Pictures of Branson Trip

Bronson's 3rd Birthday & Branson, MO Trip

We celebrated Bronson's third birthday on Sunday, September 18. He is growing up so fast but is a sweetheart. He was big enough this year to really get into the party. This is Bronson blowing out his candles on his Big Bird Birthday Cake. He had a great time!!

The weather has been much better here in November. Usually October is our great fall month but this year it has been November. It has been unseasonably warm, and sunny which has been great since October was so wet and cool. But I believe next week things will be going down hill but I guess that is to be expected since Thanksgiving is almost here.

I don't know where all the time goes - we have been busy with one thing or another. I have been volunteering at the hospital a little more and we have had our craft fair. Jack and I both got our flu shots so hopefully we will keep healthy this winter.

Last weekend we went to Branson, MO., to see all the Christmas lights. They start their Christmas season down there the first part of November. We went to a country music show on Friday night, Pierce Arrow. This is a good family show and we just love their comedian. So that started the weekend off to a good start. Then on Saturday we went out to Silver Dollar City. They have over 4 million Christmas lights shining. It was just beautiful. If you are not in the Christmas mood when you leave there you never will be. This was the first weekend for all the Christmas festivities so was a really large crowd. Also, with Veterans Day being the following week the crowds were big. Our friends, Jeannene and Warren, met us in Branson - we really met up at the restaurant in Ozark, MO - Lambert's for lunch on Friday. If you haven't been to this restaurant, it is quite a treat. They are known for their "throwed rolls" - which is what they do and all their "down home" cooking. Then they went with us to SDC on Saturday. We had a great time with them, as usual. On Sunday, we did some shopping at the outlets and at the Landing. On Monday, we came home. Overall, it was a great trip.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, Jack and I are on the transition board for our housing area. We have been busy meeting with the other members trying to get things lined out for the coming year. It has been a challenge but we are making progress and hopefully it will all work out and we will have the necessary paperwork completed before 2010 begins.

Starting at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow we are going to be keeping our two littlest grandsons, Bronson and Nico, while their parents take an anniversary trip to Miami Beach. Chad and Cathy have not been on a trip by themselves since Bronson has been born so they definitely deserve one. Their 5th anniversary is tomorrow and they are going to come home on Monday. Chad and Cathy are really excited about their trip but also have some reservations leaving the kids. I know they are going to be so homesick by Monday (hopefully we can keep the kids busy and they won't get homesick too bad). Cathy's Mom is going to take over Saturday night so will just have them Friday and Saturday. Wish us good luck!!

Cold Weather in the Fall - October 2009

This is Jack's new hobby. He decided he wanted to build him some of these airplanes. He also found out it takes more time than he thought. This is the first one.

Bronson's First Birthday Party: (Grandma & Grandpa got him the dinosaur)

Cathy, Bronson, Nico, & Chad:

Nico says he would just as soon be somewhere else:

Well, you wouldn't know it was October in the Midwest by the weather. We have had unseasonably cool weather the last few weeks. Usually our Octobers' are sunny, nice and warm, but this year sure has been different. We have gloom, rain, and cold weather for the last three weeks. Maybe it will get it out of its system, and we will have warm, sunny weather for November. It has been down in the high 30s at night and maybe in the high 40s in the day with no sun. We are definitely ready for a change - tomorrow and Monday they (the weathermen) are saying it will be sunny and in the 60s - boy I hope they are right for a change.

We have been busy the last few weeks with doctor appointments, volunteering at the hospital, and with the family and friends.

We celebrated our grandson Nico's first birthday on September 26. I can't believe he is "one" already. They grow up so fast.

We celebrated our youngest son, Chad's birthday on October 8 (his birthday is really the 11th but we were going to be out of town). He turned 38 - where does the time go??

Our grandson, Zach, is playing Freshman Football this year and we have been going to his games. He is doing great - playing fullback, linebacker and is the kickoff kicker. Last week he made two touchdowns - boy did Grandma jump up and down on those!! His team has not lost a game - next week is his last game. Jack was saying if these kids stay together all thru high school by the time they are seniors they will really have a great team.

We met our friends, Bruce and DeAnn Hoover, for dinner on the Kansas City Plaza. It is always great to see them and catch up with their family. We ate at Jack's Stack Bar-A-Que and it was so good. We plan on going back to this place.

On October 9, we went to Lake of the Ozarks for a few days. My sister went with us and we went into Lebanon (which is our home town) to a mini-family-reunion. I have an uncle that lives in San Diego who was going to be in town for a class reunion so we wanted to visit with him and his daughters. It turned out to be a nice visit with relatives that we hadn't seen in about 30 years. One of my cousins has traced our family back to the 1200s. That was pretty interesting. She has put together scrapbooks with old pictures of when we were all kids. We stayed at the Lake until Monday, October 12. The weather was not the best but at least it didn't rain just cool and cloudy. Jack did some fishing and caught a few Bass, so that was enough to make his trip worthwhile.

We had an homeowners meeting this last week as our homeowners association is being handed off from the developer to the homeowners. Well, this is a new experience since our little neighborhood is small and has not had the responsibility of this assignment. Well, guess who got elected to the Board the first year?? Oh well, somebody needed to do it so I guess we will learn as we go. The first year I'm sure will be the hardest but once we get things established it won't be so bad, maybe!! So keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we will need it!!!

Tomorrow we will be celebrating our grandson, Bronson's birthday. As you can tell October is a very busy birthday month for our family. He will be turning "3" and he keeps us on our toes. But we love it!!

Melvern Lake & Smithville Lake

(Still having problems with getting the pictures on here in order - so here they are up front)

Here are the Kansas flowers:

Here are the guys - Don, Dave & Jack:

Here are the girls - Becky, Cathy & Linda (and Brandy):

Our friends - Don and Linda:

Our friends - Bill and Donna:

Here is Melvern Lake at sunrise.

On Tuesday, September 15, Jack and I packed up the trailer and drove out to Melvern, Kansas, Lake. This was the first time we had been out to this lake. It is about 90 miles West of Kansas City. It is a beautiful lake - very well build and landscaped. It is a Corp of Engineer lake so it is very well maintained and beautiful.

Two couples that we met while in Florida last winter - Dave and Becky (from Illinois) and Don and Linda (from Alabama) were coming to Melvern also. Dave and Becky had some friends that were workkampers there and they had recommended the lake to them. So Dave sent out e-mails to everybody to see if we would want to have a reunion there for a few days.

Also, we have another couple who camp there a lot so I contacted them (Bill and Donna from Olathe) to see if they would like to go out at the same time.

As it turned out, we all were there for a few days. We had a really nice visit with everybody. The first night we were there, Dave and Becky had everybody over for chili and bar-a-que meat sandwiches. They were camped on the lake side so enjoyed the scene.

The second day we visited with Bill and Donna. We played games and caught up on our families. We met Bill and Donna in Arizona a couple years ago through mutual friends, Bruce and DeAnn.

The third day, Jack and I had everybody over for happy hour and snacks and then we went to Don and Linda's for chicken stew (Southern style)!! It was really good. Then we all played Yard Golf. We had a wonderful time and fellowship with all these great people.

Then on Friday, September 18, we packed up the trailer and headed back towards Kansas City. We had prior plans to camp out at Smithville Lake (just North of KC) over the weekend.

On Saturday, our granddaughter Emma, came out to spend the weekend with us. Also, on Saturday night our friends, Dora and Marlin, came out and we cooked out and build a camp fire. The weather was just great - sunny and no wind. Enjoyed the evening with them.

Emma went home on Sunday afternoon and Jack and I remained at Smithville until Monday afternoon. We could not have ask for any better fall weather than we had on these outings. Fall is great time to go camping!!

Stressful Three Weeks - Jack

We have had a stressful three weeks. When I last posted, we were waiting on the results of Jack's MRI on his left ear area. Well, we received the results on September 3, from his Ear, Nose and Throat doctor. He said that the MRI showed a leison on his brain. He said since this was out of his expertise he was referring us back to Jack's internalist for further testing.

On September 9, Jack had a CAT scan and bone scan done. We got the results back on this on September 11, and everything looked good. But his primary doctor still wanted us to go to a neuro-surgeon to let him reviews all the tests and determine that things were all right.

So we had to wait until today, September 22, to get into this doctor. So today we finally got a complete "A- O.K" from the neuro-surgeon. Boy were we excited. He said everything looked fine but there was a small abnormality but was nothing to worry about. He says these things show up different ways in the films but not to worry about it. We really liked the doctor - had a wonderful bedside manner. He said to go out and enjoy life every day and that is just what we are going to do!!

Thanks to everyone that had Jack in their prayers and thoughts over the last few weeks.

Fall Weather in KC

What great fall weather we are having in KC!! September came in this a.m. with 50 degrees on our porch. This is my favorite time of the year - cool mornings and warm afternoons. August in our area has been quite cool and wet this year which is really a big change from our typical August.

We haven't done any exceptional type activities here lately. We have had the little ones a couple of times and have enjoyed them.

We went to the KC Royals baseball game a week ago. This was a really nice treat as they have just renovated the stadium this last year. It is beautiful!! It has an updated scoreboard with running scoreboards all around the stadium. The lights are so brilliant. They have added a number of restaurants, bars, and other eateries all along the back field. It didn't seem like a stadium more like a large entertainment complex. Very nice!! Of course, it hasn't helped our poor Royals to win any more games. And now our Chiefs are not starting off any better......

We have been to two concerts at Crown Center (which is a large entertainment/hotel complex in the downtown area of KC). These concerts are free to the public - you just bring your lawn chairs and find you a place to sit. We have been going to these concerts for about 15 years or more. It is a nice place to go a relax and enjoy the outdoors.

Update on Jack's hearing problems. The doctor decided about a week ago he wanted him to get an MRI on his ear area. He is still not satisfied with the other two tests. So Jack had the MRI last Friday but we have not received the results on it yet. You know it seems like it takes forever to hear back on tests these days. Hopefully we will get something by tomorrow or Thursday.

Enjoy this nice fall weather!!

August 16, 2008

Where does the time go? It doesn't seem like it has been three weeks since I have updated the blog, but it has.

We have been busy with our routine activities - keeping the grand kids, playing cards with our friends, doctor's appointments, and volunteering at the hospital.

Our grandson, Bronson, who is going to turn three in October stayed all night with us for the first time. His parents thought that he wasn't old enough to spend the night away from them but we proved them wrong!! I had been wanting to keep him so we planned it for Friday, August 7. I thought maybe if Emma, our granddaughter, stayed too that he would be happier with her to play with. And it worked out just fine. He was just fine and didn't even ask for his parents - so we have passed that milestone!!!

Jack went to an Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist on August 6, to have his hearing checked. His hearing has really seem to go down the last couple of years in his left ear. He blamed it on him working around loud machinery over a lot of years but when he had his hearing test the Dr. thought that his left ear was a lot worse than his right one. So he is going back on August 20 to have another test done to determine that there isn't anything else causing this, i.e., growth/tumor. We don't think that is what it is but who knows so we need to rule it out. He had a bicycle wreck about 33 years ago and he hit the left side of his head on pavement and had to have corrective surgery on his cheek and eye orbit, so we think maybe that might be some of the cause. So we will find out after the test is completed.

On August 10, we went back to Lebanon, to take Aunt Dorothy to have her second cataract surgery. We stayed with her until Wednesday afternoon, and then went down to the Lake of the Ozarks for a couple of days. The weather was pretty nice and enjoyed that. Jack didn't have the best fishing but did catch one keeper bass.

Tomorrow we are getting new living room furniture delivered. We bought a new sofa, chair & ottoman. We got chocolate colored leather. Looking forward to that. We put our old furniture on Craig's List and sold it to a couple here in Liberty. Glad to get that done so we don't have to fool with it.

Can't believe it is time for school to start again. The grandchildren (Zach and Emma) start their school year tomorrow. They are both excited to go as Zach is the big guy starting high school (can't believe that)!! Emma is going into 4th grade. Oh my, where does the time go. Zach has started football practices so he is excited to start playing.