My Two Dads

After the Thursday evening windstorm in Fairview we had two fairly large tree branches in our yard. Fortunately neither did any property damage. The larger was about 4 inches in diameter and missed our garage by about 2 feet. The second one was only about one inch in diameter and fell between our house and our fence. They could have easily have landed in caused damage but did not.  PTL
Friday morning my dad came over as is our routine and helped my mother-in-law get me up and into the chair. The branches stuck out like a sore thumb because of their size. After getting me "up and going" and without any mention of the near disaster, he grabbed a tree saw and proceeded to cut the debris into small manageable pieces and carried them to the alley. After lunch I thanked him and found out that he had already made arrangements to have the pile to be hauled off. I know God has blessed me in many ways. This is just another example of love expressed by my earthly father and my heavenly father.
Much love, Dennis

Bible names

I thought I would start this post with a Scripture.
 It is 1st Corinthians 1:26-31  Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”[d]

I can identify with this passage. I think that Grandma Martha may also identify with it.
My grandmother is getting acclimated at the Fairview Fellowship Home. She has made new friends and has really enjoyed her visits from old friends. My Dad, Stephanie, and Cheri have been organizing grandma's new house and going through things at her old house. Inside one of the cook books was a handwritten quote from 

― Ralph Waldo Emerson
“For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” 
I have never heard that quote before, but I can see that she lived that way for many, many years.
Martha is a biblical name, and Cheri and I have had some conversations about Bible names. I have respect for people who chose biblical names for their children. Matthew, Mary, Mark, and John are all very popular. There are other names in the Bible associated  with less than desirable people. Thankfully I don't know anyone named Jezebel or Judas. I know that today, that really doesn't mean much. I told Cheri that I couldn't find "Dennis" anywhere in the Bible. She had obviously thought this out, because she said that if you spell "Dennis" backwards it is all over the Bible. "SINNED".
I did manage to take away a little of the sting by replying that at least it was in the past tense.

Much love, Dennis

additional information

I wanted to add a little bit to yesterday's posting. For those on Facebook, I will be working on an update to the Fairview Town Team Basketball group.
I have a short quiz that I sent to a few people yesterday, I thought it was fun. Garen M. is not eligible, so far he has been the only one to get all 12 questions answered correctly. Here are the questions. The answers are below, NO PEEKING.


1.     Johnny 's mother had three children. The first child was named April. The second child was named May....What was the third child 's name?

2. There is a clerk at the butcher shop, he is five feet ten inches tall and he wears size 13 sneakers....What does he weigh?

3. Before Mt. Everest was discovered, ...what was the highest mountain in the world?

4. How much dirt is there in a hole ...that measures two feet by three feet by four feet?

5. What word in the English Language ...is always spelled incorrectly?

6. Billy was born on December 28th, yet his birthday is always in the summer. ....How is this possible?

7. In California , you cannot take a picture of a man with a wooden leg. ...Why not?

8. What was the President 's Name...in 1975?

9. If you were running a race, ...and you passed the person in 2nd place, what place would you be in now?

10. Which is correct to say,... "The yolk of the egg are white" or "The yolk of the egg is white"?

11. If a farmer has 5 haystacks in one field and 4 haystacks in the other field, ....how many haystacks would he have if he combined them all in another field?

12. How many of each animal did Moses take with him on the ark?











Here are the Answers

1. Johnny 's mother had three children. The first child was named April; The second child was named May. What was the third child 's name?
Answer: Johnny of course

2. There is a clerk at the butcher shop, he is five feet ten inches tall, and he wears size 13 sneakers. What does he weigh?
Answer: Meat.

3. Before Mt. Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world?
Answer: Mt. Everest ; it just wasn't discovered yet. 

4. How much dirt is there in a hole that measures two feet by three feet by four feet?
Answer: There is no dirt in a hole.

5. What word in the English Language is always spelled incorrectly?
Answer: Incorrectly

6. Billy was born on December 28th, yet his birthday is always in the summer. How is this possible?
Answer: Billy lives in the Southern Hemisphere

7. In California , you cannot take a picture of a man with a wooden leg. Why not?
Answer: You can't take pictures with a wooden leg. You need a camera to take pictures.

8. What was the President's Name in 1975?
Answer: Same as is it now - Barack Obama 

9. If you were running a race, and you passed the person in 2nd place, what place would you be in now?
Answer: You would be in 2nd. Well, you passed the person in second place, not first.

10. Which is correct to say, "The yolk of the egg are white" or "The yolk of the egg is white"?
Answer: Neither, the yolk of the egg is yellow 

11. If a farmer has 5 haystacks in one field and 4 haystacks in the other field, how many haystacks would he have if he combined them all in another field?
Answer: One. If he combines all of his haystacks, they all become one big one.

12. How many of each animal did Moses take with him on the ark?
Answerer. Moses was not on the ark, it was Noah.


Now, one short joke that I thought was pretty funny.
Why did the cowboy buy a daschund (weenie dog)?

Answer: He wanted to get a long little doggie.

Please feel free to reply with your score.

Much love, Dennis

Thank You Heavenly Father on father's day

I had a great weekend. Saturday I attended a benefit basketball tournament to fund a scholarship in honor of Metisha Ewbank Welch. She was a wonderful young lady who is loved and missed by many. Congratulations to all of those who worked hard to make this happen.
Many of those who participated are people that I played basketball with many years ago. I spent at least an hour visiting, reminiscing, and swapping stories of years gone by.
Then Cheri and I were off to Enid. She had to pick up something from Penney. In the parking lot I spotted this car. We stopped and snapped this picture. While we were there several others stopped and took pictures or just checked out the car. It was a 1956 Ford Thunderbird hardtop.

We headed back to Fairview, just in time to visit some very good friends at small pool party. By the time we made it home, I was exhausted.

On Sunday Cheri and I went to Church services at the Fairview Fellowship home with Grandma Martha. My mother-in-law, Darla Olson, plays the piano every third Sunday and this was her week. Grandma had a great time and during some of the songs she was tapping her foot. She was smiling the whole time.

My favorite daughter, Whitney was here Sunday for Father's Day. I love my daughter. We watched some home videos from the 80's and 90's. What a weekend!

The last few weeks have been tough on my body, mainly because I had an infection and was taking some very potent antibiotics. Those shots were over Thursday and I have felt great since Friday afternoon. Thank you Jesus. What a weekend.

Much love, Dennis

Grandma Martha

This song reminds me of my grandma Martha Van Hoy. Not so much as a little old lady, but as one who is always going. I love both of my grandmothers, but my mother's, mother Grandma "Mac"  went to heaven in the 1985 & I didn't get to know her as well. Grandma Martha turned 95 this May. When she moved to Fairview in 1998, she was still walking 2 miles a day. To me she is the epitome of a "sweet little old lady".

 She moved into the house right across the street from me, I think God had his hand upon those circumstances. Up until my accident I would mow her yard and try to help her out with anything that I could. Many times she would come out when I was in her backyard and bring me a cold glass of water or tea. We got to visit 20 or 30 minutes most of the time. She would enlighten me with stories from her youth as well as telling me how my dad was in his early years. She would talk about my grandfather, "Grangran" we don't know exactly how we came up with that name but I'm sure there are many grandparents with nicknames like that. His real name was Earl Boyer, but was known as Banty because of his feisty nature, like a Banty rooster. Here is one of the Wikipedia definitions.

"Banty" is short for bantam rooster. In reference to a person, it means someone of small size but aggressive and spirited. He passed away when he was 56.

Grandma Martha then married Delbert Van Hoy, after a short few years, Delbert also died. She has gone through some tough times in her life, but it's very seldom to see her :-(

She would tell me about the times in her youth  when she pumped gas, did sewing from her spare bedroom, including a few wedding dresses and worked at C. R. Anthony's. She also was the manager of a small nursing home. There were things about her, from her youth that really surprised me. That's when I really got to appreciate what a treasure she is. I don't think there was a time in her life when she was just sitting around doing nothing.

In the last six months or so we have been noticing some small instances of short-term memory loss. Last week hit us very hard. She became confused about everything.

It's hard to see someone that you are very close to go through what she was dealing with. Arrangements have been made and now she is living in the Fairview Fellowship

Home. My Dad, Stephanie, Andrew, and Cheri have been fixing up her semi private room with some of her favorite things from her house. We all know that this is the best decision, even grandma, but this is a part of life. I really believe that in the next couple of weeks she will be much happier where she is, because she likes to be around people. She's not across the street now, but she is less than a mile away.

Much love, Dennis

My Hometown

 I've been a little focused on the tornadoes lately, and the devastation that they leave behind. Today I want to change gears. Let's go back to my yard. Right now I'm watching two young squirrels frolicking in the grass about 20 feet from my window. They really get energetic when the dogs are in the house. Occasionally one of them will go over to the Ronald McDonald toy and wrestle with it, rolling around and then throwing it up in the air. My mother brought over a block of squirrel food that is approximately a 10 in. cube. It took about three days, but the squirrels have now decided that it is "purdy good grub". Yep, I'm an Okie.

The 2 Starling babies are now flying, catching their own food, but returning to the birdhouse porch to eat their prey. They are pretty much full-size, but their light gray color makes them easy to spot.

 Here is a link to the Fairview Chamber of Commerce, there are some nice pictures of some of my favorite place on Earth.

http://www.fairviewokchamber.com/index.php/site/home

The video and information is several years old, but since then, Fairview has become a better place to live. Many of the people in the video are my friends.



Here are a couple of pictures from Google Earth.

School is out and our fairly new aquatic center is one of the main attractions for kids of all ages. Since we live close, our dogs spend a lot of time barking at those walking or riding a bicycle on their way to the pool.

I have a pretty good view of the big slide and the diving board. Google Earth is a free download and will zoom in much closer than this. These pictures were taken August 8, 2012.
This year things are much greener and the baseball and softball fields can easily be spotted. The baseball field is in the bottom center of this picture.
Much Love, Dennis