Birthday Anyone?

Let's see.......November is Turkey month, cold weather, football season, fall leaves....and of course.....when you look at our combined families......Birthday Month! Lets review:

Nov. 4th: Niece Haddy
Nov.11th: Aunt Kristin
Nov. 13th: Aunt Britta
Nov. 17th: Pete
Nov. 18th Niece Riley
Nov. 19th: Uncle Tom
Nov. 28: Uncle JP

Wow! That's a lot of phone calls, cards and cake. Sure hope I didn't miss anyone. Test will come later. Happy Birthday to all!

So yesterday was my birthday (no...I don't feel old), we celebrated last night with some Chicken Enchiladas and Cheesecake. Ally's good friend Nicole was in town from Phoenix, we laughed at Riley who put a show on for all, next time you see her ask her what a wolf says........That kid can sure howl!!!! Among the gifts I received was season 2 of The Office on DVD (7 hours of DVD's) and my own personalized engraved flask. Elli and I spent the afternoon watching Ohio St. beat Michigan for the 4th straight year. After getting phone calls and text messages from friends following the victory, Elli said the word 'Michigan', I said let's call them........the team from up north, to which she quickly replied by saying ......How about the Losers? Love that kid!

Gabe packed up the drums and went to a friends for the day and night, they were starting a new band. He is optimistic about this one sticking, saying this band plays the music he likes. Elli spent the night at Marissa's house and Abbi just went to church, she is headed to Cedar Rapids today with a friend to see a show or something, I can't remember. Party at the Millers....Riley's 2nd birthday party starts today at 3pm. See you there!!!!

And now...your moment of zen:
This picture was taken as the sun was setting at Brady St. Stadium at halftime of Gabe's last Freshman game 3 weeks ago. It is the baton class group, they performed at halftime of the game. Click on the photo (or any photos on the blog) to enlarge it. The shirts say....everyone loves a Twirl Girl!!!! Their next gig is this coming Friday at the Festival of Trees, 1pm.

Random Stuff.........

Our busy Fall sports and school seasons are winding down, Elli closed out the flag football season last week and Gabe is now preparing for the spring soccer season at Central by competing in an indoor soccer league at the Brady Street Sports Dome. He sprung the soccer thing on us a couple weeks ago, he has not played since 5th grade...maybe 4th grade? It's been so long I don't remember. I couldn't talk him into track, he has some soccer friends, and the spring season will lead him into baseball tryouts. Here is one last look at Elli, weaving her way in and out of defenders.



Abbi and Elli are still taking baton lessons on Monday night and have been going to a Bible school night on Wednesdays and have been attending a Sunday school at a friends Baptist Church. They enjoy going, some friends from Garfield attend. Both girls will play basketball after the Xmas holiday, I think Tiff is coaching one of the teams!

Because vacation time at work does not roll over into the next year, I have time to kill, taking each Friday off in November, then around Xmas I have quite a few days off too. This last Monday I was the featured person in the Argus/Dispatch 20 questions column. Here's the link:
www.qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=362186&query=pete%20ivanic .....if that doesn't work go to www.qconline.com and search my name.

Last Friday was a sad for us, after seeing Dakota get weaker and weaker we decided to put our beloved dog of 11 years down. He wasn't moving well and looked very confused, pretty much staying in the same spot under the front living room windows for the last few weeks. It wasn't easy taking him in, but we knew we were making the correct decision, we loved Dakota very much, this week as been difficult without him. I'll try and look for a picture of him to post soon.