21 thoughts on “Rants! and Raves! 6-8-13”

  1. 🙂 With all my ranting about chain saws yesterday, the project is over.

    🙂
    Tomorrow, I will have had Elvera 56 years.
    I told you this before: Elvera and I went in to Dr. Ellis’ office (in FBC Columbia) before the 11:00 service, he went out and locked the door. We sat there and waited. During the service he announced that there would be a wedding immediately after the service and everyone was invited to stay for it. Several hundred did.
    After the service, and Dr. Ellis shook a few hands, he came and got us. Just we two walked down the aisle. We stood there while Elvera’s friend sang, “Seal Us Oh Holy Spirit”. He did, and Dr. Ellis performed the magic that made us one. We kissed and walked out and shook a million hands.
    Afterward the families went over to her sister, Gerry’s house, and had a family reception.
    That’s when I got nervous: What have I done?
    But by then, it was too late.
    The most significant outcome?
    Three little Mullers are walking around and a Harris is on the way.
    I pray for all four of them every day. That God will protect them from the difficult times ahead for them. I am no prophet, but I see trying times for Christians, even in America, in the future. I don’t expect it will affect me, probably not Chuck and most of you. But that’s where it’s headed.
    All of these Christ and Christian centered comments we make here are going into some database.

    🙂 Tomorrow is also middle GD, Mary’s anniversary. Their first. Mary is the one who will have the little Harris in January.

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  2. 😦 We got an inch of rain in a storm last night. Added to a half inch we had from a previous rain.
    We’ll be praying for rain next month this time, but I’ve had enough for now. My land is soggy.
    🙂 We don’t have anything special planned to celebrate the 56th. Elvera wants me to take her to the mall is Spartanburg, then to Red Lobster for dinner.
    When I Invited Elvera out the first time, we had lunch at Walgreens.

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  3. 😦 Funeral for fallen officer today

    🙂 Daughter got her paperwork for her paramedics course which starts next month! She was so excited. We were in her city so we went to the college bookstore with her and got her started picking up the stuff she will need. She had been on the wait list for 2 years, so we’re all very happy for her.

    😦 Son is still devastated by his breakup with his fiancé.

    🙂 Still on holidays

    🙂 Just found out we have some extra money coming our way, so we will be able to side the addition and re-side the old part of our house

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  5. 🙂 The story of Chas and Elvera.

    🙂 My state income tax refund should be arriving next week, finally. My return this year got held up for some reason, never knew why. But the website that tracks your return finally indicated mine was cleared and ready to be paid in the next 10 days. Whew.

    🙂 Finally heard back from the wife of the Boston marathon victim (a local resident) I’ve written a few stories about. He’s been hospitalized and now is in rehab but is still back in Boston and not expected to get home until after summer. I’ve talked to various members of the family for previous stories I’ve done, but this was my first contact with her, so I’m really hoping to get a phone interview with her and her husband early next week (he began doing a round of TV interviews in the past couple days from back east). I believe he was the last victim to be released from the hospital (just about a week or so ago), he was very severely injured but now seems to have turned the corner. Praise be to God.

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  6. Very little ranting and raving here today, I see. 😉

    🙂 Ditto Donna on Chas and Elvera’s story.

    🙂 🙂 Fifth and Sixth Arrows both learned to ride bikes without training wheels recently, 6th this week, 5th last month. Fifth Arrow has numerous developmental delays, so this was a big accomplishment for him. And since Sixth Arrow always has to do whatever Fifth learns (if she doesn’t learn it first, and often she does), seeing his success was a great motivator for her.

    😦 All my babies are growing up, or already have.

    🙂 Sunshine two days in a row after a mostly, cloudy, chilly, rainy week.

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  7. 6 Arrows, thanks to something called a balance bike, Forrest may be riding a pedal bike, with no training wheels, by his 3rd birthday. (I’m not saying this to one-up you, but to mention the balance bike. 🙂 )

    At Emily’s suggestion, we bought a balance bike for Forrest’s 2nd birthday. It looks just like a grown up bike – shiny red metal body, black tires (hard plastic but look just like real tires) – but without any pedals.

    As the child pushes himself around on the bike, he gradually develops a sense of balance, & starts to propel himself faster, raising his feet to coast. One of Forrest’s favorite things to do is to coast down our little private lane with his feet up.

    Emily told him he can have a “pedal bike” when he turns 3, & he is excited about that. This is pretty amazing to me, although I have heard a few stories of little kids learning to ride w/o training wheels, so it’s not unheard of.

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  8. Karen, interesting, I hadn’t heard of a balance bike before. The bike 6th Arrow just learned to ride is the same bike all my arrows learned with, even 1st Arrow, who is now 23 years old. 😉 That bike has had training wheels taken off and put on many times over the years. 🙂

    I never learned with training wheels, and neither did at least one of my siblings (my brother who is 13 months younger than I am). I remember our youngest sister, though (six years younger than I), riding on training wheels. The other two siblings, between my brother and my youngest sib, may or may not have used them.

    I remember the first time my brother got on a bike. We grew up on a farm, and my dad just gave my brother a push on that bike. He balanced quite well, and went sailing across the driveway and smacked into the corner of the grainery! After that he also learned to steer! 😀

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  11. 6 arrows, “steering,” 😀 Crucial.

    I don’t remember training wheels, but I do remember my dad teaching me to ride the bike I got for Christmas that year, I was pretty young, not sure how old.

    It took me a couple days of practicing in front of the house, but all of a sudden I was riding. !!! All by myself. !!! I was so excited (my dad was at work that day) that I jumped off, threw the bike down in the front yard and ran into tell my mom. Luckily the bike survived the abuse. 🙂

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  12. The grass is drying out already. We don’t water our grass, just let it go dormant. Water is too valuable for that around here in the summer. We could water in the winter but it would have to drain through the snow and the hose would freeze. I don’t much encourage children to ride bikes. Especially the more challenged ones as they don’t need the freedom that would give. I can imagine my seven year old riding off into the sunset heedless of all danger….

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  13. Mumsee is correct in not permitting un self-disciplined children on bikes. It gives them lots of freedom they may not be able to handle.
    They didn’t have training wheels when I was a kid. We learned the hard way. Riding, falling and getting up again. It only took a few times.

    😦 I see on Fox News that Disney is going up on ticket prices again. Almost $100/person. Doesn’t count parking and food.
    🙂 My Disney days are over. I went to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg a couple/three years ago and vowed that I would never go to a theme park again.

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  14. Chas, I don’t know how families afford to go to Disneyland anymore. Some of my friends buy annual passes which they can pay for monthly (and that gets them in for free year round, with some black-out dates depending on the package they sign up for).

    I’ve been a couple times recently and had a wonderful time (you never get to old to be dazzled by some of this stuff), but only thanks to a media pass Disney gives members of the press. Honestly, paying over $100 just to walk in the gate is a staggering thought to me!

    Is kBells going to the “real” Disneyland, or the johnny-come-lately Florida version?

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  15. Theme parks: I went to Disneyland about forty years ago and decided right then that I never needed to go again. So, unless God has some serious need for me there, I don’t anticipate ever going again. On the other hand, husband has taken children to Disney land, Disney World, Busch Gardens, Fantasialand, Six Flags, Silverwood, and the Olympics without me just fine. I take children camping without him so it works for us!

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  21. Sounds like Forrest wants to cut to the chase. 🙂

    Just cleaned up a teary little girl who fell off her bike a few minutes ago. No blood. She’ll survive. 😉

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