Titus' Dedication

 

We were thankful to be able to attend Titus' dedication.  Ken and Marilyn Blake were able to be here from Germany and it was a wonderful service.

 

 

 

And then they had a party afterward.  Had a lot of friends attended.

Marilyn is a fun hostess.  They served a traditional Macedonian bread called Mejica.

 



 

 

 

I caught this moment of the 3 generations.

 

 

On Saturday, Charley and Bob attended the Draft Horse Day at the Asbury University Farm.  They have really developed a fantastic program since they days when Charley was a student in the infancy of the program.

 

In the arena, they demonstrated how the students train horses to be able to be police horses.  The horses need to put up with any surprises they should encounter while on the job.  They use obstacles, noises, people and sparklers.  Horses have been sold to agencies as far away as Maryland and California.

 

 
Charley had opportunity to run a plow pulled by two draft horses on the Mission Farm. The Mission Farm is a small garden where students learn to garden using tools and techniques you might find in a third world country.  He really enjoyed it.

But you see that plowing a straight furrow didn't happen on the first try.  It was hard work.

 

I'll give an update on the house next week.  We are making good progress.

So, another week in the Bluegrass.

 

We have basement walls

I harvested my peppers this week.  I was really proud of the results.
I grew Serrano, Anaheim, and Garden Salsa peppers.

We can now see the size and the shape.  Exciting.

Quick Update

They started to put up the concrete forms for the basement walls.  Hopefully by the end of tomorrow (Tues) the basement walls will be poured.

Exciting!

Big News!

Well.  Our big news is the addition to our family of Titus Joshua Neal.
He was born on Friday, August 30 to Joshua and Rachelle.  They had some concerns when he was first born, so they took him to Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis.  There turned out to be no problems, but he needed to stay there until they were sure about everything.  Wilma and I drove up on Saturday, Rachelle was released from the Marion hospital on Sunday and a friend brought her down.  Titus was sent home on Monday, Sept 2.

I can't speak highly enough of the people in the Children's hospital and the facility was absolutely wonderful!  They had only moved in 2 months ago.  Each of the babies is in a private room with a couch that Josh could (kind of) sleep on.  The nurse said in the old hospital, there would have been about 6 children in space this size and each set of parents would have had about 4 feet between their child's bed and the child next to them.

On Saturday, we couldn't hold him because he had an IV in his umbilical cord.  They had to be sure there was nothing going on.

On Sunday, when the results of a certain test came back, they were able to take that IV out and then we could hold him.  The nurse was talking about what a pleasure it was to take care of a "fat, healthy baby."  When I held him, he felt so tiny!  They have other babies they can hold in the palm of their hand.

He was ready to see mommy when she got there.  And she was ready to see him also!

 

I can't express how much I appreciate Wilma driving me up there.

 

Bob missed it all because he was at the Cedar Valley Engine Club show in Charles City, IA.  He didn't take a picture of the corn sheller, but some of his friends were baling hay.  It was a regular baler, but they were feeding it by hand for display.  He said it was a great show.

 

 

Bob went through Wheaton both going to and coming from Iowa.  He drove past our old house.  It looked pretty much the same.  They have added a raised bed for a vegetable garden between the sidewalk and the driveway.

 

 

When Bob got home, he was back to mowing weeds on the farm.  Except that they were so pretty, he referred to them as his wildflowers.  They still need to be mowed so the cattle can pasture there.  They really are pretty with the purple, yellow and white.

 

Whenever we walk out toward the animal area, the chickens come running.  It's hard to walk without stepping on them.  It's funny to watch, though.

 

 

And then, we went to the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus.  It was a magical evening and we all had a wonderful time, especially J.  Claude and Sallie and us were glad we had the excuse of a child so we could go.

 

 

J is a real problem-solver.  He was playing with his hat at home the next day and it wouldn't stand up on his head - so he unrolled a roll of toilet paper and stuffed it with that.  Light weight enough to be on his head and it stood up tall.  I don't know if his parents have seen the toilet paper mess yet upstairs.



 

 Another couple wonderful weeks in the Bluegrass!  With side trips to Iowa, Illinois and Indiana.