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!

Isn't the sun shine great?

It is a pretty morning; although cold. Like to see the sun shine. Maybe it did start shining a little early this morning; card club last night and we didn't get home till 12:45 which is really late for me! Bill won low prize, me nothing. Next month we are the hosts and we are planning a dinner at the 3-30 club before cards here. For some reason I always get to have the last card club of the season and get to plan the dinner.

Will be spending a lot of time at church this coming week with funerals and Klahn's 50th anniversary. Luckily I have the time and can help out. I was looking through cookbooks to see what food I want to take to which funeral. Today we are going to the Lion's spaghetti bake lunch before going shopping for an anniversary gift for Klahns and going to Stan Boedeker's visitation. Friday night we went to the Legion fish fry. It went over so well they are planning another one in March.

Thursday was a short day at school because of conferences. I was busy though with helping Ann's math students do work with fractions. If this gets any harder I am going to have to go back the grade school to volunteer or else take the class along with the 5th graders.

more snow on the way?

The weather forecast is for more snow, can't tell it now; maybe after church?

An uneventful week really, not much going on. I did go to my first Tupperware party in ages; surprised to find they still sell the kid's plastic ball that shapes go in--I still have the one my kids had! I learned more about geometry at school on Thursday and helped 2 kids do division problems; they had missed all of the 10 problems so we worked on that. 2 of the teachers' mothers had had accidents, and both have back problems from them. Mrs. Roelf was in Africa on safari when the bus she was in hit a bump and she hit her head on the roof causing a compression. Ouch! The other one had a car accident on black ice and rolled her car many times and also injured her back.

Wednesday night was Ash Wednesday service at our church. Choir sang and we were so surprised to see the church full of people when we walked in. We are used to seeing maybe 20-30 people! Most of the people there were from Clarence and Wheatland. Nice service; Rev. Mears did the sermon. As most people know Pastor Barb has only 3 Sundays left before she is done.


Friday we took recycling to the recycling center south of Tipton and then went on to Muscatine where we walked thru the Farm and Fleet store and also went to HyVee. Yesterday we took a drive up a little north of Andrew to look at a tractor at a consignment sale, except that the tractor wasn't there. Nice ride though; pretty area north of Andrew.

Busy week

This past week was a good one. Wednesday I helped at the library and Thursday at school. And to my teacher sisters: I learned a little bit about geometry. I now know what a ray, line and segment are, and the meaning of vertex and parallel. Of course, that was the 5th grade class!

On Friday, Deb Sawyer and I ventured to Iowa City to have Caitlin cut my hair. Besides getting a hair cut, we took advantage of the make-up demonstration that LaJames was doing and both Deb and I got our make-up done. After that we went to the Ped Mall for lunch and looking around. Great to have a tour guide for the day. (Rick's 3 girls went to Iowa to college so Deb knew her way around.) Friday night Bob & Donna Schroeder went with us to Marcia Kleppe's mom's visitation in Olin, to Hale for supper and back to Schroeder's for a few games of cards.

Saturday night was the Legion Beef supper, always a big event for Bill. Over 600 people came to eat and we served around 200 of them at carry-out where I helped. Milan and Sherrie came and we visited until time to go home. Yesterday I went to church and then Bill watched (or slept and snored) thru the Daytona 500. No big Valentine Day for us!