My Daughter is Coming to Visit in August!

The last time we saw Rachelle in person was one year ago in August when we visited for a few days. Though Rachelle and Fiona have stayed in touch by phone and e-cards, they are so looking forward to seeing each other in person next month when Rachelle comes to Wisconsin for a visit.

Fiona and I have been talking about what they’ll do.

1. Spend nearly a whole day at the Rice Lake Public Library! Besides books to read and fun computer games to play, they have puzzles, dress up stuff, and a play market.

2. Go to Culver’s for frozen custard. They use Wisconsin dairy. Wonder what the flavor of the day will be when they go…

3. Spend some time at the lake and the park near the lake.

And just have a lot of fun!

Rachelle and Fiona at Rachelle's wedding reception

Working By the Lake

We’re working here at The Rice Lake Public Library while Fiona plays and reads. This morning I took a photo from grandma’s window showing the lump of snow still not completely melted and the lake in the background. It snowed this morning again. Not much. But it’s supposed to be spring!

I forgot to post when we left Colorado that Rita and Carl gave us some Tiramisu they brought from Prague. It was delicious! The rest stop just before we entered Nebraska was cool.

Hopefully the weather will warm up enough in May to walk along the lake and not feel like we’re freezing here in Rice Lake.

A Small Town Public Library

Our family is living in a small town public library. Not really. However here in Rice Lake Wisconsin Joel’s mom doesn’t have internet access in her apartment. Since we must have internet access in order to work, we just walk across the parking lot to the Rice Lake Public Library.

We’ve met some very friendly and helpful people here. We’ve spent the most of the last couple of days here and so it’s almost like home. Fiona has been able to play with lots of different kids of various ages. The top floor of the library is devoted to the children. At one end there are lots of activities for the children. There are puppets and a stage to put on puppet plays, a wooden doll house, lots of blocks and other activities. At the other end is a section specially set aside for the Teens. They even have a movie night.

The collection of DVDs for the kids to check out is great. Fiona checked out a movie with Piglet in it. Did you know that John Lithgow also writes children’s books? We checked one out today.

You can learn more about this small town library on Twitter, Facebook and at their website.

Quiet on the Homefront in Wisconsin

You’ve been wondering what we’ve been up to since we haven’t posted in several days. We spent last Wednesday and Thursday all day each day on the road. Wednesday was driving from Colorado through Nebraska. I’ve always wanted to go to Nebraska since my maternal grandma grew up there. I don’t know where though. We stayed the night with a wonderful family we met through Couchsurfing.org. I only wish we’d had more time to get to know them better.

Thursday we spent all day on the road to get here to Rice Lake and stay with Joel’s mom for a bit. We’re settling in a bit. The internet access we had when we were here before is no longer available. So we had to go out and find some. And we did. We just walk across the parking lot and over to the local public library. It’s great! Not only do we have internet access, Fiona has access to a wonderful children’s section with lots of activities to do and books to read. Of course it’s not quite the same has having 24/7 internet access in our lodgings.

Since we can only stay with Joel’s mom up to 2 weeks, we’re looking for other lodgings for the remainder of our stay through the end of May. We’ve got some calls to follow up on that may get us some temporary and affordable housing.

So what’s everyone else been up to? :)