SOME CHOICE FAMILY REUNION PHOTOS

Thought we'd try to get the party started again by posting some Sullivan Family Reunion photos.
Feel free to post yours too so we can see how much fun everyone had!!!!!!

Wow

For all the talkers in the family, this place sure is a ghost town. Why dont we talk about the new 8gig iphones or something. Or else I am deleting myself from the list out of principle. Big threat there.

Julie and Joe's Wedding

All,

Just wanted to give you a head's up, in case you haven't heard, that after long diliberation, Julie and I are changing our wedding date. It is no longer going to be September 8th, it will instead be sometime in the spring, still in Olympia. We tried to do too much, too quickly, and think this will be best for the both of us. We want to make sure everything is in line before we make the ultimate committment.

This is a good thing, and we are both happy about the decision. I will keep everyone updated as to when the new date will be.

Now we have more time to plan for this once in a lifetime event!

Love yall,

Joseph Roach

Family Reunion T-Shirts

Hey guys,
Sorry I haven't really gotten much info out about the shirts!!!! I have the design down but I just have to take it to the printer to get it set in stone and to make sure they can do what I want them to do. It's gonna be cool.....hopefully....but I can't explain it very well. Just know it will have the Sullivan crest on it and the last names of all the family members in the Sullivan family on it. I hope to get to the printer on Friday or Saturday so I will let you all know what they look like as soon as possible!

Oh, and about Prom pictures, I have some but my dad hasn't sent them to me yet from his computer so I will get those out soon as well!

Love you all (and SOOOO excited for the upcoming weddings!!!!!!)
--Fiona

"Blog is dead" s: J. Lennon

Joe and Colleen both posted that they were getting married on this thing and a whopping total of about 6 people chimed in with one liners. I think blogging is dead; its over. Lets put this thing to rest. Check it every day-- yet nothing new? Gotta get more into it gals and gents.!!! Or else Lennon's right. Blog is dead.

bpr

Colleen and Brian's Wedding

I thought I would start this blog strand-- Colleen, time to chime in about your little event last night!

Julie and Joe's Wedding!

All,

Please "save the date" for September 8th (that rhymes!). The wedding will be in the Catholic Church in Olympia. We made sure it wasn't in October for all the Johnsons.

Talk to you all soon, and mark your calendars!

Love,

Julie and Joe Roach :) ... soon!

Lucia Schneider!

Gonna get married and I'm...

All,

Why doesn't anyone blog anymore? Well this one is worth it! Julie DeBord is about to change to Julie Roach!!! Today at noon was the official acceptance. We haven't set a date, but found out that October is a bad time for the Johnsons. Well, if that is when it happens, you will just have to send presents instead! Today's been a wild day, and ready to go to bed. Looking forward to all the love to come. She is a great woman, and I have no doubts that this is going to be a long, and loving relationship!

I'll let you all know the date, and as things progress, but for now it is just the fact that we are going to be a very, very happy couple :)

May the next be just as happy (Colleen?????)

Love you all!

JDR (and JAR)

Happy Birthday

All,

Take a second today to remember that it's Luke's 28th birthday. I miss that guy.

John's birthday is in two days, so you may want to send him a message too.

God has blessed us with a great family, and it's good to know that we've already got some good ones "on the other side" that are ready to party when we get there!

JDR

David en Espana, Ole

Hello Family---This is an email from David updating us on his travels in Espana!

Dear Fam,
I know that this email is long overdue, and for that I am sorry. I have never been very good at updating those around me about my activities, but this email should help catch everyone up one what life has been like over here in España. Well, to begin, it has been an amazing and eye opening experience, and one that I would highly recommend to any of the other cousins who are in a position to undertake a similar journey. I would do it again in a heartbeat, and I wish that I had the time in my life to do it all over in another country and learn another language. Now for some specific info. I go to a branch campus of the University of Granada, El Centro de Lenguas Modernas (Center of Modern Languages), which is a facility dedicated, almost exclusively, to the study of languages. Although there are a lot of Americans, it is open to people from any country and so I have classes with Japanese, Swedish, Australian, French, English, Bulgarian, Belgian, and students from various other nationalities as well. The classes range from intensive language courses in eleven different languages to Spanish economics; it is quite an eclectic mix. I am currently in Spanish Grammar, History of Modern Latin America, a Spanish conversation class at the Superior B (one below Perfecto) level , and an English-Spanish translation class. As expected, I am learning a helluva lot of Spanish, which I consider to be the most important thing that I am taking out of this experience. In addition to this however, the fun times have been something that I couldnt even imagine possible. Granada is a city of 200,000, with a student population of 65,000. Needless to say, the night life here is amazing. The Spanish dont even begin to go out until at the very least 11:00, and always finish the nights with dancing at some discoteca or salsa spot, so I have spent many a late night imitating my brother Pat on the dance floor, hoping to smooch on some Spanish girl. I usually fail in this respect. One of the interesting things about being here is that you hang out with your friends all day every day, more so even than in normal college, and so I have grown incredibly close to a number of people in my relatively short time here. This is great for the day to day life, from just having a coffee in a plaza to playing soccer on one of the many brick courts to going to a discoteca, the group of friends that I have here has made an incredible difference. They are also great to travel with. Within two hours by public bus, we can be at almost any of the beaches on the Costa del Sol, and thanks to the practice among Spanish women of sunbathing topless, being at any beach around here is quite an awesome time. In addition to the beaches, I have traveled with my program to Seville, Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba, Gibraltar (to see the monkeys, absolutely amazing), Segovia, Escorial, and Almeria. I have also traveled with friends to Edinburgh, Scotland, and Amsterdam, Holland (great architecture and museums, but since I dont smoke or engage in carnal relations the city had limited appeal). In two weeks I am going to Kassel, Germany to visit Miso and his family and from there I will head into Switzerland to visit the Landtwings. I also might make a trip to Dublin to visit Sue and Aimee Johnson in the beginning of May, bank account permitting. In addition, I have traveled to Barcelona with my football team. Yes, American Football. I was playing American football with the "semi-pro" Granada Lions as their starting tight end. It was a great time, but my professional football career came to an early end when I fell on a piece of broken glass in the streets of Cadiz during Carnaval (while dressed as a gay ninja) and had to get 11 stitches from a male nurse in a Cadiz street clinic. I know what you are thinking, being nervous about Spanish medical care, but dont worry, he only broke two needles in my hand and only allowed me one beer and one hot dog while he was stitching me up. The clinic doctor was having coffee in the other room. Being a tight end, blocking one handed probably would not have been especially effective so I gave up my position. My hand is almost fully healed now, but I am going to let the guy who has been playing finish out the season for me. To wrap it up, I have two and a half more months here and my departure will be, without a doubt, a bittersweet thing. There will be so much to miss here in Granada, but I havent seen most of my friends or family for almost nine months, so the homecoming will be a great thing. I believe the Lisa Potter wedding is the day after I get home, so I expect to see all of you there and to speak in Spanish will all of my bilingual brethren. Much love and cant wait to see you all.


Dos besos,

David

Pug Love

All,

Sorry to follow up Son-dog's adventure blog with this one, but I think I am the first true pimp in the family! As we speak (or as I type) I am counting all $500 for my dog Wayne's service to one bitch (true term) named Maria.

It's a pretty funny sight to see. Any Pasco folks can come by today for a laugh. I'll have her until 8PM. I don't know if either one will be able to breathe by the end of the day!

If successful, I am going to quit the Engineering field and just pimp out male dogs!

JDR

Two months in Mexico

I think my dad might have sent this around on email, but I wanted to post it here too, man the blog is lacking these days!!!...Miss and love you all.
-------------------------------

I've been in Mexico for over two months now so it's probably about time I wrote something to share with you all. I've been adding to this letter for a couple weeks now, so hopefully you'll get two months worth of news.

To start off I feel so so lucky to be here. I'm having more fun than I've ever had and learning more at the same time. I've never felt so relaxed and carefree and happy-- and I wish I could write this whole thing in Espanol so that you can see how much I've improved! I've gotten really comfortable speaking--once you get that part it's much easier to get better..but the more I learn the more questions I have, but isn't that the case with everything in life...

Contrary to popular belief of many people in the US, English is definitely one of the easiest languages on the planet. We don't have two verbs for "to be" (ser, estar), two words for "for" (por, para), formals and informals, masculine and feminine, a different verb form for each person, and all of this subjunctive and imperfect subjunctive verb business. Despite all of that I am getting the hang of it, time and practice is all it takes. Another thing I've noticed about the language is that a lot of things, especially questions, seem much more abrupt. Example, instead of asking, "Could I have a piece of gum?" they just say, "Dame chicle"..."Gimme gum," and rarely with a please. But I guess that's just what happens with our weird-English-polite-question-word-order. Also what they say about forgetting your native tongue is true. Difficult words especially, but at times I have to think for a bit about how to say simple words too (i.e. traffic light...that was the other day...ha). They also have two (or many more!) words for one thing (one masculine, one feminine), while we sometimes use one word sound for a few different things but spell it differently. What I do love is that they only have one vowel sound for each vowel. At least I can be sure I am pronoucing it right even if I have no idea what I'm saying. I could go on about the language for hours......moving on:

My family here is incredibly nice and my mom, Licha, makes the best food--gorditas, chilaquiles, cemitas, sopas, and eggs, frijoles and tortillas for breakfast always with fresh-squeezed orange juice.

In the university we have a profesora mexicana, Martha. She is really clear with her words and the readings she chooses always provoke interesting conversations. We can talk about any topic that comes up but only in Spanish-- we've had discussions on the Zapatista movement in the state of Chiapas, the "indigenous problem" in Mexico, socialism and NAFTA. Last week we talked about gender roles of males and females in Mexico vs. the US and how changing attitudes toward women being independent and having their own careers is a more recent movement here than in the US. We also touched on how homosexuality differs here than in the US. What surprised me is that homosexuality is more naturally accepted in smaller towns and shunned in the bigger cities in Mexico, which is exactly the opposite of the US, where there exists more homophobia in the more conservative smaller towns than in the more liberal, bigger cities.

This week we've been learning about Latin American women, like SorJuana Ines de le Cruz, a 16th-century nun and poet, Isabel Allende, the Chilean novelist, Eva Peron, the Argentinian political icon (Evita), and of course, Frida Kahlo. Today I gave a presentation in class about Frida and Martha told me that Eamonn talked about the same topic when he was in the program last year...weird....well I guess we are brother and sister, and we've got the same artsy mama.

About a month ago I went to Mexico City for a week. I went with my class to Teotihuacan, an ancient city with two gigantic and majestic pyramids among countless other ruins. We went to the house of Frida Kahlo, the Palace of Fine Arts, The Zocalo and Cathedral and Templo Mayor (Ruins of an old Aztec Temple), Chapultepec Park, The National Anthropology Museum, and the Museum of History... After that I was ready to spend some time NOT doing anything important, so I spent four more days in the city alone... walking, eating and riding the metro to random destinations just because I could.

Another weekend I went to Veracruz with a bunch of other exchange students (from Germany, Brasil, Austria, the US, Mexico and Greece) for Carnaval. It was quite the spectacle...with mainly lots and lots of drunk and/or otherwise influenced people. It was cold and windy, so the next day we went to a beach called Chachalacas and hung out in the sun for hours--it was a really typical small town beach on the Gulf of Mexico (the water wasn't too pretty).

I just got back from Oaxaca on Sunday after a long weekend there and I loved it. It's smaller than Puebla, really relaxed and they produce the most beautiful textiles...and a lot of Mezcal (alcohol made from the same plant (agave) as tequila). We went to the ancient ruins at Monte Alban just outside the city too, which aren't as impressive as Teotihuacan in an architectural sense but it is built on top of a mountain which makes the view incredible. Also went to a mezcal factory where we threw back the worms from the agave plant along with the mezcal, yummmm.

The food here is my biggest downfall...you won't be able to recognize me when I come home because I've probably gained at least 30 pounds. Not (well, we'll see when June comes around), but the tacos are more numerous and delicious than any taco truck in Pasco (I hope an obvious fact? No offense to Pasco). And now I understand why Christian and Eamonn came back from Mexico liking hot sauce...I'm liking all the spicy food more and more and I can eat spicier than my Mexican sister...ha!

Speaking of my Mexican sister, she is 33 years old and still lives in the house. She is finishing her masters in textile design and doesn't work-- it's something really different from the US, but I'm not totally opposed to it, I mean why figure out how to pay your own bills until you actually have to? Haha, Dad's probably cringing at that idea. But anyway, it's really common here; lots of the young adults keep living with their parents throughout college and until they get married, and if they don't get hitched, they just keep on livin' there. The speed bumps and the dogs are another big difference...they are both everywhere...stray dogs own the streets and speed bumps occupy them...every 20 yards or so it seems. It's probably good though cause the drivers are kind of nuts, but you probably would be too if you didn't have to take a class or a test.

Everything is relaxed, nothing's on time (except my homework!), it's a constant fiesta. That's all I have for now. Next week is my spring break, then one more week after that ends, my mom and Uncle Peter arrive!!! Hope all is well with all of you and that it's not too chilly up north.

Besos, Tacos, Paz y Amor,
sonja

TCP Girls Basketball

Hi all, since I don't have any homework tonight (whoo-hoo!!:-D), I decided to tell you all how our girls basketball team is doing here at Prep. First of all, I played on JV and we had a winning season this year on JV, (I believe we only lost about 6 games, which is very good for a Prep girls team, by the way. It was also the first winning girls season at Prep!)
Recently, the varsity has been in the post season (also a first) and we placed third in league. Not exactly what we were hoping for, but we were in the tournament so it worked out fine. We are now in the District Tournament and we lost our first game on Tuesday pretty badly. Yesterday we played again, since it is a double elimination tournament and we played Liberty Christian (our rivals who aren't very Christian if you know what i mean......).
In the past at Prep, we have never beat Liberty in girls basketball before. Earlier this season and for the league tournament, we have played them three times and have come very close to beating them each time. So, last night, our fourth time playing them, we beat them for the first time (but definitely not last) in Prep history!! It was a great game, especially for the seniors on our team who have worked so hard to come this far for all the years that they have been at Prep. Michelle had two points and played very hard the whole game and I was able to suit up and go in a few times. It was a great experience and I can't wait to do it again next year!!:) BTW--We are the only Blue Mountain League team left in the tournament right now!!
We play again tomorrow night at 4:30 in Colfax and if we win we will go to state(!!!) so, if all of you would pray for our team, for a safe ride up and a good game, we would all appreciate it very much! Thanks!
I love you all!
--Fiona

Nadda Mucho

Todavia estoy aqui en Seattle y solo tengo uno y medio cuartos mas hasta que volvere a Pasco. Ojala que no tengo ningunos problemas con mis clases porque estoy listo a ver otros partes del pais, como el lado este y no puedo hacer este si no graduarme en tiempo. Mis pies son mejores, pero todavia no son perfectos, tengo que usar mi bicecleta a ir donde quiero. Este es el tiempo del ano cuando las clases son los mas dificiles pero con bastante tiempo en la biblioteca puedo entender todo, la unica problema es con el tiempo ahora que es frio y lleno de lluvia. Pero estoy viviendo y listo para el receso de primavera. Ojala que todos vinen para mi graduacion en el 10 de junio y los/as bebes nuevos/as son buenos. Hasta Lluego. ER

Update

I don't have much to update, just trying to get the blogging going. Still working in town, still loving the fact that I don't have a "long distance" anymore, and still in the coolest neighbor hood in town! Good seeing Colleen for a while, love hanging out with all the new ones, and love the mandatory (1.5x) mandatory overtime!

Other than that, not much to blog, just blogging for the blog of it.

Love yall!

JDR

I am just so glad everyone still checks the blog as frequently as they used to! LAME.

Fun in da sun!!

Hey ya'll, just wondering if anyone has gotten their tickets for ROACH 21+ PARTY IN SAN DIEGO???? Reminders: St Patty's weekend; S.O.'s invited; must have 21+ y.o. ID; lodging is on Colleen and I. Any other questions feel free to call us! (PS: hurry and buy your tickets soon, because the prices are getting pretty steep!) Paz-

Finn Michael Droesch

Post pics!? Are we forgetting the well-crafted, image laden e-mail I fired off two days ago? Perhaps it didn't circulate to everyone. Sorry if you didn't make the list. Just to recap: Finn Michael Droesch was born at approximately 0824 on January 6th, 2007. Mom and Finn are doing exceptionally well. Here are a few pics.....

When is Johnny Droesch going to Post a Pic of Finn?

Haloo all! 'tis Bart hailing from the hinterlands of Southeast Wyoming to let you all know that yesterday I talked to the Dean of admissions at Creighton University School of Dentistry. He told me the good news that I was accepted into their 2007 dental class, and will recieve a letter early next week! One of the best feelings for sure!

Still waiting to hear from the UW and a couple other schools, but I am elated to know that I will have a place to go next year. I hope this message finds you all well. I love you,

Bartamaeus Rex del Roacho

Perpetual Roach Reunion

Good things

Listen to Steve Jobs, he has great things to say.

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