Kansas City & the Rest of the Day!

It was a busy day. We had two things going on today. First, our daughter Becca left early this morning to drive up to the Twin Cities and pick up a car load of friends and then they took off for Kansas City, MO for the "One Thing" church conference (IHOP...International House of Prayer). This is a conference the kids went to last year, so they wanted to attend again since it was "so awesome" in Becca's explanation! We got a call at 10 pm tonight from Becca saying they arrive....now I can sleep. I'm still a mom!!!



The other thing going on today was a trip to Eau Claire so we could go to Sam's Club for food supplies. I found out today that Sam's will no longer sell the big jars of green olives stuffed with jalapenos.....darn it (sorry Krissy). Guess I'll just have to buy the small jars.


After our trip to EC, we headed over to my mother-in-laws for a get-together. Ted's sister & husband drove up from Milwaukee, plus Ted's other sister from Green Bay, and one cousin (see the pictures above)! We had a nice time and the dinner was great. After dinner, Winnie showed us her exercises she must do during the week as part of her therapy. Wow, Winnie has really improved physically. Tonight, Winnie was up moving around and helping in the kitchen, plus she ate a whole plate of food. This is so great because 6 weeks ago she had just been released from the hospital and was very weak and needed transitional care. Tonight reminded me of the old Winnie I use to know! I'm so glad my mother-in-law is doing better. Let's hope this trend last through the winter months.

Tonight Was Movie Night

We celebrated "movie" night....tonight! My girlfriend Marilyn, and her daughter Lindsay, and my daughter Becca, and me of course, all sat down and watched Enchanted. What a funny movie. Enchanted is a real life version of a Disney princess movie....kinda like a parady of a princess fairytale. I highly recommend watching this movie, especially if you are female!!!


Here's a picture of Lindsay's dog Reggie. Reggie's been around for a long time. Poor Reg, he's deaf now but he's still a good doggie. Reggie loves popcorn so when we girls were watching the movie eating popcorn, I was feeding Reggie too. Reg is like one of the family.


Well, I made a cheesecake today since we have a family obligation tomorrow and I was asked to bring a desert. Everyone likes my cheesecakes so I made the Heath Bar cheesecake recipe....my family loves that cheesecake. Ted's sister is driving up from Milwaukee tomorrow to Ted's mom's house so all the Ludwig's are getting together for dinner. The cheesecakes I make weigh about 5 pounds so I should have enough to go around for everyone.

One more GIRL picture......

I couldn't resist snapping a picture of my girlfriend before the movie started. I promised the girls they would be "blogged" tonight!!!!!

I Finally Did It Today

Our Christmas Day started off with lots of sunshine and a morning low of 11 below zero! Brrrrr........

Later in the morning, we all headed over to Mike's (Ted's older son) house to see Mike and his daughters and to exchange some gifts.

After heading back home in the early afternoon, I finally got my snowmobile lesson from Chris. The both of us went down to the lake and Chris went over some tips on how to handle the snowmobile. There wasn't much to it, so I just put on the helmet and Chris jumped on the back with me, and I gave it a try. Whewwwww.....I started out at about 15-20 mph, and I then boldly bumped it up to about 30 mph!!! That was fast enough for me, at least for now. I actually had fun. I'm guessing I was out on the lake for about one hour. I did learn a lesson however....wear wool socks with my Sorrel boots. When I finally came up to the house and took my boots off, a few of my toes were white and numb. As my toes started to thaw out, it was very painful.....I should have known that would happen. Next time I'll put those little handwarmer things in each boot.

I took this picture of Timothy this afternoon. It made me feel happy that I could still see his face and the top of his head. I'm sure however that Timothy will totally disappear in a week or two as we get more snow. Hang in there Timothy, spring is only four months away!!!!!

Tainter Lake Christmas Eve

Wasn't long and we had help unwrapping our Christmas presents tonight. Who needs cat toys when you have real stuff to play with!!!!!!!

Becca and I went to church service tonight....Kris S met us there as well tonight because her church didn't have any Christmas church service. It was nice to have Kris & Becca there tonight...a special treat for me since I always go to church alone. The church was really pretty tonight with candles lit in the stained glass windows and big candles lit up front. The only problem was, the candles were really strong smelling (musty & spicy) and that made my sinuses start to drip! Oh well, it was a nice service tonight despite the bitter cold temps.

Hope you all had a good Christmas Eve night.

Sometimes You Just Have To Have Those Goofy Moments!

So I went to visit Cyndi in the Clerk's office this morning and here she was goofying around with her feet up on JJ's desk. Shame on her...what would JJ think? I ran back to my library, which is down the hallway, and grabbed my camera and took this shot! You see JJ is on medical leave so Cyndi is working all by herself and doing the work of two people (just like PAK ART was doing weeks ago)!!! So sometimes Cyndi gets a little slap happy being all alone in the office, and we share these goofy moments. Before I left her office this morning, she jokingly said "please don't use those pictures as ransom" for extra favors you want me to do for you! Ha, all I have to do now is say, "Cyndi, I need that print out of payroll for my library board meeting today," and she will snap right to it! We had a good laugh about that. "While the cat is away, the mice will play" (just kidding of course). Cyndi is a hard worker and can multitask better than anyone I know. A high five for "Deputy Clerks."

Chris Bought What?????

Yup, that's a sled alright! For years Chris always wanted a snowmobile and we would always tell him, "NO." Well just recently some friends of Chris offered him a good deal on a 1997 Skid Doo sled and it was really hard to pass up. Chris bought this nice machine for only $450! The first thing I did was give him the lecture about driving responsibly and not too fast...that's the mom in me. I can't believe we are now officially a "snowmobile family."!!!!! Chris promised to take me out Christmas day on the lake and give me rides....oh boy! I think I might try learning how to drive it. I'm afraid of speed, but I can just creep along right???

It Really Was Frigid Today!

I woke up this morning to 10 below zero with a wind chill of -10 to 20 below! The driveway had about 6-7 inches of snow and the snow plow hadn't come by the house yet, so I made a quick decision...hummmm, I think I will stay in the house all day. I really wanted to got to church but decided to just stay put in my warm house. My church (Jesus Fellowship of Believers) has a "live" webcam so you can watch the service online, so that's exactly what I did. I sat here with my laptop and listened to Pastor Tim go over Corinthians chapter 13 which talks about LOVE, and what it means to love through God, not through human love as we see it today. Before the online church service this morning, I was able to whip up some scones. The above picture is my pre-baked version.

Here is my finished product. I made one batch of Cranberry-Orange scones and one batch of Blueberry-Orange scones. I have some really good scone recipes from an older issue of Bon Appetit magazine. I've been making these scones for 10 years or more! The secret is lots of butter and buttermilk. Those two combinations makes scones really tender and holds in the moisture without getting dry and crumbly, (I think you would really like these Krissy). There's nothing worse than a dry tasteless scone...ick! My mom loves the Cranberry-Orange scones so I think I will make a batch just for her the next time I visit my parents.

I honestly stayed indoors all day...never stepped outside once! I know that's bad, but I just had a lot of things I could do inside today. Tomorrow will be back to work so I will be faced with a high temp of 5 degrees. Our daughter Becca was suppose to drive home this afternoon, but she called and said she will not be coming until tomorrow morning due to the cold temps and road conditions. At least I don't have to worry about Becca driving home in the dark....you know how mother's worry!!!!