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

Here is a picture I took after commencement of Cole, Kyle & Tyler outside the high school. Many more pictures that I will put to a slide show from this day. Once again congratulations Kyle . We are very proud of you and know that you will do very well at Iowa! Oh and nice dip in your cheek Cole. Don't you know Wapsie is a tobacco free campus??????

So Sharon said that I need to post a picture of the wall and table that we decorated for the graduation party. Looking through, this is the only picture that I have showing the picture boards and all the awards and such I set out. I think it looked really nice, and yes a lot of work went into getting everything ready. Thank you Ashley for helping with all of the pictures. You can click on the picture to see it better and more close up!

Yesterday was Tyler's 8th grade graduation. The picture with just 10 kids is the student council. Ty was the vice-president. The picture with all boys was the athletic awards, and the other pictures is Ty getting his diploma and the whole 8th grade class. Oh, and Tyler with Caitlynne (his girlfriend) after the ceremony. Congrats Tyler! On to High School. I can't believe my baby is a freshman now. Oh my gosh!!!! I can't be that old!

Dave, Diane, Fred, and Donna Donna came to the river on Saturday. The weather cleared up in the afternoon so we took a nice long boat ride. Had to take some pictures of Bruce relaxing in the boat, and of course the eagle. They are such a beautiful sight. So glad that we see them all the time in Lansing now compared to even a few years ago. I couldn't capture any of him flying because the sun was in my eyes but I think this one turned out pretty good!

Kyle's graduation party was Friday night at our house and I had to at least get some pictures of the awesome food spread that sister in law Pam did for us. Everything was awesome I am told (Bruce & I failed to sit down & eat) and she did a great job on it all. I think the mini cheesecakes, fruit kabobs, and shrimp cocktail kabobs were a big hit. It turned out to be a great party and the weather held out for us just fine. Had a great turnout also. I think I've got it made with both a photographer and caterer in the family!!! Thanks Again!

The shop/carport roof both leak in spots when it rains really heavy so Bruce, Kevin & Kyle climbed up there yesterday to check things out. They patched the flat carport roof (at least they think they did-we will find out the first rain!), and checked out the other to see what will need to be done to re-roof it with steel. Always a project that needs done at our house. Hopefully if it rains Friday for Kyle's graduation party the patch job worked!

Yep, finally found the car for me and got it last Friday. I really like it so far. Just have to get used to driving a car instead of a truck since I've been driving one of them for a long time. It has leather interior and heated seats and everything. I love it!

Lots of pictures to post from this past week but I won't get them uploaded until next week I'm afraid. Will be busy this weekend finishing getting everything ready for Kyle's graduation party next Friday. So something for my blog followers (you know who you are) to look forward to. Garage/shop walls being sheeted (Kyle & Bruce were giving me crap for not taking any pictures "Isn't this blog worthy? "), so I took some pictures of them working and the improved look for the party. Ty had a track meet last night but I think I missed him and got a picture of the track and the sand in the long jump. Oh well. Oh, and last night was Senior Awards Night at Wapsie so have some pictures of Kyle and Taylor to share. Kyle got a couple more scholarships last night and some other awards (Taylor got some too) I'll blog about next week. Good job Taylor and Kyle! Lots of graduation parties for us to hit this weekend even with the not so great forecast. At leas...

Bruce has been searching for a car for me for quite a long time. Well, since his Caddy died once again. We've been using Mom & Dad O.'s full size van for far too long. And gas mileage sucks! But thanks for letting us use it! We are going to look at a Mercury Milan like this this afternoon. Except the one we are probably getting is a couple years old and not a 2010 as in these pictures. I'm very excited to finally have something different and hand the truck over to him. I asked him why I always get the newest vehicle. He said he got his 250 Ford once and I had an older Caddy. I guess he likes me! He really likes me! Everyone have a great weekend!

I couldn't get this to be upright on the slide show from last weekend so am giving Helen her own post. Check out the shirt-and they even have sticks for hunting with fake morels on the end. And I even got to use Tracy's stick when I went. What an honor! But it certainly didn't bring me any luck since I didn't find any. I think they found all that there were to find for that day by the looks of the cooler!

Bruce & I both tried different settings on the camera and such to get a good picture of the full moon over the Lansing bridge last Saturday night but we just couldn't do the view justice I guess. Maybe we should blame it on the Vodka, Whiskey, or Rum??????? It really was beautiful with the bridge all lit up. Honest!

We had these morels and beer can chickens at the river last weekend and they were awesome! And no I did NOT find any. Louie let me pick two though. We had a good time cooking them and eating them. Thanks Louie, Helen, Ray & Tracy for sharing your excellent find with all of us!

We had a wonderful Mother's Day at the river. My sister in law Helen made a breakfast casserole and I did a fresh fruit bowl and some bagel dip with chunks of bagels. It was very yummy! We of course also had some Mimosa's but I forgot to take a picture. They were making fun of me for saying my fruit salad was so beautiful and blog worthy that I just had to take pictures of it. It was a great day. Hope all the Mom's out there had a nice, relaxing day also!

Glad that Friday is finally here. This week seemed long yet flew by so fast. Hmmmm.....Anyways, it is the weekend and we are headed to the river this afternoon. Next weekend there are several graduation parties to attend so we will skip next weekend. Sounds like good weather, just not very warm. So Happy Mother's Day to all of the Moms that stumble upon or read my blog. May all of you have a great weekend! Enjoy yourselves and do something nice for your Mom or someone special to you!

Gadget is such a hunter. In the spring we find way too many dead bunnies and/or fur in our yard. The other day she must have only wounded this one and I snapped a few pictures of it before it hopped away. And then shortly after that she had a bird she had caught out of a bush. I know that is is just nature's way when they do that but it absolutely drives me nuts when I hear bunnies squealing outside and I know it is my cat! I guess she keeps the bunny population down so my garden doesn't suffer so much. At least that is one plus side to her killing innocent animals and birds!

Bruce threw a fishing pole in the water Sunday morning in the marina off of the houseboat at about 6:30 am because he was bored and I was still sleeping. Well, about 1:30 or thereabouts him and Louie were standing on the dock talking and the pole was taking off and the bobber was gone. He got to it in time and this was on it. It was quite a fight and we had to get a net in order to get it in. It was 27 inches long and I think like 14 pounds. Of course I had to take a picture of him with his first big fish of the year. But we did release it back and it didn't take long at all for it to get some air into its gills and take off. Plan to do a lot more fishing this year at the river!

Many happy wishes for you my sister in law that happens to be an AWESOME photographer! Hope you have a very enjoyable day and do something fun for yourself. Thanks for all that you do for us! And make Bart take you out for dinner!

Here are some pictures I took last weekend on the way to the marina and some snapshots of the the new docks. They are so nice and sturdy and they look great. We have new marina operators also that spent the weekend power washing every building and everything. It will be so nice to have operators that actually take care of and clean stuff. Most everyone got moved back into the marina into our new docks. We also have new neighbors right next to ours as Stuart sold his boat. We will miss him but I'm sure he'll come down and visit all of us once in a while. At least I hope so. Very glad to have another season finally here to enjoy with all our family & friends!

Went to Ty's track meet last Thursday at Fredericksburg. Our 8th grade boys kicked butt. I don't think they lost a relay. And the 7th grade boys did very good, too. Tyler is pretty new to hurdles but got 2nd in his heat so he did just fine. The only thing that totally sucked about the meet was the fact that our coach (freshman in college) did not know that in Jr. High the kids can only be in 3 running events. Well, most of our boys were in 4 running events and had been doing it all year without knowing they were doing anything wrong. So to make a long story short, our boys should have won the meet and the trophy but got disqualified because they didn't know any better and someone turned them in. I felt so bad for Cody (coach) and the boys. But they know they totally kicked butt and would have even if they hadn't been in 4 running events. We'll just have to get em' the next time. Great job Wapsie Valley Jr. High Boys!!!

Today would have been my Dad's 81st birthday (I believe). So, Happy Birthday to the May Day baby from your baby! Miss you much! Can't believe you've been gone more than 10 years. I'll have a beer for you tonight-just not a Schlitz! **I don't have any pictures at all of Dad on my computer. I should probably remedy that, huh?

We are heading to the houseboat this afternoon and I cannot wait. We talked about waiting and going up tomorrow morning early, but might have to miss a few weekends with all the graduation parties coming up so we are going today. We will finally be able to move into our slip and enjoy the new docks. Everyone have a great weekend!