MerryChristmas 2007

BIG NEWS - we are new owners of Marion Antique Mall. It’s all Peggy’s idea. My role will be to drive continuously until our finances recover. Peggy is very excited; I am frightened - but supportive and willing to do whatever it takes to help get it off the ground. I need to generate as much income as possible from trucking to support the antique mall until it begins to support itself. Peggy is now done with trucking. She may go with me occasionally once she gets her business established with trustworthy volunteers to watch the store. Dec. 20 Peggy will be open for the first time. There are almost no vendors but space for at least 60. By this time next year, the mall will have proven how well it can provide income. If it does well enough, I will also quit trucking. I dream of starting a music program at our mall. More to come on that as things develop in 2008.

We now own our big truck, having made the final payment in November. Our house is now completely fixed up and ready to show. As soon as it sells, we will buy Peggy's brother Larry's farm and big house - six miles away, hopefully this Spring? Larry wants to be free to sail around the world. But he is not selling all of his property, so he will always come home to our farm. Peggy's daughter Racheal, her husband Eric and our grandson Zachory (6th grade) have moved to Tucson, about 1600 miles from our us. We’ve visited them a couple times when routed through Tucson. Peggy's son David and his wife Alicia and our other 5 grandchildren are in Urbana, IL just 3 hours from our house. Aspen & Jadyn are now in violin lessons. Jacy, the eldest, is in 5th grade. Treighton and Echo are not in school yet. David got a great new job this year with United Steel Workers. He is working very hard. My mom, Ione Wollberg, is 88 on Dec. 26 - still active and living independently in Omaha, NE.

May your Christmas be filled with wonder and the blessings of Jesus!

Ken & Peggy Wollberg

Attitude

My word for the week is ‘attitude.’ It’s a very good word. It seems to be the key to many things in life. The wrong attitude can prevent one from getting the job, being content, achieving potential, accepting life’s challenges, making the grade. It is essential to maintain the proper attitude in life; otherwise we cannot survive life’s challenges. And besides all that:

Last night we played Scrabble. Peggy always wants to use an alternate rule where one may trade a letter from his rack for one already on the board, as long as at every moment there is a valid word in that place. Not far into the game, I switched my “F” for a “T,” allowing me to make the word “attitude.” The initial “a” was on the red square in the lower left corner of the board. There was already a “t” in the space to the right of that. The final “e” came to rest on the red space at the bottom, middle of the board. The beginning and end of the 8-letter word were both on red spaces. A red space means “triple word” score. The face value of the word was only 10, but that was tripled twice to equal 60, plus 50 points for a “Scrabble” (using all 7 tiles on one’s rack,) so “attitude” was worth 110 points, cinching the game. My attitude at that point was 110%. And that’s how I chose the word “attitude” as my word for the week.