Jenna Swann, Real Nurse

 Yes, I know RN stands for Registered Nurse, but when I was a boy and my Aunt Helen Turner, who was an LPN, was working to become an RN "real nurse" stuck in my mind. Not that LPNs aren't real nurses, but that's what goes on in the mind of a boy. Sadly, cancer interrupted Aunt Helen's course of study and she passed away in 1980 before finishing her degree.

Back in the present, I am proud to say that Jenna is a Real/Registered Nurse. She passed the NCLEX, has her license, had a good first day on the job at the hospital yesterday, and is ready to embark on her career. As special as her graduations from Trevecca last year and Union this year are, this, to me, represents the culmination of all her hard work. She may decide to continue her education in the future, but this is a significant milestone of fulfillment in her life, and I am very proud of her. She certainly looks like a load has been lifted from her mind.

The wedding plans are coming along nicely. It is hard to believe we are seven weeks away from the big day. Last weekend Jenna and several friends flew to Chicago for a bachelorette weekend getaway. It sounded like they had a lot of fun there. Today there was a wedding shower at church where she and Nolan were blessed with a lot of household items for a good start in life. Nolan will be moving into the house they will be renting in a couple of weeks so the forming of their own family and stepping out into life is getting tangibly real.

In other news, the last weekend of June featured the return of Trash & Treasures, our annual community yard sale in Cross Plains. The whole event has changed from what it was years ago. All the booths seem to be clumped into three locations rather than spread over the entire length of the town. We came away with a few treasures this year, and it was fun to walk around town once again and run into folks we haven't seen in a while. And since Ben and Mei Lin were both in we were all invited over to Mei Lin's house for dinner one evening that weekend which we thoroughly enjoyed.

The next weekend was a busy one too. We had our Kilgore Remembrance Ceremony Saturday morning since Independence Day fell on a Sunday. We filmed it this year and posted the video online (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpK46m6mN3E) so if you're interested and have about 50 minutes to spare you’re welcome to see what the ceremony is all about.

That afternoon all of Nolan's family (his parents, his three brothers, two girlfriends, and a cousin) came over for a cookout. Fortunately it was an unseasonably cool day with few mosquitos and we could enjoy playing yard games and eating on the picnic table. As that fun was winding down we all drove over to the house that Nolan and Jenna will be renting so his family could see where they will be living. Immediately after that our family went to Kenny and Lori's where they were having the Christmas Eve Eve party that they had to cancel back in December. All very fun but we went to bed that night partied out.

And this weekend while the wedding shower was going on I went to Adams for the Threshermen's Show to visit cousins and see the steam engine run once again. That engine was built in 1924. I hope I'm running that well if I make it to 97. It was good to see family and there were a couple of new brides in the picture since I saw everyone two years ago.

It's hard to believe I've just got a couple of weeks of summer left before the back-to-school in-service starts up. Ben and Nate will return to school later in August. Where do the summers go?

Joe