My Mom

Tomorrow, April 19, would have been my moms 83rd birthday. She was the fourth of ten kids. Nine girls and one boy. Bet you can't guess who was spoiled the most!

Three years ago when she turned 80 we celebrated at the Nursing Home in Attica. If I remember correctly, all of her siblings were there except the youngest, Sue. It was a fun day. It is always interesting for me when the older generation start telling stories. You never know what you will hear. I have always thought that those stories are very important. I have also learned that it is very important to document these stories when you have the chance.

Mom was always a simple person. When I say this I mean she didn't need a lot to be happy. Of course, she liked nice things and always wanted her house to be clean and tidy, but when you would ask what she needed, she would answer "I have everything I need." When mom and dad were moving to the Nursing Home, Mom knew what would go with them and what would stay at the house in Medicine Lodge and what would go with us kids. She had several quilts that went to Attica. One on the wall and one on the bed. They had a picture of Jesus that hung on the wall at home as long as I can remember. It went with them. There was a book case that Dad made for his Mom. It went with them. Moms white cabinet from the kitchen went with them. Several items had to stay in Medicine Lodge. And several things came to my house. One was Moms 'birdcage'. This was a curved glass cabinet she had bought several years ago. She had always said that was to be Hannahs. It now sits in our living room.

But, in the long run, these are just material items. They have some value, but not like the value of the memories we all cherish. I remember mom and dad coming and working on our house. One time they were sanding drywall in what is now Madison's room. Mom slipped and fell off of a stepstool. The ambulance came, she was placed on a gurney and wheeled outside. Susan and I practically had to pry Dad away from the drywall so we could go to the hospital in Dodge City. The next day Mom was on crutches walking outside, when a neighbor stopped by. It turned out he knew my Uncle John and had worked with him. More stories to be heard.

Those other material things? The picture of Jesus and Dads bookcase? They are at my house now. And, hopefully, someday they will go to my kids homes. Because they are memories not to be forgotten.

I love you, Mom. Tell Dad I love him. I think about you a lot. I miss you. But, I will see you again. Ivan

PROM:)

PROM.

-shoes;check.

-dress;check.

-nails done;check.

-hairrrr;check.

-memories?; made. :)

I had so much fun at prom. I spent four entire hours dancing away with my friends. I have to say it was probably a good thing that they had sophomore servers this year, because after about a hour and a half it was only about 7 people getting down:) ha. Gentry and I danced to almost every single song. At one point we were just turning in circles again and again. haha I'm so glad that we're best friends. We were dancin' fools. Even the slow songs, I think I slow danced with her at least twice. Oh by the way, she looked like an absolute doll on prom night. I mean she always does, but especially then. :)

Brian and I went together, and well I'm going to have to say we looked pretty dang good! :) We decided that he would choose and surprise me with his tux and then the flowers, so I had no clue what color everything would be. He did good. Picked my favorite color:purple. :) plus, I got roses! I've been asking Brian for some for FOREVER! Pretty huh?? Here's some pictures!

Funny Facess!

Favorite picture! :) Cute Couple!

-madi lane.

From Dress Up to PROM

Tonight was my wonderful big sissy, Madi's first PROM! She has always liked to play dress up with her friends. Here is a picture of those days.

Bucklin only has a Junior-Senior prom.As a Sophomore she had be invited by a upper classman to go. Her boyfriend Brian was asked to be a server and he could bring a date. So, several weeks ago the dress shopping began. After trying on dresses(more like one hundred)in Wichita and Kansas City, she found the one. The only problem was it was too long. So a couple weeks ago we went to Medicine Lodge, to see our wonderful Aunt Rie. We stayed that day and Madi got her dress fixed. After that Madi has been really excited to go. I believe she had been counting down. So after weeks of waiting to go she finally got to go tonight.Madi is (and has always ) looked beautiful. Our cousin Colby came out to help out with Madi's hair and make up. She looked really pretty tonight. Heres a couple pictures of Madi and Brian.

Love,Hannah:)

Time To Praise The Lord, Time To Represent! :) --I Love My Jesus Deep Down In My Heart!

First off sorry bout the super duper long title!This weekend,was probably the longest/most amazing/most spiritual weekend ever! I attended my first and definitely not my last FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) Conference, where they pack what feels like 3 weeks worth of activities and worship into two days. I got to meet amazing people, learn about Jesus anddddd gave my life to him!(:

Saturday, at FOUR in the morning, us five kids and our FCA leader left to go spend the following 36 hours at the Rock Springs 4-h Center. Its was about a four hour drive there. We arrived at about 8:30ish and I begin my day, a day that felt like an entire week packed into one.

The first thing I see is 54 college kids(our huddle leaders) yelling at each other, standing on a rock wall, and singing songs. Then I notice that there's like 200 kids standing around there also yelling and singing. My stomach literally dropped. I was like, I think I'm goin to be sick. :( I don't like making new friends or talking to people I don't know. After I say this our FCA leader imforms us that we'll be seperated into different groups and won't see each other all that much. at this point I was wanting to go home.no lie.

I then go on to meet my absolutely awesome huddle leader, who we all called PV.:) Who has made each girl in our huddle BUZZ LIGHTYEAR HEADBANDS! My weekend suddenly got brighter. Dude, she's loves buzz too! Afterwards I find out that I'll be staying the weekend with 11 other girls in a two room cabin the rest of the weekend. Long story short, I think all of us girls became pretty tight pretty dang fast.

I can't tell you to much about Saturday here because there are way too many stories I would want to share and this is already going to be a super long blog, I can tell. But I will tell you that I spent most of that night crying my eyes out. And that it was for sure happy tears coming out. Saturday night at around 10:30 I gave my life to God. Saying that and talking about it is still bringing tears to my eyes. That was my favorite moment of the whole trip. My next favorite was the fact that another girl who came with me gave her life to Big-J( as PV would call him, she has a ton of names for him:)anddd Brian did also! It is amazing what God can do when you give him control!

Sunday was sad day. It seemed to fly by. But I had just as much fun as Saturday. oh and competitions were great! We didn't win the towel(prize for best record in competition) tho. Brian and Chance's group both had a perfect record, but Brian's group won the tiebreaker:rock, paper, scissors( i so called that game too, just saying!).

Once back at Bucklin we all told mom and Gentry all about it. I'm making her go next time even if I have to drag her there! then we told stories and talked the rest of the night. today we were all soooooooooo tired! but agreed it was totally worth it.

By the end I wasn't even close to being ready to leave. I had an absolute blast and cannot wait til the fall conference. The girls I met and PV helped me so much and in so many ways i can't explain unless its in person! So I'm now ask me sometime in best if about FCA if you wanna hear so great stories! I'm gonna close with my huddles signature:)

All my bearcats call with me now! ugggghhhhhhrrrrrrr! :) haha best time ever!

-mk

P.s- do you love your Jesus deep down in your heart?? Let the answer be yes, the feeling is wonderful when you do!

She's a smartie!

Today's post is about my little sissy Hannah Banana. Yesterday, Hannah attended "math contest", for the second year in a row.(She's the smart child, I'm the fun one! :) jk)

Math Contest explanation= When a whole bunch of little 4th thru 8th grade math geniuses go and take math tests all day in Greensburg..

This year, 27 fifth graders from our surrounding league went. Now, not to brag or anything, buuuuuutttttttttttt I'm going to have to say that I think I have a math genius as a little sister:) who of which I am very proud of. She's gone to this contest both her 4th and 5th grade years, each time placing in a least one category.

This year she got:

• FIFTH in problem solving, this category contains the worst math problems ever because most are word questions.
• FIFTH in geometry! woo hoo!
• NINTH in mental math. which means the little smartie pants answered all the problems without using a calculator on any problem. Which is something I can hardly even do anymore.

Now need I remind you that there were 27 students there and she placed in all three tests? I think she's brilliant. haaaa mostly because I was never smart enough to be chosen to go when I was little. I'm going to have to say she did pretty dang good representing Bucklin junior high. :)

Well that's all for now! peace(: hehe

-mk :)