My Poor Neglected Blog

Dec was a busy month for me. Aren't they all?

My home photo studio officially opened in Oct. My website was built and my portfolio. Oct and Nov I didn't see any business, which is ok. But in December I did 3 photo shoots. It was lots of fun, and my clients were happy with their results. It was pretty neat seeing the photos I took of their kids on a Christmas card they sent me.

We also attended a benefit for a friend of ours. He almost lost his life in November, but the doctors were able to save him. He somehow had infectious tumors in his neck and throat. He had 3 long surgeries in 5 days. He has about a 4 month recovery period. Needless to say his illness and recovery time has forced him out of a job. His baseball friends all got together and held a benefit for him. It was a really good time. You paid a cover charge to get in, and got free food and beer. Then they had a silent auction. We won/bought a Margarita/Mexican bag. It has chips, salsa, a chip bowl, 2 margarita glasses, and margarita mix.

I've also been working on my book edits. I finished my book on Tulum, Mexico and the Maya, so now it's editing time. Edits are going pretty good.

Kevin had a Lego Robotics tournament at the end of November. His team did a really good job, and they are moving onto the state tournament at the end of January. It's a really busy and fun day for the kids, but it's a very long and boring day for the parents. Lots of sitting, and even more time spent between performances. His team is made up of 5 sixth graders, 4 boys & 1 girl. They are all pretty excited about going to the state tournament. They have practices scheduled twice a week to get ready for it. I hope they do a good job at the state tournament.

This year for Christmas I only set up a small tree. It's about a 1 foot tall tree. With all the Dec happenings, I just didn't have the energy to go all out. Plus, with our new kitten, I don't trust her enough to stay out of it. I don't feel like coming home to a destroyed tree every day. Not to mention taking it all down. I usually never get my tree taken down until around Easter time. February if I'm lucky. It's such a big project.

So I put up the little tree on a table and next to it put a snow man snow globe, a nativity set, and a nut cracker. All small pieces. It's a nice little decoration, and the cat has only knocked it off the table 3 times. Not too bad.

I got all my Christmas shopping done. I did most of it online, and just hoping it all gets here in time. My mom and grandma's present is going to be late, but I get her the same thing every year. Not really a lot you can get a 72 & a 101 year old that they don't already have or haven't already given to you. But they will always need a calendar, and that's what I get them. Each month has a photo of us in some way or fashion. They really enjoy it, and it's a good way to show off their grandsons.

Our new kitten had her claws removed and spayed right before Thanksgiving. The little stinker was healing fine over the weekend that we were home, and then as soon as we all left for school and work, she tore out a stitch and managed to get her tummy surgical cut infected. So everyday, I had to clean it out, put antibiotics on it, and give her oral liquid antibiotics. Good thing she liked it. I had to put a cone around her neck and she absolutely hated it. It took a while to get rid of it, and I didn't dare take off the cone until it was all healed up.

Christmas is just a few days away. We plan on spending time with my husbands parents and family. That is always a real fun time. The kids have a real good time with their cousins.

This Christmas we are starting new traditions. My kids have reached that age where they know Santa isn't real and they want more expensive toys. The annual tradition of visiting Santa just doesn't cut it anymore. So we will spend time with the family, got to midnight mass (now that they are old enough to sit through it), open gifts on Christmas morning (as usual), and then we are going to a movie. I'm also going to make a nice Christmas ham. So as the kids grown, we form new fun traditions. I remember as a kid at their age, our mom would load us all up in the family car and we would drive around town and look at all the Christmas lights in town. We'd get home and before bed, we got to open one gift from an out of town relative. It was always so fun to get a sneak peek. On Christmas morning, we'd open gifts, and then go to Christmas mass.

This year also marks a first that my kids are old enough to understand the spirit of giving gifts. They took me shopping with them so they could get their dad and me a Christmas gift. I was just along for the money. It's always so nice that I'm so needed. It's the thought that counts, and I'm pretty proud that they wanted to do that all on their own. They are such sweet kids. They were able to hide my present from me, so I have no idea what I paid for. I'm excited to see what they picked out.

Merry Christmas to Everyone!!

November Happenings

November turned out to be a very busy month.



I finished my novel! I started the challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel in November, and I did it in 15 days. Whew, talk about brain marathon! My novel isn't really a novel persay, it's a guide book to the Maya and the ruins in Tulum, Mexico. I'm at the editing stage of it now. I have it printed out and just need to go through everything and figure out which paragraphs go where and what I can delete out of it. 50,000 words equates to 98 single spaced pages of text. I plan on including photos and have assigned Ken to do some illustrations. Once I have it all edited and put together, I plan on getting it out to a publisher.

I'm glad I finished so quickly. I spent a week getting my house in order to host Thanksgiving at my house. I haven't hosted a holiday meal at our house in about 8 years. It was just me, Ken, the boys, and Ken's parents for Thanksgiving. Ken's mom has done the Turkey Day meal for a long time, and all Ken's siblings were out of town this year. We decided to give his mom a break.

I went all out. I made a feast fit for Kings and Queens. It was very tasty. I even made my own cranberry sauce. That was super yummy. Much better than from a can. We had the works, lots of appetizers, the main meal (turkey, homemade stuffing, real mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, squash, dinner rolls...the works!), for desert Ken's mom baked a blue berry pie, and I had 2 pumpkin pies from Trader Joe's (yummy goodness). I bought whipped cream and vanilla bean ice cream to go with it.

I also broke out the good dishes. Not my every day wear. I got out my great Uncle Elmer and Great Aunt Marietta's flatware. I had a floral center piece, and used my great grandmothers, and grandmothers silver and glass serving dishes.

I'm Declaring War!

On my body fat that is....

Today at work a group of nurses came to our work for health checks. It is for health insurance discounts. You get a discount for normal blood pressure, normal cholesterol, and a normal Body Mass Index.

I filled out the paperwork, and went with nurse number 1 for my cholesterol check. I sat down and told her that I hated getting my finger pricked. She informed me that the pokers are not like the little razor blades that they used back when I was a lab tech. Ok, that sounded good. Wouldn't hurt too bad at all. So, I stuck out my finger, she stabbed it, and I yelled "OW!. The nurse lied! She pipes up and asks me if I've ever had babies, and that I should put it in perspective. Blah, blah, blah...you just stabbed me in the finger. Of course it hurts. It's stabbed and it's bleeding. She put a big band-aid on it.

Then I waited in the hallway for the next step. Getting weighed and measured, getting my blood pressure checked, and my BMI result. An older nurse came to get me. She said "Who's next?" I told her that I was and she said "No, you're not, your the nurse." WHAT? I'm not the nurse. She argued that I was. No, clearly I'm not your co-worker nurse. Not me. I'm here to get poked and prodded. So she took me back to the room and ran into the nurse she thought I was. "Oh, see you two look just alike!" That made me a bit nervous that she couldn't tell her patient apart from her co-worker.

I got on the scale and I swear it yelled "Hey chubby, get off me!" I did not like that number that I saw. No, I'm not telling what number that was, but it was not a good number! Then I got measured. Yep, I'm still 5 foot 2 inches tall. Then she asked my age and punched all my numbers into a thing that looked much like an X-box remote. She told me to squeeze the handles. So I did. "Squeeze harder!" So I did. Ok, she got the number. I missed the cut off for the discount by just a few points.

Then she took my blood pressure. The nurse puffed that blood pressure cuff so tight, I thought the spot where I got my finger poked was gonna pop open and squirt blood all over every one. Yikes, I've never had a blood pressure cuff pumped up that high before. She gave me my result and it was a much higher number than I normally run. I figured it must just be from running around in the morning and having the cuff so dang tight. Plus I'm not sure if she could really read the numbers right because she thought I was the nurse, and she had to check the BMI machine a few times, like she couldn't make out the numbers. Oh well, my blood pressure was still with in the range for the wellness health discount, so no big deal. My finger poke didn't pop open, and all was well.

While I was getting told my blood pressure was higher than normal and I'm too chubby, I got the results of my cholesterol. Yay! Passed those numbers with flying colors! So I qualified for the cholesterol discount and the blood pressure discount, but flunked the BMI test, so no discount for that.

The nurse gave me some informational sheets on BMI. It's a chart that tells you how much you should weigh for how tall you are. Hmmmmm......I need to grow a foot to catch up to my weight. How can I grow? Dang...I guess I'll have to lose weight. No more harvesting fat for future medical technology to start asking people to donate their fat. But hey! I have good cholesterol!

After a while I took my band-aid off my finger as it was too big and it was hard to type with it on. Guess what was there? A big fat bruise! Oh how, I hate getting my finger poked.

For lunch I went out and had a big fat juicy bacon cheese burger, some yummy french fries, and cake & ice cream for desert. Gotta celebrate having such a good cholesterol.

Tomorrow the diet starts...

Oh What A Night!

Last night Kevin decided that he was going to stay late after school. I really love the fact that my son likes to stay in after school study hall. So the night before he & I discussed that I had to work until 5:00 and then I would pick him up, so I'd be a tad bit late, but he could wait for me. Ok, sound plan!

Well……yesterday I could not find my cell phone. So I had no way for the kids to get a hold of me. Well, they could call my work number and get me. I got done working at 5:00 and drove over to the school to pick up Kevin. I waited, and waited, and waited, and then suddenly all the kids who had stayed after school were all gone. They had waited for their ride to arrive. I thought to myself….maybe he changed his mind and went home after school, or maybe he decided to walk home, or maybe he caught a ride home with someone else. No way to check my cell phone though because I didn't have it on me. I drove home and no Kevin. ACK! I lost my kid and my phone!!!

I run around frantically to try to find my cell phone. I can't find it. So I tell Sam that I'm driving back to school to see if I somehow missed Kevin and if Sam could try to find my cell phone. I ran down the stairs and when I hit the bottom step, I stepped on one of Sam's shoes, twisted my ankle, fell down, and hit my head on the front door. Now, I'm crawling around telling Sam NOT to leave his shoes right in front of the steps, where's my cell phone, and where's my kid!!!

I hobbled back out to my van hoping I had not hurt my ankle worse than just a twist, but it sure did hurt. I drove back to the school, rubbing my head hoping it didn't leave a mark. I get back to the school and there are absolutely no kids there. Hmmm…where did the little shit go? I can't find my cell phone. Back home I go ready to call everyone I could think of where he might be.

I walked in the house & there is Kevin…."Where were you mom! I tried to call you & you didn't answer cuz I found your cell phone in the couch cushion, so I took the activity bus home & when I got home, you weren't here! I was getting worried about you!! "

Oh good grief!

Happy All Saint's Day, Let the Writing Begin, & What an October!!

November is here. Happy All Saint's Day!!

Today is the start of the NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month. I participated last year, but did not finish. Then the editor inside of me killed the novel & decided I would start over on it, at a later date though.

This year I have decided to write about the Mayan Ruins, in Tulum, Quinta Roo, Mexico. I visited the Ruins in February, and was amazed by the place. Such fascinating history. It was gorgeous and amazing. It is the most visited ruins, yet the least is written about it.

October was a busy month! It started out with my birthday. The following week Kevin was sick with a nasty cold. He missed a whole week of school. He's been busy catching up at school, and even goes to an after school study hall on Tuesdays. He is enjoying Robotics. November will be busy with practices for him and his team prepare for their Robotics tournament.

October also brought us a new little kitten. She is the cutest thing! So yes, I think this officially deems me as the crazy cat lady. We have as many cats as we do people. Kenny says "it's a good thing she's so cute". Hahaha....The kids named her Cali which is short for Calico. They fell in love with her right away. She is quite the little fearless frisky kitten. She chases the other cats around and pounces on them. She definitely keeps the other cats on their toes. The first few days they didn't know what to think of her and they all ran away and hid from her, but now they have learned to just swat her back. She is relentless though, and keeps trying to suck them into playing with her. It's pretty funny to watch.

My friend Kathy & her 18 month old came to visit us for a week. They made the drive from Montana. It was so good to have them around. I took a couple days off from work so we could have some fun. We sure did. We went out for dinner a couple of nights, we went shopping like crazy (definitely stimulated the economy), went to the Como Zoo, and just hung around at the house visiting.

A day or two after they left Kenny came down with a head cold & I had picked up a cough. Ken had his cold for a little over a week and he felt miserable. My cough was more annoying than anything. Kenny got over his cold and my cough got worse. I ended up with a viral bronchitis. I stayed home for a week feeling miserable. I went to the doctor's office and when I walked from the waiting room to the patient room, I must have walked to fast and got really winded. It was difficult to breathe, and I felt as though, I had run a marathon. The nurse said "let me go get the doctor". She came back to the room with three doctors, they had the blood pressure cuff, the finger oxygen reader, and were checking my pulse right away. They were asking me a million questions at once and I was just trying to catch my breath. They did a chest X-ray and an EKG. They said "we'll have to see what this shows before we decide what to do with you, sometimes virus' like this can attack the heart and require hospitalization." Yikes! I don't have time to be sick in the hospital! I'm the mom! Well, the chest X-ray and the EKG both came back clear and normal. So they concluded that I had an influenza related viral bronchitis and I was to go home, get plenty of rest, and drink lots of fluids, and ride it out. They gave me an antibiotic just in case there was some bacteria, but they really doubted it. I guess they were covering their bases and didn't want to see me back? They also gave me an inhaler to help me breathe better. That worked but only temporarily, but it still came in handy. I'm feeling much better now, and am ready to get back to the real world and back to mom-normality.

I had the Kickball Awards Parties in Oct. I wasn't feeling very good, but I pulled it off anyway. I don't think people realized I was feeling as miserable as I was. Which is good, but I came home exhausted.

Halloween was great for the kids. Sam's school had their Halloween party a week early. I missed the memo on that one. Sam came home & told me he wanted to be Godzilla 2000 and the party was tomorrow. TOMORROW! Who has Halloween a week before Halloween? So off to the fabric store we went. Wal-Mart has removed their entire fabric department, so we ended up in St. Paul. Sam found the material he wanted and we found what we would make the spikes with. I ended up staying up until 3:30 am putting together the Godzilla costume. I ended up burning my index finger on the glue gun about 5 times. You think I would have learned not to touch hot glue after the first time, but no. I guess it was too early in the morning for such lessons. The costume got finished in time for school party. The costume was a hit with Sam and his friends thought it was a good costume too. So the numb feeling in my index finger and the sleepless night was worth it. I definitely earned my mom badge.

Halloween I took the kids to St. Paul and the kids went trick-or-treating down Summit Ave. Summit Ave is known for it's candy and highly decorated houses. The Governor's mansion is also on Summit Ave. and they usually give out pretty good candy. One house had the smoke going in their yard and porch. They had people dressed up as scary characters from movies. They stood still and then would move as you got close to them. I have to admit it was pretty creepy. They left the little kids alone, but scared the older kids, and even me too. I'll admit I jumped and let out a scream when the smoke on the porch came screaming out of the machine. The kids just laughed...hahaha...mom got scared.

And now here we are in November. Kenny is heavily wrapped up in the Vikings Football team and the Wild Hockey team. Both teams are doing good, and he loves that Brett Favre is helping MN win. He also likes that it makes the MN-WI football rivalry more intense. He is really excited for Vikings-Green Bay game today. We are hoping that Wisconsin's Golden Boy will have a Vikings win on Green Bay territory.

How did it suddenly become Oct?

So far we are getting robbed of a decent fall season. Not much of a summer & not much of a fall. I can't complain too much about Sept. Sept. we had great weather. The leaves are turning and early in the morning we are to get snow.

The youth kickball season came to an end. My 7-9 grade team took 1st place. My 4-6 grade team lost their final game which ended up putting them in 4th place. Oh well. They were a great group of kids. My 4-6 grade team all went out for Dairy Queen after our last game. The little girl on my team gave me a great big hug. Coaching was pretty rewarding. My 7-9th grade team had an end of season party at my co-coaches house. We cooked hot dogs and the parents all chatted in the kitchen & the kids all chatted in the tv room. Those kids were a pretty good group of kids too.

I got all the scores and stats in and updated on the kickball blog. http://eagankickball.blogspot.com I just have to wait for the awards to get shipped to me and then I'll be planning an awards party for the kids. It's going to have to be somewhere indoors as the weather is pretty cold to do something outside.

My adult league kickball season is pretty much over too. We had 2 rainouts, and I'm not sure when or if we'll even make those games up at all.

Now that kickball is all over with you may wonder what I will do with my time? National Novel Writing Month is just around the corner. Oct I will finish my outline for the book I plan on writing in November. I'm going to be writing about the Mayan Ruins in Tulum, Mexico. They are the most visited ruins, yet the least written about. I've been doing research on it since I got back from Mexico in February of 09, so hopefully it will all come out onto paper in November.

I had a birthday at the beginning of Oct. I celebrated for 4 days! I celebrated with friends the day before my b-day playing bingo. I didn't win anything, but 3 people at our table did. I had to celebrate my last day of being 40. On my birthday, I met up with friends at a nearby bar. My neighbor guy ended up showing up. He knew the DJ, so he told the DJ it was my birthday & the next thing I know, the whole place is singing Happy Birthday to me. The day after my birthday Ken & I went to Osaka's a Japanese seafood & steak house with another couple. The food was delicious! I had fillet mignon, lobster, shrimp, scallops, and fried rice. We did the Hibachi menu, so they cook the food right at your table. The chef does all sorts of fancy tricks. It's very entertaining. Then on Sunday (2 days after my b-day), I treated myself to a movie at the theater. I went and saw the movie "Fame". It was nothing like the original movie. The only thing the same was it takes place at the same school, and they had the singing, dancing, musical scene in the cafeteria. Otherwise, it was completely different characters with completely different stories. It was entertaining, and I enjoyed it, but I was expecting it to be more like the original.

Summer Madness Coming to an End

This is the last week of youth kickball. Tuesday night Kevin & Sam's team plays. If their team will take 2nd place overall in the league. If they lose they will take 4th place.

Wed night my 7th-9th grade team plays and after the game we are all headed to Coach Beth's house for an end of season celebration. The parents are bringing all sorts of goodies, so that should be fun.

Sometime in October, I'm going to have an end of season party for the kids and hand out awards. Awards for 1st and 2nd place overall, most home runs, most runs batted in, and most improved player will be handed out.

Two weekends ago we had gorgeous weather! It was too nice not to get out & about. So the boys & I headed over to Stillwater for a Sunday afternoon. We had a nice lunch outside on a restaurant patio overlooking the St. Croix River. We got to watch all the big boats go by and watch the lift bridge go up & down a few times to let the big boats go through.

After lunch we walked along the sidewalk next to the river. Then we headed to the little downtown area. We didn't go into many shops as the boys really aren't into that. But I did manage to get them into a knick knack store. They had some really neat Cuckoo clocks. Hand carved and intricate. Kevin made one of them sound off. It played music and chimed and went cuckoo, cuckoo. So I asked him how he did that. "Well, you just move the hands mom". Ok, so I went for the big one. I moved the hands and nothing happened. Well, sort of nothing. The store clerk came over & asked me if I touched the clock. I couldn't lie as I had been caught red handed touching the goods. Ok, well you need to leave. Ok, not gonna argue with that! So out we went. You can't expect a grown mom to keep her hands off the cuckoo clocks. You have to make sure it works! Maybe they should be kept in a case of some kind for curious grown ups like myself.

After we got kicked out of the knick knack store, we went across the street to a coffee shop. They had cave tours (click cave tours to read about it) . It was a really neat tour. Even the kids liked it. Its not the kind of cave that you typically think of. It's quite wide and easy to walk through. Our tour guide was full of info and humor. Definitely worth the tour.

Kevin has his first night of Robotics tomorrow night. His dad took him to the initial meeting. You know, the one he had rights not to go to. When he came home from the meeting he couldn't wait to sign up. I'm sure it was just a bad idea because we brought it up.

Growing up in Middle School

It's beginning to happen. He's growing up. The other day he told me that he could no longer play with the littler kids as now that he's in Middle School that's no longer cool and he doesn't want to be caught and be the laughing stock.

Also, the other day I was fiercely trying to get him to sign up for the after school robotics program. He was thinking of all sorts reasons not to, which I couldn't understand why. So I finally told him "Well, you are signing up for Robotics." Of which his reply was "I have rights to you know, and I don't have to sign up for it if I don't want to."

Well, I sent in the registration and his first Robotics meeting is on Tues. I told him to at least give it a chance and see what it's all about before he decides. I'd hate for him to miss out on an opportunity he actually might enjoy. He's just so cautious to try new things and put himself out on a limb.

He's been enjoying Middle School a lot, and we are starting the growing up process. It'll definitely be an interesting year of 6th grade.

Remembering 9/11

It is hard to believe it was 8 years ago that the horrible terrorist attack was taken upon the USA. I remember the day vividly, as do many people. I was sitting at work when some one came running through the building telling people to turn on their radios, a plane hit the World Trade Center. Everyone thought, hmmm…some stupid person hit the Center in their little Buddy Holly plane. All the TV's in the building were tuning in. Employees throughout the building dropped everything and got to a TV. The employee break room was packed. We saw the second plane hit & couldn't believe what we were seeing. It was like some bad nightmare, or really good special effect movie. It seemed so unreal. How could something that awful really be happening? Employees looked at each other to see if they were seeing the same thing. Then we saw the Towers collapse. Faces of shock & disbelief filled the room. Complete silence. No one knew what to say or how to feel. It was so much for us to consume in our minds.

We somberly went back to work, with sadness in our hearts and minds coming to terms that this indeed was reality. Our country was under attack. We got back to our desks and listened to our radios. It was all you could hear through out the building. No office chatter, no keyboards plunking, no phones ringing. Then we heard that the Pentagon had been attacked. Fear was in us. What was next? How could this be happening? Who was responsible? We kept listening as the news came in and we just listened. Then the news of the 4th plane crashing in a field came through. It was unbelievable. Was it going to end? How many more planes? How many more people? And most of all where? Where would the next bad explosion occur?

Planes were grounded. People stranded at airports. Everyone's lives forever changed not matter how attached or detached to the people involved.

I went home for lunch and it was odd. Not one single plane in the sky. The sky was quiet and still. I work, live, and drive on the landing and take off path near the airport, so seeing and hearing planes is an every day, let alone every hour occurrence. It's a part of my daily life. To have it suddenly still was a strange reality of it all. I felt numb the rest of the day. How will I explain this to my children? How will I explain to them that such horror was true to life? How will their young minds even understand? How would this event impact them? I decided at home we would not have the TV on and I would keep the horror from my children at least for that day. Plus I could not watch it over and over and over. It was too horrible.

I contacted the airport and offered up my home to house displaced air travelers. It was the most I could do to help out. I felt we needed to pull together as a society and I needed to do my part. They declined and said things were taken care of but thanks for offering. All I could think of was how lucky I was to be with my family safe and how many people's family were suddenly torn apart and how many families were worried about loved ones stranded in airports around the world on what was supposed to be just an ordinary Monday morning.

The whole week following the Attack of 9/11 adults and children were waving flags on street corners and on bridges. Flags at businesses were at half mast. A feeling of coming together, patriotism, and how much we really do love our country was overwhelming.

As, we take a moment to reflect upon the events of Sept 11, 2001, let's remember that Freedom comes with a heavy price. When you see a soldier on the street, at the store, at the airport…make sure to say THANK YOU. They are making the ultimate sacrifice for the people of America. They put their lives at risk for freedom. They make sacrifices you and I could never know. They deserve respect and honor. THANK YOU!!

Living La Vida Kickball

Kickball has pretty much been my life the past few weeks. I am coaching 2 teams. One team made up of 7th-9th graders and one team made up of 4th-6th graders. Kevin & Sam are both on my 4th-6th grade team.

My teams are great!!! The kids are so fantastic and the past few weeks have been so extremely rewarding. It is so nice to see the smiling faces of these kids having so much fun on the kickball field. I have had many parents thank me for bringing the sport into action and how much fun their child is having. Did I mention how great the kids are? I wish I could bring them all home with me. Well...I take that back. I'll just settle for the one hour each week I get with them listening to me. Did I just say kids listen me? Wow, now that is a new concept. Just add Coach Bonnie to my never ending list of titles.

Besides life on the kickball field....(Yes, I do have a life outside of kickball believe it or not)

I was in a wedding this past weekend. My good friend Jo that goes on my girls trips with me got married. I was one of her bridesmaids. The evening before the wedding we had rehearsal and went to dinner at the couple's favorite Mexican restaurant. It was good.

The day of the wedding I had my eyebrows waxed, my eyelashes tinted, and my hair done up really pretty. My hair stylist is awesome. She's young and energetic when it comes to hair. She knows hair! I told her she's the hair expert, have at it. I had no idea how I wanted to wear it. So she went against traditional updo style and gave me a really rocking updo off to the side. It was so adorable. I absolutely loved it. And wow, I got so many compliments on it.

The wedding was a complete blast. One of the most fun weddings I've been to. I've been to a lot of fun weddings. This one makes the top 5 (mine of course is number 1). But now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever been to a bad or boring wedding. Or wedding reception for that matter.

Yesterday my oldest caveboy had Middle School orientation. Yikes!! MIDDLE SCHOOL! Orientation was all day long. He met his teacher and class mates. He got his locker assignment and learned his combination. Their lockers are tiny! I'm not sure how they are supposed to fit all their books, hats, coats, ect. in there. When I went to school you should shove a person in your locker. I guess they are moving away from that? Nobody will be fitting in these lockers. I don't think they even a full 2 feet wide. They are only about 3 1/2 feet tall too.

Here is the little big man's daily schedule, which rotates on a cycle day. Blue & Green Cycle Days.

General Music / Phy Ed - Health
Math Lab / Phy Ed Health
Art / Science
Art / Science
Math
American History
Reading
English
Homebase (Study Hall/Homeroom)

He also got a map of the school. Yes, his school is quite large. It is 2 levels and I got lost going through there when I went to pick him up from orientation. Kevin seemed to know his way around, so apparently they navigated their way around a few times during orientation too.

Kickball Kick Off

Monday night I had my first Kickball practice with the 7-9 graders. It went really well. I had another coach helping me and he knew most of the kids and had a bigger voice than me, so I was really glad he was there. I got a good feel for what positions they can play and how well they can kick the ball. They were a really nice group of kids. I can tell it's going to be a good season with them.

Tonight I was supposed to have practice with my 4-6 grade team, but we got rained out. I'm hoping the field will be available this weekend, so we can get a practice in before our first game next week.

Tonight I help an umpire training. It was supposed to take place right after practice on the field, but since the city closed the fields, I had the umpires meet at my house instead. There are only 4 umpires I'm working with. It quit raining by the time they showed up, so I was able to take them to the backyard to go over the rules (all 6 pages of them). The had lots of good questions and we went through every single rule. I was able to show them legal vs. illegal pitches, and how the catcher can play. Umpire training took 1 hour.

Tomorrow night I have my adult league kickball game. That should be fun. We are on a less competitive league this season, so that will make for a fun season.

My Poor Neglected Blog

It has been a very busy couple of weeks. Kickball has been all consuming. I picked up my uniforms that I had made and they look fantastic! I'm so happy with how they turned out. I've been really busy finalizing things for kickball; schedules, late registrations, fields, equipment, ect...

My coaches meeting was on Thursday. It went really well and it was nice to meet everyone I'd working with this season. We met at Old Chicago. There are only 13 coaches, so it didn't seem practical to rent out a lecture room. I wasn't going to give any big speeches anyway, so I just wanted something laid back and practical. I gave out their equipment, and went over the official rules with them. Answered questions they had and that was about it.

One team I am co-coaching with is the Director of Traveling basketball and Inhouse volleyball. She also coaches those sports. She encouraged some of her kids to go out for kickball and is helping me coach so it is really nice that I have her support. So, she stayed at Old Chicago with me after everyone left and gave me some helpful tips.

The kickball season starts up on Monday. I'm pretty excited about it really.

Kickball, Kickball, and more Kickball

My youth kickball league is coming along rather nicely at the last minute. I've had some later registrations which helped out a lot. I ordered the uniforms the other day and those will be in next week in time for my coaches meeting. I'm excited to see how they look. I didn't have a logo design that I really liked. So I told the guy at the uniform store, what I was thinking. Turns out he is the designer, so he ran with my idea and threw in a few things of his own, and is going to design it for me. They should be pretty neat.

Tomorrow, the equipment I ordered is getting delivered to my house. I ordered it locally and the sales rep is going to deliver it personally. It was the easiest shopping I've ever done. I emailed the sales rep at Metro Sports, told him what I needed. I called him today to see if he had my order and he said "yep, we have everything you need, when do you want me to bring it to you?" WOW, now that's what I call service!

Today I got my teams formed and finalized. I'm still waiting on a couple late registrations, but I have some of their info already. I have to wait for the people's registrations to get uploaded to one program, that uploads to another program, then gets to me. So my information is a day or two old by the time I get it. I did order extra uniforms for just that reason.

I also got the schedules formed today. I sent a copy of the schedules off to the lady who runs the fields of the city, so those are reserved for me. I've got some pretty nice fields to play on. The city has over 100 parks, so I had a few to choose from. I had to be careful with that as I'm head coaching two teams. One team for grades 4-6 (my kids are on) and one team 7-9. I needed extra coaches. I still have one team that is coachless, but I think I'll be able to find one for them before next week and it won't be me.

My coaches meeting is next Thursday. That's where I get to give them all their team stuff and hand out all sorts of paperwork. Should be fun, we're meeting at Old Chicago so it'll be less formal.

The season officially starts the week of Aug 17. I'm pretty excited that I got this program up & running. I was nervous I wouldn't have enough kids to participate, but things really picked up the last two weeks and it looks like a promising first season.

Another Week in Review

Wed. night I went to see Kevin Costner & Modern West. They were performing at the MN Zoo. I took my camera with me,but it got confiscated by security (it was returned safely to me after the concert) before I could get into the concert. They were banning all cameras except cell phone cameras and small handhelds. Bummer...I was hoping to get good photos. Oh well...it didn't ruin any fun.

The concert was great. The group wrote and performed some new songs that were pretty good. Can't wait for a new cd to come out. My seats were great too. 10 rows up, right smack in center stage.

At the end of the concert Kevin decided to sign autographs up by the stage. By the time I got down there, he was done and went backstage. I did get down there in time for some weirdo to ask for a bottle from the stage that Kevin had drank from during the concert. WEIRDO!

Some people had back stage passes (the lucky ducks!), but not me. :(



I have 72 kids signed up for kickball! I've had lots of last minute registrants. It's pretty exciting to see it grow. I've got all my coaches lined up too. The season starts in 2 weeks, so this week I have lots to do in order to be ready for the season.

Today we took Kevin up to Roseville to catch his bus for summer camp. This is his 4th year going to CYC (Catholic Youth Camp). We drove up to Roseville, ate out at Perkins and then dropped him off. After he got loaded on the bus, we drove over to Half Price Books. I bought a couple of books on photography, a couple of John Saul books, and a WW2 book for Kevin. He's going to love it. It is all about the different battles with tactical maps. I didn't find anything that Sam would be interested in, so he didn't get one. I think I'll take Sam out to see a movie this week while Kevin is gone. One thing for sure, is this is going to be a really quiet week with out him around.

July

Where did it go? If anyone finds it, please return it to me.

Conversations with my 11 year old

Sometimes he is just too smart for his own good. This was from a phone conversation the two of us had on Friday.

Me: Kevin, don't forget to do some math today.

Kevin: I won't

Me: Really?

Kevin: yeah

Me: did you do any math yesterday?

Kevin: Yes

Me: When?

Kevin: yesterday

Me: Where is it?

Kevin: Well, I did it all in my head.





Me: Kevin, you should go up & down the stairs 10 times every day

Kevin: Why?

Me: Because I said so

Kevin: No

Me: What?

Kevin: No

Me: Why?

Kevin: Welll....

Me: Give me one good reason you can't do that.

Kevin: Cuz I don't want to.

Me: That's not a reason

Kevin: Well, you said "cuz I said so" and that's not a reason either.





Me: Well, you need to get some kind of excercise every day

Kevin: I do

Me : When?

Kevin: When I walk to the computer.

Me: That doesn't count, it's like 10 steps

Kevin: When I go to the kitchen

Me: That doesn't count. Walking from one room to another isn't exercise

Kevin: Well, sometimes I run from the kitchen to the bathroom.

Me: That doesn't count

Kevin: What? I'm running!

And They're Off!

Monkeyseemonkeydo wins the race!! And we all stand up and cheer.

Yesterday, I had a girls lunch date. We went to Canterbury Downs for the horse races. That is so much fun. We reserved a table and were spoiled. We had someone wait on us for lunch and we also had a betting runner. She came right to the table, took our wagers, and paid us out on our wins. We had seats right on the finish line.

I had total beginners luck. I only bet $2 per race. Some races I put down 1 wager and some I put down 2 wagers. I won on every race except the 7th, but 7 races out of 8 is pretty dang good. I also took a shot at putting a wager on a Triple Play. You have to name the winners of 3 races in a row. The first one I did, I lost my $2. The second one, I won $100. I won a total of $140 for the day. Pretty good Beginner's Luck, I must say.

When we walked in we bought Jack or Joe or whoever he is tips on betting the winner. He predicts who is going to win and give tips on the horses in each race. I'm glad I only followed his advice on 2 of the races, as he only picked 2 winners out of 8. Good thing I listened to my grandmother's advice and picked the ones with the names I liked. Turns out she has the best advice. Maybe they should sell her picks instead.

We ventured outside for the final race, so we could be closer to the action.

I've seen jockeys on TV and they are little there, but up close and personal, they are tiny with big heads. One of them had a Superman jockey outfit on. I don't think he won any races though.

We had a really good time. We decided we'd definitely have to make that another girls day out venture. Hopefully, my Beginner's Luck will continue. I'll continue to follow Grandma's advice as it worked for me yesterday. Next time I'll wager $5 on some of the races now that I know how it all works.

Photos, Photos, Photos

This last week has been a busy week of taking photographs. It has been a lot of fun though.

Tuesday, I photographed a couple of teenagers. They were pretty mellow and cooperative, so that was good. I got some really good portraits of them.

Thursday, I photographed a 4 month old baby. She wasn't as cooperative as the teenagers, and she liked to really wiggle around. We had to take a couple of breaks with her so she could eat and get used to all the props. She didn't like laying on her tummy much, mostly her back. She was pretty interested in her hands, so they kept getting in the way. I did end up with quite a lot of good photos of her. She is a little cutie and she gave me some nice expressions.

After the photo shoot on Thursday, we grilled out steaks and had a nice dinner with the baby's parents. It was pretty yummy. I love a good steak any day of the week.

Friday night, I did a photo shoot for a charity event. It was the Eagan Relay For Life Walk Benefit for Cancer. It was a pretty moving event. I was amazed by all the people there. They had luminaries around the track that represented a person who had either survived or passed away from cancer. That was pretty incredible. They had names on them and were decorated really nice by the families and friends. I was at the event from 5 pm to a little after 10 pm. I was beat when I got home.

Today, I went to the Kickball Tournament in St. Paul and took some photographs of that event as well.

Tomorrow I am headed off to the Canterbury Downs for the horse races with my girlfriends that I went to Mexico with. That should be a pretty good time. I'm of course taking my camera with me, but not sure what kind of seats I'll have to get close up photos. I'm not going to worry too much about it, as this is just for fun and hanging out with the girls.

I have 2 possibly 3 photo shoots next week and them I'm done with photos for my portfolio. I'll have a pretty nice portfolio built to get started out. I really do enjoy photography, so it'll be fun to have it as a second job now. It'll help fund my girls trips.

Guy's weekend

This past weekend was one for the guys. Well, two of the guys anyway. Ken & Kevin went to a friend's cabin in Wisconsin that is on a lake. Sam & I stayed home. I had WAY too many things I wanted to do that I couldn't get done by camping in Wisconsin.

Kevin asked me before he left what he'd do with out me there. "Well, you'll have to adopt a mom for the weekend, there will be plenty of other moms there to adopt for a day or two." He was so sweet and told me he didn't need to adopt another mom to replace me. DANG IT ANYWAY!! Just kidding...I wouldn't trade him in either...well most times I wouldn't trade him in.

He had a great time hanging out with the guys at the cabin and doing some good male bonding with his dad. It was good for them to have a weekend alone together with out mom hanging around constantly. It's also good for the brothers to separate from each other every now & then too.

One the way home from the camping trip he told his dad, "You know, I didn't even really miss Mom & Sam. Is that bad?"

I'm glad to hear that he didn't miss us. It's great that he was able to have such a good time and not think of us and what he's missing out at home.

What did he miss out at home? Cleaning! And lots of it! Shopping! And lots of it! Sam & I shopped like champions. We did some grocery shopping and some new camera equipment shopping for mom. Sam was a bit disappointed that he did not get a new camera. It's not fair that he's the only one who doesn't have one. I told him he could share my purse size one with me, but he has to share it. He was fine with that.

We also did a bit of grocery shopping. The store we went to had a local radio station celebrity there and she was quite funny. She was much different looking than I thought too. Radio personality always is that way though.

Sam & I cleaned house. Wow, did I get lots done with out the other two in my way. In fact they wondered if they came home to the right house or not when they walked in. Thanks guys...

Ken & Kevin had a good time and didn't get nagged at one single time, Sam & I got lots done with out those two in our hair. And it was REALLY quiet too. Hmmmm.... We might have to send those two on camping trips more often.

He's a Healthy Boy!

Thursday evening, Kevin had his annual physical. He's a healthy boy.

He is in the 60th percentile for both height and weight, so he's a square.

The doctor talked to him about healthy eating and not eating his parents out of our life savings. He also talked to him about hygiene. Good thing too. That kind of advice is so much better coming from a doctor than parents. What do we know? We are the stupid ones according kids his age. He seemed to be listening, so we'll see if it sunk in or went in one ear and out the other.

We also talked to the doctor about his growing pains in his heel and his calf muscles. The doctor poked around his feet, his ankles, his calf muscles, and his knees. Did the old "does this hurt? does this hurt?" routine. Some yes' and some no's, the doctor determined that he has Sever's Disease. Which really isn't a disease at all. It is an inflammation of the tendons that connect to the heel bones and is associated with growing. It can happen in the knees too, and that is called osgood schlatters disease, which is also not a disease. The doctor told us what kind of shoe supports to buy, and what kinds of things to do to help relieve the pain.

Kevin also received two shots. I made sure they were Thimerosal free and they were, so we went ahead with it. He got a tetanus shot in his right arm and a meningitis shot in the left arm. Double whammy. They are both long lasting shots and they both make your arms sore for a while. I've been having him do arm circles to keep them active, so they don't stiffen up and be sore and stiff.

Kevin was happy to hear that his little brother would get a physical too.

Where Are You Ice Cream Man?

It's official. I scared away the ice cream man. He has not shown up since I gave him his orders to show up every Tuesday and Friday at 7 pm. He has no idea on the money he's missing out in our neighborhood. Not to mention the disappointed kids that keep wanting and wishing him to come.

I saw in the local newspaper that a mom and daughter started their own ice-cream truck business. They own a pink truck. Sam would love that truck. I suppose I should call them and put our neighborhood on their schedule.

Sam wants to own his own ice-cream truck when he grows up. I think he'd eat all his profits.

Week in Review

Another blogger slacking week. I hate it when I get behind on these.

Monday- have no idea at this point what happened on Monday. Oh, yes, I do...I took Kevin to Kumon. He took two tests and passed the level that he started on, so he got to move up a level. Yay! Way to go! Good job Kevin. Math is getting easier for him, but he still needs lots of practice. Kumon has him doing a math packet every day. Repetition is key they say. Whatever works!

Tuesday - I did a practice photo shoot in my new in home studio. My friend from work brought his niece and his 3 kids over. They were a fun group of kids. I did individual photographs and group photographs. I started with the youngest and worked my way up to the oldest. That strategy worked pretty well. While I was photographing one kid, I had the parents getting the next one ready. It went really smooth. The started to get pretty silly and bored with it at the end, but all in all, they did great.

Wednesday and Thursday- I worked on editing photos

Friday - I had Friday off from work. Sam didn't have daycare, and Kevin didn't have summer school. I picked up an unmotorized Go-Cart that some guy's kids made in boyscouts. They no longer had use for it, so he posted it on Freecycle & I snatched it up. I brought it home (it was a lot larger than I had thought) and Sam had some fun in it for a while. Our driveway doesn't slope enough to get it going real fast, so his interest didn't last long. It needs a couple of new nails in it. It needs sanded and a new paint job. I think I can handle that.

Sam & I went to Goodwill on Friday as well. Sam bought a couple of new shirts. He picked them out all by himself. One is just a plain white t-shirt and the other is a button down, short sleeve blue shirt, with white Hawaiian flower print on it. It's actually quite a nice shirt and looks pretty good on him.

Friday afternoon, I ended up with a stomach ache, so I ended up eating Tums and taking a nap. After the Goodwill trip, I wasn't productive at all.

Friday evening Ken & Kevin went over & convinced the neighbor guy to light off some of the fireworks that he'd bought over in Wisconsin. Ken had some bottle rockets and others that he ran over to light off as well. No sooner had the neighbor guy lit off a firework, a cop showed up. Told us the fireworks we had were illegal in MN, and he confiscated them. Then he told us that if he came back we could be fined $1000 and sent to jail for 90 days. Buzzkiller. Apparently, he doesn't know that we have a fire fighter and a doctor on the block. That should be good right? Ok, illegal is illegal....fine...stupid people who light them off when they're drunk and hurt other people always ruin it for the ones who are safe. Things must have been slow at the police department. We figured they'd gone out to all the neighborhoods as there were about 5 pockets of fireworks being shot in the air and suddenly all activity ceased.

Saturday - We packed up the van and headed to Ken's sister's house about an hour away. She lives on a lake, so she had a family beach party. Ken got to waterski. He only waterskis about once a year, so he stayed up as long as he could. He was pretty sore today too. He was done when he did a face plant in the water. It looked like it hurt and I did not get a photo of his ever so gracious face plant, but I did get some really good ones of him on the water. (I'll post later) He wasn't hurt, thank Goodness, but he was done skiing. His siblings all took their turns waterskiing too. They are all pretty good at it. They've been doing it since they were kids. I have only ever gotten up on waterskis once in my life. That once was good enough. Water is not soft when you hit it at 40mph.

After all the water activity his sister had dinner done for us. She made a BBQ beef brisket. It was so delicious. She made some without BBQ for the kids and Kevin sure ate up a bunch of that.

We got home from Ken's sister's house around 8:30 pm, so we headed over to the neighbors. Kevin & Ken wanted to know if he was going to light off the rest of the fireworks. No go there, the neighbor's wife said absolutely not. The neighbor told us if we wanted to light them off we could, but he wasn't going to. I figured it was a bad idea too. We certainly didn't need anyone getting arrested on the 4th of July over fireworks of all things.

Kevin & I made some popcorn and headed over to a field nearby to watch fireworks so that we wouldn't have to fight the big crowd at the City Park. We got to see about 4 different firework shows from around the area. That was pretty neat. When it was over we were home in 5 minutes. No crowds at all.

We got home and Ken was in the neighbor's driveway with a bunch of other people. They had lit off the legal fireworks. No one wanted to chance the cops coming by again after Friday night.

We finished the night hanging out with the neighbors until it was really late.

Today we laid around. I went outside for a while to get some sunshine and worked on sanding the rust off of an old tricycle I bought at a garage sale for $2 I still have some work to do on it, and then I have to re-paint it. Apparently I think I don't have enough projects. Oh well, it's a fun project and gets me outside with something to do.

This evening I made hamburgers on the grill. Oh they were yummy.

This coming up week, I have a wedding to attend on Wed. We have a wedding on Friday, and then are going to a friend's cabin for Saturday & Sunday. So it will prove to be another busy week. I still have photo editing to do and work on the tricycle now that I've got that project started.

There are Wild Animals in my back yard.

No wait, that's just the children! But they sound like wild animals! One nice thing about summer is that the kids can spend so much time outdoors. Sam, who normally likes to be a homebody, has been outside every day. Yesterday he was outside for 3 hours. We are so glad he's coming out of his shell and going out and playing with some of the neighborhood kids.

Ken is out in the backyard setting up the trampoline. He wasn't sure the kids were going to use it this year, but they have been begging him to get it set up.

Even the cat is outside enjoying a great day. She goes out on her leash and we tie her to a post, just like a dog. She sits in the yard and just watches the birds go by and enjoys the sunshine. The other 2 cats are too scared to go outside, so they just sit by the screen door and act like they want to go out. We did try to train them how to be on the leash like our other cat, but all they did was freak out and try to break away to get back in the house. Stupid cats.

Spring Kickball is over

The Kick Busters Spring/Summer season came to an end on Thursday. What an end it was too. We had about 8 different teams participate in a cookout, not to mention beverage too. One team even had a bunch of pizzas delivered for their portion. Every one on this league was pretty fun. We won 2 games, tied 1, and lost 5. Which is MUCH better than the last two years we've been playing.

We lost our final game. Our game was the last game of the evening and every one was feeling pretty good. We decided for the fun of it that in the 5th inning the teams would run the bases backwards. After you kicked the ball, you had to run to 3rd base, then second, then first, then home. It's a bit confusing, but for some strange reason everyone did pretty good with it. We only did it for that one inning. We ended up losing our last game by a few runs.

Now, we just wait for the summer/fall league to start up again in August. There is a mini-golf league that I could join, but I think I'll pass on that one. I think I'm busy enough for now.

California Trip Update

I got the hubby out of the cave and we took a trip to California. It was just the two of us. The kids went to spend the week with Grandma & Grandpa up on the lake.

Sunday we were busy packing, getting the kids packed and shipped out. My husband was packing like a girl. He was driving me nuts. I have three people to pack, he's on his own. He kept coming out in the living room with something on, asking my opinion, and if he should pack it. Then he'd go back to the room and few minutes later do the same thing all over again with a different outfit. I told him to just pack what ever he wanted. He explained he couldn't do that as I had the big suitcase. Of course I do, I have six pairs of shoes to bring, all my bathroom supplies, and several different outfits (at least 2 or 3 per day), so of course I need the big suitcase. So I told him, "yes, that looks fine, bring it and quit being such a girl."

I ended up staying up pretty late Sunday evening and into Monday morning. Between excitement of the trip and anxiety of flying and both of us being so far away from the kids for a whole week, I got very little sleep. I finally got to bed around 2:30 or 3:00 am. I had to wake up at 5:30 am to get to the airport on time. So I had a good nap.

Our flight left Monday morning at 8:00 am. The lines to check in and go through security were huge. It was a good thing we got there with plenty time. We had some time to grab breakfast and make our flight. Since I had gotten very little sleep the week before and that night, I slept really good on the airplane. We had a quick layover in Phoenix. Just enough time to get off the plane we were on and catch our connecting flight to California.

We made it to California and got our rental car, then headed to our hotel at Laguna Beach. Our hotel was pretty nice. It was on the Pacific Coast Highway, and we had to cross the street and go down a walkway and a bunch of steps to get to the beach, so the first thing we did was head to the beach. Ken hasn't been to a coastal beach in over 20 years, so he was really excited to be on the ocean. It was great. I was posing for a picture, when I got taken out by a gigantor wave. I totally did not see it coming. I was too busy posing and telling my husband to make sure to get a good picture. Yep, he got a good picture alright. A still shot of impending doom.


I couldn't figure out why he kept looking at me and shouting something. "Ugh, just take the picture would you?". The next thing I know, I'm being sucked out to sea and having pounds of sand invade my swimsuit. I managed to get out of the wave and get my bearings in time to get hit by a second wave. That wave took my beach hat out to sea. My sweet hubby went & got it. At first we didn't think we could get it, but it finally got swept back up to us. So the beach hat is saved!

After we were done getting beat up by the sea, we went back to the hotel to get out of our wet sand filled suits. I swear two pounds of sand and rocks came out of my swimsuit. I was picking sand out of my hair and my ears for the next day.

Tuesday we decided to head to Huntington Beach for the afternoon. We went out onto the pier, walked around, did some shopping, watched the fisherman and surfers, and then sat out on the beach and went swimming in the ocean. The waves at Huntington Beach were much nicer to us. The waves rolling in weren't as harsh coming into shore. We got some good sun and had lots of fun feeling like giddy kids.

We ate lunch at a nice restaurant near the pier overlooking the ocean. We ended up sitting at a table next to some Hollywood big wigs. They were talking about all the different projects they were working on. They sounded like a busy group of people. They really didn't seem to care that we could hear their conversation either.

We got back to Laguna Beach and we walked down the beach and just walked around and enjoyed the scenery. We didn't try to take on the waves. We'd had enough of that already. We saw one of the most beautiful sunsets I think I've ever seen in my life.

Wednesday we headed to Temecula, CA for my niece's wedding. We got there pretty early, so we made a stop at my sister's house since it was right on the way to where we were headed. We had a good visit and then headed to our hotel (Pechanga Resort & Casino which is also where the wedding was taking place). We got checked in and then I made sure that my mom and grandma got checked in OK as well. Once every one was settled, Ken & I headed to dinner. After dinner, I met up with my sister Patty and my baby brother Ed. We called my mom to come meet us in the casino, so we went gambling. I won $50 on the first nickle slot machine. I put $10 and whammy! Big money...show me the money! My sister Patty sat next to me and her nickle machine ate her $10 faster than you can say ten dollars.

Thursday morning after breakfast, my sister Patty, Ed, and I decided to try our luck again. I didn't have such good luck and lost $35 of the $50 I won the night before. Patty won $83 and Ed won $20. Oh well, we all ended up winning something, so that was fun. We just hung out at the casino and visited and had some good family time. My 101 year old grandma was there too, so we got a good visit with her too.

Thursday afternoon, we all parted ways and got ready for the wedding. While the siblings were gambling, Ken, and Patty's daughter and her friend all went and enjoyed the pool. I never did make it to the pool. I made it to the pool bar, but not the actual pool. I guess I was too busy visiting and gambling.

My sister Mary and her husband and two littlest girls showed up to our hotel room to get dressed for the wedding. They didn't stay at the hotel, so we let them invade our room to get ready for the wedding. The wedding was taking place on the outdoor waterfall patio at the casino. All the guests gathered in the lobby area and then we were seated outside.

The wedding was very beautiful. My niece Katie was such a gorgeous bride. The ceremony went as if they'd planned it for a long time when in fact they planned it in three months. The wedding was short, sweet, and to the point. They had photos taken after the ceremony. The wedding dinner and reception was held on the resorts top floor. It was really pretty up there and they had lots of big wall length windows that overlooked the mountains in the area. Dinner was really good, and so was dessert. The dance was pretty fun too. My 3 year old niece (the fwower goya as she told everyone) danced all night long.

Friday we all parted our separated ways. My mom, grandma, and brother headed home. My sister Patty, her daughter, and her daughter's friend went to Sea World ( where the girls got to swim with the dolphins. I can't wait to see those pictures.) Ken & I headed back to Laguna Beach.

On our way back to Laguna Beach, Ken & I stopped at San Juan Capistrano and we toured the old mission. It was very beautiful and serene in there. We also went to the new cathedral that they built outside of the mission. The alter is completely made of gold. It was such a beautiful place.

Our last night at Laguna Beach we went to the downtown area by the seashore and did some shopping. We bought souvenirs for the kids and I bought a really pretty painting from a local artist. Then we went and ate dinner at The Beach House and had some fresh seafood. Yummmy! It was really delicious. After dinner we walked along the shoreline back to our car.

That evening there was no sunset as it was too cloudy. So Ken & I grabbed a couple of towels and we walked down to the beach near our hotel and just sat on the beach and watched the waves roll in. We were sad that we had to leave the next day. But we were missing the kids, so we had a good reason to come home, even though we tried to think of ways to miss our flight and spend an extra day or two.

Saturday morning we packed up our things and headed back to the airport. Boo Hoo, we had to leave beautiful Southern California. We flew from Sana Ana California to Phoenix. We had enough time in Phoenix to eat lunch, since we never got breakfast before we left California. We got on the plane in Phoenix to come home. About 10 minutes of waiting to take off, the pilot came on the speaker system saying there was a computer malfunction and the computer had to be replaced, it would take about an hour to fix. We were instructed to stay on the plane. I put in my mp3 player headphones and took a nap.

Our flight home was the noisiest flight I've ever been on in my life. Lots of crying babies and grumpy old men. I seriously thought a fight was going to break out between one of the grumpy old men and one of the mom's of two of the crying kids. He told her very loudly not to bring children on a plane if they couldn't behave. She yelled back at him something and then they bantered back and forth for a while. Then she tried to get sympathy from the people and said really loud "can you believe this guy is for real?!" A little while later her kids started crying again. She got up to walk them around and said "Let's walk this way and stay away from the grumpy old man!" Nothing better than plane drama. Everyone on board was so glad we landed in MN.

Sunday the kids came home. It was pretty good to see them. I think they even grew.

The kids had a really good week with grandma and grandpa. They got to go fishing with grandpa and they helped grandma out too. So everyone had a great vacation!

Here are some pictures from the vacation and the wedding.

California Trip

Schumacher-Dwyer wedding

Guilty of Blog Neglect

My poor little blog has been neglected so. My last post was June 8th. I didn't fall off the face of the world, I just got busy. The week of June 8-14 I was busy. I did a photo shoot on Monday, Tuesday eve I got a call from the school nurse that I had to go get Kevin from field trip camp because he was running a fever and not feeling well. That sure made a long night! I had to drive about 2 hours away to get him. I got lost on the way up to the Audobon Center as it was dark and foggy. The signs for the place were not lit and off on the sides of the road. So I missed a turn or two. Good thing for cell service! I arrived home with the little darling at 12:30 am. Ugh! Sure made for a short night when I had to get up at 6 am that day. That late night messed up the rest of my week.

Thursday I had kickball. We got our butt's kicked! It was fun, but man did we get clobbered! I quit keeping score after they were up by 15 runs. We did manage to score one run, so it wasn't a total shut out.

Friday night I was in bed early, as I had to get up at 6 am on Saturday for my work's 75th Anniversary Party and Contractor (Truck Driver) Appreciation Day. The kids got up early and came with me on Saturday. We didn't get home until almost 2 pm, so that sure made for a long day.

Sunday, we packed and Ken's parents drove down to pick our kids up for the week, as Ken & I were headed to Sunny Southern California!

All of that sure made for a busy week. A very blog neglected week.

Mundane Monday...Nothing really Mundane about it.

This weekend was a cold rainy one. Which enabled me to get lots done around the house. Kevin wanted to go to a D-Day Anniversary celebration, but none were happening except 2 1/2 hours away. We'll have to plan that one better next year. Who knew an 11 year old kid would want D-Day as a National Holiday. So instead he stayed home out of the rain (unlike the soldiers on D-Day) and watched the D-Day Marathon on the Military Channel. Then he drew some maps of the beaches of Normandy. We also watched the movie "Saving Private Ryan". I told him that we would watch it together and I figured it was on TMC that it would have been edited. Nope. I told Kevin that it would contain lots of swear words and the battle scenes might be a bit too bloody for him. "Ah, it's OK Mom, I've seen this movie before. I can handle it". Apparently he watched it in segments on the internet. He claimed he didn't know it was rated R. Uh, huh sure. I should expect this of him. He did really like the movie Jaws as a youngster. When the shark blows up at the end, he would always say "Kaboomy!" One time I hid my eyes from the movie Jaws and he said in his little voice "You can look mom, it's only a movie. It's not real." Yep, that's my boy!

Sam pretty much enjoyed staying in. He played with his cats and laid in bed and watched cartoons. He just had a nice lounging weekend.

I cleaned and cleaned. I didn't get the whole house done, but I did get quite a bit done. I finished cleaning out the spare room and getting it reorganized into a photo studio. Yep, I'm turning into my father. Only an updated version. A digital camera, with backgrounds, and props. Which is a step up from a wool blanket taped to the wall like my dad used to do. I think Dear Ol' Dad would be proud. He probably thought I wasn't paying attention when he was teaching me photography as a kid. Little did he know, he's created a monster. I figured I enjoy it so much, and I've had people compliment me on it, and even a couple people ask me to take photos for them, that I decided to turn it into a side gig. Why not? So this summer I have people lined up to build my portfolio that I will have something to show the people who want to pay me for my photo services. Why not make some extra cash doing something that I love. It will keep me from sitting around being bored when I'm not writing or playing kickball.

Today Kevin took off on the school bus for a 3 day, 2 night field trip. Wow, what a way to end the school year. His 5th grade class went to the Audubon Center in Sandstone, MN. He'll be back on Wed. I can't wait to hear all about it. I didn't let him take his digital camera, as I didn't want it getting lost or stolen. Plus I want him to just have fun & not worry about taking photos. The weather didn't look too promising there for the next three days. When he gets home, he'll have three days worth of talking to do, so that will keep me busy all night. It will sure be quiet around here with out him that is for sure!

I Caught You Ice Cream Man!

Tonight Kevin came running in the door, slamming it behind him in a big hurry. He raced up the stairs and dug into the change vase for a handful of quarters. "The Ice Cream Man is here!!" I quickly followed suit and grabbed a couple of dollar bills out of my wallet. No time to dig for change. "Hurry up Mom!" Kevin said as he raced back to the cul-de-sac. Sure enough it was the Ice Cream Man. There were lots of kids in line. Sam got a Pink Panther ice cream thing on a stick. Kevin got a popsicle called Lickity Lick. A popsicle of flavor explosion. I got the ever desired Jolly Rancher popsicle. Yummmmmmy!!!

While standing in line I asked the Ice Cream Man if he had a set scheduled route. He said yes. I asked him what it was and he showed me the cable inside the truck that makes the truck make music. No, no, no...what is your schedule? When and what time do you come to this cul-de-sac. He finally got the jist of what I was saying and told me every Friday night. I asked him if he came any other night besides Friday. He said "No, just Friday night, I come here." I said "No, that's not good enough. You need to come more often." He looked at me puzzled. I bet he thought he was working for himself and had no boss. Ha! Boy was he suprised. I said "You need to come every Tuesday and Friday around 7 pm. " He said "I do?" I said "Yes, you do. These kids wait for you, you need to come Tuesday and Friday at 7 pm." He said "Ok, I come Tuesday and Friday at 7 pm." Wow...I sure have learned a lot from my grandmother!!

Hopefully, he'll follow my command and drive his happy truck down our cul-de-sac on Tuesday evening.

haircuts, missing child, ice cream man, and kickball

That has been my week thus far.

What was seeming like a relatively calm Monday, didn't turn out as such. The boys were in dire need for hair cuts, so I decided that since I've watched Fantastic Sam's and Kids Hair do it so many times, I could probably muddle my way through just this once. I did a good job! No patches, no bald spots, no chopped off ears, and it's not lopsided. I no longer have my electric clippers, so I did it with hair cutting scissors. The kids are old enough to stand still for me and not cry anymore.

After dinner Sam decided he'd go outside and wait for the ice cream man. Sam is really good at sticking to the cul-de-sac and following the rules of being outside. At 7:10 pm I went outside to call him inside as I had to go get my hair cut.

I walked outside and no sight of Sam. Hmmm... so I came inside, no shoes by the door. I checked the backyard. No sight of Sam. I went through the house searching for him. No Sam. Hmmmm....His bike was in the garage, his shoes are gone, where could he be? So I walked down the street...No sights of Sam. I crossed the street and looked in the other cul-de-sac. I asked a couple people if they saw him. Nope, no sight of Sam. Mommy panic button starts to go off. I have my cell phone in hand trying to call my hubby as he was not home from work yet. He doesn't answer his phone. I am headed home to get my van to search the neighborhood even further and call 911 to report a missing child. When who drives around the corner? My husband! I nervously ask him if he has Sam in the car. Sam is sitting in his car with a big fat smile on his face holding a Jolly Rancher popsicle. My husband said "Yeah, I have Sam. What's wrong? I took him to chase down the ice cream truck." So I said a few dirty words to him and told him that he scared the hell out of me." His reply "I'm sorry honey, I thought you'd be able to tell that I had him because my work shirt was by the door."

Ok...let me get this straight. You got out of your car, put your work shirt by the door, but didn't bother to tell me that you were taking Sam to go chase an ice cream truck? According to him, he didn't think I'd notice. Again...more dirty words out of my mouth. No, a mom would never notice that her child was missing and then start to panic. Nope, not me...Just call me Mrs. Non Caring Calm Mom. Missing child...eh, no big deal, he'll show up eventually. WRONG!

I heard on the radio the next moring, that someone did a study to test how men and women become stupider after talking to an attractive person of the opposite sex. Men & women were first given a battery of tests, then they had to converse with attractive people, then they retook the test. Of course the men failed miserabley on the second test. No surprise there. Women didn't do much worse than the first test they took. They also said the more attractive the person the worse the men did on the second test. So I'd like to know what sexy woman my husband was talking to before he took my child with out letting me know. I'd also like to know if he understands why mama bears tear animals or people apart who mess with their cubs. Yeah, don't mess with this mama bear's cubs!

After the ice cream man debacle, I jumped in my van to go to my hair cut appointment. Who do I see driving down my cul-de-sac while I'm leaving? The damn ice cream man! Oh, I hate that guy!!!

Tuesday night was much better. Sam waited for the ice cream man, like he does on a daily basis. I told him that even if he goes with his daddy somewhere, he needs to check in with me before leaving.

After dinner, I left the boys in the hands of their father and I walked to the Middle School for EAA sports face to face registration. Not many people showed up. 98% of the people that showed up were there for football. Those kids had to get weighed and measured for equipment. I had one kid sign up for kickball and the rest were K-3 signing up for soccer or basketball. Kickball isn't offered for K-3 in the first year. The EAA lady told me not to worry, the face to face registrations get smaller and smaller each year, because the online registration is pretty slick now. Registration is open and goes until July 8th, so I have another month to get kids to sign up.

Today Kevin got his braces adjusted. He said it didn't hurt to bad, and the adjustments were minor. This time around he picked out Navy Blue and Black bands. Not really much difference between the two colors, but that's what he picked. Then he told me it was because it was in honor of the Navy for D-Day. Wow. OK...that's cool. What other 11 year old would think of that?

Tonight was relaxing. Nothing going on. Sam & Kevin of course waited for an ice cream man who again did not show up. Then the boys ended up playing outside all day.

I have a busy Thursday tomorrow, but it should be fun.

Memorial Weekend in Grand Marais, MN

We spent the three day weekend in one of my favorite summer locations....Grand Marais, MN. Grand Marais is on the north shore of Lake Superior, about 20 miles south of the Canadian border. It is absolutely wonderful up there. The ice had just come off the lakes up there about a week ago, so there were absolutely no mosquitos!

We drove up late Friday night, and checked into our hotel. This year we didn't get to stay on the lake shore, instead we stayed a bit more inland, but we still had a nice view of Lake Superior. It was just a short walk to the East Bay and the Harbor where all the restaurants and shops are.

Saturday morning the boys woke up early and were ready to go. We headed to town for breakfast and some shopping. Some local artists were selling their crafts in a parking lot and a one man band was set up as well. I bought an amethyst rock that some guy mines up in Thunder Bay Canada. Then we stopped and listened to a one man band guy. He played guitar and wooden flute, and then he had pedals by his feet that he could make different instrument sounds. It was pretty neat.

After we were done meandering around town, Ken & the boys headed up to Devil's Track Lake where his parents have some land. They have built a garage on it, so now there is a place for storage and shelter. It's huge with lots of windows, so you could also build a space for living or relaxing.

The guys came back from the lake and we went swimming at our hotel. Sam had a great time swimming and I introduced the boys to the sauna. The sauna was a dry sauna, so you couldn't put water on the heated rocks. It took a while for it to warm up. The boys enjoyed feeling the warmth of it after getting out of the pool. It helped us dry off quicker too, so we weren't freezing and dripping wet back up the room.

After swimming we headed back up to Devil's Track Lake to do some fishing and have a campfire with Grandma, Grandpa, and the cousins. We did some fishing. Ken caught a small mouth bass, and he kept fishing and fishing. The sun was setting and he hadn't eaten dinner yet, so I walked down to the dock and told him to go eat. I practically had to force him to go as he was just really enjoying fishing, trying to catch just one more fish. Finally his dad came down and told him to go eat. I told Ken I'd fish for him while he ate dinner. About 15 minutes I yelled "I GOT ONE!" Ken came running down to help me get my fish off the hook and onto the stringer. He was pretty excited. I haven't caught a fish in about 3 years so I have to admit I was pretty excited too. Ken let me fish a little bit more and about 10 minutes later, I yelled again "I GOT ONE!" Ken came running back to see to help me get it off the hook and put it on the stringer. After he saw that I caught 2 fish in a row, he decided he needed to fish some more. I told him where they were biting. He cast a few times. He caught a big fish, and the fish bit at his hook 3 separate times. It finally got hooked and he reeled it in. We ended up staying up until 10:30 filleting the nice prizes.

Sunday morning we went to town to eat and shop again. The boys got their annual new Grand Marais t-shirts. I bought some huckleberry tea and huckleberry syrup. I wanted some huckleberry taffy, but didn't have enough for all 3. Choices, choices, choices. Ken & Sam went back to the hotel for a nap and Kevin and I stayed in town. We sat on the beach in the harbor and Kevin threw endless amount of rocks in. You could throw rocks in the lake all day and not make a dent in the shore. After his arm got tired, we went to Sydney's Frozen Treats and I got my frozen chocolate custard and Kevin got a bowl of strawberries and pineapples. Sydney's has THE BEST FROZEN CUSTARD EVER!! It doesn't taste like Culvers frozen custard. It is more like ice-cream. So so tasty.

We headed back up to Devil's Track Lake later in the afternoon with our filleted Small Mouth Bass. Ken's mom had caught a nice sized tasty Walleye Sunday before we got there. Ken's sister, husband, and kids showed up with hot dogs and brats. We had a FEAST! Fish fry and brats and dogs cooked over the campfire. Followed by S'mores. YUMMY!

After we said good bye to the family we went down to our hotel. Sam & Ken stayed at the motel and Kevin and I headed down to the Gunflint Tavern to hear Bump & the Boys. They are pretty good little band. Kevin really enjoyed listening to the music. I really enjoyed the super strong Tequila Sunrise I ordered. Holy smokes! One was all I needed. We called Ken to come get us and drive us back to the hotel, as we were tired of walking. Ken came and got us, brought us back to the hotel, then he went to the Gunflint Tavern to finish listening to band and have a drink.

Monday morning came around so fast! Time to leave one of our favorite MN destinations. Boo Hoo! We stopped and got donuts from the Best Donuts in the World. They truly are the best donuts in the world. So yummy. Then I went to Sydney's to get some more of the tasty frozen custard. They weren't quite open yet, but she opened the window anyway. Then she said...."I have a pint of frozen chocolate custard, but it's still pretty frozen, you'll have to let it thaw for about 10 minutes". HELLLLLOOOOO! New best friend...you ONLY have a PINT of the best desert in the world! Oh heck yeah...Bring on the pint! And I have no shame to say I ate 4 of the best donuts in the world and a pint of the best chocolate frozen custard in the world. Oink Oink! I felt like I needed to join Weight Watchers and Overeaters Annoymous that very day. My belly was happy & full!

Damn You Ice Cream Man!

Today we hit 93 degrees. Yesterday it was 90. Yesterday the ice cream truck came around the neighborhood and we missed it. So, today word had spread amongst the neighborhood kids that the ice cream man is making his rounds. And seeing the ice cream man means two things....1) it's officially summer and 2) school is almost over.

Kevin and Sam waited for the ice cream man to show up for 2 1/2 hours. They waited with the little boy who lives down the street, who kept telling the boys that the ice cream man comes at 7 pm any time it's over 80 degrees. Well....he didn't show up today. Not at 7 pm, not at 6 pm, and not at 5 pm. Even with the kids shouting for him and waiting patiently, he never showed. The kids who had lined up on the street corner with their handful of quarters all went home near sundown very disappointed children. No ice cream truck today.

It would have been nice, as I admit, I also walked down the block with a handful of quarters to buy a Jolly Rancher popsicle. ( Quite arguably one of the best popsicle creations on the planet.) Not today.

Damn you Ice Cream Man!

Just Another Manic Monday

Oh, Oh, Oh...Not my fun day....

Yes, my Monday has been crazy. Tonight I had planned on taking Kevin to Kumon Learning Center, working on EAA Kickball things to prepare for my Thursday night meeting, then watch the season finale of CSI Miami. But.....it didn't quite go that way.

I got home and Kevin told me he had another bad day. His heels were really hurting him and it hurt just to walk. I put his heels on ice and gave him some Motrin.

We made it to Kumon and he hobbled the entire time. He said when he was doing his work at Kumon he started to get shooting pain in his heels. Oh great. I figured, this must be something more than just growing pains, and perhaps we should see a doctor tonight.

After we finished at Kumon, we went to Urgent Care. The doctor checked him out and said "your problem is your shoes and you need to get new ones that offer better heel support." The pain in his heels started about the time he got new shoes. I'm glad it was something as simple as doctors orders to buy new shoes, than find out he has a fracture or something that we've let go for the past two weeks as we chalked it up to growing pains.

After the doctor, we stopped back at home to get the checkbook and grab a snack. Off we ran to shoe store. Famous Footwear has HORRIBLE customer service. There was one guy at the counter and one guy putting away shoes. Neither one of them asked if we needed help. They just kept on doing their own business and Kevin & I were the only ones in the store. We tried on several pairs of shoes to make sure we had the right fit and the most comfortable ones. Needless to say, I didn't put away any of the many boxes that he tried on. That will give Mr. Shoe Put Awayer something to do.

After the shoe store we were starving! Kevin wanted KFC and Sam wanted McDonalds. So they each got their own favorite fast food dinner as I was certainly not going to make anything.

We made it home in time for me to heat up some canned hotdish and catch the season finale of CSI Miami.

There was another good thing that came out Kevin getting new shoes....I also got a pair of new shoes. Kevin's old ones..... I told him not to put too much wear & tear into these new comfy shoes as I will be inheriting them as well when his feet grow another size!

Dandelions

I know most people hate these noxious weeds, but I LOVE dandelions. I have a yard full of them. Of course right now they are getting mowed down by my husband. Good thing they grow back.

My youngest caveman loves to pick me dandelion bouquets. Today, he picked me a whole handful and put them in water for me. What a nice gift.

A long time ago my mom and grandma had a friend who made all sorts of various jellies. One thing about visiting grandma is she always has something new and interesting when we visit. Their friend had made them dandelion jelly. It was so delicious!

Tough Day at School

Yesterday the oldest cave boy had such a rough end of his day. I asked him what was upsetting him and why his day was bad. Here was his reply:

Today after recess, our class went back outside to play Rainbow tag and it was lame cuz whoever was it just kept saying "rainbow", so we all had to run back and forth across the field forever. I didn't want to play anymore, so I just sat down on the side of the field and was done. Then I got told on by some stupid kid cuz I wasn't following the rules. I was tired of running and my heel was hurting me.

Then after that we had art. In art we had a substitute teacher. We had to do weaving and weaving is SO BORING. I hate weaving. It's dumb and boring, and I had to sit at a table with all girls. The teacher came over after a while and told me I wasn't weaving good enough so she made me take it all apart and start over. I don't even know why we have to weave in the first place. What's the point of it? It's SO BORING and lame!!!

I found out that Rainbow Tag is: All the kids stand on one end of the field. One person who is IT stands in the center of the field. IT calls out a color, and who ever is wearing that color must run to the opposite end of the field with out getting tagged. If IT calls out RAINBOW, then everybody runs.

I really had no words for him on the weaving. I couldn't honestly tell the lad to suck it up, he'd use this skill later in life someday. Cuz really...he won't. Weaving is boring, and no body weaves anymore do they? Don't they have machines or colonized religious people do that?

Woman of the Century

Today May 9, marks the 101 birthday of my grandma. To sum it up briefly...she rocks, she's my hero, and I totally want to be like her when I grow up.

Last year I wrote an article about her. I haven't submitted it for publication yet, as I'm not really sure where to submit it to. I've looked through the listing of magazines that accept articles from new freelance writers. So instead, I publish it here. I wasn't really writing it to seek payment, I wrote it because she is truly amazing, unique, and I feel inspiring.

So, here is my article on my grandmother.

WOMAN OF THE CENTURY

By Bonnie Bley

Everyone gathered around Gracie Carlson as she climbed off the back of a motorcycle after a twenty-minute ride. Cameras flashed while she took off her helmet and revealed her smiling face. Her smile showed the lines of time, one hundred years to be exact.

“How was the ride?” shouted an onlooker.

“It was fabulous!” she exclaimed grinning widely.

Every one was amazed she was celebrating her one-hundredth birthday.

Wyoming had only been a state for eighteen years when she was born and through out her life Gracie experienced many life-changing events. Band-Aids, Kool Aid, and X-rays were all invented when she was a child. A postman on a horse who traveled through town once or twice a week, less if the weather was bad delivered mail. Packages were delivered by stagecoach. These were the only forms of communications between towns.

The hospital was a half-day's travel by horse carriage. Gracie was born in her home, just like her older brother and sister. Giving birth in 1908 was not easy. Each birth was a life or death situation for both mother and child. Gracie’s birth was no different. Her mother received no medication for comfort. She did not have a medical staff on stand by in the event of any complication and there was no option for a C-section in case the baby could not be born normally. Gracie’s birth was a success as she and her mother both survived.

Gracie was about five years old when she learned to swim. Some of the older kids in town tried to teach her in the only place available. The Greybull River had a current strong enough to sweep her away. She was small and courageous, but tried her best. The river currents were too strong for her tiny frame. The event was much like teaching a house cat to swim. The river pulled her under and she swallowed a lot of the water. She dragged herself out soaking wet from head to toe, shook herself off, and decided that moment to never swim again.

Instead of attending school in a one-room country schoolhouse, Gracie and her siblings were sent to private Catholic boarding schools. Her mother couldn't help manage the ranch with three kids underfoot at home. Gracie was ten years old, when her parents put her on a train to join her sister at the boarding school where she would live with other girls and the nuns who ran it. Her brother did not attend the same school as his sister’s; he attended a boy’s school in another state that was run by priests.

Gracie had her tonsils removed during school at around age eleven. The procedure was done in a chair in the school infirmary. She did not receive any pain medicine or anesthesia. The doctor told her to open her mouth wide and hold very still. Doing as she was told, he stuck a long, cold, steel instrument with a wire loop down her throat and yanked out her tonsils. She received no sympathy, and was sent right back to class with instructions not to cry. The school placed her on a soup diet for one week.

Her school years were spent at boarding school, and she was allowed home during summer months to see her parents and reunite with her brother, cousins, and friends at the ranch. She continued this life style until she graduated in the 1926.

Gracie had three career choices; to become a teacher, a housewife, or a nun. Her career was chosen for her, and she was sent to college, which was called “Normal School” to become a teacher, but she wanted to go back to the ranch and be a housewife and be near her parents.

Gracie graduated from “Normal School” in 1928, and moved home to help tend to her father. Her mother passed away and her father needed Gracie’s help at the ranch. In 1930, she settled down, became a wife, and soon a mother. She was married the same year that Breck Shampoo and chocolate chips were invented. Her children were born during of the Great Depression. She and her husband ranched close to both their families to make it through the turbulent era.

When her children were grown Gracie broke the mold of the typical jobs a woman held and owned her own business. Her little business thrived along with other businesses that were owned by men. Later she dissolved her business and went to work as a check station game warden. Her duty was to make sure the hunters and fishermen obeyed the laws and counted their bounty. She was not afraid to give tickets to law-breakers, and was very good at her job.

Gracie has been a large voice in her community. To this day, she is still an active member of St. Therese Catholic Church. One of her greatest accomplishments was obtaining funding to open a museum in the late 1970s. The Lions Club, Economic Development Alliance, and Friends of the Library are just a few of the clubs she played a key role in. She has organized several group events ranging from cowboys to motorcyclists. The organized events over the decades have brought many new tourists to town. The motorcyclist group even named a shoot out after her.

Gracie’s life has been like no other. She is an inspiration to women of all ages and is admired and respected by all who meet her. One month before her one-hundreth birthday, her driver’s license was renewed. She still owns her own home and travels the states with her seventy-two old daughter. The mother-daughter duo plans at least one big trip a year, including visits to family from Oregon, California, and Minnesota.

“Live life to the fullest and enjoy chocolate,” Gracie Carlson says, “you just neverknow how long you will live in this world.”


Sidenote: She also has a cocktail almost every day at 5 pm. Cheers Grandma! I'll definitely be drinking a cocktail at 5:00 in your honor!
Hoping you have a great birthday and many more to come. Hoping you have some nice days to enjoy a motorcycle ride or two as well. Happy, Happy, Happy 101 birthday.