Christmas Letter

I decided this year to write my Christmas letter on-line for everybody to see. This way I don't have to bother with cards and finding addresses that I have long since lost! We are still in Minnesota and will be for the next 2 years. This summer we built an addition onto our house - a "mud room" on the front of the house to keep all the muck from the winter out of the rest of the house.

Barry is in his second year of recruiting but he found time this fall to help coach Nathan's soccer team at the high school. Barry received his recruiter ring at work. It is an award for putting so many people into the army and is pretty rare for a first year recruiter to earn. We are all so proud of him!

I am in my second year at Minnesota State University, Mankato. I have managed to cart the kids around to all of their activities and keep my grades up. I am also slowly remodeling the house so that takes up a lot of my time as well! For pictures of what has ben happening around the house, scroll through the blog and you can see a lot of the work that has been done!

Nathan has been quite busy this year. He is in eighth grade and loving school. He made the A/B honor roll at school for both semesters. In April he joined the school's tennis team and enjoyed it a lot! This fall he joined the school soccer team and now he is part of the swim team! My little athlete is very busy!

Michael is turning into quite the actor in the family. In the spring, he was in his school's musical and this winter he played Young Ebenezer Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol"! He also played soccer in the summer. He also played soccer in the fall and his team made it to the state tournament where they placed thrid!

Cassie and Scout (the dog and cat) acquired a new "sibling" last fall! We adopted a new kitty that we named Kit (or Twit on his bad days!) the kids love having a new pet around and he loves being with us.

All in all, we are adjusting to life back in the United States pretty well. It was a little difficult the first year since we haven't been in the States for 5 years! but we are managing quite well lately. Take care and everybody have a wondeful Holiday Season!

My Very Busy Life

I made a list of things that I wanted to get done on my winter break and have been steadily working on it. The first thing was to get the trim up in the bathroom and office. It is up and it looks pretty. Barry and I did this over Thanksgiving break. Alas I have not taken any pictures of it yet. But take my word for it, it looks pretty. The second thing was to get the shelves in the bathroom re-stained to match the new sink and vanity we put in. (cough, cough, over a year ago) This is also complete! The most exciting thing is that we finally replaced my camera that was stolen back in October so I have pictures of the shelves.

Picture through my (dirty) bathroom mirror.

The final product!

Lots Going On

Well, we have had a busy couple of weeks. Nathan joined the swim team at school and has been busy with practices for the last 2 weeks. Michael auditioned for the play "A Christmas Carol" and won the role of Young Ebenezer (that is scrooge when he is about 20) and did a fantastic job! I have finals next week so I have been studying my butt off for the last week and Barry is busy with work and carting the kids to and from practice for me. I have a video of Michael's part in the play, I just have to find time to upload it. The sound is not very good, but you can see him in his costume and see him act. It is pretty amazing that he has that much courage to get on stage to play a part. I am in awe!

Terrible Lazy

I have been terrible lazy lately by not blogging! I have no excuses! But to catch everybody up...

Barry
Still a recruiter, working hard
Vicki
Still in school, working hard.
Nathan
Soccer season has ended. He joined the swim team at school. He is very responsible and helpful around the house. Working hard at school.
Michael
His soccer team went to state. Lost their first game 3-2, tied the second 4-4. He's taking a break from sport this winter. Working hard in school.

There you go. We are all caught up.

Busy Weekend

I thought that weekends were for rest! This weekend I have traveled 8 hours to watch 2 soccer games. Saturday Nathan had a soccer tournament in town and Michael had a game 2 hours away. So I got Nate to his tournament and arranged with a friend transportation home. Then I took off for Mike's game - 2 hours there, 1 hour game, 2 hours back. Nathan's team won all three games of the tournament, 2-1, 3-0, 2-0. Michael's team won 3-1. Then on Sunday Michael had another game 2 hours there, 1 hour game, 2 hours back. This time they annihilated the opposing team 13-1. On our way home we stopped at the Renaissance Fair where Michael was so enamored with the wooden swords and daggers that he just had to have one of each. So of course he bought one of each. They are plain wood, unpainted, unadorned, but he has major plans for decorating them. He is going to paint them silver, add some pattern on the handle and call them perfect. Nathan found the Fair interesting, but he liked the one that we went to in Germany better, where they had made a mechanical dragon that the brave knights fought and eventually killed. After our adventure filled weekend I feel like I have been run over by a bus!

Gotta Love British Humor

I stole this from a friend, but if you like British humor you will love this!

http://www.youtube.com/v/2YQIA_FEe3o&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1

Just a Quick Update

I have survived my second week of the semester! I have already had my first test and am thrilled at my results. (I missed one on the test) Nathan has had 2 soccer games already. His team is 1-1. He is a REALLY good defensive player. Michael will have his first game on Saturday, 12 September. Michael also is a great defender, but he LOVES to play goalie and he is really good at that. But then again, Michael is really good at midfielder too. Nathan knows that he HATES to play offensive. he just doesn't like the pressure of having to score, he would rather be the one preventing you from scoring! I don't remember if I mentioned it before but Barry is helping to coach Nathans team at the school. He really enjoys the time he spends with Nate.

Slightly Productive

I am being slightly productive today. I finished staining the deck. I will never again decide to stain wood a color that is not a natural one. We chose this really pretty "indian red" deck stain. It is absolutely gorgeous, but it is not a natural color for wood. It was a pain in the behind to put on. I won't say how long it took me to finish the deck - I would sound REALLY lazy!

My second task was to hook my desk top up to the internet. Let me explain what happened first. We have been updating the inside of the house and the room that my computer was in was also doubling as a guest room for awhile. To do that we needed to move my computer out of the room and put in a bed. Well, when the house guest left, we never put my computer back in the room. So that was the task that Barry did a few weeks ago. It has been sitting there ever since collecting dust. So today, I decided that it was a good day to hook it up to the internet - what a project that turned out to be. Since it has been unplugged (from the internet) for almost a year, it needs so many updates. It needs exactly...........................(the suspense is killing you) 102 updates! Since that will take a little bit of time to complete. It seemed like a perfect time to come blog about my day. To explain a little bit further, since I started back to school, I have been using a laptop that Barry bought me for classes. I have not needed my desk top in so long that I really didn't miss it. Now that it will be up and running, I will no longer have to hear the kids fight our Barry's computer. I am sure that they will fight over it because it is the nicer one - but still, the concept of no more fighting is nice!!!

First Week

Well, I survived my first week back to school this semester. I only have 5 classes so I will not be as swamped as I was last semester. That is good news! First impressions are that I like my teachers and that the classes will be hard, but worth it.

The new addition is almost done. The siding is finished, the floor is in, the floor trim is in, and the door/window trim is in. The steps were poured this afternoon and the only thing left on the new room is to put the shoe bench in the correct place and put the coat rack on the wall.

The kids are still on summer break. They go back on 10 september. Michael is sick of summer and Nathan is morning the last 2 weeks of freedom. Barry is back to work after having 10 days off. That's all I have for now. I will post new pictures of the room when I download them from the camera to the computer.

Today

So today we drove for 7 hours (3.5 there and 3.5 back) to Fort McCoy Wisconsin. Barry needed his physical that has to be done by an army doctor and they are the closest "post" to us. I say "post" because it is not an active duty post. It is a national guard post for those on drills, maneuvers, when they are active, what have you. His appointment was for 9 am so we were up really early to make it on time. Now we are really tired and watching the vikings loose to the chiefs even with Bret Favre.

Nathan made it onto his high schools' soccer team. No, he is not in high school yet - one more year - but the junior high and high school combine the teams. He is playing on the "C" squad. It is basically the freshmen team but he is one of the best players on it - and that is not just a mother's bragging.

The addition is coming along nicely. We are going shopping for trim tomorrow - yea, we are already at that stage. The floor is almost in, the paint is on the walls, door bell is installed, and some very tired people to go with all the progress.

Newest pictures

Here are the newest pictures of the progress on the house. Today we are putting up drywall on the inside. So more pictures to follow when that is done.


We moved the front door to the side so it matches up with the sidewalk.

We put a window in the front to let in light and so Mike can watch for the bus on those cold winter mornings from INSIDE the warm house.
From the new entry into the house. We are going to make the existing doorway into an arch.

This is from the house into the new entry way.

More Pictures

Here are just a few random pictures that I have taken over the summer. There are more of Mike than Nate because Nathan has an aversion to camera's.

Mike at Minneopa Falls

Nate at Minneopa Falls

Mike on the Technical Crew for the play "Aladdin"
Mike at a soccer tournament. #89
The game table that the boys and I made for Barry's Father's day present.

Barry's New Baby

This is barry's new baby! He loves it!

Pictures!

As promised, here are a few of the addition pictures.

Update

Oh where to start....... well I have been lazy lately not updating so there is a lot and not so much to tell, depending on how you look at it. At the beginning of the month we traded Barry's Volvo for a Jeep. I know I need to take a picture of it and post it on here but I haven't - because I have been lazy! But the basics are that it is a yellow 4 door Jeep Rubican. He has wanted one for years and now just seemed like a good time to get it. The work finally began on our addition to our house. The footings have been laid and the foundation will be poured tomorrow (I think). The building inspector came for the first inspection and he will return when the framing is finished. Nathan has been helping Andy with the addition and is having lots of fun. Nathan is also attending tennis camp for the next 2 weeks, last week he was at soccer camp, and the week after tennis camp ends, soccer practice for school starts. He is a busy beaver lately. Thank goodness the school is within biking distance for him so that I don't have to worry about transporting him every where. Michael will be playing soccer this fall for the local soccer club - Mankato United. He played for them this summer and wants to play again in the fall. It will keep him busy while Nathan is busy. Now my only problem will be how to work in all my homework for school. This semester will be slower for me. I am only taking 13 credits (4 classes). It just worked out that I could only take 4 classes this semester so that will help with all the kids sports. So that is about it for the last month. Barry is still working hard. He has a few days leave next month. We have no plans to go anywhere because it is such a short leave and Nathan has practice, so he will bum around at home. As for me, my being "lazy" is really my way of relaxing inbetween the kids sports.

Family Retreat

This weekend we went on a Family Retreat sponsored by the army. It was a lot like the marriage retreat that we went on last month but this time we we allowed to bring the kids with. The kids all got to participate in the classes that were taught and the boys had a lot of fun doing it. The classes ranged in topics from how to get along with your ex-'s new spouse/children to budgeting for the kids, and how to communicate within your family. For the most part, it was all informative and well planned/thought out. Nathan learned that the parents are in charge of the family, not him - Go Figure!! (That was a new concept for him to process!) Michael's favorite part was when they broke the kids off from the parents to teach them about budgeting. When we had time off from the classes, we took the kids to the indoor water park that the hotel had, the science museum in St. Paul and the Mall of America the second day, and the last day we went to (my favorite store) IKEA and for the kids Toys R Us. Sunday was father's day, but we gave Barry his present early so when we got home from Minneapolis, we rented movies and relaxed at home watching the thunder storms/tornado watches on TV and then off to bed. Today we will have VERY hot weather for MN and also the humidity has hit so it makes you feel wet and miserable. Thank goodness we have air conditioning in the house. You don't really need it for most of the summer but on the days where the humidity is bad, it is a blessing to have.

One more thing

I completely forgot to mention in the last blog that about 2 weeks ago Nathan turned 13!! He had a party with his friends at the house and then we went to his grandma's house to celebrate with family. It wasn't exactly what he wanted, but seeing as I was sick, it was the best that I could do. His presents consisted mostly of money so he could get exactly what he wanted and Barry and I got him a cell phone to replace his old one that not all the buttons worked on. This way, we can keep better track of him since he walks/rides his bike to school. He was completely happy with his gifts. I also forgot to mention that in May it was one year of recruiter duty done for Barry, only 2 more to go!!!

Terrible Blogger

1. I've been a terrible blogger lately. I haven't updated in about 3 weeks. It's not that a whole lot has been going on, I have just be tired and lazy! I will try and remember everything from the last 3 weeks and put it all in here. The boys school ended on 4 June. They were very happy about that!
   
2. Michael brought home his report card and he did well. They do not give letter grades at his school until 5th grade so Mike's report card "grades" consists of satisfactory, needs improvement, or excels. Of course he had all good marks. We are still waiting on Nathan's report card to come in the mail.
3. I was really sick about 3 weeks ago. I can only describe it as flu like symptoms - high fever, body aches, an alternating stuffy/runny nose, and unbelievable exhaustion. Barry has been hard at work. He has switched to "summer hours" where he is supposed to work from 9-5. So far, it has been pretty close to five when he gets off work.
   
4. Michael has ben running track last week and will continue this week. He also joined a soccer team for this month only. Because of his broken ankle we had to wait to get the all clear from the doctor to play contact sports and that came late in May when the soccer season was in full swing, so he joined for the last half of their season. I just have to say that American soccer is a lot different than the European soccer he learned how to play. He will finnish out his summer being on the technical crew in the play Aladdin in August.
   
5. Nathan has been chilling out this summer. He is taking tennis lessons starting in July and then he is playing soccer for his school in the fall so his practice starts in August. He has been a big help around the house. At school last year, he learned how to cook so he has been helping make meals at home.
   
6. We gave Barry his father's day present early because we will be gone this weekend. The army is sponsering a family retreat at an indoor water park in Minneapolis so we are taking the kids. It should be a lot of fun! The kids and I built him a really nice table to play games on. I have picutes of it somewhere and when I find them, I will post them for all to see. SO now you have all been updated on what we have been doing for the last 3 weeks!
   

Chair

My project for the day was to re-upholster a chair that we kept from Barry's Grandma's stuff. It was this pink color and that just doesn't go with anything in our house AND since we have boys, it just wasn't the right color for them. So I changed it from the pink to a green. Of course it took me three times longer to do it that I planned because I could not find the staple gun to use to attach the material to the chair, and once again I forgot to take a before picture, but I did save the old pink material and took a picture of it off the chair. So here are the "before" and after pictures.

Cats!

If I haven't said it before, my cats are a tab bit mischievous. Below you will find a picture of one of them playing hide-n-seek with the other one. This one is hiding - and what a FANTASTIC place to hide!!



Yes, that is my bed the cat is under the blanket. He did it without messing up the rest of the blanket so it was just a lump when you walked in. Crazy cat!!

Easter Pictures

When I was downloading the stair pictures from my camera, I discovered that I still had the Easter pictures on my camera. We spent it at Barry's mom's house so all the pictures are from her yard. The boys had an easter egg hunt and Michael played with his new kite while Nathan went into the river. I did not get a picture of Nate after he had been in the river, but I have Michael playing with his kite and the egg hunt.


The Egg Hunt

Pictures

Here are the pictures that I promised of my staircase. It looks so good compared to the pictures the camera just didn't do it justice. Anyway, my 2 curious kitties are at the top of the stairs in the first one, I was almost done with the stairs, I just needed to caulk under the lip. In the second picture I have finished completely.

Grades and more Renevations

I got my grades back this morning - I got all A's. So to celebrate I decided to paint the back of my stairs and the runners going down the sides of them. They are now (semi-finished) white. I have to wait for them to dry to put another coat of paint on, but when all is finished, they will be white and then I have to paint the walls around the stairs yellow - but that is a different day. I will post pictures when I have the stairs done, and then again when I get the walls painted. It is slow going, but it is getting done. I have made a list of everything that I want done this summer and I am slowly working on it. Of course I started with the easy stuff and will work my way to the hard stuff later.

Sick Kid

It's been a busy day. Poor Michael, not only did he recently break his ankle, but today I took him to the doctor because he wasn't feeling well all weekend and it turns out he has strep throat. So when we were at the doctor's office, I forgot to tell him to write the prescription for pills, not liquid medicine. When we picked the meds up from the pharmacy, they were liquid. Mike was a trooper and tried to take the liquid, but no luck. He ended up gagging and throwing it up. So I went back to the pharmacy and asked if we could do pills. The pharmacist called the doctor and the doctor said...no more monkeys jumping on the bed! No really he just made a new prescription for pills and all is good. It's so strange that he can't take liquid medicine but he can take pills. I guess that the liquid form just tastes to icky for him.

Michael's Cast

Mike got his cast off on Friday. He was pretty excited to get it off, he was actually counting down the days. His ankle is pretty stiff and he has a little trouble walking on it, but it will get better. When they took the cast off, the blade that cuts it was tickling him so bad that he was shaking with laughter and the SMELL that came from his foot was HORRENDOUS!! But what can you expect when it wasn't bathed in 3 weeks! He is a little boy and you cannot keep him from playing no matter how hard you try! So there was 3 weeks of sweat built up in there and when it was released - well, just be happy that you live states away! Inside his cast there was gravel, wood chips and some black material we could not identify and the dirt that coated his foot was thick enough to grow vegetables in.
This was the picture of his foot after the nurse started washing it off. You can see the dirt between his toes!! (and where the cast had started to rub on his foot) I told him that we would have potatoes for dinner because that was what was growing between his toes.

Just a Quick note

Just a quick update. If you all remember that test that I had to take last month that tested me on reading, math, and writing, I got the results back this morning. I did really well, much better than I thought I would do. I passed with flying colors so now I can be admitted to MNSU's education program. As London Tipton (suite life of zach and cody) would say Yeah me!!

Cast

Ok here are the pictures of his cast that I promised you. He looks like a drunken sailor in the pictures because he couldn't stop laughing! I have no idea what was so funny.He is also dressed and ready for bed. Don't you just love the mismatched pj's?



On a lighter note, Nathan joined the tennis team at school and he has his first game Monday after school. He is so excited and is having a ton of fun practicing. I will try and remember the camera.If you couldn't tell, the pictures of Mike's foot were taken with my camera phone.

Broken Ankle

It's official, Michael broke his right ankle. Last week he was climbing a tree and fell off of it. He sprained his ankle and broke it (though the ER said it was not broken at the time). It was x-rayed in the ER where they splinted it and put him on crutches. I being the all knowing mom, decided that I did not believe the doctors and believed it to be really and truely broken. Three days later we took him to the orthopedic doctor and he looked at the SAME x-rays and proclaimed it broken. It was really hard to see because it was in his growth plate so I can't blame the ER doc's for missing it. Here are a few pictures of what it looked like when they took the splint off before they casted it.


Michale was surprised that his foot was so bruised. It was every color of the rainbow and then some - red, purple, black green, yellow! Not only did he break it, but he sprained it as well! What luck! Two injuries in one. He's just happy that he has finally broken a bone. (How sad is that!!) I think he is trying to keep up with Nathan and all his broken bones. Anyway, he said to tell everybody that he chose a black cast. (I will take a picture of it later when I get time.) At least it is a walking cast. He only has to use the crutches until he gets used to walking on the cast, then he can ditch the crutches. In three weeks he gets it cut off, more x-rays and if he is good, then no more cast, if not, then another cast. The good news is that it is not a displaced fracture - one where the bone has moved - this is good because if he had displaced it, then there would be a chance that his bone would not grow right and one leg would be shorter than the other! I tried demonstrating how that would look for him and it sent him into a fit of giggles.

Spring Break

It's Spring Break week! I still have a lot of homework for this week, I have to read 2 books and write 2 essay's, do research for my online class, and on saturday I have to take the PRAXIS I test. (It's a test that covers basic reading, writing, and math to make sure that I know what I am doing.) So I am studying like made for that test, reading (like mad), writing (like mad - what else would I be doing), and taking care of the kids. I have nothing really exciting to add to my blog, just that my brother's wife had their first baby last friday. But that isn't really my news to claim! I'm off to do more homework.

So very Busy

I have been so very busy and my schedule just keeps making it even harder! I have no idea where I got the idea that I would be able to handle 7 classes this semester - but since I have seven classes, I can do nothing but get through it. Some weeks are better than others - this week is one of those bad weeks. I have 3 tests this week - one wednesday, thursday, and friday. I am hoping that I can get through all three of them without falling over or doing badly on one of them. I am not sure that I would repeat this experience (7 classes at once) but if it gets me through to graduation in 3 years I am all for it.

On a fun note, we took the kids skiing on sunday. They had so much fun. Nathan likes to snowboard and Michael likes to ski. Both kids have taken to the winter sport and love to be on the slopes. I learned how to ski last year and I happen to love it also. Barry has been skiing for years and he is so happy that we have a sport that all can participate in together.

Warmer Weather

Alright, so the last post was about how cold it was. Well today it was 28 and we were all complaining about how hot it was. Nathan said that he wished it would cool down a few degrees because he was sweating "to death".

On another note, we are sitting at home watching the Cardinals beat the Eagles. It looks like the Cardinals will be going to the Superbowl! How awesome for AZ!

Weather

Yes, we did it. We survived the coldest day in Minnesota in the last TEN years. The air temperature (without wind chill) was -25 last night. With the wind chill it was -40!! Yes, you read that right, I said minus 40 degrees! Unfortunately this morning it was still -20 when I went to school. (with wind chill it was -30). It was so cold that the k-12 schools closed for the day. Of course, adults still had to go to school at the college, but the kids all had a snow day! (there was sarcasm in that last line and perhaps a bit of pouting too) I was hoping to have a snow day with the boys - but alas, it did not work out. On another note, I have (almost) survived my first week back to school. I like all my teachers. They are all interesting in their own way. I have a particular liking for my physics teacher. He reminds me so much of Pete! It is uncanny the resemblance between them in their features and tone of voice, but it is the mannerisms that I can't get over. It is like being taught by my own brother! (No offense brother!)

Second Half of Our Trip

I am going to try and make this quick as I have a lot of homework that I need to finish. I am not sure what I was thinking when I signed up for 20 credits! I think I need to have my head examined!!

Anyway, I think I left off after leaving Pete's house on our way to AZ. The rest of the way to AZ was uneventful. We stopped at the Grand Canyon on our way into AZ. It was beautiful - as always. The only mishap we had was Nathan jumped over the protective barrier on to ice. I thought Barry and I were going to have heart attacks!! But he was safe and sound and got a thorough yelling at compliments of dad and he was sufficiently chastised and compliant for the rest of the day.
The weather wasn't to cold - for us anyway. It was a lot warmer than MN!

Then on our way down to Prescott, we saw one of the most beautiful sunsets! We don't get sunsets like this in MN.










We got there late in the evening - not as late as getting to Pete's - but late enough that I was tired. We spent a few days with my parents and then Michael and I went down and spent a day with a friend of mine that I had know in Germany. Christmas we spent with my entire family at my sister Dorothy's house. She has the cutest dog! It's name is Cleo and it is this white, curly haired, small dog and very, very adorable. Thank goodness that my dog was on her best behavior that day because there was Dorothy's dog, Pete's dog and my dog all together.

We decided to leave earlier than we had originally planned because of some bad weather that was coming across to MN, so we left on Christmas afternoon. We made great time to Pete's house in New Mexico where we spent the night. We were planning on driving straight through to MN the next day but it got really late and we got really tired so we ended up stopping in Kansas City that night. During the day, when we were driving through TX and OK, we end up turning on the air conditioning! It was 77 degrees outside and being from MN, we were not used to those temperatures that late in the year!

After leaving Kansas City we were doing great on time, until we hit Iowa where we ran into a terrible ice storm. Somewhere in Iowa, the roads changed from ok to ice in the blink of an eye. We hit the ice and lost control of the car. We spun around in at least 3 full circles on the highway. Barry was driving and managed to keep us out of the oncoming traffic, avoid hitting any other cars and signs, and kept us from flipping when the car went into the ditch. Somehow he managed to get the car pointed front end first when we went into the ditch - that kept us from flipping the car. When we came to a complete stop, he started the car and drove out of the ditch. There was no damage to the car or any thing on the road. Everybody in the car was fine - no injuries. We were definately lucky!

The rest of the way to MN was pretty easy after that. We made it home around 3 that afternoon and promptly sent the car through a car wash to try and get some of the ice off of it! The only evidence that we had gone into the ditch was the front of my car had frozen reeds in the grill - some of them are still there because it has been so cold for the ice to melt!