Another new baby!

Our new grandbaby!!! Due July 25th, 2010. Channah and Tyler sprung the news on us on Christmas Day. Rita has known since November. She was very closemouthed don't you think! That means we will be Grandparents 2 times so far in 2010. Unless there are new notices no one has told us...???

Oh, well, we'll keep you posted.

Have a blessed New Years!!!

long time no writing

Well, I haven't written in a long time! many things have happened though. Rita was inducted into the National Honor Society:)

Naomi announced her pregnancy and she is due March 22nd. We also know she is expecting a boy!

We had family Thanksgiving on Nov 28th and this is how our young mother now looks!

Now we await Christmas. Joey does it without his baby tooth as he has lost his first one. As a matter of fact he has now lost two but he won't put it under his pillow for the Tooth fairy in Jakarta. He feels that the Japanese tooth fairy gives him more money for his lost teeth! So, he is planning on keeping any lost teeth to take them to Japan to get more money for them!

Merry Christmas to All!!

What do you do with a "lazy" summer blogger?

OK, I admit it. I am THE lazy summer blogger. September is here and I didn't blog after June 23rd! I did check out the other people's blogs whom I follow and did notice they were a little lazy or non-communicative also.

Have we been doing anything? Oh, yes!!!

Did I blog about it?

Well, no. Has anything special happened?

YES!!!!

Almost too much to list or try to remember, and maybe more than we want to remember.

• 
  Lebanon Valley Speedway on the EVE OF DESTRUCTION
  
  
  




• Rita went to the Jr./Sr. Prom.

• We had family camping. Meet the original Ball family and spouses. Then the Grandchildren,
  

and the greatgrandchildren.

• Robert got a new job after being unemployed!!! Erin and Robert have been able to visit Paris and Mexico this spring/summer, and are looking forward to the fall with their 2nd wedding anniversary and cooler temps in NYC.

• I had special surgery to fix my abdomen after the aomeba infection I had caused me to rupture my old surgical scars made me have the "Alien" look on my belly. Now after surgery it is gone away.
  
  


• We had our Ball family 75th family reunion.






• 
Miyoko and our grandchildren left and went back to Indonesia and setteled into their new home.






We had a trip to Seattle to visit Channah and Tyler.

• I had a new pacemaker placed with special new "do-dads" put in to prevent the arrhythmia's, I was having on a too regular basis.

• My Mother, Marian, came and spent almost 3 weeks with me. We enjoyed doing many things together.

• Charlie and Rita did the college drive around and looking at colleges and things that parents do with their child when they get ready to enter their Senior year, (Yes, that is right, Rita will be a senior this year!!!).

• BABY NEWS
  Naomi and Ben have made a special announcement about making us grandparents in March 2010.
  


• My Father, Melvin, had a stroke that affected his right side and speech, but is home and now improving.
  



So, YES, things have been happening in our house!! Maybe I wasn't so lazy after all!




What about at yours?


With saying all that here are some of the photo memories we have to share with you, our friends and family!

http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=4180d1cedeb072be&sid=0Cas2jRo0YsnpA

Special Father's Day!!

Pa Pa in his Special Chair!

Time for presents! Everyone Happy for Dad (or Pa Pa)
Check out the food, was your feast for Father's day this good?

The decorating culprits at work!!!!

The famous Father's day at our house with our specially decorated guest!

This last weekend everyone celebrated Father's Day.

All over the world, it was Father's day, in fact! This year we had a Special one at our house. The grandchildren were here! They spoke with their Dad by SKYPE.

We all went out to breakfast at the Annual Galway fire department Father's Day Breakfast. Rita and I were helpers at it and it was great. Great Grandpa and Great Grandma came also!!!!

When we got home from church the Grandchildren were ready, they decorated Pa Pa! and we had a great feast!

Hope yours was as happy and wonderful as ours was!

Family fun day

What do you do with 4 grandchildren home and staying for over a month?

You look for fun opportunities that do not cost a lot of money.

Saratoga County sponsored a Family fun day, here in our town of Galway! Of course we went! They had free everything...games, food, pony rides, goat petting, rabbit petting, bouncy slides, tours of the fire trucks, ambulances, and bead work.

The older two boys stuck together and the younger two were accompanied by adults as the whole area was closed off to cars and you could see the children at all times.. To be honest, Rita abandoned our younger group to "supervise" and "help" the older two boys. Actually she played and enjoyed the games also! We had so much fun we were there for 4 hours! We would have stayed longer but it started to rain. I wish I had taken more photos of the event and all the FUN!

Even Miyoko got into the fun and got into the fun with a pony ride.

Wish everyone had this in their area, especially in these economic times!

April till June

Wow, so much has happened in this house! After the shower for Naomi we were in high gear for the wedding in May. Channah flew in a week ahead of time to spend time with her sister's Rita and Naomi. They did some fun and weird things like spa day, Lei wearing, and special straws to drink from. Anyways, they had a great time bonding at the "trabin" together. Go to this link to view their fun times!

http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=2d0028e0d011d2e6&sid=0Cas2jRo0Ysnhg

The wedding day got here faster than we could even think with everyone arriving safely, even from Jakarta, Indonesia! Chuck and the family flew in and spent a few days in NYC and went to Yankee games and Charles IV caught a ball!

Then everyone got to the wedding in good time and we all had fun there seeing Ben and Naomi become Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Whitcomb. Go to this link to see the photos and order if you would like to:

www.pictage.com/659576

Daddy and "his little girl".

Now we have Miyoko and the grandchildren here while Rita finishes out school for this year. Busy but fun times!!!

Hope your summer begins as well as ours has!

The suprise worked!

SURPRISE!!!

When Naomi got engaged and scheduled her wedding her one order was....NO SURPRISES! We were to submit to her any plans for showers or events for her approval. That was just one reason why we wanted a surprise shower for her. Seems like she told others the same thing and she got two surprises from her work of bridal showers. This last weekend she came home to Galway to have her last dress fitting. She thought we were going out to dinner at her and her Fathers favorite restaurant, "Mexican Connection", in Saratoga Springs, NY. Once we arrived people shouted...SURPRISE!!!! She was in front of her Dad and stepped aside thinking, I am sure, there sure are a lot of people here for his birthday party and not wanting to block him from seeing the surprise we had for him.

The Surprise was for her and when she got it she was happy!!!

The surprise was organized and planned for her by Erin and Robert. It was too stressful for me to plan and I was stressing about it and they stepped up to take over. Believe me, I was happy to turn it over to them!!

They did a great job. Everything was beautiful and so well planned!

Naomi was blessed to have family send things even if they couldn't come themselves and we were blessed to share with her the special time. Even when we do things to a Bride that is silly...Thus the hat!

Family is great and love grows when we share it!!!

Hope you all share love with each other whenever you can!!! Our family is growing and we cannot wait to see what happens.

Talent in our family

Here is the Talent that we are blessed with in our family! This beautiful chandelier cover was made for us by Grandpa Charlie and Grandma Leola Ball, age 80 and 79 respectively. This is stained glass, that they learned at their Senior center "Stained Glass" classes. They also proved to all of us we are never to old to stop learning.

This is the view looking up if you were sitting at our table! Gorgeous isn't it!!!

Here are our beautiful artists. We are so thankful at our house to have them in our lives and the love they share with us by gifting us with such a beautiful present!!! Thank you!

This is it folks...be afraid!!!

Well, sorry about the long delay in writing and catching up with all of you. The ending of my trip to Indonesia didn't go well. This little parasite got into me, caused fever, dehydration, seizures, and real problems. The children all mobilized to get me the care I needed. Chuck and Miyoko got me to a medical center where they took care of me in the Intensive care unit for 4 days then out to a room. Robert, Erin, Channah, Tyler, and Naomi organized getting Dad out of America and off to Indonesia to get me. They also organized coverage for Rita to have someone at the house to make sure she got off to school. Naomi, dear one that she is, organized my house, spring cleaned, and prepared the house for my return home.

Charlie got to Indonesia after a long flight with a 22 hour layover. I think Chuck and Miyoko were as happy to see him as I was!! We were there two days longer so I could get more stable then off to the airport and home to America. Robert picked us up at the airport and I was really washed out. We rested overnight then headed home and have been doing the Doctor rounds since then. Rita takes me to exercise almost every day and I am getting stronger. Today I made it out to church and they had a surprise cake and fellowship dinner for me to welcome me home. God has been so great and I pray I will continue to recover.

Indonesia update

Well, things here have slowed down to an almost stop. Chuck, Johnny, and I have been diagnosed with an amoeba and while the rest also had symptoms...except Sheena....we are the only one positive. I believe this is an Indonesian version of Montezuma revenge?? Lots of cuddling by the grandchildren by me and also amazingly a trip to experience hospital care in Indonesia. One thing I can tell you...they use gloves to start Intravenous infusions. They have not found a way to make needles less sharp here, and Intravenous solutions help bring down fever, rehydrate, and remove some symptoms.

This week the children are off school so hopefully with some medicine under my belt I will again be the energetic and exciting MeMa they know. How Chuck ever finished his week of work, I certainly will never know. Today a short walk with the boys to watch them ride their bike exhausted me!!

At home Charlie and Rita tell me all is fine. Keep praying I stay safe and get better, especially since I have to fly back within one week. Hmmm....I wonder if they let you camp out in the occupied sign all the way back???

Wow have I been here 10 days already!!!

Wow, it is so hard to believe I have been here TEN days. Also, typing a blog, with a Japanese Keyboard, with no one home but Johnny and I. Chuck and Miyoko are at meetings, Sheena, Joey, and Charles are at school, and Johnny and I are home. Johnny has been sick with an Amoeba infection in his bowels.

We went away for the weekend last weekend on a three day trip up to the mountains. We stayed at a lovely villa called Bukit Talita Mountain Resort and Spa http://www.talitaresort.com/about.html . The car had to climb a very steep hill to get us up to the resort but the views were fabulous!!!! Especially at night overlooking the valley below. The weather was only in the 70 degree range and it was lovely to sit around outside and visit.

Chuck, Charles IV, and Joey got a guide to go on the puncak trek up to Mt. Gede and Pangrango, where they saw a volcano, hot springs, and allot of natural wildlife within the fauna.http://www.puncaktrek.com/ . If you look at the photo of Sheena and I you can see the mountain they climbed for a ten KM trail behind us. The hotel was two miles up from sea level and if you click on the link you can see all they saw!!!!

Miyoko and I went to the outlet malls to shop with their nanny (Octane), Johnny, and Sheena. Wow, the roads were really narrow and dropped off!!! Their driver Woko, was very adept at the driving, good thing because it made me nervous!
On the way home we visited the Taman Safari Indonesia. http://www.tamansafari.com/agp/ This place was really cool, you could even hold the baby animals in a special area to have your picture taken!!! Yes, these are babies, not big ones! Sheena would not do it though so only the boys, and brave little Johnny!







Johnny had been asking for a horseback ride for days as many of the people were riding them around the mountain area, I think it was a smarter way to travel than the car as the roads were so narrow. Finally, at the safari park, he was able to get one. You can tell he is really happy about it and not at all nervous. Miyoko is more nervous than he is!
Anyways the time here is going too fast!!!!!!!