Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church Homecoming 2014

Our church celebrated 110 years of establishment last Sunday, and we all ("all" meaning everyone who had access to such clothing) dressed up in 1904 attire in honor of the celebration! The gentlemen donned colorful bow-ties and black suspenders, which I personally think should be worn all the time. But nobody asked for my opinion, so let's move on, shall we? :)
Our pastor (who is also my Uncle Thomas, whom I love dearly) preached the first sermon, then Bro. Roger (also my Uncle, whom I also love dearly) preached the second message. We then had dinner on the grounds and enjoyed an abundance of scrumptious food (which I also love dearly). And after that, the Tero family brought us some special music! We also enjoyed a slideshow of days gone by, and got to play the guessing game of "Guess who that church member was who had a head full of hair back then" along with "HE had a MUSTACHE??" type of thing. Gotta love it.

From left- Penny, Sarah, Rachel, Abigail, & Lauren. And Kaley in front

To explain the various facial expressions.... We were told by whoever was taking the picture to keep solemn faces (because that's how they took pictures way back when). However, after approximately 3 seconds of "Solemnness" we all lost it and starting laughing. All except for Penny, that is... Solemn all the way. To the death. I'm thinking she took "solemn" to a whole new level. Like, "death glare" level. She don't play.

Bro. Roger (red bow-tie), Bro. Bobby (black bow-tie), and Bro. Thomas (yellow bow-tie). Have I mentioned yet that I love bow-ties?

I, being the devoted sister that I am, awoke and arose quite early in order to assure that everyone's hair looked appropriately "Edwardian"... Several you-tube tutorials later, we all were sufficiently "Edwardianized". I love that word. Edwardian. Anywho, there was a slight disagreement full blown Laird debate over whether or not Abigail had to wear that "hideously large" bow, as she put it. She just didn't believe me when I told her that girls her age would have most definitely (NOT defiantly!) worn those bows back then. It was a hard battle, but, as you can see, I won it. :) She wore the bow. (Although it suspiciously "disappeared" after lunch).

Pretty sure he's the cutest little bow-tie wearer EVER :)

Sarah, Rachel, & Penny

Just a few ladies chatting...Probably about how long it took to do all that hair and iron that much dress. ;)

The Tero family singing and playing after lunch

 There are times (few as they may be) that I get these absotively-posilutely genius ideas...They usually don't work out (In fact, quite rarely do they ever work out.), but sometimes they do. Well, after church was over, I got one of those ideas. It dawned on me.. sorta like the feeling you get when you FINALLY understand a math problem. Wait... I've never had one of those moments. But it dawned on me, all the same! I suggested that (insert trumpets playing and sunlight beaming down from heaven and oohhs and ahhs here) we go to our local WalMart and simply walk around in our 1904 Edwardian get-ups. And so, we did. :) Okay, so it may not sound so spectacular, but let me tell you...Ladies and Gentlemen, I can say without a doubt (and probably with a British accent ;) ) that that was the most fun I have had in quite a while! It will definitely be one of those memories that you "cherish all your days" and "keep close to your heart" and "look back on with fond remembrance" and all that stuff.

SELFIE SUNDAY! I'm not sure whether I should laugh or cry about that duck face that my brother is making... I think I'll laugh...

We probably completely threw off our "Edwardian air" by taking selfies with an iPhone, but who cares??

We traipsed over to the camping supplies in search of a kerosene lamp, (because that's what they would've done in 1904, is go to their local WalMart to purchase their kerosene lamps), but only found these battery operated lanterns. (Mine was Hello Kitty) And in the background, Abigail and Kyle abandoned all "1904 related" objects and are checking out air-soft guns and equipment. :) Sigh

We enjoyed walking past all the iPhones, iPads, iPods, & i-everything-else with shocked expressions & stating "What IS this thing?" only to reply with "I don't know!" We pretty much creeped out every sales associate in the store... Note the sign in the background... I'm not sure our facial expressions could be classified as "game faces" or not, but...

Let me just say that the ONLY reason we went to the toy aisle was for BJ to look around. That's it. Nothing more.

As you can tell, BJ was having a lot of fun.

I went up to one sales lady and asked her if they sold any "souvenirs from this time period". She looked at me with a mixture of confusion and "Should I call security"and said "No ma'am, we don't carry any souvenirs." To which I replied "NONE? But this is WALMART!!" What happened to Satisfaction Guaranteed, for Pete's sake?! Despite what she told us, we found some souvenirs to take back to 1904 with us... "Happy Happy Happy" "Team Jase" "I ♥ Si"

We were quite the crew, let me tell ya.

 Right as this photo was about to be taken, BJ shouts "Everybody say TUNA FISH!!" while holding up his box of Swedish fish.

And so we all lost it.

for several minutes...

He looks quite pleased with himself.

 After we left WalMart, I had to go get gas in the van, so I decided to have a little fun at the gas station too. I mean, if we're gonna have to burn up in these clothes all day, we might as well get all the fun out of it as possible. I say go all out or not at all. 
Gas Station Clerk - "Can I help you?"
Me - "Yes ma'am, I was wondering if you had anywhere for me to water my horses?"
Clerk - "Your horses?" 
Me - "Yes ma'am." (trying desperately to keep a straight face)
Clerk - "Yeah, we got a water hose outside"
Me - *dies laughing*
Clerk - *also dies laughing* with the realization of what she just fell for.
After we cleared up the fact that I was joking and didn't really have a thirsty horse waiting outside to be watered but thank you kindly anyway....
Clerk - "Where are y'all from?"
Me - "We're Time Travelers." 
Clerk - "REALLY??"
Me - *once again dies laughing* "Nooo! Not REALLY." 

That poor lady probably would've believed me if I had told her that I was the Queen of England. But let me just put in a good word for the Chevron gas station of Newton, because if you have horses that need watering, they will let you water them with their water hose all day long. That's what I call service! :)

One poor man thought we were Amish (apparently long hair and a long skirt makes you Amish these days). But I suppose it could've had something to do with Kyle's suspenders and top hat. ;) 
Two ladies thought we were fresh out of a church play and one older gentleman thought he was back in the 30's. I'm no History buff, but even I know that 1930's apparel didn't look like that! Bless that poor sir's heart...

There was another dude that kept staring at us. (Surprise, Surprise!) And kept staring at us. And kept staring at us. So Abigail smiled and waved at him...and he slowly crouched down and disappeared behind a rack of shirts. I think I'd be on the safe side to say that we scared the living daylights out of him. 


Just for the record, I had several other good ideas, but didn't actually get the chance to carry them out. I wanted to go up to a random person and ask "Do you want to know how to live forever?" (In a British accent, of course). And then witness to them and present the plan of Salvation! :) 
I also wanted to go up to someone and say very seriously "I am your great great great grandmother." Pat their hand, and walk away.

Who knew it would be so much fun to walk around WalMart acting like you just got out of a Time Machine...? :) 

Of Slithering Serpents and Such...

With cooler weather quickly approaching, (that's what they keep telling us anyway...) snakes are on the move. And while we haven't really seen much of that oh-so coveted "cooler weather", we have seen the snakes!
 I don't like snakes. In fact, I hate them. I abhor them. The only good snake is a dead snake... And even then, it's iffy.
So when this bad boy decided to show up in our back yard, RIGHT beside our back porch, I decided to kill him. Heartless, I know.
 I crash through the garage, tripping on various objects of interest, but nothing to kill a snake with. Finally I locate a somewhat dull hoe on the back porch and head out to the battlefield. In the heat of the battle, while the darn snake is attempting to strike at me, my hoe BREAKS. Like, the wooden handle snaps in half. My only means of defense is now useless. WHILE the snake is trying to strike me with his fangs that contain venom that is POISONOUS. Great. Lovely. Fantastic.
But lo and behold, I turn to see my little sister standing there behind me with fresh reinforcements. Another hoe. And this one doesn't have a wooden handle. This one is genuine fiberglass. "GIVE ME THAT HOE!" I scream madly state calmly. After all, the first thing to do in a dangerous situation is to remember to stay calm.
So I "calmly" snatch the hoe from my sister's hands and "calmly" begin laying into the snake with a fury that would scare... I don't know. Something scary. 

10 rattlers on that disgusting creature.... They call me....the Snake Wrangler. Or Mangler. Whatever.

But the story doesn't stop with my heroic, and somewhat mad-woman, slaying of the rattlesnake. Last night, on the way home from church, we saw yet another 3 foot long, rattlesnake (also owning 10 rattlers) on the side of the dirt road... After running over him, we followed common practice and all get out with a flash light to look at him. But he wasn't dead, so Abigail (once again acting as the weapon expert), suggests that we throw this pair of pliers that she just found in the back seat of the car at him to finish him off. Pliers. My father and I look at her with  facial expressions that may or may not have insinuated that she had lost her very last marble. But desperate times call for desperate measures. So Father accepts said pliers from said weapon expert and begins his Chinese Throwing Star-like moves. With a pair of pliers. Turns out, plier throwing is a pretty effective method of killing a snake. And my Daddy is a pretty darn good Plier Thrower.

Of course, we had to load up the dead snake in a box in the back of the car and take him home to show off to the family. In the kitchen. In the KITCHEN!

DISCLAIMER- Please PLEASE do not try this at home. "Snakes can actually still strike you, even after they're dead." -Says Daddy, who is playing with the dead snake who can STILL STRIKE EVEN AFTER HE IS DEAD. (And have I mentioned yet that this snake is in our KITCHEN?!) But let's just see if we can force some deadly venom out of him. Come on, it'll be fun! :)

My dad (while inspecting his kill), made the remark "Man, those things just look...evil." NEWS FLASH! They ARE evil! God cursed him. He is evil.  Genesis 3:14 - " And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life"...     And thou shalt also be hated by every woman ever. :) The End.