Spring Break

My grandchildren came up to my house for spring Break. My birthday was also last week. It was a busy week but fun.
This SS rotation uses Jelly Bellies. My small living room was filled with jelly beans. My daughter and I even drove to the factory. The flavors we were missing, were no longer being made, so the trip was not as fruitful as we had hoped.

A Test

Where have my posts gone? I write, I post and nothing shows up. It tells me I posted on March 31, but I can not find it.

Fence Jumper

Maggie did it. Yesterday Maggie jumped the fence and ran into the field, and toured the neighborhood. She did this twice. She is using the snowbanks to leap over. I went out to shovel down the bank she used meanwhile she found another which also let her return to the yard. Spring please come soon.
The "State budget is also not helping me to be calm. I voted for Walker, I want to balance the budget, but I do not want to take away the rights of workers to bargain. I have worn red. My daughter wrote her legislatures, and protested in Appleton, and my grandchildren protested in Madison.

Happy Valentines Day

I hope all have a great day. This day has been very hard for me. I do not remember last year's celebration because John was just trying to live. His loss has made this day hard. I have been cleaning and reorganizing the Christmas decorations, and came across a box in the wrong spot. The box contained, a journal I wrote as John and I dated, and our wedding cross that was on the cake.
Making this day better was an event I attended Saturday night at the church. There was a fund raising event for the youth going to the National Youth Gathering in 2012 at New Orleans. The name of this event was The Not So Beautiful, Beauty Contest. There were five male contestants who dressed in formal wear, and competed in a talent show. They were such good sports, and we laughed all night. Over $700.00 was raised. I wish I knew how to but up pictures.

The Pack is back!

I can stop being nervous, the Packers won the Super Bowl. If someone said the Packers would win, that was not good news to me, because I was afraid that the Packers would not be ready to play, but if someone would say the Steelers would win, then I felt they know the strengths of the teams, and they would be right. I think we have a great coach, and coaches as well as a great team.
I did go to Peter's to watch the game. I did not go into the hot tub until after the game, it was just too close. We had tasty Chile for supper. No drinking except soda, all we needed to get high was the win. The dogs did not get into things they should not, but did not like the cheering.

Packers Win!!!

I am very happy because the Packers won yesterday. I have been cheering for them no matter if they win or not, but winning is the best. Can not afford to go to Texas, but will watch from my chair in front of the TV,or maybe from a hot tub. Had an invite yesterday but got the message too late.

Christmas

Merry Christmas
I have not been able to get on the Internet. Peter fixed it on Christmas when he came down.
We had a nice Christmas with more to come when Pat and the boys come tomorrow. Decorating was haphazard. Pennie thought that cleaning was more important than decorating. I got a tree up and one drawer of balls on it,and the star on top. I got a new fibre optics tree and John had a train that also glowed in different colors. I put them on top of the bookshelf. When Luke saw them, he suggested that I get them to move with music. His Grandfather would have loved that.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Church Service Cancelled

Today was the first time for me that I did not attend service, because there wasn't one held. It felt strange. Next week is the children's Christmas program and of course we were to practice. The choir was doing a special program, and the stewardship committee was hosting a tailgate party, and we were to watch the Packers after service. Pledges were to be made before the party. The blizzard made all this unsafe to hold. Pennie cancelled, the practice before the church service was cancelled. Next week all that was to happen this week will happen then, with the addition of the Christmas Program. Wrong. The choir's program will be held on Christmas Eve.
My snow shoveler broke his snow blower on what he said was a extension cord. There were no extension cords on the side walk or driveway. He is trying to fix it with parts so he will not have to but a new blower. Only part of the driveway got cleared. He thinks that Pennie may be able to get out. I know I can not get out.
As a Christian, I have a concern. We pack bags for the Sunday School children to get after the Christmas Program. I went looking for items to but in the bags. Small toys and candy. I could not find any with Christian symbols on them. It was Santa. Rudolph, or Frosty. Pennie ordered some from Oriental Trading, but have we replaced Jesus with Santa. Is Santa an Idol? I could not find any wrapping paper with a Christian design. I would like to keep Santa and his friends from the church, because he has taken over everything else. If the Children do not have the pastor, teachers, and congregation talking about Jesus, not Santa, how are they to learn about the real meaning of Christmas? Instead of reading about Jesus birth to the children Christmas Eve, It is The Night Before Christmas, on TV shows, and maybe in homes. Just something to think about.

Who Has The Sermon?

I hope all had a Happy Thanksgiving. We went to my son Pete's house for the meal, we all went including the dog. The food was very good, and we all ate too much. The dogs[Pete has a dog too] also shared in the meal, but that was not the way we thought it should be. As we were eating apparently a dog or dogs had some pie crust. We were not sure if the pie had been crushed on the way there or not. One pie was missing crust on one side, but later Spanky was after the pie so that answered that question. My oldest grandson made five pies. One of the pumpkin pie was made from scratch starting with the whole pumpkin. Canasta was played. As Lori's mom was leaving the house she placed the left over beans in a pot on the floor, not having a dog of her own at home, and the dogs added to their meal for the day.
Pat,Curtis, and the boys had to go back early Sunday. Pennie and I were at the church at 7AM to set up. I carried in the cookies I made for fellowship after the service, leaving my purse behind. I returned to the car to get my purse, and the church door locked behind me. I was left outside in the very chilly weather. I knocked, and knocked. After about five minutes Pennie heard me, and let me in. It was celebration Sunday for the children and they got to play a quiz game going over the material they had for the last unit. They also take part in the service by being ushers, greeters, and reading the lessons. At the beginning of the service Pennie explained how the children's offerings were used from last year. The children took part in the heifer program and bought a goat, sheep, a pig,and geese. She had pictures of the animals on sheets of 9x10 paper, she placed them on the pulpit holding them up one by one. Ending her presentation she picked up all of the papers on the pulpit. Pastor Steve when he got up to do his sermon starting looking around, and then asked has anyone taken my sermon. There were no responses. The children did a play for the children's Sermon and there was a thought the the sermon got mixed in with the scripted. Pastor began without his notes, and half way though Pennie looked at her animal pictures and found Pastor Steve's notes. She then brought them forward. We all had a laugh.

Oldest in the House

I went to the latest Harry Potter movie at midnight,with my daughter. We were the last to be getting tickets, and knew that all theaters were sold out, so we went early to get good seats. I watched as the theater filled with mostly teens with a few middle aged scattered about. I saw no one who looked to be my age, and that could be because seniors do not want to out at midnight,but I could sleep in. I enjoyed the movie. I have read the book, along time ago, but I am looking forward to the ending,in the theater.
It has been long a long time since I have blogged. My bathroom got painted finally after four years. When they put in the walk in tub, they replastered, but they did not paint saying I could save so much doing it myself. I thought that was true, and it was small, no problem. Problem how does a height challenged person paint over a tub with no room for a ladder to be safely placed in the tub? Answer, call in the family troops. My son, daughter, and grandsons Alex and Caleb. They did a fine job. I now have a beautiful coral room, which I added a verse and stick on flowers and butterflies. I would show a picture but I have lost the cord and the instructor to put pictures on the blog. I hope to figure this out.
I got a big scare last month when I discovered my bank had not been paying my mortgage for eight months. I discovered it not my bank. They had not done as I instructed to make the new account as the old. I got a new account because of John's death. I asked several times if they had done that and they said they had taken care of it. The loan was from them so I figured they had done that. On the statements that came from the bank there was no record, and that bothered me, I finally decided instead of worrying I would check into it, I should have done that much earlier. I had the money because it had not gone out from my account, but I was thinking I was doing so well, I could take a trip to Germany. Glad I did not do that. I now have little trust in that bank, but I am afraid of a change. This whole incident left me shaken. I kind of shut down for awhile.

Week With Grandkids

Pat had vacation, and did not want to spend money, so he came here. Bree and Luke were coming for the week. We planned to go to Door County. While looking for things to do, we found geocaching. It is sort of a treasure hunt from the Internet. This was a time were everyone could enjoy, we even brought the dog. She did have to spend some time in the car while we ate supper at Al Johnson's. A Swedish restaurant with goats on a sod roof in Sister Bay. The food was very good. Across from the restaurant at a ice cream shop in the ground was hidden one of the caches. At lunch in Sturgeon Bay, we ate at a coffee shop with tables outside, and they let the dog sit with us. In Sturgeon Bay there was a cach at the Welcome Center. There were three others that were progressive. When you found one it had a clue to the next. The first clue was at the start of the canal. It was a nice park area. The next clue led us to a field next to the canal. The last one was at a lighthouse. We did not find the treasure. The kids loved the beach and managed to get wet. I held the dog away from the water, a ride home with a wet dog would not be pleasant.
Our first outing was to a Harley Davidson resort, kind of. There was a zoo, a museum, a restaurant, a flea market, and a pirate sailing ship the kids could play on.
Pat wanted to just sit around the house reading and playing computer games, and we did that too.
On Thursday,Pat and I went to the Packer preseason game, with Pete and Bree. It was fun and they won. The boys stayed at their aunt's home with her and Luke. Pennie came up later after work.
On Saturday we went to the "Y" so the boys could go rock climbing. They would like to stay longer than our paid for time.

I have had a hard time getting on to blog, but apparently I was not going the correct way because Pennie got me on to do this post.

VBS was fun. We did High Sea Adventure. Pats boys came for that the first week in August. The older boys were part of the staff. I was the bible story person. We acted out Peter's escape from prison, Paul's shipwreck, and the healing of the lame man by Peter and John. Kay and Jane made us a great ship in the fellowship hall. We were sad when we had to take it down.
We did something different that we will continue into Sunday School. The kids were placed in crews not grades. In each crew there was a child from each grade level except the skippers, which formerly were the preschool. They were apart except at the beginning and the closing each day. The music was great.

Busy Time

I have been painting, not my house, but in the church. Kay who is not a designer by trade, but gifted and her family have taken on the challenge to spruce up St. Marks. Finished are the library, and Pastor Steve's office. Pennie and I are painting her SS office. We have finished two walls with two coats. We have two panels between windows with one coat. The walls are tan. the panels are are maroon. We have to move numerous items to get to the last wall, which is an area above the shelving units.
Pennie and I took some time off, and went up to Green Bay to the Heritage Hill State Park for the Laura Ingalls Wilder days. Lori and Brea joined us. The place was packed,so we did not get to see Dean Butler, Melissa Anderson or William Anderson. They let only a few in the Library at a time and there was a long line. We went to all the open buildings. It was a nice day, but storms preceded and there was a lot of muddy trails. Pennie did get to grind coffee. We chose not to scrub clothes on scrub boards. It was a very nice day, but we will come back when the park is less full. It was fun to see all the children in costume.
Vacation Bible School is coming soon. It starts on Aug. 8. Pennie and I have to figure out how to build the canon.
Quilly I have not been able to get to your blog. I have not been able to blog myself. Don't know what is going on.

The Fun Busy Week

We went to Lifefest from Wednesday through Thursday. Peter brought down Brea and a friend. The bands were great, and which were the best, depended on your choice of music likes. It rained Wed. night. The show did not stop, and we did get wet. Thursday we dodged puddles, and mud. I was embarrested for my car as Pennie and I traveled to Indianapolis on Friday for my nieces wedding.

I thought the word that my daughter used to discribe the wedding was perfect "elegant". The bride looked like a princess. The reception was across the street from the motel. The caterers did an excellent job. Each guest was served salad and a meal of stuffed shells, roast beef, potatoes and shrimp. The cake was sooo good.

The bride had a friend make up a small jar of honey, which had the couples name and date on it, given to each of the guests.

The being with family for a very happy ocassion was so nice. I don't get to see my sister often, only about twice a year. Her whole family less. Her older daughter lives in Spain. My sister's grandson from Spain was adorable. He was the ring bearer at the ceremony.

Eating well may lead to exploding.

Happy 4th, late.
Busy getting ready for the fourth, Lifefest, and my niece's wedding. Everything comes all together.
Pennie and I are back eating healthy. We were cooking our steak, when a alarm went off. Think it was the smoke alarm. Your wrong it was the carbon monoxide alarm. We thought it was the smoke alarm too. The alarm is very loud. The alarm was plugged in under the card table I have up. I crawled under the table to read it and found it was telling that there was gas. I unplugged it and moved it to another location and it continued to sound. I got out the other alarm I have in the bedroom. It did not go off, but we called 911 and the firemen came. They found no gas leak.
We had a nice Fourth, Peter ,and family came down after church. We grilled, played canasta, and set off fireworks. Luke helped his father, and had a great time. Grandpa would be proud.

Dr John's Memorial in Crystal Falls

Many things were planned that did not happen. Pennie put some pictures together for a slide show and I was to talk with it so I did not have to stand in front of the church where I was sure to cry. We worked on it through the week, but something would go wrong. The memorial was to be at 1:30PM, but we were to at the church at 12:30PM to visit before the service. We stayed in Iron Mountain 45 min. from Crystal Falls. We were still working at the slide show at 11:30. We were to meet Peter at Fabs Restaurant for lunch, the memorial was going to have only desserts. They had finished eating, but Pats kids were hungry so we ordered. I ordered toast and a egg, quick and easy. It took a half hour to get our meal. Fabs is not fast food, but it does have good food. We were late getting to the church.

This was not a bad thing it turns out. I came in the back way, and my circle was serving. They were in the kitchen so I got to greet them and was able to have a short visit with them.

It was hard going through a service twice but it was so very nice to be able to see our friends again. I also got to visit with members of the choir before the service. Our first Intern was there.

The service was very nice, but long. The one hour became two. Borning Cry was dropped. the flowers were beautiful, red roses.

On Friday at the motel the whole family was there, and we got to go swimming. On Sunday we went to one of Pats favorite restaurants in Iron Mountain B's. It has huge cinnamon rolls. We got three and shared.

Long day Sunday

I am writing this for the second time,because I can not get it to publish. It then disappeared.
I am shortening this now. Sunday service honored those graduating. After church Pennie and I worked in the SS office organizing last years SS material so it will be easy to get to when we decide to use it again. We were there for five hours.

Early Morning Surprise

Thursday night those interested in VBS gathered to do some more planning. Those gathered were excited at the way everything was going. Stations to teach were picked.


Saturday a Christian Ed meeting was called for at 9:00 AM. Pennie was on call, and had many calls out, one coming at 7:00 AM. She was to be off at 8:00 AM. It was five minutes to nine when I picked up the agenda on what I knew she wanted to discuss and headed out to the church. The back door was locked. I had Pennie's keys so I unlocked it and came in with the agendas. The superintendent office was open and two of the committee were sitting in the room. I was a bit surprised, but figured they had keys also. I noticed the cupboards were open and again I figured they opened them. Then Pastor came over and asked if we were the first people in the church, and if we noticed anything wrong with the locks. The lady who had the trouble with the talking parrot said she was there first and had let the others in. They noticed nothing wrong with the doors. Pastor said that his office was broken into, and the gift cards he gave to those who needed help were taken and a small amount of money he had in his desk was taken. Pennie came just at that time. So we explained what had happened. Pastor went back to wait for the police. We sat down to begin our meeting , when we noticed the safe which was not used but taking up our space was opened and a metal box with keys were laying on the floor. Then we noticed the door jam was pulled from the wall. Pennie's office was broken into also. We reported this to Pastor, and then we did a check of the other rooms. In the nursery we found where they had entered through the window. In the library where the food pantry is the door to it was open which is closed but not locked. Nothing was taken. There is a paddle locked door with items to give away which showed signs that there was an attempted to enter.


We made plans for next years SS. Another meeting was held to find out the teachers wants for their rooms, it was 1:00PM when we left the church a little unnerved.


The good part of this was there was no damage beyond what was done to break in. The large expensive copy machine, printer, and office equipment was not taken. We were also advised to not enter the place where they broke in by the police. I will leave you with that advise, if your office or home is broken into do not go in just call the police. To do that you have to be more observant than we are.

Fun Time

My oldest son had vacation last week so he and his wife came down here for a visit and to help me. I had boxes of items to go to Goodwill. They were loaded up and taken there. Then we went to Steins to pick flowers for Memorial day to put on Dr. Johns grave site. I did not want to plant this year because I was afraid that I would not be able to take care of those planted. I found a nice stand that would hold the beautiful flower basket I picked out. We went out to lunch at the Old Country Buffet.


On Saturday my daughter and I drove up north to Norway for my nephew's graduation party. We were a surprise. Coming in early gave us time to visit. The weather was perfect, although my sister-in law thought it was too warm.


Memorial Day we rested in the morning. I went out later to shop for items for my mantel, for the summer. In the evening we started to prepare for next years Sunday School. We are hoping that then my daughter will not have the stress during the actual teaching time.

Earlier in the week my sister and brother-in-law stopped over on their way up North for a family reunion on his side. We had a nice visit and we went out to eat at Oslos's. This is the place that was full so Pennie and I could not go. The road to get there is now all torn up under construction. It was hard to get to it, but it was open, and we were the only people there to eat.

The food was very good, and the choices were not your ordinary ones. I had Norweigen chicken. I am not sure of all that was on the chicken for sure cheeze, and mushrooms. It was served with new potatoes[ there was a potato choice] rutabager and a large beet slice.

I ho;e every one had a good Memorial Day.

Stiff Polly

When Dr John and i first married we got a parrot called Polly. I think Dr John did blog about Polly. When Pete was born we had to sell Polly. Dr John continued to want a parrot. Christmas a few years ago Walmart was selling these talking dancing parrots. I thought perfect parrot for Dr John. no clean-up. Polly's leg broke when we took it out of the box, but I taped it up, and Polly sat on the perch in the bedroom.
One of the rotations at Sunday School this year was Treasures in Heaven and it had a station in it that needed a parrot. We took Polly off the perch and she went to church and sat in the Palm tree the church has for decoration, and was used in the station that needed the parrot. Kids and adults would be startled when Polly would squawk hello. After the rotation was done Polly was placed in a box with the other items used in the rotation and was forgotten about.
There is a lady in the church who volunteers to clean-up the bathrooms after their use, and she takes care of the food pantry. While she was working last week she heard a voice saying hello. She looked around for who was in the church, because she thought it was empty. She could not find anyone. She went back to work. Again she heard hello. She did a search and after many hellos she found the box with the parrot. She took the parrot to her car to silence it. On Sunday she was telling another person about the parrot just as I came in the church after the sack race. I told her that was my parrot so she gladly went to her car and brought him to me. I turned off the button and silenced him and brought him home. Some gifts in up with many uses, and in places they were not intented to be.

Busy Weekend

The end of Sunday School had come for the year. My daughter, the Sunday School superintendent, had great plans for honoring the students , and the teachers. The students, and teachers were to get certificates, which a member of the Christian Ed. committee created and gave to my daughter to sign. My daughter also wanted to give a plastic red apple filled with candy to the teachers and a box filled with candy for the shepherds. My job, if I chose to take it, was to fill the apples and boxes with candy. Filling the boxes and apples was not hard, but tying small ribbons on them, not easy. My old fingers had difficulty with the bows. My daughter also wanted to give each teacher, shepherd, and the piano player a slide show of the year. Dr John had taken pictures during the Sunday School hour, and during the services. Pictures became fewer after his death, because you forget to take pictures while you are teaching. Pennie began the week before last Sunday collecting pictures, making sure each child had their picture and name on the slide show. Background music music came next. The close of the year was to be a family event with games and snacks to follow the the awards. My daughter found a shoe cookie cutter{explain later the significance of shoe}, she planned for cookies to be made.
The problem with her plan is that everything did not go smoothly. Her slide show kept crashing even though she bought a program that was to make the process easier. She had difficulty putting the music exactly where she wanted it. On Saturday evening I made the cookies, but I do not do decorations well. My idea is to frost then throw on sprinkles, not what she wanted. I went to bed at 1:00 AM Sunday morning. Pennie was not able to get a separate show for the pianist,or the students First Communion. She did get the the cookies decorated cutely.
Part of the last six week rotation was a shoe drive. The rotation before was a toy drive for the shelter. We got two boxes of toys. We did not expect too much for this drive although we advertised each week.
Sunday came. We were at the church at 7:00 AM to set up. I was in charge of the sack race. I brought out the games for the other teachers. Teachers , parents, and students arrive. Pennie began showing the slide show, using wall as a screen, as they arrived. Awards were given. The cookies, jello feet, cut out cheese of shoes, licorice shoe laces, and juice were eaten. The sack race, bean bag toss, hula- hoop contest, Pennie toss, and relay race were played. Questions were asked covering the year's learning, before the game was played making a review.
The children sang in church. They had two pieces. One was "God is so Great" and the other the Beatitudes. During the Beatitude song the children had duets, even the kindergarten children. Because of a Baptism, the children got to sit in the choir seats.
After the service ,Pennie had a meeting where they planned fund raisers for the next youth gathering. I had fellowship and ate cake.
Pennie took me home and she went to a Tupperware party. She bought, I stayed away so I would not buy.
We went to Olive Garden for supper. We went back to the church after supper to take care of the shoes brought in. There were bags and boxes to go through. We were ready to call it a day when we counted 225 shoes but as we were locking up the office I found two more boxes. We left them.
Story of the church parrot to follow.