All in One Weekend!

We celebrated two birthdays, attended the Hurlburt family reunion, and made it to a post-reunion gathering at Jon's brother Phil's lake house... all in one weekend! Very busy, but fun nonetheless.

The Hurlburt reunion is an annual gathering for the descendents of Ruth and Harry Hurlburt, Jon's paternal grandparents. It's a chance for Jon and his brothers and sisters to see cousins they played with years ago.

This is Jon with his cousin Joel Craker. Joel is holding his new baby daughter Laurel (named for his late mother, who is Bud's sister Laurel). Jon, of course, has our little Leila, who looks big here because she is a month older. Joel's wife and I also posed for a pic with the babies.

Jonathan was able to rearrange his work schedule, to attend the reunion. We were glad he was able to spend more time with David before David flies home to West Virginia this coming weekend. Actually, Jonathan stopped by again yesterday afternoon for another visit with us, and made plans today to take David on an inner-tube float down the river. So they're getting to spend quite a lot of time together this summer. Jonathan is seven years older than David.

Baby Leila was passed around quite a bit at the reunion. This is her with her cousin Nathan Hurlburt. Don, Nathan is the one that you (shall we say... "scolded"?) for spending too much time near your little sister and her friend Ingrid, at our wedding almost thirteen years ago. You were a little concerned because Laurie was tipsy, and you weren't sure about that Nathan-character (I think he's O.K., Don... ).

Anyway. Just checking to see how many of you actually read my commentary.

Leila continues to impress everyone with her sweet and smiley baby ways. She was awake for most of this long day of socializing, but didn't complain much. Here she is with two of her aunts, Tammy and Jill.

Jon's mother organized some of the children into singing an impromptu rendition of "You Are My Sunshine". Of course, Emma participated.

After the kids sang, Jon's brother Brent led an auction of items everyone had donated (proceeds are saved to help pay for some meal items as well as a charitable donation of some sort to the city in Harry and Ruth's names).

You may recall in my last entry that Brent recently had brain surgery as the result of a bump to his head. We were amazed to see Brent back to normal health, with hardly a scar showing, at the reunion. He's just fine and back to his normal activities of bike riding, lifting weights, roller blading, etc., etc. I think he's pretty much a walking advertisement for the benefits of a physically active lifestyle.

We gave Michael and Emma each $5 to spend at the auction. Michael spent his money right away on two ceramic pieces... a Christmas plate & cup set and a candle holder. Emma scored an assortment of stuffed animals and kiddy treasures. After her money was gone, a Halloween costume came up for bid. She ran over and fervantly begged me for, "More money... please, Mom! I love this costume SO MUCH! Please!!" I agreed she could have one more dollar, and she managed to win the costume with that. On closer inspection, I was very impressed with Emma's acquisition. Here it was a brand-new, still in the package costume, in her size, originally priced $49.99! Good eye, Emma-! (Emma is wearing the costume in the photo at left).

After the reunion, most of the group went to Phil's lake cottage for a second potluck. This time the food had a theme... Mexican. Everyone brought items to build tacos and burritoes. There were chips and guacamole and margueritas. I thought it was a fun spin on the traditional potluck.

Emma swam (this time we brought a suit) and Michael and Emma both went for a ride on their Uncle Mark's new pontoon. Emma reported that she steered the vessel (almost) the entire way.
Jon's mother gave him a card and cake that night. His birthday is coming up this Thursday, and depending on whether or not he has to work Friday he may or may not be home that day. So Sunday, shortly before Jon had to leave for work in Crivitz, we had lunch and sang Happy Birthday to him. Two neighbor girls, Makayla and her younger sister Janetta, were happy to share Grandma Jane's home-made chocolate cake with us.

That afternoon we went to Owen Park in Eau Claire, to attend a birthday party for Emma's friend Avala. So we had more cake. Avala is the dark-haired girl to the left of Michael and Emma.

The kids played on the playground equipment and also waded down by the river. Avala's father Crispin, a university professor who teaches environmental science, played tag with the kids as well as helped them make observations of flora and fauna down by the river.

Leila had fun, too... her first time in a swing. Jon had stopped by the park, too, on his way out of town, so was able to share in this adorable moment. After a few gentle pushes, a calm Leila started to drift off to sleep. Since we were concerned she might slide through one of the swing's leg holes, we had to take her out right away.

Look at the beautiful quilt my sister Laurie made for Leila! We haven't received it yet, but Laurie is giving it to us in August, when her and Mark come visit. Laurie bring's an artist's eye to quilting, with her selection of fabric and color arrangement.

Now to close with a poem from Michael. I'm printing this here because Grandma Jane has trouble opening "Michael's Blog" when I send it out, and I want her to see it too. Note: Michael "made up" some of the words in this poem, after a talk we had yesterday about how Lewis Caroll made up words in his Jabberwocky poem in Alice in Wonderland. Anyway, here it is:

1682,

a man thrumbles bumbles to a zoo

looking at the animals to

he skipped to the scary section

took a pip at the tourist attraction

stared and smiled for awhile

and pulled out his kazoo

he let out a shelp and smiled a bit

he looked a glare, which made him stare

at the tourist attraction

he stumbled and cried

there's a Jack-o-lantern

the pumpkin screamed

and let out a stream

of extra electric lightning

this passed and untamed the man

and made him lose his head

and made the man

unmad and merry

also brary as a cherry

not quite as satisfied

as you and me would be extrised

We don't quite understand

the purpose of the imparision

but we do

factually and actually

understand that he was undoably emortalized.

I think that says it all! I'll close with that.

Summer Update (David meets the Colfax moth man)

For about three weeks now Jon has been "on the road", this time for power line construction near Critivitz, Wisconsin. Crivitz is about a 3-hour drive from here-- 55 minutes north of Green Bay and not far from Rhinelander. So he stays in a motel during the week, and comes home on weekends. We miss having him around as much as when he works in Eau Claire, but we're glad he's making the better money that this traveling work provides.

This week he came home on Friday. We try to make the most of our family time on weekends; last night we gave the kids 3-wheeler rides and had a campfire. David even got out on the trails by himself for awhile, with the 3-wheeler. When the mosquitoes got bad enough we went inside and played chess and Scrabble.

Here's me on the swing Jon made in our back yard. Quite a spectacle, huh? Maybe my sister-in-law Hope recalls my "demonstration" of the swing during a recent visit... it was a classic Lisa moment... similar to the time I tried to show my sister how to swing a croquet mallet, though fortunately no trips to the hospital were involved this time.

Anyway! Today we had a leisurely day. Jon planned on working but ran into equipment trouble, so stayed home instead. I think it was somewhat of a relief for him to be unable to work and to have some forced leisure.

So instead of working we took the kids back to our old neighborhood in Eau Claire. We ate lunch at our favorite blue-collar pizza joint (Pizza Del Re!), and drove around on a sentimental tour of our old life... past the "big white house" and Longfellow school, the parks and shops we used to spend time at, and different friends' houses.

We stopped by and saw Jonathan at his new apartment. Since we hadn't called first we weren't sure if he'd be there or not, but he was, and even showed us around a little. He's living with three other guys his age, and recently they constructed a fire pit in their back yard. It's nice... shady, with a picnic table nearby. One of his room mates has a lot of nice furniture, so they have comfortable stuff inside and a big flatscreen TV. Jonathan's working two jobs-- a part time job doing research for a financing company, and a bar-tending job at what used to be Poncho's on Hwy 53 (I forget what the place is called now; it's under new ownership). Anyway, he seems to be doing well.

Mom and Dad visited last week. We took a walk on our new trail and discovered a couple of small trees had been knocked over by recent winds. Emma helped me prepare a salad made of couscous and fresh vegetables, with a lime juice viniagrette and fresh dill from one of the herbs Bill left in my keeping last week. The salad was healthy-- packed with vitamins and my good intentions-- but the creme-filled donuts Mom and Dad brought along with them were a lot more popular (even with me). Sigh.

We sure notice the weather out here, more so than I remember in Eau Claire. When it storms it gets very dark... no city street lights to soften the edge. Strong winds howl and whip the trees back and forth, and it isn't unusual to have fallen trees when it's over. A few days ago we heard a drumming sound on our roof, and looked out the window to see quarter-sized hail raining down. The hailing lasted only a few minutes and was followed by rain, so David grabbed a piece of hail for us to store in the freezer and show Jon.

Speaking of weather: Jon just called to say that we're under a severe thunderstorm watch again, and there's a tornado warning nearby (him and David are on their way to see the new Batman movie).

Bugs are different here, as well. If you stay up late and the house is dark except for the room you're in, hundreds of little white moths begin to gather on the window. They're harmless and somehow disappear with the daylight, but it's kind of eery nonetheless.

One night I had just gone to bed when I heard David call my name. I got up and he showed me an enormous moth that was caught in one of our windows. Obscure side-note: this is the same window that was broken by a partridge a few months ago. Anyway, the window doesn't open very far on it's own; if you want to open it wide you have to go outside and manually pull on it. This behemouth moth was trapped between the screen and the window, and after struggling to open the window in vain from the inside, David had to go outside and pull open the window. He brought a flyswatter with him "just in case" the moth attacked him (I guess), but he didn't end up having to slay the moth.

It's kind of funny because in West Virginia they talk about a "Moth Man" who haunts the local woods and people swear they see occasionally; kind of like Big Foot or the Skunk Ape, I suppose. Maybe this was the Moth Man... as you can see in the photo, it's body was as big as a hummingbird's...

Yesterday Emma, Leila and I went to Eau Claire and picked up a baby play station from Jessica. It's like a walker but not actually mobile. It helps her be in a standing position and stretch her legs out; she can reach for things and swivel around. As you can see, she likes it very much. We also picked up a nice used high chair from Jessica. Leila's a long way from eating solid food, but it's nice to be able to sit her up to the table while the rest of us are eating. She likes to be part of the crowd.

We visited at Jessica's house for awhile begore going over to Tammy's. Tammy was watching Jamison, and Jessica had Seth and Malia, so with Emma and Leila we had five (mostly little) kids running around. Still, Tammy was able to serve us some lunch and we had a nice visit.

Here's pictures of my latest project. I'm making a stained glass light box to replace one that was in the house when we bought it. The original light box had a simple geometric design painted onto the glass, and wasn't very attractive (in my estimation). My idea was to design a tree out of real stained glass, using two different color schemes for the sides of the light box. The completed panel at left is a fall scene with sun, and will light our way downstairs; the panel in progress below is the same tree at night with moon shining, and will light a wall in our family room, on the opposite side of the light box.

Fun stuff! Anyway, that's a little taste of what we've been up to this summer.

We figured out David's return trip travel plans yesterday. He'll be flying home to West Virginia; Jon will take him to the Minneapolis airport on August 2nd. The younger kids and I still plan on going to Rhinelander the day before cousin Jenny Bayer's wedding; however, Jon will join us later and meet us in Rhinelander on Saturday, the actual day of the wedding, after he drops David off at the airport. We look forward to seeing Don, Hope, and family at Jenny's wedding and in Rhinelander that weekend.

We'll miss having David but are glad for our time with him this summer. The summer's gone fast! But he'll be able to visit with family more at next weekend's Hurlburt family reunion.

Hope everyone is well! Enjoy the pictures!

Knee-High by the 4th of July (Leila)

I would have written sooner, but have only recently retrieved our camera after forgetting it in Cornell for a week or so. Since it has over 300 pictures that I haven't developed on it (and since I just received the camera this past Christmas as an expensive gift from Jon), I was very glad it was in my mother-in-law's safe keeping and not permanently lost. Yikes...

So lots to cover on this blog! Let's start with a picture of a sleepy little Leila, who celebrated three months of life on the 4th of July. What did we ever do without her??

John and Jim stopped by a week ago. They were invited to a wedding in Bloomer, and since Bloomer is only 15 miles from Colfax, our house was a logical place for them to stay. We were very glad to have them.

Actually, this was Jim's first time seeing our new house. Jim grew up on a family farm, so we thought he might enjoy seeing the farm next door. We took a morning walk down the road to our neighbor's farm on the top of the hill. She has free range chickens, as well as milk and beef cows. We're buying eggs from her now and plan to buy beef next time we need it.

Interestingly, her sister has also moved to the area recently. I know that because the sister (who's building a house kitty-corner from us) came by last week to introduce herself (and thank Jon for corralling a stray cow). She brought us a homemade apple pie with the word "Welcome" pricked in fork marks on the crust... now how country is that?

John and Jim looked very handsome in their wedding attire. On the morning they left, Jim started to get a little anxious about the time (as John puttered about with last minute adjustments to his attire and and a quest for misplaced items). Of course, as soon as Jim revealed any concern or doubt about John's timeliness, the teasing had to begin... John has always been A BIT of a teaser. I always enjoy the antics (as long as I'm not the target!).

David has adjusted well to the comparatively slower pace here. Before he came for this summer visit, I worried how he would handle our lack of TV channels... he's used to having satellite TV and watching his beloved anime cartoons and other shows whenever he wants. All we have here right now is an antenna and about five snowy channels. But he really hasn't complained or seemed bothered. He's always been good at entertaining himself... when he was little, he could amuse himself for long periods of time, just playing with his fingers.

He seems to enjoy the quiet here. He plays chess with Michael but also sometimes goes walking alone on our trail. He draws anime characters and began writing a story on the computer, recently. Emma and Michael both love hearing the music from his iPod-- younger kids really absorb a lot from their older siblings. One night they played outside with sticks, like they were ninjas (only one mild injury). It reminded me of enchanted summer evenings I recall while growing up... outdoor games like Statue Maker and Ghost in the Graveyard, frogs and crickets chirping, dirty knees and bare feet, fireflies in the growing darkness... it was nice watching David, Michael, and Emma have an evening like that, for once...

Occasionally David and I'll have a long late-night conversation about something in the world he's been thinking about... he's really gotten to be a questioning and reflective young man. David can laugh at himself, too... a lot more maturely than I could when I was a self-conscious, self-righteous 17 year old. For bright as he is, his inward thoughts sometimes get in the way of his practical observations... for instance, the other day I asked him to open up a can of pineapple for Emma. Let's just say he has not mastered the art of opening a can. When I realized he was having difficulty I went into the kitchen to assist, and found a can so mangled I had to flip it upside down in order to open it. We had a good laugh, but wow... time to work on some practical life skills, I guess!

And he's bonded with Leila. Who can resist her happy sweet Leila-smile?

This year we attended cousin Peggy Linskey's annual 4th of July potluck lunch. It's been probably five years since I attended, so we were long overdue. Mom and Dad were there, as well as two of Dad's sisters (Irma Voss from Ladysmith and Margaret Racanelli from Eau Claire) and his youngest brother (Chuck from Racine). All of Aunt Margy's kids were present (no small crew: they include, from left to right Mark, John, Heidi, Aunt Margy, Geno, Carol, Mario, Don, and Ann).

I especially enjoyed seeing my cousins Carol and Jean, who are closest to me in age and girls I used to play with while growing up. But over the years I've gotten to know some of my older cousins, as well, including the other Racanelli kids. I got to know the Racanelli's pretty well because their family is based in Eau Claire, where I lived from 1987 until recently. As a young college student I did my laundry at their house and was a frequent guess at their Sunday dinners, when Uncle Veto would make his famous spaghetti. I even lived at their house for a semester; I was living at Aunt Margy's when I first met my husband Jon).

There were lots of babies there, though most of them were my cousins' grandchildren rather than children. Emma jumped on a trampoline and fished with second cousin Craig Richter. Michael followed in the tradition of the Bragg kids and was pretty shy and quiet. He stayed glued to David's side as much as possible. People had a hard time believing that the tall blondish "stranger" in the hat and dark glasses was my stepson David... last time they saw him he was a little boy.

Here's Dad with his oldest sister, Irma. Irma showed me her necklace, which has a birthstone for each of her 18 children. That's right-- 18 children! Her and her husband Fred Voss raised them on a farm in Ladysmith, which we used to visit when I was a child. They seem like a loving, close-knit family, though now that the kids are grown and grandparents themselves, their numbers are boggling. I don't try to keep track of names, though I can sometimes pick out which grandchild "belongs" to a given cousin.

We left Peggy's in the late afternoon, and headed back over to Bud and Jane's. We spent a few hours visiting with them, sitting on their porch sipping pop and munching on freshly made sugar cookies. Emma has gotten to know a couple of little neighbor girls who's backyard trampoline we can see from Jane's porch, so we watched them jump and play for awhile. The 7 year-old even had supper with us.

After supper we went back to Holcombe, this time to Jon's brother Phil's summer cottage on the lake. Phil and Jill have a beautiful cottage and pontoon on Lake Holcombe, so their place is an ideal location for watching fireworks on the 4th of July. During the actual fireworks, we sat on lawnchairs right by the water, me holding Leila on my lap. She was awake and must have heard the booms, but her eyes were closed and she simply nursed through the entire show. What a good, easy to care for little baby!

Here's David sitting by Phil's youngest son, Jacob, on the pontoon.

Phil's older son, Adam, is in an up and coming band called Solid Gold. They hail out of the Twin Cities, have a couple of CDs out, and have played some international venues. Here's a link to their mySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/solidgoldband Phil and Adam entertained us with a little outdoor guitar music.

Luckily Mom had given Emma some new summer outfits when we saw her at Peggy's picnic. I had forgotten Emma's swimming suit, and the poor girl has not had a chance to swim in a lake yet this summer. So I let her go in the water with her clothes on. She was supposed to wade, of course that didn't last long. When it started getting cooler and the light faded, we called Emma out and had her change into one of her new outfits. Thanks Mom!

We found out on the 4th that Jon's oldest brother, Brent, was scheduled for surgery (which he had this morning). A couple of weeks ago Brent hit his head on a pipe while doing something in his attic. His head hurt, but he didn't think too much about it. After experiencing a recurring headache, his fiance Kristin urged him to see a doctor about it, and they told him he had water on his brain, which they would have to drain off by first drilling a small hole in his skull.

He had the surgery this morning, and apparently it was successful. He'll be going home soon. But apparently there was some blood mixed with the water they found on his brain, and I don't think they were expecting that. He'll have to undergo more tests... but at least the headaches are gone. So keep Brent in your thoughts... we wish him all the best. I'm not sure exactly how old Brent is, but he must be approaching sixty... however, he is physically active and extremely healthy. He rollerblades, kayaks, bikes... you name it. So if he's going to have some health challenges, his body should be well-prepared.

Well, I better sign off! Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend!