Tennessee Trip - October 19-23, 2011

Son, Marc, Grandson, Aric, Mickey & I left bright and early at 6 a.m. on Wednesday the 19th for Tennessee to visit Mickey's 3 nephews (son's of his deceased sister Jane and deceased brother-in-law, Ronnie. Jane was the youngest & only girl among the 6 children) and his younger brother, Jerry, who live in Clarksville.  Mickey & Jerry are the only remaining siblings.

The trip had been planned and when the word got out wonderful things began to happen: we picked up our sister-in-law, Helen, in Memphis; another sister-in-law, flew in from PA, and a niece flew in from TX.  Another niece who lived about 100 miles away was suppose to come but didn't make it. 

At Memphis, when we picked up Helen, Mickey & I switched to Helen's car and Marc & Aric followed us on to Clarksville and our destination at Nephew Wayne's beautiful log home. 

This is Uncle Jerry (in the hat) giving Marc his greeting hug as he returned from the Nashville airport after picking up his daughter, Mickie, from TX and sister-in-law, Sally, from PA.  Diana, Marc's cousin and wife of Billy in the background.  Jerry & Mickie had spent the afternoon at the airport after her plane landed at noon because Sally's departure had been delayed and she was late in arriving. 

Mickie, Susan, Sally, Helen & Diana with Nephew Wayne, who was our host.

Marc & Aric having a ball riding the 4 wheeler at Waynes place with horses, a donkey, goats, chickens, ducks, & 2 dogs.  A real change of pace for our city boys!!

(left to right back row)  Nephew Wayne, Nephew Billy, Grandnephew Jake (younger son of Billy).
(middle row) Son Marc, Susan, Mickey, Grandson Aric, Brother Jerry.
(front row) Kaycee Step-daughter of Wayne, Sister-in-law Sally, Sister-in-law Helen, Niece Mickie.
Wayne's wife, Laura, was talking the picture and Katie, her daughter, had already left for school.

Aric & Kaycee at a separate table at the cafe as we were eating breakfast because there were so many at our table we ran out of room.  

Marc & Aric had gone with Wayne early one morning on some business and then to pick up his Jeep which was at the shop being lettered.  Then we met them at the grave site when Jane & Ronnie are buried.

Billy has a beautiful 100 acre farm, they purchased, in addition to their lovely 2 story with basement home in Pleasant View.  The farm had an old log cabin on it and Billy & Diana have restored the 2 story cabin, along with modernizing it with heat, air, etc. 

The gang on the front porch of Billy's cabin:  Aric, Helen, Susan, Sally, Wayne, Jerry, Mickey & Marc (Mickie was taking the picture)

Friday night we drove into Nashville to attend the Grand Ole Opry.  First we all went out to eat at this fabulous, and delicious, fish restaurant.  (left side) Billy, Wayne, Sally, Helen, Marc, (end) Kaycee (right side) Jerry, Jake, Katie, Susan, Mickey, Aric.  What a grand time and the show was so good!!!!!

Mickey with Nephew Wayne, Jane's oldest son and a carbon copy of his father, Ronnie. We met Wayne & Laura in Branson 2 years ago when they got married.  You can see that here. It was a very special time.  

Saturday we made a trip north into Kentucky where the 3rd Nephew, Joe, lives and leases many thousands of acres that he farms.  All the guys before we left:  Jerry, Mickey, Marc, Wayne & Aric.

Marc driving one of the huge John Deere tractors with grandson, Aric once we got to the farm.  There was another huge computerized tractor that the farm worker was operating and he took 2 at a time with him.  Amazing what the equipment does.  That one was drilling wheat as various ones rode along in it.

I took 126 pictures and they were all so great and we had such a wonderful time.  It was hard to select just 12 shots to try and tell a little of our trip and time.  Except to say it was fabulous and we plan to "do it again" next Spring but next time our daughter, Jacque, and son, David, will also be making the trip with us

Hope you enjoyed my little travelogue.

A BLESSING & MORE EXCITEMENT - during my friends visit

Not only did our friends, Joan and Jim, get whisked off to Oolagah the day after they arrived but they were awakened at the bright and early hour of 7:30 a.m. with 6 workers on top of our roof, banging,  scraping and making all sort of loud noise.  Of course, we had warned them of this happening the night before when we all went to bed!!!!

Men at work at day break

Lots of noise and activity early on this October 20th morning.

The joy of all this is that they were completely finished by 4:30 that afternoon.  They had removed the 2 previous old roofs and replaced them with a brand new one.  The shingles are actually a rust color, to blend in with our reddish trim and the brown stone, but the sun was shining too brightly in this picture and it looks grey.

A better picture, from the back, showing the true roof color.

Now for the BLESSING part of our roof story.  MUCH to our surprise this brand new roof was covered 100% by our insurance coverage rebate!!!!  All we paid was $40 to have 2 extra vents put in over the garage.

Our God DOES meet all our needs and blesses us above and beyond just as The Word proclaims.

A SURPRISE & SOME EXCITEMENT - during my friends visit

I left out one day of my friend Joan's visit to do this separate post.

A little back ground:  a young man from our church, Markwayne Mullin, is running for Oklahoma's 2nd District in the U.S. Congress.
On Wednesday evening, after church, I receive a phone call from a woman, Debbie,  from our church who is working on Markwayne's campaign.  They were going to be filming a promotion in Oolagah, a small town 45 miles north of Coweta, and she said Markwayne wanted to know if we would come and participate. My first reply was, "Oh, he wants some older faces in the crowd!"  followed quickly with we would be delighted to but we had out of state guests who had just arrived.  Debbie said that would be fine "just bring them along."

So, the four of us, Joan, Jim, Mickey and I, met Debbie at Mullin Plumbing in Broken Arrow on Thursday morning at 9:30.  We piled into her car ,stopped to get another young woman from our church, Lisa, and the 6 of us head for Oolagah.

Joan and Jim watching the excitement as they take an unexpected side trip to Oolagah, Oklahoma!

When we arrive, we are surprised to see just a small group of people, as we were expecting to be part of a large group of spectators.  Here is Markwaye speaking with one of the men.  We then find out they are doing several individual promotional shots and we are to be in one.

Makeup has to be applied!!!  Mickey is always such a good sport.

Now it's my turn!!  What fun.
Who'd have ever thought!!!






I would love to show you a picture of us doing our shot........!!!!  But in all the excitement we failed to have someone take a picture, so I'll just have to describe it for you!!!!!

They had the 3 of us:  Markwayne, Mickey and I sitting on a park bench in front of the bank.  Markwayne is on the end of the bench, facing us, and I'm next and then Mickey, with his arm around me on top of the bench.  In the first scene Markwayne is talking to us and in the second scene I am talking to Markwayne.

It was such fun and certainly an experience we never expected to have.  We are so very blessed each and every day by the exciting life The Lord is allowing us to live. 

For your information:  Mickey made a commercial years ago for a bank with our hot-air balloon, Suzy Blue.  You can go here to read all about that.  

Blogger is being VERY mean to me this morning and deleted the following pictures and copy from above and I am having to re-add them here!!!

One of the camera men.



 Two more of the camera crew working with these sun reflectors.

Straightening Lisa's hair as one of the camera crew, standing in for Marcwayne, explains to these 2 business men and Lisa about their upcoming scene.

GREAT FRIEND - Great fun & times Visit

My forever friend, Joan, who I've known since the 2nd grade (folks that's 68 years!!!) and is truly like a sister to me, and her husband, Jim, came to visit us for 5 glorious days.

Just arriving at the airport.  They got here just in time for us to all rush home, put up their bags and head for Wednesday night teaching by our Pastor Steve on the 7 churches of Revelation. We ate a light supper after getting home from Church.

I'll be posting a separate blog about our unexpected adventure on Thursday, October 13th!!!!!!

(left to right) Jim, Joan, Susan, Mickey, Barbara & Don

Mickey & I celebrated our 53rd anniversary on October 3rd, but because I knew Joan & Jim were coming we put off "celebrating" it until Friday night, October 14th, with the 2 couples we've know the longest.  Don & Barbara had met Joan years ago in Albuquerque but have heard about her for years.  We had a wonderful time and a wonderful meal at Logan's Road House and then came back to our home and talked and talked for hours.

 Joan having fun with our King's Kitchen crown.

Saturday, October 15th we showed them around Coweta starting  at the Pumpkin Patch.

That evening I fixed my beef strogenoff dinner for the family.

  

Marc & Jacque with "Aunt" Joan who they'd not seen in a long time.

 (left to right) back row- Jessica, Benny, Jacque, Jim, Marc - front row - Joan, Mickey, Aric

 Shot of Mickey as 6 of us (Mickey, Susan, Jacque, Joan, Jessica, Aric) were playing Phase 10 - the rest were watching sports on TV.

 BEAUTIFUL flowers, a gift, along with a lovely card, from Joan & Jim in honor of our 53rd.

Jacque, Susan, Jessica, Joan (3 generations)

So missed Suzette & David not being here.

Sunday, October 16th, we went to Bro*ken Egg for a fabulous breakfast before taking them to the airport for their flight home to Albuquerque.  They promised to come in 6 years to celebrate our 59th!!!!  Believe me, I will hold them to it.

An OCTOBER SATURDAY with Mickey & Susan in Coweta, Oklahoma

The day begins by doing a load of laundry.

Wash & hang the clothes on my wonderful outdoor lines.  I love the whiteness and the fresh smell of the laundry dried outside in the fresh air. 

As you can see, I always hang my laundry by type and in order.  I find this makes the actual folding and putting away so much easier.  I know a lot of you do not use a clothes line any more, but those who do I'm curious whether you hang your clothes by type or just randomly.

Next, it was to the church property behind our buildings where a Pumpkin Patch was being set up.

The money earned from this Pumpkin Patch will go toward a missions trip in the summer of 2012 to El Salvador.

More decorations and items will be added and I'll post another picture later on.  The Pumpkin Patch will officially open for business Monday, the 10th.

Then we drove a short distance to the center of our town for a Classic Car show that was being held.  They had two city blocks blocked off and about 30-40 Antique Classic Cars on display.  Can you believe I did not take ONE picture of the cars :o(  Let me tell you, there were some beauties and some really OLD cars.  Some even older than Mickey & I :o)

A little park just off main street.  Children playing on the playground equipment. 

The band really blasting the music out.  Look at the young boy who's guitar was almost as big as he was.

Another view of the park and tables.

Across the street were these blow-ups and pony rides for the children to enjoy.

A military memorial in the center of the park.

Everything at this festival was FREE - the car display, the blow-up games and pony rides, the music playing AND free soda pop - chips of your choice and hot dogs & a Blue Bell Ice Cream truck handing out ice cream bars of your choice.

We LOVE our little town and are so blessed that God has planted us here in this stage of our lives.

It was a beautiful day of blue skies and temperatures in the 80th.

WOW - Woman of the Word Bible Study

This past Tuesday evening at 6:30 p.m. the WOW Woman met at my home for our weekly Bible Study. 

This was a special Tuesday evening because we had finished up the book we had been studying , Born for Battle by R. Arthur Mathews, the Tuesday before and we decided to take a one-week break for a Party/Social time and to make a decision on what to study and do next. 

So we celebrated with Banana Splits with lots of choices for toppings and some danish bites.  I just love to get to use my special blue banana split dishes~~~

Carmel, Kathy & Sandra

Connie & Britney

Sorry I didn't get pictures of the other 10 of us:  Thelma, Betty, Jeanne, Wantha or myself.  I'm not a good photographer because I get to involved in the "occasion" and forget to take pictures!!! At one point I picked up the camera again, but they were all in the midst of eating and I said, "I won't do that to you!"  then promptly forgot to even think of pictures by the time the eating had stopped.

When it came time to discuss what to do next we had so very many good ideas: 
1.  A dvd & workbook series - Feasts of the Lord by Mark Biltz
2.  A cd series by Benny Hinn - Feasts of Israel
3.  The book - Intercessory Prayer by Dutch Sheets - We dismissed this one because Jeanne, Thelma, Betty & I had studied this book previously.
4.  A 1983 cd series The Authority of the Believer by Kenneth Copeland
5.  A Bible Study topic of our choice - vs by vs.
6.  Different members of the group taking a week by rotation and bringing a topic and subject of their choice.
7.  The book - Crazy Love by Francis Chan

MUCH discussion and we were having difficulty making a decision so we voted by secret paper vote.  We were to write down our choice and if we desired we could choose a 1st & 2nd choice.

The final results were:
1.  Crazy Love    7
2.  Feasts of the Lord & workbook  4
3.  Authority of the Believer, Bible book by verse, & Topic of rotation all got    2

Then Britney suggested we do the Crazy Love book but have some breaks inbetween when someone else takes the week for a special topic and we all thought that was a great idea.

We are taking next Tuesday off, because it is election day and 3 of us work the polling places from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.!!!  We will begin our newest study on Tuesday, October 11th.

This group started out with 12 of us and one girl dropped out after the first week due to the long traveling distance from her home to mine.  Over the course of our meeting we have added 3 more woman.  We will begin this newest study and group with 13 if us.  We usually average 10 to 12.

I'm excited about this very challenging area of study and where The Lord will lead us.  I know when a commitment is made to REALLY begin to look at the issue of "lukewarmness" our enemy will be doing anything and everything he can to hinder or stop what God is wanting to do.  He (our enemy) wants us to be lukewarm but we know God says "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot:  I would thou wert cold or hot.  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth."  Revelation 3:15-16   Lord may each and everyone of us 13 be RED HOT for YOU.

QUALITY

This is probably going to turn into a griping and complaining post, I dislike getting into that frame of mind and I don't allow myself to do so very often, but I'm also wanting to know if it's just me, the quality of items I'm purchasing or are you experiencing the same thing.

What I am wondering about is the quality of merchandise we are now receiving.  So here goes.........

Back less than a year ago I decided to purchase new bath accessories; towels, throw rugs and shower curtain.  Now nothing was wrong with what I had, I was just wanting a change in how it looked color wise.  The towels I was using I had purchased years before and they were still good and had not really become worn.  I just wanted something new.  The first time I washed the new towels my lint filter was packed with lint!!!  This continued for about a month or more.  They also began to fray along some of the edges within a couple of weeks.  Long and short, after less than a year they are nowhere as good in quality as what I had previously had for years and discarded!!! 

Now further about these towels:  I usually shop at Wall*y Wor*ld but this time I thought, no I'm going to spend more and get something a little nicer.  Suzette actually went shopping with me for them after one of her earlier appointments.  So I deliberately spent more money and went to another store thinking I'd get a better quality. 

Now from towels to socks.  I am a sock wearer.  I buy white socks and wear them around the house.  You will never find me in shoes at home!!  Because I wear so many I have an entire drawer of just socks.  I have some in that drawer that I have had for several years but, as with the towels, the newest and latest socks are wearing clear through and having to be thrown out. 

True on the socks I continue to purchase them at Wall*y Wor*ld but I've purchased them there for years.

Is it just me????? or is the quality of what we are buying just awful?????  I'd really like your feedback and comments.