Worley's World: Old Friends and Young Birthday Boys

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day. We spent part of the afternoon at some friends from our time spent at the church I grew up in. This couple is now in their 80s and we wanted to help them out with some yard work. It was great to visit them and see the house where I spent lots of fun times at as a girl.

The house sits on 70 acres and is an architectural marvel. Husband and wife built the house around a small family home, then tore out the old part. The new part was made almost entirely of “recycled” materials. The “recycled” materials mostly came from the old courthouse that was located in downtown Indianapolis (where the City-County building now sits) until it was torn down in the mid ‘50s. Jim and Margy bid on auctioned bricks, marble and magnificent wooden doors. Margy drove a dump truck to and from the demolition site to load and unload the bricks they used. The house looks every bit as impressive and beautiful as I remember it as a child. One of the family heirlooms is an 1850s-era grand piano, which Rachel was invited to play.

After the yard work, we went back to Mom and Dad’s to celebrate October birthdays: Isaac (10) and little Trent’s first. Jordan’s 7th birthday was October 7th, but the Ramsey’s couldn’t make it. Apparently the 9-hour drive was just a little too much. ;-)

Another highlight of the day was that Chuck was finally persuaded to bring his guitar and play some great music for us. It was a rare treat! Rachel remembered that the last time she heard him play was when she was 11! (That was four years ago!) His excuse is that he never has enough practice time (as if we could tell!). We thoroughly enjoyed it.

OK. Apparently (according to Rachel) I’m not going to be able to close out this post without mentioning one other memorable incident of the day. To understand how this could have happened, please imagine, if you will, 10 adults and 23 children leaving suddenly and excitedly at the same time. Kids of all ages are asking various parents and aunts and uncles if they can ride with this cousin or that cousin in this car or that. Think “Home Alone” x 15. (You can probably guess where this is headed by now.) We made it almost all the way over to our friends’ -- about a 7-minute drive -- when I noticed Grant’s empty car seat. After a few hectic seconds, which seemed like hours, I was able to find Glenn’s cell number on Mick’s new cell phone (none of the other family members’ numbers is entered in his phone yet). Unfortunately, they didn’t have Grant either. By then, we were pulling into our friends’ driveway and quickly realized that no one had him. The kids and I jumped out and Mick took off and drove back to Mom and Dad’s. I couldn’t stand the suspense and ended up calling Mick and staying on the phone for the last minute or two of his drive. When he rounded the last corner, he spotted Grant running down the front path. He wasn’t crying, poor guy, but was just about to. I heard him say “where did everybody go?” As we suspected, he was playing in the basement when we left. As Mom says “I lost my Mother of the Year Award … again.” We thank God he was safe for those minutes when he was alone. I doubt he would even remember it, except I’m sure the rest of the family will never left us forget it! By the end of the evening, I was already getting teased about it all by my brother. :-D