Giving Thanks

It is quite fitting that Mom's birthday is on Thanks Giving day. After all, I wouldn't be very thankful if it wasn't for my Mom and her influence over the years.

I was there in my heart. I thought about everyone being together in the living room; the suspense of who is going to draw your name and what sort of fun game one can make of it. This is Char's first year with the family Holiday traditions, I'm excited for her fun.

We hope that everyone had a great Thanks Giving. We had a wonderful time with family and our friend Laura. Bob and Bill joined us and Bill shared some of the pictures he took on his trip to Egypt. Although the pictures of the pyramids and hieroglyphics's are very cool; I bet it was totally groovy standing the in the shadow of the sphinx!

Our dinner was great in spite of the fact that we forgot to make the traditional 'Raisin Sauce'. There was more than enough food. We did plan a bit better and there weren't as many left overs as there has been in the past.

We had ham and eggs this morning with home made toast. Yummm.

We remembered the loved ones who weren't able to be with us this year. And the loved ones who we will always keep near us in our hearts.

Laura and Vickie

Ridley and Grandpa Jeff

Jeff and I are going to get the Christmas tree in the stand today to let the branches settle and I will put the lights on either tonight or tomorrow. Char and Vickie are going to come over on Sunday to give us a hand decorating the tree. I really am excited.

So now I am going to run back to the hardware store because I was so discourage that I missed Santa that I grabbed the wrong set of lights on sale.

Have a great weekend.

AML

Happy for the Holiday Season

Jeff and I stopped at Lowes this morning after coffee with the Johnsons and found the perfect Christmas tree. It's has the beautiful silver coloring Frasure Fir are famous for and the smell almost knocked me over. Not to wide so it hopefully won't push us out of the living room. It's about 9 ft. now so after trimming it will be about 8' 6", perfect for the 9 1/2 foot ceiling. I am going to use artificial garland in the house. I have enough garland to do the banister and one or two door. Not going to go as wild this year with greens and garland. There is a rumor that there maybe a little elf in the area next weekend to give me a hand. It's fun to trim the tree and stroll down memory lane with those who make the season so special thought out the years.

I hope you all have a great Holiday Season.

AML

A Change of Seasons

What a beautiful day for November 20th. It was pretty much my last day of work for the season, and I was ready. But today the sky was blue, very light breeze and about 45 degrees; a great day to finish the season. Jeff and I both finished the work day early and took advantage of the beautiful day by going for a short and not too fast of a motorcycle ride. Now I can say that we rode the bike on November 20 in Minnesota and didn't have a snowmobile suit on.

This was the first week of my time back with Ridley. On Tuesdays through out the winter Ridley and I get the opportunity to play together. This week we went for a walk to the park that is about a block from Vickie and Josh's house. Ridley sat on my lap while the swing went back and forth. He likes to keep it mild now, but by next summer I bet he is going to love swinging to the sky. It is so cool to look into those big blue eyes and see the wheels turning. Time doesn't stand still for baby boys. He sure likes to keep busy.

Wow, I can't believe that this week is Thanks Giving! I need to make a shopping list and check the coupons. We are having ham rather than turkey, we like ham more. We will be having dinner with with family and friends. I hadn't really thought about it till now, but that means I can get the Christmas tree on Friday. I really enjoy decorating the house for the Holidays and this year I am using some artificial garland and scaling back on the amount. We will have a real Fraser Fir, if I find a reasonable one, or a Balsam, it's the smell; like Christmas. And let the decorating begin.

Well where ever you are this weekend, I hope it's a good one.

AML

One fine Autumn Day

When driving over the bridge one fine Autumn day to get pumpkins in Wisconsin; we were stopped as the lift bridge opened to let a river boat through. The hill side in the back ground was alive with bright colors. It was very beautiful.

Later that day we broke the beaten path to a less traveled trail as we

went to see the oldest stone bridge in Minnesota. It was very interesting

but also marked as protected historical site with stiff penalty's for

trespassers. I didn't want to push my luck so I stayed back a respectable distance. I will get permission the next time I am interested in seeing or photographing it.
Imagine what and who traveled over that bridge though history... It isn't very wide, big enough for one cart or two people.

Now that I'm not working as much I have to try to be better behaved at regulating my life style. And by that I mean my diet and amount of activity I maintain.

We probable have about a weeks worth of work that we will stretch out over two weeks. So now that I won't be as active during the day I am going to have to start exercising in order to loss or even keep off any unwanted weight. Every year it seems to get harder to fight this battle of the bulge. I brought home the exercise bike that was in Mom's guest room so Jeff said he will tune it up and I will ride the bike to get some exercise. I just have to discipline myself and keep on track with my diet and the exercise. Wish me luck.

I hope that everyone has enjoyed the Indian summer that we were blessed with the past week in the Midwest. Hard to think of what it really will be in the near future. October was more like November and November like October. Keep seasonably warm thoughts.

AML

Great week for Indian Summer

On Tuesday Nov. 3rd the fire department presented Jeff with a plague and shadow box commemorating his years with the department. One other fireman retired at the same time so the families of the retirees and the other firefighters had cake and ice cream as well.



Vickie, Josh and Ridley were able to come and Ridley even ware his fireman rain coat and got to sit in the fire truck with Grandpa. He wasn't real impressed.

We carved a few pumpkins for Halloween to decorated the front door and waited for the trick or treader's to come. There weren't as many this year as there was last year. That seemed to be the story all around town. We had quite a bit of candy left over. I threw it in the garbage. This is the worst time of the year for weight gain. First Halloween then Thanks Giving and then the Mother Load of fattening food and my favorite holiday, Christmas. I'm trying to avoid going backward and gain back the weight I lost this summer.

The pumpkins were done with a pattern so don't be too impressed.

Vickie and Josh held a wonderful First Birthday Party for Ridley on Sunday November 1st to enable more of his family to join him for his big day. He had a great turn out of relatives from Wisconsin and Minnesota.

This was Ridley's first experience with cake; he wasn't too sure what to think about it and wasn't all that interested in the funny shaped food item.

We had a very nice time visiting with family this past weekend. We left home on Friday afternoon and arrived in New Holstein around 8 PM. We spent the night with Mom and on Saturday morning while Mom was sleeping in Jeff and I met up with Char and Carol at the Steiner's. Everyone is doing well and happy to be together. After a few cups of coffee and good conversation Jeff and I gathered up Char and her 'boys' and went to drop off the futon and table with 2 chairs at her apartment.

Please note that it is November 7th in Sheboygan Wisconsin and Jeff is in short sleeves.

Tyner is now enjoying a raised opportunity to play tug with Boof, and Boof is looking pretty relaxed.

We stopped to see how Doris was feeling after being sick that week. We didn't stay too long so she could get back to the business of getting better. Was strange not having her around more during the weekend, I missed her. After presenting her with mint that we picked from Char's back yard, we had Chinese buffet for lunch and then a little shopping. Char and Jeff had a geek bonding experience and I had a contact giggles. It was great.

We picked up dinner and went to Mom's to eat with her before going to deliver birthday wishes to my brother in law Dennis. Great reason to get together, not that we need a reason. This was a busy week for Birthdays.

The weather was so great this weekend, very warm for the beginning of November. We were enjoying the new deck that is at Mom's front door. She now has a couple Shepherd hooks holding bird feeders of different types to see the birds feeding.

I also had a chance to decorate a couple flower pots that were on the deck with evergreens that I found in the garden area. The Landscape was removed from around the house and was disposed of in the back area. I took advantage of the discarded greens and put together a couple pots to fit the winter season. That was fun.

So now life is getting some what back to normal. I am almost finished working for the season, just a couple days of winter greens next week and a couple days of tipping roses the week after. Next week I will start hanging out with Ridley on Tuesdays again like I did last winter.

So till next time.....

AML

Happy Birthday Ridley Dexter

Happy first Birthday to Ridley Dexter. He had a great party last weekend with many family members from all over Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Many More little buddy.
AML