Back to School :)

Hey - it's only been about 3 months since I posted to the blog. You just have to understand that the last thing a technology teacher wants to do in the summer is sit in front of a computer!! LOL!! Anyway, to catch up on our busy summer. Kevin and I chaperoned some students on a Washington D.C. trip that is sponsored by the Rural Electric Company. It is officially called the Ohio Rural Electric Youth Tour. We drove to Columbus on June 12 and departed at 1 p.m. We stopped at around 8:30 p.m. in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. On June 13th we got moving again at 8:30 a.m. and saw the following: Civil War Museum, Cyclorama, and the Gettysburg Civil War Battlefield. We had excellent tour guides! We departed Gettysburg and arrived in D.C. at 3 p.m. We finished up the day with a visit to the National Archives, World War II Memorial, Union Station, and the Roosevelt and Jefferson Memorials. Didn't get back to the Hyatt Regency Crystal City Hotel until about 10 p.m. It was good that Karen has been doing her WII Fit as; otherwise, she would have needed oxygen!! On Sunday, June 14, we attended church services at the same church that George Washington attended in Alexandria, Virginia. After church we toured Mt. Vernon, then on to the Kennedy Center where we ate and attended a play called "Shear Madness". The play was a lot of fun as it was one where they had the audience decide how it should end! Very funny!! Got back to the hotel at about 9 p.m. - whew! On Monday, we got to sleep in a little bit but had to be ready to go to Fords Theatre at 11 a.m. We also toured the National Portrait Gallery and Madame Tussaud's where we ran into Barack and Michelle so we snapped a pic!! Afterwards, we ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and then did a boat cruise on the Potomac River - really cool!! On Tuesday, we visited our congressional representatives, toured the U.S. Capitol, the Library of Congress, the National Museum of Natural History, the Vietnam and Lincoln Memorials. We also attended the Iwo Jima Sunset Parade - awesome!! On Wednesday, we checked out of our excellent hotel and visited the National Zoo (saw a Panda), and toured the C & ) Canal Barge in Georgetown. Then on to the Washington National Cathedral and the Arlington National Cemetery. The students attended an All States Farewell Party at the Hotel while the chaperones were treated to a dinner at a posh Georgetown Restaurant - wow - I'm glad I didn't have to pick up that tab!! Including Kevin and I, there were 7 chaperones all together. With Kevin and I in the picture (left to right), were Bernie, Wendy (husband and wife), and the "cool" chaperone - Megan - just a youngster!!! There was also John - a cameraman - who was along to take pictures but he also chaperoned. And the gal in charge of it all - Ann Kipp. Ann was amazing and it was due to her and the excellent students that such a good time was had by all.

Most of the time we had to dress up and look all clean cut but as you can see, we did "dress down" one day and here is a picture of the whole crew acting "silly" in front of the White House.

We boarded the bus at midnight and arrived back in Columbus by 8:30 a.m. on Thursday morning. It was a great experience and we would definitely volunteer to do it again!

When we returned home, there was no resting as I had to go purchase our niece, Mandy, a wedding shower gift. Deedee and I attended the shower which was held in Norwalk on June 19th. It was a lot of fun as the girls (Katie and Rachel) had chosen a camping theme due to Mandy's love of the outdoors. Deedee and I had fun :)

In July, we took the Motorhome to Clay's RV Park for the 4th of July weekend. Kevin and I drove there and then Kory and Cassie joined us the next day. We kayaked, did some hiking, ate s'mores, watched fireworks, sat by the fire and just had a great time. Kory and Cassie did some swimming while Kevin and Karen layed out and watched!! Lazy old folks!! We took the motorhome out a couple of weekends later and stayed at Cedar Point - Kory and Cassie came with us again and Deedee and Kyle joined us on Saturday. We all had a great time at Cedar Point. We fit in another wedding (an old student of Karen's and old girlfriend of Kory's) in July. Cassie then went to Las Vegas for the softball nationals with her team and her mom and when she returned she texted Kory and told him it was "quits". Kory is fine with it. Kevin had predicted it. But it just isn't right to do that through a text!!! So, in August, we (Kevin, Karen, Kyle, DeeDee and Kory minus Cassie) attended Mandy and Joe's wedding at Colleen and John's home. Everything looked beautiful. We thought it was going to be a rainout but just when the wedding was due to start the rain stopped and it didn't rain anymore that day :) The reception was held at the Milan Town Hall and it was very HOT!! But the food was good and it was good to see the family again.

Kory left for college last week on Saturday, August 15th. Kevin drove down, too, as Kory had some larger items to take down to his room. He had to go down early for football camp. He is a junior now - hard to believe - but is just a 2nd-year football player as he sat out last year due to their basketball coach wanting him to play but then "over-recruiting" freshmen so Kory was left out in the lurch. He is very happy with football and worked very hard all summer working out and gaining weight. He now weighs in at 215 pounds unless you look at Capital University's web site, it will say he weighs 205 - they don't want others to know that they have a 6'5" safety who weighs 215 - LOL!! We went to an inter-squad scrimmage last week. Here is one pic - can you tell which one Kory is??? He is the one getting ready to block the field goal attempt - we call this picture Air Time - HA!! We will be going to another of his scrimmages tomorrow where Capital will play Malone College over in Akron, Ohio.

Karen went back to school today to help teach the staff some Web 2.0 tools (like blogging - LOL!!), Wiki Spaces, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, Delicious, Technorati, using an LCD projector in the classroom, etc., etc.. I know you all feel sorry that she had to go back to work - HA!!

It's Summer in Ohio

Hey it's only been 9 months since I last posted to the blog!

School's Out For Summer!!! Kevin, Kory, and I just returned from a family wedding in Illinois. Kevin's cousin's daughter, Aimee got married on June 6th - Kevin's 55th birthday!! Wow - Kev is a senior citizen (and I am not far behind as I will turn into a senior citizen on August 2nd!). It was great to see Kev's relatives again as it has been YEARS since I have been out there. Kory had a great time seeing and talking to everyone! He fit right in!! We saw Bill, Rosalie (bride's mom and dad), Jerry, Rita, Fuzzy, Marilyn and all their kids!!! We had a riot! We left on Friday morning and returned Sunday evening - LATE. Kev and Kory had to get up and go to work on Monday, but Karen is on summer vacation :)

On Friday morning, Kevin and Karen will be going to Washington D.C. for a week for the Ohio Youth Tour which is sponsored by LMRE (Kevin's employer). We are chaperoning two local students who won scholarships from LMRE - one is a gal from Black River and the other is a guy from Keystone. We will have a very hectic schedule once in D.C. but it sounds like it will be a lot of fun. We will get back just in time for Karen to attend Mandy's bridal shower on the 19th of June!

It's Labor Day

Wow - It has been a month since I last posted anything to the blog. August just flew by! On August 14th, Kevin and I celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary. Can you believe the hats I made those poor girls wear? I also made their lovely dresses. I am sure they appreciated "my thrift" - HA! That is Patty Bragg (my sister-in-law) to my right. Wait a minute - who is that standing to Kevin's left! Hey - that is Kevin's brother - Jim Conley. Looking good! Hey - Kev has hair - on his head and also, a moustache - LOL!

We celebrated by going out to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. It was a relaxing and enjoyable day. Actually we had to celebrate it on August 15th when Kev got off call - so he REALLY enjoyed it!!

Kory went back to school on August 24th and started classes on the 26th. He worked out a great schedule with his advisor and only has classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He has a religion class, Cultural Pluralism in Society, Electronic Media Writing, Public Address and Radio Club which is where he has to do a college radio show. He has the 9-11 a.m. shift. Three of the classes are actually in his major (Writing, PA, and RC); whereas, the other two are part of the CORE curriculum that everyone has to take. He is also planning to "walk-on" for the Capital Basketball team. The coaches asked him to come out for basketball so he is what is know as a "preferred walk-on"! We'll have to wait and see if he actually makes the team this year as they may have filled up all of this year's spots with freshman "recruits". We are all hoping it will turn out for him. If he doesn't get in this year, he should make the team next year and have three years of eligibility left. He plans to graduate in four years but wants to stick around a fifth year to get his masters to make himself more "employable" in the Communications Field so that should work out for him to play basketball for three years.

Karen went back to school on August 22nd and 25th (Teacher Work Days) and the students came back on August 26th! She is teaching Windows OS, Internet/Web Design I, Computer Graphics Design I, Computer Programming I and Microsoft Access. All of these are semester courses and her schedule will switch in January for second semester. Never a dull moment! This is year 33 for her! YIKES - retirement is getting closer and closer! YIPPPEEEE!! She and another gal she works with, created and upkeep the Wellington School's web site - http://www.wellington.k12.oh.us/. We are having a few problems right now with some javascript on the site - our dates on all the pages aren't working. Never a dull moment in the web world! Always something to troubleshoot. Also, all of a sudden on the high school page the dropdown menu links aren't working so I will have to work on that tomorrow when I get into school!

Cassie and Kory went to Cedar Point yesterday. (Kory came home for the long weekend.) They were able to go on the new coast - the Maverick. It was just put in last year. Cedar Point has 17 coasters - this is just the newest! It is located in Frontiertown. They needed to add some "pizzaz" to that section of the park. Guests begin their adventurous journey on Maverick by boarding steam-era-styled coaster trains with an ultra-sleek profile that carry them along the 4,450-foot-long course. Linear synchronous motors propel the train to the top of a 105-foot-tall first hill. From there, it's not straight down -- it's more than straight down: Maverick takes its passengers down to Earth at an astonishing 95-degree angle at speeds of up to 57 mph to within five feet above the ground.
From there, the train hugs the terrain as it twists and banks around hairpin turns with quick but smooth changes in direction. Throughout the 2-minute, 30-second ride, passengers also experience eight "airtime-filled hills," two inversions and a second launch through a dark tunnel that leaves them in awe as they reach speeds of 70 mph. Kevin's employer is having their company picnic at Cedar Point on Saturday, September 13th! They are buying the tickets and providing lunch. Kory is going to come back and go with us as we are taking the Motorhome up on Friday afternoon and coming back on Sunday morning. Karen is not much for the rides so it will be nice to have Kory along so Kevin can go on some of the coasters! Cassie will be busy at a softball camp in Florida on that weekend.

Kyle and Deedee went to Niagara Falls but Kyle doesn't want his pictures on the blog so I don't have any of those to post. They went on a neat speedboat ride called the Whirlpool Jet Boat - here is a link to look at a video of it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3niPgw-uwpM.

We all went up to the Lorain County Fair for one day - I think it was one of the first times we had a completely dry week for the entirety of the fair! Cassie showed her cow and was in a Tractor Pull. Kory helped her take care of her cow. He learned the fine art of pitching crap, feeding, watering and bathing a cow! Cassie's cow was a grand champion!

We have been "catching up" on some things around the house this weekend (Labor Day). Kevin is outside playing on "his tractor" right now, Kory went back to college and I am going to go watch "Remember the Titans" on DirectTV right now! Until next time!!

It's August!!

It's my birthday today - 54 to be exact - so now I can't tease Kevin by telling him he is older than me as we are now the same age! CRAP! Kevin and Kory took me out to breakfast this morning and will follow up by taking me out to "The Dark Knight" and Red Lobster for dinner. I love crab legs!

Kevin has been doing "odd jobs" around the house. He is tearing out the carpet in the bathrooms and replacing it with tile. He has the master bath completed already. When I went to get a picture of the bathroom, Cassie was cutting Kory's hair so I decided to click one of them, too!

The impossible happened last week! Kory now has his own car! There was dancing in the streets! Got a real good deal on a 2005 Silver PT Cruiser. It only had 13,000 miles on it and was in like-new condition.

Deedee and Kyle are currently visiting Niagra Falls this weekend. I am sure they will have a couple of pictures to share when they return! But for now this is geazersetc. signing off as Red Lobster is calling me :)

July 4th

It's the 4th of July at the Conley house and all is quiet. We went to McDonald's for breakfast this morning (Barb isn't the only one who knows how to cook :) It's about 1:30 in the afternoon now. Kevin is sleeping after a long week of being on call at work. Kory is out doing his lifting and is then going to stop by Grandpa Bragg's to talk for a while and get his car to bring up to our house to wash and clean. I (Karen) have been working on my online classes (I am taking a course and facilitating two others right now). Then I decided it was time to start a blog and join the other Conleys to help keep in touch and have some idea of how the rest of the family is doing. Tiger exemplifies the geazersetc mood for the day - laying on our butts!! I will be barbecuing steaks in a bit, baking up some potatoes, cuttin' up some watermelon, and scooping up some ice cream for my guys (Kevin and Kory). Kory's girlfriend, Cassie, is out in Denver, Colorado playing in softball tournaments for the past week and a half. She is due back on Sunday. Kyle and DeeDee went to the islands for the weekend and so far, it hasn't rained!! The pool is in great shape but we really haven't gone in yet as is rains every other day around here!! We all miss Florida - not the 90+ degree temperatures and humidity - but the sunshine and the other Conley clan that we vacationed with at Disney and had a blast!!! Thoughts of the vacation and the sons and beaches clan made me start creating our blog today. I'll try to get more pics and news up soon.