A typical Eastern PA winter

Just got to love winter in Eastern Pennsylvania, a little snow and lots of ice, freezing rain and generally gray skies. At least the sun is shining today. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday

Finally!!

I don't know about the rest of you but I am so glad that this election season is finally over. Regardless of who you were for, this has just been forever.

Almost the last weekend at the lake

What a beautiful weekend. It makes leaving so difficult.

Yes ... he is related (or shall I say realted) to that cherubic (or chrubic , if you prefer) angel named John Kahle.

However... he is also related to the gentleman in this photograph...

That poor child (on both counts)...

:-)

This Guy is really related to the cherubic kid below?

First Day of School

Yesterday was John's first day of kindergarten! He had a great time and even made gingerbread cookies! The bus ride was exciting, but the day was all too short. The bus picks him up at 8:38 and drops him off at noon. What exciting times ahead for John. He is now a student at Jefferson Elementary School in Emmaus. Go Eagles!!

Becca's Good News

Hi All,

I had my follow-up visit with the Surgeon yesterday and although cancer cells were found in the breast tissue that was removed, no cancer was found in the nodes. This is great news and means that I will not have to undergo radiation or chemotherapy! Next phase is a 5 year treatment of tamoxifen to reduce the risk of developing cancer in the other breast.

I am recuperating a lot faster than I anticipated, in fact, the nurses were calling me the "Poster Child" for the TRAM Flap as they couldn't believe it had only been two weeks since my surgery. I have no limitations, but get tired easily. Now I'm looking forward to our trip to Colorado next month!

Becca

Becca's Update

Hi All,

Yes, I'm home and doing well. I had a tough time there with the side effects of the anesthesia and pain medicine, but thankfully that's all gone. I have a follow-up next Tuesday with the Plastic Surgeon and on Friday with the Breast Surgeon. Now that I'm eating, my recovery is coming along better than I expected.

Mum (Sue) is here helping us with the boys, and that's been a tremendous help, we couldn't have done this without her.

Love,
Becca

Becca is home

Just a quick note to let everyone know that Becca is home from the hospital and seems to be doing well. Keep her in your thoughts.

Dick

Whoohoo!

As some of you know, I asked Maria to marry me last week during our vacation. To make a long story short, I had been planning this for a while, and I did know the answer beforehand, thank goodness, ha!

So, set aside some time in late January or early February next year for a little trip to Puerto Rico.

Casey

A tribute to Casey Jones a/k/a Casey the wonder horse.

Yes, Casey died today. He was a good friend, a confidante and a member of the family. He was kind, generous, demanding and a great deal of fun. I learned much about working with horses from him and became a far better rider under his tutelage. I gained confidence and did some things I never thought I would be good enough to do in this lifetime. I will miss his quiet, alpha presence.

I bought him from a horse dealer when Josh was beginning his senior year at Upper Perk and Chris was off to his first year at Juniata – a lifetime ago. Horses are so big and strong that we think of them as invincible. Of course they are not and he was 27 (I think). Horses with very good care early in their lives tend to live longer than those without. I bought Casey when he was 9 or so and felt he may have had some tough early times.

When I started looking for a horse 18 years ago I wanted one that could help me achieve greater horsemanship and be fun to ride. He gave me both of those gifts. I had him at Pleasant Hollow for several years, learned to jump well, competed in 2 baby novice events, competed in hunter and jumper schooling shows and a couple of dressage shows. I gained confidence, learned to trust him and had a wonderful time.

I have loads of favorite stories but to enjoy most you probably had to be there. Once when I was preparing for an event I needed to trim the mane just behind his ears so the bridle would lie flat. Casey, being Casey wouldn’t put his head down for me so I climbed up on the feed bin and proceeded to trim away. People and horses walked past us, cars drove up to the barn and there was a lot of other activity. Finally someone came up to me and with great envy mentioned she had to twitch her horse to clip around his ears and wanted to know how I got him to just stand there. The answer of course was that I didn’t “do” anything. He chose to allow me to do that because he was such a great horse.

He loved to compete. While living at Pleasant Hollow if something was going on he would quietly wait to be saddled. He would figure out the “game” and go for it. In the Jumper schooling shows, which were held during the winter in the indoor arena Casey, had a real advantage over the Thoroughbreds because he was a compact quarter horse (I actually think he was either part Appaloosa or an App with no color). He could speed around those jumps and he was very handy.

When I got him he was clearly western trained and knew nothing about jumping and dressage. He never enjoyed dressage (except in competition) but once he figured out the jumping he loved it. The first time I evented him we started galloping the cross-country course. I could see him looking at every jump (there are many jumps and the course is only over a few of them) asking that one? How about that one? He would have jumped them all. He was game for anything.

After I brought Casey home for good a friend, Janice Silfies, started sharing him with me. One summer her daughter Emily (10 years old?) was also taking some lessons on him from Sue Weirback who planned on having Emily compete in a small local show. As it happened my niece Sam (also 10) arrived for a visit and Sue decided both would compete on Casey. Janice, Emily and Sam prepared him for the big event. As Janice tells the story it was a lovely warm summer day and Emily and Sam bathed him in front of the barn while Janice watched. They had a wonderful time talking and ended up covering him from head to toe in suds. He loved having the girls fuss over him. They both did well in the show.

He has given countless pony rides, taken care of innumerable friends, and tolerated all kinds of activity. One year we had a tremendous number of wild turkeys around. This was back in the days when we mostly trotted and cantered. He had several fly up in his face during that season and he barely broke stride. He took very good care of me. He was always trustworthy on the trail and loved to go places in the trailer. When Janice, Tasha and I would ride together he always wanted to go on the road. He was a nosy neighbor.

He went out the way he wanted. Up until the last hour of his life he was in charge of his barn and pasture mates – and then he was gone. He is now grazing with Shinda, Willy, Alla Ward and Kima while my mother looks on.

Barb

Concerts & stuff

The concerts are, for the most part, over for the year and were very successful - judging from audience response and comments. Now it is time to get back to the business of the brewery.

Received a call from Jack yesterday - they are in Florida for Jacob's graduation. He graduated this weekend - cum laude - Congratulations Jacob! So Jack, you should feel wealthy now that you only have one in college - right?

Here's a great photo of Barb & Dick (that's mom & dad, aunt & uncle, etc... depending).  It was taken a couple of weeks ago when we were @ the cottage, i'm just really slacking on getting photos off of my camera.  (I blame my boss, he's a real jerk!)

And we lost one of our pups this week.  Nikita was probably the hardest dog in the world to love, but once you fell in love with her, she was a sweet heart and a half.

A couple of photos

Here are a couple of photos from the house, it's a beautiful spring day and the dogwoods (among 8 million other things) are in bloom. My allergies aren't loving it, but it's certainly nice to look at.

We has the Ducky Derby Saturday. 6,500 rubber duckies released in Fall River @ $20/duck as a community fundraiser. Sue won a $25 gift certificate to Fun City. We'll use it when the kids come out in August. I got to meet the BIG DUCK...

John's first Tball game

John had his first tball game yesterday! He did a great job and by the end of the game was fielding grounders like a pro! Now we have two games a week until the end of May! The game only lasted an hours, so not too long! Jamie and Daddy picked up gloves yesterday, so now everyone's playing catch!

Burning

We had a burn party here yesterday to get the fields cleaned up. Good day and we got a great deal of work done thanks to everyone that was there to help. Here are a couple of shots of the crew mostly working.

The wedding & stuff

Barb and I had a great time at Shannon & Ryan's wedding. Josh did an outstanding job, once again, as officiant. (I keep wondering how to answer those who ask if he is a minister!!)We also had a wonderful time with Ted, Julie, Alex and TJ while we were down there. (For those who don't know Julie is my niece - she and her family live in Bear Delaware.) I hope that we will be able to get together a bit more than we have in recent years (it's a Lampe thing).

Rehearsal last evening was quite good and I think the choir is going to be in great shape for the concerts next week. I just wish every tree in the world wasn't blossoming right now.

We are off to dog class (Bach is graduating tonight).

The crazy life of a Fantana

Hey all,
So nice to have this! A great way for me to procrastinate as well :). Life here has been crazy as always seems the case. I have my last day of classes today. I have finished work for only 2 of my five classes however, meaning that in the next week or so I have 3 major projects to complete, a portfolio to compile, and a stack of pscyhoeducational reports to write. So much for 3 weeks of vacation...Tony and I are getting away for one night this weekend. We booked a B&B in Maine to celebrate both our birthdays (Tony's is today) and I promised I won't bring work along. We're also heading down to FL on May 9th for a long weekend to attend Jacob's graduation so all in all I suppose I can't complain.

School has really dominated my life these past few months, but the work will all pay off in June when I finish my Masters in School Psychology. Following the completion of that I will take 2 more courses this summer towards my certificate degree (so that I can actually do something with my life). I am taking the first semester off next year to play Mommy for a little while and will return to Tufts in the spring part-time assuming all goes as planned.

The pregnancy is going well. Baby and I are both healthy with no problems to report other than the typical discomfort that goes along with sharing my body. I get bigger by the day as does my appetite. D-day is August 27th/29th depending on who you talk to. After the hot summer I know we're facing the 27th is sounding pretty good to me. I hope to see some of you at TMI week 4. Tony and I will try our best to make it up there for the day.

Tony is extremely busy at Harvard these days. He has so many projects going on right now I can't keep them straight. He's waiting for a couple papers to be approved by his advisor for publication at which point he can really start thinking about jobs. He hopes to apply to a small number of schools this coming fall, but realistally we're looking at another 2-3 years here in Melrose. Fingers crossed that something comes his way earlier. We'd love to know where we'll be living long term in order to set down some real roots. Tony is also itching to have the title 'Professor' added to his name and to finally run his own lab.

Off to class I go, I look forward to reading all of your updates!

Becca's Update

Hi All,

Just keeping everyone updated.. I have an appointment with the Surgeon, Dr. Aaron Bleznak, on Monday, April 28th at 12:30pm. At that time i expect to know my options and scheduling... at least i hope so. I want to get this taken care of and move on with my life.

That's all for now!

Becca

Bill's inauguration

Since Bill and Sue are too shy to include this in the blog I thought I would - the new mayor of Estes Park!

We had a tough rehearsal last night - Dick was exhausted by the end but we are getting there. The ensemble sounded incredible. We are doing some wonderful pieces including spirituals and a piece by Roo Brown during the first half. Cole Porter is the second half and hard to learn. We have to learn rhythm, words and melody - and i can't walk down the street and chew gum at the same time.

We are off to Wilmington DE for Stacie's sister's wedding this weekend and to spend time with Julie

Dick and I actually went kayaking yesterday - it only reached 77!! We left just before 7AM and got home at 11. I turned right around and drove to the brewery for several hours. I always feel discombobulated on the day we come home.

We have 4 more rehearsals before our concert so Dick is deep into preparing. He hasn't quite stared creating bouquets of shoes but I expect to find them soon. (For those who don't remember that was always my signal that he was in the final prep period before a concert and would try on and discard shoes in a pile each day.

Opening weekend at the cottage

We had glorious weekend at the cottage.  The nicest weather we have ever had for opening - I just hope it doesn't mean a lousy summer.  Thought you might like to see a picture.

I am trying to figure out how this works. Josh told me to use a post for a new thought - I am actually out of thoughts.

Today is jack and Sam's birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Welcome!

Hello all, Mom, Dad and I are at the cottage this weekend and we got to talking about the old family letters and how nice it was to keep up on what was happening in everyone's lives.  So... I figured, let's just create a blog that anyone in the family can post to.  Just post what's going on in your life, you can put up photos and whatever else you'd like and if we keep it going it should be a great way for everyone to keep in touch.  If there's someone that I missed adding as an author, let me know and I'll add them right in.  In the meantime, can't wait to hear from you all.