The Jungbauer Family Website

Rock of Ages

American Idol . . . AmerAiken Idol . . . THE American Idol to many . . .
and certainly to Auntie Carol!!!

We had the privilege of having Auntie Carol escort Sarah, Rachel, Gramma Bev and myself to see Clay Aiken in concert.

He was last year's runner-up in the vastly popular American Idol. Many thought that Clay should have won. He may not have won the official title, but he has proven to be far more successful and popular than the actual winner.

His followers range from the freckled school girl in pig tails to the platinum-haired widow in fox tails. He is the only contemporary "rock/pop star" to perform Christian music in concert.

I am sure that Auntie Carol will gladly provide some additonal "trivia" about Clay to embellish this blog, but let it suffice to say that Clay portrays wholesome AmerAiken Ideals that make him deserving of the title American Idol. It's refreshing.

Anyway, here are a few glimpes of our night . . .

A shot from the concert . . .

Clay was kind enough to pose for this photo . . .

Happy Birthday Tracy

Then, and now, all the world's a stage.

Tracy is currently working (and following her dream) in the apprentice company at The New American Shakespeare Tavern in Atlanta, Georgia.

Break time

This was how Rachel started her day.

It was the first full day of school. She is in third grade at Sacred Heart.

This was how Rachel ended her day.

"I was riding down the drive-way on my scooter and I tried to reach up and put the newspaper in my mouth. I had a blonde moment!"

I knew immediately that it was broken, but Rachel reassured me, "Good thing it's a closed fracture, Mom."

As you can imagine, she barely shed a tear.

Our thanks to Dr. Jansen for designing such a COOL cast!!!

Happy Birthday Gramma Jane

This is Gramma Jane as an 8-year old little girl. Who else do you see?

My touch with fame

Today I barefooted with Ron Scarpa. In fact, I spent the last 3 evenings sharing dinner and life with him as well.

To most of you, that means nothing. Many of you may not even know what barefoot waterskiing is . . . but it is one of my passions.

To put things into perspective, Ron Scarpa is to barefooting what Tiger Woods is to golf, what Michael Jordan is to basketball, what Jeff Gordon is to NASCAR, what . . . Do you get the picture?!?

Scarpa is THE greatest barefooter of all time and I had the privelage of just hangin' out and footin' with him.

The real credit and gratitude goes to my footin' buddy (and Scarpa look-alike) Bob Ragland who arranged for Scarpa to come up here and teach a clinic for 3 days. Unfortunately, Ron had to head back home to Florida a little early to help his wife with the aftermath of Hurricane Charlie. We all enjoyed his companionship and coaching and certainly hope to bring him back next summer. It's really inspiring to work and play with a world-class athlete.

Here are 3 of my footin' family members pictured with Scarpa: Bob Ragland, Jon Mark, and Kyle Downey. (Not pictured: Patrick Pfefferkorn) Obviously, that is me with Scarpa in the corner photo. I think it's safe to say that I am the only one that Ron kissed good-bye . . .

Chapter 7

Sarah started 7th grade today. It's Jr. High at Lakeland Christian Academy and she was definitely high with excitement.

LCA Rocks!!!

The Comet burns hot

The Laporte Triathlon was this weekend.
There were 495 triathletes and Steve was 24th overall!!!

He's psyching up for his next triathlon in Loveland, Colorado on September 26th. He'll have a week to climatize in Aspen while he attends a conference and he'll move into the bottom of the next age bracket for a little more of a competitive edge.

The Jamis "Comet" is his bike. The Comet Crew, yours truly, faithfully follows to cheer him on.

What I did for my summer vacation...

Steve and I took a couple of days off this week to spend with the girls before they head back to school.

My idea of summer vacation is anything and everything to do in and on the water . . . barefooting, skiing, wakeboarding, inland surfing and just being in the boat and on the water. I covet my monthly issue of Water Ski magazine and save it to read during such cherished moments.

Steve's idea of summer vacation is at least a full week of temperatures above 100 degrees, three work-outs a day, and two naps in between. Give him a Mountain Dew, a hamburger and a Rush Limbaugh broadcast at lunch and life is about as good as it gets!

Sarah and Rachel's idea of summer vacation is tubing, tubing, and tubing with a lot of shopping in between plus Thursday night at Tippecanoe Lake Country Club for BINGO.

(Sometimes it's hard to believe that we really do spend alot of time together as a family.)

Well, the weather did not cooperate for Steve or I and Gramma Bev (the BINGO queen) was out of town, so guess how we spent (part) of our summer vacation . . .

As you can tell, this is serious stuff!!!

For Steve and I, it seriously rocks our patience. (I guess we're poor losers!)

Endearing moments

A picture is worth a thousand words but a thousand words could not begin to describe what I saw in my living room this morning at 4 AM.

Imagine 2 pre-teens girls and one wanna-be little sister who just returned from an evening of shopping . . .

They were delighted to model their bargains --- and indeed, they were frugal, not foolish in their expenditures. (Steve and I were delighted that they were finally home so that we could go to bed.)

We then agreed that they could stay up until 11 PM. (Next time I will be sure to specify in which time zone.)

By the time I realized why my sleep was so fragmented, it was 4 AM and my living room had been transformed into a fashion stage complete with runway lights and a wind machine. It was a colossal mess with clothes, furniture, clothes, food, clothes, CDs, clothes, make-up and clothes everywhere!!!

Finally at 5 AM, the girls tucked themselves into bed and Steve and I started our day. Steve went downstairs to let Shadow outside and returned. "You've got to go downstairs and see what the girls did." I cringed at the thought of the mess that was left behind despite my no-nonsense orders to clean it up.

Much to my surprise, the fashion stage was miraculously transformed back into my neat and tidy living room and despite the restless night, I still went to work refreshed and with a smile.

Where has the summer gone?

In case you were wondering where we've been for the past several weeks, so would I!!! It seems like summer just got here and we're already getting ready for school again.

Last week the girls both went to camp . . . Rachel went to the YMCA Camp Crosley (on the other end of our lake) and Sarah went to church camp at Camp Adventure just south of Webster Lake. It is really amazing that we have such incredible camps so close to home.

As you can imagine, it was VERY quiet around the house last week, but the girls made up for it quickly and shared many wonderful tales from camp.

We celebrated their homecoming with their favorite meal . . . Poppyseed Chicken!

I wish I could post a photo of Steve and I sitting on the end of the pier watching the sunset, but even though the girls were gone, the evenings still slipped away from us --- just like the rest of the summer.