Family News - Finishing up June!

June was a good month and a very sad one.  The good part was LaVella coming in for a visit. The sad part was my cousin Bill has passed away.  I told you in one of my prior blogs  he was battling lung cancer. Well he succumbed to it on June12th. Very sad for his family as it had not been that long ago since they lost their Mother.  He leaves behind a lot of good memories.  He most definitely will be missed.  Thoughts, love and prayers go out to his loved ones.

Just heard from my granddaughter Crystal that her Grandfather Fred Tobergte is in hospice and in a wheel chair. He is going to be 93 some time soon. She is having some mixed feelings about wanting to see him like this or not.  I can’t tell her what to do but I think she needs to go see him.  He is a kind man. Whenever we were invited over to Dave’s house for a birthday party or what ever, he would be there. He was very kind and pleasant to my brother and I. He would start talking in German. Of course I couldn’t understand what he was saying.  If he would say a word or two that I used to hear growing up I would know what they were.  My Mom spoke some German but not as well as he. I guess that comes from being reared by German parents. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Fred.

My grandson Greg came in on a whirlwind trip to see a concert of 311. Look at that bunch! Looks like trouble to me! It was good to spend some time with Greg. Sarah didn’t get to come back but she will be here in a month. They are both coming back with Marcus next time.  Oh, Greg brought his new little toys with him. A new iPhone and iPad. I guess we had about four hours together. It was a great visit.

Brother Al had a test done and it came back positive, so now he has to have a colonoscopy done.  He doesn’t handle these things very well.  He always has that look of fear. I always tell him not to worry until he has the facts in his hand. That is the only thing you can do. Generally things turn out just fine .  So we go see the Doctor to set up every thing on Tuesday.

Well that is about it for now, till next time.

Love to all!!

You know who I am! LOL!!!

Teaching & Learning

You know they say you’re  never to old to learn new things. I solely believe that. Amazingly, it is much easier now that I am older.  Why is that?  I think it has to do with wanting to do it.  It amazes me the things I can do when I want to do them.  Does any of this have or make any sense?  My daughter, LaVella,  is always putting a challenge in my path. She says, “You can do this.” and “You can do that, it is easy.”  I sit there and think I will never be able to do this.  All this has to do with computers.

I started my challenge with computers in 1983. Back then you had to enter commands in order to get programs to work. My first computer was a Commodore 128. Then I went to a Amiga. Then I had an Apple. The software was so expensive for them I decided to go to the PC.  Have had a PC ever since.  Now I am back to the iMac. I love it. Things are so much easier  with Safari than with the Windows.  Of course I still have a lap top with windows 7. I really like Windows 7. Great improvement in their operating system.  Any way, my daughter has helped me in a lot of ways as far as setting up blogs and little “Like Buttons”.  I really like the little Like button. She taught me to do that and then gets me set up in another blog site that I can’t use it. I just learned how to do it. LOL!!!! What’s  a girl gonna do?!!

I know one thing for sure, when I had the Amiga and the Apple Donnie was glad I went to PC as he was always having to help me out of a trouble spot.  Then, I am sure he was happy to move to Florida and not get those frantic calls. But, by then I was pretty clear on what to do in tough spots. Yeah, computers are really great and you can do a lot if you learn to use one. I have done almost all my research on the family tree for my Dads side of the family on my computer.  It’s amazing how much information is available to you on these things! I must say that family was the hardest, as I didn’t know that much about them.

Anyway, I guess I will get this out and posted. If I think of something interesting between now and the first of the Month I might post it. I just don’t want to bore you.  I have had some interesting times with my children and my Mom.  Any of you who knew my Mom knows she was a loving person. You never got past her without a hug or a slobbery kiss on the cheek. LOL!!! Bless her for all the trials and hurdles she went through to get us grown up and on our own. Love you Mom! You are in a lot of our memories down here!

Love to all……Me again.

Greetings Everyone!

June is here! Wow! has it been hot in May. I think they said it was ten degrees hotter than our normal temps.  Like I have always said, “that’s the Ohio Valley for you!

Just wanted to write a note on the Memorial Day blog, celebrating our service men. I know there were a few I forgot to put in there. There was Walter Miller, I believe he was in the Army. My Uncle Ralph Sarver served in the Navy. AB Rosenbaum  served in the navy also. That is Greg’s Dad, and his brother Dave also served in the Armed Forces. Just don’t want to forget anyone. They did our country proud.

La Vella came in to spend a week.  It was fun. Gary, Sonny, Emily, I and La Vella did go to the Evergreen Cemetery in Southgate, Kentucky and found some family. Have to figure out who they all are. Also found GrGr grandfather James Sarver and wife. GrGrandfather George is laid to rest there also, but his marker is not showing. So I am going down there again to check out the area to see if I can find it.  We also went to Baltimore Pike  Cemetery and I did find my GrGrandmother Mathilda Sarver.  Her marker is really nice. Little round stone with her name and dates and a flower holder in the center. NIce!  Uncle Harold  Sarver’s  marker is gone. But the care director went over in the area and found his grave. We took picture of the stone next to him. There are two graves that separate him and the grave next to him. I was really happy to find the graves.

I had heard some complaints about the cemetery which I find hard to believe.  Sure, there are some stones that have fallen and some that have gone under the dirt. They have been there for over one hundred years. What can you expect?

We went to the Library so I could sign for a card to use the genealogy department in Covington. It is really an awesome library. All the history for Kentucky is sent there.

After the grave hunting we had lunch at  this place on the River front called  Buckhead Mountain Grill.  Do you remember me telling you about Emily’s little faults?  You know the running from a can of soda when it is spraying? Well, we went to order our food at the place and because La Vella  and I ordered Chicken salad she said “I can’t order that because the both of you are ordering it”. LOL! LOL!  I said what the (@#$%^@# ) is that about!?????   LMBO. It is a rule or something when Her and  friends go out for lunch that they never buy the same thing. I guess so they can try a taste of each others food. Go figure! Well, we have one in every family I guess! Now mind you when she and Mike ordered they ate the same thing!  HILARIOUS!!!  They SHARED!!! Hahahaha!

Then we went to the butterfly exhibit and that was fun.  Mike and Emily, his grandmother, sister, nephew AJ, La Vella, Sonny and I went. Then we had lunch at Skinny Legs in Bellevue. That evening we went down to Pompilios to have dinner with Mike’s Family and watch them play Bocce. That was very interesting.

We did a few other things. The one thing we wanted to do was go to Vincennes Indiana and didn’t get to do that. So maybe we will and make a couple of days out of it the next time I get La Vella  up here.  We did have a enjoyable time. When she left I had to take a few days to rest.

I went to have some tests done and all is well. No health problems. Can’t say the same for the AC! Had to have the heating and air replaced.  When we bought this place the inspectors said the heating /cooling system would last about five years. Guess what? I will be here five years in September. Amazing!!  The service men are here installing the new system at this time.

Not much more to add so till the next time, keep cool and hydrated as I hear the 90’s are on their way. Sonny and I will do the same. Love and Hugs to all of you out there!

Just want to wish all you Dads out there a HAPPY FATHER’S DAY

God bless all!!!………. Barb

Not him. Her! Too cute!

This is the new “friend” Emily wanted me to meet. The “friend” that has stolen all of “my” travel-on-the-way-home-phone-calls with Emily for the past month. It’s been radio silence with her for weeks and I wasn’t sent a memo. But look at that impish grin. Could you resist? We spent enough time together, Mike & I, for me to assess the situation and I’m “in like” too. He’s cute, charming, witty and loves his family. Keep that smile on her face and it’s all good Mike!

If not . You get to meet Mean Mom.

Click . . .

LaVella

July "Summer Fun"

Mom Working at Coney Island

June is passed, shall I say ending, and here we are going into July. They say when July 4th gets here half the summer is over.  When I was in school I used to hate to see the 4th of July come around, it meant school would start in eight weeks. We always started back to school after the Labor Day holiday, but that is the way it goes.  Most kids had the summer to have fun. I had to work.

My Mom worked at Coney Island. Her friends owned the games.  She took me up there and they decided to put me to work at the Fish Pond. Then after they discovered what a good little worker I was, they put me in the game called Fascination. It was the owner’s favorite game and he also worked it. I was told Ben, the owner, wanted me to work there because I was the only one who could out-work him. Of course that wasn’t true, his nephew Tom worked there and he was a great person and worker also.  But that was okay, I ate the flattery up.

I loved working at Coney Island. We had our special friends up there and we would all get together and go places on our day off. Those were some good times. Funny we would go swimming on our day off at LaSourdsville Lake. Isn’t that weird? We worked at Coney, had Monday Off, and we would go to another amusement park on our day off.  Oh well, there wasn’t any thing else to do. LOL!!!  So guess I worked up there until the summer  I was going to be seventeen. Believe it or not, I started working there when I was twelve years.  Back then, and especially up there in those days, they would say go swimming Barb or go take a two hour break. Well, I knew what they were doing. The child labor people were checking ages! But it was so much fun. I loved it because I was near my Mom all the time.  She didn’t have to worry about me.  Those were some good old days.

Love, Barb

If I Can Do It . . .

Blogging. 

I've had my share of questions about this topic lately. The enthusiasm of the public over the trend seemed to die down a bit. Yet lately, those that never quite cared enough about the concept are ready to jump on board now. Oddly enough, most questions and interest has been voiced to me by people with grandchildren that emphatically enjoy reading, and perhaps down the road, memorializing, the words of their most beloved G-Ma. Who could blame them? How often has it been that you could gain access to a letter or story she wrote and then have the copy published in a book when, heaven forbid, she passes on? My Mom has been writing for her blog for nearly two years. I'm excited that I'll still have a bit of her wisdom to glean from long after she's gone.

In response to these inquiries I've started this blog to test the waters. I hope to prepare an easy "How To" list for them. It has to be easy for those not so computer savy. If I can manage to do all this, perhaps I'll get enough of these precious women enabled and empowered on their journey. May their voices bring joy to their family forever and ever!

- LaVella