Vacation is a comin'

Bob and I are so happy to have the next 3 weeks to visit family and enjoy nature. This is the smile from last summer, when Bob had me take a picture for his liberal friends at work. Conservatives can be tree huggers too!!! We visited the Black Hills with his brother and sister and their spouses. It was the first time all six of us vacationed together. This year Bob and I are driving to Utah and will pick up one of my sisters along the way; Shirley lives in Denver. Our sister Lucille lives in Layton, Utah, which is where we will be staying for our visit. Bob will be the only man in the house. Even Lucille's dogs are female. If things get too bad for him, Bob can go out and find another tree to hug, and maybe this same smile from last summer will again be seen. We will also be visiting Robin and John and their children; they live in Murray, Utah, a quick trip south on the freeway from Lucille's house.

This is a picture taken at Bob's 40th high school reunion, in the summer of 2005. I love the way it shows the difference in our heights. I also love the fact that it is a portrait and cuts me off at the shoulders. Since then, I have stopped coloring my hair. When we get a picture of us on vacation, I'll post it to show both of us as respectable seniors with well-earned gray hair. I have been toying with the idea of posing us in silly seasonal pictures and making a calendar to give to family and friends. You know, like us in swim suits for July. JUST KIDDING!!! I could never do that. But maybe as Santa and Mrs Claus for December, or a picture of us under an umbrella for April, or one of us assessing the hail damage to our Trailblazer for June.

I'm just stalling now. I have been on a break from vacation preparations, but now that my heart rate is back to normal and my sweat has dried, I must clean a bit more and pack. Anyone who knows me well--most obviously all of our children--knows I leave the packing until the last minute. I am true to my procrastinating self. It drives Bob crazy, but I can't help myself. I am organized in my mind and even make a great list of things to pack. Which reminds me, I better get started on that list! Good night. We'll be in touch, but I don't know when. If I can figure out how to make postings while on vacation, it will be soon. Otherwise, not until the middle of August.

Correction from the first posting: The T-shirt saying was, "The worst part of being a grandmother is being married to a grandfather."

Greetings from Little Janny May

This is my first blog entry. But don't be afraid; I won't start from the very beginning. This is just a spot to show you a bit about where I came from. This first picture is Easter 1952 in the house I grew up in at 3124 Russsell Avenue Norrth in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was the youngest of the four surviving children of my parents, Lucille and Raymond Reisewitz. This is me and Jerry, Shirley, and Lucille in our new hats and spring coats. Look closely to see the little tiny Easter chicks we also wore on our right shoulder. It was all part of our Easter tradition.

The expression on my face was a smile of sorts to cover the gap in my gums left by my missing two front teeth. Lucille and Jerry had naturally curly hair, but Shirley and I got curls also on special ocassions. Mom, pictured separately, liked to do pin curls on her straight-hair girls, the same kind of curls she did on her own hair.

Time has passed and I have a family of my own, and am--in fact--older now that my mother was Easter of 1952. Bob and I raised six children and I'm even a grandmother. Can you imagine that? I saw a shirt that said, "The worst part of being married to a grandmother is being a grandfather." I suppose the reverse is true, but if that is the worst, then it isn't so bad. I love having grandchildren. We have almost 15!

I'll have to find a picture of Bob and me so you can see what we look like today. We're leaving for vacation Monday. If I don't make an entry with pictures by then, I'll do some while on vacation. Reminder: I must take my camera on vacation.