Saturday, February 16, 2013

Date with Hannah

Last weekend we had a date with our granddaughter.  She picked IHOP as her choice in restaurant.
 Papa and Hannah played tic-tac-toe while waiting for our meal.

 Hannah wanted to go to Office Max.  I don't think of that as a place a kid likes to shop but she really enjoys it!  We got some eversharps for her.
 We needed to stop at Cabela's.  The parking lot was FULL!  I usually shop during the week.  Saturday is a crazy day to shop!!   It had begun to rain.  Unfortunately, it didn't last long.  We are in such a drought cycle in Kansas right now.  Hoping for spring rains (but not tornadoes!)
 Papa got a little tired - Nana takes forever when she shops!!


Starbucks is a must stop!  Papa showed Hannah how to slide the Starbucks gift card.

At Hobby Lobby, we got Hannah a book to learn how to draw horses.  She loves to draw!

Her mommy showed us this picture that she had drawn.  Pretty amazing for a 7 year-old!

We stopped to visit Mindy and Xander.

 Our last stop was Goodwill.  What a fun place!


On Tuesday, I often pick up Sophia at the bus.  This week she asked "Nana, when will you take me on a date?"  

Then she made the statement "Hannah told me that I just have to say I like something and you will buy it!"  Hmmm.  

We did get Hannah a few things; pencils, a $3 toy for her (and one for her sisters too), a bracelet at Goodwill, etc., but I do recall I told her she needed to make a birthday list for those pretty pricey things she wanted (like a $60 Furby! - goodness!  That seems like a LOT for a toy for a kid!!). 

 They like to call me the spoiling Nana, and I guess that is true.  But only to a certain extent.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Last of 1st Mennonite Pretty Prairie cemetery

Some random photos from the cemetery


I suppose we are distantly related to this couple above but not sure how.  He was our piano tuner and when we were young marrieds, we wanted a piano.  Ted said he would keep his eye out for us.  He found this upright grand in a church basement in Hutch and we were able to purchase it for a song!  An 1893 Emerson. He delivered it and even tuned it for us.  All our children learned on this old piano.



A surprise to find this grave in a Mennonite cemetery as they are pacifists.



And there were too many of these:









Psalm 139:16

New Living Translation 
You saw me before I was born.
    Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
    before a single day had passed.


John 14:1-4 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God;
believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. 
If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare 
a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will 
come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you 
may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”

Monday, February 11, 2013

1st Mennonite cemetery, cont.

Continuing on from the prior post, we look at the Graber side of the family buried at the cemetery in Pretty Prairie. 

 This headstone belongs to Allen's parents.  He was a wheat farmer and she played the piano beautifully! We miss them so much.




Al's mother was asked to play the piano often, but most notably she played for this singing group that toured all over Kansas and in other states also.


This is my favorite picture of Al's Dad.


This tombstone belongs to Al's Dad's parents.



I never knew him since he passed away earlier, but Grandma B. (her nickname to differentiate from the other Grandma Graber) lived 2 doors down from our parsonage and she befriended me when we came to the States when I was 16.  She invited me into her home often.  Sometimes she would be quilting and let me help her with it.  We looked at pictures and she told me stories.  And she encouraged Allen to take me out!!


They had 4 children, but Ruth passed away at 4 months.


 Al's uncle Vic's grave.


And their son, Denny, Al's cousin, passed away while learning how to fly an airplane.  He was almost 17 years old.  We were home on furlough when that happened and I vividly remember it.  The week before, the youth group mowed the cemetery for a service day and Denny mowed the area that he was buried.


Grandma B's (Edna) parents. They are in the photo below, in the middle.


Grandma B. and Grandpa Ed are on the left back row.
Uncles Chris and Jonas, who lived on the farm Al grew up in,
 are on either side of the great-grandparents.  



The wildest story of the Goerings is that Grandma B. claims to be a first cousin with the notorious Herman Goering, Hitler's right hand man.


This tombstone belongs to Al's Dad's grandparents.  The log cabin in North Newton at the Kaufman museum was one she lived in before marrying Peter.  She was married to a man in South Dakota and when he died, she married Peter.




* * * 

This is Allen's mother's parents tombstone.  She also was a Graber before she got married.  Infact, Al's parents were 2nd cousins.  We joke that Al is a 3rd cousin to himself!  And, this is wierd too, my Dad and Al's Dad are 2nd cousins too.  And that makes Al and I 3rd cousins.  Yes, that is legal in Kansas to marry your relation.




Chris P. Graber and Anna Albright Graber


And this is Grandpa's parent's tombstone and photo.


The historic background of the Grabers, Goerings and Vorans are all similar.  The were originally with the Anabaptist movement of the Reformation Period.  Our forefathers were originally from Switzerland but there was bitter persecution of these Christians because they would not join the State run church.  Many were burned at the stake.  They left their Alpine homes and left for France near the Swiss border.  Although some stayed in France (there are still Grabers there) most left to go to Austria for awhile, then on to Russia where Katherine the Great granted them religious freedom for 100 years.  When they lost freedoms in Russia, our forefathers boarded ships for America in 1874.  Should we lose our freedoms here in America, as we are beginning to, would we go elsewhere?