Tis the season. Caleb's first Christmas. This is one year he won't be afraid of Santa. Leah asked Santa for a full night's sleep for Christmas.

This was the birthday weekend in the Walker family. Finley's birthday was Saturday, she turned 3 with a princess theme all the way. She'll be dressing and looking like a princess for many months to come. Mallory turned 8 today. Mallory always gets the short end of things because she lives a ways away. We usually celebrate her birthday whenever we see them for Christmas. Mary Ellen and Mallory came done for Finley's party so Jim and I gave her her present instead of making her wait. It was a twister moves game. It's like the game twister only it has a cd with it where a dj calls out moves (dance steps). It got to going a little fast for us, but is fun and exercise all in one. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDDAUGHTERS! ! ! !

Day 2 of the winter blizzard. Jim is outside attempting to move snow. It is so bitterly cold. He needs to get a loader bucket for the tractor and a tractor with a cab. Maybe by next winter and that will probably be a winter when we don't have much snow. As you can see from the pictures the drifts in front of our house are as high as the front deck. In the bottom picture, the second drift, our mailbox is in there somewhere.....Jim stated he'll be lucky to get one of our two drives open today and the garage so we can get out one drive.

Second day without school. I never would have predicted this. One goal I had was to clean the hall closet. Got that done although I can't say we got rid of very many things. Every time I hauled a coat of Jim's out that he hasn't worn in years, it was like a walk down memory lane. "I love that jacket, I bought that when we were in San Francisco" which was over 15 years ago. Some of those jackets he had even forgot he had, but he made me put almost all back in the closet, with a small pile for son John to go through and a very small pile that might make it to the camper. I think I actually have about 5 between us that I can give to Goodwill. Haven't decided what I'll do with the rest of day 2. Hopefully I'll be back in school for one day and then another weekend.

Our lives seem to revolve around food. December 1 was Alicia's birthday we didn't celebrate until last weekend when we went to one of her favorite restaurants, Biaggi's. It was the first time Jim and I had been there. It was very good. On Sunday we prepared a free will offering breakfast at church. The menu included pancakes, egg casserole and hashbrowns with cheese sauce.

I need a New Year's Resolution that starts early to use my camera more. I think I've mentioned that before. I seem to think I can't make a post without a picture to go with it.

Last weekend we had a wonderful time with family and friends celebrating grandson Dalton's 12th birthday and John and Beth's mutually shared birthdays (which were several weeks ago). Good food and a game of LRC with the kids. AND, Leah went to a movie, her first outing without Caleb. We passed him around 7 different women all evening. He took his first bottle and it went very well.

The next day was my Dad's 84th birthday. We traveled to the Amana's for dinner at the Ox Yoke Inn and met my Sister Carolyn and niece Lauree. Following dinner a Christmas show at the Old Creamery Theatre and then the drive home. I think we were all tired by the time we returned but Mom and Dad seemed to enjoy the outing.

This year for Thanksgiving we decided to leave town. We took a trip to Branson. We traveled 1/2 a day on Thursday. Our Thanksgiving meal was an evening buffet followed by a show on the strip. Friday we went to Silver Dollar City. It was perfect....68 degrees and Sunny. The Christmas lights in the evening were absolutely AWESOME and well worth the drive down. Came back home on Saturday and was glad to have 1 day home before going to work tomorrow. Which brings us to today so now you are caught up on our lives.

11-08-09 #2

We finally decided it was safe for Daddy to visit Caleb even though he is still suffering with some pain with the shingles. So here are the great grandparents along with the rocking horse Daddy made and mom supervising and helping with the painting/staining. It will be awhile before Caleb is ready to tackle the horse but I told Leah it would look cute under the Christmas Tree this year.

I'm a week behind. Last week Sunday our church had fall festival. Jim proudly brought his hand crank corn sheller. In the field behind the church we grew sweet corn and popcorn. The kids took turns pushing the corn cobs down into the sheller and hearing/watching the popcorn get stripped from the cob. Everybody loves doing this. We use to have a corn sheller at the farm but it was destroyed in a fire several years ago. Jim bought this sheller at an auction earlier this year and now is in heaven shelling popcorn. He also picked sweet corn, let is dry on the cob and shelled it. Tonight, as I'm typing, he is putting that shelled corn into the "Magic Bullet" and grinding it into corn meal and making cornmeal muffins. Except for the electricity to grind the corn, we are living the life of the prairie days. It would be much cheaper or at least faster to just go buy a box of cornmeal at the store, but not as much fun for Jim. When the popcorn is dry he will bag it up and take it to church to hand out. He is also planning on bagging up some of his cornmeal to hand out. I married a farm boy.

For My Dad and Mom

At about the same time Caleb was born, my Father came down with shingles. Consequently he has been unable to see Caleb. When I called tonight to see how he was, he said he has been keeping up with Caleb on this blog; so here's to you Daddy and Mom, new pictures of Caleb. He DOES HAVE EYES. 95% of the pictures I have of Caleb he is asleep (he is a new born!)

Sunday October 25

Monday morning, I strongly dislike you! ! I had a fabulous weekend and as always, I would love to have one more day. I got the house reasonably cleaned and some fall decorations out, laundry done (but not folded and put away) and watched an unbelievable ISU Nebraska game. Oh and I forgot, the sun was out for awhile :).

Sunday, Leah and Caleb came for dinner. Caleb and I took a nap together. While I didn't enjoy having to go into work for a couple of hours later in the afternoon, I have the sense of accomplishment for things cleaned off my desk to make the start of next week a little easier.

Sunday evenings are one of my favorites for TV watching; The Amazing Race and Brothers and Sisters. It's midnight and I should go to bed. That's why I shouldn't take afternoon naps.

TOFU....I think I failed to mention the Tofu class I took last week. I was hoping for great ideas for incorporating tofu more in our diet. Let's just say, I ate at McDonalds on the way home. If you have a more "Americanized" way of eating it please let me know how you do it! At least I know I did my job well at class. I was given a recipe for soup and another class member stated it was her favorite of all the recipes because it tasted like beer. Being the nondrinker I am, I just smiled and was glad I must have done a good job with the recipe that gaged me.

Next post......Jim has been very busy harvesting popcorn that had been planted at the church and trying out the hand crank sheller he purchased at an auction. Pictures of that next time. Have a great week to whoever reads these posts. Stay healthy.

October 23, 2009

These pictures are for you Kari and ME as you have been requesting new pictures. Today is the first day I haven't seen Caleb since he was born. :( He is the bright spot in what has been otherwise the yuckiest weather in a long time. I hope the sun comes out tomorrow :) ! !

New Family Member

Caleb Burton Wilson arrived at 3:52 a.m. on Monday October 19, 2009. He weighed 7 lbs. 2 oz. He has Leah's dark curly hair and nose. Congrats! Mike and Leah.

Every weekend in October seems to be filled with some special activity. Two weeks ago it was a trip to Kansas City to watch the Cyclones play. Last weekend it was Beth's wedding and reception. Other than snow in the morning the rest of the day was beautiful.

I haven't had a normal week at work since the last post with parent teacher's conference, field trips, etc. So this coming week may be a long week where I actually work my normal schedule.

I bought a new camera in June thinking I could keep it in my purse and have it more readily available to take pictures to post, but I have been failing. Friday night we stayed with Payton and Finley could have had some great pics there. My New Year's Resolution (a few months early) is to do better. Especially as I type this Mike and Leah are at the hospital and I'm waiting word of the details for the little man.

Busy Weekend

It was a busy weekend at the Walker Compound. Mary Ellen and Mallory were down for a bridal shower for Beth. I went to a baby shower for Leah. Saturday night David, Alicia, Mallory and I went miniature golfing. That was a lot of fun. Sunday Alicia, Jim and I took a tour of the new Southeast Polk High School. That took us 2 hours. What a place! ! ! Those students don't know how lucky they are. I'm sure the taxpayers do :)

This week brings parent-teacher's conference for me. That means working until 8:00 Tuesday and Thursday night but on the up-side, I don't have to work Friday, so looking forward to a 3 day weekend and a trip to K.C. to watch the ISU / Kansas State game. Hope everyone is enjoying the change in the weather. It is time to take the air conditioner out of the bedroom window. BRRRRRRRR!

Leah took me on a tour of Mercy Hospital. My how things have changed. A very, very, very nice facility. A new mother wouldn't want to come home from there. The above picture is of the birthing room complete with a jacuzzi hot tub. Makes me feel like my kids were born back in the dark ages. Buster has quadrupled in size!! and he is only 4 months old, a very nice puppy. He has now been updated on his shots.

Campfire Stories

With such nice weather we have had a lot of campfires lately. Often we invite my parents out to sit around the fire. These times always lead to interesting conversation and sometimes quirky events. Last weekend the discussion included different types of pitch forks, 3 tine, 4 tine and 5 tine. Each one had a specific job; manure, hay, etc. I only thought of tines on forks like in the movie Pretty women when Julia Roberts is learning the number of tines on a fork and which is for eating salad, main course etc. While the smoke from the fire makes the above picture hard to see, in the background are Jim and my parents. I also learned that my Grandmother Gabelmann wanted my father to be a minister. Parents have always tried to pick careers for their children. Last weekend also included a flashlight walk to the ditch to figure out why the dogs in the neighborhood were barking and I was face to face with a big raccoon who just stood and glared at me. The dogs left upon my arrival and left the raccoon and I to decide who was going to move first. This weekend the discussion was about milking cows (after Jim's trip to the the dairy in Indiana that milks 30,000 cows three times a day). Of course, I don't have enough years on me to have ever experienced milking cows or using pitch forks so I seldom have anything to contribute to these campfire discussions.

Last Day of August

I can't believe tomorrow is September 1. Jim is currently in Illinois. I sent the camera with him but tonight when he called he said he hadn't used it and won't. So there will be no pictures to post of his tour through the 30,000 head dairy. I guess if you've seen one cow, the other 29,999 wouldn't be any different. I thought I would have all this time to myself to do things while he was gone, but it hasn't worked out that way. He's be back tomorrow and I have Open House at school so I will get home late. People have asked how my school year is going, and so far so good. I think it will be one of my better years, I hope I didn't just jinx it.

Summer is Over

While the calendar indicates there are still two weeks of summer left, in my life it is over. I have been back to work (much to the joy of some of you) for one week. Tomorrow is the first day with students. 180 days to go. I also know summer is over because we drained the pool today. I don't know what happened, but about a week ago we had a major leakage and lost at least 1/3 of the water. So it was either refill or drain. Drain it was.

We are thinking about camping this weekend, YEA! Weather looks great. I haven't used my camera since we returned from vacation. I need to get back in the swing of things and that will come this week as I am back to hearing an alarm clock and a schedule every day. Nothing special on the Walker social calendar until camping this weekend. Next week, Jim is going to take a man's vacation (that is a vacation by himself). I actually encouraged this. He will be heading east next Sunday to visit some dairy farm in Indiana and then to the Farm Progress show. More on that after he returns.

Have a great week everyone! I'm in the trenches with you :)

REPEAT

I like to walk at night when it's dark and I pretty much own the streets. Tonight I'm walking on our road, back home, the last 1/2 mile. It's 10:10 and out of the cornfield walks a .....................skunk! YIKES What is up with the skunks? I stood paralyzed. Watched it walk in front of me (black cat or skunk which is worse?) After it crossed the road I breathed a sigh of relief and cautiously continued forward.

Last night as I'm on a bike ride I come upon a skunk walking down a sidewalk in town. There was a cat sitting on the corner and the skunk was walking toward the cat. I had instant panic! We're all going to get sprayed. What should I do. I'm traveling to fast to stop abruptly and turn around so I just continued on, turning the corner and praying. Prayers were answered. I turned around and saw the cat take off running and never smelled anything. Whew!

Weekend

I forgot my camera this weekend, so no pictures. We went camping this weekend. The weather was soooooooo perfect. Friday night David and Alicia and Sue, Paul and Jacob Ponder joined us for supper. The best sleeping weather is when it is cool outside and sitting around the campfire felt great. Saturday Jim mowed at the farm and I trekked to the Chichaqua bike trail for a 20 mile ride. Saturday night John, Payton and Finley joined us for supper and a campfire. Sunday they joined us for breakfast and then a trip to Mike and Leah's to fish at the pond. How could I not have pictures to share of all those events. I'm mad at myself.

Finally Home

3,182 miles later we finally made it home Friday night at 8:45 p.m. Good old Iowa humidity awaited us. I've already started a load of laundry and Jim is still sleeping. First day back activities will include laundry, laundry, laundry and mowing the lawn which hasn't been done for a couple of weeks, oh and cleaning out the car from the moutain of pamphlets we picked up along the way. If anyone wants to plan a trip out west, let me know, we probably have a pamphlet or 3 or 100 to help you.

Drive, Drive, Drive

Today was a long day of traveling, about 500 miles. And we lost an hour changing time zones again. We didn't stop and see anything new today. Rather we took a trip down memory lane. In 1995 Jim and I both made separate trips to the Black Hills. Mine was the one we relived. While eating lunch at a rest stop in South Dakota, I said, "I think this is the rest stop the boys and I pulled into when we had car trouble coming home" and sure enough it was. When starting back home with my oldsmobile and fold down camper the water pump went bad. We pulled into this rest area. I remember calling Carl VanDerKamp at the Coop Station in Prairie City from my bag (cell) phone in the car. What do I do? Turn the heater on, it will help cool the engine and try to limp to the next town. So down the road we started. We didn't make it to the next town which was Wall. Sitting along the side of the road, I just remember a car stopping to help. It was some family heading to Ohio for a religious meeting (I had never heard of their group). They offered to take me to the next exit to get something to pour into something (that's been 14 years of memory which elapses me) the problem was they only had room for one person. I'll never forget, I had to make the decision to leave my children on the side of the road. I probably lectured them to stay in the locked car and not open the windows for anyone. We went less than 10 miles got something and headed back to the car. My heart was beating wildly praying the boys would still be there. They were. I always said, God watches out for women and children. The boys would have been 12 and 14. We poured the liquid into the car and limped to Wall. A gas station right off the exit told me where to go in town to find a mechanic. He said he would work on it the next day. Luckily there was a camp ground just a few blocks away. We went and unhooked and drove the car back to the shop. That night we walked around Wall Drug. I remember making spaghetti that night in the camper. Funny what a person remembers. David? Do you remember any of this? The lady that owned the campground was a widow and she was worried I wouldn't have enough money to make it home and wanted to give me money, but I assured her I had a credit card and would be fine. So today, while we didn't go to Wall Drug I drove right to the mechanic's shop and the campground. They're both still there.

Tonight we are in Mitchell, SD, the Corn Palace town. I also remembered the campground along the Interstate at Mitchell the boys and I stayed at. On that trip we had a cassette tape to listen to while driving through SD we had picked up at a Rest Area when first entering SD. When we returned home, I told Jim and Barb about the cassette tape because they were leaving the next week for the Black Hills. They also listened to the tape while driving across SD. But they didn't have car trouble. Lucky them.

No pictures were taken today, just the memories in our minds. But I've included pictures of Old Faithful, and the canyon at yellowstone and an archway in Jackson Hole made entirely of antlers.

Tomorrow we will finally make it to Laura Ingalls Wilder's home in DeSmet (stop laughing and making fun of us) and then home.

Wednesday July 22nd

Today we left Yellowstone. Made a few stops along the way. In 1959 there was an earthquake near Yellowstone that sunk the ground in a given area up to 21 feet. Water in a nearby lake tilted 19 feet and campgrounds nearby began to flood. This all happened at 11:30 p.m. We visited that area. Then on down the road to the Battle Field of Little Big Horn. These white stones are all over the area marking where a U.S. soldier died. Granite markers mark where Indians died. A vast barren area but interesting. What amazes me about the west is the lack of humidity. It was in the 80's today and very tolerable and tonight it will be a wonderful 40-50's and will feel great. I love this climate. Tonight we are sleeping in Sheridan, WY. Tomorrow takes us across South Dakota. Haven't decided if we're going to stop at Mt. Rushmore again as we've both been there before, but it is such a neat place and we'll be so close. The last destination before Prairie City is De Smet, SD. I know some of you are already laughing, but we are Laura Ingalls Wilder fans and we won't be this cloase again for who knows when.

Here We Are

In case you've forgotten what we look like, here we are.

Yellowstone

We have just completed almost 2 days at Yellowstone. I think we saw virtually everything we wanted to. When you think of Yellowstone, what's the first thing you think of...........Old Faithful. We went, we waited an hour for it to go off. It was OK but we agree the thing we liked the most was the Canyon and the waterfalls. The park as a whole is amazing! We saw lots of buffalo and that was great until we were within 14 miles of our hotel and it took 90 minutes to drive that 14 miles because of buffalo on the road (or so we were told by the on coming traffic). Ruined the evening of shopping and the IMAX that I had planned.

Grand Tetons

Sunday and Monday brought us to the Grand Teton National Park. There is just no way a picture can capture the beauty and majesty of the landscape. I just want to sit and stare at them forever. We have seen elk, but we can see those locally at the Neal Smith Wildlife preserve so when we saw a crowd gathered in one location, we decided to check it out. Lucky us, a mother moose and her calf.

Sunday, July 19

Now that I have hopefully turned my picture so it won't be sidewise in this blog, here is a picture of my niece Angela and her faithful companion Maggie. This picture was taken in her front lawn. The big rock at the top is called castle rock. Deer come down almost daily and right into her front yard, which doesn't make her happy because they have eaten her pine tree. She'll replace it and attempt to deer proof it. Thanks Angela for being our tour guide. I LOVE YOUR HOUSE! Hated leaving you behind.

Vacation Days 2&3

Day two was strictly a traveling day, the rest of the way across Nebraska and most of the way across Wyoming. Arrived in Green River where my niece Angela lives. She took us to a very nice up scale restaurant on Friday night. Saturday she was out tour guide, drove our car and we went along for the ride. She took us through Flaming Gorge National Forest. We felt very fortunate that we were able to see Big Horn Sheep. A ranger pointed them out to us at a visitor's center and there were babies! Also took a tour of the damn. Green River is the cleanest river. You can see through the water and watch the fish. Jim is ready to come fishing here. The scenery changes constantly so there is no one picture to depict the entire area. Well worth the visit! It is hot but only 8-12% humidity, very tolerable. Tomorrow we leave for Jackson and the Tetons.

Vacation Day 1

I remember as a kid hating the drive across Nebraska, such a boring place. But as an adult, so far I'd have to say it's kind of like driving across Iowa. I guess I don't view Iowa as bad as Nebraska because it's home. Highlight of today's trip was the Arch at Kearney. Didn't even know it existed until we saw the movie "About Schmidt". It was worth the drive across Nebraska and the fee to go in. We spent two hours there. Kudos to Nebraska for a job well done. Tonight we're in Ogallala and tomorrow we land in Green River, Wyoming. On the downside, I couldn't get the Wifi in this motel to work untiil now, 5:00 a.m. and it has been raining and hailing outside. Sorry for the sideways picture. I seem to be having trouble remembering how to turn those.

New Family Member

Yesterday Buster arrived to David and Alicia's house. He is an 8 week old basset. He chews on everything and sometimes walks on his ears. Very cute! !

Holiday Weekend

Our July 4 started on the 2nd when we took the camper to the State Fairgrounds. During the state fair it is arm pit to arm pit camping, but not true otherwise. We had wide open spaces. We found a great spot to watch the Des Moines Pops Concert fireworks without having to deal with the crowd and traffic of 125,000 people. Saturday we stayed with Payton and Finley while their parents went to the 35/80 concert. We all enjoyed a trip to the Heritage Carousel at Union Park and Grandpa and Payton had a scary ride down the rocket slide.

With the weather being so perfect, we picked a great night to drive to Webster City to see our grandson, Dalton, play in his last game for the season. These eleven year olds only play four innings and some play different positions each inning. Dalton started out as catcher, moved to pitcher, then second base and finally first base. He scored a run and caught a pop fly. They were leading 6-1 but in the end tied 6-6.

Special Days

This weekend we finally got around to celebrating special June days. Mary Ellen's
40th birthday and Father's Day. She may be old but her lung capacity allowed her to blow out all forty candles in one quick breath. We were all impressed ! ! ! But her mind is starting to go...when setting up our pool from last year, she realized 1/4 of the way full it was inside out. The lawn was well watered after discovering that mistake. Jim was almost brought to tears over his Father's Day present, the Iowa State Patio Umbrella. For people who think we have too much ISU paraphernalia we say NEVER ! ! The cool front came through and we enjoyed a family weekend outside without sweating to death with grilling, eating, driving tractors and sitting around a campfire. Life was good!