recently took a trip to Ocean Island, NC with my best friend Mody.  I have mentioned her before in my blog so please review my past blogs.  She is a great friend and one that I will have around for a long time.  The photo on the left is Mody and I and the other one is me reaching out to Izzy the dog as "Cousin Kim" is walking her down the beach.  We had great weather and it was so relaxing...not many people were there which was great for us!

I am a great believer in the Prayer of Jabezz. This is a great book that I first came across in my brothers collections.  I take it seriously and ask God every day for blessings and he serves them out every day.  So many that it is hard to count, but some stick out in my mind...this is one of them.  Anyway, we take the trip to NC and on the way back Mody and I find out our flight from NC to Atlanta is delayed and we will not be able to reach our connecting flight to Indy.  I let Mody take care of it all she is much calmer then me, when we reach Atlanta and start to board our flight we found out that Delta had put us in Row 1, First Class to fly home.   Hello....what? do you know I live on 900 N and we do not travel this way?  I can't sum up for you how great the flight home was and I was so happy all the way home.  As you can see God threw me an Ephesians 3:20 day and I grabbed it and held on to his "supernatural power."  You see I did not think I was deserving of this blessing, but was I derseving of Jesus dying on the cross for me?  No,but he thought so and that is all I need to know....May God Bless you today.

Labor Day Weekend 2010

Over Labor Day weekend we went to the Bonner Bed and Breakfast Cottage.  It may have been the coldest Labor Day, but the girls still wanted to go tubing.  They had a great time and enjoyed the river.  I did not realize how wide the Maumee river is, I am used to seeing it from the Ft Wayne point of view.  I love the picture of Kennedy who looks like we just caught her stealing the boat, would not surprise me.  Jennifer told K to put her thumb up or down for fast or slow and as you can see up was the position she preferred.  The Bonner family is so nice we so appreciated their hospitality and all the food!

Tressa has become such a fashion girl, I call her the "fashionestta."  Her biggest influence is our neighbors Shannon and Lindsay.  They took her shopping the weekend before school and she came back with an arm full of clothes and some wisdom for life for example, "belts go with everything," "never date a guy who rides a moped," "don't drink till your 21 years old," of course...  Those ladies treat the girls so good and are great mentors for the kids.  When I was a kid I had the same type of older girl who taught me some lessons for life for example, "ice goes great with milk" "be active in school" and the best of all "The Devil Went Down to Georgia (Charlie Daniels) will become #1" , who knew...she did.  I recently learned that this wonderful girl died of Cancer which saddens me.  I should have written her a letter a long time ago to tell her how much she influenced me.  Never wait until it is too late another lesson in life.

I recently read the book Julie and Julia, my sister the other "L" in the family always says that the books are better then the movies as in Eat, Pray, Love, not true in this case, in my opinion.  Sometimes I had to turn a couple of pages to get back into the book.  I did some research on the Author Julie and read that after she published the book and it started taking off she had an affair on her husband, TERRIBLE!  In the book she explained how he helped her so many times and sacrificed so much for her, as it should be, in my opinion (j.k).  Anyway,  maybe she started getting an ego with the book doing well and slipped down the wrong path.  I am so thankful that I am not famous, they have such an ego problem.  Hey, I can get an ego sometimes on 900N, I start thinking I am the queen of the block, then my neighbor Shannon shoots me down because she can always do things better then me, she is the Martha Stewart of the block!  She always brings me back to reality.  Thanks Shannon!

I end this blog in memory of Dapper, thank you for the memories I hope that your soul will rest in peace, Amen.