Almost back to normal

Before

After

We heard the welcome sounds of wood chippers and chain saws on West 13th Street this morning. The mountains of limbs and branches are gone! If you look past the wood chips in the street, you'd think nothing disastrous had happened around here.

The leftovers for the fire pit.

More good news....we had a full day of everyone at 98.6 yesterday! We celebrated with s'mores on the terrace. Any excuse for chocolate, right?

Winter Storm 2009

Sorry about our long absence. November, December and January were really busy. I got distracted. Anyway, we've survived the storm of the century. On that Monday, I saw that the Weather Channel guy was in Paducah, and I actually thought, "Well, it's a shame that he's come all the way out here for nothing." Silly me. Then Sheri called to make sure we were prepared and I started to wonder if a big storm was coming. Hmmmm....

The new Kentucky greeting goes something like, "Hey there! Got power?"

We stuck it out for a couple of days, but once it got down into the 30s indoors, we took off for Lexington. I don't think I've ever appreciated a warm shower like I did that night. Being warm and clean all at the same time....aaahhhh.....heavenly. We got to visit with Melissa and she introduced me to a great store. We spent some time with Josh.

There's a mall in Lexington with a great play area. Avril made friends with a large duck - one of her few friends that any of us can see. She has some geese, an elephant and a red girl bird, or so she tells us. Two days ago, she informed me that she had put seven of her fish friends in my washer, because they were dirty. "Don't worry," she said, "Dirty fish aren't very bitey." Good to know.

Alex celebrated being warm.

The pictures really don't convey what it was like. It was really beautiful with the ice, especially when the sun would come out. But it was awful, too. It seems like every tree -and we have lots of them - is broken. I hope they look much better when they get leaves.


Now every house has its pile of limbs and sticks. There's always an upside. Folks around here won't take heat and food for granted for some time. We're all stocked for firewood for quite a while. Utility workers from anywhere are our heroes. If you're a generator sales person, business had a huge up-tick in January.

Post election update

Ok, our nation has gone crazy. That's all I can say. Let's all move to some beautiful, warm island somewhere.

The campaign season was really busy. Avril and I lived at headquarters for the last couple of months. Every Republican in the 1st Congressional District knows her now. They'd come in to get their yard signs and she'd say, "Oh, I have a customer!" and run out of my office. Then I'd hear, "Hi! My name is Avril. I'm three. Who are you? You want to play ball with me?" She kept the volunteers busy playing, scratching her back, singing songs and so on. Such a shy and backward child. I hope she's able to break out of that shell some day.

Randy's doing football playoffs. He had a cold and soggy game last night and has a couple more, including a state finals game. This will be his third in the Commonwealth, so we're excited about that.

Avril getting ready to go to work. Thanks to her dedicated efforts, we were able to re-elect Congressman Ed Whitfield and Senator Mitch McConnell. A grateful nation thanks her.

Once the campaign was over, we celebrated our time off the way any couple of red-blooded American girls like to celebrate. We baked chocolate chip cookies. She designed her own apron, by the way. Princesses and flowers.

Alex turns six this next week. Hard to believe. It seems like just yesterday that we were yelling for Corie to push...and then having to go to an emergency c-section instead. And now, Randy has started teaching the boy the game of chess. How time flies...

Alex is also turning into quite the pyromaniac with Randy. They love to start a fire in the firepit on the terrace and then keep stoking it for hours with sticks and leaves. Of course, the marshmallows always have to come out, too. That's just a given.

This holiday season should be most enjoyable. First T-Day at Mom's, then our 26th anniversary (Randy's turn to take me out in our alternate progression). In mid-December, our home will be one of four in a community "Tour of Homes", and then I get to join Randy on a Chicago business trip where we have tickets for the Blue Man Group one night and the Nutcracker the next night. Randy will be home the weeks on either side of Christmas, so that will be wonderful, too.

Lots of news

There's been quite a lot going on around here since I last updated this thing. It's been a while since I've had a chance to do this. There's this campaign going on. You might have heard about it.

That Sarah girl really has folks stirred up. I'm so thankful for the volunteers at our headquarters. They can sit up there at the front and have the same conversation twenty times a day with the folks who come in and want to talk about Sarah and John and Fannie and Freddy and all of it, over and over and over. I can see them from my office and I pray blessings on them all day. I've noticed that it's usually the men who stop in that want to talk the whole thing over. Women come in and get their yard sign or their bumper sticker and they're on their way to the next errand. Men will lean against the door frame and strike up a conversation, and you know they've come to chew on this thing for a while. God bless our volunteers! That's what I say.

Anyway, lots of stuff has been going on. We had this storm that blew a limb down, and it pulled the power thing off of our house and tried to start a fire. We got a call while we were at the Mexican restaurant after church, that the fire department was at our house. Everything was okay, though. No power for a day or so, but we survived. So did the house. Thank you, God.

Then we got a new front walk up to our porch. We had some flagstones left from the terrace project, so we had the guys make a new walk. Avril had a great time watching that process. She was really good company for the guys, too. They never got lonely at all.

Then, we got our new driveway! Yippee! It looks really nice. Avril had a great time watching this, too. She had lots of advice for them. Such a helpful child, really.

Then, the children were nearly eaten by a hippo in St. Louis. They took it all in stride. I saved them, of course. Their cowardly mother just stood there and took pictures.

Then, we had a day at Magic House in St. Louis. It's a great place for kids. Randy loves it. So does Corie. Alex and Avril love it too. It's a wonderful place for kids. I'm good for the first twenty minutes or so. The rest of them feel like they're just getting started after a couple of hours. It's really fun for kids.

You know I really love you if I take you to Magic House.

A sad day

Randy's dad passed away this morning at the age of 90. This was very sad news, although we've been expecting it for a while.

Not only was he a dear, kind man, but he was so gentle and so much fun to be around. I've never known anyone who laughed like he did. He would turn purple, he'd laugh so hard. And usually over nothing at all. He'd win a game of cribbage and turn purple laughing about it.

Ted left behind a legacy of unselfishness and kindness that we all hope to to carry on. We will miss him very much. He was a wonderful gentleman and very much loved by his family and friends.

California Wedding

Randy and I went out to California and married off yet another niece last week. This time it was his brother's daughter. Very nice.
Of course, since we'd never been to the stadium in Oakland, we had to take in a ballgame. Ugly stadium. Sorry team. But we checked off stadium number thirteen. Poor A's. I don't think they've got a player with a batting average over .290. It was just about like watching the Seattle game. Rough.
This is Chocolate Heaven in San Fransisco. Wow. When you walk in the door, the smell is amazing. Had to buy some chocolate, of course. It's a law in San Fransisco. Not everyone knows about it, but it's true. Really.
We had to drive down the coast, too. Saw Hearst Castle. What a place. Actually, the outside is amazingly gorgeous, but the inside is dark and pretty ugly. Stopped in Carmel - didn't see Clint Eastwood, though. But we saw some really beautiful coastline. I had to get a picture of this distinguished gentleman, as well.
By the way, after the convention in Minnesota last week, I'm expecting several baby girls born in the next year to be named Sarah. Bye!

A quiet week

It has been an unusually quiet week at the Fox house. That's good, because Avril's been less than easy to get along with. She's much more demanding than Alex ever was. And now he's gone and grown up so that he has to be at kindergarten all day and isn't home to play with her. When Alex was three, he could entertain himself for a very long time with nothing more than kitchen utensils. I remember when we took him to DisneyWorld and I dreaded waiting in those long lines with a preschooler. As we discovered, there was nothing to worry about. His fingers became these guys that were fighting some other guys, and even in a 30- or 40-minute line, he was perfectly happy. Avril is definitely her own person.

But she's learning to entertain herself a little bit. The Leap Pad was big today.

Self portrait. Chalk on stone terrace. From the artist's blue period.

She's a well-rounded girl. Leap Pad intellectual. Artist. Horsewoman.






Randy got home from West Virginia today and put his new fire pit together. We're going to sit on the terrace tonight and watch sticks burn.