Random Shots

I thought it would be fun to share a few photos with you from my gallery of never before seen photos- it's my simple way of saying to you, "Hello, welcome to my blog- here is a glimpse into my life."

Simple Guy and I co-led a trip to New Orleans to gut a house in the Lower 9th ward with a group of college students. All the homes had been spray painted by FEMA or local authorities to indicate that the house had been checked and whether or not there were any victims found inside. Needless to say, it was a bit eerie to see this and of course, very sad. This house in particular communicated a much different message and how true it still is today for the people that are still trying to rebuld their lives there.

This is a self-portrait of us taking a break from gutting the house we were assigned to. Those masks and goggles were absolutely necessary to block out the debris and fibers that were floating around when we were tearing into walls and moving moldy items. The masks also helped block out the smell of what was the worst odor I have had occasion to smell to date.

Last Memorial weekend, we took our first couples vacation with Katherine and Geoff to Door County, WI. Wow, what a beautiful place to see and what a fun trip we had. It was that weekend that Simple Guy and I were introduced to the game "Settlers of Kattan"- I may have the spelling of that wrong. Anyway, this was taken on our last night- immediately after this was taken we went for ice cream......Katherine's favorite treat!

The morning we left Door County to come home, Simple Guy got a call from his mom telling us that his sister was in labor at a hospital in Milwaukee. So instead of going home, we went to Milwaukee and waited for Madelyn to be born- she is Simple Guy's first niece and my third. More importantly, she is the first grandchild on either side of the family, so you can imagine how excited everyone was to finally meet her. Here we are holding her just minutes after she was born.

I love this picture of Simple Guy with little Eric, my cousin's youngest child. I think they look a little alike here. Eric loves Simple Guy- he loves to jump on him and chase him around.

And this picture is Simple Guy and his Grandpa - they were super close. Simple Guy did a lot with his Grandpa growing up and we would try to get to where he was at least every other month to spend time with him, especially when he fell ill and went into a nursing home. Grandpa passed away in January 2007- this picture was taken Christmas 2006. It really does not depict the jovial man that Grandpa was, but I like it so much because it shows him in his dapper hat that he liked to wear.