Whadup?

Gee, what's going on out there? Is everybody sleeping? On vacation?
Oh where, oh where did the Fowlers go?

I can't believe it's almost August already!!! Time goes faster and faster the older we get. Perhaps I just go slower, but it sure doesn't seem that way. At what age do we finally get everything under control? Does anybody out there have the answer to that one?

So........what's going on in your lives these days?

Reunion Report

We're back home now and missing everyone already! I haven't laughed so much and slept so little in a really long time. These occasions are just too few and far between. That's why I'm looking forward to the next gathering before I've even unpacked from this one. Susan and Marty will be making arrangements and giving us information on our July 08 reunion. Start planning for it now...it's going to be something to remember!!! I plan to post a few photos of the "goings on" last weekend, but first I have to decide which ones are the least likely to me in trouble. Either that, or I have to figure out whether it's worth it. Oh....what the heck! I'll do it!

Keep watching................

Jack's doing great!

Hi all,

Just want you to know Jack is doing great following his procedure. He had a total of 115 radiation seeds implanted in his prostrate, but is up and about today and doing well. He told me before the procedure that after all the needles in his crotch he might be a little crotchity, and I said "more than usual?" So as you can see he is still as witty as ever.

Sorry we missed the "Fowler Weekend", but we are looking forward to the next get-together. Hope you all had a great time, and am looking forward to seeing pictures on the blog.

Jeanie

Busy times...

A lot has happened in the last couple weeks! I am most thankful that my husband Dave is doing alright...on 7/11 he was in a pretty awful accident! He was on his way to see his grandmother in Mishawaka (all the way down in IN!) (for those of you far away this is a little joke because I have been teased pretty badly about moving ALL the way to Michigan, however my house is actually less than 10 minutes from the border...) Anywho...he was taking his turn crossing the intersection and he looked over to see that a woman coming towards him wasn't slowing down. She hit his driver side door going 55 MPH. God surely wrapped his hand around Dave because although the truck was totalled Dave is sore but has no broken bones! Praise God!! The other lady was alright too! The bigger part of the tragedy was that Dave was test driving a vehicle he had fixed for a neighbor of ours--good news: Harold gets a new truck. Bad news: It was running perfectly when it got hit!

The other big news is that my 'baby' turned 12 and has begun that 'wonderful' ascent to teen years. I am not very ready for this.

Well, work starts early and ends late so I will sign off now. I have been enjoying reading all of your notes!

Love to all,
rc

Teresa and Dave are Back from Ireland

We're home again, but not for long. We'll be going to Chula Vista shortly to see Jeff and Jenny and retrieve William, who we "parceled off" to the relatives while we had three weeks of "second honeymoon bliss" in Ireland.
We came home to a broken water heater (and cold showers) so our week of rest before school starts again will be busy.
Be seeing you,
Teresa

On our way

Hi all,

Jack & I are preparing to go to the hospital for his procedure. It is scheduled for 2:00 our time. Keep him in your prayers. Will report back later.

Jeanie

A boy, his toy, oh what joy!

Hey everybody:

In case you've been wondering what Jack has been up to, he has become an artist with a sawzall. You take a sharp blade, a little money, a lot of time, and a patient wife, and here is what you can do.

Rick

Help

I'm trying to add a picture of Jack in his new "toy", but when I click on the picture icon nothing happens. What am I doing wrong?

Jeanie

We're ready to go!!

Dear Fowler family,

Just a quick note. I talked to Debbie and got some ideas about what to plan in the way of food. At our family vacation at Tahoo we had real success in sharing the responsibilites. Each family took charge of a meal. With that in mind, I "dug up" some of the recipes. For instance, I have a recipe for a delicious scrambled egg mix. Each person puts their favorite ingredients in a plastic ziplock bag with their name on it in indellible ink. (Ingredients such as one or two eggs, diced cheese, chopped onion, bacon etc.) The plastic bags with all the ingredients is placed in a sealed plastic bag in a pot of boiling water for 15 minutes. I'll bring along plastic bags, indellible ink pen, etc. and plan to "do" breakfast one day. I also have a great spinach salad to share.

We're looking forward to a great time. Love, Phyllis Anne

Photos

Here is a fantastic photo of Cora Dale Metzger and Becka Parrott having a good time at Grandma's. I wish I could say that I shot this picture but the truth is Deb did.

Click on the photo to make it bigger.

I will be taking my laptop computer and my photo/slide scanner to the reunion and offering my services to scan family photos or slides. For those of you with digital photos bring them also. If you are going to be using a digital camera at the reunion it would be nice to add those pictures to the cd's so don't forget your camera's data cable. I can then put all the pictures on a disks and pass them out.

Adding Photo's

Elizabeth,
When you click on "new post" to write, there are icons on the header. One of them is a little scenery picture. It's right after the ABC check mark above where I'm typing now. Click on that and it will tell you what to do.
Can't wait to see what you share!

Okay, I am extremely impressed by the attractive, high-quality, sophisticated photos of my gorgeous cousins! Would someone please tell me how you get the photos on the blog so I may share some of my own? I know how to get photos onto my computer, I just can't figure out how to get them onto the blog.

Thanks,

Elizabeth

Reunion Time........

Hello, Hello!
I just got back from another "weekend in Chicago" and it was WONDERFUL!!! The only drawback was that I spent a lot of my time there thinking about Ohio and my FAMILY!!! Jean told me she's gonna hug and squeeze me till my head pops off! Who could resist that?

I have to make a concentrated effort not to think about how quickly it's going to go by. I hope you all aren't planning on too much shut-eye!
Love to all....

Hello! ~From Michigan!

Hi All!

I am pretty excited to be here! How is everyone? I hope enjoying their summer! It's late so I am turning in, but I will make sure to write more later!

~Rhonda :)

I'm #100

Hi all,

It's hard to believe, but I'm #100 on the blog. Looks like we have a lot of interest from everybody. I must admit I'm on at least once a day - which is very unusual for me. I usually only checked my e-mails once or twice a week. I'm happy to see the number of contributors also growing.

Jack & I are doing well. We're both looking forward to his upcoming procedure so we can get it over with and he will be on the road to recovery. We trust the Lord to be with us and know Jack will be fine. We're just sorry it happened at this time, so we were not able to host the family get-together as we had hoped. Perhaps next year! Meanwhile, we hope you all have an enjoyable time and look forward to hearing from all of you, including pictures.

Jeanie

I need addresses!

A shout goes out to Jean and Jack for the email addresses of a couple of new bloggers. Thanks!!! Can anyone else share the email addresses of anyone you think would enjoy this? It's SO much fun to see the contributor list get longer and the counter go up! I'm very excited about seeing some of my favorite people very soon! Bring your old family photos, and let's tell stories!

I'm in!!

Thanks to Suzi, I'm in the "Blogger Loop". I'm looking forward to hearing from you all. We're getting ready for our "Family gatherings" in Indiana and Ohio. More later. Love you all. P.A.

The Keylon's Post...

Hi all!!! Looking forward to seeing you at the reunion soon!! Susan and I are very excited!!

We had a nice visit with our Family in Orange County over the 4th of July.

Loved ones:

Howdy one and all from the Bubba brothers. Just wanted to check in and let you know that I am monitoring your blogs, so watch out what you say. I have been known to tickle my cousins til they laugh out loud. I just may have a couple of stories of my own you know. If you are wondering which one is Rick, I am the handsome one that looks like he just stepped out of GQ magazine (Gates Quarterly). Marty is the Cool Dude with the orange hat and the snuff in his mouth. Yep, every time he starts to talk, I tell him to be quiet, thatsnuff outta him. We were just sitting on the deck shooting skeeters off the hummingbirds. Scared the hummingbirds so bad they forgot the words to their songs. Gotta go fer now. 10 - 4, and have a good'n and we'll check you out soon, good Buddies.

Love to All, Rick and Marty

This and that...........

Hello Dear Family!!!
I'm really enjoying an occasional peek into your 'goings on'. It makes me feel like I'm visiting with you. I guess I need to spend more time coaxing others to at least give this a try. Will you help me get them to at least look at what we're up to?
Love to all,
Debi

Hi all,
Mom asked me to post some email correspondence she's having with Teresa (vacationing in Ireland). Here it is!

Begin forwarded message:
Thought you would be interested in the "globetrotters" whereabouts. Elizabeth, how about putting this on our family "Blog".
We're headed for the zoo. And will be at the Taylors later today. Luv, Mom

From: "teresa collins" Date: July 9, 2007 8:23:34 AM PDT
To: "Phyllis Fowler"

Hello again from Kinsale - we did the "RICK STEVES" day in Kinsale - the walking tour was very interesting and Charles Fort is huge - a little rain but we stayed dry in the tearoom having sandwiches. tommorrow we go to Kenmare by way of the ring or kerry and Garinish Island - it has a beautiful garden - we are making great use of our Heritage Cards.
T&D

for William - the food here is a little different - but the french fries are pretty good - I'll have some for dinner tonight and think of you.
We love you and miss you,
Mom and Dad

On 7/8/07, Phyllis Fowler wrote:
Begin forwarded message:

Hi, So good to be able to "keep in touch". We have really kept William "on the go". Tomorrow we are going to the Wild Animal Park on the way to the Taylor's. (He will be with the Taylors until July 17th. Then he will go to Jeff and Jenny's. We're keeping a picture diary of all his activities. I'll let him dictate a message to you.

Hi Mom and Dad. It's me --William. How are you doing in Ireland? I hope you are having fun. Write back when you can. Bye, William. P.S. I love you.

From: "teresa collins"
Date: July 8, 2007 11:32:02 AM PDT
Subject: We're in Kinsale

We've had great luck with our B&B hosts - they've treated us like family. We have a mobile phone - you can call us for any emergency - or if William wants to talk a little. can't wait to see your pics - we're taking lots of pics as we both carry a digital camera - had a wonderful meal in a pub in Kinsale tonight - might take the "Ghost Tour" if we can stay awakie long enough.
Love and hugs
T&D

Mistaken Identity

Actually, that's our cousin Jean (from New York) with Marty. I would have thought you could tell by the eyes? (Ha!)

Hi All,

It has been a busy couple of days at our house. On Thursday I brought our 4 and 5 year old grandchildren home for a visit. They love coming to Grandma & Grandpa Jack's. Alex, the 4-yr-old loves the mules Buddy & Baby and they both love just running around here. I took them to Lake Alma yesterday (do the Taylors remember being there?) and they loved playing on the beach and in the water. Their mommy and daddy picked up a very tired pair yesterday evening, and Grandma was so tired she slept in till 9:00 this morning.

Jack has been busy with his latest project (I call it his "fun car"). He took a sawzall and cut down a 1984 S-10 Blazer, customized it, painted it fire-engine red and is having a ball working on it. I will try to send a picture of it with my next entry. He wants to wash it up before I take more pictures.

Deb, I recognize the picture of you and Marty taken when we were all at your place. So much fun that day! Hope you all have a good time at your get-together later this month, and keep us in your prayers.

Jeanie

It's time to get something started

It really is time to get something started. You all know that I am a shutterbug and have quite a collection. So, here's the first one. If you really want to see things clearly click on the photo for a closer look.

Hi again,

It's Elizabeth, but I'm going to cut and paste an email mom sent me. I'm getting her set up, so until then, I'll make this contribution on her behalf. By the way, Jean, this is my first experience with blogging as well. FUN!

From Phyllis:

"By the way, William is having a great time. He doesn't show any signs of being homesick. We went to the fair yesterday and Chuck E. Cheese's today. Tomorrow, (the fourth), we are planning on going to a park to view the fireworks. We might make it to the Wild Animal Park on the way to his visit with the Taylors. We get to a park each day. He has finally succeeded in making it the entire way around the climbing bars at Griffin park. And he gets a little farther each day on the rock climbing "mountain" at Briar Patch park.
Love you all, Mom"

I am really excited about building the connection within our family! Thank you for Jean and Elizabeth for getting us started. I LOVE hearing about your daily activites...even going to the Dr. or picking fruit!

If you'd like to take a peek at the blog Dale has going with his family, click on the link I'm giving you. http://www.walkerclan13.blogspot.com/ After you check it out, I'd love to hear what you think. I'm a beginner at this so my site isn't quite up to the standard he has set, but I'll get there.

PLEASE...send me an email with any family E address that you think I send an invitation to. I want EVERYBODY to have access, but I have to invite them personally. I chose this blog program because there are no advertisements or spam attatchments. It's very private.

Waiting to hear...........
Debi

Hi from Jack & Jean

Hi, All!

This is my first time to blog, so this is all new to me. As most of you know, Jack has been diagnosed with prostrate cancer. Thank the Lord, it was caught early and he is going to be ok!
He is having a procedure called brachytherapy on July 25 (commonly called radiation seed implant). He has pre-surgery tests on July 18, another Dr visit on July 20 and on a special diet on July 23 and 24 in preparation for the procedure. We were not sure of the dates when we called off the Fowler reunion at our place, but we didn't want to wait until the last minute and then have to call it off. It is doubtful we will be able to join you at the Ohio reunion, but we look forward to the next gathering.

Love you all,
Jack & Jean

Hi Deb and all,



Mom passed this on to me, and I'm so happy to be "in the loop". She's busy with William (I call it Gramaland) as Teresa and Dave just left for nearly a month in Ireland. We'll have him here with us next week (Cousin Camp).

I think this is a great idea, and look forward to hearing the news - big and small. Today I'm canning plums. Sarah's at Beauty School, Amy's at the Del Mar Fair with friends, and David and the boys are working in the yard. (Small news.)

So that's what's up today. Who's going to be next?

-Elizabeth Taylor