Saturday and work

I have people coming to work and paint today!  It's Labor Day and I intend to do just that!   Yesterday was a whirlwind of activity with my realtor coming to bring me a check, Bev here,Debbie here--her mother had a stroke yesterday and there is no brain activity.   I did go out to eat with Sam Duncan from Southeast Health (pictured) and we had a good time!

Now I have to go!  Heather and mark are ready to scrape the closet in my bedroom and paint!   I have let this go way too long!

Sara Jane Stacy Dyer's Birthday

I won't say what her age is today because you would add at least 20 years on and think that was a good approximation of my age.   But, it is Sara's birthday and here is what I wrote on Facebook:

It is Sara Dyer's birthday today, my darling daughter.  She is the one who does all the things I could never do.  She can decorate a house like no one else and can do all the man-work involved in the effort.  In fact, that girl can do anything she sets out to do...and that includes singing like an angel, dancing like a devil and devoting herself to her entire family.  She does any mother proud!  I'm proud to be her mother!

And I am!  Happy Birthday, Sara.   Enjoy!

Going Home

I went home to Charleston last night for the visitation for George Simmons.   The main reason I went was for his wife, Dr. Sue Shepard.   You can go home again if you are willing to accept and adapt to all the changes.  First place, the Methodist Church is on East Marshall Street instead of Main Street and all the people you think you might know in the visitation line are older than you remember.   I talked to Jim Cullison and Jim Moreton in the line and then Betty Hearnes and Pam Ferrell came in.   There was a delegation from SEMO in the back of the line  -- Loretta Prater, Mary Ann Deline and Smith and Simin Cwick .   I visited with everyone I knew to visit with and I didn't dally.

It was a big afternoon to me.   My rental house sold and that is done.  Yea.   I got in the car with Mark and Heather, went to Charleston and came back and ate at Logan's.   I was still a bit undone when I finally came home.  Went to bed and left the lights on downstairs.   Today I will get back down to a sense of reality.

And the load is off for the rent house.  Yea!

at 75th birthday party

I whispered to my sister, Betty, that I sold my rent house and she said, "You should never have bought that which I knew!   I had to get back to Cape.   Hardly had time to say anything else!   She was with Pam Ferrell.

George Simmons and the day!

This is a day which runs by the hours, not the minutes.   First, I go to lunch with Jim and Lynn Hillin, who are long-time friends (and former neighbors).  Then if I hold my mouth right, the sale will go through on my rent house and that will be off my shoulders.   Kara Gendron, my realtor, has been wonderful.  Then I head to Charleston for the visitation of George Simmons, husband of Dr. Sue Shepard.   And then back home -- Mark and Heather are taking me although Mary Ann Deline asked me to go with her car.  I was afraid that I would need the time at the bank finalizing the loan and I want nothing to interfere with that.

This will be a "running, running " day and I am pleased to make the run.   I send my sympathy to Sue, who has stood by George these last years.  I want to go down later and drink coffee with her and talk.

Then, this mornning

I have to read a huge packet of materials about the Mansion

and do my homework.

Nerve Gas

I cannot even comprehend a country who would use nerve gas on their own people.    It is not a country;  it is a bunch of barbarians if it is true and the inspectors and John Kerry leave no doubt of its veracity.  I am pulled --I want our country to respond but I don't want to be drawn into a war.   Isn't that always the yin and the yang of every issue.  Someone should do something but leave me out of it.   I am guilty of that also.

I can pray and I automatically pray as I look at the faces of these parents and their children dying.   Why do we have to live in a world where people fire nerve gas at others, or where black teenagers kill a white athlete because they are bored or where people do terrible things to each other because they can.  Who stops all of this or do we learn to live in fear?

Or do I want them to stop it over there before it comes closer!

Monday and taking stock...

I have the same routine every morning!  I get my "Miss Henry" composition book which I write in religiously, write down my tasks for the day, break them down into smaller tasks and start going down the list and checking off!  It has always worked for me!

And it will today!  It becomes mentally manageable!  

Has the church abdicated its responsibility or what?

I am getting tired of watching newscasts go on infinitum about the crises we are facing in our country and blaming elected officials and educators and social psychiatrists (whoever those are) for all the woes of the culture.   I say, hand a bunch of blame back on our churches who are too busy hiring staff members to do anything they can do to keep the money coming in so that we have a church on every block, deliberately not working together. 

And who have they abdicated to?  People who see what needs to be done although they have no background in theology but their movement is growing like mad.   Like for one, Sandra Brossman.  She has started a Holistic Health Service and her Facebook reports that she has provided spiritual coaching to hundreds of individuals.  She features on mind, body, and spiritual healing.   And her references:  Education in Rosemont College where she received her holistic studies accreditation, and then at the Center for Human Integration Studies were she gained some certificates.   But she has 266,270 followers, according to her site.

And she has a new book on the market!  One of her fans FBed me to tell me how she had changed her life.  I'm not knocking Sandra Brossman.   She is making it big in her world, apparently.   But I don't want her providing spiritual coaching to me or physical healing.  I will stay with theologians and medical doctors. 

My question is "Why are people like Sandra Brossman providing spiritual coaching to hundreds of individuals?"   Her bio does not suggest that she has any tie with any church and her credentials are lacking in theology and medicine, in my mind.   Why do we have a church on every corner, competing for congregational dollars?   Have the churches in our time majored on the minor?   Have the churches failed to be relevant to individuals, society, education, values-systems---all the things that are seemingly breaking down before our eyes---and allowing anyone with savvy to take over in their place?

Maybe it is time for congregations to become less interested in their keeping their congregation intact and more about grabbing hold of what needs to be done outside the four walls of the physical church.

It's Saturday and I am doing nothing!

I slept the clock around and I intend to do as little as possible today.  No appointments, no schedules.   Just watch a movie or watch the world go by.  I had a wretched day yesterday waiting to go sign papers for the rental house property which never happened and I had to sit here waiting all day.   Only person I saw was Gloria.

So that has been postponed until Wednesday and I get to do planning for today or nothing if I choose.  It's too hot to be outside so here goes nothing.

Go on with the world today, God.  I won't be involved.

But I am praying for you, Daniel, today and your family.  Your pictures give me joy and they show me how happy you are!   You are cherished!

Meeting Malaysian families -- a time remembered!

In 1989 I boarded a plane with 11 other people and headed for Malaysia (May 18, 1989) .   I was scared to death, never had been out of the country, was going through a terrible divorce and was at a time in my life when I thought, "What could make this worse? So I go down in flames"!    I was feeling pretty sorry for myself and I boarded that plane.   Margaret Popham was leading the tour and she had arranged for each of us to stay with the families of our Malaysian students here on campus.

The tour group was Margaret and Ron Popham, Sue and Ed Burford, Edna Brandt, Joan Wells Gohn, Grace Hoover (who was my roommate and threatened everyone not to say one thing to me about the divorce I found out later), Jerry and Carolyn Pickens, and Barb and Bill Port.   What a wonderful group--and we came back friends for life!

Malaysia was so different and so exciting.   Staying in the homes was so different.  When we got off the plane, there were about 25 alums there to meet us and we had a celebration with satey and drinks all around.   I stayed with Fazmin and his family and we all tried to get together on weekends.  I shall try to forget the Saturday night meal of bird eggs.  It was a land of motorcycles, Muslim culture--I tried to inculcate myself into praying 5 times a day when they prayed but did not totally get into that.   The fried rice served was the hottest in my history and if I never smell another durian, it will be too soon.

But the trip---and the reaching out to other lands and customs--caused me to expand my arms to welcome every international student who would like to be a Redhawk.    It became a time of real, unexpected joy!

Jerry and Carolyn Pickens, Edna Brandt and Joan Gohn at the airport arrival.

Grace Hoover,  family of Rusten (Host family to Grace) and me on outing.

Prosperity preachers

Facebook is alive and well with stories from moderate preachers who are finally attacking "Prosperity Preachers " like Joyce Meyer and Joel Osteen, who say that people can leverage their way with God by shelling out the cash to them, basically.   I dislike both of them and I dislike what they preach.   Joyce Meyer is arrogant and has a primer in theology  -- certainly not ready for prime time and Joel took his dad's church and is moving on with it.  Not to mention her IRS investigations in which she (and her second husband and children) are richly blessed and that is not a debatable fact.  A far cry from the life I led in my home as a pastor's child or my life as a President's wife at the University.   And she is teaching me a theology course!  Not as long as I have breath enough to get up and turn the television off.

I can't stomach these people or their theology.  I would turn completely from religion if I thought that they spoke for my God.  I am continually finding my God as I move through experiences and sadnesses and happinesses.   And I find that he gives me strength as I ponder my mistakes....along the way.   I don't shell out to him thinking I can win his favor.  The idea is reprehensible to me.   I can't bear these standard-bearers who are getting wealthy off the backs of people who do not have the money to waste.

It seems like the church is trying to meet the times by jumping on any thing and everything.  Deliver me from a church that spends most of its time bringing in musical groups,  amateur theatrical groups, and all the entertainment world.   I passed a church in Cape Girardeau yesterday advertising a "Pet Blessing service" on their billboard.   I am not a pet lover so I found that a bit strange for a church program advertisement.

  I will stay home and study and I will get far more out of it than listening to Joyce Meyer or Joel Osteen on television.   I have learned to create my own church, in the sanctity of my home...and I don't even need to leave home.   I leave home to expand this church into ministry and it is working for me.  I'm not knocking it for others;  it is just not the road on which I am currently working.  God did not fail me;  the church has just failed to meet my needs in these years. 

And part of it is because of Joyce Meyers of the world.

Moving In Day on Campus

It was always excitingly frustrated to come to Moving In Day on campus.  The traffic was mind-boggling and everyone was on edge and people were frustrated and parents were at their wit's end and nothing was normal and yet one sensed that this day was a new beginning.   I miss being there!   It's not often I say that since retirement lulls me away from "The Hill".

I love meeting new students.  Still do, today.  I love hearing their stories and listening to them.   Jay Wolz, alumni director, once praised me for being able to talk to anyone and everyone.   I corrected him by saying truthfully, "I am a great listener;   I listen to what people are really saying."  I always listened to students --more than I did to any other group.   Moving Day gave me a new chance to meet others and make new bonds.   I would take nothing for the experience!    Especially, all the years of being advisor to Homecoming Steering Committee.    What a wonderful mental legacy!

I see students everywhere.  Last week I went into the office at Mo. Delta Hospital in Sikeston and Sharon Urhahn said,  "Mrs. Stacy,  do you remember me?   I was at SEMO during your reign!"   (I didn't know I had a reign.   I think they would have spelled it "rain"?"    But I was delighted to see her and it was great to remember!

So bring on the Moving Day!   Even if I am staying far away today, I am thinking of you all.  And praying for you all!

Big, Big News!!

Big, big news!!! Adam and Leah bought a house in Houston. He will be going to work soon down there at a new job and Leah's parents live there. Sara is down there right now helping them buy a house.

Ready for the day!

I have appointments with my real estate broker and my painter this morning, then meet my scholarship recipient this morning and have lunch with Tom Harte! Full day!  I have to do a study on accounting also so I know what I have! 

So I am blogging about the future and the past!  This is my sister, Rose Marie who is seventeen months older than I! Let me see past and future as I continue to search for and find meaning!

Grant for Hearnes Museum

Third Grant Announced By The Kellerman Foundation

Friday, August 16, 2013
User-submitted story by Annie Criddle

The Late Warren E. Hearnes

Third Grant Announced By The Kellerman Foundation The Kellerman Foundation for Historic Preservation, whose new office will be located at 1856 Broadway Cape Girardeau, Missouri , awarded a new grant on August 12, 2013 to Kathleen Reynolds, for further evaluation of the Warren E. Hearnes Museum in Charleston, Missouri. "This is an honor for us to be able to guide the project and it will add credibility to our mission all across the State of Missouri." --Dr. Mary Ann Kellerman, President of The Kellerman Foundation.
Warren E. Hearnes was the 46th governor of Missouri, and became the state's first two-term governor, holding office from 1965 until 1973. Governor Hearnes was raised in Charleston Missouri, and graduated from West Point in 1946. Hearnes became Missouri's youngest state representative in 1951, an office he held until becoming Missouri secretary of state in 1961. During his time as governor, Hearnes championed the underprivileged and mentally ill, establishing multiple mental health institutions, providing more funding to public education, and signing multiple civil rights reform acts, helping end racial discrimination and segregation. Upon leaving office, Hearnes became a partner in a St. Louis law firm, and moved back to Charleston, devoting the rest of his career to serving his community, as the director of Southeast Missouri Legal Services. Governor Hearnes died at his home in Charleston in 2009.

Kathleen Reynolds

The purpose of this project is to assess the current content of the Warren E. Hearnes Museum, conduct filmed interviews with Mrs. Hearnes about her husband's life in public office, create a list of resources on Governor Hearnes throughout the state for public use, and prepare a traveling exhibit on the life and career of Governor Hearnes which can be displayed at Charleston's Azalea Festival, The Kellerman Foundation office, and other events throughout the state. "The grant provides an exceptional opportunity for The Kellerman Foundation to initiate important work on the collection of papers that are held in the Hearnes Museum in Charleston. This would definitely be an important grant opportunity for the Foundation. I strongly support this." --Dr. Frank Nickell, Consultant for the Cape Girardeau office of The State Historical Society of Missouri and Member of the Board of The Kellerman Foundation. Ms. Reynolds, a 2013 graduate of Southeast Missouri State University, holds an M.A. in history as well as a graduate certificate in heritage education, will be researching and compiling the list of available sources on Hearnes, and preparing the traveling exhibit. She will be assisted by Aaron Eisenhauer. Mr. Eisenhauer, a Southeast Missouri area photographer who holds a degree in photojournalism from the University of Missouri, will be in charge of photographing the current content of the museum and conducting the video interviews with Mrs. Hearnes.
The purpose of The Kellerman Foundation is to provide for the protection and preservation of architectural structures, as well as preservation and maintenance of historical artifacts, history, and culture of Southeast Missouri. For more information, visit The Kellerman Foundation's Facebook page, or call Annie Criddle, Executive Director, at 573-275-1052.

Don't waste your life

Just have bought in to John Piper and his writings! I see that Daniel Shelby has reviewed this book also!  Piper says:  "God created us to live with a single passion to joyfully display his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life!  The wasted life is the life without this passion!"

I think, on reflection, that this has a crucial bearing on why I am so troubled and adrift about the gulfs in my own family.  I build relationships!  That is my strength and gift!  But my siblings and their families...that seems to be an unspannable abyss to me mentally!

I need to concentrate on those who make the effort to reach out!  God says that is enough!  I believe him!

Start the day with Lucas!

Lucas Presson and I started the day with our usual monthly breakfast at My Daddy's Cheesecake!   It is always lively and flowing!  He knows all the scoop about the city goings on (though he says I know more than he does).  He worked for me as a student and now he is at Southeast Missourian!

The talk is alive here about a woman being killed and found in burning car in Scott City! I read all this and try to figure out the killer!  It's a little Peyton Place, we used to call it

I enjoy being with him!

A Day for Myself

I deliberately told the girl that normally works on Friday not to come today.  I needed a day to do what I wanted to do without thinking up something for another person to do.   So I slept a full night, got up at 8:30 and drank coffee, read the paper, checked the computer and now it is 10:21 and I am ready to start the day and do nothing or something.  My choice!

I like that kind of day and I am ready for it.

This picture was made at my 70th birthday party when the kids had it at RoseBed Inn.   It was a fun night and seems like years ago.  Which it was!    I am still queen of my own destiny and proud of it.   When I go to nursing home to visit, I think God that I am am still capable of making my own decisions and I am grateful for every day that I am allowed to live in this way.  To me, that alternate is not living--it is surviving!

Autism teacher

Years ago, when I retired alumni friends contributed to a scholarship in my name! Today I met the recipient , Amy Slinkard Diamond, who is a senior with an emphasis in autism!  I learned more about autism over lunch than I had in years!

Amy is married and has three boys and it takes every dime to live.  I want to stay close to her!

Sikeston day

NHad a great time visiting at Missouri Delta hospital with Blair Moran and Marcy Lawson!  Blair is retiring after 19 years as director of development and Marcy is taking the job!   It was good to see Blair!

I like what I see of the hospital and I hope to be more involved!   They have gotten good reviews for patient care!

Finally feeling better!

Worked all day yesterday.   Had to have meetings all day with:

l.   Press release people  (Annie Criddle, Kathleen Reynolds) to discuss the Kellerman project.  Finally got it out and nailed down.
2.  Mark Hoffmeister came to clean out the garage and carry off trash.
3.  Kara Gendron came to sign the final papers for the rent house sale.
4,   Debbie Bickings came to do my hair.
5.  Meleia Sides came to clean house and do errands.

So I had a full house and was busy.   Today I deliberately am doing less.  Gloria is coming to do house because she was not here last week.    And oh yes, I talked to Betty Hearnes and Sara Dyer on the phone.   Leah got home from her opera stint and  I hope that is the last time she goes on that stint.   I hope she comes to that realization on her own.   Things happen.

Today I shall rest and do less.   Yesterday when I was cleaning I found my wedding picture, I cut up in the bottom of the drawer and I laughed and laughed.   Hope you will too!

So I'm feeling better!

I think I am back from the dead.   It's Monday morning and I slept most of the night and was not up with coughing bouts.   First thing -- Matt Porter sent me the story about my contribution to Daddy on semissourian.com.  I put it on FB. Here is the story as shared on Southeast Missorian's website.

Donation for campus meal ministry 

Sunday, August 11, 2013

seMissourian.com

Jane Cooper Stacy, former director of alumni services and director of development at Southeast Missouri State University, recently gave a donation to the ministry of the Baptist Student Center at Southeast in memory of her father, the late Rev. Allen B. Cooper of Charleston, Mo. Cooper was the first executive secretary of the campus ministry and Stacy was the first summer missionary sent by the Baptist Student Center, conducting vacation Bible schools in Washington and Oregon in 1957. The fund for the donation, named after Cooper, will be used to defray the cost of a free Sunday-night meal at the center that is open to all students on campus, with an emphasis on international students. The startup gift will enable the meal ministry to continue for the first semester and expand to include more international students.

A piece of the puzzle!

I am glued to the television watching the story of the kidnapper friend of the family who killed the woman and the son, and took the 16 year old daughter, Hannah.  They just killed him and rescued Hannah in Idaho.   Everyone is trying to decide why the family did not pick up on clues and why he was not "profiled" by a family.   I wish someone would have asked me!   People, do you not know that you cannot profile a person, whether it is a person close to you, a person who is in the family, a person who passes you on the street or a casual friend unless you have all the pieces of the puzzle which keeps the person together  ---and that seldom happens!     People don't share all the pieces; especially when that person has grown up maintaining a sense of secrecy or moves into another phase of his/her life, or just does not care or know enough to share.

We see what we want to see!   We see what we are allowed to see!   I have seen family members profess to "understand" another family member, in a time of crisis, and have realized how little they knew about the person involved.   They have seen what they have allowed themself to see!   How much of another person's life was covered from their eyes!   The missing  pieces of the puzzle were hidden from view. 

Are there angels among us?

It's Sunday.  Time to think theologically.   And the word from a Missouri wreck (Hannibal area) which has gone to national news is about a girl who was hit by a drunk driver, tools of extrication were not working, and they were losing her, when she asked everyone to pray aloud.   All of a sudden, a man showed up, in priestly attire, calmed everyone and told them that the tools would work, and he anointed her.  And everything happened just the way he told them it would.  But when the planes airlifted the girl to the hospital, and they turned around to thank the priest, he was gone, and out of the 69 pictures that were taken, there were no pics of him.   The fire chief declared it to be a miracle.  And that has been open to some debate...

What do you believe in these circumstances?   And what happens, if you discover that there was some kind of scam in the mix.   We don't know the answers.   Soren Kierkegaard put it, "By faith, Abraham went out from the land of his fathers and became a sojourner in the land of promise.  He left one thing behind and took one thing with him.  He left his earthly understanding behind him and took faith with him.   Otherwise he could never have gone forth."    Some things, like the mystery priest, I accept in faith.   He was there.  He made good things happen.   It is good enough for me!

Happy Sunday morning!

Good morning, Saturday!

Today is a wonderful day because it is Nathaniel Colin Dyer's birthday!   And he is extra special in every way.   Have a wonderful birthday, Angel Baby Colin!

 I am home all day on the couch.  I have been fighting a sinus infection and yesterday it turned into an intestinal running to bathroom.  Thank goodness I did not go to the meeting at the Mansion on Friday morning or I would have had to pull over and get a motel.   Better today and I am cancelling everything and staying in and doing nothing.   I hate being sick!

So enjoy your weekend.  Make the most of every day and hour.  And take time for yourself.  Find your own peace!   Good advice.  Wish I had memorized it earlier!

In memory of Jim Cooper

Last night my nieces and nephews joined me at Southeast Hospital to present one of Dr David Crowes photographs in memory of Jim Cooper.    Present were Lisa Warren, Jamee and James and Clay Shelby also!   We had such a good time and memory!   The photograph looks like Arkansas!  I gave my copy to Lisa for her living room!

The tree of life

Years ago,when I got my seminary degree, Kim mothershead came out and planted a weeping cherry in my front yard,   Yesterday I showed it to her son, Clay, when he came to take me out to eat lunch!   Life goes on !

It is tough to remember the bad times and yet, we must!   We went to Broussards, ate red beans and rice, and remembered!

You can go home again!

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon with Art Wallhausen, fellow Charlestonian and fellow employee at the University and we laughed and laughed.   It was great to talk about the past with someone who actually knows the cast of characters.  We talked about all of our grade school teachers:  Lella Harris, Hallie Hisey, Mabel Roberts, Alice Faris, Mattie Henry, wow!   Can't believe all the things we remembered. And we had one male teacher, Bill Eskridge, maybe not up to their standards, but a man!

Our lives were intertwined.   It was interesting to look back and remember.

We talked about all the Cooper family and all the Wallhausen family and how their lives have melded together.   I am glad that they did!

My sister, Velna Cooper Brown

Today would have been her birthday and it reminded me of all the good times we have had as a family with her.  My brother, Jim, called her "Burp a Burp Burp" because she flew around doing everything at the same time.   He said she could teach a piano lesson, run to kitchen to can pickles in a hot water bath, and then run to the Singer sewing and make a dress for her to wear tomorrow. 

She was a true Renaissance woman.  Happy Vee-Day!

Starting a new week!

I worked all day yesterday getting ready for a new week --even making a notebook with all my events and information in it.   I can never get past my long-time experience of getting ready for a new week.   But the truth is, it helps me prepare and cope and that is worth the doing.

I made calls this weekend:   Mark Stacy, Evelyn Boardman, Julia Warren, Lisa Warren, Betty Hearnes, Lois Boston all for the purpose on catching up with the news.   There was not that much news but the catch up was important.    I learned all sorts of things about the Arkansas Cooper family and that, too, was important to me.   Links should continue.

A lot of the stuff I do is for my parents.  My Dad, especially.  He dragged us to Ava, and to Melbourne, and to Twin Creek so he could be a part of "family".   I, too, like to keep the family ties together.   The ties have been frayed in the last years and I tried to retreat, also.   But, in the end, family matters!

An old Cooper Family Picture

For years I have had the pic of the old Cooper Family and finally decided this week that I should track people down and share it.  I don't know some of the people on the picture but on the back row are Uncle Jeff, Uncle Marvin "Skeet", Allen B. (my dad) and Uncle Ewell "Witt".      The woman in the middle, I think, is Miss Lillie, who married Grandpa but was the only Grandmother I knew.  Aunt Minnie Rimer is on the end.  If you know others, let us know.   The picture is made in front of Skeet's house, I believe.

I am talking with Gayle about this picture and he is sending me some other people who are FB.   Uncle Jeff had three children:   Mary, Bud (William Jefferson) and Linda.   Skeet had:  Imogene, Owen "Bud", James Allen, Gayle, Paul Hayden.    Daddy had:  Autry, Velna, Julia, Betty, Jennie, Jim, Rose Marie and Janie. (Autry, Velna and Jim are deceased).  Ewell had:   James Henry, Cleo, Bobby, Gaylene and Gwenadell.  Their sister, Maude, had two daughters:  Faye Byrum and Lorene Montgomery.   How am I doing off the cuff?        Daddy was big on "his people".  Maybe I will spend this Sunday trying to reconnect!   I enjoyed going to Melbourne to see Skeet and to Twin Creek to see Jeff and then to Ava, Missouri to see Ewell where he had Cooper Lumber Company.

Small investment

My dad used to say" Never be afraid to ask people for money for a cause that is dear to you!"  And I wasn't!  Semo scholarship program is and was dear to me!  I asked people for money and I gave my own money. It is an investment in someone's future.

Yesterday I went to Capaha Park with Eric Miller, who receives my brother,  Jim Cooper's scholarship!  We ate sandwiches from Jimmy John's and I listened to his dreams!  What a great return on my small investment!

Friday and counting!

So the St. Louis trip was a bit wearing on me!  I will just take more Advil.  I'm not counting myself out on anything.   I slept and got up to a new set of plans.  Mark Hoffmeister is here and when someone is here working I get energized.  So here goes.   I have to have Mark go over and check a leaking water heater at the rent house -- hallelujah he is here;   I have to get ready for meetings next week including one in Mansion in Jefferson City on Friday.   I have work to do.  But I have the weekend to get it done.

So lunch today with Eric Miller, who has Jim's scholarship at SEMo..  I love to be with the scholarship recipients and I love his pic on FB

Does he look mighty or not?   He came to my 75th Birthday party and had a blast!

On a "road trip" to St Louis today!

I was the queen of "road trips" when I was SEMO alumni director.   I went to see people when they lost a person in their family or when a person expressed an interest in "seeing me".   I was there.  I learned that I could not (or should not) schedule more than three separate visits because I could not keep up my enthusiasm after three visits plus allow for travel.   Today, I am going with Amanda Lincoln, Director of Development, primarily to express condolences to the family of Dr. Gene Engelhardt, who died May 7.  He was principal at Lindbergh.  I want to personally express condolences to his widow, Delba, and to his children.

Then we will have coffee before and after with two other alums who missed my birthday party and have called here asking for me to come up:   Mike Grojean and Jerry Morgan.  Both of these were so active in my St. Louis Chapter.

It will be a fun time for me to remember and laugh.  Gene, you went a 'fer piece' from your days in Qulin, Missouri!