Grandma Bass

Jared and Grandma Bass

T.J, Grandma Bass & Sunny

Kyle, Grandma Bass & Jessica- This is a funny pic. We had been visiting with her for about and hour and I wanted to get some pics so I told Kyle and Jess to go stand by grandma. When they got up next to her she looked over at Jess and said, "Well whhhooo are youuuu?" It was soooo funny we were cracking up.

This picture was taken in Aug of 2007. We had went to visit our family in Fl.

I am trying to use my blog as a journal as well. For Christmas I am trying to put together a book for my siblings that will be a short life history from each of them as well as little stories I have from different family members. I called my grandma Bass today to check on her and some how we got on the subject of retirement and she told me this story.

She started out telling me why my Great, great grandpa Bass had bought the dairy. He (Clint Bass) bought the dairy because he wanted his sons to move closer and work together. My grandpa Bass (Walter Van) was working in Orlando, Fl. laying pipe underground. He moved to Kissimmee, Fl. to work on and help run the dairy. My dad, as a teenager, helped on the dairy as well. He helped service the cows and take care of them. Vance, dads brother, helped out as well. He had wanted to be a vet. I have often heard my dad speak of loving working on the dairy and wanting to be a vet.

After the dairy had started operating. Clint would let different people come on the land to use it and camp. He didn't mind who used it as long as they didn't do anything illegal. (If I remember correctly my grandpa Bass was very good at doing illegal things ) :) My grandma Bass (Margie) had the idea one day to charge people a nickle to use the property. She got together with Clint and they went down to 1st Capital Bank and got a loan to turn the property into a Campground. The campground did really well for years.

The dairy slowly started losing money- come to find out years later - the man that was delivering the feed would fill the silo 3/4 full and take the rest down the road and resell it to someone else. Soon the dairy was making little money and they decided to sell. The dairy was sold to T.G. Lee- they are still selling milk today.

Grandma Bass decided she couldn't be with out a job and went down to the local five and dime to get a job. After working there for a few weeks one of her friends walked in and asked what she was doing working there and Margie told her she needed to make money somehow and her friend told her to go apply at the county. Grandma Bass went down to the county that day and was hired on to work for the school systems in the accounting department. This was right around the time that books were being converted over to computers and the county had hired a man to do the job. Well, he did a terrible job and lost all the information. Grandma was asked to fix as much of the problem as she could and when she had done this they decided she had a permanent job. The head accountant would come ask grandma to do things he couldn't figure out. She realized real quick she was a great asset! She worked there until she retired. She retired a year before Grandpa Bass died. She retired so she could spend time with him, as she knew his health was failing.

Missouri Spring Break 2009!

We celebrated Laton's and April's birthdays while we were there. Hey you have the same hair I do.

These are the fish the boys caught in the river.

Laton asked me to do a camera trick to make the fish look really big.

All of us after church on Sunday. We had a great lunch and then dad, Kyle and Logan went to play a round of golf.

Dad and Collette on Sunday- the day she was confirmed.

Notice the dogs get priority seating. :)

Meghan used to say that she loved grandpa "20" and he would say yes, how much is that and she would say that is a lot because that is the highest I can count. Dad and Collette tell each other that now and have it carved in one of the posts of the porch.

This is the one and only time I drove the Ranger. The kids begged me to take them for a wild ride. It is kind of hard to give them a wild ride when Jaidyn is with us. She loved sitting on the steering wheel.

Collette playing games with Jaidyn

How many people does it take to hold down a 200 pound calf??? Notice Logan is not helping at all.

I love how you can see Meghan in the background watching Logan and Jaidyn. This is on the front porch of the house.

Just a swinging! My dad had built this swing last time I came to visit. We enjoyed it this trip as well.

Cute Girl!

Meghan didn't have a hard time at all posing

Laton thought this was for the birds!!!

For our second leg of spring break we drove from Eric's house to my dads house in Missouri. This was another 4 1/2 hour drive. So we drove quite a lot to say the least! Luckily the drives were all very pretty. We would stop and try different restaurants along the way that we don't have out here. This is a picture of an old bird coop that is on the farm. I love the look of the wood.

Logan and Laton loved driving the Ranger around. They were hardly ever seen the entire trip. The Ranger was their best friend. At the top of this pic. you can see the top of the pond. It is a man made pond and I guess they "turn" every 7 years or so. The pond turned this year so all the catfish had died. The boys were bummed they couldn't fish. The pond did have frogs- or so we thought-! The boys wanted to go frogging one night so Collette being the good sport went along! She did take along her 410 for protection. The boys took pitchforks and pellet guns. They came home with a bucket full and were proud to show off their catch. My dad laughed as they had killed a bucket of toads not frogs. So we didn't have frog legs for dinner. Logan also had tried to "molly-hawk" a few ducks on the pond so Collette could taste duck, but had no luck! We did get to have fresh fish one day. My dad took the boys down to the river on Sat. and they caught a ton of croppy. We fried them up and enjoyed them for lunch!

Collette showing the boys where they can drive the Ranger on the ranch.

Logan and Laton hung out while Collette fed the cows. Collette is raising a heifer to milk and a steer for beef this winter.

Tennessee Spring Break 2009!

Meghan enjoying the sun after a rain. It rained really hard in the middle of the day, so Meghan and Tessa got on some summer clothes and ran in the puddles. This picture was taken a few hours after the rain and you can't even see a trace of puddles. You could tell when you stepped in the mud though. The boys shoes were covered in mud after they ran around.

Alex getting ready to throw a strike

Cemetery

Cemetery from the street view

You can see the house in the left of the picture and the cemetery in the background.

Laton playing hunting game at bowling alley

Tessa and Meghan playing Dance, Dance

Eating at the Rain Forest Cafe

Logan- being cool- and sitting at the end of the table by himself!

Jesikah and Jaidyn eating SpaghettiO's

Jesikah and Meghan playing house with Jaidyn

Jarem entertaining Jaidyn

Beautiful Blooms!

Feeding the ducks

You know you are in the south when you see a sign that says "Speed Hump"- since when did they become humps instead of bumps?

Jesikah sharing her sucker with Jaidyn

Two Cute Girls!

We had a great spring break. The first leg of our journey we flew from Sacramento, Ca. to St. Louis Mo. In St. Louis we rented a car and drove 4 1/2 hours south to Clarksville Tn. My brother, Eric and his family live there. We got there on Easter Sunday and had dinner (which was delicious) with them. Eric made ham hock and black-eyed peas over white rice for us for dinner the next night. This is something we ate when we were growing up and I hadn't had it since. Funny how eating certain things can bring back memories. Rozanne and I stayed up late chatting and catching up. We both love to talk :) The kids joined us- they stayed up until midnight and had school the next day. On the drive the kids enjoyed all the beautiful scenery, they saw lots of planes and helicopters. My brother works at an Army hospital on the base near their home. So you can imagine the amount of air traffic!

Monday Rozanne and I took a walk around their new subdivision. All the homes are beautiful. Rozanne wanted to show me one of the homes that was recently finished, and we thought was still for sale, we walked into the house and it was furnished with someones belongings! WHOOPS! Good thing no one was home. We had taken the walk because I wanted to see a cemetery that Rozanne had told me about in someones back yard. In Tn. you can get buried anywhere you would like, but that part of the land becomes dedicated to a graveyard. So in this new subdivision, their is a cemetery in the middle. It was pretty cool. The earliest birth we found was 1725, but some of the headstones were so worn you couldn't read them. We took the kids bowling Monday night and I saw three graveyards within 5 minutes of their home. Logan and Laton enjoyed having airsoft wars while the kids were at school. Rozanne had let the girls stay home from school on Monday, so Meghan and the girls liked playing mommy to Jaidyn. Jaidyn was never short on getting attention the entire trip!!! Jesikah will be a great mommy, she mothered right up to Jaidyn.

On Tuesday we went to Nashville. They had a great mall there next to Opryland. We shopped and ate at the Rain Forest Cafe. Yum! We took the kids to the park that afternoon and let them feed the ducks and geese. We tried to bribe Logan into catching one, but he would get close and decide differently. Logan even tried to convince Jarem to help him. I will post a cute sign we saw while we were at the park.

Wednesday Rozanne and I got up and got a little more shopping in before I headed out for my dads house in Annapolis Mo. We really enjoyed our trip to Tn. I would love to go back and spend a week. We don't get to see our family nearly enough.

Laton Moment

Laton- Mom, did you know there is always a straight line from me to you?

Mom- Oh, did you learn something new in scouts tonight?

Laton- No, this is something I figured out on my own. No matter where I go when I look at you their is always a straight line from me to you.

Mom- Really, how did you figure this out.

Laton- Well, when I am playing baseball in the outfield I always see this tree on the mountain and no matter where I walk or take steps their is always a straight line from me to the tree!

Mom- So that is what you are doing when you aren't paying attention during the games, looking at the tree?

Laton- Yep!

For those of you who know Laton, know this is truly a Laton moment!

Good Times!

Our great friends, the Gauthiers, stopped by on their way through to Utah yesterday. We hadn't seen them in months :( The kids had a blast. The adults did as well, we stayed up until 2:30 a.m. catching up! You can see in one of the pics that Jaidyn was being a dare devil watching Jared do all of his cool tricks and got her first owie! She pulled herself up on the dresser and boinked her head.