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.