OOOOklahoma where the poop comes sweeping down the plains…

Hi All! 
My apologies for the small blog break. 


It was unintentional. 


I was a bit overwhelmed by all the feels that accompanied marking Courtney’s birthday, our first since she died. Between that and the prepping/packing for our trip back to Jerry’s hometown of Collinsville, Oklahoma for his parents 60th Wedding Anniversary celebration, I just lost track of time. We are home now and I thought what better time to have my hubster recap the weekend in his own special way.


Also, check out the update on our fundraising efforts to pay off our medical debt from Miss Courtney at the end of the post. Y’all are just the best! Truly. 


Happy Reading!

Greetings blog readers!


It is I, Mary’s husband, plus one, Pookie bear…or as I like to say:

“So, sit right back and I’ll tell you a tale…a tale of a fateful trip…that started from our little home and went down right to sh**.”


Yes my friends, last weekend, our merry band of travelers went to Oklahoma to visit my parents for their 60th wedding anniversary…a remarkable achievement that should be celebrated.

On Friday, off we went at 4:30 A.M. to get to Dulles airport for our flight to Tulsa, Oklahoma and a lovely weekend filled with dominos, family tales, and cake.


ONLY…not so fast…as usual, we needed St. Courtney’s intervention before lunch.


a) our flight got cancelled due to mechanical difficulty. 


b) we had to rebook on a different airline, which meant we had to go BACK to the ticket counter to get new boarding passes and make sure our luggage was transferred to the new carrier. We had to go BACK through TSA a second time since we changed airlines. I guess, while I was in that little screening booth the second go around, I should have asked they guy if he could do a virtual colonoscopy…since I was feeling like this was all a pain in the butt.


c) we sat in the airport all day to catch a 5:00 pm flight. They changed the gate one hour before takeoff…which meant we had to get across the ENTIRE airport to the third world gate. You know the one, where you walk out to the plane on the tarmac and the pigs and chickens get on the plane with you.  Fortunately that was a direct flight, so we finally arrived in Tulsa at 7:30 PM where…miracle of miracles, (ok, St. Courtney was working overtime for us) our luggage actually arrived.


So, off we went to my childhood home, had a late supper and went to bed.  


The next day we were up and headed to the church to set up.  Now some of you may ask…just how small is this town I’m from?

This is our town’s hardware store…and I’m pretty sure it sells bait, tackle, beer, and ammo…making it, of course, the perfect one stop shopping.   Oh, yea….if you buy your nails, ammo, and bait at the same store, you might be a redneck.  


This is my favorite store in town…

That’s right my friends, that is a gun store right in the middle of main street with a gunsmith on sight, needless to say, there is not a lot of crime in my home town…and yes, you park right off main street in diagonal parking spots after traversing four…yes FOUR stop lights (twice as many as they had the last time I was home).


It’s a boom town now. 

The party was a lot of fun (BIG KUDOS to my sister who worked her butt off making it happen…I LOVE YOU SIS)
I, of course made our family’s favorite meatballs and my personal favorites, pigs in a blanket, or as I like to call them, little bites of heaven..one day I will figure out how to make a quilt of bacon so those little piggies stay nice and warm.

My parents celebrated their 60th with all their friends and family and then we got down to the real business of the trip.

DOMINOES!


We even played at the church when all the work was done before the party started. 

OH, yes my friends, in my family dominoes occupies a special place with God, the Pope, Ronald Reagan, and bacon as things that are taken very, very seriously.

A tidbit of family history…my great-uncle Wayne was the greatest domino player I ever met. He was quite the character. My grandfather had to get him out of the pokie (not jail, we don’t have those in Oklahoma, if you get arrested you go to the pokie) after a night of moonshine and brawling, to make it to the bus sending him to boot camp and off to World War II where he served in Italy. He could, no kidding, determine exactly what dominos every player had after the first round of play. It was a bit unnerving to say the least…he was the domino whisperer.

 But I digress.  Needless to say there were some serious dominoes played, where sadly, my father and I did not win.  Now I’m not saying we trash-talk or anything, but there might have been some “Yo mama wears army boots.” (Duh, true) and the occasional “You musta been dropped on your head when you was little”  (Duh, also true, my big sister brags about it) or my all time favorite from the archive of Things my daddy says while playing dominoes…


“Shit’ll do for brains if you got the dominoes.”


But since my son still has to do the dishes and take out the trash, I do get some small measure of revenge.

Jerry’s parents in 1955…their wedding day

All was going well until the very last day, Sunday.  The day started off well enough.  We were looking over some old family photos that my siblings and I had never seen.  One exchange went like this:



Mary:  who’s this?
Mom:  that’s Aunt Matha, not Martha but May-tha.  
Mary: Where is she now?
Mom: Dead.



My mom does not mince words.  Later we went over to an old family friends home for supper. His family owns several hundred acres and about 50 head of cattle. There we received some true wisdom.  Yes, for those of you familiar with “family life education,” this is how we teach it in Oklahoma- 


“Don’t let your pecker do your pickin’.”


Yes, we are succinct and to the point, so to speak.  


But my favorite tale was about this past spring season in the pasture:


“We think our bull Steve might not be getting the job done. That’s why we have our bull Jack.
He’s the clean up crew.  If it ain’t nailed down, it is by the time he
leaves the pasture.”


I almost spit out my beer I was laughing so hard. But then that would be alcohol abuse. 


And…oh, yea, no Lenaburg story would be complete without the poop.  Lots of it.  All over my parent’s basement bathroom floor.

On Monday morning, we were up at 0-dark-30 again to catch a 7:30 A.M. flight back to Dulles.  The basement toilet had not been flushing fully so my Dad asked everyone to take a quick sponge bath in the morning to not overload the septic tank.  Just as we were finishing up, my mom yells from downstairs to STOP RUNNING WATER…not sure what’s going on I run downstairs to find…sewage coming up the downstairs toilet…and not a little bit either.  


We are talking 20-30 gallons backed up.  Needless to say it was not good.  The poop had hit the fan…or would have if my Mom hadn’t quickly moved it out of the path of the rising tide of poop.  Mom grabbed a mop and shooed us out of the house to catch our flight.  


In the car we began begging our sweet Saint for a little intercession with the septic system. She’s really good at those. We managed to get on the plane and had a fairly uneventful flight home, arriving in Virginia a little after 2:00 p.m. 


Home sweet home…with flushing toilets…and water pressure. 

BUT wait, the story isn’t over. Later that day, the septic tank guy came out to the ‘rents and said “Hmm, this is quite a mess.” DUH! “Have you ever had your system completely cleaned out?”  


Apparently, it needs to be done more often than my parents were aware of, so they came up with a plan. St. Courtney was on the job again. Yes. plumbing and cars continue to be her specialty.  The guy knew what he was doing and fixed their problem.  


So, today they are happily washing clothes, doing dishes, and flushing toilets.

To answer the question many of you have been dying to ask…YES, we do have indoor plumbing in Collinsville  Oklahoma, population 6,131..we even have the internet and the Facebook and the Youtubes.


And four stoplights. Unless they begin to irritate people. Then we turn them off.


Until next time…

You guys are just so awesome!! As of yesterday (August 24, 2015) we have been able to pay off the credit card that contained the PT,OT and feeding therapies and supplies for the last five years!! I am stunned and so very grateful to everyone who donated and has continued to lift our family in prayer as we face a new world without our daughter. I praise the Lord for his provision once more. 


Our new fundraising goal is $9,748.23 which will eliminate the balance on credit card used for Courtney’s durable medical equipment, specifically her floor mats, special chair covers, bolsters for the sides of her bed, special waterproof bedding, soft lamb skin covers to help with skin breakdown, therapy pillows and Tumbler chairs that insurance considered “not necessary for quality of life”. Needless to say we disagreed. She sat in the Tumbler so often that we had to replace the chair twice and insurance would only help with one. In most of the photos of Courtney she is in her Tumbler.  If we can raise the full amount, we can pay it off and be that much closer to our larger goal. One thing at a time. Thank you so much for your help. 


The entire medical debt is extensive, it now stands at $63,900.00. It’s a lot and will take years to whittle down, but with your generous help we are getting closer. Anything helps. Anything. So, I will keep it at the bottom of my posts for awhile. Every time we pay something off, I will change the picture above. 


You all have already given so much to our family. Our prayers are with you and we are so very grateful. We can never repay that kindness. So thank you…just thank you. 


If you would like our mailing address, please just email me at mary_romance@cox.net and I will send it.