~~ODNEAL FAMILY BLOG~~Port of Readlyn, Iowa

Yep, this is the outfit Tyler came up with for "Retro Day" today for Homecoming week. He looked pretty funny. I'm sure if there is a competition he should be in the running to win it! I leave before the kids do so I wonder if he actually went through with it! I bet Kyle forced him to! Too funny! **Update: The dork didn't go through with it. He said that the jersey was too tight and uncomfortable. I am so disappointed that everyone didn't get to see him!

Not that we didn't think that he would be, but how exciting for him. We are very proud of him and his hard work. He plans to be an Orthopedic Surgeon so I hope he reaches his goal. I know that I wouldn't want to go to college for that many years but it has been a goal of his for a long time. Hard to think that this is his last year living at home. I think I will go cry now!! Good job Kyle!

  Just a picture from last weekend of Jr. & Louie cleaning a bunch of fish they caught. Joey also gave me a few bags to replenish my supply. Yum yum!

  Took this picture yesterday at the river. Didn't realize that these old paddle wheel boats have fake paddle wheels. I was highly disappointed when they told me that. Anyways it was a beautiful sight so had to snap a picture. We don't often see these boats in Lansing on the Mississippi so have to capture it on film when we do!

  Today is our anniversary-18 whole years of being married and putting up with each other! No really it doesn't seem like it has been that long at all. May we have many, many more. Helen snapped this picture for me yesterday while we were on a boat ride. Happy Anniversary Bruce!

  This is a picture of a bullfrog that was in the water behind our houseboat. He was huge. Couldn't get a very good picture of him because the dock was moving so much I couldn't focus very well. He wasn't bothered by all of us at all.

  This week just seemed to drag for some reason and I even had Monday off. Oh well. Another weekend is upon us. Wapsie football at Lisbon tonight-Go Warriors!-and then Bruce and I are heading to the houseboat tomorrow morning. We haven't been there since Labor Day weekend and miss it! Just had a lot going on I guess. Too soon it will be time to close it up for the season. That is always a sad day. Gotta enjoy these nice temperatures and sunshine while it is still here! Everybody have a great weekend! **Friday Night Update----Wapsie 28 Lisbon 20 Should have been a bigger win as was 21-7 at half time but very proud of our team. Kyle had an awesome game. Very proud of him and our defense. Great job Warriors!!!!

  Tyler's Jr. High team beat NU 50-0 yesterday. Tyler had 3 touchdowns. Not a very exciting game but at least we had no ripped pants or concussions! The sun was blinding me so this is the only picture that I got and I can't even tell which one Tyler is. He is out there somewhere though!

  Sharon let me have this painting to try in my still unfinished master bathroom. It is really pretty and the colors look great. The painting is a little big, and not really "bathroomy", but Bruce even thinks it looks good in there. Here is a picture of it sitting on the floor of the wall it will hang on. The name of the painting is "En El Casino" if anyone knows paintings and wants to tell me it is worth a fortune that would be great! I'll give Sharon her share I promise! So I guess we just need to hang it up and see if we still like it there. Then maybe I will be forced to finish decorating.

  Here is a picture of the neighbor boy Grady and his cute little dog. You can see Gadget clearly does not want to be friends with a dog even though it is as small as her! I can't believe how freaked out she got. You can click on picture to get a closer look.

  Yep I know, took the picture kind of after the fact when there is hardly any left. I did FINALLY make that apple crunch with the apples Helen gave me on Saturday night. It was yummy. This is what was left of it Tuesday. Somebody really likes it!

  I'm afraid this might be close to the last batch of juice that I get to can this year. I still have a lot of tomatoes on the plants but the stems and leaves are drying up and dying. So got one more small batch done Monday afternoon. It was very spicy, too! Yum, yum.

  Today is two years that Kyle & Taylor have been going together. He is taking her out to eat tonight after football practice and they will exchange their gifts. Obviously cannot put on here what those are yet in case either one of them happens to look at this before tonight! Oh yeah, they are both Homecoming candidates, too I found out last night! Congrats! Update**Kyle got Taylor some diamond stud earrings and she got him a new #14 charm (to replace the #7 she got him on his necklace) and an Iowa Hawkeyes jacket and sweatshirt. They ate at the Olive Garden (one of their favorite places!). He even brought me home some leftovers. How sweet!

Okay so yesterday we power washed the siding on the house. Which is a great thing to do when it has green crap all over it! But Bruce thought (keyword "thought") he'd be funny and blasted the sidewalk with "Kyle is a Dork". Yep, it is still there today. Guess it will be forever!

Okay,this year is very weird. All of my flower pots were dying and this weekend this is what they looked like. Only in Iowa can you have ugly dried up flower pots that decide they aren't quite ready to give it up for the year. Kind of like the rest of us. Not ready for winter at all!!!!

I am operating on the home computer instead of at work and not liking it but thought I would post anyway. First picture I cut Kyle's head off. Not good getting action shots. Anyways, we won against Midland Wyoming 34-7. Kyle had 124 yards passing. Good job!

Yep, Ty took a hard helmet to helmet hit in his game last night and has a concussion and a couple of stingers. He is very sore and we are going to the doctor this afternoon. Apparently everything (severity and such) has to be documented until he is over it or the school will not let him go back to playing until our doctor releases him. Went and picked him up at school this morning and dropped him off at home. I came back to work so told him to call me every half hour so I know he is okay. He was dizzy and sick to his stomach. Yeah I know, probably should have not come back to work but someone has to man the office! He'll be okay. I'll be home with him in a couple hours. Will post an update after our appointment. Oh, the other kid on the bench hurt is his buddy Zach. Apparently he might have some broken ribs and his Mom had to go get him this morning from school too. Tough game for our boys but they did win 43-8 I think it was. ***UPDATE-Sorry didn't do this soon...

Helen & Louie stopped last Sunday and gave me a bunch of apples from their trees. This is as far as I've gotten with them this week but I plan to make some apple crunch this weekend. Yum, yum! Tyler has eaten quite a few of them and said they are awesome tasting even though they look a little rough!

Barb emailed this picture to us from Colorado of the triplets. They hiked up a mountain behind their cabin. Nice picture. I cannot believe how big they are getting. Can't wait for them to visit next summer since we didn't get to see them this year!

Yep I stole this from Sharon's blog. This is one of my favorite pictures from Sunday. To think a bench and a soybean field could look so cool. Can't wait to see all of the pictures!

No that isn't two full moons. The one upper right is. My camera was not cooperating last night and I couldn't get a good shot. But it sure was a beautiful full moon. You'll just have to believe me I guess!

Yep it was a wet one all night long. Got pretty soaked and Wapsie lost to East Buchanan 0-14. We had 7 fumbles which really hurt us. It was a tough game and I'm glad the score wasn't worse than it was. The one picture is of Bruce & Cole up in the bleachers with Buzynski's. Let's win the next one Wapsie!

  Each Friday the football players take turns going to each others houses for some food and just getting together and sometimes watching a movie. Last Friday it was at our house. Bruce counted 13 total football players that we fed. 5 take and bake pizzas from Kwik Star, lots of Gatorade, and store bought cookies and we managed to feed them and get them out the door by 5. I guess we will blame their loss on feeding them too well before the game. No, not really. We told them they couldn't use us as an excuse if they lost.