News For the Week of May 23, 2012

Is it just me or isn’t this turning out to be a strange spring? Seems like everything is a month ahead and I even have trouble remembering that it isn’t a month later than it is. We have even seen several tarantulas crossing the road, and while I know they are out there and alive, we don’t usually see them on the road until September or so. It feels like time is on fast-forward.

It is very dry here, and I have to water what little I have planted. I need to fertilize what plants I do have, they are looking a little pitiful. Now that Kent Day has opened a feed store in Bradleyville I won’t have to make a trip somewhere else miles away. It’s located right where the feed store was before. 

 

Congratulations to Waylon and Teresa Stafford on the birth of their baby boy, Axel Lee Stafford, who was born on May 8. Axel weighed 7 lbs. 14 oz. and was 21 inches long. I’m sure big brother Levi and big sister, Shiann were excited to get to help take care of Axel when he came home.

Congratulations also to Boyd, Kayla, and Jonah Combs. They have been a family since they got Jonah as a tiny baby, but finally got to adopt him last week. I know they are all blessed by finally having it become official. Next week their family will be blessed again when they also get to adopt their little girl that they have also had since birth.

I had a nice visit with Edna and Alva Johnson last week. I was looking for a picture that I thought they might have that I wanted a copy of, and they loaned me three to copy. While I was there we got to talking about music. Alva and Edna and their whole family are accomplished musicians. I would like to play some kind of instrument but I don’t think I have the dedication to learn how to play anything. I also got to see several pictures of their newest great-granddaughter, Caroline Faith Chaney. She sure was a cutie.

The first swap meet which was held at the old ball field in Bradleyville seemed to be a great success. There were thirteen vendors with, rabbits, chickens, ducks, goats, garden produce, vegetable and flower plants with many more miscellaneous items. The swap meet next month will be on June 16.

The seniors are back from their senior trip to Panama City, Florida. They did a little bit of everything, riding around on mopeds, going deep sea fishing and parasailing to name a few, and from what I hear they all had a great time. One of their sponsors, Misty Wilkerson and one other girl were parasailing when the boat stalled and quit running and they both fell several hundred feet through the air and hit the water. It must not have scared any of the others as they all continued on with their turns. Oh, to be young.

Sympathy goes out to the family of Mike Rawson who was laid to rest at Patterson Cemetery last Saturday, May 19. His late wife, Viola, was a sister to Ernest Combs. He and Viola lived in Idaho but spent several summers here in the little rock house or their big RV on DD Hwy. We got acquainted with their grandson, Tony, who was around the same age as the big group of kids that made up New Mansion Church’s Youth Group at that time.  They all had a good time spending the summers together.

New Mansion Church will be hosting a graduation party on Sunday, May 27, starting at 4:00pm. Bring a covered dish and some photos of your graduate and come enjoy some food, games and fellowship. Our Sunday School Superintendent, Tom Todd, made the point about no graduate being too old, for our pastor, Jeff Marsh, who completed his Master’s Degree this year. I won’t say how old Jeff is, but he IS a few years over the half century mark. That doesn’t even sound old to me, since I am several years older than that myself. If you have any questions you can call Cindy Marsh at 796-2325 or Belinda Wyman at 785-4440.

Birthdays for the coming week include: May 24: Caleb Blair, Ruth Marie Hodges, Cameron Potter; May 26: Ryan Caldwell, Judy Whitaker; May 27: Cassandra Horner, Jessica Kisling, Nona Norwine; May 29: Mary Wolf; May 30: Ashton Judd, Louis Letendre, Kristen Maggard.

Anniversaries for the coming week include: May 26: Chane and Brandi Johnson, Ed and Mynette Ulrich, Kelvin and Melanie Whittaker; May 27: Jackie and Gail Adams, Bo and Judy Bonner, Bubba and Lisa Taylor; May 28: Bill and Sue Guerin; May 29: Mike and Sherry Yeary; May 30: Jerry and Sherry Henning.

News For the Week of May 16, 2012

~

Beautiful weather continues this week which is nice because I really need to get out to work in the yard some. Grass is growing like crazy, which it always does this time of year, and my flower beds need some tending also. My daughters got me some flowers for Mother’s Day that I need to put out somewhere, if I can just decide where. 
Baccalaureate for the graduating seniors and eighth graders was well attended last Wednesday evening. Several good songs were sung and Jack Clemans did a wonderful job bringing the message to everyone there.
The Bradleyville School gym was packed last Saturday evening to watch thirty-two seniors receive their diplomas and thirteen eighth graders graduate to high school. Valedictorian was Colin Robertson and Salutatorian was Andrew Zimmerman. Eighth grade valedictorian was Casey Ridings and two Salutatorians, Mariah Clemans and Emily Todd.  Many scholarships were given out and I don’t want to name them all because I will forget someone, but fourteen students received the $1000 Bradleyville Walk/Run scholarship and one student received the newly established $1000 Lonnie Combs Memorial Scholarship, which will also be an annual scholarship. Congratulations to all the graduates.
Our grandson Jessi Laughlin was one of the high school graduates and another grandson, Hayden Crouch graduated from the eighth grade. Jessi will be going to College of the Ozarks in the fall. 
The seniors left right after graduation for their senior trip in Panama City Beach, Florida. Jessi called his mom Sunday evening and said they got there safely and were having a great time.
Since I’m always searching for more news to put in the paper, I’m going back about a month when I didn’t get any news sent to the paper. By not sending in any news that week, I missed the birthday of a special lady. April 13 was Betty Day’s birthday, and I hope it was a good one.
Birthdays for the coming week include: May 18: Irene Adams, Kayla Blair; May 19: Hayden Crouch, Allen Swadley; May 20: Randy Haes; May 21: Dean Clark; May 23: Alvin Nelson.
Anniversaries for the coming week include: May 18: Joe and Jeannie Lawrence; May 20: Jeff D. and Dawn Marsh, Susan and Duffey Mooney; May 21: Ron and Judy Alstatt; May 22: Jeff and Tammy Spicer.

News For the Week of May 2, 2012

A good rain on Monday was welcome. We were getting pretty dry here. It would have been even more welcome if I had any garden planted. Our tiller has been broken down for a year or more. We thought it was just a needle valve that needed replaced, but when they looked it over they found it had gotten water in the carburetor and frozen and busted it. The carburetor is on back order so I don’t know if we’ll have it to use this year or not. The old saying about the early bird gets the worm might fit here, we should have taken it way back in the winter to get it fixed, but like I have said before, we are world class procrastinators.

Taylor McHaffie represented the 4^th grade for Bradleyville School at the Mark Twain Spelling Bee last week and came home with first place. Jacquelyn Clemans also won the first place for the first grade division. I heard they did an awesome job. I know it would be very nerve wracking for me to stand in front of everybody and spell.

Several students from the music department at Bradleyville School spent last Friday night and Saturday in Columbia competing at the state level.  Ellie Combs got a #1 rating for her saxophone solo. Several got #2 and #3 ratings, but I won’t name anybody because I might get the wrong details for the wrong person.  More details will be in another part of the paper I’m sure.

The annual Snapps Cemetery Meeting will be May 3, 2012 at the Forsyth Senior Center at 7pm.

Again, congratulations to Pete and Novella Knight of Washington State who are celebrating their 72^nd anniversary on May 3.

Birthdays: May 4: Tammy Maggard, Brady Rogers; May 5: Ethel Bunnell, Jan Clark; May 8: Brenda Boyd, Susan Klepac; May 9: Deanna Badovinatz, Matt Hartzell.

Anniversaries: May 6: Mike and Nicole Hunsaker.

News For the Week of April 23, 2012

Hope everybody has been enjoying the beautiful weather we have been having. We have had the heat on in the mornings for an hour or so but it isn’t long before we are turning it off and opening the windows or even turning the air on. I have a couple of hummingbirds that have shown up at my lone feeder I hung outside a few weeks ago. It won’t be long until there are dozens swarming around several feeders I hang in the trees in our back yard. I have one feeder that hangs right outside the dining room window. I have to have a stepladder to reach that one but it is worth it to see the hummers close up.

I got to babysit Garrett last Saturday evening while his parents went to a movie with Scott’s dad. If there is one thing in the world that lets you know you are getting older, it is babysitting a one year old. Busy, busy, busy is all I can say. I am thankful he is so busy but it sure keeps us on our toes. I had almost forgotten all the places a little one gets into that he shouldn’t be getting into. I am going to have to get busy myself and do some baby-proofing. He found out he could take two of the knobs off my cook stove, and now two of them are missing. I’ll find them somewhere soon, probably in the cupboard with the canned goods, which was another favorite place. My daughter Alicia reminded me that when her daughter was small, they had to take the cook stove knobs off the stove when they weren’t using it or she would turn it on.

I am looking forward to next Saturday to get to go to the big garage sale the Bradleyville Fire Department is sponsoring. They always have the building full of booths from many different people who are selling many different garage sale items. I’m sure there will be many more garage sales in the area to coincide with this one. The Fire Department Sale will start bright and early at 7:00am and will serve a pulled pork lunch for a donation. If you are interested in renting a booth you may call the Fire Department at 796-2400.

The Bradleyville School Prom was last Saturday evening. It was to be held at the Hilton in Branson but due to the tornado damage they had to re-locate, so it was held at the University Plaza in Springfield. Prom Queen was Junior, Danielle Crouch and Prom King was Senior, Jessi Laughlin. They are first cousins and also both are my grandkids. They stopped by my house before Prom, along with another granddaughter that was going with them, Courtney Laughlin, and I took several pictures. Of course I thought they were beautiful. In fact, all the prom pictures I have seen of the kids have been very pretty. We have very good-looking kids at Bradleyville but more important, I think, they are good kids.

I had a message on my answering machine from Pete Knight of Washington State last week and called him back to verify my information because my answering machine cuts out sometimes and I can’t always understand the messages. Pete grew up in this area, up Caney Creek, along with my dad, Willie Sloan and Glesco and Floyd Roberts to name a few and still has lots of family here. Pete and I had a nice visit and he was telling me that he and his wife, Novella will celebrate their 72^nd anniversary on May 3. That is very newsworthy in my opinion so wanted to give it a special mention.

Birthdays: April 26: Austin Adams, Mitch Cummings; April 27: Sammy Clemans, Jerilyn Day, T.J. Day; April 28: Andy Adams; April 29: Randy Adams, Luene Johnson; May 1: Echo Combs; May 2: Nicole Hunsaker; May 3: Bill Birdsong, Cindy Clark, Sara Jane Fleharty, Marnita Hughey, Kim Scott, Breanna Terry.

Anniversaries: April 26: Raymond and Jeanette Johnson; April 28: Tom and Kathy Tilley; April 29: Denzil and Lila Roberts; May 3: Pete and Novella Knight, Kevin and Robyn Tweedy.