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2005 News ArchiveJanuaryWham . . . we skated by without snow until now . . January 4th . . . schools are already closed for tomorrow, the 5th, with expectations of 12" or more of the white stuff by Wednesday night . . and a 2nd hit of snow closed schools for the 6th. Oh, how good Phoenix looks now! Jessica and Jason headed for Miami for the Orange Bowl - Jason being a devout (at least until THIS game) O.U. fan . . . a disappointing show for Oklahoma led to much misery, despair and woe . . . and departing the game early in the second half. Maybe next time? John has been enjoying his "Group-Santa" gift of an Apple iPod . . . gotta love those gadgets! Next month John "goes back to school" so to speak, taking a not-for-credit class in Adobe PhotoShop at Metropolitan Community College. Well, here we are on the 24th with a very different, but GOOD, weather forecast for today and tomorrow - 50° to 55°, then back into the 30's for the rest of the week . . but even that is preferable to the very recent below zero temps. Barb and I have decided to take our trip to the Southwest in mid-June this year, so plans are under way to fill in the itinerary. John enjoyed the 2005 Auto Show at the Quest Center on the 21st and has already found another "gadget" that will allow him to broadcast his iPod music over FM through the car radio. After reading a number of reviews - mixed that they were - he decided to try one out . . and voila' . . . it works perfectly. February
MarchIt doesn't seem like a year has gone by, but Jessica and Jason will be celebrating their 1st Wedding Anniversary on the 20th. If you haven't seen the wedding photos or video highlights yet, click here. Congratulations Jessica and Jason!
Barb is enjoying her Spring Break from teaching duties the week of the 13th. No trips to Phoenix this Spring, but, instead, we will be heading that way in June. Barb is "amusing" herself by identifying "stuff" for a future garage sale - and by going through old files of teaching materials and discarding a lot of outdated materials. John has buried himself in Genealogy AGAIN - with a new software program that will allow for organization of the many facts, figure, documents and photos that have accumulated over the last few years. A big project to say the least since he is abstracting or typing whole documents spanning 18th Century Welch grave marker inscriptions to Civil War Records to college emails from Jessica! The end product will not only document our family trees, but make it come alive and three dimensional with so much added material. AprilApril has been an uneventful month - partly because we got the taxes prepared
and sent in February, thereby "avoiding the rush". Spring weather is
"intermittent" as in the norm for Omaha . . a day at 80, a night of 38;
wind - no wind, sun - clouds and rain . . all with a day or two. As we
head into the 2nd half of the month temps will warm and the potential for
tornados and hail will increase - again, typical for now through May. We are
anticipating our trip to the desert Southwest in June and Barb is looking
forward to the end of the school year the last week of May. On the 17th we went to the Omaha Botanical Gardens to see the tulips in bloom. The colors, as you can see to the right, were magnificent! With the temperature in the low-80's and a clear blue sky, it made for a great afternoon since the number of people at the gardens was low which made it quiet and relaxing. Across the Interstate, at the Henry Doorly Zoo, however, we noticed huge crowds and people pressed to find parking places. Parking at the zoo has always been at a premium - and with Rosenblatt Stadium, home to the Omaha Royals and the College World Series, sitting adjacent to it, there certainly are days when the fight for parking outweighs the benefits of the activity. Here is the 3rd week of the month we have experienced A LOT OF RAIN! Not an uncommon occurrence here - but when we need some moisture in July and August . . good luck getting it! After some recent days in the low 80's, this weekend will have frost warnings out at night - just gotta love the Midwest. Due to perseverance, a high-speed internet connection, and plain dumb luck we were able to score two good tickets to the Paul McCartney Concert Tour here in Omaha for October 30th. All 15,000 tickets sold out in 13 minutes, so we were fortunate to get them! ¯All You Need is Love¯ . . all together now . . and a broadband internet connection! MayFinally!! Something resembling warm weather . . it's about time. Happy Mother's Day on the 8th, Barb! We drove to Lincoln on Mother's Day where we met Rachael and attended an antique sale, then went out for dinner. We are looking forward to a family picnic in Topeka on Sunday the 15th with Barb's brother and sister and their families; Rachael and her friend, Pat, will go with us. Over Memorial Day weekend, Barb's sister, Janice, and her son Henry, his wife, Lori, and sons, Tyler and Trevor will come to Omaha for several days. On the 24th Rachael purchased a new car, a 2004 Saturn Vue SUV, bright red in color with grey interior. Gone is the well-used 2000 Hyundai Elantra with 110,000 miles on it. With all the driving she does with her job at NETCO, she was long overdue for more reliable transportation! Happy 27th birthday to Rachael on the 27th!! JuneIn early to mid-June Barb and I found ourselves in the Phoenix, Arizona area, getting more serious about retirement options, and looking at model homes and planned communities. The prices are escalating at an alarming rate if you are not already a property owner - and "quite nicely, thank you" if you had purchased a year or two ago. The weather was been warm - 100°-108°, but as they say - "the humidity is low"! We also spent 2 days in Sedona getting reacquainted with John's cousin, Dottie, whom he hadn't seen for 50 years! We also met Dottie's husband Duane and daughter, Carrie. Before heading back to Omaha we drove up to Boulder, Colorado to see Barb's Manhattan, Kansas Jr. and Sr. High School classmate and friend, Susan Cross. Susan works for The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and we got a personal tour of the facility. Below - 1st row, left to right: Sedona rock formation, John & Barb, sunset from the Sedona airport mesa. 2nd row - 1st photo: Dottie, Duane, Carrie, Barb & John; Barb with Susan Cross in Boulder outside the NCAR building; Coconino National Forest between Sedona and Flagstaff, Arizona.
Now that we are back in Nebraska and the temperature today, the 21st, is about 68°, and the humidity is about 90%, we long for the desert heat! On a related topic, we have decided not to wait to build in the Phoenix area - with home prices escalating fast, it makes sense for us to begin the transition even though Barb has two more years of teaching here in Omaha . . so, the house is on the market and we will rent a town home here while we get things going for construction in the Phoenix area . . we have been prepping the house for sale and combing through the accumulation of "stuff" from 36 years of marriage . . some for sale, some for donation, some for the dumpster, etc. More details will be posted here when location specifics in Phoenix are firmed up. One of the "casualties" of the move is the downsizing of John's radio collection . . you will see a fewer number on his radio page, but these represent his favorites - and as they say - are "keepers". July The house has been on the market for two weeks now with not much interest so far. The marketplace is flooded with "Homes for Sale" and we anxiously wait for "the right person" to walk through the front door and make an offer we can't refuse. Once having made the decision to "move on", IMPATIENCE is a good word to describe John's demeanor! I guess it's official - the heat wave has broken - this morning, the 27th, it was a bright, clear 54°. Only two days ago the "wake up" temperature was 30° higher than that. High today will only be in the 70's while two days ago we hit 107 with high humidity. Gotta get those long johns out . . not! AugustAs we went into August we decided to change strategies regarding selling the house; with the market flooded like never before in the residential real estate market here, selling it ourselves was just not bringing the foot traffic or offers to us . . so . . go to Plan B . . get a good realtorand move on . . by the end of this first week of the month we should commit to building our new home in Arizona. School starts for Barb next week, with the 4th graders showing up the following week. Still no sale on the house, but we are hopeful that it will sell by the end of September. Earlier this month we were excited to learn that our son-in-law, Jason, had been promoted to Senior Manager at Deloitte and Touche. Congratulations, Jason! Jessica has been very busy - traveling to Dallas and Philadelphia for depositions and cases on numerous occasions. Construction is now under way in Arizona with a tentative closing date in mid-January 2006. SeptemberJohn and Barb celebrated their 36th wedding anniversary on the 13th with dinner at Charleston's. The weekend of the 24th/25th, Jessica and Jason were fortunate that Hurricane Rita moved just enough northward up the Texas coast as to not hit Houston with all its predicted fury. They experienced a few, short power outages, but sustained no damage to their home from wind or flood. Jessica's office, on the top floor of downtown Houston's tallest building, was evacuated earlier last week - computers, servers, etc. and all - since it was anticipated that they would sustain severe wind damage. Television coverage appeared to show glass damage at her office, but the office, relatively unscathed, opened for business on Monday, the 26th. Jason's office, not sustaining damage, is officially closed until Wednesday, however Jason went to the office on Monday anyway. October
Below are construction photos of our home in Corte Bella near Sun City West, Arizona, taken October 4th. Click PDF to view the Corte Bella master plan using Adobe Reader. If you need Adobe Reader©, click HERE for a free download of the latest version.
Below are photos from October 22nd, taken by our friends, Steve & Jan Amdor . . . the home at near left in the photo at right is ours . . .
We attended the Paul McCartney concert here on the 30th! What can you say . . Sir Paul wowed the crowd for three straight hours with a mix of new and old, both hard and soft. A great performer! More news - we have sold our Omaha home in preparation for the move to Arizona. With such a soft buyers' market here, we had to settle for being on the market longer than planned and accepting an offer lower than hoped for . . . but the alternative of making two mortgage payments come January wasn't very appealing, either. Closing on the house is scheduled for December 2nd, so November will be a marathon month of throwing, selling, packing, shuffling, etc. and getting situated in the rental town home here while plans in Arizona proceed on schedule. NovemberWe certainly have been enjoying an extended "Indian Summer" as the temperatures continue to stay well above normal for this time of year . . low to mid 70's a week into November . . excellent! And now more photos from Corte Bella . . . from November 9th . . .
And from November 23rd . . .
Jessica and Jason arrived from Houston for the Thanksgiving holiday - and along with Rachael and friend, Pat, we made our way to the McIver Farm in central Kansas for Thanksgiving dinner and visiting with relatives. We rented a van with a 3rd seat so we all could comfortable fit into one vehicle. It makes for a long day - five and a half hours travel time each way - and that leaves about the same amount of time for visiting and eating. Well worth the effort, though. We are about 95% moved out of the house and into the town home . . lots of "stuff" had to go for this very big downsizing. Closing here is still scheduled for December 2nd, the remainder of our possessions to be moved professionally on November 28th. From Thanksgiving . . . Jason & Jessica . . . and Rachael with Jessica.
DecemberWe have moved from the "old" house to the town home and are still struggling with "where can we stash that", "why did we keep that", and the classic "I can't find the (fill in the blank)". John got through his back surgery on the 7th better than in the past and came home the morning of the 9th. Slowly, but surely, he is feeling more human (a good thing?). We will fly to Phoenix on January 10th for a walk through of our new home at Corte Bella on the morning of the 11th. Official closing will be on Monday the 16th, and we will be back in Omaha on the 21st. In mid-February John expects to be sufficiently recuperated from back surgery to make the drive to Arizona and start to live there. Barb already has booked her Spring Break tickets for April. Jessica and Jason will spend 10 days around Christmas and New Years at the Qamea Resort & Spa in Fiji. We will see Rachael and Pat on Monday, December 26th for a Christmas celebration with them. As we sign off for 2005, we wish you all continued good health and happiness in the New Year. |
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This month's first week has been remarkable only its ability to jerk us
around weather-wise! From a sunny 64° on the 3rd and a
windy, but still sunny 58° on the 4th, we have returned to "winter as usual"
with 15°, gusting winds, and 4-5" of snow on the 7th. Should have known it was
too good to be true! On Friday the 18th we drove to Des Moines, Iowa to spend the
weekend with our friends Marvin and Linda Larson who recently relocated there from
Omaha. We had a great time seeing their new home, catching up on family
news, and antiquing. And that visit to the Cheesecake Factory . .
yum!
On the weekend of the 13th we had a great time visiting with old friends from
Abilene, Kansas - Colleen and Rex Cearley. Colleen works for the
On the 16th and 17th Barb and Rachael traveled to
Happy Birthdays to Barb on the 1st
- and Jessica on Halloween!! More "congrats" are in order - Barb has been selected to
receive the Career Compensation Award recognizing her work in the
classroom "as she once again moved grade level (five years with five grade level
changes) as well as for her energies to bring support and awareness to the area
of mathematics throughout our building." Her nominee wrote "and she does this
unselfishly without a whimper of complaint . . always making the best of
every situation." Recognition for a job well done . . and a cash award to
boot! Good job, Barb!
