Friday, October 31, 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NORMAN AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL!!!! We're all set for trick or treaters. Shirley has several bowls full of candy if they last till dark tonight.

I had a longer post on my last entry but somehow erased it, much to my dismay, and it was past my bedtime so I didn't completely finish my entry.

Brother Joe had some out patient repair on Monday on his open heart surgery incision. He had what they call an incision hernia. He had noticed the incision bulging ever so slightly and reported it to the rehab nurses which set up a new round of doctor visits. They said it wasn't serious but keep watching it. It kept getting larger and during his Oct. visit to the family practitioner (who's from Idaho) that doctor decided to send him to another doctor - the one who did his spleen operation in 2003. Monday was the day for the surgery and the hole was larger than the doctor expected but Joe now has it meshed and he's back on more pills for a few days and no driving for a few days.

Scott and the boys just returned from four days at Panama City Beach. They had invited me to go with them but it was a long ride for such a short stay and it was a weekend when I had lots of other things to do insyead of a quiet do-nothing weekend. I hope the boys missed me but I doubt it. They skipped two days of school but the principal said if they made a journal of their trip and turned it in they wouldn't be counted as absent. They jumped on that opportunity or should I say, Scott jumped at that opportunity. They didn't care if they were counted absent.

Chase Heilman (Leslie's son) is on the last voyage of the QE2. He's making a documentary of the voyage and already has lots of interest in people who are on the ship. His address again is ChaseHeilman.com The

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

I've got lots of happenings since my last post and probably won't get all caught up tonight but I'l start. First I had this passed on to me from Joe who claimed it came from a wise old Indian Chief when he was asked his take on Daylight Savings Time: "Only the Whie Man is dumb enough to believe a person can make his blanket longer by cutting a strip off thevtop of the blanket and re-sewing it back on the bottom of the blanket." It is food for thought.

Last Saturday I went to Herculaneum with Sabrina and Dave to watch Brett, their youngest, in a cross country race. Brett placed second out of about at least 150 other boys. There were several other schools in the race and Brett's school placed first in the competition. Brett had a friend who was spending the night because his parents were out of town. I asked the boy where his parents were and he said his mother was a Spanish teacher and they were at the Lodge of Four Seasons for some teacher to get an award. I, of course, told him that teacher was my niece. Congratulaions again, Lisa and Brett!!!

Saturday night Sabrina and I met Mike and Sarah Madden in Hermann, MO. Neither Sabrina nor I had met Sarah and were immediately taken with her. I'm eager for her to come meet the rest of the family. Mike says Sabrina is just as delightful as she was as a kid. I'll certainly agree with that. Mike took us to a place he called 'out in the sticks' and it was but looks were deceiving. The place was elegant and the meal was superb. We finished the evening with Sabrina and Sarah playing some game in a bar in uptown (or downtown, I'm not sure) Hermann and Mike and I caught up on old times. As they say down home, 'a good time was had by all'.

I've got more catching up to do but it's bedtime. More tomorrow. NEED UPDATES.

Sunday, October 26, 2008



Pete and Janet sent this photo of their granddaughter Caitlin picking beans in their garden. She is wearing gloves because she is afraid of grasshoppers. Caitlin is a second year student at Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA.

Joe and Mary's daughter Lisa was named Missouri Foreign Language Teacher of the year. The whole family traveled to the Lodge of the Four Seasons at the Lake of the Ozarks yesterday for the presentation of the award. Congratulations, Lisa!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

First let me extend a further invitation to meet Mike Madden and family at the Oktoberfest in Hermann, MO this Saturday for dinner. Right now it's Sabrina and me that will be there but we're hoping more word gets around and more people will join us. We're meeting at around 5 at the Wine Valley Inn which is at 4th street right after you cross the bridge into Hermann if you're coming down from I 70.

Mike says there is a restaurant in an old funeral home near downtown that's kind of fun. One time the owner let them go down in the embalming room to play pool. There's also a really cool restaurant outside of town in the sticks that Mike likes. My cell phone number is 314-452-3685. Hope lots of you can come.

Rose and Shirley can't make it. They have an out-of-town guest for the weekend and a workshop they're attending that has been scheduled for some time. Margaret and Norman are closing their camper in the Valley - a very sad time for Margaret especially. She truly loves going there. Joe and family are going to Lodge of Four Seasons for Lisa to be presented some Missouri teacher's award. He wasn't sure exactly what the award is but promised to elaborate when he learns more. We'll be waiting to learn more about what the award is, Joe. I am hoping some of his family will stay at the lake house. It's all clean and ready and just waiting for someone.

Scott and the boys are going to Florida for 4 days, leaving tomorrow afternoon. They invited me to go with them but since I was just there in Louisville last weekend and they would be in Florida for a short time and I had so many things to do
this weekend, I decided to wait and spend a week in Louisville next month. I went this weekend with Chris and Shelly so they could participate in the Louisville Marathon. Shelly did the Half Marathon and Chris did the whole race. After it was over, Chris and I were standing outside and Shelly had gone to get the car. I asked him if he was cold. He said he was too sore to tell. He was going home and crawl upstairs and go to bed.

I've been 'in training' for my race on Nov. 2. I did 3 hard miles on the exercycle yesterday and walked for an hour. Today I've done 4 hard miles on the exercycle and I'm not sure about how long I'll walk today. Brayden thought I was going to do the Marathon when I told him I was going to do a race and he was going to do it with me. Jalen, on the other hand said "Granny, I don't care what you do. I'm not doing it with you." Sounded just like Scott.

Sabrina and Dave's son, Brett, is in a meet Saturday morning and I'm going to go with them to watch. It's in Herculaneum and, though Sabrina didn't know where that was yesterday, I'm sure she will by Saturday morning. After Hermann Saturday night I'm going to spend the night with them. Dave isn't going to Hermann with us because the boys are having a friend over whose parents are going to be out of town and the boys don't want to go to Oktoberfest.

Tomorrow is AUNT ROSE'S BIRTHDAY. I won't say which one but someone called here last night doing a political survey and all three of us were too old to participate!!!

It's gotten chilly here and we've reluctantly had to turn on the heat this morning. Last night we had to go out in the garage to get warm.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Rose finally got the pictures of our track star posted. He has come in first place in the last two meets and the next one is on the 25th in Herculaneum and I plan on going with Sabrina and Dave to watch him win again. He is only in eighth grade but the running coach has already approached about being on the team next year.

Christopher is running in a marathon in Louisville on Sunday and Shelly is running in a half marathon. Chris explained to me the difference in some of this racing. Guys like Brett are running to win while guys like Chris are just trying to finish. I'm in Chris's category. Chris walked with me 2.5 miles on the Katy Trail last night and the last half mile was pure torture. It was pitch dark. We could hear noises in the bushes. I was holding on to Chris's arm and he said I was pushing him in the ditch occasionally. I'm going to sign up for a race of 3.1 miles on Nov. 2 and have lots of training to do. I'm also going to make sure it's in broad daylight.

I had a nice email from that King girl in Springfield. Her son Chase left for London this week and here's his blog address. I especially love the sailboat picture. ChaseHeilman.com He may be a famous photographer someday. Jeff is probably going to be deployed to Iran or Afghanistan in the spring. This will be his 3rd trip over there.

Chris took me to Steak n Shake last night after our walk and when he ordered a portabela mushroom burger I had to call Goldman to see if he thought this was Iron Man food. Chris immediately told us this burger was for Shelly abd not for him. He insisted I watch when we got to their house that he didn't eat it.

We need UPDATES from our other contributors!!!!



OUR HANDSOME TRACK STAR, BRETT, SON OF SABRINA AND DAVE

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

We've got some new pictures but Rose isn't back from Chicago until later today so she will post them when she gets back. Shirley got back yesterday and is very sick this morning. She said she did sleep in between coughing but is canceling her client sessions today. Goldman and I picked her up at the airport yesterday afternoon and then he and I went to Ozzie's for dinner. Shirley was sick but worrying about my dinner.

Pete called Saturday morning with his weekly report. We got cut off when my cell phone quit working as Goldman and I pulled into the overhang at the bank. We had just dropped Rose off at the airport for her trip to Chicago. Margaret is back to baking pies which I'm sure Norm is happy about. She told me that Sabrina took what was left of one she made last week so she had made Norm another one yesterday. We could help him with that one.

Donald called yesterday. They're headed to Missouri next week for Grandparent's Day. They had just returned from Florida and a few days at the beach. Scott and Sherry were in Florida and had told me the weather wasn't so nice. Donald said he guessed it didn't matter. The shopping malls were open.

Chris and I walked 2 miles on the Katy Trail last Thursday. Shelly and the dogs joined us for part of the way but she took the dogs home before we made the two miles. Chris has come up with idea that I should get in a race. The only slow race that I ever knew of was when Scott and Chris were little and I'd tell them to do something and they'd have a 'slow race'. It would infuriate me. I just talked to Scott and he was all for my doing it. He and the boys had done one for a mile a few weeks ago. It was for a fitness thing for school. He and Chris both pointed out to me it's not really a race. People do it just to see if they can finish. Chris is running in a marathon this weekend in Louisville. He's thinking about joining a gym to train swimming. He says if you bike or run you can stop and rest but if you're swimming and get tired, you drown. He's says he's not ready for the Iron Man.

Suzanne had a baby shower for Angie Slayton on Saturday and Goldman took me over there. I got to see some people I hadn't seen in a while and had some great food. I'm sorta bossy so Suzanne kept reminding that this was her house - not mine! I spent the night and at 6:03 A.M. one of the cats jumped in bed with me. Rose's question: "Did it live?" Goldman brought me home and we drove by the old Glenlea house. It looks like an old neighborhood. The trees are huge and the zoysia grass is beautiful. Wait til it turns brown and the huge tree starts dropping leaves and sweet gum balls. It won't look so good.

Chris came over Sunday night to spend the night. Shelly didn't feel good so didn't want to have dinner out with us. Chris was adamant about eating at the Cheesecake Factory. First they seated us outside at a dirty table and then made us get up and move. We told them we didn't mind the dirty table but they did. The inside was full so we had to wait. Chris wanted to eat there because he wanted an eggplant sandwich. I had never heard of an 'eggplant sandwich'. I'm sure he never had one when he was growing up and it doesn't sound like Iron Man food. He did eat it all. I had crabcakes.

Goldman and Doug play hockey on Sunday nights. When Doug gets home he puts his gear - all zipped up in a huge bag - in the garage. Suzanne says he doesn't even bother sometimes to takes his jersey out of the bag. Goldman says sitting by him on the bench about makes him puke. This week while I was there he took all this stuff out of the bag and aired it out. He even washed his jersey. There's lots of protective equipment that a hockey player wears and as it was airing out on the deck outside Suzanne sprayed it was some stuff that I think is for diaper pails. Doug came back from the store, came out on the deck, and had a fit. "I'm not going to hockey smelling like a baby's butt!" These were not exactly his words! Goldman did say he did smell much better and their team won the game and Goldman scored three goals.

Mike Madden and family are going to be in Herman, MO on for Oktoberfest on the 25th and the and the current plan is for some of us to meet him for dinner on the evening of the 25th. Sabrina and Dave and I are planning on going and I'm not sure who else. Sabrina wasn't sure about her boys. Margaret wanted to know when it was so I'm hoping she and Norm can make it.

We need some updates from our contributors!!!

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

One night last week brother Joe had pizza at Pizza Inn in Springfield. I'm not sure but I bet the rest of his family joined him. Part of the proceeds from the evening's sales went to his grandaughter Lydia's cheerleading team. The cheerleading team is striving to earn enough money to go to Orlando, Fl., for the Capitol Football Game. They will perform either at half time or in the parade, I'm not sure. Joe says they are well on the way to their goal. Joe, I may have my facts confused so check it out with Lydia and we'd love to have a picture of Lydia to post on the blog.

Back to the weekend. On Saturday Rose and the boys and I had lunch at Macaroni Bar and Grill which is one of their favorite places and then met Suzanne and Josie and Lucas at a place called Skyzone. Jalen had looked it up on line and there's only two of them in the world. One's here in St. Louis and the other is in California. They were doing a land office business. Sabrina had told me about it so I was prepared for this gigantic room with huge trampolines and all the kids did was jump, jump, jump. There were grown people jumping around on them too but Rose and Suzanne and I just watched. Their time was limited to an hour and all of them were dripping with sweat at the end of the hour. We let them play at Lucas and Josie's after Skyzone and were very unpopular with all the boys when it was time to leave. Brayden and Jalen wouldn't speak to us all the way home. Brayden said, when he was finally speaking, that playing at their house was more fun than Skyzone.

This is a Chicago weekend for Rose and Shirley. Shirley leaves Thursday and Rose leaves on Saturday. Scott enjoyed teasing Shirley about the Cubs loosing out on their chance for winning the World Series when he picked the boys up on Sunday. She is a loyal Cubs fan.

Brayden didn't feel well Saturday evening and again Sunday. We gave him some liquid baby aspirin and it would perk him up for a while. Scott said he was a bit lethargic Sunday evening but fine yesterday and today. I remember Mother shaking her head and saying to me "I don't know how I raised 8 kids without a pediatrician." I figured with Brayden it would go away pretty quickly. Again yesterday and today there was no school. That used to always make Chris feel better no matter what was wrong with him.
I may just get started and have to finish later but I do have some updates. Margaret and Norm got back from N. Carolina late Sunday night. She said they were going to stop about 4 hours away but were eager to get home so just came on in.

Yesterday was Randy's birthday. Happy belated birthday, Randy. I haven't heard how Catrina did on the Lupus walk on Sunday. We need an update, Catrina.

This was a big weekend at the lake house. There were 14 guys there at one time. It wasn't to be a work weekend but Doug had some things that needed doing and couldn't have a good time until they were done. A new screen door upstairs and a new lock and door knob for the shed were the two chores I knew about but Doug can't have a good time if he sees something that needs doing right away. He told me the screen needed replacing since air conditioning weather was over.

I'll let one of the guys name the fellows that were there but I bet the old fisherman who wondered how many kids I have is really puzzled now. Scott told us a dream one of the guys (Groves) had while they were there. In the dream I was up by the pool and some guy decked me so then I beat the crap out of the guy. The little boys - and probably the big ones too - loved the dream.

Another of Doug's chores was catching and then frying the fish for the fish fry. He had caught most of them and put them in the freezer. A staple they usually have is fried potatoes but I can't imagine frying potatoes for fourteen guys. I haven't if they had fried potatoes or who peeled and fried them. They consider that their vegetable.

I hope they took some pictures. An update with names, pictures, and any corrections on my entry is looked forward to. There was a poker game that lasted off and on for the three day weekend and I heard that Scott was the big winner and Goldman did not fare well but didn't get any other details and got no monetary amounts or names of any other winners or losers.

Scott dropped the boys off with us Thursday evening. By the way, they didn't play hooky on Friday. There was no school on Friday. Rose took them to the indoor pool on Friday. She forgot something in the car and sent Jalen back to get it. When Jalen came back, some man followed him and complimented Rose on what a polite young man Jalen was. Needless to say, Aunt Rose was quite the proud Auntie and was almost still grinning by the time they got home.

Lots more to update but it's lunchtime.

Thursday, October 02, 2008


Emma Frances Abbott Southard


SOUTHARD YADKINVILLE - Mrs. Emma Frances Abbott Southard, 84, passed away peacefully Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at Kate B. Reynolds Hospice Home. Emma was born in Stokes County on October 14, 1923 the daughter of the late Walter and Elizabeth Stephens Abbott Sr. She worked 40 years for Szabo' s Food Service in the RJR Building. Emma was a member of Woodland Baptist Church and a member of Faithful Followers Sunday School Class. In addition to her parents, Emma was preceded in death by her husband, John Click Southard; two brothers, Harvey and Dewey Abbott; and a sister, Lottie King. Surviving are one daughter and son-in-law, Loretta and Jim Whisenhunt of Yadkinville; one son and daughter-in-law, Bobby and Peggy Recard of Winston-Salem; one granddaughter, Robin Wooten of Yadkinville; one step-granddaughter, LeeAnn and Brannon Raines of Harrisburg; and one step-granddaughter, Andersen Raines. Also surviving are three brothers: Richard Abbott and wife, Ruby of Clemmons; Norman Abbott and wife, Margaret of St. Peters, MO ; and Walter Abbott and wife, Judy of Waynesboro, VA; one sister, Doris Goins of East Bend; also, several nieces, nephews and cousins whom she loved dearly. A Funeral Service will be conducted 2:00 p.m. Friday, October 3 at Woodland Baptist Church with the Rev. Tim Gammons, the Rev. Zeno Groce, and Jimmy Crawford officiating. Burial will follow at Gardens of Memory in Walkertown. The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. this evening at the church. Flowers will be accepted or memorials may be made to Hospice & Palliative Care Center, 101 Hospice Lane, Winston-Salem, NC 27103 or to Woodland Baptist Church Building Fund 3665 Patterson Avenue, Winston Salem, NC 27105. The family would like to extend a special thanks to all the friends and church family for the cards and visits, and to Hospice for the wonderful care given to Emma. Also, a special thanks to Emma' s dear friend, Pearl Whisenhunt for her love and support.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Margaret and Norm left yesterday to go back to N. Carolina and got the word early this morning that Emma had died about 3:30 a.m. Sabrina emailed me but didn't know any of the arrangements yet. Margaret and Norm had stopped for the night so weren't there yet when they got the call.

Shirley went grocery shopping this morning to get ready for our having Jalen and Brayden this weekend. Scott is dropping them off here on his way to the lake. It's guys' weekend at the lakehouse and the old guys are going to eat, play cards, fish, cook, and I think some of them are going to golf. Scott is letting the boys play hooky on Friday. Is 'play hooky' still an expression? Brayden still doesn't like going to school so that makes the weekend even nicer.

We have plans for the weekend. The boys are bringing their Guitar Hero and are going to do a concert for us. Mark and Karen got them the Guitar Hero for Christmas last year and they dearly love it. I was talking to Brayden on the phone the other night and told him that Karen got a Guitar Hero for her birthday. He said incredulously "Do you mean Aunt Karen?" I said "Yes, Aunt Karen." His next question "Does she know how to play any songs?" We'll have to have a joint concert sometime and Karen can show these youngsters up. When the boys were playing for me I asked if they knew any old songs. Jalen informed that these were old songs they were playing.

We have other things we're going to do but we're not sure when yet. They want to spend some time with Lucas and Josie and to take Lucas and Josie to Skyzone with us. Suzanne wants to go to Skyzone, too, though we thought she might just want some peace and quiet. We're glad she's going. She can show us around.

Will try to update a bit more before the boys get here. Meanwhile our other contributors are past due!

Hi All!

I apologize in advance for the "plug", advertisement, whatever you wish to call it.
I (Catrina) have decided to walk in this years Walk For Lupus on Sunday. There are over 1.5 million Americans diagnosed with Lupus; 30,000 in Missouri alone - one of them is a very dear family member. I have set a personal goal to raise funds for the Lupus Foundation of America, Missouri Chapter and need your help to reach my goal.

Lupus is a chronic, potentially life threatening autoimmune disease that can cause damage to virtually any organ in the body, especially the skin, joints, blood, and kidneys.

The Lupus Foundation of America is the nation's leading voluntary health organization that provides direct services to people with lupus; education to the public, to patients, and to healthcare providers; advocates on behalf of people with lupus; and funds research into the causes and cure for lupus.

If you would like to make a donation and support me in my efforts, follow the link below. I appreciate your help!!

THANKS!
Catrina