Fam-damily

We're back in Wichita. It rained just about the entire drive between Ozark and home. We left this morning at 10:30, and pulled up in front of our house at 5 p.m. Makes for a long day, though Adam did most of the driving today, so I knitted a little bit and read a lot.

I finished "The Fred Factor" by Mark Sanborn. It's about motivating team members and yourself to make the ordinary extraordinary. I really enjoyed the book, and it's an easy read. I think it's useful for yearbook and newspaper staffs. Then, I started "Don't Pee on My Leg and Tell Me It's Raining" by Judy Sheindlin. (Yep, that's Judge Judy, to you.) My yearbook guru-friend Jon Cutsinger recommended that one. It's pretty interesting so far.

We got really lucky yesterday for the services for Grandma. It was kinda rainy all morning, but it stopped raining right around 1:30, for her service at 2. Then, once all was said and done, we had a big family potluck dinner at the church. Near the end of dinner, a classic driving rain started. Luckily, we were finished with the "outdoor" portion of the ceremonies.

I guess they really did have to heaven and earth to put Babe Sax in the ground. The funeral director told us there was a rock so big they had to break it up into chunks to put it in the back of a dumptruck when they went to digging for Grandma's spot. See, in Arkansas, there's a tiny bit of dirt and a whole lot of sandstone under the surface. We were joking that technically, we probably really owned all that rock, since Grandma and Grandpa had paid for their resting places, so we should have gotten to send it to Kansas to make one helluva patio. We each could have had a Babe and Al memorial garden! (And, Grandma would have been proud of us for "rescuing" $1500 worth of patio stone.)

Despite the obvious purpose of the trip, I think it was really good for all of us. All the grandkids and aunts and uncle all stayed at the same hotel, and we stayed up until 2 a.m. this morning just telling stories on Grandma and Grandpa. I know that Mom and my aunts and uncle also really enjoy spending time with their cousins that they rarely get to see.

Family photo time.

This is the house my Grandpa grew up in. No one's lived there in years and the people who bought it were supposed to be turning it into a B&B. As you can see, they haven't done that yet.

My great-uncle Louie talking to Jayne.

Tuesday evening, after the funeral, we all went to Clarksville to go bowling. I've seen a lot of bowling alleys in my life, but this one took the cake. They only had about seven balls to choose from, and I think all of those weighed 30 pounds. The man who runs the place was, shall we say, not very into customer service. (He needs to read "The Fred Factor.")

We decided that we're going to get together every year about this time for the "Babe Bowl." I'm going to design T-Shirts for next year. It'll be like our own little family reunion.

Scenes from Babe Bowl I.

Malachi was cheering everyone on, even when they rolled gutterballs.

The "game room" more like the "lame room."
The freakin' bowling alley did not sell beer. I think that's against the law. You can't bowl without beer!

This is the church on top of St. Mary's Mountain, where Grandma was buried. It's in Altus, Ark., and for those of you keeping score, yes, that IS the town where Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie filmed the original "Simple Life." They stayed with a distant cousin of ours.