Miami Woods Hike

We took a hike through the woods next to Miami University during a Hike-a-thon. It was a beautiful Fall October morning.




Emily checking out how old some of the trees were.



This one is as old as her Dad!




Beautiful Woods



Russ and Emily



A little bridge just right for Emily.

Ryan's Homecoming

25 August was a very special day for our family. Ryan returned home from his mission after serving for 2 years in Long Beach, CA. It was a long awaited and much anticipated homecoming. We are very grateful for his service among the people of Long Beach.

Summer, here I come!

So, I was looking at Pam's blog this morning and saw our family blog to the side with a two months ago tag and decided I should try to update a little.

I finished school three weeks ago. What a semester. I took 20 credits and earned a 4.0. I had one week off and started my summer term. I am taking an English Grammar class and doing my Senior Capstone. Miami requires all seniors to complete one. You have to be a senior, which technically I am. Some of them are pretty exciting like traveling around Europe for three weeks checking out their educational systems, or going snorkeling in the Bahamas; all of which takes time and money. So, for my capstone I am working on an educational website that was developed a few years ago and has kept growing through this particular capstone.

I will be done with classes in 4 weeks. After which I will be going to girls camp as the camp director, although I really haven't done anything to prepare the girls so far.

Russ is back in Japan for two months. He is working with the ROTC Midshipman and helping to coordinate cruises with the Japanese Navy. We thought we were done with separations for awhile. He's enjoying being back and said it felt like home when he pulled up to PSD and was expecting me in our lovely tan Toyota Estima van.

Ryan will be getting home from his mission on August 25th. We are very excited for him to be home. He'll stick around for about 10 days and then head back to BYUI in Rexburg, Idaho.

Lindsay is home for the summer from BYU. She finally got a job as a lifegaurd at the city pool. She's hoping to get a nice tan, but for Lindsay maybe she'll look like a normal person. So far, you can barely tell she's been in the sun.

Maura is almost done with her freshman year. She has a busy summer schedule with girls camp, youth conference, band camp, and a two week leadership and service camp at Miami. She's pretty excited for everything to finally get going. She's thinking about maybe an Arabic camp at BYU next summer!

Emily is finishing up first grade. She has had a great year and a smooth transition. Her teacher was wonderful and all the students were very welcoming. She's made lots of friends and loves to be the center of attention. Her reading has taken off and she has surprised us all with the books she can read. She's looking forward to a lazy summer. She has a few swimming lessons lined up, but other than that, we're going to wing it so when everything lines up, maybe we can go on a few road trips and actually explore this new state we are living in. We'll just leave the two older girls behind to do their thing.

I guess that got everyone up to speed. If anything exciting happens, I'll try to update this wonderful blog.

I know I need to post

So, everyone is giving me a hard time about not posting. You see, I do have a reason. I just got back from my trip to London and have been overwhelmed with school work. I haven't posted anything about the trip, but for those of you interested, my sister Pam came with me and she has photos and the itenerary all listed conviently on her blog. You should check it out there. I have a link to the side, but it is pamandmatt@blogspot.com I think. It was a lot of fun and great to see mom. She is doing really well and looking forward to coming home.

We had a few birthdays this month. Lindsay turned 19, Maura 15 and me, well I guess I'll tell you all I am finally 41. When I asked Maura if she felt 15 she asked me if I felt 41. I don't think I do. I know I'm old, or so my kids say, but I guess I still feel young at heart, maybe 35. I look back and see all that I've done, and I guess I could have done more, but I think Russ and I have raised some pretty good kids and if that is all that I ever do in this life, I will be satisfied. Of course I am trying to improve myself. I love going to school and learning all I can. It has been really fun and I look forward to being a great teacher in a few years. It seems my life might be half over, but I still have so much to do and accomplish that I hope I can spend the next 40 years being even more productive than the last.

So to all of you. Thanks for your love and encouragement.
I hope all my sisters are happy now!

Peggy needs...

I just saw this on Jill's Facebook and thought it was pretty funny. Just for the heck of it, I googled my name and thought they were too funny to not post. So here it goes.

Here’s how it works: Google “[your first name] needs” put it quoted to that specific phrase together and share the first 10 results. That's it: it is that simple. But be honest! Tag the person who tagged you, and pass it on...

1. Peggy needs some good luv'n and get some new people to hang around with.
2. Peggy needs help selecting some fish. Can you help her?
3. Peggy needs an evil twin.
4. Maybe Peggy Needs A Little Help From “Laura Bush”.
5. Peggy needs to develop a task force to review the assessment to extractspecific information and develop specific recommendation.
6. Peggy needs a home for the holidays...
7. Peggy needs your pearls...
8. I think Peggy needs to talk to the people at "Picture Loans".
9. Peggy needs as many "walkers" as she can get.
10. Peggy needs more than a makeover, she needs an overhaul!

The only ones I skipped over were the multiple ones of needing a home. I guess a lot of people name their miscellaneous pets Peggy and they must all be homeless since so many need a new home. Anyways. This was pretty funny. If anyone else is up for it, do it and post on your blog.

Have a great day!

May I Cut In?

Tonight I had no homework, and I was really bored, so I hopped on the computer. The blog was up, so I started looking at the recent Posts, and wow, have I missed out on some stuff. I didn't know my parents would keep up this well. My mom was talking about My Mock Trial experience, and she had a few things wrong, so I'll start there. Our School has two Mock Trial Teams, Red Team and Blue Team. I was on the Blue Team, a.k.a. The JV Team. Each team has a Defense and a Plaintiff. I was the Opening Attorney for the Defense. The first competition you attend is Districts, then if you make you move one to Regional, and Then State. Now, your Defense and Plaintiff compete separately, the Plaintiff goes against another teams Defense, and your Defense goes against a different schools Plaintiff. In order to move on to the next competition your Defense and Plaintiff both have to win their round. Unfortunately, our Plaintiff went up against a really tough team, and didn't win their round. But, the Defense won their round, even if I made some really stupid mistakes. For instance, the Judge asked if the Plaintiff would like to introduce their team, and I got up and started introducing our team, and if you remember, I was on the Defense. Or I referred to one of the Plaintiff's witnesses as a he when she was in fact a she. But other than that, we did really well, my co-council won the Best Attorney Award. I had a ton of fun and look forward to trying out next year. I hope to make the Red team next year, with some luck and practice. Now that Mock Trial is over all I have to occupy my time is Key Club and Homework. For those of you who don't know, Key Club is an organization which is devoted to service and helping those around them, and is sponsored by Kiwanis. It is a ton of fun, I love Service Projects, and helping out in the Community. As for Homework, I got two B+'s one A+ and the rest of my grades this semester were A's. I had a 4.0 weighted GPA and a 3.8 something un-weighted. I made honor roll, and here you receive a coupon to Buffalo Wild Wings if you get a 4.0 or higher weighted GPA, so I received one of those as well. I have to say my favorite class is my honors English class with Mr. Lykins. We have about 14 people in my class, and we get a ton done while having fun and some awesome discussions. I really love it because of all the writing we have done, I think that in the past semester we have written more than any other year. Not to mention we do a ton of reading. We are usually reading something as a group, and we have to read two books a quarter from one of two AP reading lists. At the moment we are reading To Kill a Mockingbird. I have to admit I didn't like it at first, I once described it as a peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich, delicious, but there is nothing there. It has gotten better, but I still don't see how my teacher could have read it eight times! I applied for some "Gifted" camps this summer. Basically, you go and stay at collages, and take classes, as well as go and do hands on stuff that has to do with the camp. I applied to the one at Miami, which is called, B the Change (U Wish 2 C), this one is all about getting involved and doing service, you attend a few classes in the morning and then go Downtown Cincinnati and do service projects. I also applied to one at UC which is a law one. You get to attend trials and all that fun stuff. I can only do one because they take place at the same time, but I really want to get into one, they sound like a ton of fun. I am also attending Girls Camp, Youth Conference, and Band Camp! This summer with be busy, but will be topped off the best event of all, RYAN COMING HOME!!!!! I am so excited, boy does time fly. I hate to say it but I think I have run out of things to talk about. Well, until next time.

January has come and gone

It's been a crazy week. We were told when we moved to Ohio that they have pretty mild winters in the Cincinnati area. Not sure why, but it seems that the first winter anywhere we live becomes the worst winter in history. That sure happened here. We got dumped on this last week. In fact, the girls were out of school Tuesday-Friday! Of course, Miami only closed on Wednesday. Those of you out west who like to laugh, there is a thing called ice when you get anywhere with moisture in the air. That ice sticks to the roads, sidewalks, powerlines and cars. Try shoveling a foot of show that weighs a ton. It isn't fun. So, for the girls it was a slow week. For me and Russ, life goes on.

Classes are going fine. It's different this semester with no education classes. They are actually all generals so I'm doing lots of big lectures, three tests, maybe one paper due. It's a little strange, but I am learning quite a bit. My family thinks I'm getting paranoid about germs, but try sitting in on a lecture three days a week dedicated to human diseases and microbes, I think you'd be washing your hands more too.

Ryan is having a great week. His new address is:
9431 Cedar St
Bellflower, CA 90706

If Bellflower sounds familiar, it's where the lady delivered the eight babies. He likes his new companion and the area. They had 5 investigators at church last week. He said they've been working really hard.

Maura competed in her first and only Mock Trial competition. They have been practicing for so long now. They have a team of two different sides, prosecution and defense. They won one an lost one so will not be going on to the state competition. She had a lot of fun doing it and will probably do it again next year.

Lindsay went on a date yesterday! It's weird that she is dating and meeting people we know nothing about. She is having a lot of fun out at BYU. Hopefully studying as much as she should be.

Emily is taking an Art class at the university every Saturday morning. She just started two weeks ago. She's already used some big words like natural and surrelism. She is also starting up her gymnastics again. She started private lessons with a university student. We'll see if she can make some progress or not. Her back doesn't seem too flexible. We really need to work on that.

We did the usual Blair family outing yesterday and went to a movie. The girls saw the new Inkheart movie and Russ and I saw Taken. It was pretty good. Lots of action and such. The theatre was very nice. The screen huge and the sound great. Doesn't make me miss the little Benny Decker on Yokosuka.

We just got some bad news a few minutes ago. A former co-worker and friend of Russ' died yesterday of a heart attack. His name was Werner Jurnika. He was a great guy. Russ really respected him. He worked with Russ on the Kittyhawk. They left Japan shortly after us and moved to Italy. It was a shock to open the email. Werner was our age. It really seems like life can be pretty short. Our prayers are with his wife Hannah and their family.

Hope you enjoyed the update.