"New" Room for the girls...

It has been a while since I last blogged. The days are just racing by and once again it is Sunday evening and I haven't prepared much for tomorrow morning, I guess that means that I have to get up early to get ready for school :)

In the meantime we have rearranged the room for the girls. Trending the colors of purple and blue with white beds and shelves. Actually the room turned out much nicer than I thought. It looks really good! For the first time in, well, about 13 years the girls don't have a bunk bed or loft bed. They each have a bed on opposite sides of the room and they feel like they pretty far apart :D

I have always painted and wallpapered my homes. Thanks to my parents, who taught me well, I could now pass this knowledge on to my girls. It was fun to paint the room with them. I guess the most fun was that I didn't have to do the tedious things, like taping the window and the door and baseboards and ceiling :) It was great to have someone else do that as well as put plastic on the floor an tape it so it doesn't move too much. Then I showed them how to paint the walls. That was easy! These new paints are so much better than they used to be. Many years ago, it was rather difficult to produce an even colored wall, especially if some joker painted a face or something on the wall. With these new paints, that is no problem - so cool ! The girls did a great job and Jeremy helped a little as well. We all had fun, but were happy when everything was put in place and order was restored.

We thought that this kinda looks like Bart Simpson.....

Some of us took a break, while others worked.....

then we switched break time :)

Shoreview Apartment Fire - Lake Johanna Fire Department

Happy New Year!

Isn't it strange how fast 2011 flew by? I just got used to writing "2011" on checks and now we have 2012 ..... My kids got a year older (one in November, one in December and the first Birthday of the year is in January) my oldest daughter is 17 years old! Incredible! I moved into my first apartment when I was 17 1/2 - to imagine that she would move out now - scary! I remember my mom telling me often "just wait until you have children" - well, I now understand what she was talking about. All that to say that for our family, the celebrations are winding down and life should - God willing - go back to normal once again.

I hope that you all had a great Christmas and a wonderful New Years celebration! We didn't end our "old year" with a bang but started the new year with sort of a bang. Our family spend the afternoon of New Year's day with my in-laws. When we came back to our apartment in the evening, we saw fire trucks and sheriff cars, many people walking around, firemen coming in and out of our apartment building. We drove slowly closer to our parking lot but saw quickly that we could not get in that way. So we thought, maybe the other way around, but again we couldn't go on. My husband stopped the car and went over to talk to the sheriff. While they were talking we saw that all the attention was centered on our apartment building. We didn't see any smoke or fire but were now very concerned about Amber (the dog). A little later we found out that a military guy, who was visiting his grandma, heard Amber bark and kicked the door in. She was in a corner and very scared and tried to bite, but the guy took Nina's bathrobe, threw it over the dog and carried her to his truck, where he had rescued another dog already. We got her back and we were very, very happy to be together again. A little later we were allowed to go into the apartment, with a fireman as escort and collect a few things. Everyone had to find a place to stay. Some people didn't have a place to stay, so they were put up in a hotel for the night. When we were in the apartment, I was very much relieved to find out that we have very, very minimal damage. I haven't been able to really check everything but as far as I can tell, we have only a very little smoke smell in the house. There is no water damage or sud or anything. It just smells like someone has been to a bondfire and left the smelly clothes out. So not bad at all! We are so blessed that the Lord saved our pets and belongings! All things considered, I think we are off to a great start in the new year. God showed us His grace on the very first day :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Go Fish Christmas with a capital C - 2007 Light-O-Rama

Jeremy's 10th Birthday !

Today was a special day for my little guy, it's his birthday. It is his golden birthday! He turned 10 today. I keep saying this but it doesn't seem that it has been ten years already. I still remember today ten years ago so vividly...where did all those years go? Well, my baby isn't a baby anymore, he is on his way to becoming a young man. Today we celebrated his special day with a special birthday present. Jeremy wished for the "Millenium Falcon" from Lego for a very long time. Today his wish came true. Jeremy's daddy bought it for him and now he is in "lego heaven". Though most of it was put together by his sister, because this is not really a toy and once put together one would not take it apart again! It took Jamie all day to put half of it together and she is pretty good with assembling things. It would have taken Jeremy a few days to do this. Now big sister is frustrated because some things don't seem to work as they should and she is taking a break for today. Jeremy is trying to fix it now....
He also got a webkinz dinosaur and a microscope, which he really likes and he inspected the mold which has grown on his pumpkin ;-) though we don't have pictures of that.

He can finally open the box!

they both like webinz...and lego

This morning Jamie started to build the Falcon...

about two hours later, after it broke and she had to do it all over again

Jeremy helps a little

progress....

later afternoon....

Jamie is frustrated and her fingers hurt.....

in the evening she is done for the day.....

Gluten free birthday cake!

Mother - Son - Weekend :)

This weekend my girls are at a church retreat. I suspect that they have a great time. Since they were not allowed to bring any electronics, I don't know for sure but why wouldn't they have a great time. They have many opportunities to worship and pray, they get to spend time with their friends and they get to serve the community and the weather is just wonderful. Though I must admit that I am a little surprised how much I am used to the fact that I can, usually, reach them any time on their cells. My mom used to make sure that I have enough coins to make a phone call from the public phone booth ;-)
Well, since the girls have a good time, I thought it is the perfect opportunity for some mom and son time!
Yesterday we went to the movies, a rare treat. I usually don't spend so much money so frivolous but since it was just the two of us and we caught a movie at a time when it is half price, we enjoyed ourselves. Though we did not get the overpriced popcorn and soda. We went to watch "Dolphin Tales". It is a wonderful movie, based on a true story. It is very engaging and Jeremy sat at the edge of his seat at time in suspense. It is really family friendly and clean. It is the kind of movie that sort of stays with you. We even looked up the "Winter" website. After the movie we went to Subway and got a sub and a cookie, that was as much as the popcorn was supposed to cost, but it filled us much more and I think it was a little more nutritious.  When we got home we cleaned the house a little and my "little" guy fell asleep on the couch :)
While he was sleeping, I was booking our boat tour at Taylors Falls today. When we got up, we had a nice breakfast and Jeremy was very eager to help with chores and got them done very fast. I packed out picnic basket and made sandwiches and we left for the Harvest Fest in Stillwater. I didn't think that it would be as popular as it turned out to be. We got stuck in traffic for much, much longer than I had anticipated and so we could only drive through Stillwater downtown, but we are thinking that we will return soon, when there is not so much going on. It is such a lovely town, I am really looking forward to walking through it soon. Here are some pictures from the drive to Stillwater and some pictures from the downtown Stillwater......

He is watching a movie and listening over the headphones, so I could listen to a cd .....

I took this picture from the car, while stuck in traffic. Aren't those colors just beautiful?

Downtown Stillwater.....

It took us a good 45 minutes to make through Stillwater and vicinity, so we ran out of time to go to the Harvest Fest. I don't even know where we would have found a parking space anyway.....

However, this is the scenic route and it was a wonderful one hour drive to Taylors Falls. There were so many beautiful houses and farms on the way, I was looking forward to taking the same way back.
When we arrived at Taylors Falls, I wasn't sure exactly where to park, so I took the first available spot I found, which was right in front of the oldest existing public school house in Minnesota - at least thats what the sign said. Kind of ironic, right?

This in at the community center, where they had a ceremony that had something to do with mural behind Jeremy

Here now, is the said public school house............

Jeremy took this picture, because he thought it was cool that is says "Old Jail Bed and Breakfast", there were many ideas he told me of how the name could have come about  :)

 After that we got back into the car and drove up a rather steep hill. I can't walk so much these days, I guess I should see a doctor about the pain in the heel, I am guessing it is the Achilles tendon. Since it is hurting again I figured I better don't walk too much...  Anyway, just up the hill we found the Folsom House. I just really, really like old houses and if I could I would want to live in one of the really old houses. They have so much character. Don't you wonder sometimes what you would hear if the walls could talk? I didn't take any pictures from the inside of the house, since I wasn't sure that that was allowed. For members of the Minnesota Historical Society, the admission is free :)  We learned about Mr. Folsom and his wife, Mary and their children. We also learned about Minnesota history and saw pictures of logs blocking the rivers. At that point Jeremy remembered that we read "Paddle to the Sea" last year. Paddle get stuck in a logging camp on a river for a few days, though I think that was closer to Duluth.... anyway, he remembered the book. Living books are the way to go......

a not so good picture of the Folsom House. It looks much prettier if you really see it ....

After this visit we got hungry and wanted to sit down somewhere to eat lunch. Since the parking lot was not so inviting, we decided to find a better place. So we got into the car and started to drive. I thought it might be a good idea to look where we had to go to catch our boat ride, so I programmed the gps and off we went. Thank you God for prompting me to do that. I didn't know that it would take me 30 min to get stuck in traffic and waiting for a parking spot. Finally we found one, we had only 15 min. left. That was not quite how I envisioned our picnic, but at least we were not late for the boat tour. So we just opened the trunk and sat down and ate and drank, took some snacks and water and walked to the boat. Lo and behold, what do you think we encountered there? Yep, another line to stand in and wait..... While Jeremy held our spot in the line, I went to get our tickets, which I had bought the night before online. When I came back to the line, Jeremy was almost already on the boat. Unfortunately we too far in the back to get a seat on the boat. That wasn't so bad though, we were standing at the back of the boat outside and could still enjoy the beautiful view. I would like to share it with you....

We are leaving the dock

the tree trunk wedged into the little cave was just kind of cool :)

St Croix River, though we didn't see the cross.....

On the way back. The rays coming through the clouds was really neat.....

Even though the captain explained all the faces and such, we failed to recognize them in the rock formations. Maybe we just need a little more imagination .....

this was by the parking lot, isn't that just a beautiful color? As much as I dread the winter, the fall is a most beautiful time!

We drove the scenic route home again. This time with much less traffic. We ate our left over sandwiches and snacks, watched Mythbusters and now my little guy is asleep. The fan is running, so it will be cooler tonight, which means I can sleep better than last night. I hope you enjoyed our little trip and maybe it encouraged you to do something fun and blog about it as well :)