Happy Halloween!

How exciting! We have visitors for Halloween this year! Donna, Gretchen and the kids came down on Thursday for the weekend! That night we carved pumpkins to proudly display on the front porch (above).

... and on Friday Rocky and his family also joined us! Rocky is Donna's nephew and his son, Luke, plays football for Joplin and they were playing a local school on Friday night!

TJ was Anakin (from Star Wars) and Kylie AND Dayne were Hannah Montana! Gretchen and I took the kids around the neighborhood while Donna and Mindy (Rocky's wife) passed out candy. Of course at the start of the night the kids were pumped up and full of energy ... with big plans to trick or treat at EVERY house! About an hour into the night, they were pooped and ready to call it quits. They got a good loot though!

Saturday we took the kids to see High School Musical 3. It was very good, actually (and that Zac Efron sure is dreamy <and 21>!!!). TJ really enjoyed the movie, singing and dancing during all the signing parts! It wasa nice to get out and do something with the kids! After the movie we went to some local consignment stores to hunt down some bargains!

When we got home the kids all played basketball in the driveway. Again, it was nice for them to get out of the house and enjoy the outdoors and the company of each other! Uncle even got out there with them and showed them some moves!

The Peterson-Hansen crew left Sunday morning, but since it was daylight savings time and we set our clocks back an hour the night before, we got an extra hour with them! They played some more basketball just before they left ... great for the kids to get some energy out before they hit the road for the 5 hour trip! It was great having them visit!

Two Peas in A Pod

Dayne HATES sleeping alone so Oz joined her ... he seemed quite content, too!

The Last Lecture

About a year ago Donna (my mother in law) told me about an inspirational man by the name of Randy Pausch. He had been diagnosed with Pancratic cancer and was expected to live just a few months. He was featured on the cover of Parade magazine a short while after she told me about him and I read the article. It was quite inspiring! Long story short .... Randy passed away on July 25th of this year, but not before delivering what has been called "The Last Lecture" at Carnegie Mellon University. Not only that, he wrote a book (titled the same) as sort of a memoir to his three small children he was leaving behind.

I had the pleasure of reading the book and highly recommend it. He is an excellent writer - very colorful, very detailed, very down to earth and quite funny! And, it's a very quick read - easily done over the course of one weekend.

The Last Lecture (the actual lecture) is about an hour and a half, but worth the time to watch it. If you need something to do on a quiet afternoon, consider watching it. Here is the link: The Last Lecture.

If you do decided to read the book (which is not the same as the lecture) I recommend checking amazon.com since you can buy used books for dirt cheap! (Graden says I am addicted to books and I blame Amazon.com!)

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”—Randy Pausch

Go Hawkeyes!

Gotta give props to the newest and cutest Hawkeye Cheerleader!

Lexi Jo Benham!!

I think she brought them some luck today! They actually won!!

Happy 35th Birthday, Graden!

We were lucky enough to get to have Donna / Nana come for Graden's birthday and stay a few weeks! Although we didn't do many (okay any!) exciting things, it's always great spending time with her.

Donna arrived on the afternoon of Tuesday September 30th and plans to stay a couple weeks with us. We know Gretchen, TJ and Kylie will miss her, but we sure enjoy having her here!

We went to dinner Sunday evening for Graden's birthday dinner, since he will be in VA for his actual birthday on Tuesday. We went to the O.P. (the same chain as in Waterloo/Evansdale/Cedar Falls also has a restaurant in Overland Park, KS - small world considering those are the ONLY cities the Other Place has restaurants!). Donna also made her famous Banana Cake .... mmmmm! I think it is evil cake, really ... because it makes me want to eat it all in one sitting!

Football Season '09

Hunter is playing football this year, as part of the High School. He plays offensive line and is pretty decent. Note: I make that assessment with NO understanding of what that position does or if he really is good. I base it on the fact that I don't hear Graden saying, "What is he doing out there?!!?" while we watch Hunter play. Just needed to clarify that!

More importantly, Hunter enjoys playing football and has worked really hard at beefing up and getting strong and putting on weight. He and Graden lift weights several nights per week, he makes special shakes and eats, EATS!, EATS!!

Here, he makes the Touchdown call at one of his recent games (he is #78):

The season goes through the month of October.