My Grandpa Died Today

My Grandpa (my mom's dad) died this afternoon. We knew he was not doing well and he was 89 but waking up this morning I had no idea it would be today. My Grandma, uncle & cousin were all with him and my mom (who is in Vancouver on her way back from an Alaskan vacation they had planned for a year) was able to talk with him on the phone before he died this afternoon.


I remember my Grandpa from my growing up days - fishing, camping, farming. I have great memories of spending time with him and my grandma on their farm. He square danced and even drove Winnebagos across America once he retired. Best of all, Grandpa & I almost shared birthdays. His was on March 25 & mine March 28. Growing up we celebrated our birthdays together. There were many years we didn't but in the last few years, we had been celebrating birthdays again. This picture was taken in March.

Thankfully I know I'll get to celebrate birthdays with him (if we have birthdays in heaven??) again someday. Please pray for my Grandma. She is a strong woman but Grandpa has been her life and caring for him has taken up most of her time for many years.

I love you Grandpa!

She's moving closer!

I am sooo excited this morning as I type. My best friend from high school, Terri, is moving to Minnesota! Okay, she's moving to southern Minnesota still almost 3 hours away from me but compared to the 7 or so hours she currently lives from me, I am super excited!!! She actually will only live a little over an hour from my parents so hopefully we will be able to see each other much much more often! Yeah, I've missed her friendship...

Cute stuff from our kids

I try to write down as much as I can of the cute things my kids say. I don't always get it written down but here are a few things they have said or done over the past few months...

June 2008 - Alyssa has decided she is going to marry her friend Zeke. So today when Zeke was over she asked, "Zeke, do you love Jesus?" He said yes and she replied, "Good, I can only marry someone who loves Jesus."

June 2008 - When Alyssa gorws up she wants to be a cake baker & own her own restaurant (she says I can work for her). Matt says he and Josh are going to be superheroes and save everyone.

May 2008 - Matt caught another box elder bug (his favorite bug). He came to me and said "Do you want to touch it? It's really soft." How could I resist?

April 2008 - Matthew's basic prayer before dinner is "Father God, for our food. Amen"

April 2008 - After visiting the Bell Museum we decided to make diaramas like the ones there. Alyssa kept calling hers a "diarrhea" instead of diarama whenever she talked about it.

April 2008 - On Easter Gregg wore a checked shirt he doesn't normally wear. Alyssa saw him and said he looked more like Grandpa than daddy.

March 2008 - We were talking about what Alyssa & Matthew could get daddy for his birthday and Alyssa said "Let's get him a Packer shirt!" I encouraged her to think of something different...

March 2008 - Alyssa has an imaginary friend, her twin sister "Malyssa." Because of that, Matt has a twin brother "Matthew."

March 2008 - Alyssa likes to say from time to time to Matt - "Best brother and sister forever?"

March 2008 - Matt said to me one morning "I love my sister. I'm going to play with her all day!"

Snapshots from the past week

I am trying my hand at adding pictures into my blog. Here are a few snapshots from our past week or so.

This is Alyssa trying her hand at no training wheels with her Grandpa helping her out. She REALLY wanted to try it. I was surprised at how well she did. Since that picture (taken Memorial Day weekend) she went home and has really mastered riding her bike without training wheels. She totally amazed me with how quickly she's picked it up and how brave she's been about learning.

Here is Alyssa at her dance recital last Friday. She's been taking dance classes at Celebrate Dance Academy in North Heights Lutheran Church. I highly recommend it. It was a bit crazy with the rehearsal for the recital and then the recital but it was so well done and the look on Alyssa's face when she was finished with her song, it was pretty amazing. The look of pride and happiness was so cool. I happened to be looking through the video camera zoomed in on her face and got it all on tape.

Saturday we hung out at Lake Nokomis while Gregg played softball. We didn't bring swimsuits but all the kids were in the water before the day was over. This is a classic picture of Josh flinging sand on himself just as I was taking a picture. The next picture is of Alyssa & Matthew holding hands out as they walked out in the lake. Just to finish the lake story, I had extra clothes for Josh & Matt but not for Alyssa. Alyssa was going to go home with no clothes on and we were going to miss watching Gregg play a game because she was all wet - and she doesn't do wet. We were turning around to go home and happened to see a garage sale down the street. I thought, "what's the chance they would have clothes in Alyssa's size? We stopped, they did have clothes in her size and for $1.50 she got a swim suit and shirt, we ended up staying to watch Gregg play softball and it was fun to talk to Alyssa about how God supplied our need that day in a fun way.

First Time Blogger

Okay, this is my first time blogging. Wasn't sure I'd ever be a blogger but after reading some friend's blogs over the last months, I decided this might be a good way to share with family and friends about what our family is up to, particularly the kids, and share what's going on in my life. We'll see how this goes and if I can figure out how to upload pictures! :-)