Sunday, November 29, 2009

Right Brain - Left Brain!





Caught Steve answering his cell phone the other day when he was already on the land line phone!  Don't know about you, but my right and left brain cells probably wouldn't be able to handle two conversations!  He looked so funny I had to take a picture.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Thankful for - -

I am so thankful for a wonderful family - My husband, our girls and their husbands, grandchildren, our health and wealth of family.  We are not wealthy of money, but of love for each other.  I thank you Lord for each day we have together.

Christmas 2008
Steph and Spotty, Leah, Amanda
Cullen, Floyd, TC, Steven, Jessica & Blake


Jessica and baby Renee Nov 09
date on pic  is wrong.


We wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving Day and weekend.  We will be having dinner at noon with Leah's family coming, and an afternoon of games at our kitchen table!  Steph, Cullen, TC and Floyd, Jessica and baby will not be with us this Thanksgiving; but will be with us in our hearts.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

I Think I'm Happy Again!

Well - after I calmed down a little, I decided to try getting through  to Lexmark and found another 800 number - this time it worked.  I was on the phone for 2 hrs with Will from the Phillipines!  And now my printer is working wonderfully!!!!!!!!!!!!   At least it did for the test, etc. etc.  I don't have time to do much now, as I have to get ready to go to town for bell practice. 
When I am ready to print more again, I'll have to go into Microsoft Windows to print my pictures because they are in KB and not MB.  The way I was doing it, they were going to the printer in MB and two pictures took up more space than the printer would handle.  So, I learned something new!
The only thing I don't like is now there is a white frame around the picture; but the quality is good.  So I guess all is well.
Oh - Will is a father of four kids, 2 boys and 2 girls, and it was 4:30 AM there; 14 hours difference.  He sounded very nice.  He knew where the Mississippi River started, when I explained that we lived nor far from the source of the Mississippi.  It just blows me away to think how this world is changing!  I'm glad he helped me, and there was no charge.  He assured me that no virus's, etc. would happen from the call. 
So all in all, the experience of calling the Lexmark helpline was good.  Let's hope all works okey when I get started working on photos again.

Printer troubles!

I'm having a down right pissy day!  For two days now I have been trying to print some more pictures for my grand baby book, and I have a project I want to do to transfer pictures to material.  New ink put in the printer; both the black and color cartridges.  I have a Lexmark 8350 printer and is prints wonderful pictures, when done from the Lexmark.  Well - it will print one picture, and then it locks up about 1/4 way through the second picture.  Can't close out; can't purge that print job from the printer; it just locks everything up!!!!!!!!!!!    I've tried twice to call the Lexmark 800 number, and get a recording that they are having technical trouble and please call back. 
After i reboot and up again, I can make a screen print okey.  Have done Restart about 8 times now.  It just makes me livid to have things not work right.
I've unplugged and plugged everything back in, and it still does it.   Now what?
Guess I'll take a disc into WMart and get pictures printed, but don't know how I'll get the other project done.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Fun Evening



Got a call the other evening from a close friend; "I got a deal today!" she says.  "You need to see what I got for a really good price!  I'll be right over to show you!"

OK - they were cheap!  Very cheap, and she bought all they had!  There were nine of them!  ha, ha!     It must have been about 8 pm - very dark!   I put on my jacket, and away we went -  first stopped at the neighbors driveway - One right by their name sign and flowers.  They are actually small, so I don't know how many people have actually noticed these new little additions to their garden; end of driveway; or 911 signs! 

Of course, she didn't bring her camera, so I got a few pictures when she put a few out.  I put some out too, and we sure had fun!  I didn't mean to cut her face off - but since it happened - you can keep guessing who it is!!!  Felt like a little kid being naughty; except this wasn't such a terrible naughty thing!   One neighbor was getting in his car to go to the firemens meeting that night, so we quickly backed out of that driveway until later.  I'm sure he saw HER car (she's his aunt) - and wondered what SHE was doing! Since SHE was driving, I probably won't be blamed!  ha!  We laughed so hard I had tears going down my leg!




A good guessing game for those that have noticed them!!!!!   See how dark it was!  So now since I've posted this and giving myself up, my partner in crime was - can you guess - Far Side.


Living It Up Country  thought she knew who did this!  Check her blog out!   She is still waiting for her Dad to write a comment on one of her earlier posts about some pictures she took of our old barn - and I've been told that HE IS NOT GOING TO DO IT!     So maybe she won't have a "give-away".  I'll keep trying to work on him!  We all want a "give-away" - right?!

Friday, November 13, 2009

Update on Renee!



By the pictures we are getting from Jess and Floyd, you'd never guess that Baby Renee started out as this little 3 lb bundle. She is growing so good and now weighs over 13 lbs! I can see her daddy in her and her mommy, and what a cute baby she is. We are anxiously waiting for them to come home for Christmas. I can hardly wait. The kids will be flying into Minneapolis, and we will be making the 4 hour drive to pick them up. They had planned to rent a car, but that has turned out to be over what their budget can handle, so I don't mind the trip. In fact, I'm glad, as I know Floyd doesn't like driving on Minnesota winter roads. Jessica has been gone long enough that she isn't comfortable driving on icy roads any more either.

So I'm busy sewing and getting Christmas stuff done. Now that Christmas is only 6 weeks away, the time will go fast. Hope I get done what I've planned.

You can see in this picture that she is trying to "talk"!
See you soon baby!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Deer Hunting Time Again!

I've been going through old pictures to find the one where my husband had gone hunting years ago. He went hunting for about 5 years, doing the whole thing of "male bonding" at the hunting shack (one big party if you ask me!) and each year he was un-successful at shooting a buck or doe. Well, I found the picture and had it on the end table in the living room with a few others, waiting to write about hunting, etc. etc.

Today I let Odda (our 7 month old Bernese Mountain pup) in the house for awhile. She and Hooch played awhile and I went about my business, not paying much attention to them, until I walked out into the living room and noticed Odda had chewed up a couple of pictures! Darn! Oh well, will scan it any way. Hubby Steve is the one partly chewed up! Brother in law Willie and Steve both got does that year. This was sometime in the early 70's. Also, this was the last time Steve went hunting! He didn't like killing this deer. Besides that, we're not particularly excited about eating venison. I don't like it at all since that was mostly the meat we grew up eating; and I was just sick and tired of it! So it didn't bother me at all that he hasn't gone hunting since then.

Except - we live on a farm. We plant corn. So therefore we feed deer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One morning from our kitchen window we watched 42 deer leave the South end of our corn field (which is only 18 acres). We can't see the North end of the field from our kitchen window, so don't know how many left the field from that end. Now I wouldn't say there is a shortage of deer in our area. We have neighbors that hunt in the area, and our grandson and son-in-law hunt our property part of the season. But those darn deer are so smart, and don't show up during hunting season. They hunker down in the middle of the corn fields or in the woods until night time - knowing they are safe in the dark!

I like to watch the deer, but they can and do damage crops. They love the beans in our neighboring fields, our corn, and they munch on area grassy pasture land. We have them come into our yard and chew on the trees, crab apples and the trees. They get the dogs barking, so I know when they're here. We have tracks up by the steps even. They like the spilled corn where Steve grinds feed for the pigs.

Don't want to forget the hazzard of deer on the roads; being hit by cars in the early morning or dusk of evening. Since we've been married, I've hit a deer with every car we've had, except this one (so far!). I hope those that are hunting do fill their tags. I like to think that those hunters do like venison meat, and by hunting, it helps them fill their freezers for good meals this winter.

Even though they're pretty to watch, fun to take pictures of, I wish the hunters good luck. This picture is our nephew Max's son Morgan. Max got this deer during bow season, and his son Morgan had to have his picture taken with the deer! Cute - and I'm sure he'll be hunting as soon as he is old enough. He is just a first grader now.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Remembering our Veterans and Soldiers



All veterans and soldiers are our heroes! The cost of freedom isn't free. This veteran soldier was injured in war and never a waking moment goes by that he doesn't forget what happened!

September 10, 11 and 12th I posted about visiting the Traveling Memorial. Check out those older posts. Click on the "label" below "the wall" and they'll come up!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Little Church in the Country


We attended a wedding last fall where daughter Stephani and husband Cullen were both in the wedding. The church was a little country church in southern Minnesota that doesn't have weekly services, but is still used for weddings and such by the families that take care of the church and cemetery. The brides family had grandparents and great grandparents that were early members of this little Lutheran church. Her great-grandfather helped to build this church.

The flag on my blog header is a 48 State flag. It hangs on the South wall of the church. This 48 Star flag was used from 1912 through 1959. The flag that Steph and Cullen are standing by, is on the north wall across from the 48 Star flag, and the stars show the number of members from this church that were gone to WWI, and the horizontal stars indicate the number of members that did not return. I can only imagine how hard it was for those families of this small community to have sent their loved ones to war; and not to ever see them again. Their bodies are probably some of the many soldiers (over 104,000 in both WWI and WWII) that are buried on foreign soil. With the flags still hanging there, you know how important it was for those that went to church there. With the flags hanging where all could see - they were reminded each time they were there of the fathers, brothers or uncles that were gone to war. There were no telephones to call home weekly. They were lucky to be able to send a letter occasionally. None of the modern conveniences we have today.

This little church has the origianl lantern fixtures hanging from the ceiling. The old carpet on the floor has that smell of "dusty old". The front of the santuary is original. All so beautiful. These early settlers did a wonderful job of building this little church. There is a balcony in the back, with a couple of rows of seats.
Would they have used that for a choir or maybe just overflow. I don't think the church would hold over 100 people. The old pump organ still works-but I'm not sure how many people today could play it. I'm sure the old organ really "sang" when it was played.



Monday, November 9, 2009

Bird Food


Berries lasted about a day after the birds found them!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Lil Bobcat!


Late this afternoon our neighbor called, asking if we were missing our cat. Steve had answered the phone, and told him we just had a barn cat, and that he is black, and should be out in the barn. Al told us we should come see what he had in his live trap, teasing that maybe it is our cat! So we went over. He had set a live trap by his garage trying to catch some of the wild racoons that have been making a mess of his yard and garden. Well, he had caught this young bobcat. Not much bigger than a large domestic cat. He was so frightened, and hissing. His tail was just a bob of a tail, and the back of its ears were tipped black. Wish I could have gotten a picture of it without the cage. Al will be letting him go, up the Smokey Hills area, away from our houses and pets.