December 1999:
Almost Christmas: Seems like I only get around to updating this site every six months or so, and even when I do, I seem to be a few months behind in what I actually add here. This time is no exception — as we draw nearer to Christmas, here I am about to put up picture of the girls in their Halloween costumes. The pictures of Thanskgiving with Andrew and the boys might get up here over the weekend, as well — the film is being developed as I write this.
 
 
SARAH as her former favorite TV character, Blue from "Blue's Clues." (Winnie the Pooh is her new favorite, although for the last week or so, all she seems to want is Christmas videos!)
ROSIE, fresh from having seen "The Phantom Menace, then the original "Star Wars" trilogy, decided that she wanted to be Princess Leia Organa.
EMMY opted for a more current favorite, Queen Amidala, the heroine of "The Phantom Menace," and the presumed bride-to-be of Anakin Skywalker and future mother of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia.


...and this is Sarah, "on the pillows"
with three of her favorite things, her thumb,
her blankie and her mama!

June 22, Update: Hey, I know we need to update the whole page soon, but check out the cool Father's Day presents that Rosie and Emmy came up with this year! Just click on the big arrow...

May 8, 1999 Update:  Well, with Kathleen away in Brazil, I can sneak in a little more computer time. So I thought I'd update the family website with a few new pictures and some chit-chat.

ITEM: Emmy and Rosie are both on the same softball team again this year, and I'm their coach.  It's Rosie's second year and Emmy's first year in this league--"Pixies"--and that means that it's real, competitive softball, where you actually keep score and try to get the other side out. They seem to be taking to it pretty well. Emmy has decided that she's going to try out for one of the glamour positions--catcher--and Rosie is going to play some infield this year--probably second base. Games start in a little more than a week, so don't expect to see this web page updated anytime soon after that!

ITEM: We made it down to Louisville to see Kathleen's family this Easter, after missing out last year. (Yeah, we made it down other times in between, but Bill and Rose have a big Easter dinner, and if you don't make it, you spend a year wondering what sort of goodies you might have missed. They also have an annual Easter egg hunt in the backyard for all the grandkids, and the girls always look forward to that. Here are a couple of pics that Bill took this year: Sarah after her first easter egg hunt, and Sah-sah (the name she calls herself) and Dah-dah (what she calls me when she manages to keep "Mama" and "Dah-dah" straight).
 
Not a bad pile of "eggies" for such a little girl! And wouldn't you know it, she finally discovered the joys of "chockey" (chocolate). Easter was kind of overcast and drizzly this year. But you know what? It always seems sunny when you get to see everything through the eyes of your kids.

ITEM: Hey, did I mention that Kathleen was in Brazil? She's always wanted to go, and it turned out that one of the Brazilian study abroad outfits invited her (and a bunch of other study abroad directors) down for a whole week, as part of a "study in Brazil" campaign. I don't know whether that means she'll be sending more (or any) students down there next year, but it gave her a great chance to mix business with pleasure.

On the downside, she had to leave shortly after Rosie's First Communion last week, and will miss Mother's Day this week. She was on an all-night flight, and of course, she couldn't sleep. And the capper when she arrived was that the airline had sent her luggage to Hartford, Connecticut. (Have they moved Connecticut? I didn't realize it was close enough to Brazil to get them mixed up...) She finally got it back on Wednesday.

Anyway, last I heard, she was visiting the tropics. Tomorrow, it's back on a plane, then a looooooonnnnnnnggggg layover in Sao Paulo, and home! I'll be heading down to Indy to pick her up on Monday morning.

ITEM: Speaking of Rosie's First Communion, it went great! She got to do the first reading, and although she claims that she was nervous and shaking, she didn't show it a bit. And her delivery was very good--I think she gets it from Kathleen, who's a regular lector, and has always done well with public speaking. In any case, I'd told her that if I was having any trouble hearing her, I'd just say "Huh?" real loud, but apparently she didn't need the encouragement.

She was also the first in her class to receive the Eucharist, so her participation was over as quickly as it could be, which meant she got to relax and enjoy the rest of the Mass.

We had a small gathering afterward--our neighbors (and de facto Indiana family) the Hayworth's, and Bill and Rose, who drove up from Louisville to share the occasion with us.
 

ROSIE & EMMY IN THEIR SUNDAY BEST. Rosie didn't want to look "too fancy." I think she looked great, although I have to admit it made me think that the next time she gets a nice, white dress to wear in church, it'll probably be for her wedding. And I don't think I'm quite ready to contemplate that... 

That's all I have time for now--I have to run over to eBay and see if I'm selling anything, then there are the Saturday night baths to supervise, turtles to feed next door, and what do you call it? Oh yeah, SLEEP!

Meanwhile, send us an e-mail!

mluebker@home.com

I know we've had these pics up for a while, but I think I'm gonna leave them a little longer, just because they're so cute.
 
"All the Girls!"

Here's a picture that we took a few months ago with our video camera, then dumped it into the computer via our "Snappy™"--a cool little gizmo that Mark's brother Andrew gave us for Christmas last year.

From left to right, that's Emmy, Kathleen, Sarah and Rosie.
The Sweetheart Dance!

On February 6th, the local Girl Scout council held their annual "Sweetheart Dance," where lucky daddies get to escort their little princesses to a glamorous evening event--this year the local TV station even covered it, and all the local politicians showed up. 

But it was a lot of fun anyway!