Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Grandma! I love you!

Happy Birthday, Amanda!

Happy "Sweet Sixteen"th birthday, Amanda! I hope it is wonderful!

Happy birthday, Rene!

Happy 14th birthday, Rene!! I love you!
(You might recognize the cake ;) )

Happy Birthday!

Happy 7th birthday, Meghan! (Sorry there are only six candles visible; there were more than that on the original cake, though.)
(The title of the blog is "Family News and Notes," so this is a family "note." =))

Cave man

Come one, come all, to the Mark Twain Cave at Hannibal, Missouri! Our very own Peter will be guiding tours this summer! (Sorry. Only immediate family gets a discount. >:( Too bad.)

Square Dance Caller

Just a note to let everyone know that the couple who did the square dance calling for us were in a pretty serious car accident this past Tuesday and got pretty banged up. They slid on ice on highway 63 south of Macon, ran off the road, and hit a tree head on. Debbie's youngest son was with them and was the most seriously injured. He's still in the hospital in Columbia. He had surgery and is recovering.

Remembering

We just wanted to let everyone know to be looking for a very special package in the mail later this week.  Hope everyone is doing well and having a nice winter.  It was so much fun to see everyone in the same place at the Lebron family reunion!  We love you all and hope you enjoy your special delivery!  Blessings to you all!

Prayer request

Hello everyone! Charity wrote me and asked me to pass on a prayer request for her mother.

Charity said, "My mom is having trouble with her heart. She will be having an angioplasty with in the next few days to determine the problem and course of action. This is another thing on top of a long line of things that have gone wrong with her health in the last few years. Please pray for her and send this on to the rest of the family for me as I am not yet on the blog."

Thank you!

Cousins are great--all over again!

When the Lebrón family got together at Thanksgiving 2003, someone took a picture of Preciosa and Rene that was called "Cousins are Great!" This time around, the two of them asked me to take a "four years later" picture of them. So, here it is, along with the original. =)

And a good time was had by all

Hey, gang. Wasn’t that a great weekend? We had a marvelous time. A big Thank you!!! to

• David and Deann for hosting the hordes;
• Terri for the planning;
• Dad and Mom for being there and paying for motel rooms and breakfast;
• the women folk for the great desserts (and other food);
• the children (of all ages) for being so well behaved;
• Mike Cleary for taking the pictures and initiating the ice scraping;
• anyone else we may have missed for whatever you did to make it a wonderful time!!!

Let’s do it again sometime (only in warmer weather as several have mentioned).

Group Pictures

Someone asked if there are going to be any group pictures taken this weekend, and if so, when. We thought that the best time for group pictures might be the Friday night square dance because we will all be together in a large room. We've asked Mike Cleary to take a few group pictures, but he'll only use his digital camera. Instead of trying to take pictures using a stack of everyone's cameras we'll make the group pictures taken with his one camera available on CD disk before the end of the weekend.

Other than that, we figure there will be several folks roaming around with their cameras catching various individual and more candid pictures throughout the weekend. If the cameras are digital we can find a way to share the various pictures later.

Possible Activities

I made some calls around to find some possible activities for young and old during our time together (besides the Friday night square dance, that is).

In the motel lobby there is a "heated" pool. The pool has a gate around it so the toddlers won't be able to get near the water on their own. Also in the lobby there are 2-3 pool tables that cost $0.75 a game.

Called the local bowling alley/skating rink:
Bowling cost $1.75 for shoe rentals and $3.25 per person, per game. He told me there are no leagues on Friday or Saturday so there should be open lanes.

The skating rink is no longer available for "open" skating. They only open in the afternoon by reservation. The cost for that is $70. I didn't ask about skate rentals.

David and Deann will keep the fireplace going in their living room. There is room in their living, dining and family room for visiting and board games. We'll also try to keep them stocked with enough tea bags, cocoa mix, and coffee for warm drinks.

Reunion Meals

Here are our menu plans for the family reunion. The main dishes will be provided by the Kirksville Kellys. For everyone else we only ask that you provide sandwich bread and chips for lunch Friday and Saturday, and hamburger buns and chips for supper Saturday night. Also, if any of you would like to bring any snacks or desserts to share with everyone, that would be great! Questions or comments?

Thursday-

Supper: There will be a pot or two of soup simmering at David and Deann's on Thursday evening for those who are traveling and have not yet had any supper. It's kind of an open house supper meal, so you might want to check in at the motel first and then head over. Please bring bread, rolls, or crackers if you would like to have some.

Friday-

Breakfast: Those staying in homes will eat with their host families while those staying at the motel will need to provide their own. (Later note: I called and they have a free continental breakfast on Friday mornings.)

Lunch: Sandwiches and chips. There will be lunch meats and cheese, peanut butter and jelly. (Peter will be bringing some ham to add to our lunch meats.) Please bring bread and chips.

Square Dance Supper 5:30:
We will have a pizza supper out at the Noes’ machine shed before the square dance. We will provide the pizza and simple drinks. If you have soda preferences, bring your own and enough to share.

Saturday-

Breakfast: Those staying in homes will eat with their host families while those staying at the motel will need to provide their own. (Later note: I found out they offer a breakfast buffet for $6.99.)

Lunch: Sandwiches and chips. There will be lunch meats and cheese, peanut butter and jelly. (Peter will be bringing some ham to add to our lunch meats.) Please bring bread and chips.

Supper: Mike Cleary, Jim’s cousin, is donating a gift card that he was given to Western’s Meat Market, so we will be having barbecued pork sandwiches, beans, potato salad, and chips. Please bring buns for the pork sandwiches, and chips.

Sunday-

Breakfast will be the same as Saturday.

Lunch: Fellowship meal after the Sunday meeting.

Reunion Items Coming Soon!

We're home from Arizona now and I plan to do some menu research tomorrow. On Tuesday, the Kirksville "host families" will get together to work out the meal plans together. We'll put together an outline and post it here soon after.

I also will be calling the local bowling alley/skating rink to check with them on how much it would cost to skate or go bowling sometime on Friday or Saturday. I'll post the prices in case any of you might be interested, so save your pennies.

Stay tuned...

George Washington Ball

Here are some pictures from the Christian Home Eductors Fellowship ball in St Louis, on December 1. Most of Jim's, Michael's, and Peter's families were there.

We don't know who the little boy was who “danced” with Tavanaa, but they were cute together.

Preciosa is shown dancing with a boy who goes to the same church as Jim's family.

Dancing With the Stars

Grab your boots and your cowboy hat (or John Deere cap), cause we're havin a Ho-Down! Seeing as we had a good time in our garage last year doing the Virginia Reel, we decided to arrange a square dance this year. Since we didn't figure there would be room in our garage for everyone, we arranged to use a friend's barn/shop (and it is heated Grandma!). We also have a square dance caller that will be there to help us out. We thought it would be fun to expose Grandma and Grandpa to some midwest entertainment. :) The plan, as it stands now, is to have the dance on Friday evening. We will try to do it early enough that those of us with small children can join in and still get kids to bed at a decent hour. We will post more details later regarding meals, etc.

New Links

I've posted a few new links in the "Other Links" section in the column on the left. Thought I would introduce them to you. The links in the "Other Links" section are sites that might be of interest to some of the family, so take a look if you are so inclined.

First, we have a writer among us and no, it isn't Michael. (just teasing Michael) Peter has set up a site to post his various thoughts and opinions in what he calls a place to "unwind". He suggested that I put his link under "Other" instead of "Family" because it isn't really family news and notes, but I thought it would be nice to link to it so we can occasionally look in and catch his latest essay. Beware, he has threatened to post an occasional joke and I remember that he memorized the book "A Thousand Jokes and Riddles" that someone gave him on his 7th birthday!

The other new link is the beginning of a project I'm working on to get various sermons and messages online for Lake Road Chapel, the church we meet with. I've been sick this week and didn't have the energy to clean house, so I set up a podcast instead. (go figure!)

By way of explanation, the link "Thoughts on the Way" is a Christian discussion blog by three of the younger guys here; Mason, John, and Garrett. I put the link here to make it easier for me to check in on them, because they're special friends of ours, and to give some of you a chance to see their work.

Gunjee is out of Surgery

Gunjee is out of surgery. She was in only an hour and fifteen minutes. She is doing so well that they tell us she will not go to ICU. We will leave recovery and see a regular hospital room for the first time. Thank You Jesus.

They will still keep her one night for observation. Mongoo and Tavanaa are having a great time at Miles' house with his wife Cherry and son Michael. Naraa and I expect to stay in the hospital with Gunjee through the night.

Gunjee's Surgery

Gunjee is scheduled for surgery on her cleft palate this Friday, November 9th at 9:15. They are planning to go up Thursday to Cousin Miles' house where they will stay while they are there in Phoenix.

Michael also asked me to let everyone know that he will be getting a new cell phone number sometime this week. He'll get that out to us when the time comes. Until then we can continue to reach him at the current number, or reach them at Miles'.

New Car

To all interested in what our new car looks like, take a peak.
Pictures by Jonathan.
It is a '92 Buick Park Avenue with just over 34K miles. It was
purchased from the neighbors behind us whose father owned it but
became too elderly to drive. So it has not been driven for several
years. We will be working out any bugs and then it will be Michael
and Naraa's car for the rest of their time in the States.
Our newly painted house can be seen in the background in the first
picture. The church next door is in the second picture. And of
course, the trees are colorful at this season.