Thursday, September 3, 2009

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

                          Tuesday, June 23, 2009

                          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!

                          Wednesday, June 3, 2009

                          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!
                          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:

                          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!

                          Wednesday, April 29, 2009

                          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.

                          Tuesday, April 21, 2009

                          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!

                          Sunday, April 19, 2009

                          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.