jerry's "captain morgan" machine

well, now that knee replacement surgery is over, the fun part starts -- physical therapy! for the first 2 weeks at home, we had a home health care physical therapist who came to the house 5 days a week. now, we have 3 trips a week to physical therapy in town at the hospital.

based on the recommendations of the home health physical therapist, jerry got a knee bending machine. i'm not sure of the technical name for this equipment, but scott refers to it as "the captain morgan machine". i think scott feels rather safe giving jerry quite a bit of hassle, as he knows that jerry can't get up and do much about it. after all, he just has to stay out of cane-striking distance!

so between a list of exercises to do each day, walking around the house/porch or down the lane, and spending time in the "captain morgan machine," jerry also has plenty of time to play games on the computer, read, watch television, make work phone calls, sort the mail, and overall just go stir-crazy in the house. since his surgery, he's added the sports package to our cable, watched pay-per-views, downloaded the full games on the internet, and purchased more books online! at this rate, we can't afford for him to be house-bound much longer!

he rooked me into a trip to walmart the other day (i despise going to walmart) and he even rode to parsons w/ me when i went to teach class the other day. just getting out of the house was a huge treat for him. saturday, 11/10, was opening day of deer season, and it was tough for him to be stuck in the house while the boys were hunting. after all, last year, jerry got his deer right after season opened.

we were going to make a trip out somewhere, driving around and exploring, but just didn't get to it with everything else going on. maybe tomorrow will bring a day that has time for these little pleasures in life.

riahna checking the pumpkin

just part of the fun in going out to check "the great pumpkin" is seeing the looks on the kids' faces when they see how much it has grown or how much it has changed -- or even "hey, there's someone i know!" and pose for the camera!

"hey, peek-a-boo! look at me!! i'm looking at you!!!"

the joy(s) of a 17-month old!

pumpkin volunteer

i feel rather like charlie brown waiting on the great pumpkin to appear . . . but this is what we have. we tried to raise pumpkins in our garden this year, but after saving them from drowning in our terribly wet spring/summer -- they all died in the humid heat of early to mid-august. i was so disappointed, too, because we had several pumpkins that were all about basketball size. i was hoping to have at least 1 pumpkin for each of our 5 grandchildren.

but, no such luck.

last spring, in our front flower garden, we noticed a viney looking plant growing on the east end near the rose bush. we knew it was something from the garden, but we weren't sure what it was. well, as the plant grew and matured, we figured out that it was a pumpkin plant. a volunteer plant from the pumpkins that we had left sitting on our front porch last fall/winter.

somehow, a seed from one of those pumpkins was planted in our flower garden, and it survived! so, we tried to raise pumpkins and failed -- but we were given a pumpkin that we didn't plant! we've been eagerly watching and waiting for the day when this pumpkin is ready to pick. it's getting close now, and this hardy pumpkin will be the only pumpkin to grace our front porch.

each time the girls come out to visit, they have to go out and check on the pumpkin and see how big it is and how it's doing. it's about basketball size now and the vine is dying off. i assume that means it's about ready to pick, but i'm waiting on the stem to start to show that it's ready.

soon, very soon, "the great pumpkin" will be on our front porch for all to see! a very happy halloween to all!!!

a surprise visit to nevada

well, today was quite a surprise for several people. first off, it's the first post i've made to this blog in quite some time. second, jerry was out and about visiting people for the first time since his surgery! third, i'm actually getting this posted in a timely manner -- so i better get some positive comments from "those people" who have been fussing at me!

for those of you who didn't know, jerry's mother had back surgery on 10/04 in kansas city for some pinched nerves and terrible back pain that she was having. then on 10/09, jerry had knee replacement surgery on his right knee at st. johns hospital in joplin. that means evelyn is now walking w/ a cane and jerry is walking w/ a walker.

this last couple weeks have been very stressful and extremely exhausting for me, taking care of jerry since his surgery and starting back to work after fall break. scott, who still lives at home, has been invaluable in helping w/ jerry, and jacob has been wonderful to come out and visit and/or help, too.

we have rearranged the house to make it more accommodating for jerry, plus we moved ALL the toys to the little front room to insure that he doesn't step on a little toy piece while he's up walking around. he has a great physical therapist (by coincidence, my step-sister-in-law!) who comes to the house 5 days a week for the first 2 weeks that he's home. she has been wonderful to work with, too.

anyway, today we got jerry out of the house. i knew that evelyn had been worried about him and would "rest easier" if she could see for herself that he was doing well. so we loaded him up in the car (plus a pain pill) and headed toward nevada for our surprise visit. we had called ahead to make sure they would be home, and since there was a chiefs game on -- we knew they would still be there.

boy, they were surprised to see us walk in the door. we stayed and chatted for about 45 minutes, and then we figured it was time to get jerry back on his way home. jeff and evelyn walked us to the front doors and then evelyn decided to go ahead for a little walk outside.

it was a great trip and a wonderful way to spend the afternoon. jerry just got his 20 staples out this last friday, and he still has quite a bit of physical therapy to do -- but he'll get there. we have lots of plans for our future and the list of things that we want to do is growing all the time.

hope to see most all of you very soon. if not before, then we'll definitely see you at our house for thanksgiving! amazing how quickly the holidays are coming!!!

new buggy

well, i thought my days of driving a mini-van were over . . . but i guess not! i was so excited at the prospect of having "outgrown" a minivan, or maybe i should say that i had "ungrown" a minivan and no longer needed all that room to haul other people. i could actually choose a car based on what i wanted and what i needed now.

i had been needing a new car for a while, but jerry and i recently went car shopping to see what was out there and what we liked. we were kind of leaning toward a kia sportage for several reasons -- warranty, price, size, 4WD (important to jerry), sits up tall (important to jill), and we have friends/family who have these and were very happy w/ them.

we didn't go to buy -- we just went to look and shop. jerry had been in touch w/ a salesman at roper kia in joplin through email and requested some different prices and stuff. once we got there, we were so impressed w/ the salesman, the dealership, the car, the package, the financing, the rebates and pricing, we ended up just choosing our vehicle and making our deal.

only problem was, the longer i looked at non-minivans, the more i realized that the days of traveling together w/ my family were over. a sportage would only carry 5 people and that wouldn't be comfortable for a long trip. a sedona would easily carry 7, the typical number for a minivan. right now, that's nice because that fits everyone in my family OR everyone in jacob's family along w/ us. that makes traveling together somewhere so much easier and so much more fun.

we've had the new van now for 2 month and already we have been on several trips -- canoeing at elk river, branson to silver dollar city, kansas city, and more. we didn't wait to start "breaking it in" -- although we haven't done some of the things we planned to this fall, we'll just keep chipping away at the lists of things to get done!

before christmas, we need to get back down to silver dollar city, up to kansas city for the thanksgiving weekend and plaza lighting, numerous shopping trips, to oakton to the live nativity scene, to carthage to see the precious moments chapel and lights at the college, and more. i can tell already that we'll have many great memories w/ this vehicle -- just like the previous mini-vans. i can't wait!!!

life goes on

we've had some really neat things going on in our lives that i hadn't posted b/c of the court situation, so i'll get caught up on those events real soon. i've got some great pictures to post of events, too, so i'll sort and post those this weekend.

i'm going to full-time this fall at pitt state and also teaching adjunct for a local community college. it certainly allows me much more freedom that the typical teaching situation in a public school.

the further i am away from teaching in a public school and dealing w/ parents and politics, the happier i am. i recently talked w/ some family members who have children in the diamond r-4 district (where i used to teach) and got an ear-full of negative news about the district. after i left that family event, i was even more happy than ever that i left that place.

it was amazing the bad news they shared about so many people involved in the school district there -- deanna yokley demoted from administrator to classroom teacher, mark mayo (superintendent) not having his raise approved or his contract renewed, poor classroom instruction, angry and/or stressed out teachers, many teachers leaving for various reasons, etc. it was so disheartening overall. the only person they had good comments about was the new counselor there and said that he had done an outstanding job in getting scholarships for kids and working to get kids headed toward college. i'm so glad to be out of that cancerous situation, where negativity just seems to feed and fester until it brings everyone down.

as for me -- i'm taking 12 hours of college this summer. 6 hours toward a new grad degree and 6 hours of art. i'm loving it and learning so much (in the art classes!) that i can't wait to progress to higher levels of art classes.

jerry's doing good and had his 2nd best month of sales last month that he's ever had. that's always encouraging. he's had more 1st this last year than a person would believe!!! he had his highest month ever (while he was off the month of february for shoulder surgery and recovery!), great improvements on his job, new employees at work that know what they are doing, and so much more. even bigger events to come, too!!

scott is tranfering to pitt state this fall, so that will be a lot less driving back and forth to parsons for him! he's been working for a window company out of topeka for the summer and will work next weekend at the farm show for his out-of-town buddy as usual.

summer's family is doing just great and you can read all about them at their blog, which summer has finally started updating again recently! i'm not posting the address here b/c there are some people that we don't want to have it, but if you want to look and don't have the address -- email me and i'll send it to you!

everybody . . . dies famous . . . in a small town

i'm not dead yet -- but this might be my 15 seconds of fame!

thought you guys might like to know that i made the front page of the local paper (and no, it wasn't in the "arrests" section!). the picture of "jerry's bins at sunrise" was pictured on the front page with the article and a link to the hydrangea picture titled "a moment of rest" was given. i've included both of those pictures so you could see them if you want.

you can find the article here --

in case you can't follow the link -- here's the article copied and pasted --

Box of Colored Pencils Changed Nature Lover's Life
By Andra Bryan Stefanoni
THE MORNING SUN - June 13, 2007

A garden's blooms and birds may be fleeting, but Jill Campbell, Asbury, has turned a way of preserving what nature puts forth into a passion.

It all began with a box of colored pencils.

"I am an English teacher at Pitt State, and one day a few years ago I found a box of colored pencils, evidently abandoned by the teacher or students who used the classroom before me," she said. "I began experimenting with them to see what I could do, and in no time found myself really drawn to it."

No pun intended.

As an English teacher, for many years she has focused on the arrangement of words. Now she has added to her creative repertoire things like shadows, color, textures, and light.

"I didn't have art in high school, but I have always been a fancy letterer or doodler. I came across an online group called Illustration Friday in which they send you a one-word prompt and if you illustrate it you can post your link to their page," she said. "I thought, surely I can do that."

Her first one-word prompt was "strength."

"I had a picture of my husband's new grandson, only a few minutes old, and I thought, 'What more strength is there than that?' and I drew him and posted it to my blog. I posted it to my other groups, asking them to be gentle on their critiques, but got good feedback."

She is particularly drawn to the natural world, capturing flowers and natural scenes. One of her works, "Hydrangea," [should be "A Moment of Rest"] was chosen to be part of an exhibit at Powell Gardens in northwest Missouri under the direction of Cynthia Padilla, the owner of the online Botanical Art Group of which Campbell is a member. Her work also is featured in the online version of the exhibit, which can be seen at http://orchidsandhydrangeas.blogspot.com/

In fact, Campbell was instrumental in getting Padilla, a well-known botanical illustrator, to Powell Gardens this spring for a workshop. There she learned techniques like flower petals, stems, rubbings, and tracings.

"Once you start drawing things in nature, you start taking notice of things more than before," she said.

Campbell always draws from photographs, because it makes the drawing process portable and not hurried. "If I'm working from a picture, it's no hurry to get it done. The flower won't wilt, the moment is captured. If you're drawing a strawberry and using an actual strawberry, after a while it starts to change color and not look quite so pretty," she said.

A Sony Cybershot, 10.1 megapixel, is her camera of choice, which means she doesn't have to be right on top of subject - she can be 100 feet away - to get what she want. Her photography skills are equally good, and earned her a third place finish in the Crowder College Quill contest for her entry, "Jerry's Bins at Sunrise."


Campbell finds plenty of natural subjects in her garden, where last year she canned 70 quarts of tomatoes and 60 quarts of green beans, and where she planted sunflowers for a granddaughter.

"One that reached 11 feet was our biggest one; we took lots of photos and that provided inspiration for my drawings," she said.

She offers these tips to beginners or those striving to improve nature-related illustrations:

o Turn the piece you're working on upside down so you are just looking at shadows and light, instead of the subject matter.

o Do your original sketch on tracing paper, then once you've got it, darken your lines. Keep this as an original, and transfer the image to good paper lightly, where you can then complete the shading, color, etc. This saves time and effort if you make a mistake, because you still have the original on the tracing paper and can reproduce it again easily.

o Use paper designated specifically for the art medium you are using, such as watercolor paper or color pencil paper.

o Invest in a good set of colored pencils for home - Prisma Colors are great and include 120 pencils on four trays - as well as a simple student set of 24 (such as Prang) to throw in a backpack for portability while traveling or outdoors.

Andra Bryan Stefanoni can be reached at andra.stefanoni@morningsun.net

the hydrangea picture wasn't shown in the newspaper article, but the online link was given to the orchids and hydragneas show blog. here is the picture that was displayed at powell gardens --


you can see the full-blown version of it at flickr

1106 - summer sundays

a long-time icon of pittsburg, kansas, is the 1106 drive-in. this is the old-style drive-in, for hamburgers, sandwiches, fries, tots, ice cream. the best greasy burger and fries in the area -- truth be told. the restaurant has been there almost all of my life (and i'm 41), so it is very well-known in this area.

for this altered book project, the topic was "dining rituals" and i was totally stumped on this one. my family had dining rituals, but i didn't really feel they were special enough or decorative enough to put in the book. then i remembered eating in the car at 1106 . . .

when i was little, we often went to the swimming pool for the afternoon on sundays. this was really quite a treat because we lived out of town and swimming was not something that we got to do just any time. we had a 1964 turquoise dodge, just the model shown in the pictures above. while it may look roomy -- it wasn't big enough in the back seat for 2 big brothers and little sister!

anyway, after an afternoon of swimming, we would often stop off at 1106 for a snack or for a meal. it was a great treat. i recently heard that 1106 was closing because it was being sold and i felt so sad -- as if part of my childhood was disappearing. i hadn't eaten there but 2x in the last 5 years, but it just felt wrong for it to not be there.

well, we've just found out that the 1106 is only closing for repairs and will soon reopen for business as usual. the business did sell, but the owner sold to someone who wanted to keep the pittsburg icon the same instead of tearing it down to make a new business there. i guess backyard burger is going to have to take over the old burger king building!

yeah, 1106 is still a part of pittsburg!

blueberry kisses

well, it's a wednesday, and a typical day w/ the girls. riahna wants to do whatever raven is doing and raven usually doesn't want riahna's help w/ such things as coloring/writing/painting, etc. other than that, they play together very well. i guess neither one wants to share the markers.

raven wanted to color and write her name and riahna wanted to lay on the color book and make huge sweeping moves w/ a marker as if she were coloring. not enough room for both of them on 1 book, so they each had their own book and their own stash of markers.

everybody was happy. each little girls had her own pile of markers and her own big color book to work in. riahna didn't know how to take the lids off of the markers or she wasn't strong enough to get them off -- either way, she was safe playing w/ the markers.

i went into the kitchen to check on lunch, and when i came back -- this is what i found. either riahna figured out how to get the lid off or one wasn't on there very good. raven was just working away on her pictures and riahna was working on sucking the ink of of a blue crayola magic marker.
she was very proud of herself and very happy, too. anyone want a blueberry kiss that's probably a little sloppy? needless to say -- she was done w/ the markers for the day!

the fun of grandparenting

there is nothing better than seeing the smiling faces of the grandchildren looking up as soon as they enter the door. each child has a special place in our hearts. each child has different expectations of their interaction w/ us -- but each child does have very special interaction w/ us.

i guess i could say we are very blessed. between us, we have 5 grandchildren, and we get to see ALL of them on a regular basis. some things i cannot post here -- but that doesn't mean that we have less of a relationship to them.

the holidays and summer time are such great times to spend together -- easter, mother's day, birthdays, father's day, 4th of july. so many great pictures opportunities. for those of you who know where to look, there is another blog w/ all the kids pictures posted there to keep you up-to-date on them.

i'll post as many things as i can.