Nikki found!

After one month of being lost, someone caught my dog Nikki finally. She showed up at a dog kennel and hung out in the field next to him for 3 days before he could finally catch her. About 25 miles from my house. She is the luckiest dog around! See my other blog for more info: http://lostdognikki.blogspot.com/

I can't thank everyone enough for all your prayers. Along the way, I adopted another dog in need, Fritz, so I now have 3 german shepherds. Crazy, but we are all very happy.

Amy's dog Nikki is missing

Amy's dog Nikki is missing & it can't hurt to have the Lusty family saying a few prayers for Amy & Nikki. While Amy was home visiting all of us in Michigan last week, Nikki ran away from Amy's home in New Jersey & has now been "on her own" since Tuesday. Even Kari drove home with Amy to help look for Nikki last Wednesday. Kari has now returned to Michigan and Amy continues to do all in her power to find her. A few sights have been at a golf course over 3 miles away from her home, so we hold on to hope that Nikki will still be caught. Amy had to go back to work today and Amy is at her lowest, plus we are all in Michigan & can't hug her. Please pray Amy has the strength and faith to continue this long journey of finding Nikki.
Love you all
Sherri

Family is wonderful!

What a wonderful time we had visiting Dawn and Greg in Denver! Mark and I planned to meet Mom and Dad in Colorado the end of July, then Val and boys decided to make a flying trip to CO while Phil was in Nevada for a training and to top it all off Kari and Dan Roy and kids flew into Denver for a wedding. We were able to get everyone together and enjoyed a wonderful afternoon at Dawn and Greg's beautiful home. Make us all look forward to the family reunion next summer when we can all be together!

Trip to London!

In late June this year my work brought me to London. What a fun trip it was, both work-wise and when Melissa Loveday, nee Barnard (branch Gene), and I were able to meet up for dinner. We ate at an Indian restaurant, which was really good. Those flavors! A whole new set of tastes to explore, what fun! This picture was taken in front of the beautiful Tower Bridge, crossing the river Thames. Was great catching up on family news and things that have been going on for Melissa and Paul living in London.

I traveled with my boss and we had a little bit of time to go see some sites, including the Museum of London, which was absolutely fascinating. Learned a lot about how London got its start by conqueror after conqueror, then finally by the Romans. Their rule stuck the longest.












They back in the early days of London, Londinium then, the Romans built a fortification around the entire city to defend against invaders. With excellent historical sensibilities, the Brits have gone out of their way to preserve the surviving pieces of this wall. You see little bits of it all around down town. Fantastic!



Another highlight was when we went to see the Stomp! show. If any of you ever get a chance to go see this show, do it! They have troupes touring the world.

The exchange rate isn't so good for Americans but it sure was a fun and fascinating time. Thank you Melissa for explaining many of the British ways and sensibilities to me during our meal. That helped me "get" quite a few things about interacting with the locals.

I was well chuffed with the trip overall.

Bike Trip

Hi Everyone,

Recently Mark and I spent a weekend with friends biking in Minnesota lake country. There were 6 couples in all and we stayed at a Bed and Breakfast created from an old school house. We stayed the 3rd grade classroom. It was beautifully restored and the owners were wonderful hosts. In that area all the little towns are connected by a very nice bike path made on an old railroad bed. We started riding in the morning and stopped in the first little town for a rest and a latte. In the next town they had a street fair going on and I found an antique iron that I just had to have so found a way to tie it on my bike for the ride home! We got back to our B&B just ahead of the rain! In the evening we attended a production at a local country theater. We also found some local eating establishment with some surprising great food! Plus had fun exploring the many little antiques, books and craft shops. It was a great weekend and I think it will become an annual event.

Garden Gal

2009 Reunion Planning Group

Much to do yet for planning the '09 reunion. Job 1: find a place! My first post is brief, mainly wanted to post a reminder of the list nominated two years ago at the reunion in Alexandria, MN.

-Jon

2009 Lusty Family Reunion Planning Group

• Dawn Barnard
• Nancy Berg
• Jerry Holter
• Eber Lusty
• Jon Lusty
• Sherri Moyer

Visit to Washington DC

Congratulation to Sherquilter on entering the pie contest, what an adventure! It was fun to see the pictures.

Two weeks ago I was flying into Washington DC for a conference. Pam picked me up at the airport and I spent Saturday night with she and Sean in their beautiful home. It was so fun to see Pam and see where they live, they are such wonderful hosts. They were having a very busy weekend with the start of the National Academy of Science annual meetings. There was another couple, friends from Mich., staying with them also and Pan served us a wonderful brunch Sunday morning. I have included a couple of pictures here.

Pie Contest was great fun!

Hi all! Well, I didn't win any prizes at the Pie Contest in Florida...but had a great time! I have to say it was hard making a pie with everyone stopping to talk or watch you! Distracting! It wasn't my best pie, so I made another pie at my sister in-law's condo. Of course we ate the "bad" looking pie!:) Many ladies (& men) enter more than one pie...there were 15 categories and I saw some people bringing in cart fulls! Many of the winners this year were past winners and they then won again & again this year. They gave out 3 places for each pie and I swear the same women kept winning. But all in all, it was a great experience!

At home in Michigan- we are getting ready for new carpet in the house. What a lot of work...moving everything out! Johnny is home from college, so I'm putting him to work! Stacey is back to work and baby Logan is growing fast. Logan is almost 3 months old and he weighs over 15 lbs! He is trying to laugh out loud and we are so blessed to have them back in Michigan! Jessica has graduated from her student teaching year and has a job offer! She will be the teacher consultant for Midland county (about 1 1/2 hours away from us in DeWitt) for the deaf and hard of hearing kids. She is really excited and I think looking forward to having money! Well...that is the update from DeWitt....hope the rest of the Lusty family is doing well!

Cold Weather still in New Jersey

Boy, and I thought it was warmer here and the growing season was ahead of all the rest of you. Apparently I was wrong (at least for this spring). I keep wanting to bike to work and every morning I wake up it's in the 30's!. I just go back to sleep for an hour and workout at lunch. Strange, we got one entire day of rain on Monday, then the sun comes out every day, but isn't that warm. The grass is growing though. I mowed half the yard last night and I had to wear a hat and gloves. That was a first. Usually I'm totally sweating and wear my camel back so I can drink the entire time I mow (I can't help it; it's mowing for triathletes, all about hydration:)). It better warm up here soon. I have 4 weeks left before my first race of the year, half Ironman and its in the Pocono Mountains. At this rate, I'm not sure the ice has melted in the lake for the swim. It will be a cold race for sure. I'm still trying to finish all the work I had planned for my parents visit. I have to pull out fence posts yet (Dad brought a fence post jack and man does that work). He always said, you just need the right tool and you can do anything. I guess he was right, yet again. He will love hearing that.
Take care everyone

Pie Contest

Hello all, hope the weather is getting warmer. I see snow in northern MN and ND on the news, sorry! It is finally in the 60's here in NJ and will be in 70's this weekend. It will be good because my parents are coming out to NJ to visit me. I will try to get them to relax and visit, but we usually work on projects (I have so many). First order of business is hew roof for my shed. Of course, I will be the indian and Dad will be the cheif...he will keep me in line for sure! We have a world of fence posts to jack out too, so that will be another fun job. At least that one will be on the ground. Mom is going to catch up on her sewing (quilting) for her quilt block class and we will do some grilling. Sherri and John head to Florida today for a pie baking contest. I'm excited for her and hope she does well. I think her pies are the best in my book anyway.
http://www.piecouncil.org/great.htm is the website. The contest is this weekend, then they are staying extra and getting some R&R. Happy travels to the drivers!
Amy

Sunny Sunday in ND

Hi All,
It is a sunny afternoon in North Dakota, mid 40s, not quite warm enough to sit on the deck yet. I had the cushion for our deck chairs recovered this winter and I am anxious to get them out and enjoy our deck! Soon I hope. We had snow predicted for last night and today but it missed us again and we need moisture so bad we were even happy to expect snow!

Most of you probably haven't hear about Dawn and her ear adventure. She will need to write and give the whole story. She had a viral infection in her right ear and lost the hearing, after a round of steroids and antiviral meds she has recovered some of the hearing. Scary but we are thankful they were able to catch it early enough to restore some hearing and hopefully that improves with time.

Take care everyone, I'm headed out the door for a walk!
Lori

Spring is slow in ND

Hi All,
Mary it was good to read your update and so glad to hear you will be rebuilding, a great opportunity to design just what you want. It will be a long busy year for you both. Is your Mom back from TX yet?

We are cool and dry up here. Too dry really, not much snow all winter and no moisture so far this spring. Farmers and gardeners are concerned!

We spent Easter weekend with Aimee and Mark and kids. They are adding a bathroom in there house and remodeling the other two bathrooms. All done in stages to make sure they have at least one working bathroom at all times! We were able to help with some of the painting while there. Along with celebrating Bryn's 1st Birthday and Max's 3rd birthday. Busy weekend but we loved every minute!

House Fire Update

We are adjusting to being back at Mom's house, hard to believe its been 2 months already! We do plan on rebuilding, not really any other option, unless we wanted to move out of Aneta. So maybe by this time next year, we will be in our new house. We're not really looking forward to the hassle of everything, but know in the end it will be good. This house will be a bit bigger, a somewhat different layout, I will get my sunroom that I've always wanted, maybe a hot tub, so in the end if Doug and I don't kill each other, it will be better than before! We did manage to save some pictures, my good china, farm records, and some other misc. stuff. So at least we have some of our old things. But like Doug said, if we were going to move now would be a good time, because we don't have much to move! So we hope everything will work out. This homeless feeling really sucks! Anyway, we're all doing good, just thankful for a place to stay. So hopefully we won't get on Mom's nerves! Take care! Mary

Back to work!

Well, it is back to work for me! My knee is really feeling pretty good. I have even walked around the small block by our house. I'm using one of the walking canes John made from the wood from Uncle Gene. The cane helps remind me to slow down walking & to tell people to be good to me!

Lusty knee issues

Well, it is day 2 after my knee scoping & all is going great! I think a few of us Lusty's have had knee stuff, so hopefully this corrects my injury & I can continue walking & maybe biking! All though no outside stuff for know as we got 4 inches of snow on Friday night. Tomorrow is Easter so Happy Easter to all!

March Madness

It's all about basketball for me lately. I am working from home today and the games start pretty soon:) I don't really watch it much until the tournament begins, then I just love it. I picked Duke to goto finals and they barely pulled it out last night; they are making me nervous. Its very windy here today, but I need to bike and run anyway, so I will bike indoors, then run outside with the dogs (they love it and could care less that it's windy).
Have a good weekend everyone!
Amy

Happy Wednesday!

It's raining here in New Jersey. All the news has been about the New York governor that was involved in prostitution, and they just swore in another guy, and 2 days later, he publically admitted that he cheated on his wife. The news is so depressing, then there is flooding and tornado's all somewhere the US today. If I was reading from the bible for signs of the times, I would guess we are here:) Maybe I should just stop watching the news.
There is no good TV on anyway. Take care of yourselves.

Cool

GREAT idea to keep in touch - this is my first time blogging. All is busy in our lives. Lucas is 6 and Karly is 4 - both are growing and full of energy! We're looking forward to going out of town on our first (ever) spring break to Orlando, Florida! xoxoxox

Lusty Family members

Hi to all Lusty Family members! Just so you know, Amy Lusty did all the work for this blog! Thank you:) I just thought it would be a great way for us to share each of our lives here and family members can view it....... Examples like.....updates as to how Mary's recovery from the fire is going? Update on our new grandson named "Logan Thomas Olivier" born 2/16/2008 9lbs 2ozs. He is now 12lbs 4ozs (4 weeks old)...can you tell we are proud Grandparents! That way we aren't sending emails & trying to remember everyone & their email address. So please share with anyone in the Lusty family. My hope is to send out any email soon to everyone my dad has email addresses for invite them to this blog. If anyone want to POST or Comment on the blog you will need a gmail email address. (It is free!) Hopefully we can also use this as a way to start the process of planning the family reunion in 2009. Love to all from Michigan....Sher Quilter

Getting Started

Getting started may be a bit painful, but in time, this will work. Lets start planning Lusty Reunion number 7 I believe; lucky number seven!