Hi again family, I'm sick of Winter (still had a snowfall last week), so I'm hoping Spring is here to stay awhile.
We have 9 members here now. Where are all our old members? I hope our members get/stay active and continue to add to our message board/blog and photo albums. I was very happy to see the new photos from Jaime and Naomi.
I am adding our Allen/Mikesell newsletters to our photo albums. There have been a lot of changes to our family since we had our family reunion picnics in Spokane and passed out the newsletters. I hope that next winter I can find time to add more of our old picnic photos. I really miss seeing everyone now that we don't have our picnics.
I talked to Evan on Easter morning. He was doing good and looking forward to Easter dinner where he lives now. Thelma and Wayne had the house to themselves as Ginny was off on another trip to Africa. Boyd and David are finally back to work after our hard winter. Sheryl is still going to night school.
I would love to see some comments/replies to this new blog. I'll add to it as I find time. I want to do some yard work to lose weight. Both the yard work and the weight creep up on a person.
Hope you all had a great Easter. Let us know what you did. Love to all, Leslie
Great news. Let's have some fishin' weather!
ReplyDeleteI again want to thank all the family who have been keeping in touch with Dad. You are making it much easier for me see that he is doing all right and I know he loves visiting with you all even if he can't always remember who he visited with. The more we can support him, the longer he will be able to stay somewhat independent. The facility he is in does have a "memory care unit" but it would triple the cost of his care and not provide him the kind of love and encouragement he really needs.
ReplyDeleteI've been replying to most of the posts on this blog, but hadn't realized I had to sign in before they could be posted. So they never showed up. Now that i've figured it out I'll be here more often.
Jim, thanks for replying. Now that we're all over the "crud", I went into town for a haircut, my first trip to town since Thanksgiving. We're hoping to see Evan soon. Maybe we can pick him up to go to Winters'.
ReplyDeleteNaomi has been real good to Evan and he always remembers to tell me how special she is. He really enjoys the view out of his back window, enjoying the Dishman Hills. I think you picked a good place for him. Leslie
Dad and I hiked all through the Dishman hills when I was young and, indeed, the location and view there played a majot role in our decision to have him there. I'll be coming over again soon and will let you know when,
ReplyDeleteJim
April 30, 2009: It's Leslie back again. Our April has been cold and dreary, I'm looking forward to May. I did take some of the daffodils, from our yard, to Thelma last week. Boyd and I had a good but short visit with Thelma and Wayne.
ReplyDeleteGinny is back from Africa now, her 46 photos are in a photo album here.
I have decided to add more photos to our Allen/Mikesell Family picnic albums. We can put on all the photos we want on this new website so I am scanning our old photos. Yesterday and today I added photos to the 1988 album. That was a big year for the family with a big crowd of Allen and Mikesell relatives attending. Since then we've lost Aunt Mary Mikesell Dean; Lynn Dean, Jim and Wilma Mikesell, Della Mikesell Binder and Lonnie Wood. It was good to bring back bits of memory of them by looking at the old photos again. Well, I'd better get busy scanning the last 8 photos for that year. Wish I could figure out how to put our picnic video's on this website. That's another project.
Family, let's hear from you, just reply here anytime or start your own blog/message. That's all for now, with love to all, Leslie
Just a heads-up to the family; Betty is beginning to fail physically and not eating much anymore. This is standard for the way most persons die of alzheimer's. I spoke with St. Joseph's yesterday and made certain that they will continue to give her a full spectrum of care. I expect that she will pass sometime within the next six months. She has fought the good fight and deserves a peacefull reward. I'll keep you all posted via this blog. Please share the news with those you know who may have concerns.
ReplyDeleteI had expected to come over this April but my health hasn't been too good either, so it looks like the next time I'll be over is the last week in May.
Jim, we'll continue to keep your family in our prayers. I talked to Naomi this morning and she said her and Evan have enjoyed their days together. They met up with Pat and his wife the last outing they had. Evan recited a poem that his mom wrote for Jack. I asked Naomi to try to get it written down for the Erlandson family history. I hope she remembers to get him to repeat it. Let us know when you come to Spokane. It would be nice to see you. Hope you are feeling better soon. Leslie
ReplyDelete12 May 2009 - Hi again family. Not much happening on this old farm right now. Boyd can't plant our garden for at least another week. After thunder storms this afternoon, it's supposed to frost tonight, down to 30 degrees. Boyd has his seeds, onion and potato starts ready to plant. As I look out our family room widow I can see a little snow left at the top of Mica Peak. We never plant while there is any snow left there.
ReplyDeleteI have started to gather up junk for our local historical society yard sale. I have lots of stuff to donate. This 2 story farmhouse seems to collect junk by itself, surely we didn't buy all these dust catchers. I'm also gathering up all my craft materials to give to Bev. Since my hands are giving out, I'm going to concentrate on keeping my mind as sharp as an old lady can. David wants to update my computer software again, so we'll see if this old dog can learn some new tricks. As we grow older we find comfort in the old ways and our old habits, but he keeps dragging me into the latest technology. I can hardly wait until all I have to do is plug it in and it does all my thinking for me, because my own ideas are not too bright these days.
Bye to all for now, I would love to hear from all of you, Leslie
19 May 2009 - Well it's been a few days since I've written. I was busy gathering items to go to the historical society sale, then Boyd went to an auction and surprised me with boxes and boxes of books and junk, bragging that he only had to pay 50 cents a box. I had to go through them, put 3 of the boxes of junk in the garbage, saved 4 or 5 books to read and added the rest to the stuff I'm collecting for the sale. Now we need a larger pickup to transport it all.
ReplyDeleteAmong the stuff Boyd bought at the sale, mixed in with the junk, was some old family photos, letters and a small Bible with births written in it. The genealogist in me came out and of course I had to scan all of it and put it on the web, hoping to find a family member who would be thrilled to own this treasure.
Now I'm back to gathering up our own white elephants because the sale is at the end of this month. Then spring cleaning can begin.
Because we had a couple of summer-like days, the yard is full of spring flowers and dandelions. If dandelions were worth money, we'd be rich. I used to pay the kids to pick them when they were little so they wouldn't go to seed. We've got red Robins building nests in the barn and in the vines that cover the front porch and back are the pair of beautiful bright Black-headed Grosbeaks that come to our feeder each spring.
We had a great experience several days ago, watching from our window, a WHITE coyote cross our farm fields. In all the years we've lived in the country we've never seen one that color before. Well, I'd better get back to work. Leslie
23 May 2009 - Big day yesterday!
ReplyDeleteSheryl, David, Boyd and I packed all of our stuff, for the sale next week-end, into her car and Davids big truck and got rid of it. Then David bought us lunch.
After lunch, Sheryl and I loaded her car with all of my craft items and took them to Bev. We had a short but sweet visit at Bev's home. Please keep Bev in your prayers as she is not well. She has the most beautiful red flowering tree in her front yard.
Next Sheryl and I went to Spokane Memorial Gardens cemetery to put flowers on my parent's graves. She took photos of the graves. Also took a photo of Eddie Binder's gravestone, that was only a few steps away. Della's stone is not there yet. They are in the garden of the Apostles, near John. I'll put Eddie's gravestone photo on his findagrave memorial page today.
We then traveled out to Spokane Valley to the Pines cemetery to find Sheryl's in-laws graves, but took a long time and only found one. That will teach me to find out where they are before going to the cemetery.
In the evening Sheryl and I took Boyd to the Black Angus steak house for his birthday dinner. Thanks to terrific neighbors, who gave Boyd a gift card, we ate like royalty. It was a lovely warm sunny day, spent with family. Wishing you all a good Memorial Day week-end. Leslie
Hi all...I just found this sight. oops.... Thank you Leslie for leading me step by step through this website..ugh... Thank you to Jim for sharing your dad with us. He played a concert for my guy, Jim and me yesterday... He was so cute. Aunt Betty is still a joy to visit. She lifts an eyebrow to reply and sometimes she says words. The night that she fell out of bed was the same time that Uncle Evan told her to dream about them dancing together and he would do the same. Hope this finds everyone well...and thank you so much Aunt Leslie for being so "computer-smart."
ReplyDeleteNaomi
Hello everyone! It's great to be connected to family again. Mitch and I spent the weekend planting annuals. Hopefully the rabbits won't eat all of them. Our daughter Amy and her husband Chris came over for a BBQ and our youngest Melissa (living at home) was here also. Ryan and his wife Lacey Jo, had their friends over at their home in Miliken, Colorado. It's getting kind of close to tomorrow so I will go to bed now and hopefully I will remember how to find this sight again.
ReplyDeleteLove to all,
Jan
Hi Jan, Glad your here. We went to your folk's yesterday and I tried to get Ginny signed up here, but I must have messed up. Then we saw Jim, Kathy and Jared. We hadn't seen them for a long time. It was a good day to spend with family. I'm busy adding photos to my church website. Wish you'd join there and tell me who are in the photos. It's at: http://bettysscrapbook.multiply.com/ Love, Leslie
ReplyDeleteJune 4, 2009 - Well it's been pretty boring around this old farm. It's seems like summer with the temps we've been having lately. We sure need rain, but haying begins soon and we don't need it then.
ReplyDeleteThe county is going to replace a bridge on the road not far from us. That means that during construction we will have to travel 6 miles in the wrong direction, then back the right direction, on the highway, to get to town. So it's 12 miles more to our local gas station/convenience store or 24 miles more, to Spokane or Spokane Valley, for us there and back. That will last for 6 weeks, no more, I hope. We will be cutting out any none-essential trips, for sure.
I've been busy scanning photos and adding them to my websites. If you find family photos that you want, download them soon, as one never knows what will happen.
Wayne's 82 birthday is the 13th. He's still as young in heart as ever.
I've got to go now to look in our closets for a sleeping bag. One of our grandsons is going camping this week-end. If anything will bring rain, that will. I'll be starting my "Summer Blog" soon, hope some of you leave comments or start your own blog. Leslie
10 June 2009 - update - grandson had great camping trip, lost his glasses in the lake but only had one day of school left. Graduated from 8th grade monday night. Growing up too fast! He will attend high school in portable buildings next year while they build a new school. Leslie
ReplyDeleteJune its raining here, great for the plants. We had a good time with mom and dad on dads birthday. Had taken jade with us and they loved seeing her. And she loved seeing them and Gracie the dog got lots of love from her. Then too the water-park, that was inside good thing , because of the storm. Ken and I had a lots of fun keeping up with jade. Grandpa ken went down the yellow slide 2 stories up . Jade and I could here him all the way down. Jade said grandpa sounds like a girl, we all thought that was funny . But grandpa was really scared, and once was it. On the way to mom and dads just outside by the grave yard that is next to the spokane falls collage , someone came out of the bushes, with a black gun and pointed at us, then he waved us over and gave us a ticket, Jade said oh, I have seen this happen before with my mom. And she loved telling the stories to her mom when we got home about the grave yard and the man with the gun. What a great trip with our grand daughter jade love debbie.
ReplyDeleteDebbie, what a great experience you all had as a family. I loved hearing about it. It's about time I started a "Summer blog" so look for it soon. Leslie
ReplyDeleteDebbie, what a great experience you all had as a family. I loved hearing about it. It's about time I started a "Summer blog" so look for it soon. Leslie
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