Happy Anniversary

We missed Margie and Brandon's anniversary a little over a week ago (sorry you guys), but today as I was getting ready for church, I dressed in the same outfit I wore at Edward and Meridth's wedding, in honor of the occasion.  I told Ed, "I was wearing this outfit six years ago!" and he said, "Is that bad or is that good?"  I'm not even going to try to interpret what he meant (!) but I did find these pictures of the cute couple in my files.  Can you believe they've been married for six years?  WOW!  Congratulations!  Here's looking forward to the next six years (and the end of military service by then, too), and the soon-to-be new little granddaughter.

Love,  Claudia and Ed

Quoth Hamlet...

"When sorrows come, they come not as single spies, but in battalions."

Looks like I'll have to buy my G8 GXP used.

What I did on my summer vacation...

Looks like Dad's going to have plenty of time to think about it.

Sorry Dad, that's totally stinky.

The Rumors are TRUE!

Okay, before you all have to make that call home, yes, Dad has been laid off for eleven weeks.  General Motors announced today that they were laying everyone off at the plant for the next eleven weeks (starting May 4th).  He doesn't have to be back at work until July 20th, and even then, he has to take his five weeks of vacation before the end of the year, or he loses it.  I know he is going to take the week of July 20th off also, because he wants to be able to spend some time with baby Nora.  At last discussion, Nora was going to stay with us for a few days while Mom attends some classes at SU.  Now Grandpa can enjoy Nora too!

We'll probably have to take some time off when Rusty and Meridth have little Ushie.  We'll have to save our pesos so we can fly out!

So anyway, expect long visits this summer.  We'll have to pack our own Aerobed to save on hotel bills. And, of course, road dog food rules!

Claudia and Ed

The Raccoon Mafia

Yesterday morning at about 0445 I was on my way to work driving south on the CA 1 when a raccoon darted in front of my car. I hit him. I was a bit bummed out about it at first, but after remembering Dad's past run-ins with these guys, I didn't think twice about it.

Until this morning. Our recycling had been ravaged and raccoons had pooed on my Subaru. Although there are raccoons a'plenty in our neighborhood, they'd never bothered us until last night. Coincidence? I'm sure.

"We gots a message from Rocco da Mask! Dat palooka you whacked was made. There's gotta be consequences!"

Happy Birthday Radar

Radar is a very sophisticated one-year old. He's pretty excited cuz that means table scraps today.

Egg Roll

If this doesn't make you love our President, then I don't know what will.  

Go through the slide show, it is like a J Crew advertisement.  

ADORABLE.

More Stacey Birthday Happiness

This is not the greatest reproduction of Stacey's adorable 13-month picture.  My dumb scanner would not send the picture to the desktop in a format that made it possible to download into the blog, so I had to get creative.  I took pictures of her pictures, and then had no trouble downloading them to the blog at all.

Anyway, I love that Stacey and Ryan were born only about five weeks apart at the same hospital and delivered by the same doctors.  It was fun to be pregnant at the same time as Aunt Liz, and share all the joys and trials of that condition.

I am going to download another great picture of Stacey at three months, and Stacey, you'll have to tell us if you think Lexi looks like you at all.

Why can't I get the  picture in the right place and turned the right way?  I did it right the first time.   Arrrrrrrg!

Any way, have a great day, Stacey.  We love and miss you!  Ed and Claudia

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STACEY!

Hope you have a great day Stacey!  I know that David's birthday is on Tuesday, so did you celebrate both b-days this weekend?  Sorry that I don't have any pictures to post, I'm lame!  

We love you and hope your day is perfect!!!

Dad, Click here. You have a month and a half to train. I'll see you June 6th.

translation?

hey mom, not sure if you knew, you can translate that whole webpage using google. i'm not sure if this link will work, but maybe

link

ryan

Click here Mom

For Ryan and Casey Family

I hope you guys are still planning on cheering me and Richard on during the marathon on April 18th! We need the cheers. Here is a map for the course. The race starts at 7:00 a.m. I'm guessing that we will finish (arrive at the Gateway Mall) around noon (Richard will probably be there a little before noon). Liberty Park would also be a good place to cheer for us. We should be hitting the park at about 11:30 a.m.

Can't wait to see you!

And the rest of you better be cheering for us from a distance!  

This is what Nora thinks of you Blogging Slackers

Some of the pictures Betsey didn't get!

Betsey's camera battery died while she was here, so she didn't get any pictures of the fun times we had.  This first picture shows me with Baby Nora eating up all the goodies from the Easter basket brought to her by Karl and Emily (Yay them, for remembering!).  Then there's a picture of Nora in the pool, swimming with Grandpa.  We wind it up with Nora climbing in the lower cabinet, looking for some breakfast cereal.  She especially liked the fruity Cheerios.  Okay, so the pictures went in backwards.  Nora climbing in the cupboard is first.  Easter basket is last.  I should have downloaded the pictures in reverse order!

Love you all,  Grandma Claudia

A REAL Blast from the Past

I got an email today from Uncle Don in Chicago.  He has been in correspondence with a researcher in the Czech Republic who has found previously unpublished pictures of 

Grandpa Gimbel's final crash after being shot down while serving in the Air Force during WWII.  I am including the link to the picture and hope that you can see Grandpa watching his plane burn after safely parachuting out of the falling aircraft.  The two women you see running towards him were trying to find out if he was okay.

http://hloubkari.bloguje.cz/777802-capt-gimbel-v-hostivari-na-unikatni-fotce.php

Interesting, isn't it?  Love you all.  Claudia and Edward