Kara's first volleyball games

The volleyball team that Kara plays for, Calumet/Calvary Christian School, opened its season Saturday with a quad tournament at Grace Baptist Academy in Kankakee. They played Covenant Christian High from Demotte, Kankakee Trinity Academy and the host school. You can get the details from the team blog, but they did win all their games, two out of three against Covenant and two straight against the other two schools. Kara played well, with a couple of big blocks, a couple of nice hits and solid defense.

New posts!

I know most of your read my blog so it seems pointless to reiterate everything, when I can just tell you to go visit our blog. I've posted a bunch of videos, a new blog post with pictures and a links to full albums!

Pictures went well on Saturday and we should have a bunch of a really good ones! Can't wait to see them. Katie, tell them they were awesome to work with!

I've been meaning to post this for awhile, but we have grandpa's old red metal tool box at our house. We took it thinking we had some use for it, but we don't. I wanted to keep it in the family if someone else would be interested in taking it. Let me know and we'll bring it home next time we're in town.

I hope most of us can make it to Uncle Wayne's race in September! Should we make a banner or shirts or something? Just a thought.

We're still discussing what we're doing for Anna's first birthday party. Whether to have everyone to our house or have one in GR and one in Chicago. We'll keep you posted, but wanted to put that in your head. Her birthday is October 18 and we may have it that day (Saturday).

I hope everyone's week goes well. Continue to pray for Martha's mom and dad as they make Grandma comfortable and also pray for peace for the whole family. Also pray for Gary's Grandpa Hall as we await more news on what kind of cancer he has and what treatment will be. Gary and I are also doing the Light the Night walk this year for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. If you'd like to donate, please send me a check or you can donate online at: http://www.active.com/donate/ltnMadiso/2363_Christabelle81

Love to you all!

GCA

p.s.

I was in Escondido last week, visiting eric for the first of many times.

This is at Catalina Island off the coast. We spent a day here; biked, hiked and snorkeled. In the picture we are at the Wrigley Memorial.

Anniversary Pictures update

Hey Folks,

Some more details for the big photo shoot on August 16th, and some clarifications of previously released details.
First, Grandma would like everyone to wear WHITE, COLLARED TOPS AND KHAKI BOTTOMS. Bottoms for guys= pants. Bottoms for ladies = pants, capris, or knee-length skirts.

Most of you should have gotten an email From Sara Mannino--half of the photography team for the big anniversary shoot on August 16th. Here are the basics, in case you missed it.

Chris and Sara are doing pictures of G & G, them with the kids, with the grandkids, and then the whole group. Grandpa will get all of those pictures on a CD so that everyone in the family can make as many copies as they want. (This shoot will probably take at least an hour...starting at 2pm)

THEN, Sara and Chris will be available to do 20-minute, individual family shoots. There will be no base fee, you'll just order prints.
However, if a family wants an individual family shoot, they need to LET SARA KNOW ASAP. (littlehandsphotography@gmail.com) so she can plan it time-wise. I will plan on getting in touch with you all to find out if you are interested in the family pictures, just to make sure she knows.

Hopefully, we'll be done with the whole thing by 5pm!

Here is their website so you can check it out: www.littlehandsphotography.typepad.com

the maiden voyage

Well, there are a lot of pictures to post, but to start with, here are grandpa and uncle ron's kayak ventures into the mucky pond. My camera doesn't shoot great video, but it's something.

Family Portrait Idea

I'm a frequent blog reader and I happened upon this family portrait idea on one of photography blogs I read. It jazzes up the black and white with khaki idea and adds a color. So I thought all the grandkids and under or a certain age and under could wear the color and the rest of us split up the black and white tops with the khaki/jean bottoms. What do ya think?

Still here - promise!

We're still here, Katie! I promise! I've had a hard time the in the last couple months keeping up with my own blog b/c it has been so busy at work and we're trying to get landscaping done at home. But we're back, work has slowed down now so I have some extra time to dink around on the internet. :)

We're doing well up here! Anna is literally moving right along, she's still doing her army crawl, but she's very quick at it. She can rock on her hands and knees but flops back down to pull herself around. She does use one leg and her toes to push herself, so we're getting closer! She's getting closer to big girl food - we're on stage 2 which includes pureed chicken, turkey, and with beef with veggies or rice along with more variety in the veggies, fruit and some even say dessert. They all smell like the food they are supposed to be, but some do not look appetizing at all! She's taking 4 - 7oz bottles now and still sleeping through the night (unless she gets stuck in the slats of her crib). She screams, giggles, and talks to us or small animals and children. She also is starting to give kisses. She's so much fun and we love being parents!

All 3 of us have had some form of sickness for months now - more so drippy noses or coughs - but we're ready for it to go away. Anna absolutely hates her nose/mouth being wiped off and cries like the world is ending right there. So I could do without having to pick crusties or wipe snot away from her nose. :) Both of our jobs are going well, keeping busy with those. We're trying to finish our landscaping and hopefully will next week - that's the goal anyway. Then we can move on to painting some rooms inside. We also still are doing side work - a couple of large websites together and I have some wedding invitations I'll be doing soon. It's fun to do things that allow us to be creative and what we enjoy doing, but it's also time consuming, so we do the work when we can and our clients seem to understand.

We're heading to SoHo this weekend to visit with the fam and help Alex make his room a little more mature with some new paint. So we won't be in town for Sam's grad party although we wish we could make it home more with all that's going on, but as we all know Mr. Gas sucks the well dry each week. Hopefully we can all participate on the blog again this summer and keep in touch. You're all welcome to visit us in Allendale - stay here or at one of the many hotels around here.

To answer Katie's question: We're looking forward to our vacation to Silver Lake in August with the fam - a vacation in general would be lovely since we haven't had one in a couple years. We're also looking forward to seeing Anna go in the water for the first time, play in her little pool we got her and hopefully see her walk!

Have a wonderful and hopefully somewhat dry weekend!

Love,

Gary, Christie and the Booger

Does anyone read this anymore?

Hi folks,

Just me--checking in with some of you. Especially those whom I haven't heard from on this blog in a long time, or EVER!

I have a new feature set up where every time something is posted, you all receive emails! Unfortunately, it only lets me send it to 10 email addresses, but so far I only have eight of you on there.

Please go see my last post, then feel free to post, (with a picture, if you like) your answer to my blog question.

Also, don't forget, Samantha's graduation party is next Saturday!

milestones...

+Saturday marked my graduation with a B.S. (that's bachelor of science) degree in Business Management.

+Eric moved back to California on Tuesday.

+I started full time at Elim today! I will officially find out about the position in the next couple of weeks, because they legally have to post it for others to apply first.
Hopefully I will have a salary by the beginning of June--but I'm working there now.

+I turn 20 tomorrow!

Question/photo for the week....

What are you MOST looking forward to this summer?

We have a new e-mail address. wboss65@yahoo.com

Grampa and Gramma