Hi Everyone - Aunt Sue asked us to post some recent pictures of Ellie. She is getting old enough now to experience lots of new things! These are pics of Worlds of Fun - we took John's niece and nephew with us. She really enjoyed Snoopy Camp and there were so many rides that she could go on. Ellie also had her first pedicure a few weeks back - she loved every minute of it and was so intrigued by everything the ladies did to our feet! We also included a picture of Ellie getting her face painted at her school carnival. We had them put a K-State PowerCat on her cheek, of course!!!!

This weekend, we are headed to Salina, Kansas for my nephew, Ryan's birthday party - he will be 3 years old and now has a new brother, Carson Taylor Henderson. He is only a few weeks old! I'll send pictures from the party - the rest of our Kansas relatives will bet there too.

Monday morning after a busy weekend. Talked to Pete Saturday with his usual weekly phone call. Things were good in Idaho Falls. He had talked to Joe who was enjoying the new sunroom. He said it was more glass than the old one. Somehow Pete knew I hadn't gone to the lake. Goldman came over and helped Rose and Shirley move some furniture around in the basement which hasn't progressed far in the renovation since my last post. The workers didn't show over the weekend and aren't here yet today and it's 10:40. The workmen do have lots of excuses for their delays.

Saturday night was a wondrous occasion! Rose, Shirley, and I went to a friend's 80th birthday celebration. She was an amazing guest of honor. She had also gotten her first pedicure on the very same day. I asked her if her granddaughters had made her get the pedicure but she said it was her daughters who encouraged her to do it. She is a woman of many accomplishments. She did not want gifts - only blessings - but had a gift for each household that attended. The gift is a copy of a book she has recently written and published. "Leafings and Branchings" by Leah Friedman

Leah is an accomplished hostess. I'm sure she made everyone feel as welcome to be there as she made me feel. She danced with several men and was still going strong as we were leaving the party.

There were many people at the party and a few that I knew. It was catered beautifully. As we were leaving and saying our goodbyes, I heard my name being called. "Sue, Sue, Sue," It was Vicki Lander, a good friend of Mary Myers. Mary goes back many years with me and Rose. I feel sad when I go by the site where Noah's Ark used to be. It's where the three of us, Mary, Rose, and I, would meet on Fridays after work for happy hour years ago. The Ark has been torn down for highway construction that's going through there.

I hadn't seen Vicki in quite some time and maybe the meeting was predestined. Vicki is a massage therapist or maybe is retired now but I'm looking for a healing touch therapist and hope Vicki knows Mary Lenihan who is a healing touch therapist that I used to see but have lost contact with. If not Mary, another good one. This blog began as "Sue's Journey Back to Health" and right now I feel like I'm having a 'turn for the better' as they say down in the country. I'd like to keep feeling like I'm improving.

Chris, Shelly, and Oliver came by yesterday on their way home from Purina Pooch Day at Busch Stadium. We had watched for them on television but didn't see them. Chris took my computer and is doing some maintenance on it. They said Oliver was well behaved during the game though he kept trying to run off while they were here.

Three workers finally arrived and they're really working. Rose and Shirley just left to go run some errands but I chose to stay home and update this blog. I'm also watching the workers and they ARE working.

Jana, would you post a picture of Ellie having her first pedicure? Karen and Mark had left their camera on the sailboat the weekend after they were at the lake and were going to Quebec for ten days so I'm not sure when we'll get those pictures.

I'm looking forward to Labor Day at the lake!!!

Tomorrow, August 24, is Dog Day at Busch Stadium and Chris and Shelly are taking Oliver to the occasion. Chris says you may see them on television before the game starts. It's also called Purina Pooches Day and the Cardinals will be playing Atlanta at 1:15 Central time. I'm not sure where the dogs go during the game but I think they're on the field before the game starts. We'll be watching for them and hoping the Cardinals do as well as they did last night - winning 16 to 3. Shirley is a Cubs fan and, since the Cubs haven't done as well in 100 years as they have this year, it's okay to root for the Cubs, too.

Margaret and Norm's grandaughter, Erica, was off to Westminister College in Fulton this week. This is her first semester. She is Randy and Lynn's daughter. Fulton is half way between St. Louis and the lake house and it's where Churchill coined the 'iron curtain' phrase. Caitlin, Pete and Janet's grandaughter, is back at Gonzaga in Spokane. Nancy drove her up there one day this week from Idaho Falls. I'm sure there's more news with school starting so I'm hoping for some more informative posts.

Rose and Shirley are having a half bath installed in the basement and enlarging Rose's office down there and their contractor is way behind his promised schedule. He is such a likable fellow that it's hard for them to stay upset with them but I think they may have given him his LAST last chance yesterday. It maybe hasn't taken effect because none of his crew has shown up today. Rose and Shirley and Goldman have been down there working most of the day.

We're looking forward to the holiday weekend coming up and I'm looking forward to a full house.

I had some news that I wanted to post. Fat Jack called me yesterday. I had lost his phone number and hadn't heard from him in quite some time. Some of you may remember him from Den's funeral. He sang Amazing Grace so beautifully. He and I - and Margaret, too - all worked together at Midwest Recovery. He knew or has heard about my whole family and I knew or have heard about most of his. His brother, Mike, worked with Brick and me at GMAC for a long time. One of his grandsons, Andrew, is in his second year at St. Louis University. I told him both of mine are in Sanders Elementary in Louisville, Jalen in 5th grade and Brayden in kindergarten. Brayden is not caring for school. He says he doesn't like it because he has to wear his shoes all day. Must be the hillbilly in him. He doesn't have to take naps like he had to in pre-K, though.

Rose is going hiking in Yosemite next month for a few days and I'm going to spend part of the time she's gone in Louisville. I sure hope he likes kindergarten by then. I'm going to stay with Margaret and Norm some of the time, too. We're going to make a day's excursion to Alton which is where Fat Jack lives and spend the day with him. Chris and Shelly have also asked me to stay with them part of the time and I'll want to be at the lake as much as possible. I hate to see the summer end. It's been a really great one.

We need some news from our other contributors. Jana, post those darling pictures of Ellie that you sent me. Also, I'm sure there are things happening in Washington and Oregon and other parts of the country. Sabrina, we need an Abbott posting. Margaret called me today to say she didn't have anything to say. We did talk about the dreary weather. I'm sure there's more Abbott happenings.

Shirley is in the middle of making a wonderful dinner. Rose said she didn't want a potato so I asked Shirley to bake me a really big one. Rose tends to share mine when she declines having one for herself.

Labor Day is going to be an occasion at the lake. Scott and the boys are coming Thursday night. Josie and Lukas don't have school that Friday so Doug isn't sure he can get off that Friday but Suzanne is taking off and we'll be down early. Goldman has meetings and Maddog has to work so everyone else will be down Friday evening. I'm expecting and hoping for a full house. Doug got the waverunner going and the boat is running good. Maybe I should knock on wood.

Dinner's ready. The doctor told me my potassium was low and I should eat bananas. Shirley makes sure I get my potassium. She got me some fresh apricots but I like the bananas better.

I'm a bit behind on posting but so are a lot of other people!!

Pete called with his weekly checkup on Saturday. Kelly and the boys had been to Alaska salmon fishing and whale watching the week before. I think they stayed with a friend in a very primitive cabin out in the wilderness. They brought home 200 pounds of dressed salmon.

Shirley got home from her family reunion in Louisiana on Monday. Her family has a yearly reunion and it's usually in Louisiana. Rose had been in Chicago and she got home on Tuesday. Chris had spent some time with me and we had gone out to dinner on Monday bwith Goldman before Goldman picked Shirley up at the airport.

Weekend was another great one at the lake. I went down on Friday evening with Doug, Suzanne, Lukas, and Josie. Maddog and the 'Army' were there when we arrived. Jeffrey who is that King boy's stepson is on TDY at Ft. Leonard Wood. He came over with two of his buddies, Mo and Bobby, for a weekend of fishing and homecooking. Leslie came up from Springfield on Saturday morning and stopped by her favorite grocery store - HyVee - on the way. Suzanne made the breakfasts and said she had never been thanked so many times for cooking a meal. Leslie made lasagna for dinner Saturday night and Goldman was afraid there wouldn't be any leftovers for us to bring home to him but Leslie made a huge pan full and we brought some back.

The soldiers fished, relaxed, and swapped stories about their tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. (I don't think I even spelled it right.) They rode the Seadoo and we thought something awful had happened to it but Doug saved the day. He loaded it on the trailer, took it to a dealer, expected the worse, and found it was only the battery. What would I do without Doug???

The soldiers took back a mess of fish. Wasn't it about 50 years ago that Bernie was stationed at Ft. Leonard Wood? This is a school that Jeffrey is attending and a temporary assignment but there's a possibility it could be a permanent assignment. His wife is from Washington which is where he's stationed now and their baby (Hannah Anna) is due January 1 so there's mixed feelings there.

We didn't take any pictures this weekend. I guess no one had a camera. I'm still waiting for pictures from the weekend before. Karen has to approve them before we could post them and I haven't seen any of them.

I hope I'm doing this right! I'm on Rose's computer and she has lots of blogs. Just had a call from Scott. It's the first day of kindergarten. Brayden is a bus rider and he insisted on riding the bus with Jalen. First day of school for him was probably harder for Rose, Scott, and me than it was for him. He's a bus rider, you know, not a walker. His Dad and Uncle Ding were only walkers.

This was a great weekend at the lake. Maddog and I went down early Friday and then Maddog went off to be with his Dad. Mark, Karen, and Drew came from St. Louis and Kate and Austin came from Lawrence, KS. All five of those kids enjoyed the lake, the boat, and the waverunner. We've got this big round tube big enough for three people to sit on. If you get the speed up on the waverunner fast enough, it will spin the three that are on it around in circles.

Saturday was Kate's 25th birthday. She is a grown, educated, working woman now, but her Dad still baked her birthday cake and got her a Wii for her birthday. When I told Rose about his cake making abilities, she was impressed that he could even master the fancy hi-tech lake oven. She said she may try 'frying' up a cake herself. She never has. He also treated us all to dinner at my favorite restaurant, Ruthie D's.

Pictures were taken all weekend and I'm expecting some to be published. I'd do it myself but I don't know how.

Brother Joe emailed me last night and said he needed to borrow a lot of money, $28,000.00, to put a new all-season room on their house. As the conversation progressed what he was doing was replacing the old one! It was worn out.!!! Taking such special of his better half put a lot of wear and tear on that room. He was going to email Pete next.

Last week Joe and Donald and three of Donald's grandsons visited me at the lake. Joe and I both made a mental note to keep the boys' names straight with no luck. Joe was the one with freckles and belonged to Jennifer. Donald and Vita were up from Birmingham celebrating the birth of their fifth grandson. Between the two of them, they're caught up with Mama, male wise. Some pictures there would be very welcome. We would see they get posted.

After lunch that day at the lake, Joe had to rush off back to Springfield. Probably to fix supper and serve it to Mary in the new all-season room. Donald, did he need a loan that day? He whispered that maybe we should call some 800 number to verify Pete's credit card.

Hi Brayden, Your Dad told us you read the Blog. We are so happy you are learning to read! Good job. Keep up the good work. Love, Granny, Aunt Rose, and Aunt Shirley

Hi Family!

Thanks to Uncle Joe for posting the link to the Marshfield fire. I did tell him I would post it, but didn't get to it before now. What a sad event. Just glad I got the chance to "drag-the-gut" with the family in the Square before it burned. It just wouldn't have been the same with a burned-out building there.

Hey, I had the idea the other day of doing a posting on Remember My Dad. I woke up with it on my mind and thought of putting something together. So, I'm posting a few pictures in his memory. As some of you may know, a few of us got together on his one year anniversary on June 3rd this year and attended a Mariner's baseball game. We wanted to be together and missed having Mom with us. She was on her way to Montana to meet with her friend Fran Marlar as they were embarking on their Missouri trip, so she couldn't be with us. Four of us, as many as were able, since it was a Tuesday evening, met in Seattle and had dinner and went to the game. Dad loved the Mariner's and was a faithful fan. He was watching a game when he died a year ago, so it was fitting to commemorate his passing with a fun event that he would have enjoyed. I think it was Cyndi's husband Dave's idea, but he wasn't able to attend.

I drove to Olympia and picked up Cyndi, we drove to Seattle and met Doug and Tammy. Tammy was in Seattle on business and had carpooled there so she rode home with us. Doug lives just north of Seattle in Bothell, so it was perfect to meet at a restaurant across the street from Safeco Field. As luck would have it, it was raining like crazy!!! We met for dinner and had more fun chatting and reminiscing than we did watching the game. We reluctantly left the restaurant about the 3rd inning and headed over to the game. You'd think the M's could have at least won the game!! At least they were true to form!

Cheers!! (l to r) Sandi, Tammy, Cyndi and Doug.

Doug and Tammy were remembering some of Dad's quirky sayings. I didn't remember this one: "That fits like a sock on a rooster!" He had so many funny ways of putting things into perspective. It sure made you think about it!

I remember so fondly his laugh. Sometimes he would get so tickled he couldn't breathe and you started to wonder if he was alright. We'd have to give a look to Mom for reassurance that he was okay because she could always tell if he was going to start breathing again. He enjoyed his family! I'll bet you all had a taste of him bragging about his kids - I don't think he did enough bragging about our mother! She is the reason his life was so successful and long!

Train ride at the beach with Mom! Sept 2003

He loved projects! He loved hard work! He and Mom instilled in all of us the value of a good job done right! They both had raised us with a deep sense of fairness and loyalty. I value those traits they taught us along with honesty and integrity. They demonstrated them to us by their example. Looking back at Dad's life I remember his character more than any accomplishment he had - and there were many. Just raising 10 people to live productive lives is enough but there was so much more. I realize as I write this that I am not an authority on all the accomplishments of his life. He was a big brother, a son, an uncle, a patriot! He was a businessman, husband and father. He was a community leader and a mentor. He loved to travel, enjoy his family and friends and a treasured a good conversation on the deck at home. He cared for all of us and insisted on feeding us annually with the steers he and Mom bought and tended to all year so we could have meat on the table for our families.

Sitting on the deck with Mike and Cyndi.

Tending the Fire at the annual meat wrapping weekend!

I have lots of fun memories of my Dad. As a little girl walking into church holding his hand and saying, "I'm happy Daddy!" and feeling him squeeze my hand in reply. I wish I could tell him that now because I am happy in my life and owe a lot of that happiness to him for his influence in my life. I know there was so much more to his life than I can recall here.

I would like to invite others to put in their two cents. Anyone can comment by clicking the red comment field at the end of this posting. It would be fun to hear some of your memories of the "Old Guy". To remember some of his funny sayings or cherished stories of how he affected your life. Got pictures? You can send comments or pics to my email address as well, if you'd like. I can be contacted at safelli@hotmail.com . Thanks for indulging me as I reminisce. So many of you have helped us through this past year as we have learned to say good-bye. We look back fondly with smiles mixed with tears and are learning how to make new memories in these days ahead.

Have fun recalling your own memories!

Love,

The 2Ls