Thankful for.....

I was trying to think of a top 10 list to do for Thanksgiving. But with all the great and wonderful parts of my life, how do I narrow it to 10?
I mean....
4 great kids.....
A home that I love....
2 pretty cool pets.....
Seeing Nick and Madi smile.....even if it is after they made a mess in a room.....what room, give auntie a kiss.....
Knowing that my sister has found the love of her life, loves her life, and added more love to her life with the little man, who is adored by his sisters, who I adore.......
Knowing that God has thrown challenges to some that I love, however, that person I love will be around to kick those challenges right in the ............
Seeing the miracle that has finally been placed in my brothers arms....the man who I have seen the sparkle in his eye's for years. Watching those two people become parents, breathtaking!!
Having sisters who know what I need, before I know what I need......wow!!
Hearing....."whatcha doing" when my Dad calls just because........
Seeing my baby brothers grow into men. Crazy......
Knowing that only a mile down the road, lies that answer to any question I have.......(mostly, Julie can you babysit), but hey, its a question right!!!
Having not only a job, but a job I love.....knowing my husband is in a job he loves....
Finally knowing that some things I can not change....it took way to long to learn that one in life. I still complain, but my heart is free......I complain, only cause I like too!!!
Watching the strength that my family has, and knowing that together, we can do anything.......
So you see, how did I pick.....And I didnt even list all the reasons that I am thankful for my kids, that would add a couple hundred points. 4 smiles that light up the darkest room.
So I decided to give a shout out to my hubby, the man that gets little credit from me most of the time.
The man who wakes up in the morning and starts the day making sure I wake up to coffee....
The man who, if it snowed would remove the snow from my car in the morning, who has now cleaned out the garage so I can park in it......
The man who, by the time I get to work, has sent me an email saying Good Morning Sunshine...
The man who, even on the days I dont love myself, loves me......
Thats just till 8 am folks......the day just gets better from there.
Maybe I should thank his Grandpa, for I know that is how his Grandpa treated his Grandma. He lived to make her happy. And Jeremy always told me his Grandma would tell him how to treat a lady. So maybe I should thank her. I know that I surely thank the Big Guy upstairs.................
So, when I say my prayers at night. I know that there is not enough prayer in the world. For God has so clearly blessed me. I am surrounded by so much love in my life. And if I forgot to add someone here.....dont be offended....for I am Thankful for you too!!!! Your on my top 100 list!!!

Time.........

2010

Not sure where the time has gone. I keep thinking, next week will slow down, next month will slow down, summer, winter, fall, it will slow down. Well it doesnt. So now I have decided to just embrace it. We run, we are busy. But we make the most of every day the Lord gives us. And treasure it.

So with all the new and exciting things happening in our families, I was looking back at our kids and how much they have grown.

2004
Amanda is now 15. She is currently in the Orchestra for the musical "The Wiz" at the Dassel Cokato High School, she is also doing Drumline again this year! The musical talent of this kid is amazing....In fact, I think she is AWESOME!!! She is also SO very active in her church life. I can not wait to see where Gods hands lead her. I know that whatever she does, she will be walking with faith.

2006

Josh is 14. He is a ROCK STAR this year at school. I am getting emails from his teachers saying how good he is doing. It takes my breath away each time I get one. He got to spend time this year learning how to hunt. It started with Mel, Carissa and him taking Gun training. Then Godfather Danny took him out Duck hunting. He got two ducks. Cousin Jeff also took him deer hunting. He got a nice doe.

He is gearing up to start swimming, and also with the snow coming, he is ready to hit the slopes!! Weekly trips to Powder Ridge, here we come!!

2007

Isabella is 8. Not as much goes on in an 8 year olds life as in the older two. So she makes up for it by talking NON stop......and then, guess what, hey Mom, Dad did I tell you......and the kid always has something neat to say. We had her school conference this past week, and walking in and knowing how much she has been talking lately, we were a little nervous. BUT we were very happy to hear that she is a wonderful girl in class and when she gets to talking to much and doesnt let her teacher get a word in, the teacher can give her a hand sign and she knows to stop. YEAH. Having a teacher that gets her is priceless!!!! She is doing great in school!!

2008

Jack is 7 and in 1st grade this year. He is his fathers child 100%. It snowed the other day and I finally loaded him in the car, and drove him to Brooke's Lake to show him that NO, just because it snowed, does not mean that the lake is frozen and you and Dad could go fishing.......I thought I would have a little break from the fishing talk, but Nope. Jack wants to go fishing..."being were here Mom, and the lakes not frozen, can I toss the line a couple times" (We keep it in the trunk)

Jack is doing great at school. Last year in Kindergarten, he hated that he could not read. So over the summer, he taught himself to read. His teacher even call our home a month into the school year, because what his Kindergarten teacher wrote at the end of the year about Jack's ability did not match what he was doing. Pretty cool. He now gets to take the reading counts test at school. Izzy told him to be proud, she didnt get to do it till 2nd grade.

Jeremy and I are just along for this wild ride!!! We did manage to sneak away for the weekend of our anniversary in October. We left Thursday night and headed up to Duluth. What a weekend!! We enjoyed ourselves so much. I think we wore out a pair of tennis shoes each all the walking we did.

Well, I would like to promise to keep this up, but I wont. Until next time, Many Blessing to you and yours..................................

2010......Not sure where to start. It has been a busy year, and every year I "think" it will slow

down, but it doesnt. It just keeps getting faster. This year started off with Amanda starting drumline. Practices, every Tueday, Thursday and Saturday. She has missed tons of stuff, but

has been with her friends. Good friends, good kids. Kids that I dont have to worry about her being with because, well, they are just good kids. The drumline is off to a great start again, and at this point is getting ready to close the season down, but not before they get to go on a trip. Yeah!!
This year (see pic above), Josh joined swimming, something that we didnt know he had interest in, but he did great none the less. It was fun to watch him try something new, and enjoy it. The other sport that the kid has gotten into, and is starting to get his brother into is snowboarding. He goes every Monday night with the ski club, and I would say he spends every other weekend there.
It works out well, as he has a friends Mom that will
drive the boys to Powder Ridge, and I do the
pick-up.....that is unless they sucker us into letting them stay at one house or the other. But again, hanging out with great kids makes that an easy answer. You bet.


Today is Izzy's 8th Birthday. She decided she wanted to have her friend over. So we took the kids to the Dassel Darwin Hill and went sledding. It was a B-e-a-u-tiful day to do such a thing. This is Izzy and her friend Erin. After sledding, we came home and made homemade pizza, the girls decorated picture frames, and made pillow cases. Which lead to movies, and popcorn, and I am happy to report, that the house is now quiet!

There are so many more exciting things going on. But I shall stick to the basic's now. I promise I will TRY to update more often.

Kids are Back to School.

Make a Smilebox postcard

When life gives you lemons...

You know how the old phrase goes..."When life gives you lemons, make lemonade"

Well that is what we are going to do!

As some of you may know already my step-mother, Heather, passed away unexpectedly earlier this week. The funeral is on sunday so we are leaving tonight.

Jesse and I have been trying to plan a trip to North Carolina to see my family and bring the kids to the ocean for a couple years now.The trip keeps getting pushed back to "the next summer" due to a number of unforseen circumstances. There is no more next summer, the time is now...

We have made plans to spend time with my family for a couple days after the funeral. My brother Ricky, who I havent seen in over 10 years, if flying back from South Korea. Prescilla was 6 the last time I saw her !!!

Jesse and I have made plans to spend Monday(maybe tuesday) in Atlantic Beach, NC on the ocean front. Izzy is already planning on going shell hunting and Jackson wants to go surfing. Josh and Amanda have been at church camp all week so we are not sure what they have planned. They are aware of what has happened, and I am sure they have come up with some "plans". Jesse bought a new "bigger" storage card for her camera as she plans on taking hundreds of pictures, that she hopes to share when we return home.

It is sad life changing events like this that remind us all how short life can be...

Celebrate life for what it is, not what it isn't and while you are here...Live...Laugh...Love as much as you can !!!

Summer so far.

Well the summer is off and running. June was a blur of fun. The kids have been manageing very well again this year with Amanda babysitting. Her and Izzy have quite a bond forming. Iz got all teary eyed tonight when Amanda left for babysitting, and Jeremy asked what are you going to do when Amanda goes to college?? Izzy said she will start crying on Sunday night, and stop crying Friday. We will just see how long she thinks that.

Jeremy and I went to Winstock this year. I think it is safe to say that a fun time was had by all. Great friends, Great food, Great beer, and Great music. What else do you need? We sure missed the kiddos by Sunday though.

The end of June, I had a hysterectomy. We set it up in May, so I knew it was coming. I am always busy at work so from May to June went really fast, and I found myself at the Buffalo Hospital on Tuesday trying really hard not to vomit. What made me nervous was just the thought of the iv's going in. And I have to say that every nurse or lab tech who touched me ROCKED. So once everything was in I was ready. Dr Minke came in to talk to me before hand and gave me the low down. One would think he was a women with how good he is with his information. But I guess he just really listens when we talk. The things I rolled my eyes at and got him talking more to Jeremy was when he started talking about not lifting, no stairs, no driving, yadda yadda yadda. Time to go. I woke up very little in recovery, and was in and out of it once they brought me to my room. I think about 1pm I finally got up for an hour or so when the kids came to visit. Jeremy later told me he could tell when I was waking up cause my heart rate would start getting faster, and he would know I needed more pain med's. I think it was about 3 pm that I finally came more out of the fog, and got up to brush my teeth and go to the bathroom. Jeremy and I walked down to the sitting area, as they told me if I was up and walking around, I would have to have the massage things on my legs. I think I told Jeremy to go home about 9pm. He had only left the hospital after Dr Minke was done with surgery and told him to go have breakfast, and then when the nurses told him I would be up anytime soon, so go have lunch. I have to say that I was not prepared for how much it hurt. I kept describing it to Jeremy, and he didnt think it was funny how I described it. Its pretty graphic so I wont put it on here. But I have to say, the next day was alot better. I woke up at 5:30am on Wednesday, took a shower, tried to eat breakfast, no thank you. Dr Minke came in and looked me over and said I could fly the coupe. I slept most the day Wednesday and woke up Thursday feeling ok, so we started to get ready for the camper, but there was one thing that I had to do before I would leave, I hadnt done it in 4 days, and anyone who knows us Chaps, knows what I am talking about. About 11am, I was singing PRAISE THE LORD, from the bathroom and we were off. I can honestly say that I do not remember being at the camper till Saturday morning. I would get up to eat a little take my meds and go back to sleep. It was just what the doctor ordered. It has been a slow couple weeks. I have one more week off this coming week, and I am hoping that I am able to do some visiting, and feel alot better. I am not going to complain, as for what I had done, I think I feel pretty darn good. But my body will still tell me in the morning if I did to much the day before. I have been very good.
Ok. Long post. Sorry. Till next time. Have fun.

YEAH!! Last day of school. Things that I look forward to.