Well! This is interesting! I haven't been able to sign into this blog, or find my other blogs, but playing around on my new phone  here they are,  and I could get to the  "working parts. Now if I can go back and figure it out on my computer?   I am keeping a journal of my trip to Holland on another blog. You can find it at www.hollandinjune2016.blogspot.Com

Still working on Project list 2014

 Projects 2014--yes My blog is on that list.
 Sometimes trying something new just doesn't pan out so I'm back to the drawing board on the blog issues.  Going to try to clean up and give this one a new look--obviously what I should have just done in the first place.

It's crazy that the year is already 1/2 over.  I did pretty good with my list the first part of the year, but the closer we got to summer, the more busy it (and me) is around here with other things.

I did finally get all the way thru, back to the very beginning of my post, deleted some posts & I loved looking at all the pictures on here.  Wow--It gave me fresh inspiration to work on making a blog book!
So.....we'll go from here & hopefully get back into the blogging grove!


 

Come visit me at my new blog!

**Edit to below, several hours later.  Oh. My. Goodness.  I'm having such a terrible time with new blog.  There are things I really like about the way it's done, but I'm having a terrible time getting things to come out how I want them, and it's horribly complicated for my very small brain, and I've already made so many mistakes &......IT'S TAKING ME FOREVER to do any posts.
I may give up and go back to blogger afterall.  Things that take too much time don't work out very well in my scheme of days.  Sigh!


 Progress on my new blog.  It's coming along, in-between panic attacks of trying to learn something new!  Thanks Meshayla for having so much patience with me, helping me figure it all out!

Next--I'm trying to figure out how to put a "follow" button on it. *sigh* 

http://www.maxinejelinek.wix.com/sandsoftime

 We are also in the process of updating the bathroom, so I'll have some new pictures to add to this page soon!
From *house* to Home 8/2012~


 

The rest of 2013

Is there anyone still out in blog land?
Did you give up on my blog?

I guess I did!  Today is the last day of December, 2013 and my last post was in May this year.  Over a half of year gone by.  Tomorrow is New Years day! Amazing.  Time flies.

I'm celebrating 2014 by closing this blog and starting a new one.  I've had a few ideas for a while now, and just kind of tired of the "old".  I'd like to blog more again so I'm not planning on quitting, just giving my blog a new look and feel.  I started this one 6 years ago this last fall and our life at that time was quite different than it is now.

So I'll back up a little bit to give some closure here.

June-- We welcomed grandbaby #13 to our family.  Relyssa and Mark's first, Jasper Lee born in CO at the Midwifery center on June 11 he was 7 1/2 lbs 20 1/2 in.  born at 3:18 pm and I was delighted to be there, along with his other Grammy, two aunties and a (double) baby cousin just 6 mo. older than him.
Also had some kids/grandkids visit over my birthday weekend.  Pretty special to have all our grandkids here at once. A really fun thing is that we have 3 grandbaby boys all in Sidney, just 35 mi. from us.  Carter was born in Dec, Delon in Feb, and Jasper in June, so they are all just months apart, within 6 months.  Can you imagine 16 years from now? :)

July--My two sisters, my mom and I took a special and long awaited trip to Prince Edward Island, We flew to Portland, Maine and rented a car, driving up into Canada and took the ferry over to PEI.  It was a really special trip for us, and I will be making a page of our trip.

August--This month was filled with garden, canning, freezing and grandkids here.  Kind of a blur as I seemed to take forever to recover from vacation! We had super results from our garden, potatoes, squash & tomatoes.  I did alot of canning tomatoes, but also froze alot to make salsa from this winter while it was cold and I had more time.....hmmm guess I'd better get on that?!

September--  Another month that was just packed clear full.  We went to our annual Church convention the first part of the month, then a week later I & the 4 kids headed up to ND to visit our daughter and family up there and got in on their state's convention also.  The trip was a bit bittersweet, as Meshayla who turned 19 this month (Ekks, HOW can that be?!!) took a job up there, and was staying, living with her sister. 
When I arrived home I picked up two of our grandsons and had them here for a week with us.

October and November-- were both filled with helping our daughter and SIL get their house ready to put on the market to sell.  That involved many daily trips over to Sidney, but it was a great feeling when it was done, and their house sold within 3 days of listing it!
For Thanksgiving we had a special Thanksgiving day dinner with some "old" friends and my side of family and 9 of our kids in Kearney.

December--has been full of more trips to Kearney, some special company, special Sundays, and lots of quilting.  I helped my sister quilt a special quilt that she made for her grandaughter.  Now I'm so inspired to do more quilts.  Interspersed in all the above was constant house projects that I worked on doing and had my husband working on both.  I have some new pictures I want to get posted to the "house" page before I close it down too.
Christmas day we enjoyed having our "nearby" 8 kids & families plus Jana, another couple and my grandkids "other" grammie here for lunch and a birthday party for our 2 yr old Bethy girl, and 1 yr old Carter.
We have enjoyed Jana home with us for 10 days, and my mom out with us over a few days including New Years day too.
It's been a really full month!

Now the sun is setting on the last day of the year.
Wishing you all a Very Happy New Year.  I appreciated what someone said recently.  Experiences we go thru, Good ones and Hard ones.  Not bad ones.  Hard ones.  There are always plenty of those to go around it seems, but hopefully we can enjoy the good ones more, and profit from the hard ones.

Till next time........................................

It's May!

And it finally looks, smells, sounds & acts like spring has actually arrived.

To stay that is.

We've had quite a few teasers, whispers of spring; the fickle thing it is in this part of the country.  (And quite a few other area's too, from what I've heard & seen evidence of)

We had very little snow this year, and not much "real" cold either.  In fact we didn't even get any snow here until Feb.  Once it got going tho, we had some every little bit right up to our last snow on May 1.
Nothing exciting tho, you know when it starts snowing, blowing, drifting and you can't get out of your drive way or you have to keep your snow shovel right beside your door so you can grab it to make a path-IF you can get the door pushed open far enough.  Like in the "good 'ol days"  HA.

No, all our snows were half hearted attempts that fizzled out almost as soon as they got a start.  The ground was barely covered, the tops of the grass, weeds & mowed off corn stocks sticking out.  That is until the last of April when we were done with the whole disgusting chilly, blah, black & gray landscape & thoroughly ready for some weather to match our idea of what we think spring SHOULD be, then we got about 6 inches of the wintery stuff.
Now mind you, I'm not (nor I'm sure anyone else in this area) complaining about the moisture, as it was greatly needed & appreciated, but at that point we all would have loved to see it come down in a more liquid form rather than the white flakes. The best thing I can say about it all is that it didn't stay around very long, our temps were high enough to melt it off in a couple days.

It's been a long drawn out winter, regardless that the calendar was marked spring back in March. I was ready for sunshine, blue skies, leaves on the trees & green grass. Six months of "winter" is just too long!

We planted grass.  It's going to be a challenge, nothing has been done with the yard for (??) years.  We have garden space tilled up, a beautiful waiting bed generously sprinkled with a donation from our back yard feed lot for the veggies I'm hoping will grow.  Gardening is a challenge for me, I have a love hate relationship with it.  I love the idea, like planting, love the produce & canning/freezing, but I get burned out in the middle of the summer when it's hot, and I dislike the maintenance of it. Some years are better than others.
The upside of it is when I don't get something picked or put up when I should, the chickens benefit, and I don't feel near as guilty feeding it to them!
We have baby kittens, 4 of them.  Our 3 adult cats are happy & flourishing.  The chickens that freely roamed all winter are now fenced to protect our garden.

I love May.  It's jam packed full of special dates for our family.
My sisters birthday.
A niece, two nephews.
Our (4th) daughters Anniversary
Mothers day.
Our oldest son's, our 3rd daughter & our "love in the middle" girl. #6.
Can you believe that out of 14 grandchildren & one on the way, we have none born in May.  That's o.k......  (smile!)

 Earlier this year I actually spent quite a bit of time scrapbooking. I did a first three years album for our middle son. We did lots of little projects on the house, I need to get my page updated again.  There's lots more on the "to do" list.

In the mean time I'm loving seeing spring for the first time in this part of the state & looking forward to a new grandbaby in a few weeks.

 Evidence of spring even thru the snow

 Our cats sunning on the porch. Even tho the trees have no leaves, our bush is nicely leafed out.

 All we have to do is step out the door & the cats are right beside us.  The gray one is our mama cat.

 The fields are green!

 The newly planted lawn

 Loving the sight of blue sky, planted fields & the feel of *WARM*
We had a sudden rain shower come thru this afternoon and it was wonderful. It's sandy soil out here tho, and you'd never know this picture was taken minutes after it quit.  The rain soaks in very quickly.

Inch by inch, they're coming up.  An iris bed that has survived.  I'd love to do something fun with the old stump by the mail box too.

--That sums it up for this time.

The Day is Done

 I've mentioned before that my grandparents loved poetry.

Tonight this poem came to mind, and I remembered my grandpa.


The Day is Done

 The day is done, and the darkness
 Falls from the wings of Night,
 As a feather is wafted downward
 From an eagle in his flight.

 I see the lights of the village
 Gleam through the rain and the mist,
 And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me
 That my soul cannot resist:

 A feeling of sadness and longing,
 That is not akin to pain,
 And resembles sorrow only
 As the mist resembles the rain.

 Come, read to me some poem,
 Some simple and heartfelt lay,
 That shall soothe this restless feeling,
 And banish the thoughts of day.

 Not from the grand old masters,
 Not from the bards sublime,
 Whose distant footsteps echo
 Through the corridors of Time,

 For, like strains of martial music,
 Their mighty thoughts suggest
 Life's endless toil and endeavor;
 And tonight I long for rest.

 Read from some humbler poet,
 Whose songs gushed from his heart,
 As showers from the clouds of summer,
 Or tears from the eyelids start;

 Who, through long days of labor,
 And nights devoid of ease,
 Still heard in his soul the music
 Of wonderful melodies.

 Such songs have a power to quiet
 The restless pulse of care,
 And comes like the benediction
 That follows after prayer.

 Then read from the treasured volume
 The poem of thy choice,
 And lend to the rhyme of the poet
 The beauty of thy voice.

 And the night shall be filled with music,
 And the cares, that infest the day,
 Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
 And as silently steal away.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow--     

To be-or not to be

"I am still determined to be cheerful and to be happy in whatever situation I may be, for I have learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions and not upon our circumstances."
~Martha Washington~


I saw this posted the other day on a friend's facebook page, and it was one of those "Got to keep" quotes. 

It's always interesting to me when i see something that was spoken so many many years ago that is still so true in our day & age.

I have to say that once again it reminded me of what my grandma was like. She was very quiet, not assuming, and although no doubt that her life didn't always go the way she might have wished it would have, other than quiet "sigh's, complaining about her lot in life; or the situation was not in her nature.

Another quote I saw & (re-)posted recently was this:  

"One day you'll be just a memory for some people.
Do your best to be a good one."

 That one fits my grandma really well too, and I'm pretty sure that If I could choose to have qualities like any one person, I would choose hers.

Here's raising my glass to you, Grandma Ruth!

"If only I knew"

This is the title of a little book of quotes that I found some years ago.

One of my first and biggest "resolutions" for this year was to do some major scrapbooking.  I have many pages done that need to be placed in albums, but I have even more photos that are mostly sorted and just waiting in boxes or in pocket albums waiting to be scrapbooked. (As I write this, it sounds very repetitious.  I really didn't copy & paste,  haha!  it's an on-going goal and yes, I've accomplished quite a bit so far already this year)

I scrapbook for several reasons.  To preserve the photos is probably one of the minor ones.  I scrapbook for memories.  For mine and for my children's. To remember. I scrapbook for ME. Because it fulfills something within me, creatively & emotionally.

Today I came accross photos of one of my son's 1st. birthday party.  Mostly the photos are of him, with cake, with presents.  There are several with his sisters in it, looking on & "helping" baby brother.
I realized with sadness, there are none of him with his dad or I. None with his brother. None of him with his grandparents, who very faithfully attended & helped celebrate all of my kid's birthdays.
However, I discovered one photo, a close up of him examining a present, and off to the side, in the background, obviously not intended to be a "part" of the picture is his Great Grandpa.

I realized back when I had first went thru and sorted these pictures, that the photo, however in-intentional was the last photo that I have with son and his great grandpa.  It was the last birthday party of his great grandkids that he ever got to attend, as he passed away just 2  months later.

It brings tears to my eyes now thinking of this, because I realize so much more now, looking back on those years that yes, pictures of birthday cake & presents are fun, but it's the people in our lives that grow and change....and leave.  It's the relationships that really meant something, not the forgotten toy or the devoured cake.

It's the reason now that when I take pictures of a child's birthday, I always try to remember to include some shots with parents. Grandparents, Siblings.

I went to find my little book and read thru it. (and remembered yet another scrapbook that is on my "list of want to make")

The title of the book is "If Only I knew"  by Lance Wubbels.

A couple of my favorite quotes that mean alot to me in this book are as follows:

"If Only I Knew".....

This was the last time...the very last time...I would see you, I would take the time to treasure everything about you.

.......I could never share another day with you, I would make the most of every second.

......That I was caught in the trap of living for tomorrow and a future that existed only in my imagination, I would have slowed my pace, drawn boundaries around my work, and taken time for the people I love.

.......That even a child's days are sometimes cut short, I would wish for more long nights of rocking you to sleep.

......That when God closes a door, He opens another.  I would have been less afraid of change and more welcoming of new opportunities and adventures.

And I love how it sums up my feelings about scrapbooking....

"If Only I knew...that my memories of you would be so precious, I would take the time to carefully gather your life story."

The Author writes: 
"Think about it.  Don't allow the regrets of "if only I knew" to be the final marker of your life.  Be swift to love.  Hurry to be kind.  Take the time to make someone feel special.  Freely give hugs & kisses & may "I love you" be often on your lips."



And a last word from my perspective--I love photography, I love beautiful, creative & "perfect" photos. I've had a camera in my hand since my grandpa first gave me a "brownie box camera" when I was about 10. I've had good cameras, cheap ones, bad ones, learned some "how to", applied some of it, simply used Automatic & snapped on most of them. (And I am in no way discounting personal or professional photographers!)  Don't wait for perfection--the lack of a "good" camera.  The lack of knowledge.  Just take the picture!!   It's not the quality of the photograph that will matter in the end, it's the record. We can be pretty disappointed or annoyed about how the photo turned out, but I promise you that 25 years down the road when you pull that dusty out of focus, off centered, discolored photo from wherever you had it stored, that it will be precious!

Happy New Year!

 My Grandparents grew up in an era where poetry was taught and learned in school.
They both also had quite a few poems memorized.
My mother also knew poetry, & poets, and I remember her "saying poems".

I was read poems, and quoted poems from an early age, so even tho I ended up in a "non-era" in school as far as poetry, I still was surrounded with it, however memorizing is just not my forte.

I am familiar with many poems and titles of books along with the authors names probably mostly not only because of their interest in poetry and reading, but because we spent hours when we were growing up, playing the card game of Authors.

One poem came to mind last night that was a favorite of my grandma Ruth.  I remember her reading/quoting it on New Years eve when we were together, and then later my mom would read it from a very lovely old vintage book.
My grandma would get choked up when she read it, and as a child of course I didn't understand why.
Now in later years when I read thru it or hear my mother's voice, yes it's me tearing up, and the more I can truly appreciate the words in the poem.
Time seems to have a way of doing things like that to a person.


 Ring Out, Wild Bells

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,

The flying cloud, the frosty light;

The year is dying in the night;

Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,

Ring, happy bells, across the snow:

The year is going, let him go;

Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,

For those that here we see no more,

Ring out the feud of rich and poor,

Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,

And ancient forms of party strife;

Ring in the nobler modes of life,

With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,

The faithless coldness of the times;

Ring out, ring out thy mournful rhymes,

But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,

The civic slander and the spite;

Ring in the love of truth and right,

Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease,

Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;

Ring out the thousand wars of old,

Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,

The larger heart the kindlier hand;

Ring out the darkness of the land,

Ring in the Christ that is to be.

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Published in 1850



 

Flashback memories

 Every now and then there is something shared on facebook that is a "Do you remember this?" photo or quote.

Today I saw this one posted:

The question was asked;  how many had learned to read using these books.
I smiled at the memory.

I believe these books were actually commonly used a little bit earlier than when I started school, however I went to Kindergarten in a little one room school house, situated way back in some canyons of the area of NE that I grew up in.
There may have been a total of 6 or 7 students, one teacher
and it probably did not have the "latest" and "greatest" in textbooks & supplies.
(Nor did it have indoor bathrooms!!)

(I'm really not THAT old.....It just happened to be the part of the country that we lived in!--smile!)

If I remember right it was also the last, or the next to the last year that county schools included 8th graders.
By the next school year, we had moved, and I believe the country school had closed.

Anyway, back to me being a Kindergartener, and Dick & Jane.
I was the only Kindergartner
The teacher brought out these little readers to teach me to read.
I looked at the book, thumbed thru the pages, looked up at the teacher and said:
"I could read this for yea's & yea's (I could not say my "R"s)

My mother had taught me to read back when I was 3 & 4, and I had already devoured all the Dr. Seuss books by that time.

I really liked that teacher, and later when we moved & I went to town school, she was one of the teachers there, and always teased me about telling her I could read for yea(r)s & yea(r)s!

I guess that was the beginning of my love affair with books. In grade school I quickly went thru every book available in the school's tiny library.  I've often wondered if I would have started learning math when I was 3 & 4 if I would have been good at it!

The books have been out of print for many years but  6 years ago when our youngest was ready to start public school, she was worried about not being able to read and decided she needed to learn before she went to school.  I found a reprint--a big book "Treasury of Dick & Jane" combining all the early readers, and bought it.
She spent hours laying on the floor with the book in front of her.  With very little help, she taught herself to read.
Out of my 12 kids, although they have all been good readers and like to read, she's probably been the one who has devoured the most books, and read more advanced for her age the earliest.

Maybe there's something to be said for "Dick and Jane, Spot and Puff and baby Sally after all!

Thanksgiving day

 Somehow hosting Thanksgiving really helps to make a house feel more like a home!
It was pretty special to have my MIL and SIL come out here for the day, and to have our Shayla Rose get home in time for our dinner also.

I work better when I have a deadline, so there was some projects that I was quite happy to get done before company arrived.  If you've looked at the pictures on the "House to Home" page, you can see the shutters turned cabinet doors for my kitchen that my husband got done, and also the old screen door used as a room divider that he surprised me by getting fixed & attached.

 Our table sits 12 -14   There were 12 of us plus 3 little's.  Lyrah was in the high stool at the other end beside G'ma J and Bethany & Jaith in  high-chairs.  Unfortunately I managed to crop in too closely and missed getting Jaith in the picture.

We were so pleased that it worked out for Grandma J to come out.  It's hard to have a feel for where someone lives without seeing it, so now hopefully she can picture us here a bit better.
These are Jeanne's two, Lyrah 3 and Jaith 1.

 Three of my little grandkids with their Great Grandma J.  (Ryan & Alishia's little girl Bethany, in the middle)  She has the next birthday, turning one in Dec!

How many of you are pintrest fans?  I love pintrest!  I have always loved looking at magazines and bookmarking the place for some cool idea I saw.  It's really bad when you thumb thru a magazine at the store and see one or two ideas you want to remember and go buy the magazine--It cost at least $5.00 and then takes up space with the other stack of magazines you couldn't resist.
Of course, then when you move you have to go thru them to see what you have to save & still move to many of them.
I speak from experience.
Enter pintrest.  Find anything.  pin on one page.  One giant bulletin board that takes up no room in your house. Things that you admire, that you'd like to do, that you might like to do someday, Receipes that look good, sound good, you want to try.
Not only that it doesn't cost a thing and you can delete those that either don't turn out well (food) or that you decide really doesn't strike your fancy anymore.

I have over 1000 pins.  Does it matter?  Nope. 
I'm pretty sure I'll never do them or try them all.
Does it matter?  Nope.
Just because I like them, and I pin them doesn't mean I am required to do anything else with it.
I've tried a lot of new recipes, I've gotten some ideas for some of my old "STUFF" I collect.
One thing I look for alot and pin alot of is ideas for using old windows, doors, screens & shutters.
Henceforth my "new" cabinet doors, my room divider and a new use for my vintage window (hanging in front of my living room window)

A while back I found an idea for using old shutters as a table runner for hot food.  I thought it was
a neat idea, and having another old shutter just sitting around I discovered that laid end to end it was the perfect length and width for my table.  I really like it because not only does it work well for all the hot dishes on the table without using my kitchen hot-pads, but it can stay on the table after the meal and make a great base for a centerpiece also!
(We took the tilt rod off the center of the louvers and also the hinges off the side, so it would lay flat)

 I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving.  It's my favorite holiday.  Some of my favorite childhood memories are centered around Thanksgiving gatherings with family & special friends.

Now I'm looking forward to a new grandbaby any day, and making more memories.

 

More house to home page edits

 I should be doing my prep work for Thanksgiving day tomorrow, but as I had several projects I was trying to get done before we had any more company I have been working on them and wanted to get the pictures up too, as I am going to be taking a break on my house and enjoying grand-kids and a new baby that will be arriving any day.
Although I still have a lot of things to do, and quite a few unfinished projects in different stages, I'm quite happy with the way things are going.
Now If I could only figure out how to resign myself to the flies.

To see my new edits, visit my "From house to home" page at the top tab, and there are new edits on the kitchen, the livingroom, and the dining room.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

 
 

Sunrise to Sunset

 Since we moved to a different part of the state I've once again been inspired to pick up my camera.
I have to say that I am totally in love with the view "out here". (Did I mention that before?)

Those of us who live here in NE and especially those B&R here who are familiar with NE off I-80 know that this state is filled with diverse scenery.
I love hills.  I love trees, I love canyons.  However I realize that I like best not being surrounded by so many trees that I can't see "out".
I love driving this end of the state and seeing everything from lush green river side on one side of the road to bare rocky sand hills on the other side. I love the canyons! Heading down from the platou of the flat prarie land to the lush green tree pasture land. Coming upon an enterence to a hidden State park I had no idea existed. ( http://www.westnebraska.com/2012/Ash-Hollow-State-Historical-Park/  that is now on my list of want to visit!)  I love being at the top of a hill and being able to see accross the country for endless miles.  A ridge of sand hill "mountains" against the horizon.  The sky, endless blue. I love seeing the sunrise, not over the trees, but thru them.  I love seeing the huge expanse of colorful sky in the evening sunset across the prairie land.

I think one of the reasons I like this spot so well, although most of my life has been spent in the "flat lands" of the state, I have roots to two other areas of NE that are more similar to this.
As painful as the process of moving was, as much as I miss some special people,
This feels good.  It feels right.
Now that I'm thru the hardest patch, I'm loving my life and once again smiling that

"It's Monday again"!

The sunrise-view from the kitchen windows (or in this case, my front porch looking east!)

 

 

 Looking from our house across the driveway

 A view South from the front of our house

 South from our house. The house/trees sit next to the highway

 I was loving the way the snow settled on this bush in front of our house.  It looked like balls of cotton or a "real" snowball bush

 I love sunsets, and where we lived before they were mostly hid by trees and the position of our place.  Out here it is wide open space and we can see the whole sky.
Obviously my kids are intrigued too, as they keep taking off with my camera to capture the beauty.

Had to add these also, playing with my camera at night during the evening of "our" first snow here

 

Beautiful Nebraska land

Views from our spot in Nebraska during October.
Many of these were taken as we traveled the road between former and current homes.
We have been in awe of the beautiful sunsets.

Western Nebraska Sandhill country--I love the view we have!

I wanted to do a slideshow of the photos, but what I used before has closed down and I wasn't having any luck getting something else to work. Unfortunately this doesn't show the photos so well.

Nebraska State Song Beautiful Nebraska * Written by: Jim Fras Beautiful Nebraska, peaceful prairie land, Laced with many rivers, and the hills of sand; Dark green valleys cradled in the earth, Rain and sunshine bring abundant birth. Beautiful Nebraska, as you look around, You will find a rainbow reaching to the ground; All these wonders by the Master's hand; Beautiful Nebraska land. We are so proud of this state where we live, There is no place that has so much to give. Beautiful Nebraska, as you look around, You will find a rainbow reaching to the ground; All these wonders by the Master's hand, Beautiful Nebraska land. * Jim Fras was a Russian refugee who came to Lincoln in 1952.  He composed Beautiful Nebraska in 1960.  In 1967, Beautiful Nebraska was signed into law as the official state song.

Halloween evening fun

Here's our group of funnies, cuties, crazy's & weird people!  Isn't it just fun to dress up?

 The Middle bunch took the younger ones and went out trick or treating for a while.

 Our very cute little stinker baby Bethy.  I didn't get a very good photo of her.

 Mama's and their very cute little girls!


Getting together is always a good excuse to have lots of food--and really yummy food!!
(Along with some funny looking treats too!)

 The avacado dip was reported to be very good!

 Stuffed Mushrooms & stuffed bacon wrapped jalapeno's are a definite hit!

 And some yummy sausage vegetable soup to balance out all the sweets!

 Throw in some ear wax swabs & some eye balls-- heehee!!

And Alisha a beautiful bowl of Syllabub for a treat!

Now my question is, Since it's very much a kids holiday, WHY don't they put Halloween on the last Friday of the month in October so after all that "partying" and candy they didn't have to get up and go to school the next day?  Sure seems like a good idea to me!