Ready to go

The corn planter is ready to go. The seed corn was delivered this past week. The planter is filled with insecticide. Now we need some warm weather just like the kind we had last week. Frost on the lawn yesterday and this morning.

I spent Thursday at school typing the 5th graders patriotic essays. It is an assigned class in that they have to write an essay for a Lion's Club contest. For the most part I felt the kids didn't know what "patriotic" means. I read one really good essay and the rest were so-so. Glad it isn't my job to judge them.

Friday night was the Legion's final fish fry of the year. We went with Rick and Deb and sat with Gayle Mess & her husband (I don't know her married name). They are good conversationalists and we had a good time. 221 people were served; almost more than they served at our church dinner Sunday.

I am going to start work on invitations to mother's birthday and Horman reunion this week.

Baby J's first shower

What a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon. What a wonderful shower Laura and Lynne put on. What wonderful food they served and games they played. Good job, nieces of mine! All those great gifts for Baby J. I know Chelsey and Greg appreciate the thoughtfulness put into everything. Also enjoyed the trip down and back; Sherrie is an awesome driver. Not even one wrong turn!

The lawn is ready to mow; maybe tomorrow. Today we "have" to go to Cedar Rapids to get parts for the Gold Wing; and also "my" toaster quit working this morning so we need a new one for "his" breakfast! Do you suppose we could work in a stop at a quilt shop?

Just read Lisa Scottoline's book, Think Twice. Very good, I highly recommend it. Not a book you can put down, so be sure you have time to read.

Reading Scholarship Applications

My newest volunteer job is being on the Margaret Dallas Scholarship Committee. 3 of us from the North Cedar School District read and rated 16 scholarship applications in the past few days. It is an interesting experience. Almost all of the apps had all A's or almost all A's on their high school transcripts. It was hard to find the best ones as they were all worthy.

My new carpet is in. After months of waiting and hours of carrying everything out of the 3 rooms; it took less than 5 hours to install the new carpet. The "new smell" is almost gone, or maybe I just don't notice it so much. My old carpet was at least 20 years old; I don't believe I will ever have to replace carpet downstairs again. Now I want carpet upstairs; maybe if I forget how much work it is!

Hope everyone had a great Easter and that Dallas is feeling well again.

Spring is Here!

It was another busy week. Wednesday I volunteered at the library. Vicki had the story hour kids make a bottle filled with half water and half corn syrup and things found "U"nder the Sea. She had little shells, some leaves (for seaweed), glitter and other little things. She used the little water bottles and after the kids put what they wanted in their bottle, she hot glued the lids on, the kids shook them and thought they had made something great. Such fun for them. Vicki is about done with the alphabet and is going to do XYZ as "The End" and it will be the last story hour until summer reading starts. Thursday was school and I gave a few kids their Basic Skills test, well, I just timed them and also helped with math again. Story problems, yech! Good thing Ann gave me the answer book! Thursday night Bill and I and Alvin Licht served tacos at the Legion. We had 99 orders and were kept hopping for a couple hours. Friday night we took Klahns along to the fish fry in Delmar where Milan was busy serving baked potatoes and Sherrie and Ashley cleaned tables and served coffee etc. The food was really good. After we got back to Lowden we played cards until the UNI game and then played Aggravation during the time outs! Saturday we went with Klahns again to the Plummer Family Show in Maquoketa. Good show, but only people who like the old time country tunes would have enjoyed it. We stopped at Obie's for a beer (and bathroom) on the way home and were home by 6:00.

Bill has been working for JJJ, hauling lime, hauling burned beans out of a burning bin, and gravel. Although he complains the roads are rough, he really enjoys the work and the guys he works with.

Pastor Mark Buck started with our church this past week and had his first service yesterday. Church was fuller than usual, saw some who hadn't been in church for a long time. Maybe change is good.

UNI wins!

How exciting for Iowa; UNI winning; the Iowa wrestling team winning; the Iowa girls winning their first round game. We'll see what happens this weekend!

Had card club here Saturday night preceeded by supper at the 3-30 Club in Lowden. We had a very nice supper with good food and a surprise birthday ice cream for Teresa Lillienthal (who is Adam Horman's mother-in-law) as it was her birthday Saturday. Cards were fun and prizes won by Ann & Bob Pruess, Gary Deerberg and Duane Stonerook. I served brownies and ice cream for desssert.

Our interim, Pastor Mark Buck, starts tomorrow. Yesterday Aaron Horman led the worship service. His sermon (which he wrote himself) was about change--personally for him as they expect their new baby and change for our church. Megan said Sunday that she gets a shot each week to hopefully keep her from starting labor early as she did when Carter was born. She is a week ahead of last time when she had to spend so much time in the hospital before Carter's birth. We all pray she can continue carrying this baby to full term. So many additions to our extended family, how wonderful!

The snow we had Friday night/Saturday morning is just about gone, although it is still cold this morning. Looking forward to some warmer weather.

Snow is gone (almost)

The sun is shining and no rain in sight. Hooray! Went for a walk yesterday with just a jacket and cap and was very comfortable.

We have been adopted! By a black lab-type dog and another shaggier dog that came Friday and have stayed. They must belong to someone, the lab dog is very friendly and can sit and shake hands, is wearing a collar and seems very nice. The other dog is more stand-offish and is full of cockleburs. Don't know where they came from and we think the owners would be looking for them. They went along for my walk yesterday and neither one ventured further down the road as if going towards their home. Really don't want any dog, let alone two. The cats have disappeared!

This week promises to be eventful, with Circle tonight at the Clarence Nursing Home and tomorrow Joy and I serve the Committee on Ministry at church a noon meal. Wednesday at the library and Thursday at school. Then we have card club here Saturday night. I better get busy, my house needs to be cleaned.

is spring here?

Another busy week culminating with the celebration of Klahn's 50th anniversary. A reception was held in our church yesterday afternoon where 5 of us from Circle served cake and ice cream to almost 200 people, although Marilyn was ready for 400 and she had to take home 195 pieces of cake that wasn't eaten. Marilyn's mother was taken to the hospital Friday with pneumonia and wasn't doing real well and we hope the best for her.

Pastor Barb officiated at her 3rd funeral of the week Saturday morning. Monday we went to Stan Boedeker's funeral; Wednesday I helped serve the luncheon after Howard Fisher's funeral and Saturday Bill helped with military services for Walter Lafrenz. Hope this string of deaths is over. We have lost more from our church this year so far than we did all of last year.

Thursday I spent nearly the whole day helping in Ann's math classes. She was trying to teach adding and subtracting fractions. Must be a hard concept to get. No, 1/2 and 1/3 is not 2/5 and if you knew that one half of 6 is 3, it would be a lot easier. 8/8 is the same as 1 just like 3/3 is the same as 1. Gosh, I thought that 6th graders would know this. It seems to me a lot of the kids are going to be lost next year and the next. Of course, I work with the ones that need the most help; maybe it isn't as bad as I think. Iowa Basic Skills tests are coming up and Ann is trying to teach these fractions so they do better on the tests. I don't always agree we should teach to the tests as they say.

This week I will make some lasagna to take to the supper Evening Circle provides before the Lenten Service at our church. Something I've only done once or twice. Hope it turns out!