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| I dislike to make others, who cannot stay indoors on a day like today, envious, but this was a GREAT snug-as-a- bug-in-a-rug-day! At least, today I was glad to stay put...indoors out of the wind and rain. A cozy house day that makes you appreciate your home, hot nourishing food, a warm bed, good chair with throw and all the basics of life. It's one of the special joys of fall and winter that I enjoy. On the other hand, sometimes I like the challenge of getting out in the elements when most people stay inside! How's that was being contradictory??? Just depends... If you had to get out, the thoughts of your warm abode with your own special possessions/animal/people made it worth looking forward to. I fixed two good meals today...to give my hubby more to be glad about coming home to. Never underestimate the value of a good home cooked meal to the psyche! Something vastly overlooked in the culture today. Yes, I know, I know. I have time. THANK GOODNESS [but esp. thanks be to God]!  PS. Note the addition of a link to my shelfari book shelf! | | |
| I've been a good girl. How, you ask? Well, let me tell you! I put the porch* to bed for the winter and felt smug about it as I always do when winter is coming and an outside chore is done. A rite of winter [you've heard of 'rites of spring?]! Then I made an app't that needed to be made, but didn't want to make. Back up. I had my skin looked at at Soderstrom's in Morton [rough, scaly patches all over from excess sun explosure in my distant [!] youth [but, oh, I had a lovely tan!]. A routine biopsy was taken which was benign [and left a Crater on one of my forearms!]. Was supposed to come back to have liquid nitrogen treatment for upper body. Trouble is, I didn't relish it being done by some young physician's ass't who was younger than my son! And he did something that annoyed me. A lot. He was nice, you understand. Just young. So the Lord gave me a great idea...ck on-line at the clinic website to see if there is a woman PA. There was in Peoria! So I have an app't with her and feel much better about it. Had the initial app't way back in May but decided to wait for treatment until cool weather when it wouldn't be obvious that I had [pardon the word] scabs. And need to do it all this year for insurance purposes. THEN, I finally started on the few apples we saved for sauce. A bad year [# and quality] and on many of them I only could save a little bit. Still, I now have a good sized dish of applesauce, and the house smells great! Very labor intensuve this year tho. Did I mention I managed to stew a chicken and make a chicken caserole? You see, tomorrow I will be tied up most of the day as Dave home to have minor surgery and then on Sat. it's Panther Football! At 1 pm...only need to get there early...v. early! Rain NOT predicited. Glory be... * Swept rugs and hard floors. Brought large new rug inside to store. Rolled up blinds and put drawstrings in a sm plastic bad to protect for winter. Tucked inside blinds. Took down hanging light; put hanging basket and little tables, etc. on seat of sofa and chairs. Brought cushions, pillows inside to store in new attic. Covered up the two chairs [sofa already done as protected all Oct!] and tied at bottoms to legs so wind won't blow off. Etc.! | | |
| After leaving Crawford on Th. the 18th of June, 2009, we headed south til Alliance [the scene where Mark Danielson, RHMA pastor and part time policeman, along with other officers apprehended 3 escaped cons during the summer] where we ate at a Chinese restaurant. Decided not to drive out in the country to view some cadilacs upended ina stonehenge type circle. The outlet we hoped to visit outside of town was closed so we kept putting down Rt. 2 to Mullen, where LG had a pic to take of the Sandhills Bible Church for RHMA [this is church where Mark Danielson had just left to take postition at HQ in Morton]. The man at the gas station pointed out to us where the 3 cons had eaten lunch and stayed in the motel. From Mullen we ahead went south to pickup I 80 for Maxwell, just east of North Platte and home to the Maranatha Bible Camp, where George and Jan Cheek, college friends of Loren and LG Presley, arew the camp directors and who graciously consented to let us stay with them. I was initially reluctant to do this as didn't know the bathroom situation but it turned out to be wonderful. They live in an A frame house up on 'slits' [due to flood plain there] with 2 lovely guest rooms. It even had a electric chair that you could use for luggage transportation! I took the room with the private bath...decorate in rather a Mary Engelbrecht style. LG had the lodge style room. They were so gracious and I was glad LG could stay up to chat about old times. We ate supper in the camp dininghall...an interesting experience. Very lively and FULL of lots of kids! The camp was build in the 1930s, I believe....before I 80 was built. It was kind of a shock to see how close the camp is to the interstate. That's the reason why. Friday morning we are off to Lincoln and the It's A Novel Idea book store downtown, close to the U of N campus. Before that, however, we stopped in Gothenburg...on Rt 30, which parallels the interstate and goes through towns. Turned out to be a fun stop with several unique gift shops[blue bowl half priced]! This is also the town that has a pony express marker. Bought my 2 small buffalo at the p. express gift shop in the wooden cabin in town [actual site was several miles outside of town]. The motel in Lincoln turned out to be on the west end of town...not a good choice as we had to back track after being in downtown. The book shop was fun [had TWO resident cats]...unique bathroom that was shared with the kitty litter box and food despite it's postage stamp size. The sink was outside the bathroom in a cupboard you opened up to get to it! LG, as usual, found many books in the religious section and etc. I bought several plus picked up an Irving Stone biography of John/Abigail Adams that was free in a box outside the store on the sidewalk. We ate greek that night and would have been good but way too salty! Drove to the stadium [just a few blocks] and got out to view that and take pics. Old and interesting! The parking lot outside the main entrance was brick and being revamped...shows the age. The campus itself wasn't particularly pretty. The capitol building is unique. We drove around but didn't get out. Getting tired by that time and still had to drive way west for motel. Sat. morning we headed to Omaha and points east. Outside of O. stopped at a Cabellos on impluse and enjoyed a lot! Bought a rust red blouse and pair of blk flip flops. Tried on a pair of Merrill sandals I really liked and decided to try to find cheaper at home on-line [which I did!]. Have fun talk with several other ladies in shoes who had similar foot situation as mine. Tickled to find some sports sandals that fit and are comfortable [the Merrill]! So difficult for me with my length/width combination. Home early evening....Thanks for asking me to go, LG...it was a real life adventure and was enormously fun to explore a new state [and book shops] with you!!! Love you, Nebraska! | | |
| On Monday evening LG and I started to stay at Fort Robinson just a few miles west of Crawford. It was a delightful drive bet. the town and the Fort. A range of buttes all around it. The room was simple yet adequate and a deal at $50 a night! The only draw back of that experience was the long climb up 2 flights of stairs [Whose crazy idea was it to book a room on the second floor in a place w/o an elevator!!] This was a place of simple accomodations...no TV [hurray] or internet. The dininghall was great...filled with pictures, animal heads and relics from the past. Food good and at good prices. We loved one of the cooks, a young guy who walked through the diningroom one day in his shorts, apron, cowboy boots and cowboy hat. What a gas! Went on a narrated ride around the Fort area, ate at a cookout, and went on an hour long jeep ride to the nearby buttes to see wildflowers, learn more history and see the whole vacinity from the top of the buttes. The latter was our favorite part! A wild ride, and we got the older guide who wasvery knowledgeble. Just a few of the buildings were original, including the long building where we stayed. The Backstrom family was coming in a few days after we left for a family reunion. A great place for kids! One could easily envision the Indians being there with the soldiers. The place where Crazy Horse was killed was marked with a small monument. Incredible to stand there and think about that...Then there was the history from WW2 as it was also a German prisoner of war camp. Many of the Germans wanted to come back to live in the area after the war. They were sponsored by the ranchers for whom they worked. How fortunate they were to find themselves there...safe, well fed, treated humanly, able to work in a beautiful area for which they were paid, albeit a v. small am't. There were long horned cattle in a field on the way in and a few buffalo in the distance. I would love to return. A good place to stop on a trip further out West. The work in Crawford went well...we were v. tired at night but slept well and were well-fed. The rain held off until the end [a donut of rain around us with Crawford in the center!] We even had a picnic at some people's home caddy corner from the church one day. Projects I worked upon: center window strips in big room behind the sanctuary, swept up dust from floor sanding after Kelly Stuart was through in there, cleaned up lights and fan blades in same room, cleaned up newly sanded floor with Jo Miller with mineral spirits in last step before varnish applied. Basement: Painted some of the lower area below the long seating that ran across the room and end walls, touched up column trim, paneling over the kig. window...esp. the tedious areas. Bathrooms: In the women's put on a 2nd coat of paint on the trim to make it look much better and filled in the cracks in the corners with paint for a classier look. Outside: Started on the church sign and LG came along and did as much or more work than I on it. Chris Kern painted over some of the lettering. It had looked bad before and was pretty nifty after we were through. I also painted the concrete the sign legs were anchored in with black paint as was so spotted from previous paint jobs where paint had been dripped badly. Venetian blinds from room behind the sanctuary were very dirty so took outside to spray...let dry and then rolled up again to return to area for when they woulf be reused. Last job: Trimmed in hall upstairs bet. the sanctuary and the big room behind it...with Jo Miller. Last night at supper some of the folks from the church came to thank us and present up with a pic of the church and an individual note of thanks. We then all went upstairs to take turns ringing the bell!!!!!!!!! Fun and exciting way to close out our time. We said good-bye but then returned in the morning one last time. We hadn't gotten downtown so hit the 'variety' store...a place where all the junk you have ever seen resided! At one point I thought I needed to get out of there...darkish and stuffy. LG did find me an Elizabeth Elliot book, however!!! One extra note: LG and I gave the Bagley girls [Grace {8}, Faith {5}, Joy {4} and Cherish {1} a basket of gifts...a Larry Boy DVD, plastic popcorn holders, MV popcorn, etc. Those girls were so well behaved and precious. I particularly got a kick out of Joy in her cowgirl hat, boots and stick horse [one of her older sisters informed me Joy loved all things horse... oh, and circus]. I sent them cards [each with a $1 bill] in the summer when they had their BDs and got a neat note back from Laura. | | |
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