Here's To Life!

Had an enjoyable Thanksgiving Day with the Frost family in the Rock Island/Moline, IL area.  Dinner was at Chris and Marla's house - with Marla and her mother doing most of the cooking.  Great food!  Both John and Kristin were able to come as well as Kristin's boyfriend, Jason.  Sasha was in China for the week so couldn't be with us.  We stayed overnight with Marilyn, had lunch at TGIFriday's in Moline and visited the John Deere Pavilion where they had built a life-size sculpture of a combine using canned goods and bags of rice.  All food is being donated to a food pantry in the area when the display comes down.  It was quite impressive.

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Beginning of October, a new month, the start of the last quarter of this year.  Spent yesterday helping with Donut Day at the Farmer's Market in Oak Park.  Good Shepherd had their turn making and selling donuts - lots of work, needs lots of volunteers but a great money maker.  I coated donuts with sugar, poured coffee and cleaned equipment at the end of the morning.  In the evening, we had our first Oktoberfest at church - great food, good company, fun dancing.  So far, the month has started on a good note.   We have had two sunny days after a week of rain, the weather looks promising this week - sun and warmer temperatures.  Hopefully a good start to the month.

Labor Day has come and gone but thankfully we can still look forward to more summerlike weather. It was a weekend for family.We had planned to go visit Paul's mother in Rock Island and we did that. But Lou Bauck, a longtime family friend passed away this week and the funeral was Saturday afternoon. She would have been 99 on her birthday in October. Marilyn was responsible for all the arrangements -it was a nice service with schmaltzy music. Paul and Chris were pallbearers. Women ot the church served coffee and cake afterwards. Kristin went with us - she was going to go anyway - John had to work. We had a chance to go out to dinner with Chris, Marla and Jake in the evening. We went out for breakfast with Marilyn on Sunday and after a trip to Whitey's left for home. Monday we were invited to John and Sasha's apartment for a cookout and had a chance to meet Sasha's mother, her four sisters and her grandfather. Food was good and we were pleased to get to meet Sasha...

Here I sit, at my computer, with a week left before school starts.  Where has the summer gone?  It stretches out in June with such promise of time to read, time to get things done around the house, time to spend with family.  Here it is - the middle of August - and yes, I can say that I have been able to spend time reading, with family and getting things done.  For awhile, my living room looked like a storage facility with both kids in the process of moving - John from one apartment to another and Kristin from her apartment to back home.  I'm happy to say that most of the extra stuff is gone though I still have an extra piano (at one time, I had two uprights, one digital piano, and an electronic organ, as well as a full-size keyboard in the living room).  My kids have been around and that has been good.  We have enjoyed our time as a family.  Paul and I, Kristin and her boyfriend, Jason, made a trip in August to Cape Cod to visit with my mother. ...

June has been such a busy, event packed month this year.  First it was the end of school and hot, hot days.  Kristin graduated from DePaul and my mom came out for the weekend to join in the graduation celebration.  Paul's mom would have liked to come as well, but illness kept her away.  After having such hot weather the first week of June, graduation weekend started out rather cold and rainy though graduation day itself was a lovely sunny day.  We participated in a picnic at DePaul Friday night, a brunch on Saturday sponsored by the College of Communication and the actual graduation itself was held at Allstate Arena on Sunday at noon.  The ceremony was very nice - all the graduates marched across the stage to receive their diplomas, the speaker was good - it was a dignified event.  We had a party in the afternoon at our house to celebrate the occasion.  After graduation weekend, it was my birthday weekend and Father's Day.  We celebrated my b...

Kristin graduated from DePaul University on June 12th.  We were fortunate to have my mom here to help us celebrate.

 Since I work in the school system, I get a spring break.  I spent my spring break with my mom on Cape Cod the last week of March.  We took a day trip to Woburn, MA and saw the house we lived in there as well as the church where I was baptized.  The house looks pretty good as you can see and the church, though not a Lutheran church any more, is still a church.  It looked like they were getting work done there.  We did some shopping and drove out to Yarmouth where we walked the boardwalk.  The weather was sunny for most of the week though it was chilly.  I'm hoping that spring will come soon and the weather will warm up for good.

Kristin has been staying here for the past few days - and while she has been here she has been working on painting the 3rd floor.  The bathroom is now slate blue instead of green.  And she is working on John's old room painting in there as well - a rather pleasant shade of lilac - not sure exactly what the paint shade is - but it looks good so far.  There is lots of wall space to cover so it has been taking time.

Have had two unexpected snow days in Oak Park this week.  Oak Park has rarely closed their schools because of snow but the blizzard conditions experienced Tuesday night and Wednesday morning caused them to close schools for both Wednesday and Thursday of this week.  Paul's office was closed on Wednesday as well and he stayed home from work on Thursday because he needed to take some vacation time anyway.  Have enjoyed the time at home - Paul did a lot of shoveling, I did some baking.

Started those home maintenance/improvement projects - Paul cleaned out and then painted the pantry area of the kitchen.  We also bought a new ceiling fan/light fixture for the dining room which we are going to have installed next week.  What will be next?

Celebrated Epiphany on January 6th with a party with church friends - many sweets and snacks, a fun king game and a house blessing.  End of the Christmas season so have taken down our Christmas tree today and in process of putting all of the decorations away.  An end to a good holiday season.

Enjoyed the beginning of the new year at home - watching the Rose Parade and various football games.  Homemade pizza for dinner. Kristin bought a new dress for New Year's eve and sent this picture.  We spent a quiet New Year's eve at home after doing some shopping during the day and then going out for a late lunch at Maggiano's. Now it is time to think about going back to work after two weeks at home.  It has been a quiet time - Paul has had to work a lot, but I have had a chance to get together with my kids and friends and have enjoyed the time off.  Also finished two books over the week.