May 11 - May 29

From a delightful day in MO,

I hadn't realized it had been so long since I had been on the blog. Guess when you are busy - and tired - you just keep moving along.

We attended the sectional track meet at Kearney on the 17th - with our female vaulter qualifying for state. We opted not to go to Jefferson City - ended up having a marvelous call from Samantha about 4:00 in the afternoon - she had cleared 10 feet and ended up in 7th place due to number of previous misses. She was quite excited - and the old man here was delighted to hear from her.

On the 14th, we went to the high school to attend a retirement meal/celebration for six retiring teachers. It was a good evening and we enjoyed hearing the comments that were directed towards the retirees.

On the 16th, we made a day trip to Pomme to unload the trailer of the last of its contents and then pulled it to a consignment lot - hopefully for a sale in the near future. Jim has just not been the same on getting it set up on our outings since the summer before his heart surgery. We were in it twice two years ago - dewinterize and then winterize - and had a repeat last year.

This past weekend we went to Jim's mother's side of the family reunion on Saturday and then on Sunday when to my father's side of the family reunion. About the same number 30-35 were at both locations.

I have done the Monday Mobile Meals computer work once in this time period and have done envelopes on Friday each week. I have this coming Monday as well and then will be a back-up on Mondays for the rest of June.

I joined the women for breakfast this morning. About 10:00 the phone rang and Clara had been asked to work at Threads today - only to discover the women who were supposed to be working there were leaving at 11:00 to go to the local Catholic Church for a luncheon that the auxiliary has once a year. They suggested just closing the shop for a couple of hours, but I opted to join Clara - then Sandy Mc joined us - and we ended up going to the Boji Stone at 1:00 for lunch.

Jim has asked if I wanted to eat out this evening and we will end up going somewhere as he wants to do this for my birthday.

We have tackled doing some decluttering in our house. Jim has been through all of his drawers and I have tackled my second closet. We have also made a small dent in the utility room in the basement. We have made trips to Threads on Tuesday, Wednesday, and today - with numerous sacks of clothing and several boxes of assorted items that we have accumulated. The utility room is now to the point that we can actually get to what has been stored along the walls - so that is my next project.

We are hoping to go to the Wabash on Saturday evening to hear a local band play out of doors. The first band this spring was rained/hailed out and we were too tired to go the second weekend.

Be safe.
B.

May 3-10

From an overcast and dampish MO,

This has been a full week. Last Saturday we went to Platte City to see the MEC track meet - conference championship. It was a breezy day in the stands, but guess the participants didn't get all the coolness on the field. We had highs and lows as sometimes happens, with the boys feeling quite good about their accomplishments and one of our girls faced disappointment.

We made a quick trip to the NKC area on Monday as we had accumulated several things that we needed - or wanted - to do. We had breakfat at Perkins and I guess I am getting too sensitive, but the first thing I realized when we walked in was how dense the smoke smell was. I had thought Liberty was smoke-free, but guess it must be on the west side of I-35 - and not the Liberty side.

Tuesday was a long day for me as it was a day of clear liquids leading up to a colonoscopy (5 year) on Wednesday. I had good results - no polyp this time and of course the diverticulosis was still present. I guess the latter will probably not go away. I was home by about 11:00 a.m. - and slept deeply for about 2 and 1/2 hours. We did a few errands later - including going to the Country Kitchen to get a an omelet. The omelet there is not as good as Perkins - and of course a long ways from being as good as my favorite places in the Los Angeles area.

I had breakfast with the ladies on Thursday morning and then a short Retired Teachers' meeting in the afternoon.

Jim in the meantime had breakfast with the guys on Tuesday morning as well as Friday morning. He has missed at least three weeks having breakfast on Wednesday morning with the second group.

Today we went to Excelsior Springs. I had not thought to double check the starting time and we arrived about 8:30 - and it turned out the coaches didn't meet until 10:00 - with field events starting about an hour later. At least we had an excellent parking spot overlooking the pole vault so we wimped out and sat in the truck during the boys and girls pole vaulting. The temperature wasn't really that low, but the breeze was strong and I am glad we had protection. The boys were quite frustrated I am sure in their performance today and the girls ended up finishing 5th and 2nd (with top four going on to sectional next Saturday). The fifth place girl vaulted her best height and the 2nd place girl set a new school record.

We plan on a rather quiet Sunday with us going to Amanda's home in the later afternoon to attend a graduation reception.

On Wednesday we are going in the evening to a retirement dinner at our local high school - am thinking six are retiring. Next Saturday we will be going to Kearney to the sectional track meet.

Be safe.
B.

May 1 & 2

From what has been a stormy MO,

Just a quick note to let you know we came through Thursday evening and night okay. We watched some of the approaching storms courtesy of Kansas City television and then switched over to an excellent radio station in Trenton that uses radar to track storms in this area. We listened until about 9:30 and then went to sleep. Of course the storms that really scare me are those that roll through late at night/early morning - when the sky can't be watched as closely.

I have sent e-mails to a couple of cousins that live in the NKC area as to how they fared. One of them has a son that lives in Parkville and both have a nephews that live in the area. I haven't heard from them so I'm assuming they are okay.

I awakened this morning wondering what time it was and couldn't believe it that the clock was saying 6:15 - or later! In the past couple of years, I could count on one hand the times that I have slept through the night! I feel like a remarkable woman (somewhat aged) today and am absolutely amazed at how much I have accomplished - nothing big, but lots of small things that had been adding up.

We are leaving a little after 7:00 on Saturday a.m. to go to Platte City for the conference track meet. Jim had initially said 7:45, but I knew that was too good to be true. The morning is to be in the 40s with the afternoon in the 50s - with some moisture - so we have lots of layers of clothing in the truck to take with us. It is hard to believe that probably in a couple of weeks, a weekend track meet will be in the 90s!

Be safe.
B.