It's the little things . . .

Thursday, January 28, 2016

A few years ago, my friend Karen introduced me to a word I was not familiar with.  The word was lagniappe, a French word meaning "a little something extra," used mostly in the south.  For example, if you order a dozen donuts, lagniappe would be getting 13 donuts instead of 12!  Today is my day off and I thought I would share some of the little extra things that make being here at RMMC so special.

You never know who you are going to see here. This past weekend was Jr High snow camp with over 100 campers and their sponsors. My niece, Cynthia, told me her cousin was there as a sponsor and sure enough, I had a chance to meet him.

A selfie with a sweet kid from Hesston College who is the cousin once removed of my niece and the great nephew of my sister-in-law (got that?!).  My niece told him to look me up and give me a hug  and he did. . . made my day!!

After a weekend of helping in the kitchen to feed over 100 junior high kids and about 30 sponsors for snow camp, then cleaning all the spaces the day after they left, this was a fun treat (in more ways than one!) to make and dip buckeyes and pretzels for donors.  It was a sweet break!

 We took the boxes of chocolates to the little Divide, CO, post office and I saw something I had never seen at a post office before!

As a little girl on the farm, I remember getting chicks (peeps) in the mail.  But these were not peeps!  All at once I began to hear cackling coming out of the box!  The cowboy who was mailing them, complete with wide brimmed  cowboy hat and western drawl, said, "yep, them's my prize show chickens that I'm sendin' to California for a show." I didn't have the nerve to ask if I could take a picture of him but I did get one of the box  that cost $86.00 to send two pairs of chickens. to California! 

Here is a sign in our kitchen that makes me smile every time I see it.

Hopefully this does not apply to me!

This week one of the volunteers who was originally from "the valley" brought me something.

Those of you from PA will recognize this as the magazine from "the valley."  He also brought me a moon pie but Jonathan and I devoured that before I could get a picture of it.  YUM!

And here are some things I saw on my walk today.

Yep, more blue skies!

These two little cuties hang out in their mom's office sometimes.

I took this shot out our bedroom window.  This is Pleiades (prounounced plee-a-deez), the building that Jonathan is helping with, scheduled to be completed in May.  We have met many wonderful volunteers who come in from Kansas and all over Colorado to help finish the building. Last week there were two men in their 80's who hung lots of solid wood doors for two days.  I'm impressed with the loyalty and dedication people have to this camp.

And this is what greets me outside our apartment door every time I climb the hill and stairs to our apartment.  It makes me smile!  One more small detail that is lagniappe . . . no climbing into a cold car to go to work every day . . . I walk about 50 steps to work!

May your days be filled with lagniappe!

Betty