Jordan Rippy

Wednesday morning me, my sister, and Kristin went to the church where the funeral was held to sound check. On a side note, the church staff was amazing and extremely well prepared for the funeral. When we finished I overheard my dad asking if anyone had a video camera, because they wanted to video the funeral. Apparently my brother forgot to bring his video camera…So, I offered to make a quick run to Wal-Mart and purchase a video camera. At this point, the funeral is supposed to start in about 25 minutes. I ask the sound guy for directions to the nearest Wal-Mart. He says, “It’s kind of far away. You need to get on 240 and head north and then catch I-40 heading west, take the first exit and turn right.” So, I follow his directions only to find out that the Wal-Mart is a little further off of the exit than he said it would be. I run in and buy a video camera and then ask the lady if she knows the quickest way to get back to Butterfield Assembly of God. After all of the twists and turns I was a bit unclear on how to get back. She says, “Oh sure, just take a left out of our parking lot and it will be on the left in about five miles.” That’s right. Five miles. The sound guy sent us in a complete square around Ft. Smith in torrential rain to get to a Wal-Mart that was five miles up the road. At least we made it back in time! After the funeral the whole family had lunch at Ed Walker’s. Ed Walker’s is the home of the five pound hamburger…Five pounds. The food was really good.

Then some of us went across town to my great aunt DoDo’s pie shop. She doesn’t own it any more, but they still use her original recipes and the pies are still amazing.

After the pies, we took Zack, Ashley and Bobby to the airport. We dropped them off and then took Taylor to ride the train. A local park has a pretty cool train that circles the park. My nephew loves trains (understatement) and asked about it all week. We rode it three times. Later that afternoon Kristin and I were delayed out of Ft. Smith. We literally made our connecting flight in Dallas by 60 seconds. At least that’s what the counter lady said. It was crazy.

This week Kristin and I made a very quick trip to Ft. Smith, Arkansas, to be a part of my great grandfather’s funeral. I am really glad that we were able to go. We flew out Tuesday and had to be dressed and ready for the viewing. It was a non-stop two days, but we fit in a lot of great family time. On Monday, I realized that we needed to carry-on everything that we had, so I went out and bought some top-of-the-line luggage from Goodwill. I got a pretty sweet rolling carry-on bag for only $6.00.

The next morning we were on our way. Tuesday we woke up in Lakeland, ate breakfast in Tampa, lunch in Dallas, and dinner in Ft. Smith. On the flight I was reminded of some of the amazing products available only in Sky Mall magazine. Check out this toaster that cooks weenies and buns at the same time!!!

It was a long day. As soon as we arrived in Ft. Smith we went straight to the viewing where we spent about two hours with family and friends. Then we had dinner with the family. Kristin, Ashley, and myself squeezed in a quick late night practice. We were asked to sing “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” at the funeral on Wednesday…We finally got to bed around midnight. I was delighted at the air conditioning in our hotel room…It was freezing!

Well, as you know last weekend Kristin and I took a trip to Montgomery to visit my family for labor day. We had a great time. We hung out at the pool with Taylor and Charlotte and the whole gang took a much-needed trip to Bruster’s Ice Cream! The kid’s loved it. Especially Ashley. Ashley is my almost 24 year old (pregnant) sister, but she got the most childish ice cream of all. It was some sort of cotton-candy concoction that was multi-colored, full of candy, and topped off with a gummy worm. At one point we were all talking and all of the sudden I hear this curious crackle. I look over to see my sister with her tongue out, “There’s pop rock in here!” She exclaimed. It was quite comical. Here are some pics of Taylor and Charlotte:

THEN this weekend Kristin’s family made the trip over to Lakeland for a weekend-o-fun. It was unfortunate that due to my crazy weekend schedule (and the CLAST test) I barely got to see everyone. Luckily I was able to get in several invigorating games of Hungry Hungry Hippo and some tastetacular lasagna (thanks Mel Cell). I found out after they left that the whole family was pretty much freezing the whole time they were here. Kristin and I keep the house fairly chilled.

LR: Cade, Melony, Madison, and Billy

I will be in North Carolina for the next couple of days on a last minute snow skiing trip with my brother-in-law / father-to-be, Bobby…

Most of you know that my sister, Ashley, married Bobby Ryals on August 20, 2005. On Christmas Eve, they announced that they are expecting their first child! Ashley and Bobby managed to keep the “big news” a secret for nearly nine weeks! We are all very excited and love them both very much…Ashley is due on July 31, 2007.