fnJUL08

July 31, 2008

Hello to all,

Jacob celebrates:

We had several things happen in July, one of which was Jacob’s birthday which we celebrated in large style.


Happy Birthday Jacob	Here comes the cake

Actually we began celebrating in June by attending a party he had with several of his friends at the local ballpark. That was way too much fun. To top it all off the local team began in grand fashion and was ahead until about half way through the game. Then in the last inning and with two out, one of our team hit a double bring in two runs and allowing our team to pull ahead. That was a thriller. The kids loved it and that was topped off by them allowing to get onto the field and run the bases.

In early July we threw a small party for Jacob here at our house with all our family in attendance. As you know we have torn the house apart getting ready for the construction so we had to set up card tables in what used to be the living room. Everyone seemed to adapt to the new “barebones” look with no floor covering and several walls missing.

Right now we are just waiting for the plans to arrive so that we can start picking out cabinets, counter tops, windows and all the other things we will have to decide on.

A trip to Mohican Park:

On the weekend of the 20th we gathered up Jacob and headed up to the lodge at Mohican Park.


Ma Maw and Jake square off	Drying off after a dip in the indoor pool

It’s located on a large lake in a very scenic area in the middle of our state. The trip was supposed to be a camping trip and we were originally going to stay three days just to give Jake a taste of camping out. However, he changed his mind before we ever got underway. He thought he would only like to stay one day, hence we thought it a bit much trouble to get out all the camping gear just for that short time. That prompted our staying at the Lodge. During our very short 24 hour period we did pack in some fishing, sight seeing, various games that he liked, and was going to do a canoe run, but that got nixed as well. He though he would rather go fishing instead, so that’s what we did. Yes we did catch several small fish on one of our fishing trips, but the other time we didn’t even get a bite.

The Veggies are comin':

For quite a while you have been hearing us complain that it’s too cold and things are not getting ripe.

Ma Maw showing off the garden goodies

Well, that’s still basically true but some of the things we planted seem to like the cool weather and have begun to mature. I took this photo of Mrs. Gerrie during one of our early harvests. Here you see peas, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, and beets all of which have produced well this year. We also have been eating cabbage and tons of green beans and zucchini. We wonder about the tomatoes and thinking that they may never mature given the lower evening temperatures we continue to see.

It’s still early yet and only the earliest of varieties of Tomatoes would be getting ripe this month so there is still a chance for us.. Now that I think about it we are getting a few of the cherry tomatoes but that’s not the real deal as far as I’m concerned.

Grandparents Day Celebrated:

As most of you will recall we set aside one day each year to celebrate Grandparents Day.


One of the Karavalos' grandkids	Don't remember either of these kid's names

It’s rare that we pick the actual holiday for our big date, but no one seems to notice. You might recall that Mrs. Gerrie and I are elders these days (gosh I though it would never happen), and have but one grandchild. Some of our friends have quite a few and over the years we have come to know many of the kids very well. Many of these kids have been coming to our celebration since they were wee tykes. As we watch them grow we never run out of observations about what these children may grow up to be. For sure all of them are really neat kids and bring us lots of joy when they come to visit. The feelings seem to be mutual and they kids always look forward to coming back to help us celebrate.

Each year Mr. Jerry takes lots of photos of the kids and makes a multimedia show. Hopefully these shows will come to be treasures for them in years to come and the memories of the wonderful days playing in our yard will come flooding back.

If you wish to see an example and view some of these kids as they appeared in past years just visit our web site and click on either of the two Grandparent’s Day videos posted there.

Here is a link> jgMediaProductions

While visiting our site you can view some of the new video we've been making that feature our Grandson Jacob. Mostly they are silly video clips, but again, it’s our little effort to save a few of the memories of his childhood.

I well recall the 8mm movies that my Aunt Thelma "Bow" Benbow made of me and my cousins as we grew up. Unfortunately many of these disappeared. However, we promised ourselves that these videos will be around for Jacob to enjoy as he gets older.

Old Friends come to town:

This month we had some unexpected visitors, Dave and Vicky Clouse,

The Clouse family

one of Gerrie's old class mates from her High School days. They are not only friends of Gerrie’s but Bob & Mary as well. This turned out to be a very pleasant reunion and we spent an entire day visiting with them. These folks live in Oregon and were visiting here for their own family reunion and included us in their visit. Their daughter Carey was along as well and we got to know her a bit. Carey is in Grad School and living in New Orleans where she is helping to put that city back together.

End of Letter:

Once again we have reached the end of our monthly letter. As you can see we are catching up a bit, it’s only August now and we have July done. That’s an achievement given that there is always so much to do when the weather is nice.

Do drop a line when you can. We always enjoy hearing from our far flung family and friends. Hopefully we’ll have house remodel news next month so make sure and check back for that.

Hugs,
Jerry & Gerrie McDonald

- - Here are some recent photos - -

Seven already?

Our newly decorated party room

Another view of our party room

Mary "dog sitting" a friend

FOUR!!!

Our one and only snake this year

Jake and Ma Maw at Mohican