Check Your Smoke Alarms

Hello Family,
I hope you are all well. It is unseasonably warm here in the Detroit area. Again we reached over 60 degrees - but the weatherman said to hold onto our socks because a cold front is coming through. Personally I am glad that the mercury will be dropping. My classroom is a sauna when it isn't cold outside. Even moreso (again I don't think moreso is really a word but I'll use it anyway) I want it to snow so that it "feels" and "looks" like Christmas. I'm leading worship on Sunday at my church and we will be doing our first Christmas Hymn of the season: O Come All Ye Faithful. I LOVE the chorus: Come Let Us Adore Him. Really, we could sing that song all year long - isn't' that what life is all about anyway? Adoring God!!

Okay - so you are probably wondering why the title of this post is Check Your Smoke Alarms. This morning my colleague Scott received a call from his wife saying that he needed to come home quickly because they had a house fire. Apparently, around 7am his wife, Melissa, was awoken by the smoke alarm (they check theirs routinely). She sprung out of bed - grabbed her 4 and 2 year olds and then bolted out of the house. She then called 911, went back into the house and started putting out the fire in their family room with the fire extinguisher. The entire 1st response team showed up - fire - police - ambulance. Everyone was okay - but their family room is now covered in soot and a plastic residue. The fire investigator determined that they had overloaded a surge protector with their fish tank and Christmas lights. The plastic surge protector caught on fire and so did the Christmas tree (I don't know if it was real or artificial). Anyhow - it was a great reminder to me to check my smoke alarms. When I went to check my alarm upstairs I realized that I had taken the battery out of it this summer because early one morning this past July, I was in the shower - NAKED - when I heard the smoke alarm go off in my house. I bolted upstairs (what a sight to behold) to check it out and there wasn't a fire - the alarm just had gone haywire. Needless-to-say I went to Costco today and bought new batteries tonight and will install them before I go to bed tonight.

Dad is in Japan on a business trip this week - so mom is holding down the fort in Atlanta! She just finished all of her decorating - I am sure it is BEAUTIFUL!!

Post Challenge: I would love to hear about your favorite Christmas Gift from years past!!

Happy days to you.
Tracy

Hello Everyone

Hello
Weather here in GA is great. Today was unseasonally warm at 72. I love the sun out each day and the warm. In fact the weather is better here than it was when we were in Florida last week.

Paul left for Japan today. He has a twelve hour flight! He will be there until Saturday. I miss him already!

I finished the Christmas decorations inside. I will take some pictures to post later this week. I am glad to have it done and will work on the outside tomorrow. I really enjoy it all when it is done. I am sorry the kids will not see the house this year. I know Tracy will have a great tree she always does but it will be strange not having everyone at our house. This year will be the first time that I will not see my sister for Christmas. She is staying in Florida. I think she regrets not coming this year and next year her plans will be back to normal.

Post again soon.

We Found a Christmas Tree!

Hello Family - It sounds like everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Tim, Carrie, and I went to breakfast this morning at Leo's (my favorite coney island). We then went to Sally and Jerry's Tree Lot to pick out a tree. We found a beautiful Fraser Fir that will fit perfectly. We are going to go back in a couple of hours to pick it up. Sally's daughter suggested that I bring the tree stand too so she can help us put it on while it is on the shaker. I thought it was a great idea! As soon as I get it decorated I will take some pictures and post them up on the blog.

For those of you who are trying to figure out how to add a picture; here's how. During any point that you are composing a post, select the icon that looks like mountains and a blue sky. A new window will pop up. Then select the Browse button and navigate to the place where you store your pictures. Select the picture and then you will be right back to the window where you started browsing. Next, scroll down and choose a layout. (Size and position) Finally, select the upload image button (blue button) at the bottom of the window. Voila - you will have added your photo!!

Nadeau Family Blog

Nadeau Family Blog

Thanksgiving Greetings

Hello on this beautiful thanksgiving day. It is so great to have most of our family in one spot for this festive day. Last night we picked up Tracy at the airport ... it was sooo busy. Tim we miss you! Peter has been with us since last thursday

Sounds like Grandma and Grandpa are going to have fun today going to Menominee to have thanksgiving with Carol and Ken. Dashing through the woods in a one horse open sleigh over the fields we go laughing all the way ... straight to Menominee. We miss you! Drive safely!


Love
Paul

Happy Thanksgiving

Hello Everyone
Happy thanksgiving. We are down in florida Tracy comes today!!!! We can't wait to see her. I will miss Tim but am glad he is going to his reunion. The weather here has been on the cool side. Today was 72 it is usually in the 80's how, but it will warm up tomorrow and get back to normal by Friday.

Joy what a wonderful quilt. What a lucky man to have that on his bed! I hope you and Ryan will be able one of these days soon to visit in florida there are all kinds of wonderful marine life to see down here besides the beach. With or without us your family is always welcome! Oh by the way we are three hours from disneyworld.

Debbie I am so glad to hear that Addy and winter is doing well. since Faith is not in the christmas list I am adding her this year to mine! Little girls are always fun to get presents for. what size is she now????? Santa needs to know.

I hope we all will join the blog it is great keeping in touch with everyone. I bet mom and dad would like to see a print out once in a while too.

Paul and I are looking forward to visiting everyone for the Hoildays. We will drive up to spend Chirstmas atTracy's house. Mike and his boys will join us. Then we will drive up north to be with everyone. We will stay until the 30th then drive to East Jordan to spend New Years with the Pawlicks. they are the same family that is having Tim for Thanksgiving. Then we will drive back down to Tracy's grap Tim and head back down to Peachtree Tim will stay with us a few days and fly back to Flint and then back to school.

I hope everyone has a great and safe hoilday write more soon.
love
Emily

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving.
I'll be headed down to Florida to visit Mom, Dad, Pete, Yvonne, Dick, Mike, Britain, and Camden. It should be nice. I have a long list of things that I want to accomplish when I get down there: Grade Papers, Finish 10 chapters in Acts, Complete Week 4 of Daniel, Write out Christmas Cards, Pick out music for the Dec 3rd Worship Service at Genesis and Dec 4th Core Night, Rest, Enjoy the weather, and Spend Time with my family. I always go with this long list and only get about 2 things done - I'll try hard this time, though, to get more than that done.

Tim is staying at my house in Royal Oak. He will be going to his 10 year High School Reunion. He's so daring - I never went to mine. On Thanksgiving he is going to our friends' house - the Paulick's. You have all met the Paulick's at various family events - they are wonderful people. When I return home on Saturday we are going to have our own "Chinese Take-Out" Thanksgiving. It will be a lot of fun. I am also going to try to convince Tim to stay one more day so that he can participate in picking out the Christmas Tree. I love getting the tree - it is SOOOOO much fun. I always get one that is WAY to big for the house - but I love it anyway! Tim is also going to be taking care of Piggy and Ruby the Guinea Pigs. They love when they have pig sitters since they get extra treats!!!

Hi All

Hi All, I finally was able to figure out to write a blog again. I'm new to this so it doesn't come easy. It was too bad the Wolverines could not beat Ohio St. today but maybe there will be a rematch. I have been babysitting Faith a lot now that Addy is working at Pamida. She was a little fussy today. I think she is cutting a tooth. She sure is cute though. She will fun to have around at Christmas this year. You won't believe how big she is getting. Winter had her birthday this week too. I took her out to eat on her birthday. We had her cake on Sunday when she was here. Angel food cake with strawberries and cool whip. Addy has to go to Green Bay tomorrow and testify in court against Tom on Monday. She is nervous about it and will be glad when it is over. Joy is going to watch Faith while she is in court. Lindsey has been busy working at Menards, school, and a very heavy social life. We hardly see her. Pete hung up some outdoor Christmas lights for me today. Aunt Ellen will be turning 90 years old soon. That's something isn't it!Well that's all the news from here. HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL!! I AM VERY THANKFUL TO HAVE ALL OF YOU AS MY FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE, DEBBIE

Christmas Exchange

Buys For
Paul --> Ken
Emily --> Debbie
Tracy --> Winter
Tim --> Carol
Peter N. --> Ryan
Carol --> Addy
Ken --> Lindsey
Sara --> Bob
Ryan --> Tim
Joy --> Paul
Isaac --> Linda
Adam --> Tracy
Linda --> Peter C
Bob --> Emily
Debbie --> Isaac
Peter C. --> Peter N.
Addy --> Adam
Winter --> Sara
Lindsey --> Joy

Blog Updates from Tracy

Hello Dear Family,
I have been working on updating the blog this morning. I am still such a novice!

I am trying a new look for the holidays. The colors and the banner remind me a bit of a christmas tree.

I have also added a way to navigate to the webpages that Tim, Pete, and I have set up!

Here's something new that I have learned. When you want to link one of your ideas to a web page. (For instance when Emily linked us to the Barefoot Contessa's Pumpkin Recipe.) You will want to compose your post as normal BUT instead of just pasting the link into the text you will highlight the words that you are going to associate with the link. So, in Emily's case she would highlight the words Barefoot Contessa and then she would select the link button. The link button's icon is a little globe with two links of a chain. A window will then pop up and she will paste or type in the weblink that she would like to direct us to.

The reason that I bring this up is because when we were pasting the links directly into the text without the "link button" the formatting of the blog was going crazy!!!! I edited all of the posts that had this issue. You might want to go back to Emily's Post about the Barefoot Contessa to see how this looks!!

Happy Birthday Tracy!!!

Hope you had a wonderful day Tracy! Here's a picture of Isaac with his quilt. It's full of whales, dolphins and turtles for my ocean loving boy. He's so excited to go to sleep tonight now that it's on his bed! I'm excited to get my sewing machine and ironing board out of our dining room!
Joy

Tracy's Birthday

happy birthday tracy!
Happy day Happy day. I was glad to see you are all getting you toes done!!!! That is one of my favorite things and your toes will look great for Florida and the beach.

We are waiting for Peter to get here. His plane is reallllllllly late. It was to leave at 9:30pm it is now leaving 12:30 am. his time 1:30 our time he should landed about 3;30am. I think Paul and I will go to bed and set our alarm for 2:00 am and go get him.

Joy great to hear about the kids. Paul has not given me the names of the CD he want but promises to do it this weekend. I will pass them on to you soon. Tracy I will send you the christmas email this weekend too!

I tried a great recipe today from the food network Barefoot Contessa. It is called Pumpkin Banana Tart boy is it good!!!!
you should try it. I have be knitting and watching the food channel in the late afternoon. It has been great not working and being a sweet georgia peach :~)

Hey Joy a picture of your quilt would be great. I bet it is really beautiful. I love quilts! I am sure it will look great in the bedroom. I am glad Ryan is indoors now. it must be really cold to work out side. The weather here has been really rainy and cool. Tomorrow will be better it is going to be in the high 60's and sunny. However, I can't wait till florida.

well I am going to bed now got to get up early and get Peter. take care.

What a week!

Hello Everyone!
What a week! The boys started basketball at the YMCA last Saturday and they totally love it. It is so much fun watching all the kids trying to master the skills. They take dozens of shots and miss, and then they finally sink one and everyone cheers like they won a championship : ) They really promote good sportsmanship and it shows!
I was at school each day this week helping in the kids classrooms. They have wonderful teachers who like parents in the classroom. I love seeing the boys, getting to know all the kids and see what they're learning. Isaac got his 1st report and he got all A's! We'll get Adam's tomorrow at parent/teacher conferences -- no school! Yeah! We're going to the library -- Isaac want to do some research on some countries he's interested in (that's my boy!) and then I think we might see a movie.
Ryan is just about done with the outside work on the house. We had about 5 inches of snow last Friday which slowed him down : ( but it finally melted and he was able to work most of the week. It'll be so fantastic when it's all done! There's some work to do inside, putting trim on the new windows, but at least Ryan will be warm and can see the boys more.
Tonight I finally finished a new quilt for Isaac that I've been working on since last summer. He has an ocean theme in his room and it's impossible to find "big boy" ocean bedding so we picked out the fabrics together and I made up a pattern and feels so great to be done! It turned out amazing -- probably my favorite quilt yet.
My brother Jon and his wife and their son Luke (who is 4) are flying up from Nashville for Thanksgiving. It'll be fun for the 3 little boys to get to play together.
Wishing everyone a blessed Thanksgiving!!!
Love, Joy

A Week's Recap

Hello Everyone,
It has been almost a week since my last entry - it has been way too busy. I never really like being busy - but somehow it just seems to happen. One time I heard that being too busy means that we are burdened under satan's yoke. Yuck - I don't want to be there.

Anyhow - the Communication Retreat was a real success. The kids did a great job learning about and practicing the communication process. We had good weather too for the outdoor initiative activities that the kids participated in. It didn't rain until we headed indoors. The food and the beds always have something more to be desired - but really I can't expect much since its at a camp!

On Monday morning, our high school staff received very sad news. The daughter (Nicole) of one of our colleagues (JoEllen - who lives in our district) was tragically killed in a freak accident. Here is an article published at Central Michigan Univeristy. Nicole graduated from the high school 2 years ago - so it was really hard for the entire staff. So this week everyone has spent a lot of time caring for each other and for JoEllen and her family. It was a really sad week. I went to the viewing today. The funeral is tomorrow on my birthday.

Yes - my birthday is tomorrow and I will be going to the Nail and Spa place in Troy to get a pedicure with a bunch of my girlfriends. It is going to be a lot of fun. Some of my students are planning something as well (I always seem to find out) during lunch. I have 2 really special students (Sarah and JoBeth) who are now senior - but I have taught since their freshman year!

I am leading the worship team on Sunday as well (please be praying for this time) so I had rehearsal on Tuesday after my small group at Deedee's house. This Sunday's service is on Romans 12:1 (offering our bodies as living and holy sacrifices to God). I am studying the book of Daniel in Deedee's study. We are doing the Beth Moore Study. Beth is a very powerful communicator and a talented teacher. I have done a few other studies by her and have always been richly blessed by them.

I also got my hair cut this week - I LOVE getting my hair cut!! I feel like a new person. It's pretty short and I really love it!!!! Right after I got it cut I drove straight to the Secretary of State office to get my new picture taken for my license. I didn't want to take any chances.

I am looking forward to hearing from all of you. Debbie, I am so glad that you were able to make your first post - I look forward to reading more in the future!!

Have a wonderful day everyone!
Tracy

Peter's Visit

Hello Everyone
Paul and I are looking forward to Peter's visit tomorrow. He flys in late but Paul has taken the day off on Friday to show him around. He will be the first to visit.

Tracy flys to florida on Wednesday and leaves on Saturday. I am excited to see her too.
I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.

love
Em

Welcome Debbie

Welcome Debbie
It is great to hear from you. I enjoy hearing and seeing what is going on. It was beautiful here in PTC today. It was a record warm day at 80 out. The sun was out and it was nice. tomorrow will be the same. It will go down into the 50 to 60 the rest of the week. Paul is doing well. We will just take it easy this weekend. take care
Emily

I'm On

Hi All, This is Debbie! This is my first blog too. I will try to keep up with it. Addy just got hired at Pamida and she is excited about that. She will start on Sunday. Finally some money coming in. Faith is doing great and is a very happy baby. Maybe when I get good at this I will be able to put a picture on. Everyone else is doing ok. Hope all is well with everyone. Hey Pete I see that Brittany Spears will be available soon! Ha! I remember all those posters you used to have of her. Well, that's it for my first blog. Love, Debbie

Communications Retreat

Hello - Hello!
I hope you are all well. I am just finishing up my packing tonight for the Berkley High Communications Retreat. I will be part of the staff that brings 40 kids on a 3 day - 2 night retreat at Tamarack Camp in Clarkston, Michigan. The camp is a Jewish Camp that rents out its facilities to us. Most importantly, they serve kosher food, which allows the Jewish students we have at Berkley to attend. The school has been doing this retreat for the past 15 years to help teach students communication skills among a diverse set of students. We always have a lot of fun. The kids have 5 sessions throughout the weekend in which they practice their new communication skills. They also spend all day Friday doing a ropes course. It is a lot of fun - and it sure is great to be out in the woods instead of in the classroom. The weather is going to be strange over the next few days so I had to pack a ton of different clothes. The range will be from 39 degrees Farenheit to 65 - Rain - Sleet - and Sun. It will simply be an adventure trying to pick out the right clothes for the day.

I spoke with Pete on the phone today. He seems to be doing well - busy at work solving problems!

Tim is going to stay at my house over Thanksgiving. I am glad that he will have a place to stay while he goes to his reunion. I am also really thankful that he will be able to watch over my two guinea pigs (Piggy and Ruby). They would be very lonely if no one were home.

Alrighty everyone - I have to get up in 5 hours so I better hit the sack!
I love you all.
Tracy

Atlanta Adventures

Hello Everyone
Love the pumpkin pictures and the MSU game pictures. I am really enjoying this! Today I went with friends to the Northern Georiga Outlet Mall. I started shopping for Christmas. Joy you will have to give Peter ideas for Ryan's present this year. I am only getting started but it is good to get going. I am excited to decorate the new house for Christmas it will be fun. I am sorry, though, that none of the family will be here to see it. Oh well.

The weather has been raining and cool here. Tomorrow will be sunny and 75 but that will be the last of the warm weather. It will stay about 40 or 50 until Feburary now I have been told. The fall color has been beautiful I drove up to Chattanooga Tenn last weekend to visit a friend and the drive was beautiful!!!! Paul has been busy with work but he seems to be enjoying the new job.

I have neighborhood bible study I go to, tomorrow. I really like the new women I have meet there. They have been showing me around everywhere. So now on my adventures I have several people who are willing to go with me. Atlanta has a lot to see.

take care everyone.
love
Emily

More MSU!

Howdy all,

Here's some more MSU action from earlier in the year (September 9th game).
Left to right: Carrie (Tracy's roomie), Tim, and Tracy on the sideline in Spartan Stadium.