New Issue

The new issue of the "Brown & White" is out. There is an article about Mr. Haines retiring if anyone is interested....
http://www.cattysd.org/web2/chsnew/Brown%20and%20White%20Archives/2007-08/08%20May%20Issue.pdf

Wedding

As promised, here are some pictures from my wedding day on Saturday. These are all from the cameras left on the tables at the reception. The reception was at a Middle Eastern restaurant.

My husband is John and he's in the tux. :-)

IRON PIGS

Has anyone been to the Iron Pigs yet? We went last friday. Rained the whole game.
Fireworks were cancelled and the Pigs lost. We did have a good time though. It is a very nice park. Hopefully next time we will be in the Diamond club or the Suite my work has. If you get a chance go and check out the park it is definetly a good thing for the Lehigh valley. They just need to start winning!!

New family member

I still miss Lou, but this past Saturday, the Freeman family welcomed a new family member. His name is Donovan, and he is an 8 week old French Bulldog. He is already spoiled and will remain being that way while he is with us.

The Ardèche

I just got back from seven days in the south of France. My Head of Year (kind of like Head of House - think Harry Potter) decided last year that he wanted to do an adventure trip and very kindly invited me along. We took 28 kids and 4 staff, and we stayed at an adventure centre which was staffed by some of the most amazing people I've ever met. They took us climbing, spelunking, mountain biking, and taught us archery and how to maneuver a high ropes course. It was so much fun! We also spent three days on the Ardeche river; one day kayaking, and then two days canoeing and camping for a night. Okay, pictures. The first is the Ardèche from the top of the gorge. It was some of the most breathtaking scenery I've ever seen. Picture two is Pont d'Arc, which is a natural rock formation. You can't see it in the picture but on the other side are some killer rapids which knocked me straight out of my kayak! Picture three is Rob, my Head of Year, climbing the cliff. There were three courses on the cliff, and he did all three of them (he climbs twice a week!). Some of the kids did all three too. I managed one. If we go next year, I'm going to try all three. The last picture is the full view of the rock face that we climbed. The whole experience was amazing, and I am so tired and so sore and covered in bruises and bumps and scrapes. My butt is still numb from the 22 hour bus ride.

Google Contest

Has anyone checked out the drawings from Google's contest? They had kids design some drawings based on a "What if..." and had thousands of entrants. They narrowed it down to 40 that you can vote for. Just go to google.com and click on "vote for the one" to see one. There are some pretty amazing young artists out there.

American Idol

I really didn't like last night's show.... I have found other shows much more exciting. I will just get to my critique:

David A: The boy can sing, but has the personality of a cockroach. He had the best song choices of the evening and he did pretty well.

Syesha: She also can sing, looks great (ever man I know loves her), and has a great personality. I feel she had some poor song choices last night, which I am afraid will cost her.

David C: This is probably the least that I have liked him to this point. Before last night, I would have bet money that he was the next American Idol. He needs to step up his performance if he wants to win.

My pick for the final two are David A and David C. I just don't think Syesha did well enough last night to make it. What do others think?

Cinco De Mayo

Personally, I don't celebrate Mexico's war wins, but I did enjoy a nice party at Lew's home in Egypt/Whitehall. I refrained from photography that night, but Kristen may have some photos.

The Walker's set it up nicely, even down to the fresh made guacamole. Classmates that attended. Kristen, Robb, Sands and even Tim Cunningham sighting!(Rusty/Rock missing from the fishing contest)
Other Catty people most of us know, Jeff Gerhard, Mick Firestone, Brian Deutsch, Karin Lathrop, Dave Troxell, that Brad Bloszinsky guy.

The Jello shots, in syringes,that Cathy Walker created, were a very big hit!
For anyone who has ever seen the brass ring game(on string), (need to loop it onto a wall hook), I did beat Kristen's but! ;)

For further gossip on this party, let Kristen post about it.

Another 40th!

Tomorrow is Carol Hahn's 40th Birthday. Welcome to the 40 Club and have a Happy, Happy Birthday!

Thought I would share pictures of my little pirate and princess from Disney. The last picture is of Brian standing for the first time at just 7 months. At this rate he will be walking in a week!

ONTELAUNEE CONTEST

This is the best picture I had of the Ontelaunee fishing contest. Ryan and I joined Rusty, his daughter Taylor,Rusty's dad Al, Rusty's brother Gregg and his son Garrett in the contest. Ryan must have rubbed a rabbits foot before he started fishing because the fish seemed to like his hook?? He ended up with a 15 1/4" 1 pounder. Along with about a dozen catches. Had a good time!

American Idol

Again, when I heard we were doing Neil Diamond I thought we were in for an awful show, but it wasn't too bad. Here is my recap:

Jason - not exciting, but I did like his performances
David C. - I did not like either one of his performances
Brooke - I hated her first performance but liked her second one
David A. - I did not like either one of his performances
Syesha - I liked her first performance and her second wasn't that bad

If I had to choose my top two based on performances last night, I would pick David A. and Brooke. However, I am sure the bottom two will be Brooke and Syesha with most likely Syesha going home. Have to wait and see.....

Get together....

I know this is going to sound strange, but I have been dreaming about all of you the last few nights. Last night, I dreamed that Vicki was visiting from England and Tracy came up from North Carolina so we all had a huge gathering at the Blue Monkey. I was on the phone trying to convince Prez that he HAD to come out while Lew, Robb, Kristen, MJ, and others were sitting near by. Maybe we need to have another reunion soon (even if it is a mini reunion) ... I don't know if I can wait until 2011!!

Look at the map at the bottom

I put a World Map of visitors on (I was bored on Sunday). I woke up this morning (Monday) and was blown away by some of the places people are that visited our blog. Wow is all I can say.
Here are the top 10 countries that have visited the blog. United States, Estonia, Argentina, Great Britain (UK), India, Hong Kong, Mexico, Malaysia, and Romania.

Picture Request

Here are the pictures that Mike requested. Like always we always have a good time. Yes Rusty did get a turkey and Lew sat and watched as usual! Here are some picks of my son Ryan and Mike's daughter Emily. This saturday I am doing a contest kids fishing contest with Rusty so I will try to post more pictures. I believe Tim Cunningham goes to this one also??

Opening day of Trout(second opening)

About 2 weeks ago, We've been doing it since 16yrs old. Had a blast as usual, camping outfrom Friday til Sunday with Rock,Sandsy,Lew,myself.

First year Robb ever missed, Rusty missed it also. Sandsy brought his son,Ian for first time with us. He had a great time. Once I get my new computer, I'll log some pictures on here.
Dug up some old photo books from about 99' fishing, Tim Cunningham was going with us also.
Both the Shanders usually go also, missed this year too.

Bushkill creek, by Fernwood(Poconos), with very few fisherman and we camp n a private property, large Bon Fires, alot of male-bonding and alot of trout!
I was just up yesterday overnight camping with my daughter Emily and Rock and his son Ryan.


They had a blast and we caught about 60 trout.(catch and released), But we did keep 2, 16 inch Brook trout(big for them). The state just re-stocked the stream. The Kids had fun at the fire, got abit wet, but was very relaxing and enjoyed watching them do their own things, discovering it all, and learning.
That was the most enjoyable part. Rumor has it, Rusty got his turkey hunting this weekend.
The stream is right in front of us, limited access, keeping the crowds to a minimum, and just a gorgeous view.
I just wish I could post some of the pics, maybe I can get Rock to do it. I'll save the old 99' pics as ransom insurance.

The most important thing all 3 children learned while being there.

"What goes on at the fishing camp, stays at the fishing camp!" :P

American Idol

Last night's show stank!!! I can't believe they did Broadway tunes......

Here is my recap of last night's show:
Syesha: Not bad, but then I'm not sure I liked it either.
Jason: Not sure he should have picked such a well known song. I have to say this was one of his worst performances.
Brooke: I can't believe she forgot the words!!! I would have to say this was one of her worst performances also.
David A: I still don't see why the judges praise him so much. I guess compared to the others so far he has done the best.
Carly: My favorite performance of the evening. I am glad to see she has been covering up that tattoo.
David C: I did not like this performance at all - although I am sure he will be there next week.

My pick for the bottom 3 is very difficult this week. I am going to say Syesha, Jason, and Brooke. I would have to pick Jason going home. He has always been one of my favorites so it was difficult to write this, but based on last night's performances he was the weakest. However, if you look at what has happened the last few weeks, then it would be Brooke or Syesha going home. Have to wait and see......

Who's here?

Post a comment to show you've been here. I am wondering who's been here (other than the usual bloggers).
So, go ahead and post a comment so we know who's blurking out there.

American Idol

I was suprised by the performances last night. When I heard they were doing "Mariah Carey", I thought we were in for an awful show. Here is my breakdown of the evening:

David Archuleta - I still can't stand his personality, but he can sing.
Carly Smithson - A decent performance, but it had a few issues
Syesha Mercado - I'm not sure I liked all the fluctuations in her voice, but a strong performance
Brooke White - I was disappointed by her performance
Kristy Lee Cook - I thought she was awful
David Cook - at first I didn't like it - changed it up too much for me, but listening to the playback at the end it wasn't too bad
Jason Catro - I really liked his version of the song. I'm glad to see he is coming back to the forefront.

My picks for the bottom three are: Carly Smithson, Brooke White, and Kristy Lee Cook. I think it is time for Kristy Lee Cook to go home. I have to say I have been suprised by the voters a few times so we will have to wait and see what happens tonight.......

From Michelle Rozelle

We are now into a new adventure of showing cattle. Attached is a
picture of my daughter (Vanessa) with her first show heifer
(Melissa) that we showed last year. They both did very well for our
first year out and really just learning all about showing. We are
in full swing for this years upcoming show season. We are in the
process of breaking 4 heifers, yes at my age out there with the 400
to 900 pound cows.

I have started working for the University of Tennessee, as a program
assistant for 4H, which has kept me busy for the past several
months. I enjoy working with the kids, especially the 4th graders as
it is all new to them.

Michelle Rozelle