The Turner Family

Just a close up of what is "hanging" around. There is a large intersection near 37 Military Hospital and legend has it when a Chief came to the hospital for treatment he brought the bats with him. The Chief died at the hospital and the bats never left. During the day you can see them hanging from every branch of every Mango tree surrounding the Hospital. I'm not sure why they were so active today but we took the opportunity to snap a picture. These pictures were taken at 5:00 p.m.. The white and green bus on the left is one of the kids' school buses. Meg and I took the pictures from the front seat of the Subaru. Very sanitary considering it is next to a hospital, isn't it? (Meg)

The barber woman checked the receipts in the computer and noted she was the last person to give me a haircut, last December. I told her that due to the economy, I couldn't afford one, and she seemed to believe me. Of course, it made a big splash at school as well.

Very early in advance of the event, Sophia asked me to attend the Neff School VIP dance with her, and I agreed. Then, our silly high school football team went undefeated and became the highest rated team entering the playoffs, won their first matchup, creating a game that conflicted with the dance. I would like to have Tiffani share the blame with me, but the truth is that the game took on a gathering momentum. I made the decision to not mention the dance, we quietly organized a party for the event and neglected to tell Sophia about the omitted event. After the debacle of a game ( 14-56 ), after finishing up the leftover meatballs, we told Sophie about missing her event, and my plans to make up for it by going out for dinner and attending the movie downtown. Thus, her favorite dinner (chicken with broccoli) at House of Hsu, and some popcorn and candy during a viewing of High School Musical 3 at the Sun Theater . And, I wasn't even the one that fell asleep (it was a school night).

233rd Marine Corps Ball Last night we had a good time at the Marine Corps Birthday Ball. Don't let the windblown hair fool you, it was outside and hot! The guys did great in their wool suits, even danced a little. The couple with us are our friends Karl and Lisha Kronman, Karl is a Navy doctor here doing research on infectious diseases and Lisha is a Pharmacist also doing some work for the Navy. International Day at Lincoln Community School Before the Ball the kids had International Day at their school. There were over 20 food booths representing nations from all over the world and some of the best food I have ever tasted. Garrett's favorite booth was the U.K. booth, he has developed a liking for their tea. Meg was busy watching all the little ones so the mom's were free to mingle and work the booths. She is holding Grace, who was adopted by one of the U.S. Mission members when they found her in the baseball field under a cardboard box at less than a week old. Garrett was...

Tiffani and I are friendly with folks that volunteer with the Obama campaign in Eaton County , so when they recently called looking for some hours, I agreed to take a shift. The agenda was for me to go to houses already identified as Obama supporters, and I thought this would make a great opportunity for the kids to learn a little volunteerism, and a little of the critical importance of this election. Plus, the bonus would be that the kids would negate any potential hostilities with GOPers , but that notion was for naught. We set off walking from home to the local Obama office in the gray, coolish weather for our 1:00 P.M. shift, where we were warmly greeted and well instructed and provisioned with pamphlets. Sophia and Seamus took along a little Halloween candy, which was a popular means for distracting them from trekking all over the east side of Grand Ledge. Since the kids were with me, the crazy incident in South Carolina with the gun wingnut from Halloween was a little bit on...

Just prior to mom's surgery , we all -- mom and dad, the Fees Road Turners, and Tiffani and I -- went out to a local Oktoberfest and enjoyed some hoppy IPAs, some cider , some pulled pork , and some political discussion . Oktoberfests being what they are, the event was outside and the temperature was in the low 40s. Our thin autumnal blood kept us from being too terribly warm, but the frivolity of the evening sustained us for about 90 minutes.

Seamus on his first Halloween of the week. Seamus and Sophia on the actual Halloween. The Hulk costume received many compliments. Of course, notably, Sophia brought the Spartans the extra edge they needed this weekend. The Neff parade of Halloweenies, and our little Spartan. Bompa says this is Nick's 'come hither' look. Nick vamping it up with some vampires, ghouls, and mummies. When he got home that afternoon he mentioned that his legs felt too hairy, so we believe a trend has been initiated.

We shipped an old desktop to Ghana with the intent of giving it away to some worthy cause. We haven't found the right organization yet but I was cleaning up the old behemoth (which might be faster than Mom and Dad's current model) and found some pictures that I had converted from slides. I'll burn a copy of the pics and send them to Eagle but thought some should be posted here since they are very precious. Just click on the pic for a larger version. This is a very old one that looks as if it may have taken place over the holidays. Since we are on the holiday theme... ...and another... ...and other festivities... ...and other timeless memories...

As everyone knows, we had to put our beloved 13 year old Gretta down late in August. Ahni said that we'd know when the time was right and truer words were never spoken. It was a very difficult evening full of emotion and crying in our house. I kept hoping that my old friend Doug was there for her, his arms wide open, waiting to take her for a walk that night. It helped to sooth my aching brain. When you don't have kids your dog becomes more than simply a pet. Gretta was my dog initially but gravitated to Jenny halfway through her life. Due to my heavy workload Jenny had a buddy she could spend lots of time with and they formed a wonderful bond over time. It never ceased to amaze me, these last few years, how that dog only cared about Jenny and I was just some other human in the house. While it's been difficult for both us it's been doubly traumatic for Jenny to lose her pal. At the end of the day, she was still my hunting buddy though, always eager for a mouth full...