Happy New Year!!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Many of you have seen all of our family members on this site, but one we haven't shown yet is....."Monster" our female bearded dragon.

We used to have her in Rita's room as that was part of her room redecoration to go with the Monster Energy drink.

She now is in our dining room, for the winter, to be close to the warmer rooms. Right after we moved her, she was anxious and would hiss at you but now she is very interested in what is going on and likes to come out of her cage to ride on hands, shoulders, and cuddle while you watch TV or type on the computer.

So for the New Year we wish you a calmer life, like "Monster" has, lots of handling to get to know people, warmth, happiness and to be closer with family and friends. Love to all!

Christmas is over????

Well, we have traveled safely, opened presents, visited with family (by phone, by SKYPE, and by mail), friends, and eaten way too much. I am sure you have also.
Well, maybe not all of you SKYPE'd? We spent over 2 hours on the SKYPE with each of our children and grandchildren. Presents on SKYPE, we ate with each other on SKYPE, and we laughed on SKYPE. For those of you that have a web cam, download SKYPE for free and visit around the WORLD!!!! We do! Just remember which time zone you are calling so you can get them while awake.

We got a lot of things and the biggest was a Wii World Tour Band. Charlie, Rita, and I can really "rock out" together now. It was so big I had to hide it upstairs in a closet and they had to go and find it!

The best thing for Christmas was time with family whether in person or by phone or by SKYPE!! I trust your Christmas was special.
Love,
Darleena

Christmas 2008

Well today schools are closing early and closed yesterday for today and we don't have any snow yet!!! But they promise it is coming. We sent out our Christmas letters out and probably many of you have received them. Here is a shortened version for the blog!

Christmas 2008 December 11, 2008
As, we are sure many of you are doing, we are also praising God for keeping us safe this year and for providing for our every need, not our wants but our needs! Darleena traveled to Florida to see her Mother last January. She had surgery to repair an abdominal hernia and contractures from the stroke on her foot this year. She has also been very busy doing arts and crafts for Craft Shows with Rita. They paint rocks, crochet, and are thinking of other ideas for shows. Rita changed schools this year and is now a junior at Schenectady Christian School. Rita has her driver’s license, has her own car (that she bought), and is on the Cheerleading squad. A very active young woman! I traveled to see Chuck, Miyoko, and the children in Jakarta, Indonesia this year and had a wonderful time! I had been praying, for a while, for opportunities to preach and God opened up an opportunity for me to fill in for a very small church in Ballston Spa. Just this last weekend the Church voted 100% for me to be their Pastor so I will be doing this, while I also continue to work for the State of New York as a Supervising LPN. Now to fill you in on the other children! Come and visit, you don’t need to call first!

Love and Merry Christmas to all!!

Last weekend update! For those of you that didn't call!

Well for those of you that didn't talk to Dad this last weekend this will be the first you will hear about this. Dad, Rita, and I have been praying as Dad has been wanting to return to the ministry and preaching. Just before he left for Indonesia a small struggling church, in Ballston Spa, asked Dad to come and fill the pulpit for a bit when he returned. A little over 2 weeks ago they approached him to ask him if he would consider becoming their Pastor. Dad said yes, he would consider it. This last Sunday they voted and he received a 100% vote, and he accepted. He is now the Official Pastor of the Greater Commandments Ministries Church of Ballston Spa.

Rita is very excited about this, as are we. Right now, there are only about 20 people that attend and as they have been without a Pastor and regular preaching many people have left to find other ministries to worship at. Dad feels he can do this and his job for the State of NY. We all need to pray for him for the strength to do both jobs.
Love Mom

recipe and off to Pennsylvania

Ok, so all of you want my friend Penny Schlueter's Shepherd's Pie recipe now! Well here it is: Simple one right! Call if you have any questions! I love to get phone calls!

I just got back at 10:00 pm from the Sight and Sound trip to Lancaster, PA that I went to with my church family for two days. It was so great! I had fun with my church friends and trust me 7 hours in a van each way really gets people close!

Now you are wondering why we would go to Lancaster, PA, right? Well, there are outlet malls there and what a better way than to shop to get ready for Christmas and then there is this great place there that puts on live shows! With live animals even in the show! check out the web site to see it: http://www.sight-sound.com/WebSiteSS/

When we got there we were greeted by this beautiful statue of the Lion laying down with the lamb.

Then right inside was this beautifully decorated Christmas tree to enjoy while we waited for them to open the doors for the event we went to see.

Under the tree were these really close up and beautiful scenes to look at and think about.

Of course, there were Amish restaurants and horse rides to enjoy. Believe me I did!

If you can get to Lancaster, PA or Branson, Missouri to see one of these you should. It was great fun!

Now I only hope the craft show goes well tomorrow and I sell alot for Rita.

Later........

Thanksgiving 2008

Today so far is quiet. Dad went off to work and will be back about 2:30 pm. Rita is still asleep and I am catching up on family blogs, doing my devotions, and painting. We are not traveling today but will have a quiet day and I am making a Shepherd's pie for dinner and of course a pumpkin pie also.

We will travel to Aunt Linda and Uncle John's north of Utica on Saturday for the turkey meal and getting together with everyone. This year the only child we will add to the mix will be Rita. Robert and Erin, Naomi and Ben, Channah and Tyler, and Chuck and his family will all not be coming. I trust they will have a wonderful Turkey Day and Thanksgiving for what all has been done in their families over the past year!

Chuck and Miyoko will celebrate 10 years of marriage this year on the 28th! Sure seems like just a short time ago they married and wow, 10 years already!

On December 5th I will participate in a craft show to sell my stone paintings, oven towels, golf towels, and pens and pencils I made. They tell me everyone will want to buy them and if so I will be happy and maybe participate in another craft show but we will see.

Have a Wonderful and Blessed Thanksgiving. Be safe traveling and enjoy family! Oh, Miyoko, remember the Thanksgiving we had last year and our pie fiasco!

Love and prayers,

Darleena

Preaching again!

Well this last weekend Dad made the commitment to preach every weekend at THE GREATER COMMANDMENTS MINISTRIES CHURCH. Yep, not only will he be busy working for the state of NY but also preaching weekends. The congregation is small right now but there are plenty of possibilities! I know all of you kids will be praying for Dad for the extra strength to accomplish all he needs to do.

Camping in Indonesia!

Hello everyone:

Got this interesting email from Chuck about his Boy Scout Camping time. He puts it so well I just copied and pasted it for all to read. ENJOY!

Darleena

I have pics up on our webshots site. We had a nice weekend outside the city hiking through the thick Indonesian Jungle and camping Indonesian style (i.e., someone else does all the hard work like setting up tent, cooking and cleaning for you).

Overall it was a good weekend. It rained quite a bit, but it was fun to wear ponchos. The only two boys to get hurt out of the 40 boys or so were Charles and Joey. So -- in my eyes -- since only my boys were hurt, it was a success!! Charles cut his finger when one of the other boys accidentally hit him with a stick he was trying to pull out of the mud. Joey, on the other hand, got run over by a boy on a swing, nearly drowned by the Webelos and attacked by blood sucking leeches.

Where we were meeting up, there was a small playground and Joey, not paying attention, got smacked in the stomach by another boy on a swing. The wind got knocked out of him and he cried for a while, but it was his own fault for not paying attention. Later that day, the boys found a concrete slide at the campground. The water that made the slide was diverted from a nearby mountain stream. The Webelos, after listening to me say they could only go one at a time, decided I wasn't worth listening to and, when I went down to where the slide spilled out to watch the pond, thought it was a good idea to go down the slide at the same time. Joey, being the littlest, got stuck about 2-3 boys from the front of about 12 boys, mostly Webelos. Why he was with the Webelos is still beyond me (why he and the others didn't listen, well, I can understand that one!). The kids in the back all piled in over the kids at the front into the pond at the end of the slide. Nuts. Oddly enough, I took a picture just before they all went in because Joey had asked me to take a picture of him -- again, go back to why Joey got in with all the boys even after I told them not too!? I am yelling "Hold your breath Joey" as I took that pic. Out of my pocket came my mobile phone and the camera right after the flash went off went flying into the grass next to the slide. I was one foot in the water, saw Joey pop up and I was able to reach over and pull him out from the edge. I pulled out a few more kids and gave them all an earful. Ha. After that they went one at a time and a few of the dads started paying attention at the top of the slide. The next day, we all went swimming in a pool next to a waterfall. The water was freezing, but somehow Joey found some leeches -- four of them in total -- attached to his arm. We noticed this about 20 minutes after we left the waterfall too. Joey was bragging to his friends and laughing about these worms on his arm. One of the guides had a lighter, so I started burning off the leeches. Two leeches had already done their damage or I didn't burn them off right and Joey was bleeding for a while afterwards. He thought it was cool though and couldn't wait to show mom the cuts. We ended up making an announcement and all the kids and dads started checking themselves for leeches. Noone had them -- only Joey. We suspect he found them in some mud or on a stick he picked up afterwards. I wished I took pictures of the leeches, but at the time, I was only thinking of getting the things off of Joey's arm.

Chuck

http://community.webshots.com/user/cdball3

Sorry folks no photos of the leeches!

"Good news, Bad news"

Don't you just hate when someone says "Well, I have good news and bad news". I usually want the bad news first. I think most of my family knows this. Well, they sent to me the bad news first. We are sad today because we just found out Chuck, Miyoko, and the children will not be coming from Indonesia to join us for Christmas this year. This is sad but they are safe and will be with us for Naomi's Wedding in May 2009.

The good news now is that Chuck was mentioned in a Chamber and Partners article. Be sure to read under the

Hiswara Bunjamin & Tandjung Firm profile area in the link:

http://www.chambersandpartners.com/Asia/resultseditorial.aspx?cid=45&pid=467&solbar=1&grouptype=1

Channah gave us news but without the "Good news, Bad news" senario. Channah also was honored and taken out to a special meal by the executive of her radio station in regards to her great work for their station.

We, of course, are proud of all of our children, as you can tell if you ever stop in the house and see our Wall of Fame! There is a lot of money in those frames and someday they will want to take them to where they live. That is fine with us. We just want them to be happy and to be doing well in their professions. Be sure to send to Channah and Chuck your Congratulations as well!

New York, New York

November 7th Charlie, Rita, and I left our Galway, NY house and headed off to the Big Apple to visit Robert and Erin and see their remodeling job. We got there late but right in front of their house was a parking spot just waiting for us! Amazing! Usually they are all gone and we have to walk for blocks with our stuff.

Early in the morning...well, maybe around 10:30 am we had a wonderful brunch made by Robert with fresh squeezed apple juice! Yum:) Then off we ventured into the Manhattan area to locate our Foods of New York, Cultural and food tasting walking tour of Greenwich Village. We had booked it and there were to be 15 people in our group. Only 14 showed up though. Who would schedule and pay for a walking tour and food tasting then not even show up! Not us, we were there! Not even the promise of rain kept us away.

Our 1st Stop was Joe's Pizza-The home of the NY style Pizza. Great Pizza and has also been featured in movies about NY City.

As you can see Charlie and Rita really liked it. At this time there was no rain...but not for long....By the time we had checked out a Bistro, another Pizza place, and tasted some Olive oil. By this time we had arrived at Cornelia Street, and the rain got going STRONG.

Robert was prepared though.

Our guide gave a lot of history of the area and the row houses along with back houses history. Bet you never knew that Manhattan was once farming area and the original farm houses got closed between the blocks of row houses on the edges of the streets and they were left inside with only one entrance out. Some of them no longer even had a road into them! For instance here is a back house (behind our tour guide in the blue coat and curly hair) behind the Palma Restaurant a 4 story row house . Originally, the people that owned the restaurant lived in it and had the restaurant in the row house in the front. One time someone wanted a private party and that was the end of living in a 1700's house surrounded by row houses. They now live above the restaurant and give special parties in the back house.

With the rain coming down we were glad to get into any of the restaurants for our tastings and the Centro Vinoteca had some great samples plus we got to warm up as the rain was really cold now!

It was so cold I even got my mittens out. Our next stop was a famous Grove Court (formerly Mixed Ale Alley before Prohibition). It was renamed to fit with the laws of the Prohibition but was still full of liquor. We only found water and rain there though, the liquor was long gone!

Next was the "Friends" apartment.

Across the street was the only wooden house in Manhattan. It had a cute little owl on the top corner.

By far, the favorite was "Milk and Cookies Bakery" Warm, dry, and smelt so good!

Our last stop and we ended up at Murray's Cheese shop for a cheese, olive, and sopresata tasting. We also got to buy some afterwards with a discount coupon!

We all went back to Robert and Erin's apartment where naps were in order before we went out to a Peruvian Restaurant, "Pio Pio". We would recommend it if you are ever in the city. Also, Aunt Linda, we were shown to a Pizza and Pasta place that sold all gluten free foods! Yeah!

Now for the answer to the question in the email letting you know there was a new update. That is the definition of a farmer?

Answer: Someone who is outstanding in his field. (Thought you'd like that Ben and Naomi)

Love Mom (Darleena)

Who are these people?

Now that the election is over and I can stop being fascinated by the election to do's I can blog again. Our mouse count has increased in the garage and with our excellent dog's on the search we have had no more in the house! Garage only for the mice!

I received a few compliments on my get up and the Senior party I went to for Halloween was even on the local TV station. Next Senior meeting next week will be the award ceremony for our costumes. We had great goodies and I was able to even bring some home to share with Charlie and Rita.

None of my other children sent photos yet and Rita was sick this year so couldn't go to a Halloween party.

No pictures received yet from Indonesia yet either.

Can anyone guess which one of my children this person is? Look carefully! Kudos for the person who guesses!

Dogs not so lazy after all!

Well I must fess up and apologise for decrying the ability of Monica and Chandlor to control the mouse situation in the house. This morning as The dogs and I came downstairs they ran ahead and cornered one! As I was the only one downstairs there was no one to deal the death blow with the dogs only cornering it. I had to think fast! I took a can from the pantry and threw it into the corner and it struck the mouse. Charlie rescued me and finished it off. Whew, this has been nerve wrenching to deal with, I am glad it is over! I hope! Will keep you posted on this.

Mice are nice?

When the children were small and we lived in NJ there was a poem Chuck had to say about mice. All these years later I still remember the words.

MICE
I think mice are rather nice;

Their tails are long, their faces small;

They haven't any chins at all.

Their ears are pink, their teeth are white,

They run about the house at night;

They nibble things they shouldn't touch,and,

no one seems to like them much,but,

I think mice are rather nice.
by Rose Fyleman

I don't remember the poem Robert had to say as someone liking mice are more memorable to me. I was always afraid that Chuck and Robert might want a pet mouse. They never did, only a guinea pig.

The other day I saw a quick flash running accross our kitchen and a mouse hunt was on by my dogs. For only a moment then they laid down in the beds I had made for them. What was the matter with them? Here I was in crisis and they laid down to sleep!

This is when I longed for the children of Tyler and Channah. Well, they tell me they are my grandchildren, so far. Where are Smokey and Bella when I need them? In Seattle, WA, of course enjoying life in their mouseless condo with Tyler and Channah!

But I have a plan! mouse traps in the garage, and anywhere in the house I can put them! Will let you know if I capture the critter! Not a nice Hallowen suprise for me and not for them either if I catch them.

So this is the way the poem should read, I think:

MICE
I think mice are better caught, yes, all;

Their tails are long, their faces small;

They haven't any chins at all.

Their ears are pink, their teeth are white,

They ran about my house one night;

They nibbled traps they should have touched,

and, I don't really like them much,

but, I think dead mice are rather nice.

by Darleena

Mice are nice

When the children were small and we lived in Oakland, NJ. Chuck had a poem he said in front of the the church for a program.

Visit to Vermont, Robert and Erin's update

Last Friday we went to Vermont to visit Naomi and Ben. We were able to get alot accomplished for the wedding. We got the cake ordered, two flower assessments, and invitations perused! Naomi and Ben just have to make the last arrangements and all will be on for May 24th 2009 wedding at 6pm in the Sunset Ballroom. Here is the link to their Honeymoon website: http://www.thehoneymoon.com/couples/find?name=ball&date%5Bmonth%5D=5&date%5Byear%5D=2009. They are planning on going to Mexico for their honeymoon!

Robert and Erin finished up the work on their kitchen remodeling and everything looks great. We cannot wait to see it in person!
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/3XGwLwgwW66g0VApl0kXLg?authkey=LGXwvPXactM. Check out all the pictures!

Maybe this will work or not

this is a video of the place that Dad and Chuck with his family stayed at on Gili Trawangan Island, Indonesia. If it doesn't work, sorry.

The way to get to the Island was on a boat. Here is the family loading onto the boat. Then once the boat took off. It was fast and wet. Miyoko and Johnny sat in the wrong spot to stay dry!

Then they were all off the the Hotel in the only rapid transport on the island. If you didn't use this you used a bike to get around as their was no cars on the island.

Looked like a great place to visit and have fun. I think the whole family...and I mean all of the brother's, sister, and their spouses should go next time. Wait, don't forget me!

Enjoy, Darleena

Trying to still do this

Well, I finally refound our blog site after a computer crash and our daughter started her blog!

We have had so many things happening in our family since our first start up. Robert married Erin Smith in a lovely ceremony in Ballston Spa, NY.

Channah married Tyler Hanberg in a beautiful ceremony in Las Vegas, NV with her Daddy presiding.

Naomi became engaged to Ben Whitcomb from Williston VT. They will get married May 24th, 2009 in Vermont.

Rita started at Schednectady Christian School as a Jr., got her hunting permit and got her driver's license! Watch out America!

Charlie visited Chuck, Miyoko, and the grandchildren in Indonesia for three weeks and just got back.

I held down the fort here in Galway while he was gone with help from our friends. I also cut down trees, replanted for the fall, and redid the stones and entrance to our driveway.

Now that I refound this blog site, I can keep postings updated.

Enjoy!

Darleena