Sunday at the River

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The Wisconsin River makes its presence fully known in our city - - - bisecting it north to south.
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Its waters, sometimes placid and sometimes angry, separate this town in to an east side and a west side.

We live on the east side.
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Now that spring has finally sprung the river is completely free of ice for the first time in many many months.
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It is a magnet, drawing winter weary souls to its shores like bears emerging from hibernation.
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It is this city's best feature.  
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Its shores are lined with parks and trees.
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Ducks swim and fish in its waters.

Fisherhubbies do too.
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It boasts shoreline walkways that are popular with walkers, bikers, and skaters.
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Stately homes embellish its banks.

I often wish I lived in one of these.
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Families flock to its parks.

It is the life blood of my city.
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I'm joining Unknown Mami

For Sundays in My City.
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My city is Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin
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Please hurry over to Unknown Mami's to see

What's happening in other cities around blogland.
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Today is Your Fragday!!!

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Fridays are Fragdays.  Lately frags are what I seem to do best, so I'm always glad to see Friday roll around.
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Unfortunately for the purposes of this post, John Lennon used "birth" for the first syllable instead of "frag" so you'll have to make a slight correction in your mind as you enjoy this video.
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On our recent trip to Indiana I indulged in the treat of contacting my "old" (actually I'm the old one and they're all young whippersnappers) teacher friends so we could meet for lunch.

One former student heard about the party and HE decided to crash it.

Fun reminiscing times were had by all.

Well, I guess I should really only speak for myself - - - - Fun reminiscing time was had by moi.
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I'm ready to throw our internet provider OUT THE WINDOW!!!!   If I charged THEM 50 cents for every minute our internet was down they'd owe ME by the end of the month.

And I kid you NOT about that.

Just trying to make this post I've already lost count of how many times it has gone down and back up.

Grrrrrrrrrrr

I guess I SHOULD be thankful it does come back up.

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Spring is actually sprunging around here - - - as evidenced by these little tulips blooming in my front yard.

We haven't seen a snow flake or a sleet pellet since Saturday.
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Speaking of Saturday, my doorbell rang.

On the doorstep I found this box.

I tore into it and found a card that said, "I love you mom!!!!!"
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I have four children.

I kinda thought I knew which it was from, but I texted out this photo with a "THANK YOU to whichever one of you sent me these" message.  

Oldest daughter promptly replied with recriminations of guilt - - - all totally unnecessary.

Youngest daughter replied: "Did I forget to put my name on those???"

Oldest son replied:  "I don't know WHY Korie claimed she sent you MY flowers."

He also said he showed the flower pic to a co-worker and told them, "My youngest sister sent these.  My oldest sister will feel guilty, and I'm going to call my mom and say I sent them."

We didn't hear from the youngest  - - - what can you expect?   He has a new GF which is probably keeping his heart and mind fully occupied.

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You've heard of going to the dogs?  Well it appears Sister Pam and BIL Joe have gone to the frogs.
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Recently while on vacation with Joe's brother Jeff and his wife Johnna it appears that all four of them went to the frogs.

What is this world coming to???
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How fun is THIS!?!

It appeared in our former hometown news paper one day last week.  A friend texted me that it was there, then one of Fisherhubby's fishing buddies texted us this pic and finally my dad, Peepaw, snail mailed me a hard copy of it.

I was stumped about who A_Burgan was, until I searched him out on twitter and discovered his twitter moniker isn't his real name.

To say I was honored is an understatement.

EXTRA BONUS:   Tweeting with this student has put me in touch with about 20 of my former students and this week has been full of happy reminiscences.

WOOOT!!!
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This is a picture Mike Greenberg of "Mike and Mike in the Morning" fame tweeted out of himself.

Story behind it:  Miami Heat star Dwayne Wade has been wearing some outlandish suits recently, including very much like this.  Greenie didn't want to be out done.

So funny. 

Gotta love someone with that much self confidence.
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On Thursday, May 2 the northern part of Wisconsin received 17 inches of snow.  A resort in Hayward posted this picture on facebook.

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If you live here, you GOTTA find the humor in spring snow or you'll go crazy I tell ya!

Either that or try to kill off winter like Pete Maina did in this video.
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Fisherhubby e-mailed me this truism the other day.

When I say he e-mailed it to me, I do of course mean he e-mailed it from one room of our house to me in another room of the same house.

Our best form of communication.
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Maxim Magazine included this photo of Manti Te'o's girlfriend in its list of top 100 hottest women of 2012.

If you don't "get" it - - - you've been totally sports-unaware for the past 6 months and should google to figure it out.

Fortunately Manti seems to have a good sense of humor and even showed up at the Hot 100 Maxim party - - - in the company of a visible beautiful woman, at least in the picture I saw.

Learning to laugh at oneself is a virtue. 

Virtue which Fisherhubby has forced into me day after day.  ;-)
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 And that's it for my frags on Fragday.
 

Please hurry over to Mrs. 4444's place

Where you will see LOTS of other frags

Why not write your own frags and
Join this Fragday Party!!

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Sunday With Our Family

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Last weekend we were in Indiana to attend our little ballerina diva's first ballet.

She was of course cute as a button and a real show-stopper.
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While we were there we got to spend time with our family:  kids, grans, and my dad Peepaw.
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Silly - - - what Broyles do best.

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Mad/Sad face - - - the photographer (me) was taking way too long with this whole snapping pictures thing.
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Uncle Kelly photo bomb.

LOL - - - look how little Pipes isn't the least bit surprised by Uncle Kelly's antics but rather EXPECTS them.
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Dinner with Peepaw, Korie and Chris. 

This is the "sedate" branch of the Broyles Clan.

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 Awfully pretty in pink.

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Korie Nae - pre Flying Pig.

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Antics right on cue.

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Get your gator chomp on.

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A very rare subdued Kelly moment.

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And pretty little miss headed off to her final day of preschool.

Family.

That's what Mother's Day is really all about - - - 'cause nearest and dearest to every mother's heart is her family.

Well, every mother worth her salt that is.
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I'm joining Unknown Mami

For Sundays in My City.
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My city is Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin
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Please hurry over to Unknown Mami's to see

What's happening in other cities around blogland.
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Sunday at the Flying Pig AKA Though None Go With Me

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This will not be my typical SIMC post as it isn't coming from my city, nor the city that I am currently visiting, nor even from a city where I've ever spent much time.

BUT - - - it happened TODAY and it involved my youngest daughter so I'm claiming it for my SIMC post.
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Our youngest daughter, Korie has been a feisty spunky little gal from the day of her birth.

When she was toddling I had a TIME keeping her from eating the dry cat food or pouring cake flour all over the floor.

Once she took it upon herself to walk across the top back of the couch and shouted out:  "Look what Ornery's doin'"   

A little over a year ago she and her hubby decided to run in a mini marathon.  At the finish line, hubby announced he was over that.  Korie was just charged up to run a full.  

So, she did - - - alone.  She trained and ran in the Indy Marathon all by her lonesome 'cause none would go with her.

At the end of that marathon she was ecstatic to have finished and very disappointed with her time.

Before the sweat had even dried off her brow she began planning how to train for her NEXT marathon and cut an hour off her time.

Enter the NEXT marathon - - -
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Called the Flying Pig, and held TODAY in Cincy.

I walked into a lowly little ole Dollar General the other day and saw this flying piggy bank and KNEW it had Korie's name on it - for a memento of this race.
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After all, her MIL (whom I love) thought of sending flowers, something which never even entered my mind - - - so I had some scrambling to do to catch up!!!

Flowers will die, but this flying piggy can hold her race medal FOREVA!!!
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This morning - - - long before the sun dared to show his face - - - Korie was all lined up and ready for the starter's pistol.  (Do they even USE a starter's pistol at a marathon I wonder??)

She texted me that she was soooooo nervous 'cause Cincy is a very hilly city and she trained in flat ole Indy.
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Just about the time the sun arose the racers lined up and were off on their 26 mile grueling run.
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At the 5 mile mark Korie flew by so fast SIL Chris couldn't even capture her on digicam - - - so he snapped this sign for my blog post instead.
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She flew past the Half Hog marker without even registering a bleep on radar.
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So, SIL Chris positioned himself where she would run toward him at the 17 mile marker and was finally able to catch this image of her for posterity - - - she's the one checking her watch to see if she's bettering her time.

She was - - - but I'll get to that later.
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Noticed the strained, "I'm working really hard" look on the runner in the background at 17 miles.

But not our Nae Nae!!! (endearing and short for Korie Renee)   She was all smiles every single time she sailed past hubby Chris.

What a girl.

How did she GET this hard driving yet always pleasant and uplifting personality I wonder???

Brings tears to her momma's eyes.
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And after just 3 hours, 53 minutes, and 52 seconds she sailed right over the finish swine - - - nearly cutting the desired hour off her first marathon time of 4 hours and 45 minutes!!!
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And here she is - - - looking as fresh as a cucumber and as rested as a momma bear just emerged from her hibernation den.

But I'm so worn out from following her progress (from my couch I might add) that I feel I really should take a nap.

SO PROUD OF OUR FEISTY LITTLE KORIE NAE.   She may be blond, but she's no Barbie Doll.

And many thanks to SIL Chris for keeping us in the loop with texts and pix.

I'm joining Unknown Mami

For Sundays in My City.

Today my city is Cincinnati, Ohio
And the Flying Pig Marathon
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Please hurry over to Unknown Mami's to see

What's happening in other cities around blogland.
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Photo Credits:

Start Swine and Finish Swine line photos from race tweets

Flying Piggy Bank photos by moi

All others by our wonderful SIL Chris

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On The Frag Again

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It's Friday and I'm on the frag again.  Double entendre there 'cause I'm fraggin on the road so I stole the old song title and made it my own.

Why not check out my frags, then click on one of the links at the end of this post to join the party over at Mrs. 4444's place and see what everyone is fraggin about.
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I'm on the road again down here in Indiana for the sole purpose of attending our gran's FIRST ballet recital.

Her mommy captured this shot one day at ballet class of all the little ballerina feet.  Isn't it priceless?
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Being on the road with Fisherhubby is an adventure.   This is how he took care of his dirty clothes yesterday after his shower.

"Do you want those in the dirty clothes?"

"No"

"Are you going to wear them again?"

 "No"

"What are you going to do with them?"

"I'm going to keep them right there."

"Not on my watch."  And I put them in the dirty clothes.
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I've tried for nearly 38 years to train Fisherhubby and so far all that's been accomplished is I've been well trained to put up with his antics and clean up after him.

Colossal FAIL on my part.

Good thing I can see the humor in it.
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Do you think I travel with enough recharging devices???

That pile is all mine, Fisherhubby has equally as many somewhere else in this room.

Couldn't some wonderful techno geek invent ONE COMPACT UNIVERSAL charger for travel?  I mean we've sent men to the moon, how hard could it be to make a universal charger?

Oh yah, I forgot, some people think that whole moon thing was one colossal hoax.
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Yesterday morning while we were enjoying 80 degree temps here in northern Indiana a Wisconsin friend sent me this picture of his deck.

That all fell yesterday.

And enough more besides to total 17 inches.

If I'm lyin' I'm dyin.
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Little ballerina doesn't know we're here.  She doesn't even know we're coming.  So the other day she had her momma send me this spring greeting pic.

Isn't she a doll baby?
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One of the very best parts of fraggin on the road again is getting together with old friends.  Wednesday night shortly after we arrived we met Mike and Diane for supper followed by a round of euchre.

You're going to have to be satisfied with this one photo 'cause I've forgotten to snap our other friend hook-ups.
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I showed you this pretty Lutheran church in the background of one of my travel pix on Wednesday.

Cass, who is a bloggy friend AND a Lutheran said most Lutheran churches she'd seen were ugly, so I just wanted to show this closer-up of it so you could all see just how beautiful it is.
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The other day our daughter Keri and our grans delivered a load of "out grown" clothing to this donation center.

Little Miss Piper had to hug and kiss her favorite jammies good-bye.

Hmmmmm - she must be related to he Aunt Korie who always felt sorry for ANYTHING she had to weed out or throw away.
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It is amazing to me that a country whose Founding Fathers established it on a Biblical platform of faith can have come so far that now those who are most loudly criticized and called haters are those who still adhere to the Christian faith.

I have never hated anyone in my life, but since I am a Christian I have felt that labeling many, many times.
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Ta Ta for now!   That's all the road frags I've got for today.

I HAVE had another colossal FAIL here, I found this cute photo being tweeted out yesterday but when I saved it to my phone I completely forgot to mark the source.

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Please hurry over to Mrs. 4444's place

Where you will see LOTS of other frags
Either from the road or from home.

Why not write your own frags and
Join this Friday Party!!

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