Murdock Muse
March-April 2005, Part 2






Missi Howlett's
Family Website



Darrel's Website



Kathy's Website



Thor's gallery


Sarah's galleries

Scott's USAF Installations Page



Ben's memorial website


Rose's memorial pages by Carl


MUSERS' OWN WEBSITES: A REVIEW
Bob Murdock


The purpose of this article is to introduce readers to eight websites which have been created by members of the extended family of the Murdock Muse. Links to the sites are also found on our
Friends page, where we invite readers to be listed. All of the websites were found to be up and running, and we think you will enjoy a tour.

(The Muse Readers Email Listing, formerly found on the Friends page, has been discontinued for security reasons. It has become evident that it is no longer safe to publish private Email addresses on a platform available to the general public. You may contact your editors at murmuse@comcast.net for a listing.)



In January 2005 Missi Howlett announced a personal website, The Sargents. It features her family: Kurt Sargent, Missi, Kurt's son Jamie, and Missi's son Richie. From the front page you can link to Missi's Music Room, a weight loss journal, family photo page, or selected website favorites (e.g. The Boston Red Sox).



Darrel's AAALynx website is a virtual museum of photo galleries, slide shows, mini videos, and links to a variety of interesting web pages. You will need to sit down with a cup of coffee and a doughnut just to sample a few of the many offerings on his front page.

In collaboration with Kathy, his hiking companion, Darrel has visited state parks and other venues in Minnesota and surrounding areas, photographing all kinds of scenery, including breathtaking waterfalls and sunsets.



Kathy Skow is Darrel's partner in hiking adventures. On her Red Fox Imagery website she has documented their many trips in Minnesota and elsewhere, and her narratives are accompanied by great photos. One journal describes a visit to the Como Park Zoo, with a link to a video of swinging monkeys!



Rob and Willow Howlett celebrated the birth of their son with a comprehensive photo gallery, on a Rinne Family web site hosted by Willow's dad. Thor Foster Howlett was born on Jan. 11 2005, and you can see his early development on a series of photo pages. Thor was the first grandchild for Willow's parents, but not for Doug and Carol Howlett, who are each depicted lovingly holding their newest grandson.



Sarah Bergeron started her PBase website a couple of years ago, and now has over 500 photo images in 25 galleries, ranging from her wedding to lighthouses to "things that creep, crawl, and slither."



Scott Murdock, retired from the USAF, has an impressive website called "Scott's USAF Installations Page." He started it in 1998 and as he toured the country visiting numerous AF locations, updated it continuously. Scott's well written narratives are laced with links to hundreds of photos and bits of humor. You don't have to be a USAF installations afficionado to enjoy a tour of his pages.



Roy and Tami Murdock have a lovely memorial website for their departed son Benjamin Christian Murdock (1980-1997). Have your sound turned on - the background music is the beautiful Fur Elise, one of Ben's favorites. The site is hosted by Angelfire, and if there are pop-up ads, just X them out to see the impressive writing about Ben's life and a photo gallery.



Carl "Chip" Martz honored his late wife Rose (1935-2003) with a very nice memorial website. It is highlighted by a loving biography of Rose written by Chip for his grandchildren. There are also tributes from people who knew Rose, along with photographs, a slide show, and a movie. The website is hosted by "Making Everlasting Memories."



ROLLERCOASTERS, ETC.
Sally Bacon

We are having an unusual winter here in central New York. Not much snow and extreme temperatures--20 below zero a couple weeks ago and today it was in the 50's.

Ernie retired from teaching last June and is easing into retirement. He works two days a week at his former school district doing curriculm development. He started with science and then moved on to math, health and social studies. His new title is curriculm guru. :) During his "5 day weekends" he has been doing a lot of puttering in his work shop. He made speaker stands for Rebecca and Keith, an ottoman for Tricia and Keith and an end-table for me for Christmas. Then he made a dresser for our newest granddaughter, Sarah, who is scheduled to enter the world this Friday, February 11, at 8:00 a.m.

We are anxiously awaiting her birth. She will be Eric and Tricia's first child, and our third granddaughter. Rebecca and Keith's two girls are Samantha, 4, and Meghan 2. They now live 7 minutes from us so we get to see them once or twice a week! There is nothing like being a grandparent!

I still work for Ashland Specialty Chemical -- 18 years now. I've been working out of my house for a year and I really enjoy it.

I will be having my ankle fused in April. The arthritis has gotten really bad--there is no cartilage left between the bones--and walking gets to be a real pain when those low pressure systems come through.

We had two pair of bluebirds in our feeders last week! Our normal flock contains cardinals, blue jays, titmouse, junko, chickadees, sparrows, purple finch and goldfinch. We have occasional visits from flicker, downey woodpeckers, mourning doves and nuthatch.

Rebecca and I went to Disney World for a long weekend in January. We had a blast! It is a great place to go when you can't walk very well as long as you rent a wheelchair. I rented an electric one each day and had no problem getting around at all. Some people may think Disney World is for kids; well, it is, but it has lots and lots for adults too! We especially enjoyed Epcot and the Wild Kingdom. Going in January, we didn't have to deal with the huge crowds that are normally there. The weather was in the 50's and 60's, but it was -16 in Syracuse that weekend, so it seemed balmy. I loved the rides, too! Yes, I am 54 years old, but can still ride those rollercoasters! It was a fun getaway!!


HOW QUICKLY TIME GOES
Rebecca Whalen

It's amazing how quickly time goes! My older daughter, Samantha, is 4 1/2 years old, and Meghan, my younger, turned 2 in October! Samantha will be starting Kindergarten in the fall - so hard for me to believe! I continue to work part-time at St. Joe's Hospital in Syracuse 2 days per week - it's a good change and gets me out of the house!

As you heard from Mom, our trip together to Disneyworld was wonderful! It was very busy, but a truly enjoyable experience - I hope to continue taking an annual trip with her (maybe not so elaborate year after year!). I am now working on a scrapbook to capture all of our memories. (I have recently become quite a fan of scrapbooking!)

Well, that's probably enough for now...Keep up the hard work on The Muse!


WE'RE HOME!
Margery Aukstikalnis

OK, so it's our winter home, but it's ours. We are scrubbing and brushing and mopping and dreaming. We are living in the RV until we get the house cleaned up and furnished. It has a refrigerator so far. We arrived Wednesday evening, and it started raining Thursday morning and hasn't stopped yet. They say maybe Sunday. But after seven years of drought, the rain is welcome.

The birds are plentiful and beautiful. We had two coyote in the yard Thursday morning, not twenty feet from the house. Although gorgeous animals, they made us worry for the safety of our pets. Yesterday we had a brood of 19 quail cross the same path that the coyotes did the day before. What fun that was!

We have three bedrooms and two baths; one bedroom will become our office, one bedroom will be storage, and the RV will be kept clean and ready for use as a guest house (choir room) when we aren't traveling. The living room and kitchen are small - all the rooms are small - but quite do-able for the two of us. We plan to mostly live outdoors, anyway. There's so much to do outside.

We have the same phone number we had in McNeal. They save the number for 90 days, and we moved into the same prefix area, so they were glad to give us our old number back. We pay only 5 cents a minute for long distance, to a maximum of $20 per month, and everything is free after that. So it's a good deal for us .... we can keep our NH Email address, call home as often as we want, and know it's not costing us an arm and a leg.

The animals are happy. They can go outside anytime they want. Without leashes. Jack is happy. He plans on getting a tractor soon. Big boys have big toys. I have a new used car - a Chrysler Town and Country- 1994 in mint condition, so I can go shopping or to church in comfort. (The Chevy Tracker was giving me an awful back ache.) We will keep the T&C here when we go home, and still tow the Tracker. It does make a good "toad" because it is so light.

And our mailing address is the same as our street address. So keep in touch. We'll let you all know when we are heading home. [Ed. Note: For their address or phone number, contact your editors at
murmuse@comcast.net.]


SAVE THE DATE!
Cathy & John Howlett

It's a sunny, cold, blustery afternoon here in Chichester - no better time than today to announce the date to save for the next family reunion. Claudia has notified Polly, Carl and Clyde that she has scheduled her summer visit to begin July 21st, so we will be pleased to host the get-together on Saturday, July 23rd, instead of closer to the traditional Fourth of July weekend.

Please post this in the March/April "Muse"; we're hoping that an early "Save the Date" announcement will yield a better turnout than last summer. Also, setting the date for later in July might enable some families to attend who have missed the gathering due to conflicts with other activities set for the Fourth of July weekend.

We're requesting RSVP's by July 10th, so we can determine how many tents, tables and chairs to round up, as well as whether a Port'o'Potty will be a required accessory. John is hoping that enough folks will plan to attend to justify purchasing an even larger grill; that remains to be seen!

Plan on arriving at noontime; we're looking forward to your company. Contact us at
cathyjohnhow@tds.net .


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