Happy Easter!

Today started early for me - up at 6:20 to be at church by 7:40.  We had a sunrise service at 8:00, breakfast at 8:45 and second service at 10:00.  I was a Greeter at both services.  We had three baptisms today!

Joan, our pastor's wife - and helpers, planned and cooked a wonderful meal as usual:  scrambled eggs with green and red peppers and onions, hash browns, biscuits & gravy, French toast sticks, sausages, fresh fruit salad, little cinnamon rolls (from Sam's Club), and little cupcakes.

 

Bill, Peggy and I had reservations at Halderwood Farms for Easter Brunch.  I really didn't need to eat after having this good breakfast at church!   I love old barns though so had always wanted to go to Halderwood.  They had salad bar, ham, turkey, roast beef, mashed potatoes & gravy, dressing, green beans, macaroni & cheese, creamed corn, rolls, and pie.  The barn is really neat - wish I'd taken a camera with me!  Here's a picture of the outside from their web site.  They're mostly open by reservation only on holidays and for bus tours and other business events.
 
Bill and I got busy after we got home and cleared everything out of our garage and hosed and swept it out.  With living on a gravel road and driving on them all the time, we track in lots of gravel and dirt especially in the winter.  It looks so nice again! 

I hope everyone has had a nice Easter.  By the way, we received a very pretty Easter lily by delivery this week - with no card!  Do any of you know anything about this so that I can send a thank you?  I hope the delivery people didn't lose the card!

Busy

Not sure what all we've been doing lately, but we have been busy!  But I haven't forgotten about the blog!  We had the little girls overnight last weekend.  Bill is at a planter school today and also watched a webinar this morning about fuel regulations.  I've been to a couple of dental appointments and have the last one tomorrow (had to get another crown).  Took our Enclave in for an oil change and they found another problem so it has to go back this week.  

We found out this morning that a man here in town passed away.  He was a character who everybody liked.  He had cancer.  He was the type that during these last months would go ahead and eat whatever even though he had some trouble with his blood sugar because he said he was going to die anyway which had to make us smile (they had only given him a few months to live).  There have just been way too many deaths here this past year and it continues.   

I went to Humboldt today to use a Kodak machine to get some pictures printed.  For the last week, we have had "Flat Lacey" with us for a 2nd grade project and have been taking pictures of her doing things with us.  After my P.E.O. meeting tonight I need to write up all that we did with "Flat Lacey" along with the pictures and get that mailed back to the school tomorrow.  I'll do a blog post about that soon for those that don't know about Flat Stanley, a childrens' book that this comes from.  

Sat. night we went to Vinny's BBQ in Dakota City to use a gift certificate we had.  It's a very popular place and always busy.  Look at the rack of ribs Bill had!  (he did bring some home!)  Vinny's has a dry rub type of BBQ - not what we're used to.  Bill loves ribs and always compares them to his favorite ones at Charleston's in Carmel.  

 

Todd's Memorial Service

 

My friend's husband's memorial service was Tues. evening and it was a very nice, personal service at our church.  One of the ministers was a long time friend of Terri & Todd's so he was able to talk a lot about Todd's life.  The Dahl family from here did the special music including Carolyn playing the piano, brother John played the guitar and sisters and a niece sang.  Terri had chosen some of their favorite soft music on CD's to be played during the visitation.   

Practice Burn

Our fire department got together today with four other area fire departments to practice burn this house that is out in the country - a really pretty setting for a house.  The other departments were Gilmore City, Bode, Bradgate and Pocahontas - about 20-25 firefighters including three women.

They do air pack practice, water transfer practice, smoke ventillation, and search and rescue.  (I told him I could've been the victim)  Our Chief was the head of the operation today.  His wife asked me to make some "bars" for their lunch.  They had pizza.  I took these pictures when I delivered my chocolate chip bars.  They practiced in the morning and then burned the house after lunch.  Bill said everything went very well.   

I met the wife of the couple that hope to build a new house here when they retire.  This was her uncle's house. 

 

Almost Spring?

We had a blizzard here on Sunday and got about 8" of blowing snow.  I followed Bill to town yesterday.  He was taking the planter tractor to the tire store.  I saw this tractor with planter in town surrounded by big piles of snow so had to take a picture.  Bill says the farmers are ready - Mother Nature not so much.

Very sad news is that my friend's husband passed away Sun. evening during the blizzard.  She said that he would've loved the storm.  You can read about him HERE.  Todd will be missed by many. 

Wisconsin/Winter Fun Part 3

John & Mary Jeanne live near the Bay Shipbuilding Co.  In the 2nd picture you can see one of the several big ships that were there.

This picture shows a big pile of snow at their church.  Saw lots of these around.  They had just gotten about 5" of new snow right before we got there.

As we were leaving the area, we had to stop at a cheese shop.  John & Mary Jeanne said this was a good one - Renard's.  They had many, many kinds of cheese, local wines, cherry butter, etc.  Fun stop.  We picked up some gifts and a couple things for us including cheese curds.  They had just been made and were still warm in fact.  John gave us a tip about cheese curds. If they don't squeak and you want them to, microwave them for about 10 seconds.  We tried it - mmmmm!

Renard's Cheese Shop, Sturgeon Bay, WI

On the way home, we stopped in Blue Earth, MN at the DQ for some ice cream.  We're not usually up there when the Jolly Green Giant is standing in snow so I had to take a picture of him.  Between there and home we saw two different places where there were TONS of deer!  Like maybe 50 in the first field.  Looks like at least 25 in this one.  

Jolly Green Giant

Lots of deer