Happy Birthday, Gram L

Today is the 87th anniversary of the birth of Irene Emily Castle Lambert, mother of four, grandmother of nine, and great-grandmother of one. (I wonder if she has any words of wisdom. I'll have to ask her.) The family will celebrate by meeting at the Farmer Girl Restaurant on Saturday evening (at least that's the plan at this point in time). Anyone who would like to join, please feel free.

Gram and I (Carolyn) will be attending Bill & Valerie's wedding on June 6. We will be flying out on Saturday, the 5th in the evening, and returning Monday 6pm. In the meantime, George is scheduled to arrive in Florida on Sunday morning, but he's flying standby, so that's certainly up in the air (oh, I'm so punny!).

I wish to refer you to a rather important posting on my personal blog. Click Here. But of cousre you can comment here.

Alex

I went by Alex's house on Saturday. It was not a pleasent experience. The grass in the front yard is at least nine inches long, the hedges look as if they have not been trimmed since I last did it, and weeds are growing in the driveway. I was afraid the house had been abandoned so I called from my cell phone to make sure someone was there before I knocked on the door.

Alex came to the door and was not at all freindly. His answer to questions like "How are you?" and "Why do you not return my phone calls?" were "I dunno." or just looking at the ground. I think that Alex is somewhat depressed and hope that he gets over it soon. Maybe living with his mother in that closed up house is getting him down or maybe he is catching it from her.

I had not seen Alex since Christmas and he does not return my phone calls. Maybe if someone else would give him a call and ask how he is doing they could give me some help with his wellbeing. I certainly would appreciate it. The way he is acting greives his father's heart.

Report from Paris Island

My friend Lynette got a report from her daughter, Lyndsey. She has been in Marine boot camp on Paris Island for four weeks now. Her letter stated that the group of recruits that started with Lyndsey has gone from 59 that reported to 40 women. Injury and illness has taken the bulk of those nineteen, though there were drop-outs. She asked that Lynette and her friends (us) pray for these girls.
This also shows the attrition that can happen in Marine boot camp. The biggest problem is that people go into the service out of shape and easily injured. Jay, this is to you: it is a good idea to start getting yourself in shape NOW rather than wait till the fall and have to carry extra weight around during training and all that running. Also it is best to get your cardiovascular system up to speed now so you can compete with those 18 year old that you will be training with. As a fellow that is a bit older you stand a chance of being selected as a group leader. This makes life a little better as a recruit and gives you a leg up on every one after boot. But from what that Drill Instructor told us, your age only counts a little, it is your demeanor and physical condition that gets you the job.

Cat scan

Mom and I went to the doctor, she told him she had a pain in her back. After examining her, the nurse brought in a kitten who walked all over mom's back, said, "MEOW" and left the examining room. The doctor returned and announced that the charge for the visit would be $1000. When mom exclaimed, he replied, "$100 for my assessment, and $900 for the cat scan."

HA HA

No, really, we had a cat scan yesterday of the lumbar region, and we now own pictures of her back. Now we have to take them to the pain management people and they will put more injections into her back, with hopefully more of a notion where to put the medicine. We are hoping St. Mary's will do a better job of the shots than the other place did. After this, I dunno what else to do for her pain. In the morning, she's pretty good, but as the day wears on, pain becomes the determining factor on what she does.

Invitation

I got Becki's Graduation announcement today. It is very classy. Congratulations to the Graduating Class of 2004 from Grace Christian High School and especially Miss Polacek. We are all proud of you and your accomplishment. Take it easy over the summer, then the hard part starts.

Rainy Day

Well, I had great plans for the day, but it is raining today. We had the driest spring since 1901, but the last few days have been making up for that. The snow we had over the winter is reflected in the fact that the lake is much higher tban is has been the last two years, we have less beach this year. But still enough to enjoy it. I have been wading in it so far and will dive in soon.

lost link

Bill, where is the cute little link to your blog?

Lost pics

Jennell, What happened to the fine pictures you had here? They were big and all but it was fun to see them. Now I have a broken link on my personal blog, as I had a link to them; I thought them so nice.

Jay is sworn in!

Yesterday Jay was officially sworn in. I asked him what he promised, and he had to think, since he was sleep-deprived. He had been up nearly 42 hours by the time he got to bed! (something about defending the country and obeying the president and officers, and it was all in the name of God). Now he has to decide what job to sign up for.

Graduation

Yes, in less than 2 weeks, our baby will get the coveted HS diploma! We're the ones who should get to throw off our caps! Then again, Becki's been the one who's had to put up with both her parents working where she goes to school! Poor Baby. Soon your family should receive an announcement. This is not for gifts, but rather that you might send a card. She knows nobody can really get away to see this event take place. We're just grateful it's really happening. She's so ready. She'll be joing the blog, I think, so she can tell you all of her own impressions of life from the senior point of view. Love you all. Gotta go; sports banquet is tonight, and since I handle all the transportation, and George handles a good bit of the bus driving, we've got free tickies! Hey, any time you don't have to cook, don't, says the wise ol' sage. Or thyme. (You're gonna grow to hate this blog....)

Vacation

I am in the process of forming my plans for the summer. I will be out of town for a wedding for the Fourth of July weekend.

Is there anyone who plans on being in the Chicago area this summer? I want to make sure and plan for any visits. If you are planning to be around, remember that there is a place by the beach with rooms available if you wish.

Water cooler

BTW, Gram L LOVED her water cooler. She has already drunk about half of the 5-gallon bottle! It comes out cold (it also does hot, but we have not used that feature yet) so she's drinking a lot more water than she was. She's very happy with it.

Blogger has a new feature. You can now send an email to an address that only you know (it looks like username.secretword@blogger.com) that will automatically post as a new one. The subject of your email becomes the subject of the post. You have to set things up at blogger, of course. This is a test of that new feature. I emailed this out.

Mom's a pain - I mean, Mom's back pain (joke)

Gram L was feeling pretty well today after visiting the doc. But he does not have any more options up his sleeve for pain relief. He would like to give the epidurals another chance, switching to a different pain management group, and first doing a cat scan so they can more accurately place the injections. After that, there are not many more options. Joanne postulated that the wooziness she is complaining about might be the new med VIOXX that she's been taking for about two weeks to see if that would help. I don't think it did much, and if it's making her lightheaded, we'll cut it out. I'll be calling the doc back tomorrow on that.

Right now it's the England people that are getting her wound up. David Castle has done some ancestor hunting, and found a cousin of Mom's that is 88 and her daughter who is about 55. They have written her with a pile of info on the relatives, some of which Mom disagrees with. So she is hunting thru pictures to prove her point. And pictures she has! Tonight Sean gave Dani a tiny cute little video cam for her b'day. I would love if they would take a video of Mom telling a bunch of stories and info about the ancestors. We could enlighten the England relatives with it. It turns out that Mom and this 88 year old cousin used to write each other till they were in their early twenties. Wild.

Pictures

Jennell,
Look at the comments under your previous posting for help with the picture thing.

Changes

I have made some changes here; in case you did not notice. The look has changed, you can now put in a title for your posting (which will be listed on the sidebar) and you can make comments. I plan on changing several aspects of this thing soon, so keep alert.

Wow! I am still a little freaked out that we can read about happenings in our own family on the internet before we hear about them in person. Pretty funny!

Congrats Jay on getting into the Marines. Be on the lookout for single, Christian, tall, dark, and handsome guys so that you can introduce me. :)

I talked to Grandma on Saturday and she's moved on from worrying about the neighbors to worrying about major back pain, cleaning out closets, getting pictures sorted, and relatives from England. She said she had a doctor's appointment this morning (Monday). Aunt Carolyn, did the doc have a miracle cure or pain relief ideas?

How about the Polaceks? Grandma said that Uncle George is coming for training in August. She wasn't sure what kind of training. Did he get a job offer? Will they be moving?

Hmmm...I guess I have more questions than answers to offer today. Que sera, sera!

By the way, I didn't know the HTML for putting in a picture, but I looked it up...Did I do it correctly? I can see the picture on my computer but the path leads to my documents...dunno where to import the picture so that I can give it a source code that would be recognized.

Congratulations Recruit Joseph B. Dwyer!!!

It is so kewl to see that you will soon be a Leatherneck. From the reports I am getting from my friend's daughter, you had better spend your time getting yourself in shape, the training is difficult and physically demanding. You are expected to do LOTS of running, so start training now.

If you go to Blogger to make a new post expect to see a new interface. It will make things easier to use, once you get used to the changes. They also have made it easier to change the way our blog looks, so expect some changes in the next few days.

Wow, the blog looks different! Just when I figured it out....

Today is Daniela's 30th birthday! We're going over to her parents' house to celebrate. mmmmmmmmama mia!

I know that Mom is taking it hard, she was good friends with both neighbors and feels the loss. Plus she always feels better when she gets to see the departed one last time and she does not feel completed if there is no memorial.

With all those people around dying I'll bet that can make a person think about their own mortality. It must be hard.

Mom's next door neighbor on the other side (Art Davis) has passed away, found dead in his bed on Tuesday morning. That's the neighbors on both sides in one week. Mom was pretty shook yesterday. Of course, she is thrown because there is no funeral planned, just cremation.

As far as I know Sean & Dani do not use email. Their computer is an antique (it used to be Tom Abrams'), and it is extremely frustrating to use the internet. I doubt if they will join, but in any case, I don't have any email address for them. --Carolyn

Mother's Day is Sunday

All you sons and daughters out there make sure you remember that Sunday is Mother's Day. Ya gotta make or get those cards now. Make sure you say something nice to your mom on that day. It means a lot to them.

Carolyn, are you able to get the water cooler?

Kewl, now we have three of the four of us on here. Joanne should be on soon, I hope. then we can post here as a way of passing messages and keeping up to date.

Do Jason and Joshua have email addresses? How about Jean and Megan? I will invite them if they want to be included.

Also I misplaced Becki's email address, I do not have one for Sean and Danni either.

Cul8r

b

I am a Frog I sit on a blog. I talk so much that I make smog,

Well, Jennell, I am glad that you found it, and glad that you figured out how to post. So far it is only you, Carolyn, and me. But Joanne has been on jury duty and I am sure she will get on soon. Myabe your dad will try too. If you give me email address for you cousins and brothers I will invite them also.

Yes, it is a good way to post and keep in touch. Instead of writing email and hoping you got the right people on the list, put it here and let them come. Then they can respond.

Notice the buttons above where you do the posting. They let you use bold, italics, make links, and spell check. You can use any HTML tags in the body of the message if you feel comfortable with them. Like:

Headings

or

Putting quotations in blockquote tags so they stand out as quotes. I like this one for Bible quotes on my Church's blog. Also you can make links to pictures or include pictures if you know the HTML for that. (somehow I'll bet you do)

You can even include inline links to pictures using the image tag like this or this

Speaking of links and other blogs, I just realized that the links section on the right is not linking to my personal blog or the church one. I will fix this as soon as I get off here. While I am on the subject of the interface of this thing, I will mention the Archives section where you can see old postings that have rolled off of the ones that show here.

Hmmm...I think I've got it figured out! This is a cool way to keep in touch with one another! So glad Trace is back safely and that things are working out for Jay. I took my class to visit the USS Philippine Sea last Tuesday and I considered enlisting myself! :) Gotta love those sailors!

Josh and I went to the beach today to snorkel. It was a beautiful day, but there were waves so we ended up body surfing instead. Unfortunately there was sea lice and I am not at all happy about that!

I guess that's all for now...hasta la vista!

PS - Uncle Bill, Thanks for setting this up for us and for inviting me to come play! :)