Just A Summer Clan Gathering

I've been sorting, shredding and recycling papers - as I said "I plan" to do in my last blog. And while doing so, I came across, again, something I saved years ago that I felt strongly about keeping and sharing someday. Well, today's the day.
I'm very proud of all my grandchildren - what grandmother isn't? This is something my eldest granddaughter wrote the summer she turned eleven years old. I had a portable electric typewriter the kids loved to "work" at. I'm copying this from the original, just as Katrina wrote it:

                              JUST A SUMMER CLAN GATHERING

THE people at the gathering were Alyssa, Katrina, Zach, Shelly and Doug Botkin. Ian, Linda and Leslie Lynam. Ruth and Ron Lynam and Mike Beavers.

Ruth and Ramona Lynam and Bud Shaffer live at the place we are gathering at. We arrived here on Saturday, July 13 and we will be leaving Sunday, July 14. Leslie and Linda brought a lot of fireworks for after dark. They brought them from Missouri because thats where they live. Ramona gave Katrina and Alyssa Baby-Sitters ClubBooks.
     They were volumes 10 and 12.

     Katrina read a lot of her book that night and so did Alyssa,
     Katrina's was called "Claudia And The Boy babysitter".
     Alyssas book was called "Claudia and the new girl".

     Ron and Ruth were the first ones to leave. Then Mike Bevers left.

       Then Ian, Linda and Leslie left. The last ones to leave were
       Alyssa, Katrina, Zach, Shelly and Doug Botkin

       Katrina got to ride the rideing lawnmower for her first
       time. She going to be 10 in August.

       Zach and Katrina's last name is Johnson.


     Alyssa spent her time makeing a war bonnet to go with her dream-
     catcher.

     Zach's favorite thing to do is play video games with Bud his Grandpa

     Zach's favorite game on Sega Cd is ESPN Baseball Tonight
     and his favorite game on Sega Saturn is Madden 96 the need for speed

     Bud favorite game on Sega c is Beyond the limit
     formila 1 championship. And his favorite game on
     Sega Saturn is Frank Thomous Big Hurt Baseball.


       Zach has a sega at his house..

Bud made a new golf course for his grand children to golf on Alyssa Katrina Zach and Ian had a tournment.

                        By
                             Katrina Johnson

Katrina and Grandpa Bud playing golf on the new course.

I remember being so impressed by Katrina's reporting of our summer gathering - including the use of the word clan. I have tried to leave it just as she wrote it. Yes, there are a few misspellings and punctuation errors - but look how many there aren't! For her age she did an amazing job. I was proud of her then and I'm even more proud of her today. She is a very caring young woman with a busy life trying to balance family, work and free time. I doubt she's had time to write any stories or reports lately, but if she has, I would love to read them. I wonder if she remembers writing this?

What Will Be Seen In Twenty-Fourteen?

There's nothing like a New Year to make one determined to start 'doing better'. I didn't make any resolutions, but I did make a short list of things I 'plan' to do each day. Just little things like ''clean something". So I started by cleaning my 'office'. It can get so cluttered when I take out boxes of pictures looking for a certain one I want to use in a blog. Also on the list is "shred some documents". I tend to wait for months before I shred and then spend hours doing it. This year I'm going to shred some each day until I get caught up and then shred on a regular basis.

"Scan some pics" is on the list. Our son Mark's Mom died last month. Bud doesn't have a lot of family photos, but what he does have I want to get scanned into the computer. This photo of Bud and Alice was taken at Christmas, 1976, when Mark was two years old. I didn't cut Alice's son Todd in half, that is how the original was taken.
In addition to Bud's pictures, I also have my son Doug's photos from his early years to scan. I borrowed the photo album I had given him years ago and need to get it back to him. There's also all the old family photos Mom and Grandma had. If I just scan a small bunch each day......

Even though I didn't make it a resolution, I want to make an affirmation or statement of gratitude each day as well as a few lines about the day. To that end, I will be using this 2014 Ireland daily calendar. As I tear off each day's page I will jot down something for the day as well as that day's affirmation or gratitude. The one for January 1 was: "I am so very, very grateful I got to achieve my 'lifetime' goal of going to Ireland."

Of course there's 'exercise' on my daily to do list. Thirty-three years ago this month, when I didn't even know who he was, I saw my handsome husband (to be) out running in the frigid January weather. I admired him so much for what I saw as his dedication to a healthy lifestyle.

Now he does most of his running at the Y, but at least once each month he runs outside. Yesterday's temp was in the single digits and the windchill was -15 when he ran more than three miles up around Lake McKinley to welcome the New Year. I still admire (and love) him so much. Today's calendar page reads: "I am so very, very grateful for my wonderful husband, Bud."

So while Bud welcomed the New Year in his way, I welcomed it in mine - with coconut shrimp and champagne. New Year's is one of the three times a year when it is a tradition of mine to have champagne. It will be interesting to see how long I keep up with those things I plan to do each day. My track record for changing for the better has never been too good.

What's to be seen in 2014? A trip to the Gulf Coast next month, a new great-grand-baby in July, a more active year than last was now that I feel recovered from my stroke, lots and lots of good books to read and whatever else comes my way in this first year of my 70th decade. Sláinte!