A Christmas Open House to Remember

In my last post I told you about our Annual Christmas Open House. Well this year was one for the books.

I am having to type this pretty much one handed you see because I fell and sustained a badly bruised left arm and hand. It happened on the morning of the Open House. I was letting Samantha (our Black Lab/Border Collie) out the back door when she smelled Missy's (Our Son & Daughter-in-law's dog) Dog food and lunged toward it catching me off balance and throwing me into the doorway. I ended up on the floor of the laundry room on all fours crying ow, ow, ow. That was at 6:00 am on the morning of the open house. Being the stubborn person that I am, I refused to go to the ER stating that I had way too much to do to get ready for the afternoons activities.
By 9:00 am I decided that everyone else, my Husband, Son, Daughter, Son-in-law, Daughter-in-law and probably the Grand kids as well, were right and Jason and I made a trip to Twin Cities Hospital ER. The rest stayed behind to do all the things that I SHOULD have been doing to get ready. Two and a half hours later I was back home with the good news that my arm was not broken, just very badly bruised. (Thank you Lord for your Mercy) The pictures above were taken just before I started to type this post. The swelling has gone down about 50% or more and I can now extend my arm all the way for a short period of time.
The Open House went on as planned thanks to all the family pitching in and helping. I sat in a comfy chair and greeted guests as they came through the door. Whenever I tried to get up everyone told me to sit down and they would get me what I needed.

Merry Christmas to all and watch out for the Dog!!!!

Christmas Cookies

Every year on the Saturday before Christmas Ken and I have an Open House. Now if Christmas is on a Sunday, Monday or Tuesday we usually push it back another week so as not to interfere with Holiday plans others may have. I was asked the other day by a co-worker how long I had been doing this and why I continue to do this year after year. I had to stop and think about how long I have been doing this but not the reason why we started this "Tradition".
We moved from California to Kansas in 1971 and in 1972 we lived in McLouth, Kansas. Since we did not have any family close by other than Ken's brother Jim who lived in Topeka, we thought about inviting the Church members who were in town to stop by for some cookies and punch on the Saturday before Christmas. I don't remember how many people dropped by that afternoon, but it sure was cute to see Christy in her fancy Christmas skirt I had made running to the door and crying out "Merry Kissmas and Happy You Near" to each of the guests as they arrived. The next May our family grew by one with the birth of Jason. Once he got old enough, he would race Christy to the door to welcome the visitors.
In the years since then, there have only been two or three times when we have not had our open house. The menu has changed from just cookies and punch to include such regulars as Meatballs & Summer Sausage, Cheese Wreaths, Chocolate Peanutbutter Balls, and of course Cookies and punch. I usually over prepare and have tons of left overs.
Each year I try to find at least one new receipe to try out. Some have been huge successes and some. . .well no one actually got to try those. . .they were a total disaster. Last year I made Christmas Eve Mice. Huge success! ! Except that they were so cute no one wanted to eat them. They all asked for a napkin to wrap it up in so they could take it home and show it to their friends.
This year both Christy and Jason will once again be back home on the Saturday before Christmas. Once again we have invited friends and family to drop by for some home made goodies. This time, no doubt, some of their children may race to the door to welcome our guests and wish them a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
In the 36 years that we have been holding our Open House we have been blessed to have many friends and family share in our Christmas Tradition. The one thing that we try to share with those who come to our house is that the reason we celebrate Christmas is NOT about the presents we give and receive from our friends and family. The reason we celebrate and open our house is to share the greatist Gift ever given, The Lord Jesus.
So if you are in the area between 1 and 5"ish" on the 20th of Dec. stop on by and share some Christmas joy with us as we celebrate the Reason for the Season.

Back to the Real World

Well. . . Vacation is over and it is back to the real world for me.

I had a great time with Jason, Karyn, Nathanael and Matthew, and Sharon. I missed having my Hubby Ken with me though. I would have loved to see him Parasail with the rest of us. That experience was the highlight of our Cruise for me. We have Cruised to Mexico before but have never parasailed. I thought I would be scared since I have a fear of heights but that was not the case in the least.

When we got back to San Diego on Saturday, I called Ken to let him know we would be getting off the Ship in one of the first groups. That way we could get to the Santa Fe Train Station and get our tickets for Amtrack and make our way to Irvine. (That was the original plan) Ken told me that Southern California was experiencing major fires in numerous places and that we needed to try to change our (Mine and Sharon's) Train to the earliest possible train because the Freeways were being closed and it might take us longer to get home.
We went to breakfast and after we had eaten we started to make our way to the waiting area for debarcation. I spotted one of the Cruise Directors and decided to talk to her about our delima. She was able to move us up to the first ones off after VIP. We were in the group of passengers who had early "Flights" to catch. Thank You Weezey! ! ! I called Ken to up date him on our progress and he said to try to get the ticket changed to take us all the way to Santa Barbara and they would meet us there.
Getting off the Ship was quick and easy compared to some of our other experiences. We then made our way to the Train Station and stood in line for about 10 minutes. We were able to change our tickets and take the next train (it was waiting on the track) and we were able to take it all the way to Santa Barbara.
Let's see Car-Ship-Boat-ParaSail-Train-Car. . . .yep, that pretty much says it all.

Not packed yet

I guess I SHOULD be getting my stuff together so that I can start packing my bags. I am going on vacation but I haven't started to pack yet.

I guess I SHOULD be thinking about what I want to take with me, so that I can start getting my stuff together so that I can start packing.

I did make a packing list. So. . .I guess I SHOULD go print it off so that I can start thinking about what I want to take and I can start getting my stuff together and start packing.

If I keep this up much longer, I will have to start un-packing. . .so. . .good-by for now. I will let you know later how wonderful my vacation was.

Did I tell you I am going on a cruise with Two of my Grandsons?

I'm such a lucky Grandma. ;-0

Near Catastrophy - Times Two

Yesterday I worked at our office in Cambria. It was a pretty UN-eventful day until about 15 minutes till closing time.

It had been a relatively warm day in Cambria and one of the employees had oppened the front door and the back door in order to let the nice ocean breeze blow through. Unfortunatly a humming bird flew in the back door and couldn't find his way back outside. He kept flying in big circles close to the ceiling and weaving in and out of all the halloween decorations that they have hanging from the ceiling. It was wierd watching him go around ghosts, bats, spiders and pumpkins. It was also very dizzing because humming birds fly very fast.

Add to the equasion that there is one of the staff that is petrified of birds, and you can just imagine the site. Here I was trying to swat at the humming bird as it sped past me and then losing my balance due to the fact that I was spinning around trying to keep my eyes on him. Finally two of us were able to shoo him out the back door and lock him outside.

Then it was time for me to balance my cash and secure it in the vault. Without revealing too much about the workings and layout of the vault, let me just say that I was not visable to the other staff members at that time. I heard someone yell "Don't shut the vault yet. Mary's still in there!!!!" Whew. . .that was close. . . .if that person hadn't seen me walk into the vault, I might still be in there. HA HA HA

Sunday Morning Special Music

Have you ever practiced something and were confident that you had everything just right only to have something go terribly wrong? Well that is what sort of happened to me this past Sunday. I got to Church early and went over the song that I was going to sing that morning. We got the volume just right and I knew the words by heart. This was a song I had sung many times before and I was ready.

By way of introduction I mentioned a time in 1969 when someone at work asked me what song I was humming and I said "He Touched Me". The person then said with a very "worldly" tone, "that sounds like fun" . I was too shy at that time to reply that the Song was about God's Touch on our lives and not about man's touch. Then I nodded to Ken (he was running the sound board) to let him know I was ready for the music. And then. . . . . . nothing happened. I told him "Trac 4" He said "Nothing is happening". . . so I said. . . "Well, I think I know this song well enough to sing it without the music. . . . .I began to hum the intro to get the key, and then I sang the song a capella.

It went very well, and it just proves that God's Hand truly is on us when we trust in His power to accomplish things for His Glory and not our own.

Looking Forward To. . . . . . .

Vacation. . . . .

In November while Ken is at the State Convention in San Diego, I will be taking a Cruise with Jason, Karyn, Nathanael and Matthew. Oh yeah, and my BFF Sharon is going to be my room-mate. Yippee, Yay, Hoorah!!! Sharon's hubby Dewey gets to spend the week with Ken. (Will they go to the convention or play hookey????)

To get to the Ship we will be driving down the night before and staying at Jason & Karyns house. Then we will caravan to the port, say goodby to the two guys and board the Carnival Elation. I will have to fill you in later on details of our trip but once it is over Sharon and I have to get from San Diego to Irvine because while we were gone our Husbands will have attended the afore mentioned Convention and will have traveled to Irvine for a 3 day (?) training class. My wonderful Husband got on line and booked us on AmTrac from San Diego to Irvine so that we will arrive close to the time they will be finished with their training.

In the span of one week we will have traveled by Car, Ship and Train.

I think I will need a vacation from my vacation once I get back home.

Right & Left Grand then Prominade Home

Well here I am in my finest shirt , fancy pants and red bandana, doing my best to keep up with the caller.
This was taken at the Mother-Daughter Retreat that Christy and I went to this month. She is in the center of the picture on the far side also wearing a white shirt and fancy pants. Someone in red is blocking her.
We had loads of fun even though it rained all day on Saturday.

On being a Grandma

Nathanael will turn ten this month on September 24th. He was the first of our 5 Grandchildren. His little sister Grace is our last Grandchild. We will now have to wait for the Great-Grands to start arriving, but that will be sometime in the distant future. In between numbers 1 and 5, we were blessed with 3 more boys.

Nathanael was and is a huge blessing to us. I was sooo ready to be a Grandma. I love being able to buy things for my Grand kids and just spending time with them. Nathanael and I share a love of Giraffes partly due to the fact that I gave him a toy Giraffe as soon as he came home from the hospital. He is such a wonderful big brother and a good helper to his Mom and Dad.

Our second Grandson was born a little more than three months later on January 7th. Timothy made his grand appearance on our Wedding Anniversary. Wow Christy and Mark, thanks for that gift. Tim is the deep thinker in our family. He sometimes appears older than his 9 1/2 years. What a joy he too has been to our family.

Number 3 on the list is Matthew. Matthew is the second Son of Our Son Jason and our Daughter in Law Karyn. Matthew is a tender heart and very considerate of others. I love the story that Karyn told about the time when Matthew sat at the table without eating until someone asked if something was wrong with his food. Then he said "No, but we didn't pray."

Our Fourth Grandson Jonathan is just a tad bit stubborn. He must get that from his Auntie Christy. ha ha ha I love that little boy! As I love all of them, but Jonathan has his own mind and knows very well how to make is presence known.

And then we were blessed with Grace. Wow! What a way to wrap up our years of welcoming new Grandchildren. Grace will be the last one unless something changes some one's mind. hint hint. But that us OK with Papa Ken and Grandma Mary. We love to watch the antics of Grace and look forward later this month to see all of the Grandkids when we travel to Southern California for Birthday Party's.

I thank God for each and every one of our Grand Children and I pray for them daily. I also pray for the girls that I will one day call my Granddaughters. . . the girls that marry my Grandsons. And I pray for the young man that will some day ask my Granddaughter to marry him. God knows the plans He has for my Grandchildren. All we need to do is to follow His plan and not our own plan.

Phobias

My daughter got me thinking about phobias and why we have them. I don't like ants. They creep me out. I have this little dance I do if I see lots of them at one time in one place. I sort of raise up on my toes and turn around in a circle and switch from foot to foot as if I were walking on hot coals. And while doing that little dance, my hands are reaching out in front of me with fingers moving about like I am typing 598 words per minute. In addition to that I am usually muttering something like. . . .Oh! Oh! Oh! No! No! oooooooo.KENNNNNNNNNNNNNN there are ANT'S in here.
Well it is time that I tell you just why I have this reaction. A long time ago in a galaxy. . . .oops wrong intro. When I was a young girl 5 or 6 years old, I went down the street where we lived to a friends house to play JAX. We sat down on the sidewalk in front of her house and began to play. It didn't take too long for me to realize that something was crawling on my legs. I looked down and I had red ants all over my legs and they were beginning to sting me. I screamed loud enough for my Mom and Dad to hear me two houses away. I ran home, they ran out of the house to meet me, and there in the front yard my Dad took the garden hose and washed all the ants off my body. I had red bites all over me.
Think that is bad???? It doesn't stop there.
I think it was the year I was in 1st grade or perhaps 2nd grade that the next memorable moment happened.
I took my lunch to school and put it in my "cubby" until lunch time then I got it out and started to eat my peanut butter and Grape jelly sandwich. I got this funny tickling feeling on my hands and when I looked at my sandwich it was black. . .yuck. . . .it was covered in little tiny black ants. eeeewwwwweeeeee.
Right now if you could see me, you would notice that my feet are now raised up off the ground and are sticking out at right angles from my legs. Just in the off chance that there might be a ant on the floor..

enough said.

Christmas in August

Well I went into Long's Drug Store this weekend and what do you think I saw. Hallmark Christmas Orniments. Now as most of you know I absolutly LOVE Christmas. It is my most favorite time of the year. I decorate every room in the house including the bathrooms. Guests are welcomed to our house with lights and garlands. Every year I am on the lookout for new decorations but AUGUST. . . .come on the kids aren't even back in school yet.

I think I will wait a while before pulling out all the decorations and taking stock of what we have and what we still need. I'm just not READY for Christmas in August!!

On Being "The Boss"

I have the most wonderful job. I work for a local bank as a Branch Support Specialist. What that means is that if one of the seven Branch Offices that I am assigned to needs help my "Bosses" send me. I am quailfied to fill the positions of Teller, New Accounts Representative, Assistant Manager and Branch Manager.

On Monday I was at one of my Branches when a call came in that I was needed after lunch at another Office because they had an emergency. The Branch Manager was on Vacation and the Assistant Manager had a family emergency that resulted in her not coming into work. (In fact she will probably be out for three weeks.) Anyway. . .After Lunch I went to the other office and began my duties as "The Boss".
Monday Afternoon:
Shortly after I arrived (10 minutes or less) one of the tellers asked if she could talk to me. I said. . sure. She said. . .in private. I said. . .sure??? After going into the Managers Office she shut the door and gave me her verbal resignation..... Gulp! OK so for the next hour I contacted the HR Department and the vacationing Manager and sent multiple e mails and faxes to them.
Monday End of Day:
Everything was going pretty smoothly until one of the tellers told me she was out of balance $739.00. She looked for it, couldn't find it, and had to accept the shortage. Grr.
Tuesday Morning:
Same teller that was short, recounted her money and found the difference. Now she is out of balance the other way.
Tuesday Afternoon:
Had a teller come back from lunch and announce that he had "forgotten" his bank issued keys at the resturant where he had his lunch. Asked if he could go back to get them. ???Duh YES!!!
Wednesday Morning:
I'm getting the hang of this Manager Stuff. I have approved, rejected, signed and notarized stuff and I am feeling pretty good this morning. Twenty minutes later one of the tellers stops by my desk and says "I guess you are the person I need to give this to since you are The Boss." What did she give me you ask???? You guessed it. . .her resignation. Yikes. . .I've only been in charge for 2 1/2 days and we are down 2 tellers.

I DON"T WANT TO BE THE BOSS ANY MORE ! ! ! !

Going on An Adventure With Sharon

I got nagged today. I felt great pressure from my Friend Sharon. But you must understand that since she is such a good friend she did not pressure me directly. Oh No! she went through my own Daughter. Darling Christy sent me an e mail with the words . . .nag nag nag nag nag nag nag. . . .there you have been nagged. Scrolling down through the e mail I read the messages back and forth between Sharon and Christy and soon understood that I have been remiss in writing on my Blog.

When I first sat down this evening to write something I thought I would continue the story Sharon started about Friends and Family. I quickly discarded that idea because I felt I "SHOULD" let Sharon finish her story in her way.

Next I thought about sharing about all the blessings I have received and am still receiving. That idea too was scrapped, at least for now. Soooo what to write about. . . . OF COURSE . .Going on an adventure with Sharon.

We have had several adventures over the years. We went to Washington DC together and experienced the underground train system there. We have gone camping together and sat on the side of the mountain road in lawn chairs with the kids while our hubby's went in search of a mechanic who could fix Dewy and Sharon's vehicle.

But the one I want to tell you about is another time we went to the Minister's Wife Retreat at Jenness Park. (see Sharon's blog for the story about the first time)

I flew up to San Jose from the Los Angeles area so that Sharon and I could drive to the Retreat from her house together. She said "We can take my car, I know the way!" We got up early that morning and got our suitcases in the car and took off. Sharon and Dewey hadn't been in San Jose very long, and she was so excited showing me this landmark and that one. Telling me that over there in that direction is where the airport is. . .yada yada yada. At some point, Sharon told me to keep an eye out for Highway 108 because we would need to take that to get to Jenness Park. The trip should take about 3 hours.

Somewhere, beyond the turn off for Highway 108, Sharon exclaimed "Oh Look there's the (San Francisco) Delta!" "Oh No! we're not supposed to see the Delta Mary!" Oh no! we took a wrong turn, or we missed the turn." Oh no I don't know where we are!

So we pulled off the freeway and stopped along side the road and consulted the map. We could go back about 45 minutes worth of driving, or continue on a little bit and cut back over, down, and around and get back on track. The second option is the one we chose and off we went. Two women who didn't know where they were and weren't real sure they could find their way to their final destination. Off on An Adventure!!

I don't remember the name of the little town we passed through, but I remember seeing a bunch of antique cars in a lot and as Sharon drove past I told her "One of those cars back there has a for sale sign and they only want $1,500.00 for it." I make her turn around and go back so we could look at it. I thought I would just whip out my Credit Card and buy it for my Wonderful Hubby and wouldn't he be so pleased with me. Well I never did buy that car because the price was actually $15,000.00. We did make it to the retreat but the trip took about 4 1/2 hours.

If you're ever in the mood for an adventure, you might want to call Sharon up. Just don't let her drive.

The Power Is Out - Oh NO!!

So this morning shortly after 6:30 am the power went off at our house. Since today is Sunday I had planned on washing my hair, blowing it dry and then using the curling iron to put some curl into my otherwise very straight hair.

It was obvious that I would not be able to blow dry my hair since there was no electricity to power my hair dryer. So I told my ever so smart and loving husband. . . Well I guess I won't be washing my hair today since I have no way to dry it. I'll just have to settle for curling it and hope for the best. . . . . to which he answered. . . well if the power is off for the blow dryer, I don't think it will be back on for the curling iron. OOps. . .what was I thinking????

The Auction

This morning at 7:30 (yes that is a.m.) I was at the Junior Livestock Auction at the California Mid State Fair. I volunteered to help with filling out the sale orders, giving them to a runner, receiving them back, checking them for completeness, and placing the completed order in a stack to be picked up for final review by the supervisor. My shift was two hours. . . .it was over in what seemed to be 15 minutes. There were two auctioneers going at the same time. It was hard to hear and by the end of my shift there had been over 100 pigs sold.

This afternoon Ken and I went back to the Mid State Fair and walked around for a while until it got too hot. We did go in to the Livestock auction to check it out and I was glad that I wasn't up at the front table working.

I could never be an auctioneer .......I can't talk that fast.

Woe Is Me. . . . .

Woe Is me. . . . I am still trying to get a guest book and a counter on my blog. I have had NO success. None, Zip, Nada, Nada. I send a message to Bravenet and a nice support tech named Doug was assigned to my problem. Well we have corresponded several times and he finally got my account activated, however I still can't do what I was trying to do.

What I have decided is that I am going to wait patently untill my Wonderful Daughter or my equally Wonderful Daughter-In-Love comes to visit. Then I will woefully tell them my sad story and ask them to fix my problem.

PS....don't tell them about my plan - ok!

How Do I Do? ? ? ?

Well here I am again. I added a couple of Blogs that I read. I thought you might like to visit them as well. The problem is that they are Bloggers who are related to me, and they are probably the only ones who visit my blog anyway and they already know about their own Blogs. So it might have been an exercise in futility. Hey but it is exercise. . . .I wonder if I can count it on WeightWatchers? Hummm.

Anyway, I was successful in adding that little element so I thought why not add a guest book and a counter too. I found the site and signed up and selected my guestbook, Named it, and then went on to select the counter. However when I went back to my Blog, they were not there. What's going on? Help. . . .How Do I Do. . . What I am trying to do?????

Finally I remembered

Well here I am at long last. Putting down in Black and White the thoughts and thinks that I am having or have had or hope to have.
It is really fortuitous that I found this blog again after I created it a couple of weeks ago. I sent the following e-mail to my daughter today. . . . .

Did I tell you that I created a blog too? Only I can't remember what it is called. Giggles Giggles Giggles. Perhaps I should have named it "Sometimers...sometimes-I-Forget". Yeah!! that would work.
I haven't written anything on it yet, it took too long to get the name (the one I forgot) to be accepted.
I think I can remember how to get there, but maybe not.
I will have to try tonight and then I will let you know. Guess I need to write the name down somewhere. . . .wait. . . I think I did. . .but I can't remember.

Now that I found it I guess I better let the Kids know what it is so that they can keep an eye on me. You know I am getting old and forgetful. Just don't tell anyone that I said that.

Well that is all for now. I am going to try to link this to my facebook profile thingie and then see if anyone reads what I have written. I guess there is a counter thingie that you can put at the bottom of your page and add a place for people to sign your guest book etc,etc. So I am going to try to do that too. Soooo if you are reading this, please write a coment and hopefully by the end of this century I will be much better at this than I am now. Ha Ha Ha.......