September 2006

This past Saturday (Sept 16th) was the annual HeartWalk to benefit the American Heart Association. We have been participating in this event since its inception in 1991. Alex has turned into one of the events biggest fundraisers here in Indianapolis. I imagine over the years, she has raised more than $80,000 for this event alone! This year there were thousands of people in downtown Indianapolis raising much needed funds for research and education about Heart Disease and Stroke. Locally, the event was anticipated to raise close to $1,000,000. Alex's goal was to raise $15,000 and she may very well reach $17,000 which would again probably make her the number 1 fund raiser in Indianapolis for this event! Below are a couple pictures from the event. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the Walk was nice!










Alex preparing to cut the red ribbon to start the Walk. Each year she has special TEAM ALEX t-shirts made. On the back of the Shirt the various Corporate ($1000 or more donation) and individual donors ($500 or more donation) are listed.












Alex and her Aunt Debbie before the Walk began.












Alex being interviewed LIVE at the event on the NBC Affiliate in Indy!

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DID YOU KNOW:

Each day an average heart “beats” (expands and contracts) 100,000 times and pumps about 2,000 gallons of blood.

About 1% of kids are born with Congenital Heart Defects? Of those 1%, Alex is in a more rare category due to her having a single Ventricle (she was also born with Pulmonary Stenosis and Transposition of the Great Vessels).

Alex has a 2-chamber heart (normally it's 4 chambers) and a pacemaker. She takes about 4-5 different medicines, some of them 3 times a day. She has a special machine which is used to call into the hospital over the phone so they can monitor the pacemaker. The old/unoxygenated blood in her body never really goes into her heart...it gets sent directly to the lungs! The sole purpose of her heart is to pump the good/oxygentaed blood to the body through the Aorta.
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Thanks for reading and thanks for all of your support! ! ! ! !

Ellen's Birthday Weekend

We celebrated Ellen's birthday last weekend with some motorcycle riding! Just what she always wanted. She was a trooper. Linda and Dave came down from Wisconsin and we went riding south of Indianapolis through the winding back roads. We had lunch at the Story Inn (www.storyinn.com). Loophole and the FTC also joined in the ride.

Ellen and Linda at the Story Inn.

Ellen, Dave, me, Linda (nice helmet, Dave)

I also learned something about Ellen that I didn't know after 18 years of marriage. Apparently there was a tradition in High School of eating ice cream cake rolls. But you could use no utensils and you passed it along to the next person so they could have a bite. So...sitting on the back deck we shared the cake roll....

ALEX UPDATE - Alex seems to be recovering nicely. Her incisions are healing but still "itch." She has a 24-hour Holter monitor the other day and we don't have those results back yet. She is being seen back at Mayo Clinic on July 17th. Regarding Marching Band...she will play in the band but will play keyboard (in the Pit) so she doesn't have to actually march on the field. This will work out great for this year!

BOYS - Chase comes home from camp tonight. He goes to another camp the week of July 10th in Wisconsin and the next week he has Scouts camp. Busy dude this summer! Nate went to camp a couple weeks ago. He also has soccer camp coming up.

More picstures to follow! Have a GREAT and safe 4th of July.

Disney World - April 2006

We went to Orlando for Spring Break. We had not been since 1999 so it was fun to go back. We visited Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and MGM Studios. We also saw the Cirque de Soleil show at Downtown Disney...very cool


Nate LOVES riding Dumbo with his big sister!




The kids by Cinderella's Castle





We were selected to be the GRAND MARSHALLS of the afternoon parade. They gave us these free Mickey hats and we led the parade...there were an estimated 40,000 on the park that day!


This is the car we rode in as the Grand Marshalls!


At 3-D presentation



Can't go to Disney without riding the Tea Cup ride. This was BEFORE the ride...we are not queasy yet!

Merry Christmas

Here are the kids visiting Santa in downtown Indy.

Have a Merry Christmas. Also....even though this is a picture of Santa....please remember the real reason for the season!

God Bless.

Charles

December 7, 2005

Miscellaneous PIctures

(Left - Chase definitely enjoys dressing up like a cowboy and also likes his homemade bow/arrow.)

Below - Chase (on left) and his fellow Cub Scouts learn about electricity













Kids at the Indpls Symphony

and

Kids seeing Santa

November 30, 2005

SOUTH AMERICA TRIP. Mom, Dad, Greg, Debbie, John and Charles took a trip to Argentina recently. The reason was to visit Mom's "roots." So we flew into Buenos Aires on Nov 11. We spent time sight-seeing in BsAs and also spent a day in a "suburb" - Lomas de Zamora where my Mom was born and raised. She moved away after graduating from High School in 1945. Obviously things had changed! We were able to spend a lot of time at the manse/church where she grew up which was really cool! She told lots of stories which was fun. Perhaps in another entry I will tell more of the history...but for now I wanted to get some pictures up! The boys left on November 15th around 10pm to return to the US. Mom and Debbie continued on to Iguacu Fall and then on to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to spend a few days with Hugh and Joanne.

Mom dancing the Tango on the streets of San Telmo

Mom at the Lomas Athletic Club







Fresh Produce in Montevideo, Uruguay.




















My grandfather (My Mom's Dad) pastored a church in Buenos Aires. But THIS is a picture of the church my GREAT-grandfather pastored in Montevideo, Uruguay.














Mom in the sanctuary of the Methodist church in Lomas de Zamora where my grandfather served as pastor for more than 30 years.














Greg, Debbie, Mom and me in the courtyard of the church. The manse is just to the right of this picture.















Greg, Mom, me, Dad in front of the manse.










My Mom sitting at the original organ in the sanctuary (below).

November 3, 2005

Well, I know it has been awhile! Sorry. I know you visit here everyday waiting for the latest update!

Here are some interesting tidbits:

1. We got to see Alex's band perform in the RCA Dome. We sat way up high and it was neat to see the formations! They got 8th out of 32 bands. The weekend of Nov 10th are the Grand Nationals in which they will compete.
2. It is going to be 75 tomorrow so I am going to ride the motorcycle. Out firm is having a Community Service day so I will be planting flower bulbs downtown.
3. I spent $297 last night at the grocery store and it all fit into one cart. As they say in Texas..."Damn!"
4. Kids are all fine. Stinkers sometimes but fine.
5. Ellen is good too!

Here are some pics from Halloween. Pay particular attention to Nate's smile.

October 10, 2005

You know, I worked in I.T. for 16 years and technology frustrates me a lot. I just entered a bunch of data and the Netscape crapped out on me and I lost everything. Geeeesh!

Anyway, as I was saying...I went to my high school 25th reunion this past Fridat night. You can see more here. We all had a lot of fun! It was an informal gathering as opposed to one of those "hotel-and-sit-down-dinner" things. I think this was a fun way to do it. We had a tour of the school which was really entertaining! Then we attended about 1/2 of the football game and then headed to the Bourbon Barrel. I don't know how many people were there from our class....maybe 30 or so. I saw people I hadn't seen in years and it was really fun. I thought most people looked great. One interesting comment from the subsequent emails which are flying around is that it really doesn't seem to matter what "group" you hung out with in high school...because now we all talk and get along fine. Cool.

In other developments:

• I wonder if I had one of these instead of my 2003 Super Glide if Ellen might ride more with me. Hmmm!?
• The 9 week grading period ends this Friday. Should be interesting around our house!!
• We leave for Boston next week for Carl's wedding.
• Next month I go to Argentina for 5 or 6 days. More on that later.
  

September 21, 2005

Things are going well. This past weekend was the Heartwalk in Indy. It was a beautiful day and about 4,500 people showed up to walk! This year we set up a little tent and table and sold "GOT HEART ?" wristbands. All profit goes to the AHA for "Team Alex." I think we sold over 100 wristbands and we still have plenty left if you are interested! It looks like Alex raised more than she did last year! Perhaps close to $14,500! Looks like she will be #1 or #2 again this year.

Alex got to cut the ribbon to begin the Walk. She was also interviewed by the Indpls Star newpaper and an article appeared on Sunday! Well, as soon as the walk started, Alex and Ellen to drive to Ohio for a marching band competition. The performed twice and didn't arrive home until after 1:00 a.m.!! Alex seems to enjoy marching band. I will get some pics soon.

The boys are fine. Both are doing well in school and keeping busy with sports, school, and church. Ellen and I are busy at work and volunteer stuff. But all in all life is pretty good. How about you??

Here is an interesting concept. I really wonder which family members read this blog...if any. So here is what I propose: It is 4pm on Wednesday September 21, 2005. Whatever "family member" emails me and tells me they read this part of the blog will receive in the mail $5 of McDonald's gift certificates. Sorry, non-family members are not eligible for this contest. So, you know my email...let me know and you can "have it your way"...no that's Burger King...you can "think outside the Bun"....no....you're Eatin Good in the Neighborhood...no...you can have two-all-beef-patties-special sauce-lettuce-cheese-pickles-onions-on a sesame-seed-bun!!!

Well, take care of yourself and have a GREAT day.

Wednesday September 14, 2005

Sorry I haven't updated lately. Here are some pics from John re: Ophelia Prep. You can track the storm here: Ophelia. Keep John and Michelle in your prayers for sure!

OTHER: Alex had an unexpected trip to Riley Hospital Monday. She has been feeling "pressure" in her chest which has been quite disturbing. They checked her all out and determined they think it is scar-tissue that is causing the discomfort. That's good new/bad news......good news that it isn't something worse.....bad news because Alex would really like them to do something to take it away! Alex continues to march in the band at Center Grove HS. It is challenging from an endurance standpoint.

Nate is adjusting well to school we think. His grades are good and he continues to enjoy travel soccer. Saturday I was at the fields from noon - 5pm. Then Sunday he had an "away" game ... but still in Indy.

Chase is also good. He makes us laugh as do all the kids!

We try to have lots of laughs and make life fun. So far so good.....most of the time.

The Heartwalk is this Saturday. Alex has done well on fund-raising...I think she will beat last year's total and will end up around $14,000. Ellen and Alex leave immediately after the Walk and drive to Ohio for a marching band competition. The other kids are taking the school busses and Alex will join them in Ohio. SHould be fun! The boys and I will go to soccer, etc!

That's all for now. Keep in touch!!!

Tuesday August 30

SOCCER CHAMPS

Nate's U-12 Travel Soccer team won a tournament this weekend. This is the first time one of Nate's teams has ever won a tournament...so it was VERY exciting. Nate is in the back row (Number 12). They played 4 games over the weekend and won 3 and tied 1. Nate played some pretty good games as a defender and mid-fielder. He got stung by a bee right before the tourney and had a swollen ankle...but played well anyway. (Click on the picture for a larger version)

Minnow Races !!

Here's a fun activity for people of all ages: MINNOW RACES. I suppose the SPCA might have a problem with this because in our situation the minnows bite the big one the next day. But here's how it works. You buy several 10' sections of cheap plastic guttering and put end caps on both ends so they hold water. Fill gutters with water. Purchase a bunch of minnows and bring them home. Every person involved selects a minnow and puts the little fella in their own Dixie Cup to keep track of their very own minnow. Be sure to pick a nice name for your minnow like: Speedy, Jaws, Margarita, or something else.

We then set up a white board with a single-elimination bracket chart like the NCAA Final Four. Start out with two people who will race their fish. They stand at one end of the gutters and pour their fish into separate gutters. They then try to coax their fish to the other end of the gutter. Let the Cheering begin! You can coax your fish by tapping the outside of the gutter, but can't put your hands or fingers or anything else inside the gutter or in the water. We actually drew a "START" and "FINISH" line with permanent marker before filling the gutter with water. We put these lines about 2-3" inside each end of the gutter.

The fish will (hopefully) swim toward the other end. The minnows then go back into their owner's cups. Winner eventually goes on to next round. Loser gets flushed....I mean put out to stud. Since this is single elimnination, any loser is permanently out of the competition. Eventually you end up with one Grand Champion...who ultimately meets the same fate as all the other losers.

This is pretty good, clean, cheap fun. Let me know if you have questions.

Thursday August 25

KIDS BACK IN SCHOOL

Well, the second week of school is in full swing! Alex continues Marching Band...although future participation is somewhat in the air due to endurance issues. I think a decision will be made soon. Not sure if she can perform some other function in the Marching Band besides actually marching.
Nate likes the public middle school so far I think. Travel soccer is active again with practice 2 nights a week and games on the weekends. Chase is in Drama Club at school (one afternoon a week) and will probably tak piano again. No soccer this Fall.

Wednesday Aug 17

Well, no one reads this so this is turning out to be more of a diary than anything. All 3 kids are in school now and seem to be fine. Chase is in his familiar environment and doing fine. Nate is doing great so far. He has met some new friends and is okay. Alex is doing fine too. She is having consistent heart issues which is extremely frustrating for her. I am taking her to Riley Friday for an appointment. Need to mow the grass tonight and fix dinner. Chase is coming to my office after school because we still don't have after-school care figured out. I think we are getting close though. Unfortunately, it doesn't work for Nate to be in charge and Chase be there too...so we are having to hire someone to be with Chase from 3:30-5 most days. Whatever!

Things are just busy as usual...we'll keep you posted!

Adios.

Wednesday August 10

Would you like to comment?

Okay, so you would like to comment on some of these riveting entries in the Miller Indiana Blog. It is really quite simple now that I have fixed a few things on this site.

Near the bottom of any entry on which you would like to comment it will say something like "0 comments." When you click on this area, a new window will pop-up. In this new window you will see a box that says "LEAVE YOUR COMMENT." Type in your comment. Just below this area you will see a place to click next to the word "Anonymous." Do this and then below that click LOGIN AND PUBLISH. You may now close the poo-up window and you will be returned to the BLOG.

Please note that it may take a minute for your comment to appear in the BLOG.

I hope this helps. If it doesn't work this way please let me know!

Monday Aug 8

Well, we had a nice weekend. Summer break is quickly coming to an end so we are cramming some more fun stuff in these last few days. For instance, Sunday afternoon we checked off one of the things on the kid's summer list: take Molly to the creek. We walk from our house down to the creek and we all get in and walk up and down the creek a ways and let Molly romp in the water. It was a lot of fun and definitely a family tradition the kids will remember.

Saturday we participated in a cul-de-sac garage sale. We put out some stuff and made about $50. The remainder went to Goodwill. Nice to clear some stuff out....our garage is still packed for some reason. We celebrated by buying steaks and grilling out Sat night. We had enough leftover to feed us dinner on Sunday too! I made some osrt of quesadilla thing...I filled large flour tortillas with steak, refried beans, tomatoes, onions, cheese and folded the tortilla in half. Then I lightly buttered both sides and grilled them outside (on a griddle placed on the grill). They got golden brown and tasted great. We put sour cream and guacamole on them once they were on the plate. I'd like to add some green chiles to spice it up a little.

There is usually a four-square game every night (or what we used to call circle ball). It is fun because the kids are getting old enough now to have a pretty good game. Sometimes we also play cornhole which is fun. Here is what cornhole is.

Alex is back at marching band this week from 9-5. She has been having arrythmias lately which has been troublesome for her. We hope they go away....but we are not sure what is going on. She is really frustrated...which is understandable. She is a real trooper.

I have some meetings this week. I am really trying to slow down at church....right now I lead the Mission committee, lead the Major Gifts committee, and on the nominating committee, and am on the personnel committee. And there's the band too. By 12/31/05 I hope to be down to one committee and the band. I'd like to help some more at Cub Scouts this year and maybe marching band.

That's all for now. Keep in touch.

Thursday August 4, 2005

Hello again! Things keep hoppin' along here in Central Indiana.

Alex skipped Marching Band today to go to Riley Hospital because she was having some arrythmias. They did an EKG, bloodwork and put her on a monitor. Of course, her heart didn't act up while she was there! She returned to Marching Band in the afternoon. This week they practice from 8-6. Next week it is 9-5 I think.

Nate is exhuasted after Soccer Camp which runs 9-12 this week. It is consistently in the mid-90s here so it is a real workout on the field! Chase has it easy and has been swimming every day this week I think!!!

We are having a little garage sale this Saturday. We are only doing it because some neighbors are too. We aren;t very organized...but we'll get as much out as we can. Supposed to be nice weather.

That's all for now. Later!

Tuesday August 2nd

Well, we certainly had an interestiong weekend!

I bought a paint scraper this past week with the intention of scraping off some of the old wood on our storage barn and repainting it soon. So, Saturday morning I started to scrape and noticed a rotten piece of wood on one od the barn doors (not THAT barn door!!). Well, I removed the pffending piece of wood and found that I could put my hand entirely through the barn door causing a massive hole into the barn.

Well, being the incredibly smart dude that I am, I went to my files and found the company that originally built the barn and proceeded to find out how I could purchase 2 new barn doors and install them.

But No !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They don't make replacement doors so you have to BUILD YOUR OWN doors! Now this might not seem like a big deal to some of you, but I have never built and installed barn doors before. So, I did a little "Reverse Engineering" and figured out what I needed and bought the materials. (My barn looks something like this):

My old barn doors were attached with a "piano hinge" and I decided to modify that to look like the hinges in the picture. I also modified the look on the front because I didn't have a nice radial saw to make cool angles....I was using a curcular saw.

Nate was a big helper and learned a few things in the process....not the least of which was to wear shoes when doing work like this. A board fell on his toes!

The bottom line is that when Nate and I were done hanging the doors they actually closed and look great. I also repainted the barn with a little help from Nate and Chase. I only need to finish painting the front doors and the trim and the barn will be done! Yee-ha. So, my entire weekend was pretty devoted to those darn barn doors!!

Ellen and Alex were supposed to get back from Mexico around 7:30pm Saturday night. I kept getting updates from people and the last I heard was that their plane was not to land in Indy until aroun 2am Sunday morning. By the time they arrived at our house it was 3:30am!! They had a great time and did some very good work. We boys were thrilled to have them home though.

This week Alex is in Marching Band from 8-6. Nate is at soccer camp from 9-noon. And Chase is hanging out with some neighbors. Work continues to go well. Soon school will be starting up and things will get hectic.

Be sure to check out Alex's Heartwalk website...she is over $3000 already. Her goal is $15,000. You can check it out at Alex's Heartwalk Website.

That's all for now....hope you enjoy reading this.

Friday, July 29, 2005

Does anyone ever read this?

Just curious. If you do read this then leave a comment so I know you are there.

All is well here. Haven't heard from Ellen in several days. I assume everything is fine. They are probably just busy and haven't had time to make it to the internet cafe to check email. They are scheduled to come home tomorrow evening. The boys and I are ready for them to get home.

Actuallly, things have been running very smoothly this week. The boys have been behaving and we have had some fun. I don't know exactly what we did each evening but it was fun...one night I had a church meeting, we played outside a lot (kickball, 4-square, H-O-R-S-E, etc...) Last night I mowed while they played. At bedtime we have a campout in my room and read books.

I rode the Harley to work today because Fridays during the summer is "jeans day." Also, there are a bunch of bikers coming thru town today on a cross-country trip. It is the Kyle Petty (NASCAR driver) / Chik-fil-a Charity Ride. See :

Petty Charity Ride Website

They are stopping in Greenwood right by our house around 3pm today. I imagine there will be tons of people there since there will be several big name NASCAR drivers on their motorcycles making their way to NC.

Tonight I pretty much promised the boys we'd go to the driving range. I would have liked to have gone camping this weekend but with the Tulum trip rescheduled it didn't work out. Starting next week things start to gear up for school and the lazy days of summer will fade away. Nate has soccer camp M-F and Alex starts Marching Band again. Then school begins Aug 15th. Yikes!!! I wish the summer was longer for the kids! We will still go camping once or twice this summer/fall though. Ellen and I also hope to get away with 2 other couples on the motorcycle to go to Madison, IN on the Ohio River to spend the night. The terrain gets nice and rolling down there and it will be nice. However, our weekends tend to get booked quickly. Also, Alex has a big marching band committment! They perform at all Home Games and then also have these weekend competitions all over the place. I don't think we know yet what we are in for! Then Nate has his travel soccer games and practices. I am glad that Chase is still playing recreational soccer...he really enjoys that. Some of his buddies have moved up to "travel" but I think he is better suited in rec for a while. At least they aren't in dumb sports like hockey where the Dad has to go to 7am games and stand outside in the cold! Jeesh....who would ever let their kid do that !?!?!?

Speaking if High School....can you even imagine that by April Alex will be getting her "learner's permit" to drive. Y I K E S !!!!

Alright...my ramblings must end. I hope someone is reading this.!

Ciao.

Monday, July 25 2005

Well, I assume that Ellen and Alex made it to Tulum in good order. Haven't heard anything and may not for several days. There was a little internet-cafe in Tulum that she has used in the past. Hard to know if it is still there though.

The boys and I are getting along fine. Yesterday was VERY hot so we played in the sprinkler, spent some time inside and waited for the sun to set. We had dinner and then played four-square with the neighbors. We were all pretty tired by bedtime.

It is VERY hot here again today. I hope to take the boys to the Greenwood City Pool tonight at 6pm if at all possible. We haven't been there in a LONG time...maybe several years. They have a nice diving well which the boys will enjoy I'm sure.

I hope you are all doing well. Keep in touch!