Mt. Vernon resident Billie Bullard, who turned 101 on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022, celebrates her (almost) birthday with friends and family at the John Day Senior Center on Monday, Oct. 17, 2022.

Our week started out on Monday, April 22, with Darlene Nodine and David Pasko at the front desk signing in all in-house diners and getting their names in the drawings for the day. Elsie gathered information, and we all recited the flag salute together.

Rachel Carpenter and her husband, Rod, were our servers, representing the LDS church. Rod was going to ask the blessing and got a call from the hospital that he was needed, so off he went, and Rachel asked the blessing for our lunch. They are both so faithful to be present when it is the day for their church to serve. A big thanks to both of you. We dined on taco salad and cherry empanadas.

Rod and Rachel, Pati Davis and Rick LaMountain delivered 55 fresh and 39 frozen meals to the residents of our community. A big thanks to all of you for your service of love for others. There were seven takeout meals and 26 in-house diners, which made a total of 127 meals that went out of our kitchen this day. Shay and his crew do such an organized operation to do all of this meal making in the time allotted.

Rhonda Metler won the Chester’s card, and Carol Green won the free meal. Congratulations to both of you.

Thursday, April 25, Judy Thomas and Sonie Guttu were our greeters at the desk to be sure everyone was signed in and their names in the drawings. Elsie was not well, so Darlene gathered information and did the announcing. Bonnie and Francis Kocis were our servers, representing the Lutheran Church. Francis asked the blessing for our lunch.

Peggy Molnar and Cindy Combs, Rick LaMountain and Jeff and Jodi Cyphers delivered 58 fresh meals into our community. You guys are the best. With the 58 delivered meals, 32 in-house diners, and nine takeout meals, there were 99 meals that went out of our kitchen today. Good job, kitchen crew and drivers.

Vern Pifer won the Len’s card, and Ron Phillips won the free meal. Congratulations to both of you.

With Elsie being ill, we had to cancel our in-house yard sale. We will do it at a later date. Watch this space, listen to the radio and check Facebook for updates on another day.

The Grant County Library has a Walk-a-lot group and has a special walk planned. They tell us there are flyers around town about it, so check it out and see if this would be a good thing for you to do.

We want to send out a big thank-you to Gregg Starr for stepping up and doing some of our janitorial work for us as we are without a janitor at this time.

There will be a life celebration and memorial for Billie Bullard on May 18 from 6 to 9:30ish pm. So many of us loved Billie. There will be desserts available, and if you wish to bring something of your choice it would be welcomed.

Tomorrow, Thursday, May 2, we will have barbecued ribs, baked potato, corn and birthday cake. On Monday, May 6, we will dine on potato soup with ham, green salad, rolls and cobbler. Sounds like great meals. See you there.

Acts 16:31 Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and Thou shalt be saved.

MONUMENT —

We have been getting our April showers! Yes, it’s been storming over here and it is a good thing, for the rain washes all the dirt and dust away and brings us May flowers. Actually, my tulips have been blooming and some of them are getting ready to bloom. The Lord made some very beautiful things, and flowers are just to mention a few. I am sure that up in heaven, it will be way more flowers than one could ever have imagined.

We had our usual greeters at the table, Bob Cockrell and Sue Cavender. They checked in all the guests, collected and counted up the money. Jan Ensign filled out the paperwork. Bob led us in the flag salute and made the announcements. Yours truly prayed the blessing over the meal. The winner of the free meal ticket was Jean Hammel of Spray.

We had two new guests who joined us for lunch. Tom Fitzgerald from Twickenham and his friend, Larry Losey from Powell Butte. These gentlemen rode up on their motorcycles. Hope they enjoyed the meal and come back.

Julie Erickson, our new EMT, was giving information and signing people up for the upcoming EMT fundraiser dinner on Saturday, May 4. Our EMT group is completely non-profit, all volunteers, and is an important asset to our small community. All the funds raised will be used for continuing education for our EMTs and equipment. They are asking for volunteers for their dessert auction. Our EMTs are Rose Howe, Carrie Jewell, Teawna Jewell and Julie Erickson. If you would like to help and support our EMTs, please let one of them know that you would like to come to the dinner so they can have a head count.

All the sign-up spaces for the free planter beds for the seniors have been filled up. We thank Ellie Asher for heading that up and getting us the grant. That project will be held on Monday, May 6, at 10 a.m. at the Monument School greenhouse.

Well, I have learned a few new things this year from caring for my 10 bottle baby kids! Yes, you saw that right, 10! We lost quite a few from some of the new mamas who had their babies out in the cold rain. Belle lost both her babies. On the bright side, I can milk her to help feed my bottle babies.

So, one new thing I have learned this year, if one is going to bottle-feed a baby, never let it suckle on its mama first. Why? Because there will be nipple confusion and it is a battle of wills to get that baby to accept a different nipple than its mama! I had one that got its colostrum from its mama, then the mama rejected it, and so I had to take it and she refused the bottle nipple for almost 24 hours. Hunger finally won her over.

The other thing I learned: Lock up the babies with their mamas for at least two days. Why? Because I had one that kept wandering off, being adventurous, did not bond with its mama, and the mama later rejected her. Hence, another bottle baby. Thank goodness for my son, who is helping me feed them all.

1 Peter 5:8-9 Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brethren in the world.

PRAIRIE CITY —

Did you notice that it only took TWO numbers to write the date today? 4/24/24. … Aren’t numbers interesting? And we can thank the Arabs for these ciphers. In Roman numerals it would be IV XXIV XXIV. Just half as many ciphers in Arabic. And can you imagine trying to multiply in Roman numeral? Yikes!

Anyhow, on to business: Colin led the flag salute and did the announcements. And again we had no one to give the $10 gift certificate to for an April birthday. That’s two months in a row. Surely somebody had a birthday in those two months!

Tom asked the blessing after telling us about a birthday in history. U.S. Grant was born on April 27 in 1822. That made it 202 years ago, or СCII (tee hee). A quote from him: “I only know two tunes: One is Yankee Doodle and the other isn’t.” Hmmm.

Anyway, the table that knew what the initial “S” in his name stood for got to go first through the serving line. And would you believe that I knew? (Just finished reading his biography — ahem.) So we marched over and got our Philly cheesesteak sandwich.

This is another item I have never eaten. And I ate the whole thing! Yes, there were onions and peppers mixed in with the meat, but they were very mild and I couldn’t taste them, so my mouth did not object. To go with the sandwich were beets, potato salad, watermelon, and a birthday cake donated by Driskill Memorial Chapel.

We were operating with a smaller crew today due to people on vacation and one in the hospital. But Tom, Mary, Gwynne and Teresa got everything taken care of. Pam was at her post at the reception desk, for which I am very grateful. She does a great job there, and when she has to be gone, and her substitute is also gone, then I have to do it. And that will happen next week. You all pray for me …

Remember back sometime last year I was complaining that the Jell-O company quit making lemon pie filling? Makes you wonder what was in it that was so bad that they had to take it off the market. … Anyway, I got out the old Betty Crocker cookbook that I got at my wedding shower and used that recipe. The first time I made it, it turned out perfect! Haven’t been able to make it gel properly since!

So asked our marvelous cooks what I was doing wrong. Since we live over 3,500 feet in elevation, do I have to use some high-altitude additions or something? They agreed that I just needed to add more cornstarch. OK. That’s simple enough! Will see what happens at the next church potluck. And since the recipe calls for three egg yolks, what do you do when one egg is a double-yolker?

Everybody keeps asking how my garden is growing. I haven’t planted yet! Hope to get the super-duper dirt soon, then I can start planning what goes where. I had thoughts one year of just mixing all the seeds together and broadcasting them onto the garden bed and watching what happened … then I had another thought. But it would be interesting to see, wouldn’t it?

Matt. 13:3-9 A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path … some on rocky places … other seed fell among thorns. … Still other seed fell on good soil … producing 100, 60, or 30 times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear.