Updated Version of the Mcpherson Reunion!!

We'r backing up in time. I want to cover all the family reunions in 2008. Started off with My Mom's family back in July! The McPherson Reunion...Hope you enjoy!

Our house at Christmas time!!

If you put your curser on the picture, it will give you a title. It's kind of genaric for now, but it's better than nothing right? I had a beutifull show all set up, and my computer won't let me post it. I guess Donnie probably needs to add some softwear.

Vanya's band concert went very well. Unfortunately my camera was on the fritz, so I don't have any pictures. I'm hopeing to get some off of a friend. We had cookies and pop afterwards in the cafeteria. Ann was only to have a 1/4 of a can, but when we got home, she snuck and finished all of it. I guess I didn't put it up high enough. Doenisha and I have been working hard on that slide show, so you can imagine how disappointed we both were when this program would not let us post it. It was sooooooooo pretty too. I'll have to call my expert "my sister" she has a beautifull blog.

Santa, & me at school Christmas party!!

Ann & Santa!

She doesn't really like him...but we talked her into asking him for the pedal tractor she wants. She loved him last year, but has screamed every time she sees him so far this year.

Mrs. Becky, Mrs. Diane & Mrs. Linda

Mommy came to my Christmas party with me!! We had so much fun! Some ladies from a local church got us all gifts!! I got a complete snow suit...hat and mittens! Plus I got pj's and a real plush puppy to sleep with. I got some other gifts too, but too busy to mention them all. I keep asking Santa for a pedal tractor! Daddy said we'd have to see if Santa had any in his workshop or not. I'm not sure I can wait that long, but Mommy said I have to.

Hurry Mom I caught him!!

MMMMMMMMMM Play dough....Mom isn't real sure about this, but I'm loving it!!

Actually got a whole play dough kit, so I can make sandwiches etc... I think I heard Mommy say I'll have to sit in my chair at the table to play with this stuff. Apparently she does not think I'm responsible enough to keep it out of the rug and wherever else it might end up. Like the florescent paint my sister left laying out and I got to fingerprint all over the living room with. That was a blast, until Mom found out, then we both got in trouble. When you want to have fun, you have to count the cost.

Merry Christmas!!! Hope you've enjoyed this. I think Mom will be posting the Johnson family reunion next, but my brother has his band concert tonight...

Messed up...

I guess my body had more damage than we thought. I'm doomed to therapy for 24 visits, then after that, they will try to determine if there is long term damage. I feel like a bobble head....lol I'd love to bubble wrap my neck, but that might look funny. There's some further injuries, but I'm not in the mood...lol

I finally got a good picture of our 9 ft Christmas tree to post on here. The kids have to get the ladder out to decorate it every year. We didn't really have a good place to store it this past year, so we kept changing the decor for every Holiday or season.

Here's the Christmas picture of the kids! Some of you may have already seen it!! It's so good to here from those of you who have found me via Jeanne's or other blog spots! It's nice to keep in touch. I'm still learning how to do this, so don't laugh too hard...hehe

Vanya's band concert got cancelled tonight due to bad weather....rescheduled for Friday...worked out a little better for us that way.

I won't be able to take Annie to her dance class either. She's the smartest little critter. The other day they had told one of the kids when dropping her off from school, that there would be no bus on Monday. When I got dressed yesterday morning, she kept getting more and more aggravated with me. Telling me that the bus was not coming and I had to drive her to school. I finally called the preschool, and she was right.! The teacher said that was pretty good for 3.

Love you all bunches!!

Car Crash...

For those of you who havn't heard yet, on 12/10 I was in a pretty seriouse car crash. Thankfully no one was hurt. I had made plans to pick Ann Marie up early from preschool, but right before I left the house somthing to me to just leave her there till I got back from town...I guess that was the Lord's protection over her. Someone pulled out in front of me in slow motion. I tried to swing into the parking area off to my right to miss him, but after he had gotten clear out in both lanes, he decided to put his van in reverse for some odd reason, so there was no way of missing him. We are so thankfull that no one was hurt, and he has insurance to cover my car. We havn't heard yet if it's been totaled or fixable. For the impact, the outside damage isn't too bad on my car, but I guess it depends on what they find under the hood, and if the axle has been bent...not sure how they figure all that out. I'll try to insert some pictures.


Too bad I don't have a picture of me strapped to that terrible backboard...lol


The Bergholz EMS once they figured I was o.k. started playing with their brand new ambulance on the way in, they said I was their first passanger since they baught this brand new ambulance.

I had a hard time getting out of my door, and the air bag had gone off, so there was smoke comming out of the steering wheel. I thought my car was on fire, so you can imagine the panic. I had to draw back and put my whole weight into the door to get out, and there was just enough room for me to squeeze out.

Thankfully I didn't get sighted for anything. I know a guardian angel was hovering around.

I'll close for now...hope you have a great day! I'm going to try and keep up with this blog more often. Love all of you, Donna

December 2008

Welcome!!!

Sit around the fire while we catch up!!

Wow, it's been a while I see...lol My sister has been coaxing me to start a blog and I knew I had already started one, but remembering my password and all to get back into this thing was very interesting, espcially since Donnie had started it while I was in the hospital after having Ann Marie. Wow, she's 3 now...hehe
We arn't ready for Christmas at all. However the kids did decorate the 9 ft tree in the den before they left for Thanksgiving with their Dad.
Ann and I put up and decorated the 6 ft tree in our green living room.... (it has the title because of the carpet color) The tree is very interesting. I wanted it to be perfect, but ended up having lots of fun, and the lower ornaments are right where Ann Marie moved them to after I had already put them on...lol She keeps us hopping.

Our 6 ft tree!!

The kids and I went shopping for a few exchange gifts that I needed, and then of course they found a couple of things that they wanted also...I should know that I need more $ than I plan on...lol Part of having kids along. I try to sneak and shop by myself as much as possible. I use to sneak to the ice cream shop on the way home too, but now I've joined the "TOPS" group (take off pounds sensibly) No more ice cream for me....lol



We are doing a family project this year of getting a couple stockings ready for teenagers to take to the Urban Mission in town. They have a hard time comming up with things for the teens.



I challenged our church people to do somthing for needy people this year, even if all they could afford was a plate of cookies. Just some little thing to show the love of God at this time of year. Dad was a good example of this. One year we took a couple bags of groceries and a Christmas tree to a needy family. Our family will never forget the joy that it brought them as well as us. We also have a mitten and hat tree at church that goes to the Urban mission.

Vanya played football this fall. Many bumps and bruises, but he seemed to really enjoy it! He's in the bottom right hand corner there in the picture. I found out that the coaches are soooo mean and they use the worst language...think I got on their bad list a couple of times for makeing mention of it.

Vanya also is very into Boy Scouts of America. He is curently a "Tender Foot" as far as rank goes. He was able to get one of his friends to join! They have so much fun. The leaders he has are awsome! He was given some high honers at the last Banquet they had for the boys. They say he never opts for the easy road. He always takes the toughest challenges in the group of boys. We are proud of him, and he really enjoys it. They have a ski trip comming up in January, he's really hopeing to go. This picture was taken at Summer camp 2008

Victoriea, Vanya, And Doenisha Laynne

Doenisha Laynne letting Ann Marie help with our 9 ft tree decore!

Doenisha Laynne is into homemakeing. She gives her little sister plenty of loving. Whatever she does, she has the patience to let Ann Marie help her. She got a 4.0 on her report card this last 9 weeks! That gave her a $50 deposit into a savings account from her Dad, $10 from her Grandma, and $5 from her preacher!! She also got her name printed in the paper. She got the presidents award at the end of last year...she is a very good student, and seems to enjoy school. She will be joining the track team at school again in the spring. She really enjoys that and did an awsome job last spring. She also is our #1 cookie maker. As we speak she and Ann Marie are makeing sugar cookies! She has more patients than I do...lol Doenisha Laynne and her friends love spending the summer swimming any chance they get. Could go for a nice warm day right now...We're proud of her and all her hard work at home and at school. I forgot to mention that she is on the Beta Club at school. This is only for students that get a certain grade point average, and their club does things to help out in the community as well as at school.

Donnie's Birthday gift, Anniversay, & Christmas 2008...hehe
A much deserved and long awaitted Dodge Ram 4X4 Off Road

He has always put the family car first to make sure we had somthing reliable, and he has driven mostly junk cars that needed lots of fixing from time to time.

Donnie has been at his Job for 21 years now. A lot of changes and people have come and gone. He is the Chief Engineer at the Local TV station for those of you who don't know.

They have been doing a lot of upgradeing with modern technology. He has said he's glad he's not a Dr. becasue he wouldn't be able to stand being paged all the time, but he is on 24 hour call if anything goes down at work, so I'm not sure what the difference is except for maybe Dr.'s get way more calls. He is able to lay in bed at 3:00a.m. and work someone through a problem over the phone. Most of the time that works, but sometimes, he just has to get up and go to work. It's funny to hear him say "ok, if you look up to your left, there's a swith....blah blah blah"

He's is also a lay speaker for the United Methodist Church. He helps out when the preacher is away, and in my opinion does a very good job. The preacher got so many compliments about him the last time, that he joked about the fact that "my name is Jim, and I'm your pastor".

We were able to attend his 25th high school reunion this summer. It was pretty interesting hearing them tell stories about each other and what all went on in their high school days!

Hmmm....been leaving me till last...not sure what to say except that I'm responsible when no one else will take the blame...lol I'm a taxi driver for my family. Too bad I dont' get paid per mile, that would really stack up. I could probably go on vacation every month for a couple of days. Lets see here.

Monday: TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) group at 5:30p.m., Vanya's Boy Scout Group meeting from 7:30 till 9:00 p.m., so we leave here around 5:00 and don't get home till 9:30 to find Donnie and Doenisha have fixed dinner for us and are patiently waitting to eat together.

Tuesday: Ann has dance calss at 5:00 p.m. She is in the Todlerific class. Seems to really enjoy it. She really likes her tap shoes.

Wednesday: Christmas Contata practice has been at 7:00p.m I"ll be glad when that's over. The kids were allowed to join this jear, so it's been a family affair. Makes it more special.

Thursday: ???? Whatever didn't get done... or squeezing Dr. appointments for the whole family. Try to catch up on the chores.

Friday: If Donnie isn't working sometimes we'll go out for dinner, but that's been really rare here lately.

Saturday: Sleep in as long as possible. We've working on getting a few more things done before the Johnson Reunion...It's comming up this Saturday the 13th.

Sunday: We attend church, and I accompany the Organist at church. I'm not the greatest piano player, but it's a lot of fun!! Then the kids and I fold bulletins and mail them to those who can't get out to church. This is a fun project. We put stickers on the envelopes and try to make it nice and cheery for them. The kids are working on the Christmas program now. I was asked if I could play the music for it. Pretty simple songs, so I agreed.

Well, I've probably board you to death, so I'm going to shut up, but I've got to wait for some more of my pictures to upload. I'm not real good at this yet, so sorry if it looks kind of strange.