Ok, I'm going to post some of my favorites of her senior pictures, we're going to get them printed this weekend and I'll be sending out invitiations to her party early next week, I hope everyone can make it!
This one is my #1 favorite, taken by Vicky, Jeff's mom

Followed closely by this one taken by Lucas, Jeff's little brother

And here are just a few from prom :)

My personal favorite :)

And while we're on the subject of Lucas...I have to take a minute to brag him up.

On Saturday, before prom, he had a track meet in Ada, where he ran a 14.2 for the 110 high hurdles and broke the school record as well as it being his career personal best.
He also won the BVC conference championship for the 2nd year in a row and is headed to Districts this week, preliminaries on Thursday and finals on Saturday. Good Luck Lucas!

My little bird just sent me this picture from her cellphone, looks like they got the Cap & Gowns in...I can hardly believe this is real!!! After all the drama and trouble in the beginning of her high school career, she's really made it! I'm so proud of her...and proud of myself really for making a good choice by moving here, even though it cost me a lot (my best friend of 20 years) I know if we had stayed in Michigan, she would never had finished school, and she may not have survived period! You go girl! I'm so excited for you!

Wow...I can't believe she's 18...I mean I truly can't believe it. The time has just flown by.
Your life is your own, make of it what you will, but here are my best wishes that you have a wonderful future and life,Lil Bird...it's all about choice! You can do anything you have your heart set on if you work hard enough... =)

I love you!

Her 18th birthday is also her senior prom...pics, senior pics and invitations for graduation are coming soon! Can't wait to see everyone there!

I've really been slacking with this blog, sorry about that...I've just been really busy lately. A lot has happened in a short time so I'll just give you the condensed version of the last couple of months.

On January 14th, my boss told me that he was going to have to lay me off. Business had been so bad and we were so slow that he just couldn't afford to keep 2 of us working, and since I was the low man on the totem pole I got pink slipped. Well, as luck would have it...the feds dropped the interest rate a lot and it has caused quite a little boom of refinancing, so within 2 weeks he called me and asked if I would come back in part-time, Monday, Wednesday and Friday...that was last week. Yesterday I told him that there was too much work for just part time, so I need to come in everyday for now until we slow down again and he said.."OK" LOL...so I basically just told my boss I'm coming back full time and he agreed. Too funny!

Both of the older girls have been busy with Show Choir. They had competitions the last 2 weekends and did very well in both. Last Saturday (January 26th) was Findlay Fest, they didn't make the finals in that one, but I wasn't suprised. Findlay won "Fame" New York last year, which is one of the biggest show choir competitions in the country, therefore, there were a lot more power house groups there this year with huge budgets and props. We still placed 7th and that was still impressive considering the calibur of groups they had there. This past Saturday (February 2nd) we went to the biggest high school in Ft. Wayne, Indiana for competition at Northrop High School. Out of 9 schools in the "small group" catagory, we took Grand Champions overall, best vocals, best choreography, and best instrumentals...after a little mix-up when they announced the awards we were finally named Grand Champs and given our trophy and medals and were the only small group to perform in the finals. We came in 6th place overall and didn't leave Ft. Wayne till about 12:30 a.m. got home around 2:00am,, and by the time we got the equipment truck unloaded and got home it was 2:30...we had to be at the school at 5:45 am so it made for a super long day. I didn't take many pictures though..(again, total slacker!)



On Sunday, Danielle slept pretty much all day. She had been fighting a cold for almost 2 weeks so I figured she was just exhausted from the long day before. Around dinner time I went down to check on her and she was burning up with a 102.5 fever. So she's been sleeping a lot and taking meds for her fever and symptoms, and I told her yesterday if she was still sick today I would take her in to the Dr. When I got up for work this morning she was burning up again so I took her in. They said she has the flu, which for someone with asthma can be a really bad thing. I'm hoping it doesn't develop into pneumonia and that the rest of us are spared, especially me with no health insurance.

So Monday, I get to work and see a blog post from my best friend Ronnie that he has been informed that he will be shipping out to Iraq, possibly as soon as June 2nd. We were hoping that since he got that awesome job with the National Guard as the L.O.D. (line of duty) liasion for the State of Michigan (basically helping soldiers injured in the line of duty t0o get any and all benefits or assistance that is coming to them) that he would be able to stay stateside. I'm really bummed out and worried for him, Stacey and the kids.

Today, I called my mother to tell her about Danielle being sick, and she tried to answer the phone but it went dead, so I called her office. Rose answered the phone, when I asked for my mom she acted really weird and said, well Andrea she's at the hospital with Ernie, he's gone in for a heart cath this morning. He's been having a lot of trouble with his heart lately. He's been short of breath, dizzy and his pace maker/defibulator has been going off 3 or 4 times a week. I guess they went into the Cardiologist yesterday and they decided to do a heart cath and see what's going on in there. The news isn't good. They said they are going to put as many stents in as they can, but they don't know if it will even help, his heart is in that bad of shape. It's just going to give out one of these days.

On the lighter side of things, Jeff's back is doing better and after 3 months off work and 6 weeks of physical therapy, he's finally been cleared to go back to work. Come to think of it, I can't even remember if I posted about him hurting his back or not. LOL.

Talked to Tina this morning, she's scheduled to go in for a C-Section on the 18th of February, so not much longer until her little guy makes his appearance! They haven't decided on a name yet. I'm so excited for her, I adore newborns and will probably take a quick run up to Michigan when he's born to visit them in the hospital.

Last but not least, I have a couple of cute pics I want to add.

First one is Danielle, taken a couple of weeks ago. I really love this pic of her...

Next is one of her and Maggie, taken on Friday when they had no school because we had an ice storm...

Last is Danielle at Findlay Fest getting ready to perform at 8:30 a.m., this was probably taken at 7:30 a.m. or so...

Here is Lucas with his award for Most Dynamic Performer that he won at Findlay Fest

I've got to close for now. If you're reading this and you're the praying kind of person, say a little prayer for Ronnie, that he'll come home safe and that Stacey and the kids will stay strong while he's gone...For Danielle to get well soon...For Tina to have a quick recovery and a healthy baby....and for Ernie and his heart problems.

Till next time...take care!

Here are just a few new pics of the girls for Show Choir...They have their Christmas concert tonight, I'm going to try and shoot video and upload in the next few days and also take some pictures of the 3 girls together for Christmas cards, so be on the lookout for those soon :)

This one is Raven and Alex, which I scanned from a button...it didn't turn out the greatest...but it's a cute pic so I had to post it :)

Hello! Hope everyone had a nice holiday! We had a wonderful holiday here, even if it was a bit hectic. The weekend before Jeff's brother David called from Virgina. He was supposed to come for Thanksgiving and bring his girlfriend Amanda to meet the family. Unfortunately her grandfather died unexpectedly so they came early and could only stay till Wednesday morning. The plan was for the whole family to get together at Jeff's Aunt Sarah's house on Thursday. Well, Jeff's mom was going to pick Emily up from College in Marietta on Tuesday and David had to leave Wednesday morning, so I offered to have his whole family over for an early Thanksgiving on Tuesday because that was the only time the whole family would be together.

I went shopping and picked up everything I needed Monday afternoon on my lunch break and was stressing how I was going to get everything done because I had to work Tuesday and do a 4:00 p.m. closing down in Wapakoneta! I had planned to just have Jeff put the turkey on for me, have the girls peel potatos and start them, and then just throw the rest of it together when I got home from work. Jeff's mom was due to get in with Emily at 7 p.m.

I didn't get home from work until 6! I was a basketcase the whole way home! When I got there I was pleasently suprised that Jeff had everything out and ready to go when I got there! All I had to do was finish everything. What a great suprise and a HUGE help. He was totally my hero that day! All the food turned out great, we had about 18 people there total and it's always fun to have his family over.

This is Jeff and all of his brothers and sisters

This is David and his girlfriend Amanda

Raven and Jeff's brother Lucas...

Jeff's Sister Jennifer and his nephew Tyler

This is Jeff's brother David and their younger sister Emily

Here is Maggie & Tyler

Danielle & Jeff's cousin Kylie (who lives with Jeff's mom and dad)

Tyler & Uncle Jeff

Then on Thanksgiving we went to his aunt Sarah's as planned and I met quite a few more of the family members on his dad's side and had a feast fit for a king! Here are just a couple of pics from that day...

Then lastly, the day after Thanksgiving we headed to Jeff's Uncle Mike's house for their family get together. This time with his mom's side of the family. More good times, great food and wonderful company! Although I didn't take any pictures of that get together because I forgot my camera! Sheesh!

Enjoy all the pictures and I'll hopefully be posting again before Christmas, but if not, I'll for sure get an update in just after!

Have a safe and wonderful Holiday!

Well, I finally broke down and got my hair chopped...it ended up being shorter than I wanted...and I'm not really crazy about how she styled it...hopefully I can mess around with it and get it to do something I like better. It's been hard not being able to go to the person who has done my hair since high school anymore. I never had to tell her anything...I would just say..."Do something different...whatever you think will look good." It always did. I miss that. But I would give up having her do my hair forever in a heartbeat just to have her back as my friend again. Unfortunately, wishful, wistful thinking gets you nowhere /sigh

Saturday we had the first competition of this years show choir season at Central Crossing High School in Grove City, just outside of Columbus. We had to be to the school by 6 a.m. to get to Columbus for the performance which was at 11:30 a.m.
The show went great but then we were done and had to sit around until 5:30 when they announced awards and who made finals...We are so proud and blown away by the results that day.
Cory-Rawson swept Class C...we got 1st place along with best vocals, best costume, best choreography, People's Choice, and best male (Sean Sewell) and female (Shelby Cox)vocalist within the show. It was announced that we would perform 2nd in the finals at 7:25 p.m. We got that done and then had to wait for the other 4 finalists and our host to perform before the awards for the finals were announced. Our band was voted Grand Champion Best Combo and our Show Choir were the 1st runner-up! That was a Cory-Rawson first! The kids were SO excited to take 2nd place out of 11 schools! All of the other schools were so much bigger than ours! As a matter of fact, when we were waiting for our bus to pull around, the winning choir's equiptment truck was parked next to ours...it was a full sized semi! LOL it was so funny seeing our little box truck next to that semi, kinda like David and Goliath!

There are TONS of pics on my myspace http://www.myspace.com/andreadetroit I just don't feel like re uploading all of them again, so if you wanna see some pics from the day, feel free to visit my myspace!

OK...I re-recorded the Show Choir last night at the dress rehersal so they could have one to look at of the whole choir at once...I personally prefer the video from the Findlay show. Even though you can't see the whole group at once because I was too close, the sound was FANTASTIC and you could see everyone's faces...but here it is...

Here are some pictures that Danielle was given today on a disk from her Color Guard coach at tonights Awards Night...

In other news..tomorrow I am re-recording the show choir during their dress rehersal so I can get better footage of the whole group and I'll be uploading it soon after...Then competition in Columbus on Saturday, everyone is very excited for their first show of the season! Good Luck Cory-Rawson Impressions!

Here are the girls school pictures for this year...Raven had a fat lip for hers and was not very happy about it...LOL...She's getting different ones for her "senior pictures"

I have video from the show choir performance from Saturday posted on this page, just scroll down a bit if you want to see it...

OK...here are some pics from Homecoming week 2007. Raven didn't end up going to the dance this year, she hurt her shoulder on Thursday at the Powder Puff football game so she didn't go to the game on Friday or the dance on Saturday, and on Sunday she was doing the prep for her Colonoscpy that she had done today. The doctor said everything looked ok and they are going to do a few more tests, but her problem is most likely I.B.S. and thankfully nothing too serious.

Cute pic of Raven before the Powder Puff game

Here's a cute pic of Danielle and Maggie they took on the bus

A picture of Maggie

Danielle at the game

Danielle with her "boyfriend" Jacob at the Homecoming Game

Jeff's brother Lucas at the game, full of school spirit!

Lucas leading the fans in a cheer

This is a video of Danielle doing part of her flag routine to "Thriller", there is no sound because I used my camera to make the video



Here is a picture of Danielle before the dance, she looked beautiful!







In other news from this weekend...we were puppy sitting for Jeff's mom and dad. This puppy was found along with his siblings, floating in a crate in a flooded basement in Findlay...he's been aptly named..."Lucky" Not sure what kind of breed he is, but one thing is for sure, he is adorable!