As I write this I am trying to remember what has happened in the past two and half weeks. Nothing too much. On this past Saturday, after the Mens Group meeting, I made a couple of stops, with the last one being at Menards. I had somewhat decided that we needed to replace both toilets with the newer water saving ones. A week earlier, the basement toilet wasn’t working right so as I was messing around with it, I ended up breaking the valve so I ran into Ace Hardware to buy a replacement part. Well, I got what I needed, got home and replaced it, but it didn’t work out so well. It is tough to find the tank parts that work well with the old five gallon tanks. Anyway, making a short story long, I ended up buying a new toilet for the basement at Menards. And being they had a 10% if you use the Menards card, I also found a new faucet for both bathrooms as they both leak.

When I got home, I started on replacing the basement bathroom faucet. It went in okay, but was a little tight for the drain opener and needed a little extra tightening, but it works well. It is higher than the one that was in there – the old one barely made it past the edge of the sink. This one is higher and swivels so those that want to wash their hair in the sink can now do so. Plus it is easier to fill up the new little humidifier that Nancy bought.

Matt came home last week announcing he had gotten first chair baritone in the Ninth Grade Honor Band. So this week he starts practice for that on Wednesdays from 4-5 pm. This week’s practice is at Central. The rest are at Stevens. I don’t recall when the concert is held.

Cathy’s been getting a lot of college letters. The thing that surprised us the most though, was her interest in the Army. A recruiter had stopped in their Spanish class and talked about being a translator, about the classes in California, job opportunities, etc. Well Cathy is really interested in it, even if that means having to run and do push-ups & sit-ups, etc. Don’t know if she truly is interested or if she is just looking at her options. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

It has been another week. Nothing too exciting has happened. Matt doesn’t have to wear his splint anymore. He goes back to the Dr. next Friday 1/30 for possibly the final checkup. The doctor wants to make sure things are healing correctly. Nancy went to the doctor on Friday 1/23 to have her right hand pinky checked out. On Thursday evening, she was crocheting when it suddenly went numb. I helped her wrap it in a splint on Friday morning before she went to work. She said it was getting more swollen and sore so she called the doctor’s office around 4 and they would take her right then so off she went. Steve’s not sure what the problem is but he splinted it with a different type of splint. With Donna finding out she does have arthritis, some of the folks at Nancy’s work asked her if that is what she thinks it is. Right now Nancy is just denying it, figuring that will keep it away. But if it doesn’t get better in a week or so, she is to go back and they will do some more tests, one being the blood test.

On Thursday night I was back up at Church again for the Youth Ministry Planning Team quarterly meeting. We reviewed all the activities we are currently doing in the church, not just the youth activities. We are a pretty busy parish. And we talked about a number of activities coming up, including the 30 hour famine, Leadership Camp, MMA, etc. It was a good meeting with a good meal (lasagne, salad, bread, desert) prepared by Pat.

On Friday evening Nancy and I went furniture shopping again. We’ve been looking for a new couch to replace the love seat being the one side keeps breaking. What we really want is some custom stuff but that will have to wait. Well we found a couch, glider, coffee table and two side tables so now on Saturday we need to go pick them up. It will be the last nice day for a week or more and we’ll need to use the trailer to haul it. We’ll go get it after I get home from my Men’s Group meeting at Church.

Last Friday (1/9/2004) Dad called and said his sister-in-law Pat had passed away that morning. Pat had been battling cancer for a little over a year. He called back later that evening and said they were holding a memorial service Sunday evening in Bismarck, ND, the wake would be Monday evening at the church in Lead with the funeral Tuesday at 10:00 AM. He and my sisters Mary & Barb would be coming out Monday morning.

On Saturday the kids had a retreat at Church. This is part of the pilot theology class they are taking this year for their Youth Formation Class. It was lead by Fr. John Hatcher who is writing the book, which is a modified version of the Lay Ministry program books he wrote several years ago. I went up for the Men’s group meeting. When I got home, Nancy & I took down the Christmas decorations. When we were done, I said to Nancy that it seemed to go faster this year. She said it was because the kids weren’t around to help. We went to Mass and then to Nancy’s work “holiday” party.

On Monday morning I ordered $80 flower arrangement for Pat. Dad, Mary & Corey arrived around 4:00 PM. Barb didn’t come because her youngest son Blaine was sick. After we ate we headed up to Lead for the wake. We hung around for a while and visited with a lot of different people. I hadn’t seen Rich & Pat’s kids in years. We got home around 9:30.

Tuesday morning we left for the funeral around 8:30. For me, funerals just aren’t sad occasions any more. I firmly believe that if a person was a good, God will reward them so they are now enjoying eternal life. Toward the end, Patti spoke briefly about her Mom. Afterwards, we gave Uncle Corny Kientz a ride to the cemetery. Pat was buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery, which is a few miles outside of Deadwood along US Hwy 14. I had never noticed it before. It is actually a very beautiful location. We headed back to the church for some lunch. After visiting some more we headed home. We when home via Hwy 385 and Nemo Rd. When we got home, after taking some photo’s of a large 5×5 buck down the hill, and giving a tour of the camper to Dad & Mary, we headed into Rapid City. Corey wanted to go see the dinosaurs – so that is where we went. After that I took them out to Countryside, south on Sheridan Lake Road to show them the house we almost bought. They both decided they like where we lived better because it is much easier to find and more trees and land.