The greatest of these...

For Linda, with gratitude for her friendship, example and love.

And now these three remain:  faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love."

1 Corinthians 13:13

Last Wednesday evening we lost a very dear friend of ours to cancer.  Our relationship with Linda and her husband, Jim, began as 'preacher & preacher's wife' and 'parishioners', but very quickly grew into 'friends' and even 'family'.  We enjoyed laughter over family dinners and shared a love of camping.  In fact, when I tried to sum up my thoughts about Linda during a sharing time at her funeral on Saturday, I simply stated, "Family dinners, camping and love."  That may sound simplistic (and to be honest, I don't even know if anyone could understand me on Saturday talking through my tears) but to me, it speaks directly to all that Linda was (and still is) to me.

Family Dinners
Family dinners are a tradition around here.  We like to celebrate everything... birthdays, graduations, sunny Saturdays, cold & dreary Fridays... everything.  :)  We cook a huge meal and then gather around the table to spend hours talking and eating and laughing - telling stories and sharing our hearts.  Jim and Linda fit right in and became an integral part of our celebrations.  In fact, I really couldn't imagine celebrating any major family event without them!  Sometimes we even met for family dinners at restaurants... location didn't really matter as long as we could all get together.  Sadly, they were unable to join us as often the last two years due to Linda's illness and treatments.  And it simply wasn't the same without them.

Camping
Since 2002 our family has been camping around the country.  We enjoy short jaunts and long hauls in our travel trailer and were thrilled to discover 'like minds' in Jim and Linda.  Even now I can hear Jim and Linda teasing us about our 'black tank travails' and entertaining us with stories of their misadventures from over the years on the road.  We met up each year at the Missouri State Fair and always planned to meet up at another location sometime....  (and there is a regret)

Love
And finally, LOVE.  I believe that one word expresses more about Linda than anything else I can come up with.  She WAS love.  She LIVED love.  Her life was a constant example of Mark 12:30-31 and John 13:34-35.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second is this:  Love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no commandment greater than these."

Mark 12:30-31

"A new command I give you:  Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

John 13:34-35

Linda knew how to love people well.  She was truly good at it.  From the sparkle in her eyes when she talked with you to the deep hugs when you were walking a difficult path, you felt Linda's love.  She loved children, especially.  After the tragedy of losing her own precious boys, she could have easily retreated from children's ministry, but she never did.  She shared her special gifts with children everywhere, including my two lucky boys.  They always felt special to Linda and they were - as were all kids.  She just had a way of making you feel extra special.

Today Linda was laid to rest next to her sons.  We couldn't be there in person but we have been thinking of Linda and Jim all day long and praying for them.  I would ask you to continue to pray for Jim as he faces the difficult journey ahead without his sweet Linda by his side.  We miss her so much already.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written:  

'For your sake we face death all day long; 

we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.'  

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 8:35-39

Linda and Jackson

the boys baptism

Jim and Linda's retirement reception

at the state fair

family dinner

in Sedalia

Linda made a 'Daddy' horse and two 'son' horses

Linda's horses

everyone wrote greetings on the tablecloth one evening

card tricks in the camper at the state fair

at the state fair

Full album of photos here.

Girls Weekend

Sooo... my last post was about the Guys Weekend in Shelbina.  Just this past weekend I got to go for a Girls Weekend in Kansas City.  :)  My friend Donna had mentioned that she needed to go to Kansas City and would I like to tag along?  I said 'sure'!  Then we realized that KC was about halfway between us and Renita so thought maybe she could join us.  Sure enough, it worked out for all three of us and we were on our way.  I picked Donna up in Columbia en route and we all arrived at our hotel in KC about 3:00.  After a quick run to Walmart for supplies we settled in for a relaxing weekend of hanging out.

We had originally reserved a room at a Residence Inn but there was a bit of a snafu when the manager called me on Wednesday to say our room wasn't going to be available because of state farm insurance adjusters coming into town to examine storm damage and taking all the rooms at the hotel.  What??  You gave our previously reserved room away less than 48 hours before our arrival??  Okay... she offered to put us in a tiny room at a sister cheapo hotel down the street but we decided to try to find a new hotel in another area.  Lo and behold we discovered the Chase Suites Hotel over by the airport.  For the same price as a typical Holiday Inn Express we got 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, living room and dining area!!  Perfect for a girls retreat weekend!  Basically, it is a former apartment complex that has been redone by the hotel chain.  I am quite impressed and will look for this chain in other areas.

Friday night we made dinner together - tomato/mozzarella salad, strawberries with YUMMO dip, hummus and carrots and chicken salad with crackers - you can't get much better than that!  Then we sat around chatting with each other, chatting online (even with each other) and even got to call our friend Debbie to say 'hi'.  Fun evening.  Saturday morning we checked out the free hotel breakfast but got there late and saw it was pretty slim pickings so we decided to go out for breakfast.  We made a quick run back to the room to get our purses and were a little freaked out to discover the upstairs TV was turned on... we knew we hadn't done that.  Hmmm.... a quick check of the room showed that nothing was missing. So we went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel where, by the way, our waitress was none other than Minnie Driver.  At least that is what we have all decided and we are sticking with that!

After a yummy breakfast we headed back to our hotel only to discover another creepy turn of events.  I was upstairs when Renita called me down to her bathroom to show me that someone had peed on her toilet seat!  Okay... now we were all getting pretty freaked out.   I was trying to decide what I needed to say to the front desk people when I realized the shower curtain was making the liquid on the toilet look colored when it probably wasn't.  I shifted position and could then see that the liquid was clear (like water) and that there were dried water spots on the seat as well.  By this time Donna had fled the room but Renita was still hanging with me.  I felt pretty certain that it WASN'T pee at this point and so took some toilet paper and wiped it off.  That let me know that it was water.  Sadly, I have wiped many a toilet seat in my day as the Mom of two boys... but that is another, much sadder, blog post.  :/   I was trying to convince Donna and Renita that it was water, although I had no idea where it had come from.  I then told them that I was going to  make a 'bold' move and smell the TP just to convince them.  Well, that blew Renita right out of the room.  :)  They were both about to die and I was laughing.  But, it was surely water.  We let it all be for awhile - if nothing else, just to get everyone's strength back.  :)  Donna went up to take a shower and I had to use the restroom, so I needed to use Renita's since ours was taken.  While I was in there I suddenly felt a rush of water down my back and sure enough... discovered the source of the problem.  The shower in the bathroom upstairs had a tremendous leak through the vent into the bathroom downstairs.  There was a literal rainfall of water coming through right onto the toilet and floor.  The water we had seen was all that had remained from the leak after drying for a few hours.  Mystery solved.  But, unfortunately by then, I had been christened with the moniker "best unknown substance smeller"... a name I fear I shall take to my grave.  I still say I had to because they were wusses.   :D   ha!!!!!

Saturday night we had leftovers from Friday night along with Donna's magnificent, yummy, delectable Creamy Italian Chicken and angel hair pasta.  It is very similar to what I call Chicken Jerusalem only she does hers in the crockpot and serves it over the pasta instead of rice.  I LOVED it on the pasta and plan to serve it that way here at home next time.  Yummy!!!!  Saturday night there were a lot of storms popping up around KC and we were keeping an eye on the sky as tornado warnings began rolling in.  It did not give us any comfort to see that the Weather Channel storm chasers were a mere 5 miles north of us - especially when they reported that they were moving from their location because of the danger of the storms!

Renita and I kept walking around the hotel complex trying to get a good view of the storms (boy, I missed being in the country where I can see everything!!).  We couldn't see well, but boy could we feel the barometric pressure changes and the wind swirling around.  It was pretty freaky.  We had left Donna behind in the room with the door open and had been gone for awhile walking around.  So we were feeling pretty humorous on our way back thinking we would joke with Donna about being 'taken' for the rapture.  We chuckled our way up the stairs and into the room calling "Donna' but SHE wasn't there!  Donna??  We looked at each other with big eyes then burst out laughing when she popped her head over the loft wall.  We can never get one over on her.  :)

Third creepy thing happened about that time.  Renita and I went back out to eye the sky and spoke briefly to a fellow we had seen before on the courtyard.  He had been with others drinking beer but was now alone.  Renita decided to walk over to the other side of the complex once more to get a closer look but I stayed behind on the stairs.  As she took off I was startled to see HIM also take off right after her with very determined steps.  The hair on my neck literally stood up and I slid down the stairs after him.  I wondered if I should holler at Renita but didn't want him to hear her name so I just followed to see him turn away from her at the end of the walk.  She doubled right back around and returned immediately because she had been aware of what he was doing also.  CREEPY!!  We quit worrying about the storms and went inside our room!  :)

I am realizing that I am making the room and the complex sound freaky and run down - when actually it wasn't at all.  It was quite nice and we didn't feel unsafe there at all.  Just a stormy Saturday night in a city is all.  And it does remind one of how vigilant you must be at all times.  We were glad to all be together.

Sunday morning we read, chatted, and solved the final mystery.  About 10:15 that morning Renita and I were in the living room when we heard the TV upstairs turn on.  We looked at each other and called, "Donna?" since she had gone up there a few minutes prior.  But, no, she had NOT turned the TV on!  It just turned on by itself!  Aha... the TV must be on a timer of some kind and just turns on automatically at 10:15!  Still weird, but not nearly as freaky.   :)

Finally, it was time to load up and head for home.  Good-byes are always a bit melancholy, but we had a great time together.  Donna and I went to the airport to pick up my Daddy who was just coming in from Mesa.  We drove him back to his hotel to get his car so he wouldn't have to fiddle with waiting for the hotel shuttle.  Then we followed him to Cameron and he took us to lunch.  Donna had already stated that she wanted to be adopted and Daddy fully agreed - sealing it with a kiss on the cheek after lunch.  :)  With that taken care of   :)   we headed for Macon where Lee met us to pick up Donna and take her the rest of the way home.  What a wonderful Girls Weekend!  Thank you Donna and Renita for the friendship and the memories!

Here are photos of the hotel - we didn't really take any photos of each other!  :)

nice little dining area

Renita slept on the queen size Murphy bed

comfy, cute and handy!

the famous bathroom with the dark shower curtain....  :)  snort!

stairs to the loft 

loft area

loft area

looking down from the loft

dinner Friday night

dinner Saturday night

of course, we had hummus and carrots!!

Donna 'the Barista' making yummy lattes for us!

Renita with the best cup ever!  (actually a soup mug or something... HUGE!)

Guys Weekend

The first weekend of May was 'Guys Weekend' in Shelbina for Marvin, Jackson, Daddy and his brothers.  They go every year in the spring and in the fall to enjoy camping at the century farm and riding horses (and, most importantly, just being with each other.)  The weather was perfect for them this time and they enjoyed several good rides along the back roads of Shelby County.  Also as usual, they ate well from the combined efforts of Uncle Mitch and Uncle Charles.

The only 'excitement' came when they encountered a thoughtless tractor driver one afternoon.  The fellas were going along a gravel road near their farm when they heard a loud vehicle roaring up behind them.  It was a huge sprayer tractor   coming WAY too fast for the road.  Daddy was able to get the team pulling the wagon stopped while Marvin tried to get Governor turned around to see what was coming.  Marvin was hollering to Jackson to tell him to do the same thing (so the horses could get a visual on what was roaring up behind them and hopefully not be too spooked) but Jackson couldn't hear for all the noise.  Marvin got Governor just barely turned around and Governor was still so spooked he backed into the ditch and clear up the other side.  Jackson took Shadow and went around the wagon because he was afraid Shadow was going to bolt into the back of the wagon, but he couldn't get Shadow turned around to see anything.  Shadow took off down the road with the stupid tractor driver still roaring up the road chasing right behind him.  The fellas said this guy was a real piece of work.  He was going super fast and didn't appear to have any concern for the horses (and people) on the road with him.  Marvin took off after him trying to flag him down and get him to slow down so Jackson could get his horse safely under control and out of the way.  The tractor driver never even noticed Marvin!

Jackson used his head and managed to keep control of the reins and maneuver Shadow up the road to a field entrance where he got Shadow to the side and turned toward the tractor.  The idiot driver roared on past (after having chased Jackson and Shadow up the road) and that was that.  Everyone was okay - but quite shaken up.  It was the very edge of a total disaster.  If any of those horses hadn't been so well trained, someone could have gotten thrown right in the path of that tractor driver or the horses could have bolted and... who knows.  I know it was bad because of the way all of the guys talked about it.  Marvin was sure proud of Jackson, though, and how he kept his head together throughout the entire thing.  I personally think the tractor driver was a seasonal hired hand because no legitimate farmer would have driven that kind of expensive equipment in that way on a country road, not to mention the reckless endangerment of other people and animals.  Just makes you wonder about people...


Here are a bunch of photos from their wonderful weekend, but you can see more at this link.  And here is a link to another post about Guys Weekend.  :)

Uncle Mitch - the head chef for Guys Weekend

Don't let the 'camping' fool you... these fellas eat well!  Ribs, for instance!!  :)

Jackson (or is that Grandpa Jack??!!)   :)

Jackson (or Jack??)

Uncle Mitch

And then there is the 'culture' to be found on the walls of old barns...
of course, Jackson is all about discovering culture...   snort!

Jackson balancing on the wagon.... (or is that Jack??!!)

Grandpa Jack with the team and Marvin on Governor

Uncle Charles

Their 'home sweet homes' for Guys Weekend

Charles and Daddy

relaxing at Wood Cemetery (Marvin, Jackson, Charles and Mitch)

Charles and Mitch

Charles

Marvin, Charles, Mitch and Daddy

Daddy with the Haflingers at Lowman Chapel (old family church)

Charles and Mitch with the Haflingers (Dick and Bob)

heading out for the day

Shadow got left behind at the barn this time...

heading out

they may be camping, but they are still 'connected'!!  :)

Charles

Uncle Charles, Uncle Mitch, Daddy and Marvin

Jackson