Retirement strategy

I think Dad and I should look into this for retirement. Sit in the streets of Paris and have fun playing music together. We contributed money. Most people did. They were so darn cute together!

Ghans wins...

Dan was pumped to watch the USA vs. GHANA play in the world cup. We had to go downtown to Kitty O'Shea's pub to get coverage. Nice big screen. Plenty of friendly Irish to watch it with us. But sadly we lost. Now the question? Can we root for Ghana now???

Paris

How do you like their new shades? And this monument seemed to grow out of the city...I'd never seen it before! We found an area of the city I had never seen. Very much for the locals.

OK, we all got new shades!

It's a blistery hot day, and what do these two yeahoo's do? They sprint up to Montmartre!

My personal favorite activity was renting the bikes. So much distance covered in such a short time. Oh, it was National Gay Appreciation Day....so we rode through a flaming Gay area just to shout out our appreciation!

Meeting up with two of our children in Paris was quite fantastic. I don't take my blessings for granted. This was truly a gift.

The Longest Day

This picture was taken at 10:00pm!!! Gotta love the longest day. I bet it doesn't get really completely dark until way after 11pm. No flash, all natural light!

I got this map from the 3-star lounge. They were redecorating and were just going to toss it. It's pretty cool, but I had to ask Deb to come over with her drill to help me hang it. She's a good friend.

From Jessie Taggart....

DEMOCRATIC	You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. You feel guilty for being successful. Barbara Streisand sings for you.
REPUBLICANISM	You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. So?
SOCIALIST	You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor. You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.
COMMUNIST	You have two cows. The government seizes both and provides you with milk. You wait in line for hours to get it. It is expensive and sour.
CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE	You have two cows. You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.
BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE	You have two cows. Under the new farm program the government pays you to shoot one, milk the other, and then pours the milk down the drain.
AMERICAN CORPORATION	You have two cows. You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one. You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses. Your stock goes up.
FRENCH CORPORATION	You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows. You go to lunch and drink wine. Life is good.
JAPANESE CORPORATION	You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains. Most are at the top of their class at cow school.
GERMAN CORPORATION	You have two cows. You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour. Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.
ITALIAN CORPORATION	You have two cows but you don't know where they are. While ambling around, you see a beautiful woman. You break for lunch. Life is good.
RUSSIAN CORPORATION	You have two cows. You have some vodka. You count them and learn you have five cows. You have some more vodka. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.
TALIBAN CORPORATION	You have all the cows in Afghanistan , which are two. You don't milk them because you cannot touch any creature' s private parts. You get a $40 million grant from the US government to find alternatives to milk production but use the money to buy weapons.
IRAQI CORPORATION	You have two cows. They go into hiding. They send radio tapes of their mooing.
POLISH CORPORATION	You have two bulls. Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to milk them.
BELGIAN CORPORATION	You have one cow. The cow is schizophrenic. Sometimes the cow thinks he's French, other times he's Flemish. The Flemish cow won't share with the French cow. The French cow wants control of the Flemish cow's milk. The cow asks permission to be cut in half. The cow dies happy.
FLORIDA CORPORATION	You have a black cow and a brown cow. Everyone votes for the best looking one. Some of the people who actually like the brown one best accidentally vote for the black one. Some people vote for both. Some people vote for neither. Some people can't figure out how to vote at all. Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which one you think is the best-looking cow.
CALIFORNIA CORPORATION	You have millions of cows. They make real California cheese. Only five speak English. Most are illegals.

As requested

My mom with Scott. We did get lots of snow in Farmington in the winters.

Brent and Sandy when they adopted Dianna and Marianne. Brent was in dental school in Maryland and they had flown to Farmington to get the girls. Suzanne holding Ryan and Cindee standing by her side. Wow, everyone looks young...b/c they are!

My Mom should have been a movie star....well, in my mind she IS a star!

Proof positive. I liked dogs!

I'm holding Cindee. I was 15. I promise I didn't do her hair...what was Suzanne thinking?

Birthday Bash

My birthday dinner in Bielstein. I had a pound of white asparagus (spargle). Tom sang to me and I blew out the dinner candle! We of course ate outside and had a view of the Mosel.

This is Cochem. We rode our bikes up in the Castle area. We love the barges, and the quaint villages.

This is Bielstein where we ate dinner. We tried the castle but it was only open for lunch, so we found a cute place in the village.

Cochem Castle on the hill.

Bike path along the river. Nice and flat and as you can see, warm and sunny! Tom didn't think he could bike more than an hour...but we biked 2 hours one day and 3 hours the next....ok, not 100 miles like Lara, but we are older!

I had a great birthday. Thanks for the cards and phonecalls and emails!
One of the best gifts was the sunny, warm, cloudless week-end. And of course 'time' together doing fun stuff! And we did finish off with a 'dumpnoodle' dessert in Berncastle....you know, that round dumpling covered in vanilla sauce and cherries! Yummmmm.

Hey Ma, Look what I can do!

I have to thanks Heidi for showing me how to post pictures in a way that I can type below each picture. (Thus the title!) So here is my practice run.. Nicole, you think you are the best horse rider in the family? Let's go for a ride!

Tom wishes he could buy a boat. So did my Dad, but his tastes were more realistic! Check out our family boat! I don't think it was strong enough to pull a skiier but it sure was a great fishing boat. My Dad was a fun loving guy and was always there on family outings and adventures. I miss him.

The family when we got Scott. Well, he is already a couple of months old in the photo. Brent and Suzanne had already left the house. I don't have a lot of childhood memories, but I certainly remember when we got Scott. Changed all of our lives!

Suzanne and Jerry. Suzanne still has the homecoming queen look. She doesn't remember me being in the house. It's ok, just says that I must have been a quiet, well-behaved little sister that never got in the way. We even shared a bedroom together. My side was always neat and tidy but I can't say the same for her side of the room!

Brent and Sandy. Man, a red tie and a red sport jacket. Love it, Brent! Sandy has some pretty classy pants on as well. Mighty handsome couple don't you think?
OK...I'll post this and again thank Heidi for showing me this trick...(Tawny tried to explain it via an email but we gave up after awhile).
Now I just need to learn how it is possible to post more than 5 pictures at a time.

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