Working for Peterbilt 25 Years

June 13th 1983 Dave started his first job after graduating Chico State University. We moved from Chico to Fremont California. We were married almost 1 year and I was pregnant 7 1/2 months. We didn't know a soul and the closest family was 3 1/2 hours away. So how do you get to know people? You join every sport that the Peterbilt employees participated in. That consisted of Bowling and Softball. Not the typical sports you imagine Dave doing. But it worked and we are still in contact with quite a few of those friends that he made during those first years at Peterbilt.
I still remember asking the apartment manager where the nearest lake was. Dave and I were used to Lakes like Shasta, Oroville and Butt Lake where we would going water skiing. The manager gave us directions to the lake that was just down the road. We were really excited. We thought ,"wow this is great we can get to a lake in 5 minutes." So off we go to the lake. I mean pond. It was only big enough to paddle a canoe or sail a 1 man boat. What a disapointment. So started our new adventure in a new town with a new job. Now we're in Texas and Dave's still with Peterbilt now 25 years. Great thing is the lakes here are huge and 20 minutes away.

The Scent of our Grandma

Living in Texas one of the first things you notice are the names they give family members here. I'm sure you've heard at least one of them Bubba, Nanna, Pawpaw, Grannie, Poppie. The list goes on. In our family it's always been grandma or grandpa, followed by whatever their last name was. I'm not sure how I will handle the name my grandchildren will give me but I think it will be hard for me to be called Grandma Neves. Or maybe when they do call me grandma the little darlings will just melt my heart. Hopefully by then I won't care what they call me as long as they call me something nice.
But Grandma McDonald it was and will be forever.
When I asked my girls some of their favorite memories of visiting Grandma and Grandpa McDonald they had 2 favorites and especially I share one of those memories with them as well. The morning after we would arrive in Mont. we would wake up to the smell of freshly cooked bacon. There were either eggs or pancakes or both to go along with that but bacon reminds the girls of Grandma. The other one was the mini bikes. Hours upon hours of mini bike riding with their cousins up and down the lane. I remember the male bonding going on in the garage as the men would fix the mini bikes.
For me smell is the thing that draws me home to Mont. memories. The smell of freshly caught trout cooking on a cast iron skillet. That stinky stuff Grandma used to put on every evening after her bath. I'm not even sure what it was called, maybe witch hazel. The smell of grease on grandpa after he had been in the old barn at the old ranch fixing a tractor. The smell of water running down a ditch after Grandma had put in a new dam. The smell of hay being baled while sitting on the tractor fender with Grandma. The smell of petunias and coffee grounds. Grandma would ask me to take the coffee grounds to the petunia bed and spread them around the flowers. The prettiest petunias you'd ever see. The smell of wet dirt falling off a carrot from the garden. And bacon. Thick juicy chewy bacon. The kind you have to go to the butcher for now with the rind. Whether it was for breakfast, lunch or dinner the house smelled really good when there was bacon cooking. So Grandma thanks for the memories and especially, Thanks for the bacon.
We love and miss you.

They're Back

Well Julia and Lee have been here now since the 16th of May. Plans are to return to England Jun. 26th. We took Lee to the lake so we could teach him how to wakeboard. That boy never gave up. He just kept saying "one more time". We must have pulled him up 60 times trying to get him up. Dave, Julia and Lee went out the following day and he finally got it. Where was the camera when you needed it? Left at home.
We went out again on Memorial Day Weekend and the wind was blowing pretty hard and there eventually were a lot of boats on the water making waves. Wake boarding was not a good sport that day but we tubed and knee boarded instead. I did get a water ski run in before the water got chopped up. We took the boat into a cove and just hung out for awhile and sunbathed. It really was relaxing and felt great to veg out and watch the big white puffy clouds go by. Lee is a little reluctant to hang out in the water. Someone has been telling him stories of huge fish that swim in the Lake called Gar.
This weekend we ended up going to College Station, Tx to watch Dave's nephew Derrick play baseball in the College World Series Regional Playoffs. His team is the University of Illinois at Chicago. The trick was trying to figure out which game to attend since you never know when a pitcher gets thrown into the lineup. His first game was Fri. night against Texas A&M. It didn't turn out to well and Derrick ended up pitching and A&M continued to hit and score. If you know anything about pitchers they usually don't pitch 2 games in a row sometimes 3 games go by before they pitch again. Lucky for us he only pitched 1 inning on Fri. so the outlook was good that he'd pitch again either Sat. or Sun. To make a long story short we drove to College station Sat. morning watched his team beat the #2 seed Dallas Baptist and got to watch him pitch 4 innings of the Univ. of Houston game Sun. which they lost in extra innings 14-11. It was a great weekend . Dave's sister and husband Terry were there so we had a family weekend after all.
The wedding invitation business is still busy and thankfully I've had a couple of breaks in between so I could spend time with Julia and Lee.
Adeena is busy with her boyfriend Will these days . She couldn't join us in College Station because she had a prior commitment to floating the Guadalupe river with friends. She just returned from a trip to Ca. where she spent most of her time visiting the Neves side of the family.
That's all for now. The kids are off to Fl. tomorrow so it'll be quiet for awhile.