Family visit

We enjoyed a quick visit from Kerry, Candace, and Susanna.  They came up for Downing Appreciation Days but we were able to have a family dinner together one evening.  We celebrated Kerry's birthday (that was the end of August) and had a great time together.

Kerry reading a birthday card

Hannah, Kerry, Candace 

Daddy showed off his new pen and pencil set, a special gift from John O'B.  John's wife, Andrea, made the quilt for Brianna and on the day she delivered the quilt, John came with her to present this set to Daddy.  John is a Chemistry professor at Truman (who Daddy hired many years ago) and he is also an expert woodworker/craftsman.  He makes beautiful creations, and he made this pen and pencil set.  But that isn't the end of the story.  The wood he used to make this set came from a bench that was removed from Magruder Hall. He was able to salvage the wood and uses it to make items for people with a connection to that place.  Certainly, that applies to Daddy.  Then John went even further to customize this set for Daddy.  You can see there is a darker piece of wood that almost looks purple.  That is to represent Truman (school colors are purple and white).  But then you will see the blue and white circle.  That is to represent ATSU (school colors are blue and white).  Wow.  What a wonderfully thoughtful and lovely gift.  Daddy was touched, and so are we.

Daddy telling us all about the special pen and pencil set. 

beautiful!

I took this photo the day John presented them to Daddy.  

Brianna was snuggling under her new quilt.  :)

Hannah, Brianna, Jackson, Marvin, Jonathan 

Brianna's Quilt

Mama has had a quilt top sitting on her shelf that her own dear Mama made many years ago.  She knew she wanted to get the quilt finished and present it to Brianna for a graduation gift, but wasn't sure how to manage that.  Enter the wonderful Andrea O'B!  You may remember that she made Jackson and Brianna's beautiful wedding quilt.  So it was quite fitting that she came on board for this project, too.  She took Grandmother's quilt top and finished it out perfectly.  This family heirloom is priceless and will be cherished for many years to come.

Hopefully you can see the design... it is a square for each of the 50 states and depicts state info including bird, flower, tree, shape of state, date of statehood, and number order of statehood.  There is even a little marker where each state capitol is located.  It is really amazing!  And Andrea finished it off perfectly!

The day Andrea brought the finished quilt to Mama's house.

Edited to add this close up photo of one state square so you can see the detail.

We had a family dinner when Kerry, Candace, and Susanna were visiting - and Mama presented the quilt to Brianna that evening.

absolutely wonderful!  

Garage Sale

We started the month of September by having a garage sale.  We put in a marathon day on Friday getting things loaded in to Deb's garage, organizing and pricing.  Then early Saturday morning we were ready to begin.  It was supposed to be a nice day weather wise, but within 30 minutes of opening up, we were already having to move everything back into the garage because of a downpour.  That happened 3 more times over the course of the morning/early afternoon.  :)  Ah well.  In spite of the rain, we had a decent turnout and got some stuff gone.  So all is well.  We were making jokes by the end of the sale, though... saying things like 'for that next garage sale that we are never going to do, we should remember to do such and such.'  ;)  Who knows... we may forget how much work it is and try again one day.  :)  And it is always a wonderful time to hang out with dear friends all day.  Special thanks to all who came by!!

moving items back in the garage during one of the downpours

ugh

But Shonda had her utility belt on and was ready to circulate!  :) 

I was so happy I got to meet Rad for the first time this day.  :)

Selling memories... 

this is what we spent a lot of the day doing... :D  

Dinner with Kathy

Dear Kathy has been working far too hard for far too long.  As a result she has had to miss many gatherings and celebrations, among other issues.  So we were all thrilled to hear that she had resigned from her old job, although she had no idea what would come next.  She just knew she needed to step out in faith that something would open up.

Very quickly she applied for and was offered a new job that would provide her with a regular schedule and actual time for doing things outside of work.  We all knew this was true cause for celebration and planned to gather for dinner at the lake.  Shonda and Lora invited Kathy to join them and she thought it would just be those 3.  Thankfully, she was happy with the surprise addition of the rest of us.  :)   It was a beautiful evening on the new deck at Thousand Hills Dining Lodge and we sure loved getting to celebrate this new beginning with her.

A copy of the upcoming Bible study (that Kathy will be able to attend now!)  :)

She was pretty excited about that!  :)

Lora, Kris, Laura, Shonda, Kathy, Karla, Kara, Carla

Kathy and Karla

Random August

Snippets from August that haven't already made their way to the blog.  :)

Jonathan elected to stay home while Marvin and I were at the Society Horse Show.  That turned out to be a very good thing because Annie chose that time to push through the post and panel of her outdoor pen.  I guess she REALLY believed the grass was greener on the other side.  (she was probably right)   :)   Jonathan took care of it all and then sent us these photos to document the event.  (my boy)  :)

I received this fun photo while I was sweating it out at the fair.  I am so glad these lovely people got to use the pool while we were gone (and we thank all for taking care of things around here while we were away!)

What could Mama be laughing to hard about????

Daddy's fortune...  :D  

Yes, we think that one came true already.  :) 

I liked my fortune that day, too.  :)

We SO enjoyed this particular evening at Scott and Anne's house.  Anne made a yummy dinner and we got to meet her parents, Dave and Nancy.  What a treat!  We especially appreciated Dave's advice on how to write Mama and Daddy's memoir, based on his own experience of writing his story.  Thanks to him we are finally underway on a project that I have wanted to begin for years!  Hallelujah!

Marvin, Hannah, Anne, Scott, Nancy, Dave, Mama, Daddy

Marvin, Laura, Anne, Scott, Nancy, Dave, Mama, Daddy

I accompanied Mama and Daddy to Springfield, IL to visit Uncle Dale.  We met up at Bob Evans restaurant and enjoyed the time together.  The only photo I took was of Mama with her dear brother, Dale - but we sure were happy to get to see Stacy, Steve, Lyn, and Amanda, as well.

That same week I went along with Mama and Daddy to Jefferson City where Daddy had a meeting.  Mama and I dropped him off at Madisons for the lunch meeting thinking we would find another place to eat.  But after a short while we realized that we really wanted to eat at Madisons, too.  So we headed back to the parking garage across the street and went in.  We thought we would slip in so as not to disturb Daddy's meeting.  But we had to laugh when we realized that the nice young man who held the door for us was actually the person Daddy was meeting.  :D  By the way, we had the seafood bisque and it was delectable!!!  (We have always loved their clam chowder, but this was the first time we tried the seafood bisque.)

Jonathan

This guy.  He is absolutely wonderful.  Jonathan is a quiet, 'big bear' with a heart of gold.  He is such a hard worker and a deep thinker and he takes good care of all of us - looking out for us and lending a hand whenever he can.  He doesn't like the spotlight and he is hard to convince to stand and pose for a photo - even on his first day of college.  :)  But this Mama loves this guy so much and is so proud of all that he is becoming.

By the way... even in these photos he is helping me out.  He offered to drop off, after his first day of college classes, Jackson and Brianna's clothes that I had laid out to take myself.  What a guy.  :)