This is Our Crazy Life...

"Grandpa" Books...Another project I want to share with everyone.

2009-12-30T18:16:00.002-06:00

I decided that I wanted to make "Grandpa" books for Ashlee, Lexi, Sammy and Shana with all of the pics that we had of all of them with Grandpa Vern. He passed away February 2, 2009 and I wanted to make sure that the girls had pics to look at and to always remember all of the FUN times they had with Grandpa! They also got a copy of the DVD that I made for Grandpa's Memorial Service so they can watch it anytime! I made 4 books all the same. They loved them!!

It is time to reveal all of my Homemade Christmas Gifts...

2009-12-30T13:31:00.009-06:00

This is the moment I have been waiting for....I can finally reveal pics of all of my homemade Christmas gifts now that they have all been given. There will be a caption UNDER each pic telling what it is and who it was for!! Some of these items will be available for sale in my Etsy shop soon and any of these items can be custom ordered!! ENJOY!!!!

These were the homemade cookie trays I made and delivered to several people.

I made this clock for my mom. I crackled it to match the window pane I made her last year. It has pics of her grandchildren in it.

I made two sets of these moose/bear tile coasters for my dad and Joy and Ashlee sent a set to her grandparents in New York.

I made these tie blankets for three of my nieces who all got new baby dolls for Christmas!

This is a tile coaster set that my mom ordered for a friend of hers who is a dog lover!!

I made this set of tile coasters for my sister in law, Robin.

I made homemade scented playdoh for three of my nieces and my nephew. Then I packaged them in a ziploc bowl and included a set of cookie cutters with them.

I made these "Taggy" blankets for my two youngest nieces, Trinity and Cora and also made a smaller third one for a baby gift for a daycare client who just had a baby.

I made this coffee/hot cocoa/cookie set for Ashlee's Girl Exchange Gift for Christmas Day. It had coffee, hot cocoa, homemade chocolate chip cookies, creamer, peppermint stir sticks and came complete with to go cups that were wrapped in homemade coffee cozies that I made. These coffee cozies will be available for sale in my Etsy shop soon! I also made the snowman ornament hanging on the front of the box!

I made this clock for my friend Stephanie!! She collects Kelli Rae Roberts prints in her scraproom and so I filled the empty spots with Kelli Rae Roberts pics!!

This was Butch's guy gift for the Christmas Day gift exchange. This bucket was filled with two movies, beer and snacks!! The guys were fighting over this one!!!!

These are my "Chunky Crayons" that I made for my daycare kids and my nieces. The older kids got the bigger ones and the younger kids got the smaller ones. They also got coloring posters with them!

This desk set was my Girl Gift for the Christmas Day gift exchange. I altered and made this complete set! It includes a composition book, pen, calendar, sticky note book, coffee cozy, a nice box of cards with envelopes and a nice desk box to keep it in. This was a big hit!!

This was my Stamp Club exchange gift. It is a journal jar with a journal! There are approximately 300 prompts inside this jar on strips of colored paper. The idea is to pick out a strip each day, week or however often you want to do this and glue it to the top of the page in the book and then journal about the prompt. This is a way to keep a scrapbook if you will and it is something you can hand down to your children later!

This is a notebook with matching pen that I altered for Cys for her birthday!!!

This is a gift set that I made for each of my stamp club members as a "thank you" for their continued business!!

This is an altered clipboard and composition book that I made for Lexi's piano/voice teacher, Peggy! She loved this homemade gift!!

Annual Family Sleigh Ride & Trinity's 1st Birthday Party

2009-12-30T09:56:00.008-06:00

Sunday, December 27, 2009, we all drove up to Fredenberg, MN for our Annual Family Sleigh Ride. The ride up was a bit rough as the roads were ice covered and bumpy...definitely a stressful ride for my little car. The weather was perfect though. With all the fresh snow and the snow that was lightly falling that day...it was just a perfect day for a sleigh ride. During the ride they stop about half way to give the horses a rest and the kids...both big and small jumped off to make snow angels!! When we were done we headed into the warming shack and had some hot cocoa. Afterwards, we made the trek back to my dad's house and had a birthday party for Trinity's 1st birthday. Joy made her famous chicken wild rice soup with corn muffins and all kinds of other food and then we had birthday cake for Trinity. Before we brought out the birthday cake, Lexi played the piano as we all sang Happy Birthday!!! Such a special treat to have had her learn how to play that just for Trinity!!! A fun time was had by all as you will see in the following pictures!!!

Christmas Day 2009

2009-12-30T07:04:00.007-06:00

We spent Christmas Day out at Tom and Patty's new home in South Range, WI. My sister Jaime made it home for Christmas from Oregon. My sister Kelly, my brother in law John and my niece Trinity also made it home for Christmas from Virginia...yes the state!! Most of these pics are of my niece Trinity...sorry couldn't help it. She is so darn cute!!!

Christmas Morning 2009

2009-12-29T20:44:00.004-06:00

These pics are from Christmas morning after Santa came!! Ashlee is going to kill me for posting these pics...tee hee!!! Actually...her exact words were..."Mom, you're not posting these on facebook!" She didn't say anything about my blog...LOL!!

Red Velvet Cake Recipe...

2009-12-29T20:20:00.003-06:00

This recipe is from the Gooseberry Patch Merry Christmas Cookbook. I made the homemade buttercream frosting which is from Wilton.

1/2 C. shortening

1 1/2 C. sugar

2 eggs

2 oz. bottle red food coloring

2 tsp. baking cocoa

1 tsp. salt

2 1/2 C flour

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 C. buttermilk

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vinegar

Cream together shortening, sugar and eggs. In a separate bowl, mix together food coloring and cocoa; add to creamed mixture. Add salt, flour vanilla and buttermilk. Add baking soda and vinegar until just blended. Pour batter into 2 greased and floured 8" round baking pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Cool. Spread frosting on layers and stack to form a 2 layer cake.

Wilton Buttercream Frosting

1/2 C. solid vegetable shortening

1/2 C. butter

1 tsp. clear vanilla

4 C. powdered sugar

2 Tbsp. milk

Cream butter and shortening together. Add vanilla and milk. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Store unused frosting in refrigerator. Rewhip before using. Can be stored in airtight container in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

ENJOY!!!!!

Christmas Eve 2009

2009-12-29T19:34:00.005-06:00

Pajama Day at Daycare...

2009-12-29T18:33:00.009-06:00

December 22nd was "Pajama Day" at daycare!
The kids were so excited when they came in the
morning to show me their comfy pj's! We watched
Christmas movies, read Christmas stories, sang
Christmas songs and we had hot cocoa and
Christmas cookies for our morning snack!!
It was a FUN day!!!

Here are my daycare kids...
Nathan, Jade, Rachel, Alyssa and Brekyn!!

Family Time...

2009-12-23T08:14:00.003-06:00

So this past weekend we had our Christmas celebration with Sammy and Shana! Our celebration was also a surprise 60th birthday party for my mom!! She had no clue...she just thought she was bringing the girls to my house for dinner and to open their presents!! Then people started walking in the door and she finally said...okay you guys, what are you all doing here??? It was funny!! We had a great time!!

Good Friends.....

2009-12-23T07:51:00.002-06:00

So I had to blog about the gift that we got in the mail the other day from our friends Terry and Julie in Arizona.

We have a wall that has been done in honor of Butch's dad. He served in the Marines and then with the Air Force and retired from the Air Force. We have three huge picture collage frames that I made for his funeral. One of the frames is all outdoor...hunting, fishing, etc. He had caught a fish and never had it mounted and wished he had. Anyway, our friend Terry, the taxidermist sent us this replica of the fish to hang on that wall. Butch was very surprised to had received this in the mail for Christmas but very happy as you can see in this picture!!! Thanks Terry and Julie!!!!!

Ashlee and Lexi both looking so grown up...

2009-12-23T07:46:00.002-06:00

I had to show off this picture of Ashlee and Lexi. This was taken last week before we went to Lexi's choir concert at school. They are both looking so grown up and I am truly proud of both of my beautiful girls!!!

Minnesota Ballet

2009-12-23T07:27:00.003-06:00

Ashlee, Lexi and I went to see the New Manhattan Nutcracker!! Absolutely AWESOME performance!!!! I love going to the Ballet and having the chance to see this new Manhattan version was awesome!!!! It was truly a magical journey!!!

Bentleyville is AWESOME!!!

2009-12-22T19:27:00.004-06:00

Well we finally got a chance to get down to see Bentleyville! It is just amazing!!! We parked at Fitgers and took the train over to Bentleyville which was really nice. We walked thru pretty quickly and had our hot chocolate and cookies and the girls got popcorn and then it was time to get back on the train and go back. My sister in law Robin went with us! I hope everyone gets a chance to see this wonderful "Tour of Lights"!

It's been awhile since I blogged...AGAIN!!

2009-12-22T19:03:00.004-06:00

Well I have managed to neglect my blog for 2 months again!! Where does the time go??? I have been so busy that I just have not made it on here to update anything.

Thanksgiving update:

We had Thanksgiving dinner here. My mom and Robin came for dinner. After dinner we made our usual shopping trip to Kmart and then we went and picked up Sammy and Shana!! My mom and the girls spent the night here! My mom and I got up at 3 AM to go shopping on Black Friday. We were home by noon again!!!

My mom decided that she wanted to have a picture taken of her with her 5 granddaughters to use for her Christmas card this year. So we took pics a few different times whenever Ashlee was home in between her jobs and here is the one that we decided to use....

New Pics of the AK Heads

2009-10-11T16:25:00.005-05:00

Here are some great pics I received of my brother Mike's family today!!! They live in Alaska so we don't see them as often as we would like to see them but are always thinking of them and we love and miss them!!!

My brother Mike, my sister in law Teresa, my nephew Keenan, my nieces Lyla and Cora and their dog Budda!

Cora (11 months)

Lyla (4)

Keenan (2)

Penn Foster Career School

2009-10-11T16:11:00.002-05:00

Well I am officially a student again. I signed up for the Medical Transcriptionist Program online thru Penn Foster. They told me if I have time to put into this everyday, I can finish this program in 6 months. When I am finished with this program, I plan to take the Medical Assistant Program which goes hand-in-hand with the first program. Credits for classes in the first program will be applied to the second program so I won't have to retake those courses. I plan to be done with both programs in a year. Just want to get some more training under my belt so I can keep my options open for the future.

In order to devote the time to school work and more time to our family...this weekend is "officially" my last weekend to work!!! I will no longer be doing weekends after today!!!

My Etsy Shop...Sheryl's Crafty Corner

2009-10-11T15:56:00.003-05:00

Down the right side of my blog you will see a link for My Etsy Shop...Sheryl's Crafty Corner! I am in the process of opening an Etsy Shop to sell my homemade items online. I do not currently have any items listed online yet as I am still setting up the shop with all of the info regarding payment, shipping, etc. Keep checking back...I hope to have it up and running soon!

Head start on Christmas...

2009-10-11T15:48:00.003-05:00

I already have one gift made and wrapped!! I know...you are probably thinking I am totally crazy!!! But I have decided that I am getting a head start this year and trying to stay on top of things so that I am not making gifts and wrapping them the night before!

I have also started my Christmas cards and have quite the assembly line going on. Here is a sneak peek at the cards...can't show the finished product until you get one in the mail...LOL!!

Lexi's first school dance...

2009-10-11T15:26:00.002-05:00

Lexi went to her very first school dance!! It was a "neon" dance so my mom bought her this shirt when we were in Hayward to wear to the dance. Her and Brianna went together and then Brianna came over afterwards and they had a sleepover at our house!

Hayward Fall Festival

2009-10-11T14:56:00.008-05:00

When Sammy and Shana came to visit in Sept., my mom and I decided to take them to the Hayward Fall Festival for the day. Lexi and I left early in the morning and drove to Solon Springs to pick up my mom and Shana and Sammy and we drove to Hayward, WI! They had a lot of craft vendors, food and activities for the kids all day long! We had lunch at Anglers (outside)! Shana tried her hand at rock climbing for the very first time and she did great!!! The kids participated in a pumpkin decorating contest and then they got to keep their pumpkins! They also participated in a hula hoop contest and got their faces painted! I took the kids into the candy store and they all got to pick one kind of candy to buy of their own and they also got chocolate covered pretzels. We had ice cream in the ice cream shop and that was YUMMY and I think it is still stuck to my hips! LOL!!! We walked around all day and looked at all the neat stuff they had for sale.

I found these neat old window boxes at an antique/craft shop. I knew I needed to have them for my house. I think I may use them in my scrap room/office for some sort of storage...have not quite decided yet.

Here is a link to some pics of the kids while we were in Hayward! Enjoy!!

http://www.slide.com/r/ANVtjHbibD8i40jIVEqucdC0hDnCdIxB?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original

2009-09-21T09:59:00.004-05:00

I did not get a chance to post anything last week as I was so busy with work, CPR class, stamp club, Lexi started dance class and we got a new car!!!!

First...we got our CPR recertification done and are set for another 2 years. I hosted the class here and our instructor came up from WITC - Rice Lake!

Lexi's fall dance classes have officially started. She is dancing on Thursday nights this year and moved into a Ballet/Jazz Combo class for something different. So far she is liking it. Her music classes start tonight and she will be taking Voice Lessons again and she is also taking Piano Lessons from the same instructor so Monday's will be music night!

We got our new car....yep, we traded our Dodge for another Dodge! We got a 2008 Dodge Avenger and I absolutely love it. We bought it from Superior Chrysler and had an awesome buying experience there. The car made the long journey all the way from California to Superior, WI to find me. I took it to the cities for it's first road trip on Saturday and I loved the ride. My friends have already nicknamed the new car...it is now known as the "Mafia Car"...LOL!!! Here are some pics of the new rig....

Ashlee's first day at UMD!!!

2009-09-08T13:44:00.004-05:00

So as Ashlee was getting ready to walk out the door this morning...of course I had the camera out snapping pics. Ashlee says to me..."Mom, it's not like I am a little kid going off to my first day of grade school." LOL...can you just hear her saying that! I said "Ashlee you will understand when you are a mom someday." Then she told me that she didn't want me tagging her in the pics on Facebook and I said..."You know I will." LOL!! It was a funny conversation! She is so cute and we are so proud of her.

Labor Day Weekend...

2009-09-08T13:17:00.003-05:00

I have so been looking forward to Labor Day weekend. It meant that I had 4 days off and had a long "to do" list of things I wanted to get done. Some things were fun things and some were just things that had to be done. I don't know if anyone feels this way...but I just don't seem to have enough hours in a day or days in a week to get everything done that I want to get done.

So Friday...Ashlee and I spent the day together. We got mani's and pedi's, went to UMD and she gave me a quick tour and then went to lunch at Old Chicago Pizza. We rarely have the same day off and now with school starting I will not see her much at all. We had fun and I am glad we got to spend the time together.

Saturday...Butch got up early and went fishing. I did some things in my office and when he got back we started the huge project that we have been putting off...cleaning out Matt's room. I cleaned his closet out and combined a lot of "stuff" in bins for Matt to go thru someday. We switched the furniture around and moved the bed back into his room so we have a room for someone to stay but it is also our "workout" room...LOL!!! We seriously have the treadmill in there and Lexi uses it on a daily basis and I have started to use it again. I think now that the room is all cleaned up maybe I will want to go in there more and walk on that dreaded treadmill.

So after all of that we continued on some other projects and moving some other furniture around downstairs and then finally decided we had done enough for the day...we actually got a lot done. We decided to order pizza from Shamrock...yummy and we ordered the movie "17 Again" on PPV!! Good movie!

Sunday...So I have this HUGE pile of photo albums and boxes upon boxes of pictures stored under the table in my office. I have been trying to get at these and get them organized and out from under the table. So Sunday morning I decided that I would move all of the photo albums to the top shelf in my office and then start on sorting thru all of the pics. One thing that was not on my "to do" list was the mishap that was about to happen...Well as I was standing on the top step of the stool and putting the last photo album on the shelf...this ceiling fan blade came out of left field and hit me in the back of the head...Owie...not one of my smartest moves! Butch was sitting in the living room and said he heard a loud thud and then I started yelling. Thank god it pushed me forward enough that I only got hit once but that it didn't hit me hard enough to knock me off the stool. Well Dr. Butch came in and started to assess the situation and decided that I needed to sit down and take it easy for a while. He got me some ibuprofen and looked at my head and said it was bleeding. Well needless to say...I didn't get much done that day. I sat on the couch and took it easy all day. I now have a lump on the back of my head and my neck still hurts.

My hot tip of the day....be sure your ceiling fans are OFF when you are standing on step stools!!!

Monday...Butch got up early again and went fishing and I got started on my "to do" list. I got my halloween cards done for stamp club and even made extras. I even got started on my Christmas cards. Lexi and Ashlee went to visit Gene for a couple of hours and then Butch met up with them and brought Lexi home and Ashlee went to UMD to get her books and her parking pass. Lexi came home and Butch went and did the grocery shopping. We watched hours of the "Cake Boss" on tv...LOVE this show and cooked dinner on the grill and then did a quick vacuuming, dusting and getting ready for the new week.

So that was our weekend...

Picture Day at School...

2009-09-04T08:04:00.004-05:00

It was picture day yesterday and Lexi looked so darn cute I just had to get the camera out. She dressed so colorful and had her hair fixed so cute!!

Lexi's first day of school at SMS...

2009-09-01T13:32:00.005-05:00

Today is Lexi's first day of school. She is now in 7th grade and this is her first year at the Middle School. She was so excited last night that she did not sleep much and she was so excited this morning to get out to the bus stop!! I will be watching for her to get off the bus at 3:20 as I am super excited to hear all about her first day! I have really missed her today!!

The Girly Girls come to visit...

2009-09-01T12:15:00.006-05:00

This past weekend my nieces Sami, Shana, Abby and Darlene all came to visit. They all stayed with my mom for the weekend and I am happy to report that she is still sane!! Friday was Darlene's 8th birthday and so we had a little party with cupcakes and presents of course. Here are some pics of the girls...

Family Golf Day...

2009-09-01T11:47:00.004-05:00

Ashlee and Lexi are both excited to learn how to golf! My mom got her clubs out and dusted them off and Butch thinks he is going to teach all of them how to golf!! LOL!! So last weekend we went to Solon Springs to my mom's house and they all practiced in the yard first...and I took pics...I'm the camera girl! LOL!! Then we headed over to Hidden Greens Golf Course to the driving range. They all got set up and I went up on top of the hill and sat and took pics...and worked on my tan too...of course!! They all did well! Ashlee almost hit me a couple of times, but all in all...they all did really good. Then we went over to the putting green and they hit a few there. It was a fun time and when we were done we went back to mom's and had a great dinner!!

Here are some of the pics I took of our "pros"...

Extreme Home Makeover Edition

2009-08-25T12:19:00.004-05:00

I am sure that you all know by now that Extreme Home Makeover Edition came to Superior, WI!! Well actually...South Range...but close enough!

Ashlee and Lexi had fun stalking Ty and the bus and following the bus out to the house the morning that they did the "door knock"! Ashlee also volunteered a few days...Lexi was not old enough to volunteer but she is old enough to stalk Ty Pennington...LOL!!! Ashlee and her friend Cassie had the opportunity to film a scene in the back yard with Paige and Eduardo and it is suppose to be on the show which is set to air September 27, 2009. This show has been chosen as their 2 Hour Season Premiere! So be sure and watch EHME on September 27th and look for Ashlee!!!!

Ashlee and Lexi's recent visit to see their Uncle Gene!

2009-08-25T12:08:00.005-05:00

Here are a couple of new pics that I just got from my mom. These were recently taken when Ashlee and Lexi went to visit my brother Gene. He looks great and I am so glad that my kids get the chance to go and visit with him.

Trinity

2009-08-20T09:38:00.005-05:00

I just received these pics in the mail from my sister Kelly and I could not pass up this opportunity to blog about them. This is my beautiful niece...Trinity!! She is just so beautiful...I could stare at her pics all day long!!

Ron E. Turnipseed, Jr

2009-08-20T09:14:00.003-05:00

My uncle Ron passed away Monday, August 17, 2009. He passed in his home surrounded by loved ones due to heart failure. He was not only my uncle but he was both mine and my brother Gene's godfather as well as Ashlee's godfather. He is finally at peace and no longer in pain. Ron and Vern were very good friends...like brothers and I know they are now together again. He will truly be missed!

My 25 Year High School Reunion...

2009-08-20T08:42:00.005-05:00

Butch and I decided to go to my 25 year high school reunion this year. I think he was more excited about it than I was. He is not from Superior and is "older" than me and so he does not know anyone that I went to school with...well except for Cys! He was excited to meet the people I had went to school with!

Friday during the day, Terry Johnson drove Cys, Cindy and myself to Hayward and we went shopping and out to lunch at Angler's!! We had so much fun...I was so glad I was able to go. On the way home from Hayward we stopped in at CJ's in Solon Springs for a couple of drinks! Then we went to Cys' camper and had the tour. While we were in Solon, Terry found out that Julie...his girlfriend was on her way here trying to surprise him. He thought he was going to pick her up at the airport and that her flight had been delayed but she in fact had landed in Mpls. the night before and was driving to Hayward. She had just missed us there. She was too far past Solon to turn around so she stopped at Presidents in Superior and we left and met her there. When we got there I called Butch and he also met up with us there. From there we went to Cys' house to get changed and Butch drove all of us to Aces on 29th! It was so nice to see people that I have not seen in years or even since high school. We really had fun! Oh...and Ashlee was our waitress all night...so she got to attend my 25 year high school reunion as well...how cool is that? I, of course, was introducing her to everyone...I'm a proud mom!!!!!

Needless to say...I am not 20 years old anymore and so an afternoon and evening of drinking brought me down a bit. I spent Saturday all day in bed. I did manage to get up and get myself ready and we were at the Elk's Club at 5 PM. There were people there on Saturday night that we didn't see or get a chance to talk to on Friday night. We had our class pic taken and had a nice dinner. We sat and visited until around midnight when everyone decided they were going to party at Aces on 29th. I could not stay out any longer and so we said good-bye and headed home.

We had a fabulous weekend and I am so glad that I got reacquainted with Terry and met Julie. We really like them and I think we will all be great friends for life!!!

More on the Cancer Walk...

2009-08-16T11:00:00.002-05:00

I just received this pic of the group that we walked with for the Relay for Life Cancer Walk in July. This is the United Healthcare Team #1.

Texting Cousins!!

2009-08-06T13:42:00.003-05:00

I had to blog about this and post this pic. Lexi and Sammy only get to see each other once a month. They make the most of their time together when they see each other and try to catch up on what the other one has been doing. In this pic they are laying on my couch texting each other...priceless!!!!

Relay for Life Cancer Walk

2009-08-06T13:22:00.003-05:00

This year Lexi and I walked in the Cancer Walk with my mom, Sammy and Shana. The event was held at St. Scholastica and we were on the United Health Care Team #1. Not only was it the coldest day but it was rainy and windy.

This year we took a "Staycation" rather than a "Vacation"...

2009-08-06T12:32:00.005-05:00

We had planned to go to the Kalahari in Wisconsin Dells...we go every year...and then at the last minute we had to change our plans. I decided that I needed to make some changes with my daycare and let some people go and until I knew those spots were full again, we decided to save the money on a big expensive vacation and opted for the staycation. We were very glad we did though. First of all, we had super nice weather the entire week. We went to the 4th of July parade and then went to a BBQ that night at Aida & Wade's for their 20th anniversary. We took a few day trips and went up the North Shore making stops along the way at little gift shops and antique shops. We stopped at Betty's Pies for lunch...a first for us and it was totally worth the drive. Then we went up to Split Rock Lighthouse and did the whole tour deal. Another day we went down to Canal Park and it was kind of breezy and cold that night but we were lucky and were down there when there was a boat coming in and then we went to Red Lobster for dinner. We did things around the house...outdoor yard work, redid a couple of the retaining walls, stained the fence, etc. Had a couple of days where we just stayed home and we all did whatever which is always nice. All in all, it was a great staycation.

Click on this link to see pics from our "Staycation."

http://www.slide.com/r/yJPhcQLw1T_cYmt7OzEgcPHZUfutXPUx?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original

Update on Matt...

2009-08-05T12:05:00.004-05:00

Matt finished up his Tech School in San Angelo, TX the end of May. He is now stationed at Beale AFB in California. He is an Imagry Analysis Specialist. He seems to love what he is doing and from the sounds of it loves Cali!!! If you need his contact info...just email me or call me!

Ashlee & Lexi's Dance Recitals...

2009-08-05T09:53:00.004-05:00

We attended the annual dance recitals at the DECC. Madill Performing Arts Center always puts on a wonderful show. We attended both shows this year as Lexi performed on Saturday and Ashlee performed on Sunday.

Lexi's Music Recital!!!

2009-08-04T14:18:00.005-05:00

Lexi and her teacher Peggy

Well Lexi has been taking voice lessons this year and she loves it!! She wants to be a singer when she grows up and she says that her goal is to audition for American Idol when she is 16!! She sang "Over the Rainbow" and "Part of Your World." Now anyone that knows Lexi, knows that she is very quiet and shy. She just belted out those songs and nobody could believe where it even came from. She was awesome. Lexi will be continuing her music lessons this year and adding piano lessons as well. Peggy will teach her both!

Rocky has become a regular around here...

2009-08-04T13:30:00.005-05:00

Here are some pics of our friendly raccoon who visits our yard on a daily basis. And yes...we named him "Rocky." This is the first time he was in the yard and he was trying to get up at that bird feeder but couldn't so he gave up and is just content eating the bird food off of the ground.

Our new Bird Feeder from the Vern Collection...

2009-08-04T13:03:00.006-05:00

My mom and Vern gave us this bird feeder from the Vern Collection for Christmas! In April the weather finally warmed up and the ground was soft enough to put it up in the back yard. Here it is...

The Surprise Birthday Party that didn't happen...

2009-08-04T12:42:00.004-05:00

My 43rd birthday was on February 6th...the night before Vern's Memorial Service. The original plans for my birthday was that Butch and I were suppose to be going out to a Mystery Dinner Theater with Gary & Lisa and Patty & Eddie. Well with everything that had happened, I just did not feel like going out. Everyone, including my mom kept telling me all week that I should still go. I just was not up to it. So I of course called Lisa and cancelled. Well we all celebrated on my birthday anyway with all of the relatives that we had in town for Vern's Memorial Service and my mom got a cake and I opened gifts. After I was done opening my gifts, Ashlee handed me an envelope and said this was suppose to be part of your gift and it was a surprise...It was the invitation that Ashlee had made and had sent out to a TON of people. She was having a surprise birthday party for me at Aces on 29th and that is where we would have ended up instead of the Mystery Dinner Theater. At that moment I knew why everyone wanted me to go out that night. Ashlee went to a lot of work to plan that and then have to cancel it and contact everyone and I am so proud of her for all of her work. I just wasn't up for going out and I was right where I wanted to be that night anyway.

Welcome Ailey Jo Harstad!!

2009-08-04T12:38:00.004-05:00

Ashlee's best friend...Ashley had her baby on February 8, 2009. She named her Ailey Jo. She is so cute. We met Ailey Jo for the first time on February 12th.

Just A Memory Away...

2009-08-04T12:16:00.005-05:00

Well Vern went home from the hospital on Tuesday, January 27th. Hospice came out to the house on Wednesday and signed him up for their program. On Friday, January 30th Lexi and I packed a suitcase and went to my mom's house and stayed. Dean and Melanie and their kids were also in town staying at my mom's house. Butch and Ashlee went back and forth in between their work schedules. We knew it would not be long and so we all just did what we could to make Vern as comfortable as possible. In the meantime, Hospice never showed up. We finally called them on Saturday and they sent a nurse out on Sunday. Monday morning he was finally transported by ambulance to the place that he had wanted to be at all week...Solvay Hospice House in Duluth, MN. Vern sadly passed away about 20 minutes after they got him settled into his room. Well, needless to say...Lexi and I stayed at my mom's until February 8th. Vern's Memorial Service and Celebration of Life was held on Saturday, February 7, 2009. He will be forever missed but he is Just A Memory Away...

Birthday Party for Ashlee, Sammy & Lexi...

2009-07-27T13:31:00.007-05:00

So Ashlee, Lexi and Sammy all have January birthdays. We had planned to have a birthday party down at my Mom's house the weekend of the 24th and 25th. We were all going to stay down there for the weekend and the girls and Vern were all very excited about all of us staying there for the weekend. About 2 AM on January 24th Vern was taken to the hospital by ambulance. My mom had Sammy and Shana at her house and she brought them here in the middle of the night and I went to the hospital with my mom and Tami and Loni met us there. Vern stayed in the hospital until Tuesday when he went back home. He felt so bad about ruining our party plans for the weekend and we told him he didn't ruin anything. We were still having the party...just at a different place. We brought the party up to the hospital that weekend and we stayed and the kids enjoyed spending the time with him and grandma up there. We ordered in Sammy's pizza and I brought cupcakes and the girls all opened their gifts up there. It was nice to spend the weekend together. Vern had his up times and his down times and we all made the best of it and just cherished the time we all had together.

Here are some pics from the hospital:

Trinity's Baptism

2009-07-19T17:46:00.003-05:00

John, Trinity and Kelly!

Welcome Trinity Constance Zimmermann...

2009-07-19T17:03:00.007-05:00

My sister Kelly and her husband John had their first child on December 28, 2008.

They live in Quantico, VA so we did not get to meet Trinity until she made her first trip to Duluth in March 2009.

Meeting My niece Abby for the first time!!!

2009-07-15T12:15:00.000-05:00

I was so excited to finally be able to meet my niece Abby for the very first time!! She loved coming here to play with the toys! She opened up her Christmas present and she really fell in love with Butch! Do you blame her...LOL!!

Family Christmas!

2009-07-15T11:54:00.000-05:00

Well, Matt was able to come home for Christmas and stay for 2 weeks. It was good to have him home and have the family together. We spent Christmas Eve with my mom and Vern at their house and we spent Christmas Day with my dad's side of the family out at Tom & Patty's house. Matt left our cold winter weather on January 2nd and went back to Texas where it was warm!

Brooks (Butch's Son), Lexi, Matt & Ashlee

Christmas Eve 2008

I have been neglecting our family blog...

2009-07-15T10:58:00.000-05:00

You know that thing called "life" that just always seems to happen. Well most of the time I feel like I don't have enough hours in the day or enough days in the week to get everything done that I want to get done. I am going to start posting the highlights from our year so far to get you all caught up on "Our Crazy Life."

Our Trip to Chicago to See Ashlee!!!!

2007-10-27T07:43:00.000-05:00

THURSDAY

We left on Thursday, October 11th and that morning I just could not get out of bed and get myself going. I hit the snooze button about 10 times!!! I was so excited to go see Ashlee but I was also so exhausted and I had a cold and was not feeling very well either. So we got a late start. Lexi and Sammy were so excited about going and they had their whole trip planned....do a little homework, have a snack, take a nap, do more homework, etc. They were so funny!

We stopped in Eau Claire, WI to get gas and this van drove by on the street and it said "Pool Man" and the girls got all excited and they said we want to see the pool man and then the van pulled into the same gas station and then it started coming towards us and they started to scream and Lexi said Sammy get out and go get the pool man and I started laughing. Butch was outside pumping the gas and he had no idea what was going on inside the van. I took my camera out and took a picture of this van. They had no idea what the "Pool Man" was all about until I told them that they had to have a pool at home and that this guy came to your house and cleaned your pool and did the maintenance on it. Then they said..."well we want the pool man to bring us a pool. I said go to sleep!!! LOL!!!

Anyway, we continued on and we did not stop again until we were just about into Chicago and we had to stop one more time for gas and to use the bathroom. I called Ashlee and told her we were almost there. She was going to meet us at our hotel. I told her I would call her again when we were getting off at our exit because then it would only be another mile to the hotel and then she would leave and take the bus to the hotel.

We got to the hotel and this time we stayed at the Homewood Suites by Hilton!!! I will never stay anywhere else when we go visit Ashlee! We got the Columbia College rate and this hotel was top of the line. They unloaded all of our stuff from the van and the doorman, Peter who became our friend told Butch and I that we were not to carry anything! He called both of the girls Princess and they loved that. They parked the van and they sent us to the desk to check in and they took care of all of our stuff for us. Here is a picture of Peter with the girls....they really liked him!

Our room was like an apartment! We had a separate bedroom with a bathroom, livingroom and a full kitchen with a dining area. I told Ashlee while we were there that it would have been the perfect place for her to live. Anyway, we checked in and a few minutes later Peter showed up at the door and unloaded everything and put everything away for us where it went. I told Peter that my beautiful daughter would be arriving any minute to visit and that he would know that it was her because she looked just like Eva Longoria. Ashlee called from outside the hotel to find out what room we were in and the girls and I ran down the hall and stood outside the elevator to wait for her. When the doors opened she jumped because she did not know we would be standing there. I gave her the biggest hug and the girls were waiting to hug her!

We left right away and we walked to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner because we were all starving. We had not stopped to eat because we wanted to get there so we just munched on snacks and fruit that we had brought in the van with us. By the time we got done it was late and Lexi and Sammy were tired so we walked back to the hotel and they got ready for bed and we sat up and talked and then about midnight I walked Ashlee downstairs and Peter got her a cab and he told the cab driver to take good care of her. He took down the car # and told me she would be okay and I told him that she would be calling me as soon as she got home.

FRIDAY
The next morning I got up and put on a crock pot of homemade spaghetti sauce and then we got ready and went down to breakfast. We came back up and got ready to go meet Ashlee at her place. Before we left I added the meatballs in the sauce and I let it cook on low all day while we were gone. Ashlee had asked me to make spaghetti dinner while we were there since we were going to have a kitchen in our hotel room. She missed my cooking. That made me feel good and plus we got to have a homemade meal together instead of going out to a restaurant. When Ashlee got done with class we walked to her place. Butch pulled our huge black suitcase to her place that was filled with stuff that she asked us to bring for her.........another case of bottled water, her winter jacket, some sweatshirts, her bathrobe and some odds and ends that she needed from Walmart!! Then I carried the body pillow that I had bought her and I had it covered in black trash bags....she did not know I was bringing it! She had wanted one and then I found them on clearance at Target and it was the same color of her bedding that she got for college so I bought it for her and decided to surprise her with it. We were only 1.75 miles from her place but it took us like 40 minutes to walk there because the girls were looking around and asking questions and taking pictures and then they would say....are we there yet??? I said keep walking and we will be there soon.

So we finally got there and she got all of us checked in as guests for the day and we went up to her room and unpacked the suitcase and put everything away and she kept the suitcase there so that she can pack her stuff to come home for Christmas.

The first thing we did was Ashlee showed us the Terrace in her building...we had never seen that when we were there two times before. You go thru the Great Room where there are a bunch of couches and chairs and a fireplace and you can go out onto this Terrace and sit on nice days or nights. It is really nice out there and there are trees and plants and tables and chairs out there.

Then we got on the train and we went over to the Dance Center. I wanted to see where Ashlee does all of her dancing. She has quite a trip to the Dance Center everyday that she has to go over there for classes. It is not right there like all of the other buildings, but she said she does not mind....she gets on the train and then when she gets off she has to walk a few blocks. Here are pics of Sammy, Ashlee and Lexi with their tickets. This was Sammy and Lexi's first time on the train....they were so excited! The next pic is of Ashlee, Lexi, Sammy and Butch waiting for the train. It is called the Redline.

So she took us on a tour of the inside and there were some classes going on so we could not go into all of the studios but I did get pics of the auditorium where she takes some classes. I just love this place...this is so different from what she is used to and she loves it!!!!

She said that when they practice they don't just put in a CD for their music. They have accompanyists that come in and play for them. She said they know what to play and when to play it. It sounds pretty neat actually! Here is a pic of their instruments that they play for practices:

When we were done with our tour of the Dance Center, we took the train back to the Cheesecake Factory to take pics in the daylight. It looked so cool there. It looks like a big cheesecake and inside you think you are inside a cheesecake. We decided to get cheesecake and take it home with us for dessert that night.

When we were done shopping, we went back to the hotel and I got the spaghetti ready for dinner and Ashlee and her friend Stephanie came to the hotel and had dinner with us. It was really nice to get to know Stephanie and visit with her. After Stephanie left, Ashlee and the girls went down to the pool and went swimming for a little bit. I cleaned up from dinner. When the girls came back they got ready and then we brought them back to Ashlee's place. Lexi and Sammy spent the night at Ashlee's. They were pretty excited that they were going to be spending the night at the UC! Butch and I took the train back to the hotel all by ourselves and we did not get lost! :)

SATURDAY

The girls met us at the hotel in the morning and we had breakfast. They said that they had fun staying at Ashlee's place but they said that Ashlee "cramped their style." I just started laughing! When I asked they why they would say that they said that they wanted to go up and down the halls during the night and switch all the names on the doors on her floor and she would not let them. LOL!!! That sounds like something they would want to do!! LOL!!! Ashlee said that she had a dance party with them and the girls said that she turned the music up really loud and they said they asked her if she was allowed to do that and she said everyone else does it and they said to her "but you are on a quiet floor" and she said well nobody else is quiet up here. LOL!!! All that matters is that they had fun!! Then we went to the bus stop and waited for the Trolley to go to Navy Pier.

We arrived at Navy Pier and we had a good time there:

Lexi and Sammy found a Build a Bear Workshop and they had a blast! Sammy named her monkey Zippy and Lexi named her monkey Tiki.

And finally, here are some fun pics we took before we left Navy Pier:

When we were done at Navy Pier, we went to Water Tower and had a late lunch with Ashlee and then she had to work and we shopped for a while. When we were done we went back to the hotel and took the girls swimming. Ashlee came back to the hotel when she was done with work and visited. I ended up getting sick from a salad I had eaten for lunch and had to go to bed and so I did not get to visit with Ashlee much on our last night there.

SUNDAY

Ashlee came and had breakfast with us in the morning before she had to go to work and then we had to say our good byes which was very hard for me. I cried before she even got to the hotel. After she left for work, we finished packing and we headed home. Butch had to do all of the driving back home since I was sick most of the way back home.

We did have a good trip and I am looking forward to Ashlee coming home for Christmas. She is coming home on December 14th and she will not have to go back until January 26, 2008! She will be home for her birthday!! YIPPEE!!

New License Plates....Finally!!!

2007-10-27T06:34:00.000-05:00

My new license plates finally arrived after 12 weeks of waiting. The DMV was behind that long. After having the TWIRLN plates forever and our girls are no longer twirling I have finally decided on the KRE8VE which is for Kreative Kids! So if you see my van going down the road and you are looking for the TWIRLN plates you wont find them anymore because you all always knew I was KRE8VE (creative) anyway!!!!!! LOL!!!

Wow.....I have a lot to catch up on!!!!!

2007-10-27T06:30:00.000-05:00

I did not realize that it had been that long since I had posted here! There has been so much insane chaos going on in the past 6 weeks and it just flew by and here we are. I am going to try to catch you all up but it won't be in any certain order.....just as I think of it. A lot has happened....our trip to Chicago which was so much fun and I already miss Ashlee so much!!!! So much is going on with the kids and so much other stuff too...some good and some bad that I just can't believe myself!!!!

Daycare News...

2007-09-15T16:25:00.000-05:00

Well, the State licenser finally came on Thursday and did my relicensing inspection and all went well. I am so glad that is finally over with. I talked to her about becoming a Preschool in addition to a Child Care Facility and decided to take the plunge and I am officially adding Preschool to my name. She is processing the paperwork to change my name and I have come up with a logo. I am in the process of setting up a blog for my Child Care and Preschool.

The name will be Kreative Kids Child Care & Preschool.

Here is a pic of the new logo I have come up with:

So watch for the new blog coming soon!!

Good Luck Ashlee!!!

2007-09-15T16:21:00.000-05:00

Ashlee just told me about a show that freshman can audition for at the College. She found out that freshman are only allowed to be in one show the first year. She had to check and make sure that the audition and rehearsal times would fit into her schedule and not interfere with any of her classes and it all works out fine. The audition is next Friday, September 21st. She is going to audition. She also found out that they only take 10 freshman for this show. That is all I know for now. I will let you know more as I find out. Good Luck Ashlee!!!!! I love you!!!!

26 Days til we see Ashlee......Yippee!!!!!

2007-09-15T16:01:00.000-05:00

We are going to see Ashlee on October 11th for Parents Weekend! I can hardly wait to see her! I miss her so much!! I made our hotel reservations and we are staying at a Hilton this time. Columbia College offers a special rate at this hotel for parents so we got a great deal and it is a nice hotel. We will be able to spend 4 days with her so that will be nice.

The weekend before we go to see her, my sister Kelly and her husband John are running in the Chicago Marathon so Ashlee will be able to spend time with them as well. Ashlee is really excited about seeing them. They live in Quantico, Virginia so she has not seen them in a while and they are 10 years younger than I am so they are closer to her age and they will have a great time with her! She really loves them. They just got married last year and are still newlyweds!!

"I Hope You Dance" ~ Dedicated to Ashlee!

2007-09-09T20:00:00.000-05:00

You will notice that with this update that I have changed my song! I am dedicating this song and this blog post to Ashlee!!

Ashlee,

You have worked very hard over the years to get to where you are and you have always reached for the stars and achieved all of your goals and dreams! I am very proud of you and wish you only the best!! I blinked and you became an adult and I am not sure when that happened but you have grown into a beautiful young woman and I love you and I am very proud of you!!!

Love,

Mom

Ashlee is Working and Meeting Famous People!!!

2007-09-09T16:19:00.000-05:00

Ashlee decided to transfer to the Abercrombie & Fitch in Chicago on Magnificent Mile. She is working on Saturday's and Sunday's. She loves her new store. She said it is the largest one in the Country. She told me that they have the male shirtless greeters there so I definitely need to check it out when I am there in October! LOL!!

Ashlee has been meeting famous people in Chicago! She has seen Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie more than once.

A couple of days ago Ashlee got to meet and shake hands with Bill Clinton!! She was so excited! She called me and she was so excited about seeing him and then when she got to meet him she was super excited! She is having so much fun there and I am so excited for her!! Chicago is definitely the place for Ashlee!!!

It's Back to School!!

2007-09-09T16:09:00.001-05:00

Well it is that time already! Where did the summer go?

Lexi is in 5th grade this year and Mr. Strewler is her teacher. She was very excited when she found out he was her teacher. This is the first time she has had a male teacher, but she said she wanted him for her teacher at the end of last year because she heard good things about him and she liked him. So she is happy and the year seems to have gotten off to a good start!

Lexi and Sammy also started back to dance class at Madill's on Wednesday nights. They moved into the Hip Hop Level 3 class.

Matt is a senior this year. I am hoping he has a good year this year, but we will see what happens. He is on the Varsity football team and they have had a very good season so far! They are 3-0!! They played against Rice Lake on Friday and won against them for the very first time. Let's hope that they can keep up their winning streak. Their next game is this Friday, Sept. 14th and it is a home game.

Ashlee has started her classes and she loves them. She especially likes that all of her professors want the students to call them by their first names. She said she feels so comfortable there. She is so happy to be dancing again.

And with school back in session....pre-school is back in session for my daycare kids!! The first week went really well!! The kids and the parents seem to be very happy with the program and how the kids have done during the first week! I am very excited about our program this year and look forward to creating some new learning experiences for the children. I am also working on a blog for my daycare so I can keep everyone updated on what is going on within the child care facility. Watch for that coming soon!

Ashlee's off to College!!!

2007-09-09T13:46:00.000-05:00

Chicago....here we come!!!

This trip was just Ashlee, Lexi, Butch and I. Matt had football practice and a community football meet and greet to attend while we were gone. He also had to pick up his school schedule and get his school ID pic taken so he stayed home.

We left on Tuesday, August 21st for Chicago and drove all day. It took about 7 hours to get there. We checked into our hotel which was right behind Ashlee's building and then we went and walked around downtown for a few hours. We got an idea of where things were and just took in the sights.

The next morning we got up and got the van and drove across the street and unloaded and proceeded up to the 10th floor to Ashlee's suite. Her roommate, Alexandria had already moved in and was there with her mom, Sitta. They are really nice. They are from Cape Cod, MA. We got all of Ashlee's stuff moved in, unpacked and all set up within a few hours. While we were unpacking we had the chance to meet some of the other girls and parents on the floor too. They all seem really nice and all of the girls seemed to get along really well.

Here are some pics of Ashlee's room:

Ashlee's Closet

Ashlee's Bed...Ashlee's Dresser, Shelf, Fridge, Micro

Ashlee's Desk................................ Bathroom

Then we went for a walk and got some lunch and went to the bookstore and purchased all of her books for her classes and we got some sweatshirts and tshirts.

We had dinner that evening in the cafeteria with Alexandria and her mom, Sitta and we had a chance to talk with them and get to know them a little bit better. We are hoping to see Sitta again during Parents Weekend in October.

Here is a picture of Alexandria and Ashlee

This was the first night that Ashlee spent in her suite and we went back to the hotel. That was kind of weird. It was just the three of us in the hotel that night.

The next morning we met Ashlee for breakfast and we went to the bank in her building and she opened a checking account and then it was time to say good bye. That was the hard part for me.

So we said our good-byes and we turned around and left and of course I cried.

We got on the road at 11 AM and almost 3 hours into our trip we got a flat tire going 70 mph on 94!! We did not even realize it until a semi driver pulled up beside us and was waving at us pointing at our tire. I waved back and we slowed down and we pulled off at the next exit which fortunately was only about 1/2 mile down the road. We pulled off at a truck stop and the tire was 1/2 flat. We had never had to use the spare on the van and we still had 5 hours to travel and did not want to travel that far on a spare so I called AAA. They said a tow truck would be there within 1 hour. Well, it took 3 hours. Lexi got her very first ride in one of those big tow trucks. The first place he took us to did not have time to fix the tire that day. So he had to take us someplace else. We ended up needing a new tire. 4 hours and $55 later we were finally back on the road. So we did not get home until almost 11 PM that night.

Ashlee's Going Away Party!!

2007-09-09T09:34:00.000-05:00

We planned and planned and it was finally the week of the party. Thursday the hot tub was delivered and Butch picked up the party tent and the tables and chairs. We proceeded to turn our back yard into party central.

Friday during the day Butch put the tent up and set up the tables and chairs and the daycare kids and I moved all the toys to different spots and put some of them away. We had to leave some toys out for the kids that would be coming to the party. They had fun helping with everything. Friday night we finished the yard and I cooked all of the food! Then we soaked in the hot tub with Ashlee and Lexi!

Finally the big day was here....the big Hawaiian Luau!!!! The weather man said all week that it was going to be nice outside! Guess what...it was the coldest day of the year!!!

People still sat outside, but they had to wear jackets! It was the perfect weather for hot tubbing! The kids loved the hot tub! The little kids said "Auntie, can we go swimming?" LOL!! They had a blast! The adults came at 4 PM when it started and a few of Ashlee's friends came early. All of the adults were gone by 10 PM. Lisa came back with Brianna and visited with Butch and I and we decided to go inside and sit in the living room. I had changed into sweats and a tshirt and sweatshirt earlier for outside and when we came in I was so cold I put on a fleece shirt too. I could not get warm.

At 11 PM Ashlee's friends showed up and the "real" party started. Lexi and Brianna were sitting outside watching the big kids and when some of the guys decided to go in the hot tub in their boxers Lexi came running inside and said "mommy the guys are going in the hot tub in their boxers" and I said "I don't care as long as they have something on" and she just looked at me funny. LOL!! All of Ashlee's friends came into the living room to say hi to us and said that it was a great party and the food was great and asked why we were not out there partying with them. I explained that we had been out there since 4 PM and I was freezing and needed to warm up. Plus I was tired. They had a good time. We stayed up til 1 AM. I could not stay up any longer. I think they stayed out there til 4:30 AM in the hot tub!

We got up the next day and cleaned up the yard, put everything away and Ashlee opened up all of her gifts. Then I took her shopping for the stuff that she still needed and then we came home and started packing her stuff. We piled it all in the daycare room by the door so that everything was all in one place.

On Monday she wrote out all of her Thank You cards for her party gifts and we put them in the mail right away. Then we loaded up the van on Monday night. We took the back seat out and we were able to get everything in there. She even took two dressers with her. We filled up the drawers with stuff.

A little update on me!!

2007-09-09T08:31:00.000-05:00

I am so sorry that I am a month behind on this blog. My life has been so insanely busy and I just need to set time aside for this on a daily basis. So my update for the past month will not be in any order just an update of what has happened in the past month for our family.

Here is an update on me and my RSD:

I went to the doctor on August 17th and he put me into O/T for another 8 weeks but he now has my therapist working on both arms. The only improvement that we have seen in my left arm has been that the shooting pains are gone in my arm. Other than that everything else is the same. My right arm has been showing signs of the same symptoms for some time now because of the over use ever since my first surgery and because of having a full arm cast on my left arm. Because of the RSD in my left hand/arm, he cannot do surgery on my right arm right now to fix anything. If he were to do surgery, I would get the RSD in my right hand/arm too and it would really make life difficult for me. So at this time, I have to live with the pain and do some therapy that will hopefully help.

I also had him look at some water blisters that had formed around my left ankle and he was very concerned about them. My left toes have also gone numb and he is concerned that the RSD has moved into my left foot. He thinks that the numbness may be RSD but the blisters may be something else so he is referring me to a neurologist for a full workup to find out what is going on. He does not want to treat me for something unless he is absolutely sure. That is why I like him so much....he is very thorough. Unfortunately....I cannot get into see a neurologist until December 19th. I see my doc again the end of September.

On a good note, with everything that has gone on and the way that I have changed my diet in the last few months...I am happy to say that I have lost 30 pounds!! I had not shared this with anyone except one very close friend (and Butch, Ashlee and Lexi of course) until now! I am very proud of myself and I feel very good! Now if I could get these other medical issues taken care of I would be in good shape!

I know some of you were a bit worried about me a few weeks ago when Ashlee left. I was quite upset. I also had some other issues going on at the same time. I want to let you know that I have been dealing with them and I am doing much better. I am doing much better with Ashlee being gone....I was not worried about where she was or her safety....it was our close relationship that I was sad about. But we talk on the phone 2-3 times each day and everything is fine and she is fine and I am fine. Some of my emotional issues have to do with my medical issues too and I just have to deal with them on a daily basis and just get through each day one day at a time. That is all I can do. I did not ask for this to happen...it happened and I have to live with it. My doctor said this would probably happen and I am dealing with it. Other family issues are always in the back of my mind and I am trying to find a way to deal with them and bury them but it is not that easy so I just have to deal with those one day at a time too. I am doing much better than I was though and I am definitely a much happier person these days. Thank you for your continued support!!

2007-08-05T21:54:00.000-05:00

Friday Butch got home from work early and decided to go fishing. While he was out in the garage getting his fishing gear together, I guess the Wolff's delivery truck pulled up in the driveway and Butch asked the delivery guy who was sending his wife flowers. The delivery guy said to him...you did not send these to your wife and Butch said no and the delivery guy said well I didn't send them to her either...LOL!!! Butch came in the house and I was busy in my office and all I heard behind me was Butch saying..."Should I be jealous?" I turned around and Butch was holding this beautiful bouquet of flowers. I said to him who sent that and he said I don't know, but it wasn't me. It was funny!

I opened the card and it said...Hope you're feeling better!
Love, Dad and Joy
It made my day! You can see for yourself here how beautiful they are!! I just had to show them off!!

Update on my RSD

2007-08-05T10:39:00.000-05:00

Since being diagnosed with RSD my therapy and exercises have totally changed and I have been going to occupational therapy twice a week instead of once a week. Because I have been in so much pain, it is hard to do too much and the pain seems to have been worsening each day. I called my doctor because the shooting pains going up my arm had me in tears on a daily basis. He put me on two more meds and set me up for a Stellate Ganglion Nerve Block to be done at the Pain Center at Miller Dwan Hospital. When they called me to schedule this, they told me Dr. Nelson would be doing this procedure...he is the one who did the injections in my back so I felt comfortable knowing the surgeon who would be doing this.

I immediately started doing my research on this procedure and when I found out what was involved with it, I became very nervous and since I had a week to think about it, I became more nervous each day as it got closer and by the time I got to the Pain Center, I had myself so worked up, I was in tears. The nurses there were so nice though and they took such good care of me. One nurse told me it was her job to pamper me. I asked the doctor for something to take the edge off and he said it was too late in the day and told me that if I needed something I could come back in the morning and he would give me IV drugs and I said no I cant go home and wait again....I just have to do this now and that is what I did.

The doctor talked me through it and kept telling me he would be as gentle as possible and I just kept my eyes closed and I made it through the procedure. Here is a quick description of this procedure:

The stellate is a group of nerves in the neck area. A stellate ganglion block is an injection of a local anesthetic around this group of nerves to relieve pain. The pain relief will affect one side of the head and neck, the upper arm and the upper part of the chest on the same side of the body.
A stellate ganglion block can decrease pain and increase the circulation and blood supply to the affected arm.

Immediately following the procedure, the shooting pains going up my arm were gone....a huge plus for me! Another huge plus for me was that my fingers were warm! My fingers have been ice cold for......as long as I can remember back to when the accident happened. I still had the pain in my hand, thumb area and wrist area but the shooting pains were gone and that felt great and the warm fingers felt great!! The first thing Butch noticed when he held my hand was that my fingers were warm!

Before I left there, Dr. Nelson had me schedule another block for Wednesday, Aug. 8th. He wants to hit this aggressively. I have O/T Tuesday and Thursday and the block on Wed. He said that if I go to therapy without pain they can do more aggressive therapy which makes sense to me.

When the procedure was done, I felt like I just wanted to sleep so they wheeled me out on a gurney. I did have the droopy eye, tearing, nasal stuffiness, hoarse voice and difficulty swallowing following the procedure. I came home and slept the rest of the night.

The day after the procedure I could move my thumb!! Another milestone for me!!! I have not been able to do that for a very long time. I can move it back and forth to a certain point and I know with therapy I will be able to move it further!

My fingers stayed warm for two days! They are cold and tingly again. My hand around the incision area, wrist and my middle finger are very painful. Last night I was in tears again. The pain was about an 8 on a scale of 0-10. My elbow has had pain for 2 days too. But the shooting pains are not there so I think that is still good. Maybe the next block will do a little more and the one after that will do a little more. Maybe all I can hope for is a little relief each time. I have gone into all of these surgeries and procedures with huge expectations and have come out with little or no relief and I just need to go into this with a different outlook and just think that it may take a while.

One thing I have not been able to do for a while now that I LOVE to do is scrapbook!! That is my passion and I think if I could get this pain under control, scrapbooking would be great therapy for my hand/arm! I want to try to do a little bit because I have some small projects that I want to do for Ashlee before she leaves for College.

I just need to keep a positive outlook on the situation and keep hoping and praying. I have a great support system in my friends and family and especially my husband, Butch!! I don't know what I would do without him and I love him so much!! My kids have also been so good through all of this and helped out so much with everything and I love them too!!!!

Having some great summer weather!

2007-08-04T21:10:00.000-05:00

We have finally been having some really nice weather here. Everyday for the last two weeks we have had the swimming pool, sprinkler and slip and slide out for the kids in the back yard. It has been up in the 90's so they have needed to be in the water to stay cool. We have been going outside about 9:30 AM and staying out all day and even having snacks and lunch outside. The kids who need naps come inside in the A/C and take naps and then come back out after their naps and play in the water again. We have to enjoy the outdoor weather while we can.

Re-licensing time snuck up on me and the paperwork came in the mail right before I left for my vacation. Then I came back and was so busy and then I ended up running late with the paperwork. So, yesterday was dedicated to finishing my re-licensing paperwork and I finished all of it, made all of the copies, went thru all of my files and reorganized and today I mailed the package to the State. YIPPEE!!!! Now I just wait for the State Licensor to pop in on me....unannounced of course...and do her walk thru!!! I feel ready for her.....no problem!!!

Rodney Atkins comes to Superior, WI

2007-08-04T12:26:00.001-05:00

Butch and I got to see Rodney Atkins at the fair last Saturday night! We went with Lisa and Gary and we had a really great time. We always have fun with Lisa and Gary...they are a really fun couple!!! Rodney was AWESOME and he sang for about 90 minutes straight without a break!!! He even walked off stage right out into the crowd and you could tell that security did not like that but he did it anyway. He was very personable with his audience!!!! I bought a t-shirt and it had all the cities listed on the back and Superior, WI was the last stop for this tour. I also bought an autographed CD!!! After the concert we walked around the fair for a while and of course had to eat some greasy fair food and play some games.

Just some fun pictures!!!

2007-08-04T11:29:00.000-05:00

I wanted to share these fun pictures of the girls together! Ashlee came home from dance camp one day and the girls were playing out in the back yard and Ashlee just joined in like she was one of the little kids. I think she was having a moment of maybe missing these girls and just wanted to spend some quality time with them and I could not pass up this opportunity to take pictures.

These are my nieces Sammy (11), Sophia (3)

and Shana (6) and then of course Lexi (10) and Ashlee (19).

Busy, Busy, Busy...

2007-08-04T07:30:00.000-05:00

It has been just crazy busy since we have come home from our vacation. Between trying to get the invitations ready for Ashlee's going away party, deciding on a menu, purchasing the items that she needs for college, painting the daycare bathroom, expanding the opening on the back gate for the party, trying to get Ashlee to start packing her MANY clothes that she has and then my daycare re-licensing all at once and everything having the same deadline along with my medical problems.....there were just too many things going on at one time.

So I decided that I could only do one thing at a time and everything else would have to wait and some things were going to have to be late.

~So I took Ashlee shopping for some of the stuff she needed and of course then she changed her mind and we returned some of her stuff and then we ordered her bedding from Campus Bedding online and it should be here any day now. They guarantee it for 4 years until they graduate or they replace it and it will fit the beds. They have extra long beds.

~Then I got her to finally start getting her clothes packed and she went thru everything and gave some stuff to Sammy and some to Lexi. Then she put a pile of winter stuff together that we will bring to her when we go visit her for parents weekend in October.

~In the meantime, I was working on her invitations.......she had picked out the paper and she decided she just wanted Hawaiian themed invites since we are having a Hawaiian Luau Party!

So here is what I came up with:

~While we were doing all of this Butch and Matt were taking apart the back gate and expanding the opening by 3 feet. We rented a hot tub for Ashlee's party and the trailer that it comes on is wider than the gate opening used to be so now they will be able to back it in to our yard. That took a day and a half in 95 degree heat. After they did the gate then they took out all of the icicle lights that we hang on the house at Christmas time and they checked all the bulbs and plugged them all in to make sure they all worked and they hung them on the fence around the inside of the back yard so we will have some nice light for the party. We already tried them at night and it looks so cool.

~Before starting the gate though, Matt took all of the shelving, changing table, border, etc. off of walls in the daycare bathroom to be painted and re-bordered. We had painted the entire downstairs right before Christmas and never got to the daycare bathroom and I told Butch I wanted to get this done before Ashlee's party and get the border up that I had sitting here since last November. So they worked on this and the gate at the same time going back and forth and finished both jobs in one weekend. I did the touch up painting and put up the border and did the cleaning afterwards.

So that was 5 jobs checked off of my list!

So I said I got the invites done....but then I had to print all the mailing labels and put them on the envelopes and stuff the envelopes and then the envelopes did not have any sticky stuff on them to seal them.....what can I say...they were FREE!! So I used my good ol' tombow adhesive and stuck them all closed and DH went to the post office and got pretty stamps and we stamped them all and he finally took them to the post office on his way to work!!!! YIPPEE!!

Anyway, this post is getting long so I am going to end this one and start another one. But as you can see we have been busy little bees around here.

Ashlee's Summer Dance Camp & Performance

2007-08-04T06:55:00.000-05:00

Ashlee attended Dance Camp the week of July 16-20 at Madill Dance Center and they had their Summer Performance at Bayfront Festival Park on Saturday, July 21st. It was a beautiful day for an outdoor performance. This was her last performance with the studio before she leaves for college.

Jenn told me that when Ashlee is home on Christmas break, Spring break or whenever, she can come and take any classes that she wants to. She also told Ashlee that when she is done with college that she wants her to come and teach for her.

This is a pic of Jenn Madill-Hagen and Ashlee. Ashlee really looks up to Jenn and really admires her. Jenn is very talented both as a dancer and as an instructor and Ashlee is going to miss her. I will keep her updated on how Ashlee is doing though because Lexi and Sammy will still be attending Madill Dance Center in the fall.

CSS Challenge #3 ~ "What would I do if I did not Scrap?"

2007-08-02T07:43:00.000-05:00

Honestly, this is a hard question for me! I don't remember a time that I did not do something with my pics even when I was not officially "scrapbooking." I have always done something with them even if it was just putting a colored piece of paper behind them in one of those old magnetic photo albums! I suppose if I did not scrap, I would have more time to just spend with my family and just take photos and all of our photos would just go into those old magnetic photo albums and 20 years from now when my grandchildren are looking at them they would be all yellow and the edges would be curled and they would be saying "who is that grandma?"

I am glad that I am a scrapbooker, my kids and my grandkids will have nice "memory books" that will tell them a story and they will know who everyone is and what they were doing.

Thanks again for the challenge Amanda....keep them coming!!!!!

Chicago, IL & Wisconsin Dells, WI Vacation

2007-07-14T21:36:00.000-05:00

Our family just spent a week on vacation. First we went to Chicago for Ashlee's college orientation at Columbia College. She registered for her first semester classes and got her official college ID and then we toured University Center where she will be living. Columbia College is located in the South Loop. She is all set to go and she is very excited!!!! It was 104 degrees the first 3 days that we were gone in Chicago.

Here is a pic of University Center...the building where Ashlee will be living and a pic of Ashlee in front of University Center.

While we were in Chicago, Ashlee bought herself a Coach purse...something she has wanted for a very long time!!!

From there we drove to Wisconsin Dells and spent the rest of the week at the Kalahari Resort. We had great weather while we were there...80's and sunny!!!! We laid by the pool, got lots of sun, sat in a tube and floated down the lazy river and went in the pools and hot tubs! The kids went on the water slides and in the pools.

Thursday night we all got dressed up and went out to a fabulous dinner buffet!

While we were at the Kalahari, Lexi entered the coloring contest at Camp Kalahari. They picked 4 finalists and Lexi was one of them! She was so excited!!!! Here are pics of her holding her picture and a pic of her next to the board with the four finalists pictures.

We got home last night about 8:30 PM! When we got home we found out that there had been a bad storm on Tuesday with rain, high winds, power outages, downed trees and fires. The Christmas lights in the tree in the front yard were on the ground, there were branches everywhere and one of the double gates in the back was totally ripped off the post...screws and all!!! It was leaning up against the fence so we are thinking one of the neighbors must have picked it up for us. Butch has to fix that tomorrow!

I am still having trouble with my hand/arm!!! The pain pills are not doing anything at all! I will have to call the doc to see if there is anything else he can give me for the pain.

With this blog post I am starting the official countdown to when Ashlee leaves for Chicago.......38 days!!!!!

Our next blog challenge at CSS is our "Top 5 Vacation Memories"

2007-07-14T20:01:00.000-05:00

~One of my top vacation memories was my trip to North Carolina in 1991 or 1992. It was my first vacation as a single mom and I went with 5 couples who were all good friends of mine. I flew Ashlee to New York to stay with her dad and then I drove from there with one of the couples to NC. We all rented a house on the beach for 10 days and we had a fabulous time!!!

~My next top vacation memory is my Carnival Cruise with Ashlee in 2000. Ashlee performed on the cruise ship in Mexico (she twirled baton). We had a terrific time together. It was our first cruise. We went to Grand Cayman, Calica and Cancun. Ashlee and I went snorkeling with the stingrays in Grand Cayman. It was the trip of a lifetime and one I would love to go on again!!!!

~The next vacation memory that comes to mind is our first BIG family vacation to Florida in 2002. This trip was also a performance trip for Ashlee. She was performing in the Capital One Citrus Bowl Half Time Show as a Baton Twirler. We also took my niece Samantha on this trip with us. Lexi and Samantha had never been on an airplane and so this was a very exciting trip for them. In addition to their first airplane ride they were also going to Disney World. We spent an entire day at Magic Kingdom, spent New Years Eve at Universal Studios, went to the Citrus Bowl Football Game and that evening they had a big island style pool party at the hotel to celebrate. We had a great time!! By the way...two years later in 2004 Ashlee and I went back to Florida again and she performed in the half time show again but as a dancer!!!

~My next memory is not just a memory but actually 3 memories! I am talking about my scrapbooking retreats to http://www.atimetocreate.com/. I have some really great friends that I get together with and we go here and we laugh, cry, create and just have fun together!!! Let me tell you...Jeanne and Lori know how to to take good care of you and pamper you at this place. They make you feel like you are part of their family while you are there. If you want to get away with the girls and be creative and have some fun...this is the place to go.

~My next vacation memory is the vacation that we just came back from which I am going to blog about in a few minutes so you can read all about it in a few minutes up above!!!! We had a fabulous time and I will remember it always!!!

Thanks for the blog challenge Amanda!! I look forward to the next one!!!

Much needed vacation!

2007-07-06T21:34:00.000-05:00

Well it is finally Friday and we are officially on vacation!!!! I have been looking forward to this for awhile now and after the news that I got from the doctor today, I especially need the rest and relaxation with my family.

I started occupational therapy last week and we have just been working on massage and finger movement because I have been in so much pain and my hand and arm have been swelling so much. My hand has been turning purple on and off and I get these terrible shooting pains up my arm that bring me to tears but I have been trying not to complain too much because I know it has only been a month since surgery and I am still healing. Well I knew that something was wrong and when the doc walked in the room today he looked at me and said you don't look so good and I said I don't feel so good. He looked at my hand and arm and said that I had RSD...Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy which is a chronic regional pain syndrome. I am still doing research on it. He said some people get it after a surgery like this and some don't. They don't know why some do or why they do. He had talked at one point about doing another surgery on my arm but now that he has diagnosed me with the RSD....he said no more surgeries. He said if I had another surgery the chance of RSD would be more severe. We talked at great length today about my situation and although I knew it was coming...it was hard to hear the words...I need to deal with the fact that my arm and hand will never be normal again...it was very emotional for me! For two years this has interrupted my life in many ways and has taken a great toll on me. This is the end of the road as far as surgeries and now it is time to prepare my case and try to move forward.

So we are getting ready to go on vacation...first going to Chicago for Ashlee's college orientation...which is something else that has been very emotional for me lately. I am having a hard time with the thought of Ashlee leaving and going off on her own. I know it is what she wants and I want it for her and I know she is going to have so much fun...but I just can't imagine not having her around the house. I am very excited to see where she will be living and going to school. She will be living in a suite with 3 other girls. She is so excited!!!

We are going to Wisconsin Dells and staying at the Kalahari Resort for 3 days on the way home from Chicago. The Kalahari is my favorite place to go and relax!!

I am going for my mani and pedi tomorrow morning. I requested Anne so I can ask her to be gentle with my hand...it will be a good start to my relaxing vacation. Then I will come home and finish packing.

We are having Ashlee's going away party on August 18th. It is going to be a Hawaiian themed Luau and we rented a hot tub!! I will be sending out invites...so stop by and say Aloha. She moves into her apartment in Chicago on August 22nd!!!!

Well, I will have my laptop on vaca so I will update again while we are gone. Have a great week!!

I signed up my first Stampin' Up! recruit today!!

2007-07-03T14:48:00.000-05:00

I had a really nice lady call me a few weeks ago to place an order for SU products. She had gotten my name and number off of the SU website. After talking for awhile, she decided that she wanted to sign up as a demonstrator so she can get her discount. That is totally fine with me...that is why I signed up 5 years ago. Today she came over and we filled out the paperwork and sat and chatted for awhile. I am very excited for her to get her starter kit! She is going to have fun with it! I am looking forward to getting to know her better as well as stampin' and scrappin' with her and sharing creative ideas!!

Debi...welcome to the Stampin' Up! family!!!

Why do I scrap?????

2007-06-30T21:34:00.000-05:00

Amanda from CSS has challenged us to blog about why we scrap. When I read the challenge, the first two things that came to mind were my kids and therapy. I scrap for my kids so that they will have memories of their childhood and memories of their family members and all of the important people in their lives. I also scrap for myself...it is a kind of therapy for me. I love being able to go into my scraproom to be creative and then showing off my work to my hubby and my kids. I have always had a knack for being creative and I really enjoy taking a piece of paper and a few pics and turning them into a beautiful memory. I am the picture queen so there will always be plenty of pics to scrap and this is a hobby that will never fade out!!! Lexi has taken an interest in scrapbooking and that makes me very happy and I love it when we spend time scrappin' together!!!

I have been tagged...

2007-06-24T09:37:00.000-05:00

by Zarah at CSS! I have never done this before since I am new to blogging so I had to ask her what I was suppose to do and she told me I am suppose to write 7 random facts about myself and then tag 7 other people by posting comments in their blogs...I hope I can find 7 others who have not been tagged yet...LOL!! So here goes: 7 random facts about me..............

1. I think most of you already know that I am a Licensed Child Care Provider and I LOVE my job!!!!!!

2. I am an organized freak!!! Everyone always says...."Let Sheryl do it...she is so organized"

3. I get manicures AND pedicures every two weeks ALL YEAR LONG!!!!!

4. I have a titanium plate and 4 screws in my head from a brain surgery I had in 1999.

5. I HATE dusting! I would do anything else but always leave the dusting for last!

6. I LOVE country music...especially Rascal Flatts!!!!!

7. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE stampin' and scrappin'!!!!!!

Well here are my random facts but it looks like a lot of people were already tagged and some twice and I dont know many people with blogs other than those at CSS!!!! So I am not going to tag anyone right now and I certainly dont want to tag anyone for a third time. This was fun though and I did read thru all the fun answers as I was looking for people to tag. Thanks Zarah!!

2007-06-22T16:10:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I participated in an online crop at creativescrapshack.com and I had a blast!! I played bingo online, participated in online challenges and I got 2 layouts done. I got one layout done of Shana and one done of Lexi and Sammy. I did a lot of chatting too because of course there was a chat challenge. Who does not love to chat...LOL!!!

Here are the layouts I got done:

I received a really nice RAK from Kim when the weekend was over. I could not believe all the goodies she sent me!

Here is a pic of all the goodies I got from her!!!! Thanks again Kim.....I love all of it!!!!!!

Some good news and some not so good news...

2007-06-20T09:45:00.000-05:00

Well Thursday Robin became a first time homeowner....YIPPEE!!!! She bought my IL's house. She is pretty excited to finally own her own home. Butch plans to help her do some stuff to the house to get it fixed up and she plans to have a friend of her's move in to share expenses. I am proud of her and I know she will succeed in this adventure.

Friday my very close friend Stephanie had her double knee replacement. It was a very long surgery but she made it through and she is now settling in to rehab where she will be for 2 weeks before she goes home to recoup for the summer.

Friday night we had a thunderstorm with lots of thunder and lightning. We had a lightning strike that hit very close to the house and fried our phone box along with Lexi's TV and DVD player and my all in one printer, copier, fax, scanner, etc. The printer was plugged into the phone line because of the fax so when the phone box was fried it fried the printer as well. We will not be turning it into our insurance though because we have a $500 deductible and we can replace these items for less than that so it does not make sense to turn in a claim.

2007-06-10T16:08:00.000-05:00

Surgery went well! I was home by 10 AM the day of surgery. Friday I was pretty sick...I thought it was from what they gave me at the hospital but I have since figured out that I was over medicated with pain meds. I got it all figured out and I am feeling much better. I have slept quite a bit the last few days. My hand is all wrapped up and it is swollen and black and blue. I go see the doc on June 22nd...til then I just have to sit tight and take it easy.

School is out for the summer...YIPPEE!!! Lexi will be going on to the 5th grade next year...did we have any doubts? Matt will be a Senior!! Starting Monday, Matt will be going to work with Butch everyday for the next couple of weeks to job shadow someone there for his Senior Project. He wants to get started on it before football practice starts in a few weeks and get it done over the summer so he can present it in the fall and be done with it. He is doing his project on Graphic Design. He has already decided that he wants to go to college at the U of MN at Moorhead and major in Graphic Design.

Tomorrow is the start to a very busy summer. We have new daycare kids starting for the summer and some starting full time so we are going to be very busy this summer which is good. I am excited that we will now have Shana and Samantha with us a couple of days a week for the summer. We did not get to see them much during the school year so it will be a fun summer for all of us!

Summer also means the countdown to when Ashlee will be leaving for College. I am sad that she will be leaving but I am also happy for her and I know she is going to have so much fun and really enjoy her college experience. For those that don't know yet, Ashlee has decided to attend Columbia College in Chicago. She will be moving to Chicago August 20th. We will be having a big going away party for her over the summer.

That is it for now....I hope you all have a great week!

Another Surgery...

2007-06-06T18:14:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow is the big day...surgery #2 on my left arm. This one is to repair the nerve damage in the wrist area. I am kind of nervous about this one because Dr. Klassen wants to do this one without anesthesia. He says he does it all the time. He wants to give me a local and then he said he will mix me up a little cocktail and I will think I am on the beach in the Caribbean somewhere. He said I will not feel anything or see anything and I won't remember anything afterwards. I have never been awake during surgery before so I am worried about that. I guess we will see how it goes. I have to be at the hospital at 6 AM and my surgery is scheduled for 8 AM. Butch took the day off of work and he will be there with me and then at home afterwards. I hope this surgery helps...I have been in incredible pain for the last 2 weeks. He could not make any promises with this as far as my elbow but this will help with the numbness and tingling in my fingers. He thinks I will need another surgery on my arm later to help with the pain in the elbow and upper arm. So I will be the one armed bandit for a while again....I will update here when I can.

Dance Recital "Thriller" was Fabulous!!!

2007-06-05T08:36:00.000-05:00

Sunday was Madill's dance recital and it was a fantastic show....the best recital ever! It was kind of bittersweet for us though because it was Ashlee's last dance recital with the studio. My dad, Joy and grandma came to watch the girls dance. The show lasted 3 hours, but it was very entertaining! They gave out the Perfect Attendance awards during intermission and Ashlee and Lexi both received trophies! After the show we went to my dad's for a fabulous dinner and by the time we got home it was 9:15 and I was exhausted. We had sat through the dress rehearsal that morning and then through the show and it was a long day. The Thriller routine at the end was like nothing I have seen before. All I could say was "WOW"!!!!!

My very first post here!

2007-06-02T20:56:00.000-05:00

Well I finally did it...I am setting up this blog!

I decided I wanted to have a blog so that our family and friends can keep up with what is going on with our family. Both of my sisters and my brother all live out of town now and I figured this is a good way for them to see what is going on here in Superior, WI!

I have been looking for a new place to hang out online and I finally found www.creativescrapshack.com and decided to join yesterday. I feel very comfortable there on the beach and I have met some great new "cyber friends." It is because of those "cyber friends" that I now have this blog...I have been working on this all day today and they have been helping me....thanks girls!!!!! I got so involved trying to add my banner to the blog at dinner time that my pasta boiled over on the stove and the smoke alarm went off...LOL!!!! It was quite funny...you had to see the look on Lexi's face when I came running into the kitchen! Butch was fishing when that happened and I told him about it when he came home and he laughed. I showed him this blog and he said "a what?" He had no clue what a blog was...I explained it to him!

Well I am not sure what else to write here right now so I am going to go decide what else I want to add to the blog.

Have a good night!