Grave Day

I don't know if everyone knows this, but after Dad died, Maria, seeing the silver lining in the cloud, pronounced "now we have somewhere to go on Grave Day." Since Maria and Evan were small, they have gone to decorate the graves of Jane's mom, grandparents, and great grandparents. Last year we had our own grave to decorate on Grave Day. If you recall, we planted impatiens for Dad, which we had to dig up a short time later. Well, another Grave Day has come and gone and all of the headstones are shiny, clean, and trimmed up. Mom and Dad again have surreptitious orange impatiens. Ironic, isn't it, since Mom never really liked impatiens, but they are the only flowers that will grow in the shade? She always did do what Dad wanted. Maria left a nice ripe cherry for each of them and Dad got a flag to commemorate his veteran status. In case you are wondering, Marge Addis gets fresh cut flowers, Gram gets a mum, and Mother Molly gets a basket of petunias. As always, we enjoyed the succulent deep fried Mike's chicken--a Barberton original. We figure fried chicken once a year won't put us in an early grave!

Mom's African Violet

The picture speaks for itself.

Rachel's Turkey Trip - Update 1

Rocky made it to Turkey and appears to already be having a fun and interesting time. They are still in Istabul and are traveling tomorrow to Ankara. Ankara, Capadocia and Derinkuyu (underground city) are her next steps. Here's the text of the e-mail we received from her today:

Kay, so I would have emailed you right when I got to the hotel to let
you know neither of our planes had plunged into the ocean, but the
internet hasn't been working in the hotel until now. It's been a busy
couple of days; our flight got delayed a couple of times yesterday, so
I don't think we got in the air until 7 pm our time, and we had to
scurry from one flight to another in Amsterdam because they we're
holding our second plane for us. We had the afternoon to ourselves
once we landed (it was about 4:00 pm local time when we got to the
hotel;we're 7 hours ahead here), so Jess, Juls, Rebecca and I headed
over to the "Egyptian Market" a cool street where they sell spices and
turkish delight and stuff. Today, we did a walking our of Istanbul; we
toured the architecture museums (there were lots of cool statues! I
was pleased!), the Blue Mosque, the cistern, and the Hagia Sophia
(sooo cool, I loved the mosaics). It's been lots of fun thus far. I'd
write in more detail but I'm paranoid that the internet is going to
cut out again, so...

Love,
Rachel

MIniMichiMoirUpdate

Rachel left for Turkey yesterday; no communication from her but that's expected; she was very psyched about the trip.

Dan's home from college looking for summer job (has a line on a few opportunities); great to have him home and he has been helping me around the yard.

Sarah's playing soccer (although not much playing time) and her off-season basketball is on hold; she has a torn labrum in her shoulder that she apparently has had for awhile (going to aggressive PT but let's hope not surgery, which is a possibility).

Cheryl and I are hanging in there although I have been threatened with a legal action that could get ugly (believe it or not the Sisters are accusing me of disclosing confidential information); what a world (I have to remind myself that the Church is way bigger than any person, even consecrated religious). Very disappointing but I am in the right.

Love to you all and Chris continues to be great!

Motherless Day 2010

Dearest Gus, We love you and miss you...not just today but all the year through!