September 1 - “They played WHAT??”

We had a chance to spend time playing with the kids yesterday. But their selection of games might be a bit of a … er … surprise. 

They have a ping pong table up there. But although the table was in use, as was the unique ball, table tennis was not the game of choice. Would you believe Luke and AnnaGrace selected to play - with their Nani … Beer pong? Well, without the beer. They just moved each cup as a ball landed within. Oh, and AnnaGrace absolutely smoked Nani. She was good. 

Next they switched games. Luke came into play on this one. Tic tac toe. For this one they set up nine cups, three by three. As a cup was filled, Caleb replaced it with one of the appropriate color of the shooter. Luke won 2 games out of 3. Barely. Sorry, Nani. 

For my contribution, I made paper airplanes with AnnaGrace. She corrected my style regularly. Well, until my plane soundly defeated hers. Then she miraculously was making hers just like mine. So I changed styles. It doomed me to defeat, but it was lots of fun. 

Finally Chris and I got changed, and after a quick Whataburger Jr. stop, we drove an hour and a half north to the funeral in Burleson. And believe it or not, I actually drove. There and back. 

We saw quite a few old friends from our days in Arlington there (that was back in the 80’s, I think?). And some of them even recognized us. Others were dumbfounded that we were there, or that we had “changed so much.”  Of course the ones who said that were children when last we saw them. I would say they have changed more. Of course it has been 30 or 40 years. I suppose there is a slight chance we have all changed. 

The funeral was for an old friend, Jeff Rampy. We knew him from church, but we also had another connection. Jeff actually prepared our very first will. That was back in the day when we had to name someone to raise our kids if we died before they were grown. Jeff had one of those new-fangled computer programs in his office where he just typed in our information and it spit out the will on the dot matrix printer with that paper that was all folded and stuck together and perforated for easy tearing. The secretaries provided instant witnesses. I still have that will. Quite the souvenir. 

The word I have to describe Jeff would be “jovial.” He always had a smile and a chuckle that seemed to take over his whole body before finally releasing. He was that guy you just wanted to be around and be yourself around. If you haven’t guessed, I really liked Jeff. Most people did. 

Jeff made a pretty big impact on a lot of lives. Especially his family. And quite the family it was. Seven rows of ten seats in a row plus kids on laps filled the center section. Jeff and Sybil had four sons, 22 grandchildren, and 32 great grandchildren. Quite the quiver there, Rampy family. God has done great things. 

Luke‬ ‭1‬:‭37‬ says, For nothing will be impossible with God.

Father, be with the Rampy’s as they walk through losing a true family patriarch. Amen.