We’re off to visit Shannon for a few days, then Martha’s Vineyard and Newport, RI. I’ll post some pictures when we return.
Happy Birthday Sweet Sixty
MARILYN, THE UTAH FALLS HOPE YOU HAVE A FANTASTIC SIXTIETH.
IT’S NOT ALWAYS EASY BEING THE SECOND SIBLING.
THE SECOND CHILD FOLLOWING SOMEONE AS CONFIDENT AS LARRY.
THE SECOND PRETTIEST CHILD (FOLLOWING GARY).
THE SECOND SMARTEST (FOLLOWING KENNY).
AND THE SECOND CLASSIEST (STEVE & RONNIE TIED FOR FIRST).
BUT MARILYN, YOU ARE SECOND TO NONE WHEN IT COMES TO LOVE AND DEVOTION TO THE FAMILY.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY,
KENNY, LISA, ELLIOT AND NATALIE
Marilyn’s Xmas Gifts Have Arrived
GrandMar Breaks Blake’s Leg!
It happened on Monday at the park. I took Reid and Blake for a walk. I had decided the week before that I can’t handle Blake at the park while trying to keep an eye on Reid, so we walked in the opposite direction than we normally do. After a few blocks, Blake started pointing and saying “this, this” (meaning he wanted me to turn this way. Thinking I was no where near the park, I followed his directions. Well, before long, Blake had directed me to another park. It was much smaller, only a few kids. I thought, OK I can handle this and still keep Reid in sight while he sits in his stroller. Unfortunately, within two minutes Blake was bored with the baby swings and slides (keep in mind he’s only 20 months old). After picking him up four times and carrying him away from the older kids’ slides, I decided he could go down one of the slides as long as he sat on GrandMar’s lap. Big mistake! Halfway down, Blake stuck his foot out. Obviously our momentum coupled with my weight didn’t stop us and his tiny little leg just snapped. I won’t go into any more details, but it was pretty traumatic…for me as well as Blake. He’s OK now, with a cast from the tip of his toes to the middle of his thigh.
Gary, his recovery reminds me of you as a child after surgery…how we had to find ways to occupy you on your tummy. It’s amazing how resilient children are. You never seemed frustrated and neither does Blake. I haven’t taken any pictures yet…maybe I’ll get one this weekend when Uncle Gary visits!
Blake & Reid’s First Trip to Disney…
…far too much partying!
Can’t believe what I missed!
Gary’s 50th Birthday Bash
Better late than never. October is such a busy, fun-filled month for us; Steve’s father’s birthday, Steve’s birthday and Blake’s birthday so we’re having a party and even a play ground for the kids from www.softplaydesignandinstallation.co.uk. But best of all this year, was getting together with family to celebrate Gary’s 50th. My pictures are a little out of focus (hopefully Kenny & Gary have better), but I thought my few pictures might get the ball rolling with others posting theirs.
The first two pictures are from our evening at Havana’s. The third is a shot of the Neshaminy Creek in Chalfont from the bridge (remember when it was an old wooden bridge?). The last is one of the covered bridges we visited.
Geni.com
Geni.com is a combination social network/genealogy site. They are trying to use the social network concept to create family trees with the eventual goal (quite ambitious I might add) of creating one giant family tree that includes everyone in the world – hence their motto “Everyone’s Connected”.
The site is extremely easy to use and is growing by leaps and bounds. They only went live six months ago – within one month they had signed up 100,000 users and they just recently added their 5,000,000th profile. I’ve registered on the site and started building the Fall Family Tree. I’ve also created a link to Geni.com under Web Identities on the blog sidebar. However, you won’t be able to get to the tree until someone who is a part of it invites you to be a part of it. Once you accept an invite to join, the link in the sidebar will take you to your view of the tree.
I though I’d run a little test case and see what you guys think of the idea of continuing to build the tree (I know Marilyn had a little bit of a genealogy urge a while ago but don’t know if that’s still there).
I added us, Mom and Dad, and our grandparents, along with Harry, Grace and Jack. That gave me a pretty good perspective of how the tree is built. I’m going to extend an invitation to Marilyn and Gary and encourage you two to add to the tree and invite others in your family to join (you can invite someone to join by merely putting them in the tree along with their email address – you can also add people without their email addresses if you just want to expand the tree).
Marilyn – I suggest you add Shannon and as much of the Bergquist clan that you can get to buy into it (also this might be a good opportunity to include Linda, Richie, and Carol). Gary – add the kids and see how many Cortners you might get to go along.
If that little test seems to go well, then we can open it up to Ken, Steve, and Ron and their in-laws and we’ll run with it.
One thing to keep in mind is be be sensitive to how much personal information you include when filling out an individual’s entry. At least for the living, I’m just going to put in their name (and email address when I invited them), then let them make the decision about how much info to include.
The two of you should be getting an email invite shortly (Marilyn – I’m sure this means tomorrow morning for you but Gary may still be awake). Let me know your thoughts as you play with it.
For any others who might be making their once a month visit here and are curious about what the site is like, here’s a Wall Street Journal article on Geni.com.
Sometimes the internet is freaky…
I spend a fair amount of time on a sports forum called PennStateHoops.com dedicated naturally to Penn State basketball. There was a thread today that was off on a tangent where someone mentioned a couple of famous Fordham basketball players/coaches. In that thread it came to light that the poster didn’t know John Bach who coached at Fordham before he came to Penn State as their coach. I decided to educate the guy a little on Bach (see my post).
Since Natalie Berrena is John Bach’s granddaughter I couldn’t help but include a quick paragraph, and a little commercial, about her. I wanted to put a photo in the post so I naturally Google “Natalie Berrena” for images. Low and behold what popped up on the Google results page but this photo:
Needless to say I did a double take.
Google found one of my posts in our blog and I guess Natalie’s name was fairly close to our image so it tagged the image with her name.
Try it yourself – Google image search for “Natalie Berrena”.
Our "Grand-den" and Go Bears!!!!
Since Blake has been spending so much time here (we love it!) we decided to convert his mommy’s old bedroom into a room for him. We originally set up Shannon’s old crib, but then decided it was a little too worn so we invested in a new one. In order to be fair to any future grandchildren we are not calling it Blake’s room, it’s the “Grand-den”.
I’ve also attached a current picture of Blake…very close up. Looks as though he will have hazel eyes like his daddy and his reddish hair is starting to turn brown, also like his daddy. He still has a round, very round face like his mommy (and grandpa).
Hope everyone is doing well! Haven’t had any personal news on here for a while…where is everyone? Watching the Bears, I hope!!!
Love,
GrandMar