Happy New Year!!

Just want to wish everyone a Very Happy New Year! I hope all is well with you all and everyone is staying warm.
Love,
Janelle

more from the Smokies

Christmas!!!

Here was Christmas at our house. I hope everyone else had a Very Merry Christmas!

Love, Janelle

White Christmas in the Smokies!

Although we miss you all, we're having a great time in the Smokies. We send our love to you at this wonderful time of year.

Last Titan home game

Hi everyone,

Well, I finally got logged back in so I can now check in on all the goings on! I'll have to have Andrea show me how to include photos. Anyway as you saw from Janelle's posting, we had a wonderful gathering at her house for Thanksgiving. It's always great to get caught up with everyone.

I just returned from LA to help Lauren through the death of her little cat Cleo who had had health problems for the last couple of years. It's always so sad to lose a pet, as we all know. We buried her in the planter at Dad's/Dylan's house next to the remains of my childhood cat, Kitty Bo. Then to cheer Lauren up, we painted a couple of walls in her condo and bought her a new bed. I enjoyed spending some time with her even though it was for a sad event.

I am playing catch up this week since my trip down south with unexpected so I better get busy or there will be no presents under the tree!

Karen

Sofe's new boots

A couple of weekends ago, Gene took 3 grandgirls, Maddy (11), Kate (9), and Sofe (7) shopping for cowboy boots. They mentioned to us on Thanksgiving, that boots were on their wish list. Carole took this picture of Sofe, the next morning in her PJ's watching cartoons with her new boots on!

The Wood Wagon

It's not quite a tour bus, but Sonic Wood now has a trailer, aka "The Wood Wagon". It even matches my car! It's a 5 x 10' enclosed cargo trailer with a ramp and I'm soooooo excited! This weekend we're playing in Abilene (home of Dwight D. Eisenhower) on Friday night, then in Chapman (home of really big tornado 2 years ago, and our mandolin player), so the trailer will have it's first road trip. Sunday evening, I'm singing in the church Christmas program, no trailer needed. Busy weekend to be sure.

That's all for now, much love to ya'll.

Joan

Awwwwwwww!

miss y'all. New design for the blog-- just so you CA people remember there is weather in other parts of the country. It's a high of 35 today and we're on our way to the Titans game! Brrrrrrr. Happy, happy birthday to Joan!

Thanksgiving

We missed the Nelsons and the Nashville Perrys at Thanksgiving so I thought you might like to see everyone who was here. The dark haired girl in a couple of the photos is Ryan's friend Janay from work. The blonde girl is Dylan's girlfriend Stacy and the other two are her parents, Jan and Mark.

Love to you all!

Janelle

John's 53 birthday

On John's birthday I had some friends out for a picnic at Cheekwood (our botanical gardens-- that was having an exhibit from a famous glass blower from Washington - Dale Chihuly) It was a gorgeous fall evening and we found a secluded spot overlooking the city. Rachel and I shared ten things we love about John. It was both meaningful and funny. And, of course, the ever present football stories from Jeff. I wished you all could have been there. This picture was takin' after the others left. Wonderful memory following what has turned out to be a challenging year.

We miss you all! With the holidays coming, it's harder than ever to be away from family. (It's impossible to use our free tickets during the holidays to come your way). My parents are coming at Thanksgiving and we'd love to-- absolutely love to-- have any Perrys, Marks, Nelsons or Mobleys after or during Christmas/New Year.

If you're able, tune into the CMA awards tonight. One of our best friends is up for song of the year-- Tom Douglas for "The House that Built Me" by Miranda Lambert. We're making a banner for his house today, having a party tonight to watch and cheer on our friend. It's kinda like the superbowl here-- and Tom's had three number one hits this year. Fun.

I send much love from John, Rachel and me.

Good Morning!

It's another beautiful morning in the Flint Hills! Actually, it's still dark outside, but I know it's going to be beautiful. We leaving in an hour for Overland Park; Gene is taking Andy and Dave Lewis to a hunting preserve outside of Lawrence, along with dogs Birdie and Belle, for a little warm-up before the opening of bird season. While they're doing their thing, I'll hang out with Kristin and the 2 little ones.

This picture is from last Sunday's lunch at mom and dad's house. Lovely young ladies.

Have a good day, much love to you all.

Joan

Camping

Last weekend, Gene, Birdie and I went horse camping at Eisenhower State Park, on Melvern Lake, just south of Osage City. We met up with some friends from Fort Scott. It was Birdies first camping trip and my first official trail ride in 3 years. Everything went fine, no wrecks, good weekend. Saturday evening we drove into Osage City for supper, so I gave everyone the guided tour, pointing out the cleaners, both houses, the old campgrounds (now a Sonic drive-in and grocery store), even where mom was born!

Right now, we're having the outside of the house painted. It's looking really good! And we recently replaced the kitchen and bathroom windows along with the sliding glass dooor (french door now). Home improvements!

The band is going to begin recording next week, so we'll have something to use as a marketing tool and to sell at shows. No shows scheduled for October, which makes this a good time to record. Tomorrow night, we're going to audition a bass player...we'll see...

That's all for now, much love to all!

Joan

Some new photos

Just a few photos from the past 2 weeks. I got these out of order...the top one is the band playing a Friday Night Live happy-hour sort of thing at the Colbert Hills Golf Club development. Really hot! I was sure we were going to melt! Then there's Hadley and Brody at the Deana Rose Children's Homestead in Overland Park. We visited Andy and Kristin over the weekend and this was an outing with the kids. Cute place. Next is the band playing a Labor Day Festival in Chapman, KS (home of our mandolin player). It was really hot that day too! And the bottom photo was taken during sound check at a private party following the Watermelon Festival in Clyde, KS. We play some really swinging places!

Had some very strong storms last night with cloud rotation in the Olsburg area. Birdie and I got nervous enough to go downstairs until it blew itself out. Today is just muddy, but more storms forecast for tonight.

That's all for now!

Happy Birthday Donna!

We're grateful for your strength and stability in all our lives. Bless you today! the Nashville Perrys

The barn at night

For all intents and purposes, the new barn is finished! Before we fill it with hay, tractors and trailers, Gene wants to have a big party. The little barn is from our other place, just relocated for the horses to hang out in. Still need to figure out the water set-up and a few storage issues, but it's basically done, and Gene is so happy!

Happy Trails, Maggie

Yesterday we said goodbye to 15 year old Maggie. She had an idyllic dog's life, here in the canyon, she never knew a day confined. The Big Dog will be missed big time, and Birdie will have to learn how to be the alpha dog around here. God bless her swimming, fetching little heart...

Horse Camp

Horse Camp 2010 was a great hit with Maddy and Kate! They were involved in all the daily horse chores and Grandpa Gene gave them riding lessons every morning. The hot afternoons were spent swimming and watching movies. The girls are excellent conversationalists and very entertaining. We really enjoyed having them here. I think Kate is more interested in riding than Maddy, whose attention span is shorter than Kate's.

I've included a photo from the new Manhattan City Water Park. We swam there Friday afternoon and they have this String Ray Wave Pool. Of course, the girls and I had to try it out. Maddy did better than Kate, and this old lady ROCKED the wave machine! I was the only middle-aged woman and I had the longest ride(that's not me in the photo). It was way fun!

The girls got to hear my band play Wednesday evening and Kate even helped with some percussion. St. Joseph's Catholic Church had their annual picnic and my band played. They also have penny games for the kids, so the girls won a load of junk! It really was a fun week with lots of activities.

Now it's just hot!

Joan