The Perfect Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 2011 must be remembered as the most beautiful Thanksgiving day in my memory. It was in the high 50's with nary a breeze and the sun was shining all day. It started out with a most beautiful sunrise, which I am glad to say I got to enjoy in all it's glory. I even took a morning walk even though I was entertaining in the afternoon. It was a very relaxed morning since most of the work left to do had to be done in the last half hour before eating. It was only mom, Warren, Carol, Curt and I but I was thankful that at least we had that many to spend the wonderful day with. After dinner, Warren, Carol and I went for a walk and mom and Curt had the dishes all washed up by the time we returned. It was a most blessed day and I even got to wish all my children a "Happy Thanksgiving" via phone. Three of the siblings, Amy, Ben and Angela got to spend the day together at Ben and Ashley's and Jeremy and Krissy were spending he day with Krissy's dad in Santa Barbara.

Rain, rain go away!

It's unbelievable the amount of rain we continue to get. With all the flooding in Minot and Bismarck...and the rain continues. Just yesterday we got almost 3 inches and another inch during the night. I just returned from a walk and it looks like the reservoir is up at least a foot from last week.
No Ava Skye yet but if she doesn't go into labor today they will induce her tomorrow if Amy wants to. Lots of flooding down in Iowa also. Had to take 77 south of Sioux City when I went down last week due to part of I-29 being closed. Even though I went down with the hopes of seeing my new granddaughter, I enjoyed spending time with Amy and Angela. Also got to go out to eat at Famous Dave's on Father's Day with Tim, Amy, Angela, Ben and Ashley. Went down to Lincoln on Weds. to pick up Angela and went out to Chipotles with Ben and Angela. Ran over a tarp strap on the way to Lincoln, the hook punctured the tire so ended up getting a new tire.
Will be heading down again on Weds.

Progress

Yesterday we made a little more progress on our landscaping. Curt had worked on putting in the landscaping blocks the day before and told me the planting of flowers was up to me. So we went hunting for flowers. I picked out 4 "Strawberry candy" daylilies for the middle layer and a "sorbet" peony plant. For the bottom layer I got some "garden pinks" dianthus. It says they make good ground cover, and they are perennials so hopefully they will come back every year. I still have to decide what to do with the larger area. I got some "wave" petunias for the flower boxes. I've never gotten them before but they spread out a lot so hopefully they will look beautiful. When we get the little waterfall up I'll have to post some pictures. We had to get some topsoil for fill so getting it all filled in and getting the flowers planted was hard and dirty work but I felt good after it was done. Last night we had a really good thunderstorm come through around 2 a.m. and I was a little worried about my plants because it was really windy but they all survived and got a really good drink of water. I also got my little vegetable garden planted yesterday so now we will see what happens.
My friend Julie and I went for a 5 mile walk yesterday and I am going again with her this morning. Then it's back to work for my 4 day week-end and then next week I am going to start doing as much decorating in the classrooms as I can for VBS since I can't get in to decorate the sanctuary until after 5 p.m. on Sunday,I need to get as much of the rest of the church decorated before that.
I just keep praying that the Lord will help me stay calm and not get too stressed out about VBS.

Mom's 80th Birthday Bash

Last Sunday, March 27, 2011, Mom turned 80 and we celebrated at the Jud City Hall. It was a great time with music and learning about the past years of Mom's fulfilling life. There was probably close to 200 family and friends that gathered to celebrate and trying to visit with everyone was a near impossibility. It was a fun but exhausting day. All too soon it was time to say good-bye to all my family. It still makes me cry thinking about everyone and wishing they didn't all live to far away so we could have more of these memorable days to spend together.

Christmas 2010

It was great having so many of my children home for Christmas. Jeremy and Krissy couldn't be here but everyone else was. I picked up Angela in Minneapolis on Dec. 19 and she is here until after the New Year. Cristy and Cindy drove up from KC in some bad weather but we were glad they made it safely. Tim, Amy, Ben and Ashley surprised us by arriving at 9 a.m. Friday morning when I wasn't expecting them until later that evening.

We enjoyed some fun games at our place Saturday night with Warren, Carol, Brett, Cindy, Cristy and Mom. And then Brandon and the kids joined all of us out at Mom's on the 26th for Christmas at the farm. It was good times together but as always the time goes by too fast.

God blessed us with beautiful frost laden trees and bushes. It truely was a winter wonderland.

A Newly Remodeled Basement

Today was a pretty productive day, considering I didn't really have an agenda when I woke up this morning. First off we went grocery shopping to start our more healthy lifestyle and then stopped at Schubert's to see if we could find a cheap remnant of carpet for the bedroom downstairs. Which we did find, almost the perfect size. Curt had to do some trimming but I think it looks good. And then we tackeled the big job, putting together the new futon, end table and glider/recliner. I thought we did an amazing job of moving furniture out and moving furniture in and putting furniture together and getting all the furniture rearranged, all in 4 hours! It was a good days work. Then we relaxed in our newly refurbished basement and watched a movie. It was a great day! I even made some humus and it was delicious!

Our Blackhills Vacation

I haven't had time since returning from the Blackhills last week-end to post any pictures. My vacation ended quite abruptly when we were driving back on Monday and I got a call from work at 6:08 pm asking me if I was coming to work. I had forgotten that I picked up an extra shift. But I got to work by 9 pm and they got along without me until then. We had a great time while we were in the Blackhills. The weather was perfect, like it has been since we got home. Saturday morning we went to Wind Cave National Park and I took the tour. Then we took the wildlife drive through Custer State Park and saw buffalo, antelope, deer, wild burros, and mountain sheep. We drove the Needles Highway and stayed in Hill City that night and then drove up Spearfish Canyon on Sunday and took in Roughlock Falls. We got to Spearfish at noon so decided to drive to Devils Tower and then go on to Gillette where Curt's folks were visiting his sister, Claudine and her family. We started out Monday morning for our long drive home.