The Nutcracker 2008

These are photos from The Hudson Dance Studio's performance December 5th of the Nutcracker Ballet. Our granddaughter was one of the children, and our grandson was the Nutcracker Prince. This was the second year that he was the prince and Madelyn moved up from being a mouse last year to being one of the children this year. Of course, Grandma and Grandpa had front row seats!

Oldies But Goodies

These are the photos that I put onto a Christmas Photo card and sent to all of my husband's family members. I received comments from some of them telling me they really enjoyed the photos. The little ones are not my husband, since he was 9 years younger than his cousin and sister, who were the same age, there aren't many photos with him in them. Most are of Frank and Carmella (my husband's sister). The 25 year old is Bob's cousin who is now in hospice. She told me it was her favorite photo, as she always felt she didn't take good pictures. The lady by the porch door is her Mother. The other lady in the hat, was my Mother in Law, Dolly.

More Snow and now the Deep Freeze Again!

It snowed all day yesterday, but it was a pretty, light and fluffy snow. However, I don't think my husband and son would have said that this morning as they had to dig us out, yet again. For the second weekend in a row they have had to deal with snow. We got 7 inches yesterday. Then of course, the temperature took a dive today, and the wind started blowing this afternoon. They are predicting a cold night and the wind chill is to be bad by morning, perhaps as low as minus 40 below.

I am on vacation all of this next week, I will be very happy tomorrow morning that I won't have to go out in that cold and drive to work!

I'm looking forward to staying inside all day, sleeping late and staying warm!

Granddaughter joins with Mother Daughter Tradition

You have heard the last few years, that our daughter and I have a Thanksgiving tradition on the Friday after Thanksgiving of attending Lori Line's Holiday Concert here at the DECC. This year was our 6th year of attending the concert. We decided that Madelyn was old enough to join Mom and Grandma, and we included her this year. (She is 8). She was very excited about going out with the "girls". She wore her new Christmas dress and shoes, and her hair was curled and put up, she looked so grown up. We had a lovely dinner at the elegant, italian restaurant "Bellisios", before the concert. We bought her one of Lori's bells, so she could ring it when Lori asked us to. She enjoyed her first concert, and we were thrilled that she could be with us. It was a lot of fun, and a nice tradition for us to have.

During one of the songs, Lori invites all children to come to stage, she has helpers who dress them according to the song they will participate in...this year it was a North Pole theme. They had them dressed as elves, penguins, sled dogs, etc. I have a posted a photo that she puts on her web site the next day. Our Madelyn was one of the penguins. She is pretty much hidden by a few bigger children, so we only see part of her face...but we know where she was.

Angel on My Shoulder

I must write and tell you about the blessing I had yesterday. I am still thinking how lucky I was, how The Lord was with me, and how grateful I am. The Lord was definitely with me.

I told you that on Thursday night my daughter and I went to see Celine Dion in concert. It was late when we got back to her house, 1 a.m. My grandson was staying at the house, as he was in Hudson to teach his dance classes that night, and since he didn’t work the next morning, he decided to stay at his parent’s house, so that he could visit with his Grandma. He had hot chocolate waiting for us. We had such a good time visiting with him, the hours went by fast, and it was late till we got to bed.

I did sleep late the next morning, thinking I had caught up on the missing sleep. I left Hudson at 11:30 am, because Duluth was expecting a storm, and I wanted to get home before it hit.

I noticed when I was driving that I was pretty sleepy yet. So, I stopped at Forest Lake, drove through McDonald’s and got a big glass of iced coffee. Then, I stopped in Hinckley, which is the half way point. I was about 50 miles from home, and I was driving in the left lane. They say it’s dangerous to drive when you are tired, that you can fall asleep easily. Well, I found out how easily, my eyes must have closed because all at once I saw nothing but white and it seemed I was flying through the white. I guess I must have dozed off, the next thing I knew my car had landed smack dab in the middle of the highway median. Thankfully, there was a lot of snow in the middle, from last weekend’s storm, and the snow must have been soft, as the car just “plopped down”, straight upright and just stopped. How thankful I was that I did not go into the other lane of traffic, I did not hit anyone, and didn’t seem to hit anything but snow! AND, that I did not land upside down or sideways. I really believe that God was there, keeping me safe. Thank goodness for cell phones. I picked up my cell phone and called 911. I didn’t know really where I was, but the 911 operator told me the tow truck would “find me”. Soon after, a state patrol officer came by, and I asked where I was “by Mahtowa” he told me. He called the tow truck and told him where to find me. I sat there for close to an hour waiting for him to come. I thanked the Lord that I was safe. The tow truck came and I couldn’t believe how fast he was at getting the car out of there. Amazingly too, there was absolutely no damage to the car. While I was sitting there waiting for the tow truck, it had started to snow and was coming down fast. The tow truck driver thought I was going too fast and ended up in the middle, as he told me "it's slippery, must be careful driving". But, I know my eyes must have closed. By the time I got back on the road, the snow had built up on the road, and it was slippery driving. Believe me, I was wide awake for the rest of the trip, and I drove about 30 – 40 mph the whole way to Duluth, along with everyone else driving slowly. The state trooper gave me a warning for “inattentive driving”, but he sure could have given me a ticket. I was so lucky in so many ways! I am still feeling that way all day today! The more I think about what could have happened, the more thankful I am. It’s really scary thinking what could have happened! On the rest of the drive home, I saw three other cars in the median and one in the right lane ditch. I'm sure the tow trucks had a busy day!

I thank The Lord for being with me. My husband kept reminding me today “how we could have lost you”… he said it scared him thinking of that, just as I was scared when he had his heart incident last spring. Very scary!

I did some research on line about falling asleep while driving. I was amazed to find the following facts:

"According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) there are approximately 100,000 crashes a year that are caused by drowsy driving. Approximately 71,000 people are injured as a result of drowsy driving. Sadly, 1,500 die.

In some respects drowsy driving is very much like drunk driving. When it comes to drunk driving, once someone has a blood alcohol level over .08, they are considered legally drunk. Studies have shown that a driver who has gone a day without sleep is very similar to a driver with a blood alcohol level of 0.10%, well above the legal limit.

Most car crashes in the United States do not involve alcohol. Most people in car crashes are wearing seat belts. While awareness of the dangers of alcohol and the need to buckle-up are important, drowsy driving remains an underappreciated danger."

Winter Wonderland in Duluth

I am finally finding some time to write. It’s been a long time again. Not that I didn’t have lots to write about this last month or so, I just didn’t sit down and do it. The last few months have seemed to be so hectic!

Winter has definitely hit the Northland these last few weeks. We are in the middle of a second big snow fall. Last Sat. and Sunday we had a blizzard, high winds and snow of over a foot in some areas of our city. Then the temperatures went into the deep freeze, and we had below zero temps and wind chills all week.

Today it has been snowing all day, but we don’t have the high winds, at least not yet. It's a light fluffy snow falling. It is beautiful if you don't have to be out on the roads driving, which we don't have to be. It looks like a winter wonderland out there. The temperature is in the 20's too, so that's not bad.

Best Birthday Gift Ever

My birthday was in September. On Thursday night I got my present from our daughter. I told her it was the very best present I ever got in my life! (She told me about the gift on my birthday in Sept.) She bought tickets for her and I to attend the Celin Dion “World Tour” concert in Minneapolis in October. Unfortunately, Celin got ill and had to postpone her concert to December 18. So, I took Thursday and yesterday off of work and I drove to Hudson, for her and I to attend the concert. It was absolutely wonderful, fantastic, beautiful, really good! She sure did put on a great show. Her voice is really something, and she is truly a great entertainer. I know how expensive those tickets were for Dawn, and we weren’t even seated close, but it was worth every penny, anyone spent for the tickets. It was held in the Target Center in downtown Mpls. I have never attended anything there. I could not believe that all the years that center has been there, that they haven’t figured a better way to handle getting all the people in and out of that place! **It was a real zoo before and after, but we felt the concert was worth all the hassle of getting in and out. We were parked on the 5th floor of the parking ramp, and we sat there in our car for over an hour, before the line to go down the ramp moved an inch. We were a good hour and a half just getting out of the ramp and out to the freeway to come back to Hudson!

Thank you Dawn for a wonderful Birthday gift! It was a fun night!

** We were among 16,000 people - that's a lot of people!

Finding the Christmas Spirit

This past week I was busy every evening working on the one thing that really puts me into the Christmas spirit. My Christmas cards! I usually send out about 100 of them. Each year I think I will cut the list down, but then I look over it, and I just can’t bring myself to take anyone off my list. It’s my way of keeping in touch with all those that I love. Most of them go out of town, back east to my relatives and friends. But, I do like to send in town ones to those that we don’t see very often.

I usually write a Christmas Letter that tells what has been going on with our family throughout the past year. This year I didn’t get that done. I decided instead to do photo cards, since its been a long time since I have done that. I have to say that I got carried away. I ordered them “on line” through Walgreens. I did one set that had a photo of all my aunts and uncles on my Dad’s side that was taken when I had lunch with them on my Pennsylvania visit in September. I wanted to send them to my cousins, so they would all have a picture of the aunts and uncles. Then I did a set with my grandchildren on, to send to the aunts and uncles. Of course there weren’t enough to send then to my friends, so I had to do more and put on photos of the grandchildren during their Nutcracker performance early in the month. Our Grandson was the Nutcracker Prince, and Madelyn was one of the children. Then, I had another idea. I had some very old photos that I had put on a cd of Bob’s family. I made a set with those photos on, and sent to his relatives. In all, I did 5 different photo cards, and everyone got a photo card! It still left me short of cards to give to some of my best friends that I see all the time, that I’d like to give to…maybe I will be making one more set!

So, now I have cards in the mail, now I can think of decorating the house. I know, I know, Christmas is just days away…so I guess I should be doing that this afternoon!

The Christmas Shopping stress was taken off of me (I’m not much of a shopper, so it is a stressor for me)… when our family decided that due to the economy and most of us not having money, that we would only buy for the children this year. Our children now are adults, so that means we only have to buy for the Grandchildren, and we just have two of them. I have already shopped for Madelyn, and will be getting gift cards for gas and food for the 19 year old “child”…I can’t not buy something for him… and money is what he will need more than anything.

The Christmas gift that my husband, our grown children and myself will be the tickets we have to finish paying for to go to Mexico for our youngest son’s wedding in April. We figure that has to be our Christmas gift this year!

Christmas Cookies

In years past, I used to love to bake Christmas cookies.

I cannot bake Christmas cookies this year. Much as I want to, cookies are one of my downfalls, when it comes to temptations during diets. Yes, I am still doing well with my eating healthy, in case you were wondering. I did have a little set back when fall came, and our weather changed. I was having a terrible time not craving the sweets and especially chocolate. But, I think I have now surpassed it, as the last two weeks I am doing much better. Because of the set back, I quickly went up a few pounds, and for about two months I have been playing the up and down game between 6 pounds. I can’t seem to get under my plateau weight, but at least now, I’m back down to it, and I have to keep up, so I can get under it! This means, I cannot bake Christmas cookies, as I will want to eat them! I always make nut goodie bars to take to our daughter’s on Christmas Eve, and I told her I would not be doing that this year. She said that would be fine because she is trying to lose weight too.

Today our son asked if I would help him make 22 dozen dipped Christmas shaped pretzels, we dipped them in melted white chocolate. We did about half of them, then later today or tomorrow we will do the dark chocolate ones. He told me he wanted to take part in the cookie exchange they were doing at this place of employment, so that he could get Christmas cookies, since Mom wasn’t making any! He chose dipped pretzels, as he figured they would be the easiest for “a bachelor to make”!

I’m glad that so many of my office co/workers are watching their weight. Because of that, no one brought any Christmas cookies or treats into the office. Next week they might, but I will be on vacation.

November - Not a Good Month

November – Month 0f Sad Happenings

November was not a good month for our family. You know how things seem to happen in “threes”? Well, that’s what happened to my husband’s side of the family. One by one. After the third thing happened, we said “enough”! We have our three things, bad news must now end. My blogs below will tell you the three things.

Trouble Comes in Three's

Solvay Hospice House, Duluth, MN

First of Three's:

My husband Bob’s cousin (Rose) landed in the hospital and was diagnosed with terminal, inoperable cancer. Chemotherapy was not recommended, as the doctor said it would be too hard on her body, and that the time it gave her wouldn’t be worth the torture it would put her through. She was moved to hospice. It has not been spoken, but we all know people are not moved into hospice unless they have less than 6 months to live. It took her and all of us a long while to wrap our thoughts around that fact. I helped her niece to clean out her apartment. She is in the Solvay Hospice Home, which was just built a year ago, it is tucked into a beautiful wooded area, right in the city, but it looks like you are out in the country. It is a beautiful place, and if I were near the end of my life, it’s where I would like to be. The staff there are wonderful, very efficient, caring and compassionate. Bob and I spend a lot of time visiting with her, between the two of us almost daily, between him going to visit during the day, and me on the evening that he doesn’t see her during the day.
(PS... it has been so long since I posted, I just now realized that my last post in early November told you about Bob's cousin...sorry for the duplication...)

Losing a Sibling

The Second Thing:
In early November, we lost my husband’s only sibling. His sister, Carmella passed away. She has been ill off and on all this past year, but we certainly didn’t expect her to die. She passed peacefully away after falling into a coma when she was in the hospital. Her husband told us that we need to be thankful that we had her for 11 years longer than if she had not had a heart transplant 11 years ago.

My husband and our daughter went to California for her Memorial Service the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Carmella and her husband lived in California all of our married lives. However, I was able to get to know her well, because we visited her in Los Angeles for two weeks in 1979, and from 1989 on, we joined them many times in Las Vegas, as they liked to vacation there, and it was our way of visiting with them. We had many wonderful visits together and good memories of our times together in Las Vegas. They also visited us August before last, when they came to Duluth to attend her 50th class reunion. She will be missed by us all!

Bob said he feels really lost and alone now, with his Mother and his only sister gone. I know how he feels, I lost a brother, but I still have my 4 brothers and sister left. It’s got to be hard for him.

Heart Attack Waiting to Happen

Third Thing:

Bob’s cousin from Arizona, flew into Duluth to visit the cousin in Hospice, soon after she was there. It was very nice to visit with him, and it meant so much to Rose that he came.

About 2 weeks after he returned to Arizona, he went for his annual physical, and found that his EKG was abnormal. They rushed him to a heart doctor, and to an angiogram, to find himself less than a week later, having triple by pass surgery, for three blocked arteries. We feel it was a miracle that the blockages were diagnosed before he had a major heart attack. He has recuperated well. We talked to him the other day and his heart doctor gave him a clean bill of health. This is the cousin that we were planning to visit last April the week that my husband landed in the hospital for heart problems. He, like my husband, had no symptoms prior to this. His cholesterol was under control, and he had no high blood pressure history.

Both of them could have dropped over from heart attacks and died… we feel very blessed that the heart problems were diagnosed and taken care of right away for both of them! Thank you Lord!