Bradleyville Here & Now 3/28/11

Not a news item I sent to the paper, but just a blog entry on the wrong blog. Will change it sometime.

 We have a new grandson! We are so proud and happy to have him here safe and sound. He is beautiful, of course!
Congratulations to our kids, Scott & Julie Lawson on the birth of their new baby son on March 22. Garrett Scott Lawson weighed 6 lbs even and was 20 inches long, and has lots of beautiful black hair on his sweet little beautiful head. Did I say I was happy and proud of him? Almost our whole family was at the hospital awaiting his birth (16 of us, in fact, out of our family and then Scotts folks and his brother Craig) , and as we get kind of loud and rowdy sometimes, I have been known to call our family “The Circus” when we all get together. But, I heard the doctor say that Julie and Scott had a great support system, so that is what I am calling us from now on, it sounds so much better!

Julie has had lots of company to see the baby and I got a 4 generation picture of my dad, me, Julie and Garrett, then when Bob's mom visited I got a 4 generation picture of her, Bob, Julie and Garrett. Priceless.

 

Jessica Koenig took some amazing photos of baby Garrett, she has such a talent for getting just the right shot. I have taken several dozen pictures of him myself, and can't remember to get any actual photos made, they are all on my camera or posted on facebook. I need some actual pictures I can carry around. I will have to write it on my forehead so I can remember, but I actually don't look in the mirror much (and you can tell it) so don't know if that will help or not!

Along with the birth of a new baby in our family we also had a passing from this life to another. Our grandma, Eula Shortt of Sparta MO passed on to Heaven to be with her Lord & Savior on March 25. She was a wonderful, sweet lady who blessed her family so much. She had been suffering from congestive heart failure for several weeks and then recently found out she had cancer. Her funeral was Sunday afternoon at Ozark with burial at Sparta. Her great-nephew, Lee Maggard officiated at the service and her nephew and wife, Loren and Hazel Maggard sang two beautiful songs. Grandma Eula had lost both of her grown children, a daughter, Judy Graham in 1996 and her son, Larry Shortt in March, 2009. She was a wonderful Christian lady who never wavered in her faith and was looking forward to the time when she would be able to join her family. We will miss her so much but happy for her to live in her eternal home in Heaven.
I had a call from Pete Knight of Washington State the other night and we had a nice visit. Pete is in his 90s and calls me every so often to find out about something I've written in the paper or tell me a little news. I enjoy talking to him so much. He was asking about the new bridge they are building over Spring Creek and was wondering if it was in the same general location or maybe the same branch they used to call Roller Holler Branch. I am not that good with the history of the names, I have heard both names used, so I wasn’t sure but wonder if it is the same branch or is close.
Keep Bill Blair in your prayers. Bill suffered a stroke last week and has been in the hospital since then. He seemed to be doing a little better last weekend, so we are hoping for a good recovery for him.

I talked to Hobart Collins on the phone and he told me that there is going to be an Alzheimer’s benefit at Taney Center on April 2, starting at 6:30 pm. It is free admission but they will be taking donations if you would like to give to this wonderful cause.  Hobart said there will be several door prizes, the nicest being a Bible with a handmade leather cover. Everyone is welcome to attend and support this important cause.
New Mansion Church will be hosting the well known bluegrass group, Kenny & Amanda Smith on May 21 at 6 pm. I think it will be outside but really am not sure at this point. More about this in the future.
Birthdays for the coming week include: March 30: Sherry Henning, Elijah Nelson, Hailee Norwine; March 31: Kayla Combs; April 2: Dawson Deroo, Noel Shortt; April 3: Linda Combs, Tom Tilley; April 4: Josh Isaacs, Scott Lawson; March 5: Shelly Combs, Tampa Rogers, Kelvin Whittaker; April 6: Carole Gott, Nick Norwine, Samantha Rogers.
Anniversaries for the coming week include: April 5: Buddy & Kathy Compton; April 6: Don & Robyn Whittaker.

News For the Week of March 21, 2011

I didn't have much news for this week and we were extremely busy with a new grandbaby about to be born, and Julie's blood pressure being high, our Granny Eula is sick in the hospital and so I didn't think a lot about what to do for news. 

Boyd and Kayla Combs did have a wonderful shower and were so pleased with the nice shower gifts they recieved for their sweet little babies. There were lots of diapers and I know they were much appreciated.

Did you get to see the supermoon as they were calling it on the TV news? I mistakenly thought it was Friday night, and then forgot to go out and look, so thought I had missed it. When a friend brought it to my attention that it was instead on Saturday night, I went out in the middle of our field to get a better view to watch it rise. It was too cloudy to see anything and I finally gave up and came back to the house. The coyotes surely knew it was up there somewhere because they started howling and making a ruckus and did it ever sound awful? YES it did! It just makes shivers go up and down my arms and neck when I hear them howling, and they sound like they are just a little ways away, although I know in my head that they are usually a long way away.
On my way back to the house, in the dark, holding on to Danielle's little Yorkie, I stepped on a long thorn that was connected to a foot long branch. There I was, jumping up and down on one foot, trying to hold on to the dog (I was afraid she would run off and the coyotes would catch her and eat her if I put her down) and trying to get the thorn out of my foot. It was stuck through my foam Crocs that I was wearing and I had the strap around my heel so it was quite a spectacle getting it out of my foot. I finally just got my shoe pulled off and it pulled the thorn out of my foot. It didn't hurt that much right then after I pulled it out, but a few hours later my foot started throbbing like a toothache and two of my toes were sooooo sore and felt like they were cramping. It has hurt a lot over the next few days and I could hardly walk on it. 

Congratulations to Josh and Dusty Howie on the birth of their son, Dylan. He weighed 6 lbs 14 oz and was 19 in long. He is a cutie and Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Mike are very proud of him.

Kyle and Jessi were playing ball at the school and saw the helicopter coming in to get Bill Blair who had a stroke. He is in the hospital in critical condition and we hope and pray he will be OK. 

Birthdays for the coming week include: March 24: June Boyd, Dustin Tilley; March 25: Buddy Compton Jr., Danny Flannery, Clessie Hurst; March 26: Leon Combs; March 28: Kent Day, Eric Guerin, Sherry Guerin, Natalie Mooney, Sara Ridings; March 29: Yvonne Cavner, Andrew Lovelace; March 30: Sherry Henning, Hailee Norwine. 

Anniversaries for the coming week include: March 25: Tim & Ann Blair, March 30: Richard Stoecker & Shirley Gott-Stoecker.

News For the Week of March 14, 2011

   Spring break is this week and the weather is awful so far, unless you like cold, rain, sleet, snow flurries, etc. I have a niece that lives in Highlandville and one that lives in Tunas, and they both reported this morning that it was snowing there. The niece in Tunas said they had almost an inch of snow on the ground. I was hoping for warm weather, warm breezes and the like. I would like to do more yard work and I thought the grandkids might help me a bit, or at least enjoy getting outside. Instead, they slept late, got up and played on the computer and ate, and then the boys and their friends went to explore a cave again. I don't really care for them crawling around in caves, but that is because I am slightly claustophobic. Courtney went with her stepsister to visit her grandmother in Little Rock for the week, so she isn't even here. The other two are sunning themselves in tropical places and visiting their uncle.

   I just today started some tomato and pepper seeds in the little peat pellets that swell up when you put water on them. I have more success using them that anything else. I am later this year starting my plants than I have been in the past. I am a first class procrastinator. I need to get with it, because I want to have a big garden this year and can or freeze as much as I can. It really helps with the grocery bill and the food is better too.

   There will be a table shower for Kayla and Boyd Combs’ foster children at noon on Sunday, March 20 at New Mansion Church. Kayla and Boyd do so much for these precious kids and we would like to show our love and support by helping with some needed items, such as clothes or diapers, or anything a baby might use. Kayla said it would be very helpful if the clothes were just a size bigger than what the babies are wearing right now. The baby boy wears a size 0-3 month, and the baby girl a size 6-9 month, so any size larger than those would be wonderful. 

   I  had several calls asking what a table shower was, sorry I didn’t make it understandable. Usually the way it works is a table is set up in the foyer of the church and everyone brings their gift and sets it on the table. Then they can just pick up their gifts and take them home. There will be cookies served if anyone would like to stay and visit with Boyd and Kayla.

   We attended church at Lone Star last Sunday morning and we really enjoyed it, although at the same time we missed going to our home church, New Mansion. We had to miss Corby Lux bringing the message at New Mansion, and we hated that, but we had already comitted to go to Lone Star. We don't usually skip church at our own church, but we had been planning for a long time to go to Lone Star one Sunday so we decided to go ahead and go. We got to see and worship with several friends we hadn’t seen in a while. It’s always good to get to hear David Koenig bring the message.  We were sitting there before the service started and was talking to Tampa Rogers when Jon Rogers walked up behind me and decided I needed a new hairdo. Lets just say I am glad that the “messy look” is still in style! 

   June Rhoads is back home and feeling some better after surgery to remove one of her kidneys. The doctors found a spot of cancer in her kidney and had to remove it. The spot had been there for over a year but the doctors thought first it was just a shadow, then this year they first thought she had kidney stones, then went in to take them out and decided to biopsy it. June has had back pain for well over a year. We pray June will continue to improve.

   The Spring Creek bridge between Bradleyville and Taneyville is closed for a few weeks and it is making it complicated to get from here to there. We live very close to DD highway and we almost always went down DD, turned left at the bridge and out F highway to Taneyville anyway, but for some people it will be a lot more driving, or maybe just a lot more thinking to try to take the shortest route possible.

   I do wish they would have replaced the bridges before the gas went up so much, but I guess that is something they didn't know.

   Congratulations to Khailey Arrington on the birth of her son, Brayden Nikolas McNamee on March 10. He weighed 7lbs and 13oz and is adorable, of course! He is having to spend a few days in the hospital because of jaundice. Khailey lives in Springfield now, but she used to live right across the road from our daughter Lynn, right in the middle of Union Flat.

   My quilt is sewed together in rows one way, and needs to be ironed and then the rows sewed together, but I keep finding things I must do before I start sewing again. Another hint to myself that I really don't enjoy sewing, but I am determined to finish this quilt, it may take years though! I keep thinking if I hang in there and sew now and then, I will get to where I enjoy it. 

   Birthdays for the coming week include: March 17: Brandon Harris, Koleder Ross; March 18: Nardena Brown, Amber Duff, Becky Krause; March 19: Bradley Flannery, Kerri Hampton; March 20: Rebecca Campbell, Emma Hampton, Sue Swadley; March 21: Kelsey Adams, Ronnie Hunsaker; March 23: Sammi Jo Norwine. 

    Anniversaries for the coming week include: March 19: Brandon & Lori Burkhart, Sam & Judy Clemans