Jolly Old Fat Man

As promised.....here are the girls with St. Nick a couple weeks ago at SAU following a performance of Charlotte's Web by SAU students. Wish lists are posted on your right.

We are still very much missing Dakota, found these photos over the weekend. Here Shamon and Dakota peer in between some parts of the old fence they knocked out so they could see in the yard. This is the old dog run, maybe taken in 1997 or 1998. In the summer of 1999 this area became our kitchen, construction was underway when Shamon passed.


The Big D. He was very smart, though he never wanted to strut his stuff and perform for you like he was smart. I think that was a part of his smartness. Get it?

White Christmas -- Circa 21

Thanks to some free tickets from Bill's Moving and Storage, we were treated to an evening out on the town last night at the dinner playhouse in Rock Island, Circa 21. The show was Irving Berlin's White Christmas.

Uncle Jamie called in the early afternoon and said his boss at Bill's, Becky, had purchased a bunch of seats for the staff....sort of a Holiday party like gathering. But, one by one, workers came up with other things to do, so Becky told Jamie to call us and Grandma Marcia.

We arrived in from the cold around 6pm, just in time for dinner, served buffet style in the old theater just outside the District of Rock Island. I had been there to see productions a few times growing up with my family, it was a new experience for Marcia and Tiffany and Jamie and the kids. We were minus Gabe, he was invited to an all night party at a friends house.

At first the user told us to go to the balcony for our seats, but another usher said she made arrangements to sit closer to the stage. There was a table for four, so we took it, almost in the middle of the theater, stage right. Marcia and Jamie sat towards the back of the theater with the rest of the staff from Bill's who were able to attend.

We ordered drinks, ate salads and hit the buffet, which was comprised of corn, veggies, potatoes, fish, baked chicken, pasta and had a cook slicing up a pork roast. We all ate well.

At 7:15 the Bootleggers started the pre-show and at 7:45 the main show started. It was a musical comedy about a singing/dancing/acting duo from the Ed Sullivan Show who served in the Army during WW II, who discovered their old General was in financial trouble running an Inn in Vermont. They managed to save the Inn for their General and find love along the way.

At intermission we ordered some dessert. Check out Elli inhaling her Sundae:
Elli really got into the show, we were lucky to be placed near an aisle so we were cornered by a wall on one side of us, which you can see in the photo above. Elli stood up and danced and lip synced her way through the second act. She was very funny. As the show ended, the couple sitting across the aisle behind us stopped us as we were putting our coats on. The man said next time they come to see a show they want to see Elli on stage!!!!



















Elli went gansta for this photo during the intermission.

I took this video on my phone, I ask Abbi where we are at and then the house lights went down for the show.

It's getting to seem a lot like.......

Hello All, been a few weeks since the last post, yes a lot is going on with the Ivanlams as we make our last minute preparations for the Holidays. The tree is in the front living room, the stockings are hung. And we got 4 inches of snow on Thursday.........Winter and Christmas is near!!!!!

One reason for the time in between posts is our computer......we updated systems to Windows Vista on our new HP, but the change has not been easy. Vista doesn't want to recognize our video camera, which isn't that old of a camera, so placing video clips on the blog is on hold for now until I can figure out what I need to do. We have some great video from the day after Thanksgiving when the Twirl Girls performed a routine at the Festival of Trees. They did a great job, there was a lot of people watching. We have old fashioned still photos, but oddly enough, the photo card from Tiffany's digital camera, along with Santa photos of the girls, is being difficult, the card doesn't want to show us the photos, we fear we may to to re-format the card, which would in turn delete anything on the card. That is not a Vista problem, because Tiff's other photo cards for the camera work fine. URGHHHH!

The video camera issue is frustrating, with a DVD burner and Windows Movie Maker, we were planning on making DVD's of our home movies with ease, I've made some slide shows with still photos that included music behind them with fades and transitions and graphics....it was very easy do to and looks impressive. I'm sure I'll figure something out. Until then....let's go retro. Christmas circa 1999 with Gabe and Abbi....so cute!



The new system does have the approval of Gabe, he had a lot of problems with the old computer, trying to get his MP3 music player to work with it. He recently spent $20 of his own cash to buy an IPod off a friend, the smallest and cheapest IPod. His friend received a new IPod, so Gabe offered him a deal he couldn't refuse.

Abbi and Elli started basketball practice this week for the Dad's Club, Tiffany got roped into coaching Abbi's team, no other parent stepped forward to do it. Both girls will also play roles in First Baptist Church's production of The Nativity, Abbi will play the role of Mary and Elli is going to be an Angel. They have been practicing for the last few weeks and will perform near Christmas.

During last week's ice and snow storm Tiffany took Abbi and Elli to see a production of St. Ambrose's Charlotte's Web. Following the musical, Santa Claus (the real one) made a special appearance for the kids, again those photos so far are irretrievable, if we can get them off the photo card I will post them. Hey...let's go retro again....The kids with our beloved Dakota (R.I.P.) in 2004.



The Gaber has a full plate with activities almost every day after school. If he's not preparing with the Show Choir group for the winter Show Choir season, he is working out in the weight room with the other football players or playing in the winter indoor soccer league at the Sports Bubble. He intends on playing soccer, a spring sport in Iowa, and then trying out for baseball which is still a summer sport. The Show Choir group performs at competitions in Jan, Feb and March on the weekends, traveling to Omaha, Mount Pleasant, Des Moines, Chicago. It's like a short musical compacted into 20 minutes. The competitions are like those cheerleader things on ESPN, or marching band meets. Gabe has 2 teachers at Central that work with the kids and they hire a choreographer from Ohio or somewhere that comes to town every so often. It's pretty serious. You should see some of the stuff he has to wear! Broadway Gabe!

OK OK......one more retro picture.......here's a good one from 2002.
I did figure out how to take a clip from a DVD and publish here. For those of you who have not seen the work I do with Mediacom......here's a sample from the first basketball game we taped this season, back on Nov. 20th.

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.