Wedding Plans

Mary and Doug

The WT's are excited to tell you that Mary and Doug will be getting married in August. We are looking forward to the celebration. We always enjoy a party and this will be a very happy reason to party.

Special May Day

This was a wonderful day of celebration for Helen's 90th. birthday. Her daughters and granddaughter gave her a party with an abundance of good food, music and birthday cake. Included in the large gathering were fifteen WT's. Jo and Lil, who had moved away, came over. We had a great visit.

Helen's daughters made bookmarks, with meaningful quotes, as mementos of her birthday. One that the WT's appreciate says: "All are needed by each one; Nothing is fair nor good alone." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Helen

WT's: Seated, Joan, Nancy and Helen

L to R: Jo, Lil, Helen S., Pat, Irene, Tee, Linda, Naomi, Janet, Lorraine, Dorothy

Spring Fever

Avid WT gardeners are waiting for the soil to thaw. We don't think anyone has dug down to check it out. Spring is now more than a promise. Rhubarb is peeking through and we have feared for our tulips and spring flowers as they are tricked into forgetting where they grow. Spring can be covered with snow at any time.

Our monthly breakfast gathering brought together ten WT's and Dorothy's daughter from Ohio last Monday. Joan left to begin a new round of chemo and to go to Indiana to be with her son and family for Easter. She enjoyed her trip. Naomi and Darlene had a good trip to Mexico. Irene enjoyed her jaunt to Nevada with some friends. Mary has been busy designing and sewing sweatshirts for taping two sessions on the "Sewing with Nancy" television program. Pastor Barb welcomed a new granddaughter into the world. Lorraine's grandson completed four years in the Navy by spending time in Haiti after the earthquake. His ship was on the way to Africa when they changed course. He filmed his experiences in Haiti and was featured on a regional t.v. news broadcast.

Our high school basketball team went to the state tournament, the first time in many years. They lost their first tournament game but had a wonderful time. Fans dressed in red and black filled the bleachers. The team was lead out of town by police cars, fire trucks and ambulances with their sirens blaring.

Our excitement for our local theater to begin showing movies again, died with a fire in the building. They were going to reopen with the movie, "Avatar" last Friday. The fire was on the Monday before. There are no definite plans to begin showing films again.

Our community is bursting with many fund raising events. The fire department is having a pancake feed on a Sunday. There is a salad luncheon coming up to raise funds for the 4th. of July celebration and plans for a huge community rummage sale. There is a youth hockey banquet, cancer survivor dinner, Ducks Unlimited banquet and a church rummage and bake sale. We do like to eat!

We can rest from all of the activity by picking up some new books by our favorite authors at the library. Fun reading for spring.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter with family or friends. Four Lutheran choir members had a busy time on Easter Sunday. They played bells in the bell choir, dashed into their choir robes, sang in the choir, dashed out of their choir robes and played with the bell choir twice again. Spouses probably considered a new meaning for the word, ding-a-lings. Happy Spring!

KEEPING UP

"Ever feel like a vinyl record in a compact disc world? You don't fit the equipment, you can't get anyone to repair you and you are going at the wrong speed." Erma Bombeck

The WT's are making an effort to keep up with the technical world, although several do not own a computer or a cell phone. Jodie tried to help us, when she was here, especially with computer questions. She took us on treasure hunting adventures, geocaching, with a portable GPS.

Mary received a Kindle for Christmas--a thin, small electronic book reader. She demonstrated it at coffee several mornings. The astonished comments included: "You get the books without plugging it in? The words just come out of the air! It will read to you! You can choose the size of print? You can read newspapers from around the world?" The amazement went on and on. You would think an alien landed in our midst.

The WT's had a great group of nine at coffee last week. We are slowly coming back from illness and travel. It's good to have Joan and Dorothy back. Darlene is leaving for a vacation in Mexico and Mary is in Tennessee and back to her travel schedule.

The churches are gathering on Wednesdays for a soup supper and a Lenten service, alternating churches and pastors each week. Six churches, of several denominations, are participating. The singing of hymns is uplifting as a church is filled each week.

There is a Cabin Fever Dinner/Dance coming up with an Italian buffet cooked by our mayor, Mary, who is an excellent cook. They will be raising money for our 4th. of July celebration. We heard the hopeful news, that our theater may be reopening soon.

The sun has been shining and the snow is slowly melting. Walking is a little easier and warmer. Darlene, Mary and Lorraine have been walking on most days. They are inclined to drive to coffee in the below zero ranges. In days gone by, WT's walked at 20-30 below zero. Tee and our late WT, Margaret, walked at a historic 50 below zero one day, years ago. Joan, Tee, Sharon and Irene have been walking in the school to avoid the ice and cold. When the walking is done, we have no problem with the talking.

January and Winter

Snow and sunshine

January is nearly over. Winter returned with rain, snow and below zero after a brief warm spell. January is a condition in the North. It's not noticing the dust in your house, looking in the refrigerator with no clue for dinner and making the bed in the morning, looking forward to crawling back into the flannel sheets as soon as possible. Fortunately, one day Emily drove down in ice and snow from her north woods for lunch with the WT's. That was a bright spot.

The big event in January is the Pepsi Challenge cross country ski race at our local ski area. The Saturday event included heavy rain, which was a new experience for the skiers. Some of the WT's worked as volunteers during the race.

Dorothy is enjoying a break with her husband in a retirement apartment, near their daughter, in Ohio. Three meals, cleaning and many activities included, sounds like a vacation to us. Joan is planning to come home for three months. We look forward to seeing her. Laurie and her husband were in Florida. They volunteered at the Disney Marathon Race. Helen has been with her children for a few months.

We were sorry to learn that our local theater has closed. It was an asset to our small town. We were able to see first run movies with a wonderful sound system.

There are activities to keep us busy. There is an ice fishing contest coming up in our area. Substantial prizes will be given for the largest walleye and northern. There is a cluster of ice fishing houses on the lake.

The libraries are running their adult winter reading programs--"Hot Reads-Cold Nights" from January 19 through March 12. If you read five books or more, you will be eligible for prizes.

The Senior Center is advertising a Pot Luck Super Bowl Party. There will be door prizes and drawings. The WT's aren't enthused about pot lucks since they aren't very interested in cooking.

February is around the corner. Brighter days are ahead and Valentine's Day with promises of chocolate.

Wonderful News

The WT's heard wonderful news for the new year. Mary is engaged to be married to her friend, Doug. They are a successful blind date. We are very happy for Mary but told her that she can't leave the neighborhood. No plans have been made yet, but we will keep you posted. Congratulations to them!

Our morning coffee group is quite small, lately. WT's are slowly coming back from Christmas trips and guests. We are looking forward to the new year, 2010. It was totally amazing when we turned the calenders to the year 2000 and now we will be ten years into it--more amazing. We have not talked about any big plans anyone has for celebrating. Watching the New Year's ball come down, sitting in a warm robe with a cup of hot chocolate sounds very festive. That would work well for watching the Rose Bowl parade, as well.

May you find warmth, comfort, health, love and happiness in the New Year!

WT's at Christmas

There are many Christmas festivities for the WT's to take part in as the days go by to Christmas Day. One evening, an old Finnish custom is taking place at a cemetery. Ice candles are made and candles placed at the graves. They glow warmly in the winter night. There is a feeling of family gathered around through the ages, a peacefulness.

Churches are hosting children's Christmas programs. The Lutherans had a hint of what's to come as they enjoyed the song, "Go Tell it on the Mountain" sung by the little ones last Sunday. A four year old young man used his hands as a megaphone and really told it on the the mountain. Eyes were watering from muffled laughter. Children bring us to the joy of Christmas.

There are community children's Christmas parties with Santa and treats. "Polar Express" is showing at a local library. You may feel free to wear your pajamas and bring a pillow and a blanket.

The schools are open until 12:30 p.m. on December 23rd. The teachers may have a time keeping the students focused. Gone are the two week breaks during the holidays.

The Chamber of Commerce is having drawings at local stores for holiday hams.

WT's are in various stages of Christmas preparations--some bake many goodies and some not any. Children are coming home and other WT's are going to their children's' homes. We will have candlelight services to attend, carols to sing and the sharing of Christmas warmth and love.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Hunting and Gathering

The hunting ritual has begun. Deer hunting season has arrived. In our part of the world, there are blaze orange covered people in the woods, up in trees, driving by in various vehicles pulling trailers or not, gathering in groups along the roads and filling small shacks. Some orange clothing is hanging outside on hooks, airing out the human smells.

This age of hunting and gathering is unrecognizable to the rustic ages. The tree stands have walls and a window, carpeting, heaters and probably the latest in I-pods. One is not surprised to get a phone call from someone sitting in a tree. A difficult job of this "mighty hunter time" is to stay awake while watching for deer. Then there are the hunting shacks. The men gather to discuss the one that got away and catch some sleep before the next hunt begins. Some misdirected wives cook up stockpiles of food for the poor boys out in the woods. We heard of one shack that was serving lobster, steak and asparagus the night before the big hunt--with no help from a woman.

The gatherers are busy, also. There are craft shows, lunches, a purse party and stores have special sales. Our local florist gives notice to hunters to pick up flowers for their "deer", only a "buck". (Their Halloween notice advised husbands to bring home flowers and scare their wives.) Only a few WT's have someone out hunting. If the hunter comes home "deerless", there are turkey give-a-ways through out the area.

The WT's have been busy being patched up. We are glad to have Irene back, in great shape, after an electrical system glitch in her heart was repaired. Naomi is recovering from knee surgery. Joan is having more chemo and radiation for her esophageal cancer. We were glad to have her with us this summer.

We are happy that our lady mayor ran for office again. She has done an excellent job in these difficult times. Our city is getting ready for the holidays. There will be a Heritage Celebration with a dinner, fun things for the kids and adults. Mary designed a gingerbread postmark for the occasion. If we are industrious and get our cards done we can have them stamped with the collectible postmark.

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Fall Fun

"When the kids moved out, my husband and I weren't going to eat anymore; we were going to dine. Then I discovered that there are no escargot helpers and no stovetop bearnaise sauces." Erma Bombeck

The WT's had a date with fine dining on their outing to our local theater to see, "Julie and Julia". We enjoyed our "dinner theater" experience, eating our light lunches at the bistro tables in the theater. The consensus was that the movie was very good. Helen enjoyed the history of Julia Child's era. We didn't mind that butter was promoted--better than margarine for our health, we decided.

Jodie came by one day and WT's joined her for lunch at our coffee stop. Jo made it over so we had a good time catching up. We extend our sympathies to Jodie in the loss of her sister.

Our city Pumpkin Fest was held after an overnight snowfall with icy roads. Our Northern people are a hardy bunch. They turned out in good numbers, walking carefully, for games for children, pumpkin painting, decorating cookies, crafts and most important, pumpkin pie. The quilt show at the library had the usual display of beautiful creative sewing. The new Methodist pastor, Pastor Barb, displayed a lovely quilt with embroidered snowflakes. She joins us for coffee once-a-week. A great addition to the WT's. Sharon displayed a wall hanging with beautiful colors.

Our local "Shopper" is bursting with Fall things to do. Community Education is offering classes in Mandarin Chinese, ballroom dancing, judo, pilates, crafts, computer skills and many other interesting topics. Fall needlecraft classes include knitting lined mittens and felted slippers. It's time to get ready for the Weihnachtsfest, there is an American All Slav Festival, Mulligan stew feed, and the annual Scout Food Drive. The churches are busy with bazaars and bake sales. The Lutheran Holy Rollers are getting ready for their lefse sale.

The high school fall sports are at their peak. The teams are doing well. On a recent Saturday, one could attend a soccer game out of town and on the way stop at a cross country meet and get back for the end of the girls' swimming invitational. Lorraine has grandchildren in all of these sports. A small town creates busy people.

North woods Visit

The WT's enjoyed a summery fall outing to Emily and Elton's retirement home in the North woods. Of course, we visited over lunch, on their deck, in September! (We keep looking over our shoulders for the cold winter.) Emily prepared an interesting coffee Jello in whipped cream. The comments were positive--a great surprise flavor to give to guests.

Mary, Irene, Sharon and Emily

Mary, Linda, Elsie, Naomi, Laurie and Emily
(Lorraine is taking the pictures.)

Pastor Elton and Pastor Ruth enjoying conversation and sunshine.

A GARDEN GATHERING

The WT's were invited to Nancy's beautiful garden and

screen house one afternoon. The screen house is built

by tall old trees. The wind was blowing. We were sitting

in the woods with flowers every where, a soothing time

Mary, Sharon, Naomi, Elsie and Lorraine

(Tee took the picture.)

Nancy, our hostess.

Summer is slowly winding down. Students are back to their school sports, some grand kids are back to college and we have a tree turning into red and orange, here and there. Sitting in a beautiful garden, we were still in summer, no rush to anywhere.

Coming and Going

left to rt. Helen, Irene, Joan, Linda, Sharon and Mary

left to rt. Dorothy, Laurie, Darlene, Naomi, Mary, Elsie, Helen, Sharon, Irene and Linda

Emily wearing "our" Relay for Life shirt.

Emily and Joan

We are happy to have Joan back with us for a few months. She will be leaving for surgical repair work later on. Some Wt's enjoyed visiting with Jodie a few times at our local coffee stop.


We gathered by a lovely lake for a farewell lunch for Emily. She moved to her and her husband's retirement home a few miles away. We hope to see her now and then.

MARY GOES TO THE INAUGURATION!

As recorded by Mary on January 22, 2009:

While my memory still holds the facts of an exciting trip to see Barack Obama’s inauguration, I have this report to write. Thanks for your interest in my trip and experiences. If you can make the sentence “I know someone who was there” work for you, please go ahead and use it!
On Saturday, January 17, I left Minneapolis, flying to Philadelphia with my friend Doug and his 16 year old daughter Luci. We met people on the plane who were also traveling to the inauguration; one of my seat mates was a young man from England who has lived in Boise, ID, for several years. He was excited to witness the event and no longer have to apologize to people in England for his decision to live in the U.S. We rented a car in Philadelphia and drove through parts of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia to arrive at the home of Doug’s sister and brother-in-law, Janet and Jerry, in Alexandria VA. Having a place to stay made it possible for us to make this trip.
Janet gave us commemorative inauguration Metro cards and we used them on Sunday to go to the National Mall for the “We Are One” concert. It was a trial run for Inauguration Day for us and for the Metro system and all went well, at least in our view. One of the first things we noticed on the Mall was that it was lined with portable toilets on both sides, as far as the eye could see. We worked our way to stand somewhere between the Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pool. (They say the pool was frozen over but after my experience of my snowshoe going through the ice on Doug’s lake, I went nowhere near the pool!) The concert was performed at the Lincoln Memorial. I had a fairly good view of the JumboTrons (large video screens--a new word for us) especially if I stood in just the right spot and taller people didn’t move around too much. Denzel Washington was one of the first celebrities to appear on screen. He and Tom Hanks, Jack Black, Tiger Woods, Queen Latifah, and other famous people who don’t sing read the words of people from past history. Abraham Lincoln was quoted several times. The singers included Bruce Springsteen, Usher, Shakira, Mary J. Blige, Stevie Wonder, Beyoncé, Bono, Josh Groban--plus many others. Garth Brooks really got the crowd participating when he came out singing “American Pie.” Beyoncé ended the concert with “America the Beautiful.” On our walk back toward the Metro stop, we paid $5 to have our pictures taken with a cardboard Barack, with the Washington Memorial in the background.
On Monday, we returned to the District, feeling like old pros on the Metro. Luci was especially good at figuring out where we needed to be and where to get off. In our Metro car were three women who were selling Inauguration pins. They had them pinned all over their black coats. I bought one and then asked to take their picture. We saw many innovative ways to make money: hand warmers I bought in Minnesota for $1 were selling briskly at $5, Inauguration postcards with proceeds going to the American Cancer Society, Inauguration programs with Obama’s Victory Rally speech at Grant Park in Chicago in November. Our destination on Monday was Senator Amy Klobuchar’s office in the Hart Office Building. We stood in line for at least half an hour to go through security to get into the building. Many of the others in line were there to pick up Inauguration Day tickets. We felt fortunate knowing that we had tickets from Senator Nelson of Nebraska, through Jerry’s connections and efforts. Amy’s offices were packed and there was food with the theme of “Minnesota Morning.” We managed to find a few pieces of potica, cinnamon bread, and apple chunks, all of the food coming from Minnesota. We weren’t able to see our senator as she was taking a break from talking to people and having her picture taken with them.
We stopped at the National Gallery of Art and walked through the Modern Art wing, had lunch at the cafe where we could sit down, and then returned to Alexandria and our Metro stop at Pentagon City where the car was parked.
Jerry and Janet spent the evening and night in the District so we were on our own and in charge of feeding their cats. Jerry’s sister Elaine arrived from San Francisco and we shared a delivered pizza with her. Elaine came to be a hostess at an Inaugural Ball at the Corcoran Gallery on Tuesday night. She showed us her ball gown and the vintage mink jacket she borrowed from a friend. We had a great time with her. After raiding our absent hosts’ wine cellar, we may not get invited back!
We woke up at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, Inauguration Day, and dressed in our warmest Minnesota clothes. I had wool underwear, lined wool pants, a Cuddle Duds underwear top, cashmere sweater, boiled wool jacket, wool scarf, SmartWool socks, Merrell shoes, and a winter coat into which I sewed extra pockets to carry mittens, a hat, binoculars, hand warmers, toilet paper etc. We took the Dash bus to the Metro station at Braddock Road and managed to squeeze into a blue line Metro car. We immediately lost all our personal space and it proceeded to get even more packed. A person in a wheelchair was in the car so it was impossible to move much. A ride that would have taken 20 minutes took 1-1/2 hours. The Metro conductor was on the microphone often to announce delays due to other trains being slow, sick passengers, closed Metro stops, and other problems. He seemed to appreciate that he had a truly captive audience so he reminded us that it was a celebration. We figured out that in the 8 cars of that Metro train was the equivalent of the entire population of Aurora.
The train emptied out at Federal Center and then we got into a massive crowd streaming toward the Blue Gate and the area where our tickets would allow us to stand for the Inauguration ceremony. There was movement in the line, but many, many people in front of us. Heard in line: the Texas Ball the night before had 11,000 attendees and one of the bands was the Amish Outlaws, former Amish men who still dressed like the Amish. About 15 minutes before the ceremony was to begin, we learned that we would not be able to get through security and the line was closed due to the area being filled. We actually heard many other stories about why we couldn’t use our tickets and stand in that area. You may have heard and read about the problems and delays that many ticket holders experienced.
Our solution was to go to the Rayburn Office Building for a reception sponsored by the Minnesota legislators. We raced to the building and stood in a short line for security. We managed to get to the reception room in time for Joe Biden’s oath and the remainder of the ceremony. So, leaning against the back wall of the committee room for Transportation and Infrastructure (MN representative Jim Oberstar’s committee) we watched the inauguration on CNN. On the up side, we were glad to be with a group of fellow Minnesotans and, as the crow flies, we were closer to the Inaugural platform (just across the street from the Rayburn Building) than we would have been with our Blue area tickets, there was free food, and accessible restrooms with toilet paper. Al Franken, Minnesota’s newest senator, we think, came to the reception so I got a picture of him with Doug and Luci.
We didn’t plan to stay in the District to watch the parade, so we started our walk back to the Metro stop at Federal Center. We saw that the line to the escalator down to the platform was several blocks long, so we chose to walk to Union Station to take the Metro from there. Along the way we watched the Army marching band and military marching groups form for the start of the parade. The Fife and Drum Corps in their George Washington style uniforms was very impressive. Luci noticed that the men wore hairnets over their gray wigs!
By the time we got to Union Station some of the crowds had decreased and we were able to get on the Metro and sit on seats. We saw Elaine all dressed up to leave for the Inaugural Ball and we put on our Obama t-shirts for Janet to take our picture. To make it easier to get back to the Philadelphia airport, we left Alexandria on Tuesday evening and drove to Delaware, stayed overnight with Howard Johnson, and then drove to the airport on Wednesday morning. We didn’t have any airport delays but did have to run in the Atlanta airport to catch our Minneapolis flight. On the way home, we stopped for dinner in Forest Lake and had our photos developed at Walgreens while we ate. I arrived back home in Aurora shortly after 10 p.m.
In a column in the WASHINGTON POST on January 19, Marc Fisher debates the advantages of staying home in front of the television to watch the Inauguration and of going there to be in attendance. He wrote, “ But if you go, you will absorb into the marrow of your soul the multitude paying tribute to the personification of the nation...The Brits have their coronations, we have this curious business of electing not only our head of government but also our head of state, then crowning him not in a palace but out on the street, before anyone and everyone...So you get this immense solemnity and the joy of the circus...this remarkably American blend of hallowed moment and laughter and gaiety. Hear the bands, smell the horses, stare at the faces, eavesdrop like there’s no tomorrow. History is happening. And however far back in the crowd you may be, you are living it, but only if you go.”
I bore witness to this exciting moment in history.

Anniversary Trip

Eugene and Lorraine continued their 50th. anniversary celebration by going to Jordan and Israel. It was a learning and study trip with a tour group. The first view of Jerusalem from the top of a hill, left them standing in quiet awe. The tour guide distributed bread and wine as an Old Testament welcome. Every historical, Biblical site was a moving spiritual journey--from the grooves in the cobblestones of old ruins created by chariot wheels to sailing on the Sea of Galilee. History became a living experience.

Eugene thought Lorraine should ride a camel on top of the Mt. of Olives. He said that the grand kids would be impressed. (They were.) Lorraine thought a person could get seasick, swaying back and forth, riding on the "ships of the desert" for a long distance.

The journey in the Holy Land was inspirational and safe. They would recommend it to anyone. Most surprising, was the multitude of buses and crowds of people.

MISSING JOAN!

Joan found out in late October that she has esophageal cancer. She's been at Mayo since early November when she started her chemotherapy treatments. She is now staying at Hope Lodge and keeps us posted about what/how she is doing--and she is very busy between treatments, appointments and socializing (even got in some cleaning!)

.

She spent Thanksgiving with family in the Cities and had a nice weekend. No trip to the Cities would be complete without checking out the new American Doll store at the Mall of America (after all, Grandma Joan took a granddaughter to Chicago for an American Doll trip).
She said in an update that now "Grandma has the necessary items from American Girl."

She met with her radiation oncologist's PA recently. Joan was told that she is doing much better than many patients and she told Joan, "You are a tough lady!" We can all agree with that.

It sounds as if she is VERY busy during the day and there are many activities going on at Hope Lodge--music presentations, pot luck suppers and lots of socializing. Of course, all of this has to take place after watching Jeopardy for Joan.

She has about a week left in Rochester and then a month off before another round of scans and medical decisions to make.

She will be with family at Christmas--perhaps even going to Indiana to visit her son and family! She hopes to spend a week or so at home where we hope to have her come to coffee with us--perhaps we'll have to plan a party (after all, we do have wine glasses!).

ON THE ROAD AGAIN WITH MARY

Mary has had a busy autumn so far (with winter knocking on our door!). She's had seminar trips to Castle Rock (Colorado), Madison (Tennesee) and West Franklin (Illinois). She is off to East Aurora, New York, on November 14th for a Saturday seminar at the Aurora Sewing Center. Her last trip of 2008 will be to the Pittsburgh area.



A new item for her this fall is a pattern called "Table Toppings," which is a felt-based table or shelf runner with large appliques--six in the pattern for all seasons and celebrations.



She has also recently published two new sweatshirt books: Sweatshirts For All Seasons and Sweatshirt Makeovers For Kids. Both of these will be shown on "Sewing with Nancy" starting at the end of November--just in time for Christmas gift sewing for both adults and little kids. The sweatshirt topic continues to be a good one for Mary (it's how she got her "start").



For the coming year she is working on two new reversible apron patterns and also a "sewing green" topic for television with Nancy.



She will be posting her 2009 teaching schedule (See the link for her website--Mary's Productions--on the right) soon, and she will be VERY busy in March, April and May. The Midwest YaYa Sisters will be teaching in Florida at the end of March. Mary says, "That's a great time to leave winter behind" in Minnesota.

A LONG-AWAITED UPDATE!

It's been quite awhile since we last updated any news about our group for our loyal readers. We have been busy and it's hard to find the time to get the information out to everyone.

Mondays continue to be big attendance days for ouus at our "clubhouse." We had a good crowd for coffee this morning!

The Walkie Talkies also increased in size: Linda has joined our group since she moved back "to town." She is living in the former school superintendent's house. A completely new person is Darlene. She is the interim pastor's wife and they live in an old towns person's house. We are intrigued by the fact that we still label houses by their FORMER owners' names and we wonder how long it takes for the house to take on the identity of the new owner! They seem to be enjoying the WT's and are still sort of trying to figure out who we are and what we are all about (we are sort of strange but we are fun-loving!).

Dorothy brought a book from her cousins' reunion this past summer. One of the relatives made a book at one of those online places where you drop photos into templates and then you can order a hardback book of the layouts. Very cool.

Joan was to start chemotherapy at Mayo today. We haven't received an update yet, but we know that we soon will. We hope to get her address soon so that we can start to send her some cards to help speed her therapy and radiation sessions along!

In one week in September we had the centennial celebration at the Catholic church here in town, the dedication ceremony for the new school building, and a speaker at the library. The activities of the week illustrated that it's not boring here and that there are positive things happening. The Pumpkin Fest in October was well-attended and the weather cooperated to make it a great success.

The mayor is now in charge of the revived Holiday Heritage Festival. Our own Mary did a Postal cancellation design of a Swedish candle holder. She did many of these throughout the years and they have become real collectors' items. Local residents try to finish their holiday cards so that they can get them off in the mail with this special cancellation. There will be a light parade on the Friday night and a tree lighting at the community building, a home decorating contest, the usual craft sale and a kids' Christmas shopping store. The mayor also wants to have a baking competition, maybe with ethnic specialties. There will also be a dinner and dance at the local Legion Club on Saturday night, December 13th.

There is more happening, but this should do it for now--just to let you know that we are all still around and kicking. We will do some updating of the many travelers in our group and also keep you posted on what Mary (see link for her website) is doing.

Enjoy!!

NOT QUITE THE USUAL AUTUMNAL EQUINOX CELEBRATION!

In the past, the Walkie Talkies have celebrated the autumnal equinox by watching the sunrise over a nearby lake. This year we decided to find a quick geocache (see the geocaching link on the right) and then have lunch at Four Corners. There were eight of us that found the cache and then we crossed the highway and met the other four at the restaurant.

Tee, Irene, Jo, Linda, Janet, Mary and Lorraine at the cache site. We forgot to bring any "swag" to trade so we just signed the log and left for lunch.
Getting ready for a great lunch:

Mary, Janet, Linda, Lorraine, Irene, Tee and Jo.

"A good time was had by all," as they say. It was certainly nicer to celebrate at a decent hour rather than getting out to the lake at 6:00 a.m.

Yes, we do know that the Equinox is tomorrow, but who would dare to question a group like ours?!

We did miss the mimosas. Next time we'll have them!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO LORRAINE & EUGENE!

Happy Anniversary!

Lorraine and Eugene's family surprised them at the end of June. They were supposed to go to Duluth to ride on the Vista King with supposedly "free" tickets from their daughter. They went to Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream first and one of their sons and his family were already there. Suddenly their grandchildren from Albuquerque walked in. Lorraine and Eugene were in shock, especially when the kids said they had come by themselves! Then their parents parents walked in. They all got together to celebrate Lorraine and Eugene's 50th anniversary early (it is really in September). Their son from New Mexico hadn't been "up north" for five years. (They did go for the boat ride!).

Looking good (and young) and happy after 50 years!
The family (color coded): Steve and Lori's family in black, Jim and Sue's family in white, Mark and Sandi's family in turquoise and Lori in red.
Front: Logan Austin, Rachel, Sammi and Steve.
Middle: Lori, Kristina, Lorraine, Eugene, Marissa, Erika, Lori and Sue.
Back: Jim, Mark, Sandi, Michael, Tanner and Andrew.
Missing: Davin (Lori's son who is in the Navy and was home earlier in June).

Lorraine says, "Eugene is an only child and has enhanced our population by 25 people!"

While Mark was there the guys went out geocaching and found one of the Walkie Talkies' geocaches plus others in the area.

What a great surprise and neat get together for everyone!

PINE GROVE 2-STEP

The annual Relay For Life was held today. It has changed since we first participated beginning in 2001. This year it was called the Pine Grove 2-Step: Pine Grove is the local park. The "2-Step" stands for the fact that the money raised is going to two different groups: the American Cancer Society and Care Partners, which is a regional organization. Both are great causes.

The local committee decided to honor a person or a group that had given to the event in the past and the Walkie Talkies were the group that was chosen. We were involved in the first Relay For Life as committee members and a team. We participated for several years and decided to let other groups take over. We were the first Bronze Team and the first Silver Team, which means that we raised a lot of money for the cause!

Front: Emily, Jo, Lil, Mary, Helen S., Lorraine, Jodie and Dorothy.

Middle: Pat, Helen J. and Joanie.

Standing: Sharon, Tee, Janet, Irene, Elsie and Laurie.

We are kind of the "walking wounded," as Tee says. Joanie and Dorothy were recently hospitalized and many of us have some aches and pains!

John and Louie played some lively music and the Walkie Talkies took the first lap of the Relay.

Emily and Laurie do their own version of the 2-step to the music.
There we go--the committee gave us a special color t-shirt with our team name on the backs.

Jo wore earrings that were the same color as the t-shirts. She models them plus the scarves that Mary made for members through the years. (Jo was upset because it wasn't her "best side." We think she looks great!)

We do love to eat. Helen and Tee help the cause by buying lunch after our trip around the paths.

Pat, Helen J., Emily and Jo do their share.

We were all pleased that the committee decided to honor us the way that we did. It gave us a chance to get together as a group and to remember some of the great Relays that we enjoyed in the past.