August 27, 2010

• So much to tell.  I’ll have to let my pictures remind me of some of the month’s events. 

  
  I also realized, this week, that TODAY (August 27, 1972) I arrived here from California.  A nineteen year old girl with a Ford Pinto and no air conditioning.  You didn’t need it in California.  I was definitely young and innocent.  I moved here with no family and one girlfriend who awaited me,.  She promptly moved back to California after I had been here about 2 weeks!  I drove that Ford Pinto hatchback until 1980, when I bought a station wagon with a/c that had frosty “steam” coming out of the a/c vents!!!  I told someone at church, Wednesday night, “I don’t feel old enough to have been away from home 38 years!”  Talk about feeling ancient!!!!!
  
  
  August was VERY busy!

  There was the church picnic I told you about. 

                     

  Swimming, DELICIOUS cooked-out food, and fun fellowship. 

  This was the same picnic where the young mother mysteriously died the next morning, leaving three children behind. 

                  

  It was also the picnic held at the house of a couple who GAVE US their electric piano (similar to the size of a spinet piano) and, just yesterday, their huge tropical fish tank with all of the paraphernalia. 

               

  Luci had TWO birthday parties to celebrate being 8 years old.

  AND, she had two cakes!!!

             
      

   Luci is easy to buy for, because she truly loves everything she gets.  She thinks gifts for her are “cool!”

           

  She is always so nice about thanking everyone (enthusiastically) for whatever gift she’s given, even cards!

   

  While our company was here, Jesse and his brother (our “company”) put up a basketball goal in the driveway and a trampoline with security net in the backyard.  Their children and ours had a ball jumping – even in the horrific heat wave we were experiencing. They jumped early in the morning.  They jumped after meals.  They jumped in the evening when the mosquitoes became thick. 

  Jumping, jumping, jumping!!!! 

  It’s turned out to be a very good investment!

           

  We hated to say good-bye to our company.  They are such easy house guests and their family molds easily with our family. 

  So, it’s a vacation for me to have them as company, as well as their long drive from Virgina being a vacation for them!

          

  Jesse definitely is going to miss the time he spent with his brother, Richard.  They get along REALLY well and together are so funny.  They make everyone in the room laugh to see them cut up and tease each other.

        
                In this picture they were acting like “girls” as they “got close” for a close up!  Such goof balls!

  Jesse is SO DARK & TAN from working outside and I am so not!  I can’t believe I used to make “getting a tan” a summer priority!  Now my priority is to stay cool, which was hard to do this summer.

        
  I don’t feel so odd with sister in law, Angie, here.  We are both “WHITE” next to the rest of the family!

  The summer heat wave has killed all of the greenery here in Oklahoma.  Such a desolate place with yellow grass and withered plants.

  My basil plants, and even my aloe vera plants, didn’t have a chance – not even in partial shade.

            

  The rose bush tried hard.  It only bloomed once this year with profuse roses.  After that it was spotty and it valiantly produced ONE flower in the past two weeks.

       

  This is the same bush that produces creeping vines laden with roses all summer long – one red bush and the other coral.  They are entwined together and normally VERY beautiful.

  God bless it.  You have to give this flower an “A” for effort!

      

  We finished summer school last Friday and are taking off 3 weeks of vacation.  I’ll probably hand out and introduce their books and subject matter on Friday, the 10th, but our classes won’t formally start until September 13th.

  I’m kind of looking forward to the structure again.  I do better with “a plan” in my head.

  I’ve made some terrific purchases on Ebay for fall and winter clothing.  Sweaters, hoodies, skirts, and even fall blouses for the girls and me.  I’m still waiting for a package of shirts for Annamarie, a hooded olive green Aeropostale sweater for her, and one pair of Anne Klein black loafers for me.  These are all mall brands, some with price tags still on them and the amount of savings is in the hundreds of dollars.  There is no way we would ever pay “mall prices” for these things.

  So there you have it . . . August at a glance.

  If we sneeze, September will be here!  I’ll be happy when fall arrives and the fall weather.

  I made chocolate Malt O Meal for breakfast yesterday morning and Rissy came to the kitchen, made a long sniff sound and announced, “It smells like winter in here!  Yay!”

  Be Blessed  ~

  • 5:30 pm
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