Baby Ultrasound

All,

We have confirmation... it's a baby! Last week we got to see the little baby moving all around in Julie's tummy, it was really cool! We didn't have an ultrasound scheduled, but when we went in for our 11 week checkup the doctor said "every parent should be able to see their child" so he whipped around the machine to give it a look.

He commented on Julie's "pooch" and thought she looked more than 11 weeks. Luckily he did it with such tact that Julie blushed and laughed, and I didn't have to show off my brute strength and defend my wife. Once he took a look at the baby he knew it was bigger than 11 weeks, and it turns out that we were 13 weeks (now 14) along, so he changed the due date to May 30th! That means the 1st trimester is already over! He actually looked around for about 5 minutes to see if there were twins! He couldn't find another one on the last go around, but I think he'll have to take another look before I rule it out :)

Anyhow, I'm posting a picture of the ultrasound here:

Can't wait for the new life that has begun to join us in this wonderful and mysterious life!

Love,

Joe and Julie Roach

We are having a baby!

All,

(I emailed this out earlier to those on John's email list, so if you are on this distribution, but not John's email distribution, you need to talk to him)

Family,

We are pleased to announce that Julie is pregnant! We waited until the 8 week doctor visit, and once we heard the heartbeat we couldn't hold it in any longer! The expected date is June 9th so we have a lot of time to prepare and pay close attention to all of the other babies in our lives (Finn eats HOW much?)! I thought I could hear synchronized heartbeats when we were at the doctor, but Julie assures me it's just one little guy in there.

Of course it would be wonderful to tell you each in person but as technology goes, the word will be out instantly so at least now no one can say who was the first or last to be informed! Now that you know, we would love to hear your stories and ask you questions and advice next time we see you. Please say many prayers that our baby will be as healthy and happy as the cousins it will soon meet!

Love,
Joe (Dad) and Julie (Mom)

P.S. - Julie is going to be a great mom and I am one excited daddio! :)

We're Engaged!

Heelo Familia mia,

just a little post to let you all in on our Big Newes. Yes, Roger Hales (Pasco Native) and I are Engaged! Hooray! Please say lots of prayers as we start out our Super spectacular adventure! We're both very excited. We both feel like God has brought us together. (Actually, back together-- Roger and I first met on the 66 bus route we took to and from grade school and middle school.) I (re)met him at church in Richland where I was manning booth for my summer work project (I taught art to children in a spirit-led ministry). We are planning a wedding at the Park in Pasco (Chiawana) where we both have secret places= maybe in the spring? We hope all the family can come. Roger is an engineer at PNNL in Richland, I started a new job at the college at the end of the summer. I am taking classes working towards a masters degree in Art Therapy. Our first date was RunNIng up Badger Mountain and back down. "Awesome," we both thought! A few weeks (4) later, Roger proposed on a trip to Ringold to look at stars. Please pray for us! We are both eager for the Holy Spirit to lead us every step of the way. I love you!
Anna, and Roger says hi too!

Chips

Dear all,

During this present period of worldwide financial crisis, the American presidency being up for grabs and everybody just being out trying to make a living, I figured I would take the time to inform the masses about a subject that I find myself spending way too much time thinking about on a weekly or sometimes even more frequent basis. I know that this isn't really important to many who may be reading this, and as a matter of fact, the actual item discussed isn't even that important to me, in and of itself, but it is a good example of the small cultural differences aren't just noticed in the color of people's hair or eyes, their driving habits or even in their language.

Sometimes the differences can be most drastic by just strolling down the potato chip isle of your local Chinese grocery store. Though this might not be quite as easy for most of you as it is for some, there is quite the glaring cultural difference located just in this aisle, I don't have time to mention the meat department where the chickens are still alive and and cows still have their heads on, or the bread aisle which is virtually non-existant due to the fact that mostly everyone eats rice, not wheat, or even the seafood section that is full of sea cucumbers, live fish of every shape and size and more gross-looking seafood than I could refuse to eat in a lifetime. Anyway, I digress...

As I was saying, since coming to China on the 6th of October, I have been eating a lot more potato chips. I'm not sure why, maybe because they are one of the few foods that I can read the labels of here in Hangzhou. And they remind me of the abstract idea of potato chips that the Chinese have taken and skewed to match their own idea of "Potato chips with Chinese aspects" directly in line with their idea of "Communism with Chinese aspects."

So, I'm eating more chips than I ever would in the United States, and these aren't your "healthy" corn potato chips, I'm talking about Lay's and the like... the ones that I avoid like the plague in the states for fear of chemicals that I can't pronounce the names of and deep fryers that try their best to take the "potato" out of the chip. These are the only ones offered here within China's borders and I have at least a few bags a week.

You might think that this is bad, and it is, but I haven't run out of new flavors yet. You might think that there are only a few different flavors judging by "American Standard" store aisles. However, you would be mistaken, the flavors offered here aren't those preferred by us fat Americans, the Chinese have a totally different view of what flavor tastes good and what doesn't.

"Normal" flavor is always the standby flavor for those without any imagination, but once you diverge from that flavor they go from tomato to Barbecue to the outright unbelievable. Pringles have a presence here and their best selling flavor is Breezy Blueberry. We quickly move on to Cantonese Roast Duck Lays (which aren't too bad), Inca Ethnical Flavor (not a spelling error, at least on my part), and Seaweed Chips.

None of these are to be outdone, however, by my new personal favorite, Salmon Sushi Flavor...


While I am usually a pretty conservative flavor player, I disregarded my usual apprehension while buying this bag of chips that I saw in a store in Guangzhou. Once I opened it I realized that it had two bags inside and it was at that point that I saw that there were directions on the back, luckily they were also pictorally narrated.



Step 1, you opened the big bag, and out came a smaller bag with the chips in it and the other bag with the powder.
Step 2, pour the chips and whatever amount of powder you wished (in my case all of it) into the big bag.
Step 3, Shake it, shake shake it, shake it, shake shake it.
Step 4, enjoy.

And boy did I. These were the greatest chips I had ever tasted. After blocking the thought of what type of chemicals had made this delicious, genuine-tasting raw salmon on a rice bed with wasabi for added taste I managed to eat the whole bag, and then buy another one and eat that one too...

So, next time you cruise the chip aisle of whatever store that you happen to be in, wherever that might be, if you see Salmon Sushi with wasabi powder flavored chips, do yourself a favor and buy two. (And appreciate the cultural differences that brought you those two bags of heaven.)

A public service announcement brought to you by none other than Ai Meng.

Pat Here

Heyya Fam,
I don't blog enough. And so I'm blogging now. Just wanted to say hi and much love to all of you. Have a great week.
Willy Pat

Northern Cali

Hi family,
We wanted to let you know that we are finally settled in our new city of Menlo Park. We are located between Palo Alto and Atherton. We are about 15 minutes from the Baumels in Los Altos. Brian started his new job for Coast Capital yesterday and I have a few interviews today for positions at Stanford Children's Hospital (1.9 miles from our apt). We hope that you will give us a call if you are ever in the area. We would love to have you over and have a guest bedroom for a comfortable nights sleep. :0) We miss you all and hope so see most of you in the next few weeks as we make our rounds to Portland, Pasco, and then Seattle for the baptism. (Brian will not be joining me in Ptown, unfortunately someone has to work in our family. But he will be in Portland and Seattle.)
Love you all.
Ner

Eamonn?

Is Eamonn in China or something?

Happy BDay to Joe tomorrow (the 16th!!) and Happy Bday to Shannon on the 17th!

We are dying to see what we missed at the ChamJohn Triathlon last week.

Please Blog It!!!!!!

Happy 87th Bday to Mom and 19th to Nick today!!!!

The Thornhills hope you both celebrate well this week! We started Mom off well on Saturday with a celebration at Jerry & Maria's house.

Making the big move

Hello my wonderful family!

I am almost out the door taking my last load of ish down to Portland. Yep, the rumor is true, I am indeed moving there...today! I decided in July that moving to Portland is probably the [most reasonable] next step in Miguel and my relationship. He reminded me a couple months ago that we haven't lived in the same city in almost THREE years. geesh, I had never really put it together like that before. (time flies when you're having fun in San Diego, and then at home with the 'rents, and then at the Sammamish summer vacation spot!) Dispite the fact that it is not exactly the circumstances in which I imagined moving there, I am very excited! I am living right on NW 23rd with my best college friend and roommate for 3 years, Sara. It should be awesome. If any of you need a place to crash in Portland for a night or two, this is seriously the place to stay! I will be working with my same company I work for now ( per diem at various hospitals around the city), it just will be through the portland office. Hopefully I will pick up a travel assignment soon and make as much as Colleen does! haha. :) I am excited also to be closer to my favorite sister and to 5 of my 7 closest college friends. Plus, I think the best part about all of this moving thing, which I surprisingly often forget, is that I am only, only, only just three hours from Seattle and Pasco! WOO!

(WARNING: GRAPHIC PICTURES) On another note, many of you are wondering what has happened to my eyeball. Last week I was having strange symptoms in my left eyeball, as if I had a crumb or something stuck in my contact. My eye got redder and redder, and more painful each day. By Thursday I was doubled over in the worst photosensitivity eye pain/headache ever. (picture attached of what my eyeball looked like) I finally went to the optomitrist at that point. (I know, I should have gone in earlier, I have already been lectured like 67 times). Turns out I had/have one huge bacterial ulcer (ulcer means hole) on my cornea from not cleaning my contacts well enough. (SUUUPER embarrassing since I am a RN myself, they must think I am the worst nurse ever if I can't even clean my stupid contacts correctly!) I started a regimen of antibiotic eyedrops every 30 minutes for the whole weekend. I went back and saw the Opthomologist on Friday. She added two more eyedrops and basically scared the crap out of me saying that I would end up blind in the L eyeball if I don't keep up with my meds. I still have a visible white mass on my cornea, but it is getting smaller each day. Anyways, I am now only having to put eyedrops in every 2 hours, and I think it's going to be okay without any visible damage. I am telling you all this story because I want you to understand how important it is to clean your contacts every day, change the solution every day, etc. They doctors also stressed the importance of going to the eye doctor if you are in eye pain for 24 hours, and going immediately if you have photosensitivity. Oopies.

I really gotta go pack up, but love you all, and hopefully see you soon!

~Cait

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY FIONA, AILIS AUG 14TH, AND TOM AUGUST 21ST!!!!!!

Fiona is 18 today, Ailis was 17 on the 14th, and Tom....how old were you on the 21st?????

Hope all celebrate/celebrated in style!

Reading material

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a new looking used book at a local bookstore that piqued my interest. It was about five guys who entered a Carthusian monastery in England in the early 1960s. It's a pretty good read that gives some insight into the mindset and lifestyle of the men who are members of what the author claims is the most austere of all orders of cloistered monks. It's called "An Infinity of Little Hours" and was written by Nancy Klein Maguire. (As an aside, over the past 22 years of raising our children I've heard Jacquie say 50 times if I've heard it once, "I should have been a cloistered nun." She hasn't read the book yet - if she had I'm not sure she'd give up even those toughest child-rearing days for the cloistered life.)

For our birthdays, shortly after starting that book, Bill and Mary gave Jacquie and me a book called "The Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality" by Ronald Rolheiser, a Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate priest. I read the first couple chapters of it last night. Wanting to know a little more about the author (who you all may know but who I have never read), I googled him this morning and see that he has a website where he posts a weekly column.

I viewed the archived columns and came upon one he'd written sometime back called "The Secret of a Monk's Cell". That brought me back to the book on the Carthusians. The monk's room in the monastery is called his cell and there were lots of references to those cells in that first book I mentioned.

To get to the point, the Rolheiser column about the monk's cell is good so I am posting the link to it below.

http://www.ronrolheiser.com/columnarchive/archive_display.php?rec_id=408

I know John and Nancy are pretty high these days on Franciscan priest Richard Rohr who I have not yet read much of and who I know little about.

And I know that Fr. Beaver thinks a lot of Peter Kreeft who Nancy has turned many of us on to through her gifts of his books at Christmas.

Does anyone in the family have any current favorite contemporary authors in the Faith development genre whose name or works you'd like to share?

(I have a list of 100 works called "A Lifetime Reading Plan" put out by a bookstore in Washington, D.C., called the Catholic Information Center that I'd be glad to share with any of you who might request it.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOMINIC!!!!!

Dom,
Hope you're having loads of fun on your birthday today!
Love,
Your Godmother

Colin Roach, 1st Lieutenant

I was just thinking that Colin Roach is the only Roach relative in (my)(our) generation to join the military. If you really dig down deep and think about that, what he has done, and what he has committed to, is a pretty big deal. When I was in College, my best buddies were all ROTC guys. Which is wierd, because I was not a military type. But something about them, for some reason, made them my best of the best friends, and the only guys from college that I still stay in touch with daily. I think we should all contemplate for a brief moment what this cousin of ours has committed to, and acknowledge that most of us dont have the cojones to do it. I have a lot of respect for you Colin. You are a lot bigger man than I. And I mean that. I hope we can chat about this sometime soon, as my kids took me away from the party too early tonight ( I still love them...!) to be able to chat with you. But I was seriously wanting to congratulate you, and talk to you about your future endeavors. I appreciate what you have done.



bpr

Happy Birthday to ED!!!!!

Ed, for you I'm thinking your birthday was yesterday, but for us it's still today so we will celebrate for you over at Dan & Jacquie's house!!!!! Hope it is/was happy!
Love,
The Thornhills

Piano! Going...going...

All,

I want to give you all a chance to to speak up if you would like Pat Magula / Uncle Rex's old piano. I got it when Pat went on the lamb years back, and since Fr. Beaver so gratiously offered his old piano from Aunt Liz's house, so we now have 2 pianos. The Magula piano is in my garage and needs tuning. I had a guy come out last night and take a look at it, and he said it can be fixed for $300 in hardware and $200 in labor.

It is a decorative piece and was made around the early 1900s. Obviously it is free for any takers in the family. I want to give you all a chance to claim it before it gets posted on Craigslist and in the Giant Nickel. It is heavy as hell, so take that into consideration.

Any volunteers are more than welcome to move it and store it if they don't want it going on the market (probably as FreeSale), I'm totally fine with that. I am advertising this in a public Roach forum because I don't want to hear any complaints down the road if it doesn't end up in Roach possession. I would prefer to keep it in the family, but understand that it is going to take about $500 to get it up to speed. It may be worth much more than that after a tuning, so if someone wants to pick it up as an investment, have at it.

Any interest, shoot me an email or give me a call and we will make arrangements. Hope everyone's doing fine, and see most of you in W^2 on Saturday!

JDR

Happy Birthday today to JACQUIE and Wednesday to DAN!!!!!

Hope you are celebrating in style this week! See you soon.
Love, The Thornys

Migrant Work for Hire

Hey All!

I am in Caffeine Dreams, my favorite coffee shops almost ready to study for my "final" in radiology tomorrow. Anybody know what a cephalometric image is used for in dentistry?? I know a few of you have had them taken....

Anyhoo, I cant wait for this week to close so I can hop one last jet this summer and see all of you! I get to Seattle Friday night, and plan to stay a few days to meet my new niece (!) then carry on to Pasco.

I will be twiddling my thumbs, or thumbing through the pages of a book unless you all have projects that you have not gotten around to that you need done...

I cant wait to see you all!

hasta pronto,

barto

Europe

As some of you may know, I recently went on a 2.5 week wirlwind trip across Europe with Father Beaver. We left Seattle on May 21 and arrived back home on June 7th. We traveled to 13 countries and I drove about 3000 miles on our rental car. The trip was an incredible experience and I was blessed to have been able to travel with such an experienced and knowledgeable companion as Fr. Beaver. He wrote up a summary of our trip that is attached below, along with some pictures that we took throughout the trip.

-Kevin



Fr. and I in front of the Cathedral in Helsinki

Fr. and I bought some Cuban cigars for our three hour ocean ferry from Helsinki to Tallin, Estonia

Us in front of a Russian Orthdox church in Tallin, Estonia

We visited King Ludwig's Versailles model castle at Herrenchimse and then two days later visisted his famous "fairy tale" castle at Neuschwanstein


Thirteen Country European Adventure
Father Beaver and Kevin Roach
21 May to 7 June 2008

Hellen Keller said: “Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing.” I am not sure I can say that,
but she has a point. I travel a lot because I hate having my life disrupted by routine . . . and moreover, I want to live before I die. And I want to do it while I am still young because next
May I will be 80. Actually it is far easier to travel than to write about it. I always see more than
I can remember. Obviously, I haven’t been everywhere, but it is on my list.

Once again, I stress that more important than the itinerary, is the person who travels with you and
Kevin Roach (my cousin’s grandson) is an undeviating champ and an unsynthetic partner. We did
it all: planes, boat, bus, train, and automobile.
21 – 22 May We flew non stop from Seattle to Amsterdam and then on to Helsinki where we spent our first night. Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport (3d largest in Europe) was a challenging source of congestion and confusion with a tight interval and security stations making it difficult, but we made our connection and arrived mid afternoon in Finland’s capital. We walked the city and road the trolley until we felt we had seen the highlights. The Russian Orthodox Cathedral is the “space needle” of Helsinki and our pictures prove it. We crashed in the most expensive hotel of the trip at an early hour after dinner in a Chinese restaurant.
23 May We took the 11 am Superstar (new) Ferry across the Baltic Sea to Tallinn, Estonia arriving
arriving at 2 pm. On the ship we were able to pickup a box of Cuban cigars to enhance the quality
of our trip. Neither of us smoke, but no one is perfect. St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral
dominates this small city and we spent time checking it inside and out. It was “Kevin first!” It
was here that we had our only Italian Dinner. We did spend about 5 hours walking the old city and
it is indeed a charming place. When you go stay in Hotel Central . . . very nice.
24 May 10 am we boarded a “luxury” bus in Tallinn destined for Riga the capital of Latvia arriving
at 3 pm. We had plenty of time to get to the Russian Cathedral (all a bit different) and the Opera
House (couldn’t get in) and enjoy the public market. Had dinner in a Mexican place. We decided since there was such limited commercial transportation, we had better take the overnight bus through Lithuania to Warsaw in Poland. We encountered two Canadians from B.C. who were coming from Mongolia and we learned a few things from them. We left Riga at 6 pm.
25 May We pulled into Warsaw at 7 am . We took a taxi from the bus station to the train station and a quick walk in the morning shadows of the Soviet style buildings and got the 9 am train destined for Prague. It was Sunday, we were alone in a compartment, so I celebrated Mass on the
train. We had a couple of hours to hit the hot spots in Prague, one of which was the celebrated clock in the central square. Our time was limited and Kevin, in front of one of the most famous clocks in the world asked me “what time is it?” and we rushed off to the train station. We took
an overnight train to Frankfurt.
26 May We arrived in Frankfurt at 6:30 am, picked up a Fiat Panda from Avis and headed for ULM
on the Danube River where Kevin climbed 510 feet through the tallest church steeple in the world.
Next stop was Ottobeuren where one finds the largest Barouke Church in existence. This has always
been a favorite place to introduce people to an atmosphere of devotion. We arrived in Munich and
stayed at the Hotel Asta (I always stay there.) We had plenty of daylight to see the major sites of
the Bavarian Capital. We had dinner and ended the evening at the Hoffbrau House.

27 May We departed “the silent capital of Germany” at 10 am and arrived at Hararon Chimsee,
the Versaile style, lakeside Castle of Ludwig. One has to take a 30 minute boat ride to get there.
Salzburg was our next stop and we enjoyed several hours visiting the scene of “The Sound of Music.” We then headed through the Bavarian Alps to Bercheshgaden to see the original stone
carving of the “Prodigal Son” (A miniature of it is over the altar in my chapel.) After dinner we
drove to an Alpine Gashthouse to spend the night.
28 May By noon, we reached the Military Guest House in Garmish (George Marshall Edelwise Inn) and enjoyed an American buffet. We spent the time visiting with other Americans and Kevin met some people who knew friends from Gonzaga.
29 May Departed for Oberramagaou (wood carving center of the world and scene of the Passion
Play every 10 years.) And then off to what could be the hightlight of any trip . . . the Fairy Tale Castle of Neuschwanstein. A few hours later found us in the Black Forest on our way to Frieburg.
We lodged at a Gashthous . and witnessed a mighty storm that hit the German and French press
the next day.
30 May We left driving again though the mountains to Nancy and Vitry le Francois (lunch) and
pulling into Paris at 5:30 pm. Stayed in the St Vincent district at Etap Hotel. We took the subway
into the city where I was “mugged” in the Moulin Rouge district. I had may hand on my wallet in
my front pocket, but it was a scarry encounter. Kevin was ahead of me so he did not see the whole
thing.
31 May Next day was Saturday and we experienced long lines at many of the popular sites, but we
still saw everything to include: Opera House, Arch of Triumph, the Grand Arch (new section of Paris) Eifel Tower, Tomb of Nepolian, Notre Dame, Pantheon, Sacr Coer and Lovre. We saw it
all as we enjoyed the salubrious climate of “Paris in the springtime.”
1 June Left Paris at 7:15 am arriving at the Bascilica of St Threse in Liseaux at 10 am. It was Sunday and I celebrated Mass for Kevin at table in the park in the shadow of this great shrine.
We were ahead of our schedule, so we drove north to Amsterdam arriving at 6:30. When you
go stay where we did . . . .Hotel Falcon Plaza on the edge of the city center. We met friends
of Kevin’s ( Sean Evans and Ryan Shelddon) in Rembrant Square from Gonzaga and spent the evening with them.
2 June We spent 2 hours at the VanGogh Gallery and visited the home of Ann Frank (I am just
23 days older than Ann.) In the afternoon we watched some very talented street performers.
3 June We left for Germany and picked up Mathias (family member Kevin’s age) and we
headed north where we spent the night at an excellent Bed and Breakfast on the Mosel River.
4 June After breakfast we started driving to Colone to see one of the major Cathedrals of Europe
on the banks of the Rhine River. We had plenty of time to visit the Cathedral Treasury and walk
around the city. We headed south following the road that passed the Castles on the Rhine and spent the night near Koblens.
5 June By mid-afternoon we reached our family’s home in Wiesbach where we spent the evening
visiting with Peter, Ingrid and Mathias. Great dinner Ingrid fixed.
6 June Peter took Kevin and me (Kevin drove our Avis car) to Strassberg and the concentration
camp on the French border called Struthof. This place did not take in the Jews, but concentrated
on the dissidants, resistence and POW. They were brutal in so far as the did “medical research”
in a barbarically bloody manner. We returned to Peter’s house where the family (about 19) gathered
for dinner. It was pleasant event for all. Lots of German food and wine from Peter’s well-known

celler. As always the German hospitality of our family goes unsurpassed. Ane when we cannot
speak with a common language, we communicate with warm hearts. “Cor ad cor loquitor.”
Mathias gave Kevin and me shirts and everyone left about 11 pm.
7 June Kevin and I left Weisbach at 5 am and arrived at the Frankfurt airport in time to turn
in the car (3000 miles . . . gas $10 per gallon) and board the airplane for Detroit and Seattle at
5:30 pm.