From Linda

Hi everyone--Just thought I'd share that I was in labor 26 years ago today. Yes, my baby is 26 years old today with an almost 2 year old. Austin is finally beginning to imitate words and I plan to have him practice saying "Grandma Lin" when I see him in July. Eric took him go-cart racing this weekend (yikes) and Kelly says he waves when Eric passes other go-carts. Doesn't sound too safe to me. Grandma has to bite her tongue. Kelly said Eric has been offered a job at a distributer of air conditioning supplies in Springfield. (He currently works for a heating a cooling place in Nixa which is south of Springfield). It would be for more $, but his employer is currently sending him to school for home air conditioning repair so she's not sure where that stands. She's getting over a cold and Austin has an ear infection, but other than that they're fine.

We just got over a very hot, humid, windy Memorial Weekend. I did go biking about 15 miles on Sunday. I about died because it was all into the wind when I was coming home. We have such a magnificent bike trail system in Waterloo/Cedar Falls and it's really fun because we can go all over the city without having to ride on city streets.

Work is getting busier as I am the IT project manager for a new product called Horizon Patient Folder which is an imaging system for Medical Records. It looks like we'll be making site visits to Peoria soon as well as "design" sessions in Milwaukee. I don't look forward to the traveling.

Hope everyone is well. Lin

Randy & Charlene

Guess it is time I add a little info to the Heeringa Blog. I've enjoyed reading the news of happenings in each of your lives.

Randy and I have been busy mainly with work, especially this time of year. Will be glad when Memorial Day is over with.

About the middle of March, I broke my wrist. I was walking backwards in an exercise class. Decided to pick up the pace, fell, and used my hand to catch myself. I had surgery and had a plate and 7 screws put in. It is coming along quite well. Never really had much pain but is still quite stiff and I can't maneuver with it as well as I would like to. I do some exercises to keep it limber.

Our tulip garden is in full bloom. We have daffidils and a wide variety of tulips. We've received a lot of compliments from neighbors, friends, etc.

Matt and Amy continue to reside in Colorado Springs where they both teach and have two Black Labs named Kayak and Raft. Brent continues to live out East.

Again, it was good hearing from you and what is going on in your lives.
Randy & Charlene

Tom at school (Deb's son)

Hi everybody. My parents are pretty busy and generally don't do well with computers so I thought I would just do the update.
I am currently a freshman at Union College located in Schenectady, NY (near Albany). I am a mechanical engineering major with hopes of moving on to bio-medical engineering. My school year is only a few weeks longer at which point I'll be returning home.
Mike is finishing up high school and has been accepted at Wake Forest in NC. He is excited to join the bike team down there. He also is spending a great deal of time riding his bike with a team and racing almost every weekend.
Mom is working on her house project. (She is building a house next door) She is busy with work, but has her hobbies as well, mostly painting and writing.
Dad just had a birthday yesterday, and is still going strong working at the hospital and riding his bike in his spare time.
Hope everyone is doing well!

From Lauren (Laurie) & Jay

Thanks, Linda, for taking the initiative! Things are going well here. We're preparing for "baby boy yet to be named" to arrive sometime around June 26th. Finally got the crib ordered today, but have had the car seat for awhile and took the "prepared childbirth" classes, so we're in good standing with the OB. If I can only get around to painting the nursury, we'll be in great shape!

I just got back from two weeks in Minnesota where I stayed with Luke and Joan while my parents traveled to Spain to visit Elise. She's finishing up a semester studying abroad in Grenada. They came back very proud of how fluent her Spanish is and how capable she's been navigating around a new country. Peter graduates from St. Thomas in St. Paul here in a couple weeks and after travelling to Italy on a choir tour, is planning on pursuing acting in the Twin Cities. Joan is a freshman and very busy dancing five days a week with multiple competitions on weekends. Luke is in fourth grade and is very into Japanese culture and animation. He's a pretty picky eater, but while I was there, we made a lot of different kinds of smoothies which seemed to be well received.

Jay and I are living right outside (Northeast) of Denver in a great new community called Reunion. It's made up of mostly young families and has community centers, pools, bike trails and parks sprinkled throughout. We've been here since Nov. and have been really excited about the friendships we've made so far. We love having visitors, so if anyone finds themselves nearby and needs a place to stay, we'd love to have you!

Brian&Shirley

Greetings ,Nice idea ! Hope to catch up on some family news ,heres the 'skinny' from the tan people in Az. Starting to warm up in to the 90s-100s this week so summers almost here. We are on a lot with a large awning witch has a nice patio and keeps our 5th wheel shaded in the pm along with 2nd airconditioner so bring it on Ha Ha! I have a 3 week break before our next truck scale install (my new job) so after Memorial weekend back on the road to Ca or Tx. Shirley retained her job at Mohave State Bank for this year , hard to give up the medical insurance, but will reevaluate next year. Mandy&PJ are still in Spearfish SD ,she called this morning said it was snowing again today like it was when I visited on april 18th (got snowed in without power 2 days)sure don't miss that.I joked that I shoveled sunshine here, sounds like winter just wont end up there. PJ is recovering nicely from knee surgery (snowmobile accident)and hopes to return to work soon. Mandy still RN at Rapid City Regional NICU plus air transports of course we are very proud of her. No babys planed there but got a nice cat named Sofie. Travis graduates the police accadamey on May 26th and hits the steets of LaPaz Co.(next Co south) as a Az post certified Deputy Sheriff 2 days later , all officers must be on duty as the Memorial weekend as it is a "biggy" here because of the lake&river. Its been nice having him close by and hope to attend his big day (school is near Pheniox)as it has been his since grade school to get in to law eforcement. We have been boating a few times with friends but Shirley has'nt been out of town for a while so may do a few days vacation after Trav's graduation. Time to hit the pool, more news later , Brian&Shirley

News from mom and dad

It's time for bed, but I'll try to write a few lines. I don't know if I like this idea or not. Dad never wants to write and I always do something wrong. Anyway---- We have a busy week coming up with Dr. appointments etc. Also I have been getting dental work done and dad is scheduled for an appointment the same day we have our doctor appointments. Last week I purchased a china cabinet from a lady. I cleaned and polished it and it is looking pretty good. When I am satisfied it is ready to use, I plan to dig out dishes that are still packed away and get them in so they are handy to use. We also bought an entertainment center to put our TV in. It hasn't been delivered yet. When it is I hope to get some pictures on the walls and it will look a little more like home. Bye

From Linda

Hi Family: I've created a blog for the Heeringa family to communicate to one another without sending out a mass e-mail. If each family member adds what's going on in each other's lives, we'll all be up-to-date. So here goes from Iowa:

Kelly was here this week. Eric's grandmother's celebrated her 80th birthday with an open house and all her children were home. Kelly worked last weekend and then drove up with Austin on Monday and Eric drove up Thursday. It was a nicer visit with Austin, because he can finally go up and down stairs. We tried the baby gate for awhile to keep him in the family room where Kelly was, but he learned how to climb over that. He still isn't talking much. He loves a children's John Deere video that he has and especially likes it when the tractor goes backward and unplows the field. They plan to leave today and visit Duane sister in Brooklyn. Duane kept Austin all night Friday nite which was nice for Kelly and Eric because they rarely get a baby sitter and it gave them an opportunity to go out for supper. Austin had been really crabby, but I guess he was really good for Duane.

Weather in Iowa has been cool and rainy. It got down to 32 Friday nite and only up into the 60's yesterday for highs. At least the sun shown yesterday and is supposed to be again today. I'd like to get out on my bike today. I live about a half a mile from one of the many extensive bike trails in Cedar Falls/Waterloo so it's easy to get on a trail with relatively few intersections to watch for cars.

Work has been busy and I am just finishing up an imaging project and will soon be the IT representative in designing a new Electronic Health Record (EHR) product for the Wheaton Fanciscan System which includes hospitals in Iowa, Milwaukee, and Racine. I'm hoping this design phase doesn't involve a lot of traveling to Milwaukee and hopefully we can meet halfway, like in Madison, WI. The idea is to design it once and then implements it in the same way in all three regions.

No more news from now...Look forward to hearing from all of you.