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Mother’s Day 2010
Mother's Day 2010
It was a perfect day to celebrate Mothers. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and the day was warm. After Mom opened her cards and present, We took advantage of the good weather to ride the trail to one of our favorite biking rest stops (Big Red’s). The ride home was exciting: flat tire on one bike, chain came off another, and we had a spill, complete with skinned knee.
On another note, it was the first Mother’s Day for me without my Mom. Felt very strange not talking to her (at least on the phone). I called Dad instead and we had a good visit.
Here’s a quick video of the ride today (shaky camera and all):
Quads’ 8th Birthday
Quads' 8th Birthday
Work and spring sports have pretty much kicked my tail, blowing anything that resembled a schedule. But we were done by 1pm today, so I had a chance to sift through photos and videos, reorganize and crank out some video.
We can hardly believe it, but Riley, Rachel, Robyn and Randy turned 8 in March, and Nana and Papa were here from Arizona. Just yesterday, we were up to our ears in dirty diapers, but they’ve gotten B-I-G all of a sudden.
A quick video of the festivities is here in 2 formats:
Happy Birthday, Princess
Happy Birthday, Princess
I’ve been counting down the days until I got to share this with the entire connected world. Kathy, Brian and I unearthed this little treasure while going through Mom’s office back in early January. Sadly, I thought I’d accidentally deleted the image while trying to recover some space on my laptop. Fortunately, however, I had taken extra precautions and uploaded all the family photo scans into a secure location in the ether, and I was able to retrieve it today.
So if you see her on 3/4, be sure to wish Kathy a Happy Birthday, and tell her how much you enjoyed this picture.
Happy Birthday, Princess…er…Sis.
Christmas 2009
Christmas 2009
This video took me a very long time to put together. Not because it was technically challenging, although I did get to exercise many of the new Final Cut Studio/Motion/Soundtrack Pro 4 features, but mainly because it was pretty painful.
Christmas 2009 was spread out across the country, and we spent time with our entire immediate family. Both sets of parents, both sets of aunts, uncles, cousins. Nana and Papa Budzowski visited from Arizona, and we had a great celebration in Oregon, then we took the show on the road to Kansas City. As many visitors to the blog are aware, we said goodbye to Grammy Hall (my Mom) over the holidays. She wanted to see the kids one more time before she passed away.
While saying goodbye was one of the toughest things ever, I’ve sort of come to grips with the fact that having that extra time to say all the things that needed to be said and properly say goodbye was one of the greatest Christmas gifts ever. And I’m not ashamed to say that I cried like a baby many times while putting the video together over the past couple of months. I had to put it down a couple of times and do something else for awhile, but I finally finished it.
Here’s the story of our Christmas 2009. My hope is that someday the kids will look back on this Christmas not with sorrow, but with the knowledge that despite the unpleasantness that surrounds death, they made Grammy very happy.
A very special thanks to the friends at Santa Marta that made things easier and the Christmas brighter.
Click on one of the links below to view video
Happy Birthday Grammy – We Miss You
Balloons for Mom
Today would have been Mom’s 74th birthday, and it’s the first one since she passed away. In honor of Mom (Grammy), Becky bought balloons, we all wrote notes, and then set them loose this evening.
Here’s a short video.
Happy birthday, Mom. We miss you.
No, You’re Not Seeing Things
It was time for a change, and there have been a few lately. I made some updates to the site, including blog software and database upgrades, look/feel change, and tighter integration with facebook.
Probably the most significant upgrades, however, are:
- This site should now be readable on your mobile phone. Check it out and let me know if you run into issues.
- New address. This blog can now be found at http://www.allthehalls.net. Please update your bookmarks. The old randyehall.com address will continue to work for awhile.
Mom
My mother passed away this morning at about 4am Central time on Wednesay, January 6, 2010.
A rosary will be held for her on Thursday, January 7 at 7pm at
Santa Marta Senior Living Community
13800 W 116th Terrace
Olathe, 66062
The funeral mass will be held on Saturday, January 9 at 10am at The Church of the Magdalen in Wichita, Ks. Mom will be buried immediately following the funeral mass next to her mother at St. Mark’s Church in Colwich, Ks.
A very sad day.
Here is the obituary that appeared in the Wichita Eagle:
Mom's Obituary in the Wichita Eagle
Thanks to all of you who visited, sent notes, and most importantly, prayed for her.
A brief photostory of her life follows:
This Made Me Cry
Riley wrote this note today.
Riley's Note To Grammy - 01-03-2009
2009 Top 10 List
Top 10 of 2009
One of my favorite posts to write all year, and definitely one of the most time consuming.
I’m a huge music fan…it’s how I spend every second not otherwise occupied. So I take great care in my “Top” list every year. These are the CD’s that have spun all year on my iPod (my moblie lifestyle doesn’t let me listen to CDs anymore).
This year was too hard, and I gave up on trying to name a “top 10.” Instead, I put together a “Top 20″ that breezes thru entries #20 to 11, then focuses on 10-1.
For those that don’t have time for the video presentation, here is the listing:
10-20 – in no particular order
- Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears – Mad Valentines
- The Pundits – Echo Chamber
- Josh Fix – This Town Is Starting To Make Me Angry
- Fun. – Aim and Ignite
- Brendan Benson – My Old, Familiar Friend
- Scott Simons – The Start of Something
- The Syn – Big Sky
- Bob Mould – Life and Times
- The Luxury – In the Wake of What Won’t Change
- The Honeydogs – The Sunshine Committee
The Top 10
- Roger Powell – Blue Note Ridge
- Bleu – A Watched Pot
- Lamar Holley – Confessions of a College Student
- Brian Wilson – That Lucky Old Sun
- Halloween, Alaska – Champagne Downtown
- Tim Christensen – Superior
- Vinyl Candy – Land
- Kevin Gilbert – Nuts/Bolts – 2 CD’s — I opted to combine the entries
- Francis Dunnery – There’s A Whole New World Out There
- It Bites – The Tall Ships
I spent a lot of time on planes, carried 2 ipods on every trip, and spent A LOT of time listening to music. This list accurately reflects many hours of audio investment 
.
If you have time, I encourage you to view the video. This captures a short summary of thoughts on the Top 10 entries.
Until next year….
Thanksgiving 2009
Thanksgiving 2009
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!
The Halls had a very quiet, cozy Thanksgiving in Portland, but we missed having family near. I took the entire week off to catch my breath from the busiest year I’ve ever had workwise. I had several projects around the house that I’d been putting off. I haven’t gotten everything done, but I’m making progress. Now I know how Becky feels every darn day (time goes too fast, and there’s not enough of it to get thru all the daily projects).
The kids were in school until Wednesday so the family-time didn’t start until Wednesday pm. It was Becky’s b-day on Wednesday, so we had a little family outing, followed by a snickers cake (mmmmmm). We took the kids to the Sherwood YMCA to climb the rock-wall. That was a good experience for the kids. The guy who manned the ropes was VERY good to the kids and everyone got up to the top at least once.
Thanksgiving was cool and rainy, but the fire was nice and warm. Mom had lots of help in the kitchen: Reed made the stuffing muffins this year, Riley, Rachel, and Robyn helped peel potatoes and make butter (The neighbors from across the street gave us a couple of jars of heavy cream, a pecan pie, homemade cranberry sauce, and a bottle of wine–thanks guys!!!).
Little Randy manned the toy train almost all day. Probably just as well because there was a lot of help in that kitchen.
Our turkey this year took over 4hrs to bake, so we were pretty hungry when the popper popped. And it was fantastic. Becky outdid herself again, and we had a really nice dinner, complete with the fancy schmancy china and silverware.
It was good to talk to everyone via phone, but we wish you could have been here. After dinner, we had a video chat call with Nana & Papa in Arizona to catch up for a bit.
Not sure yet what the rest of the weekend holds. Lots going on in and around Portland this weekend so we’re going to play it by ear.
Here’s a video of our Thanksgiving celebration that includes video from the kids’ school program, rock wall, kitchen shenanigans, and dinner.
Hope your holiday was fantastic. Links follow….