Friday, April 23, 2010

How Do You Measure a Year?

"Five hundred twenty-five thousand Six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand Moments so dear

Five hundred twenty-five thousand Six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

..... How about love? How about love? How about love?
Measure in love
Seasons of love, Seasons of love....

......Remember the love (Oh you got to, got to)
Remember the love (Remember the love)
Seasons of love (Measure measure your live in love)
Seasons of love
Seasons of love

- "Seasons of Love" from the show "RENT"

Seasons of Love

I saw the Duluth Playhouse production of the former broadway show from the '90's, this week. One of my co/workers and her fiancee had major roles in the play. The show was so well done, the cast was so talented, such great voices and acting. My co/worker and friend, when she heard I was going to the show said "Oh, Linda don't hate me after", she was referring to the part she was playing. "My goodness", I told her, "how could I ever hate you"!! She is the sweetest girl ever, I love her dearly, and of course, as I told her "you are an actress...you are only acting the part, Iknow that". She thanked me, saying not everyone does. Yesterday she told me that her Mother will not be seeing the show, that her Mother "wouldn't be able to handle it". Too bad, for her Mother, missing out on seeing her daughter as a good actress, with a great voice! I would be so proud!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Silent Movie

Early this morning I watched a movie from the cable station. It was a silent movie from 1928. I really have never watched a whole silent movie before. It was interesting. It was "The Passion of Joan of Arc". It was about her trial and of course ended with her at the stake. I must say, the men in the movie had to be the ugliest men I've ever seen. The actress who played Joan, however, was a great actress! She was a stage actress, and this was the only movie she was ever in. The commentator before the movie said that the director was very hard on the actress during the filming, made her kneel on hard stone floor for hours and things like that, for getting the suffering effects he wanted, during torturing scenes, etc.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

SPRING in Hudson

The St. Croix River - 2 blocks from Dawn & Bob's Home - the ice is gone from the river
Their back yard. The grass is green!
Green Grass
BUDS!
Read below about my visit with family in Hudson, WI. Spring comes there a bit sooner, even though we are having an early spring here in Duluth. I am posting some photos, to show the green grass the the buds on one of the bushes in their yard.

Visit with Grandson


Tuesday and last evening I was in Hudson, WI visiting our daughter and her family. (See more about my Wednesday in the post below). It was much warmer down there, as usual and it was nice to see GREEN grass there. Their leaves aren't out yet, but one of her bushes had buds on already. I am posting some photos here.

On my way back to Dawn's from my meeting last evening, I stopped at the dance studio where our Grandson Skylar was teaching dance. I timed it well, between his classes, and was able to spend about 15 minutes with him. He and I are very close, so he is always so happy to see his Grandma, and of course, I feel the same way. He is the sweetest Grandson a Grandma could have! He is 20 now, and hasn't really felt the need, or felt that he was "ready" to go to college. But, he told me last evening that he is now seriously thinking of going to school, to at least get a 2 year degree. He said he now sees that he really needs to do that, to get ahead in life. Well, you know, Grandma was happy to hear that! I love him so much though, that whatever he does, is fine with me. I only want him to be happy, but it is nice to think that he is doing some maturing. (note- this photo of him is about 2 years old)...

How Motivating!!

Another friend e mailed and asked me if I wasn't going to be blogging anymore... no, Diane, don't quit looking. I'm here!

Tuesday evening I visited our daughter Dawn, and her family in Hudson, WI. I had a work meeting to attend on Wednesday, so it's the perfect opportunity for me to visit family, as the Mendota Hghts. office is only about 30 min. drive from her house. The meeting was until 7 pm, so I stayed over last night and drove home this morning. It was our semi-annual regional meeting, where the Minnesota region staff get together, for training, information, etc. It's always nice to see the co/workers from all over the state that you often only see at these meetings. All the other staff stayed overnight and had more training today. Us "Administrative Support" staff only needed to be there yesterday. So, I had a quiet day at the office. (Got a lot done, no interruptions...ha ha). One of the speakers yesterday was a motivational speaker who talked about the importance of "First Impressions" and how to make a good "first impression"! He reminded us (I'm sure you've all heard this before), that when someone meets you for the first time, they only take 30 seconds to have an impression of you that usually "sticks", so you want it to be a good one! He was very good. He grew up in Poland, under the Communist regime. He escaped to Austria when he was 17, and he lived in a camp until he got political assylum to come to America when he was 23 years old. Needless to say, he loves America and his story was quite interesting. He told how "making a good first impression", helped him through many rough times in his life. (He's in his 40's now).

We also heard from our CEO, Jeri Allen. She is a great speaker, and never fails to impress us, motivate us and give us good tips! When we hear her, we are reminded why she is our C.E.O. She is a special person! So, it was a worthwhile meeting!

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Palm Sunday & Easter Sunday at Hope UMC





EASTER SUNDAY, 2010 Duluth, MN


I can't believe I haven't written since the beginning of December. Here is is April already! Well, winter has passed fast here in Duluth, MN and it wasn't our usual long, hard winter. In fact, no snow storms in March, all of our snow on the ground gone by the middle of March, and nice, warm, spring days in March...wow.... 2010 weather has been kind to us so far! I think this is the earliest spring I've seen in the 40 years I've lived here! Today has been cooler (40's), but it is very sunny, so it is very spring like!

Here are some photos from our church, HOPE UMC this Easter Sunday morning. We had an 8 am service and a 10 am service with breakfast in between put on by our men and youth! Our Pastor Laurie had two wonderful messages, good services and great music! A real highlight that we won't soon forget was our final song where the choir invited anyone in the congregation who wished to sing with them to come up and sing the "Hallelujah! Chorus", from Handel's Messiah. It was so wonderful to sing it again, and to have so many of us up front singing it, how inspirational!!! Then our wonderful organist, Jody Franklin, topped it all off with the Postlude "Toccata from Symphony V"....what a Sunday!

Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen, Indeed! Hallelujah!!!!

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