The Dog Flu!

Our dogs have the flu or could possibly have distemper! In fact, we're not 100% sure they will make it. Haley (the black one) got sick a week ago Friday and just ate yesterday for the first time. Sophie got sick last Wednesday and seems deathly ill. Patti is giving them breathing treatments like we used to have to do with Christopher. They are both day-to-day. Patti's sister, Andi and her husband Donny, got two great dane puppies last Christmas and planned on breeding them, however gave up and brought us Sophie a couple of months ago. She just turned one!! She is ALL muscle and, until recently, all puppy. Great dane's are extremely mellow dogs and love to lay around. They are also very loving. I'll keep you posted.

Great Column

Here's a great column from on of Scott's favorite National Review guys. Oh - and we'll be expecting lots of photos from the week in Naperville, Kienstras! Mom and Dad are vey excited.

OU

Hey Tom,

Our Friend From Michigan Ave. looked pretty good last night.

Its too bad that Charlie couldn't get the job done south bend though.

We had a pretty big win yesterday too, bringing the old oaken bucket (the trophy for the game) back to West Lafayette beating Indiana by 52 points in Joe Tillers last game coaching. I'm pretty convinced that the oaken bucket follows me where ever i go. It was pretty exciting too because on of my brothers, (no not Ryan or Jeff) is a walk on quarterback for the team and finally got a chance to dress for the game yesterday. He said it was awesome but he never took his hands out of his hand warmer because it was about 20 degrees at the game yesterday.

-Matt

Happy Jack Bauer Day!

Tom - love the photos! =) Hope everyone is having a good weekend. There's very little written on our calendar today, except that it says "Jack Bauer Day"!! Jack Bauer returns tonight! We are all very excited. Sean wondered what color the priests wear on Jack Bauer Day. Jack Smith wondered if we exchange presents on Jack Bauer day. I'm just hoping to have all my laundry done and all my tests graded before Jack returns tonight at 8pm. He's been gone a looooong time!

Not sure if you all heard the big dust-up over Palin's interview in front of a turkey house while turkeys were (gasp) being slaughtered, but here's a funny site that sums everything up.

We are leaving for Springfield MO on Wed to spend T-giving with Scott's side - this year it's at Michael's house. We'll be coming back to STL on Friday, though. Hope everyone is doing great and we sure love all the photos!!! =)

So here are photos of our guys. I feel bad that I have not done this before.

Also, Ty don't mention me and you and golf clothing in the same sentence after that hat you wore in the rain on Friday.

Go Irish! Go Albert! Go get some pitching

More Importantly......

What does this announcement do to team Anheuser Busch (Team AB), the DVD of the recent victory to be released before Christmas, the clothing line endorsed by Tom and I, the book that's in the works, etc???

It Just Doesn't Look Quite Right....

We were greeted this morning with the new AB/InBev logo on the front page of the Post. I'm going to miss the old "A". And Monica will have to come visit the brewery again for new photos, because I'm afraid all the old logos are going to get replaced. I'm sure we'll get used to it, but it just doesn' t look quite right yet.

Oh, and Powerline has an interesting reaction to that little video re: Obama and the news media. Here's the money quote: "It's almost enough to make you wonder about the future of democracy." Wonder how long it will be before Zogby gets thrown under the bus......

How Obama Got Elected

http://www.howobamagotelected.com/

Please taake the time to read this and watch the videos. I'm sure Julie had a field day with her students in regards to media bias during the elections. What is going to happen when the love-fest wears off?

This one is just down right funny, however it's along the same lines as above. It's from the Howard Stern show.

http://www.bpmdeejays.com/upload/hs_sal_in_Harlem_100108.mp3

Speaking of Darth Vader...

this is the quirkiest, funniest and nerdiest thing I've seen in a long time. Not many things make my favorite brewer laugh out loud, but this sure did.

heh heh.....jeff takes the bait!

Julie here....I'm going to let my older brothers fight the baseball battles...but I just want to announce to everyone that my new favorite college has gone Division 1 so you can expect me to start throwing SIUE stuff around.

Ty, nice baiting down there. As Darth Vader would say: "Impressive....most impressive."

Ouch!

Jefferson,

I knew I would get at least one Kienstra with the Albert post. Welcome!

If Albert and Ludwig wouldn't of had big seasons, we would have been far worse off. However, on the other hand, if Izzy was the Izzy of old, we may have challenged the Cubs. I will be very disappointed if the Cards do the 'closer by committee' thing again next year.

Not so Fast

Jeff checking in-

I'm sure the Cardinal fans think that they had a fantastic season since they won three more games than the year they won the World Series - not so much, though.

Sweet Lou- NL Manager of the Year and Geovany Soto- Rookie of the Year




















And just for good measure-

Lets just pretend it ended there, though.

Sir Albert

In an effort to engage the entire Kienstra family and Drew Nilsson (how Tom allowed this to happen I'll never understand), we must call our attention to Albert winning the MVP award. To this point, you guys must admit that Julie and I have been extremely kind by not bringing the Cubs in to the blog.

I think Mark Prior and Kerry Wood would make good projects for Dave Duncan to take on for 2009. Both might be looking for work.

It's a Family Affair

All of us got in to harvesting the meat from Hunt's deer. The deer weighed 100 pounds field dressed and we pulled 40 pounds of meat from it. Hunt can kill four more doe and Chris has a buck and doe tag to fill. We may have a bunch of meat this winter and plenty to give to homeless shelters around town.

Sunday Afternoon at the Smith's

Hunter! Congratulations!!!! Glad you were able to bag your deer before Obama makes owning that gun illegal. ;-) I was hoping we'd get some deer photos on here this weekend......

Sophie and I just went on a long walk - it's a beautiful day here - and now I am getting a lasagna ready. One of my students at SIU is from Copenhagen and has been over here for dinner (I heard him say that he ate cereal for every meal, so of course I insisted he come over. Maybe I have a little bit of Mary in me after all....) and his girlfriend is in town this week so they are both coming over for supper. They are both very cute, very sweet, very young and very blonde.

Scott just left to go scout TVs...our TV upstairs takes two hours to warm up and for some reason, we never plan that far ahead. =)

It's so fun checking this site to see if anyone has posted anything!!! Much more fun than getting ready for classes tomorrow. Hope you all are having a great Sunday afternoon.....!!!

Time to Enter the Fray

I've enjoyed reading everyone's notes! I decided it was time for me to add some comments.
Ty-- when are we invited for a meal of venison? Congratulations to Hunter -- he lives up to his name! Did you or Christopher score one yet? Do you clean and dress it yourself or do you take it somewhere for that?
Tom--When is the book signing party? I can't imagine how excited you are about getting your first book published? Let us know when we can pre-order on Amazon! Won't that be a thrill?
Julie-- Thanks for setting this up! It is a nice way to keep up with each other.
Mom and Dad -- Technology is fun, isn't it? I'm so proud of you for having a blog!! When you go out and talk about your blog do your friends ask you what that is OR are they all reading it too?

It is a gray November day here today - a few snow flurries but nothing to shovel yet. Just watched the Bears lose. All of our teams have been losing ever since McCain lost. (ND did win yesterday, but really, can you count that as a win?)

Protect the Second Amendment

Hunter killed his first deer at 4:40pm on Saturday!!! Christopher coached him and Hunt placed the shot directly above the deer's shoulder for a quick kill. The first picture is Chris and Hunt seconds after the shot and the second picture is Hunt with his 'trophy' buck.

Happy Friday afternoon

Fridays are my day off, so this afternoon I went to see the new James Bond movie. (Don't tell the boys.) It was fine. What's not to love? Two hours, milk duds, Daniel Craig. A good afternoon.

Ty I'm scared for you. Taylor is waaaaaaaaaaay too cute. ;-)

Here are some Smith boys last weekend at Powder Valley Nature Center. I haven't been very good at taking pictures.....no webcam here! =)

Ty - good luck hunting and we'll be expecting some awesome deer photos when you get back!

Welcome......

Dad,

I knew you would keep trying until you figured it out! Congratulations. I'm having a lot of fun with this thing.

Our high school, Castle, is 10-2 and in the final eight of state football in Indiana and plays an 11-1 team tonight at home. It is supposed to drop in the 40's with rain! Not sure I'm a big enough fan to go. However, it's supposed to be in the high 20's in the morning with rain or snow and i'll be sitting 20 feet up in a tree.....so, go figure.

Here is a recent pic of Taylor and some of her friends at Halloween.

A new Guy heard from

Can you believe that I finally (with a lot of help from Julie) figured out how to be a blogger. Like Ty, I raked leaves the other day but Mary did not offer to take my picture and, even if she had, I would not know how to get it on the screen. That's another lesson for Julie. I typed a long message yesterday thinking I really knew some stuff but I didn;t know how to post it and, as such, did not make the blog. Played golf at the Legion yesterday for the first time this year as I Did not play in the Sr League this year. I played well but , contrary to Tom and Ty, there were no trophies when I finished. Jewel invited Mom for a birthday luncheon today and I got to go along. Was nice. Keep up the postings as Mom and I really enjoy the banter. Dad

Hunter....Unplugged

Hunter discovered that my laptop has a built-in web cam and he took about 200 pictures of himself! He thought wearing my reading glasses would make him look smarter!!

Fun Little Advertising Quiz

So here's a neat little quiz I gave my students at Webster today when they insisted that "advertising had no effect" on them. What's really scary is that Sean could get several of these letters.....the candy ones, not the cleaning products! ha ha

Thought it'd be fun to post this here. Hope you all are doing great! Ty - I LOVE that picture. Can't believe how grown up they all are. How are they getting so old while we are all staying the same??

Leaves are Falling

Patti took this picture Sunday in our back yard. The rain we've had this week pretty much knocked down all remaining leaves. Once they dry out, I will attempt to blow them in to someone else's yard!

So the author guy....

is also really good at doing logos. We'll be taking orders for shirts (and beer!) during the holidays! Here's a photo of my favorite brewer in one of his 40th birthday presents.

Photos from Nov 11, 2008

Don't feel bad, Ty.....

At the beginning of the semester, all the adjuncts had to attend a meeting and the guy had this "icebreaker" where we had to stand up and say something really interesting about ourselves. I was near the end and I still couldn't come up with anything. Then I tried to make something up. There were people there who had climbed mountains, cruised the Panama Canal, won a pie baking competition, just finished their PhDs, yadda yadda yadda. When it was my turn, I just stood up and said "My name is Julie Smith, and I've got nothing. You all win. The accomplishment I am most proud of in the last week is that I changed the sheets. On the bunk beds. That's the best I've got."

So now I have a sister with a patent, a brother with an ISBN# and another brother who went to college on a full-ride. Guess I'd better go wash those sheets again, I'm feeling insecure! ;-)

So here's a clip of Norm at the Veteran's Day Assembly today at Kennerly and then some photos from the day and our birthday lunch with Grandma. (Be sure to ask her what it's like to have a margarita at 11:10am on a Tuesday.) The gentleman who speaks after Norm is our neighbor Linda's Dad, Joe.

Impressive!

Have I mentioned I went to college on a full ride scholarship??? All I have to brag about, besides the kids, is something I did almost 30 years ago!! Ouch. I am very proud of you, big bro. Writes a book and cured his slice in one year!

I am coaching for the first time this year. I am an assistant for a good friend of ours coaching 5th and 6th graders. We've had two practices. I missed the first one and ran the second one. I believe I can help these kids and I seem to have the patieince for this age group. I filled in as head coach last year four times and went 4-0. In two of the games, I had to put in the Nolan press at halftime to speed up the game and create turnovers to catch up. It was like 12 minutes of heck!

Taylor has a big veteran's day deal at school today and she is hand signaling (?) the Lee Greenwood version of God Bless the USA with her class.

The boys and I will be in the woods this weekend as deer season opens Saturday morning. We've got the stands set up and have seen several nice bucks on this property. We're really hoping Hunter gets his first deer this season.

Mom, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Guess I better get back to work and try to sell something!!

Happy Birthday Grandma!!

This is so exciting!

Tom I am absolutely giddy with your news. An ISBN number!! That's the real deal. An ISBN!!! That's the equivalent of having your first ultrasound when you're pregnant....a nice little confirmation that there actually is a baby in there!! Can't wait to see it in print, I will probably pass out from the excitement. Will you sign some copies for us? And most importantly, will you remember all of us when you're famous? =)

I cancelled classes today so that I wouldn't miss the Veteran's Day Assembly at school this morning. Sean is pumped because he realized that he'll be the only Smith there to introduce Grandpa today....Ian is in middle school now and Jack goes to a special school on Tuesdays. So the kid that actually needs no microphone will have a microphone to introduce Grandpa today. Should be a hoot. I'll try to take video and post it.

Then "Birthday Gal" gets to choose her lunch location. Should be a very, very fun day. Our neighbor Linda's dad is joining us at the Assembly also...he was in the 86th Blackhawks in both Germany and Japan. He can tell some stories!

We have our first basketball practice tonight! Sean is on a team. He's the first Smith to try his hand at basketball. Ian is WAY into wrestling now that football is (almost) over. But I think for Sean, sports is just a social thing. Another excuse to talk to your buddies. (hmmm. I wonder where he gets that???)

Hope everyone has a great day today - I'm so excited to see some posts on here! Dad will flip if he hasn't been checking at home. I'll make sure he sees these today when they come over.

Love you all!

Monday night at the computer

So anyway, both Blake and Drew had basketball practice tonight. Blake goes with me to Drew's practice and acts as my assistant coach. The only problem is that she wants to do more drills with the team than Drew does. But he wasn't too keen on soccer at the beginning and finally came around to where he was the first one to practice and games and the last to leave.

Soccer is over and now we are focused on basketball. There is one thing I've noticed at once: being small at soccer is not a hinderance like being small at basketball. He may be the first guy in history to score more goals in soccer than points in basketball.

But I digress. Right now it is 10:15 and on the Mac I have a file open that is the coolest thing ever. And I'm not kidding you. It is the coolest thing EVER. I am proofreading the e-mailed pdf galleys for The Redemption of Chance by Tom Nilsson. I am so jazzed to see it in electronic form that I may just pass right out when I actually touch a book. I have a copywright -- I know, Mimi, it's not quite a patent -- but I also have an ISBN number. So next time you are at the Library of Congress look up ISBN: 1-60703-711-4. This is so cool. I know Monica won't read this for awhile so I want you all to know that if they will allow me to do a dedication, I'm going to dedicate the book to her. She has gone above and beyond to help me find time to write and for that I must thank her. Oh, and she is doing it again. The Sombrero Beach Club is currently in the works and I am six chapters in already.

Lastly, Happy Birthday Mom! I will talk to you tomorrow. That is if I can find you.

Bye for now, Tom

Lastly

Nilsson's Win Cup

Osage Beach, MO - October 25, 2008 - For Immediate Release

The long awaited rematch between Team Jack Daniels (Tom Carrol & Kerry Weinaght) and Team Anheuser Busch (Tom & Ty Nilsson) was held at the prestigious Dogwood Hills Country Club and Spa this weekend. In a surprise, Team AB swept all three matches to win the traveling trophy. It is the first time Team AB has won the contest.

It had been seven years since the last match and Team AB had endured considerable verbal abuse over that time. Team AB has already accepted a rematch challenge from Team Jack. Negotiations have already begun with various country clubs in the Ozarks for the rights to host the tournament and ESPN has shown interest in next year's event as well.

Tom Nilsson was the star of the two day event. Having his clubs stolen from his garage allowed him to upgrade his equipment and dominate the event. In an ironic twist, the burglars also stole his slice! Nilsson now draws the ball and while he hits his driver a ton, consistently came up two to three feet short of his brother's drives.

The foursome celebrated their victory at the pizza place on the corner and also attended several other victory parties at local establishments.

Last Football Tournament

We thought last Saturday was the last game, but the cult leaders (whoops - I mean coaches) decided to sign us up for one more tournament. Here's Ian, hoping to score a couple more stickers for the helmet today. (who knew stickers on the helmet would be such an incentive? It's all about the stickers. I should design a "chore" sticker or something and have them wear helmets around the house. But somehow I don't think that would work!)

Nilsson Blogging

Well, the idea of Norm's Friday newsletters made me want to set this up in case any of us wanted to post something as well.

It might be fun for us to have a bulletin board where we can all post goodies as we find them...

besides, won't dissenting be so much fun? Remember, Hillary says it's the highest form of patriotism!

We were hoping for a quiet weekend, but the cult that we belong to (whoops, I mean Lindbergh Junior Flyer football) just scheduled us for another tournament even though we thought the season was over....so guess I have to wash all those pads one more time.

I'm looking forward to hearing some of Jeff's stories from election day, and I'm sure Katie will be asking off for Jan 20th so that she can go and cheer THE ONE during inauguration.

I'll be posting a photo of Scott's new brewery logo sweatshirts, and I'll be taking orders for Christmas! If you'd like a tour of Scott's brewery, (my kitchen), please contact Norm. He's the merchandising/tour director. And we're going to try to dress up Sophie like a clydesdale.