Not Much!

Forgot to tell you that it was 90 yesterday and 89 today. Just right!!

Safe Arrival

Hi Family,

We arrived here last night about 6:30. (We gained 2 hours.) We had a good trip, except for the fact that we both got the stomach flu. Dad felt achey etc. on Monday, then when we got to Liberal, KS for the night, he got out of the car and it was cold. He couldn't stop shivering and just crawled in bed. I went to a little cafe for something to eat and no more than got back and I was sick too. Yesterday he felt better but I slept almost all day. Today we're back to normal.

We had a nice visit with Sue, Rob and Claire. Claire is a cutie!!

Our townhouse here was in good shape. We were glad NOT to find water stains on the ceiling. I heard they had a lot of rain here this summer. Now it's just unpacking and cleaning.

Hannah, I hope you enjoy your last weeks in Ireland. Have a safe trip home!

I will call soon.

Love to all,
Grandma

Really Happy

I was happy to be able to enter a quilt in the quilt show, now I'm REALLY happy because it won 2nd place! Hannah, what did it was the color combination you picked out. I think it was an eye catcher. Paula and I had fun going to the show and viewing all the beautiful quilts.

Love,
Grandma

Beautiful Fall Weekend

What a beautiful Fall weekend we had here! Sunday afternoon we hit a local orchard/pumpkin farm/corn maze. It was a fun time. The maze was cool, the areal view showed it was a WWII fighter plane. The maze was sponsored by the Kalamazoo Air Zoo (air museum), so it had questions regarding the air museum and WWII (which I did well on).

Nicole had her first travel basketball game Sat. and they dominated winning 30-12. Nicole made a couple baskets and played a good aggressive game. It was fun to see how tough the girls are already playing this year compared to their first games last year, they really do build on their skills every year.

Friday night Dave took Rachel to the high school football game, Portage Central has been playing well this year and should make the playoffs. Maybe Nicole & I'll make it to one of those games if that happens.

I was thinking ahead to Thanksgiving. I think last year was a Weber Thanksgiving, so this year we will be planning to spend Thanksgiving with my family. Thinking ahead to Christmas, are there any plans yet? Do we know when we want to get together and where? If everyone doesn't mind traveling you are certainly welcome to come this direction, otherwise you know we are always willing to travel back to WI. We need to be in MI for Christmas Eve because the girls are part of the Christmas Eve service at church. And Nicole may be in a basketball tournament Dec. 20/21. So given that, what do the rest of your schedules look like and what would you like to do?

Bye for now!
Donna

Hi Hi

Thanks for the blog Donna. Sounds like you are all busy, but I'm happy that everyone is doing well. Nicole, congratulations for being elected to the student council.

My neck/shoulders are some better but I'm still doing the chiropractor treatments. Grandpa's tennis coaching season has ended. He has been working with Habitat Decon a couple of days a week. Also, he's been busy with getting the garden and yard ready for the winter.

This weekend I'm entering the quilt I make for Hannah in the quilt show. It's kind of exciting for me. For many years I wanted to enter something in the State Fair but really never had the opportunity. So, this is neat!

Hope to hear from all of you soon. This is a great way to stay in touch :-)

Love and Hugs,
Grandma

Michigan Webers Checking In

Hi Everyone!

Sorry it's been a while since we've written. Dave thanks everyone for the birthday well wishes. He had a fairly mellow celebration. I made a nice dinner and then we were off and running for the evenings activities, fortunately everything wrapped up early and we were able to regroup and have cake and ice cream. I finally got a Badger photo poster framed that Dave purchased over a year ago. It was a weird frame size 13 1/2" X 40", but I found an on-line company that carried it, so that worked out well...should have done that a year ago I guess (oh well, better late than never).

Hannah, we were so happy to see the wonderful Ireland pictures (thanks Daniel for downloading them to the blog) and hear how well all is going, what an exciting time for you. Glad you are making the most of it.

Cute video of Lydia, Jessica, too fun! What size is she wearing now? Also Sue...what size is Clare wearing?

For those of you who don't know, I'm now working part-time, subbing 1-2 days a week in the Portage Elem. Schools (mostly P.E. & in the Libraries) and 2-3 nights at Kohls, my favorite store (3rd shift 9:30 p.m.til 6 a.m. - finally my "night owl" habits are good for something..ha). It's been going pretty well and I've been able to catch up on the lost sleep during the daytime hours. The only rough times have been when my subbing schedule falls on the same day as I'm working nights. That's only happened twice so far. But when it does it makes for a LONG day.

So glad to hear that your doctor has figured out things for you Sue regarding the sleep apnea. Hopefully it'll help get everything else back on track now that you know what you are dealing with.

The girls are doing great. Rachel got braces this summer and has been adjusting well to them, except she doesn't want to give up her gum chewing. She's continuing with her competitive dance, she has a great solo routine this year that we are excited about. And she has announced that next year she wants to keep her schedule open for more school activities and won't be competing in dance. Dave & I are glad she has come to that conclusion on her own as we too would like to see her try out for some school teams next year like volleyball and golf. Both she and Nicole are doing well in classes and are busy with dance lessons and church youth groups. Rachel is continuing to play clarinet with the school band and Dave found a good deal on Craig's List for a used instrument (we've been renting for over a year now) so we were able to get a practically new clarinet (used 1 year) for a barain price.

Nicole continues playing piano and is looking forward to precussion next year...so we'll be looking for used drums next...yikes! Nicole is finishing up her soccer season and has made the travel basketball team again and will have her first b-ball game Sat. She just had a 3 day/2 night camping trip with her entire 5th grade class to a great Y camp nearby. Great time had by all. Good team-building experience. She was just elected to her class Student Council, so she's very excited about that. She had also recently tried out for a role in Willy Wonka being performed at the Civic Theatre. It was a big deal, over 150 kids, ages 9-18 tried out for a possible 14 youth parts. She did get a callback which was good for her first time out, but wasn't casted. She was disappointed, but had she made it she would have had to suspend all her other activities until after Christmas, so Dave & I were actually a bit relieved she didn't get a role, it would have been a HUGE time commitment for us all.

We traveled to WI this past weekend for the Badger/Penn State game. It was a crummy game, but a beautiful weekend. We really enjoyed the drive and the Fall color. We also had the chance to tailgate with a group of our Madison/Milwaukee friends some of whom we haven't seen for 1-2 years, so that was great fun. We spent the night at my friends Kate & David's who had just returned that day from a week's vacation in D.C. then on Sunday we drove to Milwaukee to rendevous with my old roommate from my Madison days, Bonnie, who lives in Salt Lake City, UT. She has been battling liver cancer for a year now and is holding her own. Her hair is growing back and she's regaining her energy now that she's on some new Chemo treatment combined with accupuncture and other holistic diet, exercise and supplement treatments. It was so great seeing her and catching up. She said she really appreciates being on everyone's prayer lists and asks that we all continue as she really feels it all helps.

Well, I think that catches us up. Dave continues to have a job for which we are thankful and life here in Michigan continues to be good. You are all invited to visit...just warn me ahead of time or else you'll probably walk into a pretty messy house...one of the things I haven't quite fit into my new "working" schedule...tee..hee.

Love ya all! Donna & Gang

Hi,

I just wanted to let you know Rob's sister Kris has been struggling recently with her illness. Please keep her and their family in your thoughts and prayers.

Thanks,

Sue

Sue the Snorer

Hi to all,

Well, I'll take Mom's lead and make a quick note to what's new w/ me medically speaking:

Last spring I saw a neurologist due to tingling/numbness in my left hand. I had during/after pregnancy and it was only getting worse so I was referred. She thought it was related to my WAY OUT OF WACK thyroid, which, one year after giving birth is finally back to normal (I was already taking medication). ANYWAY...... while talking to the Dr., she asked if I was tired and throughout her in-depth medical history, she decided to refer me for a sleep study (suspecting sleep apnea).

I've ALWAYS struggled with daytime sleepiness; no matter how much or little sleep I've had. She (the Dr.) also thought it odd that I have high blood pressure; I have no other typical indicators yet I've been on medication for two years. Anyway, she ordered a sleep study and after spending the night in a sleep lab with 15 electrodes on my body, it was detected I do in fact have sleep apnea.

I've used my "CPAP" machine for the last 3 nights and today, felt somewhat better: at 9a.m. I had only yawned about 5 times instead of my normal 25+ and I felt a new sense of "alertness" I have never felt. I'm not saying it's a night and day difference but I have to say I feel better. I've wondered about this condition for several years....even went to a free clinic talk on it one evening about 5 years ago. I'm SOOOO thankful that this dr. may have picked up, incidentally, something that's been a "silent struggle" for me for YEARS.

well, all for now.... time for me to "hook up to the machine:)"

Love,

Sue

"Reporting"

Hi Hi,

Just wanted to let you all know what's going on here. I don't know if Hannah and Jessica know that I had a car accident last Wednesday. I was going about 40 mph on Northland by Bluemound, going through a green light and an oncoming car failed to yield the right of way and made a left hand turn in front of me. I saw her coming but could not avoid hitting her. My front, right side was pretty well banged up. The air bags deployed and that ripped up the entire dash. It was all pretty scarey, but I'm just thankful that it wasn't worse. The car was totaled so we're driving a rental. I have been to the chiropractor 3 times so far. I had a whiplash and soft tissue damage. My neck and upper back ache. The problem with an injury like that is that the injury doesn't show up right away, and it doesn't heal fast. I will have to see the chir. 3 times a week until we leave for AZ.

Grandpa checked vans (to buy) on line and found a few to look at so today we went to Green Bay and Abrahms. We ended up buying a 2006 Chrysler, Town & Country. (imagine that!) We're back to a silver color, like our 2nd last one was. It's a beautiful van.

That's the update, time to ice my neck.

Love to all,
Grandma

From Gary and Paula

We arrived home from a long weekend vacation about 3:30 this afternoon. We went to Applefest in Bayfield, WI (by Apostle Islands) on Friday morning. Five of Paula's brothers and sisters and spouses (and Jasmine) were along to make it interesting. The festival is a bit like Octoberfest in Appleton, with lots of food, crafts and music to choose from. The added views of Lake Superior, Apostle Islands and boats were nice too. We had samplings of all things apples to eat. Apple brats, apple mustard, and apple dumplings were just a few things to go with gyros, and nearly anything on a stick (fish, pork chops, and one band even tried to sell CDs on a stick just for fun.

For fun, check out www.LazarArt.com to see some photos from an exhibitor in Bayfield (from Brookfield). I thought he had some outstanding photography from all around the country.

The weather was nice. Sunny and in 50's or low 60's. The fresh air, walking and standing made for relatively early retiring for bed and night. Yesterday we went to an orchard for a view of the lake from the hay loft in the barn, wine tasting, hay wagon ride through the orchard, etc. The orchard is in its 100th year and 5th generation of the same family. The champion apple picker is a woman in her 60's who at one point could pick 180 bushels in 8 hours. They said she tapes all of her fingers at the start of the day.

On the way back today we stopped and Copper Falls State Park near Mellon (maybe about 30 miles south of Ashland). It was beautiful. Mom and Dad, if you have not been there I would recommend it as a stop on your next trip to your Lake Superior shore fun in Minnesota. The circle hike to 3 different falls is only 1.7 miles, and there are other hikes and falls in the park in addition to the main route.

Love to all of you,
Gary

Hello from Ireland...

First of all, happy birthday Uncle Dave!

Hope all is well with the school year back in full swing.  I've been faced with a bit more work lately, but I've been getting things done one deadline at a time.  Fall break is coming up so I'll have a few days around the Y to rest up and get ready for the final bit of the semester before I come home for Thanksgiving.

I love it here in Greystones....it's a community about 20 miles south of Dublin.  Very quiet, about a 2 minute walk from the Irish sea.  There's a really good walking/running loop along the seacoast and then up around into the town that's quite enjoyable, but now that it's getting colder those walks have been a bit fewer and farther in  between.  I've been getting to go up into Dublin almost every weekend for coffee or shopping or whatnot.  I didn't go this weekend, but we just got DART passes for the month of October, so whenever we don't have class I'm free to go for a ride up along the line to other towns.  Yesterday I went with a few other people to a cinema about 30 or 35 minutes north along the dart line.  It's exciting to just be able to go out and explore other towns.  There are tons of quaint little cafes and such.

Well, hope everyone is doing well!  Hopefully I'll be up around the blog a bit more now that I've settled into a bit more of a routine.  Love you all!

Weber Christmas

Hi all!

Things are going well here. Claire has taken up to 6 steps so we're thinking she'll be walking soon!

VB season is almost over so soon I'll be able to come home right after work.

Claire has a minor cold right now (just got over one and a week later has another one) but other than that she is doing well:) She loves to laugh, make faces, and smile:)

Just wondering if anyone has thought about when/where we'll celebrate Christmas?

(just throwing the thought out there)

well, that's all for now folks!

Hope all is well....

Love,

Sue, Rob, Claire, and Sami (the old girl)

SPECIAL DAY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAVE.

HAVE A GOOD DAY !!