Fencing Anyone?

Tonight our neighbor was handing out sports themed pencils and paper. When she asked Cole if he preferred soccer, basketball or baseball he said "Actually I prefer fencing." Hope you all had a spooky Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Another beautiful weekend here in Minnesota. Weather was in the 60s all weekend. Thursday night we were "ghosted." Someone left a treat bucket on our front steps and ran away, leaving us with a letter instructing us how to "ghost" two other neighbors with treat buckets and a picture of a ghost to put on our own door so that we would not get ghosted again. Friday night we joined the neighbors for a bonfire. The adults enjoyed a few beers and Cole LOVED driving the neighbors kid-sized tractor. Saturday the kids went to a Halloween party at the YMCA. We hosted gourmet club Saturday night. We had a fondue theme which went over surprisingly well. One couple couldn't join us because their son had broken vertebrae from playing football and had to have corrective surgery last week. This is the son of my friend who broke her leg so badly several years ago on our ski trip (she was, of course, on the front steps of the condo when she broke her leg -- not actually skiing). Yesterday we did a lot of fall clean-up around the house and yard. Cole can sure run a broom! We are prepared, if not actually ready, for snow.
Have a Happy Halloween all!
Dad, hope you feel better soon.
Melinda & Co

Comment on Picture of the Day

The picture posted today of Dave was taken by the bank (probably 1977) when he became a trust officer. Note the lack of beard which at that point was against bank policy. Especially Bob Johnson as Dave checked with the human resourse manager and said he did not see a problem with it so when Bob returned one year from vacation the growth of a new beard had appeared. Bob was probably shocked, maybe even said something but he did remain employeed. He not only has the beard today, but he seems to have less hair on his head and both beard and what little hair remains seems to be much greyer.

WOW!

What a smashing good idea. But surely out of all the choices you could have picked a better subject for the first one.
Dave

New feature: Picture of the Day (or every other day)

POSTED BY TODD:

After much procrastination, we finally got a scanner to digitize the Greer family photos that were entrusted to Melinda last April. I will be the chief laborer in the scanning process, and it may be weeks before all of the photos can be sent to everyone on a CD. In the meantime, I will try to post several of the pictures each week and invite everyone, but David and Nancy in particular, to comment. My goal is to provide a platform for others to provide a permanent record of the who/what/where/why facts regarding each of the photos.

So, to start things off, I offer this photo. This guy looks vaguely familiar. Pertinent details, please, in the comments.

Some of our recent favorite photos

From Arizona

Trying for the third time to get this posted.

Thanks from Arizona. Good to see some new items on the blog this morning. Good news from all of you and glad to receive the picture of the Griffiths. Sounds like Fenton is going to be a real nice dog for the pearson family.

Hello from MN

Greetings all. I just finished a delightful 4 day weekend with the kids. Cole was out of school for the state teacher's convention. Everyone was happy and cooperative for 4 days so it really doesn't get any better than that. Both kids are doing very well with their reading skills. Cole, being the unconventional learner that he is, is learning to read by using the Hardy Boys books. Ella, being a bit more traditional, is souding out the words on my weekend "to do" list. On Saturday she sounded out "Sat" which I had written on top of my daily to do list.

Fenton is growing every day. He also remains delightful and laid back. I just wish he would stop peeing every 30 minutes or so. It is so fun to watch him discover life. It is fascinating to imagine what he is thinking as he sits and watches his first fire, watches leaves fall from the trees and watches the garage door opener make noise and then turn his head to watch the garage door go down. While I remain dedicated to my sighthounds, I will say Fenton is certainly smarter and easier to train. We had our doubts at first -- when he couldn't figure out which side of the door he needed to stand on to get in the house -- but he seems to be a bit more with it now.

With the weekend over, I'm back in the busy rush of life. A busy day in the office today. Tomorrow I'm driving to Rochester to see clients. Wednesday is filled with meetings and Thursday I have to leave the office mid-day to go to Cole's school to read to his first grade class at "Book Nook" time.

Halloween -- huge at our house -- is rapidly approaching.

I enjoyed Marty & Dan's picture. I'll try to get a few of our recent photos posted this week.

Melinda

greerz

greerz

Thanks from Arizona,
Good to see some new items on the blog this morning. Good news from all of you and glad to receive the picture of the Griffiths.
Sounds like Fenton is going to be a real nice dog for the Pearson family.
Some football game yesterday wasn't it?
Mom

griffiths

hi - though you might want to see what we look like!

hi- we had a fun week with the kids home. Thought we would send this along so you remember what we look like!

check out the katrina cats on our website.

It's Offical

Well if looks official that we are now Arizona residents. We got both cars licensed today as well as our driver's license. I failed the first eye test so I had to be taken to another area for further testing. I made it that time and it would not have surprised me if I had not been able to pass, but it is a relief. At least now I am legal as both the plates and drivers license match. It took us over two hours this morning and then Dad had to return with the second car. He had Opal through the emmision center yesterday, had all the paper work so we did not drive both cars down. It took him over an hour.
We also attented new orientation this afternoon to join the Presbyterian Church here. Still have to meet with the session and to be received publicly into the congregation.
Tomorrow morning I will go over to church to fold newsletters and then go get my flu shot. Thursday morning we are going to a friends for breakfast and in the afternoon we have dental appointments.
Our golf course was opened yeserday morning, but carts were limited to the cart paths.
Glad Katy is participating with us on the blog.
Good night and love to all,
Mom

greerz

Thanks Katy for your post. It is most interesting to hear what you are doing. We really enjoy following your progess.

Let us hear from you more often.

Grandma & Grandpa

Fall Break

Hi all,
Karl and I are currently on fall break from school, we get 10 days off! So far my break has consisted of sleeping, laundry and taking care of the dogs. I also hope to get a rough resume written, do lots of reading and other homework and look for an internship (hopefully paid) for the summer in the biology research area. I met quite a few people in Madison with Dad at the Presidents (WVMA) reception that said they are willing to help me find a summer opportunity!
I was also happy to see Seattle I miss her very much while at school and wish that I could have pets in the dorm. I am glad to hear that the new puppy is working out well! Today mom did a c-section on a Bernese Mountain Dog so of course I had to go in to see the puppies and help with them since I have such a weakness for them. She had 6, 5 girls and 1 boy.
I made a cake for mom and dad's anniversary so hopefully everyone can stay awake long enough to have some tonight since it 10 PM and mom and dad are just getting home.
Before I came home for fall break on Friday I turned in my application for my study abroad semester in Wales at Swansea University and I am really looking forward to that opportunity. Mom and Dad will be visiting us (Karl is going too) during the semester because the Crufts dog show is on during that time. If any other members of the family will be in the area from January to June we would love to meet up!
Tomorrow I am going down to Milwaukee to visit my friend Liz from school and I am sure that there will be shopping involved!
Hope all is well
Katy

Happy Anniversary Marty & Dan

And many more.
Todd, Melinda, Cole & especially ELLA!

Home again

We had a good trip.
Tuesday spent several hours with Donald Journey
Wednesday went to Grand Canyon
Thursday rode the Verde Canyon RR
Home today.

Do any of you remember our old friend Bill Tainter from Litchfield Park? Lived on the street behind us and down three houses. He died ten days ago and we are going to his memorial service tomorrow.

Puppy Kindergarten

Marty - This story is related posted for your benefit. Last week at Puppy Kindergarten a woman sat next to me who had a corgi in her lap. She started the conversation by asking where I got Fenton. Feeling the need to be polite, I told her my sister was a Corgi breeder. She didn't recognize your name but she did recognize the name of your kennel! That warmed me up enough to mention to her that Fenton's sire was Riley. She went on to wax rhapsodic about how her sister shows Riley for the owner from time to time; how great Riley is; how her mom has a Riley puppy; etc. Reaffirms our choice of a puppy. Anyway, this weekend I plan to call Riley's owner and tell her that if she doesn't have Riley's semen in storage, she ought to (since I -- and apparently many others -- may be willing to buy Riley puppies for decades to come) and I'll give her your name as a storage facility.

We are outa here!

We are leaving for three days. If you need us, you have out cell phones.

Today we are going to prescott to visit Nancy's cousin.

Wednesday we will probably go to Grand Canyon.

Thursday we are taking a scenic rain road ride in the Verde Valley.

Friday home.

Dad

Lomira Newsflash

Today at 3PM Marty and Dan (DBA) Veterinary Village have aquired 10 acres of a soybean field on which to start a village.

PS

We forget to sign. The congratulations was from Mom and Dad.

CONGRATULATIONS1

Go for it.

Todd's Marathon Pictures

Todd's Tutorial

Ok, this is my initial post with Todd coaching me how to do this. No real news to report here. Todd gave me the weekend off from being a Mom. I chose to spend it sick with a nasty upper respiratory illness. Fenton and Ramius are trying to work out their relationship. Ramius has finally decided that he's not going to let this 25 lb nuisance beat him up all the time (including the use of Ramius' tail for tug-of-war). Fenton has gained 9 lbs in the last two weeks. We're not sure how he's done it since we don't think he's eaten 9 lbs worth of food. Cole & Ella are fine, but Ella was the carrier of this illness I now have. Have a good week all!

Greetings

Just testing to see if I have figured out how to use our new blog. Certainly a learning process for myself.
Mon

Viet Nam Wall

Marty and I are going to see the traveling wall that has been set up in Brownsville for the last four days. The closing ceremony is tonite. It is half scale. DAN

landscaping

Hi,
I decided someone had to get this started and I guess it is about my turn. We continue to have hot weather although it is not quite as hot as it was and we can sit on the patio in the evenings and it is very pleasant.
They have really been working on our golf course. They have it over seeded for winter so we will have a green lawn all winter. Had no idea how many people, the number of hours they have put into it, and all the different machinery they used. Of course water system going off very often and all at once the course turned green over night (at least it seemed that way). Of course we are just monitoring the activity in our sight.
Last night Dad and I went to a travelogue on Australia. Not as good as the ones in Omaha and it was held in a very small place. Still interesting and not sorry we attended. We were almost home when a coyote trotted across the street right in front of us.
We have done some landscaping this past week. We replaced several things. One of our century plants just laid down one morning so we have another different planted in its place. Removed a second century plant and put in a lemon tree. Removed two shrubs in the front of the house and replaced them with two of a different variety. Dee came over and took the purple lantana that I did not like and Marty you should be pleased to know that it has been replaced with a rosemary that we can keep trimmed round.
Just wanted all of you to know that Dad and I are skipping town this coming week. We are going to Creekside Lodge in Mayer, Az. Phone number is 928-632-0777. You can look it up on the internet, but you won't learn much about it. Website is www.creeksidepreserve.com. Sounds interesting so we will see what we think of it. We are going up Tuesday and will be back sometime Thursday. We will be sort of close to Prescott where my cousin has their second home so we are going to go up there in the morning, have lunch with them, and then go back and check in. We may even go on up to the Grand Canyon. Will fill you in at a later date.
Dorothy and Dee are coming over for pizza tonight (after all it is Saturday night isn't it). This will be Dorothy's first outing since her new hip with the exception of going to therapy. Dee felt it would be good for her. She also knows we are long friends and if she can't stay very long they can just leave. Will eat shortly after they arrive so she can make the calls.
Have a load of laundry that I want to get in the dryer and folded before they arrive. Plan on taking tomorrow off.
Love to all,
Mom