Memorial Day Weekend - Family in Indiana - The Lake - Lots of Memories



This weekend Greg and I traveled to North Webster, Indiana, to Mom and Dad's lake cottage to catch up with a number of family members that I haven't seen in 7 or 8 years. Since we moved to Pittsburgh, the trip to the lake cottage is more than we can comfortably do in a weekend; it's about 350 miles and takes almost 6 hours even with Greg at the wheel. So we have only been there once since we've lived in Pennsylvania. I was missing some of my family . . . and many of the kids are growing up and leaving for college. We made the trip this weekend to catch up and in many cases to introduce Greg because he hadn't met a lot of these people.

We arrived late on Friday evening and opened up the cottage enough to sleep. On Saturday morning, I called my cousin, Scott's, house and talked to his wife Nanette. I also talked to my Uncle Ward, who offered to take us for a round of golf. Even though I didn't take my clubs, I jumped at the chance to play with Uncle Ward because he is a leftie like me. He has donated a set of his old irons to me in the past and kept me in decent equipment; and I rarely ever get to play with another leftie who is so much better than me and can give me tips. Anyway, I was excited about this. Greg wasn't up for a round and said it was a good chance for us to catch up anyway; so Uncle Ward and I played nine holes at his favorite course. It was a beautiful afternoon, and we had such a good time playing the red tees. I even got to try out his rescue club. And he gave me a couple of pointers that will undoubtedly help me in the scramble I'm playing next Saturday with some friends. The picture above is Uncle Ward later on Saturday at Scott and Nanette's farm.

Greg and I went to Scott and Nan's for supper. The hamburgers and pasta salad were great; and the brownies were even better! After supper, Scott and Nan and Uncle Ward took us out to the barn to see the horses and the project that Uncle Ward is working on out there. I'm including a picture of the dog because you really don't get the relaxed feel of their place without seeing the horses grazing and the dog, Laddie, chasing the airplanes across the sky.

Unfortunately, we missed both Mckenzie and Mary, Scott and Nanette's daughters. Mckenzie was out and about; and Mary is on her senior trip to Florida with classmates. She graduates from high school next Saturday. But we got to see pictures of both of the girls; and they are beauties.

It was a great evening, and my cousin, Kirk, also stopped by for a few minutes as well. He was on call for the weekend and getting ready for a business trip next week. But it was GREAT to see him and catch up on his kids and grand-kids! His wife, Linda, was attending a graduation on Saturday and wasn't with him; but we ended up getting to see her later . . . more on that. Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough with the camera to remember to take a picture of Kirk. Next time, I will definitely correct that problem!

On Sunday afternoon, I gave my Aunt Jane a call. Aunt Jane has always been my "cool" aunt. You know. Most girls have the aunt that takes them shopping for clothes and buys them neat stuff for Christmas and generally convinces your Mom that you are old enough to shave your legs or wear eye shadow. Well, that was Aunt Jane for me. And the other thing is that she is a fantastic piano player; and my mom always enjoyed listening to her play the piano when she came to our house. I can honestly say that many a time when I was taking my piano lessons, being able to play like Aunt Jane got me back on the bench to practice. And she is still playing. When we went to her house, we visited for a while. I could see the reflection of her piano in the glass of her TV as we were sitting in her living room. She played us a little ditty; and I sat down and played Ebb Tide from the sheet music on her music stand. This really took me back a long ways to the old upright piano we had in the house in Markle where she used to come and play for us. And even though it had been over 20 years since I had seen her, I didn't feel like a stranger at all.

We walked in the beautiful back yard with the perennial garden and the pond behind the house. And then Linda came by with little Jeremiah! This was a great surprise. I hadn't seen Linda for so long I can't even remember. It was a really good visit.


From Aunt Jane's house, we took our map and found our way over to another lake to locate my cousin Greg and his wife, Ann's, cottage. With the help of the map on the refrigerator at the cottage, we successfully found their place . . . just about the time they were coming off the lake to unpack a freezer full of home made ice cream! Excellent timing, don't you think? This picture is Brian and Kevin (not their best side, sorry) unpacking the ice cream freezer. They took the creamy custard into the house where it was supplemented with chocolate cake and Ann's famous Scotcharoo's!









Opa Greg got to sample a true family tradition in getting to know this part of Dad's family at their finest! Eating ice cream and stuff with chocolate on it! He was suitably impressed. We visited and caught up on college and summer plans and what was going on with everyone. After a couple of hours, we got another round of hugs and took off, exhausted, for the cottage.











I want to end this post with a little lake history and tradition. First, I had forgotten how much Indiana revolves around the Indianopolis 500 Race on Memorial Day Weekend. On Sunday, the radios on the landing started broadcasting the race at full blast as soon as the pre-race festivities began. When they sang the national anthem, you could hear it all over the place. It was great! And then, "Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines!" And there was buzzing engines in the air all afternoon until the conclusion of the race. It was fun to remember listening to this on the radio growing up before it was allowed to be televised. I remember hours of listening to the buzz and the announcers and the laps run under the white flag as a child. It is a great Indiana tradition.



There are other things about the lake that bear documentation. There is the fact that everything we have "thrown away" for the last 50 years or more has ended up at the cottage. Take for example, this pink and orange bath towel that was a wedding gift I got in 1974. It didn't originally have fringe all the way around; but it does now. I actually used this towel this weekend; it is 34 years old. But it isn't even close to the oldest towel in the closet. Of course, Scott is right when he said that towels last a lot longer when you only use them in the summertime. (Right!)



Besides the towels, there are old things in the kitchen, too. Many of them were left there by my grandmother, who originally stocked the cottage when Grandpa was putting it together in the 50's. Take for example this cooking fork. Grandma liked to use this to turn her meat . . . especially bacon. She carefully removed the center tine so that it would grab the meat easily. Many, many times I have watched my Grandma turn the bacon with this fork. Eventually, my mom also used this fork for cooking. Somewhere along the line, one of the outside tines also broke off leaving it as a kind of sharp little stabber. But did the fork get thrown away? CERTAINLY NOT! This is Grandma's cooking fork! And it is still in the drawer. Thank goodness somebody still respects valuable stuff. It made me smile to find this fork still in the drawer . . . even though we didn't cook any bacon.

It was a good weekend. I slept soundly and enjoyed a walk along the lake with Greg. Even though things have changed, there are still a lot of memories around. And I still remember where the fruit stand used to be where we bought corn on the cob and tomatoes and Indiana melon for our 4th of July picnics. There is a real estate office there now. But I can still see the wooden stand in my mind.



Memories are good. Family is better. I love you all. And I am so grateful that Greg came with me to meet a lot of people that I talk about and get cards from and call my own.

Thanks, too, to the veterans! It really is a time to remember those who served their country. The cemeteries in Indiana were bright with fresh flowers and flags. Small town America still lives. I'm so glad.

California . . . Dad update!!!!



I've been in San Diego all week at a conference and just got home last night. I was staying at the Hilton San Diego Resort on Mission Bay for this technology conference. The conference was great, and so were the digs. My room was right on the ground level with a little porch that looked right out over the bay. There was a walking/bike path about 20 feet from the porch that went for several miles in each direction along the bay through parks and recreational spots. It was a beautiful place to take my morning walks; and there were all kinds of people out there night and day so you felt pretty safe most of the time. Right across the bay was Sea World of the Pacific. If you look behind the kites in the picture below, you will see some towers and buildings on the far side of the bay. This is Sea World!




Of course the resort had sailboats and lots of great recreation which I did not get a chance to take advantage of. So I mainly walked, enjoyed the grounds of the resort, and ate seafood every night for dinner.




On the home front, I learned that Dad had a little accident with his tractor and has two broken ribs and a bunged up knee. I just got the scoop on what happened, so I will let Dad tell it in his own words.





I had backed the implement trailer up to the garage to air the tires and planned to load the tractor and mower for BCC and mow the lot. I was unhooking the implement trailer from the tractor so I could hook it to the truck. I got off the tractor and put a block under the trailer frame. The next step is to lower the trailer on the block and release the ball/hitch so I could drive the tractor away. I stepped between the front wheel and rear wheel on the tractor. Rather than grasping the 3 pt hitch lever I grabbed the gear shift and moved it forward into low gear. The clutch was not engaged but it went into gear very easily and the tractor was running. The tractor lunged forward knocking me down and the large rear wheel came at me pinning my left knee under the wheel.



I managed to get my head out of the way but the rear wheel run across my left knee, abdomen and right chest. It must have weighed about 300 lbs. Needless to say the tractor continued to go down the driveway until it hit a tree and the rear wheels started digging into the sod. I got up before the tractor hit the tree and was about to catch the tractor when it hit the tree. I managed to shut off the tractor and laid down behind the tractor to analyze the damage to my body. After a few minutes I walked to the house.



There is a large bruise spot behind my left knee with swelling and Dr. Peters says I cracked 2 ribs. No chest or knee braces required but I am on Tylenol during the daylight hours. The knee swelling is going down and I am about to throw away the crutches except in going up and down stairs. The hard part is getting up and down from chairs and bed.




Needless to say, this sounds pretty scary to me; and I am really glad that Dad is okay. On the bright side, Dad's article was published in the farm magazine recently regarding his channel sweeping robot. He has had two inquiries from interested people who might want to develop the robot. And . . . an edited version of Dad's article about veterans appeared in the Dayton Daily News on May 20. So he is a published author if only he stays out from in front of his tractor!

It's all about being 2!!!


Today was the party to celebrate Katy's second birthday. It's amazing, but the babe is two already and a big sister at that. We celebrated in a park in Westerville with a bunch of friends and family. Dora made almost as big of an impression at this party as Katy did as can be seen by the cake at right. Katy also got a lot of other things with Dora on them . . . everything from sun glasses to a purse to a shirt and an awesome doll shown later in this blog.


Several of the family members were unable to be at the party today. Great Grandpa and Great Granny were at the Air Force Museum for a Veterans Celebration. This was planned in advance of the birthday party and was a special treat for Mom and Dad. I sure hope they played "String of Pearls" for Mom. I wouldn't be surprised if she got up and did the Jitterbug. But at least she wasn't on roller skates like she was when she did the Jitterbug at church skating parties when I was a kid. I wouldn't want her to fall and hurt herself. :-)

Back to the party! Here are some features photos from today. I hope you enjoy them.

"Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday, dear, Ka-ty!

Happy Birthday to you!!!

YYYYAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!

The Dora doll with the hair that really grows from Stan, Abby and Gabe was a BIG hit!




Speaking of Abby and Gabe, HERE THEY ARE!!



And here is Stan with HAIR!! He said they are calling him a Chia Pet. His barber has been too busy to cut his hair. But this was the most hair we have seen him have since we met him. I personally like him either way, don't you?

Here is a picture of my brother, Neil, who is sometimes difficult to get to stand still for a picture. I actually caught this in a group photo and cropped it out. (Sneaky, huh?)

There were hugs all around when the party was over. And David slept through almost the whole thing. It must be nice to be six weeks old and have so little to worry about.

Tracey's Graduation - The Froehle Clan

This weekend was a special get together for Greg's family as they assembled in Louisville to celebrate Tracey's graduation from University of Louisville, Louis D. Brandeis School of Law. Tracey is Greg's niece. Her mom is Maria, who is the sister next in line after Greg.


Tracey said she has always wanted to be a lawyer, and she is especially interested in criminal law and being a trial lawyer. She would like to work as a public defender, but first she has to take the Bar Exam and pass it. And then she will see what happens. She has been working and going to law school in the evening for about 4 years; so this graduation represents a lot of work and sacrifice. The Convocation Exercise was held at the Brown Auditorium in downtown Louisville on Saturday afternoon, May 10. Here is my photo of Tracey receiving her hood. Too bad you can't hear the fans going wild right beside me . . . because we were all very proud and happy for her.

After the ceremony, we all wiggled our way out of the auditorium and onto the sidewalk . . . well, actually it was into the STREET, to take a few pictures. The next few photos are from that series.

Tracey Michelle Levering, J.D., Class of 2008. Big smile!

Uncle Greg with the new graduate!

Family Picture L-R: Me, Greg, Peggy, Sarah, Maria, Tracey, Teresa (back), Samantha, Niki, Deidre, Emma, Scott

After graduation, we went out to a neat restaurant where about 50 of Tracey's family and friends gathered for the party. We had a great dinner and lots of time to talk. The Froehle family got to see a lot of people that hadn't been together for a while. They really had a great time catching up with everyone. After that, Greg and I went back to Teresa's house to crash; we were tired from getting up early and driving from Pittsburgh to Louisville on Saturday morning. By the time things settled down and we got it bed, it was WAY past our bedtime anyway.

On Sunday morning, Scott and Niki brought eggs and spinach and mushrooms and cheese and bacon over to Teresa's house and made "omelets in a bag" for us. These are cool because you put a couple of eggs in a Ziploc sandwich bag and then let everyone put there own toppings in the bag and seal it and write their name on it. When you get a half dozen ready, you drop them in a pot of boiling water for 14 minutes and VOILA!!! You have a perfect, tender, wonderful, fat-free omelet that is absolutely yummy! Of course, we ate bacon and monster muffins from Costco with them just so they wouldn't be too healthy. And we washed it all down with OJ. Yum!



Teresa has a cat . . . I think it belongs to Deidre . . . named Amigo. He is quite playful and has many toys. One of them is a "cat cube" which was quite intriguing for Samantha and Emma who both tried it out to see if it was as much fun as Amigo seemed to think it was. But they soon got distracted . . . .

Samantha - age 7

Emma - age 4-1/2

Not long after brunch, the little nieces decided to entertain the adults with a talent show in the downstairs rec room. It started out to be just Samantha and Emma. But before long, grown-ups were being recruited for additional acts. The talents were endless . . . everything from tongue rolling to elbow-touching-behind-the-back to catching jars of Play-Doh with your teeth (almost).

Uncle Greg juggles the Play-Doh; this is BEFORE he tried to catch one with his teeth. The trick ended soon after this additional feature.


Samantha and Emma demonstrate the Hula Hooping.



Aunt Peggy can do amazing head-stands. She stayed in this position a long time and did the splits with her legs and everything. It was impressive.



Uncle Greg and the girls take their bows.

After the talent show, we played a round of Charades, and then Tracey and Scott hooked up the PlayStation to the TV and we started to play Dance, Dance Revolution. This was a lot of fun and a good workout as well. I must admit that I really liked the dancing game. Even though I didn't know very many of the songs, I have always liked moving to music. Even though we never made it past "Beginner," I think we got pretty good at this. We even continued to play after Peggy saved us from starvation by ordering some pizza. I honestly don't know when they actually turned off the TV. We played the DDR game for HOURS.

We got most of our good-bye hugs as people were leaving to go to Peggy and Tracey's house to sleep for the night, because we were leaving this morning (Monday) to come home. This one last picture is Deidre and Sarah sitting on the stairs as the last of the clan headed off to sleep. It had been a fun day.

Greg and I left Louisville about 9:15 this morning. We drove straight through except for a short stop at Wendy's on Stringtown Road on the outskirts of Columbus. Then we cranked it on home so I could make it to my Sojourner House Board Meeting this evening. The only eventful thing that happened was that a truck flipped a rock up onto the windshield and cracked it on the passenger side around Cambridge, Ohio. While Greg was driving, I pulled the insurance card out of the glove compartment and called the auto glass claim center to file the claim. I am supposed to stop at 8 in the morning to get the crack fixed on my way in to work. The insurance will pick it up. Doggone, that's good. If you have to need your insurance, this is about as painless as it gets. Thank you, Erie.

Flowers by Rodney

There is a man named Rodney that sells flowers on the corner of 10th Street and Penn Avenue right next to my building downtown on Thursdays and Fridays. Today he had these beautiful roses that are the most unusual color I have ever seen. And they were only $5 for a dozen.

I put them in a borrowed vase on my file cabinet. Everyone was asking me what the occasion was. To which I replied, "It's Thursday, and Rodney had roses." :-)

Not every post has to be deep and meanful. This one is about simple pleasures. Enjoy!

Walkin' for Sojourner House; Greg and the Pierogi Man; Thank You LaMarcus and Anne and Friends!


This morning was the Sixth Annual Walk for a Healthy Community sponsored by Highmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield. It was a rainy morning, but Greg and I headed down to Heinz Field at 7:30 this morning to support Sojourner House.


There were a great many other board members and their families at the walk as well as staff and volunteers. Here are some of the sites (along with my personal commentary).

Anne is checking in a soggy walker at the Sojourner House table in front of Heinz Field.


Joann, Gloria, Jill (background), and Anne were helping this person check-in. Somehow I missed LaMarcus. Where is he?

Anne waves in the background as Dan (board treasurer), his wife, Laurie, and their son look back toward the Turkey Hill ice cream tent. Hmmmm! Ice cream for breakfast!

This doggie is wearing his mom's t-shirt! He looks comfy!

This looks like a Kodak moment . . . maybe . . . .

Miguel invents the t-shirt umbrella!

Greg poses with Cheese Chester . . . a Pittsburgh celebrity!

Steely McBeam was there to entertain us all!

We finally did get the show on the road! Somebody sang the national anthem . . . or at least the words were the same. Why do they schmaltz it up like that? I kind of like it straight so I can sing along.

Thanks to the Walk Committee chair LaMarcus and his wife Robin and their family, to Anne, Joann, Gloria, Debbie, Jill, Dan and Laurie, Miguel, Steve and family, all the walkers from Fifth Third Bank, and all the people I didn't see or forgot to name. You guys are awesome! Thanks for helping us raise money for the families of Sojourner House.

A special thanks to LaMarcus who chaired the event for Sojourner House and his able partner and Highmark connection, Anne! Thanks team!

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