Catching up on lost time

...looks like I'm catching up on my posts, and no one is even paying attention! As Dori the fish sings in Finding Nemo, "just keep swimming, just keep swimming..." I will "just keep posting, just keep posting...!"

It would be pretty embarrassing to discover I'm posting on the wrong site and no one is responding because no one on here knows me...that would teach me for showing off my "posting skills"!!

Hope you're all doing well. Spring is here and that makes life good, renewed, and fresh. Hope you are all feeling that way, as well!

Take care,
Sheila

I'm on!!!

After 2 expired invitations from Todd, I'm finally on the blog!! I cannot promise posting perfection, but will certainly try my best to add to this site. I imagine my mother will be the tiniest bit proud of me (which really means she's thinking that it's about time I got this done!)

Sending our best to all of you; I'm off to fold the 4 loads of laundry that cover our bed so I can get to sleep!

Sheila

Post Vacation

Just caught up with the entries--thanks for being persistent, Smith cousins. I do hope we can continue to communicate this way.

We got home from South Carolina on Tuesday--missed the massive ice storm in Kentucky and Tennessee when we went last of January. But we did manage to get in the middle of a snow storm with 32 degree temps just as we were going through the mountains in western North Carolina--were very happy to follow about 6 semis--figured they should break up any road ice before us. Took longer, but we got safely through. Our weather in SC--experienced record high and record low!

We did golf 21 of 28 days, so not a bad average. Eldie was all excited about his new Callaway driver he got last fall and loved--couldn't hit anything reasonably well with it (I even suggested lessons to learn how to swing with 2 crummy knees!). Upon examination, the face plate (or whatever) was separating, took it in to Martin's and they sent it in to Callaway--took 2 weeks, but they replaced it with the newer driver so he IS HAPPY. And, it did work a whole lot better the few times he got to use it--is now looking forward to spring.

We had a really good month, but were ready to return home to the real world. Our extended family is spending next week at Wisconsin Dells--looking forward to all being together. When you are our age--the medical news is important (so they tell me)--I am having a thyroidectomy on April 1 (3 of the Peterson adult females will have had their throats slit!!!), U. Eldie has a ortho appt. on April 15 to assess knee status-----I am glad we are HEALTHY.

We are looking forward to Morgan's graduation activities in May and my 50th High School reunion--that is absolutely impossible!! So good to read your blogs (what is twittering??? Also we did enough texting to send messages to the grandkids (about as much as I care to do). Dan, glad your surgery went well--better than reconstruction! Todd, what is this about KC? Arizona weather does sound better than here--but we have variety--it's raining today, possible snow/ice tomorrow. Take care--love from us.

We Can Do It!!!!

If everyone would just spend 10 - 15 minutes per month on one post per person, this Round Robin would rock! It is freezing in Phoenix, mid 50s today, please where are you Spring?

Smitty

Here's hoping for Spring

Well, it's in the upper 40s today and raining (thankfully not snowing) which reminds me of early March and the promise of spring. Please, please, please come soon. Henry seems to love winter and the snowball fights (which are kinda fun) but it's so cold we can only stay out for ten minutes or so. Last weekend the temps were so low and the kids were so stir crazy, I actually carried about ten buckets of snow inside from the porch and poured them in the bathtub and the kids had all kinds of fun playing in the snow while still staying warm.

We're doing great here. Everyone is healthy and for the most part happy. Some temper tantrum issues from Henry, but that's pretty normal. Cora is still just a delight and it's so fun to help her discover her words. "Juu" for juice, "shuu" for shoe, "gok" for sock, "ank-uuu" for thank you, and other fun ones. My favorite right now is if she needs you and you aren't paying attention to her, she will walk up to you and place her hand against your cheek and gently (okay, not so gently) turn your head until you are looking right at her and she has your full attention. It really works !! The other one is she will pat (okay, pound) on your leg until you look at her.

Henry is enjoying birthday parties with his friends, swimming at the local Y, building snowmen, throwing snowballs, and playing with his christmas presents. Tomorrow we are going to the local performing arts theatre where they are bringing in a Bob the Builder show, which doesn't mean much to most of you, but he's pretty excited to see Bob live on stage.

Dan had surgery last week on his shoulder and is recovering nicely. They thought he had a torn rotator cuff, but it turned out to only be torn cartilage so the surgery wasn't as involved thankfully.

I'm doing well - not working unfortunately. Things in the legal community have really slowed down lately, similar to the entire economy, so I'm catching up on scrapbooks, cleaning out the basement, and have taken Cora out of daycare a few days a week so she can stay home with me. We are really having fun together and enjoying our one-on-one time without big brother around to steal the toys she is playing with !! Hope all of you are doing well and I'll look forward to reading from you. Kudos to the Arizona boys for doing so well blogging on here so often. How about the rest of you ????? Love - Carin

Where'd Everyone Go?

As my brother posted below me, what happened to everyone? We did fairly well for a while there, but this thing really stalled over the Holidays.  I do think this could be a good resource/letter/communication if we all make an effort to write in here!

Of course, i'm guilty of this as well, so here's an update on what i've been doing! In November i took a trip back to iowa for five days. I spent the first couple of days in Sioux City visiting the parents and Carin and Dan and the kids. It was great to see them all, especially the kids. They grow so much between each time i see them. 

After that i went down to Iowa City to meet many of my college friends who were in town for the Iowa-Penn St. football game. After a near-disaster with my tickets, it ended up being a good game to pick to go to, since the Hawkeyes won on a last second field goal. Though, i could have asked for slightly better weather. I no longer have any amount of clothes warm enough for that weather.

I did get to see A. Jo & U. Eldie, plus Sheila, Matt & the kids at the football game, which was great. Speaking of kids getting big, Sheila & Matt's were much bigger than the last time i saw them! I remember Hogan when he was about two feet tall when i was in college...

Over Christmas the entire family came down here for a change. Mom and Dad were here for about two weeks, and Carin & Dan and the kids were here for a week. We spent many days golfing and many nights eating good food. According to mom, it was the first time in something like ten years our whole family was together on Christmas Day. The kids were a lot of fun, and are getting to an age where they can communicate and have conversations with them, which is great. And of course Henry got a lot of teasing from U. Chris, resulting in one temper tantrum because he thought Chris was going to make him go down to the 'dungeon' in the non-existent basement in the house...

Other than that, things have been about the same with me. I have been working at the same hotel for a year and four months, and am still enjoying it. I still love living in Phoenix, especially the weather this time of year. 

I have many more trips coming up the latter half of this year for more weddings. Seems like all of my travelling lately had been for weddings. But, when those weddings take you to places like Cancun and Hawaii, it's hard to complain too much!

Hope this finds all of you well and started off on a happy new year. And let's keep on the few remaining people who are not signed up on this yet. Email me for help/instructions. Talk to you all soon, Todd S.

Bueller, Bueller

I guess this RR didn't take off very well. How was everyone's holidays? Things in Arizona are good, weather has been incredible this month. Business has been busy for me at the golf course, so that's good considering we are in a recession. Hope to see some replies and get this RR up and running.

Smitty