Pajamas, projects and p = Joy X 3

I went to another very.much.needed therapy session in Sioux Falls with Heather & Lori, who are so very dear to my heart. This time it was an overnight trip filled with matching owl-tactic pj's, Christmas projects and laughing so hard we cried, nearly peed and triggered my asthma multiple times. These girls are the bomb! They lift me up, advise me, teach me, encourage me, accept me and kill me with laughter.

Sioux Falls is going to miss us!  Especially Joey, the TJMax man, because he FAILED at pedicures; the four gray-haired ladies who loved our matching pj's at breakfast; the hotel attendant who received false license information from Liar-Liar-Lori yet gave us the fabulous recommendation to go to Carnaval Brazilian Grill; the gal at the Runner's Block who did our foot scans and gave us each shoe recommendations and introduced us to The Stick; the poor woman in the room next to us who coughed up a storm; the hotel cleaner who had to vacuum a lot of sawdust from our wood crafting escapades; the CherryBerry attendant who watched us sample and sample the deliciousness....  so many people, so little time.

I have to give a huge shout out to my hubby who allowed me to take flight while he manned the house plus 5 children between the ages of 14-2. He knows how important therapy is for me!

I love that we are able to mix serious with hilarity.  Can't wait until we launch our new greeting card company under our logo of Joy X 3!!

Until we get together again in February, know that you are always in my heart.

A wonderful wedding!

We are so blessed to have been able to celebrate the marriage of Tom & Gina on September 4th in Sioux Falls. Gina - beana - ballerina, is such a very dear friend to both Steve & I. Gina has been a part of our lives since 1988. A fun fact is Steve & I became friends with Gina independently since she was a double Finance and Sociology major at Northern State University, Gina had classes with Steve and with me. We have both loved her forever, it seems. We have shared so many of life's milestones together including college graduation, career choices, marriage, purchase of first homes, birth of our children, birthdays, vacations as well sorrows and loss.
We were able to meet the man of Gina's dreams, Tom Jacobs, over the weekend and witness their commitment to one another. Tom & Gina have a combined family which includes 5 children, Jessica, Josie, William, Samuel & Lydia. Their wedding was absolutely perfect & so wonderful! Just looking at the few pictures I had taken makes me weep all over again. {Sigh} weddings bring out the happy tears for me and probably all ceremonies for that matter.
Three beauties... Josie (13), Abby (14) and Jessica (13). Our combined first born daughters are only 6 months apart in age.
Gina and I have always been told we look like sisters and I can say that our girls look like they are related. It must be because we are sisters-at-heart for sure.
Abby & I spent some time at the Empire Mall getting fancy hair before the wedding.
Can't say that we were totally in love with the results, but at least it saved us from having to do our own hair.
Our color-coordinated family had very tired feet by the end of the night since we didn't sit out on very many dances. It was an evening filled with laughter, love and memories. Congratulations, Gina and Tom!!

Wisdom of an 8 year old and other stuff

I have found it interesting to see how the dynamics in our house change when a couple of additional friends get added to the mix. The pairing off sometimes isolates one child but the next minute it changes again and a different pairing off occurs.

During a pairing off of Kippy & Madi, I was able to interest KZ in a little project. First, I have many t-shirts that I have gained from participating in various races. I seldom wear any of these because they are always man-shirts.... totally square, boxy and too big. I saw a quick easy project to reconstruct a t-shirt using a rotary cutter. I cut the neckline ribbing, excess sleeve and length from the tee. Then cut that excess into 1 inch strips and pulled on the fabric causing the strips to roll into thick strings. KZ watched intently during this process. I asked if she wanted to make a bracelet and she quickly said yes. I got my stash of pony beads and we started adding a few beads to the t-shirt strings. KZ gravitated to the glittery pony beads. We finished them off by tying and wrapping. The stretchy fabric easily fits over the hand and made a cool looking casual bracelet. Kippy & Madi wanted in on the action, and the 4 of us came up with some quick, fun, creations. Everyone with their own bead combination. Best use of a racing T yet.
KZ later followed me out to the garden and was helping me harvest an abundance of tomatoes. She was busy chatting away as I cleared out a lot of dead branches from a few plants that had gotten blown over. We also picked several green tomatoes which had fallen off of the vines in the same wind storm. As we were working, a hummingbird came and hovered near our heads for an extended period of time. KZ exclaimed, "I have never seen a hummingbird up close like this!" She happily helped me pick cucumbers, zucchini and some flowers too. On the second trip into the house with our harvest, she said to me, "This may sound strange, but I think these tomatoes would look nice displayed in a big bowl."

Not strange at all, Miss KZ, you are right. The tomatoes look wonderful arranged in a big bowl.

I'm off to see what else my little girl club can do today.

Camping at Itasca

It is amazing how much coordinating and packing were required in order for two families to be able to camp at Itasca State Park. The planning has been in the works since last year and then in July, when the MN State Parks shut down because of budget problems, we thought our plans were going to have to wait until 2012. Luckily, with some intense coordination, we were able to get a couple of days to work out and we are ever so glad we did!
Steve ended up getting a carrier for the roof of the van so we could have some moving around room in our vehicle and actually fit more than our usual 4. The bike rack was able to hold our 4 bikes, but it took us almost a half of a day just to get our gear organized. I am ashamed to admit that it had been 2 years since we had even set up our tent.
We were able to get adjoining sites and set up three tents for our group of 4 adults, 6 kids and 1 dog. Kippy & Madi had the smallest tent and they also claimed Bella as their bunkmate. Those three were happy campers to be together. Next we had a large tent for Miranda, Abby, Dani & Kami. The adults stayed together in the largest tent complete with two queen sized air-mattresses, but I'm thinking Derek would say theirs was mostly an airless mattress. Ha!

As soon as we had the campsite set up and our bellies filled with some excellent grilled brats and dogs, we headed to the Mississippi headwaters.  Since it was nearly 7:00 PM, on Sunday, August 14th, we practically had the entire place to ourselves.  Madi, Kami & Kippy had their swimsuits on and immediately decided to get wet.

One of the funniest experiences was watching Kippy & Madi come up with games to play with their swim towels and the stone pillars.  Here they are showing off their "guns", which eventually morphed (as games tend to do) into them putting on a show in unison with their best muscle moves, then morphed into balling up one of the towels, tossing it back and forth like a hot potato and finally playing keep away.

Unfortunately, there was one little snag in the game playing which occurred when Madi tried to throw her shorts up over the beam and got them stuck.  The dads were called in to help out and Steve ended up using a towel to snag the shorts and save the day.  Campfire s'mores finished out our fun day or so we thought...

Just when we finally we all tucked into our respective tents and sleeping bags, a gang of raccoons came to visit.  Soon they had finessed the lid off of our Rubbermaid dry food container and were fighting viciously over the loot they had discovered.  Derek and Steve had to go out and chase 4 raccoons away, but not before they made off with a bag of crackers and a sack of buns.  We discovered in the morning that their dirty little paws had tried and tried to open the cooler as well.  Apparently they wanted more to go with the buns and crackers.  Luckily, those clever buggers couldn't pop the tight fitting top off of the cooler.  The Huberts were more prepared for the opportunistic predators and kept all of their food safely locked in their van.  We will be smarter next time (I hope).

Monday, August 15th was our activity day.  After picking out 6 bikes at the rental for the Huberts, we hit the trail.  I got to be the line leader while Steve & Derek picked up the monkey tail.  I totally had an ulterior motive for being in front - it was so I wouldn't have to listen to any crabbing and fussing!  The route we took was rather challenging for some of the oldest kids (think teens), but Dani and Madi were more than willing to keep the speed going with me!  The bonus of having a mix of 6 kids is that they can encourage one another and the Parental Units can tease and laugh at them all.  tee, hee

I can't recall how many miles we ended up going, but by the time we hiked to the Fire Tower, the kids were seriously starving, full of bug bites and not very joyful.  Luckily, the Parental Units didn't care at all about the crab-fest.  We paid a nice lady to use up almost all of her bug rub and then proceeded to climb the tower. Heather made her maiden voyage to the top of the tower.  She was thrilled and it encouraged Kami to give it a try as well and they were successful!  WTG, Girls!!

After getting back to camp and getting the blood sugar back up for the tired little campers, we went back to the Headwaters for some cooling off.  It was a such a wonderful time and I hope we can do it again next summer without having to plan for two years!

Therapy

A little over a year ago, one of my sister-chics moved away... f a r a w a y.... all the way to Papillion, Nebraska. Thankfully, the distance has never put a wedge in between us but rather made us more grateful for the time we are able to carve out for one another. We have discovered Sioux Falls is a great meet-in-between spot. Last week we met in SF and celebrated a three week belated birthday; laughed hysterically; had a miscommunication on our "meet-spot"; had a near-death experience by almost having a head on collision; explored Falls Park (nearly losing HH in the quartz quarry); shared our life challenges; encouraged one another; ate delicious iced lemon w/ raspberries; cried; hugged; shopped. It was the best 7 hours of therapy I could ever ask for.

Thank you, my sister-chics, you lift me up & recharge my batteries!

All American Fun!

We have had perfect weather this 4th of July weekend. Lots of time for outdoor fun, socializing with friends and great food. It has been our first holiday where our family of 4 hasn't been able to all be together, since Abby left on Sunday for a Marching Band trip to Seattle, WA.

Some traditions have had to change a bit, but we are so happy to be able to spend time with great friends, laugh and share in the excitement that surrounds celebrating the 4th of July.

Thankfully, no one was injured during the backyard sparkler extravaganza.

While two moms captured the activities to preserve the moment.

Steve rescued the broken "mega sparkler" and had time to write his own name in the air. Ha!

Good friends, good times, great memories...

Their joy is infectious and a disease I would love to have every single day.

Kippy with her patriotic companion, Bella, while out enjoying the Walk of Flags. Blessings and thanks to those who have defended and still defend this great Nation and preserve our FREEDOM.

My puzzle piece

Ever have that person who just clicks into place with you no matter how much time has passed, like a missing puzzle piece and you just feel complete around them?  A person who really understands you and accepts you as you are?  A person who "gets" you?  I have to say I am blessed to have several people like that in my life and I am grateful for them because each one fills an important space in my heart and makes me feel rejuvenated and special when I am in their presence.  One of these precious puzzle pieces for me is my dear cousin Mikey.  I love him so much!  Mikey is my first cousin and we are only 1 year apart in age.  Since our mom's (Joan & Rose) are sisters, it seems like there were many opportunities for us to be together through the years.

 Check out this flashback picture on my 2nd birthday... Mikey is in the red shirt giving my little brother, Russ, a neck hug.

 This is a picture of Mikey and me at the German/Braun family reunion in Fargo six years ago (June 2005).
 Mikey and I have many shared interests (photography, family, traveling, wine).  Even our careers are similar, which it isn't always easy for me to find someone I can talk "shop" with who doesn't work for the same company that I do.

On Wednesday, June 16th, Mikey was flying in with his momma (my aunt Joan) and two of his sisters (Sherry & Pam).  The family was coming in for the huge German/Braun family reunion.  I hadn't seen Mikey in 6 years, although we frequently keep in touch via e-mail and Facebook, it isn't the same as in person.  I took the opportunity to come and surprise everyone at the Fargo airport.  The joy and excitement was just as I imagined it would be - only BETTER!  The icing on top was that I was able to bring my Mikey back to Fergus Falls with me for two days until we needed to be in Aberdeen for the family reunion. My family had him all to ourselves and we tried to make the most of it.

 I shared some of the sights in and around Fergus Falls with Mikey.  This is a pic Mikey took of Abby on the Fergus Falls Riverwalk.  The best part of the time was the ability to really catch up on what has happened in our lives and share in a way that we haven't been able to do in a long time.


Mikey took this picture of me while we where at Phelps Mill.  We shared a passion about photography and it was fun to trade tips since we both shoot with Nikon's.

Mikey is my puzzle piece for sure.  I'll always treasure the time we had, laughter shared and support given. We need to do it again!  Miss you, Mikey!!

Hollywood Nights

Saturday, April 30th was OLV's 2nd annual Steak & Wine Dinner fundraiser and the theme was Hollywood Nights. We were so excited to be able to share our table of 8 with my parents, as well as the Lance & Denise, and David & Kelly. We had so much fun visiting, laughing & talking each other into bidding on things during the live auction.
At one point, my mom grabbed Steve's bidding card and that is how I got my Mother's day present...
a rose a month for a year and a gift certificate to the a local jewelry store. Apparently she didn't think Steve had time to shop. Hahaha!

Mom & dad make a stunning red carpet couple. Don't you just love Mom's gold dress?

Lance & Denise look fabulous as always. Plus they gave us a ton of insider information about our upcoming trip to Kauai, HI since they had just been there 6 months ago. Brac, who just turned 5, had a great time with Kippy & Abby at our house and didn't want to leave on Sunday. He is such a charmer!

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of David & Kelly, but if I did, I would have inserted it right here. We had such a great time, that our table bid on next years VIP table for 2012. So, we get to do it all again, but with special VIP status, including a limo ride. We will be large & in charge next year, for sure!

I love to have the opportunity to dress up at least once a year with my sweetheart. Getting to dance with him is a rare treat & bonus!
My fancy hair was compliments of Carla at Attitudes for Hair, because truth be told, I can't fix my own hair AT ALL. As my daughters would say, I have depithia (a.k.a. issues).

It was a great evening, although the low was it was snowing heavily by the time we left at midnight. Boo for snow on May 1st!

Birthday blessings for Heather

She sees the beauty in every day things; she inspires me; she encourages me; she supports me.

She lifts my spirt; she counsels me; she prays for me; she is a gift.She is a kindred spirt; she accepts me; she is my sister-friend.
Happy birthday, Heather!

To the fairest of the fair...

Happy Birthday, Miss Lori!! You can rule all of land from your throne with your fabulousness today!

Instead of a GNO, Heather, Lori and I had a GAO (girls afternoon out) in Sioux Falls on Friday. It was an opportunity to meet Lori at a half-way point between Omaha and Fergus Falls as well as bring Lori her daughter who was visiting friends in Fergus AND we got to celebrate Lori's birthday a couple days early.

Armed with the advise from my BFF, Sherri, we decided to have a downtown adventure in Sioux Falls. It turned out to be a wonderful afternoon. We ate lunch at the Wild Sage Grille. It was a TAD bit windy dining outside. The wind actually blew away my credit card when I tried to use it!

But it really does give us the windblown model look, don't you think?

We went into lots of great little boutiques. When we saw this painting, we thought it looked like us in about 20 more years.

We had fun putzing around in a wonderful furniture store called DeWitt Designs where we picked out our future decor.

Lori's daughter was so generous with her photographic talents. It was so nice to have lots of pics of the three of us with three different cameras. Thanks JO! Just had to sneak in one pic with her and her adorable self!

We made sure to save room for dessert because we had already gotten a recommendation for this shop called Sinful Things.
We sampled each other's choices and they were all delish! Lemon cake, french silk, red velvet cheesecake & chocolate raspberry cheesecake... Sinful is right!
All in all, we all thought our DTSF adventure was fabulous. We loved that it was a reasonable daytrip with it just being a tad over 3 hours for each of us to get there.

Thank you for the wonderful GAO and I can't wait until we do this again!