Another Grandchild on the Way!

The Gallaghers, soon to increase to 4!

We just wanted to share the good news that our daughter Kari and son-in-law Jonathan are expecting their second child in the spring. We are so delighted! Our little Awnya will have a little sibling. Awnya will be two on November 17 and the new Gallagher is due April 16. We can hardly wait! This will be grandchild number 4 for us....it just gets better and better!


This is also a great time to introduce you to Awnya's daddy, and our wonderful son-in-law, Jonathan (who just celebrated a birthday August 26.) He is the best husband to Kari and daddy to Awnya that we could have ever hoped for. Jonathan and his family come from Ohio, a large family and he has four sisters and one brother. It is no wonder that he fits in well with a houseful of women (of course that can change in the matter of a few months:-).

Jonathan is a perfect fit for our family. He puts up with all of the Lunds and Sieroslawskis (as proven at the recent wedding festivities in Chicago). The only thing wrong with Jonathan is that he, Kari, Awnya, and ? are just too far away (Washington D.C.)!

Kira Analee Lund is 5!

We recently celebrated our granddaughter, Kira's fifth birthday. The party was held at a park in Peoria, AZ. Although it was 105 degrees, the water park and ramada kept everyone cool. Our daughter-in-law, Jessica's art talent was enjoyed by all the children who got their faces painted, and our son, Brian, kept all the dad's occupied with waterguns. There was so much fun for everyone!

Let us introduce you to our oldest granddaughter, Kira, who not only turned five this month but also started kindergarten. First of all, she is beautiful inside and outside. Her big brown eyes will just melt you, and with a shrug of her shoulders or raising of her eyebrows she clearly tells you just what she is thinking.

But one of Kira's very special gifts is her imagination. This child does not need expensive toys or video games to entertain herself or you. She can imagine up a grocery shopping trip in our kitchen, and will check you on the shopping list she gave you when you return. She can have a complete tea party without any cups and saucers, and whip up a great culinary creation without one utensil. Just with the miming of her current activity, Kira will have you believing that you just emptied a full shopping cart on her table, or have eaten something absolutely delicious. She is fun.

Kira is no mamby-pamby sister either. Although she loves everything girlie, she jumps into the pool without hesitation and swims with strength of any boy her age. She is a dynamo in a very petite package, and adds so much to our family with her smiles, hugs, and wonderful art work.

Of course there is so much more to Kira....and her parents, we are sure, can add many descriptives. But we wanted to take the opportunity of her birthday to share with you our thoughts about this lovely child who we are so lucky to call our granddaughter!

Movie Review: Julie and Julia

ILONA'S REVIEW:

This movie was thoroughly entertaining.  No big Oscar nominations or Golden Globe will probably come out of this movie, except that Meryl Streep simply WAS Julia Child....her character acting once again made a movie well worth the price of admission.  

By now most of you probably know that the movie is based on a the true story of a woman who executed one of Julia Child's  recipes each day of the year for one year.  The movie parallels Julia Child's search for her own identity while living in Paris resulting in a famous cookbook (and the rest is history) with the current day Julie's need for discovering her own identity.  No big moral to this story, just pure enjoyment and a great love story.   Before I walked into the theater I had no particular interest in Julia Child, but I walked out truly appreciating this icon as a very real person.  Is this a "must see" movie? No.  But if you do see it, you will enjoy it.

Grandchildren are Terrific!

Aren't grandchildren terrific? Once again this weekend we were reminded how lucky we were to have some great grandkids. Two of our three grandchildren, Andrew and Kira (and of course their parents and dog Blue), came to visit us from Phoenix for the entire weekend.



First there was swimming.......

Then there was the trip to the Tucson Botanical Gardens. There Andrew and Kira put up with their grandma's wish to take their pictures as butterflies.

But they had more fun looking for worms, and picking up different seeds and "stuff" for Kira's "collection."









































After games of Old Maid, Crazy Eights and Go Fish, there was movie watching, video game playing, more swimming, and coloring. It's no wonder a grandchild can't even make it to bed before she poops out.

I know all of the other grandparents out there will argue when we say we have the most wonderful grandchildren in the entire world...but we REALLY do!

Summer Vacation Part II - Neal & Ivana's Wedding

Last week we took the second part of our summer vacation...traveling to the Chicago area (Mount Prospect/Arlington Heights to be precise) to attend our nephew, Neal Sieroslawski's, wedding. It was an absolutely fantastic time. In addition to all of the activities, we were able to see our youngest grandchild, Awnya! She has grown so much since our last visit, and is talking more and more. What a delight to watch her interact with her parents and her other little cousins, and share her "observations" regarding Elmo!

We were graciously hosted by the groom's parents, my brother Gary and my terrific sister-in- law Terry. We even had our own lower level "suite" with all of the privacy in the world. Hours spent visiting in their lovely yard was one of the highlights of the trip (second only to teasing the heck out of Gary).

The weather was wonderful, the wedding was beautiful, and it was so much fun to see all of the family and get to know the newest member .... Neal's wife Ivana.

Neal is one very special man. He and our son Erik were very close since they were teens. Neal said he wanted Erik to still be part of the wedding day, so he distributed small pewter lapel pins in the shape of a plane for all of the men in the wedding party to wear, (in the place of a boutonniere) as well as the fathers of the bride and groom, all the men in our family and one for our daughter Kari and me. It was so touching. Something we will always remember. Neal's wife, Ivana, is just as caring. She shared her thoughts about Neal and Erik's relationship with us in a letter....it made us feel that much closer to her.

Another great aspect of our trip to Chicago was to be able to visit with two friends from Sitka, AK. Theresa, friend of Neal and Erik, and Morgan a friend of Erik and Theresa. By the end of the visit the whole Sieroslawski clan had incorporated both into the "family."

The weekend went way too fast, arriving on Thursday night and departing on Monday at noon. But we managed to have three great visits with all the family members, attend the wedding, the brunch the following morning, walk to a farmer's market, have Chicago-style deep dish pizza, and be with our granddaughter (even though she was not feeling very good:-( What a great way to end our summer! It was one to really remember.

MOVIE REVIEW - DOUBT

By Ilona

This was a great movie. I have not seen "Slumdog Millionaire" but it must have been something to out-do this film. Of course Meryl Streep was excellent. But all three main actors were fabulous. Also, to me, having been raised Catholic (no longer practicing), it made me realize how in the 60's the Catholic Church was so male dominated. Having some very strong women (nuns) as teachers, I could only imagine how frustrating this must have been. This movie really demonstrated that issue, as much as the sexual abuse theme. The movie also had a lot of symbolism. It was like watching a great play. Definitely a 10 out of 10 on the Lund family scale

By Chuck

Definitely the best movie of all the 2008 group (although I haven't seen "Slumdog" yet).

What a great movie--to be able to so successfully interweave and display the social, cultural-religious and personal pressures impacting the main characters.

Meryl Streep plays a flinty and unforgiving headmistress-nun of a Catholic Middle school in the 1960's. I loved asking Ilona questions during the movie (which she was patient enough to answer); she attended catholic parochial schools during that same period.

The beginning dramatic interest--that of whether a priest had molested a male student--was soon replaced by how successful Streep's character would be in getting rid of the priest, and ultimately by the unfolding of the desolate nature of her own soul. Without giving away the ending, the punchline of the movie has little to do with the doubts/allegations about the priest's misconduct, and much more to do with the motivations and inner demons of the nun as she pursues the priest's ouster.

The most important impact of the movie to me is that, despite the portrayal of the nun's inhumanity, I wound up caring about all of the characters, especially Streep's. Streep once again portrays her brilliance as an actress. For instance, in the scene where the mother of the presumed victim pleads with Streep to protect his anonymity, Streep, as in her countless other roles, uses a fleeting transformation of facial expression to reveal the most profound emotions, in this case a war of values within her own soul. Stallone/Rocky/Rambo move over,,, Streep can deliver a knockout punch with a mere flick of her "whatever-she-decides-to-use."

To me the great irony of this movie is that I felt joyful at the end, almost the reverse of the desolation of the main character. Perhaps I felt the redemption of Streep's character is more than just implied at the end, or that I truly felt forgiveness for that character, or that I felt so good that the movie did such a great job of everything it tried to do. Whatever the reason, it's the only movie in a long time where I felt like standing up and shouting "YES!! That's right! That's right!"

July 20th -- A Special Day

This past Monday would have been our Erik's 30th birthday. I have come to realize that we don't miss him any more or less on these special days. However, it is a time when I want to spend dedicated time just with him. Since Erik "was not fond" of Tucson, Chuck and I usually try to get to somewhere that he might appreciate more. So I took the day off from work and we headed for the mountains to celebrate Erik.

Some of you may not realize that we can get to 8,000+ feet elevation within a one hour drive of Tucson. We went to Mount Lemmon, which is really quite nice. I had forgotten how good the woods smell, and it was a great day, and 20 degrees cooler than here in the city.

Driving up I remembered that I had bought the book, "Squeezing the Lemmon" to have here when Erik came. It identified the various rock climbing areas in Tucson (of which we have quite a few). I was hoping to change Erik's attitude a bit about the southwest. The one thing he loved about Tucson was that one of his best friends from college, Alicia Marrs, is from Tucson. In fact, I work with her mom!

Chuck and I checked out all of the camping areas on the Mountain, as we are hoping to get back into that. Although we won't be camping/back-packing like Erik (a loaf of bread, jar of peanut butter, and a sleeping bag), we think he'd be proud of his ol' folks taking to the out of doors again.

Anyway, it was a very good day.