The Future is Here!

This is coming available from Micrsoft, very soon....

Hi Everyone - I'm almost 6 weeks old!!

What a crazy last couple of weeks. You think you can trust someone who has been working as your accountant for the last 40 some years. Charlie started with our accountants father in 1963. The father past away about 10 years ago - in steps the son. Charlie Sr. past away in July of 05. In December of 06, the son sees our vulneriblity and takes advantage of it. He had total access to our payroll account (the accountant has always done our payroll and also reconciled the payroll statments - we never thought twice about it - it has always been done this way). He took well over 200,000.00 by writing himself a check and using a scanned image of Charlie Jrs. signature and deposited the money in his account. So much for trust.

Can you believe the gul of this guy? We were stupid (we never checked up on him). We found out by his bank calling me to see if a check he was depositing was valid. It seemed a little high (27,500.00) and it didn't feel right to the guy at the bank. Thank God he called me. If he didn't, there would have been another 80,000.00 down the tubes this month alone. Since this call, our bank has stopped 2 more checks in excess of 50,000.00.

When we contacted him, he wrote a letter to our lawyer asking that if we allow the checks he deposited in July to go through, he would start paying us back at 15% in the course of 84 months. You see, he needs to settle on his new $500,000 home in Arizona on August 1. What an ass.

My Weekend!

So I took a long weekend from work and went to the mountains. My best friend's parents have a house there (and they love me) so I went up. Kyle, my Godson, and his sister, Maura, were there. He's 12 and she's 3 and it was the best time!! We went fishing, made campfires, went four-wheeling on the ATV, read a book, and just CHILLED OUT!! I loved it.

Addison Update

It's hard to believe but Addison is a month old today. Her eyes are still very blue so we're hoping they stay that way. She's more and more alert and is looking at everything and her litte mind is absorbing it all. Angela and Jonas asked Jennifer and Mike to be Addison's Godparents, and of course they are THRILLED! I can't wait until you all get to meet her. She'll be 6 months old when we come up in December.

Take care,
Maureen

Congratulations David

Visit to Strausburg (France)

Hi Hi HI Everybody,

This past weekend we took a trip to the northeast coast of France (Issoudun is in the center) and we visited Strausburg in Alsace. Strausburg is now the seat of the European Parliment and it is an ideal place for it because in less than 100 years ( before 1945) the Alsatians (and Strausburg included) had to change nationality five times, alternating between France and Germany. It is for this reason that Alsace has a "German flavor" even though it's in France and one of it's culinary specialities is sourcrout! Here are a few photos. I tried to place them well but the computer has a mind of its own so I'll just go from the top left and down:

Top Left: Shopping in Strausburg

Top right: Got in by mistake. This is the sign on the Church in Strausburg where our first Mother General used to come to pray.

2nd row Left: Astronomical Clock (made in 1500) in the Strausburg Cathedral

2nd row right: the center of town

3rd row right and left: the Cathedral

4th row left: Bridge over the Rhone River connecting Germany and France. It's a walking bridge and we drove to Germany on another bridge and walked back to France on this one.

4th row right: The European Parliment Building

The photo that I wanted to put in (but Saint Louis got in instead) was of the Statue of Liberty because in a little town outside of Strausburg called Colmar - a man named Fedric Bartholdi sculpted the model for the Statue of Liberty. You can just imagine that there is a picture of it here as I haven't got any more time to play with this stuff at the moment.

Lots of love,

Linda

Financial Tip Of The Day

It is the little things that count and make a differece.

That is also true in personal finances.

Be very aware of the charges your bank charges. It makes a BIG difference...

Father's Day Challenge 2007

As many of you know, we had to postpone our Father's Day activities because Jonas was soooooo insistent on being included that he willed Addison to be born on Father's Day! Three weeks early!!!! So, we held our Father's Day challenge on July 4th. Below is a video that depicts the activities that took place. You should know most of the individuals involved except maybe one, Mike's cousin Kyle from Daytona. He is staying with Mike and Jenn for the summer. We look forward to next year's challenge!

>> Fairy Tale <<

Once upon a time, there was a princess named Anna Kathleen. But everyone called her "Kathy - the sister who could eat the world and stay skinny." One day, the princess met her bearded frog named Cliff, and somehow she didn't eat him. Instead, she married him and she became the happiest Strayer Sister in all of New Jersey.

THE VERY HAPPY END.

Some new toys!!

Mike and I got a few new additions to the house. We can't wait for you all to come and play!

We got our new boat a few weeks ago and have been out every weekend. It's a 2006 Centurion wake board boat. The wake it throws is insane.





Here's some video of Mike wake boarding of the boat a couple of weeks ago. He just landed his first back flip today!! I'm working on just a normal jump :)

We finally got the pool table for the game room. We also repainted the blue wall. I know...I loved it too :( But the split wall is awesome. We still need to get the dart board in there.



Marley's not new but he wanted to say hi!!

The Big Bash!

The White-Stewart 4th of July picnic was a BLAST. We got rained on mid way through, but that just meant the party was wet - it was still quite a party! The poker table was relocated inside the garage -- all manned by Strayers, of course! Got some great pictures.


A family shot - as many of us as we could muster up at that minute. Aunt Mare must have run off to forward emails to us....


Throwing down gangsta signs!!! Gives an all new meaning to "G-Mom"! Fo rizzle.


What a great looking family!!! Check out Mom & Dad in Hawaiian shirts.


Shot of the day. Aunt Kathy mid dive for the birdie. She & Brianna were quite a badminton team!!


Is it wrong that we set the kids up with a "soda pong" table? Whatever!!! Pauly was good.


Cheesin!


Aren't the little school girls so drunk....I mean, cute?

Good times!!!

History Lesson

John Hart was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, which was signed on this day in Philadelphia in 1776. John Hart was a representative of New Jersey (one of the 13 colonies represented for signing), hailing from Hopewell, NJ. John Hart is ALSO one of our ancestors on my Father's side!! How exciting!
He signed it in the fifth column, second signature from the bottom. Kinda hard to see, but check it out!

I picked the worst bone to break!

Hi Everybody,

Just thought I'd keep you all posted on what's happening in this part of the world. I went to the orthopedic specialist on Thursday, expecting him to take off my cast (it's been more than a month now) and he took it off alright but put on another one! Apparently this particular bone (at the base of the thumb) takes 3 months to heal!!! Can you believe it. So it looks like I'll be going to Ireland in July (retreat and leisure) and to Congo in August (work), carrying around this cast. What a bummer. Love the photos of Addison and other stuff on the Blog.

Lots of love,
Linda