Thur Dec 31

12/31/09 I can't believe I actually got one whole year blogged. I should look back and see what all went on. It's been a pretty good year. Lots to be thankful for. Kim L. called this am. Two nights ago she was in her kitchen after the family was finishing eating supper. She fainted/ fell to the floor/ was having a seizure/ turning blue. Tom gave her CPR and they called an ambulance. After checking her out in the Storm Lake hospital the past 2 days, everything looks fine. She may just be one of 60% of people who have a random seizure once in their lifetime. She isn't suppose to drive for 6 months and they are not having their usual New Years Day get together at their home. My, oh, my, we never know what a day may bring. May you all know who much we appreciate and love each of you. Denny's folks came over for roast pork supper tonight. Earlier we had discussed what we could be doing these next few days. We each made a list...Denny said we should include the amount of time we felt each project could /would /should take. Amazing after 36 years we had about the same list of possible jobs...and the total came to 18 hours in each of our lists. Guess we have our work cut out for us...should we choose to take the assignments. :) We were going to start on taking out the brick and board storage shelves from the basement to the machine shed before the folks came over. This was to make room for the baby crib in the furnace room and leave more room in the yellow room. I had removed/ sorted/ trashed/ restashed all the stuff that was on the shelves. Well, when Denny pushed the garage door opener...(without first prying the heavy iced door up from the cement garage floor) ...it broke. Add another 1 1/2 hour job to the list. It did get fixed before we went to bed. Instead of watching the ball fall in New York City. I watched Denny on a ladder in the garage and the tools fall. Happy New Year!! We did go to bed before 12. Fuddy Duddies.

Wed Dec 30 14150

12/30/09 I started to IG around noon...got to M31 and headed north to Arthur. NOPE I'M NOT GOING. Didn't feel comfortable turning around until I got to where Thies' used to live. All the roads were 100% snow and ice covered. Oh, my, I'm not going when I don't have to be out. Most of the day I worked in the furnace room moving furniture and priming the west wall. I hope to paint it with some blue that was left from Evan's room. I'm wtiting down some stats for our vehicles. 2004 Prius purchased 11 '09 miles 126,026...now 127,527 1995 Honda Civic purchased 8 '02 134,940...now 228,856 2001 Ford pickup purchased 7 '06 83,529... now 109,668 2002 Chevy Malibu purchased 10 '04 67,511...now 137,642 2005 Harley purchased 8 '04 0 ...now 39,149 We get around. Just thought I'd put all the information in one spot. Hopefully next year there will be lots more miles on the Harley.

Tues Dec 29

12/29/09 Anabel and Howard went to SC to get her monthly cancer shot. After I took trash up to the unit I went over there for a visit. I started on the storage shelves in the furnace room. Quite a bit of that could go to the trash tomorrow. Denny came home from work, ate a bite, paid some bills and went to move snow at the unit. When I put our new passports (that came yesterday) in our safe I found my Southwest $200 coupon. It has to be used by Feb. 24. Where should I fly to? I'd hate to let it go unused.

Mon Dec 28 14100

12/28/09 Beautiful Day...if you like white ground cover and if you don't have any place to go. Denny made it to work, almost getting stuck at our south corner. Larsons came and scooped the folks and the unit out again. Mark had semen delivered to Arthur instead of the unit. I finished sending out Christmas letters...if the mail man can make it. I'm getting caught up on this blog. Hadn't really made any entries since last Monday. Luke took lunch over to the Arthur banker. My next project is cleaning out the cold closet to make room for 3 tubs with Christmas decorations. I got high hopes.

Sun. Dec. 27

12/27/09 We did get to "SEE" Mandy on the computer on Christmas day. Anabel is telling Mandy "Thanks" for the doctor kit (that also had eye glasses.) In the am we went to SS. Roads were passable, not wonderful. I wouldn't be going by myself. Luke and Karen joined us for church and then we went to Subway for lunch. Thanks! Home for a quick nap. Then L&K came to the farm and we went to G&G to visit. I sent cavatini home for Karen's family for supper. The rest of the night Denny and I just lazied around.

Sat Dec 26 14075

12/26/09 Like most mornings when the kids (usually, Haley and Evan) got up they joined me in our bedroom and watched videos. Walt Disney, Little House on the Prairie, or the end of Wonderful Life. Nice snuggling, quiet time. The snow plow went by and Grandpa got the tractor with the chains on ready to move snow from the driveway. 4 little ones watched from the front door and the living room window. 4 big ones spent time warming vehicles, packing, picking up, and consolidating things from around the house. Soon the house of 12 was just down to 2, Denny and I. What a wonderful Christmas family time it was. Thanks for coming home. We love you all so much. We went to the folks about noon when Linda and Dean were coming with pizza and a new shelf for the folk's new TV. Then we worked at the unit. When we got home we cleaned. Denny also glued 6 wooden chairs back together. He found out where the leak was near the washing machine, cleaned out 4? drains, and washed several loads of clothes. The electricity blinked off and on for a couple hours.

Friday Christmas Day 2009

12/25/09 MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Denny fixed bacon and eggs. Then he read the Christmas story from the book of Luke as we sat around the table. We had planned that after opening presents GG&GG and Youslings would come over for turkey. NO GO the roads were bad. Mo. Johnsons had planned to head to Kingsley in the afternoon. Matt, Luke, and Phillip tried the road going north. They got stuck once on the way to 175... those 3 men were able to scoop and push out Matt's truck out. Then on the way back to our farm, they went in the ditch... that took Dean M.'s tractor to get out. Denny put chains on our tractor. Denny and I walked to the unit to take care of the pigs. Then we started a fire in the coop and had a nice visit before heading into the house.