Sam Enjoying Peanut Butter

Sam is crazy about peanut butter. Today, Rosie was mixing up bird feed that called for peanut butter. During the process, she emptied two partially full peanut butter jars. Sam enjoyed licking both jars. He has a real hold on those jars.

Yummy! That's really good stuff.What's next on the menu?

Helping Doug Move, June 15 - 19

After Doug's graduation from Ohio State, Rosie and Bob helped him move from Columbus, OH, to Midland, MI. Although he had professional movers pack-up and move all the stuff from Columbus to Midland, there was a lot of cleaning to do on both ends.

Here's a picture of the house Doug shares with Kyle Cowden (home owner who also works for Dow).

The movers didn't unpack so we got the joy of unpacking everything and putting it away. The nice part about that is we could clean as we went along and unpack at our own pace - slow. Here are pictures of the kitchen and dining room - before and after. We hope you can tell the difference; the angles aren't exactly the same.

Doug's room is on the second floor at the back of the house. Here are a couple of pictures of his room.A lot of the furniture and electronics he had in the living room in Columbus had to go into the basement. Here's his layout in the basement.All three of us had a real sense of accomplishment when the house was cleaned and all the furniture, clothes, electronics, dishes, etc. were in place. It looked really good. Now we hope Doug and Kyle can find things. If not, Rosie is only a phone call away.

Doug's Graduation

Today, we (Rosie and Bob) attended Doug's graduation from The Ohio State University Fisher School of Business. Doug completed his MBA. Doug looks good in his robe, hat and hood.

Mom and Dad were very proud.

Ashley got to join us for the graduation festivities.

Following the graduation ceremonies, we attended a reception at the Blackwell Inn which is next to Fisher Hall (the Business school). Here's a picture of Doug in front of Fisher Hall.Here's the entire MBA class of 2009.We'll be here for the next week helping Doug pack up and move to Midland, MI, where he'll be working for Dow Chemical. He's excited to be headed back to the "working world."

UMCOR Sager Brown

May 17-22, we (Bob and Rosie) went to UMCOR (United Methodist Committee On Relief) in Baldwin, LA, on a mission trip with friends from Mountainside Methodist in HSV. Here's most of our group at Monday's breakfast. The food far exceeded our expectations - it was very tasty (Southern style cooking) and there was way too much. We had dessert at lunch and dinner (or dinner and supper, if you want to go Southern)!

The various mission teams had "kitchen ministry" which included clean-up after meals. Here's Ted in his clean-up gear.

We had a group picture taken on the bridge behind the kitchen. UMCOR is on the intercostal waterway that connects to the Gulf.

One of the highlights during our week was loading a container truck that would carry health kits to Armenia; actually, 31,000 health kits. Here's the truck and the 47 pallets that we would load into the container truck.

Rosie's team is unloading pallets to make a row in the truck. Two pallets make one row.
Bob's team unloading pallets near the end of the truck. We had 4 teams and each took a turn unloading 2 pallets. Three teams rested while one unloaded. We were so glad there were enough folks for 4 teams. Luckily it wasn't an extremely hot day in southern LA.
After the truck was loaded, the entire team joined hands for the "blessing of the container" and prayed for the materials and those that would receive it. It was a great opportunity to have a part in God's global ministry.

Our Mountainside team (Dennis, Ted, Leila, Barbara, Bob and Rosie) was all smiles after the truck was totally loaded.

Folks on the team had multiple opportunities to work during the week. Leila spent a good portion of her time making school bags. Rosie also helped in the sewing room.
Bob - being a totally unskilled laborer - spent most of his time making health kits. It's simply putting the items listed together into a plastic bag. On Thursday, Bob and Ted worked as part of a 4 man team to build a ramp for a home in the Baldwin community. Here's the frame of the ramp at about noon. We finished the ramp before quitting time!FLOOD BUCKETS. UMCOR also sends flood buckets to areas across the US and the world that need them. They contain supplies for cleaning the floor of a house that has been devastated by a flood. It doesn't do the entire job, but it's a great start. Flood buckets are kept in multiple warehouses across the US ready to be shipped when needed. Here's part of the supply in Baldwin, LA.
Side Trip - Tabasco Sauce. We travelled a short distance from Baldwin to Avery Island, LA, where the global supply of Tabasco Sauce it made. We had a fun tour and got free samples - YUM! We also got to sample jalapeno and sweet & spicy ice cream. Fun to taste, but I wouldn't buy to take home.

THE TREE. There's an interesting tree in Baldwin within walking distance of UMCOR - actually everything in Baldwin is just about within walking distance of UMCOR. It looks like the tree fell over and a limb that touched the ground established another tree trunk. However it happened, it's a neat looking tree.

Before we left, we got a picture of the team beside the UMCOR sign at the entrance. If you can't see the sign it says, "When the earth rocks, UMCOR rolls". A great slogan for an organization dedicated to helping others anywhere in the globe.

Strawberry Picking - Yummy!

On Friday, Karen, Logan, Kayleigh, Rosie and Bob went strawberry picking. This was a great field to pick in. The strawberries were beautiful, easy to pick and very tasty. Logan and Rosie are deciding which berries to pick. The red ones taste a whole lot better!

Logan has the opportunity to try an "on the spot" taste test. He approves and decides that putting strawberries in the bucket is a waste of time. Going directly from plant to mouth cuts out the middleman and is great fun. He did pick off the green leaves which were carefully added to the bucket before eating the berry.

"I can eat this whole row of strawberries? Wow - that's great!"


Here's Rosie showing off the results of our labor. We picked these two buckets full in about 15 minutes. Not bad for amateurs. (She was actually showing off the strawberry "fingerprints" on her jeans.)

We took our strawberries home and washed them. Some were used to make strawberry bread (great stuff!) and a frozen strawberry dessert (yummy!). Some were left out to eat, but most were frozen to be used another day.

Kayleigh Shayne Flachman

On April 14, 2009, Kayleigh Shayne Flachman was born in Dickinson, TX, to Shane and Karen Flachman and big brother, Logan. On 02-May, Rosie flew down to Dickinson to help out while Karen continued to recover from deliver (C-section) and Kayleigh adjusted to being born. Rosie had a great time helping with Kayleigh and playing with Logan. They got to do a lot while she was there (she left on 17-MAY); material for several future blogs. Here are some Kayleigh shots for all her "fans" out there.

Kayleigh has lots of curly hair. Bob only wishes he had some of her hair. Kayleigh's hair is beginning to turn lighter. If you look closely, the roots are getting lighter. Time for a dye job.

Here she is all dressed up and ready for church. Yes, nukies work wonders!

We have a few more posts coming with the adventures of big brother, Logan, and other happenings in and around Dickinson.

Spring time in HSV

It's Spring time in Hot Springs Village and with all the rain we've received, everything is green - even some things that aren't supposed to be green! In the backyard we have a Kousa Dogwood tree. The regular dogwoods have already bloomed, but the Kousa blooms later. It's interesting that the small blossoms come on green at first, then turn white. This is the first year our dogwood has bloomed; of course we've only had it for 2 years.Rosie also had a good time planting flowers in pots to place in the backyard. We can see the beautiful colors out the back windows while we're eating. Since Rosie's not here - she's playing Gram in Dickinson, TX - the plants will go nameless.
We also have some pansies in the back of the house that have gone crazy. It seems like the more Rosie picks them, the more they grow. We even had armadillos (we think) dig up some of the plants, and we still have a bunch. The colors are really neat.We planted some "double knock-out" roses in the front. They have really done well this Spring in spite of being "trimmed" by the local deer population. Maybe those deer know what they're doing.
Here are a couple of shots of the front from a distance.
We've also planted a small garden in the backyard. You can tell by the size of the tomato cages that we have high expectations for our plants. Rosie also planted two hills of squash. They are out of the ground and beginning to grow. I hope the local deer don't like squash. Finally, here's a picture of helper dog, Sam. He's had his "Summer cut" for a couple of weeks now. He really likes having less hair as the weather gets warmer. We had 3-4" of rain over the weekend and it's raining now. It's supposed to rain basically all week. At least it's great for the local plant life!