HE IS RISEN INDEED.

May you all have a very Blessed Easter.

Local grandson, Avery, was invited to TWIRP at Lutheran High by a sophomore.  Avery is a senior.
I think you all know that our two boys attended Lutheran also.
Avery is Greg’s son. 
The girl, Becca, who asked Avery to TWIRP, is the daughter of one of Greg’s classmates, and was a good friend of his while in school. 
I remember her dad very well.  You  know that I worked in the school’s library during the years our boys were there, and even afterward.
Got to know Jeff’s and Greg’s friends very well.
Becca’s dad was so very friendly back then.  He reminded me of a big, cuddly teddy bear.  He would come into the library and say “Hi Ma”, and we would tease each other.
I haven’t seen him since then.  Becca says he is still a big, cuddly teddy bear!
Avery and Becca stopped in here on their way to the dance, so we could meet Becca.  Very nice girl–friendly, just like her dad!  And tall!  Her dad was tall, and married a tall gal. . Since I had problems being so tall when I was in high school, it was good to see tall Avery with a tall gal.  When I was in school the tall guys dated the tiny girls.  Very frustrating.  Becca totally understands, since she is a little taller than I am! And I am over 5′ 10″!
I told Becca to tell her dad “Hi, from Ma”.  Heard from Avery yesterday that she told her dad that, and he knew who she meant right away.   This is a picture of the two of them.  Becca is wearing flats, and Avery is over 6′ 2″.

Talked to the travelers on Monday night.
Judy is still enjoying her massage therapy schooling, and has 6 weeks to go.
On Sunday they went to church, which is located about half-way from where they are camping and the Atlantic coast in Florida.  After church they headed over to the beach, and spent the day there.  Then they watched the space shuttle launch from about 5 miles away at Titusville.  Jeff said it was so awesome.  It was just at dusk, and as the shuttle rose higher into the darkened sky, the sun’s rays hit it and it was spectacular.  Great experience for the grandkids!!
Last night, our TV weatherman out of Green Bay said the space shuttle would be visible orbiting over us shortly after 8 p.m..  We went outside and watched it for about 5 minutes before it dimmed.  It looked like a very bright star moving quickly from the southwest heading northeast to the big dipper.  About half-way through the big dipper it faded out.  Had never seen it before.  Not quite as awesome as watching it take off, like Jeff and family saw, but it was neat to think that it was the same craft that they saw launch.  Cool!
At the end of April they will pack up and go to Alabama for Jeff to work signage at a golf tournament.  From there they head up to Des Moines, to the same tournament he worked last year.  After that, they have 4 or 5 weeks free. 
Jeff said they plan (as of now) to only spend a week in their old hometown, LaCrosse, and then come over here for the rest of the time.
 Talked to Judy’s sis in Shopko yesterday, and she said she is planning a family reunion for their side of the family in June.  That will be just a few miles from us.
I told Jeff they could park in our driveway again if they wanted to.  Would save them some money not having to pay an RV park.  So will get to see them for a nice visit.  And will give us a chance to spoil the baby, Catalina—and the other two grands, too.  Can’t wait to see them all again!

Yesterday afternoon, while I was playing on Facebook, the doorbell rang.  (In fact, I was chatting with Sunny C on a farming game we both play—had to quick shut it down.)  It was local grand, Lydia.  She was home for Spring Break.  She is working at the grocery store that is maybe 1 1/2 miles from here during break.  After work, she decided to take a run.  Left her car at the store and ran up this way.  Decided to stop in and visit for a little bit. She was here for about 15 minutes when the doorbell rang again.  This time it was Avery, wanting to borrow an old wig of mine for an English skit at school.  Just after he left, Lydia was getting ready to leave to run back to the store for her car.  We walked her outside, and daughter-in-law, Lori, drives in the driveway!!  She didn’t know Avery had stopped by for the wig, and thought that as long as she was in town, she would pick it up for him.  The three younger grands were in the car.  The only one missing was Silas, and Lydia said she had seen him walking with his girlfriend on her way here.  Oh, Greg wasn’t here either—cannot forget my own son!!  lol

Yesterday morning we went shopping.  I wanted to go to Hobby Lobby to see if I could find a stand for a couple of my plants.  Also wanted to see if they had any benches for my bedroom.  Found possibilities, but didn’t buy anything yet.  Want to look some more.  Looked in Shopko, but they didn’t have anything.  Bought a bunch of groceries from WalMart, and then home.  That was  a lot of shopping for me after being so sedentary all winter.
All these stores are on the west side of the town 5 miles to our south— with the stores maybe 5 miles inland from Lake Michigan–near I 43.  When we left Wal Mart,  the car temperature thingy showed 63 degrees.  Coming home (a distance of about 12 miles) the temp. kept dropping, until it was only 41 degrees as we drove along the lake.  It was 44 at home here–we are a couple miles inland.  What a difference in such a short distance.  Later in the afternoon, the wind switched from the west, and we did get up into the upper 50′s, while where we had been earlier hit 70.  A record-breaker for them. 
This morning at almost 10, it is 45 here, but kinda overcast.
But, Spring is almost here, so I am happy.  Saw my daffodils just sprouting out of the ground along the south side of the house.  And the snow has melted a lot in the last couple days.  The lawn is almost clear, with just the big plowed or blown piles mainly left.  I can handle that!!
Well, this blog is long enough now.  While Lydia was here, she was telling us about the job she will have when she graduates.  Will save that for another blog.
Grand, Jacob, took his first chiropractic board exam, and told Jeff he thinks he did well.  He is such a brain, I KNOW he did well!!

Ken just took this picture of the neighbor’s snowman.  This one is even bigger than the one they built a couple years ago!  You can see our tiny house in the background to the right. 
This is a great family.  They have 4 boys, the youngest is in high school.  S., the youngest, kind of “adopted” Ken when we first moved in here almost 10 yrs. ago.  In the summers he would come over and follow Ken around in the yard and talk.  Neat kid.  Now that he is “grown up”, we don’t see him as often, but he always comes around to sell things for band, soccer, etc. at school.  He will then sit and yak for quite a while. 
One of their boys was valedictorian a few years ago.  Wonderful family–couldn’t ask for better neighbors.

On Sunday we went to Lutheran High.  It was their “Showcase Sunday”.  This is a fundraiser to get things for the school that are not in the budget.  This year they will use the funds to renovate the gym.
They serve a lunch, have entertainment, and have silent and oral auctions.  They also had a room with gently used clothes.  I didn’t get to see this room, but it is mostly dressy things—like prom dresses—for those who cannot afford to buy new gowns.
The auction items are all donated by churches, businesses and individuals.  I saw some gardening things I liked, but abstained from bidding.  We have so much “stuff”, we really don’t NEED anything. 
The main reason we went was to see our local grandson, Avery, perform.  He is in both the big choir and the “swing” choir.  We hadn’t been able to see him when they would sing at various churches, and thought this might be our only chance to see him perform.
They did a great job.  One of the swing choir songs was “Java Jive” (I think that was the name).  Several of the kids had little individual solos of “skat”.  Avery was the first at one microphone for his couple seconds worth of solo—-and the microphone wasn’t turned on!!  Poor guy.  His one solo—-and nobody could hear it!
They only did one piece with dancing, and Avery was front and center.  Took a movie of it with my camera.  They did very well.  Good job, Av!!!!
It is always sentimental to watch the Lancer Singers.  Son, Greg, was a member of the same group back in 1981.  Then his daughter, Lydia, was in the group when she was a Senior.  Now, Avery is in the group.  I wonder if any of the younger ones will follow, too.  Silas wasn’t in the group.  He was in a band with several of his friends, and they performed at the Showcase Sunday when he was a Junior.  Then he went to the public high school for his Senior year, and graduated from there.
Today I hope to get around to commenting on some of your blogs.  I have been very remiss in this, and I apologize.  As I keep saying, I have been reading my subscriptions, but know we all like comments, too!  Don’t know how far I will get.
Weather is messy.  Rain right now on top of all the snow.  In fact, it started lightly snowing on our way to the high school on Sunday, but had stopped by the time we came home.  Once we were home it started again with a vengeance—a real blizzard!!  As you can see by the snowman picture, there is still a LOT of snow on the ground in areas.  Our front yard isn’t bad—lots of trees to block the snow, but in back, between the house and garage, it is quite high yet.

We bought a new heated bird bath this winter.  The tray was bigger than our old one and didn’t fit into the stand we had.  So Ken improvised—-hence the upside-down garbage can!  We have discovered the birds like this bird bath much more than the old one.  Ken said that it mentioned on the box that the company found out that the larger bath was more desirable to the birds.  We have had lots of birds using it this year—maybe 10 times more than previously.  The little piece of wood near the back is for the squirrels to climb up on to drink the water.  Kind of weird—-Ken doesn’t like the squirrels around because they eat the bird seed, but he makes it easy for them to get the water.  Go figure!

EDIT:  JUST FOUND OUT THAT THE SHOW WILL BE SHOWN TODAY, SAT. MARCH 7, AT 2 PM, 8PM, AND 10PM—EASTERN TIME.
EDIT 2:  Just watched the early show, and didn’t see the girls at all.  In fact, they didn’t show the judges at all.  I think the girls would have been better off just staying right down in front where they first were—–lots of shots of pretty girls right down in front!!!  But it was still fun to watch and see what they experienced.

I forgot to tell you all something yesterday.  Most of you remember that our two singing granddaughters had moved to Nashville last fall.  They are the two standing in the middle of their family picture—which was taken just before Judy had baby Catalina this past summer.  Jacob, upper left, is in San Jose studying to be a chiropractor.  Then Hannah and Mindy.  Jordan on the right is still in LaCrosse.  He is the one who just finished playing Jesus in Godspell.  Gretta, seated left, and Kenny, seated right, are on the bus with Jeff and Judy.
Anyway!  I also wrote last fall about Hannah and Mindy ending up as judges on the taping of a TV show.  For those of you who remember the story, the show will air tonight on the CMT (Country Music Television) network.  I believe it is on at 8 Eastern/7 Central times.  It is called “Gone Country 3″.
Mindy wrote on their “Katrina Rose” Facebook page that they are not sure they will be shown, but she, Hannah and the other judges were on a raised platform and should be easy to spot.  But who knows how much editing is done on these shows. 
I have been watching the show.  Tonight is the finale, which Mindy and Hannah are part of.  It was pure luck they were part of it.
I had explained the whole story again, hit the wrong button, and lost it all.  Am not going to type it all again!!!
But, I found the blog I first wrote about it.  If anyone wants to read it, go down to the lower left of my blog, where the date “Nov. 16, 2008″ can be entered.  That will take you to the whole story. 
What the whole thing boils down to is that they take performers from other genres and put them together in a house for several weeks.  They each write a country song and perform other challenges as teams.  Then in the finale—which is where Hannah and Mindy are—they each perform their song.  The winner gets a contract to record his song.
The November blog explains how Mindy and Hannah “stumbled” onto the finale’s taping, and were asked to be judges.  Their votes don’t really mean anything, because the host and producer, John Rich makes the final decision. 
Some of the performers are:  Mickey Dolenz–from “The Monkees”; Sheila E; Justin Guarini—from American Idol;  Richard Grieco–from TV;  Tara Conner—former Miss USA (or Miss America???);  George Clinton;  Taylor Dayne.  Those may be all—not sure.
Anyway, if you have nothing else to do this evening, check it out!  I know we will!!!  lol

The days are getting longer, and when the sun is shining it is shining brighter.
So, now I am in SEMI-hibernation!  lol
Dreary days still do me in, though. 
Today is a blindingly sunny day–thanks to the sun’s reflection off of the newly-fallen snow.
Saturday was a snow-filled day.  It was coming down fairly heavily here, but difficult to see.

We received around 8″, and Ken said it was over 12″ where it drifted from the wind. 
I wasn’t happy to see it come, but it did cover up all the dirty snow that was still around.  Plowing, snowblowing and shoveling gave Ken something to do.
————————
The local kids came over on Valentine’s Day, bearing sub sandwiches.  Yum!  Had a nice visit, but think the two teens were bored!  They camped out on each end of the sofa, and this is what happened.
Avery

Louise

This was unusual for Louise.  Come to find out, she had a virus which didn’t really make her sick, just very tired.  She is fine now.
—————————–
We also received pics from the travelers.
Baby Catalina celebrated her 6 mo. birthday on Feb. 19th.  They took the traditional 6 mo. birthday pictures.  Here they are (The first one is a little fuzzy):
Before

Mmmmm—even the plate tastes good!

After:

I think she liked it!!!!!!!!
—————–
Yesterday, the 22nd was our 48th anniversary.
Feb. 22, 1961—-temperature in mid 70′s (Arizona)

Feb 22, 2009—-WI—-17 degrees!

And we haven’t changed a bit!!!!!!  Well, INSIDE we haven’t!!  lol

The local kids stopped by again, bearing  colorful, cheery flowers and good wishes.  Ken had gone to the grocery store and picked up some potted tulips.  It was the last pot left from Valentine’s Day.  They were past their prime, but will save the bulbs and plant them outside.  Nice reminders of our anniversary!

We didn’t go out to eat for our anniversary.  We never do.  But, we still enjoyed our meal.  Shrimp was on sale, and Ken had picked up a whole beef tenderloin on sale a couple weeks ago.  So, we had jumbo shrimp and grilled tenderloin.  That is all—no potatoes or veggies or salad—just shrimp and steak.  YUMMY!  Baked some muffins later on for a small dessert.