Hey! It's Raining!

It's been over six months since we have had a good rain.  In fact we have had less than 1/2 inch this year.

But today... It rained.  Check out the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuKafiXYBfU

Our rain gauge measured 1.25 inches.

Beat the Street for Little Feet 2013

Thanks to Chelsea, Brianne, and Shyanne for running in the 5K run this past Saturday.  We had a good weekend and enjoyed everyone that could getting together.  Here are some pics.

Caverns of Sonora

Since Sweetwater Girls were playing our old friend Vic Ivy's Fort Stockton for bi-district recently, we decided to go to the game with our friends Jay and Carolyn Lawrence.  And...of course we went down early to go through the caverns.  Jay had never been through them.

So on the way down there I relayed the story to Jay and Carolyn about the last time Susan and I had been to the caverns.  It was about 33 years ago.  We invited Momma and Daddy (Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw) down to San Angelo and took them to the caverns.  I had been through them earlier and wanted them to see the cave.  But there was an alternative reason we wanted them to come down.  It was on the way back to San Angelo after going through the caverns that I dropped the news that Susan and I were getting married.

It was classic.  Susan was driving.  I turned around and said to them that I had bought Susan a gift that week and handed Mom Susan's engagement ring.  Mom's jaw dropped open and she said, "Is this what I think it is?"  I laughed and said yes it was.  Susan never took her hands off the wheel or her eyes off the road.


So here are some pics from the Caverns of Sonora.  A special place for us.

 Jay suggested that I act as if I had proposed to Susan there.  Several people have been married where this pic was taken.


Palace of Angels

Cave Bacon

Helictites.

Leaving the cave.  This is the highest point in the cave beside the original opening.

And by the way...Sweetwater won.  Coach Ivy wasn't in a good mood.  And check out the YouTube video of the cavern I took.

I Do Care

One of my favorite teachers when I was growing up was Mr. Gary Rotan.  He was my sixth grade teacher.  In those days, sixth grade was still considered elementary and I spent my sixth grade year at Southeast Elementary.  Mr. Rotan was the first male teacher I ever had.  I am sure we gave him all the challenges he ever wanted.  Mr. Rotan was fresh out of college when he took the job at Southeast.  So naturally, we kids thought he was pretty cool.

And as sixth graders do, we developed some bad habits.  It became a sort of ritual to say "I don't care" whenever someone in the class was reprimanded by Mr. Rotan.  I'm not sure how this got started.  But I do know that Mr. Rotan didn't appreciate the sentiment.  He set out to fix this problem.

I'm sure he tried all kinds of talking to us but we "didn't care."  So Mr. Rotan established a new rule for his classroom.  Anyone who says "I don't care" would have to write the sentence "I do care" 100 times.  And when this punishment didn't seem to stop the apathetic phrase he carried the punishment a step further.  Each time this was said the number of sentence would be increased by 100.  So the second person would have to write it 200, the third person would have to write it 300, and so on.

This seemd to work better but we were up to the point where the next time it was said, the person would have to write "I do care" 500 times.

Now as you might guess, there is a reason I remember this scenario.  It was at this point that I was instructed by Mr. Rotan that I had not scored a very good grade on a math paper.  To my defense, it was stated in front of the whole class!  But my response was, "I don't care."  Immediately, the whole class chanted "Uhhmmm!"  Mr. Rotan then reminded me that I would now have to write "I do care" 500 times and that it would be due to him the next morning... to which I responded, "I don't care."

Now you may think that Mr. Rotan would let that one go. But nooooo.  He told me that I now have another 600 sentences to write.  I think he even smirked a little.  But I learned my lesson.  I spent that evening writing  "I do care" one thousand one hundred times.  And I am proud to say that I did not have to write those sentences again.

Later, I was fortunate to get to work with Mr. Rotan..  We were on several boards together while I was superintendent of Rotan and he the superintendent of Hermleigh.  And he really was one of my favorite teachers of all time.

The Morning Ritual

Now this is waking up to God's nature! View video in YouTube videos. http://youtu.be/ADgRSBVsVFw

A New Season, A New Beginning

It's been a while since I wrote in this blog.  But I have been rather busy.  We are beginning the next chapter of our lives together.  This chapter will have lots of changes for us.  The first change is location.  

We are now officially Sweetwaterites again. This is our new home.  (Hopefully this will be our last.) 

Here is the front of the house. 

Our new address is 4 Lakewood St. 

And this is the back of the house.

Now to the inside of the house.  This is looking inside from the front door.  And then looking toward the front door.

Here is the Den or Family Room.

The Breakfast Nook is open from the Den and the kitchen.

These are actually the front two rooms of the house.  These are the Formal Living Room and the Dining Room.  We are saving these for the Tolles furniture.

 The first bedroom with bathroom is the Guest Bedroom or as Chelsea likes to call it: "My Room."

At the end of the hall is the second bedroom and bath.  This will be the Tolle's bedroom.

 Across from Guest Bedroom is the Master Bedroom and Bath.  This is where we will set up shop.

 And finally, we have a backyard. At this time, there is still a little water in the Santa Fe Lake.  We have about one hundred ducks and coots and about 600 Sandhill Cranes.

So we are about 95% moved in.  The Tolles will hopefully be ready to move in during January.  So come see us anytime.  And if you know someone who wants to buy a house in Rotan, just let us know!

Veteran's Day

In honor of Veteran's Day, here are some things about Dad.

This is one letter sent to Grandmother while Dad was stationed here in the U.S.

 

This is his Division.  The 3rd Armored

Daddy took part in the Normandy invasion.  He landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day +1.  (June 7, 1944)

I remember him telling the story of jumping into the water from the landing craft and having to carry his weapon above his head to keep it dry.  As they trudged toward the beach, he said he would stumble over obstacles in the water.  It was not until he got closer to the shore that he realized the obstacles were dead soldiers from the first wave.

Once on shore, his unit waited for the trucks to be brought in.  Dad was a truck driver in a Quartermaster Unit.  He hauled chain linked portable landing strips for our aircraft to begin landing in France.

His unit continued to supply the troops as the Americans moved on toward Germany.  

He received five Bronze Stars for the five major battles in which he was involved.

Of course the most famous of these were the Normandy Invasion and the Ardennes.  This one is more commonly known as Battle of the Bulge.  

Daddy told of one time that his convoy was attacked by an enemy plane.  The whole line was strafed by the plane.  As trained to do, he drove his truck off the road and the men jumped out to head for cover.  He recalled one of his buddies was killed in this attack.  He rarely talked about his service.  I think he saw lots of things that he would rather forget.

Ribbons he was awarded:

 The good marksman medal was achieved during training in the U.S.


This one is the Victory Citation given to all who served in Europe for winning the war.

This is a Unit Citation given to the men of his Quartermaster Trucking Co. for fulfilling duties during dangerous conditions including driving at night with no lights to avoid detection and driving while under attack and through mined roads.

Here is a telegram sent before Christmas to Mom from France.  They had met and had become friends before the war when Dad came to West Texas to work for Kid Moss.

So thanks to all the Veterans.

In France.

In Germany, after the war.