Update on Gram

Thought this would be a good place to post updates on Grandma, who as you know has been in the hospital suffering from a mysterious, severe and seemingly chronic case of liquid guts (aka diarrhea). I talked to Mom last night and she said that it wasn't getting any better. The doctors were stumped as to the cause. They hypothesized that it might be colon cancer and they did a colonoscopy. Grandma had never had a colonoscopy - not because nobody has ever suggested it but because she has always refused to have one. Today's update (you probably already know this by now but just in case) is that the colonoscopy came back negative, the diarrhea has subsided, and DJ will be moving Grandma from the hospital to Westbury Care Center tomorrow. Sue is going to get her some of her things from her apartment. She doesn't want a phone in her room, so I won't be able to call her. If anybody gets a chance to go and see her, please let the rest of us know how she's doing! As far as I know the doctors still haven't figured out what caused her to be ill to begin with, which is kinda scary. In other news, Mom and Pop were at the Death Valley visitor's center when I called them today, so they're almost to Reno. Love to all, Julie

Hi, all! The North Aurora crew is finally checking in with a very important public service message. Chris and Sami would like everyone to know that under no circumstances are Rubbermaid step stools to be used indoor sleds. Please do not place the step stool at the top of the stairs, sit in it with two stuffed animals securely nestled between your knees and let anyone give you a push. We especially do not advise letting your 4 1/2 year old sister be the one to give you a push. As amazing as this may be to believe, such a ride will result in injury.

Yesterday, against his best judgement, Chris tried such a feat and now has a scraped side. Apparantly, Sami tried this first, but got scared part way down and managed to stop. Somehow, she convinced Chris that he should then give it a go.

Got to go and free our butterflies.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

OK, Here's the first try from the Pop. As soon as mom finishes her shower, we eat breakfast and get the stray items loaded into the PW we will be set for take off. Our first destination, after a long leisurely drive, will be Boulder City Nevada to visit our friends Dennis & Teddy Law. Then on to the National Bowling Tournament in Reno, Nevada. While there we plan on visiting with more friends George Gabel & Linda Pickett and Larry & Nancy Hendrick. Wish me luck with the
bowling. I'll need it since I have not done very well this season. When the bowling is finished we will head straight for Hyrum, Utah and a visit with our favorite daughter and son-in-law. And, of course, a breakfast at Angie's. See ya all later.

2 more days until vacation!

Howdy, fellow bloggers. I'm still wondering if the North Aurora branch of our family is on board....

Received word today that Aunt Doris died on Sunday. It's been 2 1/2 years since Uncle Art died, and she's been living in Racine in an assisted living facility. She was 85, had Altzheimers and a very decreased lung capacity - was on oxygen 24 hours a day. God rest her soul.

Did any of you know that Bill Hach's 2 daughters, Ashley and Claire, are both students at Virginia Tech? Ashley is a senior engineering major, who was to have a class in that building in the early afternoon. Both girls are OK, but they had many friends who were victims. My heart certainly goes out to all who are affiliated with the school. Our world is full of a lot of terrible things. I believe that Julie and Brandon's friends Jonathan and Susan Frantz are alumni of that school.

Grandma is getting over an intestinal flu. She seems to be feeling better today. Pop and I plan to leave town on Friday, God willing. We sure have a lot to do to get ready. I'm hoping that my boys will stay in touch with Gram, at least by phone, while we are gone. We'll be visiting friends in Boulder City, NV and Truckee, CA, then going to Reno for the bowling tournament on Sunday and Monday. After that we are off to Hyrum and we anticipate a wonderful visit with the Chards. Will probably leave there on Sunday the 6th of May, unless they kick us out sooner, and be home late on the 7th. We're going there again the last week in June, since Pop has elected to join them on another river rafting trip through Cataract Canyon. I've elected to wait for them in Hyrum. Joie and Brody will keep me company.

Time for bed (I got up at 4 today). Love to you all!

Snow? NO!! Spring breeze? PLEASE!!

It's cold here, too! Well, maybe not as cold as out there but they're talking about some rain and maybe some flurries this afternoon. We get a 1-day reprieve on Saturday and then another storm rolls in. Will it EVER really be spring? I certainly hope so. We have a LOT of yard work and other outdoorsy-type stuff to do and I'd like to take advantage of my springtime motivation while I can.

It turns out I'm not running that marathon relay on May 19th after all. I'm a little disappointed because I've been working toward it for several weeks already and I know I could have done it, but Brandon and I got invited on another river trip - this time on the Desolation Canyon section of the Green River - with our friends Jason and Nicki who are moving away to Nebraska at the end of May. I think the gals on the relay team have found a fill-in runner, so that helps to ease my guilty conscience.

SNOW!

Forget the painting for awhile, Dave. This would be a glorious day if it were January. Every branch of every tree and bush is coated with wet snow. Every budding bud and bloom is frozen. You Illinoians know about this, but I needed to share with the Utah folks.

Pop's gone to work again, and I don't go til afternoon Time to make the inevitable ham and au gratin potatoes. Yesterday was the ham pineapple rice thing, and then we'll be following up with 14 bean soup. Wanted to make split pea, but the Jewel was OUT of green split peas. Happens after every Easter. I should have planned ahead :-(

Glad to have you on board, Dave. To the shower I go.... Mom

Roll Call

I am here!

So my favorite (not really, just convenient) pool and dart establishment close to work is now going out of business as a result of the new town no-smoking ordinance. ok really their drinks were too expensive and they had horrible service but I think they were looking for a good excuse to close their doors. Anyways, no more free darts or free pool Mondays.

As part of my video game hobby to pass the time and stay out of trouble while Melissa is not home from work I bought a game called Guitar Hero. It came with a play guitar that I can hook up to my xbox. We actually had a Guitar Hero party last Friday where we had head to head competitions and a bracket for individual competition, I came in second! Anyways the game is fun to play w/ friends simultaneously so I might go over to my friend Ryan's house from work for "band practice". The game actually resembles playing a guitar very well, simulating many techniques such as up-down strumming, hammer-ons and pull-offs, and the guitar in the music stops or makes a string broken noise when you miss a note. It makes me feel like the rock star I was never able to be!

For those that don't already know my friend Mike Rejmenczak's brother was married last Saturday so I got a chance to run into the Jackson family and some other old familiar faces. Mike is in Alabama training to be a warrant officer and then onto 18 months of helicopter training to be a pilot.

We then went to Steve's in Romeoville for the after hours party and then spent the night at 2102 to wake up to a wonderful Easter breakfast with our fabulous parents. We later stopped by Grandmas for a short visit and got to hear first hand about the abominable theft of her diamond pendant. The traveling road show then went to South Elgin to spend Easter afternoon at Melissa's Uncle's house.

Other than that I'm just waiting for some warm weather so I can get some outdoor painting done and launch my hydrogen rocket!

PS - they need emoticons so I can better express my feelings/emotions while writing :)

Love, Dave

Forgot to mention that Rob and Lisa sold their townhouse. Now they have to find a house to purchase.
Dave, Melissa, D.J., Michele - are you out there?

Gram's greatgrandchildren #'s 14 and 15

Grandma heard from Rob today that he and Lisa are expecting in November. Mike and Megan are expecting in October or November. I've been cleaning all day and I'm not done. Hope my Easter visitors are tolerant :-)

The magic of Picasa unleashed

Just messing around with using Picasa to add pictures to posts. If you see a picture of Rainbow Arch then I did something right!

Hope the egg coloring is going beautifully. I can't remember the last time I had an egg salad sandwich, but with all this talk about hard-boiled eggs the next time is going to be SOON!

Dave, we got your cute thank-you note yesterday. I hope the rocket works! At least its a good excuse to get outside and launch projectiles into the sky - and its greener (hydrogen fuel) and safer (no glass to shatter) than blowing up bottle bombs at the playground. ;)

Easter is coming!

I just spent 20 minutes trying to sign on to this thing. Some of us are technically inept. I couldn't remember my user name and password, and they weren't what I wrote down. I'm still not sure how I got here....
Tomorrow is Easter egg coloring with Chris and Sami and associates. Papa and I are looking forward to that. I even remembered to hard boil some eggs.
Pop has gone bowling and I'm trying to focus on putting this house in some kind of order. Our dishwasher is broken and the microwave only works when it feels like it. Makes meal preparation kinda' chancy.
Winter has returned. The daffodils have all bloomed, and all been destroyed by the freezing temps. The next 3 days are going to be even worse. The lilac buds appear to have been nipped as well. What hath global warming wrought? On the up side, all 4 goldfish survived winter in the frozen pond.
This is sounding a bit gloomy, but I wanted to see if I could post something. Cheers!

ok I'll go first

We're signed up for another river trip this year. We and a group of our friends submit permit applications each year for various rivers and dates and if we're lucky one or more of us literally wins the lottery and gets one. This year Tony pulled a Cataract permit. This is the last stretch of the Colorado River before it gets to Lake Powell, and it flows through Canyonlands National Park. This is also the very same stretch of river (and a similar mix of folks) that Pop joined us for last year. Brandon and I immediately signed up to come along and we managed to also secure one of the coveted spots for Pop. Unfortunately (or fortunately from her perspective) there weren't any additional spots for Mom. Someday maybe Brandon and I will pull our own permit and we'll be able to invite anyone we want. I would love to have more of my family experience one of these trips! The trip is at the end of June and it sounds like Mom is going to try and drive out here with Pop, stay at our place and dogsit for us while we're gone, then drive down to Loa to meet us at a friend's house for 4th of July festivities before hitting the road back home.

In other news I've been "training" for the Ogden Marathon relay. NO - not the whole marathon, just a 6-mile part of it. Its on May 19th and I'm running on a 4-woman team. I know what you're thinking. I'm nuts. You're right.

I'm in too - sounds like fun

thanks for the idea

Sounds terrific to me. Sort of like a round-robin letter from years gone by, but infinitely faster.

welcome to woodworks!

Dear Wood family,

Just for giggles I thought I'd start up a Wood family blog. This is a place where each of us can post anecdotes, pictures, questions, etc., all in the name of keeping the whole family (ok, GETTING the whole family) updated with what goes on in our busy lives. I know that I wish I was better at keeping in touch with all of you, and I would love to be more involved in your lives as well.

So what do you say? There might be a bit of a learning curve when it comes to posting and uploading pictures, but so far it seems to me that Blogger is pretty user-friendly.

Lots of love,
Julie