Christmas 2012

Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas from the Blaney Family. 

2012 was a wonderful year for us as we hope it was for all of you. 
 
We did not do a lot of travelling this year but when we did travel it was to the east coast to visit Kathleen.  Cathy, her dad, Erin, Jon, Mary Jo and I flew in to Providence to witness Kathleen’s graduation from Brown University.  She received her master’s degree in Public Health.  We were able to take side trips to Connecticut and Massachusetts in her 1997 van with 150,000 miles on it with no air-conditioning.  Every we time we stopped and got out, the seven of us pouring out of that van reminded me of a circus clown car. 

Later that summer, Cathy went back out to spend some one-on-one time with her.  Cathy drove and Kathleen navigated as they made their way into the heart of NYC.  While there they attended the Broadway musical, “Mamma Mia”

Watching all the news coverage about Hurricane Sandy made me want to jump on a plane and fly east.  So I did and I am grateful that Delta was the only airline flying into Providence the day after the storm.   Before driving back to Wisconsin we took a side trip to Cape Cod and Nantucket.   Kathleen cleaned out her apartment that served her well for two and a half years and we headed west.  We made side trips to visit Yale, Hershey PA, Gettysburg and the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.   Because of the devastation of the hurricane, we avoided NYC but still spent 3 hours searching for and waiting for gas in New York & New Jersey.  We’ll always remember the people we met at Walgreens.  The area had no gas, no electricity and no heat for days.  Walgreens was being powered by generators and people were huddled around a powerstrip that the store provided so they could recharge their cell phones and laptops.

This year Cathy and I are especially thankful to have two gainfully employed daughters.  Erin continues her work as a bilingual social worker for The Healthy Families Program of Family Services where she works with at-risk infants and first time mothers.  Now well into her second year with Family Services, Erin has fallen in love with many of “her babies” and they with her. 

Kathleen has accepted a position with the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin as an HIV Nurse Case Manager.  Her duties include clinic time in Green Bay and home visits in the surrounding area. 

Other 2012 highlights include Kathleen’s trip to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC, and Ken receiving an alumni award from his high school.

Cathy continues to teach 2^nd grade in our neighborhood school.  She struggles with the lack of materials, support staff and the increasing needs of her students but continues to make a terrific impact on her student’s lives.

As always, we'd love to hear from you. 

Merry Christmas!

Ken, Cathy, Kathleen and Erin

Vermont

     Greetings from Vermont. We started the day with a tour of the Cabot cheese factory. Go figure, we live in Wisconsin and have to travel to Vermont for a cheese factory tour!
     After learning all we could from the experience, we traveled 30 miles down the road to the home of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. After a brief video, a tour of the plant it was on to the free sample! Today's free flavor was Steven Colbert's Americone Dream.
     Next stop was the Cider Mill where I had a chance to drink a jug maple syrup.  It was very cute and very New England. 
      Montpelier was just around the corner so we drove through town and saw the capital.
     Our last stop was the Von Trapp's resort in Stowe, VT, (think The Sound Of Music).  The huge resort is still owned by the "Trapp" family. From 4:30-5:30 they have a sing-a-long at the resort, lead by a harpist. All in all it was a full and enjoyable day. 

We're Off!

I have a conference in Boston so Cathy and I left a few days early, picked up Kathleen in Boston and headed to Bar Harbor, Maine.  The Maine state motto seems to be “lobster, lobster everywhere, why don’t you eat some?”  So we did.  We ate lobster, lobster roll and even lobster mac-n-cheese.  We took a 2 hour scenic boat tour and saw thousand of Maine’s famed lobster traps, spent some time going through Acadia National Park and saw stunning views from Cadillac Mountain. 


Kathleen on scenic cruise near Bar Harbor Manie

Mass at Holy Redeemer in Bar Harbor

Cathy and Kathleen on scenic cruise

stop at the LL outlet store



view from our hotel room in Bar Harbor



Kathleen on Cadillac Mt in
Acadia National Park

believe it not it's mac-n-cheese with lobster!

Cathy on the cruise

on the cruise

Egg Rock Island Lighthouse

our cruise ship the Acadia




lobsters are everywhere!

More Convention photos.

Chairman Jason Rae introduces
Dr. Jill Biden

This is the shot that CNN showed of Kathleen.  Jason
Rae is just over her right shoulder



The MSNBC set
Chris Matthews,
Debbie Wasserman-Schultz

Jason, Kathleen and Caroline Kennedy

Kathleen Goes To The DNC!!

Kathleen had a wonderful chance to attend the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte with her friend, Jason Rae.  Jason is a delegate.  He is also chairman of the Democratic Youth Committee.  The chairmanship is a big deal.  As his guest, Kathleen is considered a credentialed guest and so far has also been granted passes to the convention floor.  She has been texting, tweeting and putting a few things on facebook but I thought it'd be nice to share some of her photos with you.

Dr. Jill Biden at Reception

Kathleen and Friend being
interviewed for Fox 6 Milwaukee

Jason & Kathleen at the People
for the American Way party

Kathleen and Jason on the
Convention floor

Jason & Kathleen at welcoming reception

Jason Rae and Tammy Baldwin

Nancy Pelosi asking Kathleen's
advice about healthcare

Gov. Link Chaffe of Rhode Island
an Independent Gov. supporting Obama

Kathleen's welcome to the
convention packet

Michelle Obama as seen from the
Wisconsin delegation's point of view.

 

Kathleen's Graduation

We have returned from Providence and we’re exhausted.  Cathy and I had a hard time getting out of Green Bay but after we did, everything went smoothly. 

Campus Dance

We arrived in time to have dinner with Kathleen at a small Cambodian restaurant near her apartment.  We finished in plenty of time to meet Jon, Mary Jo, Erin and Gene Kolb at the airport.  With little time to change and freshen up at the hotel we joined 11,000 graduates, their families and alums at the annual Brown Campus dance.   We spent the evening with Kathleen’s closest friends and their families.  We laughed, drank and danced until almost 1 a.m.!  Cathy’s dad was a true trooper and seemed to love every minute of it.

Kathleen stayed with us at the hotel and made sure that we were up bright and early for a tour of the campus and of Providence.  Later that day we left her in Providence so that she could attend her ceremony practice and we headed to the scenic seaport village of Mystic, CT.  Mystic is a cute seaport town where the movie “Mystic Pizza” was filmed. 

Water Fire

That night we ate at a Mexican place on the water and headed to Kathleen’s friends place for cocktails then it was off to Water Fire, a very neat festival in Downtown Providence.

Mary Jo, Ken, Cathy, Kathleen, Erin, Gene & Jon

Sunday was back-to-back-to-back-to-back graduation ceremonies.  They included a very cool procession out of the University gates, the grad school graduation ceremony, the whole university ceremony and then the ceremony for those receiving degrees from the school of Public Health.  We had a nice dinner and finished off the evening with Champaign toasts back at the hotel.

Not wanting to waste our last day with Kathleen, we chose to make another short road trip, this time to Newport.  Newport is where the upper crust of society summers.  They still have polo matches on the beaches and the homes overlooking the ocean are a sight to behold.  The 7 of us in Kathleen’s 1997 van fit right in.  I gotta admit that when we all got out of that van at a vineyard, it reminded me of a circus clown car!  After a lunch at the beach club we headed back to Providence and said farewell to Kathleen.

It was a great trip and we are all very proud of her.  Thanks for letting us share it with you.

    Ken, Cathy, Kathleen, Erin, Jon, Mary Jo and Gene

NDA President's Dinner

              Notre Dame Academy President's Dinner

May 2, 2012

Thank you and thank you Bob Pauley, John Revisa and Char Dunlap.

When Bob first called me about the award, I was hesitant and I said “Bob, this is great, but I don’t think I’ve done anything special to deserve it.  He said “You People” You’re all alike.   You all start out by saying that you are not deserving and after a few minutes you start sounding like saints and by the end of the conversation you’re saying things that sound like  “oh no Lord, I am not deserving for I am one of God’s greatest  sinners”.    I said Bob, You went from, Ken, we’d like to give you an award to, Ken, you’re one of God’s greatest sinners!  And he did it in about 20 seconds.  I don’t think he even took a breath.    Now, in my family, you always start with the insult first and then spend the next 3-4 minutes soft peddling it.   It’s called Irish Diplomacy.   For those of you who aren’t Irish, Irish Diplomacy is the ability to tell someone to go to Hell and after 3 or 4 minutes,  you’ve got that person actually looking forward to the trip!

Fr. Tim Shillcox, Ken, Fr. Conrad Kratz

When I graduated from Premontre in 1974, I had no idea that so many Norbertines would still be a part of my life 38 year later.  Fr. Dane was my pastor and was assissted by Fr. Mark Falcone at St. Agnes.  Others have become close family friends including Fr. Abbot Gary Neville and Fr. Tim shillcox.  Fr. Conrad Kratz has become a cherished friend of everyone in the Blaney family.  It was 26 years ago, tomorrow that Fr. Kratz officiated at our wedding.  We are honored that he made a special effort to be here tonight.      It’s also nice that the sisters of St. Joseph of Corondelette are represented by Sr. Pat Clement.   Sr. Pat has also become a close friend as she works as a pastoral associate in 4 of the west side parishes.  

 

I want to thank my family, my wife, Cathy and my daughters, Erin and Kathleen but also my extended family, all of my brothers and my sister Mary Jo who nominated me for this award.  I think that most people think of my family as a very large group of the same person.   When I was a child it always bothered me that people couldn’t seem to keep us separate.   However, tonight I think it has worked to my advantage.   I don’t think that any one of us would be worthy of this award, but perhaps collectively, we could come close.  

In 1963, my brother Bill enrolled at Premontre and  through the six of us and through the 6 of our children and through Tom teaching for over 30 years and through Patrick’s time on the school board, someone in our family has been associated with the school for 48 out of the last 49 years.  Which to me, seems like a long time.    

A couple of years ago I ran into Mrs. Schumacher at a funeral.  She had been standing in the same spot for a long time so I went and asked her if she would like a chair.  Being the gracious woman that we all know that she is, she thanked me but declined.  Later, I saw her, in the same spot but now she was sitting in a chair.  My brother, John, said he had brought it over to her, “and when he did, she looked at him, thanked him and said, “Oh John, you’re such a Blaney”.  Only the egotist in my family would assume that she meant that as a compliment.

Every year Cathy and I and our daughters watch the Movie, “It’s a Wonderful life”.  You’ve all seen it.  It’s a great movie and Jimmy Stewart plays George Bailey, a wonderful everyman-type of character.  Everybody who watches it, loves it and it’s because we can all identify with George Bailey.  He stays in the same town in which he was born, he works hard in the family business, he volunteers in his community, watches out for his friends, keeps his moral center, and does whatever he can for his family.  But as we all know, as George got a little older; he believed that his life’s accomplishments did not really make much of a difference.   But at the end of the movie his community lifts him up, affirms him and thanks him.  After receiving this award tonight, I think I know how he felt. 

Thank you, thank you for what you do for NDA and thank you for what you do for our community.