February Has Come and Gone

Cheese!

We started out February with Jeff's 29th Birthday. He does look young, doesn't he?

Okay, here's our quicky update-

Sports: The girls just finished church league basketball and now rec league softball has started. High school softball season is in the fall, so all of the girls are expected to stay in shape by participating in winter and spring sports. Reagan has also just decided to continue basketball by joining another league that is just starting up. This means that someone will have a practice or a game just about every day of the week. But that's okay, because it's fun for all and keeps these girls healthy and focused.

Work: Jeff's group is going through some expected transitional pains as the new company implements budgetary and administrative changes. That's life and he takes it all in stride.

Other than that, same 'ole, same 'ole. Dogs are great. Weather is warm, cold, warm, cold. Had some golf ball size hail last week but no damage to our house. Waiting for it to turn warm and stay warm!

It's good to laugh

Happy New Year everyone! This pic is from late night, Christmas Eve. We had returned from mass and a late night dinner. We were tired and a little gitty. Anyway, we had a great Christmas break and hope you did too. The girls had sleepovers, we watched movies and played a lot of Guitar Hero World Tour, and Jeff's parents visited the weekend after Christmas. Ashley also participated in a charity basketball tournament. Jeff even took some time off! He did sneak in the creation of a presentation for work in the early morning hours as we girls slept in. But he really did play and relax with the kids. I'm so proud of him!


The girls went back to school today, dreading every minute of it, but they came home ready to face another semester of homework and tests. Report cards come out in the next couple of days, but no worries there. wink wink (UPDATE: both got straight A's)


Oh, and how many of your are on a diet like us? I hate to use that word, diet. You know, it's really just a healthy lifestyle. har har I bought Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred dvd. Wow were my muscles sore after the first workout but after 4 days, it's getting better. No more cookies, cakes, candy, or alcohol... just clean livin'. My short term goal is to get back to the weight that I always called my "won't exceed" weight and then there will be another 5 lbs. at least.

We send our best wishes to you for a wonderful 2009.

Christmas Eve

You better be good for goodness sake!

Merry Christmas all! It has been a busy month but we are finally winding down as Christmas day approaches. Finals, Christmas concerts and plays, shopping, and lots of travel for Jeff surely wore us all out. But now the kids are out of school for two weeks and we can spend our time baking, eating, baking, eating, wrapping gifts, and doing a little last minute shopping. This is the fun part. We hope that all of our friends and family have a blessed Christmas and take a little time out to be grateful. Being grateful is the cure-all to all of life's let downs and headaches. It puts it all into perspective. Talk with ya'll next year.

November Update

Hey Family and Friends,
Though life has been rather routine, thought I'd post a family update.

Jeff: Busy, busy man. Jeff had a recent business trip to Phoenix where he had a nice visit with cousin Amy and family. He also had a recent day visit to Detroit which he found rather depressing. He saw big plants with empty parking lots.

Ashley: The picture above is Ash with the Heisman trophy. It travelled to Atlanta to spend the evening with the St. Pius football fans as a fundraiser for a faculty member's family who is dealing with the stress and expense of battling cancer.

Ashley, her friend, and I are off to a Kings of Leon Concert tonight. These tickets were for Ashley's birthday. She is very excited. It also looks like she'll get to go to a hockey game with Dad on Thursday night- Atlanta Thrashers vs Pittsburgh Penguins. They'll have to rough it in the skybox. It's all business, you know.

Reagan: This girl is becoming quite the basketball athlete. I didn't realize how much she's grown until I saw her on the court with her team. She's almost the tallest which comes in handy when playing defense. Reagan took a hard fall on her knees during the last game but got back into the game during the second half after a brief recovery period. They won by about 20 points. This is very refreshing, because last year, wins were not so forthcoming.

Julie: Our new greyhound advocacy group, Leaving Tracks, Inc. is now awaiting 501c3 approval by the IRS. We raised $1100 at a yard sale benefitting our group and have already made a donation to an adoption group in Macon. We are close to selecting a logo and then will begin website design and content. We also hope to get business cards and brochures printed in the next month or so. Our first general membership meeting is planned for mid-January. There are a number of people interested in becoming members so we can't get things up and running fast enough.

I can't wait to see my Oklahoma peeps in early December. First priority, Duran Duran; second priority, family. Just kidding. I hope my siblings will come see me at Mom's! We could have a tree decorating party and help Mom get a jump on the season.

General:
We enjoyed Mom and Pop Skelton's visits in October. Their RV is about as big as our house. We thought that maybe Ashley could practice driving it, but somehow it just didn't happen. Jeff took a day off, and it so happened that Reagan had the same day off from school, so the five of us went to the magnificent Georgia Aquarium. Where else can you see baluga whales, whale sharks, and pet anemonies, starfish, and sting rays?

Tonight is the first night we'll go below freezing temperatures. I know our family in New York and Colorado have long since had chilly weather.

Dogs are doing fine. We pulled out their doggy coats this morning.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We love and miss you all.