Will Winter Ever End?

I love living in Wisconsin! Part of that is because of the changing seasons. I love the fresh smells, flowers and green of spring. The warmth of the summer with the smell of freshly mown grass with the chance to be outside doing fun things is a treat. The colors and crisp smells of fall make me feel happy. A fresh snowfall makes the whole neighborhood look clean and gives the feel of being isolated from anything bad.

This has been a very long winter with much of it being very cold. I am thankful for my warm house and a good stock of firewood.

Yes I do love the changing seasons and I'm ready for the change. Spring has got to be on the way. As I sit at work today and look out my window, I see rain. Rain that is freezing to the surface of the roadway. One truck stuck this morning as he couldn't make it up the ice covered hill, and the hill isn't really very big or steep. Then I go to the internet and look at the forecast for the next few days. I see tomorrow with snow all day long. How much chance of snow? 90 to 100% chance. Oh great. Our girl's basketball team won last night and will travel to Phelps on Thursday night. Or maybe not. I guess the basketball game will be delayed a day.

In case anyone asks....I'm ready for Spring!

A Return to Virtue!

For the last few weeks, we've been talking about the talk Return to Virtue from the last general conference. Both Pat and I had the same idea as that talk was being given. We need to have our own "banner." A few weeks ago, we purchased a banner for everyone and then we had a brainstorming FHE. Last night we finally put together our individual banners. The pictures aren't very good so I'll decipher them for you.This is Erin's. It has a quote from Brigham Young that says, "The men and women who desire the Celestial Kingdom must battle everyday." I think looking at that everyday would keep a person on task.

This one is Andrew's. It says, "Remember your be's." He stamped bees and beehives all over it. I was quite impressed that he came up with that on his own. Apparently somewhere along the way, President Hinckley's "Be's" made an impression on him.

This one is mine and will hang in our home where everyone will see it. It's a quote from President Monson that states, "You be the one to make a stand for right, even if you stand alone." In the talk Sister Dalton stated that the word virtue comes from virtus which means strength.

Last but not least is Tom's. He summed it up with "Return to Virtue." He loves fireworks, so we had to have one on his banner. It was a fun home evening activity. Each of the individual banners will hang in the bedrooms of the creator. Clare made one as well with the Nauvoo temple on it and the words, "I'm going there someday." I'm guessing it will hang in the kid's bedroom.

A new bed for everyone!

My sweetheart has wanted a different bed for some time now and yesterday he was on Craig's list and found exactly what he was after. We really needed a new mattress and the new one is so comfy. This bed belonged to some little kid and they got it just over a year ago and kept a plastic cover on it, so it's like new. We got the whole bed for the price of a new mattress.

At any rate, the bed is huge and really high. Notice the little stool that came with it. I need it to get up into bed. Drawers on both sides are really roomy and then there are the drawers on the end as well.

I just can't imagine a little kid climbing up into this bed every night.

With the Gourley's out looking at apartments now, I need a bed for Sammi's room once they leave. So today, I played musical beds. I moved Andrew's bed into a closet, the bunks into the boy's room and my old bed into Sammi's room. And Erin got her mattress back instead of the one she had. What a chore. I'm exhausted but it sure looks good.

A Weekend with Erin

An exciting weekend with Erin. On Friday night she had a basketball game at Tigerton. She lit up the night by shooting and making 17 points. 15 of those points came off of 3 point shots. She was on! It was very exciting to watch as the Gresham girls pulled out a 1 point win. It's always good when they beat Tigerton.

On Saturday the girls had a make-up game against Wild Rose. Unfortunately, Erin couldn't play as she was headed to Milwaukee for an award.

Wisconsin Sports Advocates of Wisconsin (WSAW) gives out an award each year to one senior female athlete with at least a 3.0 gpa and one varsity letter from each school. With 500 schools in the state, this could be a really long night. Of course not every school nominates an athlete and not all the recipients attend. It was long enough with the 129 girls who did come and were honored.

The other thing they do is give out $500 scholarships to several of the recipients. This year there were 12 scholarships available. This is how it works. As each girl goes up to receive her award, she puts her name in a drum for a drawing. Then at the end of the evening, the people who give the scholarships each take their turn in drawing a name out of the drum. The first name drawn this year....Erin Pleshek!!!! Imagine our surprise. It was really very exciting.

Here's Erin with her medal, award and giant check. There is another picture at the banquet but we don't have it yet so this one will have to do. Congratulations Erin!!!