Family Update...Dan is taking pictures now!

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Well, if my mom complains that she can't read her morning lecture, I better put something on here and make her happy :-)So, while Dan is taking pictures of the spiders he finds around the house, okay, not in the house, but outside,...

...and plays around with his birthday present from Jason and Tiffany,....

...I am hard at work again at the library. Last Thursday we set up the book fair and had teacher preview day on Friday. For that we provide snacks for our teachers to lure them in.

Actually we work at the greatest place in town and have teachers who just love to come in and shop for books.

But food has never hurt our preview :-)

And this week we are busy with the students from 7:45 a.m. till 4 p.m. and even 6 p.m. on Thursday evening for all the parents who would love to attend, but can't during the day.
Next update will have more pictures from the fair, and whatever else I'm going to do this week!

Jaeger

He can not be disturbed when he has his bone. He'll just keep chewing away on it!

We have already tired him out and he won't play anymore. He does scratch us up when he keeps rolling around like that and stretching. Dan and I keep yelling oww!!!
But it is fun playing with him, especially when I won't let him have his bone and just dangle it in front of him.
I'll post another one tomorrow when I'm done sleeping, it takes too long to upload these video's :-)

That dog is quick!

And he'll bark if coaxed, and even without a snack, he got that one later -see above video!

Herzlichen Glueckwunsch zum Geburtstag, Mama

Ja, schon wieder ein Geburtstag, dieses mal die Mama!

Mama mit Wunschkind - ich natuerlich!

Mama ganz gluecklich, hat ihre beiden Maedchen an jeder Seite!
Und mit Papa, da muss man ja froehlich sein!

Happy Birthday Grosser Bruder!

Herzlichen Glueckwunsch zu Deinem 51. Geburtstag...jetzt wirst du ja wirklich alt!

(Norbert is the one standing, watching over little me!)

Und ich bleibe immer ein paar Jahre juenger als du!

Und dann nahmen die Eltern uns zum Fotographen, nur weill ich so suess bin!
Und hier haben wir meinen grossen und meinen kleinen Bruder, nur zu schade dass beide auf diesem Bild kleiner sind als ich...ich bin natuerlich die Prinzessin. Und unsere Cousine durfte auch mit drauf, und wenn mich nicht alles taeuscht ist das auch mein Cowboy outfit!

Fastnacht war doch immer sehr schoen, oder?

Also, Bruder, nicht zu viel feiern, das ist bei diesem Alter nicht mehr drin'!

Tiffany & Jason's visit to Abilene & Dan's Birthday!

Rhowdie and Jaeger meet...well...

Jason and Tiffany in the kitchen after the meal...

Tiffany after the guests are gone...

...checking out the Bushmaster...

...and test targeting the S&W Revolver...I think, or is it the semi?!

Then, Sunday morning....shooting time!
Tiffany is trying out her luck.
Kristy, of course, is along also.
And of me, we have to show a video. If you want to see Tiffany or Kristy shooting, and her the bang, you have to go to their blogs...eventually :-)
And watch me shooting the bulls eye...genau in die Mitte! Muesst ihr erst mal nachmachen...Lion, kommst mal wieder und wir gehen schiessen, oder ich nehme Oma und Opa mit wenn sie das naechste mal kommen. Das wird dann spassig!

What fun we had and we actually got to shoot a Glock Semi-Automatic .40 S&W.And after all that shooting and fresh air it's time for some fun eating Raclette!

Trivia

Well, here is one for Jason!!!

Today in 1987 "Fraggle Rock" had it's TV Premiere~ it is 20 years old today~!

Tis childre's show was a cartoon version of the live Jim Henson puppet production on HBO. It was set in the rock underneath a scientist's house and featured characters such as the Fraggles, the Doozers and the Gorgs. ~ info from 'The Teacher's Calendar'

Whenever this show came on we watched it...yes, we used to watch HBO, and yes, we paid for it :-)

Today is also 'Video Games Day' so, kids, thank your parents for all the quaters and game cartridges!!!

Sandra and Elvis :-)

And Dan remembers you crying also...don't ever doubt me in public...there is payback involved :-)

Oh, yeah, this was July 1991...wasn't Jason cute, and Sandra hat the 'cutest' shorts...I think she finally got ridd of them last year...poor Clayton, or maybe lucky Clayton, as Sandra holds on to clothing. Oh, Sandra, I still have some of your winter clothing, should I send that back to you now that you have 4 seasons and loads of snow in the winter

Just can't do a wordless Wednesday today :-)

It is September 5, 2007 and Dan and I just had a dip in the pool! Boy is that water cold, but refreshing!

Jaeger seems to want to go in the water now also, but we are not taking him in here! He just keeps watching me swimming my rounds. And his forehead keeps having those wrinkles like he is wondering what we are saying to him when we ask him if he wants to swim. He seems to really know that word 'swim' as he looks differently when we say that.

Last night we kept spelling b-o-n-e s so often that he started barking at us as he didn't know what we are trying to say. That was so funny!

Okay, hier ist noch mal alles in Deutsch! Heute am 5. September sind wir doch wieder schwimmen gegangen. Das Wasser ist so kalt, brrrr, aber doch sehr erfrischend!
Es ist fast so als ob Jaeger auch schwimmen will. Er verfolgt mich mit seinen Augen die ganze Zeit wenn ich meine Runden schwimme, und dann kommt er auch an den Rand gerannt und springt hoch. Vielleicht hat es ihm letzte Woche doch gefallen im Wasser zu sein. Wir denken auch das er weiss was 'schwimmen' heisst denn immer wenn wir dieses Wort sagen schaut er uns an und runzelt das Stirn!

Gestern abend haben wir laufend das wort 'knochen' buchstabiert und das hat ihm dann gar nicht mehr gefallen und er hat uns angebellt. Wie lustig!

Video Wednesday...

...a picture is worth a 1,000 words, so what is a video worth? After all it is many many pictures put together in one long stream?

I've done it...

...read all 20 Texas Lone Star books before we had all the students in the library and I have to tell them they can't have a book because I am reading it...of course there are some others I have checked out that the kiddos can't get :-)

The last two were Heat by Mike Lupica and Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. Interesting books and not really what you would think by reading the titles :-)

Anyway, now on to something more adult...a book I actually bought... the mercy of thin air by Ronlyn Domingue, we'll see what that is about...took me a while to get the beginning last night, but then I should not start a book in bed when I am tired...but I did get it and am looking forward to what the ghost is going to do :-) (and no reading of the last pages to find out what is going to happen and no reading of the flap to see what the book is about)!!!

Till next time.

Video of Doggy Splash Day!

...if it works you will see them here!

Doggie Splash Day!

You have to see it to believe it :-)
What fun is to be had on the last day of pool season. When it's all over they open the doors for a couple of hours for the "dogs"!!!
Here is the proof. The big hunk in the lime green life vest it the "vicious" Rottweiler Jaeger!Jaeger is not the only one wearing a life saver! (and we are in the kiddie pool...)

Mesha and MayBee are having fun with Kristy. Those dogs will drown her one day, but they did jump of the diving board. Did we try it? NO WAY!!!

Proof that Jaeger does swim, when he is not standing on Dan's legs!

Here we go...Jaeger is just waiting for the position of Life guard to open up!

Yes, I was there too...had to make Dan take some pictures to proof it!

Getting the feet wet :-)

What a life!

Enjoying the last couple of days before the kids come/go back to school! Refreshing dip in the pool before a meal of Hot Dogs and chilli and sauerkraut (not for me!). We thought it would never get hot this year, but, alas, here it is. More of this today and tomorrow it will be off to school for all of us...oh, well,...there is still the after 4 crowd...when school is out :-)

Wordless Wednesday

Bad weather update & back to work

So, after we had this horrendous rain on Friday evening, a little rain Saturday morning, and no rain Sunday, part of the city did have mandatory evacuation. To see the story link here

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2007/aug/19/abilene-neighborhoods-swamped-as-creeks-overflow/
It was mostly on the north side and didn't effect us. Some of the creeks just couldn't handle all the run off and overflowed.

We thought we were going to get hit by Hurricane Dean also, but that thread seems to be going to the south. Hopefully it will diminish more by the time it hits Mexico.

For today it's back to work for me...well, did have my first day back on Friday, but this week is full work week, the kiddos will be back for more learning next Monday! We'll be prepared :-)

Had a "night out" with the girls...(UPDATED)

...but that only meant we went to see a movie!

This time it was "Becoming Jane" a movie everyone ought to see. It was pretty good, you just have to understand British English! So, I'll watch it again with subtitles so I can get it all. The movie was supposed to start at 6:15 pm, someone finally went and asked to have it started, don't know what time that was at, and we enjoyed a good while watching, until the screen went black and the lights kind of came on and we only "heard" the movie. Someone went and asked to have it back on and they did, but started at that spot (we had still missed a few minutes) so, complain again! They went and rewound (however they do that when they show a "DLP") and we got to see the 'blacked out' scene plus the next 15 minutes again! Oh, I should say that we watched commercials before the movie, and like TV commercials we got to see some obnoxious commercial twice! Anyways, by the time we left the theater it was after 9 pm and raining in sheets!!! (the actual movie was 2 hrs.)

Now Abilene streets were flooded! I decided to take the Loop home to get away from all the cars and wouldn't have to drive through the ditch at the beginning of my street (wouldn't have been able to drive through two feet of water anyways). On the side of the road where we have ditches to allow the water to run off, we had rivers running! I made it to the back side of my development and was in for a surprise as that road was flooding also. One car was stalled out in the middle which forced me to drive to the side. I went in to the other street and to my surprise that one also was flooded, so bad you couldn't see where the curb was if there wouldn't be mailboxes! Whew, was I happy to turn into my street which is raised up and I didn't have to drive in water anymore. Luckily I drive my Suburban and don't have to worry to much, not like Dan's little sports car. I am surprised he made it home at 4:15 yesterday, as the street he drove on was flooded already also and was closed last night, as were many other streets. And has it stopped raining yet, no, of course not.

I did hear on the news that the ditch on my road was 3 feet deep with a rushing river. Wonder if anyone was going to drive through that one...they wouldn't make it, believe me. So I made it home fine and am waiting to see what Hurricane Dean will bring us next week....more of the same?...as this one was only the remnant of Tropical Storm Erin and Dean is following her path. We'll see!

Here is what FoxNews has to say about the storm:

Rain continued over much of Texas on Friday and thunderstorms were still in the forecast for Saturday. A police dispatcher in the West Texas town of Abilene said they had had about 50 calls for water rescues as rains fell Friday night, but added that there were no injuries. She also had received some reports of roofs damaged by the rain.

Summer storms have poured record rainfall across Texas and parts of Oklahoma and Kansas, with floods killing 22 people since mid-June. One July storm dropped 17 inches of rain in 24 hours and brought Texas out of a more than decade-long drought.

And if you like you can see a clip of thunder and lightning at:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=x6mUeR69jk0

To view picture of Abilene's flood so far, check this site: http://www.reporternews.com/photos/galleries/2007/aug/18/abilene-flood-2007/

and as some neighborhoods are now mandatory ecvacuated because of rising waters and flooding (it hasn't rained since yesterday morning) there will be more pictures tomorrow. I feel sorry for the people who have to get out of their houses. Note to myself: If we ever move and buy a new house make sure it is on a high point and no rivers/creeks too close by!

Last official day of summer break!

Well, Dan was sweet and took me to see a movie. Asking Jason which to see he said "Stardust" so off we went and didn't get disappointed at all. It was kind of weird on the beginning, but once you got into it it was pretty good. So, if you like Fairytales and Science Fiction here you can enjoy both in one movie!

http://www.stardustmovie.com/

While watching the movie look for Peter O'Toole! And Robert DeNiro also plays a part in this movie.

Future movies based on books:

The Golden Compass (Dec. 7, 2007, http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/his_dark_materials_the_golden_compass/

and Spiderwick Chronicles (Feb. 29, 2008) http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/spiderwick_chronicles/

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Die große Bibliothek der Hethiter

As Kristy is having a great time finding Library youtube clips, I thought I'd find a German one and add it to my blog. So, check out Kristy's and mine! Hers is funny though :-)

I am glad I am not working in this library though...will love my Madison one so much more now!

Wordless Wednesday