 "Well the year has been a little busy for the Anthony (née Braun) household.
This past year has seen the passing of my mother Marie Braun in January, whom
everyone here misses dearly. The Braun family is doing well. It's not easy to lose both your parents so close together,
so I guess we all are trying to cope the best way we know how. A new generation is taking over the lead and hopefully we can
pass on great memories of our parents to our children.
"I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on May 2, 2001. Ivon and I named
her Maya Marie Anthony. Her middle name is after my mother, Marie.
I have found motherhood to be wonderful. It is everything everybody talks about, and more. Many sleepless nights, but also,
many great moments of joy. Just to see her smile makes it all worth it. I had 3 months off work to adjust to everything,
but still found the time just flew by. From what I hear, time will continue to fly by now that we have kids. One day they're
small and the next they're off to college. I know I will enjoy it all while it lasts.
"We've had Ivon's parents in town from Malaysia since mid-August, visiting their
newest grandchild in America. They have been babysitting Maya while we are at work. Its nice to have his parents here
to help with her as well as all the wonderful new foods my mother-in-law has been cooking for us. Ivon's been in heaven
with his mother's home cooking. We have been doing a lot of sightseeing with them, and found ourselves at Munsinger gardens in
St. Cloud. It brought back memories of the family reunion. His father left on Nov. 2, to
go back home, but his mom wanted to stay a bit longer to experience the snow. She has never seen snow, or felt the frigid cold
before, so, we let her stay. She wants to walk on the frozen lakes, if possible. She has no clue HOW cold it can really
get, but we did try to warn her. Malaysia's average temp is 90 degrees year round. It was fun when it snowed 10 inches
in 2 days and she just kept saying how pretty it looked.
"We got together with Chris Lundblad
from Oregon, while he was in town visiting his father. Glenn Stimler was also there,
and as we found out from Chris, it was Glenn's birthday that night. What luck! We sang a horrible rendition of the birthday
song and he received many balloons from the restaurant, Ruby Tuesday. It was nice to see them and catch up on their lives.
I live so close to Glenn, but it seems the only time we get together is when Chris comes into town each year. Why is that?
"We will all be going back to Malaysia on December 28, and staying for
2 weeks. We will be getting Maya baptized on Jan. 05, and Ivon's sister Cynthia, and her husband Raj, will be her godparents.
This is the 3rd time I am going back, but with a new baby on board, this will definitely NOT be the same old trip. Ivon
says we are going on a vacation, but I say that going overseas with an 8 month old, visiting the in-laws (and family) in
a third world country, does NOT constitute a vacation, but who am I to complain. We are away from work and Minnesota, which
is at its coldest in January, so I should consider myself lucky. We are not too worried about flying with what's happened
on Sept. 11, but do keep that in our minds about the potential of what can happen. I guess I consider we are probably
safer now, than we were before.
"After we get back home, I hope for a very white winter season. Three years of
no snow and then last year, tons of snow and I'm pregnant, so this year my wish list is for lots of snow to go skiing and
snowmobiling. If we have to have winter, we might as well enjoy it."
-- from the Stimler/Kampa Independent Newsletter, 8th Edition, Winter 2001
|
