6/22 I served cake at a shower for Penny (Liz Jenkin's daughter). At 6 pm that evening Randy had a phone interview.
6/24 We went shopping after work at Comp USA, where we bought a PC and a monitor, and a 5 1/4 disc drive.
6/26 St Louis hosted the U.S. Olympic Festival this year. The U.S. Olympic Committee holds this event to keep our athletes competitive in-between the Olympic Games. Jackie Joyner-Kersee, one of our local athletes, will be there, and so will Michelle Kwan. The torch for this event will end up at the opening ceremony at the Arch on July 1st. Enterprise is one of the local sponsors so they got to put their employees' names into the lottery to see who gets to help carry the torch along the way. And I was selected! I ran 1/5 of a mile, in front of the Galleria Mall.
I had an easy (and short) run, didn't fall, and didn't drop the torch. For that monumental athletic effort I got a Torch relay t-shirt, an Enterprise hat, and bragging rights. Enterprise had snacks and drinks available so before and after Randy and I visited with Zondra Herbig and her family, Barb Breedon, and Jeff Jahnke.
Afterwords we went to the church picnic to celebrate Pastor's birthday, the church's anniversary, and Donny and Krista's anniversary. We took Randy's beef and noodles, which was, of course, very good!
6/27 Tomm called - Theresa is in ICU.
6/28 We got home from work around 2:30 and Randy left for Minnesota to see Theresa. He called when he arrived at Lonnie's. He will spend the night there and they will drive up together tomorrow.
6/29 Randy called to tell me that Theresa looks very bad but apparently is improving. Jody is there, too. I called Butch.
Friday - Randy got back by 1 pm. I was supposed to meet him in Peoria but the Hyundai was making bad noises - Midas said it's the muffler.
Saturday - Didn't do much today because Randy is exhausted. We just want some TV and had Hardee's fried chicken for dinner.
Sunday - We got a wonderful spiritual feeling from the service this morning! Bob (from Chemetco) went up to pray for baptism of the Holy Spirit. After church we went to Moonlight with the Vassars for lunch. And after the evening service we went to Dairy Queen with the Vassars and Heinrichs, then watched some fireworks from the Leady's backyard.
7/04 Monday - We spent the day going through most of the attic boxes. And we learned that the neighbors across the alley were robbed last night. Later that evening we had dinner with the Heinrichs - BBQ pork steak, corn on the cob, potato salad, and watermelon. We took a fruit tart and everything was very good. After dinner we played with their PC awhile. Then we went home, stood in the backyard, and shot at pigeons with Mark's pellet gun ("at them", not hitting them). Later we sat in the Leady's backyard with neighbors from across the ally and watched the fireworks.
Later that summer:
The horrible flood last year really tore up the area. We, along with Mike and Eddy, and Henry and Shirley, went driving around and see how the recovery is going in some of the river towns like Grafton. Some of it's fine but some houses will never come back. However, most of those houses were already on stilts, to protect them from the regular flooding along the river, so maybe they shouldn't come back? Don't know. What I know is that it was a lovely, sunny day with friends.
Among our other friends at church are the Torminos and the Gaddys. We invited their daughters to an outing to Six Flags. We stayed all day and everyone had a good time.
Randy's division at Boeing took time out of their projects for a group photo. These people do amazing work.
August - We went to the Wood River auction but didn't find anything worthwhile there. So we drove to Cahokia mounds, where an Indian craft fair was going on. Afterwords we went shopping at Fairview Heights.9/01 Jimmy came over to work on the PC, and he brought his new kitten, who he had named "Meow".
9/02 We volunteered to work at the Carmen concert in St. Louis. Randy was an usher and I worked at the concessions. I got to help a man in a wheelchair go down to the stage to accept Christ!
10/02 Fixed communion at morning church, then stood in the Life Chain in downtown Alton. In the evening service, the India Children's Choir sang. They were very good! Robin and Steve Woodson and their children came to hear them.
10/15 Party at Monie Jackson's house!
10/21 Snowball had a cyst removed, and Mom and Dad came to visit for my birthday.
10/22 Randy arranged a surprise party for me at the Heinrich's house!
10/24 Monday - Revival at church with Reverend Woodall.
10/25 Tuesday - Reverand Johnson.
10/26 Wednesday - Brother Beard.
10/27 Thursday - Terry Gwaltney.
10/28 Friday - Jeff Rush
11/06 Lunch at Moonlight with the Hasenjaeger's, Denise Jackson, Don and Monie Jackson and Sister Babe. Then we all went to Bud and Mary Bush's 50th wedding anniversary celebration at the Holiday Inn.
Another day we visited with Randy's sister Karin. She's had a difficult life but still is as sweet as she can be.
