Grandson Jake

Our grandson, Jake, spent two delightful week-ends with us.

We took a half-day trip to Davy Crockett National Forest where Jake is standing in the tall pines.

Back home in the RV, we showed Jake pictures of the places and animals that we have seen this year.

Jake tried on the reenactment outfit that Terry wore in Indiana at the Missessinewa reenactment of the War of 1812 trip. (Terry took the trip while us women were at the Texas wedding.)

The football pictures are of the Livingston Junior High Football game. Jake is # 92. This picture shows how the Livingston Jr. High Football team has it all- players, extra players, cheerleaders, and the hospital in the background. They won the game 13-6!

Darlene's Costumes

We arrived in Livingston just in time to learn that the Escapees were having A Halloween costume party. With little time to create a costume, I dressed in black pants and sweater and wore my black cape and Terry’s tricorn hat. My sign said “ Icky Body Crane.” I wanted Terry to wear two shirts with one covering his head and go as the “Headless Horseman” but he refused to dress up. A couple wore regular shirts and jeans but each wore a sign that read, “ I’m a Keet.” Yes, they were a pair-of-keets. A witch rode her broom. A bosomy woman wore eyes that had slits like a cats and said that a vampire had gotten her. Other costumes were of pumpkins and cowboys and cowgirls. Yes, this is Texas.

I find it so much fun to wear costumes that I joined the Red Bonnets of Texas. I not only wore a red hat but also red shoes. We were whistled at when we crossed the road to eat lunch at “Out to Lunch”. What fun!

Dinosaur Park

The next day, we toured the historical buildings in Glen Rose and ate at a small restaurant. We saw footprints in Dinosaur Park. It was weird to think of southern Texas as being under water and dinosaurs wandering around in the same space that we were now walking.

Second Trip to Texas

Can you believe that I went from Iowa to Texas to Iowa and returned to Texas and attended two weddings in thirteen days? We did not bring a camera to the elegant wedding of my niece Megan so I don’t have photos of it. . The wedding was held in the Botanical Center in Des Moines with the reception in the Marriott hotel. The attendants were chic in their black dresses. The sports minded couple joked about his allegiance to the Chicago Cubs and hers to the St. Louis Cardinals.

We met our Escapee friends, Jerry and Joanne Pomeroy at a Corps of Engineers park near Benbrook, Texas. From our hilltop campsite we could see the skyline of Fort Worth. On Wednesday, we wandered among the brass longhorns in a park in Dallas and visited the grassy knoll where President Kennedy was shot. The somber presentation of that awful day was vividly portrayed in the museum on the sixth floor of the Book Exchange Building where Oswald stood. As Joan and I stood looking out the window, we heard the eerie sounds of sirens below us.

We met Terry’s cousins, Bill and Joanne Miller at the Red Lobster restaurant. We told stories and laughed so much that some octogenarians seated near us wanted to join the fun. Don asked if we were part of a comedy club. Joan said that we didn’t have a home but lived in our RV’s and met on the road while the other couple was Terry’s cousins who were still working. His astonished expression made Joanne laugh while the rest of us joined in. Don said we could remember them by thinking of Don Juan. He was Don while his wife is Wanda. I’m not sure if Don believed us when I introduced the others as Billy, Terry, Jerry and Joan and Joanne. He asked if we knew who the sixth President of the US was. We answered Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Monroe, Madison and John Quincy Adams but were not sure what order they were in. Don gave Joan and me a gold John Q. Adams one-dollar coin. We might be homeless but now we had money.


We were having so much fun telling stories that we didn’t want the evening to end. When we returned to Jerry’s truck after stopping for ice cream, Joan said, “ We‘re in trouble. The curfew at the Corps of Engineer Park is ten o clock .” Sure enough, we were locked out! The guys jumped the fence and walked the mile or so uphill to our campsite and returned with our car to pick up us women and load up the camera s and laptop and jackets and stuff. When the guys returned the next morning to retrieve the truck, Terry told the attendant that he felt like a teenager who had missed his curfew. The attendant asked, “ Did you bring a note from your mother?”

The Trip to Texas

Sorry that I ‘m late with getting these blogs on the Internet. When we went to Texas and set up the satellite, Terry found that the modem was no longer working. It took weeks to get a new modem. I’m fortunate that I have a husband who can diagnose computer problems, explain what we need to fix the problem, order the part, and then fixes it. Thank you, Terry!

I had a delightful trip to Texas and back to Iowa with my lovely daughter and two beautiful granddaughters to Ann’s wedding. (See previous blog.) You would think that there were problems with four women and one bathroom but no one complained. We had fun swimming in the pool, relaxing in hot tub, climbing on the rocks that overlook the Fourche River, and shopping at Cracker Barrel and at the Precious Moments place in Carthage, Missouri. Amanda caught the bouquet from the bride and was thinking about her wedding in 2009. I learned that Kari loved her teddy bear named George which her boyfriend Brad gave her. The weather was perfect. The only bad thing that happened was that I gave my cold to my daughter Karol.

Beta Sigma Phi

Sharon Ethell invited me to go to a Beginning Day Tea for Beta Sigma Phi when I was living in Knoxville, Iowa in 1969. I was an active member of the group for 29 years in Iowa, Texas and North Carolina before Terry and I retired to fulltime RV. I went to the October meeting and to their social, which was a dinner and community play. The musical story of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was somewhat like the Joseph story in the Bible but I never heard it told just this way. The singers were outstanding! It was fun being with Beta Sigma Phi friends again.

Wedding of Ann Klein to Jimmy Stephens

The beautiful bride is my granddaughter Ann Klein who married Jimmy Stephens on October 18, 2008. My daughter, Karol, and granddaughters Kari and Amanda and I had a wonderful trip to Texas for the wedding. The lucky groom is Jimmy Stephens. The ceremony was lovely in the pink and brown decorated church. Even little Baylee walked down the aisle but wasn’t as cooperative when it was time for pictures. The bride and groom had fun with the cake and signing the marriage certificate on the groom’s back.

Touch of Lincoln Extends to Pella

Pat Klein is pictured with her grandsons at her home in Pella. She and I went to the Scholte house for a Lincoln exhibit. H.P. Scholte, the leader of the immigration to Pella from the Netherlands in 1847, went to the nomination for Lincoln in Illinois in 1860. His journal showed entries for “ Visit to A. Lincoln with delegation from Iowa.” When Scholte went to Springfield, another entry was “Visit to Lincoln and Lady.” Abraham Lincoln and Scholte corresponded. Scholte was offered an ambassador position to Belgium but that was rescinded when congress passed a bill that said that all ambassadors had to be born in the US. The cane was said to be given to Scholte by President Lincoln. The playbill was for the play that Lincoln was watching when he was assassinated.

Grandchildren Visit Overnight

I found out that my six- year-old grandson has much more energy than I do. When I asked, "What did you do today?" Nathan said," I played in school yard, played 'Go Fish', played an animal game, played with two toys from home, played with the doggie grandma got me, did a puzzle with Uncle Richard and played Barbie's with Emily and played outside with Emily and picked up apples for Grandma and that's it." . . . " I ate Tacos, apples, celery, cookies, cereal, drink coco milk, and white milk and pop." He drank and ate all this in four hours.

The dog is a toy that goes with the book, "Where's the Boss" about an Iditerod dog whose owner was missing. Nathan talks all the time. I'm glad that he plays well with his sister, Emily.

Happy 89th Birthday Mom

We went to my brother Jim's church this Sunday and then to lunch at Lora and Jim’s house. In order to visit longer, Lora and I drove one car while Jim and Terry drove to mom and dad's house in Oskaloosa, Iowa. My mother, Agnes Hoven, had an 89th birthday celebration. Left to right in the back row is myself and brothers Clare and Jim. In the front row are my sisters Joy and Angie. Everyone but my sister Clara was there. Terry and I aren’t the only family members to travel. Clara and Ralph were still in Tenn.

Flowers, Windmills and other Dutch Treats in Pella, Iowa

It was perfect fall weather when Terry and I wandered down Franklin Street to attend the Fall Festival at the Historical Village in Pella, Iowa on Saturday, September 27, 2008. The juried flower show arrangements were found in many of the buildings in such unusual places as the storage area of the general store. My favorite was the arrangement on a table in the Wyatt Earp house. (Yes, the Wyatt Earp, of western fame, lived in this house as a child in the 1860’s.) The picture with the quilt in the foreground is my favorite historical building. It is the Klein Crum house, which was moved from the west edge of town. My children are direct descendents of Tunas Klein who was one of the original settlers in 1847.

The Vermeer windmill is the “tallest working windmill in the United States “ according to the sign beside it. This replica of an 1850’s windmill is 124 feet from blade tip to the ground. We watched the volunteer connect the sail to the blade and begin the process of catching the gentle breeze as it turned to grind the wheat. The waterwheel was spinning as the water splashed down the wheel allowing the miller inside the building to grind corn.

The 1889 organ played a lively tune as the holes in the paper rolled over the mechanism. Bells chimed as figures of Dominie Scholte, his wife and six other figures took turns appearing in the windows of the Klockenspiel high above us.

The strange looking delft object is a tulip vase. The docent explained that when tulips were introduced to the Netherlands from Turkey, the bulbs cost a fortune. Some single bulbs were worth as much as the farm during tulip mania times.

The three berry homemade pie was delicious! (With 50-cent coffee, the treat was only $2.50). Dutch letters and cookies make wonderful treats too!