Holiday Activities

It's been a busy couple of months. Haven't been keeping up on the blog like I should. So I will start with Thanksgiving. The below is the typical way of passing the time till dinner's ready. I don't know if they could look any more relaxed without being asleep.

Another Thanksgiving tradition? Looking at the Black Friday ads. Alyssa seems to have found something she likes!

For Mom's birthday this year Sara and I took her to Wausau for a day and to see the Nutcracker. The theater was beautiful and the production has some fun humor in it. Hope she had fun even though she wasn't feeling well.

My nephews were in the Christmas story production this year. They both played the piano before it started and did an awesome job. Look at the concentration on that face.

And who is the cutest black sheep you ever saw?

On Sunday the 23rd we went to Sara's to make Christmas cookies. Mom had some cute directions for using mini donuts. Here's Lys creating her works of art.

One of my nephews decided there needed to be a contest of the best decorated cookies. No surprise - Alyssa won. Yum!

I really liked my tree this year. I'm getting more and more blown glass ornaments. I love those. They look old fashions and really sparkle on the tree.

Another face courtesy of Alyssa. Doesn't look fake at all.

Went to Don's mom's house for Christmas and my mom's house for Christmas day.

The day after Christmas we had decided to travel to our Arkansas home. We weren't sure we were going to go, though, because they were supposed to have a winter storm. After debating we decided to go. If it got too bad we were going to stop and get a hotel for a day till it cleared up. It ended up being fine and we didn't see any snow until about 50 miles before our destination. Then when we got there six inches of snow was on the ground! Found out the area had its first blizzard warning on Christmas and we were there the next day. So glad we left the cold Wisconsin weather for the warm Arkansas weather - not.

I did think the snow on the holly bush was really pretty, though. Mom thinks I should use the picture for my Christmas card next year. Might just do that.

Jeff came over and helped ALOT wth the trin. It's 99.9% done. Yeah!

Kitchen trim is done. Notice the crown molding on top of the cabinets. Don even got the accent lighting installed.

I put up some pictures this time. Don helped me put the quilt hanger up. The quilt in the picture matches the one on the bed and was made by my mom. You can't see the quilt on the bed because we brought down the electric blanket. One of Don's best idea EVER.

Alyssa and I liked to go antique shopping while we are there. I wanted to have something we could both look for together while we are there. After much discussion we decided on pitchers that are 4 inches or less and are shaped like animals we like. There can't be just a picture on the side of the pitcher, it has to be the body of the animal as the pitcher. Of course I can't abide by my own rules. I bought one by the rules and couldn't resist the one that was not.

Alyssa had a concert for Christmas but was reschedule to January because of a snow storm on the day of the concert. The day of the concert that was to start at 7, Alyssa told us at 5:30 that was the day. Typical.

And last but definitely not least, we bought a "new to us" car. It's a 2011 Chevy Malibu 2LT. It has a ton of options including remote start, a sun roof, and my favorite, HEATED SEATS. The ride is very smooth and quiet. We tried out some Fords, but the ride wasn't as nice and the noise was noticably worse. Looking forward to taking a trip with it!

So, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

What's the latest possibility?

Well, let me tell you. I was hot and heavy into looking for a different car. The current one is fine except for one thing. The gas milage isn't so good. I had a lead on an awesome replacement when Don came out of the den with "something to think about". We are 90% complete with our Arakansas project, so it's obviously time to look for another one, right? We have wanted to replace our camper on our property in Athelstane in the near(ish) future. So the proposition of buying a house on blocks and putting it on our property was a wee bit of a shock because it wasn't a CAMPER. Any way, Don has been researcing the costs involved. We went up to look at it on Saturday so I took a few pictures. First, you'll notice it is totally a fixer. Secondly, the price is low enough to make it intriguing. Pic number one: view from the front door into the living room/kithen.

the house was moved with all the furnishings, including the dishes in the cupboards. Weird. Take a look at this super high fashion couch they left behind. Its sleeper sofa - BONUS!

Here's one of the big challenges, the kitchen. Needs a few things - like cabinets.

Pic from kitchen to "great room".

Latest in HVAC - 50 years ago.

Bedroom number 1.

Bedroom number 2.

I see a gut job in the future of this bathroom.

View from the outside.

Next project? We shall see.

Another musical evening

Alyssa had her first concert of the season. She's at Lincoln High School now. The girls were required to wear dresses and the guys were supposed to wear suits. I don't remember Alyssa being required to go to Lincoln for a concert last year, but this year the freshmen were on the stage for the last couple of songs. The concert started out with the concert choir of which Alyssa is a member.

Her spot was the top row, second on the right.

Her "twin" Haley stood right next to here for the last couple of songs after the other choirs sang.

And a last little surprise. Today after work I took a quick look at Facebook just before supper and Alyssa had an update that she's in a relationship. With Alyssa, you never know quite what that means. Well, I found out. After her concert we told her to meet us at the back of the auditorium. She brought her boyfriend to meet us! My little girl has a BOYFRIEND! And HE wanted to come meet us. How cool is that? He is six foot two inches. Alyssa is five foot three (a smidgen more because she's taller than me). His name is Casey and he seems like a really nice young man. He is a senior, works at the Courthouse Pub and is a really good artist according to Alyssa AND him. Laugh. . . Any way, Alyssa is all giggly about him. Love it.

Our latest trip to the Ozark foothills

Here's a firt. We went to our vacation home in Cherokee Village, AR and stayed the entire time in it! We didn't have to take advantage of my brother's place while we are working on ours. Another first is we had a guest! Alyssa invited her friend, Haley, to spend the time with us. Everyday I tried to have something for the girls to do. On Sunday we stopped at the falls in the city center of Cherokee Village. Not a lot of water falling right now, but the girls enjoyed checking it out.

Everywere Alyssa goes she can make a Titanic moment out of it.

After having fun taking pictures at the Falls we went to Griffin Park and the girls went on a horse ride. Haley's horse's name was Hiram and Alyssa's was No-Ears.

After a ride of abour 40 minutes, the girls were back. They had some stories about the horses being horses that I won't discuss here, but a typical complaint they expressed was sore butts. Alyssa was also jealous of the name of the horse in back of her being Ozzy. Apparently that's really cool.

Monday we went to downtown Hardy (try to control your laughing at calling it "downtown") and did a little shopping. Alyssa had been looking for a "dream catcher" to match her bedroom in Arakansas. The last time we were there the Native American shop was closed. This time it was open so we stopped in. The door greeter wasn't doing her job that day, so we had to go to her. Cheyenne is a little sweetie, just a little slow.

Tuesday we went to a natural wonder called Grand Gulf State Park in Mossouri. It's nickname is the Little Grand Canyon. I don't think I'd go that far, but it was fun to explore. To the bottom of the crevice is 70'. To get there you have to take 119 steps. There was a nice breeze blowing at the top, but nothing at the bottom. That equals HOT. No complaining by Alyssa - yeah right. She is NOT on my list of traveling partners. Nope, doesn't even make the list.

We did make it to the bottom, but we didn't stay long.

I think it might have been getting to be a long day. I had to stop the girls from throwing Don over the edge.

After the Grand Canyon we went to Mammouth Springs, AR. We went there last time we were in Arkansas, but thought Haley would enjoy seeing it.

A new tradition is to feed the ducks while we're there. That is the most important thing for Alyssa, actually. We had to plead with her to get her to go see the rest.

The spring has a couple of muskrat inhabitants. If you think of them as otters they are a lot more cute.

We got the flooring in! Huge in my book. Trying to sweep the OSB clean is next to impossible. Plus, it looks great. We are getting it that much closer to complete.

As you can see below, we also have a refrigerator now (way to the right in the pic)!!! No more daily runs to get ice for the cooler. I made and hung the curtains and got some decorations up on the walls. The chairs for the table were reupholstered in blue denim. Adds a little color and is more durable - definitly need durable.

Thursday we headed back. We stopped in St. Louis and went up into the Arch. Haley was never there. Just over a year ago we were there. Little did I know I would be passing the Arch SEVERAL times since then to our new place in Arkansas!

What did we see at the top of the Arch? The Cardinals stadium for one.

And the paddleboats and barges for another.

Hopefully everyone had fun. We got a lot of work done again,too. Our next trip is sceduled with Mom and Brian in November. The leaves will be coming down then and we'll be able to see more of the foothills. Then only a month later we'll be down at Christmas. Eric requested I post the pics from our lastest trip asap (preferably while we were down there) so here they are. We only went to one place that had free Wi-FI so I didn't post earlier. Thanks for looking, Jill

Wineless at a winery

The weather Saturday night was beautiful. We went to my brother Eric's and helped him pick up rocks with the the bonus of getting to drive the Skidsteer around! I think I did pretty well! After we went to Parallel 44 Winery for a free concert. It was a jazz band called "The Salernos". The sound system could have been a lot lounder, but what we could hear was very nice.

The winery set up a tent with a variety of wines for people to purchase.

The vineyards are gorgeous. Don and Eric took a self-guided tour.

And here are Don, Eric, Lys, Mom, and Aunt Kay enjoying the music.

Too bad it was the last concert of the summer. I would definely go again. Jill

And fun was had by all!

I have some really tallented nephews. On top of that, they are some real sweethearts. I was invited to their last baseball game of the season. A championship game, and they won! Couldn't happen to a nicer couple of guys!

I think Lys should spend more time working on her photography skills. She caught this picture of a hummingbird on our trumpet vine in the rain. Very cool. The vine is messy when it loses it blooms, but so worth it to see the hummingbirds and how happy the blooms look, even in the rain!

This past weekend we went to our place in Athelstane. We hadn't been there in months. Rolling up to the camper we saw what a jungle it had become.

Pay-up time . . . . .

Saturday we had an AWESOME time on the 4-wheelers. We stopped at McClintock Park for a breather.

Sine we had boots on, Don and Lys checked out the river.

Lys is also infamous for her ability to catch all manner of wildlife. We had seen some small schools of fish while we were walking along the bank which must have given her the idea to catch something. She eventually cornered this little guy. Don't worry, no crayfish were harmed in the catching of this river life. She let him go a little bit later.

On the road again . . . .

This morning Don and Lys went fishing. It was apparently a successful venture. They count who catches the most fish. Doesn't matter how big the fish is. Just has to be a fish. Lys won.

Very fun weekend. Only two weeks till we're off to Arkansas! In between we have Alyssa's birthday party and going to Parallel 44 for a free concert with my brother and sister-in-law, Eric and Michele. Jill