Decorations

Its time to take the decorations down. Its supposed to be 50 degrees today so a good day to take down the wreaths and stuff outside. The inside is coming down too. I put the decorations up early due to a party I had the beginning of December, so they have been up long enough. Hopefully I can get someone to come and take it all down to the basement.
My New Year celebration will be as it has been for many years. A vodka gimlet, shrimp cocktail, pickled herring, and Lipton onion soup dip. Then to bed at 10:30 only to be awakened at midnight by the fireworks and guns going off.
Happy New Year to  all.

Was it Merry?

Wow, what a day it was yesterday. Karrie came early to go to Church with me and then Bible study. We came home and started our appetizers and corn casserole. Then Roy came and we opened Christmas presents. Two of  my favorites is a battery operated drill and a Keurig coffee pot. Had my first cups of coffee  this morning, quick and good.
Went to my sisters for dinner, had plenty of appetizers and cocktails, followed by ravioli and sausage and meatballs. That was followed by a rib roast, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and corn casserole. For dessert there was home made tiramisu, an assortment of cookies and a store bought strawberry cheese cake. After dinner we started opening presents, unfortunately one of the Wood twins got sick and sort of put a crimp in the festivities. Their whole family have been passing this intestinal virus from one to the other. Theresa, Matt, and Maddie stayed home because they were sick, but sent Elizabeth, Anna and Megan. So we opened presents in a rush so that their grandpa could take the sickie home.  When every one else was gone, we[my sister's family and Karrie, Roy and I] exchanged our gifts to each other.  Then home to relax and go to bed.

ps. Check "Mom whats cooking" blog for a new crabmeat appetizer that Lee made.

Am I?

Am I becoming my mother-in-law? She had to go to the grocery store every day and I keep forgetting to get stuff and find myself at the grocery store every day and sometimes twice in one day. Yesterday I needed vanilla instant pudding and bought the cook kind, so back to the store I went. Today I realized that I used all of my eggs baking and back to the store again. I hope I have everything I need and don't have to go out again.
Presents are all wrapped, thanks to Karrie coming out on Sunday to wrap my gifts. Today I had a few odd ones to wrap and so I am done.
My sister, Lee is hosting Christmas dinner so all I have to bring is an appetizer and a side. I'm making mushroom squares that I haven't made in years. Will post the recipe if they turn out as good as I remember them. I'm also bringing a corn casserole. I bought all the stuff to make it for the LWML Christmas party, but Marge told me she was making it and it was already in the oven. So now I have 4 cans of corn to use up.

Its a Wonderful Life

Last night I attended the live radio broadcast of Its a Wonderful Life at the Rialto theater in Joliet. It was put on and broadcast by WJOL. It was a fun evening as the audience was asked to participate with cheering and jeering as requested by cue cards. My nephew, Brad who works at WJOL  had a part in it. We had great seats in the fourth row thanks to Tom, my b-i-l. I took these pictures without flash as taking pictures is not allowed. Throughout the broadcast the cast wandered on and off the stage and threw the old script pages on the floor. They had an old maintenance man coming on stage to pick up some of the mess that added to the humor. Mary and George were played by professionals and the rest of the cast work for WJOL and its affiliates. The Rialto is a grand old theater that has been renovated, just beautiful.

All Done

The repairs to Baby Jesus are finished and ready to be returned to the stable. His hand has been reattached and the crack in his neck repaired. Hope this latest fix lasts.

Guess Who is Visiting??

Yep, Baby Jesus has dropped in for some repairs to his wrist. I fixed it a few years back with bondo, but that didn't hold. I now used an epoxy putty; put his hand back on and fixed the crack in his neck and then will have to sand, paint and finish it with a polyurethane. He will be ready to be on display by Christmas.
A group from Church went carolling today and I didn't go. I'm making lemon squares for tomorrow's LWML lunch and had to change my plans for making a corn casserole. One of my friends said she was making that and it was in the oven. So now I will make a half order of fried rice[last time I made it, there was quite a bit left, thus the half order]. I'm also cooking a swiss steak in the crock pot, it smells delicious.
I am done carving Christmas ornaments, so now I can start on some new stuff. I think I carved  thirty something of the cowboy santas.

Christmas Party

We had our Bible study Christmas party last night. A few people were unable to attend, but it still was fun. My friend Pauline, the potter gave me this beautiful coffee cup along with a loaf of her homemade cinnamon bread, yum.

Miscellaneous Posts

I finally got around to taking pictures of the 2011 ornament.  Its a cowboy Santa.

I bought my first amaryllis and I think I planted it too early, and I thought it was red. But beautiful it is. 

And here is a picture of the luminaria bags, with Christian symbols cut into the bags. Becky writes devotions for each day of Advent which relates to the symbol of that day.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all. I stop and think how much I have to be thankful for and forget my past woes.  I hope you all have a very blessed day.

The Center

Yesterday was the art show at The Center. All of the art instructors and students displayed and sold their work. I sold a few ornaments so now I have to make more to have enough to give away as gifts. There was quite a crowd that attended; I guess due to a nice day. Afterwards we went to Fox's for pizza, our annual outing.

Phil's Friends

I went to a Phil's Friends dinner last night at the Medina Banquet Hall. There were 500+ people there that are Phil's supporters. Phil's Friends is now sending cards weekly to 800 people. In case you are not familiar with Phil's Friends, he sends care packages to people who have been diagnosed with cancer and then follows up with weekly mailings of devotions or cards or jokes that are drawn  or colored by school children. Anyone can sign someone up to receive the package by going to Philsfriends.org .  

A Pretty Day

The sun is shining and it's supposed to get to 60 and then the cold winds blow in. I've been busy working on Christmas ornaments as much as I can. Working with small pieces, I managed to cut two different fingers in the last two weeks. Maybe I should buy a glove to ward off the evil blade. Sunday is the art show at the Center where all of the artist teachers and students display their work and sometimes sell.
Tonight is a get-together of the Leadership council, we are all to bring an appetizer. I'm bringing crab rangoon made with won-ton wrappers in muffin tins.

Dreary

What a dreary dismal day. Went to Church this morning to pay bills and then had a lunch meeting. One of the women made a pasta casserole with Italian sausage. I brought Take and Bake bread from Jewel, another brought a salad and another dessert. It was a good lunch, but tiring meeting.

Monday

Went to a baby shower yesterday for Karrie's friend Nicole. I've known her since she was five because Nicole's grandma was Karrie's caregiver when I went back to work. It was quite a large shower with lots of gifts to open. There were two games; one was to guess the number of gumballs in a baby bottle bank and each one of us was given a teeny pink clothes pin that could be taken by someone else if they caught you crossing your legs. Karrie and three of her friends gave me theirs right away, so I had four. It was creepy because a woman sitting a little aways from us kept checking if I crossed my legs. I was being stalked and it was quite annoying, so when she went to the bathroom, we gave my four to another woman who also had a bunch and she won, she had four more than the stalker.
Today I'm off to buy a new dishwasher, my 21 year old Kitchenaid just gave up. I wasn't too happy as I had a large load ready to go and had to wash dishes by hand. How does that go again?

Trunk or Treat

Here are a few pictures from Sunday's trunk or treat.

Gail

Who? and Mullet man (Pastor)

 

The Nerds, Ben and Stephanie

                                                Orphan Annie

Me



Most of the day was fairly nice, sunny and a little windy, then the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up and it was pretty chilly, so we called it a day a half our before we were supposed to. I came home with my nose running and sneezing. I guess all of the corn dust got to me. Note to self, stay out of corn fields. 

Pictures

So I was all set to upload pictures pictures from my camera and the camera battery went dead and now I have to get ready for a meeting. Maybe this afternoon.

Happy Halloween

I have pictures to post from trunk or treat but didn't have time, went to a wake yesterday afternoon/evening on the east side and funeral today in Cal City. This was for my step-mothers sister, Chickie. She was 83 and had a bad heart.  Now I am manning the door for the trick or treaters. Only an hour and a half to go.

Saturday

This morning Lee and Samantha and I went to the woodcarvers show at the DuPage County Faigrounds. I bought enough wood to keep me in wood chips for a while. We walked around a looked at all of the beautiful carvings and ran into a few friends. From there we drove out to DeKalb to see Karrie's townhouse and have lunch. The townhouse is real nice but 1/2 empty. She has become a minimalist and has no lamps, no dining room furniture and no pictures on the walls and she doesn't want any. We went to Twins for lunch and met up with Katie, Billie, and Meila . They have the best pot roast sandwich. Then back home and Lee and Samantha took the pads out from under the furniture. I sure couldn't have done it myself.

Cleaning Carpets

Leo & Sons is here today to clean my carpets downstairs. I am secluded in a corner of my kitchen with furniture and plants surrounding me and the noise of the steamer and fans. They came at 10:00 and they just started on the living room dining room. Family room is done, but needs to be put back together with lamps and stuff. 

Where Did It Go?

The week that is. I've been busy but don't know what I did. Saturday Marge and I went to St. Peters Church in Schaumburg for an LWML gettogether. There were 200 women from the Northern Illinois District. We sang, prayed and listened to speakers. In the morning it was Tim Hetzner of Lutheran Church Charities, then a nice lunch and in the afternoon we split up and went to our choice of speakers. I went to hear a woman who ministers to the prisoners on Statesville. This is a maximum security prison and she says she does not fear for her life in there. I sure would be scared. Then I went to hear about Bethesda home for the disabled.  That too was quite interesting.
Yesterday Karrie and her friend Roy came out and winterized my house. Put the windows in the storm doors, put the deck chairs in the basement, took down the flag pole, covered the fountain, and cut a few branches off of some trees. Karrie and I also "pinked" each others hair. We should have done it at the first of October, but finally got around to doing it now. That's in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month. Oh, and I fed them lunch; guacamole, salsa & chips and tacos.
I bought some new stuff for decorating my trunk for our second annual Trunk or Treat which is on the 30th. That was a lot of fun last year, hope the weather cooperates.

Kitty

Just finished a new carving of a sleeping cat. I finished him with a diluted stain and a matte lacquer. He is about 4" long and 1-1/2" high.

Lemont Center for the Arts

The Lemont Center is celebrating their 2nd anniversary and have an exhibit going on through the month of  October. Last night was the opening, they had a lot more people visiting than the opening of the Parables. I took a few pictures, but really no closeups of the art, except for mine.

What a Beautiful Week

Warm and sunny all week. Is this God's way of saying just wait till you experience the winter I have in store for you? I took a picture of the tree in front of the Church.

Why is it that some of the leaves remain green and others change? As I drove home from The Center today, I noticed that a lot more of the trees are changing and soon they will be on the ground.

I received a coupon book from Target in the mail and they had Haiku-pons describing some of the products. Here is one, do you know what it is about?

a soft, cushy roll

is a cozy, happy joy

sweet squares of heaven

Answer: toilet paper

LWML Sunday

We survived another year with our skit.  The congregation really gets a kick out of it. We don't rehearse except for one read through before hand, so mistakes were made which makes it so much funnier. We also supplied the "and" to go with the coffee.  So much stuff, some took theirs home and some we kept and put in the freezer for some future Sundays. Sorry, forgot to ask someone to take pictures.

Parable Exhibit

  The reception wasn't too successful. Maybe 5 people came through in the two hours I was there. There were a lot of people on the committee and most of the artists. I left early as it was boring. I did take a few pictures but had my camera on the wrong setting so they are a little blurry.

This one is called "Found" and is latex paint on canvas

This is a collage of  "The Good Shephard"

This is "You are the Light of the World" in latex on recycled board, painted by a nine year old boy.

This is called "Broken Pieces" , the cross consists of broken pieces of pottery stuck in clay.

This is titled "Tough Love - to Watch and Wait" and is a ceramic plate by my friend Pauline.

This encaustic on a wood panel titled "Look" and "Home Improvement"

And there are mine, "The Widow's Mites" and Feeding the 5,000.

 They didn't have a good place for viewing as there were two chairs  on either side of the carvings and a hassock in front of them, so the few that came through just passed them by. Some of the artwork did not portray a parable so that you can see what it represents, but had to read the artists comments.  There were other paintings in oil and charcoal, but I didn't take a picture of them.

There will be another artist's reception and the First Anniversary of the Lemont Center for the Arts which is at 1243 State St. Unit 101 in Lemont on October 6th from 6-8 pm. I will have two pieces there, the wolf head and the eagle's face.

Artist Reception

Tonight is the artist reception for the "Parable" art exhibit in Darien. I'm curious to see what other artists have submitted. As I understand, there are no other wood carvings. My friend Pauline submitted a piece of pottery. I'll have to remember to take pictures.
Sunday is LWML Sunday, and we provide the goodies for the coffee and. I ran across a recipe for pear upside down cake that I am going to try. It is served with pumpkin spice mixed in cool whip which sounds yum. We also perform a skit, which this year is Camp Woe-Be-Gone. Sounds like fun and the congregation usually get a big kick out of it.

Fall Festival

I spent the day at the Fall Festival at the Children's Farm in Palos. The weather forecast was for showers all day, but the day was  partly cloudy and sunshine, a really nice fall day. There was a nice crowd all day. We (woodcarvers) sat on the porch of the Anderson Building and actually had more people coming up there to see what we were doing than last time. Of course John, one of the carvers told every one who got off the hay ride to go up and see us. I sold one little lamb. A young girl maybe 10 to 12 asked the price and I told her the lamb was $10 and she negotiated me down to $5. Boy that kid sure knew how to strike a bargain. Karrie and Katie came out and we had lunch together. Her mama is just so busy that she had to come where Mama was.
Tomorrow is Octoberfest at Church. Its a German dinner served by our youth for a free will offering. No beer.

A Nice Day

It's a lovely day today. Had an appointment with a financial advisor and he cancelled making the day even better.

I posted the recipe for the Twinkie cake in the Mom, whats cooking blog site. It has been a hit the two times that I made it. The original recipe just calls for Twinkies, jello and cool whip but once I added fresh strawberries with strawberry jello and for our Sunday pot luck I used cherry pie filling and cherry jello. Speaking of pot luck, it still amazes me of the different dishes that are brought. We had turkey, meatballs Italian sausage, noodle dishes. I made a tomato salad and the Twinkie cake. Both were well received.

I went to the doctor yesterday for my wellness check and to get prescriptions for the next six months. I got a good report, cholesterol and blood pressure, thanks pills. I also asked him to confirm my diagnosis of Plantar Fasciitis, which he did. He gave me some exercises to do and anti-inflammatory patches to put on my heel.  Hope this works, if it doesn't he will give a steroid shot in the heel which he says might be painful. When a doctor says it will be painful, it usually is horrendous.

Tai Chi

It's not for me. I took a class this morning at The Center and my knees are killing me. Even though it's slow movements, it is very hard on the legs. I always wanted to try it and I did. The teacher says all of your energy comes from the stomach area(I forgot what she called it), if that is so, based on  the size  of my gut I should be like the Energizer Bunny. I can scratch another thing off of my bucket list.

Parables

The Widow's mites.

Feeding the 5,000

The Parable carvings are done! I'll be taking them over to Emmanuel Church later this week. It should be fun to see an art show based on parables. Now I need a new project. I have a piece of wood and some pictures of the Chapel at the Center, so that might be my next project. Seems like I'm getting in a rut of relief carving, but just haven't had any animals or caricatures come to mind. I need inspiration.

Woodcarving

Yesterday was the first day of woodcarving class for the season. Most every one returned and even have two new women, a mother and daughter. We'll see how long they last. Keith is his usual funny guy, always joking around. I have to finish the parable carvings and turn them in next Saturday for the parable art show.
Today I'm taking back my Martha Stewart pot back to Macy's. There is a recall on them because they might chip.

I'm Pooped

Today was the LWML Mighty Mite Morn. We gather in Church for a brief church service and then down to the church basement for lunch. Marianne and I served  today. Marianne made a bunch of spaghetti and sauce, I made tomato salad, Texas sheet cake and strawberry twinkie cake.Betty brought the bread and plates and tablecloths, she couldn't help today because of a doctor appointment. We were missing quite a few ladies today, but did have Pastor, Jason the organist and Ben the DCE intern.

Cold Labor Day

 It was quite chilly yesterday during the parade. The north wind was blowing right at our faces. Still people did come out to view the parade and buy our brats, hot dogs and walking tacos. We also sold coffee, pop, water and pop corn. So here are the float pictures as it looked in the parade.

The two Michael boys carry the banner, that's pastor in the black shirt.

Ken driving the truck and Kathy waving.

Ken found a 9/11 poster to mount on the back of his truck.

Some of the kids on the float. Notice the wooden cross that Ken made for the float.

More of the people and theme of the parade.

Closeups of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Float Building

This is Ken who modified his trailer with a frame and chicken wire.

This is Nancy, Ken's wife cutting up plastic table cloths to stuff in the chicken wire.

This is Kathy putting  the plastic squares in the chicken wire.

The pictures in place. This is the parade's theme, yesterday, today and tomorrow. The picture on the left is one of our Church that burned down in 1918, the middle picture is of our current Church and the picture on the right is the drawing of the building we are planning to build on our property on 127th st.

 This is me posing with yesterday. No, I wasn't there when the Church burned in 1918, but I am the oldest of the float group.

Nina and Karen working on the mosaic Church window that will frame a cross that Ken is making.

I will have more pictures of the finished float and with the children dressed as firemen riding the float. The parade is Monday. St. Matthew will again have the Brat Shop, our Church is right at the end of the parade route and sell lots of hot dogs and brats.

More on Float

We worked on the float last night and this morning. We should finish it tonight if we get enough help. I will post some of the pictures in progress tomorrow. It is looking great!

Float

We are going to show pictures of our church when it burned down many years ago, what it looks like today and the drawing of our future church following the theme of the parade, 125 years for the fire protection district, yesterday, today and tomorrow. We will decorate the float with chicken wire and red white and blue puffs. Also the kids will be dressed with fireman's hats and there will be a cross that says Heavenly hero and leading the float will be a banner with St. Matthew  and Jesus is our hero. That is my job right now to cut out of felt the letters to spell out "Jesus is Our Hero.

Parade Float

At the last minute our church decided to enter a float in the Keepataw Days parade. So we are having a brainstorming meeting today to decide what it should look like and then we just have this week to put it together.
Karrie came out yesterday and I made tomato bread using naan for the bread and Portillo's chopped salad  for lunch. Quite tasty. For dinner I made a small meatloaf because I had a taste for it and Stouffers didn't satisfy me.
The weather has just been delightful, no complaints from me.

Church

I went to my Church last night and this morning to the Presbyterian Church of Orland  Park. A friend of mine is the youth worker there and invited me to come hear a flautist play "On Eagles Wings" accompanied by a pianist. She did a great job and a rendition that I've never heard before. I wanted to surprise Pat as this is her home church, but Keith already told her so she was looking for me. It was nice to visit with Pat, haven't seen her all summer.

Artwork

I went to the Lemont Culture Group's gallery to view artwork produced by patients at Timberline Knolls here in Lemont.This place treats women and girls that have problems; substance abuse, eating disorders or cutters. The exhibit is called Honesty. What a sad thing to witness. I was going to take a couple of pictures to share, but didn't want to sadden you. It is unbelievable what these women have been through in their childhood and later and they reflect a lot of this in their artwork. So sad.

Parable Prototype

A Lutheran Church in Downers Grove is having an art show called Illumination based on parables of the Bible. I might take a stab at entering. This is just a small unfinished prototype of a bigger piece that I am planning. Tell me what you think, does it describe the message?  How could I make it better? Bigger will be better, could have more detail.

Where is Suz?

Where is she when I need her. A bird hit the window in the family room and is just standing on the box on the deck. It walked a few inches leaving a trail of poop. I don't want to disturb her, but I do want to get out there to light the grill and cook a steak. I know Suz would take her and nurse her back to health.  Not I, as I have a bird phobia, can't stand them flying past my head.

Wow!

Is today gorgeous or what?  I just love it.

Day #3

Karrie's friend Jen finished the entire 60 miles of the 3 day event for breast cancer. That girl is one strong woman.

Yesterday was the party on the river for friends from St. Matthew. The hostess, Mary made beef for sandwiches, lasagna and potato salad and everyone else brought a dish to pass. This was my dish; fresh tomatoes[from M&D farms], red onion cucumbers and fresh mozzarella dressed with a white balsamic vinaigrette.

There probably about 20 of us there as Rich had to do two tours on his pontoon boat. Some of the houses on the river are little shacks or trailers and then there are the large beautiful homes.

Day 2

The three day has started day two after rain last night and drizzle this morning. They walked 22 miles yesterday. Karrie and Billie, Jen's husband and the triplets went to cheer them on this morning. I'm so glad they went, I would have liked to be there. Karrie said that she and Billie cried the whole time. Keep it up girls.

Cabin Fever?

I must have summer cabin fever. I've stayed home most of the week and worked on some Christmas carvings that I plan to give as gifts. It's been too hot to go out and too hot to carve out on the deck. I still have my gourd Nativity set to work on, but that is garage work and it's been like an oven out there.
Yesterday I went to the M&D Farm stand on Bell road and picked up tomatoes and cucumbers for the salad I plan to put together  to take to a gathering on the Kankakee River in Wilmington.

I think today might be the day I can sit out and carve.

Just thinking about Karrie's friend, Jen, who is walking the  Susan B. Komen 3- Day that started today. She is a mother of 8 year old triplets, and has been going through breast cancer treatment; chemo and a mastectomy and soon to go through radiation. She is one strong woman.

Adult Bibs

I will be delivering 50 adult bibs made from terry cloth towels this afternoon. These were made by the St. Matthew "Cut & Sew" group; the towels were donated by the congregation.  They will be used by adults and children with disabilities.
A couple of us were sorting quilting material by color and straightening out the storage area for Cut and Sew and the Chemo hat group. Now to find some plastic boxes on sale to keep the colors together.
Thought I would share this quilt, I really like the colors.