Merry Christmas

Just a quick note...wishing all of you...a very Merry Christmas! Our home came alive with lights, tree decorations, candles, and most importantly sugar, cut-out cookies...Katie has arrived!

Aaron is spending time in Grand Rapids, MI, working...& Alicia, Ryan & Kane will be home over the New Year weekend.

We are truely blessed!

Love to all!!

Dale & Lois

More about me, me, me!

I feel like I'm dominating this blog as of late. Sorry about that! But, I also got interviewed on the local radio this morning. There's an mp3 of it here under the Morning Show heading. You may need to go to the archive if you're looking at this in a day or two. I'm not sure how long they keep them out there, so if you're interested you should take a listen sooner rather than later. :)

Pete Saunders on Paul Harvey

Pete was mentioned on Paul Harvey on Monday at noon. Click on the title above and listen to the last five minutes or so. Congrats Pete!

If this is Santa's backup...We all are in trouble...

As most children dressed by their very crazy moms....Kane is all but thrilled with this outfit. I did explain to him when he was old enough to scream "no" and run faster then his mom, he would get out of these highly embarrassing photo ops!

Sledding

Here's what I did this afternoon.


View this clip on Vimeo

Repeat roughly 120 times.

Santa's Gone Cyber

I found out that our school provides web hosting, so the kids and I made a little website. The only things that are functional are the home pages for each family member and the Dear Santa pages for each family member. I just added the Fun and Hobbies categories as placeholders. Emma and Morgan each designed their own graphics and text. Don't ask me to explain Morgan's, because I can't. She was insistent that I type "I'm the store of Morgan. Eat me." I have no idea what it means. I must add that it doesn't sound nearly as offensive when coming out of the mouth of a smiling six year old. Here's the link:

Family Page

College & Finals

Just checking in with all college kids...how is everything going now that finals week is just a few days away?

I am a college lab assistant at NTC & one thing never ceases to amaze me...the way college students all of a sudden "need me," and want me to change my schedule to "help" them. My schedule has been posted since the first of September...where have they been?? Faces are strained, fists clenched, not many smiles, very tired eyes...it will all be over soon, only to start the cycle again in January.

Good luck to all college students out there! As Anna said, "It is crunch time!"

Hildur's Lefse Recipe

Okay, here's one for Randee!

Lefse

Enough potates to yield 3 c. riced potatoes
3 T. oil
1 T. sugar
2 tsp. milk
salt

1 cup flour (added in the morning)

Measure 3 c. riced potatoes with sugar, oil, milk & salt. Mix well & refrigerate overnight.
Add 1 cup flour -- a little more if dough seems too sticky. Form into soft balls with large ice cream scoop. Chill. Roll & bake. Enough for about 7-8 lefse.

(5# potatoes makes approx 8 c potatoes)
Enjoy!

Update

A great big thanks goes out to everybody who helped me with my web site yesterday. I was able to use all of your comments and reactions in my final report. Does the web site suck? Yes, it does. I could have made it a lot better if I'd started working on it when we got the assignment 3 weeks ago instead of waiting until three days before it was due. But all in all I was fairly happy with the outcome.

Don't forget, A Charlie Brown Christmas is on tonight on ABC. Check your local listings for time and channel. It's 7:00 on channel 5 locally. Grab a blanket and snuggle in with the one(s) you love. Wah-wah-wah.

Web Design

Hi all!
I made a website for school this weekend. It's due this evening, and I need a little user feedback. So if you have 5 minutes or so to help me out, I'd appreciate it. Below is the link to the site. If you're interested, please explore and e-mail me the answers to the following questions:
1. Say you wanted to buy a hat. Time yourself to see how long it takes you to complete the transaction. Send me your time along with any positive or negative feedback about the transaction process.
2. While buying, did you need to back up using the back button?
3. How long do you estimate that it takes to get from the home page to any
desired page, on average? 5 seconds? 10 seconds?
4. Any feedback in general about the site. Specifically the navigation, usability, or overall impression.

Nothing fancy, just a sentence or two will do. Send any feedback to frosti AT gmail DOT com. If you're looking at the site after Monday, you can still send me feedback but I won't be able to use it in the report. Thanks! Here's the link:

Third Wave

Christmas time

It was a nice relaxing weekend for Mandy and I. We went to the Christmas party at my work on Saturday night and enjoyed a buffet dinner (of course), chatting with friends and co-workers, wine-tasting, bingo and more.
Today, we went and got a Christmas tree and decorated it all up. We also managed to get the lights hung outside. It's good to see some snow on the ground here in St. Paul.

Getting Organized

While digging in my file cabinet at work, I came across a quote that Anna sent last year...& I saved it because I liked it. Still do...here it is:

"In life we do things; some we wish we had never done, some we wish we could replay a million times in our heads, but they make us who we are and in the end, those experiences shape every detail about us; if we were to reverse any of them, we wouldn't be at the exact place that we are today...so just live, make mistakes, and have wonderful times, but never ever second guess who you are, where you have been, and most importantly, where it is that you are going..."

I hope you like it, too.

Thanksgiving

Well....things have been very busy for me. It was so nice to have 5 days off of school. I didn't crack open a book the entire time I was home, it was so nice. I did spend quite a bit of time working, but that's ok because I love working. I miss my coworkers when I'm not there for awhile. On Thanksgiving, I worked night shift, and then went home and had breakfast with Nathan and Katie. That was nice. We sat and chatted til about 9 and then I had to go to bed. I got up around noon and drove to my grandparents for lunch. I got there and there were so many people there. My mom and I decided that everyone was there with the exception of some of my cousins. I was there for about an hour and then had to turn around and go to work again. 16 hours of holiday pay...not too shabby. The week before thanksgiving was very stressful. I had 5 tests in less than a week. I surprisingly did very well on them, so that made me happy. It was just a matter of getting through everything. From here on out, it's crunch time though. There's only about 3 weeks of classes left with lots of tests and projects due. I will be very happy once Dec. 15th rolls around. Last week Tues I observed in the OR at St. Mary's Hospital. I got to see a Heart Bypass surgery. It was really interesting and all, but it was incredibly long and tedious. So I now know that surgical nursing is not for me. It was a long 6 hours standing and watching. Oh well, it was probably a once in a lifetime experience. Hope everyone's Thanksgiving went well and happy holidays.

Happy Thanksgiving All!

We had a very nice Thanksgiving down at Nancy's folks' place in Lamberton. We did a combination of Christmas and Thanksgiving so not only was there turkey and ham, there were presents! Nancy's mom, Mary Lou, sets a beautiful table.


And the girls each got their own pumpkin pie! And they each almost ate the entire pie by the end of the weekend. They must get that from me, since Nancy hates pumpkin pie.


The girls' favorite gift? Or at least the one they spent the most time playing with this weekend? A set of armor with shields, vambraces, and two swords! They spent so much time swordfighting that one of the swords was broken. Behold, my warrior princesses!


She strikes a pose!


The fearsome battle cry!


We spent some time tooling around Southwestern MN on Friday. The effects of Katrina are still being felt down there. Everywhere we went there were huge piles of corn just sitting, waiting to be picked up and shipped somewhere. But, since the port of New Orleans has been closed for so long there's a huge backlog of corn that hasn't been sent downriver. Nancy said she doesn't remember ever seeing this much corn. Every town had a pile like this or larger. This one is in Lamberton, right next to the swimming pool Nancy used to lifeguard at.


Sorry we missed you all this weekend, but we're going to try to get up to Bemidji between now and Christmas. Hope to see you soon!

Life has forever changed for Kane

Once eating "real" food there is no going back. Little Kane has officially started eating. Coming from two parents that really enjoy food, it didn't take him long to catch on. He has achieved this life changing skill just in time for the holidays.

We are all excited to be coming to Bemidji next week. It will be great seeing all who can gather for the holiday.

Web design

My third project is now in the books. You can view it here if you're so inclined. It's not a great site. I put a ton of work into my previous project site and I think it was one of the better sites that my class made. But then, we had to do a peer review. I was assigned this website to review. I reviewed it and tried to be as positive as I could. But frankly, it's horrible. The girl who made this site sits directly in front of me. When our teacher passed back our graded project plans, I saw over her shoulder. She only received three less points than me. We had both fulfilled the requirements of the project, but I'd gone to a lot of extra work to make my site realistic and fairly functional. Yet, I didn't feel like I got any credit for the intangibles.

So, this was fairly demotivating for my third project. I decided to say screw the extra work of making a really good (for a beginner) site and did some experimenting with using CSS to design the page rather than just using straight tables.

So anyway, I've got one last major project to do and I need ideas on subject matter. I need to put something together with 10-12 pages. Any thoughts from this creative group?

I'm on a Roll, Might As Well Keep Going...Friday After T'Giving

What: Appetizer & Beer & Wine Tasting Open House

When: Friday, November 25, 2005

Time: 3:00 - ??

Please Bring: An appetizer to share & BYOB

"San Francisco, See My Fist Go"

A couple of days ago, Dale came home with an amazing story about San Fran. He'd been tuning a piano at Nielson's, & when he arrived Laurie couldn't wait to tell him about their trip to SF. She decribed the place they stayed and what the scenery looked like around S.F. and the quaint little restaurant that was having a wine tasting event.

At the wine tasting event, Dave & Laurie were directed to a table that had other visitors from Minnesota...& of course, conversation started with where people were from. And, the most amazing thing happened...they were sitting with Pete & Nancy!

Grandma Hildur

Hi, everyone...how are all of you?

Just a little note about G'ma Hildur...she is working hard in PT & OT and told me last night that she is tired...& looking forward to the weekend (no therapy on weekends!)

I've noticed that she seems a little "down" & I am wondering if we could do a "card shower" for her to pert up her spirits some? Mail/cards from family are very important to her, a definite day brightener.

Her address is: Neilson Place, 1000 Anne St NW, Room 114, Bemidji 56601.

Smell my feet!

The girls had a good time trick or treating tonight. For some reason, we didn't take a picture of them before they went out trick or treating, so all I've got is this after shot. We covered a good portion of our neighborhood, but not nearly as much as last year. By the time we got half way around the houses on Rustic Hills the girls both said they were tired and my dad and I carried them back home. We didn't even stop at the remaining houses. In case you can't tell from the picture below, Emma went as a princess and Morgan went as a mermaid. I couldn't convince Emma to go as a prizefighter, with her black eye and recently removed stitches.

Happy Halloween all!

Trick or treat

'Tis the season...

Mandy's at school tonight, so I'm all by myself handing out the candy. We had 87 kids last year. I'm hoping we have a good turnout this year too, otherwise I'll be snacking for weeks!

The Bauman's Have Arrived

Hello to all~

With Gary's persistance, we have finally joined the family blog. We have enjoyed keeping up to speed by reading others posts, but now are able to bore you all with our happenings....latley they comprise of diapers, bottles, and baby talk.

Everyone is doing good here, I am back to work full-time, enjoying it as much as you can enjoy working full-time. Ryan has taken a break from employment to stay at home with Kane. They seem to enjoy their days together. Kane is lucky to have such an active dad in his life, and I am lucky to have such a good cook and dry cleaner.

We are planning on being in Bemidji over Thanksgiving and are looking forward to seeing all~

Lots of Love

"North Country"

As soon as we could, we hussled off to see the new movie, "North Country." Both Dale & I liked it a lot...probable a 3+ out of 4 stars. The reason we enjoyed it is because it does a great job of depicting the lives of people that live on "the range." (or better refered to as "derange.') The scenery was right on, the homes were right on, the language was right on...they are a tough breed, those rangers. The only overdone part was the number of deer antlers there were in one of the bars...oh, you will find antlers in bars, but probably not 7-10!

If you choose to see it, tell us what you think!

Lefse 101

Well, it is that time of the year...pumkins, squash, gourds, appples & LEFSE.

I have been making lefse for approximately 30 years both with Grandma Hildur's help & without it. Thursday I decided to get the mashed & riced potatoes ready to bake lefse on Friday. While getting things going, I thought to myself..."self, why don't you use butter this time rather than oil?" Self agreed. I checked out a few recipes in my numerous cookbooks & aligned it with Mom's recipe.

Friday morning (after exercising & showering), I embarked on my task for the morning...baking lefse. The first few lefse turned out quite well, but then I hit a stumbling block...two fell apart on the way to the grill. Darn, I hate when that happens. I keep going...getting frustrated...a finally I just gave up and shut off the grill. I did my in town errands & stopped to visit Grandma Hildur. My plan was to get some pointers...what am I doing wrong?

In the past, Mom has been my lefse coach as well as my critic (in a nice, lefse 101 way). So, I packed up two pieces of lefse, reluctantly, knowing that I could hear comments like, "you are not rolling them thin enough" or you are using too much flour." She was just finishing OT when I arrived & I showed her the lefse, & we proceeded to the eating area at Neilson. She couldn't wait to have a piece of lefse & we chatted while she got it ready to eat. After taking one bite, she smiled at me & said, "Umm, that's good lefse." She almost had to pick me up off the floor!

Going home I smiled, laughed & then realized, lefse is an experience, a link to her parents and her past, & now a link to our mother/daughter relationship...it didn't matter what it tasted like to her, but rather it is a "tie that binds."

Later I told Dale that this is the first time that she didn't say a word about the quality of the lefse...& we both chuckled at that!

Thanks for a Great Weekend

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for such a great weekend up in Bemidji. It was so much fun to see everyone again and chat a little bit. I'm so glad I made the trip. I got back safely to Winona about 6 pm on Sunday evening. I made it back in exactly 6 hours with one stop in Clearwater for gas. I thought that was pretty impressive. Hopefully things with Grandma will start looking up again. Thanks to Lois and Gary for keeping us updated with the happenings up there. It's so nice to be able to hear what's going on so fast even though we're so far away. Thanks again for everything this past weekend and hope to see y'all again soon.

Thanksgiving & Bemidji

What a beautiful day here! I planted my tulips (a new experience for this 50 something!) & dug up some bulbs, put away the hummingbird feeders & the gazing ball. Now I am baking cookies & banana bread. Yum!

Dale & I spent yesterday in Bayfield & the weather, the leaves, the food, the atmosphere was so intoxicating that we couldn't get enough. We will probably go back next year!

Now to the headliner, "Thanksgiving & Bemidji." There have been some rumblings about doing a holiday here in our little town. To be honest with everyone, I thought my house may be a little too small & then I thought, does it really matter? The answer I came up with is "no." I haven't talked to Gary & Nancy, but either they do it or Dale & I do it. I can swing either way on this. My main concern is that since our family is getting bigger all of the time and it would be an expensive undertaking for a couple of us, that we make it potluck. Carol & Sara have said that they would help with the planning, and I think the easiest thing is to sign up for things.

What does everyone else think?

First Hospital Clinical

Today I had my first ever hospital clinical. The past 3 weeks we have spent a few hours at a nursing home working on our therapeutic communication skills. So basically, we sat with a particular resident for about 9 hours and just listened to them talk about their life. It was quite interesting. Now...we've moved on to the hospital. My clinicals are at St. Mary's Hospital (part of the Mayo Health System). The unit that my clinical group is working on focuses on nephrology (kidney stuff). We were there for 5 hours today, and I didn't want to leave. The nurses were awesome and so helpful. I had so much fun and I wasn't doing anything. I did do a few sets of vitals and changed a couple beds, but no "real" nursing stuff. If I had that much fun doing just about nothing, I can't imagine how much fun I'm going to have when I'm allowed to change IV's and all that fun stuff. I guess it's probably a good thing that I'm enjoying myself since this is pretty much what I will be doing for the rest of my working career. After tonight, I definately know that I'm headed on the right track for what I want to be doing. That is a very comforting though after going through 2+ years of college and thousands of dollars.

When it rains, it pours

It's been a rainy day here in the Twin Cities. I think that will qualify for my understatement of the day today. I had to work early this morning, so I left the house at 5:20. It wasn't raining, but it started about 10 minutes into my drive. And it's been raining, or drizzling, or at the very least misty, since. The 10:00 news said that we had 3.25" of rain today. And 2" of that came down between 8:00 and 10:00 this evening.

There's been all kinds of great footage of flooded roadways.
494 was flooded near Portland Ave.

I-94 was flooded and closed near downtown Minneapolis.

35W was also closed for flooding.
Here's a picture near downtown from this evening:

And the firefighters were even called out to rescue folks.
Many more pictures available at the KSTP website.

According to channel4000.com 78 counties in Minnesota and Wisconsin are under severe weather advisories right now. The main 'CCO website has a great video clip of a guy on his mountain bike riding past a stalled car. The water is literally inches away from his handlebars!

And the great thing about living in Minnesota? Yesterday we recorded the highest overnight low for any date in the month of October at 72. By Friday we may have a hard freeze here in the metro. For those of you up north, there's talk of snow. Billings and Missoula Montana both got about 6 inches of the white stuff this afternoon, and that storm is headed into North Dakota.

But really, it's better than a Hurricane.

Bemidji Trip

I will be making a trip up to Bemidji the weekend of October 14th. I will be bringing one of my friends so I don't have drive to Bemidji all by my lonesome. So...I was wondering if anyone would be willing to take us in for Thurs and Fri night. We will be leaving sometime Saturday afternoon/evening since Laura needs to be back in Rochester to teach Sunday School on Sunday morning. Just let me know! Thanks so much!

Harvesting with Kane

Yesterday we harvested the rest of our garden since we were hit with a light frost on Thursday. Alicia and Kane were here on Saturday & we wanted to give some of our "harvest" to them to take back with them. We decided to take Kane with us, but he is getting bigger & heavier, so we strapped him into his infant car seat & put him in our garden wagon and off we went. He loved it!

We have horses grazing in our field and decided to feed them our "immature" crops...peppers & tomatoes. Alicia feed them out of her hand & Kane & Dale & I watched. Then we took a tour of Steve & Margie's garden with their big pumpkins...& decided that since we are grandparents we need to grow a pumpkin or two for Kane, so we are in the midst of planning our 2006 garden!

Katie also surprised us this weekend & came home for a visit but was busy getting ready to spend time with a friend while we harvested away.

Hectic week!

It's been a whirlwind week for us here. Sorry we missed you on Tuesday Gary, I didn't even see your post until today. To start the week off, I had class on Monday night. I worked extra hard on Monday also (not much internet slacking!) because I knew the rest of the week was shot. Tuesday and Wednesday I had full day Business Analyist Training. While interesting and directly applicable to my job, it was draining. I did some homework Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Today at work we went on a boat cruise on Lake Minnetonka. I've uploaded some of the pictures on flickr for anybody who wants to see them. Here's my favorite of the group:


Now I'm going to go pack my bag so I can head up to my friend Dave's cabin for the weekend tomorrow after work. I'm going to need to take a day off next week just to catch up!

Hot sauce!

The other night we had "breakfast dinner" at our house. It's a favorite of the kids. Nothing special about it, but we have breakfast for dinner. Scrambled eggs, bacon, and potato rounds fried in the bacon grease until they were brown and crispy. Mmmmm. I decided to have some La Preferida Louisiana Hot Sauce on my eggs. The kids were appalled, but it was awesome.

That got me to thinking about hot sauce and New Orleans. While there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, or sauces out there that claim to be New Orleans or Louisiana style hot sauce there's only one Tabasco. What, if any, impact did Katrina have on my beloved Tabasco? Should I stock up and prepare for future shortages?? I checked their website this morning and found the following message:

McIlhenny Company continues to operate normally at its headquarters and factory on Avery Island, Louisiana, which is located 135 miles west of New Orleans and was spared the devastation suffered by much of the southeastern part of Louisiana. The production of TABASCO® brand products is unaffected by Hurricane Katrina. Our New Orleans Office employees are all accounted for and have been relocated to our Corporate Office on Avery Island. We truly appreciate the many calls and emails of concern and best wishes we’ve received since the storm.


I think we can all sleep a little easier now.

Photographer in the making

The girls love, love, love taking pictures with our digital camera. Most of the pictures are really goofy shots of their feet, the inside of our refrigerator, wicked close-ups of their own eyes (I'm surprised they haven't gone blind from the flash), that sort of thing. But every so often a great shot results.

Flopsy, wearing Morgan's glasses

(by Morgan, our living room, 9/14/05)

This is Morgan's newest and most-loved stuffed animal. August was the Month of Ick for three out of the four of us: Emma got sick with a horrible terrible bug and gave it to Morgan, and then Morgan gave it to me. Sadly, Morgan's time with the Ick happened to coincide with what would have been a long camping weekend with Uncle Matt and Auntie Mandy, and so she had to...sniffle...stay home while Emma went camping. Oh, the humanity!

But by that Sunday morning she was so clearly on the mend that, to try to make her feel better about missing all the camping fun, we took her to Build-A-Bear Workshop*, a place she'd been begging to go to for months. It's quite a process--and not for the faint of heart, as not only is it in the Mall of America (one of my least favorite places in the world) but it involves long lines, many small children, giant machines of fluff, more long lines, critter birth certificates, and racks and shelves of stuffed animal clothing, shoes, and accessories. But Morgan was thrilled with the entire process.

And thus was Flopsy born.

(And wow, was Emma's little nose out of joint when she got home and discovered that Morgan had gone to Build-A-Bear Workshop while she was having camping fun! But we're about to level that playing field, as this Sunday Morgan will be off at a birthday party for one of her school friends [the girls are in separate classes] and Emma and I will be off at Build-A-Bear, building a bear. Or maybe a kitty. Or something.)

*The name is something of a misnomer, as Morgan did not build a bear but a bunny. She has since declared that "Build-A-Bear Workshop" should be renamed "Build-A-Friend Workshop," as one's critter choices are a bewildering array of bears, bunnies, kitties, doggies, giraffes, hippos, elephants, and many, many other beasts.

Empty Nest Update

Well, the empty nesters are doing quite well. There are some pros to being empty nesters, too:

1. No time schedule on weekends (or any other time for that matter).
2. Only cooking for two...or not cooking for two, just picking up whatever, whenever.
3. No adverse comments when Patsy Cline is singing her heart out! (Or me!)
4. No competition for the washer/dryer.
5. No role model duties.
6. Clothing optional.
7. Enjoying a good book without interruptions.

I just named a few...does anyone else have any pros to add to the list?

Thanks...And, By the Way, I'm Lovin' It!

Thanks to all of you that not only write great stuff (along with wonderful pics), but to those of you that read the blog, too! I feel like I am getting to know all of you better and that is what family "is."

Gary does get a little extra tip of the hat from me as to all his efforts to get this not only up and running, but by writing many interesting posts, too. I foresee this as a ongoing, wonderful for tool for all of us!

I AM loving it...when two or three days go by and I haven't read our blog, I can hardly wait to read what you've written! So, as Bob Hope said, "Keep those cards & letters coming!" Or, was that Dean Martin?

Daddy's little helper

Emma loves helping Pete with outside chores. Of course, it helps that Daddy lets her wear nifty gear like his goofy hat and ear protectors:

Speaking of chili

The couple who tried to get money from Wendy's has finally plead guilty to attempted grand theft and conspiring to file a false claim? I don't know why, but this story has fascinated me since the beginning. I mean, who actually sits around and says to themselves, "I know! I'll get a human finger, stick it in a bowl of chili and then try to sue the restauraunt. Brilliant!"

Not only did she plead guilty to this little scheme, but she also plead guilty to selling a motorhome she didn't own. Her husband/boyfriend/co-conspirator also plead guilty to failing to pay child support.

Empty Nesting

Well, Dale & I are officially empty nesters...although, we have been practicising this for a couple of years when Katie has been on a trip, etc., she always came home. I think that we are doing fine and knew this day would come...afterall, who wants an adult son/daughter living with them indefinitely?
However, the empty space in my heart is definitely real and I would be lying to say that I don't miss her! There are little things that I really didn't think about that I miss...things like: leaving the outside light on for her when she comes home; seeing her "things" on the stairs; planning when to take my shower (not to interfere with her time); counting on her to feel Isabelle; and the "hi, Mom!" greetiing.
I know that we will be fine and we will celebrate her accomplishments as she reaches her goals, but darn it! I can still miss her! I wonder if she is missing us, too?

Another first day of school

It's now officially the end of summer. At least for Emma and Morgan. Today is their first day of school. They got on the bus at 8:15 and are bound for their first day of First Grade. No longer the newbie Kindergartners, they're old hands at this school thing.

Emma will have the same teacher she had last year, Mrs. Krohn. Mrs. Krohn does this periodically where she will follow her kindergarten class to the first grade. So, new grade, new room but same teacher. On orientation night on Tuesday, Emma met a new classmate who has just moved to the school named Hannah. Emma showed her flair for hospitality and gave Hannah a guided tour of every part of the school we would let her. I think it made Hannah feel very welcome.

Morgan will be with a new teacher this year, Mr. Skoglund. She's very excited. On orientation night, she earned $100 in Skoglund bucks. Mr. Skoglund has a "money" system where kids can earn money for good behavior and will have to pay a fine for bad behavior. Mr. Skoglund also said she did the best job of introducing herself. If you haven't guessed by now, they're both very outgoing.

Here they are, boarding the bus for another year at Pilot Knob.

School officially is here

Well, School is officially here. I had my first day of classes. We left the good ole town of Winona at 6:45 this morning. That will definately take some getting used to. I haven't had to get up that early in a long time except for when I worked day shift, and that wasn't very often. I got a lot of reading assignments for Wednesday, but I don't have any of my books yet. So that could be a little bit of a problem. Oh well, life goes on. Hope everyone else's first day of classes went well, because I know a lot of us started back either today or they will be very shortly.

hi-i have just been reading all the coments on your postings and enjoyed all of them. we are on the mend--grandpa still can only do light work so dale -lois & gary were here & the lawn looks beautiful. we went to a friends house this afternoon--had a chile supper --then played one game of phase 10 and two games of 10--9-8. nice to see all of you on this blog--by the way--what does blog mean? grandma--i almost forgot--we got a nice letter from randee--also a newspaper clipping telling about a mountain killed in Nevada City. local people can read it at 5819 bemidji ave n.

Off to the fair

It's time for a trip to the state fair today. We usually go for 3 or 4 hours. That's enough time to eat some tasty food and do some wandering. Going to the fair always reminds me of when I was a kid and running around the fair with Sara and Kristi. We had a lot of fun.

hi everyone

I am just trying this out with Gary`s help . all for now Grandma

I did get a car! YAY!!

Yes, Lois, I did get a car. I got it back in June. It is a 2001 Chevy Malibu and it's silver. Pretty exciting for me. I went to go get the loan the day after we bought it and my credit was good enough, my dad didn't even have to co-sign. So it is all mine. I haven't had anything go wrong, so that's a good thing. It gets pretty good gas mileage, usually 27 mpg and up. That was a must when I was looking. I got it in Wisconsin Rapids at a car dealership that my dad helps out with, so I got a pretty good deal. Her name is Allie. I don't know what else to tell you about it.

Anna's Car?

I have been getting hints on our blog about Anna's car...but no other info...huh, did Anna get a new car? Fill us in, Anna, please....thanks!

Back to School it is

Just like the rest of you, it is back to school time for me. I moved the majority of my stuff to Winona today. I woke up an hour after my alarm was set for when the phone rang, and then I took all of my stuff to the garage, then loaded it into my car, then unloaded it onto the deck and then into my room. Today just made me realize once again how much I hate moving. You pack up all your belongs just to unpack them a few hours later and then a few months later, do the exact same thing. I guess it is a pretty good way to do some cleaning and get rid of the stuff you don't want anymore I guess. When I left this morning, I definitely wasn't ready to come back here, but now that I'm here, it isn't so bad. I moved all of my stuff into my room within about an hour of getting here. Now it's a matter of unpacking and getting everything where I want it. That will be kind of hard because I don't have everything here. My parents are coming down on Saturday and they are bringing my couch, dresser, and another storage thing. I don't really know what to call it. So once all that gets here, I will really be able to unpack. I'm waiting for my books to get here too. My dad ordered them, so they should be coming here shortly. Tonight a bunch of my friends and I went up to Garvin Heights, which is a look-out on top of the bluffs. It looks out over the entire city of Winona as well as the Mississippi River, it was just gorgeous. Next time I go up there, I'll try to remember to take my camera and maybe post some pictures. It would have been much better if it wasn't cloudy so we could see the stars, but oh well, maybe another night. I also want to go up there sometime during the day too. Classes start for me on Monday. I'll be starting my driving back and forth to Rochester and back. Oh well, the year will be over before I know it and then I'll be living in the big city of Rochester til I graduate. So if anyone is ever in the southern part of MN, give me a call or ship me an email and if I'm around we can get together for dinner or something. I am wanting to make a trip up to Bemidji sometime. I don't know when it will be. I never have classes on Friday, so I have 3-day weekends all the time. I'll let y'all know when I figure something out.

3 day weekend

I have tomorrow off! And I'm having a heck of a time deciding what I want to do with my day.

Things I have to do this weekend:
* mow the lawn (it's developing it's own ecosystem)
* tidy up the house
* visit the Metro State bookstore to buy books for this semester
* get a haircut (no cracks about ecosystems here)

Things I want to do this weekend:
* go for a big, long bike ride
* Vikings preseason game Friday night (Nancy got a great deal on some tix)
* take the Red Cross sailboats out of the lake Saturday morning
* help our friends Joel and Alana finish their sheetrocking project
* find the Sibley Bike Depot

I'm sure I could fit all of this in, but I know that I probably won't.

Back to School

For the first time in 23 years I don't have a kid going back to public school! It seems a little strange.
I miss the excitement of getting that new box of crayolas, pencils, notebooks, and clothing. The kids kinda kept me in the loop for what was "cool." How will I ever know now?

I am looking forward to going back to school myself as I am starting today teaching part-time at Sylvan Learning, & then next week, it is back to NTC (Northwest Technical College) in my college lab assistant position.

Dale has been working in his classroom for awhile now...and, next week we will be taking Katie to UMD, so for us the Fall schedule is starting to roll.

Embrace the remaining days of summer!

Blogging???

Well I'm not sure if I've figured out the family blog yet or not, but I did find my invite e-mail in my junk e-mail so be sure to check yours if you haven't received it. Hope everyone is doing well! I'm thinking if I get a hang of this-- it could be a great way to let all of you know the info of the loungeabout! ~Mandy

Meet my new laptop!

I've been obsessed with buying a laptop for about 6 months now. I'd saved up enough money so that wasn't an issue. I just couldn't make up my mind on a brand or a model. It's such a big decision, because I'll be stuck with it for a couple of years.

Now after reading countless reviews, I bought a Sony Vaio S260. It's really small and portable. I can't wait for it to get here.

mmm...beer

I just finished making a yeast starter for an extra pale ale batch that I'm going to brew tomorrow. As I sit here, I'm enjoying one of my latest batches, an Irish Red Ale. I hope everyone's having a good weekend.

Today we moved Mandy's grandparents to some senior apartments. They're both in their late 70's. Mandy has a lot of family in the Twin Cities so we had plenty of help. They both seemed pretty excited about their new place.

Just a little update

Just thought I would give you all a little update on Nathan since most of you probably haven't heard from him in a long time. For those of you who don't know, Nathan and Katie are now engaged and have been for about 2 months. They are planning on getting married August 12, 2006 in Stevens Point, so mark your calendars. Nathan and Katie just moved down to Delavan, WI this past weekend. Delavan is a small town by Lake Geneva, which is in southern Wisconsin. It seems like a really nice town and their apartment is really nice. Nathan is working at a Home Depot in Makwanago (sp?). He called today and said that he will usually be working noon-9pm. Katie is will be starting her job as a teacher in the Lake Geneva elementary school working teaching English as a Second Language. Hopefully this first year goes well for her. So that you guys can all update your address books, Nathan's address is: 213 Turtle Creek Dr. Apt. 8 Delavan, WI 53115. My address for the school year will be: 52 W. 7th St Winona, MN 55987. That's all for now. Hope you all have a good day!

Blog Virgin

Allright, I'm no blogger so you'll have to bear with me as I go through some growing pains. Thanks for setting this up, Gary. It's a pretty cool way to keep in touch!
Matt

Just a note on greatfulness

This past week at work, we had one of the sweetest couples come in a deliver a healthy baby girl. I will remember them for a long time. This was their first baby. About 3 years ago, they had a full-term still-born baby. There were heart tones and everything up until a few hours before the delivery. I cannot imagine how hard that would be to go through an entire pregnancy and labor and then go home with nothing but a heavy and aching heart. This couple was from upper Michigan, so they drove 5 hours to our unit to deliver this baby. We had 4 babies the night before their discharge, so I was able to go into their room and talk with them for almost an hour that night. They asked about me and what I was doing and they wished me all the luck in the world with nursing (she is a nurse herself). They told me that just the experience that they had with me for just a few days, that I would be just fine and I would be a great nurse. While they were talking, they told me about the c-section delivery. She said that Dr. Meier allowed her husband to actually see the baby come out from her and she said that when Dr. Meier held the baby over the curtain and the baby was crying, she said that was the most beautiful sound she had heard in her entire life. She also told me about her prenatal care. She said that at the 5 month mark of her pregnancy, she had appoinments every two weeks and then at the 7 month mark, she had weekly appointments and then at 8 months, she had appointments at the clinic 2 times per week. She said that if God ever blessed them with another pregnancy, she would do it all over again in a heartbeat and she said she would do it the exact same way. She said she never complained once about having to go to the clinic so often. It is families like this that make you realize that babies are truly a gift from God. It was so nice to see a family so happy with their baby and want their baby. There are so many times that you see families that don't appreciate their babies or you know that the baby isn't going home to a good situation. It was so nice to see a family so involved and appreciative of their baby. I hope that they are blessed with another pregancy down the road, so that I can see how they are doing because they were just one of those families that you cannot possibly forget.

Shades of Soul

Well, around 11:00 this morning, I decided to trudge out to the paperbox at the end of our driveway to pick up the daily "Pioneer," Bemidji's one & only. I could not believe my eyes!! The Shades of Soul are playing two nights during the All School Reunion this weekend. Up until this point, I really didn't care one way or the other about the reunion...but now! Well, let's just say that my energy & excitement level has soared!

The first paragraph of the article reads: "They were Motown in the Northwoods. They were suave, cool and full of music--and they're together again. The Shades of Soul." Molly Miron took the words right out of my mouth!

Back in the 60's when I was in high school, it was not uncommon to have live music at summer parties around town. The bands usually were classmates that had a need to play & the parties had a need for live music, so it was a perfect fit. They wanted to play for experience...& the funny thing about it was they also had talent. That is the way this band got started.

They had about 15 members & the paper has nine on the front page that are reuniting for this weekend. They had many instruments, including brass, dressed in suits, and danced as they played & sang. This weekend they will be doing the same thing, probably without the suits, however.

I guess that I will be going to the All School Reunion after all...how could I live with myself if I didn't relive this part of my life?

Since I couldn't post a comment, I'm going to Post a new posting :)

You know what, I when people always say in Lehman's terms, I also think the same thing as Pete. Must be a family thing. Another thing...Gary, on the title thing, you spelled Klasen wrong. If I remember right, when I looked at the top, it was Klassens. Just FYI.

Lamon

The name change post reminded me of something. Whenever somebody uses the phrase "the layman's term for that is..." I always hear it as "the Lamon's term for that is..."

And it always makes me wonder, are there specific family "Lamon's terms" that you can think of? Share!

Spices, Etc.

Pete's posting on peppercorns really sparked my interest...thanks, Pete. I am a true food lover of great tasting food! If I taste something & it doesn't just grab me as worth eating, I (in my older but wiser age) just don't finish it. I have the attitude that if it doesn't taste good, it just isn't worth wasting calories (points) on it. Yes, I know that we were brought up by depression parents and were taught to "clean our plates," BUT, I have my health to think about, too!
Peppercorns - Two years ago, I bought a large container (18 oz) of Tone's whole black peppercorns & we love them. They were inexpensive, one variety, but good. I use them on everything, including eggs, and when we ran out of the "cheap" stuff, I never replaced it.
Has anyone tried the new hot salt made by Morton? It does have a little kick to it...wonder how it would taste on eggs?

Gardening, Why Bother?

Well, last August we lost most of our garden to frost...yes, even before the produce was ready to eat. If I remember correctly, we did eat one tomato and had some fresh potatoes, but that was the extent of it.
This summer we haven't had much rain, so we are being challenged in the gardening endeavors again! Back to my original question...why bother? I know why...because there is something inside of me that loves to watch things grow and I seem to have a need (or a satisfaction) of taking care of plants...almost like an extension of mothering?? Another idea is that it is a challenge. I never know what "mother nature" will throw at me and I am willing to take her on. And, the outcome is never certain and to me that is exciting.

What's New?

Not too much is going on around here. I'm in the middle of working an 11 day stretch. I'll be done after night shift next Sunday. It always amazes me how fast census changes on an OB unit. Saturday, we started day shift with a total of 17 babies. When I went in again on night shift last night, we were down to 8 babies. Talk about a total turn around.

School starts for me on August 29th. I'm not sure when I am going to be moving back down to Winona yet. My last day of work will be the 24th and then a couple of my friends want to go on a road trip. Anyone have any ideas of where we could go? We will have about 4 days total.

That's about all that's new with me. Hope everyone's summer is going well!

I'm so silly!

I completely forgot in my last post, but Happy Birthday Nancy (my Nancy, not Gary's)!

Pepper

I love pepper. Even more than salt. If I had to give one or the other up, salt would be the first to go. We have a very nice pepper mill in the shape of a wine bottle. It was a wedding present from my aunt Linda and uncle Glenn. I think most of the Saunders side of the family has received one as a wedding present as well. We use a three peppercorn blend in it; white, red and black. This is where 90% of my pepper comes from. But for some reason, I don't like this pepper on eggs. For eggs, you really need the basic black pre-ground stuff. Something like you would find in the shaker at a diner.

This morning for breakfast I had some leftover potatoes that I made the other day. They were a twice-baked style with cheese, ham and onion. When I originally served this I used the fresh ground pepper. Today I went for the cheap stuff. The cheap stuff wins for this dish, hands down.