Memorial Weekend - Family and Memories

Over Memorial Day weekend in May we got together with some of my Dad's first cousins.  This group of cousins have some funny stories about growing up together, family reunions, and their parents and grandparents.  These cousins are all on my Dad's Dad, (Howard Hastings) side on the family.  Paul and Dora Loger Hastings had four children.  One infant son, who died at birth, Helen, Howard, and Ida. (Howard was my Grandpa.)  Helen Hastings Sipult and her husband, Ben, had four children, Clyde, Danny, Mary, Susan.  Howard Hastings and his wife, Josephine Holman Hastings, had five children, Harold, Charles, Paul, Dale, and Larry.  Ida Hastings Hempsmyer and her husband, Duane, had two children, Lois and Jerry.

First cousins, pictured above - left to right: Jerry Hempsmyer, Susan Sipult Bishop, Charles Hastings, Lois Hempsmyer Wheeler, Dale Hastings, Mary Sipult Brown, and Paul Hastings

First cousins and their families, pictured above - left to right: Jerry and Julie Hempsmyer, Karen Hempsmyer and husband, Jan Hastings, Johannah Hastings, Jessica Hastings Higgins, Walter Bishop, Mykayla Poynter, Susan Bishop, Phoebe Hendrickson, Stacee Hastings Hendrickson, Sarah Hendrickson, Gloria and Paul Hastings, Karen Hempsmyer's son, Mary Brown, Dale Hastings, Wyonna Hastings, Jordan Hastings, Charles Hastings, Dan and Pam Scott

After we all ate lunch together at the Home Town Buffet we all drove to Greenwood Cemetery and the Clearwater Cemetery to decorate the graves of family members and friends with flowers.

Below is at Greenwood Cemetery, near Duane and Ida Hempsmyer's graves.

Greenwood Cemetery - John B Behrns - Family Friend

JOHN B BEHRNS

KANSAS

PVT CO A 10 AMMO TRAIN

WORLD WAR I

OCT. 13, 1895 - JUNE 29, 1965

"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson

He was Grandma's (Dora) special friend.  He liked being around all of us.  He was at all the family gatherings.  He and Grandma liked fishing.  He gave me my first fishing pole.  He dressed up like Santa every year and came to our house on Christmas Eve.  He always had presents for everybody. ( I am sure Mom had probably wrapped them up and given to him before hand.)  After Santa left our house on Christmas Eve John and Grandma always showed up.  He and Grandma went to the Grange Hall dances in Bayneville, KS.  He had some friends who lived at Larned, KS and we went Pheasant hunting with him there a few times.  -Paul Hastings

Below is at the Clearwater Cemetery, near Howard and Jo Hastings, and Harold Hastings graves.

Clearwater Cemetery - Clifford Wayne Corr - Classmate and Friend

CLIFFORD WAYNE CORR

KANSAS

SGT BTRY C 16 ARTY 23 INF DIV

VIETNAM BSM-ARCOM-PH

OCT. 5, 1949 - MARCH 28, 1971

We don't have to turn to our history books for heroes.  They are all around us.  
-President Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 26th, 1982

We started school together in Kindergarten.  He was a good friend.  We would hang out and do things together.  We were in debate together, none of us knew how to do it.  He went to ESU when I did and we would do things together.  He was one of my groomsmen in our wedding.  Then he joined the Army after we got married.  Everybody was going to Vietnam.  He died there.  -Paul Hastings

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.  - John F. Kennedy, in his Inaugural Address, January 20th 1961

Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."  John 15:13

At The Zoo

**GUEST BLOGGER**

 ~ Phoebe Hendrickson ~ (edited by me, Mommy)

We went to the zoo.  We went on the pig.

We saw a lot of animals.

We saw a lot of statues.  Silas didn't like the statues.  He keeped trying to go away from the statues.

I saw a lot of Meerkats. They were standing on there and running around.  I sit by the Lion.  He was asleep.

Sarah sit by the Lion.  It was a mommy Lion.

The Elephants were big.  I looked at them.

The Geese had babies.  They were cute and fuffy.

The last thing we looked at was monkeys.  They were black and brown.  One was a baby.

I want to go to the zoo again.  It was a fun.

The Tribe Of Levi

**GUEST BLOGGER**

 ~ Eric Hendrickson ~ (my husband)

The Tribe of Levi is a traveling ministry that shares a message of being set free in Christ.  The Tribe of Levi has been delivering this message to churches and groups all over Kansas and has now begun delivering the good news in other mid-west states.  This band of brothers is made up of all former inmates, who have found freedom in Christ.  Most of them served time together in Kansas prisons at some point during their incarceration.  And, over half of them were a part of the Brothers In Blue Re-Entry program formally known as IFI or Interchange Freedom Initiative.

Every time I watch Brave heart I love to hear the speech that William Wallace gives to the Sons of Scotland persuading them to fight the English army for their freedom.  Wallace's speech is so persuasive, the first time I heard it I felt like getting a sword and joining them.

William: I am William Wallace. And I see before me an army of my countrymen here in defiance of tyranny.  You have come to fight as free men, and free men you are.  What would you do without freedom?  Will you fight?

Soldier: Fight against that? No, we will run, and we will live.

William: Ay, fight and you may die. Run and you'll live.  At least a while.  And dying in your beds many years from now would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom.

Our society loves freedom.  America likes to see itself as the land of the free.  Free country, freedom of religion, freedom to vote, freedom to work anywhere that will take you, freedom to purchase what you want from where you want.  In fact in our society the ultimate punishment is the deprivation of freedom through imprisonment.

Does our society truly understand FREEDOM?  Not if Christ is not in the equation.

Christ gives us our freedom so that we are free to follow him and love others.  Freedom from badges, freedom from the world and our own flesh.  Freedom to love.

What will YOU do with that FREEDOM?

As William Wallace sought to do something about the plight of his fellow man, so have we, the Tribe of Levi, decided to do something about the plight of our fellow man.  And, as William Wallace was a soldier of Scotland, the Tribe of Levi, are soldiers of Christ.

The Tribe of Levi is a group of formerly incarcerated Christian brothers, who have formed a ministry (January 2014) that focuses on preaching freedom through Jesus Christ.

Now that our chains are gone, and we have been set free, both literally and spiritually, we want to spread that freedom to others.

We do this through the playing of our instruments, singing by the power of the Holy Spirit, and skits that provide profound insight to real life experiences and responses that we Christians will face in this world.  We invite all people to join us in the joy of our music and drama.  We pray that those who hear our music and see our skits will be blessed and spirits revived and that those who do not know Jesus will come to know Him as their Lord and Savior through our ministry.  That they will be "SET FREE".

The Tribe of Levi's songs and skits can and will inspire people to seek God, have God's word and Spirit revealed to them, encourage them to read the Bible, and give people a sense of peace, joy, encouragement, hope and most importantly proclaim the good news of salvation with power.  As His messengers, we are being used by God to accomplish all of these things.  The spirit of God is evident when you see and hear the Tribe of Levi.

The Tribe of Levi is ready to go wherever the Spirit leads as God is able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.  Hallelujah! If you would like to have us visit your church, whether it be to lead your church service or for a special event/revival, please contact Eric or Stacee Hendrickson, or Carl Carnnahan - The Tribe of Levi's General Manager.

If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

John 8:36

To get more details and information about upcoming Tribe of Levi events, 

FOLLOW the Tribe of Levi on Facebook by clicking HERE.

Face Update

A little under two weeks,  12 days after the skin graft, (Wed. May 28th) I had a few questions about what was happening on my face and how it should feel and look while it was healing.... 1. It was feeling hard and bumpy towards the bottom of the graft.  Should it feel this way? 2. the top inner edge, closest to my nose, was still oozing yellowish brown yuckiness.  What is it?  Should this be happening?  Why is it happening? 3. I could see that there were still some stitches left in my face.  Should I try to get them out, or should I wait and let someone in their office get them out? - I called my plastic surgeon's office and they asked me several questions over the phone about the color of the ooze, the temperature of my face around the graft site, did it smell?  Finally they asked me to come on in so that they could take a look at the graft site and the donor site to make sure neither of them was infected and that they were healing as expected.

In the plastic surgeon's office that day all of the steri-strips were removed and both sites were checked.  The donor site was healing nicely.  I got the okay to keep it completely uncovered, and to start using a new type of scar treatment gel called ScarAway on it twice a day.  (ScarAway is a fairly new gel treatment for scars that uses a blend of silicones that improve the appearance of scars and prevent abnormal excessive scar formation.... it also is expensive.  Approximately $25 for a 10 g tube.)  The graft site however, didn't look so good everywhere.  That top inner edge, closest to my nose, was still looking pretty gross.  The surgeon told us it was not infected, but that the edge of the graft may be dying.  If it was indeed dying, what the hope would be is that the other parts of the living graft would eventually fill in a dying or dead part.  What we needed to happen was for it to stop oozing and make a scab, so that it could heal, and maybe live.  I was given instructions to stop using the steri-strips on the graft site, and to start wearing a band-aid over the whole graft.  This would protect it, and help keep it free of dirt and infection while we waited to see what it was going to do. A few more stitches were removed from both sites that were missed at my previous appointment and buffing my graft site was also discussed.  Buffing would help to smooth and blend in the new skin on the graft site, but typically is not done until about a year after the graft.  It also is something that is very painful, so I would be put to sleep during that procedure. The plastic surgeon asked me to make my next appointment to see him again in about a month to check the progress and healing of the graft site, unless I called with concerns sooner.

I was less than thrilled with the news of having to wear a band-aid on my face all the time.  The gauze was bad, the steri-strips were okay, but a band-aid was a step right back to dorkville, in my opinion  At least the gauze screamed "this girl has something seriously wrong on her face", but the band-aid just hollers "hey look at this dork, I bet you can't resist asking her what she did to her face."  And, sure enough, kids and adults, friends and strangers, have all been asking, "What happened to your face?" or "What did you do to your face?"  Skin Cancer, SKin CANcer, SKIN CANCER, people!  WEAR SUNSCREEN!  PUT SUNSCREEN on your CHILDREN, and WEAR HATS when out in the sun.  You do not want to have skin cancer anywhere on your body.  Trust me on this one.  So, I went to Walgreen's and spent $24 on different types of band-aids. (We will not need to buy band-aids at our house for years.)  I wanted to follow my instructions, but wanted the least visible band-aid I could get.  I had no idea what size or type, so I bought 4 different boxes.  The best band-aid for me has been the box of 30 BAND-AID Clear Strips, All One Size.  The sticky part is clear, but the padded part is not.

Sunday, June 1st, Day 16 after the skin graft

After showering and cleaning around the graft site, it looked pretty good that morning...before it started oozing again (see picture below).  Finally at about day 18 it stopped oozing and made a big yucky scab.  Hooray, but eeeww. (And, sorry, no pictures of that.)

Thursday, June 5th Day 20 after the skin graft

After showering, I realized that the scab had fallen off.  Looking into the mirror I got pretty excited... It was pink and red.  This is good news.  That means, at least for now the whole graft is ALIVE!

My next appointment date to check the progress and healing is June 27th.  Until then I will be the girl wearing the band-aid on my face to protect my new skin that is ALIVE.  Thank you God for listening to my prayers and to the prayers of others who have been praying for me.  I will continue to hope and pray that my body keeps healing and the graft continues to grow healthy and stay alive.

Toads And Frogs

**GUEST BLOGGER**

 ~ Sarah Hendrickson ~ (edited by me, Mommy)

When we went outside I asked daddy if he could go in the window well and see if there were any toads or frogs. They lived in there last year.  I was excited cause I like toads and frogs.  Daddy went in the window well.  He found a little frog.  Then he handed it to me. It was slimy.  I petted  it gently.  

And then he found a big toad and a few weeks later it climbed the window well and we were surprised that the big toad had did that. There were also two big striper frogs. Daddy likes to use those for bait.

When daddy got the frog and he showed it to Silas, Silas looked, and in a few seconds it jumped right at Silas.  Silas screamed and ran away.  We all laughed a lot.

Daddy caught the frog again and we all looked at it again.  Then he put it back in the window well.  The end.