OK, just to make it official, we had to blogg-bragg a bit about this new little generation of Roaches we have been working on in our brief 3 years of marriage. On Wednesday, Sofia and I had our 2nd Roach kid of the (4th?) generation. As you all know, so far, these two, pictured left, are the only Roaches of their generation. Baby Elena was a trooper; born 6-14 and 19 inches, she was about 3 weeks early and needed a little jump start. But by the 48th hour, she was running like clockwork. We are now at home, where the baby is breast feeding nicely (thanks to our refusal to allow the nurses to formula feed her-- we stayed patient and worried for a while), and she and her brother are getting along just fabulously. (yea, right. I've never seen this little personality Patricio's got going on lately...but he's doing pretty well under the circumstances.) We opened a little bottle of Dom Perignon last night with the Thornhill's and Joe Bo's household to commemorate the event. Too bad for Sofia! (she took a little taste). Needless to say, we are really excited, and hope to be seeing you all very soon. bpr

Getting Excited for Christmas

All, just thought I'd start a new blogg strand letting you all know how excited we are for the Christmas Holiday. As many of you may have known, Sofia went into the hospital last thursday as she was in premature labor. She is officially 4 weeks from having little Elena, and they did an amniocentisis (sp) to check to see if they could deliver due to Sofia's accelerated contractions. Turns out little Elena's lungs were not fully developed, so they built a few medicinal concoctions for Sofia to reverse the labor. (we were in the hospital for 3 days...) It worked, and we are home, although Sofia is constantly having contractions and in a lot of pain. She is also on bedrest, extreme bedrest, so life is great for all (yea, right!). Anyhow, the baby of course is oblivious to all of this, and chilling out in utero, although apparently longing to exit said utero as soon as medically possible. Long and the short: we are expecting a baby any single day now. Please keep little Elena and Sofia in your prayers lately. Our doctors say that even if we deliver tomorrow, things ought to be OK, but every day in the womb predicts a better and healthier baby. That's the word for now. THanks for all your calls and prayers, vistits, etc. We have a wonderful extended family, and we greatly appreciate it.

Congratulations!

I just wanted to extend my congratulations to Jack and his team on a state championship. We are all so happy for you Jack!
Love,
Nick, and I am sure everyone else

Christmas Idea

All,

This may be against blogging rules, but I thought you would appreciate the message I got today from my friend Linda "aka Lijie". She came to Thanksgiving a few years ago, and is still trying to keep the music sceen alive. Check her out, and if you are interested, it will make a great gift for the recipient, as well as a little bonus for her! She is really good, and more albums are to come. Most importantly, she has met most of you so you can put the CD on when guests are over and when they say "wow, who is that amazing musician you are playing in the background to impress me???" you can say, ah that's my old friend Lijie, she is really good! (and sell more albums!)

Take a listen:


Hi,

Still puzzling what to get those couple of people on your list that
are always hard to buy for?

How about the gift of music?

If you've enjoyed the songs at some of my gigs this year, or even
purchased a CD or two for yourself, why not buy some as holiday
gifts? They make great stocking-stuffers, and are enjoyable year
'round.

"ROAM" includes songs like "So High", "Blue", "Roam", "Love Me If You
Can", and "Bar Song", which have all received recognition at the 2004,
2005, and 2006 UK Songwriting Contests.

If you would like to listen to some samples, you can visit
www.myspace.com/lijiemusic.

So, here's how to buy....

One CD is $10. Two for $18. Three for $25.

You can purchase them from me personally if you see me (I almost
always have some with me), or order them to be shipped.

Shipping costs are $2.50 per CD. If you have a Paypal account, you
can send the money to email account lijie@lijiemusic.com, which is
fast and easy to use! Please remember to include shipping and
handling = ) Or if you'd like to pay via check or money order, just
contact me by email, and I can give you details of where to send
payment.

Thank you again for your continued support, and have a wonderful
holiday season.

blessings,
-lijie-
www.lijiemusic.com
myspace.com/lijiemusic

Hi Family...
I just wanted to say what a great thanksgiving that was! It was so fun to see everyone and get reaquainted. And not to mention---the food!! Thanks to those who cooked, cleaned and hosted everything! I know we didnt go around and say what we were thankful for on Thrusday, but I am thankful for ALL of you!!! Hope everyone had a safe trip home. Cant wait until the next time!
Love you all!
Love, Lib

New Orleans

So again it seems as if I have the dubious(?) honor of following up Eamonn with a blog post. I am not attempting to be a one-upper but perhaps rather a late opening act for him.

I too had a slight loss of balance the other night (read a nose dive (or two)) – [do parentheses within other parentheses work in a sentence or should I use brackets? n/m] – as part of a fantastic field trip with my civil engineering class to New Orleans. More on the learning experience in a moment. As part of the trip, we spent two nights out on the town on Bourbon Street. Never have I seen such smut and debauchery and yet never have I had so much fun. (Weird how those go hand in hand). However, I was merely an observer and not a partaker in this filth. Bourbon Street is filled with bars and places of ill repute to say the least. The former being the source of the fun and the latter being the subject of observation and slight trepidation. Each night as we walked around in groups of varying sizes, bouncers and hypemen would approach us on the street to beg and plead with us to enter their establishment. We experienced the lights and sounds of New Orleans, soaked up the culture, literally and figuratively, danced, and listened to live bands perform for most of the night, before heading back to our hotel for a good night of sleep prior to beginning our 17+ hour day the next morning. (Now for you aunts and young cousins out there, you can do the math to figure out my age, but before you go condemning me you need to realize that New Orleans has slightly different rules regarding beverage consumption.) To make this long story short and generalize some of the details, in the midst of one of these nights, I suddenly experienced a slight loss of balance on Bourbon Street resulting in a nice shiner on my forehead the next morning.

Now the important details. Three of my civil engineering professors have been consultants in the recovery of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. They have aided in levee reconstruction, hurricane analysis, and remediation of contaminants in the Mississippi River, among other things. As part of an effort to not only educate us in the classroom but also in the ways of social and professional responsibility, our professors took us on this four day, three night field trip of New Orleans and the Mississippi River with University sponsorship and funding. A group of 60+ students and faculty were bussed to Chicago and then flown down to New Orleans. Upon arrival, we immediately embarked on a dinner cruise on the Mississippi River. This was the first meal of my favorite part of the trip – the food. We had catfish, mardi gras pasta, almond chicken, bread pudding and so much more. After this cruise we had our first night on the town. After roughly two hours of sleep, we woke up and went to the Army Corps of Engineers offices and heard a few briefings. Needless to say some people, professors included, dozed off for brief moments of the presentations. Following this, we toured the various canal systems and pump stations that were/are meant to protect New Orleans from flooding. After lunch we visited the Lower 9^th Ward. This was an eye-opening experience. Even with people warning us how much destruction there was, we couldn’t have been prepared for what we saw. There were still cars on roofs, houses in the middle of streets, empty foundations, etc. Houses were marked with a certain pattern by rescuers with one of the markings indicating if bodies were found. Although there were many zeros, there were also a number of ones and twos. The amount of destruction certainly was disheartening but the recovery strides being taken were obvious as well. After this sobering experience, we went to another fantastic restaurant called Jacques-Imo’s. We were served plate after plate of fantastic food: special sausage, eggplant, and crocodile sausage cheesecake, to name a few. And these were just the appetizers; for the main course I settled on a rabbit dish while some of my friends had such things as grouper, duck, boullibaise(sp?) among other things, finished off by bread pudding. After dinner we departed for Vicksburg where we went straight to bed. Seriously. The next day we toured the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center. It was an amazing place with the largest supercomputer in the Department of Defense which processes huge amounts of data in a variety of projects. We then toured a series of canals called the Old River Control which regulates Mississippi River water flow and Atchafalaya River water flow to the Gulf. This was a great learning experience Uncle Bill which you probably would be interested in, that is if you and everyone else are still reading. That night we had dinner on a haunted plantation in Louisiana. Once again, the food was stunning. We then drove back to New Orleans for a Bourbon Street remix. Needless to say, it lived up to the standard set the first night. So once again after two more hours of sleep, pushing the week total to about nine hours, we woke up and went on a seven hour boat cruise of the Mississippi. We then hopped on a plane and flew back home. For more details about either the fun or the learning or both, let me know. I would love to tell you about it.

The week didn’t end here for me though. After getting home at 1130pm on Wednesday night, I unpacked and repacked before leaving at 530am Thursday morning for Colorado Springs, CO as part of a field trip with Air Force ROTC to visit some bases as a front for the real reason of going to the Notre Dame-Air Force Academy football game. So in the span of a week I went on two completely free field trips in opposite parts of the country.

As I finish this up, my parents and siblings are driving to South Bend from Chicago for what looks to be another fantastic weekend. So for all you younger cousins out there, work hard in school, get good grades, and consider attending this fine institution of higher learning (and fun).

Little Girl Schneider!

Hello Family,

Just thought you all might like to know that Jim and I are having a baby girl! We found out on Friday...she is about 21 weeks now, so more than half-way through and everything looks good so far. Jimbo is in a little shock---I don't think he has ever considered it a possibility that he would have a daughter. Uncle Ed, you might have to have a heart-to-heart with him and explain the ropes....

I know that you have all seen MILLIONS of ultrasound pictures, but I would feel like I wasn't being very "excited-new-mom-to-be" if I didn't post some too.

We are sooo looking forward to T-giving!

Love to all,
Shannon

Fear of Heights?

Well, being the one who did jump (crash-land) from the "high place" all that I can say is don't do as I have done, unless you are ready for the consequences. I have never really been afraid of heights and to prove it I took the leap of faith. After reading all about Wimble in MT I thought my life was a little too easy. So, while still quite far from crossing the divide or committing suicide, I jumped off a roof maybe 10-15' high to a concrete trampoline. Im now living the high life on crutches and my upper body is getting the workout it finally deserves. I've been meaning to get the upper body buffed out for a long time, and I guess in the words of Jim Carrey that I heard in an interview one time, "Well, Im the kind of guy that if I had to learn to write with my left hand, I'd start out with cutting my right one off." So by ridding the legs from the equation, I can finally focus on the arms. [Full disclosure: I was walking home one night and decided to visit a spot that I often frequent, the Gymnasium roof at Seattle U (I was alone) and went up to the top (like I'd done a million times before), looked at the great view of the city (like I'd done a million times before), and when I had had enough of the beautiful view (and the crisp autumn air), I exited/jumped off of the roof (like I'd done a million times before). Like Uncle Mike wrote to a privledged few (not me), there were a few other variables in the equation. So instead of landing in a forward leaning position, kind of a crouch-ing-ish position, I did more of a butt-buster (for all of you who have ever jumped into a pool from the diving board, you do more of a mock driving position. (If this picture isn't coming out in the head I'll be back in Pasco to demonstrate over Thanksgiving.) Long story short, I'm out of Painkillers (like the 2nd day), I walk around the house unaided (like an old man), and for the long-distances I either crutch it or get a taxi, or since I have no money, I stay at home (the fun comes to me).] Hope all goes well with Y'all, don't worry about me, and continue with your (boring, mundane j/k) lives. ER
P.S. I want to see how many "you're an idiot" responses I can get out of this, so the more the merrier, and if its already been said, just reply 'ditto'.

SAN DIEGO FUN!!!!

It was great to see most of you this past week during my visit to Pasco. I wish I would have had more time to spend there, but I had to get back to the sick kids in San Diego. I know that I have been an absent blogger these days. I just wanted all our cousins to know that I still stand by my last blog of having a 21+ weekend get-together in SD. So let me or Cait know who all is interested (realistically=funds, time, no school or work) so we can start planning!
Peace out,
NER

TC Prep Homecoming Pictures at Thornhills

A fun time was had by all last night.

Perpetual Roach Reunion

Perpetual Roach Reunion
Hello All, I just received this note from my boy David who is in Granada, Spain for a year: " Hey dad I did figure that out thanks. I just got back from one of the most enjoyable trips of my life, we went to Gibraltar, Seville, and Cordoba, and it was just fantastic. In Gibraltar I had a monkey sit on my head!!" On another note, my son Bart returns tomorrow from 3 months in Guatemala. He will interview 10/31 @ the dental school in Phoenix, then be in Pasco on All Souls Day. Wear your seatbelts. Don't leap from hight places. With love, JMR

Hello to my Family

Hello Everyone! I hope that everyone is alive and well. Let me start by telling allof you that I miss you very much. I should let all of you know that I am in Gardiner, Montana the north entrance of Yellowstone National Park and I am and have been working for Warren Johnson (the man who Luke, David and John all worked for) I have been here since June 20th and I'll probably return home November 29th. I've been working as hard as I can and have not had a day off since I got here. My experiences have gone from getting bucked off of multiple horses to riding over the top of the absaroka divide at 10:00 PM in a blizzard with 15 mule loads behind me alone to driving home from the yellowstone park hellroaring trailhead at 1:00 at night also alone and almost hitting a black bear and a wandering lone bison within ten minutes from one another on my way home. Suffice it to say I'm getting an education in toughness, both mental and physical, and common sense. Right now it is snowing and 20 degrees which means that the elsk should be here for the beginning of General season (Sunday). I just thought I should update all of you and tell you I love you. Hopefully you're all visiting Grandma as often as possible...I can't wait to see all of you!
Peace be with you all!
With love and prayers,
Wim

Email Notification of New Posts

Hey guys, I'm your friendly neighborhood Blog administrator, and I think that I've enabled a way to notify you, via email, when there is a new post to the Blog! Pretty cool, I hope.

My schedule for the next six weeks looks like this: Albany, OR > Roseburg, OR > Bend, OR > Pasco, WA > New York, NY > Salem, OR > Eugene, OR > Chicago, IL > Pasco, WA > Klamath Falls, OR > Medford, OR > Pasco, WA > SLEEP!!!!!!

Request for Information

Request for Information

Mike,

How about a report on how your hunting trip to BC went this year? You had a great group again and we really enjoyed seeing you, Xavier, Howard and Cal. We don't often get a return trip back through Bellingham and we are interested in all of your adventures. Got pictures??

Bill

Summary of my Year

Ok so I have been a bit slow about doing this. But I have been thinking about it since Uncle Tom posted that we, who have been away, should post what we did during that time period. So here is a very short summary of my year abroad in Florence.
The highlights include, but are not limited to: attending Oktoberfest in Munich (craziness!),visiting Dachu, sights from the Sound of Music in Salzburg, swam in the Mediterranean, slept on the beach on Elba (right below the house where Napoleon was exiled), explored each of the 5 cities of Cinque Terre in the pouring rain, swimming in one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, the Blue Grotto, exploring Pompeii, celebrating the cannonization of 5 new Saints with thousands of people from all over the world and attending Pope Benedicts mass and receiving his blessing, gazing at the Sistine Chapel, seeing the Pieta up close, pilgrimaging to the top of Apperation Hill in Medjugore, seeing the (still) war torn city of Mostar in Bosnia, walking along the Charles bridge in Prague, seeing the Cliffs of Moher and the city of Galway, the vangogh museum in Amsterdam, attending Christmas mass in the 2nd largest catherdral in the world, seeing an authentic flamenco show in Sevilla, walking through the Alhambra, spending New Years Eve in Fez, Morocco, walking the streets of the market in Marrakesh, visiting Mozarts house in Vienna, Seeing the Mafia in Sicily, attending the Olympics in Turin, visiting Juilets house, going to carnivale in Venice, attending St. Patricks day in Dublin, Guiness in Ireland, Seeing the Guell park in Barcelona, seeing the French Riveria, attending a huge Easter celebration in Florence, having the David be my next door neighbor, walking to school and seeing the Duomo everyday, the ponte Vecchio, the paintings in the Uffizi, a six day safari in Kenya, working in an orphanage in Tanzania and being able to do it all!
So that is what I was busy doing all last year. I hope this is what you meant Uncle Tom!
Hope all of you are doing well! Cant wait to see you at Thanksgiving!
Love you all,
Lib

Riverhaven Zone of Danger

It has officially become a zone of danger in these parts. Even Quarter Inch, Dickie Dont has been rallying over the course of the last week. Its a constant migration of Potters, Thornhills, Roaches, and Dickie Doo Dont's coming over on a regular basis. I have a bet going that Sinead will be living at our house through her junior high years... She is the best friend to Patricio! I couldnt have wished for a better arrangement over here. What a wonderful setup. And even with Dickie do-Barb-dont-Barb, its a blast! They are in the midst of designing a house, apparently, supposedly, on DickieDont's Claire Foley property, and are looking to sell Barb Cournyer's House immediately. Anybody want to move into the hood?

bpr

Riverhaven Roach Move-In

All: it is official. We closed our house today, and will be taking possession on Saturday, Sept. 30th, 2006. Whiicchhhh-- means that we will be MOVING on that day too... Our homeowners (ACTUALLY, WE ARE NOW THE HOMEOWNERS) are promising to be out by 2 pm on saturday. We, in turn, will be commencing operations at that point. (great timing for the ND game...). IF ANY OF YOU WOULD LIKE TO JOIN IN THE FUN AND BEER THAT WILL BE INVOLVED IN THIS PROJECT, PLEASE STOP BY!! WE WILL BE BEARING MOST OF THE RESPONSIBILITY IN THIS, BUT IT WILL BE A FUN TIME! CALL ME OR BLOGG AND LET US KNOW IF YOU CAN STOP BY TO SEE THE DIGS...

SUNDAY WILL BE FUN FILLED AS WELL. THANKS! BPR

Sullivan Reunion - Summer '07

I've sent an email to the (non Roach) extended Sullivan family members to find out the level of interest in getting together next summer and to determine everyone's preferred dates.

If I'd included all the Roaches, the volume of emails would have worn everyone out. From our discussion about the family campout, it's clear that most weekends will work for everyone.

I'll let everyone know the responses when I've received them and we can do our planning from there.

Dan

Family Campout '07

On the trip to Alaska we had a discussion about the best possible weekends to have a family campout next summer and concluded that we ought to shoot for the weekend of July 7-8. There seemed to be no conflicts with that date. Assuming that most of us will want to start the weekend on about Thursday, you should mark out July 5-8 on your calendar.

We talked about venues and came up with two possibilities that I and my able assistant are going to pursue.

The first would be a return to one of the group campsites at Mt. Ranier National Park. Last time we went there, I made the reservations. Back then reservations couldn't be made until 8 a.m. on January 2. Several of us got on a conference call at about 7:40 a.m. on January 2 that year and had the phone ringing until it was answered and we got our reservations. At that time three of the campgrounds in the park had group sites that could be reserved. Individual sites could not be reserved. I will check into the current rules but doubt that they have changed.

The second plan would involve renting a bunch of houses in close proximity to each other at Cannon Beach. That could be cost prohibitive but I got marching orders to look into that possibility as well and will be doing that in the near future.

If neither of those venues work (and we may not know about Mt. Ranier until January), then we can reconnoiter sometime later and kick around other ideas.

In the meantime, mark your calendars and tell all your friends and in-laws that they need to plan their weddings and reunions around our July 7-8 get-together.

The other thing that we ought to be doing at this time is conferring with the extended Sullivan family about whether or not there's going to be a Sullivan family reunion this summer. If there is going to be a reunion, then we ought to establish the date for that very, very soon for the sake of all who may want to be involved.

Who is the acting chairman on that committee?

4021 W. Riverhaven-- Update to old post

Just a little update from our old post: Sofia and I have been approved for, and just signed our committment letter with the Bank today, and will be signing closing documents on Tuesday for 4021 W. Riverhaven (it has such a regal tone to it, the street name. such nostalgia...). Anyhow, we will be taking over occupancy, bills in our name, etc., next Sunday. We will try to move as much in as possible on Sunday, but will probably be in the drag of the process through the 1st week of October. Which means on the 2nd weekend of October, we should have a little informal house party while its still nice outside. Tere and Katie already told us they would buy all the beer for any party we have for a one year break in period, then we're on our own. I think they included wine in that offer too.

Thanks for all the support during this process. It has been fun. Well, not really fun, fun, but it will be fun to live there...

E-mail notification of new comments on Blog

All,

Inside your Blogger preferences, there is an option you can check that will notify you if a new COMMENT has been posted to the blog. Note that it will not notify you when a new POST is added.

Just FYI, but it sure comes in handy for me.

4021 W. Riverhaven

All: Sofia and I are about 2 weeks from being the next and new riverhaven roaches. We just recieved the banks final appraisal on the house we have contracted to buy, and the appraisal came back right on target. After the bank approves us in the next week, we will be new neighbors to Katie and Tere to the west (2 doors from Potters, and 3 doors from Dickie Do, and about 3 doors from Dickie Dont-- I mean Barbs). The house is 4400 square feet and has 6 bedrooms, 4 baths, an inground pool, a hot tub, and 1 acre of land including a mature weeping willow tree (salix babylonica-- my favorite!), which the thornhills will continue to love cleaning up after. the wind usually blows east over there, apparently. We will be more than excited to host any upcoming parties, as this is a very nice house for us to bring guests into. And unlike the current situ over here at 1555, there are no known pit bulls-- besides Steve Potter-- in the neighborhood. Pretty exciting!

Perpetual Roach Reunion

All,

To start off, I'm not the biggest fan of God music. That being said, I want you to know that Aunt Nancy put on a SPECTACULAR hosting job for tonight's John Michael Talbot show. She single-handily organized the show, which turned out to be a near capacity audience. The proceeds all going toward the Luke Roach Scholarship foundation.

JMT rocked the church! He ranged from bluegrass to Stevie Ray Vaughan. He really is a great musician. He had two backup guitarists, a bassist, and another on percussions. He played the guitar, electric guitar, and the banjo. Although I’m not hitting the road as a groupie, I did appreciate seeing a bit of talent come through the Tri-Cities, and Aunt Nancy made it happen!

For those of you that were able to make it, Tri-City Prep current and future students thank you. If you weren’t able to make it, you can still send your $25 admission (or whatever you feel) to:

Luke Roach Scholarship

521 N. Rd 40

Pasco, Washington

99301

This wasn’t intended to be a solicitation, but the contribution can never hurt! It was a very emotional show for me because I think Luke would have been a big fan. He really appreciated good music, and would have been very humble to see how many people contributed to his cause. I think it was an inspiration to all. We should remember how blessed we are to have him as a part of our lives, as well as all those among us that are still able to contribute to this “Perpetual Roach Reunion”!

Let’s all take a minute to think of our cousin/brother/nephew/son, and smile because although life can bring us hardships, it is also a daily blessing that we all need to remember.

-LR

With love,

Joseph Roach

The 20 Week Ultrasound!

Hey Everyone,

We just got the 20 week ultrasound and learned that we're having yet another little BOY! We're all very excited! He looks very healthy and active. Enjoy the photos!

Love,

John, RoseAnne, Isaac, Jack and Baby Boy #3

David in Granada

Hey all, I am counting on Dad forwarding this email to everybody, so it is addressed to all.

Things here in Spain are going wonderfully. Right now I am in an intensive language course at El Centro de Lenguas Modernas, or the center for modern languages, which is the language school for the University of Granada. There are a couple hundred people that are in school at the center right now but most are American and the others are Europeans from various countries that are learning spanish. The main university doesnt start until october, so right now I am not speaking as much spanish as I would like with the students. Many of the kids speak no spanish, so I cant practice with them, but in our classes we speak constantly. Also, we live alone right now, so until our roommates arrive in a couple of weeks I cant speak spanish around the house because my roommate doesnt know any at all. So in order to practice my spanish, I need to go to the bars at night. This actually works really well, because all of the spanish guys want to hook up with the American girls and so they talk to us and hang out with us a lot. I am pleasantly surprised to find out that I can converse pretty well with the spaniards, but Im not comfortable enough yet to try and swerve any spanish chicks. That will have to wait. We are all excited for the main school to start because 60,000 people go to school there so 30,000 spanish women will flood the city. Almost every girl here is good looking and there are many, many super hot chicks. Nobody here is overweight and they are all really stylish, so I am sure this combination has a lot to do with it. Life here is really different, everybody is laid back and relaxed about everything. The Spanish are really social, so there are always people sitting in the plazas talking, drinking coffee or wine, and enjoying the day. The city itself is beautiful, the architecture is wonderful, there are orange, lemon, lime, and date palm trees all over the place, and a plaza with a fountain and a statue every couple of blocks. Once I get a bit of a collection of pictures I will email them, so you can all see what I am talking about. I suppose that is about all for now, once we start traveling around I am sure that I will have a lot more to say.

Much love to all,

David

The Roach Family Crest

This is a pretty neat description of the origin of the Roach family name I just found....

Did you know Roach means "Rock"? So many perfect applications for that definition....

Don't let the long first paragraph scare you!



Origin: Irish

Non-Gaelic elements made their first appearance in Irish nomenclature after the Strongbow settlers began to arrive on Irish shores. Although the Irish already had an established a system of hereditary surnames, the Anglo-Normans also brought their own traditions with them when they arrived. The two systems were not extremely conflicting, and eventually drew upon one another. Although local surnames, such as Roach, were not entirely unknown to the Irish, this form of surname was much more popular with the Strongbownians. Local names were taken from the names of a place or a geographical feature where the person lived, held land, or was born. Originally, these place names were prefixed by de, which means from in French. This type of prefix was eventually either made a part of the surname, if the place name began with a vowel, or was eliminated entirely. The local names of these Anglo-Norman invaders first referred to places in Normandy, or more typically England, but eventually for those Strongbownians or their descendents that remained in Ireland, the local names really did begin to refer to local places or geographical features of the island. The Roach family appears to have originally lived in a rocky area or near some notable rock. The surname Roach is derived from the Old French word roche, which means rock. The surname Roach belongs to the class of topographic surnames, which were given to people who resided near physical features such as hills, streams, churches, or types of trees. The Gaelic form of the surname Roach is de Róiste.

Spelling variations include: Roche, Roach, Roache, LaRoche, LaRoach, DeLaRoach, Roack, Roch, Roiche, St.Roche, Rocheland, Rochellan and many more.

First found in county Limerick where they were granted lands by Strongbow whom they accompanied into Ireland during the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1172.

Some of the first settlers of this name or some of its variants were: William Roach settled in Virginia in 1707; Edmund, Frederick, James, John, Margaret, Mary, Michael, Patrick, Richard, Thomas and William Roach all arrived in Philadelphia between 1840 and 1870.
Motto Translated: My God is my rock.

PARTAAYYY IN SD 2007!!!!! 21 and OLDER!!!!

Projected Date: Either March 9-11 or March 16-18 (majority rules, so whichever date is voted for most!)
Restrictions: Must obtain valid 21+ id. (whether or not the picture and name are you, use your discretion)
Target Population: Roach cousins, spouses, S.O.'s or potential S.O.'s.
Plan: Party like Rock Stars with Caitlin and Colleen in their new ruled city, with lots of beach lounging time.
Where: San Diego, of course. We are your new SoCal cousins!!!!
Exceptions: Some aunts and uncles may think this sounds like a brilliant idea, and would like to join in on the fun. We vote.........................................most likely noooot gonna happen, but you may test the vote if you're feeling lucky :0)
Accommodations: Bomb-diggity, resort-style apartamentos in La Jolla. (courtesy of Colleen and Caitlin)
RSVP: BLOG

Official Date will be posted when we have sufficient responses by fellow blogging cousins or word of mouth to those cousins who aren't cool enough to blog.
-Colleen/Caitlin/Miguel-honorary non-cousin

Perpetual Roach Reunion

Hi All,
I just had an excellent phone call from Bart via some sort of computer hook-up. The connection was perfect! He sounded great, happy and has had excellent experiences, has many plans and a very busy agenda. He was getting ready to fix dinner with a group of friends! He had just gotten pick-pocketed in a busy crowded touristy congested bottle-neck by a 8yo girl who passed his wallet off to her father. He lost his wallet, bank card, driver license, ~$30US. His wallet was in his front pocket and he was even thinking it would be a spot for such a caper!!!! These felons are very good. In his youth hostel later he learned others had had the same experience in the exact same location!!! Nancy, does this remind you of the same modus operendi in Rome @ the Vatican?

Anyway, he is happy, healthy and having a good experience.

As ever,
daddio or big mike

--
John Michael G Roach, MD
GASTROENTEROLOGY
"The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory...but progress." --Joseph Joubert (1754-1824)

Happy Birthday Tommy!!!!

Two 15-Year Olds for a Week!

Just so you know, we have 2, count 'em, 2, Fifteen year olds for this week in our household!!!!

G-Ma's Fresh Coat

Last weekend, a crew of us led by Kevin and Brian Roach put in a total of approximately 100 man (and woman) hours, giving Grandma a freshie. Uncle Pat deserves extra props for being the only Oldie who was with us for the duration.

A good time was had by all, and Grandma LOVES her new paint job!

Observe:

John Michael Talbot Concert

All,

As you probably know, the Luke Roach Scholarship Fund is putting on a concert featuring John Michael Talbot, monk and guitaris extraordinaire. This concert will be a little different from his last one here, as he will be performing songs from his newest album "Monk Rock", which should be a little "friendlier" to my generation.

We would love all of your help in promoting this. We haven't sold as many tickets as we'd like yet, and we really need to get on the ball.

Here is a PDF that contains all the pertinent information. If you have any questions, please direct them to My Mother Nancy.

Thanks, and with your help we can make this a big success for Prep and for Luke's legacy.

Big Month for the Thornhills

Big Month for the Thornhills

I was checking out one of those calendars that have important dates for each month of the year and August just screamed Thornhills.

Looking at 3 birthdays (Ailis, Fiona and Sinead) and the 18th wedding anniversary for Tere and Katie made me think how lucky we are to have you all in our lives. What at loss it would have been had you two never met and deprived the community of your love, committment and those beautiful daughters...thank the Lord for Irish Bars!

Enjoy a great August,

Love,
Bill

Let's Plan Another Family Campout (a/k/a "Herding Cats!!")

My calendar this week reminded me once again that this first weekend of August is the one we set aside several years ago to stage an annual family campout. If there's some interest in getting something going for next summer, please offer your input.

I think we've gone to Mt. Ranier twice and to the Leavenworth area once. Last time we discussed it (three summers ago) we kicked around the idea of going to a campground at the Gorge near Bonneville Dam. Then Liz's family and mine headed to the East Coast instead. Without us being present, naturally no one else wanted to get together. We enjoyed lobster w/the Sullivans in Maine w/o you guys!!

The Winthrop area is gorgeous, as is the Olympic Penninsula. (Remember camping at Klalock when we were kids?) Vancouver Island has a lot to offer, as does the rest of B.C. Jacquie and I and our kids go two or three times a year to Cannon Beach where we stay in a house on the beach that belongs to friends. The setting where we stay is pretty remote (from the crowd) and is a bit of paradise and there are a number of houses closeby that could be rented although they are pretty spendy.

I suggest that we set aside a time that works for the greatest number of interested family members and then decide on a place. My gang doesn't think traveling 6-7 hours to a good spot is any big deal, provided we're going to stay for at least 3 nights!

Let's first nail down the weekends that won't work for a family campout. The things that I can think of that are on the calendar for next summer are the proposed Sullivan family reunion and the boat races.

Any weddings in the works? (If so, no need to divulge the secrets yet - we'll plan around you Joe, Colleen, Dom, Caitlin, whoever!)

Your thoughts?

Droesch's New Presidential Vehicle

Droesches, please post a jpg of your new bling bling that you bought.

Boatraces

You all better get ready for some fun. Joe is already out in the boat at the newly improved "honey hole" (where all the 40 year old divorcee's tie their boats together and drink wine coolers or mixed drinks and goggle over other divorced, not-so-in shape bikini wearers (or speedo wearers), where all have way too dark, weathered and leathered skin), with his boys from work. I am waiting for my boys from seattle and portland, and then the real fun will begin. check on you all later...

bpr

God watches over all of us. Apparently, especially our grandma.

bpr

The Thornhill Girls and their Partners in the Meadow Springs Junior Golf Child - Parent Tourney

The Thornhill girls are playing Junior Golf for the 2nd year at Meadow Springs and recently played in the Child-Parent Tournament. Fiona & Tere were partners, Ailis and Nick Cameron, Ciara and Bart, Moira and Margo, and Sinead and Bill Meyer! Here are a few photos from the event.