Environs: Cell Phone Submissions and an update

Things have been busy and will continue to be busy here at home in Kieler. I am amazed at how quickly our calendar is filling up these days. With Mom's group, visits from friends, library visits, doctors appointments, work for R.E. and Kurt's activities with the Fire Dept. and 1st Responders the week has been a full one. Though I am not complaining it was a good one!

I enjoyed catching up with our friend Natalie on Monday. We hadn't enjoyed egg salad sandwiches together in eons it seemed and the conversation was good, too. We also hosted a belated Epiphany party for our Mom's group on Thursday. It was a hoot! The kids made crowns, we had king cake and us mom's caught up a bit from the Christmas season lapse. There was plenty of mass chaos to be shared in one small house! Truly a great time was had by all!

Yesterday Kate and I had a La Leche League meeting and in the evening we all worked to prepare for the Jamestown 1st Responders Chili and Chicken Noodle Soup supper (Saturday). Kate got to see one of her friends Jeffery and the two of them played happily in the school gym for much of the evening with a chaperone.

Today, I took down our Christmas decorations (everything but the cards some of which I still have intentions of sending out cards in return because all of mine didn't get sent yet!). Kate helped and it went pretty smoothly. Together we also made a cookie cake for the supper tonight. She really liked helping with that especially the part where she got to sample the chocolate chips! Tonight we'll head to Mass (if Kate wakes up in time) and supper. And tomorrow and Monday are still weekend, too for us with dinner out with Kurt's work friends tomorrow night and shopping and dinner with friends Monday, as well. I didn't realize as the week began that Kurt would have MLK Day off but it certainly is a perk! I'll get Monday afternoon off as a Katie break!

Finally, since announcing my lack of camera these days I've received a few cell phone pictures from friends in sympathy and much to my appreciation since they're shots I didn't know existed!

This one perhaps needs a little explanation. In the summer months our Tuesday morning prayer group doesn't meet but the same crowd moves to the "social center" in Kieler that is the Kieler BP (yes its a gas station- and so much more!) for coffee after Mass. This summer Kate and I were frequently in attendance. JoAnn, one of our dear friends (seen in previous post) gave this monkey to Kate as Mass and post-Mass entertainment. The best game we played with monkey was to put him on our head and let him fall off. Its hilarious to a one year old! So here's a picture courtesy of another friend, Elaine.

Elaine also submitted this shot from this summer. She's pictured here with Kate we're guessing around the 4th of July. Elaine will sometimes help me out with babysitting during the day. She and her husband Jim live on a farm not far from here and Katie loves to visit her house because she has grand kid toys to play with and COWS along with a dog named Charlie that I hear about frequently though she hasn't visited in months!

My second submissions come from Kate's godmother and my sister-in-law Karen.