Obit

Otis “Odie” was born July 6, 1940 to Leonard and Marie (Jackson) Pxxxx in Gxxxx, Iowa. The second child of six, he lived in and attended school throughout southwest Iowa, graduating in 1959 from the last graduating class at Cxxxx High School. As the oldest boy of the brood, Odie’s childhood is riddled with stories of mischief and orneriness and many times, he was the ringleader. A favorite childhood story always told on Odie was when he and his siblings nearly burned down the barn by burning away cobwebs inside the hay tunnels – rest assured, yet another spanking was had by all.

After graduation, he went off to work, and in his travels met his future bride, L. Jeanette Sxxxx, in northeast Missouri. They married September 22, 1963 and began a family that spanned five children over 21 years. To this loving couple, a brood was born Chris Annette, Curtis Lee, Lana Renee, Torrie Tee and Amber Colette. His biggest accomplishment as a father was raising five independent free thinkers that followed his example by working hard, doing the right thing, and standing up for what they believe in.

Odie worked his entire career as a heavy equipment operator primarily as a bulldozer driver. He spent several years in different parts of the country working, but returned to Iowa to settle his family. He worked for several years for United Construction in Missouri building roadways, where he acquired numerous lifelong friends. In 1978, he began working for Pxxxx Construction, owned by his younger brother, Dennis where they worked side by side for 13 years. In 1991, he went to work with his son, Curtis, at Cxxxx in Axxxx, Iowa where Curtis continues to work to this day. Odie was very proud of the skill that Curtis has at operating heavy equipment and was not afraid to brag about his accomplishments doing so. Odie worked there until a heart attack forced his retirement in 2002.

Outside of work, Odie was an avid hunter and fisherman. His family regularly feasted on pheasant, quail, deer, and catfish. Everyone would have to admit, that turkeys were his favorite. He loved to ice fish and other winter activities included coyote hunting with his brothers, kids and friends. Otis and Jeanette liked hunting together, so one morning they went out to hunt, with only two shells left. Otis said, "that will get us three pheasants!" You can guess what Jeanette said ... well, guess what, they came home with three pheasants!

Odie loved old cars and John Deere tractors, however, he probably most prized his Harley Davidson and rode a lot of miles with his brothers and buddies on the open road. Years later, he spent many hours getting his Harley back into riding shape with his girls, Torrie and Amber at his side.

Odie appreciated a fine western movie and was probably most fond of John Wayne. He also enjoyed spending time with Jeanette especially their evenings spent playing Bingo. He wouldn’t ever admit his soft spot for animals, but his three dogs were with him up until his very last moments.

He is preceded in death by his parents Leonard and Marie Pxxxx and brothers-in-law Dale Bxxxx and Dennis O. Sxxxx, Jr.

Left to treasure his memory is his wife of 44 years, L. Jeanette Pxxxx of Cxxxx, Iowa; daughter Chris Nxxxx and fiancé John Mxxxx of Gladstone, Missouri; son Curtis Pxxxx and wife Lori of Sxxxx, Iowa; daughter Lana R... and fiancé Gene Cease of Maryville, Missouri; daughter Torrie Bxxxx and husband Darrell of Gladstone, Missouri; daughter Amber Rxxxx and husband Cole of Lenox; seven grandchildren, Laicey Nxxxx, Remmington Mxxxx, Allison and Mackenzie Pxxxx, Seth and Tanner R..., and Tayen Bxxxx; two sisters, Norma Fxxxx and husband Walter of Cxxxx and Zonette Bxxxx of Cxxxx; three brothers, Olin Pxxxx of Cxxxx, Dennis Pxxxx of Cxxxx, and Terry Pxxxx and friend Lolinda Cxxxx of Cxxxx; an uncle Robert Pxxxx and wife Joann of Bxxxx; many nieces, nephews, cousins and a countryside full of friends.

Otis was a dedicated husband, father, grandfather, brother, nephew, uncle, cousin and friend. His quick wit, warm smile and friendship will be sadly missed by his entire family and many, many friends

***

Just thought you all might like to read dad's obit. I am proud to say that I wrote all of it myself (mom added the pheasant part). I was busy that night, stayed up til 2 a.m. writing this (got a second wind somewhere around midnight), downloading music and gathering photos.

We had a photo dvd with pics of dad made, and it was really neat. I was so disappointed that there were a couple pics left out. I had all the pics on a cd, and when I got to the funeral home, she couldn't get them off, so we had to quickly rescan everything, and one of my brother and dad, and one of a family pic got left out. The photo dvd's are really cool and Tanner and I really want to make some, they'd be awesome for weddings, birthday parties, maternity shots, etc. Tanner wants to make a biz out of it. I think it's an awesome idea.

I don't want to sit and talk about the details of the funeral all evening, lets just say, that it was probably the nicest funeral I've ever been to. Nice music, 2 ministers, even a horse call for dad by an old friend of the family (only time I've been to a funeral that ppl clapped :) ) It was really nice, and I know dad would have been proud of it.

At the cemetary, it *downpoured* we all had to RUN to our cars. I'm sure dad got a huge laugh out of making us all run. LOL.

So now, back home, I'm spending time on the wedding again, taking my mind off of other things. Only one week! I can't believe how close it is, and I've accomplished so much stuff!

On a final note, you should hear this song, it's so pretty (and stuck in my head). We played it at dad's funeral. It's a new song, and a tear jerker, but really pretty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=532jxGDRjGY

Just FYI

My dad passed away on Monday night. Thank you all for always praying for him and thinking of him when he needed it most.

Meanwhile... back at the ranch.

Do you know how much I love this guy? Like... bunches. :)
This is my guy out resting in the shade on a VERY HOT day, he had been planting trees for me, which is hard to do when it's been so wet. I've been begging for trees for a year now, and I found some on sale super cheap so we bought them all. All pear trees - bleh.. but cheap pear trees = shade / wind break. Lord knows we need both. 5 down, 28 more to go. (I don't think I'm kidding).

I snapped a pic of the corn while he was out. This is right next to the house. I was so happy to see corn this year, last year was beans (so next year will prolly be beans again). Funny thing, I don't think I've seen one bean field this year, *everyone* is planting corn. So tortilla prices will go down, and bread will go up. *sarcastic yay*

Anyway, I love corn, and it will be a nice natural wind break. After the wedding, I'm going to have Gene take a picture of me in my dress out in the corn field. Crazy, but I *love* this idea. I so wanted to get a picture of amber out in a bean field last year in her wedding dress, but we ran out of time!

Yay! I have a clothes line. I've hardly been able to use it because it's been raining so much but I've mastered a couple sunny days and dirty laundry to coexist with each other. I was out hanging clothes yesterday, and it was quiet out, the breeze was blowing and the crickets (?) in our really tall grass were chirping away and I thought to myself "Do you really want to move?" Is this the greatest place I've ever lived? Hmm... in ways, yes very much so. Is a doublewide my dream home, no... but we're "rebuilding" it with our own 2 hands, learning as we go and making something really pretty out of something you'd never expect. It would be hard to let something go that you've put so much of your own person into.

And speaking of rain, and outside... this was the scene over the neighbors house the other day. I can't help but look at that and remind myself, that yes, there is indeed a God.

A week ago, went to a crop and met up with Stacy (left) and Linda (right).. they're my posse. I adore them both. Stacy is my maid of honor and has been a dear friend to me since we were 14. (minus that big chunk in the middle we lost touch). Linda I met cropping around 8 years ago. I totally laffed the other day, thinking how we started being friends. I was giving her such a hard time for carrying around her scrapbook supplies in an old cardboard box. So along the way, we all upgrade to fancy bags and organizer totes. Last saturday, we both come in toting crates. Maybe after all, just a box is good enough!

It's funny, they are those friends that you don't talk to for a month, and then you take a couple days or a crop and catch up and talk for hours, then maybe you don't talk for 2 months, and *it's ok*.. no one is upset. Maybe it's just our way to make sure we have something to complain about when we see each other again. LOL. Either way, they are *good friends*

WARNING>.... SPIDER PIC!

I have an infestation of these nasty little hairy spiders! ewww. Grooooosssssss. If you wanna see his 3 eyeballs, look at the full sized picture. Anyway, I'm trying to figure out what kind of spider this is, so I can KILL THEM the easiest!!! I went to get a spoon for breakfast out of the dish rack, and this met me there. Yes, I dumped all the silverware and rewashed them. bleeech. I couldn't stand the idea of them sharing the same personal space.

So, what kind of spider is this? Michael? That seems like something you'd know :)

Off to work on wedding stuff... seriously..... like 16 days. Shoot me now! I have a whole 2nd dress to make, food for 40 ppl, etc etc.

SEND ME YOUR RSVPS PLEASE!

Faith Hill is the root of all evil.

June is kicking my ass.
For real.

It's the 13th!? GET OUT!

I did a quick shout out on the first and then dead air. I'm sorry! Seriously, I've got an excuse. A good one... it's called a WEDDING. I'm to the point where most of my day is fill with wedding goodness. Can I be honest? Really honest?

I love it.
It rocks.

I realized how much I LOVE to arrange flowers. If I do say so myself, some of my arrangements kick butt. I wish there were some decent flower shop options, because I would for real, go apply. The pay sucks from what I understand. Oh, and I'm doing all silks for the wedding, and haven't done a lot of real flowers, but ohhh.. I bet that's more fun.

If you haven't returned your RSVP to me, or let me know via phone/email if you're coming. Please do! Did I mention *I* am making most of the food (Carol is helping too). Please don't make me make food for 50 and only 32 shows up. I would be mightly /pissed/ ... unhappy.

***

In other news, my unemployment rejection was overturned in appeal! Seems that someone *did* understand that adding 30-45 minutes drive onto my day *one way* was probably too much... especially since I was already driving 1.25 hours one way.

I admit, I do miss the guys sometimes. And I miss my job.. and I still know what a 1341 and a 1256 is. :( I wanna work in a glass shop again.

Anyway, it's good in a way that this all happened, because OMG... I would NEVER BEEN READY for this wedding. Well, I probably could have been but it would have meant lots more hours, and I probably would have started throwing a lot more money at it to just make it all happen.

***

Oh, one more funny story, but I still have that icky feeling. I had a *nightmare* this morning. I wish it had happened in the middle of the night so I would have forgotten it, but instead, it was the last dream of the day, the one that woke me up this morning.

the scene:

Gene and I are in the car and we're on our way to the wedding. We see these big huge signs "Lana and Gene's wedding" and we start to follow them. And we're driving down main street and there's this big carnival and street fair, and it's all like a mexican street fair. LOL.

At the bottom of main street is a big stage. We get out and FAITH HILL is there, and she calls us up on the stage. and all the while I kept saying "I'm confused, I don't remember doing this, why is this set up this way, why aren't we at the lake".

Faith begins to perform the ceremony and announces we are married. I'm all "yay happy happy"... then I'm like, wait a min, where's my family and friends.... where's all my stuff.

We go to the house and I realize.. OMG, i've missed my OWN WEDDING! I start calling ppl, but like most dreams, I can't find the phone, or the phone numbers, etc. (kinda like how I can never scream or call 911 in dreams)

I'm trying to call the minister, and I can't find his phone #. (which is on my messy desk ATM, so I totally get why I can't find it). Then poof, we're back at the fair and he comes walking up the street and I was all "TIM! OMG I'm sorry, Faith Hill married us!" And then I explained what happened and I started crying. Then I realized, FAITH didn't have our marriage license! HA.. we were NOT MARRIED.

Tim sighed and said "Thank god" and then we started planning on how we were going to make it all happen.

So folks, just so you know, Faith Hill is a demon.

***

More posts later. I have some pics to share. I started to share about 3 days ago and my computer decided to crap out and restart by itself, so I gave up.

Welcome June!

I can't believe it's June already.

Today is perfect. Lazy Sunday morning, the sky is super blue, it's not hot yet and the birds are chirping like crazy. *ahhh* Not sure what is on the task list for today but I might just sit outside and enjoy nothing.

2nd meeting with the minister this afternoon, probably will stop by the lake so I can look at the shelter for a bit. *note to self, take tape measure*.

I'm getting stressed out over wedding stuff, we're getting to the part where I can't do it all by myself!

Happy Sunday all.