Our Family Blog

Well, first let me say that I voted for the other guy.  I read Obama's speech today and was impressed with a few things and disapponted by others.  First I think he was laying the ground work for his upcoming 'failures' by stating how sorry the state of union is that he has inheireted.  He also stated that he would promote a quick and responsible withdrawl from Iraq which to me is telling those bad elements in Iraq to simply lay low, pretend all is good and as soon as the troops our gone, there will be a huge power vacumn that they will then fill.   I see Iraq being ran by islamic terrorist before Obama's term is done.

On a good note, I expected him to have lots to say about the history he is making by being the first African American president but he only had one small paragraph in the speech dedicated to that.   I glad to see he did not make this a racial inaugruation but a presidential one.

Mr Bush is leaving office quitely and with dignity.   An NPR report this morning was commending him on doing so and noted that when the Clinton administration left office, there was over $15,000 worth of damage to the offices and computers.   I think he should have at least replaced the Secretary of State's chair with a toilet bowl!  But, alas, he took the high road.

I'm hoping the email notification process will be working soon.  I think I've figured it out.  We'll know soon.

I am working on adding email notification for users of this blog.  Initially it will send out emails to those who want them when ever a new blog entry is made.  Eventually, I will add the ability to selectively (by user) email for new entries or comments or both or none.   So, you may see an odd 'test entry' made over the next few days as I implement and test.

I hope I see the interest in this blog build as I add more bells and whistles.

It was good to see that being 50 doesn't have to be that bad.   Well, not too bad!  Actually, Pete looks great for 50.  Shannon, Micah and myself drove down from Spring while Megan and Hannah met us there.  It was good see everyone that turned out.  I'm hoping to see more of my extended family visit this blog page and this will fuel their interest in posting to this blog.  I think many of us would love to know what's happening with our other relatives and their loved ones. 

When we returned back to Spring, we decided to go to a particular furniture store and I missed the exit (I think it was Shannon's navigating) and had to drive the 'back roads' through another subdivision to get there.   As we are driving down the street, Shannon's say.. STOP, there's our house!   I doubled back and sure enough there was a duplicate of our home.  So we just had to stop and look.  As luck would have it the owner was outside unloading her groceries so I got out (to Shannon's dismay) to talk to her.   Well, it turned out she was very gracious and after coaxing Shannon out of truck I asked if we could see the inside if we helped her carry in her groceries!   Well, they are renovating their home and it was great to see how the lower floors, walls and ceiling were all constructed and where the load bearing points are.  We visited with them for about 30 minutes talking about our homes and our plans for them.  It's cool how some missed exit in life can bring new opportunities and friendships.

Enough for today.   Happy Birthday Pete!

She recently played the main role in an independent film "Miss Tilford" that will be shown at The South by Southwest Film Festival held in Austin in March this year.She went to the private showing of the finished work at the producer's house this last weekend and received a copy of the film. We watched it last night and her acting was awesome. I was pleasantly surprised and in awe. In addition The Production company had her do a safety film yesterday for one of their clients. The Production company has also offered her a position as an assistant producer for their company as a full time position. She is really excited about that since she loves the film industry on and off camera....

This weekend was spent taking down and putting up all the Christmas decorations.  Shannon put up two trees this year, on in the 'wine room' and the other in the family room.  Both looked sensational!   I only wish that the attic area that we stored the decorations in wasn't above the second floor.  Geeze, hauling all the boxes up the stairs and then up the attic drop stairs can wear you out!  But the house getting back to normal now and little less crowded.  Although the tree in the family room covered up the temporary repair work on the wall where the fireplace and inner wall studs were repaired.  So life will settle down a bit now, at least for a few weeks anyway.  I suspect that sometime in mid February or early March will be replacing the carpet in the family room and finishing the wall and fireplace renovations.

Here's a few highlights from our very busy year.

I made an unsuccessful bid for the President of our subdivision HOA.  Shannon marked another record year with her business.  Hurricane Ike kept us with out water for 12 days and electricity for 14 and cut short our beach vacation.  Our animated / musical Christmas lights won 3rd place in our subdivision.  Shiree scored a couple of TV commercials including one for Wendys that was shown during the first few Texan games.   Shiree was involved in a car accident that totaled her car but she walked away with only minor bruises.  Hannah completed Jr high with honors and started high school.  Megan received her Letterman jacket.  Micah and myself had an awesome experience in a Kayak on Spring Creek.  Shannon turned 40 (sssh, don't tell anyone).  I've become addicted to Pachinko and now own 4 machines.  Shannon and I marked our 4th anniversary.

As you can see our lives have been filled with joys and trials.  We are looking ahead to 2009 to be a great year for our household and hope for the same for you and yours!

Well, after some more work and consultation with Shannon, I believe we have the Family Blog system ready for general use.   There is still some work to be done so bear with us as we clean it up.

If you have any suggestions, please don't hesitate to email them to me!

I will be sending a mass email out today notifying everyone that I have a valid email address for.   If you know of someone who may not know about this Family Blog, please give them the address.  The blog can be reached by clicking on the Family Blog link on my RustyKey.com home page or it can be reached directly at:

http://www.rustykey.com/blog

For those of you trapped behind a 'firewall' that may not allow access to RustyKey.com, try this address:

http://getin.rustykey.com/blog

Thanks for stopping by!

I am testing to make sure my login works...looks like it does.

Rusty the blog looks great.  Easy to use.

 this would be a cool background if you can configure it onto the page.

Love you!

Shannon

Well, she is turning 17.  I am shocked that she is as old as she is and that I am as old as I am.   If you know me, you know that my family is the most important thing to me and being the oldest child of mine, Megan has been a part of my life for the longest time.   She has grown into this pretty, outgoing, geeky, lovable, caring, hard headed, sometimes arrongant, patriotic, determined, stubburn, intelligent young woman that makes me proud.   My life has been blested by her existance and I hope she knows how much her daddy loves her!

This afternoon I will be going to see her and hopefully make her 17th birthday a memorable one (in a good way)!

This is a test entry using Shannon's ID to insure proper working.

This entry was made by Rusty.

This is the first entry that was created after the installation of the new Blog application.

Hopefully this will work good.