Waiting For Company

This will be another busy day. Last night our granddaughter, Christina, called and said she and her husband, Kyle, and daughter, Mia, would be coming for Easter. I invited them to stay with us. That meant stripping the double bed in the guest room and washing sheets and towels in preparation for their visit. Mia will sleep on the daybed trundle in the office and her parents can sleep in the guest room. I will fix dinner for the five of us tonight so Bob helped me put the leaves in the table and put on the pads and tablecloth. We will have Parmesan Chicken, potatoes, salad, and veggies. We will have some pudding for dessert.

Tomorrow we will go to church and then Leslie and John and Jeromy will come for dinner here. I should have eight or nine. I will put a ham in the oven to bake slowly while we are in church. We will have sweet potatoes and rolls and steamed veggies as well as coleslaw. I will bake my cherry pie cake in the morning before church.

It will be good to see them again. It's probably been a year and a half since we've seen them. Christina is 31 and Kyle is in the Army. Mia is two.

Ashley called last night after she had left Atlanta. It had been storming and she was afraid driving all the way to Savannah in stormy weather. I talked to her an hour while she drove. I looked up weather.com and also followed her on the map, telling her when she was going to be turning off on highway 16. That must have reassured her when she got within 2 hours of her destination, she was content to hang up.

I called her this morning and she had arrived about 11:00 and was doing fine. What an excursion she had at age eighteen.

The above photo is of Mia at Valentine's Day. Isabel, her cousin, from Houston is with her in the second one. On the left is Ashley last May.

Trouble With Teenagers

Ashley took off for Savannah this morning with only a navigation system to guide her. I printed off a map on Mapquest as a backup. She is just 18 and is driving across the nation alone now. Scott flew to LA to drive as far as our house after a stop in between at Tyler, TX to pick up her clothing and belongings. There was a tornado last night in Arkansas and more bad weather on the way but nothing could deter her. I tried to get her to wait until tomorrow to leave but she wouldn't have it.

We had lunch with John and Leslie yesterday. Then after 4:30, we went out to see the house. They are moving in this weekend. The builders have moved into the garage area to finish taping and painting there. They still have to pour the garage apron and the sidewalks and get the TV man out to move the satellite. They also have the large mirror in their bathroom to be installed but everything else is finished inside.

I will clean house after Scott leaves today. I have not had time to clean this week. Next week is packed so I had better get it done this week.

I will give the invocation at the County Commission meeting on Monday. I will take my brother in law to Bartlesville on Tuesday morning for a coloniscope at 7:00, then back for a meeting in Independence, Kansas at 11:00, and another one at 1:15. I'll go back to Independence, Kansas to get my hair done on Wednesday at 8:15 and have breakfast with Juanita, Thursday I will have breakfast with some of my classmates at 9:00 AM and then Friday Bill and I will leave at 9:00 AM for Independence, Missouri for the Restoration Studies Symposium this weekend.

When that weekend is over I will breathe a huge sign of relief. Ron and I have worked diligently to get everything done early concerned with this symposium and then day before yesterday we learned the accommodations for the guest speaker and presenter, Dr. Stephen Patterson, had not been made. He was asked to come months ago and it was our understanding that the person who asked him and made arrangements for his stipend had also made housing arrangements. Day before yesterday we learned that that had not been done. I have asked five different folks who live there if they could let him stay with them and so far, none of them have been able. If I lived there I would love to have him stay with us. I have asked one more person and if they can't do it I will ask the woman Bill and I are staying with and then if that doesn't work out, we will have to get him a motel. I hate to do that. It is always so much better to stay in a home with a family.

I don't want to plan another of these weekends. I hate having to depend on others to do things when they don't follow through. Especially if they don't tell me they haven't followed through.

The photo is Dr. Patterson from Eden Theological Seminary.

Horrendous Yesterday

Yesterday was really busy. First I went to Independence to get my hair done and to meet Juanita for breakfast. After that I visited with a friend briefly and then went to the Ministerial Association meeting. The plan afterward was to take a tour of the Mercy Hospital. I wasn't really interested but felt I should do that anyhow. After that was finished I came home and finished up the baccalaureate invitations...all 131 of them, printed them off, folded them and got them into envelopes to mail by May 1st.

Last night then we drove to Neodesha for the special service that Sue planned for Maundy Thursday. It was excellent. She had put a lot of work in it and unfortunately only four of us showed up. The service was still excellent! Those who chose not to come really missed out. Even Carletta was there. She and Leslie came together. John was working on an electrical line that had to be done by this morning for their house.

At the last minute I also learned last night that our guest speaker for next weekend does not have housing accommodations planned for him. I had thought one of the sponsors had dealt with that. I e-mailed a friend I thought might be able to house him but his wife is recovering from surgery and they cannot accommodate him. Ron is going to contact another friend of his that lives there and see if he can keep him. Much as I would hate to do so, we may have to put him up in a motel.

Perhaps I will know today where he will get his place to stay.

Ashley and Scott arrived sometime last night. I was so wiped out that I didn't even hear them come in. They will probably sleep late this morning. They drove all the way from LA to Tyler, Texas on Tuesday and didn't arrive until Wednesday morning. That is a 22 hour drive. Then after loading her car with her possessions, they set out for Coffeyville, a seven hour drive. Tomorrow morning they will head out for Memphis, a ten hour drive, where he will leave her to drive the last seven hours to Savannah alone. What a trip.

This afternoon we will go out to Leslie's to see the house. Ashley left in May before it was even begun in July. She was back in November for Thanksgiving but has not seen it since.

Another Busy Day

This morning I went to visit my sister while her husband went to eat breakfast with friends. Afterward, Bob and I went to vote and then to town for him to check in with the Red Cross. The woman he needed to see wasn't working today. We came back home and then went back to the doctor. Bob came home with a bad case of shingles and she gave him some pain meds to help with the pain. They are drying up slowly but the pain continues. When he is over them, we will both get the vaccination.

This afternoon, I am paying bills and reading.

This evening we will just stay home and watch TV.

Tomorrow, I get my hair done and have breakfast with Juanita. Bob will come up for Independence Ministerial Association meeting at Mercy Hospital and I will meet him there. Then Wednesday evening we will go to John and Sue's home for an early Maundy Thursday service.

Sometime tomorrow, Scott thinks he and Ashley will come in. I doubt it. I think it will be Thursday before they get here.

Oh yes! The airlines lost his luggage again. This is the fourth time. He called at 10:00 last night to get our address for them to deliver it to if they find it. Of course, they intended to leave LA today for Tyler, Texas and then after loading up her stuff there, start for Coffeyville. So they would not be in LA long enough to get the luggage or in Tyler, Texas either. They lost Jerod's luggage last year with $1500 worth of uniforms and clothing in it. After 90 days, they finally sent him a check. Of course, by then, he had had to replace the uniforms and buy some basic civvies.

Airport Monday

Well, we went back to the airport this morning to take Scott to his flight to LA to drive back with Ashley. Evidently, she has fallen in love and that is the primary reason for her giving up her dream of Hollywood and modeling. I hope that day doesn't come when she regrets her decision but it's her life. She and Scott should be here on Wednesday sometime...I look for them on Thursday.

Later today we stopped off at Owasso north of Tulsa and Bob looked for a pair of shoes. He needed them real badly. He only has fifteen or so pair. We did not find what he was looking for but we did stop and eat at Olive Garden.

I went to the church service in Independence last evening and it turned out well. I stayed a while and had a cookie or two and visited with friends and then came on back home because Bob and Scott were here. Bob's shingles are really bothering him. When he finally gets over them, I think we'll look into the immunization. He sure doesn't need another case at his age. They're bad enough at any age but at nearly 79, they're worse. He has the worst case I've ever seen. We got him a doctor's appointment for 11:30 tomorrow to let Melissa take a look at them. He will be out of meds tomorrow. I don't know if they will give him a refill or if he is only supposed to take the meds for seven days. We will find out tomorrow.

I go over to my sister's to visit in the morning while my brother-in-law goes to his breakfast and afterward Bob and I will go and vote.

Busy Sunday

This will be another very busy day. First we have church school and church today, then we will go to lunch. After that, I will come home and bake cookies for the Community Palm Sunday service in Independence tonight. I feel that I should attend that service even though it will require another trip to Independence since I am chair of the celebration committee that planned it. Otherwise I would stay home. I will also have my letters to do sometimes this afternoon or in the morning.

Scott is coming tomorrow and I will need to drive him to Tulsa to catch his plane to LA to drive back with Ashley, his daughter. She is moving back to Savannah to go back to college. For some strange reason, none of us knows, she has decided against an acting and modeling career. She will stay with her boyfriend and his parents while they are both in college.

Strange..very strange. But none of my business. I did my duty by her while she was with me and she will be 19 in May.

They plan to be back here by Wednesday although I look for them to come on Thursday. They intend to pack her up and leave for Tyler, Texas on Tuesday to pick up all her other belongings and then leave for Coffeyville after that on Wednesday. I think all that will take longer though.

They want to go out to see our son-in-law and daughter's new home before they leave for Georgia. Scott is following her as far as Memphis before leaving her to finish the trip to Georgia by herself.

It will be a busy week for all of us.

We went out to see the progress on the house yesterday afternoon after Juanita and I got back from Joplin.

They have moved in all the upstairs furniture and the staircase is up. It has to be stained and finished this week. Saturday, the kids will go down to Tulsa to get the breakfast room, bedroom and the rest of the great room furniture. Leslie is packing stuff up now in preparation for the move.

The builders still have the garage to finish inside, the light fixtures to install, the shower curtain rod for the upstairs bathroom. They still have to finish the painting on the lower half of the house and install the shutters. They also still have some doorknobs to install and the large bathroom mirror.

The kids did buy the new washer and dryer however. It is lovely and has all the bells and whistles. Now most everything is new. The dining room furniture is their good Thomasville furniture and they did not replace it. The upstairs bedroom furniture is the furniture they already had. But most everything else is brand new to go with the brand new home.

I am so happy for them. They have lived in the same double wide mobile home for over thirty years and it has been falling down around them. Those old double wides were never meant to last thirty years. Luckily, they have it sold and it will be moved away.

They will have a lot of yard work to do. They will also have to pour their own apron for the garage entry and also the front walk. Then they will have landscaping to do. A house without landscaping is like a woman without makeup. Pretty bare.

Last night we attended Jeromy's surprise birthday party. Bob and I left at 8:00. We were both exhausted. It had been a big day. He had a great bunch of friends there though. His girlfriend, Cathy, threw this party. She is a jewel.