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!