O.K., I need you help.  You’ve go my e-mail.  I’m available on twitter.  Bug me, harass me, whatever.  Since Jenny has been sucked into Facebook, the website has been relegated to me, and I am not doing a very good job at keeping it updated.  So if you could give me some gentle (or not so gentle) reminders to get my lazy butt in gear and let you know what is going on, I’d appreciate it.

Anyway, here it goes.  We have been pretty boring around here.  The Dance Marathon circuit has wound down.  The spring semester of Karate is coming to a close with awards this Thursday and tournament on Saturday.  The kids have been practicing a little so hopefully they will do well.  School is cruising along well.  Mickey received her results for the iStar test (Similar to the istep test but for Special Ed students)  She passed all three parts and scored pass+ for the reading/language  arts portion.  She was very excited, and so we her teachers and family.  Both Brad and Mickey scored high honor roll for the past 9 weeks, which puts Brad on the honor roll at the GT school at 3 for 3 this year.  That is quite an accomplishment.

Brad holding a little snake

Our little Nica Girl

I don’t know if I mentioned it here or not, but we have begun to sponsor a child form Nicaragua as a result of Jenny’s trip there.  His name is Raul and he has the same birthday as Jenny, well everything except the year of course.  He is soooooo much younger.  (Yes Jenny, that was to get a chuckle from you)

Raul at School

That is for now.  Now don’t let me go too long without an update.

Dep

Today I was performing an upgrade around noon today and I started to get hungry, and a case of minimal concentration attacked me.  I think it was watching very slow moving progress bars.  But anyway, Lory who was doing her part of the upgrade was waiting for me to watch slow moving progress bars crawl across the screen had IM up so we could communicate during the upgrade.  On my second monitor I opened a browser and Googled: “Weird things on Amazon.”

Oh my, they really do sell everything form A to Z including the following:

Fresh Whole Rabbit

The Original Roadkill Cookbook

Uranium – Yes Seriously 

Gallon of Milk

Chicken poop lip balm – Seriously NOT on my wish list.

But if you are looking to buy me something I would not be insulted if you bought me this:  CLICK HERE (Since they are sold out, the price isn’t there any more, but I saw a blog post saying it cost $500.000.00) although I may sell it if you get it for me.

There is also some stuff for the guys.  Click here to see this.

I almost forgot this one for the literature lovers

So if you are bored sometime.  Go ahead and find some weird things on Amazon.

Well it’s been a while since we have updated the blog.  O.K., it’s been more than a while.  Anyway, it’s been a busy few weeks culminating in a trip to the west coast, but more on that later.  Karate has started up for the fall semester and Mickey is working on her Green Advanced belt and Brad is going for his Black belt.  School is in full swing, and we are busy at church.  Let’s see if we have any pictures since a picture tells a thousand words.

Mom and Dad Deputy’s 50th Anniversary at Ruth Chris’s Steak House and playing around afterwards.

We also spent a little time at O’Reilly Raceway Park to see the Kroger 200 Nascar Nationwide Series race with our nephews Grant and Joseph.  That was a good race, Jenny was able to see her favorite Nationwide driver Carl Edwards win and do his signature back-flip.  The Brad and Joseph both waited until the hat dance was over and got autographed hats.  We almost turned turned Joseph into a Ford fan, but alas, he is still a Jeff Gordon fan.  But that will come.

An awesome day at King’s Island

A phone call and gifts form Monique Coleman

Open house at Grandma Bennett’s

Hanging out at “My Best for You” retreat (Just Dad and Brad)

On the charity front alot has been going on.  Mickey is a honored hero for the LLS’s Pennies for Patients program, so she had a photo shoot with Gary Brackett.  Again here are some photos:

Jenny also raised over $3,300.00 and along with her mentor credit, she hit the fundraising minimum and we went to San Francisco for the Nike Women’s Marathon.  She competed and finished all 26.2 miles in 7 hours and 39 minutes.  That is a monumental achievement no matter who you are.

So here’s a glimpse into our lives over the last few weeks.  Hope your life has been as much fun.

It’s been a busy few weeks here. Mickey went to Camp Little Red Door at Bradford Woods the last week of July. She had a great time! The next week found us at clinic for her 6 month check up. Her counts were fantastic and she was looking great. We go back in 6 months. On that Friday we went to Kings Island for the last hurrah of summer. We all had a lot of fun. We were there from opening till after the fireworks! It was a super day!
The kids went back to school last week. Mickey started 6th grade at Christel House Academy and Brad started 5th grade at Sidener Academy. We are praying for a good year for both of them!

For fellow Riley kid Tyler Genneken whose leukemia has come back: Meals for Marrow located at Independence Park in Greenwood, IN, on Tuesday, August 4th (11 am – 4 pm) The event is being catered by Gray Brother’s Cafeteria and if you donate blood and sign up for the bone marrow registry – you eat for free! You can purchase a kids meal for $5 and you can also PURCHASE PIES to help cover the cost of the kits.

If you would like to volunteer for Meals for Marrow, please let me know. When I signed up to volunteer I was told there are 4 volunteers so far and they need at least 15.  Please send me an e-mail at mjmb@deputyfamily.net if you would like to help out. By the way, the test to get on the Bone Marrow Registry is a simple swab of the inside of your cheek – no needles involved.  You can follow Tyler’s story at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/tylergenneken.

Our 4th of July was rather lowkey.  I had group training this morning.  We did 80 minutes at Eagle Creek.  I was able to walk 4.5 miles in 70 minutes on the hills.  I feel really good about that time knowing I have 3 months to cut at least a minute off my mile to make the required pace for the marathon.  Michael is training for RAIN a bike ride from Terre Haute, IN to Richmond, IN on July 18th.  Today was his last long ride as he will start to taper and give his body time to rest.  He did 120 miles, most of it in the rain.  Poor guy was soaked and frozen when he got home.  Mickey and Brad spent the day lazing around watching TV.  All in all a great day.

Here are some more pictures of the fun we’ve been having this summer:

School’s been out for 3 weeks and it’s been fun times here in Deputyland.  Last week was fun simple times -  movies, bowling, a visiting cousin.  Last Saturday was Mickey’s Challenger Jamboree.  She had a great time playing on a nice field and visiting with her friend Jeremy whom she only gets to see once a year at Jamboree.  Sunday we took Mickey to Camp HiLite, a Down syndrome overnight camp.  She had as much fun this year as she did last year.  Michael, Brad and I kept busy but missed her.  Wednesday Michael and I celebrated our 20th anniversary by spending the day with Brad going to a movie and an Indians doublheader.  We are blessed to be together and to have great kids.

School’s out for summer!  Brad finished his first year at the new g/t school with a better than 3.5 GPA.  We are so proud of him!  Mickey made the honor roll the past 2 nine weeks!  We are very proud of her also.

We just finished 4 nights of VBS at church.  The message for the week was that everyone is a missionary.  The kids packed food for a group in Guatemala last night.  It was so cool to see a room full of kids fixing meals to be sent off to kids who often go to bed hungry.

Tomorrow I start training for the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco with Team in Training.   Mickey is my team’s honored hero so that makes it even more special.   I will be training to do the full 26.2 miles while raising $4000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  Please visit my fund raising page and make a donation if you are able.  I truly appreciate it!   http://pages.teamintraining.org/in/nikesf09/mjmb@deputyfamily.net The event takes place October 18, but I hope to have my fund raising done by mid-July so I can focus on my training.  I’m a bit nervous about the distance since I’ve only done a half marathon in the past.  Thanks for your support!

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Dad, Mom & Mick