News For the Week of June 27, 2012

Wow, if you don’t have air conditioning or are working outside in this hot weather I feel for you. After I go out to water all my plants I am so hot I just want to collapse in front of a fan. The swimming hole in Brushy Creek where we used to swim all the time is almost completely dried up, just a narrow ditch of water going through the middle of the creek bed. I don’t think there would even be that much except for the springs that feed the creek.

Bob and I and a couple of our grandkids got stuck in traffic Sunday trying to get to Springfield and decided to take a detour. We took Highway A just past Saddlebrooke, hoping it would connect to a highway near Ozark, but it didn’t. We finally ended up in familiar territory when we came out on Round Mountain Road and connected to H Highway and came out at Chadwick. We were too late for our thing at Springfield so we just shopped a little at Ozark, had pizza and came on home.

I know some people have been asking if the gift shop has any Amish jams or jellies and Dot says they have some in now, and even have some sugarless varieties.

New Mansion Church will be having its Independence Celebration on Sunday evening, July 1, starting at 4:00 with games for the kids. There will be special music throughout the evening, and around 7:00 BBQ pork will be served for supper, along with lots of side dishes. At dark there will be fireworks. Everyone is invited to bring a side dish and your lawn chair and come share the food, fellowship, games, singing, and fireworks.
New Mansion will be having Vacation Bible School July 9-13, from 6:30pm-9:00pm, with the program on Sunday, July 15.

Congratulations to Mandy Hampton and Dustin Rogers on the birth of their baby girl, Erin Leigh, last Thursday, June 21. Erin weighed 7 lb. 9 oz. and was 21 inches long.  She is a very pretty baby.

Birthdays for the coming week include: June 28: Exie Case; June 29: David Easley, Amber Krtek, Jerry Herd; July 1: Wayne Grigg; July 3: Madison Combs, Bandy Dalton, Mike Ridings; July 4: Ethan Todd.

Anniversaries: June 29: Danny and Kerri Hampton; June 30: Bill and Barbara Comer; July 2: Justin and Nikki Combs.

News For the Week of June 20, 2012

We are so thankful for the good rain we got last week. I think we got about an inch and a half here. I would love for it to rain that much more this week. My flowers and vegetables loved the rain. I think every green bean seed I planted came up and they are already about four inches tall. Well, all of them except for the plants in the middle of the bed. That is where our stray white dog decided to dig a hole and lay. He changed his mind when I got after him with a shovel, but he only made it as far as my flower bed and was going to stop there and dig a hole so I had to persuade him once again to move. I hope he learns he can’t get in my gardens.

My granddaughter, Danielle came over early Monday morning and she and I picked close to two gallons of blackberries. It would have been a full two gallons if we hadn’t eaten so many of them while we were picking them. That is a side benefit of blackberry picking. We didn’t see any bears, wild hogs or copperheads although we kept an eye out for all of them. I did hear the grass rustling right beside me in one place but when I investigated it was only a terrapin hunting his breakfast.

Congratulations to Brenten and Kimberly (Easley) Blake on the birth of their son, Cooper Brenten on June 13. He weighed 6 lbs. 1 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long.

Congratulations to Mike and Sammi Jo (Norwine) Gailey who got married last Saturday, June 16. It looked like a beautiful wedding and they are honeymooning in Maui.

Congratulations also to Corey and Destiney (Ward) Ridings who also got married Saturday at New Mansion Church. I didn’t get to attend it either but it also looked beautiful.

I saw Linda Orick’s comment in last week’s paper that the ticks and chiggers would go a country mile to bite her and I would have to agree. What ones don’t get her come hunting for me. I haven’t seen them this bad in years.

Kim Casey, who is the pre-school teacher at Bradleyville wants to let everyone know about the pre-school registration. If you have a pre-school age child you want to attend this coming fall, please give the school a call for enrollment information.

Scott Lawson competed in a spearfishing tournament last Saturday in Arkansas but didn’t have any success. I heard something about the one that got away, so it seems that spearfishing has something in common with regular fishing.

Birthdays for the coming week include: June 21: David Day; June 23: Vic Badovinatz, Lou Letendre, Jerrad Saffle; June 24: Tyler Flannery, Pam Herd, Dale Pennington, Kay Whittaker; June 25: Jim Day, Kent Scantlin; June 26: Heather Day, Hannah Gailey, Summer Holvick, Kristi Smith; June 27: Wendy Tinker.

Anniversaries for the coming week include: June 24: Darin and Katie Hodges, Kenyon and Jeannie Whittaker; June 25: Eddie and Leona Hunsaker.

News For the Week of June 13, 2012

My yard snaps, crackles and pops when I walk across it, except for one small area where all the water runs from my leaky outdoor faucet when I am watering my flowers. I finally got some green beans planted right beside my back porch in a little bed I made for them. They may not do anything, and then again they might. I’m hoping they will of course, I love to can green beans and we used up the last of what I had a few weeks ago. Nothing tastes better than fresh green beans cooked all day with some bacon grease to season them.

Bob and I attended the Bradleyville All School Reunion last Saturday evening. We had never gone to it before and we enjoyed seeing people we had gone to school with through the years. I saw several people that I knew from yearbooks but am not really acquainted with personally. I am a yearbook fanatic. I have almost every yearbook from 1962 (which was my first grade year) through the current year. I am missing only two or three years during that time period. I used to love to just look through them and my kids always dreaded me saying “Let’s get out the yearbooks and look that up,” now they are finding themselves getting them out and looking through them too, once in a while.

One of the people I did know but didn’t recognize until they called his name was Stanley Goetz. I hadn’t seen Stanley for many years. Stanley lives in Joplin now and was injured last year in the tornado that went through Joplin. He was in a coma for several days and was given only a ten percent chance of living. Stanley said he knew he owed his recovery to God’s mercy and the power of prayer.

Bob also got to visit a little while with Verna Hurst. Verna and also her sisters, Treva and Eva June have lived in Illinois for several years.

It was nice to visit a while with Martha Sue (Todd) Cornett at the reunion and I appreciated the nice words she had for me and the news articles.

Every year the Alumni Association picks one alumni and one non-alumni person who has been of service to the school to be named to the Association’s “Wall of Fame”. This year’s non-alumni person was Jerry Redfern, a lawyer and friend of Bradleyville School who leads the “Roy W. Slusher Foundation,” which has helped the school tremendously over the years. The choice for the alumni was Bob Case. Bob has served on the school board for 23 years and been President of the board now for 14 years. They were both presented a plaque of appreciation.

This Saturday, June 16 will be the next swap meet at Bradleyville, down in the old ball field. There will be many sellers and you are welcome to be one of those sellers for only $5.00. Lookers and buyers are free admission. I hope I get to go over and see if there is anything I want this week.

We were glad to hear that Virgil Neuenschwander came through his heart surgery with flying colors. Virgil had to have a valve replacement, three by-passes and a “Maze” procedure, which re-routes some of the “crazy” impulses in his heart and stops the fibrillation. Virgil and Lynda live in Choctaw, Oklahoma most of the time, but live across the highway from us for several weeks at different times of the year.

We had a precious little newborn baby girl at church last Sunday.  Caroline Pride was there with her mommy and daddy, Rebecca and Carl Pride, and her big sister Abigail. Caroline is a beautiful baby with lots of dark hair.

Bradleyville Pre-School Teacher, Kim Casey would like to get the word out for anyone interested in sending their child to pre-school this fall. Call the school at 796-2288 for enrollment information.

The radio says storms are coming this way this morning, and I hope that means some rain for our area. It also means I need to finish my news and get off the computer and unplug the lines. Two of my previous computers got fried by lightning, coming through the phone line. The last one got hit before we even heard the thunder, so I am always anxious to unplug this one before any storms get close.

Birthdays for the coming week include: June 14: Katie Hodges, David Murphy, Raymond Swadley; June 15: Elsie Combs, Calley Matthews, Amy Strahan; June 16: Tom Braden, Samantha Copas; June 17: Shannon Baird, Arnold O’Neal; June 18: Karla Yeary; June 20: Debbie Chance, Corby Lux.

Anniversaries for the coming week include: June 14: Dennis and Sara Case; June17: Clarence and Shelley Rogers; June 19: David and Jerilyn Day.

News For the Week of June 6, 2012

Bob and I spent most of the day Sunday at our family reunion. Some of us only see each other a few times a year, so we always have lots of catching up to do. Those present at the Sloan family reunion last Sunday included the head of our “Sloan” family, J.W. and Donna Sloan, and Ginger Sloan, Sue Porter, Roger and Deana Magnuson and two sons, Ryan and Reid, Frank and Kesha Schreiber and children, Brayden and Brianna, Venessa Mills, Amy Mills, Jenna Mills, Stephanie Sloan, Bob and Karen Case, Lynn Case, Kyle, Jessi and Courtney Laughlin, Alexis Landis, Jason and Alicia Crouch and children, Danielle and Hayden, Scott and Julie Lawson and Garrett, and Virginia Clayton. Everybody had a good time visiting, eating, and playing basketball, playing on the playground and tossing water balloons. We took lots of pictures and looked at pictures of previous reunions and laughed a little and maybe wanted to cry a little at how our kids had grown, how we had changed, and missing those who were no longer with us.

One person stopped at the reunion to ask us if we knew where they were having the bluegrass concert. Jason told him he wasn’t sure where it was, but told him where he thought it could be, and later we saw the same man on the late news playing an instrument at said concert, so I am glad he found the place he was supposed to be.

After we left the reunion we went to visit our friend, Yvonne Cavner who has spent a week or so in the hospital getting her meds adjusted for the Parkinson’s disease she suffers from. We wanted to visit and also give her an update on her little Pomeranian dog, Angel.  We have been taking care of Angel for Yvonne while she is in the hospital, and she lives up to her name. She is so quiet and well-behaved. The only time she barks is when she sees our cats on the back porch and then she tries her best to scare them off. Only problem is that the cats are all as big as she is so they aren’t much scared.

Congratulations to Carl and Rebecca Pride and big sister Abigail on the birth of their new baby, Caroline Elizabeth Pride. The baby was born on May 29 and weighed 7 lbs. 14 oz. and was 21 ¼ inches long. I saw pictures of her on facebook being held by her proud Aunt Lauren and she is a beautiful baby.

New Mansion Church hosted a softball tournament last Saturday and Belinda Wyman said it was a great success, with over one thousand dollars raised to help with Vacation Bible School, which will take place in July. Belinda was getting ready to go to a birthday party for her niece, Kambria Todd and was making Kambria’s favorite, mashed potatoes, at Kambria’s request.

White River Senior Camp started this week and I have three grandkids that will be there. They always have a great time at youth camp. Ball camps start this week also, and two of the grandkids along with several others will be signing out in the evening for a few hours then going back after ballgames, so it’s going to be a very busy week for those kids.

Birthdays for the coming week include: June 7: Ethan Byrne, Barbara Collins, Raymond Cummings, Erin Guerin, Bill Hurst; June 8: Gary Casey, Lana Thomas, Helen Maggard, Ron O’Neal, Zachary Strahan; June 9: Dustin Johnson, Rio Krtek; June 10: Johanna Kisling; June 11: Heidi Todd, Jamie Pollard, Sara Whittaker; June 12: Baylee Jo Hurst; June 13: Roger Chaney.

Anniversaries for the coming week include: June 8: John and Heather Day; June 10: Steve and Dee Combs, Stan and Susan Sivils; June 11: Jason and Alicia Crouch.

News For the Week of May 30, 2012

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My hummingbirds seem few and far between this year so far. I see three or four hummers for a little while of the morning and maybe that many again late in the evening. I know it is early and there are usually lots more as the summer goes on, but since everything has seemed to be a month ahead of schedule, I thought I would have more hummers than usual by now.  I have quite a few flowers that hummingbirds like so they may be filling in with lots of flowers in between.  It is so dry my flowers need watering every day but they still don’t look as nice as they would if it would come a nice slow rain on them.

Several people are out picking blackberries already, the ones around the house look dried up, I guess I need to range out farther from the house and hopefully I’ll find some nice big berries growing in the shade somewhere.

Saturday afternoon Bob and I made the rounds to the cemeteries to put flowers on the graves of our loved ones. We didn’t see anyone we knew anywhere but at Patterson Cemetery where Ernest Combs was raising the United States Flag.

Julie and Scott Lawson and Garrett are home from a trip to St. Petersburg Florida with Scott’s folks, Cody and Carrie Jenkins, and some more family.  They had a great time, did some deep sea fishing and lots of playing in the sand and surf. I sure am thankful they had a good time and got there and back safely. Garrett spent Sunday afternoon with us so his Grandpa Bob and I could get caught up on all the hugs and kisses from him we missed while he was gone.

I mentioned in an earlier article that Boyd and Kayla Combs finally got to officially adopt their little boy, Jonah but due to lots of paperwork they weren’t able to make it official with their little girl, but this week they will also officially adopt their daughter, Callie.  Boyd and Kayla will be having their Baby Dedication/Gotcha Party on June 2, at the Bradleyville Nazarene Fellowship Hall, starting at 4:00 pm. Everyone is invited to come and celebrate this joyous time with this wonderful family.

I heard from a friend that the Bradleyville graduating class of 1962 had their 50 year class reunion on May 19 at the Taney Center. She said there was a lot of food, friends and fellowship.

The Bradleyville All School Reunion will be held at the school Saturday, June 9, with registration starting at 6:00 pm. Shirley Hall will give a brief history of the school and the FFA will have concessions available. Everyone is invited to come out and visit with former classmates, faculty and staff members.

Birthdays for the coming week include:  May 31: Hildred Knight, Ginger Sloan; June 1: Bob Birdsong, Eddie Combs, Roy Combs, Kambria Todd; June 2: Devon Hankins, Casey Hodges, Hooter Maggard, Ben Rogers; June 3: Tim Blair; June 4: Lynn Gott, Robyn Whittaker, Jeffrey Shockey; June 6: Barbara Comer, Stephanie Lewis.

Anniversaries for the coming week include: June 1: Joe and Paulette Combs; June 2: Jerry and Pam Herd; June 3: Randy and Joyce Adams, Jack and Stacey Clemans; June 4: David and Teresa Koenig, J.W. and Donna Sloan, June 5: Corby and Lisa Lux; June 6: Jackie and Shirley Hall.