Jacob & Lacy's Rehearsal Dinner

The dinner was held at our parish hall. The meal consisted of beef and chicken fajitas, Spanish rice, beans, tortillas, chips & salsa, and then toppings of cheese, guacamole, sour cream and jalapenos. This is some of Lacy's family.Here are a couple of shots of the bridal party & friends.

Here's Mary & Lucy along with Lacy's family.
Here Father Walter talks with some of Jacob's family.
Pop & the Andel family enjoy the meal.
Mary Helen & the Mikeska's are enjoying the food.
The aunts & nieces are having a good time....Sara, Monica, Kate & Jana.
John stocks up on the preferred beverage of the night......well, for the wedding party, at least!
Nick Rossi (Kate's boyfriend) and Travis watch Elizabeth as she eats supper.
We all had a lot to eat and enjoyed the evening.......Thank Mike & Monica!

More pics of Jacob & Lacy's Reception

The Jahns Family......before the weddingThe three musketeers.....I mean....Groomsmen
The Groom's cake.....and yes...it is an Off-roading decor.
The Brides cake......
Pictures of the tables......The Bride & Grooms.....
The Wedding Party....
The Parents & Grandparents.....
The guests......
Stacy Springer & Ethan at the snack table.
The group of friends....(back row) Chris Janke, Brett Marek, Nick Kasner, Cody Reinders (front) Stephanie Kasner, Julie (Nick's girlfriend) and Matthew
Matthew, Travis, Elizabeth & Sara pose for a family pic.
Matthew listening to Grandma Schigut (Mary Helen) and Ruth Jahns.
Enjoying the reception.....Richard Schigut (Pop), Nick Rossi (Kate's boyfriend) & Kate
Introducing......Mr & Mrs Jacob Jahns........

A few pics of Jacob & Lacy's Wedding Reception

The Andels & Schneiders visit during the reception.Jacob & Lacy drink to their toasts!
Elizabeth settling down for a nap.....yes, she did sleep even though the DJ was playing music.
Matthew is a make shift prop for Lacy as Jacob removes her garter. Nice job, Matthew!

The First Line of Duty

John has performed is first duty as an R-L ISD Board Member.....He witnessed the graduation of the 2009 class. He got to shake hands with 68 seniors. This morning, he also had a board meeting and has another one next Wednesday. Lots of items to cover with the repairs at the high school as well as some other issues. This week, I cleaned out the garage and we got one of our garage doors working. I'm hoping to get the other working next week. (The garage is so clean, we're able to put both cars in AND we still have room to walk around!) I went to the Lady Cougar Softball game today with Pat, Pam and girls.....we won.....8 to 2. It was a good game....played in Fairfield...yes, Mike & Monica's old stomping grounds. Since I'll be visiting Kate next week, I won't be able to go to their next game, but wish them all the luck. I think they have a good chance of going to state! Oh yeah....I've got wedding pics.....I'll post some tomorrow....Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day Weekend!

The Results are In.....

John, Jesse, & James are our new school board members. I think it will be a couple of weeks before they're sworn in, but they'll have a lot to learn over the next several months. (I'm thinking we may need to screen our calls, too!....just joking) James received 713 votes, John received 680 votes & Jesse received 676 votes.....the next person (the incumbent) received 316 votes. The bond to build a new school was defeated by 73% of the vote. Thanks to all who called/e-mailed to wish us luck.

Happy Mother's Day!

I received an unexpected delivery yesterday.....the UPS man showed up and said, "I have a flower delivery for you." I thought....hummmmm....who would send me flowers.....especially since they were sent via UPS. Well.....1-800-flowers did a wonderful job. Thank you, Dustin, Rachel & Courtney....They're beautiful! .....and what a wonderful surprise. While I hope everyone has a great Mother's day.....I'll be waiting for Monday afternoon.....that's when I go to Victoria. I'll stay there for a few days and then I'm hoping to bring Elizabeth home with me on Thursday. All of our kids will be home this weekend because of Jake & Lacy's wedding. I'm so excited about seeing the kids and the wedding. It will be a very busy weekend.
I also have a few pictures from Elizabeth's birthday......what a bad Nana I have been. Elizabeth was playing so hard that she had to get a drink of Grandpa John's tea. I don't think this was the first time she had tea though.....she did a good job of drinking it.
Sara did a wonderful job on Elizabeth's birthday cake.......homemade strawberry cake and we had vanilla and strawberry ice cream to go with it!
Elizabeth received lots of presents and had a great time. Some of Sara & Travis' friends also came and took a picture of the whole family.
I just can't wait till Monday......Hope everyone has a great weekend.....Oh yeah....go out and vote. I'll post the results Saturday night or Sunday morning.....

Happy May!

The last few weeks have found us busy......so busy that I can't believe it's May already. After Easter, we had the Barclay Fundraiser.....then....last week I worked at the coop for a few days. While I was there, we cleaned out the storage room and the guys made new shelves. We had the room back in shape by Tuesday, because that's when Brenda came back. On Tuesday, they made shelves for the front office and rearranged the snack/break area. It really looks nice. On Tuesday, I took Pam out for her birthday....we ate at El Chico and went to the movie, Duplicity. We had a great time. This afternoon, I'm going back to the coop for an hour, then tomorrow we're going to the KC fundraiser.....dinner and dancing. Sunday, Mary makes her first Communion. Through these last few weeks, John has been campaigning.....running for a seat on the school board. He'll go to the Lott post office tomorrow morning and tomorrow afternoon, be in Rosebud for the Cinco de Mayo celebration. I'll be glad when the election is over.....May 9th.

Time Flies......

Wow.....I can't believe it's been nearly 2 weeks since my last post. We've been busy with the April Dinner, then Easter, then my birthday, and today, we've been getting ready for the Barclay Community Fundraiser. I had a wonderful birthday.....and thanks to everyone who sent cards, left birthday messages on the answering machine and posted birthday greetings on Geni & Facebook. I went shopping with Pam Stermer and spent most of the day in Temple, then at 3:15, we went to Lott to pick up Shannon & Ashley. Then we went to Rosebud for an ice cream at Diary Queen. Then John & I went back to Temple to eat at Casa Ole and we strolled the mall. I hope everyone had a great Easter and didn't get a tummy ache from eating too much candy! Rain update: We got over 2" of rain today and I believe we're in store for more tomorrow.

Internet and Opening Day

Yea.....our internet is fixed.....FINALLY! Being 4 days without internet was terrible! (even John missed it) You don't realize how much you use it until you lose it. (Ha Ha) Today, John went to the Texas Rangers baseball game....opening day. While he's not too much of a baseball fan, he did have a great time with his dad, brother, uncle, cousins and a few other of his cousin's friends. It's nice to get away for one day and spend time with family and friends....not so bad that the Rangers won too! Hope everyone has a great baseball/softball season!

Thanks to the Stermers

Yes....Thanks to the Stermers I'm able to give you an update. Last Thursday, early in the morning, a front came through and knocked out our internet. The repair man was supposed to come Friday, but never showed. Saturday evening, I found out that he was sent to the Coop....ugh! So I called at midnight and left a rather short message. He called me today around noon and said the repair man would be at our house in the morning.....I wanted to say, you mean TODAY...but I didn't. Anyway....we've had a busy weekend. Friday afternoon, I finished a quilt. I'll give you more details on it next week (It's going to someone on easter weekend.) Friday evening, we had a fish fry at our house with the Stermers. On Saturday, we washed chickens and made cakes & brownies for the April dinner. We went to church Saturday night and then went to the Go-Texan fundraiser in Westphalia. (We didn't win anything, but we did have a good steak dinner.) Sunday morning, the alarm went off at 4:30am and we were back at church at 5:00am. The first batch of chicken went in at 5:52am. We finished around 10am, so next year maybe we can sleep till 5:00am. We got home around noon and took a nap. This afternoon, John tilled the garden. (Oh yeah, the norther got here around 7:00am and the wind is blowing so hard.) It's supposed to freeze Tuesday morning....so please pray that the wind will be blowing...John said that it won't hurt the crops if it's windy. I'll update you with more pics once we get our internet working again. Happy Holy Week!

A Little Rain

We had a few showers today.....this afternoon I finally got a chance to take a few pictures of our new shed. John's ordering tin tomorrow for the roof. He's still planning on the enclosure (where the concrete is).


I also took a few pictures of our garden. We've planted broccoli, cabbage, onions, red peppers, jalapenos, and tomatoes.

Happy Trails!

Pam, Shannon & Ashley took me on an overnight trip for Spring Break. We left Wednesday afternoon and drove to Burnet. We went on a riverwalk trail, which was real close to our hotel. We then went to eat at the Highlander's Restuarant. The next morning, we left the hotel and went to Longhorn Cavern. The cavern tour was super. Besides seeing the cool rocks and formations, we even saw a couple of tiny bats that live in the cave. After the tour, we walked on one of the hiking trails there.....then we were hungry. We ate at the Longhorn Cavern Restuarant. Then we were off to Inks Lake. On the way there, we saw Falkenstein Castle....unfortunately, it's a private residence, but how beautiful it is from the road. When we arrived at Inks Lake, it was pretty busy....lot's of folks are camping during Spring Break. We found a hiking trail and took off. After 1.5 hours of walking and climbing, we were ready for some cool water...on our feet that is! We drove around the park and found a swimming area. We all put our feet in the lake and man, it was cool! The girls got a little braver and went wading in the lake. After we enjoyed the water and the sun, we decided to visit the park store. The store was nice, but most of all, it was AIR-CONDITIONED! On our way home, we took a small detour and went to Buchanan Dam....not too many folks there and the water was real low. Since we took I-35 to Burnet, we decided to do a little more sight-seeing along the way home. We ended up getting on I-35 south of Salado. I had a great time and want to thank the girls for inviting me.

A Good Rain

This past week we received a good rain about 1.5" in all. After working at the Coop last Saturday, it seems that folks around us received more rain than we did. In fact, his uncle & aunt across the road from us received almost 2", so John decided we need to put up another rain gauge. (Maybe our gauge has a small hole!?!) John has also planned a busy week while Matthew is home for Spring Break. He wants to put up the posts & tresses for our new garage. He said that they wouldn't have time to finish it, but at least it's a start.

What You Can Do in a Weekend

Last weekend while I was gone, John & Matthew did some demolishing work....they tore down the old car shed. When I turned into our drive, I noticed it right away.....it looks so different now. They did a great job. Our plan now is to build a new car/work shed. We already have a concrete pad, so John & Matthew will begin building the shed over the pad and extend the shed toward our tractor shed. They're hoping to have the majority of the work done this week, since Matthew is on Spring Break. I'm so excited.....I'll have a nice place to do some gardening in....a place for re-potting plants, start seedlings, and maybe even a small area for a green house, not to mention a place for all of our garden tools, lawn mowers, tillers, etc. It will be so nice to get some of the stuff out of the garage. My plans for this week are to work at the Coop a couple of days, go to a quilt workshop, and clean out the plant beds around the house. I'm hoping we'll have some warm weather after this little cool spell. (I was getting used to wear shorts & t-shirts.) Hope everyone has a great Spring Break!

Visiting with Janaks

Yes....I'm in Victoria again......and I can't believe how much Elizabeth has changed in 6 days! Her hair is really growing and her two front teeth are trying to come in. She also has a runny nose & a cough.....so does Sara. Sara & Travis are working on their home....taking down curtain rods, removing nails.....(and there are SOOOOO many), puttying the holes. Today, I helped in the kitchen, removing old shelving paper and removed dirt, rocks & shells from a brick planter in the entry. I also got to go grocery shopping with Elizabeth......she was such a good girl....she loves riding in the buggy. On the home front, John finished planting corn this week....yeah! Now he'll concentrate on keeping the cattle healthy and feed. Hope everyone has a great weekend....and don't forget to move your clocks 1 hour FORWARD!

I'm such a DORK!

Ok....I know I'm getting old when I can't remember where I put things....but this is getting ridiculous! Karen, Ann & Charles....I found my camera! It wasn't in ever in my bags, nor did it make the trip to New Braunfels.....I had left it under the seat in my car ever since last Friday! Sorry I made you look everywhere! I am glad that I found it.

Running and Losing

Hi Everyone. We had a busy weekend....John finished planting sunflowers on Saturday. Friday, I went with Charles & Ann's to Chris & Karen's home for their Open House party on Saturday. Ann & I helped Karen with some of the cooking and watched the boys, while Charles & Chris worked on the deck skirting. Karen, you're home is beautiful! I'm so happy for you and your family. Saturday evening, I brought Elizabeth home with me, so Sara & Travis could go to Weslico to work in the research fields for a couple of days. John & I just love babysitting her.....she's getting so big! Sunday, we went to church, then to St. Ann's in Rosebud to their Enchilada Dinner, then back home so we could set up a quilt for our Fall picnic. On Monday, we start quilting....but Elizabeth isn't sure about all the new faces in our den. Needless to say, I didn't quilt as much as I wanted, but Elizabeth sure liked to sit in my lap and "helped" me quilt. Monday evening, Elizabeth & I went to Temple. I made a photo album for the Quilt Guild and the membership chairperson wanted to make a copy for each of our members. We made 150 copies! My mom came by and babysat Elizabeth while I helped copy & collate the albums. On Monday....I also discover that I've lost my camera.....hence, no pictures of Elizabeth or the quilt. (Karen.....I may have left it in Alex's room....maybe on top of his dresser or on his bookshelf. I'm thinking that the boys might have seen it and thought it was a toy.....if you could look for me, I'd really appreciate it. It wasn't in any of my bags and it's not in your parent's car.) John also started planting corn today too. It will probably take him 2 weeks to finish. Today, Elizabeth & I went to Rosebud to get my hair cut. Elizabeth did real well until the beautician started cutting my hair around my face. About 3 minutes later, she was over it and began to smile at me again. She did real well today while we quilted. Pam came over and played with Elizabeth so Elizabeth just ate up the attention she was getting. This evening, Elizabeth & I went back to Temple to watch my nieces, Rachel & Courtney, play their last basketball game. In between games, we went to Chick-fil-a. Elizabeth did real well the whole evening. I must say that Elizabeth is getting used to our home....today she started exploring and I had to go find her a couple of times. She never got into anything she shouldn't have.....just moves faster than I expected. I wonder if I need to close her inside the den with us? (Ha! Ha!)

We started planting today!

John & I both started planting today.....of course, his fields are much bigger than my garden! He started planting sunflower seeds. They look like the kind you eat. He said it would take him a couple of days and then he would start planting corn on Saturday. I planted red onions, lettuce and broccoli. I watered them all after I planted them and will probably water them for the next couple of days to make sure they get a good start.

Happy Valentine's Day!

When I woke up this morning, John had a box of dark chocolate strawberries (candy) waiting for me.....and when I got home from working at the Coop, he had plate full of chocolate covered strawberries waiting for me. He's sooooo sweet! Tonight, we went with the Stermer family to Big Bob's Steakhouse in Cameron. They had a band there, so we listened to music for a while. We had a great time! Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day!

Getting Ready to Plant

Yep.....it's that time.......our winter vacation is over.....it's PLANTING SEASON! After we got 1" of rain, John's getting the planter (& tractor) ready. He's hoping to have everything ready to start planting next week. He's been busy grinding feed, feeding cattle & tending to the cattle. We've had a few sick ones, so each day he rides through them. I'm working at the Coop.....entering in inventory, taking care of the office. (Brenda's visiting her sister in New Mexico!) Hopefully I've got all the items in....now I have to update the on-hand. We hope everyone will have a Happy Valentine's Day.

Keys left in the truck.....Not Matthew!

Yesterday, I helped our neighbor, Barbara, unpack some of her big boxes......and helped her put away some dishes in the high cabinets. While there, I received a call from Matthew saying that he accidentally locked the keys in the Dodge. After class, he got a ride home from one of his friends. After I finished helping Barbara, I called John and informed him of my next task. After he finished doctoring calves, we got in the car and headed to College Station. We took Jacob and Matthew out to eat at Wings-N-More, and then dropped them off at the truck. Needless to say, while John was doctoring cattle, I had gone to Hensel Hardware to make another key. Matthew now has an extra key for the unfortunate case, if it were to happen again. We did enjoy the trip and had fun visiting with Jacob and Matthew.

Fun at the Wedding

Yesterday, Pam, Shannon, Ashley & I attended the wedding of Chris Hering & Lindsay Zipperlin. The bridesmaid wore strapless gown made out of a pretty sage colored chiffon. They had 2 junior bridesmaids & a flower girl. You know....you just never know what will happen when you have little ones in a wedding. They were all cute and sort of "stole the show". The flower girl danced around the maids of honor....twirling around in their dresses. After a while, I think someone in the audience caught her attention and she went to sit down with them. I'm not sure what happened to one of the junior bridesmaids.....when the party was leaving the church, she didn't come out. The little groomsman had to walk by himself. The wedding was beautiful and we saw a lot of our friends......and a lot of our kids classmates. John & Pat came to the reception and dance. We congratulate Chris & Lindsay on their marraige!

John turned the big Five-O

Oh yes.....it's true, John turned 50 on Wednesday. His Mom & Dad took Charles, Ann, & us out to eat at Texas Roadhouse Wednesday evening. John got to sit on the "saddle" while the Texas Roadhouse folks led everyone in the restaurant in a big "Yaw Hoo".....don't you know John was really excited about it (Ha! Ha!) Afterward, we went back to Mom & Dad's house to eat cake. On Thursday, I called Sara because I was missing Elizabeth (plus, I knew that they would be coming home on the weekend), so I asked if I could come & get her. Sara & Travis agreed.....so John & I went to Victoria and picked up our little granddaughter! She was soooooo good and she's getting so big! She can say Dada, Mama, Bye-bye, and I think she says Nana....at least I've been trying to teach her that one! On our way home from Victoria, we stopped at a chicken place to eat. The girls at the counter just oooed and awed over her. Elizabeth ate part of a french fry and sat like a big girl in a high chair. On the way home, she drank out of her sippy cup....holding it by herself! I just can't believe she growing so fast!!! On Friday, our friends....the Stermer family came over. We ate pizza and played the wii. Elizabeth played with Pam, Shannon & Ashley and danced with Pat. I thought she might have had too much excitement, but she went to sleep in less than 5 minutes. (I think dancing with Pat wore her out!) On Saturday, Sara & Travis arrived around 4:45. Sara, Elizabeth & I went to Temple to pick up John's cake.....yes, a surprise birthday party was in store tonight. We had about 30 people meet us in Westphalia at Hering's Store. Of course...we had a little trouble getting there. John insisted that we take the Buick, you know...to save gas. We had 6 people....the Buick seats 6 (Elizabeth in her car seat), we only needed to take one car. Well.....we all get in and start on our way. (John was told earlier in the week, that Sara & Travis wanted to eat at Herings, so he didn't have a clue what was in store....but neither did we.) We get past the Luthern Church and the car dies......John doesn't see too worried.....we coast along and stop just about even with Dorothy Stock's house. John puts the car in park to start the car......it won't start. He tries again.....and again....but to no avail. I could not believe it. I wanted to make sure that our guests knew what was going on, so I called the Stermers. I told them we were on our way and that the car had broke down. (Of course, I had to tell John that the Stermers just so happened to be at Herings eating supper.) Anyway.....one of Matt's friends picked Travis & Matt up to get another car, while Pat Stermer came and picked us up. We left the car in the ditch. When we got to Herings .....about 45 minutes late....all our guest were still there.....and laughing with us about our mishap. Sorry Rick Trubee; I know you received a lot of grief about our car breaking down.....(He had been working on the car for the past few months and we thought all had been fixed......ooops!) After all was said and done.....we had a great time. On Sunday, we went to the Catholic Life meeting for lunch. Sara & Travis both won door prizes....a rosary and an apron.....they are so lucky! Oh....John & Sara towed the Buick home after we came home from the meeting. (It still won't start.) We had a super weekend and we were so glad to see our family and friends. Sara & Travis....thanks for letting us keep Elizabeth. We really enjoy spending time with her. Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate John's birthday; we couldn't have planned a better weekend!

Happy 88th Birthday, Alvin!

Alvin Glaser, one of our neighbors, turned 88 years young yesterday. To help him celebrate, I made him Tortilla Soup and a small birthday cake. John & I took it to him last night, and we visited for over an hour......We really enjoyed the evening.

Quilting for our April Dinner

Each Palm Sunday, our Altar Society ( A ladies group at church) has a fundraiser. We have a plate lunch usually consisting of fried chicken, sausage, dressing, cranberry sauce, noodles, green beans, dessert and tea. We also have a homemade booth, consisting of home baked goodies, canned goods, etc and we sell chances on a quilt. This week, we've set up the quilt up at our house (in our back den) and we're quilting it. This will be our raffle quilt. If you like, you can let me know if you'd like to buy chances.....$1 each or 6 for $5. The drawing will be held the day of our dinner....we usually sell about 1200 plates.....not too bad for a small country church.

So.........What's John Doing These Days?

Ok, Ok.....I've told you what's been going on with me.....now to update you on what John & Matthew have been up to....Fertilizing and Plowing. The first picture shows how they get the dry fertilizer to the field. The second picture shows what they use to spread the fertilizer in the field. The third picture is what the dry fertilizer looks like. The truck in the second picture drives over the land, slinging the dry fertilizer onto the field. In the last picture, Matthew is plowing the fertilizer in the ground.

OMG.....I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by Karen!! The instructions were:

1. Go to your photo folders and open the 4th folder.

2. Choose the 4th photo.

3. Explain the photo.

4. Tag 4 other people!

Here it is...you asked for it!!

This is a picture of the living room in our rent house we bought from our neighbor, Annie Stock. We refer to it as Annie's house. Annie passed away several years ago, and her family sold the house and a few acres to a couple in Rosebud. They lived there a few years and then decided to sell.....we bought it from there. We believe the house was built in the mid-60's and needs to be leveled and renovated. We've had a few renters in it, but the last ones left it pretty dirty. I took pictures of the entire house, so I can document what it looked like before renovations.....so here it is.

Since I don't really have anyone else to tag, I'm going to send this link to Pam Wike & Angie Bailey and ask they start their own blogs so we can keep up with their families. Come on girls...join the blogging fun. We want to see your families and see what's going on in your lives.

The Final Move for the Alfords

Last Friday, I helped my Mom and her husband, Don move to their new (and final) home. If you don't know the history....my Mom has a habit of moving every few years.....actually, it had been 8 years since her last move....so as they have "matured" the moves have gotten a lot less frequent.....Anyway, 6 months ago they went from a 3 bedroom condo to a 1 bedroom apartment. (We all knew the apartment would be a short term stay, until they found the "perfect" home.) Well, the perfect home as been found....and I love it. Nice and roomy, very contemporary. I can't wait to see it when Mom has finished her decorating. (Mom does have a very nice eye when it comes to decor.) Don has already stated it was his last move....and I think Mom is feeling more sore with this move, so it may be her last as well. Mom & Don....you done good!

Happy New Year.....

Wow....the New Year is here...and we're off and running....(I thought after the holidays it would get a little slower) If you don't know.....I've quit working at Curves in Cameron. Last Fall, I starting helping at our local gin, BF&M Coop. (It's 1 mile from our home)...they have tractor & road diesel, gas, spray parts, chemicals & fertiziler, change flat tires and work on almost anything that's broke.....plows, tractors, etc. The office manager, Brenda & warehouse manager, Jessie, wanted to move from paper bookkeeping to computerized bookkeeping....so I'm helping with getting all the inventory into to system and showing Jessie how to make invoices & sales tickets. I'm having lots of fun. I only work 1 day a week and every once in a while, I'll work on a Saturday morning. I'm also helping Brenda automate some of her reports.
Last year, I joined the Qildflower Quilt Guild. (Joan Plumlee, one of our church members and avid quilter, asked me to join.) I really enjoy it and actually went to a few classes. We meet once a month and usually have a speaker and then the next day, the speaker gives a class. In November, I was voted to be our Newsletter Chairperson. I figure this would give me an opportunity to meet more of the members and get involved with the guild. I'm sure I'll be sharing more with you throughout the year.

Enjoying Family Time

Santa brought John a Wii and everyone enjoyed playing it during the holidays......especially the kids. I'm not sure which game they were playing or who was winning.....but some of the faces tell the story.....concentrating....or just watching....it looks like they're having fun......and isn't that what the holidays are all about!
Monday December29th, Kate, Nick, Sara, Travis, Elizabeth & I went to have lunch with my Mom at the Old Jody's. On Monday night, we all went to my Dad's for supper. (Sorry....I didn't get any pics). On Tueday, we met Don (Mom's husband) for lunch at Green's Sausage House.....it's hard to come home and not have at least one meal at Green's. Tuesday afternoon.....Sara, Elizabeth & Travis went back to Victoria. Kate & Nick stayed until New Year's Day.....We really enjoyed having everyone at home during the holidays!

Saturday, December 27th

On Saturday, December 27th,went to Temple to say our last good byes to Rich. He is buried at BellwoodMemorial Cemetery in the St. Mary's area (when you go into the front entrance, it's on your left in the back (southeast side); there's a small mainetence building close by.)

We went to Mary Helen & Richard's home afterwards. Before everyone changed clothes, we went into the backyard to capture this family picture. (in the back) Nick Rossi (Kate's boyfriend), Matthew, Kelli, John, Travis (sitting) Kate Sara holding Elizabeth. I think it's a great picture of all of us. Miss Elizabeth already has an expensive eye.....she's got Jana's necklace in hand......Jana had to explain to Elizabeth that she's not wanting to part with it yet......but maybe one day.

I caught a few pics of our Christmas ritual....Christmas caroling.

Everyone opened a few presents (the girls and family....the rest of us also got a few unexpected gifts). Elizabeth got a little help from Grandpa John opening her block choo-choo train from Great-Grandpa & Great-Grandma Schigut. We enjoyed the afternoon visiting with everyone.