A Year in MN

If you didn't notice, I just posted 7 new posts this evening. Whew, my fingers are smokin!!!

As of this weekend, we have been in Slayton, MN for a year. Our first Sunday at our new church was Father's Day last year. What a crazy, exciting year this has been. It really doesn't seem like we have been here a year already, but we have. We have gotten to know our way around, for the most part. It just seems like we have kept really busy and haven't had as much time to explore as I would have liked. We still want to make it to Rochester and the Twin Cities. I have to go the the Mall of America, you know.

In addition to all the new posts, we have had a few other things going on. Gabe has finished his last year of preschool and is getting ready for kindergarten in the fall. Anna is getting ready to start preschool in the fall. We had Vacation Bible School at church the first week in June. We had a nice turn out for kids and everyone had a good time. That was a long week for us too. Tomorrow Gabe starts swim lessons for 2 weeks. Anna will start swim lessons in July. In August we are planning a trip to NE to see our friends Sarah and Kurt. Sarah is pregnant with twins so it will be fun to see her "baby belly."

We are getting ready for 2 sets of visitors in the next month -- my dad and Ruth and Doug's dad and Debbie and Patrick. It will be neat to show them around our part of the wilderness.

Happy Father's Day/Fishing

In honor of Father's Day we gave Doug the day off from preaching. Ha, just kidding!! He still had to work this morning, but then we played the rest of the day.

After Church we went out to eat here in town for brunch. It was so yummy. We went with a gentleman from Church, Earl. He is such a nice man that we are slowly getting to know better. He has a little house on one of the nearby lakes, so then he took us out there to finally do some fishing! Wow, was Doug excited. It was a windy day, but so beautiful and somewhat relaxing. (I was still on kid patrol - which meant I had to keep Anna from falling in the lake off the dock.)Doug had an absolute wonderful time even though he didn't catch anything.

After we were all tired and the kids were beyond bored, we made our way home. We let Doug open presents and then rested with a movie. In case you can't see in the pictures, he got a shirt that says "Out of Coffee" on a little sign. Underneath that it says "Life is Crap." That is totally him and I laughed out loud when I found it in The Hut here in town. One of our members works there and I cleared it with her that it wasn't too vulgar for Pastor to wear. He also got a picture frame that says "Daddy. A son's first hero, A daughter's first love." Then we headed back outside to play some more. We even had a pizza picnic in the back yard.

It was a fun, family day and we are all tired. The kids both have a little pink in their cheeks. The past 2 days with setting up for the yardsale and taking down of the yardsale were both looong days.

Yardsale Treasures...

Saturday June 14, 2008 (We are getting close to catching up)

Today Slayton had city wide Rummage Sales. We had a yard sale here, but we still managed to each go out and about to yard sales in town. We found some fun stuff and got some good deals. Here are a couple of our favorites. Anna just loves this little recliner that is just her size. Gabe likes it too, and they have been doing a good job sharing it. Although we have only had it a day. They both like the basketball hoop and Gabe is doing pretty good. It can be made higher, but then Anna has a hard time. Gabe also bought a clock for his room that has a sports theme. He has decided to do sports in his room and change out the train curtains.

In addition to them, we also found a 2 person tent for Gabe and Anna in the back yard and a push lawn mower. That way we don't have to make the person from the church mow our lawn all the time.

First Day of T-Ball!!

June 9, 2008

Today is Gabe's first day of T-Ball. It looked like he had a good time. He even hit the ball pretty good. We had to remind them that he was left handed, so he could stand on the correct side of the T. It was so fun to watch all the boys and girls as it was many of their first times playing ball. I did remind Gabe that after he hit the ball he should drop the bat, and then run to first base. I pointed out first base also. Well, the first swing he did, he hit the T and the ball just fell off it. So, instead of running, he picked up the ball to do it over. The second time he hit the ball toward the pitcher's mound. He dropped the bat, but then ran to the go get the ball instead of first base. Which is understandable, because that is what we do in the back yard when we play.

The next time they played he did excellent Doug said. (I stayed home with everyone.) And he got his official uniform. A yellow shirt with his number---6. The front says "Slayton Summer Rec." I got teary eyed because it shows that we are now officially part of this community and we are here for the long run. Yes, I am a little on the silly, sentimental side at times. It is still very wierd to see Slayton instead of Waterloo.

I didn't get a picture of him in his uniform yet though. That will come with another update...

Caterpillars/Butterflies

Pictures are from 5/15 to 5/31/2008

After we got back home from vacation, we went to make a butterfly house. We got a little jar with 6 baby caterpillars...they were about 3 days old. After about 21-25 days we were supposed to have beautiful butterflies...Painted Lady Butterflies actually.

The kids had a fun time decorating the house, but I didn't even take the camera that day. Yes, I am slipping in my old age. I didn't take any pictures when they were tiny either, so these start a few days into the process. I actually thought they were dead a few mornings, but they pulled through.

I took a few pictures as the caterpillars were growing, then making cocoons, and finally their release into the freedom of our backyard. Unfortunately, we didn't have good stuff for them to eat in our backyard so they never came back.

It was interesting for me to watch. I think I was just as enthralled with the process as the kids were. We got to watch them spin the cocoon and then break free from it. We also had to coax a couple out of the box and watch them learn to fly for the first time. Very, very neat!

As you can see, Gabe and Anna had fun getting them out of the box. Gabe has one in his hand, if you can't see that. Anna was so excited to touch one also, but she was too excited to stand still. For the occasion, she worn her butterfly shirt.

Outside Critters

May 21, 2008

Here are a couple pictures of the critters that visit our backyard. The albino squirrel hasn't been back since that day, but the oriole and many other birds are daily visitors.

Happy Birthday Doug!!

May 19, 2008

Yes, I am a little behind...AGAIN. What do you expect from me?!?!? We have had some fun things going on and I have lots of new pictures. Hold onto your hats....

First off was Doug's Bday. He celebrated 31 this year. He is slowly catching up to me...hahah. Unfortunately, we didn't really do much for his bday this year. (Since he got a big bash last year.) It was on a Monday, so we have a special dinner for him and of course he got presents. Since he isn't really a "sweets" person, Gabe and I bought him a Strawberry and Cream Cheese strudel from the store. We were able to put candles in that, but had a hard time making it look like 31. For his Bday he requested a fishing pole and all the "fixins" that go with it. (We are in MN with many, many lakes and he didn't even have a fishing pole.) He went shopping with us so he didn't really have any surprises this year. Oh well, the pains of getting older.