Now Playing in Peoria: BSB!

Friday, August 19, 2011

I've had a hard time blogging lately. And I think I know why. I can't get enough of reading mysteries every chance I get. Since May, I think I've read about 12 mystery novels with great pleasure, including many by Agatha Christie. Time I could be using to blog I'm using to bury my nose in a book! So, tonight, I am back to blogging. With renewed vigor! The picture above is a snake I observed in the barn last week. I poked at it with my crop (which it tried to bite) in an effort to get it out of the space where I was about to bring Lilly. I didn't want my brumby jumping out of her skin when this guy went slithering across the barn floor.


Here is Lilly's medicinal mash of stuff which she still gets in the AM and PM as her Lyme treatment. You can't see the real medicine in there. The picture only reveals the grain. Which Lilly loves with her entire being. I was concerned about Lilly last week because she was, all of the sudden, spooking at things she never spooked at before. She's never been a spooky mare. I started to wonder if the medicine was making her wacky. I was crushed that my near-perfect mare was on a slippery slope to Spooktown. It was The Mystery of the Suddenly Spooky Mare. I told Bill I was worried. So while I was at work last week, he tacked her up and took her out on a long trail ride. Just to see. Conclusion: He said she was the best and most awesome trail horse on the planet. Well, he didn't say that about the planet. I added that. But he did say she was awesome and had no spooks whatsoever.


So I am not going to freak out about it. I wanted to ride last weekend to follow through on this investigation of The Suddenly Spooky Mare case, but I has something else to do. My dad was turning 70 and his wife had planned a big birthday celebration for him. So Brandon and I boarded a plane for Peoria, Illinois to join the festivities! Actually we had to fly to Chicago first and then to Peoria. But you know what I mean.


Here is the welcome committee in the family room at my dad and his wife's house. An itty bitty kitty committee.


It was so fun to see everyone. Brandon got busy with some new brewskis.


Here is my dad (Tom) and his wife (Joelyn). I think this picture is hilarious.


Here we are trying out the timer on my camera.


Mmm mmmmm, yum. My dad and Joelyn love to cook. They are always planning elaborate meals and exploring new recipes. Here you see Joelyn made me a cosmo before dinner. Every night we were there was like a little party.


Here they are dancing in the kitchen in between making drinks, whipping up a huge prime rib and snapping photos.


The next night there was more partying. This is a picture of my Aunt Bernadette, my brother's wife Lisa and my Uncle Lee. My uncle Lee is fluent in French so I tried to have a conversation with him en francais. My french was so pathetic that I wonder if my Uncle Lee was thinking, Get me out of here.

There is Brandon on a different night with my Aunt Shirley. My Aunt Shirley loves to talk. She will tell you everything about everything you'd ever want to know, and will do so while laughing and laughing and laughing.


That is my dad's brother, my Uncle Bob, with his wife, my Aunt Jeanne. They live in Ohio. My Uncle Bob is a black belt in karate! yet still, he is the gentlest soul you will ever meet.


In this picture I am with my Uncle Tom (who is my mom's brother), my Uncle Jim (who is my mom's other brother and who, at my wedding, some of my co-workers assumed was my dad), my sister's partner Annie, and my Aunt Ann. We are getting ready to boogie.


This is Brandon with one of my dad's granddaughters (Brooklyn). Brandon loves children. While I am hiding from them, often in horror, he seeks them out.


Brooklyn is the one taking this picture. You can see Joelyn is explaining to her how to take the picture. She did pretty good with this one. In others all you could see were blurry fingers.


Ahhh what is happening here? I guess I can't be smiling all the time!


This picture is my sister's daughter Jade who is very teenagery and did not want her picture taken ever. So when she was on the phone and simultaneously texting, I zipped in and took her picture. As soon as she realized what I was doing, there were wild and teenagery protestations. Hah! It is so easy to rankle a teen!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TOM!!!!!

~Up next: It's back in the saddle!







1 comment:

SprinklerBandit said...

Love your pictures, lol. You make it interesting to read about someone else's family reunion, which is a rare gift. ;-)

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