Packer Party

Anyone going to Lambeau Field to watch the Packers beat the Giants on Sunday? Anybody go up and help shovel Lambeau Field? I think I'd much rather watch the big game on TV than have front row seats! Baby it's cold outside! For our beloved in the Southern States, it's 11 now (Friday 5 p.m.) and expected to be a high of 6 on Sunday. Now that's what you call loyal fans!
PS Who's having the Packer party?

I knew it!

God spoke to me today.
Ok, before you think I'm totally nuts (well, I probably am, and you probably already know I am), today of all days I was thinking about Lance and Michelle and the new baby. And I knew what sex the baby is. It just came to me at Woodmans. And I knew it. Not like a "I think it probably will be..." but a "I know it is..."

So when I got home from Woodmans, there was a card in the mail from who of all people, Alice... and on the outside of the envelope was written,

"It's a ...."

I won't tell the rest. You'll have to call Lance or Michelle or Alice or Denny to find out. But I knew it first. Well, after God. Then Lance and Michelle... and then Alice... yah, yah, yah, maybe I didn't know it first, but I knew it before they told me.

Countdown to Retirement

This one's for Linda:
You often say you can't retire until you turn a certain age. So here it is... your own countdown until you can quit your job. Actually, this countdown is for us, since we're hoping that you'll move closer to Janesville when you quit!

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Get together at Dawn's

We had a great time at the get-together at Dawn's house when Alice and Denny came up after Christmas. Wish you all could have been there, but we know the snow that day kept many from coming. We heard Allie (their dog) got to see her first snow ever. We miss you Alice and Denny! I say we all move to Tennessee and escape these Wisconsin winters!

January Events

Happy January Birthdays to

Sisters Linda and Sue on Jan. 7,
Doug Bailey on Jan. 19
Becka Cronin who will be nine on Jan. 27
and Denny Burns on Jan. 29

Happy New Year

Can you believe it is 2008? I remember a long time ago thinking the year 2000 was so far off, that it would be forever until it arrived and that the world would be so different. While some things have changed, most things are the same.

What did you do to ring in 2008? April spent the night at a friends party. Kali went to bed early because she had to work the next morning. Louie and Louka and Tammy spent the night at home, and about 15 minutes before midnight, Louie and Louka were both snoring.

We heard Grandma Linda spent it at home, sick.

Hopefully, 2008 will be as calm as the way it was welcomed, but with good health.

Christmas Parties

Wow, what a happy, busy Christmas. The Pomplun family enjoyed several parties through the season.
On Christmas Eve, the immediate family (minus Grandma plus Jasmine's boyfriend Eric) attended worship at 10 p.m., followed by a roast beef dinner at their home, opening a few gifts, then a dip in the outside hot tub. Later that evening (morning) a trip to the ER for Rose led to a delay in the morning's activities. (See another post on Rose.)
After Rose's return home on Christmas morning, the immediate family awoke and opened gifts.

At 1 p.m., they traveled to the home of Bobby and Judy Atkinson in Janesville for a Dennison family Christmas celebration, where a feast was held. (If anyone has pics of this, please contact Tammy.)

At 4 p.m., they traveled to the home of Paul Pomplun (Louie's brother) in Janesville for a Pomplun family Christmas celebration where another feast was held.

On Thursday, the 27th, they went to the Cronin home to visit with Alice and Denny from Tennessee as well as Judy, Curt, Kimmy and the babies. After they left, they went to visit with Teresa Kimberley at the Kelly House.

On Sunday, Dec. 30, the Pomplun family traveled to Delafield, WI to celebrate Christmas with Tammy's mother Linda Babler and sister, Lisa Weber, at Lisa's home. Another feast was held, gifts were opened, and the kids had a great time playing together, especially six-year-olds Louka and Jonathon. Olivia thrilled us with her peteranswers.com physic website and everyone enjoyed playing Monopoly.

On Tuesday, Jan. 1, the Pomplun's had their friends, the Alisankus' over for a Christmas celebration.

Christmas was a pain in the back for two

Christmas was a pain in the back, so to speak, for both Kali and Rose, who both injured their lower backs around the holiday. Isn't it ironic?

Rose of course injured hers Christmas Eve. We aren't sure what happened, but it could be because she had been wearing some cheap tennis shoes without adequate support. At Church service Christmas Eve she could hardly walk. Then she spent the night with the Pompluns, on Louka's extra bed, which is a twin mattress with no box spring. That night she woke up in extreme pain, unable to move.

A few days later, Kali's back started hurting after she arrived home from work. The pain for both, they say, was severe, with shooting pains down their legs. We were concerned that it may have been something viral, since they both had the same prob days apart, thought maybe it could be something like spinal meningitis, but the docs said no, that is in the neck area and involves a fever (neither had any flu symptoms), and that they had never heard of a virus causing lower back pain.

Both are receiving chiropractic and physicians care.

Keep Christ in Christmas

Here's my Christmas sermon:

Most, if not all of us, celebrate Christmas, but unfortunately few of us attend worship services to give thanks and praise for the birth of Jesus Christ, even at Christmas. Let's make this Christmas extra special -- even if you don't regularly attend church, pick any church (I'm sure they'd be glad to have you), and attend services on Christmas Eve. At the very least, set aside half an hour on Christmas Eve to read the Bible or the story of the very first Christmas, and to pray God to thank Him for the birth of Jesus and all that he has done for us.
Amen.

What do you want for Christmas?

I remember as a little girl, when we would go to the Dennison family Christmas party, always held Christmas Day afternoon, everyone would ask, "What did Santa bring you?" and then "What did you get for Christmas?"
So... what are you hoping for this Christmas -- that is, besides all the "right" answers -- health for you and yours, happiness, world peace, etc... what material things are you hoping for?

Louka's big wish list item is IClops -- it's a magnifying glass that you hook up to your TV so you can see all the little things up close on the TV.
April's hoping for a digital camera, Kali a ZUNE, mp3 player, Jasmine and Rose stuff for their cell phones and apartments. Louie wants anything Chevelle and Tammy's hoping for a carbon monoxide/gas detector.

I think they've all been pretty good - but we'll have to see what Santa says.

So is everybody done with their Christmas shopping? We've gone a TON to do, this weekend will be crunch time.

Slippin' an' a slidin'

Oh, these Wisconsin winters --

The Pomplun family (and we've heard others) have had quite a winter -- even with our four wheel drive cars. Don't worry, no serious injuries, as far as we know, just a little banged up.
Jasmine slid into a car in Janesville about a month ago.
Someone did a hit and run on our suburban in Madison about two weeks ago.
Louie was t-boned a week ago in Janesville, totaled his S-10.
Jasmine slid into a ditch in Evansville that night, no damages or pain.

We also heard Cassandra hit a telephone pole driving home from work and totaled her PT Cruiser.

God must be with us.

A Stroll Down Memory Lane

I was looking through old pics and lookie what I found! I had the year as 1970, don't know if that's correct. Alice is missing - was she the photographer?

Janna's engagement announcement

Janna's engagement announcement was listed in the Janesville Gazette this weekend. Doesn't she look adorable? Click on the image to enlarge and read it. I had to fold the paper to get the date of the paper, name of the paper as well as the announcement.
Congrats to Janna and Adam!

December Special Events

Happy Birthday to:

Dec. 8, 2005 Emma _____ Traxler
Dec. 23, 1980 Brett Jacob Burns
Dec. 25, 0 Baby Jesus
Dec. 26, 2005 Aurora Lynn Marie Voegeli
Dec. 27, 1997 Lindsey Rose Weber - 10 years old!

Happy Anniversary to:
Dec. 1, 1972 David and Sue Boettcher - 35 years of bliss!

In Memory Of;
Dec. 14, 1951 Rebecca Lynn (Dennison) Traxler

Busy Kids

(Louka is second from left.)

We're so lucky that our kids are able to experience so many things.

Louka is in karate two to three times a week, attends Sunday School faithfully (Lutheran, yah... that's another story), and Spanish class on Thursday after school. He just finished up soccer and will start again in the spring.

April takes hip hop dance class and has her horses. She just finished volleyball. She joined the Student Advocate newspaper as photographer and ended up writing two stories (front page story, no less) but she told them she couldn't do it anymore since it was taking too much time from her horses and friends. She's also in 4-H

As a kid, I remember taking piano, 4-H, Girl Scout, baton lessons, guitar lessons.

Lucky kids. Do we know and appreciate how fortunate we are?

The Mad Dash

Preparing for the Mad Dash, going over sales fliers on Thanksgiving.

Day after Thanksgiving: The Mad Dash

The Pomplun ladies spent the day after Thanksgiving as a part of the mad shopping society. Rose, Kali, April and Rose's friend Jen, spent Thanksgiving night at Jasmine's apartment in Janesville. Apparently, none of them slept! At 2 a.m., Jasmine and Eric went to Toys R Us for the 4 a.m. opening to get the advertised "Zune's" (a mp3 player). Rose, Jen, Kali and April went to Kohls for the 5 a.m. opening to get various items. Jasmine and Eric were fifth and sixth in line. There were only six of the advertised Zune's. They were lucky. The lady behind them was not.

We need to contact our legislators to start a bill that says a store may not advertise a product unless it has XX amount (100 quantity, or enough to satisfy the first 50 customers or whatever). Several stores did the same thing, advertised something in a national flier, then each store only had three, or five, or nine or whatever very limited quantities. This is classic bait and switch, which is illegal. Get people in the store by advertising something cheap and inexpensive (two different things), then "switch" them to buying something more expensive. RIP OFF! We will be contacting the Better Business Bureau and our legislators, even though we weren't the ones who were ripped off, this time at least.

The boys? Smart guys stayed in bed. Hmmmm... next year I give them the list!

We did get a lot of things on our list and saved mucho money -- although I'm sure we would have saved a lot more had we just not gone shopping and skipped Christmas gift giving! No? You sure??

Thanksgiving Day

What a wonderful day! Thanksgiving 2007 for the Pomplun Family was celebrated at the Pomplun home, 440 S. 2nd St. Attending were Grandma Linda, the Louie and Tammy Pomplun family, Eric Rife (Jasmine's boyfriend) and Jen (Rose's friend). A huge feast with WAAAYYY too much food served on fine china and Mikasa crystal was held at noon, followed by the clan (not Grandma Linda) going to see the movie (a tradition) "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" in Janesville, then shopping, yes, shopping at Shopko. It was a wonderful day!

Grandma Linda and Louka playing "Booby Trap" a game Tammy, Lisa and Linda used to play when the girls were younger. (Tammy bought it off E-bay.)

Grandpa Harry's Peanut Brittle

For the younger ones who don't remember, Grandpa Harry Dennison was a MASTER peanut brittle maker. He made a thick, old-fashioned "foamy" peanut brittle, as they call it, not the flat stuff they sell in stores. Don't be fooled by the word foamy - it was still hard and crunchy.
I remember as a child going over to Grandpa's to make peanut brittle. It took forever but it was well worth the wait!
I've written a story about making peanut brittle with Grandpa. I asked for, and received, his special peanut brittle making pot. I'm sure it's made of lead or aluminum, or some other unhealthy metal, but it's a integral part of perfect peanut brittle.
So anyway, I've made two batches already this season and neither one, of course, was as good as Grandpas. The first, I didn't have any vanilla, so I had to finish without (no time to run to the store, peanut brittle requires precise timing). So it didn't have that great flavor, but was edible. The second batch cooked just a little bit too long, and had sort of a burnt flavor. The kids and I ate it anyway. I need to get some more raw peanuts to try again. Someday I'll get it right.

Happy Birthday Tiffanee, Nov. 18-25, 1980

May God forgive all my sins and one day allow me into Heaven for a Mother and Child Reunion

(Click the arrow to play song)

Uncle Art's Service Noted in the Local Newspaper

Click on the newspaper image to enlarge it.
Uncle Art made the local newspaper this week, The Evansville Review. As some of you know, I am a reporter for the newspaper, but the "In Review" section is researched and compiled by Ruth Ann Montgomery, I can't take credit for it. (I had to fold the paper to scan it and get the whole thing in.)
We love you Uncle Art. Thank you for ensuring our freedom and others'.