Starting Line Up

This was at the start, over 4,000 participants.

After the Race

After the race. Guess who was not happy???

Before the Race

Early in the morning before we set out for the race.

William and Alan at the pool

William and Alan at Holiday Inn's pool, Orlando

Happy Birthday Mom

We took mom to Orlando for her birthday weekend. We left on Friday afternoonw We were out of school. We went to Macaroni Grill for supper and the Waitor sang an Italian Opera to tune of Happy Birthday and gave mom a delicious chocolate dessert.
On Saturday we got up really early and went to Disney's Animal Kingdom. They had the courses go through the park and back out to the parking lot. Dad, and we guys ran the 5K while mom walked 1 mile. Unfortunately, mom had Tendernitis in her Achilles tendon and had to resort to the 1 mile walk. This race was to raise funds for breast cancer it was 'the Race for the Cure'. Mom walked in memory of our dear friends Karen Burch and Marcia Tippins.
We then went back to the hotel and swam for a little while. After showering and changing it was close to lunch time. We went to Bubba Lou's Bodacious BBQ. Needless to say it was a great meal, juicy ribs. Dad came up with the best idea to take us to a music shop. William was really happy and found a nice electriic guitar. Alan saw a electric bass that he wants. We are both hoping to find a musical instrument under our Christmas tree .
We then went back to the hotel and rested for a few hours. We ended the evening with supper at Jason's Deli were we sat around for about 2 hours and played games and talked.
On Sunday after checking out of the hotel we took mom to the outlet mall,where we all had a fine time 'shopping till we dropped'.
William said this was his best weekend ever. It was a great family weekend!

Week of September 30, 2005

Hi All,

This is a picture of our dog, Rocky. Rocky is a Lhasa. Our other dog is name Lucky. Lucky is black and white and is mixed German Shepherd and other breeds.

William has been in sick for three days last week. He had a stomach virus. It is going around.

Mom and dad went to school on Thursday for Open House. Dad followed Alan's schedule and mom followed William's. Dad had an eye opener about how things work. He is convinced that there is way too much for the kids to remember, smile. There are a lot of things to remember and do when you enter 6th grade. The good news is that they put most of it on the internet. We will be keeping up with the internet. William's wasn't as hard. They figure by this time that the kids know what to do. The hardest thing is now they think they know everything and the hormones are rushing. The teachers who have the 8th grade really are patient and try hard to keep the kids under control and let them have some freedom through these trying teenage years. The school end of the 1st quarter is this week and we will find out how they are doing in the next couple of weeks.

We got some tickets to go see the Devil Rays play their last game this season. Because so few people go to the games they offered the tickets for $5. Alan managed to get a couple of autographs but the lines were so long that by the time we got there most of the team had gone to warm up for the game. Devil Rays gave away a number of Fan Appreciation gifts and even raffled off the shirts of the players back. This was a fundraiser and the money went to the Katrina fund. One of the boys in our party was a winner of the shirt but his family had left before they announced the winners. Apparently, he will be able to get the shirt at a later date. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

Well the Bucs are 4 - 0, what a start. Unfortunately, for our family the Cowboys weren't as lucky today.

It was good having our sister, Marcia, visiting this month. Mom went up to Atlanta and spent time with Sherri and Marcia. Then Marcia came to Florida and visited us for a week. When mom was up with our sisters we stayed home with dad. It was good to have a guy's weekend.

Well take care and we'll keep in touch.

William and Alan