Angie and Mike's Blog

Angie and I received some very sad news today. Brandi, a former BBBS colleague from Topeka, emailed to say that former Little Brother Farrell Sanders, on the left in the photo, had been killed by gunfire in Topeka's Highland Park neighborhood in the early hours of Thursday morning. You can read the story here. (To log in, use the user/password combo of photo/photo.) The investigation is on-going and it's unclear at this moment whether his killing is connected to a previous shooting in the same neighborhood. He was 17.

I met Farrell in 2004 at a BBBS picnic. He was hanging out with his cousin, on the right in the photo above. At 13, he'd been waiting for a Big Brother for nearly two years and desperately wanted someone who'd play football with him. A couple of months following this picnic, the CJ did a story about BBBS and used this picture. Shortly after, Angie says, Farrell was matched to a Big Brother. We're unsure whether the match was still active.

It was very hard for both of us to focus at work today. While it's true we don't know what direction his life took in the past four years, we'll choose to remember him as the friendly, polite and outgoing kid that he was. Most of all, we'll remember him as he is in that photo - happy, and full of promise.

Labels: BBBS

Labels: Antonio, BBBS, Friends

Angie and I took Antonio to the corn maze today. Angie and Antonio went last year but I was unable to attend. Both said this year's maze wasn't as cool but I think we all still had a good time. Angie insisted that she make a few frames of Antonio and I on our way out. I'm glad she did!

I'll share a few more frames later in the week.

Labels: Antonio, BBBS, Friends

We've yet to see The Simpsons Movie but we're completely hooked by the Simpsonize Me! web site! It's really a Burger King marketing ploy, as it will clearly tell you on the site, but it's fun nonetheless! This is what Angie, Callie, Aaron and I would look like if we were little yellow people. Angie insists that my Simpson likeness is the best! What do you think?

Labels: Aaron and Callie, BBBS, Friends

Angie and I went to Tulsa on Saturday to celebrate Callie's birthday. We went out to eat at a place called Cheddar's. There's a new one in Wichita, but we hadn't been there yet. After lunch, we went to the Oklahoma Aquarium. One the way out, Callie snapped a picture with her cell phone. Angie nearly cried when she learned that Callie has her in her "fab five" labeled "sis." We're really glad we decided to be bigs so long ago.

To see a slideshow from the aquarium, click here.


Before we dropped her off at her house, we played around with her new puppy, Max. He's already much bigger than Harley and is only a few weeks old!


Max, a puggle.


Our time in Tulsa was great but the drive down and back was an adventure (Attention Oklahoma officials: some of the highways in Oklahoma, especially the ramp linking I-244 East with US412 West in Tulsa, are in horrid condition). There's been an enormous amount of rain in the region lately causing many roads and highways to flood, including this portion of the Kansas Turnpike just north of the Oklahoma border. Maintenance crews were out to warn us as traffic slowed to a crawl. We were hugging the dividing wall and the right side tires were still in the water. Angie shot this image out the passenger side. Notice a pole sticking up; that's where the edge of the roadway is.

Labels: Aaron and Callie, BBBS, Friends, On Location

Angie and I felt like proud parents today after hanging out with Aaron and Callie in Topeka. Angie was matched with Callie during college and I was matched to Aaron during our stay in Topeka. Though we're not officially matched anymore, we stay in touch and get together whenever we can. It just so happened that both Aaron and Callie were in Topeka this week to see relatives so we made the drive up.


"damn hippies! get off my lawn!"



We ate a great lunch at HuHot, which is a must for anyone ever in Topeka. We followed that with a round of mini-golf and a few rounds of skee ball. It started to rain about the time we finished, but we headed out to Lake Shawnee to take some pictures on the new pedestrian bridge. With a few more minutes to spare, we headed to our old favorite coffee shop before taking Aaron and Callie back home. Aaron will be a freshman in high school this year and has really gotten into the band. He plays the sax and has started guitar lessons. Callie is maturing into an intelligent young woman, bravely facing her parents' divorce.

Labels: Aaron and Callie, BBBS, Friends

Angie and I took Antonio to a baseball game a couple of weeks ago. Antonio and I also went to a game last night, which reminded me that I had these snaps from our first game. Either because I was too busy or too lazy the past few days, I didn't do a thing with those pictures. So, here they are.


The fire department had a truck on display in the parking lot and was spraying water for the kids to play in. I told Antonio that I would if he would but he didn't want to. Just as well.


The Wranglers will give BBBS Littles a free box seat if their Big buys one. So Angie and I figured $20 for two chairbacks or $15 for three GA was well worth the extra five bucks. And it didn't hurt that the seats were right behind the home team dugout. The seats were great, but the lousy dugouts are part of the reason Wichita may not have a home team next year.


Angie tried to snap Antonio's picture but he tried to hide behind a bag of peanuts.


OK. I'll play along. I'll photograph the peanuts. "They're just peanuts," Antonio said, somewhat confused that I'd make such an image.


I like LD. Mostly, I like the view of the skyline. What I don't like is the half turf/half grass field. I know it's a maintanence issue, but if the city ever improves the players' clubhouse and dugouts, replacing the field with field turf would be a nice move, too.


Antonio likes the games. I have a feeling that we'll go to a couple more this summer.


Free fireworks after Saturday home games!


I shot these with my camera balanced between my knees with my feet propped up on the seats in front of us.


Each shot is about a one second exposure.


Next week, I want to shoot the fireworks from somewhere outside the stadium. Perhaps from the Lincoln Street bridge. Or maybe somewhere near the Keeper of the Plains.

Labels: Antonio, BBBS, Friends

For Antonio's 11th birthday we took him to dinner at Red Robin. It's a great atmosphere for kids and a great place to have a birthday because they'll sing to you, give you a free ice cream and make you wear a pair of balloons on your head! Antonio had never been there before and it had been awhile for me, too. There were a lot of birthdays tonight as the wait staff must have sang 10 times before getting over to us.

Labels: Antonio, BBBS, Birthdays and Holidays, Friends

After Christmas, Angie and I went to Topeka to visit Aaron, my former Little Brother. Our match ended in 2005 when he and his family moved to Cincinnati. They still make it back to Kansas every now and then to see family and we make it up whenever we can. So these pictures are from our short jaunt up to Burnett's Mound on Topeka's southwest side. Angie took the pictures of Aaron and I together and I snapped the portraits of him by himself and the self-portrait.

Labels: Aaron and Callie, BBBS, Friends

So, this is the very first post to Angie and Mike's family blog. A lot has happened this year and all of it will be recapped in the yearly newsletter that will go out with our Christmas cards. (Now, if I could just get that project started!) Today we hung out with Antonio, our new Little Brother. We carved pumpkins, which is something he said he'd never done before. Harley had to supervise, of course, sneaking a pumpkin seed a time or two. I finished my pumpkin ahead of everyone else and Angie made a mess out of hers and had to start over after we took Antonio home.


We decided to carve the pumpkins downstairs on the sidewalk so we wouldn't make a mess (or more of one!) out of our apartment.


Angie used a compositional trick called camera tilt to make this picture of me. Notice the sidewalk makes a perfect leading line to the subject! Nice job!


Harley, watching all the action, contemplating her next sneak attack on a stray pumpkin seed.


This is why we carved our pumpkins outside! What a mess!


Antonio and I with our jack-o-lanterns – Scary Sam and Goofy Gus.


Scary Sam and Goofy Gus with a smaller jack-o-lantern we made at the BBBS agency earlier in the day.

Labels: Antonio, BBBS, Birthdays and Holidays, Friends