Go Bucks!

It was nice to be back on Campus! The weather was nice, the company was great, and the Bucks played well! It was good to see them do some good things after that miserable showing at USC last week. Uncle John was awesome and opened his home to the kids...Isaac, Amelia, Reid, and Brady. No, he didn't watch all of them himself. Kathy and Mary were there to help out. Thanks for letting us enjoy the game. What a great day!

Ike

Ike was pretty devastating everywhere he went. Of course in the Carribean and the Gulf coast of Texas, and yes, in Cincinnati, OH. When it hit us it was a Category 1 Hurricane. We didn't get the rain (that part went to Chicago), just the wind. The wind was plenty. Ike brought down trees, limbs, power lines, blew shingles off of roofs, and was responsible for 5 deaths here. We were lucky. We lost a few shingles, several branches, and were only out power for 4 or 5 hours. There were hundreds of thousands of households that were out power all week- my aunt Suellen included. I never thought I would be in a hurricane in Ohio. I guess I never thought I would feel an earthquake in Ohio, either, but I've experienced both in the past 6 months! How strange!

You want to know what's even more strange? My photographer husband didn't take any pictures of the damaged roof or downed branches in our yard! You'll have to settle for pictures of the trees that took out Mom and Dad Phillips's fense and deck- they just barely missed the house...

Congratulations Jill and Aaron!

Well, it happened. My baby sister is engaged! I can't wait to have Aaron added to the family- he really pretty much has already been considered part of the family for a long time. We all love him, but I can't wait for it to be official! And we couldn't be happier for Auntie Jill.

So, you want to hear the story?

Some of you may know, Aaron is on the Men's Basketball coaching staff at OU. He just started there a few weeks ago. They have biographies of the coaching staff posted on their website. Well, Aaron had them temporarily add a paragraph at the end that was about Jill and how he feels about her. He said to Jill, "They got my bio up..." So of course Jill wanted to see it. When she finished reading it, she turned to him, asked if it was real, he kneeled down and popped the question. Of course she said yes, and again asked him if the bio was real!

Then, Aaron surprised her again by taking her to his parents house where they with my parents were awaiting their arrival. We were supposed to be there waiting, too, but we were late. Like usual. Thanks to Brian's lovely job (at least he sold a car this time). So, they had a cookout for everyone, we all visited, had a good time, the kids got to see the the goats and the pony Butter, and we toasted to Jill and Aaron. It was a lovely evening. Thanks to Aaron's folks for having us over!

That night we stayed with Jill at her Boss' house in New Albany. Jill is a nanny to this wonderful family who had her house and dog sitting for the holiday weekend. They told her to go ahead and have some people over while she was there. They are so kind to have allowed Jill to have a get-together and allow us to stay over. Thanks Jamie and Kristin! So of course, Jill didn't realize it ahead of time, but that turned out to be an engagement party. Everyone had a blast. Isaac didn't want to leave- he really enjoyed the pool and Cooper's play room (I hope we got everything back where it belonged!).