Celebrating Jason

Today, we celebrate Jason!

Since we won't be home on Jason's birthday (the 24th), we are celebrating his 18th birthday with dinner at our house and finishing up with birthday cake and ice cream, and his favorite dessert, genuine New York cheesecake.

But we celebrate for another reason, too. Jason was baptized today at Worthington Christian Church. He has been thinking about this for some time. We are so happy for him and glad to see him make this mature decision.

Congratulations, Jason!!!!

FAMILY CHRISTMAS 2009

Trains, Trains, Trains

Our theme for the family Christmas this year was trains -- any kind of train, from the tiny z-scale to the ones around the Christmas trees to the felt table runner and the red wooden train. In addition, the kids had train hats and made foam train crafts. But the glue was such a mess. After washing your hands two or three times, it might come off.

The menu was Hobo Stew, Biscuits, Beagles (hot dogs), Hundreds on a Plate (baked beans), and Hobo Potatoes. The "youngest", the "younger", the "older" and even the "oldest" folks got into the action. Guess there's a little kid in all of us.

Hope everybody had a good time in '09. Who knows what 2010 holds?????

Thanksgiving 2009

While we all have our own, we always enjoy going to Bob and Marge's the Saturday after Thanksgiving to share the day together.

After dinner, the men went outdoors to take down the "dish". Question of the day: How many men/boys does it take... While Jon appears to be working, the rest are standing around with their hands in their pockets.

There's always lots of good food, good company and fun playing, or just sitting around and chatting.

Thanks for a nice day of fellowship and, of course, Thanksgiving!

Fall Get-Together

Another successful Fall Get-Together. Our annual Fall Get-Together was October 10th at Tim and Dee Dee's. A cool, crisp day -- just perfect for a hayride and wiener roast.

It's always good to see everybody and catch up on news. A few people were missing -- Mike's family and Terri's family. We missed all of you, but had fun talking about you behind your backs. JK

Lori, Jason and Jessi were there, but Scott had to work. Jessi brought her boyfriend, Kyle. These kids are growing up way too quickly!

It was fun to watch the little ones, i.e., Dylan, Zach, Lily, Kyle, Allie, Kelsie, John, and Rose run around and play together like the older ones used to. Katie and Cody both had friends there. Little Ben is so cute and he'll soon be running around with the rest of the kids.

We all appreciate the effort that Tim, Dee Dee and family put forth. Everybody always has a good time and we all look forward to next year.

2009 OBX Vacation

Our vacation this year was in Corolla, NC on the Outer Banks. What a beautiful area of the country! After driving to Williamsburg, VA, we, and Lori's family went on a Ghostwalk of the historical village of Williamsburg. We're not sure whether we saw a ghost or not, but one of my pictures has a image or two on it that shouldn't be there. See below.

Our guide, John, told good "stories"? of ghosts that had been seen in various houses/buildings in the city. We also visited a small cemetery where we met "Emma". She was buried there over 100 years ago and had deteriorated somewhat as you can see.
We ended up at the Raleigh Tavern where we had dinner with lots of colonial ambience, historically dressed waiters and strolling minstrels. Very quaint and enjoyable.








Then on to Corolla! Since our house wasn't quite ready when we arrived, we went to get groceries at Harris Teeter. After receiving a call that the house was ready, the women and children went to the house while Charles, Mike, and Scott stayed and shopped for groceries. We managed to take pictures of the house and rooms before taking the luggage in and messing up the newly cleaned rooms.


First object of business, of course, was to check out the pool and the ocean. We were at the ocean every day, but we also spent a lot of time in the pool, especially Allie. The pool table also was used a lot during the week. Jacob was, I think, the 9-ball champion and Mema did well on 8-ball until Mike came along and challenged her -- and won.

Charles, Lori, Jessi , and I went to see the outdoor play, "The Lost Colony" which we had tried to see the last time we were in OBX but got rained out. It was really a pleasant evening and we all had fun. When we got home, Jason was suffering with severe itching from his sunburn the day before. After trips to the pharmacy and placing cold towels on him, he finally fell asleep. The next day he was back to normal. Jody had some experience herself with the same malady and was very helpful and supportive.

We all had a lot of fun and the week passed much too quickly. All too soon, it was time to pack up and get ready to leave for home.

An Up-and-Down Day

Saturday, May 23, 2009, was an up-and-down kind of day.


First, we attended a memorial for Fred Leckie, the CEO of NCS Corp. where Charles is president. He passed away on April 11th at the age of 86. Fred wanted to be cremated and his ashes placed in a "coffee can". His children live in Minnesota and Virginia and his grandchildren do not live locally, so they scheduled his memorial for Memorial Day weekend. It really was a nice memorial with the family, and anyone present who wanted to, speaking about their thoughts and rememberances of Fred. There probably wasn't a dry eye at the gravesite, but there were many moments of laughter and quiet understanding, too. After the service, the family hosted an open house to anyone who wished to go back to Poverty Acres, Fred and Jane's home in Madison County, one more time. We all miss Fred -- he enjoyed life to the fullest and made anything he did fun for him and those around him.


After going home and changing clothes, we left for an open house and graduation ceremony for Travis Scott, son of my niece, Terri Scott and her husband, Jon. Travis graduated from John Glenn High School in New Concord, and plans to prepare himself for a career in law enforcement. Travis is a special young man (as is his brother, Ben), handsome, intelligent, polite and very down-to-earth. We wish him the best in his future endeavors.


As you can see, it was an up-and-down day. We were happy for the new graduate and sad about the passage of a dear man who will be truly missed.

Happy Mother's Day 2009

What a beautiful Mother's Day! The weather was sunny, a little cool , but better than the rain we've been having.

We all met at J Liu's in Worthington at 10:00 AM for a Mother's Day buffet. If you went away hungry, it was your fault. Lots of breakfast items, lunch items, salads, roast beef and ham and, of course, desserts.

We hadn't gone out for Lori's or Charles' birthdays, so we celebrated the birthdays and Mother's Day together. After the buffet, everyone came back to our house and opened presents and shared a large chocolate chip cookie (as if we needed anything else).

Andrew had a final soccer game so they left for the game, but Lori and the kids stayed and chatted for a while. That evening, we went to a "Broadway Across America" production of "The Color Purple".

Hope all of you had a great Mother's Day. I certainly did!