June 2009 Archives

Since my computer is permitting me to work with it today and may not grant me entry tomorrow, I am a day early in celebrating my parents' 85th wedding anniversary. June 30, 1924, was their day. She was 27 and he was 26. They had been engaged for five years and both worked as teachers, saving their money so they could eventually marry. She had an earlier engagement which was never discussed until she was close to the end of her life when I coaxed the name from her: he was a Boyle, brother to our Aunt Mary O'Connell. I don't know his first name and don't know what became of him, but there were hard feelings over the breakup that never really eased over all those years. Anyway, my mother wore her sister Stella's wedding gown, veil, and shoes. Aunt Stella was a smaller person than my mother, so I'm thinking the dress probably was a little short and I know the shoes were not the right size. They were white satin, with a button closure across the instep and a tiny 2" spool heel and she said she could harldly walk in them, could hardly get down the aisle! I don't know what became of the dress and veil; maybe it's in one of the Dolan attics, but we had the darling little shoes. They celebrated their 49th anniversary a few months before my dad died in 1973.

This is a collage of flowers in our yard. The 90+ temps last week really made the flowers pop. Thanks to Annie for all her help and ideas(something new every year!).

Summer 2009

Found these pictures in an old scrapbook I hadn't looked at in a long time. Not sure what this event was. It was held in Mom and Dad's old kitchen (Before renovation). They're all old Polaroids. If there are dates on the back of them, I can't get to them without destroying them so I'm going to guess they were from 1981 or 1982. I had more hair then.

Geraldine, Red, Grandpa F, Dad, and Rick C

Rob's 1981 Monte Carlo This is my first new car. It was a Midnight Blue 1981 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. I paid $7900 for it in 1980. When I first started looking at new cars, the 1980 Monte Carlos were all the rage. The dealership didn't have one that I wanted or could afford so I special ordered one. When it came in, it was a 1981 model, which looked quite a bit different than the 1980 model, and I didn't know, at first, if I liked it. It grew on me when I drove it home that Friday night for the first time and grew on me even more when Ms Denise, our neighbor, told me the next morning that it was "absolutely gorgeous". This was taken on our vacation to Gatlinburg in 1982. That far left room was ours. Don't remember much about it except that it was fairly cheap and pretty much all we could afford.

Happy Father's Day to ALL

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We took Jude to an orthopedic specialist yesterday because he has a crooked foot. He has had it since birth, due to positioning in the womb. His pediatrician told us just to work on it, pushing it back into correct position. He has been receiving physical therapy for about 6 months now and his therapist recommended we see a specialist because of some things she noticed when he started pulling to stand and crawling. I asked the pediatrician to revaluate him and she agreed with the physical therapist, saying it wouldn't hurt to have it checked out. So, off we went. The specialist recommended a full leg cast to correct the "moderate" issue with his foot. We were flabergasted! I couldn't believe he said "cast". This was our first meeting. I assumed we'd be watching it and would have a follow up visit in six months to continue monitoring it. We were at Children's Hospital and were sent right over to the cast room to have the cast put on...a mere 35 minutes after signing in. It all went so fast. We hemmed and hawed about it for about 10 minutes outside the cast room trying to decide what was best. In the end, the doctor's advice that he would put it on his own child if faced with the same decision was what determined our decision. Jude was an absolute angel during the 30 min. process and has not been the least bit inhibited by it. I was concerned he'd have trouble going to sleep with it on, but he simply rolled over in his bed and fell asleep...as usual.

Phil picked out the color, purple, for LSU. They didn't have gold so they gave us some LSU stickers to put on the cast, but they fell off. Now he just has a purple cast and I have to explain to people it's for LSU. We went to Wal-Mart last night and got many stares. He's due to get the cast off in 2 weeks and will perhaps need corrective shoes as well. We'll see. There was some talk of a possible 2nd cast for another 2 weeks if this one doesn't do the trick, but I'm not sure I'm up for that. Only sponge bathing and no swimming equals no fun for the summer!!! Here are some pictures of him with his cast. The last two are of Jude laying in Butch's bed, and Butch watching Jude laying in his bed. Butch is powerless when it comes to Jude. The other day, Butch was eating, and Jude crawled up to his dish, pushed Butch out of the way, and began eating his dog food! Butch just backed up and watched.

Jude and his cast, first day

Savannah is 10 days old now. She's doing very well and gets prettier and prettier every day (if I do say so myself!) Samuel and Luke are very pleased with their little sister. My sister was visiting the other day and holding Savannah and when she got up she said, "Oh, I need to get going home now,'" and Samuel said in a very serious matter-of-fact tone, "Leave the baby here." We laughed, but he was very serious! Samuel has said since we first told him that we were having a baby that I was having a girl. I'm glad we didn't disappoint him! Around Christmas time he started saying that he wanted to name the baby, "Baby Christmas Tree" and he would tell everybody that's what we were naming the baby. I would laugh and say "no way" but he kept up the joke throughout the rest of the pregnancy. When my sister told Jackson and Jacob that she was coming to visit me in the hospital, they both said "aw, I want to go see Baby Christmas Tree." Joey thinks her nickname will be C.T., but that won't fly with me. His brothers are also referring to her as Baby Christmas Tree. I've added a bunch of pictures, but one of my favorites is the first diaper change. Joey had the honor of changing the first diaper and the boys had just come to the hospital to see her for the first time so they had to supervise. Joey's mom and dad are thrilled to have a girl for the first time in their family. He's one of 4 boys so all of their neighbors and church friends and family are excited for them as well.

Joey, Angela, Samuel, Luke, and Savannah

We have been enjoying our summer at home with the boys so far.
Barrett turned 16 months on May 25th and Wyatt turned 1 month on May
30th. Wyatt has lost all that nice hair on the top of his head and is
looking much like an old man. He did very well at his one month check
up. He weighs 10 lbs. 5 oz. already. He gained 4 lbs. and grew almost
2 inches in his first month. He is nursing very well and growing nicely.

Barrett started swimming lessons two weeks ago and will finish his
last class tomorrow. He was fine with the water until five minutes
into his first lesson when they started dunking under water. He
quickly changed his mind about it all. Much of the first three class
he spent crying. There was a lot of dunking involved and Stephen was
beginning to get a little frustrated (he was the "mommy" for the
lessons). I decided I would give Stephen a break and get in with
Barrett for a few days. After his third lessons he began warming up
to it all and started smiling and splashing. He now will go under
without crying and will even swim on his own with a noodle holding
him up. He has made vast improvements and and we are so happy about
it. Stephen has taken over in the water again and things are going
very well. He worked with Barrett today on hand walking down the
wall, climbing up the side, and climbing out using the ladder. You
have to be careful when you let Barrett out though...he likes to make
a break for it!

Wyatt was baptized last Saturday in the gown Miss Sue made in
college. He was the 13th baby to be baptized in the gown and he
looked beautiful in it. I was a little disappointed in the set up of
the baptism. We were scheduled for a Saturday baptism and I was
excited thinking it would be an intimate ceremony with just our
family. When I learned that some friends of ours were having their
son baptized the same day, I still thought, "Oh, how nice...just the
two of us." When we arrived on Saturday, we found that 13 babies were
being baptized. The sight was far from what I had imagined. Patrick
(the Godfather) coined it an "all you can baptize buffett." We were
all a little disappointed but it went well and Wyatt was a perfect
angel through it all. Both of our families were there and every one
came to our house afterward for a cookout. My friend, Rachel, was the
Godmother. She was also the Maid of Honor in my wedding.

At home, Barrett has been enjoying some outside fun. My parents got
him a picnic table for his birthday that you can put water (and sand)
in to make it a play table. We have only done the water, but he
absolutely loves it! Flick seems to like it as well. Yesterday, I got
out the bubbles and Barrett had a blast chasing them around the yard.
I have to admit, I had a pretty good time too.

Kellie

Barrett and Wyatt

Well with high school at least. Nicole graduated (with honors) from Buffalo High School on Friday night. Their school has an all night party for the graduates that resembles a grown up carnival (food, games, photo booths, prizes and a magician). I helped and it was a lot of fun, but I am too old to stay up all night. We had an open house brunch for Nicole yesterday and it went well. We had it in our garage and had to start a fire (in the wood burning stove) to keep everyone warm and comfy. Here are a couple photos from the day.

Sisters

CrabAppleLane Tomatoes - June 7, 2009 I guess you'd call these vine-ripened tomatoes. They fell off of the bush on their own. They're a variety of tomatoes called Celebrity. They're what's for dinner.

Savannah Marie, born at 10:22 am weighing 8lbs, 13oz

Savannah Marie - June 1, 2009 - Born at 10:22AM - By Christina

Savannah Marie - By Janine

Savannah Marie - By Janine