Bernadette, 64, of  Stroud, died October 24, 2011 at her home.  Mrs. Davis was born February 22, 1947, in Freedom, Oklahoma to Bernard and Juanita (Phillips) Balk.  She graduated from Freedom High School in Freedom, OK.  She continued her education at Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva, OK, where she met her beloved husband, Bill Davis.  They were married on August 26, 1967 and spent 44 years together.

She retired from Stroud Public Schools, where she had been employed as a dedicated para-professional for 21 years.  She was a long-time member of St. Louis Catholic Church in Stroud, where she delighted in serving as a member of the Altar Society and the Parish Council, and faithfully taught Religious Education.

She was a caring and loyal friend, and cherished by her family.  One of her greatest joys was planning the family’s annual Christmas excursions.

She is survived by her husband, Bill Davis of Stroud; sons and their spouses Lt. Col. Nate and Tonya Davis of Basehor, KS, and Josh and Christina Davis of Stroud; daughters and their spouses Angie and Walt Cox of Luther OK, Sarah and Mike Cooper of Stroud, and Anna and Ricky Gode of Ft. Worth, TX; brother Marty Balk and his wife, Maddie of Quitman, TX, brother Mike Balk of Mooreland, OK; sisters and their spouses, Karen and Phil Kenny of Woodward, OK and Becky and Duce Hamilton of Ensign, KS; and grandchildren Hayden Johnson, Lindsay Davis, Jordan Johnson, Kenzie Johnson, Skylor Johnson, Brandon Davis, Myra Davis, Kennedy Cox, Noah Davis, Hannah Gode, Andrew Gode, Jett Cooper and Derek Gode. 

She was preceded in death by her parents.

A memorial mass will be held at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, October 29, 2011 at St. Louis Catholic Church in Stroud.  In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to the Stroud High School Scholarship Fund in her name, care of Stroud High School, 212 W. 7^th St. Stroud, OK  74079.

We had Kennedy’s 9th birthday party on Sunday, June 5th.  The invitations actually said Saturday, but everyone managed to get here on the correct day.  Granny teased K. all week:  See you Saturday and Sunday.

We served brats, dogs and burgers, along with my homemade salsa and a variety of other foods.  Walt had built a path to the pool so the kiddos wouldn’t track the red dirt everywhere.  It turned out really well.

We got K. a hammock chair to hang under her treehouse that Papa has been building.  But in an ironic twist, just last week, I pressured Walt into agreeing to split the cost of an Ipad 50/50 with K.  I assured him that she would never be able to save $200 any time soon.  Thanks to generous family and friends, K. has saved $150.  Walt is more than a little peeved at me.  The cake this year was a watermelon.  I was still putting the finishing touches on it only an hour before the part.  It was the longest I ever worked on a cake, but I do believe this was my favorite one so far.  (I say that every year when I finish a cake, but I really do love this one.)

I hope to post more on the blog this summer.  It really has kept track of our lives and I’ve missed documenting our little family.

Kennedy finished up basketball just 3 short weeks ago, and we are already deep in the throes of machine pitch softball.  I enjoy watching softball so much, but I worried about whether K. would even like transitioning from Tball to softball.  Well, as usual, I shouldn’t have been concerned.  She hits off the machine like a champ and has been playing catcher for the last several games.  She squats behind the plate with the batter swinging and never even flinches.  I flinch plenty, especially when the bat gets thrown, but Kennedy just flings her mask off and hustles time after time to make the play.

I guess there is still some discussion as to what the team name is:  the Sweet Cleats or the After Shocks (K. prefers the latter), but there uniforms should be in next week, so we’ll know for sure.  At any rate, K’s team was the Pre-Season 8 and Under Tournament Champions.  They played four games, with the championship game starting at 9:20 Thursday night; their second game of the evening.  Kennedy caught both games in their entirety, and towards the end of the second one, her coach kept asking if she wanted to come out; she never did, even though I could tell she was exhausted.

On the way to school Friday morning, (despite the late bedtime, K. was up with the sun) Kennedy said, “I forgot how much fun softball is!”  She didn’t get to play last year because there was no team, and I concur, softball is so much fun!

We’ve been doing a lot of yelling at our house over the past several days.  Having 22 high velocity fans running 24/7 will do that to you.

The carpet cleaning company came yesterday to see if we were dried out, and for the most part we were.  They took all but four fans and both dehumidifiers.  They also re-laid the pad and carpet.  It looks really good, but there is a film over all of the stained concrete that I hope I can get clean.  It feels gross to bare feet but as long as we wear socks, you can’t really tell.  The total bill so far was around $5500, but the builder has turned it in to his insurance.  I’m kind of interested to see what all these fans are going to do to our electric bill next month.

I have pictures, but my computer has a virus, so I can’t upload them.  I guess I need to get that taken care of since I have two papers due Monday and an online final later next week.  School is on the downhill slide:  only two more weeks for me!  And then I only have two more classes next semester!

Happy Halloween!

We spent the day with an early dinner at the Boundary, and then we met K’s crew for some T or T’ing.  We walked forever; the girls had a great time.  It was Kennedy (aka Dracula), Rylee (aka Thorn, a character from the Bones books), Hannah (aka the Bunny), Madison (the good witch), and her sister Princess Trinity for a bit.   Rylee’s dog Bolt (aka Captain Ahab from Moby Dick) accompanied us until Rylee’s mom got tired of dragging him around.

The quote of the night was from Rylee.  Her mom said, “Rylee, don’t go to that house; it’s vacant.”  Rylee said, “Bacon?  Did you say Bacon?”   I think the adults thought it was funnier than the kids.  We ended the night at Sonic for some ice cream, since the weather was so nice.  It was a lot of fun.

Well, the Ag teacher didn’t come through and the bunny was getting increasingly difficult to handle.  She would hop out of the sink when we tried to set her there for feeding and most of the time, she wouldn’t even come to me in the cage.  Kennedy was still able to catch and hold her, but I think her behavior indicated that she was ready to be released.  Supposedly, dawn and dusk are the best times, so tonight we traveled down the road (a safe distance from the dogs) and let her go near a pond.  Kennedy said she was a little sad, but I was relieved for her to be on her way.  At bedtime, K. cried a bit, and she slept in our bed for a while.  (That always makes her feel better.)  Hopefully, she’ll feel even better in the morning.

Here’s a picture of K. and her bunny Mystery.  The local FFA teacher is trying to find a home for her, unless Hannah needs a new bunny to go with her new sibling…

Saturday, Kennedy ran into the house with a pouty look on her face.  She had seen Lucky the dog eat a baby bunny.  I tried to console her by saying maybe it was a rat, but she said it didn’t have a tail.  A little while later, she came back in with something cradled in her hands, and she thrust it towards me.  Walt wasn’t far behind her; I think he wanted to see the look on my face when I saw that she had rescued the bunny’s sibling from Buddy the dog.

We went to town and bought Kitten Milk Replacement and began trying to feed it.  For the first couple of days, Mystery, that’s what K. named it/her, refused to eat.  It was teeny tiny with the umbilical cord still attached, and its eyes still closed.  Last night during class, I fully expected a tearful text saying the bunny had died.  Supposedly, wild rabbits are notoriously difficult to rescue and raise, so I wasn’t holding out hope.  However, when I got home last night, the bunny’s eyes were open, and she ate quite a bit; she also fed well both times today.  So, maybe Mystery will make it after all.  It’s becoming quite a zoo around here.  I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Still a few things to retrieve from a friend’s garage, but we’re almost done!

We tasked Ken with choosing the color of her bedroom in the new house.  She chose a color called Blue Cruise… It’s REALLY BLUE!