Football Sundays here we come!

Here is our new little Packer!

Tomorrow e Begin Again....

Dale and I begin another school year bright and early tomorrow morning as we face those sweet adorable faces to start a brand new school year (they're always adorable and sweet at the beginning of the year!!). I have sixteen younguns to teach and he has a full bus comin and agoin...he'll also teach 1st, 4th, 5th, and 6th grade computer classes (WOW!!!)
It was a fast summer for us, too. Big trips to Memphis and Chicago and short ones to KC and Des Moines. We really enjoyed seeing Hannah and eating all that scrumptious food--the genes really showed up with her cooking abilities.
We're on a wait list now to hear when Dale is having his surgery....we're suppose to find out on the 15th unless there is a cancellation and we can see the surgeon earlier. We'll certainly be glad when this is over....hopefully, the numbness in his arms and hands will disappear!!!
Keep those pictures coming....Grandma and Grandpa REALLY, REALLY enjoy looking at them.
Congrats to Ben and family....hopefully, you'll be able to introduce everyone to Grandma and Grandpa soon.
Have a great school year everyone.
Love, Sherry and Dale

Where did it go?

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Wow! The summer was a blur of activity for the Held's. Tomorrow we pay our annual homage to the butter cow at the Iowa State Fair marking the last of our summer events before school starts. Here are some highlights:
JUNE- Brady turned 9 with his first sleepover. Then he got MVP of his team at the Drake University basketball camp. His Memorial Day broken nose didn't stop him from pitching his way onto the All-County Team. Meanwhile, mom hosted 400 for Alumni Weekend. JULY- Mom welcomed 30,000 for RAGBRAI (HUGE bike ride that sayed overnight in Indy & many at the college.) Thanks to Sherry, Dale & Laurie for volunteering & kid patrol! Then mom rounded up 35 TriDelta friends for a sleepover reunion at the house. AUGUST- brought the balloons and a visit from Hannah Rose, mom & dad & Sherry & Dale. By day 2 of 5am balloon crewing, Hannah was falling asleep at the kitchen counter. But she caught a ride! AUGUST 8th- Eric gets the long awaited SBA approval to purchase Bob's Custom Trophies! WOO HOOO!! He met the staff today and it's a 2-4 of weeks of paperwork before we change hands. And Kenzie? She took a well-deserved break from tumbling & tried Tae Kwon Do with Laurie. She went back to the gym today for a clinic & starts up at the end of August. The new coach is big on skills- she had to do back handsprings over a barrel. The back to school shopping is D-O-N-E & we are ready!! FALL? School starts for three of us. Brady starts his first tackle football team. Kenzie gears up at the gym. Eric plans to resign as Mr. Mom. Dang. Guess I had better re-discover the laundry room. Love to all of you!

Vacation

Bryan had a lot of success with the Banjo Minnow 006 - which he made fun of me for buying!! Hehe

Relaxing with the Kids

There is nothing like a day with your kids and grandkids to help relax, unwind and refocus! And he 'worries' his hands just like Grandma Midget!!

Memphis Update

So if you saw the pics on the Weather Channel you can compare to what this did look like-they are doing an amazing job on the store! That is daylight shining through on the one photo-roof was gone! My car got hit pretty good too.

The most amazing thing is we are actually planning on being open for business by next Friday (that's August 7th!!!) It is tax free weekend in Tennessee and they don't want to miss it. The pot of gold is that all of the remaining work that we had to do to really clean up the store before the storm will now be done by next week and no worries about payroll!! :) We should look like a new store by then!!

I am learning all kinds of new stuff-it is pretty amazing what they are doing. Tonight there are huge plastic "tunnels" through out the store blowing air from huge compressors to dry it out. It is kind of cool.

Another perk is that my name is now fairly well known-supposedly corporate recognition coming for Jerrica and I for being the "heroes". We had a lot of great associates that evening who really pulled together to keep everyone safe. Customers have been calling to thank us which really makes us feel good. Lots of big wigs in the building right now too-making lots of connections!!

I will update as I can-not much time off for awhile! Thanks for your prayers, phone calls and emails! Love to you all and Good night!

Hi!

Wowza. It's been a while since I posted. Oops. My computer was on the outs a few months ago, and I think that threw me off. Anyway...

First, Happy (Belated) Birthday Grandma! I hope you had a fantastic birthday, and I am sorry that I could not be there. I was thinking of you, and I hope you had some fun. :)

Uhhh, so I guess I could give y'all a 'quick' update on life. I'm working at the City Museum right now in STL, where I serve gelato. The City Museum (click the name to go to its website) if you don't know is basically a big awesome playground/artsy crazyplace. I love working there, and I've met a bunch of really great people on the staff there. This particular position only goes until September, but I am hoping to move to the floor staff at least part-time in the fall. I costumed The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe a couple months ago, which was huge and a lot of fun. That's my cast! I did quite a chuck of the costumes myself, because I am Julie McCrazyperson. But it went really well. I'm in between shows right now, but in the fall I am actually the producer for a play, not the costume designer. It will be interesting to try on a new role. I also have a volunteer job right now for a website called The Leaky Cauldron. It's a HUGE Harry Potter website. Basically, I am on the staff of a section of it called The Lily and Stag Inn. The basic forum website is here if you want to take a look--I don't think you can actually get into my Reading Group's site without signing up and everything. But it's a big online forum where we are reading through the HP series. Right now we are on book 5. I help run a Reading Room with a few other staffers. I help with things like chapter summaries, discussion questions, creating polls, moderating member discussions, etc. It's very nerdy, and I love it! I'm actually learning a bit more about HTML and code and stuff working on it. Plus, it's a bunch of Harry Potter geeks! Speaking of, I'm drenched in HP right now--I also met a bunch of people through one of my friends at work who are all St. Louis Harry Potter nerds. :) They are great, and we do lots of fun stuff together. A bunch of us went to the midnight release of the Half-Blood Prince movie. :) What else? I start biology classes again in the fall. I'm going in a couple of weeks to visit one of my best friends from high school in Atlanta. Yay! I think that's about it.

I'm sorry that I haven't been on much lately, and I will try to remedy that. :) I hope everyone is doing well and is getting some sun!