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

Last Saturday we had the Odneal Christmas at Bart & Sharon's house. Here is just a sneak peak of a few pics of the awesome food that we had to eat. As we all know Christmas is 3 days away so I will not have time to sit at the computer and come up with blog posts, or organize all the fun pictures that I took that day. So, for now this will have to do. Lets just say that there was so much food I didn't even sample any of the crockpot stuff that day, but have had plenty of Bart's potatoes since! Yum! Bruce and I ran to town and finished up everything this afternoon along with getting groceries in case we get all this ice and sleet overnight. I guess if that happens then I won't go to work and will have maybe lots of time to get some pictures and blog posts ready. Oh wait. Forget that. I have quite a bit left to wrap, and my house needs a good cleaning before we have Christmas Eve with our kids. Guess when EVERYTHING is done for Christmas I will take some time to post ...

This is a picture from the weekend before the blizzard.  Ty went in the living room to mess with Gizmo and when I looked out to see what they were doing this is what I saw.  So of course I had to snap a picture.  The sun shining in the bathroom window looks kind of cool on the tile behind them.  And yes, I believe Ty was really “out”.  At least he was warm beside Gizmo and her favorite place in front of the heat vent!  Everyone stay warm!

  So I really have no clue why I took a picture of my rings sitting on the windowsill where I always take them off and leave them, but it got me thinking.  Some people wear costume jewelry for no reason at all and I am NOT one of those people for sure.  So here are the rings that I always pretty much have on (well I just got my Mom’s heart diamond ring back from our daughter in law Ashley recently), but anyway.  My engagement ring was just a plain “perfect” diamond according to Mr. Roth.  Then I wanted a wide band but didn’t like the thick ones with it.  So he suggested 2 thin ones.  But he also told me not to have it soldered since at that time I took my rings off to water ski all the time (and just handed them to random relatives on the beach!), and he was afraid my finger would get ripped off from the ski rope.  Well of course I didn’t listen.  But, happy to report I have lost no fingers like others in the family have over the years no...

Here are a few pictures I took at my work the morning after our lovely Iowa blizzard last week. The snow was 27 inches in front of our office door and the snow was unbelievable all around the building. It was so tall it almost completely covered up the gas pumps. Maybe that will be the last big snow storm of the year. Think we could get that lucky?????? We can hope but I think we are doomed since this is Iowa and that was our first of the year! Everyone stay warm!

Everyone calls my tree the "charlie brown tree" because when I purchased it and took it out of the box it seriously looked like crap. But with a little loving care and awesome ornaments I think that every year it ends up looking perfect for us and that is all that matters. For years our tradition was to go cut one down as a family. Well, then it turned into Bruce having to hurry and cut one down before he left for the weekend to deer hunt, and then that turned into Mom taking the kids to cut one down because we had to have one and Dad was out of town. So you get the drift. It is so much easier and less stressful to just bring down the tree from the attic and put the ornaments and such that I want for the year on. It looks much better than these pictures give it justice, and I for one really don't care about the tree. I enjoy the spending time with my family and having a great time much more than if my tree looks awesome! But I seriously do think that our tree looks AWESOM...

So here are a few pictures that I snapped this morning while Bruce was out on T's Toy pushing snow and our friend Kent was blowing snow with his tractor to try and get us un-buried from all of this snow. It didn't help that the wind was freaking unreal at times, but we were able to get the truck out of the driveway and Bruce of course had to go check things out in town. Apparently noone was getting very far very fast! These pictures were taken early before the winds actually started whipping around so I have no idea what tomorrow will be like to get out of here. I think Bruce may be taking me to work or I will just happen to have another day here at home! My car sucks on snow. I think I miss having a truck and 4 wheel drive. Next time I will think a little harder before falling for a car! Got that Bruce?

At least it is a healthy one! I absolutely LOVE Jazzercise and cannot believe how great all of the people in Denver have been to me since joining last Wednesday. Let's just say that in 6 days I made 4 classes so I guess that I truly love it. Everyone is great and what a great way to get in shape and have fun. Since we are currently having a blizzard I'm not sure when I will make it back, but let's just say that I didn't join to lose weight but I am certainly already feeling the "getting in shape" part of it. Hopefully I will start noticing a difference in the next few weeks on inches, but if not I still will go 3-4 times per week because I enjoy it so much. For everyone that truly knows me it was HUGE of me to do something like this on my own. So, many pictures and posts to do yet so will just say that I hope everyone survived this terrible weather favorably and if you are looking for something exciting and fun...........think JAZZERCISE! It is awesome...

I snapped this picture of a deer in a yard across from the marina late last summer one weekend when we were leaving. Someone told us that deer are always in that yard. Right along the river and busy street and we'd never seen them before. Crazy! Anyways, tomorrow deer season opens and Bruce, Kyle, Louie, and Kevin will all be hunting and hopefully each get one of these. Or bigger of course. This year at least my kitchen isn't full of totes and bags of crap to haul north to Lansing because they are staying home and hunting. It will be nice to have them not be gone for 3 days and get updates each night. And of course I will have a nice big pot of chili ready for them Saturday when they are done. And if they are lucky some very yummy Christmas goodies that I plan on baking Saturday. Good luck deer hunters! And Kyle and Bruce, there will be NO DEER pretty enough to go on the living room wall again, okay? Everyone have a great weekend and stay warm.

Here is just a glimpse of our roadtrip on Saturday to Cabela's and checking out the houseboats, and stopping by to see our friends in Waukon. I have so many pictures to go through and so many posts to do that I just haven't had time yet. So obviously we forced Louie & Bruce to let me take their picture in the ice tent. And those two would much rather fish when they can be in a boat with a cooler of beer and the sun shining on their heads. Well, wouldn't most of us? I do have to say they had some nice ice fishing tents at Cabela's though. We just weren't in the market. Promise new posts soon for anyone that cares!

Taylor did spend the day pretty much with us after her and Kyle went to Waverly for "her" Thanksgiving Day festivities. Okay, the afternoon at least. So when she had to get dressed for work I was sad that she had to leave. But double time pay, and how cute she looked before she walked out the door made up for it. She even stopped back after work and abducted Kyle to shop with her and her parents at like 4:00 am. It must be love!!!! Or he really likes Bill & Joyce!!!! Love you kids.

So this is supposed to be the International Space Station sighting according to "Schnak" on KWWL news. Bruce and I went out at 6:03 and saw this thing flying through the sky and I snapped a couple pictures of what we "believed" was the sight we were supposed to see. If we did truly see it, it was very cool watching it move through the sky. The pictures definitely do not do justice. WOW!

So I was going through ALL of my pictures on my computers today and tonight, and I told Taylor that I think EVERY SINGLE PICTURE that I have of her has been on the blog in one way or another. And I wanted something new that I had never posted. Well, I sent out a request to the "awesomest photographer" in the world but.....I made that request just a while ago and I'm pretty sure I will not have a response until early am. And of course I have to have a post going out at 2:50 am so we are starting with this one. If Sharon sees this post before sending me a picture then maybe she can post it since she has been lacking! Just kidding Sharon. You know we love you and think you are awesome. Anyways back to the real point of this post..........A Very Happy 19th Birthday to you Taylor and we are very happy that you are a part of our lives. And see, semester break is almost here and you and Kyle have survived. And will continue to I am sure through all of these years. Have a grea...

The weekend of November 7 & 8th was a gorgeous "Indian Summer" fall weekend and on Sunday we decided to power wash and wax the vehicles for probably (sadly) the last time for the year before winter hits. They look so nice when they are clean. Ashley said she hadn't done their Bravada since the last time we did vehicles at our house. I think that was quite a long time ago and she probably shouldn't have confessed to that! Let's hope this nice, mild weather will just continue right on through November. Everyone have a good weekend!

So today is the "Great American Smokeout" and a lot of people try their hand, once again for many, to give up the nasty cancer sticks. I quit on July 16, 2007 at 10:00 am and have not had one since. And I quit cold turkey. To me that is the only way to do it. But for those that need a little help there is plenty of it out there. As everyone knows my Mom died way too young and a lot of her health problems were a result of smoking. So it is my plea to any friends and family that still smoke to give it another shot to quit today or any day. They say it takes most people many times, but trying is much better than doing nothing! And I can actually say that there are not very many friends and family of mine that do still smoke. And I think my kids would kill me if I started again. Anyone willing to pay the horrendous prices for cigarettes must have a ton more money than me. Think of what you will save. Good luck and you CAN DO IT! And everyone knows that I do not harp...

Happy Birthday Missy. The big 4-0! I can't believe it. But you are only as old as you feel so I'm sure you are still really 29, right? Hope you have a great day and Kevin takes you out or something special! Now you will know how it feels to be out of the 30's you younger chick you!

Sunday morning Rick called and they had some good luck hunting and wanted to get rid of two of the deer that they got. So he was nice and brought them to us so that we could have all the meat. I hate seeing the process of butchering them, but oh how we love the sticks, sausage, jerky, bacon, and of course steaks that melt in your mouth! Louie came up in the afternoon to help cut them both up thank goodness or Bruce would have been out there all night. I helped by bringing them clean water regularly and helping Bruce package it all up when they were done. It was a lot of work but well worth it. Bruce already has a batch of jerky marinating. Thanks Rick! Your jerky will be coming to you soon! Yum, yum.

Haven't been feeling the "blogging" thing lately and really just haven't had the time to sift through pictures and come up with something people might enjoy looking at and/or reading. So I will try and come up with some stuff for future posts that won't bore my few followers (yes, you know who you are!) and will be fun and entertaining. Everyone have a great weekend! We had this fire last weekend and it almost felt like we were back at the river on the sandbar. Almost ! Boy it is going to be a LOOOONNGGGGG winter!

We didn't have a decent entertainment stand in the living room (was using Ty's old cheap one made out of cardboard crap) so Bruce decided to make one with some scrap cherry wood. The bottom pictures are in the shop before it was done and put together. The top is how it sits in the living room. It will have two doors on the bottom sides, but those are not done yet either. His next project is a cherry scrapbooking armoire for me so my crap isn't sitting out all winter. He's a pretty good carpenter guy, huh? Think maybe I'll keep him!

Just kidding of course. Was playing around with some pictures and thought this turned out pretty cool. It looks like Gizmo has a ghost (Gadget) or else we have a two headed/bodied cat. Even their tags look cool. Who knew you could do all this with only Picasa? Geez, I think I need to find some work to do! Everyone have a great weekend!

I took this picture the weekend we closed up the houseboat for the year. It was a very windy day and there were actually white caps on the water. Good thing we have such a good captain to drive. It is always sad to close up the boat, but gives us something to look forward to for next spring. So hopefully the Nuk N Futz fares well over the winter and we will check up on her in January when we go to Lansing for the boater's brunch!

Okay, so I've been lacking any "blogworthy" pictures or funny stories to share of late, but I had to share this picture. And yes Taylor, you know if you put your purse on my island I will find some reason to take a picture of it! Anyways, I'm not much of a Coach purse person (in other words I am way to cheap to spend that kind of money on a satchel) but Kyle got this for Taylor for their 3 years together anniversary, and I have to admit I think it is very cool. She dropped her stuff off the day of the wedding and of course I kept looking at it all day long so took a picture of it. Yep, I pretty much have no life on weekends now that houseboating is done for the year! So, you got to see a cool, unusual purse picture and hopefully with the beautiful forecast I can take some "blogworthy" photos around the house and yard this weekend! Stay tuned..........I promise something exciting will happen eventually!

So this is Kyle & Taylor at a wedding Taylor was in October 24th. Aren't they cute and doesn't Taylor look beautiful? (well what you can see of her dress and hair-believe me she looked very pretty!) Here they were on Sunday afternoon after the wedding festivities of the night before lounging on the couch. I think they were worn out, and Taylor didn't feel very good. But later that afternoon we did carve our pumpkins and a good time was had by all! And noone lost a finger or anything. Yep, I'd say that was a good weekend!

  Hope everyone has a great day and weekend. I took this picture with my cell phone and if you look at it a certain way my shadow looks pretty creepy (so Bruce had to point out to me)! I did light the pumpkins every night this week, except last night it was raining pretty good and windy and cold. I will light them up the rest of the weekend though. Watch out for the little trick or treaters running around!

  Here is a picture of Bruce and Helen the weekend we closed up the houseboats. Bruce's birthday was on the 16th and Helen's on the 17th. And we didn't have any fun celebrating that night, either! Just a normal weekend in Lansing on a houseboat!!!! Everyone have a great weekend!

Of course we had fun and started too late on Sunday before Kyle had to head back to Iowa City. Kyle free handed the cat (Taylor's) and his Hawk (Kyle's). Bruce just carved out his IOWA with a sawzall blade (of course!). Tyler free handed his "thing", and I did a normal jack-o-lantern. We had a lot of fun I think. At least I know that I did. I am lighting them each night for however long the tea lights last. Thursday and Friday sound really windy though so not sure how they will stay lit. Even though Kyle drew Taylor's for her on her pumpkin, she did carve it. I think maybe we started a new family tradition since I was informed we haven't carved pumpkins for "like forever"!!! They even said that I started making them draw or paint. How lame!!!!!

Even though I know that Ann doesn't look at this blog I thought I would put a shout out to her on this special day anyway. So Ann, I hope Kevin takes you out for a nice dinner or something, and buys you a nice present. Hope your day was great! Hope to see you before January!!!

I looked through a million pictures on my computer to find one, and this is one that fits your personality best! Happy Birthday to one of my favorite brothers! May you have a great day, and maybe Pam won't count your beers tonight as a present to you!!!! Just kidding. Well, maybe not. That wouldn't be a bad gift now would it? Happy Birthday and may you have many, many more. Love you bro!