Florida leads to Roberta's life time of talking

One winter (1954 or 1955) I was left in Florida with Grandma & Granddad to give Roberta a chance to learn to talk without using me as an interpreter. Glad that worked, Roberta, as being your lifetime interpreter would have indeed been a challenge for me! Grandma and Granddad were living above the garage behind another house and it was quite exotic a location as there were lots of bird of paradise and even poinsettia trees. For a few weeks (days?) I went with Marianne to kindergarten which involved sitting at small tables coloring -- not all that exciting -- so made me feel better about missing the experience in Ohio where there was no kindergarten until Roberta was ready to go. I remember there being news about Alaska and Hawaii added as states, which I think Granddad was not sure was a good idea. Why would we want those far off places to be part of the US? They weren't even connected to the rest of the states and that would obviously be a problem. Maybe Dad showed me where they were on the map and that began my fascination with maps.

Florida and Recipes

I can't say I remember ever going to FL with the family EXCEPT when I was about 5ish (possibly right after Granddad died?). My first time to travel by myself was to FLORIDA to see RUK and the Hortons when I was 10 and earned the money to buy my own ticket $110 from Cincy to West Palm. As I also recall Disneyworld had just opened and RUK took me there on greyhound? Could be I have the trips confused....Also want to say Vanessa Brown took us to Disney and then maybe we rode back to WPB on the bus. The bus we memorable because it was the first time I ever had chicken out of a can. What a sheltered childhood!
Mother, thinking of you especially right now as I'm watching Iron Chef America on Food Network and the topic is BEETS.
Roberta, I have several personal recipes for crock pot cooking I'd be glad to email you; for Christmas Don gave me Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade Crock-Pot Cookbook which I have enjoyed and some very interesting recipes in there as well.
Serena--are you worn out from birthday celebrations? Catherine, what's new with KC and the rest of your family?
We are very much looking forward to April and already making plans to convoy with JB, Julie etal from here to Lantana via the Kennedy Space Center.

FLORIDA

This is now Roberta the poster pecking away! My suggestion for a theme would be FLORIDA! Trips in the past, and of course what should we plan for April! I remember well both the times in Florida and of course getting there and back! Topics under this could be many, the food we ate, the trips to the beach, the bathrooms (or lack of) and of course the side trips! Serena, could you find some pictures of Florida to post???

Another subject could be cooking.....I am thinking of using our slow cooker more so I am looking for recipes, and would appreciate any tried and true.

I have not had my breakfast yet, and get grouchy when I have not eaten so more later. Again this is Roberta the poster posting. ( I just had to remove commas, and other not allowed items from the subject line)

Picture Editing and topic of the week!

After using picasa to do Serena's collage, I fooled around with it a little more on those Ballantyne pictures and it's pretty easy to use. Now I'm going back through other pictures and cropping them to make it easier to see the people (example above and left). Very user friendly!

Coldest morning here yet. I hear my parents when I say to my children, "CLOSE THE DOOR YOU'RE LETTING ALL THE COLD AIR IN!" and "Aren't you cold? Where are your slippers?". As of right now the temp is UP to 30*. Off to Macon to donate platelets and red cells. Where is RUK, the blog lurker? No comments from her recently. Topic for next week?

Skye Restaurant

We finally made it to the famous (at least in Roberta's world) Skye Restaurant. It was very nice. I must say from Roberta's rather sketchy description - five floors with lots of music and food; I had pictured more of a bar/dancing/chi-chi food place.

It seems we picked a rather off-night to try out Skye - it was the night for their Christmas party (obviously after the Christmas rush). There were only four occupied tables at the place - one by a relatively large party (15-20 people), two other tables of four or so and the four of us - Sara, Sid, Roberta and me.

We had an excellent appetizer - Wisconsin cheese fondue with some sliced apple, broccoli, cauliflower and bread. We had roasted duck, pecan chicken, and (in honor of the Mexican trip to Puerto Penasco) Shrimp Puerto Penasco. Everyone was very happy with their entrees, although I found the Shrimp too rich and, although not bad, I wouldn't order it again. At least for the last time in 2007, Sid and I got birthday desserts which we shared. Sid got chocolate decadence which was VERY chocolate and very decadent. I got bananas Foster which was not at all chocolate and somewhat decadent, and very good.

The music was mostly (all?) Frank Sinatra and at a nice volume - one could hear it, but not overpowering and it was easy to carry on a conversation. The lighting was reasonable - one could easily see quite well.

I think the group decision was that Skye is a very nice place for special occasion dining. Very little food for vegans - red pepper hummus was the only item, I think, that would be vegan.

The website is here. And there is a link for the menu (Adobe pdf).

Next birthday meal is scheduled for January 29th at Persian Garden Cafe, in the evening I presume. I'm looking forward to a second trip to the Persian Garden Cafe - it is a very nice organic restaurant with quite a few vegan/vegetarian offerings. Not sure what time we are meeting though.

Lucie, Bob and Virginia Ballantyne circa 1920

These are the pictures Katie Brown Ramaker emailed me last night; Robert and Virginia as the two younger children. Lucie is on the right in first picture and 2nd from right in the right hand picture. We believe the pictures are from about 1920, very possibly in Florida or enroute considering the palm trees and prolific spanish moss. Back of one of the pictures notated a Mrs. Hawkins but not sure which one?

weather and...

The weather yesterday and today was CHILLY---more like January than anything thus far. High here was in the upper 40s I believe and a change from the 70s plus that we had experienced in December and first part of the month and I actually had to wear a jacket tonight. Some people bundle up here in the 40s++ with gloves, hoods, the whole bit and it can almost be comical! All the rain we've had has been very welcome and hopefully we'll have a continued supply of it throughout the Spring/summer to avoid the usual drought/water restrictions.
I did get an email tonight from a Katie Brown Ramaker with some pictures of Grandmother Lucie, Uncle Bob and Aunt Va. As soon as I can edit them with picasa, I will try to post them as they are quite good! Thanks, Wendy, for keeping us up to date with the great pictures of KC!

KC is 7 weeks old!

Weather and Birthdays

Didn't get much response except from Mary regarding themes and blog postings. So here are my suggestions for the week -- Weather because there is always something to say or post about the weather, and it continues to be colder than usual here. Of course we could take that further and discuss global warming, climate change and the future.... Or we could post about birthdays since both Serena and I have or will be celebrating such events in the recent past and near future. Today at work we are celebrating with a birthday lunch honoring yours truly and also our December birthday person whose birthday lunch was postponed due to being short-staffed last month. Of course we're still short-staffed but at least have enough people in other departments to cover our desk while we go to lunch.

celebrating

I have been trying to add a picture from tonight, since the expression is that a picture is worth a thousand words, but can't seem to get the right order of buttons pushed. We did enjoy our dinner celebrating Serena's birthday, and now look forward to breakfast out to begin Sid's celebrating tomorrow! Stay tuned and love to all, Roberta the blogger

KC and the car seat with pacifier

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SERENA!

24 Days Later

This picture was taken at our house on Christmas Eve. Wendy took the second picture yesterday, six weeks since his birth day.

Serena

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SERENA!

HELP???

I just had a long post written, and lost it, but long story made short, is that I have been lurking, and wondering who else has been tooooooo

We have been busy, but I did want everyone to know that I would gladly take the time to read any new posts............

I do have a story or two to tell so will do that next time!
Stay warm......I have a coat on that I bought to take to Europe in the winter! This is Roberta the blogger/lurker.

KC 5 weeks old!

KC -- one month old

Table for Eleven

Had a good brunch here this morning with Laura "Weegie" and Wayne Page. Besides KC and Wendy, also there were KC's Morgan grandparents, his Morgan and Uible great-grandparents as well as his great aunt Serena. Weegie and Wayne are in town for the Ohio State football game in Glendale tomorrow.

Who has a birthday today?

By the way, this is also the anniversary of Grandad's birthday - Dad said last night that he was born something like 125 years ago.

We had a VERY nice pre-birthday dinner at Line Thai. We had stopped at Dillon's in Sun City Grand and were told that it would be at least an hour and we decided to move on. At Line Thai (right near Sid's favorite breakfast place Coco's) we got right in after they set up the table for us. We each ordered a different entree and then ate family style - passing food around. I ordered squid with cilantro, lemongrass, etc - just a very little spicy kick. We also had a couple of shrimp dishes, a couple of beef dishes, a chicken dish and maybe a veggie dish - it all got kind of jumbled. All the food was very good and the restaurant was relatively quiet so that we all could chat and hear. Also the birthday surprise was a dip of coconut ice cream with some chopped peanuts which Cynthia graciously shared - was delicious.

Before dinner we went to Radiance Church for service. The church bulletin didn't really say anything at all about the plan for the church service. It was about twenty minutes of loud Christian rock - with the words beamed on to screens throughout the sanctuary and then about an hour of sermon/lecture. Mother had a nice nap and got the Reader's Digest version of the sermon later. Dad was very impressed with the variety of donuts offered in the snack area of the church. They also have a Seattle's finest cafe which was open and doing some business. (Some free coffee was available which I tried.)

Well, have a project I'm working on, so need to close this.

Happy Birthday
to
Cynthia King Park!!

Favorite Places in Rocky Point

The Friendly Dolphin (El Delfin Amigable): This is located on the way out of the Old Port area. It is has a very friendly staff and has good Mexican or Seafood. They have an upstairs terrace patio that will give you a great view of the Harbor.

For those traveling to Mexico soon, I got some suggestions from my friend who goes there quite often. Above is her favorite restaurant.
Mercedes Rusticos is her favorite store which she says is across the street from the Friendly Dolphin.

She also recommends the drive to the aquarium which is not far out of town. For those of you not traveling to Mexico soon, enjoy the pictures and the privileges of home!

Roberta and her grandfather on her birthday

May 14

Sorry for the very slow update on who this is . . . am having some real problems with wireless connection. The connection is best late at night in one particular corner of the bedroom.

Yes, Mary Virginia, this is Roberta and, of course, Grandad. This obviously was taken in the dining room, although it predates that corner furniture piece that sits there now. I'm guessing at the date, but with the birthday cake it has to be right around May 14.


Roberta does look unusually calm here, almost as if she fell asleep mid-celebration which, of course, doesn't sound like her at all. The eyes and MOUTH are both closed. Perhaps the photo was taken just to show that it did happen once in a while.

Happy New Year

Glad to talk to both Catherine and Roberta tonight but missed Serena, Mom and Dad (talked to John just a couple days ago)! Mom and Dad, I did try both the house and your cell phone but obviously unsuccessful on both.
Our Black-Eyed Pea lunch at church went well---I cooked 4 lbs of B.E.P.s and the 80 people ate over half! I feel as if I've met my quota for eating them for 2007 already after sorting them before the cooking.
Tomorrow we are back to work and kids go back to school Thursday. I'm ready to get back in the routine even if they aren't!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY ROBERTA AND SID!!!

Crusading Women of New Vienna

Actually went back to the website and did some more looking around. I did find out more about the issue of temperance movement from which the above was taken. Here is the link to the Ohio page - you can then go down to Clinton County and click on that which then has the piece about New Vienna. Someone has done a transcript of Henry Howe's 18__ something book.

family photograph at Morgan's house in 1989

Gerry Morgan, Catherine Morgan, Harold Hiestand Uible, Jean Ballantyne Uible, Gladys Hiestand Uible, Mary Virginia Uible Crowson, John Ballantyne Uible, Wendy Jean Morgan, Serena Uible, Roberta Uible-King, Hayes Sidney King

Hancock County, West Virginia

This was on the webpage link that Mary Virginia sent to everyone.

The page can be found by clicking the title of this post or by clicking here.

Label Counts

Don't know if anyone else has noticed that Serena seems to have very few labels that actually refer to herself! Also noticed a new show on HGTV that premiered Monday called "Life With Ed"...reminds me of some lessons we learned growing up in New Vienna.

Bedtime in Glendale

The Suns game is almost over and tomorrow is an 8-5 day for me so almost bedtime. Had a good lunch today with Wendy, KC, Mom & Dad, Gerry's folks and us at Sweet Tomatoes. KC, looking as cute as ever, is thriving, and now 3 weeks and 3 days old! Didn't see Rose Mofford -- former governor of AZ -- but it is the same place where we have seen her in the past. How's the house-sitting going, Serena? Happy Anniversary, Roberta & Sid. Happy New Year's Eve weekend everyone!

Serena allows me back on the blog

For those of you who are interested I have been reading and looking at the pictures, but have been unable to post until Serena fixed my computer, again!

I did want to report in this day after Christmas about the gift that Serena gave us on Christmas day.....that of the most excellent Christmas brunch for us and about 20 of our closest family and friends! I can't begin to tell you how many different dishes there were, but I will say that we had about 8 of the items leftover tonight!

Will look forward to hearing from all both on the local scene and from afar!

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

The cinnamon rolls are rising. The bedroom is clean - but, no, Mother, you may NOT check under the beds, and the closet . . . well, one can walk through it . . . at least skinny cat can - fat cat might with some difficulty.

The black bean hummus is made - although I forgot that instead of a half teaspoon of cayenne pepper as called for in the recipe I always used just a half pinch. I think nobody will eat it and if they do, the smoke coming out of their ears will be a give away. The quiche and pumpkin pies need to get into production. The veggies are chopped. The Thanksgiving bread with cranberries, dates and raisins is edible according to expert Roberta. Still got a couple more kinds of bread I'm going to make, but those are the easy kind.

Well, got work to do . . . and time is wasting. Just wanted to wish everyone a very

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Eve in Glendale

The soup is made thanks to Gerry, and Dad Morgan has been out for his daily walk. Now we await the arrival of the younger and youngest generation -- Wendy, Ken & KC -- with Mom & Dad, Serena, Roberta & Sid following close behind. Actually have my 3 presents wrapped. Only thing remaining is to sign the card for Wendy & Ken and get the baby announcements ready for those who I haven't already distributed. Still have some cards I could send out also, but I've answered all the ones we have received. Merry Christmas to all!

Mary VA's recital

Actually written on the back in JWBU's handwriting: at MV's recital Chapel Wilmore Ky Jean, Jeanne and Bill Sanker, HHU, G'ma

Date not given . . .October 1989 - date supplied by MV

At the Airport

I don't when this picture was taken. I also don't know for certain that it was taken at the airport or that Grandma is the one traveling, but that makes sense from looking at the photograph.

"The picture in question [which is below] was from the Williamsburg 50th anniversary [1998] trip. The hotel provided the bathrobes and Dad was opening one of the gifts; Ginny, ever the patient and loving granddaughter was trying to assist and speed up the show." quote from Mary Virginia herself.

From Mary Virginia...

Lucie Brown Ballantyne's cookbook

I have Grandma Ballantyne's cookbook (from some 80 years ago) in her own handwriting, although I'm guessing that some recipes were written by someone else (like the recipe on the left above). Anyway, I thought I would scan the recipes in like the above - the facing pages which would make the scanning twice as fast as one at a time. Then make CDs for all who are interested.

If anyone has any suggestions, etc., let me know. If Mother has something to say about a recipe, we could include that, too, I think; although exact format would be determined based on numerous variables.

Comments?

Click on the photo if you want to see the recipe pages life-size.

Back from surgery

Christian had 4 (more) teeth pulled this morning; we were in Macon at 7:15 and back home by 10AM this morning. I'm ready for a nap! Now he is relaxing in front of the TV and sipping a chocolate milkshake in honor of his Grandma Uible.
His "Grandmommie" Crowson has been in the hospital this week recovering from an extremely severe ear infection. She is supposed to go home today.
Glad to hear HH and Luscious made it to SCW in perfect timing....anxious to hear where the stops were along the way as well as how the visit with the Fosters were. Ginny and Christian are officially out of school for Christmas. Last night we took a group caroling to shut-ins on our new bus---never thought I'd be riding a bus to go Christmas caroling!

Anybody recognize these characters?

Here in SCW

Mom and Dad have arrived in SCW. We went to Luby's for dinner. Dad had the vegetable plate, Mother had tilapia and soup. I had the liver and onions. Mother ran out of space for the soup, but did find some room for some chocolate cake - which we split three ways and brought some home, too.

Everything is going well here.

New Equipment

Has anyone purchased one of the new DVD/VCR gadgets that will play either AND burn the contents of the VCR onto the DVD (and vice versa)? Got one for the church last week only to realize the TV I have in the choir room is so old I couldn't hook it up...so I brought it home tonight and fiddled with it nearly an hour until I finally got it to do what I need it to. Only disadvantage is that you have to play it in "real time", which means a 60 minute video takes 1 hour to burn on to DVD. Tomorrow I can take it to the church and copy the DVD through another gadget that not only burns the DVD/VCRs but will also print labels on them. Who would have ever thought....
We did receive the picture of KC today along with nice note from the happy Grandma :) which we were glad to see. Seems like yesterday my kids were that age! Where did the time go? They will be 1/2 way through 3rd, 9th grade as of tomorrow! Ginny was very excited to get the note from the school about driver's ed next summer. Surely not already!

Parents and babies

Time flies

What's Happening

The King Christmas mailing list is almost completely finished. I went through last night and alphabetized it and checked it against all the various other lists to make sure that nobody was left off that was on one of the other lists and now I'm cleaning up - adding a few zip codes and checking a few minor details. THAT is the big news here. There are still a few things to do before the mailing list goes out. We're missing a few addresses - including Wendy Jean's address, the photo copied at Costco (of course), the actual photocopying of the letter, the border around the letter itself . . . Okay, a few details, but the worst is over . . . the letter itself is done as is the mailing list (well almost).

Talked to Roberta to confirm April dates. I tried calling the JJKA group, but, of course, there was no answer. Called Catherine at work and she confirmed and she had confirmed with Dad that yes those were the specific dates. So Roberta is now making definite plans and those April dates are the dates . . . no matter what.

Sid, Gerry, Catherine, Ken, Wendy Jean, KC and various other Counts, Jones and Morgans enjoyed a very pleasant evening last night celebrating Gerry's birthday at Fontanella. The food was great, too.

Well, more later . . . gotta get back to the mailing list.

Happy Birthday Gerry!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GERRY!

I'm posting my favorite photograph of Gerry today in honor of his birthday.

Catherine, Gerry and his parents are picking up Sid and me this afternoon. We're all looking forward to celebrating Gerry's birthday. I think Sid is particularly looking forward to not having to eat my cooking.

Park National Trust Department

John is in the back row.

Gerry's Parents Arrive In Glendale

Gerry's parents, Mavis and Lester, flew from Manchester NH to Phoenix today and we picked them up at the airport mid-afternoon. They are both doing well and were happy to stop and visit their newest great-grandchild. KC is their 9th great-grandchild so they are experienced! This picture was taken in 2005 with Dee's son, their great-grandson Jonathan.

Lunch with Ardyth

Gerry and I had lunch today with Ardyth, my friend from the Bicycle hosteling trip in 1968. She now has a daughter a year younger than Wendy living in Phoenix and came to visit her for the holidays. We have seen each other maybe half a dozen times in those 38 years -- the most famous of which was the trip we made from New Vienna to California together in 1969 in her red VW beetle. She now works as an R.N. for a blood bank in Humbolt County (far north-western) California. I could include a picture of the two of us on that trip BUT first I would have to read the article Serena gave me about printer/scanners, then I would have to go buy one, hook it up and scan the picture. Not going to happen this week! Thanks for the birthday/email greetings for Gerry, Roberta! See you at the airport, Monday evening.