Last week marked the first time since mid-August that I didn’t have to spend my Friday night on the sidelines at a football game taking notes and shooting photos. So, naturally, I did what most normal thirty-yearolds do when they have a free Friday night: I had dinner with my nieces and nephews. Last weekend, my parents were tasked with babysitting a handful of their grandchildren. And, since they were already going to be making a meal for a host of hungry mouths, they invited me as well. After all, what harm could one more mouth at the dinner table do? While I always learn a lot when I am around my nieces and nephews, on Friday night, I had the chance to be informed about every detail that one of my youngest nephews had learned during a recent trip to his local fire station.

As of Monday morning, the South Loup River was up just a small amount from last week, 122 cubic feet per second (cfs), and the Middle Loup River at St. Paul was up quite a bit, with a reading of 775 cfs. We could tell it was up on Saturday, as we took the airboat out, and there were not really any sandbars to go around. With the hard freeze, the leaves are falling fast; the ash trees seem to be first to lose their leaves, where the cottonwood trees still have quite a few yellow and a few green leaves on their branches. Moses had a busy week. Wednesday is his day to go to school with Lisa. On Thursday, he spent the morning with Paul visiting the kids at ABC Daycare and some adults in assisted living, and, in the afternoon, he was with Jan. On Friday, he went with Jan to her quilting group.

UNMC recently hosted 203 undergraduate students and their faculty advisors, representing five health academic pipeline programs, who spent two days exploring their future as health profession students.

The 2022 Christmas Cheer Fund Drive for Howard County is now underway. The program will be sponsored by the United Methodist Church of St. Paul and St. Mark’s Lutheran Church. Families in need of a Christmas Cheer package will be able to pick up an application at the Methodist church, 1320 Baxter Street, St. Paul, Nebraska 68873, Citizens Bank and Trust, 721 7th Street, or the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce office, 619 Howard Avenue, in St. Paul, Nebraska. The Methodist church’s hours are 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., Tuesday through Friday. To be considered as a recipient, all completed applications must be returned to the United Methodist Church by Friday, November 18th, 2022. Again this year, gift cards to Hometown Market will be distributed. Beginning the first week in December, there will be mitten/stocking cap/sock trees at both the Methodist church and St. Mark’s Lutheran Church. If you’d like to purchase a gift for a child or family ($25-$30 limit per gift), gift tags may be picked up at either location. Wrapped items should be returned to the same location from which you selected a gift tag no later than December 9th. Anyone wanting to make a financial donation may do so at Citizens Bank and Trust. The Christmas Cheer packages will be distributed on Friday, December 16, 2022, between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., at the Methodist church. For more information, please call the Methodist church at 308-754-4247 during their business hours.

COURTNEY #40 #42 #44 PAID √ # 9629 2x2 $27/wk Bomgaars is hosting a Ladies’ Night this Sunday, October 23, 2022 from 5:00 until 8:00 p.m. Stop into St.