Today is my 59th birthday. This birthday is pretty special in a number of ways. First it is the last birthday that I will be employed full time. I retire next summer, probably July 1 so I will be unemployed at my birthday. That seems so strange to think of. I have mixed feelings - mostly very happy over it but at the same time some fear. I know I will miss the people I work with and am a little afraid that I will end up bored. I plan to do some volunteer work and after the 60 day waiting period some substitute work for the district and of course some grandma duty will be thrown in. It will be nice to be able to take off for Texas without worrying about the job and being available for those times that the triplets can't go to day care for some reason. Of course once Dennis retires the next summer we plan to take some trips and then will probably drive each other crazy. :)
Today was also special since it was my first day back to work since my knee surgery on July 15th. I had a meniscus tear in my left knee that Dr. Philip Hagan operated on and hopefully will be back to normal in the next couple of weeks. I had an appointment with him this morning and the PA said I was doing "remarkably" well for this soon from the surgery. I have been upset thinking I wasn't healing quickly but he also explained that I had more work done than I even realized. Not only was the medial meniscus torn quite badly, the other side was also worked on as it wasn't normal. I start physical therapy on Thursday and will go again twice again next week then see the doctor again two weeks from today to decide if I need more. The whole situation has been very depressing lately because I felt like it wasn't healing as quickly as I thought it would and I thought that was why I have been so emotional. The doctor thinks it is the pain pills and changed them. I haven't taken a lot of them but have been taking them in the afternoon or evening as by then the knee is bothering me. I know that it will heal quicker if I am not in pain so I take them then. I hope this helps as I am really tired of crying. :) He released me to go back to work half time this week.
Work was fun today as everyone was glad I came back and they had decorated my office and had treats. I think that did me more good than any new pain pills will.
So if I am still keeping this blog active a year from now it will be interesting to see how I feel about being retired for real. Right now it seems like a distant dream. All these years of working for the district and now they are going to pay me to stay home! Crazy.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Laura's sweater
365 project - sweater Mom made me for my birthday! Will take better pics
Originally uploaded by llala412
Picture Jimmy took
Love this picture Jimmy took on his walk in the "hustle and bustle in the biggest city in Kansas"
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Trailer
These are two pictures taken from the other side of the lake, near where we had our meeting to be approved.
Few more pictures of the trailer
Just a few more pictures of the trailer and the view from the porch. The Blackwell Lake is more of a river than a lake and has a lot of wood piles in it right now but I guess the fishing is good and of course that is the important part to Dennis.
More pictures
These are sights you see on the way to the trailer. A bridge that scares me and just past the bridge are two cabins on stilts
Trailer in Oklahoma
Dennis has always wanted a place on a lake that he could just walk out and go fishing or have his boat tied up close. He has looked online for a long time and we have gone to places and looked at possibilities. I always had good reasons to not buy them but he found one at Blackwell Lake in Oklahoma that I couldn't find a good reason to say no. It is less than an hour away, has a small lot, a view of the water and a screened in porch. Plus it was cheap and mostly furnished. The front part of the trailer has a dining area with a nice wooden table and four chairs and a view of the lake. The kitchen has the refrigerator and stove plus a microwave that I doubt we keep as it is an antique. The bedroom has built in drawers and two closets plus a double bed. There is also a stacked washer and dryer that stays. So basically the only furniture we needed was a couch. We bought a futon at Kmart today along with a coffee table that was on sale to put a tv on.
We are leasing the land the trailer is on and had to go down Saturday and be introduced to the rest of the people that lease land there and be "approved" to lease. We had been told by the owners that it was no big deal - we wouldn't have to say anything, just submit the paperwork. Didn't go quite the way we thought - the chairman of the board had Dennis get up and tell all about us and promise to keep the yard mowed. Then a lady in the group started complaining that we hadn't gotten her daughter's permission and that we had to do that since she owns the empty lot next to our. She got very upset then the chairman then stood up and said we were stopping the meeting while he made a phone call. He went outside and then a few minutes later came in and said "Joyce (the mad lady) - I just talked to your daughter and she says it is fine" Dennis and I quickly left as we had Music Theater tickets that afternoon and wasn't planning on being there long anyway.
Today Dennis and Jack went down to install the air conditioner, deliver the futon and coffee table and also mow. Hopefully our mouse traps we put out yesterday were successful as the droppings are pretty gross.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Watson Park
All three girls really loved the train. Watson has changed quite a bit over the years - there is a new entrance off of McLean now that is really pretty and they closed the gates on the east side of the park. They also extended the train tracks to go about three times farther than it was when my kids went there. The pumpkin is gone as are the Wizard of Oz statues. I guess the pumpkin was considered "dangerous" and I think the Wizard of Oz items were damaged.
When the girls saw the train they got so excited - it was such fun to take them for a ride on it.
When the girls saw the train they got so excited - it was such fun to take them for a ride on it.
Watson Park
The equipment had a variety of ways to climb, Izzy and Audrey were able to climb up this red rope type ladder, Lily is behind going up the steps.
Watson Park
All the girls really loved the equipment to play on and we loved the fact that it was so shady. There was also a picnic table close to sit and watch them. They did a great job of playing with the other kids that were there and taking turns. This is Audrey ready to go down the big slide.
Watson Park
We had a delightful morning at Watson Park with the girls and this is my favorite picture. Lily thought riding that pony was just great. The guy taking the girls for the rides was not nearly as excited but the expression on Lily's face was just priceless.
Monday, July 5, 2010
The Reason for the Fireworks Last Night
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
Wilson Anniversary
The tradition continues in the Wilson family. For many years, my parents would bring supper (often McDonalds) over to our house or we would take the kids to their house for supper on our wedding anniversary and Dennis and I would go out to eat. We love being able to do this for Jimmy and Maranda. Tuesday, June 29th was their 13th wedding anniversary so after we returned from Texas it was such fun to take McDonalds Happy Meals up to the girls. We get three, even though Lily doesn't eat much of one but the other two help her out. Then they each showed me that they had "glasses" on like grandma and grandpa do.
Second Celebration
The next day, Sunday June 27th, we left for a different type of celebration - a celebration of the life of John Renfroe III, father-in-law of our daughter. This Army career veteran had fought a valiant fight against cancer but lost his battle on June 25th. We picked up Laura in Ponca City and drove down to Mansfield Texas for the family visitation that evening. We checked in to a lovely La Quinta Inn not far from Stacy's. The funeral was on Monday afternoon and had many wonderful memories of his life. Please keep the Renfroe family including his father, wife, sons and their families in your prayers.
Celebrations
The end of June saw us traveling to two very different celebrations. The first was on Saturday, June 26th with a trip to a wedding in Missouri of Dennis' cousin's son. The wedding was beautiful in black and gold with peacock feathers. There were the two cutest little boys that were around three tossing peacock feathers instead of flowers before the ceremony. I tried to get a good picture but they were way too fast. The reception was very tasty with four chocolate fountains along with wonderful food to dip in the chocolate. Cake, mints and punch then if you weren't on enough of a sugar high a table full of different types of candy along with bags to fill.
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