Happy Anniversary

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Donna and Carl!

Reflect's 4th Show!

Hello Jones Clan Ragers!

You've probably noticed it's been awhile since the last Reflect show. Fear not, because we're booked for three more shows between now and September. This time out we played with Vegetative State from Columbus and two bands from Winnipeg: Search & Destroy and Born Bad. Finally, I'm not the only one at a hardcore show who can keep up a coherent conversation about hockey.








Here's a photo of Matt, you'll remember that he plays guitars and writes all of the bone-crushing riffs. I'm at his right hand wearing a decidedly un-hardcore set of earplugs and my rock and roll jeans. Then, just to show you how much love goes around at our shows, there's our fearless leader Rob receiving a hug from one of our fearless fans. Look closely, over Rob's shoulder you can see the furnace, then a girl in a purple dress (Alyssa, Matt's girlfriend) and next to Alyssa you can see the jeans that Liz is wearing! She's very, very close to the action and super-supportive in her ear plugs!

Have a great weekend everybody, I don't think we'll have t-shirts or cd's by the Pittsburg trip, but who knows?

Jack

I just wanted to let you guys know that my little kitten Jack died last night. He had an upper respiratory infection that pretty much never got better. He didn't eat or drink at all yesterday so Dave and I took him to the vet. They gave us more medicine and hope that he would be okay. Well last night he was so weak, he couldn't even walk. Dave and I were with him when he died and I think its the worst thing I've ever experienced. I just keep remembering it.

Anyway, I'm sorry you guys couldn't meet him. He was the sweetest kitty. He cuddled me every night.

Take a shot of some Jack Daniels tonight in memory of my little Jack. I know Dave and I will.

Rest in peace my little kitty.

MOO

Last Tuesday Kim and I decided to take a walk in the park. The beach part of the Gunpowder State Park was closed to the public, but we could see lots of activity going on over there. For starters, there were a lot of old cars parked in the parking lot. Now I mean older than Bob's t-bird. We also noticed what looked like cranes and trailers. Now what could all of this equipment be?? Detective Kim said,"Hey, maybe they're shooting a movie?"
Being nosy, we ventured over towards the beach area but weresoon stopped by a security guard. Rats!! However, she was a somewhat friendly guard. I asked, Are they shooting a movie here?
Would it happen to be the one they're shooting around Baltimore with Renee Zellwiger?" Her reply was ,"Yes it is."
We felt very proud of ourselves as we continued our walk around the loop. We also noticed a bunch of signs with MOO on them around the park and on the main roads. Once again, Detective Kim looked up the website for movies and saw that Renee's latest movie in production is called My One and Only!! It is a romantic comedy taking place inthe 50's and also stars Chris Noth.
Now one other footnote to this little tale. Earlier in the week, I found out that my brother's band was going to have a small part in some movie being filmed in Balto. He had a costume fitting and was worried about whether or not he would have to cut off his ponytale. Guess what movie it is? Yep, it is MOO.

Scrabble

Yesterday at CURVES was "Scrabble Saturday". Glenda/owner found a beach Scrabble game at Wal-Mart. My, my....what a challenge as "we" were playing CURVES "rules". But, I behaved myself and ended up with a whopping 13 points after my workout. You only had 2 turns and not 7 letters to work with. When I left the board had "words" like...MC, TB and DC.

Yard Sale

We've been hoarding stuff all summer for the "big day." It's been prettttty quiet so far (can't you tell, that's why I'm posting photos of our junk on this blog.)

Hope ya'll like our new gate-keeper. We'll give you first pick on any leftovers but you've got to haul it away yourself.

Napa/SF!

Hi everyone! Nick and I were invited to a wedding in Napa Valley, so we decided to make a mini vacation of it! Our friends Tim and Becca decided to accompany us. I thought I'd share some pictures of our journey! :)



On day 1 we took a wine tour of 4 vineyards in Napa Valley. We saw a lot of grapes and vistas and tasted some excellent wine. (We also brought some back with us!) Here we are in Hegafen Winery: a green, organic vineyard.














On Day 2 Nick and I attended the wedding which overlooked the valley. Later we went into San Francisco for dinner and I found this street:

















In Day 3 we visited Golden Gate Park, as well as Haight-Ashbury (the famous hippy district and home of Amoeba Music).









In the late afternoon we took a cruise under the Golden Gate bridge and past Alcatraz. It was quite windy!
















On the fourth day we visited Muir Woods, home to the redwoods. Becca and I hugged a tree. The following picture doesn't even begin to portray and beauty and enormity of these trees. We also learned that they are quite different than most trees- they live in family groves and help each other grow. When one dies, other trees grow from its roots.

















Finally, before we flew home, we introduced Nick to the Pacific Ocean!

Introducing...

The newest addition to the Shad Court Joneses!

I finally got my kitties on Friday afternoon from the Fallston Humane Society.

The orange tabby is "Pounce" and the gray one is "Jack". Dave wants me to change Pounce to Coke so we have Jack and Coke. Haha. We'll see.

Anyway, technically Pounce is mine and Jack is Dave's but they will both be living at my house. They're both boys, but aren't brothers. They're about 10 weeks old and are completely adorable. Everyone loves them, even Dad!

And an update on AJ: He is doing better. He's had all of the surgeries he needed which included back, hip, femur, ankle, and removal of his spleen. He does have an infection in his stomach which they were doing a CAT scan to find out more about. He also has broken ribs and part of his skull is fractured but there isn't much they can do about that. He's off his sedation and they keep backing down his respirator. I got to go see him today and he kept opening his eyes. Everyone is really excited about that. He isn't focusing and his eyes aren't open for long but it's a start! Once they get him off the respirator they can do an MRI to check everything else. So hopefully he'll be awake soon and on the road to recovery. :]

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all of our fantastic Dad's!!!!!

Holy Moses!

I think a few of you are aware of my craft hobby and how it took over the living room of our apartment so we had to buy a house just so Sean had a room with a door that he could close and forget about the madness that lived behind aforementioned door (run-on sentence anyone?).  Well, there is a particular company Papertrey Ink that I L...O...V...E and follow (with a devotion that gives Sean the jellie-bellies).  Every month they host a contest to see what their customers can do with their most recent stamp release.  This month the challenge was to create a baby gift using the new set "Bitty Baby Blessings."  As many of you are also aware, Sean and I do not have little folks.  Why do I buy stamp sets dedicated to entire subgroups of people with whom I have very little interaction?  I am compelled to do so because they are so stinkin' cute...that's why.  Well, this month the stars aligned and I was chosen as the winner of the baby gift contest.  There are generally 60+ designers hoping for this honor and somewhere in the neighborhood of 120+ projects.  Here is my project in all of its "20-hours-of-madness-cutting-out-mini-animals-and-gluing-on-1/8-of-an-inch-satin-ribbon" baby mobile glory.  I hope you like it because it landed me a free stamp set from a company that I so totally adore.

This is a close-up of my happy little animal friends.  See...stinkin' cute!

I should try to go to bed now.  When the owner of the company posts the info on her blog I will link that here so you can read that as well.  Good night, family!

HAPPY

HAPPY 16th Birthday, Kevin!!

Thoughts

Hey everyone.
Last night my friend AJ was in a bad motorcycle accident. He lost control of his bike and flew 35 yards. He was airlifted to Shock Trauma and is in the ICU there. He's stable but in critical condition. His spleen was removed, he broke a few vertebrae, his femur, and his hip. He has a rod in his leg and he constantly needs to be turned because he has fluid in his lungs. Luckily he doesn't have any brain damage but he's heavily sedated. In a couple of days he'll have more operations on his back. We're all hoping he makes it out of there but you never know.
If you guys could keep him in your thoughts that would be great.
Thanks!

Kim may not announce this, so I will....

Congratulations to Kim, who was accepted into the Massage Program at CCBC!! :)

Ian's graduation

Sorry that some of these photos are dark, but I had my small digital camera.

Graduation festivities

Randi and I enjoyed seeing and spending time with everyone over the last 10 days or so. We hated to leave this morning, but unfortunately the real world intrudes and we probably need to get back to work.

As some of you are aware during our stay I was collecting the "phrase" of the day. So without further ado here are some of the best:

1. Monday, May 26th: "There should be unless you're going to buy something." (Randi to Mike when he wasn't sure that there would be room for a dirty clothes bag in the car on the trip home.)(I might point out that I did in fact buy some books and a new orange golf shirt.)

2. Tuesday, May 27th: "You are totally, totally, totally awesome." (Harford County Councilwoman Roni Chenowith at Ali's graduation. This is somewhat of an addition to the same speech last year when Matt's class was "totally awesome".)

3. Wednesday, May 28th: "Back when I was in high school." (Ian to Kevin at the O's game-subject matter that prompted this comment unknown.)

4. Thursday, May 29th: "They ought to make this a merit badge." (Matt's comment at Ian's Eagle ceremony as Ian tried and tried to clasp the Eagle necklace around Robin's neck.)

5. Friday, May 30th: vacant

6. Saturday, May 31st: There are several options for this day-your vote by posted comments will decide the winner:

A. "I trust Dad was patient on the drive home." (Sean responding to an email from Randi
concerning the traffic on the trip back from Washington on Friday.)

B. "Yeah, but my rooster always got killed." (Matt's comment when asked if there was rooster
fighting in the dorm-this was prompted by Kim's and/or Ian's comment about a recent dog
fight on Chad Court.)

C. "I have 15 things on my birthday list this year." (Patrick Shaner's response when
asked if he was going to summer camp this year.)

7. Sunday, June 1st: vacant.

8. Monday, June 2nd: I have a great line, but I can't use it without Kim's permission.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in Pittsburgh.

Enjoy.

Ballgame in Lancaster

Would anyone be interested in coming to Lancaster on Friday, June 13th for a Barnstormers baseball game, to help celebrate Kevin's 16th birthday? The game starts at 7:00, tickets are only $8. We could have a quick, light supper at our house around 5:00 and then head to the game. Let me know and I'll get tickets. If your parents don't normally read the blog, please pass this on to them.

Jones Family Activities Part 3: Ian's graduation

Today Ian officially graduated from high school. Kim has some pictures of Ian on stage (and of the grad party on Saturday), so I'll let her post them.











The happy family.








A larger, but still happy, family.










Nice headshot of Ian.










And finally, Nick was unable to get off work for the graduation, but joined us for dinner. Thus ends the Jones family reunion.



See everyone in Pittsburgh!

Jones Family Activities Part 2: Ian's Eagle Ceremony

On Thursday evening the Jones clan attended Ian's Eagle Scout ceremony. Here are Ian, Robin, and Bob standing on stage. Ian had a lot of difficulty putting a necklace on Robin, which added some comedy to the program.








Ian folds a flag with a friend of the family, Ken.






The proud family + 1.












Ali, Matt, and Kim celebrating with Ian.







Ian and Nick. Nick was sad that he wasn't in the family photo.

Jones Family Activities Part 1: The Orioles Game

On Wednesday evening, many members of the Jones Clan attending the Os v. Yankees game. Unfortunately the Os lost. :/ But that didn't mean we didn't have a good time.


Here are Kim and Mike, the latter representing the Corvette owners of the world.







Bob, Randi, and Julie hung out at the one end of the row...









...and Kevin and Ian hung out at the other end.







Linda and Nick sat in some empty seats in the front row. Maybe the Os will do better in future games.