Holiday Cheer!!!!!!

Time for Abbi and Elli's Holiday message of good tidings and joy for all! Before pressing play, scroll down and mute the song on Abbi's swimming slideshow. Apparently in Ivanlam world it's 2009 already, I put the wrong year in at the start. Enjoy!

Rock Island ORCA the Pentathlon Challenge

Over the weekend Abigail participated in her 3rd swim meet. This was the first meet that you could sign up for five events, most are up to four events. Also the first one that she did the butterfly, her least favorite stroke. She did so awsome. In all four stroke events she came in first in her heat, out of six girls. She improved her time in three out of the four events. The individual medley, 100 IM, she came in second. We are very proud of her. She was exhausted afterwards. She got up at 5:30, left at 6:10, and was in the pool for warm-ups at 6:45. Events started at 8, and went till about noon. I was so excited to get so many good pictures I just had to share them all. I did have to explain to her that she just made it difficult for her next meet because she did so well, and improved her times, she will be swimming against faster girls next time. But she is up for the challenge.

Abbi's swim meet at RockIsland

Turkey Day '08

As promised, a holiday greeting from my favorite turkeys, Abbi, Elli and Ambrose. Scroll down to turn the sound off the Halloween slide show, click on the speaker to mute the scary music, then hit play on this video.

New Stuff

Here is a few pictures from the opening night of the Festival of Trees at the River Center in Davenport from Last Friday. Uncle Jamie's boss at Bill's Moving and Storage Becky had a few extras and Tiff and I got invited. It's not often we get to dress and go out for some food and some drinks! Gabe was head baby sitter at home.We ran into a lot friends at the Festival as we enjoyed the free wine.

Introducing Brenda.....Jamie's new girlfriend for the last few months. They sure do look happy!

Good news from the family swimmer, Abbi. On Sunday she got up at 4:30am to catch a ride with her best friend Meredith to a meet in Cedar Rapids. Abbi won her 100IM heat and she finished second in the backstroke in her heat and she took third in the her breast stroke heat. She came home quite excited. Last week she was promoted to the advanced class of the swim team, now Abbi goes from 6:30-8pm each night. Hard work is paying off!Elli is waiting for her indoor soccer season to start at the sports bubble in Davenport and is doing very well school. Gabe is in a soccer league at the sports bubble and is working hard on perfecting the show choir routine for the winter season.I started a new job three weeks ago, I left Clear Channel after 9 years. The new job is with JMF Company (http://www.jmfcompany.com/) a master distributor of plumbing and HVAC supplies to wholesale company's across the nation. It's a stable company that has positioned itself well considering the recent economic climate the country is going through. I'm an account manager, an inside sales position. The warehouse I work out of is in East Moline, I have my own office! I'm a slow learner, so it's been a few tough weeks, but things get a little clearer each day.The dog you ask.....well, little Ambrose has been growing ornery by the second. Several days ago he was in his kennel alone at home, he managed to break the door down and get out. The broken kennel now sits with the trash. A couple days before that he wiggled the kennel freeing his paws enough to chew out a big hole in the living room carpet. After ripping the carpet up we have spent the last two weekends trying to restore the luster of the old time hard wood floors, but it ain't coming easy! He loves running from the living room to the front door, but because of his ruining the carpet, running in the living room has gotten a little tougher.Check back, I'm betting Abbi and Elli will have a Thanksgiving message for all!!!