Dogwood Acres, 02/14/11

DOGWOOD ACRES, 02/14/11, ELANE CRUM
Hello friends. Valentine’s Day is almost over. Rick did good; he bought me a heart shaped box of chocolates. Now, he is almost counting the pieces to see if I try to eat it all in one day. I don’t know that it would make much difference one way or the other, but I will try to make it last all week just so he can’t say I ate it all at once! He and Jeff Dalton did their Valentine shopping together and joined the crowd of other men carrying out candy and flowers.
It is so good to see blue skies and bare ground, although there are still large snowy patches in the shadier areas of our yard. My heavy winter coat has been put aside for lighter jackets and I plan to enjoy every warm day until “old man winter” strikes again.
Little Fox has such a heavy coat that the cold and snow did not bother her. On the other hand, Zoey has fine hair and a bare belly and she got chilled very quickly on necessary potty trips. I got her a cute little sweater which helped some.
We had a big day at church Sunday with surprises for Neal on the occasion of his tenth anniversary as Pastor at Sandy Church. LeaAnn invited my family and several of Neal’s old friends for church and the fellowship dinner which followed. The whole church was in on the secret and Neal was completely surprised when all these people from different parts of his life showed up for church. He said he was almost as nervous as when he preached his first sermon.
Bessie Rossner Gideon celebrated her 91st birthday with her son Gary and other family members. They said she acted more like a 19 year old than her 91 years. Bessie is looking forward to the next nine years and is determined to best her father, Ed Rossner, who lived to be 100 yrs, 2 months and a few days.
Bessie’s little brother, Herman, enjoyed a card and pictures from Jack and Daisy Davidson. They sent pictures from the wildlife club back in the day when Herman was instrumental in restocking wild turkey in our Missouri Ozarks.
Gary and Barb Casey celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary same day as Aunt Bessie’s birthday. Barb is younger than I; surely she is not old enough to have been married 40 years! Barb, Carolyn and I used to run up and down these hollows when we were young….really young. There was no TV or video games, so we hiked in our Pine woods and the fields of the Rossner Ranch. I love technology now as much as anybody, but kids miss so much.
Another trip to the funeral home last week for Byron David’s visitation put me in touch with more old friends and classmates. I don’t mean to say they are “old”, but you know what I mean.
Ashton and Nathan had a good time at Bradleyville Homecoming on Saturday. It was a long day with games starting at 2:00 and a dance after the last game was over. PaPa Rick said they are young and have lots of energy.
Erin called to tell me she has a ballgame at Taneyville on Tuesday night. After missing 2 or 3 weeks of games due to snow, it will be fun to get back in the swing of things. Bye for now.