Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Falling on ice...

Well, hubby has no broken bones but is very bruised and sore. He is unable to sit and can hardly stand so is mostly bedridden. The fall happened so fast. He blames it on his his shoes, he wore a pair of boots he hasn't worn for a few years and claims they were too smooth. No matter what the reason, it happened. I am just hopefully that there are no long-term repercussions.

What can one say about friends when you are in need? Groceries for Ardmore were delivered and I was picked up at the airport yesterday. Thank goodness the flight from LA to Fargo is only 3.5 hours and I didn't have to sit in the cities for any length of time. I love it!

I took on a 6 am flight which is pretty frightfully early considering that I needed to go through the scan for my hip and knee replacement, but I always request a wheel chair with an assistant because it can be a long way to walk. I don't know if I can handle the walk with the extra carry-on items. When one takes a wheel chair the assistant pushing brings you right to the front of the line at the security point, brings the totes and helps you with everything. You go though the scan and get checked by TSA. The wheel chair assistant picks up all of your totes, brings them to you, helps you get everything organized again (they will even help you get your shoes on if needed), and then deliver you to your gate. Well worth a generous tip! It is such a relief and I don't have to worry about being late or getting lost. Fargo is easy, of course, one doesn't need any help there but Vegas and LA are something else! I highly recommend anyone who had hip or knee replacement to consider going this route is flying through a major air port.

Now about the snow that greeted me in Fargo! It was quite a surprise to see the amount of snow we had, the cold I expected, but that is still a shock. I remember when a friend brought her children here one winter and they ran to go out the door and stopped dead when it opened, totally in shock about how cold it was. Then there was our granddaughter when Michelle's family visited one Christmas. She seemed to never warm up during their whole visit. Thank goodness the year's fall was warmer than normal, all the way through Thanksgiving. We can handle two and a half months of cold weather!

Time to go buy some groceries and get some pain pills for hubby!

Charleen

Monday, December 28, 2009

Sunday night and Christmas with family

It has been fun to see what creative dishes Brian cooks. We had the most delicious turkey and cranberry sauce I've ever eaten. The only thing that I have made while here is the stuffing for the Christmas dinner turkey. Between Brian, Michelle, and James, we ate some very good meals. The setup and cleanup was a snap with everyone pitching in to cook, put together salads and sides, wash dishes, and clean up, it went very smooth. As the saying goes, "Many hands make work light."

Christmas Eve night we played the white elephant game with everyone vying for what they wanted. Some things were gag items like a "Max - Wild Thing" key chain and Thumb Wrestlers, while other items were taken over and over again. Bryce ended up with an iTunes gift card and Leah the Apples to Apples game, which was passed back and forth several times as was some truffles. It was such fun!

We went to see Sherlock Holmes Christmas night. This is a must see for movie buffs. We had to pay attention to the flash backs to make sense of some of the plot but this added an interesting dimension to the movie. Robert Downey played an excellent Holmes, although not the Holmes I picture from my childhood. Much more human and not a stilted as as the old Holmes was.
Last night we went to see the cartoon, "Fantastic Mr. Fox." A very humorous and delightful tale about the fox and his friends who did some sneaky steeling in an exclusive farm neighborhood.

This morning, James, Ashlee, and I attended church services at the Los Angeles Stake Center. According to church history it was built in 1923 under the supervision of Pres. Heber J Grant. It was the first LDS stake organized outside of the intermountain region and the also the first stake established in a city/town outside of Salt Lake City. It is a beautiful building. James told me, Brian had been in one of the wards connected with stake when he served his mission in the 1980s.

When we arrive home Brian was in the process of making turkey pot pie from a William and Sanoma recipe. It was fabulous! I am going to make this recipe the next time we have turkey.
This evening was a very relaxing. James and Ashlee left about an hour ago and Brian headed out for a meeting about 2 hours ago. This is actually the first time I have been alone! I finally get to upgrade the blog.

One sad incident happened yesterday. Ardmore walked to get the mail, slipped on some ice and ended up in the emergency room. I will certainly be glad to get home on Tuesday to see how he is doing and see what I can do to help him. The doctor couldn't tell if he fractured a bone, perhaps we will know tomorrow when a radiologist looks at the x-rays. It is hard to believe that the time has gone by so fast.

Time to run for groceries and pain meds!

Charleen

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Christmas in LA

I am at the Grove waiting for my family to come so we can eat at The Cheesecake Factory. Arrived yesterday to a very cold windy day. I left my winter coat in Minnesota with hubby and was very disappointed to find out that I probably shouldn't have. Today is a very different story though. It is warmer!

At 6:30 am, I drove into the LA temple grounds to go through a session, only to be a few minutes too late and had to wait an hour. A very relaxing hour. It was beautiful this am, no wind and already a little warmer. The temple years were ablaze with Christmas lights of red and white, absolutely beautiful.

Brian colored and cut my hair today then I headed out to do some shopping. I did quite a bit but still am not done. I waited until I got hear, knowing that the selection was going to be excellent. It is.

It was interesting to come down the escalator at the Grove. They were shooting snow out of an upper snow making machine and it was so strange. The children were trying to catch it on their tongues and prancing around. I hear northern Minnesota was expected to get a snow storm. It's nice to miss that.

Time to do some more shopping before we

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

NDMOA - Snow Country Prison Opens

A week ago last Friday, we opened the North Dakota Museum of Art exhibit Snow County Prison: Interned in North Dakota. This is a must see exhibit. I had no idea that we had a Japanese and German WWII internment camp that close to Minnesota. 3,850 men were held the camp. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been to leave your family and be placed so far away, but to have this happen in your own country, even though you had nothing to bring it on yourself, would be very difficult this was what happened to the Japanese US nationals. It was interesting to discover that the Germans in the same internment camp had more freedom than the American Japanese. Many of Germans had worked for Standard Oil and were in the US at the time due to work and were not allowed to return to Germany. They were able to take tools and other items of their trade along, the Japanese had one suitcase. I can't imagine how they handled the dreadful cold of Bismarck in the winter in uninsulated buildings. Depression must have been an all consuming issue for many of them. Included in the exhibit is several poems by Itaru Ina that display the sadness of the time. It is interesting to think that this could happen again, the law that placed them in the internment camp is still in effect.
I am thankful that I work where I do and have the opportunity to see our museum have exhibits such as this. It is an exhibit I highly recommend.
We have classes coming to the museum for the next three days to see the exhibit. I wish we would have had more schools participate, but I am thankful that the schools who read about the exhibit and saw the need to bring their students to see the exhibit.
We have now had snow and below zero weather. Last night it was bout 11 below, right now it is 9 below. Yesterday Valley Spring California had snow! I wonder when they had snow like this before?


Leah had a wisdom tooth pulled today. Poor Leah! She had been suffering with it for several days. It is over now and she will have no more pain from that tooth!
I have so much to do and so little time. I am thankful for the upcoming Christmas trip to my children's. Whoo-hoo!



Sunday, December 6, 2009

Things I am thankful for...

Today it was fast and testimony Sunday. I have so many things to be thankful for and the gospel of Jesus Christ is one of them. Just knowing that He was willing to give his life for me, is amazing!
My brother, Bob and his wife, Marie were here this past week for a couple of days for a late Thanksgiving. It was such an enjoyable two days. I worked for a couple of hours on Tuesday and arrived home about an hour prior to their arrival.
They came up in the first real snowfall of the year; the snow was bound to stay this time! We ended up with about 6-7 inches; their trip reflected the roads as they arrived about 2 hours later than I had expected them. They didn't get into the snowy area until International Falls and it continued to get worse as they drove west.
This didn't keep us from having a delicious dinner at our local Chinese restaurant. We each ordered our favorite food and shared. One would think we would have quite a bit left but that was not the case, we only had enough for one meal for one person. It was so good! Family time is so precious. I am thankful to have a brother.
Yesterday, Michelle and I were visiting on the phone and I could hear that little Damen was at her house. I suggested we talk on Skype so I could see him. I am definitely thankful for living in a day when I can contact my family and friends via the computer and visit.