Neighborhood Potluck

I truly like living in an established neighborhood. It has many benefits and we got to enjoy one of those benefits this past weekend - "The Annual McKinley Neighborhood Potluck." Our first neighborhood potluck included wonderful food, meeting several of our neighbors, firemen and a fire truck.

Don't worry the firemen were there only to talk to the kids in the neighborhood and show them their fire truck.

The Checkerboard

Saturday night we went out to eat with my parents at a restaurant in Pleasantville called the Checkerboard. It was fun looking at all the antiques and stuffed animals that they had as decorations. Makenna also thought that our waitress was fascinating.



After enjoying a wonderful supper we took a stroll up and down the 2 blocks of Pleasantville's main drag. We stopped at a small garden for Makenna to take a ride on a Lion (the town's school mascot) and sniff (more like try to eat) the flowers.

Crash

Makenna lost her balance. She fell. Hard.

Poor girl.

Helping Daddy

Makenna LOVES to follow around and "help" her daddy as he works on the house. I foresee a lot of "helping" her daddy in her future.

Labor Day - Part Two

Labor Day evening Jared's Grandma, Uncle Scott, Aunt Deb and their two girls came over for a visit. It was fun to watch Makenna play with the girls, chat a bit with Jared's Grandma and show Jared's aunt and uncle the house.

Labor Day - Part One

On Labor Day morning we headed to Ledges to have a picnic with my parents. It was a gorgeous day. Makenna had a blast running around everywhere, looking at all the new things, and playing in the water.

Where Have We Been

You might have noticed the lack of blogging on the Willis' blog. Well no I am not gonna give an excuse because there really isn't one. But I will fill you in on a few things that have occurred around our home this summer.

* The back patio has been poured.
* We bought a chocolate brown sectional.
* Thanks to Jared's parents generosity and our garden doing well, I have canned 52 pints of green beans, 12 pints and 8 quarts of tomato juice, and 5 pints of salsa. This summer I have also been busy freezing countless bags of sweet corn, carrots, peas, raspberries, and peaches.
* Most of the walls in the house have been painted. Just the kitchen and bathrooms are left.
* Makenna had her first overnight away from home without her momma and daddy. She stayed with my parents and did relatively well.
* We bought a 1/4 of a cow.
* Jared is currently working on trimming out the columns the have replaced the wall in between the kitchen and dining room.

I know there has been more but that is all my brain can come up with right now.

Also, over the next few days I will be attempting to catch up our blog with what we did the past two weekends.

Mt. Dew

An interesting ride home

This afternoon for awhile I was at our office in Huxley. I left about 4:45 and was going to stop by the jobsite and do a few things before I went home.

As I came up to the intersection at Airport and Duff by Lowe's, I saw two international students carrying a good sized dorm fridge across the intersection east. It must have been heavy since they kept putting it down and shaking their hands.

I was turning to go west, but I kept watching them. I kept thinking I should give them a hand, since I had a pick-up and all, but was heading the other direction, so I didn't. Well, as I drove away, I kept watching in the rear view mirror and decided to go back.

I pulled up and asked if they needed a hand, which they gratefully accepted. Since they were heading east, I figured they lived in the Billy Sunday Road apartments so I headed that way. Quickly, one of them remarked, "We live in Linden." pause. "Did you say Linden?" I asked in disbelief. The Linden dorm on campus. The Linden dorm 4 miles away. The Linden dorm no one in their right mind would walk to, let alone carry a refrigerator from Lowe's to.

I turned around and headed the other direction. We filled the 10 minutes or so with awkward conversation; they were from China, had been in Iowa a month, were majoring in Computer Science, liked it here, and were going to the football game tomorrow night.

After I had asked them about walking that far, they said they had tried calling 911 because someone told them thats who to call when they needed help. Apparently the dispatcher recommended they call a cab, but they decided instead to walk.

We arrived at Linden and they got out with much thanks. They grabbed the fridge, waved good-bye and were gone.

The selfish side of me at first didn't want to help them out, because I had things to do so I could get home, but I am glad I stopped and gave them a hand, even if it meant driving halfway across town.

And somewhere there are two guys right now sitting at home enjoying their new fridge, instead of still trying to walk it home.