Growing and changing families

I believe that living far away from families has its benefits sometimes. Not often, but sometimes. Most times, it is amazing when we get together to see how much has changed. We get to meet new generations and I love to watch people. I watched Becky & Wayne waiting for their grandchildren to arrive from the airport on Saturday morning. They hadn't yet seen the newest addition to their family, their grandson Michael. It was like watching a young child wait for Christmas morning. I didn't get any pictures of my nephew John, Michael's uncle, who was very adept at stealthily taking a baby to hold.

Abigail is the oldest of their two grandchildren. She didn't like me very much. My goal was to get her to smile at me before I left. I don't know why she is smiling in this picture ... it was a one time thing. She was quite leary of this auntie. Maybe the grin has something to do with the fact that she's surrounded by her YOUNG aunties and plunking piano keys.

I also got to meet Taryn who came from Arizona for the wedding. We did get to meet her via webcam the day she was born and have seen her quite a few times the same way. This was her first time meeting her Grandma & Grandpa. She is one smiley little gal and we can certainly pick out which family she belongs to!

Time just marches along. Siblings become grandparents, parents become great grand parents and sometimes .. siblings become parents when they never thought they would. That would be the miracle we call Heidi. She has 2 dimples on her right cheek that are just adorable and beg to be nuzzled. She giggles at barn animal noises and loves Daddy's John Deere hat.

The clock of time marches right along. It doesn't stop, just keeps adding moments that are to be treasured and once in a while, I am fortunate to capture one of them. Two generations separate Ellen and Michael. What a blessing to be surrounded by people who love us ... even if for brief moments in time.

I'm home!!

The long weekend was super fun. Saw nearly all of my family and many friends. The wedding was beautiful!

Headed straight to wedding rehearsal at the church from the airport. The pianist for this song and the singers did a wonderful job ... all sisters of the bride. They sang when the moms walked into the church at the wedding.

The bride was calm, cool and collected ... the groom did a fabulous job as well ... including the duck tape on the tux vest. (And y'all have opinions about Alaskans?!)

On to the Bridal Breakfast on Saturday morning at Olde Main Eatery ... delicious!

Grandma Kuoppala and Grandma Randall ... first to order ... last to eat ... but worth the wait.

The bride back from getting her hair done ... and off to Target to pick up a few things. Would have been a hoot to be along with her in the store ... still in her pajamas. :)

Aren't the socks just fabulous?! They actually wore them. Legs were warm and no one the wiser. :)

My pictures are absolutely horrible. I took very few and the ones I did ... I'm not impressed. Here is the one that is the best I got and it isn't anything for the wall. Biggest problem is we're missing the groom!! This would be the Randall family!

In the reception line ... holding Michelle's niece Heidi.

The bright side of family photography is that I know where the good pictures are ... and where to get them. So ... patience is the name of this game. Once 2remember studio has the pictures up ... I'll let you know. They'll be fabulous like always!

Gift opening on Sunday afternoon took quite a while. They were blessed with much.

I do have a few more pictures ... and I'll share them ... just not today. I just had a serious flashback of not too many years ago sending this young bride some little summery outfits I'd sewn. Wow. Time just moves right along.

Special thanks to the bride's family for making it possible for me to attend. It was certainly fun to be there. Enjoyed the late nite (maybe sometimes a tad bit ridiculous) visiting, seeing how everyone has grown and matured, the older ones turning into the most delightful young adults. Thanks for the picker upper lunch at Applebees. We all need those through this life.

Becky ... I've decided that I agree with you. Traveling plumb wears a person out.

Remembering these days quite fondly

"These days" would be the ones where you could buzz through the car wash real quick like and have a nice shiny clean car afterwards. Most importantly, the windows would still roll down the next day and not be frozen shut. :)

Am I running low in the picture department or what?! I was cleaning out the photos on the computer this morning .. okay, so this wasn't one of them ... I just happened to run across it. :)

List for today:

• Trip to Walmart for things like the newest book in a series of books that I adore .. something to read on the plane
• A notebook for something I'm working on ... couldn't find one I liked. (should have gone to Target instead)
• More shampoo
• A new bag with wheels that isn't ripping at the seams
• Pack clothes ... probably too many now that the bag is much bigger than I need it to be and I don't want things flopping around in there
• Find a backpack for things to take on the plane
• Mutter at the new pile of mail that came from the post office today ... thought I did so good getting through the pile this week
• Take a nap
• Step on the scale ... I'll repeat that one in the morning as I didn't like the number this evening
• Wing another load of laundry through the washing machine
• Find a pair of decent looking boots ... didn't manage that one. My "little" boots are a serious pain in the neck (or foot) to put on and they drive me absolutely nutty. Ugh. Oh well ... will just wing it.
• See if I can listen to the last 30 minutes of my audio book while I sit here and type!

I'll be back next week! I plan to have a wonderful time playing with family and hope to come back with a bunch of photos!

The older I get ....

This sort of stinks. The older I get the few productive days I can string together. What is wrong with this picture?!

Last night I worked on this and am to the point of ready to press and add batting ... which I don't have. Cleaning is a good thing I've decided. One of those goals I had before Fred comes back was to clean out the closet underneath the stairs. I did and found a nice size piece of the denim backing I like to use for quilts. Yes!! Tonite I'll move the sewing back down to the basement as it won't be touched until after I come back from my trip to the arctic. I have this idea for several lap/throw quilts and I can't start them until after this one is done and gone. Motivation is a strong thing.

 While I was busily sewing last night, Jari was canning up some salmon. Problem was that

one of the jars broke in the pressure canner. You cook these things for 90 minutes. So for 90 minutes the stench of cooking salmon (and mind you, I love salmon) was pouring out of that little ol' steam spout on the pressure cooker. Thank goodness the weather outside was palatable because the smell inside was not ... and the doors were open.

Other than canning salmon, fixing cars and doing whatever else it is he's been doing ... the man of the house has been nibbling all my dried carrots. The dehydrator hummed all day on Saturday drying out carrots ... and I think he's eaten them all by now. Next time I do this I'm going to watch how many pounds of carrots I can fit in that thing ...

Things could really be worse .... he could be digging into the fudge or something like that!

Onward march in getting ready for travel. The big quandry was to take the Navy (and this one is REAL Navy) pea coat that looks nice with dress clothes ... or to take the jacket I reserve for sub zero temps. If I was staying at home I would probably go for the pea coat. But being as I'm heading to much chillier places ... guess I'll go with the warm one. So much for fashion. Just remember where I'm coming from. The place where folks are comfortable having an outhouse as long as they have a snowmachine and a motor home parked in the yard. By the way ... I think that Yahoo weather is wrong ... Tarja just told me it is much chillier up there. Time to haul out the bag and start packing. The delicate cycle is done on the washing machine ... time to dry those things. Need to find some music and get copies of those in the "to go" pile. Can you tell I'm getting just a tad bit excited. I'm hoping and praying that the weather is nice enough for folks to travel. I so much want to see everyone!

Mondays over ... on to Tuesday

I did take pictures last night to share with you ... and I don't have time this morning to share them.

Girls missed the bus so I chased the bus. "Follow the bus" is what they said. I was thinking that was what I was doing. Wrong bus. Make a U-turn and follow the OTHER bus. Aaargh. We caught the bus. Thank goodness it is 30 degrees out there and the car didn't need 30 minutes of warming or we'd have been chasing the teacher down the hall!

E-mail. Why do I have 792 e-mail messages in my e-mail box? Worse yet, why is the one e-mail I'm looking for something like number 342? I found it. The flight itinerary for Friday. Then I set me up a little "travel" folder and promptly moved the e-mail. That ought to be a safe and easy place to find it. Nothing else in there at the moment.

Off to work. Have a great Tuesday!

Who needs the Sunday comics?

Overheard at our house this evening:

"The tail light fell off because I ran the 4-wheeler into IT." Explaining why the Subaru might not have a working tail light. Although then again ... it should be working fine. It was duck taped!

Watching Anna making a smoothie just a minute ago. I said, "the dishwasher is dirty." Big hint in there: put your dishes in the dishwasher when you're done. Blayde who is just home from school is putting his chili into the microwave and says, "oops!"

Welcome 2010!

I'm still here ... just been a wee bit busy. Anna got a camera for Christmas and no longer want to use mine. My updated photo supply has drastically dwindled. Our week in review:

Wednesday evening I hauled up the sewing machine to the dining room table. I was planning on finishing a project that I'd started. At least starting to finish. Haven't touched it since then, but did sew a few feet anyway. The kids must have gone ice skating or something ... I think it was quiet around here. (Having issues with remembering much of anything anymore.)

Don't you love people with the balance of a cat? Jari hooked up speakers up there from the computer. Now I can sew and listen to an audio book at the same time. Sweet! Anna might not agree ... means that she needs to take her book and go elsewhere if she's trying to concentrate. I love it.

The kids have spent their break skating their feet right off. It has been good. Having a driver who wants to skate and brings others along has been quite a treat! I've not skated once this year. Haven't been to the rink once. They have gone often! Good and healthy activity to burn up some energy.

In other activity ... we got the Wii for Christmas and it has been a hoot. There is a good reason I'm not putting a picture of me on here! My concentration was quite intense. Now we would really like the Wii Fit for the next thing on the list. Hopefully before next Christmas.

The New Years celebration has come and gone. We spent New Years Eve at Oj's and had a fun time. I had this silly notion that I wouldn't be called in early to work on New Years Day after staying out late. The notion was extremely silly. I asked for it ... and I got it. I wanted to work at least 10 hours out of the 24 I was on call. I did 14.5 between Friday and Saturday. That tells you what I got done on Saturday. I was home for 3 hours at one point ... and managed to get bread dough into pans for Anna to bake, got 2 batches of Friendship Bread baked and filled the dehydrator with carrots for Jari to snack on. He's as bad as the kids. They eat apple leather as fast it dries .... he eats carrots as fast as they're done. Me? I eat Friendship Bread as quickly as I can!

George Koivukangas was here over the weekend. Had a discussion on Saturday evening and then he was here for laaate evening coffee. Slept in until 10 on Sunday morning and then filled the afternoon with service activity. Jari did a bit of running last nite after dropping kids off at Haps and then joining them. I stayed home. Wedding gift for next Saturday is complete.

This week looks like: the dinner menu is planned, it is the first day of school after break and everyone is awake, we've already started the car juggle that will exist for the rest of the year, suitcase to pack, mail pile to sort through and I don't want to look at it ... so I'm not!