Happy Memorial Day

I hope everyone is remembering our service men and women today. We think of Caleb often as he is training for his tour in Afghanastan. We put the flags up in the Lowden Cemetery Saturday morning. It was so pretty with them blowing in the east breeze. There was a lot of help so it didn't take long to get them up. I was honored to hang the one that was in memory of Grandpa Horman. We will take them down Tuesday morning. By each flag there is a stake with a name on it in honor of the veteran. This morning we will go to the Memorial Day service at the Legion Hall in Lowden. Bill will take part in the service with the other members of the Legion and Amvets. Our speaker will be Commander Quick of the U S Navy; he is the husband of Diane Gottschalk. Does anyone remember her?

Looking forward to seeing everyone next Sunday. Church is at 9:00, pictures afterward, then picnic dinner at the Amvets Hall. See you then.

It's Hot

Whew, what weather! This is not what May is supposed to be like. Had to uncover the air conditioner yesterday but haven't turned it on yet; maybe today if it stays so hot.

Saturday afternoon was busy with 4 graduation parties and a 40th anniversary surprise party. They had beautiful weather for everything and great food too! One party had the Olive Garden food--they made it themselves but served the pasta, salad and bread sticks. An unusual idea I thought. Doesn't seem like a year ago that Ben and Caitlin graduated.

Picked a bouquet of peonies this morning, they don't usually bloom till Memorial Day. Larry is ready to spray corn starting maybe tomorrow. Everything is a little bit early this year.

Have a fun Memorial Day everyone.

New baby in the family

Congratulations to Greg and Chelsey on their new son. Hopefully we get to see him soon! Two more family members awaiting; Angie is (I heard in church yesterday) really ready to have this new baby born and Megan has a firm date of June 11th set if she doesn't go before then. Way to go girls!

We went to Houby Days in Cedar Rapids on Saturday; they had a car show so we took the Edsel and Sawyer's took the '57 and Glen took his car. Nice day for a car show; not too hot and not too cool. Deb and I walked the block where booths were set up and went into some stores. This is the area where the flood was and we saw lots of houses that were boarded up and to me looked like they were ready to be torn down. How sad. We ate lunch there--I tried a North Carolina pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw, very good. We saw the parade and the beautiful Czech embroidered clothes. One more thing crossed off my bucket list!

A visit to Kalona

On Saturday, Bob & Donna Schroeder took us along to Kalona. They knew the people that were having an open house at a furniture retail store. What a wonderful place full of big Amish furniture--bedroom suites, rockers, tables & chairs, and much more. They even served a free lunch of hotdogs or hot ham and cheese sandwiches, chips, fresh donuts and ice cream plus soda or water. After that we drove around to see some of the farms where Bob had collected milk when he did a milk route down there. We stopped at a farm and since they were home and invited us in we got to go into the house and visit with the couple. They have 10 children, 8 of them girls. The second oldest is getting married the end of May; they are planning on 500 people coming to their farm for the wedding. All of the food will be made there; they will set up 5 cook stoves in their machine shed and women from the neighborhood and relatives will come to make at least 75 pies, mashed potatoes and gravy; dressing; and a meat loaf made of hamburger, ground chicken and ground weiners. Mrs. Gruber or Graber (I can't remember her name for sure) was taking this all in stride--she was making homemade laundry and hand soap while we were there. The bride-to-be and her husband-to-be came (in their horse & buggy) home from going to garage sales in Kalona with their faces all red and they had to have been cold. Remember how cold and windy it was Saturday? From there we visited a greenhouse at another farm where Bob knew the people. Donna & I HAD to get some plants along with fresh eggs. At this farm they grew and butchered chickens and as we could smell, raised hogs. Such lovely people. Another stop at a country store where we bought a really, really good chocolate angel food cake, got some cheese curds at the Kalona Cheese factory and stopped for an early supper-late lunch at a tavern in Riverside. Fun day.

May already?

OK, so where has this year gone? They say the older you get, the faster the time goes? Anyone else believe this?

This past week was a busy one again. Monday I helped put the church newsletter together and had a hair cut. Tuesday Joy and I went to Independence to preview a tour we are leading for Evening Circle. We stopped at the new agriculture museum and got to see Big Bud, the biggest tractor ever! Very nice museum, a lot of interactive things for kids to do (Em & even Dallas would like it); they have baby animals including just hatched baby chicks. Baby chicks are only cute while they don't have feathers! From there we ate lunch at a place very close to the museum, we visited The Little Red Schoolhouse which we had seen advertised; but it didn't live up to our expectations--no need to go there again. It is a gift shop, but nothing different than any other place. From there we headed up to the Amish area north of Independence near Hazelton and stopped at five or so general stores, all in the country at their homes. Back to Independence and a stop at the quilt shop for me while Joy visited some other stores. We will definitely plan this for our Circle tour in June and even invite husbands as we think they will enjoy the agri museum.

Thursday I worked at school and Friday I worked at the library all day as Vicki had a vacation day. She had a list of things for me to do so that made the day go faster. Had lunch at the tavern with Bonnie and Joy. We joined the James' for supper at Lost Nation that night. Saturday was a baby shower for Buffi Sawyer Honeck and her little Jacoby. Yesterday was church; choir practice for North Cedar baccalaureate and supper at the Lowden fire station.

Now today--I've vacumned and dusted; have wash to hang out and lawn to mow.