Got My Life Back

Yes it is back, the uninteresting life and times of ML Davis. Where did it go? One word takes it: GRADUATION.

Yesterday, May 30th, a beautiful girl, Karlie Lynn, became a confirmed graduate of Velva High School - class of 2010. Another huge milestone is behind her and with the grace of God and plenty of luck she will hurdle a few more biggies along the way. The wicked step mom will be on the sidelines praying and preaching, which by the way, I am damn good at the latter.









The girl did it!! More about her when I get some photos from Karlyn. I was too frenetic to be an apt recorder. The word Valium kept racing around in my head, they didn't call them mother's little helpers for nothing. Where is a good pill when you need one??

So back to the missing life of ML. This is the fourth (fifth, if you count our wedding) time since 1989 I have "lost me" to the wicked throws of getting the house ready for a celebration.

Why do I get so obsessed with this semi public display of the way we live? Most of our friends have been here when the bathroom looks like a gym locker, the kitchen counters and dining room table are in the living large mode and there are enough shoes in the front hall to open a second-hand Zapos. I kind of wonder if most of those friends didn't see the wreckage because I looked worse than the house.

So along comes a gala event to snap towels at both ankles for about one month prior to the big day; to get me to dance a jig for deep cleaning. I think about it all winter for fleeting moments but don't really get pumped until the word MAY is at the top of the check blank.

Here's my to do list:

Wash walls
Wash windows
Shampoo the carpet
Replace throw rugs that look like crap
Clean blinds and curtains
Touch up trim paint - paint any rooms that need it
Liquid Gold the wood and cupboards
Spot clean furniture
Wash light fixtures and fans
THROW-THROW-THROW all the junk that accumulates

...and that is inside, outside - which Ron does a good job of taking care of - needs my eye to replace, repair and redo. Just ask my friend Suzy about the umbrella(s). She was the driver they day we almost came home with three patio umbrellas. I drew the line at two. But I did have to buy the perfect fit for the new cushions, it needed to blend. Cocktails started a little early that day!

Please don't think I don't do these tasks during the interim of momentous occasions, I do - just not all at the same time, frequently not even in the same month or year. There is just more to life that a clean house. I like my stuff even if it piles up around me.

Most will say, "It doesn't matter, people walk in talking and walk out talking, they don't see it anyway." But I have to know our house is presentable. If I didn't go berserk every now and then we'd be on Hoaders before too long. We also don't move often enough to be streamlined with our belongings. So in reality, these traumatic events are necessary in my life. It's like house CPR and thankfully the patient always comes back to life.

And while I am in the industrial mode, life goes on. People want to eat, laundry continues, Lacy even had a sleep over on Friday night (she asked her Dad and he said yes - not thinking!!) Sure I could have paced myself but gosh a feller' would hate to do something too early only to have to do it over again. Some days did get awfully long, especially the last few and I won't even go into the food issue. But I did meet my deadlines, and I was able to cross off just about everything on the sacred list(s).

Now today, 24 hours later, I am about ready to fall apart. Almost every major joint in my body aches and I feel like I have walked across America, possibly without shoes and uphill. Where is the ibuprofen??

To sum things up it was a nice day. I was happy (even without the Valium). Karlie was happy. Life goes on - until next year when Carsten (more prayers needed) dons his cap and gown. I wonder if I can keep the house up for 365 days? Naw, stupid idea!

Somebody is 18

The long awaited day has finally arrived for Karlie: the day of her 18th birthday. For all practical purposes it was a "regular" day with school, work - all the usual stuff. We did manage to squeeze in a birthday cake and she had an early supper with her friends. She and I ended the day by attending the Velva Women's Club annual Senior Tea. They had a nice program with more cake and a round of "Happy Birthday to you..." for the special girl.





Happy Birthday Karlie! You are a beautiful girl with all the wonders of the future ahead of you. Use your life wisely, after all, it is a very special life! Love from the wicked stepmom.

A Special Day

How interesting: today is Mother's Day, and fifty years ago on this date the "pill" was introduced and became available to women. Hmmm.......... but it was only obtainable if you were married. And now, after all these years, not all insurance companies will cover the expense for women and birth control but they will pay for Viagra. What is wrong with this picture?

In spite of it all, Happy Mother's Day - it is the most important job I do whether I am any good at it or not. I will continue to march!

To all my children, stepchildren and grandchildren - okay, pets too: I did the best job I knew how to do and never ever meant to "do you no wrong." I love you all.

Thanks for the special honor of letting me continue on as your mother, stepmother and grandmother. It makes my day, every day! X O X

Back in ND

The Ronson and his friend, Larry, just returned from a short exploratory junket to Florida. House hunting to be exact.

Now before the rumors fly, we are not going anywhere. This was an expedition to "check out" the housing market for investment purposes. I just reel when this conversation comes up at our house because I don't want the worries of rentals, let alone property about twenty states away, managed by someone named Murrilo.

This drama unfolded about two months ago when Ron started looking at houses on ebay - Fort Myers/Lehigh Acres area to be exact. Homes, which sold for $250,000.00 when the bubble was still a bubble, are now in foreclosure and selling for about $40.00 a sq. ft. or in the neighborhood of 40-70 thousand.

His brother bought one about 6 weeks ago and the house is already rented out. Ron, having the ever cautious wife that he does, didn't jump off the bridge, holding his nose, charge in and buy one - like he wanted to do.

I believe he said I was holding him back, chicken that I am. Good or bad, Terry, the brother, doesn't have a wife to get in his way.

So it was time for a road trip.

He and Larry left on Saturday. They stepped off the plane to 90 plus degrees and horrid humidity. Ron told me I would have turned around and headed back to North Dakota, "You would have been bitching about the humidity and your hair going flat."

Got that one right. There will be no humidity in my retirement future.

So they began their exploratory tour. Ron said he has never seen so many FORECLOSURE, FOR SALE, and FOR RENT signs his whole life. He was overwhelmed with the mass of houses, many never having been lived in.

Unemployment and inability to get financing has tanked the area to phenomenal proportions. In looking at one home a neighbor came up and told the guys, "The U.S. Marshal moved these guys out awhile back."

Some houses were made with chinese drywall and had to be redone, many were of cinder block style. Very little carpet, mostly tile or wood floors. "Better to hear the alligator claws as they come looking for you." was my immediate thought.

Ron said the houses (many of them) were very nice and probably quite rent worthy. A skip down the road and then junk houses. Some homes when they went into foreclosure, the soon to be former owner would gut the house of cupboards, vanities, and fixtures. I know that is not unheard of, but what animal like people we have in our world.

Well, to shorten this up a bit, the Davis's do not have a house in Florida, at least not today. Thank God!

Farewell

"Farewell, farewell, to you and you and you..."

A great catchy tune from Roger and Hammerstein's famous musical, The Sound of Music. Somehow I don't think Karlyn will be dancing and singing around the facility in her alpine outfit. She will be blubbery and gushy more than anything. Sob, sob, choking back big luminescent tears.

Today is her last day (4-29) as Souris Valley Care Center. Home to many and forever in the hearts of hundreds, maybe thousands. Twenty-five years of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears (don't forget prayer) she heart fully gave to the facility.

Her duties began as a Nurse Aid in 1985 as she reinstated her RN license. Shortly after her training at the now defunct St. Luke's Nursing School in Fargo and subsequent licensure, she married and raised her family of four wonderful children. As they grew and became big enough to fend for themselves, Elton gave her the employment boot.

As she tells the story: "I went to work crying and will leave the facility in the same shape."

Isn't the life we travel bittersweet??

After her RN reinstatement she went on to be Charge Nurse, Quality Assurance, Infection control and Staff Development nurse. She was an exemplary employee as she wore her many hats. Three people will take over her positions. Interesting.

I was lucky enough to give her a send-off speech at her retirement party last Thursday. In composing some notes I kept coming back to one theme: her devotion to our motto: "IN CHRIST'S LOVE EVERYONE IS SOMEONE."

I have a plethora of friends whom I love and cherish, but Karlyn is the one I need to walk behind. The one who very VERY seldom condemns, judges or criticizes (then she is really mad!!). She prays for the good of Christ to shine in all of us and is there for the weak, the strong, the good and the bad; the broken hearted and the downtrodden - and everybody in between.

She came into my life on my first day of my employment at SVCC (23 years ago) and hasn't left; although she may have wanted to a time or two. When the chips were down, and when they weren't, she was there. I am just one story of many; what a gal and what a friend!

So now it is for the rest of us to say a prayer for Karlyn as she walks down this lonesome trail of her last day. It is time for all of us to give her a hand, much like she did for all of us, (you do not know how may times she included YOU in her prayers!!)

She has a new road ahead and all of us will be there for her, like she is and was for us.!


Karlyn and her sisters.



Karlyn and her husband Elton.



The cake.



It looks like the tears are dry and she is ready for the new road ahead. Happy retirement to my special friend. Welcome to the other side!! My that sounds like the pearly gates story, how about - HERE'S TO RETIREMENT! Love, Mary Liz

Die Ermordete Familie

Many years ago (at least twenty) my comrade and co worker, Vivien Hammer, and I were driving to Bismarck for a workshop. The trip to Bismarck is about 100 miles to the south of Velva. We folks from around here have our own little routes that involve lesser traveled roads and shorten our trips. To Bismarck we must first go to the small town of Turtle Lake, about 40 miles to the south on Highway 41.

On this particular day we turned southwest just shy of Turtle Lake and took a little gravel road, another "shortcut" to the pavement a mile down the way. She asked me to slow down as we went past a cemetery, the Turtle Lake Cemetery. There in a long row, with a back drop of towering lilac bushes, were eight uniform tombstones lined up behind the fence.

She proceeded to tell me of of the family murdered in the 1920's and had long held her rapt attention. Vivien was born in the twenties, some 25 miles north of Turtle Lake. As a girl she would clip news articles, probably not many, but clipped any reference to this family or the tragic events.

The murdered family, the Jacob Wolf family, was killed on their farmstead. A hired boy of 14 - and a nephew, was also slain. In Jacob's family, those who died were five little girls from age 3 to 12 and his wife Beata. For reasons unknown, a baby of eight months was spared. Little Emma was found almost two days later dirty, hungry, wet and crying in her crib behind a bedroom door.

They were found dead in the barn and cellar by a neighbor who wondered why a requested piece of farm equipment for spring seeding was never picked up. They were murdered on April 22, 1920. It has been ninety years since that fateful day.

"I have always been so interested in the story and how awful it was." lamented Vivien.

She also told me an eery story that unfolded for her many years before our conversation. She was in the hospital having one of her three children. Back in those days women weren't discharged at the rapid rate of this day and age. In five to seven days we got to know our roommates. I have two roommates I still see now and then. Anyway, she was telling her roommate of her fascination with the Wolf family murders. Vivien, who could spin a good tale, goes on to tell me of her roommate's comment.

"I am the baby that survived, baby Emma."

I still get goose bumps just writing of what she said so many years ago. Vivien died in 1992 of cancer. She was in her sixties, too young to end it all. She would be ever so excited over this latest book on shelves.

The Murdered Family was written by Vernon Keel. As the book jacket reveals, he began his journalism career at the Turtle Lake newspaper, his hometown. I think he deserves squatter's rights to this sad saga in North Dakota history.

I just finished the book this afternoon. It is a recommended read for anyone whether you are a local or a "firiner." Mr. Keel has a nice easy writing style and takes the reader down the road of question.

Time travel again to this century: "Baby" Emma and her husband became residents of our Nursing Home. But at the time, I didn't know that was her. They were a very nice enjoyable couple who lived long comfortable lives.

Not the case of the "convicted" murderer.

I do have to remind you it is a novel, but at the end the author states the first twenty chapters are based on newspaper accounts, court documents, sworn statements and historical data. The actual investigative documents were lost in the Attorney General files when the North Dakota State Capitol burned on December 28, 1930.

It is well worth the $15.00 or a trip to the library for this haunting book.



By the way, Die Ermordete Familie is German Russian for "The Murdered Family."

Double click on The Murdered Family, off set in green, a few paragraphs up to see a heartbreaking photo of the actual funeral at the Wolf Farm. Baby Emma is the infant in white with the X on the tail of her dress.

On the far left, by the sliding barn door, there is an erased X, this is suppose to be Henry Layer, the so called killer.

Velva Prom 2010

Another spring prom is but a memory. Thanks to the KODAK moments we can remember the day a little better as time goes by.

The event got off to a shaky start with late hair appointments, other dates not ready and one date missing, but it held up no one: THE SHOW MUST GO ON.

I will share some of my favorites photos, out of 150 shots I do have a few. Going into this "picto" moment, don't forget - Carsten hates to have his picture taken, thus the glum looks. But hey, no middle finger present so I think it was a success.

Carsten's date was Hope Peterson, her mother Brenda Glinz is in many shots helping the kids while I fired away.

Karlie's date was Tyler Mitchell, but we kept calling him Collin. He was a trooper!!




























This shot is probably my favorite, from a photography perspective. This girl, Brittany, was the first here with her date Michael Duchsherer. She said many times,

"I just don't feel like this is me. I never dress like this. This just can't be me."

When she picked up the tulle and looked at it, she was almost convincing herself,

"I might like being a princess."









Hope's mother, Brenda, my assistance.



Kasey Keller and April Finneseth


This picture just happened, but it almost deserves a caption.
















Who invited her?






This is Ahnna, Hope's sister. I like the blur.









THE END