VALLEY HOUSE PROGRESSIVE DINNER

Cocktail hour is hosted by Art and Lori.

After dinner at Doug and Nancy Strand's house, we enjoy desserts at Carole Lookinbill's house.

Aggie and Tena show appreciation to our hostess.

KAYAK QUEEN

I ordered a kayak from Costco for our upcoming trip to Red Fish Lake. It was delivered on a day when Gracie and her mom were visiting, so we aired it up to check it out.

WALKING ON THE DAIRY WITH GRANDPA

SIXTY-SIX YEARS AGO TODAY....

Sixty-six years ago today, my Mom and Dad were married.

Jaap VanRiel and Flora Berkman

Daniel Weeda and Adriana Berkman

On their wedding day

August 16, 1944

My parents had a double wedding. They were married the same day as my mom's sister, Tante Flora (the aunt I am named after) and Oom Jaap. My mom and Tante Flora were very close as sisters. They met their sweethearts at the same time, dated together, made profession of faith together, and got married together. My mom wrote down some of her memories in a booklet that was prepared when she celebrated her eightieth birthday in 1998.

"In 1944 we were going to get married, Flora and Jaap and Daan and I. But the war was still on. The stores were empty. The Germans had stolen everything. We did not have a wedding dress. What to do: Flora could use Tante Cor's [my mom's oldest sister] dress, she had married in 1940. Daan and I went to Rotterdam with a loaf of bread and a bag of kidney beans to a yardage store. It used to be the best yardage store around. We went by bike. The trains were no longer running. When we arrived the door of the store was open, but it was completely empty. A man was sitting behind a desk and we asked him if he had white material for a wedding dress.

'Absolutely not,' he said.

'But we have bread and beans with us,' we said. The man went in the back and after a long time he came back with a roll of white material to trade for our food. The people in the cities were so hungry. It was pitiful. So I had my material and he had his bread and beans. I sewed my dress and on August 16, 1944 Flora and I got married at the same time.

We were talking about whether to work for a baby or wait a while. We decided we would wait six months and then if everything went smoothly we would try to get pregnant about the same time. Then we would both hope for a boy. The boys would both be named Jacob because Jaap's father's name was Jacob and Dad's father's name was Jacob. Then we could have our babies baptized at the same time.

After three months of marriage Flora and Jaap stopped at our place and said, 'Hurry up, Flora is pregnant. Start working on it right away.'

But it took five months after that before I became pregnant. We both had a boy. They were both named Jacob. But the baptisms were five months apart . Well, you connot win them all."

HOSPITAL STAY?

Old photo of the Idaho Tuberculosis Hospital in Gooding

The TB Hospital today is the "Get Inn" Bed and Breakfast

Last fall Harry and I attended a fund-raising auction. One of the items that we took home was a large gift basket. In the basket was a gift certificate for a stay at the "Get Inn" in Gooding, Idaho, a town that is about 45 minutes from home. The "Get Inn" bed and breakfast hotel has an interesting history. In 1920 the building was erected to serve as the dormitory for the Gooding College founded in 1917. The college served students pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree until 1938. Because the Methodist Church had provided substantial funds to keep the school going, the buildings were donated to the church when the school closed.

In 1941 the Methodist Church gave the building to the state of Idaho for the development of a tuberculosis hospital, however, shortages of equipment and personnel during World War II delayed the opening of the hospital until May 1947. The hospital was in operation until 1976. After the building was abandoned, Idaho State legislators have wondered what to do with the building and there have been unsuccessful attempts to have the building demolished. Recently the building was purchased by Gary Hannon, who refurbished a small section of the historic building to house guests at the "Get Inn". He offers eight guestrooms, which had previously served as the nurses' dorms when the Idaho State Tuberculosis Hospital was in operation.

Rumors abound that the hotel is haunted by its residents of the past. I was not aware of that before our overnight stay, and it is a good thing. Even though I don't believe in ghosts, Harry and I encountered odd things when we were at the "Get Inn". The hotel is interesting, but certainly not fancy. There are no private bathrooms, but two shared bathrooms at the end of the hall. We were the hotel's only guests on Sunday night, so there was no one else using the facilities. Yet often when one of us went to the end of the hall to use the bathroom, one or both of the doors would be locked. Doors that we left ajar, mysteriously closed.

While staying in Gooding, we checked out the Little City of Rocks.

JUST SAY WHAT YOU WANT!

Kids make it seem so easy to

"just say what you want!"

But for some of us adults it's a little bit trickier. Perhaps we worry too much about what we think others would want us to do, or think, or say, or be. We edit ourselves and our wishes right out of the equation.

THINGS OF GOD...THINGS OF MAN

Harry and I have been hiking a lot lately.

We not only want to get our tired and flabby bodies in shape,

but we are preparing for a trip!

We are booked on a "Villages of Italy" tour

with Rick Steves' "Europe Through The Back Door" tours.

The brochure states that their tours "are physically active!"

We've been walking from our house to the top of the Castleford butte. It's about a four-mile hike. After walking the same trail so many times, you'd think that we would tire of the scenery. But that is hardly the case. The views are interesting-- from agricultural sights to desert sights, from domestic animals to wild animals, from...

...the things of God

... to the things of man.

The sky is ever-changing. We've seen the corn seed sprout, and now we watch the ears of corn come on. We've seen the grasshoppers, the ants, the jack rabbits, the stink bugs crossing our path. We even saw a snake! As fair time approaches, we are sharing the path with 4H kids walking their sheep to get them ready to show at the fair.

What would seem ordinary

is actually quite extraordinary.