The Event ~ Two + Nine

A whole week with the seven grandkids!  Tim (son-in-law) and Janel and their seven kids came to vacation at Grandpa's farm for a week.  They came also to attend Janel's 20th class reunion.  Wow!  Has it been that long? 

Ben, Mathilda,  Jakob, Amelia, Joshua,  Joe,  Jonathan,  Me
           5       6 1/2        11 1/2        1         9 1/2      3       8 1/2                        

When two empty nesters add nine more people to the household and the dining room table for a week, it can be quite challenging for this Grandma.  But I'll never turn down the opportunity to have them spend time here.  There is certainly never a dull moment ~ or a quiet one!  

        

We played a little ball on the back lawn,  finished off the simple little fireworks that we didn't do on the 4th, played in the sprinkler, enjoyed a water balloon fight, lit the open fireplace and roasted marshmellows. 

The kids did a little irrigating with Grandpa.  One night we all enjoyed watching John Wayne's "The Cowboys" about a dozen young boys from 8 - 15 on a cattle drive.  A very fitting movie for our crew. 

We spent an evening at the lake where the kids camped.  Tim donned his swim suit and enjoyed a good time in the water with the kids.  First time I can remember him ever being in the lake and having so much fun!  We enjoyed campfire dinner and lingering longer until the wind blew us home ~ literally!  The cowboy coffee was so good!

Janel, Mathilda and I had a pedicure/manicure session in our living room.   That was a fun girls' activity. 

It's fun spending time with the kids when there is no rush to attend a special activity ~ we can just hang out!  Hanging out with the grandkids is an event I cherish.  It is an eventful time!  My grandkids are my eventful friends for life!  I love them all.  I may not like them all the time, but all the time I love them! 

The Event ~ Journeys Through Time

Everyone  likes to reminisce and recall  pleasant, enjoyable events experienced throughout life. Trips ~ big and small ~ should be among those memories. I’m in the process of planning another big trip in celebration of our 40th wedding anniversary.   Tim doesn't know about it yet ~ it will be a surprise on our 40th!  Planning this trip has led me to ponder over previous trips and places I’ve been in the past.

Reaching way back to my childhood, this will be a challenge to my memory:

1. Yellowstone Park with my family as a child.  I was in awe seeing "Old Faithful"!

2.  Minneapolis, MN ~ as a child with my Dad.  I remember him taking me to a boxing match.  I think it was a business trip for him.

3. Chicago ~ when in high school with my parents and brother, Kelly.  We camped on the beach of Lake Michigan.  I think that was a no-no.   I remember how beautiful the dairy state of Wisconsin was as we drove through it. I would like to do a road trip through Wisconsin again.

4. Several summer trips to the mountains in Big Timber, Montana for week-long church camps from the time I was in 4th grade each year through 8th grade. Those were some of the most fun memories of childhood. I still have a dear friend I met in 4th grade camp. Heidi and I were maid-of-honor in each other’s weddings, and she is a Godparent to Janel.  A life friend was made at camp!

5. Mobridge, SD ~ summers 1964 and 1965 for church camp when in high school.

6. Los Angeles, CA ~ 1967 with a side trip to Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm my junior year in high school. The State chapter of FHA paid for all presidents and vice presidents of local FHA chapters to go to National Convention. I was vice president of the local chapter.  All the girls had to wear hats and suits on the plane. I took the train to Billings to get on the plane.

7.  Rapid City, SD ~ June 1968 to attend National College of Business (where I met Tim). I went the summer semester right after high school graduation, and continued through the second summer, finishing in December 1969.

8. Denver, CO ~ January 1970 where I worked for a law office for 10 months before getting married.

9. Sacramento, CA for our honeymoon in November 1970.  I remember being really frightened driving over the sand desert of Utah at night.  The moon shone so brightly on the sand I thought it was water and the water was right up to the side of the road!

10. Bartelsville, OK ~ 1976. Tim and I, Janel and Alexis went with my parents and my brother Kelly to see my brother Vern who was going to college in OK. It was a road trip in my Dad’s big Cadillac limousine. Tim and I and the two girls fit comfortably in the back seat while Mom, Dad and Kelly were comfortable in the front seat. We had lots of room. Can you imagine that many in one car on a long road trip. I think I remember visiting “Little House on the Prairie.”

11. Orlando, FL ~ January 1979 when Tim when received a sales trip from Vigortone.  We went to Disney World.




  12.  Black Hills, including Hot Springs several times when the kids were young. We would take an overnite trip to go swimming in Hot Springs, and the tourist attractions around the Black Hills.

13.  Hazen, ND ~ 1979 to see my grandparents one more time when Janel was 7 and Alexis was 4 ½.  As a child I would take the bus to Hazen and spend a week or two with my grandparents. 

14. Disney World, FL ~ December 1981. We bought a van with Tim’s cousins Connie and Rich. With them and their 3 kids and our three kids (Janel 9, Alexis 7, and Cash 8 mo), we embarked on a 17-day road trip through Texas, Arkansas, New Orleans, LA, three days at Disney World, Busch Gardens, Daytona Beach, Christmas in Nashville, TN, and wherever else the road led through from here to there and back. We still laugh today at the fun memories made on that trip.

15. Phoenix, AZ ~ 1984; New Orleans, LA ~ 1985; Las Vegas, NV ~ 1986 for REA conventions when Tim was on the REA Board of Directors.



16. Las Vegas ~ 1987 to celebrate a friend's (Jim Moranville) 40th birthday  along with Kamtz and Loxtercamps.  We did an all nighter walking the streets of Las Vegas.  Hit the bed about 6 a.m. 

17. A four-day covered wagon trek ~ summer 1988 in the southern hills between Bayard and Scottsbluff with Tim and Cash. I would do this again! It was an awesome vacation and 30 minutes to home when it was over.

18. Canada, Glacier Park, Ronan, MT summer 1989 to visit my brother and family. A family trip with all three kids. Nephew DJ joined us for part of the trip into Canada.

19. Phoenix, AZ ~ December 1990. The whole family flew as guests of the National Dept of Transportation for Janel’s winning essay on transportation. Cash left his new hot pink Arizona cap on the plane returning home.





20.  Nashville, TN sometime in the early 1990's in early December.  Tim and I went to his National Transportation meeting.  We stayed at the Opryland Hotel.  That was a magnificent hotel, especially when it was all decorated for Christmas. 

21.  1988 through 1996 I attended eight National Chamber of Commerce Membership Directors conferences in: Chicago (1988); Miami (1990); Cleveland (1991); Palm Springs, (1992); Virginia Beach (1993); New Orleans (1994); Scottsdale (1995); New York City (1996).





Janel and Alexis went with me to Miami in 1990. We three flew into Orlando, rented a car, visited Disney World and did a road trip from Orlando to Miami Beach. Today I can’t imagine that we did that by ourselves.   While in Orlando with the girls at my side, I was awarded the trophy for the best small Chamber in the nation, based on a written application I submitted, winning over Naples, FL and a small city in New York. 



Janel flew with me to Virginia Beach in 1993; and Alexis joined me in New York in 1996. Those were really fun trips with my daughters.



  22. California trips to visit Alexis:  fall 1993 when she nannied in Pleasanton.  We went to the mountains and stayed in a friend's really cool cabin,  and  rode roller coasters all day!  I love roller coasters!

1996 while Alexis was attending Diablo Community College. We spent four hours in a Honda dealership helping her to buy her first new car. 

1996 and 1998 road trips to California

A road trip to California in 1998  took us through beauatiful Tahoe, with Tim and Cash when Alexis attended Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo.  Her roomate worked at a swanky beach resort and  got us a complimentary  room on the beach - Cash stayed with Alexis! 



On the trip back from California we stopped in Las Vegas.  Cash and I rode the roller coaster on top of the New York New York building.  I love roller coasters! 

A second road trip in 1999 driving through the desert through Bakersfield and LA with Cash and Tim for her graduation from Cal Poly.  We stayed in a beach cabin of a friend - that was cool.  Janel and baby Jakob joined us.  A  fly-in with Janel in 2004 for a girl's weekend and to go wedding dress shopping with Alexis.



Thirteen family members took a train to California in 2005 for Alexis' wedding. Tim and I flew again in Feb 2006 to Oakland and Feb 2008 to Sonoma to visit Ryan and Alexis. Tim and Alexis enjoyed a great wine-tasting tour while Ryan and I stayed dry and ate the munchies in wine country around Sonoma.




 

23. Fort Worth, TX (1998), Albuquerque, NM (1999), Phoenix (2000), and Las Vegas (2001) to attend the National conferences through my job at Farmers Irrigation.  In Las Vegas I took time to go see the newest show on the strip - Ron Lucas the ventriloquist.  It was awesome. 

24. Boston, MA ~ 2000 to visit Alexis when she was a graduate student at Boston College. We went to Cape Cod and Rhode Island. A great girls time together.   Boston again in 2002 for her graduation from Boston College.

25. Boston and the New England states ~ September 2001, just 10 days after the terrorist attacks of 9/ll. It was scary to fly at that time. The planes just started returning to the air. We rented a Ford Tahoe and toured Vermont, New Hampshire, a little of Maine; and Alexis took us all over Boston.



2002  in Sioux Falls, SD

  26. Chicago,  IL ~ 2001 to enroll Cash in Moody Bible Institute; 2002 to return him to MBI, taking a road trip through Sioux Falls, SD to meet up with Janel and Alexis (Janel and family were living in SF at the time, and Alexis was visiting there); 2003 to attend Founders Weekend with Cash; and 2005 to attend his graduation.

27. Elkhart, IN ~ 2006 to visit Cash when he worked in a Baptist church. We took the train from Lincoln to Elkhart. It was a pleasant train trip this time.




Allen's Idaho camp site 2003 (Allen, Ambree, Suzy)

 

28. Utah, Oregon and Idaho ~ 2003. A road trip to visit cousin Jim Frickie in Salt Lake City, a college friend (Carol Pomeroy) in Oregon; and brother Allen and family at their campsite in Idaho. A great road trip.

29. Germany ~ October 2006 to visit Daniel Meurer and his family. Daniel was an exchange student that lived for us for a year in 1996. We had a layover in London, England, en route to Cologne (Koln). Daniel took us on a day trip to Brussel’s, Belgium. Rolf took us on a day trip to Dusseldorf. We spent six days with them before taking the train to Rothenburg for a day and Munich for three days.






Salzburg, Austria 2006

 

We took a day trip to Salzburg, Austria. Wow. What beautiful country. It was hard to imagine that most of it had been destroyed in the 1940’s during WW II. I would return there I think before going elsewhere in Europe.




Tim, Waltraud, Sandi, Claudia, Daniel, Rolf
With the Meurer' family  in Germany 2006

 

30. Phoenix, AZ ~ Thanksgiving 2007 and 2008 – both road trips;  March 2009 by plane for niece Kadi Jo’s wedding.

31. Buena Vista, CO ~  White water rafting:  2004 by myself  and then again with Tim and nephew Justin from Phoenix who was staying with us; 2005 with Tim; 2006 with sister-in-law Kathy; 2007 Tim and I went again, each year to white water raft with Cash who was a rafting guide at Noah's Ark. 

 

Christmas 2007 in Estes Park

 32. Estes Park, CO ~ Christmas 2007 with all of Tim’s family – 22 of us in a fabulous 7-bedroom lodge. It was a great family Christmas!

33. Kentucky ~ July 2008 and 2009 to attend the International Ventriloquists Convention.



 

34. Skagway, AK August 2009. By plane to Juneau; by ferry to Skagway; by helicopter to the top of the glacier. Wow, that was cool!  Cash took us all over in his tour bus, and a side trip to the Yukon. A train ride on the Whitepass & Yukon scenic railway.   Alaska is magnificent! 

35 Lincoln, NE and the surrounding area many, many, many, many times in the last 20 years since Janel went to college near there and then
settled there after getting married. And since she keeps all seven of my grandkids east of Lincoln (Eagle), we will continue to go there often.

Well, for a family that doesn’t have very much fun, it appears that we did indeed take time to take time off! Each journey is an eventful memory from my past. Wow, I didn’t realize how much of this great country landscape we have really seen.  Not bad for a couple who doesn't get around much!

Next ~ the surprise trip I'm planning for Tim and I in celebration of our 40th anniversary to be revealed November 28.   Just planning the trip is an eventful time!

The Event ~ Little Drummer Boy!

The drums are gone.  The thirteen-piece trap set ~ drums and cymbals ~ have been sitting in our basement for eleven years since Cash graduated. They were so much a part of his life.  Cash played drums since he was two years old when I ordered him a "snap, crackel, pop" drum with box tops from Rice Krispies when he was two or three.  Prior to that, he played on my pots and pans. 

He soon outgrew the toy drum and we got him a real snare drum found at a garage sale.  But he needed more.  So we bought him a child's trap set for Christmas from the JC Penney's catalog.  Fortunately, we saved the snare drum, because in 5th or 6th grade he had to furnish his own snare to be in band.  Once in band, he needed bigger and better than the junior size trap set. 

We answered an ad in the paper and traveled to Broadwater and bought this complete set of seven drums and nine cymbals ~ alot more than he needed, but indeed a great bargain.   We snapped them up immediately.  Having shopped around in Denver the day before, we knew this was a bargain. 

Cash played drums in the pep band all through high school.  He played drums for the praise team in church.  That was a little scary bringing in drums to our very conservative German/Russian older congregation.  But the little old ladies loved it, and they praised him every Sunday!    Drums were part of his life ~ an eventful friend that he enjoyed spending time with

Last nite the new owner of the drums came and picked them up after making payments for a couple months.  This young high schooler had to earn the money to pay for the drums, which he bought sight unseen, except for a picture.  He was ecstatic when he saw the quality.    The drums went to a good home in Chadron.  Like Cash said, "they weren't made to sit around the basement, it's time they find a new owner!"  Letting go of this piece of the past was an event ~ a bitter sweet event. 

The Event ~ Home Sweet Home

Driving through our old neighborhoods recently brought vivid memories of the years we lived in different houses since Tim and I got married.


First home following marriage in 1970 - east of Bayard

  Our first home, in November 1970, as newly weds was two miles east of Bayard.  This house came with the farm land Tim rented as his first farming operation to support his new wife.  Before we were married, Tim and his parents spent time painting the interior and laying down a wool rug in the living room that Tim's folks pulled out of their house.  Wool rugs never wear out!  The kitchen was painted yellow, the bedroom lavender.   I remember we had to lay hay bales against the kitchen foundation in the winter time so the kitchen sink pipes wouldn't freeze!  It had an upstairs which we didn't use because it was like a freezer in the winter time.   Today, an upstairs like that would be fun to utilize!  I took my laundry to my in-law's house because we couldn't afford a washer and dryer right away. It wasn't until Janel was due that I insisted it was time for our own washer and dryer!  This was the house we brought Janel home to in June 1972! 



Second home west of Bayard - 1972


In 1973 we bought a farm west of town that was adjacent to Tim's parents and his grandparents farms.  We moved into the little white house (shack).  We did put in new cupboards in the kitchen.  My washer and dryer were located in the cellar ~ go outside, lift the cellar door, down the spider-webby steps and into the dungeon to wash the clothes.  Before Alexis was born, Tim and his Dad built a small addition to the west side of the house as a utility room so we moved the washer/dryer up from the dirty cellar.  This was the house Alexis was brought home to in December 1974!  Their tiny bedroom fit a crib for Alexis and a twin bed for Janel.  One day I got tired of the state of the bathroom, so I tore out the sink and toilet.  Tim came home to find the sink and toilet out the back door.  So he had no choice but to remodel the bathroom!




 In 1977 we built a new house on the hill north of the old white shack.  It was a house I designed.  Tim's high school shop instructor framed the house, and Tim and I did the electrical, plumbing, hanging the sheet rock and finishing the woodwork.  We hired someone to finish the drywall.  We started in the fall of 1976 and finished in the spring of 1977.  Two months after we moved in, it narrowly missed being destroyed by a tornado.  Janel and Alexis each had their own bedroom.  When Cash was born, Janel moved to the bedroom "suite" in the basement with her own bathroom and large closet area, Alexis got the beautiful pink and purple room, and the third bedroom became a nursery.  This was the house Cash was brought home to in March 1981.   I had a beautiful big utility room combined with a sewing center. My washer and dryer were on the main floor!



  In 1986 farming went south, we sold the farm and all of the equipment and moved to Scottsbluff.  We bought a little blue house at 1906 Avenue K.  Again, Janel got sent to the basement, Alexis had the bedroom with the orange/yellow/avacado/brown pukey throw-up shag carpet, and Cash the little third bedroom. (Not tearing up that carpet should be added to my list of  "I wish I would have...")  It was different for all of us to live in town.  It was especially hard on Tim with his new city job.  We spent many a lunch hour driving around the country looking for a country house to buy.  We lived in this house for three years.  No babies were brought home to this house.  Just a gold fish and a black kitten!

In December 1989 we moved into our current home two miles northwest of Scottsbluff ~ in the country ~ with 40 acres!  God's hand was definitely involved in buying this little farm.  We drove by it many times, convinced this would be a nice place.  It was vacant and grown to weeds.  But the exterior was well kept with new siding so it looked nice.  We contacted the neighbors about who owned it.  They assured us the owner, Jack Murphy, was not really interested in selling because he was asking way too much for the place.  We also learned nobody had been living in it for 15 years.  But they still kept the light on at night!

We wrote a letter (yes, hand written, snail mail) to  Mr. Murphy in Oklahoma.  No response.  We called.  No response.  We found another place to buy.  The Friday we had an appointment to talk to the realtor about buying the other place, I told Tim "Let's call Mr. Murphy one more time just to see if we can reach him and talk to him."   We called.  He answered.  He remembered getting our letter.  He was just walking out the door to come to Scottsbluff to check on his properties and he would contact us when he got here.  We cancelled our appointment and waited a week to hear back from Mr. Murphy. 




40 acres NW of Scottsbluff  - 1989



(This areial pic shows  the yard at the time of purchase. Today it's totally different with a house addition ~ we enclosed the u-shape in the back ~ a 40x60 steel shop/garage and a steel barn; and all the other buildings in this pic are gone.)

Finally, the following Saturday we drove out to the Murphy place to see if we could talk to him.  He had been cleaning the place up all week.  He wanted to get it in order before he contacted us.  He let us in the house to see it.  It was only two bedrooms and the basement was a dungeon.  We were dissappointed.  We went home, thought about it, decided we could gut the basement, remove the monstrous antique heating unit, and create two bedrooms and a bathroom in the basement.  We returned to Mr Murphy and told him we were interested and invited him in for Sunday dinner the next day to discuss the deal. 



 

We asked him what he would sell it for.  His asking price was only $5,000 more than we were thinking of offering.  We were in the ballpark.  We were on the same page.  Mr Murphy didn't make us sign any papers.  He told us to make sure we could get all our loan paperwork in order.  If we could, he would come back to Scottsbluff to sign the farm over to us.  Thirty days later in September 1989 we closed on the property.  Mr Murphy gave us all the mineral rights, all the crop that would be harvested within three weeks, all the paid up insurance for the next six months, and a case of barbeque sauce that his friends make in Oklahoma.  It was an easy transition. 

Tim and I and the kids spent the next 3 1/2 months gutting the basement, stripping layers of 50 year old wall paper, sanding floors,  painting, tearing out trees, leveling the yard.  We worked many nights past midnight, nights that we weren't at the girl's volleyball and basketball games.  How did we do that? We moved in between Christmas and New Years 1989.  It's been home ever since.  It's the house where Janel, Alexis and Cash celebrated their high school graduations.  It's the home they come back to today.  It's what the grandchildren call Cowboy Grandpa's farm.  It's home sweet home.

Making a house a home is an event.  It's an eventful memory, an eventful journey.  It's an event filled with love.  Any house can be made a home when it is filled with love and family!   A home should be built on a firm foundation.  The house, of course, is constructed on a firm foundation ~ hopefully ~ so that when the winds blow and the rains come, the house will not fall flat.  But, more importantly, a home must be built on a firm foundation ~ the foundation being Christ as the head of the house.  As the song goes that we all learned as a child:      ". . . .The wise man builds his house upon a rock. . ."   (the rock being the Lord Jesus Christ)  ".  .  . the blessings will come down as the prayers go up. . . . so build your house (home) on the Lord."

This last picture is the house I lived in when I was in high school.  I may have been an 8th grader or freshman when we moved into this house. My parents built this house around 1963 or 64.   I wish I could find a picture of the little pink house I grew up in.  It no longer exists.

The Event ~ Saturday Nite Outing

Well, we have discovered a new form of entertainment.  Last week on the 3rd of July Tim, Ben and I headed to Bridgeport for the annual 4th of July rodeo, something we used to go to every year when we lived in Bayard in the 1970's and early 1980's.   Before we left, we picked up a "six-pack and a pound" at Taco Johns to eat on the way.  However, we ended up following the most severe storm into Bridgeport.  It's a good thing we were running a half hour late, otherwise we would have been caught in the storm that flooded Bridgeport.  It looked like a tornado hit, but only severe winds, hail, and rain. 

We ended up detouring around the flooded streets of Bridgeport and headed north to head back home ~ no rodeo tonite!  We took a round-about road trip through the back roads surveying the crops, reminiscing about who lived where in Morrill County where we used to live.  We ended up at Sonic for an ice cream sundae.  It was quite a lovely evening, even though we never made it to a rodeo. 

The Saturday nite drive was so nice, we did again this past Saturday.  This time it was intentional, deliberate.  We started at Sonic with hamburgers to go, drove northeast at a very leisure pace, again assessing the crops, the good ground, the bad ground, the heighth of the corn, who lived where, nice yards, dumpy shacks, etc.  We drove roads that neither of us have ever been on before.  Imagine that! 

We ended up  North of Bayard, and drove south past our old, new house and our old, old house.  I snapped a couple pictures and decided it would be memorable to post about the houses we've lived in.  Stay tuned!

South of our old houses the barrow pits continued to be manifest with cattails.  I haven't seen or picked cattails for years.  It was a new thing to Ben.  I always thought they were cool, so now I have a vase of cattails sitting on my table. I had to spray them so they wouldn't fuzz out!

While on the leisure drive, we stopped to show Ben a turtle on the road.

It was a fun, relaxing drive.  We ended up at Sonic again for ice cream sundaes.  Yes, an eventful drive.  An enjoyable evening.  We shall do it again often! 

The Event ~ A July 4th Weekend

Sure, July 4th is suppose to be a day of celebrating America.  But I didn't get into it much this year.  July 4th was on a Sunday, so I enjoyed a celebration of fellowship and praise in church to start the day.  But the rest of the three-day weekend was filled with "to do" list activities.

It started Friday evening after work when I canned 28 pints of fresh cherries.  Tim and I love those home-canned cherries.  We will share a jar in the evening while watching tv.  I make sure I suck all the juice out of every one of the pits ~ that's how good they are.  I think we both prefer them over my canned peaches and pears. 

Saturday I weeded the garden in the cool of the morning, dusted the vegetables, and treated all with miracle grow.  The romaine lettuce is fantastic.  I've never planted romaine before, but that's what I will plant from now on.  

 I used to plant a large garden which was so much work I didn't enjoy it, and much produce went to waste.  After a few years of not planting any garden I started missing the fresh garden produce.  So the last three years I have planted a small circular garden which is  much easier to care for and produces quite well.  4 tomato plants, 6 cabbage plants, 2 zuchinni (1 too many), 3 peppers, 4 cucumbers, a short row of onions, lettuce, beans, & spinach, with a few radishes here and there.  I think I'll pick the first cucumber of the season tonite.

The patio got cleaned in anticipation of a Sunday nite barbeque that didn't happen because of a rain storm. 

The neighbors called to let us know a  mare was birthing, and I should bring Ben, who is with us for about three weeks, over to experience the event.  We missed the actual birth by a few minutes, but enjoyed watching the new mother care for her foal.   Ben thought it was cool, except for the yucky afterbirth. 

I did some deep cleaning in the basement, including moving the 13-pc drums and cymbal set to the garage ready for the new owners to pick it up some day soon.  Yes, after 11 years of sitting idle in the basement,  I finally got it sold for Cash for cash.  The thought of selling his drums is bitter sweet.  They were so much a part of his life. Then I cleaned out under the stairwell and created two boxes of  Christmas decorations that will go to the next auction or garage sale, organized the Christmas wrapping paper/gift bags so I can find what I need when I need it, moved the nail hangers under the stairwell for the out-of season work coats so they would hang out of my way, organized the winter boots/gloves/hat box under the stairwell.  The desk area got cleared of stuff that needed to go into storage.  Finally, I created more shoe space in the bottom of my closet, so shoes wouldn't be heaped in a pile.    It left me with a good feeling.  What an event to accomplish that project that's been on my list for a long time!

I also baked the usual 8 loaves of freshly ground whole wheat bread that my family was raised on.  There's nothing more inviting in the kitchen than the smell of fresh home-baked bread!



The rain moved the July 4th hamburger fry inside and cancelled the fireworks show so our guests gathered around the dining room table for a three-hour game of Mexican Train.  Gathered around the table with Tim are Sharon and Larry Kaufman, Don and Becky Kerbel, Scott and Joel Pearl.

It was a fun evening anyway, an uneventful 4th of July, but an eventful weekend because I accomplished alot!  Now that's an event!


Tim, Sharon/Larry Kaufman; Don Kerbel,
Scott/Joel Pearl, Becky Kerbel