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!

Party

A thank you to the James for hosting a great wedding reception. A big crowd came to wish Julie & Jason well and a lot of tacos eaten. The cake was really good (I had 2 pieces) and there were a lot of comments on how pretty everything was. It was good to see everyone again except I didn't get to talk to Shirlee & Dan very much. Greg, Chelsey, Amanda and Tommy spent the night and wouldn't let me fix them breakfast. Hope they didn't mind sleeping here too much, although Chelsey will say she wasn't tired and couldn't sleep!

So much snow again with a big drift behind the garage. I need to go to Lowden to serve at a funeral for Leona Helmold this afternoon. Maybe I will get to drive the big 4-wheel pickup!

It's February

Nothing much to write about this week. Sunday night we went to Bluff Lake with Sherrie, Milan, Ashley, Julie & Jason and played cards at their house. This was after church in the morning and a quick trip to Cedar Rapids to take a car load of things to Good Will.

Wednesday I volunteered at the library and enjoyed seeing the little ones at story hour. Carter Horman even called me by name; it is so fun seeing the kids grow since they started coming to story hour. Aldie Klahn had surgery; a new knee was needed and installed!

Thursday I volunteered at school; helped to tried to help some of the 5th & 6th graders with their English/spelling and a little bit with math; now they are multiplying decimals. That I can still do! Went to Tipton this morning to WalMart and the grocery store, saw a little bit of snow but not much. Looking forward to Saturday night. See you all then.

Fun Friday

Last night we went to our first basketball game of the season (about time since the season is about over!). Bill picked a good one to go to; we played Mid Prairie and the girls lost by just a couple points. Between games the school honored Ashley Himes with a Wall of Fame, 250 pictures on the hall wall of students from Stanwood, Mechanicsville, Clarence & Lowden schools, Clarence-Lowden School and North Cedar that have attained "celebrity" status, either in sports or the fine arts. They presented Ashley's parents with a plaque and dedicated the wall to her memory. The boys game was very close and NC won by 2 points in an over-time. After the game Bill, Larry & I visited the wall to see Bill's Mom's picture (basketball in 1943 I think), Larry's picture from when he was all-state football, and Caleb's wrestling picture. There are all kinds of pictures and worth the look-see.

I volunteered at school yesterday. Mrs. Pruess was gone on a 6th grade trip so didn't have to tax my mind trying to figure out the math she teaches to 5th & 6th graders. I got to work with 5th graders with spelling and English and put grades in the computer for Mrs. Hoffmeier. Much more my speed.

Thursday night Joy & I went to Maquoketa to see the movie "It's Complicated". Really enjoyed the movie and realize I should go to more movies. They say Blindsided is one to see.

Sunday play

Yesterday afternoon Bill and I went with Klahns to see a play in Tipton put on by the Cedar County Stop Light Players called Whose Wives Are They Anyway. It was so funny and made better because we knew four of the actors; Bryon Schroeder (Bob & Donna's 3rd boy); Chris Scheer (he was in Sue's class in school); Jenny Schroeder (who was married to Vern & Carol Schroeder's son Craig) and Lena Mears (Rev. Mear's wife). Bryon and Chris were the leads and so funny. If you get a chance to see the play, do so. Even Bill enjoyed it though I had to twist his arm to go.

We were saddened by the news of Darlene James' death. Our sympathies to the whole James family. It will be nice to have Jason & Julie home for a while.

Now that some of the ice is gone, we are having snow to cover it up! Isn't Iowa weather great?