Janjanjan & Mark Too

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Bunco Gals and Family Fun!

I hosted Bunco for the first time....A fun game of chance, you don't have to pay attention to anything but the conversation!

Inez, Laurie and Dawn are ready to roll.....

Amy, Mary and Rhonda pose for the roving photographer in the dining room, while Patti, Amy and Jill (I think) played in the kitchen.....

This is the table runner I made for Annie... couldn't get the picture to go where I wanted it!

Marty and Patti were smart and stayed in the kitchen with the food.....

I even got Bunco... so that's why I am holding the pink dice! (If it is one is it a dye? or die?) So much to learn, so little time!

Rhonda really knows what to do with the pink thing! A good (and loud!) time was had by all.....

I barely had time to recuperate and put the house back together before Mary, Mom and Dad came for the Tridium (Easter Weekend!)

We were supposed to be fasting, but Mary wanted to make scones.... really yummy scones, with white chocolate and rasberries.....

She mixed them by hand and arranged them "just so" on the cookie sheet... as per the instructions
(Mary is like Mark, and she follows directions and rules!)

Here Mom and Mary pose with the finished product....

Dad was happy to test them for us!

Holy Thursday dinner - Chicken Marsala -

Stella bonded with Mary Kay....

Good Friday Dad couldn't take resting and relaxing any more, so Mark "let him" wash the deck...

His shoes from his Labor Day project were still under his bed!

Holy Saturday we were off to Madison to see Chris and Bill Cosby, followed by dinner at an Irish Pub!

We love our Chris!

I am sure whatever I was saying was profound (and apparently funny!)

Mark and his mom in her Christmas sweater

Mom and Dad

Easter Sunday a Pilliated Woodpecker paid us a visit.. and we also saw an Eagle in it's nest ... I have to get that picture from Mark's camera.

Mary's Birthday was Monday so we had to celebrate that too!

Dad and Mark enjoyed relaxing and reading

Mary was baking again... this time Chocolate Lava Cake.........

DELICIOUS!

Dad liked it too!

Our Easter Feast........

Complete with Lamb Butter!

Happy Birthday to Mary Kay!

Sunday, April 5, 2009

April, 2009

Although Spring has Sprung... the lake is still frozen, snow keeps falling and dogs were groomed too soon. But life goes on. I am sewing,and quilting and knitting. Mark is reading and planning to build a TV stand for our living room. We have been out and about at hospital functions (we have even been mentioned in local newspaper articles!)

If I could have one wish it would be that all of my kids lived close enough (and wanted to) to come for Sunday dinner.

Sometimes I get bored and the dogs suffer!

Miss you all... consider visiting... we're here and welcome your visit!

Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!"

~Robin Williams

Friday, March 27, 2009

March marches on

So much of my life is Faith in Action, that I thought I would share a couple of pictures from work... This is a picture from our last Coalition Meeting last Monday. Edi and Sarah presented me with a BIG Check from their church, Big Springs Congregational Church in Big Springs WI.
They are a very small congregation, but one that cares about loving their neighbors in a big way.
I did some research on Congregational churches for our newsletter, and I like their philosophy...
Basically each church is independent, and they believe that the Holy Spirit will guide them -- sort of takes the wind out of all of the rules and such.

This is a picture of one of our recipients, Pat. She is an interesting lady... she's the one who fed the cats and I had to take to the hospital. She knits hats, scarves, and other things and sends them to a Catholic Orphanage for native americans in Nevada. She also painted the picture behind her.

I am beginning to "belong" here in Adams County... I joined Romemakers, which is a women's club sponsored by the University of Wisconsin Extension.... it is officially called Home Community Educators. I am on the Service Committee, imagine that, and recently became the chair of the committee, because, you guessed it, nobody else would do it! At any rate here is a picture of some of us modeling mittens we made for elementary school kids in Nekoosa who don't have any.

I also was invited to join a book club, The Queens, and a Bunco Group. I have been to one book club meeting, where we read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows. It is an intersting book, and the hostess for the evening served potato peel pie... which wasn't bad! Our next book is called Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Laroson. I have started reading the book, and it too is good. About a girl who moves to Montana (I think it's Montana) to take over her dead uncles homestead. It's a great book to read if you think life is hard, or you are depressed... so I am enjoying it!

Here is the Bunco group. It is a lot of fun... I am hosting the group in April....

So of course I have already started cleaning and obsessing.... even the girls have been "cleaned"... don't they look cute? Sally is a blond!

Tonight I had dinner at Zion Lutheran Church's pancake supper. DECLICIOUS!!!! And I knew more people there than I do at the Catholic Church we go to. Mark had to work late, so I went alone... but found people I knew to sit with. Friendly group.. almost everyone is related to someone else but they were warm and welcoming. I miss that.. or I should say I missed out on that, never lived anywhere long enough to be related to everyone else... or maybe that's not how it works!

“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.”
—Helen Keller (1880-1968), author, lecturer, activist