A Purse Snatching

The cruel, glaring lights of our ceiling fan jolted me awake this morning. My tired, squinty eyes saw Travis standing in the doorway. He was leaving for a 7:00 a.m. coffee date with a guy from church. I figured he was just looking for something. I briefly thought about throwing the Mentholadum bottle (sitting within arms reach on my bedstand) at him, but figured I didn't want to start the day out by broadsiding my husband! :) I just shut my eyes again.

"Jae!" Travis said in a urgent voice.

"Travis, what are you doing, Honey?"

"YOUR van was broken into last night. Your purse is gone and so is your cell phone."

"Crap!" I said (that's what I really said...sorry for the strong language). I sat up and tried to rouse myself to fully awake. Travis just kept talking to me. I'm not a morning person, although it's part of my job, so waking up upon hearing the van had been broken into really made me grumpy. Thankfully, my anger was at myself, not Travis!

Neither of us were surprised, unfortunately. We have crooks living at both ends of our block. Our other neighbors are fantastic, but the trouble-makers whom we suspect deal drugs and KNOW have gone on stealing rampages are a pain in everyone's rear.

We missed the first round of break-ins and robberies that happened last summer. A couple of the aformentioned morally misguided neighbors went and stole from every home or car in the neighborhood but ours. One household at a time the people on the block realized they had been burglarized and made separate police reports. Then they shared stories, as neighbors do, and realized just about everyone on the block had been burglarized in the middle of the same night. Long story short. The ex-convicts that had recently been released from prison got caught on some other charges after they burglarized the neighborhood. The police stumbled upon the property and found all of the things stolen from our neighbors. The story was on the front-page of the regional newspaper.

The crooks are brave, too, and apparently don't mind having run-ins with the law. They went on to steal an SUV from the elderly couple two houses down and then stole the truck of the widower that lives right behind us! I'm guessing they're not in the market for a mini van or ours would already be gone.

I closed out my credit and debit accounts and made sure no charges were made after the purse was stolen. The Deputy Sherrif came and took the police report. I had about $15 cash in the purse, plus my cell phone. My parents cancelled my cell phone (still a Kansas number). We then went to the bank, closed out our checking account and moved all of our money over to a new account we opened. By God's grace, I had just run out of checks, so only deposit slips were in the checkbook!

I am frustrated with myself for not being more careful, especially considering the warnings we got from neighbors. I haven't forgotten to bring in my purse and lock the van in a long time...but the night I did forget was the wrong night for me.

Despite the frustration and anger toward myself and the crook(s), I focused on the good part of the situation. Me, Travis and my kids are all okay, we still have a minivan to drive, nothing else was taken, nobody broke into our house and nobody used the credit/debit cards. My purse and the cell phone were important and of material value, but they are replaceable.

Ultimately, I hope the crooks get their paths straight and Jesus touches their hearts and changes their lives. I can't hold a grudge or have unforgiveness toward the crooks. Jesus loves those them, too. He's just waiting for them to choose to love Him back!

From Madalynn, to Justis

Madalynn and Justis are into reading and writing notes.

A couple of weeks ago, Justis came in to me crying with a note in his hands. Madalynn had written him hate mail!

Story told, the two got in an argument and the chosen form of (incorrect) communication was note-writing. We talked about how important it is to love each other and have self-control in what we think and say to each other. They made up. Things have come around in the note writing department since then.

Today Madalynn wrote a nice note to Justis. Here's what she wrote verbatim:

I like u Justis. you smill good justis and loock Hansim, too, I like u as a bruther. (followed by a picture of she and Justis holding hands).

Happy Birthday, Grandma Rader!

My grandma, Verda Rader, is celebrating her birthday today. I'm not going to say how old she'll be. She's lived long enough to reserve the right not to divulge that information! We got to visit Grandma and Grandpa while we were in Kansas.

My mom rode along and we drove to Mullinville, Kansas Thursday, April 10, to visit them. We met them at the local cafe a little after one o'clock in the afternoon and my grandpa treated us to lunch.

Grandma keeps very busy. She paints the most beautiful designs on China pieces as a hobby, and she takes China-painting classes regularly to keep learning. Grandma probably knows more about the computer than I do. She keeps up with the latest in computer trends and checks and sends e-mail regularly. She still travels to a town near Dodge City to get her hair done every Tuesday. She looks beautiful in her square dancing skirt and shoes she wears when she and Grandpa go square dancing and round dancing.

My grandpa, Lyle Rader, is a busy man. He still drives 153 miles daily Monday through Saturday delivering mail on his rural mail route. He still has a wheat crop and manages a herd of cows who are birthing right now. He feeds and checks them every day. He finally did sell his insurance sales/adjusting business and retired as town mayor, so he now has more freedom to ride his Arctic Cat "toy" grandma bought him a few years back to play with!

The weather was COLD the day we were there, so Grandpa didn't get to give the kids a ride on the Arctic Cat. Instead, he gave Justis and Dawson lessons in how to load, aim and shoot a rubber band gun. The boys spent the whole visit beside their Great-Grandpa, asking him to help them set up targets to shoot (toy cars, etc.). Grandpa and Travis braved the cold rain, piled all four kids in the truck, and went to check the cows. They did get to see the newest baby of the bunch!

Travis and Grandpa talked about farming, sports and work. Travis enjoys visits with my grandparents as much as I do.

Madalynn must take after Great-Grandma, because she spent her time coloring and making pictures and notes with all of the fun markers, crayons and books Grandma gave her to play with.

Jillian, amazingly, managed to keep her hands off all of Great-Grandma's breakables. She enjoyed watching the clocks chime on the hour. One clock has a bird that pops out and tweets. The other clock strikes the hour a few minutes after the first. The second clock's face breaks apart, spins around, and plays pretty music before closing up again. Jillian thought that was SO COOL (and it is)!

Mom and I just spent time visiting and catching up with both Grandma and Grandpa, which was great.

I had a fun time visiting them, and I'm so glad we got to see them before coming back home. Each holiday since I've been married has not quite been right, since we spent all of the major holidays and Grandpa and Grandma's house growing up. We also visited them regularly in-between holidays. I spent harvest time at Grandpa and Grandma's, too.

MY fondest memories growing up and visiting them frequently are harvest, when they would take ME out to see the calves when I was young, Grandpa giving me a cold drink from MY Great-Grandpa's windmill-pumped well, riding "Shorty" the horse, listening to Grandma tell stories of when she grew up the only girl in a house full of boys, eating grandma's apple pies with apples picked from her tree, hunting Easter eggs in the backyard, eating chili for Christmas supper, and the list goes on and on.

I am so blessed to have grandparents that were involved so much in my life and who also influence the lives of my children. Their value is priceless.

I love you, Grandma and Grandpa. Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Rock Chalk, Jayhawk! KU!

I was 9 1/2 years old in 1988, and I specifically remember sitting beside my dad rooting KU on to a National Championship victory. He made me a shirt that night announcing the win and I wore it the next day to the fifth grade just so I could rub it in my friend Abby's face. She was a K-State fan.

Twenty years, a K-STATE DEGREE (nothing like eating crow), a husband and four children later I sat in the same living room and watched as KU MIRACULOUSLY become National Champions for the first time since 1988, for their third overall National Championship win in history.

KU seemed doomed to a loss, but Mario Chalmers threw up a prayer and a shot at the buzzer to tie the game! I nearly had a heart attack, so I know my dad probably had a triple heart attack!

My dad is a die-hard KU fun. He will arrange all his plans so he can watch the KU games. He and his brothers Lynn and Rolly call each other during and after the game to discuss the Jayhawks' performance. He watches the game on TV, while listening to the KU station on his radio earphones so he doesn't miss out on any of the action.

Dad was like a giddy kid in a candy store after after the game. He grinned from ear to ear, bursting with KU pride. I was proud, too! I am a K-Stater of course, but I will always be a KU basketball fan at heart!

I had trouble winding down that night, but finally got to bed around midnight. Dad said he was up until about 2:00! The late night didn't affect his joy the next day. He'll be buzzing until next season, I'm sure.

Rock Chalk, Jayhawk, Dad!

Cousins!

We got to see my sister, Laci, and her boys Cole (5 yrs. old) and Chadd (3 yrs. old) on our trip to Kansas. We had a great time visiting with Laci and the boys, and the cousins especially had fun!

Justis and Cole were born two months apart, and Dawson and Chadd were born three months apart. When you take those ornery boys and add drama queens Madalynn and Jillian to the mix, my parents' house is a hopping from sun-up until the kids go to bed at night!

Madalynn and Cole are practically inseparable! I noticed the two of them holding hands as we went places together and while playing around the house. I think my mom, sister and I had to tell Justis, Chadd and Dawson to turn the outside faucet off about a million times while we were there. They kept turning it on, filling up their water guns, and squirting each other. Did I mention it was only in the 40s a couple of days we were there?! We kept the baby gate up at the top of the stairs so Miss Jillian would not tumble down. She's spent the crawling/walking part of her life in Louisiana, so she doesn't know how to maneuver stairs yet!

My sister is working as a phlebotomist at the hospital in El Dorado, KS, and she is also taking classes so she can become a licensed sign language translator. She's getting great grades, keeping a job and raising boys at the same time! Rock on, Sis! She's doing fantastic at all of her "jobs." I have lots of fun asking her questions about signing and watching her sign while she talks. I also can't believe my sister, who got one ear pierced, got squeamish and had to come back to weeks later to get the other one pierced, is drawing blood from people. Wow!

I miss Laci and the boys. I am looking forward to Laci coming down and visiting this summer sometime.

Like a Band of Gypsies We Go Down the Highway...

Cruising "up" the Interstate to Kansas with van packed with luggage, every seat occupied, a chirping sound coming from the mystery malfunction in the rear of the van and NO RADIO, I kept singing a line from an old Willie Nelson classic, "On the road again! Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway." I sang it out loud until Maddie politely asked me to stop so she could hear the DVD she was trying to watch on our portable sanity-saving DVD players.

We managed to survive our two-day trip to Ulysses, KS, and my parents and my sister and her boys gave us a warm family welcome. Being reunited with family made us forget about the 16 hours in the car.

We had arrived in Ulysses Friday the 4th of April, left Ulysses yesterday (Friday) and arrived home tonight.

I am so excited to share all of the fun things we did while in Ulysses, but I'm too tired right now to blog. I will post blogs and pics about our trip starting tomorrow.

We had a BLAST at Fort Hudson!

Soldiers (actors) performed a wonderful Civil War reenactment for us Saturday, complete with horses, guns, cannons and costumes. We went to Fort Hudson, Louisiana to experience our first war reenactment.

Thanks to Travis's friend Bud and his wife Sunshine, we got a first-row seat for the battle. The Yankees started firing at the Rebels with a cannon. A group of Yankee sharp shooters dressed in red (a travelling front-line battalion) assisted by firing warning shots as well. The Rebels, being true to their name, were outnumbered but defiantly fought like they had a million troops. They all fought a good fight, but the Yankees ultimately won. They had soldiers hidden in the forest who came out and overcame the Rebels.

The kids didn't know what to think at first. The cannons were LOUD, but the kids nor the adults lost interest in the battle. Dawson sat and covered his ears the whole time. Madalynn, Justis and Lilly sat intently on our picnic blanket in awe of the whole thing. Things really got interesting when the soldiers started "falling down dead"! The men really did fall and act like stiffs pretty well. They weren't about to peel their eyes from the action, though!

All of the volunteers for the reenactment (who weren't dressed in their State Park uniforms) were dressed in costume. Yankee uniforms, Rebel uniforms, ladies colonial dresses, even the kids and babies had uniforms. We walked through a soldier camp. The soldiers (actors) literally sat and caught their breath and tried to cool off, while the ladies wove baskets and sewed and the children played. We toured the park's museum as well.

The actors took their jobs VERY seriously. I overheard them asking their fellow actors who watched the fight if it looked realistic and if they did a good job. They did, especially considering it was 87 degrees and muggy the day of the reenactment and they were wearing wool uniforms!

Grandma Davis bought the girls bonnets and the boys "smoking hats." We all got something cold to drink before hopping in the car to head home.

We only scratched the surface of Civil War history Saturday. We plan to take the kids back next year for another Fort Hudson reenactment!