I've been busy doing a lot of things in preparation for a new life to come for me, in now exactly one month from today. There is much to do but one of the things that is at the top of the list is to finish up the last remaining thing on the Miller Bucket List....."To meet all of my Facebook friends in person, buy them something to drink, and talk about life for a while." Ten more reasons why I feel more than blessed in this life~
The only time I ever attempted to learn to dance and you can stop laughing any time now friends :) was the time when Paula and I took a lesson here in Hutch one evening. Hey, it was the summer of Alabama's, "Forty Hour Week For a Living" song and it seemed every body and their brother was learning to do the "two-step". As a life-long non-dancer I figured shoot, how hard could that be? Two steps, right? That's all of the story I'll divulge here but if I were to have had a bucket list at that time and "laugh until I cry" was on it~well, I could have checked it off that very night. Thanks Paula for that great memory! I have much admiration for my sister-in-law and I'm so very grateful for everything she did for my brother, the late Mike Scott, who passed away in 2007 from ALS/Lou Gehrig's disease. She has been a wonderful sister-in-law as well as a friend to me. For all you have done for our family, I sure do thank you Paula. (April of 2011, Wichita, KS)
I guess I never really thought about it before, but I've known some people as my friends for a heck of a long time. Craig is a good example of one. For 44 years we have known one another and either that means we are getting up there in age or we met awful early in our lives. Maybe a bit of both, I suppose. It was sure nice to pay him a visit yesterday in our old hometown, Haven, Kansas. He has not changed, not one bit in all of those years. He is the same kind and decent human being that he always has been and when I thanked him for being such a good friend to me, Craig replied in much the manner in which I would have thought. He said, "Peggy, I just try to treat others like I would want to be treated." Wow, that's a novel idea and wouldn't that be something if more people in this world felt the same way? Before parting yesterday, Craig gave me some wonderful advice if I should ever have the chance to jump a curb again on my bike. He reminded me that I need to pull up on the handle bars next time and pop a wheelie before I actually go over the curb. Man, I just KNEW I was missing one important step. I'll probably not give that a try any time too soon but hey, it's good to know just in case. Thanks Craig Sailsbury for being my friend! (April of 2013, Haven, KS)
My family moved to Haven, Ks. in 1964 and by that time Nancy had graduated from high school so we really never had the chance to run into one another. Yet we did finally meet, nearly 50 years later and just yesterday enjoyed lunch together at my favourite place, Bogey's here in Hutch. It's kind of strange, you know? There are some people that you can meet for the very first time ever and end up feeling like you have known them all of your life. Nancy was one of those people for me. Thanks Nancy for meeting me for lunch yesterday and for your friendship. We are absolutely strangers NO more! (April of 2013, Hutchinson, KS)
When I was a kid growing up, PE was my LEAST favourite time of the day but I bet if I would have a teacher like Cathy, my attitude would have changed dramatically. This lady makes physical education look like a lot of fun! I admire her energy, her drive to encourage kids to keep physically fit. As a teacher, I know how important Cathy's job is to a student's overall success in school. I first met her when our sons, Grahame and Sam, were friends in elementary school. It was Cathy who helped Grahame learn how to do some basic swimming in their backyard pool. She has the patience of a saint and how grateful I am for everything she has done for all of the kids she encounters each school year. Sure glad that we are friends. (September of 2011, Lincoln Elementary, Hutchinson, KS)
There was a time, back in the old days of teaching, when I used to be the kid of the bunch. As the years flew by, that "prestige" fell to others. Now I am old enough to be the mother of many of my fellow teachers and my friend Samantha, shown above, is one of them. I admire a lot of things about this young lady~her quiet manner in the classroom, the energy and enthusiasm that comes with "youth", and the ability to teach 5th graders all day long. As teachers, we all have our "niches", those age levels that we feel best suited for. Samantha's niche, I believe, is 5th grade. It's been fun, a real joy to watch her at work in her classroom and I'm grateful for the opportunity I've had to learn from her. Even though I consider myself a veteran teacher, I learn something new (thankfully so) from other teachers every day. It's the young people in our profession of teaching that give me hope for the kids that are to come in the future. Thanks Samantha for all that you have done for our students this year, especially those in your classroom at Lincoln! (April of 2013, Lincoln Elementary, Hutchinson, KS.)
For everything this woman has done to help my teaching experience at Lincoln go a lot more smoothly, I give thanks right now. She has provided me with a variety of strategies to use when the ones that I had previously been trying just didn't seem to do the job. I have asked her a thousand questions, some of which I thought were very stupid ones. She gave credibility to each one of my concerns. There have been sometimes when I just needed a place to go to, where I could close the door behind me and know that someone would listen if I was having a rough day with students. Deanne's room was that place. She helped me in so many ways but perhaps the greatest lesson that I learned from her over the past two years was the importance of giving new people a "chance". I'm so glad that I did. Thank you for doing everything you have for our students, for our staff. I will miss you friend. (April of 2013, Lincoln Elementary, Hutchinson, KS)
I will always remember these two folks as being the first friends that I was able to make acquaintance with in my new home of Montrose, Colorado. Mel and his good wife Margaret have been friends with Mike for a very long time. I appreciate the fact, more than they will ever know, of how they extended the "hand of friendship" to me, literally sight unseen. To me, that is one of the marks of a true friend. We met up with one another a few weeks back to enjoy lunch in down town Grand Junction. It was my first visit there and as we sat down to visit and each our lunch, they made me feel right at home and very welcome there. Looking forward to meeting them again, another time soon. Thank you dear friends for helping this "flatlander" feel like I was just where I was supposed to be all along. I won't forget that, ever.
There was this crazy item on my bucket list in 2011 that said, "to ride on the back of a motorcycle very fast and live to tell about it". It was this brave man, Ron Brubaker, who helped me to do so. Although you can barely see it in the photo above, "old lefty" was still in that hot neon pink, "get the heck out of my way", splint. I was between surgeries number 2 and 3 at the time. With only 3 weeks left before I'd have to go back in another long-arm cast, I realized it was one of those "now or never" kind of moments. All I can say is this, we went very fast and that's probably all I am going to say about it. I wasn't afraid at all~I trusted Ron with the ride and enjoyed every single second of it. Would I want to do it again? Nah, probably not. But for that brief moment of time, I was doing something that made me very happy and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. Thanks Ron and Sara for being such very good friends to me. (November of 2011, South Hutchinson, KS)
What a delight it was to meet Ruth Anne once again just a few months back. She and her good family had come home to Partridge, Kansas to spend some time with her family back here. As I sat in the kitchen of her folks' country home, I could tell that she had not changed one bit. I am so proud of her and the accomplishments that she has made in her life. What I was most impressed about was the fact that even though she hasn't lived in south central Kansas for many years now, she has not forgotten her "roots" or dismissed the remembrance of where she is from. Now living far away in the north eastern corner of the U.S., she is making a wonderful life with her husband Jake and little boy, Otis. Every time I see a photo of her, I cannot help but to remember back to the late 1990's when she and my son Rick were in debate together. They were quite a pair of talkers back then and it was always a joy to see them working together on that high school debate squad. The years have gone by now but how wonderful to know that she is doing so well in this life. Thanks for years of nice memories young one. (November of 2012, Partridge, KS)
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