2008 the year of babies, marriages,ceremonies. .....

2008 came in with a much awaited bang when our grandson Abram Barry was born on the 17th of January (which was the coldest stretch of 2008). Abram was born to our youngest daughter Angie and her husband Barry, what a joy Abram has been to their lives and ours. On July 7th our almost fire cracker, made an appearance when little Drexel Truman was born - he quickly became Oliver Truman which is a name that suits him well. Oliver was born to our oldest son Brian and his wife Michelle, what happiness Oliver has brought to their lives and ours. Later in July we celebrated the marriage of our son Bill and his lovely bride Rachel whom we found out in October are expecting a baby in June. We watched with much pride and happiness as our daughter-in-law Rachel received her RN license and it was with great pride and joy that we watched Angie get hooded with her masters in Family and Marriage Therapy! We have celebrated 15 birthdays in 2008 and in 2009 we will celebrate 16. Our family continues to grow and so do the joys of being a grandparent. The grandkids love their grandpa Bill (could it be because he is just the biggest push-over ever?) Grandma enjoys watching as all their lives unfold. It was simply amazing to listen to our granddaugher McKenzie sing at Bill and Rachel's wedding. It is always fun to go to Aubrey's orchestra concerts (she is very musically talented)and to hear her sing with the choir and this year we can also hear our nephew Zach who is also in the A.L. Highschool Choir. Each grandchild is so special and brings much joy! What a year we have had! We wish you many good blessings for 2009!

Blankets made with love by Grandma Rita

I made a warm winter blanket for McKenzie and Madison this Christmas. Madi has the latest craze "High School Musical" and it is a tied blanket. McKenzie's is the peace sign with the reverse side being striped with a pillow to match. The girls loved getting their blankets!

Abram discovers the pots and pans at Grandma & Grandpa's

Abram had fun with the pots and pans, we even threw a few cooking utensils in the mix. He made lots of noise to let us know he was having fun!

More snow and cold weather

On Saturday our family was supposed to have shared a Christmas celebration at Brian, Michelle and Oliver's (they go to Michelle's family for Christmas) and it was cancelled due to the snow and cold weather. Since Brian and Michelle were not able to come to Bill and Rachel's wedding this would have been the first time we have all been together since Angie's wedding. We did get a very cute picture of Oliver though in the mail on Saturday with his santa hat on and that cheered us up a little. Looks like it will be another couple of weeks before we can see him again. Christmas decorations came out on Saturday and we are looking forward to going to church with Angie, Barry, Abram and Bill, Kenzie and Madi on Christmas Eve and to seeing Amy & kids and Chris on Christmas day. I think we are in for a long, cold winter!

It's another snow day here in Albert Lea

White Christmas, Winter Wonder Land! Frosty the Snowman! Anyone of these doesn't begin to say it all. It is another snow day here in Albert Lea. We had over 5 inches of snow last night and it is still snowing. I only got stuck twice coming to work - but I did make it in. Main roads were plowed but not the residential streets. I imagine there were a lot of Yahoo's going on in households here in Albert Lea this morning due to kids getting an extra day of their winter holiday. More snow headed our way tomorrow!

The windows are coming when?

Last night we finally made the dreaded call to the window installation business since they of course did not call us on Monday as they promised. Yes, you guessed it windows not coming until December 29th. Looks like tonight will be spent getting the tree up. Let the fun begin!

Children's ALMC Christmas Party

This weekend was the annual ALMC Children's Christmas Party at Health Reach. It is an afternoon of crafts, frosting cookies, playing games, doing hand prints, visiting with Santa and picture taking. Our EMPAC committee starts about July preparing for this special party, selecting crafts, cutting squares for the hand prints and ordering supplies as well as a special gift to be put in the santa bags for each child. It takes quite a bit of planning and Friday afternoon was spent getting all the crafts ready, the supplies set up and the goody bags put together. On Saturday I picked up my nephew Brayden and he came to help and have fun. He was a great help and enjoyed hisself too. Brayden worked at the Ice Pond, the Candy Cane walk and helped with the set up and clean up. He was always asking what needed to be done next. He was fun to have with and all my co-workers thanked him for helping and asked him to please come next year! He told them "for sure" he would. It was great to see kids having a good time and really enjoying the party. We had over 300 people there! I only wish Bill would have still been around because the hospital's sound system pieces are lost (guess the Telecom staff took the sound system to Crecendo's and never got the parts back) and I had to page with the telephone when I called out the #'s for santa pictures and you could barely hear the page so the only time I could page was in between the Candy Cane walk music. So, needless to say I was a little bit frustrated by the end of the afternoon. Always a little bit of excitement to add to things!
And no phone call as to when window installation will happen either so tonight the tree's going up and the outside decorations too.

Christmas is almost here and no decorations up yet!

December 12th and not a phone call on when the window installation will happen. I did put the Nativity scene up in it's usual place last night. As I unwrapped each special piece I began to think about what Christmas means; to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and a time to thank the Lord for what he has done for us, the special blessing of children and grandchildren and how each one is unique in their own special way. The joy of brothers and sisters and their families. The goodness of parents. The spirit of Christmas is in my heart, the shining eyes of the little ones singing winter songs. The pouring out of Christmas spirit in the teens as they sing the ever popular Christmas carols of the past. The ringing of the Salvation Army bells, the lights, Christmas movies, the sweet aroma of sugar cookies, waiting to be frosted by grandkids, the holiday food and most of all the cheer and good wishes that go round this time of year. Yes, Christmas is a special time of year! Who needs decorations anyway?

Christmas is coming!

December 8th! Yikes! The Christmas season is here and I do not have a Christmas decoration up - neither in the house or outside. I haven't even put up the Nativity scene! We are anxiously awaiting new windows and when they will be put in remains a mystery (they are supposed to be in today and they will be setting up an appointment to install, sure it will probably be the week of Christmas). A mystery I don't want to deal with. There is just something missing without all the bright lights and Christmas touches. Can you imagine? I can just hear the kids saying "REMEMBER, THE YEAR WHEN MOM WENT WITHOUT CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS!"

The haircut

Do I really have to get a haircut?


Oh yes! It won't take me long to buzz your hair! says Ashley


Wow! Handsome dude!


Lookin Good!

My niece Ashley spent some time with me over the Thanksgiving holiday. I hadn’t seen her since last summer since she is student teaching in Appleton, Wisc. We had fun catching up and going through the black Friday ads. She picked up her brother Colton and he helped us look through the ads too. Caleb had been over earlier and he had put a check mark by each of the toys he wanted for Christmas so it was easy to make a list out for him. Ashley buzzed Colton’s hair, needless to say he was a little reluctant to get this done. Here are a few pix’s of the event.