Lavetta Burkhalter (1920 - 2012)

Scott's Grandmother, Lavetta Burkhalter, passed away last week.  Grandma B. and my Grandma Evenhouse were born 8 days apart in 1920, and both passed away this year--Grandma E. in January, and Grandma B. last Tuesday.  We went to Creston Friday afternoon for the visitation, and stayed overnight for the funeral on Saturday.  While we are sad that Grandma is no longer here on earth with us, it was good to see many of Scott's relatives (many of whom I have spent much time with) and to hear stories about Grandma B's life.

Melanie, Scott, and Lance choosing some flowers from the bouquet.

She was buried in the Cromwell Cemetery.  Cromwell is a small town outside of  Creston, where Grandma lived for a number of years.

While we were there, we visited the grave sites of other family members.

After the funeral we had a delicious lunch at the church in Cromwell

Melanie and her fiancee Nate were able to make it for the funeral, so we thought we'd take a family picture.  

 After the funeral and lunch, we went to Aunt Dixie's house for a couple hours.  They live outside of Diagonal, IA...50 points if you know where that is without looking at a map!  They live on a gravel road with a lot of Amish families around them.  When we headed for home, we asked if there was a shorter and more direct route back to the highway to get home, and ended up driving a couple miles on an unmaintained dirt road!  Good thing it was still light outside and the road was not muddy.

Laurel and Grandpa Jim

 Today we went to church, then had a delicious turkey dinner at church hosted by the Youth Group.  Winner, winner, turkey dinner!  

Laurel really enjoys looking at her reflection in the mirror!

This is going to be a busy week for us.  I am pretty busy for my job this week, and Scott will be traveling across the state for work.  Tomorrow night we have a meeting for our CERT team...and we are leaving Laurel with a babysitter not related to us for the first time!  I have to make at least one trip to Des Moines for work this week, find time to do some cooking and baking, and then suddenly it's Thanksgiving, followed by some Christmas shopping, and then a trip to western Iowa.  I pray that Scott's cold and Laurel's cold will both clear up...and that I don't catch it from either of them!