Impromptu invitation

My sister had suggested she bring food and we have a bbq and watch the fireworks. I told her food was good but Terry was working the ambulance at the ranch rodeo. So she made plans. Terry invited a friend and we were set.

I got up early (for me on a holiday) and went to Twilla's where she and I picked cherries. She even helped me pit them!!! Good time. Terry was working at the shop and I went out and helped him by running the cherry picker for a short while. On the way home I stopped at the grocery store.

As I was pulling in a biker pulled rode up in front of me. I got out of the car and did that thing we do out here. "Hi. How are you." He said hi back, then asked if we had a pool. I told him yes and directed him that way. I asked him if he was staying in Leoti for the night and he said yes. I told him about the ranch rodeo and fireworks then while I was at it I invited him to the bbq. He said he had 3 friends. I said ok no problem.

I went in and bought more meat along with what I was after. Talked to him again telling him about Terry's home made potato chips. When I left I called Terry and said I think I need you to come home I just invited 4 more people and the house is a mess. Then I called Linda and told her and she came early too.

I didn't know if they would show up but they did and we had a very nice time. They were very nice young men from San Diego. They went to the ranch rodeo with us and are now sleeping on the floor in our front room.

I love random meetings. Nothing makes me happier than to truly meet people from other walks of life. I hope they enjoyed their time here.

They are heading west tomorrow. I hope they have a great trip.

Happy Birthday Chris

26 years ago some poor lady that I didn't know was told by the doctor " You'll have to wait a bit I'm going to do this cesarian then we can deliver you." Of course it was somewhat said in jest but it was a one doctor hospital and he was going to be a little bit busy delivering Chris. 5 days later when I was getting ready to go home the same lady whose labor had stopped while I was in the operating room came back in. That day they delivered 3 babies the normal way in 1 hour. She was in my room and told me that she had told the doctor she wasn't waiting again. That day there were 4 of us in the hospital with babies. My first, one second, one third, and one fourth. They were so busy the cleaning lady brought me Chris and said can you take care of him the nursery is busy!! Probably it was the only 4 born that month.

For 26 years we have gotten to be the proud parents of that boy. We have gotten to see him be a grown person at the age of 10. We have seen the boy who had very few friends be in more weddings of friends than I can count. We have seen him graduate from college with 3 degrees. We have seen him marry a lovely young lady who makes him very happy.

We are looking forward to seeing him this weekend (if all of the cards get played right). We look forward to being the grandparents of his children. We look forward to seeing where he goes from here.

We are proud of his committment to his wife, job, school, church, and others. What an honor to be the parents of that boy.

Happy birthday!!

Disclaimer: I stole the picture from his facebook page. It made me think of when we used to take him to the ballgame for his birthday.

wheels up

When Chris is telling me when he is going to fly somewhere or about a trip he will often say we are or were wheels up at a certain time. That tells me when the the plane is going to or did take off. Terry and I were on our way to Garden today and saw this. In this case "wheels up" is not a good thing. These are center pivot irrigation systems that were ruined by a storm.
This entire system was on it's side.


These 2 were across the road from each other.

This one was interesting because it was all turned over except for one section. Terry thought that it was interesting also because they were not facing the same direction which meant that the wind came from more than one direction. We saw some crops that looked really bad too. They were harvested by what people around here call the white combine from the sky which means hail. We talked to a friend of ours and he said they were almost completely wiped out. Very sad.

Here in our town there has been a good rain this week but no hail that I have heard of. Some earlier in the year but I don't think anything like this.

I'll be right back

I stopped at the local Dollar General yesterday to pick up a card for a bridal shower I was going to. Anybody who reads this knows that there are a lot of little quirks about small town life that wouldn't happen in the city and for the most part I like those little quirks, but this one irritated even me.

As I was getting ready to check out there was a man in front of me. He said something to the girl who was checking him out and she rang up his purchases. He wrote a check and gave it to her. Then he said "I'll be right back". I knew that the dollar store has a new policy about showing your drivers license and other things when writing a check so I figured he went to his car to get his ID. Not only did I wait but so did the 2 people in line behind me. The clerk said nothing to me. Another person who works there came in and then left after saying a quick thing to the clerk. Finally I asked "where did he go?" She said "home".

HOME!!! I was standing in the store waiting for someone who had gone HOME!!

I said, "I don't think I will buy this then." Put the card back and left. I don't know how long everyone else stood there.

I hope he didn't live too far away.

Finally

Yesterday was election day for our 4th school bond election!! Finally it passed. By 76%!!!! Several things went into that vote most of which I would give credit to our wonderful Superintendent. He has done a fabulous job of connecting with the community. He has had meetings too numerous to mention where he said the same thing over, and over, and over, then listened to what people had to say. He compiled lists of wants, needs, wishes, then gently had to tell people that everyone couldn't have everything they wanted. Then he worked and will continue to work very well with the architect who truly has our best interest at heart to come up with a plan that met the needs and as many desires as possible to come up with a plan that people felt they could work with. He managed to get the community organized in a way that we have not been able to do lately. He convinced with his gentle persuasion many people to contribute in various ways.

The fact that our insurance company said we wouldn't have insurance on our buildings if we don't have a plan by December to replace the current grade school helped to convince some people that we weren't lying about the need to have a new building.

LOTS of people who were disappointed by our 5 vote loss last time came out to help this time. That was good. It truly was a community effort and the board did less than ever before. That was probably good too.

We are spending the same amount of money as last time only in a different way. We are remodeling the old building that people feel attachment too (me too actually). We are moving the kids around which many people wanted. Truth be known many other people didn't want that but it goes back to everyone can't have what they want.

We received $500,000 grant money from our Economic Development for part of the project. That helped a bunch.

Monday night was my last board meeting as next month we will have new board members and I didn't run so I won't be there. I am sorry that I won't be in on the building after all these efforts. In the same sense I am probably glad I won't be too, there will be lots of meetings, decisions, and scrutinizing money being spent. I really needed to eliminate something from my schedule and if I had stayed that wouldn't have happened.

Richard's family

I just realized tonight I didn't post pictures from my neices graduation. I really didn't get any great ones but here is one of his family. His is trying to hide behind them. He has such great children.

Picnic

Tonight the doctors had a picnic for EMS week which isn't this week. Sadly there weren't very many people there but the food was good and God let the weather turn out beautifully. A nice time was had. For Terry it is always a good night when he gets to hold a baby.

It runs in the family

Right after I got to work today I was talking to Terry and his phone started ringing with Jeremy's ring. Then mine did too so we knew it was a text message. (We have old phones and can't have a different ring for a call and text.) Before we opened our phones Terry said "Happy D-Day". I opened it up and sure enough it said "Happy D-Day". Terry said "he beat me to it".

That history thing must be genetic or something. Which in our families case would make it is the dominant gene.