IT'S A BOY

Erin and Thomas had a baby boy this morning at 9 am.  They named him Silas Daniel Frankie.  He weighed 7 lbs. 3 oz. - 21 inches long.  Larry said he is a beautiful baby.
Larry and Barb are now grandparents and Keith and I have become great grandparents.  It's exciting!!!

Alice

Ralph

I am wondering if anyone could share some humerous or silly memories of my grandpa Ralph - whether he was your sibling, in-law, uncle, father, grandfather, or even great-grandfather.

A few I just thought of...
I always liked how he said grandma's name:  CATH-ERN ( as opposed to CATH-REN)
I remember how he'd give us grandkids a nickle for taking off his shoes & socks while he sat in his recliner.
I thought it was so funny how he'd sniff Vicks Vapo-Rub to open up his sinuses.
There was always an open can of cashews or peanuts in the cupboard.
He hummed alot - I think this is where I got the habit too!

Crystal

"Serendipity"

Serendipity is a word that has fascinated me ever since long ago passing a gift shop with that name and then  learning that the definition is "something found that was not sought for and is agreeable or valuable."

Today in glancing through the AFA journal, I found a serendipity as follows:

                 Through the tempest
                   and night He went
                           seeking,
                And He sought it at
                   at such fearful cost,
                But I'm glad that He
              sought till He found it,
                  For I am the sheep
                      that was lost.
  

Mmmm...

 

You know what I thought about this morning? Supper. A real, home cooked supper. At my home.

Oooh, I pictured a pork chop, some mashed potatoes (OK, Hungry Jack instants), some corn,  and some Hawaiian bread. Probably not a salad for me, but Dave would pour applesauce on his plate and eat it with his food. That’s a nasty habit he has, in my opinion.

I used to do that…cook supper. People ask us now, “Well, what do you eat?” And I don’t really know. To cook that meal above, I would have to go grocery shopping. But we usually have something in the fridge we can find to eat. It’s just not a good home-cooked meal like it used to be.

Today I missed it. BUT, tomorrow or the next day, if I make it happen, I know I will be halfway through the mess of it all and I’ll be saying to myself, “Is it really worth it?” Basically, I hate to cook.

What do you like to cook for supper?

Anderson Glenn Schieler

Anderson was born Friday, February 15th, at St. Francis Hospital in Peoria.  He weighed 3 lbs 6.8 oz.  The day before his birth he rode in a helicopter with his mother from St. Joseph Hospital in Bloomington to Peoria. 

Charity is home from the hospital and doing much better but very tired.  Tomorrow we plan to go back to be with Anderson.  This will continue (back and forth to Peoria) until the baby is able to come home.  He is breathing fine on his own.  He was under the bilirubin light today for jaundice but the numbers are coming down.  They plan to begin feeding him his mother's milk tomorrow.  He is and has been receiving nutrition through an IV in his tummy.  This will gradually switch over to the bottle.  If he gains weight from the milk and can thrive without the added assistance of the IV, he will be able to come home.  When he is able, he will get his milk from his mother without the bottle.  The earliest he will be able to come home is likely next Monday.  But they don't know, because they don't know how he will respond to the feedings.  Today we got our first pictures of him with his eyes open.  His nurse said he has opened them a lot, but not when we were there.

Yesterday, Glenn and the children got to see him for the first time.  Glenn had the flu was told by the hospital staff he couldn't be near the baby when he was born.Yesterday, he wore a mask and his doctor had him on an antibiotic and said he is no longer contagious. (We hope.)

Because of the flu, Glenn couldn't go in with Charity to have the baby (c-section) so I was there with her instead.  I got a couple pictures on my cell phone I could text to Glenn.

We are glad Mother and baby are doing as well as they are. ----Carol

ANOTHER PROJECT BEGINS

We've - rather Jerry - has begun another project that might keep him busy until the grass is green and needs mowing. He is stripping the wallpaper from the kitchen and possibly from the family room, if all goes well. He searched online and found a "product" called "Simple Strip" which is supposed to make the project "simple"!! :) He plans to work slowly and carefully. The product, which was shipped from the United Kingdom, seems to work well. He received a package of some white strips which he has to soak in a bucket of the special liquid, place the paper on top of the wallpaper and spray with a specially provided liquid that dissolves the wallpaper paste. A "scorer" was included in the package which was actually the first step of the process. He says it was much easier than stripping the bedroom paper. So, we'll see how the rest of it goes.

Southeast Snow

Our corner of the world got snow today.  Unfortunately we were about ten-fifteen miles south of the southern line of activity, but most areas north and east of us got a nice snowfall, and apparently it was the nice kind of snow that sticks and makes good snowballs.

This is my niece (Mike's brother's daughter), husband, and adorable daughter, enjoying the snow at her folks' house, an hour northeast of us.  I know y'all don't know them, but thought it was such a pretty picture, and so classic of people enjoying rare southern snow, that you would like to see it anyway.

Birthday Party

The RDK family celebrated Mom's birthday today at Steak N Shake. We were missing Cleve and Kathleen and David's Linda. Marty brought a friend to join us, as you can see sitting by Cathy. Mom turned 86 today. She is in good health and is enjoying her new home at Mercy Creek. We had good food, as usual, and really enjoyed visiting around the table.

On a sadder note, Carolyn Schlipf's grandson, Matt Schweigert, was killed in a car accident yesterday in Tremont. He is the son of Joe and Nancy Schweigert. The obituary should be in the Peoria Journal Star tomorrow. I'm sure they would appreciate our prayers.

Houston, Tx

Hello All,

This post has been a long time coming...we were in Texas for two weeks and I just didn't have everything I needed at hand to post some pictures like I wanted to. We are home and I am back at my computer, so I will fill you in our activities of the last two weeks.

Gloria wanted to go to Joe and Jamie's in Houston for a 1 or 2 month stay. She has always driven herself down there - by herself - with her birds and her dog - straight through - taking her about 20 hours. This time, Dave and I offered to take her down in Dave's van and then we would go back and get her when she was ready to come home.

We started with a side trip to Indianapolis to see Dave and Jodie's Emma peform in "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe." She trains with YAT (Young Actor's Theatre) in Indy and she was given the award for the "young actor of the year" with their program. She proved to us that she is a great performer and we had such a good time spending the evening there.

Gloria, Dan and wife Tami, Jodie, Myself, Amy, Dave, and EMMA



 

We left Indy about 9 pm and hit the road for Houston.

This is the van, packed up with the three large bird cages and the dog cage. Gloria held "Doggie" all the way there. The trip took us 17 hours. It was cold outside so we didn't even stop long for bathroom or meal breaks as we didn't want to leave the birds for too long of a time in a cold van. The birds were covered up and were pretty quiet all the way, except for the occasional squawking outburst of "Goodnight, Angel!" or "Mom!" or "Dog-gie!" or any number of things the birds say.

We arrived at Joe and Jamie's and enjoyed two nice days and nights with them. It was a great opportunity to spend some time with them and getting to know Dean and Benjie. Dean is a senior and Ben (as he prefers to be called) is in 7th grade.

Then we left Gloria there, and Dave and I headed to find a place on a beach for a much-needed vacation for us. He has worked the last 10 years for IDOT and could (would) not get away in the winter, in case it snowed and he would have snow plow duty. So this year, his first winter of retirement, he promised me some beach time. We found a very nice little condo in Port Aransas, TX. We stayed there for 6 nights and had the good luck of being there on the warmest week of the winter so far, and one day it was stated on the news that we were in the warmest place in the USA for that day.







We drove down to Padre Island National Seashore on the last day, when it was a bit windy and overcast.

After our week away, we returned to Joe and Jamie's in Houston and found that Gloria was ready to return home with us. So we stayed one more night, and then packed things up and headed for home. Again, it was a 17 hour trip, we had good roads, and all the animals survived the long drive.

A couple of random photos of "Baby" and "Doggie."

On our last evening, Jamie's friends cooked us a "real" Mexican dinner. We had a good time spending the evening with them.

So this was a long post.

I, for one, will set a goal of doing more posts in 2013!



South Carolina News

 --Ada and Jerry came through here on Tuesday.  They spent the night with Mom and Dad before heading back to IL early the next morning - they were ready to get home!  I only got to go over there for about an hour, due to it being one of those busy teacher-responsibility nights.  But it was good to see them.  The four of them went to G'ville and ate at Outback - they requested a certain waiter named Andrew and I assume he did a good job!  Sorry no pics of A&J's brief visit here.

--Here is a "little-girl blanket" I made for Mary and Joey's granddaughter Emma (Lindsay's little girl).  It was supposed to be done by Christmas, but. . .you know how that can go sometimes.  Mid-January is better than not getting it done at all.  I figure since Ada is always making such beautiful things, I should put my once-a-decade creation on here.  You can't tell in the picture, but both colors of yarn include a metallic thread that makes it shine really nicely.

--And finally, Andrew and Mary Lee went on a retreat to the mountains with the college group of a church they have been attending, and sent me this pic this morning.