Hi, everyone. I thought you might like to know that Maureen made it to Australia happily and without incident this week. She called from Cairns last night (Thursday) about 10, which was noonish on Friday for her. She also sent this e-mail this morning which I thought I would pass along to you:
I have safely arrived "Down Unda" and have taken up (brief) residence at a hostel in the northern city of Cairns (pronounced "CANS", who knows why). The flights here were not so bad, I got a lot of sleep on my major flight from LA to Auckland, NZ so I'm not feeling too jet lagged at the moment. When we flew in to Cairns it looked like PARADISE! You could see pieces of the Great Barrier Reef below as well as huge green mountains all along the shore. The weather is perfect here, about 75 and low humidity, I haven't seen a cloud all day. The hostel is clean but with only one working phone and a bar that boasts "frog and toad racing" this evening. Seriously. They are racing frogs and toads against one another. What a country.
I was hoping she might run into these fellows as soon as she set foot in Australia, but apparently not. But, she'll be there for six weeks, so still plenty of time.
Hope everyone's been having a good week. There is much excitement in Cincinnati with little Abbey's first birthday on Wednesday! Can't believe our little baby girls from last summer are now both one year old. I'm sure Amy and Scott will be updating us on the birthday festivities soon.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Friday, July 13, 2007
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Just around the corner...
I just wanted to add a quick post on the addition to our family. Kate is officially 38+ weeks pregnant, and also officially not a fan of heat and humidity. She still feels good, aside from being tired all the time.
The due date is Sunday July 22nd, but I have an unscientific feeling that the baby will be here a little bit earlier. As you can tell for the picture of the baby's room, we have great faith in the ultrasound technician.
Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers. Will keep you posted on progress of baby and mother.
Love
Kate and Dave
Monday, July 9, 2007
Mo goes global!
Hello, Elys!
Wanted to let all of you know that I will be leaving on a much needed summer vacation July 11th and I'll be travelling to Australia and New Zealand! I'll be gone for 6 weeks (until August 22nd) and I'll try to post about my adventures Down Under as much as possible.
Some details about my trip:
1. I'll be starting at the top of Australia (in Cairns) and will be snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef! I bought an underwater camera today to document all the fishies!
2. From there, I have a free form idea of where I'll be going, I have about a month to get to Melbourne in the south and then 12 days to get from the southern part of NZ to the tippy top. I'll be staying in a combination of hostels and with friends.
3. I will be visiting my best friend, Liz, for about a week (she is studying at the Australian National University in Canberra) but the rest of the time I will be on my own.
4. I will be sure to stop in well lit areas. Promise.
I'll be updating with Mom as much as possible and I'm sure she won't mind passing info on to the lot of you. I'll be home safe and sound by the time the race for the pennant starts heating up (Let's go METS!) but will be thinking of all of you on my journeys!
Lots of kangaroo love,
m.
Wanted to let all of you know that I will be leaving on a much needed summer vacation July 11th and I'll be travelling to Australia and New Zealand! I'll be gone for 6 weeks (until August 22nd) and I'll try to post about my adventures Down Under as much as possible.
Some details about my trip:
1. I'll be starting at the top of Australia (in Cairns) and will be snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef! I bought an underwater camera today to document all the fishies!
2. From there, I have a free form idea of where I'll be going, I have about a month to get to Melbourne in the south and then 12 days to get from the southern part of NZ to the tippy top. I'll be staying in a combination of hostels and with friends.
3. I will be visiting my best friend, Liz, for about a week (she is studying at the Australian National University in Canberra) but the rest of the time I will be on my own.
4. I will be sure to stop in well lit areas. Promise.
I'll be updating with Mom as much as possible and I'm sure she won't mind passing info on to the lot of you. I'll be home safe and sound by the time the race for the pennant starts heating up (Let's go METS!) but will be thinking of all of you on my journeys!
Lots of kangaroo love,
m.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Family is family is family...
I have never been much of a blogger, and certainly nothing besides text...but this seems a safe enough place to experiment.
TJ wants me to at least post SOMETHING...and since most of the talk around our house this summer has been centered around cousin Mark, we'll give him a try.
Susan's father's cousin's son...I'm not sure exactly what that makes him, but Joe and I have discussed it and decided that he is indeed a FAMILY MEMBER. That means I can mention him on this blog, but it ALSO means that you FEMALE family members are allowed to remark (once) that he is a handsome young man, and that it is not surprising given that all the DeRosas are good looking...but anything more that that and we are getting in to a pretty sick area. Got it?
I don't mean to sound harsh, but TJ and I are getting a bit tired of hearing about how cute he is, especially from people who think a baltimore chop is a Maryland pork dish. He's a BALLPLAYER, folks, not a pinup. I also am fully aware that we have one female family member who has a history of evaluating ballplayers based on looks alone (not mentioning any names, but her initials are MY MOTHER).
Okay, with that out of the way..we've been having a great time watching Mark beat up on NL pitchers over the last month, hitting .362 since Matt's graduation. He's also made some terrific plays in the field from four or five different positions, one of which made ESPN's Top Ten of the Week. TJ called me out of a meeting to tell me about that one. Joe can attest...Mark's been hitting everything on the screws, and the Cubs are winning.
Anyway, here's a short clip of Mark that I found on the web. This is from right behind the plate at Wrigley, a couple of weeks ago. For context...fifth inning with two out in a close game, and the Rockies decide to walk Cliff Floyd to get to Mark.
They thought they would have an easier time getting him out.
You better think again, mojambo.
Turn on your speakers so you can hear the Cubs fans cheering for OUR RELATIVE.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3258284685070464774&q=mark+derosa&total=8&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
Good day to all...
TJ wants me to at least post SOMETHING...and since most of the talk around our house this summer has been centered around cousin Mark, we'll give him a try.
Susan's father's cousin's son...I'm not sure exactly what that makes him, but Joe and I have discussed it and decided that he is indeed a FAMILY MEMBER. That means I can mention him on this blog, but it ALSO means that you FEMALE family members are allowed to remark (once) that he is a handsome young man, and that it is not surprising given that all the DeRosas are good looking...but anything more that that and we are getting in to a pretty sick area. Got it?
I don't mean to sound harsh, but TJ and I are getting a bit tired of hearing about how cute he is, especially from people who think a baltimore chop is a Maryland pork dish. He's a BALLPLAYER, folks, not a pinup. I also am fully aware that we have one female family member who has a history of evaluating ballplayers based on looks alone (not mentioning any names, but her initials are MY MOTHER).
Okay, with that out of the way..we've been having a great time watching Mark beat up on NL pitchers over the last month, hitting .362 since Matt's graduation. He's also made some terrific plays in the field from four or five different positions, one of which made ESPN's Top Ten of the Week. TJ called me out of a meeting to tell me about that one. Joe can attest...Mark's been hitting everything on the screws, and the Cubs are winning.
Anyway, here's a short clip of Mark that I found on the web. This is from right behind the plate at Wrigley, a couple of weeks ago. For context...fifth inning with two out in a close game, and the Rockies decide to walk Cliff Floyd to get to Mark.
They thought they would have an easier time getting him out.
You better think again, mojambo.
Turn on your speakers so you can hear the Cubs fans cheering for OUR RELATIVE.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3258284685070464774&q=mark+derosa&total=8&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
Good day to all...
Saturday, July 7, 2007
July Birthdays
When we started talking about the Ely Family Blog in Chicago, we wanted to include everyone and talked about ways to do it. One idea (mine!!) was to celebrate everyone's birthday month with some family news. Your turn will then appear in time!
To get started, I happen to have birthday photos of our two oldest! Please note that you do not have to have photos to post, news of any sort about everyone is what we want. Also, you don't have to be a "birthday person" to post--but most people (or their parents) do know when the birthdays are!
Andrew is working hard these days with two jobs. He has been with Oberfield's for three years making decorative stone mostly on the night shifts. However, he is in training for a better job with Anheusier Busch and now is working many week-ends there. Fortunately, they were able to schedule a family week-end camping a week ago to celebrate his birthday, Independence Day and summer! Ginger took this photo on July 3, his actual birthday.
Amy's birthday was last Sunday, July 1. She celebrated at our house with Scott and Abbey. Scott made a delicious Texas sheet cake in layer pans......mmmm very very good.
More birthdays from our branch as the month continues!!
Karen
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
A couple more videos
Here are two more that I was able to dub over from VHS.
The first one here is about 7 minutes from Grandma's graduation ceremony from 1991. With my cumbersome 1985-era camera I remember it being a little difficult at times to focus on her from across the hall, but it still worked pretty well. I think she got the loudest cheers of the day, and she must have known how proud we were of her, judging from her smile on stage. Maybe some of you know who the non-family members are in a few of the shots and can supply that info!
This next one is another shot from the farm, as both the cattle and Karla get a treat from Grandpa. I like his "expensive feed" line toward the end of the clip; vintage Grandpa.
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The first one here is about 7 minutes from Grandma's graduation ceremony from 1991. With my cumbersome 1985-era camera I remember it being a little difficult at times to focus on her from across the hall, but it still worked pretty well. I think she got the loudest cheers of the day, and she must have known how proud we were of her, judging from her smile on stage. Maybe some of you know who the non-family members are in a few of the shots and can supply that info!
This next one is another shot from the farm, as both the cattle and Karla get a treat from Grandpa. I like his "expensive feed" line toward the end of the clip; vintage Grandpa.
-0-
Monday, July 2, 2007
Some family videos
I mentioned to Anne a while back that I'd like to try to upload a few minutes of our family videos of Auburn. We have several hours, of course, but I thought I'd take some snippets of a few that everyone might enjoy. These were dubbed from our old VHS collection, but the video quality is still pretty good.
I figured the easiest way to do it is to upload them onto YouTube, then simply embed them here on this blog. So here below are five of them, with a brief description of each. I'll have more soon.
By the way, if you want to comment on them or just see them on YouTube, go to http://www.youtube.com/ and search "Ely68305". For some reason the user name "68305" was already taken. Interesting. You need to have a free account on YouTube if you want to comment, but not if you want to just view them. Also, if anyone wants to upload their own videos, or delete any spam comments that might appear in the comments section (this is, after all, the Internet), or change anything else, the user name is Ely68305, and the password is "elyfamily". While we can't prevent outsiders from viewing these, I figured the "Ely68305" search parameters would greatly diminish the chances of anyone just happening by.
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First, here is video from 1940 of Dad gunning his way around the living room at Christmas. Cameos of my great grandmother, my Uncle Vince, and a couple of neighborhood kids, along with Dad's folks. No audio on this one, of course:
Smash cut forward to 1964. I arrive home for the first time, and the Elys and Deans are there to greet me. Anne gets to hold me while her nervous mother stands by, and Joe gives his "strong man" greeting (or maybe it was a monkey impression...?) to the camera. Again, no audio:
From May 23, 1990, this is 90 seconds of a lunch we had on G street the day we left for home. It might have been longer, but Grandma, who wasn't overly enthusiastic about having our lunch videotaped, gave me the "cut" signal! Why is this such a treasure? It's one of maybe 10,000 meals that they had in that kitchen over the years, all of them final now. But the brief conversation in this video could be any one of those lunches or dinners, and it might remind you of one or all of them:
Maureen takes center stage here, from 1990, and shows us her mellifluous voice. She gets the giggles half way through, but her talent shines:
And finally, on the farm, rounding up the cattle, then checking for bugs in the field. Chris is here with Grandpa, in his element:
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I figured the easiest way to do it is to upload them onto YouTube, then simply embed them here on this blog. So here below are five of them, with a brief description of each. I'll have more soon.
By the way, if you want to comment on them or just see them on YouTube, go to http://www.youtube.com/ and search "Ely68305". For some reason the user name "68305" was already taken. Interesting. You need to have a free account on YouTube if you want to comment, but not if you want to just view them. Also, if anyone wants to upload their own videos, or delete any spam comments that might appear in the comments section (this is, after all, the Internet), or change anything else, the user name is Ely68305, and the password is "elyfamily". While we can't prevent outsiders from viewing these, I figured the "Ely68305" search parameters would greatly diminish the chances of anyone just happening by.
-0-
First, here is video from 1940 of Dad gunning his way around the living room at Christmas. Cameos of my great grandmother, my Uncle Vince, and a couple of neighborhood kids, along with Dad's folks. No audio on this one, of course:
Smash cut forward to 1964. I arrive home for the first time, and the Elys and Deans are there to greet me. Anne gets to hold me while her nervous mother stands by, and Joe gives his "strong man" greeting (or maybe it was a monkey impression...?) to the camera. Again, no audio:
From May 23, 1990, this is 90 seconds of a lunch we had on G street the day we left for home. It might have been longer, but Grandma, who wasn't overly enthusiastic about having our lunch videotaped, gave me the "cut" signal! Why is this such a treasure? It's one of maybe 10,000 meals that they had in that kitchen over the years, all of them final now. But the brief conversation in this video could be any one of those lunches or dinners, and it might remind you of one or all of them:
Maureen takes center stage here, from 1990, and shows us her mellifluous voice. She gets the giggles half way through, but her talent shines:
And finally, on the farm, rounding up the cattle, then checking for bugs in the field. Chris is here with Grandpa, in his element:
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