New House!

Well, our trip to Chicago to look for a house went well! We found one we liked and we'll be closing on April 13th. It's in Joliet, IL (yes... that's where the prison is). We are excited about moving and the movers will be here on April 6th to pack and load the next day. We will start out on the 7th on our cross country trek. We are going to stop in South Dakota and see Mt. Rushmore and all the cool historical stuff in that area. Then it's on to Joliet to beat the movers there so we can paint the master bedroom (the pink that's in there right now is not gonna work for us!)

Also, dear son Matthew is finally potty trained. We still have the occasional accident, but overall he is a BIG BOY now! We use the sticker chart method, and every time he fills up his sticker chart we go to Walmart and pick out a new hotwheel!

Love to everyone,
Kristen

Dear All, Happy Green Day, and I hope you remembered better than I did. As I was driving to a mini-job that I have, the radio played "Macnamara's Band"; and I knew that I was in danger of pinches with no green on. Now, I'm in green. We were reminiscing about the visits that we have had with Kristen, Steve, and Matt over the last one+ year, and we have had some very fine times. I'll be making a memory collage of the times together and will send them out for you to see. It will be totally strange for them not to be here, and a close to me having primary relatives right here in Washington. Spring is definitely here at last, with daffodils blooming, and the tulips on their way, and Joe's Gardens (a large garden in the middle of town for veggies, fruit, and flowers) has many rows of things coming up. We have even had days of sunshine and seeing Mount Baker easily. Because I was at my mini-job of visiting with a woman in a nursing home, I missed Linda's call this morning from Florida. But Vonnie enjoyed it and said that they are having a really good trip. Ken was in a flight museum at the time. Bye for now. Love, Llew

Last posting until end of spring break

Please keep our blog going when you have a chance. I hope to read lots of entries when spring break is over.

Yea! Spring Break is here. I cannot believe it. The year has gone by so fast. Hope all of you are doing well. Here are my hopes:

I hope Brandi had a good week in Dallas with her conference and returned home safely. I hope James had a good time with Anna at night. Thank goodness, Anna has wonderful parents and a wonderful support system with Grandma Carol in the day time.

I hope Kristen, Steve, Matthew, and Steve's mom Diane, are having a good week in Chicago looking for a home where they move soon. Kristen is also looking for a new school so she can finish her teaching certification. I can't imagine moving to such an urban center as Chicago, but then again, I am not young, and I don't have to. Someday, I believe the Oklahoma City area sounds possible--we'll see.

I hope Elizabeth, Lewis and Colton arrived safely in Ardmore to visit John. It seems that their drive will become a weekend ritual until school ends for Elizabeth and the boys and they settle in Ardmore. I received a voice mail from Elizabeth that on April 1st Durant will play Ardmore in baseball. Ken and I want to go up and watch Justin play with his team. He will graduate May 26th in Durant. We want to be there for that also.

I hope Teri, Chuck, and Heather are having a wonderful weekend. I didn't hear any more about Bradley's surgery, but hope that all went well with his hand.

I hope Warren and Julie have a wonderful weekend also. Chuck told his dad last night that Warren will work half a day today. I know Warren and Julie emptied their two storage places into the new garage last weekend, so that will give some relief.

I hope Nancy and Tony have a great weekend. I believe Nancy works this weekend because she had last weekend off. It was special that she and Justin and Elizabeth, Lewis, and Colton came to see us when Grandpa was in the hospital last week. We had fun visiting with each other and going out to eat.

I hope Llew and Vonnie are having a super weekend. I can't wait to get to Washington again in June for our cruise and a visit with you two. I hope the animals don't drive Llew crazy and that Vonnie does well in her classes.

Ken and I will fly tomorrow to Orlando via Atlanta, and take a 4-day cruise on Sovereign of the Seas from Port Canaveral Monday afternoon. We hope to visit with one of Ken's high school friends and classmates when we arrive in Titusville where she lives and where we will spend the night at a motel. Jean Gross and her husband used to live in Oklahoma when we did and I met her at their Islip 50th reunion in 2000. Since then she has moved to Florida to be near children after her husband died.

The cruise is our "free one" with Royal Caribbean, although to fly to Florida with other expenses, will cost about the same as a cruise from Galveston with its expenses. We are looking forward to it because we are leaving from a new port and going to the Bahamas where we have not been. If we are lucky, we will drive to the Kennedy Space Center on Monday morning. The ship docks St. Patrick's Day, March 17th and we will drive to Orlando to spend the night in a nearby airport motel and fly home Saturday.

Ken's cardiologist says Ken is doing well after his possible or probable blood clot and cellulitis illness in the hospital last week. It takes 5 days for a patient to receive enough 12-hour injections of blood thinner and the intravenous antibiotic for cellulitis to rid the body of the infection and for the swelling to go down. We are lucky that Dr. Qureshi was the doctor on call that week for the ER when we went since he knows Ken and his medical history so well. After Ken's 50th day at Denton Regional in the last 6 years, I can understand why it is NOT his favorite place to go. However, he had good care and I will never give up or wait to get him where I feel it is best for his continued health. As Dr. Qureshi stated, "You have a good wife and you had better stay married to those compression hose."

Love, linsue

Musings

I am so glad to read our blog. It is different from phone calls or emails, for sure. We can write what is in our heart, mind, soul, and body in a blog much better than sharing with a phone call or an email.

Phone calls are wonderful, are pretty short, and do not allow for possible deeper thoughts. Otherwise we would sound like Chaucer or Shakespeare on our cell phones, with many monologues. With that being said, I still love to call each one of you, and treasure the phone calls you make to me. I hope that I do not interrupt your day too much when I get you.

Emails are pertinent. They seem like business conversations where we impart information between ourselves and others. The beauty of an email is that the receiver can read the message when they choose, on their own time schedule, or when their business emails are not blocked. That's what happens in our school distrcit now. No more hotmail or yahoo at work! I'll have to find a smaller ISP that the district does not know how to block.

In the blog, anyone can write anything, and we can expand our thoughts to more than just cursory "talk." Every personality is so different, and therefore beautiful. I hope that we all continue to show our fuller sides in our family blog. linsue

Sounds like I haven't missed a whole lot.

I have not had much chance to get on the computer at home so I have not read any of this for at least a month.

I love that Linda did not know what Artsy-Fartsy is. I would ha ve thought that a lybrarian would know everything. I have heard that use of slang all my life. I usually think of it as low art. Things that are artistic but not really useful or pretty.

I have been super busy at work and have not even e-mailed any of my friends for a month so. Guess I need to get on the computer at home more often.

News:
Amber has broken up with Nic and made him move out. She had no furniture so I took her a bedroom set that I had. She was really happy to have it. One of her friends apartment building burned down so she has a roomate with no furniture either. We also took her three chairs. She had two couches so she will survive now.

Amber is doing well and should graduate this next December. She will not walk until a year from may but she is OK with that. She is getting antious to get it over with. She is makeing short films and several have been posted on the Lawerence web site. She had her picture in the paper in an article about Film makers in Lawerence last tuesday.

I got to spend the night with her last weekend. That was fun. Chuck drove all the way to Souix city Iowa to pick up an engine he bought to put in the Sunbeam.

Heather is doing well in her first year at a christian High School. She really likes it there.

Brad hurt himself at work. He somehow jambed some spliners of wood from a pallet into his hand. They cannot get the splinters out so he is scheduled for surgery on it Friday.

Everyone else is OK the Boys have spring break next week. Heather has spring break on the week of the 20th.

later

Last blast of winter wind (I hope) - Llew

Well, I am employed once more, and I had my one year checkup on my new 1/2 knee this week, and all is well. The doctor was quite amazed at my leg strength and knee flexibility for my age and the shape it had been in (bone on bone). I am quite amazed that my right knee now is partially bullet proof. Now, in an emergency, if I can only be quick and fleet, I can be of use - ho, ho. My new job is to visit with and read to and with one of the ladies who use to live where we worked at the assisted living home. It will be enjoyable, except to know that she is failing with Parkinsons and strokes. I enjoy her company, and the family approached me when Vonnie and I were going out to the nursing home where she is now to visit her anyway. So, I have my dream job of play and sauntering around on tour of what's happening and reading what I enjoy to someone else. Airline reservation were just made by another of my old friends from the 60's Thibodaux, Louisiana, days for a visit out here with Vonnie and I this July late. My past is reconnecting with me, still, which is nice. All the pets are good, if full of beans. The kitties had to stay indoors today, out of the rain, and were not too thrilled. Wanda the Wak, however, was perched up on the edge of her big pool most of the day with her feathers blown out and helter amiss, and seemed to be loving the wind. Kristen, Kim (the giant kitten) looks more like your cat every day. A definite mesamorph. Just a chatty note. Love, Auntie Llew...Auntie Vonnie is hard at the study table making ready for a test tomorrow.