We had our family Christmas at my aunt 's house this year . We all gathered there on Sunday , December 16th to celebrate Christmas together . Everyone was assigned a dish to bring - Salad , main dish , side dish , dessert , or whatever . Mine was a side dish , so I made corn casserole . There was so much food there ! And it was all very good . We were unable to find a Santa this year , so they decided to leave Santa 's bag on the porch with a note from Santa . When my cousin brought it in , Conor was sooooo excited . He was jumping up and down , smiling , saying " There 's a Santa 's bag ! Santa has been here ! " After the letter had been read telling how Santa had an emergency at his workshop and couldn 't be there , the gifts were handed out . Conor opened his and his shoulders slumped down , he got really sad and he walked back into the toy room and sat . I followed him to see what was wrong with him and he explained to me that he thought he was going to get a puppy because he wanted one really bad . I explained to him that we were not getting another dog and that Santa would not bring live animals to kids unless their parents said it was OK . And that I told Santa we didn 't need another animal . This did very little to make him feel better , but he did come back out to join the other kids playing with their toys . When we returned , a couple of people asked what was wrong with him , so I explained that he thought he was going to get a puppy . With that , my uncle John and my cousin Pete both decided to comfort Conor by telling him that Santa couldn 't have left him a puppy today . . . the puppy would have been hurt when the bag fell from the sky as Santa flew over . Then they proceeded to tell him that Santa would be bringing him a puppy on Christmas morning at his house . " Ummm , no , there will be no puppy for Christmas . Mommy already talked to Santa and told him we did not want another dog at this time . " This did very little to dissuade them . " Oh , come on Kate ! I remember you always got EVERYTHING you wanted for Christmas , how can you deny Posted by OK , so this is a pretty busy time of year for everyone . I will still try to post some stuff that I 'm behind on ( Conor 's 5th birthday for one ! ) but it may or may not be this year that I do it in ! : ) I wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas , and I hope you have a Happy New Year ! Stay safe and warm ! So . . . I have a new friend . An unwanted friend . =\ But I don 't know what to do to get rid of him . : ( It started Saturday morning . The phone calls . The number on my caller ID was very strange - too many numbers - so I did not answer it . They called over and over again - about 10 or so times - and I finally answered it to see wth they wanted so they would stop . The first conversation he asked , " What your name and where you at ? " As well as some other things I could not understand . I politely informed him that I was not going to answer his questions and asked that he please stop calling me . I hung up . He called back . I didn 't answer . The cycle went on and on until I couldn 't take it anymore and I answered with " Will you please stop calling me ? ! ? ! " He asked if I was in Afghanistan . I said no . He said he was calling from Pakistan and he wanted to make me his friend . I declined , but he doesn 't seem to take no for an answer . I then quit answering the phone again and he left 2 messages on the answering machine . I cannot understand a word of it , but Allie listened to it with me and she said she thought it said something about disconnecting something if I didn 't do something . =\ yeah . It 's very hard to decipher . The calls didn 't stop . I didn 't count them but I would bet on a total between 40 and 50 on Saturday . I called the phone company , but there is nothing they can do about it . If they were within the US , they could , but since he is in a different country , they can 't do anything . They sympathized and said if they didn 't stop they could change my number for no charge . They thought he might stop after one day . He didn 't . He is the one who called and woke me up on Sunday morning . : ( He also called a few more times throughout Sunday , but no where near the amount on Saturday . If he calls me again today , I guess I 'm gonna have to change my number . It is that time of year again . The mad shopping , lots of cooking , cleaning , wrapping , eating , laughing , spending time with friends and family . I 've neglected my blog for so long , and left out so many funny stories ! In October , there was a crazy week of birthdays and Halloween parties . My Mom 's birthday was on a Monday , so we all went out to eat at a local steakhouse . Mom , Jack , Molly , Austin , Gage , Jeff , Allie , Conor , and I all went . It was fun . Then we went back to my Mom 's house to have cake and ice cream . The next evening I spent making cookies for Austin 's class for his birthday party at school on Wednesday . I 'm not quite sure how I got that duty , but I did . On Wednesday , we all went out to eat for Austin 's birthday , and went to back to Mom and Jack 's for ice cream cake . When serving the ice cream cake , Molly was cutting huge pieces . As I was not all that hungry , I asked for a smaller piece . It was at that point that her head spun around and her eyes glared red and she actually growled ( teeth clenched ) at me , " I don 't have room for it in my freezer , you 're taking this piece . " I think I could probably take her , but she was a bit frightening at that point and I took the piece she gave me . I did end up taking it home and putting it in my freezer though . : ) The next evening , Thursday , was spent making Halloween cookies for Conor 's Halloween party . As with other years , we decorated them using spiders , bats , skeletons , and other little plastic items we found at the store . They were a big hit . Halloween was the following week , and I was allowed to leave a bit early on Trick - or - Treat night , which for us was on the 30th . That evening is always a pizza dinner while we get the candy ready for the trick or treaters , and the kids ready to go out trick or treating . This year Conor chose to be a Gladiator . He had a chest piece , a cape , and a sword , which was worn over jeans and a shirt ( just like the kid in the picture ! ) . Gage always comes to our neighborhood and trick or treats with Conor . He was a skeleton this year . AfterPosted by Well , I know it 's been a while since I 've posted , and I have a ton of material . I just haven 't taken the time to sit down and write it . So , here 's a little something to amuse you until I take the time to post more . http : / / www . elfyourself . com / ? id = 9531442748 When I have to go use the copy machine at work , I usually read parts of the newspaper while I waiting for the machine to copy / email / fax whatever it is I am doing there . When I read the newspaper , it is almost always a downer . So many stories in there about senseless crimes , I have been known to walk back to my desk really pissed off or with tears in my eyes when it is a crime against a child . Ranting and raving against the senselessness of the act . I will never , ever understand any type of violence against a child . Never . There is never any excuse in my eyes . There are stories about greed , about politics that just seem stupid to me , stupid lawsuits , all kinds of sad and depressing stories . Stories in the newspaper make me lose a little faith in mankind . Anyway , before I go off on a rant about that ( I could go on forever ) I will get to the point of my post . Every once in a while I witness or read something that reminds me that there is still some kindness and generosity left in this world . I do know that there are a lot of good people in the world . It is sad that all you hear about on the news and read about in the newspapers are all the bad people . That is one reason I love to read other people 's blogs . I have found so many that I like and can read about real people in other parts of the country ( and world ) who are kind and generous . In case you don 't read the links I have on the side of my blog , this post over at Truths and Half Truths was very heart warming to read . This morning , I witnessed a little bit of that same kindness from someone I do not know . I stopped at the truck stop on my way to work this morning to get some coffee . Their coffee machine was empty so I had to wait for it for a few minutes . Conor went in with me and he immediately spied a cheetah stuffed animal that he wanted . It was hanging near the cash registers and so he went over to the cashier and asked her how much it cost . She had to get it down and look , and when she did , she handed it to him and told him how much it cost . He was instantly in lPosted by My Grandma has lived in the same house since she was 8 years old . It is a place where every kid loves to stay . I remember begging to stay when I was a kid , and now my kids beg to stay . There are a ton of things to do at Grandma 's house . If it 's nice outside , there is a swing set and sand pile in the back yard . There are woods to explore , buckeyes to collect , berries to discover . There is a circular driveway to ride a bike or scooter around . Several can be found in the shed . Just don 't go too close to the road . . . There is a huge yard to play any sport imaginable in . All the equipment can be found in the shed as well . Soccer , baseball , T - ball , basketball ( there is a hoop by the driveway ) , football , kickball , crochet , volleyball , and probably a lot more that I cannot think of right now ! If it 's raining , you can sit on the front porch and draw with sidewalk chalk , and probably run out and play in the water puddles formed around the driveway . Unless your mom or dad are there to stop you . Grandma won 't . : ) There are also video games , DVDs , and tons of toys to play with in the house . As well as a pool table in the basement . I don 't remember ever being bored at Grandma 's house as a kid . We played in the woods a lot . We also had a couple of 3 - wheelers we rode around in the woods . Some of those hills we went up and down were pretty steep . There is a creek we used to spend a lot of time playing in during the warm months - looking for and catching crawdads , frogs , and various other creatures we found . Those old paths are grown over a lot these days - some of the woods that we played in as kids belonged to the neighbors and the kids now tend to stay out of the neighbors woods . Now instead of 3 - wheelers , we have a 4 - wheeler to ride . In the winter time , we would all bundle up in our winter coats / hats / boots / scarves / mittens and whatever else was needed to go out and play in the snow . Sled riding down the huge hill that was in the neighbors yard and trying not to go so fast that you landed in the creek at the bottom . Most of Posted by " Do you need a wand to get married ? " " What ? A wand ? " ( giggle ) " No , a wand is not needed . " ( I think he gets that from the Fairly Odd Parents ) " I 'm gonna marry Carley . But I have to be 18 to get married , and she will be 19 . Jacob wants to marry her , too , so we are racing to 18 . I 'm gonna beat him . " I don 't know what he is going to do when he doesn 't get to see Carley anymore after next year when he starts Kindergarten . He has been in love with her since they met , his interest has not waivered one bit over the years . Will it last another 14 years ? Posted by Well , recently there have been some changes going on where I work . Changes that make me think I might not have a job for much longer . I 'm pretty much just taking it one day at a time and hoping for the best . The first thing that happened - and as I posted previously - we were acquired by another company . As like with any other merger , there are going to be some duplicate people within the organization and I guess everyone here is uncertain what their role will be once the merger is complete . ( The sale is final , but they said it could take up to a year to assess the situation . ) The second thing that happened - we almost lost our biggest customer . I say almost because when faced with that , a lot of the higher up corporate people descended upon our little branch to try to figure out a way to prevent this from happening . This customer is , in my opinion , the BEST customer anyone could ever hope to work with . And they have been a customer of ours for 11 years . Way before I started here in 2000 . It 's not that they don 't like us anymore , but they were acquired by a larger company that has their own technical support system . They were acquired 3 years ago , but did not want to move away from the tech support provided by us because our guys at their site are THAT good . They are seriously excellent . But , when contract renewals came up , the customer had to look at the fact that their parent company was now going to hit them with the charges for the help desk provided by them - whether they use it or not . So now they were looking at paying twice as much out for tech support . Their budget did not support that . So , the corporate suit - and - tie people came into the office to meet with the customer and try to sort out some deal that would cost them less money , but allow us to remain their service provider for at least another year . It was all very stressful . We have reached an agreement with them , but we will be making a lot LESS revenue ( and a bunch of other boring accounting words that I will skip ) and they will be gone in one Posted by Parenting sucks sometimes . Gah ! I don 't know how I 'm going to survive the teenage years with Allie . I 've considered just locking her in her room and home schooling her . But . . I really don 't think that is a viable option . Sometimes I just wish she would actually listen to what I 'm saying and believe that I am telling her the truth . Yeah , I know it is some sort of teenage disability that makes them think their parents are just old and wrong , and I also know that she will make mistakes and hopefully LEARN from them . But it is a very painful process to actually witness and participate in . I do now understand why my mom wouldn 't let me go to an Aerosmith concert when I was 14 or 15 years old with some friends and one of their uncles or something . It was the end of the world for me - I vowed that I would never do such a thing to my children . Yet , when Allie asked me if she could go to the WEBN Fireworks with Vanessa , Vanessa 's mom , and Vanessa 's aunt . . . uhhh hell no . " That 's a drunk fest and you have no business going down there . " " But . . Mo - om . . . her mom and her aunt are going . You can talk to them . " " I really don 't care who is going . You are not . " " You are ruining my life ! " - screams as she goes to her room to throw her temper tantrum . Well . Someone has to . : ) And no , I didn 't say that to her . Nor am I trying to . . . I 'm trying to prevent it . She just doesn 't know that yet . I went to the WEBN Fireworks when I was 16 . Did my parents know ? Heck no . ( Uhhh , sorry Mom . You can no longer ground me . ) And that is the only time I have been . The fireworks are beautiful . But , yeah , it 's a drunk fest . ( And no , I didn 't drink . ) So , that is not a place that I 'm letting my daughter go . It is also very hard to watch them make mistakes . Yet , I 'm kinda learning that they are not perfect , and they are going to make mistakes , and that is how most people learn , isn 't it ? I just have to hope and pray that they are smart enough not to make any really big mistakes . I 'm still learning as well . I took a leap and got both the girls cell phones 2 years ago . Posted by Listening to the radio the other day , I heard two songs that I like back to back . These songs are more pop - rock type songs , but I like a large variety of music , so they are ones I know . On the radio they bleep out the " bad words " on a lot of songs , and I do understand why they bleep them out . BUT ! There are some that I just don 't understand . One of the songs is by Nickeback with one line saying : " Hire eight body guards that love to beat up assholes " and another line saying " I 'm gonna dress my ass with the latest fashion . " ( and the song is about being a rock star - just to explain those two lines a bit . . . ) The other song is by Pink and a couple of lines in the song are : " In the corner with your boys you bet up five bucks , to get at the girl that just walked in but she thinks you suck . " Now , on one of our local stations , these two songs were played and in the Nickelback song , none of the words in those two lines were bleeped out . But in the Pink song , they actually bleep out the word " suck . " While I don 't think ass is a horrible word ( it is another word for a donkey , too . . ) , I do not understand why suck is considered a bleep - able word and ass is not . And yeah , this is actually something that irritates me . Enough to write about it . : ) Consider this a bit of a warning . I have , in the past , censored myself a bit on here . I do this for a few reasons . I don 't want to offend anyone . Or make people ( Heaven forbid ) not like me . I am going to try to be a bit more me . I figure if people don 't like me for being me ? Then that 's just the way it 's supposed to be . I am basically a nice person ( I think so anyway . . . ) , I go out of my way to do things for other people . Most of the time I don 't mind . But sometimes I do mind and I do it anyway . Sometimes to the point that I make myself unhappy . I 'm trying not to do that so much anymore , and while I 'm not setting out to offend anyone , I would just like to be me . I would also like to write about my life in truth on here , instead of leaving stuff out because I don 't want people to think badly of me . I make mistakes . I do things that others might not approve of . . . I want to write about all of it , instead of the fluff stuff . Here are a few random things about me that not many people know - and no . Not all of it is " bad " stuff . * When I 'm at work , and I get upset about something , you will find me outside walking barefoot in the grass . It somehow makes me feel better . Oh , but only when it is warm outside - not snow ! * I have a habit of pulling on my lower lip when something is bothering me and I 'm trying to figure it out in my head . I don 't usually notice I 'm doing it until someone says something about it . On that note , if someone does notice and ask me about it , I 'm not at a point where I really want to talk about it - I 'm figuring it out for myself and I don 't want to talk about it . * I like to eat potato chips with cake . And with chocolate ice cream . It 's the sweet and salty thing . It 's very good , just try it . * I love sarcasm . I do try to limit my sarcastic responses . Because when you use sarcasm on people who don 't really understand it , they can get really confused and while it 's fun to laugh at them , explaining sarcasm just takes all the fun out of using it . * I can be a major bitch sometimes . Just ask some of the peoplePosted by After staying up a bit too late on Friday night , I dragged my butt out of bed Saturday morning to take Allie to her volley ball game . She had to be there at 8 : 30 , but her game did not start until 10am , so I dropped her off and went home to take a shower before returning . Coffee was my best friend . As I was driving home , Allie called my cell phone . " Mom , can you be a line judge for the game ? " " ME ? ? Are you serious ? Can 't they find someone who is more awake than me ? " " No , they can 't find anyone else , and if we don 't find someone we 'll have to forfeit the game . " Sigh . " Yes , I 'll do it - but see if they can 't find someone between now and then . . " Well , no they did not . So , I drank more coffee , showered , and went back to the school to perform my line judging duties . I walked in and the referee had one other mother there as well . He took us both aside . " Have either of you ever been a line judge before ? " " Uh . . no . " ( This from both of us . ) He sighed . Really . He did . " OK , if the ball hits any part of the line , it is considered ' in ' . If it is outside the line , it is ' out ' . " Really ? I would 've never thunk it . : ) lol BUT ! That is not all there is to it ! There are hand signals . He proceeded to demonstrate the hand signals we would need to use . If it was in - bounds , we were to just point both hands straight down in front of us , palms facing the floor . If it were out of bounds , then we had to raise our hands to our faces , palms facing our face , fingers straight up . If it was touched before it went out of bounds , we were to raise our hands in the same fashion as out of bounds , but we were to put our hands together and " swipe " one hand . We were to also watch the ball as it passes over the net - there are sticks sticking up on each side of the net that indicated the " play " area - the ball had to go over inside of the sticks or it was considered out of bounds as well . Another responsibility was to watch the feet of the person serving . If her feet touched the line , we were to point at the line with one hand and wave our other hand over our hePosted by Conor is now going through his " I 'm a big boy and I want to dress myself " phase . I think it is cute , but some of the clothes he picks out are very . . ummm . . dorkish . We go through mornings where he absolutely MUST pick out his own clothes , and for the most part I just go with it . I let him wear whatever he wants , and I take a change of clothes with us to the sitter 's . With the temperatures in the high 90s and 100s ( F ) he is choosing to wear long sleeves with shorts . In the photo below , the clothes at least match , but the socks just make it so funny . I need to work swaying him in other directions , and for the most part , I can . . . some day he will see that knee - high socks with shorts and sandals ( which he does not have on in this picture , but he did later put them on ) are not really a good look . But . . he 's 4 and he 's cute , so I guess he can get away with it for a little while . On another Conor note - if it wasn 't apparent before that he absolutely loves girls ( with his huge crush on Carley - a little girl at his baby sitter 's house ) , it is now . He has taken to creating female characters on the computer ( World of Warcraft ) and then taking all their clothes off so that they are just wearing the bikini clothes that are on all of the characters . He thinks they are pretty . lol We took the kids kayaking on Saturday morning - the 25th . We also took Teddy ( our dog ) . So , there were 6 of us . Since Conor and Teddy are not able to row , we got 2 kayaks that were both 2 - seaters . As I have never been in a kayak , only canoes , I did not know what to expect . When we were getting our oars , Jeff was going to be the only rowing person in his boat , so he got the double oar . When I went to get the same one , he told me that I should just get a single one since there were going to be two people rowing in our boat . Wrong . But it was a lot of fun . It was a girls / boys split at first , with Allie , Ceara , and me in one Kayak ; Jeff , Conor , and Teddy in the other . Teddy - Mr . I 'm - Scared - of - Any - Type - of - Water ( including rain ) did very well as long as we weren 't too far away from him . Whichever kayak he was in , if the other one got too far in front , or too far behind , he would start whining . And he adores Ceara . Allie and I were the rowers in our boat at the beginning , and Ceara sat in the middle of the boat . The boys took off before we did , and when we took off , Teddy jumped out of their boat and started swimming to us . As soon as he hit the water , he started freaking out , trying to get into the nearest boat ( which wasn 't ours ) causing the woman in the kayak to freak out a little . We were finally able to get him back in the boat and we were off . We went very slowly at first , with Allie and Conor starting the splashing wars , and stopping often to swim . After the first stop , the kids all wanted to be in one kayak with the dog , so that left Jeff and I in one . The kids had the two single oars , and so that left me without an oar to row with . So , I got to sit back and relax and let Jeff do all the work for a bit . At the second stop , we switched back . But Teddy wanted in our boat , so we had an extra . We switched around often , at one point the girls chose to swim down the river instead of riding in the boat . Towards the end of the trip , it was Allie , Teddy and me in one kayak ; Jeff , Ceara , and Conor in the other , and we came uPosted by I 've been trying to cut some caffeine out - drink less coffee ( I don 't drink soda much anyway ) - and for me , that is a huge step . I love coffee . mmmm . So , today is my first day of not having coffee in the morning before work , I just started with water . Today is also my boss 's first day back from his vacation . When I got here , he was in a meeting in his boss 's office , but I didn 't think a thing of it . Then he came out and said , " We all need to go into the conference room and talk . " " What ? Why ? " Obviously this is not something we do a lot of . . So , we gather in the conference room and are told that we ( our company anyway ) has just been acquired by another company in the industry . No one had a clue . And no one knows what this means for us either . My boss was trying to be positive . . could mean better benefits ( I really don 't think they could get worse , but . . I could be wrong ) . Could mean . . that the new people might pay attention to what is wrong with some stuff in our company and fix it . Anyway , for the time being , nothing is changing , but no one really knows what will change and when . There will be a company wide email sent out " soon " to let everyone know , so my boss said he was expecting he would get a bunch of phone calls . I 'm still not functioning well without my coffee . But , I 'm certainly not going to stress out over it . It could get better , it could get worse . Time will tell , and nothing I can do about it anyway . Back at my desk , my phone rings . One of our on site techs calling . . I answer . " So , what does this email mean ? ? " was the first thing out of his mouth . " Why are you calling ME ? ? I 'm not your boss . Call Dave ! " " But , you 're the one who knows everything there ! " He said . . . ha ! He is seriously delusional . . . I 'm not answering my phone anymore today , and I 'm going to go get coffee now . This should certainly make the remainder of this year interesting . The sale is not expected to be final until September . Then we will see what changes are made . OK - back to the need at hand . Coffee . Going now . : ) Jeff and I decided to take the kids to the Newport Aquarium - and yes , the date on the pictures is correct ! We went down on a Saturday with Allie , Ceara , Conor , and Kaitlyn . On the way down , Jeff tortured , or uh . . enlightened the kids by having them listen to a book on CD . When he put the CD in , the kids responded by saying , " Uh ! Can 't we listen to music ? ? We don 't want to listen to this ! " But , thinking they would eventually start liking it , Jeff did not give into their requests . Once we arrived at the Aquarium , we had to walk a bit to get there . This activity was met with , " My legs are tired , I don 't feel good , blah , blah , blah . . . " But yet , take em to a mall to shop and they can walk forever to all their favorite stores . They are such pleasant children to take places ! ; ) Since we purchased our tickets at Kroger before going , we did not have to wait in the long line that had formed outside . Anyway , it was shark time . We walked throughout the Aquarium amongst a huge crowd of people . Conor was excited to see them all and he loved looking in each glass enclosure and trying to find what was pictured on the little plaque . He also would make very strange faces whenever he saw me taking a picture . Quite the little comedian . They also had a place where you could pay $ 1 to get a little plastic cup of nectar so that the birds could poke a hole in the bottom of the cup with their beaks when trying to get a drink . Then all the nectar you just bought just poured onto the ground . They must have already been full for the most part , though , because one bird I was holding simply put his beak in the nectar , sucked a little up , and then shook his head around , spraying us with the nectar . Such lovely birds . One even peed on my head as I walked under him . Joy . It was certainly nothing like the experience we had at Kentucky Down Under . The birds at the aquarium did not get excited when we came in the room , and we had to coax them onto our hands to have them spit their food we just bought them all over us . And Allie was a bit more afraiKatie My baby girl , first born child , turned 14 on July 6th . We had a small party for her at our house and she had a couple of friends over for it ( Vanessa and Tommy ) . I cheated and bought the cake . . it was a busy week and was so much easier to just buy it . : ) Besides , I have not mastered the chocolate icing and I 've found two sources for yummy Bill - Knapp 's - like chocolate on chocolate cakes ! : ) Strange how in the above two pictures Allie looks exactly the same . . like she didn 't move and kept her smile exactly the same . And her eyes . . As you can see , she got all dressed up for the occasion . Those monkey pajama pants matched really well with her pink T - shirt . I also got a white cake because Vanessa ( Allie 's friend who came over ) doesn 't like chocolate . You can see the white cake , with strawberries on top , in the above picture . Also shown in the picture is Tommy - one of the neighborhood boys who is also Allie 's friend . He was a little camera shy , so I wasn 't able to get many pictures with him in them . Vanessa 's leg is in this picture . . . note the jeans . I don 't know why she even wears them when she has another pair of pants under them . * sigh * Guess I 'm showing my age , eh ? Cute how they all sat on each other 's laps eh ? See that little basket to the right side of the picture ? That was delivered to Allie during the day - filled with all kinds of chocolate , snacks , and treats . Conor 's eyes bulged when he saw it , as did Jeff 's . And the two girls who ALWAYS borrow my camera to take pictures of themselves hide from me taking their picture . Kinda funny . I also have a little video I took that I will try to remember to post later . : ) Posted by OK , I have some " catch up " posts to do . My mom retired from her job at the end of May . The first week of June , we went to North Carolina , so we had a party for her later in the month . The party was on June 23 , 2007 , when my camera was still posting the wrong dates . : ) The party was at my sister 's house and began mid afternoon . It was a beautiful day for an outside party . We were going to try for a " surprise party " but couldn 't do that when we found out that she was trying to make other plans for the night . Here is the cake - I think this was the first retirement cake I have done , and I wasn 't sure what to put on it , so I just had some fun with it . The party was a lot of fun , and as always with my family , there were lots of laughs . We started a Euchre game at one of the tables , Maggie and I were partners - and we won a lot of the games . As always when playing Euchre , when we euchred the other team , or if we got all the tricks , we got to hear Maggie 's 2 point cheer . : ) Allie took a lot of the pictures here , I gave her my camera and told her to try to get a picture of everyone there . I don 't know what Mom was saying in this picture . . . And yes , there were kids there ! We locked them in the barn at first , but they figured out how to get out . . . No , really . . they were just off in the yard , playing on the trampoline , the swing set , with the dog , or climbing fences . . . all boys so what do you expect ? Allie got a couple of close ups of people , I like this one of Molly laughing . . It did start raining a bit later in the evening , so we moved a few picnic tables into the garage and continued playing games , talking , telling stories , jokes , making fun of people . . We were somewhat playing a game Molly brought out , and I forget the exact name of the game , but you had to sing parts of a song while others tried to guess the name of the song and who it was by . They were songs from the 70 's and 80 's . . so they brought back a lot of fun memories for the adults , and it totally stumped Allie and Ceara . And we got to make fun of people ! : ) SKatie