Category: family and friends

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Celeste

Late Friday night, there was a knock on my door.  When I opened the door, there stood a young woman with a little boy.  She said her name was Celeste and her little boys name was Joe.  She didn’t have anywhere to go because her family had thrown her out that evening and she wondered if maybe I had a job she could do to pay for a room tonight and some food for her and Joe.

This is a 17 year old young woman with a 15 month old beautiful little boy.  I invited her in and got her and Joe something to eat.  I sat with her and talked to see what I was dealing with here.  I sure didn’t need a teenager that was on drugs here but I didn’t see any signs of anything like that.  All I saw that she had a bruise across her cheek that she had tried to hide with makeup but didn’t do a very good job of it.

She said her father was bad to get drunk and take everything out on her and her mother and she just couldn’t take it anymore.  He had gotten angry about nothing and threw her out.  She said she was still in high school and had someone that kept Joe for her to be able to go to school.  She really wanted to stay around here so she could finish school and then hopefully go to college so she could take care of Joe and herself.

My heart almost broke as I listened to this beautiful young woman talk.  I made a deal with her.  I told her that she could clean the rooms and help with the other chores around there and she would have a place to live as long as she stayed in school and took care of her son herself.  No male visitors to her room and no drugs or drinking.  When I saw the tears swelling up in her eyes, I knew this was not a bad kid.  Just a kid that had made a few mistakes and was trying to do right by them.  I guess I now have somewhat of a daughter and grandson if all works out like I think it will.  I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

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Fall Festival

Well with fall finally here, to kick off the weekend, we always have a fall festival here at the bed and breakfast.  Friday night starts off with a ‘pig pickin’ which is where we have a whole 75 pound pig barbecued and then there’s the usual fixins which are barbecue slaw, potato salad, baked beans and banana puddin’.  Some of the local musicians (and there are a lot of them in these hills) stop by for some pickin and grinnin.  I guess you could call it a mini fiddlers convention.

Then Saturday, some of the locals bring their arts and crafts for a craft fair here on the grounds.  We have everything from handmade quilts, home made jellies and preserves, fresh vegetables, and some of the most amazing paintings and crafts you have ever seen.  Anyone is welcome and many come from all around just to spend the day if I’m booked up which I usually am for this weekend.  This year wasn’t any different which surprised me.  There weren’t quite as many here just for the day as there usually are but that’s the only difference.

Today, we had a good old fashioned gospel singing.  There were choirs from several different churches here and again some locals just got up and sang solo.  The air was just crisp enough that I made hot spiced apple cider for everyone.  The whole weekend was a complete success not only in fun but financially for me and several in the community too with the arts and craft fair.  It’s one of my favorite weekends throughout the year.

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Happy 78th Birthday Daddy

Well today is my fathers 78th birthday and I just wanted to wish him a ‘Happy Birthday”.  He’s doing pretty good considering he’s had 7 heart attacks.  He’s still just as ornery as ever but I still love him.  The funny thing is he has absolutely no idea just how important he still is to our family.  He thinks that because he can’t do all the things he used to be able to do that he isn’t of much use to us anymore.  Well he’s totally wrong about that.  We all still need him if for nothing else, to keep us all in line or keep trying to anyway.  Love ya Daddy!!!!

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What a great day

About 4:30 today, there came a knock on my front door.  When I opened the door, there stood three kids and 4 adults, all from the local elementary school where we donated the school supplies that were collected here.  These beautiful smiling faces on these children warmed my heart before I knew why they were even at my door.  Out popped three little hands with hand made ‘Thank You’ cards from each and every child at school that had received supplies from us. The parents all made sure to thank all of us too.

I called all of my staff in so they could be a part of this since they were a huge part of what made the whole ‘School Tools’ collection a success too.  Then a bright idea hit me.  I knew that some of the patrons that had brought donations would be coming back soon so I invited the parents and children in.  I have a couple bulletin boards where I post upcoming events and I let the children put every ‘Thank you’ note on one of the bulletin boards so everyone could be thanked by these sweet children that had a hand in helping out.  That sure made my day.  Well it probably will make my whole week in the end.

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Weekend special

This weekend we decided to run a special to help bring in some business.  Our community always collects items for the local schools for the children in need of school tools.  I decided to continue what we started 3 years ago by offering half off on the weekend stay with the donation of a fully packed back pack for a child.

By fully packed I mean a pack of pencils, 100 sheets of loose leaf note book paper, pack of erasers, colored pencils and markers, 3 ring binder, pencil box or pencil pouch like goes in the binder and anything else they want to contribute like lunch boxes or other school supplies.

Last year, we collected 15 fully packed back packs with some of our patrons bringing more than one.  Everyone brought extra supplies.  Everyone that works for me also brought items for the kids.  It was wonderful to take them to the schools.  I hope this year is as successful as the last three.

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Small plane crash

Did you hear about the small air plane that crashed in Utah Friday evening killing all 10 people on board?  That’s what scares me about going up in small air planes.  You hear so much about them crashing.  This one crashed shortly after take off.  Of course the FCC is investigating the crash.

The nine passangers were dermotologists from Cedar City.  This might be a strange thought but I wonder if there are any dermotologists left in the city?  What a loss to Cedar City and to their families.  Sometimes life just doesn’t seem fair but hopefully none of them suffered.

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Surprise visit

There was a gospel group that had come to a local church to sing and decided to stop by here.  They had stayed here a few years ago and wanted to come by and say ‘Hi’.

They graced my patrons with a mini gospel singing.  They were even better than I remembered them being.  They sang a few of the old standards and some original songs the members had composed themselves.  The children were dancing and several of their parents were singing along with them.  It was a wonderful treat.

Most of the people even gave money to the group for them entertaining them even though there was no charge.  There are still some good people in the world, we just have to take the time to see them.

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Summer kicking up here

Boy am I glad the gas prices have kept people close.  You know what I mean?  People are taking shorter vacation trips and I have been booked solid since school got out and am still booked through labor day weekend.  I even have most weekends after school goes back booked almost solid.  I really hate that gas is so high but it has helped the local economy a great deal.  The best part is that a lot of people are finding my place that didn’t even know it was here before.  Word of mouth is the best advertising there is.

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Talula does the Hula?

Did you hear about that judge in New Zealand that has gotten sick of all the stupid names parents are putting on their children.  It seems some parents thought ‘Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii’ was a good name for their daughter.  Well it has caused this poor little girl all sorts of embarrassment and she never even told her closest friends what her real name was.  When someone asked her name, she would just say ‘K’.  The judge changed her name and it has not been released what her name was changed to so they could protect the little girls identity.

Don’t parents even consider what consiquences a stupid name like that does to a child?  I thought Frank Zappa was the only idiot that would name a child something stupid like Motorhead, Dweezle and Moon Unit.  Guess he’s not the only one.