Very Unexpected Company

I have to start this blog with this 100 anniversary of the armistice that ended World War 1. This was the day my grandfather, David Meister, was sitting in his prison cell at Leavenworth Penitentiary, the guard opened his cell door and told him, "GO HOME, You have been released."  My grandfather was an Apostolic Christian. He was thrown in prison for his faith. He would not carry a gun into battle. He was not a coward, just believed that ALL life is precious and when Jesus said, "Love Your Enemies" HE meant it.  When Grandpa Meister was first taken to Leavenworth, they put him along with a few other men who also would not carry a gun before a firing squad, asked him again if he would carry a gun and go to war, when grandpa said "no", they blindfolded him, put him against the wall, cocked their guns and at that point a couple of the men gave in and agreed to go to war. This actually happened twice. The second time this happened, the guns were cocked, the guards  yelled FIRE but no one fired. Grandpa told us when he heard the guns cocked, he was sure it was the end of his life here on earth.  Grandpa told us later, he thought they were just making sure he really would not give in and carry a gun but each time, they were so convincing that both times in front of the firing squad grandpa was ready to die. At that point they sentenced him to hard labor and life in prison. After hard labor of almost 2 years being marched to a dairy farm each day, working 10 to 12 hours and marching back to the prison that night, they told him the officials of the country reduced his sentence from LIFE to 25 years of hard labor. Grandpa was still a young at 29 years old, and when he heard this (he told me this years later) "I couldn't believe I would someday be a FREE MAN!"  Then came the armistice, which took effect at eleven o'clock in the morning--the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year 1918. Two years after he was sentenced to first death, then life in prison, then 25 years of hard labor he was free. EXACTLY 100 years ago and my grandfather walked out of the Leavenworth Penitentiary a FREE MAN. He married my grandmother and they had 5 sons. My dad, Paul Meister was the second to the youngest of the 5, he went on to marry my mom and they had 11 children of which I am the 3rd oldest,  and now you know the rest of the story.

We had quite a conversation on the way to church. Spark and Rhonda got home from Gulf Shores yesterday.  Rhonda was telling mom that she had no food in the house so right away mom tells her, "just go over to Joan's she has a lot of food."  Mom knew that Joan made a big pot of soup for lunch as she had Bill and Bethany, their 2 children, Berlica, Mackenson, Faith, Hannah, Sarah and Rebekah all there and working hard. Well mom forgot to tell Joan that she had invited Spark and Rhonda. Spark and Rhonda thought Joan was having them for supper, not lunch and by 5:40 pm Spark called Joan and asked, "what time is dinner?"  Joan was a little surprised but told them to come on over and only when they arrived did Spark and Rhonda find out Joan knew nothing about them coming. Joan called mom and asked her, "why didn't you TELL me I'm having company for dinner?" then invited her to come too. Mom had already eaten but went over anyway for the laughter.  Well I figured what is good for the goose must be good for the gander and this afternoon called mom to say, "Spark and Rhonda invited me over to your place for dinner and we are bringing Phil and Anna's girls, Rhoda, Iris, Sarah and Zion.  When we arrived Mike and Diane had also shown up.

Now for the record, we brought our own food, placed it on the table with what mom and Karin were having and there was plenty of laughter and plenty to eat.  Mom, Diane and Joan went to the Hospital Lumiere auction on Friday night and mom ended up winning a big doll house all furnished with dolls and furniture. The girls were thrilled to go down and see what's new in great grandma's basement.

They played downstairs for hours.  After dinner we played Mexican Train until it got late enough to take Braelyn, Taegan and Kensley home. Those girls had the entire basement cleaned up and all the toys put away in the right place within a few minutes.  Sarah and Nolan are staying with the girls this week while Phil and Anna are on their 10th anniversary trip to Eleuthera, Bahamas. Anna posted a few pictures today.

Nolan drove to Minnesota today to pick up their new puppy, a gorgeous Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier. He sent the picture below right after he picked her up. Kind of hard to take a selfie with a squiggly, squirmy 6 month old puppy.  

Nolan always wanted a Golden but Sarah didn't want a dog that sheds. Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers shed very little so this is the closest she could come by making Nolan's dreams come true.  She is a very sweet puppy. This breed originated in Ireland and is an exuberant Irish farm dog. They are happy, friendly, deeply devoted and just stubborn enough to remind you that he or she is a terrier.