A Special Christmas Greeting!

ENJOY!!!!

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ALIVE & WELL.....SORT OF!

After a long absence and several major events, I am back! It has been a momentous as well as stressful few months, to say the least. As most of you know, my mom and dad have each had health issues since July. Both of them were in the hospital (at different times) in July. My mom had problems with her pacemaker and my dad had a bowel obstruction.

In August, John and I, my brother's family and my grandson, Anthony, all decided to go to Cedar Point. John and I had not been to Cedar Point in years and Anthony had never been. We had a so much fun....especially seeing how much that Anthony enjoyed it. And, yes....John and I DID ride the roller coasters! Later in the month, John and attended the wedding of Chris & Casey Blust. It was a very nice wedding and it was great to see all of our friends.

My mom had back surgery at the end of August. She then spent 3 weeks in rehab before she could come home. During this time, my dad was still experiencing problems related to his diverticulitis and spent most of August and September in the nursing home for rehab. He was in and out of the hospital about 4 times between July and September. As of last week, he had been home for about 2 1/2 weeks, but unfortunately, he had to be taken back to the hospital this past Thursday. He is doing better, but has lost a lot of weight and is pretty frail. My mom is doing fairly well...but it has been hard on her back trying to take care of my dad. Greg and I have also been taking turns going over and helping with him. And John has been a life saver because he's helped by taking mom and dad to doctor's appointments and helping us with dad.

In between all of this, John and I were able to go to Disney World for six days in September. It was very hot in Orlando at that time, but we had a good time and it was a great way to celebrate our first wedding anniversary.

Hopefully, my parents will continue to improve and we hope to get through the holidays without too much difficulty. We appreciate all of your prayers and are looking forward to getting together with everyone during the Christmas holidays. We love you all!

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MAMA K's BIG DAY!

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John and I certainly had a weekend jam-packed with activity and TONS of food. It started at 6 p.m. on Friday with A graduation open house for Brittany Wright. We were served fried chicken, mostacolli, salad...and my personal favorite....CAKE! Woo Hoo! We had a very nice time visiting with friends while honoring Brittany on her accomplishments.
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On Saturday, John and I traveled out to Armada to Kristopher and Melissa's home to join the rest of the Kilpatrick/Aune clan in celebration of Mama K's 90th birthday. All of the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, as well as several relatives from Alabama and Georgia came together for a great day of fun, food, presents and, of course, CAKE!!!! The weather was GREAT...and the kids (big AND little) were able to enjoy being outdoors and were able to go swimming in the pond. Mama K was, most certainly, "QUEEN FOR A DAY"...and she thoroughly enjoyed EVERY MINUTE of it!

We went to church Sunday morning and the weekend was topped off by joining Sandy, Jimmy and the Georgia/Alabama group for the weekly concert at the beach. Once again, the weather fully cooperated and it was a great way to cap off a perfect weekend with friends. We are truly blessed! I hope your weekend was as good as ours. Enjoy the pictures!

SUMMER FUN!

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Welcome back! Thanks for "stopping by"! Things have been quite busy lately. Since June, we have celebrated Father's Day (as you know), 5 birthdays (Mom, Karen Greg, Shelley, & Cathy), went to a wedding, as well as trying to keep up with the everyday things that need to be done. We also spent one weekend in Port Austin at Terry's trailer. With all the activiy and lack of really HOT summer weather, it it hard to believe that Summer is half over!

Last night John & I, along with my brother, Greg, and sister-in-law, Cyndi, went to a Martina McBride concert at DTE Energy Theater. The weather was PERFECT and the concert was great! We ate popcorn and french fries and frozen lemonade and "dippin dots"....mmmm...mmmm...good! lol We had bought the tickets for my brother's birthday several months ago and, needless to say, it was money well spent. We all had an awesome time!

On a more serious note...my mom is currently in the hospital and is scheduled for a pretty serious back operation. There was some sort of abnormality with her pacemaker on Thursday, so now the doctors are all conferring to try and figure out what the problem is. If all goes well, she will have surgery next week sometime. Of course, we are all very concerned, so any and all prayers would be appreciated!
Hope you all have a wonderful week and are able to enjoy the summer weather!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Hi All!
John and I haven't had too much going on these past couple of weeks....about the most exciting thing was the storm last weekend. It scared the daylights out of me, for sure! We were getting ready to go to Metro Beach for the first concert, when it started to thunder...well,by the time I looked out the doorwall, it was pouring rain and everything was blowing...SIDEWAYS!!! Fortunately, we came out of it OK, but a lot of people in our complex had shingles missing, trees down and garage doors bent. There were also several downed power lines and power outages a few streets over from us. Needless to say, we did NOT make it to the beach...but, thankfully, everthing is now getting back to normal...whatever THAT is! lol

So, now...that brings us to this weekend, which is Father's Day, my mom's birthday, my cousin's birthday, John's grandson's birthday! Whew! If only there were THREE paydays instead of just one!!!! Anyway...I have created a couple of father's day cards that I thought everyone might enjoy seeing...so....here they are. Hope everyone has a great FATHER'S DAY!!!!

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Grandsons, Nephews & A Brithday!

Happy Hello to everyone! What started out to be a very quiet, uneventful weekend turned out to be very busy. Saturday morning and early afternoon we just hung out at home doing a few things around the house and playing "Mario Kart" on the "Wii". Saturday evening we picked up Anthony and his half-brother, Blake and we took them to the movies to see, "Iron Man". We ate lots of popcorn and drank plenty of pop...then, of course, we had to go to "Big Boy" for dinner. We all had a pretty good time.

We started off the day on Sunday by going to church, as we always do. They had the first communion and water baptism for all of the graduates of the "Faith and Foundations" class. That is always a very special service to participate in. After church, I was STARVING...so we went to Max & Erma's for a late lunch...then we went to my brother's house for Douglas' 19th birthday. It doesn't seem possible that he is that old...especially since I am only 29!! It's funny how that happens! lol Well, we had cake, pie and ice cream and he opened presents and we played "Guitar Hero" and bowling on the "Wii" and then the adults played "Euchre"....which the girls WON ALL THREE GAMES!!! YEAH, BABY!!! So we had a very good weekend spent with the ones we love. Hope you had a great weekend also!

Memories, Laughs & Tears

Today's blog entry is tough for me to write. But that's because we all lost a very good friend and loved one last weekend. Al Aune, our dear friend, passed away very suddenly Saturday, April 26, of a massive heart attack. Al was the best of the best...not only as a friend, but as a husband, father, grandfather and as a Christian.

Steve and I first met Al in the summer of 1969. Sandy and I had gone to school together (though we weren't acquainted with each other then), and after graduation, we both started our first job at Michigan Bell Telephone on Gratiot and 11 Mile Rd. in Roseville. She and I were both 18 years old, engaged, and finding out what 'real life' was all about. One Sunday after church, Steve and I went to the Village Inn Restaurant to have lunch and Sandy and Al happened to be there too. It was one of their favorite places to go. This is where Steve & I first met Al. He was one of the friendliest people I've ever known...he never met a stranger. In fact, whenever the six of us (Al, Sandy, John & I and Jimmy & Shelley)went out, he and Jimmy would always have a contest to see who would run into more people that they knew. Of course, Al ALWAYS won! lol

As a result of that first meeting, a friendship was begun that has lasted for almost 40 years. Al stood up for Steve at our wedding in 1970, and this past September, he was the best man for John & I at our wedding in Vegas. It was a great trip and we had a lot of fun. We could always count on a lot of laughs whenever we all got together. In fact, the six of us went out to dinner just last Friday to celebrate Sandy's birthday. Afterward, everyone came back to our house for cake and ice cream. Al thoroughly enjoyed Shelley's cakes and he always asked me to scoop him his favorite..the ice cream that was all "cow slobbery". (This was the ice cream that had started to melt and get soft around the edges) I tried to always have either the "hazelnut" flavored coffee for him or at least the hazelnut creamers...AND of course....Cheetos Cheeze Puffs!

It was such a shock when we got the news on Saturday that he was gone. I have cried every day since. Al was more than a friend....he was family. I loved him and we knew that he loved us. So today, there is a void in my heart that will always be there. I feel priviledged to have known him and was so blessed to have him as a friend. I will always miss him.