Sunday, January 31, 2010

What do you do with a papa/gump on Sunday when there's no sports? Well, the answer is: make him go down to the storage unit and help clean up. The picture is a "before" shot (I think). We pulled stuff out, looked at everything, talked about why we had some of it...laughed at some old pictures in a yearbook....made the dirty bird talk (you can see it in the back with the hat on!) We found lots of stuff to get rid of, but it looks like we still have a lot left. We found your dad (C's) and mom (A's) baby shoes...that was really fun. So, now it's a little cleaner, but we still have the dirty bird and baby shoes!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

On the Saturday before the 5th Sunday of any month, papa/gump and I and the Dons cook for the homeless at the Parish Kitchen in Covington. The people who run the Kitchen cook everyday but Saturday so volunteers have to take over. They do leave a recipe for us to follow (otherwise they'd have to eat pasta every month with a 5th Sunday). We have been doing this for six years and if you look at a calendar, you'll see there really are only about 4 months that have 5 Sundays....We enjoy doing this, but we don't serve the homeless as this is their lunch we are cooking for the next day. The other picture is of the dining room and on the walls are pictures of all the people who have eaten there (maybe). It's a nice warm room and they serve about 100 homeless people every day.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Fountain Square in Cincinnati, home of the very crazy "broomball" co-ed team. I looked out of my 20th floor window today, and there they were...10 really crazy people with uniform jackets on, playing broomball. They don't wear skates, just gym shoes and the broom really looks more like a plastic LaCrosse stick. The ball is about the size of a softball....not sure what the rules are, but there was a lot of running and slipping and bumping on the ice. Now this is fine, but today it was 13 degrees downtown and I'm sure this isn't an Olympic sport.....so, you OC kids, see what fun you're missing and to you Tulsa kids, I think you can do this out in your street tomorrow.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Bananas...lots of bananas. These are the ones papa/gump likes.
Green...yuck. He goes to the store almost every day and buys
two or three really green ones. He eats one every morning with his cereal...and as soon as one gets a little bit yellow or has a brown spot, he lets me eat it. So no matter where we go, Tulsa, OK City, Pasadena or Italy...gotta have bananas! Do ya think maybe he might be part monkey?

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Bet you're wondering what I'm doing in these pictures....it's the swimming pool duty! Every other week, I am on water duty. The first thing I do is test the water for Bromine level and Ph level. The bright pink one is the Ph. It's actually a little more orange than pink and that means it's very good. The bromine has to be light pink for it to be good...it isn't as pink as it needs to be, so in the other picture, I'm opening the brominator (like the governator?) and dropping in bromine tablets. Tomorrow I will test it again to see if it worked. I test the water twice a day. The pool is nice and warm and great to swim in after work.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Last week on "7cutecollaber" Chloe had to talk about something that scared her....so, I thought you would like to know what scares us! Maybe you already know about what scares papa/gump, but betcha didn't know what scares me.and just so we have visuals of both our fears...here's the other one Although, this snake is pretty cute and not at all scary, I'm sure papa/gump will not even like looking at the cartoon snake. Someday he may remember why he's afraid of snakes, but so far he can't remember. On the other hand, I do know why I don't like roller coasters and it all has to do with one at Coney Island in New York called the caterpiller...I'll tell you all about it some day. GO CATS!

Monday, January 25, 2010

Someone was tired at school today! Looks like Andrew stayed up late to watch his NO Saints beat up on the Vikes. The jersey was a Christmas gift from his daddy and I think it went to school with the tired boy today.

We were glad Andrew's team won, but were sad to see Brett Farve get beat up on. Well, I was sad, papa/gump just said it was football.

If you have a picture you would like to share with us...you can send it to us at our e-mail or to our cell phones...you have the numbers!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

You may not recognize this pretty face, but if you saw the rest of her you might realize it's Mirai Nagasu from Arcadia, CA. She won a place on the USA 2010 Winter Olympic figure skating team last night by winning the Silver at the Women's Nationals. I'm not sure if ya'll knew that she went to Arcadia HS and the year she won the Gold in the Women's Nationals, your Dad/Uncle David was her homeroom teacher (so she could go to practice instead of homeroom). After she won the Gold (2008), I was talking to your Dad/Uncle David and telling him how exciting it was to watch Mirai skate and there she was, walking by and your dad/uncle David handed her the phone....so, I got to talk to a member of the 2010 Olympic Team....pretty neat, huh! Be sure to cheer her on in Vancouver!!!!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

On Saturday morning, we like to go to Findlay Market in Cincinnati to get bread from the Blue Oven Bakery...that's a picture of their bread. We get two or three baguettes (the ones on the top rack) to eat with Alberto's olive oil....not just any bread will do. We also like to get a loaf of Tortoni(a potato bread that makes really good panini). There are so many people who like the bread from BOB, that we have to get there really early...

GO CATS...can ya'll say #1. woohoo...lots of jumping around and cheering and phone calls after the big win over Arkansas...

Friday, January 22, 2010

This is how we start our day (AFTER the coffee and slideshow)! We have some standing up (that's what papa/gump is doing) and some on the floor! It's kinda hard to get up after those on the floor...Lucy may be laughing at us!

Here's what we know about you this week:

• Christian is starting school 2/1 at Esperanza HS
• Chandler has new braces and it's hard for him to eat (maybe I need some of those)
• Chloe is "Saturday Super-Fly" in the 7cutecollabers You Tube collaberation
• Andrew is having a three sport season - Indoor soccer, basketball and Outlaw Baseball spring training
• Abby is having her very first Gymnastics Overnight....hope she has fun!

We're watching the Hope for Haiti Now program...such a sad thing and makes us appreciate how really fortunate our lives are.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Every morning when papa/gump and I get up, we follow pretty much the same schedule...I shower, papa/gump turns the computer on, we meet in the kitchen to get coffee and then sit and watch the morning news and talk about what's going on that day. What happens at the computer (in Lucy's room) is the screen saver comes on and starts a slideshow...it's a very random slideshow and one picture may be of us in Italy, Andrew batting, Christian in a jet, Chan playing soccer, Abby's drawing or Chloe in Annie costume....we never know what's coming next, so it's a little addictive to just sit here and see what pops up next! This one was on twice this morning, so I thought I would share it with you!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

This is a picture I took this morning from the bridge...looking back at the flood wall. It has all these wonderful pictures painted on it and this summer I will take pictures of all of them so you can see them. They tell the history of Covington from the time when buffalo lived here until the last Tall Stacks. It was a cold walk this morning, but it was fun to look back at the wall and take the picture.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

This is what I look like when I write this blog. There's my cup of tea and the remote for the tv and Lucy on my lap (but I don't think you can see her). I told papa/gump that it seemed all the pictures on the blog were of him or the animals and none of me...so this is me! We saw on the news today, that sunny California's not so sunny....welcome to our world! Although I'm guessing OC and Tulsa have a better chance of sun tomorrow than we do!!!

Monday, January 18, 2010

It's Martin Luther King Day so no work or school today. I know ya'll study Dr. King in school, but I thought you would like to hear a story about what life was like when I was in elementary school....I rode the bus to school everyday, about 5 miles. On the way we passed a school (it was little and maybe 2 rooms) that the black children attended. We had a gym and cafeteria and playground and lots of toilets. Their school had none of those things...and their playground was just a dirt patch with a tree swing and they had an outhouse. They didn't get to choose to go to school there...the law made them...Dr. King worked very hard to change this so all children had the same chance for a good education.

On a really different note...papa/gump and I had to get new phones, so off we went to Best Buys and 2 hours later...woop woop, we have new phones! We have the same numbers and free text...so text us and we'll answer back.

Happy Sunday.

Papa/gump asked me to put this on the blog tonight. The picture is of his Uncle Clarence that died last week. The poem is one that was on the memorial card and was written by Uncle Fred Barnes. These are all Great-grandma Esther's (papa/gump's mom) brothers. I hope you can read the words because they are very beautiful. Uncle Clarence believed in UFO's and in fact, was president of the St. Louis branch of a UFO group. He was also principal of a high school in Illinois for a long time. I think is was someone to be proud to be related to, even at a long distance like you.

ps...if you can't read the poem, let me know and I'll type it out!

Saturday, January 16, 201

This evening I have to write the blog without papa/gump helping. He's on a road trip to Fairview Heights, Illinois. His Uncle Clarence died last week and the memorial service was today. He left early this morning...and will come home tomorrow. I didn't go with him 'cause I had some responsibilities at church tomorrow morning. Uncle Clarence was your Great-grandma Esther's next younger brother and he was 88 when he died...a nice long life. He also had a bunch of grandkids that he loved and he enjoyed seeing the picture of all of us at the beach this past summer.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Ah...Friday at last. We all get a weekend and a day (except papa/gump). The weather is better here so I was able to walk home from work, but then it got too cold to go for a walk after dinner. And speaking of dinner, papa/gump wanted you to see what we ate tonight. In the picture is the receipe and our dish (almost finished). We think it looks a lot like the recipe and it's a real Italian recipe with sausage, tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and cannellini beans. It was very good!!! Enjoy your weekend!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Hey gang....have a special request for you tonight. Uncle Mark and Aunt Ann need you to add them to your prayers to sell their house in St. Louis. They are living in Oklahoma City now and really like it, but would like to buy a house before summer. They need to sell the one in St. Louis soon! So, do a little "house selling" dance add them to your prayers tomorrow. They will be really happy if they can get a yard for Gilly and Scrappy.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Flat tire...oh how we hate to hear that! Papa/gump left for work this morning and when he got out to his car....flat tire...oh no!!! Well, you know your papa/gump....he jumped in my car and off to work he went. When we both got home tonight, we called AAA to put the spare tire on and then we drove it over to the tire place in Newport - conveniently located next door to:

so of course we had to have a little skyline to make us feel better!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Things we know about you!

Christian is very interested in the financial situation in Iraq

Chandler and his dad talked all the way through that terrible Bengals game

Chloe has a new vlog...chlobug817

Andrew has a new haircut AND his own e-mail address

Abby has been keeping the toothfairy very busy

and here's what I've been doing

and it's all Abby's fault...can't quit playing....I did make it to level 30.

The UK Wildcats are playing tonight at 9:00 so I have to go wake papa/gump up in time to watch it LOL

Monday, January 11, 2010

Before

After

Back to work...Monday! Papa/gump had to drive way up north today to pick up more Bengals and Reds stuff....What about UK...so exciting that they are ranked #2, we hope they can keep up the good work. We watched the 2 hour episode of Chuck last night...it's not a show we ever watched before and not sure if we will watch it again. NO sports!

The cups above were made in Italy, but were a gift from David and Jess at Thanksgiving. We have coffee almost every evening. We have a little coffee pot we bought in Italy that makes just two little cups. We pretend we're back in Italy! Papa/gump just finished the dishes (that's the deal....grandma/ma cooks, papa/gump cleans up), so we're going to walk the steps again. Maybe we'll race!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Happy Sunday evening kids.....we hope you had a wonderful day. We didn't go to church this morning, cause Grandma/ma woke up with a sinus headache....we watched lots of football and played with Lucy. It's still really cold here, so we didn't miss going out, but did miss taking a walk. We stayed in the house all day but we did talk to someone who lives in Pasadena and he was walking around in shorts and flip-flops...so not nice to share that!!!!

Here's a picture of what's on our refrigerator! What's on yours?

Saturday, January 9, 2010

I went shopping today and look what I found in my shopping bag!

Don't you just love Saturday! We started today all excited about the Bengals and the playoff game with the Jets...even though the last game was a disaster...Marvin said this would be a different game! HA And, UK Basketball was on at the same time....here's papa/gump in his usual game position....in front of the tv! Check the body english as UK goes up for a basket. He plays hard! Well, football is over for us...so now we'll look forward to the olympics in FEB...and best of all, we'll be in Italy when the World Cup starts in June...woohooo!

Friday, January 8, 2010

Wow...Friday finally! We both had long days with lots of snow to make walking/driving hard. But we made up for all that with supper at Skyline! Oh my, it was sooooo good. We went to the movie again at Newport on the Levee....this time we saw Up in the Air with George Clooney...a very adult kinda movie and neither of us really liked it! Here's a picture of papa/gump at the

theater with some friends! ALVIN!!!!!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

I was going to send ya'll a picture of something else today, but when I looked outside my window at work today, I thought a picture of the snow on Fountain Square would
be fun to see. This is from the 20th floor of my building on 6th Street. You can see the Fountain in the bottom and the skating rink the city puts up each Thanksgiving. Last week there were tons of people skating on the rink and it was fun to watch from this window.
We are watching the BCH game from the Rose Bowl and wishing we could be somewhere warm! Bengals are playing NY Jets Saturday at 4:00 and it's going to be about 8 degrees at the stadium.....it's sold out!!!! Go Bengals!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Yesterday I showed you my desk, today we have a picture of papa/gump at work. It's a pretty cool place! We still have really cold and snow and more expected tomorrow. Before dinner this evening we decided to walk all the stairs in our building (without the spy moves). We walked up to the 5th floor, down to the 1st floor and then up and down in the middle 1st to 4th. Whew...that got us ready for dinner. One of the women in our building got a new puppy for Christmas. It's a little white one and as soon as I can, I'll send you a picture. Today is the Feast of Epiphany so all the Christmas decorations are going away tonight. The house looks a little sad without all the green and red and Lucy will miss the bells in the bowl...she likes to knock them out one at a time and watch them roll across the table...yikes!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Hi gang...this picture is really for the C's living in southern Cal....just wanted to let the left side

of the country know what it's like here in the middle! We had about 4 inches of snow last night and for the first time in weeks, that goofy cat Lucy decided to go out. If you look really closely you can see her little paw prints in the snow. I'm sure she will refuse to go out once the snow is gone....goofy cat! So, hope you left coasters are enjoying the 70's and I know the A's will be glad to get rid of their snow...it's almost baseball season in OK. BTW, papa/gump said to tell you "what she says"....LOL

Monday, January 4, 2010

It's the first work day of 2010, so I'm attaching pictures of where I work...this is my view from 8:30 till 4:30 everyday....I actually really love my job and it's fun to sit here looking at all the pictures. The screensaver is a picture Abby painted in art class...pretty cool! If you look closely, you'll see a picture of each of you..and sometimes more than one. Gump/papa is going to take a picture of the shop so you can see that too. It's cold....cold...cold here today with a little snow falling.

Sunday 1/3/10

The end of vacation......well kinda! We went to church this morning and listened to the "lessons and carols". It's a nice way to start the week and we love the Christmas hymns. Here's a picture of the church in winter. Andrew and Abby, your Mom and Dad were married here and Chloe...you were the prettiest girl in the kids fashion show when you were 3. Later we went to see "It's Complicated" .... ok, but not on our top 10 list. We're going to watch the Bengals tonight and hope for a win...even though they're already Champs!!!!

January 2, 2010 Saturday

Saturday is our favorite day. We had coffee, read the paper and watched news. After we had breakfast we went to Findley Market to get bread for next week. We like to eat the baquettes that Blue Oven Bakery makes. It's very good with pasta and olive oil. Here are pictures of Lucy and Ricky, in case you forgot what they looked like. Lucy decided to run away this morning, so I took her picture in the hallway. As soon as she heard a noise, she came running back into our house...scaredy cat! We saw The Blind Side tonight. It was really good and we were glad we saw it....it's very cold here so we didn't walk!

January 1, 2010

So we started 2010 in the Vannasdall tradition of "big breakfast" at First Watch...they're the one place always open on New Year's Day. On the walk back to the house, a neighbor that works at the Ascent asked if we wanted to see the penthouse, uh yeah! So we toured the 2oth floor penthouse ($5,000,000) not finished and the 14th floor ($3,000,000) rooms are completed. Lots of bathrooms and windows, but what we liked best about both was the view of the Great American Baseball Stadium. The view from the 20th floor was incredible and you could actually see the pitchers mound...cool! We liked the 14th floor best since it had a huge outdoor terrace for the fireworks! We spent the rest of the day watch Rose Bowl Parade, and a variety of football games. Day 1...done