White Christmas

Here in Central Wisconsin, we are definitely going to have a white Christmas. Saturday night we got hit with about 9 inches of fresh snow along with winds gusting up to 40 mph. Good thing I went grocery shopping on Saturday morning before it hit. I've attempted to leave my apartment, but there is a 3 foot snow drift right outside my door. I do have a shovel, so I could shovel myself out except the fact that it's in my garage which is on the other side of the building. It is nice not to have to shovel because I live in an apartment complex, but it's not much fun having to rely on others to shovel me out. Hopefully they will come plow me out soon because my parents and Nathan and Katie are coming over here for supper tonight before Christmas Eve service at church. Then, we'll be heading out to my parents house. Nathan and Katie are bringing the dogs with them, so it will be good to see them as well once again. Tomorrow we will be having Christmas for my mom's side of the family at our home. I was supposed to go to my mom and dad's house yesterday to make lefse for the festivities, but I was stuck at my apartment. Merry Christmas everyone!!! Hope everyone's holiday is wonderful!

Christmas Season has started

We look forward to Christmas each year. A time to reconnect with our families. This year we were short one of our family members-Miranda. She started a new job recently and felt she could not come home- And we miss her.
Our family has chosen to draw names for gifts. This is the 2nd time we did this and I am so glad we did. It is so nice no to have to worry about buying tons of stuff which most of us don't need (or maybe want) anyway. We are in Duluth and we had our Christmas yesterday. We had loads of fun, playing games, eating a great vegan meal and enjoying some drinks. We just enjoyed each other...its nice to give stuff but its so much better to just give a bit of time and spend time with our families.
I hope you all can enjoy your Christmas with your own families and I hope to see some of you over the holidays.
Merry Christmas to All!

Dog saves woman's life in house fire

The house that burned down is just one street over from where we live!

 

EAGAN, Minn. (AP) - Woman's best friend? A dog who saves her from a fire.

Cathy Minnig was exercising on her basement treadmill Wednesday night, wearing music headphones, when her Labrador puppy began jumping on and off the couch and otherwise acting strange.

Fire Chief Mike Scott said Minnig took off her headphones to hear fire alarms. She ran upstairs to find her living room engulfed in flames. Minnig grabbed the dog and ran outside, Scott said.

Both woman and dog were OK. Minnig's two sons weren't home at the time.

 

You can read the full story here:  Dog's warning credited with saving Eagan, Minn., woman from house fire

 

quilts

grandma saysi just had to show off my latest quilt. gary was here yesterday -took the pictures an put them on the blog. the colors do not show up real good but they are several shades of purple. there is a little green in the flowered part. i am using it on our bed as a soread
i finally finished my baking. i am sure all of you are only interested in the "burner" cookies.

My New Quilt

Car 54, where are you?

I found this amusing!

MAPLEWOOD, Minn. (AP) - A woman suspected in a burglary found a convenient getaway: the squad car of the officers who arrested her.

McKenzie Schafer, 27, of Minneapolis was arrested and handuffed Sunday by officers investigating the theft of a laptop from the North St. Paul Athletic Association building. Court papers say when officers went back into the building after putting Schafer in the back of their squad, she got into the front and drove away.

She was later caught in front of a sandwich shop by officers in another squad car. Schafer told police she took the squad to help look for the men who burglarized the building.

She was charged in Ramsey County District Court with two counts of burglary and one count of escaping from custody.

 

Here's a link to the story if you're interested.

They're baaack!

In the movie Poltergeist the little girl looks into the TV screen and says in a really eerie voice, "They're heeereee!"  In the not nearly as scary and not nearly as good Poltergeist II the little girl looks into the screen and says in a similarly eerie voice, "They're baaaack!"  We're never fully sure who "they" are, since she's looking at a tv screen that's all snow when she says the line.  It's hard to imagine something that would be "baaaack" and cause more fright than a poltergeist.

 

Unless it's zubaz.

 

Next thing you know, they'll revive the old American Gladiator TV show.  Wouldn't that be scary!

Links and posting

Earlier last week Gary wrote a post about a website called SparkPeople.com that he uses to track calories and weight related items.  He asked me if I could add a link to the Family Blog so it would be easy for him and anybody else to easily remember where it is.  I finally got around to doing that this evening.  I put a header in there too, creatively titled "Links".  So if anybody else has websites that they think the family blog should link to, let me know and I can easily add them.

Also, this post was made via email.  I've got the blog set up so I can go into whatever email client I'm using, send an email and it will magically transform itself into a blog post.  Pretty neat, eh?  I know some of you might be interested in a feature like this so I decided to play around with it.  It's really easy to do.  So if you want me to try to set things up so you can do the same, let me know.

I hope everybody had a nice Thanksgiving and is enjoying the snow we've had so far.  It's made biking pretty difficult this past week, but that's what makes life interesting.  Ciao!

Streaker

Lets Say Thanks

I know some of us have been directly afftected by the war, some of us have been there, others have had someone very close to you who has been involved.
I figure this is something we can all do to show appreciation to those of you who have served and for those who are there now!
Thanks to all who have been there, who are there now and who are going!

We would not be here without you!!!!!

Something cool that Xerox is doing.

If you go to this web site, www.LetsSayThanks.com you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq . You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to some member of the armed services. How AMAZING it would be if we could get everyone we know to send one!!!This is a great site. Please send a card. It is FREE and it only takes a second.Wouldn't it be wonderful if the soldiers received a bunch of these? Whether you are for or against the war, our guys and gals over there need to know we are behind them.

Remember Pearl Harbor Day!!

Nursery Project

Daddy's hard work sure did pay off! The nursery is complete (minus a couple of things to hang on the walls!) Sure, we're pretty partial but we just LOVE it!

Mountain Swooping

This video is simply amazing.



I'm not sure if I would puke, lose control of my bodily functions or completely relax and enjoy the ride. Maybe all three!

Just a few winter pictures after about 8" of snow fell in a 12-18 hour period. We had already cleaned off these areas about 5pm last night so this is what fell into the evening and overnight.

Wost Christmas Decorations Picture Contest

I would like everyone to keep your cameras ready and see who can capture and post the worst, most gaudy decorations this year.

You know what I am talking about...those plastic nativity scenes (made in china)...those foux snowmen...the blow ups...on and on and one and on....

I bet I win. Already I have see the blow ups comming out-you know those giant ugly blow up figures of balloons with a santa inside. We sure have a bunch of those around town. On my way to Red Lake, I found a house with at least 10 of these around the house. I will try to get a picture and post it soon.

I bet it should be easy around Mpls and Duluth to find these winners...

I just hope you do not have to take the picture in your own front yards to win this contest.

Spark People

I have been a member of this site for quite some time. Its called Spark People. It's a healthy lifestyle type site that helps with tracking diet and exercise and provides tips and articles about healthy choices. Anyway since using this site I have gotten my blood pressure back to my recommended ranges. No meds.

I am confident my high cholesterol has reduced (350 at the highest) as well because of diet changes but I have not verified that lately. With meds I had it down to about 250 but for the last year or so I have been life choices that help reduce cholesterol.

Anyway please take a look and take a bit of time on this site and see if you could benefit as well. I was hoping that Carol and Anna could preview this and give some feedback as well.

I have also asked Peter to put a link on the home page for a quick access.

Best of all, its free.

Winter Wonderland

I don't know about the rest of you, but we definitely got quite the snowstorm yesterday. I left my apartment at about 10:30 to go to a baby shower about an hour away and it wasn't snowing yet. I finally got home at 5 and we had gotten about 7 inches of snow. Days like that I really wish I had a truck. I barely made it into my apartment complex's driveway. To top it off, we got some freezing rain on top of all the snow overnight. I'm just happy I don't have anywhere to go until I have to go to work at 7 pm tonight. Hopefully the snow will be cleared by then. Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Theo

Most of you have met our dog Theo, either because you've visited us and been subjected to his overzealous greetings. Or you may have met him at the annual camping trip or when we packed him into the back of the van for a trip to Bemidji and other towns where family resides.

Theo died over the Thanksgiving weekend. We spent the weekend with Nancy's folks out in Lamberton, and sometime on Friday Theo disappeared. After an hour or two I went out in the car looking for him, and talked to a few of the neighbors. When Nancy got home from a shopping trip with her mom, she and Morgan went out again looking (Emma would have gone, but wasn't feeling well), but came home when it got too dark to see. Around 6:30 or so Theo just showed up at the back door, looking all happy and fine. He ate a little bit, but not much. We were up late that night playing Risk, and let the dogs out around 1:30 in the morning and everything seemed normal. But when Nancy's dad woke up the next morning he found Theo. It looks like he just died in his sleep.

He had a pretty good run, all in all, and I think it's easier to have him go this way than it would have been to decide to put him down. We're still finding clumps of his hair around the house and missing him. Bailey seems especially sad, so much so that she's not even all that excited about food. And with Bailey that's saying a lot! The kids think we should get another dog, but we're going to wait until after the holidays before deciding if we get another one.

2007 Thanksgiving at the Saunders'

Here's the happy little group that gathered around the Thanksgiving table at our house last week. Can you see the little Buddha just waiting to join our family next year?

Babe the blue ox

You can imagine my suprize when I read with delight about Babe the Blue OX's head falling off. As it turns out, this imposter resides in Klamath, California. The TRUE(Repaired) Babe is still standing tall and looking good in Bemidi Minnesota!