Time Got Away From Me

Life has gotten busy and I have neglected keeping up on this blog, but I want to update it on what I have been doing for the past six months.

I have done more entertaining. Here's a recap:

In early April my sister-in-law came up to the cities to spend the weekend with me. Over the weekend she attended church and Sunday school with me; ate at The Original Pancake House, saw the flower show at the Galleria, and attended a concert with Sandi Patty as one of the featured artists.

Yours truly and Donna at the Galleria Spring Flower Show

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I entertained some of my co-workers from Bethany House over lunch in early April. Those who came over were Natasha, Ellen, Paul (my former boss), Eric and Randy. Sadly, I didn't think to take a photo of them.

A couple of weeks later two other dear friends from my Bethany days, sisters Jeanne and Joanie, came for tea, orange juice and muffins. These dear women and I were once in a Red Hat group that was a lot of fun. Again—no photos.

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The end of May, Hans, Rachel, Josiah, Annika and William came to spend a weekend here where I live. We rented the guest room for a couple of nights and it worked out very well. It was the first time all of them, except Hans, had been to my new home. They told me they liked it very much. On Sunday they left and made a road trip out west. They went as far as the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. Then on their return, they spent a couple of nights in my guest room again.

Annika and Rachel

Josiah and yours truly

Hans and Peder took the opportunity to get together to play board games during this visit.

Peder and Hans

While Hans's family was here, I hosted a potluck lunch with my family. Cousin Linda was here from Chicago, and her brother, Cousin John, came, along with his son Doug and Doug's fiance, Caitlin. Cousin Pat and her husband, Pudge came, along with their daughter Kari and her husband, Charlie. Jerry and Janet were here, as well and Peder, Sarah, Aurelia, Felix and Leo. We met in the party room that is just down the hall from me. What a great time we had visiting and eating together. Pat brought along her bells so we had a blast singing and ringing the bells. Sadly, I was so busy I didn't get any photos of our music. Here are the few I took:

Cousins John and Linda (brother and sister)

Cousins John and Pat (Janet in the background)

Janet, yours truly, and Jerry

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June 8 I drove to Austin for the burial of my brother-in-law, David. It was a wonderful time reminiscing his life. Cousins Kenneth and Dale were also in attendance.

Donna, Tim, Amy and Andrea

Kenneth, Jr. and Dale (Steve's cousins)

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July 31 my dear friend, Nancy, came over to have lunch with my on my balcony. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed food and conversation in this fun setting.

My friend, Nancy

Yours truly

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Again I had a new friend, Tena, over for a little lunch with me. The date was August 26. Tena is very active at Valley View, serving as leader of our weekly Bible study. She also attends the Strong Bones exercise classes.

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August 3 I turned another year older. My next door neighbor, Nancy, and down the hall neighbor, Pat, gave me a birthday party, which was really nice.

Pat playfully reversed the order of the candles on the cake she made for me.

L to R: Nancy, Donna, June, yours truly, Laurey, Pat, Anne, and Sheila

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Early August Marshall and Corinne flew to the midwest to spend some time with their grandparents. They spent a few days in Hudson at their paternal grandparents and then were brought to my home to spend five days with me. We had a very good time together, spending part of one day with Peder and Sarah and their kids at a park and then at the National Night Out at my place where they got to climb into a fire truck and attend an ice cream social. I loved having them with me.

Marshall and Corinne in garden where I live

L to R: (seated) Corinne, (standing) Marshall, Rellie, Felix and Leo

Corinne and Marshall outside fire truck on National Night Out

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Steve Oates has been a good friend of mine for many, many years. He is one of the vice presidents where I used to work and when he traveled I would tend his many cyclamen plants in his office. He has helped me around my home with many projects including putting together furniture I have purchased from IKEA. Steve actually loves putting their pieces together because they are always cut perfectly and have all the hardware necessary. 

This past spring Steve suffered a major heart attack and had to have a valve replaced. It took him some time to recover. Thankfully he is young enough and was in good shape so he is now feeling really good. August 29 I had him and his wife Nancy over for dinner.

Steve and Nancy standing next to one of the sunflowers in the gardens where I live

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Wednesday, September 4, I had a little brunch with friends Jo and LaVonne. I used to work with both of them. LaVonne got married a couple of years ago to a widower who has nine kids. Some of them are in their late teens and one is in her early twenties. LaVonne is really happy. It was really nice to be with these gals again. 

Jo, yours truly and LaVonne

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Sunday, October 20 I hosted a birthday party for my friend and neighbor, Laurey. Many neighbors came to join in the celebration. My friend, Pat, made a delicious cake.

Laurey and yours truly

L to R: Betsy, Pat A, and Doris

L to R: Doris, Pat C and Anne

 

L to R: Sharon, Marcia and Laurey

Little Cousins Meet for the First Time

Yesterday I took my 7 year old grandson, Leo, to Rochester with me to be with my brother, Jerry, and my sister, Janet. Janet's great grandson, Levi, was to come over later in the day to meet and play with Leo.

Once there, Leo got to take out the hundreds of toys that are Levi's but are stored at Jerry and Janet's. He set up the Matchbox cars in rows and rows as though they were at an outdoor theater. He said they had to pay $1,000 admission, except those who were in the rear on the high platform. They paid $.02 each. I thought that was funny.

Leo arranged these car as at an outdoor theater

After a nice lunch prepared by Janet, Levi and Lynn arrived. It didn't take long for the boys to begin playing together. I thought it was really interesting and amazing, that Levi never had the attitude of selfishness with what are are his toys stored at his Grandma Jan's. He never seemed to be concerned to see his cars out of their container and on the floor. He is a real sweetheart.

Levi and Leo

The boys turned their play into a game of hide and seek and played well together. When it was time for Levi to leave, the boys said they wanted to get to play together again. I loved that.

Except for driving in continual rain both down to Rochester and back, it was a really nice time.

More Entertaining

In March I hosted two dinner parties. The first one was on the 15th. I had the Linnihans and the Forces over. After eating, the men adjourned to the living room and enjoyed talking about their jobs—they are both in the field of investments. We women stayed at the dining room table and talked about our church choir. Each of us is in the soprano section.

L to R: Dick, John, Barb, and Debra

A week later I hosted our pastor and his wife, Dale and Marcia, Del and Louise Gorham, and my dear friend, Nancy Carlson. We had a nice time of visiting and getting to know the pastor and his wife better. They all seemed to have a good time. For both parties I had fresh tulips on the table. I had such a good time and forgot to take any pictures of my guests.  I did take these photos before they came.

I made these bunnies for Hans and Peder in 1975

April 3 some of my former colleagues came over for lunch. They included Natasha, Ellen, Eric, Randy and my former boss, Paul. It was fun for me to show them where I now live, but the time went by too fast, however.

This morning two dear friends, Joanie Brooks and Jeanne Mikelson—they are sisters— came for a little tea party. Joanie had been here before. Jeanne is having trouble walking, is using a cane. Things are a bit difficult for her now. I really enjoyed catching up with them.

A Trip to Arizona

Early in the morning on February 28 I flew to Arizona. This time I flew with Sun Country. The experience was interesting in that the gate agent upgraded me to sit in row one, seat one. I had thought this would be a cushy, first class seat with a meal being served, but I was wrong. Sun Country has downgraded their service and one has to pay a fee for each seat they chose. The only "privilege" for sitting in row one was being offered an alcoholic beverage (I gave mine to the man sitting in the aisle seat) and a Dutch cookie: Stroopwafel.

I left Minnesota in minus 5 degree weather and landed in Phoenix where it was already 56 degrees—above zero. Later in the day it would warm up to the mid 70's and even low 80's. Walking through Pat and Pudge's golf condo to their back yard, I witnessed my first green grass of the season—the 7th fairway of their golf course.

I took the opportunity to walk down past other condos and witnessed blooming flowers. There were geraniums, petunias, hibiscus and others. What a treat for the eyes.

In the afternoon their association sponsored a classic car show. We had fun riding in Pat and Pudge's golf cart to witness the beautiful, restored cars. This 1972 Super Volkswagen Beetle was my favorite. Steve and I had one in 1972 in this exact color. It was fun for me to see the inside.

Restored 1972 Super Beetle

A couple of restored vehicles

Friday night I went out with some former class mates of mine from Austin. The live in the same association. Dick and I started kindergarten together. I treated them to dinner at a steak house (They treated me the last time I was in Arizona.)

Dick, his wife, Kaaren, and yours truly

Saturday was the big day for Pat and her dancing troupe, the Sunsationals. Janet and I attended the matinee and also the evening performance. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of her or the other dancers during the shows. I did get a couple of her fixing the fruit on her hat prior to the dance in which she is playing Carmen Miranda and then a photo of her next to Elvis.

Our friend, Sonja, was planning on going to the shows with us, but wasn't feeling well. She complained of having a tummy ache. We also heard that a couple of our other friends—friends from our childhood who either live in Arizona or winter there—were dealing with shingles and prepping for prostrate cancer surgery on Monday. Therefore our planned meeting to attend church on Sunday and then to be followed by brunch, got canceled. They felt bad about it, but it was definitely out of their control. Sunday night we got a message from Sonja letting us know she could not take us to Sedona on Monday because she was on the way to the hospital to have her appendix removed. Wow! Thankfully this whole thing happened before we had gone to Sedona. What if we had driven up there and she had gotten really sick Where would we have taken her? God took care of this for us. Monday we went to the hospital to see her.

In bed: Sonja; L to R: yours truly, Pat, Janet, Esther

* * * * *

While there we went to the grocery store a couple of times. Walking down one of the aisles I noticed unusual glass pop bottles. They had hobnails, and one of the flavors was in a cobalt blue bottle. I decided to buy one of the blue ones and give it a try. I also bought a bottle of California Raspberry Coca-Cola and Georgia Peach Coca-Cola.

The blue bottle was very pretty, and I considered keeping the empty to use as a vase, but then changed my mind and recycled it. The flavor was Guarana, which I found rather tasteless. Google says this about itl: Guarana. ... As a dietary supplement or herb, guarana seed is an effective stimulant: it contains about twice the concentration of caffeine found in coffee seeds (about 2–4.5% caffeine in guarana seeds, compared to 1–2% for coffee seeds). The additive has gained notoriety for being used in energy drinks. The  Georgia Peach Coca-Cola to me tasted like regular Coca-Cola, but the California Raspberry ticked all the boxes for me. [Today I bought a four pack in my local grocery store.]

Sunday was a nice day for a drive. Pudge drove us out to the desert to see if we could find any wild horses. We had no luck seeing any, but loved the drive where we saw many interesting sights, including the Mexican poppies.

Sunday night Pat and I went over to the community center and played many rounds of Bingo. Neither one of us won anything, but I thought it was a lot of fun. We met some nice ladies, too.

We enjoyed beautiful weather, gorgeous sunsets, and joyous times sitting around the table eating and visiting. The time went by so fast, and soon it was time to go home. This next photo is what welcomed me home.

David

Steve's brother, David, had been dealing with cancer for a couple of years. Prior to that he had heart issues and diabetes, plus he was overweight. The day it was discovered Steve had died (January 12, 2018), David had to be air-lifted to Rochester due to a huge infection in his body and he remained in Intensive Care for about five days and then spent an additional four days in St. Marys Hospital. Thus, he couldn't attend Steve's memorial service. This past summer he wasn't doing well and was told he had about three to five years to live. December 4th, Heidi and I drove down to Austin to have a meal with David and Donna. He looked frail, but was able to eat at the table with us. By this past Christmas his diagnosis was shortened to three to five months. His kids and their kids came for Christmas and it was a great celebration.

David's family Christmas 2018

January 9th of this year, Peder and I drove down to Austin to be with David. I took a prayer shawl with me to give to him, knitted by someone in my church's knitting club. David looked very week and had oxygen going into his nose. Initially he had a bit of trouble conversing with us, but then he seemed to wake up and was sharp, very sharp. I wrapped the shawl around his shoulders and he said it felt nice, comforting. He and I reminisced about our second grade teacher who taught us to knit. David did a very good imitation of her with her blinking eye condition. We had a good time.

The following day a hospice nurse came and a hospital bed was delivered to their house. It was determined David could rest and breathe better with the bed. The nurse warned Donna that David would be on a steady decline and she gave him about two months. David lived six more days—dying one year and four days after Steve died.  All of his kids were with him and they had a beautiful communion service with him the day before he passed.

Hans and Heidi flew home to attend his funeral which was this past Monday, January 21. The service was very nice. I was impressed with the pastor who no doubt had had a very good relationship with David. In my opinion, the best thing that happens when a death occurs is the reunion of family and friends at the memorial service. It was wonderful seeing David and Steve's sister, Cece, and her sons Michael and Ben. Since they live in California, we just don't get to see them often. Also, Andrea's husband, Troy, managed to detour to Minnesota when he was supposed to be in India for the filming of a special NBA documentary. Her son, Jaxon, and his wife, Hannah, and her daughter, Morgan, also came from long distances. I hadn't seen them in a very long time. A nice lunch was served after the service followed by family photos. Here are some of them.

Our family

Part of the family

Tim, Donna, Andrea, Amy

Amy's family

Andrea's family

Tim's family

Ben, Cece, Michael

Yours truly; my sister-in-law, Donna; my sister-in-law, Cece

Hans, Heidi, Peder

Heidi, Hans, yours truly, Peder