Hello, remember me?

[sound of enthusiastic applause and cheering]

Finally. This isn't everything, but the highlights! :) Hopefully I'll also get some pictures on here soon.

I think I left off right when I went to Missouri over Christmas to visit Cheree. (to read more about our experience with Cheree and her husband Brenton this summer, click here) I left on a Tuesday night after work at 6:30 and drove all the way down to St. Louis just into Missouri.. stopped at 2:30am at a somewhat seedy little hotel that I snuck our dog into. I didn't really sleep well because I was worried about the dog making noise and I also had a light on for that very same reason. I got up Wednesday about 7 and drove the rest of the 4 hours to her place near Springfield, MO.

Between pouring rain, stopping for me the dog to go to the bathroom, and windshield wipers flopping like dead fish down by your driver side mirror, it was a great last leg of the journey.

Our time together consisted of
-Some browsing around in Aurora.. the place with the cheapest gas in all of United States. $2.32, for those of you curious.. haha.

-Spending some time with the Hull family They're very musical and spent a few hours on assorted instruments and singing. It was great to listen in.

-Monopoly.. oh dear. She beat me.

-Cat/dog fights. Poor dog, she had no chance.

-Ice/snow storms... sliding action in the truck, and watching her brother-in-law pull out his blazer from the ditch

-Feeding the cattle with the tractor and frozen gates

-Fried oatmeal. Mmm hmm.

-A trip to Branson and dinner on the showboat. A very fun experience.. including a little Titanic re-inacting.

Much more, and of course lots of chatting, laughing, and other general girly necessities.


I came home, spent 12 hours with Joel and he was off to California on his Christmas vacation to the sand dunes in Ralley, California/Yuma, Arizona. Rory and Brennan Lewis, Brendan Foth, Tim Blakeman, and of course Joel, loaded up their four wheelers and dirt bike to head out west. They drove straight through... 35 hours.

In the middle of their good time, Joel drove into a "big hole" to simplify... at a high speed. He did some somersaults for awhile with and then without his four wheeler. He was unconscious for a bit, took a little helicopter ride to the tune of 100 miles to Palm Springs. Suffered a concussion, had some swelling/bleeding on the left side of his brain, and broke his left wrist.

Sparing you the details, he's back home now.. doing fine. We're doing follow up appointments as fast as we can... he sees another neurologist this afternoon, and meets with his orthopedic doctor for some follow up results of the wrist CT he had done yesterday. He broke his trapezium, which I guess is very rare. He'll have the cast on for awhile yet.

Hopefully we can find out he can drive from the neurologist today... I can tell you I'll be happy to relinquish the keys over to him again! He always drives everywhere. Funny how I'm sick of driving everywhere now. :)

Now we're just starting to work through the mess of pushy medical offices and obstinate insurance companies. Can you believe the little helicopter joyride cost nearly $27,000? Wow.

In other news, my business Baseman Studios Photography LLC, was official as of the first of the year. I'm contemplating going through an entrepeneurial workshop to learn how to run a business... but first order needs to be some official work in the form of accountants, etc.

Work at the bank is going well... I'm down to 20-25 hours a week, which has been wonderful.

The new year is off with a bang! Hope everyone's had a really nice holiday season!