Cheri's Yearly Mission Trip

AKA THE RILEA FAMILY REUNION

This is Karen's youngest (of 4 boys), Caleb. He was the cutest one there.

Here is my cousin Bruce Ringer doing a Sudoku puzzle with his son Brandon.

Mike (my brother Lester's son) and Grant enjoying the hot tub.

Every year we like to humiliate a few people. This year they were given bright furry hats. From left to right are Lois Rilea, Rick Couch (Karen's husband) he's holding his adorable son, Caleb, (notice Caleb is trying to escape being photographed with these people), my cousin Brian Ringer, my dad's cousin Rose Ellen Rilea, dad's cousin Kathy Turner and I don't know the guy on the end...........oh wait, thats my dad.

Here is a group of people who were at the hotel too.

Happy Birthday to Solomon

Solomon was 2 years old on 2-2-2007
He did not like his party.
Or maybe it was just the Scooby Doo hats.

DOGS VS CATS

"Excerpts from a Dog's Diary"
8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10:30am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00pm - Lunch! My favorite thing!
1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!
5:00 pm - Milk bones! My favorite thing!
7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!
11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!

"Excerpts from a Cat's Diary"

Day 983 of my captivity. My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength. The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a "good little hunter" I am. Bastards! There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of "allergies." I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow -- but at the top of the stairs. I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released - and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded. The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicate with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now...

__________________

My cats are not children, at least that's what their piano teacher says.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ860P4iTaM

Valentines!

Solomon in the rocker.

Myrrh & Lily in their new bed.

Sheba in the tunnel.

Myrrh, Lily and Sheba are currently hunting Valentines!
They prefer some one as handsome as young Solomon.
Sadly Solomon's lover boy days are over.

Grant's home

Well Grant came home for the weekend. Its nice to have him here.

We had snow Thursday so I didn't have to work. I have Friday's off so its been a long weekend. Its nice to have some time to putter around.

I got my reservations for the family reunion turned in so now I'm getting excited about that. We are warming up the Dutch Blitz and Uno cards. Even the cats are in the act.


In the interest of truth in blogging this is not my cat but one I downloaded off the internet. Looks like one of the family tho don't you think?

Here is another trying to help Grant with his computer problems-must be one he found hanging around campus.
Maybe we could send him over to help Jason with his hardware problems. I wonder how much it costs to ship a cat to Prague?

Camp AuSable Memories

Being at Camp AuSable brought back a lot of memories.

Playing games in front of the old fireplace.
The Lake Shellenbarger shoreline.
The old Camp Sign.
Canoing down the AuSable River.
The dining hall.
I spy something white-trees! And snow.
The sign from the "original" Fort Shellenbarger.
The chapel in the woods where we were married.

Puerto Rico Part II

Grant and Zuri had a great time exploring the countryside.

Grant had a really nice time with Zuri and her mom and step-dad.
I'm not sure he was quite ready to come home.

Grant's Trip to Puerto Rico

Grant went to Puerto Rico for 2 weeks over Christmas break to see his friend Zuri. He opted for the tropical beaches instead of trekking through the cold snowy north with the rest of us.

Grant in a turret.

These 1st two pics are at a fort in Old San Juan.

I'm not sure where these places are but they looked cool. I think it is the Govenor's mansion.

On a Bumper Sticker seen in Grand Haven, MI

"Somebody else for President"

What I did on my Christmas Vacation

We left home and drove 12 hours to get to Gregg's dads in Berrien Springs, Michigan. We had a good trip. Carrie did not really sleep, this is a self portrait.















We spent lots of time walking. We went to Warren dunes and walked up to look over the other side.















This is Gregg and I with David, Gregg's step-brother, his mom Freda and Gregg's dad Jack. Most of us made it to the top. It was a nice sunny day, tho cold and windy at the beach.











This is the lighthouse at St. Joe, Michigan. We had fun walking out to the end of it.

We had a nice visit with Jack and Freda, David, Chuck and Luvre and their doggies. Jack has done lots of work on the house and looks good. Freda, as always, kept us full of good food.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

I got a new job! I turned in my notice today! YES!

I start my new job Jan. 2. It is in Winston Salem at another Internal Medicine practice. I will be working 10 hr days M-Th. I get every Friday off!

Yeah for me!

It's Beginning to Smell a Lot Like Christmas

For your imagining pleasure, these are orange/vanilla flavored.

Notice the Christmas Meezers. They are new, I usually do Christmas Cows.

Bad Pics

Here are my worst pics from Thanksgiving weekend. I think we got a lousy shot of everyone, if not it wasn't for lack of trying.

Lets see: we have me on a bad hair day with 3 meezers trying to escape.

Maggie, bored silly.

A lopsided photo of Grandma trying to get rid of Maggie.

Solomon not participating.

Gregg and Grant, the rednecks in the backyard shooting bottles with the BB gun.

Carrie & Grant making scary self portraits.

Grandpa cogitating.

Oreo loosing her mind in a pile of leaves.

Gregg and Oreo, the couch potatoes

Yep thats pretty much everybody.

The Nine

Here are my nine critters: From left to right Sheba (momma meezer), Myrrh (daughter meezer), Solomon (dad meezer), Lynx aka the "Path of Destruction" (Maine Coon mix), Maggie (GR), Jaz (&Carrie), Oreo Blizzard (& Carrie, "turkey hound"), Lily (daughter meezer), Mia (Persian).

Most of theses pics were taken by me except for Lynx, was shot by Gregg, the pics with Carrie are self portraits.

Gloom, dispair and agony on me!

Stress! This is a venting post. Nobody has to listen. I just need to vent.

The job gets worse. More and more demanded of us with less staff. People have left and not been replaced. We have "No one" in charge of medical records, and they sure weren't trained very well. We all take turns doing this chore, which for us old people is hard on the old bones. I have never been in a doctor's office like this. Imagine with people pulling your charts and bringing you messages, on the wrong chart, don't belong to your Doctor, are useless messages and worse. And if they can't find the chart (about 20% of the time) the notes get thrown at us and we are supposed to scour the entire building for it.

We keep getting moved around and its very frustrating trying to keep up with a Dr. you don't know very well and trying to keep them happy and productive. Management does not have any medical training and makes decisions for financial reasons only. They are big on surveys that show how well we are doing and of course statistics mean nothing except that the form was filled out. And they just plain are not very nice. Most folks are really unhappy, I am continually reassured that its not "just me".

Now they are changing our insurance. We have our choice between a very expensive/annoying Blue Cross plan and Cigna. Well Cigna is dirt cheap and I'm sure the coverage will be comparable. Cigna is notoriously a difficult company to deal with and they don't pay their Doctor's very well so its hard to find one that takes Cigna. Its mind boggling to me to try to figure this $%^# stuff out (sorry for the French mom)! Coverage is next to impossible to pin down. I did find participating doctors, but can't find pharmacies or drug formularies. I spent 2 hours trying to figure this out. Of course the company was NO help at all "just go to the website". And we had to do this all on our own time. That really made me mad. Don't they know I have kitty litter to scoop?

Anyway, I have been looking for a job since I got here. I've had a few interviews and either no good responses, (one really good interview the Dr. developed leukemia and had to retire) or the jobs weren't satisfactory. It's amazing how many people want to hire slaves.

So I signed up for the cheap insurance and hope I find a better job before this comes back to bite me.

Things are better at home. The kitties are havin fun. Solomon continues to torment Mia. Maggie got spayed and seemed really sad at first but feels better now that her staples are out. (I took her staples out myself, I had a surgical staple remover left over from when Carrie was born. We had to clip and fish out a few as they were kinda small. Maggie is a very patient patient.) She has started this really cute thing of getting in the bed with me as soon as Gregg gets up to get his shower.

I do have a hard time getting up in the morning as I usually have a dog laying on me, a cat on my head and one or two cats on my feet.

Oh well, thats enough for now. Aren't you glad I don't have pics of all this joy?

Sunday Funnies

Solomon and I had some nice "outdoor time" today. It was a beautiful fall day so I got the Sunday paper to read on the front porch.
Solomon had fun hiding in the paper and pouncing on it.
His favorite thing was paper tents. He was invisible.

Solomon in Autumn

Solomon the porch monkey.



Me and Solomon ( a self portrait)














The yard.

Funny song!

Try this web site. It will give you something to sing about. www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama.php

WE WENT TO THE FAIR!

This is the Dixie Classic Fair in Winston-Salem. We got in that night for 5 cans of food each. Some chick sang too but we were there for the Jars of Clay. I don't know why my blog underlines everything. Somebody help me!At first they sang a bunch on new song off the new CD including "Dead Man" (as in tired of the old man, in with a new plan. It was fun to watch the concert and have all the lights and the action in the background. Gregg got tired of staying in one place and he was able to get up close and get some good pics.
We had a great time the encore was the best part of the concert. My favorite song they played was "Nothing But the Blood"