Stephanie and Nate's Wedding in Illinois

Hi everyone,

Wanted to share a picture of Stephanies wedding; was never sure how to do this before Melanie's great email... thanks, melanie. Most of the pictures with Mom/ Grandma Ruby are in the Kodak website our family uses, and I can't make them work.
I had a heck of a time getting Grandma to go to Chicago;she is not comfortable flying alone. She misses all your families, but is so nervous about going places without someone else. So she flew out with me and Phil drove to Chicago with his car full of many of Stephanie's shower gifts that we had for her in Simi Valley.

The wedding was wonderful but would have been even better if more of the family could have come. But we understand Illinois was not very close. After the wedding, Grandma flew back with Michelle and Christopher and Phil and I went on a driving vacation. We had lunch with a couple from Oregon; I went to nursing school in Portland with the wife who now live in Louisville, Kentucky. Then on to Nashville for a couple days which was a great town to visit and to Memphis. Of course went to see Elvis Presley's Graceland and had a great time. Then we drove to New Orleans with lots of heat and humidity. Hard to describe that town; some beauty and some tragedy. We stayed in the French Quarter that did not have much destruction, but still was a sad place visit. Hardly anyone was visiting, the famous bars/ discos open for business, but almost completely empty. Comedians and singing were singing to maybe one or two people. The hotel wasn't anywhere close to being full. Very sad in so many ways. But the spirit of the people was everywhere, they want things back the way it was before.

All was going well, we were having a great dinner in New Orleans until we got a phone call from home. Our 13 yr old golden retriever had gotten very sick and got heat stroke. We had a girl at the house with the pets, but due to the weather and his age, he got overheated and had to go to animal ICU. So.............I flew out the next morning and Phil drove home from Louisiana to California. Raleigh did recover, but is definitely a very fragile elderly dog.

I'll get some pictures of the new rental complex where Grandma is going to live in October. She will be on the third story in a building with an elevator and should have a great view of Simi Valley. Hope this is her final move, our town doesn't have as many choices as other states have, as California has too few choices for the amount of people who live here.

Anyway, I wanted to share a little of what's going on and will be better at publishing.

Love to all,
Aunt Chris/ Sister

Beach Trip (from Mom)

Hope to be seeing all of you at Seaquest for the family reunion on August 13th if not before.

Regarding food for the beach trip, I know you girls are in charge, but . . .

I have promised Traci I would bring potato salad. Also, we have several pounds of bacon in the freezer Dad couldn't pass up because of some sale. I'd like to get some of that out of there, so if bacon is on anyone's menu, I'll bring that. Also, I have some home grown raspberries in the freezer. I'll make a big cobbler if I have time.

For those of you who may not know, we are potentially up to 21 people now. Still one free bed. Melanie and I did the room/bed assignments this past weekend. We have: Grandma Jan, Grandma Ruby, Grandma Faraway, Grandpa Larry, Great Auntie Joanne, Great Auntie Nancy, Auntie Melanie and Uncle Greyson, Auntie Jennifer and Uncle Brian plus Kalena, Emma, Gabe & Nicholas, Auntie Traci and Uncle Tim plus Tucker, India and Christian,Anita and JC. Auntie Nancy is not 100% confirmed yet.

Remember, you need to bring sleeping bags and sheets/blankets.

I'm easing back into work. Went to ODE Monday and Tuesday to earn money for Larry to visit the casino. Worked at the District Office today for about 5 hours. Will work again Friday for 1/2 day or so. Starts in earnest next Wednesday.

Missing

Wow, this is very unusual for me to get on the Blogger and not see any updates for several days. What is going on with everyone? The Porter's are all doing fine. We are going camping tomorrow with the Dean's and look forward to some campfires and smores. Traci and I played in a golf tournament over the weekend for couples and did okay. Traci has really improved and has a very natural swing. The kids are just enjoying their vacation time and spend most of their days playing with friends. Well, that's it for now.

Tim

bla bla blog

First off, a huge congrats to Traci. Regardless of what becomes of the exclusive, that is a big accomplishment to get recognition like that from professionals in the field. I wish her the best. BTW, it was a blast to see the Porters up here for the 4th.

Happy Birthday to Brian. I'll let him disclose his age. Time has been flying. I didn't realize it was already the 8th. The 4th seemed like yesterday. He and I are hanging out tonight to watch a little UFC.

I've been chugging away on my website. I put in a couple of 10+ hour days writing and troubleshooting (ok mostly that) actionscript, which is a programming language built for flash. My head feels as though it's going to fall off of my neck which has been craned for hours on end. If you don't know, flash is software that is generally used for interactivity and 2d animation on the web. It is ideal because it creates a small file size for slower internet connections (dial-up, satellite etc.).

The sun is back out these days after a short hiatus...hooray.

I guess I'll get back to it.