Luke And Stan Installing His New Mufflers

Luke And Stan Installing Luke's New Mufflers

Luke had time on his hands while he was in Iraq and he planned on upgrading his truck. He wants to fancify it! So he ordered his parts and they were shipped to his parent's house. As soon as he was home from Iraq, he and Hannah came up to spend a week and he started working on his truck. He replaced the front bumper. But the biggest thing he did was to add some new pipe mufflers. He had ordered the chrome pipes but he ended up not using them after all. He and his Uncle Stan designed what he needed and then went to a friend of Stan's shop to fabricate and weld them. They got them all installed. Luke and Stan love doing stuff like this together. Our other nephew, Evans, is also good at working on machines and cars. I bet Evans will want something like this on his truck too!

I used digital papers for the background and a digital frame for the journaling. I used some Adobe Photoshop brushes to add the smoke. I used a checkerboard border and the metal "You Did It" charm. All of these from my digital scrapbooking supplies.

It's A Girl!

Luke's Truck

Luke wanted big pipe mufflers on his truck. He and Stan figured out how to do it. They had a friend fabricate them and he and Luke installed and welded. It sounds really cool!

Mom's Family Supper

Luke wanted to come out to the Farm so Mom invited us for spaghetti supper on their deck. Uncle Glenn and Aunt Janis came too. It was a very nice evening!

Welcome Home Luke!

Our nephew, Luke Harris, has spent the last 4 months in Iraq as a member of the Air Force. We really missed him! But he came home the weekend before Labor Day weekend and we celebrated with family cookouts for a week.





Luke had been planning for the last few months on upgrading his Ford truck. He had purchased some stuff online and had it shipped to his parents home. So he couldn't wait to get to work on it. Here he is taking off his old bumper to add a new bumper.











Lee



Hannah is 5 months along now



Mom


Melinda



Dad



Elaine

Luke and Hannah Are Having A....

Luke and Hannah are having a GIRL!!!! They found out this afternoon! I think Luke will be a wonderful girl's Dad and Hannah will be a wonderful little girl's Mom! Congratulations!

Luke In Operation Iraqi Freedom

Our nephew, Luke Harris, is in the Air Force and is serving in Iraq. He's been there 3 months so far and hates it. It's averaging 115-117 degrees Fahrenheit, the dust is so irritating and he misses home and family. He finally sent some photos home and I wanted to scrapbook his Iraq experience. I added a few additional photos from the Internet. Military scrapbooks are probably their most popular right now since the War has been going on for awhile. More and more men and women have military experiences. Whether Navy, Army, Air Force or Marine, it helps the serviceman and his family to work out their service and document their experiences with scrapbooks. There are the usual portrait photos but there are so many other things you can scrap about. I used Luke's photos about those horrible camel spiders, the sandstorm and the pitiful little office where they can spend time on the telephone. Then there are photos of their buddies and co-workers. I would love to have photos of the silly things they do to stave off boredom. For instance, Luke inherited a bicycle with no brakes and he has told us about his cycling back and forth in the compound and their attempts at small stunts. I have gone almost completely to digital scrapbooking and I was looking forward to making some digital layouts based on his photos from Iraq. I usually like to base my colors on what's in photos. Soldiers fatigues and the colors of the desert were what I was looking at and I didn't want to change his original photos by changing the colors so I would stick with the original photo colors. So here are my digital scrapbook pages of our soldier, or Airman.

Luke wrote a very heartfelt, moving letter about his feelings on being in Iraq and his feelings about his fellow servicemen. I wanted to include that on this page.






I used this swirling black paper and the oranges to pick up the theme of a sandstorm.

July 4th 2010 Scrapbook Pages

July 4th 2010

Stan's family always has a big cookout and party for the family on the 4th. This is the first time our nephew, Luke, has ever missed it and he would have loved to be here this time too. But he is in the Air Force and is serving in Iraq. But, Elaine brought her laptop and video cam in order to Skype with him. Here she is working on getting the connection.


Now, we have him online and he is sitting on the floor with his back up against his bunk as he holds his laptop with a builtin cam. Elaine twisted the video cam around so we could all get in and wave and talk to him.


Everyone crowded into the living room to participate and see Luke. It was so amazing to know he was around the world in Iraq. He moved his laptop around so we could see his tiny quarters that he shares with 2 other men.














It is so good to see him, alive and well, and talk to him. But it's so hard to hang up. Jenny, Luke and Lee are like my own children. They grew up next door and we were so close to them. So it's been as difficult for Stan and I as it has been for Elaine and Ronnie, for Jenny to be living away from home and for Luke to be in Iraq. When we see them, it's like an unseen umbilical cord attaches and our love goes back and forth. Then, when they drive away or we hang up the phone (or the Skype) it's a little painful to detach the umbilical cord. I've been pretty depressed the last couple of months and I'm sure there are 2 subconscious reasons... one is Jenny, Kyle and Brett are being transferred to Illinois and the other is Luke being in Iraq. I know they are all grown up now and don't need us. And I know they love us. But it's hard letting them go.

We had tons of food as usual. Stan made his hash but Eddie always grills hamburgers and hot dogs.







we had hash, hotdogs, hamburgers
cole slaw
potato salad
macaroni salad
baked beans
pickles galore
banana pudding
peach pie
blackberry cobbler
brownies
homemade chocolate ice cream



Kathi and Eddie have a great swimming pool. Since the gym was closed we went early enough for me to get in the pool and do my exercises. Our nephew, Logan, was a good buddy to little Brett and we all had our eyes on them.



























Katie was showing us the photos of her wedding dress. Kathi and Eddie took her to New York to buy a dress. It's lovely!


















Logan, Stan and Brett get back in the swimming pool








Brett is 1 1/2 yrs old and he's already ready to jump in!


















Jenny and Kyle were playing around and Brett just started laughing at them!




He was just squealing in laughter!