Naomi is Violet’s great granddaughter.

I still see a resemblance between Ruth and Naomi. So cool.

We are doing well here. Kevin has sold his part of the energy company that he was involved in a year ago. I keep waiting for life to slow down for him. For sure, his stress level is diminished and he is playing more golf, but I had dreams of us “hanging out”…ok, I’ll be honest…I had dreams of him helping me put up Christmas decor, etc. He’s not that guy, and if he suddenly became that guy, I don’t think I would know what to do! Anyway, he is much more lighthearted, and that’s a good thing to see.

Riley is bussing tables at Brasserie TenTen. Many of you ate there when you were here last summer. It’s one of our favorites in Boulder. He and Kevin have been making a few trips this summer to check out college campuses. He really enjoyed the CA campuses, so perhaps I will have an opportunity to visit my west coast cousins in the future! I got a lump in my throat when I went with Riley for his Senior photo shoot. Isn’t it such a bitttersweet thing to watch our children grow?

Jake got through rugby season with no broken bones this summer and can hardly wait for football season! 8th grade is the first year you can play for your school, and his middle school has a great coach, so it should be lots of fun! He is looking forward to being “top dog” as an 8th grader. On a different note, Jake shot an elk back in the fall and the “mount” just arrived. Believe it or not, I am running out of wall space. It’s a good thing there are only 3 guys in this house. 3 dead animal heads are enough!

It’s funny how I always think summers will be “days in the hammock” and they end up being so busy. My friend Suzie and I are facilitating the Women’s Bible Study at our church that takes place during the school year. We’ve spent hours together planning brunches, developing the theme for the year, recruiting Bible Study leaders, choosing studies that are offered, etc. It’s been fun but also a lot of work. We have made some changes to the program, and are hoping they will be well received, but you never know. We are hoping people give us grace! Our desire is to be purposeful with the time we have each Wed. AM. and we hope to communicate that when we encounter the person of Jesus Christ, our lives are forever changed.

I had a fun trip with my sisters to Boston in June. None of us had ever been there before, so it was fun to explore the city together. We got to be pretty savvy about the subway system. (Can you use savvy and subway in the same sentence and get away with it?) The city is so much smaller than I expected! We covered a lot of territory in 3-1/2 days. One of the fun things we did was to have breakfast at a different neighborhood bakery each morning.

Thanks, Jackie, for getting this going. I hope your guys have good time at the football game this fall. It sounds like so much fun. Go Big Red!

Admittedly I have been remiss myself, signing into the blog, so I’m the last to scold anybody! (Although I just got off the phone with Vicki who called to wish me a happy birthday, and I scolded her!) Our talks always end up talking about family and she is already planning her 70th-birthday year (yes, she plans to celebrate it, all year! but I’ll let her tell you about that). I challenged her saying that if I signed into the blog she had to! I hope she does; she leads such a full life, I love hearing the latest!

So, h’mmmm, since 07/28/07 reunion? I’m happy to have finally reached a point where I can get my arms around my pain management. Last year at this time, my doctors and I were experimenting treatment. (A caution to each and every one of you ::: do NOT start any new medication or change in medication when you are away from home. Anything new or different has to be in a controlled environment.) I just can’t begin to say how good it feels to be able to put five words together that make sense, and that I don’t occasionally drift into neverland; the ability to focus has been a really good thing. I feel much better that I’m not chasing the pain. I’m told that my very countenance is a distinguishable difference. That’s nice to hear.

Also some very good news from my cardiologist: on 5/2/06 my “ejection fraction” was 21% and is now 43% (which means that my heart isn’t working as hard). You won’t be seeing me on the ski slopes or river rafts or back-country hikes or mountain bikes … but you will see me. Just recently Bob and I lost his sister to cancer and it hit everyone in the family extremely hard. She was his little sister and my best friend. She would have turned 61 three days ago; I am 61 today.

This has been a strange year weather-wise, that’s for certain. We spent a couple of weeks in Arizona during spring training; and it was snowing here when we returned home. We will have 90 sultry days now (the humidity is unusual) then 51 degrees the next (and the furnace decides to turn on!) The winter was the very worst since we’ve lived here. Bob had to climb onto the roof to push off the hardened snow .. it melted then froze then melted, again .. and we had leaks in our master bathroom. We have a little “path” to our breezeway next to the garage, and one weekend when Bob wasn’t here the path became non-existent. This is a particularly bad thing because my UPS guy Dave and my Schwan’s guy Mike couldn’t get through!

All in all, it’s been a pretty good year. We’re happy, the dogs are getting older; Cat CleElum chases mice but it’s just a game for her at 3 am. We have 5 elk who choose their route right through the same place each year. We can’t fool the deer from getting into the garden, yet they have left some raspberries, each morning (maybe that’s the cat telling us to go pick he berries before the deer do. Anyway, all is well. Contentment is a good word. Hang a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door to my life, right now.

You will all be hearing from me, shortly, re: the cookbook. The pictures are not turning out as I would like, so I may decide not to include them, at all. Pricing goes up, with how many and placement … and I somehow can’t get rid of a black band on the pages as they come through. I sent something out in March and hope you weren’t wringing your hands waiting at the mailbox. It looks like this may just be an item you can consider for Christmas gifts?

I’ve watched a lot of Little League baseball this summer. Eric’s boys, Lucas and Ian, just turned 13 and 8. Some nights when they had games scheduled at the same time, I wandered back and forth between ball fields. They’ve started football practice already. They’re both natural athletes and a joy to watch. Lucas and I play golf together in the Community League. Great fun.

In June, Vicki and I shared our birthday week in California. We golfed at four wonderful courses, took the 17-mile drive, stayed overnight at Asilomar, went to her amazing farmers’ market, ate out, ate in (she prepares great grilled salmon), enjoyed a fun visit with Pam who was on her way home from a visit with King & Patty, and had an altogether good time.

There was a 60th birthday celebration for Mike’s youngest sister, Sarah, in South Bend in July. Even though not all of the siblings were able to attend, it was a great reunion and an opportunity to catch up with the four generations that were there. Miki and I took a brief tour of Saint Mary’s College where I attended ’58-’62, and I shared several stories and fond memories with her. The campus itself is totally different with many new buildings, and the older buildings that constituted the entire college when I was there have fallen into disrepair, much to my dismay. I shouldn’t be surprised; I’ve kind of fallen into disrepair myself over the years!

Natalie, I hope your next knee replacement is highly successful and that you recover quickly. Miki has chronic problems with her right knee and will be seeing a doctor soon. Vicki has had her right hip replaced. I have trouble with my right knee because of an old volleyball injury. Mother used to experience pain in her right hip and called it “a hitch in my get-along”. Wonder if there is something genetic going on with a weakness on the right side?

Our golf course is doing okay, though the economy has affected us along with most other small businesses. Being at the mercy of the weather is always a factor, too. The month of May here was glorious; I wish the entire year could be like May of 2008. However, it was followed by a very wet June that caused severe flooding all around us, and now we have the typical heat and humidity of Indiana’s July and August. I stay inside and read a lot.

Thanks for the book lists, Jackie and Jennifer, and please keep recommending good books! I’m currently reading The Double Bind by Bohjalian, who’s one of my favorites. I’ve gotten into some very light but entertaining reading this summer, concentrating on the series by J.A. Jance and by Janet Evanovich. When I get serious again, I have Abundance by Naslund waiting in the wings. Love to all of you, Diane