Christmas at Grandpa's house

Some people go to exotic vaction sites, some watch sports, some build crazy stuff. Bet you will never guess which the Bandstra family does. 

Did anyone guess build soap box cars?

because if you did, you would be correct. Isn't that what everyone does on the day after Christmas?

Ok I understand that the power is adult pushing and gravity

Two will go faster than one

but did anyone think about brakes????

The kids have their cars and the adults have their toys too.

Remember how the soapbox cars had no brakes, well neither does that old dump truck, but that didn't stop anyone from tearing around the fields driving it.

Impromptu Surgery

Matthew writes about getting a nail in his foot.

                It was a hot day, in mid August that summer.  I had been forced to work in the sun all day long, and was now finally moving to the shade, or what was left of the quickly disappearing spot, but on the roof in the summer, any shade is welcomed.

                A little background.  I was working for a roofer in Osky that summer, and on this particular day, we were working, what we called an easy.  This meant that the roof was not steep at all, and tearing the old roof off, the worst job, had gone decently well, no room to complain.  I had been working under my brother, feeding him the shingles, when we got to putting the roof back on.  I always ended up with this job, mainly because he was my brother, and no one else would work with him, or he wouldn’t work with them. And so, since I seemed to get along well enough with him, that meaning there was no dissension among the workers, got to feed him.  Now to the hot part.  By the time we got around to shingling, it was the hottest part of the day.  I was still feeding my brother shingles, and for some reason, he decided that we should work in the sun.  Times like this were the reasons that nobody wanted to work with him.  There were two sections on the house, each subdivided up after that. One of the main sections was completely in the shade, with three smaller sections on it.  Perfect amount for each gunner (the guy running the nail gun, of which there was three.).  But no, in the sun we worked, until finally we moved to the shade.  By this time, there was a limited amount of shade left, and so I ended up standing right above him, in a sense.  We were laying the first row on the roof, the only part that my brother had his back to me while nailing them in.  After a while of feeding, you get used to handing them after you hear the nail gun go four times. Four nails to a shingle, drop him another to nail down.  So since this was not my first rodeo, instead of watching him closely, I was admiring the clients back yard.  Not very out of the ordinary, I hear the nail gun go, the only problem, was that this was the fifth time on this shingle, and this one was received along with a sharp pain in my left big toe.  I did not know yet what had happened, but by instinct I let some words fly.

                “Okay, Micah.”  This was said very calmly, and compared to the pain I was feeling, was quite milder than I expected. (Many jokes have been made about this initial response) I looked down, and confirmed what I had expected to see by this time.  There was a roofing nail sticking out of my foot, a little over a quarter of an inch.  The pain intensifies and I start to do the deep breath walk around.  By this time the others on the roof had started to notice my plight.  One of the veterans, (he had worked there the longest) immediately dialed my boss, who was away on business, dumping the old shingles, and had to meet someone uptown, and told him what happened.  The others gathered around me, and one of them started cutting a hole in my shoe around the nail.  I got a little worried during this, considering the knives that we are required to carry, and meant to cut shingles, and are insanely sharp, and would do more damage to me than the nail. The veteran had gotten off the phone, and gave me the options.

                “Rusty said to either go to the hospital or perform surgery.”  If you have not guessed, this meant that someone was going to pull the nail out right where I was.  The veteran looked at me, and all I said was

                “Yank it.”

                I did not have much to say during these events, as you can tell.  Anyways, right after I said this, one of them got a vice-grips, and clamped it on the nail.  The veteran stood beside me, and crooked his arm to me like he was going to walk me down the aisle.

                “You can hit this arm if you need to.” We were so caring of each other.  The one with the vice-grips looked at me and said,

                “You ready?”  Never before, and to date, never after have those words meant so much, even though I had not even replied, when one of them grabbed my leg near the ankle and the other gave a quick jerk.  This is the point in the story, where I would like to point out that the nails we use come in rolls of about 104 nails.  These nails are connected with a wire, and they act like little barbs when inside your toe, so instead of a clean in and out, I remember feeling both of the wires come out.  I did not need to hit the arm offered, though I was very close to some loud profanity.  The owner of the house had found out what had happened, and had some gauze to cover the battle wound with.  By the time we had it wrapped, only five minutes had passed, and this was about the time that the boss-man came roaring up the drive.  How he made it to where we were in five minutes is still a mystery to all the workers.  The one who had pulled out the nail, offered up the vice-grips, with the nail still clamped in it.  I still have the nail it is by my trophies that I have won in my life, and means more to me than any of them.  It was truly amazing, the shot that my brother was.  He managed to shoot my toe, miss the bone, go into the toe right beside, and miss the bone on that one too.  It is obvious that someone had my back.

                One more note, the next day, I was back at work, and mid-morning one of the other workers received a picture message from his friend on another roofing crew.  He had accidentally shot himself with what I believe was a deck screw, straight through the bone and had to go to the hospital.  That just shows the superiority of R&R Roofing and Home Improvements, not only in roofing, but on the job surgery.

Christmas 2011

I did quite a bit of pulpit supply in the past year. One would think that it would be wise to check what time the services started before one heads off down the road on a Sunday morning wouldn’t you? Yea well, that would be you and not me. I set off for the small berg of Tracy, Iowa one bright Sunday morning and about 2/3rds of the way there realized I was going to get there by 9:05. My goal is usually to arrive around 9:15 so I slowed way down and was dawdling along at about 25 miles an hour enjoying the scenery. I drove around the last curve as the street descends down to the church and wondered why there were so many cars in the parking lot so early for church. Then I noticed the Elder standing on the front steps of the church looking up the street and that sinking feeling hit. This church service started at 9:00 am. They were kind about it (to my face anyway) and did even call a few weeks later to see if I could fill in for them again. I think the elder who called gave a sigh of relief though when I said I was already engaged. How can you listen to a man on the pulpit when he doesn’t even know what time it is, right?

I really should hold Sharon responsible for that one as she said when I told her my time schedule for the morning she thought to herself, that does not match where and when he has to be places. She also has not been paying enough attention to how I am dressed when I leave the house. I had a flat tire that needed to be fixed and went up to the local repair shop to get it holding air again. I thought everyone was looking at me just a little strange but I have become used to that with time. When I was back home Sharon then politely asked me why I was wearing my shirt inside out. Hey the wife’s duty is to make sure I am dressed and where I am supposed to be on time and in my opinion she has been falling down on the job this year.

The boys had Spirit Week at school for homecoming and they had to dress up for several of the days. One day both Micah and Matthew borrowed some of my clothing to wear to school. Quite an honor for the old man when your sons ask to wear your clothes. It just goes to show what a sartorial success I have always been and continue to be. That is until in the evening when I asked what the theme of the day was that they both borrowed clothing from me to wear. I really think at that point they should have lied and told me something like “designer day” or “dress well” day instead of “It was nerd day, Dad.”   

                Sharon has been keeping our business website updated. I would do it myself except I have no clue how to work with a website. I do not think that makes me old fashioned, out dated, or just old and all of those snotty young people who might think so can just hush up. I am sure Sharon is great at working with a computer although there was that little incident that made me wonder. She was hooking the internet up to a computer at school when the schools whole computer system shut down. In my day at school that would not have mattered in the least. We did our homework and took our tests the way man was created to take tests and do homework, with a number two pencil on a good old fashioned piece of paper. Well all the teachers in the elementary school were a little put out that the system had crashed while some of them were giving tests and others were doing whatever one does with the internet and computers in class rooms now days. Did you know if you take a computer cable and plug it into the internet and then plug the other end of the cable into the internet you create a loop and shut down the system? Yea Sharon found that out, nothing like trial and error is there. I don’t think she is sharing who did that at school so let’s just keep it between us and not tell, OK?

                We had an Oldsmobile Intrigue that the boys drove. You will notice the key word there is had. Matthew was at school one afternoon for cross country practice. He started up the car and drove toward the exit when the man he works for texted him on his phone. He knew that once he was out of the parking lot he was not to check texts but he was still in the parking lot, right? What could go wrong if you just look down and check who the text was from, right? Um, you could hit a cement base of a light pole. Drive the bumper into the radiator, crack the windshield, and destroy the hood and both front clips. There might have been a little justice there though. Did you know that when air bags go off they go off with a bang and can really give you a welt on your face? It looked like someone had smacked him in the head and I did not even have to do it.



Matthew



                I know my younger sons did not get the education one gets by growing up on the farm. I thought I would start to fill in the gaps in a well rounded education by having Matthew change the battery cable end on my pickup. We opened the hood and I gave him the wrenches and pointed. He put the wrench on the bolt on the ground end and gave it a good tug. Did I mention that I had thrown away the plastic cover on the live post when it cracked and broke a few years ago? Well Matthew spun that wrench around and connected with the live post. Did you know you can weld a wrench across the battery terminals just like that? The sparks flew and Matthew jumped back about ten feet, and they say white boys can’t jump. I grabbed the wrench and jerked it free but that battery was dead as dead can be. For an hour or so I thought there were a few computer components that were fried as well, but a heavy battery charge seems to have cured those problems.

                We seem to be traveling in too many vehicles to the same destination. One evening when we went to church the boys had to be there early for some practice, so Sharon and I came later. After church Sharon and I went to the car and Micah came as well. We waited impatiently for Matthew to come while saying a few not so kind things about why that boy was not coming so we could go home. Then Micah’s cell phone rang. It was Matthew waiting impatiently for Micah to drive him back home in the car they had driven to church. You would think one would remember if you drove a car somewhere wouldn’t you?

               

                Micah and Matthew worked roofing again this summer. For some reason they seem to enjoy the job. It just looks like hot hard work to me. One afternoon as I was laboring away at my desk in my air conditioned office, you will notice I was not on a roof enjoying the job of roofing, I saw Matthew get dropped off at the end of our driveway. He seemed to be a bit gimpy. I met him at the door and asked him what he had done to his foot. Well, it turns out HE had not done anything to his foot. His older brother Micah had nailed his big toe to the roof with a nail gun. I think we might have raised those boys right though. I am told when Micah nailed him to the roof all Matthew said was “OK Micah”. That might be a bit more restraint than I would have had in the situation. Speaking of restraint I do believe I have run out of space. Have a fun new year.

Notes from Sharon

This spring, after a trip to Mayo, I concluded that it was time to proceed with treatment. As you know, this is never an easy step for me because I always have to consider the future. We decided to try a newer option for my disease. So far, it seems to be having good results. I had treatments once a month from April to July and now I am continuing on with a maintenance routine. So I will have a treatment every 10 weeks for up to 2 years, depending on my reactions to it. I can do this in Oskaloosa and it is much easier on me than earlier treatments which kind of knocked me out for the summer. I am thankful for summer vacation as I had to take a week off in April and May due to side effects. I can also tell that I am feeling better physically than I did the past couple of years, especially the past year. That is also a reason for praise and thankfulness.

There was one advantage to being down and out due to chemo treatments. It gave me time to learn how to design and publish a website. I spent a lot of time researching and finally went with Kompozer. It’s fairly simple to use.  Various tutorials and You Tube videos helped me plus our friend, Bob. Best of all, it was a free program I could download. One place quoted us a mere $5,000 to set up a website. Mine is fairly simple but it works for now. I would like to learn more and spruce it up but I haven’t had time since school began. My husband thinks I’m really smart now. But if I can publish a webpage, I think most anyone could. I really do not understand how it works but it does.

Micah went off to college this fall. He thinks it is a great place. I can’t tell that he has been homesick. He went with some good friends and made more friends. In their downtime they enjoy video games, bowling, racquetball and basketball. He is majoring in accounting and leaning towards being a financial advisor.  If you know Micah, he pays attention to every penny and has had his own stocks and mutual funds for years so I think this will be a good fit for him. Mentioning the word “money” is always a good way to get him to call home but I think that is typical for many college students.

Matthew is a junior. I think he is enjoying being in high school by himself, not following an older brother. An early summer hailstorm led to a job for Matthew as he worked this summer with his brother reroofing damaged houses. This fall. we enjoyed beautiful weather as he participated in cross-country meets. His cousin, Samantha, also ran (5 hours away L) but we were able to see her run at the State meet as her team won the District 2A Championships.

Joshua and Casey live about an hour southwest of here Joshua works for a local co-op.  He transferred jobs to a place closer to his home. This fall he caught his finger at work which gave us some anxious moments but it was stitched back together and doesn’t look too bad. Casey works for an assisted living facility as activity director and pitches in where ever else she is needed. She loves her job and I feel that she is very gifted for it.

At school, I continue to work with special education students. This year, I've been able to dig into the science program some. Recently I worked on States of Matter, Parts of a Plant and the Life Cycle of a Plant; also a project on Living/Non-Living. And I continue to spend time on the reading program since we are always trying to make it better and increase the number of modified stories for students. Most of the time I have more jobs than time but it makes the days fly by. I am blessed to work with some very special associates/teachers who are committed to their students and helping them learn. As this is my 5^th year, it has been exciting to see where students started and where they are today. Some of my students will be “graduating” to junior high and a new building.

In my spare time, I like to frequent Goodwill, thrift shops and garage sales. This summer I found a queen size bed in the back of a garage for $5. I fled home, got Royce and the pickup and took it home. It needed a lot of work but I'm glad to have it. This fall, I took home a chair and a loveseat for our patio for $1.98 (thanks to my sister-in-law, Jolene). It will need some work. When Micah came home late that night, he thought someone threw their garbage on our lawn. Jolene and I see possibilities. If I get if fixed up, I'll post a before and after picture.

Royce and I celebrated our 25^th Wedding Anniversary in October. We took a short trip into Missouri during a school break. It was wonderful weather and wonderful to get away and enjoy some time together. My parent’s 50^th Anniversary is coming up in January.

Last year at this time, Royce had recently lost his job and we were facing an uncertain future. But God had things all figured out. He went straight from one job to another. He works for a local family with a large farming/hog operation. Mostly he handles the financial end but he also does some work with the pigs. He didn’t like sitting behind a desk all the time. We also purchased a small business (Iowa Farm Families) which sells specialty pork cuts to white table cloth restaurants. We spent a lot of time in prayer before we made this jump. We are not sure if we will remain in it long term but we feel for the moment that this is where God wants us to be.