Best of 2009. This years memorable pictures.

Here's a link to the slide show. If you hover your mouse over the picture it will allow you to speed up, slow down or pause the pictures. Thanks for looking.

http://family.webshots.com/slideshow/576080016oTSldS

what's next?...from Em & Jen

With the  arrival of the girls, Emmy broke her tooth...blood...EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!! Jori screaming with Olivia with the color of the blood.. out of Emmy's MOUTH.They weren't here for more than 2 hours,when Em and Jenna were already baking.In the middle of biting a really cold candy bar Emma Kate broke her tooth,AGAIN.OUCHY Mama! After that little problem happened, of course we just had  to build a fire! (Kids- don't do that at home we're professionals, mind you we're 10 yrs. old) Oh,by the way em and jen are typing this.don't believe it?eh. Guess what? you probably wish you were here why are we asking because were awsome! So whats next to happen?

                                                                 Your Friends,

                               Emmy & Jen                               

Gifts from God

Amy and I were discussing some of the unbelievable ways that God moves through your life. I'll save some of that discussion for another day except to say that our girls remind us of this in some way everyday. Some days it's the intelligence they demonstrate, or the innocence, humor, companionship or one of a hundred other things. Very often it will be something that we need to be shown. Usually it's on a day when we need patience.

Wednesday night Jori got in the car after her youth group all excited. Partly because she made a new friend who she described as exactly like her (oh boy, here we go), and partly because a teacher asked if anyone wanted to give their life to Christ. Well, Jori raised her hand. She always raises her hand. She gets so excited that I think she forgets that she always raises her hand. Maybe she just see it as insurance. She's awesome though and we're thrilled that she loves Jesus.

Yesterday, Jori and I are driving to the library and the radio is on. Francesca Battastelli is singing  'Free to be Me'. If you haven't heard the song, there's a part where she sings about the battle already being won. Excellent. Jori digs this song and we have some time alone. Great opportunity for a Daddy/daughter teaching moment  right?(turns out it was-just not what I was thinking). So I ask Jori if she knows what she meant by that. I got shushed because the song wasn't over and Jor is singin' her brains out. So we are sitting in the parking lot at the library singing the rest of the song (and getting funny looks). The song ends and Jori looks at me and asks me what I want to know. She explains that the battle was between God and Satan over our souls and that we already know that Jesus fought for us and won, but that life can still be a struggle and we still make mistakes. That's what the part of the song is about when she sings about dents in her fenders and holes in her jeans.

Wow on me. Then she looks at me and says "lets go get our books".
Here's the song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKSQjSdU8VA
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What else is new around here? Not too much. Here's Em just bein Em...

That scarf/boa thing has been a constant part of the wardrobe for the last week. The day started with her in full Little House on the Prairie regalia...bonnet, dress, the whole shebang courtesy of Grammy. Her cousin Nicholas says that she's Emish.
She also got a perfect score on today's math test which was on multiplication of decimals when zeros are annexed....whatever that means. She did teach me how to multiple improper fractions when we were on vacation( ok- that sounded really lame), so I got that going for me.
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In case you needed more evidence that I'm not quite right......

You never know what you can do with a fruit basket and a Sharpie.

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That's enough for now, Jenna and Olivia are on their way for the pre-Christmas child swap. They are staying with us until Sunday and then we send our girls home with them until somebody makes us go get them...sorry, I mean, I think Wednesday. Should be lots of giggles in both houses this week.

Later

Cool People

If you remember back in July, my doctor told me that out of all the activities in the world in which I was likely to participate, there was only one that I was actually prohibited from doing.

Shoveling snow. (I did a really good job of being somber and grave given the gravity of the moment, I don't think I even smiled out loud)

Now, on its face, that would seem to be a pretty spectacular way to get out of some grim work. Particularly if you happen to have a driveway that is 120 feet long. I mean, it's way better to say, " sorry sweetie, you know I'd love to get right on that, but the cardiologist says I can't".

The problem lies right where this concept bumps up into reality. The reality revealed itself to me when I began to think about the fact that my beautiful wife, and newly commissioned snow removal technician, usually comes home from work around 2 in the morning. I get up at 4 in the morning. If you haven't quite grasped the enormity of this, let me paint a picture.

It's been snowing since the afternoon rush hour. You know, cars spinning into ditches, drivers playing bumper cars. The usual carnage. This is how my wife is occupying her evening. She's not sitting in the warm house having dinner with us or by the fire reading. Instead she has some Wayniac screaming at her about paying for a tow truck. This goes on consistently until 2 in the morning when she gets to come home and sneak in a few hours of sleep until she has to get up to teach.

At 4 oclock my alarm goes off. I look out the window and then gently shake my bride awake..."honey, can you please go shovel my car out so I can go to work?"

See? Not so stinkin' good.

The easy solution would seem to be a snowblower, however the snowblower tree I planted did not bear any this year so I'm kinda stuck.

I was explaining my dilemma to a couple of friends one day and one of them just casually offered me his. Great. Apparently he is replacing his this year and I can make use of his old beater right? So he calls me last week when he sees the weather forecast and tells me to get over there so he can give me this machine. Turns out that he doesn't have another one, but he still insisted that I take his. And this is a like-new snow blower. So now I have guilt.

So Mark and Laura, thank you from the bottom of my repaired heart. I got that nasty wet heavy snow off my driveway in about an hour. Last year it would have taken me at least 3. I didn't even break a sweat. And you've ensured that there will be less stress in the house this winter.

We really appreciate you guys. You are a Godsend. Thank you.

If you haven't been mad yet today.....

Check this out.
This gentleman is a 90 year Medal of Honor recipient. His homeowners association is going to take legal action against him because he put a flagpole in his yard. Some dingdong apparently thinks they are pretty important.

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/POLEGAT02_20091202-091201/309031/P10/title=Henrico

And as an aside, here is what Mr. Barfoot did to be recognized. Unbelievable. By the way, he served us in three wars and retired as a Colonel.

BARFOOT, VAN T.

Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army, 157th Infantry, 45th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Carano, Italy, 23 May 1944. Entered service at: Carthage, Miss. Birth: Edinburg, Miss. G.O. No.: 79, 4 October 1944. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty on 23 May 1944, near Carano, Italy. With his platoon heavily engaged during an assault against forces well entrenched on commanding ground, 2d Lt. Barfoot (then Tech. Sgt.) moved off alone upon the enemy left flank. He crawled to the proximity of 1 machinegun nest and made a direct hit on it with a hand grenade, killing 2 and wounding 3 Germans. He continued along the German defense line to another machinegun emplacement, and with his tommygun killed 2 and captured 3 soldiers. Members of another enemy machinegun crew then abandoned their position and gave themselves up to Sgt. Barfoot. Leaving the prisoners for his support squad to pick up, he proceeded to mop up positions in the immediate area, capturing more prisoners and bringing his total count to 17. Later that day, after he had reorganized his men and consolidated the newly captured ground, the enemy launched a fierce armored counterattack directly at his platoon positions. Securing a bazooka, Sgt. Barfoot took up an exposed position directly in front of 3 advancing Mark VI tanks. From a distance of 75 yards his first shot destroyed the track of the leading tank, effectively disabling it, while the other 2 changed direction toward the flank. As the crew of the disabled tank dismounted, Sgt. Barfoot killed 3 of them with his tommygun. He continued onward into enemy terrain and destroyed a recently abandoned German fieldpiece with a demolition charge placed in the breech. While returning to his platoon position, Sgt. Barfoot, though greatly fatigued by his Herculean efforts, assisted 2 of his seriously wounded men 1,700 yards to a position of safety. Sgt. Barfoot's extraordinary heroism, demonstration of magnificent valor, and aggressive determination in the face of pointblank fire are a perpetual inspiration to his fellow soldiers.

I just don't get it.

It happened again.

I don't understand why people kill us because we wear the uniform.

These four officers were murdered yesterday.




 They were meeting before their shift in in a coffee shop in Lakewood, Washington.
A man walked in and started shooting at them. It wasn't a robbery. He didn't shoot at any of the customers in the shop or any of the employees. All he wanted to do was kill police officers.http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010386486_copreax30m.html

They are the 108th, 109th, 110th and 111th police officers this year to die while serving.

We are fully aware of the fact that this is a dangerous job, but how do you explain something like this to the 9 kids who just had their parent ripped from their life?

It makes me sad.

Here's a link to the Officers down memorial page.
http://www.odmp.org/

A day to be thankful

Kind of a poignant day, especially this year.
We are thankful, especially to have a God that loves us and will help along our way if we would just pay attention.
We are thankful that I am healing and have been given the opportunity to lead my family for awhile longer yet.
We are thankful to live in a free country when so many millions of people around the world suffer for incomprehensible motives.
We are thankful that our military personnel have made the decision that they will stand in the way of those who would destroy us. They can't enjoy their families today because they are off protecting ours. God help them for what they must see, for what they must do and for the losses they must endure for the rest of us that can't or won't be the defenders.
We have become thankful that we are less prone to getting all clobbered up with the responsibilities of modern life. We are thankful for the cherished time spent together as a family and with our friends.
We are thankful for each other each day. This year has sharpened the edges of important things for us. Not a single day goes by anymore without thanks and appreciation.
Every day is Thanksgiving around here nowadays.

We hope everyone makes time to be thankful every day, not just on this holiday. Have a great day.

It's a girls night out.by em

WE HAD A FUN TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!last one left at 1:00.

Role reversal

Whilst my delicate wife has been out patrolling the mean streets in her squad car, I have been homebound. Tied by the apron strings to my kitchen while eight young ladies rule the house. The slumber party is in full swing.

Funny how Amy always pulls this off. She went to work at 4. The first of the guests arrived at 430. Hmm. Anyway, all is well. This is an all star ensemble. Everyone is getting along swimmingly. Em and Dev made a batch of brownies before the rest of the gang got here. Then it was an American Girl movie, Felicity I believe, and pizza  and juice with the brownies for dessert.

This was followed shortly thereafter with a all -hands- on - deck sugar cookie making project .

I think they went to a second movie then and a pillow fight and a spirited round of Mad Libs ("Mr. Ruff, I need an verb that ends in ing".....) There has been much giggling all evening and no arguments or bad feelings that I have been able to detect. Pretty cool, most of the ladies had not met each other before. Good deal.

I finally gave up near midnight and went to bed with the usual admonishments....like - No one leaves, don't order any food, no texting, the stove and oven are done for the night, No, you may not make salt dough for Christmas ornaments ...because its after midnight....yes, good morning to you too Shan. Apparently the one I forgot to mention was that fire is just fine and doesn't need to be poked or rearranged.
And the best line of the night that I heard......"Folks, don't try this at home, do it on a sleepover at a friends' house." Perfect.
It seems that the festivities wrapped up in the 2 o'clock hour. The little flowers began to open around 7!! Are you kidding?
Here's some of the aftermath on the living room floor (I think there are still 2 kids in there).

Now it's eight o'clock and everyone is up, I'm on my second cup of coffee and Mama is going to start flippin' pancakes.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Love days like this

Started out the day getting the house clean. Once that was accomplished(or at least as much as it needed to be to look orderly) we did school, girls were educated and finished by about 1:00.  Out came the Lego's and blocks, a large town has sprung up in our living room, tons of building everywhere.  While that was occurring Em was also making phone calls to invite friends over for the evening tomorrow night.  Looks to be about 5-6 girls hanging out at our house tomorrow night.  I won't be here as I'm working, however Jim, the coolest Dad ever will be overseeing the festivities.  Fire in the fireplace and I started baking sugar cookies.  Dinner is cooking in the crockpot.  Yup, it's a good day, and bonus we are all home tonight together.

God is good all the time!

Just because you put your name on something doesn't mean it's yours...Jori.

I found this today. Jori staking her claim I suppose. Scroll down for the rest of the story.

And this is where I found it....

Drat.....we're back

The good news, I suppose, is that we safely docked at home around 2:45 this morning. 14 hours and 45 minutes of time actually spent moving toward home. That's really good time. The whole trip took a few hours longer with food, gas and rest area stops.

The bad news is now I'm cranky. Don't want to be here. There aint one darn pelican in sight. Lovely view of various shades of grays and browns though I can't see a shrimp boat or lighthouse in any direction.

No more of this for awhile;

Sunset - last night on the island

$4 a pound shrimp from Skinner's - deheaded and seasoned/steamed

Heron/crane thing looking for crabs on the beach

Big Ass shiraz and a sunset...it's become a tradition (thanks Steph)

For something different, here's the sunrise from the yesterday morning.

Jori just bein Jori. She decided that she would rather make a comfy nest in the closet than share a bed with her sister.

Beach house camoflage...Jori's clown pants match the decor.

Last day...

Today is the last day of vacation. It's been another great week here in which the island has exerted its considerable pull on us. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset last night and a great dinner after another day of perfect weather and time spent in the pool and on the beach.





Super Jorigirl on the east side

Emmy and Dad took along walk out on Pelican Island

There was some serious village building going on down on the beach

One of the good sunsets

Normal beach stuff

We are having an awesome, restful day. We took a loooong walk on the beach and collected shells, and we have been in the pool ever since. It's about 75* and perfectly sunny. Feels even warmer than that. The Gulf is as calm as could be...what a difference a day makes.

A bit different look today

Em in full swim mode

Jori went with the baked beans and cous cous for breakfast poolside.

Even Dad spent time in the pool today

Funny thing happened on the way to the westside...

Em and I took a walk last night and wound up on the Channel 10 news.
http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/news/local_news/november_oddity_strikes_the_gulf_coast

and now back our regularly scheduled vacation....

We're back.

Power is on, water level is not too bad. We made a bridge to the stairs so we could transfer our stuff into this house. The weather for the rest of the week should be warm and windy.

Just another day in paradise.

The younger half of the happy clan.

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone...

It's all good.

The storm went through at 5:40 this morning. We learned that it hit Dauphin Island first and then moved up north through Mobile.

Where we are on the east side of the island is protected by dunes and trees. There are also several houses between us and the Gulf right now so for us, the storm was really no big deal. I was actually kind of disappointed. I like the loud Gulf storms when the wind shrieks and the house sways.

We lost power at 4:30 yesterday and it came back on as the storm went through this morning. So we had no food disasters....though we all had to do our part and eat the ice cream before it melted. You have to bond together as a team in the face of adversity.

The girls and I took a ride over to the west side after the storm blew through. That side got clobbered a little. We've seen much worse but it will be a little while until we can move back to the waterfront house. There's about a foot of water under the house....see below.

This view is looking from the street up the driveway. The drive is between the big pole on the left side of the picture and goes up to the green garbage can by the house. Right now the power is still out on that side of the island and we can't get back into that house until the water recedes at least a little. Both sets of stairs are under a foot of water. I got up on the deck and managed to check out the house. There's no damage to the house, so all we need to wait on is the power.

When I talked to Nancy, she told me that we are on the same power zone as the school, so that power gets priority for repair. Good deal.

Here's one more picture. This one is from the bottom of the driveway looking north towards Bienville, the main road. Its completely under sand and some storm debris.

Storm update

Em and I just took a recon trip to the west side to see what's going on over there. The police roadblock is gone and all the roads are open. There is washover on much of the road down there, but nothing that you couldn't drive through with a pickup. We made it about 2 miles past our house. There is no water under the house and the berm around the back of the house is fine.

The surf has picked up and the waves are bashing the beach pretty good. Kind of awesome. You know how sometimes God has a way of reminding us how small we are? Kinda like that.

It has been raining steadily for several hours now...probably since 10 or so. It's 2 o'clock now. Our plan is just to stay in this house for the night and re-evaluate in the morning. That decision is based equally upon respect for the storm and the fact that no one wants to pack up again right now.

Here's the surf behind the house on the west side. By the way, there are two surfers out there.

More later.......Jim

Go blow Ida

So at 1:30 a.m. we had contact with Dauphin Island's finest. They suggested that we move to the east end of the island if we had a place to stay. We did. Our awesome owner Nancy offered to let us stay in a house she owns on the east side. So for the next hour we packed everything up and our buddy Gregg and I started shuffling our survival provisions to the our new digs. I believe the rum and ice cream were on the first flight over.

We finally woke the kids up and moved over. The temporary quarters are more than adequate. The house is beautiful, but not near the water. I suppose that's the idea when you're trying to avoid a hurricane.

I took a ride back to the house when I got up this morning to find that D.I.P.D. was camped out at the bottom of our street. The main road, Bienville, has washed over in a few places to the west and they don't want any rubberneckin' down there if they can avoid it.

Our house was fine, the water had receded from last night. Here's what it looked like at 7:30.

That fence is our back yard. So the water only got about 30 feet from the house. I just found that we have a much slower connection at this house so Im not going to put pictures up right now.

On the way out of the house, I stopped to talk to the copper on the corner. He said that they have put the LCSF plan in place. That stands for Lowest Common Sissy Factor. He said that the PD has to fly into action whenever there is enough water on the road for the tourists to get their hubcaps wet.

So in summary, the hurricane is supposed to come ashore sometime this afternoon and some where near Mobile. We are in between the storm and Mobile so that's just peachy. However, it seems as if the forecast is better...some of the models are now calling for the storm to be downgraded to a tropical storm before it gets here. We shall see. We are hopeful that we can get back into the other house in the next day or two. The weather is supposed to be sunny and warm for the rest of the week as soon as this storm goes through.

We aren't too worried, the grammar school on the island is open today, and that is one mile from where the road is closed. So that would seem to be a positive sign.

Otherwise it's all good. We are having fun with our friends, the food is good and we have another memorable Dauphin Island trip in progress....more later.

Nope. We aint from around here.....

Another great day in Dauphin Island...so far.

Apparently there is a hurricane headed our way. Perfect. Fortunately we are always up for a good adventure. We have been here for several rockin' storms in the past and we have been stranded by floodwaters. The owners of the house just called us to ask where we would prefer to relocate if the storm gets bad. They are on their way over to tie down the furniture so it doesn't blow into the Gulf.

I got up this morning to go get a run in. That has been my thing since I finished rehab a few weeks ago. They let me start running a month or two ago and I've been building on that. The only restriction I have is to stay within my target heart range. So I have to wear a heart monitor whenever I exercise. Today I got out on the bike path around 6. Two hours and thirty eights minutes later I had finished the longest run I've ever taken. Eleven miles. Yeah me.

So when I got back I got this phone call about the hurricane. I understand that most families may have chosen to pack up the family sedan and run for the hills. Or maybe just head for the mainland.

Most families. My girls went boogie boarding.

That's Em out there. The waves have been picking up a little. Were supposed to see the brunt of the storm sometime on Tuesday.

Right now the sun is out and its about 82*. the girls have moved the boogie boarding to the pool.

More later....IF WE SURVIVE. SURVIVE. survive.....

Back again...

We have arrived for a week in Dauphin Island. We got here around 1100. The girls were in the Gulf at about 11:00:30. The house is one of the better ones in which we have stayed. It's about 80 and sunny and I can hear the ocean from where I'm sitting.

What all this means to you is that I don't much feel like typing or being clever right now, so I'll put a few pictures up and catch up as the week goes on.

The Day After

So yesterday was Halloween, as many of you know, not my favorite "holiday". The girls however love the idea of eating unbelievable amounts of candy.
They decided to be Laura and Mary Ingalls this year(Little House on the Prairie). Thankfully Grandma can sew very well and they had beautiful costumes. However Jori decided she was Rachel the Amish girl from the book she is reading, sorry Jor, wrong bonnet. I will post pictures very soon, I'm a little bit behind. The girls had a great time, brought home a ton of candy and ate as much of it today as they could before Mom and Dad could root around in the bowls.

In other news, countdown to Dauphin Island has begun, we leave in 5 days, and cannot wait! Great friends Jen and Gregg and their two cuties will be going with us this year, we are excited to show them "our" island.........

God's Blessings on your week......

Feeling well again

Everyone seems to be recovered from our week of illness last week. Emmy had micro plasm pneumonia and bronchitis, Jori an ear infection and I was just sick. I am probably the only one left with some congestion, and somehow Jim never got it, amazing.

We started a new project over here, as if there were not enough going on, Jori finally is getting her room redecorated, very long overdue, she still had the original paint and wallpaper that was here when we moved in. We told her she could have any color she wanted, so she picked........flourescent green for the walls and bright blue for the ceiling. So far the walls are painted and the ceiling can be painted tomorrow. She also got to pick out brand new bedding, she did a great job with all her picks. Will post pictures when it is completed.

Jim decided today that he is now feeling great and wants to start running marathons, yup the same guy that had a heart attack 3 months ago, slow down...................do you know how long a marathon is????

God's Blessings on your week.......

What a miserable day at the Ruff house

Guest blogger today, Emmy Ruff age 10

I lost my tooth today.We are all sick, except Daddy. Jor has an ear infection and cold, I have pneumonia and bronchitis. Momma is sick like me. last night I almost lost my tooth but my tooth turned sideways and got stuck and we couldn't fix it. On top of that Jori would sleep for five minutes and then start screaming because her ear hurt her. I got my tooth out this morning and then we went to doc's office.

Organizing

I am spending the day organizing the schoolroom. I have emptied out every drawer, shelf etc, moved things around, recycled, and thrown away. I guess the only way to keep it clean is to not use it, and you all know we use this room constantly. The girls have decided it is the best room to play, Legos and blocks wind up all over the room. I found a lot of stray Legos today, we have been studying Ancient Egypt, there has been lots of pyramid building with Legos almost everyday for the last few weeks.
We are winding up our 5 week study of Ancient Egypt and will start Ancient Greece this week. I decided this year to follow our co-op history schedule instead of doing two different time periods at a time as we have in the past. We are all enjoying it.
Science this year is Apologia Astronomy, they are studying it in co-op and we are working on it at home.
Latin is going great for both Emmy and Jori. Jori asked to start French this year as well, she loves it, Em wasn't interested in French, I'm not concerned, she will pick it up from listening to Jori and I practice. Jori spends a lot of time listening to French stories being read aloud and loves it.
Jori also spends a lot of time reading aloud to Eowyn, works great, Jori gets her reading time in and Eowyn gets read to, and Mom gets a break for a few minutes. Win win for everyone.
Em is plugging right along and should finish up her 5th grade curriculum this winter, so on to 6th grade we will go.

Blessing for a wonderful relaxing weekend.

Sorry blog fans

It's been weeks since we have posted, I'm so sorry, the time has just gotten away from me. We started school with our new student Eowyn, we call her Wei, she is so sweet, she just turned 6 so I am doing kindergarten with her, 2nd/3rd grade with Joriann and 5th/6th grade with Em. Busy busy busy, co-op also started, I am helping with the high schoolers teaching Biology. Everything is going well, I'm working a bit too much, but it's all good, soccer season is winding down with only 2 games left, both girls absolutely love it and want to continue, no problem! Em is reciting her Latin to me so I will close now.

God's blessings on your day......

Family camping 2009

We just returned from the annual camping trip. This year we went north, to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

This is a continuation of an annual tradition, and was also the triumphant return of Amy to the world of camping. For those of you who don't know, the last time Amy joined us was in 2004. That was the trip that experienced several dinners cooked in the rain and eaten in the tent, unseasonably cold temps in Colorado, the worst campground ever (think packs of stray dogs) in Arizona, and Amy ended up suffering with strep throat on the ride home from Phoenix. Nice huh? Then just in case it that wasn't enough, she had to have her tonsils taken out.

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I think that it is fair to say that having body parts removed surgically constitutes 'roughing it', and is fortunately, fairly uncommon. So needless to say, none of us blames Mama for taking a pass the last few years. There was also a chorus of "Are you sure?" from the three of us when she decided she was back in this time.

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So in the years since, the girls and I have embarked on the Daddy/daughter camping trip. We have been to the U.P., Colorado, North and South Dakota, and West Virginia/Virginia. Now you're all caught up.

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We were originally thinking Colorado again (I tend to be a slow learner I guess), but my ticker and the fuel budget dictated a midwestern locale. So we thought it would be fun to go see some of the Great Lakes and make a visit to the town where Grammy grew up.

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So off we go. We spent the first couple days camped at the Bay Furnace Campground near Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. This is part of the Hiawatha National Forest and is situated right on Lake Superior. Several of the sites are on the beach, but as we arrived on Labor Day weekend, those were already taken. However, there was nothing wrong with the site we had.

The beach was only a two minute walk from our site. We went into the park to hike one afternoon and walked up to this cool waterfall.

We also spent alot of time at the beach and visited the Bay Furnace which is why the campground is named as it is. The furnace was used to melt iron into pigs to be transported from the area. This is the furnace.

At the beach;

On Tuesday we moved further east towards Sault Ste. Marie. We had intended to stay at the State Park at Tuquamenon Falls. When we got there the campground was a little more developed than were used to and we realized that we could go another 20 miles into the National Forest and cut some time off the drive to Cedarville. So we kept movin' east hopeful that we would find something good.
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What we found turned out to be one of our all time favorite campgrounds. Its called Bay View and is right on Lake Superior near (11 miles) the town of Brimley. We sent the tent up right on the dune overlooking the lake.

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This is the view from the tent. Pretty slick eh?

Our campsite was enormous. We could have had a whole village of tents in there and still had room. This picture is from near the fire pit, which was still at least 50 feet from the road. You can just see the tent in the back of the site (near the beach towels hanging on the line).

We spent alot of time in the water, the weather was perfect, it was in the upper 70s or low 80s and sunny every day. We brought the bikes along on this trip too which turned out to be a good idea. We rode quite a bit and one morning we found a neat fire road that was fun to explore.One day we took a drive into Sault Ste. Marie to visit the Soo Locks. Another day we explored the Iroquios Point Lighthouse.

The beach was excellent, and there was very few people around. We could probable see 10 or 15 miles of beach from our site, and I don't think we ever saw more than 7 or 8 people as far as we could see.

This was sunrise one morning.

We had to do quite a bit of extra planning for meals this trip since Im on that diet now. It wasnt a big deal, we just rememberd that I could only have portions of meat the size of my palm.

On Thursday we took a ride down to Cedarville to visit with family. We saw alot of the places from Grammys childhood and got to spend time with some of Amys cousins. Amy also wanted to visit the campground that her family camped in when she was a kid. She hasn't been there since she was around 9 years old. But as were driving down the road through the forest , she starts hollerin' at me to slow down. She knew right where we were. It was amazing. Like a homing pigeon or something. Anyway, she says that it hasn't changed much over the years...even has the same proprietress who is apparently now in here 90s.

So all in all it was a success. The weather was perfect. We found some more really cool places to camp. We met some really neat people - Jori suggested to us that she could just stay behind at Aunt Pat's place and we could come and visit now and then. And most importantly, Mom was with us and has even suggested that she might want to come along again next year. We'll keep hoping.

Green Light

I went to see the man with the keys to my squad car yesterday. That would be my cardiologist and he gave me the big thumbs up. He said everything is going along according to plan. He released me to go back to full duty with no restrictions on Sep 21. Way cool.

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The lab somehow didn't do all the tests on my blood that they were supposed to, so I don't know what my lipids are doing yet. I have to go back in and have another blood test done in a week or so. They did determine that my liver has tolerated all the meds.

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The doc also took me off the medication that has been causing me all the aggravation. He put me on a lower dose of Statin. The one I had been taking was kickin' my butt. I haven't slept well since the heart attack and every day my body feels like I slept on the cold ground. Both are side effects of that drug. Hopefully that will correct itself quickly. He also took me off the blood thinner.

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I continue rehab and have finally reached the point where the nurses are really pushing me. Yesterday they changed my target heart rate range to 135-145. It's an unusual way to work out. While I'm on a particular piece of equipment, a nurse will ask how difficult the activity is. Then they check the computer (we are wearing telemetry monitors) and if the heart rate is below your target they have you raise the level of difficulty. My nurse finds it amusing to walk over to my machine and start pushing buttons (figuratively as well as literally) to crank up the difficulty. So now I'm walking on the treadmill at 4 m.p.h. at a 2.5% grade. Not exactly mountaineering, but I do get the heart rate up.

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I was feeling pretty good about myself yesterday, I was cruising along on the treadmill without too much trouble (pretending I was going up Granite Creek in Wyoming), then riding a bike and moving on to a rowing machine. I was all warmed up thinking I was the man (the theme from Rocky was playing, you know how that it is). Then Seventy something year old Delores broke out the jump rope. Holy smokes. I hung my head in shame.

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I did turn in my lowest blood pressure reading so far though, 104/64. So I got that going for me.

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In other news,

The Colorado trip has been modified. The official camping vehicle, the Durango, required about 1.2 million dollars of work in the past two weeks. This has diminished the travel budget to a large extent (ok- it totally emptied it), so we scrapped that trip and instead are going to head north to the U.P.

This also would have been impossible, but the man, the myth, the legend, my bud Steph jumped in and saved the day. He did 80% of the work on the truck for us for the cost of parts. There's no way we could have had it done otherwise. Steph rocks. And Suzie too...she found the appropriate camouflage attire for the girls.

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Today's wacky daughter photo;