Pictures From Ben & Megan's Wedding

Hello Family!

Here are some more pictures I wrangled-up from the hard drive. These are pictures from my wedding. Here is a fine looking crew:


Here is Megan surrounded by her family & friends... at the bar. She told me she was only drinking water... but she looks awfully happy...


Here's another picture of the lovely bride, surrounded by flowers.


And finally, a picture of a dashing man wearing a yellow bracelet.


Here is what I remember from my wedding: I remember that I had fun. I remember you were there. I remember my first dance sang by Jodi Egerton & Owen Egerton. I remember a great slide show. I remember Megan.

Love you! -Ben

Picture Jam

Carolyn is Famous

Some of you may know that Carolyn is a big fan of Flickr. She takes awesome pictures and they have been used for various non-profits and she was even interviewed for the NY Times once about it. Well, yesterday, she was working at her new OT job in Chicago (they just moved back last month) in our friend's basement during the big storm and took these pics of the damage in Erin's neighborhood. (For those of you new to blogging, click on the highlighted text to see the pictures).

Now Carolyn is "famous" because one of her pictures has become the picture for the Chicago American Red Cross. ONce again, click on the hypertext to see the pic of the crushed Mini.

Pretty cool, eh?

Ralph and Jane - Happy Anniversary - August 23rd, 2007

37 years ago today in Union, Missouri, this beautiful woman...

... married this handsome man....

At St. Joseph's Church, they declared their love . In front of their families, they made a promise to love each other for the rest of their lives. Their four children appreciate that they love each other as much today as they did on their wedding day, 37 years ago.

On their wedding day, I am sure it was hard for Ralph and Jane to imagine what would happen to them over the course of their marriage. They would eventually raise 4 children together, live in 4 states together, travel together, love grand-children together, laugh together & cry together. But the best part of these 37 years: they were together. And they kept their promise of August 23rd, 1970: to love each other.

And there are many more memories still to be made... together.

Thank you, mom & dad, for loving each other. There is no greater gift you could have given us than the love you showed each other. Know that we love you & we are proud to be your children.

Happy Anniversary to the people who raised us: Ralph and Jane.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

Jodi Toasts Mom and Dad on their Anniversary
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!

We at Familymeeting23.blogspot.com are very happy
that the two of you found each other and married.

John and I toasted you at dinner this evening.

Much love!

37!

Adult Prom

Yes, 2 posts in a row. I am officially carrying the Bartley family torch for the week.

So a while back, my friends & I had an "Adult Prom". Basically, it was a prom for old people. Our theme was "Prom in a Swamp". It was shortly after Hurricane Katrina, so we felt like we were partying with a cause.

Here is a picture of the decorations. The decoration committee found some cheap green streamers and inflatable alligators, thus the swamp theme.


Here is a picture of Megan and I, before the prom. We bought each other corsages.



This is a picture of the unofficial king & queen of the prom, our friends, Cynthia and Pat. They are the parents of Weston who is pictured below.


Finally, here is a picture of my friends Doug & Joe. For those of you who have been tubing with me in Austin, you will recognize Joe. He has been tubing with every sister I have except Jodi. Joe is a teacher at Austin High. He is also one of my comedy buddies. Doug is the sound guy for Master Pancake. He is also a member of the band Clap!Clap! in Austin. He is very talented and funny.

Pictures That Ben Had On His Harddrive At Work

So this post is me posting all the random pictures I have on my hard drive at work. There is no rhyme or reason. Nothing connects them together, other than the fact I have them on my computer at work. So here goes.


This is my friend, Sean & I, drinking beer on my back porch at my house. We had a few friends over. Our friend Sandie brought her camera. If you come to Austin, you will probably drink a beer with me in much the same position:



This is Megan & I holding our friend's baby. Our friends are named Cynthia and Pat. And their baby's name is Weston. He is SO good. He was so comfortable around me, he peed on me. Congratulations, Weston! You joined a select group of babies who have peed on me, including my sister Jessica.


This is Megan & I under the famous Austin landmark, the Congress Ave bridge. Every night in the summer, millions of bats fly from under the bridge. It is pretty weird & is smells like bat poop (aka guano).



This is Megan, Mary Ellen (our friend Andy's girlfriend) & I at Hamilton Pool in Spicewood, Texas. I like the guy in the background with no shirt, looking at the camera wondering, "Am I in this picture?"



This is Connor. He is the baby of our friend Jen & Sandie. He is awesome & I am convincing Connor to root for the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC (he already roots for the Washington Redskins in the NFC, thanks to his mom... a huge Redskins fan).


And this is PugPuggy. She is looking forward to licking your toes when you come to Texas.

My Student-Teaching by Ms. Jessica

Since most of my time currently is spent in the classroom, I thought I would post some pictures of my school, Field Elementary!

My advising teacher has been making me work very hard. I have already taught some lessons, put up her bulletin boards, worked with some "problem" students, and other copying, naming, etc. that makes the school day go smoother. It's too bad I have to pay full tuition to work! My advising teacher also is fancy of meeting outside of the 7:30 to 4:30 that I am normally there. She likes to meet at Heine Brothers to get coffee and talk about lesson planning. We have met outside of the school day three times and I have only been student teaching for a week! yikes! But nonetheless, the kids are very good kids and lots of fun and the school is behind my old high school so I feel at home.

Here is the bulletin board I did which is outside the classroom:

I took all of the students' pictures with Buddy Holly glasses.

This is a bulletin board which I designed with Jodi in mind...


This is me reading the book 'Swimmy' by Leo Lionni:


love you guys!
jess

Megan & Ben's House

So I thought I would post some pictures of my house in Texas. Today, we will do the inside. Later, I will do the outside. These pictures are about 6-8 months old, but they are relatively accurate, minus a few wall-hangings that have been replaced. Let's start with the most important room: THE BATHROOM!
Megan & I ripped-out the old sink and put in a pedestal sink. Megan & her mom put in the new bathroom floor. It looks SO much better than the old floor. Here is a better picture of the floor:

Sweet, huh?

Next, here is our bedroom. Megan made this headboard. She is very handy.

She also made these dressers (from a kit at IKEA, but she stained them herself... those pictures above it are mine! Hooray Ben!)




Next is the kitchen (this tour is a little out of order of the layout of the house). First is a shot looking into the kitchen (there are some big windows behind where I am standing... PugPuggy likes to look out these windows and bark at birds in the yard).



Then if you rotate a little to the right, you have the dining room\library\2nd living room. We have a lot of books, although Megan does 86% of the reading. My reading is done via the internet.


This is a picture of the living room, although it is kinda dated. Megan has done a good job of putting different pictures in this room. She also made the ottoman. The TV is inside the cabinet in this picture. The cabinet used to be an old 1920s Magnavox TV\radio\record player. Megan refinished it and we put a 32" TV inside there, but the radio\record player are still in-tact. So retro. My wife is hip. Here is the living room, the couch is barely pictured.


Next is MY ROOM! I don't know if you remember this, but back on my 30th birthday, some of you donated cash to Megan to help me buy a keyboard... do you remember? Well if you do, this is my room with my keyboard. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I love my KORG keyboard. It is awesome. 88 weighted keys... it is beautiful. I have it hooked to my computer and I compose my own music for my short films. Thank you again! Here is one angle of my room... sorry it is so blurry:



Finally, if you come visit Megan & I in Austin, this is where you will be sleeping. You can fight over who gets the Arizona "A" blanket (Gar):


You are welcome at the Ben & Megan Spa & Resort (aka PugPuggy's Compound) any time! We will have a Texas Martini & a crazy dog waiting for you. Love you all!

Ice Cream Incident

I told most of you about my incident on my 30th birthday with an ice cream cone that fell apart.

Andy H's Baby

I thought everyone might enjoy seeing a couple pics of my friend Andy H.'s baby born this week. Super cute.

The Fab Four

No, not the Beatles... us. Here we are (a while back). A couple of things about this picture. First: For proof of one of my many awkward stages : look under my right ear. How could I forget my mullet stage? Yes, I, Ben Bartley had hair at one point. Now, not so much. Second, doesn't it look like Jen is doing a ventriloquist act with Jessica? Jodi, I have no jokes for you. You look very regal. Almost as if you were posing for the Mona Lisa.

This blog was a great idea. Thanks for making it happen, Jodi.

I am going to try to post something here weekly or bi-weekly. I am going to use this first post as a topic-idea post.

Here are a list of topics I want to blog about:

• my current house
• PugPuggy, my dog
• my (boring) job
• my (fun) jobs
• my friends in Austin
• movies I am making
• stories from the Kansas School for the Blind
• memories from Wyandotte County\Bishop Ward\St. Peters
• memories from Tucson
• favorite mom-made meal
• favorite mom\dad sayings
• times I busted by mom & dad
• times I SHOULD have been busted by mom & dad
• daily life in Austin, Texas
  

That should get me started.

Here is what I would like you to blog about:

• your house
  
• your job
• Jen - your kids
• Jess - your music
• Jodi - funny John stories
• stories from our childhood
• favorite blind school moments
• funny family vacation moments
• your life
• your city
• your neighborhood
• your friends
• whatever you want

Here is another picture of us:
And here is the most updated picture of us I could find:

Jess - you have changed the most, although now I am the one doing the ventriloquism. Watch me drink a glass of water as I make Jess sing, "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts". And, although I don't remember us saying this, apparently we asked the photographer, "what is the most boring background you have? Do you have anything that looks like a hallway?" Next time, for the background, I want a wagon wheel, a ladder & we all wear matching denim shirts.

Love you. - Ben