News For the Week of August 14, 2013

Hello from around Bradleyville. It has been so long since I have written anything for the paper. I may have forgotten how but I'll try to jump back into the habit.

Part of the reason I have been neglecting to write anything is the new twins in our family, of course. I guess they aren't so new anymore but they are only three months old and that is still pretty new in the scheme of things. The twins live almost next door to me so I get to see them a lot and when I am involved with Emmett and Makenna, every other thought I might have just leaves.

Emmett and Makenna are doing very well and growing like weeds. Both babies came home with apnea monitors that kept track of their breathing and heart rates. Emmett got to go off of his monitor last week and we expect that Makenna will be off of hers this week.  Most of the alerts the babies got were only for low battery or loose wires but they both had a few real alerts. We are thankful for the monitors that gives a certain peace of mind knowing that they will alert you should the baby have trouble breathing or have a heart rate drop.

Along with the twins I have a beautiful new great-granddaughter named Avery Lynne Laughlin that was born  to my oldest grandson and his wife, Kyle and Kassidi Laughlin. I'm hoping I get to do a little babysitting for her while Kassidi finishes up some schooling this year.

School will be starting this week and I want to remind everyone to watch out for the bus stops. They are hard to remember and I appreciate the bright orange flags that MoDot puts out to help catch our attention.

New Mansion Church recently gave out school supplies to the kids at church that Sunday morning. I know other churches and booster clubs in the area do the same thing. School clothes and supplies are so expensive I know the kids and parents really appreciate any help.

While I was going back and forth to Springfield this spring and early summer I was trying to garden also. I shouldn't have even bothered this year, I guess, with everything that was going on, but Bob plowed up my garden space and tilled it for me and I just couldn't resist trying. So in between going back and forth to Springfield, sometime in June I  threw some beans in the ground, actually six rows of bush beans and four short rows of pole beans, plus four short rows of corn. Thanks to all the rain we have had, I may be canning beans later this week. The pole beans have really grown, all the way to the top of the supports and are reaching for the sky. Makes me feel a little like Jack and his beanstalk. Now if I could just climb them and find a pot of gold at the top. The corn is short, but it is a super sweet variety and it grows short anyway. It is producing ears, so we might have some good homegrown corn yet.

Everybody has taken a vacation this summer it seems like. Most seems to have gone to the beach, mostly in Florida, but a few have traveled west for a different kind of vacation.

Teresa Stafford and her kids, Levi, Shiann and Axel traveled to Washington State and visited with Amber Duff, a friend Teresa went to high school with. They got to see the Pacific Ocean at Long Beach. Teresa said it was cold at the beach but was fun anyway. They traveled back through Montana and saw the sights through that part of the country.

David and Teresa Koenig and their family also went on vacation out west recently. They went to Seattle, Washington and  along the way there or back they saw the Badlands, Devils Tower, Crater Lake, and Rocky Mountain National Park just to name a few of the places. I saw pictures on facebook and it looked like they had a fantastic time. Corby Lux filled in for David at Lone Star Church while they were vacationing.

Corby and Lisa Lux along with their two boys Gavin and Levi took a vacation in eastern central Missouri close to Ironton and Farmington where they did a lot of hiking in the Elephant Rocks State Park, Taum Sauk Mountain State Park and the Johnson Shut-Ins.

Birthdays for the coming week include: August 14: Joyce Adams, Larry Clark, Sara Cook,

Roger Hodges, Bonnie Hurst, Danny Williams; August 15: Donna Blair, Ally Swift; August 16: Sue Birdsong, Teresa Koenig, Joe Sartin; August 17: Rachel Cook, Micah Dayne Howie; August 18: Weezie Butler; August 19: C.G. Paul; August 20: Glee Club, Karen Combs, Sara Nash; August 21: Marnie Rentfro.

Anniversaries for the coming week include: August 16: Scott and Julie Lawson; August 17: Gerald and Karla Yeary; August 18: Bill and Melba Austin.