Christmas - past

I've been reading a lot of blogs today and several of them have set my mind to wandering back to when I was a little girl.

A childhood memory - Dad bringing home the tallest and fattest tree he could find. He always had to cut some of the bottom off for it to fit in whatever room we decided to put it - either living room or dining room. And mom decorated it. She took lots of time because she wanted it to look beautiful. (and it did) Remember icicles? She would take one at a time and place each one so that the tree truly looked like icicles hanging on it.

Another memory - A black and white puppy with a big red bow sliding across the dining room floor in his haste to get to us. He was a Springer Spaniel we named Skippy.

Another memory - my aunts, uncles, cousins and us would draw names and each family would take turns hosting all of us on Christmas Eve after the children's Christmas program at church. The one gift that I remember well was from my Aunt Beth. It was 5 books - Little Women, Little Men, Eight Cousins and 2 others (can't remember the names) Even though Aunt Beth didn't have children of her own she really had a knack of buying just the right gift for her nieces and nephews.

Christmas letter

Merry Christmas,
We have had several dustings of snow but with the sunshine and warmer temps it has all disappeared. It would nice to have some snow for Christmas.

I continue to accompany the Park Rapids Classic Chorale – our Christmas concert was this past week end. In the summer I’m the rehearsal accompanist for the Northern Light Opera Company – we performed “The Music Man” last summer and next summer we will be performing “The Sound of Music”. I love being part of an ensemble - it’s exciting to see the end result of a lot of work by a lot of people. I think the most satisfying music for me is playing the organ and piano for church – especially the piano arrangements of worship music.

This has been quite a year for me. I had cataract surgery last winter and then last August I had a total knee replacement. And I will have to have the other knee replaced this spring. The knee surgery went well but it took a while for the rest of my body to recuperate – a bit of depression. But with the help of my family and a low dose of Paxil I am now back to my “normal” self. Thank goodness. Do I sound like an old person or what?

My kids are all doing well and it would take several pages to tell you about all of them so I’ll not do that – except to say that two grand kids entered high school (9th) this last fall and in the spring two grandkids will graduate from high school. Two granddaughters are married and one grandson is engaged to be married.

I’m very blessed to be able to live in the home Lowell and I shared for 40 some years and that I have children and grandchildren that are happy and healthy.
I hope your Christmas is a blessed one and the year 2012 will be a successful and happy year for you and your family.
Jane

My goodness, it's been 8 months since I've blogged. Much has happened as most of you who read this blog know about. Although it's been only about 3 months since my knee surgery it seems much longer. My knee is doing well and I'm exercising 3 time a week. I have 5 sessions left at the hospital rehab excercising place and then I will have to look into something else. I was giving thought to continuing at the hospital (it costs some) or Anytime Fitness (cost more). Then I found out that my medical insurance will cover the whole cost if I go where Silver Sneakers is offered - Fitness Center in town. So I guess the decision is pretty much made for me. A friend of mine is involved with a swimming program a couple of time a week so I might look into that, too.

I need to keep up the excersising because I probably will have my other knee done next May. Piano lessons will be done, classic chorale concert will be done and opera rehearsals will not start until the end of June. So that seems like a logical time to have it done. Whatcha think?

My granddaughter, Hannah, is living with me for a while. She's taking classes for her LPN at Wadena and since she doesn't have classes everyday and works one day a week at the nursing home I suggested that she live with me. She lost her bedroom when she went to Moorhead state last year and a sibling took over her room :) She's lots of fun and easy to have around. My two little dogs love her. But she thinks I should get a kitty - NOT.

Spring

When I went to town today my first thought as I got onto the highway was "I think Spring is here" Most of the snow was gone in the ditches and fields. My yard is mostly dry although a few piles of snow are still around. For the first time in many years I don't have a "lake" down by the barn. Most years that "lake" extended from the barn way out into the west field. When my kids were young and "unafraid" they would build a raft and float out into the field managing to get under the fence but not managing to keep dry.

Most of my driveway is dry, too. However ----- I made two big holes when I backed up out of the garage. There were already "dips" there and with the melting snow I got stuck in the mud and as I tried to rock myself out I just suceeded in making the holes deeper and deeper and ---- well, I was so stuck that I listed to the left with both the front and rear tires mired in the mud. I had to have Sharon and Scott pull me out. I wont be putting my car in the garage for a while.

I can't imagine the stress and mess that the flood in Fargo and Moorhead is causing for the people in those cities as well as the surrounding communities. I'm so gratefull that I'm "dry"

Music quotes

As I was looking for something to add to my March newsletter for my piano students, I found many music quotes. Thought I would add some of them here:

A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. ~Berthold Auerbach This is my favorite quote - I use it in my newsletter.

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. ~Maya Angelou, Gather Together in My Name

You can't possibly hear the last movement of Beethoven's Seventh and go slow. ~Oscar Levant, explaining his way out of a speeding ticket

An intellectual snob is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of The Lone Ranger.
Dan Rather (1931 - )

I'll add quotes again sometime. My eyes are doing ok although it's taking a while for my brain and eyes to decide to work together. My eye doctor said that it will happen but might take a while - I was relieved to here that.

blind?

So on Thanksgiving day I open the door at my daughter in laws mothers house and my 6 year old grand daughter takes me by the hand and says "let me help you up the stairs, grandma, now that you are blind" BLIND? hmmmmmm. Simone had heard only part of a converstaion that her mother had with someone and this is the story she told her older sister - "Grandma got poked in the eye and mom had to take her to the emergancy room and now she is blind in one eye?" So Janessa asked me what really happened. So this is MY story - at my last eye exam the dr. told me I had cataracts and he suggested I have them removed. So on November 22 my daughter in law took me to Bemidji to have the surgery. Dr. Shanfeld must be an early morning person because we had to be there at 6:50. He did the surgery on my right eye and we were home by 10:00. I had to go back for a post op the next day and again my daughter in law did the driving. I'm glad we had to go right away in the morning because the weather got kind of nasty and roads a bit slippery. The next ten days my eyes tried to cooperate with each other and didn't always succeed. Neither my regular glasses nor my music classes helped. I could see distances pretty good without any glasses but reading music was a challange. So yesterday when I went to see my PR eye doctor I said "help - I need to see my music" And he did by having me get a pair of reading glasses. So now I can see my music!!! Maybe I was a bit blind after all. I have the other eye done December 20.

Obviously not a deer hunter

One very foggy morning many years ago Lowell came into the house and announced "the horses are gone". At that time we had about 9 head - why? I don't know. So we loaded a saddle and a couple of pails of oats in the back of the pickup and started looking. We found them in the field just North East of us not far from home. When the horses heard the pickup they knew there would be oats in it so it wasn't hard for Lowell to catch Smokey and put a saddle on him. As he started across the field with all the horses following him it suddenly occurred to him that it was OPENING DEER SEASON. So he put his head down by Smokey's ear, slapped him on the rump and said "Let's go". As he and all the horses galloped across the field toward home he was pretty sure there were several dear hunters annoyed with him.

Sky pictures

I've been noticing the sunsets lately - more than I usually do. So I've taken a lot of picture. Here is one that I edited with 2 different setting.

 

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Fences

 

Lowell fixing fence in September 1956 to keep a small boy (Randy) contained in the yard. I think we did something with fences almost every year that we were married. We had woven wire fences; wooden fences; electric fences and fences made of steel gates. We made new ones; fixed old ones; changed fences and took up fences. We used wooden posts; steel posts and electric posts. We even made a post from woven wire filled with rocks. We used fences for sheep, cows, calves and horses. I don't think Lowell ever threw away a fence post. I learned how to straighten electric fence posts but didn't have enough strength to pound the steel posts straight but I could tell someone how to do it.

When we lived in Austin, MN we had 1 1/2 acres and of course had horses and a fence. The night before we moved a neighbor asked us what we were going to do with the fence - Lowell asked him if he wanted to buy it to which the neighbor said "no". So after my brothers' pick up was loaded with the rest of the household goods he and Lowell took up the fence. It took them 'tll midnight to get that job done and loaded on the pick up. For those of you who don't know about woven wire - it does not roll up tight like it was when new. I wish I had taken a picture but imagine this GMC red pick up loaded with household goods and a large roll of woven wire on top. And a neighbor standing in the middle of the field with no fence wondering what happened.

Sophie

Sophie loves being outside. She's discovered the squirrels that have taken up residence in the trees.

Voices

It had been two years ago last week that Lowell died and I was a little weepy driving to town one day and heard this song. We drove around quite a bit in our Ford pickup and many times he would say "Slow down, girl" or "your coming up to the stop sign too fast, girl" So after he died I almost always heard his voice when I drove the pickup.

VOICES by Chris Young
Some of You could say I'm a little bit crazy
You could call me insane
Walkin' 'round with all these whispers
Runnin' 'round here in my brain
I just can't help but hear 'em
Man, I can't avoid it

I hear voices
I hear voices like
My dad sayin' work that job
But don't work your life away
Mama tellin' me to drop some cash
In the offering plate on Sunday
And granddad sayin' you can have a few
But don't ever cross that line
Yeah I hear voices all the time

Turns out I'm pretty dang lucky
For all that good advice
Those hard to find words of wisdom
Holed up here in my mind
And just when I've lost my way
Or I got to many choices

I hear voices
I hear voices like
My dad sayin' quit the team
And you'll be a quitter for the rest of your life
Mama tellin' me to say a prayer
Every time I lay down at night
And grandma sayin' if you find the one
You'd better treat her right
Yeah, I hear voices all the time

Sometimes I try to ignore 'em
But I thank God for 'em
'Cause they made me who I am

My dad sayin' work that job
But don't work your life away
Mama tellin' me to drop some cash
In the offering plate on Sunday
And granddad sayin' you can have a few
But don't ever cross that line
Yeah I hear voices all the time
Yeah I hear voices all the time.

Then last summer I bought a GMC Jimmy and I don't hear his voice anymore.

Hands

My daughter had posted about her wedding and a picture of hers and Marks hands. I love those kinds of pictures and it reminded me of Lowell's and my "hand" picture. My that was a long time ago.

A cross stitch project

This was my spring project for the wedding of Janessa Wolff (my grand daughter) and Sam Green. I had done a smaller version of this for myself several years ago and I love looking at it. It hangs above my kitchen sink. So I thought it was the perfect gift for Janessa and Sam.

 

I finally finished the crochet project that I started last Spring. I enjoyed crocheting this and learn a lot. The main thing I learned was that I should have crocheted all 5 panels BEFORE I cross stitched on them. It would have been easier to count the squares. But all in all I'm pleased with it.

Grandpa and Grandma Duncan

These pictures were taken in the backyard of my Grandpa and Grandma Duncans house. (my dad's parents). Grandpa built the fireplace-I think this might have been the first patio in Redwood. I loved roasting marshmallows with Grandpa. I would do what most kids do - become impatient and have a flaming missile (makes me think of that Denise the Menace movie). Grandpa would patiently show how to make a golden roasted marshmallow but it took too long. Grandma loved her flowers. On both sides of the bridge were lily ponds with gold fish in them. Grandpa built the bridge, birdbath and a lamp post the worked that you don't see, out of rocks he collected. Her specialty was dahlias - they were huge and she would save the bulbs from year to year-the goldfish lived in their basement during the winter. I remember the goldfish as being very big and we (grand kids) would feed them oatmeal. Beyond the bench was a hammock where I spent quite of bit of time. I loved that back yard!

Music stuff

Tomorrow night begins our last 4 days of rehearsals before our opening night (Friday)of Godspell. It will be an interesting esperience. First of all we are in the Century school (middle school) instead of the high school because of the repairs being done. In the HS we always had a small orchestra that played "in the pit" so we couldn't really see what was happening onstage. The Century School doesn't have a pit so I can actually watch the rehearsal and performance. Our music ensemble consists of guitar, drums and bass and myself on keyboard. Again different. Here are a few pictures of rehearsals and the set as well as the inprovised seating area. I enjoy the rehearsal and performances of our operas but I'm always glad when they are done. Since there is so much music I have to be there every night from 6 - 10. Music is fun to play although somewhat challenging because a lot of it is jazz/rock. But I'm learning. Come if you can. Performances are July 30, 31,
August 1(3:00), 5,6,7

Storm clouds

Here are some pictures of storm clouds coming mostly from the north.

Pictures around my house