Merry Christmas to us!

Just to top off the saga of the bank fun, Dennis and I both tested positive for Covid this morning. We both feel very icky, but at this point it’s just like a bad cold. Fevers, cough, nasal congestion, and exhaustion. We have had four vaccinations, so it must be a strain that has newly developed. 

I’m sure glad I was done with all of my Christmas things before this happened. we are missing all of the fun things here at the apartment building and we had paid for a rather expensive light tour on Sunday night that I’m sure there’s no way we’ll be going to now. I shall be back when I can. Take care and treat yourself kindly. 

Meanwhile, here are a few of the decorations that I put up last week.

Blessings and love,

Betsy

Uh-oh!?

Uh-oh! We have been hacked! So, apparently someone has hacked into our computers and we had a rude discovery over the weekend. They managed to get way too much from our account. Thankfully hubby checks our accounts regularly and it was caught quickly. Our credit union will refund the money into our account and file a police report against the perpetrators. Apparently they have their URL and some names. I hope they get them! It’s ridiculous that you have to worry about these kinds of things. If people just put half the effort into working at a job and doing honest work as they do into stealing, this world would be a lot better place wouldn’t it? But, meanwhile our accounts have been closed and we’re going through the process of redoing everything. Including our computers being wiped clean, hopefully, of anyone being able to do this again. That means I can’t comment on any of your blogs because I have to do that on my laptop. I can make posts on here, but I can’t comment on anybody else’s. I will be reading them though. Never fear! I’ll be thinking of all of you and hopefully it will only be a few days before we get our computers back. Meanwhile this is an absolute mess to try to clean up.

But hey, it’s not all bad news! Dennis, my sister Melanie and I went to a concert last night in Kearney, Nebraska. After that we stayed the night at a Holiday Inn express only about a block away from the venue. We were able to walk to the concert and walk back to our hotel room! Our kids bought us VIP passes to see the acappella vocal group “Home Free.”  These tickets are our Christmas and birthday presents from our kids. Mandy and Brad bought ours and Tim and Chaela bought Melanie’s. It was absolutely wonderful. It’s Melanie’s third time seeing them in concert, but our first. She has had us hooked on listening to them for the past several years, but we’ve never been able to attend a concert before.

The VIP tickets got us into a Q & A a session with the guys. We were given some swag and CDs and were able to watch the Soundcheck. We also had second row seats right in the center. It was absolutely wonderful. There were two other groups that sang a couple of songs before Home Free and they also sang a few songs with the group. The entire concert lasted over three hours! It was a great gift and we were blessed with wonderful sunny skies and temperatures in the 40s for our trip. There’s always a chance of snow and ice this time of year and since it was a 3 hour drive each way, we were praying for good weather.

Here is Home Free, the main attraction. Love these kids. 😍 The guy on the left with the cowboy hat is from the group Texas Hill, and he came out to do a song with them that they co-wrote. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen these five guys use any kind of instrument in their singing.

Brooke Eden and Ernie Holter, really good singers too.

These are “our” guys. They’re about the same age as our kids and we just love their sense of humor and the way they interact with each other and the audience. They aren’t really “performing” in a sense because they talk to the audience constantly and include them as part of the show

My handsome guy and yours truly.

My big sister. We sure love each other and are enjoying being together again after so long apart.

We took this photo from our hotel. See that building in the background? That is the venue for the concert. We just walked down that road and walked back after the concert. Everyone else had to pay $10 to park at the arena, but we had free parking at our hotel! And it was good exercise. Because, get this, we were sitting on top of a hockey arena for five hours! The walk warmed us up. Between the VIP stuff and the three singing groups it literally was five hours. I had a sundress and flip-flops on, but luckily had taken a sweater with me. Everyone was freezing, including the people singing. It was warmer outside after the concert than it was inside, so I’m guessing it was probably about 40F inside! I am always so hot because of my medication‘s and I had no idea that it was an ice arena. Nobody did. No one was dressed appropriately for being in 40° temperatures for that long. We’re hoping that none of us get sick from it, especially the singing groups, because they have about 20 more concerts to do this month. We must not have been too cold, because we went back to the hotel and got the car and went and got ice cream shakes!😂

As we drove home on interstate 80 this morning I saw this flock of white birds lift up from a cornfield and stay in this tight formation as they flew westward. It was impossible to see what kind of bird they were, but it was fascinating to watch as the cloud of white undulated as they disappeared from sight.

On that note I will close. I did knit most of theway there and back but I can’t show you what I made. As I said, I’ll be back commenting on your blogs as soon as I can but I will continue reading every day. Take care my friends and enjoy December.

Blessings and hugs,

Betsy

December

I know, I know. It’s been a little over a week since I last posted. I honestly don’t know how you retired ladies do it. It seems that we run, run, run all of the time since Dennis stopped working. Of course this was an extra busy week. Alex and his family arrived last Wednesday night as scheduled and left this past Wednesday. They are now back home into normal life.  We had an absolutely wonderful time, but I don’t have a lot of photos to show for it. It seems that little Baby J made her way into almost every photo I took. Imagine that! And since I can’t post photos of her online, it makes it a bit difficult. Suffice it to say she was the entertainment for everyone this week including Miss Piper. We ended up having 23 people for Thanksgiving dinner and everything was delicious. We ate pie for several days afterwards and enjoyed the leftovers most of the weekend. Plus I have some turkey frozen to use later in pot pies, soup, etc.

I did get a little bit more done on my Christmas socks. I am working on turning the heel right now. I’m still hoping I get them finished and be able to wear them for Christmas. We shall see, it’s not looking too promising right now.

I’m still working on another Christmas present that is going to take all of my time between now and then. I have high hopes, but I seem to have hit a wall with not really wanting to knit or crochet. I don’t think I could possibly be burnt out, I love it too much. It’s just that there are so many things to do around here that are fun, I don’t want to sit in the apartment and watch TV. Also, the hospital has asked me if I would make some port protectors for people undergoing chemotherapy. They have provided the fabric and stuffing. I told them it would be after the first of the year, but then I will get some of those done.

Here’s a photo of our youngest, Alex, with grandma in her apartment. I just love this boy. I guess he is a man now, but he’ll always be my baby.😍 And she looks pretty good for 86 doesn’t she? She spent the day with us on Thanksgiving and then again all afternoon on Sunday. She was pretty tired after that. We took her to a doctors appointment yesterday and then out to lunch. She had such a wonderful time meeting her new great-grandchild and Alex got to spend more time with her on this visit than he has in years. That meant a lot to both of them. She still absolutely loves her new apartment and wishes she had moved there years ago. We are very glad she’s happy and still only 10 minutes away from us.

Miss Piper turned out to be an absolutely astounding babysitter for Baby J. When she wasn’t at school or asleep in bed at night, you would certainly find her with her baby. And Baby J loved her right back. She would look for Piper. I’m sorry I had to block her face out, but just know she is one of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen. Piper not only gave her her bottles but fed her solid foods while the baby was in piper’s old highchair. She did a great job. I think Mandy is signing her up for a babysitting class next summer and I think she will be in high demand. 💜 Just look at the beautiful hair on Baby J.

These two I’ve been having the time of their lives. They have been together every day for the last 10 days. Today will be the first day since last Tuesday but they have been apart. Look how they even sleep in the same position. They also love the baby and just wanted to play with her.

I wanted to show you a Christmas wreath that I made for mom during a craft day here last week. I forgot to take a photo of it though. I’ll try to remember next time I go over there and put it in my next post. I also put up our decorations here in the apartment and tonight when the lights are on I’ll take photos of those for you. It’s not nearly as many as we had in the house but still it’s some of our favorite things.

I do have news. I will be taking a trip to London to babysit a precious little baby next month. I will leave January 15 and I won’t be back until February 10. It’s a long time to be gone but when you know your kids need help you do what you can. I’m looking forward to being away from the cold and snow of the Midwest to a more temperate climate in London, but I know I’m going to miss everyone here, especially Dennis. He is staying home with Zoey and to watch over his mom. That will be strange in and of itself. However I got a very, very good deal on my airline ticket so I can’t complain. And how could I complain anyway, when I get to cuddle that sweet baby for over three weeks?

I hope you are all having a wonderful start to December. We had just a skiff of snow and freezing rain on Monday but it was gone by that night. Today is very warm and tomorrow is supposed to be in the 50s again. If it could be like this all winter long, I would be one happy girl. Take care everyone.

Blessings and love,

Betsy