Finally...an update

Well, I am finally getting a chance to update the blog as I am quarantined in my room. I've been told by the doctor that I have H1N1 but I really don't feel too sick...just feeling like I have the common cold. Regardless, it is giving me a chance to get back on track with this blog.

A lot has happened in the past few month. We have remodeled our new home, moved into the new home, Rory has learned to crawl and has become very vocal, with her favorite word being Dad (and dada, da - you get the drift).

Hope you enjoy the pictures and videos...I promise to start updating this blog on a monthly basis again.

Picture: A recent, albeit blurry, picture of Rory.

The quality of this video is poor (dark) and it was filmed sideways (we don't have the software to rotate it) but if you strain your neck and eyes you are sure to laugh. The Sadlers gave Rory a John Deer radio and she loves to dance to the farm music.




Apparently she doesn't like to have food stuck to her face...

Blurry picture but I wanted to share it - Yuri and Rory with Tim and Jeanne Benintendi...our friends from Anchorage/Juneau.

Sydney (not looking all that rested) and Rory with Grandma Linda Anderson (center) and close family friend Cheri Ashby. For those of you that were at our wedding and remember all the beautiful flowers, they were Cheri's handiwork.

One of Rory's daycare workers likes to put her hair up in ponytails...here she is looking very Bohemian with her dad.

Rory's first visit with Chrissy Michaels' girls. They came over for a visit after spending the day at the fair - lucky girls! Note: This picture is several months old.

This video is a few months old...early on in Rory's crawling days.

Below are some pictures of our new home. I'll post more (of other parts of the house) in future blog postings. We still have a lot of unpacking, picture hanging, room organization, etc. to do but it truly feels like a home!

Before and after pictures...in the kitchen looking towards the back deck.

Before and after pictures - looking into the kitchen. You can see that we removed some walls, basically opening up the kitchen to the rest of the upstairs living area. Major improvement!

Dyanne and Betty posing in the new living room. We still have a few pieces of furniture to purchase but we are thrilled with how it is all coming together.

L to R - Dyanne, me, Lanie, Renee and Betty sitting on the new couch in the new living room. Dy, Lanie and Renee flew in a few weeks ago for a girls weekend...it was a great weekend of doing not much more than watching movies, eating a lot and partaking in a few alcoholic beverages.

Next up...Halloween pictures!

Con Frank's Passing

It has been several months since I have updated this blog. I am working on putting something together but first, I wanted to share with you all that we lost Yuri's Grandfather, Con Frank in August to heart failure. He was loved and admired by many and we miss him already. Below is a nice write-up from the funeral program.

Conrad George Burns Frank passed away peacefully on Monday, August 24, 2009 of heart failure at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. He was 87 years old.

Con was born on April 11, 1922 in Granum, near Calgary, Alberta to George and Helen Burns Frank. His father had immigrated from Germany and his mother had moved west from New Brunswick. The family farmed and had a ranch. There were four children: Marguerite (Margie), Con, Dorothy (Dawn) and Katherine (Kay). Con’s father, George, died in a farm accident when Con was just seven. In the mid 1930s, Helen moved the family to Vancouver, where Margie and Con attended Kipsilano High School, graduating in 1939. That fall Con's mother moved the family to Ellensburg, Washington, because they had close family friends there and the economy was improving more quickly in America.

During World War II, Con served in the U.S. Army in the European and Asian theaters. While in the Army, he became a United States citizen. In the summer of 1945, Con married Helen Dimm, and a year later they moved to Fairbanks, because they felt there were "a lot of opportunities for a young man" here, and he knew the university had a good school of engineering. Con attended the University of Alaska on the G.I. Bill and earned a degree in Civil Engineering in 1949. In the meantime, sons Randy and Darryl, known to all as Darry, were born. Andrea, Mary and Steve followed in the 1950s. In the early 1950s Con built the family home on Sunset Drive and they moved in and lived there as the children grew up. In the late 1950s the family acquired a lot at Harding Lake; Con, with the help of the "big boys" (Randy and Darry), built a cabin where the family enjoyed spending many happy summer days and nights. In 1968 tragedy struck when Darry was killed in a motorcycle accident. Just five years later, in 1973, tragedy struck again when Con’s wife, Helen Dimm Frank, passed away.

In 1975 Con married Helen Atkinson. They met when Con escorted Helen, who was then writing an article on the Yukon River bridge project, to the worksite. They enjoyed 34 years of shared interests in construction, travel and their children, grandchildren and great- grandchildren. Over the years Con attended countless sport competitions, concerts and graduations of his children and grandchildren, always cheering them on in their endeavors and accomplishments.

During the 1950s Con did construction work, and from 1954 to 1956 he was Fairbanks' city engineer. In 1959 he joined the contracting firm GHEMM Company, Inc. as its engineer and managing partner with Clyde Geraghty, Carl Erickson, Bob Mitchell and Harvey Marlin II. The GHEMM families became close friends and have remained so through the years. By the time of his retirement, GHEMM had completed hundreds of millions of dollars of construction in Alaska, including, perhaps most notably, the Yukon River bridge in joint venture with Manson-Osberg of Seattle. Over the years, GHEMM Company offered many Fairbanks youth their first jobs and supported countless families throughout the state through employment on their construction projects.

Con contributed to the development and well-being of Fairbanks and interior Alaska in many capacities. He served on the Board of Directors of the Municipal Utilities System, the University of Alaska Board of Regents, the Board of Directors and as president of the Association of General Contractors of Alaska, the Board of Directors of First National Bank of Fairbanks, the Fairbanks Development Authority, and for twenty-five years on the Greater Fairbanks Community Hospital Foundation Board. Con received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Fairbanks Chapter of the Alaska Society of Professional Engineers in 1996 and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in2001. Con and his wife Helen Atkinson received Fairbanks' Heart of Gold Award in 2002, and they were jointly honored by the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce in 2008 for their outstanding contributions to the Fairbanks community.

Con was known by all as a man of integrity. Advice Con shared with his daughter, Mary, gives insight to the type of man he was - “Small people talk about people. Mediocre people talk about things. And great people talk about ideas.”