Reminiscing

Wow, I haven't posted on here in years. Isn't weird how one day you just stop doing something you had been doing pretty regularly for quite awhile. And you never know when you are doing something for the last time. That is especially true when you look back through your childhood. For years I spent a week at my cousin's farm in the summer. They were such good times. I remember eating Daisies (they were like Bugles) and drinking really strong ice tea out in an old feed wagon in the trees. It was a hot summer day and I was so happy playing with my cousin. Looking back, I don't remember my last overnight stay at the farm. It just ended. There are lots of times like that as I review my life. So many times raising my kids that we would do certain things quite routinely. We used to go to Ihlen swimming in the summer, a lot. When was our last trip? I'm glad I don't know when I do something for the last time, it would ruin it. But it is sad all the same. The years go so swiftly by.

Scholarship Awarded

The 2009 Wyatt Ammon Memorial Scholarship has been awarded to Johnathan Schultz, St. Mary H.S.. Johnathan is the son of Joanne Schultz and the late Russell Schultz. He is going to attend SDSU and major in Aviation. Congratulations!

Not Knowing

I am reviewing a movie today. Last weekend we saw "Knowing" starring Nick Cage. I will not elaborate other than to say it stunk, badly. The last movie I saw that was this bad was "AI" starring Jude Law. "Look Teddy! It's a lock of Mommy's hair!"

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Happy St. Patricks Day to all! Even though our parade was last Saturday there will still be wearin' 'o the green today and I would really like to find a nice corned beef stew for lunch. In the spirit of the day, I'd like to share an Irish joke -

A man stumbles up to the only other patron in a bar and asks if he could buy him a drink.

"Why of course" comes the reply.
The first man then asks:
"Where are you from?"

"I'm from Ireland" replies the second man.

The first man responds: "You don't say, I'm from Ireland too! Let's have another round to Ireland!"

"Of course," replies the second man.

Curious, the first man then asks: "Where in Ireland are you from?"

"Dublin," comes the reply.

"I can't believe it," says the first man. "I'm from Dublin too! Let's have another drink to Dublin."

"Of course," replies the second man.

Curiosity again strikes and the first man asks: "What school did you go to?"

"Saint Marys," replies the second man. "I graduated in '62."

"This is unbelieveable!" the first man says. " I went to Saint Marys and I graduated in '62, too!"

About that time in comes one of the regulars and sits down at the bar. "Whats been going on?" he asks the bartender.

"Nothing much," replies the bartender. "The O'Malley twins are drunk again."

An Historic Day

President-elect Obama gets inaugurated in less than an hour. It is a day I never thought I would see in my lifetime, a black man is president of the United States. When you look at how far the nation has progressed since Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, it is nothing short of amazing. Good Luck to you President Obama. Our nation needs a healing touch to guide us through these times of unprecedented troubles. You have my support and you will need the support of all Americans to get through this.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! The girls are all home and we are snug and warm and safe. I wish the same for everyone.

Wyatt singing along with Puttin on the Ritz

This is from another of Wyatt's micro cassettes. He is singing along with Puttin on the Ritz.

Wyatt's Voice

I have finally accomplished my goal to get Wyatt's recording of his bad day in Amsterdam posted on the internet. I hope you enjoy his story. We are so happy to have this recording of Wyatt. You have to click on the title, then click on download. I have also posted it on facebook, both on my profile and In Memory of Wyatt Ammon. Merry Christmas!

Marginally Autumn

Well here it is, Oct. 13th and the temp is in the 40's. Ha, just parodying my last post which was almost exactly 5 months ago. So, long time no see but I clearly haven't missed it. Ginger is off hiatus which has given me the impetus to try again.

It was a good summer at the lake, although it seemed to flash by in the blink of an eye. There was a new bathroom built and in working order by Memorial Day weekend, much to everyones relief. So that was the lake project for the year. Hopefully next year we can just enjoy it without major construction.

Jeannie & I rode the Harley to Sturgis for a week and to Arkansas for a few days. She professes to love it now so after all those years of fighting about it now we embrace it and have to find something else to fight about.

I've watched our retirement accounts implode to the extent that it no longer seems like an option so good thing I like what I do, I'll be doing it for a long, long time.

And that's my last 5 months in a nutshell, really sounds pathetic when you realize you've done nothing interesting or extraordinary in that time. Oh well, you just can't make up excitement like this folks.

Marginally Spring

Well, here it is, 12:49 am on May 15th, 2008. Temp is in the 40's, I'm sure. Today was the 3rd nice day we've had all year (I am so not kidding). The upside is, the next 3 days are supposed to be highs in the upper 60's as well. This would be a first for 2008, 3 nice days in a row. I know I haven't blogged in a long time, the longer you wait, the harder it is to get back into it. Suffice it to say, not much new. There will be a new bathroom on the lake cabin, hopefully by Memorial day. There is not a full leaf on a tree, although there are plenty of buds. This is the latest spring I have ever seen in my life. It is really affecting my ability to be happy. I think a lot of people are struggling with the same malady, just the same cold, gray, day after day. Here's to a better tomorrow!

Spring? Fuhgeddaboudit!!!!!!!!!!

The forecast this morning is calling for 4-8 inches of new snow here tonight. I can't wait. I mean really, what could be better than that? A crisp, clean covering of newly fallen snow blanketing the landscape, providing the perfect holiday setting. What's that you say? It's not the holidays? What do you mean it's almost April? This can't be, can't be happening. Oh yes it can! Right here in good old South Deazy, where we have winter and its derivitives for 9 months of the year, with a brief intermission of days where the temp and humidity match (90+) and skeeters the size of hummingbirds flash by on gale force winds. Yup, it just don't get much better than life here on the Northern Plains.

Archibald sends St. Patrick's Day greetings to everyone!!!!

Happy New Year!

Not real timely with that salutation I know, but still, better late than never.
Christmas was wonderful. The girls were all here for 9-10 days, depending on. There were no fights, loud voices, cross words or name-calling the whole week. Everyone seemed to like their gifts. No dis to Wyatt but I think everyone was glad it wasn't a thrift-store Christmas again this year. At least I'm pretty sure the girls were glad. I did not get to cook like I'd planned. We were just so busy with engagements every evening it just didn't happen. They'll all be home again the end of Feb. for Joslyn's b-day party so I'll try again then. For now, life is back to normal. Which I'm sure is not the same as normal at your house.

December update

It seems that everyone in the family has gotten out of the blogging spirit and maybe that's not a bad thing. Do we really want the entire world to know all of our business? But I'm also tired of looking at me with the Halloween mask on so I'm going to blog for the sake of moving that post a little further down the totem pole.

Life has been busy the last couple months and the clock is certainly winding down on those last minute projects I thought I'd get done before Christmas. I guess they'll remain on the list so I have something to do after the holidays are over. Ginger is flying in on Thurs. and Kyla & Allie drive home Fri. night after work. Jeannie tells me they will all be home for 10 days so that should be interesting. We will all have to take an oath of patience and tolerence, I'm sure we'll need it. I am excited for everbody to be together again. Hopefully we can do lots of stuff together as a family again. I'm also looking forward to whipping up monster meals, carb-laden comfort food that we ate so much of when the kids were little. Better get back to work!

Haloween 2007

We had a fun night tonight. We sat out on the porch and scared the little kids when they came up to the door. At first they thought Greg was fake. Then when they went to get candy from the pumpkin he snarled at them. It was really nice outside and we had it all lit up with pumpkins and candles. I was a clown. Trick or Treat!

Facebook | My Photos – Trip to Washington DC

Facebook | My Photos – Trip to Washington DC
Check out some photos of our trip. We had such a nice time.

Washington DC Adventure

Facebook | Ginger Ammon's Photos – Grandma, Grandpa, Mom and Dad come for a visit
We had a great time. Here we are at the Georgetown wharf, just getting ready to sit down for cocktails before dinner. We ate at a nice restaurant with live music. The seafood was great.

Our Autumn Vacation

It seems like a long time since I've blogged and it has been a while but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy, just too busy to write.

It all started last spring. I won't go into all the details for that is another story but let's just say that that story ends with me buying airline tickets for Jeannie, myself and Grandma & Grandpa Ammon to Washington, DC in the fall to visit Ginger, then rent a car and drive to New England to see the autumn foliage. Sounds like a good plan but a long time in the future so I kinda forget about it.

Suddenly fast forward 6 months and it's a week before we leave and now it seems imminent and very real. Of course, there is always work to take care of before we leave and as always, gets really busy right up to takeoff. Finally, it's the night before, G & G are here spending the night before our early flight out of SF. We arrive in DC after lunch and pick up our van. We plug Ginger's address into Grandpa's GPS and there we are. Considering that Grandma had never flown before, this was a major accomplishment in itself.

There are many stories to be told about traveling on an automobile trip with your parents, especially if you are in fact not 6 yrs old. I won't bore you all with the stories, most of which were the you had to be there variety but still pretty darn funny. I will say that we left DC and veered west. We passed through PA and into NY, hitting both the Catskill and Adirondack Mts. We spent 2 nights in VT, where I saw every LL Bean Special Edition Subaru AWD Outback wagon ever made. I am not kidding, at least every other car on the road in VT is a Subaru. It is bizarre and kind of frightening in a neo-hippy, eco-friendly tree- hugger sort of way. Also discovered in VT that bumper stickers are making a huge come-back. ("What if they had a war and nobody came." "Impeach him now!") You get the idea. When we crossed the state line into New Hampshire it was as if everyone in the van took a huge breath as though we'd been unconsciously holding our breath while passing through this foreign land. New Hampshire was much more to my liking though at the time I didn't know why, it just had a better vibe. Later Ginger told me that NH is a haven for people with Libertarian leanings. I don't agree with their entire philosophy but I will embrace the smaller government aspect of it. But I digress.

After finally finding peak color in the White Mts of NH, we head east and hit the coast at Portsmouth, NH. Now it's time for the Dreaded Drive Down I-95. I did Portsmouth, Boston and NYC in one day, slept good that night! We rolled back into DC in time to do some more sight-seeing there (we'd already done some before we left). Ginger graciously offered us the use of the beds in her apt. while she took the floor. She also arranged reservations at some of the areas best restaurants. It was a memorable trip that we all enjoyed. It was better than a trip, it was an adventure.

Tony the Tiger

So here he is Tony Tiger. He was quite a hit with the kids. Tony kicked up his heels, wove back and forth across the street giving high 5's, and hugged all his fans along the way. Afterwards he took a nap.

A Challenge

I am starting a new journaling technique and I would like to challenge anyone out there to join me. I am writing down the answer to this question: What five seemingly insignificant little things made me happy today? I'll give you one of mine: Putting on a pair of black knit gloves with gripper spots on the palms. Get the drift? Really little things that give you a happy feeling. Let me know what you come up with if you don't mind sharing a thing or two.