Funky Monkies

Sabbath Afternoon,more

2008-11-01T17:32:00.003-05:00

Some more pictures on our afternoon walk. Calvin is always in a tree. And his siblings have to climb in a tree too. They're my monkies thats for sure. I couldn't resist the father-daughter picture. Carlie's getting so big. We had to put her and Calvin back to back to see who is taller. Calvin is still hanging on but its only a matter of a short period of time when Carlie is going to be taller than him, unless he gets into a growth spurt soon. But I don't think thats going to happen. I have to say that I'm truely content. I look around at how the world is and its unstability and unrest. Then I have wonderful days with my family like today and realize that to have a family that likes to be with each other and spend time with each other is probably a rarity. And I'm blessed that I have such a family.

Sabbath Afternoon

2008-11-01T17:28:00.002-05:00

We were supposed to be walking in the woods on some trails but we took the wrong "track" We ended up walking on the railroad track for awhile. We haven't done that in a very long time. We got to see a train go by too. Carlie counted the cars. There were 122.

Abstract pictures

2008-11-01T17:23:00.002-05:00

Today is Sabbath. We just got done going for a walk and now I'm blogging until its time to go to the kids school for a get together. The ABC comes up with a bunch of books, etc for us to buy and its a fund-raiser for the Brainerd Pathfinders too. So, we'll eat down there and play a bunch of different games for awhile. Its fun. Anyway, I tried my hand at taking some different pictures.

Another Party?

2008-11-01T17:17:00.002-05:00

Of course!! After the two Harvest parties, we had to celebrate Colby's birthday. It was a party with just the family this year. We're just lucky to have all of us together to have a party this year. One picture Colby is holding the phone and Natalie is singing Happy Birthday to him. This was his reaction....see Carlie in the back? She got a big kick out of it! Cobly got a hunting set, which I took a picture of it. And Randy made the birthday cake. It was actually to chocolatey for me. Thats an odd day when something is tooo chocolatey! Anyway, now our youngest child is 6 years old! Where does the time go?

Harvest Party #2

2008-11-01T17:11:00.002-05:00

So, the next night was the Harvest Party at my in-laws. The kids there were more gelled with each other and there were more too. It was a little bit different as they had a treasure hunt to do. The weather was alot colder and windier too. We couldn't have a bon-fire because of how windy it was. So, we had to eat in the house. After the treasure hunt the kids went into another garage and started round 2 carving pumpkins. They still had alot of fun.

Harvest Party # 1

2008-11-01T17:01:00.003-05:00

We got to experience two harvest parties this year. The first one was with the church in Brainerd. We went to a family's house and had a great big bon-fire. We did all the usual things like roast hot dogs and put them in a bun and also roasted marshmellows too. Then, those kids that brought pumpkins went into the garage and carved pumpkins. Carlie was invited to sleep over at this family's house as their daughter had celebrated her birthday earlier in the month and this was the first time they all could be together and spend the night. So, as you can see one of the pictures is the three muskateers. Beth, Taylor and Carlie. We had a fun night.

Metal Boys

2008-10-05T13:49:00.003-05:00

Last summer we went to a wedding of Randy's cousin. At the reception the tables were decorated very nicely with a variety of stuff. Some of it was these plastic rings. Our boys got creative and this is the end result. Also, someone took a picture of Randy and me. Thought it turned out nice.

First Day of School

2008-10-05T13:39:00.002-05:00

The first day of school this year was a monumental one for us. Its another chapter in the Hanson Family's lives. We are done with daycare! Colby is officially in school. He is in kindergarten and he goes every day. He absolutely loves it and had been waiting patiently for this day. He is the only one in kindergarten, but he is doing well. He certainly feels like part of the group now. Last year he wanted to stay at school many times when we would drop off Calvin and Carlie. Very cute. I'm glad he is enjoying school, because the fact is that its cheaper than day care! We're saving money in that area!

Silverton Trip

2008-10-05T13:27:00.002-05:00

Another day we took the Silverton/Durango locomotive train ride. When we were in Silverton, we took an old fashioned picture at the very same place that our kids had one done about 5 years ago. They did it with their cousins Joelle and Natalie and their cousins along with Levi (another cousin) 5 years later the picture is still up in the store. It was the same man at the store who took our picture and he remembers the time when all the kids were there. He says its one of his best pictures to bring him buisness because many people ask him if he takes pictures of kids. And he show them our picture! Tooooooo cool eh? Don't you think we should get a percentage of his profit?

Four Corners

2008-10-05T13:20:00.001-05:00

Here are pictures at the four corners.

Cliff Dwelllings - Kids

2008-10-05T13:18:00.001-05:00

More pictures of the kids at the cliff dwellings.

Cliff Dwellings

2008-10-05T13:13:00.002-05:00

We had some site seeing days when we were out in Colorado. This day we went to the cliff dwellings and also to the four corners. It was a big day but a fun day.

First cow

2008-10-05T13:09:00.003-05:00

Clint was part of our hunting party. He and his wife Tara came out with us this year. Clint is one of Randy's co-workers and a friend. Clint was the first one in our hunting party to get a cow. His wife was with him and barely saw the action. She was taking a nap and happened to wake up just in time to see Clint in action. Here is his arrow that connected with the cow. He was pretty happy. They are ready to elk hunt again. They had a good time.

CO Trail

2008-10-05T13:05:00.001-05:00

One time Randy and Calvin went to the same wallo, but took a different route. They decided to go from the top of the mountain down to the wallo. At the top of the mountain was the Colorado Trail. We also saw an awesome view!

Hunt continued

2008-10-05T12:50:00.003-05:00

In this series of pictures you will see our final destination into the forest. Randy calls is a wallo. This is a spot where elk come to wallo...HA. I could see about 5 trails to this wallo and what happens is when a bull is in rut, he will come here and dig his antlers into this mud and fling it around and he'll waller around in the mud too. But the cows come here too. Randy has seen them even eat the mud.... must be tasty. But its not just the elk that come here. Randy has seen other critters and birds come to this spot too. I say Randy because Randy has been here before....when its been active. This time the wallo was very quite. We didn't see any action here this time. Just before we got to this wallo, we did jump a huge bull! We felt like Laurel and Hardy for a moment because Randy wanted his cross bow (which I was carrying) Then he was trying to get it ready and then he needed his arrows and we were trying to be quite too but at the same time trying to find our calls to keep the bull around. Well, that was a joke. By the time Randy had everything in place the bull was long gone! When we were coming out of the forest it got dark half way out. That even amazed me how dark it really is when there are no city lights around. The stars were so close it felt like I could reach out and grab one. It was so dark though that a bear could have been just about an arms length from us and we wouldn't have known it.

Hunt

2008-10-05T12:31:00.003-05:00

This was Calvin's first real experience getting far into the forest for a hunt with his Dad and Mom. And boy was it an experience. To get so far into the forest is truely a rare experience. I really had an awakening about our Creator. Looking at the beautiful landscape and soaking in the sounds of the creek and the waterfalls and the chattering squirrels and birds, really made God real to me and it made me realize how close He is to us. We just need to learn how to take a moment and allow that to happen. And God already knows that we should take a moment. Thats why He created the Sabbath for us. So many Sabbaths I'm afraid I try to live by man's rules what the Sabbath should be, but it was a freeing experience this day what was revealed to me about God's unconditional love and the beauty all around us and what the true meaning of Sabbath is about....and that is spending active time with our Heavenly Father, certainly not man's tradition to make sure we do their rules for fear of judgement being cast upon us! Anyway.....back to some pictures.

Colorado trip - more

2008-10-05T12:26:00.002-05:00

We camped right by a little rippling creek. The kids had alot of fun on this log that crossed the creek. As you can see there are some posed pictures with them smiling at me. But, the other pictures are certainly more true to what they were doing on the log.

Colorado Trip

2008-10-05T12:16:00.003-05:00

Our Colorado trip was just what the doctor ordered. It was absolutely beautiful there and we had a great time there. It started out rocky however. The truck broke down in southern MN. So that totally delayed our trip in the beginning! The truck ended up getting a new engine in it! But then we were finally able to continue on. The second picture is a beautiful field of wild flowers as we entered into Colorado. We saw miles and miles of beautiful wild flowers like this. The third picture is of a puppy that went with us. I think she is a German short-haired dog. She is very cute and was sacked out at this moment. The fourth picture is where we camped. And then Calvin is panning for gold in the last picture.

Field trip continued

2008-10-05T12:14:00.002-05:00

here are more pictures from the field trip.

First field trip of the year

2008-10-05T12:08:00.002-05:00

I feel privileged that I got to go on a field trip with the kids. I'm just extremely busy with school this semester, but it worked out that I hadn't started my clinicals yet and so I snatched the opportunity to tag along. We went to a farm. This guy grows lots of veges and flowers and sells his stuff at all the farmers markets. The kids had alot of fun there.

Calvin is growing up!!!

2008-10-05T12:03:00.002-05:00

My oldest is growing up too fast! Calvin has been saving up for a gun. We figured this event wouldn't take place until next year. But the rules have changed up here that a kid between the ages of 10 and 11 can hunt and shoot a deer under their parent's/guardins direct supervision and on their license. So, when Randy read that, the very next chance he had, he went gun shopping with Calvin. Calvin is very excited. His patience has paid off in saving his money. He finally got his gun.

Lake Superior - continuing on

2008-10-05T11:56:00.003-05:00

After that neat experience, we decided it was time to catch up to Calvin and Carlie at the waterfalls. We were totally amazed at how many people were there to sight see these waterfalls. Randy and I realized that the last time we were here was when we first moved up here about 10 years ago. We still had our Brittany Spaniels, Ginger and Nutty and only had Calvin (we think) We were probably pregnant with Carlie. The last picture is of our friends. Its Gary and Dava and their 2 sons with their wives and then their two grandkids.

Lake Superior - Special Treat!

2008-10-05T11:46:00.002-05:00

When we were done walking on the pier, Calvin and Carlie went with their friends Cody and Cole to the next place we wanted to go. Well, Calvin and Carlie were feeling special that they were going with their friends early to the next place. Colby was left behind. But he got a very special treat too. Just after the older two left, these deer came out of the brush/woods. They are wild deer, but have certainly learned that humans will feed them. Colby had some hot dog buns and other people had treats too. But Colby was the one that got lucky. After the deer ate his first bun, she actually looked for Colby for more treats. She came back to him. It was very neat. There was this little girl that had her camera taking pictures. The camera was a bright orange color. At first the deer thought that she had something to eat also. It was cute how she was right up there taking pictures. One picture looks like the deer was posing for her.

Lake Superior

2008-10-05T11:35:00.003-05:00

Hi everybody. Take a deep breath! I'm catching up on my blog. I've got to update you on what we've been doing the last several months! So, I'm probably not going to write a ton, but give you brief explanations about the pictures you're going to see.

This past weekend we went to see the fall colors on the north shore of Lake Superior. Well, there weren't any fall colors! Usually the first week in October is known for the prime of fall colors. Where we were it appeared that only 25% of the leaves had changed (if even that much). But none the less we had a lot of fun. So the pictures you're going to see won't have any pictures of fall colors. These first pictures were at a lighthouse at the end of a pier on Lake Superior. The last picture the group was watching a school of rainbow trout. They were swimming along as fast as the group was walking. Kinda cool.

Neglectful

2008-09-08T20:53:00.002-05:00

I'm feeling really bad that I haven't done the blog in awhile. I've got several events that I need to post too! Right now I'm sitting at the MN/ST. Paul airport. I found out that I can use internet here for a slight fee. I'm waiting to finish my last leg of flying to get to my final destination!

My family is still back in CO elk hunting. There are 4 guys that are hunting this year. So far 2 of the guys both got a cow. I saw one little cow, 2 huge bulls and 1 very nice bull, but not wall hanging quality. The elk in the area we hunt seem to be sparse. The whole time I was out there we didn't hear one bugle. I was quite bummed.

Calvin is quite the hunter. He's not quite old enough to actually hunt, but he has been on some huge treks with his dad to get to the ambiguous wallo way back in the forest. Calvin is also very quiet. Carlie and Colby aren't quite ready.

I'm going to be glad to be back in my own bed, and my own shower and not worry that the water is going to run out and my own pot.....I'm sure you're getting the picture.

Well, I better wrap this up. There's action and it looks like we're getting ready to board.

Hope all is well with everyone. I'm really feeling out of the loop at the moment!!!

Forgot some!

2008-08-08T21:44:00.003-05:00

Here are some pictures of the kids at their lemonade and chocolate chip cookie stand at our yard sale. It was quite a hit. I should have made more cookies, they sold pretty fast. My cookies ended up being the only baked goods there. I thought there were going to be more, but there wasn't.

A few more pictures

2008-08-08T21:39:00.002-05:00

The only way I survived being with a bunch of kids with a bottomless pit of energy, was to be a kid myself. So, I also got into the act of park tricks. Here's mine. Isn't it great! HA! Anyway, they are a great bunch of kids. They all have fun with each other most of the time and they all mind really good too.

More pictures

2008-08-08T21:27:00.003-05:00

More pictures with park tricks. I had the kids pose a sad face because of missing the Clydale horses. I think they're good actors and actresses aren't they?

Park Tricks

2008-08-08T21:13:00.002-05:00

Our yard sale was today, on Friday August 8th. The town we're from was also having a summer fest this weekend. I heard on the radio that the Clysdale horses were going to be there from 10 - 1. I decided to take all the kids to go see them. We got there and we found out that we got the right time, but the wrong day. They are scheduled to be there tomorrow. We were all quite bummed. I felt really bad. Here I drag all these kids to see something great and we were there on the wrong day. Well, so I have to revived my popularity with the kids. I took them to Subway and then we went to the city park that was overhauled about a year ago. The kids hadn't had a chance yet to play in the renevated park yet. This was a great backup. The kids ended up having alot of fun and I even think they might have had more fun. They did a few tricks for me and the camera.

Yard Sale

2008-08-08T20:46:00.003-05:00

We decided to have a yard sale to raise money for our Pathfinders and their international camporee next summer. Man, it just reiterated to me why I don't like yard sales. I can't believe the junk!!!!! But what was even more amazing to me was that most of the junk we had, people bought!!!!!! Stuff we had for sale were a bedroom set, dining room table and 4 chairs, 4 or 5 tents, many clothes, many shoes, many books, many kitchen gadgets, many crafty stuff, computers, monitors, TV's, printers and so much more. Oh, a piano and we also sold lemonade and home made chocolate chip cookies. We had a really good time. The heat was minimal and the humidity was low too. So we really had a good turn out. One thing that was funny as we were looking at what to put in the yard sale was we had a dog kennel that was dirty and kind of rusted and Randy was going to put it in the yard sale. I questioned him if we really should put it in just because it looked really bad. Randy said without hesitation oh yeah! It was the same scenerio with one of Calvin's bikes that he tore apart and was in pieces. Randy was positive about taking both of them to the yard sale. I was very skeptical. Well, you probably already guessed it. We had about 5 bikes at the yard sale and Calvin's torn apart bike was the first one to go. And then, there was one man that came in, walked right to the dog kennel, went right to the check out bought it and left. He must have seen it from the road and made a bee line to get it. Bizarre! We raised over $400.00! Thats alot of junk, being the most of the stuff was priced under a dollar! I think the most expensive item that sold was $25.00. We felt really blessed!

Vacation Bible School 08

2008-08-08T20:36:00.003-05:00

We had another wonderful VBS this summer. It was called Crowns and Castles (I think) I think it was the same that Joelle and Natalie did. The kids learned about different kings and queens in the Bible. They also learned that they are royalty and princes & princessess when they accept Jesus as their King. It was fun. Randy got to be Jester Jake. He was the funny character and always annoying the King and Queen in the closing part of VBS. Our setup turned out pretty nice and not nearly so labor intensive as our last VBS. That one we had a bunch of hay bales in our church and it took alot of muscle to get those in and out of the church. Alot of sweeping too.

And some more fish

2008-08-08T20:27:00.003-05:00

Well, I believe my kids are getting their share of fishing this summer. Now its Colby's turn. Here are his two fish he caught this week. He's taking after his big brother and has the same dream as his big brother and daddy.....to catch a BIG fish. He was pretty happy with these two. Our summer weather has turned out to be pretty perfect. Right now we're going into a drought. We're needing rain. But until then, I'm really enjoying our mild summer.

My Funky Monkey 2

2008-07-26T16:33:00.003-05:00

We got to our destination early for the wedding. So, across the street there was a little park that we explored. And of course, my funky monkey was back to his old tricks. Here is what we got to see.

Wedding Time

2008-07-26T16:19:00.003-05:00

So, here we are. I love the internet! We're waiting for the reception to begin from a wedding we just attended. Our family is hanging out in a hotel that G-pa & G-ma are going to stay in tonight. And there is internet. So, what a great past time for me. I just happened to bring my computer and my picture. I'm feeling smug!

We just attended Randy's cousin's wedding. Randy's cousin's mother is the sister of Randy's dad. Got that? It was a beautiful wedding. It was held in a beautiful Catholic church, which is the church that Randy's cousin attends. The weather was perfect and everyone looked really good!

Garden Gallery 2

2008-07-19T21:12:00.002-05:00

Here are some more pictures of our garden. Randy is ratting around in our gourd section of the garden. I can't believe how big the leaves get and how high they get too. Its like a jungle in there. Also, Randy didn't really pay attention how close he planted them either, well, I should say he did read the suggestions but chose to just plant them the way he did. We'll use these for one of our favorite dinners.... chicken fajitas. That will be yummy in the middle of our desolate winter.

Garden Gallery

2008-07-19T20:57:00.003-05:00

This has been Randy's office this summer. He has been working diligently in the garden just about every day. Its been good therapy for his arm. I think he is having a great time working in the dirt. Here are several pictures for you to look at. The more sparse area is where we have some peppers and cucumbers growing. Not sure if the peppers are going to make it. We'll get some cucumbers. We've already picked alot of peas. We're starting to pick our zucchini and yellow squash. We have an electric fence around the garden and so far we haven't had any little critters in our garden. Randy noticed some deer tracks earlier in the summer and some of the tops of our peas were gone. But now we have a better electric box hooked up to the fence and so far it seems to be working. Its been fun asking for advice from the older ladies that go to my church how to store all these veges. I don't know if they realize that they have some great knowledge that is lost in the younger generation. I hope we get some of that knowledge and put it to use for many years.

Another Fish

2008-07-19T20:43:00.002-05:00

So Calvin is becoming quite a fisherman. He went camping with his grandparents and did some fishing in that lake. Here is his catch. This is a crappie. Randy thinks its about a pound and a half. None-the-less, its a nice size for a crappie.

Kind of a big fish

2008-07-08T21:38:00.004-05:00

This summer Randy decided he was going to fish for musky. He has been to Mille Lacs lake a couple of times trying to get a bite. He's turned over many muskies but not any bites. So we went north camping and of course fishing is a big part of the agenda. July 4th Randy went out fishing and Calvin went with him. They went out early in the morning.....like, before 5am. Anyway, about 7 in the morning the rest of us at camp were just up and getting breakfast ready when Randy and Calvin came tooling back. They yelled for the camera and for us to come down to the boat quick.

So, as you can see we have another wall hanger. Randy didn't know he had a spotted musky on until he and Calvin actually got the fish on board. Muskies are not native to the waters we were camping at, so he thought he had a large northern on. But he was quite amazed that it was a musky. Randy was so glad that Calvin decided to get up. Calvin was glad too.

Camping Trip

2008-07-08T21:10:00.004-05:00

Our family went up north camping over the 4th of July. We thought it could potentially be very busy, because that seems to be the pattern over the past years we've been up there. We were obviously wrong. It was obviously alot quieter this year than in the past. The traffic wasn't anything like we imagined. Many of the campsites were empty. But that was ok. We had a blast. It was an amazing weekend. The weather was perfect. It wasn't windy. The bugs were minimal. No big spiders or bees. The mosquitos were pretty bad at our outhouse.

Do you recognize where this is? Joelle was in 7th heaven here. Maybe Joelle would recognize this place if there were some big waves. This day it was a pretty calm day. Much different when Doreen and Steve and company were here.

Fishing Time

2008-06-30T19:45:00.003-05:00

This past Sunday we went fishing on Mille Lacs Lake. It ended up being extremely windy and we were limited to where we could fish. Calvin ended up catching a nice northern in the channel we take to the dock to load and unload.

We are going to go up north this weekend camping. Hopefully its not windy up there like the last time I was up there with Steve and Doreen and Tracy and Cheryl.

Parade

2008-06-30T19:28:00.003-05:00

The first weekend we were at campmeeting we went to a parade. Randy and I thought it would be just like our parades up in our neck of the world where they last about 45 minutes to an hour. Well, 3 and a half hours later we were finally done. Here's a couple of pictures at the parade. The kids were actually asking when the parade was going to be done.

Hanson Clan

2008-06-30T19:11:00.003-05:00

At the beginning of summer, Randy's brother and family and sister and husband came to visit. The whole family is there except Angie's two children. It was great to see all of them and for them to be together. Its been awhile since they have all been together.

AAALLLLLVVVVIIINNNNN!!!!!!

2008-05-28T20:40:00.003-05:00

What else have we been doing? We are foster parents to 3 boys and 1 girl. Foster parents to chipmunks!!!! We had a friend level a mound of dirt in our front yard a little over a week ago. What was discovered was a mansion chipmunk den. The momma had 5 babies in there. One baby didn't make it but the other 4 babies did. They had to be moved so they wouldn't get squished from the landscaping project. Randy made sure that the momma saw her chipmunks and hoped she would relocate them. But she didn't take them back. So we felt compelled to at least try to save her babies for her. So here we are, feeding at 2 in the morning. ARGH. If I ever felt like I needed a baby again, those feelings got squished real quick!!!! But the kids are having a great experience taking care of the chipmunks too. We had to take them south with us to Kelli's graduation. They didn't have their eyes open, but 3 of the 4 now have their eyes opened. One of the babies had some injury to him, so he is a little slower and there has been a couple of times that we wondered if he would make it. But so far he is thriving and growing.

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What's Up?

2008-05-28T20:08:00.004-05:00

Hi people. I can't believe its been almost a month since I've last blogged! So what have we been doing? Oh, a little of everything. One thing I haven't been doing is school. But that will come to an end soon.

We've been doing a variety of things. We had a mandantory school picnic to go to. Calvin started climbing trees right away. Since we had a mandantory picnic the kids got done with school a day earlier.

After the school picnic we celebrated an 8th grade graduation. A whole class of ONE. It was very nice and just as important to celebrate his accomplishment.

Then we had to celebrate another graduation. We went south for the weekend to celebrate Kelli's graduation. She was our "nanny" for several summers and now she has grown up! She got a very nice scholarship for college. She graduated with high honors. We're very proud of her. She worked very hard to attend the academy. Do you like my blue lipstick? Ha, we all had cake, but the blue frosting left its evidence on my lips.

We also got to meet Melanie. Carlie could hardly wait to meet her and hold her. Carlie is in 7th heaven holding Melanie. Melanie belongs to Scott, a cousin of Randy who lived with us for a few years while he was in college. He lived with us when Calvin was born and he had exposure with Calvin as a little tyke. Scott and Kerri are great parents. Melanie is a very mellow little girl and just looks at everything. Just a very content baby.

Intense game!

2008-04-26T15:55:00.003-05:00

Last Thursday Colby and I were at home with Randy. He just got his knee scope done and so he was in our bedroom sacked out. Colby wanted me to play SORRY with him. I told him I needed to do a couple of things first and then I would play a game with him. Finally I was done and Colby and I started our game. Of course, Colby got all of his little men out first and I wasn't getting much action in the beginning. Then, Colby had half of his little men in the safe zone and on their way to HOME. Then I started seeing some action. I finally had all my little men out and working their way around the board. Colby had all of his men in the safe zone or home. Then I started to catch up because Colby was at the point that he was looking for certain numbers for him to go. Finally, we both had three little men in HOME and our last man was was at the last square in the safe zone. We were both looking for a number 1. It was a very intense game. We kept flipping the cards over again and again and the suspense was intense. Finally, one of us got the 1 card. It was Colby!!!!! He won a very good game of SORRY. I had a blast with him!

Calvin's Baptism

2008-04-26T15:34:00.003-05:00

Today was a very special day in our family. Calvin got baptized today. He and his buddy that he's known since a baby practically, both decided to publically show their decisions of accepting Jesus as their personal Savior. We were planning a potluck at our house after church but then the weather decided to not cooperate and more people than what we were anticipating decided that they were planning to join us with the potluck. So, we ended up having the potluck at church. Good thing! We were almost crowded at the church too. Yes, the weather is totally awful! We have snow once again on the ground and we all want to BARF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do I make my point clear? BARF!!!!!!! CHUNKS!!!!!!!! OK, my mental state is getting affected just a little bit too. I've tried being positive in a spiritual way with our sins will be as white a snow and correlating that with Calvin's baptism. And thats all nice and such, but frankly I'm just over being nice and positive. I need time to just be mad about it all and not internalize my maddness and share it with you! Aren't you just thrilled about that? I am cause I feel so much better now. Wow blogging is soooooo therapeutic sometimes. Calvin's teacher came to see him baptized and some of his classmates came too. We were touched by their enthusiasim to see Calvin baptized.

Randy's recovery

2008-04-26T15:16:00.003-05:00

ok I'm bummed. I just got done writing a huge little blog and it didn't post it and now its gone! ARGH! Now I have to remember what I said! The basic idea was that Randy is recovering well. Its slower than what he would like it to be, but he's on track. The pictures are his first outing which was to AppleBee's. That was enough stimulation for one evening for him. Just this past Thursday Randy got his knee scoped. The surgeon was extremely pleased to tell me that Randy's knee wasn't as bad as what the MRI was suggesting. Randy's ACL is partially torn, but not totally ruptered. Thats why he had stability in his knee. Also, only one part of his knee had some torn cartilage. So that was cleaned up and the surgeon anticipates no more surgeries for Randy. Do I think its just lucky that Randy's knee wasn't as bad as what the MRI suggested? Of course not. Many prayers have been said for Randy and I believe that God answered our prayers. Even though God has to allow awful things to happen, I believe He had a say in the severity of his injuries. So, thank you to all of you who have been praying for Randy. Even though Randy is on the recovering end now, it will still be a slow process. We're anticipating that Randy will be off of work for most of the summer. We're trying to be positive about that. Randy will have a great summer with our kids! Randy has the makings of a huge garden that he and the kids will be working on. He will help Calvin and Carlie with their mowing job at the church. I'm sure he'll find time to go fishing with the kids on our pontoon too. So, when the weather decides to cooperate, we're ready to have a great summer. We've just plain missed spring. Anyway, lets see if this blog gets posted.

Portrait

2008-04-26T14:35:00.003-05:00

Last weekend Calvin experienced music festival. He was gone from Wednesday through Saturday. We went down on Sabbath and had Sabbath lunch with Randy's uncle and his family who live right by the academy. Then after that our past "nanny" Kelli who lived with us for three summers wanted to show us her art. So, we went to the mall where her art was on display along with many other young people from the community and surrounding schools. Then it was off to listen to Calvin's hard work with music festival. They learned 6 songs. Calvin knew all of them by memory. We were proud of him for that. They only had one program in the afternoon and it barely took an hour. Maybe only 45 minutes was more like it. We were amazed at how short it was. I also was a little disappointed that they didn't do more, such as perform some of their songs for the church service or something like that. But, none the less it was very nice and Calvin had a good time with his friends and with music fest. He is growing up so fast. I think its going to accelerate for me when he reaches his teen years. I mean really, he could potentially only live with us for another 7 years and then he would be 18. WHATEVER!!!! No wonder I want to live somewhere by a day academy, otherwise it could potentially only be a little over three years when he would go to a boarding academy. Life wouldn't be the same after that!

Primping time

2008-04-12T11:05:00.003-05:00

I've decided that I need to start working with Carlie a little more trying to get her used to the idea that she is a pretty girl and she can start dressing like one. She's always wanting to dress like a boy because she is a tomboy. Anyway we were stuck at home and I decided to put rollers in her hair. Doesn't she just look sooo "thrilled" about it? She wore those things all day. She has such thick hair it took all day to dry.

In the evening, we took the rollers out and I put part of her hair back in a ponytail. The rollers on the sides of her hair really kinked her hair up. Next time I'll use bigger rollers on the sides. Carlie wasn't happy and here she is trying to smile while she is crying. She was kinda mad. So she had to go to her room and cool of a bit.

When she was feeling better she brought down her skateboard and was happier to pose with that! As soon as we were done, she took the ponytail out and got her hair wet and took out all the curls. Oh, well. She's been told that we'll probably be doing this again someday. That made more tears start to flow. Oh dear! I'm such a meanie!

Springtime in MN

2008-04-12T10:41:00.002-05:00

So, here is springtime in MN. Anybody want to join us? We were in a winter storm warning from Thursday evening to Saturday morning. We were snowed in until some really good friends came over and helped shovel out our driveway. We have a snowblower and it worked for awhile, but then the snow was so heavy it kept clogging up the snowblower. As you can see, Calvin its defying this weather. He is going to ride his mommy's bike no matter what.

The temperature was actually quite warm. We were quite hot shoveling the snow. In fact the temperature was above 32 degrees and the snow on the ground was water.

Calvin had good balance with the bike and he just plowed right through the snow. He had fun.

Here is Calvin jumping off our porch. This time he did a front flip off the porch. My timing wasn't right to get him in mid air. At least it was a pretty soft landing for him.

Here is Colby. He is not far behind from Calvin doing tricks. Here he just jumped out as far out as he could and landed in the snow. Silly guy! The snow was actually a little fun after getting over the fact that it was relentlessly coming anyway. The kids wallered all over in the snow and so did Simba. Our church was cancelled and so here we sit. Its nice to not go anywhere or have to do anything every once in awhile. We've been sooooo busy lately.

Randy's surgery continued

2008-04-11T20:04:00.003-05:00

Here are some pictures of Randy. All things considered, he had very good care at the hospital. The crew in the O.R. were great and the nurses on the floor were great too. The physical therapist were real good too. He will start outpatient PT next Monday. His surgeon says that Randy needs to give himself about 3 weeks to really start feeling back to normal. This picture is when Randy was brought to his room after surgery. He had been there for a little while and he was starting to be more awake when the kids were there. Calvin is being true to heart. He is experimenting with the gadgets there.

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Randy is at home now and feeling pretty good. I have to get after him just a bit to make sure he keeps himself medicated. He hates how narcotics make him feel. But he needs just a little bit so he can move and sleep. So Randy and the nurses had a time trying to figure out what was going to work.

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That round dark dot is where a tube was located (hemovac) that wicks out fluid from around the surgical site. His incision looks really good. There are steri strips over the incision. His arm is quite bruised too.

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Randy's Surgery

2008-04-11T18:39:00.003-05:00

We are happy that this week is coming to a close. Randy had his shoulder surgery this week. Early Monday morning was when he was scheduled for surgery. Going into surgery Randy didn't know exactly which procedure he was going to receive. He figured he was going to end up with a total joint replacement, however, we were also hoping that he would only need a resurfacing on the ball of his humerus. We feel God answered many prayers, because Randy ended up only needing the resurfacing. He feels very fortunate. And we feel very fortunate to have such a great surgeon working with Randy. The surgeon did his research and he even did a complete different approach going into Randy's shoulder so that he didn't need to cut some of Randy's tendons. This is going to help Randy so he won't have as much restricted movement and his recovery time is cut down considerably from months to weeks. Randy stayed in the hospital until Thursday. We're glad he is home and he is feeling pretty good. Here are some pictures so you can visualize what a resurfacing looks like. The metal looks like an umbrella and it caps the ball of the humerus. Pretty nifty eh?

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Class Reunion continued

2008-04-11T18:34:00.002-05:00

Here are a couple of more pictures from the class reunion. Guess who!!!

Class Reunion

2008-04-11T18:08:00.002-05:00

Here are some pictures of some of my academy classmates. It was great to see them. Many of them I hadn't seen for 20 years. I was quite impressed how educated our class is too. Can you guess who they are?

Carlie's Birthday

2008-03-22T16:01:00.003-05:00

So, Carlie had a birthday not too long ago. She, unbeknownst to Randy and me had invited one of Randy's co-worker and his wife. We absolutely didn't mind but it was just kind of funny how Randy and I found out that they were invited. Anyway......Carlie felt pretty sly about the whole thing.

So we had enchiladas for supper and a salad. A chocolate cake too. It was simple but fun. Carlie got some nice presents and she even got a present from the co-worker and his wife. They are really nice people and they will probably even go out west with us in the fall. They have come out to our house a few times when he is on call for the hospital. They live about an hour away, so when he is on-call they have to stay in town overnight. What a bummer!!!!

After Carlie opened her presents the snow started to really come down in big flakes. This picture was taken just in time to see a big flake getting ready to land in Calvin's mouth.

Do you think the snow is pretty? What a loaded question. I'm so tired of the snow. Now if it was just before Christmas then it would be welcomed! I need to just accept that snow is still going to be around being that March is usually one of our snowier months.

The kids were on spring break this past week. They had fun staying home with Randy. They helped him out alot. And it was just nice they got to spend time together. The weather is getting warm enough that the kids and I go out for a walk. I should say that I walk and the kids take their bikes. We really enjoy that. We can't wait when Randy can join us.

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SKI DAY

2008-03-22T15:43:00.003-05:00

The kids were so excited that they finally got to go skiing. The kids and I all tried the snowboard. It was fun. There were a couple of times I crashed and boy did it hurt! I don't like crashing anymore. I'm getting tooooo old. All three caught on quite quickly. Calvin took of with some of the older boys and skied down a longer green hill. Carlie and Colby stayed on the bunny hill longer with Randy and me. Colby really, really liked snowboarding compared to skis. He was a natural. He would spin around going down the hill and not crash!!!! Carlie was more cautious. She just needs more time and realize she can actually do it. Our day ended up being shortened with Randy crashing and deranging his knee. When we got home Randy laid on the coach and the next thing we realized he was being taken care of by all of his children. He had stuffed animals around him and and blanket placed upon him and a wooly under his hurt leg. It was so sweet. They were doing everything they could think of to take care of their daddy.

We had an awesome view of Lake Superior. These pictures really don't do the view justice. but it was pretty cool. Randy and I decided to take Carlie and Colby to the green hill that Calvin had been snowboarding on. The view on that hill was incredible. But Colby got scared. We think it was a heights issue for him. He really is afraid of heights and looking down the hill in a 5 year olds eyes, we could understand how huge and high the hill would feel for him.

Dreary Wintery Days

2008-03-22T15:34:00.003-05:00

This was back in February, towards the end of the month. We had one of Calvin's friends spend the weekend with us and Carlie ended up staying with the friends sister at their place. Randy got the snow blower out and the day just looked hazy and dreary. The 3 boys followed Randy single file. It looked like a momma duck and her little ducklings. It was cute. Randy did some snow blowing at our house, then he needed the boys to help him load the snow blower into the truck to take over to his parents house and snow blow out their driveway.

Hello again

2008-03-21T19:01:00.003-05:00

Oh hello everyone! It's been awhile since I've been able to blog! Even now, I'm just doing a quick note.

I've been a very busy person lately. Working on my schooling, work and being involved with the CHIP program. We're in the middle of the CHIP program. Its been an amazing experience. On top of all this, we went skiing a couple of weeks ago and Randy deranged his left knee. Right now he is in the waiting phase for his knee to not be so swollen and see if he will need surgery on it. He is a sight to see. He has to use a crutch under his right arm and his whole left side is crippled. I don't know if his left shoulder can get any worse.

But in lieu of his time off with his knee, he has been told by his boss that they don't feel he can work until his shoulder is fixed, so Randy has his shoulder surgery scheduled for April 7th. It will be interesting to see how he will be getting around with his knee. It will be crucial that he can safely move around because his arm will be immobilized for a little while.

Next weekend Randy and I are supposed to fly to Texas for my 20th year reunion. WOW! Randy's parents are returning home next week. So, the kids and the grandparents will get a real good fix with each other.

Anyway, need to go. Please continue to keep Randy in your prayers. Thanks for all the prayers you've already been sending upward. We appreciate it!

I wanna move!!!!

2008-02-22T19:14:00.006-06:00

I bet if you took a survey to determine if Minnesotans are sane, we would fail miserably (at least I would) I'm so sick of temperatures sustained below zero! So, when I had to go to Florida I experienced a temperature flucutation over 100 degrees!!!!!! How insane is that? Of course I hated the reason I had to go to Florida, but I fell in love with the weather! It was perfect. I didn't have to struggle to put a big bulky coat on. I didn't have to dash to the car so I don't get frost bit! I got some Vitamin D (I'm sure I'm deficient with it) and some fresh air for a longer period than 30 seconds at a time.

My niece feels the same way about warm weather. She even told her mom that she liked being in Florida. When her mom asked her why, Natalie responded "Because its HOT." Doreen and I just laughed because the day before Doreen and I were talking about the temp difference for me and Doreen said she would predict that Natalie will always live somewhere warm because she does not like the cold. Well, Natalie validated that!

Anyway, I had to take some pictures with the tropical background so that when I returned to MN and start to freak out again about the weather, I could zone out looking at these pictures and try to remember the heat from the sun on my skin and the fresh air that doesn't freeze my nostril hairs.

Beautiful Flowers

2008-02-22T18:43:00.003-06:00

Well, life sure does take some unexpected curves along the journey. My unexpected path was when I recieved a phone call from my mom about my Uncle Jack. He passed away in his sleep on Valentine's Day. I'll never experience Valentine's Day the same. I think about his wife....Valentine's Day will be a bittersweet day for her.

At the funeral there were some beautiful flowers. So I took some pictures of them. This one was out in the foyer. Sorta tropical looking and very pretty.

I can't remember which arrangement was from who. But one of these was from my parents and my Uncle Kevin and his wife.

The other arrangement was from the nieces and nephew on Jack's side of the family. His side of the family with nieces and nephews was alot smaller than on Margaret's side. She has 11 brothers and sisters which make alot of nieces and nephews. Jack was truly loved by all of his nieces and nephews and even his great-nieces and nephews (my kids included).

Here is Margaret after an extremely busy weekend. The funeral is over and everyone is beginning to return home. Margaret is such a strong person and I admire her for that. She has such a great family and I'm glad we got to know all of them.

New Do

2008-02-09T16:43:00.001-06:00

So, Carlie and Mommy did some girl bonding the other night. I put high-lights in her hair. She made me laugh because I put the product in the basket without her knowing I did this. Then, I think it was Calvin that spotted it in the cart. Of course he was curious what it was and wondered if I was going to do this to my hair. I told him, no, but I was going to do it to Carlie's hair. Well, she acted like she was disgusted with the whole idea. But I just went ahead and got it.

Well, we were traveling home and Carlie pipes up and askes what we were doing when we got home. I told her nothing in particular and she said good, we can highlight my hair tonight then. I said sure, we would have time for that. So thats what we did. She sat very still for me and actually had fun letting me play with her hair.

It turned out pretty nice and Carlie liked it too.

Show and Tell

2008-02-09T16:26:00.001-06:00

Last Friday was Show-and-Tell your pet day. It was Calvin and Carlie's day to bring their pets. So Calvin brought Simba to school and showed him off to the classmates. Simba showed off his new trick, catching the food in mid air. That started up his big stringers and he just about slobbered up everybody there. They got a real sense of what we live with everyday!!!! Simba really enjoyed himself too.

Susie on the other hand really only just tolerated it since she was forced into the situation! At home she tried to disappear on us, but we were right behind her. When we caught up to her, her tail was as poofed out as it could be. Poor thing, we spooked her. But when she was at the school, Carlie showed her off and Susie sat very quietly in her arms. I thought she would wiggle and try very hard to jump out of Carlie's arms.

Susie even let Carlie take her around to the other kids and let them pet her.

We took Simba into the gym with the kids to run around. Then they got a picture with Simba. The teacher is right behind Calvin. She is a great teacher and the kids really like her. They are doing well in school.

Susie and Colby

2008-02-09T15:47:00.000-06:00

Colby is our cat's favorite "punching bag". He is actually very gentle to Susie, but he has quick moves. This makes her uncomfortable and so when he gets his face right up to her she will tolerate it for a bit. But then next thing we see is her tail starts to wag. Then her ears start to go back. Then, in a flash she bats the snot out of Colby's face. Thankfully it doesn't hurt Colby because Susie is declawed. Colby is such a good sport about it. Sometimes we tell Colby to get close to Susie just so we can all have a good laugh. Colby laughs too.

We tried to get some pictures of Susie in action. On top of the fridge is one of Susie's favorite spots in the house. I think its because of the panoramic view of the whole house. She feels safe and included up there.

Colby was trying to egg on Susie in this picture.

Tubing!

2008-02-03T13:19:00.000-06:00

One Saturday night (last week) several of Randy's co-workers wanted to get together and go tubing. We decided that we wanted to join in the fun. We could get tickets for the slow side or the fast side. Of course we went for the fast side!!! And of course for the whole family.

The kids were excited. Calvin's "bff" Cody and his brother Cole were there to enjoy tubing also. This is Cody in the middle of Calvin and Carlie. They were scoping out the tubing hill while we were still getting the tickets and getting Colby ready.

Calvin and Cody had a total blast the whole evening. Carlie had a bad crash at the bottom of the hill (and her Daddy) We, meaning me Colby, Randy and Carlie just got done sliding down the hill and trying to re-group when we looked up the hill and about 5 tubers all joined together were heading straight for Carlie and Randy. Randy ran to Carlie to try getting her out of the way. He had his hands on her but then the tubes crashed into them. The tubes hit Randy first, so we're sure he dampened the hit for Carlie but she went flying up in the air too! Randy landed on his bad shoulder and I thought he was surely done after that. I found Carlie amongest the tubes and people and she was crying hard and saying her elbow hurt. So I took her into the building to inspect her. She had a big goose egg on her head. And her right elbow was already getting a bruise on it. She put it on ice and that helped alot. She was brave and went out again after awhile, but she went on the slower side. The fast side was definitely very fast!!!!! Colby was done after witnessing the crash too. He didn't like how fast it was and he didn't try the slow side either. Instead, he had a blue slushie and showed off his blue tongue. He couldn't slurp down the whole thing because he kept getting brain freezes! We had alot of fun except for the big crash. Next time we'll start out on the slow side to prepare us for the fast side!

Close up view

2008-02-03T13:13:00.000-06:00

Here are some close ups that Grandpa requested. Enjoy!

Sick Days

2008-01-26T10:32:00.000-06:00

OK. I'm getting sick and tired of being sick and tired. Actually, its not me but my kids!

They have been going back and forth being sick enough that they are running fevers and can't go to school or day-care. Then one seems to be getting better and then another gets sick.

Carlie was the first just before Christmas. Then Colby followed for just a day. Then Carlie wasn't sure if she felt good again. This was when Randy's brother was here. The cousins were sick and brought some bug from FL. Then after Randy's brother and family left it was time to go back to school. But then Calvin got sick. So sick that we had to take him in and he was diagnosed with strep throat. Well, thats what Carlie, Colby and I had however we were able to fight it. Calvin was on an antibiotic for 10 days. When he was done, all the kids were feeling good for about two days. Then Colby started coughing and sounded congested and running a fever. He did this for about three days. So last Monday I took him in to see if he had an ear infection. 25 dollars and 10 minutes later the doctor said Colby's ears were fine and his throat was fine also. It was a virus that seems to be lasting more like 5 to 7 days. Well, Monday and Tuesday Colby was fine. He still had a cough but no fever. Then Wednesday I got a phone call that he was running a fever. WHATEVER!!!!! So, fortunately I was done with patients and could go and get him. In the meantime, Tuesday morning Calvin commented that he must have slept wrong because he had a crimp in the side of his neck and down his back. Then Wednesday morning Calvin said he felt better but his back and hips seemed to ache. Well, that should have been my clue. So, when I went and got my sick Colby from daycare it was then time to pick the other two up from school. Well the teacher said, Carlie says she has a sore throat and Calvin complained of feeling achy with his legs. The teacher then said, it sounded like he could be feverish. I took all the kids home and took Calvin's temp and it was elevated too! That surprised me because he just got done with a course of antibiotics. He wasn't even a week out from being done with it. So Calvin missed Thursday and Friday of school. Colby missed Thursday with day care. Carlie seemed to be the only one not getting sick, her sore throat seemed better. Friday evening Carlie started getting very watery eyes and a stuffed up nose and sounding congested. Calvin and Colby were still running low grade fevers. So once again we're missing church. The kids are all home with me. And we're not letting them do anything with anybody. We have quarantined our kids. Calvin and Carlie have Monday off from school. So hopefully by Tuesday all the kids are better.

Old Dog. New Trick

2008-01-19T16:26:00.000-06:00

Can an old dog learn a new trick? Well this old dog showed us that he can! For his whole life he would never ever catch food that was thrown to him. I truely thought that was innate in dogs and it was just something that they do. But I learned that my assumption was wrong. We would throw a yummy piece of human food at Simba and it would hit him in the knoggin (sp?) Time after time for almost 9 years this is what has been happening.

So, we just thought we would always have to put the food right up to Simba's mouth so he could gently take the food from us. How about this for a visual! He was really getting slobbery eating the human food. He didn't produce stringers this time.

One day Randy said to Calvin, "Calvin, watch! I'm going to teach this old dog a new trick." Randy proceeded to get some left-over tator tots and just started hitting Simba's knoggin over and over again. Simba is a very tolerant dog and he was just letting the tator tots hit him over and over. Finally, he got hit one to many times. Simba decided he was going to nip the next tator tot thrown at him. Well, when he opened his mouth he got a treat instead!!!! WOW! A huge revelation occurred in that old brain of Simba's!!!

It has actually stayed in his mind too. We can now throw him a treat and he will catch it. It has been fun watching him with his new trick. We don't know how he can even enjoy the food. We're sure that he swallows all the food whole. But he's happy and content!

Simba must taste something, here he is just as content as can be licking his chops after several treats.

Thank You

2008-01-18T20:24:00.000-06:00

Randy wants to thank you all for keeping him in his prayers. He got a really nice note from Steve and Doreen and their Sabbath school class. He thought that was very thoughtful and it really helped lift his spirits.

His MRI came back negative for avascular necrosis. Its most likely degenrative joint disease, however it could also look like rheumatoid arthritis. He doesn't seem to have any of the other symptoms that go along with rheumatoid arthritis, but he is scheduled to see his primary doctor for a thorough physical. He got a corticosteriod shot (can't spell!) in his shoulder to see if he will get any relief from it. But so far, Randy's not sure if its working. Its still a little too soon to tell. We'll keep you posted.

Bible Bowl

2008-01-18T20:10:00.001-06:00

Last weekend, Calvin and I went south for our first experience with Bible Bowl. In order to participate in Bible Bowl one has to be a Pathfinder. Calvin's friend Cassidy went down too. They were the team, only two of them. We were the tiniest group and techinically to small.

There has to be at least three in their club for Bible Bowl. But the directors let them experience what it was all about. In this picture they were feeling butterflies in their stomachs. They were pretty excited. They both studied hard for Bible Bowl. It was on the book of John and I, II & III John.

Here they are with their "runner" She was the one that took their answers to the judges who tallied up their points. There were about eight clubs present. Each of them had about 6-8 people.

The next day Cassidy and Calvin had Pathfinder honors day.

During lunch time they had the Pinewood Derby car race. Calvin's car got a couple of awards. He got second place for creativity and first place for craftmanship. He was pretty excited about that.

Calvin and Cassidy are going to work on their friends to be part of Bible Bowl. If their friends would do it, they could have a nice sized group! Its a great way to incorporate reading the Bible.

New Year's Eve

2008-01-18T19:54:00.000-06:00

I have a little catching up to do. So for New Year's Eve we found ourselves at some of Randy's family that live about an hour and a half away. Our kids have fun with their 2nd cousins. The cousins have some horses and this pony in the pictures. They brought her out and gave rides to all the kids that were there. Carlie looks to big for the little pony, but they said it was ok.

Then it was Colby's turn. He had fun too. Calvin rode her too, but he did it before anybody with camera's realized what they were up too. It was a pretty cold day. I can't remember how cold. But its not anything like what our weekend it getting all geared up for us this weekend. Our high temperature tomorrow is predicted to be minus 10. Our temperature tonight is supposed to get to minus 26. And thats without the wind, which it is very gusty. With the wind chill it will feel like minus 50. I'm remembering why I don't like winter.

Church has been cancelled and our social activities for in the evening. We're just going to stay buttoned up inside the house. We're so thankful God has provided a warm house for us to live in! The kids said they prayed for the homeless people in school. I couldn't imagine how to even think about surviving a night like what we're having tonight.

My Hunky Monkey

2008-01-10T19:11:00.000-06:00

My Hunky Monkey! Here he is doing one of his favorite past-times. I sent him to his brother's for his birthday to go fishing on the ocean. Our nephew went with them fishing. They were successful! I wish that kind of weather was here right now!

I have a request to please keep Randy in your prayers. He has been fighting a sore shoulder for about a year. He always blamed it from not rehabbing it real good after his shoulder surgery. So, he was always stretching it and trying to rehab it on his own. Nothing made any sense when his shoulder would hurt. It could be sore from doing nothing. Then it would seem to get better, then the pain would come back with a vengence. He is living with pain just about every day. So yesterday he saw the doctor and xrays were taken. His shoulder is in rough shape. It looks like it could be something like osteoarthritis or avascular necrosis. He had an MRI done today and so we're hoping to know more what his diagnosis is going to be. Whatever the diagnosis, there isn't much that can be done. His options seem slim right now. The doctor told him if he was 50 or older he would be talking to him about the need of a total shoulder replacement. So this is possibly something that Randy may have to consider sooner than later. Anyway, Randy is very bummed! All the things he likes to do such as bow hunting, fishing for large fish etc. will be a challenge for him. So, I'm hoping for a miracle. I've been listening to the book of John on CD with my kids and I remember some of the miracles that Jesus performed by healing the lame man by the pool and healed the sick child on his death bed. Anyway.....deep thoughts! I'll keep you posted.

Three Brothers

2008-01-10T18:27:00.000-06:00

I was browsing through my pictures and stumbled across these great pictures. And I'm so happy that I have a way to share them with you. I think we were trying to figure out how long it had been since all three of you were together.

My family had a nice time last summer visiting Jack's place near our neck of the woods. It was pretty country and there was a very nice park nearby that the kids (& Randy) had fun catching the billions of crayfish in the shallow creek.

I have been enjoying my winter vacation from school. Its coming to an end real soon. As I think about what I am going to accomplish the next several months, I try not to get overwhelmed.

I continue trying to get used to being the coordinator in my department and its responsibilities that are a part of the job. My church is going to start up a CHIP program that has alot of preparation needed to be successful. I'll take 6 credits for class....not sure I should take that much. I could take 2 this summer. At the same time, if I take them all now, then my summer would be freed up from school......I think.

My in-laws are taking off to go south for a couple of months. Randy and I will get a taste of not having grandparents nearby. I think we're going to find out how spoiled we have been.

My Camera

2007-12-30T20:38:00.000-06:00

Ok, I'm not real good at describing technological things, but I'll try for Steve. You've been wanting to know what kind of camera we have. My brother-in-law sent us this new camera. He felt bad about our other camera, because he felt a little responsible for the injury of it. So he sent us a Cyber-shot Sony camera. It has 7.2 mega pixels. High sensitivity ISO 1000. It can hold about 380 shots. It has a rechargeable battery. Its pretty nice. Randy has a hard time with the tiny buttons. I have a little bit of a hard time too. But it seems to take nice pictures and thankfully my computer recognizes the Sony to download the pictures. We're very appreciative that Bryan gave us a new camera, otherwise we wouldn't be doing this right now. I hope that was descriptive enough.

Surprise B-Day Party

2007-12-30T20:18:00.001-06:00

After church we all went to our house and had haystacks for lunch. I use my new food processor to cut up the veggies. WOW! That was done in a blink of an eye. I have to practice a little. I'm not used to such a fancy device in my kitchen. After lunch we vegged out in the afternoon. Then, Tina and I went out to some friend's house to help set up for a surprise birthday party for Randy's brother, Bryan. He turned 40 earlier this month.

We told Bryan it was a church social and our church friends wanted to visit with Bryan and Tina. Bryan knows alot of the people from earlier times. So he knew that we were going out to our friends, but didn't know the true intention. It was a surprise too. Bryan had no clue we wanted to throw a B-day party for him.

We had decor in black. He got a few gag gifts. We had cake and munchy foods too. Yummy. Then we played Catch Phrase for awhile. What a fun game. All of the kids are getting old enough now that they all play together and we old people can play too. But since we're getting old, we wrapped up the party by 9:30pm. By the time we got home 4 of the 5 kids were asleep.

Special Music

2007-12-30T20:09:00.000-06:00

On Sabbath, our family was supposed to have special music. I didn't think anything was going to develop after I had been sick all week, but on Friday night we identified a song that all the kids knew. Calvin caught on quick with the chords, there were only 2. So Sabbath the cousins all sang "The Wise Man built his house upon the Rock." They did a good job and had fun.

WHAT-SOOOO-EVER

2007-12-28T22:11:00.000-06:00

Christmas Eve we eventually made our way over to Phil & Martha's house. We had a good supper. After supper we went ahead and started opening our gifts. As you can see, we needed to get started. We had a little pile going on there.....but there were several people involved also. There were 7 adults and 5 kids present.

I was very impressed with my children, they were happy with all of their gifts and were very thankful too. That makes me feel good when they demonstrate those characteristics. We had a huge garbage bag stuffed with wrapping paper and boxes and all sorts of stuff. We were pretty good at keeping the trash to a minimum. I'll get some pictures up to show some of the gifts the children got.

After Christmas Eve, we all went home very happy that we all had been good and Santa gave all of us presents. Then, in the middle of the night I got sick. It was back and forth whether I was going to hug the toilet or not. Eventually....I won. I didn't throw-up but I slept most of Christmas Day away! I had a fever, very sore throat and very achy and sore from the top of my head to the tip of my toe. Yuck! Ibuprofen was my friend and it barely did the trick even prescription strength. I was still sick the next day with a fever etc that I had to call in sick with work. The whole family went to St. Cloud and I had a day all to myself. It was a little lonely, but a very needed day for myself. I think I just got drained with everything that happened during my semester with school, work and all the changes that occurred with that. It was definitely a stressed out semester! Anyway, Thursday I was functional and I had no fever so I could go to work. Today I'm almost 100%. I still have some sore throat, but nothing like the first day. Am I ever thankful for health. I need a reality check sometimes to help me remember why I continually try to make healthy lifestyle choices, I hate being sick! Well, enough for now! Hope everyone has a Happy Sabbath! I need to make a healthy lifestyle choice right now and go to bed. Its a busy day tomorrow.

SNOWBLOW

2007-12-24T14:44:00.000-06:00

Randy was getting ready for his brother to arrive later this night. We got some new snow and the wind was very strong all day. We got snow drifts in the driveway. Eventually the wind died down and Randy went out with the snow blower. He wanted me to get a picture of this. The snow is going over our car. Randy was doing real well getting the snow plowed out. But then a newspaper wrapped in plastic was hiding in the snow and got caught in the snow blower......WHATEVER! Randy's brother and family arrived safely by the way. So, now we're all here at our house. Carlie is feeling better, Levi is doing a little better, but Colby threw up all morning, took a nap and is now feeling better. Now I'm getting a sore throat. Hope that doesn't mean that I'm going to throw-up. UGH!!!!!

My Funky Monkey

2007-12-24T14:08:00.000-06:00

Hello people. This is my Funky Monkey. Calvin got that name because everything he does is funky. He is quite creative and loves to do experiments. Right now he is growing his hair out. Eventually he wants to get dreadlocks. FUNKY! In this picture he is recovering from a run in with his school's gym wall.

Here, Calvin is helping his dad. Randy asked him to take the ladders downstairs after decorating the Christmas tree. Calvin was more than happy to help.....in his own creative way. We were quite worried that we might be visiting the ER and the OR with a broken bone. But, he was insistent to do things his own way. So, we decided to go with the flow and take pictures.

Here he is starting to realize it might be a little more tricky than what he thought......maybe mom and dad knew what we we're talking about. But now he gets more determined that his new way is going to work.

All in his own plans, he needs to re-think things out.

He finally got it where he could walk and keep his balance.

Its time for a break, that was exhausting to figure out that funky way of carrying two ladders. He eventually got the ladders down the stairs and put away without a hitch.

This is my funky monkey doing a trick. He knows to do a trick first, then tell me what he already did. This is a tree that one of the limbs broke from a storm in the fall. Haven't gotten around to sawing it down. Now my son has decided he needs to put it to use some how. This limb is probably about 10 feet up in the air. Calvin climbed up and you see the rest. At least he has some nice snow to land in. He did this funky trick several times.

Soft landing! I was pretty amazed getting this picture. I couldn't see anything for either one. It was quite dark.

By the way, the new camera was given to us by Randy's brother. He felt that it was his fault that our other camera broke. He bought us a Sony digital camera. Its nice. Still trying to get used to a few buttons, but we're putting it to good use.

New Hair

2007-12-23T15:47:00.001-06:00

Here's my daughter with her new haircut. It was becoming such a struggle to keep all the rats and knots out of her hair. I tried very hard to let her be independent brushing her hair, but when I would check to see how she did, there was always a problem spot with knots and rats all the time. She hated it when I brushed her hair, of course! Isn't that the natural thing between a mom and her daughter?

I had been telling Carlie that one day we were going to cut her hair. So the day came. She wasn't sure about cutting it short, but I did it anyway. After she washed it and brushed it she was hooked. She hasn't had to fight a rat since. She also thinks she looks more like a tom-boy and she likes that too. In fact, Calvin's hair is actually longer than Carlie's now.

So, here she is getting ready for her Christmas play.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-23T15:11:00.000-06:00

I'd like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. We are anxiously awaiting Randy's brother and family to arrive here. They are supposed to get here late tonight. However last we heard was both airports are closed because of the weather! All we hope for is that they arrived safely, whenever that might be. They will be here through the New Year.

We've got lots of fun events planned. Randy put together an agenda, with much protesting from his mother, and we have our menus all planned out too. I would have put it on the blog, but I need to learn how to convert it to jpeg or whatever.

Our year has been a good one. We can't complain about anything. We've all had good health, a roof over our heads and food to eat. Also great family and friends. Probably our highlights of the year involved our family and friends too. In March, we went to Florida to see Randy's brother and family. We met up with friends that actually live in MN. It was funny to meet up with them in FL. We also had friends from TN meet us in FL. Then, the kids and I commuted with the friends from TN up to TN. We left Randy behind for a convention happening in FL. In TN, we visited my family. We had much fun, and the whole time was planned out very nicely by Steve and Doreen. What was challenging about the whole time, was, not only were we there to see my family, but Steve's family was there at the same time. That was alot of people for Steve & Doreen and my parents to entertain and feed. They did an awesome job, even though Steve did get teased pretty hard by me and his brother-in-law. He has rubbed off on me a little bit, because here we are trying our hand at an agenda.

Randy is working in surgery as a scrub nurse. He stepped out of management for now and is having a much better life right now. His stress level is pretty zilch right now. I am in Diabetes Education and am really loving it. My graduate schooling is going well too. I am now half done. It has really gone by fast. At the same time it feels like it will be forever before I'm done!

Calvin is in 5th grade, Carlie is in 3rd grade and Colby is anxiously awaiting kindergarten.

This summer, we had Steve and Doreen and kids along with my life long friend and her husband visit us here. We took them camping at the border of MN and Canada. You have to get to your campsite by boat. We have a pontoon and found a great spot. The scenery was beautiful. We did have to fight bees, wind and waves though! But thats another story. It was great to have all of them visit us up in our neck of the woods.

Anyway, even though some family and friends are far away by miles, you're close to our hearts and we think of you every day.

We hope you all have had a great year for 2007 and that 2008 will also bring you many great times. We know that one of these years won't finish because we will be meeting our Saviour in the sky! That will be the best year of all.

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!!!!!!

More organization

2007-12-23T14:59:00.001-06:00

Ok, so getting organized is addicting. When Steve and Doreen visited us last summer, they were very impressed with my pantry and a couple of other cabinets that I organized. But of course they sniffed out my lazy susan. It was not organized. Well, I finally tackled it. I had to because it was getting hard to open the lazy susan because all the paper and junk was catching on everything. So here is my before picture. And whats funny about all this clutter is just that.....clutter! I threw most all of the stuff away. Hope Randy doesn't miss anything!

Now my lazy susan is being used for what it was made for.....food! Much better.

We heard earlier that Randy's brother is getting ready to go to the airport. And his airport is closed right now because of fog and our airport is closed because of our weather. We're getting snow and 30 - 40 mph wind. The bright side is that we're getting a fresh layer of snow. So it will look clean for Christmas and our visitors. If they get here. Our agenda might have to change the very first day. Ha!

My Pantry

2007-12-23T14:39:00.000-06:00

So, I'm finally back at the blog! Today we're getting ready for family flying in to visit us for Christmas and New Year's.

Its so frustrating because it seems like the one constant is that there has to be someone sick when we have family visiting. And so Carlie is running a fever today and now Colby is starting to run one too. We have been doing so good all semester. No one has been sick. We haven't even had the sniffles! And now this fever has hit us from no where. It also sounds like their cousin Levi is also running a fever and he has to travel today! No fun!

Well, Randy and I are cleaning up. I looked in my pantry and thought, "Oh no! Doreen and Steve would not be proud!" I better do something about it. So here is my before picture.

And here is my after picture. What do you think? I think its much better. I don't think my first picture was as bad as the first time that my sister, mom and Steve got a hold of my pantry the first time. But it certainly was not organized!

After getting the pantry organized and the kitchen almost clean, we had to take a break and watch Spider Man 3. The kids hadn't seen that one yet. Last night we all went out to watch a movie in the theatre. We watched National Treasure, Book of Secrets. Calvin loved it. Carlie liked it too, but she had alot of dreams, however I think she was fighting her virus too. I think Colby liked it. He watched the whole thing and was a good boy. But the plot was over his head. He liked the first one, so we thought he would do ok sitting through this one in the theatre. It was filled to the max too! It was a pretty popular movie to watch.

Yippee! Field Trip

2007-12-07T20:15:00.000-06:00

Today was a very fun day! We (Colby & I) got to go on a field trip with Calvin and Carlie. We all got up and got ready for the day like usual. Then, instead of 2 lunches to make we had to make 4 lunches. Colby was all into that! He always loves going to his older brother and sisters school. This is a picture of all the kids. This is all of the kids (except Mikey and Colby) that go to Calvin and Carlie's school. Its like a big family. We were at a historical museum where this picture was taken. It used to be the county jail. One part of it still has two cells to show what it looked like. Years ago the sheriff's house was attached to the county jail and the sheriff's wife had the job to feed the family and all the criminals in the jail.

Here is Colby trying to ring a big bell that was at the history museum. It was really loud and it was hard to ring. Of course, all the kids had to try to ring it. We were plugging our ears for awhile.

This is an old piano that was in the house part of the old county jail. Thought my dad would enough seeing this picture. Another fact I learned was how the ladies would save their hair after it fell out and then would make things out of their hair.....Like a watch band (the band was the hair) and necklaces. Very weird! The ladies would have a porcelan container that they would collect their hair.

Another place we visited was the water plant. That was fun. Our water plant does not use chlorine to clean it. Instead its iron and magnese(I think) and then sand that it filtrates through. The water plant pumps 7.3 million gallons of water a day. Our water tower holds 1 million gallons. Very interesting.

The last place we went was the library. I didn't get any pictures there. The librarian was quite animated and really knew how to keep the kids attention when teaching them about the Dewey Decimal System. Sad to say, I finally understand it.

This evening I cut Carlie's hair. Pretty short too. We have been having such a struggle getting all the knots out every day. So I finally decided it was time to do something about it. Carlie wasn't sure about how short I wanted to cut it. But after she hopped in the shower and washed her and and then brushed it, she was sold and actually likes her short hair. I trimmed Calvin's hair too. Now he has the longest hair of my 3 kids!

Well, another week has flown by. I keep getting closer and closer to being done with my projects and papers and power points. Its hard to believe that all these things will be done in two weeks. I can't wait. Then, during Christmas break Randy and I are going to do our own little research. Our hypothesis is "Having an 'agenda' might be a good idea" Our participants are us and Randy's family. We'll have to give you our results and conclusion when we're done.

Panther #2

2007-12-01T21:12:00.001-06:00

What is it with these cats? I think the message they're sending......Dream BIG!

Let it SNOW!!!!!

2007-12-01T20:58:00.001-06:00

I'm finally getting caught up with my blogging! I had a very busy week! I had to finish up a Leadership Integration paper for one of my classes. It ended up being 14 pages long. I also had another paper due the same week, and even though its just an assignment for one module, that paper ended up being 8 pages! ARGH!!! I am soooo ready for winter break.

And today, Sabbath, it started to snow here. We are in a winter storm warning. We've had the weatherman say some places could see up to 15 inches. Randy guesses that right now we have close to 8-10 inches. We were supposed to go to a surprise 40th birthday party at some friends house tonight. But we had to call and tell them we decided we should stay home. We felt bad about that, but we decided its better to be safe than sorry. Simba loves the fresh snow. He frolicks in it and plays in it like he's a kid. Thought you'd enjoy some pictures!

Our Christmas Tradition

2007-12-01T19:57:00.000-06:00

So for our family we have a yearly Christmas tradition. The Sunday after Thanksgiving we go to a Christmas tree farm about 5 minutes away from our house and we pick out our Christmas tree. The kids love doing this and its fun to watch them find the perfect tree. This year we went with Grandpa, Grandma and Great-Grandpa.

We drive around for awhile and then we get out and walk around too. There are many trees to pick from. Here Calvin and Carlie are contemplating this tree. We have to make sure the trunk is pretty straight so when we get it home it won't fall over.

This tree was one that Colby picked. He really, really loved this tree. We just about got it too, but the trunk wasn't straight. It was a little small too. Colby was very sad when we decided we should keep looking.

What a sweet picture. There are baby trees too. It was a sunny day, but it was very cold. It was a very gusty day too. The wind made it feel even colder.

Well, after about 30-45 minutes, we finally found the perfect tree. Before cutting our tree, Calvin helped the grandparents cut down their tree. So it was Carlie's turn to cut down our tree. She was determined to do it all by herself. Randy got it started for her and she had lots of energy for about 45 seconds. She started to realize quite quick that its kinda hard to cut a tree down.

Calvin helped just a little bit, but then Carlie went back to cutting the tree. The tree is just about down. Carlie is assessing the situation. Its sooooo close.

TIMBER!!!! Carlie did it. I was pretty proud of her determination. When she puts her mind to something, it gets done. Thats something I'm learning about her.....shes little bit like her Aunt Doreen. She has the quality of determination.

Here's the hard workers hauling our prized Christmas tree to the truck. We all piled in our vehicles and piled our Christmas trees in the back of Grandpa's truck. Great-Grandpa suprised us and paid for our tree. He said, "Merry Christmas, it's my present for you." Of course we all said thank-you. Off we went to the grandparent's house. We got there and to our surprise our Christmas tree wasn't there. It fell out of the truck. Grandpa told us, "You better hurry! You better get back on the road and find your tree" So, Randy and I retraced our route all the way back to the Christmas tree farm. We did not find it. Someone STOLE our Christmas tree that quick! We couldn't believe it! So, we drove back into the Christmas tree farm, and in one minute we picked out another tree. We cut it down, paid for it and hauled it home. Don't have pictures of the finished product. That will come soon. All in all it was a fun but strange day! We just couldn't believe that our tree was picked up that quick. We hope it was an answer to a child's prayer hoping for a Christmas tree this year.......

Fish House Parade!!

2007-12-01T18:14:00.000-06:00

AHHHH!! A balmy day for a parade! Its not just any parade.....Its the FISH-HOUSE PARADE. As you can see in the picture its high noon and the temperature just jumped up to 31 degrees when Randy took the picture. Oh! Are you asking what in the world is the fish-house parade? Its a tradition that this little town does every year the day after Thanksgiving. And its a parade of fish-houses. Most fish-houses are done up quite creative and they are usually advertising some community buisness or events. This is my second one that I've attended.

Here's Randy and the kids. They are all waiting patiently. Can you see them? Can you tell what eyes belong to whom?

I did have to question Randy if it was necessary to bundle up this much. But he

truely is the expert. We kept warm. And if you're warm, then you have fun. We saw people in shorts there. CRAZY!!!!! There was one guy that we were watching. We think he thought he was going to prove some kind of point....(it was crazy for us) But anyway, he started jumping up and down and running up and down the sidewalk. We didn't see him for a bit....he showed up again in long pants and a coat.

This was one entry in the fish-house parade. They thought it was balmy too. They are in dry suits and, yes, they're sitting in water.

Here's a fish-house. Can't remember what it was advertising. But we thought it was done up nice.

This fish-house was one of our favorites. Its a transformer fish-house. It first starts out looking like a normal boxy fish-house. But, as you can see, the red part pops up, and then arms pop out the sides of the red part. We thought they were quite creative. And we just watched the movie too and all of us loved that movie. So, thats another reason this one was such a big hit.

This took the cake. I don't know if you can see it very well in the picture, but this dog is wearing a little shirt and on the side its written "dog fish" Very cute. The dog is chowing down on candy that was dropped in the middle of the road.

Living History

2007-11-24T15:59:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Happy Thanksgiving! Our family had a great day. We ALL slept in, which was about 7:30 - 8:00am. Then we all got ready for the day. I made spaghetti marzetti for my contribution of the Thanksgiving meal. We went to my in-laws for the day. They had alot of family over that belong to Phil (my father-in-law) One of his sisters and children and grandchildren, another sister -in-law and her children and grandchildren. My kids are cousins to these children, and it was nice to get the opportunity to get more aquainted with them. All of the people that came over are related to the man in this picture. He is Colby's great-grandpa. He is Phil's father. Can you guess his age? He is the one that is living history. He experienced Pearl Harbor so long ago. He has told my kids and me some of his stories about Pearl Harbor and what he went through with that whole experience. Very interesting and at the same time sad! The one part that has always stuck with me is how he had to sweep up body parts. I can't even imagine! He and Colby are the best of buds too. They get along just fine. He has been a new dimension for my children and I'm glad they have gotten to know their great-grandpa. They are old enough that they will remember him when they grow up. After we ate and watched the football games the family said their good-byes. Then our family went home and we watched a movie that ended up being better than what I thought it would be. "Evan Almighty" It was pretty good. My older two children laughed right out loud in several spots. It was almost too intense in a couple of parts for Colby. But all-in-all he liked it too. We all went to bed after that dreaming of what we were going to do the next day..........the fishhouse parade!.......

YUMMMM! Durion

2007-11-17T15:45:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, Calvin and Carlie had a short day at school. They get a whole week off of school for Thanksgiving. At school they had a lunch with each other which included real mashed potatos, cornbread muffin, peas and corn mixed, cranberry sauce and a turkey loaf. Yummy. Colby and I got to sample some of it. The school kids made most of the food and they did a good job. The teacher also brought a durion to school. This is a fruit that grows in Asian countries. She told the kids that this fruit smelled really bad. She described the smell as old tennis shoe socks that hadn't been washed for a week and roasting over a fire. And if the kids could eat a piece of the fruit without plugging their noses she would give them extra credit in whatever subject they wanted to apply it too. She also shared that this fruit has about every nutrient a body needs. It has fats, protein, carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals. So when the fruit got split open the first thought that went through our minds was that it looked like uncooked chicken legs. Might not taste like chicken but it looked like chicken.

So, here is Calvin. He felt like he was part of a Survivor episode. He put the fruit in his mouth, chewed it up and swallowed it withouth a flinch!!! Then he proceeded to show us his mouth for proof that he ate it. Calvin ate the fruit 3 different times. He asked the teacher if he could get 3 extra credits. Nice try but the teacher said no. Calvin said he actually liked the fruit.

Then it was Carlie's turn. Since she couldn't plug her nose, she must have decided that closing her eyes real tight would help. She proceeded to chew the fruit and half way between swallowing her fruit she started gagging. But between gagging and swallowing she got it down. What a sight to see! (and hear).

Is your stomach churning? Yummm! Stinky, smelly socks are something I've always wanted to eat. It just makes me salivate every time I smell them. Carlie was quite proud of herself (rightly so) and made sure everyone remembered that she didn't plug her nose.

Colby decided that he had to try too. Actually his friend who is 6 months younger than him just got done trying it and didn't even flinch. Colby didn't want to be left out. So here he is cautiously looking at the fruit and listening to the teacher where to stick his finger in the fruit. I guess there are parts of it that are real stringy and other parts that are mush. So the teacher told him to stick his finger in the mushy part. That way its less of a chance of gagging.

Colby is skeptical the whole time. But he wanted to be a part of the fun and know what everyone else was talking about and experiencing.

Yep! Yucky! Did I try? No!!!!! Colby comes by being a picky eater honestly. I guess I have to have one in the family. (besides me)

Global Warming?

2007-11-17T15:21:00.000-06:00

You tell me! I took these pictures this past week and its the week before Thanksgiving. This one is damaged around the edges because its finally getting cold enough. But two days before they looked perfect! I had to take a picture. These poor pansies. I totally ingored them all summer and now they really know how to make me feel guilty. They are still blooming!

Randy was also commenting to me that he can only think of one other winter when he couldn't walk on a pond by this weekend because it hasn't frozen over yet. We've seen some ice on the ponds and lakes but nothing permanent yet. Hey, I'm happy. I've never gotten used to these long hard winters, so the shorter they are the happier I am.

Junky Monkey

2007-11-17T14:46:00.000-06:00

So our daughter is the one we call Junky Monkey. She got this name because she always has a bunch of knic knacs and trinkets and a little of this and that in her purse or bag. Its hard to get rid of anything because she likes all of it. She also knows where every single knic knac is kept amongst all of her stuff!
The other day we were getting ready to go to school. We get in the car and Carlie notices a notebook in the car. So, she decides she is going to write a little letter to her "sister" in Albania. She needed a pencil and discovered a pencil was in the spiral part of the notebook. No problem! Then she notices that the pencil's lead is broken off. Now, if this were me in this situation I would have to pause from this project until I had access to a pencil sharpener to sharpen the pencil and then have the opportunity to finish the project. But nooooo, my Junky Monkey reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a little pencil sharpener, proceeded to sharpen her pencil and start her letter.
Whats so amazing to me about this is, first of all, this was an unplanned project that she was going to do. And yet, she had the knic knac needed to continue with the unplanned project. Thats my Junky Monkey.

OH DEER!!!!

2007-11-12T09:30:00.000-06:00

Oh Deer! Carlie has done something that I haven't done.....yet and hopefully never. Carlie got to spend the weekend with her grandma. Saturday night I got a phone call. Carlie said, "I hit a deer!" Carlie and grandma were returning home from spending some time with other family members that live in the area. They were actually close to our home when the ever dreaded event happened. It was dusk and grandma's eyes were adjusting as two vehicles going the opposite way just past. Next thing she knew there were 5 deer dashing right in front of her. Grandma screeched her brakes, but the last deer still didn't have a chance. They heard a big thud, grandma was expecting the airbags, but they didn't deploy. Carlie, seat buckled in, sat wide-eyed trying to digest what just happened. The deer didn't die right away, so grandma called grandpa who called Randy and asked him to put the deer out of its misery. By the time Randy got his gear and arrived the deer was dead. Oh boy! The poor car got banged up a bit, but we are ever so thankful that grandma and Carlie are safe and sound!

Meet Susie

2007-11-10T16:24:00.000-06:00

Oh to be a cat! Susie is 2.5 years old. Susie is where ever we are most of the time. And she is usually on top of something. Here she is on top of our half wall.

If she isn't sitting on the wall, she is usually on top of the couch.

What in the world goes through her mind? I think tonight she thought she was a big black panther. Can you see it? First, with her ears back, she had to sharpen her her phantom claws for the big hunt. She's psyching herself up for the big pounce.

Then, she had to scratch her head to remember the stategic plan for the big hunt. Its all part of the sneaky attack.

Last, she shows her sharp glistening teeth as she lets out a big MEOW, which means don't mess with the big black panther. Hey, who says you can't dream?

Projects

2007-11-10T15:54:00.000-06:00

Calvin has been working on some paper airplane projects. He's just getting so independent reading the directions and getting the supplies he needs for these projects. He has alot of fun doing this, much to his little brother's disliking. That's the other thing I'm starting to notice. Calvin does have fun playing with his little brother, but he's also needing time to do his older projects and interact with older people. This weekend, Carlie is gone with grandma, so when Calvin is wanting to do his own projects, Colby gets bored and wishes Carlie was around. She's still young enough that she will play whatever Colby wants to play.

The first plane Calvin made is called the X1 Experimental. He says it flies pretty

straight. Heres some snapshot demonstrations.

Here's the F18 being demonstrated. He just made it and the glue was still wet. But he had to see how it was going to fly.

Meet Simba

2007-11-04T19:53:00.000-06:00

Here's another member of our family. This is Simba. He is 8 years old. For an English Mastiff he is practically geriatric. Definitely over the hill. We got him when he was a mere pup. Carlie was only a couple of months old when we brought him home. All of our kids have grown up with him. They all have had to learn to watch out for his tail when they were about 2 years old. They would be just at the right height for his tail to smack them in the face if they didn't watch out! So they certainly learned fast to protect their faces.

Simba is otherwise a very gentle giant. He loves to lay around where ever we are. He has his particular route that he takes when its time to do his duty. He's pretty private about such matters. Otherwise, theres not much romping around. When he thinks he is getting human food, watch out for the long stringers that develop on each side of his choppers. For some reason he always has to shake his head about the same time.....so the stringers are a-slinging.

We love Simba and will miss him alot when he is gone. The vet is quite impressed how well Simba is doing. His joints are pretty good for his age. He could lose a little weight. He weighed in at 197 pounds about a month ago. Thats down from 210. So, we're working on it.

Pathfinder Pictures

2007-11-04T19:35:00.000-06:00

The first picture posted is when Carlie was telling her children's story. I thought she was quite brave telling her story.

This picture is when Carlie and Colby are singing "Flag Flying High" with me accompanying them with the mandolin.

The next is when Colby is getting his Eager Beaver scarf.

Here is when Carlie is getting her Adventurer's scarf.

Last but not least, here is Calvin getting his Pathfinder scarf.

Pathfinder Induction

2007-11-04T10:24:00.001-06:00

So yesterday was a special day for the children at church. It was Induction Day into Eager Beavers, Adventurers and Pathfinders. All the children helped out with church. During offering time Carlie and Colby sang "Theres a flag flying high" with me accompanying on the mandolin.

Carlie told the children's story. It was a very sweet story. She shared with everyone when Jesus answered one of her prayers. She shared how one of the kids at school was always shouting at her and always playing mean during four square. She told me that she wanted to get him back by playing mean back to him. But as we talked we decided that Jesus would probably not treat him that way. She learned to "cast her burden" (Psalms 55:22) to Jesus and prayed to Him about it. The next day, Carlie's desire to treat him mean at four square had left her. But the boy started in again shouting and being mean to her. Then all on his own he came to Carlie and said "I'm sorry" for shouting at her and he asked for forgiveness and said he would never shout at her again. And he hasn't. So Carlie has experienced how Jesus can take her burden and fix the problem for her in a kind way.

Calvin accompanied the children with the mandolin during the special music. After that the children recieved their scarves and light a candle.

I wanted to add pictures, but the uploading is taking forever for some reason and now I gotta go feed great-grandpa right now. So-long!

2007-11-03T16:10:00.000-05:00

Hello people,

So, here I am trying out the blogging thing. I've been enjoying everybody elses blogs and think its a great way to stay in touch with friends and family. So I saw in the upper right hand corner "create blog" so now I'm trying!

Its Sabbath afternoon. Randy is on call and got called in. So its me and the kids. We're getting ready to go to their school for a fund raiser. Calvin and Carlie get to serve food to everyone. Hopefully Randy will be done with work and can join us there.

Anyway, I don't want to write a bunch and find out I'm not doing this right, so, thats it for right now. Hopefully I'll figure out how to add pictures and all that neat stuff.

Shelly