Merry Christmas from ATL!

Not really... It's 1:37 am and I'm stuck in the ATL airport on my way back from my all expense paid 2 day vacation in Jackson, MS. Again, work trip... later everyone, time to try to sleep on these ultra comfy seats in the airport!

Merry Christmas from NYC!

Thanks to Rob's work... an all expense paid trip to the Big Apple complete with picture from Rockefeller Center. Enjoy!

(Actually trip was just for work and only Rob got to go!)

More from the homefront

Winter is here. We got quite a few inches last night so all those coming to MI for Christmas bring your snow gear!!!!

There has been a lot going on around here since our last post, which is why it has been so long. For anyone who doesn't already know....Aunt Dee I tried....I have been a little under the weather these past few weeks but nothing that will not go away in nine months. ;) Yes we are shooting for a basketball team. An unofficial due date is June 24. You guessed it Kendrick will not be two until October making these cherubs less than two years apart.

Well I think that is enough to digest for one blog. Until next time...

It's been too long

Well for all 2 of you who look at our blog it has been way too long since we've posted. So here is an update...Johnathan started Young 5's at Chandler Woods. He seems to be enjoying it.

Rob was going to Indy last week and has a trip to Mississippi and NYC planned before Christmas.

Here are pics of my lastest shoot...

I really like this one of Alyssa.

These were my favorites I'm still working on my photographer's eye.

More news later gotta pick up the kiddos

Rob can take pictures too...

Not too shabby eh? Gotta love a beautiful sunset in the fall in Michigan...

Click on the pics to get the full effect!

For all my stat geek friends...

From Woot.com

Zune Stats: Brown Is The Saddest Color
by Jason Toon Friday, October 19 12:00 PM
News

Hey, what’s your favorite color? If we’re talking about Zunes, it’s probably black. Henry Ford famously told his customers “You can have any color you want, as long as it’s black.” Here, we gave you a choice of colors, and you chose…black. Now that we’ve sold about 39,000 of these things, we’ve got a pretty good picture of the way we Zune today. And that picture is overwhelmingly painted in one shade of basic black.

Zune Sales By Color, 10/15/07
Black – 6865 (66%)
White – 2123 (20%)
Brown – 1445 (14%)
(note: does not include data from our single-color Zune sales on other days)

Looks like the conventional zune wisdom – “brown sucks” – is wise indeed. When given a choice, just one out of seven wooters opt for that much-maligned color, confirming the many sneers directed at the brown Zune throughout the land of Blogospheria. Are people worried it won’t match their outfits? Does brown retain certain, er, biological connotations that turn buyers off? Whatever it is about brown, wooters avoid it in droves.

What else can we learn from our Zune sale data? We were hoping you would ask…

From 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. on the morning of the 15th, brown mounted a brief rally, tallying up 22% of the sales in that hour to overtake white for second during that hour. That’s a 57% jump in brown’s share, for that hour only. Why? What happened here? Did everybody in Cleveland all buy Zunes at once?

Otherwise, the hourly color breakdown roughly followed the overall percentages above. Black never took less than 59% of the sales in a given hour, and its hourly share reached as high as 76%.

The most popular quantity/color combo was one black, representing 54% of all orders.
Among those ordering more than one Zune, the most popular order was one white and one black, living together in perfect harmony.

While 5% of all orders were for multiple black Zunes (either two or three), almost nobody ordered multiples of the other colors. At the far reaches of sanity, only 5 oddball users ordered three brown Zunes.

When wooters bought three Zunes, they were most likely to buy one of each color. Might as well collect ‘em all, right?

Of the 19 possible color/quantity combinations, one white and two brown was the only one not to be ordered by a single wooter.

Fascinating. But what good is a Woot stats post without some interstate rivalry? Here are some geographic tidbits to fuel your arrogant condescension and/or jealous loathing for those jerks who live in the next state over. These facts are based on data across all of our Zune sales to date, not just the multi-color one on October 15.

Believe it or not, residents of Washington state (home of Microsoft, you’ll recall) have bought the proportionately highest number of Zunes. Washingtonians show up 2.2 times more frequently in our Zune buyer pool than in the population of the U.S. Maybe our price is better than their employee discount.

Other overachieving states are Utah (2.12 times their share of the U.S. population), the District of Columbia (1.7), North Dakota (1.65), and Delaware (1.34).

The least Zune-friendly states are Mississippi (0.37), West Virginia (0.37), Louisiana (0.44), Arkansas (0.45), and Kentucky (0.45). Instead of dissing these states as a whole, we’ll salute the hardy wooters who are so far ahead of the rest of the people in their states.

The first state also comes first in quantity purchases: Delawareans are the most likely to want 2 or 3 Zunes, buying 1.452 Zunes per order. How much is eBay shipping from Delaware to your house?

Other states that consume mass quantities included Montana (1.328 Zunes per order), South Dakota (1.308), Oklahoma (1.287), and Mississippi (1.280). There may not be many wooters in the crooked-letter state, but the ones that are there buy in bulk.

Where do you fall in this mass of numbers? Did your purchase help boost your state’s rank? Did you buy a brown Zune and live to tell about it? Are you that one person in Wyoming who ordered three Zunes? Are you one of the two in America who ordered one brown and two white? And why do you all hate brown so much, you brown-haters?

Abigail

3 and sassy

Boys @ The Shoe

This past weekend, Rob introduced Robby and Johnny to the magic of gameday in Columbus. While they saved actually going to the game for a later date, they had fun catching the band @ St. John's arena, getting to watch the basketball team @ the Schott, and witnessing all there is to take in that goes around the game. Unfortunately, it finally sank in on Johnny that we were not going to the game and the tears came. Someday...

Robby @ the Pistons/Nuggets

This past week I took Robby to the Pistons/Nuggets game @ Van Andel Arena. He was intent on trying to get some autographs so we go to the arena way before the start. While we are standing in line, one of the cheerleader types asks him if he wants to play a game. At first he says no and they walk away. I explained to him that it would be fun and this was a once in a lifetime chance, so he begins to tear up and goes and asks them if there is still room. And there was...

Here's a pic of him doing his dunk during the game. He was awarded a very much too big Chauncey Billups jersey for his efforts.

Princess Tea Party Awaits

As the girls arrived, they were escorted upstairs for a gown of choice. Each princess was given a royal seat at the table, adorned with their own personalized tray, napkin and tea cup. Beverages and dessert followed. They were presented with ornate decorations for their trays to be given their own personal touch. From there, they were led to the ballroom for an elegant waltz around the floor and to end, they were entertained by the storyteller. All princesses had a lovely morning tea.

3 Going on 16

Abby turned 3 today. It was a delightful reflection of her three years. The day she was born we went to our favorite apple orchard with my parents. We picked apples, got a pumpkin to carve and had cider and donuts. (My parents came up because we thought the night before would have been the big day. But NO Abby didnt' want it that way!) That evening my dad and Rob wanted to go out but only if we weren't having a baby. I assured them that "tonight will not be the night". So off they went. About an hour after they left the contractions hit every 2-3 minutes apart. After we tried both men on their cell phones, we decided to call the restaurant. The bartender walked up to Rob, who thankfully stuck out in the crowd with his red Ohio State sweatshirt, and said he needed to come home because his wife was having the baby. So 80 mph down West River Drive and no cops in sight they made a 25 minute trip in about 15 and off we went to the hospital. Abby was born around 5 am. Rob was so excited he exclaimed "Oh, no now we have to pay for a wedding!" Knowing Abby as we do those were well said words. So here she is...

Since we've been back

Since we've been back Robby has started second grade, the kids are in full swing classes at the Y, Johnathan started homeschool and speech therapy and Rob was out of town for two weeks. Oh, and lets not forget Kendrick cut two more teeth(ie crabby and sick), Robby and I got colds and the red storm blew in. It has been busy. That said...

I've gone for an adjustment on my back, lost 5 lbs. and am working to schedule in a massage! Calgon take me away! :)

Surprise!

If you don't know Abby is infatuated with horses. There are 3 horse stables within a mile of our house and we frequently drive slow or stop to watch. She loves them only from a distance though. She will only pet them, not sit, straddle, or pretend to ride them under any circumstances. That is the intro.

Before we left for GA we saw a neighbor, who lives behind our house, putting white tape on posts. Our first thought was that they were moving. We didn't dwell on to much while we were gone but when we got back we took especially good notice. To what should our wondering eyes should appear...horses. Much excited exploded in our home. Currently there are four.

Been a While!

Yes we are still here. We have spent the last 11 out of 14 days without dad and husband around so you can imagine what craziness has prevailed. Well we are back on track for at least one month so I will pick up where I left off...

After we left Atlanta it was Albany or Bust! We enjoyed swimming, bowling and just plain hanging out with the cousins and Tammi and Steve. We got to see Tammi's amazing volleyball coaching ability. Rob and Johnny witnessed Steve's first ever on air experience as he was the radio m.c. for the school football game. And Tyler was the sweetest little baby. They are so blessed to have their little bundle. He is the most layed back personality of everyone.

These pictures are from a vineyard we visited. These are muscadine grapes. They are native to GA, the locals eat them by splitting the skin, sucking the juice out of the flesh and spitting it out. The Still Pond Vineyard has been with this family for generations. They provide muscadine juice to local wineries which adds up to be thousands of gallons. A few years ago they decided to make their own wine. They make a delightful Confederate Peach. The story goes that Confederate soldiers sat at the pond at the end of the property would make peach brandy during the war.

This about wraps up out trip. We stopped at some more universities on the way home, visited some college friends in OH, and stayed at hotel that hadn't even had its Grand Opening. We miss Tammi and Steve tremendously, and as alway parting was such sweet sorrow. Be sure to visit Tammi's blog for our family pictures and more.

Atlanta

This picture is from The Varsity restaurant. It is a very popular greasy spoon in Atlanta.




Johnathan and Kenzie Luke are waiting at the subway. They were cozy buddies all day. When Johnny falls it will be truly head over heels.

















This picture was taken at Centennial Park. The day was unbearably hot and all the kids enjoy running through the water. As you can tell, Johnathan was true to form and on the constant go.

We closed the day with a swim back at the Luke's when a huge storm came through about 10 minutes after we arrived at the pool. We went back and put seven tired children to bed. We left for Albany on Sunday morning.