Well I have finally posted it.  Here is the info on our summer vacation.  Please go here to see it.

Wow, have I been delinquent?  It’s not like we’ve been doing nothing. 

We have been a little busy around here.  It’s been almost two months since I enlightened you with the wisdom that oozes from my mind.  It is currently one of my four favorite seasons of the year: Winter.  I know some of you are not lovers of this particular season.  Then there are you that live a little closer to the equator are being inundated with those trying to escape the beauty of the season.  But alas I digress, let’s get back to the my droning on and on.  Wow, that was weird, I just went off on a tangent about snow in Indiana the very next sentence after getting back to how busy we are.  But I saved you from having to muddle though it by deleting it.  So now, this time I really mean it, let’s get on with the update.  By the way, that once of the cool things about having your own blog.  You can say anything you want and somebody may actually read it.  Crap, I just did it again.  I guess I am officially the ADD blogger tonight.  So let’s try this again.  Tonight I’m going to try backwards history.  I’ll start with the recent stuff then work my way backwards and ask Jenny what we did when we hit the end of my memory timeline.  So today Jenny bought some new boots, her old ones broke, it was ugly.  So we had to test them out.  So as soon as Brad arrived home from school we bundled up and made good use of the 3 new inches of frozen sunshine that God blessed us with last night and went to Sarah Bolton Park in Beech Grove to sled.  We had a blast until we were Deputysicles (Woo hoo! new word).  Then home for a scrumptious dinner and now to blogging, homework, and cleanup.  (Guess who chose blogging over cleanup?  Bad husband, bad)  A couple of days ago we hosted our small group from Church as well as my parents for the Super Bowl and Mom’s Birthday.  Well, although they are not my first choice, living in Indianapolis we were of course rooting for the COLTS.  We had so much excellent food that I think some of it didn’t even get touched.  Although the team we were rooting for did not win, it was a good game.  Congratulations Saints.  I know my nephew Drew was loving every minute of it.  Unfortunately that has led to left-overs and as a result re-joining the YMCA and working out.

Both Jenny and I have gotten involved at church in the technical ministries.  Jenny is doing lights and slides and, I know this will shock some of you, I have begun to run sound again.  (ROCK ON!!!!)  This has been a really fun experience.  Our church’s tech ministry, like everything else at the church, is done with excellence and it has been a real learning experience working with such knowledgeable people on such good equipment.  Our small group has been growing on Sunday nights and our discussions of that day’s message has been very challenging and though provoking.  Helpful tip for the day:  You will get so much more out of the message if you take notes and do more than fill in the blanks if that is how your church offers it.  It’s amazing how many times we have to use the backside of bulletins announcements for extra room.

We are also in the middle of the Dance Marathon season (a fundraiser program for Riley Hospital for kids)  We recently attended and spoke at BUDM (Butler University Dance Marathon).  And we have PUDM and BSUDM coming up.  I’m betting those of you from around here can guess which colleges those are.  We went to PUDM’s family day and while Mickey and Brad bowled, Jen and I watched the Colts vs Jets.  We had a great time.  Later the IUDM alumni invites us to speak and play question and answers for the IUDM executive committee retreat.  I think they are going to have a awesome year.  Speaking of speaking, Jenny did several school assemblies for Pennies for Patients including Sidener Academy for High Ability Students and Christel House Academy (Brad’s and Mickey’s school).  Both Brad and Mickey made the honor roll for the second nine weeks, making it a first semester sweep for Brad.

Jenny had a few more adventures including finding Indiana’s best tenderloin at the Blue Crew Sports Grill before going shopping with my Mom and her Mom to get some things for her trip to Nicaragua.  Yep I said that right, she is fleeing the country for a week to work with a special needs school outside Managua.  Which led her to having a bunch of shots to get ready to go.  Those shots and the trip will defer her from donating blood for the next year.   HMMM, I think there is something else that will defer one from donating blood for a year.  I wonder what that could be????  Maybe a tattoo.  Well since she is deferred anyway why not go for it.  So in honor of her 26.2 mile accomplishment earlier this year, her ankle is now decorated   as follows:

Yep, that ain’t no sticker.  Mickey joined Jenny for her next adventure and loved every minute of it.  Mickey received four tickets to the symphony, and I know you’ll be shocked by this but Brad and I really weren’t interested in going so Jenny offered the tickets up on Facebook and a friend of ours from church and her son (who happens to also have Down Syndrome) jumped at the chance.  They all had a wonderful time.

On the Brad front he had a not so happy experience after a piece of an elastic with a metal fastener met his eye at at high rate of speed.  He got a day out of school (not so bad in his eyes) and a couple trips to eye doctor and a contact to help the abrasion on his eye to heal.  On the other extreme, Brad and I went to Climb Time Towers with his life group from church.  We had a awesome time climbing walls until we were both exhausted.  Then we went out for pizza and found the closest thing to Chicago style deep dish I have found here in Indy.

The end of December included Christmas and New years.  I took the last two weeks of the year off so we spent the Christmas vacation all as a family.  It was a wonderful could of weeks.  We went shopping down in Nashville, IN and played a bunch of video games and movies.  It was so much fun.  I have a great family.

Wow, I was finally able to focus and burn through it.  I didn’t go down too many rabbit trails once I got going.  So look forward to my next update.

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Last week was Thanksgiving and now we are in the full throws of year end holidays.  I love this time of year.  We had a quiet Thanksgiving this year.  We stayed at home and just hung out as a family and enjoyed the day, the parade, and the football games.  My Mom and Dad come over for an altogether non-traditional Thanksgiving meal: Fondue, fries, garlic bread, and salad.  We fired up the chocolate fountain and dipped fruit, marshmallows and Snickers bars.  Yes, you heard that right, chocolate covered snickers bars.  Life just doesn’t get much better than that.  It was a great day.

The next day, BLACK FRIDAY, Jenny and I braved the crowds and went to Wal-Mart at 4:45 in the morning and snagged the perfect digital camera for Jenny’s mission trip to Nicaragua.  They had a 12 megapixel camera that uses AA batteries for $69.00.   Not knowing the power situation where she is going I suggested it might be a good idea to not rely on lithium ion.  So now we just need to get some SD card so she can bring back 1000s of pictures.  I was not feeling so well, so I came home and crashed and Jenny and Brad went shopping.  That girl’s shopping stamina is unbelievable.   Then we went to my Mom and Dads to assist with the extreme makeover bathroom edition,  but they really didn’t need that much help at this time.  Maybe next time.  But we did go out to see Disney’s “A Christmas Carol”  Grandpa and Mickey in 2D and Grandma, Jenny, Brad and I in IMAX 3D.  The animation was excellent, the story left a bit to be desired.

On Saturday, the day culminated with the annual trek to IRT for their rendition of  “A Christmas Carol” which, of course was wonderful.  We always enjoy this as family.  It was opening night for the play and they ended it with inviting alumni from the play onto stage and sing the last song with the current cast.  It was truly magical.  Then Mickey had a special moment.  Her class had gone to IRT to see a play called “The Giver” after they read the book in class.  One of the main characters in that play was an alumni of “A Christmas Carol” and Jenny asked him to come say hi to Mickey and he did.  She was in heaven.  It absolutely made her night.

Believe it or not, we have almost all our Christmas shopping done.  Want to know what I got Jenny this year??  Do ya?  Do ya?  Well, so does she, but I’m not telling.

Have a good week, remember people are busy and there is always a blood shortage, so don’t let the festivities get in the way of giving the gift of life.  I’m not to thrilled about needles either, but a few seconds of discomfort can literally extend someone’s life.  O.K., you have hung with me this long,  I have one other challenge:  Do something nice for someone else, but don’t tell anyone.

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Mickey turned 12 years old yesterday.   We had an incredible weekend celebrating.  On Saturday we met up with several family members and friends at Red Robin for a birthday lunch.  After lunch we went to Roncalli High School for their dance marathon for Riley Hospital.  Saturday was a blast!  Then on Sunday we bolted out of church to go to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Riley Family Day.  We had a great lunch, hung out with other Riley families, watched cars go really fast around the track and met up with a couple of drivers.  When we left there we headed to Red Robin again (we love their food and the service in fantastic!) for an early dinner.  We got home in time to watch Extreme Makeover Home Edition’s season finale which was done here in Indy.  It was another fabulous day.  I’ll post some pictures from this weekend and from Brad’s birthday since I didn’t get any of his pictures posted yet.

Just some pictures to send you into a gorgeous weekend!

I just noticed it’s been a full month since my last update.  Things have been just a bit crazy around here.  In other words, it’s been life usual in the Deputy house.  I’m sitting here thinking back over what’s been going on since last month that blog-worthy.  Both kids made honor roll this past 9-weeks.  We are very proud of both of them!  I had my birthday last month.  Michael surprised me with a netbook computer.  It’s great!  It came in very handy the past two weeks since I had bunion surgery on my right foot and was down for 10 days.  I had to get my foot fixed as I will begin training in May for the Nike Women’s Marathon coming up in October.   Having the surgery now will allow me to train without pain.  Let’s see, what else is happening??  Oh, yeah, Mickey is starting 4-H tonight.  She’s joining the Indy Riders for horse showing.  She’ll be doing the halter class this year (meaning she’ll lead a horse, not ride it) and then go on from there next year.  She and Brad are still loving their horseback riding lessons.  Brad decided not to do 4-H since he’s busy with homework most evenings.    Those are the high points that I can come with right now.  I’ll leave you with some pictures from the past month.

Michaela had clinic on Monday.  Her counts were all gloriously normal and her AGC was 3148!  Praise God!  We don’t go back to clinic till August.  That’s going to be strange waiting 6 months.  But it’s a wonderful kind of strange!   Unfortunately Michaela has developed a pretty serious cold in the last couple of days.  She stayed home yesterday and will be home again today.  I just gave her a breathing treatment and it appears to be helping.  Hopefully she’ll be all better by Saturday so we can go to Ball State’s and Purdue’s Dance Marathons.

Brad is doing great!  His horseback riding lessons are coming along.  He is gaining confidence and learning more each week.  He had a great time at SuperStart last weekend at church.  He wants to go to Cincinnati when SuperStart is there in April.  We’re thinking maybe for his birthday, but we’ll see.

The school assembly schedule is winding down for me for Pennies for Patients.  I have just two left to do.  I have really enjoyed this job and will miss it.  Hopefully I’ll get to do it again next year.  I am coordinating Pennies at Brad’s school, so I’m learning another part of the process.  It’s going to be fun!

We had some seriously high winds last night here in Indy.  I read reports of gusts over 60 MPH and thousands of people without power.  We didn’t have any damage at our house, just some flying trashcans in the back yard!

We’ve been very busy here as usual.  Both kids are still doing their horseback riding lessons and loving them.  Last week the instructor told Michael how pleased she is with Brad’s progress.  He is doing well learning to control his horse.  Mickey really wants to ride on her own without a side walker, but that’s not happening yet.  Hopefull it will at some point in the future.  Mickey started fencing after school on Tuesdays.  She really enjoys it.  I plan on going in early sometime to see what she’s learning.  The school assemblies have been going well.  As of now I only have 3 more to do.  One of them is at Brad’s school.  I’m excited about launching their Pennies for Patients program.  Mickey has clinic on Monday so I’ll be sure to post after that with an update on her numbers.  After this visit, we drop down to every 6 months!! I can’t believe it!!!

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks since I found the camera cable:

We just came off a day of yuck here.  Michaela started feeling bad yesterday evening and by 9:00 was in the throes of a stomach bug.  Fortunately it was only about 12 hours in duration but it did earn her a “stay home from school” ticket.  After being up and down with her all night, I had to get up very early to take Cinder to the clinic to be spayed.  While I was waiting at the clinic, the snow and wind started so driving home was fun.  Mickey and I stayed home cuddled up nice and warm while Brad went to school and Michael went to work.  Fortunately her horse riding lesson was cancelled due to the weather, so she didn’t miss anything.  Cinder is home and recovering nicely.   I am thankful that for now, at least, everyone in our household is healthy and happy!