Walt, Bella, Alison, and Me

Well, both kids and families are at Disney resorts. Alison and James have gone to Walt Disney World for the week to celebrate their first anniversary and probably her birthday. Lyndsay and Kyle and Bella are at Disneyland with her Dad's family. Kyle said Bella is loving it.

For us, we are here in nice, warm PHX. Today, Dad and I are working on our kitchen counter and pony wall. No, we did not horse around. Neigh, I mean nay. We've got the long wall up and drywalled. Dad said he'd come back Monday for the next steps.



And now, here's a Bella fix for the day. She got some new toys Thursday night and was having a grand, old time.

Vocations, not Vacations

Take a look at our granddaughter. She is thinking about becoming a professional Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. Here she is with Nana practicing one of the moves.



So, what does the post heading mean? Well, Bella has a chance at a fun vocation, cheering on the Boys in Blue...America's Team...God's Team. Anyway, it seems that my project at work has a due date towards the end of Kathie's Fall Break, so I cannot take off that week. We were planning on Niagara Falls, but now, we're just going to hold the hose over the pool and watch the water fall.

Elementary, My Dear Watson

Well, I don't know what Watson would have thought, but two classrooms were vandalized at Kathie's school. One of them was hers. We got a call at 9:30 or so saying we needed to come to the school. The rooms are ugly and vulgar, but it could have been much worse. There was a mess of us amateur CSI-types there waiting on the police, so I took my photos and reviewed the crime scene. Here are a couple of them.

I will not be posting those with crude remarks about students (as if swatikas weren't bad enough)





The police arrived at around 11. It certainly makes the teachers a little more leery of working off-hours. In my estimation, based on the way the shaving creme was drying, it occurred around 5am today. Some teachers got there at 5:45am for a sports field event, so I think the vandals were interrupted or it could have been much worse. I'm no Sherlock Holmes, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express in the past. And I do watch all 3 CSI shows each week.

Luckily, no destructive vandalism was involved, so it will mostly be a cleanup effort. We are glad that the cleaning team found it today instead of Monday morning when nothing could have been done before students arrived.

B&B - BeatleMania Live 'n' Bella

Well, it was time for our annual trek to BeatleMania Live at a local casino. However, our usual partners, K&L, were both out of town. So, we invited a couple from our breakfast place to go with us. We already knew he was a Beatle fanatic, having painted a workroom and his garage with Beatle images. We had a great time, as always. And, they changed their playlist a bit, which is always fun. Here it is:

I Want to Hold Your Hand, From Me to You, All My Loving, Do You Want to Know a Secret, Please Please Me, This Boy, Hard Days Night, Tell Me Why, Eight Days a Week, Can't Buy Me Love, Help, Michelle, Yesterday, In My Life, We Can Work It Out, Ticket Ride, Roll Over Beethoven, I Feel Fine, She Loves You, I Saw Her Standing There, Twist and Shout, Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band, A Little Help From My Friends, Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields Forever, Yellow Submarine, Nowhere Man, Day Tripper, Got to Get You Into My Life, Imagine, Back in the U.S.S.R., Come Together, Something, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Get Back, Revolution, Hey Jude.

Plus, Isabella's back! And she can remain sitting up now. She's really close to crawling.

Plus, it's Alison's birthday. Happy 25th, Ali!

Pre-Birthday Blues

No, not my birthday. It's still months away. I'm talking about Isabella's six-month birthday. She's up in Indiana and her birthday is Sunday.What am I gonna do? I'll have to try and call her. Now if I can just remember her phone number.

Everything will be better next week. Bella will be back, and Alison's birthday is Wednesday. That should take care of those birthday blues.

All-ee All-ee In Come Free

Hey! Where did everybody go? Most importantly, where did Bella go?

Hmm. It seems that Kyle had a vision conference in Las Vegas this week. Lyndsay did not really want to have Isabella in that noisy, smoky environment all week, so they flew up to Indiana to visit Courtney. Now, the folks are heading up to Alaska. And Kathie decided to go.... No, not really. Kathie's still here, but all them others did leave. Nobody left to go to my last Sunday at Light In The Desert. Oh well.

Crazy week. How about y'all?

Time For a New Church?

Well, on Sunday afternoon, the pastors and I agreed that it is time for them to look for a full-time music person. As long as I am there, the church is content to let me stay in the position. However, it is time to start working on Christmas music, so I would like to have either stayed through the season or leave now and let the acting music leader (one of the two pastors) pick and prepare the musical. So, this coming Sunday is my last at Light In The Desert. It is a bittersweet feeling, although not so bitter that I want to become their music minister. Luckily, I still have the Tuesday night Chorale for my singing fix.

Now, Kathie and I need to look for a church to attend. The Baptist church we attended for years is looking for a pastor, and the Nazarene church we went to during 2005 has decided not to have a choir anymore. So, we will begin the search in a couple of weeks. You can pray that God will show us where we can worship and participate.

New Look for the Kitchen

Well, Dad and I replaced our old countertop with a new countertop. Yup, we tried to work it without one, but things keep falling into our cabinets without the countertop in place. So, here it is. I cannot remember the name of the Formica pattern, but it looks good next to our backsplash tiles.

Something New!

This time, I scooped Lyndsay and got the picture up on my blog before she could post it on hers. Ha ha. We babysat last night while Kyle and Lyndsay went to the movie, and we captured some new baby shots. So, for your viewing pleasure, here is a sleeping beauty letting her Pops and Eeyore support her. Isn't she lovely? Isn't she beautiful?






Also, the new countertops are waiting in the garage for Dad and I to install them. Thanks for reminding me. I will take photos of the before and after and maybe share them here in A Legend In My Own Mind.