Wednesday, November 30, 2005

The weather did it again!

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving Day as we all know. We had a blustery day here, but the sun was shining inside and outside of our house. We had Thanksgiving Dinner here with our family including my parents, my sister Dale and her hubby Jim, sister Dana, and our extended family Peggy and Amanda Higgins. We sat around the dinner table in our new addition room that was built specifically for that purpose (for the most part) and ate and ate and ate. Well actually we ate and then we talked. We were at the table over 2 hours talking about past memories and what we are thankful for. I am so glad we had that time together. It was a great blessing to me.
Then the next day, I went back to work on the mail route......disaster. The day after a holiday is never fun. Then when you add 3-4 inches of snow and no snow plows out things get interesting. When you add the fact that I was on the ridge driving on winding valley roads things got really interesting. At one point, I prayed myself down a huge winding hill and said thank you God towards the bottom and then proceeded to end up in a house's yard. Thankfully the man was there although he was leaving and had I been a minute later, he would have been gone. We dug the car out and rocked it until it came free and I was off again. That would not have been so bad if I had not been stuck once already and was now running about 2 1/2 hours late. The office sent another sub out to take my mail in so it could go on it's way and I continued on the route. Right after that sub left, she went into the drink, but got out. I went up another one of those wonderful hills and could not slow down on the top enough to make a corner. I went right off of the top of the hill and was headed straight for the fluffy little sheep in the pasture below. Well, I yelled (mostly in my head) "please God, I can't afford to buy another car" and suddenly I stopped. I just kind of plunked right off the road and came to a stop. There was no way to back up, but I remembered that to the left of me was an old driveway and a gate. I turned the car as sharply as possible, drove it to the left and right out of the field and out past a house that is being built and on down the road again. Worked slick. Thank God there was not too much snow to do that. I went on with the route and finished it in too, too many hours. Usually because this route is the largest in Tomah at almost 100 miles, it takes me 4 1/2 hours or so. I was out there for almost 7. I do not want a repeat performance anytime soon.
My new mail route has been delayed for a month or so. The post office reminded my boss that they cannot change a route during the month of December. So.......January seems like the new date for me to start. It will bring about a change, but I'm pretty sure that I need a change right now.
After all of that snow on Thursday, we ended up with rain Sunday and Monday all day long. Hard rain. The temperature went up to about 55. Then the bottom dropped out yesterday and we were back to 20's and 30's with snow.
My Dad, Aunt, Uncle and I went to get Christmas trees yesterday. We came back with 3 that were over 10' tall, ours that is about 9' and my Aunt's which is about 6'. There we were tromping around in the snow picking out trees. The three largest went into the village of Warrens where we had a place ready. We will decorate them with white lights and we have deer made out of grapevine that light at night to place around them. This is the start of the Christmas decorations that we hope to add a little to each and every year.
I have the menu for Christmas Eve done for this year. Only 34 different things. I picked out some odd appetizers and some old standards. We will probably have more than 45 people here this year. I am planning for around 80 or so just in case. Somehow there never seems to be all that many leftovers. Of course if any of you wanted to come there is always room for more. Ha! Ha!
Christmas baking starts today. I think I have about 22 kinds of cookies to make. That will help to fill the 17 or so gift baskets that Will and I take to our loved ones and local people that we know will be alone at Christmas time. We also take goodies in for Will's shift at work and to my Post Office buddies. None of them are picky so it makes it easy. One year we did cinnamon rolls for everyone in our church and the church down the street. We will see what happens this year, it could happen again.
Well, life at our house goes on. I am working on a study on being thankful. I had just thought that I figured it out when God threw another whammy at me and I learned that I wasn't as quite as far as I thought. We prayed and God fixed it, but it was a quicky lesson from him on the difference between knowing and KNOWING something. I hope that I have learned it now and I don't have to do that again, but I'm not holding my breath. There is a great and vast divide between knowing something in your head and knowing something in your heart.
God Bless. Please, please take the time to enjoy the holiday season!
Deanna

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Thanksgiving is almost here!

I have so much to be thankful for. What blessings God has given us. Oh the house always needs work, the kids always need new clothes, the finances are very tight, but what a wonder to watch God work through all of this. The flip side is that we have a house, the kids are healthy and growing (for the most part we are even glad we have kids ha! ha!), we have jobs and we have plenty of food. What more could we ask for? As Thanksgiving approaches I start to comtemplate all of the things that have happened to us this year. As they were happening I did not really notice how all of the puzzle pieces fit together. As I look back over the year though.....wow!
Maybe the lesson to be learned here is not to get caught up in the moment to moment stuff and to look at the whole picture as best we can. Things may not be going so well now, but just remember where they were a couple of months ago and see what has changed.
I pray that all of you have a blessed Thanksgiving. May you take the time to enjoy the little things in life. May your holiday season be filled with feelings of joy. I plan this year to think more about the reason for the season and I'm going to try to make every moment count. After all, it's the memories that stay with you not the gifts. It's the hugs and love that warm you more than the plans, schemes and presents. Let's set aside this holiday time for family, friends and time spent together. Slow down and treat the holidays like a Sunday drive. You don't know where you are going, you don't know how you will get there, but oh what you'll see along the way.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005


its a "just kinda yuck" day. Windy and very "wet"

I call this picture: landscaping under snow...our currant bushes are looking a little past tense...

Front yard looking out our sun porch

Back yard looking out the sun porch; poor little bird feeder...

Looking out our dining room window

Jacob and the diminutive Josie

Jessa, Aunt Gale, and a very impatient Garth

well.....it happened

Our wonderful fall turned to winter.....overnight......I don't think that I like this...
Late last week our weather was in the 60's and sunny. Last night it turned into a full blown snow storm and this morning, 30-40 mph winds are whipping the snow around like little tornados. I would rather go back to the 60's but I don't think I have any choice. I had to make a quick trip to a town about 25 miles away yesterday afternoon. It was raining. No problem, I drive in rain for a living. The storm was not supposed to hit until 7 pm. Well at 5:30 on our way back....it started to snow. Not just a little snow shower. This was a power snow storm. Flakes almost 1 inch in diameter. While you are driving into the storm it makes you feel like you are in Star Wars going into hyper space. It is so hard to drive in that. The kids of course thought it was great and wanted me to go faster. I just wanted to get off the ride. I was so sick from motion sickness by the time I got home that cooking was a chore for me and that almost never happens. When it snows like that it feels like you are not moving, just the snow is. Too weird!
I was surprised this morning when they did not call me into the office. I expected one of the regulars to decide that today was not a good day to work. Since I will be starting my own route hopefully on the 10th of December, the regular carriers are taking as many days off as they can get away with, because they have not found anyone to replace me yet. Who knows how they will work days off then! All I know is that I will get home before lunch time everyday and I will have a set schedule.
Spring/winter cleaning today again. Will is home with a cold so I will go easy on him and let him just vegitate in the chair. My Mom and Dad (the chickens) left before the snow to go and see my brother in Tennessee. I hope they have a great time while they are there. Actually, I wish I was with them. Will and I would love to be able to go down there at least once or twice a year. It has just not worked out so far.
Well, off to go and sort more stuff. I don't think that Goodwill is going to know what hit them after I take all this junk (oops! I mean these treasures) down there. I don't know where we get some of it or even why we get some of it. I just have to sort every year and clean out and haul it out of here.
Hope you have a blessed day.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Saturday, November 12, 2005

It feels like Monday

Well, it's the day after Veteran's Day and I am dreading going to work. Usually the substitutes go in and help the regular carriers get all of the mail out. Today all of the substitutes are working and there will be no help coming from the regular carriers. It should be an interesting day. I am going in to work almost 2 hours early. I've already been up for quite awhile praying about it. There is nothing quite like the feeling of walking into your work space and having to weave your way through at least 5 stacks of mail that are taller than you. Knowing you have to sort it all and take it out today.
Yesterday was a BEAUTIFUL day in this neighborhood. It was over 60 and sunny. We went to an auction. Did not buy much but we did get Jacob this great set of golf clubs. There are 24 clubs, a water retrieval club, shoes and bag. Price $16 (Jacob's face PRICELESS!) They are so heavy that he cannot carry them all so he picked out the ones that he needs right now. The shoes even fit.
We also bought an end table and a coffee table that I am going to do a quick sand job on and restain to work with our house. We got both of them for a grand total of $7. We could use them just as they are, but I want to change the color.
Came home and worked outside in the yard. All of us working together was nice. We crushed aluminum cans (somehow they are like rabbits, put two together and suddenly there are 6). We also cleaned out the back of Jacob's truck and my car interior. It was so windy here the other day that it blew the plywood lid off of our garbage container and someone picked it up and carried it off. We spent a little time looking around for that but no luck. Someone must have said WOW just what I needed. Hopefully, it had not hit their car first.
I went to a conference this last Tuesday evening and Wednesday. It was in Rockford IL about 3 hours away. They asked people from the Cranfest to come down and teach them how to run a festival our size. Quite an honor and quite interesting. Although I think maybe someone should come in and tell them how to run a conference. It was a strange experience. They never did seem to get on the same track. I did however learn a lot from a lady that is from Texas and runs major festivals down that direction. She confirmed many of my own beliefs and that was a good thing.
We run into the "we've always done it like this before" problem. After 33 years our festival has many traditions and we try to keep as many as we can, but there comes a time when you have to give up some of those because they don't work anymore. I am hoping that she gave me some answers that will allow those changes to happen with a minimum of hassle.
She also used Bible quotations to confirm her ideas for things and that was in itself very interesting. I am not used to someone getting up and telling about Jesus leaving the flock to search for the one lost sheep and using it as a chance to tell about God's love for us. I was impressed that she did use them and managed to do so in a way that no one in the room seemed upset over it. I might have to work on that concept a little for my life patterns and conversations that I have with non believers.
Will and the kids are home together today. I hope they are all still alive when I get back. The kids are in one of their we will get along wonderfully for 20 minutes and then we will kill each other modes. Will and I just get started on something else and have to go and seperate them. When they get along they get along great. When they don't, oh boy.
Tomorrow is church (Will is speaking), fellowship, a birthday party, brats cooked over the fireplace for lunch and then Christmas decorations. Should be a full day, but I hope a good one.
God's blessings on you all. I am going to work.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

One of the reasons that we live in Wisconsin

Will posted some new pictures and wanted me to tell you that this is one of the reasons we live here. Most of these pictures were taken on my main mail route or very near it. Sometimes I have to just stop and look for a minute and be amazed at God. The leaves have changed since the pictures were taken. The oak trees are now turning their rusts, reds and browns. The aspen and popler trees have turned bright, bright yellow. There are so many colors that everytime you go around the corner there is another beautiful picture. It is hard to keep your mind on the mail.
Last night was trick or treating for our kids. They brought their friends Kevin and Layemar. I ended up making costumes for all of them. Not my best work, but they were happy. Jacob was Darth Vader complete with a talking, breathing full head mask. Jessa was a fairy and even had wings. Getting the wings to stay up on her back was fun. Layemar was Zorro and Kevin was a Knight and carried a battle axe that Will picked up somewhere. They had a great time and came home with tons of candy. Of course Mom was terrible and made them go to bed without sitting down and eating it all. I'm sure that they think the only reason we had kids was to be mean to them. My Aunt Carrie came trick or treating. She was dressed all in pink with a shoe on her head. She was the chewing gum under a shoe. Even funnier if you remember that she used to work in a chewing gum factory.
Mom and Dad had their first halloween living in Warrens instead of the country. I think that the trick or treaters about wore my Mom out. She was at the door quite often all night.
Things are busy here with one of our regular carriers retiring yesterday. That moves me up on the roster to the top seniority position. I get the next route. They have the case up for it. They are just working out the particulars. The only problem is I'm the only sub that knows all of the 7 routes. I AM the only one that knows 2 of them. They cannot find any other people to replace me with. Makes for lots of hours for me, but causes problems for them if both of those routes try to take the same day off.
Our church family Thanksgiving dinner is this Saturday. I will need to organize that today. Then on family night the first Saturday in December, it is Christmas Caroling with the community. I am looking forward to the holidays but am not ready for them this year. Of course, I don't know that I ever am. I have my menu for Christmas Eve planned pretty much. That helps.
Well, today is catch up day here at home, if I don't get called to work. I am going to attempt to clean the kid's rooms and move some furniture. Jacob is the ultimate collector and I have to go in a muck out his room once a month. You never know what you will find.
Have a blessed day.

















...as the sun rises behind me, I look in to my back yard...