Believe

Here are the wonderful additions for the Survivors! Let me help you celebrate your success stories.

Cricut information to be announced around 1:30 (MN time?) Saturday afternoon!

There are 2 new expandable PicFolio albums - 12x12 with a 4x6 window and a 13x9 landscape with 4x6 window. The 12x12 has one lg pocket page and the landscape had multi pockets (slide in).

I am not at Showcase, however, here is the info:

Changes to the Party Plan & Hostess rewards -
We’ll have 4 party formats - Organize, Displays, Albums, and Create It Your Way.  Something for just about everyone and more choices for those who like to host multiple times!!  The new catalog will include these categories for easy shopping!
Remember – I am happy to offer catalog and virtual parties for friends that are not nearby or able to have an in-home event!!
Hostess rewards will be on a tiered scale with the top level earning 20% of party sales!!

Checking on Mother

Meredith is correct. There is no greater feeling than to see the love in Grans eyes. She waited until I got here to get her bath. She does not like others to help her and she really does not want me to be much help....too bad. There is nothing wrong with the shower pan in her bathroom. The water was as I suspected, coming from the shower head was spraying under the curtain when she lays it on the floor.
I do know God answered my prayers today. I just asked that He please take care of my needs and not worry about my wants.
Wish I could get her to the beauty shop but with the outside temp at 28 degrees, I do not think I will push it. I may introduce her to her wig...that may be more than I have authority to do. We are going to change her care again and have the ladies of We Care be with her for the evening and medication times. Hopefully we can give her some independence back.

Saturday and Sunday

We had a good night and headed across Nebraska following the North Platte for a long time. There are a lot of sunflowers so you know that we took pictures of that. We took a detour to Chimney Rock, Boot Hill in Ogallala, and drove and drove. Saturday night brought us to north of Oakley, Kansas to a great campground. A local organic farmer has a little garden there. He allows travelers to pick the veggies and you can donate whatever you want. I took pictures. As usual we enjoyed meeting the people who own the campgrounds. We ate a Kansas steak for dinner which I deserved after the drive. Sunday morning we drove on into Oakley after a good breakfast. There is a huge bronze of Buffalo Bill Cody shooting a buffalo. Awesome! Paulette dropped me off for church where I met some really nice folks. The ladies are scrapbookers and one is a Creative Memories consultant. We visited for a long time. We tried to visit a couple of other places but time was not right and the road to one place was too rough for the trailer. Late afternoon brought us to Guymon, Oklahoma. That is where Davida (Paulette’s daughter) lives. We will leave here early Monday morning and wander back by Abilene and then on the Corsicana for a trailer repair or redo for them. We should be home by Tuesday at the latest.

Friday

Saturday morning at the KOA is always Pancakes and bacon. Good! Packed up and headed for Rapid City and Prairie Edge. Prairie Edge is the ultimate in Pendleton, Native artifacts and new items and all to make things with. I tried my best to keep my wallet in my purse….not easy. Arriving in downtown with our little trailer was a bit of a challenge for parking. We discovered that the historical society or mayor or? Had decided to acquire a bronze statue of each of the presidents of the USA. There was one on each street corner so getting photographs of each one was a job. We did not get each on but there is “next time.” We pulled out of there around noon and headed to Pine Ridge. Following GPS and 3 different maps we headed south. The chosen road was through the Lakota Sioux reservation. It was a good choice for seeing and experiencing a wonderful tour of the Red Cloud Heritage Center. The counselor at the school showed us the language center; church with stained glass windows designed by the students, Red Clouds grave, and told us a ton of history. The agreement between Red Cloud and the Jesuits was for the good of the children. He realized the children needed an education in order to preserve their history, language, stories and ability to blend into society. The Jesuits were his answer. They found a way to blend Catholicism and Indian Religion. Going to the grocery store on the Rez was a new experience for Paulette. It is a lot different than going to a Pow Wow at Traders Village in Houston. We did go to the Pow Wow area thinking we would be able to camp there. We had been told it would be a good way to see and experience the event. A place to park was not as great as the ground was extremely rough and we should have gone early to get a better spot. I am use to blending in and no one knowing I don’t belong. Paulette was aprensive about being singled out and was not comfortable. I realized that we did have a lot of things in the truck that were valuable and I would hate for someone to breaking and take something while we were in the ceremony. It was really different that others I attended. We walked around and checked out the vendors and realized it would be another 2 hours before they began and it was dusty hot. We pulled out and headed toward Nebraska. The campground we found there was just lovely.

Destination for this evening was Rapid City, South Dakota. Sometimes it takes a while to find the destination. We pulled out of Pipestone fairly early and headed out for Sioux Falls to catch a glimpse of the falls there even though I was no that impressed the last time. Wow! With the 17 inches of rain this summer and a heavy rain the night before, the falls were running fast and high. Where I sat two years ago was covered by at least 4 feet of rushing water. Beautiful! …on the road again toward the Badlands. There is a scenic loop which would only take an hour or less. Grass was growing in some areas because of the rainfall and we enjoyed the drive. Some of the spires reminded us of places in Zion but with a change of colors. Zion is more vivid. All do not think it is beautiful but I let my imagination go to the mysteries of the bad guys of the past with horses hidden within the natural corrals. Interesting person of the day was my new friend Robby from New York by way of Florida. He was on vacation on his way to Sturgis to experience a couple of days as a biker. He asked if I would take a picture for him. I got one of him also which I will share later. He was a nice young man just out for a ride in places he had never been. After the loop we hit the world famous Wall Drug Store in Wall, SD. Okay, I can now say I have been there since it became so famous. For me it is a lot of junk and I do not have to go back. Seems like it took us forever to get to the KOA at Rushmore but we made it. Our neighbor is a cousin of Melanie Crowhurst of Hempstead and Carol Fry of Bellville. He and his wife are from Livingston. We hurried to the evening ceremony at Mt. Rushmore. It was just wonderful as it was 11 years ago. A group of Boy Scouts did the flag ceremony and pledge. At the end the ranger asked all Veterans to come to the stage. We honored them with cheers and applause. He specifically asked the Vietnam Vets to step forward as they did not receive their accolades when returning from war…. Lovely and heartwarming. We are back in the campgrounds for a shower and bed. Pancakes at the KOA in the morning. Yeah! Then it will be a day at Sioux ~ Pine Ridge Pow Wow. Now that will be a treat for me.