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

One of my favorite pictures (thanks Sharon) of Bruce and the boys. I have it as my desktop background at work. Awwwww! Anyways looking forward to the 4 day weekend and eating lots and lots of turkey, potatoes, and anything else that is in front of me! Computer still screwy at home so probably will not post until after the weekend. Will take tons of pictures though I'm sure. That will make these boys all very happy I am sure! They just LOVE it that I always have my camera ready. Happy Thanksgiving!

So another typical weekend night at our house. Me dinking around in my kitchen or with laundry or whatever and then I walk into the living room and see this. Made a mad dash to get my camera and didn't really need to. Neither one of them were fazed by my flash. Guess the show they were watching put them both to sleep!

So here are Kyle & Tyler's lists. As you can see Kyle's is much longer and more expensive stuff on it and Tyler only has three different things and fit it on a post-it note. Guess the college bound kid thinks he needs more stuff. I told the kids I wasn't spending a fortune on gifts this year. I guess Kyle didn't get that memo!

Today is Taylor's 18th birthday! Hope you have a perfect day and a great birthday all around. You are a sweetheart and we love having you around! I just love this picture of you guys at the river last summer so had to use it. Enjoy your day!

So our niece (actually great niece) Courtney (Court Snot) had a "little" ATV accident with some friends a few weeks ago. She is okay but seriously hurt and messed up her leg and ankle. Here are some pictures she sent to me last night. Above is her knee. She had surgery on it last Friday to repair all the tendons and ligaments. The top of her leg was completely separated from the bottom at the knee. And here is her ankle. It is broken and she had to have a plate put in. Looks very painful. She is a tough cookie but I'm guessing that as active as she usually is she is probably already going stir crazy! Hope you recover very quickly Courtney and I will try and get over to see you very soon! Hope you don't mind the pictures making the blog! And here is sweet Courtney last summer helping me with our bread competition at the shrimp boil. Ours was the best wasn't it Courtney?

Haven't had a picture of Tyler to put on the blog lately. This was last weekend and I have no idea what he is doing except looking silly for my camera. Maybe he had too much sugar along with Gizmo????? He is out for wrestling this year though so there will be plenty of photo ops of him I am sure. I never leave home without my camera! Drives the kids nuts!

Southmayd Award Varsity Letter All District Team All District Academic Team And yes I'm pretty sure Kyle will not appreciate that I put pictures of these on here but hey, he's a senior and it will be the last time he gets stuff like this for Mom to brag about! Good job Kyle. And you know this way Grandpa & Grandma and others get to actually see them! Can click on pictures to make bigger so can actually see them.

So I decided to bake some cookies Monday when I had the day off. The finished product looks pretty good and boy were they yummy! Here is the naughty kitty after I caught her and saw she had licked about half of a cookie. Our cats do not get table scraps or anything other than cat food and kitty treats so I was shocked that she jumped up when I was frosting cookies. She wouldn't even look at me when I was scolding her! And here she is in action licking that frosting as fast as she could. And yes I am laughing like crazy while scolding her and taking a picture. I don't know what got into her but she did act like she was stoned for quite a while after. And yes I threw the cookie away that she licked and made sure no kitty hair made it to the other ones!

  We had the football banquet on Sunday night at the high school. It went very well and Bruce helped me prepare the roaster potatoes that we donated so that helped a ton. I guess I wasn't thinking about how much work two roasters would be (duh-5 cups of diced onions, 10 lbs. of frozen hashbrowns, etc, etc!) Some other "anonymous" persons donated the meat (Corcoran's??) and then every family brought a dish to share. The food was yummy. Kyle got a few awards-All District Team, All District Academic Team, and the Jerry Southmayd Award that Coach Foster gives out each year. Our boys had a great season this year and I think with the younger grades that are coming up Wapsie will be in the running for another state title for quite a few years. Good job on a great season Kyle and the Warriors!

  Yes, I am the bad friend. Missy's birthday was yesterday, November 17th but I had the day off and the internet at home would not cooperate all day long. But in my defense I did text message her and wished her a very happy birthday. Hope you had a great day Missy. And I'm sure you enjoyed Tyler calling and singing to you!!! May you have a million more!

  Came across this picture while scanning through all my pictures on my computer. I think this was two years ago and the last Chiefs game we went to with this fun crew. Boy we sure had good times tailgating. Maybe next year again? Have a great weekend. I plan on doing more de-cluttering and pitching junk!

Tyler actually made me throw out these beautiful Ked shoes! I can't even believe that I still had them or the fact that I used to wear them in public!! He helped me clean out the shoe closet/cupboard last night. I used my trusty Kirby to suck up the 50 lbs. (really I think there was) of dirt at the bottom of the closet. And of course a few cobwebs hanging around. Found 3 containers of foot powder, too. Guess those times they told me that we were out they just didn't look hard enough. Imagine that. And here is the narrowed down version to go back in after we threw out a garbage bag full. I actually ended up grabbing another grocery bag and filled it up, too. This week and weekend I am deep cleaning and de-cluttering our house. Anyone see Oprah yesterday? Got me motivated! I do NOT want to end up on Oprah.

Main Entry: 1dis·re·spect Pronunciation: \ˌdis-ri-ˈspekt\ Function: transitive verb Date: 1614 1 : to have disrespect for 2 : to show or express disrespect or contempt for : insult , dis Enough said.

  Today is Eryca's 17th birthday. This is a picture of her and Tyler at the river last summer enjoying the rubber boat. Hope you have a great day!

I think it is two of my nieces birthdays today, November 11th. So if I'm wrong please forgive me! Happy Birthday to Ashley and Heather. May you each have a great day and many, many, happy more!!!!! Actually neither one looks at this I don't think so I'm safe if I'm off on the date! Phew!!!!

  Bruce might kill me for this, but just in the last week or so these are pictures I snapped (unbeknownst to the cats or Bruce) and I'm thinking that this is just a regular thing that Bruce does when the cats climb up on his lap while watching TV on the couch. They must have a sleepy affect on him or something!

  Here is sister in law Pam and niece Ashley at the party Saturday. Pam turned 50 on November 6th so Ashley planned a surprise party for her. She was definitely surprised, but mostly just very happy there were no strippers involved (yes Bart that means you, too!)! She got a lot of nice gifts and fun (mean) cards.

  Yes, just had to snap my flowers last night since they still look this good in the vase (yes I took these last night-really!). And yes they are the "real" flowers that I bragged about on an earlier post (10/27) for only paying $2.99 for. Definitely got my money's worth out of these. Have a great weekend despite our Iowa winter weather that we are in store for.

Woke up this morning to flurries. The deck was covered, but it has been drizzling more rain than snow throughout the morning. I think we are in for a yucky weather weekend. I guess it is Iowa and November 7th!

  Just got back to the office from following one of our guys to Cedar Rapids to take a crane back. The weather was lovely as you can see by the picture. Yes, I took this while driving a company truck. Wouldn't that make my boss happy?

So Bruce & I went up and voted yesterday afternoon. I didn't make him tell me how he voted and vice versa. I just hope that there will be good things to come and that this country will get back on track. The gal that works with me is ANGRY (very angry, right Vicki?) and one of my bosses said that he is optimistic after listening to Obama's speech. Both of my bosses are republicans and small business owners and told me if Barack got elected we wouldn't get any more bonuses. So....I'm guessing since he's optimistic the bonus will still be here come December?

No matter who you are voting for (Obama) just get out and vote (Obama) today. Bruce and I usually (Obama) cancel each other out on President but at least (Obama) we do get out and (Obama) vote. You can't complain (Obama) if you don't! Did I say Obama?????

  Our Warriors lost 10-16 in OT last night to finish out the season. It was an awesome game and both teams played their hardest. We unfortunately couldn't score in OT. Good job Kyle on an awesome game and season and the Wapsie Valley Warriors had an excellent year. Now Kyle can get his knees (yes, both probably) scoped and fixed up again before heading off to college next fall.

        Yep, Kyle got a deer on his way home from Taylor's Saturday night (well 3:30 am was actually Sunday morning!) so now we are going to have to get his Explorer fixed. It is in too nice of shape to not fix it for him. Luckily he didn't get hurt and it isn't near as bad as Taylor's car was when he hit one with that! Maybe those two will only be able to see each other when it is daylight out!