Christmas Holiday 2010

Early December . . .

Well, here it is December and I am getting anxious for our trip to the Smoky Mountains. I love the mountains and it has always been my desire to have Christmas there. Sorry that there are a few in the family that won’t be there. But we will be thinking about them.

The excitement of getting ready is overwhelming. Try to get things together to make sure we have every thing in the cabin we need. I probably will get there and they will have every thing we need. But that is okay, best be safe than sorry.

The Day Arrives . . .

On the way down we had a few traffic hold ups.  One was working crews trying to get the orange cones up. I think they forgot to do it the day before as I saw no sign of them working any where. The second back up was a tractor-trailer belly up. That was all in Kentucky. After that it was fairly good trip.

When we arrived it was rather shocking to see how high in the Mountains we were. The woman I talked to said we didn’t need four-wheel drive.  It was questionable, but sure was beautiful. When Carol, Robert, Crystal and Mischa arrived I thought Crystal was going to go into panic mode from the height of the cabin in the mountains.  Thankfully, we all made it in and out. It was beautiful when it snowed. It was fantastic to say the least.  The cabin was beautiful. I might add they had everything you would need. Didn’t use the things I took. The cookies I made did get eaten. The company was fantastic.  Food was great.

Gabe had the “Wow’s” and “Hi’s” going on. What an adorable child. Mischa was her usual little “Miss Personality”. She sat out cookies and milk for Santa. The look on her face when they were gone in the morning was priceless.  She was so thrilled that Mrs. Santa ate a lot of the extra cookies sitting out. She said, ”She almost ate all of them!”, with a big smile on her face. So cute!

Christmas morning I woke up and looked outside after taking a shower and getting dressed. I went out and the snow was coming down really heavy, so I went out in my socks and started taking pictures.  There wasn’t anything you could see to take pictures of, just a few rooftops. Our cabin was on top of the ridge of the mountain. To be exact it was 1600 ft + elevation where we were. It totally shocked me as I thought it was going to be in the foothills. I am a city girl, to me that was high.

It was fun to see my family really enjoying themselves. They played pool and air hockey, and Emily and Mike made use of the hot tub. All this time it just kept snowing and snowing! I guess it got up to close to eleven or twelve inches.  LaVella said the plows worked on the lower level roads. I never did see any on top of ole smoky where we were. I think it was the best time I have ever had. Spent with my kids. I am going to leave it at that.  I just won’t go down there in the winter months ever again. Of course I am getting so darn old I don’t think I have to worry about it.  Next time, if there is one, it will be in the city in a Motel within walking distance, or we’ll have Christmas earlier. I have to get to 85 for the next one to come around. My children surprised me with an iPad, which I truly never expected at all. Of course LaVella did one of her videos. I am so grateful for the things that they do for me. I don’t have the words to express my appreciation. Except, THANK YOU!!!

One of the several moments we had, was someone was always getting lost, or someone would lead us out to go eat and they would end up going up the mountain instead of going down. Huh, Mike? They decided it was the GPS! LOL! Mine worked fine. I just didn’t have it working at the time. It was so funny I thought Emily was driving and I kept saying to Jess, “Where is she going”? I would say, “You go down, not up, to get out!”.  I was blaming my little Emily and here it was Mike (her boyfriend).  I don’t think he will ever live that down. I will admit their GPS device was not functioning right, as they were going faster than it could keep up. Sometimes it would loose a signal and you would have to give it a second to come back. All in all, we had a good trip. Let me ask you, “Have you ever had a time on vacation that something didn’t go wrong?”.  Remember there were 18 of us. I am so proud that Jess seemed to really enjoy himself. I think it might have been what he was drinking. LOL!! He is a person that doesn’t like to be in a place closed up for a long time. He must have his space. Thank you, Jess, for coping with your family. We all love you for that. LOL!!

It truly was a good time in the Chalet!

I am going to end this right here as we are all trying to forget a few things that went on as we left the mountain. Hopefully they will erase from my memory bank.

After we got out of the Mountains, some of us had breakfast waiting for the others to get down and then we all headed home.

The final ending to the trip is we all are home safely.

A Message For Jess . . .

When things go wrong Mother’s always try to keep control of their emotions. When her children are home safe and sound, and she is in the solitude of her room, she usually has an emotional breakdown. And no one ever knows. She try’s to keep control at all times. That is what Mothers do.

So I hope you all have a great Healthy New Year.

Love to all,

Mom, Auntie, Cuz, Grandma and Friend

Reflecting On Being Thankful!

Well, here it is November, can you believe another year is almost past? Wow! Time sure does fly.

Now is the time to be thankful for the things you were blessed with, the things you have and the life you were given. Let me tell you, if anyone ever asked me what I am thankful for I would tell them my whole life. When I was a child I can’t ever remember wishing I had a different life. My Mom was my life and then when I had children of my own, they were my life. Sometimes it was a rocky one, but we pulled through. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. Well, maybe a few things I would have wished were a little different. But I know one thing, my children were normal and did  things normal children do. I think the teenage stage was the roughest part; when they would try to tell you, you are wrong and don’t know as much as they do. Well, they didn’t actually say that, but you know, the attitude was there. I am sure you all have experienced that stage. Isn’t it amazing how smart they all were at such a young age? LOL!! But thankfully they did grow and mature into nice young adults. With an occasional attitude on their face. LOL!!

My Mom was my mentor and when she was alive there wasn’t ever a time she needed me, or wanted to visit me, that I refused to go,  or take her, wherever it was. The last Christmas of her life I wasn’t going to go to her house.  I was so tired, we had a very busy Christmas rush at work, so I decided I would go the day after. She was so upset that I changed my mind and told her I would be there. Was I glad I went? That was her last Christmas. Which I must say was her favorite holiday.

She taught me the value of family. From the time I was small we would visit our relatives. My Uncle Bob would come down and pick us up and we would go to their farm for the weekend. It was so much fun. Her brother and sisters all had that tight family connection. That is what I always tried to teach my children – Family is important. When no one else is there, family will be. If the need or want is there no matter how important it is to you always make room for the other person. Even if it interferes with your plans. The need the other person has might be a touch more important than yours. Love and Consideration for the other person is what I was always taught. People always say, this is my time or this is my day off I can’t be bothered today. Well, if you let that stand in your way of doing something special for some one it may be the last chance you have to connect to that person. So take the word from a wise old soul, think before you say no.

This Thanksgiving has brought back lot memories. I love to think back on the times I have had with my family. I have no regrets. If I left this earth tomorrow, I will have done the things the Lord wanted me to do. Be it wrong or right in the minds of others. I did what I thought was best for my family and me.

I hope you all have a nice Thanksgiving. Be sure to count your blessings, and by the way record them in picture and video. Also put dates on them. Very important.

Love to all!

The next blog will be after our Christmas in the Smoky Mountains.

A Nautical No-No

September has arrived and what a pleasant beginning to fall. My cousin Bob’s son, Bobby, came in for a family reunion on his Mother’s side of the family.  He called and said he would like to stop by for a visit. Jess, Gary and Angela came over also. After dinner Jess and Bobby went to see the WEBN Fireworks. Jess took him down on his boat. You know I was worried until they walked in the door, but they had a great time.  Bob was impressed with the Fireworks. They were spectacular as they always are. Bobby and I sat up until 2 o’clock in the morning talking.  It was a great visit.

Well, it just doesn’t ever stop. The heat is here again. Of course it will go away. You can count on that. I have been walking every morning and then I come home and walk on the treadmill.  It is the only way I can get the cardio up and moving. But I am good to be on the move again.

I have been reorganizing my brother’s schedules for his hospital visits. Since St Elizabeth took over all the Hospitals in Northern Kentucky we can go right down the hill to get his monthly test done. Much faster to get there and not a lot of traffic. We are both going to really like that.

Tammy got tickets to the Cincinnati Reds game for Oct.2^nd. That is going to be fun.  Hadn’t been watching baseball for a longtime. Use to go to games when I was young and then as I started the family I just didn’t have time for the big leagues. I had my own little leaguers.  My brother would get us to go and take the kids once in a while. Especially the boys as they love it.  I have been following the games and they are really doing great.

We have been having some brush fires around here due to the drought.  We had a sprinkle on the way home yesterday. They say we are 5 inches low for our area. That is a lot.

Just received some photos from Jenni and Keith taken with Gabe. They are so cute. She always sends me little movie clips of Gabes first steps and so on. Really enjoy that.

Brother Dal came over on Saturday.  So he and Sonny went to the bowling alley. . .they  called me and told me to come on down when they discovered there was a friend I grew up with there.  She was one of the crowd that I ran with.  It was really great getting to see her, you could say it had been quite a while. She has had a lot of health problems.  She had her knee operated on had two heart attacks and has spurs on her spine. She has custody of her great grand children and is still working. She is 78 years old. Bless her heart. I guess you do what you have to do.  Going to get with her again soon hopefully. Her Momma would be proud of her.

Well that is about it for now. Hope I will have more to report as time goes on. It is going to be quite busy in the next few months. I’ve been running behind a little  . . .  it is October already!

Love to all!

You know who I am! Have a great Month!

The Dog Days Of Summer

August has come and gone and I will be so glad when we have some cooler weather. It really has been a crazy summer. I don’t have to tell you that. The only sane thing about it was I had a lot of things to do this summer. Usually don’t in the summer months.  That is strange because you’d think I would do more in the summer than the winter. But not true with me, I am busier in the winter. Now that I located a flat area around here I will be doing my walking in the cooler months. As long as I can get off the hill, during bad weather, I will be down there. They really keep our roads and hills by us clear of snow.

Greg and Sarah’s Baby will be born 12/9/2010.  Can you believe Carol is going to be Grandma again?  We are all excited about the baby.

Five great grandbabies. That is a lot for my children since they have been so conservative about having children.  I want to thank my grandkids for giving me a few grgrandkids.  Life without kids must be a boring life. I used to think, what would it be like not to have to get up take care of five kids. Feed them, help dress them, make sure they tie their shoes so they don’t step on the string and fall. Take them out in the yard and watch them play as most of the places we lived they didn’t have fenced in yards.

The boys played baseball so I was always taking them to ball practice and to games. Gary played ball and Jess just couldn’t wait to be able to play. I think he started a year after Gary. He was in the D league I believe. It was so funny. He was so excited; the coach put him in the center field. The player hit a fly ball out to center. Jess ran up there with his hands out to catch the ball and the ball went right between his hands. He didn’t close his hands as the ball came down. He was so upset. But that was so cute. To see him running and stopping and the ball plopped right through his hands.  What an exciting time in my life to do those things with them.  Summers were very busy.

LaVella was in brownies and they kicked her out for some reason, can’t remember. Must not have been too important. Maybe when she reads this she can add the reason.

Greg (Carol’s Son) made two trips back this summer one for a concert. He and Sarah, Marcus came back as her family had a baby shower for her. It was very nice to be able to see his Dad and his family. Don’t get to see them too often. It was also good to see Sarah’s family. Hadn’t seen them since Marcus’s birthday party. She has a very nice family. They sure make you feel welcome. It was so funny, every time they would say Grandma I would start to answer. Then realizing I wasn’t the only Grandma there. It was so funny.

As I said last month I was going to put some things in about the family history. There is so much news on it. I think you all just need to go up and read the information on the web site. There is so much information about the things concerning the history.  I will be adding more as time goes on.

Here’s a link to it: www.myfamily.com/group/barbsfamily

Well, I am getting ready to go bowling today. I sure hope it goes as well today as it did last week. Gee . .  I got a 505 series! The best part of it was I beat my brothers whom have been bowling for years. LOL!!!  I have only had a 500 two times in the twelve years I have been bowling. Not really any good. But it is fun to rub it in their face once in awhile when I do well. LOL!!

Well, that is all for now. So have a great day!

Until next time,

Love to all,

Friend, Mom, Barb, Cousin and Auntie

We've Been Busy!

We had a busy day yesterday. Brother had the test done. So far every thing is good. He had a biopsy done and we were waiting for the results. Doctor didn’t seem to concerned about it. Did it just to be on the safe side.  Results came back Negative so we were really happy about that!!  Said that he should have a colonoscopy done next year just to check and make sure.. so good luck to you Al!!!  LOL!!

We went to the party for my cousin Charles and wife Nancy’s 50th wedding anniversary. Cousin Marcy and Charles’ birthdays are on the same day. So we had three celebrations in one.  Around 15 people attended. Marcy turned 82 and her brother Charles turned 77.  Happy birthday to the both of you and we wish you many more. Nancy and Charles celebrated their 50th anniversary, what an accomplishment that is. God bless you all!  It was so much fun visiting with you, having the chance to Celebrate with you! Marcy played a few songs on the piano and organ to entertain us for a while. She does very well. She doesn’t know how to read music. Just plays by ear. Things have been very quiet since the above party.

Crystal, Greg, Sarah and Marcus came over today to spend some time with us. It was good to get to see them. They are heading up North to visit Carol. The kids have so many people to visit when they come home.  I imagine it is very tiring for Sarah.  But it was good to see them again. We won’t get to see them at Christmas as the Baby is due December 9th.There was a baby shower for Sarah on August 1st. It was a nice get together. They had a nice turn out.

I had to slow down on the family tree research as the old eyes really tire easily. So during the last week I haven’t done much!

Sonny had to take his stress test this morning. That took five and a half hours.  He has one every year. Glad that is finished for the year.  I’ve been getting some beautiful pictures of Gabe from Jenni and Keith. Can’t even express how much it means to get the pictures and the little movie clips she sends me. It is going to be so much fun at Christmas with him.

Angela Dunham Zarzycki is going to have a little girl in December. All these little ones coming into this world is such a wonderful thing for those who are adding to the family tree. As I say, we are adding two more leaves. LOL!!! They are a blessing from God.  Well that is about it for this time. For those of you interested I will add some things next month about the family I have found. Some very surprizing things I might add.

Love to all,

Mom, Auntie and cousin Barb!

Whomever I maybe to you!

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.