Update from Southern California

I know we have all been so concerned about the terrible fires in Southern California, with special thoughts of all our loved ones there. I thought I would pass along this e-mail from Margene in San Diego last night (Monday).

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For now Tom and I are fine. However, Michael, Maria, the children, and Bongo, the dog, are here. They came last night, although they had not been forced to evacuate. Their schools there in Santa Clarita were closed today and will be again tomorrow and it's a very difficult situation there now. So glad the family is here.

Then, about an hour ago, John called that their area was being evacuated, so John, Chris, the girls and two dogs will be here soon. Maria and I are cooking lots of pasta, big salads, great bread, and plenty of chocolate chip cookies. We should be okay for the evening and night. We borrowed another air mattress from our neighbors, so it'll be interesting. The kids are having a ball, not realizing the possible problem. They can't wait to spend the night with Karla and Allison! Get out the board games, kids, it'll be quite a lot of "togetherness!!" Thanks for thinking of us.

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I know we are all praying for their safety and for that of all the other families being so severely affected by these fires. We'll post other updates as they come along, as I know everyone's thinking of them all.

"Been farming long?"

Quick update here from Chicago.

Mikey is ready to help with the fall harvest and listen to a story or two about the house on G street.

While he appreciates the subtle humor of of the Osh-Kosh B'Gosh advertisements, he seems to think that a cow standing on its hind legs drinking a beer is just too silly to accept.

This pair of overalls is the first piece of gender specific clothing that we bought for him. It is just like Grandpa's -- except for all of the extra snaps :)

October Birthdays

Cheers to our three October honorees: Matt, Oct 6; Joe, Oct 9; and Chris Oct 18!

In Auburn, long ago, Oct 9 was almost a holiday. In 1953, the Elys had a baby boy which was huge news. It happened on a Friday morning and the word quickly spread throughout the town. AHS had its Homecoming football game that night so of course everyone was saying "The Elys have a boy! Can you believe it?" There was no need for a PA announcement. In Auburn, everyone just knows!

In his senior year at AHS, it snowed on Oct 9 and Joe played football in the mud! How's that for a memory! Usually, though, the weather is gorgeous in early October.... hope it is wherever you are too!

If you have some special memories for any of our October birthday people, just add them!

Purdue-Notre Dame Game, 2007

I had the chance to go to the Purdue-ND game this afternoon with Susan's Dad, Don Ratcliffe. It was a perfect fall afternoon for a football game, even though the football was less than perfect. Purdue dominated the first half, but the Irish came back Fighting in the second half and made a game of it. Alas, it's just a long year for the Irish.

I called Karen and Dave from the stadium but only got their answering machines. I did reach Brian in person though, so that was nice to connect.

Ever expermenting with technology, Don helped me make a brief 39 second video during halftime. Hope you enjoy it.

September Birthdays

September is the most diverse birthday month for those on EFB as each family and each classification (child, grandchild, greatgrandchild, and spouse) is represented with Allison (9/4), John the younger (9/18), Nathan the older (9/21), Anne (9/25), T.J. (9/27), and Frank (9/29). I was trying to come up with the best way to "give" everyone a virtual birthday cake appropriate for EFB. So here it is, baked by our dear Mother/Grandmother/Greatgrandmother (from scratch) in Auburn. Of course, the music is correct, so you can sing to yourself.... and the rest of us will sing from afar! Happy Birthday to all!

The link for other birthday cakes is http://www.phy.ohiou.edu/~eichstad/albums/Nov23B.html

Karen

Happy Birthday, Nathan!

Just sending a big Happy Birthday to the most charming and handsome fellow in Portland, Oregon! Have a great day, Nathan!!!

Virginia Tech Football

We traveled to Blacksburg over Labor Day to attend Virginia Tech's home openning football game against East Carolinia. Abbey sported her pink VT cheerleader outfit and had her soft VT football in tow. Scott and I sported our Hokies United shirts in memory of the students who died in April. ESPN game day was there and when we returned home and watched it on TV, we were able to easily pickout Scott in the crowd..his 3 sec of fame, just like Matt waving to the camera at a Cubs baseball game some 10 years ago. Scott enjoyed the game, while Abbey and I tailgated with a friend and we all had a wonderful time! Since traveling with Abbey was so easy, we are now tempted to go to another game this year!