Pictures with a Theme

Hooray! I finally managed to get some pictures of our Vermont trip from my sis-in-law(who spent the week in VT with us). While I looked through them, a common theme kept popping into my head. So if the pictures seem random, remember, they are not.

They remind me of Friendship and Trust. 

One rarely comes without the other, and when it does, it only comes in small quantities.

"To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved." 

~George Macdonald

(I'd be scared if I were Kaylee here! *chuckles*)

"We're never so vulnerable than when we trust someone - but paradoxically, if we cannot trust, neither can we find love or joy." ~Walter Anderson

 "And those who know Your name will put their trust in You;
For You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You." Psalm 9 :10

Our group on Wheeler Mtn.

My favorite people: My #1 favorite guy and my seven closest siblings.

“It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.”
- Marlene Dietrich

“We'll be Friends Forever, won't we, Pooh?' asked Piglet.
Even longer,' Pooh answered.”

-A.A.Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

It's you I like,
It's not the things you wear.
It's not the way you do your hair,
But it's you I like.
The way you are right now
The way down deep inside you
Not the things that hide you
Not your diplomas...
They're just beside you.
But it's you I like,
Every part of you,
Your skin, your eyes, your feelings,
Whether old or new.
I hope that you'll remember
Even when you're feeling blue,
That it's you I like,
It's you yourself, it's you
It's you I like!
Mr Rogers

Smarts and Memory Loss

Most everyone would agree with the statement that Blake is much quicker than myself in the thinking department. Some people would agree that he is just plain smarter. I, for one, will say that for sure. I know, I know. We've all heard how different people are smart in different ways.

Well. Lately I'm beginning to wonder if that statement is true. Everything I seem to do, backfires in one way or another. I try to smarten up and the more I try, the more I seem to go backwards! And most of you wouldn't tell about this if it was you, but I figure I must be good for something and if it at least is a laugh for someone, then I will be successful.

I seem to be able to understand my younger brother so much more since I have lived with my husband. Ben can throw around facts that everyone knows are just. plain. wrong. And he can be dead positive that he is right. I think there is a block in our brains somehow. He also just cannot keep numbers straight. It may be a family trait, but it drives Blake crazy. When I see, for example, 3500, I think thirty five hundred and then go to say it and it comes out 350. Numbers. They boggle both Ben and I. Some days it concerns us that I am the secretary.

Filters boggled me this week. (Ben and I have a lot in common - did I mention this already?!) I saw an advertisement of someone using certain oil filters. I was horrified that they were using cheap Fram filters. I thought of it later and told Blake about it. He was positive that I was wrong, but I "knew" for once, I was right. I had read it myself. I had seen it. And it said FRAM!

He looked it up when we got home.

It said Wix filters. :(

Yesterday I added one customer's two bills together and got it totaled up to 24 cents more than I was supposed to charge them. I noticed that just as my "probably" unknowing customer was driving out, and then I noticed that I also had sent them with the credit card slip that I just had them sign for me, leaving myself with the slip stating 'customer copy'.

I can talk to a customer and then twenty minutes later try to figure out whether I let them know their truck was finished. Yesterday I sorted bolts. Blake reminded me that we are trying to run a business and maybe I shouldn't be spending all my day sorting bolts, but I muttered something back about this being something that I can do well. Measure bolt, select bin, toss into bin. Simple. No thinking. :)

Suggestions? I ask Blake what I am supposed to do about my problems. He says it's simple. Just get smarter. Yeah, it's easy for him. He has this amazing way of choosing to do something, even as odd sounding as just plain getting smarter, and voila he succeeds. Me? Not quite so simple. :)

I'm going to learn though. I am determined!

Steve

A year and a half ago we took a big step and hired someone, full time. We'd had other employees, but we'd never hired on someone who we didn't really know. Mostly they had all been friends who just sorta started working.

Our decision to hire Steve was made on the way to a family reunion. We were late, like always, but were finally in the truck, feeling tired and over-worked. I said that we really needed to find another employee. Blake said that "that Steve from down south just moved back from Montana and he is looking for a job". I asked whether he is a mechanic. Blake explained what Steve had done for work in the past. We each asked each other what we thought of the idea. We both agreed it was probably a good plan. Blake called him. Steve said sure, he'd start on Monday.

Steve owns this cool truck, which he lets us borrow sometimes, when things happen, like our own truck getting wrecked or something.

I am pretty sure that this is my absolute favorite truck that I have ever driven. I've tried to convince Steve to sell it to us... and tried to convince Blake to buy it.

Only during one time period did we ever see him with short hair and that was after he had to be in an Amish wedding. And that wasn't even short hair- it was just an Amish hair cut.

His hair often works as a grease mop, which we definitely give him a hard time about.

Steve sings while he works. Mostly he sings on tune, and he often only sings a line here or there. That way we hear some of the most random song lines being sung loudly all of the sudden.

He doesn't like to work on Chevy Cummins swaps. He'd rather work on something that is already built than to build something new.

He is pretty patient and is constantly calmly reminding Blake that the parts he asked for never got ordered.

Blake and Steve both get great ideas about what they want to do to their trucks to make them run better. Then they have fun doing them together.

He says at this point he doesn't want to join the Amish church. I can't imagine him giving up his trucks to do it. Then again, it's normal among the Amish kids to do that!

Now today he moved out to Colorado to guide elk hunts. It's sad to say goodbye to him. He may come back in the winter, and then again, he may not. He's sorta single (...in that he only has a girlfriend- He is not married.) and so I guess he figures now's the time to roam the countryside.

Having an employee who is as easy going and as hard working as Steve is pretty cool, and having an employee who is a friend is pretty cool and it all adds up to be a real bummer when he moves away! We'll miss him. Maybe there won't be many elk to hunt and he'll move back. :)

Home Again

Two weddings, ten days, and 1500 miles. (No, I'm not jealous of my sister moving 2300 miles away from Vermont. It's far enough for me as it is!)

 Our time away was fun and relaxing, but, according to Blake, did not come under the vacation category because it included weddings. *wink* As of  two weeks ago, the last wedding Blake attended was ours and he just has no desire to ever go to any wedding. It was a stretch for him, but since he was in Dwayne and Holly's wedding, he sorta had to be there. Lanna and Micah's wedding was family so once again, he had to be there.

They were beautiful and fun and are both over, with two new couples happily beginning lives together. I love that my two best friends who I grew up with now are in the same stage of life as me!

Blake's sisters traveled up there twice: last weekend and then again this weekend. Josh traveled up but stayed between the weddings. Yesterday we all traveled home together and our caravan of three diesel trucks was fun as we drove through a lot of traffic and even sat at the toll booths in Buffalo for 45 minutes.

I'm positive that broken trucks magnetize themselves to my husband. When we dropped the sisters off and pulled back out of the driveway, there was a Ford on the side of the road; the guy, who was lit up only by the 4-way flashers of the truck, stood on the road holding a six month old baby.
Blake rolled down his window, asked what was wrong, and was answered by a string of Dutch. He listened for a while and then told the guy he doesn't speak Dutch. The man repeated himself in the language that most Americans speak, including my husband, and Blake proceeded to look under the hood and find a major oil leak. Nonchalantly Blake told him that he has a diesel shop about two miles down the road and if he'd like, we could tow him down there since we were going that way anyhow. We did. :)

 I'm glad we went. I'm thrilled that Blake was able to stay the whole time. I love being able to spend time with my family. It's great to be home!!!