Oklahoma

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The big 30, sweepers, and concrete

Yep, I finally made the 30 pounds I wanted to gain after returning from the severe weight loss I suffered in England.  Just Kidding.  After last night’s 12 oz of prime rib, I may be pushing the pre-England weight (which I have never actually reclaimed).  Really though, yesterday was supposedly a momentous occasion.  I lived to the ripe age of thirty.  So what do I have to account for my birthday?  Approximately at 10:08 AM CST I passed the 30 year mark in age.  I passed it at school preparing for legal profession.  I spent 11 hours at school, my wife picked me up, we went to dinner at a steakhouse, and I ate so much I had to come home and go pretty much straight to bed.  Does that sound old or what?

I guess if we count the dozens of Facebook messages and comments, in-person birthday wishes, phone calls, and e-mails I guess it was a pretty good day.  Thanks to Facebook, more people knew about the birthday than I would ever have imagined.  Who would have thought Facebook would have changed our lives so much in a few short years of our existence?  Really though, I am very appreciative of everyone’s sympathetic mourning.  In all honesty, I really don’t feel any older than the day I returned from British soil in December 2000.  The only thing physically I may have to mark any passage of time would be the deterioration of my eyes, which I attribute more to law school than I do to age.  Age to a guy doesn’t really seem to matter.  Unlike women who round it up to the nearest quarter century.  (Kinda like guys losing weight in the mirror where women gain it).  We wear the same clothes were wore ten years ago and think it really is ten years ago, and that we look it.  It really was just another day for me with an excuse to go out to eat something beyond what we really should have paid for.

Moving beyond the birthday, I have a couple of observations to make.  Just some musing and thoughts I can provide, even if not from wisdom.

This deals with more of quirky Oklahoma.  I had to learn some more of the lingo recently and thought I would share.  In church a few weeks back, I was asked to help sweep after classes was done.  I agreed and was assigned to sweep each of the classrooms.  Dutifully, I went to the janitor’s office and got a broom and dustpan thingy.  Each of the classrooms though had carpet!  After trying to sweep up the little chunks in the classrooms I finally just went and got a vacuum and then vacuumed each of the classrooms.  I made a mental note that I needed to inform the Elders Quorum President that the classrooms have carpet and not floors for sweeping.

A week or two later we are serving in the temple and find ourselves on the cleaning crew after the last endowment.  As I go to the janitor’s
office, the lady tells me to sweep the endowment rooms.  I then walk towards the broom with a nagging knowledge that the endowment rooms
have carpet.  I thought, “Wow, these Oklahoman’s sure do things the hard way.”  As I went to leave she asked me what I was doing.  I said,
“I am going to sweep the endowment rooms.”  She then pointed at the vacuums and said, “Why don’t you take a sweeper, it will be a whole lot
easier.”  Suddenly, a light dawned in my aged mind and I said something like, “you mean you call vacuuming ‘sweeping’?”  She nodded with a
puzzled look and told me to go sweep.  As I was sweeping the carpets with the sweeper, I wondered what they called the motion of using a
broom on floors.  Brooming?  Scooting?  Brushing?  Scratching?  I still don’t know.  I was afraid of looking like an idiot to ask anyone.  I
will probably find out soon enough.  “Brother Ross, will you go scoot the floors in the far hall for us?” I will be walking to the janitors
office looking for something to do some scooting.

Our sprinkler system continues to go in between the rain clouds.  For the most part, much of the pipe is in place and most of the heads are on.  In fact, most of the trenches are even filled in.  But the rain keeps coming nearly every weekend and the poor sprinkler system people cannot seem to get it finished.  Need rain?  Put in a sprinkler system.  Kinda like washing the car.  Do it, and the rains come.

I have continued to remove the concrete pad in the backyard.  It has turned out to be a multiple month workout!  Who would have thought a little 8′ X 12′ concrete pad would take 3 months to remove only half?  As lazy as that makes me sound, let me add some flesh to this ‘pad’.  It turns out that this little pad in the backyard has concrete 9 inches thick in places!  Thank goodness the individuals didn’t have access to rebar, but they were kind enough to put a layer or two of fence in the concrete near the bottom.  I purchased a 20 pound sledge hammer thinking I could have the thing done in a week.  This long later, and I am only half done.  I had to buy a spike to break the stuff apart.  I had to pull out my little sledges to drive the spike.  I had to dig around the perimeter of the pad so as I cracked it, it had somewhere to go.  Once I get a crack, I have to take the spike to it and then hope the fence inside will break.  As it slowly severs away, I have to bend it back and forth until the fence wire finally breaks.  Then I heave the block to the side and start again.  This process is painfully slow, exhausting, and in our humidity, draining.

What really justifies my taking so long deals also with the garbage man.  With these massive blocks of concrete, I have considerable weight problems.  The garbage truck will not pick up a garbage can that weights more than roughly 100-125 pounds.  So I can put about 2 cubit yards of concrete in the bottom and I am really pushing the limit.  Any extra garbage on the top just might throw me over.  There is more though.  The garbage truck is like a stinky old man with a hernia though.  If the garbage can is overweight, the driver has to rev up the truck to get the hydralics where they need to be.  Doing this speeds up something inside the truck and the 3 minutes the truck sits on the side of the road trying to pick it up, or get it all the way upside down leaves a huge puddle of garbage ooze compressed from within the truck.  It stinks, looks disgusting, and we pray for more rain.

I have two garbage cans, but in the past month, two of them have been left for me to reallocate half the load to the other garbage can.  Meaning, I lost two weeks in the last month alone where I could not send more concrete to the garbage cemetery.  So my little pile beside the pad has continued to grow, week by week.  I had another can rejected last Tuesday, so again this Tuesday, I cannot add more to the garbage going out.

The sprinkler man decided not to use one of his trenches, so I must confess, it is filling up with concrete chunks.  Anything smaller than about 4 cubit inches usually ends up in the trench now.  When it is within about 3 or 4 inches of the top of the trench, then I fill it in.  The extra dirt will be used to fill the gaping hole where my concrete pad was located.  I am going to have to get a load of dirt in to fill this hole I am creating.  Geez, if it isn’t one thing or another!  Amanda warned me that it was not necessary the concrete pad be removed.  Now I wish I had listened.

 

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Great Uncle and Aunts

Who would believe the 25th of February is almost here?  I cannot believe how fast the months fly when you have your head in books.  The odd part is that I don’t feel like I am doing a very good job of keeping up with the reading.  I cannot tell you how excited I am for the next semester where they add one more substantive class and remove the writing class.  What will I do with life then?  I need to start working on being more diligent and proactive.

In visiting with a couple of the 2L’s I feel somewhat comforted with the notion of what is called mental fatigue.  I think my eyes finally just accepted the fact they are going to be tired and quit twitching.  Who knows. the twitch probably just moved to my neck or shoulder with a slight noise from the mouth when I do it.  At any rate, this is not a new phenomenon.  I thought perhaps I was going prematurely old or something wrong with the synapses in my brain where I would think one thing and completely say another.  Just today in visiting, rather than saying doctor, I said dentist.  To correct myself, I went to say doctor but somehow defendant come out.  After a short pause, doctor finally came out.  I laughed, Andrew laughed, and the conversation went on.

This weekend was a delightsome weekend.  My Great Uncle Donald and Aunt Lolane Andra came to visit.  They arrived on Friday and left this morning.  They finished their mission around the 6th of February and have been working their way through the country back home.  They stopped for a week in Nauvoo, then a week in Branson, and a weekend in Oklahoma City.  They are next headed to Tucson.  They will spend a few days there and up to St. George for a month or so before up to Chubbuck/Pocatello.  Don and Lolane are sure a lot of fun.  We went to the Western Heritage Museum here in Oklahoma City.  I enjoyed it.  Like most museums though, my feet and knees grew tired of the walking around endless hours on hard floors.  I will need to go back to truly appreciate much of what was there.  We went out to Pops Soda Shop in Arcadia and enjoyed a meal.  Don and Lolane particularly enjoyed it.  We all did.

Sunday we ventured to church.  They thought the ward was very open and friendly.  I am pleased the ward was so open and friendly to them.  It wasn’t quite so much when we got here.  But it certainly has improved.  Afterward we ran out to the Oklahoma City Temple and walked around the grounds and took some pictures.  After serving in the Washington DC Temple for the past 18 months they were quick to notice how tiny the temple is here.  That most certainly is true!  I assured them it was well used and loved.

We wandered off to the Oklahoma City Memorial.  The weather turned out to be beautiful.  It could have been a little warmer, but it was sure a nice day.  They really enjoyed that as well.  It really is a well-done memorial.  We returned to our little home to enjoy a full meal and many hours of games.  We filled much of our time on Saturday with games as well.  We sang some old songs together, chatted about old times, visited about family, and genuinely had fun.

On a sad note, I also received news that my Great Aunt Lillian Jonas Talbot passed away on Friday.  She was born in 1930 and lived in Layton, Utah.  She was the sister of my Grandpa I knew the least growing up.  She was the one who let me borrow my Great Grandma’s journals to type them up which are available here on the blog.  She was also the one who had my Great Grandma’s photo albums and let me borrow them to pick out the photos and scan them.  So I came to know her considerably more in the past 10 years.  Apparently she had been to the temple on Friday and she came home and sat down in the chair in the living room and was playing with the dog a little.  When my cousin came back from a run to Walmart, she thought she was taking a nap.  But when she came in, she was gone.  How is that for peaceful and quick?  I hope I am as fortunate.  The funeral will be on Wednesday.  I wish I could go but the cost and time from school are too much for the moment.  I wish the family all the best.

Amanda will surely post some photos from the weekend on our joint blog.  It was an eventful and productive weekend.  Now time to start making up what studying I did not get done!

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2008 in Review

This morning while everyone sleeps, I thought I would give a quick year in review.  Wow, what a year.  Probably the best year of my life.  I hope I can continue to say that every year!

One year ago, it was the first day of being laid off in my life.  Good ole Bank of America laid off the entire Wholesale Division.  My life as a underwriter came to an end as the mortgage industry was obviously in signs of trouble.  I decided to leave the entire industry.  Boy, am I glad I did!  1 January 2008 brought a month of trying, scrambling to find out what to do.  I had severance for a year and my job working professionally as a genealogist.  That carried us through.  I have been doing genealogy for the same family over the Christmas Break to supplement our income.  That is certainly a great blessing.  I know it is a blessing to their family and those who have gone on before as well.  I have probably added more than 2 or 3 generations on each of their family lines.

The first week or two of January I received an offer for employment in Pasco, Washington covering the states of Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming for Inlande Environmental Resources.  I would be making more than 10K more, have my own vehicle, card, and a whole lot more.  The only downside is I would be in Idaho most of the time while Amanda would remain in Virginia to finish her education.  We decided it was a great offer, much better than our options in Virginia, and could help open doors for the future.  The end of January, Brad Hales flew out, and we made a cross country trek in my pickup.  Brad has always been a very generous, kind friend.  Who would have thought a mission to England would have such long lasting repercussions?

February through June found me working for IER working with existing customers and making new sales.  The only big contract I found was with J.B. Swift in Hyrum, Utah.  It was 2 or 3 truckloads a month at present.  They were having so many problems with Thatcher Chemical that it was a fairly easy sell.  Honestly, I was just at the right place at the right time.  I really don’t think I personally did anything that really made the sale but it made me a favorite with the bosses.  We opened quite a few doors.  The big thing I enjoyed was the travel.  Salem, Portland, The Dalles, Weston, Pendleton, Gresham, and more in Oregon.  Toppenish, Yakima, Zillah, Sunnyside, Grandview, Pasco, Kennewick, Wenatchee, and Colfax Washington.  Wenatchee was another example of just being in the right place at the right time.  We were solving a foaming problem with apple concentrate waste.  We just had the right chemical but became known as the defoaming expert!  I also traveled all over Utah, Vernal being the most exotic visit.  I sure enjoyed Inlande Environmental.  They were really good to me and I enjoyed working for them.

May rolled around and I decided to accept an opening at Oklahoma City University for Law School.  I announced it to my bosses and they were more than accepting.  They knew when they interviewed me for the job I was seriously considering law school.  They were so good to me!  In fact, they let me keep my salary through to August while Amanda and I took our trip to Europe and here to Oklahoma City.  Amanda also graduated in May.  Amanda’s parents and I flew out for the big occasion.  We sure had quite a bit of fun!  During the time there we packed everything to move all our stuff to Oklahoma City.  We did a little sight-seeing as well.  Monticello was probably my favorite place to visit and I was fortunate everyone else wanted to go as well.  In the end, I flew back to work in Idaho and Amanda with the in-laws drove to Oklahoma City in a moving truck, and from there to Kaysville in the car.

A big first for the year.  We purchased our first home!  A quaint little 30’s home near 23rd Street NW in Oklahoma City.  A wonderful little home with plenty of things to keep me busy but still liveable.

June rolled around and then Amanda and I went on our very expensive weight loss program.  I can boast losing about 20 pounds running around Europe.  We spent six weeks in Europe.  Many, many firsts for both of us.  We visited friends in Belgium and they were very kind to treat us.  Primarily, it was perfect for getting over jet lag!  We then went crazy in traveling for the next 6 weeks.  About 4 days in Belgium.  We attended a Stake Conference in Antwerp and attended dedicatory prayers in Dutch.  That prepared us for Brugge, and where we spent our next few days in Amsterdam.  We saw the sights and even made a trip to Den Haag.  Off we shot across The Netherlands, across Germany to Berlin, and down to an ancestral home in Dresden.  I still think Dresden was probably my favorite place.  Even better than Vianden or the rest of Luxembourg.  Dresden is also near to Meissen which was another ancestral home.  I would love to spend a week in Dresden.  We shot across Germany through Leipzig down to Augsburg.  There we were based to hit Munchen, Dachau, and Fussen for Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein.  Then we headed off to visit Stuttgart with Neuffen and Holzgerlingen (ancestral towns) before heading to Salzburg.  Salzburg was definitely another favorite.  Gorgeous town.  Then off to sweltering Venice via Innsbruck.  There we spent time in a very different culture and climate in a city on the water with no water to drink!  After Venice, up through Padua to Zurich and down to Bern.  Bern was definitely another favorite.  I really wish we could have spent some good quality time there.  Then off through Lausanne and Geneva for a few wonderful, long, unorganized days in Paris.  If there was ever a point Amanda and I were getting tired it was in Paris.  More with each other than with the city.  But we really enjoyed Paris nevertheless.  If we had been stuck in Amsterdam during this time, we may have been in marital breakdown, but Paris made it bearable.  After Paris, we headed back to Belgium for a day or two before flying off to Prestwick, Scotland.

We then were in a car for the next 3 weeks!  That day we made our way through Glasgow before ending in Edinburgh for some wonderful times there.  We really liked that city.  I could certainly feel we were back in the United Kingdom.  There is a flavor in the air that reeks of Britain.  From there we worked our way down through Manchester, Liverpool, Northern Wales, Birmingham, Bath, Dorset, and finally to London.  In the UK we spent two weeks of it in the old stomping grounds of the England Manchester Mission.  We visited loads of people I knew and tried to balance that with seeing the sites for Amanda.  I think we did a good job.  We also caught up with some long time friends, the Gores and the Byroms.  We also met up with my old missionary companion Elder Gheorghe Simion and his wife who now live in Liverpool.  After the mission we visited ancestral homes near Birmingham, even stumbling on a cemetery in Halesowen with plenty of ‘my’ Coley line.  It was fun.  Bath was quite a bit of fun crashing that night with a cousin in Milton Abbas, a gorgous little Dorset town.  They treated us very, very well.  Then off to London crashing with the Jeppesen’s in Weybridge.  We spent our remaining time with them in their posh house until we flew out.  All in all, we loved our entire trip.  Paris could have used a bit more planning, but the trip as a whole was utterly marvelous.  We feel very, very blessed to have been able to take the trip.

We landed in Utah and the gears started grinding in different ways.  I tried to make sure everything was a successful transition for IER and we headed out for Oklahoma City.  We arrived here the very last week of July.  Before August had arrived we had moved all our possessions into the home and started setting up for the next few years.  I went to work on the yard, Amanda went to work on the inside.  We came to know our ward, get lined up for school, Amanda a dental hygiene license, and job.  Everything fell into place within a month.  I was rolling with law school and Amanda had a job blocks from home.

The rest of the year was fairly uneventful.  I sat trying to recoup some of my weight lost in Europe (I have been unsuccessful, not that I really want it back) in the law school library.  I picked up squash here again.  Amanda works her days away.  I am slowly remodeling a bathroom with all that extra time.  Amanda took up sewing our Halloween costumes and organizing Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Then the year was over!

All in all, what a year!  I feel highly blessed of heaven.  Who could ask for anything more?  We have started paying off student loans for Amanda.  We are also paying for some work done on the house and what little remains of our trip to Europe.  We paid off the washer and dryer, now the refrigerator next.  Then we can start socking it away for retirement (since our retirement took quite a hit in October and since!).  Plus there will be plenty more to do to the house if we should really want to invest.  But all in all, God has been very good to us.  May he continue to light our paths and may we continue to do what is needed to bring down the extra blessings!  I am looking forward to 2009, although I think it will be much less eventful than 2008.  But hey, who knows?

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Family History Haunting

Life continues to go well for Amanda and me.  Another week has flown by with little more than a blink.  It is alarming how quickly they seem to be going.  There are a couple of notes to make besides that of school and work.

I received an e-mail this morning letting me know we now have well over a foot of snow at the homestead in Idaho!  How exciting is that?  We are still in the 80’s here.

Amanda and I have organized a Halloween Party on the 25th of October.  We are pretty excited to have a little get together of about 25-30 here at our home.  We are really looking forward to it.  We are even going to get our sewer half of our plumbing done before then so we have our main bathroom’s sink and toilet available.  Baby steps!  Hopefully they won’t look behind the shower curtain to see the missing bathtub and rotten floor.  One of the guys at school has joked about coming as Mom.  It will be the 10th anniversary.

I went to another little auction yesterday up in Guthrie.  If you wouldn’t believe it, I found another couple of steals.  I came home with some Shakespeare volumes (from 1881!) and about 150 other books for $2.50.  Some of the other books included a Hemingway set of 3, a Dickens set of 4, and 1930’s Treasure Island, and other random interesting books.  Looking online, I could make over $100 for my $2.50.  However, most of the volumes I could sell I wanted for my own collection.  We kept about 20.  The other 100+ will be going to the thrift store.  I did find a little hall table for $2.50.  We will have to sand it down and clean it up, but Amanda has already declared she loves it.  I walked away with a bow saw, a water cooler, and other little random things.  It was worth it.  Holt, from school also went, and he picked up some great deals too.

Today was a busy day.  We didn’t set our clocks for getting up so we missed the first 15 minutes of church.  We missed Amanda being sustained on the Enrichment Committee.  We also missed the Sacrament.  I am feeling a bit inactive since we have now missed it for two weeks.  Apostasy setting in!  I made up for it after church.  I went with the missionaries and we tried to find about 15 lost sheep for more than 3 hours.  We were able to locate some good information.  I was happy to report about 15 individuals to the Elder’s Quorum President with address updates for at least 8 of them.  Most of them are not in our ward so they will have to be sent elsewhere.

I haven’t told anyone, but I have been asked to teach some of the family history classes for the new FamilySearch.  My first class was on Friday night.  There were about 50 people there.  I was slightly deceived on what I was teaching.  I thought I was teaching a small number of family history consultants for the Oklahoma City Stake.  Nope.  I was teaching Family History Stake Directors for the entire Oklahoma City Temple District.  There were individuals there from Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma.  All over the temple district!  The class was apparently such a success they delayed my teaching the second class for a week.  Rather than teaching the second lesson this coming Friday, I am now re-teaching the first lesson with the entire Stake’s Membership invited.  Yikes!!  Meaning, we are setting up the cultural hall for the lessons!!  So much for keeping under the radar for callings in Oklahoma City.  Here I am teaching all who choose to attend from the entire stake.  Not to mention with the temple district’s consultants invited to come back for the second lesson and third lessons.  The funny part was my Bishopric told me they would let me coast a little since I am in law school.  They just wanted me to help with lost sheep and Home Teaching where needed.  Somehow I ended up with a class teaching a stake??  Oddly, it isn’t even a calling, I was just asked to teach the class.  This family history thing is haunting me!  It just won’t leave me alone!

Time to sign off.  I need to read a little bit for my torts class tomorrow.  Yeah for negligence.

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Auctions

Today was the day I wish was every day!  Our neighbors trust had an estate auction.  Several of the guys from law school brought their wives and we made a day of it!  We came out with a boatload of goodies.  All for the price of about $200, a heavy-duty display desk, very antique camel-back trunk, 6 foot oval mirror, 10 foot fiberglass ladder, levels, saws, 10 extendable aluminum ladder, railroad typewriter desk, tool box, drills, crow bars, wrenches, a small bookshelf, and several box loads of junk.  In the lots we purchased, we came out with lanterns, books, serving trays, bread maker, rotisserie, lamps, harmonicas, pipes, gold plated tableware, and plenty more.  After what we got, we still have about 6 boxes to take to the thrift store!

We had lunch here at the house with our buddies.  A couple brought their wives and children.  One couple even purchased a sofa, washer, dryer, hutch, lamps, and more!  Another couple walked away with a sewing machine and its table for $2.50!!  I think we all enjoyed ourselves.

Anyhow, on an interesting note, our neighbor across the street put a old recliner out on the curb.  I mean like a 70’s recliner where the fuzz on the recliner upholstery was worn off.  What is more, it has been sitting out there for a week.  I saw this old man pull up in a little Ford Ranger looking at it.  He looked like he was very interested in it.  I walked over to help him since it appeared he wanted it and was struggling with it.  It was light enough I could pick it up to put it in the back of his truck.  He mentioned that he was a Katrina survivor.  He said the old folks home he lived in down in New Orleans was completely destroyed.  He came up during the storm to stay with family.  Well, they are kicking him out this month after living with them for 3 years.  He said he was getting an apartment and didn’t really have enough left over to furnish it.  Hence why he was looking for reject furniture.  I told him I had a whole bunch of stuff I was going to take to the thrift store he was welcome to.  He came over and picked out salt and pepper shakers, cooking utensils, frying pans, and more for his new home.  I was glad I could help out!  I told him I had a desk he was welcome to if he wanted it.  I showed him the new desk I picked up today and he said he was interested.  Since his truck was full he wanted to know if he could pick it up tomorrow.  He asked what I wanted for it.  I threw out a number that was twice what I paid for it (I paid $15).  He seemed interested and said if he decided on it he would come back tomorrow.  I feel bad for getting twice what it is worth if he does come back.  I think I will just offer it to him for what I got it.  There is a good deed for the day.  I gave a poor old man something more.  Tomorrow I hope I can help furnish his apartment a little more.  Perhaps I will just give it to him.  I don’t think he would agree to that though.  We will see.

Time to close out.  Church comes bright and early (8:30!!).

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Jennie Ann Bremer Britzman

I know you are all clamoring for an update.  Here are a few interesting items. 

In some solemn news Aunt Jennie passed away on Sunday.  I don’t know why she was referred to as Aunt Jennie.  She was my Grandma Ross’ first cousin.  Jennie Ann Bremer was born in Ogden on 18 October 1916.  She was born to Frederick William Bremer and Jantje (Jane) Van Leeuwen.  Jantje was my Great Grandmother’s (Berendena ‘Dena’ Van Leeuwen.  Her family moved to Bellflower (Long Beach) California about 1925.  Jennie married an actor in 1933 by the name of Harry Heiser.  He was from Delaware originally.  They were divorced after only a year or two.  Jennie made it sound like the times were hard and the stress made him unbearable.  She then married William Doughtie in 1938 in LA.  This too was a short marriage.  I honestly cannot remember if Harry or William was the actor now.  I am pretty sure it was Harry.  In 1953 she married Robert Floyd Britzman.  They had two children, only one of which lived to adulthood.  Richard was living and taking care of Jennie the past few years.  Robert died in 1967.  I am not entirely sure what Robert did but he left Jennie with a nice endowment for the remainder of her life.  She remarried Harold Ross (my Grandpa’s brother) about 1976 but that marriage very quickly ended.  It was annulled it was so quick.  There is a whole story to go along with that but I won’t pursue it here.  Jennie traveled extensively throughout the world.  She had stories from Rome to the Great Wall of China.  She lived to the ripe age of 91.  I often visited Jennie in her house in Washington Terrace.  We would take lunch down at a little hole in the wall mexican restaurant on 24th Street.  The last time I saw Jennie was the 23rd of February when we went to lunch with Betty Donaldson after her endowment.  I will miss her and her laugh until we meet again.  I have placed Jennie’s three photos to the front of the Van Leeuwen Family Album.  The store her father ran in Southern California as well as pictures of her parents are right after.

Amanda and I attended ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ put on by the local Jewel Box Theatre here in Oklahoma City.  We were very pleased with the value for our money.  We both purchased tickets with our student passes and found it was a theater in the round.  For the most part it was very spartan in props other than what the actors carried on their person.  Regardless, they did very well.  The singers became noticeably weaker as the show went on.  It started out so energetically but ended a bit sluggish.  This was one of their last performances after a couple of weeks.  I remember well the days of trying to coax the voice to perform just a little more after weeks of performances.  It can be a tiresome schedule.  However, my experience was the closer you got to the end the more in the groove you found yourself.  Awkwardness gave to energy and excitement.  I am disappointed the night before their last show it seemed to end in such a way.  It is a church run theater in their 51st year.  It must be handed to them for their diligence and tenacity.

Last night we had dinner with Dan and Liesel Martin.  Of course their beautiful 11 month old daughter Linea joined us.  He made us a meal he had the first night of his mission in Pennsylvania.  Potatoes and chicken gravy on waffles!  It was very good.  I thought it would taste a bit like having it on bread or Yorkshire Puddings.  It did.  It is one of those meals that give you a happy tummy.  We played Cranium afterward.  We did not win but I did feel a little smarter after successfully answering a couple of the questions.

I received a message from Victor Wayment on Sunday.  I had sent him a picture from the day my Grandpa went to the draft board at Camp Douglas.  Victor was able to tell me the picture was taken on 16 Oct 1942.  How he knew that, I haven’t a clue.  He was able to name 5 of the 7 individuals in the photo.  One of the two Grandpa could not name he put a name with and even gave me the contact information for Kenneth Barrow.  One of the two he could not name was one Grandpa could not name.  That hole still remains.  However, he named one of the other individuals differently.  Who Grandpa thought was Jim Jardine Victor named as Glen Geilman.  It just happens that Glenn Geilmann married Evelyn Van Leeuwen, another first cousin of my Grandma Ross.  I called and visited with Glen and he certainly remembers going with Grandpa and Victor to Camp Floyd.  He also thought Jim Jardine was there.  Perhaps Jim is the unknown.  I haven’t a clue.  At any rate, I am also sending a picture to Glen as well and Kenneth Barrow.  Hopefully they can name the unknown and clarify Jim Jardine/Glen Geilman.

Lastly, today is my sister’s birthday.  Happy Birthday Andra Ross!!  She e-mailed me today telling me about moving into their new home in Rupert.  I guess they have done quite a bit of work on it and it is coming alone nicely.  As with any other project, there is plenty more to do.

Well, I have to sign off.  More homework to complete.  I want to be sure to make it to bed with plenty of time to be rested up for the Constitution’s Birthday tomorrow.  Happy Birthday!!  Oh, it happens to be my birthday as well.  Happy Birthday Paul Ross!!  Amanda and I are going out to eat on Friday night since law school isn’t very conducive to large, long dinners on a school night.  Thanks for the birthday cards!

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Visitors in OKC

I have uploaded a couple more pictures to the 2008 album.  The first is of our first visitors to our humble home in Oklahoma City.  Pete and Heather Schultz stopped by on their way to Louisiana.  They could not stop long so we treated them to dinner, a little conversation, and they were on their way.  They were so quickly in and out I don’t believe they even used the restroom.  But hey, they got some of Amanda’s great home cooking.  I hope they travel safely.  They were planning on crashing (not literally) somewhere between Dallas and Houston.  It has been at least 10 years since I last saw Heather.  She graduated two years before me.  Pete looked and seemed familiar to me but I don’t know when I would have met him.  He seemed to remember me as well.  Anyhow, it was great to catch up with them.  I cracked a joke at one point I learned might have been very insensitive.  I really don’t know, I hope not.  It probably will be the last time they come to visit.  Hopefully it is due to location and not my bad humor.

The next three photos are some of my soon-to-be world famous mushrooms.  I have been growing quite the crop of them.  I think we had so much dead matter in the lawn from a very dry summer and then the watering every day for the reseeding helped the crop.  As you can see, some of them were up to about 10 inches across.  I haven’t a clue if they were edible, but I am sure I could have sold them either way.  Good money if they were the magic kind!  In the one picture you can see me pushing my little reel mower.  Yes, I purchased a reel mower brand new!  I have to admit, I believe it is the most novel thing in the neighborhood.  At least a half dozen people have stopped and asked me where I got it.  One guy even wanted to know how it worked.  I explained it and he went on his merry way.  The one neighbor across the street who asked to mow our lawn regularly, commented it would be great for saving gas.  That was one reason I purchased it.  Next, it would be an instrument of exercise.  I also know they are supposed to be much kinder on cutting the grass.  Rather than whipping and ripping the grass, this slices it nicely.  It promotes happy grass!

The last picture is of an intruder in our home.  You will notice by his size, he is more than 3 inches across.  Yep, he is a little Wolf Spider.  Harmless, but enough to make Amanda on pins and needles for weeks.  Spiders are usually friends, not enemies.  Amanda is not so sure.  Therefore the poor little creatures meet an untimely end in our home.  The best part about wolf spiders is they will eat cockroaches.  That argument still doesn’t convince Amanda we should keep them alive, even if I transport them from the home.

Amanda found herself a job.  She starts on Monday.  She will be working at the Dental Depot just a few blocks from our home.  She will be administering anesthesia full time.  The one thing she thought she would never need or use is now her first full time job.  I just hope it isn’t mind numbing work!!

I continue pressing along in school.  I am very much enjoying civil procedure and torts.  Contracts is a bit dry and we haven’t really got into legal writing and analysis.  Apparently it will be a doozy.  I am enjoying Ambulance Recognition and look forward to Ambulance Pursuit next year.

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Law School Orientation

The Sprinky post received quite a number of comments.  I appreciate hearing from you.  For those of you who have requested, there is a photo of Sprinky available in motion.  He is in the 2008 album.  If you look closely you can see the water swirling in front of him.

On to other business, it has been a crazy couple of days.  I am starting to get my feet wet in the practice of law.  They are breaking us in quickly with a week of orientation.  They might as well call it, “The Crash Course in Writing Briefs”.  I am sure I have little or no idea what is really in store but I am enjoying it so far.

We have heard from the President of the Oklahoma Bar Association giving us advice.  Justice Yvonne Kauger of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma swore us in.  Our professors have done all they can to get the point across we need to study hard.  I have found 4 other LDS students with whom I have already studied and car-pooled.  Things are looking good.  The comments of one professor already have me thinking in my moments of down time.  He told us that we have to make the decision we are going to pass the bar exam now.  Every decision from this point out will be in conjunction with that decision.  Shall I watch TV or study the law.  Shall I do this or study the law.  Pointing out every indiscretion could keep us from learning and weaken our position of passing the bar.  Wow, for a test more than 3 years down the road, my seconds now will matter?  Looking at it in that light, we have either been preparing or not for the past 20 years haven’t we?

Then again, the scriptures teach us to think like this regularly for the bar exam, the Final Bar.  With a capital F.  Every day, every thought, every action, every desire is making up our constitutions for the final day.  The thought of our little moments now making a big difference later are not new to Saints.  D&C reminds us to labor in what is called today, not for tomorrow.  Alma refers to live as a probationary state.  Even President Monson in his maxims talks of acting today for in living for tomorrow we end up with a bunch of empty yesterdays.

I head back to my studying.  Just this night, I have learned TB centers are considered nuisances in close proximity to others.  Undertakes as well.  Cemeteries and mausoleums are not.  Slaughterhouses are not.  Who knows what the next case will teach me.  Obviously we are learning about nuisances and the legal rules applying.  This is just a class to teach us how to read cases and brief them, this isn’t even a real class yet!  However, the most hilarious line tonight was about how the people wanting a mausoleum don’t have the grounds to sue.  Obviously, if they had the grounds, they wouldn’t want a mausoleum!  I went back and reread the statement and saw I read it wrong, but dang it was funny at the moment.

You want to know what is even more sad?  I have been doing some genealogical research on a couple of lines in Washington.  All the cases I referenced are from the State of Washington.  This mausoleum is from Tacoma, Washington and the case is in 1920.  My first thought was, “I wonder if there are any Andress’, Jonas’, or Carpenter’s in this Mausoleum?”  The slaughterhouse case was from south of Colville, Washington.  Colville just happens to be the town where I have several individuals who disappear and I cannot find where or what happened to them.  Not to say the slaughterhouse is my answer, but I have personally been to all these locations in the past 6 months!  Perhaps that is what is making the first few days so interesting.