Busiest week of the year

This has been such a busy week. Christmas Eve was spent at my sister Pam's home. The food was absolutely delicious. She served a variety of appetizers and the one I liked the most was the one I thought I would hate. It was greenbeans and red peppers wrapped in bread with some sort of sauce. MMM GOOD!!!

Christmas day we were all gathered together for our traditional Christmas breakfast. We had fruit salad, chicken fried steaks, scrammbled eggs and everybodies favorite cinnamon pecan rolls. After the breakfast we read the Christmas story and we sang different Christmas carols as we read. After we opened Christmas gifts. The rest of the day was quiet and we had our dinner about 5 pm. Then there was the walk around the village and after we watched "The Polar Express" with our friends the Flemings. All in all it was so good to have my children all together at different times throughout the week.

Saturday we had a baby shower for Julaine. Jennifer had sent the invitations, Kim planned the games and we all worked together on the food. We served chicken salad sandwiches, mini-smokies in a crescent roll and bacon wrapped waterchestnuts, a hugh veggie tray, and a variety of guick breads. We served Red Velvet cake for dessert. It was delicious. Julaine received so many cute outfits and toys for her little baby. She was really excited. Everyone was so generous and Julaine seemed to have a really nice time.

To finish off the week we all were gathered to celebrate John's 18th birthday. It seems to me it was only a few weeks ago that I gave birth to him and now he's a grown up how did it all happen so fast? I'm sure glad he came into our family he has been a real joy, so were each of my girls but I'm glad I got to experience having a boy too. Anyway his girlfriend, Brittany had a surprise party for him Saturday evening and he had a really great time. Sunday is a hard time to celebrate a birthday because there isn't the same opportunites since we won't go anywhere on the Sabbath day. but we made the most of it and had one of his favorite meals (pigs in the blanket, ceasar salad and rolls) for his cake he wanted a chocolate cheese cake and for never having made one it turned out scrumpteous. After dinner and cake we played many rounds of scategories. We all had a good time playing that. I hope he thoght it was a great day for him.

Jennifer is now back in Ohio and Julaine and Jason back home in Sharon at least Kim will be here till January 4th when she an Tony fly back to Seattle. It's nice that they didn't all leave at once that would be a little to quick for me. The withdrawal symptom isn't as bad this way

Wonderful time

Seminary is over for the next two weeks and here I am up at 4 am doing e-mail and now making this entry on my blog. These last two weeks in seminary have been great we studying the book of John and finishing it up with the last week of the Savior's life. This Christmas season has been a little tearier than usual because in Seminary we have done the Christmas lesson twice and the last week of his life four times. It is fresh and clear in my heart.

We had a seminary auction Saturday evening. It was suppose to be on Friday but we had a terrible snow strom and had to cancel class. Anyway about a week ago I sent an email out to the sisters in our ward for donations and as of the 14th I only had two donations. So I sent out another email with a desperate plea. I was wonderfully surprised when on the 17th I recieved many donations for the auction. I couldn't believe how generous the sisters who donated were.

We got together Saturday evening and I served dinner. We had Lasagna and homemade French bread, and a salad. After the dinner we started the auction. The students seemed to have a good time and everyone went home with a few items.

I had made a picture booklet of the true Christmas story with pictues, scriptures, and Christmas songs. I gave each of them one as a Christmas gift.
The auction lasted about two hours and everyone stayed and helped clean up. It was a success.

Sunday we had our Christmas program at church. I'm in the choir and we have a new choir director and we did some really pretty songs. It was a wonderful service and we were blessed to have my daughter Kimberly with us. She came home for Christmas from Washington. She was really lucky to be with us because she had a lay over in St. Louis for 12 hours but their was a delayed flight going out of there so she asked to get on that flight and got a lot of No's but when they were bording they let her get on too. Instead of coming in around 9:30am on Sunday she got here about 11pm. That was such a nice surprise.

Christmas is just three days away and I still have to wrap the Christmas presents and prepare the food for the day. Jennifer is coming in from Ohio tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to her visit too. We'll have all the family gathered for this next week. The house will be full of excitement and it's wonderful.

It's officially winter

We had a quiet but wonderfull Thanksgiving. John went up to Shawno to have Thanksgiving with his Uncle Jim and do some deer hunting. He left
Wednesday evening just after work. Julaine and Jason went out to Washington to spend the week with Kimberly and Tony. And Jennifer was spending the day with Eric and his parents. So it was just my mom and Don's mom. I served appetizers about 1pm and my mom and I watched a Christmas movie "The Bishop's Wife" (still my all time favorite Christmas movie). We had dinner about 4pm. It was your traditonal meal - turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, yams, asparagus, cranberries and pumpkin pie for dessert. It was delicious but the left overs will be great. Don did all the clean up and that was such a treat. When that was done we played phase 10. Like I said it was a quiet day.

Friday was my annual day for putting up the decorations. I did fairly good too. I only have the tree, the nativity, and the Bethlehem village to put up. I worked all day and finished up about 6pm. When Don got home from work we watche the movie the "Family Man".

Saturday I baked a few Christmas cookies. I now have 9 completed, 2 doughs waitning to be shaped and baked, one cookie that needs a chocolate topping. We'll see if I get them done. Julaine and Jasn got back to Milwaukee about 5 pm. they stayed for dinner and then they headed for home too.

Sunday it was back to preparing for Seminary. I really feel so inadaquate in this calling. I never feel totally prepared and I wish it was a little easier and that I wasn't so tired all the time.

December first came in with a bang. I cancelled seminary, not because there was that much snow (5 inches) but because of the 1/2 inch of ice beneath the snow.
It was cold and windy too. It's enough to make one shiver. I was glad I could just stay in and enjoy the warmth of my house.

A week of memories

Last week is all but a memory now and the warm 70 temperatures of that week are a thing of the past and not likely to be seen again till late spring next year. The temperatures this week were in the 30's and 40's. Burr it was cold.

I had a pretty nice week. My friend Kathy came over and we made some Christmas picture books together. I plan on giving these to the kids in my seminary class. They are pictures of the true Christmas story with scriptures and hymns that go along with them. You see a picture on one page and a scritprue on the other and an occassional a song to sing as you go through the book. I have to say they turned out really nice. I sure hope my class really likes them.

Wednesday Julaine came over and we were suppose to work in the basement. I still have the utility room to do but I was so tired I really didn't want to use any energy I had to work down stairs. She mentioned that she wanted to make some Christmas stockings for her and Jason and one for the coming baby. So we went out looking for material. We ended up trying three fabric stores because they didn't have much of a selection of doubled sided quilted fabric. We ended up at the first store we went to and she picked a Christmas plaid. It's the nices of all that we saw. I made a pattern from one of my stockings and she was going to cut out the fabric and then on her next visit we are going to sew them up.

She also saw the Christmas books I made for my seminary class and asked me if she could have one so I copied off the pictures and scriptures pages for her and she took that home to put together. I was so excited that she asked for one because as a child growing up I had a large three rign binder like this and when my girls were small they would snuggle up close and we would go over it a couple of times during the Christmas season. It is such a good family tradition and now she is going to start that up with Jason.

In seminary this week for one of the days I made a survivor game and we played that as a review of some of the events of Christ's last week of life. I had challenge cards which had questions and scripture chase cards and I had immunity cards that they had to get five different cards to get an immunity these card were pictures of the prophet, the Book of Mormon, prayer, Holy Ghost and the commandments. They had to get one of each card to get an immunity a few other cards in this group to make it exciting were cards that said things like “You have just earned Immunity; Go to Tribal Council”; trade 1,2 or 3 cards with opponent; “You’re a Robber, steal a card from any player”; give 1,2 or 3 cards to any player; take 1,2 or 3 cards from any player; “You read your scriptures, draw immunity cards until you get a card you need” The point is we had a fun time and I think they learned alot.


A very dear friend's husband died this week and I really feel for her. She and her husband were married over 60 years ago and they had been sweethearts since they were in the second grade. He was diagnosed with Lung cancer in early June and they gave him 6 months to live. He died peacefully in his home on Tuesday. This is a really difficult time for her. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to go and to set up the picture displays and the flowers in the Foyer, Relief Society and Chapel in our church building. It made me feel like I could do one last kindness for this wonderful man.

Busy Week

This has been some week. The Election has come and gone. John and I had some discussion about it since my candidate didn't win he thought I'd be all upset but I let him know that as soon as I found out Obama won I prayed for him as my country's leader. He was impressed by this but I explained that he now needs all the help he can get and I can hope that he will do a good job.

Julaine came in on Tuesday this week as we continue organizing and cleaning in my basement. Mostly she is great moral support and she's good at telling me to "throw it out". I need that because with all the different church callings I've had I've saved alot of stuff. I doubt that I will ever be called to some of these callings again like chorister so I can get rid of all the posters and props I made when I did that calling. We have gotten rid of lots of stuff. It feels good though and I'm so grateful that she is willing to do this with me. Isn't she a sweetheart!!!! John didn't like it when me moved his garbage to a certain corner in the basement and I told him he could only have that space and couldn't take up any more space in my basement. He blames my attitude on Julaine but in reality I have told him this before it's just that he knows I mean business and he doen't like it. He's so used to getting his way and sweet talking me into whatever he wants. But I'm standing firm on this one.

Seminary went fine this week except that on Tuesday I noticed that I had misread what lessons we were to cover this week. I thought I was only suppose to do Luke 10-14 but I was suppose to cover 10-16. I really had to scramble to pool my lesson plan and all the ideas together to accomplish this goal. I don't want to get to far behind.

For Wednesday, I had made a race track game board with spaces to move toward the finish line that I hung on the blackboard with magnets. I used two magnetic race cars one for each team. Then I asked questions and held up a vanity plate (a Wisconsin lisence plate with letters to make up the answer of the question, for example HPAWKRC = hypocrisy) I had 16 questions for chapters Luke 12 and 13. After each question an answer we would have some discussion about the verses the questions included.

Thursday I had to take my mother-in-law to the doctor. Her ears were full of wax and I really had to yell for her to hear anything. We wanted to get in the week before but the doctor was on vacation. Anyway I'd love for anyone to answer this question. Whenever we arrive at the doctors there is usually only one or two people in the waiting room, and they are there to see other doctors. I know this because each doctor has his/her own nurse and they call the patients in. We wait in the waiting room anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. I see no one come in or out and finally they call our name. The doctors rooms are all empty and then we wait again another 15 minutes to 45 till the doctor comes. So here's the question "Why is that"? Anyway I can always count on 2-3 hours for a simple check up appointment. It's so frustrating to me but I went prepared and worked on my lesson plan for Friday while I waited. I got my lesson basically organized and what I was going to do. That worked out great for me. They cleaned her ears and she can hear much better again. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I took her to day care after the appointment.

Today was a great day in seminary. As the teens came into class this morning I had an obstacle sitting in the doorway. John came in first and walked around it but when Abbie came through the door he moved it so others could get by. I replaced it and the other students just walked around it. This was part of an object lesson. We discussed Luke 10 today. The first few verses are about the Lord calling the 70 and sending them out to preach the gospel. We talked about how this is a sign of the true church.

Then I told them a couple of stories. One was about a guy who had a motorcycle accident on the freeway and over 900 cars passed him by before someone stopped to help him. the other was a story about a Blue Max truck that seemed to show up when people were in trouble and when they would try to pay him he just told them to do a kindness for someone else. Long after the Blue Max retired there were others out doing his work.

I mentioned that there was an obstacle as they walked into the seminary classroom this morning and how most of them just walked around it as if it wasn't there. I read them the story of the Kings Highway and we related the obstacle to that story. I lifted the obstacle and there was a treasure box of treats which I gave to John because he was the only one who moved the box so others could get in the door easier. He shared it with everyone.
Then I explained that these stories were different but similar to a story we were going to discuss today. the Good Samaritan.

We Read through the story and as we did I asked them to see if they could understand the hidden meanings and fill in the handout. Then we discussed the story.

The traveler = each one of us.
Was going from Jerusalem (a very high city at 2600 feet above sea level) to Jericho (very low elevation at 1800 feet below sea level). So in a space of 15 miles, you drop down over 3400 feet. Jerusalem = the presence of God.
Jericho = earth. So our coming to earth was a pretty steep drop from the presence of God.
fell = our fallen condition when we come to earth.
among thieves = Satan’s angels who wish to do us wrong spiritually.
and they departed = Satan never sticks around when you need him; he leaves you half dead spiritually.
is wounded = by sin and temptation
and is left alone = aren’t we left alone in this world? We could die spiritually.
Priest = An Anorak priest, a priest after the order of Aaron. Can the Priesthood of Aaron alone save us? (No)
Levite = Levites administered the Law of Moses. Can the Law of Moses alone save us? (No, although the Jews at that time believed that the Aaronic Priesthood and the Law of Moses could save them.)
Samaritan = Jesus Christ. Samaritans were despised because they were half-breed…they were half holy and half Gentile. And the reason the Israelites despised them is because they claimed to be of the blood of Israel. Jesus Christ is a half-breed—half holy because God is his father, and half mortal because Mary is his Mother.
Bind wounds = Jesus heals us spiritually.
Pours oil on him = blood of Christ at the Atonement. Gethsemane means “oil press.” When you press olives in olive presses, the oil comes out red. We use oil to anoint people to heal them—His blood heals us.
Sets him on his beast = the man was so weak that he could not climb upon the beast on his own—he needed help. Jesus does for us what we can’t do for ourselves.
Pays what he owes = Jesus makes a payment for us. After we do all we can, he makes up the difference.
Pays again if needed = the atonement isn’t limited to one payment. It is an infinite and eternal Atonement.

Then we talked a bit about Mary and Martha. We read those verses in Luke 10 and I explained that Sheri Dew gave a talk about Mary and Martha and that Dallin Oaks gave a talk about Good, Better, Best and explained how these related to the scripture story of Mary and Martha.

Then I concluded by showing them an apple pie I had baked.
I asked Todd if he would like a piece of this pie? He was more than eager. So I grabbed a piece of pie with my hand and plop it into a napkin and handed it to Todd. Unsurprisingly he didn't want it any more? Then I said "Abbie I think you would really like a piece of pie" and she said "sure". So I cut the pie and served it on a glass plate. Then I asked, "Who would now like a piece of pie? After serving pie to everyone I asked, "What makes the difference? Does it matter how we serve?" All three of the stories we’ve discussed today have to do with service. And with all of them, it did make a big difference on how they served.
Then I read the following poem. Which I had made into a handout with a picture of the good Samaritan in the background

I expect to pass through this world but once.
Any good thing, therefore, that I can do
Or any kindness I can show
to any fellow human being,
Let me do it now.
Let me not defer nor neglect it;
For I shall not pass this way again.

Stephen Grellet

Happy Halloween

We only had three days of seminary this week because the teens were off for teacher's convention. I did a couple of games during the lessons this week. One game I used this week was Uno. I divided the class into two teams. When it was their teams turn to go they picked an Uno card from their pile whatever number card they picked they got that many points if they answered the questions right, if they got a draw 2, reverse or skip they got 5 points and if they picked a wild card they got 10 points. My son John sure knows how to get the class excited about these games. He's so competitive and he really makes it fun for the rest of the class. He was bummed out though because the other team kept picking high numbered cards while his team kept getting 2's and 3's. His team lost due to low scores. We also did a Go fish game this week because we were talking about Peter, James and John being fishermen and how Christ asked them to go back out fishing after an evening of catching no fish. I loved Peter's response. He told the lord they hadn't caught anything all night but if he said to go out and cast their nets they would. It must have boisted the lords spirit to have Peter be so willing to do as he asked especially after he was cast out of Nazareth by thouse he grew up with.

For the game I didn't have teams I just let them go around the class and fish. I made about 20 fish and put numbers on one side and that was the numbered question they would get, I put a picture of a tire, tin can, boot, and an anchor on a few of the fish and if they got that they had to skip a turn. I worried about whether this would go over because it seemed so juvenile but they really got into it especially when John realized how powerful the magnet was on the fishing pole. Once again he made it more competivie by trying to pick up all the fish with one try and then of course the other guys felt they had to meet the challenge too. I told them the fish the magnet was actually on would be the one for the question. It was a much bigger success then I ever dreamed it would be.

Julaine and Jason came in on Monday (he gets two days in a row off from Friday through Monday routated during the month) They came in about 9 am. and left me their laundry for me to do while they played. Julaine took Jason on our annual fall tradition which was more then just seeing pretty leaves. They went to Whitefish Bay to see their annual pumpkin festival. They carve hundreds of pumpkins and have them displayed in this cute little park. They are all so creatively done it's amazing. Then they went up to Harrington beach, a state park on the lake that also has a quarry and a pretty hiking trail around it. When they got back they decided to stay for dinner. It was our evening for the Warren halloween party which we have the last Monday in October. We had our annual spookey dinner. This year I served Ghoulish sauce, Mummy veins, Frankendough, Hobgoblin Greens, pumkin patch, Bewitching brew, Pumpkin ooze (it was Beef stroganoff over noodles, cresent rolls, salad with avocados, pumpkin shaped jello, orange julius's to drink and this pumkin icecream dessert that I made) When we sit down we have a toast with our orange julius and we each take turns guessing what each item on the menu is. We all had fun watching Jason trying to figure out the menu.

It is such a joy to me to see Julaine sharing our family traditions with Jason and starting them in her family. After dinner we had a our halloween game night with a bean bag toss, ring toss, pin the nose on the witch, clothes pin drop, a penny pitch, and a pumpkin hunt is always the last game we play. We all had such a good time.

When Jason went home to work on tuesday Julaine stayed because Jason is going to school for his masters and she doesn't see him much with his second shift job and there is really nothing for her to do in her small town. She's finished scrapbooking her wedding pages so now she is pretty bored. Anyway she is going to come in once a week to help me clean my basement and get it reorganized. We made alot of headway on Wednesday. It felt so good to get something done. Thursday I took down the Halloween decorations (even Halloween is today because we already had the trick or treaters and our family party) After I tooke the down Julaine ordered out for Pizza and breadsticks and we had a nice lunch. My mom came over for our weekly day together a little latter this week because her cousin Joan fell down and she went over to help her out for a few hours. We watched a movie together (Head OVer Heals) cute love story. Then we chit chatted and had dinner. Don had a temple assignment last night so I decide to put up the Thanksgiving decorations when my mom left about 6 pm. It was a full day. And I was glad to get so much done. Days off are a good thing!!!!

a drive in the country

Like I mentioned in my last blog I love Fall and the changing of the leaves and every year Donald and I take drive to look at the leaves. This year for our drive we went down to see Julaine and Jason in there apartment. We haven't been to see it since they got married and thought we better do it now. The drive was beautiful of course. Once we got to Julaine's she had a nice lunch prepared. It was a cooler day so we all enjoyed chili together with cheese cake for dessert--YUM YUM! It was a short trip because jason had to leave for work after lunch and Donald also had a camp out trip with the boy scotts that he still needed to get ready for. Julaine always said she lives in the "boonies" but I guess we didn't really believe her until we drove the route ourselves! Julaine's not much of a country girl, or so we thought, so when I saw her apartment I understood how she gets bored easily. Looking out her window all I could see was beautiful countryside...Julaine's abyss.

Seminary...ah we just won't talk about it this week. I still love it but I'm just tired, tired, tired.

Intro to the current life of Georgia

I am so lucky to have a great daughter who was willing to help me set up this blog. Now I can blog all about my excitment in becoming a Grandma and the adventures that come with it! So where do I begin...
Besides hearing about the little baby on the way I will be writing alot about seminary. This is my first time teaching seminary and the last month and a half have been very rewarding. Depite the long hours of study in preparation for each days class, and the lack of sleep I get most nights, my class is wonderful and I am very grateful to have such bright students who are so eager to learn about the scriptures even though it's early for them too! As much as seminary is for the students it has given me a new way to study and learn from the scriptures and I feel very blessed to be able to studying and teach from them. This year we are studying the New Testament, and our class theme is "Journey to the light". So to help with this theme I created a poster board with a light house and each students name on a boat leading to the light house, just like the light house guides a boat to safety, Christ guides each of our lives. And if we look to the light we can manage through the storms.
Oh I can't forget...now is the season of holidays!! I have all my halloween decorations up and am enjoying every minute of it. I love the colors of the season: red, orange, rust and brown. My decorations give me a feeling a comfort, despite Julaine's view of them as being cluttery. This is my favorite time of the year, I just love it, the cool temps, the changing of the leaves, the smells, pumpkins, cinnamon, wood burning. It's just a special time of year.