The Geezer Trip

The Geezer Trip

Here we are sitting on the curb in Cooperstown, NY in front of the Baseball Hall of Fame waiting for the parade. L to R are my friends Rich Pacente, Bob Janus, Phil Ritchey & me. Everything was fine up until game time when it started to rain and the game was canceled. We had a good time anyway. The rest of the trip was great 6 ballgames later and a lot of good ballpark food in addition with visits to West Point, Annapolis, Fort McHenry and a walking tours of New York City & Washington DC we headed for home very tired but pleased with ourselves.

The Geezers in New York City with the Wall Street Bull

10 weeks to go...

Hello All,

Yep, just 10 weeks left. I'm still feeling great, just tired. I've been sleeping well with the help of my worm pillow. Thanks again J,B, & G.

Our garage sale a few weeks back was a huge success! The weather was perfect. We made over $200!!!

Dave painted peanuts room last week and shampooed the carpet yesterday. We also ordered the crib and dresser/changing table. They should be here in 2-3 weeks. Everything is coming together nicely.

I'm looking forward to Sami's America bday party. Dave may have to work :( He is supposed to work the weekend because it's their half year close, but we have a wedding to go to, so instead, he'll probably have to work on the 4th. We'll see.

Don, how was your geezer trip? Hope you had fun.

What a beautiful weekend we are having. I'm off to enjoy the rest of it.

Have a terrific week!

Love,
Melissa

Update

Sami would like to thank everyone for the birthday wishes. Thank you to Aunt Julie, Uncle Brandon, and Gavin for the awesome balloon bouquet. She has been telling everyone all about it.

I can't believe it has been so long since we have blogged. School kind of took over our lives. That doesn't excuse the past month when we have been school free. Well, we were school free for about 2 weeks, then I went to a homeschool conference and bought some books to keep us from forgetting things. So we try to read every day and have religion two days a week and do some math work two days. Reading is most important as when I have let it slide in the summer, I pay dearly in the fall with Chris. We start almost from scratch for two to three months and then it kicks in again.

We had vacation bible school at church this week. Chris and Sami enjoyed it very much. I led the Bible story portion. Basically, we read and discussed a Bible story as it related to the topic of the day. Last year I conducted games. I enjoyed this year much more. Reading stories is definetly more my style then trying to keep a group of kids focused on a game and then discussing the lessons the game taught. The closing ceremony was today. The kids performed the songs learned, and Chris and Sami each got to read a little summary of one of the days lessons. I had no idea they would do this. Chris did well, but Sami was in her glory. The microphone was too high, but that didn't stop her. She was quite the ham. There was a picnic afterwards. Cousin Kathleen and my mom came by. I apologize to Nana for not mentioning it to her. We had Kathleen and clan over this afternoon for cake and they forgot Kathleen. The girls are very happy to be having a sleepover. Not sure they understand at some point there will be sleeping, if not by them, at least by DJ and I.

The biggest news is that Sami learned to ride a two wheeler. She's been on and off trying. Monday she decided she needed to know how so she could show Kathleen on her birthday on Friday. So Monday afternoon she went out and in about an hour figured out how to start by herself and turn. Tuesday, we went to a park after bible school and she rode a one mile bike path around the park. She has been flying ever since. Her biggest fear was that she wouldn't be able to go as fast on a two wheeler, so she just skipped the slow, careful stage and went straight to out of control, reckless.

Otherwise our lives are about the same as always. DJ has been working hard. He put in some long weekends and has been given Monday off and going in later this week. We meet some families in our homeschool group at a nearby park on Tuesday mornings. We go to various parks and forest preserves, zoos and the arboreteum. Chris has been working hard on getting that black belt. Sami has been put in a higher level class in gymnastics. Our friend Jessica, she's Chris' age, goes to the same school and now Sami gets to be in class with her. Jess is in a higher level so they get separated after awhile.

Even bigger news then Sami and her bike, is that DJ's friend, Rich, is engaged. He finally proposed to his girlfriend about two weeks ago. She is very nice and has twin girls about six months younger than Sami. They are talking about a Vegas wedding in the end of September.

Hugs to all.

Birthday Girl

Happy 6th Birthday, Sami!!!

Uncle Dave and I hope you're having a wonderful and and that you're doing something fun to celebrate. :)

Love,
Aunt Melissa

Hi Kids,

Mom pretty much covered everything that has been going on here. Rich's retirement party was lots of fun. They had tons of food and drink. Must have cost them a fortune. Mom and I laid low on the drink but the food got to us. We both overate and suffered for it on the scale this morning

My plan for today was to spend it outside digging up plants and potting them for my annual plant sale but the rain hit so here I am.

I think that I told you all that we stripped the wallpaper in the hall bath and repainted it with a faux finish and planned to have a small mural painted on the wall opposite toilet. Well mission accomplished. The mural is the Escalante River. The artist painted it from a picture that I took while on a back pack trip, down th Harris Wash, with J & B. Hopefully, with my limited computerese, I will be able to attach some pictures of it.

Hope you are all keeping cool.

All for now

LOVE Pop

June

Howdy, family!

We're doing well, although we're a little torn apart by all the thorns from the climbing roses that Pop trimmed on Thursday. He spent hours, many of them on top of the carport trellis, cutting out deadwood and heaving it over the side. I spent some time with the clippers, cutting it up small enough to contain in the yard waste. Climbing roses are beautiful, but someone needs to develop a strain that only climbs to 8 feet and then stops.

Yesterday was Rich Pacente's retirement party and we didn't get home until nearly midnight - pretty late for us! Now Pop has to start getting ready for the Geezer's baseball road trip. They (Pop, Bob Janus, Rich Pacente and Phil Ritchey) plan to depart Wednesday morning in Bob's SUV for baseball games in Boston, New York (Mets), Cooperstown (Hall of Fame Game, Cubs vs San Diego), NY Yankees, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington. I get to stay home and watch the water level of the pond and pray that the grass doesn't grow, since I have notoriously bad luck trying to start the lawn mower.

Gram is hanging in there. Her vision seems to be declining pretty rapidly from the macular degeneration and she's quite tired most of the time, but she and Linda really hit it off. Linda's been back since May 13th and won't be taking any time off until I fill in for her for 24 hours on June 19th. That's how she wants it (She's making good money) so we'll be fine as long as Gram doesn't run out of money. Sadly, interest rates on her C.D.'s keep falling with each renewal.

Pop will miss his birthday as well as Father's Day while he's away. Does that mean they're cancelled? Meanwhile, we can celebrate Father's Day at Naper Days on Saturday. I believe that The North Aurora contingent will be attending, and I invite the Palatine branch of the family to join us as well. Please check out www.naperdays.org for more info.

I think I need to get some stuff done today, so I'll look forward to hearing from you.

Mom

Chard Update

Hello family! We're supposed to be out working in the yard today but it's 50 degrees and drizzling. This is the coolest and wettest June we've had in a long time. We bought pepper, tomato, cuke, and squash starts a couple of weeks ago. We transplanted them into bigger pots and they've been growing in the greenhouse where I work. I brought them home yesterday - they're HUGE now! We need to get them in the ground ASAP. Hopefully tomorrow when it's supposed to be sunny and warmer. Today is the 3rd annual Four Paws yard sale. I organized it the last 2 years but told them last year (when I was pregnant) that I couldn't do it this year. We still offered up our shed as a collection point for donated stuff, and this morning we hauled it all to the sale.

Last weekend we traveled to Wayne County to check out some land that our friends had heard was available for purchase. It's in Fremont and is part of a 480-acre family ranch. The Horrocks Ranch is still in operation, but they're not in great financial shape. They don't want to sell any of their land, but they're willing to let go of a few acres of the rocky hillside on the north end of their property. We checked it out and found a spot that we're pretty excited about. It's rocky and its covered in sagebrush, cactus (one was blooming with big red flowers) and juniper, but its close to town and it overlooks a pastoral valley of irrigated fields. We're going to buy at least 5 acres and at most 10 acres, for $5K/acre. We're currently looking into what it will cost to run a water line and electricity up to the spot where we would eventually build a home. The views below were generated in Google Earth. Capitol Reef National Park is just south and west of Fremont, and Fish Lake is north and East.

Meanwhile, I had a heart-to-heart with my boss on Thursday and pretty soon I'll be dropping from 30 hours/week to 20 hours/week. Everyone tells you that having a child results in huge changes in your life. I knew they were coming, but I guess I had the wrong impression of how I would handle them. My career is an important part of my life, but it pales in comparison to the importance of my spending time with Gavin. I will lose my insurance benefits, but we can get coverage through Brandon's employer. I will still get my retirement benefits, which is GREAT.

We've been slowly working on remodeling the "TV room" area upstairs. We added a closet and re-did the banister at the top of the stairs. We covered up the yucky walls of the stairwell with wainscoting and installed a new railing. When I say "we" I mean Brandon. Its almost ready for paint, so its getting close.

All for now! Hope you're enjoying the weekend. Love, Julie