The Armstrong Thanksgiving

Mommy's side of the family does Thanksgiving big - we're talking formal place settings turkey, ham, dressing, and anything else you can think of to eat. Devin and Becca were excited to take part in the festivities by showing off some of their acrobatic skills, but most everyone was interested just in the good eats.

More Rucker Thanksgiving

Here are some of the Thanksgiving pictures that we took at Neva and Steve's house. Keep in mind, most of these pictures are post-turkey...


Danny and Johnny catch a little football and a few ZZZ's...
Who reads on Thanksgiving? standing up?
Anna and Haskell were good buddies on Thanksgiving.
Our gracious host and hostess.

Thanksgiving 2005 (with the Ruckers)

Late Thursday afternoon, all the Rucker clan met at Neva and Steve's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone stuffed themselves silly with the good cookin'. Haskell and Lady, Steve and Neva's dogs, were on their best behavior for everyone. Thanks to Steve for sending us the great pictures.

Darth Maggie

"It was you who would bring balance to the Force, not leave it in Darkness!" Sleepiness makes Maggie look particularly evil sometimes, especially against the red background of our living room. But we all know she has the highest midi-chloridians count of all the puppies in the world.

Friends

Mollie and Dixie say hello to each other as they pass in the yard. "Hello Dixie-wixie." "Hello Mollie-wollie."

Birthday Party

Over the Hill

Daddy's 50th Birthday party was Nov. 5, 2005. Even though he came home an hour before he should have (while we were cooking and decorating!), it still managed to be a surprise party because he was so tired from hunting all day that he went straight to his bedroom for a nap and didn't notice a thing. When everyone else showed up, Maggie ran back to the bedroom and jumped on the bed or else he still wouldn't have gotten up. Most of Daddy's eight brothers and sisters were able to come (we missed Danny, Lois, and Mac) and everyone had a great time.

Elmo got new shoes! Mommy gave Daddy a very nice pair of dress shoes - I don't think they go with camoflauge, though.

Daddy (aka Earl Dean or Deanie) and Ava are two of the youngest of the Rucker clan along with Neva, whose husband Steve (below) was caught in mid-chomp. We didn't get a picture of the cake because it was gone so quickly, but we won't blame it all on Steve.

Steve and Judy Leitz, old family friends, came to the party, as did many of our cousins. Mariah, Katie, Bethany and her friend waited around for some food while Steve looked on.

Daddy's oldest brother, Leonard, brought Katie along for the fun.

Tim and Ava's younger son, Elliott, came along, too. He is about to finish his first semester as a college student at Morehead State University.

Anna and Willow helped Daddy celebrate his oldness, though I think Willow mostly just wanted to test out the food.

Leah, Wanda, Neva, and Leonard chowed down on cheeseball, soup, and chicken salad.

Who says being married is boring?

If you were wondering what amazing people gave birth to two beautiful kids like Megan and Cody, wonder no more...it's Josh and Marie! Love this picture, but I'm still not sure what they're doing. Any guesses?Marie has been a good friend to the Puppy Mill group for many years (we're talking, since the days of tight-rolled jeans and banana clips) and Josh has been around for quite a few himself. We're so glad they live just down the "crick" from us in Carter Co.

If this doesn't melt your heart, nothing will...

Megan and Cody joined in on the Halloween fun as a fairy princess and Tigger. Can they be any cuter? I think not.



Cody has been walking for a several weeks now and he's tearing the place up.

Kitty kitty

Cirrus is one tough cat. He holds his own against the seven dogs that he encounters on a regular basis. One of his favorite tactics is to hide behind the books on the bottom book shelf and wait for a puppy to stroll by to pounce on. By the way, it is a little creepy in the middle of the night to see two eyes glinting from behind your massive volume of Paradise Lost.

The Reference team (go team!)

The reference department librarians and staff will glady assist you in your reference needs, but just as long as you don't show up while we're:

having a meeting, or having a meeting/party, or having a Halloween/Christmas/Spring Fling party, or taking a personal call on the reference desk phone, or taking a personal call on our cell phones while at the reference desk, or taking a personal call on the desk phone and the cell phone simultaneously, or while we're taking a 20 minute bathroom break, or most importantly when 5 people call in sick and the remainder of the staff give up on the desk all together.


Please note this picture is a couple of years old - Bill has since retired (middle row, fourth from the left) and has been replaced by the lovely Lisa from Illinois.

Working-man blues

Each day the Interlibrary Loan Offices see a flurry of activities that include borrowing and lending, Arieling serial requests, searching request identifiers, and receiving borrowing returns. Jason, our fearless leader, must manage the motley crew that is Sherry, Laura, and workstudies Heather, Stacy, and Brandon. Funny, though...by looking at these pictures one might come to believe the workstudies are the ones actually doing the work.....









By the way, it's always advisable to clog your blog with references to work terminology that even other library folk don't know. Really makes us feel important.

Things that make you go awww!

Depending on who you ask, there are things in life that are cuter than puppies and Megan and Cody are definitely two good examples. They are the children of Josh and Marie, who are loved much by the Puppy Mill group. Megan is 3 and Cody will be one in just a matter of weeks.

Everybody enjoyed the other Halloween pictures from the library so much, that I thought I would post some more. It takes a special kind of crazy to work at a library and we're more than qualified.


Luana is under that hideous mask somewhere, but I can see around the nose.

Bridgette made this mouse costume herself.

Elsie didn't have her mustache on when I took this picture, but she does look good in a sombrero.

Marilyn looks incredulously at Ray's UPS guy costume. By the way, Ray has dressed up as a "brown" man every Halloween.

Chris Burnton is usually considered the progeny of John Burton of the LRC but for Halloween he was more of a Mexican-Indian outlaw-cowboy guy(?).

John also joined the stampede south, in a more colorful way. Nice coat of many colors, John. He and Lisa make an odd pair of costumes - but all in the spirit of Halloween.

And coming soon....

Pictures of Daddy's 50th birthday party.