Letter from Karen - June 1, '03

Thanks for all your work that you sent. It is just great to have this on the web. One thing I sent you that was wrong is where Jim was born. It wasn't Raton but Greeley. I hope I don't send too much more erroneous info. I'll try to verify it before I send it off.

It was very interesting to Ed that Ricky's name is Eric, the same as Jim's son. He said he had no idea. Two Eric Olanders. Jim has a daughter in law named Heidi and we have a daughter in law named Heidi. Eric and Heidi (Jim's son and wife) had their second son on May 21st. His name is Carson James. This is Jim and Pat's 5th grandson and their daughter Julie is expecting in October. They want to be surprised. This is their second child and they have Jack who was a year in Feb. So it's either the 6th son or first girl - my comment is the 6th for the basketball team or the first cheerleader. If it is a girl I can't imagine how spoiled she'll be.

They live in Tulsa and Greg's family is there too with two sisters and each one has two children but only 1 girl and 3 boys so a girl would be the second girl on Greg's side and first girl on Julie's side. Not very many girls in the Olander families that we are close to. I think we counted 10 boys and our 3 girls. John's son's wife is expecting in early Nov. and I think they will be finding out the sex soon.

Glad you have been able to find a home away from the heat.  I do hope you can get up there often. We go that way sometimes when we are headed to CA (San Jose) to be with our son and family and head out on 50 across Nevada and into CA. around Lake Tahoe. We don't do this in the wintertime very often and since our Russian adopted grandson now 20, lives with us we don't head anywhere much. We did fly out last summer to welcome our newest granddaughter and drove out for Christmas but both times Max was with us. We hope he is finished his junior year and will be a senior but it is going to be close on the grades. He also has a new girlfriend.

I'll copy those printed documents about Eleanor and Lefty and send them to you in the mail. Sorry they didn't work out on the computer. The info you have so far is great. I wouldn't expect anything from Dee Dee since they leave tomorrow for about 11 weeks in Europe and will be attending their son's wedding in Greece the 21st of July. John and Barb will be there but we won't be going as of now. Russ is an avid traveler and is great at finding his way around. Russ, Dee Dee, John and Barb travel together all the time.  They are all deep sea divers so often it is to warm places with beautiful dive areas. I think John will live on the golf course now that he is retired.

The last 6 months he has been completing his basement.  The only subcontractors he hired were a texturer, rug layers, plumber and gas man to install the fireplace. The basement had been finished when they moved into the house about 2 or 3 years ago. He has two bedrooms, huge storage room, area for his pool table, a bar and large tv and sitting area with the fireplace. It really looks nice. We know he and his buddies will spend a lot of time down there.

Time to get at some work. We had a wonderful rain yesterday washing off all the pollen from our many huge pine trees.  We have pollen all over in the house because we have had the windows open at night to cool off. This week is suppose to only be in the low 70's or high 60's so much cooler than last week. Imagine that sounds cold to you folks. Now I need to do a good clean inside to get rid of all the yellow dust clinging to everything.

Looking forward to more family tree info. 

Ed and Karen 

Glad to help out when I can but......