Hi Everyone,
In my ongoing effort to keep us together as a family, I'm sending out this e-mail. The beauty of e-mail is I waste no paper and you can easily push the delete button if you think this is spam!

The first piece of news is that Dean is in the hospital with blood clots on his lungs. He may be undergoing a procedure to put a filter in his arteries so that the clots do not reach his heart or brain-that may be happening today. Updates as I receive them. Please keep him in your prayers and mom too as this is hard on her as well as you can all imagine.

Second, before I forget, specifically to Eric-can you narrow down the e-mail addresses that we should use to contact you? I have four in my address book-which one is the best to use? Also, if someone else would rather have family group e-mail come to another address, please let me know.

Third, I have resurrected the family blog. It is still in the same place, http://spwc.blogspot.com/. Now that I have more unscheduled time, I hope to be able to report on family events etc. You are all still invited to contribute, but if you don't, I may contribute for you (so if that doesn't scare you into action....) I have also figured out how to post pictures on it, so those will appear from time to time. Melissa has helped to keep this going as well.

Mom has announced that for her 70th birthday (next year for all those who are as bad at math as I am) she wants a big family get together-so everybody start thinking about that. She has mentioned going over to the Bend area, but no other specifics have been announced.

Finally, on the subject of family get-togethers, for those who are here locally (or anyone else that wants to join us), it looks like this is the way it will go for the remainder of the year:
Father's Day: Jeff/mom (although this may be subject to change depending on Dean's condition). Mom has already sent out an e-mail on this. Depending on what happens, we (Cal and I) will be in charge if mom/Dean aren't up to it.
Fourth of July: Kerry and Melissa have said they will be gone, we also will be gone from the fourth to about the 21st, so I propose that we just combine it with August birthdays that Alan and Mona have agreed to host. A & M have also volunteered for Thanksgiving. Kerry and Melissa have volunteered for Christmas.
Start thinking about next year! Cal and I will do February birthdays to get us started. We can see how other dates are going to work out as we get closer. Again, the proposed get-togethers are:
February- birthdays

April-Easter

May-mother's day

June-Father's day

Fourth of July

August - birthdays

November-Thanksgiving

Christmas-December

Alan and Mona have indicated that some of these will include an invitation to dad and Evie. Including dad and Evie will work for some things and not so well on others, depending on event (Mother's Day may be a little awkward for example), host, and availability. I propose that we get together with them separately at least once a month depending on how the other events fall out and when they are around. I have principally been the instigator for this and will continue to do so (note that I say "principally").

Thanks, everyone. Hope all is well.
posted by Cathy Crandall at 12:07 PM