Rhode Island Kohls

Happy Easter Dylan

2010-04-08T20:56:00.000-07:00

Final Medical Post (I hope)

2009-06-06T07:42:00.000-07:00

The doctor at Lahey Clinic gave me the surgical notes, So I thought I would share that with all of you.

INDICATIONS:Patient presents with a septic right shoulder. She has had two surgical procedures done elsewhere. She had persistent drainage. She presents for surgical treatment.

PROCEDURE: The patient was placed on the operating room table. general anesthesia was induced. the patient was placed in a sitting position. The right shoulder was prepped and draped incision made over the anterior aspect of the right shoulder through the old incision, down through subcutaneous tissue and fascia. there was some purulent tissue that initially expressed. The deltopectoral interval was then entered and necrotic tissue was removed throughout the deltopectoral interval. the subscapularis tendon was then incised off the lesser tuberosity and some purulent tissue was also removed and sent for culture. There was a significant longitudinal tear of the supraspinatus tendon off the greater tuberosity, the bone was significant longitudinal tear of the supraspinatus tendon off the greater tuberosity and in probing the greater tuberosity, the bone was significantly soft. The bone was entered. there was noted to be some necrotic bone which was debrided using a curette and after the shoulder was copiously irrigated, and the decision was made to put a few sutures in the supraspinatus tendon rent. This was done with Prolene suture. after purulent synovium was debrided and bursal subscapularis tendon was left open. The shoulder joint was left open. the wound was packed with betadine soaked sponges and a wound VAC was placed in the shoulder. Patient was awakened and transferred to the recovery room.

Since I didn't have a room yet, I spent the next 24 hours in the recovery room. Was actually very nice. I got lots of attention.

Life is Good

2009-06-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

No more gory pictures, just a note to let everyone know that I am doing better, I had half of the stitches removed from the shoulder on Friday, and hope the rest will go this friday. The infectious disease doctor is pleased with how the infection is looking but wants to keep me on the IV antibiotics for another 3 or so weeks. I would rather have too much and make sure the infection is gone, rather than not enough and have it come roaring back stronger than before. The xrays showed that the bone seems to be healing, so that is also good news. Now i have only a week to wait before I can start with the occupational therapy to get the arm moving again.

MaryAnn Status 5/12

2009-05-12T15:11:00.000-07:00

Things have gone very well today. We've met with multiple doctors, most notably the infectious disease doctor. Right now the feeling is that she will be able to go home on Thursday morning. Tomorrow they will pull together the home treatment stuff. The antibiotic regimen is not simple and definitely has the doctor scratching his head, but he will have it together tomorrow. The orthopedists are happy with how everything looks. The endocrinologists are happy about her glucose levels and are confident she will be on oral medication when the infection is done with. She is feeling good, walking well and the shoulder is not causing much pain.

I'm heading home tonight and will work tomorrow and after my church meeting Wednesday night I'll head up to the Hutchins' and then come over to the hospital on Thursday to pick her up. Right now that's the plan, we know it could change, but would certainly like it to happen like this.

Above are pictures of the scarf that a high school friend sent and a picture of the shoulder

Hospital Update 5/9

2009-05-09T10:05:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to pictures of the hospital room, the line in her shoulder, and the suction device that is constantly running to get the "bad stuff" out of her shoulder. All is well we are just waiting now until Monday when the line is removed.

http://gallery.me.com/kohl/#100053

Surgery 5/7

2009-05-07T14:33:00.000-07:00

The surgery was completed at about 5:30 PM. I met with Dr. Smiley. He took out a minimal amount of bone. They did some repair of the rotator cuff. There will be a follow-up surgery on Monday and she will need to be in the hospital until at least Tuesday. I have seen her twice this evening and she is doing well. On the last visit we got to talk with the doctor that assisted Dr. Smiley. He felt that it went well. They took tissue samples and are culturing them and if they find anything unexpected they will address it during the Monday surgery. I am staying at the Hutchins' home in Belmont right next to the temple which is about 15 minutes from the hospital so I will be well rested.

MaryAnn Status 5/4

2009-05-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

We went to the Lahey Clinic in Peabody this morning and met with Dr. Paul Smiley. He agrees that surgery is needed and is now scheduled for Thursday (5/7) in the Burlington facility. He knows that some bone will have to be removed, but until he gets in there he does not know how aggressive they will have to be. Right now our focus is on eliminating the source of infection and he agrees with that. How much bone they have to remove will obviously determine what degree of reconstructive surgery will be required, but that is in the future.

We probably will be heading up early Thursday morning, but we'll know the time for sure on Wednesday. She could be home as early as Saturday depending on how things go. It was a very efficient morning up there. We left home at 8:20 and were home by 2:20

MaryAnn Status 5/3

2009-05-04T03:37:00.000-07:00

Well, it didn't work out quite the way we hoped it would, but we're moving forward. Lahey Clinic would not accept her for a hospital to hospital transfer, so she will have to go in for an outpatient checkup and then be admitted. She was released from Newport Hospital Friday morning with a new antibiotic treatment regimen and we have an appointment on Monday with Dr. Smiley at the Lahey Clinic. Hopefully they will examine her and decide to admit her then. We had a nice weekend at home and are ready for a busy week. She received a priesthood blessing from myself and our home teacher so we are moving forward in faith. I will update the status after we meet with the Lahey folks.

MaryAnn Status 4/29

2009-04-29T19:42:00.000-07:00

Well we're moving ahead. Today we continued to push toget her moved to Lahey Clinic (Burlington, MA (north of Boston), which hopefully will take place tomorrow. There are bureaucracies that have to be waded through in making things happen, but we see movement. The MRI confirmed what we have suspected which is that the bone infection is getting worse. Knowing that she will soon be seeing professionals that lead their field makes us feel better. That being said we are grateful for the local doctors - they worked hard and did the best they could and they are totally on board with her going to Lahey.

We did get some good news today that the C-peptide test that she recently had shows that her body is producing lots of insulin, so that once the infection is gone she should be able to be on oral medication or perhaps just on diet.

She continues to be of good cheer and is grateful for the phone calls.

I don't know exactly when we will be going up there. I will endeavor to get an update out tomorrow.

MaryAnn Status 4/28

2009-04-28T19:41:00.000-07:00

Today was just gathering data. She had an MRI of the shoulder which is key to determining how the bone infection looks. We had a discussion with the orthopedist on treatment options if the bone infection has gotten worse. The technical term for a bone infection is Osteomyelitis and it doesn't always respond well to antibiotics. Surgery may well be the only option and if it has to happen we will not have this done in Newport. We are working through Susan Moran Mathieu to get her into the Lahey Clinic in the Boston area. I know surgery doesn't sound great, but having a chronic infection is not good. We should have a pretty good idea by the end of tomorrow as to what will be done.

MaryAnn Back in the Hospital 4/27

2009-04-27T18:35:00.000-07:00

Two steps forward, one back. After a bout with fever on Sunday afternoon and another one today we made a decision to bring her to the emergency room and they decided to admit her. It is clearly a problem with the infection. I am coming to realize that it is not an easy thing to get this right. The last time she was in they put her on Vancomycin and that is what they have done this time. Clearly they have to come up with an antibiotic that will work better for maintenance at home, otherwise she is going to be in the hospital every week. Hopefully this will be a short stay and the third time will be the charm. Prior to the fever she was doing really well.

MaryAnn Status Is Home

2009-04-21T18:59:00.000-07:00

MaryAnn got home on Sunday and is doing well.

MaryAnn Status 4/16

2009-04-16T18:14:00.000-07:00

Things are going fairly well. I need to correct what I said about what the orthopedist found. The pus had accumulated since the first procedure. He cleaned out the same area the first time and there was no accumulation there, so clearly there was a change for the worse this time. The infection was definitely not in the shoulder joint. The main work now is clearing up the infection. They are referring to this now as a "wound infection" and are treating her with antibiotics Cefazolin and Vancomycin, which are specifically for that type of infection.

She may have the followup shoulder surgery tomorrow to remove the packing material. I'll report on that tomorrow.

MaryAnn Back in the Hospital

2009-04-15T18:20:00.000-07:00

Well, here we are again doing something I hoped we wouldn't have to, but it looks like it's all good. She had the shoulder surgery at about 5:00 this afternoon. The procedure went well. He found a pocket of pus that he had missed the first time that definitely was causing a good part of her shoulder problem. She got back to her room at about 7:30 and had a good dinner. There are some good things that will come out of this. The infection status will be evaluated and they will see if the antibiotic she is on is doing the job and also they are playing with her insulin dosage to see if she can get along with less.

The one down note after the surgery is that he put in some absorbent material in the cavity where the pus was found and he will have to go back in and remove that probably on Friday. As you know I'm terrible on predicting discharge dates, but I don't think it will be before Monday.

MaryAnn is Home

2009-04-01T15:35:00.000-07:00

MaryAnn arrived home early this afternoon. We both got a course in administering her IV antibiotics. This could be going on for up to 30 days so we need to get into a routine. She is pretty tired as you might guess, but very glad to be home.

MaryAnn Status 3/31

2009-03-31T17:33:00.000-07:00

Well the time has finally come!! She's coming home tomorrow. We're not totally sure of the exact time, but it will probably be later morning or early afternoon. Obviously she's in sufficiently good shape to be home. I have been working to get things ready. For local folks we'll be in touch about help needed.

I am going to stop the daily updates unless something significantly changes.

Hopefully MaryAnn will be able to personally do the next update

MaryAnn Status 3/29

2009-03-29T14:28:00.001-07:00

Progress is being made. Her doctor told her that her white blood cell count was 13000 yesterday - a drop of 2000! If that trend continues it is good news indeed. I'm sure the infectious disease doctor will weigh in on Monday. Our Aaronic Priesthood youth came and gave her the sacrament today. She certainly appreciated that. She had another workout from the physical therapist and is making progress there. Her spirits are great. She had quite a bit of company today.

Tomorrow should be a day with lots of information and potential decisions.

MaryAnn Status 3/28

2009-03-28T16:57:00.000-07:00

We saw two of her three doctors today. Her internist is concerned that the antibiotic that she is on is not doing the job they would like, so they will probably switch her to a different one. She still runs a low temperature occasionally. The orthopedist looked at her shoulder and noted that she is healing well from the surgery and the swelling is less. She continues to walk and do her right shoulder exercises. Her movements seem to be definitely improving. She really enjoys phone calls so take a few minutes and call.

I am going to stop predicting departure days. When I get told she is going home tomorrow I'll let everyone know.

MaryAnn Status 3/27

2009-03-27T18:19:00.000-07:00

Things went well today. The doctor came in and removed the drain and talked to us for a while. Everything still looked good. He feels that it will just take time for the antibiotics to work. He gave an order for her to start physical therapy and that started today. She did various motions with her right arm for about 10 minutes, which she was able to do without a lot of pain. That will go on every day. She also went walking for a while today. The main thing that seems to be keeping her from being discharged is high white blood cell count. It is still hanging around 15,000 (less than 10,000 is considered normal). They want the count to start going down which it hasn't yet. Right now I think the earliest day she could go home is Tuesday.

MaryAnn Status 3/26

2009-03-26T19:00:00.000-07:00

The surgery happened today, rather late. She actually got back into her room at about 7:30. However, she had a great appetite and ate most of her dinner. I talked with the surgeon a little while ago and he said everything went as expected. He cleaned out the shoulder and found a small amount of cloudy liquid, but no pus deposits and no evidence of anything that would require orthopedic surgery. He put in a drain as planned, which he will take out tomorrow. She will have her arm in a sling for the next few days, but that is somewhat academic as she had very little use of the right arm anyway. Physical therapy will start in a few days. As I've said before the IV antibiotics will go on for quite a while and everyone feels that eventually that will fix the joint problems. I think we're getting close to discharge, but we'll know better tomorrow.

MaryAnn Status 3/25

2009-03-25T17:15:00.000-07:00

This is what the PICC line looks like.

Decisions are being made!! She got a CT scan on her hip today, which did not show anything. However, finally something is going to be done on the shoulder. After consultations with some orthopedists in Providence and Boston the medical team decided on a procedure to make an incision in the shoulder and go in to inspect it and clean it and to put in a drain. If there is anything that indicates that something is seriously wrong she will go somewhere else for surgery. She will be put under light anesthesia for it, but it's a pretty minor surgery that will provide information to determine how to move forward. In the best case the procedure itself will make things significantly better. In the worst case they will know exactly what is going on there and will be able to inform surgeons in either Providence or Boston. The doctors are hoping the procedure will be done Thursday morning. Her glucose levels continue to go up and down and probably won't be steady until the infection is totally gone.

MaryAnn Status 3/24

2009-03-25T05:08:00.000-07:00

Well we learned a bit more today. The MRIs came back negative. So far the culture from her shoulder is negative also, but they will keep that going another day. She thinks that the joints have improved a little bit. Tomorrow we're going to start walking the halls a couple times a day. The joint pain may be the way it will have to be for a while until the antibiotics have finished doing their thing. Unless the orthopedist comes up with something I think we're going to push for getting home by the end of the week. Her glucose levels do need to be stabilized a bit more before she can come home.

MaryAnn Update 3/23

2009-03-24T05:13:00.000-07:00

Today was a tiring day for her. The orthopedist came in and poked into her shoulder and looked for pus to drain, but found none, but it was still pretty painful. Later on in the afternoon they did an MRI on both the shoulder and hip which lasted for about 2 hours. Still through all that she is still cheerful and has a good attitude.

I have no idea now as to what is going to happen next and when she might be going home. Obviously the orthopedist needs to look at the MRI results. He will be looking at the bones to determine if there is infection there. That probably wouldn't be good. So we shall hopefully know more tomorrow.

MaryAnn Update 3/21 and 3/22

2009-03-22T17:35:00.000-07:00

Here are the last couple days of news

3/22

Today was another good day. She really enjoyed getting phone calls. Elder Wood called which was nice. We got another bit of medical news today. The internist stopped by and mentioned that the echo cardiogram that was done on Friday revealed that she has a dilated aorta. This is one of those "watch items" that can get worse and when it does it becomes an aneurism. She is on a beta blocker which keeps her blood pressure down and will minimize the danger from this. This has absolutely nothing to do with the infection or blood sugar, but probably has been present for a long time. We look at this as a "tender mercy" that gives us a heads up that we never would have had if she had not been hospitalized.

They will probably be draining pus from her shoulder tomorrow. if that does not help they may have to do some type of surgery on it.

We expect that the next few days will be full of information and training on what we will need to do when she goes home.

3/21

Today was a big day. She has moved to a regular room!! She is quite tired because she was sitting up most of the day waiting for a room to open up. They didn't move her until about 7:15 PM. She started eating solid food today. As you might suspect it is a low-carb, low-sugar diet, but she was quite happy to have it. The surgeon that removed the gallbladder came in and checked her out and removed the drain. She has had no discomfort or complications from the surgery. The shoulder and hip are definitely infected. They are saying that she will have to have IV antibiotics for another 4 weeks, so that obviously means that we will be doing it at home. The focus over the next few days will be on getting her ready to go home. They stopped the insulin drip and started with injections. That will require adjustments to get the right amounts.

MaryAnn Hospital History

2009-03-20T18:08:00.001-07:00

For those that don't know MaryAnn has been in the hospital since Wed. March 18. Here are the status e-mails that I have been sending to the family:

3/20

She continues to do well. She has had no problems whatsoever in recovering from the gallbladder surgery, in fact the nurse reported that she slept very soundly last night. She had her first hospital food today (broth, jello and herb tea), nothing to get excited about, but she wolfed down every bit of it. Her last real food was on Tuesday. The doctors were concerned about the heart getting infected so they did an echo cardiogram and that looked good - no hint of infection. The orthopedist took tissue samples from her shoulder so hopefully they can get to the bottom of what is causing that problem. She also had a PICC line inserted today. For the non-medical types this is basically a semi-permanent IV line. It is easier on MaryAnn and easier on the staff. No more sticking her to put in yet another IV.

I do want to clarify something about her glucose levels. They are down to normal levels, but that is because she continues to get an insulin drip. Until they get the infection eliminated and determine what the pancreas is doing they do not know what type of diabetes she has and what treatment will be required. They are proceeding one step at a time. There is a lot that has to happen before she can get home.

3/19

The big item today was that she was operated on to remove her gallbladder. This was done at about 6:30 tonight. Earlier today they did a test where they found that the gallbladder was "dead" and was considered a definite possibility of causing the infection. The operation was successful and I saw her at about 8:30. She was fairly groggy, but doing well. The surgeon said the gallbladder was definitely infected. Her sugar level was down to about 120 so that is good. She will definitely be in ICU through Friday. Tomorrow an orthopedist should be taking samples from her shoulder and hip to find out what exactly is going on there. The "jigsaw puzzle" pieces are coming into place so hopefully by tomorrow we'll have yet more info. By the way I'm doing fine. I had a nice dinner at the Mellos tonight and will be eating at the Baileys tomorrow and of course I'm working.

3/18

Some of you have probably heard, but I wanted to send a note out to everybody that Mom/Memere/MaryAnn is in Newport Hospital right now. She has been having severe joint pain for the last few days and today was much worse so after a visit to the doctor it was decided to send her to the emergency room. The main finding is very high blood sugar (over 600) along with an infection that they are still looking at. Right now she is in the ICU and resting comfortably. They are giving her insulin and antibiotics by IV. They wanted her in ICU to ensure that they could watch everything very closely. I'm sure that she will be in the hospital for at least Thursday. I'll keep everyone informed after I see her tomorrow.

The feet January 10 2009

2009-01-28T15:36:00.000-08:00

Twas the week of the feet. Linda Hallen on the left with a newly broken foot, the called it a Jones fracture. the little bone that goes to the little toe. She will be off of it for 6 to 8 weeks. It might need surgery if it doesn't heal, and there is poor circulation in that area. The foot on the right is Gary's with a week old sprain. It is beginning to look much better. More nasty pictures will follow.

Gary sitting in the lanai at the hallen's. A lanai is a screened room. Was so nice to sit out there even when it wasn't too warm.

First day in Florida. Doesn't it look pretty.
Here it is again the next morning it is really starting to bloom. He is walking just fine on it now, and the color has returned to normal.

Here is Linda just sitting and enjoying an ice cream sundae the night after she broke the foot. The other knee was hurt as she fell on one of those cement things in the parking lot.

Our time with Spencer and family-1/1/09

2009-01-26T17:28:00.000-08:00

Here are two of the goats, there are now four more. A buck, a wether and 2 more does. Hopefully hey are now expecting and there will be kids in the spring.

I think I got the last picture of the ducks, they are no more. They were dirty and ate a lot
Ahhh finally the kidlets, Here is our Jolly Xavier, he is so much fun, always happy

oops, forgot to get the red eye out.

When we first arrived at Spencer's we went out to look at the animals, and as we were walking down a hill, Elizabeth slipped and slid down the hill. Then Gary took his turn going down, he slipped and twisted and sprained his ankle. Couldn't have been too bad as he walked back to the house. I, remembering my knee the year before at Gordons, promptly sat down and slid down the hill on my bottom. Figured one injured person was enough for one family.

Here we all are, well some of us don't show in the picture, opening presents. Meredith is very serious about seeing what is in her package.

Xavier looks half asleep here, think he had just gotten up from his nap. He is such a happy baby that we consider the J for his middle initial must be short for Jolly. He is always laughing.

We had a great visit, Gary kept his foot up and iced, but it still turned purple and ugly. We had actually considered going back north at this point, but then finally decided that a couple of weeks in the warm would probably be helpful, so we continued on to the south lands.

New Year's Eve in DC

2009-01-22T12:16:00.000-08:00

Here we are on New Years Eve during the VERY early morning driving with Jared and Stef to the train station to take the train into Washington DC to view the exhibit on Pompei. It was a great show. Amazing how those people lived. For this picture we were heading east right into the sunrise. It was certainly beautiful, almost made me glad that i got up that early.

The first thing we saw when we got into the city was the Washington Monument. Beautiful clouds,

to bad we didn't get up early enough to get the sunrise in Washington

We turned around to see the capitol building. and the grass on the mall. Was a very pretty morning, to bad it was almost at freezing, and there was a strong wind blowing the whole day. Oh well, we are thinking of a return trip in the spring or fall when the weather is nicer. Will probably take one of those tour busses that you can get on and off wherever you want. See all the sights and not have to walk.

We went over to the Smithsonian building where there was a beautiful Christmas tree right in the middle of the main building. This was the only place that was open when we arrived. Was nice to be in out of the cold with a bathroom, and a place to buy Hot Chocolate. There were also exhibits here also.

This waterfall was inside one of the art galleries where we saw the Pompeii exhibit. The water came from outside and was behind a glass wall. I could have watched it all day, it kept changing. Note the next couple of pictures of the waterfall

This is a picture of Winfield Scott, I like the way the reflection looks. He was displayed in a plexiglass box

This was a cowboy right outside the museum. It reminded me of the cute christmas ornament we received form those folk in New Mexico.

This picture of a house is an optical illusion it is hard to tell if you are looking at an outside corner, or an inside one. Keeps flipping before your eyes. it even dose it in the photograph. But not as much as it did in person.

Another interesting sculpture, they were all over the place. Even on a cloudy day it was interesting, I would have like to have seen it in the sunshine. The shadows would have been even more interesting.

And finally the train we took getting home. We were all so tired we almost fell asleep on the ride back to where our cars were parked. We had to drive slowly because the train in front of on the tracks was having some issues, but once we got going we made good time. Havin a great time on our trip.

Christmas in Greenfield

2009-01-16T09:36:00.000-08:00

After we left Vermont we drove south to Greenfield and Leanne's house. Edward was at work so we didn't see him, but we saw everyone else/ Ben and Jenn and Hannah and their new dog Maggie all came for Brunch. Was nice to see all of them.

This is the little Creche that Gary's mother had all these years. I tried out my real close focus and think the picture came out quite well. It really looks deep. I had never noticed that before. Dottie always had fake snow around it. Leanne put green leafy branches around it. Much better than the snow which probably doesn't happen in Bethlehem, especially when the sheep are out in the fields in April. So we all think it looks much better, and more realistic with the green leaves.
A shot of one of Leannes Village houses.
After feeling compelled to go places on Christmas morning and finally deciding that they would be staying home Leanne has decided that she will keep her pajamas on all day on Christmas, and she did. Here we all are out on a walk on Christmas afternoon. That is Jenn on the left, then Leanne, and then Rachel on the right. The rest of us were there, but in back of the camera person.
And finally Maggie, with the Big Stick. It was far longer than she was, but she insisted on carrying it with her on our walk.

Merry Christmas in Vermont-12/25/08

2009-01-15T16:45:00.000-08:00

We had a delightful time in Vermont with Gordon and Carrie and Geoffrey and Ron and Gabriel. We arrived on Christmas eve and had a nice dinner then went off to a Christmas eve service at their church. We sang lots of Christmas Carols and heard Christmas reading. When we returned home we got the little guy to bed and then as all parents and grandparents do, we wrapped Christmas presents. I remember the first time I was allowed to stay up and wrap gifts for Hank. I felt so grown up. We were living on Holyoke street at the time, so I must have been in 7th or 8th grade. We even played with some of the toys. One of the toys was a target that one held on their left hand and a dart type ball with a suction cup on it. It was lots of fun. Enough for the past, on to this year.

Christmas Morning and the tree that Gordon hiked out into the woods to get. He chopped it down and brought it home. Geoffrey has had a good time rearranging the ornaments. We had to wait for Geoffrey to wake up I think you need at least two children for them to get up early on Christmas morning. We heard some noises from downstairs and figured that he was coming up. And boy did he come up wearing only one sock. Gordon was close behind carrying a diaper and some clothing. I didn't take a picture. He did get excited when he saw all the wrapped presents under the tree. He was eager to give us the things for us. We got a lovely collage of pictures of all the children and grandchildren that Carrie put together. Thank you everyone for sending pictures.
Gordon and Geoffrey opening their stockings M&M's were a hit
There he is Christmas Boy

Geoffrey and Ron opening a gift.

Finger Crayons from Leanne. He sure was having a good time with them.
Geoffrey and Papa opening the Thomas sheets that we gave him We still haven't seen the bedroom all done up with the train theme.
Gordon and Carrie are looking a little sleepy, must have been a long night.
Carrie and Geoffrey having a little snack while he was taking a break in opening his presents.

Here he is playing with his Thomas stuff.

Snow in Rhode Island - 12/19/08

2009-01-15T15:33:00.000-08:00

The tree is the Lindon on the far side of the driveway. This was before Christmas.

This , obviously isn't from Florida. This was our big snow storm that we had before Christmas When we left to go to Vermont before Christmas the snow was this deep. The picture was taken from the back door. When we returned from All our Christmas travel we were down to almost green grass. We measured the snow, and it was about 13 inches.

Lorraine's Birthday bash - 12/13/08

2009-01-13T16:06:00.000-08:00

This was the time of the big Birthday bash Many people attended, there were friends and family, and of course the Birthday girl herself. We didn't get pictures of everyone, and some that we did get didn't come out as well as I would have liked, but a good time was had by all

First we have Evvy and Jack Russell, they have been friends of the Mathieu's for as long as I can remember.

Then Elaine Mathieu Mandeville. Elaine is the daughter of Henry's Brother Gene. She drove in from Milton Mass for the big event. Not pictured is her sister Barbara who arrived a bit later, actually after Henry and Lorraine had left for home. She drove over to Easthampton for a visit.

Ricky and his girlfriend Janet were there, Ricky is the brother of Elaine and Barbara. The other sister, Nancy was not able to attend, she had a cold and didn't think it would make a great birthday gift. We are thankful that she didn't share.

Hank, was of course there, as it was his house. I missed taking pictures of Gary who was there and Hanks kids, you can see the three of them in an earlier post. I was holding the camera and Susan, if you look closely was holding the cake you can see her hands underneath.

And finally Lorraine Mathieu Happy Birthday Mom

Thanksgiving2008

2009-01-11T18:02:00.000-08:00

we went to Easthampton to celebrate my mothers birthday. Got a good picture of Cam and gregg and Olivia wrestling on the couch.

Here is a picture of our blow up manger scene looks like the light is out on the left hand side. oh well, better luck next year

This is a picture of Laselette shrine all lit up for Christmas. We stopped on the way to bring Adam and Jessie to the airport. The lights were quite pretty and then we saw some

Swans

Then before we left home i got a good picture of Gus sitting with our stuffed animals

2008-12-04T09:08:00.000-08:00

4 Things

4 things I was doing ten years ago

1. Lots of Laundry

2. Was already a grandmother

3. Was serving in the Stake Relief Society

4. Hd 4 children at home, hence the Lots of Laundry

4 things on my list today

1. take a walk

2. make dinner

3. get christmas checks written and mailed

4. finish getting Christmas decorations out and in place

4 things i love about my husband

1. He is a good father

2. He doesn't share the silly things I sometimes do

3. He makes a great lentil soup

4. He supports me in what I do

4 jobs I have had

1. Worked in the "Oven" in a raincoat factory

2. Hostess at The Log Cabin

3. Lunch lady for the Middle school

4. Fill in Family Clerk and Secretary at the Boston Temple

4 movies i have seen more than once

1. Lion King (Geoffrey was here this weekend, and it is his favorite)

2. A Christmas Carol

3. Work and the Glory

4. Harry Potter

4 places I have lived

1. Amherst MA , Easthampton, Amherst, Northampton, Amherst again

2. Florence (part of Northampton

3. Newport RI

4. Portsmouth RI

4 places i want to visit

1. Alaska

2. Hawaii again

3. Quebec, land of my ancestors

4. France

4 tv shows I watch

1. What not to wear

2. Jeopardy

3. Good Eats

4. Dirty Jobs

4 things you may not know about me

1. I was adopted as an infant

2. I like strange food combinations Ham and Chocolate, Roast beef and grape jelly

3. I used to Square dance and love it.

4. I am terrified of High places

I tag

Susan, Julia, Stef and Elizabeth

Trip to Virginia

2008-11-17T16:45:00.000-08:00

Can't seem to make the pictures behave, but you can see what we saw on our way home from our trip to Virginia. Look at those gas Prices, and of course the funky tree.

Newport Ward Reunion in Utah August 16th

2008-09-28T17:16:00.000-07:00

We had a great time at the Newport Reunion in Utah. We will have to plan another one the next time we are out there. Perhaps even more people will come. We had many former members and new spouses who have never experienced Newport. Among the people who were there are the Richard and Kimberly Bennett, Kohls, Julia was even out for a visit, Ryan and Bethany (Kohl) Chambers, John and Carrie Jausi, Judi Pickell, Ron and Sheila McDonald and son Troy McDonald, Tyson Hamblin, Ruth Keeler and her husband Dana, Dave Delong and his wife Sarah , Rena and Devirl Barfus and Marge Koch. Polly Sheffield and daughters were not there when we took the picture.

It was great to see everyone, reminisce and watch how the children have grown.

Bandsman of the month

2008-09-24T12:43:00.000-07:00

For all of you who know Adam, he doesn't like to blog. He sent me this picture and I thought I would put it on our blog, since he won't.

The certificate says

Presented to SPC (Specialist) Adam Kohl in recognition of outstanding achievements as the 282nd Army Bandsman of the Month. SPC Kohl has demonstrated great reliability as a tuba player for the Concert Band. Additionally, his exceptional innovation and creativity as audio-visual expert in the Public Affairs Office has resulted in increased unit efficiency and public awareness. His competence, initiative, and technical prowess contribute greatly to the success of the 282nd's musical mission.

He said that he realized something was coming when he wasn't asked to do up for the September Bandsman of the month. That is one of his responsibilities in the audio visual area. He also works the sound board at the concerts where he is not playing.

so he is a busy little beaver.

Graduation - August 14-15

2008-09-23T08:59:00.000-07:00

The day after we returned from Lava Hot springs we had graduation. We had purchased a new camera by this time, so these are our pictures.

Ryan and his parents Dave and Marilyn Chambers

The whole group of us. We gave Ryan a tripod for his new camera, so he was able to set it and then jump into the picture .

Ryan and Dave

Ryan and Marilyn

Ryan with his grandma

There is this pretty water feature on campus, Gary kidded

Ryan that he needed to get to the rock in the middle so he jumped over,

Bethany too jumped over the water.

A little closer. By the way, the other pictures were on one side of the little stream, the rest of us did not have to jump over the water.

Here are Ryan and Bethany in front of the baseball stadium

That is what got Ryan to BYU, and to the Newport Gulls.

His parents

The Kohls with the Chambers

The traditional picture in front of the sign. The other sign was way too busy. I hope that Ryan and Bethany returned another day to get the other picture.

Lava Hot Springs - the river August 12th

2008-09-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here we are floating on the Portneuf Fiver

Bethany

Jayson

Marilyn and Ryan

Gary, right before he fell off and scraped the back of his head. It was not a good ride for him. I had offered to stay with the baby.

Angie, she did not fall off.

Julia, think she fell off, but no bumps and only a few scrapes

Matt, with his hand on Jayson's tube

Lava Hot Springs, the hot springs August 11

2008-09-10T08:31:00.000-07:00

This has got to be the neatest place. The pools are between 110 degrees, getting cooler to about 102 degrees. We went after dinner about nine at night and just enjoyed the warm water. There is smooth gravel on the bottom of the pools. with steps leading down to each one. The gravel had to be at least a food deep, I couldn't find the bottom of it when I wiggled my feet down into it. The feet looked so nice when we were finished

Betty , Ryans grandma is sitting on the left , then we have our daughter Julia, Gary, other daughter, Bethany, Ryan's parents Marilyn and Dave Chambers and then our grandson Sean

Someone else must be holding the Camera. Our camera is not working again. I have appeared on the left, you will recognize Julia and Gary and Bethany, her husband Ryan is standing behind her with his dad on the far right of the picture.

Wish we had other pictures but here is the URL so you can look for yourself www.lavahotsprings.com/hotpools.html

Lava Hot Springs, The Cabin - August 11-13

2008-09-08T10:53:00.000-07:00

Here is the whole group at the cabin.

Back row: Kyle, Sean, Angie holding Tyler, Matt, Julia

Middle row: Dave, Gary, MaryAnn, Betty, Marilyn

Front row: Jayson, Bethany and Ryan who had to run quickly and jump into place.

This was the view from the front door of our cabin, sorry but since the camera wasn't working i am relying on pictures taken by others. I didn't get a picture of the inside, The cabin had 2 bedrooms one with 2 bunk beds and one with a double. Those people who snore got the room by themselves. You can only guess who that might be. Matt and Angie and family got the other room. Bethany and Ryan brought an air mattress, but they could have used the pull out couch. They thought the mattress would be much more comfortable. Julia slept on the second couch.

The cabin also came with pets. We found this poor little guy inside, but were able to catch and release him to the wild. Jayson wanted to keep him.

We had deer in the morning and in the evening.

And finally a chicken who just hung out around the place.

Trip to Lava Hot Spring The Pool - August 11

2008-09-08T09:06:00.000-07:00

We drove up to Lava Hot Springs in Southern Idaho for a fun get away. Bethany and Ryan had the week off, and these four days were Angie's time off between her shifts. We had a super time being together.

Some of us used the water slides, Can't tell who this is, but it must have been a great ride.

Here we have Bethany, Gary, Marilyn, and Julia at the top of the slide getting ready to go down.

Some of us watched and just hung out in the pool. That would be Sean, Dave and MaryAnn, we did go down the slides, but at this point were just hanging at the side of the pool.

Another splash, again, can't tell who is , oh well. Must have been one or the other of the above.

Jayson was movin so fast it was hard to get a picture of him facing toward the camera.

We began our time at Lava Hot Springs with a dip into the pool. Here you see Sean at the top of the diving platform.

Jumping off

in the air

Heading poolward

getting closer

still closer

SPLASH!!!!

The kids had fun jumping off the platform and some of the adults even went on the water slides, and relaxing in the water and on the nice grassy areas near the pool

A trip to Salt Lake and the Temple - August 5

2008-09-06T14:15:00.001-07:00

Ryan took some interesting pictures of the Salt Lake Temple while we were there. We had a nice lunch and afterwards did some temple work. Was a nice day all around.

Interesting angel. The temple is amazing, it took 40 years to build. Everything is hand crafted. I can't even imagine fashioning the wood work with todays tools, but everything in the temple is hand carved. Stone work too.

Ryan let us take a picture of them with his camera. Ours is still on the fritz at this point. This picture is in front of the conference center, which is itself an amazing building. It is the largest building of its kind in the world. There is no bad seat in the house. Not one pillar holding up the roof. You can fit a huge jumbo jet inside. It seats around 22,000.

Another interesting picture of the temple.

After we finished at the temple and the Church Museum of History we met Julia's plane and took her back to Provo and Orem with us. We stopped and had dinner at the Spaghetti factory on our way home.

Finally in Utah - July 28 - August 3

2008-09-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

We actually arrived in Utah on Monday evening and then spent the next week at the Family History Conference at BYU. It was amazing how much material we were exposed to, we are still sorting it out and trying to figure out how to use it all. Matt and Angie and family and Bethany and Ryan arrivd home after a week at Lake Powell. (See their blogs to see what went on there.)

We got one good picture of Tyler, and then the camera died again. We were hoping it would start working again, but no luck, we found that if we wanted pictures we would need to get ourselves a new one.

Great time with friends from the Hingham stake - August 2

2008-09-02T12:52:00.001-07:00

Our first Saturday evening in Utah we had a wonderful visit with old friends from the Hingham stake. Many of the people were also visiting from places other than Utah. Some from Massachusetts and other from other places. It was great to see everyone, there were many people who had left the activity before the photo was taken so we were a large group. One of the funniest things that happened is that exactly 7:30 the sprinklers went off. The kids had a great time getting wet.

WE CONTINUE WITH A CAMERA THAT IS WORKING AGAIN - July 28

2008-09-01T14:56:00.000-07:00

See I really was on the trip. we had someone who offered to take a picture of us. Here we are at four Corners. We paid our two bucks to get in and to be able to pose for a picture and buy things. I suppose it is better than putting up a casino here, as it is in indian territory

A larger picture with flags from the four states involved.

here is a little map of the four states. Utah up in the north west, Colorado to the east of it, then Arizona and New Mexico to the south. The only place in the country where four states meet. Was something to see once.

We played with the camera for a while and it started working again so we were able to get pictures of our trip from New Mexico to Utah. Was a beautiful trip, am glad we will be able to do it again.

This is Wilson Arch was right on our way so we stopped to take a picture. Seems like we read that another arch in the area fell down about the time we were taking this picture.

These are some of the scenes on our trip from NM to UT the sky was such a pretty view.

More of the same

This one was amazing poking up into the sky, hard to believe that it wasn't carved by man. Looks like there is a little door on the side. We were running quickly and didn't have time to stop many time. I think we took most of these from a moving car. Isn't the anti shake feature on the camera amazing.

In New Mexico - July 25-26

2008-09-01T14:15:00.000-07:00

We also were able to watch Emma at Gymnastics. This was at the end of class, they worked her hard and she was tired by this time. After gymnastics we all went out to lunch at Texas Road house. Everyone who lived in NM was there. Josh was able to join us before he had to go to work and then to the zoo. Our Camera died while we were at the zoo so we only got pictures of the great apes, and they certainly were huge.

I think this one was a teenager he, or she kept running around and teasing another, probably a sibling. Sounds like what it was like at our house. Mom, I think, got up out of her hammock and chased them til they stopped, at least for the moment.

Dad was in the next exhibit, he didn't have teenagers with him. he was a whole lot bigger than the females and teenagers.

Look at the size of those arms, probably good he couldn't get at the young ones. Don't suppose they would bother him more than once. Was a really nice zoo, we enjoyed going. Bad thing was that our zoo membership didn't cover the zoo in Albuqurque. Oh well wasn't to expensive and we had a great time with the kids. We saw Rhinos and lions that were actually roaring. I hope Susan will post some pictures of those. The roaring was something, don't think I have ever heard a lion roar. We did buy a new camera a couple of weeks later.

In New Mexico - July 25

2008-09-01T13:47:00.000-07:00

This is where Jaime goes riding, the bus comes to get her and take her to her lessons. The stable is attached to the Hyatt hotel in the area. Once you get the van and then get to the stable it looks more like a place to go riding. Hope Ian and Susan post more pictures of her while she is riding, and pictures of the Thursday Rodeo.

We are sitting waiting for the van, and watching for the little Lizards that are all over the place.

Here is Jaime on her horse Gooseberry, they call him Goose for short.

Now we couldn't forget Taylor and Emma, once we returned from the riding we went to the pool with the kids. Taylor didn't seem to want to have his picture taken, so I put my camera on my knee and tilted up the view finder. That way he didn't see me taking the picture. They both swim quite well.

Emma also was a little reluctant to be photographed. Was a nice pool area. Water slides and other places to play. Is a Zero entry pool, so you get in just like at the beach, wade until the water is as deep as you want it. Makes it nice for the little ones.

We had a super time in New Mexico and are looking forward to returning the next time we head west.

more news from the road

2008-07-27T20:22:00.001-07:00

As we crossed the mississippi we saw the Arch in St Louis. It is quite impressive. Don't think I would like to go up inside of it, and the way the roads and the time was going by we just couldn't get to it easily so there wasn't the chance.

Here is a sign proving that gas was less expensive in some places. We actually got some near Ian and Susans for only $3.61. We should plan to get gas before we get into Utah, as the gas is at least fifty cents higher there. We just might plan our trip home following the less expensive gas. You can check gas prices at Gasbuddy.com. is an interesting site. Map gas temperatures for long trips and put in your zip code for closer to home gas stations.

Here was a welcoming rest stop in Oaklahoma. We actually saw another that said "Free Restrooms, no purchase necessary" And these were on the interstate. But they had interesting hand washing stations. There was a hole that you put your hands in, first it sprayed water, than added soap, then a little water to rinse and finally air to dry the hands, truly a one stop shop.

leaving for Utah in the morning.

Before the trip

2008-07-27T06:13:00.001-07:00

Before our big adventure, we went over to Prudence Island to visit with Mary Brooks. Here are some pictures from that trip.

Here we are on the ferry boat coming into the dock at Prudence Island. Was a nice ride, the water was calm and there was just enough wind to keep it from becoming to hot on the half hour ride over Narragansette bay.

We took a walk after lunch to this old cemetery. As you can see Prudence Island is a part of Portsmouth, but the only way to get there is on a ferry that leave from Bristol

Rumor has it that the stones that have U shaped cut outs in them were hit by British cannon fire during the Revolutionary war. The dates on the stones do make it seem believable. From what I have read many livestock were swum over to the island to protect them from being eaten by the British soldiers

This is Mary's cat Melanie, she is quite fluffy. She has to stay inside because of the coyotes on the island. There are also deer on the island.

A quick look towards Portsmouth, on the right, as we were waiting for the ferry. You can see the Mt Hope bridge on the left, and the pilings for the ferry landing on the bottom right. It was a great trip.

We're at Ian's!

2008-07-25T06:31:00.000-07:00

We arrived at Ian and Susan's home in Rio Rancho, NM (point E) Thursday at about 4:00 PM. We made pretty good time and of course we switched to Mountain Time so we gained an hour. We'll be here until Monday when we leave for Provo, UT.

Progress on Wednesday

2008-07-24T04:09:00.000-07:00

While we were in Indiana we got a map here and went on a side trip to see covered bridges. You think of Vermont as the place with them but we sure saw a bunch on this little side trip.

Their had been a huge wind storm the night before, but we neglected to take pictures of the trees that had fallen down.

We did get one tree. if you look closely you can see a log in the middle of the river. This one is a new bridge was built just a couple of years ago, after the one it replaced was burned. It looks just like it did before the fire. You were unable to drive over most of the bridges

This pick up was near the last bridge. This is also where we discovered that the windstorm had been the night before. Power was out at the Bridgton Mill.

This was the one bridge that we saw, out of about 15 that you could drive over, but we weren't going in that direction, so we didn't.

We made good progress Wednesday, but ended up about 90 minutes short of our goal for that day. We are in Clinton, Oklahoma, which is 82 miles east of point D. We spent a couple of hours at some great factory outlets in Missouri and bought some knives and Russell Stover chocolates. Also, we are finding "cheap" gas in MO and OK - "only $3.69/gal (I never thought I'd be calling that cheap, but with $4.07/gal gas at home it is)

Our Trip West

2008-07-23T03:40:00.000-07:00

We are on our way on our nearly 6 week trip to visit our family in New Mexico and Utah attend BYU Family History Conference and Ryan's graduation from BYU as well as a family vacation up in Lava Hot Springs, ID.

We left home on Monday, July 21 and got to point B - Youngstown, Ohio that evening.

We left fairly early Tuesday and got to about 45 miles east of St. Louis (point C). On Tuesday we took a bit of a side trip to look at covered bridges in Indiana, which was very interesting.

This was our weather the other day

2008-07-02T12:09:00.000-07:00

Just a real quick post. This is a picture taken from our front porch, not the rain coming down, and also notice the sun shining in the back ground. It was quite a strange feeling to have the sun streaming in the door and the rain just pelting down and blue sky. And we couldn't even see a rainbow. Oh well that is weather in New England, just gotta love it.

visit from Geoffrey

2008-07-01T17:19:00.000-07:00

After the beach there was time for a bike ride

We had a whole day at the zoo. Here is Geoffrey petting a sheep.

One of these days I am going to get the pictures put in in the order i want them, but for now, oh well they are what they are.
A donkey

A cow, they didn't come close enough for us to pet them.

This was the funniest looking flamingo I have ever seen. Notice that it is standing flat footed. I guess he was more tired than the others who were standing on their toes.
Another bird, larger this time, and EMU
Her we are, actually touching the sheep

back home sitting among the aminals
More animals, Where is Geoffrey?
Hidden among the bears
Papa and Geoffrey kissing a camel Geoffrey, sitting on the camel

Giraffes

Elephants
Penguin

More Giraffes

g and giraffes there were 3 giraffes

We had a great time at the zoo, and when we arrived home we went to the beach. Unfortunately the batteries on the camera left us after we got home from the zoo. Oh well, it was a good time at the beach. We were able to avoid the jelly fish, which was a good thing. After all the fun we had, we hosed off outside and then had dinner and got ready for bed.

Wedding festivities

2008-06-19T13:58:00.000-07:00

While waiting at the temple.

BEAUTIFUL Birch Trees

Geoffrey and Carrie

Again Geoffrey and Carrie at the temple

Coming out of the temple

first one outside the temple

Families outside the temple

Goes without saying

Greg and his sisters Jaime, Tahra, Megan and Emma

The sisters Emma, Jaime, Tahra and Megan

Leanna and Tayloy

Mefan and Josh

Matt Charlie and Jared

the reason we all came to the activity

feeding cake (one of these days i will get things in the correct order)

cutting the cake

Jaime and Friend from Hingham

Greg and LeAnna

Wedding Activities in RI

2008-06-18T16:34:00.000-07:00

People have come and gone. It is quiet again at our home in Portsmouth. Was great to have so many of you here, but is also nice to be back to normal again. Hope everything is going well for everyone out there.

Greg Jared and Stef

The cousins, Taylor and Geoffrey

Geoffrey on the horse

frizbee game continues

Tahra

Emma and Ian in the background

The Rhodadendrons were in bloom

Closeup

Jaime and Tahra playing Frsbee

Taylor taking a shot

Finally the Clemantis is blossoming, just in time for Greg and Leanas wedding.

Up close and personal. This blossom is about the size of a luncheon plate, about 7 inches across

Jonathan, first time in New England.

St Georges from second beach

Two sisters, Susan and Kristen here for the wedding

Josh and Megan

Newport Travels

2008-06-03T16:02:00.000-07:00

Our friends the Davies were in town the first week in May and we had fun doing some local tourist things with them.

We went to purgatory Chasm, when dad was young and foolish he actually climbed down it and swam back to second beach. this time we just looked at it, from the top, and then from the fore mentioned second beach.

This is the windmill in Paradise Park in Middletown. It actually used to be located right near us on Mill Lane. It is a rare 8 bladed one. It was a beautiful day, and we had a great time.

That is what we did before we left on our trip to Vermont and then to Virginia.

The Computers are Gone !!!

2008-05-17T17:38:00.000-07:00

Thought we would do a quick post this afternoon. We forgot to take pictures, but all the Kohls will be able to picture what happened. This morning on the radio dad heard about an Electronics Recycle day by Save the Bay in Providence, there would be people there from Amricorps who were doing a service project. Well we had been putting all the dead computers and TV's in the van so we were able to attend the event. Can you believe they took everything, I think there were 8 computers plus the monitors and then the 3 Televisions, the first 50 TV's brought in would be free to drop off. When we arrived there was a long line of cars, we were hoping they wouldn't stop taking things before we got there, but they were really trying to figure out what they were going to do, and perhaps were busy at 9:00 eating doughnuts. Once they got going it went quickly. When we got to the recycle point about 6 kids swarmed around the car and started taking stuff out and putting it into piles. Took about 4 minutes to get everything out, then we were on our way. A great weight has been lifted, only took about two hours of time to do the whole thing. Good that we were ready and everything was in the van ready to go when we heard about it.

Spencer and Family

2008-04-10T10:44:00.000-07:00

Spencer and Elizabeth and Meredith, could hardly find a cuter family anywhere.

Meredith on her own, getting ready to go out for the day.

See, we were really there in Virginia. Elizabeth was kind enough to take a picture of us.

Trip to Virginia Gettysburg

2008-04-10T10:17:00.000-07:00

Here we are in Gettysburg, This is a Union General, Didn't write down his name, but he is surveying the land to the west of Little Round Top. We had thought spring had come, some of the trees were blossoming, but the wind was cold. In the distance you can see Devils Den, and the Slaughter house. Was a horrible day that the battle took place. Many men from both sides were killed.

We thought this kind of interesting. Sykes Avenue, wonder if there is any relationship with our Sykes in Portsmouth. Was an area that was defended by a regiment from Maine. They were told to defend with all Hazard, meaning, they were to fight to the death. They were successful and defended their area and saved the day for the Union.

The tree that made us think it was warm out. I suppose it would have been, except for the WIND. There seems to be monuments every where. Every group who was in the battle later put up a monument.

This is the place where Pickets Charge happened. Pickett was a Confederate, ahd had been ordered to charge the Union lines.

they charged into these union guns, and lost. this was as far north as the Confederate got in their fight. You can see the monuments. they are all over the battlefields.

Boston travels

2008-04-10T10:05:00.000-07:00

This is an additional pictures of our new bedroom, here you can see the red Ceiling, I think it looks great. A nice warm cozy den for us to hide away in when the weather gets cold.

We had an adventure in Boston a couple of weeks ago, we went to the Historical Genealogical Library. I was amazed at how much information is packed in there. The building itself was interesting. After that we went up to the "Old North Church" You know, the one where Paul Revere hung his lanterns. "One if by land, and 2 if by sea, and I on the opposite shore will be..."

Here is a statue of Paul Revere, all ready to ride to warn the towns that the British were coming.

Here is the Old North Church, set right in the middle of Boston's North end. Was an adventure to walk around there. The HISGEN is doing a project on the people who worshiped at the church, tracing who they were, where they came from and where they went. We have no one who even lived in Boston at the time of the Revolution, but it is interesting anyway.

From the old to the new. this is the famed Zakim bridge built during the big Dig. It is the widest bridge of its kind in the world. And quite beautiful to look at too. It I turned around, i would be facing the church

NEW GRANDSON

2008-03-01T07:06:00.000-08:00

Matt called this morning, and asked me to post this picture.

Here's Tylor 5.6pounds 18.5 inches long born just after 7:30 after just over an hour of labor.

Mother and baby are doing fine.

The New Bedroom

2008-02-28T15:59:00.001-08:00

Well, this is the shipment , and you can't even see all the boxes, there are three more standing out of range of the camera. We bought the bed all put together, or so we thought, those flat boxes on the right still needed to be put together.

Don't think you want to see all the center steps, they weren't pretty, but the final result came out quite well, I think, let us know what you think. the new kittie likes sitting in the chair. unfortunately you can't see the new red ceiling, Oh well, looks super.

and again

2008-02-13T17:13:00.001-08:00

These are wild alligators

Wanted Linda to go down and pet them so you could compare the size. She wouldn't do it. Oh well, they looked to be at least about 10 or so feet long

Just sunning themselves by the side of a river, there was a bridge where we were all standing watching them. The other one in an earlier post was on the other side of the bridge.

This bird was just wading around the alligator, guess they don't eat this kind of bird. Or the bird knew that the gator just wasn't hungary that afternoo

ALLIGATORS, WE HAVE ALLIGATORS and birds

2008-02-13T04:52:00.000-08:00

This is a limpkin, only found in florida and southern Georgia

Great blue Heron standing on a boat. these guys stand about three feet tall.

this little guy is a snowy egret. Note the yellow feet, what he does it fish is to stand on one foot and wave those little yellow toes around in the water, then when a fish comes by, thinking that they are worms, or something, the egret grabs them with his bill. they stand about 18 inches tall, and look almost fuzzy. Real pretty

Can you see him lurking there under the water?

Can you see him now?

There he is, we figured that this guy was over 12 feet long. He never fully appeared, but just seeing those eyes was enough, Talk about silent running.

The remainder of our Florida pictures

2008-02-12T16:49:00.000-08:00

Some Florida Wild life

Other kind of Florida wild cars

lots of vultures, There had been a cold snap, and many fish had died, the vultures were here to get the goodies .

a close up of a turkey vulture. these guys have red heads, this one was coming in a for a landing.

These guys are black vultures, you can tell by the black heads. They are larger than chickens, and have about an 8 foot wing span. They fly with their wings straight. the Turkey ones look like a V when they are soaring.

Different kind of a bird, a peliquin this one was perching outside a place where we had lunch.
One alligator
One vulture

Many Vultures

First Month of Retirement

2008-02-06T04:35:00.000-08:00

Gary's turn to blog - We haven't put up a post in quite a while so we thought an update would be good although nothing particularly exciting has happened. We arrived home from our vacation on Jan. 22. We had a really great time on the vacation and it whetted our appetite for more trips. After we got home and sorted through the big pile of mail we are getting on with our routine. The big thing we have found is that daily planning is required in order to get things done each day. It's so easy to sit back and read or surf. We are now on our third visit to Western Mass. since we got back from Florida. My sister Elaine is here from Alaska and we wanted to spend some time with her. We are slowly getting things done around the house and have started planning our next trips. We have two grandchildren (Matt/Angie in March and Spencer/Elizabeth in May) arriving in the next few months so we will be going to visit them of course. That is about it for now. We need to get pictures posted from the rest of our Florida trip.

what we saw on our walk

2008-01-17T04:29:00.000-08:00

Here are some cool trees we saw on our walk the other morning, seems like no matter where I am, I find cool trees.

This one is a Norfolk Island Pine, the kind you can buy, much smaller, of course and use as a house plant. they sell lots of them at Christmas time. First time I have seen one living out of doors.

some pretty nice houses also.

More pictures

2008-01-15T08:26:00.001-08:00

A Pelican perching in the sunset at Englewood beach

More of the same sunset

Froggy has been joined by two friends, they change places sometimes

There are little squirrels too

People swimming, the water temp was higher than Newport in August

More pictures tomorrow, those alligators, Turkey vultures and other cool birds

Pictures, do we have pictures

2008-01-14T14:06:00.000-08:00

a whole group of gulls and terns on the beach. Was a beautiful day

A Pelican, you know the kind, a wondrous bird is the pelican, his beak can hold more than his bellican
We looked this guy up, he is a Royal Tern in his winter feathers, summer has more black on the head. We were within about six feet of these birds, they just don't seem to be afraid of people.

This is a picture of one of three small frogs who live on the wall of the Hallens home, he is about ten feet up, and they say he is supposed to eat bugs. Yes he is on the outside. The bird is a red bellied wood pecker, the first is a male, the second a female, you can tell by the amount of red on its head, Male has more

Here we are in front of the Hallens house, and it is a great house very Florida, very open. They have a lovely Lanai, (if that is how it is spelled)or a screened porch overlooking the back yard.

Here is one of the three Kohl girls Megan in the back then Jaime then Emma in the front. They were a pretty group all dressed up. You will find more pictures of the wedding in Ian and Susan's blog.

New Year Activities and Travel

2008-01-13T13:20:00.000-08:00

The big activity in the New year of course was Jonathan and Tahra's wedding and associated festivities. Susan has blogged about that and put on lots of pictures so if you want to hear about it then go to their site. We had a wonderful time although it was a bit busy - daily trips to Bountiful or Salt Lake for three days in a row. However, to be in the temple witnessing a sealing of a beautiful couple for time and eternity was truly worth it and would not be exchanged for anything. All 8 grandparents were in the temple for the sealing and Jonathan's grandfather performed the sealing.

In between we had lunch with Pete and Angie DeLong on Thursday. In what is a rather amazing coincidence Dave DeLong was married in the Bountiful Temple on Wednesday and the reception was on Friday evening. We managed to slip away from Tahra's reception to attend Dave's, which was about 10 minutes away.

On Saturday we could sit back and relax a bit. We had a nice lunch at the Edmunds with 6 couples formerly from the Hingham Stake (Meyers, Chatfields, Hallens, Martins, Edmunds). Sunday was a nice dinner at Matt's home after Sunday meetings in Bethany's ward. Monday we had lunch with Rena and Devirl Barfuss and had a dinner at Bethany's with the Provo Bergeron families (Mike/Penny and Blake/Catherine/Benson). It is so great to keep up with good friends.

Tuesday we left for the airport at 4:30 AM and safely made it to Norfolk. We'll continue the saga soon.

Pictures from Tucanos on 12/31

2008-01-02T06:59:00.001-08:00

Here are some of the pictures of our Tucano's adventure on New Year's Eve.

Ian with Taylor, Emma and Jaime

Susan, Julia and Megan

Josh

Marilyn (Ryan's mother), Ryan and Bethany

Dave and Marilyn (Ryan's parents)

Jayson, Matt and Angie

Greg and now fiancee Leanna

Linda and gus (Susan's parents)

Christmas on the Road

2007-12-30T05:37:00.000-08:00

We had a great drive on Christmas Day down to Jared and Stefs in Virginia where we had fun playing with the Grand dogs and cats. The cats aren't nearly as friendly and only appeared when there was food to be had. Once we arrived we went over to Stef's parents (Norm and Sharon Levesque) and had a very nice dinner. It had been two years since we had seen Norm and Sharon so it was nice to visit with them. After visiting with Jared and Stef and the puppies. (Jared promised to put up pictures of the puppies in their Christmas finery)
We headed down to Spencer and Elizabeth's home, arriving to find them healthy and doing well. We had a real treat of having some bear ribs for dinner. One of their friends had given them some frozen bear so Spencer, ever being the adventurous person made up an apple marinade and cooked the ribs. They were yummy, we also had some of their recently killed chickens in a stir fry to round out the meal. We are hoping for some bear stew on the return trip.
Our ride to Norfolk was uneventful, as was our flight to Utah. Matt and Angie and Jayson picked us up at the airport for the ride to Orem, and then let us use a car for our ride down first to Bethany and Ryans and then off to the Edmunds to visit with them, and the Chatfields who are leaving on a mission to Albania next Monday.
We of course got everyone together for the Patriots game on Saturday night. It was nice that Mike and Penny were away, so we were able to use their large TV for the game.
On New Year's eve day we went to Tucanos for lunch. This is a Brazilian restaurant, where if you are a vegetarian you would not be real happy. They grill meat on skewers and bring them around to tables and cut off meat for you. Everyone had a great time. There were 23 of us there. We were only missing Sean and Kyle.
We had a New Year's eve party at Matt's home, where we very sensibly rang in the New Year at midnight Eastern time. We were all headed out the door by 10:30.
That's it for now. We wish everyone a very Happy New Year.

Retirement

2007-12-23T12:22:00.000-08:00

Well it finally came - the last day of work that is!! Friday, Dec. 21 was it. My official beginning of retirement is Jan 1, but there will be no more work days at Raytheon for the foreseeable future. I was given a wonderful party on Wednesday at the Green Valley Country Club. There were about 70 people there, spanning my entire work career - NUSC, Hughes and Raytheon. There were some very nice words said and some very nice gifts.

It has not sunk in yet and I don't think it will until we get home in late January. Maybe when we're sitting in the Hallen's back yard with the temperature in the 80s it might also sink in.

Stay tuned for our continuing travels. We'll be in Easthampton, MA until Christmas Day.

Thanksgiving 2007

2007-12-10T16:58:00.000-08:00

Just looked and it has been over a month since We blogged. There has been lots happening since that time. I continue to go to my parents every week for a couple of days. This is our new car.

It has almost become a pleasure to drive the 2 plus hours to Easthampton. Having a CD player and Harry Potter CD's along makes the time go by faster. I also get to listen to Christmas music, can't tell you how many times i have heard Dominique the donkey. HEE HAW HEE HAW

We brought Thanksgiving up to Easthampton this year. Clive joined us, and we had a great dinner. I, of course, was holding the camera

Once Thanksgiving finished, it was time to continue with getting ready for Christmas. Lots to do and not much time to do it. Will be exciting to see most of the family at Christmas time. It starts off with Gordon and Carrie and Geoffrey, then Grandpa and Grammy and Pepere, then Hank and Susan and family all in Massachusetts. We will then drive to Virginia to have a quick visit wit Jared and Stef, and Spencer and Elizabeth and Meredith. We will be taking Julia with us to Utah. Once we arrive in utah we will see those living there. Whew, I am tired already just thinking of it. We will be stopping to see Adam on our return from Florida after our trip to Utah. I am really looking forward to sitting in Florida with nothing to do. Maybe will get a day or two of that.

Adams graduation

2007-11-05T17:10:00.000-08:00

Here we are at Family day at Fort Jackson, Was good to see Adam, He looks taller than when he left home. Must be because he has eaten so much. They only had about ten minutes to eat, but you know how efficient Adam can be when he wants to.
We left Rhode Island on Tuesday afternoon and spent the night at a nice hotel, hey, the bathroom was clean, and there were sheets on the bed, somewhere in Pennsylvania, and in the morning had a lesurly breakfast, then on the road to Spencers house where we saw the chickens up close and personal. We also saw Julia and went out to lunch at the Pink Cadalac, sorry forgot to get a picture. Oh well, maybe next time. After lunch, a late lunch we drove down to Charlotte North Carolina where we spent the night at another nice hotel. In the morning we picked Jessie up and had an hour and a half drive to Ft Jackson South Carolina. We knew we were getting close when we started to see palm trees near the road way.
We finally got to fort Jackson and to the place where we were supped to be. The plans had changed but we found the correct location. As we sat in the stands and waited adam sent a text message to Jessie saying that they were all hiding in the trees and he would be running out and standing on the left end of the stands. Of course we were sitting on the right hand side. Oh well, we finally did get to see him about ten minutes after the program ended. We had to wend our way down to the field along with all the other family members

Matt and Jared joined us at the Solomon Activity center.

At family day we got a big surprise.
border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129702080370199810" /> President Bush was going to be attending and speaking at Adams graduation. this of course meant that we would be getting up earlier and waiting longer but hey, when else do you get to see the President of the united states.
The president gave a speech about the progress in Iraq, the kind of stuff that the News Media doesn't think we need to know about. We have also heard many posative things from people in the ward who have been there. One sister;s father is in Iraq now, and we are helping to furnish things for a school. Finally here are two other pictures of the graduation.

This is a picture of one of adams drill sargaent's receiving an award for best drill sargaent of the week

Of course all the guys look exactly the same, and since Adam is so tall he is in the rear of his platoon, so he isn't visible. If you want to see him in his Class B uniform, go the their blog. They all really look the same. Some of the new soldiers really look young, and some look old. The oldest in his platoon was 39.

Here is a picture of the front of the program for the graduation

And the other family picture that is hidden above

Halloween at the Zoo

2007-10-28T11:05:00.000-07:00

Meredith in the back pack
we had Spencer and Elizabeth and Meredith up visiting for the weekend as Spencer met with prospective students. He has a little free time so we went to the Zoo in New Bedford. Buttonwood park is certainly a cute little zoo. It has been closed for the past couple of years to update it, the animal enclosures are really beautiful and the animals have a lot to do. She liked to see the "kitties" and would meow when she saw one.

She liked the larger animals best, I guess they were easier to see.

When we returned from the zoo we got ready for Trunk or Treat down at the church. She was a little fairy and really got into the getting of the candy.

We also saw Mrs Potts, who was handing out candy

Weekend with Friends

2007-10-15T06:42:00.000-07:00

Conference weekend was something, We don't usually have friends stop by,but this weekend we had two sets. The Baruss's came first. They had spent the weekend on Martha's Vieyard and had a wonderful time. Most of the tourists are gone but the weather was still beautiful. They flew over to Newbedford and we picked them up there. Sunday we attended conference at the ward building in Newport as usual. Monday dad had the day off and we went and had an adventure. We became tourists in Rhode Island. We went to see the Gilbert Stewart Birth place in Saunderstown RI. Anyone out there know who Gilbert Stewart is?
When we arrived home from our trip we found Gus and Linda Hallen had arrived and had their trailer all set up and were having lunch. Gus needed to rest so we went over to the Sykes for a lunch with Rena and Devirl.

We went to Anthonys for chowder and clam cakes and had a great time isiting with everyone. Brought Rena and Devirl to the airport on Tuesday morning and Gus and Linda left for their trip back to Florida on Wednesday. They took the last of the warm weather with them. I went up to Easthampton. Has been busy this fall.

The leaves aren't turning yet

2007-10-02T17:35:00.000-07:00

We were up in Vermont this weekend to help our Gordon and Carrie while Pittsfield had it's annual town fair. You know the kind, where everyone goes out and buys the stuff that the neighbors make. The fire department had a booth selling some kind of food. Carrie made and sold cookies to raise money for her church. We also attended a chicken pie supper. Had a wonderful time. The weather was beautiful the leaves haven't turned yet, last year we went to late, this year to early, one of these years we will see the view with the leaves all orange and red and yellow. We returned home in about 3 hours, which was good, we hit no traffic going through Boston. I was back in Easthampton this week. Grammy continues to improve, but it is going slowly. Pepere and i went to the black walnut tree on the side of the road in Holyoke to replace the walnuts that the squirrels hijacked from the week before. I had put the earlier ones from last week out to dry and the RI Squirrels took them away. I expect to see fat ones around here this winter. Pepere had also gotten me some butter nuts for me, well the Easthampton squirrels got those. They went into the garage and swiped them out of the bucket that they were sitting in. We also have been catching chipmonks which are getting into the house. we have caught about 6 chippies and transported them up to the Holyoke wildlife refuge where we hope they are living happily. I think they are trotting down the mountain and returning to their home in Easthampton. I think he should mark them so he knows if they are returning to him.

Another trip to Western Mass

2007-09-17T15:09:00.000-07:00

Another week , another trip to Easthampton. Grammy is doing better, but she could still use some cards and letters. It is a difficult time she is going through. On my drive here there were some trees beginning to turn color. I think it will be a pretty fall, and we will get to experience it up in Vermont in a couple of weeks and agaiin on our trip for Adams graduation at the end of october. We are still planning that trip. And we have other trips to plan. This is going to be a busy year for the Rhode Island Kohls. We expect we will be seeing everyone by the end of all our traveling.
Keep yourselves well

visiting in Easthampton

2007-09-06T07:33:00.000-07:00

Don't have any pictures, but thought I would write to let people know what is happening. Grammy came home from the hospital on Wednesday morning, and what a day we had. Pepere and I went to do some grocery shopping, must have food in the house that she can eat. No more goodies all the time. Grammy is on an 1800 calorie diet that is quite strict. You know the kind, 2 oz of meat 1 slice bread, as many vegatables as she wants (and read this none all my life i thought she like vegatables, well, she doesn't)
Trying to find things she likes that are tasty is quite a trick. Will take a while, going grocery shopping again this afternoon before i leave. She would love a cheer up card . I expect i will be here quite often . She is also getting used to all that goes with being an insulin dependant diabetic, testing and shots and the like. Keeps one on ones toes.

Lorraine Mathieu
255 park Street
Easthampton Ma 01027

cards are probably best, as she gets tired when talking on the phone.
Hope everyone is doing well We are fine and moving forward.

Adams address

2007-09-03T06:03:00.000-07:00

Hi All, We are getting ready for the laborday picnic at the glen. We have made 2 huge vats of Chowda ( br Stevens is away this year) and are out buying hotdogs burgers and corn as you read this.
I called down to Ft Jackson to see if they had an address for adam. this is what they gave me, said he had just arrived.
SPC ADAM KOHL
ECO 3BN 34INF
FT JACKSON SC 29207

Stands for E company 3rd Batallion 34th infantry.

http://www.jackson.army.mil/334/welcome.htm a welcome letter for families

http://www.goarmy.com/life/basic/index.jsp?hmref=qu this will show you with video clips exactly what he is doing, is even filmed in Ft Jackson. Note all the sand and pine trees

Have a great day, picnic well, and have a good week of school or work or a combination of all of it

Where did the summer go

2007-08-26T16:03:00.000-07:00

This has been the buisest summer yet. We just saw Adam off to his big adventure on Thursday, his first responsibility was geting four other guys down to Fort Jackson I expect that he was the oldest. Jessie left for home and then for Idaho on Friday morning, and arrived safely sometime on Saturday. but we will let them report on their family. But if you want to see what Adam is doing, go to Goarmy.com and look for Basic combat training. Will show week by week what is happening. The videos are actually from the place where he is attending basic training. So he will be going up That victory tower, will be running That obstical course. Graduation will be at the beginning of November.
We had a good week at girls camp, was a little bittersweet, as our ward is now a part of a different stake so we will not be attending that girls camp next year. The weather was beautiful except for the last evening when we had tornado warnings, and had to get all the girls into the lodge. Even with the warnings, the sky cleared and we were able to go to South Royalton to listen to the Green Mountain Brass Band where where Carrie was playing. Gordon with little g decided to not attend, little g does not sit well, and the grass was all wet and would have been difficult to keep him under control. We were also able to do a little kayaking before the storm, was fun and nice to be out on the little pond across dairy hill Road from the church.

Trip to burton Island

2007-07-07T11:30:00.001-07:00

2007-07-07T10:22:00.000-07:00