Holiday tournament

Each year between Christmas and the New Year there is a Holiday basketball tournament. This is the major fundraiser for the Booster Club. The work for me begins before as I order and pick up products for food sales. It ends when I deposit all the money back into the checking account. I spent my two days restocking, running to Shawano for more food, selling concessions, cleaning up and of course being the timer.

Kudos to the girls for their 1 point win last night over Menominee Indian and their 30 point win on Tuesday night over Oneida. Our guys who've struggled over the past year, won the first round by beating Menominee Indian. Unfortunately they couldn't pull it out last night. A very successful event. Glad it's over for another year.

Christmas Eve Memories

I was reading my cousin's post of her memories of Christmas and it got me thinking about my own Christmas memories. As a child, we always visited Ma Hoffman and took her a gift. She always made a big deal about how we shouldn't have gotten her anything. I recognize now how she felt. I wouldn't need a thing from my children.

Then it was off to Grandpa and Grandma Otto's house. My counsins from Madison were usually there for the holiday. We ate goodies and visited and sometimes went sledding if the driveway was slippery enough. My grandparents had the best driveway for sledding. Looking back it was probably a nightmare for driving on. My grandpa always had a jigsaw puzzle out on a cardtable. I recall bonding with Grandpa Otto for hours over a jigsaw. Not much was ever said, but I felt his love as he allowed me to help him do his puzzle. Such a little thing that meant so much to me and made such in imprint in my life.

After an hour or more, we would come home to find that Santa had already been here. the cookies and milk were gone and there were gifts galore under the tree. Once we got the go ahead, it was bedlam. I remember staying up sometimes until after midnight to play with our new toys. That doesn't seem so late anymore, but we never stayed up that late.

The next morning we picked up just where we left off in playing with the toys. I know my mom made some really good food for Christmas dinner. Prior to Christmas, Mom was a baking machine. She baked countless types of cookies. Usually it was about February before they were all eaten. Besides the cookies, there were several types of candy. All very yummy. I cannot imagine doing that. I make cookies as I feel like making cookies.

I've not kept those traditions of my childhood, but made my own. The kids open their gift exchange gifts on Christmas eve, but everything else waits until Christmas morning. We always have a Christmas ham for dinner and munchie types of food on Christmas eve.

We make sure to watch The Nativity and read the story from Luke 2. After all, without that, there is no Christmas.

Merry Christmas?

Illness is never fun. I think we can all agree on that. It seems that we get illness around Christmas. What's up with that? The upside this year is that it's the 23rd and most of us are finished with feeling horrible and hopefully we should all be better before Christmas. As far as I'm concerned, the "spits and squirts" could leave our home forever.

I Love Seminary

Each morning I have the blessed opportunity to go to church and spend 45 minutes with some of the greatest youth I know. We study the scriptures together.


We also have 25 scriptures that we're asked to learn. I don't require them to be memorized but rather to learn what they're about and where to find them.


I've done my best to make learning these scriptures fun as well as eduational.


This year one of the ways we're learning them is as a puzzle.


We're also still golfing. Who doesn't like to putt a golf ball. This activity requires a knowledge of the specific scriptures as well as a talent for putting a golf ball.

At any rate, I love seminary! When the bishop asked me if I could accept the call to teach seminary, I thought he was crazy. Then I went to my first in-service meeting. After that, I knew I was the crazy one. It didn't take me long to figure out that the Lord knows what he's doing. I've learned so much and continue to be amazed daily at the tender mercies I am shown with the thoughts that come to my brain. I've shared some of those recently and know that I'm blessed by my service!

Is Santa Claus Coming to Our Town?

Is Santa Claus coming to town? He already has! This is our precious 5 month old grandson who we call B. I bought this outfit for him last year in January for about $1. He wore it to church yesterday.

In our home we were never big on Santa as all of our children were afraid of anyone in a costume. In fact, several of them were frightened that he might actually come into our home while they were sleeping. I was asked by more than one child, "Does Santa have to come to our house?" I assured them that he wouldn't come and that I would take care of buying all of the Christmas presents. For all of you that say, "Bah humbug!" about our not encouraging Santa, that was the beginning of why we didn't have him come to our house. It actually was a good thing as we were more focused on the real reason we celebrate Christmas. Christ has always been the focus in our home. But, this little Santa can come any time he wants!

A Day At the Temple

We got up at an incredibly early hour to leave for the St. Paul temple. We were on the road by 5am. I spent much of my time this week on new.familysearch.org getting names ready for submission and finding others that were already submitted and needed cards to be printed. Andrew did 10 proxy baptisms and confirmations for his ancestors. What a gift to them! We had other names that some of the other youth did.

What a wonderful day spent with my husband and son. Christian was also part of our family today as he rode with us both ways. Whit rode to the temple with us, but we had rowdy boys. I'm surprised she got any sleep at all. A day at the temple is always in order to lift me and make me appreciate all that I have been blessed with.

Answered Prayers

Isn't it interesting that you can pray about a problem and when you think you finally have the answer, a better way is provided? We've been praying for Erin to find someone to ride home with her from Rexburg. She has Zane coming with her, but he doesn't have a driver's license yet, so he can't drive.

Yesterday I made a phone call and found another 2 cars with whom she could caravan. Helpful and a possible answer. The problem with that was that the other people couldn't leave Rexburg until at least 2pm. That leaves less than 3 hours of daylight to drive in. Personally I want my daughter driving in daylight hours through Yellowstone up to Bozeman.

I asked her to change her departure date on the bulletin she had placed on the ride board. Today she got not only another passenger, but two! Both need a ride to Wisconsin and both can drive. Now instead of caravaning and solo driving, she can drive straight through the night and arrive home on Sunday morning.

I consider it one of God's tender mercies. I was just studying my seminary lesson and it was about problem solving. I discovered as Alma did, that you have to do more than ask casually, but rather make a plan and do something to make things happen. This is what we did and it works!!

The 2009 Pleshek Christmas ABCs

For the past several years I've sent out a Christmas letter done with the alphabet. This year I'm posting it as well. It's just a short re-cap of our life in 2009.

Apostle Islands in Bayfield was the destination for a getaway for Pat and Heidi.
Bocce Ball competition in Eau Claire yielded Tom a 1st at state!
Camp with the scouts for Andrew and with the young women for Heidi in August.
Disappointment was the reaction of the children to the new artificial Christmas tree.
Each day brings new insights as Heidi teaches daily seminary class to 10 students.
Facebook is the newest way to keep in touch for Pat, Heidi, Tom and Andrew.
Grandchild #2 arrived on July 1st. His name is Adam and we adore him.
Hoffman Transit was the site of Andrew’s first summer job. He learned a lot.
Idaho (BYU) is Erin's destination for college classes following high school graduation.
Jury duty will be Erin’s lot sometime in January, February, or March. Lucky girl!
Kennewick, Washington is Sammi’s destination as she serves a full-time mission.
Lake Wissota for camping was a must before school started. Fun, fun, fun!
Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo is Sammi’s home until January 11th.
Nauvoo was the vacation destination in August. We love going home!
Officiating basketball with her dad will be Erin’s winter job while she’s home.
Plesheks.blogspot.com is where you can read about our lives.
Quite an accomplishment for Erin to reach state track meet 3 years in a row.
Relocating was what the Gourleys did in March. They found their own place.
Sassy at times is what we’ve discovered from a 2 year old granddaughter.
Track and field for Andrew last spring was his love. He wants to be a jumper.
Utah was our destination twice in 6 weeks this fall.
Volleyball coaching for Sammi and officiating for Heidi this fall was fun.
Wausau Stake is Pat’s charge in our church. He’s so busy teaching and traveling.
eXtra large potatoes in the garden and an abundant apple crop is what we found this fall.
YES! Clint landed a full-time police job for the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe.
Zooming. That’s how the time flies by for us each year.

Blizzard Allison

I took this picture this fall. I think it's beautiful!


This is the same location this morning. As you can see it's all buried under the white stuff.


Snowstorm, or shall I say blizzard, Allison came to our neighborhood last night. I guess she'll be here all day as well. Obviously there is no school today which means I had no seminary either. I do love the snow cover especially for Christmas. All this snow also means that there is snow on the hill for sledding/skiing. It appears we'll be having a White Christmas. Yeah!

Letters and Pictures

I am amazed at how much I look forward to each Thursday when I know I'll be getting a letter from our missionary daughter. I never thought much about the art of letter writing, but now I think it's the cat's meow. The first pictures came in the mail yesterday and I was really excited to see Sammi and how she not only sounds like but looks like a missionary. Cell phones are a wonderful invention, but now that Sammi doesn't have one I find it interesting how much I look to getting her letters either in the mailbox or via email. I guess it's something I never understood before. What a blessing it is to have a child serving the Lord full time!

Abinadi and King Noah

This entire week in seminary we've been studying the chapters in Mosiah where Abinadi is preaching to King Noah and his wicked priests. We've had some great eye-opening moments in class. I asked the class to imagine that they were a modern day Abinadi and they had the responsibility to go to President Obama and congress and call them to repentance and make them accountable for how they're running this country, spending tax-payer money and making laws. What might an experience like that be like? Would you be thrown out? Laughed at? Mocked?

The questions to wrap it all up today included: Where is your testimony? Could you be like Abinadi? Do you currently stand for the right? When we're in a group of people and an off-color story/joke is being told what do you do? Do you stay and listen? Leave? When someone is being put down, do you defend them or join in? We can and should be modern day Abinadis. I can't say we'll never be asked to choose between our lives or our religion, but I hope that we can stand firm in our knowledge of Christ!