SEPTEMBER 2002 |
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Editor's Soapbox As many of
you know, I had a "little problem" when I went
home to Saskatchewan to visit in September. I hadn't been
on the ground an hour and I had broken Jackie's car and another one. Broke them
completely, which is just another way of saying wrote
them off. I'd have to say the whole thing came about
because of some "mixed signals" at a light. Not
And the thanks won't be complete without mentioning Dad & Evelyn looking after me so well and even offering their van (brave souls) so that I could drive to Strasbourg to visit Elinor. As Evelyn said to me, "What are the chances you'd have another car accident and write-off another vehicle in less than a week? Take the van." She's such a sweet lady. DAD & EVELYN It was a relatively quiet summer for them. They put their garden in as usual and it did quite well despite the strange weather this year. Evelyn's daughter Sharon came from Winnipeg for a visit in early August. While she was there they had a minor flood in their basement due to a very heavy rainfall. They had to pull back a carpet and Evelyn spent a great deal of time vacuuming up water. They plan to install a small culvert alongside the house to prevent it happening in future. A new and very beautiful carpet was laid in the living room and hallway later in the summer as well. It's a Berber so Dad thinks it will probably last longer than they will. They also had Jo-Anne there for a week in early September for a visit. JIM & MARYANN BRANCH Jim & Maryann
had a busy spring and summer. They had all of their
family home for a visit at one time or another as well as
various other folks. They attended Maryann's family
reunion in Weyburn on the long weekend in August and also
made it to Earl Grey at that time. Jim has also bought a warehouse to go with his store. He plans to use it to store extra goods for the store and to rent out space to others. Jim would like Wayne to know that the kohlrabi was a bumper crop this year. Steven & Meredith bought a townhouse in the spring and moved in at the end of March. Meredith has changed jobs since then. Sonya & Nick, were in Sask to attend a wedding at the end of June and they spent time in Alberta with both sets of folks in the summer as well. Joy & Reg have
had a very busy year. Joy spent the month of June in and
around Calgary, helping to provide support for the G8 Summit. She
was back there again in late August for the Pacific
Armies Management Seminar where she had the opportunity
to rub shoulders with some very high ranking officials
from 33 different countries. She was able to accompany
them on a sightseeing tour to Banff and discovered that
she has no plans to go up on one of the gondolas again.
In late September she was off to Borden for a Safety
Supervisor Course. Her cousin Kim
is getting married in Weyburn not long after that and
they plan to attend. Reg has been working very closely
with Jim in the store, helping to run the business and
has attended several auctions for the store as well.
Reg's sister, Debbie,
has recently moved to Ryley, which is just south of Fort
Sask. She runs a small restaurant and her husband works
in the plant at Fort Sask. All four of Joy and Reg's
daughters are in school now. JEANNE & FRED BRANCH Jeanne
& Fred have
been busy this year. Jeanne is now a charter member of
the National Home Gardening Club. She gets to test out
new products and enjoys many lovely discounts and
opportunities. Her garden was planted a bit later than
usual because of the crummy spring weather. Much of it
ended up suffering from heat stroke during the summer but
the cucumbers and tomatoes both did well, as did the
flowers. She's thinking maybe more flowers and less
veggies next year. It sure will look pretty and some
flowers can be used as edible garnish after all. Jeanne
still works part time at the lottery booth and has great
fun with it. Giving away money is one of her favorite
things (hopefully she only gives it to those who win)
Fred was busy during the summer doing a lot of work for
his brothers and sisters, either because they were too
busy to do it themselves or because they needed his
particular expertise. There is a now a 5 block radius in
the city that has 5 Triffo brothers, a sister and an
Aunt. Another brother and sister live nearby as well. I'm
thinking they should change the name to Triffoville! As for the northern branch of the family, Terry was on strike from May 27 to July 24. He actually did some of the picketing in a snow storm! He managed to keep pretty busy throughout, including doing some work for a company he used to work for. He did a lot of work around home, refurbishing the old camper (he put down new lino and Judy made new curtains). During the strike Judy & Daniel headed down to the West Edmonton Mall for 5 days of fun. They reclaimed more of their back yard by moving the shed up to a rock shelf. Terry built a deck and stairs in the extra space. He also finally put up the clothesline that Judy has been wanting for ages. They added a concrete fire pit so they could have some great barbecues. They did a lot of hot-tubbing this year and had a big party on Labour Day weekend with 30 friends over for burgers, lake trout, hot-tubbing, and music. Last year Daniel took an Alberta Assessment Exam and was one of the few students to get 100%. As a result he moved into a class that is a Grade 4-5 split and he left a few of his good friends behind. They are managing to still get together for good times at recess and after school. Terry drained the hot tub, winterized the boat and put away all the patio furniture on Sept 21st and watched the snow fall the next day so his timing was good. On Oct. 13th he will be flying down to Edmonton to watch a hockey game, his Flyers against the Oilers. From there he will head on to Calgary to visit Brian and Heather for a couple of days and hopefully take in another NHL game with the Flyers against the Flames. He's hoping Michele & Steve will be there at the same time with their family and maybe Reinhold and Grace as well. LARRY & SHARON BRANCH Larry bought himself a brand new truck in January, a 2000 Dodge Dakota quad cab. One of Larry and Sharon's dogs surprised them in March with a gift of 6 new puppies. Larry got behind in many of his gravel related jobs late in the summer because of the heavy rainfall but has pretty nearly caught up now. He's currently working on Amber's truck. There was a wedding in Sharon's family over the summer. Her nephew Jason got married at the end of August. They enjoyed seeing a lot of Sharon's family at that time. Rather than take a summer vacation this year they bought a digital camera and have had a lot of fun with that. This fall they are hoping to take a few days off to go to the Spa and Casino at Moose Jaw for some relaxation. In October they plan a trip to Saskatoon. Dylan curled a lot over the course of
last winter and the early spring. He was on the boy's
team at school and they qualified to go to the provincial
championships in Hudson's Bay in March. They took the
bronze medal for 3rd place in the province. Beginning in
April and running through the summer, Dylan was heavily
into motocross. The season began in Swift Current. Amber moved home at the end of March from the ranch she wintered at near Moose Jaw. She worked at some cabins on the lake for much of summer, doing maintenance of the grounds, etc. She's now down to 2 days a week and hopes to find good winter employment soon. JO-ANNE & ROY BRANCH Roy & Jo-Anne tend to lead a pretty quiet life these days, mostly because that's the way we like it. I've been doing a lot of data entry jobs on a contract basis so that sure keeps my typing skills sharp. Roy continues to do programming for different companies, some are small jobs and others are larger. It does keep him busy pretty much full time. He finished a major re-write of one program and is busy learning new computer languages too. I've been doing more counseling than usual for people who have Crohn's and/or Colitis. Seems to be a lot of that out there these days. I suppose it's a reflection of stressful lives and poor eating and lifestyle habits. I've been doing a lot of mystery shopping over the last months and with the price of gas have really appreciated doing the gas stations. We both went to see Stars on Ice when they were here at the end of April. We tried to make a habit out of spending time on the waterfront on the weekends, having a coffee, going for walks. We decided it might be fun to learn a second language so have been dabbling in Esperanto, which is a very interesting language. We went to a really great July 1st party at the home of some good friends. Lots of musicians there and listening to them all jamming was wonderful. We went to PEI for the long weekend in early August. Had a great time with friends and doing some sightseeing. I flew home for about a week in early September and had some very nice visits out there. Other than the "car trouble" I had upon arrival, the trip was great fun and I managed to get a lot of good visiting in. Saw some of the local relatives in the Strasbourg coffee shop. Enjoyed getting together with everyone for supper in Regina one night. A bunch of us met up at the Strasbourg bar for wings one night and Larry & Sharon had us out one evening as well. Susan,
Rob and kids continue to be as busy as ever. Rob had been
working at the Shipyards but was laid off in June. Just
when he thought he'd have a nice summer at home with the
kids, the company he had worked for previously to the
Shipyards called and asked him to come back. He's been
there ever since. Susan's job continues to be challenging
and very enjoyable for her. She took vacation in August
when her Mom came here for a visit. Her Mom recently
retired and moved to Newfoundland so Susan, her ALLAN & CAROL BRANCH Allan has had quite a heavy work schedule and has been commuting between Regina and Saskatoon since Feb. They are close to breaking ground on the senior's complex he has been in charge of in Regina. Curling season starts at the end of Sept. and he's looking forward to that sort of activity again. He'll be curling in two leagues, one on Saturday nights and one on Monday mornings. He's also been re-elected to serve another 4 year term on the Board of Directors with Luther Care Communities. Allan's new address is: #110 - 140 Meilicke Road, Saskatoon S7K 7Y5 (306)242-4902. Trev has had a very busy year, particularly in his military career. He managed to spend quite a bit of time in Sask over the summer on vacation. He drove out so that he'd have wheels while there. He was at the Craven concert with Chris much of the time and managed to visit pretty near all the family in the neighborhood. He took a Jump Masters course in Trenton over a 3 week period in August. That entails organizing all the people in a jump out of military aircraft. He passed it with flying colors and has been chosen to take a Parachute Instructor course in January. There was a "family and friends day" in September, where they were able to take civilians up with them to watch them do their jumps. A friend of Trev's got some great film while up there. In October he will be back in Trenton for a parachute exercise with different branches of the military. He recently pulled a muscle in his lower back so has been on light duties. He has also moved recently. His new address and phone number are: Trev Uhl, 3RCR, Parachute Company, CFB Petawawa, Petawawa, Ontario K8H 2X3 (613)687-0683. Kelsey is having a busy life, as usual. She is taking 3 classes at university. She enjoys her classes and her profs. She recently got a new job selling cell phones for AirSource, making salary and commission. It looks like she may have inherited the "sales gene" from her Dad. She also still mystery shops. This past summer she played soccer for the first time and had great fun while making a good contribution to her team. She starts ballet again in October. Kelsey and Carol will soon be auditioning for the church dinner theatre, which is a Marx brothers play. Kelsey and her friend Lindsay recently drove to Edmonton to watch their friend Bri perform at the Fringe Festival. Bri is a singer with the group "Jade". Thanks to Trev's visit home in the summer Kelsey now has an obsession with Jeeps and is desperately hoping to acquire one! I'm thinking that will be one of her goals now she has found more employment. In the meantime, if you have a spare Jeep hanging around, let her know. Carol traveled to Edmonton in May for a Sweet Adeline competition. She got together late in the summer with her brother and sisters for their annual sibling retreat weekend. She made a trip during the summer to the U.S. with her "men" in the men's choir she directs. Carol & Kelsey's new address is: #43 - 127 Banyan Cr. Saskatoon S7V 1G5 (306) 242-7240. Kelsey's personal phone # is 242-0641. Chris has completed his 4 year B.Sc. in Computer Science and is still very much enjoying his job at the University. He and his girlfriend Shanin have been going out for a year now. They spent time in Craven at the big summer rock concert and came down to spend time in Earl Grey when Jo-Anne was home in Sept. They hit all the hot spots in town while there and particularly enjoyed their time in the Earl Grey bar. It just occurred to me that Chris is the only person in his immediate family who hasn't changed his address since the last newsletter. Pressure's on Chris! He will probably be satisfied with the renovations he has planned to finish off his basement. Question
Time: I
have a couple of older pictures that I will add into this
spot. |
DON & TRUDY BRANCH Don
& Trudy have been as busy as ever. Don joined a local
theatre group in the spring and found that he really
enjoys being on stage. Nicole was in a track event in
Saskatoon in January. She competed in the senior ladies
group against many who had been to world championships.
All winter was a balancing act for her between track,
basketball and school. Then rugby started up again. She
was at a provincial track meet in Regina in June. Justin was in Vancouver with a youth group for several days in August and had a wonderful time. He loved everything about the trip and wasn't very eager to go home when it was over. He attended his first concert in February with Danielle. It was a very good one with 5 different bands. Danielle was very busy this year working at the Regina Ex as well as the Fringe Festival, the Moose Jaw Motif, and the Flatlands Music Festival in Regina. She does a lot of henna tattoos at these events. She moved to Calgary in August and is coincidentally living only about 10 blocks from where Roy did when he was living there in the 70's. She went to several weddings and concerts over the course of the spring and summer. She's without a car while living in Calgary but loves the city and hopes to find full-time work soon. JACKIE & WAYNE BRANCH Jackie
& Wayne
have been busy again recently on their home renovations
and have completed much of the work on the house. They
are looking forward to unwinding some civic red tape so
they can get started on a deck on the front of the house.
In April Jackie and Wayne's kids put on a 25th anniversary party for them. There were
around 60 people attending. In May they did a motorcycle
run to Fort Qu'Appelle and Indian Head to raise money for
CF and raised about $200. In June they bought a new car.
(see top picture on the left column) By September it had
started to look a bit "worn". Cory went to Saskatoon for surgery
on his knee in mid-July. Denise graduated in June. There seemed
to be a lot of that going around in our family. Brandy
& Craig were happy to be invited to the big event.
Denise and Pat have recently moved back to Brandy
& Craig
took a motorcycle course in May. They both passed with
flying colors and have their learners. In July Craig got
his motorcycle. Brandy has been full-time with CVA and
still loves her job there. Her picture was on the front
of the CVA newsletter when she successfully got a large
number of cars to northern Sask to fight fires. They have a new dog, a golden retriever named Chewbacca. Brandy and Craig's aunt have started a new business venture, making roses out of foam. DIANE & GERRY BRANCH Diane
& Gerry
have been leading a much quieter life since leaving
DiGer's. The whole family went to Edmonton for their
usual February vacation. They spent the entire time at
the mall, as planned, and managed to do a lot of
relaxing. Although "relaxing" isn't the way
that Ger describes the waterslides. Gerry and Ida were very honoured to receive their "Century Farm Plaque" because of their farm being in the family for so long. After returning from Edmonton they did some renovations on their house in Strasbourg and prepared it for sale. (Anyone out there wanna buy a house?) They moved into Regina near the end of August. Their new address is: 4912 Marigold Drive, Regina, SK S4X 4P6 (306) 790-7663. It's within walking distance of Gerry's lottery booth in the Superstore. Diane has started working part-time at the IGA that is across the street from the Superstore. She's been there since late August and enjoys it a lot. Frank has been working at Rogers Video on Albert St. North since last January. He is full-time and a supervisor. He has figured out what he is going to do about his education. His plan is to take Biology at SIAST until next April. He wrote 3 preparatory examinations late in September and feels he did very well on them. He will then enroll in the University of Regina next fall and is going into Education. He plans to major in history and minor in law. Niki earned a medallion and a pennant at YAS basketball camp during the summer. She was very happy to move to Regina late in the summer and has made many new friends already. Her new school is just great and Math is her favorite subject. She plans on trying out for the basketball team in October. She continues to take piano lessons in Earl Grey. She also hopes to get a job between now and next summer. Her dream car is a blue 2003 Ford Mustang Convertible GT. She realizes she will have to do a lot of saving for that, about $36,000 worth of saving. GERMAN BRANCH Axel & Petra have had a very busy spring and summer. Axel has done some traveling. He was in Orlando on business in June. He had some trouble with immigration while there. Seems that on a previous U.S. trip a clerical error was made and his passport hadn't been marked that he had left the U.S. When he arrived in Orlando they then thought that he had been there for 13 months over 1997-98, which is a big no-no and means a 5 year ban from the U.S. He was beginning to think a 5 year ban would be a good idea because he was so irritated with them anyway, but after several hours and dozens of questions in a nasty little interrogation room, they figured it all out. He was in Hong Kong in August for a prestigious scientific conference on VLDB (very large data bases). He wasn't overly impressed with Hong Kong. I believe his description was: "too loud, too tacky, too flashy, too crowded and too stinky." He later drove to Montpellier, France for a scientific conference on object-oriented information systems. Petra passed her course and her official title is, Steuerberater, which loosely translates into tax accountant. She is working in her chosen field now. Axel has been working feverishly on his doctorate for some time now and is getting very close to achieving it. He hopes to take the final, oral exam later this year. He will then be: Dr. rer. nat. Dipl.-Inform. Axel Uhl. (or something like that) Sounds impressive to me. Axel and Petra toured through southern France between Nice and Geneva in the summer. Two weeks of motorcycle riding, about 3000 km. They visited the Canyon du Verdon, as well as several other canyons and caves, having a wonderful time everywhere. Axel's Dad, Otto, had hip surgery in mid-September. He has had the hip replaced 3 times now on the one side and the bone was worn out, breaking when they tried to replace the metal pin that makes the head of the hip joint. They patched it with metal wires and it will require some time on crutches and rehabilitation. Inge traveled every day to Opladen to visit him after the surgery was completed and hoped to have him home early in October so she could care for him herself. RELATIVELY SPEAKING Uncle
Erwin was
in Saskatoon at the end of July for the World Women's
Softball Championships. Wendy & Dick are both working full-time but managed to take some good vacation time this year. They headed home to Strasbourg for Easter and hope to get there again for Thanksgiving. They went to Emma Lake to camp for 10 days in August. Dick and Chris managed to get a lot of golfing time in over the summer. Dick is preparing for hunting season now. Chris worked at a gas station for much of the summer. He has changed courses at SIAST in Moose Jaw and is now taking accounting. He expects to be finished at the end of April. Don
& Jos McEwen sent a picture of their new grandson, Hudson
Ethan McEwen, born June 9/02. Michele
& Steve sent a picture that was taken
at Kristina's grad, this past May. In this pic are Michele's 3 children: Brendan, Kristina and Shayne, and their younger sister (Ted Bundus' daughter) Ryann. Reinhold and Grace were there for the graduation. They were also there to watch Brendan practice his soccer. His coach's wife is Grace's niece. Kristina stayed on the base to work for the summer and moved to Edmonton at the end of the summer where she has been accepted at the Est-Elle Hair Academy. Kim Brevig
sent a lovely picture of herself from when she attended
her friend Morgan's grad. Morgan is her friend who
accompanied her to ReUHLion2001. Helen & Fred's daughter, Brook, has moved
to Vancouver to attend Simon Fraser University for a
couple of years. Helen traveled out with her to find an
apartment and get settled in. Brook is making friends and
enjoying her classes very much. Brook returned to Canada
from England in May. She has promised to do a lengthy
write-up on her time there so please check back to the
bottom of this page in the next few days when it should
be ready. Aunt
Janette & Uncle Ed were both in
Regina in July to celebrate Val's birthday. Most of
Janette's kids were there and everyone had a wonderful
time. It was Uncle Ed's first trip home in many years. Heard from Mom's cousin, Cliff Ebenal. He is doing extremely well since his 7 bypass heart surgery a year ago. Not long after that surgery he and his wife took a trip to BC. During the past winter they took a couple of trips to Moose Jaw to enjoy the spa, then a few trips to Winnipeg over the winter and spring to visit their new grandson. During their summer holidays they took their motor home to Duck Mountain Provincial Park in Manitoba. Cliff's Mom, who is 82, spent some time in hospital, threw out all her old medications and started on different ones. She is now feeling great, walking to church nearly every morning and playing cards every afternoon. Cliff's brother had a mild heart attack last month (darn those Ebenal genes) and had angioplasty immediately after. Brian & Heather moved to Calgary this summer where Brian has a new job in the computer industry. Their new address is: 1008 - 72nd Ave NW, Calgary, AB T2K 0P6. I hear that Brian is very much enjoying his new job. Heather is working on web-sites from home. They are experimenting with something new right now, Heather will homeschool all of the children for one year. It turns out that there are enormous resources out there for this sort of thing and much planning has gone into it for them. Brian and Adam are planning to join a small robotics building club at SAIT. Corbin is taking Hapkido classes, while Jen is in Air Cadets again. Jen is also in a teen drama club with other home schooled teenagers. Adam & Corbin also go to a chess club occasionally. They're considering an Archery Club and have several very interesting field trips planned. Adam and Jen are taking part in a Provincial Youth Conference later this month where they will be discussing teen issues with other teenagers. Their new e-mail address is: brian@uhls.ca Address Update: Steven & Meredith Uhl are now at #7 - 2223 St. Johns St., Port Moody, BC V3H 4L9 (604)939-6460. E-mails are: stevenuhl@telus.net and malutka@hotmail.com Click on this link to read all about Brook's experiences while living in London. Brook's London |