What a lazy blogger I've become. Sorry about that. I have great intentions but consider sleeping and going to work more of a priority than blogging. That's just how it is.
Today, though, I've got something on my mind. Or I should say someone. Five thousand miles away in a small English village called Wantage in the county of Oxfordshire, my friend Lucy is turning 40 years old. I hope she's still sleeping right now as it's 3 a.m. where she lives, but I find myself imagining how she'll celebrate this milestone. Judging from the birthdays I've witnessed in their home, she'll receive cards (probably homemade, which we all know are the best) from her two kids, William and Ellen. I suspect she'll receive an appropriately sappy card from her husband, Ian. Maybe they'll have a special tea (evening meal) at the end of the day. Or there might be a special family party on the weekend with her mum, sister, brothers, sisters-in-law, nephew and niece.
Mostly I'm wishing I could transport myself across the pond and be there for just a small slice of her day. Maybe just to have morning tea with her and a good chat, as she would call it. Or better yet, chatting over a glass of wine in the evening. Not that we'd stop at just one glass. Here's a picture of us before we dug into our strawberries and cream at Wimbledon in 2003.
A little history...I met Lucy over 15 years ago when I was on a business trip to Holland and England. It was the first time I'd ever been out of the United States and I was petrified. I was to be gone for six weeks and it seemed like an eternity to be away from home. The first week I spent in Amsterdam at a trade show. The next week I was in York, England, with a co-worker, but then it was time for her to go back home. I was left alone in jolly old England for four more weeks learning a computer system from people who didn't want to teach it to me and driving on the wrong side of the road in a rented car. After driving around the city wall in York multiple times the first day with the car, I finally figured out how to drive between work and my temporary flat with no detours.I remember needing my sunglasses only about three times during that four weeks. Lucy was literally one of the only bright spots of the whole trip. She was the only person who asked how I was while I was on my own in England. She would stop in the office where they had me set up and ask if I needed anything and would inevitably end up staying to talk a bit each time.
Lucy asked me to attend a bonfire night celebration with her and her family in their small hometown of Boston Spa while I was there. It was held on a Saturday night and the invitation included dinner with her family and then taking in a fireworks show. That's how they celebrate the plot to blow up Parliament...by shooting off fireworks. I had such a good time that night and felt very much at home among her family and friends, even though I was the token American in the bunch. We're very similar people, Lucy and I, and out of the whole world we met by chance. But I've always felt it was divine intervention.
I have wonderful friends right here in Wichita and all over this country, but Lucy and I have a special bond. We've been friends for 15 years, but have physically been in the same place only nine times. And each time we're together it's like we've never been apart. We pick right back up where we left off. It's easier now with e-mail and the internet, but even before that we wrote letters the old-fashioned way. I still have every piece of mail she's ever sent me.
Here's a picture of William, Ellen, Lucy and Ian on a trip to the Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson when they last visited in 2005. A trip to the Cosmosphere and taking this picture have both become tradition when they visit. They're very good sports to pose for me like this!
To the left is a picture Lucy sent me last week of the kids with the snowman they made. They actually had a snow day and didn't have to attend school, which is a rare event for them.I feel very fortunate to be able to call Lucy my friend. I'm terrible at getting things in the mail early enough for her to actually have them on Christmas or birthdays (something she's very good at) but this post will have to act as my card to her.
Here's to our friendship, I cherish it every day. Live long, my friend. And live well. May we see each other again soon. I wish it with all my heart.
Well, it's officially 2009. For those of us born in the magical year of 1969 it's time to turn 40 years old. My birthday is three months from yesterday (it's April 2) and I'm dreading it a little bit. It's not like it's ruling my life or anything, but it's a milestone. And with milestones come reflection. I've been reflective these past couple of days.
As my devoted blog readers know, I've been getting little gifts from my family (although everyone denies it) since April of last year. See this blog, this blog and this blog for more information on the gifts I've gotten. The past couple of months, the birthday fairies have left more things for me. I will share those now.
In November while at my mom and dad's house, I received a bag of Happy Birthday Hershey's
Kisses. The significance of the Kisses goes back a long way. When I was a kid, my grandpa (dad's dad) would bring me Hershey Kisses anytime I was sick. He said they were medicine and they'd help me feel better soon. He was a chocoholic and loved Kisses. He never brought a whole bag or anything, but five or six at a time, maybe everyday that I was home from school. I remember it most when I was sick for a week with the chicken pox when I was a freshman in high school. The fact that I got this bag of Kisses in November may have been planned, but the significance of it was not lost on me. My grandpa died in November of 1988 and it was the first death in the family that I was old enough to remember (my mom's dad died when I was two). Grandpa's death left a huge hole in our family and I still miss him 20 years later. Right before the funeral, my sisters and I put some Kisses under the pillow in his coffin. When I pay my respects at the cemetery, I don't take flowers for grandpa's grave, I take Hershey Kisses. I line them up on the headstone and I know that somewhere he's laughing and slapping his knee like he always did when he was alive.
The next gift arrived (coincidentally) right after my sister Teresa was at my house in late November. I got a bag with three pair of underwear (the granny-panty kind although they're pretty colors) and some Poise pads. The note says "For those times when laughing may cause you to wee your knickers...Always be prepared!" This is going to be embarrassing and I'm not sure why, but I'm going to share the story anyway.
The summer between my freshman and sophomore years in college, my sister Jenny and I went on a trip. We flew to Boston and spent several days with a high school friend of Jenny's who lived on an army base with her family in Natick, Massachusetts. We toured that area and then hopped on the Amtrak and went down to New York for a couple of days. New York was interesting for us, but that will have to be in another post sometime. The Poise pads and underwear are related to our time after NYC.
After those two days and nights in New York, we boarded the Amtrak again and went south to Washington, D.C. Neither one of us had been to the area before and only had one full day to see 
what we wanted to see. So we started bright and early that August morning and walked from one side of our map to the other. We went from the Capitol building down along the reflecting pools to the Washington Monument and then continued to the Lincoln Memorial and right across the bridge and into Arlington National Cemetery. As we were walking around the base of the Monument, Jenny was pondering her map then she said, "It says the Washington Monument is supposed to be here, but I don't see it." She was really disappointed. I looked at her, thinking she was joking, but she wasn't. I told her to look up. She argued with me about whether or not it was the actual Washington Monument. She finally (grudgingly) agreed that it could be. Later in the day, we bought some drinks in souvenir cups and they had pictures of all the D.C. landmarks. What do you know, the Washington Monument was on it! I razzed her about this all day. I couldn't believe she didn't know what it was. After we watched the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier in Arlington National Cemetery, we filled our souvenir cups with water from one of the spigots that are typically in cemeteries for the purpose of putting water in the flowers mourners bring. We had to jump a fence, but we got our water. More laughter ensued because by this time we'd walked all the way across our map and we were tired, sweaty and punchy. Then we discovered the subway system in Washington, D.C. Tired and weary, we boarded the train and started making our way back to our hotel. We ended the evening by eating Chinese food at a restaurant across the street from our hotel. It had definitely been a long day. When we got back to our room, we called our parents to let them know we were all right and had survived touring the area. I was talking to my mom, telling her about our conversation at the base of the Washington Monument and I was laughing so hard I could barely talk. Tears were streaming down my face when I suddenly realized I hadn't gone to the bathroom all day. And by then it was too late. I threw the phone at Jenny and made haste to the bathroom, but it really was too late. The laughter had been the last straw. Now Jenny was laughing so hard she couldn't talk, but managed to relate the story to mom, who was confused at all the chaos and laughter. After the trauma of the wetting incident and exhausted from the day's sightseeing, I laid down to sleep. Apparently (this is according to Jenny) I was snoring so loudly that she had to move closer to the television to hear it. But I'm not sure I believe that. After all, she didn't even know what the Washington Monument looked like!
I have struggled this year to get everything done. Not just blogging, but everything. It's weird because I had six months with no job and still have not completed tasks I thought I would have finished. The month of December has been a complete blur. I'll recap as best I can and try to be a better blogger in 2009. I've missed posting. Honest. And I pledge to do better than the three posts I've managed to do this month. Shameful.
One of the Christmas celebrations (we've already had three and will still have another) we had at work was a luncheon hosted by Bishop Michael Jackels. It started with a mass at the Spiritual Life Center and then we had a delicious meal catered by Corporate Caterers. Bishop Jackels served me wine and then coffee before I pushed back from the table. He has a great sense of humor and I had a great time at the luncheon. Here's a photo of the Bishop serving coffee to Michael who's the director of the counseling center and the Marriage for Keeps program.
Just in case you were wondering, I didn't win one of the poinsettias that were on the tables. Also, I'd completed my hours when this luncheon was over, so I didn't have to go back to work that Friday afternoon.
Christmas preparations were late for me this year. The tree didn't get lit and decorated until about a week before the holiday. Jennifer and Bella helped me decorate. A three-year-old's decorating sense is wonderfully refreshing! I managed to make about 10 dozen sugar cookies and five loaves of English muffin bread this year in addition to wrapping my gifts, trimming the tree, writing the Christmas letter (they just got mailed this week) and packing up to go see my family. I decorated some of the cookies for friends and co-workers, but my family has been trained by me to frost their own cookies. Pretty smart, huh?
Zach was definitely the star of the show at my family's Christmas Eve celebration. Andrew, Rachel and Caden were with Rachel's family in Missouri, so we were without his antics. Zach kept us plenty entertained on his behalf. I'm already excited for next year when they'll both be two years old. I've got some pictures of other people, but the ones of Zach are by far my favorite. Without further adieu...
He walked all around the house in one of my dad's boots until he lost interest and focused on the platter of cookies and goodies my sister Teresa brought. Dig the Santa suit!
And he helped grandma eat some of her birthday cake. Or more specifically the frosting on her birthday cake.
Lynette, John, Jenny and Mark tear into their presents.
When Zach opened his presents he wanted to play with them immediately. He looked at or played with each thing before he moved on to open the next present. Especially the books. Notice how he's using Jessica's legs as a book rest while she continues opening her gifts. The whole living room is filled with people and chaos, yet Zach is looking at his book.
Some of the chaos at the other end of the room included Christopher and Frank (sitting on the floor), Teresa, Katie, Kyle, Victoria and Jeffrey. You can also see Anissa's head on the right side of the picture.
After things calmed down a bit, Christopher and Victoria worked on a teapot puzzle that Teresa got from Jenny. Teresa said: "I don't do fuzzles. I mean puzzles." We all agree she should do puzzles instead of sending out forwarded email messages.
Mark and Jeffrey enjoyed looking at one of Zach's new books. Mark had to work the morning of Christmas Eve and he comes over right after getting out of his truck, that's why he has on his work jeans.
Last weekend Caden was here for a few hours while his mom and dad went out shopping. He was taking a nap when they left, but woke up because he had pooped himself. After the diaper change, we played.
Earlier in the day last Sunday, I was one of the teachers for the preschoolers at my church. We had a visit from a very special guest while we were working on a poinsettia project for the bulletin board.
I had dinner that night with my friends Kathleen, Laurie, Joyce and Jennifer. Sorry, no pictures of us or our food.
On Wednesday evening, I attended my book club's annual Christmas party. The wine, the food and my dining companions were impeccable as were the festive decorations and Bonnie's recently remodeled kitchen. We had our customary book exchange, but this time enacted an unlimited steal rule. It worked out in my favor. I had to steal it twice, but I walked away with this bag knitted by Amy (she used it as the gift bag) along with the book "Pride and Prejudice"!
I've been incredibly busy with work lately. This weekend has been spent mostly helping with the Christmas Sharing event that Catholic Charities does for the low-income families in the area. The families are able to come and pick out gifts for their children, get some non-perishable food products and browse a thrift shop where all the items are FREE. Friday I spent my time gift-wrapping their gifts. Last night we also had a holiday get-together for the couples in the program where I work and I helped get set up for that. Consequently, I have only gotten my house partially decorated for Christmas. That changes today. I'm working on decorating and making a list of presents I have yet to purchase. And I need to write my Christmas letter. So many things, so little time!
The big news from my Thanksgiving vacation is that Zach's mommy and daddy are getting married!
This was not Zach's reaction to the news. He was pretty mellow about it, really. Take note that he is sitting on this tractor backwards. It's got this storage compartment under the actual seat, but he likes to open that and sit on the steering wheel. And every now and then while he's sitting on there it honks at him. It's pretty funny.
But back to the reason for this post. Apparently Mark and Terri decided a couple of weeks ago to get hitched, but waited for the Black Friday sale to buy the ring. Little did I know that's what Terri was going shopping for at 4 a.m. Friday morning while I was at their house with Zach. Mark had to work, but he went to JC Penney's in Great Bend first to see and buy the ring. And what a ring it is. It's a stunning two carat engagement band and the wedding bands add another carat or two. That's a huge amount of bling on Terri's left hand! She's very deserving of it for having put up with my brother for at least eight years! Here's a picture of it on Terri's hand just hours after purchase. Sorry for the poor picture quality. That's my fault and not the fault of the jewelry.
You can't tell from this picture, but in addition to the three large diamonds on top (that she says signify her, Mark and Zach), there are channel-set diamonds along the sides of the ring. It's very pretty. As it stands right now they'll get married in a small private ceremony in August and then have a big party for everybody a couple of days later. I'm so glad that I will be able to officially call Terri my sister-in-law, since that's what I've been calling her for a while now!
Earlier this month my family celebrated my dad's 50th anniversary of being a welder. The sign below was courtesy of my nieces, Jessica and Victoria, who are my brother John's daughters. They ran out of time to make "welding" pretty.
Dad started working for Tom Tomberlin (yes, that was really his name) at Tom's Welding Service in Ellinwood when he was a green 18-year-old back in November of 1958, just months before he married my mom. That's where he learned the ins and outs of being an oilfield welder. After 13 years, dad left his job at Tom's and started his own business at my parents' home south of Ellinwood, with my mom as his bookkeeper and business partner, even though to my knowledge she's never welded one bit.
When I was a kid, his business expanded by leaps and bounds from that first shop, which was the size of a two-car garage, to accommodate the surge in drilling for oil in the area. Dad bought some adjacent land and built a bigger shop. He turned the old shop into an office for him to do his paperwork. He hired a professional artist to come and paint lettering on the side of the new shop, so "Larry's Welding Service" could easily be seen from the highway a quarter of a mile away to help guide delivery drivers to the yard. It's been touched-up once, but it's still leading people to the shop. At the height of the '80s oil boom, he employed eight people. And they either built from scratch or renovated several drilling rigs during that time. He was featured in the local newspaper. It seemed there was constant activity in the yard.
My childhood memories include the fact that dad was gone overnight sometimes while doing surface jobs. These jobs meant that he would weld the long pieces of pipe together as the drilling company laid the surface pipe for the oil well. They have to drill enough pipe down into the ground to reach the oil deposit, which is a different distance at each site, depending on the geology of the area. This is an important step in the drilling process and although I never got to accompany him on any of these jobs (I'm sure I asked) I know he is a master at his craft.
Then the oil business fell on hard times. All of the employees left for various other jobs (one of them is a big, successful executive at an auditing firm in Dallas now) including my brothers, because there wasn't enough work to keep them busy. After that dad was on his own and usually had enough jobs from local farmers and the oilfield to keep him busy. He was frequently visited by various friends who kept him company while he worked on something for them or who just stopped by to chew the 
fat. This still goes on, although some of those friends have since passed away. One of the things that's kept his business intact through thick and thin is the integrity he possesses. He's a fair and honest businessman and that's what keeps his customers coming back year after year.
To the left is a picture of my dad taken earlier this month. He's standing
next to one of his lathes. Watching him do lathe work is fascinating because of the precision that's required. I also love the piles of metal shavings lathe work produces (photo at right).
About eight years ago, my brother John lost his job as an engineer of front-end loaders when Great Bend Manufacturing closed its doors. He began working with my dad at that time in the hopes that someday dad will want to retire and John will take over the business. Dad turned 68 years old this year and he is far from retired, although he's talked about it some. He also happily lets John do all of the surface jobs these days. Currently Larry's Welding Service employs three full-time employees (including my dad) and two part-time employees (including my mom). The recent boom in the oilfield industry has kept them extremely busy in the past couple of years.
Occasionally mom and dad take little trips to either come to Wichita or to visit my sister Jenny and her family in Oakley. Sometimes they leave for a couple of weeks and drive to California to visit my mom's aunt, but that big of a trip doesn't happen more than once every two years. The biggest concession he's made toward retirement is taking a daily nap after eating lunch until it's time to go back to work at one o'clock.
Dad's worked hard and deserves to sit back and relax, but I get the feeling he doesn't know what he'd do with himself if he retired. Plus, I imagine it would be really hard since the business he and my mom built from the ground up is just outside the house. And I suppose 50-year-old habits do die hard.
Much like the importance of getting the surface laid properly to insure the integrity and success of an oil well, dad's built a good foundation of something that will carry on into subsequent generations. The second generation is already in place and I'm very proud of what my parents have accomplished.
A little history...
To the left is a picture Lucy sent me last week of the kids with the snowman they made. They actually had a snow day and didn't have to attend school, which is a rare event for them.
