It's been a long time!

Wow, it's been a long time since we updated this blog. Alvin and I are crazy busy with so many things, including fundraising for his kidney transplant. He still works at O&A here in Utah, and I am busy with my radio show, writing for www.USDAILYREVIEW.com and keeping up with family and friends.

Heather works at WalMart and then teaches voice, dance and piano throughout the week through her Twist & Shout Performance Group. Her five kids are doing well. Connor is now 6'7" and is being courted by football coaches across the valley. Stormy is in show choir and is quite the entertainer. Brigham is a video game mastermind and can take just about anybody down in just about any game. Skye and Elias are cruising along. Skye likes to tell us she's the smartest in her class, and Elias is just itching to get into school. Aaron, Heather's husband, continues to be the best pool contractor in Utah, not to mention, hands down, the best Santa Claus.

Crystal, Cash and Jay are all busy in their respective states, working hard and doing their best to survive this economy, as are we all.

I hope all is well with everyone! Have a great night.

We've moved from MSN to Google

Welcome to the new home of The Case Cousins. We began the email group several years ago as a way to keep up with family members across the globe. MSN is shutting down their Groups feature so we've migrated over to Google . . . and to be honest, I'm really like it!

Things have slacked off with the family, as of late, and I fear that is my fault. I've let life get in the way of keeping connected with family. I'll try to better.

This is where we can share family news, news of reunions, pictures, just all the good things that come from family!

Stay tuned for new and fun things . . . and yes, that means you have to help me come up with fun and new things!

I'm Candace Salima, the daughter of Leighton Freeman Case and Muriel Harris. Mom and Dad divorced when I was a teenager and things changed pretty drastically at that point. Through the course of the years our family lost touch with one another until Uncle Gordon (son of Alys Mae Barkwill and Levi Freeman Case) sent an email to all of us telling us of the death of Alys Mae, my grandmother. I emailed Uncle Gordon back and asked who all the people were in the "To:" box of the email. That's when I learned you were all my relatives.

We all began communicating, catching up with one another, emailing pictures and it was a wonderfully enlightening time. We've had several family reunions since that time and have come to know and love each other so much better. With the economy the way it is, I don't know when we'll all be able to get together again, but it is my hope we can have a reunion this year, 2009. Uncle Mike (son of Alys Mae Barkwill and Richard Shrank) kind of got shafted out of his reunion in Maryland, so I think we should shoot for that. We'll see how it all comes together. This is where you need to come back to in order get the latest info . . . or the family blog.

Uncle Gordon came up with a wonderful slogan for our family and we've stuck with it every since: F.G.A.B. -- Family Good, Alone Bad. Hence our group logo. And yes, Cash, I know it needs work and I'm open to revised versions of said logo.

Here are some pertinent URLs to keep you learning more and more about the Case/Shrank family. If you have a family or business website we don't know about, please email me with the URL and I'll get it added to the group page right away!

So welcome, welcome, welcome! Let's pull together and be the stupendously supportive and fun family I know us to be!

May only the best and brightest of things happen to you and yours in 2009.

So come on over to the F.G.A.B. Google Discussion Group and let's get things ramped up again.

Candace Salima

Cash is Okay!

Cash and Tara had a little scare the other day. He'd been at a gun show with a friend, come home and was breaking down his gun. He said he wasn't holding on to it tightly enough and it slipped and went off, shooting him in the thigh.

Of course, he was rushed to the hospital. In the E.R. he overhead someone say softly, "Was it a suicide attempt?"

Cash, being Cash, I know you all know what happened next.

"Yeah. I thought I'd shoot myself in the foot and if that didn't work, then the knee and on up until I got the job done."

He broke up the entire E.R. Doctors, nurses, EMTs . . . Tara.

To be serious though, the bullet took a fist-size chunk out of his leg and they had to put a rod in from knee to thigh. Turns out they put in one that is too long so I don't know where it's going to go from here, but I'll keep you all posted. He's home from the hospital, in pain but healing.

Life has been insane in the Case/Sluyter family over the last year.

When Dad (Fritz Sluyter) was diagnosed with terminal cancer last January, all of the family went home to spend time with him. While we were there, Sven's house burned down. It wasn't good, but they are a month away from moving into their new home.

Daddy passed away on March 8, 2007 -- we still miss him very much.

Jay's house burned down a couple, or maybe three, months ago. But he ended up getting a sweet property in Rigby, Idaho. Mom is selling the farm and will be moving to Rigby. We are putting a modulated home on an acre of Jay's property, moving Mom's animals into the barn and we'll all be hunky dory. An "adopted" daughter will be four miles away, Jay and his family just across the acre and Mom and Cheryl will be well taken care of . . . the best part, I'm only 3 hours away now and can be there in a flash if I'm needed.

We may have found a donor for Alvin . . . we'll know more in the next few days. But it's looking like his kidney transplant will take place near the first of March. Was hoping for earlier, but nope . . . it just didn't work. He's doing well and hanging in there.

Crystal is in Rugby, North Dakota ( I know, Rugby -- Rigby, believe me, when I'm tired I get confused) with Sweetie, her dog. They're having a blast and enjoying themselves up there.

I think everything else is status quo!

Have a great day everyone!

Happy Birthday Alvin!

Have I mentioned that today is my husband's birthday? And for this, his brother, and Harvey Unga's father (Jackson) one of his dearest friends called and we headed on over to the BYU Cougar practice field.

We are so excited for the 2007 football season. We have no less than four nephews playing on the team this year. Yes, we are very excited! This has been an added measure to our devotion as Cougar fans.

We watched the players practice and scrimmage and my sweetheart pointed out each nephew. Sete Aulai (Starting Center), Harvey Unga (Starting Running Back), Tyle Kozlowski (Wide Receiver) and Eathyn Manumaleuna (D Line). He was so excited to see each young man as they ran their plays. I have to admit, I was too. We were very proud of each one of them.

Harvey and Sete came on over to talk to us for a few minutes and Alvin snapped a picture of them with me.

They are such good young men, and I especially liked how much thinner I looked between the two. Hey, let's face it. I'm a woman, we think of things like that. If you want to know why I'm thinking of something like that at a time like this, take a look at Anne Bradshaw's blog on the LDSBA Whitney Awards. You'll see what I'm talking about.

Harvey is really proving himself in practice after practice, scoring at least two touchdowns in each scrimmage.

Sete has been puttin' the hurt on so many people as the center, that my husband was offering a lot of chuckles and "Owwws" with each play.

I popped on over to Google and typed in the boys names so I could grab a few pictures.

Last year, when John Beck connected with Johnny Harline in the final second of the BYU/U of U game for the touchdown and win, Sete was captured on the sidelines in complete disbelief as yet another Cougar miracle was pulled off. My nephew is one tough son-of-a-gun, so the raw emotion on his face speaks for itself.

An absolutely incredible moment in Cougar Football history.

Moving on to Harvey, whose last year was a redshirt year. He broke out in March practice and hasn't looked back. He's proven himself over and over, and he and Fui Vakapuna will be jockeying back and forth, assuming Fui's ankle completely heals. But as of now, Harvey is down as the starting running back.

I couldn't help but post this blog today because I am so proud of all these boys. Hopefully we'll see something of Tyler and Eathan as well this year.

Anyway, to my beloved sweetheart, Alvin, I wish the most beautiful of birthdays. You are my heart, my soul and you make my life worth living. Thank you for the being the man you are. True to your priesthood, your covenants, your values and your beliefs. You are a man above all men. I love you!

Happy Birthday!

GO COUGARS!