Last Saturday's ISU Volleyball match

Since the building this team usually plays in flooded in June and the repairs haven't been completed, the team is using Ames High School as their 'home' turf.

Above: The ISU team lines up before the game to be introduced. Below: Cy, the ISU mascot (Cy, the Cyclone!) watches the game from the sidelines.

This is the Oklahoma volleyball team warming up on the fancy floor that was put together like a puzzle over the basketball surface.

This is the 34 second video of the pep band playing the ISU fight song!!

Ben's football game Senior night and Noel on the old furnace

My youngest nephew (not GREAT-nephew, Izaac), Ben, is quarterback on his high school's football team (again) this year and the seniors were honored Friday evening by walking with their parents onto the field.

This is Noel last week when the OLD furnace was removed. She had to inspect it for the heating guy. (Still without heat and a/c waiting for an electrician to come and work his 'magic' so the heating guy can finish!!!)

This is the 23-second video of the Senior 'ceremony' last Friday evening. The first half of the football game was exciting! (we left at half-time)

A nice day at Como Zoo (Sunday)

We saw seals and sea lions frolicking...

two kinds of flamingos and other interesting water fowl...

cuddling spider monkeys...

a rather bored-looking gorilla....

and some tourist-type animals!! (Samantha and John)

A fun weekend 'up north' with Samantha...

It started out as an offer to take both our kids, one spouse (since the other spouse, Marty, is deployed with his National Guard unit), and the new in-laws, to Dubuque to ride on the boat on the Mississippi that we were scheduled for after Alex & Allison's wedding.

Schedules didn't mesh well, but Samantha was available, so John, Samantha and I headed north on Saturday and shopped. (Above is a boat that said it was a "Bed & Breakfast", too.)

Sunday morning was quite chilly, with a promise of sunshine later in the day, so we headed to Como Zoo for a couple of hours to admire the animals. (zoo pictures tomorrow)

There was a really different store for an outlet mall in Medford (Minnesota). It was called "The Bag Lady". Both the above and below pictures were taken in the store. I couldn't resist the bejeweled cat! (I didn't even look to see how much it cost...and didn't buy it....!)

Sunday and Monday views

This is just a bunch of icky starlings who had been munching on the ripening soybeans in the field, but against the sunset, it's really interesting.

When going to Des Moines Sunday, I was stopped by a train each way, both full coal trains heading east to give some town a warm winter.


On Sunday, it was nice, and my Uncle Charlie drove 'the good car'. It's a '71 Torino with 42,000 original miles on it. My grandma bought it when it had a few hundred miles on it in 1972. It's definitely a classic, and my mom's 4 grandsons have all wanted the car for their very own (fun).

Happy 50th Birthday, Shirley!

Izaac enjoying the party with a dirty face...

The ice cream birthday cake my mom crafted for Shirl's birthday. My mom also made hot beef sandwiches (yummy roast/mashed potatoes/gravy) and creamed peas, etc., etc.

The t-shirt I struggled to make the iron-on transfer for. It turned out okay, though! (on the back is a collage of pictures of Shirley when she was young...)

The threesome in the dining room, Shirley, Izaac and Michelle (Izaac's aunt).

Shirl ready to open her bounty of presents.

The threesome after opening cards.

The dining room in Des Moines at my mom's decorated for the BIG EVENT (Shirley's 50th birthday!!!).

Will try and put the remaining pictures of the party on flickr, and some short videos, too.

Scenes from the road...

I went shopping yesterday, and on the way, I was stopped by an empty coal train. There were several engines in the front of this one--and since the cars were empty, a couple of them must have been there 'just for the ride'...(that much engine power wasn't needed for empty cars!)

This is the corn pile at the elevator next to the train tracks (where I was stopped waiting for the train to pass).

Apparently I timed my driving perfectly so I could see the beginning and the end of this train while I parked and waited.

This little Lutheran Church sits about a mile from the highway, but the field in front was so pretty I thought it would make a nice picture. The clouds were attributed to the hurricane Hermine winding down to almost nothing as it got this far north of the gulf!

We didn't 'labor' on Monday!

This is how Bogie spent Labor Day since it was WINDY outside. (We're having wind gusts to 45mph today, too!)

Queen spent the day in much the same way (as did a couple of the 'orphans', but they are quicker to move when I come near them with a camera than Bogie and Queen).

This is the native prairie that now surrounds the east, west and north sides of our 'yard'. It goes through stages during the year, and even though the flowering stages is my favorite, this isn't a bad view, either.

This is another neighbor around the corner... pigs and a pit.

Think they must be chopping this corn for silage??

September scenes from my 'neighborhood'...

So it was beautiful day and I decided to capture it in pictures.

(above) This is the east section of our yard. When we moved here in 1997, we used to play baseball in this field. It was our very own "Field of Dreams", and at that time, it was surrounded by a corn field.

This is a field of soybeans, just starting to change colors.

This is the corn field across the road from our house.

These are the neighbor's cows.

These are the two new calves this summer.

This view is from the top of a road south of Stanhope, looking back at the elevator in Stanhope.

These were some horses (one of them looks like a mule??--I didn't get that close when I took the picture) in the field on the hill where I parked to take pictures.

These last pictures are from the top of the hill looking around at the colors changing with the seasons.

(Yes, that's our big red truck in the picture!)