but he was there for us.
His name is Keith Bradt...and he's our neighbor.
I'll tell you a little more about him in a minute...
But first, I have the following story to tell.
Saturday was a hugely busy day. I worked in the morning and then had to go grocery shopping, get gas and do laundry all before 4:00 when the Bishop and his wife Patty came to pick us up to go to the temple with them. I barely got it all done.
We had a great time. The session was nice, and then they took us out to dinner afterwards to a really cute, quaint, yet VERY nice Italian Restaurant in downtown Denton. We had such a great visit getting to know each other better and becoming friends. The Martino family is much like the Packard family...lots of siblings that all live in the same area and have a lot of extended family. Everyone knows them and everyone loves them. It was nice that they had invited us to be their friends.
We got home late and I was so tired that i went straight to bed.
But Sunday morning came very early.
We had plans to celebrate our son in laws birthday that day and we were having about 12 of us to dinner. And I wasn't ready. So I woke up right before 6:00 and starting cleaning house. I was folding and moving clothes, cleaning bathrooms, floors and rooms. I could Del was feeling a little awkward since it was Sunday, but he started to help me hoping we would be done and finished quicker. It took us just over two hours but the house was spotless, including floors and corners.
Then we got dinner ready and in the oven...pork chops, stuffing, baked potatoes and a whole bunch more. By the time we were done, we were tired and went to go lay down to get a quick nap before church would start.
But the rain came...started to down pour, and this was a direct answer to prayer that Del had been praying the past few days for. He had been shoveling and moving the dirt in the backyard for days, hoping to get rain on it to help it go more easily and then see how it shifted with the rain. I don't know the details, i just know that as soon as the rain started, Del was up, dressed in old clothes and ran outside. Ironically, he had already gone to his office in secret prayer to ask for forgiveness for 'not keeping the Sabbath as he felt he should have ' earlier...and there he goes, running outside to work in the pouring rain.
As he explained it later...it was the whole 'ox in the mire' story. We were both feeling like our destination for the day would be directly to hell, but we did what we felt was needed for the day. He spent a full TWO hours out in the pouring rain, shoveling dirt and preparing the ground for what was a huge project that he would need to do later in the week, of moving more dirt on top of the water packed other dirt.
I know it doesn't make sense, but it was the perfect opportunity and timing for Del's work...so he did it.
We joked about it later with the kids when they all came to dinner later. Some were surprised that Del had done what he did...knowing that it was NOT what he normally would have done. They weren't at all surprised with MY choices though...hmmm...I'll have to work on that role model for them later.
We had a fun family get together - yummy food and good company. Jordan was out of town in Canada on business and Kathryn came for just over an hour before going home to get some rest. I was great to have Linda, Sean and Becky over for the first time since moving in.
Then comes our 'good neighbor'.
Del had met Keith weeks ago, introducing himself on a walk he had been taking with Lacey. Keith has a wonderful yard with a gorgeous fence, chickens and yard. He also has a tractor and offered his services for anything Del might need. In fact, Keith had already called more than twice asking Del if he was ready to get some work done in our back yard. And now that Del had taken advantage of our 'ox in the mire' the previous day, Del called Keith and asked him to 'come on over' that night to move some dirt.
So for over two hours, Keith moved dirt over to where Del had previously prepared the soil and while Keith dumped the dirt in place, Del shoveled it and packed it into place and moved into areas where it was most needed. Keith's help literally saved Del endless hours of moving dirt in a wheel barrow. They accomplished a LOT!
While they worked, I took them out cold water to drink and made cookies to send home with Keith when they were finished. He was very grateful but no more so than we were for his work.
I then took a plate of cookies over to several of our new neighbors we have met over the past few weeks. We have introduced ourselves to three or four families and they in turn have introduced their families to us. We are establishing some good relationships with each of them, who by the way, are all very religious and Christian living families. Each have been in our home now, and we have been in theirs...we have shared several conversations on our porches and in our yards and we have now all exchanged phone numbers, texts and some good laughs. Our neighbors directly to our right, we met the very first day we came out here.
Eric and Debbie Lokey....and amazing enough, we found out from the Bishop and Patty that Eric had just been diagnosed with kidney cancer. In talking to the other neighbors, found out Eric had his kidney removed last Saturday and just came home from the hospital today. We went over with a plate of cookies and the offer to make dinner as soon as their church friends were done bringing dinner in for two weeks. They accepted the offer.
So, I can feel a lot of love and concern going through the neighborhood and an opportunity for us to make a lot of friends. We plan on being here for a LONG time. I want to make sure that these people know and understand that we plan to have them as friends for as long as we are here.
We are blessed to have such great people in our lives.
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