Child's Play

A favorite thing is to move around the yard and house

and see what my Little Ones have been up too. 

 

Look, here!  I had a snow angel visit. 

Or was that Peter Pan? 

 

A little girl sat and played with the tool box. 

Yes! 

This is an equal opportunity household! 

 

Children had the blocks and the Army / Fantasy men engaged.

Wait -- is that a Football Bowl? 

Army vs Fantasy? 

If it isn't, it should be.   

 

 

 

Is this a grilled sandwich.

Yes? 

Would that be called 'toast'?  : )

 

Wonder what this guy's story is? 

uh huh!  Like we are going to believe that. 

Get ahold of yourself Construction Man! : ( 

Our children are growing up;

 they are playing grownup games. 

oh oh!  too bad!  so sad!

 

Claudia is resting now but she was 'out on the town' over the holidays.

She was accompanying little girls here and there. 

She was well-met and very sociable. 

 

 

Oh my gosh. 

Stand back!   

This really is a Barbie Bad Hair Day. 

 

 

Upstairs in the playhouse, fortunes have been made and lost. 

 

Restaurant M M G

Maddie, Meriam and Gabby

formerly Morghan, Maddie and Gabby.

 

(sobbing onto my shoulder). . . Little Morghan's grow up into teenagers!) 

Little Miss Organization has been writing Work Procedures . . .  or is this a thermal imaging station for cashing checks and verifying credit cards.

hmmm - Times Change . . .

 

 Is my order up?

A Dollar hamburger and fries. 

Yes!

Times do change -- 

but some things never change.

Pass the catsup please : )

 

The Year of the Needle

My cataracts were removed, one in November and one in December 2013.  The week of Christmas, I got my new glasses.  I can see again! 

 

I haven't done much sewing or crocheting for the last 4 or 5 years.  Now that I can see again, I am ready to roll! 

 

I bought this little loom and flashy 'yarn' two months ago.  They have been in a bag on the chair ever since.  I got them out last Thursday and couldn't remember what to do; how to start. oh my.  oh gosh!   I had had about 10 minutes worth of instruction when I bought it but now I was at a loss. 

 

 

 

So guess what?  I got on You Tube and watched a demonstration.  Really? 

Then I sat down and worked on it for a couple of hours.  I am making a scarf.  It will be an Infinity Scarf when I am done with it.  I don't really have the instructions to finish it up that way --  but I'm going to make it happen. 

  

When this scarf is done and hanging around my neck, I'm going upstairs with my new garage sale 'American Girl' type doll and I'm going to sew up a storm. Sewing will keep me warm in January and February.  I have doll patterns and I have boxes and drawers full of fabric pieces and remnants.  I've got granddaughters who need new clothes for their dolls and want to learn to sew.  We are gonna get it done.  Send me your daughters.  : )

 

Friday evening we had three girls and a boy. 

We had 2 different looms, 3 zillion little rubber bands.

We had curiosity, desire and motivation. 

We gotter done. 

 

We sat on the floor and while I tried to figure out how to use the looms, Maddie and Audri went to work and built the rubber band bracelets with their own little fingers.  They had learned that at school.  They didn't need a loom.  They taught Hannah 'how to' too and they were all off and running.  Well, mass producing, really. 

 

 

 

Today, with Audri and Maddie staying over and time to study, Maddie figured out the single loom and the double loom.  We/she didn't master the triple loom yet. 

I'm not quite sure about the looms at all but I'll keep practicing.  I think it is just as easy to make the bracelets with your fingers. 

hmm, what colors shall I use?

As the day wore on we tried the 12-peg round loom, crocheting and this evening, I tried 'no hook' crochet -- crocheting with just my hands.

Maddie started a blanket.
It is to stay here for when Maddie is here, Maddie said.   

Yes! 

This means that Maddie will stay with me some more before she is too big.

(Which of you (any of you?) remember your last time staying at your Gramma Hof's or Granny and Gramps?  ah, it will be interesting if you can remember . . . )

Meanwhile, back at the house, I have taken over Maddie's blanket.  She told me I could work on it . . . but did she know I might finish it before she comes back? 

 

I have it worked out that if she does mind,

I'll just help her start the next. 

I have more red yarn.

 

 

We were good this way.  Crochet awhile.

Trade off and use the loom.

Maddie is versatile and goes with the flow. 

Nana does too. 

 

 

Yes, this definitely, is

The Year of the Needle

 

Holiday Food

To say we had food this Christmas season is an understatement. 

 

 

 

There was Cookie Day.

 

I think the production line cranked out about 300

 beautiful, frosted, creative sugar cookies. 

 

Maddie got up early and baked all morning. 

Then she got serious.  

She started to frost and decorate. 

 

These cookies are too pretty to eat!

 

 Morghan joined us and helped for awhile : )

She's happier than this pic shows -- Nana didn't get a good photo.

 

 Maddie and Hannah persevered. 

 

 

They worked right through the Sugar Cookies

and moved into the Gingerbread House phase. 

 

From Gingerbread, they moved to silly!

Let's just say they got a little hyper . . . okay, we'll call it creative! 

 

Sitting around our house, or for dessert after Christmas dinner or even just wrapped up and sent home --  we had Banana Cream pie, Chocolate Pie with home-made whipped cream, Dad's Kringle, the old chocolate chip banana/maraschino cherry bread and don't forget the cinnamon and caramel rolls.

 

We haven't even mentioned Christmas Dinner.

 

Ham, potatoes and gravy.

Kristy's 7-layer salad.

Erica's corn/mac bake. 

Deviled eggs, dinner rolls, relish and meat and cheese trays. 

 

 

 

I heard Audri go back for seconds and all she wanted was Aunt Erica's corn.

 

 

I don't know how much these boys really ate but they did sit up to the dining room table for a bit.  I saw Jack going back for some ham.  I'm pretty sure they had a little chocolate along the line.  And a coke.  Or two. 

 

 

On Saturday we had Runza day.

 

We browned ground beef and onions and grated cabbage.

We made lovely bread dough and wrapped it all

 up together into what we call Runzas. 

 

I know Morghan Grace and her Mama and

Aunt Kristy and Aunt Johanna like Runzas. 

I don't know if the rest of the grandchildren do

but Nana and PaPa do! 

 

And I enjoyed Runza Day. 

I'm writing it on the calendar for next year!

 

Laundry room - Updated

Our washer went up in smoke in November.  We pulled it out to get ready to have a new one delivered and Himself said, "Girl."  "Girl!  The wallpaper has to go."  It is unstuck from the wall.  Girl said "No, no! I want it!" But after looking the situation over and finding that, indeed, the 30-year old paper was at the end of its life, the "I love my laundry room" wallpaper went. 

 

 

The big old enamel topped sink went too.  It took up the back corner of the laundry room for 35 years and was never hooked to water that I know of.  So it is out and will be repurposed at the cabin!  What a clever plan!  And removal of that sink caused me to clean out corners and Himself to take out shelves precariously hung and  balanced.  Removal of all that let us hang a bracket for the iron and ironing board and made for a better corner for the vacuum sweeper.

 

Hollyhock Green Pittsburg paint replaced the old wallpaper.  The photo above does NOT do the Hollyhock justice.  It is so cheery and pretty! 

 

I love looking at our jars of home-canned tomatoes and pickles.

There's nothing prettier; Himself did these all on his own.

 

We have three double-door cupboards hanging above our washer and dryer so there is still plenty of storage. 

 

Who needs a pencil sharpener?  I have to warn you, it is an old-fashioned manual sharpener.  Himself gifted us with a new electric sharpener a few years back.  This manual crank might be obsolete but on the other hand you could say to a child "when I went to school, this is what we had to use!" 

Now we have this lovely new front-loader (next bigger model to the little one at the cabin) and our old dryer.  You can get a better feel for the Hollyhock green, there above the washer. 

If we weren't so honest (gosh darn, dang it!) we could have had a second washer just like this.  I'm sure it would have caught up to us tho and we would have been billed for it. 

We ordered a washer on line, the Des Moines store didn't have it but the store across town did have one.  The second store said they had to cancel the first ordered washer in order to charge us for the second ordered washer.  OK.  Fair Enough. 

We got credit for the first credit card charge and copies of all the paper work.  The second store delivered and installed a washer.  We are up and running! 

Two weeks later, the first store called and said "we will deliver your washer tomorrow".  Hmmm.  Okay.  We slept on that . . . and then Himself called the first store the next day and said, "uh, don't deliver that washer.  We already have one."  It was the right thing to do, of course . . . just tempting! 

We are not done with the Laundry Room.  We still need to move all my clothes out of the shelving system on the other side of the room and paint the rest of the walls.  Maybe we will get that done now, with Christmas and New Years behind us.

Happy New Year!

Bathroom Update

Our Powder Room, built and furnished about 1980, has never been updated.  It is my fault.  I love my little foil-papered brown-fixtured Powder Room.  It was beginning to show its age though.  It was time to do something.  There were a few areas of the wallpaper that were scuffed and even one 4" area ripped, where a child had pulled away the loose seam of the paper. 

The toilet had been leaking and Himself had worked at it several times but the day came he pulled the toilet and knew he had to replace some parts of the drain. 

The toilet is brown.  You cannot buy a brown toilet anymore.  This beautiful thing of the 1970s is no longer. 

I told Himself, when he threatened me with a new white toilet, if you put in a white toilet the whole bathroom will have to be redown.  New sink.  Ne wallpaper.  New vanity.  So rather than do that, he went to work.

He pulled the toilet.  Since the toilet was out, we pulled out the old linoleum flooring and installed some beautiful new-fangled brown marbled tiles.  Wow!  With that, I knew it was time to update the rest of the room. 

The 2-lantern light fixture looked dated.  I'd been studying on what to do about that light fixture even before the toilet repair and the new floor.  Then our son-in-law gifted us with a very nice new fixture.  That gift set off a chain of events.

 

I took down the Angel picture and the glass/gold shelves that held more angel figurines.  I had come across a dark frame and duck picture that I always liked while cleaning out the corner of the laundry room.  I found another hand-made frame back there too and having scoped out She-Nae's Repurposing Shop uptown and admiring an empty frame with some glass bead 'art', I changed out the wall decorations.  I still need to do some tweaking but we are getting there. 

 

Himself, meanwhile, had freshened up the walls with a new coat of paint. 

 

I want a darker bow to top off the glass beads and need to realign the ducks.

 

I had picked up some craft paint out to the big W store, 3 or 4 little bottles of acrylic.  I got out the water color brushes and went to work.  I painted in the missing wallpaper.  I did!  It took me all of 30 minutes then I challenged Himself to point out where the repairs had been made.  He couldn't -- and I can't either.  Slick!  The scuffs and tears have disappeared.  All right, all right.  I get it that the foil paper is still old and out of date but dang it.  It still looks good and I still like it. 

 

And doesn't that new light fixture just set everything off.  Thank you, Dana!

 I'm not quite satisfied with the wrought iron sculpture on the left side of the mirror but I have an idea that I think will make it all better. 

There!  I worked on the art work a bit today and hung a little brass mirror. 

This is better; this is getting close to pleasing my eye. 

I'll keep tweaking. 



They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway.

They say there's always magic in the air.

 

 

Seven children and five adults planned to go but we ended up eight children and four adults and all that went ended up acting like children as we all watched and believed in the Magic. 

'They say there's magic in the air.'

We believed Wendy and her brothers could fly and that Peter Pan was real and that Tinker Bell would lose her magic . . .

 

I was afraid The Boys (our boys -- not 'The Boys' from Peter Pan)

would be too old to go to the 'Theater'. 

They did go but they thought they were too old.

They pretended they were too old.   

They weren't, really. 

 

 

Even some little girls thought they were 'too old' to go to Peter Pan but I could tell they were caught up in the story and the drama.  I could tell they were engrossed.  Until the lights came up, anyway. 

 

 

We got there early and waited to be seated. 

 

Some little girls were more excited about it than the big girls.

Miss Isabella's first visit to the Playhouse was fun and exciting!

Miss Audri Lu wasn't acting blasé either. 

 

We did have good will and smiles. 

 

 

and some 'just plain' exuberance! 

 

Even though we were at the very top, in the very last two rows, 

we still had good seats.  It is not a humongous theater. 

 

Because Aunt Hannah had the flu, Maddie asked her friend Casey to go so as as to use the ticket.  I think these three 'tweeny' girls enjoyed Peter Pan but maybe just couldn't always admit it. 

 

 

These two little girls made no bones about it.

They LOVED Peter Pan and the Theater. 

Little Bella cried and cried when it was time to go home. 

Oh, poor sweet baby.  Nana will take you again!

 

 

oh my.

Thank goodness.

These boys had these apparatuses

 to keep them content

while waiting for the Curtain

 to Go Up!

 

 

Oh Yes.

Oh Ho!

Who's on there?

What do you see?

Look at me : )

 

Bella #Loved The Theater! 

So did Miss Morghan Grace.

She just didn't show it
or dress in character.

This time : )

Christmas Decorating

 

The snowman display was begun five or six years ago and grew each year.  Somehow, once you have three of something, the 4th and the 5th (and the 23rd!) just seem to find you.  I liked the snowmen here on the hall counter, all lit up,  but now I have been gifted a lighted village.  Is there someone out there who needs some snowmen?  The snowmen have to go! 

 

 

 These are pretties that adopted me over the years.  Gramps' miniature kitchen cupboard and Granny's pretty glass apple stay here year around but the others are temporary Christmas decorations. 

 The geometric Christmas tree ornaments take me back to my childhood.  This is the kind of ornaments I would have found on my grandparents tree. 

I used to hang these on the Charlie Brown tree before Himself started using that tree outside.  The fragile ornaments lay on the hall counter a couple of weeks before I finally scooped them up and dumped them into a blue hand-blown glass bowl where they may just stay until next Christmas.

I put this wreath together last Christmas.  I had the wire wreath and went around the house collecting all my silver/tin/wire 'things'.  Hanged them from the frame with hooks and ribbon and called it good.  I rested on the 7th day.  (ha ha) 

 

I left this little vignette up all year.  I put it together last Christmas too and after the holidays I didn't have the heart to disband the crew -- so it hangs in my bathroom and makes me smile each time I look in the mirror or brush my teeth.   

 

I love, love the old ornaments.  Nostalgia, would be my guess.  These tree ormanents are displayed in Gramma Mary Hofmeister's compote, above.

 

(Compote:  A long-stemmed dish used for holding fruit, nuts, or candy. 

I had to look that up to make sure that a compote was 'long stemmed')   

 

I think these old colored pretties have found a year-around home.  

They are out of the way, not hurting a thing. 

Today, January 1, 2014, the Christmas tree still stands in a corner of the living room, decorated. The stay of execution order came through!  The silver wreath hangs from the front door and big gold Christmas ornaments, a pair of ice skates, some garland and pretties still adorn the front entry.   The smaller ornaments, angels, Santas, tiny trees and a multitude of little things are all picked up and packed away, waiting to see if they will come out another day.  Or will they get delegated to a back shelf as the Snowmen did by the Christmas village? 

 

Dickensvale

 

LeMax Village Collection:  Each cottage and building comes with it's own little story.

 

"Outside, the Whispering snow covers the cozy village with a sparkling blanket.  The singing of Christmas Carols echos through the tiny village.  High above, Santa's sleigh drawn by eight reindeer approaches.  As the last of the Dickensvale children drift off to sleep, the sleigh lands on each rooftop and Santa Claus bounds down the chimney to leave stockings filled with toys and to bring joy to each little girl and boy . . .

 

It's Christmas time in Dickensvale!"

 

Afton Star Enterpise: I remember Afton, 3

As a bitty girl of five years and one week, I started Primary School with Mrs. Downing. I was in the afternoon class. I remember Phyllis and Phillip Fleming and Sharman Wyatt, Doug Froit, Ann Crandall, Marsha Hartsook, Blythe Amos and Ron Berdine probably were “afternoon‘ kids too. I liked kindergarten well enough but I had some adjustment to make. I was used to having two sisters with me everywhere I went and six other siblings telling me what to do and now, here I was on my own -- in a land of strangers! I was light-headed and disoriented for weeks.

For the Austin children to get to the Afton Elementary, we walked up Hwy 169 for three miles. Every day. Rain or Shine. Okay. Okay, it was 3/10 of a mile but to a 5-year old in 100 degree heat or below zero temperatures, it seemed like miles! I was never alone walking to school as there would be three or four of us little Austins in the elementary each year and maybe Jerry Jones and the Hoffman girls might join up to walk with us.

So, the teachers passed me along each year -- up a grade to Miss Lamb, Mrs. Stalcup, Mrs. Carey, Mrs. Mathes, Mrs. Ames, Mrs. Hammons . . . I liked all my teachers but in studying on this, I think Mrs. Mathes was my all-time favorite. Mrs. Edith Hammons was the band and Mrs. Obie our vocal music teacher and I greatly enjoyed the music classes but had a tin ear.

One Afton Elementary rule I never understood was when the country kids rolled up to the school each morning and poured out of the bus, they got to go straight to the playground and get busy playing. The town kids would trudge three miles through harsh elements just to get to school and then we stood at the Methodist Church watching the country kids play. We had to wait for the First Bell before rushing over to play for a few minutes until the Second Bell rang. As town children, we considered this ‘Cruelty to Children‘.

I enjoyed school days when we could stay in for recess and play with puzzles and games. I liked holiday parties and games like “7 Up” and the outside “Duck, Duck, Goose”. Red Rover, Red Rover? Well, now . . . Red Rover and dodge ball were character builders, for sure. Days with snow on the ground, if we had our boots and gloves we would slide on our feet down the snow-packed hill by the new building. Never a day went by without plenty of fresh air and exercise.

I loved playing inside in the basement lunchroom on wet days but that didn’t happen very often and what was even more rare, was ME getting to stay and eat school lunch! I loved any school lunch I ever met. With eight or nine of us in school, there was no sense in buying lunches (my Mama‘s words) so we all walked home at noon. Mom always had a sandwich ready with soup or vegetables and fruit and I would gobble it up and lick the plate. Thank goodness for school milk breaks or I wouldn’t have had the strength to get back home!

I do remember Afton. I wish some of my classmates did . . . I am hoping to hear their memories!

Afton Star Enterprise - I remember Afton 2

When I got half growed up and could get away from my Mama’s ever-watchful eye for even a half hour, I’d dig in my jelly jar savings bank and run off uptown with a dime or a quarter and a hard decision to make.

Would I go to “Sheets” or to “Sales”?

Sheets Drug (Rexall) was on the corner of Hwy 169 and Kansas Street. Sales Drug was another half-block east, just the other side of Broeker and Siddens, the tavern.

Sheets gave you a choice of sitting in one of the big old block booths that’d hold about 6 half-grown giggly girls if we leaned in tight or sitting up front. Perched on round, red cushioned chrome stools at the bar, you could watch the soda jerk or maybe my sister Beth mix fountain drinks and malts and watch yourself or the boys in the big mirror. If you wanted to tell secrets then you made for the booths.

Sales had a big bar and stools too but if you pushed further back into the dim, cool interior of the old fashioned building, you could sit four girls at one of the metal ice cream tables. Goods and merchandise displays surrounded you and made you feel inconspicuous and safe. It seems as though we spent half of our (very limited ) drug store time at each soda fountain. I’m pretty sure we didn’t have a favorite.

Once the location was chosen, there were still serious decisions ahead. Living on a fixed income of 25 cents allowance, or later 50 cents, I wasn’t wanton or wasteful in my spending. Would I have a fountain drink, a Green River or a Chocolate Coke? Would I have an ice cream cone. I wasn’t situated well enough to have a malt or a Sundae. My choices were limited to a dime drink, a 20-cent ice cream cone (I don’t think I every opted for the 39-cent large cone) or a nickel candy bar.

Wait, but wait! After all the previous decisions there were still more to make. Shall I buy a Hershey candy bar with almonds, a Clark Bar or a maple Bun? A pack of candy cigarettes or a yellow bubble gum cigar? I went through a spell where I bought a pack of Baseball cards every chance I got, hoping to get all New York Yankees. I probably spent $200 in my youth on two-cent Double Bubble Bubble Gum, one piece at a time. Okay, I confess, two pieces at a time. Yes, I did. I chewed two in hopes of blowing bigger Double Bubble gum bubbles.

In my memory, Sheets had the bigger candy rack but that wasn’t always the deciding factor in choosing which drug store to go to. Looking back, I now know how lucky I was to grow up in a small town in the mid-west and especially in a town with two soda fountains! I, fondly, remember Afton.

Nancy Austin Hofmeister

Afton Star Enterprise . . . I remember Afton

I remember Afton

"The slab" played an important role in my youth. We skated on it as children. Linda, Mary and I and maybe the Hoffman girls might walk uptown and roller skate in circles on the slab until we got dizzy or bored. Then we‘d skate the double-wide sidewalks uptown and eventually make our way to the Mark Spencer home. There a new, smooth sidewalk with a nice slope down the side called our names. It was a full-half block long without obstacle or crack to trip us and was the best roller-skating sidewalk in town.

As we grew older, we’d be on the slab each weekend to play in the band concert. The East Union High School Band had outgrown the small bandstand so we sat chairs up on The Slab, plunked down a music stand and played away. I don’t know how well we played but it seems like there was usually a good crowd in the park to listen to us and we might have gotten a little reward for showing up.

The best times on The Slab, though, were the impromptu basketball games. Someone would show up with a basketball and we’d choose up teams, boys and girls. The games were physical and aggressive and we played our hearts out. We were out to win and to have fun. To get to shoot a free throw, the foul would have been really flagrant as there was so much pushing and fouling we couldn’t shoot all the free throws but I don‘t ever remember any of us quitting, mad or upset. We quit because we literally ran out of energy or it was time to go home and do chores.

I remember as a ’big-time’ high school basketball player (ha ha!), teaching sister Mary, Phyllis Cole and Debby Clark the drills I was learning in high school basketball -- skills they would be learning in the next year or two from Coach Manship. No wonder they were such a good team later on!

What great fun I had playing basketball on The Slab with Ron and Stan Manship. Ron and Rick Berdine. Roger Tisue. Dave Crandall. (Forgive me if you were there and I didn’t mention you. My memory isn’t very good; some of my siblings got my share.) Steve Eckels and Ralph Lundquist might roll into town to check out Mary and ‘the girls". If Linda was at The Slab, Denny Larimer would show up. He could jump the chain-link fence around the Slab with one hand on the top rail. I was impressed and besides, he’d go get the ball when it got knocked over the fence. Good memories. I remember Afton and I remember good times on The Slab.

Facebook -- 25 things (2/5/2009)

  

1) While up for a Sunday ride, brother Alan told me that he had been practicing "stalls" in the ultra light plane with the Velcro closing doors. I asked him to show me but he wouldn't.

2) In high school, I played in a clarinet quartet for the VFW and other community meetings. I played the alto clarinet. Mr. Sutton, my instrument instructor, could only say "you have a good ear" . . . because I knew when I was playing wrong. (Yes, father of Anne Sutton.)

3) In Junior High at Arispe, the girl in front of me in chorus was asked by the vocal teacher to "mouth" the song. I knew it should have been me. In church or at funerals, I try to find someone singing bass to sing with.

4) To get even with Linda for popping her gum, I would breathe peanut butter in her face.

5) I used to "borrow" Linda's blouses to wear to school. I was usually sorry as she had really sharp finger nails.

6) I flew, at age 18, all by myself and even changed airlines in Chicago, to Baltimore, Maryland to visit Linda and Denny. They lived on Easter Egg Hill. I probably would have stayed there the rest of my life in that little one-bedroom trailer. I could have been the oldest daughter. Denny finally suggested I call the airline for my ticket home. Flew into Des Moines in an ice storm. Gee, thanks, Denny!

7) Once at Riverview Park in Des Moines (a long lost amusement park where the East Union band got to go every summer) I was riding the roller coaster barefooted and got the _ _ _ _ shocked out of me! My bare feet on a box under the seat ahead of me and the metal bar I gripped for dear life was a dangerous electrical combination. I felt "funny" for about 3 days, after. However, I always did and still do ride the roller coaster every chance I get.

8) While in Junior High, I am now convinced, I had "Petit mal" seizures -- probably a half dozen or so. If your pre teen child ever sits and "zones", you might want to have him/her checked. Usually children grow out of the "little" seizures. I evidently did. or not.

9) When small, only half of our large family went to “town” on Saturday night. Kathryn was the “sitter” on my nights to stay home. This meant we only went to Creston every two weeks!

10) When I was first married and moved to Sioux City, I found a job at Good Will, typing envelopes for the donation request letters. I was brighter than I looked and soon learned to pick out the small town lists. Back then the little Iowa towns didn’t even need a post office box number to be delivered. I could type a whole lot more envelopes with only a person’s name and a town and a state. The Des Moines envelopes required at least three complete lines, sometimes four. Soon I had brushed up my typing skills and was ready to look for another job.

11) I worked in a political campaign office in 1968, my first job. Some dude running for Iowa guv. He lost to Robert D Ray. My big sister may have gotten me the job. Thanks, Beth! Beth used to work in the Iowa legislature (who did you work for?) and probably should be writing her 25 things. It was all I could do to stay away from home for 5 days and rode the bus back and forth on the weekends. I would get right off at Sheets Drug Store "on the square" in Afton.

12) My senior year of high school, I had 13 adopted "children" . . . all in 9th through 12th grades. I also had two official self-appointed "body guards" ??

13) while trying to leave the nuclear plant after visiting Prairie Island one time, I tested positive for radioactivity. I thought I was going to have to get a job and live there at the plant! Thanks, again, Denny! (is there a pattern here? I end up in dangerous situations! oh yeah! and if this was "26 things", I could tell you about the time he dragged me behind the boat on the Mississippi River. I have pictures!)

14) I helped sell VFW poppies as a young girl . . . so I always buy them to this day when I see them. And you should too! Veterans of Foreign Wars.

15) I have loved babies ever since Gramps and Granny brought Mary home from the hospital. I was only two years, but remember it. My next real baby was C. E. Gray III. and boy did we dote on him! Then Ritchie, Sheila, K'Lea and a little bit of Janie before I grew up and had to go off and get a job.

16) Some of my children call me "Nance" about as often as they call me Mom. My Dad called me Nance.

17) I have split an 8' log with a mallet and wedges -- the long way. It wasn't very big around . . . but still!

18) I asked for an adze for a gift once -- and got it. As your Granny would say . . . look it up in the dictionary! I did NOT ask for a reciprocating saw once . . . and got it.

19) I can rough it, with no bathroom, running water or electricity. I come from pioneer stock.

20) I counted the mosquito bites on my little sister Mary while camping in Louisiana one year -- over 100! maybe 200. and no Lime disease.

21) I have been to Ireland once for work . . . and would go back at the drop of a hat. I was met in the airport by someone from the company with a cardboard sign "Hofmeister, arrival" -- like in a movie.

22) As young children, we were allowed one candy bar a week and one bottle of pop. Of course, if we had our allowance we could buy more but that one bottle of coke a week was the BEST tasting pop I ever did have.

23) I can still hang by my knees and skin the cat. 2 or 3 years ago I could still stand on my head. I might be able to now, if I just got practiced up.

24) I have four loving and beloved children and I could (and should!) write 25 things about each of them! And now I am so much enjoying my grandchildren.

25) I have been married going on 39 years to a very strong willed and handsome man who can cook with the best of them!

PS: I have delayed posting this. I think I'm afraid I'll remember one more thing that I wish I would have said. Oh well, I can always post 26 through 50, right?