New LeFever member!!!!

I wanted to announce my newest daughter! She is 7 years old and in Southern China. Click on the link: http://www.babysites.com/sites/robynl20 and you can read about her in the baby journal section. I have posted multiple pictures of her in the baby albums section. You can see updated pics of Georgie in the family album section.

My new daughter's name is Madeline MeiKe LeFever and her birthday is March 10, 2001. She's a beautiful little PEANUT...she's 44 inches tall and 36 lbs! And to top it off, she's a picky eater...so now I've got 2 picky eaters...G-d has a funny sense of humor!!!!

Love to all...
Robyn
Proud Momma to Georgie & soon to be Maddie!

Parker Blog

We have a Parker Blog now. If you're interested: http://crjrjgp.blogspot.com/

Happy Holidays

We think Santa might retire after this year!

Daisy and Jenny in the first snowfall of the season.

Hanukah Festivities at Bubbie's House.

T-Day

Happy Thanksgiving to anyone still reading this blog. Stacy and I had a lovely time at her "Kooky" Aund Clo's, as usual. I made the cranberry sauce, which, like every year, competed with the sliced cranberry logs. Mine is gaining in popularity. Aunt Clo serves a mold made out of Coolwhip, jello, and soda, but it usually doesn't quite get. This year she added mini-marshmallows.

OK, Where Did I Leave Off?

Let's see...the last 5 weekends have been really busy with lots of family and fun stuff. First weekend in October, my brother Bob came out to California to visit his son Mike who had recently moved to LA for work in the film business. Bob invited Greg & me to be his guests at the Beverly Hills Hotel...oo la la! What a beautiful hotel, and what a brother, huh? Joshua & Whitney also came down for the day. We all had such a nice visit. That evening we celebrated Mike's birthday at Wolfgang Puck's newest restaurant at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. It's called "Cut" because it is a steak house and you have many "cuts" to choose from. That was the best steak I've had in my life. We enjoyed a 3 hour dining experience like none other. It was such a lovely evening. Next morning we had breakfast on the patio of the famous "Polo Lounge" at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The weather was gorgeous. I could take a week to get used to that!

The following Friday we celebrated Chris's birthday in Tehachapi. Jenny made such a nice dinner party for Chris, and we were pleased to meet several of his colleagues. Seems like a nice group of people that he works with. Jillian was so excited to have so many of her favorite people come to her house that night. Someone asked if Jillian is my first grandchild. I wonder how they could tell??

THEN the next weekend we all celebrated my mother-in-law's 80th birthday at Greg's sister's home in Pismo Beach. That's on the central coast, pretty much directly west of here. The weather was beautiful and the whole Yates side of the family was there, kids, grandkids and great grandkids.

Dad & Kathy arrived the following Friday just in time for Whitney's birthday party. Joshua cooked an Italian feast for family and friends and the weather was so nice we were able to enjoy it all on the backyard patio. The rest of the weekend was just a fantastic visit with my Dad & Kathy. My kids were here each day and my heart was just full to overflowing from the joy of such a nice family visit. Jillian had the cutest way of saying "Dad-Dad" for Grandad. AND!! we got to watch the Red Sox win the World Series together. So fun!

That brings us to last weekend, Greg & I celebrated our 28th anniversary with a little trip to our favorite little mountain get away about an hour from here. We had a lovely lunch overlooking the Kern River and dinner later that night at another favorite restaurant. We were only gone 24 hours but it was so relaxing, it was such a nice respite and dare I mention, romantic too.

OK, so now we have a 3 day weekend and plan to just be at home. That sounds really awesome too. Starting with Jenny & Jillian coming to spend the day tomorrow, and Chris joining us for dinner tomorrow night. I also plan to do a lot of reading and work on my long awaiting picture project. I have them sorted by year...but that's as far as I've gotten so far.

What are you guys all doing? I can't believe a little thing like a change in the logging in process can keep the lot of you so silent. You're really not playing fair making me do all the talking.

Hello Out There

News from Bakersfield . . .

Jenny, Chris & Jillian were so happy to move into their own home at the beginning of July. They are living in Tehachapi, a mountain community about 40 miles from here. Chris started his full time position as history professor at Bakersfield College, and fortunately there is a transit bus that picks up right by their new home and goes straight to the college. Jenny is not working with me at my office anymore because that's too far to go each day for just a part-time job, and Jillian is getting to be too busy of a girl to hang out at the office in the afternoons! They are enjoying their days at home, and at the park and coming down to see Bubbie & Grandpa a couple times a week.

Jillian is delighted by the hummingbird population in her backyard and loves watching them come to her feeders. She's also enjoying having her own room! She is 17 mos. old now, and is doing all kinds of things including using a lot of signs that she has learned, talking more and more and learning how to open things she's interested in inspecting! She still loves books almost better than anything.

Jake & Dulcie, Mark's twins, came for a visit in July. We all had a great week and lots of fun. They celebrated their 15th birthday here. We swam a lot, played a lot, I cooked a lot!, we went to the beach for the day and went boogie boarding . . . it all went by really fast. They are really great kids.

Joshua & Whitney are busy, busy. Whitney has just started her last quarter at the university and will graduate with a degree in political science November 30. She is already working for our Congressional representative and they want to keep her on after she graduates. Joshua took up surfing and is having fun with that when he gets over to the beach. He's worked a lot of overtime lately but still has managed to get in a couple days of surfing.

We didn't go out of town during the summer; we had gone to Florida for a week in March, and I took a week's vacation when Jake & Dulcie visited. Greg & I are going to camp next week at the beach, just south of Santa Barbara. We used to do that every summer when the kids were growing up. I love to boogie board and I love a campfire in the early morning with a cup of hot coffee, and at the end of the day with a lovely slab o'beef cooking on it!

This has been a busy summer! What have all of you been doing?

Hi all

If everyone is having as much trouble getting to post something as I have then contact cott and he will help you.

All of you who remember Aunt Eve and even those of you who don't she is Grandad's sister and she turned 96 on June 17th the same birthday as Grandad. I noticed that there were not any responses to the news about Aunt Eve's fall and the pain she has been in. f you can;t post then have Scott help you. am sure that good wishes would help her so much.

Also I think it is important to tell you that Uncle Bob has passed the 5 year mark and has been given clear sailing after all this horror. His latest scans show all is clear, THANK GOD.

Let's get back on the Blog and keep in touch with each other,

Love all of you.

Auntie Saundra

my mom fell

To the cousins:

On May 24th my mom fell down in her apartment and broke her pelvis in 2 places. She is in agony and very upset. There is no surgery to repair her pelvis, it simply has to heal and God knows how long that will take - maybe 6 weeks or so. It has been 2 weeks and the pain has not subsided at all. Problem is that she can not take any narcotics for pain because they make her sick to her stomach and dizzy so there is not much that can be done to alleviate the pain. She will be 96 on the 17th of June. Some way to celebrate her birthday. Too bad. Up to now she's been living a wonderful life with lots of friends. She plays canasta twice a week and mahjong twice a week. Her mind is as sharp as it ever was.

If any of you want to send her a card to cheer her up, you can send it to:
Eva Miller
The Jewish Home at Rockleigh
10 Link Drive
Rockleigh, New Jersey 07647
Room K153

Gail

Ever seen this before?

Can you guess what this is? Someone brought this to me from his garden today. I knew the artichoke was from the thistle family, but I had never seen one that had been allowed to flower. Isn't it beautiful?

P.S. Scott...the "New Post" link on our blog is sick and needs help.

Walking!

Click on the title of this post to see video of Jillian walking!

Hello Everyone

I had trouble clicking on the New Post link on our blog, so I clicked on the link in the upper left corner to blogger and signed in and am posting via that route. Maybe the link needs help?

How is everyone? It's been too long a stretch without hearing from you guys and I know I haven't been posting either. I look everyday hoping to hear some news.

Jillian had her first birthday on April 9. If you don't get the emails from Jenny you can see her photos online: http://s66.photobucket.com/albums/h264/jrparker/. The March 2007, April 2007 and Portraits are the latest pages. Jillian is so fun. She's very bright, loves to laugh and have fun, learns new things everyday and responds so well that you know she's really taking it all in.

Greg & I went to visit my Dad & Kathy in March and had a great time. We also got to see Auntie Saundra & Uncle Bob. Unfortunately, Uncle Fred & Auntie Julie were busy that day. The weather was gorgeous while we were there. And of course, my Dad & Kathy are such great hosts.

I celebrated my 50th birthday in March. I may have mentioned before how much I milk it for all it's worth, and this year was no exception. Dad & Kathy treated me to a shopping spree in Florida, my family hosted a party for me at Joshua & Whitney's house the weekend before the actual day, there was dinner out to the Chinese restaurant on the actual day, and several lunches with friends. All in all, turning 50 was great fun!

Greg & I went to the mountains locally last weekend for a quick overnight get-away. We were delighted to find a little motel (8 rooms) in a little tiny town nestled into the hills, with horses and cows in the nearby properties. Next to the motel is a restaurant with a deck outback so we could enjoy the surroundings while we had dinner. I love finding little places like that!

This summer Jake & Dulcie will come for a week. They will be here for their 15th birthday. I'm hoping we can go to the beach for a couple days while they are here.

What plans do you have for this summer? What's new in your families? Been anywhere? Done anything to your house? Read a good book? Seen a good movie? Got any juicy gossip? (Just kidding about the gossip!!!)

DR. STEPHEN P. BECKER

This is to notify everyone in the family that our son Stephen received his Doctorate on Education this past week.

After raising a beautiful family with his wife Brenda, becoming a Grandfather of 4 wonderful children he has finally acheived his goal .

We are so proud of him and his acheivements both personally and professionally that we wish to share our joy with all of you.

Hope all is well with everyone.

Aunt Julie and Uncle Fred

New Blogger?

I signed in one day to post a comment on Penny's last entry and was directed to a window to switch to the new blogger. Now I'm having trouble posting here. Not sure if this will work. Don't know how to undo it either.

My surgery went well; everything was done with 4 tiny laporascopic incisions and the doctor found what he expected so was able to only remove my uterus and leave me the rest. I only had to stay overnight in the hospital. I'm almost 2 weeks past the operation now. It has been surprising to me how easy this has been, although I'm definitely more tired and still a bit sore. I worked 2 half days last week and will return to a full day tomorrow. At least that's my plan. I did kind of overdo a couple times in the last couple days.

Another thing happened in January that I decided to not report until it was all over. I had a mammogram Jan 2nd. They told me I needed a 2nd one on one side for a closer look. Then they told me it showed micro calcifications which called for a needle biopsy. They attempted to do that on Jan. 24 but were unable to successfully position the needle to collect a sample so had to schedule a surgical biopsy. That surgery took place on Jan. 31, 6 days prior to the hysterectomy. The results came back 100% clear. It was a bit scary and not all that much fun but I'm so relieved that it is all ok.

Mixed Bag

News from Bakersfield:

Jillian is almost 10 months old and is totally adorable. She is responding to being taught sign language and does the sign for "more" when she is eating and the sign for "I Love You", or her very good attempt at it anyway. We know what she means and it's pretty cute. She is definitely the delight of all our days.

I'm having surgery on Feb. 6th which I'm not excited about. I'm a big chicken but I'm sure it's all going to be ok. I'm having a very partial hysterectomy because I have fibroids in my uterus. So out it comes. I'm done with it anyway. All my other parts will remain so I will not be thrown into immediate menopause as it is all still functioning. I guess that's enough details for all the men types around here, don't want to make anyone squeamish.

Greg & I are going to be visiting Dad & Kathy in Florida March 7-14. Anyone going to be in proximity then?

What's the news from you? Scott, how's Ben doing? Penny what's new with your family? It's way too quiet in here. I'm giving you all permission to resume discussion of the mundane and interesting things in your lives. I miss hearing from you.