New fenders and tank for the Heritage

Wow!

Things are starting to come together.

Vivid Dragon just emailed these pictures of the finished sheet metal.

They did a great job of taking our ideas and making them reality!

Take a look:

Beautiful work, we can't wait to see them mounted on the bike.

Our trip to Innsbruck, Austria

2 weeks ago we took a trip to Garmisch which is in Southern Germany. We intended to spend the long weekend skiing...unfortunately Mother Nature was NOT so helpful. Oh sure, it snowed but gale force winds closed down ALL the slopes including the Zugspitz...how rude! So the weekend wouldn't be a total loss we decided to take a train trip to Innsbruck, Austria.

Here we go.....don't the kids look HAPPY!




So here we are in the market square, lots of wonderful architecture, beautiful old buildings...oh wait, what is that in the center right side of the picture...oh that's right the oldest in Austrian businesses....Mickey Ds!! It never fails.....
I wanted to order 2 of these but John said, NO! Every little sparkly spot is a Swavorski crystal!
Beautiful carvings and statuary!

Can you count how many faces are in this door?

Train stop...even the bahnhofs are decorative...I just love Europe!
So there's the snow we have been looking for!

interesting street corner....I am not sure which one I like better...hmmmm


On our way home....I mean hotel.....they look happier after a day of sightseeing!

Rosetta Stone~FREE!

We have been using Rosetta German and LOVE it! Well I better go sign up before I miss out!

Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while -- next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE!
This is a $219 program (and believe me it's worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking. Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included! For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports.To win this most excellent program -- in the language of your choice -- copy these (blue) paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post -- then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/ and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it. And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it. And good luck! The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg. And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win. Yay for free stuff!

Artwork- as promised to my big brother

My brother called the other day wanting to know if my bike was on the road yet. Not yet since we are still waiting for various parts and pieces to arrive from all over the states! In the meantime here is the latest on the custom bags we are having made.

We received an email from Dave over at Osprey Limited-Custom Saddlebags. He recently added laser-etching to his list of customizable options. This was mentioned way back when we first placed the order....we figured we would settle on a HD bar and shield on the top of the bags or something similar. That was back around Christmas.....so we hadn't given it much thought....today, he emailed some of the artists renderings and here is what we settled on....far cry from a little bar and shield.....don't you think?
Thanks, Dave

Bad, bad Mom!

I was SURE I had finished uploading Robert's Sr pics (at least for a little while)...not so according to my Dear 17yo....he REALLY wanted this picture to live on in infamy for all to see on the internet...

so here it is....enjoy it, run from it, wonder what the heck we were thinkin'...but here it is Robert...

Love, Mom

Making up for lost blogging time!

I have been meaning to post these pictures for sometime but managed to forget regularly. These are are just a few of Robert's Senior pictures.

This was the 2nd time he had Sr pictures taken. The 1st were taken at school before he cut ALL of his hair off...plus he realized a few days later that he was wearing the SAME clothes as our family portraits taken in Florida! Not a great testament to the changing spirit of a teenager! :) SO off to a different (read: better) photographer for pictures of the new and improved Robert!

He took some prodding to FINALLY smile...of course it helped that I refused to pay for any sullen, sad-sack portraits and walla, we have a smiling boy in our midst!

In case anyone is wondering we own the rights to these pictures so there is no copyright infringement happening here....a graduation present for the boy...just so he could post his favorite shots on his Myspace.

I will post more as I get the opportunity to watermark and convert them.

Enjoy!
Jackie

This would be the picture Robert chose for the Yearbook! When we went to look at the proofs our photographer told us this one was just a goofy joke that she mocked-up to freak Robert out...but he/we instantly knew this captured the essence of Sparky/Gumby! She was sure we were crazy but it turned out to be the perfect choice!

Okay, I lied, we paid for a couple of "non-smiling" shots...but if you look closely he is trying NOT to smile...but doesn't look like we just cancelled his allowance!

My personal favorite!

Nick cuts off ALL his hair....well most of it!

Nick has spent months trying to talk us into getting his hair cut but we were afraid he was only interested in copying his brother. We finally reached a point where it was becoming apparent that he like many other 'tween boys typically do a lousy job of maintaining good hygiene!!



If you have ever noticed a young boys "gookey" teeth you can imagine what "past your shoulder hair" plus a complete fear of warm water and SHAMPOO looks like on a daily basis.

When you combine this with a wonderful set of greasy Italian genes....well let your mind wander to something that looks like salad dressing spilled on a kitchen counter and that is how bad Nick's hair could get...granted he did TRY to keep it clean but most of the time we fought over the definition of "clean!"

I finally had enough and decided to fulfill his dream of looking like a boy once again.

It didn't hurt our cause that Nick was completely mortified the other day when a man asked him, "ma'am, are you sure you are in the right bathroom"....hmmmph... some people can be SO thoughtless!

I won't lie, we (Shelby and I) miss his long locks...but he is much happier now and tranquility has returned to our household....yeah right!