Sunday, September 14, 2008

Today was Sunday dinner with the Gamundoy's. Betty took some pics at dinner and then of the apartment and around the building. Hopefully, they will show up good on the blog. Enjoy!

Sunday, August 24, 2008

It has been a long time since I wrote in my journal. A lot has happened lately so I have something to write about. On August 5th Melinda and I had just got home from shopping in Waverly. It was about noon and the phone was ringing. Melinda answered the phone and she turned around and hugged me and started crying. She said,. "Mom called from the Care Center and Grandpa just died!" I was shocked because they had not called me, but Carol was at work that morning and she said she could tell his breatlhing was bad. She had come home from work about noon and they called her back soon after she got home and said the nurse went in and his room and he was gone.. We had Hospice helping take care of him the last few weeks and they were so good to him and kept him comfortable. Did you know people go through different stages in the dying process? They knew what to do. I was glad I had spent the Sunday before with him. He died on a Tues. and we said our good byes to him that afternoon. I hope as many of the family as possible can be here for the family memorial service will be here in Shell Rock.. I am waiting to hear when Bill sets a date when they can be here. While Grampa was in the Care Center for several months he ate his meals at the table with a couple from Clarksville and they have told me several times how much they enjoyed visiting with him. They thought he was a wonderful person. Today was my last day playing for the piano for the hymns at the church service at the Care Center and so many were so disappointed that I was leaving, especially the couple who visited with Grandpa during the months he was in the Care Center. They said they sure miss him too. I am glad he is in a better place though! I think of him up there in heaven enjoying his family, his parents,,his brother, Donald and sister, Dorothy and the brother he never knew, Harold, who died when he was a year old from pneumonia and of course our baby, Robert Ray, who died when he was 8 weeks old. They must be having a wonderful reunion up there in heaven. That same week on Thursday we heard that we had another great grandson, Avery William Howe to add to our list, ( that was #13). We were so happy to hear that Erin and Will finally had that new baby!!! I enjoy Erin's blog so much telling all about the new baby and it is so wonderful to see pictures of Avery on the computer. He is good looking baby and Grandpa and Grandma look very happy holding their new grandson. It is good he finally arrived before Billl had to leave. That same week Trisha and Jason got married on Friday (we all went to the rehearsal on Thursday) and it was a beautiful wedding. You probably have received the wedding pictures by now. If you haven't let me know and I will send them to you. Trisha's 3 sisters were the bride's maids. They all looked beautiful in their orange dresses. That's Trisha's favorite color. Trisha is now Mrs. Jason Miller, much easier to write than Trisha Soldwisch. Ha Ha Our family all has so much fun when we all get together. Melinda is having everyone over to her house for a barbeque and picnic this week before I move to Mallard Point in Cedar Falls. Carol and Betty have been wanting me to move into a retirement center or Assisted Living apt. before winter so I found this retirement home in Cedar Falls and I really liked it. Carol and Betty took the tour with me and there was one apt. left on the first floor right next to the dining room. I really wanted a 2 bedroom apt. but they promise to move me into a 2 bedroom if one becomes available on the first floor. I will be moving on August 29th. My new address will be Lois Neal 2603 Orchard Dr. Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613 Betty and I went down there today (after church) and figured out just what furniture I can fit into the small apt. and ate dinner in their beautiful dining room (it looks like a huge ballroom or a grand hotel) and the waiters and waitresses are dressed in white shirts and black slacks. The food is delicious and they bring a desert cart around at the end of the meal. Wow!! Everyone seems very friendly there and they have a lot going on every day. They have a big grand piano in the dining room and told me I could play it any time I want to. They have a private dining room too and told me I could invite my Red Hat Club from Shell Rock to visit after I join the Red Hat club at my new home called Mallard Point and there would be no charge for their meals. I probably will have the Home Makers cllub eat with me and the my SR Methodist Circle come be my guests also. That will be fun!. I hope I have lots of guests come when they go shopping in Waterloo they can stop in and eat with me. The Manager is a Methodist Minister and they have a church service every Sunday afternoon. I think I am really going to enjoy it there and Betty does not live very far away from Mallard Point. Melinda is helping me get ready to move and she is such good help and we have been having a lot of fun finding stuff I forgot I had. Anything I don't know what to do with I give to her or leave it for Shelley. She is selling her house in Waverly and moving into my mobile home. and if I get a 2 bedroom apt. later it will be easy to get some things that I might want later. I think Shelley will really like it out here living across the road from her Mom and Melinda.& her family! Luke has his own apt. now and has a good job and is going to Hawkeye Technical College in Waterloo. Betty and I had fun this afternoon getting some new furniture . at McGregors furniture store in Waterloo. I picked out a smaller entertainment center to hold my TV: and a smaller table and chair set (the leaves on the table fold down) and also a smaller recliner chair that is just my size and fits into the apt. better than some of my other old chairs. I will take my lift chair that I bought last Winter. We stopped at Walmart and found a small patio table and 2 chairs for out side on my nice little porch. I hope the weatlher stays nice for a while so I can enjoy them!! We also bought a new head board for my single bed and a small desk for my keyboard to sit on that matches the head board. Hope you can all come and see my new apt. some day!. I will even buy you lunch. Think about us over the Labor Day weekend laboring over moving and getting everything organized and put into place. Love you all. Keep in touch! Gramdma Neal

Sunday, July 20, 2008

This is the week that Betty leaves for Hawaii, so we celebrated my birthday today. She leaves from Mason City on July 25th early in the morning. This afternoon she came about 4:00 and picked me up and we visited Grampa in the Care Center for a while (he was sleeping so we had to wake him up) and after we visited we went to Waverly to Godfather's Pizza place and met Leah and the kids there. Kyle was wearing his Hawaiian shirt that his Great Grama Gamunday made him. That is his favorite shirt! Katelyn was wearing her Hawaiian necklace that I gave her last week. Shelby and Rachel were both wearing their favorite shorts and summer T-shirts. They are sure cute kids!! We all enjoyed pizza and had cinnamon streusel pizza for desert (that was my birthday cake) last week we celebrated Kyle's birthday at the Pizza Hut. We have had a lot of rain lately and hot, humid weather. You can see the corn growing and the beans are covering the ground where our corn field was destroyed with the wrong spray. We do have one patch of corn that did not get sprayed and it is really getting tall. I have lots of new flowers coming out now around my house so I am glad to be out in the country where I can enjoy the country scenery. Betty brought me a new outfit today to wear to Trisha's wedding on August 8th. It fit perfectly! Betty is a good shopper and knows just what I like. That was a nice birthday present! Now I will have to get some new shoes to go with it. You will probably see us all in the wedding pictures in a couple weeks.

The other night I was reading Erin's blog and it was so interesting. She told all about getting locked out of her house. It was just like reading a book and so exciting. I'm glad she finally got in and didn't have the baby before she got back in the house. Ha Ha Maybe you had better put your house key around your neck, Erin, until after the baby comes anyway! That sure made an interesting story anyway. I always kept an extra key at my house for Betty's kids. They were always getting locked out of their house in Shell Rock when they were going to school. Bill locked car keys in the car on the first interview he had when he was going to UNI. He probably doesn't like me telling that.. I remember he called home and we had to take a key to him. ( I think it was some place close to the Waterloo airport). I have a friend who has had to call a lock smith two or three times because she lost her car keys.

You probably won't hear from me again until after the big wedding. We will be anxiously waiting to hear when our new great grandson is born. That will be #13 great grandchild. Wow! I wonder if he will be born on my birthday, July 27th?? LOVE; Grama Neal

ERRORS IN MY LAST BLOG HA HA

IN MY LAST BLOG I NOTICED I MADE SOME ERRORS. THE ONE THING I WANTED TO CORRECT WAS THE SENTENCE WHERE I WAS TELLING ABOUT THE FIREWORKS IN CHARLES CITY. I SHOULD HAVE SAID I DON'T KNOW HOW BAD THE 37 PEOPLE WERE HURT INSTEAD OF HEARD. I TRIED TO FIND THE PLACE ON MY BLOG FOR CORRECTIONS, BUT UNFORTUNATELY I DIDN'T FIND IT SO THERE ARE A FEW ERRORS, SORRY ABOUT THAT. WHEN YOU GET TO BE 88 YEARS OLD THAT IS A GOOD EXCUSE FOR MAKING ERRORS. RIGHT? LMN

(I made the correction for you. Now we just need to work on the ALL CAPS :) --Bill)

Sunday, July 6--Summer Update

Betty was just here helping me with my blog. This was a busy day for me. My friend picked me up this morning for church about 8:30 and took me down to the care center for church. I still play the keyboard and today we sang patriotic hymns since it was 4th of July last Friday. It is quite a job getting all the people to church in their wheel chairs & there are volunteers who come and do that every Sunday. I always play a lot of music before church starts. I have known the minister and his wife for years, they are special friends of mine. He is also a volunteer and doesn't get paid, but this is his mission work.

After church I went to see grampa, but he was asleep, ever since he got out of the hospital recently he has slept a lot and is on oxygen. I went with my friends out to a nearby restaurant and we enjoyed visiting and had doughnuts and pop. This afternoon Betty came and we went down to the care center and played Uno with grampa for about an hour. He seemed to enjoy that & helped pass the time for him. Betty brought me home but didn't stay long because it looks stormy. She helped me pull some weeds in my garden first. We really need rain to make the soy beans in the field grow.

Probably you dad told you the man who does our farming put the wrong spray on the corn field and killed all the corn. The farm manager hired a young guy to plant 3 rows of soy beans between the corn rows and they are coming up but need rain. We have had tornados, floods and our own personal disaster of the man who does our farming make a big mistake and put the wrong spray on our corn. It looks terrible and I have to look at it out my picture window all the time. Hopefully the beans will grow fast and make the field green again.

We got Erin’s picture today and I agree with all her friends, I’m glad it's her instead of me, but of course it will all be worth it soon. Do you suppose Avery will be born on my birthday, July 27th?

I will be 88 years old and I have never seen so many disasters in Iowa as we have had this spring, tornados and floods and wrecked roads we can't drive on and lots of detours. It is going to take a long time for lots of these towns to recover from all these disasters, plus new bridges to build, etc.

Tomorrow I meet with 3 other ladies for lunch. We all graduated in 1938 and get together once a month. I also belong to the "red hat club". We had a shower for Trisha at Cindy’s house a couple weeks ago. Cindy and Mike fixed up our old house in town so nice. I wish you all could see it!! Trisha is busy getting ready for her wedding in august. We all have lots of fun when our family gets together. They had a disaster at the Charles City fireworks. They said it was like a war zone at the end. The fireworks exploded and 37 people were hurt. It was lucky Trisha and Jason were not close to the fireworks, but watched it from the distance, they knew something bad happened at the end. It may be on the national news. I don't know how bad people were hurt. I watched the fireworks in SR at Cindy’s house and they were beautiful and the weather was perfect for both the parade and the fireworks.

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July celebration!

Sunday, July 6th, 2008 - Summer has arrived!

This is a test to see if I can get it posted. The last one didn't seem to work.

My First Post on My New Blog

This my new blog for 2008 and Bill is here from Hawaii so he can get me started on it. I don't have a lot of new news. You will be able to tell what we've been doing. I'll write more after we visit Grandpa at the care center.