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

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!