Bunny and shooting
Mood:  incredulous
No one shot a bunny - yet. They are two seperate topics. For some reason Chelsea decided to go out and buy a rabbit. Don't ask me why. I feel that by the end of summer it will be forgotten about and we will have to turn it loose. Already it resides in Joe's room.

Joe did a good job at the shooting range for 4H. They had some fun and shot at a lump of charcoal. Joe hit his on the first shot and had some ammunition left. So the guy next to him said in a joking manner - go ahead and try to shoot the string. One shot later and he drilled it. Fancy shooting there Tex. He also put 5 shots in the black - all touching in the paper target. So needless to say he was proud of himself.

Joe is going to Kyle's to shoot those 6mm plastic pellets at each other. They even have glow in the dark pellets for night time use. He is going to have a busy weekend.

Vanessa is going to the doctor weekly. Baby is estimated at 7 and a half pounds and seems to getting in position. Delivery is still a week or two away at least.

Sarah hung out with Chad this weekend. He is making rumblings that he would like to switch jobs again. He has looked at some county maintenance jobs. It would be nice if he could hook up with either the state or county highway deparments.

fawn
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Chelsea
Chelsea and I went bicycle riding last weekend. She noticed a fawn byside the road. She was able to walk up to it and it went to run away. It tangled in a brushpile and she was able to catch it. It bleated once for it's mother. But she was able to get it to settle down and pet it. The fawn was very small, certainly less than a week old. She did she some bigger tracks along side of it, so I imagine the mother was moving with the fawn and we startled her away.

Joe has had several friends stay over this summer already. So it has been busy already for the young man.

Chad took another girl up to Utica with him for a car show with the car club that he is a member of. Her name is Cheryl, her father is also a member of the club which how they met. I think that they are hitting it off fine initially. We'll see how far this goes. The Sarah thing seems to be fading.

We are all anxiously waiting on Elaina Jane. Vanessa wants to get this over with. I think she got most everything she needed from the baby shower which seemed to go fairly well. We will be taking a couple of days off when the baby is born to see the new arrival.

DC
Mood:  energetic
Topic: Joe
I was an escourt for Joe's Washington DC trip. All in all it was good time. We were in the first bus and we had to switch drivers outside of DC. Our driver was on the radio to the other driver saying that by his GPS, we were 50 feet away from the building. The other driver replied that we were like 2.5 miles away. So much for modern technology. AFter they figured things out we finally made the rendevoux.

The hotel was under renovation and one of the elevators was out. So with 90 kids trying to use the elevator, we opted to take the stairway - to the 8th floor. What a hike it was, I called it the 8 mile hike, because it felt like we went that far by the time we got up there.

We got to see a play "sheer madness" that was interactive. Mount Vernon was fun. Saw all the memorials and several of the Smithsonian museums. We did have a 'sock incident' where someone propped open a door at night with a sock. I imagine that they are being interrogated by now.

I saw Grace, the girl that Joe is sweet on, she seems nice. He said that he would dance with her tonight at the dance that they holding after 8th grade graduation.

Vanessa's baby shower was this weekend. Becky did a great job of decorating and everyone had a good time. Eric and Vanessa almost did not have enough room for everything.

Went bicycling with Chelsea, legs held up fairly well. She wants to go kayaking - I told her that we would go the week of her birthday.

Chad one step closer to his house.
Mood:  cool
Well Chad is one step closer to getting his house. The flurry of inspections is over. There is some work to be done with the electrical and also the septic system. Around $2000 worth of work according to Chad. However the seller is going to cover the cost of doing this - so that will work out just fine. Once the work is done a closing date can be set!

Joe and I have been working on refurbishing our utility trailer. Fixing the side rails and reworking the wiring on the trailer lights. I got to use a TIG welder for the first time. Chad let me borrow his because the oxygen was used in the acetylene welder. So far the welds have held up fairly well. I may have to buy one of these for myself. It did good with the thinner steel.

I plan to haul away the last of the sheet metal roofing from the old barn and miscellanous scrap metal from the barn yard with the trailer. I told Joe that since he has been so helpful that I would let him have the money from that to spend in Washington DC. I think that I will take it this Saturday so that Joe can come with me and see all the heavy equipment. I remember going with Dad to the scrap yards and I always enjoyed seeing all the big cranes and so forth.

He is doing shooting sports with 4H. All of the other kids are younger than him. But I told him that after this year he can go into the advanced with the older kids. He had fun the first meeting at the Eaton Rod and Gun Club. He got to shoot at his first target and got all of the shots in the black. His first shot was at the wrong target - so the kid next to him ended up with 6 holes on the target, while Joe only had 4.

I am taking Chelsea to the University of Cincinnati this Friday. She wants to see about the biotech program that they have there. Well it is closer than San Diego State.

Vanessa's baby shower is fast approaching; this May 20th. I am feeling a little anticipation. Hard to imagine that in a month and a week there will be a little Deeter. Vanessa helped out at the Kentucky Derby again this year. She helped with clerical duties this time, I guess they were falling behind and she had to make deposits at the bank, run errands, and the like. Eric did get home at 3pm on race day this year. I'll bet he had a few cold ones after the busy weekend.

Nuther week gone by
Mood:  not sure
Went to go visit Nellie this weekend. She certainly seemed to be upbeat after all that she has been thru. It is not a question of if she will do this or that, it is a question of when. She complains that the therapists are not giving her enough to do and that she has to do stuff on her own to challenger herself. If mental toughness counts for anything she will pull thru this situation.

We stopped at a store on the way back to 75 and got a few things. We found a sign that said "Pop's Garage" that I put overtop the big entrance to the barn.

Joe has helped with the landscaping. I had him drive the tractor to pull up some old bushes. I was a bit nervous about letting him do it, but you can't baby them all their lives. He did fine and was a big help with the landscaping. I joked that at this rate we will have 10 foot X 10 foot square of grass surrounded by an ocean of mulch. Oh, he made a 3 story hamster condo out of lego's with like a little see-thru penthouse on top.

Chelsea wanted to go camping at Hueston Woods for her 18th birthday. I told her if you go, we'll go camping too. Plus there is plenty of space at our place for a campfire and campout where we can keep an eye on things. She still wants to do the tattoo thing. But she may only have money for an outline, then would have to go back and have it colored in. The way she spends money she would have it filled in by the time she's 35.

Vanessa is doing OK. Just wanting to go ahead and have the baby, she says it feels like she has been pregnant forever. Eric got a healthy payraise, so that will help them out. The ice business is heating up. With the Kentucky derby coming up, they are gearing up full production and he is gearing up for 14+ hour days until it is over. They bring in people from other districts to help with the deliveries during the week. Last year Vanessa helped by cooking meals for Eric's deliverymen.

Chad is working on the Honda Civic. As much money and time as what he is putting into it, it had best run on air so that he gets a payback.

toad ranch
Mood:  sharp
Topic: Joe
Joe and Cody captured several toads and frogs a few weekends ago. The bullfrog was very large. One of the toads was pregnant, it had eggs, and now they are hatching. The bottom of the aquarium is becoming covered in tadpoles. I imagine in a month that we will have hundreds of tiny toads. Becky tried to get Joe to hunt easter eggs - no way was the response. She really needs a grandchild.

Chelsea had her first open gym with North. She got along with the other players OK. They seemed to have good chemistry from what I could see. She goes to court today for her last accident. Not sure how it will go.

Science Award
Mood:  happy
Topic: Chelsea
Chelsea was proud of herself. Her pic was in the front page of the Twin Valley News. Her team did very well in the science competition at school. Their testing went well, but the presentation was a bit off. They were nervous in front of the judges. But they got a good score and got to present again at Sinclair. Her job at Wendy's is coming along fine.

Joe's minature Hamster is not doing well all of sudden. He seems to have gotten some sort of infection in the side of his face - maybe from storing sharp seeds?? And is not doing well. He has had a full life, sailing on a pirate ship with lights that Joe built - eating out of the crows nest while sailing in the hot tub, chased the cat with a remote controlled lego vehicle and various vacation homes - also made of lego's. He is still alive, but barely moving. We are counting down to the end. I suppose that we get a new one to start a new round of adventures.

Chad's house is still in a holding pattern. Waiting on another round of inspections.

We are scheduling a baby shower for Vanessa. We will do it here in April so that she doesn't have to travel much in May/June. Probably the weekend after Easter.

Louisville
Mood:  lazy
Topic: Vanessa
Had a nice weekend in Louisville to visit Vanessa. On Saturday we went to the Patton Tank Museum. It was a good time. A fellow from GM was there to authentic the car that Patton last rode in. Found out that several of the tanks still run and they do have groups come out and do battles with tanks - they actually fire blanks. It was more of a guy thing, so we went to the St. Matthew Mall afterwards to get Chelsea a prom dress. So both the guys and girls had an equal opportunity to be bored. I did find a book store going out of business, and got 5 books for only $7. Then we went out to eat afterwards.

Vanessa and Eric have a nice apartment. It is at the end of the complex, next to a good sized wooded lot. They have 2 bedrooms with a loft. Plenty of room, we all stayed there. The location is great. They are within walking distance of Walmart, Krogers, and several other stores. She is quite the coupon clipper. Glad to see that the family trait of being frugal is being picked up by the next generation.

Joe was miffed that he is still grounded. I told him that yes all of his grades came up, but they all have to be C's or better. I did compromise and said that since he improving he can have friends over once a month. He wasn't happy, but I need to stay on message with him. He is definitely smart, just does not want to apply himself. Anyway he gets a partial reward for getting his grades partway back up to where they should be.

Joe seems to have picked up an interest in shooting. So he is signed up with 4H. He would like to get a real deer rifle someday. I told him that if he baled hay in the summer, he could save up enough to buy a nice rifle if that is what he really wanted. I told him that we could go to Michigan or Pennsylvania someday, it would be fun.

Chelsea's math dropped a little, but everything else is doing good. She earneed good money for her A's last report card. She is excited about the prom of course. I think it isn't for another couple of weeks or so.

Chad's house has to have a soil test(even though the water tested OK) and some other test. So it is still pending. Since the water is OK, I don't see why the soil wouldn't test OK too. So I think the deal is still on, just delayed a little.

Dinner w/Rob
Mood:  happy
Topic: General
We went to Milford and had lunch with Robert. Everyone had a good time. Eric said that of all the aunts and uncles of Vanessa's that he has met so far, Rob is his favorite. We joked that they need to get together - Rob with the Tradewinds Ice Tea and Eric with the Ice. We ate at Tony Roma's - it had cheeseburgers which made Joe happy, Crab legs for Becky and steaks for everyone else. Rob said that Chad reminded him of me and Joe reminded him of Matt.

Chad's house is still on track. Nothing negative so far, just waiting for all the paperwork to get processed. Vanessa's belly is going to catch up to mine before it is all over.

Increase in Altitude
Well Joe is just a hair smaller than Chelsea now. So he is pushing 5'8". He is definitely taller than his friend Cody. Chad has made an offer on a house. The paperwork is in process. Will be visiting Vanessa in 2 weeks that should be fun. Becky bought Chelsea another car - but Chelsea is paying for it. I am not happy about it, but maybe if she pays for it then it will mean more to her.