Hi family, even though there are just 6 of our former members who have joined here, I am trying out everything on our new website, I thought I'd see how a personal blog page would work. I'll say what boring, stupid thing I want here and then you can add a comment, then I, or anyone, can comment on your comment. Does that make sense?
Well, anyway I'll try it. I can always delete it if it doesn't work. Here goes:
We still have lots of snow on this old farm. I haven't been anywhere since Thanksgiving. Too cold and snowy for me. I have kept busy transferring my websites, read a few good books about swedish immigrants, avoided cleaning anything as much as possible, and watched television. I like Lost; Desperate Housewives; House; The Doctors; Antique Roadshow; Nancy Grace; American Idol; Ugly Betty and a lot of others. I watch a lot of nature, science and news programs on our Direct TV dish. Boyd watches Gonzaga basketball. Go Zags!
I talk to Thelma and Wayne and Evan and other relatives on the phone. Everyone's o.k. right now. Boyd is working on his well-drill, getting ready for spring work. We seem to have a lot of company, neighbors and customers seem to drop in often. Boyd is still selling hay.
I'll quit for today, you probably think I have lost my senses, but I'm just having winter doldrums. I need CHEERING UP! Love to all, as always,
Winter has been amazing here in Olympia this year. We had 27 inches of snow in December and 60 degree weather in January. I'm in the middle of a nasty cold at the moment. I had planned to come to Spokane this week to visit Dad and get to work on cleaning his old house, but it's going to have to wait a little while. I've talked to the social worker at St. Joseph's where Mom is and she is now beginning to fail physically. She has less and less ability or desire to eat and has lost about 20 pounds in the last couple of months. She has lived almost 10 years since developing Alzheimer's which is about twice as long as is expected. Must be those hearty Mikesell genes. Still, in some ways it might be a blessing for her to let her body go since her Spirit is already (mostly) with the Lord.
ReplyDeleteI'm so thankful to all of you who have helped support Dad during this difficult period. The love and generosity he and Mom have always had has been returned seven fold! I'll try to keep you all updated.
Jim
Winter has been amazing here in Olympia this year. We had 27 inches of snow in December and 60 degree weather in January. I'm in the middle of a nasty cold at the moment. I had planned to come to Spokane this week to visit Dad and get to work on cleaning his old house, but it's going to have to wait a little while. I've talked to the social worker at St. Joseph's where Mom is and she is now beginning to fail physically. She has less and less ability or desire to eat and has lost about 20 pounds in the last couple of months. She has lived almost 10 years since developing Alzheimer's which is about twice as long as is expected. Must be those hearty Mikesell genes. Still, in some ways it might be a blessing for her to let her body go since her Spirit is already (mostly) with the Lord.
ReplyDeleteI'm so thankful to all of you who have helped support Dad during this difficult period. The love and generosity he and Mom have always had has been returned seven fold! I'll try to keep you all updated.
Jim
Gosh, I could almost "ditto" some of what Jim said. The snow in December was unbelievable. Spokane broke records all over the place. But where the west side of the state got warmer, Spokane stayed below freezing for an incredible length of time. This year a lot of people in Spokane have had a hard time with winter depression because we were trapped in the houses behind snow berms for over a month. In my case I have to admit that I found the whole thing so awesome. Every day were more stories about how people were doing and what they were doing to cope with the snow. I am still dealing with snow issues at work. The building where I work sustained 27 broken beams that had to be repaired, and soon will need re-roofed. The contractor couldn't believe it didn't collapse. We were lucky. We still have so much snow in the parking lot we can't park all the employees vehicles.
ReplyDeleteI am also in the middle of a nasty cold. It's been a week and a half and just today I'm starting to feel like I'm back in the land of the living. Unfortunately I've given it to Scott. His health isn't the best and it makes him susceptible to things that he has a hard time getting over. I'll be glad when we don't have sickness in our house anymore.
I am sorry to hear Betty's health is failing. It is so hard to know how to pray for the family when Alzheimer's is involved. I pray for strength for all of you to be able to make the decisions that need to be made, for peace at those times when frustration and anger creep in, and thankfulness for you, that you are able to be there for Evan when he needs you.
Jim, thanks for replying, it seems to work good. I sent Evan a goofy card but he knows what I'm like and will forgive me. I hope he has a good day. Sheryl said she will try to see him. Now I'm going to see how it looks when I reply to Gerri's reply. Leslie
ReplyDeleteGerri, thanks for replying to my blog, now I'm replying to your reply to see how it looks. It is so sad about Betty. Thelma and I have to keep each others spirits up about our siblings. Evan sounded like he was taking his move o.k., I hope he meets new people. He told them to tune the piano and he played a duet with a lady there. That's what he loves to do.
ReplyDeleteWe had our garage roof beam crack in half, so we risk our lives to go in there. It was falling apart anyway but we kept putting of tearing it down. Now it might fall down on it's own. We couldn't see it was cracked until Boyd got up on it to shovel the 5 feet of snow off. He also knocked down part of our yard fence when he plowed the driveway. We didn't know that until some of the snow melted. The way things are going, It might be June before the rest of it melts. Anyway I hope it's a long time before we have another bad winter. I hope you and Scott and Jim get to feeling better soon. Leslie
Our old website disappeared yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI called Thelma and Wayne this morning. Wayne has bronchitis and Thelma has a bad cold and cough. Good thing they like to read, they are down to one tv station that they can see since they don't have a converter box. In June they won't be able to see anything.
Thelma told me that Naomi is going to take Evan to lunch today for his birthday. I will call him later to see how his day went. Leslie
Dad and I want to get Wayne and Thelma a converter box if, indeed, they are only getting one channel. My understanding was that the digital conversion had been delayed until June. Have the stations in Spokane gone ahead and converted early? Let me know. I think we'll just get them a $50 Walmart gift card since the converter is $49 at Walmart.
ReplyDeleteJim
Jim, all the Spokane stations are converted but channel 2. They were going to stop too, but changed their mind and will wait until June. I'm sure they can find someone to hook a box up for them, Ginny said she didn't know how. Wayne said that he only watches the news so he isn't upset but it's foolish for them not to be able to get a signal. I started telling them about the change over a year ago but then they had a dish so didn't worry. Ginny quit the dish because she didn't use it and neither Wayne or Thelma could work it's remote. They don't have a roof antenna so I hope they can get the stations ok with their rabbit ears.
ReplyDeleteNaomi sent me a photo she took on Evan's birthday of your mom and dad. You can find it in the Erlandson photo album here. Leslie
Hi family, today is Saturday March 7, 2009 and it is cold on this old farm today.
ReplyDeleteThursday I got a call from cousin Allen Beall in Montana. Very nice to hear from him. Because of his eyes he doesn't drive much anymore. He asked about everyone.
Then Friday I got a call from cousin Joy (Allen) Thomason. Her and her husband are moving from Arizona to California soon to live with daughter Susan. After getting a lot of replacement parts, she is feeling pretty good now for her age. I think she is more lively than I am. Joy is also into family history and computers so has a lot to pack up. She told me that her brother-in-law Shep died on the 4th of March so I have put his obituary in our "Allen" family related obits on this website. Our thoughts go out to his wife Marjorie (Allen) Shepherd.
Thelma is still coughing but Wayne has recovered from his bronchitis. I called Evan on his birthday and we had a long talk. I think he is getting used to his new place. He had a nice birthday lunch with Naomi, and she took him to visit Betty. After work Sheryl brought him a small birthday cake and visited with him, so he wasn't lonely on his 87th birthday. Since then Wayne has brought Evan to see Thelma. I hope he doesn't get her cough.
I hope Carlos, Ceathel and all the rest of you are feeling o.k. now. I miss our old members who used to let us know how things were going in their lives. There are only 6 of us who have joined our new website here. Remember tomorrow is daylight savings time again. Maybe Spring is in sight. Love, Leslie
Well, it's Wednesday, March 11, 2009 today. The sun is shining but we are freezing! Last night it went down to 0 degrees, and a couple days ago we had 6 inches more of snow. I am thankful for my electric blanket. This area is setting new records for cold and snow. At least it looks pretty with all the dirty snow covered up.
ReplyDeleteWe're seeing some coyotes crossing the fields. I think they are getting hungry. I noticed that I'm eating more, probably because I'm bored. I hope someone in our family see's this and replies. Until another time, Leslie
Hi again family. Happy St. Patrick's Day!
ReplyDeleteOn our Allen side, we have the Scot-Irish McDaniel/McDonald family. Today I plan to add to our website Hugh and Rebecca McDonald's experiences, during the Revolutionary War, when Hugh was a British prisoner.
On our Mikesell/Osborn side we have the O'Hara/Harrah family. Our ancestor Daniel O'Hara, Sr. was born about 1726 in Antrim, Ireland. and died in Greenbriar County, [West] Virginia. I will try to add some info about them here in the future.
So family, you can put on your green today. Leslie
Tuesday, March 24, 2009. Hi family, We have 2 new members, Jaime and Josh. Hurrah!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to add to my Winter blog this morning because it is snowing again. Most of the hard, icy, dirty snow had melted so I should have expected more snow. This is one of the most snowy winters ever here.
I woke up this morning with the crud. That's what I call the bad cold that has been creeping around our family and neighborhood. Boyd's cold has now reached his lungs, but mine is starting in my head.
Jim, Thelma and Wayne are enjoying their new TV converter box. They are surprised at all the stations they can get, and how good the picture is. Well, I'm going to fix some Chicken Noodle soup for my lunch, so bye for now. Leslie
Monday, March 30, 2009. Well, I didn't die! I'm a lot better today, I now feel like death warmed over. According to the newspaper, while I was too sick to lift my head to look out the window, we broke the all-time snow record. Boyd is still coughing but is going outside a bit. He went to the store some days ago and got me the worst tasting medicine in history. The only thing that pulled me through was Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup. So the "crud" didn't kill me and I hope to be adding more to our web-pages and photo albums in the near future.
ReplyDeleteLoved Jaime's photos! I bet she's the best grandma ever! But it sure makes me feel old. I'm Rachel's great-great aunt. I know I'm great, but that is ridiculous. Oops, I'm getting silly, guess I'd better take another dose of my "crud" medicine. Hope everyone else in our family is well. Let's hear from you, please.
Thurs., April 2, 2009. I'm still sick so this will be short. 3 more inches of snow last night. Our newest member, Naomi, added some great photos today to our photo albums here. One album had 2 photos of Evan and Betty at the nursing home she's at in Spokane. Naomi also added photos of her new granddaughter. So Cute! Thanks Naomi.
ReplyDeleteApril 16, 2009. See my new Spring blog. Leslie
ReplyDelete