IT'S OFFICIAL.....

Brock Allen Cartwright is a Cleveland State University Student!!
We went to orientation and he picked his classes.
He is a proud resident of Fenn Tower!!
His first class is August 23rd.

Hawaii 2nd Anniversary Trip...

I understand from Jackie that Mom mistakenly thinks Russell and I are paying for their whole Anniversary trip to Hawaii, since 'I told' Daddy in the note while in the hospital. By they way, I realize now I should have talked that over with all of you before I told Daddy about the trip, but I was just writing the note and was thinking of things he needs to look forward too and to get healthier. Sorry about that :(
What do you all feel is the best way to tell M&D the trip is not a gift just from R&ME. Should I say from the six of us, and let them find out at the party it's from everyone. But then they will probably be telling people about the trip the 6 of us are doing for them, then the guest might NOT want to donate more thinking it's already taken care of! So how much, is too much, to tell them. I didn't say anything much about it because I didn't want to say too much. So I guess my not saying too much led them to think it was a gift from R&ME. So I would appricate advice on this, I don't want them telling people for the rest of the year that the trip is from R&ME.
That all sounds confusing, I hope it makes sense :)
I have confirmed an exchange week at a timeshare. The reason I did it already was, I was on the phone with them booking a timeshare for our Cancun trip and I was asking about Hawaii in December, they right away said, that's probably not gonna happen, December is Hawaii's busiest month, they are usually booked a year or two or three in advance. But they searched ALL the islands for the ENTIRE months of NOV and DEC. And found one resort with one week Dec 5 -12 that someone had cancelled that same day. So I thought I should confirm it since otherwise we might have to get a hotel which would cost 7x as much and wouldn't have a kitchen. I'll have to double check but I think the whole week was only $199. So the major expenses we have to try to cover from gifts is the airline flights there and back, the inter-island flights and the car rentals or taxis plus any money for food, entertainment, sight-seeing etc.
Hope that explains everything.
By the way, Bella's last day with her cast was yesterday and she is doing great, I'm trying to get her to take it easy for one more week. We will have her 5th birthday cake with the Hodges, M&D and Cheryl on Friday!

Mailing Out 'Save The Date' Postcards...

Just to Keep you posted! I'll be mailing out the Postcards tomorrow. I figured I do it before the postage goes up again on Monday :) I'm not mailing any to us, I think we all have the date marked :) Also look over the list to add friends and family of yours that know mom and dad. I noticed Word and Carol don't have an address and what about Ed's parents? What about Jenny and Jose? Now maybe we don't need to send them all a 'save the date' if we know they won't be coming, but we could send them all an invitation later on. So keep adding to the list!!

That's all for tonight! Carole

Cheryl Big News!!!!

Finally I got all the necessary paperwork approved for the CareerStep Medical Transcriptionist Program. I'm having so much fun with words like: jejunostomy, salpingectomy, hydrosalpinx, hysterosalpingogram, organomegaly, etc., etc., etc.

AnniversaryWishes.com

Hey, Check out this site, maybe it would be good for Mom and Dad’s Anniv. Obviously none of the older folks on the list would use it but all the others might ???? We have recently attended two weddings that have used the sister site—honeymoonwishes.com- and it’s pretty cool. If you check out the samples you’ll see the guests can actually pick to give you money for dinner, for your flight, for entertainment etc then you just get the cash.

It wouldn't actually cost us/M&D anything. You can charge the service fee to the guests. That is what both times we have used it, the bride and groom did.

Any they give you a website page to use so, if the guests would go there, we could tell the story of Hawaii being the last of the 50 states, etc.

Just an idea! Check it out and tell me what you think!

Isabella Broke her Arm :(

It's not really bad--- it's a hair line fracture in her LEFT forearm. She got a 'soft cast' which is a splint (made like a half of a hard cast) wrapped in an ace bandage. She keeps it on for 2-3 weeks. The Dr said starting the second week we can take it off at times she will just be sitting still. And we can always take it off for baths. She handling well and was glad she didn't have to get a 'real' cast like Luke got!

Now you're asking how it happened....Well she was at least having fun! She fell out of a tree while we were playing at our neighborhood playground. She landed on her feet but then feel forward onto her hands, that was on Saturday and we didn't know it was broken, we figured sprained. Then she slipped and fell again on Monday and it started hurting more, so we got X-rays Tuesday morning and by the afternoon she had her 'soft cast'.

We are having to postpone her 5th Birthday Party with her school friends until the weekend after her birthday. She wants a Pool Party :).

Lexi is doing great! Her teacher started a Reading Club for her and 3 other students in her class, that are the Best Readers, they meet together 2x a week to read new books during the school day. She is very excited about this special reading time she has.

Thats all for tonight! Love Carole Mae

Updates for Party Mailout!

Cheryl is currently entering all names/addresses and hopefully phone numbers of all guests that Mom picked into excel.

Anyone have any ideas on what to say on the "Hold this Date" postcard! I like to see it in the mail in the next few weeks.

In regards to the Hawaii trip for them, we have already booked a week with our timeshare in Kona on the big Island. for 12/5 thru 12/12. We told Daddy about it, for another reason to get healthier and to make sure he starts taking better care of himself. Right now the airfare is about $800+ per person, plus activities, food and inter-island flights. So hopefully with the note 'we' (maybe Elisabeth writes :)), that goes into one of the future mailings, we can collect some from gifts!

That's all for now! Carole

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY AMY LYNN!!!!!!

WE LOVE YOU, AMY!!!!! Can't believe you are 21 years old already!!!!! Hope you have a GREAT day!!!!!

Happy Birthday to everyone's favorite baby sister- Carole Mae!

Can you believe our baby sister is 36??????? She is also the only sister under the age of 40!! :-) She also is the mother of 2 of the cutest girls in the world! She has 5 great sisters, 2 beautiful girls, married to the favorite Brother-in-law! What a wonderful life!! Hope you have a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

The amazing ALLY is 7th in her class!!!

We found out on Thursday that Ally is 7th in her class of 472 freshman! WOW!! She has a 4.18 GPA! This is the first time rankings have come out since this is her first report card as a freshman. She is really excited and motiviated to continue! She blames me for not being ranked higher because I didn't want her to take AP classes as a freshman because she needs to have fun too and not study all the time! She'd have a higher GPA if she had AP classes, right now she is in honors classes that is why her GPA can be above a 4.0. I know they didn't do it like this while we were in HS and I am still trying to understand it all. But wanted you all to know- we are very proud of her - our nearly perfect girl!! :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KATRINA!!!!

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY

TO YOU, TO YOU, TO YOU!!!!

HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT DAY!!

ps. the card will be mailed as soon as I find it :) Love Ya!

The New Tripoli Patriots

Ron was trying to think of a nickname for us and this is what he came up with... what do you think?

Considering that Ron is a huge football fan and the New England Patriots have the best record in the history of the NFL and are about to become the Super Bowl champions, we should consider this a huge compliment! :-)

Proposed Date: Saturday, November 29th, 2008

I talked to Mom this morning. Daddy did not like the idea of having in the summer, he said it was too far away from Anniversary Date. They both want it near Dec 6th

I didn't say anything about Thanksgiving weekend. She just says during day for a few hours. She said they wanted to invite former employees including Gary and Phil. I asked if we could get Richard's help with these. She said yes.

(So I was thinking maybe Katrina, you could call him and ask him for help with names. addresses. phone numbers.)

I asked Mom if she would start by helping with names, addresses, and phone numbers of people to invite and give them to Amy and Brock to enter into the computer to get them to all of us. She said she would start to work on that. She was glad we were starting early, the people that would be coming like to plan their calendar early.

So I think that would make the date Saturday, November 29th, 2008. Maybe we could mail out a postcard in Feb/March with a hold this date notice.

50th Anniversary Continued Jan 8th

We had kind of a productive call, we didn't have everyone and we didn't make a definite on the date. But we did get somethings accomplished and had some next steps to take....

• 1. Location that we would like is the place of their original reception in Lenhartsville.
• 2. We would decorate it like it was that day and have a duplicate cake made from a photo with the original cake topper!
• 3. We would display Mom's wedding dress, the photo album and other 'stuff'
• 4. We would invite EVERYONE that they have known over the last 50+ years including classmates, former employees and several generations of family.
• 5. We would limit it to Adults only (except immediate family)
• 6. We would get Mom's help in putting together a list, maybe Amy & Brock could help her with this and they could enter them into the computer so we could easily split them up for the 6 of us to start calling and telling them about the party etc and getting a current mailing address to mail invite.
• 7. Brock or Amy will scan in original wedding photos, so we can all see and think about 're-creating' it for the party.
• 8. Aunt Joan could help with Mom's relatives names and addresses, Richard could help with former employees names and address. We didn't talk about it, but maybe Aunt Carole ? could help with Christman relatives names and address.
• 9. Brock or Amy will help find this location and get us contact info ASAP.
• 10. I will check with this Lenhartsville location ASAP to find out about size and AC :)
• 11. We did NOT make a decision on the date, we did agree that possible bad weather will be a factor in the number of people that attend. Therefore if we want the largest attendance possible, August might be better.
• 12. We talked about rather then talking about monetary gifts for a trip to Germany 2 years away, we should try to get donations for a trip to Hawaii in Dec 08. Maybe with a personal message from us talking about all our family vacations, to the 48 states, they have been to Alaska in 2001, but have never been to Hawaii to complete their goal of getting to all 50 states. During our personal calls too, if anyone asked about gifts, we could mention donations for this special '2nd Honeymoon' Trip.
• 13. We would have reception maybe 1-4 or 2-5 and have light food, sandwich trays, veggies, fresh fruit, ring bologna and cheese :), punch etc.
• 14. We might also want to cook a big lobster dinner at home for the immediate family like we did for I think it was their 45th. Were they took the kids out in a limo so we could prepare everything. (But I think we cooked way to much food options, no one could eat it all)
• 15. We talked about any preparations that need to made that week, that day could be done at Sandy's house.

Please add anything I may have missed. Maybe we can plan to talk next week and take some more steps and make some more decisions. What days could we do it at 9pm and still have Amy participate. I dont' think we should do it any later then 9pm because it lasted an hour tonight.

Our 2007 Christmas Tree

We started taking down our tree last night, so I wanted to get one more picture. This year I decorated with homemade decorations, gifts, candy canes and paper chains that the girls made! We also made about 2-3 dozen salt dough ornaments that they decorated!! That was fun! and messy! For those that have a tree that you decorated, please share so we can see!

Our Mantle (thanks to some Christmas gifts)!!

I put up some of the things I got for Christmas- Jackie's wooden saying, clock (from Mom & Dad- sounds great, by the way!), & the autograph from Elizabeth of Clarence Thomas (if you don't know who that is - just ask Ed :-). I think it looks great. David thinks I need to make another board similar to the one Jackie made that says, "Home of the brave" to put on top of our picture of George Washington (any time, Elizabeth, you want to give me your same picture that is much bigger than mine- I'll switch! :-) and then put this saying above my 9-11 picture. Great idea but not something I am going to do today!!

HAPPY 50th Birthday, ED!!!!!!!!

WOW! You are OLD!!!

Happy Birthday!!!

Don't worry - you don't look a day over 49!!! :-)

Love, the Hodges (your favorite in-laws)

BEST NEW GRADUATE

Yessir. I've done it!! Brock Allen Cartwright has completed high school and will be receiving a diploma from the Cleveland County Community College in May. I am currently applying to Cleveland State University in Cleveland, OH. 3 blocks from the school is Cleveland Browns Stadium!!!! My ACT test date is in February (Thank you E-Beth for the ACT prep book- it will come in handy) My best friend Chris has already been accepted and are hoping to room together in the college dorms starting in the Fall Semester of 2008!!

Elizabeth - Texas style

This is taken in Ron's kitchen.