Fall 2011

I cannot believe it is already December, 2011! So much has happened the past few months. In August I was able to spend time in Chicago while on a business trip and after with Anne and her family, then in September I was able to spend time with Laura and her family when I went to a tax meeting in Fort Worth, Texas. I love seeing my children, their spouses and especially my granddaughters.

Clinton purchased a 1968 El Camino that he has been working on for a few months now. It is finally driveable, and now he will start on the body work. He is planning on taking a class at the tech school that starts in January 2012 on welding. I have been trying to get him to take classes there for a long time, so I am excited that he is finally going to go. We also traded our 1973 Porsche 914 for a 1986 Corvette. All Clinton ever talked about was getting another Corvette someday and now he has one! The only thing he does not like about it is that it is black. It is too noisy for me, so he is going to try to do something to make it quieter. LOL

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving day in Salina with Clinton's sister Charlotte, her family, CC and his brother Steve and his family. The Friday after Thanksgiving we drove to Norman, Oklahoma to visit with my mom and dad, my brother Vester and his family, my sister Iva and her family and my daughter Laura and her family. Saturday we spent the day with Iva, Cole, Bryce, Laura, Jeremy, Kirsten and Katie attending the Oklahoma Science Museum in OKC. We had great fun doing the hands on activities with the kids. We all had a great time. When we got back to my mom's Kirsten and I finished the Gingerbread house and she took it home with her to Texas. We had fun decorating it together!

At work we are gearing up for year end taxes--having lots of meetings and such. I will be very busy for the next few months.

I am really looking forward to a week off before Christmas as it will be the last time off I will be able to take for a while due to year-end taxes at work!

August 2011

This month has flown by. It started off with my granddaughter Kirsten's 6th birthday on the 4th of August, followed by Clinton's 64th birthday on the 5th of August (along with his sister Carol and sister-in-law Donna). We went to Manhattan, KS to celebrate a family birthday at Olive Garden then to Doug and Donna's for ice/cream cake. My sister-in-law Debbie's birthday was on the 10th and we enjoyed a wonderful lunch without the guys at El Mezcal--our favorite lunch spot. Pop (Carl Reekie-Clinton's step-father) had back surgery on August 17th, Clinton went to Wichita to be with him. While Clinton was gone we had a terrible storm on the 18th and lost some very large limbs off of our big tree in the front--that made two holes in our roof and other damage. It was very scary for me and the cat--we ran down to the basement when the limbs hit the house. Clinton and his brother Larry worked all day on Saturday to clean up the mess of tree limbs, it took three full truck loads to haul it away to the compost facility. Clinton put a tarp up on the roof until the roofer could come and fix the holes in our new roof.

Then of course there is today, August 31, 2011 when my oldest daughter Anne Marie turned 34! I was lucky enough to be able to spend a few days with her during the last week to help celebrate early. I was in Chicago for meetings with people from other Railroads and with the Railroad Retirement Board. Wednesday, August 24, 2011 I was able to get tickets for Anne, Sarah, and Kaley to attend the Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field in Chicago with the rest of us from BNSF Railway. It was a good game and the Cubs won 3 to 2. Thursday after our meetings a group of four of us went to Navy Pier and took an Architectural Boat tour on the Chicago River. It was very interesting and I was able to get a few good pictures. Friday my meetings were over at noon and I met Anne at the train station. We went to Lombard and picked up Emily from daycare, then Sarah and Kaley from school and went shopping for Anne's birthday at the mall. Otto grilled brat's for dinner and they were great! Then I went with Kaley shopping for her mom while Sarah worked on her homework. Saturday I went to the dollar store and got some balloons and some crepe paper streamers, etc to decorate with. Anne, Sarah, Kaley, Emily and I went to the pool for a while in the afternoon so Otto could finish sanding the deck and go shopping. Sarah and I decorated when we got home and Anne was forbidden to come into the area until after dinner. Saturday evening we went to Giordano's for real Chicago style pizza, then home for the party. Anne was really surprised by the decorations and the card and gift that Otto got for her. She laughed her head off at the card Otto got for her--it was so funny and so good to hear Anne laugh! We had a good time. Sunday morning we all got up and Otto and Sarah took me to the airport to come home to Kansas while Anne stayed home with Kaley and Emily. I made it home safely and the roofer came to fix the holes in our roof today from the storm that we had this month. It has been a busy month!

July 2011

This summer is going so fast! I was privileged to attend Railroad Day on Capitol Hill again this year to represent BNSF Railway and lobby with several Congressman and Senators on railroad issues. I left at 4:15 Wednesday, July 13, 2011 to catch my plane at 6:30 in Kansas City. I flew into Reagan National airport and took a taxi from there to the Grand Hyatt Washington, checked in then went to the BNSF Washington D.C. office for meetings that began at noon with a lunch/speaker from Oklahoma, a new member of the House, James Lankford who actually represents my sister Iva's district. After lunch and his talk we gathered for a picture. We then had a presentation on issues concerning BNSF that we would talk about on Thursday.

After that we all walked over the the Library of Congress for a pre-arranged tour with the Museum curator. We were able to see the special exhibit that will end in August of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. It was a once in a lifetime experience to see the real handwritten documents that our fore-fathers worked so hard on. We were also able to see Ben Franklin's Library on display. It was amazing to see the collection of books that one man had in that era of history that had been preserved for the most part. Some were burned when the Capitol burned in the 1800's, but since they had all been catalogued by Ben Franklin they have been able to replace some of them and have spacers in for the missing ones. It was amazing.

They also had on display a collection that had been loaned to them for a short time of pictures of soldiers of the civil war that were on tin-types that had been amazingly preserved. They are trying to find the identities of many of them, but the ones they have identified are on their website. I hope to have time to get online and look at them further to see if any of them might be related.

The Libary of Congress is where all the copyright applications come to, so they have a copy of every book that has been copyrighted in the United States of America. The building architecture was also amazing. There was only one part where I was able to take pictures, the rest was off limits to picture taking.

After the tour, it was pouring down rain and everyone got sopping wet as we hailed cabs to ride back to the office for more instruction.

We left the office about 5:20 to go back to the hotel to change clothes and meet at an Italian restaurant at 6 named Carmine's for a six course meal that was fantastic, while we listened to two more Congressman, Rick Larsen from Washington, then Jim Matheson from Utah, then we all walked back to the hotel around 9p.m. exhausted after a very long day. I called Clinton and went to bed.

Thursday morning, July 14, 2011 started very early with registration beginning at 6:30a.m. and breakfast/meeting beginning at 7a.m.. We left about 8:30 to head over to the House of Representatives by taking the Metro (subway train), the escalator on the House side was broken so we had to walk up the stairs from the subway--a long ways to the top. My appointments started at 9:30 beginning with the staffer for Adrian Smith, representative from Nebraska. At 10:30 my appointment was with the Speaker of the House--John Boehner, but he was in meetings so we met with his staffer too who was very knowledgeable about Railroad issues. I arrived at my 11:00 on time, but was told that everyone had already been there (early) and had met and dispersed--so I did not get to see Jim Cooper from TN. Back in the hallway I saw a friend from Ft. Worth, Joe Featherston, he was waiting for his 11:30 appointment and asked if I wanted to join that one, so I did. It was with the Representative from Iowa, Dave Loubsack and he was in. We had a very interesting conversation with him on the economy, railroad, and trucking issues.

After that we had a short break for lunch, so we walked over to a little Chinese restaurant for lunch. After lunch I walked from the restaurant down 2nd Street all the way over to the Senate buildings, taking a little break to look at a small museum about Women's suffrage. At 2:00 p.m. I met with Senator Kelly Ayotte from NH. She was very interesting and very concerned about the short line railroads in her state and the overall economy. At 3:00 I met with the staffer for Richard Lugar, Senator from IN. I was not terribly impressed with her or what she had to say about Senator Lugar's lack of interest in the rail industry (oh well, you cannot win them all) My last appointment was at 4:00 with Senator John Boozman from Arkansas, he was very interesting and spent a lot of time talking to all of us about our concerns and the economy. I expressed to him after the meeting that I had heard from many people that they were very unhappy with Obama taking his family on extravagant vacations at our expense during these economic hard times. He agreed with me, but don't know if it will go anywhere.

After my last meeting I walked over to John McCain's office because I promised my son John that I would. He was not in and was on his way to the airport to go to Arizona, but I wrote a long note and left it with his aid to give to him.

I then walked toward the Metro station but about 2 blocks from it I decided to take a cab back to the hotel because it was getting late. It was a good thing that I did because when I got back to the hotel and turned on the news it said that there had been a fire on a train in the station that I was going to, and there was chaos with the people, but none were hurt.

I changed clothes and freshened up and got ready to attend the reception and dinner. The food was wonderful, and so were the speakers and entertainment. The President of the American Association of Railroads, Ed Hamberger spoke, as well as others. They said we did well and had gotten our message across to many that day, with over 500 of us working at it all day. It was a long day and my feet really hurt--I have got to find some comfortable dress shoes for walking. I talked with Clinton, then Laura called and we talked for a bit, and I was exhausted.

Friday, I was able to sleep in until 7:30, then packed, showered, and got ready for another big day! I had breakfast at the hotel, checked out, then Joe Featherston drove me to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and dropped me off on his way to visit with a BNSF supplier that he had an appointment with. I was able to see the Enola Gay--the airplane that dropped the atomic bomb in WWII, the Enterprise Space Shuttle, the Blackhawk, the Concorde and many other airplanes. It was an amazing museum. I left there at 1, catching a shuttle bus to Dulles Airport, then catching a bus back to Washington D.C. then catching the Metro to Reagan National airport. It was quite a day by the time I caught my flight to come home to Kansas. I slept a little on the flight, then drove back to Topeka, picked up Clinton and went to Topeka Steak House for dinner and caught up on everything.

Today Clinton headed to Coffeyville to work on his 1968 El Camino with his brother-in law Rick again, so I went to work and caught up on all of my email and some other things. It has been a long, hard, but very rewarding week. I hope I made a little difference.

June 2011

We had a wonderful trip to Oklahoma and Texas the last week of June. Our first stop was in Norman, OK where we celebrated my dad's 83rd birthday, my brother Vester's 56th birthday and my brother-in-law Cole Menaker's 48th birthday on Saturday June 25th, 2011.

Sunday after attending church with my mother we drove to McKinney, TX to see Laura, Jeremy, Anne, Sarah, Kaley, Kirsten, Emily and Katie. We ate dinner with them and visited until the Alleman's (Jeremy's parents) were through with the fireside that they had to attend. We then visited with Stu and Cindy Alleman for a little bit before spending the night at their house. Monday was a busy day with Laura and the girls. First I was able to go to Kirsten's dance class and watch her dance which brought back a lot of old memories of when my daughter's were in dance when they were young. After dance class Kirsten and I went shopping for Katie's birthday present while Clinton stayed with Katie who was taking a nap. (He even changed a diaper) In the afternoon we made banana bread and frosted the cupcakes for Katie's party. Clinton and I went to Dickie's Barbecue to pick up dinner that was enjoyed by all before going to the park for Katie's birthday party. Katie's first birthday party went very well, she was overwhelmed with all of the presents and had to be coaxed into finishing opening them--but she did.

Tuesday Clinton and I went to the Dallas Temple and did initiatories, sealings and an endowment session. I did the initiatories for four of my great aunts and the endowment for my Aunt Matt. I have so much family history work to do and am trying to get with the program. I was able to get my mother signed up on New Family Search and on Ancestry.com so she is helping me a lot with the research on my dad's family.

Wednesday we went swimming with the girls. Emily loved the splash park. Kirsten is learning to swim so well, and of course Sarah and Kaley also swim very well. We had a good time. We went to lunch at the new In and Out Burger in Allen, TX and it was swamped! After lunch we headed back to Norman, OK to my parent's house and had a good visit with them on Wednesday evening. Iva, Cole and Bryston came over to visit for awhile. Thursday morning Clinton and I left early on the search for car parts for his new toy--a 1968 El Camino that he is restoring. We hunted parts all morning and did not leave Oklahoma City until after noon.

When we got home, Thursday evening we loaded up his engine into the truck and all of the car parts that we had gotten. Friday morning very early we left for Coffeyville, KS to take the engine and parts to his stepsister's house. Her husband Rick is going to switch out engines and transmissions. Clinton is really excited to be working on this car.

Friday evening we went to Bartlesville, OK to see our good friend Steve Christiansen and his family that were all at his son Brian's home. We had a nice but short visit with them before heading back to Topeka Friday night. We did not get home until about 1 on Saturday morning. We had a lot of catching up on laundry and stuff to do on Saturday, party on Saturday evening with his golf course group. Church on Sunday. Monday was full getting yard work caught up and things done around the house. Monday evening we went to the Crow's for dinner with the Robbins and the Crawford's, then we walked over to Lake Shawnee to see a fantastic Firework's show for July 4th.

May 2011

May went too fast. We had a large storm with lots of hail on Saturday May 21, 2011. We saw the wall cloud go right over our house--at least Clinton did--I was in the basement. The storm did about $2,000 in hail damage to Clinton's truck and $800 to my car and about $5,000 to our roof, so it looks like we are going to get a new roof out of the storm. The insurance adjuster came out today and said we needed to replace the roof and the guttering. The guttering is only a couple of years old so we are going to try to repair it, but we do need a new roof. Hopefully I can convince Clinton to paint the house while we are at it! That would be wonderful. Clinton bought a 1968 Chevrolet El Camino last week to put his engine in, but now he does not know if he wants to or not, because the car needs a lot of work. Of course it does it has been used as a farm truck and it is 43 years old! Oh well, he is funny.......... This weekend there is so much going on. There is the Adams' Family reunion in southeastern Oklahoma, my forty year high school reunion in Norman and Kirsten's dance recital in Texas. It was hard to make a choice, but since I will only have one forty year high school reunion it won out. We are going to stay with my sister Iva in Choctaw, OK and I am excited to see their new little boy that they are in the process of adopting--Bryston who is seven.

Clinton and I have been taking the family history class for 'New Family Search'. I have been researching my grandparents' brothers and sisters and am finding out some interesting information. Sarah, my oldest granddaughter is going to Nauvoo, Il on June 18, 2011 for Youth Conference, so I am working on getting her some names to do baptisms for.

Life is very busy.

Easter 2011

On April 22, 2011 Clinton and I drove to Norman, Oklahoma to see my parents, we left in rain, and 51 degrees, went through some sunny weather, then close to OKC we hit 95 degree weather following a storm to my parents. Luckily the hail got there before we did and the tornado went on the east side of Lake Thunderbird and not the west side where my parents live. My sister Iva and her husband Cole came over Friday evening and we were able to visit for a while. Laura and Jeremy decided to wait until Saturday morning to come, which I am very glad they did because Friday night about 8:30 there were tornadoes that went through Pauls Valley about the time they would have been driving through there. Thank you Heavenly Father for inspiring Laura to wait.

Saturday morning Kirsten and I colored Easter eggs, and I got to play with Kirsten and Katie. Then Saturday afternoon Laura, Kirsten and I went into Norman to the Natural History Museum at OU. Kirsten really had a great time looking at the dinosaurs and Laura and I did too. Saturday evening my brother Vester and his wife Sharon, my brother John and his daughter Ciera, my sister Iva and Cole, Laura, Jeremy, Kirsten and Katie, Clinton and I and my mom and dad and my aunt Wilma and uncle Bob all had dinner together at my mom's. It was really great to see everyone and visit with them. Sunday we went to Norman for Sacrament meeting then back out to my mom's. We had lunch then left to head back to Kansas via Mulvane stopping to see Pop and Lu. We had a wonderful trip.

Chicago

Thursday, March 31, 2011 I flew to Chicago, IL to see Anne, Otto, Sarah, Kaley and Emily. We shopped all day on Thursday because Kaley needed some new clothes. I spent a lot of time with Emily keeping her busy while Anne and Sarah and Kaley shopped. Friday we got things for Anne's garden and planned it out. I also worked on hemming Sarah's and Kaley's pants because they were blessed with my short genes. Friday evening we went out for real Chicago pizza--it was so good. I don't like regular pizza anymore, it has spoiled me. Saturday we all worked in Anne's garden planting strawberries, broccoli, onions, asparagus, and potatoes. They have to wait a few weeks before they can plant other things. I hope everything grows. Saturday afternoon we watched conference on their computer. Right after it we had to head back to the airport to get me there to catch my flight back to Kansas. It was late, but I made it back okay. Clinton was there waiting for me, bless his heart. Today we were able to watch both sessions of conference and go to Church in between for a potluck lunch. I loved all the talks, but Elder Scott has a special place in my heart since we are distantly related and because he always touches my heart with his words. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and my family more than I can ever express sufficiently.

March 2011

March is almost gone. I had another birthday on the 9th that was wonderful. Laura, Jeremy, Kirsten and Katie surprised me on my way to work with a 'Happy Birthday' song that made my day start out wonderful. My son John and daughter Jennifer surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers at work on my birthday, they still look good at home. They are lasting a long time, which is nice. My good friend Steve sent me a large amount of steaks, etc from Omaha Steaks that took up all the open space in my freezer. We will be celebrating with them for a while. My visiting teachers brought me a beautiful tulip plant, which I plan on putting into my garden. Tony, Clinton's oldest son sent me a Beaver jacket from Wisconsin that is so very warm. Clinton took me out to Texas Roadhouse for a wonderful dinner, gave me a beautiful pair of earrings and a total gym. My granddaughter Kirsten wrote me a very special note in their card. My mom and dad sent me a beautiful card with a check. My sister Iva sent me a very nice card with a Cracker Barrel gift certificate. Many of my facebook friends sent me birthday wishes. My 'Goddess' friend Darla sent me a very nice e-card. I heard from all of my children and grandchildren, my sister and my mom and dad which was the best present of all.

I am so grateful for all the love that was shown to me on my birthday this year, they all made it a very special occasion for me. I think it was about my best birthday ever! Thank you everyone.

Last weekend on March 19, Clinton and I went to Omaha, Nebraska to the Winter Quarters Temple. We did an endowment session, then we did a lot of family sealings, including Clinton's mom and dad. We also had his sister Linda's baptism and initiatory done so that next time I can do her endowments. We are trying to get back into doing some family history to get names ready for the new Kansas City Temple when it opens next year.

Next week I am going to Chicago on March 31 to visit Anne and Otto and the girls for a few days, I am really excited to see their new home and spend some time with them.

February 10, 2011

I cannot believe it is already February 10, 2011, this year is already going way too fast. We have had 30.5 inches of snow total during the past three weeks, still not as much as last year, but it has been very cold. Last night it got to -5 with a wind chill of -20, it was still -5 on my way to work this morning, so I have many layers of clothes on including my wonderful wool socks. If I can keep my feet warm and my ears warm then I am good. Once my feet get too cold and my ears get too cold it seems to take all day to get warm.

Clinton has been feeding corn to the deer every day. We put it out in our front yard in a planter box and they come up everyday--as many as seven deer have come to eat in our yard. It is really neat watching them from our front window, they are so graceful. Clinton saw the mother deer leap over the fence across the street yesterday when she was spooked by a noise, they are so pretty when they leap over things.

I cannot wait until next Friday, February 18, 2011 when Laura, Jeremy, Kirsten and Katie come to visit for the weekend. I am working extra hard so I don't have to work while they are here.

January 22, 2011

This week my new daughter in-law Sarah left for Afghanistan. I will miss getting to know her better for awhile, but pray daily for her safety while she is away. She is such a sweet person and a good wife for my son John.

My mother called a little while ago and told me that a good family friend, Bonnie Cox had just passed away. I grew up with her kids; Lynn, Janet, Leta Jo and Paul. She has been widowed for a long time and has had a lot of health issues. She is now with her husband Paul Sr. and I am sure she is very happy to see him again. My prayers are with her family.

One of my co-workers, Gary Knoblauch also passed away this week with brain cancer, he was 56 years old. He donated his body to KU med center for cancer research. He was a very nice person.

My cousin Jeri's son William left for Afghanistan a week and a half ago from Fort Riley, KS. They came to dinner on Sunday before he left. He is going to eastern Afghanistan, is in the Army infantry and will be support for special forces. I hope he will be able to be protected while there also.

Very busy at work now, going through my first end of year season with payroll tax. I am working hard and learning a lot with my job.

We had 8.7" of snow on Wednesday to top off the 8" we received last week and we are supposed to get 4-5 more inches tonight and tomorrow. Oh Boy!

2011 New Year

This New Year started off very quietly. Clinton and I watched the New Year ring in on TV while lying in bed, then went to sleep--what party animals we are--LOL! Clinton got his catheter out this morning and is adjusting to it gladly. He does not have to go back to the doctor for three months, which he is also very happy about.

My mother's brother, my uncle Stanley Miller passed away on New Year's Eve in LaVerkin, UT. They are had a memorial service for him on the evening of New Year's Day. Peggy, his wife is having him cremated, then will take his ashes to be buried in southern Illinois sometime for a graveside service--don't know when yet. It is pretty sad to hear of his passing, but he has not been well for quite some time, since falling off of a ladder and punctering one of his lungs, he just kept getting worse and worse. So be very careful when climbing on ladders--it can be very dangerous.

Laura surprised up yesterday with a call about President's Day. She is making a reservation for them all to come to Kansas for that three day weekend. I cannot wait!