Late Date ...

This "Ping Pong Tale" started on my friend Dawn's Blog. I surprised her with a continuation of her tale. Displeased, she countered with a third entry.

Late Date ... 4th installment

Though he kept calling for her, the medical personel refused to permit her to accompany him to the hospital. She was left in her room to wring her hands and plead for his life in silent supplication.

Several hours later, a nurse appeared in her doorway. He was stabilized in the local cardiac unit. The prognosis was poor. He kept calling for her and in his agitated state, the doctors were left with no recourse but to summon her to his bedside.

The moment she appeared in the doorway of his room, he became calm and contented. She was wheeled to his bedside and they were left in solitude.

"I'm so sorry ..." he began, but she wouldn't hear his apologies. They sat together and shared their lives with each other. Beeping monitors and brief interuptions by nurses were the only hints of a world outside themselves.

As each day passed, he asked that she be brought to see him. Though invigorated by her company, his health did not improve. Daily she saw him slip a bit farther from her grasp.

The day came when he asked her to be his wife. He had little to offer her. If he ever escaped the hospital they might share a room in the nursing home. He had no hopes that she would accept, yet she did and with deep fervor. Their union took place the following afternoon.

She hoped that their marriage would rekindle his ailing health, but it did not. Each day as their adoration grew, his strength diminished. The day finally came when his life quietly slipped away, leaving her alone to mourn the death of another husband.

The funeral home was empty aside from a few of the nursing home staff members. After paying their respects they quietly left her alone. She caressed his cool hand as tears trickled down her careworn face. She pulled her fleece wrap from about her shoulders and tucked it in around him in a vain effort to warm him once more. With her hand entwined with his, she rested her furrowed cheek against the glossy casket and slipped away to join him.

I read my friend's Blog ...

I read Dawn's Blog every day. She often gripes at me for not updating mine more regularly.

So today I thought I would write a little story. You have to read the most recent installment of Dawn's Blog first for background.

The rest of the story ...

He was so gallant. She had watched him for months across the cafeteria table. She made certain never to make him aware of her silent adoration. Amazingly, he had asked permission to court her just one week ago. They made a perfect match.

As he strode confidently towards her, there was a gentleness in his demeanor that reminded her of her late husband. She had decided never to entangle her heart with that of another man again, but she was so lonely for companionship.

He was but a few steps from her when his caring glance changed to confusion. His hand suddenly grasped his chest. With a whispered moan, he slumped to the floor. Fear gripped her heart as she escaped the confines of her wheelchair and stumbled towards him.

As his final breath left his body, she gently laid his head upon her lap pillowed by her fleece wrap.

We celebrated our anniversary ...

... on May 13th. We have been married for 12 years now.

Each year we try to plan a fun family day. After all, why celebrate an anniversary without the children!? We chose to visit Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin for the day.

Our first stop was the Visitor's Center. It is a very nice facility! They have several historical markers outdoors. Located on the riverbank between Iowa and Wisconsin, they have provided a free telescope for scanning the wildlife and river. We were able to view four snowy egrets sitting in a tree together. One took flight while we were watching. We learned from the staff that there were some free activities that evening, so I called my brother to mention it to him.

We crossed the river into Iowa to locate a visitor's center. We found it on the right side of the road in Marquette. We picked up some information for the area and headed for the Bat Cave.

The Bat Cave is our name for a little DNR station near Pikes Peak State Park. (By the way, all state parks in Iowa are free. Pikes Peak is a particularly beautiful spot.) A cave carved in the rock many years ago is supposed to house sleeping/hibernating bats. We didn't stop because there were quite a few official vehicles parked there. We assumed they were having some sort of meeting.

By this time we were all pretty hungry. We have a favorite restaurant in Prairie du Chien and had agreed beforehand that we would have lunch there. Huckleberry's has excellent food and good prices. We enjoyed a liesurely lunch with good service.

The waitress was using some sort of PDA to take our order. She said that the kitchen received our order immediately. She didn't even have to take it to them. Neat! Our ticket was printed out instead of handwritten. No more bill confusion due to the hurried handwriting of a waitress. She used it quickly and efficiently with no apparent confusion.

After lunch we crossed back into Iowa to visit the Effigy Mounds National Park in Harper's Ferry. We were greeted by a very helpful gentleman who turned on an informational movie for us. We then visited the museum and did some hands-on activities with the kids. The mounds are accesible via a long, steep trail. One mound, though, is located right outside the center. We are planning to return in two weeks to walk the trail.

At this point we returned to the Bat Cave and the office was open! We peered into the cave but couldn't see any sleeping bats. Inside the center, we saw several large mounted birds including an eagle, osprey and swan. A gentleman asked us if we had any questions. I asked how many bats use the cave. He blushed and admitted that it had seldom been used by bats. They were trying to find out why the bats avoided the cave. Their current theory is that there is too much airflow. They have blocked some air entry points. Perhaps next Spring we will return to see if it worked.

As we left, my brother arrived with his wife and two children! I don't know how they found us! We told them about the free acitivity at Fort Crawford that evening and agreed to meet them there.

We had heard about a Children's Ranch that offered horseback rides and education. We weren't sure if it was for "at-risk youth" or open to the public. We called and the lady said we were welcome to drive up and look around. We did so, and saw a few horses. We may contact them for more information at a later date.

We decided to locate Fort Crawford ahead of time so we wouldn't be late that evening. We headed to St. Feriole Island, the home of Villa Louis and Fort Crawford. (We hope to visit Villa Louis in the future.) We found one building that looked like it might be part of a former Fort, but it was not really accessible (no walkways) and didn't look like they were preparing anything for the evening. Mr. Hillocks walked over to the Villa Louis information/ticket center and asked a few questions. It turned out we had, in fact, found Fort Crawford. However, this was the FIRST Fort Crawford and we wanted the SECOND Fort Crawford. We were given directions and were able to find the right place. Mr. Hillocks verified that there was a free activity there (saving us the Family entry fee of $12) to the two museums located on the property.

Because we had such trouble finding the right Fort, we set out to locate my brother to make sure he could find it. He had said he was headed for Cabela's and since he has a reputation of shopping for looooong periods of time in that store, we thought we might find him there. And we did.

We left with a comfortable amount of time to reach the Museum. (Please visit that link for lots of information on the Fort, Jefferson Davis, members of the Lewis and Clark expedition, Dr. Beaumont, Alexis St. Martin and the surrender of Chief BlackHawk following the Battle of Bad Axe.) Our time at the two museums was very interesting and enjoyable. We have six children between my brother and I. There was only one other child present. It is unfortunate that more families didn't know about this free opportunity.

We intend to return for a Rendezvous later this year. Prairie du Chien is so rich in history that I'm sure we will have lots to study and do on future visits.

I'm not sure what time we left Fort Crawford (we had arrived at 5:45) but we were all very hungry from all the activities and fresh air! We decided to split the cost of supper at Pizza Hut. After a long drive home I was thankful I had laid out pajamas for everyone.

Attending library book sales ...

... is a wonderful way to expand your homeschool library.

We spent a few dollars yesterday and came home with over 20 books.

My favorite is Lessons in Citizenship published in 1928. There are inklings of socialism, unfortunately, but otherwise it is very sound. It provides an amazing look into a bygone era.

Another interesting book is American History: For God For Country. I can't say what date it was published as the first few pages are missing but it still struck me as an excellent find.

A frivolous purchase was How Flecher Was Hatched. I owned this book as a child and it was a favorite. My 3 year old daughter has claimed this copy as her very own and has paged through it several times.

I also visited our local thrift shop and picked up a music theory textbook and found a set of nice books at a rummage sale.

A new week ...

It's Monday. Yay. Time for housework!

I need to tweak our family schedule today. I developed our schedule by watching our daily habits and trying build on them. It's time to return to it, though, as illness and other matters have pulled us away.

Last night we attended ...

... a Birds of Prey presentation at our local library. It was nice to see some familiar faces in the crowd. This is the first time we've stepped out and taken part in such an event. The presentation was delivered by two different women.

The first shared about the resources in the library relating to birds, including a new set of reference books containing (possibly) all the birds that nest in North America. My oldest daughter's eyes widened at the thought of such a set of books so I'm certain we'll be making visits to the library for her to peruse those volumes.

The second lady shared her involvement in seeing the peregrin falcon reintroduced in the Mississippi River Valley. She shared a slide presentation that I missed most of but my husband reports that both our 5 year old and our 10 year old were enraptured.

After the slide presentation, we were treated to a close-up look at three birds of prey: a falcon, a screech owl and a barred owl. Because of the small room and the number of people, we allowed the girls to step up to the front while we stayed at the back. They had a close-up view of all three birds. They got to see what the ear of a barred owl looks like and feel the rush of air from his wings when he tried to fly.

Buying a home ...

Mr. Hillocks and I have been married for 12 years come May. We are embarking upon the journey of buying our first home.

I am SO ready to own our home and not be trapped by the whimsy of landlords and longer.

We are leaning towards buying a manufactured home and putting it on a couple of acres in the country. The upside of that is the assurance that everything is brand new, so we shouldn't need to do major home repairs anytime soon. We can choose the layout and decor of the home! Of course we also have to consider the cost of land, lack of available acreage and the frustration of getting electric and sewer set up.

We are planning on signing a year's lease on this house in July. Obviously, then, our goal is home ownership by July of 2005.

We have an appointment set for May 17 with a local housing assistance organization. They help cover your downpayment and give you lots of info on the ins and outs of home buying. They don't help if you buy more than one acre, though, so we probably will only use them as an informational resource.

We also have an appointment on May 17 with the bank. Eek! I guess we will find out what condition our credit is in so we'll know what we have to do to be able and ready to buy in a year+.

So begins the chronicling of our home ownership endeavour.

A beginning ...

I set up this blog some time ago, but didn't add to it. I s'pose I should do so. ;-)

I'm a homeschooling mother of four children. That's enough of an introduction to suffice because I'm sure I'll tell all else there is to know (however little that may be) in the course of this blog.