where I talk with my inside voice
This year’s video Christmas Card doesn’t feature as much of Noah since he wasn’t around, but it was still a good year and we had a good time as a family when we were together. I am so proud of both of the kids and their accomplishments.
As per usual, we hosted the family for Thanksgiving, although the crowd wasn’t as big as some years because Laura didn’t come in town, we still had a good time and plenty of Dixie’s great food! We also corrected our mistakes from last year with the new smoker and the turkey was much better. There are a couple photos in...
Holy crap, I’m old. How is it possible that I have a child who is in his twenties now? Noah came home from Mizzou this weekend so we could celebrate his 20th birthday. He is becoming such a fine young man, and we are so proud of him.
We visited Noah for Parent’s Weekend and had lunch in Columbia at a nice BBQ place called COMO Smoke and Fire. Then we took a little trip to Boonville to take a tour of Warm Springs Ranch. It was pretty hot all day, but we still enjoyed seeing the horses and petting the yearlings. If you grew up in St....
Noah came home this weekend and so we had our traditional Labor Day cookout on Saturday night. I forgot to take any pictures, but we did have an exciting visit from a juvenile hawk of some kind that I caught on the surveillance camera. He thought Selena looked tasty, and if Dixie hadn’t scared him off by screaming, it might...
We got Noah moved into his new room at Hatch Hall – he was hired as a Resident Assistant this year, so he had to move in two weeks early for training. I have fond memories of those weeks when I was an RA, although it doesn’t sound like they do as much team-building as we did back then. I...
Jane turned 80 this month, so we couldn’t let that milestone pass without a celebration. Laura organized lunch at The Boathouse in Forest Park, and she also paid Josie to digitize all of the Zyk family 8mm film. Lunch was yummy, and we all had a good time.
Earlier this summer, I told the kids I wanted to take a history field trip to Springfield, IL, to see the Lincoln museum. They were open to the idea, so I scheduled it and bought tickets. Josie ended up catching some bug that was going around, so she stayed home. Noah and I enjoyed seeing some of the sights, including...
Tonight was our last show at The Muny this summer. I agreed to split the cost of Linda’s season tickets, and we ended up trading in a couple of shows that we weren’t really interested in, so more of us could attend. The sets and costumes were really good (especially the balcony scene) and the actress playing Eva Perone had...
When I started the blog on The Pipes Family Foundation website last year, I didn’t expect to be spending so much time doing genealogical research. I mean, it’s been an interest of mine for at least twenty years, and I really started to immerse myself in it during the pandemic, but then it was just for me. Now I’m investing...
My wonderful family indulges me every year with a day trip somewhere that they might not otherwise have gone. Whether it’s to visit an alpaca farm or to climb around on the trains, they always seem to enjoy themselves. Or they do a good job of faking it. This year it was the AB brewery tour downtown, followed by lunch...
Alas, poor Yorick, even though the Shakespeare Festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary year, we have never been to a performance – until today. I was offered seats through ECF, so we saw a modern reimagination of Hamlet and it was really good. I was getting a little tired by the end – it’s hell getting old – but I...
Laura was planning to take Jane to a UFL game and she asked if we would want to go along. Noah has gotten more into football his first year at college, so he was interested, but this was our first time going to a UFL game. It turned out to be a really good day. The Battlehawks beat the Birmingham...
Seventeen years ago the Lord blessed us with a baby girl, and we planned it so that her birthday would coincide with her older brother’s spring break from college. Now that’s planning ahead! Noah is home this week for a visit and it was nice having the whole family together for the birthday celebration, which included presents and cheesecake! In...
We got back last night from a 10-day vacation that included a 7-day cruise aboard the Norwegian Getaway. We stayed a couple of extra nights in New Orleans to explore the French Quarter. Honestly, the trip was exhausting, and I need a vacation to recover from my vacation, but we had fun and made lots of memories. Photos from the...
This is the time of year when I normally start looking ahead at a potential family vacation in the spring or the summer. The scheduling has been complicated by the fact that Noah is off at college now, but this is the new reality, so we just have to roll with it. He is applying to be a summer welcome...
