Love is a many splendored thing...

Weddings bring back wonderful memories...congratulations to these newlyweds!

Cherished Moments

I will take back to Brazil many special memories with my grandchildren, and thankfully, for people like me who have poor memories, a picture will stamp that memory on my heart.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

This is what I found when I stepped outside...but it didn't last under that strong

November sun.

The new Guthrie Theatre is a must-see!

The Guthrie Theatre is an experience I'm glad I had today! My "favoritist" place of all is the "amber box" that gives one such a warm, buttery, welcoming feeling on depressing, winter Minnesota days! (Hats off to award-winning French architect Jean Nouvel .) I felt a few butterflies in my stomach while walking across the glassed rectangle in the middle of the floor of the amber box giving one a view of the ground several stories below, but I reassured myself that if the glass weren't safe to walk on it wouldn't be there. Period.

The "endless bridge" is my second most favorite place and the design of the windows leading to it unique and intriguing. The walls and ceilings are splashed with scenes from theatrical plays in subdued tones and good taste. I loved it all. It was a wonderful day. Thank you, Michelle!

Put the Guthrie on your "must do" list. You won't be sorry.

Lefse Making Again!

This year I had the fun privilege of making lefse with some special people, namely, my daughter Michelle, my niece Tricia and my friend Marci. We got off to a slow start mainly because when we were almost at Tricia's house (where we were going to make this God-given manna) I remembered that I had forgotten to bring along the lefse grill and all the paraphernalia that accompanies it! There was also the case of Tricia's missing lefse rolling pin and the Tupperware container of sugar that fell on the floor. But when we started rolling, there was no stopping us! We rolled and rolled and rolled some more. (Twenty pounds of potatoes makes a lot of lefse!!)

It tasted sooooo delicious warm from the grill and we even had visitors drop by who sampled our lefse and one of those visitors proclaimed our lefse " The best he'd ever tasted!!!" (And I believe him!)

Yeah for lefse!!!!

TWO SPECIAL BIRTHDAYS!

Happy 4th Birthday, Gabriella on November 9th and to her daddy, Michael on November 10th. You are two of my favorite people. I love you!!!!!

LIFE WITHOUT PAT

My life without Pat began on Oct. 30th with my last glimpse of him walking away on the other side of check-in at the airport. Initially it meant I could decide my own schedule, go where I wanted to go, do what I wanted to do and be my own boss. That all sounded good until I started my new single life. I discovered I didn't like driving myself places, nor making decisions all on my own. I missed his daily love afirmations knowing he was taking care of me. There was no one with whom to share my confidences or snuggle with after lights were turned out. Frankly, when one has been married 40 years, being separated like this feels a little like being handicapped or like driving a car that has only half the pistons operating.

On the other hand, I have my wonderful kids & their spouses to hang out with for a whole month and my favorite thing to do with them is to linger over a meal and talk. That's when I realize how much I miss their humor and insights for they help me see a different slice of life. I am proud of who they are. Then I have three precious grandkids to play with and observe and that makes the sun shine even on gray November days. I'm soaking up precious moments of listening to their special words: Gabriella's hosipal (hospital), Caleb's loloach (milk) and Penelope's "you go me". We play house, doctor, having babies, and read stories.

God did a good thing when he invented families.

LET IT SNOW!

If you hadn't seen snow in four years like me, what would have been your reaction this morning when you looked out your window and saw the white stuff falling out of the sky? My reaction was, " How gorgeous!" I felt like I'd been transported into a fairy wonderland and I stood transfixed as the lazy flakes softly fell to earth. Every itty bitty inch of twig on the trees was covered in snow and it was like I'd stepped inside my personal snow globe. My two grandkids got right out there and played in the white stuff.

Isaiah 1:18 says, "'Come now, and let us reason together,' says the Lord, 'Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow...'" If we have confessed and forsaken our sins, asked Jesus for cleansing, but continue to feel like dirt, we are calling God a liar. I am humbled, but so thankful for the power in His blood to completely cleanse us and for complete forgiveness and I want to emulate his example.

My cute li'l pumpkins!

When Ignorance is NOT Bliss

I tickled, I cajoled, I pushed and shoved and succeeded in jamming my x-d picture card in my new laptop. There it stayed for a couple of days while several of us gathered round to philosophize, exchange ignorances, and talk about "how" to extricate said card from my PC. Then, EUREKA!! During the night I had a revelation: use my tweezer to gently pull said card from its dire straits. When morning dawned, I did just that, and BINGO! the x-d disappeared inside my PC. LITERALLY. There is not a sign nor sound of it. Alas! I blame it all on my husband, who though not present, was responsible for the accident. If he had been here, I wouldn't have been so rash--would not have used the tweezer because my hubby would have stopped me in time. I'm sorry, Pat, for the damages you have done.

My poor PC is in the hospital. Pray for a quick recovery. Ignorance was NOT bliss.