Pages from Paddlebrook

No. 16: Another Week Begins...

And it's gonna be a busy one.

But first, I gotta tell you how Easter Service went. It was awesome! I don't believe I'm exagerating either. If you'll recall,  I was worried about how to make the old VFW hall look, you know, Easter-ish. Well, it took a ton of crepe paper and lilies, but we managed to transform that big brown nothing into a joyful house of worship.

Sheila was right (as usual) the food had a lot to do with it. As soon as you opened the door, the aroma of coffee lured you inside, straight to a long table filled with the most cheerful Easter cookies you ever saw. Looked like something out of Martha Stewart's magazine.

Since we don't have a regular pastor yet, our elders take turns leading Sunday services. Yesterday, Sheila's Charlie was up to bat. For those of you who don't know Charlie, he's no public speaker. Oh, he'll talk to you about your car all day, he's just not comfortable in front of a group. Simple is Charlie's strength, so that's what he went with; he read the resurrection story from scripture, told it in short bits between music played by Alexis Martin.

I know I gripe a lot about Alexis - sometimes I'd like to take my shoe off and hit her with it - but I have to admit, when she's on, she's on. We are fortunate to have the finest pianist on Deer Mountain in our congregation... and she has an ego to go with it, but I won't go there today.

Oh, the numbers. The service was p.a.c.k.e.d. We had visitors, too! Some of our regulars brought guests. A young family drove over from Cozy (yes, it's a place) they had five of the sweetest kids I've ever seen. Ginger, every one. And we had visiting tourists, too - a retired couple from Denver and a young couple from Missouri, I think. Missouri or Minnesota or Michigan - one of those "M" states. Doug and Laura were their names... I remember because she was so pretty - as in, she-should-be-in-movies pretty. They heard our ad on KDPO, so we know the advertising is working. :) 

Ginny Todd took a gazillion pictures for the church scrap book. We thought it would be fun to scrapbook the life of our church. I know it's only a few months old and we don't have a building yet, but we added another milestone to the pages yesterday.

After Service, we went to On the Main for dinner, then back to Charlie and Sheila's for a made-from-scratch coconut cake. Sheila is an awesome cook!

I hope your Easter was just as perfect as ours.

Shine on -

No. 15: Our Wish for You

May You Have a Joyous and Blessed Easter! 

No. 14: Happy Spring

I gotta tell ya, Spring started a little rough for me. When I got up this morning I discovered the hot water heater croaked in the night, so I had to run next door to Charlie and Sheila's to get ready for work. Then I twisted my ankle hurrying to the car. It's really swollen, but I am determined to wear heels for Easter. Then Sheila swerved to avoid a squirrel, and I spilled coffee all down the front of my white blouse. (Missed the upholstery though.)

When we finally got to the station, our morning man, Marty, was twelve shades of green. Nothing serious, just some spoiled take-out from the diner. Sheila told him yesterday to refrigerate his leftovers. We sent him home and I took over for him. I spent the next 2 hours hosting the morning show - with no notes. It was rocky, but I made it.

Then the Paddlebrook 2nd graders came for a tour of the station. When Sheila and I finally got time to eat lunch, we went to On the Main, but they were sold out of the special so I had grilled cheese. It was burned. That was the final straw. I went back to KDPO, propped my swollen foot up and bawled.

Just then my hubby, Wayne, walked in carrying the prettiest bouquet of daisies I've ever seen and a stuffed Easter bunny. And my day totally turned around. I'm glad I married Wayne; for a man, he's pretty perceptive. ;-)

Shine On -

 

No. 12: Outta Control

Now that we've more-or-less skidded through Palm Sunday, we're running head-long towards Easter. I don't know how your week is going, but I'm scratching things off my "to do" list like crazy. Things I'm never gonna get to, like "find a new pair of shoes to go with that skirt you bought in Denver." Ain't gonna happen. Not this week. My pink pumps will have to do.

This week, I am being forced to prioritize. KDPO is swamped with business, almost more business than Sheila and I and our tiny staff can handle. What time we do have left is spent getting ready for Sunday.  We want to our first Easter as The Paddlebrook Community Church to be memorable.

That's hard to do because we're not meeting in a traditional church building. We're meeting in the old VFW lodge. It's run-down, it's square, it's drafty and it's absolutely charm-free. The one thing it does have going for it is space - it's big enough to hold 500 people.  Hey, in this town, buildings are scarce. You go with what you can get.

We've ordered a few lilies to dress the place up. Sheila and a brigade of women are making cookies, and we're having an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids. It should be nice, but it's hard to complete with the likes of Faith Mountain. They're having a petting zoo for their kids, and clowns. Christian. Clowns. Don't get me started.

Here's my wish for you: I hope your Holy Week is peaceful... you have time to reflect... to enjoy your family... and to celebrate the miracle of Easter.

Shine on -

No. 10: Palm Sunday Service

I thought you'd like to know how our Palm Sunday Service turned out. For a fleeting moment Friday, I flirted with the notion of driving to Denver to get palm branches for everyone. But then it started to snow and Wayne nixed that idea. So we improvised. Alexis Martin, our pianist, played some special music; she's incredible. And Randy Boggs hauled one of his pack mules into town and tied it up in front of the building to remind everyone that Jesus did not ride into Jerusalem in a stretch limo accompanied by his posse. I think everyone got the point.

The Catholics in town fared better than we did. Their priest, Father Eddie gets a gold star - yet again - for improvising. The man is a marvel. He took a pair of scissors to that ratty old parlor palm that's been fading away in the rectory for the past five years. Obviously he couldn't get enough healthy palm branches off the thing for his whole congregation - so he made little palm frond crosses for each and every member of his parish.

He had a few extras. How do I know? He came by KDPO this morning and gave Sheila and me two of the leftovers. Blessed them, too.

What a nice way to start a Monday morning.

May I be the first to wish you a Happy Easter Week!

Shine on -

No. 9: No Palms This Sunday

I had a perfectly good day going until 5 minutes ago. JoJo Simon called me - she owns The Happy Daisy, Paddlebrook's only flower shop. Guess what? The palm fronds we ordered for Palm Sunday service this weekend... they're gone. Absent. Not there. We aren't likely to get them either. Some florist in Denver put in a big order for the things, so the palm fronds destined for Paddlebrook got diverted.

Do you know what this means? No palm fronds for service Sunday. None at the Baptist church, the Methodist, or the Penticostal either. If you want to wave a palm frond in this town, you'll have to go to Faith Mountain. JoJo said they ordered theirs from "an outside source." Had them shipped in. Probably got them direct from Israel and had them tipped in gold, too. I know, my attitude stinks. I'm workin' on it.

JoJo said she has some nice leather leaf - we can have a whole case of that stuff - or she has something called ming. She uses it in her tropical designs. I told her I'm pretty sure nobody waved ming fern at Jesus, so we'll pass.

Life will go on. We'll come up with some brilliant idea before Sunday and nobody will miss the fronds. It's just a tradition. You know? And I do like tradition.

Thanks for letting me vent -

No. 7: Church News

You know Sheila and I (and our hubbies) are members of  the Paddlebrook Community Church - or what's left of it. (Long story. Later.) Well, last night, the board of elders met and decided it's time - finally! - to began the search for a full-time pastor!  Sheila and I are on cloud nine. You don't know how hard we've worked just to get to this point.

Our congregation is small, so we can't afford someone - you know - flashy, but I hope we get someone good, not some old geezer coming out of retirement. I probably shouldn't have said that. But the practicing clergy here on Deer Mountain tend to be... geriatric. I really hope we don't add another dinosaur to the pile.

Gotta run. We're buying lunch for the station staff today; it's Marty's birthday. Oh, we haven't shown you around the station yet, have we? Sorry about that. I'll start working on that post right now.

Shine on -

 

No. 5: Sammy Facts

Today, I thought it would be a good idea to tell you a little bit about me. I've seen those "100 Things About Me" lists on several blogs and thought that would be fun. But honestly, I've only come up with about 14 things and 14 things is not a list. It's kinda pathetic actually. So, I decided to just list 10 Sammy Facts today. Here goes:

My first name is Samantha, but I hate it. No one ever calls me Samantha; I've been Sammy since I was born.

• I have been married for nine years to the most adorable man in the whole wide world. (I know, we all say that!) His name is Wayne.

• Wayne and I don't have kids. Yet. :( But we're trying!

• My favorite color is pink - but, you know, I don't wear it very often. (I'll have to fix that.)

• I am five years younger than Sheila.

• One day I would love to go to Paris. (Not exactly Wayne's cup of tea, but he'll go. He's a sport.)

• We moved to Paddlebrook when I was in the 2nd grade. This is the place I call home.

• I have a degree in journalism. There is not much "hard news" here on Deer Mountain so I probably didn't need a degree, but I'm glad I have it.

• Wayne and I live right next door to Sheila and Charlie.

• I love to collect things. Three things I'm always on the lookout for are tea cups, angel figurines and antique photos.

That concludes today's list. When I think of 10 more "Sammy Facts" I'll post them. Eventually I might even reach that 100 Thing milestone!

Shine on -

   

No. 4: Day Two

I can't believe we had so many visitors on our blog's opening day. And we got comments! Technically, Sheila got the very first comment on one of her posts, so I'm buying lunch. That's the deal.

We were going to write our posts together this morning, but Sheila woke up with that searing pain in her shoulder again so she's over getting an adjustment. She's been getting that pain a lot lately. It happens when she's really stressed - starts in her shoulder then marches up her neck into her jaw and then her eye starts to water and she hurts for three days.

She's had that shoulder thing since she was a kid. The doctor says it's her body's way of telling her she's shouldering too much responsibility. Responsible. If I had to pick one word to describe my big sister, that'd be it. Sheila feels responsible. For everyone. She watches over me, Joey, Charlie and Wayne. She watches over this station, our employees, our friends and the church. That's a lot for anyone to carry but she does it, usually without any trouble. But every now and then...

This latest bout began a few months ago with the big shake up at church. What a mess; there's a whole year's worth of bloggy fodder there. Sheila's lost a lot of sleep over that situation. Of course, it's upset me too, but I handle stress differently. Sheila hurts and I eat. This morning it's bearclaws; I've had two so far and I'm not even hungry. I didn't get on the scale this morning; I'm avoiding it. If only I craved carrot sticks instead of carrot cake I wouldn't have a problem. But that's not the way it works, is it?

Sheila's back. I just heard her car pull up outside. I hope she's better. We'll continue this conversation later.

Shine on -

No. 2: Hello World!

Sammy here. Welcome to my our blog. I crossed out the "my" because this is a joint project. I'm blogging with my sister, Sheila. Sheila and I do just about everything together, which is fine with me. I'm proud to say my big sis is also my best friend.

Our blog originates from the heart of tiny Paddlebrook, Colorado. Never heard of it? That's okay; no one has, but I think that will be changing soon. My sister and I are second generation broadcasters; we inherited KDPO from our dad. It's known around town as The Depot, partly because of the call letters, and partly because we broadcast from Paddlebrook's old railroad station. It's a landmark in town. (That should tell you how small Paddlebrook actually is!)

We're gonna talk about everything on this blog - our husbands, our town, our church - you know, life. I am, by nature, chattier than Sheila so I expect I'll be the one responsible for generating our blog topics. I can do that. Like the old postcard? I thought you would. I collect old postcards, among other things. Are there any other collectors out there? If so, leave me a comment. Ooh, comments - I can't wait to get my first comment!

Yesterday, Sheila asked me if I had any reservations about starting this blog. I couldn't think of a single one. To be honest with you, I'm excited about making new friends from all over the globe. So, don't be shy. If you're reading this, say "hi".

Shine on -