Birthdays-always a celebration

Birthday week - what a great time in our life..we celebrate our births with thanks to our parents, we share special times with friends, I rejoice that for 5 days Jerry and I are the same age, we see family, and in general - we have a GREAT time.  Thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes for us.  In these pictures:  Jerry skypes with Jo as she shows him her gift - the creation of his own website. I am sorry most of you missed her original creation, which was hilarious--but trust me, as soon as Jerry saw it on the world-wide web, he had her remove it promptly from viewing!  What remains is going to be, one of these days, a legitimate website for him as he hopes to make himself available to lead weekend retreats, Bible studies, marriage & family workshops.  Check it out (and watch it mature) at jerrymaxhilton.com.
I had my birthday cake (one piece with 4 forks, please note) out to dinner with our friends, Bev & Richard Spann; while Jerry had a tiny birthday cake with our friends, Mardelle & Sam Moyers, as we watched the Final 4 and bid farewell to our favorite season of the year--basketball.  (And what a season it was for US -- Crane Mo HS won its first EVER state title in its division and Midland College came in 2nd in the NJCAA tournament.)  His birthday pie was one of Carla's now-famous pecan pies--his favorite.  We shared our birthday in Springfield MO with 4 other friends/relatives at a grand party hosted by our El Paso cousins, Bill & Wayne--the "out-laws" (those who are not originally from Crane MO) were in the minority as the "in-laws" (Crane natives) had a great reunion and told stories that not many would believe!  The 6 birthday folks were:  Johanna Cunningham, Bill Wagnon, Carolyn Barnett, Dick Vaughn, and the Hiltons.  Johanna, Bill, Carolyn and Jerry were all Crane HS graduates, while Dick and I were fortunate to be included as "out-laws."  Our thanks to Bill & Wayne for celebrating US in such a great way!

Once upon a time..the story of five friends

Once upon a time, in a community in mid-Missouri called Marshall, there lived a lot of very nice people.  Among those folks were Nancy, Sally, Carol, Mary and Gretchen.  These women were not gray-headed and old, as they are in the picture, but rather were young, vivacious, busy with homes, husbands, church, school and raising children.  They taught Sunday School together, shared leadership in Brownies and Girl Scouts, participated in Missouri Valley College activities, floated Missouri rivers, went on family camping trips, baby-sat with each other's children (it really DOES take a village to raise a child!), made apple butter together every fall for a total of 35 years, celebrated Mardi Gras with pancakes, brought in the New Year in someone's home, and lived their lives in love, laughter and harmony.  The years came and went...now the children are all grown, many have children of their own, most of those children live many miles away;  we shared our grief in the death of Gretchen's husband a few years ago; everyone is retired; and Mary & Gretchen no longer live in Marshall - Gretchen in Iowa and Mary in Texas.  But for this evening the end of March, we gathered at Cedar Crest Lodge in Pleasanton KS to enjoy an overnight together - sharing two meals, and reminiscing over our many years of blessed friendship...swapping stories of kids and grandkids, and being grateful for each other.
Thank you, dear friends, for a heart full of precious memories.

Dr. Scott W. Peters, Teaching Excellence Award

Dr. Scott W. Peters, Assistant Professor at Texas AandM University, San Antonio, was selected by his students to be a recipient of the Teaching Excellence Award in the Fall 2010 semester. We are so proud of our son-in-law!

San Antonio visit

The trip to Whitney gave us the opportunity to go by and check on our new home in Wimberley, get some landscaping underway, and spend an afternoon in San Antonio with Jo & Scott.  It was a gorgeous Texas afternoon and we enjoyed spending the time on their deck.  Jo and I are modeling our new scarves we just received from Indonesia, created by Sri Dusyanto.  Sri is Any's mother...and of course, you remember that Any is our oldest daughter who was an AFS exchange student with us.  What fun to be able to wear something so special.  Not only that, but we got to meet our newest grand-dog, Taiga--I wish I could have held her when she was a tiny puppy and loved to cuddle, but she is now growing like a weed--but she is absolutely gorgeous! Our next get-together will be to celebrate Jo's 46th birthday right after we move back to Texas--HOORAY!

Barista Daughter

Carla has started on a new track in her life as a barista at Starbucks (along with her work at the Bed & Breakfast.)  Her training is completed and her mind is full of recipes for all the items Starbucks has to offer.  She continues to wear a delightful smile and make every person feel very welcome - especially her Dad, who showed up with his very special Starbucks Gold Card to make a purchase from her!  Her Starbucks is  at 87th & Metcalf, should you find yourself in KC and need a coffee.  We are proud to have a barista daughter! My favorite comment - she googled "Starbucks longest order" and came up with: "Carla is ready to learn how to make a Double Ristretto Venti Nonfat Organic Chocolate Brownie Frappuccino Extra Hot with Foam and Whipped Cream Upside Down Double Blended" which - of course - is non-existent, since "frappuccino" is a frozen drink, and "extra hot" would be--well, hot, of course!

Bible Study Retreat in Texas

Last fall Jerry received an invitation from the good folks at White Bluff Chapel community near Whitney TX to lead a Bible Study retreat over a weekend...one of his favorite things to do, and he gratefully accepted the challenge. It turns out that we had four friends who were members of WBC--Ann & Jim Duncan (shown with us at breakfast), and Marilyn & Mike Pollard. The Pollards were members of FPC in Midland during our years there. The Duncans are friends we met at Bloys Cowboy Camp Meeting - Ann's Mom, Pansy Evans, was one of our favorites; and one of Jerry's heroes in the faith for many years has been Joe Evans, who turns out to be Pansy's uncle. They were instrumental in gaining Jerry this invitation--and we had a fantastic time. White Bluff is a retirement community built on Lake Whitney. We were lodged in the White Bluff Resort with a great view of the lake..the weather was not cooperative, so we didn't get to enjoy sitting on our balcony overlooking the water! Many folks turned out for the studies on Friday night and again on Saturday, where Jerry taught on Revelation. The Pollards hosted a dinner on Saturday night with many new friends and a delightful evening. Worship on Sunday was a great experience--these folks come from all kinds of religious traditions and the service is a beautiful blend. The choir is unbelievably wonderful, full of folks who have probably had years of experience singing in their own local church choirs before retiring to WB...and they continue to share their gifts. We felt so at home with these folks, and look forward to going back to White Bluff another time, perhaps in our RV--its only 3 hours from Wimberley and has its own RV park!

Loaf-Off Contest

This was SUCH fun! To enter the Loaf-Off contest, you made a huge pan of your favorite meat loaf recipe and brought it to The Anchor, a great pub in Old Town, Wichita. We bought our ticket, which was in support of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, picked up a plate with the sides of mashed potatoes and green beans, and walked past all the entries, picking up a little tiny cup (like a paper medicine cup or pill cup) with the name of the provider on it..and sat down and enjoyed. You were given 3 ballots to cast. When we finished eating, we went back through the line and dropped our ballots in a jar in front of the ones for which you were voting. In the photos you will see some of the big pans of meatloaf that were offered, and one of the cleverest (IMHO) in her dispay (she even had sequins/beads glued on the scoop). My dining companions were Ann Graham, a delightful new friend from Grace Church, who was kind enough to tell us about this occasion; and Bob McCune, our 94-year-old friendliest greeter at Grace..he's been assuming that responsibity for over 40 years and does not intend to give it up any time soon! Jerry joined us as soon as he could, so that he could sample the meatloafs.

Best Friends Forever

Cedar Crest Lodge is located just outside of Pleasanton KS, about 50 miles south of Kansas City, just north of Ft. Scott, KS, and across the state line from Nevada MO - a great location. I urge you to check out their website and find a time when you can go spend a night. The rooms are a delight, the meals are amazing (I recommend you also make plans for dinner there), the views are spectacular, and this past week some very special old friends met there for a wonderful time of visiting, knitting, quilting, with lots of laughter. Sitting beside Carla (in the valentine vest) is Nancy Rabe from Marshall MO, and across the table sits Gretchen Bearce from Pella IA and me. The Bearces and the Rabes became friends in the mid-60's when their husbands were both associated with Missouri Valley College. The Hiltons moved to Marshall in 1972, and from then on we were all part of one big family - from the college crowd to our church family at Covenant Presbyterian to neighbors. Our 3 families were all originals in the Apple Butter project as well. Carla has visited both of these family friends at their summer homes in northern Wisconsin and Michigan...and now enjoys my friends as much as I do (now that they are no longer being surrogate mothers to her!) A couple of years ago, after Carla visited both of them up north, she commented to me how much fun it was to be friends as adults with Nancy and Gretchen, and not as "Mary & Jerry's daughter". There is a big change in perspective and world view in that observation! Nancy and I showed up at the B&B with the same marvelous flannel nightgowns, which is a favorite for each of us-I had given Nancy hers for a birthday a couple of years ago! The next morning, as we gathered for our superb breakfast served by the owners, Matt & Laura, we were surprised with a visit from Phyllis Garrett, who lives in Monett MO--we've all been friends from those days in Marshall, and in 1977, the Garretts joined the Bearces and Hiltons on a British trip. So we all have many many memories that we share, and this was another memory-maker visit.

Tears for Christmas

One usually thinks about Christmas as being a very happy time - lots of laughter and sharing, filled with joy. And it always is that in our household..but we also have our share of tears on Christmas. None of us will ever forget that Xmas many years ago, when the girls were in middle-school days, when Jo's Christmas present to Carla was a home-made kite--made from newspaper! That brought tears to Carla's eyes, I can assure you! Or the year that Jo could not come to Midland for Christmas day, so she made a videotape of herself interpreting in American Sign Language, the C&W song "That's My Job"...which had all of us in tears, including my Dad and Jerry! This year was no different!
Jo discovered she had an addiction to Dove Peppermint Bark Promises during December and was heartbroken to find that there were no more to be had in San Antonio. But her sister both delighted and surprised her by gifting her with another package she found in Kansas City--life is good!
This was followed by Carla opening her very special gift from Jo & Scott--a year's membership to the nearby Community Center where she can workout and shape up to her heart's content! It was something Carla had talked about for some time, and she was absolutely overwhelmed with their generosity. Moments like these deserve to be memorialized in print to be sure we never forget!

Christmas in Kansas City

We observed the holiday by decorating our coach --we were surely the star of our RV park! Our family Christmas was headquartered at Carla's home in Prairie Village KS. While the rest of you were taking advantage of after-Xmas sales, we were celebrating our Christmas. After observing Xmas eve with our church family at Grace Pres, we headed for KC the next day to prepare for our Xmas. Pat Mundy joined us on Saturday afternoon, and Sunday morning we were all at KCI to welcome Jo & Scott to Kansas City.
These times are just so special - we spent time at Union Station, where Carla volunteered several hours over the season driving the Children's Train, and we loved watching her in action. We saw movies - "The Fockers", "True Grit", "Winters Bone". In addition to all the good food, we spent some time playing Left-Center-Right, making no one rich in the process!

The gifting, laughing and sharing lasted most of the day on Monday - Carla is showing you one of the bags (I was the recipient of the other) that were made by Jo's precious friend, Vicki, from some of Jerry's old ties--a marvelous way to put old ties to use! Carla was the recipient of the queen-sized bedspread t-shirt quilt...she has been saving t-shirts since she was in high school, from various camps, mission trips, college, and concerts..and they came together in a glorious manner that will be a memory book for her the rest of her life. The memories of our Christmas cannot be captured in pictures or in words, but are etched on our hearts forever--thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift of His Son!

Thanksgiving in Kansas City

Thanksgiving in Kansas City means being a part of the Plaza Lighting ceremony..something we have enjoyed many times over the years. This year was no different. Pat Mundy was with us as we celebrated the holiday at Carla's house. (Pat and I had just spent the previous week in Kansas City living in her trailer parked at the Heartland Presbyterian Center, doing wonderful tourist things - like Christmas shopping at the various malls, seeing the 25th anniversary screen production of "Les Miserables", and visiting the World War I museum, as well as Crown Center). And after that - we celebrated all for which we are thankful with Carla and Jerry. As you can see, this is a "before" picture on Thanksgiving evening:

And here are the after pictures...fireworks don't show up very well in my snapshots, but the lights are spectacular, as always!

 

Apple Butter Days

Back in 1975 in Marshall MO, a group of families who spent a lot of time together socially and professionally, and who had children close in age, decided it would be fun to make our own apple butter. Raynors owned the huge copper pot and stirring ladle (now replaced by another one because we wore the first one out!), and the tradition began...each family peeled and prepared their own apples, the men started the fire early in the morning, and we all gathered out at a spot on the Raynor's farm called "Stickery Thicket", where we combined food and snacks, roasted hot dogs over the fire for lunch, and eventually canned up the apple butter. The earliest picture of our family was taken in 1976 (the 1975 photo did not copy well!), the one of the 3 of us was in 2005, and Carla and I were there for the last one. In honor of the last year of this tradition, one of the originators, Gretchen, assembled a wall-hanging from squares created by some of the families who helped get this started. We have so many wonderful memories of these annual gatherings..and eating the apple butter (did you ever put warmed apple butter over vanilla ice cream? It is delicious--and the way we always end up the day, serving up gallons of ice cream and ladeling the bottom of the kettle into the bowls. Try it!) The youngsters who helped us stir and who made the apple cider (and drank it all!) are now the able adults in the crowd, and their children are now playing in the tree house and grinding the apple press...and so life goes on. Maybe, just maybe, one of those in the next generation will pick up the tradition one of these years--but we will no longer be the ones responsible for peeling all those apples, stoking the fire, and preparing all those jars and lids for the canning process! Take it away, kids! And thanks to Richard & Carol for this marvelous memory-maker!