family gazette

Labels: Thanksgiving 2009

I posted earlier today but didn't get finished before I had to quit. It's not that I have a lot to do. It's just that it takes me a long time to do what I do.

Yesterday was Scott's birthday. I didn't get to spend a lot of the day with him but did get to spend some. He drove back from the lakehouse and stopped here for a while and then drove on to Louisville. He was going out to dinner with Brayden and he was hoping Jalen got to join them. He wanted them to make him a birthday present but I don't know if they did or not. I haven't heard from him today.

Shirley flew down to Lake Charles, LA, on early Friday morning and is coming home tonight. She visited her family and attended a great nephew's wedding. She gets home tonight at around eight, and Goldman and I are going to pick her up at the airport because Rose has a class she's teaching. We missed Shirley while she was away but were really glad she was here for Thanksgiving Day.

Karen is stopping by tomorrow to drop off our dish from Thanksgiving dinner. I hope she has time so we can sit and visit. She and Mark sure prepared a lovely table and dinner. Mark took time to take Rose and me out to visit and "pet" the chickens. One of them is named after me! The prettiest one!

Rose took pictures at their house that day and I'm sure she will post them soon. This blog is a good way of going back over the past. It's something like a diary. I did most of the Thanksgiving posts but Christmas is coming up real soon. Let's hear from you. Pete promised me on Saturday that he would send me a posting. I don't have it yet but that's a start.

It's been a while since my last post. I've been waiting for other people to update and have had a long wait. I'm back to feeling okay and have several things to update about. We had a terrific Thanksgiving celebration. Mark and Karen hosted the dinner and I believe everyone 'ate too much'. The meal was wonderful. The only regrettable thing about the day was that Scott and the boys didn't get there. Scott got to St. Louis later but didn't get to bring the boys. We all missed them. Karen sent a full plate here for Scott, and he had his Thanksgiving dinner while he visited with Rose, Shirley and me.

The Abbotts had their Thanksgiving celebration at Catrina and Robby's. Pete and Janet had a houseful of guests at their new home. Kelly and the boys went duck hunting Saturday morning. They celebrated Thursday at Gene's who is Janet's brother. Donald and Vita took their family to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. I had a nice note from Jana in the Kansas crowd but don't know what they were doing. Uncle Joe and family were probably still aglow from the award that Lisa was awarded in San Diego. I'm still waiting to hear from the Washington/Oregon/Arizona bunch. I hope all of you remember - this is the Family Gazette!!

My last bout of being very ill has passed. I went into the hospital for my regular IVIG and got to feeling much worse as I was leaving. My physician kept me a day longer. Rose and Shirley were attending a conference over in Columbia, Illinois so when I came home everyone was afraid to leave me alone. I didn't know I was so popular and well-liked. Rose and Shirley came home when they could but I was sorta doped up and I'm still not sure who all was here at different times. I got up Saturday morning and was going to the bathroom and who peeked around the corner at me? Brayden! I was surprised, to say the least. Scott had come all the way from Louisville and brought him knowing he'd be back in three days. They just wanted to surprise me.

I went back to the neurologist before Thanksgiving and had some more tests after my bout in the hospital and the episode with the seizures. The tests show I have low sodium and the doctor said I should eat lots of salt and lots of salty foods. It's amazing but I am so much better. Even my left leg which I was going to have either a stent or angioplasty this week is better. I had pain with it and the pain with my walking is gone though I haven't walked any distance. I am back to riding the exercycleon a daily basis though that never did hurt.

Joe sent some lovely photos of Lisa's award celebration in San Diego. Here is the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2010actfltoy/sets/72157622872077340/

Brother Joe sent this e-mail today. His daughter, Lisa (Lilley) has won the teacher of the year award for foreign language.

Congratulations, Lisa!

From: Jgfelin
To: MarthaBoaz
Sent: 11/25/2009 8:18:40 A.M. Central Standard Time
Subj: Re: California

Our trip to/from San Diego, California Nov 19-22 was wonderful. Airplanes and all!

Lisa won the Foreign Language National Teacher of the Year award. She will be traveling to a number of locations throughout the U.S., in 2010. The outgoing recipient showed a power point presentation of her activities and included visiting with many dignitaries, including the Ambassador from France.

While Lisa was attending the meetings Friday afternoon, Mary, Jack (Lisa's husband) and I took a couple of tours. Very interesting. Jack and I also went through the Aircraft Carrier Midway, now a museum. On our boat tour, we also saw the Aircraft Carried Ronald Reagan. It made the oldie look small.

Ironically, Granddaughter Lydia and her High School Media Class also won a number of awards the previous week, in Washington, D.C.

Thanksgiving this year will be at daughter Beth and family's home.

Glad to hear you are up and at them again. Being away from the inter-net leaves one wondering what everyone else is doing. It is always good to get back home!

Bro Joe

Labels: FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHER OF THE YEAR

This is Ding with an update......

Shelly took Mom to the hospital Monday morning for her IV-IG.....Routine Maintenance as I call it. I came down and all three of us had lunch before departing. Aunt Rose was to pick Mom up on Tuesday. Mom got all checked out and they waited for an hour for a wheelchair. Finally Aunt Rose just went out to steal one. While she was gone, Mom had one of her "spells" and they wouldn't let her go. Auntie had a client, so I came by after work to get her. I got there and we were waiting for the doctor Mom had another one. They decided to keep her another day.

The next morning Shelly went to pick Mom up. Aunt Rose had eye surgery that morning to alleviate the after effects of cataract surgery....and it went swimmingly. She and Shirley had a conference starting Wednesday afternoon and going through Sunday in Columbia, IL. I ended up spending the night with Mom Wednesday to make certain all was good. She did fine Wednesday evening, hanging out with Goldman and having Cicero's for dinner. We had Starbuck's for breakfast.

Shirley came home for lunch that day, got Mom some soup and tended to one of her clients. Mom had a rough time of it for the next few days, having some minor seizures, but then taking Adavan to control them which really knocks her out. Mad Dog came over and took care of Mom on Thursday afternoon. I left work that day and had a delivery to a facility that is the same one that our friend Fat Jack is staying. After visiting with Jack, I brought back Subway and Mad Dog, Mom, and I ate together. The next morning I got up and went to work after being relieved of duties by Mad Dog. He went to work at 10 after being relieved by brother Mark, who came to Bemes after being relieved by Shelly, who brought sandwiches from the Bread Company for lunch. I came over after work and took over for Shelly.

Mom was supposed to go and help Scott out in Louisville this weekend, but couldn't make it....so he and Brayden came here. They got in late Friday night, and I tried to keep Mom up, but she was too exhausted. So it was a wonderful surprise to realize that Brayden and Scott were there when she woke up. It seems to have really helped her too....She seems over her round of seizures and getting back to good health and spirits. Uncle Pete called on Saturday and chatted a bit. Aunt Rose came by for awhile and Scott and Brayden went bowling.

Shelly and I came over with lunch as Scott and Brayden had a long drive back. Brayden didn't want to leave, which of course thrilled Granny. Aunt Rose and Shirley are due back this afternoon. We then have a short week, with Thanksgiving and all. Shelly and I are big fans of waiting in line all night for Black Friday, but have decided to take this year off. We are all gathering at Mark and Karen's. Karen has gathered lots of family to run in the Kirkwood Turkey Day run early that morning.....we should be quite the pack.....I will probably bring up the rear, just as I have most of my athletic career (I am good at it though!).

Mom hasn't gotten any return to sender mail from her Wanda Jean address, so we think it must be good. However, she hasn't gotten a reply either....

All for now,....

Ding

I haven't posted for a while and there's several things that need updating. I talked to Margaret today. Rose and I have been talking to her everyday, and Norman and Robbie have been taking turns staying with her cause they'd like someone to be with her in the hospital as much as possible, i.e., someone who is familiar with her seizures. Norm's the only one who's familiar with them and he has a bed in her room. When he has to go home and really rest and shower occasionally, Robbie fills in for him. Margaret is hooked up to wires and has a hat made out of gauze looking stuff atop her head. Rose and I went to see her Tuesday afternoon and she already was hating being confined to the bed. The doctors decreased her medicines gradually since Monday. Tomorrow is her fifth day, and they told her she'd have to stay 3 to 5 days when she first went in. So far the monitors have only registered a bit of brain waves which could have been from the hit on her head from an accodent she was in some years ago. Today and tonight they are not going to let her go to sleep, thinking this may bring on some seizures. Needless to say, she's ready to go home. I haven't heard Norm complain but I bet he's ready to stay home.

Other news, Scott and Brayden went to Florida last week for their annual Spring vacation. Jalen's mother did't let him go. They did a lot of swimming and playing football. I'm going back to Louisville on the 18th for several days and hope I have as good a time this time as I did last time.

I missed Pete's (aka John Leo Felin) call Saturday. He called yesterday to get Margaret's number. They were pretty much moved. It was no easy task after 28 years on the farm.

Labels: SUE AND SCOTT

This will be a quick post. I wanted to update about Margaret's upcoming stay in the hospital. She has to go in Christian Northeast next Monday, the 9th, for a monitoring check on the spells she's been having. She will have to stay in the hospital from three to five days depending on how many seizures she has while she's there. A family member who is familiar with the seizures will need to stay with her as much as possible. Margaret says Norman is the only family member who has been with her when she has these spells. The spells are currently stopped by medication so a family member and the monitoring will help observe and count the frequency of the spells. Margaret thinks they may or may not take all her medication she takes now to control these spells away during her stay in the hospital. I think Norm is ready to spend a lot of time with her there in the hospital, and we're available when we can be.

Brother Joe sent this e-mail to Sue about his granddaughter Lydia.

"A Springfield, MO, television station crew came to Central High School 2 weeks ago and interviewed Lydia and a class mate of hers regarding the ACT. The show was aired yesterday. You can view it at http://ozarksfirst.com/content/video/?cid=202032"

Lydia gave a wonderful interview in it about preparing for her college entrance exams. Thanks for sharing, Joe!

Labels: ANOTHER YOUNG SCHOLAR

I "lifted" this photo from Facebook.

Labels: A YOUNG SCHOLAR

Janet sent this e-mail to Sue. [Caitlin is Nancy and Rick's daughter and Nancy is Janet and Pete's daughter.]

Hi Sue. Do you remember how excited we all were 50 years ago to have a new baby girl? A really little baby girl--5 lbs. Kind of scary. Can't believe Nancy's 50. She looks 30 and has the energy of a 20 year old.

We just got an e-mail from Caitlin. She was in Paris last weekend, saw all the sights and loved the city. Thursday she goes to the Czech Republic for the weekend. They has regular college classes 4 days a week and do a lot of travel to other countries on the weekends. She is taking a full load of credits so sometimes does homework enroute. What an incredible experience. I thought this might be an interesting item for the blog. Love to all, Janet

Labels: AN IMPORTANT BIRTHDAY

I have several things to post but wanted to post the update about Wanda Jean today. She had a heart attack and has moved to Florida with a daughter. For those of you who don't know, she's the daughter of Mom's sister, Mildred (aka Aunt Mit) and our first cousin. Wanda previously lived in Gadsden, Alabama, and has moved to Florida. The only address I have in Florida is Wanda Philbrick, 2924 S.E. 19th St., Okeechobee, Fl. 34974-6318. I got my update from Pete wh had heard this from Donald who may have been in Europe when the heart attack happened. If anyone has any more current news about Wanda, we would all like to hear know it. Thanks.



I'll post the other current news either later today or tomorrow.

This is a photo of Leslie's (Springfield friend of Sue's) son Jeffrey with his beautiful baby. Jeffrey is in Iraq.

PHOTOS FROM MIKE MADDEN: Mike, his parents Curt and Virginia, Curt and Virginia and Baby in 1953, Sean, Mike's vinyard
[Mike and Sean are our first cousins, sons of Curt and Virginia. Uncle Curt was mother's brother. For you family historians, Mother was the oldest of four. The others were Curt, Mildred, and Kent. All are deceased. Aunt Virginia lives in a retirement home in Springfield, MO]

And here is the note Mike included with his photos:

"Hey, sport! [He is writing to Sue!] I wish I wasn't so busy. Maybe Quest Diagnostics will retire me soon and I can get all caught up. When I retired the first time, I got caught up and didn't like it, though.

I got pretty overwhelmed with the vineyard this summer. This was the third year for about a third of the vines and they just went wild. I spent every minute of every weekend trying to stay caught up with maintaining trellis problems, tying up vines, mowing and spraying. In the meantime, my day job was busy, too. I have 4 call centers to run and I'm trying to build a 5th one for a new product. I also help design software for our current products and then implement software changes that drive better performance or efficiency improvements.

Sarah and I had a great time last year at Hermann. We are doing it again this year, but I didn't know if I could go until late last week and we are going to be there Saturday and Sunday of this week. I did hear from Sabrina but I thought they had decided they weren't going this year. I remember that great meal at The Cottage restaurant off in the woods.

I'm pretty burned out at this point. I've been getting home at 9 or 10 at night every night and then working the vineyard on weekends. Here are some pictures you might like.

I noticed you were over in Louisville. I think that is a very fun town. Hope you are feeling OK. You did great last year in Hermann. Especially in the bar!

Hope to see you soon.

Mike"

Labels: MIKE MADDEN - NOTE AND PHOTOS

Brayden is Chucky from the horror movie Childs Play and Jalen is Chris from the rock band Slipknot.

IF THESE TWO GUYS COME KNOCKING AT OUR DOOR ON HALLOWEEN, WE WILL JUST GIVE THEM ALL THE CANDY WE HAVE!!!!

Labels: TWO SCARY CHARACTERS

We lifted this interesting bulletin from niece Sabrina's Facebook Page:

"My son Brett, my cousin's wife Shelly and I ran the Gumbo Flats Pumpkin Run yesterday. Shelly and I ran the 5K while Brett ran the 10K. He finished about 2 minutes after us and placed 47 out of 595, first in his age group of 14 and under. Never mind how we placed. We trained, he didn't. =)"

Brett (we think) still holds track records from Middle School.

Labels: Gumbo Flats Pumpkin Run

I'm back in Missouri. Scott and the boys took me to the airport in Louisville. It was an uneventful trip back. Ding and Goldman picked me up at the airport here in St. Louis. Rose and Shirley were attending a three day Jungoan get together and had meetings last night and couldn't be there. Rose even had some of those meetings today, and it's her birthday HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROSE!!!! Chris, Goldman, and I went to dinner at TGI Friday's after they picked me up.

My wanting updates from other people paid off from Uncle Joe. He's been working several days, a little at a time, on a railroad track motor car which is parked at the Springfield railroad museum. It has not run since about 1985, and they have no tracks to run it on at the museum. The museum people feel it should be kept in as good condition as it was the day the former owner donated it to the museum. He will try to send photos later.

Joe also wrote that he worked Tuesday, October 20, until noon at Wheeler Heart and Vascular, a part of Cox Hospital. His routine assigned volunteer day is on Tuesdays from 8:00 am until noon. Joe's oldest daughter, Lisa, goes to San Diego around November 18 for an awards presentation. She is candidate for teacher of the year from the midwest section of the U.S.A. Joe, his wife Mary, and Lisa's husband Jack are flying out to San Diego to be present at the ceremony.

Thank you, Uncle Joe and family. Keep us updated.

I have a nice update from Mike Madden with lots of pictures which I'll post soon. Rose is busy with housecleaning right now, and I can't get her to stop. (Not like when we were kids.) She has to help me with posting pictures. Chris is coming to take me to go see Melba in St. Anthony's hospital and then to dinner. Goldman is taking me to see Fat Jack in the morning.

Happy Birthday Aunt Rose!

I had P.E. yesterday. I liked it. we are taking my granny to the air port. To take her back to st.louis. bye

Hello! My name is Jalen Spreitler! I'm in the 6th grade. Its okay(not!) I'm i something called "Drum Corp" and tes I'm awesome. I'm sure you saw my little bro's section. I LOVE video games(duh). I like to go to granny's lake house,sk8 board, swim, etc. I'm 11 going on 12. I won a Guitar Hero contest in Louisville on expert mode. You know why I won... its because I'M JUST THAT AWESOME!!!!! If I could change my name it would be... mmmmmm... AWESOME!!! Who ever is reading this must love to be AWESOME!!! Well gotta do my homework(stupid, stupid homework). Talk to ya laters. I might even make my own blog. I think I'll can it... Jalen the AWESOME kid. Well see ya.

I'm up early this morning but it's an hour difference here in Louisville and I went to bed early. Brayden doesn't have to get up for another hour and then we're going to go to school in a taxicab again. His blog entry was work from his end. He had to go to the refrigerator to spell what he likes to take for lunch. I told him I had never had that for lunch. There's a poster of St. Louis here in the living room that helped him with that spelling but other than that he was on his own.

Brother Joe sent me sent updates on happenings with his family which I'll post when I have a printer. I told him to send me hard copies -not IMs- because my memory is so bad. At first he didn't know what I meant. Then I got the update and Scott's printer didn't work. Scott is going to try to print it at work today.

If this 6 year old boy can post on the blog then we should be getting some updates from other parts of the country. Thank you, Joe, for your newsy report. Joe told me he doesn't like to update but he loves to read it. I'm sure people get tired of hearing about me!

My friend Melba is not doing very well. I'm sure that some of you have met her on occassions over the past 45 years. This stroke has blinded her in one eye and only left 10 per cent in the other eye. I did talk to her last night and she and I decided that God must definitely be a man because no woman would do this to us. She still has her sense of humor in spite of it all.. She told Roger to cover her because she thought she was showing her ass. Then she said it didn't matter since she'd been showing her ass for years.

I'm going to fly alone again tomorrow evening for the second time since I've been like this. Either Ding or Goldman will meet me at the airport. Again, I get that royal treatment. Melba's husband wanted to know if I was flying on my broomstick what with Halloween coming up.

It's Brayden's favorite day at school - P. E. Day. I never liked that day and, as I remember, they made us do it three times a week. These boys can't believe how seemingly primitive things were when I was in grade school. I didn't go to a one room school either. Time to get him up.

my name is Brayden. i am 6 years old. my brother is Jalen. he is 11 years old. I have a dog named Layla. and a cat named Leo. I like p.e. at school. My teacher said i am the smartest kid in my class. her name is Tammy Walker but all the kids call her Mrs. Walker. I don't like school. I do learn there. I like star fruit and lunchables nocho kind. My granny is visiting me and my brother and my dad and we live in Loville and my granny lives in st.Louis with my 2 favrite aunts. ther names are rose and sherley. My granny is sisters with my 2 aunts.

I'm having trouble getting on the blog to post and have been frustrated all night with the struggle but made it. I'm not sure how I did it. Aunt Rose gave me some help on line and I'm afraid to get off this posting because I might not get back on. Brayden wants to help me with a posting while I'm here so hope he can be here this afternoon and also his brother. Unless I'm still typing, I hope I can figure out how I got on to post so he and I can get back on. His brother wasn't here last night. Scott goes to work very early so I rode with Brayden in a taxi to school. He explained to me that I'm too old for 1st grade so I had to come home in the taxi.

Last night Scott and Brayden had nachos or tacos for dinner. Maybe both, I'm not sure. Not me. I had leftover steak and baked potato and Texas toast. Brayden was incredulous that there was anybody that didn't like nachos and tacos. Aunt Rose was with him on that one. He made me eat one bite of something and warned me that it was going to be hot. IT WAS!!

I've enjoyed my stay here in Louisville tremendously. I meant to stay home last weekend when we went back on Friday. I was out of pills and had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday. Scott went back for a guys' weekend at the lakehouse. They were going to do a lot of drinking and card playing and some of them did a lot of fishing. Scott said they ate a lot of fried food including fish so I guess the fish were biting. I think the weather was a bit cold but they probably didn't notice. When they cook down there their only vegetable is potatoes. I know Doug fries the fish and Scott usually cooks breakfast, but they also eat some freezer food. Scott says he's back on his diet since the weekend is over. They chip in for the food and the cleaning lady.

Speaking of cleaning lady, cleaning ladies are coming here today. Scott had a flashback last night. I was having him 'clean for the cleaning lady'. He said it was just like when he was a kid at the Glenlea house. He finally told me that we had to leave something for them to do. With these two boys and a cat and a dog, they will have plenty to do. I think there might be a team of two. They just arrived.

I don't think I finished my plan for my trip over here. I went home last weekend and my original plan was to stay. I got my medicine, changed my doctor's appointment to Friday, Scott needed me, booked a flight to Tuesday and came back to Louisville with Scott. Rose, Shirley and I thought we were going to have the little boys for the weekend but they didn't get to come. Now I'm going home Thursday and going to the neurologist on Friday. If that's confusing, I understand. I'm going home Thursday. Also, it's nice to be needed. I can't do much but I can help out a bit here. The weather here today is beautiful and the forecast for tomorrow is good too.

I talked to Margaret for a while yesterday. It was funny. I was thinking about calling her and my phone rang and it was her. She has to go in the hospital sometime soon for either a CAT Scan or MRI. Either she wasn't sure or I'm not. Joe and I talked on IM this morning and he was going for a check up. Maybe I'll know more when Brayden and I update later today. Pete called with his usual Saturday call. They've bought a house in town and are selling the farm and Quartzsite. I think Joe said Pete is going to make a trip down there to get things ready to be up to market. I talk to Rose at least 3 or 4 times a day even when I'm here. Donald, that leaves you.

Rose's birthday is Friday. She will jump 2 years ahead of me for a while and 3 ahead of Donald. How did we all get so old so quickly! Norm's birthday is not too long after Rose's. I think Rose wants me, her and Shirley to go to that fancy restaurant again this year. Looking back on the blog you can see how they take such good care of you and pamper you. To be truthful, maybe I shouldn't go. In my condition people treat me that way all the time. Even in my sad condition I'm lucky and thankful to have all the people taking care of me and loving me. I never forget that.

While I've been here alone in the day and waiting to post on the blog, I've been reading back over old postings on this blog. There are a lot of postings that aren't from St. Louis. We're still the 'Aunt Camp' as Sandi as Sandi always called us. There's people we've lost track of or don't know what's going on with. Sandi and the bunch that spell their name wrong, the Kansans, I know of at least one in Arizona, the Alabamans, the Plattsburg nieces, etc., etc., etc. COULD WE PLEASE HAVE SOME NEWS!! I plan on getting to Plattsburg sometime so Scott figured out it's 195 miles from the lake house. Mfriend Leslie from Springfield {that King boy's wife} is going to Seattle this weekend to see her daughter-in-law and grandchildren . Her son is in Iraq.

Just had a phone call that one of dear friends from GMAC suffered a stroke. Melba Woolford She and I went through many things together. She worked with me and with Brick. I don't know how bad it is. I only had a voice message. Will call another friend back shortly.

I'm going to post this and hope we get Brayden this afternoon and he and I will write together. He doesn't understand that there weren't computers when I was in first grade. Dad didn't have them either in first grade. Maybe I'll hear what Joe had done today.

Labels: LABOR DAY 09 AT LAKE

I haven't updated for a while since I've been to Louisville and am now back in Louisville. This computer of his is hard for me to operate. Chris had one of them and he picked it up while we were in St. Louis. I did fly over here with no trouble and am much more confident about flying alone and will fly home. --This is the computer that Chris worked on and it just went dark for a bit and I thought I had lost all my work --Chris would have heard from me ---It's still not doing things right. I'll make this one paragraph cause it won't let me change. I took a lot of Brayden's school papers this weekend and Rose and Shirley loved them. Jalen is in 6th grade and explained to me he doesn't have any. They use computers a lot. He is in an advanced 6th grade and has a 4.0 GPA. Brayden is the Smartest Kid in his Room and his teacher even says so. I didn't get to see them this evening but hope I do tomorrow after school. He wants to help me update the blog so we may do that tomorrow evening.

The photo of the two beautiful young women is of Sabrina (Margaret and Norm's daughter) and her niece Erice (Randy and Lynn's daughter). Erica is in her second year of college at Westminster in Fulton, MO. The middle photo is of Nathan, Sabrina, and Jacog. (Nathan and Jacob are Stephanie and Dan's sons.) And the third photo is of Stephanie, Sabrina, and Catrina--Margaret and Norm's daughters. WOW! What gorgeous folk!

Labels: More Abbott Family

I lifted these photos off Stephanie's (our niece's) Facebook Page just to post here.

Labels: Schmitt Family Plus

Labels: ITALY

This is Karen and her daughter, Sally, who rode very well and enjoyed beating guys up big hills!

T
The Italian gentleman reaching for the wine glass toasted us and noticed that many were drinking water (we still had 15 miles and a big hill to ride) He said that would never do, That wine was the color of life and we should all enjoy for our health. He filled everyone's glass and we toasted to our new Italian friend. From that point forward we were no longer shy about consuming wine even if we still had some miles in front of us. Salute!

We got to drink a lot of wine!

Sue's Update. [For some reason, she could not sign onto Blogger directly from her computer]

I wanted to update the blog this morning before I go to Louisville this evening. I’m going to fly by myself for the first time in a long time. I’m a bit nervous about the trip but I’m looking forward to spending the week with Scott and the boys. I hope they’re looking as forward to spending the week with Granny. The weather here isn’t looking very good. We’re having lots of rain and some thunder and lightning, but I’m hoping it will pass before evening.

Scott spent last weekend in St. Louis for a hockey draft and a poker tournament but both boys were sick and couldn’t come with him. We missed them but I’ll make up for it by getting to spend time with them this coming week. Rose and Shirley have to spend the weekend in Chicago. Rose has to teach her class tonight so Goldman is going to take me to the airport and help me with preboarding. (That’s not a word according to spell check.)

Fat Jack is a GREAT grandpa. Chris and I visited him last night and the baby wasn’t born yet. He left me a message sometime in the night that the baby had arrived. He’s hard to understand on the phone so I’m not sure if it’s a boy or a girl but he’s certainly proud. Chris and I had dinner at our new favorite place – Marco’s on Main in Belleville. Rose and I will have the leftovers for lunch. They’re certainly good.

There’s more news about General Motors – and not good news either but I need to print my newsy email from my friend Liz before I update the blog about it. It’s really not such a great place to be employed at any more like it used to be.

The Cardinals best do better tonight. Scott will probably be listening to it when he picks me up. My flight arrives at 9:05 our time and 10:05 their time. He probably has one of those fancy phones which has a radio or television.

I would love to see some updates from other parts of the country. Mark and Karen are in Italy and are probably through with their biking and are just touring by now. I hope they’re taking pictures and will post them when they get back. I, for one, am looking forward to it.

Labels: David Felin's 44th Birthday (Center)

I'll update today some though I'm trying to wait for news from family in other parts of the country. That Thursday that I went to the commissary Chris and I went over to Belleville to see Fat Jack again. He wasn't very good. He had the oxygen apparatus in his nose and we could hardly understand him when he talked. We went back to see him again this Thursday and he was much improved. He still had the oxygen in his nose but his talking had much improved. He and Chris spent a lot of the time telling off color jokes and I told them I thought I was going to have to go out in the hall. I tried to act shocked. We're going back again this week on Wednesday since I'm flying to Louisville on Thursday evening. I plan to stay a few days with Scott and the boys. Rose and Shirley are going to Chicago for the weekend.

Last weekend I went to the lake with part of my 'harem'. Doug, Mad Dog, and Danny Cullinane accompanied me down there. There was a lot of fishing going on. They caught 61 crappie and Doug cleaned all 61 crappie. At one time Doug said Danny was catching them faster than he could clean them. They cooked up 30 for supper on Saturday night and I ate some of those for lunch on Sunday. I went to dinner at Ruthie D's (Brayden's least favorite restaurant) with the neighbors, Dave and Judy Meisel. We had a delicious meal but probably just comparavle to the fresh caught and fried fish.

Scott is here for the weekend. The boys were going to come with him but both 'came down sick and weren't able to come. Needless to say, these three old ladies were bitterly disappointed. We did see Scott for a brief visit yesterday right after his arrival but he went off to be with his friends.

More later. Midmorning snack time.

Wanted to post some news about Fat Jack. He's my friend that I worked with at Midwest Recovery. We had many, many good times together. It was the most interesting and likeable job I ever had, and I'd like nothing better than to be able to go back and work with Jack and Marvin, the owner of the company, again. Of course, things and times have changed. Marvin has retired and, according to Jack, he and his wife travel a lot. I'm not able to go back to work, and neither is Jack.

Goldman took me over to Belleville yesterday evening to see Jack. He's been recently moved to Willowcreek Rehab Nursing Facility on Main Street in Belleville, Ill. He went there from St. Anthony's Hospital in Alton where the doctors told the family that they didn't think he would be with us much longer. They told his son and daughter this almost two weeks ago. He was still needing some breathing assistance yesterday with some apparatus, but was able to sit up on the side of his bed and eat his dinner. He can still be rightfully be called 'Fat Jack'. There are those of you who probably remember his singing at Den's funeral and at Den's and my wedding. The breathing apparatus was interfering with his talking yesterday, but I'm hoping he won't need it much longer. Chris is going to take me back to see him again tomorrow for our Thursday outing. Chris and I will have dinner somewhere between here and Belleville.

I had a great email from my longtime friend from GMAC. I oft-times called her Lizbeth. She had to move to Chicago to keep her job with GMAC after 28 years or lose her retirement benefits. Her husband is self employed and stayed here. They travel back and forth when they can.. I've probably put all this in the blog before but GM used to be such a great company to work for that it's hard to believe how they are now. Now Liz is down to 30 weeks before she reaches her 30 years and will lose all her benefits if she retires now. She says rumors about the future of the company and the employees are flying. Some employee downsizing and some office closings. Not what she wants to hear, for sure. Sad, sad to hear.

Liz has two sons, Josh and Tommy. I know I've written about them before, but they are men now. I've known Liz and Dave since before these guys were born. Josh is in his last year at Logan Chiroptactory School. He passed his Comprehensive Boards last week so now he has his student license and will practice on real patients on a daily basis. The pain I get in my leg may be from arthritis in my back so I'm going to ask my primary care physician if seeing a chiropractor might help and possibly see Josh.

Tommy is a senior at Mizzou. He began his radiology program in June and loves it. He works in a hospital a lot and finds the classroom BORING!. He and his girlfriend of six years recently broke up, and he's finding that playing the field is pretty interesting.

Their family dog recently died. Dave works out of their home here in St. Louis and Max (the dog) was his constant companion. I'm not a dog lover but I know how hard this loss is for Dave, but it does free him up to go see Liz in Chicago. I like for her to come to St. Louis so the three of us can do something together. Liz says she keeps up with me and mine through the blog so I hope I have more frequent emails from her.

Joe is going to get one of his kids to send pictures of Dave's 44th birthday celebration which was last weekend. Margaret just called and asked me to ride over to the commisary at Scott AFB with them in the morning. I'll get Rose to get some pictures of them when they pick me up. I hope Donald and Vita are taking a lot of photos in Europe and send us some. Mark and Karen leave either today tomorrow for their trip to Italy. They know how much we enjoy pictures.

Labels: Shirley

I'm behind again in my postings but so is everyone else. I have to go way back to a week ago Saturday. Rose and Shirley went to Chicago and Goldman and I dropped them at the airport. We proceeded to St. Charles where Goldman helped Shirley's nephew and wife, Michael and Leslie, move into a place over there. It was a hot day and not a good day fot that chore. I went along just because they weren't sure they all knew each other and, of course, wasn't able to be of any help but do think I managed to keep out of the way.

Chris and Shelly and I went out to dinner that evening and Chris spent both Saturday and Sunday nights with me. He (and other people) are insistent that I can't spend a night alone and I am sure I would have no trouble at all. Everyone takes such good and protective care of me. Chris went in to work late Monday morning so we could go to a Costco drugstore to pick up a prescription that I needed. He took me to one of his and Shelly's favorite plkaces for lunch and I agree with them - It is a great place. I hope we go back soon. He's not too good at making coffee in our pot though. He was glad there's a a Starbucks nearby. Shirley got home Monday afternoon and Rose got back Tuesday afternoon.

The Hollensbes had me over for dinner on Thursday. Suzanne works near here and picked me up on her way home. Doug had already fed Josie and Lukas when we got there and we hardly saw the kids while I was there. When I went in Lukas's room to say good-by as I was leaving (he was playing on his computer as he had been all evening), he looked up and said "Bye, I love you, Granny." He wasn't prompted or anything. It almost made me cry.

I guess Donald and Vita met up with Caitlin in Florence last Saturday. Janet says Caitlin will be there until around Christmas and then finish her up at Gonzaga in Spokane with a degree in Public Relations. Mark and Karen leave this week for their bicycle tour in Italy but I'm not sure if they'll be in Florence any time. They'll be with a bicycle tour group part of the time and have promised to keep in touch. I think Donald and Vita are going on to France for several days.

It was a baseball weekend around here. It turns out I was the only Cardinal fan in this household. Both Rose and Shirley were rooting for the Cubs - the underdog - but to no avail. Rose went to bed last night thinking the Cubs had lost that game too but had a surprise awaiting her this morning. The Cubs are so far behind it certainly didn't hurt to let them have one win to sorta save face, so to speak.

Joe's David celebrated his 44th last week and I've asked Joe to send me some more details about the occasion. He told me on IM but I am forgetful. I know they went to a show at Branson and also had a party but need more news. They sat by a guy from Idaho Falls at Branson. Our small world. (Goldman thinks Pete must know everyone from Idaho.) Joe sees Sean and runs into Aunt Virginia's sister and they both say Aunt Virginia is doing fine.

These are photos from town where Pete and Janet have their second home. I've understood from them that it is desert country normally--hot and dry.

Labels: AZ, Quartzsite, September Monsoon

We had this lovely e-mail from niece Jana:

From: jjemoore@gmail.com
To: MarthaBoaz@aol.com
Sent: 9/10/2009 10:45:52 P.M. Central Daylight Time
Subj: (no subject)

hi aunt sue - i've been reading the blog - sounds like you had a good time with jalen and braden. we've been busy here - seems like something is going on every weekend. opening day for kstate football was over labor day and we had a blast tailgating then irish fest on sunday then john's grandparent's house on monday. this weekend ellie has a birthday party to go to and we are going to verticut and seed our lawn and get my flower beds ready to plant perinails.I don't think we have a free weekend until late october!!! Did I tell you that we started a blog? the address is jjekmoore.blogspot.com

A lot time ago, my mom suggested that I keep a journal of all the cute things ellie does. so i did in a word document on my computer then decided to transfer it all to a blog so john and i could update it at all times and others could read it too. we try not to put too much on there though b/c then we don't have anything to talk about when we see his family - they already know it all!!!!

Kaitlyn had her 4 month check up and she is doing great except for her weight - she only gained 1 pound since her 2 month check up. we started her on cereal and are giving her formula during the day starting next week. hopefully she can put some meat on her bones!

Tell Aunt Rose and Shirley hello for us - we do miss them. Have a great weekend - are you going to the lake?

==========

Here is the web address for the John and Jana Moore Family Blog: jjekmoore.blogspot.com

Love,
Jana

O.K. So we lifted these off of Facebook. They are: a photo of our lovely niece Sandi from Portland, OR AND Sue's son Mark and his wife Karen who live in St Louis and were riding 200 miles in Columbia, MO last weekend, raising money for MS.

Labels: Photos