Come and sit on our front porch, have a cup of coffee and visit awhile.
[Gerri] 5 Jan 03 I thought I'd pop in and say hello to everyone on the porch. I just chatted with mom (Darlene) today. She's in Phoenix and I'm in Spokane. She's giving me a bad time because it's the middle of winter and I haven't broken out my winter coat yet. How can I, when it's up to 46 in the afternoons? She's still teasing me because it's so nice there, so I check the weather reports all the time and tease her back because for a couple of weeks our temperatures were pretty darn close.
I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. It was different for me this year. Lonely. My parents are in Phoenix, My oldest son Mark got married in August and moved way down to Austin TX. My middle son Greg spent Christmas with his brother-in-law in Montana. Thankfully, my youngest son MarkL was home for the month. It's been fun to have him around, but I have to give him up soon. He's heading back to college in Bellingham tomorrow.
Ger
[Leslie] 5 Jan 03 Hi Gerri, Welcome to our front porch. I’m really glad you’re here. Hope everyone had a great Christmas. We haven’t had any company on this old front porch since last spring. Makes me wonder how everyone is doing this winter.
The Wood & Emerick family met with sister Della, Beverly, & Evan for Xmas Eve at the Emerick home. It was decorated beautifully for Christmas, as always. There was lots of good food and lively visiting. Boyd received a George Forman Lean, Mean, Grilling Machine from Santa and has been grilling salmon, steaks and bacon like a professional chef. I received candy & cookies so we both have gained weight.
Boyd & I made a visit to West Lake hospital to visit sister Betty yesterday. She looked good & seemed to know us. It really doesn’t feel like Christmas here, Boyd’s fall crocus are blooming in the front yard. Well Gerri, take the porch swing & I’ll sit in the rocker while we wait for our next visitor. We can keep each other from being lonely. Haven’t seen you since your parent’s 50th anniversary celebration. It was lovely. It was nice of you to upload photos of the event to our “family fun” pictures album. They’re great! I think I’ll steal them for the family history. Give your folks our best wishes when you talk to them.
[Bev] 26 Jan 03 Good morning everyone. It sure is a little nippy this morning on the old porch. The coffee tastes great as usual Aunt Leslie. It is so much fun to be bundled up in a comforter, and in my PJs this morning, and feeling the wind brushing against my face. The air is so fresh out here, and the birds are talking to each other. I love to hear your stories Aunt Leslie about your visitors of the furry kind. As you well know I am such an animal lover. One of these days when I figure out how to work my digital camera, I would love to share pictures and stories of my pets, etc. Some of my cats have come from bad back grounds, and their rehabilitation is the greatest joy to me, to be able to watch them tranform into the loving little creatures they were meant to be. I really love hearing all of everyone's news out here on the porch. It is so great to sit out here together even though we are miles away from each other. With people's kids growing up and moving on, we are all getting to the empty nest place in our lives. In a way it is exciting because for once in my life I will be starting to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life. I have been raising my boys for 26 years now (Bryan and Chris are 10 years apart), and only have about a year and a half before Chris is an adult. These have been the greatest years of my life. It is during this time though that your whole world is surrounded in your kids, and Moms and Dads put a lot of their goals, and aspirations aside to focus on the kids. When the kids leave, suddenly we find ourselves wondering what to do next. I am planning early, and have already started my spring cleaning. After living in the same house for 20 years I am trying to part ways with a lot of my junk. I have to do this in spurts, and it is a long journey, but one I will be proud of when it is finished because my house will have more room in it, and be cleaner. I also plan to see if I have any talent in the arts and crafts areas because through the years, and thanks to rummage and yard sales, I have collected quite a few things to try. WOW Aunt Leslie did you just see that giant kangaroo jump across the yard??? HA HA made you look -- tee hee hee hee hee. It sure has been nice visiting with you all out here. I hate to run, but I want to check out the rest of this site since I haven't been able to visit in a long time. Take care you all -- thanks for the great cup of coffee Aunt Leslie -- see ya soon. Bev [Gerri] Thanks for the cup of tea Leslie. Hi Bev. It's good to see you. It's interesting that you should talk about being an "empty nester". My youngest (Greg) got married 2 years ago and moved to Tacoma. In August, my oldest (Mark) married and moved to Austin TX and Scott's youngest (MarkL)graduated North Central High School and moved to Bellingham for college. I think it was too much too fast and I'm still adjusting. Carlene keeps reassuring me that "There's LIFE after kids" and while I'm sure that she's right, I haven't been able to settle into a routine yet.
Scott and I celebrated our 8th anniversary this month. He's very active with his acting career. He's finishing up the current play at the Ridpath, and already in practice for his next one. He's also taking Improv classes. I went with him to the first couple of classes and it was a lot of fun, but it's bad timing for me to be able to do something like that right now. Maybe some day I'll find out why I can't keep my voice. If it gets better I probably won't go back into acting, but may start singing again and join back up with "Just For Fun". I feel like my life is at a crossroads. Most of the things that were important to me have moved on and I'm trying to find my footing again.
[Leslie] Hey, Hey, Bev, we're so glad to hear all your news. You've done a great job raising your boys! Soon you will have time to take care of yourself and live your life the way you want to.
I know all about your yard sale skills. Remember, I have a room full of cloth & teddy bears, thanks to you! I still laugh at the time we got lost in a south hill neighborhood trying to find a yard sale. You kept driving down the same streets in a circle.
No kangaroo's here today but Boyd is remarking about all the birds that should have flown south & didn't. I guess they knew before we did how warm this winter would be. It's 50 degrees here today! Boyd has not plowed snow once this winter.
Well, I'll make more coffee for you & Gerri , and who knows, maybe some one else will come visit while we're out on the porch. Bring some cookies next time, we'll have a party!
[Gerri] 10 Apr 03 Wow, can you believe our weather this week? All winter I've been bragging to Mom & Dad about how warm it has been in Spokane. The week before they came back, it was 60°. The day they got to Spokane it snowed. The whole week they were here it was snowing and hailing and didn't get much above 35°. Saturday after they left Spokane to drive down to Phoenix, it started warming up again. Now that we're wearing shorts and it's getting above 70°, it's hard to believe that was only a week ago that it was so cold. She'll be back here Saturday night. I'm curious what the weather will be like then. I'm sure they think I'm lying about our calm winter.My mother... she's a hyper-little thing. In her mind, she's had the house all packed up for weeks. It was unbelieveable how fast they moved. I felt so sorry for poor dad. Normally when you move things, the woman thinks about where she wants things to go, and the movers have a little breathing room. Since Mom's had everything laid out in her mind for so long, she didn't need any breathing-space to pondered things. They swooped in and out like a white tornado.
[Leslie] 12 Apr 03 Glad to see you back on the porch Gerri, looking forward to seeing your mom again now she's coming back. We miss your dad. I'm so glad our winter was so mild with oil prices so high. Talk about moving, I packed up all my office and moved it to the other side of the room. It was exhausting! Then my son thought while he was plugging the computer back in he might as well update it. So off to Best Buy we went. I've got to learn a lot of new things and my brain may explode! But it gives me something to think about besides the war. It seems like we were glued to the tv for the last 3 weeks and often in prayer. Gerri, let's hope we soon have some company on this old porch, haven't heard from anyone here in months. Let's just sit back, enjoy the bird's singing & wait.
[Gerri] 23 May 03 Scott makes his debut at ComedySportz in Spokane this weekend. On Saturday, May 24, he will run the sound and play the part of "Mr. Voice". Even though he's not on stage, Mr Voice is still a pretty visable position. It's a family show, which means that I would not hesitate to bring my 7 year old nephew to watch the show. I tell you, there are some nights that I've laughed until my face hurt. You can make your reservations at www.spocomedy.com
[Della Ann] 23 May 03 I'm just poping in to let you know I am on the site. We sure all had a nice evening with the cousins and all the rest of the family that got together at the Golden Coral Wed, night. Thanks to Evan's generosity. I hope Boyd had a nice Birthday thursday. I am slowly finding some of the things on my computor again. Leslie, Thanks for your patience. Hello to everyone out there on the site. We are pretty excited that Mike's sister Jennie Walsh and her Dad located us through Leslie's site and met for the first time last week in California. Very pleasing for all concerned. Well I guess I'll go for now. Love to you all, Della Ann
[Leslie] 24 May 03 Welcome Gerri & Dellann, I am glad you came to visit, let's sit in the shade as it's supposed to reach 87 degrees today. After the cold weather last week, it'll feel good. Since we're not having our family reunion picnic this year, I hope we'll get lots of visiting done on this old front porch. Gerri, thanks for letting us know about Scott's play. Sounds like a good one. Boyd had a good birthday, Dellann, he enjoyed your card then ate his fill at Rylee's school ice cream social. We also enjoyed the food & visit with LaRaine, Lynn & Ceathel Wednesday. About Mike's new sister, Jennie was a very exciting surprise. We hope to see some photos of their first meeting. I'm adding some baby photos of Mike here, to our photo albums, for her & her dad. Well let's just sit here & visit awhile and watch the humming birds until we get more visitors.
[Gerri] 1 June 03 Hi Della Ann. I'm going through the same thing of trying to find things on my computer again. Scott fixed something on the computer, and in the process he loaded a totally new operating system on. It's not that much different, but it is enough difference to notice. Several of my programs are missing, so I have to reload as I run across something that isn't there anymore.
I finally left my computer for a couple of hours this afternoon to do some yard work. I'm starting to get excited about getting my yard into shape. If you knew me, you'd understand what a feat that is for me. My iris's are in bloom so I have tons of pretty purple in front of my house. My peonies will be blooming before the week is out so I'll have more flowers on either side of the porch. The one I'm really excited about though is my baby pear tree. The first year I had it, there was one pear on it, and someone (who shall remain nameless) crashed the lawnmower carelessly against the tree right as the pear was starting to get ready to pick, crashing it to the ground. I didn't notice it until it was too late to salvage. The next year there were 2 pears. Last year there were three. This year there are tons.. at least 15 on the tree. It's strange for me to be this excited about a goofy tree, because I'm not at all good at yard care.
Click here to go to a few members comments that didn't make it to this old front porch.
Go to Our Front Porch 2002
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